Shattered Rune Arc PSA/Update Note:

Hello everyone, and thank you for tuning in!

First of all, I would like to give my utmost apologies for the massive lack of any updates to this story, and unfortunately this is not a brand new chapter.

Why?

Shattered Rune Arc is the very first fanfic I have ever written, and it's pretty clear how inexperienced of a writer I was when I first started writing this nearly a year ago. While I do have a lot of pride in how much love this crazy story has received, especially since it's my first ever story, there has been a LOT of stuff I found super unsatisfactory, and given how many negative reviews I've received over the past few months, the majority of which were completely valid and justified, I have decided to do a rewrite of the story from the first chapter onward, before I start posting new chapters for this story again.

I do apologize for those of you who were eagerly looking forward to a brand new chapter. Unfortunately, a lot of real life stuff kept me pretty occupied. I'm just about done with my Masters, and will now once again be going through the highly stressful course of events that is applying to med schools again. And after I started getting a lot of negative reviews, I decided to take a break from the story and try writing something else to help better myself as an amateur writer.

Now don't get me wrong, this isn't me putting blame on you guys for the delays and lack of updates. The overwhelmingly majority of negative reviews I received were completely justified in their criticisms. Even now, there are parts of this story that make me want to cringe. This rewrite will help me iron out or remove these issues entirely.

Here were some of the more prominent critiques I received, some of the reasons why I wrote things the way they did, and what I'll be changing.

1. Team CRDL: yeah, this needs no explanation whatsoever. Even with the payback I had planned for them, as well as the way they blackmailed Jaune, there was no way this would ever make sense or end in them getting away with this. This is a Jaune who, despite embracing death over and over again, had killed literal gods and faced Eldritch abominations that pretty much nothing in RWBY would ever feasibly match up against. The idea that Jaune would ever be threatened by these guys is stupid, and I totally get why you guys were annoyed by their presence.

I think back then, I also realized how stupid their inclusion to the story was, and that was partly why i included the Fallingstar Beast into the story to have them gruesomely murdered by it lol. That would have ended their involvement in the story completely and would have been an 'oh shit' moment for both Jaune and the others. But obviously no one wants to read another 2 chapters focusing on some of the most forgettable and one-note characters in all of RWBY. So in the rewrite their involvement will be kept to either a minimum or I might not mention them at all save for one or two moments like with the Faunus racism moments in the show. Nothing that will ever take up such a long length of time again.

2. Jaune's character: Yeah, another thing I got a lot of flack for, and for good reason. People were understandably confused by how I wrote him. In one moment he's this guy who literally killed the vassal beast of the Greater Will, and in another moment he's Volume 1 Jaune. One of my biggest fears back then was that I would unintentionally be making Jaune too OOC, and from past experiences I always disliked how some writers would make Jaune seem like a completely different person. But on the other hand, I ended up causing confusion and annoyance by playing it too safe and making him act like nothing happened. I originally envisioned him bottling his emotions due to his past trauma and failures only for him to lash out later on as the stress gets to him, but clearly that idea wouldn't have gone well.

Fanfics will always have some degree of OOCness in them due to the nature of them being, well, fanfics, and so I shouldn't be too afraid of trying to show some change to match the character I've written. Obviously this won't be the same Jaune as Volume 1, but I can't just write him as a completely different person, otherwise the character would be a Tarnished OC.

Thankfully, Volume 9 of RWBY came out, and Rusted Knight Jaune showed a portrayal that I really enjoyed. A mix of the old Jaune and a heavily traumatized one, and so I will be writing Jaune as a mix of who he was in Volumes 4-5 and Rusted Knight Jaune. Someone who's trying to make amends for his mistakes, and who may bottle his emotions but who still cares a great deal for his friends. I definitely won't write him as naive and as whiplashed as before, but I most certainly won't write him as an edgelord triehard.

There is a point to be made concerning how much you can write a character before he ends up being portrayed as someone else. One guest reviewer pointed out their grievances with Jaune-centric 'power fantasy' stories, and how they throw away everything that makes Jaune, 'Jaune'. I thought about this for a while, thinking how Jaune started out, and who he became in canon thanks to all the flaws and development he had. Which is why I was partly hesitant about writing Shattered Rune Arc taking place AFTER the events of Elden Ring, something I will talk about later down below.

At any rate, I can only hope that the way I write him in the rewrite will help address some of the issues people had with his portrayal.

3. Jaune's dynamic with his family, and his animosity towards Ozpin: This was something which, looking back on it, seems like such a nonissue and shouldn't have taken up so much focus in the beginning. I've read quite a few RWBY fanfics, each with their own interpretations of how Jaune felt when explaining the rationale behind his family's thoughts on becoming a Huntsman. Ultimately, I feel that there was nuance lost from both ends of the family. One one side, Jaune was being slightly delusional thinking he could simply fly through Beacon without any background training, and it doesn't help that the show doesn't go further to explain why his parents didn't train him or why they seem so hesitant to do so before. But on the other hand, their message of saying he was welcome back home at anytime would have been interpreted as them saying that even if things don't work out for him, they'll always welcome him back, with the unfortunate consequence of only goading him further into a doomed effort to attend Beacon before he was ready. Let's be honest, without Pyrrha, Jaune never would have made it far at all.

In regards to this story, I feel that Jaune has way more important things to worry about than some silly feud he has with his family. If he wanted to prove himself to his family, then he succeeded a hundred-thousand times over. And after reading some other fanfics, I grew to not really like the idea that his family were abusers or super negligent.

So in the rewrite, the feud with his family will take a huge backseat, and if addressed, will only help with his character development, or would just end up being something he caused due to his hotheadedness at the beginning. After all, this Jaune had committed a mistake far worse than just faking his transcripts…

And concerning Ozpin? I'm going to be changing their dynamic in the rewrite to not be as overly hostile. Jaune obviously won't trust Ozpin fully due to spoiler reasons, but saying that he'll unleash Destined Death on him felt hollow and cringy on my end. It'll be a while before I make the two trust each other, but things won't be as black and white as before.

4. Word vomit: yeah, no explanation needed for this one either. I guess I was so excited about writing a fanfic about two franchises I'm super invested in, that I decided to just throw words willy-nilly. Yeah, there was no reason why each chapter had to be 20k, and given my current schedule there's absolutely no way I can do that while also working on other fanfics.

And besides, I could cut out over half of the words in each chapter and nothing would have changed.

Those were the most numerous complaints I've seen so far, and I aim to remedy them in the rewrite. Some other things, like Jaune's bizarre eating and sleeping habits, will also be addressed and fixed in the new chapters.

And also, my understanding of the lore has changed a lot since I first started writing this story, thanks to Loretubers like Tarnished Archaeologist, Last Protagonist, and most importantly Lokey, who helped remedy some of the questions I had about the lore. That, and with Volume 9 revealing the origins of the Brother Gods, I had to change some things in order for the canon to remain relatively intact.

So yeah, I will be rewriting this entire fic, and truncate the chapters so that there isn't so much fluff. With the release date of Shadow of the Erdtree speculated to be February 5th, I want to try and make some decent progress on the story before the DLC drops, as I suspect most of the other RWBY x Elden Ring writers are planning. Hopefully I can make the story reach a point where there is enough to tide people over while at the same time, not cause huge damage to the lore I already written down for the story. I adore the lore of Elden Ring and all of From's games, and I try to be as accurate as I can be when incorporating it and RWBY canon.

Once again, I apologize that this isn't a brand new chapter and that you might have to wait a bit longer as I finish the rewrites. I just felt that this was a more appropriate response to save this story rather than try to continue it as it is. Hopefully, the wait won't be too long since I'm going to be shrinking chapter lengths.

I just want to give my utmost thanks to everyone who's read this story and given their feedback, either positive or negative. Seriously, to think that this story, despite all its flaws, was still able to gain over 1k+ favorites and follows after all this time, and for my very first fanfic at that, is just incredible. I'm so thankful to all of you for giving much deserved feedback and for sticking with this story despite the lack of updates in so long. I can only hope that my rewrite will bring some of you guys back and assuage those who left due to the choices I made in the story.

I just have a couple last questions for you all before I begin the rewrite.

1. I've had some people in the past wonder why I decided to make Jaune an Intelligence-focused character rather than something like a Faith-based Paladin. One reason was that I wanted each 'Tarnished' shown in the story to have their own specialization and focus of attribute. So for example, Summer in Shattered Rune Arc would be Dexterity and Faith-focused, while Jaune would be Strength/Int focused, and another character (can't say who due to massive spoiler reasons) would be Arcane-focused. It would show a diversity in builds and help distinguish Jaune from Summer. Of course, I still intended to have him learn Incantations later on.

And another reason was due to the lore of the Carian Knights, who were also prestigious knights who fought the forces of the Golden Order despite being heavily outnumbered. It reminded me of the tale of Jeanne of Arc, Jaune's inspiration, and how she rallied the forces of France against English invasion, and the similarities with how the forces of Liurnia were fighting against occupation from Marika's Golden Order. And I wanted to show the connections and sympathy Jaune had for people like the Faunus based on his interactions with Demi-humans in the Lands Between like Boc and Rya, and how the Carian Royal Family were sympathetic to Demi-humans compared to the Golden Order. I even thought about having Jeanne of Arc be an actual Carian Knight and Jaune's original Tarnished Ancestor.

And of course, I want Jaune and Summer to have met and interacted a lot with every NPC in the Lands Between, and we can't forget about Sorceress Sellen, can't we? Or Thops, bless his soul. Not to mention how Jaune is married to Ranni.

But I can certainly understand the appeal for wanting Jaune to be Faith/Paladin inspired due to how his Semblance works, how his aesthetic is that of like a Paladin with the White and Gold patterning of his sword and armor, and again his inspiration from Jeanne of Arc who dressed as a knight. And after playing a Strength/Faith character in PvP, I definitely grew warmer to the idea of Jaune being more Faith focused. And the concept of Jaune being a fallen Paladin, once using his Incantations for the Golden Order, only to turn his back on it after seeing all the harm it caused and his choice of aiding Ranni.

So I leave this up to you guys. Do you want to see Jaune more Intelligence-focused, using the Carian Swords, Sword of Knight and Flame, and using all manner of sorceries? Or do you want him to focus on Incantations, including things like the Golden Order incantations, Crucible incantations, and even the Fire Giant ones? Or would you want him to be a mix of both? Using sorceries and incantations like Radagon, and even wielding Death sorceries and the Helphen Greatsword? Or something else entirely? The option with the most support will be chosen. Bear in mind, I'm fine with any of them but I'd love to know what you guys prefer more.

2. And lastly, I also floated the idea of making another RWBY x Elden Ring story, one that would act as the prequel for Shattered Rune Arc, and show Jaune and Summer's journey as brand new Tarnished throughout the events of the game, before eventually continuing on as Shattered Rune Arc's story. I always intended to write a prequel story anyway and include it in Shattered Rune Arc once the story progressed enough, in a revelation section like how Ruby and the gang all learned of Ozpin and Salem's backstory in one full episode, but if people want to see how Jaune and Summer start from zero to hero, and see how Jaune became so strong in the first place before arriving on Remnant, I would certainly do so. It would give me the perfect excuse to start the game again, though it would be a bit difficult to keep track, as the DLC would inevitably change how story events proceed. Thanks to leaks and date file searches, I know where the DLC starts, but whether it occurs in the base game or in another map like the other DLC's I'm not sure yet.

I thought of writing a different story since people were starting to get a bit dissatisfied with Shattered Rune Arc, and it would help me show Jaune's growth as a character and in power, as he and Summer go through the events of the game. It won't just be a simple retelling of Elden Ring's story, it'll also show snippets of Jaune and Summer's past as they rediscover the memories of their past life before becoming Tarnished, and of course I love writing the scenes they have talking to the NPCs. That, and I worried about angering you all due to me writing another 'power fantasy' OP Jaune story, and so a story where we see how he grows strong over time would have helped alleviate that.

It's just an idea anyways, and if people want to see it more than they want to see a rewrite of Shattered Rune Arc then I'm all for it. Writing Jaune and Summer's friendship comes super easily for me, and seeing how these two bond, form a strong friendship almost like that of mother and son, and then seeing how things fell apart leading to the events of SRA would be easy for me to do. I had all the events concerning Jaune and Summer in the Lands Between all decided and planned out before I even started writing Shattered Rune Arc, so writing a prequel story would be super easy.

It's all up to you guys, and I would love to hear your thoughts concerning the rewrite or new story, as well as the changes I have in mind and what kind of 'build' Jaune should have. Please leave your thoughts and comments in the reviews or in PMs.

Do keep in mind, Fanfiction . net has been going through a lot of issues, and currently I'm unable to receive any notifications via email, so if you want to send me a PM then USE THE MOBILE APP TO SEND ME PMS, NOT THE WEBSITE! I can see reviews just fine on either, but I won't be able to see PMs through email, and I'll only be able to see PMs send from the app.

Thank you again for sticking with this story, and I can't wait to see you all again, either in the rewrite or in the prequel story! And rest assured, I will NEVER ABANDON THIS STORY should you guys want me to just rewrite this! And even if I decide to go with the prequel story, it'll still transition to the events of Shattered Rune Arc anyways! So either way, this story will never be fully abandoned!

I can't wait to hear your thoughts!