Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2021: Week 38
The Accidental Warlord and His Pack, sometimes abbreviated as AWAU, is a popular on-going The Witcher epic AU series, created by inexplicifics. In September 2021 it comprised of 41 works for a total of 343k words (up from 22 stories for a total of more than 235k words a year earlier.)
The verse is composed of main stories which advance a complex plot, and of side-stories which give alternate points of view on the series events or add character backstory and smutty interludes. It is notable for including many female characters, especially many Original Characters who subsequently took on a life of their own in other authors' stories inspired by the verse. The author has also taken care to include ace, trans, non-binary characters, and more.
It is also notable due to the fact that the author did not consume any canonical material (books, video game or TV show) before writing, leading to some questions about the characterisation used in the fic.
The verse has inspired fans to create an incredible number of related works, set in the same universe or Alternate Universes of the verse. In Sept 2021, 70 works were listed as "inspired by" the first story in the series, including multiple podfic adaptations.