Hi, the change that has been happening to my channel has been pretty simple. Though for many different reasons I’ve had a hard time really internalizing it. To put it plainly. The purpose of this channel for me at this point is a hobby. It isn’t a burnout I’ll recover from, or a passion I need to rekindle, it just, shouldn’t be treated as my main focus anymore.

I’ll get through the practical realities of this before I get into the feelings and reasoning underlying them.

Firstmost the idea that I keep up consistent uploads was a ridiculous idea that became ingrained in my mind after doing this professionally for a few years. I cut off my subscribestar a long while ago, I should be posting art for the sake of sharing it. That’s all. Secondly, if I were to return to this channel professionally somewhere down the line, it would be purely focused on commissions. And be born from desperation. This means that I just don’t see a future where Iron will be returned too, maybe if I’m able to accomplish all I want for myself (as will be detailed below) it would become something feasible.

So why this change?

I’d like for people to understand what this channel has meant for me over time. In the very early days, this channel was a small pinprick of light in a very dark world. The one thing a repressed kid just out of high school could care about. That kid gave themselves 2 years to find something to care about, before they would take action to never care about anything again. That was the weight of meaning this channel had back then. A weight I cannot really fathom at this point, because I am no longer that kid.

At that point my art really didn’t have any attention. Nobody really cared about it except for me, I tried many different projects until finally I made one that people did actually care about. It’s no secret that the start of Sands of Iron was rough for me. But it’s biggest contribution was giving me the confidence and the means to move out of the horrible oppressive environment at my parents. And start my life in earnest. I do still consider life as a starving artist the start of my ‘real’ and current life. But even though I can’t completely dismiss this era of me as ‘in a situation so different it might as well be a different life’. I am no longer that person, as well.

I made my living with the porn from this channel. But it was more than that. I always knew I’d make way more money doing commissions rather than Subscribestar IRON stuff. But it was more about wanting a certain lifestyle. Even though I never really achieved my goals in this regard (that support always staying small and stagnant). I still found that experience meaningful, but it’s not what I want anymore.

So, what do I want?

Early on, I bought in really hard into the idea that artistic fulfillment was the only thing I needed in life. But I don’t think that’s completely true anymore. Even though I detest the notion of vapid consumerism, there are material conditions that are important to me. I want to be physically with the people I care about, and I want to be with them in an environment we can be happy in. I simply didn’t see a future with this channel where I'd grow to a point I could make that happen. It was unlikely enough that I thought It would be a better idea to try elsewhere.

A thing that is often brought up when I express unhappiness at this channel. Is the idea that I have lots of people who care about what I make. And that’s true. Way more people than I thought would ever care this much about a porn series have made it clear they do. I keep on thinking of a lyric, though, “What kind of living legend would only want a living wage?” The material facts define this situation way more than I initially thought. Not only would doing this be theoretically easier if I didn’t have to worry about eating or improving my life situation. But well, if I was in that ideal situation, I probably would have stopped doing this even sooner.

Artistically, this was never really my dream. I never really fantasize about being a big popufur artist. I don’t really even follow artists in this field. Hell, I never really read any comics before or after I launched mine. I was a twenty year old with zero creative skills of any kind, completely unable to even grasp their artistic dreams. My only personality trait was a crippling porn addiction. So I started this, always telling myself I’d build up the skills I need to someday do what I wanted all those years ago.

And I think my skills have been at the point I needed them for a while. But abandoning what’s familiar is scary, and taking the plunge was always something I’ve worried about. So, am I saying I’ve reached some epiphany, that I’m finally ready to do it?

No, not really.

I’m admitting that I’ve already been doing that for almost a year now. The plunge was taken ages ago. Even when snow of Iron was still running. Trying to work on my new project while still keeping this channel I wasn’t even monetizing alive for some crazy reason.

I love this channel. I love the voice it gave me. I love the people who’ve come to know me here. But I don’t owe it this constant unceasing maintenance. I think this place can still be something important to me. But rather than squeezing the life out of it, trying to force it to be what it has been in the past, it can be a new, light thing. Where I can just relish in the joy of posting something as a hobbyist creator again.

I’ll always be an artist. I’ll go as far to say I’ll always be a furry artist too. I’ll share my new project here soon, hopefully. Though things have been up in the air lately. I hope that those who wish to follow my art wherever it goes do so, and those who don’t, cherish whatever has already been made.

And for those saddened that they’ll never see the world of Iron, again. All I can say is the world is yours now, take it, make it yours. Or put it in a bottle, glance at its depths and flaws as you begin to pen your own world. It’s always been fanwork. Work derived from another. The greatest way to honor such a thing is to keep the chain going!