Author's Notes
Chapters 9 - 17
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Chapter 9
Honestly, at this point I'm still working out exactly what is and is not possible with elven magic (Weaving). I'm trying not to get too crazy with it, and since most of what you'll be seeing in this book is either Lightweaving or Shadowweaving, I'm mostly sticking to the basics of what can be done by manipulating light. A Weaver can effectively render himself invisible by bending the light around himself, or in a Shadowweaver's case rendering themselves visible only to certain wavelengths of light. Light can mean heat, which may come into play, but in general most of what you'll see here revolves around sight and stealth. If I ever get back to the elven island for a protracted period of time in another book, I'll expand on Weaving significantly.
Birch's claustrophobia rarely plays a real part of his life, it's just sort of always there. It doesn't hold him back (honestly, nothing would), which is probably the only reason that flaw still exists.
Family really is more than just blood to the elves. In-Laws aren't in-laws, when you marry into a family, you are fully a part of that family as if you'd been born and raised there your whole life. (Eloping is a horrendous concept to elves, since it implies your family cannot accept your spouse.) Your closest friends may be considered part of your family, and once they're accepted, it takes extreme measures for the rest of your family to not accept that same person as such. Needless to say, it's pretty darn rare to bring someone into your family lightly (marriage is an all-or-nothing thing and an elven "divorce" is really casting them out of the family entirely, not just a separation of a couple as we think of it - it's so rare, it's all but unthinkable in their society), and it's almost unheard of for that sort of rejection. Being cast out of your family is probably the worst thing (socially) imaginable for an elf.
The Do'Valoren and his mysterious aide. This is one of those scenes that pretty much wrote itself and I had to go back after the fact and figure out what it was I'd just done. It changed a little bit as things went along, but all in all, this scene ended up setting the course for most of what happened in this section of the book, rather than the other way around. The unnamed elf in this scene underwent some great changes you'll see elsewhere and figuring him out actually gave me the key to who Maran's entire group of "friends" were and where they came from, but more on that later. I don't often go for the "unspoken mystery" angle in the story (i.e. - where two people are talking about something you're not supposed to know about and they say just about everything you can imagine about "it" without actually saying what "it" is), but in this case I feel I can get away with it because these two are so completely on the same wavelength and level of understanding that they can get away with half-completed thoughts and references and it makes complete sense. To them, anyway.
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
Shadowweavers use what they call Shadow Light, which is similar to ultraviolet spectrum, to see what's been hidden, but more powerful Weavers can push themselves beyond the wavelengths even visible under UV. This is all purely in-theory at this point, since I don't have 100% of the mechanics worked out - thus I haven't gotten so far as looking at long-term exposure to UV radiation, etc. Since I'm keeping it simple, nothing I come up with later should contradict what's been shown possible in this book, and it leaves me some wiggle room should I ever have the luxury and privilege of expanding on this culture and their form of magic.
The "certain truths" the Do'Valoren and Do'Sedel are referring to here are the origins of their order and the El'Eleisha family's dual Weaving heritage. Rill is not yet ready to be entrusted with the truth, nor with the fact that Maran is his true father. Someday, perhaps, he'll be told, but I haven't gotten that far in the storytelling and I don't yet know if that feels right for the story arc of the elven homeland. I have some things kicking around for this place in the next trilogy, but I don't yet know how much of it will happen off-screen or even happen at all.
Birch's claustrophobia rarely plays a real part of his life, it's just sort of always there. It doesn't hold him back (honestly, nothing would), which is probably the only reason that flaw still exists.
Family really is more than just blood to the elves. In-Laws aren't in-laws, when you marry into a family, you are fully a part of that family as if you'd been born and raised there your whole life. (Eloping is a horrendous concept to elves, since it implies your family cannot accept your spouse.) Your closest friends may be considered part of your family, and once they're accepted, it takes extreme measures for the rest of your family to not accept that same person as such. Needless to say, it's pretty darn rare to bring someone into your family lightly (marriage is an all-or-nothing thing and an elven "divorce" is really casting them out of the family entirely, not just a separation of a couple as we think of it - it's so rare, it's all but unthinkable in their society), and it's almost unheard of for that sort of rejection. Being cast out of your family is probably the worst thing (socially) imaginable for an elf.
The Do'Valoren and his mysterious aide. This is one of those scenes that pretty much wrote itself and I had to go back after the fact and figure out what it was I'd just done. It changed a little bit as things went along, but all in all, this scene ended up setting the course for most of what happened in this section of the book, rather than the other way around. The unnamed elf in this scene underwent some great changes you'll see elsewhere and figuring him out actually gave me the key to who Maran's entire group of "friends" were and where they came from, but more on that later. I don't often go for the "unspoken mystery" angle in the story (i.e. - where two people are talking about something you're not supposed to know about and they say just about everything you can imagine about "it" without actually saying what "it" is), but in this case I feel I can get away with it because these two are so completely on the same wavelength and level of understanding that they can get away with half-completed thoughts and references and it makes complete sense. To them, anyway.
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
Shadowweavers use what they call Shadow Light, which is similar to ultraviolet spectrum, to see what's been hidden, but more powerful Weavers can push themselves beyond the wavelengths even visible under UV. This is all purely in-theory at this point, since I don't have 100% of the mechanics worked out - thus I haven't gotten so far as looking at long-term exposure to UV radiation, etc. Since I'm keeping it simple, nothing I come up with later should contradict what's been shown possible in this book, and it leaves me some wiggle room should I ever have the luxury and privilege of expanding on this culture and their form of magic.
The "certain truths" the Do'Valoren and Do'Sedel are referring to here are the origins of their order and the El'Eleisha family's dual Weaving heritage. Rill is not yet ready to be entrusted with the truth, nor with the fact that Maran is his true father. Someday, perhaps, he'll be told, but I haven't gotten that far in the storytelling and I don't yet know if that feels right for the story arc of the elven homeland. I have some things kicking around for this place in the next trilogy, but I don't yet know how much of it will happen off-screen or even happen at all.
Chapter 10
This chapter quote is directly out of my high school JROTC unit - I cannot count the number of times this phrase was uttered, and it sort of sunk in after a while. In spirit, if not in words, it still functions behind a lot of how I think about getting through life on a daily basis.
This chapter marks the transition point in Danner's group dynamic with respect to Gerard Morningham. Up until now, he's always been referred to by his last name because he was their instructor. Only full paladins have ever used his first name when speaking to or about him, and even the in-text references have used his last or at best his full name. From this point forward he becomes "Gerard" to them (when he's not "sir"). The transition is abrupt, but it's born from the different way that Gerard treats them right off the bat. (For starters, he makes it through whole paragraphs without cursing.) He addresses them as equals as paladins, and includes Trebor in this because he knows he rightfully should be a paladin (plus it would be a terrible, terrible idea to exclude him in this way, and Gerard is just too smart for that). Of course the transition also works both ways - he never once addressed them by their first name until now. He'll still call them by last name occasionally (he's still their commanding officer, not their buddy), but it's no longer an absolute no-first-name thing with him anymore.
At this point, Gerard's full character starts to come into focus. He was always, in my mind, a combination of my old JROTC instructor and famed Navy SEAL Richard Marcinko (specifically as seen in his original work "Rogue Warrior"), with some other bits thrown in here and there for spice, flavor, and likeability. Well, likeability to you, anyway - very few people in these books actually "like" Gerard, but they respect the Hell out of him, and that's his goal. Gerard is finally being given a free hand in training a group of soldiers the way he wants to train them, a goal of his for at least the last fifteen years (see the chapter quote coming up in Chapter 13).
Trebor's cousin Brican was pretty much anti-human from the outset, and as his character developed, that particular dislike only grew more and more pronounced. Still, his character does grow, in a slow and organic way, and I'm still learning more about where he's going to end up.
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
Gerard's character changed only very slightly for me, mainly in how I fleshed out his backstory and eventually one key point that will come up later. The question I finally asked myself was where he'd gotten all his experience and training in dealing with armies from, and exactly how he knew so much about the sorts of tactics he'd need to confront the Merishank army. His backstory filled in from there without too much difficulty and helped fill in some history of the world, which flowed in nicely with the already established idea I had of Merishank as a nation perpetually at war and overly aggressive in trying to expand its borders.
It's probably good that Gerard didn't permanently destroy Brican's ability to have children here, since his wife's pregnancy in the next book figures prominently in developing the tension of the book. Plus, I have some minor plans for his kids in the next trilogy, if they're up for it.
This chapter marks the transition point in Danner's group dynamic with respect to Gerard Morningham. Up until now, he's always been referred to by his last name because he was their instructor. Only full paladins have ever used his first name when speaking to or about him, and even the in-text references have used his last or at best his full name. From this point forward he becomes "Gerard" to them (when he's not "sir"). The transition is abrupt, but it's born from the different way that Gerard treats them right off the bat. (For starters, he makes it through whole paragraphs without cursing.) He addresses them as equals as paladins, and includes Trebor in this because he knows he rightfully should be a paladin (plus it would be a terrible, terrible idea to exclude him in this way, and Gerard is just too smart for that). Of course the transition also works both ways - he never once addressed them by their first name until now. He'll still call them by last name occasionally (he's still their commanding officer, not their buddy), but it's no longer an absolute no-first-name thing with him anymore.
At this point, Gerard's full character starts to come into focus. He was always, in my mind, a combination of my old JROTC instructor and famed Navy SEAL Richard Marcinko (specifically as seen in his original work "Rogue Warrior"), with some other bits thrown in here and there for spice, flavor, and likeability. Well, likeability to you, anyway - very few people in these books actually "like" Gerard, but they respect the Hell out of him, and that's his goal. Gerard is finally being given a free hand in training a group of soldiers the way he wants to train them, a goal of his for at least the last fifteen years (see the chapter quote coming up in Chapter 13).
Trebor's cousin Brican was pretty much anti-human from the outset, and as his character developed, that particular dislike only grew more and more pronounced. Still, his character does grow, in a slow and organic way, and I'm still learning more about where he's going to end up.
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
Gerard's character changed only very slightly for me, mainly in how I fleshed out his backstory and eventually one key point that will come up later. The question I finally asked myself was where he'd gotten all his experience and training in dealing with armies from, and exactly how he knew so much about the sorts of tactics he'd need to confront the Merishank army. His backstory filled in from there without too much difficulty and helped fill in some history of the world, which flowed in nicely with the already established idea I had of Merishank as a nation perpetually at war and overly aggressive in trying to expand its borders.
It's probably good that Gerard didn't permanently destroy Brican's ability to have children here, since his wife's pregnancy in the next book figures prominently in developing the tension of the book. Plus, I have some minor plans for his kids in the next trilogy, if they're up for it.
Chapter 11
Danner's perspective may be a little skewed - after all, he grew up around people who probably didn't have the strongest work ethic. Still, the point he makes about how the denarae work is valid. Denarae make extremely good workers for this sort of thing because of their ability to perfectly coordinate via kything. I think it's important to note at some point here that the denarae don't communicate at the speed of spoken thought, they communicate at the speed of thought. It's a LOT faster to think words in your head than it is to say them out loud, but the thought itself that creates those words in your head is several orders of magnitude faster than even thinking the words. That's the speed at which denarae can potentially communicate - more accurately, they're somewhere in between, to allow for processing time. We've already established that Trebor's parents could see what he saw in (pretty much) real-time, and if you look, essentially all the kythed conversations that happen take a matter of seconds.
I hope the changing weather over the next few....um, well, the rest of the book, really... doesn't feel off. Originally the differences stemmed from the massive calendar change I mentioned in the commentary for Book 1, when suddenly they weren't even in the same season anymore from what I originally intended. That required a bit of creative weather-working, but fortunately it's a pretty slim chance that you're a meteorologist and know whether the weather patterns I'm describing are even possible. (And for the one guy I know who DOES know about that sort of thing, it's a different planet, dude, so if you notice anything amiss, let's just say it's a bit different here.) Based on what little I DO know about weather, what you see here is at least plausible.
Just a quick note: Yes, that's the correct usage of the word "perusing" to describe Flasch reading the book. Look it up - the word might not mean what you think it does.
The explanation Faldergash gives to Danner of gnomish scientists investigating "love" is actually based on some ancient historical beliefs. I think. I'm about 90% certain I got it from a class somewhere (it's a bit strange for even me to make up), and I want to say that it came from either Catullus or something equally ancient and Mediterranean. Literally hours of Google searches later, however, I can't find anything to back that up, and my original class notes are long since buried, shredded, or stolen by homework gnomes (for dessert, probably). So either I dreamed it up (still a possibility), I can't find the right keywords, or it's just not available online because it's so obscure and unimportant that I'll never find it. I'm going with that last explanation. Still, it almost makes sense from the perspective of a people who have come up with the idea of atoms (which DOES date as far back as ancient Greece in our history) but haven't grasped the finer points of molecular structure.
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
The off-screen scene between Gerard and the quartermaster was inspired a bit from the movie Glory. It won't be the last moment in this book inspired by it, not counting the idea of having a military unit composed entirely of minorities and led by white officers... oddly enough, the original thought of Shadow Company had absolutely nothing to do with Glory. All the associations came afterward.
I don't remember where the idea of the flock came from, and subsequently Gerard as "the Shepard". I think briefly Shadow Company was supposed to be called the "Black Sheep Squadron" but thankfully that lasted about five seconds. Maybe six.
I hope the changing weather over the next few....um, well, the rest of the book, really... doesn't feel off. Originally the differences stemmed from the massive calendar change I mentioned in the commentary for Book 1, when suddenly they weren't even in the same season anymore from what I originally intended. That required a bit of creative weather-working, but fortunately it's a pretty slim chance that you're a meteorologist and know whether the weather patterns I'm describing are even possible. (And for the one guy I know who DOES know about that sort of thing, it's a different planet, dude, so if you notice anything amiss, let's just say it's a bit different here.) Based on what little I DO know about weather, what you see here is at least plausible.
Just a quick note: Yes, that's the correct usage of the word "perusing" to describe Flasch reading the book. Look it up - the word might not mean what you think it does.
The explanation Faldergash gives to Danner of gnomish scientists investigating "love" is actually based on some ancient historical beliefs. I think. I'm about 90% certain I got it from a class somewhere (it's a bit strange for even me to make up), and I want to say that it came from either Catullus or something equally ancient and Mediterranean. Literally hours of Google searches later, however, I can't find anything to back that up, and my original class notes are long since buried, shredded, or stolen by homework gnomes (for dessert, probably). So either I dreamed it up (still a possibility), I can't find the right keywords, or it's just not available online because it's so obscure and unimportant that I'll never find it. I'm going with that last explanation. Still, it almost makes sense from the perspective of a people who have come up with the idea of atoms (which DOES date as far back as ancient Greece in our history) but haven't grasped the finer points of molecular structure.
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
The off-screen scene between Gerard and the quartermaster was inspired a bit from the movie Glory. It won't be the last moment in this book inspired by it, not counting the idea of having a military unit composed entirely of minorities and led by white officers... oddly enough, the original thought of Shadow Company had absolutely nothing to do with Glory. All the associations came afterward.
I don't remember where the idea of the flock came from, and subsequently Gerard as "the Shepard". I think briefly Shadow Company was supposed to be called the "Black Sheep Squadron" but thankfully that lasted about five seconds. Maybe six.
Chapter 12
Danner's training with Alicia is (unintentionally) the equivalent of a guy "showing" a girl how to play billiards. They're both going into it with the actual intention of training her, but hey, physical proximity, pheromones, hormones... stuff happens. Sometimes it feels like they're moving a bit fast, but then I remember what things were like when I was his age and it makes perfect sense to me. At the same time, they do still sort of have some issues between them that have to be worked out. They still have to get to a certain point in their relationship, and this felt like a pretty natural step in the progression. The romance between the two is always there, but given the constraints of Shadow Company's position and involvement in the war, the chances to get the two of them together are few and far between (which is probably a good thing from the perspective of the people who complained about the "romance" scenes in Book 1).
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
No spoilers. It's a short chapter and nothing spoil-worthy really happens.
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
No spoilers. It's a short chapter and nothing spoil-worthy really happens.
Chapter 13
Danner's role in joining the stealth practice isn't just to showcase (to his men or to you) how good he is at stealth, it's working off something Gerard said in his introduction to the denarae. He believes in leading from the front and taking his men only where he's willing to go with them. For Danner to credibly lead his men, it's not enough that we know he's a good thief and sneaks really well, his men have to see him go through the exact same rigors they do. Even if he failed and got shot, the point would be made. The fact that he has a lot to teach them is ultimately secondary to his willingness to walk through the same mud and shed the same blood.
Yet again, in this section I was faced with trying to condense the training Shadow Company would need to credibly mold them into a force worth your time, but doing so without completely bogging down the narrative or wasting absurd amounts of time on other sections. Birch is off doing his thing in El'aman'tiren'a, but that's only going to take so long, and things have to happen here. So the denarae training is more specialized, but just as intense as what the paladins went through to earn their cloaks, and Gerard has been training people for years and knows how to get the most out of them. Plus as Gerard alluded to in his introduction, the denarae are already good - he's just making them better. These aren't farmers learning to use a sword, they're trained fighters learning to hone their skills as an elite unit unlike any the world has ever seen.
Using the paladin training cloaks was another one of those inspirations I had that I wasn't really sure where it was going. I think I had an idea where they'd be useful, so I worked out how to get them into their hands (not hard with Danner and Flasch around), then started looking at what could be done now they were in play. It's one of the few times I changed the story to make a tool available to someone rather than having them figure out what to do with the tools at hand.
This pretty much leaves off the Shadow Company story thread for a while, and the next few chapters are devoted solely to Birch and company. Enjoy.
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
I began building the idea of the denarae as Gerard's flock from the outset of his conversation with Bart Shivrey in the Prism chapterhouse, all with the intention of one day rejecting that term entirely. When Garnet assumes control later, one of the first things he does is cast off that idea, but until then you see references to it scattered throughout the Shadow Company chapters.
I think just about every military training school or experience that touches the idea of "leadership" probably contains the idea of leading from the front, and it even crops up in how we perceive military commanders in movies and other cultural media. We like the guy who gets down and dirty with his men and earns their respect the hard way, but we automatically (and rightly) hate the officer who plays politics with his men's lives and worries more about polishing his medals than winning a fight. It's part of why newly minted lieutenants get laughed at when they come into conflict with grizzled sergeants who've been with the unit a while - they have the rank (and the inherent respect it assigns), but they haven't earned any real respect yet, and their book-learned, classroom-fed ideas don't always mesh well in the gritty real world. (For a good cinematic example of this, watch "Heartbreak Ridge" with the scenes showcasing the relationship between Clint Eastwood and Boyd Gaines.) This idea comes up later with the fall of Gerard and Garnet's command of the skirmish behind the Barrier, showing the limitations of leading from the front. It's a time-honored and critical aspect of leadership, but still - somebody's got to see the whole forest and not lose himself in the trees.
Yet again, in this section I was faced with trying to condense the training Shadow Company would need to credibly mold them into a force worth your time, but doing so without completely bogging down the narrative or wasting absurd amounts of time on other sections. Birch is off doing his thing in El'aman'tiren'a, but that's only going to take so long, and things have to happen here. So the denarae training is more specialized, but just as intense as what the paladins went through to earn their cloaks, and Gerard has been training people for years and knows how to get the most out of them. Plus as Gerard alluded to in his introduction, the denarae are already good - he's just making them better. These aren't farmers learning to use a sword, they're trained fighters learning to hone their skills as an elite unit unlike any the world has ever seen.
Using the paladin training cloaks was another one of those inspirations I had that I wasn't really sure where it was going. I think I had an idea where they'd be useful, so I worked out how to get them into their hands (not hard with Danner and Flasch around), then started looking at what could be done now they were in play. It's one of the few times I changed the story to make a tool available to someone rather than having them figure out what to do with the tools at hand.
This pretty much leaves off the Shadow Company story thread for a while, and the next few chapters are devoted solely to Birch and company. Enjoy.
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
I began building the idea of the denarae as Gerard's flock from the outset of his conversation with Bart Shivrey in the Prism chapterhouse, all with the intention of one day rejecting that term entirely. When Garnet assumes control later, one of the first things he does is cast off that idea, but until then you see references to it scattered throughout the Shadow Company chapters.
I think just about every military training school or experience that touches the idea of "leadership" probably contains the idea of leading from the front, and it even crops up in how we perceive military commanders in movies and other cultural media. We like the guy who gets down and dirty with his men and earns their respect the hard way, but we automatically (and rightly) hate the officer who plays politics with his men's lives and worries more about polishing his medals than winning a fight. It's part of why newly minted lieutenants get laughed at when they come into conflict with grizzled sergeants who've been with the unit a while - they have the rank (and the inherent respect it assigns), but they haven't earned any real respect yet, and their book-learned, classroom-fed ideas don't always mesh well in the gritty real world. (For a good cinematic example of this, watch "Heartbreak Ridge" with the scenes showcasing the relationship between Clint Eastwood and Boyd Gaines.) This idea comes up later with the fall of Gerard and Garnet's command of the skirmish behind the Barrier, showing the limitations of leading from the front. It's a time-honored and critical aspect of leadership, but still - somebody's got to see the whole forest and not lose himself in the trees.
Chapter 14
Originally I think Maran was going to just feed Hoil what to say in Elvish and he only had a rudimentary understanding, but it just didn't feel right later on when he's carrying on whole conversations with elves (even with Maran's promptings). Finally I decided that, while an easy way out, there's no reason Hoil couldn't be proficient in a foreign language. He and Maran have been together for several years now, and Hoil's not exactly a thug - he's got a brain and uses it regularly, even if he's less educated than most of the other main characters.
Nuse, Perky, & Moreen originally didn't play much of a role in this part of the story (which begged the question of what they were doing there in the first place), and eventually I settled on this little side bit for them. I considered sending Nuse and Perklet along with Birch (I don't know what I would have done with Moreen in that case), but unfortunately there's too much that's going to happen with Maran and his family which those two paladins can't know, so they had to be occupied elsewhere.
Okay, so the chiplins. The origins of the giant squirrel are pretty funny, if you were there... which you almost certainly weren't, so bear with me. A squirrel lived near my frat house in college (he usually broke in during Spring Break and raided someone's food stash), and somebody nicknamed him Slapnuts. One day he came running through the grass outside with another squirrel wrapped around his head - I have no idea how he saw where he was going, because his entire head was enveloped by this other one, which wasn't touching the ground at all. He scampered up a tree, then made a six foot leap from a branch to the gutters on our fraternity and disappeared. As far as I can tell, this was the squirrel equivalent of a caveman dragging a mate back to his cave for a little onga-bonga. Anyway, about that time, I was writing this section, and it occurred to me just how strong Slapnuts must have been to haul that thing up a tree and make that jump, so viola! Giant squirrels.
I am not J.R.R. Tolkein, so I feel little-to-no particular compulsion to work out an entire language in order to make conversations in Elvish completely authentic. I give the guy mad props for doing it (with no particular emphasis on the word "mad") but wow, the dude was clearly an overachiever. The Elvish you see in these books works along some basic principles I worked out in my head, but nothing formal (or necessarily consistent).
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
I tried to throw in little bits here and there of Birch acting overly self-righteous toward his brother, such as with his little "hopefully not" comment when Hoil says "I'll be damned." It's just a figure of speech, but it does display Birch's heartfelt reaction to something he must really believe and regret - according to everything Birch believes, his own brother will most likely end up in Hell when he dies. I try not to make too big a deal of it until the confrontation between the brothers later on, but hopefully these little moments were enough that the key moment later doesn't feel forced in any way. This is a long-standing issue underlying their relationship, but it's hard to bring out without making Birch sound too much like a sanctimonious jackass.
Nuse, Perky, & Moreen originally didn't play much of a role in this part of the story (which begged the question of what they were doing there in the first place), and eventually I settled on this little side bit for them. I considered sending Nuse and Perklet along with Birch (I don't know what I would have done with Moreen in that case), but unfortunately there's too much that's going to happen with Maran and his family which those two paladins can't know, so they had to be occupied elsewhere.
Okay, so the chiplins. The origins of the giant squirrel are pretty funny, if you were there... which you almost certainly weren't, so bear with me. A squirrel lived near my frat house in college (he usually broke in during Spring Break and raided someone's food stash), and somebody nicknamed him Slapnuts. One day he came running through the grass outside with another squirrel wrapped around his head - I have no idea how he saw where he was going, because his entire head was enveloped by this other one, which wasn't touching the ground at all. He scampered up a tree, then made a six foot leap from a branch to the gutters on our fraternity and disappeared. As far as I can tell, this was the squirrel equivalent of a caveman dragging a mate back to his cave for a little onga-bonga. Anyway, about that time, I was writing this section, and it occurred to me just how strong Slapnuts must have been to haul that thing up a tree and make that jump, so viola! Giant squirrels.
I am not J.R.R. Tolkein, so I feel little-to-no particular compulsion to work out an entire language in order to make conversations in Elvish completely authentic. I give the guy mad props for doing it (with no particular emphasis on the word "mad") but wow, the dude was clearly an overachiever. The Elvish you see in these books works along some basic principles I worked out in my head, but nothing formal (or necessarily consistent).
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
I tried to throw in little bits here and there of Birch acting overly self-righteous toward his brother, such as with his little "hopefully not" comment when Hoil says "I'll be damned." It's just a figure of speech, but it does display Birch's heartfelt reaction to something he must really believe and regret - according to everything Birch believes, his own brother will most likely end up in Hell when he dies. I try not to make too big a deal of it until the confrontation between the brothers later on, but hopefully these little moments were enough that the key moment later doesn't feel forced in any way. This is a long-standing issue underlying their relationship, but it's hard to bring out without making Birch sound too much like a sanctimonious jackass.
Chapter 15
The name for the Diet'Si came from the medieval Latin term dieta, meaning "parliamentary assembly". The Imperial Diet was a general assembly in the Holy Roman Empire, and the Diet is also the name of the parliamentary body in modern Japan. (You can look them up on Wikipedia if you're curious.) The addition of the "Si" sect makes the literal translation of Diet'Si as "Assembly of the Wood" - thus it is the assembly of the common elven people. My original plan for the elves was for them to feel culturally similar to the Japanese, but then I remembered that I know very little about their culture and didn't really feel like insulting them by trying (and failing badly) to represent it. Some of my original intent survived (more on that later), but when I was looking for a name for this political body this just felt appropriate as a callback to my original thought. In general, I have a rule about trying to deliberately base any person or culture on real-world entities - the rule is "Don't do it." There's simply too much actual richness and history built into every nuance in ways I could never hope to fully encapsulate, and it feels cheap and insulting for me to try knowing that I can, at best, present a shadow of how it really is. I have no qualms about borrowing bits here and there and crafting my own unique blends, and when it comes down to it, I'd rather craft an entire planet, species, culture, history, and society from scratch - it's easier. Plus, I hate being constrained by how things "are" in a world over which I have
no control. I'll make my own rules, thank you very much, and then constrain myself to exist within them.
I'll admit, the fabolen is a bit awkward (the name is from the Latin word fabula, or "story" - the root of the word fable), but there just wasn't a great way to get the king to where he needed to be without some form of indirect communication. It ended up serving a dual purpose (see the spoilers below once you're done with the book), which is probably the reason it survived. Originally Hoil rather clumsily launched into this story without having the benefit of a catchy name or history behind its use, and while it never sat well with me, it took me a long time to fix this section to bring it around to the point where it is now. Instead of just being a device to advance the story, now it's a piece of elven culture and history, and I can easily imagine this coming back in another story set in the past somewhere, maybe a wandering storyteller.
Moreen's section here was one of the last things written in this book, partially due to my own feelings of dissatisfaction with this particular bit, and partially due to the comment of a friend who read Book 1 and expressed some excitement about wanting to learn more about the elven culture. I realized I really hadn't gone into some of the elven culture and philosophy, and a lot of it was still locked up in my head. It informed things that happen in this book (especially later on), but wasn't really displayed for you to view for yourself. Probably the most important piece to carry away from this section is their concept of the "Way" for particular crafts. It informs the elven concept of reincarnation and will come up again later in a completely different context.
Okay, yes, Li'Docent's name came from the term for a museum guide/educator. I like puns and plays on words, so sue me.
Maran's relationship with his sister only got darker and more bitter as I got further into their characters, and what started as mild disdain and an unwillingness to talk to each other eventually became the roiling animosity you see seething behind practically every word they say to each other. Despite how much of a bitch she became, Jethyra's character is much better and stronger thanks to the time spent getting her right.
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
Since I may or may not ever get around to detailing the elven culture, I'll go ahead and put here that at the moment, the living stone Siran tells them about was crafted using all four branches of Weaving, which is why "the ways of making them have been lost" over the centuries. Since they've exiled anyone with the slightest inkling of Shadowweaving and/or association with the Do sect, crafting this substance will remain beyond them for the foreseeable future. Somewhere I imagine records exist that indicate it takes all four types of Weavers, but if it's discovered by the wrong people, it would doubtless be destroyed on sight.
The key thing about the fabolen is that it's public. The renegade Do were delaying their plans until Maran rejoined them, but since their organization is so secretive and careful, it wouldn't have been right to have a traitor tip off the enemies about his return. Maran considered it a safe enough tactic because the room was empty of everyone except loyal guards... and El'Decein, unfortunately. (Whose name stems from the word deceit.)
no control. I'll make my own rules, thank you very much, and then constrain myself to exist within them.
I'll admit, the fabolen is a bit awkward (the name is from the Latin word fabula, or "story" - the root of the word fable), but there just wasn't a great way to get the king to where he needed to be without some form of indirect communication. It ended up serving a dual purpose (see the spoilers below once you're done with the book), which is probably the reason it survived. Originally Hoil rather clumsily launched into this story without having the benefit of a catchy name or history behind its use, and while it never sat well with me, it took me a long time to fix this section to bring it around to the point where it is now. Instead of just being a device to advance the story, now it's a piece of elven culture and history, and I can easily imagine this coming back in another story set in the past somewhere, maybe a wandering storyteller.
Moreen's section here was one of the last things written in this book, partially due to my own feelings of dissatisfaction with this particular bit, and partially due to the comment of a friend who read Book 1 and expressed some excitement about wanting to learn more about the elven culture. I realized I really hadn't gone into some of the elven culture and philosophy, and a lot of it was still locked up in my head. It informed things that happen in this book (especially later on), but wasn't really displayed for you to view for yourself. Probably the most important piece to carry away from this section is their concept of the "Way" for particular crafts. It informs the elven concept of reincarnation and will come up again later in a completely different context.
Okay, yes, Li'Docent's name came from the term for a museum guide/educator. I like puns and plays on words, so sue me.
Maran's relationship with his sister only got darker and more bitter as I got further into their characters, and what started as mild disdain and an unwillingness to talk to each other eventually became the roiling animosity you see seething behind practically every word they say to each other. Despite how much of a bitch she became, Jethyra's character is much better and stronger thanks to the time spent getting her right.
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
Since I may or may not ever get around to detailing the elven culture, I'll go ahead and put here that at the moment, the living stone Siran tells them about was crafted using all four branches of Weaving, which is why "the ways of making them have been lost" over the centuries. Since they've exiled anyone with the slightest inkling of Shadowweaving and/or association with the Do sect, crafting this substance will remain beyond them for the foreseeable future. Somewhere I imagine records exist that indicate it takes all four types of Weavers, but if it's discovered by the wrong people, it would doubtless be destroyed on sight.
The key thing about the fabolen is that it's public. The renegade Do were delaying their plans until Maran rejoined them, but since their organization is so secretive and careful, it wouldn't have been right to have a traitor tip off the enemies about his return. Maran considered it a safe enough tactic because the room was empty of everyone except loyal guards... and El'Decein, unfortunately. (Whose name stems from the word deceit.)
Chapter 16
I mentioned previously here that some things Hoil and Birch learn were inappropriate for Nuse, Perklet, and/or Moreen to know as well. Rill's true identity is first and foremost among those things.
In case you were wondering, yes, Maran's brother and wife remained faithful to their promise, and Rowin never laid a finger on Isael. Maran has to take this on faith, but you I'll go ahead and just tell.
I'll admit, I'm probably overly proud of the whole "no one advises the king" concept, but there's something about it that just strikes me as particularly cool and eminently appropriate.
The entire concept of the Do'Fidel (from the Latin fidelis for "faithful") was another late addition that I'm glad came into being. Maran's group of "friends" didn't really have much in the way of structure or a unifying philosophy beyond being loyal to elven society. Tying it in to the royal family broadened the scope and gave a lot more depth and history to them, and it even sets up some aspects for future use that work much better than anything I'd previously had in the works.
It takes a lot for Maran to lose his cool, and he shows an awful lot of emotion during his encounter with Do'Sedel. It's a measure of how intense his feelings are on what's going on, as well as his trust and respect for the other elf that he's allowed to reveal so much of what's inside him. I don't think he'll ever be this openly emotionally intense ever again. It works here, but in general, it's just not him.
Finally the presence of Moreen, Perklet, and Nuse is vindicated. This little revelation of theirs changed a bit (it had less of Moreen in it, for one, but I was trying to strengthen her character a bit), and finally ends up justifying their being around. Of course, they're about to disappear again, but hey.
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
Rowin's death was deliberately done to provoke Maran's return, hence why the assassin's knife was left with his body. There would have been no impetus for Maran to come back had Rowin died of apparently natural causes or from an accident. It had to recognizably be an assassination, but done stealthily and without the loyal Do's knowledge of what was happening.
If you pay attention to Do'Sedel's description of the Do'Fidel, you might figure out he's a bit closer to things than he lets on. He's actually a lost descendant of Maran's great grandfather (who was a strong Shadowweaver). The unknown (the "nonexistent") members of the Do'Fidel who teach and protect the royal line have always been related to the royal family, though Maran's assumption of this role at the end of this section is the closest and most directly related that's existed. (Hard to get much closer than being the father of the king.) Usually they are scions of a lost branch of the family that occasionally produces gifted Weavers, or in Sedel's case the offspring of a bastard child.
In case you were wondering, yes, Maran's brother and wife remained faithful to their promise, and Rowin never laid a finger on Isael. Maran has to take this on faith, but you I'll go ahead and just tell.
I'll admit, I'm probably overly proud of the whole "no one advises the king" concept, but there's something about it that just strikes me as particularly cool and eminently appropriate.
The entire concept of the Do'Fidel (from the Latin fidelis for "faithful") was another late addition that I'm glad came into being. Maran's group of "friends" didn't really have much in the way of structure or a unifying philosophy beyond being loyal to elven society. Tying it in to the royal family broadened the scope and gave a lot more depth and history to them, and it even sets up some aspects for future use that work much better than anything I'd previously had in the works.
It takes a lot for Maran to lose his cool, and he shows an awful lot of emotion during his encounter with Do'Sedel. It's a measure of how intense his feelings are on what's going on, as well as his trust and respect for the other elf that he's allowed to reveal so much of what's inside him. I don't think he'll ever be this openly emotionally intense ever again. It works here, but in general, it's just not him.
Finally the presence of Moreen, Perklet, and Nuse is vindicated. This little revelation of theirs changed a bit (it had less of Moreen in it, for one, but I was trying to strengthen her character a bit), and finally ends up justifying their being around. Of course, they're about to disappear again, but hey.
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
Rowin's death was deliberately done to provoke Maran's return, hence why the assassin's knife was left with his body. There would have been no impetus for Maran to come back had Rowin died of apparently natural causes or from an accident. It had to recognizably be an assassination, but done stealthily and without the loyal Do's knowledge of what was happening.
If you pay attention to Do'Sedel's description of the Do'Fidel, you might figure out he's a bit closer to things than he lets on. He's actually a lost descendant of Maran's great grandfather (who was a strong Shadowweaver). The unknown (the "nonexistent") members of the Do'Fidel who teach and protect the royal line have always been related to the royal family, though Maran's assumption of this role at the end of this section is the closest and most directly related that's existed. (Hard to get much closer than being the father of the king.) Usually they are scions of a lost branch of the family that occasionally produces gifted Weavers, or in Sedel's case the offspring of a bastard child.
Chapter 17
Siran is simultaneously a very simple, yet very complex character. On one level, the only one you see during this section, he is wholly devoted to the protection of the royal family, as befits his place as the captain of the Elan'Vital. His response to Maran sums up his character here: "The king must be protected." That is his duty and his life. Later on, you see more of what goes on beneath the surface and his thoughts, which were difficult to get right, but fun.
We have a slight return of the same ideas from Book 1, in that Birch's super-human powers are entirely dormant until he actually needs them, then they suddenly spring into action without his conscious control. Fortunately since I'd already established in Book 1 that Birch can impart his ability to see past invisibility onto other people, it gave me a handy way to keep Hoil and the others uniquely useful in this fight. Had they not been able to see the enemy Do, they would have been little better than average foot soldiers and easily dispatched by the invisible assassins. Speaking of which, originally there was a rather large gap in my thinking about these Do. At first they stayed invisible when they died, because I hadn't yet thought through the implications. Obviously if it's their own Weaving powers keeping them hidden, those would disappear when they were no longer alive. When I finally caught that error, I still needed to keep one alive so Hoil and the others would have something to look at to prove the new vision worked in the moment.
I don't really mention it in the book because it's such a miniscule point, but Birch never even considers that he might have been able to impart his night vision to Maran and the others as well as the ability to see invisible people. Had it been an issue and had he thought of it, that ability would have been included.
Decein is as close as I'll ever come (I hope) to having a Bond villain. He would quite willingly tell them the entirety of his plot, had he not been killed. I should point out that as far as I know, Rill had absolutely no part in this attempted coup de'etat, which is why Do'Sedel whispers to the king - to reassure him. Surely if anybody knows what the prince is and isn't into, it's Sedel. ...Right? Decein is either lying to elicit a reaction and upset the king, or he's been fooled into believing that Rill is involved.
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
Siran is brutally practical on the battlefield, and now that you've finished the book you've seen a bit of why, given how he thinks. Give the man a stick and he'll find a way to kill a dozen men with it, if that's what it takes to win. I highly recommend you never get in his way.
The question of Rill's involvement is intentionally not 100% resolved here, mainly because I'm not 100% certain myself whether he was or not. If I think it will be useful in a future book, it's there and available. If not, then the presumed answer given here will stand, though the shadow of the idea may linger on and cause some to doubt him. Either way works and it'll depend on what the story needs.
We have a slight return of the same ideas from Book 1, in that Birch's super-human powers are entirely dormant until he actually needs them, then they suddenly spring into action without his conscious control. Fortunately since I'd already established in Book 1 that Birch can impart his ability to see past invisibility onto other people, it gave me a handy way to keep Hoil and the others uniquely useful in this fight. Had they not been able to see the enemy Do, they would have been little better than average foot soldiers and easily dispatched by the invisible assassins. Speaking of which, originally there was a rather large gap in my thinking about these Do. At first they stayed invisible when they died, because I hadn't yet thought through the implications. Obviously if it's their own Weaving powers keeping them hidden, those would disappear when they were no longer alive. When I finally caught that error, I still needed to keep one alive so Hoil and the others would have something to look at to prove the new vision worked in the moment.
I don't really mention it in the book because it's such a miniscule point, but Birch never even considers that he might have been able to impart his night vision to Maran and the others as well as the ability to see invisible people. Had it been an issue and had he thought of it, that ability would have been included.
Decein is as close as I'll ever come (I hope) to having a Bond villain. He would quite willingly tell them the entirety of his plot, had he not been killed. I should point out that as far as I know, Rill had absolutely no part in this attempted coup de'etat, which is why Do'Sedel whispers to the king - to reassure him. Surely if anybody knows what the prince is and isn't into, it's Sedel. ...Right? Decein is either lying to elicit a reaction and upset the king, or he's been fooled into believing that Rill is involved.
Spoiler Section - Only read this if you've finished the book.
Siran is brutally practical on the battlefield, and now that you've finished the book you've seen a bit of why, given how he thinks. Give the man a stick and he'll find a way to kill a dozen men with it, if that's what it takes to win. I highly recommend you never get in his way.
The question of Rill's involvement is intentionally not 100% resolved here, mainly because I'm not 100% certain myself whether he was or not. If I think it will be useful in a future book, it's there and available. If not, then the presumed answer given here will stand, though the shadow of the idea may linger on and cause some to doubt him. Either way works and it'll depend on what the story needs.
Chapters 9 - 17
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