Some Random Exposition Things I Deleted From My Book #1

some random exposition things i deleted from my book #1

This is a bit of a less formal post, but I thought people might want to see some of the lore I ended up deleting because there was no point in having pace-breaking exposition in the middle of a random scene. I had a *lot* of these and for the last few hours i've been working on compressing/removing them because they were just too much imo. Here's a few of them, for anyone who is *really* interested in reading about my world :P

On the import/export process of one of Leln's taverns:

Original page: pg. 142

reason for deletion: not really necessary even if its kinda cool

It should have gone without saying, but as a drink-serving establishment, they had a wide variety of things. From coffee, to tea. Obviously they specialized in alcohol, given that they were a tavern first and foremost, but that didn’t mean the coffee, tea, or food took a backseat in quality. In fact, one might find every item on the menu to be within the same margin of quality, regardless of what they ordered. It wasn’t the most expensive food on the planet, nor was it ridiculously decadent. It was simple and hearty, perfect for adventurers. The beans for the coffee were imported from a small village that specialized in the harvest of coffee cherries. In that same village, those coffee cherries would transform from seed to bean, where they would be sent to the various establishments who had contracts with said village. The tea was a similar affair, a product offered by farmers who held contracts with establishments. They would procure the ingredients, fill the tea bags, and through a long process of trial and error, make truly quality tea flavors, which could then be served at any number of establishments whether high or low end. The ale was, of course, created in-house and kept fresh in taps. Of course, if another establishment wished to share their blend of ale, they’d have to pay a hefty price. Taverns did not tend to share their specific fermentation process or their brewing secrets, and when and if they did they didn’t come cheap. The best tavern in Kommodia had been rumored to have declined an incredibly exorbitant amount of money, simply because they would have had to give up their secrets for it. It would be, of course, prudent to keep in mind that the quality of coffee and tea available to adventurers and commonfolk, and that which was available to nobles was quite different. It was not, of course, to say that the quality of these goods available to those who were not royalty was bad, but it certainly was not the top of the tree, so to say. Nevertheless, Beriyl enjoyed the tea he was served, even if to him, it was a few cuts under what he was used to.

On a certain merchant's business life:

original page: pg. 29

reason for deletion: not necessary for the reader to know any of this, breaks flow

Managing a store was not cheap, and neither was purchasing supplies to stock the store with. Luckily for him, he’d caught a big break recently, signing numerous contracts with several big name merchant companies. Essentially, he’d have a continuous trickle of arms and armour, amidst other things, delivered to him on a semi-regular basis. What he had was good, for where he was, anyway. Technically speaking, it’d be more profitable if he decided to move to the capital, Hamelan, simply for the fact he’d have even more business opportunity. More contracts and more contacts meant better equipment, which meant higher prices, which meant more money. Of course, he’d have to give an agreed-upon portion to the contractor, but that’s how it was already, and he was paying some pretty steep rates with a few of his existing contracts. While the dwarf shopkeeper was willing to negotiate on certain things, “nobility discounts” was not one of them. If he handed out discounts to every fool coming in claiming to be the heir to some renowned family, he’d be bankrupt in a week. Well, at least living in Leln had some benefits. Cheaper tax than Hamelan’s, at least. Perhaps it was obvious, but Beriyl had no way to know any of that. Putting aside the fact that he grew up in the definition of the lap of luxury, he had no window of insight into the man's confidential business affairs.

About the Adventurers Guilds rules/rankings/other nonsense:

context: i deleted this because this was just completely unnecessary, way too much exposition for something that isn't the biggest part of the story at a certain point, especially because the reader can infer 90% of these rules and a vast majority of them dont need to be shoved into the readers face like this. Ranks are fine imo to have shown and the rest should just be inferred.

original page: pg. 27

As Taka was told, the ranks went something like this, from highest to lowest:

Rank S: Legendary

Rank A: Platinum

Rank B: Gold

Rank C: Silver

Rank D: Copper

Rank E: Bronze

Rank F: Clay

(deleted stuff starts here, just added the stuff above for context)

Apparently, job board requests also followed this structure, although S-Rank missions were never really seen. However, for job board requests there was a special category of missions above S-Rank, known as "Crisis" and "Calamity" class missions. These were reserved for world-ending calamitous threats and other extremely dire situations. For example, in the event of a world-endangering natural disaster, a Crisis-Class, or CC-Rank mission would be placed. In the event of a mad magician rising up from his labyrinthian dungeon to take over a small part of the world, there would be a S-Rank mission placed. If, say, an ancient evil rose to destroy all humanity, that’d be a Calamity-Class, or CC+-Rank mission. However, these two types of requests hadn't been seen in a very long time according to the receptionist. Typically though, they'd be issued by the guild or government itself, as most people lacked the authority to post quests above an A-Rank. In any case, it seemed that the exceedingly high rank of S was more of a social status thing than an actually awarded title.

For adventurers, rank was important. It dictated what type of jobs you could accept, and by extension, how much you would earn for completing them. Dangerous, high ranking quests paid more, but had more risk associated with them than lower ranked, lesser paying quests. Of course, not every adventurer had to take on monster-hunting jobs. There were also crafting and gathering jobs, for those skilled in those fields. There were also rules associated with job-taking. Namely, you were allowed to take jobs ranked one higher and of the same level as you, but not one below. This was supposedly to "push fledglings from the nest" sooner, so that they might start contributing to the realm in larger amounts. It was also to keep a steady influx of low level jobs available for new adventurers, who were always in constant supply. There were also rules for forming parties; you were allowed to create a party with members your rank, or one higher or lower than your rank. This prevented lower ranked adventurers from joining very high ranked adventurers and simply riding their coattails. "You have to work for your rank", seemed to be the message the guild wanted to send with this rule. In essence, the guild was just a medium through which freelancers could band together and find work. In parties, it was common courtesy to split the gold, but different parties did things differently, and the guild did not have any formal regulations on how parties should be run. Most things were left up to the party leader's discretion.

Although it was not said in this exact order, Taka was also told that only the party leader may accept quests, and only one quest may be assigned to any one party at a time, barring a special government exception. He learned of "Clear Tags" which were small tags, much like the adventurer tags he noticed sometimes around people’s necks or wrists, used to verify the completion of a quest. They were given to clients of the guild who posted a job, so there was a clear "verifiable" way to prove that the quest was indeed completed without wasting the time of client and adventurer both, by dragging them both along into the guild and having a lengthy chat to ensure nothing went wrong. This was a recent technology; in the past, adventurers were subjected to long chats after each clear. Essentially, when you completed a quest, you would check in with the client, who would give you the Clear Tag. They'd press their finger on it, and the status depicted on the tag would change to "cleared", thus, the name "Clear Tags". By this point, Taka was beginning to feel sick with how much information was going through his head, and he worried that he would forget it all. He realized he was starting to space out, so he pinched his arm discretely to try and stay focused. Then, he learned that jobs could "expire" if left uncompleted for too long. The time until "expiration" varied from job to job, but mostly depended on the job's rank, although the client could set a "expiration" date themselves, if they so specified. There was a limit on how many quests parties could accept in a day, set at three. A and S-Rank parties however, were given special privileges, and allowed to accept and complete up to five in one day. Reasonably, the risks present and consequences suffered if you faltered in your duty or fell in the field while undergoing a higher ranked mission, could be much more devastating than the consequences of failing a lower ranked mission.

It was for this reason that the guild did not simply hand out promotions-- they had to be earned, by doing work for the guild or by proving yourself in battle against a particularly tough foe. Even then they weren't just granted, you had to go through a special interview process with a representative of the guild, as well as a member of the local government who had been trained in such matters. Parties were not forced to accept promotion offers, should they not feel ready for the correspondingly ranked jobs. If a party turned down such an offer, they would be able to request that promotion at any time going forward. Of course, they would still have to go through the interview process. There were no penalties associated with declining an offer and asking for it again at a later time. With this system in place, the guild was able to assure those who issued requests to the guild that their problem would be solved. However, as with anything in adventuring, nothing was certain. A single mistake could spell doom for your party. It was only a small assurance that those who had proven themselves, and not fledglings would be undertaking these quests. Anything could happen during an adventure. Veteran adventurers die to the seemingly simplest of things, and newbies pass through the most seemingly impossible of tasks. All it took was a bit of luck and skill. Those who failed quests but came back alive were reprimanded and punished, sometimes demoted. How close a party came to demotion would be decided on how many "marks" you had on your card. That is to say, failing three quests in a row would result in a demotion. For F-ranking parties, there were no such punishments, as F-Rank quests were usually inconsequential. However, those who came back alive and succeeded were rewarded with the money as per the quests description and were a step closer to a promotion. One last thing Taka learned was that if a party was confirmed to have wiped, or they simply did not return for a certain period of time while away on a mission, that job would be reevaluated by the guild, assigned a higher rank if deemed necessary, or extra addendums would be put in the description. But, that did not happen often. At least, not in Leln. Sometimes, mistakes happened and job posters tried to post jobs without the guilds permission. That's where things got a bit tricky, as that could lead to double job postings if the guild was also paid to post a job, which could lead to two parties going into the same quest, which could, understandably, lead to all sorts of confusion and conflict.

This did not tend to apply to F-Rank quests, as for the most part they were safe, relatively easy, busywork quests that had you assisting people around town. Maybe you'd kill an oversized spider or two, but monster quests for F-ranks were pretty rare. Job difficulty markers did not just denote the rank an adventurer had to be to accept it, it also denoted the job's threat level. An F-rank job possessed barely any threat to your life, whereas a D, or C rank job possessed some. Put simply, the way Taka saw it was like this:

● F and E-Rank, Clay and Bronze: You'll most likely be fine, unless you drop something on your head and break your neck on accident. Barring insane coincidences like a sudden monster attack, these jobs weren't very dangerous and typically consisted of varying degrees of busywork. Sometimes you'd get a small monster elimination based job with E-Ranked duties. ● D and C-Rank, Copper and Silver: You could die. You will almost certainly fight monsters. Be on your guard, come prepared, and you'll be fine. ● B and A-Rank, Gold and Platinum: These are dangerous jobs, with high consequences but higher rewards. You will die if you do not come prepared. Although, from what Taka had been hearing, you'd die if you weren't prepared on a D or C-ranked job.. ● S-Rank, Legendary and above: Exceptionally dangerous. Exercise the utmost of caution.

That's all for now. I have a few more long deleted exposition dumps, about Dane's backstory and about a type of monster crab that a certain restaurant in Hamelan uses as a food source, but I think I'll post them later. Maybe. we'll see :d

I'll leave you with this:

THE DIE IS CAST

i love this song and how he says that, so damn cool, imma watch code geass

ROAW Stuff - Weekly Writing Post #1 (spoilers)

Hello!

Since this is just the first real post i've made that isn't an introduction, I won't talk about any lore stuff this time. The reason im doing weekly is because having a schedule feels better than doing it randomly, and also because i didnt know what to title this post. Maybe I will do it randomly anyway, we'll see. It just depends.

For future context, the series title is Record of Another World, abbreviated as ROAW. The "collection" title (encompassing the "main" series) is Party of Three. The first book will likely also be called Party of Three. idk if that makes sense.

So I suppose like how you have A Song of Ice and Fire - Game of Thrones, or A Song of Ice and Fire - A Tale of Dunk and Egg, you have Record of Another World - Book 1, Party of Three, Party of Three(?) idk lol

In any case, in this post I wanted to go over who the people in my book are in a bit more detail, as that feels like an appropriate first "real" post, to me.

Taka

Starting off with our main POV, we have Taka. When he was born, his parents didn't want to deal with the burden of a child, so they gave him up to a lizardfolk who had been a part of their party for a very long time. This lizardfolk, named Dane, became Taka's adoptive parent. At the beginning of book 1, Taka has just turned fifteen, the age of majority in Kommodia (and the age one is allowed to register as an adventurer) and wants to experience the world for himself.

He may have seen a lot of the world traveling on Dane's ship (Dane is a captain with his very own port, and at a certain point became responsible for the Advent Route, which is the sea path from ports to adventurer-centric towns.) but he wants to see it on his own two legs, of his own volition. He wants to explore, and meet new people, try new things. He wants to live, and satisfy the intense wanderlust he'd harbored for so long.

Even still, he is very young at fifteen, and has a lot of anxiety and worries.

Taka is neurodivergent, like most people in my book are in some way. He has ADHD and Autism.

Soon enough, Taka finds himself wrapped up in a world of adventure, surrounded by people he never thought he'd meet, friends with people he never could have possibly thought he'd befriend.

Beriyl

Next up is Beriyl! He is a half-elf who hails from a very prestigious noble family. While he can come off as abrasive and even incendiary at times, he has his moments of genuine caring and warmth. He connects with Taka on a very deep level, I think.

Beriyl is probably one of my favorites to write because he's a know-it-all, he possesses a very large vocabulary and REALLY wants to show it off. He's spent so much time cooped up reading, his brain is a literal vault of random tidbits and facts. He is a textbook bookworm, and he *will *make sure you know it. He's very snarky and sarcastic and I find some of his exchanges with Taka really funny. Their dynamic, although it softens with time, is one of my favorite things ever. Not unlike Taka, I believe Beriyl also has Autism.

Arthur

Last of team Lucky Seven, Arthur.

When we first meet him, he's incredibly depressed, giving off this awful vibe of a man who has all but given up. He hasn't slept in days, probably hasn't eaten or drank much either. His eyes dark pits of horrible despair, but gradually he learns to live again, to love and forgive himself.

The rest is a bit spoiler-y, revealed within the first half of the book. I will be spoiler marking it, but just so you all know! (The stuff at the end about Rend is never revealed, so that counts as lore i guess)

Anyway, pretty big spoilers actually, and i cant hide them because tumblr doesnt have a spoiler text feature for some reason, and i cant figure it out with html or anything. All of this is revealed at roughly 55% through the book or so, so i guess it is pretty massive spoilers. Don't read the stuff about Arthur, skip down to the Advent Route if you don't want to be spoiled on Arthur's backstory and my read on his mental state.

Arthur is a sufferer of extreme PTSD, he likely has DID. When he tells Taka and Beriyl of his past, of how he felt when his friend and family died, when his town was razed to the ground, I believe it's really hard for him to really stay "present". I think he probably suffers from an extreme emotional block, he feels very absent and er, numb, I think is the right word. When he was a mercenary, I don't imagine he was truly himself. I do think he created a separate persona who didn't think or feel just so he could get through it. At that point I think he was just biding his time until he died, only truly happy when he was able to do things that reminded him of his parents like train or cook. Yet, we see that when he meets Taka and Beriyl, he starts to look better. He starts to sleep, to eat. He makes Taka and Beriyl his life's goal, his one true priority. He becomes unhealthily co-dependent on their safety and existence, so I think that reflects in how overwhelmingly overprotective he is, how quick he is to justify violence in the sake of defending Taka and Beriyl. Without them, he never would have had the "color" restored to his world. He'd still be wandering in a storm without a light. Taka and Beriyl are that light-- without them, he would be dead, most likely.||

Hell. He says it himself: how he tells them he'd become an adventurer to die helping someone, so he'd have an excuse for Rend in the afterlife.

(little does he know, Rend died young enough, and as a person who was isekaied to Tamalnh without his memories from Earth, the Gods allowed him to reincarnate again. He is the Spear Warrior that Taka asks for directions to the guild in Chapter 1.) I will elaborate more on how this works, how the afterlife and things like that work, and summoning and blablabla, all will be explained in a future post.

some minor adjustments 8-26-24. Rend cannot be the Spear Warrior, iirc Arthur was a merc for about 10-15 years, from 18-26? i think? Smth like that, anyway, that means Spear Warrior would have had to have been born the instant Rend died, so... it makes more sense to believe he isn't the Spear Warrior, but someone else. Arthur will probably meet him (whoever rend reincarnated into) towards the end of his (arthur's) life.

Now, about the Advent Route...

The Advent Route, to be better explained, sort of works like this.

On Kommodia, the most popular starting town at present is Leln, a town named after the legendary hero who felled a Dark God several thousand years prior.

Each port runs along a prescribed route and anchors on the coastline. From the coast, adventurers are taken via carriage to the town of their choosing.

Simply put, the Advent Route is a searoute chosen specifically to maximize safety and efficiency, seeing all those who'd wish to become adventurers to their destinations with relative safety, barring extreme circumstance. It is conducted at a time of year (the book starts as summer ends.) where the water in the sea becomes cold enough that sea monsters like Krakens and such go into a state of hibernation.

I'll do a follow-up post talking about the people Lucky Seven meet at the end of ch1 and their incredibly important role in the overarching story, also with spoiler tags soon. I will also elaborate on the afterlife/reincarnation process and what that really means, how people were summoned from another world, their role, and about what a "starting town" actually means.

ROAW Stuff - Weekly Writing Post #2

Hello, and welcome to my second weekly post ^.^

Like I promised at the end of my last weekly post, in this one I have a few topics to cover. This might be a bit of a long one! :D

Topics covered: Twin Feathers, Towns and Cities, The Afterlife

On that end, let's start with the members of Twin Feathers, the rival adventuring party that the members of Lucky Seven meet and become so inseparable from.

Eirairr

Eirairr is an interesting one-- he's a full elf, but due to his many long years of isolation he's incredibly eccentric. His personality changes on a dime, he is very much a person that takes from other peoples personalities and tries to mimic them if he thinks they're "cool" or "funny". Despite his weirdness, he's dependable when it counts. He's a good friend, and loyal-- even if he IS a bit immature and annoying at times. (and almost incapable of taking anything seriously) He is definitely the most childish out of the six.

Some of my favorite Eirairr scenes are when he's acting like a total nutcase, and then Qlul joins in because he's a bubbly, energetic birb.

Qlul

Speaking of Qlul, let's talk about him next! The resident birdfolk healer of Twin Feathers, he shares a few similarities with Eirairr. Namely, he's awful with directions, is far too energetic and happy, (although honestly, you can never be TOO happy) and has a problem taking most things seriously. His serious side does come out more often than Eirairr's. All in all, Qlul is a very empathetic person who cares deeply for his friends and the general well-being of those around him. He's dependable when it counts.

Contrasting Ecirr, he's an eagle-like birdfolk with white/brown plumage. (although honestly, i always see him as pretty much completely white)

(and he's dating Ecirr)

Ecirr

Ecirr is the closest thing to a leader Twin Feathers has-- stoic, stubborn, and serious, maybe a bit arrogant. He (also a birdfolk, but raven-like in appearance) and Qlul grew up together as close friends. They attended a prestigious university in Kaarda, then headed to Kommodia to become adventurers-- and see the world. I'd say Ecirr and Qlul are both of above average intelligence, but you wouldn't really guess it with how Qlul acts.

He has a good heart, if a short temper. He's the kind of person who won't say anything if he sees other people doing something wrong, until they notice. This tends to result in Twin Feathers getting very lost in the middle of nowhere for days on end. (and arguing alot)

Honestly, it's a miracle their party works at all. It's thanks to that when it really comes down to it, all of them can really "get their head in the game" so to speak.

Final Words on Twin Feathers

Before we move onto the next topic, I just wanted to say that I really love Twin Feathers. They give a much needed "happy" vibe to the world when they're around. They're the kinds of people that when you're around them, you can't help but smile, even if they're acting utterly ridiculous.

It may not seem it, but these three silly guys have a huge part to play in the overarching story. Without saying too much, there's a certain part where their lives (Taka, Beriyl, Arthur's) would have taken a very dark turn had they not been able to intervene/had they never met one another.

What is a "starting town"?

This will be a relatively short explanation, and I started thinking about it because I watched a scene from the new Sword Art Online Aincrad movie, (which i still need to watch, really want to) and i was like hmm... Why do I call Leln a "starting town"?

(anyway, i think that's why this came to mind)

Anyway...

In the first chapter of my book, I describe Leln as a "beginners town" or something to that effect. The reason is relatively simple:

In the world of commercialized adventuring, where everyone wants to do it and tons of people *are* doing it, it's a very lucrative business.

Leln is situated in the perfect part of the world where new adventurers can get the hang of things, do a few jobs, figure stuff out, all that good stuff. Leln is smaller than most cities, it *is* a town, after all. (I think with something like less than 20,000 people living there, probably in the 5,000-10,000 range. Compare this to the capital city which is like 300,000 or more? So...)

(the numbers aren't exact, i have them written somewhere but i'm too lazy to pull them up rn)

Basically: Leln is relatively safe. The goblins in the area are culled regularly by government-sent high ranking adventurers who can be trusted to do the job and do it right. (This, of course, is standard procedure and happens in Hamelan Territory, too. Hamelan is actually very safe, the towns outside Hamelan's walls pay a tax to the royal family to be under their knights protection, so pretty much everyone up there is relatively safe)

Back to Leln: There aren't too many caves or dungeons nearby, and given that it's a small town, the "risk level" of jobs at the Guild are, naturally, much lower than the ones you might see in a sprawling city like Hamelan (the capital). or even Demarcos (a coastal city) idk if that makes any sense.

tldr: leln calm area of the world, other places not so much, but still safe enough. leln good for new adventurer, other places ok too, but leln is the most popular destination (and also the one the *MAIN* Advent Route has carriage's go to!)

And finally... Let's talk about The Afterlife

First, there are a few things I think it's important to understand about the world before I delve fully into what awaits people after death.

In the world of Tamalnh, the Gods tend to not intervene. They do exist, but a very long time ago, they swore to not intervene in the world any more than absolutely necessary to ensure it's survival. (As the Gods are omnipotent, they'd step in if a world-ending threat were to crop up, but as long as 50% of the world remains safe they won't intervene. To reiterate, if a threat capable of killing more than 50% of the worlds population arose, they would step in and destroy it to save their world, and their creations.)

Here are some fun bullet points:

When you die, there's a short period of time as your soul leaves the Mortal Realm, ascending to the Judging Realms for the "Will of the Gods" to, for lack of a better word, judge you for your actions and intents in life. When a soul has reached the Judging Realms, it can not be brought back into the body it was from- ergo, resurrection magic only works within a short window (and it's very, very hard to pull off. I will talk about healing magic, magic in general most likely, churches and resurrection magic/etc in a later post. I also want to talk about "Wills" as that is very important to my world.)

The "window" shortens or lengthens based on the individuals will/desire to live, how much they have left undone. I think the longest time a soul could stay tethered to it's vessel would be 8-10 hours. It's usually a pretty short process of a few hours, although theoretically the most strong willed of people could stay tethered for a day or two, i suppose.

You are not conscious as your soul ascends, and as souls cannot be pulled from the Judging Realms or the Afterlife itself, no memory of the "in-between period" remains, hence nobody knows the afterlife exists.

However, there are some practitioners of specialized magic known as Soul Diviners/Spiritual Diviners/whatever u wanna call em. These people serve two purposes: They can read your soul and tell you your fortune, like a palm-reader, or they can tell you the color of your soul. The color of one's magic is tied to the soul, so the proof of a soul, magic that interacts with a soul, and some other phenomenon prove that souls exist (and hence, the afterlife.) Also, Ghosts, Revenants, Wraiths, etc, exist.

The Gods believe that Soul Erasure is the worst "crime" one could ever inflict on another (apart from the act of killing someone to begin with, I wager. Although they aren't going to condemn you to eternal torment for killing in self defense like Arthur has/does, it's circumstantial.), as life does not end in death, it only begins. Your eternity begins in death, an eternity of doing whatever you wish for as long as you wish, with the ability to sleep, be intimate, read, write, do whatever you like-- forever. Taking that away from someone, taking life away from someone is something the Gods can not condone. Even the worst of criminals aren't subjected to the erasure of their soul, and only one in history was ever punished in a way even slightly reminiscent to that-- they were put permanently to sleep. They still exist, technically, but are unable to experience the afterlife, as they are asleep. Forever. Fun little loophole for the Gods, I say.

If a person dies before the age of 15 (or was it 20-25, i dont remember), when their soul is "completed", they are given a second chance and allowed to reincarnate. They lose the memories of their past life. Similarly, the two examples of isekai'ed people (Rend, Arthur's childhood friend, and Lelnas, the legendary hero. fwiw, this will never be brought up in my book, so it's not a spoiler at all) lost their memories of their time in their original worlds. For the most part, generally people who are murdered or lose their "remaining/full life" in some unfortunate way are granted a second chance if they wish to take it, a chance to reincarnate. Their soul and personality would remain the same as they're still the same consciousness/person but in a different body, going through different circumstances. You know how every person you know kind of has their own "feeling" to them? It would be like if one person you knew died, and you met another who had the same "feeling". That's how you'd know someone you cared about had reincarnated.

Closing notes:

I'm not really sure what i'll cover next, but i should still have a few things I can talk about that are general lore that wont be talked about in the main books and isnt a huge spoiler for anything. I might talk about the "Body of God" and the nature of reality and some other fun things. I think that'd fit in well to my long expo dump about magic in my next post :p

Unrelated: this song reminds me of taka, beriyl, and arthur's dynamic (and it reminds me of ecirr, qlul, and eirairr)

(the tone of the series changes alot with book 2 and i feel like this would fit as an anime ED showing the lighthearted moments of book 1 as a sort of parallel)

its a good song :D bye for now!

A Beginning

Hello, and welcome to my blog.

I am Sebastian, an aspiring novelist who has been writing a book for several years now. It is my biggest passion in life and my worst fear is failure. The book follows a fifteen-year-old named Taka, a sixteen-year-old half-elf noble named Beriyl, and a mid-twenties, deeply traumatized, emotionally out of touch ex-mercenary named Arthur.

The story begins with them all at the most vulnerable points of their lives (a topic I will likely touch on and provide context to in a later post) and follows them as they make lifelong bonds and memories, and overcome countless struggles-- emotional and physical.

It is also a story of blossoming love, as Taka and Beriyl eventually find in each other what both were missing in one way or another. A story of what it means to truly find yourself, what you stand for and who you are.

For many reasons, it is a tale very, very dear and personal to me-- for reasons i'll likely explain later. (so i stop editing this one blog post over and over)

I hope that you will follow my journey (and by extension, the journey of Taka, Beriyl, and Arthur) as I talk about my book and what inspired me and my random beliefs most likely, and random excerpts im proud of as I continue polishing my book.

Thank you,

Sebastian Crowling

random name origin fun time discussion:

Also pronunciations :D (I’ll edit this later and add those) (added as of 5:45 PM 6-12-24)

some new stuff added as of 6-26-24 cuz @jev-urisk tagged me :p

(my god, this post is such a poorly formatted mess. help me)

Taka (originally Aka, red, inspired by Karma Akabane)

edit 6/20/24: um wth was i talking about here? When I played Taka for the first time 5 years ago in my first dnd campaign ever (which was a very bad campaign btw, for reasons i might talk about in another note) I had "Aka" down for like 5 seconds (yes, it was based on Karma, tho) before i was like "if i add a T it sounds good" not knowing that Taka was an actual name. (or maybe subconsciously i did, but iirc it was just a "that sounds neat" decision that ended up being actually integral to him as a person, as all names should be :'D)

Pronounced: tah-kuh

low "a" like "aww"

so no, its not "TACKA" like some english speakers would probably mispronounce it. Tahkuh. Tawkuh. Taaaahhhhhkaaaaaaa

ok im sorry

idk, go watch a japanese person say "taka" thats how you say it, idk how to write pronounciations ok???

Fun fact: Taka is the Japanese word for Falcon/Hawk. Fits perfectly with his personality, his obsession with the sky, and his sheer wanderlust/desire to be “free”

Obligatory: no not Eren Jaeger “free”

Beriyl (Beryl)

pronounced: Barrel

He was my friends mage. He was very racist and a bastard person. (old, old beriyl). Beriyl and Arthur and Taka now are so very different from when I first learned about them, their original inceptions (being, well, dnd in a bad campaign) were just very different.

Ecirr (random dnd aarakocra name generator, I think I merged two names to get his full one, and changed the spelling a bit. Ecirr Roarark/Rorrark)

I played Ecirr when Qlul died in a campaign I played in like, 2020(?) I cant really remember when I added him and Qlul but they've been integral parts of my book for so long now I can't recall when I first started writing them in.

Qlul died fighting a nothic, and so I played Ecirr in an attempt to save him. I wanted to save Qlul because I felt bad for him, and my party members wanted to just leave his corpse to rot. I hated that, so I decided to play Ecirr, his childhood friend he'd been "roommates" with at the university. (I say roommates as a joke, they weren't, though they did attend a prestigious school together. The roommates joke is the "they were just roommates" gay sex joke. cuz they're dating)

Pronounced: e-sear (hard e, like eek)

Qlul Klilaark (same as Ecirr)

Pronounced: Qlol Klil ark

like, lull + q, qlull, so qlol?

"aark" is just "arc"

Klil, like "quill" with a k, and no u.

if you say it fast, kind of sounds like "qlul kalark" or "qlul klark" or "qlul quill-ark" idfk ok im bad with explaining these things

"qlul kluhark" i guess kinda another way to try and explain it XD

Ecirr was originally a DnD character who I liked alot and ended up putting into my book. He, like all of them-- both the members of Lucky Seven and Twin Feathers, have come really far.

Eirairr Eirainn

Pronounced: yer rair, yer rain

Same as Ecirr and Qlul.

I’d do my BBEGs but their names feel like spoilers to me despite them being the most interesting to me :c

(Ok fine, click if you don’t mind the villains names being revealed. One of them is probably obvious since he’s mentioned really early but the other two aren’t for a while)

Eirairr was a ranger I played in DnD. He, Qlul, and Ecirr's names were from random name generators. Specifically, the dnd random name generator. I mixed some of the names around to give it my own flair, changed a few letters, and bam.

Like Sargantas was the Sargatanas server in FFXIV, but I always misread it as Sargantas.

Pronounced: Sar-gawn-tiss

sar: like "sardines"

gawn - like gown but with an A, kind of like "dawn" with a G i guess

tiss - like "badum-tiss" for lack of a better example

Zersetsung is a German word for “power” (or was it “control”), and he’s a immortal vampire.

pronounced: (as far as i am aware...)

zur-zet-sung

with a "low" e,

uh..

ok, hold on.

Zur: like "Dur" but with a Z

Zet like "Jet" but with a Z

Sung - obvious, like how you say the word "sung" when talking about the past-tense of singing

Vitsmunir is Russian (I’m pretty sure) but I can’t remember for what

pronounced:

vits (veets)

mu (hard u, like the one at the end of the word "you")

near (like how nier is pronounced, or y'know... near from death note XD)

Fun fact: Sargantas’ soul is sheer black, Vitsmunir’s pure white, and Zersetsung golden!

Character Themes: Lucky Seven

Since I made a post about music the other day, I thought I'd make a small post talking about the playlists i have for each member of Lucky Seven.