Maël

Hi, I’m Maël, also known as Sadist (@the-bloody-sadist) for my fanart! I decided I wanted to separate my OC art/talk from my main fanart account, so this will focus on all my characters, but mainly the ones from my novel-in-progress, Dancing With Death. I have to give myself permission to spam about them outside of my fanart account where people didn’t ask for all that…….

If you’d like to read the chapters I have publicly available, they start on my other account here!

About Dancing With Death

Takes place in a world where slaves called Pets are owned by nobles and the practice of sex with them is taboo. Emery, a straight-laced Emissary from the north, ventures south to investigate what his isle's books call the most dangerous man in all of Tilea, Taushin, who rules a society full of sexual perversion. Since his isle's information is outdated, his plan is to interview him to confirm or deny the rumors surrounding his name. However, he soon finds that Taushin is not exactly what his texts described, and his morals are being challenged by the environment. Worst of all, it seems Taushin and his semi-verbal Pet are interested in detaining him, guarding dark secrets about the visitors who came before.

An enemies-to-lovers slow-burn that explores themes of sadomasochism, pseudo-BDSM, polyamory, propaganda, and power struggles.

Use my asks if you’d like to talk to my characters, ask me questions about the story, or leave me general notes about my content!

If you’d like to support me and see exclusive OC (and fanart) content, join my Patreon

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if spoilers skip

You could probably say that, yeah! Like if a real world therapist saw Angel, he'd get labelled that way. But in terms of fantasy, I tend to compare it to a character who sees themselves as a weapon. You don't see that in the real world because it's a crazy scenario, so it would be difficult to apply terms like "intellectual disability", but that would technically be correct.

Angel is definitely stunted and regresses in certain ways, but he's not actually as far behind when it comes to his inner world. It's his outward expression that appears that way to others!

This all could change when I finally get to write in his POV, of course, but that's how I see it for now.

THANK YOUUUU! YES THEYRE ALL HERE!!! EVEN ELLUM AND CALLYX!!!!

I don’t like how callyx turned out, but here’s Ellum!

THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ANSWER. Since it's been around in my head since like..... 2018/2019 or earlier (I have little sense of dates and time in my past and don't keep track), the plot has been morphing since its first iteration. It matured along with me!

The current one has updated versions of the original story's big moments, and if I hadn't written that weaker plot, I wouldn't have had the bones to look at that gave me entirely new ideas. In some ways, it's the same, but the execution of the plot is more focused. I made bigger character decisions and chose different endings. I tried to diversify the characters into roles that made more sense and caused better conflict, instead of roles I personally liked more.

Minx was the biggest victim of this! I used to like that guy....

Otherwise, I don't draft! I don't really outline, either. I create my plots in a way that's more organic and feels-based, but that's not to say I don't know anything about structure. I lay out a few beats and build towards them, unless the characters start to interact in ways I don't expect, and I find new options. I can only do it this way because I subconsciously follow arcs. Not everybody should do this! If I hadn't studied books on writing and broken down movies and characters from media, I would be very lost trying to do it this way.

But I also had an entire first version of the book that had to be rewritten, so you could say it took an accident to see what I really wanted to make. That first version turned out to be a "draft" honestly, even though I treated it like a final product. It was more sex-focused and made less sense, which is the sort of pitfall that makes things feel like several fanfics sewn together. It felt annoying and self-indulgent when I looked back on it, and I could only laugh at it. Now, it has meaning to me! It has purpose. I find it fulfilling.

Taushin halfway across Gailda hearing you say the forbidden name:

THANK YOU! I'M SUPER INTO ANGEL/KHOI CONTENT LATELY SO YOU MIGHT SEE SOME MORE SOON! How about a tomodachi life clip of them for the road.... (I CAN'T WAIT TO WRITE THE PREQUEL)

It's a bit of a mixed bag, if that makes sense! This is another one of those background worldbuilding elements that barely pokes its nose into the story, so I've developed it the least. The answer wouldn't make much sense without spoilers, so I can vaguely say they use money for some things and bartering for others.......LMAO

WHAT IF I TOLD YOU....... YOU HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE BOOK.

All three of these observations are correct! Their relationship isn't entirely one dynamic or another, but it wouldn't be any fun if I just explained it instead of letting people organically find out through the novel (and my art while you're waiting so patiently). I hope you'll have fun finding out when the time comes!

THIS MAY HAVE CHANGED. I can't confirm or deny this while I work out some lore kinks, so you'll have to find out when the books are written.....

Not silly! I mentioned it before, but I generalized for my own convenience what isles lined up with what real-world cultural aesthetics (clothing, building types, naming styles) to keep background lore straight in my head. These isles will most likely never be featured further than characters talking about them, so I have to make sure I don't create anything too detailed. Giving them general real-world references helps me not waste time on world elements that don't matter!

-Dorne, Emery's home, is based on the typical idea of medieval Germany. His name style is Emery von Everec.

-Trendlewal, Celty's home, is based on France. Her naming style is Celty de Le'Maire.

-Ísarr, Nischal's home, is based on Nordic culture. His naming style is Nischal Muirvyl, but he's an exception who has adopted the Gaildan name of "Nischal, House Muir."

LMAO I LOVE TO SEE SOMEONE MENTIONING THAT TIKTOK.

does gilda have an established military? we seen that taushin has guards.

in gilda Which groups are privileged or oppressed? does race contribute to that? and Can people move between social strata?

in the current era, as in Emery coming to Gilda era. are there conflicts in gilda: succession, religions, resources, ideology (skip if spoilers)

how big is Gilda, ls there a irl isle dimension?

do you plan to make Gilda culturally rich, like is Gilda as a space important to the story [i'm writing a mini essay on how interesting Gilda is as a space and a character in the first 7 chapters of DWD]

fun little question:

If Taushin died tomorrow, do things changes in Gilda?

ANSWERS:

Taushin has guards enough to cover his household and a few areas of the city, but doesn't exactly have an established "military" in the formal sense of the word. I don't find military and war parts of lore interesting, so I admit I'm the laziest about this! He protects his isle in other ways.

This has mostly been answered already in my discussions of the Pets/Emissaries/Regals/Exarch class system. Pets are the oppressed, and civilians/peasants on most isles. For Gailda specifically, it's a melting pot of races, and nobody discriminates on that basis. There's special circumstances that lend to the class system on Gailda, which also can't be discussed for spoiler reasons. Suffice it to say it's not the same as other isles.

Skipping for spoilers....

Gailda is very small. I don't have an irl example handy, but there's only one major city covering half the isle, some maritime forest, and then the other half of the isle where the nobles live separately. I didn't want to invest in making too big of a world for my first novel.

No! I've actually done way more world building than I expected for this book, but I don't intend to focus on it. I prefer books that use slivers of the fantasy world to support the characters, rather than the world being a character itself. Obviously, not to the point of bad writing. It needs to feel real and existent, but I care about characters and psychology, so I build the world around how it shapes those things. This is the typical standard for romantasy, so I'm lucky in that regard.

just so you know i'm exclusively reading for him, guess now you should airstrike him

also.... Minx on Gilda love island when 🏳️‍🌈❓️