#called forth

Two lovely commissions that I got from @swamp-spirit, which I’ve been meaning to post. 

Top character is Len, a character from my novel, Called Forth, who is a ton of fun to write and an old fave of mine. She’s a terrible person. I love her to death.

Bottom character is Sylvanni Lavellan, my lovely Inquisitor whom I care far far too much about. It’s always the sad ones, who really get me. 

@leftingimborn replied to your photo: “Two lovely commissions that I got from @swamp-spirit, which I’ve been...”:

len is... so pretty.........

The thing about watersheds is that they’re a lot more stable than the paths of rivers themselves, I believe. Watersheds have a lot to do with elevation and how the land falls. Without erecting or flattening hills and mountains, the water will eventually make it to the same river, even if that river changes course.

Which, they do tend to, albeit slowly. Places that are on the river are prioritized in the country, so losing your branch of the river would probably mean a lot of people moving away. Countries don’t usually try to move their own rivers for the most part and they stay away from moving other people’s because trying to mess with another country’s river is pretty much the quickest way to get war declared on yourself and you wouldn’t really accomplish much with it.

Countries come down hard if you try to muck up their river, man. Berserk button.

That said, the idea of conquering land kind of foreign to Basiners. In a way, they don’t see that land as desirable, because it has different water. The people who live there are different and trying to rule two different groups of water-drinkers as one nation just doesn’t quite compute for them. Each river will rule themselves.

This doesn’t mean there’s no war, though. It’s just that wars don’t focus on taking territory. Your neighboring country is always going to be your neighboring country, but if they piss you off, you can go burn some of their cities to the ground and murder a bunch of their people. Invasions are not about taking over, they’re usually about sabotage. Emphasis falls on crippling enemy nations and destroying infrastructure. 

“Conquest” in the Basin tends to be done through espionage or diplomacy rather than fighting. Alliances and foreign-funded usurpers are favored methods. Rather than taking the other country’s land, you fund a movement to oust their royals and then make sure you can bully the new group into doing whatever’s best for you, rather than them. Or, there’s a few watersheds that kind of group together and rule jointly, a little more like states in America than countries. Though they wouldn’t have a centralized government, they’d all work together to help their countries get ahead.

Trade and embargoes can also manipulate other nations into positions which are more favorable to you as well. This is why Saylin, as Halcym’s chief diplomat, is almost as important as the head of their military. Basin nations may not turn to bloodshed quite as often, but they can be utterly ruthless still.

Okay huge flashing lights disclaimer up here: I am a Protestant Christian who is very much not an expert in world religions. So... take headcanons with a grain of salt. This is not meant to say anything about these religions or anything like that and if I stray into offense, please know it was unintentional. 

(Sorry, religious discussion, especially publically on tumblr, can make me nervous)

Also, the characters can’t really answer in character because they don’t know anything about our world, so I’ll answer for them.

Len, probably agnostic in the sort of The Dear Hunter way of “I really don’t know if there’s anything out there, but if there is there’s a secret part of me deep down that fears there might be judgment on the other side.” Not that she’d show that to anyone at all.

Kasten, kind of makes me think he might be into mysticism of some kind. Perhaps because of his red hair, my first through was like Irish fey and spirits practices. He doesn’t necessarily 100% believe everything’s real, but don’t mess with faeries, just in case.

Rynd, more New Age, though I could also see her as Native and keeping tribal traditions. Definitely a big believer in horoscopes and energy and spirits and auras.

Corin, well, considering he comes from a strictly monotheistic empire, probably either Christian or Muslim. His homeworld in his era is a little more like Crusades-era Catholicism (”Accept the love of our God or we’ll burn you at the stake and murder everyone!”), but I could probably see him in modern times as a Muslim who cares deeply about his heritage and faith but doesn’t like the bad rep his faith has among outsiders.

Vanaline, uhhhhhh. Well I mean, the closest thing to Vanaline’s actual religion is something like the Imperial Roman pantheon in that whole “our gods say we’re the best so we’re going to conquer and rule everything” sort of way, but even that’s not totally accurate? I have no idea what she’d be in modern day and I almost don’t want to associate anyone’s religion with someone so terrible.

Dalton, more of a hard one. I feel like he’s more of a searching agnostic, like he has a very strong feeling that something is out there but he has trouble finding a religious expression that feels right. Definitely more of a searching soul.

Corin:I don’t think it’s particularly wise, but doing things I disagree with seems to be a specialty of Nona Len’s. She’s the summoner. She may, and will, do as she wishes, if established trends hold.

Rynd:What are you all on about? I don’t see what the problem would be. Vanaline just looks wow and if it’s all fun, what’s the harm? I mean, that is if you could find a way to do anything with that stick shoved so far up Vanaline’s—

Len: That’s enough of that.

Kasten:I’m with Rynd. Sounds like a great idea.

Len:You are?

Kasten:Sure. She’s crazy and murderous and awful, and you’re also most of those things. Perfect match. Who knows, maybe the Pure will bless us and the two of you will kill each other off once and for all?

Kasten:

I mean, I’ve never really trained with anything other than swords. Short swords usually, though I guess I can use daggers and knives passably as well. I suppose an axe or mace might be closer to a sword to stay familiar...

Shifters, compared with other Laenai creatures, do have a kind of mental dominance naturally. It isn’t just that they’re more intelligent, but it’s almost a little bit like blood types. Shifters are, mentally, kind of like universal recipients, while nonshifter creatures are a little more universal donors. 

Shifter minds are just programmed to handle the kind of mental requirements that controlling memories and thoughts that didn’t originally belong to you need. Likewise, Laenai creatures also have a kind of “programming” that makes it easy to slip away from autonomy if they feel connected to a shifter through the bonding process.

This is also why shifters who have gone feral—and have lost a lot of the mental architecture they used to have—easily become familiars. Accepting a shifter’s bond triggers a kind of submissive state in the other minds, as they try to defer to the shifter’s control. If that controlling presence is gone, they will almost never refuse a familiar contract, no matter what kinds of clauses are in it.

Alright, alright, you wanna chase? Let’s chase. Be warned this is gonna get into really weird and possibly spoilery levels of worldbuilding.