#corishadowfang

What was your favorite part of writing the series? Is there anything you wanted to include that you didn't get to (or, conversely, things you were really excited to get to incorporate)?

Thank you so much!!! It really was such an amazing journey!! (and yeah same 😅 but it’ll be a cause for celebration to get anything period!)

It’s hard to choose a top fav because there are so many things I love about this series. Building Ephemer and Charis’ relationship is definitely up there. Thinking about how they each parent their kids is up there too. And generally, I really really loved just putting Ephemer into different situations and exploring how he might respond to them.

I’m actually pretty content with what I was able to include in the fic. It took a lot of rearranging and unraveling to get it to where it is now, and it worked out (that being said, I do intend to make a document for scenes that weren’t included, which’ll be fun). I was very excited when I finally figured out Echthros and Kyrillos’ whole deal, and I was excited to unpack all of that for Act I’s climax

Twitchy I saw these tags and want to enable you. Please say more? (If you have the spoons.)

Thank you for enabling me Cori!! I have brought you a very large ramble :3 This was so fun to expand on!!

I was mostly inspired by the ideas of Social Darwinism in the early 20th century. Extremely basically, the elite thought they were rich because they inherently deserved to be, and the lower classes and poor had something inherently wrong with them that made them poor. They were strong and thus became stronger, the weak only got weaker. To be extremely honest, total horseshit. But interesting to draw from for fictional societies!

In Scala ad Caelum, Keyblade Wielders are the dominant class. In fact the inferiority of Non-Wielders literally defines them in the sense they are Not Wielders. They are the non-default, the Other, the Lesser, the amalgamate masses. To be a keyblade wielder is the default, valued state, and to not be one makes you worth less. It's evident in the language we use to discuss these societies, even out of game- we define them by what they are not. If you're not a wielder, you're lumped together into one massive undefined group.

In contrast, within the Keyblade wielders are different rankings of superiority. In Dark Road this is possibly signified by the different colors of emblems that each student wears*. KHML appears to have its own emblem code, but it's difficult to tell as we have so little footage. Purely based off Dark Road and hoping it applies retroactively, there appears to be three classes within wielders. Bluebloods like Eraqus with gold emblems, Vala with the only silver emblem, and those with white emblems. Xehanort has one that is dark grey, but given his unique situation, we can assume a dark grey emblem is an outlier when signifying class. For our purposes we'll be excluding him and focusing on the other three groups.

Bluebloods are the highest class within the wielders, and have long bloodlines of keyblade wielders. Think "blood purity" or castes. It's commonplace for families of wielders to marry each other in pursuit of maintaining keyblade wielding abilities in families of "good standing", societal power, etc. They're like the nobility of the city, and as a result hold the most political control. The most politically powerful group of Bluebloods are Ephemer's descendants, since he founded the city. In a room full of Bluebloods, everyone listens to them.

Then there are wielders from mixed families, people with only one wielder parent or a "diluted" bloodline. Obviously they can be and are just as competent wielders as Bluebloods but they're by default an inferior social class. This is the majority of keyblade wielders**- by Scala times keyblades aren't exactly rare, and a lot of people don't have the hangups that the Bluebloods do about social standing. Really, as long as you can claim the heritage of at least one Wielder and are a Wielder yourself, regardless of other economic or social status, you're in this group.

Lastly and lowest are wielders of no social standing. They're often people who's keyblades just appeared to them one day, with no notable lineage of previous wielders. Sometimes the keyblade just chooses someone new! They're socially higher than non-wielders, but with no bloodline to stand on, they have to work to be recognized as highly as their peers.

Now to get the discriminatory part.

The upper class of Bluebloods generally holds the belief that Keyblade Wielders are such because they deserve to be in some way. Their hearts have a lot of very strong light, they come from families of very high standing, they hate darkness more than anyone else, etc. They're superior because they inherently deserve to be. The light deigns them superior by their very nature as Wielders. This bleeds into the inverse- Non-wielders aren't wielders because they have some inherent flaw. There's something inherently lesser about non-wielders that makes them undeserving of keyblades. They're weak or susceptible to darkness. The keyblade scorns them, which is makes them Lesser. Being Lesser makes the keyblade avoid them. It's a cycle, at least in the eyes of high society. (Needless to say, all of this rather untrue. A keyblade is either passed down via bequeathing or chooses a wielder. Literally anybody could get one.)

Only the most intense corners of the Bluebloods get particularly persnickety about this, at least publicly, but the effects of this attitude resonate through Scalan society. The societies are sort of a product of this strict class system. Keyblade wielders tend to mingle with others of like standing. For example, the Baroque society appears to be a particularly lower class society, largely comprised of wielders from mixed familes or no previous lineage. This is a bit of headcanon, but I would assume that Nept is the "highest class" among them, given he was able to become an Operations Master and is a member of the "Society Legal Investigations Committee". (yes, I watched the beta cutscenes to quote that directly, lol) Regardless, Nept being both in a position of leadership and in some sort of organized committee indicates he's probably of higher status than the rest of the Baroque society. Freya is possibly next highest, and Remus the lowest- he's kind of the one who gets bossed around and all. In my heart Freya is an Ephemer descendant though <3

Similarly, Player is almost definitely on the lowest rung of the social ladder. They'd fall into the category of wielders who's blades just Appeared to them, disregarding the whole reincarnation/fell from the sky thing. As far as anyone's concerned right now, they're some random kid who got their hands on a rusty old keyblade, and that's it.

This brings me to Brain. Brain is a notable exception to the extremely strict class dynamics, because he isn't engrained in them the way Scalans are. He's almost elevated above the class system because of his status as a Union Leader. He is at the true top, the most idealized place in society. Even the Bluebloods and Ephemer's descendants have to respect that. Not that most of them are very happy about that, but hey, societal conventions bind us all. Really the only person who rivals him in terms of political and societal importance is whoever leads the city- like say, Frigga in Fallen Stars.

I originally went down this train of thought as some Brain's Twitter Takeover worldbuilding, and I really quite like it, so I'm holding myself back a little to try and sift out what's general KHML ideas and what's potentially BTT :3 I cut a couple paragraphs of accidental spoiler overflow lol. I'm really excited to see what KHML does with these ideas of bloodlines!!! I'm sure it'll be a great story!!

*Side tanget: I tried to figure out if the emblem colors would correlate with my groupings, and that is a whole ride. It essentially comes down to which class the white and silver emblems represent. The gold emblems almost defiently indicate Blueblood or other high class status, as Eraqus wears one, but the other two are much more up in the air. For convenience I've included the list I compiled glancing at all the Dark Road sprites. It's my personal thoughts that the order is Gold -> White -> Silver -> Dark Grey, but hey, you do you. Gold: Eraqus, Baldr, Hoder, Urd, Vor, Heimdall, Helgi, Vali, Odin White: Hermod, Bragi, Sigrun, Vidar Silver: Vala Dark Grey: Xehanort

**second tanget: I know I said the middle class of wielders is the largest and then showed DR was mostly upper class so I had to make some clarifying comments. I believe that the Dark Road class is top-heavy because 1) Xehanort and Eraqus' class wasn't the only one at the academy (To quote the khwiki's DR summary, "Odin summons the No Name Keyblade from its display overhead, and leaves the room to evacuate other students.") 2) the process of different groups of people having more kids at different times 3) the many socio-economic aspects of going to Keyblade School and 4) not everyone WANTS to be a wielder and thus might not go to school for it if they don't have to. For all intents and purposes assume that the events of Dark Road happen at like, a fancy private school. The sample sizes there are Different.

(head in hands) one fish two fish is a no plot fluff only story about ven and sora going to rapunzel’s wedding party that i have been trying to finish for YEAAAARS. LIKE FOUR YEARS ITS SAT HERE… BUT I DID UPDATE IT A LITTLE. RECENTLY. I’ve REORGANIZED. Eugene does not condone underage drinking. or does he

It shows up! Victory!!!

Pick any fandom I'm in and add "orchestra AU."

People always doing rock band AUs and that's so lame (sorrrrry). You know what dynamics (pun intended) aren't explored? An entire ORCHESTRA. So many characters, so many possibilities! We humans love assigning labels to ourselves, and assigning characters with instruments is no exception. And yes, there is plenty of drama, shenanigans, and plot that can be had with orchestras. :PP

Dude, you have no idea how much energy I would spend developing orchestra AUs to all my fandoms if I had the time and courage and non-shyness. ENCOURAGE ME AND LET ME BE THE CLASSICAL MUSIC SLUT I AM.

I did part of an Undertale orchestra AU once upon a time in cartoon form. I didn't have the time or skills to sustain it. But I still have fond love for the concept.

But. Seriously. ANY. Any. Any fandom I'm in. If you put the word "orchestra" next to it I will be launching to the ceiling in delight. I waaaant to dooooOOoOoOooo.

The title is taken from the Crane Wives song "Canary in a Coal Mine" (literally the first line asdfdsa) and reading over it again, I think it actually eventually became "No One Mourns The Wicked"- it was a fic set post-dr about Eraqus and Xehanort and the development of their relationship, as told through their various visits to the graveyard over the years. It didn't get very far before I lost motivation- but I still think it sounds like a cool concept!! maybe someone else can do this someday,,,,

9/10) How does your OC handle their physical/mental health? Do they take care of themselves?

Physically she is honestly pretty fine - she doesn't really think much about it, she is active and always on the move (which was maybe a lil taxing for her dad but thats beside the point), but sometimes she just Forgets to take care, simply because ... she really just doesn't think about it? And then the exhaustion hits and she just lies on the floor because she forgot to take a break. ... We also don't talk about her eating habits when she came to Eorzea, getting screwed over by all these new smells and tastes, trying to find something that reminds her of home. A terrible time, but she got there eventually.

As for mentally, she's worse about that one haha. She bottles things up a loooot, she really doesn't like speaking about her feelings. She is more someone who tries to show how she's doing. Which, really isn't it ... She is very self conscious about herself, esp in her role as the Warrior of Light, now always have to do the right thing and it does creep up in her mind from time to time. Being this single person to do it alone. Though she does have a whole character arc about all that, where she gets reminded that she has people who can help her and aren't "just" her acquaintances. (... Her friends are her power, and she uses that quite literally.)

Her pet spirit helps eating her basic bad dreams and it gets her through a lot of the early times in Eorzea. (During the time of Endwalker she has her own Fray/Esteem in form of Sigurd who takes most of the emotional blunt during All That, but that would be too long to explain here :D)

She just has a lot of feelings she wants to share by showing them how shes feeling - be it joy or sadness. It just sometimes doesn't quite come across. Being alone really doesn't do her good and she does seek out others if her mood drops - and her friends know there is definitely something wrong if she doesn't want to be around someone at least. Because then something dire is going on in her head.