#lithurio

Lithurio: is it true that assassins can walk through walls?

Andreine: yes. And all we need for that is one thing.

Lithurio: what thing?

I tag @beck-nightengale, no pressure though. If anyone else wants to do this, feel free!

A line from your fic that makes you laugh

“Aber zuerst will ich Euren Passierschein sehen.” “Meinen Passierschein.” Jaheel biss sich auf die Zunge und hoffte, der Wächter würde an diesem albernen Stück Papier ersticken. Konnte er nur leider nicht, da Jaheel noch immer keinen besaß.

"But first I want to see your writ of passage." "My writ of passage." Jaheel bit his tongue and hoped the guard would choke to death on that stupid piece of paper. Which he unfortunately couldn't, since Jaheel still didn't have one.

From book 4. Fun fact: Jaheel could've easily avoided a beating, two near-executions, time in prison and a bunch of murders if he had just prepared for his trip and gotten a writ of passage.

A line from your fic that makes you sad

“...zu gefährlich, er hätte dich umbringen können!” Das war die halb-flüsternde Stimme seiner Mutter. Es klang, als säße sie im Hauptraum. Von dort war ein schwacher Lichtschein zu sehen, abgesehen davon war es beinahe komplett dunkel. Er war so müde und sein Kopf dröhnte, es fiel ihm schwer, dem aufgeregten Gespräch zu folgen. “...traumatisiert, er braucht Zeit!” Das war sein Vater. “Er ist unser Sohn, aber ich hatte Angst vor ihm!” Surianis Stimme war erstickt und eindringlich. “Weißt du, ich habe ihn sofort erkannt, als wir ihn bei der Amna gesehen haben, obwohl er so …anders aussieht. Aber jetzt? Er ist so verändert, ich erkenne ihn nicht mehr. Selbst das Mädchen hatte Angst vor ihm!”

"...too dangerous, he could have killed you!" That was the half-whispering voice of his mother. It sounded like she sat in the main room. A faint light could be seen from there, everything else was almost completely dark. He was so tired and his head pounded, it was difficult to follow the agitated conversation. "...traumatized, he needs time." That was his father. "He is our son but I was scared of him!" Suriani's voice was stifled and urgent. "You know, I immediately recognized him when we saw him at the Amna, even though he looks so ...different. But now? He changed so much, I don't know him anymore. Even the girl was scared of him!"

Andreine experiencing the good old "people talk about the injured dude cause they think he's asleep" after shit happens in book 2. Imagine you've avoided returning to your home that's been taken from you when you were a kid for decades cause you were scared and ashamed. And then you finally go back and it's weird at first but also very nice and you actually still have a home! Until you don't cause your parents see you at your worst and you realize you don't belong with them and your people anymore :) The lost son isn't a son anymore, just lost :) And did I mention that he also just lost his two healthiest coping mechanisms? :)

A line from your fic you're proud of

Eine Königin stirbt genau wie ein Bettler, dachte er bei sich. Nur dass ihr Blut auf einen Teppich tropft, der mehr kostet als das, was dieser Bettler in seinem ganzen Leben anhäufen kann.

A queen dies just like a beggar, he thought to himself. Only that her blood drips on a rug that costs more than what said beggar can accumulate in their entire life.

Jaheel experiencing A Thought™ during the climax of book 1 as one does while stabbing royalty.

A line for your fic you think could have been better

Uhm... most of them? There are entire scenes that I unfortunately can't put here that are just cringe and not good or even offensive and handled poorly.

A line from your fic that makes you want to punch a character

“Was ist so lustig?”, fragte Rucio interessiert [...] und kam zu ihm hinübergeschlendert. “Oh, nichts, was du besonders lustig finden würdest”, gab Jaheel zurück und leckte sich über die blutige Lippe. “Ich verstehe. Wir scheinen tatsächlich nicht den gleichen Humor zu teilen. Schade, findet Ihr nicht?” Jaheel schnaubte. “Das wirkte auf dem Balkon noch ganz anders.” “Ach ja, richtig. Ihr machtet eine beinahe so erbärmliche Figur wie jetzt. Und trotzdem habt Ihr ernsthaft geglaubt, ich hätte Interesse an Euch.” Er lachte auf und Jaheel hielt sich an dem Bild fest, wie er den Kerl mit den Zähnen in Tausend Stücke zerriss. Es half nicht viel. “Du wusstest, wer ich bin.” “Natürlich.” Rucio klang überrascht. “Genau genommen war ich erstaunt, dass Ihr nicht wusstet, wen Ihr vor Euch habt.” “Einen weiteren Schönling, einen unbedeutenden Zeitvertreib, nichts weiter.” Er grinste. “Es macht eigentlich keinen Unterschied, dass ich dich nicht erkannt habe. Im Grunde hat sich nichts geändert, nur dass ich nicht mehr mit dir schlafen, sondern dich umbringen will.” Rucio ließ seinen Stiefel auf seinen Kopf niedersausen und Jaheel ächzte, als seine linke Gesichtshälfte in den harten Steinboden gedrückt wurde. “Hört Euch nur an. So ordinär! Primitiv. Und ein Wrack. Findet Ihr nicht auch, dass es unwürdig wäre, Eurem Orden weiterhin Eure sogenannte Führung zuzumuten?” Er trat noch einmal zu, ehe er den Fuß wegnahm, Jaheel sah kurz Sterne und hatte für den Moment Probleme, Rucios Worten zu folgen. “Damit du die Führung übernimmst? Ich dachte, ich hätte dein Angebot schon abgelehnt.” Rucio schnalzte mit der Zunge. “Gewiss, aber das war, bevor Ihr in Ketten vor mir lagt und Euer Ende endgültig besiegelt war. Ich dachte, dieser Perspektivwechsel würde vielleicht einen Sinneswandel hervorrufen, ehe ich Euch foltern muss.” “Zu deinem Pech bin ich nicht nur ordinär und primitiv, sondern auch noch stur.” “Pech?” Rucio lächelte und zog überrascht die Augenbrauen hoch. “Oh, keineswegs! Ich freue mich darauf.”

"What's so funny?", Rucio asked and strolled over to him. "Oh, nothing that you'd find particularly amusing", Jaheel retorted and licked his bloody lip. "I understand. We really don't seem to share the same sense of humor. A pity, don't you think?" Jaheel snorted. "That seemed a lot different on that balcony." "Ah yes, right. You cut an almost as pathetic figure as you do right now. And yet you still seriously thought I was interested in you." He laughed and Jaheel clung to the image how he tore the guy to a thousand pieces with his teeth. It didn't help much. "You knew who I am." "Of course." Rucio sounded surprised. "In fact I was astonished that you didn't know who you had in front of you." "Another pretty boy, a meaningless pastime, nothing more." He grinned. "It actually doesn't make much of a difference that I didn't recognize you. Basically, nothing changed, only that I don't want to sleep with you anymore, but want to kill you instead." Rucio brought his boot down onto his head and Jaheel groaned when the left side of his face was pressed into the stone floor. "Listen to you. So vulgar. Primitive. And a wreck. Don't you also think it would be undignified to expose your order to your so-called leadership any longer?" He kicked again before lifting his foot, Jaheel saw stars for a moment and had trouble following Rucio's words. "So you can take over the leadership? I thought I had already rejected your offer." Rucio clicked his tongue. "Of course, but that was before you were lying chained at my feet and your fate was sealed for good. I thought this change of perspective might cause a change of heart, before I have to torture you." "Unfortunately for you, I'm not just vulgar and primitive, but also stubborn." "Unfortunate?" Rucio smiled and raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Oh, not at all! I'm looking forward to it."

Book 3. Jaheel flirts with a dude once to feel better about himself, and said dude turns out to be the final boss and also a bitch. I wonder if Jaheel will forgive him and they'll live happily ever after :)

A line from your fic that makes you go 'aww'

“Ich hab wirklich versucht, den Orden zu retten”, flüsterte Jaheel erstickt. “Shhh, ist schon gut”, murmelte Andreine. Er wollte Jaheel sagen, dass der Orden sicher irgendwie klarkommen würde, doch anders als sonst wollte ihm die Lüge nicht über die Lippen kommen. “Ich bin froh, dass ich dich wiedergefunden habe, Dri”, fuhr Jaheel fort. Andreine konnte nur leicht nicken. Verdammt, wieso musste Jaheel ihm den Abschied so schwer machen? Und wieso konnte er nicht einfach irgendetwas erwidern? Alles, was er tun konnte, war, ihn festzuhalten, als wolle er ihn nie wieder loslassen. „Ich wünschte, ich könnte dich beschützen“, murmelte er nur.  Schließlich war es Jaheel, der sich aus der Umarmung löste, sich räusperte und die Nase hochzog. “Wollen wir? Ich hoffe, es geht wenigstens schnell.” Das Grinsen misslang ihm gründlich und erneut konnte Andreine nur nicken.

"I really tried to save the order", Jaheel whispered, choking. "Shhh, it's okay", Andreine murmured. He wanted to tell Jaheel that the order would surely get by somehow, but unlike usually the lie wouldn't pass his lips. "I'm glad I found you again, Dri", Jaheel continued. Andreine could only nod slightly. Damn, why did Jaheel have to make the goodbye so difficult? And why couldn't he just say something? All he could do was hold him tight like he'd never let go again. "I wish I could protect you", he just murmured. In the end it was Jaheel who let go of the embrace, cleared his throat and snuffled. "Shall we? I hope they make it quick at least." He failed miserably with his grin and yet again Andreine could only nod.

Book 1. That awkward moment when the dude you initially wanted to kill is about to leave for a suicide mission but for some weird reason it's not as convenient as it sounds.

A line from your fic that's full of symbolism

„Weißt du, auf Gao gibt es eine Legende, die besagt, dass die Sterne die Seelen der ertrunkenen Seeleute sind.“ Lithurio sah hinauf zu den Augen des Klippenwächters und der Jagende Fleckenkatze. „Und wie sind sie dort hinaufgekommen?“ „Man sagt, dass der Sternenhimmel dort oben nur eine Spiegelung der Sterne sind, die auf dem Grund des Meeres leuchten.“ Der alte Garine hatte die Geschichte oft erzählt, während er seine Netze flickte, umringt von einer Schar Kinder, die gebannt seinen Worten lauschten.  „Sterne auf dem Grund des Meeres?“ Lithurio runzelte die Stirn und legte den Kopf in den Nacken. „Ja, je tiefer man taucht, desto dunkler wird es, auch bei Tageslicht. Und wenn man tief genug taucht, dann sieht man am Grund die Seelen der Ertrunkenen als kleine Lichter. Es gab einige, die behaupteten, sie gesehen zu haben. Ich weiß nicht, ob es stimmt, vielleicht halluzinierten sie nur, weil sie selber fast ertrunken wären.“

"You know, there's a legend on Gao that says that the stars are the souls of sailors who drowned at sea." Lithurio looked up to the Eyes of the Cliff Watcher and the Hunting Spot Cat. "And how did they get up there?" "They say that the starry sky above is just a reflection of the stars that shine at the bottom of the sea." Old Garine had told the story often while mending the nets, surrounded by a flock of spellbound children. "Stars at the bottom of the sea?" Lithurio frowned and tilted his head back. "Yes, the deeper you dive, the darker it gets, even at daytime. And if you dive deep enough, you see the souls of the drowned as little lights at the bottom. There were several who claimed they saw them. I don't know if it's true, maybe they just hallucinated because they almost drowned themselves."

Book 1. I don't know if that counts as symbolism. Andreine offering some clumsy exposition so I have an excuse to lore dump.

A line from your fic that contains an Easter egg

"Ein Assassine, der den Tod nicht erkennt, wenn er ihm gegenübersteht."

"An assassin who doesn't know death when he faces it."

Book 1. Jaheel is royally fucked and not in the way he enjoys. I blatantly stole that line and I don't know how obvious it is. Let's just say it's one of many references to that particular media.

A line from your fic that's shocking

„Also, Junge: Was hast du jetzt mit mir vor?“ Es war beinahe amüsant, wie alle Farbe aus dem Gesicht des Jungen wich und er hilflos nach Luft schnappte wie ein Fisch auf dem Trockenen. „Nun beruhige dich doch. Es ist alles in Ordnung. Ich weiß-“ Sef sprang über den Tisch.

"So, boy: What are your plans with me now?" It was almost amusing how all color left the boy's face and he gasped for air like a fish on dry land. "Calm down. It's all okay. I know-" Sef leaped across the table.

Book 4. Not exactly a jarring experience, but Jaheel was surprised enough to get tackled to the ground by some 20-year-old kid. And I just think it's neat.

A line from your fic you want to talk about more

 "Oder wir könnten darüber reden, wieso du deine einzige Gelegenheit, mich zu töten, hast verstreichen lassen. Damit hast du dich vermutlich des Verrats an deiner Königin strafbar gemacht.“ Jaheel lehnte sich mit einem süffisanten Grinsen an einen Baum, verschränkte die Arme und sah Lithurio erwartungsvoll an.  Der funkelte ihn an. „Es gibt auch Menschen mit Prinzipien und Anstand!“ Jaheel grinste breit. „Ich wusste es. Das liebe ich so an Leuten mit Prinzipien, Moral und Anstand und alldem: Sie sind absolut berechenbar.“ Lithurios Kiefer mahlte.  „Eine einzige gute Tat, in diesem Fall meine selbstlose Aufopferung für Andreines Heilung, ist genug, um sämtliche schlechte Taten, vergangene und zukünftige, auszumerzen.“

"Or we can talk about why you wasted your only chance to kill me. With this you're probably guilty of treason against your queen." Jaheel leaned against a tree with a smug grin, crossed his arms and looked at Lithurio expectantly. He glared at him. "There are people with principles and decency!" Jaheel grinned broadly. "I knew it. That's what I love so much about people with principles, morals, decency and all that: They're completely predictable." Lithurio ground his jaw. "A single good deed, in this case my selfless sacrifice for Andreine's healing is enough to eradicate all bad deeds, past and future."

Book 1. Bold of you to assume there are paragraphs lines that I don't wanna talk about more. One time someone asked me about some lore and I threw 3k words at them.

So what we have here is one part of Jaheel's process to redeem himself, even though you can't really tell cause he's a smug asshole about it. But Lithurio is just a side note, he has to win over Andreine. Who's been rightfully mad at him for 10 years and wants him dead cause yes, Jaheel fucked up back then. Massively. He knows, though he wouldn't easily admit it and has his fun little reasons and excuses and some impressive mental gymnastics, but he knows. He has done some redemption stuff in the 10 years when Andreine was gone, but that doesn't really count. Now Andreine is back and Jaheel has to get his trust back. He already sacrificed one of his men in the process (okay, not that impressive tbh), allowed his pride to get hurt (rather impressive tbh) and now he put his life on the line. Healing magic isn't pleasant and for serious injuries you need a second person to "cushion" the effects on the person who gets healed. Which means both will be in pain and then pass out for a while.

So you have Lithurio who has a sword and his fire magic with two unconscious assassins. His task was to kill Jaheel (or help Andreine kill him but Andreine is unconscious as well). He has the perfect opportunity. Jaheel has known Lithurio for like an hour at this point. He can't know how honorable that kid really is. He fully expects to get stabbed or have his blood boiled with fire magic (not pleasant). But he doesn't really have a choice. He has to go all in and hope it works out. He's just happy to be alive and celebrates by bullying a 17-year-old kid. And he'll do more in the future (both redemption stuff and bullying).

10. judge a book by its cover? 11. mediate a fight? 17. be the designated driver? 25. take over the dance floor? 27. get asked for advice? 43. spend a lot of money?

I have many 😈

Ehehehe thanks! Many is never enough XD

10. judge a book by its cover?

All assassins are taught to quickly figure out whether someone is a potential threat, so all of them to a degree. And then there's Andreine who'll be "that person talks. They're annoying and horrible and the bane of my existence and they should go away". Ironically, his general judgment of all actual books is "no".

11. mediate a fight?

You probably figured out that the assassins aren't great at it. Except maybe if you count killing as mediating. Corpses can't fight after all. Sadrina unexpectedly stopped a fight in novel 2 though and it might happen again in novel 3. If person A and person B really want each other dead, but also need each other's skills and resources to complete a mission, maybe killing isn't the best solution.

Apart from that Lithurio is pretty good at that kind of stuff. He's empathetic enough to understand the opposing parties' points and unlike certain others, he was raised to solve conflicts without violence.

When it's really necessary Jaheel can also be surprisingly diplomatic. He's good with words after all. He'll need someone to listen to him rant and complain afterwards though about how he just wanted to kill everyone.

17. be the designated driver?

This goes into modern AU territory I guess :D But I'll ignore that^^ So since Jaheel is the boss, he can designate the driver. His obvious choice would be Andreine cause he trusts nobody more with getting people home alive and well, BUT Andreine is pretty funny when he's drunk so Jaheel wouldn't want to waste an opportunity to experience that :D If it's during the time when Lithurio is with them, he drives. The others don't ask though. Lithurio doesn't drink much anyway and the assassins know his sense of responsibility will force him to drive. People with morals are so wonderfully predictable :)

If there are no easily manipulated fire mages around, Jaheel will just bring along some apprentice. He'll probably find a way to convince them it's part of their training.

When Reyla and Annamira go out, Annamira will be the driver cause Reyla will be busy drinking random guys under the table and obliterating them in arm wrestling. Let's just hope they don't party at the same club as the assassins.

25. take over the dance floor?

Jaheel, and it's probably when they play Toxic by Britney Spears :D and he can move. If Andreine is still sober enough, he'll try to be invisible, otherwise Jaheel will drag him along. With enough alcohol his resistance crumbles. Reyla would be on the dancefloor as well, but let's hope it's not at the same club, otherwise the DJ will have to play Murder on the Dancefloor^^

27. get asked for advice?

Both Andreine and Jaheel may have great advice for certain topics, but unless you're an apprentice assassin, they don't exactly seem approachable so most smart people would stay away. Lithurio is always glad to help, but maybe you'll want someone who has more life experience. Same with Sadrina. So I guess Reyla is a good choice. She's capable, extroverted and despite her armor and huge sword she manages to look friendly most of the time. And she'd give pretty solid advice.

43. spend a lot of money?

As the leader of the order, Jaheel also manages the finances. But that money goes back to the order, he tries to be transparent with spending it cause he knows what happens when people abuse their power. So he doesn't pay himself excessive amounts either. He likes to buy himself a nice thing or two every now and then though. Andreine is pretty frugal, nowadays he mostly hangs out at the headquarter anyway, but before that he used most of his money to cover expenses during his contracts. If he travels by horse, he'll make sure that horse is taken care of as well as possible. When he started traveling with Lithurio, he had just come out of his exile where he didn't have and didn't need any money, so Lithurio had to pay for everything until his money was used up. Which happened pretty soon due to unforeseen circumstances.

4. clumsy? 16. quick-tempered? 17. fashionable? 22. introverted? 23. extroverted? 32. helpful? 35. generous? 39. badass? (excited for this one because they all sound so cool to me haha) omg I got carried away 😭

Thank you, no worries :D I'm always grateful for excuses to talk about my OCs. And I probably won't have to drop 4k words of lore for these XD

4. clumsy?

Oh dear, that's not easy. Clumsy people often die before you hear about them. And calling people clumsy for having problems with buttoning their shirts cause they lost an arm would be mean. SO I gotta say Lithurio, but mostly due to inexperience and the nervousness that comes with it

16. quick-tempered?

Jaheel when he was young. He learned pretty quickly that flying into a blind rage whenever someone looks at you the wrong way tends to make life stressful. And short.

So currently I'd say it's a tie between Sadrina and Reyla. Though Sadrina is a bit shyer, so I guess Reyla wins :D

17. fashionable?

I think I gotta throw a new name in here and say Cara. A talented fire mage who got involved with life-shortening things ten years ago and died. Nobody had a good time. But she looked great

22. introverted?

Andreine. If he suddenly lost the ability to speak or disappeared, most people wouldn't even notice for weeks. Maybe he's good at fighting cause people tend not to talk much anymore after he fights them :D

23. extroverted?

Jaheel. As a kid he was smol and weak so his best bet was to be around other people. Now he's neither smol nor weak but he still prefers to hang around other people

32. helpful?

I would say Lithurio, but even though Reyla's approaches tend to be rather harsh, she usually just wants to help or protect people. It's the honorable thing to do. And she has a huge sword.

35. generous?

Questionable means aside, probably Reyla too. She should be careful, shady assassins might try to take advantage of that. But she has her huge sword, so no worries :)

39. badass?

We already talked about how Andreine would suck at walking away from explosions, but my vote still goes to him. Probably cause he doesn't really try to be badass. He just does his job and is convinced that he's just some dude whose skills aren't anything special. And he sometimes says things that sound badass even though he's just stating the obvious.

I was tagged by @dirty-bosmer, thanks a lot for enabling my spamming habits :D

Since someone forced me to write nothing but lore info dump all week, I guess I’ll have to share an actual excerpt of novel 1. Since it’s still in the editing stage and will probably go through some more changes, I guess it counts as WIP. It’s in German though.

Andreine is hurt. Lithurio is helpful.

***

Andreine war schon fast dabei, wegzudämmern, da traf Lithurios Schatten sein Gesicht.

„Geht es dir gut?“

Andreine ächzte nur. Konnte ihn der Junge nicht einfach schlafen lassen?

Dieser musterte ihn, dann weitete sich sein Blick vor Entsetzen. „Ist das ein Bolzen in deiner Schulter?“

Andreine verzog das Gesicht zu einem Grinsen, das diese Umschreibung nicht verdiente. „Nein, nur ein halber Bolzen. Beim Sturz durch die Decke ist der Schaft abgebrochen, man kann ihn also einfach rausziehen.“

Lithurio schluckte. „Und wieso machst du das dann nicht?“

„Ich komm nicht dran.“ Vorne ragte nur ein kleiner Stumpf des Holzes aus seiner Schulter, hinten die Spitze. Er schloss wieder die Augen, doch Lithurios Seufzen verriet ihm, dass der Junge ihn nicht in Ruhe lassen würde.

„Sag mir, was ich machen muss.“

Oh verdammt.

„Greif dir die Spitze und zieh ihn gerade nach hinten heraus. Dann die Blutung stoppen.“ Er setzte sich mühsam auf und besah sich seine Schulter. Rund um die Einschussstelle war sein Wams dunkel vor Blut. Er befühlte den abgebrochenen Schaft behutsam, um eventuelle Holzsplitter zu-

Der Ruck kam ohne Vorwarnung, ein Fuß wurde gegen seinen Rücken gestemmt, der Schmerz explodierte. Andreine schrie auf, dann wurde ein Stück Stoff von hinten auf die Wunde gepresst. Der Schweiß stand ihm auf der Stirn, er keuchte und fluchte.

„Tut mir leid, ich dachte es ist besser, wenn es schnell geht.“

„Vielleicht darf ich beim nächsten Mal zumindest vorher mein Hemd ausziehen, damit es nicht völlig ruiniert wird?“

Lithurio grinste verlegen. „Das hast du mir nicht gesagt.“

Als der Junge den Stoff wegnahm, beschlich Andreine erneut ein böser Verdacht.

„Kannst du mir verraten, was du vor-“

Ein Zischen, Schmerz. Der Geruch von verbranntem Fleisch. Seine Kehle war wie zugeschnürt, sein Oberkörper fiel nach vorn, als er zu würgen begann. Er zitterte unkontrolliert über und über, als sich sein Körper des Wenigen entledigte, das er noch im Magen hatte.

Lithurio hielt ihn einen Trinkschlauch hin, als er sich allmählich beruhigte. „Ich musste die Wunde kauterisieren, um die Blutung zu stoppen. Tut mir leid“, erklärte er. „Aber wenn ich dich um Erlaubnis gefragt hätte, hättest du es nie zugelassen.“

3, 7, 17 (this question is me enabling you lmao I love your lore), 22, 27, 38

Thank you so much! And well, you might've enabled me a bit too much XD Sorry for taking so long!

Ask game here

3. What is your writing ritual and why is it cursed?

You mean apart from the fact that I hibernate for 11 months a year to daydream plots, lore, characters and everything else without ever writing anything down and then vomiting out an entire novel within a month? Cause that’s pretty cursed I think :D

During NaNoWriMo I usually just sit down after work, since I often work from home now that means switching from laptop 1 to laptop 2 on the other table and not getting up until I hit my daily word goal. I might do a bit of exercise in between laptops though :D Oh, and I often buy a bottle of my favorite liqueur before November starts and pour myself one glass for each writing session. And when I take too long to reach my word goal, I also eat dinner in front of my laptop while writing. So far I haven’t created any messes yet :D

So the cursed elements are too much screen time with less than optimal posture, writing most of my novels under the influence of alcohol and touching my keyboard with greasy fingers XD 

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

Lately your support and excitement have been so amazing, so thank you for that! <3 Apart from that I love writing fast-paced fight scenes with tons of blood and writing all those jokes. Re-reading older stuff and laughing about my own jokes that I forgot about is nice as well :D 

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

Oh shit, what have you done? :D

I don’t even know where to start. Wait, you like mages, so let’s start with mages in Catria. So not everyone has magic abilities, in fact they’re pretty rare. There’s two slightly different ways to have magic, one is hereditary, so when there’s been a mage in the past few generations, the other is awakened, when someone just randomly develops abilities without any known cases in the family. Inherited magic is always the same type, for example if your grandma was a water mage, you’ll be a water mage too. Hereditary magic is a bit weaker than awakened magic, but easier to control. Awakened magic is random, you could turn out to be a fire or water or healing mage or whatever. Awakened magic is stronger than hereditary magic, but also harder to control.

All types of mages are strongly advised to seek out the nearest mage association to get proper training. Trying to control your magic yourself can work, but it’s dangerous and you might die :D And for the Catrian monarchs it’s practical to have all potential mages connected in their association, it can’t hurt to have a bit of control over them. The training starts at the association’s academy, while mages are rather rare, they can usually find the right type of teacher for any apprentice mage who might show up. Some classes consist of only a single pupil though. After they master the basics in theory and practice there’s an exam, after that the adepts are encouraged to go on their adept journey where they travel the lands to work on their magic in new surroundings, find new knowledge or maybe even a new master to train them. After their return and when reaching a certain age, they can take another exam to become full-fledged master mages. Fun fact: Lithurio thought the mission with Andreine might be his adept journey, but if a grumpy assassin tells you on day 1 of your journey that he’ll chop your hands off if he sees any flames near it, practising your magic might not be the best idea. So the only things he learns are swear words in more than one language, high treason and that he hates fighting :D 

The uses of magic are pretty diverse. Many kinds of mages have the potential to be dangerous fighters, but you’re just as likely to find for example a water mage work in an agricultural surrounding to improve the watering of the fields. Many also go into research to figure out better uses for magic to improve the lives of the population. Or they delve deeper in the history of magic, cause it used to be way stronger and common than it is now. If they can figure out what happened, they might be able to discover those lost secrets.

Lithurio is going in that direction btw. He’s an awakened fire mage but he figures out in novel 1 that fighting definitely isn’t his thing. Maybe he’ll go into teaching too. 

In Mezkian the mage situation is a bit more complicated cause Mezkian as a whole is more… complicated at the moment. It used to be a united realm, but after a ton of war it now consists of dozens of small principalities, each with their own dukes who all do what they want and occasionally invade their neighbors to increase their own power. Not a great place for some fancy mage academy. In fact, not a great place for anyone except the dukes and some mercenaries who can make coin pretty easily. So if you grow up in Mezkian, aren’t rich and privileged and discover a magical ability, you probably have other priorities than trying to train it. If you’re really lucky you may find someone who can show you a few things, maybe you manage to practise by yourself and not die, but not many are able to make the journey south to Catria to join the association in Ibragas. 

The situation in Istrion isn’t much better because of all the religious mess, but at least Istrion still has a capital with a mage association, it doesn’t have the monopoly that the one in Ibragas has though. So if you find out you have abilities someone will be like “yeah I know a guy who could teach you some stuff”. 

Oh, and the reason it’s so dangerous to try to teach yourself to use magic is that it’s very difficult for inexperienced mages to know their limits. They have a limited amount of magic energy that they use to conjure or control or whatever, but also to protect themselves. Going beyond these limits either leads to lethal exhaustion or, if you’re unlucky, your magic kills you. If you’re a fire mage, your fire burns you, if you’re a water mage you’ll dry out cause your magic energy tries to use your body moisture and draws it out of your body, wind mages may just explode cause they mess up the air pressure around them and so on. So you gotta learn how to tell when you should better stop doing magic until your magic energy is restored a few days later. Unfortunately you gotta go close to your limit if you wanna improve, or you’ll be lighting candles, do that prank where you give someone an electric shock when they shake your hand, or be a human squirt gun forever instead of being badass. Still nice for party tricks though. 

Also I think it’s funny how not just healing mages can help treat injured people. Fire mages can cauterize wounds, water mages can make sure blood stays inside the body and keeps flowing, lighting mages can use their shocks like a defibrillator - but maybe only let mages near you who know what they’re doing. A lot could go wrong otherwise. 

Alright, let’s leave the mages alone for now before anyone gets killed and move to Gao once again. The peninsula is located in the Southwest of Catria, it’s nice and idyllic and warm enough to go swimming in the ocean all year. If you’re not a wimp or just used to it like the Gao-ka, who spend a lot of time in the water. Or on the water, when they sail to go fishing. 

They’re mostly self-reliant, but they also trade with the mainland. They usually prefer to stay amongst themselves though and they have a strong sense of community. If you take on the tides every day, you gotta have someone to watch your back, I guess. Someone’s boat gets damaged? Everyone helps fix it and the sailor can help work on someone else’s boat until repairs are finished. Someone dies at sea? Everyone makes sure their family is looked after and has everything they need. Gao isn’t too densely populated, the peninsula can’t support an unlimited amount of people. There are several small towns, more like settlements, the biggest one is Torao Gai that could probably be seen as the capital. It’s more of a village though.

Since they usually stay on Gao (unless they go trade), most people won’t even recognize a Gao-ka as Gao-ka unless they look like a walking stereotype with traditional garbs and holding a fish. In Andreine’s case people usually assume he’s from Southern Istrion.

Speaking of Andreine, Gao-ka are usually peace-loving and not exactly fighters. They don’t have a military and law enforcement is pretty much some guys and gals with sticks. It’s not like they’d have a lot to do, it’s almost as if people don’t commit crimes if their community respects them and cares for them. Weird. 

If there’s trouble, both parties come together and try to find a solution that everyone agrees with. That’s one of the main jobs of the Amna, she’s the eldest and the person who comes closest to being the ruler of Gao. Her position is mostly symbolic and ceremonial though. Also, don’t drink her homemade schnaps unless you enjoy suffering.

At some point in history some Catrian monarch sent some soldiers to Gao to check it out. They received a friendly greeting, an invitation to eat with them and figured out that the peninsula didn’t have any interesting natural resources, wasn’t good for farming or building much on it and there were also no good spots for their big, awkward ships. So instead of conquering Gao and claiming it for their monarch, they just left eventually. They did like the food though, even though it was quite unusual to them. 

There’s always a lot to do on Gao, so kids help out early. Those who are too small hang out together and probably play in the water somewhere near the divers while an older child or an adult watches them. And no worries, drowning is extremely uncommon, those kids learn to swim before they can walk. In fact, children aren’t named until they can swim, though admittedly the definition of “swimming” can vary cause some parents can’t wait to name their little ones. There’s a big party after the naming ceremony after all! So if you drop your toddler in the water and they don’t sink immediately and make some kind of movement, congrats, you have a swimmer now! 

But they learn to swim properly soon enough, pretty much all Gao-ka are excellent swimmers and can also hold their breath for a long time. Their underwater vision is great too. 

Kids usually get two first names that are based on those of the parents. For example, Andreine Surino Cerva is the son of Andrak and Suriani. If he was a girl, his first name would be based on his mother’s and the second on his father’s. Same-sex parents have to toss a coin I guess. And trans kids have an easy time picking their name. 

Oh and by the way, last names aren’t exactly last names, they’re just the names of the area a family lives in. There’s a bunch of Cerva families apart from Andreine’s, cause that’s what the part of town is called. Like Leonardo da Vinci :D

And tbh it doesn’t matter too much. The nuclear family is a thing, but most houses have room for additional people from around town who’ll most likely show up unannounced every now and then cause they were in the area or have business there, so they’ll just stay for a few days. A big part of life happens outside anyway. 

Oh, speaking of houses, most of them are relatively simple huts, most of them, especially those near the water, are raised on poles to prevent flooding. The area below the huts is used as storage, or you can just chill in the shade or work there.

Wait, I mentioned divers before and then got distracted. But apart from fishing, diving is also important. You find tons of useful stuff down there after all, from oysters to pen shells that you get sea silk from to seaweeds and all kinds of critters. So by default pretty much all Gao-ka will find a certain amount of pearls during their life. They’re a big deal, every Gao-ka wears their own pearls around their neck. Kids will obviously only have very few, but the older you get, the more pearls you add to your collection. The Amna wears three rows of pearls, and more pearls equal a better social standing. Maybe that’s one reason why Andreine doesn’t like the idea of returning to Gao. He left when he was 11 and only had three pearls by then. For an adult that’s pretty pathetic he thinks. Let’s give him more credit by saying it may be unusual, but understandable in his case.

You can also give pearls away, ideally only a single one though, cause it’s reserved for your heart-person. Like a soulmate, but it doesn’t have to be romantic or anything. Giving a pearl to someone is a big deal. So haha imagine not living on Gao anymore and giving your to someone who’s not a Gao-ka and has no idea what it means and is like “oh nice, thanks” and nothing else. Wait, is that the sound of Andreine sobbing in the distance? Nah, must’ve been the wind :)

There’s also other special occasions where someone may be gifted pearls, but they’ll have to do something really outstanding like save a bunch of lives and be a hero. Then the Amna sends everyone diving and all the pearls they can find go to the hero cause they’re now everyone’s favorite person. You can tell these pearls apart from the hero’s normal pearls because the knots between the individual pearls are different. They consist of three parts and symbolize two hands laid on the heart, a gesture of gratitude and respect.

There’s also a rite of passage connected to the necklace of a Gao-ka too. Roughly between the ages of 10 and 14, a child is encouraged to catch their first catch. It’s the first time they sail out by themselves. But it’s not the usual fishing trip with nets and going after small fish, you’ll want something bigger. There’s a big species of fish that only gets targeted during these first catches, they reach up to 10 feet in length and I’m sure they have a name, but since I’m so well-organized I can’t find it anymore :D there are different approaches to catch one of those big guys, older Gao-ka may give the kid some advice, but ultimately they have to do it by themselves. For many Gao-ka that’s the most martial thing they ever do and ideally they return with a big catch which means big beach party and loads of food! The child has proven they can handle stuff alone. They’re not adults yet of course, but they get more responsibility, can sail out alone (though most parents try to limit that if possible, it is dangerous after all).

The kid then gets a pendant for their necklace. It’s made from fishbone and shaped like a fish, through the quality of the craftsmanship varies. The oldest son gets his father’s pendant, the oldest daughter the mother’s. (Same-sex parents flip another coin). The younger children get a newly crafted one, made from the bones of their own fish. And then the kids wear it either for their whole life or until they have children themselves. So if you meet a Gao-ka couple, you just have to look at their necks to see if they have kids.

Since I mentioned the knots earlier, I should mention that the Gao-ka have a rudimentary type of knot writing. It’s not developed enough to write entire texts, but it’s used to knot blessings into the hem of fishing nets or signify different meanings in the necklaces and stuff like that. Written language isn’t much of a thing on Gao though, knowledge is passed on orally, important events are commemorated in songs that follow a certain structure or in artwork.

I think I gotta stop myself here, cause maybe I should actually start talking about assassins in the lore dump about my novel series about assassins XD

It all started cause one woman hated group projects. Said woman was called Sadrina and she lived about 400 years ago. She was a soldier in the Catrian royal guard (a rather big group project, so to say) and over time it turned out that open battle and that whole honor stuff wasn’t her thing, she preferred more discreet approaches and working alone when someone had to disappear, evidence for crimes had to be secured and whatnot. And she was good at that, so at some point the reigning monarch figured out that her approach, despite not too legal, was interesting. So eventually they just decided to legalize it and gave Sadrina permission to form her own group of like-minded people. Initially said group was supposed to be a part of the Catrian military, but Sadrina successfully argued that more independence and maybe not hanging out and training around the guards’ barracks would help keep the secret organization more secret.

The success of the Sadrinian Order was immense, so over the years they were able to gain more and more independence, started taking contracts from people outside the royal family (as long as it’s for the greater good and the citizens of Catria - that can of course be interpreted rather freely) and grew into the current assassin order everyone knows and loathes :D They never completely cut ties with the Catrian monarchy, it would’ve been dumb for both sides, cause the order was and still is a government-funded organization and they need that money so they can provide their services to everyone and not just rich people. Cause it’d obviously suck if only rich people had access to those services - better let them know they’re not off limit so they behave :)

So the order gets their money from the monarchs, in return the monarchs stated that the royal family and other high-ranking government members are off limits, that contracts given by them have top priority and go to the most skilled members and that all activity of the order must be in the interest of Catria and its people. Which, again, is obviously a very loose definition and sometimes leads to confusion, especially among the guards nowadays: the order and its doings are legal, but murder is a crime. And even though every assassin will carry a document signed by the leader of the order that proves their current actions are an official (and thus legal), collateral damage happens. Sometimes other people who weren’t targets die, sometimes you gotta break into places which is also not too legal - so in the end it depends on the mood of the guard who witnesses the assassin’s doings (or their general opinion of the order). That’s why assassins are great at running away.

In Istrion things are easier. Both Istrion and Mezkian countries used to have their own assassin orders after they saw how well it worked for the Catrian rulers, but they were never as big and successful as the Catrian order. About 50 years ago the one in Istrion was disbanded and outlawed when king Sebald started his whole “progress” stuff. And while the Catrian order sometimes takes contracts in Istrion when they have the means, they gotta be careful cause assassins get killed on sight over there. Isn’t progress amazing?

Mezkian in its divided state couldn’t support an assassin order anymore at some point. Sometimes freelancers show up, but since they gotta earn their own money, most people can’t afford them, so the Catrian order it is! No matter how divided Mezkian is, most people in power agree that having foreigners come to your country to kill your people is uncool. Which means illegal. Though maybe you can secretly hire them to get rid of some other ruler who annoys you? :)

So, if you want assassins, you gotta train them, right? So let’s take a look at that. New apprentices are found by just looking around or hearing about some dude/gal who shows promise. You’ll want someone who’s not too old, usually in their late teens, but knows how to wield some kind of weapon and isn’t overly pacifist. They should’ve killed before so you know they have the guts to actualy do it. The order’s informant network is usually pretty reliable, and since the order isn’t illegal, potential new members can just openly talk about how it would be cool to be an assassin in a crowded tavern and then wait. Though you might get beaten up cause there are tons of people who don’t like assassins :D

So since the order is rather quick to hire new apprentices, they need a way to make sure they won’t betray the order. They achieve that by not training them at the headquarter that’s allegedly hidden somewhere in the Catrian mountains deep in the forest, but at other locations. That’s one of the reasons why the assassin order runs some farms. They’re far away from other buildings and located in the flatlands, so you can easily watch out for intruders (who’ll just find a normal farm with a surprisingly high number of farm hands). So the apprentices who need more physical fitness do the hard manual farm labor (the crops they grow help feed the hungry assassins at the headquarter btw and the order’S horses are kept there too) and everyone gets basic lessons in assassin stuff. Since one of the order’s specialities is it’s flexibility and most apprentices have some kind of fighting background, you wanna embrace the skills and talents they already have, nurture them and turn them into something useful.

 It’s not as fun as it sounds, depending on the style of the instructor (and the leader of the order) training can be gruelling and may include casualities. Once the instructor deems someone good and also trustworthy enough, they contact the headquarter and the leader comes over to test the apprentice. That’s even less fun and usually includes getting beaten up by an experienced assassin who arrived with the leader. Survivors who pass are finally taken to the headquarter. Congrats, now you’re back at the bottom of the food chain! You were among the strongest at the apprentice farm, but now you get beaten up on a regular basis in more advanced and interesting ways again! At least the farm labor is over. Though maybe that’s not a good thing. 

At the headquarter, training continues, in an advanced and interesting (and sometimes lethal) way. They have better equipment and more potential instructors there, at the farms they only have stuff that can be hidden quickly in case of unexpected visitors, while the headquarter has means to ensure unexpected visitors aren’t a thing.

The order’s flexibility shows here too. There are some fixed lessons, experienced assassins who aren’t on a contract are strongly advised to attend them too, cause training is important and having more sparring partners is great too. But many lessons are more like “XYZ learned some funky stuff, if you’re interested, meet them at 3pm next week and they’ll demonstrate”. Those things don’t even have to be fight related, some alchemy, psychology, anatomy, sneaking or climbing, knowledge about history and politics etc. doesn’t hurt either. SInce there’s hardly any time when everyone is at the headquarter, cause you obviously want your members to do their job instead of just lounging around, the order actually has something like a bulletin board with current information, training offers/queries and all kinds of other stuff. It also has a pin for each member so they can mark whether they’re at the headquarter or away on a contract (or dead). 

During their training at the headquarter, an apprentice might get the chance to join an assassin on a mission, but only to watch. But usually that privilege is limited to the aspirants - they’re advanced apprentices who are considered for promotion to full-fledged assassins. The leader has a close eye on an aspirant and once they deem them good enough, it’s time for the final test that includes the bloodstone. It sounds cooler than it is, it’s literally just some fist-sized stone that happens to be reddish and a bit translucent. It has been in the order for centuries now. For the final test, the bloodstone is given to an experienced assassin the leader chooses. The aspirant is then told that the bloodstone is in the game - their task is to get it and bring it back to the leader. There’s usually a time limit or two weeks, the aspirant has no idea which assassin has the stone (there are hints though) and the person who has the stone may just leave the headquarter and disappear. So the aspirant has to track them down and then figure out how to get the stone. The possibilities are endless! Nobody is allowed to help the aspirant and killing and maiming isn’t allowed, but accidents happen. Broken bones, cuts and stab wounds often happen on both sides though.

If the aspirant manages to get the bloodstone and returns it to the leader within the deadline, they’re promoted to first-rank assassins. There are eight ranks, you mainly get promoted by successfully fulfilling contracts but there are other conditions too. A higher rank means more privileges, but mainly more responsibility, you’ll be expected to teach the apprentices more on top of your regular contracts and stuff like that. 

A newly promoted first rank assassin may get their first contract alone immediately, obviously an easier one. Or the leader may decide to send them on a mission with an experienced assassin who mentors them a bit, but lets them do stuff by themselves too. Oh, and though in general assassins get sent on missions alone, contracts for two or more assassins do exist. The leader decides who’s the best for each contract.

Yay nice, I meant to only focus on the training, but I happened to include some more stuff :D I think I should stop here. According to Google Docs this answer is 4,161 words long now and it’s super understandable if you didn’t read all of it :D 

22. How organized are you with your writing? Describe to me your organization method, if it exists. What tools do you use? Notebooks? Binders? Apps? The Cloud?

Ugh, not organized at all. I hardly write anything down, if I ever hit my head and suffer from amnesia I won’t be able to continue writing I guess :D

I write in Google Docs and tbh I might’ve lost the overview over the different documents. There’s of course one for each novel, but also a NaNoWriMo version for each novel that includes just what I write during NaNoWriMo so I won’t accidentally manipulate my word count. Then there’s documents with deleted scenes that I edited out, also an edited version of novel 1 and a few others. I also have a collection of scenes or dialogue bits somewhere, probably in one of the documents where it doesn’t belong. 

Apart from Google Docs I also use the notes app on my phone sometimes, but only for really important stuff like potential names or things I really don’t wanna forget. But then again, recently I rediscovered an older note with a list of potential names that I had completely forgotten about, so writing down isn’t a guarantee that I’ll remember something XD

27. Who is the most stressful character you’ve ever written? Why?

For novel 1 it was Jaheel. When he first appeared, I had already spent more than a year with Andreine. Plus, most of the stuff after that was still written from Andreine’s perspective, so getting Jaheel right while still considering Andreine’s emotions and opinion of him wasn’t easy. And isn’t. Andreine is definitely an unreliable narrator in this regard :D 

For novel 2 it’s Sadrina. Not the one I mentioned who founded the assassin order 400 years ago, but a young girl who happens to share her name for a reason that was once plot relevant but isn’t anymore :D I find balancing her a bit difficult. On one hand she completed her assassin training and earned the title, on the other hand she’s still a 17-year-old girl on her first contract. A contract that should’ve gone to someone more experienced. I mean sure, she has Andreine with her to mentor her, but that in itself is less than ideal :D So she can’t be too incompetent, but also not too badass. She currently cries a lot, but tbh same^^

38. What is something about your writing process YOU think is Really Weird? If you are comfortable, please share. If you’re not comfortable, what do you think cats say about us?

I think this is pretty identical to #3 :D

Also, not writing anything for months and then randonly infodumping 4k words is pretty sus.

I read that cats tend to see us as huge, incompetent kittens. That’s why they baby-talk to us and bring us dead mics cause we’re too stupid to hunt. If cats bring you living prey, that’s actually a compliment cause they consider you capable of hunting and killing it yourself (at 3am under the bed. yay.)

My boy Iker used to sleep curled around my head every night and groomed my hair, apparently that’s a sign he accepted me into his family and also wanted to protect me at night. He was the sweetest baby. To stay on topic, here he is as an assassin! That’s my old shower curtain, I gave it to him cause he loved it. It rustles and you can hide underneath it!

Also how do you pronounce Andreine :D

Waiiiiit I really wanted to ask 41 as well. The image of that one strikes me as so comical but I imagine it would not truly be. (Also 14 no pressure though)

Oooohhh yay thank you! That'll give me a lot to think :)

Andreine is pronounced un-DRAY-nuh. I guess. It's not a German name, I pronounce it the German way and now I tried to translate that into the English pronunciation :D

Now let's get started, we have a tight schedule!

1. What is your character's reaction to a minor inconvenience? Such as getting their jumper caught on a door handle?

Andreine: He wouldn't mind too much and only be slightly annoyed. He has bigger problems, like Jaheel getting caught on a door handle.

Jaheel: “you CATCH Jaheel? you catch his jumper like the criminal? oh! oh! jail for door handle! jail for door handle for One Thousand Years!!!!” It's officially the worst day of his life now and he'll make it everyone's problem. Unless it happens in a place where he has to save face. There won't be a visible reaction but he'll be very mad internally and remember exactly who laughed...

Lithurio: He's too young to have conquered all his insecurities already, so he'll be embarrassed if anyone saw it. He is a dignified mage after all, stuff like that just isn't supposed to happen.

13. Describe your character's typical wardrobe for the regular day.

Oh dear, I’m no good with this stuff :D And what is a regular day even? Let’s say it’s a day on a contract for the assassin dudes. There’s no real assassin uniform cause that’d be pretty inconvenient (though if an assassin wants to let people know who they are, they’ll be able to let people know with their wardrobe). A very common item they all own and usually wear on contracts is a reinforced leather vest with a high collar that offers some protection. And it has secret pockets! Another common item is the light, thin-soled leather boots. Good for sneaking and climbing, not ideal if your contract leads you too far North. The rest of the wardrobe varies according to temperature, as long as it’s not too flashy and you can move in it, it’s fine. Since it’s important to accessorize (and useful in terms of survival), they usually add a bunch of weapons to the mix. Some more, some less hidden. I might like this trope (until 1:11) a bit too much.

Andreine likes to just throw a huge coat over everything. The less human-shaped he looks, the better. Jaheel prefers to keep a more human-like shape.

Lithurio hasn’t had a regular day since the start of novel 1. Traveling with an assassin definitely isn’t regular and he hasn’t really be traveling before. He gets inspired by what traveling fire mages usually wear, a tunic with the sleeves tied so they don’t get in the way and catch fire. Just in general nothing too flowy that could get in the way and catch fire. And he really should’ve broken in his boots before leaving.

After he gets back home he knows for sure he won’t be a fighting mage but will choose a more academic path. That means he gets to wear cool robes! They have pockets! Sometimes they get caught on door handles though.

39. What's your character's guilty pleasure?

I think I might have to tweak this one a bit cause what guilty pleasures could there be if murder is a guilt-free pleasure for some of these guys? Let’s go with stuff you wouldn’t expect.

Andreine may be huge and lack a few fingers, but he possesses great fine-motor skills and dexterity and enjoys doing stuff like sewing or mending clothes or braiding flowers into Jaheel’s hair or making arrows. And I mentioned that he likes cooking and baking too. Just stuff where he gets to do something with his hands. Just don’t mistake him for a gentle giant or anything like that, unless you wanna be the first person in history that gets strangled to death with a flower chain :)

Jaheel loves reading (while getting flowers braided into his hair) and he has a weakness for tragic or romantic plays (or both). Sometimes he’ll memorize his favorite parts. Maybe there'll be some opportunity where he can dramatically recite them. He doesn’t have the chance to actually watch a play too often, but he will if he can. He’s also a huge nerd when it comes to the history of the assassin order, to the point of pretty much fangirling about important assassins in their history. Andreine learns most of that stuff against his will by being exposed to Jaheel too much after he reads another account and doesn’t shut up about it for some time.

Lithurio is pretty self-conscious so too many of his pleasures are guilty. He wants to be seen as the tough mage dude that he is, so he often thinks he can’t afford to enjoy things that aren’t tough, manly things. Seeing Jaheel totally fucking shit up and being super scary while wearing an adorable daisy chain might help.

46. Does your character believe in anything? Religion? Superstition?

Let me start with a very brief introduction to the continent’s religion. The one who created the world and all that stuff was the First Mother (not the ideal English translation, in German she’s the Urmutter) who then elevated some animals to reign with her, each of them representing certain characteristics and aspects and becoming the deity of certain things. She also elevated one human, her characteristics being foresight and prudence, but ironically that was what made her challenge the First Mother. She was defeated and thrown into the Abyss where she now resides. And that’s where the bad people end up after they die. 

Both Catria and Mezkian follow the polytheistic approach where they worship the First Mother along with the animal deities. There are some sub-groups that focus on certain deities, but usually there are no bigger problems.

Istrion is a different story, without going too much into detail, about 50 years ago king Sebald had the great idea to follow the monotheistic approach where only the First Mother is worshipped. He called it progress, most others called it a shitty move cause it included religious persecution, pogroms and other shitty things that resulted in a ton of Istrian refugees in the other countries.

Lithurio isn’t too religious, but since he grew up in Catria’s capital he was exposed to the polytheistic approach a lot. And maybe not being a bad person is the safer option in case Rian really pulls bad people into her Abyss.

The assassins have never been too invested in religion, probably cause they are the bad guys that would definitely go straight to the Abyss. Many of them share the belief in the Coldest One, pretty much a personification of death. It’s not exactly worship, I guess when death is such a big part of your profession, you wanna make it more tangible somehow. The Coldest One is very capricious and doesn’t have favorites so “serving” them wouldn’t make much sense, when you die, you die. The assassins say they walk side by side them the Coldest One until they one day cross paths with them. Which means death. And “crossing paths” or “making someone cross paths” is a nice code word for what they do.

Andreine is pretty sure he feels the presence of the Coldest One when someone is about to die. He doesn’t talk about it though.

Some assassins also tend to idolize some of the historical assassins of the order (so Jaheel isn’t the only nerd, but definitely one of the nerdier nerds). In 400 years of history there are a few. The main subject of interest here is Sadrina who founded the order. The respective leaders of the order, including Jaheel, tend to be drawn to her a lot. I wonder if there’s a reason for that *extremely inconspicious wink*  

41. Your character has been punched into the face. What's their reaction?

This is my fave :D

But why would you punch Lithurio? He is just a little dude who probably wanted to be your friend until now :( Now he’s stunned and freezes or he’s down if you know what you’re doing. You should be safe though, cause he’s very hesitant when it comes to using his fire magic against living beings. You have to live with the weight of your guilt though which should burn worse than any fire magic could.

So you managed to punch Andreine. Congrats, I’m impressed. If he manages to suppress his trained reflex of shoving a blade between your ribs the moment your punch connects, he might even find your approach amusing. Tbh, maybe he even let you punch him on purpose cause it was obvious that you wouldn’t do any real damage. If he’s in a really great mood he might even lecture you how you shouldn’t rely on a single attack unless you’re sure that one attack will end the fight. If you’re unlucky he might even demonstrate how a fight-ending punch looks. You didn’t plan to use your jaw anytime soon, right? Luckily the order’s medic is practiced at the art of fixing jaws due to some Andreine-related incidents in the past. And there are many soups that you can drink through a straw.

If you manage to punch Jaheel that’s probably cause he was lost in thoughts about soup. There aren’t many people who can land a clean hit on him. In addition to hurting his pride you made him very mad and you’re also a potential danger that has to be eliminated. On the bright side you learn a bunch of Mezkianu swear words before dying.

14. Are they a simple person to please or difficult?

You’d guess that with their upbringing in the order under one of the most infamous leaders, Andreine and Jaheel learned to enjoy the simple things in life such as not being dead, only feeling moderate pain in your entire body and not having to eat through a straw. In Andreine’s case it did work, in fact he could be a little less accepting at times, you can pretty much throw him into any situation and he’ll be like “alright, I guess that’s how things are” and do his best to adapt. It mostly comes from his childhood on Gao though. The Gao-ka spend most of their life at the mercy of the ocean where you don’t have any choice but accept things. This kind of resilence helped the Gao-ka survive over the centuries in several ways. It’s not always ideal though.

When it comes to other people, Andreine tends to have pretty high standards though. He spent most his life around Jaheel who’s a great fighter, a great assassin and they just get each other without having to say much. So if he has to rely on anyone else (like Lithurio), they’re usually a downgrade and he’ll be more annoyed than is appropriate.

Jaheel refuses to be happy with the simple things. Cause why not try to have more things? Nicer things? Before joining the order he learned that if you’re powerful, you get to have all the things! He was weak back then and thus had no things, but now he isn’t weak anymore, so he will have the nice things! Tbh he’d be a total Karen in a modern AU. Wait, actually his whole thing in novel 1 is “I want to speak to the manager of Catria” :D

Lithurio would say that he is rather modest and doesn’t need much to be happy, but while traveling with Andreine he finds out he does have some standards. Things that ruin his happiness include being soaked in rain all day and then sleeping outside in the cold on surfaces that aren’t a nice mattress, being hunted by the members of an extremist group and watching said members get dismembered in front of his eyes by a grumpy assassin.