#lore book

Hello one and all, at last after a couple of weeks of editing my first compilation is ready to be published!

What’s in there?

PART ONE - THE INTRO

biographies of all my original characters (introduced so far) belonging to The Long Ballad universe,

introduction the world of The Long Ballad - short history of the Great Huang,

tidbits, charts, maps 

PART TWO - THE WRITING

all of the short stories, drabbles and one-shots published so far - newly edited and with exclusive sketches!

PART THREE - THE ARTBOOK SECTION

full-color artworks,

short comics and sketches,

FREE Digital PDF version can be found >>HERE<<

It's completely available for download for free - unless you'd like to support me ;)

Length: 130+ spreads; B6- formatting

Printed version is coming soon!

Tho, I could never fit the massive one I did a while back for the MC in the A5 format, I really really tried, but even in landscape layout so ultimately I had to do a very light version for her.

Fancy Nuzbawir has a list of opinions that just keeps GROWING

My head-canon for this is that weevils are one of the bugs who hypothetically should have awakened, but didn't for one reason or another, instead some of them grew into Primal Weevils due to whatever happened on the Day of Awakening. They are intelligent enough to feint, call for regular weevils to help, and ambush bugs, but are still a "beast". Looking at the Lore books, Lesser Bugs, specifically says that lesser bugs "remained unchanged". The Era of Deceit implies that "many ants, bees, wasps and others failed to evolve with the rest" but "with the passing of time, all bugs experienced the Awakening", and finally The Mother Crystal mentions that a massive crystal is below the Forsaken lands.

From spys and the bestiary, we are told that regular Weevils are herbivores, but still described as predators, since they can eat seedlings in battle. The Bestiary says they are "rumored to be closely related to beetles", and "some have claimed to have tamed Weevils as loyal partners, but these claims havent been confirmed". Leif goes on to say "doesn't look like it can be reasoned with" and "We should discipline it before it can give us much trouble" which implies that Leif is somewhat familiar with those rumors enough to say "discipline". So for this theory, the claims of taming Weevils are old, and still unconfirmed in present day making the likelihood of them being capable of domestication near impossible. Also Vi apparently doesnt have the "best memories of them", whether that refers to feeling guilty about her insult, or whether she has any other experience that isnt mentioned we dont know.

The spys for the Primal Weevil refer to it as an "apex predator" by Kabbu, and "at the top of the food chain" by the bestiary. Both of which sound far more active than their normal counterparts, and with the only seedling species in the Forsaken Lands being Plumplings I feel like we cant count it being omnivorous off the table. Obviously we cant exactly know what the ecosystem is like, nor the diet of a mini-boss that gets downed in a single kick. Additionally Vi is surprised by how "That's nothing like the Golden Settlement's Weevils!"

So, my out of game thoughts are: Vi had heard thinks being described as being "like a Weevil" in a derogatory way, but didnt fully understand what it meant until she said it to Jaune when she had their fight. Kabbu knows the lore because he reads and likes learning about niche bugarian history/ecology, where Primal Weevils are discovered to be one of the few species that awakened the wrong way and regular Weevils cannot be tamed. And then Leif is however many years behind the rest of them and doesn't get it, but is more focused on getting Vi to reconnect with her family anyways

For bigger image, please open image in new tab for better viewing. Man, this took almost more effort than writing a 15-page chapter....

Also found on Archive of Our own.

Extra Trivia I forgot:

Naomi is actually a far descendant of Lizzy and Thad.

Vycotans are a unisex species (meaning in earthling terms they produce both large and small gametes as well as can both sire and carry offspring, their reproductive systems are different but I’ll get into that later) and therefore do not have physical markers seen in dual-sex based species which are used as a determiner for gender. However, partly due to being passed around from one alien empire to another, there is an appearance based system for determining the gender of an individual. 

There are two primary determiners which are apparent at birth and two secondary determiners which are not clear until puberty culminating into four recognized genders. 

Primary Determiner—Apparent At Birth

The coding that determines the main pigment present on a mech’s body is a complicated dance of inheritance and it is not always apparent what color a couple’s offspring will be until it is born. It is possible for two stark parents to give birth to a shade, two shade parents to give birth to a stark, and for a couple to have a bitlet which has colors not present on either of them.

Stark

Starks have a higher volume of bright, flamboyant “eye catching” colors present on their bodies. Their armor is often shiny and lustrous. One thing to note is that the colors on stark’s bodies tend to have higher saturation and denser pigmentation. As a result, the colors appear to be very intense and bright. For this reason it is possible for two mechs the same color to be classified as either a stark or a shade.

Shade

Shades have a higher volume of matte, earthy, unsaturated colors present on their bodies. Often it appears that their colors have been muted and tuned down. Their armor does have a glossy finish to it, but it is not nearly as shiny as a stark’s armor. The colors on their bodies look like they have been mixed with chromatic greys and they tend to blend into the surroundings of their environment better than a stark. For this reason shades are more often given caregiver roles.

Secondary Determiner—Apparent At Puberty

When a vycotan is first born they have armor however it is soft and not fully formed. In order to remain warm they are coated in a thick layer of fluffy wires which act as both a source of keeping warmth and nerve endings which allow for neural connection with the parent. This means that at birth there is no way to tell if the bitlet is Crested or Unadorned (the two secondary gender characteristics).

As a bitlet grows into a youngling their armor starts as smooth and rounded with sparse remnants of that baby fluff. If the child is crested their armor will start to sharpen and develop growths. If the child is unadorned these growths will never appear and the armor will thicken.  

But what IS crested and unadorned?

Crested 

Crested means that the armor on an individual's body is angular and often has orate patterns naturally occurring on the armor. This can manifest as armor growths which might appear as thorns/spines, extensions from aft plating (which often resembles coat tails, faulds, or pteruges. Lastly and most importantly on the head armor there are often extensions which might look like horns, crests, antenna, or facial thorns. These extensions do have nerve endings and are sensitive to different types of stimuli.

Unadorned 

Unadorned individuals lack these growths on their armor, which instead is very minimal and rounded with only small raised areas. One drawback which can also be a benefit is that they do not have the same heightened sense that a crested individual has. However similarly they are not as susceptible to overstimulation. Unadorned also tend to have thicker, heavier armor which is more resistant to impact related injuries, while extensions present on a crested individual always have the threat of being broken off by attacks.

Present Recognized Genders

Vycotans have a total of four genders but focus mainly on the primary two which are apparent at birth. However an individual being crested or unadorned is still an category taken into account when the vycotan is older.

Crested Stark -> Bright and Highly Pigmented Colors, Sharp and Angular Armor

Unadorned Stark -> Bright and Highly Pigmented Colors, Rounded and Heavy Armor.

Crested Shade -> Muted and Matte Colors, Sharp and Angular Armor

Unadorned Shade -> Muted and Matte Colors, Rounded and Heavy Armor.

Gender Changes

Because vycotan gender determiners are mostly cosmetic it is fairly easy to change appearance to correlate with a preferred gender.

This could include buying paints or pigments that can be applied to armor to change the presenting color or using gloss to make armor appear shinier. Often because armor growths on a vycotan are sensitive and nerve heavy, they cannot be filed down so instead a crested individual will simply cover them up with a veil if on the head or covers if on other parts of the body. An unadorned individual might add attachments that resemble armor growths.