No matter what happens, he always turns out this way. The Goddess of Prophecy herself tried to negate the damage and failed. She spent years searching for a loophole and thought she had found it, only to find out it that there's nothing she could really do.

Alexander’s fate was written before most of the gods were born, and it was adapted for every possible contingency. There is nothing you can do to shake this man from the path he's going down. And the best part? There's nothing I can do about it either.

I've tried changing his story arc. I've tried killing him off. I nearly wrote him out once. I took a break from WYS once and forgot his arc, and it still came back

The details can change, but Alexander is always the same. This is always who he's doomed to become.

@jamietamonwrites @sm-writes-chaos @foxgloves-garden

Tagged by @world-of-iridensia here (Thank you!)

Antihero or villain protagonist?

Both if I can. I adore when there’s a twist to it, when you have to pay attention for a while to realize that the protagonist is in the wrong, or the person you thought was the villain is actually trying to do the right thing. I have both of these types of characters in several stories.

Lies by omission or lies with a smile?

I generally have more fun with lies by omission. I feel like there's more room for complexity with it. There’s just something the character doesn't want to tell someone, even if they love or trust them (or if they don't). Maybe it’s dangerous. Maybe they're afraid they'll get in trouble. Maybe it'll ruin their plan. There are so many possibilities.

Your character gets caught, do they talk their way out or run?

Mel fights her way out if she can, otherwise she'll run. Alexander, William, and Lucia would all talk their way out.

Morally grey love interest or morally grey best friend?

Why not both? Morally grey friends to lovers ftw.

Your protagonist's fatal flaw: too much trust or not enough?

Mel's flaw is definitely not enough trust, but it's not enough trust in herself rather than others. She tends to think she'll make things worse, so she runs when things get tough.

Writing the betrayal scene or writing the aftermath?

I'm a sucker for drama, so it's going to have to be the scene itself for me. I love the shock and horror.

Crime of passion or crime of calculation?

Crime of passion definitely. I love seeing characters struggling against their moral compass and doing things they know they shouldn't.

Redemption arc or "they were right all along" arc?

Redemption arc. I believe everyone's capable of change so redemption arcs make me happy. There is something poignant about a villain who turns out to just be someone trying to expose and oppose a corrupt system though.

The confession scene happens in a courtroom, a rooftop, or a bed?

Rooftop. I like soft, private confessions over intense ones generally, though adding more and more tension till they snap is also fun.

Your character keeps one honest thing about themselves, is it their name, their past, or their feelings for one person?

Mel lies time and again about her name and her past, the only thing that will never change is her love for her husband.

William can't afford to tell the truth about his past, and he doesn't have time for feelings, all he has is his name.

Alexander's past is broken, and his name isn't all that important to him, but he's devoted to either finding his sister or avenging her, whichever comes first.

Past, future, lies, truth, it’s all the same for Lucia. She has a job to do and she'll do it.

That was fun!

Any time I read a book with a new magic system, I will spend the entire time trying to break it.

I will take every single detail you give me about the magic and I will try to find ways to twist and wriggle them until I find a way to create the magical equivalent of an atomic bomb, or some such similar plot breaking activity.

This is enrichment for me, and I will not enjoy a book nearly as much if the rules of the magic are so rigid that I can't find anything cool to do with it. It doesn't necessarily have to be world shattering or anything, it just has to be something neat that I don't think the characters (or possibly the author) know they can do.

In a similar vein, if a magic system is so wishy-washy that I can't really figure out what's allowed and what isn't, then I will not enjoy myself very much, because if there are no rules, what's preventing you from sticking the bad guy in a magical microwave and ending the plot in like the fifth chapter? (Note, this does not apply if the magic is a background theme that isn't that important to the plot. As long as it takes up the space it's meant to fill I'm happy)

So I love fleshing out my magic system because this destructive tendency to follow the letter of the law and not the spirit turns itself inwards frequently. I love finding the cracks in my own theories and creating strategic weak points for my readers to lean on till the wall crumbles. I know that not everyone will engage with it this way and might prefer one of the extremes I mentioned, but I personally really like yes anding every magical bullet point I come across until I have something wacky and weird that hopefully everyone can enjoy

Starting off strong with the Hunters. The Hunters are a species that have only been found on Earth, though so far there doesn't seem to be a reason why they couldn't appear on other planets.

Hunters are humanoids with large, bat like wings, claws, and sharp, shark like teeth. They have heightened senses, and much like sharks, they can smell even the tiniest drop of blood from far away. They also heal incredibly quickly, and are capable of hiding their Hunter features in order to appear human. As of yet, they do not appear to age.

Hunters have only been around for a few years. The first Hunter, Nikki Wolf, was originally a human who transformed one day. The cause of her transformation or even the existence of Hunters in general is currently unknown.

It's not yet known if Hunters can reproduce the same way humans do. The only way new Hunters have been created thus far is when a Hunter attacks and kills a human, the human has a chance to come back to life as a Hunter.

Why would a Hunter attack a human? Well Hunters seem to have a near insatiable desire to attack and eat the species they originated from. This is why it's believed that this is the only way Hunters reproduce, since that would explain the drive to attack. Hunters can be taught to control those urges, but until they are they are incredibly dangerous. It's been found that the younger a Hunter is when they're turned, the easier it is to teach them to control their hunger.

Hunters retain all their memories and personality from when they were human, however they have their own unique society and rules that they feel an innate urge to follow. They're lead by the Hunter Queen, a role currently held by Nikki, the original Hunter. There's a hierarchy beneath her, but to non-Hunters it's completely impossible to decipher. A Hunter couldn't even explain it to you, they just automatically know who's above them and who's not, and it's always changing.

So before I get into it, I have to explain a few things: these rules only apply to the main universe of WYS. Due to the hugeness of the setting of WYS, there are multiple universes and since they're made by different gods they play by different rules. This means that there are characters in the org and the rebellion that don't follow these rules at all because they're from completely different universes. The main universe is the only one that I have any actual information on, so unless otherwise specified I am always talking about this one.

So, how does the magic work?

Every living creature contains a spark of life in it gifted to it by the gods, from a magical elemental made of pure fire, to a mushroom growing on a dead log. This spark is magic in and of itself, a piece of pure creation, and it powers all the magic a creature does.

Now, this magical spark is pretty much dormant unless someone chooses to use it. If someone wasn't told it existed, they probably wouldn't even be aware of it. The same way you're not aware of your appendix until it explodes on you, you're not aware of your magic until it does something, and the average person's magic never does anything on its own without outside prompting. Some people have naturally stronger magic which allows them to do stuff on their own, but we'll get into that in a bit.

Now there are three main types of magic

1. Innate magic aka species magic

2. Gifted magic aka godly magic

3. Crafted magic aka learned magic

Innate magic is the simplest to use. It’s magic that has such a low activation requirement that anyone who has magic in their core—so (almost) everyone—can use it. The reason it's also called species magic is because your species determines what kind of magic you can do/if you can do innate magic at all (we'll talk more about this later)

Gifted magic has such a high activation requirement that the ability to perform it can only be given to you by an outside source that can augment your natural magic to be able to hit the threshold. This is usually done by a god to their follower as a reward for devotion, hence godly magic. There are other ways to acquire this type of magic, but they are taboo and usually come with consequences, so you won't see this very often.

Crafted magic has a higher activation requirement than innate, but lower than gifted. People who naturally have more powerful magic can do crafted magic on their own, and people who have normal magic levels can train themselves to reach high enough to do crafted magic. Tha main difference between this and the other two types of magic is that with innate and gifted, you can only do the specific type of magic that you have. With crafted, you can do just about anything, so long as you know how. That's why it's called crafted, people are always making new spells, runes, tomes, wands, etc. That allow them to do something new. The downside to crafted magic is that it's very difficult to learn and nearly impossible to master, and you need to put in a lot of time and effort into not only honing your skill but retaining it, as your magic ability will degrade if not used. Most crafted magic users devote their lives to it.

Now let's talk about filters. There are two types of magic filters: species filters and soul filters.

Species filters only apply to innate magic. They're found somewhere in your body, (dependant on what species you are) and your magic passing through that filter is what makes your innate magic work the same as the rest of the species. Species that don't have magic simply don't have a species filter, because as previously discussed, without a way to use magic, your magic core is dormant.

The term soul filter is a little misleading, because it isn't a filter attached to your soul, it just is your soul, but when referring to it in terms of how it affects your magic, it's called a soul filter. Soul filters are most important when it comes to gifted magic, but it can have an impact on the other two as well. When using gifted magic, it passes through your soul, which is what determines what kind of magic you have. This makes magic unique and personal instead of just being whatever magic your god gave you. If a crafted magic user is particularly skilled at one specific type of magic, it's because their magic is passing through their soul filter, which matches that type of magic, and in order to get better at other kinds they'll have to divert their magic around their soul filter. The soul filter doesn't naturally have an impact on innate magic, but there are some mutations that cause your soul filter and your species filter to overlap, causing your innate magic to be a combination of the natural magic of your species and the magic you would have if you used gifted magic.

So that's how magic works! There's a whole bunch of exceptions and specifics and examples and other fun stuff, so if you have any questions feel free to ask!

The entire thing is a fully functional universe. That's why there is/will be so many books, because while the main series is the most all-encompassing and the highest stakes, I could zoom in literally anywhere in the setting and write a story there. There are nine named worlds, at least twenty sapient species, two pantheons, three types of magic, and over two hundred characters and counting.

Also fun fact, these statistics grow as the story goes on, because that's how the lore works.

And as an added bonus, though it will probably never be mentioned in canon, all of my books take place in the WYS universe even if they're not a WYS story.