Afterword - Book 2 - Chapter 46 (Patreon)

Chapter 46: Unexpected and Unseen

(Original Chapter Titles: Skill Swap II, Skill Swap III (as in three separate chapters))

This was an incredibly daunting chapter. Back when I created this chapter in the OG draft, I had no real plans to ever share it with the wider world—so no pressure.

And now I do.

Elves are bullshit, this is an ingrained expectation in BtDEM that I inherited from Selkie and have done my best to carry forward. ...And here I was, planning to share an entire build for a multi-cycle elf that's lived for about a thousand and a half years.

No pressure, right?

Almost out the gate though, their conversation gets derailed by an unexpected bombshell: Avyna's age that I just referenced. I expect there will be some mixed reactions to this—especially given Ranthia's age. But, I actually don't think Avyna's position is terrible either. This isn't like a 60 year old hooking up with a teenager; they're both adults. I imagine many elves around Avyna's age fall (broadly) into one of two categories: those that believe themselves all-knowing, and those that still feel a drive to learn and experience things. Avyna is firmly in the latter category, and seeking out adults with new perspectives and points of view to know—and, yes, to love—is a large part of it.

If you disagree, that's your prerogative, but Ranthia is in her thirties—she can make her own decisions. And she likes older women anyway!

Anyhow, Ranthia's finally concluded her own Skill share (and revealed a secret 'weapon' she had hidden from her lover until that moment), which meant it was time for Avyna to begin her own.

Like I said at the outset, writing Avyna's Skills was daunting. And, as such, I changed many of them when I edited this chapter (and fixed other CrimCat can't count issues, -cough-).

Avyna is a non-combatant, which made the bullshit more subtle. Yet, I want to point out that almost every Skill she possesses does at least two different (and sometimes only loosely connected) things! There are also a few points where Avyna failed to do justice to her Skill descriptions.

She's a [Merchant] and an [Enchanter]. But she's challenging to scam by anyone except a true master, extremely difficult to steal from, and is capable of walking into an unfamiliar culture without a single language in common and making deals. All while being a fully versed enchanter capable of sneakily stealing enchantments through multiple means.

I think she's pretty impressive, for a non-combatant.

As a related tangent, I wanted to spend a moment on enchanting. We're in an era that predates wizardry (outside of one (1) Guardian), but elves clearly (and Selkie confirmed) possessed something greater than Remus did. In the OG draft I described Avyna as an inscriptionist, but as I edited and got to know the setting better, that didn't fit.

So what's the difference? Inscriptions, from what we've seen, do very minor effects and wear off over time, requiring them to be renewed periodically. Enchantments are designed to be semi-permanent. Avyna can't just carve a few shapes and get an effect, enchanters have to engrave and implant veins of arcanite (or other mana conductors), then either manually serve as a battery or create a connection to arcanite. Enchanters are capable of significant effects (spatial hijinks, powerful defenses that are limited by the mana supplied, etc.), but enchantments are complex and expensive—and require a base material that can withstand that energy.

Wizardry will, eventually, bridge the two. Creating powerful (albeit brief) effects with just ink and a supply of mana at the time of activation, as well as more robust effects that are still called enchantments. But we're not in that era, and Avyna is largely disinterested in the trivial effects that inscriptions can levy.