Afterword - Book 2 - Chapter 50 (Patreon)

Chapter 50: The First Challenge

(Original Chapter Title: The First Challenge)

The Shimagu War is different than what Ranthia had known. The Unbreakable Image faced off against idle twins left to their own devices, with limited support, while the shimagu worked out their war strategy and trained their true armies.

Ranthia's first taste of the true war clearly isn't what she was expecting.

Though I'm the one telling its story, the Shimagu War's metes and bounds were pretty firmly outlined by Selkie Myth. Through BtDEM we knew the war took just over a century and humanity allied with other cultures to win the war—and that the elves were slow to field themselves against the shimagu. Building from that skeleton, I tried to construct a realistic expression for the war.

This also led me to ponder what 'war' looked like to the other cultures that joined the Coalition. We saw a decent bit of the (metal) dwarves' war against the orcs, but Pallos hasn't yet felt the pain of a true Immortal War—not counting the chaotic era that was effectively an unending one—so I needed to figure out something for a lesser scale.

Powerful classers "checking" one another while their lesser minions clash was where I landed for the natural immortals. They put their face forward and watch for an opportunity to act without inviting their counterpart(s)' reprisals, but the true fighting is done by the "expendable" lower-level forces.

And at least one faction within Remus' Legions is seeking to emulate this.

I didn't base this on anything specific, but it also feels low-novelty. In a way, it kind of just represents the abstract of TCGs or board games; all-powerful "players" that move their pieces, play their cards, and make sacrifices. Warfare, distilled to a simple and abstract game.

It's almost exactly the kind of thing Ranthia would hate most. She's forced to watch people die while she can't act, but she finds her excuse to play along.

Warfare aside, I strive to keep character moments strong throughout the arc. We learn more about the other men and women (of interest, by Ranthia's standards) of Remera, we explore facets of Avyna and of the relationship they share, and we see how the base itself develops as a whole. To me, you can't tell the story of any war without telling the story of the humanity (and inhumanity) found within; at least not if you intend to be even slightly compelling.

Bravery and foolhardiness have a thin line between them, but the same is true for tactical brilliance and inexplicable blunders.

Are the 'towers,' a shallow replica of a concept heard from the elves, a blunder or a viable tactic? That too will be explored.