Author Answers (July) (Patreon)

General

I have got to know how bad Halek would tease Naolin if Naolin and MC were kinda crushing but being so so awkward about it (let me live in my delulu world for a second)

Halek turned to give his brother a long, significant look, arching his brows so meaningfully that the effect was almost comical.

Naolin glowered at him. "What?" he asked between his teeth.  

"Oh, nothing," Halek said with deceptive mildness. "It's only that I just watched you moon over my commanding officer like a lovesick recruit. I wasn't really expecting that."

"Moon--! I did nothing of the sort!"

"There's no point trying to hide it from me, O brother mine. You're my twin. You could no better conceal your ogling than you could hide a bad haircut, or..."

"Halek," Naolin said in an aggrieved tone, "I know you love to torment me, but could you please cease with your nonsense, just this once? If you're not careful, someone's going to hear you and misinterpret your jokes as--"

"What's there to misinterpret? I'm not joking in the least. You're besotted over the Hero of Haven, who I'm pretty sure likes you too, because they've never looked at me like that--" He paused suddenly. "Now here's an interesting question. Why haven't they looked at me like that? It can't be a matter of looks, so it has to be personality. You do have the better personality. Or is it because you're not engaged to be married?"

He said this all with such a tone of mock-innocence that Naolin, briefly, entertained the treasonous thought of throttling his own brother and sol.

^ (Basically, he'd troll him bad for this one conversation, and then whenever Naolin and MC interacted afterwards, Halek would be in the background making direct eye contact with Naolin and lifting his brows significantly like

But he probably wouldn't say any more on the subject lol he tends to be one-and-done with his teasing rather than a protracted campaign, he'd back off and let Naolin do his thing for better or for worse after this!)

How do the Shepherds feel about hugs?

Blade: he loves hugs when it comes to himself and his lover as a gesture of comfort and intimacy, but he is NOT a hugger with anyone else, even his closest friends, lol. Blade's version of a hug is putting his hand on your shoulder or patting your head (as a friend). He is EXTREMELY awkward to hug if you try to do it to him. He just gets really stiff. It's like hugging a wooden post or a mummy or something. And he gets this awkward look on his face like he doesn't know what to do. Have you ever tried to hug a dog that looked vaguely alarmed, like it didn't know exactly what you were trying to do? It's like that.

Trouble: he LOVES hugs! He's a big hugger and casually side-hugs people all the time. He doesn't usually initiate front-hugs as often, but if you come in for a hug, he'll happily open his arms wide and engulf you in a huge bear hug as often as possible. He loves it!

Tallys: she's not a big hugger and prefers other forms of physical affection, like holding hands, snuggling, caressing each other's faces, stroking each other's hair, that sort of thing. She's very touch-y and tactile, but she doesn't rely on hugs to convey her feelings as much! She tolerates receiving hugs but doesn't initiate them much unless she's in a relationship with someone and knows that that's what they would prefer!

Shery: she loves hugs, but she isn't usually bold enough to initiate them on her own and usually keeps a polite and respectful distance (hand shakes, back pats) unless others initiate first! She loves receiving hugs, though, and is considered one of the most huggable people in all the Shepherds! :>

Riel: no. no. no. no. he hates being hugged. it musses up his hair and his suit and feeling the warm weight of someone else leaning and pulling against him is not very pleasant. people usually do it to him to annoy him (like glomming on to him against his will). full-frontal hugs are extremely awkward with him. He leans his lower half as far away from you as possible because getting that up close and personal is a foreign concept with him. he'll do this very awkwardly for a lover in times where they need sincere comfort and loving, but it is not a natural form of expression for him lol.

Chase: I don't think he hugs often as a genuine display of affection, like "aww come here and give me a hug," but he does love hugging people from behind and hanging all over them, particularly with a lover! With a friend, it's just his way of casually being affectionate/playful/sometimes annoying and clingy or sometimes flirtatious, like sneaking up on them and going "heyyy whatcha doing? :3" as he slings his arm around their shoulder or wraps his arm around their waist. With a lover, this is often how he just comes up to greet them, coming up from behind and hugging/cuddling them. However, fair warning, if the neck-kissing/cheek-rubbing starts, this is also often a segue into sex. He is easily turned on by this lol.

Red: he likes hugs, and is very generous with them when asked! You can always go to him and say, "I'm having a bad day, can I have a hug? 🥺" and he'll silently put down whatever he's doing and open his arms wide for a hug! He's an excellent hugger, and though he doesn't need much hugging himself, he tends to enjoy it and is very familiar in this way with everybody, from his buddies to his family to his lover!

Ayla: she is not a hugger. It makes her uncomfortable and she usually feels suffocated by hugs, having to fight an urge to squirm out of them like an antsy cat. She's okay with lots of forms of other physical affection, like platonic cuddling, feet on lap, lounging with your arm around the other one's shoulder, but for whatever reason, hugs themselves usually feel confining and awkward and vulnerable for her: she doesn't really like them and gets nothing out of them! She'll hold you if you want to cuddle or spoon in bed, but she dislikes hugging upright face-to-face!

Briony: if Shery is the biggest hug-receiver in the Shepherds, Briony is the biggest hug-giver! You can probably tell if you're friendly with her in the game, but she's a big hugger by nature and just naturally doles them out: in times of excitement, comfort, glee, sadness, affection, friendship, love, what have you. She's pretty free with her hugs and will blithely give them even to people who hiss at her like Riel!

Lavinet: aristocrats don't tend to be big huggers, though Lavinet likes and gives hugs well enough, usually in sympathy or comfort! Otherwise, her preferred method of greeting tends to be cheek-kisses, and she has other forms of physical affection like entwining arms, leaning against each other, etc. Hugs tend to mess up her hair, makeup, or clothes, so they're not her natural instinct often! She doesn't really mind them, though!

did someone already ask the infamous "ROs reaction to MC opening the door completely naked/pulling a Vex'ahlia"? If not, can we get all of their reactions (plus Halek I guess.)

I think this has been asked before, but a perfunctory search didn't turn it up, so I'll give it a go!

Blade: depends on their relationship! If it's an MC he's crushing on, I think his soul would leave his body and ascend to the astral plane. He'd immediately fix his gaze somewhere over MC's head and say whatever he came to see in the most painful, awkward terms known to man, and then sort of stiffly walk away like a soldier walking away from a firing squad. If they were just friends, he'd just be damply unimpressed, like "...do I want to know why you don't have clothes on?" He'd assume they'd done it just to shock him, so he wouldn't really show much of an external reaction just to deny them the pleasure lol.

Trouble: he'd instantly cover his eyes as if they'd been burned, yelping out a curse. "Fuck, MC, where are your--? Put some clothes on!!" He'd be pretty surprised and flustered, but depending on their attitude, he'd be able to move on from it fairly quickly, though he'd still be pretty confounded afterwards, like ??? what just happened???

Tallys: she'd raise a brow, but she'd just calmly ask MC whatever question she was coming to ask and wouldn't comment/acknowledge it if MC didn't. Nudity doesn't phase her too much, but the social implications of opening the door completely nude do give her pause, like does MC just not care, or were they doing it to make some specific point? Assuming MC acted completely casual, though, and not like they were doing it as a come-on (I don't know what Vex'ahlia is, sorry lol!), she'd pretty much just ignore it (though with a slight eyebrow raise just to let MC know it is a bit strange)

Shery:

MC wouldn't be naked for long because I'm convinced Shery would faint. They'd have to help her and/or call for help, so... yes, this would shock her, eternally, for life lol. She'd probably never look MC in the eyes again... this incident would frequently haunt her at night! It'd be one of those intrusive thoughts that jerk you awake just as you're about to fall asleep lol!

Riel: he'd be mortified! Who opens the door completely naked like that?! It'd actually be a turn-off for him in a crushing stage because... who the hell does that lol, and so casually? It's a rotten show of manners, if nothing else! He'd immediately turn around (to avert his gaze) and say something biting and sarcastic, and then accomplish whatever business he was pursuing after demanding MC put some clothes on, and then they would probably never talk about it again lol

Chase: depends on what their relationship is! if they're already hooking up, his eyes would darken and he'd quickly step in and shut the door behind him, like, "not that I don't mind the surprise, but you'd better be careful about flaunting yourself so openly like that, or someone else is going to see you..." (cue possessive sexy times) But if they're just friends, he'd sort of laugh and make a joke about it, like "lol where are your clothes? did you forget to put them on or something? XD" If they weren't embarrassed, he'd probably be good at making them feel embarrassed

Red: I think, in a crushing stage, he'd take this as an instant friend-zoning lol, no one casually opens the door naked, especially if they knew it was him, if they're romantically interested in him. (That's his reasoning, anyway.) It's a different thing if it was an accident and he walked in, but them opening the door voluntarily naked would throw him for a complete loop! He'd immediately look away and stammer out something passable, but his head would be completely blank, like "Oh, I... wanted to see if you'd read that book I lent you, but... I can come back later..." (walks quickly away, mortified, and then acts like nothing happened forever after)

Ayla: she wouldn't bat an eye. She'd just be very casual about it, like "oh, hey. did you want to come down for dinner?" MC: "yeah" Ayla: "Okay, I'll wait for you to get dressed, then." She's not fazed by nudity in the least, and even if she thought MC was, she'd assume it was a weird power move of some sort and not give a reaction to show that she can't be thrown off by anything!

Briony: she'd scream. so loud. it's not even that nudity particularly bothers her, it's just the surprise of it happening like that... she's also more likely to react with shock and wailing if MC is biologically male. She's pretty used to female bodies (public baths, also, she has one) but the shock of MC's dangling participle just being out like that would probably instantly K.O. her. She'd be SCREAMING. Then she'd clap her hand over her mouth and probably run away! Her fight or flight instinct would take over LMAO

Lavinet: she'd gasp--her ladylike sensibilities have been violated! She's obviously seen naked bodies before, but not in such scandalous circumstances! She'd actually be somewhat offended by this lol, do you not take her seriously enough to put some clothes on before opening the door?! are we on such casual terms now?! Like Riel, I think this would be something of a turn-off for her lol! She'd probably instantly snap open her fan and screen her eyes to shield both her own modesty and MC's!

Halek: he'd sort of furrow his brow, like, "Why are you naked?" but he wouldn't be so much as flustered as he would be just sort of nonplussed and puzzled, like just, "...Why?" Depending on MC's answer, he'd just shrug and be like, "...Okay, well, that's your prerogative. Anyway, Tallys wanted me to tell you..." And then afterwards he'd sort of mosey off on his way, thinking to himself that MC is a bit of an odd duck!

How common were/are atrocities committed by the Inquisiton such as the massacre of Clan Ironwood?

In the days and years immediately following the Castigation, atrocities like what happened to Clan Ironwood were extremely common, almost to the point of being untrackable. As time went on and the Diminished were well and truly subverted, however, and the government of the Autarchy established itself more definitively, the "need" for such incidents declined drastically. Now, 200 years on, the Inquisitors don't do much like that anymore, but they also don't really need to. Nowadays they function more as discreet spies and investigators rooting out underground sedition and resistance movements against the Autarchy--there isn't a need for large crusade-style assaults like there were back then--and when there are rebellions to put down, it's the Army of the Sun that typically handles it, not the Inquisitors. Hope that makes sense!

what would MC's education have looked like growing up? was there a schoolhouse in the towns, a designated teacher in Vale's clan? or was it up to their parents?

Here's an overview of the state of education in Blest if you're interested! For MC specifically, there was a small community schoolhouse in Westwood, in Vale, and in Maj. The schoolhouse was taught by two teachers, one for the really young kids (6-10) and for the older preteens (11-14ish). For Vale, there was a form of community homeschooling where children did attend a form of school while on the road and were given assignments and had class sessions and etc., but there were multiple volunteer teachers that traded duties at different times, like one week you'd be learning about foraging from the Huntmaster, another week you'd be learning about history from the Keeper, and another week you'd be having class with the actual dedicated clanmember whose job it is to watch and teach the young while their parents are busy.

Hope that all makes sense!

In regards to this ask

https://www.shepherdsofhaven.com/post/187634697203/if-they-were-unrequited-crushing-on-mc-who-would

Can we get specific reasons why they feel the most jealous of that person?

Some of this was already answered in other posts!

Blade: most jealous of Red - I think this one is pretty self-evident, but just in case, here's this post

Trouble: most jealous of Blade - because they're best friends, Trouble is more prone to feeling conflicted feelings and jealousy over Blade than with anyone else. He, out of everyone, wants Blade to be happy, and he also really understands, admires, and elevates Blade (there is a reason why he's adamant that Blade should be commander and Trouble is vice-commander as his support) so being jealous over Blade and his crush would cause him more torment and anguish than it would with anyone else!

Tallys: most jealous of Lavinet - I think this is self-evident too--Tallys would understand if MC fell, say, for someone with obvious merits to her like Shery or Red, but she'd be extra fucking salty if MC fell for the beautiful wealthy noblewoman who has everything Tallys doesn't have...... (and inherited much of that privilege and merit directly through her people committing atrocities against Tallys's people 😭)

Shery: most jealous of Briony or Ayla - answered here

Riel: most jealous of Trouble (but most annoyed by Chase) - answered here

Chase: most jealous of Riel - Chase and Riel are already rivals who don't really get along, so this is already liable to make Riel the prime candidate for Chase's jealousy, but throw in the fact that Riel is a wealthy, refined, educated and incredibly intelligent self-made man who was able to build a business empire and his fortune through legitimate means, not some illiterate street-rat who had to scrap and survive and resort to various types of crime to survive, and you've got a stew baby

Red: most jealous of Chase - I've definitely answered it somewhere, but it's mostly because he takes Chase the least seriously out of anybody, so it would sort of be this aggrieved "him? you prefer HIM? the silly slutty thief man?... 🥹" It would just be a hit to Red's self-esteem lol, whereas for everyone else he would pretty much understand it, this would just flabbergast him

Ayla: most jealous of Shery - Shery is basically Ayla's polar opposite: petite, delicate, and the epitome of all things that are feminine and soft and lovely and sweet, and that's something hardscrabble, rough-around-the-edges, tough-as-nails Ayla would be really insecure about if the object of her affections seemed to prefer Shery!

Briony: most jealous of Lavinet - in Briony's eyes, everything for Lavinet--including romance--comes easily, and of course someone buxom and statuesque and beautiful and sophisticated like her would effortlessly win MC's heart, whereas Briony views herself as this nobody from nowhere with nothing to her name, who is cute enough but woefully plain and possibly even boyish in comparison to Lavinet's manicured, inborn, polished grace, with her makeup and perfume and posture and worldliness and charm, while all Briony can do is swing her fists around and talk clumsily about stuff that goes on around the compound! Lavinet makes her feel like a positive barbarian in comparison!

Lavinet: most jealous of Tallys - this is pretty much the inverse of Tallys's feelings, but Lavinet would feel insecure if MC seemed to prefer Tallys--who possesses everlasting Elven beauty, nothing a mere mortal could compare to--and who is infinitely wiser, more worldly, more interesting, and more mature than some sheltered noble who hasn't really gotten a chance to see the world outside of its courts and must come off as woefully ignorant and naive about "reality" in comparison! And everything that Lavinet busts her ass to do--riding, fighting, learning different languages, etc.--Tallys does both easily and completely naturally, so... this would not feel very good if she were to compete for MC's interests over Tallys! There's also the fact that Tallys already hates her, so imagine if you started working at a new place of work, one coworker in particular was mean to you, and then your new crush was really into that one coworker LOL

Lena, do you have visual references for the Faceless Lords?

I do not, sorry! The best I can do is link my Pinterest board of what I think the Endarkened in general look like/vibe like, but I like leaving the Faceless Lords as somewhat ambiguous!

In a modern AU how would the ROs react to getting caught on a kiss cam with MC at a baseball game (or any other event it might occur)?

Hi, this has been answered here!

Spoilers

love how ch6 and ch7 are the girls’ trip and boys’ trip, respectively. because I love chaos i’ve been wondering about a switch, i.e. how would the boys have fared at Lockwood + how would the girls have handled the swamp?

I love the girl squad and boy band, too! 💖 Funnily enough, a swap has been pondered here!

Ysa's part of The Art of Escape made me very interested in the myrkath. Would you be able to tell us more about them? Was the creature who told MC about the Words of Power on their 13th birthday a myrkath?

So this is going to sound rather complicated and lore-crazy, but I'll do my best to try and explain succinctly!

Blest has overlap with a few different worlds that we know of, some of which are only vaguely implied in my own apocryphal texts (lol). There's Hael, the realm of the Endarkened, obviously, and the Spirit Realm, the realm of shapeless, conjured spirits, and possibly wherever the ancient Faerie folk come from (which we'll refer to as the Faerie Realm for now) (see Chandry's short story for more on this), and a few others. Blest is sort of this hub on a wheel with many spokes, so to speak.

Typically, an inhabitant from one of these other worlds needs an anchor to come over to Blest and remain there indefinitely. For Endarkened, this is usually a Mage who summons them in a dark ritual, or a Thrall that they physically possess, giving them a vessel that grounds them to Blest's plane. For a spirit, it works pretty much the same way: they need to be actively summoned by a Mage and tethered to Blest by that Mage's willpower, usually in some sort of energetic exchange, or they need a physical vessel to inhabit and be bound to (e.g. Vivek).

However, this also isn't always the case! Sometimes beings from these worlds can pop over if the world-walls are weakened or thin enough, or if the individual themselves has garnered enough power to break through and manifest on their own terms. This is kind of the MO of Cacophants and the Faceless Lords: when there are gaps in the world-walls, they send over lesser minions to wreak havoc on their behalf, and these minions feed power back to them so that the Cacophant or Faceless Lord can eventually secretly come over without needing to be summoned or anything like that. They don't need to be dependent on some other power source because they've already harvested enough of it on their own, if that makes any sense!

But in various geographic locations in Blest, there are actually physical places where the world-walls are actually thinner and more sieve-like than in other places, leading to a sometimes massive leakage of otherworldly energies that affect the physical landscapes they touch. In Blest terms, these axes are referred to as leylines, thought to be the sites of strange and fantastical power: Leyholm, Chandry's birthplace, is thought to be on a leyline which actually guards one of the ancient entrances to the Faerie Realm, while the various World-Trees (for the Elementals) and also kithma temples that Mimir visited throughout her travels happen to grow or be installed along other leylines and other avenues of power. There is also a leyline (or, more appropriately, a seam or a tear) in the Waste that makes it a hotbed of demonic activity, because that one happens to touch Hael and is quite flimsy.

In the North, there's a massive leakage along a leyline that touches the Spirit Realm, where the borders between the worlds are especially thin. I think of it as two tectonic plates grinding together rather than fitting neatly, which is going to cause a lot of crumbling and erosion and seismic activity! So the "myrkath" are actually just a folk denotation of spirits from the Spirit Realm who sort of fell through the leak, given shape by the local people's worship, beliefs, and desires. Spirits, being essentially formless, naturally absorb and adapt to the strong essences and energies around them like sponges (which is how you can wind up with a Spirit of Knowledge that knows more things than should be possible, or a Spirit of Vengeance, or sometimes an elemental spirit of ice), and the ones who pop up in the North just do the same thing, taking shape according to what the people around them believe them to be.

The conventional understanding of spirits and magic, though, is that they have to have an anchor and they have to be summoned by someone, usually a Mage--people aren't yet aware of the northern leyline, which appeared very slowly and over time in one of the most remote regions of Blest--which is why Ysa doesn't believe that the myrkath are spirits. Admittedly, they also behave in very different ways than traditional spirits because of how they arrived in Blest and how they formed their behaviors and identities based on the folklore of the North, and their appearances are very different (they weren't summoned and given shape by the summoner or a specific name, so their natural forms are invisible to the native inhabitants of Blest, just as they would be in the Spirit Realm). Also, Ysa's own changing beliefs about what they were as well as her stepmother's fanaticism did alter the ones in her household in ways that no one would be able to expect, which is also how you get poltergeist-y/ghostly infestations in Blest, as well! It's just that no one's really put all of these things together to realize any of this. :) They think ghosts and myrkath and spirits and "little gods" and other folklore like pixies and brownies are all different, regional things, where they're actually more connected than one might think.

Poor Ysa believes she's strictly an Elementalist, like Ayla, but she's actually extremely sensitive to arcane magic, too, and is gifted with a kind of second sight that, in Star Wars terms, would get her labeled as a Force-sensitive. Magic always manifests in unpredictable and erratic ways, so trying to nail it down as an exact science can feel extremely fruitless: even the nine main schools of magic nowadays would be met with dire criticism in the days of Archmage Tangriel, as we sort of get the sense of in Chapter 8, when it's implied their categorizations and ways of using magic are vastly different!

Anyway, I hope all of this makes sense... The apparition that came to MC on their thirteenth birthday, however, was not a myrkath or a spirit!

(Also, I hope your migraine gets better!)

I‘m getting withdrawal symptoms after reading the section of Shery telling MC Chandrys observations about them and Blade haha. Are we gonna get Blade back in the main storyline anytime soon?

He appears along with everyone else in Chapter 10, similar to how everyone "reunited" in Chapter 8, and he has a larger role again in Chapter 11!

Found out recently that my boy Blade got harpooned (like he's Moby Dick???), and I need to know if he finished the assassination and if that's the most unexpected weapon he has ever been hit with.

He did indeed finish the assassination (the harpoon only grazed his side, so he just sort of shrugged it off, to the imminent terror of the men who had shot him), and it was indeed the most unexpected weapon he has ever been hit with, primarily because (when he saw it) it sort of made him pause in surprise and then think derogatorily, That's no good, that thing is so slow and unwieldy that it would never actually skewer me, they should have picked something more practical... 

Another unexpected thing he's been hit with was being doused in oil while his enemies (unsuccessfully) tried to set him on fire. He probably would have been in a lot of trouble if there had been Mages around, but as it stood, it just annoyed him because his clothes were ruined and he was washing oil out of his hair for days!

Which of the upcoming chapters are you most excited to write?

I'm most excited to write Chapter 12 after this, as well as the epilogue! For various reasons, I'm not looking forward to writing Chapter 10 or 11 at all! 🥹