Author Answers (September) (Patreon)

General

Best to worst in a crisis/emergency situation?

It sort of depends on what the emergency is! The whole crew of Shepherds is pretty brave and capable in a crisis--most of them have been operating in a leadership capacity for a long time, so most of them are all going to be clustered together right at the top. But the circumstances of the crisis matters, too... Blade in literally any high-danger combat scenario (like a sudden attack or something) is the guy to go to, but you'd probably want to look to Tallys if the crisis is, like, a pregnant lady's water suddenly breaking lol! But in general...

Best -> worst

Blade and Riel - Blade is best at assuming command and using his authority to start firing off orders and dealing with extremely intense emergencies on the fly. He is completely unflappable and unfazed in like 99.99% of most crises, though when he goes into "War Mode" he can also come off as very intimidating and harsh. Riel is just as good (or sometimes even better) at analyzing things with such clarity, level-headedness, and calm that his composure is never shaken and emergencies suddenly don't seem like emergencies with him in charge; however, when it comes to being "the leader" and assuming command, he doesn't quite command the same authority as Blade and is more comfortable working behind-the-scenes or from the command center in an advisory position. They're probably both tied, just stronger in different areas!

Tallys and Lavinet - Tallys's composure is possibly even stonier than Blade or Riel's: she's best at staying absolutely calm during emergencies, but she doesn't have the same "Type A" personality to assume command and start directing everybody around her like they do. However, as an individual, she's marvelous at staying steady and level-headed during a crisis, and her expertise in certain areas would make her better than the other two in something like a medical emergency! 

Like Tallys, Lavinet is incredible in emergencies, and she's a natural-born leader, so she seems born to assume control and step into whatever role is necessary to helm herself and others through a prevailing crisis. As an individual, she can stay very clear-headed and unemotional during emergencies, though unlike Tallys, she relies more on the emotional support of others around her to forge ahead, or will privately allow herself to break down/become more emotional behind-the-scenes, so I'm hazarding that they're both tied, just stronger in different areas as well?

Red, Halek, and Briony - all three of these tend to prefer being a "team player" or work better when directed by someone else, but are capable of stepping into the role of leader during an emergency: it's just not their first instinct. Halek led the Reach during their plague admirably well and with a steady hand, and so did Red with the Circle Mages and Quiial, but both had plenty of help from the people around them and definitely led more democratically than in a really take-charge, dominant manner. Briony became the de-facto leader of the gladiators during their rebellion due to her passion, skill, and force of character, but her emotions can easily lead her during a crisis if she doesn't have someone else to ground her. All three stay comparatively calm and measured (they don't let fear overpower them, they don't panic, etc.), and have strong leadership skills when it's required of them, but it's not their preference unless they're needed! It's kind of a "when duty calls" thing rather than a natural personality trait!

Trouble and Chase - I truly did not know where to put these two, because they can be wildly inconsistent depending on the nature and circumstances of the emergency. Trouble can be a natural-born leader and can stay very unfazed and steady during a crisis--especially a combat-orientated one--but his emotions can get the better of him, and he can sometimes go charging recklessly into a situation when tensions are running high or inadvertently make things worse; it's kind of a mixed bag depending on what's going on. He's alarmingly self-sacrificial, which is sometimes not what's needed during a true emergency! There's a reason why he's Vice-Commander--he has an extremely reliable "I've got your back" presence that makes a lot of people look up to him or look to him for direction during hard times, but his unpredictability and impulsiveness can be a volatile mix during emergencies as well. However, he never, ever panics! 

Chase is also wildly unpredictable; when he's operating in "Leader Mode," he can be brilliant at managing a crisis, stays calm and collected, and engineers insanely creative solutions with the keenness and clarity of a hawk. Other times, however, he's content to let others take the reins or, if he's not taking the situation seriously, he can be like [inappropriate joke to lighten the mood] or [straight-up vanishes] when people need the comfort of an authority figure, so he's not always the most reliable unless there's no other choice!

Ayla and Shery - Ayla is brave during emergencies, and when it comes to managing her own personal crises as an individual, she's as stable as a rock, never demonstrating fear, nerves, or anxiety over really anything. However, she doesn't make the best leader in emergency situations unless she has to: she's often sort of baffled or indignant at the speed at which things can go, like "wait, what the fuck is going on??" rather than "IT'S GO TIME. YOU, GET INTO FORMATION SIX! YOU, GET THE DOCTOR!" and can kind of seem overwhelmed unless given specific direction. However, she's dealt with really tough situations in her own life with a grim determination and survivalist mentality that means she's hard to shake, so she's probably so-so in an emergency! A brilliant soldier you'd want on your team to get you through the crisis, but not the first leader you'd turn to for directions! However, when she musters up the energy, she can be like *slap* PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER!--aka so forceful that she can become that leader when she has to!

Shery can stay surprisingly calm during emergencies, she just isn't good at giving orders and gets in her own head, like she'll be frantically be trying to think about a thousand different things at once and you'll be like, "Shery? Shery, did you hear me?" while you're rapping out orders and she'll be like, "....Oh! Sorry! Yes, right away!!" before scurrying off to do her business. She isn't panicky or running around like a chicken with her head cut off, she's just like a normal civilian and deals with most really insane emergencies with the attitude of a civilian who isn't used to, like, a sudden demon raid or something. Kind of flustered, but not prone to completely losing her head by any means! She's much better in more "mundane" emergencies, though, like if you cut yourself while cooking and are bleeding badly enough to need medical attention! Then she can snap into caregiving mode and leap into action!

How jumpy or easily spooked are characters? Do they have a fight or flight reflex to being startled, or are they never startled at all?

Blade: he's extremely paranoid and also tense and alert for trouble, but is rarely jumpy or easily scared, if that makes any sense: his reaction to sudden surprises or noises isn't fear, it's just an alarming readiness to deploy lethal force, lol

Trouble: he's mildly jumpy, like if you jump out from behind a door when he's not expecting you, he's like 65% likely to jump and swear at you, but usually in a light-hearted way!

Tallys: she's never easily spooked in casual situations, like if you were to jump out at her, she'd just give you a cool, unimpressed look that made you embarrassed to have even tried! (This is partially because her sense of hearing is so good, damn those Elvish ears!) But in high-risk scenarios, she can be a bit jumpier!

Shery: she's extremely easily startled, but she doesn't jump or scream, she just goes pale and stares at you with shocked, betrayed eyes... like how could you do that...

Riel: I think it depends on what mode he's in, if he's in high-stress workaholic mode where he's pacing to and from rooms muttering to himself and you jump out at him, he might jump and snap at you, but if he's just like being normal, he'll just ignore your attempt to scare him and address you normally while looking down at his papers and making you feel chagrined and childish...

Chase: literally unscareable, not easily spooked in the least, lacks any semblance of a fear gene and will just crack an amused smile or a slow smirk, like "that the best you got?"

Red: 50/50, sometimes he's so lost in thought that he's very slow to react, so you'll jump out at him and yell BOO! and he'll sort of blink and look around dreamily and catch sight of you and go, "oh, hi," and other times he'll jump, it just depends how "with it" he is that day! 😂

Ayla: she's extremely jumpy and the most dangerous person to scare, because her first instinct is to just start throwing hands, so it is not a good idea to sneak up on her! She's like a deer, a twig snapping somewhere behind her will send her five feet out of her skin!

Briony: extremely jumpy, just as jumpy as Ayla, liable to jump and scream at the top of her lungs and then wail dramatically and pummel you with her fists if you try to deliberately scare her! Also mildly dangerous to startle, because sometimes when startled, she's been known to break things she's holding or nearly put someone through a wall...

Lavinet: like 30% jumpy, normally she keeps her composure, but she'll jolt if she's not expecting you! She typically reacts to being deliberately startled with a measure of annoyance, like 😒 "Really, darling, how do you expect me to work in these conditions..."

I remember that there aren't strict wedding outfits, but I'm curious about what the cast would wear! Like how traditional or unique would they be?

Blade: he would likely wear either his, like, formal military uniform (which is how a lot of Khehi Ket get married lol), a dark and sober formal suit, or formal wedding garments that high-born Ket clans like his would wear if going for a traditional Ket wedding!

Trouble: he'd probably wear a flashy red tuxedo-like suit: I picture something similar to what teeth drew him in for the gala in Chapter 2!

Tallys: she'd wear a formal Elvish gown, something sleek and svelte and nature-themed, like a dress covered with foliage and vines and flowers, or something very flow-y and almost toga-like!

Shery: she'd wear a gorgeous, vintage, classic white bridal gown, something that made her look like an angel or a Disney princess! :')

Riel: he'd wear a dark, sharp-enough-to-cut-the-eye suit... perhaps embellished with elaborate designs to indicate the festivity of the occasion, but knowing his tastes, he might just go for sleek and austere as usual! 😂 maybe something like this?

Chase: he'd wear a suit, but make it slightly tousled and sloppy and insouciant and rogueish and him. Basically like a suit but kind of slutty

Red: he'd wear a very nice, classic dark suit that made him look jaw-droppingly handsome, or his Archmage robes, which make him look very awe-inspiring: kind of depends on the vibe lol!

Ayla: very possible she'd either go for a simple, Jalis-style dress or a suit, or she might just get married in her Shepherds uniform!

Briony: she'd either wear a floral-themed, colorful dress similar to what she wears to galas and dances, or she'd wear a traditional wedding outfit from [REDACTED], which resembles a Chinese hanfu, complete with heavy golden headdress!

Lavinet: I don't know what she'd wear exactly, but you can bet that it will be as bold, striking, dramatic, and newsworthy as she can possibly make it!

I recall an earlier Q&A where you said Ayla was embarrassed that she snores. So in that vein, who snores and who insists they don't snore?

Blade: he's unnervingly silent, almost to the point where people want to check his breathing sometimes

Trouble: he snores lightly about a third of the time, depending on his sleeping position! He has different modes of sleep, like his soldier's rest where he seems to be sleeping but can snap instantly awake and is dead silent while out in the field, and at home when he's spread-eagled on his bed and sleeping so hard he seems almost angry, or just passed out in an ungainly heap (this is when he snores). He totally owns up to snoring though! He groans or huffs in his sleep too!

Tallys: I don't think she outright snores, but sometimes her breathing randomly sounds labored or wheezy, if that counts, but that's pretty rare!

Shery: she snores like 10% of the time, a very cute petite snore, and absolutely refuses to believe you if you inform her of this!

Riel: he doesn't snore and would be extremely offended if you suggested that he did

Chase: he doesn't snore and barely sleeps around anyone long enough for them to figure it out either way. He hardly ever makes a sound but sometimes he gets a really infuriating smirk on his face when he's sleeping peacefully that really makes you suspicious 

Red: there's like a 1/100 chance that you'll catch him, like... doing a single open-mouthed snore while he's sprawled out in an armchair with a book on his chest and his head tipped back; it's like he'll do the single snore and then sort of slightly sleep choke like "...guh! *wakes himself up*" It's so rare that he insists it doesn't happen and wouldn't believe you if you told him about it. He tends to sleep-mutter or talk to himself more often than snore!

Ayla: she snores only when she's comfortable, she doesn't sleep deeply enough in environments where she doesn't feel safe to snore!

Briony: she snores like a fifth of the time, typically more when she's either congested or drunk 😂 She'll own it up to it with a cheerful sense of non-embarrassment too! She's more prone to sleep-talking or sleep-mumbling!

Lavinet: I think she sighs (sometimes angrily) more in her sleep than ever do something as unrefined as snoring! 😂

Is it ok to ask more than one question? I've thought of several during replays this last month.  How would the ROs react to finding MC asleep at their desk? Who would wake them, carry them to bed, put a blanket on them etc.

Hi there, this has pretty much been answered here, here, and here, albeit not with a desk! I think it would depend on whether they were in a relationship or not, but generally it goes:

Blade: 50/50 between staring hopelessly at MC or brushing the hair from her face until she wakes up, or carrying her to bed

Trouble: 50/50 on carrying them to bed or waking them up gently and coaxing them to bed

Tallys: wakes them by rubbing their shoulder or stroking their hair

Shery: puts a blanket on MC (if crushing), wakes her up and takes her to bed (if romanced)

Riel: usually wakes MC up to go to bed, but there's a small chance of putting a blanket on him if MC's completely exhausted and Riel doesn't want to risk him working more or not getting enough rest by waking him up

Chase: depends on how big MC is as well as the nature of their relationship: will wake them up or put a blanket on them if in a casual FWB relationship and he's in strong denial, will carry to bed if deep in romance or already in a relationship

Red: carries them to bed

Ayla: wakes them up

Briony: wakes them up if only crushing, carries them to bed if in a relationship

Lavinet: wakes him up if only crushing, puts a blanket on him or coaxes him to bed if in a relationship

Does the MCs squad get more street-rep for being on the hero of Haven/Commander-Legates squad?

They got a lot of clout from other recruits at first (or more like envy, like "you're on MC's squad?? I'd kill to get that assignment...", but I think they were so overwhelmed/privately dismayed/intimidated due to feeling unworthy of the honor that they surprisingly didn't really play it up or lean into it as much as you might expect! It was sort of a sheepish awareness of like "yeah, not really sure how or why... I'm not really any more special than any other recruit..." and kind of a bewildered changing of the subject more than it was like a proud "YEAH THAT'S RIGHT, I'm hot shit!" And after they got more comfortable, they became so protective of MC's privacy (like other recruits would ask "Is it true that MC is dating so-and-so??" or "Is it true that MC can do [insert magical power here]?") and would give such deflective answers like "I don't know" or "I wouldn't really listen to silly rumors" that people got bored of asking, so it's not like they have a crowd of admirers or people lavishing them with attention anymore! Maybe in the early days but not after a while! Blade and Riel's squads are pretty much the same way lol!

And finally: What are some other non-inner circle people the ROs and MC hang out with? Like Trouble was good friends with Kaidir.

I wouldn't say that Trouble was good friends with Kaidir--he knows a lot of the Shepherd captains in passing and has shared drinks with them, played card games with them, etc., but they weren't personally close outside of a casual group setting, if that makes any sense--but he's that way with a ton of people, he makes friends really easily! 😅 Let's see...

Blade: he literally socializes with no one outside of what I've taken to calling "the inner circle." He might talk to people as a matter of business or in situations where it would be weird for him not to, but generally, he's extremely introverted and is never seen socializing with the regular Shepherd recruits the way the others are 😅

Trouble: as stated, he knows a lot of people in the Order on a first-name basis and has partaken in conversations with them in passing, like you might walk through the refectory and see him playing cards and smoking with a bunch of captains and getting rowdy or joking around, but he doesn't know many of them on a really personal level other than he gleans during drinking games, like he knows this other captain so-and-so comes from Brunen and has a sweetheart that he left behind, but nobody he hangs out with on a one-on-one basis! He does have a few old friends from his days on the streets or from his mercenary jobs that he makes time to see when they're in town every once in a while, though: lots of past connections around Haven (like Lazu Reen, but nice) or people from around the neighborhood who know and love him--like he's stopped by to help with a leak or have a stern word with an irritating neighbor or to drop off a rascally kid, that sort of thing! He's a very popular guy!

Tallys: she knows a lot of people from the Elven district in Ashtown as well as the Elven farmers in the Sun's Embrace, and kind of treats them like distant cousins - sometimes they'll pass in the street and they'll say something to the tune of, "You should come over for dinner, my grandma misses seeing you!" and she'll oblige! So most of her friends outside of the inner circle are also non-Shepherds, but she doesn't see them too often!

Shery: she has a few people around Haven that she's in contact with (having grown up there); like she has that friend Ana Rylf, who runs the Healers' clinic where Benir Roxak can be sent, and she keeps in touch with her old schoolteacher and etc.! Because she's so busy with the Order, though, she doesn't have too much time to really hang out with people for long stretches of time, so her main friends are in the Order, and especially within the Captains' circle. There are a few Captains who like her and are helpful to her and have the potential to join a bookclub or something with her, but right now, they're more just like friendly coworkers or acquaintances than true blue friends!

Riel: he doesn't have the time to socialize with anybody--he barely even socializes with the inner circle, and doesn't have the patience to foster friendships with anyone else 🤪 Even he doesn't spend a lot of time "hanging out" with Aerin if it doesn't have anything to do with work! But he does make time to see Mr. Makepeace and his husband when they're in town, or Ashcroft occasionally! Sometimes he sees old acquaintances of his from university, like maybe once a year if that, but they're less friends and just connections he maintains that could be useful in the future!

Chase: he's curiously anti-social when it comes to the "regular" Shepherds! I think his social network is tapped out at 1) his Thieves Guild members and 2) the Captains' inner circle, and he has little to no interest in really getting to know anybody or making friends beyond that. Really, if the Captains weren't composed of such interesting and bizarre freaks of nature, he likely never would have been that interested in being friends with them; but then again, if they were just normal people, he probably would have never been compelled to join the Shepherds at all! But yeah, the recruits remark that, for as charismatic and supposedly flirtatious as Chase is, he has surprisingly little interest in anyone outside of his immediate social circle and field of interest and will just like politely ignore/disengage if recruits try to cozy it up to him lol

Red: the majority of his friends are the people he's already friends with in the Mages' Circle (obviously Pan, Neon, Raven, etc.), outside of the "inner circle", so if he's not hanging out with one of the other Captains, he's hanging out with the other Mages! There are a few people in the Order that he's had conversations with and who he'd be interested in getting to know better (the fascinating traveler from Karzai who did research work on underwater ruins, etc.), but no one he's actually committed to hanging out with yet!

Ayla: she's been known to drink with or hang out with recruits in the same manner that Trouble does, and she knows them mostly by face and a few by name, but they're not really close friends, more just social acquaintances! There's a brash half-Hunter who's on her way to being Captain that vibes well with Ayla's energy (her name is Sipha; she's the one MC talks to when they first discover the quest board), and they've been out to bars with a handful of others and raised some rabble, but nothing really intimate yet, just some fun nights out on the town!

Briony: she's quite friendly and extraverted by nature, and is the one Shepherd who pretty much came to the Order without having preexisting friends (aside from the gladiators), so she's spent the most time actually going around and actively trying to befriend other Shepherds! She doesn't often hang out with the other gladiators--they're more like a family vibe, but forced together by circumstances not of their own choosing, so it's not like she would have really been compatible with Mountain Jackal or hung out with him in another life--but she knows a lot of the Shepherd recruits by name and is good enough friends with them to know what's going on in their personal lives! She's quite friendly with MC's recruit, Justyn, as well as a bunch of other Captains and Officers--I won't name them all, but she has a banter-y relationship to a Ket named Takshin, a respectful relationship to an Elf named Tithus (who reminds her of Nathe--you talk to him briefly when you read the newspaper for the first time), and a warm and friendly relationship to a twangy Norm officer from a Western farm named Riza! They don't hang outside of work very often, but will have lunch together in the refectory fairly regularly or will accompany each other on casual errands, that kind of thing! 

Lavinet: since she just joined the Order, she hasn't really had the time to make friends outside of the inner circle yet--many of the officers are still too intimidated by her and unsure how to interact with someone of noble status, as she's the first one many of them have ever encountered! When she's ready, she's going to start making social calls to the aristocrats of Haven to start establishing connections and a foothold in Haven's political arena, but for now, she's focused on settling in, building her friendships with the other Captains, writing letters to her friends and family back home and all over the Continent, and of course, she's visited regularly with Prihine (if alive)!

We see spirits used for enchantments in the Shepherd HQ and with the conjurer specialization the mc can summon spirits in battle, so my question is are these uses mutually beneficial or do mages just essentially enslave the poor fellas? Like what do the spirits feel about all this if they even can feel?

Hi there, thanks for your great question! Your question is actually far more useful than you know, because I was about to say, "Actually, there's a whole document in your codex about this!" ...but reading this comment made me check and realize that I never actually coded in the toggle to unlock it... so it's been sitting there for MONTHS, but with no one able to actually read the thing because I never enabled the intended check so people could see it! 🤦🏻‍♀️ That will be fixed in the coming update!

In the meantime, to answer your question, spirits usually have to agree to be bound into a Mage's service (or at least this is the ideal scenario, otherwise the Mage can't trust them not to betray them, rendering them sort of pointless as servants), so it is a mutually beneficial relationship! Red or MC (if they're a Summoner) discusses this in detail before summoning a spirit in Chapter 7, but generally, there are three types of spirits: bound (elemental) spirits, contracted (lesser) spirits, and greater spirits, who are unshackled "free agents."

Bound spirits are very "simple," often composed of primal or elemental energy: you might see one as a floating wisp of flame or an amorphous blob of ectoplasmic energy, something like that. They don't often communicate, and it's hard to get a grasp on whether they have anything more than simple emotions--they're more like animals in that you have to deduce stuff about them rather than outright human-like. Because they're composed of pure life-force, they're drawn to other life-forces, so a Mage can bound such a spirit to their own life-force, allowing that spirit to grow and gain more complexity as they link themselves to the Mage in question. It becomes kind of like a symbiotic bond, with the spirit acting as a magical battery: the Mage can draw on the spirit's essence to conduct larger and greater feats of magic than they would normally be capable of on their own, or set the spirit to some simple task (like attacking an enemy right in front of them, kind of like a Pokemon), and the spirit can grow, learn, and complexify (eventually evolving into a higher spirit) through contact with the Mage's own soul, intelligence, and life-force, which provides them with a binding anchor to Blest's plane. 

The higher level of spirit is referred to as a "contracted" spirit, and these are more complex and are more sentient than bound spirits, as well as much more powerful. However, they are also more demanding. The one thing that all spirits have in common is that they crave existence on Blest's plane: their own plane is like this giant formless swirling ocean of energy where there are no boundaries or separation between them, and they all kind of just exist with each other in an identity-less, primordial soup. Being summoned to Blest lends them individuality, experience, memory, personality, separation, clarity, and a whole bunch of other things they don't get to experience in their "natural" state, so they actually love being there... it just depends on whether they respect you enough to be willing to "bend the knee" or not. Some contracted spirits will be content with being bound to a vessel in exchange for their service: Vivek, for example, is perfectly happy being lodged in his gargoyle statue, because, sort of like a hermit crab, it provides him with a solid vessel and home, sheltered from the dangers of this non-native plane and irrespective of the Mage who summoned him; and from there, he gets to live life and experience the corporeal realm in a way that pleases him. Other spirits are content with similar contracts (this is where images like a genie in a lamp comes from, etc.). They're content to just be allowed to chill and find the process of being given a "form" very grounding and stabilizing and sort of comforting. (Sometimes when they dissipate back to their own plane, they can experience a loss of memory or individuality that "resets" them to a blank slate, which to them is almost akin to dying once they've gotten to live life in our world.)

Some spirits, however, have higher demands: some will demand a feast of food and offerings, or a blood sacrifice, or a spirit of courage will only serve a master who's sure to take it into lots of battles or adventures, or a spirit of love will refuse a potential master whose heart is bereft of the emotion that would nourish it. And still others are too proud to want to serve a master at all, or will do it but have an attitude about it... and from there we get into "unshackled" greater spirits, the highest and most powerful form of spirit, but also the most difficult to bind into service!

Aside from the codex document and the conversation in Chapter 7, there's also a short story involving Red and his misadventure with a particularly cantankerous greater spirit during his days at the Circle if you're interested! It goes into a lot of detail about this process and the somewhat mysterious relationship between Mages and spirits. Anyway, this is a long-winded way of saying no, Mages don't enslave spirits: while it is possible to force a spirit into service against its will or bind it without a contract, especially in an emergency, you have to watch your back constantly (uncooperative spirits have a tricky way of 'misinterpreting' your instructions or finding other ways to sabotage you), so it's really not worth the trouble and no one bothers, not when there's a wealth of other spirits out there that can be called upon to serve more willingly. It's just a matter of finding the right spirit, its power level, and the price that you're willing to pay for its services!

Spoilers

So, what is Prihine doing whilst we're out and about with recruitment? XD

This was answered here!

In Mimir’s short story there was an effect called Battle-Cold. Is that real? Or is it an old wives tale? Has Blade ever experienced it?

Hi there, so yes, for context, the "battle cold" or "battle fever" (called the khir or the kho-wai in Kettish) is a real biological phenomenon that can happen to Ket, almost always Ket of the Khehi caste! In some cultures it's likened more to a kind of madness, a dissociative mental state that turns a Ket into a completely emotionless, distant, ruthless, and unstoppable killing machine--somewhat similar to the berserker rage of the Hunters where they don't snap out of it until the threat is ended, but more cold and mechanical and unfeeling rather than frenzied and uncontrolled. In other cultures, it's viewed as a useful tool in a Ket's arsenal, a kind of heightened adrenaline state where they become absolutely perfect weapons and soldiers, extremely useful for deploying and wrecking enemy forces as a one-man army who has no regard for self-preservation. This state can allow a Ket to push themselves past even their normally superhuman physical and mental limits, but it is only triggered during extreme states of stress, mental duress, or emotional strain (hence why Junoth's brother calls it "the snap") and only a handful of Ket ever experience it, and usually then only once or twice in their lifetime. It's thought to be a holdover evolutionary trait meant to ensure a Ket's survival during the extreme circumstances of their violent history, and it's not really possible to purposefully trigger it oneself; it's not really something in a Ket's personal control and just happens, kind of like the emergency safeguard where mothers can lift cars off of their kids during emergencies without thinking twice about it, and then they can never recreate it as their "normal" selves!

Anyway, yes, it's real, but so rare that it's never really been replicated or studied super successfully, so it's something that Ket are aware can happen, but it's not really a part of their everyday lives outside of secondhand stories or legends here and there! In the game, Blade has never experienced it, though in the novel series, it happened to him twice. He does have an older cousin who had it happen, though, and I think Gladius has experienced it as well, though he's no longer of the Khehi caste!

Hi!! What is the deal with the orb back in the equalist base? What are the consequences to touching it, later down the line if any?

Hi, this is more of a character-building moment than anything that has long-reaching effects on the plot: it's mostly just determining whether you are the type of person to touch an Obviously Cursed Thing or not, so there aren't really long-term direct consequences for your character outside of losing your health, gaining some courage, and losing some intelligence! XD The slightly more meta part of it is that, reading through the Equalists' journals and etc., the orb is clearly their connection to Blaphemel and how they communicated with/summoned him in the first place, and had anyone EXCEPT MC touched it, it could have been VERY BAD NEWS for them... However, MC being who they are (spoilers), they did not suffer the effects a normal person might have! This was also a way of alluding to a decision MC makes later on in the chapter, about whether it's a good idea to let the Inquisitors confiscate the Equalists' artifacts or whether it should be destroyed, so it's more of a "story detail that informs stuff" rather than anything more insidious that will bite MC in the ass down the line! Hope that makes sense!

NSFW

NSFW incoming!! the ROs have a spicy dream about the MC. what's one detail they can't stop thinking about the next day? 😳

Blade: the sound MC made when she came 😳

Trouble: the sensation of waking up grinding against the mattress

Tallys: the taste of them on her tongue

Shery: the sight of MC's flushed face while she moaned and writhed

Riel: the growl and timber of MC's voice while he whispered very dark promises in his ear

Chase: MC's cries and pleading while they came and shook around him

Red: the taste of MC's sweat while he worshipped them

Ayla: the tremors of a phantom orgasm while she rode MC for all she was worth

Briony: the sensation and desire of suddenly biting MC's neck while she came (causing her to stare shamelessly at their throat for days after)

Lavinet: the lingering ache of dissatisfied lust between her thighs and the desire to feel MC inside her, filling her up 😳