Book 6 Trivia and Creative Process Notes (Patreon)

Here's some random trivia about book 6 and my original plans for it. Don't know if anyone will care, but if you enjoyed the insight, don't hesitate to say it. I kind of miss the creative process notes I used to do for every chapter, but while that's no longer an option (and would be a bit of a pain in the ass), I'd love to do some for the novels, if people are interested in reading them.

Book 6 was, according to my original plan for the story, supposed to end with Alexandra losing a direct surface confrontation and taking the population of the town inside her dungeon, fighting a losing battle as the Republic (well, another faction originally, but switched it to the Republic after I started getting into book 2 in earnest) claimed more and more of her dungeon, using localized influence disruptors to take control, bit by bit. In the end, Alexandra was forced to use the apparition's prototype nuke, killing everyone on the surface and causing a massive clusterfuck of epic proportions, as you can well imagine. Ended up changing it to having the army instead turn on the senate guard, first still at a battle in the dungeon (I actually still have a section with a suicide bomber blowing up the senate guard guys, the ones leashing the army that instead got intercepted by Alexandra in the current version of the story, if you guys would like to see it), then with what we ended up with, with them never making it to Rebirth to begin with.

There were supposed to be several more battles at the end of the book, however I was simply overdosing on them and decided to avoid the same debacle as during book 3, which put me in a significant burnout. I simplified one (the second convoy raid), and outright deleted another. The raid on the teleport commandos was actually supposed to take place, which would have ended in a ground engagement that Alexandra would have lost. I had considered simplifying that one, but after some consideration I realized the battle didn't make any sense to begin with, given how unlikely it would have been for the teleporter to remain undammaged in the fighting, even with Alexandra trying to avoid damaging it.

Orzal Vek was originally supposed to die at the end of the novel, blowing himself up alongside the fortress after the discussion inside the powder magazine, while his commandos went to rescue Amelia and get her to safety. That was actually planned so much in advance it was basically baked into his character from the beginning. Which makes this a bit awkward in some respects, but hopefully I'll manage.

The end of book 6 was also the point at which Pyn and Allya were supposed to die in the original story plan (like, the one I came up with before I started writing and refined throughout book 1), fighting to the death to buy time for the overrun town to pull back into the dungeon, with Allya blowing herself up by using a spell that consumed her core and vaporizing the entrance, after Pyn died in her arms from a soul sealing weapon. Ended up changing that, quite obviously. Thus no Alexandra going on a rampage and gassing half the Republic garrisons and the major city on the border with cruise missiles loaded with VX nerve agent, which was going to be the start of book 7 originally, to send a message to her Republican 'allies' and foes alike (I added the nerve gas retaliation after I went away from the nuke, because, you know, nuking an enemy army is plenty in terms of message and retribution). Yikes.

Oromar was supposed to arrive earlier, as well. Like, WAY earlier, because Starvak was supposed to go back to Darthar when the city was going to be put under siege, because the guild was simply going to shit with all the crap going on without him. This was planned from the get go, I actually named Oromar's tavern in book 1 after him as a form of foreshadowing, and also because I wanted to see if anyone would remember it. I just couldn't find a good time for him to arrive and since I switched to Starvak's situation becoming untenable, I instead decided to go with him arriving at the proverbial last minute to take the reins. Oromar was also originally supposed to be like, D&D bard levels of charisma and persuasion. He was also supposed to have a giant codpiece (because centaur), but I decided against that because it was in extremely poor taste, and no I have no idea why I had that idea in the first place.

The way the Republic contacted Alexandra originally was not through Orzal's teleporter, but by capturing Sarah during the retreat, and then having General Coledar let her go. I actually have that section written, if you guys are interested in some mad scribblings. This would make Alexandra realize that the General was against the senate and willing to defy it (not to mention buy some of her good will), which would eventually lead to establishing contact and having them forge…well, not an alliance per se, but an understanding.

What else is there….Oh yeah. Alexandra was supposed to sort of clone Allya. Her third boss was supposed to be Allya in appearance, and called Mori (full name : Memento Mori), as tribute to her friend (they were supposed to be WAY closer originally, not just spending most of the previous novels being intensely paranoid about the other), with a Pyn golem added in, eventually as a full boss when she had the level.

And I believe that's it. Don't hesitate to tell me if you liked this bit of creative process/what could have been lore, and have a nice day ! Playwars, out.