November '22 AMA (Patreon)

Del Spaig asks:

"Re: the obnoxious highborn literary references, how far do you have those mapped out? Do you have a general intent for what each of the phrases mean? What stories they're referencing?"

They're all pretty off the cuff in their initial incarnation; often I give them no deeper thought than the bites of word salad that make it onto the page.  But letting those grow organically is fun; that's how the overarching story of Conzart as a classic fool (in both the literal and tarot sense) emerged.  Others may develop over time.  I'm having fun with it as the opportunity rises to throw them in, and playing it by ear.

Sleepless asks:

"How does the goblin strength buff work on Seiji and the Queens? Is it a constant increase that they instinctively know how to control or is it something they have to consciously activate? Its been mentioned that Seiji is in the best shape of his life, so I figured his strength increase would be noticeable if he was using it."

On-screen detail on that is coming, but in short it's very intuitive, since the goblin strength is a magical rather than a physical attribute.  They can lift and hit harder as needed but their mind-body connections compensate automatically so there was no adjustment period necessary.

Hakurei06 asks:

"Radatina mentions in 3.15 that “If you’re touched by Void magic, you can’t hide it from your familiar—and no familiar would conceal that.”  

With that in mind… Vanderhoen and Minnie?"

That one's a RAFO.

Lurker number 5 asks:

"Have you ever played a table top rpg and if so thoughts?"

I didn't have the opportunity until just a year or two ago, actually.  I didn't play, but I was invited to sit in on a game being placed via discord.

It's not for me.  Probably the fault of too many years of video games before I tried it out, but I can't imagine wanting to do basically the same thing without the visual and auditory aids and a machine to instantly handle all the math for me.

Dylan Shulz asks:

"You reference Japan and their culture a lot. Have sou ever been, and how did you find it?"

I've not had the opportunity, though I'd love to someday.  

The references in OVDT are deliberately bare minimum, the basics necessary to tell this particular story.  On the contrary, OVDT is very carefully structured so that all the issues dealt with by its protagonist and other Japanese characters are either universal to humanity or specific to them.  I have taken pains not to put myself in a position of commenting on Japanese culture, as I don't think that's my business or my place to do.

Kingbob asks:

"How do the goblins feel about Yoshi, now that things have settled down a bit?"

He seems like a good kid; the Dark Lord likes him, anyway.  And pretty easy to manipulate and outmaneuver, should that relationship sour.

Russell Todd asks:

"Is there an Ephemera equivalent of banana for scale?"

That's basically what the official measurements are.

Marc Juul asks:

"Are any of the past heroes or dark lords from earth's future from Seiji's perspective?"

They are all from approximately the same era.

AllenR asks:

"What is your favorite ice cream flavor?"

I've never actually had my favorite ice cream flavor.  I really like the butter ice cream in butter pecan, but frankly I could do without the pecans.  Chewing them is less trouble than picking them out, though, so I make do.  Now that I have an ice cream maker I need to whip up my own sometime.

Too Much Sanity May Be Madness asks:

"Described in terms that will not spoil anything for us now but will be unambiguous in hindsight after we reach that point, what event are you looking forward the most to writing (and having us read) in Book 4 of OVDT?"

The voices of his ancestors.

H L asks:

"Is Sakin gone for good?"

Yep, he's dead.

Pineapple asks:

"Are miracle created cities also socially stratified by design, or are they smart, densified, mixed use urban spaces?"

They're quite variable.  The universal traits are that they are incredibly beautiful and durable, and contain features totally unavailable to other cities at Ephemera's technology level, such as automatic street lights and self-maintaining sewer systems.  Aside from that, it depends entirely on the needs of the particular culture buying the miracle in question, how accommodating either goddess feels like being toward said needs, and her own aesthetic whims in the moment.  Lannitar and Shylverrael look nothing alike - though in the case of those two examples (the only ones named in the text so far), neither happens to be designed around built-in social stratification.

Saltymen asks:

"What is contraception like on Ephemera? How are these whores getting venerial diseases but no pregnancies? Are there magical/alchemical solutions or do they just do the pull-out game?"

It's all alchemy.  The presence of slimes and khora products means Ephemerans have different - though not necessarily superior in many cases - chemical and medical capabilities than Earth cultures at a comparable level of development.  Reliable and convenient ways to prevent or terminate pregnancies are among the things even poor Fflyr have access to.  This has other effects on society, of course, though I haven't found a good enough reason to delve into those topics on screen yet.  It's always a challenge to limit my urge to worldbuild to plot-relevant subjects.