@Durxa Thank you; I’m glad you enjoyed it! It is indeed going to take years to finish this, but I agree that quality is worth the wait. Morgana is described as having black hair and dark eyes, and that’s about it. I try to keep the character description minimal because I want the reader to be able to imagine the characters however they like. Lot was just over 30 when he married Morgana (twice her age at the time; sigh), so he’s almost 40 at the beginning of part 1. (btw the political background of why Morgana was married to Lot will be explained more in part 3.) Morgana is maybe like 80% attracted to women and 20% attracted to men. Thanks again for reading and for posting! (:
@derekmetaltron Aaaaaaaaah I will sooo need a Nottingham consultant when the time comes! I’ve spent several months in England, but never made it to Nottingham. (I’ve looked at a lot of pictures and read descriptions, though.) So if you’re still around if/when the time comes, I hope you’ll be able to give me some suggestions.
And speaking of suggestions…
…agree 100%, we definitely need more of that. Part 2 sets relationship flags for each of the main characters, so I should have an easier time writing not-at-all-romantic friend interactions once each relationship status is definitively “friends.” (Not that it can’t change later in the series, of course.) As for more flirting with Arthur, that can definitely be arranged.
It will impact the available endings in terms of who can inherit the kingdom, and it may impact which side various people/factions choose in the big conflict at the end. It shouldn’t affect the possible happiness of the ending; Guen and Arthur (or whoever) can definitely live happily ever after without children, and yes, they should be able to have a variety of endings similar to the Guen/Lance ones.
Thanks for the reply. Even though I see it happen all the time in the forums, it still surprises me that the authors talk to us lowly peons.
This could just be my lack of knowledge about these legends talking but, what exactly is Fae? Is it just another word for magic or is it something more? Also what do you mean when you write that Lancelot’s eyes are fae lit?
I’d guess they probably have a faint magical ‘glow’ (or some other trait that’s not typical of humans), indicating that Lance has some non-human heritage.
@Durxa Oh, talking to people here is what keeps me motivated to write. I couldn’t do without it.
Just as @OtherGrimm says, “fae” (etymologically related to “fairy” and “fey” as in “crazy” or “wild”) is something magical and otherworldly. “Fae” gets used for all kinds of things in fantasy lit. It tends to evoke the older, more dignified and scary ideas of “fairies” before the Victorians turned them into Tinkerbell – the kind of powerful, otherworldly figures that inspired Tolkien’s elves, and magic that isn’t necessarily good or bad, or aligned with human ideas of morality at all, but very dangerous.
At the moment, I’m using “fae” with deliberate ambiguity (like, I totally expect readers to think, “What does that even mean?” and then try to guess from context). It’s never going to get an exact definition within the series, but I hope it’s at least somewhat obvious that in Guen’s world, “fae” means natural magic that humans have little or no control over. Avalon is a sort of ancient nexus of fae magic, which we’ll see later on.
So what does it mean that Lancelot has “fae” eyes? Really that’s up to the reader! He and Morgana both have simply absorbed a lot of fae energy from growing up on Avalon, but it’s manifested in different ways. I try to describe the two of them in contrasting terms of light/dark, so Lancelot, the iconic knight in shining armor, is often associated with flashing/glinting/gleaming light imagery. Morgana’s fae nature is more evident in how powerful she is as a sorceress, and how well she understands magic in general.
I love the writer’s style. The book starts off slowly, but picks up the pace before long. The main plot is about an old couple looking for their long-lost son. Unfortunately, there’s a magic mist covering the land that impairs people’s memories, so the couple doesn’t actually remember the circumstances around their son’s departure. The two subplots concern 1: a Saxon warrior sent to get rid of the mist, and 2: the sole remaining knight of the round table, whose mission is unknown until the end of the book. Overall, the book is a little melancholic, but still a good read.
@jeantown It’s not a bad city, though speaking as someone who works in heritage they could do better with Robin Hood, the core experience of Tales of Robin Hood in the city centre shut down some years ago, which is a shame as it had some great stuff and a ride element too. Nottingham Castle is virtually all gone too, though I’ve seen a model of it circa 15th century so it looks pretty impressive. But I’ll be happy to give some suggestions! Long as we have John Little, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet, Much the Miller’s Son and Maid Marion (who if you’ve seen Maid Marion and her Merry Men on BBC back in the 90’s you’ll know was the REAL hero) with the Sheriff, Guy of Gisbourne and Prince John for villains we’ll be as golden as a gold arrow up for competition in an archery contest which is also a trap to lure that pesky Robin Hood.
Glad to hear about the friends part for Morgana and Lance especially, I definitely wanted my Guen to be able to say to him ‘I really respect you as a friend and I’m as confused about the touching thing as you, but I love Arthur so we can’t be together.’ And yay for flirting with Arthur! His awkward reactions are priceless.
That sounds really interesting about how it affects factions and the way things can end. Chances are that my Guen is likely to have a child with Arthur anyway - since I imagine her like Susan Storm she should hopefully be a great mother, even if her child might be a handful. I assume that whilst you suggested that the enchanted forest has something to do with helping Guen get pregnant if she wants, that we don’t have to have Arthur or Lance in our three person party to achieve that?
Edit: Also you might have answered this before but do we get to ever see Avalon in the story? It’s always been one of my favourite locales in fiction since I read about it in Marvel with Captain Britain and company.
I imagined fae eyes while reading as that his irises were moving a litle, a motion like waves, but only if you look at them closely enough.
Also a bit an offtopic about fae magic. In The Witcher books there is also Avalon, as a kind of hub between different dimensions, a dimension in itself full of magical powers. And strong magical beings kind of teleport themsleves there if i remember correctly. Actually one of the books is even titled “Lady of the Lake” although that is more kind of an twist/easter egg than having too much in common with Arthurian Legends.
As much as I find myself looking forward to any sort of update, I’m most eager to know why the hell Arthur was so sure that doppleGuen was the real one. I also, as much as I like the guy, really want to be able to lose my cool towards him when we meet up.
2)I’ve noted that if Guen decides to kill Hrothulf but Sir Bretta takes the blame for it, Meligaunt and Tilda still say that there are rumours that Guen executed him, and Guen has the same answer choices as when she didn’t hide that it was her decision. I think there should be an option for Guen to claim that she isn’t responsible for his death.
Iirc, it plays out a bit differently if Arthur spends the night in your room, with him climbing out your window while you can give your support, but my guess outside of that circumstance is that he believes it to be the real Guen because she has the missing pendant or something along those lines.
What leads to lance marrying Elaine?, I’ve read other Arthurian legends and she either fools him into thinking that she is guinevere and has to marry her because she gets pregnant or lance is pressured by Arthur into getting married
@derekmetaltron I’m surprised to hear that about the Robin Hood tourism. I’m sure some people find it silly, but there’s got to be money in it. I’ve seen pictures of what’s left of the castle, and yeah, it doesn’t look like much at this point. I’d love to see what it used to look like. Anyway, I do intend to include all of the classic characters (all the ones you listed plus Alan a Dale), and I’ve already worked out some basic personalities and backstories for my versions of them. It’s fun to think up personalities for characters who could be either male or female. Speaking of which, @Havenstone, I had no idea that was John Wayne’s real name! Wow! I was going to go with Marian/Marius, but now I think it will be Marian/Marion. “Lord Marion” sounds pretty good to me.
Your Guen should be able to have a more definitive version of that conversation with Lancelot at the end of part 2, once the source of the touching thing is discovered. They should be able to agree that they’ll try to break the “curse” so that things can just be normal between them. As for Guen getting pregnant, she will not have to take Arthur or Lancelot with her in the forest for that; all she’ll do in part 3 is set some things in motion that will result in her getting pregnant a few years later. (I do, however, think it’s likely that readers who are hoping for the Guen/Arthur/Lance ot3 will have to make that their enchanted forest party.) As for Avalon: yes, part 4 will be set in Avalon, and you’ll learn a lot more about it then.
@Druxa You’ll have that chance.
@WufyK 1) How old was Lot when he married Morgana? 31, I guess (I just have “early thirties” in my notes.) 2) Yeah, I definitely need to fix that. It’s in the part 2 edit notes now.
@Illmaster I’m going to keep that as a surprise, but there will be a couple of reasons. Elaine herself won’t trick Lancelot, and she won’t be pregnant when he marries her. People in general will be pressuring Lancelot to get married by part 3.
@jeantown If Mordred succeeds in taking over the kingdom (which I’m pretty sure he will in more than a few of my games), what exactly does he plan to do as a ruler? What’s his agenda?
I just noticed that we know all about Mordred’s views on human nature, but nothing about what the kingdom would actually be like under Mordred’s leadership.
Thanks so much for satisfying my burning curiosity!
Well, this is only my humble opinion about it. Mordred will rule like 90% of my playthroughs. He probably would be similar to The Spanish catholic king Fernando de Aragon. In Spain her wife is tons of more loved, famous and popular. The queen who have the balls to pawn her own jewelry to send Columbus to his travels, the queen who conquered the last Muslim kingdom…
But in that time in Europe every other kingdom were afraid of him, the clever fox. The greatest diplomat, he won wars before their rivals knew there was a issue. Ruthless, brave and clever. Cynical and analyst. Machiavelo dedicated some books to him. He had no piety for his enemies but established a fair and accurate justice system, poor people could go and accuse nobles and the nobles get punished. More freedom for free cities … New teachings.
It is indeed going to take years to finish this, but I agree that quality is worth the wait. Morgana is described as having black hair and dark eyes, and that’s about it. I try to keep the character description minimal because I want the reader to be able to imagine the characters however they like. Lot was just over 30 when he married Morgana (twice her age at the time; sigh), so he’s almost 40 at the beginning of part 1. (btw the political background of why Morgana was married to Lot will be explained more in part 3.) Morgana is maybe like 80% attracted to women and 20% attracted to men. Thanks again for reading and for posting! (: