@jeantown
Is ‘In order to protect the civilian population’ a good reason why-to? An invading army will at least pillage until difeated in a land battle to feed themsleves and quite probably do worse things too. And after they’re defeated it’s possible that remnants and deserters will escape and make the countryside unsafe. If the navy manages do defeat them at sea before they land, none of this would happen.
@fairlyfairfighter
The fae pet
Morgana
Lance
Merlin
Arthur
I don’t understand; why would a good character need to change ,in general? I understand that in this game, having a child with your own brother could change a person, but I don’t think all stories need change just for the sake of change.
I don’t like how in some otome games when you enter into a consenting relationship with and/or arevnice to a sweet, but usually dorky, overweight, or “ugly” guy, he randomly leaves to go on vaccation or something and comes back “hot” and with a new personality. I don’t like the message that someone will only like you if you change and being yourself isn’t good enough; I would have preferred it if the character just stayed the same. Though, I don’t think this will happen in your game.
Living changes people. As you go through life, you’re bound to learn and develop. Characters (depending on the genre at least) should, too.
I generally agree with Kinruush, but change for the sake of change is unappealing - though it depends on the change.
At the risk of annoying the nonMLP fans by using Friendship is Magic characters as an example: Rainbow Dash changing from a rather immature person to someone who is so committed to her principles that she’s willing to throw aside her lifelong dream to stand up for them doesn’t make her “not herself”, it makes who Dash is better - like tempering steel.
I’m pretty sure Jean can make Morgana’s growth like that.
I know almost nothing about ponies, but I assume that the trait of standing up for one’s beliefs is an improvement from the trait of immaturity.
So far, I don’t think Morgana has any flaws that were revealed to us. She can’t be accused of being naive or overly optimistic like some people may accuse Arthur of. She does not seem overly paranoid or agressive about situations. She is not a womanizer or mananizer like some people may fault Lance for (although, Tilda and Morgana notice his womanizing has stopped since meeting Guen). I don’t know how she can be improved without becoming a Mary Sue. I don’t know how she can be improved.
No human is perfect, not even Morgana.
Long time lurker, first time poster.
I am sure this was probably asked but will I be able to guilt Arthur and Morgana for the rest of their lives for having their incest baby Mordred? My Guen is absolutely in love with Arthur, but I know when something like that is gonna happen, she is not going to be able to forgive. Their betrayal is just going to be too much 
I think that perhaps what some of the change in Morgana’s character, or at least in Guen’s perception of Morgana, is that she might develop/reveal those flaws. “No human is perfect” is certainly an apt phrase, and definitely applies to Morgana. So far, we haven’t seen much, if anything to criticize, but I doubt it’ll remain that way in the future. Whether Morgana’s faults are something we see developed due to future events, or were there all along and there was never a proper situation to highlight them, I think that Morgana displaying some fallibility will be an important part of characterizing her. (I feel like I repeated myself a bit too much XD )
@jeantown When you say that Morgana’s major change is due to something sexual/romantic/with children, will this be for most of her major changes? Or will it be for just the one? (I’d assume more than one, given her love for her current children who will obviously change themselves as they grow older)
I don’t really dislike anybody except for maybe Guen’s father and that’s not so much dislike as it is disappointment. If I had to place the Characters in any exact order it would probably be as follows.
Morgana + Teddy.
Lance
Tristan/the Fae pet.
Maris/Bretta
Grimald/Meligaunt
Merlin
others.
I have no beef with Merlin but for me he’s just sorta there. I mean, yeah he has personality - and a wonky one at that - but his appearances are just so brief that he registers as little more than a minuscule detail within the story in my brain.
While I’m basically a living bonfire for Morgana (screw holding torches), Teddy bear is so sweet that even when I’m pursuing other relations/writing sonnets about Morgana, I find myself attached to him and thus I must consider my love for Arthur to be of a similar level; while I love Lance, it’s more as a friend/brother/comedic entertainment than anything else.
@Sovereign2Lilith: I think it’s less Jeantown changing Morgana for change’s sake and more, that realistically people change over time and Jeantown wishes to bring that element of realism to Morgana’s character. Honestly, I would be way more peeved If Morgana’s personality remained the exact same through every event in the game while other characters experience change.
Morgana indeed has flaws, I personally interpret Morgana as somewhat insecure and prone to withholding the truth/her feelings; from what I observe she also has a tendency to push herself to hard too. The flaws I see in Morgana (and the ones I don’t) only add to my love of her; I likes me some flawed Characters.
@Jeantown: this has nothing to do with Guen but I still have to ask: what exactly makes Furiosa your “Shero”?
I love good plot twists, but for some reason I’m not very good at putting them in my own plots. That said, I don’t think it’s fair to accuse me of hating plot twists just because I can’t incorporate a romance between the protagonist and the antagonist – that would take a LOT of story modification, and I’d never finish the thing. 
Indeed.
The FAQ I’ve written is already divided into parts, though I suppose there could be more division or subdivision.
No.
As I’ve said many times, it’s not an inventory-building game. If you want to imagine your Guen collecting such things for whatever reason, go for it.
Bad dreams / insomina. Or maybe that’s a symptom, but that’s how the health problems manifest when he’s a child. He also just has a relatively frail body by nature.
I’m glad to know that someone sees her flaws!
Yeah, humans with fae blood tend to be weird. The fae don’t think like humans and aren’t trapped in one form. Having just one brain for one’s entire life makes people with fae blood a bit crazy. In fact, the word “fae” is similar to “fey,” which means crazy (among other things).
The fey are shape-changers (compare the fae pet’s shadow form), and Merlin likes to turn himself and others into animal forms, in the spirit of T.H. White’s Merlin. He believes that spending time as an animal expands one’s perspective / thinking – stretches the brain a bit. It gives him a little bit of relief from the confines of a human brain.
Alcohol also gives him some relief from brain-confinement. It dulls his human constrictions and lets him access his fae nature a bit better. Of course, that just makes him seem even more weird and chaotic to others when he’s drinking, even if the fae part of him had a perfectly good reason for calling down that ice storm.
And also this.
I hope that the psychology of this will be interesting. If a person falls in love with someone else while under the influence of a purely physical lust spell, does it count? That’s a question that romanced Lance will have to deal with eventually.
Glad you found that part! It’s definitely Arthur at his worst. I mean, I hope (as @Elfwine says), it seems consistent with his personality and you can see where it’s coming from, but I find it interesting to think that we might never see the worst side of our friends and lovers because of the particular circumstances under which we know them – if we knew them as someone else, we might not like them at all… if that makes any sense.
In any case, @buggygirl11, PLEASE write your own game and share it with us! Given your incredible imagination for characters, I would love to read anything you write!
I’m really glad to know that you found it so. 
It took me a long time to figure out how to handle that conversation without it scope-creeping into a massive discussion of asexuality. And yeah, while Arthur pressuring Guen is definitely his worst self, at least he does accept what she says, think about it, and then agree to an asexual marriage! That’s a massive shift in perspective and expectations for him, and it happens very quickly.
Seriously? That would be wonderful! Though at this point there’s so much that it could almost be a wiki… If you do go through the whole thread, you’ll find that I’ve changed my mind on some stuff (that’s a natural part of the writing process). If you’re serious about doing this, you might want to note down the post number for each thing so we can track where I said what, in case it’s changed since I first said it. But again, if you’re willing to make a super-detailed FAQ, I imagine that people (including me) would be grateful!
Well, yes, of course, but I meant a good reason why-to in terms of the actual plot. Guen can’t summon up the British navy (such as it is) from her current position in Frankmarch, and the Franks will be making land by the time she arrives at Camelot. So we’re talking about future invasions, of which there may not be any until part 7.
Some people have already given their thoughts on this; here are some of mine. (Sorry if this is too lecture-y; it’s just something I care about a lot and am still struggling to implement well.)
In plot-focused fiction, characters don’t necessarily have to change. You can have a hard-boiled detective who solves a crime and is still the same person at the end that she was at the beginning. That’s fine; that’s a plot-focused story.
In character-focused stories like this one, the plot serves the characters instead of the other way around. The characters are the point. When characters go through life experiences and change accordingly, readers tend to have feelings about that – sympathy or revulsion or whatever – and that’s part of the emotional experience of character-focused fiction, and part of what connects the audience to the character and makes the character matter.
In character-focused fiction, the characters who matter the most, the “main” characters, go through changes. The guy with superpowers who started out as a selfish jerk realizes that he needs to becomes a better person and sacrifice himself for others. The side characters tend not to go through changes, or not as many changes. They sit there and provide information, motivation, or entertainment. But the character the audience connects with is supposed to be that main character learning to be self-sacrificing or whatever.
All too often, it’s the male characters who change and the female ones who don’t. Tony Stark gets to become a little less selfish and see things in a different way, while Pepper Potts stands there cheering him on and being practically perfect and never changing. She might get to kick some butt too, but the story’s not about her if we don’t see her going through some significant personal change (other than falling in love with the main character). It’s a pattern that supports the idea that women are wallpaper rather than real people. Real people change.
(Hence my love for Imperator Furiosa who, with Max’s help, changes from trying to help others escape, to helping them tackle their problems head-on, against impossible odds – she goes from escape-leader to full-on rebellion-leader. And, @Lazarus, she’s smoking-hot and competant and vulnerable and her motivations are selfless but she’s not perfect and I just ADORE HER.)
Anyway, end of lecture. You don’t have to agree with any of it, but that’s the explanation for why it’s so important to me that Morgana changes and develops as much as, or even more than, the male characters do.
That’s definitely not what will be happening here.
Change isn’t always for the better…
…as @hishman13 says.
Well, her first pivot-point will be Mordred’s conception, and after that I will absolutely never sexually traumatize her (or probably any other character) ever again. But her motivations will always be wrapped up in her children, all the more so as they get older. She’s the only one of the main three who can end up taking Mordred’s side in the final conflict.
She can also be a bit of a bossy older sibling and a busybody.
Thanks for delurking! Yes, Guen ought to be able to guilt Arthur and/or Morgana for a long, long time.
I suggest Witcher 3 Scene Last wish, search for it should prove interesting.
I love how long your posts are, despite it’s like the complete opposite of my posts. Also, (I know you probably already have an idea though) can you develop Morgana negatively, or have some scenes which reveal some unknown flaws. For example, you say Morgana:
And because you say also it implies the other points were true, so I’ll add:
too.
I’m not sure if this is accurate or just my conceptions, but people who push themselves hard and can be quite a perfectionist, so maybe a scene could show a more pedantic side to her. Or maybe she just cares for people too much. Either way, don’t make Morgana better or reveal some awesome stuff about her, or else my entire gameplay focused on getting her to like me. But it’s just a suggestion: I’m sure you already have a couple of scenes planned!
I always figured Morgana didn’t have much use for people…though this could also be due to their reactions to her exploration of dark magic.
I mean, just going with Celtic myths, sometimes dark magic could get really dark, and this would perturb people. I could almost imagine her taking the head of an enemy and using it to compel the truth from it (the talking head of Bran comes to mind).
@jeantown Alright, these Guencaps are getting huge, plus I have some commentary on the Morgana’s flaws discussion at the end, so I think I’m going to take this one Guen at a time. 
Disney Princess Guen is coming soon!
I did my first playthrough as an asexual Guen (why I haven’t done this before, I have no idea). As for her nickname…I think Conflicted Guen, at least for now (though if anybody has other ideas, let me know).
Brief Background/Childhood: Conflicted Guen was very close to her mother, who taught her to always protect the weak and innocent from those who would do them harm. She studied light magic with her mother both as a way to spend time together and as a way to put her mother’s teachings into practice.
When Conflicted Guen was older (I imagine about 11 or 12), she saw a group of soldiers raping a young peasant girl. Being young and inexperienced, she tried to pull them off the girl herself, but only succeeded in being shoved on the ground and laughed at by the soldiers. Conflicted Guen was furious at her own helplessness. There was an innocent girl being brutalized right in front of her face and she could do nothing about it. Right then and there, Conflicted Guen decided to learn to fight; so she would never be helpless again.
Book I/Book II: Though Conflicted Guen was a little sad about leaving her home to marry a stranger, she was willing to do it for her country’s benefit. She spent Book I wanting to be a good queen and protect the realm and fall in love with Arthur. But as much as she likes him and thinks he’s a good person…she just can’t make herself love him. Though this is NOT because of her asexuality (she’s asexual, not aromantic), the reasons why have everything to do with sex. Arthur pressuring her to have sex to make an heir in Part I intensified some already existing deep-rooted insecurities and feelings of inadequacy. Unlike some other Guens (Jerk Guen, Skanky Guen, etc.), who are totally comfortable with their sexuality, Conflicted Guen has always felt that her feelings of revulsion rather than desire towards sexual relations meant that there was something wrong with her. (And in medieval times, there were tragically far fewer people who would tell her otherwise.)
To Arthur’s credit, he did back off once Conflicted Guen explained, but her own insecurities never would. She constantly feels like a failure as a queen because she can’t make herself do what she feels she’s supposed to do (produce an heir with Arthur). And years of Arthur’s disappointed looks and fears for the kingdom’s stability after his death…aren’t exactly helping the issue. So no matter how much Conflicted Guen tried to love Arthur, she found it impossible to love someone who (albeit unknowingly) brings up all these negative feelings just by entering the room. Then her inability to love her husband makes her feel even more guilty.
With Lancelot, Conflicted Guen can just be herself. He doesn’t expect sex, he’s even relieved when she tells him she doesn’t want it…for the first time in her life, Conflicted Guen has been accepted for who she is. It feels amazing…she’s at the happiest she’s ever been when they’re together. It’s not until he leaves the room that all the feelings of guilt and inadequacy come rushing back, intensified further by the fact that she’s now cheating on her husband…but when they’re together, Conflicted Guen feels the first slivers of joy and love she’s felt since she married Arthur 3 years ago. And for that, it’s all worth it. 
Conflicted Guen became good friends with Morgana, and she greatly appreciates her caring and understanding nature. But she just hasn’t been able to tell her about being asexual. She’s thought about it several times, but she just hasn’t been able to get the words out. (Hint hint dialogue option please hint hint 
)
To compensate for her perceived failings as queen, Conflicted Guen plans to do everything possible to be the best queen humanly possible, even at the cost of her own life (though inside, she’ll never feel she’s good enough). This attitude might get her into some trouble fighting for her people in Camelot.
On Morgana’s Flaws… They’ve definitely been less highlighted than those of the other two main NPCs (so far, at least; that sounds like it’ll change in Book III), but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.
I noticed them a lot more while doing a replay as Ditzy Guen (who dislikes Morgana). She’s just trying to have fun in what has to be the greatest week in her life…and this annoying mother hen is KILLING HER BUZZ by her constant pestering if she’s okay… not to mention her majorly depressed aura. 
I could totally imagine Ditzy Guen doing an “I’m eighteen years old, stop treating me like a child!”
Then there’s her acting like a bit of a Know It All. Ditzy Guen was trying to be friendly and bond with Morgana through girl-talk and gossip when she told her about kissing Lancelot…and Morgana’s reaction came off as “As if I didn’t know.”
Aand…it looks like I sort of slipped into Ditzy Guen’s POV by mistake. Oops. But on a more serious note…Morgana is allergic to idiocy, and Ditzy Guen is not the brightest bulb. Her eye-rolling and impatience might be fine for dealing with Arthur (who is inexperienced and naive, not actually stupid), but for Ditzy Guen it just makes her feel bad about something she can’t change…which is rather messed up when you think about it. 
Hmm…you know, I’m not liking that nickname. Maybe Insecure Guen, mmm…
@jeantown
Yes, of course. I thought that improving the navy should be an option for Guen in the parts 3 to 6.
@buggygirl11
Platonic Guen?
From what I read, she’s in love (romantically) with Lancelot, though.
Jean will there be opportunities where Guen can completely wreck her enemies if done right.
I think actually outgambiting Mordred would be awesome, same as wanting do friendly sparing with lance and defeating him,or later having discusion on light magic with merlin.
all of these if Guen has high enought stats would well Like Awesome moment.
Long time lurker, first time poster. I guess I’ve been reading this topic for over a year now, greatly enjoying both discussion and game itself. Just wanted to pay my respects! Thank you for this wonderful game!
As tradition of this topic dictates, as a token of gratitude for all the @jeantown’s hard work one has to present his Guen, so:
My Guen holds dear her memories of childhood, always smiling when remembering it.
She was lucky – her parents truly loved her and each other. Her deepest memories are full of laughter, smiles and hugs, and Guen always feels warmth when thinking about it. She remembers how her mother used to smell and how her fathers beard made her laugh when they hugged, the feeling of a happy family got deeply carved into her very soul.
She did not immediately understood when her mother started to feel worse. She remembers how their riding lessons transformed into slow walks in the nearby park, how her mother started reading on a bench instead of playing with her, and she will always remember the first day when her mother would not stand from her bed. Somehow, she would know right there that everything would forever change.
It was on a next day that Guen woke up with a purpose. When her parents needed knowledge, they would go to a library, so it stood to reason for her to do the same. She found many theological books which described miracles and artefacts capable of healing even the terminal illnesses, yet her father only petted her on the head, stopping her tears.
Since then, her mother was always sick. Sometimes, she would feel almost as good as before and she would spent all day with Guen and her father, she would dress little girl herself at the morning, play with her all day and dance with her father at the evening, she would drink vine and eat three times more then her beloved. She would feel good for a day and would fall deeply sick for a week.
Little Guen would spent all her time buried in the library, trying to find answers that she already knew. Her mother was slowly dying and there was nothing anyone could do about it. It was in that desperate period of coping with a future loss that she would reject light magic as insufficient and sneak into her fathers cabinet to find books on the dark arts. Oh, how her father scolded her later, how deeply worried he was of her actions. His books never gave her anything – manuals on finding and fighting witches were not the same as actual teachings of one. A week later he himself presented her an old runic tome, which described the very basics of magic. Not the dark magic per se, but basic spells formulas and ingredients description. “It’s better if you learn what’s right than waste your time on superstitions”, he said.
And so she did.
She didn’t really like to study back then, her active almost tomboyish personality trying to find some action every time she was close to losing concentration. With time, though, books became the outlet, the way to cope with stress and almost the only hobby. Yet, even after years of studying as diligently as she could, she was no closer to curing her mother than she was back at the first day she felt sick.
With all of her being she could feel her mother wither away a little bit more every day, and tried her hardest to be there for her. She would come to her chambers every morning and spend as much time with her as she could, often trying not to cry, often crying anyway. Her mother would always be there for here, even now, whispering of the Goddesses will and of a bright future for her Little Guen. Her father would sometimes join them, but far more often he would go on a hunt, letting his pain die with another trophy.
That charade continued for many month, until one day Guens mother wouldn’t wake up.
After the funeral, she felt empty and forgotten for weeks, praying to and cursing all the gods at the same time. She felt helpless and alone while her father dealt with some kind of uprising.
She blamed him for her mothers death and her own loneliness, and vividly imagined how she’s going to curse him with some magic she could barely comprehend. Yet, when she saw him in the courtyard, his armor in blood and gaze even emptier then her own, she understood how selfish it was of her to think so.
Since then, she did everything she could to spend more time with him. She read him his letters and wrote back the answers, sometimes even adding her own words to his. It was painful for him to talk about her mother, and so they mostly talked of his duties and politics, or just recent news. Her father had but one passion aside from family – battles. It was this passion Guen learned to share in order to see him happy again.
With time, she felt almost like she did back before her mothers sickness. Though she grew up and her father became far more reclusive, she always knew that she loved her and her mother and would never love anyone else like that. The same unconditional love that she felt many years ago was with her once more.
And so, the time of innocence continued. She read books and talked tactics, and at nights she wondered if she will ever be so happy as her mother was.
Of course she agreed to a wedding with Arthur, how could she not? She couldn’t bare to disappoint her father and had no reason to think badly of her future husband. He was young, honest and destined for a great future – the best party a lady had any reason to hope for. And she felt this way all up to a point she actually went to a wedding.
She couldn’t feel more at home with Morgana even if they were at Cornwall – she reminded her of her own mother with the same love she had for her sons. She immediately knew they will become fast friends.
But then, her world spun around – she saw Lancelot. The very picture of a chivalry, he reminded her greatly of both prince Charming and her own father from the times she could barely remember. And this glint is his eyes, that unspoken promise her happiness even at the cost of his own life – she was sure that one was a delusion, but nonetheless – she couldn’t feel herself more appreciated even if she wanted to.
And Arthur, oh Arthur… She went to a wedding with an open heart, really. She hoped so much that her husband would make her feel like her own mother felt around her father. She wanted to melt in sight of him, wanted to feel her knees shaking, wanted to feel her thoughts dissolving around him – and felt almost nothing. The wedding itself made her feel even worse – having an assassination attempt at the alter and being saved NOT by a husband felt like a cruel joke. Why couldn’t Arthur save the day and not Lancelot?! Why couldn’t Arthur pick her a neckless to wear and not Lancelot?! She knew it was foolish, but she wanted to have a “happily ever after” while she only got “kind of okey” story at best.
At night, as nervous as she was, she tried to think of all what happened as of big misunderstanding. Of course she’ll come to love Arthur and he will of course love her if she does everything right from now on, right? And so she decided to give herself to him despite lack of any appropriate feelings. After all, that was their wedding night. It was alright, but somehow didn’t change her feelings to Arthur one bit. She just hoped that with time it will be different.
And then there were fireworks… Oh how she wanted to feel different towards Arthur, how she hated herself for thinking of Lancelot…
Bretta and Maris became Guens close friends quickly. Guen was truly glad she could surround herself with women (including Morgana) and hoped to concentrate of Arthur and finally fall in love.
Sadly, she didn’t. To make things worse, she was now a bit scared of Lancelot, too. Every time they touched it produced strange magical effect, and Guen liked to think she was way too smart to fall for magical effects like this one with no obvious setbacks – she definitely did not believe in Goddess showing her that her only happiness could be gained through betrayal of everything she held dear.
She was attracted to Lancelot, and knew that it was wrong. She didn’t love Arthur, and knew that it was wrong. Only Fluffy could truly understand her, and she was forever grateful to Morgana for him. She hoped to find happiness in motherhood, like Morgana and her own mother before, and couldn’t let go of hope to find feelings for Arthur.
And now, she doesn’t know what to do. Just kissed by Lancelot, who tries hard to fight the same feelings for her that she may have for him, Lancelot who came to her rescue when she thought all was lost while her husband went somewhere else, Lancelot who will gladly disappear from her life if that will make her marriage to Arthur just a tiny bit more bearable…
She just doesn’t know.
They part ways there, promising to lift this curse at first opportunity, yet Guen knows far too well that losing this feeling of being loved unconditionally is the last thing she wants. She sends Lancelot to Arthurs rescue – mostly just not to be with him now, just to be able to breathe, to think. She decides to go find Morgana so that they together could save Camelot, while Arthur is away.
So, my Guen doesn’t really feel much like queen. She cares deeply of family values and has a hard time accepting the lack of her happy ending by this point, but other than that, she doesn’t have strong feelings for Camelot or her people. She’s a bit naïve, I guess, and maybe even selfish, not to mention indecisive and childish, but friendly and willing to see the best in people.
Overprotective parents made sure what it will take a long time for her to truly grow up.
Once again, thank you for all you hard work and this brilliant piece of interactive fiction!
If my ask, how great Guens victory in Camelot may be? Is it going to be a [ win/lose ] resolution to a conflict or something more like [ epic_win / great_win / win / lose / epic_lose ] ?
GRAAAAAHHHH!!
Mr. @Alexandr_ol! You are making me want to go more into detail about my Guen’s history than I did! People stop opening floodgates, because then you can never get the floodgates of my brain closed!
You should apologize immediately!