"'It was revealed by her tread that she was fireborne.'"

[draconicinfernoviper]

Politics Post-Furysong: Bassilea

Now, for the third-to-final country which I imagine would undergo major institutional changes, both good and bad: Bassilea. Unlike the other countries, factions in these countries wouldn’t negotiate over charters or give the opposition high-ranking positions within the state architecture.

During those three months Annie and the few Guardians who accompanied her were in Vask, I imagine that they and their dragons were the only things keeping traditionalists in line. Only a month after they left, Froydrich would declare his claim to the throne, regroup his forces and establish a court in the southern parts of the empire, and start a succession war.

Froydrich’s succession war would last two years and end with a win for Freyda, who still keeps her seat in Vask. Freyda’s faction would had occasional military assistance from Guardians like Lotus and Darius, who weren’t doing much for the rebuilding efforts but surveillance.

Freyda’s first act during her initial ascension ceremony, before the succession was challenged, besides announcing a partnership with Callipolis would be to free the slaves in her personal staff. She told Lee that she was willing to give the common people a voice, and she wouldn’t back down on that promise, not when it would ruin her main foreign alliance. She would frame this as a new beginning for Bassilea, an era of freedom.

Though most of her time during the war with Froydrich was spent in strategy sessions or on the battlefield, whatever little time she had left she used to implement small reforms. Freeing her slaves was only the first of these reforms. Under her father and previous Bassileons over the past 500 years, the empire was becoming increasingly more decentralized yet more socially stratified. The version of Bassilea her father ruled was similar in administration to the Achaemenid Empire (very decentralized, with powerful local satraps being so powerful that they were very nearly as powerful as the God-King) and yet similar in court organization to the Sasanian Empire (purely Bassilean staff with a strict hierarchy). Freyda, who enjoyed reading political theory and philosophy amongst other subjects, was highly inspired by Atreus’ Revolutionary Manifesto. She would make it easier to climb the ranks of palace staff and start education programs for her freed slaves. Most of them would go on to become logistical managers, stewards, couriers, and so on. Her most elite former slaves (like Betsuna) were put into managerial roles over her personal staff. Betsuna would become her personal steward, and another elite former slave would become the palace steward.

When he noticed her more progressive leanings honed by her earliest governesses and ladies-in-waiting, the God-King would have immediately replaced the entirety of Freyda’s ladies-in-waiting, governesses, and maids of honor with more traditionalist-leaning ones, but the interest that her original governesses and tutors cultivated in her by giving her books like the Revolutionary Manifesto would endure, and this would lead her to be much more progressive than her later coterie of noblewomen.

While her ladies-in-waiting were safe from constantly being switched, the God-King wasn’t yet secure in his daughter’s maids of honor, so he switched them year after year to ensure that they didn’t build a friendship with his daughter and absorb any of her worldview.

Given this, the way Freyda reshuffled them would be different. The ladies-in-waiting would either become war diplomats, representing Freyda and trying to negotiate peace with Froydrich’s faction, or advisors relating to any lingering traditionalist nobles in her court. The maids of honor would either become delegates, training under the war diplomats, or train under the advisors.

She would replace the conservative ladies-in-waiting and maids of honor with more progressive ones, who would become secretaries, advisors, and regional/local administrators. Since a lot of her focus had to be on the war and she was ruling a very decentralized empire where nobles essentially did whatever they wanted as satraps, she would create an order similar to the Greatcoats in Sebastien de Castell’s Greatcoats series, who would go around as traveling magistrates enforcing the Queen’s Codes.

During the war period, she would also maintain a mobile court in order to better counter the opposition’s attacks. While Froydrich wanted to attack Vask, his generals would tell him to first pelt weaker border towns and villages, and Freyda would always be at the ready and on the move.

While Freyda initially only took Froydrich’s dragon and paraded it around during her ascension ceremony as Queen of Bassilea when backed by Annie, after her side’s victory in the war, during her second ascension ceremony, she would take no chances. In order to secure her empire’s legitimacy, she kept Azuleth in the lairs at Vask.

Upon Freyda’s taking the throne, Froydrich’s faction seceded and there were thus two Bassilean Empires: the Northern Bassilean Empire, ruled by Freyda, and the Southern Bassilean Empire, ruled by Froydrich (or, more accurately, shadow-ruled by his and Freyda’s closest paternal female cousin, who married Froydrich shortly after the war because she was now Froydrich’s closest paternal female relation besides his sister, who obviously wasn’t going to marry him for him to ascend the throne).

While Froydrich’s empire devolved into Russian-style feudalism, Freyda’s empire flourished. She disbanded her Greatcoats and instead created a true petition system, which maids of honor and ladies-in-waiting would become administrators within.

The way this system worked was that there were weekly local petitions for small issues and grievances. If an issue was deemed pressing and “large” enough in scope, or if it involved a corrupt local administrator, it would go to the regional level, where petitions would be held bi-weekly. Finally, there would be central petitions in Vask, for truly pressing or broad-scoped matters, which would happen monthly. Each central petitions would have a “theme” (finance, agriculture, etc.), but if it really was urgent, Freyda heard general petitions after the main session.

Part on Annie’s alliance with Freyda was the assurance that she would instate a constitutional monarchy. If she refused to do that, then beyond backing her claim to the throne and helping in securing her throne for a while, Callipolis would retract its alliance with Bassilea. Annie was very laissez-faire about the contents of the Bassilean constitution, stating that all it had to do was limit Freyda’s power and make her accountable to the people in some form.

Freyda’s second major change would be to instate an Estates-General. Since she wanted to grant as little power as possible to the remaining old-guard satraps, she structured the Estates-General so that old-guard satraps who remained still had votes, but they could be easily outvoted by the more mid-tier nobles. However, the most revolutionary part of this framework was that commoners were represented. This would be an advisory council, called upon by Freyda whenever she needed its counsel.

The next change would be the creation of a parliament, similar to the Polish-Lithuanian Sejm. It would have two chambers, none of which including old-guard satraps, who already had votes within the Estates-General. The first chamber would be comprised of new-guard satraps and lower-mid tier nobles, and would sit directly within court. The second chamber would include more minor nobles. The second house was in charge of proposing laws and budgets, and the first house had a delaying veto. However, if after three sessions an agreement on a bill hadn’t been reached, Freyda had an absolute veto.

She also heavily based her institutions upon Atreus’, but kinder. Commoners could petition under her and they had representation within the Estates-General. Freyda wanted her empire to be based on merit-based social advancement, and, to that effect, genuinely put an effort to make it possible for commoners with standard public education to get elite roles. Her empire’s version of the metals test would happen at age ten. Three years later, after students got their results, got a broad education in whatever their tier had to do, and was evaluated, they would be placed in a path which somewhat complemented their strengths. Similarly to Callipolis and Norcia, Bassilea didn’t send criminals to cells. However, unlike Callipolis and Norcia, who made their criminals do mostly public service, Freyda’s version of Bassilea sent them to do hard labor for an allocated amount of time.

[draconicinfernoviper]

Aurelian Cycle Geography

After rereading the books and noticing how differently members of each Triarchal family were described appearance-wise (Stormscourges tending to have pale skin, dark hair, gray eyes, and high cheekbones, Aurelians tending to have golden skin, dark hair, and black eyes, and Skyfish tending to have brown skin, brown eyes, and curling dark hair), I became interested in trying to pin down the inspiration for different Callipolan regions. After looking back at the map, I settled on this:

Callipolis city (home to the Aurelians): I imagine that the capital was inspired by north-central Mediterranean cities, particularly those which are most northern and just slightly central. The Upper Bank, home to dragonborn and patricians, was build on the side the Fer nearer by the lowlands. This meant that the Upper Bank had slightly warmer summers and winters, with average temperatures in the winter being in in the low-to-mid 50s Fahrenheit (11-12.7 Celsius) and the average summer temperatures range from 80-85 Fahrenheit (26.6-29.4 C). The Lower Bank, home to Callipolan commoners, would have slight more manageable summer temperatures, but winters would be bitingly cold due to them being nearer to the highlands. Summer temperatures would hover between 79-84 F (26.1-28.9 C) and winter temperatures would be much colder, 44-47 F (6.6-8.9 C). The skin tone of the Aurelians would be a fair, fiery golden-olive. I imagine that a certain fieriness in their skin tone would be shared by all dragonborn families in Callipolis, as well as golden or gilded tones.

Harbortown: Situated on the Near Lowland coast, it would be significantly warmer than the capital, but much less muggy than the lowlands proper due to being on the coast. Summers would rest between 82 and 86 F (28-30 C) and winters would be 53-57 F (11-14 C). Assuming Crissa’s appearance is common in Harbortown, I’d say that honey-gold skin, blonde hair, and bright eyes is the generic Harbortown appearance.

Skyfish Summer Palace: Located a bit further along the lowland coast, I imagine (contrary to its name) that it was actually the Skyfish family’s winter/spring residence. Due to the bitter cold of winters in the capital and the muggy heat of the Summer Palace in summer, Skyfish House would return to their native lowlands for the winter, stay for the spring, and then return to the capital for the summer. The temperatures here would be similar to Harbortown, but a touch warmer. The Skyfish lords who stayed at the Skyfish Summer Palace entirely for the “lowland half” of the year would have a satinwood skin tone with a warm and polished, fiery sheen.

Near Lowlands: Here, the weather would get a slight bit warmer, but the north-central Mediterranean lowland climate would be maintained. Under the Triarchy, Near Lowland serfs were expected to have their main growing season in the winter/spring, when their lord was staying in the lowlands.

Middle Lowlands: Similar to Nearhall, I imagine that the Drakarch of the Near Lowlands had a property in the Middle Lowlands where he stayed with his family while he did his regular oversight of his serfs. It was a rule in the Skyfish family that drakarchs cannot stay in the Summer Palace while handling administrative duties related to the serfs in their land holdings, in order to maintain the “purity” of their palace. The temperatures here would be slightly warmer than the Near Lowlands. The manor would be called Villa Sorgente. Drakarchs of the Near Lowlands maintain the most golden-brown skin tones possible for Skyfish lords, sitting at an amber tone.Far Lowlands: The warmest lowland region, which Delo was originally meant to inherit before Palace Day. Similarly to Farhall, there would be a Drakarchic seat here, too, which formerly belonged to Nestor and (presumably) went to Power very briefly in Furysong when Delo returned to Callipolis. It would be called Rivalonga, and serve a similar function to the Villa Sorgente. As a child, Delo far preferred the Skyfish Summer Palace even though Rivalonga was a humbler abode because he disliked the reason his family was there (overworking and overseeing the serfs). Before arriving on New Pythos, I imagine Delo’s skin was a deep golden praline, similar to brown sugar, with a fiery glow. After, during the Long-Awaited Return, it had become satinwood due to lack of sun in Norcia.

While Delo was satinwood, Power’s skin would sit exactly the same as Delo’s, but earthier, at a warm, deep smoky toffee-almond. They’re described to have a similar deep brown skin tone in the book, but I made it so that him and Power essentially have the same skin tone, but Delo’s is shinier and more metallic, while Power’s is more earthy.

Near Highlands: Rock sur Bast’s home and the provenance of the Drakarch of the Near Lowlands under the Triarchy. This was by far the warmest of the highland region, being nearest to the capital. Summer temperatures here hover between 65-70 F (18.3-21.1 C), and it has the mildest winters for the highlands.

Middle Highlands: Home to the Drakarch of the Near Highlands/Triarch of the West and his family fr the summer and early autumn. This part of the highlands has extremely lush greenery and temperatures ranging from 60-65 F in the summer. It also contains the majority of other Stormscourge manors, as nobody besides the Drakarch of the Far Highlands really wants to stay in the Far Highlands due to how cold it is compared to the rest of the highlands. Before the Revolution, Julia and Ixion would be a fiery, gilded sort of ivory. After the Long-Awaited Return, Ixion would look similar to a marble statue. Meanwhile, Rock would start off similar to Annie, but would end up a warm sort of oatmeal.

Far Highlands: Birthplace of Annie sur Aela and Lee sur Pallor. Farhall would be located as close as physically possible to the Middle Highlands as it’s possible to be while still being in the Far Highlands. It would look like a small paradise, way above the serfs’ reach. Its temperatures in the summer would range from 58-60 F, the highest the Far Highlands have to offer. There would be a few other Stormscourge manors around Farhall which would share the temperature range. Members of Stormscourge House would range from warm ivory to warm cream, depending on which highland region they spend most time in. Moving to the actual farming villages, those nearer to the Middle Highlands would have summer temperatures ranging between 55-57 F, and those in the Far Highlands proper would be 50-55 F. Before the Revolution, Lee was a gilded alabaster. When we first meet him nine years after the Revolution, he would be an apricot-olive, still pale by Callipolan standards, but noticeably warmer than before since he began training to become a dragonrider. Annie, on the other hand, would be veined and sallow due to a childhood of famine, with angular, jutting bones. When we first see her in Fireborne, she would sit at a cool sand tone, pale and fair with a grainy quality.

The Vassal Islands: I imagine that each family had its own vassal islands, and it was mainly only the bastard children of the two main branches of each of the Three Families who were sent there. Due to being located in the Medean, they’re warmer than their mainland counterparts. While Stormscourges were normally a warm, gilded ivory, ha’Stormscourges on the vassal islands had creamy nectarine skin which became honey-wheat. While Aurelians had fair golden-olive, Grayroses (Aurelian Bastards) would be brass-toned now. Finally, ha’Skyfish (Skyfish Bastards) would have started off as a warm, matte sort of golden-brown, and after ten years in Norcia, would become a cool, deep ash-bronze. The vassal islands would have a northeast-central Mediterranean climate (the ones nearer to Harbortown; their climate would be slightly warmer than the coastal Skyfish Summer Palace and Harbortown) or a more northwest-central Mediterranean climate (the ones nearer to the highlands).

Norcia: I imagine Norcia to be quite similar being similar to the highlands of County Donegal in Ireland. In-universe, they would be quite similar to the Far Highlands, specifically the climate in Farhall and manors surrounding it, though with slightly colder summer lows (55-60 F). I imagine that a lot of Pythian architecture was also similar to Farhall, with that being their closest reference, but the Provisional Palace and the citadel were a lot plainer than Farhall (ending up looking more similar to an expanded version of Farhall’s original watchtower than any of its later renovations). The Provisional Palace was also quite asymmetrical due to the Pythians having forgotten the construction techniques for the citadel and no longer having people for reference with Callipolis no longer being an ally, essentially just being a cluster of towers around a small central structure. I imagine that Farhall had four main structures, each built 250 years apart. The first was the watchtower, which faced the farming villages of the Far Highlands for surveillance purposes. This was the residence of Stormscourge House and its scouts for 250 years. The next structure was similar to Armadale Castle in the Scottish highlands, except smaller. Before the Revolution, it housed the bulk of Stormscourge House’s servants and was not as much a priority for the lords to maintain in tip-top shape. The next structure would be similar to Fyvie Castle, in recent times quartering the regular guests that come and go from Farhall after the lord hosts them. Finally, there would be the structure occupied by the lord, his family, any extended family, and honored guests. This structure would have two main wings, with towers around the outside for house servants. The first would be similar to Inveraray Castle, built of stone which was gray with a greenish sheen in certain light. When this structure was built, it was a Triarchal tradition of sorts to have a double-door entrance, quite near each other, that converged in an opulent foyer upon entry. One entrance for lords, the other for ladies. The lords’ door would have a stormscourge dragon breathing fire embossed in the arch. The ladies’ door would look sort of like pictures of the Armadale Castle entrance. When it came to quarters, as done in history, the lord and lady would have separate chambers, connected by a gallery, further reinforcing the expectations for ladies vs lords. The ladies’ chambers would face Farhall’s expansive gardens, while lords’ chambers would face the grounds (specifically the Trav). The children’s wing of the structure would be meant to reinforce these expectations all the more. For children younger than ten (ages 7-9), chambers would be sea-facing, fully. Sons’ rooms would have a more craggy, rugged, yet still fairytale-esque view. Meanwhile, daughters’ rooms would have a similar view of the sea, but their sea views would have a carpet of oceanic flora floating along the sea. Children aged 10-18 would also have sea-facing views, but not purely sea-facing, though they would progressively lessen as they grew older, showing more of the gardens/Trav until there’s barely a slice of sea showing. There would be a cluster of rooms by the adults’ wing of the main structure. Half of these rooms would be for sons/daughters aged 7-9. The other half would be for sons/daughters aged 16-18. The first half of this cluster would be purposely designed to make access to parents easier, while the second half was designed to project maturity of near-adult children and show them as being on the cusp of adulthood. On the outside of this cluster, closer to the 7-9-year-olds’ rooms, would be 10-12-year-olds’ rooms. On the outside of the cluster on the other side would be the 13-15-year-olds’ rooms. In the children’s wing, as well as the second structure of Farhall, servants would stay in the towers, in very cramped quarters.

Bassilea: Assuming that the climate gets more Mediterranean the further south one goes, then Bassilea would be warmer than Callipolis, with northern Bassilea being southwest-central. Vask would be the most “central Mediterranean” climate in northern Bassilea, similar to Lazio, Italy. The rest of Bassilea would get warmer. The middle of northern Bassilea would have a balanced southwest-central Mediterranean climate, while the more southern part of northern Bassilea would have more of a southwest Mediterranean climate.. Southern Bassilea would be southwest climate proper, getting warmer the further south one went.

Damos: I imagine Damos’ climate is a mirror image of Bassilea’s. While northern Bassilea is southwest-central Mediterranean, northern Damos is southeast-central. Whereas southern Bassilea is southwest Mediterranean proper, Damos is southeast Mediterranean proper. Damos City is southeast-central, just grazing southeast, mostly central. Since Duck and Cor’s parents and Megara’s parents were Damian (maybe even from Damos City) and the climate in Damos is much warmer than Callipolis, I imagine their golden-olive skin was much warmer than the Aurelians’, a sort of bright rather than fair golden-olive. Since Duck, Cor, Megara, and Megara’s brother Lex were raised in Callipolis and not Damos, they still maintained a warm golden-olive skin tone, though noticeably lighter than their parents’. Megara’s and Lex’s would be jade-gold, while Duck’s and Cor’s would be saffron-beige due to Guardian training exposing them to the sun a lot more as children, while Megara and Lex were exposed to the sun less due not having Guardian training, and not working outdoors (Megara definitely didn’t spend most of her time outdoors, while Lex likely didn’t).

Isca: Griff describes Isca as “too warm, too dry”, and the summit room was open to the air when he attended the Medean League. Given this, I imagine Isca is similar to southern Greece specifically. Not the southern-most part of Greece, but far to the Greek south.

Aureos: Given that dragons are native to old Aureos, it’s probably exceedingly warm there. Like burning, scalding hot. I imagine that old Aureos was similar to the extreme south of Greece, like the Peloponnese coast and Crete.

[draconicinfernoviper]

Not a political headcanon this time, but something I was thinking about was Ethelo possibly tutoring Astyanax pre-Liberation. He’d still mostly have his regular, elite tutors, but every Friday, Ethelo would be Sty’s tutor. These lessons would be his absolute favorite. Sometimes, when he was extremely well-behaved, Phemi would be sent to tutor him on Fridays.

Since Ethelo was a passus, and likely not much included in anything related to the Long-Awaited Return until final decisions were made nor very involved in court, I imagine he’d have a lot of free time on his hands. Delo, and to a lesser extent Phemi, would be busy with planning and training and court due to being riders. His tutoring Sty would be, in his father’s words, “a way to make himself useful.” Despite the circumstances in which he began tutoring Sty, he’d find that he enjoys it and Sty would declare Ethelo his favorite tutor to anyone who would listen.

Phemi would be his “reward” tutor because Astyanax, like any dragonborn child, was naturally very enthusiastic about dragons, and nobody else who rode a dragon (besides Delo, but of course he was too busy, and his father thought tutoring a seven-year-old was “weak”) would be up to the task, not even his older brother or sister.

This arrangement would make it so that the Skyfish who actually ended up raising him after his parents died (Delo) would be the one he was least familiar with before his parents died, while the “irrelevant” younger son (Ethelo) was the one Astyanax was most familiar with, kind of mirroring their positions within their families (the youngest, irrelevant, non-dragonriding son of the main branch of their House).

However, I imagine that both Ethelo and Astyanax would go on to be quite relevant. Ethelo, with his humor and charm, would become a very well-known facilitator diplomat, who hosts events like feasts to finalize treaties. Meanwhile, Astyanax would end up becoming a successful naval architect who revolutionized Norcia’s trade ships. When Norcia was still New Pythos, it used a ship design known as “dragon ships”, trading ketches with airframe wing-towers and planing hulls to make it seem as if they were flying. The dragonlords forwent the larger brigantines and snow ships due to a lack of merchants and sailors to utilize them. These dragon ships could carry a good amount of cargo while only being sailed by a few sailors. After the Liberation, Norcians naturally wanted to destroy the “dragon ships” and replace them. However, they were at a loss when actually brainstorming alternate ship designs, since they didn’t know the first thing about ship design. Astyanax, who had an early interest in drawing fantastical ships, would become deeply interested in naval architecture and come up with a ship design with an axe-bow hull and gantry towers with kite sails, medium to large in size. He’d also modernize their fishing fleet, though the fishing boats would still have pure sails.

Overall, I imagine that Bassilea and Isca would be the only countries which maintain schooner-type dragon ships post-Furysong. Damos never really had them, and Callipolis and Norcia would get rid of them completely, except as historical artifacts. Bassilea’s dragon ships would be large and looming, just like their native goliathans. Iscan dragon ships are small and nimble, like their native teal dragons.

[draconicinfernoviper]

Was I the only one who liked the fact that the Darkling had other names in the show? Like, it makes sense for young children to call him the Darkling since he’s always cloaked in shadow and generally a creepy guy. But I feel like the Black General is so much more imposing while still having that allure, and makes so much more sense for the First Army to use. Finally, General Kirigan. This makes the most sense for the Grisha to use, since he’s their general, they follow him, and they would likely want to call him a less “detached” name than the Darkling or the Black General, something which signified they were his soldiers, and calling him an actual name rather than an alias makes a lot more sense.

I’m actually making these other names a thing for the Darkling in my rewrite of the series. Young children who fear the shadows and the dark and get told stories about the fearsome Darkling would know him as the Darkling. After joining the army, they would gradually shed calling him “the Darkling” for the alias the rest of the First Army uses, the Black General. Then, if a child is Grisha, they would cycle through both those aliases by their third year in his service, when they would begin calling him General Kirigan.

[draconicinfernoviper]

Kaz, Jesper, and Wylan

I saw this comment on Reddit a few months back which really fascinated me. It was about Katz’s perception of Wylan and Jesper in relation to his past.

Obviously, Kaz saw Jesper somewhat as Jordie and thus tried his best to keep Jesper out of trouble and even called him Jordie in Crooked Kingdom.

But the part of that comment which really was something I never thought of before was that Kaz saw Wylan as somewhat similar to his younger self, naive and in far beyond his depth. They both even got to the Barrel in a similar way: alone at sea, having to swim their way there and reinvent themselves.

[draconicinfernoviper]

Just finished the Aurelian Cycle and both Lee and Delo immediately reminded me of Ali in different ways.

Lee is the side of Ali which is staunchly uncompromising in his beliefs. The side that will stare down his family with no regret, just because it’s the right thing to do. The side that’s ready to fight his family to defend his idea of rightness.

While Delo also ends up turning on his family, he’s fundamentally more pacifist than Ali. And he never really turns on his family, not the way Ali stands with the shafit over Muntadhir and Ghassan. How Delo reminds of Ali is that he genuinely does not care how he’s perceived, if he’s seen good or bad. He just cares if what he’s doing is right.

I will say, in terms of family dynamics, Ali maps onto Delo perfectly. Delo has two younger siblings whom he loves to pieces, a father whom he has a complicated relationship with, and a mother who he close to before she died.

In fact, when you look at their life situations, it’s Delo who parallels Ali the most. Both of them grow up royalty, are very moral and care for rightness above all things.

[draconicinfernoviper]

I usually do political headcanons/theories on this tag (and on my other tags), but I finished Furysong (Aurelian Cycle #3) recently and I’m rereading An Ember in the Ashes, and Helene Aquilla and Julia Stormscourge seem really similar to me, except that Helene ended up genuinely cleaning up her act while Julia stayed scummy all the way until she died, and was even proud of being scummy. Freyda Bassileon also seemed similar to Helene in some small ways.

They both grew up in extremely patriarchal societies which frequently underestimated women, and ended up rising to the top, Helene becoming Blood Shrike, then Shrike/Empress Regent, then full Empress and Julia becoming Firstrider, commander of the Pythian dragonriding fleet. They were also both from high classes and elite houses: Helene from Gens Aquilla, one of the Empire’s finest Illustrian houses, and Julia from Stormscourge House, one of the three triarchal dragonriding houses.

They start off the series essentially at the same point, extremely loyal to a tyrannical and oppressive system (Helene being loyal to the Empire and Julia being loyal to the Triarchy-in-Exile), seeing those at the bottom (Scholars/serfs) as less than dirt.

However, where Freyda’s similarity to Helene comes in is that she thinks the lives of all her people are valuable, just as Helene did when she told Argus and Visselius (I think) that Plebeian lives weren’t inherently less valuable than Illustrian or Mercator lives in the third book. However, the difference is that Freyda applies this thinking (as we see, anyway) to those who are unfree, those who aren’t seen as people (who, in Furysong, were Annie and other serfs), while Helene applies this thinking only to those who she considers her own people, only those who are free.

While Helene does have masterful character development, I’m still equating her to Julia Stormscourge (specifically if Julia had turned good) instead of Freyda is because Freyda used her power to defend serfs and slaves when they were still enslaved/unfree, as seen when she antagonized Ixion, Julia’s brother, to defend Annie, who was a serf who had been working the entire book to foil her plans (which she knew, by the way), while Helene only began defending Scholars like Laia and Darin after they were free and legally considered people.

Don’t get me wrong, Helene is a great character and a good person, while Julia is genuinely a scumbag who still supports an oppressive system after she realizes how oppressive it is (she does tell Lee that him and her don’t have to be like their fathers, but it’s clear that she was just saying that to get Lee to come along with her, not because she actually believed it for a second), while Helene works to create a better Empire and straight-up tells every single person gathered to “follow some else” if they wish for the old way when she’s made Empress.

As rulers, though, I imagine that Helene and Freyda would be extremely similar, both running very centralized empires which give a voice to the people the way previous regimes never did and were generally much more progressive than their forebears.

[draconicinfernoviper]

Alternate Universe Jeyna at Camp Jupiter

So, I’ve been thinking a lot about a sort of alternate universe where Jason was put in the First Cohort purely because of his birth and going along with this. In this version, the minimum age to become a probatio in the Twelfth Legion would be age six, but of course, Juno would pull some strings to make it so Jason was made a probatio at age three, in the First Cohort.

Jason would have grown up forced into positions of leadership and put on the occasional flashy quest to pad his leadership resume. At age ten, he was made the junior centurion of the First Cohort, ranked directly under Octavian in the pecking order. Whereas Octavian would be elitist to the core, deeply opportunistic due to being the legacy of Apollo, and defend the institutionalized nepotism of Camp Jupiter’s selection system, Jason, the son of Jupiter and golden boy of Camp Jupiter, would be the biggest advocate for the lower cohorts. Whereas Octavian backed the nepotism of the letters of recommendation, Jason would advocate for cohort selection to be based entirely upon Lupa’s recounting of their story, since that showed more of their organic character and resilience and strength than any bloodline did.

Two years later, exhausted and slightly haunted from the road, Reyna would arrive at Camp Jupiter. Lupa would tell the praetors at the time, Mercer and Roma, about Reyna’s feats before the Wolf House, and the praetors would share the story with everyone else before asking if she had any letters of recommendation. Jason, already considering making Reyna probatio in the First Cohort based on her feats alone, would be slightly beaten out by Jacob Eglius, the senior centurion of the Fifth Cohort and Camp Jupiter’s aquilifer, and Reyna would become probatio in the Fifth Cohort.

At first, Reyna would have hated Jason, being somehow reminded of Percy Jackson, the boy who destroyed her home, whenever she laid eyes on him. She would also initially believe Octavian’s fear-mongering about the Greeks, remembering the two people with bronze weapons who destroyed her home. The detail that stood out to her the most was the bronze weapons, when everyone at Camp Jupiter wielded weapons of pure gold, and she didn’t know bronze to be common on C.C.’s island.

Despite her original low standing, Reyna would rise fast and have her eyes set on the top position after seeing the praetors, so strong and imposing, the protectors instead of the protected, at mess on her first evening at camp. She got promoted to a legionnaire in the Fifth Cohort after the customary one year. However, the year after she arrived, around the end of The Titan’s Curse, there would be a security breach at Camp Jupiter. Breaches of the camp’s defenses would be extremely rare, and due to this rarity, inspire a lot of disorganization for the normally well-organized Twelfth Legion.

During this security breach would be the first time Reyna used her power to lend others strength. During the breach, she would be at the back of the formation, defending, along with Gwen, who was commander of the “lesser” half of the Fifth Cohort, which included recently-elevated legionnaires, probatios, and less skilled fighters. This half included Reyna, not even a legionnaire for a year, Dakota, who was seen as strange and irresponsible for his Kool-Aid obsession, and Bobby, whose skill with weapons was barely passable, and others. Just as a wave of monsters was about to overwhelm their unit, Reyna unleashed a huge surge of her power, giving the entire unit enhanced strength to be able to defeat the monsters. It was after this she was claimed by Bellona and promoted to being a legionnaire in the First Cohort.

After being promoted to the First Cohort, Reyna would begin to have unexpected friction with Octavian, whom she previously heavily agreed with and followed over Jason. This friction with Octavian would allow Reyna and Jason to build trust and eventually a friendship. Despite being the daughter of Bellona, Reyna was still given daunting yet inconsequential quests. At first, this was because she was part of the Fifth. Now, it was because she’s the daughter of Bellona. Jason, seeing how much she wanted flashy, important quests in order to prove herself, would put her on his next quest: the Charleston weapons retrieval one, a rare quest which only two people were required for, not three.

Over the course of the quest, Jason and Reyna’s trust and friendship would only strengthen after they both helped each other out of sticky situations multiple times, and the slight wariness Reyna had remaining for him after being elevated to the First Cohort would dissipate. After they returned, they would be observed to have a certain synchrony they didn’t have before. Only a month after that, when Kronos had risen once again, another security breach would come to Camp Jupiter. Similarly to the previous security breach, Reyna would use her power once again to strengthen her unit when she saw the sheer number of monsters threatening Camp Jupiter.

A few days after, just before the Feast of Spes, Praetor Mercer would step down, having completed his required service and now wishing to study at New Rome University, which would start on the Feast of Spes (August 1) itself, to symbolize a year of hope and prosperity. On the actual feast day itself, after Mercer officially became a student at New Rome University, Jason would rise to junior praetor and name Reyna his successor as Centurion of the First Cohort on the basis of her skill in battle and the fact that having her in command could be an extreme tactical benefit to the camp given her powers.

A year later, during the Battle of Mount Othrys, Jason would have been leading the charge with Reyna at his back as Centurion of the First Cohort for most of the battle. However, seeing an opening to go and fight Krios himself and knowing that Reyna’s skills would be better used in the main battle than fighting Krios, he would command the rest of Camp Jupiter’s forces to treat Reyna as their junior praetor while he went to face Krios.

After the battle and Jason’s killing of Krios, Jason and Reyna would be raised upon the shields of members of the legion and Reyna, after leading Camp Jupiter’s troops to victory alongside Roma, would be declared Junior praetor by the Romans.

As co-praetors, Jason and Reyna would often be made to face their opposing views of Camp Jupiter. Both loved it and saw it as home, but Reyna’s view of it was tinted in rose. After all, it was her sanctuary, where she became respected and venerated as a defender, a protector, a praetor. Meanwhile, Jason who had been there since he was three, knew both the good and bad sides and had ideas for how to improve it, and certainly did not glorify it or see it in rose.

Throughout her time as praetor, both alongside Jason and alone, Reyna would be seen as the “upper cohorts’ praetor”, living and breathing Roman values and thus being favored by the upper cohorts for that. After Jason left, Octavian, hungry for power, would insert himself in Jason’s position as the common camper’s man, and find himself with a large following, including, in my AU, Frank and Hazel. In fact, after he arrived, Percy would be one of the only members of the lower cohorts, and the only member of the Fifth Cohort, who legitimately hates Octavian and supports Reyna. Even Gwen would be torn between the memory of the thirteen-year-old girl who fought in her unit and Octavian. That memory would make her more willing to see good in Reyna than other Fifth Cohort legionnaires and probatios while still supporting Octavian.

In the House of Hades, Camp Jupiter would be essentially split into two. Reyna’s faction would be comprised of the more skilled First and Second Cohorts and half of the Third, while Octavian’s support would come from the other half of the Third and the entirety of the Fourth and the Fifth (besides Frank and Hazel, who would now support Reyna). There would be a few exceptions, and some who didn’t yet choose a side. During the meeting with Rachel and Grover, in order to try to reunite the Romans, Reyna would take both Octavian and Ethan Herndon, an OC of mine, current senior centurion of the First Cohort, Jason’s best friend, and Reyna’s right-hand man.

After Reyna went to the ancient lands, she would be exiled from the legion, all her supporters would be made probatios, and anyone still on the fence would be forced to declare Octavian Pontifex Maximus and join his side, or be made probatio for siding with a traitor. He would also have the Senate declare Reyna a political enemy and erase her deeds.

[kingoftheu]

I am the world's last Jeyna shipper. I am one of those soldiers who never heard WWII was over and was hiding in the jungle. I understand that canon has moved on but I refuse to surrender. I don't even need the ship itself to be canon, could be totally platonic I don't care but as a matter of principle it has to be maintained.

Jason just flat out ditching Romans never sat right with me. All those backstory hints in TLH ignored. His history comepletely irrelevant. Not once do we see him interact with any old friends who are not otherwise involved. Oh I'm sorry he had never really felt at home at Camp Jupiter than why was he part of the swap. Ooh la la Pontifex Maximus I don't care he should have been the Roman's Roman. They got left with Frank and Hazel who will be great don't get me wrong but they aren't very expirienced as the quest starts. Jason is the only Old Hand who could have countered Percebeth on the Argo 2.

Look as I said above I don't actually need Reyna to wind up with Jason. But...like...something on their backstory. I mean they toppled the Throne of Saturn. Why was she of all people raised alongside him after they were victorious? But nope Romans get screwed over. I also don't like her joining the Hunt. I just don't like the implications of a woman who doesn't want to get involved with romance having to withdraw from the world entirely. Why can't she just be praetor and not have romance.

In conclusion I am the world's last Jason x Reyna shipper who also doesn't actually ship them in particular.

[draconicinfernoviper]

I agree. It’s just like Rick made every single character he didn’t completely sideline actually be Greek and think Camp Half-Blood is this super cool place. Like it makes sense for Percy and Annabeth, since Camp Half-Blood was they became who they were and felt safe for the first time. But Jason? Jason, who grew up at Camp Jupiter and just decided to abandon the friends he grew up with because they weren’t Leo and Piper? He should have chosen Camp Jupiter, while still recognizing its flaws and making it better. Because it was his first ever home. Because it was where he became who he was. He had friends there. Dakota, Gwen, Bobby, Reyna. Reyna, who was his rock.

[draconicinfernoviper]

Alternative Ending to A Sky Beyond the Storm

Inspired by multiple conversations I had with @superbrieflightstudentlove in which we discussed things related to the logical discontinuity of the ending, specifically related to Helene, I’ve come up with an AU ending to the series. Some details will be based on their post in which they shared two alternate endings, specifically the second alternative, in which Harper would still die and the ending would be structurally quite similar to the actual series.

The first difference would be that, after the bathtub scene, Helene would become pregnant with Harper’s baby. Before going into battle, Helene would have worn two layers of armor. One underneath her fatigues, similar to the armor shirt she won after the Second Trial. The second, atop her fatigues, the flame-resistant armor that Teluman forged for the Martial troops before Antium.

To begin with, after Harper fell during the Battle of Sher Jinaat, Helene would go after Keris herself. In this scenario, Mirra would still have got Keris with a dart, which would be lodged in her dominant leg, causing heavy bleeding. Helene and Keris would duel, and due to the heavy bleeding caused by the dart, Helene would come out on top, giving Keris a few slashes and deep wounds. She would call Quin Veturius over to the scene to restrain Keris.

While Quin was tying her up, he got too close. The amount of blood Keris was losing and the series of wounds and gashes would lead Quin to believe that she was legitimately too weak to keep fighting. Caught off guard during her last burst of strength, Quin would find her scim, its hilt coated with her blood, protruding from his stomach.

Somehow, he’d managed to survive the battle, but he would be severely weakened and lying amongst the dead. After Helene pried herself away from Harper, still trembling with grief, she would find the legendary General Quin Veturius, Pater of Gens Veturia, with the scim still protruding from his stomach, not having removed it because he wanted to live out the entirety of his final battle, survive to see his side’s victory. Elias would already be there beside him, tears falling down his face at the sight of his mangled, blood-covered grandfather, whose final act toward Elias was to name him official Pater of Gens Veturia. As his eyes drifted toward Helene, the spark of life dimming slowly but surely, he would say, “loyal to the end”. As Helene pulled the scim out of his stomach, he would say, “Hail, Empress”, and then slump to the ground, eyes unseeing and body unmoving. Dead.

For the next change, we would find Helene at the altar where she was named Empress in the original. Except, this time, it wouldn’t be Quin who named her Empress. It would be Pater Mettias, young like Helene, but also battle-tested like her. He would call for silence and give the speech equating Helene to Taius I, at last naming her Empress. The Martial army, led by Jans Aquillus, would take up the chant first, followed by Laia and Musa. After a while, everyone would be chanting, all except for the Tribes, who want assurance that Helene will not be like prior rulers. That she would be different. Better.

Quil, as the future ruler of the Empire, would still be left with Tribe Saif, in order to understand all the Empire’s people, not just the Martials, before he becomes Emperor.

Upon returning to Antium a month or so later, the first thing Helene would order to be done would be a public execution of Keris at Taius Square, followed by throwing her over Cardium Rock. After that, she would formally declare those meant to occupy the mantles she formerly held, including Dex Atrius as Commander of Blackcliff Military Academy, Elias Veturius as Pater of Gens Veturia, and herself as overarching General, Imperator Invictus, and Empress of the Martials.

After throwing Keris over Cardium Rock and giving her a proper traitor’s end, Helene would call her supporters, chained and disgraced, up one by one. Every one of Keris’ supporters would be first be told to swear loyalty to Empress Helene Aquilla and the new dynasty of Gens Aquilla or join their leader as a traitor to the Empire. Most of them would reluctantly swear loyalty to Helene, and those who didn’t would be thrown over the Rock like Keris.

Those who were hardcore supporters of Keris would be assigned guard duty at Kauf under the new Warden Volumnius Equitius, one of Tristas’ cousins who’s similar in character to Dex, very by-the-book and a rule-follower. Volumnius was one of the only members of Gens Equitia who backed Helene. Essentially all of Gens Equitia was against Helene and supporting Keris during A Sky Beyond the Storm except Ilean and two or three others (including Volumnius) because they blamed her for the death of Tristas, then the Karkauns taking Antium, and then the death of Ilean. After Ilean’s death, the only member of Gens Equitia who still supported Helene was Volumnius.

Those who were still on the fence about Keris after her death would be assigned to the Delphinium side of the Duskan border as regular guardsmen. While Delphinium was near

Helene’s child would be born three months later, and would be named Constance Avita Aquilla, after her maternal grandfather and her father. The child would have olive skin and raven hair and eyes of Aquilla blue. While Quil would go on to rule the Empire at large, Constance would go on to rule Gens Aquilla. She would be kind and charming like Livia, fiery like Hannah, full of conviction like her namesake, and inherit her father’s intense and nearly boundless calm. Her eyes would be similar in shape to Harper’s, with a similar quality to them when she’s thinking, but the rest of her facial features would be like her mother’s, though her facial expressions would be like her maternal grandmother’s or paternal grandfather’s, depending on the expression. She would go on to become Mater of Gens Aquilla, like her mother.

Constance would be raised in Antium and her existence would be kept under wraps until around five to six years after the series. She, along with Arelia and Sufiyan, would become close to Quil in the future.

One of Helene’s first edicts as Empress would have been a damnato memoriae of Keris Veturia and Marcus Farrar, blighting their names from history and obliterating knowledge of their deeds. However, thinking that Helene wanted to blight the names of the Empire’s two most currently relevant tyrants out and sweep their sins under the rug, the Scholars and Tribes would protest this.

Helene would then strike a compromise. She would erase their names from public records, coins, statues, and so on, but she would make it so that historical texts still mention them and their crimes in an extremely negative light, so that their sins are known to all and widely condemned by every book which contains their names and deeds.

This damnato memoriae would also extend to Quil’s given name. Zacharias Marcus Livius Aquillus Farrar. In accordance with the edict, Marcus and Farrar would be removed from his name, so he would now only be Zacharias Livius Aquillus. Helene also wanted to remove Zacharias from his name, but Plebeians would riot at that, so Zacharias would stay.

Despite the fact that Helene ultimately decided to keep Zacharias in his name, she wouldn’t ever call him Zacharias in private. She would only call him Livius, wanting to remember her sister when she looked at or spoke to her nephew, not her tormentor’s enabling little brother. In public, however, he would be Crown Prince Zacharias, or just Zacharias.

Also, in this version of events, Quil would have been made Blood Shrike when he was nineteen, after touring the Empire throughout his entire nineteenth year. When he was twenty, during Heir, Quil would have been made Helene’s co-emperor.

In this version of the Heir duology, Helene’s death would happen at the hands of Div-infused Aiz while she was asleep in her chambers. This would be the prologue of Empire, and it would start with a Quil POV, during his coronation as Emperor.

If Heir didn't exist, then this AU would have another difference from the original book. After Antium was secured and properly safe for a few years, Helene, in order to further stabilize her Gens after naming Constance her heir, she would couple herself with Pater Mettias, a fiercely loyal new guard Pater, and have another child, this time his. This one would be a boy, and would go on to be the new Pater of Gens Aquilla, a true-born Illustrian heir to an Illustrian house. Quil would still exist in this scenario, still be sent to Tribe Saif, but instead of becoming Emperor or Pater of Gens Aquilla, he would be a sort of Tribal delegate. After the series, I imagine Elias using his position as Pater of Gens Veturia to act as a sort of delegate between the Tribes and the Empire, using his connections to act as a sort of go-between or advisor on which Martials are trustworthy in case a Tribe needs extra support from a Martial unit. Elias and Helene would train Quil to occupy the position of Tribal delegate after Elias. However, while whatever syncretic republic the Tribes had with the Empire would be good enough treatment for Elias, Quil, having been raised in the desert amongst the Tribes his entire life and not thinking it enough, would advocate for yet more freedom for the Tribes.

[draconicinfernoviper]

Reforms Post-A Sky Beyond the Storm: Education, part I- Blackcliff

Just wanted to do a quick post on changes in the Empire’s education system in A Sky Beyond the Storm. Next will be about auxes and legionnaires, and then about the Scholars.

As stated (very briefly) in my original post about reforms Helene made to the Empire after the series, I mentioned that Blackcliff’s structure is now slightly different. Students now attend for 12 years, from age eight to age twenty, though there’s a special recruit class every five years selected at age six. These students would train for fourteen years, and would be meant to be the Empire’s most lethal weapons, even more lethal than the other future Masks due to their extra two years of training.

As I also mentioned previously, the “single female student per generation” would be replaced by an imperial decree that a single Scholar and Tribal child should be given a spot at Blackcliff per generation, brought about by Musa and other skilled Tribal warriors like Afya, in the pursuit of a more just Empire, a more equal one.

The overall student count at Blackcliff would still be 3000. Due to the war creating a lot of orphans or otherwise parentless children, 600 of the 3000 students would be foundlings. Despite Helene’s reforms and the extreme autonomy she gave the Scholars, they would still be wary of the orphanages and schools which Keris’ allies’ properties became, and above all, distrust Blackcliff on principle. Orphans taken in by extended family, family friends, friends, neighbors would automatically be out of the picture for attending Blackcliff, even once in a generation, so the foundlings had to do. Of the remaining 2400/3000 students, 600 would be from Gens of Keris’ allies, in an effort to ensure as much of those bloodlines as possible didn’t follow in the footsteps of their Gens’ Paters. Another 600 would be like that one Mask’s son that Helene mentioned in A Torch Against the Night, the one whose father cheated on his mother, with troubled home lives, so they could defend themselves if need be. Then there would be 1198 students who are from families loyal to Helene, such as other Aquilla children, Gens Atria, Candela, Galeria, Equitia, Veturia, Teluman, Mettias, and Plebeian families (like Farrars whose children were recommended by Livia’s former ladies-in-waiting, Coralia and Merina Farrar, and others, like maybe Gens Andricar, whose Mater is mentioned by Quil in Heir). Then the Scholar and Tribal foundling.

Upon being taken to Blackcliff, they would be given tattoos and made Yearlings. During their first two years as Yearlings, on Silvius’ insistence based on his history as a pediatric physician prior to Blackcliff, heavy weapons training or physical sparring would be banned. Students would learn to throw darts, daggers, even javelins, and shoot bows, along with proper combat form. For the next two years, they would complete basic training with scims and other close-quarters weapons, along with official sparring sessions with a point scale, where a student needs a specific amount of points to win the round.

Afterward, it would be Fiver year, which would serve as a transition year from basic Yearling training to more advanced Cadet training. During Fiver year, students would begin learning how to do day watches on the wall, taught by Skulls, in addition to their more advanced physical regimens and classroom courses.

Students would be Cadets for three years. During the first year, along with more advanced scim and combat lessons, day watches on the wall would be without mentors, but still with supervision. However, night watches would still have mentorship. Along with this, Cadets would begin interrogation ethics classes, which only get stricter the older a student gets. In the second year as Cadets, night watch mentors would loosen the training wheels a bit, take a bit more of a hands-off approach, and second-year Cadets’ day watches would be moved to more active parts of the wall. As third-year Cadets, the training wheels would be removed entirely, making night watches be on the least active parts of the wall, and day watches be moved to more active parts of the wall.

Then Skulls. Students would be Skulls for two years, during which time they would be learning extremely complex scim maneuvers and weapon handles during the first year, and refining technique in their second year. They would have an extremely demanding watch schedule, and their classroom lessons wouldn’t ease up on them. They would have weekly sparring assessments, ethical interrogations assessments, technique assessments, all preparing them for their two years as Senior Skulls, where they would have to survive two years with two of their peers and get short training windows with full military officers.

Senior Skulls, now. At the beginning of their eleventh year, all Senior Skulls, in their groups of three, would be simply told which three officers they were supposed to train under. There would be a naval soldier and a cavalry soldier during the first year, each for six months. On their way back to Blackcliff, Senior Skulls would have to train under foot soldiers who specifically coordinated with the Scholars and the Tribes to learn both army tactics and diplomacy. The final 2-3 months, all Senior Skulls would be left alone, to make their way back to Blackcliff.

After they returned, those who returned would graduate two days after arriving back. During the ceremony, students would be given their masks, swear oaths to the Empire and their people, and get their first assignments based on their track record as a Blackcliff student and their time as a Senior Skull, training under actual military officers. Those who returned late would be made wall supervisors, drummers, or drum-tower guards. After two years, they would be given the chance for a redo, a single second chance as Senior Skulls, with reduced opportunity.

[superbrieflightstudentlove]

The Perpetuation of the Tyrant’s Triumph: The Dynastic and Psychological Absurdity of House Aquilla-Farrar

In the construction of a satisfying fantasy finale, a narrative must honor the internal laws of its world and the psychological boundaries of its characters. When Sabaa Tahir concluded the An Ember in the Ashes tetralogy in A Sky Beyond the Storm, she presented the survival of House Aquilla through Helene’s nephew, Zacharias, as a bittersweet victory. However, by forcing this sole heir to carry the combined surname of Aquilla-Farrar, the narrative collapses under its own weight. Within the Roman-feudal context established for the Martial Empire, preserving the name of the rapist, murderer and tyrant Marcus Farrar is not an act of progressive healing—it is a glaring logical and psychological failure that cements the perpetrator's victory over his victims.

1. An Act of Sovereign Will Forfeited

In a society heavily modeled after ancient Rome and feudal pragmatism, names are the ultimate currency of legitimacy and power. As Empress and Regent, Helene Aquilla wields absolute legislative and autocratic authority. In such a political ecosystem, her very first decree upon ascending the throne should have been an act of absolute political utility: the total eradication of the Farrar name from her nephew's lineage.

* The Political Signal: Erasing "Farrar" would not merely be an act of personal pride; it would serve as an essential decree to the fractured Empire that Marcus’ reign of terror had definitively ended. It would signal that House Aquilla had risen from the ashes to rule in its own right, undivided and unbowed.

* The Tradition of Erasure: Rome famously utilized damnatio memoriae—the official erasure of a tyrant from history, monuments, and records. For the author to ignore this established historical precedent within her own made-up culture based on Ancient Rome reduces the absolute ruler of a continent-spanning empire to a passive observer of her own family’s historical degradation.

2. The Psychological Inversion of Survival

To suggest that Helene—or her traumatized sister, Livia—would voluntarily allow the Farrar name to remain attached to the only surviving child of their bloodline is a profound psychological contradiction. Helene witnessed Marcus cold-bloodedly massacre her parents and her sister Hannah. She knew the horrific reality of how Marcus took Livia by force, repeatedly violating and tormenting her until she became pregnant with Zacharias.

* Perpetual Retraumatization: Forcing the family to carry the executioner’s name defies basic human instincts of self-preservation and ancestral honor. It dictates that whenever Helene looks at the future emperor, she is forced to acknowledge the title of the man who slaughtered her house.

* Narrative Masochism: A family that bled, broke, and fought to survive tyranny would naturally seek to purge every remaining stain of their abuser. By choosing to let the name endure, the text forces an artificial, submissive complacency onto characters whose defining trait was their unyielding resilience.

3. Cementing the Tyrant's Genetic Victory

Ultimately, the hyphenated dynasty of Aquilla-Farrar represents the total submission of the victims’ legacy to their tormentor. Marcus Farrar taunted Helene in the earlier books, boasting that he would always be a part of her and that their fates were inextricably bound. By preserving his name in the official title of the ruling house, the author explicitly fulfills the villain's promise.

* The Long-Term Mark: Instead of being cast into historical oblivion, Marcus is granted immortality. His blood flows in the heir, his features are stamped on the boy's face, and his name is officially woven into the future of the Empire. The victims are permanently chained to their executioner.

* The Tool of Collective Guilt: This authorial choice reinforces the theory that Tahir viewed House Aquilla through the unyielding lens of collective system guilt. Because they were part of an oppressive Martial class, the narrative demands they carry a permanent brand of punishment. Helene is denied the right to triumphantly cleanse her family's name; instead, the future of her entire house is forced to bear the mark of the tyrant as a lifetime/forever sentence.

[draconicinfernoviper]

I do like the ending of the series overall, and think that Helene’s ending, though tragic, was a good decision by the author. However, I fully agree that the name Farrar should be cleansed from Zacharias’ name, and that Marcus should be cleansed from Zacharias’ name as well. This infant child has no business bearing the surname or given name of a tyrant who corrupted the Empire.

Honestly, I think Helene would even want his name to be changed entirely to Livius Aquillus, the sole heir to Gens Aquilla, but the Plebeians would riot at that. The child was meant to represent them, and now Helene was removing every single trace of Plebeian ancestry from the child’s name. Don’t get me wrong, they would be absolutely fine with her purging Marcus’ name from history and this child’s legacy, but removing Zacharias would be a step entirely too far, and would be seen as trying to pass the child off as a pure Illustrian.

While Martials would move for Marcus’ and Keris’ names to be completely wiped out and forgotten by history, it would be the Scholars and the Tribes who would want their history kept. Not out of any love nor veneration, but as a warning. As examples of why the Empire had to change and Helene ultimately ascended.

If there’s anything I find unrealistic in Heir, it’s that Helene calls Quil Zacharias even in private. While it makes sense that she’d address him so in public, as Zacharias Livius Aquillus, there is no way she would ever choose to address him by the name of her bully and tormentor’s younger brother, who followed him around like a sheep, and even if he did love her, was too weak to show it. No, she would choose to keep the memory of her sister alive fully any chance she got. That would include calling him Livius, not Zacharias, in private.

[draconicinfernoviper]

Callipolis in the Future: The Collapse of the Confederation

I just wanted to do a little post on Callipolis maybe 50-70 years in the future. Given that the series happened in that universe’s version of 1926-1927 (the Revolution would have took place in their version of 1917) and the charter was finalized and ratified ~1931, the events of this post would happen anywhere between 1981 and 2001 (leaning more toward 1989, to kinda parallel the fall of the Soviet Union).

By this time, the characters we know would either be dead or approaching retirement. Annie would be living in Farhall with Lee, where the final-ever class of dragonriding Guardians would be training, Griff would be nearly 80, and in accordance with the laws of Norcia, would have stepped down and had his successor take his place. Delo would also be in Norcia, living out his twilight years reading poetry in this corner of the world which was his. Becca and Sty would be around 65 and still extremely close.

While the system I laid out in my Callipolis part I post worked well for nearly 60 years, it ended up eventually crumbling due to a lack of a strong central authority, and the Third Revolution was underway.

Similarly to the Second Revolution, the first thing which a decision was made on was dragons. While there were many advocates for keeping dragons as Callipolis’ main aerial defense, Damos had also recently had its revolution and turned into a true democracy, and its most recent two administrations were willing to share knowledge of how to build and iterate Damian aerial defense technology, it was ultimately decided that the current class of Guardians-in-training would be the final one ever, and they would be replaced by plane pilots.

But the question of what to do with dragons came up multiple times, and it was decided to do something similar to Isca. According to history books, after the Bassilean Wars, Isca genetically modified their dragons to project neutrality to the nations of the Medean League. Of all the dragons which had laid belonging to the most recent graduated class of Guardians, only six of them would remain in Callipolis, and after they hatched, dragon biologists would work on keeping them at the size and biological status of a hatchling, meaning that they were the size of small dogs and would never grow to breathe fire.

However, the advocates for dragonriding weren’t fulfilled by that. They proposed that four additional dragons stay with riders, and those dragons would be those belonging to the senior-most Fourth Order riders who were still active, the current Firstrider, Alternus, Tertius, and Quartus. The dragons would only be brought out during the Charter Day parade with their riders astride them, though the riders would be at the command of regular civilians.

That was when it was decided that the charter needed official, sweeping reforms to outlaw dragonriding and make it so the only dragons left on Callipolis remained too small to bear a rider or breathe flame, and that they weren’t to ever Choose. They would simply remain a relic of Callipolan history and all the times the country had seen.

In terms of government, Callipolis became much more centralized. Villages and neighborhoods still retained much autonomy, but they worked as part of a federation, not a confederation, meaning that the government in the capital became much more powerful.

Despite the centralization, the Callipolan government would maintain a similar structure to what it had before. A First Citizen in charge of government, a First Protector as the military/diplomatic leader, a now permanent legislature of elected officials representing both the will of the people (the People’s Assembly) and equal representation for the regions/neighborhoods (Senate). The judiciary would undergo the most change, no longer being tripartite, but instead, based on the type of case being presented, rotate out judges.

Schooling would also change in Callipolis due to its modernization. The system would remain functionally similar to how it was before, except that there would now be independent schools. As opposed to being funded via the vast coffers of the Three Families as public schools were, these independent schools would be funded by tax vouchers. However, there would be talks of Danish-style private schools, which the wealthy would advocate for but the poor would be against.

[draconicinfernoviper]

The Role of Farmers in Callipolis: Pre-Fireborne to Post-Furysong

So, I was just doing some research on different types of feudalism which made me think of the Aurelian Cycle and how the rights and legal status of farmers transformed with every regime in Callipolis.

To begin with, under the Triarchy. Unlike historical evolution of feudalism, the dragonlords immediately established absolute rule over their provenances to the first two sons of each of the initial Triarchs. Their possession of dragons made it impossible and frankly, quite dangerous, for anyone but a Triarch or Drakarch to have rural land holdings or jurisdiction over the poorer parts of the city.

Triarchal feudalism was extremely similar to Russian feudalism. At first, the hand was kind and more discreet. Peasants were bound to the land they worked, unable to leave without getting smoked out. They couldn’t marry nor do anything else without their lord’s permission. The constant threat of dragon fire made it so that standardizing tax amounts was useless, as lords could just take what they wanted at any moment. Whenever famine struck, the lords weren’t kind nor understanding. They just took and took. Eventually, their minimal rights turned into a feudalism which resembled chattel slavery and serfs were openly considered property of their lords.

Farming villages under the Triarchy were extremely individualistic places. Everyone farmed their own land, everyone paid their own taxes. If anyone tried to help their neighbor, they were executed for showing solidarity to their peers when forbidden by their lords. Farming was in the front lawn space of the house, so as to be more easily visible to the lords.

Under the Triarchy, peasants lived in bare two-room hovels. The first room was a tiny, multifunctional main room. Tucked into the farthest corner from the door was a small cooktop and a stack of earthenware bowls. The rest of the tiny space would be used as a makeshift family room/bedroom for the adults. Skyfish lords were a slight bit kinder to their serfs, giving them stone-hard pallets on which to sleep. Stormscourge lords just let their serfs use whatever they could find, normally unfixable clothing reduced into tattered rags, used as a makeshift mattress. The second room would be even smaller, bare except for piles of rags littering the ground, for the children. Finally, out back, there was a small room containing a pit latrine and two buckets, serving as the washroom.

Around the time of the Revolution, some of the lords changed tactics. Skyfish lords tried to erase the long history of oppression and pain inflicted upon the serfs by their family and tried to sell a half-baked narrative of their serfs as noble providers for Callipolis. It was hardly received well, of course. Meanwhile, Stormscourge lords (specifically Leon Stormscourge) tried to make themselves appear kinder, more benevolent., by giving their serfs pallets as well. However, this act was shed as soon as the serfs put even a toe out of line (seen with Annie’s family).

Under Atreus, the role of serfs was interesting. They were officially state tenants who were unofficially bound to the land if they didn’t test Gold or Silver. While it was most common for Irons to work in the city, there were some positions as farmhands for them in the highlands and lowlands. Atreus’ regime, as it did with other things, created a paradox when it came to rural villages. While formally community units, it wasn’t common to villagers to pitch in when one was low on crop. Atreus’ regime was heavy on values like individual value and merit, and were quickly conditioned to think it was a personal failure when a farmer didn’t produce enough crop to both feed their family and provide the standardized amounts to the agricultural officials. Unlike with the dragonlords, the narrative set by Atreus’ Ministry of Propaganda of farmers being noble providers for Callipolans worked splendidly. All main fields were still planted in the front, this time to maintain the illusion of community.

After the regime change, all farmers were given stipends to last them two years, taken from Stormscourge or Skyfish coffers. With these stipends, farmers had home extensions built and bought new livestock. Their homes now had another wing, a small one with four small rooms. On the right, there was a small, separate kitchen and an adjoining dining room. On the left, there were study rooms, one for the children, who now attended school, and one for the parents, who were educated either weekly on Sundays (Near Lowlands/Highlands) or biweekly on Sundays (Far Lowlands/Highlands). The extra money was also used to buy tiny single beds and pallets, along with chamber pots from the Drakarchic manors.

Now, under Phemi/Annie’s regime, post-Furysong. Now, as a dragonborn who never knew what it was like to struggle (not like Lee or even Delo), Phemi would have proposed the metals system once again and worked democracy into it by including an electoral council which would vote on behalf of the people. A lot of her charter would be repeating Atreus’ crimes, and this includes how she proposed treating farmers. Annie, even if she didn’t remember much of being a serf, would be vehemently against this.

After all the edits were made, the common farmer’s place in society would be completely renegotiated. Farming villages would no longer be communes, and instead of communal farming, there would now be communal providing of crop. Standardization would be strict, but there would also be means-testing. If a family fell upon a hard time and didn’t have enough crop, another family with an abundance of crop could pitch in with extra crop to cover for the first family’s gap. Additionally, depending on how close to the Middle Highlands a Far Highland village which was destroyed by Ixion was, it would either be rebuilt on that site exactly or it would be replaced by a more coastal fishing village. Villages closer to the Middle Highlands would stay farming villages. Those further away would become fishing villages as altitude is gained and the environment becomes more and more treacherous for farmers. The burned-down villages replaced by coastal fishing villages would stay as ruins to serve as a memorial for those who lived and died there, and as a reminder for Guardians-in-training of what happens when dragonriders retain unlimited power, and what they would become if they sought to disobey the charter.

Furthermore, farmers’ education was more consistent. Based on the climate of their region (lowland vs. highland), the bulk of their education would happen summer, midwinter, or spring. In the Far Highlands, the new content would be taught in early summer, when the land is unworkable but the climate is agreeable for tutors from the capital to come to teach and stay in the Far Highlands for 1-1.5 months. The sweet spot in the Near Highlands would be late spring, when the snow is gone but fields cannot be plowed. Tutors from the capital would come and stay for the customary 1-1.5 months. In the Near Lowlands, midwinter would be the prime time for lessons. There’s nothing more to harvest and the weather is pleasant. Finally, in the Far Lowlands, early spring would be lesson time.

During the off-seasons, the farmers wouldn’t be left completely to forget what they were taught. During the worst windows for travel, which would be high summer in the lowlands and deep winter in the highlands, capital officials would leave practice materials for them meant to be done mostly indoors and last the entirety of the aforementioned windows. Right before they were to learn new content, the farmers wouldn’t be brought different practice material from the capital, designed to be completed quicker, just a sort of refresher before lessons started up again. In the Far Highlands, these refreshers would be given in late spring. In the Near Highlands, early spring. In the Near Lowlands, autumn. In the Far Lowlands, late winter.

[draconicinfernoviper]

Empire Reforms Post-A Sky Beyond the Storm

So, I’ve doing these posts for my other fandoms, so I thought why not AEITA as well. I’ll do one post-Heir after I read the second book.

As we know, Helene completely changed the Empire. We got bits and pieces of changes her regime implemented, such as recruiting female students for Blackcliff yearly and dividing up estates of Keris’ biggest supporters, but I think there would be a lot more than that.

First of all, the Scholars. After the series, I imagine their position in the empire was completely renegotiated. The Northern Paters would be for it, after everything at Antium, but most of the Southern Paters would still be against it. The first thing Helene did regarding the Scholars was to permanently instate a Scholar Council in her court. There would be one Scholar for every city sitting on the council at any given time. Since she didn’t have many options of Scholars who were properly educated besides Resistance members, she would call upon Resistance members, good ones like Sana, Tariq, and others, mostly from Sana’s faction.

Even though they liked Helene, the southern Scholars made it clear that they no longer wanted to live amongst Illustrians and Mercators who were still prejudiced against them. There weren’t many members of Helene’s court besides younger Paters like Mettias who wanted to allow Scholars to have their own place to live outside their respective Scholars Quarters, but Helene would be firm on this. It was something Livia would have wanted, and she wanted to keep Livia’s memory alive in any way she could. Her proposal would be to make Serra for Scholars into what Silas is for Plebeians: a settlement that is their own for the most part. She would make Serra into something like a tributary state for the Scholars, its own administrative entity which was loosely part of the Empire. Scholars were free to operate their own schools, have their own economy, and act as they wished, all in the capital that used to be their own before it was conquered along with their people.

However, as previously stated, this would not be a popular idea. Any remaining “neutral” Southern Paters would say that Scholars didn’t have the capability to govern themselves, and even Northern Paters would call for a tax similar to the historical jizya on the Scholars, though the contents of this tax would be small and easy to pay. When Helene put her foot down on Serra as a Scholar settlement, the Southern Paters would change tactics and back the tax, but make the contents of the tax so exorbitant that the Scholars couldn’t possibly pay for it. The contents of the tax would eventually be decided to be a small monetary payment, a single Scholar child for Blackcliff every generation, and the 15 most promising Scholar children every decade to become new members, aides, and scribes for the Scholar Council in her court. The children selected for the Scholar Council would be 16, so far from malleable or Martial puppets, having been educated entirely within Serra.

The Tribal desert would be made into a syncretic republic of the Empire, also free to conduct their own affairs, train their own armies, and so on, only having to pay a small tribute to the capital in Antium. Similarly to the Scholar Council, Helene also had Zaldars and Zaldaras report to her biannually about the affairs of their Tribe and if they needed any assistance from the Empire. Since Elias still had the vast connections of a Veturius despite living with Tribe Saif, he acted as a sort of advisor on which officials and soldiers to trust whenever a Tribe needed some sort of assistance. Similarly to the Scholars, one Tribal child would be taken to Blackcliff every generation. Elias would constantly make visits to Blackcliff to see Dex and observe how the Scholar recruit and the Tribal recruit were being treated.

Part of being a syncretic republic would be the presence of small Martial units being on reserve in case required by the Tribes. There would also be a few Tribal delegates, of which Elias would be the head, using his status as Pater of Gens Veturia ensure that the other Martials don't overreach.

With his reputation for not being a monster to students younger than him grouped with his loyalty to Helene and her new Empire, Dex would approach Rallius with the request to be the Lieutenant Commander of Blackcliff (his second). While Dex would handle things like setting educational standards, rewriting the rules of the school, and the more political side of being a Blackcliff Commander, Rallius would be in charge of internal operations, staff supervision, and enforcing the new rules, acting as a sort of example to the students of what to emulate and become. Dex would also reach out to Elias, whom he was informed wanted to become a teacher, first offering him a teaching position. When he refused, Dex would ask Elias if he wished to design the new curriculum of Blackcliff. Elias would agree, and visit Blackcliff biannually to present his curriculum drafts to Dex and Rallius, and these drafts would be much kinder to the students than the previous curriculum was.

Speaking of Blackcliff, it would be changed dramatically. Silvius, previously having worked as a sort of pediatrician, would have advised against allowing six-year-olds as the youngest recruits. He suggested age ten be the age of admission, but Dex would tell him that Masks need more than ten years of training, so the new age of admission would be age eight. Graduation would still be at age 20. Recruits would still be Yearlings for four years (8-12), but instead of being thrown out into the wild for four years after becoming Fivers, the fifth year would be spent within the walls of Blackcliff. Students would be Fivers for only a single year (12-13), which would serve as a transition year between basic Yearling training and more advanced Cadet training. After their year as Fivers, they would be Cadets for two years (13-15), then they would be Skulls for three years (15-18), the longest period of time. Their final two years as Blackcliff students would be as Senior Skulls (18-20), sent out into the world to get some practical training from active military officers and some actual survival experience. Two days after the Senior Skulls were mandated to return would be graduation, when students were presented with their masks and became official Masks.

While positions in Blackcliff’s teaching staff (specifically for younger students) were historically reserved for female recruits after spending a few years in the Tribal desert on more “diplomatic” scouting missions to the Tribal desert due to stereotypes based on traditional gender roles, Keris would have defied them by becoming Commandant, the head of the school, and Helene would completely dismantle this specific bit of culture. In her version of the Empire, every Blackcliff recruit was given a position in the military based on their merits, where they fit best, and their track record. Those with stellar track records got prestigious junior military postings as Masks, those with more mediocre track records got inconsequential scouting posts, those with bad track records were sent to the Delphinium side of the Duskan border to patrol (they never crossed the river), and those with the worst track records were sent to the outpost right by Kauf as reserves.

Keris’ allies also got a rude awakening. Depending on how loyal they were to her, their assets were either seized or frozen, and they were made lowly members of the royal guard, having to work alongside Scholars who fought at Antium who garnered far more respect than they did, on the Martial side of the Duskan border, or at Kauf.

Though Quin Veturius was a good Blood Shrike, it was discussed thoroughly and decided that he should become Kauf’s Warden. He was from a respected Illustrian house, one of the finest in the Empire, he was known to be legendary with a scim, and he still had that skill. He would do a better job putting any of Keris’ hardcore loyalists in line than possibly anyone else in Helene’s administration. He was made Warden about five years after the series, and stayed in that position for seven years before his age began catching up to him and he was transferred to Antium’s barracks, where he procured information for Helene and her Blood Shrike before being brought back to the palace and eventually dying when Quil was 15, in the palace infirmary. Helene’s administration would be heavily modeled on Meiji Japan, though she would be more than a mere figurehead ruler. She mainly handled executive duties, though she heard petitions every three months. She also established a parliament of sorts, and a judiciary, but they were both slightly subordinate to her.

Helene’s parliament would be unicameral, unlike Meiji Japan’s. However, the single parliamentary chamber would have two factions. The first faction would be for Illustrians and established Mercators, and the second faction would be for up-and-rising Mercators and prominent Plebeians. The second faction wouldn’t be popularly elected, but the electoral council which selects its members would go through all the Empire’s cities and settlements when it came time to elect new members and hear what the people wish for in the new member, though the electors would hold the final decision. Helene also retained the power to dissolve parliament at will, but only utilized this power when there was no other choice (like a deadlock between both factions).

Overall, Helene would be a very just and strong empress, 100% the right hands to guide the Empire after a staggering war which left it divided. I imagine that the Empire she leaves Quil will be a lot more divided, and that Quil would be content with limited power, at the mercy of a parliament and a judiciary.

[skyfiish]

Modern au Delo would be such a massive nerd for the arts. I think about it a lot. He'd be so into statues and history and classic poetry/lit and ancient greece and paintings and would be able to give an in depth summary about something's creation and the motivation behind it and he could probably quote ancient texts in dead languages and everyone thinks he's such an insufferable art snob but really he's just passionate about his interests and griff hangs onto every word like 😍😍😍

[skyfiish]

I had to include the evidence lmfao

[draconicinfernoviper]

I’m curious, how would Griff and Delo meet in a modern AU? Would there be a modern New Pythos where the exiled dragonborn seek refuge in after the Revolution?

Or would it just be a regular high school AU where Griff is the new kid and Delo is the weird pretentious kid who’s actually just really hyperfixated on the classics and they become close due to both being “strange” in some way or other?

[skyfiish]

Unfortunately, it's not that exciting 😅 it's a college AU and Delo works at a lil bookstore to pass the time and Griff works at a poorly-named pizza shop (inspired by goofy conversations with @kermitkc) and they meet by chance when Delo goes across the plaza to pick up lunch for his coworker (Crissa, because I'm obsessed with the potential they have as friends). And Griff (in an abusive situationship/coercive relationship with Julia) is instantly taken by this weird pretty guy who admits he doesn't even like pizza and may or may not be a vampire. It initially started as a more humorous thing with no plot or direction in mind, as I just wanted to have fun and write something modern for them.

HOWEVER it did end up taking a more serious turn of tone, so I'm tempted to do some heavy editing/rewriting and might change some things. But again, it's mostly just for me to have fun and do whatever with!

[draconicinfernoviper]

Did Delo complete his studies, or is the bookshop just a part-time job to get some cash? Does he go for a graduate degree, or does he stop at a bachelors? What's Delo studying? How about Griff? What's he studying? How did Griff and Julia meet? Does Julia attend the college as well? Does Julia's power over Griff come from the fact that she's more well-liked and she lords that over him and using that to keep him under her thumb, or is she a legacy whose father is a wealthy donor?

Sorry for all the questions. You don't have to answer if you don't want to. I'm just curious.

[skyfiish]

I hope just replying with screenshots of my notes is okay! It's more (less) coherent than anything I could type out. But I actually DID decide to rework it so a lot of this is majorly subject to change (especially the pizza stuff LOL)

Also worth noting Ixion is the manager as a "punishment" for stealing Electra's car and crashing it LMAO again, this was intended to be lighthearted and silly in the beginning but became Not That so it needs a lot of reworking

Oh, also I imagine that where it currently stands, Delo is working toward his bachelors but does intend to get a grad degree! He works his job as a form of independence because he feels like everything in his life is controlled by other people except this one thing that his family doesn't even know about. They think he just lives at the library pretty much (lovingly dubbed the Uriel-Aron Library located in the Old Aureos Building 😂 I am not that creative).

The Callipolis gang does exist here too but they very rarely cross paths, with the exception of Delo and Crissa, and by extension, some of the other background Guardian girlies. Alexa is my favorite of them to write because she's very... Basic White Girl. She shares a flat with Crissa and Deirdre and somewhat Max, since Max is usually with Deirdre!

[draconicinfernoviper]

Do Annie and Lee show up? Is Lee still on the rocks with Ixion? Is he also studying, or is he an associate at the company? How about Annie? Is she studying, or does she work as well? Do they go to a rival university to Pythos University (perhaps a more progressive one)?

What’s Pythos university like? Is it an elitist school which feeds into Triarch? How does Triarch work? Is it common for eldest sons of the Triarch families to apprentice directly under their fathers in lieu of university, with Delo being shamed by Nestor for choosing to go the university route instead of the internship route? Or is interning directly under the father something that very few except Ixion (and the ha’Aurelians, perhaps) did instead of university? Are Phemi and Ethelo also at Pythos? Is there a stand-in for Ethelo being a passus and thus outcasted while Phemi was Chosen, or did that dynamic sort of disappear?

Does Ixion bully Griff because he perceives him as lesser due to being Norcian + poor, or is it a combination of Ixion being a cruel guy in general and super classist/bigoted against Norcians?

[skyfiish]

Annie and Lee both attend a different university (Callipolis University, or Cal-U) with most of the Guardians. I basically made it so the dragonlords go to Pythos U, the Guardians are at Cal-U, and the Woad-riders are at Triple C lol so there's that "class divide" thing through which school they attend. I haven't really done much with them other than have them kind of hanging out in the background of group gatherings but I do want to include them a bit more! As for Lee and Ixion, Lee has estranged himself for the Stormscourges for reasons unknown to Crissa (who is the main source of gossip for Delo lol). He has nothing to do with Ixion and a slight bit more to do with Julia.

Pythos is pretty much an elitist school, a private university for the ultra-rich. Of course the narrative really only addresses the dragonborn characters, but I imagine others like canon Janiculum kids are there too! How Triarch works, I have no idea honestly as I'm not a business person. It's kind of a vague entity existing in the background as a powerhouse of sorts. If I have specific questions about how something works, I go to my business major sister who just decides to not ask lol But yes, there is an expectation for sons to apprentice under their fathers but Ixion blew his chance by being an idiot, so the Stormscourge branch of Triarch is intended to be entrusted to Julia, which is why she takes on the internship. What exactly will be her fate, I haven't decided. I would ideally like to mirror canon with her death, but nothing I've come up with feels "worthy" of her character.

And Delo does get shamed regularly by his father and other Triarch higher-ups (just random Guys I throw in there for story enrichment purposes) for refusing to major in business. The twins also attend Pythos U but have more freedom as they don't have all the expectations on their shoulders that Delo does, and the passus dynamic does just sort of not exist anymore. I thought about trying to find a way to fit it in, but nothing really worked. The best I got is he's not a cat owner 😂

Ixion bullies Griff partially because he's an easy target. This is one of those things that I want to sit down and really think out a more in-depth reasoning, because the most I've come up with is that it's a fixation of sorts that comes with the fact that Ixion is psychologically unstable and has sociopathic tendencies. He and Julia are still orphans and witnessed it happen, which somewhat explains why they are the way they are. His targeting of Griff probably wasn't that bad until he noticed Julia taking an interest in him and then it became an ouroboros type thing. The more interest she had in Griff, the more aggressive Ixion becomes toward him, the more she needs to intervene, which sets Ixion off more, etc etc

If none of this makes sense, I apologize! This universe is surprisingly challenging to translate into a modern setting!

[draconicinfernoviper]

I'm curious, why doesn't Lee attend Pythos? Was he disowned for being kind to lower-class individuals, or was there some sort of equivalent to Lee being saved by Atreus' regime and Ixion and Julia growing up in the more cutthroat, elitist Pythos legacy environment?

What do they study? What does Crissa study? Why don't patricians attend Callipolis? Why do they attend Pythos despite, on the whole, not being Triarch children, and why does Lee attend Callipolis despite being a Triarch son? Is there not a more "elite" or "legacy" track at Callipolis?

Was attending Callipolis an act of rebellion? Did adult Stormscourges care more about loyalty and conformism, or did they value appearances above all else, hence him attending Callipolis as a way to spite them even as they told him to attend Pythos?

[draconicinfernoviper]

Dragonborn Education System

So, I was just doing doing some world-building for the Triarchy and Triarchy-in-Exile, and, seeing as the Revolution was based off of the Russian Revolution, I’m assuming the Triarchy is the Russian Empire to a very micro degree.

This education system was modeled off of historical Romanov educational regimens for princes (and princesses, as well). It was extremely decentralized, not public at all, and exclusively reserved for dragonborn children, patricians, wealthy commoners who could afford private tutoring, and commoners from the Labor Sector of the Commoner District of Southside (which became the neighborhood of Southside under Atreus).

The Triarchal education system emphasized nationalism, autocracy, and divine right. Everyone who was given an education was taught to be loyal to Callipolis and its great dragonriding rulers, who were divine and earned their right to rule by mastering powerful dragons.

Over the centuries since it was first established, the education system become more focused on luxury and courtly finery before taking a sharp turn in the years just prior to the Revolution, all the while still emphasizing those three main traits.

The years leading up to the Revolution were a frenzy for the dragonlords, since they had to balance multiple different intentions for their children, depending on their ages. For older sons, they wanted to speed up education so that the sons could dedicate themselves entirely to dragonriding and exert dominance over the rioting commoners. For younger children, it was a race to get them to a high enough education level that they could be sent to foreign courts and grow up away from the rabid commoners threatening to tear down the walls.

Throughout the centuries of dragonborn rule, dragonborn children began their education at age seven and normally just did basics for their first year of schooling, such as learning penmanship, grammar, and arithmetic.

During that time, however, going too slow was seen as dangerous. In the year leading up to the Revolution, every child five and up was getting educated. Furthermore, they were being educated at 2x the regular the speed, which meant that a child like Lee, just eight years old during the Revolution, would be educated to the level of a sixteen-year-old in everything besides Callish, though a lot of it would have been fresh and new by the time of the Revolution, so really, he would only be at the level of a 12-year-old dragonborn child.

Meanwhile, children like Delo, Laertes, and Ixion, who were ten, would have had a much lighter load. Their fathers’ main goal would be to ensure that they completed any formal education by the time of their Choosings, so they could dedicate themselves entirely to training and shadowing their fathers. Their education would be only twice the regular speed, putting them at the level of 20-year-olds by the time they reached New Pythos.

Meanwhile, Julia, Phemi, and Ethelo, who were seven during the Revolution, would have been at the level of a 14-year-old by the time they reached New Pythos. Unlike Lee, Delo, Ixion, Julia, Phemi, and Ethelo wouldn’t be forced to “forget” parts of their education just to survive, so they would start from where they left off in New Pythos.

When they reached, they would be surprised to see that Rhode and Roxana didn’t know nearly as much as they did. Since they were raised in New Pythos, far from Atreus and any threat of revolution, they would be at the regular level for children their age: Roxana, just beginning basic literacy, and Rhode, at the level of a regular ten-year-old.

Due to the Revolution massacring the rest of his family, Delo had to take lessons alongside Rhode in territory management and adjacent topics. While Delo already had some knowledge on these topics due to being educated as the heir to the Far Lowlands, his knowledge needed to be recalibrated to the entirety of the East and especially the Near Lowlands. Ixion would also be present in these lessons in order to reinforce his knowledge, but this would be where Rhode and Delo’s short-lived friendship began (according to Delo, him and Rhode were friends as children).

After Mabalena was dropped, Delo began showing a keener interest in dragonborn jurisprudence and political philosophy, as he didn’t know Mabalena to be capable of staging a revolution and didn’t believe she was the type to commit sedition. He asked for books from, Rhadamanthus on those topics, and became well-educated in them. Mabalena’s dropping would have also been when his friendship with Rhode crumbled.

Then came Astyanax, who began his education sometime prior to Fireborne. In an effort to show him off to the Callipolans as a symbol of power, Rhadamanthus would have his youngest son complete an accelerated education as well. By the time of the Liberation, Sty was educated to the level of a 12-year-old, but since some of that was still fresh knowledge without any reinforcement by the time he was getting beaten by Norcian children and unofficially terminating his education, he would be at the level of a 10-year-old by the time Delo resumed his lessons.

Unlike Lee, Sty wouldn’t be forced to forget things he’d learned just to survive in post-Liberation Norcia. Instead, Delo would take over his lessons post-Furysong, fearing what Norcian children would do to a young ha’Aurelian who could get through basic Dragontongue legal texts (as in read the words, not understand their meaning) while they couldn’t even read their own names if written on paper and given to them.

Noticing how well Sty took to Becca and not wanting him to grow up isolated like he did under the Triarchy-in-Exile, Delo would allow Becca and Sty to continue doing lessons together, even keeping Becca in the room with them while he taught Astyanax about the crimes of the Triarchy-in-Exile and why it had to fall, both as moral support for Sty and to develop her empathy (like Annie disagreed with the Palace Day massacre, Becca would come to have empathy at least for how it affected Sty if nothing else).