It seems like now that I’m done writing and producing fandom content I’m actually producing even more random lore posts? It must be the freedom
Here’s a long talk about the romantic relationships appearing in Ink and Blood
I do plan to make an ever longer post about the friendships and family relationships but today is not the day. SPOILERS ahead if you haven’t read all the stories.
I mean, duh?? The series was born as a fix-it for them, so of course they are a major ship of the fleet. While they are an established couple in most stories, it’s not always a perfect relationship: it takes a while for Cedric to earn Orube’s trust, and even after they have their happy ending, they’ll go through a hard time in their marriage in Thorns and Bonds.
Can they coexist in a series about Cedric and Orube? In Ink and Blood, they do. In this series, Cedric and Phobos went from childhood friends to forbidden romance to toxic co-dependence to divorced couple forced to work together, and finally ended up as a divorced couple on good terms. There has been some torturing and some literal stabbing with a spear in between, but they are okay now.
This is a rather unpopular ship but I like them and it’s the only canon thing after arc 5 that I followed. One aspect I liked to explore was how they deal with being a royal pair in a world where Caleb’s traditional role is being nothing but an accessory for Elyon.
I’ll do my best not to spoil too much of The Queen Mother since it’s still publishing but - I love them so much! It’s an arranged marriage, but they are curious about each other, and differently from Elyon and Caleb, both Weira and Zayden have been raised specifically to play specific gender roles in their society. How will this all play out behind closed doors?
They have a one-shot about them so they deserve to be among the main ships! In Basiliade, masters and apprentices often have a parent-child-type of relationship. In rare cases, either because of a smaller age gap or because the apprenticeship starts later, things can develop differently and in such cases, it is not uncommon for the relationship to eventually become romantic. This was the case for Himerish and Yarr. We can only imagine Yarr’s suffering when Himerish left him to become the boss of the universe, and Yarr lived for many years in the belief that due to his position, Himerish forgot his past life and feelings. They reunite, eventually, and the joy is great when it turns out that Himerish still remembers.
Naexi and Nagadir have been best friends since early childhood, and Naexi has always been very devoted to her. Their romantic relationship begins when they are very young, but does not survive Phobos’s reign. Naexi’s devotion to the Prince goes too far for Nagadir to keep following her, and the two remain in good terms, but distant until they reconnect after Phobos’s death.
Not exactly a minor ship because it involves a main character, but they don’t have as much “page time” as the others. It’s uncommon to have a Phobos x Male OC ship, but Aster appeared one day in a story and I grew fond of him somehow, plus I wanted to give Phobos some kind of serenity in his new life after the end of his career as a major villain. Aster is a good guy, so much that Cedric and Orube are puzzling about what he sees in Phobos and why is he willingly living with him in his prison. I guess it’s not only for the free food.
Joshua is a canon character - he appeared in the comics as a university student working as a firefighter as a side job. Orube reconnects with him after coming back to Heatherfield years after Cedric’s death, and they start a relationship. Unfortunately for Joshua, his girlfriend’s ex comes back from the dead - literally - and things get more complicated soon.
Naeem was an adept in Kandrakar, together with Orube. Back then, they used to be friends with benefits. He was being trained by Endarno to become one of the Guardians of the Tower, while Orube was being trained to become Luba’s successor as Guardian of the Aurameres. When Orube comes back after Cedric’s death, she briefly reconnects with Naeem, who in the meantime changed path and became Guardian of the Aurameres in her place.
Kealar was a maiden during Weira’s time and will keep her role also under Queen Elyon. When they were younger, Kealar and Cedric were in an on-again off-again relationship.
After his relationship with Phobos ended, Cedric remained his right-hand and became the most powerful man in Metamoor after the Prince. He was not always enjoying the tasks he did for Phobos, and was still hurting for how their relationship went downhill, so he found distraction in having a very active sexual life. It is mentioned in various stories how back then he was in the position of choosing a different person nearly every evening. Phobos referred to him as a slut in more than one occasion, and even the maidens who had once been his partners called him a whore. They were probably just jealous.
As an Escanor first-born, Phobos’s fate was originally decided by tradition: he had to become Commander of the Champions and could not stay a bachelor - he was supposed to marry an influential noblewoman to seal a stronger alliance between Meridian and one of the other Metamoor cities. Said noblewoman happened to be Beléra, the heiress of Hoel. They were engaged for a while, despite not being exactly each other’s type (although Beléra did not seem to dislike him so much). Phobos managed to convince Beléra to call the engagement off, but Beléra later turned out to be much more interesting than Phobos ever thought at the time.
It is mentioned here and there that Phobos and Nerissa had a flirt when they were teenagers. There will be more about this in The Queen Mother - the motives from each side had little to do with romance, and it did not escape Weira’s eye. She was definitely not happy with the idea of a Kandrakar guardian snooping around her palace and bewitching her son.
This ship is mentioned a couple of times and they also appear together in Heartbroken. After Luba’s death, Endarno convinces Himerish to allow her to come back as a spirit, and learns to manipulate complex magic to occasionally give her a a solid body, so he can touch her, even though only briefly and with a high price. But for Luba, it’s always worth it.
ACHERI (OC) AND SHOSHAN (OC)
The next few ships are fully OCs so they probably don’t interest anyone - anyhow, Acheri (Orube’s brother) and Shoshan are, together with Himerish and Yarr, among those rare master-apprentice situationships that evolve into romantic relationships. In this case it was mostly because they were too close in age for becoming parent-child. I was a bit hesitant in turning them into mates, because they started off in my head as parent-child or at most, brother-sister. But then, I also started to like them together, so it happened…
MORVEN (OC) AND CASSANDRA (OC)
Morven is a shapeshifter and once tells Cedric that he really hopes he will, one day, have the same luck Cedric had with Orube, and find the person he trusts so much he’d show them his native looks. I like to think he showed himself to Cassandra after they ended up together in Ink and Blood 3.
Maut is Orube’s half sister - she’s a very stern and serious warrior and does not like to display her feelings too openly. Her relationship with Rehu does not start too well, but then the grumpy-sunshine trope kicks in and here they are now, married and with two kids.
Even more minor ships (really, just mentioned as Easter eggs)
Of course I paired these two gals, how couldn’t I
They do not appear directly but their relationship is hinted at in The Right Choice. Also, you will never convince me that this ship is not canon
Clearly my endgame ship is Cedric and Orube, but it doesn’t mean it was my favorite to write. I enjoyed writing all the above ships (otherwise I wouldn’t have included them), but Cedric/Phobos was the most intriguing. It was tragic and toxic, but also very sad because in this universe they were not always master and servant - they were friends first, and for a while, their feelings for each other were healthier, but their romance forbidden. They just never had the chance to be happy. I also liked to write them in their aftermath as a divorced couple so it really was fun.
[CHARACTER REF SHEET SO YOU KNOW WHAT THESE PEOPLE LOOK LIKE]
