#kyeaky

[hisokrata]

Empyrean series(Landoscar)

A/B/O || medieval royalty || omega Lando || alpha Oscar || WIP

Captive Prince Lando must bind himself in marriage to the enemy prince, Oscar.

Part 1: Know your enemy and Know yourself

Part 2: Know your allies and Know your foes

[hisokrata]

KNOW YOUR ENEMY AND KNOW YOURSELF

[hisokrata]

Finally finished chapter 4.

Also this is the end of Arthur’s pov in this fic because this poor guy is about to get shipped off to Dunjen. May God save him from Max and Carlos, lol.

Now begins the long and miserable process of sitting with a thesaurus open for a week straight, paraphrasing sentences word by word while trying to convince myself I am writing “political fantasy with a play-like writing style” and it’s okay for me descend into purple prose, occasionally.

My ADHD genuinely wants to try every writing style under the sun all at once, but execution is so much harder. Still, I do think I am learning a lot through this series, even if it occasionally feels like I am fighting the prose.

Also I can already tell this is going to be my one and only attempt at writing something this ancient and stylistically dense.

If I ever write another historical fic after this, everyone is getting slightly simpler dialogues, less symbolism, poetic yearning and fewer descriptive tangents. They are all just going to become vague little blobs floating across the page exactly the way my brain originally intended.

I have written ancient royalty and fantasy fics before, but never anything this deep. Most of my older stuff was still very romance-focused, with the world existing mostly to support my ship and their emotional arc.

But this series somehow spiraled into politics, religion, regional tensions, court structures, folklore, symbolism, inheritance, diplomacy, historical parallels and enough family lore to give me a headache.

Half the time I am wondering when exactly my silly little Landoscar fic turned into an entire fictional civilization?

And I do sometimes worry that all the lore and worldbuilding might put people off or make the fic feel intimidating to get into. Which is funny because at its core it’s still just a silly fic with Lando and Oscar yearning for each other in fancy clothes.

Also I genuinely have no idea how some of the things I wrote in this chapter is going to be received as this is my first time doubting my dramatic irony usage in a fic and wondering if I should have just turned the whole thing into a plot twist instead?

But Lando is operating with extremely limited understanding of what’s actually happening around him, while also being under severe stress for months and then being trapped in a massive power imbalance, so naturally he ends up villainising almost everyone in Dunjen through his pov. Which means dramatic irony was my last hope, so everyone can slowly piece together things he either misunderstands completely or simply cannot afford to see clearly yet during the first arc of KYEAKY.

And sometimes I wonder whether it’s strange that I make all the drivers interconnected in my fics, but I also can’t really bring myself to write about non-celebrities. So most of the time I am just inventing family trees, alliances, rivalries and emotional histories completely out of thin air and hoping everyone follows along.

Anyway should I just make a side blog for this series atp?(maybe password-protected)

Because I genuinely have so much lore, memes, scene snippets, discarded ideas, symbolism rambles, family trees, references and completely unnecessary thoughts about this universe.

Like I actually want to yap about this series because half the fun of writing it is the insane amount of spiraling happening bts.

The only thing stopping me from doing it here is honestly anon hates and the fear of coming across as annoying or overly self-indulgent.

[hisokrata]

Chapter 4

Alpha Oscar Piastri/ Omega Lando Norris

Part 2 of Empyrean Series || 4/4

29.5 k words || ancient royal au || world building/ lore

Prince Oscar of Dunjen had the bearing of one who had long since concluded his own heart's trial, passed his own sentence of eternal longing and taken up a peaceful residence in the prison of his yearning.

“Love desires only that the beloved walk unharmed beneath a gentle sky. That no sword shall find him before it finds me first. That no grief settles with permanence upon his shoulders. I would stand in opposition to the world entire to restore to him every kindness it seized without right, every tenderness it withheld without cause, every moment of peace it stole from his keeping and squandered on the ambitions of lesser men. If I can place into his hands even one dawn unmarred by fear or threat, then let Dunjen's assembled court name me betrayer of the crown. Let history name me worse. I shall answer to neither, so long as Prince Lando stands safe.”

An ancient royal au with Prince Oscar pining for Prince Lando amid court politics and royal intrigue.

read Empyrean Series (WIP)

[hisokrata]

hiii!!

hello! i'm so obsessed with your fic "know your enemy and know yourself"

it is one of the best fics i've ever read. the worldbuilding pulled me right in with all the little details and the plot has me trying to figure out how everything connects with lando. you're really talented! thank you for posting this fic.

and if it's okay and not a spoiler, are any of the events or characters are inspired from real history or people? just wondering.

Hi!

Thank you so much. You’re very kind!!

As for the inspiration behind this fic, I don’t think there are any direct inspirations from real-life events or people. The only exception might be a couple of quotes from Romance of the Three Kingdoms that loosely helped shape parts of Lando’s character arc, as well as Russtappen’s dynamic. But beyond that, there isn’t really a direct reference to any specific character or historical event.

Honestly, that’s mostly because I don’t think I am capable of doing justice to something as brilliantly crafted as ROTTK.

“The empire, long divided, must unite, long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.”

This quote was actually one of the inspirations for both this fic and the Live and Let Live verse. I even used it in the summary of Mutual Denial Disorder (the Russtappen fic), which eventually led to the worldbuilding of KYEAKY, since this fic is essentially an extension of George and Max’s past life and reason why it takes place in the same geography.

Originally, I tried developing a full-fledged George/Max fic, but they ended up being way too OP for this worldbuilding and so I dropped it. A couple of months later, I realised the story might actually work better from Lando’s pov, since he begins the story at a disadvantage and connected to almost everyone in the plot. That’s also why there is a more detailed backstory for Norstappen in Chapter 2 than Carlando in Chapter 1, since a lot of the early development came from Russtappen pov.

So in many ways, KYEAKY is the result of me starting what was supposed to be a Russtappen royalty smut last year… and then as I worked on, it grow into something much bigger over time.

As for other inspirations, the title of the fic comes from a quote in “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu. But again, I am definitely not clever enough to incorporate actual war tactics from a masterpiece like that, so I settled for palace drama instead.

That’s also partly why the Siege of Cygnus itself is mostly glossed over in the fic. We only see the prelude and the aftermath. To be completely honest, I am far too weak to properly describe the actual battles, writing the loyalist part alone already made me tear up.

The title also plays on the idea that sometimes you can be your own biggest enemy, and sometimes your enemy might understand you better than you understand yourself. That’s why, in the banner, Lando’s fingers point to Know Your Enemy (he is focused outward) while Oscar’s point to Know Yourself (he is focused inward) all while, they’re reaching towards each other, but there is still a noticeable gap between them.

To properly answer your question though, majority of my inspiration for this fic really comes from the stories of ancient Indian mythology, literature and folklore that I grew up with. I thought I was being quite obvious with the Sun vs Moon gods motif (which is kind of the foundation of two of India’s biggest epics), along with some of the dramatic storytelling style.

Because of that, the fic has a lot of emphasis on debates and conversations, almost like a stage play at times.

In Prelude to the Siege of Cygnus, Lando’s speech is heavily influenced by anti-war philosophies as he calls for action, while Max’s speech draws more from the traditional virtues of war yet advising restraint, found in ancient Indian literature from before the 6th century. Even though there were many wars between kingdoms and empires during those periods, the philosophical traditions themselves often remained deeply anti-war, rarely glorifying war itself, which the central theme of this fic.

There is also quite a bit of influence from ancient Indian philosophies, especially in the way how everything is expressed indirectly through the language. I am not entirely sure if I managed to capture that well or if some of it gets lost when I translate my thoughts into English. Since I am not very familiar with the etymology of English words either, I am sure a few anachronisms have slipped in, I am working on it now, trying to improve my prose.

Sorry, I tried not to ramble, but I ended up rambling quite a lot anyway. This is honestly one of the reasons I’ve been a bit tight-lipped about this fic. The moment someone directs a question at me, I will almost certainly reveal far too much. Sorry if that was a bit of an info dump, I hope I didn’t overwhelm you with such a long answer.

Thank you again for reading and for reaching out 🫶🏻❤️

I hope you have a wonderful day!