Date: January 03 2021 11:36 AM Title: Chapter 27: Passion
WAIT A MINUTE WAIT A MINUTE
Okay so I just realized the Akrites made a distinction between "their" empire and the others, and Sihil says "your" Emperor. So usually in this story when they say "Emperor" at all, they're referring to the first. Does this mean Orestion isn't associated with the First Emperor? Are tomkins still being funnelled in from whatever non-hellscape they came from? I'M SO CONFUSED
Author's Response:
Their Emperor = Selceus
The Emperor is generally the First Emperor.
Orestion doesn't necessarily dissociate itself from the First Emperor's regime, but rather, the Selcenian Empire deems itself the successor state. Rhaea and Theodosia didn't think of themselves as "Selcenians" - a term used by outsiders from other nations - but rather simply as citizens of the Empire, which their nation is synonymous with. At least, to them. This is in turn part of why Icaria wants to see Selceus dethroned, though her primary motive is still of course killing Teagan and Sihil.
Date: December 18 2020 6:13 PM Title: Chapter 27: Passion
wow you get a boner from fucking with people's emotions huh
volkhard continues to solidify my hatred, because now he's admittedly a babykiller and is okay with it "because I'm not really one of them" and yet if a human kills tomkin civs in a misguided act of revenge he's like "DUHHUH THEY DIDN"T DO ANYTHING TO YOU", I mean at least Firkon's lived his whole life steeped in indoctrination that it was "for the best".
I've always had this question lurking in the back of my head if this is an Attack on Titan situation (before it got shitty) where outside of a certain country humanity's alive and well since given this is a medieval setting you basically had your family and small town and that's pretty much your whole life. (don't answer, I want to wonder GIVE ME SOME FUCKING HOPE GODDAMIT)
And I guess lastly when that one soldier says "200 winters" is that like... legitimately 200 years, or is their timescale different? How long would a complete genocide of humanity take?
Author's Response:
I wouldn't put it quite like that but I sure am a fan of it
In Volkhard's defense, he lives in a society where individual worth is as a whole just extremely low due to the massive tomkin population, and thus doesn't correlate the same sort of stigma to murder as we do. He's a desensitized man who's seen lots and done lots, for better or worse, and while he might not be justified, he's at least doing it for a cause he believes to be genuinely right (or, at least, used to believe, until Teagan knocked a bit of sense into his head - he's having his doubts as we can see from the fact he isn't trying to kill Teagan on the spot). He's just highly hypocritical when it comes to his supposed staunch defense of the innocent due to a mixture of his assimilation into tomkin culture and his tragic experience with his sister and Aelia.
I won't answer, and to be honest, I don't know if I have a complete answer to that synthesized in my head. Teagan, at least, operates on the idea that humanity as a whole has been subjugated and no civilization remains, but then again, she's never traveled far from Dunnehain before the excursion to Whitebreeze Keep, so who knows what's out there? She certainly doesn't.
200 winters is 200 years. Tomkin timescale is the same, but they generally measure things in seasons instead of exact dates. Mostly because I figured they wouldn't be using a human-like calendar.