#my novel

⁣His breath tickled her ear as he leaned down and whispered

“Is it hard looking at me like this?” ⠀

Wide eyed she took a deep breath through her nose, knowing he did it on purpose. He wanted to see her reaction. Usually he would be the first to flee when he wanted to hide something; especially stuff like this. Normally he wouldn’t want her to see him like this, fearing Sara would become scared of him.⠀

She turned around focusing on his golden eyes. Eyes she had known since she was little that always shinned of warmth, eyes that now looked at her with worry. ⠀

His twitching wings were folded tightly behind him. ⠀

Smiling she wiped the blood away from his chin with her sleeve, hoping Lucifer didn’t see her other trembling hand. He would never forget her reaction if he did. She just had to remember who he was, he was Lucifer, herLucifer.⠀

“I’m not scared of you Lucifer, okay maybe a little when you look like this, but not of you.” she gave him a soft smile. She wasn’t stupid, she knew Lucifer did some bad things, it was after all part of the job description as the ruler of Hell. “I could never be scared of you.” Sara knew she can’t show him how shocked she is, so she kept on smiling, cause deep down she knew she wasn’t lying.⠀

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— A snippet from my very first book called It’s still under heavy editing lol⠀

I finally feel like I have a solid beginning of my novel at Revision #2. Yay!

Still going through and adding footnotes to First Empress. My new favorite:

Tetrarchy: system of government where a [city-state] is governed by four wealthy assholes. As distinguished from an oligarchy, which is ruled by several assholes, or a monarchy, which is ruled by only one.

heroineimages:

So I’m finding that the more I work on footnotes for First Empress, the more necessary (or at least very useful) it feels to establish a system of years for my fantasy world. I created a calendar as well, but I feel like I need to set a year to count up from or down to. I considered starting the year count with the official founding of Viarra’s empire, which will happen a few years after the first book, if I’m able to make this into an ongoing series. (I also thought about starting it with Viarra’s birth, but symbolically that felt more messianicthan I want her character to come across.)

I also thought about coming up with an event in the past that it counts up from, but I’m not sure what that would be, so I’m open to suggestions. I’m also getting into the idea of having an event well into the future that the years count down to, hopefully getting readers curious about what that event entails to. Any thoughts from my readers?

So after lots of deliberation and brainstorming, I finally decided that setting year 0 in my novel at Viarra’s foundation of the Tollesian Empire just made the most sense according to the world-building and for my readers. The other thing I established, however, is that the calendar year system that it superseded was based on a semi-mystical colonization event that couldn’t even be proved happened. The event relates to the founding of the first three Tollesian cities, but during the description, I have Zahnia establish that it was a bogus event shrouded in unprovable legend. Excerpt below the cut; thanks in particular to the lovely anon who offered a number of terrific suggestions in a recent ask.

The Imperial System of calendar years was established in 200 AE (After Empire) by Emperor Valashna II to commemorate the bicentennial anniversary of the unification of the Tollesian Empire under Empress Viarraluca I in what is now regarded as 0 AE. All years leading to unification are labeled BE (Before Empire) and count backward from year 0.

Though self-congratulatory as the move was, it was highly endorsed by scholars and historians across the empire at the time—and not just the ones the emperor’s cronies paid off to endorse it. The move quickly became popular among the citizenry across the Vestic and surrounding lands because it offered them something concrete to latch onto and identify with. The previous Tollesian calendar, now referred to as the Founders System, counted up from a mythical date allegedly seventeen-hundred and fifty-eight years prior to the establishment of Viarraluca’s Empire.

According to legend, the Tollesian peoples descended from refugees from a collapsing empire. Historians tentatively identify the dying empire as the Bronze-Age kingdom of Manarce, to the northwest, along the northern coast of the Istartus Sea. These refugees settled three major cities: Aneth, Thornic, and Venetesh—the latter of which fell into ruin around 600 BE and was located near Arr Patuna. The Founders System allegedly dated from the landing of these settlers and the construction of these cities.

While surviving literary evidence from these time periods sort of corroborates the Founders legends, archeological evidence does not. The earliest known settlement at Aneth was around 1100 BE, while Thornic and Venetesh couldn’t have been settled before 900. Moreover, human remains from these archaeological sites don’t match those of the Manarcean Empire or any other contemporary Bronze-Age empire of the time. And even by Viarraluca’s time, many scholars and skeptics had come to doubt the validity of these tales.

While traditionalists from Aneth, Thronic, and the surrounding regions balked at the idea of instituting a new set of calendar years that superseded the founding of their cities, most citizens of the Tollesian Empire and its client nations were quite content to accept the new system. It gave them a more tangible and exciting chronology to tie themselves to, culturally, and it was relatable to Tollesian peoples outside of the traditional core Tollesian poleis. The Imperial System exists to this day throughout the Empire and many of the nations it maintains relations with.

if anyone wants to ask me about my original novel that is now past 100k, go for it btw I’m really in the mood to talk about my book

(pssst. anyone who loved the band au would love it, I think. it’s queer, it’s poly, it’s super heartfelt and irrevently funny)