Note Contents:
1. Lore loyalty
2. Character notes - Cassiel and Provence
3. Original human & Precursor status
4. The Gift
5. Colonists lore
6. End Wars
7. Divisione Speciale Anti-Canina di Terra
8. References and easter eggs
9. Sick beats
1. Lore loyalty
I strove trying to write both my novels as accurately as possible, so they would be faithful to the Arknights lore. And in the worst case not to contradict it. Aside from the most glaring aspect of course.
Hopefully no new chapter instalments in the Arknights game will throw a wrench in my efforts. But if it happens, then, well, my novel will still be a good damn story to read. And if minute changes are all that's needed then I will eventually get to making them.
2. Character notes of Cassiel and Provence
Provence:
I tried to develop and enrich Provence's character and personality while keeping loyalty to the person she is described and acting as in lore. I also strove to create a chemistry between her and Cassiel without being seemingly forced. I believe I created something smooth enough. Where I presented both the coolness of Provence as the character she is as well as presenting her human vulnerabilities.
Cassiel:
When I was first creating the character I decidedly wanted to avoid falling into what I considered ''modern'' character tropes. What I am referring to is that many protagonists from other novels, anime and movies seem unrealistic, goofy, or simply too socially inexperienced or awkward for a better term. At the same time I wanted to avoid making his personality too ''gun-ho'' or to suffer from the ''main character'' syndrome as in some western media.
The idea was clear. I wanted a simple man who was grounded into reality, normal before being affected by the horrible experiences of his life. And how he would act, live and evolve as a character. While carrying his mental scars through the environment of Rhodes Island.
It was a delicate balance that I have tried to create and maintain parallel to his gradual development as a character throughout the two novels. And while he is the main character, I have tried not to make that ''special'' become ridiculous. He is the product of the circumstances of his life and of his own decisions.
At the base of it all he is a normal man. With good qualities and faults as well. He is not perfect, he is far from being infallible. I needed a believable character that would make believable actions. A character that the reader could at the very least relate somewhat to him.
Where, as strange as the world of Terra in Arknights might be, our character could adapt, understand and make believable decisions. Of course, based on his upbringing and life experiences that moulded him into the survivor he is. A survivor with many regrets that at one time lost hope. An introspective character where he would understand his situation. Where he faces dilemmas and struggles to overcome them in his way as all people do in life. For this was his new life in the novels of ''A Messenger's Healing'' and ''A Messenger's Journey''.
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Simply put I had to create a believable human character that would be faced with many challenges. Where, with the help of someone's love, would find renewed reason to live. And I had to create a believable story that would be intriguing in both action and plot. As one reviewer on my first novel said it best: ''That's just a creative decision about what worked here.''
3. Original human & Precursor status
Operator Tacet, real name Cassiel Avenarius, is the last Terran human, but not the last Precursor. That being the Doctor as well.
While Tacet is a Precursor he is also the last pure and baseline human of the Homo sapiens race on Terra. Descendant of the colonists who first came to inhabit Terra thirteen thousand years before the events of Arknights. It is implied in my novels that the Doctor, while a Precursor, is no longer fully human. And that unlike the colonists who came to settle on Terra, he was a human who came at a later date and chose to remain for his own reasons, apart from the colonisation contingent.
The Authority of the pre-Arknights era is suggested to be filled by members who were uplifted/changed human beings. In such a manner that they were baseline human beings of their race no more. But something slightly different. A leadership race for the larger body of Terra and the human race.
4. The Gift
There is a discrepancy difference in power levels between the baseline human race and the races of Arknights. With the Gift it is enough for Tacet to keep up with the beastly strengths of the current races. What is superior to most of them is his immunity to oripathy and his ability to heal abnormally fast.
5. Colonists lore
Mostly explained in the novel. Terra was colonised over thirteen thousand years in the past by the settlers known as ''Predecessors'' from the two closest inhabited worlds.
Brumalis Prime was a moon world orbiting a light blue gas giant. Populated itself by a breed of mixed Nordic people.
UltraMars. A Jupiter sized Earth with red shades of soil. Imagine Italian Renaissance on Mars.
6. End Wars
A mix of conflicts that brought the end of the original human inhabitants on Terra. I imagined it as a mix of cataclysms that I will simply number here:
-Civil war
-Increasing chaos from the new mutant menace and the revolt of the original races such as the ancient sarkaz
-Detonation of world ending weapons and the release of Originum
-Societal and infrastructural decay
-Complete planetary blockade to prevent discovery in the face of hostile alien races
-Main human race in the galaxy forced to quarantine and abandon its people and their struggle on Terra in order to keep them hidden. As Humanity fought a greater, losing war on the intergalactic scene.
7. Divisione Speciale Anti-Canina di Terra
Translated in English as the Special Terran Anti-Canine Division. Was intended to represent a special forces unit of the larger Terran Military Land Forces during the pre-Arknights era. Tasked specifically in dealing with part of the growing mutant problem, specifically canines and lupos. Tacet was part of this unit.
8. References and easter eggs
The candle graffiti and red scarf mentioned in chapter 17 are references to two distinct YouTubers.
The candle graffiti is a reference to ''The Librarian''. A YouTuber who explores, plays and comments on horror games, scary maps, and generally dark and interesting atmospheric mediums, especially those of fan made Half Life 2 maps.
The red scarf is a reference to ManlyBadassHero. A YouTube channel of many playthroughs, stream clips or random things. Especially those of mystery/horror and niche games.
Chapter 44, the Magnetosphere Regulator is a reference from Fallout 2 to the original hydroelectric magnetosphere regulator. As the ghoul character Harold would say: ''Well, technically, it's a thingie.''
9. Some music and ambient hits that helped with inspiration and with the mood when re-reading for corrections:
1. Anxnas - Lucky bullet
2. Don't Wake Up - Apovabin
3. Blessed Mane - Nostalgia
4. DVRST - Sunrise
5. DVRST - Thinking of a drive by
6. KXST - Storm
7. KXST - Storm Slowed
8. Ca Calin (Call Me) Trap Remix
9. Okean Elzy - Obijmy (CallmeArco Remix)
10. Trigun - Time Left
11. КИНО - Кукушка (Almaz Remix)
12. Виктор Цой - Кукушка (WASTELAND x Ber$$erker) PHONK EDITION
13. Луки Кассет - Всё будет хорошо
14. Улица Восток - ночь - текст
15. (Slowed down) Перемотка - Очнись
16. 2PAC & Miyagi -Other Position (Dark Boy Remix)
17. &ME, Black Coffee - The Rapture Pt.III
18. Aliens Hadley's Hope Sentry Guns from another Room - Ambience with dark Music
19. Observation Deck Source Radio [Deep Lofi House Mix]
