Behind the scenes of Sam

I forgot to say yesterday, but today is not a canonical update, sorry. That'll be Saturday. Yesterday's weirdness made me not want to do it today.

Anyway, I wanted to talk a bit about one of the unusual qualities of how quests (or at least this quest) is working. Namely, the power of the unsaid. And I'm going to use Sam as my example.

Basically, what it boils down to is that omitted details can be changed until they're mentioned. This isn't to say that I always do this, but it happens often enough. And don't worry, I won't spoil all of these, I'm just going to use Sam cause her transformation was pretty significant from the original plan.

So when Sam was first mentioned, it was just by name. Nothing else was mentioned. At that time, I fully intended her to be all of the following: male, human, and Mar's gay lover. I intentionally picked a name that could be female later should I change my mind between updates, but the intent was still male.

Turned out for the best as I realized that there were a few reasons my first plan wouldn't work (none of which I'm saying here), so decided to change her. Suddenly she was female, a kobold, missing an eye, and a magic item crafter. Nothing was mentioned before that could counter any of this, so this means it's now canonical (though Mar could be lying, but later we get confirmation on all of this, of course).

Now, at the time, I fully intended for her to be a young adult, not 9. But hey, next time she's mentioned? She's suddenly 9. And hey, there's more about her that hasn't been mentioned, so maybe she'll change even again.

To me, this is pretty fascinating, so I figured I'd share this particular example with you. But I likely won't share others, like I said before. Anyway, I'm kind of out of it, so I'm just going to end this now. Hopefully this was interesting enough an idea that the poor way I described it and tlaked about it isn't too distracting and this was at least somewhat interesting. If not, tomorrow's post should be less... unpolished. Anyway, done.

Kir-ta and their marvelous horns.

And this is the last break update, woo! Sorry it would up going the full week, but better safe than burned out. I'll try and update 3 times tomorrow to make up for it.

Anyway, the Kir-ta. The least standard race in the NoF... since I made them up. Well, dreamed them up. Some of you may remember them for years and years ago when the Kir-ta first appeared to me in a dream (one of only 3 I can vivdly remember). Not to mention the fact that I've been seriously trying to get them into one of my settings... well, I've finally done it! We'll see how well that works out for me...

For those who don't know, or need a refresher, the Kir-ta are essentially anthropomorphic Kirins. Appearance wise, anyway. They're typically large and bulky and basically built for fighting. That's because they have a built in weapon in their horns. And I mean this a bit more literally than you might expect. The Kir-ta can actively remove their horns and, in doing so, they become bladed weapons. How? It's just a biological function for them, just as magic is for goblins and kobolds. It's nothing special... for them, anyway. You might call it magic, and maybe it is, but it isn't classified as such as far as the NoF is concerned.

Kir-ta are typically trained as warriors from childhood, with very few exceptions. Their horns don't grow out until they're teens or adults, so they can't be used as kids (not to mention it'd be super unsafe), and instead kids use training weapons. Kir-ta are trained to use multiple weapons, as they don't know what form their horn will take until it is mature enough to use. As such, some kir-ta carry weapons as well, but it's rare as most prefer simply using their horn. Some consider it a mark of shame to carry other weapons, in fact, but that stigma has mostly been erradicated in modern times.

Kir-ta horns are very resilliant, even in weapon form. They can be broken, but it's difficult. They also can't be removed from their heads by anyone other than themselves (well, without using a lot of force or tools or whatever). They can, though, get lost or stolen while in weapon form. So horns tend to stay on most kir-ta's heads unless using it as a weapon.

Now, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that these warriors would be blood thirsty conqurors, but they never really had any phase like that in their history. They have a strong sense of justice and protecting people, a trait they say they get from their God, Kirin, and typically prefer peaceful resolutions to violent ones. Kir-ta are very rarely aggressive as a race, though few will back down from a fight when provoked or when they see a wrong they believe they can right. This has given them a reputation as the bodyguard race.

Anyway, I can't think of anything else to say about them currently. Theoretically a lot of this will be revealed canonically, but if not here it is. It's kind of weird giving exposition in second person, after all. Hopefully this will do in the meantime.

Back to normal tomorrow!