The Dead King was not what I expected either. And I'm glad to have an answer on why Akua was being tolerated to such an extent, was a bit worried it would be Malicia undermining Black. Glad to be wrong.

 

Inb4 Killian is Assassin and Catherine has been railing one of the Calamities this entire time.

 

There was an interlude where scribe clearly stated assassin as a male.

 

I doubt that she's him myself, but I would think the Assassin would come with bullshit Named disguise powers. Thief did manage to keep a small fleet in her pockets.

 

I'm guessing it's some sort of universal Thief aspect where they get a pseudo bag of holding. Hell, the aspect is even probably called Hold.

 

This updated today with 2 new chapters, a POV one of Malicia and one from the perspective of the Bellerophon Diplomat.

 

Quite excited for this next book. I suspect the author was intentional in releasing two chapters focused on these two different types of "Evil" rulers. Maybe this is meant to set the tone for what will come -- Tyrant of Helike as the traditional Evil versus Alaya & her new Praes.

And of course we have Heiress busy plotting in the background... heck, Catherine also has her own agenda that will likely lead to tension with Alaya. Looks like this book is going to live up to the story's title. Four different takes on Villainy.

 

Apprentice continues to be a fucking boss. He stole the interlude away with only a few paragraphs of screen time. Killian and Nauk were interesting to see in command without Squire there to overshadow them. Nauk had some pretty good lines and it was nice getting in the headspace of an Orc. Kinda underwhelmed on the first group of Fae though, I thought they'd put up a better fight. I like how it's explained and I'm looking forward to seeing them in the future.

 

If anyone here following the story missed it, the author posted the following in the comments:

 

The new heroes are fun. Champion is possibly my favorite character now, and the White Knight as divinely guided Two-Face is a pretty cool concept. The coin is a perfect Chekhov's gun.

That said; so many interludes. I'm ready for the plot to pick up some steam, because everything but the main plot keeps progressing.

 

I'm really loving the latest extra chapter on Cordelia, the First Prince. Out of all the Heroes we've met, she seems the closest in motivation and character to Catherine. If or when they do meet, I can see Catherine being sympathetic to her position.

If we're still entertaining theories about Catherine challenging Malicia some day, perhaps Cordelia could end up becoming an ally.

 

Absolutely love this.

There's quite a lot of typos early on, diminishing in later chapters, and it's quite a shame, because the rest of the work is really good. Like said earlier, it can feel as if the author's skipping over segments to get to the meat of the story, but I find myself entertained enough that I don't mind.

Loads of good ideas come together to make this interesting. Names shaping who you are, but also being just generally better is interesting (and also seems quite similar to Exalted, especially the sort of limited number), and I'm looking forward to seeing more Namelore in future updates. The difference between Good and Evil is not unique, but having Evil people not try and explain their Evilness sort of is. Also, I want to see more of the Gnomes.

Having read through the whole thing in a few days, a slightly subtle thing that caught my eye was Cat's oaths. Initially, she swears by the Gods, I think to "the gods above" or something, which changes to "the gods", and then finally to "the gods below, everburning". Same with her drinking - initially she looks down on Black for his daydrinking, and the amount. Later she has her own wine frequently, and then she always has a drink in social situations. She's becoming much more Praesi-ish.

5/5

 

Calamity Hit Squad is a thing and it's terrifying for the heroes. Great chapter and it was interesting watching the calamities in action against a group of heroes. Cold efficiency and plans within plans to deal with all the heroic bullshit. It's easy to see why they've lasted longer than the average villain.

 

One of my favorite chapters, seeing the Calamities in action was amazing, especially

Spoiler

Warlock's decoy blasting the Hedge Wizard and Black calmly calling in precision strikes from Warlock.

On a different note, much bigger fan of this group of heroes, especially the White Knight, than the previous batch. The awareness of the narrative and their use of it is great to watch.

 

I definitely enjoyed this chapter, as I liked both sides of the conflict and didn't have to root for one side to win over theo ther.

 

Difference in scale honestly. They're Calamity esque in power. Will and co. (minus WB) were junior league heroes. Appropriate for Squire. I never had any doubt Black would wipe the floor with Will if they faced off.

 

Eh, more like Will was Catherine league with a coterie of essentially Named mooks.

I doubt Black would have ever willingly faced off with Will, also. All of his aspects are geared towards one-on-one. He's more of an Assassin or Scribe job.

Currently placing a bet that Assassin has some sort of retroactive memory erasure power. I base this on his absence being flat out strange in some scenes, like the Calamity dinner party where Warlock stole Black's wine.

Also betting: Killian bites it this book. It's too well-aligned. They've been mentioning too often that having a loved one for a Named turns them into a target, and Cat has being excessively blatant with their previously private relationship. I'm betting the Fae do it somehow, considering Killian's own Fae background.

Additional theory: the Tyrant is acting like a cartoonishly evil villain because it grants him incredibly strong narrative armor, because cartoonish villains with grand schemes also tend to be recurring characters. This works because in Black and Alaya eschewing the normal villainy, the narrative is boosting him, a classically Evil villain, to keep things on track. Sort of like bizarre rule of ninjutsu sort of deal.

 

I don't believe the Tyrant is being "boosted". He's just a Tyrant Name playing the Tyrant role. This is his natural power. Nothing we've been given about him suggests he understands the influence of the narrative. He just wants to win.

 

Well.. yes. Facing off one v one with the Lone Swordsman goes against everything Blacks been trying to accomplish. I just think if it did happen Black would pull it off (unless theres some narrative ex machina at work).

On that note I'm loving how the WK/Tyrant confrontation is really a picture into the whole Good/Evil conflict as a whole. Tyrants comedic style over substance attacks have little chance of working bit they allow him to get away for future attempts. WK bravely holds off the hordes and the comedic members fool the Tyrants plans yet still survive. Both are abusing the narrative structure of the conflict for their own benefit for this Named zero sum game.

Other thought what's everyone's thoughts on the Scribe = Assassin theory?

---------- Post automerged at 09:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:16 AM ----------

We know he's beaten prophecy and has no fear of dying. From his interlude we know his opinions on Evil are classic rather then progressive, how you do it matters more then what you end up accomplishing. He's definitely taking advantage of this even if it's not as on the nose as WK's uses.

 

Nah, I don't think so. Scribe has her own thing going on being the ultimate spymaster. Plus that takes away from the fun of guessing when we have seen Assassin, because he's shown up onscreen twice. We just don't know what the disguises were. If anything I'd love an Assassin interlude to see his point of view.