Hello and welcome to a new installment of Fang of Triseria: Notes. If you haven’t read the first volume, you can find it here. This edition follows up chapter 18 of Fang & Bone, which is the last chapter of the first part of the book. It felt like a good opportunity and see if some questions were floating around, and it turns out there we plenty.
Questions and Answers: Fang of Triseria
Special thanks to Kevin and Couch Gregor for asking a bunch of really good questions. I wasn’t able to get to all of them, but I tried to tackle as many as I could to make this post a reasonable length.
Do both moons affect people like Fang or just Umbra?
Both moons, Argent and Umbra, have an effect on lycanthropes and other entities that have a connection on moonlight. Argent is seen as a “slow moon” of the two. As a result, you’ll generally get two to moon cycles of Umbra for every Argent cycle. With that said, a full moon of Argent would be the more dangerous of the two as it would last roughly double the time of Umbra.
And then that implies a double full moon event periodically. Fang does not have it easy and it is why few members of Fools’ Errand feel entirely comfortable to travel with him.
How did Erryl join Fool’s Errand?
Following the Siege of Tradewind he had a romantic and adventuring partner he traveled with that he had met during the campaign. That partner, Flint, brought him into the fold before his untimely death.
This was about twenty years before the events of Fang & Bone.
Is there a story behind how Fang got his sword?
Most equipment does not last long in Fang’s possession – he’s not had a sword or weapon he’s named in ages because they are a means to an end. As we saw, his sword swings are more like a thin club than actual cutting or slashing. So for this sword, no, this sword is just something he bought at a shop.
Imbuing a weapon with a name tends to be reserved for ancient or notable weapons that are likely to be enchanted. A name is part of the enchantment process. I do have a named weapon Fang would eventually get in a different story.
What was Triseria like before the fall?
Triseria was a rather rugged kingdom of warriors that appeared more noble than it truly was and revolved around worshipping a wolf goddess. Imagine a whole nation devoted to meticulously patrolling forests because they could not collectively cope with a past trauma of invasion. Their whole culture essentially engaged in perpetually scouting and engaging in black-ops operations in vast territories that lacked civilization. Very much a hammer in want of a nail.
In the long run though, they grew to consider themselves stewards of the wild lands to the north of the kingdom, as though only they were capable of protecting lands to the south. Their arrogance is what ultimately doomed them when they took advantage of their goddess, resulting in the fall.
What can you tell us about Fang’s reading habits?
Fang was fortunate enough to be given an education back when he was the human named Fain Maerok as he climbed the ranks of the royal guard. He developed a love of reading, but he was limited in what we was allowed to read, until he met The Wanderer, or E.C.
If Fang can grab a book in some dungeon or temple he’s more than happy to do so. Granted, his education was a little limited, so he will struggle with some words here and there, but ultimately he is more literate than most. He may even be more well read than Erryl, given some of the multiversal texts he’s had access to.
Are we going to see Egg again?
Egg has multiple chapters ahead that explain more about him. I don’t want to say he is sympathetic but there are elements of his character and past that make him someone you can understand.
He’s been a complicated character to figure out and I have had to “ramp up” into writing his POV compared to other characters.
Would you want to live in this world and how do you think you’d do there?
I’d be dead in a ditch within an hour of arriving on Aurin. I’ve been writing notes on this setting for a while and it is not a land that revolves around Fang – there is danger and crisis everywhere. It’s a pretty bad time in Aurin right now. Essentially this is a world that has already had one apocalypse. Fang and Erryl dealing with a necromancer is not the worst thing going on in the setting at this moment.
What’s your direction with it leading you through the fiction and is it helping you hold your interest with the story?
I think one thing that has helped me is having already written a novella before. Fang & Bone is a greatly expanded form of that novella, which while I still consider pretty good, doesn’t feel as complex as what I am writing now. A lot of that comes down to experience, but a lot of it also comes down to wanting to improve on what had been done before. Everything I write now is a reaction to that original piece.
Favorite scene so far?
Most definitely the scene from “The Gold Coin” where Corea is speaking with Fang as he is hiding in the stable trying to avoid the moonlight. Corea is the one with the most power in that scene because Fang is terrified of her being there in case she exposes him to Umbra due to curiosity. I think you can really feel the tension of the exchange – he just wants this kid to go away and she will not.
Favorite progressive complications?
Corea being a stab-happy gremlin. Her stabbing Fang was something that emerged as I was writing the chapter and since then it’s become a part of her character arc I am planning. I know who I want her to be in the long run, but the kick off for that emerged in writing “The Point of the Spear with the Tip of the Knife.”
Regarding the wild west of the internet, are you planning for developmental editors? Any plan for beta-readers/sensitivity readers?
Absolutely, in the future. For now I am focusing on just writing chapters regularly for two reasons. One, obviously, is the ever present need for “content” to satisfy algorithmic discovery on the web. The other is that I am trying to grow in my speed and editing skills.
Each chapter gets about two or three edits. After an initial draft I do a developmental edit. First drafts are just getting to a natural ending to a chapter. For the developmental edits, that is where I try to hammer home elements that develop concepts or threads I am focusing on. The developmental edits have lately been being posted to Ko-Fi.
Following the developmental edit, I’ll do a polish and proofing edit a day or so before chapters are posted here. For the most part, this catches a lot of the issues. Sometimes it requires new lines or moments to connect some ideas. It may even be an issue of fixing references or adding in new references to something I want to set up later.
Usually, if something has slipped through after a chapter goes live, I do a third edit. This is usually fixing typos. I have my fair share of typos.
Another reason I am publishing in this form is an interest in webnovels and my desire to share what I learn. My bills are paid through my work as a teacher – it is part of my personality. Writing these chapters and sharing my process here aligns with that, I think.
How does this relate towards The Dead Life?
Originally the idea of the undead in The Dead Life was that they originated from the events of Fang & Bone due to multiversal shenanigans. However, the types of undead between both stories diverged with The Dead Life maintaining the “infection” concept while the Fang & Bone undead are purely the result of necromancy.
That is not to say “infectious” zombies do not exist in Triseria – but we are strictly dealing with constructs in this story. As for The Dead Life, I have two possibilities for where the undead came from there, but I doubt I’ll ever really mention in directly.
Which ideas did not make it to the full draft?
It is still a little early to say anything has been jettisoned as a whole. Part two, structurally, is a road story and will be me leaning into the “Grail quest” concept of metaphorical and developmental encounters on the journey to Old Gordhurst. So I have a list of things I would like to do and might be possible to slot in, but that will change as I progress through that portion of the book.
Though, considering the original intention of linking The Dead Life and Fang & Bone, I think maybe that would count?
What’s the reassuring thing about the project? Along with the non-reassuring thing?
What I find most reassuring right now is that I am actually capable of doing this process thus far and I am actually making it happen. I’ve had a rough go with projects given numerous factors in my life. However, I am now writing two books simultaneously. I am publishing their drafts serially, which isn’t a great idea if you are looking at it from a financial aspect, but is great for me to practice sustained narrative with a dedicated schedule.
The non-reassuring thing here is that serial releases like this are hard to market and pitch to readers. I love the webnovel concept, but the executions of big webnovels are very much counter to what I am pursuing here. Webnovels usually rely on shorter and faster chapters. I am essentially sharing a chapter every two weeks, and often they can be slower or more about sustaining mood. That can be a hard sell for a potential audience.
I think that every chapter so far has introduced important things, moved the narrative along in some significant way, or provided some key information about a character. But there is a lot of time investment from potential readers to see these things that can be hard to convince them to consider.
Ultimately, my hope is that building that reliable, large archive allows potential readers to feel more confident in starting the story.
Any masterworks Fang & Bone is inspired from?
There are a lot of influences, but I think I’d like to focus on a few more obvious ones.
Tonally and aesthetically, Fang & Bone borrows heavily from the Diablo series of games. I’ve played them all my life and the kind of grim, gothic world of those games stood out as something I’ve wanted to explore for a long time.
Narratively, I am very much blatantly remixing different takes on Arthuriana and even repurposing beats and characters. Especially for Fang & Bone I am learning into a “quest” trope. I really enjoy each “stop” on a Grail quest being some unusual detour that teaches a lesson or exemplifies a philosophy. There is also Michael Chabon’s Gentlemen of the Road, which carries a lot of importance to me.
Lastly, the hyper-violence of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal has been very inspiring to me is definitely shaping how I am thinking about some moments ahead. Though I also would need to mention Tartakovsky’s Samurai Jack, given the larger wandering warrior trope I am leaning into for this story, among some other planned Fang stories.
Erryl’s Journal: “New” Gordhurst
Lastly, before I close this volume out, I wanted to add one of Erryl’s illustrations into the mix. Here is a map he drew of “New Gordhurst” during the course of part one of Fang & Bone.
Thank you for reading this volume of Fang of Triseria: Notes. As always, I appreciate your questions and comments and hope you’ll continue to share your thoughts.
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