My brain's revolting really hard against land tenure right now so I thought I'd just start answering some more commonly asked questions from readers about my draft of The Lay of Imladrien and Tinuvion
Q: Why did Ivan decide his path so quickly?
A: Well... things should be a lot clearer later on, either in a future draft or in a sequel. There's a lot of stuff I want to fix/clean/add in retrospect. All I can say at this point is, sit tight and I'll let you make your own guesses before I post my answer in an updated version of the story.
Q: What is an SN-2 reaction? And what's so funny about it?
A: In a nutshell, SN-2 is a bimolecular reaction where one molecule collides with another and knocks off a leaving group in the one that gets collided into. The collider then "sticks" a piece of itself onto the collidee. This happens all at the same time -- collision and leaving group coming off the one being collided into and getting a new piece in its "rear". The conformation of the molecule also changes, similar to an umbrella going inside out in a strong wind. You may want to look it up for more technical detail though, my o-chem is a bit rusty. I'll let you figure out why it's so funny, but I did have a professor who referred to it as a "back-side attack". Feel free to insert (in)appropriate joke.
Q: Are we going to see Tindariel / Clawstaff / Tanilthara again?
A: Most likely in a later story.
Q: What D&D classes were you thinking of with Imladrien, Tinuvion, and Oroszlan?
A: Imladrien is most definitely a sorceress in my mind. Tinuvion is mostly bard but he's got some levels of barbarian with that temper of his. As far as Oroszlan goes, I see him as a cleric (spheres: fire and healing) / wizard. Of course, I'm not too worried about how they fit into a D&D class. But if anyone ever gets the idea of introducing them as NPCs, well, there we go. I might also post some templates for the various Tuatha if I ever get around to fully thinking things through and get bored enough :)
Q: What happened to Iliiryana? Did she survive?
A: You'll find out soon enough, either in a revision or in a sequel!
Q: Who or what inspired Iliiryana?
A: She started off as a really foul-tempered D&D NPC I had in a campaign long ago who struck terror in just about all of the male PCs. Suffice to say most of the PCs in the parties that faced her either ran for their lives or ditched their missions to try and eliminate her while she was relatively weak.
Q: How much of the research is actually done? Which pieces of scientific equipment are real and which are fictional?
A: Well... a lot of the chemical/biogeochemical stuff is fictional although some of the modelling techniques are real, even if the actual models are mostly fictitious. As far as the equipment goes, it's all actual gadgets that I've worked with -- ICP-MS, NMR, eddy flux towers, soil corers and so on.
Q: Which character do you identify most with?
A: Hard to say, although mostly Imladrien because a lot of her experiences do parallel mine.
Q: Was learning how to shoot compound as agonizing as what Imladrien experienced?
A: About the same order of magnitude. Only difference is that I only had to get the draw weight dropped down to about 35-36 lbs at the start, not 26 lbs. I guess Imladrien is a faster learner than I am though.
Q: Do you have D&D character stats on the three heroes?
A: Not really but considering they were "guest" NPCs in a campaign I had some time ago, I do have unofficial stats that a friend and I rolled (I swear, her dice were loaded!) I treated them as human so this is before their Tuatha roots start manifesting.
Imldarien: STR 8, DEX 17, CON 13, INT 18, WIS 11, CHA 16 (seems reasonable enough, strength a tad high for her, but there is a difference between the "guest" NPC and the actual characters)
Tinuvion: STR 13, DEX 14, CON 14, INT 16, WIS 9, CHA 18 (hmm... no wonder he's the Geekster front man... and maybe that's why he gets into so much trouble!)
Oroszlan: STR 10, DEX 10, CON 15, INT 18, WIS 16, CHA 7 (which explains why he's not so intimidating even in dragon form)
Q: So do Imladrien and Tinuvion choose to follow their mortal or Tuatha roots in the end?
A: I honestly don't know yet.
Q: We kinda know why Cylithera is the way she is, but what's up with Iliiryana?
A: For part of Iliiryana's background, go here. There's a whole lot more to her back-story but that should give you a better feel for what's up with her.
Q: Any "out-takes"?
A: I'll post them eventually...
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