"Every Strand" author commentary pt. 7

[allekha]

Chapter 24:
outside the walls of Riverbridge
Riverbridge is a town in Arena that... get this... is located on a river. And presumably has a bridge over it. (I just think some of the slightly inconsistent-sounding older names are funny. Arena also gave us Dagoth-Ur, aka Red Mountain. At least one of the towns later got a proper 'elvish' name, Stoneforest > Balmora.)

I intended for it to come across that Voryn did actually sleep with Corimil but kept it somewhat ambiguous on purpose to reflect his ambivalence and mixed feelings about the whole affair. You can interpret it however you like, though!

Almalexia's grandfather, like his father before him, ruled distantly. He was only seen in public on the necessary ceremonial occasions. But for all that they must govern at a large scale and a large distance, Almalexia and Nerevar do enjoy being personal rulers when the opportunity arises.
This was inspired by the later Tribunal being unusual among the Tamrielic gods in being 'living gods' who, before the whole lack of power from the Heart thing, walked among their people. Maybe Almalexia (and Nerevar) were already notable as active, involved rulers.

But a few stare off vacantly into space, like they haven't noticed the great fanfare and bowing accompanying Almalexia's arrival. A few glare sullenly at her instead. One or two are rocking in place, heedless of the whispers of a nearby staff member.
cradles of quiet infants with a quiet nurse
I didn't want to go too far into detailing child abuse for the sake of one scene in a fic that is really not about that, but I've happened to have read a bit about the experiences of institutionalized children, and these mentions drew from that.

This scene existed in part because I wanted to give Almalexia some action for the first time in a while (if more political action than stabby-stabby action).

Relmyna fascinates a circle of children with magical sparkles and illusion-lines, playing a game of magical cat's cradle
As with a similar line in chapter 14, this was inspired by a sweet scene in a more obscure beloved game of mine.

They eat from plates made of stoneware from the central highlands, drink Dagoth wine from the Dwemer cups.
I recently wrote a little in-universe archaeology report from a much later time exploring this idea more.

"I thought," says Gilvoth, "that it was Nerevar who did it."
Someone had to say it eventually. (I deliberately had Voryn forget to ever explicitly refute it.)

Chapter 25
My original idea for Nerevar's return to the story was a lot less dramatic, but at some point I realized I was putting the gun up on the mantle, lol.

But any country would struggle to keep scarce spy-messengers with various ways of transmitting messages out of such difficult mountain terrain. Two lights, golden; Voryn assumes that means two Chimer are on the way, and the captain of the outpost confirms this.
This was inspired by the Order of the Stick comics #512 and #513, which used the D&D spell "Dancing Lights" as a pre-agreed warning system. I figured something like that could substitute for something like a warning beacon.

which is probably a poor match for its true shape
Hard to get an accurate map of enemy territory back in the day.

In some ways, the horses are not so different – they control much the same with the reins and one's legs, though their backs are narrower – but the feeling of riding one is strange all the same, and none of them knows the temperament of the animals.
I am curious how different riding them might be, but I don't have a Friendly Local Animal Riding Expert to bug, haha. I did watch a video once about riding a donkey from someone very used to riding horses, but those are a bit more similar!

A lot of this investigation scene was me trying to think of how Nerevar (who would have had experience in traveling rough, as probably would Vivec and Alandro) and Dumac would act in their situation, what that would leave behind, and what Voryn might be able to notice a few days later even without tracking skills. The ruined message was there because you can't make it too easy for everyone :p but surely they would have attempted to leave a message that only people they could trust could read. Hopefully it came off as realistic!

I suspect they are vigilantes from a religious order that is opposed to elves and our culture in all forms
The Alessian Order.

The scene of Voryn descending out of thin air was one of my favorites to write.

You didn't even get his blood on your robes
Yes, I meant to imply that Nerevar thought it was very hot of him, lol.

the ancient cylindrical seal that Nerevar presents as proof of his identity
I don't think ancient Mesopotamian cylinder seals were used to attest to identity, but they were used as a form a signature/notary, at least, so it seemed reasonable for a fantasy verse.

Chapter 26
A Telvanni war-wizard eventually takes hold of it and, in one sense, solves it by tearing it apart with sheer force of magic. This starts a lively argument as to whether that counts.
Personally, I am of the opinion that if you solve a puzzle by breaking the given or implied rules, it doesn't count.

only to instead trip on the step, stumble, and slam into the tapestry on the opposite wall.
I'm glad multiple people enjoyed this moment lol. Last chapter: avenging guardian spirit whispering invisibly over the grass. This chapter: oopsy-daisy into the wall.

The Nords, though physically strong and determined to keep what wasn't theirs, bearing at times anti-magic weapons and felling fighters with their wicked voices, were comparatively iron-poor and saved it for their weapons and shields.
Based on the amount of iron and steel in many of the armors associated with the Imperials (e.g. the Legion armor in Morrowind and Imperial Armor in Skyrim) vs with the Nords (fur and leather in Morrowind, leather and fabric for the Stormcloaks in Skyrim).

Can see how the Chimer will gaze at Nerevar paraded about in garlands of late summer roses and hear of how an Ashland prophet foretold his safe return before he ever left. How they will sneak glances at the spider-silk woven by Chimer that Dumac prefers for his summer wraps, and they will think of the news coming down the roads and rivers from Mournhold of Almalexia's orders and deeds, one after the other.
Meant to echo imagery of the Three Good Daedra, with Almalexia taking on the 'helped us build/learn lots of cool and useful stuff' aspect of Boethiah.

"And the supposed orphans were so very eager to return on home," he says flatly.
I think it might be a little weird to return home and your friend is like, so I took care of a corrupt orphanage because of a fight we had three months ago :) in any case, but it's implied in What My Beloved Taught Me that Vivec's father abused him, which probably made the situation a little weirder.

a leader in a horrific slaughter of one of the last known groups of Ayleids within Cyrodiil.
The sacking of Malada.

The sections that make up this chapter were originally meant to be much shorter, and a lot of it combined with chapter 27; the amulet reveal was planned to take place during their reconciliation convo, but it already covered a lot of ground, and I was struggling to have it flow naturally. While writing this chapter, it seemed more natural to split that beat off (and another beat was broken off as well for another time). This sort of thing is why this fic grew so much.

Voryn instantly recognizes it as the Mage
I was so excited to get to this reveal, haha. This is supposed to carry a lot of symbolism and callbacks to their relationship thus far: Nerevar's moon-and-star association, it being Voryn's birth sign in this fic, their conversations about constellations and looking unlike the pictures (ch. 5, ch. 14), comberries being a symbol of Dagoth-the-family rather than Dagoth-the-House (ch. 13) and Nerevar teasing Voryn about counting the ones embroidered on his robe (ch. 14), and all that being on an amulet that Nerevar wore constantly and used to (maybe) save his life.

Chapter 27
The kind of blue that would suit Nerevar for eyes, if he was half-Nord, or had more of their blood in his ancestry, or any of it – whichever the story would be.
A reference to the blue-eyed Nerevar fanon, of course (it does look pretty).

Voryn smiles at him like nothing has ever happened between them.

Mouths: Hai Resdaynia.
Back when the ideas for chapter 26/27/a bit of 25 were still one chapter, this was meant to be the moment that Voryn realizes that Nerevar might not have fallen out of love with him.

Below, a Redoran noble turns to another. She looks uneasy.
Nerevar: Hey everyone, isn't it sooo cool and sexy that my best "friend" can invisibly murder people :) :) :)

Some say that jumping spiders are actually symbolic of Hircine, as they hunt rather than spin webs to trap prey; Voryn has never heard of Mephala saying anything on the matter, and he likes them much the same as any other.
I like little moments of not everyone agreeing on every point of superstition/religious beliefs.

the story of your killing the human that I was telling everyone so happily... it could sound like a threat, couldn't it?
Nerevar, in his imagined Ayem view: Hey honey, my best friend who I'm super close with to the point where you're desperately trying not to think about how close can invisibly murder people, isn't that so cool :) :) :)

He pushes himself up to settle himself sideways into Nerevar's lap instead. That Nerevar allows it is a thrill, as is the way he wraps an arm around his waist and puts a hand back in his hair. Voryn's cock throbs when he feels the hardness pressed between Nerevar's lap and the thin layers of cloth that separate them.
You know, a looot of the original conceit back in the 80k-imagined-version of this fic was 'how long can I make two characters express a deep longing and physical attraction to each other without ever taking any clothes off or having sex (without driving the reader crazy to the point they give up in despair that the characters will never bang)'. No spoilers for how that's going in the realized version of the fic, but they wouldn't have gone even this far in the original version. But again, that was a bit shorter. Hopefully it's satisfying when we do eventually get there.

Voryn grabbing Nerevar's hair for once and making him vow was the first part of the scene that I wrote.

Chatper 28
Vivec hasn't even opened it yet, but he makes a face. "Nobody likes artists who say that kind of thing," he says. He shoves the book back. "Introduce it like you're the queen."
I was once in a writing club where we forbid people from putting down their writing as they introduced it.

approach them not openly but by stealth.
Couldn't resist this one.

Hopefully for better reasons than Voryn has.
Probably never going to come up in the fic since she's a tertiary OC, but I imagine her as aroace.

But Boethiah has helped their bodies adapt to their land of hot springs and sulfur pools and volcanic warmth, and Voryn feels only a pleasant heat, within and without.
I don't think there's any Official Lore on when they got the fire resistance, but I like the idea of it starting when they were still Chimer.

It was nice to give Voryn a bit of a break in this one.

Of course, it is the next morning that Voryn receives extremely unhappy news from his spies.
I was originally going to have them eventually mention what that exact news is... but it seemed like it would be better to surprise the reader next chapter. Curious to see if anyone has a guess :D

and I was at least told that they take a regular census
The Roman Empire did a regular census.