Copying Arothas...riliye Style!

So I read your blog, Arothas, and stole your survey and shall now complete it! HA!



Does nothing happen in the first fifty pages?
So far...quite a bit happens within 50 pages. Too much really. I gotta slow it down.

Is your main character a young farmhand with mysterious parentage?
Not really. She was born in the slums and would have stayed there had she not accidentally come to the attention of Nobleman Stroth.

Is your main character the heir to the throne but doesn't know it?
No, although she *does* almost marry a king at one point. Thankfully, she is rescued before the ceremony.

Is your story about a young character who comes of age, gains great power, and defeats the supreme bad guy?
Not really. Kay is already of age when the story starts, she never really gains great power, and the supreme bad guy has already wrecked their world and left them stuck with a lesser bad guy.

Is your story about a quest for a magical artifact that will save the world?
Um...no.

How about one that will destroy it?
Also no.

Does your story revolve around an ancient prophecy about "The One" who will save the world and everybody and all the forces of good?
I'm not even sure there is prophecy in my world. Thus far, I have yet to see it.

Does your novel contain a character whose sole purpose is to show up at random plot points and dispense information?
Not thus far.

Does your novel contain a character that is really a god in disguise?
The closest thing is Kay's mentor, and he's just really powerful.

Is the evil supreme bad guy secretly the father of your main character?
Nope, my main character's father dies as a point.

Is the king of your world a kindly king duped by an evil magician?
Nope. He's an evil jerk who just happens to make an amazing king by hiding his true nature from the populace. Unfortunately, without him the whole Kingdom would fall apart and essentially be annihilated as the entirety of the noble class save him died when the Supreme Bad Guy invaded.

Does "a forgetful wizard" describe any of the characters in your novel?
Oh Harleton...you weren't forgetful, and you gave your life to save us...

How about "a powerful but slow and kind-hearted warrior"?
He's not slow, he's just greedy and paranoid, then some major events happen and he grows a conscience.

How about "a wise, mystical sage who refuses to give away plot details for his own personal, mysterious reasons"?
Not really. Radiant Darr comes close, but he doesn't give away plot details because doing so would change them...and they have to stay the way they are else everyone else the Supreme Bad Guy wins. Even so, he does give away some plot details. *glares at Kendross*

Do the female characters in your novel spend a lot of time worrying about how they look, especially when the male main character is around?
Well...I can't say much for the non-main female characters...but otherwise the only female character in my book is Kay...and she doesn't really. Other things on her mind and all.

Do any of your female characters exist solely to be captured and rescued?
Nope

Do any of your female characters exist solely to embody feminist ideals?
O_o No?

Would "a clumsy cooking wench more comfortable with a frying pan than a sword" aptly describe any of your female characters?
*snorts*

Would "a fearless warrioress more comfortable with a sword than a frying pan" aptly describe any of your female characters?
Nope.

Is any character in your novel best described as "a dour dwarf"?
The Dwarven King is momentarily dour...but only because the relationship between humanity and dwarf-kind is strained to begin with and they got caught in his kingdom. Thank goodness for political charisma.

How about "a half-elf torn between his human and elven heritage"?
Half-elves usually don't much make it well, so no.

Did you make the elves and the dwarves great friends, just to be different?
Well...there's really no good relationships between any of the races, honestly. They're too different to get along, as a rule.

Does everybody under four feet tall exist solely for comic relief?
Um, no.

Do you think that the only two uses for ships are fishing and piracy?
Nope.

Do you not know when the hay baler was invented?
I fail to see what this has to do with anything...even *now*, present day, people still make haystacks instead of baling. Don't get all condescending.

Did you draw a map for your novel which includes places named things like "The Blasted Lands" or "The Forest of Fear" or "The Desert of Desolation" or absolutely anything "of Doom"?
Most places have quite normal names...

Does your novel contain a prologue that is impossible to understand until you've read the entire book, if even then?
I don't think it has a prologue...but it's not finished, so who knows?

Is this the first book in a planned trilogy?
I don't know. There will be another one, once this is finished.

How about a quintet or a decalogue?
That's a lot of books.

Is your novel thicker than a New York City phone book?
Nope. If anything, it will be a little too short for a fantasy novel.

Did absolutely nothing happen in the previous book you wrote, yet you figure you're still many sequels away from finishing your "story"?
This question offends me. Also, I'm not finished with said previous book.

Are you writing prequels to your as-yet-unfinished series of books?
Nope.

Is your name Robert Jordan and you lied like a dog to get this far?
Robert Jordan is dead.

Is your novel based on the adventures of your role-playing group?
Vaguely.

Does your novel contain characters transported from the real world to a fantasy realm?
Oi. Let's not even think about that. No, it does not.

Do any of your main characters have apostrophes or dashes in their names?
Nope.

Do any of your main characters have names longer than three syllables?
Yes, but they all have surnames, so it's to be expected.

Do you see nothing wrong with having two characters from the same small isolated village being named "Tim Umber" and "Belthusalanthalus al'Grinsok"?
That hurts my brain.

Does your novel contain orcs, elves, dwarves, or halflings?
All but halflings, yes. If it weren't for the Big Bad Guys right now, orcs would be the main cause of terror.

How about "orken" or "dwerrows"?
Nope.

Do you have a race prefixed by "half-"?
Very few half-breeds survive long enough to be considered.

At any point in your novel, do the main characters take a shortcut through ancient dwarven mines?
If by shortcut you mean, prowl the dwarven mines looking for a rare gem in hopes of gaining payment to resurrect their fallen companion...then perhaps.

Do you write your battle scenes by playing them out in your favorite RPG?
No...but believe me, the more played out they were, the harder they are to write.

Have you done up game statistics for all of your main characters in your favorite RPG?
Yes and no

Are you writing a work-for-hire for Wizards of the Coast?
Nope.

Do inns in your book exist solely so your main characters can have brawls?
Inns are for sleeping, silly.

Do you think you know how feudalism worked but really don't?
Is there really a good answer to this question? If I think I know how it works, am I going to know I really don't?

Do your characters spend an inordinate amount of time journeying from place to place?
Traveling takes time...like real life, ya know?

Could one of your main characters tell the other characters something that would really help them in their quest but refuses to do so just so it won't break the plot?
Nope...closest thing is Kendross...and it wouldn't help any. That's a personal quest, I guess.

Do any of the magic users in your novel cast spells easily identifiable as "fireball" or "lightning bolt"?
Don't most magic users cast those? They're like the best!

Do you ever use the term "mana" in your novel?
Nope

Do you ever use the term "plate mail" in your novel?
This is a silly question.

Heaven help you, do you ever use the term "hit points" in your novel?
...and this one hurts my soul.

Do you not realize how much gold actually weighs?
Yes, I do. What did you think I'd say, "Omg, I never thought of that"?

Do you think horses can gallop all day long without rest?
These questions are irritating me, now.

Does anybody in your novel fight for two hours straight in full plate armor, then ride a horse for four hours, then delicately make love to a willing barmaid all in the same day?
That would be an outrageously long battle...and no.


Does your main character have a magic axe, hammer, spear, or other weapon that returns to him when he throws it?
It's generally a bad thing when crossbow bolts return to you.

Does anybody in your novel ever stab anybody with a scimitar?
No...but there is quite a bit of stabbing.

Does anybody in your novel stab anybody straight through plate armor?
Gotta agree with Arothas...pikes.

Do you think swords weigh ten pounds or more?
A very, very poorly made one might.

Does your hero fall in love with an unattainable woman, whom he later attains?
My hero is a woman...soo...no.

Does a large portion of the humor in your novel consist of puns?
Nope.

Is your hero able to withstand multiple blows from the fantasy equivalent of a ten pound sledge but is still threatened by a small woman with a dagger?
Nope. She couldn't withstand that...and a woman with a dagger is still a threat.

Do you really think it frequently takes more than one arrow in the chest to kill a man?
Actually, all it takes is one well-placed one...she finds this out the hard way.

Do you not realize it takes hours to make a good stew, making it a poor choice for an "on the road" meal?
They're not exactly the outdoors-y type, so they just eat rations.

Do you have nomadic barbarians living on the tundra and consuming barrels and barrels of mead?
I wonder if mead would freeze on the tundra...

Do you think that "mead" is just a fancy name for "beer"?
Pretty sure there's little to no honey in beer.

Does your story involve a number of different races, each of which has exactly one country, one ruler, and one religion?
That's kinda silly...and no.

Is the best organized and most numerous group of people in your world the thieves' guild?
Nope

Does your main villain punish insignificant mistakes with death?
No...he has a reputation to maintain.

Is your story about a crack team of warriors that take along a bard who is useless in a fight, though he plays a mean lute?
I don't even think they've met a bard...

Is "common" the official language of your world?
Yes and no. There are different dialects, and each race has their own language, but there is one common language, yes. Otherwise it would be quite difficult to communicate back and forth.

Is the countryside in your novel littered with tombs and gravesites filled with ancient magical loot that nobody thought to steal centuries before?
No?

Is your book basically a rip-off of The Lord of the Rings?
Nope.

Read that question again and answer truthfully.
NO!