#subterfugeverse worldbuilding

[chaoticspacefam]

Subterfugeverse Name Pronunciations

Jumping on the name pronunciation bandwagon cause I’ve seen a couple of my mutuals doing this *fingerguns* and I realised that even though I included it on the fancy bio page (yes, I’m still working on it I haven’t forgotten, I just need more screenshots/pictures and time to write out all the detailed lore schtuff) I forgot to put it on the mobile Masterpost. So I’ll be popping this link onto there now too for everyone’s perusal :’D LONG POST AHEAD

So, the only ones I ever really used specific “grammar” rules for were the tomato family (+ Aria because her name is actually rooted in High Sith), all the others are just pronounced as we would normally use the syllables in English.

I haven’t got any OCs rn who would have used Common Sith, they’re all Highborn Nobility Brats 🤣 so High Sith it is pshshsuysgd

I used the canonical information we’re given on the pronunciation of the vowels, I ignored absolutely everything else about it bc if you scroll down and read the bit at the bottom of “Behind the Scenes” it’s clear that the phonetics are a hot dumpster fire so it’s basically free real estate* *a.k.a. I used my (admittedly limited) MFL knowledge of pronunciation in Afrikaans and German to make “educated guesses” on what seemed to flow best with the vowel sounds so pls don’t come for me and be gentle, I’m trying to make them sound ✨pretty✨ while still being as lore-accurate as is possible mmmhmm

Ok good, without further ado then~

The Ahaszaai - High Sith

“Ahaszaai” itself is pronounced “ahh-zzy-aye” (with a very quick “flow” and little pause between the first and second syllables, but more stress on the final syllable, as in “buy”). Phonics-wise, I could have spelt it “Aszai” and kept the pronounciation the same per the messy “rules” given by canon, but I think “Ahaszaai” reads a lot nicer, don’t you? :D

Saarai

“szah-rye”

“S” is more of a “Z” sound in both Afrikaans and German so it made most sense to me, to say the same would be true in High Sith given the “hardness” of the vowels. It flows together better. As with her family name, the end of Rai’s name is stressed on the last syllable (as in “buy”) as well. Named both for the High Sith word, meaning “Truth”, and chosen by her father due to the similarity with her late grandmother, Saa’thri (”szah-th-ree”), as a way to honour her memory.

Ni’kasi

“nee-kah-zhee” ETA: after some time and a lot of research, I’ve discovered that Kas’s name  DOES in fact have a meaning in High Sith, it means “Divine Warpath” (yeah, D’leah went hard with her kids’ names sjkgdjkgd). Again, as is true with a lot of Sith words, all long vowel sounds here. Ni’kasi’s name tends to sound a lot more “elegant” than her twin’s, as the  “s” in her name is softened by the surrounding vowel sounds, whereas Saarai’s is a lot harder as it preceeds the vowels ;)

Kissai 

“kee-sz-igh” Named after the Priest caste of old (by the same name), for his more serene personality. This is somewhat ironic, as topping out at near 7 feet tall it’s almost certain that he had Massassi (Warrior caste) blood in his line and was unlikely to have been related to any Kissai-caste Sith at all.

D’leahane | D’leah*

*whose name breaks nearly every “rule” but she’s the token red herring don’t mind her lmaooo

“Duh-leh-nuh”, the second “a” in her name being a silent letter that isn’t enunciated with the others | “Duh-leh”

Abaron

“ah-bah-ron”

Not much to add about this one! Basically what it says on the tin!

Tyûk

“tee-uck”

From the High Sith word meaning “Strength”, Saarai wanted to give him a “strong” name in the hopes that it might bring him better fortunes in his life. For so long, part of me wanted to break the “rules” here and pronounce it as “tee-yook” because it would have sounded equally plausible, but if I’m gonna treat the other circumflexed letters as short vowels like they’re supposed to be then the same thing has to apply to Ty’s name. 🤣

Shakkai | Sha

“zzh-haah-kye”  | Zs-hah

Same as her sisters, “s” makes a “z” sound, for her “full” name the vowel sound is quite drawn out, but for the shortened/nickname version both the beginning syllable and the vowel sound are shorter and less stressed.

Her name doesn’t have a particular meaning, I just liked the way it sounded. There’s a word on the known vocab list (without a translation), “Shokkai”, I typo’d an “a” instead of an “o” - I already have a “Sho”, so I’d decided her nickname would be “Sha” instead so I wouldn’t get confused - when I did her first Character Sheet but actually liked how it sounded so I kept it hahaha

*fun fact, I nearly named her Shâsot which means “passion” but it just didn’t sound “right” as a name, so I went with Shakkai instead.

Paalea Izreni | Paa

“Paah-lee-uh ees-ren-ee” | “Paa” is literally just like the first syllable of her full name

Just like “s” makes a “z” sound, “z” makes an “s” sound. She gets to go here because she’s Kissai’s half-sister and therefore through marriage is part of the Ahaszaai family, even if she still uses their family’s “maiden” name and not the Ahaszaai name herself.

Again, it doesn’t mean anything in particular, it just sounded pretty *shrugs*

Non-Ahaszaai High Sith Names

Other characters who were named with the High Sith language, though they don’t belong to the Ahaszaai bloodline.

Aria

“Ah-ree-ah”, all long vowel sounds for her, no short “uh” ‘s here, vowel sounds in Sith are loooonggg (unless you’re D’leah because she said “fuck you Elven this is my name we’re keeping it” XD) , which means absolutely no “arrie-uh” either, please, you’ll upset her.

“But Elven “arrie-uh” is a real name and that’s how we would pronounce it!” Well, yes, except that Aria’s father actually named her for the High Sith word “Ari” (ah-ree), which means “Lord”, and not our version of the name and therefore, she uses the “Sith pronunciation” :’D

Chwûq

“Chuh-wuck” One of Aria’s Tuk’ata, named by her father Roan when he earned their trust, Chwûq’s name means “Embers” and was chosen for the glowing appearance of her eyes. All short, quite heavily stressed syllables for her name.

Taral

“tah-raah-ll” Aria’s second Tuk’ata and Chwûq’s mate. From the High Sith word meaning “He who protects”, for his loyalty to his mate, Roan and Aria.

Kahri

“Kh-haah-ree” Ni’kasi’s pet miniature sleen, named for the High Sith word meaning “Fang” (yes, she gave her lizard the lame typical “dog” name, but it sounds so much cooler in High Sith! 😂). The first syllable is heavily stressed, as if with a catch in your throat.

Naalush Zuzuul | Alu

“naah-loosh soo-zool”, as with Aria, the first syllable of his nickname is drawn out, like “ahh-loo”, not a single-syllable, “alloo” as it would be in English.

Tsâhis Zuzuul

“saah-hees soo-zool”

Pretty standard pronunciations, neither of their names mean anything, I just put together some Sith phonics and they came out pretty neato! ^^ Using the same logic from the “s” sound, I’m assuming “z” and “ts” can both function as a phonetic “ss”, the second “z” in their last name is a little more stressed and closer to an English “z” - it just sounds less weird that way ok guys? Good. ^^

Others - Elven Is Too Lazy to Separate The Rest By Species

Vano Shenly | Va

“Vah-noh shen-lee” | “Vaah” (in her full name the syllable is quite short, but for the shortened version that Aria, Merak and Vette use as her nickname, the “a” sound is a little more drawn out ;)

Merak Shenly

“murr-ack shen-lee”, pretty much how it’s spelt again. His and Vano’s are by far the easiest ones to not get “wrong” pfpfpf

Zi’verikreen | Ziri/Zee

“Zee-veh-ree”, “kreen” is pronounced pretty much as spelt. “Ziv’eri” is a Twi’leki word meaning “scorching”, for her fiery personality. I couldn’t find any solid fanon on Twi’leki phonetics/pronunciation (*cough* and I fell down the spiky tomato rabbithole and started to obsess over them instead*coughcough*) so I kind of used my best judgement here, other than Saarai, hers is one of my favourite names to say. It’s just so ✨pretty✨. Zee is pronounced as spelt, but Ziri is more drawn out, too, like “zee-ree”, though Ziri is far less “fussy” about pronunciation and will answer to “zir-ee” too, she doesn’t really care too much as long as you’re not cussing her out.

Roanan Saal | Roan

“roh-nahn” “s-aah-l” (short first and last syllable, long middle syllable) | “roh-ahn” (like “rowan”, but with a longer last syllable!)

Myala Thulie | Myla

“mee-ahr-luh thoo-lee” | “mee-luh”

mee, not my or mai for this lady! I have no elaborate explanation for this one, I just thought it sounded prettier this way

Qanarr Thimu | Qan

“Kwan-arr thim-oo” | “Kwan”

first “a” sound is somewhat stressed, as in “band” and “stand”, rest I think is self-explanatory. Again, no canon material on Catharese pronunciation so I did my own thing :3

That should cover all the mains I’m pretty sure?? If I’ve missed anyone give me a shout. How many did you have “correct” from what you thought, let me know in the tags or replies, I’m curious! :’DD

[chaoticspacefam]

OC Worldbuilding Tag Pt 2!

...electric boogaloo! I’m sorry I know this joke is old now but I cannot help it, it’s ingrained in my brain XD

I got another tag for this from @a-master-procrastinator , thank you! :D

I think all my friends & mutuals have already been tagged for this one? But I’ll throw a couple out here if you want to, no pressure as always!: @mercurypilgrim​ , @actualanxiousswampwitch and @sleepswithvillains maybe?

Some more Saarai, because I love her. Some very slight spoilers for some of the differences in the Subterfugeverse plot points but nothing major! ;3 Long post warning again, as well as some brief mentions of Valkorion being a dick and causing a mass-genocide but all on the same level as the presented game canon.

- Saarai is psychometric and has been since she was pretty young, a Force power she inherited from D’leah’s mother, Saa’thri, because it “skipped” D’leah and Saarai got it instead. Though she didn’t realise it at the time and it wasn’t until she brought it up to her mother and D’leah went “oh yeah, your grandma had that too :)” that she realised it was actually A Thing.

- She’s not always good at recognising when a vision is from the Psychometry and when it’s just “her imagination”, particularly when she’s younger (which gets her into some trouble, see: the whole Tsâhis thing). Even after she gets used to it, sometimes it still hits her out of nowhere and if it’s a particularly nasty vision she’ll sometimes lose her footing and hit the deck - thankfully, because of their Force bond, Ni’kasi can usually figure out what’s happening and react fast enough to catch her before she smacks her head on something.

- Nathema was...not fun for Saarai thanks to the Psychometry. She’d wanted to go with them to protect them and ended up having to be dragged back to the ship and wait there because the moment she tried to touch anything there the Force went “Oh hey!! would you like some Detailed Flashbacks About What Happened Here!!” and yeah...she did not have a good time. Going to Nathema was kind of a mistake for her. Woops. (She gets through it though, Lana gets her back to the ship and she gets a handle on things but definitely doesn’t go all the way into the facility with Vano and Lana. Probably a good thing, too, if she’d picked up that toy of Vaylin’s I think she would’ve found those visions quite upsetting to watch, too.)

- She and Lana don’t share a Force bond, only because she has one with her sister, Ni’kasi instead. Neither of the twins are exactly sure when it formed, but they’ve had the connection for as long as they can remember. When they’re separated while Saarai and Ty are on Rishii, it’s harder for them to communicate because of the distance between them and Kas putting up barriers “just in case” the Sith tried to interrogate her at any point, she didn’t want to give Saarai away. They knew enough to know the other twin was probably still alive, but not to know exactly what was going on with each other until they finally reunite with the first Coalition on Yavin IV. That was the final relief for the twins, actually getting to see the other one standing there and definitely very much alive, there were hugs and a lot of tears, absolutely. <3

- Saarai is very much a “reluctant leader”, she never wanted to be a figurehead in the Alliance nor did she want to be telling people what to do, but circumstances “forced” her into the role and she had to stumble around awkwardly and adapt. With Vano gone and stuck in carbonite, somone had to step up and make sure the people that were working with Vano stuck together and didn’t fall apart (Not all of Vano’s crew disperse, Broonmark, Pierce and Jaesa always remain with the Alliance. Quinn ends up in jail after the Quinncident and Vette goes missing during one of their attempts to search for Vano’s whereabouts only to reappear as in canon later ;)) With Marr dead and the rest of the Dark Council under Zakuul’s heel or missing, that left Lana, Ni’kasi and Aria as alternative “leadership” figures. Lana lacked the ambition for it and was more tooled to be an advisor and while both Ni’kasi and Aria are bossy enough to delegate tasks, they’re abrasive and people don’t like them. But they like Saarai and they listen to her. So everyone kinda went “Okay cool you’re in charge now :)” I’m sorry, Saarai, you’re symultaneously the most and least qualified for this job but you got it anyway :P She settles into it eventually, though, but will be the first one to adamantly insist that it’s a team effort between not only herself and Vano once they have her back, but Lana, Koth, Theron and all the other trusted members of the Alliance acting as advisors in their respective fields of interest.

- In Subterfugeverse, I headcanon that Vano and Saarai share the command of the Alliance once Vano returns. Vano has the Commander title and handles most of the battle tactics and strategy, whereas Saarai handles things like conflict resolution and public relations, as well as controlling the Eternal Fleet. Things work very differently in Subterfugeverse in terms of the Throne so I’ll try to keep it brief but essentially:

Valkorion “took over” the Sith Empire from the Ahaszaai, Saarai’s ancestors. It was a very hostile takeover and currently Saarai, Ni’kasi, Ty, eventually Ni’kasi’s kids, and their uncle Vowrawn are the only four Ahaszaai left in the entire galaxy.

While they didn’t technically have claim to the Zakuulan throne, the original Sith homeworld before Valkorion’s bullshit was Medriaas (which is canon, I’m just borrowing this part because it fits in nicely ;)), which became Nathema after Valkorion did his whole “planet eating” thing.

Vano is initially the only one who can control the Throne and the Fleet via the whole “Valkorion is in her head” loophole. However, that loophole becomes defunct once Valkorion gets yanked out of her mind since it was Valkorion that gave her the ability to control it in the first place.

I’m assuming for the sake of plot flow that it’s based upon two specific “checks” and that’s 1) direct blood ties to the Emperor(ess) in power and/or 2) said Emperor(ess) currently controlling the throne directly and willingly passing their authority over the throne to a successor - which is how Valkorion is able to give the Outlander/Vano control of the Fleet while he’s in her mind, even though she’s not blood related to him.

They’re able to, with some research, deduce that they can exploit this apparent loophole in the system, to avoid losing control of the Fleet entirely and risking any of the GEMINI droids turning into another SCORPIO; and Vano essentially rescinds control of the Throne/Fleet to Saarai, everyone (including Ni’kasi herself) agrees that Saarai is the responsible choice because she’s not going to get a bee in her bonnet and with an errant thought accidentally set the Eternal Fleet on the Jedi or something of the sort.

Since Saarai has direct blood ties to the original ruling Sith before Valkorion userped the title from them, and Vano willingly gave the Throne up to her, the Throne can’t throw a tantrum about it and just has to deal with it. XD

- Once they do manage to track down where Vano is, before Lana and Koth head to Zakuul to actually break her out, Lana comes to Saarai for help with that. Ni’kasi has to stay to watch Ty and also try and keep a tenuous line with the other Sith thanks to her position on the Dark Council, Aria’s too emotionally charged to think straight and Lana is rightfully worried she might make a mistake that puts the whole rescue mission in jeapordy, so they ask Saarai instead. It’s kind of awkward and she and Koth rub each other the wrong way at first, they bicker for two thirds of the entire trip there and Lana almost throws them both out of the airlock for it, but eventually do find a way to bury the hatchet before they actually arrive at Zakuul to rescue Vano.

- By the time they find the Gravestone, Saarai and Koth have made up and though they are not yet involved with eachother at that time, have both agreed that fighting over Lana is stupid and they can make this work without making things difficult for anyone else, so the whole interruption in the Gravestone’s cargo hold, for Subterfugeverse, is genuinely an accident. Saarai heads up to check on him afterwards and they have another amicable and productive conversation and end up growing a little closer. Their side of the relationship is a little slower to form, but they do eventually end up developing deeper feelings for each other, though it’s strictly non-sexual between Rai and Koth and they are both 100% happy and okay with that.

[chaoticspacefam]

How about Saarai for World Building Wednesday? [Hopefully I spelled her name right.]

You did indeed! My favourite tomato daughter 💗 Here ya go o3o

B A S I C S

full name: Saarai “Rai” Ahaszaai | Darth Kemodu (though that’s a name she’s long since stopped using ...shame, cause it’s my most favourite Darth name except for maybe Aria’s owo)

gender: Cis Female

sexuality: Bisexual (female-leaning), polyamorous

pronouns: She/Her

O T H E R S

family: *inhales* oh boy here we go... striked names are deceased Main/All Verses: Saa’thri Ahaszaai (grandmother), Vastas Ahaszaai (grandfather), Duuma & Vowrawn Ahaszaai (uncles), D’leah Ahaszaai (Mother), Kissai Ahaszaai (Father), Ni’kasi Ahaszaai (Twin sister), Tyûk Ahaszaai (Son), Abaron Ahaszaai (uncle through marriage) Subterfugeverse Additional: Nawâ Ahaszaai-Revel (nephew), Hyala Ahaszaai-Revel (niece), Andronikos Revel (Brother-in-law) Zephyrverse Additional: Sash Ahaszaai (Wife) Mait’essh Ahaszaai (Daughter), Toqa Rihu (Son-in-law), Sian Ahaszaai (Daughter-in-law), Iorek Ahaszaai, Vaugn Ahaszaai (Grandsons - Iorek is Maite/Toqa’s, Vaugn is Ty/Sian’s :3), they have a ton more grandchildren coming (damn Maite slow down kid shdjdghdj) but they’re not born yet *wheeze*, Jask Ahaszaac (Brother-in-law), Nu’ala Ahaszaac (niece), Râzu and Rijker Ahaszaac (nephews) Reverse!Zephyrverse Additional: Tâw’nee, Z’la (aunts (Duuma’s wives) through marriage), Shakkai Ahaszaai (younger sister), Jen Ahaszaai (younger brother), Wiis, Jexht Ahaszaai (cousins) Disclaimer: Tâw’nee, Jexht, Sash, Toqa, Sian, Jask, Rijker, Vaughn and Iorek belong to my buddy @k-christine again, everyone else is mine owo <3

birthplace: Medriaas (which is now known as “Nathema” *shifty eyes*)

job: Subterfugeverse: Empress of the Eternal Alliance, High Lady of House Ahaszaai, Zephyrverse: Empress of the Sith Empire, High Lady of House Ahaszaai, Super Mom (And Grandma) (tm) Reverse!Zephyrverse: Heiress of the Sith Empire, High Lady In-Waiting of House Ahaszaai

phobias: Failure, Abandonment, Physical touch (in certain situations and also especially if caught by surprise, don’t put your hands on her without announcing yourself - unless you’re someone she knows very well like Lana/Koth/Sash, they’d prob be okay - she will yeet you into next century)

guilty pleasures: *ahem hem* she’s uhh, got a high drive, what can I say. She also does occasionally enjoy those cheesy romcom holomovies, she’s a hopeless romantic, what can I say

M O R A L S

morality alignment?: Chaotic Good - Morally good, for the most part, and doesn’t believe in killing innocents etc. but don’t mistake the kindness for weakness. She can and will fucking kill you if you push the right buttons, her “chances” are not infinite; she will draw a line somewhere.

sins - lust/greed/gluttony/sloth/pride/envy/wrath

virtues - chastity/charity/diligence/humility/kindness/patience/justice

T H I S - O R - T H A T

introvert/extrovert: 10/10 an extrovert. Rai loves people, put her in a crowded room and she’ll own that shit in like 10 minutes.

organized/disorganized: Ya girl’d lose her own head if it wasn’t firmly attached, she needs her partners to remind her to put things back where they’re meant to be so she can find them later. 😔✊

close minded/open-minded:

calm/anxious: Generally very calm, but does get anxious at times (*cough* separation anxiety *cough cough* among a few other things~)

disagreeable/agreeable: Tries to be agreeable most of the time, but she’s got her daddy’s “hard-as-a-rock head” as her mother once put it, so if she’s defending a point or a person and digs herself in as it were (for whatever reason)

cautious/reckless: She’s a walking tank. Caution? What’s that? She’ll just soak up the bullets/lightning/whatever, she’s fine, she can walk it off. (Sash, Lana and Koth in the background: STOP THAT >:()

patient/impatient: hahaha, she doesn’t have a lot of patience, it’s one of her biggest flaws.

outspoken/reserved: “Keep your mouth shut” who? Not Saarai, that’s for damn sure!

leader/follower: Actually not a “leader” by nature, but as people flock to her she’s ended up being the “designated leader” in every verse (despite actually not wanting that lmao)

empathetic/unemphatic: So much empathy. Probably a little too much. Saarai, sweetie, reign it in before you get hurt ok ;-;

optimistic/pessimistic:

traditional/modern: Mhmm this one’s difficult for me to decide for her, honestly a bit of both.

hard-working/lazy:

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

otp: Saarai/Sash. Sorry Lana, these two live in my head rent-free even more than you do and that’s sayin’ something ;3;

ot3: Saarai/Lana/Koth, though in the Reverse!Zephyrverse she and Sash may be getting a third too, so possibly Saarai/Sash/Kelia too once it happens o3o

brotp: Saarai & Ni’kasi, Saarai & Aria

notp: Saarai/Tsâhis (he did very bad things to her, she deserves (and gets <3) better)

[chaoticspacefam]

Roan for world building wednesday?

B A S I C S

full name: Roanan Saal | Darth Noctis (goes by “Noctis” to most people, or “Roan” to those (very few) he’s closest with)

gender: Cis Male

sexuality: Heterosexual

pronouns: He/Him

O T H E R S

family: Subterfugeverse (And OG Zephyrverse): Myala Thulie (Saal) (ex-wife, from a political marriage that resulted in Aria but otherwise was not a particularly great one. Opposing personalities clashing and all that 👀), Aria Saal-Shenly (Daughter, with Myla), (Zephyrverse only) Iris Rihu “Royal” (ex-girlfriend), Iko Saal (Daughter, with Royal) Reverse!Zephyrverse: Iris Saal “Royal” (Wife), Aria, Iko, E’vie Saal (Daughters)

birthplace: Dromund Kaas

job: Sith Lord, Dark Council Member: Keeper of the Sphere of Biotic Science (Ancient Knowledge in Zephyrverse)

phobias: this one might shock you guys but...being alone, loneliness 👀

guilty pleasures: Idk if Star Wars has those like Weird Science zines, but those skhsjksh XD

M O R A L S

morality alignment?: Lawful/Neutral Evil, he kinda swings between the two (sometimes violently skhskhdk), I can’t label him solely with one or the other >: ))) )

sins - lust/greed/gluttony/sloth/pride/envy/wrath

virtues - chastity/charity/diligence/humility/kindness/patience/justice

T H I S - O R - T H A T

introvert/extrovert: I’d put him under “introverted extrovert” as well. He’s got a charming way about him, when he wants something from you. But if you’re not close to him, don’t expect him to make idle chit-chat or care enough to ask for more information than is absolutely necessary.

organized/disorganized:

close minded/open-minded:

calm/anxious:

disagreeable/agreeable:

cautious/reckless: Could go either way, depending on the situation.

patient/impatient:

outspoken/reserved: ^^ again, either way, depends on the situation and what he feels would be most beneficial at the time.

leader/follower:

empathetic/unemphatic: Empathetic with a very few select people (Aria, Vano, and @k-christine’s Royal - & their kids - in the Zephyrverse 👀, but pretty dang awful to everyone else ;) )

optimistic/pessimistic: He’d rather think the worst and be surprised when he’s wrong duhduigdukj

traditional/modern: Mostly modern with a few traditional quirks, I guess, I dunno what to call it really djkhdh

hard-working/lazy:

R E L A T I O N S H I P S

otp: Roan/Royal all the way. The ship that crept up on us and dragged us both down with it. I will go down with this ship XD

ot3: --

brotp: Uhhh, oh boy this one is the one that trips me up tbh. Roan & Marr, probably, I feel like they’d get along.

notp: Roan/Myla. That was...no, it was bad. Not good. Nope

[chaoticspacefam]

Subterfugeverse Headcanons: “Kallig’s” Ghost

I’m in a weird mood where I want to make art and content but also have ARTBLOCK (tm) so take some more random headcanons/worldbuilding instead!!

So, we all know the Kallig ghost introduction, but of course in Subterfugeverse, we’re canon-divergent anarchy SO Ni’kasi doesn’t get Kallig’s Force ghost. She gets her mom, D’leah instead. Sometimes I think Kas lowkey wishes she’d gotten Kallig; mom means well but sometimes she is A Bit Much

And I probably will make a follow-up doodle post type thing of this one day when Artblock Stops Beating Me With A Stick, but it always amuses the heck out of me that the default reaction is to...shoot Force lightning...at the intangible ghost...really, Kas??

And Kallig never really reacts to it, maybe he doesn’t care, but the thing is...D’leah would care. And I can’t help but think how fucking funny it’s going to be for Kas to have that (obvs heavily altered for my own worldbuilding/lore to fit into things) “flesh of my flesh beware of Khem Val and Zash” conversation thing with her mom; because while that will be the main point I’m sure before that there will be a tangent of “I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU TRIED TO SHOOT ME WITH LIGHTNING” “But I didn’t know it was you okay I panicked!!” “[not fully paying attention, off on a Scolding Rant] -the fact that you thought that would work on a spirit is frankly quite concerning, nevermind not paying attention to your surroundings in order to be surprised in the first place, I raised you better than this, you know AND ANOTHER THING how could you do that to me! I am hypothetically wounded” “Mother, please, I said I was sorry ;-;”

And you can bet it comes up again, too. I’m sure D’leah makes much more frequent appearances than Kallig does in a well-meaning attempt to help guide her daughter on the right path of course, but from Kas’s point of view it must be kind of annoying to have your mom there in your head popping up to be like *angry Sith mom muttering* every time something happens.

I imagine “Mother, I love you, but please shut up, for five minutes, and let me s l e e p” becomes a regular request as well. D’leah might even be able to “help” with keeping Horak Mul and the other ghosts “in line” a bit on Kas’s bad days. Ghost Mom was bossy in life and you can bet she’s bossy in the afterlife as well XD

I have some more ramblings (tm) to “fill in the plotholes” of how she’d be hanging around in the Dark Temple as well but y’know this post is long so maybe if it crops up I’ll put them down but for now, trust me, I thought about it and I do have an answer other than “just because” (not that it should matter because it’s my fanfic and I can do what I want but hey, just in case!) :’D

[chaoticspacefam]

2020 In Review: Wordcount Tag

I was tagged for this by @actualanxiousswampwitch​ , thank you! I’m not sure who’s already done or been tagged for this cause I am, once again, late to the party LOL but I shall (no pressure and sorry if you’ve already done it!) tag: @rainofaugustsith​ , @darth-bagel​ , @thatmmolesbian​ , @thelastenvoyyy​ and anybody else who wants to do this. Yes, I promise I mean you!

Words: 45,314

Published: 0 (I’m not counting the couple of Six Sentence tags I’ve gotten, they’re snippets of an unfinished piece & are included below instead :), or roleplay replies, cause that feels like cheating lol.) I actually wrote a lot more than I thought I had, this is a rough guesstimate as well, as my oneshot WIPs tend to be all over the place across something like 6 different documents, some of which have existed since 2018, so I had to guess at how far up to count from the end for some of them, but I think it’s a fair guesstimate XD I also have included lore/worldbuilding docs in this because that was a 3-month long Lockdown 1.0 Boredom/”Canon is a trash fire so I’m ignoring that and making up my own lore” passion project and I’m goddamn proud of how much I wrote for that. It’s the most I’ve written in one stretch (think I finished it over a span of 3 nights or so, once I’d done all the research and made all the notes ofc ^^)

Not Published: 45,314

The Breakdown:

swtor - 45,314

for creeping shadows (my main longfic/part one of the subterfugeverse series) - 1,553  - Aria, stop being difficult! *shakes fists* XD

oneshots - 16,223

lore/worldbuilding (for subterfugeverse naturally) - 23,001 (is this ALL tomato alien lore? pretty much, yes, yes it is :’D ~400 words is “the WIP reworked timeline to correlate my worldbuilding with the canon timeline that was released”, but 98% is just...me thinking way too much about Purebloods and how they deserved way better goddamn lore. I blame @fluffynexu ‘s amazing tomato worldbuilding posts,  reading them when I went looking for “canon” lore one day for the rp is what got me started down that rabbithole (it’s awesome and if you haven’t already you should totally go check hers out too :DD), I had a “fuck you then canon I’ll do it myself too >:L” moment and once I started I couldn’t stop until I’d crapped out literally over 20k words on the subject *whispering* thank you LOL)

zephyrverse au bonus oneshots - 4,537 (stuff I wrote to fill in time gaps or “just cause I had a plot bunny”, relating to mine and k-christine’s zephyrverse au rp. None of these will likely be posted publicly, but they still deserve to be counted as words I wrote this year :’D

As you can see, most of my “muse” this year came from sporadic oneshots :’D The Ahaszaai twins also properly plot-bunnied their way into my brain in late 2019 and haven’t stopped making a nuisance of themselves the whole fucking year. Every time I tried to carry on with a chapter, one of the two of them would pop up like “Nooo write about ME! pay attention to ME!” - Yes, Ni’kasi, I will get to you this year, I promise XD

New Things I Tried:

Just Writing. Not worrying about whether “it wasn’t part of the next chapter” or “it comes from a part in the story that I’m nowhere near close to posting yet”. If I felt like writing something, or for a specific pairing/feeling/scene, whatever. I wrote until I ran outta muse juice. Yeah, it meant I didn’t technically “finish” anything this year BUT - the important thing is I wrote stuff. and that’s all that really matters, eh? :’D

Polyam ships! May not seem like a big deal but I spent a long time talking myself out of them because of internalised toxic monogamy and finally saying “you know what, fuck it! I can ship three or more people together and it can still be a perfectly wholesome, healthy and loving relationship and that’s okay” was a BIG thing for me this year.

Dialogue Scripts: which I didn’t count as wordcount because really it’s just word vomit of general tone/inflection and dialogue that I came up with right before falling asleep which I didn’t want to lose. Basically, if an exchange or a particularly punchy or moving line of dialogue popped into my brain but I wasn’t ready to write the whole scene that it fit into out, but didn’t want to forget the line(s). I wrote it out in movie script/script-style roleplay fashion e.g. Character’s Name: (emotion, hand gestures etc.) [Dialogue here] and so on. I know this is probably a well known trick of the trade, but I never took it seriously until this year. Seriously, do it. It’s great.

Favorite Thing I Wrote:

Hmmm, a snippet for Andronikos/Ni’kasi that I started this week which isn’t posted yet (saving it for this week’s Six Sentence Sunday so look out for it! :D) was pretty fun to work on, I love their dynamic and Kas is suprisingly fun to write for.

Also the Aria/Vano proposal scene that I posted a snippet for the week before last. I’m having great fun with that scene, and I really enjoy putting a non-serious spin on the classic “proposal scene” tropes. Can’t wait to finish it, though it may be a while before the full one goes up on AO3, as it depends whether it ends up fitting in as part of the mainfic or as an additional oneshot

And I have a D’leah/Kissai oneshot that I need to give another once-over before I finally yeet it onto AO3 and Tumblr for you guys to see :’D

Favorite Fic I Read:

@sleepswithvillains Eleanora/Quinn fic, Helplessly Hoping. I’m horribly behind on chapters and I gotta catch up and read the finale this week, but it’s been a helluva great ride and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the story! <3

Also The Invitation collab with @tishinada featuring Zas and Fiona had me squealing, I can’t wait to catch up on HH and see more of these two, they’re adorable ;-; @a-muirehen​ ‘s Relu/Merkara series of course! I’m a complete sucker for (friends to lovers to in Ariano’s case but yea pfpfpf) enemies to lovers ships and these two are just so good, I am on the edge of my seat every time we get a new snippet for them, ngl (grimace emoji) @darth-bagel ‘s Sylvas/Graz’zt and Sylvas/Liz/Rilfaen snippets which they’ve been spoiling me with on Discord @mercurypilgrim ‘s Ven’fir/Quinn AU oneshots, Cloudbank (Western was a particular favourite, but all are very good!) and of course @rainofaugustsith ‘s Lana/Viri updates are always fantastic, some personal favourites from this year were Almost There & Memory of Healing :3 (I totally still go back to read Commander & Advisor too sometimes, getting to see Viri be a little diabolical and messing with “MiNiSTeR LoRMaN!” was and still is my favourite thing XD)

If I’ve left you out I’m sorry!! These were the ones that stuck out in my memory, but I’ve loved everyone’s writing this year, it’s been great :3

Writing Goals:

to actually finish and post chapter 8 & 9 of Creeping Shadows. Then we’ll get to the meat and potatoes of the story and maybe Aria will stop being a brat and fighting me every time I try to stick to a semi-regular update schedule Get off my butt, finalise the name and get started on Ni’kasi’s part of the Subterfugeverse story. Maybe run the updates in-tandem with Creeping Shadows but idk if I want to wait till after CS is done before I start posting Kas’s side, or do them side-by-side yet, we’ll see ;) Keep writing! I know better than to pressure myself by setting a specific word count goal, that’s never worked well in the past

At least 2 chapters of each of the works mentioned above would be great though, more would be better! We’ll see how I go

Words of Thanks:

honestly, to everybody in the fandom I’ve met this year. Anybody that I follow, thank you for being there and engaging with me and/or posting amazing content for me to look at! I came over from deviantART where the SWTOR fandom is incredibly small and generally quite inactive and the contrast since moving over here has been incredibly uplifting. I very nearly cancelled Creeping Shadows and stopped posting fic for my SWTORverse altogether because I got next to no engagement on dA and it was very disheartening to the point where I felt I could enjoy the game and the rp partners I had, but the solo projects I’d put so much thought, time and love into already weren’t worth continuing. You guys took that spark and kept it going and I really don’t have enough words to say how grateful I am for that. Even if I haven’t published much this year, making posts on this tumblr, interacting with everyone and working on lore, plot points and so on for Subterfugeverse has kept me going through the Hellish Year of Nightmares that was 2020 <3

to the amazing new friends I’ve made in this past year, who have listened to me ramble about headcanons, character backstories, writing snippets (and rambled/sent some back), keep being awesome: @walk-ng-d-saster , @darth-bagel , @kyber-heart , @deepseacritter , @thedinalixlegacy to further friends and meme tag buddies, I get so excited every time I see a mention for a new meme or ask game in my inbox, so thank you!! : @mimabeann , @palepinkycat , @a-master-procrastinator , @raven-of-domain-kwaad , @actualanxiousswampwitch , @thatmmolesbian , @a-muirehen to my regular commentors/rebloggers/likers/askbox lurkers, I see every one of you and every time your users pop up I grin like a kid in a toy shop: @starlightjedi , @sparkles-and-rust , @wilvarin-chan , @sunsetofdoom , @ask-an-andalite , @thelastenvoyyy . @lyrishadow and more because Tumblr only goes so far back and I have the memory of Swiss Cheese. If you regularly comment, like, reblog, or anything, from me, know that I see you, and I love and appreciate you for it! <3

I couldn’t possibly remember to tag everyone and I promise if I missed you out it’s not because I hate you! Anxiety just sometimes be a bitch and I don’t wanna look like a clown calling someone a “friend” if I’m not explicitly sure we are, in fact, friends. I think you’re all awesome and I’m so glad to have moved over here and met you all <3

[chaoticspacefam]

23, 24 and 31? 👀

from the [Fic Writer Ask Game!] if anyone else wants to ask some/wants the list!

23. What’s your absolute favorite trope to write? 

Alas, I don’t think I have just one so here’s the Top Three for me

1. Anti-hero, and I’ll use this term very loosely here because I’d consider Aria, Ni’kasi and Saarai to be anti-heroes of sorts in their own right (in descending order of how close they are to the “classic” definition of the trope).  The nice, kind, Good-aligned heros are nice and all, and I still like writing them enough, but I guess there’s just something about exploring the viewpoint of a character who really, really does not want to be one and why, despite that, they might do it anyway that makes me go “gimme, gimme gimme” 😂😂

2. Force Bonds (both romantic and platonic in nature, give me more Force bonds, I will hoarde them, I love it so damn much XD)

3. *Big, bulky, scary tank of a character that looks incredibly scary & like they could break you in half with their bare hands* Everyone: kind of scared of them The Character: Literally A Giant Puppy Bonus: Character: *is a Giant Puppy until you mess with their loved ones - whether this is friends, siblings, spouse(s), children or all of the above - and then yes, they are big, scary, and horrifying and they will rip you apart with their bare hands. Run*

*cough* Saarai and Kissai *cough cough* :’3

24. What’s a trope that you’d like to never hear about as long as you live, let alone write? 

A/B/O and Sex Pollen/Fuck-or-Die. Ugh ugh ugh. I just do not like it, it makes me feel weird and uncomfy and I Do Not Want. (note: I’ve got nothing against people that do like it, you do you, I’m happy for you! but I personally hate it and you will never see me write anything of that sort 😖) Also a slightly smaller/tangental one, but I’m reallyyy not fond of Love Triangles either. JUST 👏 TALK 👏 TO 👏 EACH 👏 OTHER 👏 FOR 👏 THE 👏 LOVE 👏 OF 👏 GOD pfftt

31. Of the characters you write for, which is your favorite? Has that choice been swayed at all by your followers/readers’ reactions to certain ones? 

Definitely the Ahaszaai Twins (tm). They’ve taken over, they own this blog now 👀  Saarai is my baby, I just love her and I love writing about her and there’s a big ol’ sprinkle of Projection in a fair bit of her backstory skjsjshdjh. Her personality is great fun and I just find it very easy and very relaxing to write about her. 

I especially enjoy writing about the twins together, though I haven’t actually gotten to the posting-stage of any of it yet, there’s a LOT of lore/worldbuilding about them & their Force bond. I love it because as much as I also love shipping, that’s become “the norm” for fandom nowadays to the neglect of incredibly close platonic/familial bonds and I really wanted the twins to “fill that void” so to speak. As much as they do love their partners, the thing is that their bond with the other sister is even stronger to the point where they might form secondary Force bonds with them (Rai has one with Sash in the Zephyrverse!AU, and a veryyy slight one with Lana in Subterfugeverse. Kas isn’t willing to form a Force bond with anyone else except some temporary ones for Certain Situations if you catch my drift 👀 because she doesn’t want anyone else encroaching on her “headspace”, her sister’s the only one she’ll trust with that honour), it will never replace the Force bond between the twins as a whole. They’ve been through hell together and they’d do it all over, or die for each other if they had to, as many times as necessary,

I originally wasn’t going to write a section of the Subterfugeverse arc from Ni’kasi’s point of view, but you guys love Kas so much that you twisted my arm and now I have an entire arc planned out for her, so yes, I do blame all of you /lh 😜

[chaoticspacefam]

OC Worldbuilding Tag!

I was tagged by @raven-of-domain-kwaad and @rainofaugustsith for this one, thanks both of you! :D

I shall tag (if you want to ofc, no pressure!) uhh... @thelastenvoyyy​ , @dragonheart-swtor​ , @darth-bagel​ and anyone else who wants to do this, yes I promise I mean you! <3

So...because I’m always talking about her girls, I feel like I should maybe talk about D’leah for once because she’s actually tied to a fair bit of interesting worldbuilding for Subterfugeverse :3

This is a long post oop so here ya go, all under the cut!

(art is comissioned from @.varjopihlaja :3 since the in-game scar options are a little...limited) -Her face got hecked up in one of the battles against the exiled Jedi’s occupation of Korriban, a stray concussion grenade went off before she could get out of range and did quite the number on her face as you can see. She lost most of the spurs on the left side of her face and therefore struggles a bit after that with non-verbal communication - because if Twi’leks and Nautolans can emote/communicate with their lekku and tentacles respectively then 👏 Purebloods 👏 can 👏 emote/communicate 👏 with 👏 their 👏 spurs/tendrils 👏👏  And yes, I am going to die on this hill XD (I have a good portion of these worked out already but haven’t had time to work on diagrams yet, but I will eventually make a lore post of sorts when I have!) Since in general, Purebloods are used to the spur movements occurring in pairs depending on what they’re trying to communicate, it took a lot of time, confusion, patience and frustration for D’leah (and her family) to work out the “adjusted” signals to account for her missing spurs so she could still communicate non-verbally even after the injury.

-Didn’t re-marry or even re-partner after Kissai’s death. He was her soulmate and even though that probably made things worse for her in the long run (nigh on 300 years without your soulmate and a gaping hole where your Force bond with him used to be? yeah, ouch ;-;) she just couldn’t (nor did she want to) “replace” him because she loved him too much. She had enough to remember him by with the twins, Kas looks like him and Saarai acts like him and that was enough to keep her going as long as she managed to.

-Her relationship with the twins is complicated, and while she did do crappy things (and was a Bad Parent because of those things), it wasn’t always like that and when they were younger she was actually a very good mom to them if a little okay a lot strict; but what are you gonna do when you’re (as far as she knew) the last three remaining members of your entire family dynasty having to hide away in Wild Space just to survive while your userper prances about your Empire like he owns the bloody place. I’d be salty about that too if I was D’leah.

I could write a whole essay about the difference in her headspace and why she reacted to the whole Ty Mess the way she did but that’s prolly a little heavy for a headcanon post (and is once again Complicated) so I am not going to do that. If you’re curious you can either ask (in the askbox or in DMs) and/or wait for the breadcrumbs to come when I start releasing the twins’ parts of the series 😬

-I’ve mentioned how she replaces Kallig’s ghost for Ni’kasi in my HCs before, and it’s absolutely Subterfugeverse canon that Ghost Mom continues to stick around and help the twins right up until the final fight with Valkorion at the end of KOTET. And probably after that, too, though much more sporadically at that point because it’s clear the twins are fine on their own so it’s more a case of “they can come find her if they need her help otherwise she’s gonna let them do their thing”

-If she were to ever run into Satele while she’s prowling around in the Odessen wilderness she likely would chew her (and Senya she also has something to say about your taste in men, Senya :’) ) out for being a shitty mom to Theron after learning from her own mistakes with Saarai/Ty and patching that up. Satele wouldn’t know what hit her. XD

-Also helps Ni’kasi, Lana and the others to drag Valkorion out of Vano’s head for good when the time comes, I like to headcanon that exorcising Valkorion’s spirit from Vano’s head would’ve been a lot more damaging/painful without D’leah’s help. Another spirit-being that he can’t manipulate or weaken certainly helped them to give him the shove and not kill Vano in the process.

-She likes to keep Kas’s crew on their toes by randomly moving objects and suchlike on the ship or suddenly popping up (sometimes as a disembodied voice for those who lack the ability to “see” ghosts - poor Andronikos, Talos gets a fright a few times but adjusts a lot quicker than the poor pirate LOL) to remind them to stay on task if she thinks they’re slacking too much. She may be a 400+ year old ghost at this point but she still has a sense of humour! XD

-She’s canonically Lawful Evil on an alignment chart and absolutely would have had No Mercy for the Republic or the Jedi (see again: the Jedi/Sith colonisation thing which IMO is justified for her, given the information we have on all of that. You don’t have to agree and if you don’t that’s fine but that’s my take on it LMAO) but to the rest of the Empire? Actually a pretty good leader and definitely better than Valkorion; none of that slavery bullshit in the Subterfugeverse pre-Valkorion era, thank you, I’ve talked on a lengthy rant before about why we aren’t doing that ;) Also, older Sith and Overseers were definitely held accountable in making sure that acolytes/underaged apprentices were trained safely and without being made to kill each other. That’s all Vitiate/Valkorion in Subterfugeverse - a slightly band-aid solution maybe but I have to fix the mess somehow and I don’t feel like doing that much brain gymnastics. She’s definitely a no-bullshit gal but she’s not about killing kids