Q&A Week 8

42 Aren't the andurunans actually curious about what lays beyond their borders? What do they know about the world outside and are there

Curiosity abounds.  There's a lot of official information taught in schools:  Some bland maps and general statements that a barren wilderness devoid of resources is all that could be reasonably expected.  It's technically illegal to organize and launch private expeditions that go beyond Anduruna-inhabited territory.  But despite the blandishments and prohibitions, some citizens occasionally try their hand at exploration.   Most don't return- their disappearance is attributed to the infamous 'bandits.'  Those that do straggle back have tales of harsh wilderness with no plumbing, and occasionally harrowing tales of escaping from hostile 'bandits.'  Some citizens are in touch with black market smuggler 'bandits' from beyond Anduruna, and the stories they hear seem to confirm this.  The smugglers don't dare venture beyond certain territories alone, or they fear being abducted or vanishing themselves.


32 Were Bobby and Vi never a thing when you made V1? When did you decide to add them to the story, and why? Did Mace not have enough

Volume 1 was the genesis of the graphic novel storyline- but it would have been a mistake to introduce every character in the entire series in the first book.  Gotta leave some room to explore and meet new people.  E )   There are many approaches to writing stories- though I tend to plan and outline extensively, I also stay loose with some details and specifics, so that the narrative can breathe and have the flexibility to cast itself in the truest possible form.  We were always going to need Troika characters and people who knew Mace in his youth- and the details were solidified as we moved forward into Prelude and subsequent Volumes.   More discoveries remain ahead of us.


29 What is prison like in anduruna? And where is it?

Prisons are in the Towers.  District towers house local prison facilities, and the maximum security penitentiary is in the Sabbaton Towers.  Prison construction predates banishment policies, so they were built to contain power users- as such, they're lodged underground, in the subterranean levels of these towers.   In Volume 4, the tourists took a public lift that bypasses the prison levels entirely;  But there's a secured area with heavily guarded lifts and stairwells which control the movement of supplies and personnel on the detention levels.


23 Are there any other holidays besides the Harvest Festival and All Spirits Eve?

Definitely!  We haven't stopped to create a comprehensive list, but there's a variety of holidays.   One additional day we made up is called 'Seeker's Day,' which involves hunting ryuu-neko eggs.  It's like a combination of Valentine's Day and Easter.


22 The Indigo’s speak Spanish, are there Any other bilingual dreamkeepers. (Russians would be pretty cool)

Yep!  Technically they don't speak full Spanish- long ago, the districts had different languages.  But after centuries of mixing around, most of them went extinct.  What remains are district dialects that include a scattering of remnant words and phrases.   Depending on which part of the district, the dialects can be fairly heavy or almost impossible to detect.