I haven’t gotten much done today, but I have been working a bit on Daphne’s Chapter 2 for TTWC1. Of course, Duke Cronos’ section comes first and actually I had intended to work on his Chapter 2 instead, but I found myself drifting toward Daphne because I think I can keep most of her chapters, as opposed to how I had to scrap Cronos’ Chapters 2 and 3.

For Cronos, though, I do believe I’ve made a conceptual breakthrough with the character. From the beginning, I imagined him as being this great military genius, but the earlier draft of the story had him coming off as a blithering incompetent. You should already know from what’s told in Xanthe’s scenario that he all but loses Notos to the rebels before the invasion fleet sets out for the Darklands and once in the Darklands, he doesn’t survive the first year of fighting. What you can expect to see in this version is a man who showed great talent early in his career but his edge has gone dull and he comes to be aware of it. He tries to sharpen his skills and his wits, but he ultimately fails to regain his former glory. No small part of this failing is the fact that he’s up against far more formidable opponents than before, but this doesn’t click as easily for him. Hopefully I can pull off this conflict so that he properly comes across as a skilled man who is past his prime and simply outclassed. It’s somewhat awkward seeing as how he’s younger than fellow legates Aristides and Xenomachos, but they aren’t burdened by the same sort of expectations.

This very nearly qualifies as a character commentary piece more than just a WIP update, but I’m still going to classify it as the latter. Look forward to a proper introduction to Duke Cronos next week.

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