I made some decent progress on Chapter 17 of TWH, but I’m going to have to pick up the pace if I want to finish it in the next couple days. That should be more feasible with finals starting up. Onwards and upwards. Stay tuned.

I did some work on Chapter 20 of EM3 and on Chapter 17 of TWH. I have to get the latter finished for this weekend, so that’s obviously where I need to focus, but I really wanted to work on the former. Between my energy levels and what the mascot will allow, we’ll see what I can get done. Stay tuned.

I put the finishing touches on Chapter 19 of EM3 and started to do some work on Chapter 20 before conking out. I really need to get back to meeting quota. Between my resident productivity specialist and my work schedule, it hasn’t been easy, but I was able to pull it off for a bit there, so I just need to get back to it somehow. Stay tuned.

Yes, I didn’t get any writing done Thursday, but between the Character Spotlight post and some genuinely decent progress on Chapter 19 of EM3, I feel I managed to make up for it. I’ve got the chapter pretty well finished, so I just need to go over it and it should be ready to go. If all goes well, I can get Chapter 20 done as well before the weekend’s out. Stay tuned.

Sturla gets his origin in the same dream that served at the basis for Chapter 1 of CeleKing2. It gave me his basic settings as a superficial charmer and clever manipulator whose overwhelming confidence was backed by genuine skill. For his appearance, I draw inspiration from Prince Zorzal of the anime GATE, but the resemblance ends there. Now, I can’t remember if it was a sleeping dream or a daydream that gave me Yasuko’s confrontation with Sturla at the end of CeleKing2, but this gave me a midpoint in the overall narrative and so I had to fill in the blanks.

Let’s start with his personal history. He’s the son of Lord Grima Markusson and Princess Yingli, the elder sister of Crown Prince Wupeng. As his mother has a higher status than his father, he uses her name, though she wasn’t much of an influence on his life. While his father was an effective politician, it’s not enough to explain how Sturla turned out the way he did. He had looks, physical prowess, a keen intellect, and the utter ruthlessness to achieve his goals. It was at a young age that he set his sights on the throne and began laying the groundwork right away. He began making contacts both in the public sphere and in the underworld, which served him well when he worked his way into the ranks of the Capital Police. His position in the Capital Police afforded him full access to the apparatus of the surveillance state, which allowed him to not only cover his own tracks but also to build up plenty of blackmail material to wrap the nobility around his little finger. Everything was coming together nicely when a convenient pawn presented herself. Yasuko’s infiltration of the Capital provided him an opportunity to move his timetable forward. Although she proved to be difficult to handle, she did ultimately pave his way to the throne. From there, he was going to smash the Empire’s stasis, subdue the surface and then expand beyond Erdi. Of course, the stasis existed because the founders of the Empire were trying to escape the notice of the New Earth Empire and keep both the Celestials and Infernals occupied, so if the New Earth Empire hadn’t shown up when it did, it would’ve just been a matter of time.

I brought up the themes of sexuality during my coverage of Yasuko and Sturla factored heavily into that. With Sturla I was looking to portray animal magnetism and unrestrained hedonism. He cares only about satisfying his own lusts but he doesn’t let them rule over him. He denies himself no pleasure except when it will interfere with the greater pleasure of fulfilling his ambitions. This mix of indulgence and self-control makes for an intriguing dichotomy. As we primarily see this in his relationship with Yasuko, we’ll talk more about it there.

Let’s look at a few of the major relationships in Sturla’s life and what they show us about his character.

1. We see the most of Sturla through his interactions with Yasuko. From the moment she infiltrated the Capital, she caught his interest. A wild Infernal in the Capital certainly would. He kept a close eye on her, so that when she was invited to entertain the Emperor, he was prepared to respond when she killed him. Likely even if she hadn’t done the job herself, he would’ve stepped in and things would proceed much the same way, though he probably wouldn’t have had as much confidence to turn her into an assassin. Anyway, the more he got to know Yasuko, the more he became fixated on her. Her resistance to his will, her relative prudishness when it came to sex, these drew him to her all the more strongly. He wanted to break her, make her yield to him, though if she actually had given into him, he would have quickly tired of her. His decision to cut her loose after the assassination of Prince Wusheng was an example of him denying smaller pleasures for the sake of his ambition. However, once he found out Yasuko managed to survive, his obsession with her became all the stronger, likely tying into his downfall. My father always warns villains not to play with their food, and this is another example of why he says that.

2. Compared to her daughter, Masako didn’t nearly manage to capture Sturla’s interest. Theirs was a wholly political arrangement. Sturla, like Masako, was the child of an Imperial princess married to a lord of minority descent and so was in a poor position for his ambitions. Marrying into a comital house wouldn’t normally be the most advantageous pairing, but House Suzuki enjoyed residual prestige carrying over from Lord Kunihiko, and the connection to Princess Feifang was also beneficial. Once Masako delivered a legitimate heir for him, she had served her purpose. He only did a little experimentation with exploring her boundaries but did not find much promise, so he didn’t make her a project like he was doing with Yasuko. As a result, their relationship is distant and impersonal, like so many political marriages. Perhaps if he didn’t have so many alternative outlets, Masako would have had to put up with more from him, so his inattentiveness after Snorri’s birth was surely a blessing.

3. Sturla was always looking to test his boundaries in all fronts, and on the martial front, who better than one of the most celebrated swordsmen of the Imperial Guard? That would be enough, but the fact that Batista is the first husband of his wife, it brings out the sadistic side of him. Sturla knew he could use Batista’s pride and jealousy against him, but to Batista’s credit, his commitment to his duty reined him in. The fact that Sturla was busy at work corrupting Batista’s daughter added to the interest he took in the swordmaster. You might think the honors Sturla heaped on Batista were insincere, but there was genuine respect there, even if Batista was seen as a pawn, just as Sturla saw everyone around him. Still, that sadistic side of Sturla was definitely at work when he pitted Batista against Yasuko, so it was fitting that it got turned against him in the end.

I’ve said on other occasions that I enjoy writing villains and Sturla was definitely fun to write, especially when he was bantering with Yasuko. I almost wish I could’ve seen what might’ve happened if he had a little more time to pursue his grander ambitions. I consider him one of my more stand-out villains and I hope the readers agree. And with that, I don’t know who I’ll cover next, but I may do a different kind of commentary post next time instead of a Character Spotlight. Stay tuned.

Though still well under quota, I did make a little more progress on Chapter 19 of EM3. I’m stuck on how to end it, but I suppose I’ve got a whole day to figure it out. Until then. Stay tuned.

I inched forward just a bit in Chapter 19 of EM3, but more of the time I could’ve spent on writing was spent on doing some Christmas shopping. I’m sure my nieces will appreciate the latter more than the former, so there you have it. I do intend to make up for lost time over the long weekend, so let’s see if I can actually make good on those intentions for a change. Stay tuned.

I made a little progress in Chapter 20 of EM3 before consciousness went wobbly, though I need to be focusing on finishing Chapter 19 for the weekend. We’ll see if I can make some real headway during the four-day weekend. Stay tuned.

Bouncing back from my cold, I found myself swamped at work and too exhausted by the time I got home to focus on writing. With it having gotten colder, my trick of taking short naps on the floor for a quick recharge isn’t such a great option. Anyway, enough with excuses. I did manage to do some writing on the epilogue of NagaTen after I got the update posted, but I’m stuck on the clincher to finish it. I’ll have to keep thinking about it while perhaps going back and trying to get some work done on EM3. Stay tuned.

I made a little progress on Chapter 17 of TWH. I’m still recovering from my cold, so don’t expect too much for another day or so, but I plan to push forward on ahead with TWH in a bid to make the update this weekend. We’ll see how it goes. Stay tuned.