I had a busy day. Not only was I implementing all those edits I’d been collecting over the week for TG, JJ1 and JJ2, but I also decided to actually make use of my word processor’s custom dictionary (a practice I fell out of because I got tired of starting the process all over again every time I had to migrate to a new machine). In this process, I caught some typos that would’ve slipped past me otherwise, not just in the three stories above but also in CeleKing1-3, EM1-3 and NagaTen. Just dealing with the Cross Arc was enough to keep me occupied for the time being, but I’ll deal with the other Arcs in the near future.

While I was doing that, I made a significant change. Well, it’s significant behind the scenes but only required one or two changes in the stories themselves. You see, back when I was writing CeleKing3, I decided that it would be simplest to use the year of adoption for the designation of Imperial weapons, i.e. the P777 was adopted in NE 777. However, CeleKing3 originally took place in NE 723. Yes, I could’ve just changed the designations of all the Imperial weapons, but instead I decided to shift the whole series one hundred years into the future. This might seem like a drastic step, but it actually made sense with the wider lore of the Cross Arc. You notice how there’s no mention of the Hybrids in the CeleKing series? Well, if I set the series after NagaTen (NE 745) and EM3 (NE 767), you can imagine a very good reason for that. Since there’s no mention of Hybrids in even later storied like JJ2 (NE 968) and TG (NE 1032), it starts to paint a bit of a picture. That being said, instead of changing a few weapon names in a couple chapters of CeleKing3, I had to go into the peripheral materials and change all the citations in the encyclopedia, timeline, genealogies, etc. Most of it was just applying a 100-year adjustment to the dates. I didn’t add any new members to the Imperial Family, though. Now the Yuanguang Emperor reigns for a whopping 167 years, but with juvenation therapy, it’s not all that wild. He dies at the age of 266, but Wuzong (who Yasuko killed in CeleKing2) was still rather peppy at 231 (though Erdi’s juvenation therapy had improved by then, so that makes a difference). Another significant change is that Princess Anmei (wife of the Yuanguang Emperor’s brother) wasn’t killed during the purge of the Sun Faction but instead in an assassination attempt on the future Emperor Wude. (She still gets posthumously honored as Empress Bian when Wude takes the throne, and it prompted me to add a whole thing where Wude’s successor Wuzheng was the son of a concubine and all the mess that led to. Fun times.)

I think I may start doing sweeps in the Space and Tellus Arcs and see what that brings up. I’ll then try to gear myself to focusing on TWH next week. Hopefully there won’t be any more head trauma cramping my style. Stay tuned.

I put the finishing touches on Chapter 18 of TWH and spent most of my day correcting those errors in the CeleKing series. Loads of fun. I’d like to write more on TWH, but I need to be switching gears to EM3. Stay tuned.

Two days with a good bit of time on my hands proved to be enough to mostly finish Chapter 18 of TWH. Not only that, but I was going over CeleKing1, 2 and 3 to catch typos. It started with me just rereading random chapters and just happening the occasional error, but I went on to do a more methodical scan through the three novels to catch things that had slipped by me in the past. Afterward, I’d have to make those corrections to the original manuscript, the offline HTML file and of course the chapters on the website. Loads of fun.

Anyway, I might try doing a little more on TWH before switching over. 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.

Today we’ll be looking at Lady Masako, the third member of our less than happy little family from the CeleKing series. Masako’s origins lie with the original concept that would be fleshed out to form the basis of Erdi society. You have Celestials above and Infernals below, but then a Celestial is cast down. What then? I was starting to develop the idea of the Imperial court and its intrigues, which made for an easy setup. We take a militarily accomplished and politically influential nobleman (married to an Imperial princess, no less) from a hated minority group and the plot practically writes itself. From his limited screentime, we see Masako’s father Lord Kunihiko as a reserved sort of parent who only grants his daughter an indulgence like a portion of his beloved bonsai garden as a reward for having proven herself discerning enough to be a worthy steward of it, not as a free gift. Unfortunately, the story didn’t lend itself to featuring Masako’s mother, Princess Feifang, but you can get some idea of the sort of parent she was based on how Masako herself acts as a mother in Volumes 2 and 3. Masako was raised to be stoic and duty-bound, but due to her age and circumstances in Volume 1, we see more of a different side of her. She is very much a sheltered 17-year-old girl who is ill-equipped for the situation she finds herself in. Her pride is her shield, but that shield isn’t enough to protect her. For much of Volume 1, there is very little she can do but rely on Batista, but we she her start to rise to the challenge as Batista finds himself unable to shoulder all of the load by himself. The experience changes her, of course. She learns a little humility and gains a bit of grit as she spends time among the people she never paid a second thought to in her years at the Capital and Liuyiyuan. Then there’s the matter of the love that blooms between her and Batista, which shapes her fate for good and for ill in the years to follow. Let’s look at a few of the most significant relationships in her life and how they affect her.

1. From the start, Batista had a knock for drawing out conflicting emotions in Masako. She was of course grateful to him for saving her and dependent on him for protecting her afterward, but a rough man like him who pays little heed for rank flew in the face of all her social conditioning. Because she couldn’t play the role of the spoiled, pampered princess around him, she had to toughen up sooner than she would have otherwise. Their initially belligerent relationship giving way to romance is pretty common, but in light of how she would act later in life makes it a bit ironic that she was willing to forsake her duty and responsibilities to be with him. As you know, they eventually came to the compromise of him becoming her knight, allowing for a less disadvantageous marriage, yet one that still would have led to the extinction of the main line of House Suzuki as far as the norms of the court were concerned. The birth of Yasuko brought them closer still, but it was after the assassination attempt that drove Batista to place Yasuko in the care of Tío Jorge that their relationship broke. It could not be help as Batista was reassigned to the Expeditionary Forces and both of their efforts to remain in touch with each other were blocked. Physical separation led to emotional separation and even when Batista was allowed to return to the Capital, they had precious few opportunities to reconnect. Had they been allowed more than a handful of meetings, they might have managed something, but Batista’s jealousy over her marriage to Prince Sturla and longstanding arguments would have made it difficult. In the end, though, he was the man she loved first and best, so his loss hit her the hardest.

2. Next up is Yasuko. It might have been interesting to have seen a few episodes of Masako as a mother to Yasuko when she was younger. I see Masako as having been more of a doting mother than her own mother was, not being so cold and distant as you see when mother and daughter are reunited. It was actually a fine bit of acting on Masako’s part, but suppressing the emotions welling up inside of her was hard on her. She had to fall back on the example of her own mother for Yasuko’s protection. Although she did not have a complete grasp on Yasuko’s plot against the Celestials, she knew that it was imperative for her to mask Yasuko’s Infernal side and get her integrated into Celestial society as soon as possible. Things moved too quickly after that for her to ever get close to her daughter, though you do have the one episode in Volume 2 after Yasuko’s fight with Hongxia, which is the one scene of intimacy they were granted. While Masako wanted Yasuko to be happy, she wanted her to be safe first, and if that meant sacrificing a close relationship with her daughter, it was a price she was willing to pay. Now, it was bad enough that Masako thought she lost her daughter once, but the second time nearly did her in, hence her somewhat desperate ploy to impregnate herself with a clone of Yasuko, knowing that it wouldn’t be the same person. It was her clumsy way of trying to do it right the second time. Then you have Yasuko come back from the dead as a traitor to all Erdi with the blood of not only Sturla but also Batista on her hands. While Yasuko dismissed any possibility of mending the relationship with her mother after what she had done, she was selling her mother short. Masako wouldn’t easily overcome the gulf that had opened up between them, but I believe she would have tried. However, since Yasuko went off on her own, Masako made the painful decision to stay away, thinking she was respecting Yasuko’s wishes. Ultimately, it was a case of mother and daughter thinking on similar terms, that one wouldn’t forgive the other and so neither one tried to patch things up. It’s a shame, but Yasuko rejected the possibility of any healthy relationships, considering herself unworthy of them, and Masako couldn’t muster the force of will to drag her back kicking and screaming if she had to to show her otherwise.

3. Prince Sturla came along at a time when Masako was at her most vulnerable since the death of her father. Although she didn’t flaunt her marriage to an Infernal, it was widely known and normally no one of Sturla’s standing would consider such a match, but once he made it clear that his offer of marriage was genuine, she made what she thought was the best move for herself and her family. Her original idea in marrying Sturla was that it would give her the security to call Yasuko back from the surface, but by that time, Tío Jorge had been killed and Yasuko had begun her wanderings. If you look at how Sturla treated Yasuko, you might think Masako went through something similar, but that wasn’t really the case. We’ll be covering his perspective on their marriage later, but after an initial phase of testing the waters a bit, Sturla became a rather distant husband. Theirs was a political marriage, so Masako wasn’t expecting much more than that. As she intimated to Yasuko, she found him charming and physically attractive yet emotionally unfulfilling. However, she was raised to regard marriage as a duty, so it only took her a little time to adjust her mindset away from the aberration that was her marriage to Batista. She knew Sturla was using her for his own ends, so she did so in turn, focusing her attention on raising their son to meet his potential.

4. Speaking of Masako and Sturla’s son, Snorri was doted on even more than Yasuko when she was young. Part of it is the “little emperor syndrome” and part of it was Masako overcompensating for the loss of Batista and Yasuko and the emotional distance between her and Sturla. Fortunately, Snorri was quite unlike his father in terms of personality and wasn’t on track to become a little Joffrey Baratheon, though you could easily see him going down that route. He’s a case of being spoiled sweet instead of spoiled rotten. As you might imagine, he became quite the mama’s boy as a result. Masako rightly feared him being corrupted by his father, but it was a small mercy on Sturla’s part that he allowed Masako the time to spoil their child and Snorri the time to be spoiled until he was to be shaped into Sturla’s proper heir. We may visit this in a later story, but Snorri would grow up devoted to Masako and supporting her amid her bereavement and the challenges of adjusting to the new authority in the Empire. He actually becomes a doctor, and him turning out as such a decent person is almost entirely due to Masako’s influence. Even more so after the fall of their Empire, Masako focuses on not making the same mistakes with Snorri that she made with Yasuko and the two of them enjoy a much healthier relationship for it. Being freed of the expectations of becoming the next Emperor removes a massive load from both their shoulders and gives her the opportunity to be just a mother.

Since I’ve given you a peek into Snorri’s future, I’ll tell you a bit about what happens to Masako as well. Of course she has to renounce her title as Empress and Countess of House Suzuki when the New Earth Empire takes control of Erdi, but she does manage to secure a place in the transitional authority, which secures a role for her in planetary politics. Much as she had done at other points in her life, she takes the option she sees as best for her family, and indeed her cooperation is what keeps herself, Snorri and Eiko (the clone of Yasuko she gives birth to after the events of CeleKing3) from being purged as threats to the new order. It’s ironic that Yasuko allows herself to be reviled by her fellow paisanos for collaborating with the Empire when she rejected the benefits of doing so, while Masako, for all her pride, takes what she can get, but Masako’s pragmatism is one thing her daughter never inherited. Think what you will of her, but Masako always seeks to play the field to her advantage, which is what you had to do to survive in Celestial society. As much of a survivor as Yasuko was, her own pride consistently made her life more difficult for her. Sometimes the apple does fall far from the tree.

Anyway, that will do it for our look at Masako. Next time, we’ll be turning our attention to Prince Sturla. Stay tuned.

Yasuko got her start in a dream, what would become Chapter 1 of CeleKing2. I had this clear image of this young woman’s daring infiltration of an orbital facility via space elevator (which I had mistakenly identified as a skyhook before further research revealed the difference). I knew she was there for revenge, but the why and how had to be developed later. I believe I developed the trigger for her revenge plot before I had considered establishing Tío Jorge’s role in CeleKing1. The dream had identified her as the daughter of a common-born Imperial Guard (Batista) and a noblewoman (Masako), so when came to explaining why she was down on the service, being put in the care of her father’s extended family seemed like a natural choice. From there, abuse by the ruling Celestials leading to the death of one or both adoptive parents made for an easy justification for revenge. In other words, it didn’t take much effort to sort out the pieces provided to me by my subconscious, so with that out of the way, let’s review the character by the numbers.

Yasuko’s name (寧子) is in honor of Lord Ninghe, who helped Batista and Masako in CeleKing1. (You see the same characters read as “Neko” for the lead female in Brynhildr in the Darkness, but for those of you who are unaware, there are multiple readings for characters in personal names.) The child of a Celestial and an Infernal, she was in an awkward position from birth, ineligible to succeed her mother as head of House Suzuki barring a special dispensation from the Emperor. Although Batista had been knighted when he was inducted into the Imperial Guard, the fact that he was an Infernal would have haunted Yasuko had she been raised in the Capital. In a way, the assassination attempt that resulted her being put in Tío Jorge and Tía Nayeli’s care was ultimately to her benefit. It didn’t last long, but the time she had with Tío Jorge and Tía Nayeli was probably the best of her life. Even after Tía Nayeli died of tuberculosis, Tío Jorge did a pretty good job of taking care of her until he was killed. Now, the choice between being despised in the Capital and the hard-scrabble life she lived after Tío Jorge’s death is less clear. At very least, the experience toughened her up, both mentally and physically, which would prove essential to her survival, but it also fed her more self-destructive tendencies. For six years she did whatever it took to survive, relying on the kindness of strangers when she could but never setting down roots or making any real attachments. She studied ways to fight, learned what she could in various fields to help her put her plan for revenge into action. However, Yasuko is more of a tactical thinker than a strategic one. She can be rather clever in the pursuit of short-term goals yet blind when it comes to seeing the bigger picture. You see this in her occasional reflective moments when she thinks about how she never clearly sorted out the details of how she intended to exact her revenge and to what extent. This gets exploited by Sturla, who uses her impulsiveness to bring her under his power. Though she isn’t without moral sense, it’s been warped by her experiences and her lust for revenge. I can imagine she garners little sympathy with some readers because of this, but that’s partially by design. She is at least fairly self-aware of her shortcomings, not that the sting of her conscience is enough to stop her in most cases.

One point which may be controversial is how much Yasuko’s sexuality factors into her character. She definitely stands out compared to pretty much any other character of mine in that regard. Her age puts her at a stage of development where she isn’t fully matured mentally or physically, which opens up a lot of confusion that is exacerbated by Sturla and how he uses her. The perversity of Celestial society heightens this further. Because of her single-mindedness, Yasuko never really worked to sort out the issues related to establishing her sexual identity, shunning intimacy in all forms in favor of pursuing her goals. This left her extremely vulnerable to someone like Sturla, who uses sex as one of his many weapons. To this end, there are four particular relationships that highlight Yasuko’s struggles.

1. Prince Sturla is bundle of physical and psychological abuse, but as much as he’s basically everything Yasuko hates about the Celestials, she can’t deny her attraction to him. I wanted to explore the concept of physical attraction in spite of whatever a person might think rationally. Of course Yasuko had to deal with the occasional would-be predator during her years on the streets, but she had never been the focus of such concentrated attention in such an (unwantedly) appealing package. The fact that he can so thoroughly dominate her physically adds to that paradoxical appeal. There is an unconscious part of her that seeks submission, which is sharply at odds with her fiercely independent and rebellious personality. A part of her knows this and it only adds to her anger. Now, if you think this undermines Yasuko’s strength as a character, that’s your call, but we have a number of impulses and unconscious drives and what matters most is how we consciously deal with them. In the end, it isn’t the unconscious impulses but the conscious will that drives her to her final confrontation with Sturla. Even though she needed her father’s help to overcome Sturla physically, I would say that she had already won the psychological battle with him. Do with that what you will.

2. Hongxia is in some ways an extension of Sturla’s abuse, but her rivalry with Yasuko puts her in her own category. Compared to the inexperienced and uncertain Yasuko, Hongxia is fully couched in her sexuality and its use as a weapon. She has the task of instructing Yasuko in the tools of her trade, but there isn’t the slightest trace of an amiable master-apprentice relationship. Yasuko’s unwillingness to do what’s demanded of her, her defiance, and Sturla’s interest in her all fuel Hongxia’s anger and jealousy. Yasuko’s prudishness is seen as a slap in the face to the courtesan’s open sexuality and her refusal to submit is an affront to her supposed position of authority over her. As Hongxia takes special pride in being one of the few partners able to keep pace with Sturla in the bedroom, the last thing she wants to do is train up a potential replacement. With such a twisted knot of a relationship, it’s little wonder how messily it ended. (Certainly there’s plenty that can be read into their fight.)

3. Yoon-hee is a more positive example but still tainted by the corruption around Yasuko. As noted before, Yasuko eschewed all forms of intimacy during her years of wandering, so the closeness afforded by a personal attendant was something quite alien to Yasuko. The one time Yasuko put the moves on her was more about her finding an unhealthy outlet for her frustrations than anything else. I’ll leave it to the audience to debate whether Yoon-hee is evidence of Yasuko being bisexual, bicurious, or simply in a romantic friendship. The waters are deliberately left muddy. Of course, whatever Yasuko’s feelings, the power imbalance casts a bit of a shadow over the relationship. Yoon-hee is thoroughly conditioned for obedience, so even what she would claim to be her own feelings may not accord with her heart of hearts. Of course, we don’t get to explore the possibilities further as Yasuko sends Yoon-hee away for her safety. How might things have developed otherwise? Who knows?

4. Lowen and Yasuko don’t spend all that much time together, but they represent a common pattern of attraction forming amid traumatic circumstances. Lowen was the closest to Yasuko in age among the survivors of his crew and he had the most interaction with her and the closest. The feelings were mutual and we saw how far Yasuko was prepared to go had Sigma no intervened. However, even if they would have had sex with each other, it wouldn’t have changed the final disposition of their relationship. The materials were there for something to be built, but Yasuko’s personality simply won’t let other people get close for long. This was exacerbated by the circumstances at the end of CeleKing3, having been responsible for the death of her father and the betrayal of her mother. Having lost the most fundamental relationships a person has, of course she would reject any others, particularly when she’d already spent a large chunk of her life pushing others away. Now, in another universe, it’s possible that Lowen might have had a stabilizing affect on her and maybe she could have had a more well-adjusted life, but that isn’t the universe we got.

With all her internal contradictions and conflicts, Yasuko proved to be an interesting character to write. She’s not the first character of mine to be primarily motivated by revenge, but her path was probably the most overrun with brambles and thorns. I know it’s a common moral that revenge does more to harm the avenger than the object of vengeance, but definitely in Yasuko’s case, her pursuit of revenge cost far more than she gained. Things didn’t work out so well for her, but are the paisanos she allegedly fought for better off on account of her efforts? Many of them think otherwise, as seen by the epilogue of CeleKing3, but if I had to wager, I’d say the people of Erdi got a better deal. Maybe not by much depending on who’s in charge at the time, but people have all sorts of opinions about such things.

Now that we’re done with Yasuko for now, I think I’ll go ahead with the idea I floated before to feature Masako and Sturla next. Stay tuned.

I’ve commented elsewhere that the older and more cynical I get, my protagonists become less and less moral paragons. Now, there’s a time and a place for more innocent and upstanding leads, but sometimes you need to get down in the dirt with someone who’s got some grime stuck to him. The general idea for Batista’s look (and the origin of his surname) is Jetstream Sam from Metal Gear Rising. He first appeared in the dream that would become Chapter 1 of CeleKing2. Interestingly enough, I was building a backstory for the character as the dream was ongoing. He was a centurion in the Imperial Guard from a common background who had won his place among the elite through his skill as a warrior. I would later go back and dig up an old idea I had about a society divided between Infernals and Celestials and a fallen Celestial taken in by an Infernal, which would be developed into CeleKing1. I decided that I wanted to introduce Yasuko’s parents and their story before she would take center stage, hence the structure of the CeleKing trilogy being what it is.

We get bits and pieces of Batista’s backstory throughout the trilogy, with an obvious focus in CeleKing1. He was the son of Zacarias Rodrigues, a restaurateur who was a former conscript, one who didn’t fall into banditry after being demobilized like so many others. Zacarias met Batista’s mother Isabella through her brother Jorge Avilar (Tío Jorge), who was in the same unit of conscripts. They settled not too far from where Zacarias was demobilized and Zacarias set up shop in the dusty little town of Ciruela. Taking on the family business was never in the cards for Batista, who was kicked out of the mission school for delinquency and frequently ran away from home. During this time, he’d commit a number of petty crimes and strained the law’s leniency toward minor offenders to its limits in several counties. He had a brief period of stability after Tío Jorge was discharged from the Regulars. He admired his uncle’s military service and started to apprentice in Tío Jorge’s tinker shop. However, there was a bone of contention in the form of Tío Jorge’s pretty young wife Nayeli. What started as an adolescent crush eventually got out of hand and led to a major falling out between Batista and Tío Jorge. Not long thereafter, Batista got his conscription orders. The main reason why he didn’t become a draft dodger was because he was seeking something different for himself far away from both home and his uncle. Though far from a model soldier, he proved to have a high aptitude as a fighter. He wasn’t eligible for enlistment in the Regulars due to his numerous disciplinary infractions, so instead he became a mercenary in the Regimiento de Rionegro. Most of his career as a mercenary was spent fighting in Viet Tay (Xiyue), and his record was a bit of a checkered one. War is never a pretty thing, but some make a dirtier business of it than others. There were few lines he wouldn’t cross and for those that he wouldn’t, he looked the other way while others did on more than one occasion. Although he was mostly aimless, going from one battefield to the next and enjoying what pleasures he could in between, there was a vague sense of planning for his future, even if he didn’t know what that would be. Many soldiers live paycheck to paycheck, but Batista was putting a fair bit back, savings that would be confiscated once he deserted. It was precisely his lack of direction which made it so easy Capitán Trieu to convince him to reup and take the promotion to sargento at the start of CeleKing1. Had Fate not had other plans for him, he would’ve continued on that path until he was either killed in action or too old to keep on fighting.

We’ve established that Batista was hardly hero material when he is introduced and while we later learn that his particular susceptibility to the Mandate of Heaven is a big part of why he rescued Masako from Coronel Obrado, there was also an element of pent-up guilt over all the times he’d turned a blind eye to unpleasant goings-on in the past to make for something of a perfect storm spurring him to action. From there, we have the adventure as you know it, with him struggling to keep both himself and Masako alive and out of enemy hands while trying to ward off the growing attachment to the young princess. Could he have made a clean break from her? It’s unlikely. Despite what his head is telling him, his heart is directed elsewhere, and tied to how the Mandate of Heaven has bound him to Masako, his efforts to maintain his distance most likely would have failed even without the ever increasing extremity of their circumstances. After the events of CeleKing1, he wasn’t able to maintain his professional separation from Masako for long. Due to their difference in station, despite being married, Batista was essentially the male equivalent of a concubine in the eyes of Imperial law. Although Imperial society on Erdi leans toward old-school patriarchy, most women of rank enjoy their gallants just as their male counterparts have their concubines, mistresses and whatnot. Had Masako remained exclusive to Batista, she would have been seen as more of an oddity and their children would have a difficult time inheriting House Suzuki.

Speaking of children, things changed significantly for them after Yasuko was born. An assassination attempt on Masako by remnants of Lord Feng’s faction led to Batista putting Yasuko in Tío Jorge’s care, something Masako was very reluctant to agree to. It drove a bit of a wedge between them, and before it could be resolved, Batista found himself assigned to Prince Wusheng out on the frontier. He could neither lead the hunt for Masako’s enemies, nor go fetch Yasuko once the coast was clear. Part of the reason Batista rose to prominence in the Imperial Guard, rising to centurion and earning the title of “Jiansheng” (“剣聖”, or basically “sword saint”) was because he was trying to earn his ticket back to the Capital. It was quite the stroke of Fate that he would finally return to the Capital at the same time Yasuko launched her infiltration. (You could just blame the contrivance of the author, to which the author might suggest that a certain scheming antagonist may have taken the opportunity to guide the pieces on the board according to his plan.) Naturally, Batista is thrown into confusion by the circumstances of Yasuko’s return and Masako’s new marital situation. However, much as before, he’s given the runaround by his duties to prevent him from taking a more active role in the situation. (Sturla obviously wouldn’t want him too deeply involved while he’s busy grooming Yasuko.) While his relationship with his wife and daughter is left strained and distant, he finds Prince Sturla moving in instead. He resents Sturla for taking his wife but is mindful of not just his political power but also his skill as a swordsman. Sturla being as familiar and flippant as he is only makes things more uncomfortable for Batista. This culminates with Sturla naming him his personal bodyguard after being crowned Emperor. Batista knows he’s being manipulated throughout, but he isn’t really in a position to do anything else but obey… until Yasuko defects to the New Earth Empire, that is.

Naturally, Batista wasn’t acting out of loyalty to Sturla or the Empire when he faced down his daughter. His intention was to stop her before she could attempt a fight she had no chance of winning, and, if possible, get to safety with her mother. He ended up pulling his punches, though, and he underestimated Yasuko’s new enhancements. From there, as you know, he had the choice of letting Sigma stabilize his wounds to give him a chance at survival or make one last effort to save his daughter from her archnemesis. For someone who had often strayed far from the path of a hero in his life, his own flesh and blood being on the line made the decision easy for him. Did he resort to a cheap sneak attack? You bet your buttons he did, because anything else would have almost certainly failed. His training as a knight of the Imperial Guard didn’t change his essential nature as a mercenary who fights to win. He accomplished what he meant to, which isn’t a bad way to go out.

What more is there to say about our boy Batista? He loved and lost, bled and bloodied. Quite a ride for some street punk who didn’t seem like he’d ever amount to anything. Next time, we’ll take a look at his progeny, who inherited a lot of his bad habits. Stay tuned.

I managed to mostly finish Chapter 30 of JJ2, then on a whim, I started rereading Tzipi’s Garden and went through catching typos and such. I then gave CeleKing1 the same treatment. Didn’t get anything much done beyond that other than some review writing. I need to hop back on KniTwi. We’ll see what I get done. Stay tuned.

I put those finishing touches on Chapter 26 of CeleKing3 and finished Chapter 27 as well, so other than getting the last bit transcribed and going over the manuscript from top to bottom, I’m done with the book. What are we at, 19 now? Yay.

From there, I started on Chapter 19 of JJ2 and I’ll be continuing with that for a while, then it’s back to KniTwi. Stay tuned.

I’ve been working on Chapter 27 of CeleKing3. Dealing with fight choreography of course means it’s slow going, but I’m making headway and should be done soon. With that and the finishing touches on Chapter 26, I’ll be done with the book, so I’m looking forward to that. Stay tuned.