After the Second Fall Pt. 03.3

It might seem strange given the harem-like attributes, but this effort wasn't intended to be a personal fantasy or wish fulfillment story. The germ was thinking about someone that has everything a person could want, and yet isn't satisfied. In this case, John is smart, handsome, wealthy, funny, charismatic, and huge... and yet continually compares himself with the Adams, always finding himself lacking. In meeting Lilith he starts to let some of is insecurity go and accept his life for what it is, and to get closer to being happy. Sprinkled throughout the first novel are references to his jealousy, especially around Lilith, as she becomes the symbol of his self-worth.

The second novel is Lilith's story, particularly her rise to power and struggle with how best to yield it. I wanted to depict a capable woman constantly torn between very different 'right' choices at multiple times. The concept of competing priorities and factions, both with compelling arguments, fascinates me. With this in mind, I felt like the only way to let her truly struggle with these decisions, and hopefully grow into them, was to remove John, the likeable know-it-all who constantly challenges everything.

In the final novel I wanted to tell Rachel's story. Of all the characters, she is my favorite, and the one that has the biggest personal growth from introduction to story end. I hope that her pseudo-omniscient abilities were endearing, rather than overbearing, and that her personality emerged as intended once she and Pip left the Vale.

As for Esther, I hadn't originally intended for her to play such a large role in the story, but I had a lot of fun following her maturation and tying up loose ends over the course of a hundred (Word) pages, rather than rush through them. On the other hand, I essentially told the same story twice in the third book, so I suspect it brought either closure or boredom -- which it was may depend on the reader.

Regarding context, I pictured a post-World War III version of the world, where most of the population died off due to pestilence, famine, and the war itself. In this environment where food and water are a daily concern for most, I wanted to show disparity in the way people would live. This is why Rieckenburg has four Quarters: it creates a de-facto caste system with clear boundaries that makes Rosie's ascension more striking. It's also the explanation for why something like Ballsport would be popular, it being a chance to rise up against oppressors or to maintain one's spot on top of the hill, depending on the starting point.

I also wanted to play with the idea of a society that has highly advanced capabilities, far beyond what we can do today, and yet uses relatively primitive technology to prop those advancements up, like amazing genetic manipulation powered by mainframes the size of a warehouse because there are no factories to build semiconductors and microchips, refineries to produce gasoline and diesel, or basic public utilities like running water. Another example of this dichotomy is the depiction of time and distance as inexact throughout, because people must rely on bell towers and body parts, respectively, since there are no consumer products like watches, clocks, or rulers.

In terms of our primary setting, Rieckenburg was pictured as a city in what was central Europe, most likely Germany or a German-speaking region of Austria or Switzerland -- this was probably clear from the repeated usage of German names and titles. Ultimately, it doesn't matter that much to the story, but it may help visualize the story's events, especially in the final half where there is a lot of time spent moving between cities.

Northumberland was based (very) loosely on the United States, Marbelo on a mixture of ancient Greece and Rome, and Gracia on feudal Japan. These don't particularly make sense geographically or chronologically, but I wanted to pull in general sentiments from those references that are, I believe, identifiable, to allow readers to associate with them to some extent.

It's also worth recognizing that this story was predominantly written during a global pandemic that led to tremendous civil unrest throughout the world. It shouldn't be surprising then that themes of environmentalism, racism, and oppression made their way into the writing.

As for the epilogue, I'm very happy with how it brackets the larger story with the prologue. On the other hand, I understand if there's frustration about unanswered questions, including what happened to favorite characters. Ultimately, I wanted to leave enough ambiguity to allow each reader to come to their own conclusions.

One final note: thank you for reading -- it's tremendously gratifying to know that people are willing to spend their time with something that I wrote.

Cheers.