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snitchnippedOK, continuing on from this post! More notes for the remainder of my NBB fic, Fuel to Fire!
Chapter 4
FINALLY. We get to meet the Elephants! Such fantastic creatures they are. And yes, they are a matriarchal society. Had to play it up here with Zanta (the Grandmare of her Herd) and her sister Hasina, both of whom are aunts to Durah. And of course, the little ones. Because baby elephants are adorable. See?
As I mentioned before, the cantas were drawn upon Basque culture. Basically, a lot of my inspiration for Archenland came from Basque and Catalan country. From the names (Ferrin, a play on Ferran) to the oranges to the landscape. Especially the landscape.
Let me put it this way. I love wine. I love everything about it, but wine country is like heaven to me…and that’s what I strived for in the Elephant Valley. There’s wine country just a few hours away from where I live which has provided much, much inspiration.
I mean, come on:
ETA: Duh! How could I forget the cider houses, and the Basque version of those, called Sagardotegi!
But anyway. On to the next Susan scene. This is also one of my favorites, and it was the second one to be written so long ago. This is when we really get to meet more of Peridan.
First, though… this is Peridan’s song:
Sorry for the canned, synthey sound of it, but you get the idea. Just imagine the harpist and the percussionist with the wheel drum from the scene in Anvard are playing this as Peridan and Ferrin sang. Or, sing along yourself!
We really dig deep into Susan on this one. She’s had her fears and anxieties laid out, but it really boils down to one thing—as much as she’s scared of losing herself into a political marriage, she’s more scared of being alone.
This also dives into the theme of mothers, too. The Pevensies have lost their mother, we have learned that Durah had, and now Peridan…and Susan is reminded of how alone Helen Pevensie was before the war, but now that her children are gone…well, the thought doesn’t sit well with Susan.
And Susan’s the only one who remembers Helen. And then we learn of Susan’s ritual. She’s been forcing herself to remember all this time, just as on the Spare Oom side, the other Pevensies and so-called “Friends of Narnia” reminded themselves of Narnia. See? Dichotomy.
Don’t worry, I plan on pounding that theme over and over again in future fics, too! Hee, hee…
Moving on, we have the undercover scene, and Edmund’s silly mistakes that land him outside the tavern. He’s still quite a young and inexperienced version of the “Shadow King of Narnia” (as referenced in Dichotomy in a memory during the Spare Oom half.)
And we meet some Calormenes, too! And we’re not done!
Chapter 5
Not many notes for this chapter…we’re in full plot-driving mode now.
Edmund has a nice little bit with Milletpeck at the end of the first scene. A lot of thought was put into that, though it’s so short. Milletpeck and her history are somewhat referenced in Hail To The Days.
We’re slowly learning the Jackdaw’s history with each story. It’ll be fun to flesh that out more sometime.
And then there’s politics, politics, and more politics. I loathe politics, hate discussing it, hate hearing about it… so what is there to do than to write about it? Yeesh. Anyway, the HHB provided some great Tarkaans to choose from, and Anradin and his red beard stuck right out (obviously, duh) and it was fun to put a little backstory on him. And to tie him into Archenland and to start to set things up for HHB, too, leading up to how Susan must’ve met the dreaded Rabadash!
And then there’s Obax. Writing the description of Obax…it seriously made me cry. It felt great to free him.
Chapter 6
Last chapter! Home stretch! Huzzah!
Obax is reunited with his loved ones! And yes, for those who are wondering, Obax is, indeed, a homosexual.
GASP!
Eh, it’s nature. It happens. Especially amongst bull elephants.
It’s not my intention to pound readers over the head with this—my full intention was just to show what a loving relationship between Obax, Manta and Tunko.
Oh! On that note, a bit on the Elephant names. All Elephant names are taken from Swahili. Manta was going to be the name of who eventually became Tunko… with Manta meaning “thought.” Now it’s just an ironic name for the young Bull! Obax is “flower”, Durah means “pearl”, Zanta is “girl who is beautiful”, and Hasina is “good.”
The only non-Swahili name was for Tunko. Tunko is a play on tunkashila which means “Grandfather” in Lakota. It’s a title of respect. And the head Bull’s name was changed as a tribute to a Lakota Indian I’ve recently had the pleasure of working with.
Oh, and there's one bit about the eucalyptus trees. That's from this picture I took in a botanical garden on Maui several years ago. These trees needed to be in the Narnian world, if not in Narnia itself!
Moving on… well, the fire. Yes, the idea of the fire came from the name of the story, which is the name of the song. I couldn’t NOT put a fire in there. And then came the stampede, the betrayal, the slaughter…
It was surprising how brutal this scene ended up. Tears were shed on my part…and if anything, when I look at this thing to put up on ff.net, I’m tempted to take it a bit further, too. But it’ll be interesting to hear what others have to say about it first.
And speaking of stampede. See my icon?![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
crantz made it for this story! And guess what? She never got to read the last chapter, so she had no idea there was a stampede! Happy coincidence. Or maybe not so happy, as it were...
On to the last scene…which was a beast. Many plot points had to be tied up, and I’m still not sure that I managed to do so. And then there’s Peter to deal with, too! Dropping future plot hints here and there. Damn it, Peter, I had no intention of ever writing you… but hopefully this scene speaks for itself.
But it brings me back to the story name: Fuel to Fire. There are lot of fires in this story that are getting fueled:
1. The literal one, of their entire mission causing others to retaliate in the destruction of Esting by stampede and fire.
2. The growth in Edmund and how he changes from the anxiety-ridden Edmund in part one of Dichotomy to the strong, confident Edmund of part two.
3. Susan’s personal journey, and her relationship with her family and other loves ones (HINT).
4. The events referenced in Splintered, and, of course, the leading into the entire plot of The Horse and His Boy.
5. And small kindling in the form of tiny, minuscule, subtle hints of the GRAND SCOPE of this Dichotomy universe. Trust me. It’s big.
Lucy and Durah
I haven’t talked about the Lucy interludes yet. I figured I’d wait until the end, since it was my full intention to write those scenes last (and they were indeed written last.)
The Lucy scenes were to be nice breaths of fresh air away from the main story of Susan and Edmund’s. The original plan was to not write in her head at all, but more in a third person perspective. Yeah, that didn’t happen. I’m a thinky person.
The true story of the past and the “big picture” is leaked by Durah throughout these little scenes and is a journey in itself—it starts out the morning of Susan and Edmund’s departure and ends with the sunset when we learn how important the Elephants actually were in Narnian history. And there was no one better than Lucy to draw that out of Durah.
Basically, I wanted to honor lower-case elephants of Spare Oom. Because let’s face it… they’re awesome, and if they only had opposable thumbs, us humans would be screwed. They are a peaceful, loving, nurturing, intelligent, intuitive species and are much more honorable than a lot of us humans. And I love them.
.
.
.
But not as much as squirrels.
And that's it! As I think of more notes, I'll probably add on to these posts. And for those who have trudged through the entire 90K story and these notes…I thank you deeply.
Many, many thanks to my betaswingedflight21, lady_songsmith, and rthstewart for all the encouragement and hand-holding. And very special thanks to snacky for being a fantastic mod!
My hope is that there is a little something in it for everyone. Whatever you got out of it, I want to thank you for taking the time for reading it. I hope you enjoyed it, and would love to hear any and all feedback.
In the meantime, I’m off to hang out with my good friend Pinot Noir…
Chapter 4
FINALLY. We get to meet the Elephants! Such fantastic creatures they are. And yes, they are a matriarchal society. Had to play it up here with Zanta (the Grandmare of her Herd) and her sister Hasina, both of whom are aunts to Durah. And of course, the little ones. Because baby elephants are adorable. See?
As I mentioned before, the cantas were drawn upon Basque culture. Basically, a lot of my inspiration for Archenland came from Basque and Catalan country. From the names (Ferrin, a play on Ferran) to the oranges to the landscape. Especially the landscape.
Let me put it this way. I love wine. I love everything about it, but wine country is like heaven to me…and that’s what I strived for in the Elephant Valley. There’s wine country just a few hours away from where I live which has provided much, much inspiration.
I mean, come on:
ETA: Duh! How could I forget the cider houses, and the Basque version of those, called Sagardotegi!
But anyway. On to the next Susan scene. This is also one of my favorites, and it was the second one to be written so long ago. This is when we really get to meet more of Peridan.
First, though… this is Peridan’s song:
Sorry for the canned, synthey sound of it, but you get the idea. Just imagine the harpist and the percussionist with the wheel drum from the scene in Anvard are playing this as Peridan and Ferrin sang. Or, sing along yourself!
We really dig deep into Susan on this one. She’s had her fears and anxieties laid out, but it really boils down to one thing—as much as she’s scared of losing herself into a political marriage, she’s more scared of being alone.
This also dives into the theme of mothers, too. The Pevensies have lost their mother, we have learned that Durah had, and now Peridan…and Susan is reminded of how alone Helen Pevensie was before the war, but now that her children are gone…well, the thought doesn’t sit well with Susan.
And Susan’s the only one who remembers Helen. And then we learn of Susan’s ritual. She’s been forcing herself to remember all this time, just as on the Spare Oom side, the other Pevensies and so-called “Friends of Narnia” reminded themselves of Narnia. See? Dichotomy.
Don’t worry, I plan on pounding that theme over and over again in future fics, too! Hee, hee…
Moving on, we have the undercover scene, and Edmund’s silly mistakes that land him outside the tavern. He’s still quite a young and inexperienced version of the “Shadow King of Narnia” (as referenced in Dichotomy in a memory during the Spare Oom half.)
And we meet some Calormenes, too! And we’re not done!
Chapter 5
Not many notes for this chapter…we’re in full plot-driving mode now.
Edmund has a nice little bit with Milletpeck at the end of the first scene. A lot of thought was put into that, though it’s so short. Milletpeck and her history are somewhat referenced in Hail To The Days.
We’re slowly learning the Jackdaw’s history with each story. It’ll be fun to flesh that out more sometime.
And then there’s politics, politics, and more politics. I loathe politics, hate discussing it, hate hearing about it… so what is there to do than to write about it? Yeesh. Anyway, the HHB provided some great Tarkaans to choose from, and Anradin and his red beard stuck right out (obviously, duh) and it was fun to put a little backstory on him. And to tie him into Archenland and to start to set things up for HHB, too, leading up to how Susan must’ve met the dreaded Rabadash!
And then there’s Obax. Writing the description of Obax…it seriously made me cry. It felt great to free him.
Chapter 6
Last chapter! Home stretch! Huzzah!
Obax is reunited with his loved ones! And yes, for those who are wondering, Obax is, indeed, a homosexual.
GASP!
Eh, it’s nature. It happens. Especially amongst bull elephants.
It’s not my intention to pound readers over the head with this—my full intention was just to show what a loving relationship between Obax, Manta and Tunko.
Oh! On that note, a bit on the Elephant names. All Elephant names are taken from Swahili. Manta was going to be the name of who eventually became Tunko… with Manta meaning “thought.” Now it’s just an ironic name for the young Bull! Obax is “flower”, Durah means “pearl”, Zanta is “girl who is beautiful”, and Hasina is “good.”
The only non-Swahili name was for Tunko. Tunko is a play on tunkashila which means “Grandfather” in Lakota. It’s a title of respect. And the head Bull’s name was changed as a tribute to a Lakota Indian I’ve recently had the pleasure of working with.
Oh, and there's one bit about the eucalyptus trees. That's from this picture I took in a botanical garden on Maui several years ago. These trees needed to be in the Narnian world, if not in Narnia itself!
Moving on… well, the fire. Yes, the idea of the fire came from the name of the story, which is the name of the song. I couldn’t NOT put a fire in there. And then came the stampede, the betrayal, the slaughter…
It was surprising how brutal this scene ended up. Tears were shed on my part…and if anything, when I look at this thing to put up on ff.net, I’m tempted to take it a bit further, too. But it’ll be interesting to hear what others have to say about it first.
And speaking of stampede. See my icon?
crantz made it for this story! And guess what? She never got to read the last chapter, so she had no idea there was a stampede! Happy coincidence. Or maybe not so happy, as it were...On to the last scene…which was a beast. Many plot points had to be tied up, and I’m still not sure that I managed to do so. And then there’s Peter to deal with, too! Dropping future plot hints here and there. Damn it, Peter, I had no intention of ever writing you… but hopefully this scene speaks for itself.
But it brings me back to the story name: Fuel to Fire. There are lot of fires in this story that are getting fueled:
1. The literal one, of their entire mission causing others to retaliate in the destruction of Esting by stampede and fire.
2. The growth in Edmund and how he changes from the anxiety-ridden Edmund in part one of Dichotomy to the strong, confident Edmund of part two.
3. Susan’s personal journey, and her relationship with her family and other loves ones (HINT).
4. The events referenced in Splintered, and, of course, the leading into the entire plot of The Horse and His Boy.
5. And small kindling in the form of tiny, minuscule, subtle hints of the GRAND SCOPE of this Dichotomy universe. Trust me. It’s big.
Lucy and Durah
I haven’t talked about the Lucy interludes yet. I figured I’d wait until the end, since it was my full intention to write those scenes last (and they were indeed written last.)
The Lucy scenes were to be nice breaths of fresh air away from the main story of Susan and Edmund’s. The original plan was to not write in her head at all, but more in a third person perspective. Yeah, that didn’t happen. I’m a thinky person.
The true story of the past and the “big picture” is leaked by Durah throughout these little scenes and is a journey in itself—it starts out the morning of Susan and Edmund’s departure and ends with the sunset when we learn how important the Elephants actually were in Narnian history. And there was no one better than Lucy to draw that out of Durah.
Basically, I wanted to honor lower-case elephants of Spare Oom. Because let’s face it… they’re awesome, and if they only had opposable thumbs, us humans would be screwed. They are a peaceful, loving, nurturing, intelligent, intuitive species and are much more honorable than a lot of us humans. And I love them.
.
.
.
But not as much as squirrels.
And that's it! As I think of more notes, I'll probably add on to these posts. And for those who have trudged through the entire 90K story and these notes…I thank you deeply.
Many, many thanks to my betas
wingedflight21, lady_songsmith, and rthstewart for all the encouragement and hand-holding. And very special thanks to snacky for being a fantastic mod!My hope is that there is a little something in it for everyone. Whatever you got out of it, I want to thank you for taking the time for reading it. I hope you enjoyed it, and would love to hear any and all feedback.
In the meantime, I’m off to hang out with my good friend Pinot Noir…
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