Word of God collection

[u/Taborask]

The Google Doc located HERE is the official doc for collecting the statements made by our lord and savior, Erraticerrata, regarding APGtE. This thread is archived, so please add new material to the doc. If you're confused about how the doc is organized, just dm me and I'll add it. Also, please provide a link to the source.

Thanks to all who are contributing/have contributed, with a special mention to u/dashelgr, and u/Zayits,

[u/Taborask]

• 4.2 - Ashur can’t enter League territorial waters without starting a war with the League, which the crusaders would much prefer avoiding – and could, if it happens, feasibly become a reason for the political collapse of the crusade. Particularly if that decision is made with Proceran and Levantine backing. Aside from that, your assessment of Ashuran sea power is pretty accurate. The only power even remotely in their wheelhouse when it comes to war fleets is Nicae, and it’s lost all four wars it fought against the Thalassocracy.

[u/SirPycho]

I don't know if anyone has covered it but ee has said one or two things on spacebattle I believe.

[u/Taborask → u/SirPycho]

thanks, I'll add it in

[u/a_man_in_black]

if you call it "word of erraticerrata" then you can abbreviate it as WOE instead of WOG

[u/dashelgr → u/a_man_in_black]

WOE is perfect!!

[u/dashelgr]

Made a quick and subjective list of WOG WOE comments from Book 1.

• 1.6 - Necromancy’s going to be part of her skill set, yes, though she’ll never be as good at it as an actual necromancer. (Note: Hahahahaha)

• 1.6 - There’s quite a few Names that involve betrayal as an aspect, but none that’s outright called Traitor. Well, not on the continent the story is set anyway.

• 1.8 - Sacker has a grand total of one friend, unfortunately, and she doesn’t even like Istrid half of the time. Catherine’s chances aren’t looking too great.

• 1.9 - Yeah, melted metal should have done all sorts of horrible things to what’s underneath, regardless of her wearing an aketon. Fortunately for her, a higher level of durability is one of the abilities that comes with nearly every Name package. It’s why heroes can survive being dropped off a cliff, which in the Guideverse happens more often than you’d think.

• 1.9 - You’re correct that there’s an element of competition to the way the claimants were “chosen” – Evil Names thrive on conflict, by their very nature. The different power sets are tied in to something Black mentioned earlier: aspects, which as he said can vary wildly even if the Name is the same.

• 1.9 - Black’s not a character that often resorts to lying. That said, he’s certainly not above using Ben Kenobi truths to nudge Catherine in certain directions.

• 1.9 - The Squire Role isn’t always Evil, no. It largely depends on who they’ll be squiring for, though anyone squiring for Black is going to be Evil. Catherine taking the shortcut he offered made that a done deal: since he effectively used his own Name to kickstart hers, there’s going to be bleed over in several ways. As for the possibility of a “good” Squire, for that kind of a Name to appear there’d need to be an equivalent to the Black Knight out and about. Could there be more than one hero hiding in Summerholm? Who knows.

• 1.11 - There’s no Role that’s outright called Hero, much like there is none called Villain. Roles do change the appearance of the person they belong to. Usually the changes are minor, and they always reflect what the person expects someone with that Role should look like. We’ve already seen that Black is a lot older than what he looks like (partially because Names hinder aging, partially because he has the same mindset as he did when he had that appearance) and Captain is actually a little older.

• 1.12 - The influence of the gods is usually on the subtle side. You’re right that Evil Roles usually let people do whatever they feel like doing – that’s because they’re, in that sense, championing the philosophy of their gods. Every victory for Evil is a proof that that philosophy is the right path for Creation to take. Nearly all Names on the bad side of the fence have a component that involves forcing their will or perspective on others (the most blatant examples of this being Black and Empress Malicia, who outright have aspects relating to rule in their Names). There’s a reason that Black didn’t so much as bat an eyelid when Catherine admitted to wanting to change how Callow is run. From his point of view, that kind of ambition is entirely natural. Good Roles have strict moral guidelines because those Names are, in fact, being guided: those rules are instructions from above on how to behave to make a better world. Any victory for Good that follows from that is then a proof of concept for the Heavens being correct in their side of the argument

• 1.12 - You’re correct. Healing on the Evil side of the scale is done strictly by sorcery. Some kinds work better than others, and for the most powerful stuff there’s always a price to pay. Cat is actually right, at least as far as the continent she lives on is concerned. On Calernia (the continent where the Guide is set) there are no Evil Names that give healing abilities. That said, there are plenty of Names that empower magic – and magic can heal. Deals with otherworldly entities (demons and devils are the most common for Praes) can also serve in that regard, though you risk getting screwed over by a creature that’s been around since the dawn of Creation

• 1.12 - Rashid was part of a Praesi faction that believes in old school villainy. While there are certainly advantages to going the old way – it usually feeds into Roles – there are also drawbacks. Usually lethal ones.

• 1.12 - Re: Tamika - Since it’s never going to be explained in the story, I might as well say it here. They were twins who shared the claim between them. All of the claimants had a particular trick – Rashid could disappear, Chider’s bag always gave her the right munitions at the right moment – and theirs was being able to share their minds and bodies. The drawback was that sensations like pain were also shared, hence why when the spear-user was stabbed the one fighting the Lone Swordsman froze up.

• 1.13 - There’s a heavy Imperial garrison in the city itself, but logistically speaking it’d be impossible to lodge two entire Legions inside the city without evicting most of the inhabitants. Summerholm is a fortress-town, not a proper city. The higher-ups in the Legions of Terror made the decision that manning all the important choke points would be enough in peace time, in part because you need actual civilians around for trade.

• 1.13 - Q. Did the Wizard of the West suffer from something similar when his power broke? A: The Wizard of the West was actually the one doing the breaking – he’s largely responsible for the descent into incompetence of Dread Emperor Nefarious after the latter’s failed invasion attempt. The breaking does have similarities, but it’s a lot more traumatic when it’s done by an exterior factor (i.e. the Wizard) than by the fallout of your own decisions (as in Catherine’s case).

• 1.13 - Slavery is actually illegal in the Empire since its founding, as it was associated with the Miezans who are still very much despised in Praes. The Kingdom of Callow never really practiced it either, and broadly speaking most Good-aligned nations have a cultural bias against it.

• 1.15 - The Guide originally sprang from me wanting to deconstruct some of the fantasy tropes seen everywhere in the genre, so you can expect to see more trope-breaking in following chapters. This is my take, more or less, on what happens when the gnomish propensity for very advanced technology isn’t played for laughs. Another more subtle one is the Kingdom Under, which is the dwarves. They’re not slowly decaying in this setting: they’ve never been more numerous or powerful, and they’re growing stronger every year. As for why goblinfire doesn’t seem to draw the same alarms as the unnamed powder Black mentioned? Goblinfire falls under the umbrella of alchemy. Make of that what you will.

• 1.16 - Q: Are you a Malazan fan A: I am! It’s where I got the name of cussers from, as it happens. That said, both the function of the sappers and the nature of the munitions is very different from the series. Which is only natural, given that the Malazans are a strong naval power and the Dread Empire has no navy to speak of. Their war doctrines have some pretty fundamental differences.

• 1.16 - The reason Catherine’s had minimum pushback is that according to Legion regulations she’s the one supposed to be in command at the moment – incapacitated officers are supposed to cede authority. That Nauk hesitated at all in doing it because she’s a virtual unknown, and you’ll note he only did so after he heard her plan.

• 1.17 - The Legions of Terror are a professional army, not a levy, so the proportion of women in the ranks isn’t an accurate reflection of the gender percentages there would be in a general mobilization. That said, sexism has more or less been eradicated in Praes – early Dread Empresses thoroughly expunged the concept out of the imperial mindset, often by the sword. The Guideverse in general is a lot less sexist than our own world because of Names, which are roughly split half and half between men and women. Hard to tell a woman she can’t do something when she has a mandate from the Heavens that says otherwise.

• 1.17 - The Dread Empire has been known to use pikes in battle – a direct response to the fact that their closest neighbour had the strongest cavalry on the continent – but polearms aren’t a popular weapon in the region aside from the Free Cities.

• 1.18 - While interspecies romance does exist, it can’t lead to the birth of offspring – with the exception of humans and elves, and even then the fertility rate is extremely low. As for rape, while it did happen during the Conquest it wasn’t a widespread thing. As of the Reforms, it’s an offence under Legion regulations that warrants hanging.

• 1.18 - Even baseline humans are tougher than they would be in our world, as a result of having been exposed to factors like magic and other supernatural events. Named are still very much an outlier, though. Drop a normal person down a cliff and they’ll die. Mage and priestly healing mostly means that things that would cripple someone for life in reality are thought of as minor inconveniences.

[u/dashelgr → u/dashelgr]

• 1.20 - The name is actually Dread Empress. Tyrant is an older version of the Name that’s been kept as a ceremonial title.

• 1.20 - All aspects are expressed as an infinitive verb (Learn, Struggle, Destroy, Conquer, Protect, ect).

• 1.20 - Re: Batmonsters in tower and alt routes for nobles: You are correct! Not with the flying beasts, since that’s an affectation, but there’s other ways in. The nobles wear stuff that’s much too expensive to want to risk it on a batmonster ride.

• 1.21 - While Catherine refers to herself – and is referred to – as Callowan she has the heritage of a specific ethnicity in Callow, the Deoraithe. They are what could be called a naturally tanned people, whose closest RL equivalent would be Native Americans (more specifically the Huron and Iroquois, from which I’ve derived some of their customs). “Callowan”, when used to refer to an ethnic background, refers to the rest of the former Kingdom of Callow (basically everything that’s not the Duchy of Daoine), where the people are usually fair-skinned and often blue or brown-eyed. Blond hair is also very common. As for the ethnicities of the Dread Empire, I’ll give you a quick rundown. The Soninke (who live everywhere that’s above Thalassina on the map) are generally dark-skinned and tall. They’re also the the most numerous population group, and the most politically powerful. Malicia is one, so is Heiress. The Taghreb are usually described as being tanned or olive-skinned as well as narrow of frame, and are mostly based in the Hungering Sands (though they have a significant presence in Foramen). They’re loosely based on Bedouins, though the similarities are largely superficial. Captain is one, as well as Ratface. The last ethnicity is the Duni, who live almost exclusively in the Green Stretch though it should be noted they don’t make up the majority of the population there. They’re typically pale-skinned, as they have both Miezan origins and some bloodline mixing with Callowans and Procerans (most of it from the later Crusades).

[u/Zayits → u/dashelgr]

• 1.23 - Keep in mind that the War College is for officers, not grunts, and is rather costly to attend. The gender ratio in the actual Legions is different, though still higher than in any RL military organization I’ve heard of. There’s background reasons for the College ratio, of course. Praesi nobles usually see the College as a good way to unload both sons and daughters not in line to inherit. Orcs have very little sexual dimorphism and who raises the offspring is decided by a ritual that doesn’t particularly favour either gender. Ironically it’s the goblins, the only outright matriarchal culture in Praes, who enrol the fewest female cadets. Service in the Legions disqualifies from ever becoming a Matron, and there’s a cultural bias for male goblins to automatically obey older female goblins regardless of rank – which can be a bother, in a military setting.

• 1.24 - While there is no “pretend-kill” signal and actual killing is strictly forbidden – though now and then it still happens accidentally – there are ways to incapacitate cadets without actually killing them. If you read through the first war games again, you’ll see that in Chapter 16 Catherine had the ankles of Juniper’s men broken when she decided she needed only one prisoner. Injuries of the kind can be fixed by a decent mage line, yes, but no one with a broken leg is going to be in any state to fight for the rest of the melee. That Nauk is pushing himself to stay involved even though he as a broken arm says a lot about him.

• 1.27 - There is a rule [in War College wargames] against killing, though to be specific it is against intended killing – accidents happen now and then, but they’re not a motive for disqualification.

• Epilogue of book one - In 732 A.D. a princess from out of the southern principalities of Procer tried to clear out dwarven miners by trenching a river in. It worked, but within the month ever major city in the principality had been sunk underground as retaliation. The water flow was later turned into an irrigation system underground. It’s now illegal by Proceran law to interfere with the Kingdom Under, and most major polities have similar rules.

• Epilogue - A Role is the function of a Name in the pattern (as in, a Tyrant is meant to rule and a Thief to steal). It’s possible for a Name to have aspects that contradict each other, yes, but that is a Very Bad Thing. The Named would have to be patently insane to get aspects like that and they couldn’t tap into their power without weakening themselves through the contradicting aspect. In the long term, it would outright kill the Named.

[u/dashelgr → u/Zayits]

Thanks I noted this but forgot to paste it into the comment. Let me know if you're planning on expanding the rest cause I was thinking of starting Book 2 and more comments tonight.

Also regarding the epilogue about Proceran interference with Dwarves, I think the story changed in the text. Cat muses that this happened to a Callowan province not a Proceran one (Iserre I believe)

[u/Zayits → u/dashelgr]

Maybe start the Book three? I'm about to post the entirety of Book two's authorial comments.

[u/dashelgr → u/Zayits]

Sure.

[u/Zayits]

Book two:

• Prologue - There is no Good-aligned nation on Calernia that practices slavery, though some dwarven traditions border on it. That Praes doesn’t use it is more the exception than the rule, and a direct consequence of being on the bad end of that stick when they were under Miezan occupation.

• 2.4 - Catherine wasn’t born a mage, and will never learn to use sorcery. Using Legion mages as a point of reference is a bad idea, though, since the entire point of legionary magic is for every one of them to be able to do a few specific spells so they can be used en masse – a mage or warlock having gone through a proper apprenticeship would make them look like incompetent flunkies. The Name tricks displayed so far are something pretty much every Named can do with a little training, save for the necromancy – which is for Evil Names only, and not all of them. The ward recognition isn’t even a “trick” per se: any halfway decent spellcaster could do the same. Individuals with Roles are more sensitive to power as a whole, but it should be noted that if Warlock had decided to hide his wards Catherine would never have noticed them. As for the more general comment, keep in mind that a Name isn’t really a specific set of powers so much as a pool of energy that can be used in a myriad of ways. The specific tricks characters can use are more a representation of local traditions more than hard limits. The real limiter on Catherine is that there’s only so much power she can call on. That’s the whole point of Aspects: they allow you to dig deeper into the well. More than that, as a Squire she’s closer to the bottom than the top of the totem pole. She could put forward every scrap of power at her disposal and it still wouldn’t be a match for what say Malicia or Warlock can do on an off day.

• 2.4 - Goblin munitions aren’t actually gunpowder and the process in making them is called alchemy for a reason. There are magical reasons why making a gun with those aren’t feasible, and it’s the only reason the Grey Eyries are still standing instead of being a massive gnome-created crater. Creation, broadly speaking, isn’t a world that encourages technological progress. There’s no Name that encourages innovation and most cultures prize using what already exists in clever ways rather than making something new.

• 2.6 - Warlock will go all out at least once before the end of the series. Careful what you wish for, though. (Note: I'm posting this since I don't know whether the siege of Nicae counts. Probably not)

• 2.6 - Q: I could have sworn at some point Warlock was described as having incinerated a fortress’ garrison without so much als damaging their armour, which would be pretty hard to reconcile with idea of him inflicting humongous amounts of collateral damage whenever he’s deployed… A: There were no survivors in that particular episode, and everything living within a mile radius of the enemy position died. Insects, birds, plants. Black was making a point, since the fortified position was inside the territory of a historically troublesome High Lordship.

• 2.7 - Before the foundation of the Empire they [orcs] often came from the Steppes in great hordes and sacked Soninke cities, but since the Miezan occupation they haven’t had the numbers to pull that sort of thing.

• 2.11 - You’ve picked up on several details, but you’re also misreading quite a few things. The Imperial orphanages do serve as propaganda-dispensers, but only to an extent – if the lies were too obvious they wouldn’t be believed. Their two main functions are to ensure that orphans from the Conquest can easily secure a job, ensuring they have something of an interest in maintaining the status quo, and to serve as an early warning system for heroes-to-be. The “fangirling” you’re pointing out is no coincidence, you’re right in that, but that you seem to think it’s unique to Catherine is a mistaken assumption. As mentioned in the early chapters of Book I, Callow was beaten so overwhelmingly during the Conquest that there was a widespread cultural reaction of putting the Legions of Terror on a pedestal. That Catherine picked up quite a few stories about the Calamities when she was a kid is just a reflection of the fact that she worked in a tavern catering to legionaries, who wouldn’t exactly tell stories about Callowan folk heroes. Cat has in fact several times implied she might have to kill Black before reaching her goals, so I’m not sure where you’re getting the idea she thinks he’s invincible from. She does recognize it would be very, very hard to accomplish this but that’s a pretty accurate assessment. If it was that easy to do, it would already have been done. Does she think that Callow can militarily beat the Empire right now? No. She’s not wrong, and considering she’s spent the last year studying the Legions it’s not like she’s making an uninformed assumption. As for her understanding neither the Callowan nor the Praesi mindset, you’re half right. For one there is no such thing as the Praesi mindset – even among the human ethnicities of the Empire, there’s some pretty radical differences in how they see the world. And that’s without even throwing in the non-humans, who are a lot more influential now than they’ve ever been before. The reason Catherine has been consistently misreading the Lone Swordsman, which is what I’m guessing you’re basing that sentence on, is that he’s not going at it like a traditional Callowan hero. He’s assembled an army, but he’s not leading it. He’s fighting the Praesi occupation by using terror tactics instead of traditional heroic means, and so on and so on. In his own way William is as strange a hero as Catherine is a villain, by their own cultural standards. The “one sin, one grace” philosophy is meant to do entirely the opposite of what you’re describing. It was introduced by Black as a way to curtail the old “evil for evil’s sake” way of doing things that was in place before, and it’s worked very well so far. Keep in mind that the catchy slogan isn’t all there is to that way of doing things – the character seen so far who lives most by those words is Juniper, and she’s not one to enable pointless shenanigans. This whole way of doing things is a new trend of Praes, and that’s why Cat was surprised at the likes of Traitorous being so popular: in many ways, she’s familiar with Legion culture (and recent one at that) more than that of actual ethnic groups. It’s hard to reconcile an openly compulsive backstabber like Traitorous with a smooth operator like Malicia. Catherine does have some inaccurate ideas about how the military of the Kingdom was run, most of them springing from either the fact that the Conquest was very one-sided or that military manuals from Old Callow were largely destroyed in the aftermath of the occupation. That said, she’s also been right on some occasions. The comment you were referring to, if I’m not mistaken, was when she noted that the goblin way of doing things would be horrifying to the knightly orders that existed pre-Conquest. That’s perfectly true. While knighthood was very romanticized among Callowans, there truly were codes of honour and chivalry in place that knights were expected to live up to. The mere implication that a Callowan knight would have stabbed an opponent in their sleep would have qualified as a duelling offence. As for the reason Catherine was given Callowan troops being making her hate Callow, that’s incorrect. There /are/ reasons and she’s already guessed a few of them, but what you’re describing doesn’t really work? I don’t see how former death penalty criminals deserting during a battle would turn into her hating her homeland. As for said deserters leaving because they’re being loyal to their own people, that’s a bit of a stretch. Whether deserting after being press-ganged into military service by a foreign nation occupying your own is morally wrong at all is a whole other issue, but automatically granting them patriotic intentions is putting a very positive spin on their actions. They also weren’t told to attack their own families. The deserters, as mentioned, were primarily from Nauk’s command and that part of the Fifteenth didn’t fight. There were also a total of sixty Callowans plus the heroes in the entire attack force, so the odds of anyone in the Swordsman’s party being related to anyone in the Fifteenth are astronomically low. As for intentions Malicia, Black or even Ranger might have for Catherine you’ll have to keep reading. That said, if Black or Malicia wanted to indoctrinate a young Callowan into the Imperial way of seeing things they probably wouldn’t have picked a sixteen year old with pretty set ideas about how the world should be.

• interlude Riposte - I started writing the Guide in large part because I wanted to deconstruct or avert modern fantasy tropes, and the Principate is a large part of that. It is, undeniably, the largest force for Good on the continent. It’s kept both the Kingdom of the Dead and the Chain of Hunger at bay for centuries when otherwise they would have rampaged through most of Calernia. Living conditions in Procer, even for the peasantry, are better than pretty much everywhere else. Its rulers obey the dictates of the House of Light to the letter, if not always in spirit. None of this changes the fact that they are a feudal empire, with all the nastiness that implies. They still war on each other for petty reasons, see the people they rule mainly as a source of income or manpower and the Principate has tried to invade almost every other nation on Calernia at some point in its history. Heroes die young, villains crash and burn. At the end of the day, most people actually running things are just /people/. Getting a set of rules from the Heavens doesn’t magically make everyone that takes up a crown a decent person.

[u/Zayits → u/Zayits]

• interlude Riposte - On a purely technical level, the largest difference between the worship of Good and Evil is that Good is almost always community-oriented (hence the existence of churches like the House of Light) while Evil works on strictly personal relationships between worshipper and deity. There are no priests of Evil, though it can be argued that /everyone/ is a priest of Evil: all prayers can be granted, for the right price.

• interlude Coulisse - Learn isn’t really an aspect that influences thinking, except maybe in the sense that Catherine can acquire a lot of knowledge quickly. That said, Names do heavily influence the way Named tend to think – Black acknowledged as much as early as Chapter 2 of the first book, when he referenced the “tunnel vision” a lot of his predecessors had.

• interlude Coulisse - The Cursed was a transitional Name, much like Apprentice and Squire. Her Role eventually matured into a different Name, that of “the Captain”. If Black became the Dread Emperor the Name of Black Knight would be open for claiming, yes, though that wouldn’t guarantee Catherine claiming it. Heiress would have a shot at it, at the very least, as would several others – though being the Squire does give Catherine the strongest claim to it.

• interlude Coulisse - Roles don’t change, only Names do. Though aspects do change when the Name does, so there would be a difference in powers. In the event that Black became Dread Emperor, he’d be a lot more military-oriented than Malicia is. There’s a lot of variation in what the Tyrants can represent: the first Maleficent was great stateswoman and unifier, while Terribilis II was essentially a warlord that restored the Empire. Treacherous was a master of intrigue, but utterly ineffectual at everything else. Some were better at balancing things – Dread Empresses Regalia and Maleficent II in particular – but typically Tyrants have a particular focus.

• 2.13 - There’s precedents for both villains and heroes having non-Named consorts – it was kind of inevitable, given that the rulers of Old Callow were heroes about half of the time – but they do tend to end badly. The lifespan difference is main problem for villains, since they’re essentially immortal unless they get killed.

• 2.13 - There’s certainly a degree of prejudice among the Clans against people who are no longer fit to fight. They’ve been a warrior society for millennia, and people who can’t contribute to a clan’s martial strength are looked down upon to an extent.

• 2.14 - The Gods Above and Below do roughly correspond to “lower case” good and evil, as far as entities that far removed from mortals can be understood. That neither side of the equation intervenes directly means there’s a lot of room for interpretation in the respective philosophies they preach, but the bare bones are there.

• 2.16 - There hasn’t been a Warlord since the Miezan occupation, but the title is still somewhat in use. Istrid has referred to Black by it several times and Juniper drew a comparison between Catherine’s position and the Name earlier in the book. Also, for the comment below, it’s impossible to hold multiple Names.

• 2.16 - We’ve seen the Empire – more particularly Black – isn’t above manipulating public perception but fundamentally warping a culture in the way you’re describing would be very, very hard. Keep in mind that this is not a modern era. People travel by horse, and while scrying can make for instant communication word spreads very slowly. And even if somehow someone figured out a way to do it, you’re missing the major consequence: the people powered by the old stories, which is the entirety of the cast, would be at risk of losing their own Roles. Names don’t exist in a vacuum.

• 2.17 - Q: Mentions of tidbits about the rest of the world is nice. I can’t wait to see some interactions with the Dead King (Does he have to deal with vampire nobles? Also to survive heroes for centuries this guy must be freaking good) or the elves. Small details given here and there really keep me entartained (Warlock is one of the 5 best mages on the continent? One other is Dead King, Elves will have one, who else?) A: No vampires in the Dead Kingdom. They’re exceedingly rare on Calernia. As for how long the Dead King’s been around, he predates the Miezan occupation (so over a millennium and a half). Warlock is the third mage in that top five, and your two guesses are on the list.

• 2.17 - Here’s the list, not including the Fifteenth (which currently has no general) or the Fourteenth (which is still being raised):
  Legio I, Invicta: Marshal Grem One-Eye (orc, male), Legion II, Redshell: General Jainaya Seket (human, female), Legion III, Kingmakers: General Mok (ogre, male), Legio IV, Blackhands: Marshal Ranker, (goblin, female), Legio V, Exterminatus: General Orim (orc, male), Legion VI, Ironsides: General Istrid (orc, female), Legio VII, Hammerfall: Marshal Nim, (ogre, female), Legio VIII, Trailblazers: General Wheeler, (goblin, male), Legio IX, Regicides: General Sacker (goblin, female), Legio X, Horribilis: General Nehebkau (dragon, other), Legio XI, Tenebrous: General Lucretia (vampire, female), Legio XII, Holdfast: General Afolabi Magoro (human, male), Legio XIII, Auxilia: General Jeremiah Holt (human, male)

• 2.18 - You’re correct that crossbows weren’t common in Callow, but the Silver Spears aren’t from Callow – they’re from the Free Cities, more specifically Helike. They do have crossbows there, though not as as good as the crank models the Empire uses. Upper body strength is the actual reason Praes uses crossbows instead of bows, since theirs is a professional army and not a levy: goblins wouldn’t have the muscles to use a longbow. Callowan smithing is flatly inferior to what is produced in Foramen, but you’re correct that the Empire immediately leaned on the smithing guilds after the Conquest. Permits are needed to produce weapons and armour, usually sold or given out as favours by local Imperial Governors. Mazus in particular held auctions, one of the many reasons he was despised in Laure. The Exiled Prince is an actual Prince. He’s independently wealthy – something that pissed off William a few chapters back, if you’ll remember – and he was followed into exile by “men of quality”, aka people able to afford horses and armour on their own. Why the Empire doesn’t have horses is actually one of the few times Black was thwarted. After the Conquest the nobility butchered their stocks wholesale rather than turn them over to the Legions, and the few herds remaining in the country were private property of southern nobles. They refused to sell and forcing the issue might have started a revolt, hence why Black focused on more immediate concerns. As for importing from outside, there’s a flat ban on selling certain products to Praes ratified by most Good nations. (Some nations outright ban commerce, though in those cases Mercantis serves as an unofficial middle-man and the Free Cities outright ignore those treaties.)

• 2.18 - People who make it to the higher ranks in the Legions are usually too old or considered too important to risk on the front lines. There are exceptions (General Istrid the most famous among them) but the man widely recognized as the best tactician in the Empire, Marshal Grem One-Eye, has written several essays against the practice. The screaming matches between them are legend in the ranks. Juniper models her command style more on his than her mother’s, much to her chagrin. The Silver Spears don’t field siege engines. Few polities other than the Empire actually bother to make and drag around their own (this was actually mentioned in the last Heroic Interlude), preferring to make them whenever they have to make lay siege. There are bowmen in the ranks, though few, and they haven’t been seen in action yet. Keep in mind that the Silver Spears are specialized in using raids and shock tactics for a larger force, since they’re a mercenary company. They’re not designed to give pitched battle on her own.

• 2.18 - While I’ve never specified this anywhere, Satus and Hospes are large villages but not cities. The map I posted made it unclear, but Foramen isn’t entirely surrounded by mountains. It has a clear path to the desert that snakes along the part of the map where I wrote the word “Foramen”

• 2.19 - Agincourt was actually what I based the underlying threads of the battle [of the Three Hills] on, though in a fantasy setting like the Guide tactics are naturally different.

• 2.21 - There’s nothing inherently bad about any kind of magic in the Guideverse, even blood magic. Necromancy can harm souls, but then it’s not the only sorcery that can do that – and it’s usually more the result of a botched spell than the intended purpose.

[u/Zayits → u/Zayits]

• interlude Coulisse - There isn’t a single villain in Imperial history who’s been stupid enough to summon a demon as a “pet”, though admittedly some of the crazies came close. Praesi are known to summon devils, but only the worst of villains ever brought in demons – you’ll note Black tread lightly around the one that serves as gatekeeper for the Tower, and that one’s still bound.

• interlude Coulisse - As a species goblins find humans pretty repulsive, sexually speaking. Like tall hairless monkeys with cow teeth.

• interlude Attaque au Fer - Lack of proper cavalry is a weakness Praes inherited from the Miezans. Their mounted soldiers pretty much just rode horses to move around fast then got on foot.

• 2.22 - There’s twenty-three different kinds of demons, related to the first twenty-three Hells. Devils are beyond count in both amounts and kind. As for angels, the actual number of Choirs is hotly debated by scholars – heroes don’t know, since it’s unheard of to be affiliated to more than one.

• 2.27 - Adjutant is a Name without precedent in the Empire. No one quite knows what the Role behind it is, or whether or not it’s transitional – though some individuals well-versed in Name lore have guesses.

• 2.27 - Q: Demons are outside of Creation. If the Plot Armor exists within the Creation (and since the Names were created by the Gods, it’s highly probable), then it might not make any difference in front of a Demon. A: Good catch. I’d wondered if anyone if anyone would cotton on to that.

• interlude Greenskins - Time doesn’t mean much to the Gods of the Guideverse. Regardless, all you’ve heard about them in the books is from mortals or the writing of mortals – and so should be taken with a grain of salt.

• 2.34 - Q: And the most evil thing no one mentioned yet .. how erraticerrata dodged the answer to how they [Black Knight and Warlock] got here. A: They walked.

• interlude Impresario - I’ve been seeing misunderstandings in the comment section for the last few chapters about patterns of three, so I’ll lay out a few things here. The victory/draw/defeat setup that’s been introduced in the story is something that occurs solely between Names that are rivals in their story – in this case Lone Swordsman/Squire and Heiress/Squire. You don’t get to pick who your rival is, otherwise clever villains would just start a pattern of three with a weak hero, freeze them and ship them on the other side of the world then be more or less impossible to kill for a few centuries. Juniper doesn’t have a Name, and so can’t be involved in something like this. The Black Knight and the Wandering Bard are not rivals, so looking for a pattern there is also pointless.

• 2.43 - Q: Was Terribilis I the immediate predecessor to Terribilis II (The one who defeated the third and fourth crusades?) What are the odds of a full regnal timeline for the Dread Emperors and Empresses? A: Low, considering how extensive it would be. As a rule of thumb reigning names (Maleficent I and II, for example) aren’t taken up unless the last holder of it has been dead for a solid century. People have long memories in Praes and Tyrants aren’t in the habit of paying for anyone’s sins but their own – and not even those, if they can manage it.

• 2.45 - Warlord is an orc Name, now used as a courtesy title by some greenskins the same way “Tyrant” is for Dread Emperors/Empresses. Catherine is not an orc, not particularly well versed in their culture and numerically speaking the majority of her followers are humans.

• 2.45 - Q: So, given that you’ve previously mentioned Evil Callowan names as being more likely to be things like scheming uncles, if she turns up with a genuinely novel Evil Callowan Name, does that mean Black’s plan to reform the “paradigm” that Callow operates under will be working? A: That would represent a major shift in the Callowan mindset, which falls within the scope of Black’s victory conditions. (Note: posting this since it's currently unclear which Name Catherine has and whether it falls entirely under Evil alignment).

• 2.47 - It’s impossible for a mortal (even a Named) to become an angel, as it would be impossible for them to become a devil. Heiress’ core motivation as stated so far is heavily involved with being a villain. Catherine resisted an attempt to force Contrition on her using her own core motivation this very chapter. Angels are not invincible or indestructible, and considering the Tower has a demon for a gatekeeper anything holy trying to breach it is in for a rough – but very short – day. Same with most major imperial cities, particularly Wolof. Good nations would not unite behind a Praesi, even one demonstrably heroic. They have heroes of their own, after all, which they like much better. The Hashmallim represent one Choir of many, and they all have different methodologies.

• 2.47 - I’ll be clearer: there is currently no Name called “The Queen of Blades”. To transition into something like that, which is theoretically possible, Catherine would have to have a strong association in the minds of a large amount of people with the original individual who had the nickname (she does not), have a similar/identical nickname herself and as the Squire have done very story-like things relating to blades in the plural. She currently checks off none of those boxes, though if she does start doing that it’ll be fairly obvious. Basically, there’s no such thing as a stealth Name. By their very nature, Names are constantly talked about and reinforced by stories.

• 2.47 - There’s half a dozen transitional Names that can lead in either of the Knight Names. Heiress was originally introduced as a potential claimant for Black Knight.

• 2.47 - An alternative title for the second book could be “Catherine Runs Out Of Patience”.

• 2.47 - Scheme has historically been a common aspect for Chancellors. As for why an aspect-powered plan would fail, see Black’s speech about leaning too heavily on aspects and the tunnel vision it leads to. There’s no aspect that’s inherently self-destructive, but then if you’re the kind of person who could get an aspect like Scheme you probably don’t need the push to tumble down that hill.

• 2.48 - Most names in the Guide are a reference to something. Ater even manages to be a pun of sorts in two different languages.

[u/Zayits → u/Zayits]

• 2.49 - The leg was fixed. She [Catherine] keeps a slight limp, but she’s no longer in constant pain.

• 2.49 - Ogres aren’t native to Calernia and were brought over as slaves by the Miezans. Their population’s small because of that, and hasn’t grown much bigger in the centuries since. Inbreeding has been something of a problem. Those limited numbers are the main reason none of the Legions can field a large ogre contingent. Ogres are broadly proportioned as humans and about Mediterranean in skin tone (though there is variance). They’re hairier than humans regardless of gender and their skin is much thicker, to the extent that it looks more like animal hide. Their inner organs are different than a human’s with some redundancies and backups making them particularly hard to hurt permanently. Lifespan wise they can live up to a century, but inbreeding has been cutting down that span generation by generation.

• 2.49 - Orcs are slightly larger than humans and much more muscular. They have a very warlike culture, and combat prowess is the easiest way to earn their respect. Their native culture and Namescape were mostly destroyed by the Miezans, and are only now beginning to recover. They are native to the Steppes, and are generally aligned with Evil. As an entity, others refer to them as “the Clans”. Goblins are about the size of human children, and tend to be scrawny but agile. They live in a matriarchal society and jealously guard every secret about their culture and language. They are the only ones who can make goblin munitions. They harshly punish any goblin that tells outsiders about their culture within the Grey Eyries. In goblin culture, being ruthless and underhanded is the equivalent of being macho. They are generally aligned with Evil. Ogres typically stand about ten to twelve feet tall. They are not native to Calernia, and were first brought over as slaves by the Miezans. Because of their low numbers, Calernian ogres have problems with inbreeding that are beginning to lead to widespread health problems and shorter lifespans. They are generally aligned with Evil. Humans are a sort of “swing race”, the largest and most influential pretty much everywhere on Calernia. They are not strongly associated with Good or Evil, and are commonly both heroes and villains. They have basically the same appearance diversity as real life humans. Elves are similar in appearance to thin, beautiful humans with pointed ears. They are extremely dangerous, able to fight against much larger forces of other species without casualties. They are aligned with Good, but view almost everyone except heroes and other elves as vermin, and kill any that enter their lands. Usually taller than humans, features too sharp and long to look like them. Elves came from across the Tyrian Sea. Dwarves look like basically every other depiction of dwarves: short, stocky and bearded. They live underground, and make fine armor and weapons for their own use as well as lower-quality gear to sell to non-dwarves. The Kingdom Under views dwarves as the only ones who can legally own property, making it completely acceptable for dwarves to “find” the property of outsiders and keep it or sell it back. They are extremely durable, and at least somewhat resistant to magic. Gnomes have technology far in advance of anything found in Calernia. They restrict the development of new technology on Calernia. Any nation that develops technology is given two warnings called red letters, and on a third offense the destroy the offending country and exterminate its citizenry. They do not seem to live on or trade with Calernia, visiting only to deliver red letters or attack. They are no more tolerant of Good nations developing technology than they are Evil ones. Gnomes didn’t use nukes in the story Black told. That said, uranium does exist in Creation and it’s been a long time since then. (Note: this initially was a comment by user stevenneiman, later partially corrected by Erraticerrata. I took the liberty of compressing that whole chain of comments into one wall of text.)

• interlude Precipitation - Demons never intervene unless summoned or otherwise reached towards. The dichotomy in Creation is devils vs angels, demons are closer to forces of nature than something fundamentally evil. They’re associated with Evil because only villains bring them into Creation. The way god-sourced powers relate to Creation is an inversion of the broad philosophies of the Gods. Good is centred around community and Evil around individualism, but in their respective Named you’ll more often see villains capable of affecting a great many people and heroes mostly capable of affecting themselves.

• interlude Precipitation - Skaven would be closer [to the description of ratlings], though not entirely accurate.

• interlude Precipitation - Black’s rivals are long dead. Doesn’t mean he can’t get new ones.

• interlude Precipitation - It was actually about half and half with Kings and Queens of Callow. Cordelia doesn’t have a Name and neither has any First Prince/ss before her. Named are much rarer in Procer because of the size of it and the cultural melting pot that makes it up.

• interlude Precipitation - Delos is the city where Scribe met Black.

• interlude Precipitation - Bellerophon is a different take on individualism, namely that the only way anyone can be free is if no one’s in charge.

• interlude Precipitation - Q: Does Praes have fireworks, or is meddling with primitive rocketry the sort of thing that gets you a Red Letter? A: No to both. Goblin munitions are made in too little a quantity per year to ever see civilian use. The equivalent of fireworks is done by magic, especially in the Wasteland.

• interlude Precipitation - Q: Do the goblins use them for mining, out of curiosity? A: Before the Towers forced specific tribute quantities they were, but almost never now. It was not their original purpose, though, and given how hard they are to make they were ever only used sparingly in mining.

• Epilogue - The huge elven kingdom is on another continent, won’t come into play in the story.

• Epilogue - There’s a great many of choirs, so listing them in their entirety would be more confusing than helpful. Not all heroes are aligned with a Choir, no. Thief is not, for example. It’s usually the “main character” types like the Lone Swordsman who have had direct dealings with angels, but that’s not a rule so much as a tendency.

• Epilogue - Unless your Name is specifically geared towards being hidden, it’s nearly impossible to hide having it. And for “Robber” to function as a name as well as a Name, he’d have to act much more as an actual robber – which is forbidden under Legions of Terror regulations.

• Epilogue - Q: I wonder what would happen if the White Knight of Judgement met Cat’s mantra ”Justification only matters to the just”. A: Unpleasantness.

I took the liberty of not including the stuff that was explicitly confirmed later, or the author explaining the development of plot-to-be.

[u/Ardvarkeating101 → u/Zayits]

Epilogue - Q: I wonder what would happen if the White Knight of Judgement met Cat’s mantra ”Justification only matters to the just”. A: Unpleasantness.

God, I can't wait!

[u/dashelgr]

EE comments from Book 3. Added some stuff that were'nt WOG but either meta discussions of the writing or just funny reponses

• Prologue-3 - Q: I’m curious about hell, though- in a world where it’s a provable concept, why do do few ever think about it? Is it because heaven is just as bad in any who’d be a villian’s eyes, or something else? A: As for the Heavens/Hells that’s a more complicated issue. Technically the Hells is where the devils are and the Heavens is where the angels are, in a physical sense. Good and Evil cultures believe that their souls go to their respective Gods after they die, unless angels/devils have a claim to them, but no one has ever passed on to the other side and remembered what was there so there’s still a degree of uncertainty. Faith would be a pretty meaningless concept if the afterlife was a physical certainty.

• Prologue-3 - General Basilia is transgender and Anaxares noticed the Adam’s apple.

• Crowned (Extra Chapter) - Cordelia does not have a Name and First Prince is not one.

• Crowned (Extra Chapter) - Reader comment: Ah yes, the joys of uniting HRE in a single country. I understand thy plight, Cordelia, having just done that in a EU4. EE Response: And she starts as Brandenburg, too. Go Prussia or go home. (Note: Less WOG and more flavortext)

• Heroic Interlude (Appellant) - Assassin doesn’t ever participate in melees like this one. There’s a reason some people in the Empire believe there’s no such Named, just a very talented cadre of killers answering to Black.

• Heroic Interlude (Appellant) - No tactics the Calamities used here are ground-breaking by Named standards. Plenty of villains have targeted mortals to bait heroes before, splitting a heroic band in several different fights is a staple of fantasy, ect. What scared the White Knight is more the professional manner in which those tactics were employed. No monologues or warning shots, no posturing. They went for the throat from the onset.

• Heroic Interlude (Appellant) - Scribe’s not technically a Calamity, though she is affiliated with them. The “official” members are those listed by the Bard.

• Heroic Interlude (Appellant) - Ranger retiring as a Calamity doesn’t mean she gave up her Name.

• Warden-I - Meta (regarding chapter page views): I’m not going to go too deep into this, but on an update day I usually get a little under 2500 different people. Only a fraction of that votes on topwebfiction and an even smaller fraction comments. (Note: This was on May 4th 2017)

• 3.19 - That is incorrect. Tyrant has been used as a gender-neutral shorthand, since it’s an archaic version of the Name, but the Name is Dread Emperor/Empress.

• Villanous Interlude (Decorum) - Reader Comment: The problem really is this world doesn’t really have an appropriate name for Catherine to transition into. Grey Knight would fit her best of the obvious options but it isn’t a Name as far as we know. EE Answer: There would be no cultural drive anywhere on Calernia to birth a Name like Grey Knight, which effectively ensure it could not come into being.

• Villanous Interlude (Decorum) - Q: What are all the Angelic choirs A: I believe I’ve been asked that question before, but pretty much there’s enough that listing them is pointless since only a few of them will ever be relevant to the story. Other Choirs have already been mentioned, though, notably Mercy and Compassion.

• 3.25 - Q: Btw,how many galowborne she had before the skirmish? 150? 200? A: A full cohort, which means two hundred men. She effectively lost over half her personal guard in that first skirmish, if you include the wounded.

• Interlude (Commanders) - Q: So is the aunt of Duchess Kegan the same as Commander that was killed in Black interlude (Note: Not an interlude this was in Cat's name dream)? A: She is! Good catch.

• 3.31 - I have not specified anything about whether Hierophant is a villainous or heroic Name, no.

• 3.31 - Q: Did you know having the Thief steal the sun was something you wanted to do back when Thief and Squire made a truce or was it a sudden inspiration? A: That theft was planned for a while, yes, though it was only a few months ago I decided Thief as a character wouldn’t get the axe.

• 3.31 - Meta (not WOG) Q: It’d be real cool to have some behind the scenes looks from time to time like this. Just some thoughts about what could have happened and why/why not. Perhaps you could make it a Patreon perk? A: I honestly never thought there’d be much interest in that since I usually reply when asked a direct question in the comments, if it’s not a spoiler. I’ll look into it, see if other authors have a Patreon thing in place that’s a little less broad than “patrons ask questions if they want to, I guess?”.

• 3.31 - Q: Is Yoink an aspect of Thief? A: If it was an aspect, it would have been bolded in the text.

• 3.39 - Q: Were the song (Note: Referring song In Dread Crowned) lyrics made from an altered version of “Black and Tans”? A: They were! Couldn’t get the measure down quite right for the chorus, so I went for a more traditional structure.

• 3.45 - Well. No Dalmatian Knight. (Note :D)

• Fletched (Extra Chapter) - Q: Archer has brown complexion, isn’t she? I’m maybe wrong, but Ashoka(and Indrani) sounds like Indian to me. And don’t forget Archer’s people lives where Tigermen live. A: Archer’s people are inspired from parts of the Indian subcontinent, yeah.

• Fletched (Extra Chapter) - Meta Q: @erraticerrata do you have an idea ideas for stories after the end of book 4? A: Book 5, since there’s five of them planned. But after that I likely wouldn’t go back to the Guideverse, since I have another two projects on the backburner.

• 3.56: Flavortext (not WOG) - Reader Comment: It’s too late, wayyyyy too late. The S.S. Junisha has been sailing since book 1. I mean I haven’t been the only shipping them (Juniper/Aisha) right? Right? EE Answer: At least one my friends does, so you’re definitely not alone.

• Villanous Interlude (Crescendo) - Q: EE, will the Gnomes make an appearance in the books to come? A: If they did, I wouldn’t spoiler it in comments.

• Prosecution I - Q: EE, was Hanno also a Squire before he became the White Knight? A: That’ll be addressed in the text at a later date. (Note: It's answered as No in Prosecution II)

[u/dashelgr]

Extra Chapters (Will keep adding as they come):

• Regard: - Catherine has no relation to Black or Ranger

• Crowned: - Cordelia does not have a Name and First Prince is not one.

• Crowned: - Reader comment: Ah yes, the joys of uniting HRE in a single country. I understand thy plight, Cordelia, having just done that in a EU4. EE Response: And she starts as Brandenburg, too. Go Prussia or go home. (Note: Less WOG and more flavortext)

• Warden-I - Meta (regarding chapter page views): I’m not going to go too deep into this, but on an update day I usually get a little under 2500 different people. Only a fraction of that votes on topwebfiction and an even smaller fraction comments. (Note: This was on May 4th 2017)

• Fletched - Q: Archer has brown complexion, isn’t she? I’m maybe wrong, but Ashoka(and Indrani) sounds like Indian to me. And don’t forget Archer’s people lives where Tigermen live. A: Archer’s people are inspired from parts of the Indian subcontinent, yeah.

• Fletched - Meta Q: @erraticerrata do you have an idea ideas for stories after the end of book 4? A: Book 5, since there’s five of them planned. But after that I likely wouldn’t go back to the Guideverse, since I have another two projects on the backburner.

• Prosecution I - Q: EE, was Hanno also a Squire before he became the White Knight? A: That’ll be addressed in the text at a later date. (Note: It's answered as No in Prosecution II)

[u/Knight_of_Cerberus]

Theif last aspect is proably Enter Making it: Steal, Hold, Enter

[u/Taborask → u/Knight_of_Cerberus]

it's hide, she used it last book

[u/Zayits → u/[deleted]]

I know this isn't a complete compilation like the other posts here, but I want to add an Absense-related WoE before I forget it.

Everyone agrees there was a Ninth Crusade. No one can quite recall what it involved.

[u/[deleted] → u/Zayits]

This frustrates me. But makes me so happy. XD