Ask me anything (About Empire of Lies!)

I saw a bunch of these threads a while back and wanted to challenge myself to try it but was too busy at the time. So here we are now.

A little about my book:
It is epic / character based fantasy, written in dual pov third person past
Empire of Lies is thematically about how a world that takes relegion to the extremes might look like, and also about morally grey choices.

wip blurb where focus is only on one of the two MCs. The other MC is the new Vessel.

A dead Goddess.
A dwindling Army.
An empire built on lies.
When majority of her gang is arrested for the murder of a Goddess, SARA barely manages to escape. Together with two other leaders, she must govern the remaining members and save the captured from certain death. The only way forward is to prove the captured innocent—by finding out the person who framed them, and bringing the true criminals to justice.
She must conduct her own investigation at the scene of the crime – the temple of the Commander Goddess . The temple hides many secrets, though, secrets of her past, and secrets that could topple the empire, and confronting them is the only way to save her family—and maybe even the empire.
She must keep up the ruse of being a loyal servant and handmaiden of the newly appointed vessel to the goddess, who might be the only person to break past Sara’s lies and see into the truth of her past, and who she really is.
But will the Vessel keep Sara around once she knows what Sara has done? And can they handle the truth of who truly killed the Goddess?
In Ārya, ‘truth’ is a castle of lies.

Ask me anything about the world and characters, and I will answer it when I get time!

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First of all, I think that the overall premise is excellent and intriguing. Secondly, as someone who has a very surface level knowledge of the History of the Catholic Church, organized religion courts a lot of really ridiculous drama. Thirdly, was the Goddess herself killed or was it the Vessel?

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Thanks! Yes, relegion can be very chaotic. The relegion in my book is made up and influenced by my culture.
It’s the Goddess’ vessel that is murdered. But I got feedback from the wattys bootcamp mentors that saying a dead vessel sounded too vague and world-specific for a blurb

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Vessel can refer to anything from a ship to a vase. I would recommend finding an entirely different word. The Aztecs did something similar, and their word essentially translated to “impersonator”.

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hmm…
In my case, the official ‘title’ for a vessel is devakanya / devaraja - which translates to god-girl or god-king

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Questions, anyone?

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How annoying are the wildlife?

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Not very, actually. The city these people live in is in front of a forest, and everyone has to pass through forests to cross states or even to go to another town / city / village, and so the people are all used to the wildlife. They even sort of worship wildlife - as in there’s little to no hunting that happens, and the hunting that does happen is of small birds or rabbits to appease the carnivorous animals on the voyage - so people are not really allowed to hunt unless they are travelling, and then they get to carry just 2-3 types of meat to give to the animals if they come near.
As such, people don’t usually fear carnivores anymore, even the carnivores have been conditioned to not really see humans as food, because everytime they see a human, the human gives them food, and the human isn’t food themselves.
In coastal places, though, that changes - people do eat fish here, only because it is very readily available. But you will never see anyone eating chicken, much less beef or pork - pigs are considered bad because they eat garbage, and people worship cows. Any meat other than fish is considered expensive and unethical - so a lot of gossip goes around if someone confesses to eating.
And since other meat are expensive, travellers prefer to take their chances with carnivores, usually hunting 3-4 animals they see on the way. If they don’t have use for the hunted meat, it either gets left at the edges of the forest, or they look for people who are willing to buy other meat and sell that at exorbitant prices.

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No elephants around to cause destruction?

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Not really. Like there are elephants around - they’re parts of armies, usually, but not at the moment because the country is pretty much at peace. They do come out of forests sometimes, but trainers are trained to calm them down, and in the event of war, capture them for the war

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Probably for the better. What do people do for fun?

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hm. ‘fun’ isn’t much of a concept in Arya - those who can’t afford stuff really don’t have time, and those who can also don’t have a lot of time. The poor usually invite other people over and talk and dance, because that is the best they can do, and it is enough for them. The rich do that, too, but for them it is sort of an obligation, being part of the temple. The rich may pick up on some hobbies - Sara knew how to read and write because of her upbringing, but she also learned to cook. Malika knows reading, writing, and painting, although she usually doesn’t get to put any of this to use.

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They don’t seem to have much leisure time, then

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They really don’t. The poor have to work really hard to make ends meet, and the rich also work really hard - but to further their so called ‘status’. And the devakanya has virtually no free time, and all of that free time is spent planning and organizing court, or in drafting policies or thinking. Or she goes to meet some of her friends in the temple (meeting other people and socializing is a huge huge part of this culture)

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Bop

Also: @TheTigerWriter I remember you were interested in this story

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Where do people use the bathroom?

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So, in rural, and old India (which is my inspiration), bathrooms were not a concept. People would go to a feild in the outskirts of the village to do their stuff, and then cover it up with mud, later to be used as manure. They would carry mugs of water with them.
However, bathrooms do exist in my world, and there are three bathrooms on each floor in the temple, plus separate ones for important peole (the devakanya, her main apsara, the rest of the apsaras share a bathroom separate from the bathrooms on their floor, the chief priest, the royal families)
The city has bathrooms, too, but these are public ones that you can find every 3 kms or so, and they aren’t very hygienic, cleaned only about once a week. The Mahasabha has two private bathrooms that are cleaned daily by the members (it’s a task that is rotated amongst members, and the leaders have no qualms about doing this, to ensure fairness), and this one is kept clean and maintained.
The Mahasabha, in most senses, is a utopian gang, because it functions close to democracy (which is revolutionary in this world), and for this reason, they get to rule by the end of the book

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How do Goddesses die? How was she killed?
Where do they live? Can anyone get there?


What’s the major lore in this book that drives the plot?

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Can the main characters handle eating ghost peppers?

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Usually the vessels die through natural causes or diseases. The Gods themselves die when their existence becomes meaningless - i.e when people no longer believe in them (which is a part of the country’s history, and why gods have now come to rule on the country)

This vessel was murdered, throat slit and knife through the heart.

The Mahasabha owns a wada in the city, and a big ground in front of it, as well as a cowshed behind it. Anyone can go there, but only Mahasabha members are allowed inside the Wada. The ground is where majority members live in tents, and the only people who live inside the wada are the leaders. The wada is also considered something of a storehouse.

Remember how I mentioned the gods rule through their vessels to ensure they don’t fade away?
The vessels have no lives of their own, not even a name for themselves. Their whole identity is supposed to be the vessel. Their names legally are devakanya / kanya (vessel / vessel-in-training) - goddess name and devaraj / rajan - god name.
And the descendants of the kings who the system of gods rule upsurped are angry and want their own kingdoms back.
The citizens are angry because of the separation between the rich and the poor. The Mahasabha was initially a rebellion against both the violent gangs in the city and the gods’ rule, but after the leader’s son took over and they monopolized the gangs in the city, they became more of a take care of each other and the members type of gang. Not really a gang anymore, more of a brotherhood that uses any means to get their needs.
All of these things, combined with the fragility of the empire (and a big huge secret about the foundations of the empire itself) together causes the empire to crumble (or at least, the MCs state.)
Hence the name, Empire of Lies - it’s literally about pressure building up on an empire that is built on a secret.

Interesting question.
I’m not sure, tbh, considering I haven’t tried one myself, but maybe Sara could finish half to 3/4 ths without big problems. And Malika could eat 1/4 less than Sara.

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