Ooh, interesting question! It’s a bit hard to say, because the original novel series follows Arainia from when she’s a child/teenager to when she’s an adult in her thirties, so her answers would vary wildly depending on her age and what point in the series we’re grabbing her from lol! I’m going to just use her “pre-Shepherd” personality for simplicity’s sake, when she hadn’t joined the Order and matured and changed as a result of her experiences there!

Prologue: she’d absolutely hate Prihine and wouldn’t be very civil or subtle about it. It’s hard for me to say, but I feel like her first gut instinct would be to protect Caine, so if she wasn’t given any time to think about it, she’d prioritize him. If she had a moment to think about it, she’d probably use a Word of Power to save both!

Chapter 1: she’d follow Trouble for sure (they were besties in the novels), but they’d both probably charge in headlong and bungle the whole thing lol, they both brought out that reckless/headstrong streak in each other!

Chapter 2: if given the choice, she’d probably go with Chase partially because she’d relate to him more/like him more off of the first impression, but she’d rationalize it to Blade as “well, they’re doing the raid anyway and you think he’s less trustworthy, so wouldn’t it be better to keep an eye on him rather than Riel, who we can probably trust to not be completely chaotic about it”? She’d also dread the prospect of having to dress up or go to a gala, so she’d try to avoid that route as much as possible unless forced LOL

Keep reading

Hi, you can read all about the #original novels in that tag, and feel free to ask any questions that haven’t been asked yet! :D This was the quickest post I could find there about Chase’s background, but I know I’ve talked about it more extensively elsewhere before–in the original novels, Chase’s origin story was that he was an Equalist experiment as well, though from a different branch than Trouble’s–in Conte rather than Haven–and that branch focused on experimenting on children in the womb rather than as kidnapped kids like Trouble, so novel!Chase was born in an Equalist facility as a kind of living weapon, a nominally-biological Norm child granted supernatural abilities. He was the thirteenth such experiment from that branch before it was busted, and that gave him some pretty uncanny abilities as well as made his disposition… generally Like That. Hope that makes sense!

Hi, thanks for the quesiton! And yes, Neon was more prominent in the old Shepherd novels because he was a Shepherd as well as an old school-friend of Red’s and Arainia’s! He was technically a field agent, but since he was on a different squad from the main cast, you only rarely saw him pop up on joint missions or in passing, and they mostly interacted around HQ or in the novels set in Haven!

If I’m recalling correctly, Pan’s novel counterpart was a Mage, but he was actually a distant cousin of Arainia’s as well as a schoolmate from the Circle, but he never joined the Shepherds: he just popped up now and then when the story needed him. So he wasn’t very prominent at all and was kind of just like a visiting relative who sometimes had to crash at Arainia’s apartment in the context of the novels LOL. But the details are fuzzy now, obviously!

And yes, both Neon and Pan do field work for the Shepherds; Pan’s an active Lunar Corps member on his own team, but Neon is part of the Solar Corps and almost exclusively stays at home base and does Binding work or teaches students at the academy. Sometimes he does have to go out on assignments, though!

You might like one of Red’s short stories on Patreon, which details some of his time at the Circle and his friendship with Pan and Neon (though it’s pretty much the same as it is now). The three of them initially became friends because their parents were friends (Pan and Neon lived pretty much next door to each other) and their families would regularly travel to Red’s town in the summers, so they were like childhood friends who hung out every summer?? Sort of like quasi-cousins or family friends that were just… there a lot and now you’re all besties lol. And then when Neon and Pan were set to attend Solhadur, Red begged his parents to go, and part of the reason why they let him was because the other boys were going to be there, too. Neon was definitely the quiet one and the voice of reason, but he was also very withdrawn and shy, whereas Pan was more of a mischievous prankster (who could always talk his way out of trouble) and Red was sort of in the middle, being logical like Neon but adventurous and intensely curious enough to concoct or at least go along with Pan’s more wild schemes. (Pan contends that Red actually got them into way more trouble, because his idea of a good time would be to explore some collapsed cave or sneak into the forbidden section of the library, whereas Pan’s was, like, Shifting himself into their professor and dismissing class before the real teacher showed up, but noooo, he was the troublemaker…) If we’re going stereotypical, I’d say Neon was the reserved nerd who always had his head in a book, Pan was the classic class clown, and Red was the “popular boy in class” whom everybody likes, but honestly they were all popular and well-liked and admired in their own ways (one must remember that “nerds” are not bullied or ostracized in Mage culture, but are generally admired for having those traits LOL). They also didn’t just stick in a trio, they also had their own friends as well as a larger shared friend group that ate together and socialized as a group frequently!

Hope that’s helpful–if you have specific questions about their dynamic and relationships, feel free to ask! :)

I understand… BUT ALSO I had a dream a few days ago set from Croelle’s POV about what a romance with MC would be like and 1) being in his head was wild, I now see the appeal of RO-POV stories and 2) it was crazy juicy for people who like that “I can fix him” dynamic lol. Anyway the dream made me go looking through old documents to see if I’d written about a Croelle romance anywhere in the past, because the original novels had a litany of AUs (or at least half-fragmented AU notes) and–

Aw, thank you so much for this sweet message, it made me so happy to receive! 💖 Please don’t worry about sounding rude at all, your words were so kind and made me grin ear-to-ear, so thank you!

To answer your question, I like this excerpt from the old novels to explain how I think Trouble can be in a romance: I usually envision him being casual or friendly and light-hearted, and then catching onto something–some shift in the mood or a lingering glance–and then kind of abruptly shifting into a more intense version of himself. It’s not a side of himself he shows very often–we’re mostly exposed to the goofy, jocular Trouble, but that ‘intense’ dominant Trouble is there, lurking underneath it all, and that’s kind of the part that he struggles with because it’s also tied up in his ferocious past and his temper. It’s the same Trouble who can go from smiling and laughing with his friends in a bar to completely unsmiling and intimidating when he overhears some guy being a dickhead to a server nearby, except obviously in these scenarios it’s sexual/romantic tension he’s responding to (even if he doesn’t fully know it’s that) rather than regular like situational tension. I don’t know if you have access to the alpha build, but the scene in the cave in Chapter 7 when he’s warming up MC’s hands or the abrupt change from “yay we’re having fun” to “something just happened” in his latest day off (when Cordy flirts with you) are good examples of this, too! This sort of stilted “everything is great 95% of the time and then 5% of the time something happens and he can’t control it” that’s impeding him and MC’s easy friendship is what’s really throwing Trouble for a loop; he starts to feel guilty and confused and tormented about it because he thinks he’s the only one feeling these things and getting in the way of what should be a smooth companionship, so he’s just… feeling a lot of things and not knowing what to do with them, lol.

So I imagine 'heated makeout’ tends to happen during one of these sudden changes to 'intense Trouble,’ when he catches on to something he can’t ignore–but I generally don’t think it happens because of an outright flirtation or hint of MC’s, because he can usually just laugh those off as them just joking around, so he doesn’t really respond to those like one might expect? He’s dazzlingly good at not catching on to things like that (short of an outright serious confession), so maybe that’s why you’re having trouble imagining it! I tend to imagine it happening entirely randomly, during some moment of unthinking intimacy, like in the cave in Chapter 7 or during a mission when emotions are high or something like that. Here’s another example of what I’m thinking of!

…Or something like that, idk lol! Obviously take all of this with a huge grain of salt and don’t let me influence you; however you write Trouble and MC’s romance is fantastic! Hopefully some of these tips help you in some way!

Hi there, thanks for your question! I think I’ve answered this somewhere before in the #writing tag or somewhere, but to answer your question: while in some ways I found the process of converting Blest into a game easier–by giving the reader more freedom to interact with the characters, read supplemental materials that wouldn’t be included in a novel, like codex documents, and etc.–I did initially struggle with writing the MC, for pretty much the exact same reasons you described! I was so used to seeing the world of Blest through the eyes of the novel protagonist, Arainia, that I initially had trouble with writing a more malleable, “blank-slate” MC!

My advice? Unless you’re comfortable with writing a more preset MC (like Geralt in the Witcher, where the player has some control over his decisions but not of his overall identity, role, or personality), I wouldn’t try to replace your beloved protagonist with a more blank MC. Instead, I would keep your protagonist as a character in the story in some capacity, and make MC a whole different and distinct character of their own. Trying to merge the two (like gifting the game MC with some elements of Arainia’s personality or what have you) did not work for me: in the end, I felt too caught up with trying to ensure the MC wasn’t too much like her, but feeling frustrated because I missed her and felt like the story was lacking something without her at the same time.

(That’s how Briony came into play, really. In the books, Arainia was sort of the social glue that tied the group together because she could be friends with everybody while they all had their own mini subgroups within the larger friend-ecosystem–she was kind of the connective tissue or social lubricant between everyone–and when she wasn’t there and MC was, with the ability for MC to be a complete lone wolf or a social butterfly, it felt like everyone got split up into different islands. Blade, Trouble, and Chase hang out, Riel and Shery and Tallys hang out, but it didn’t feel like Ayla and Lavinet totally jived together alone, or with anyone else on a really tight level, so Briony was added in to sort of make more sense of the matter. And I ended up giving Briony some of Arainia’s powers and a tiny bit of her personality, so her spirit kind of lives on!)

Anyway, if it’s feasible, maybe think about how you can make MC their own separate and distinct entity, while preserving what you’re most attached to in your current protagonist, perhaps by making them an existing character in the story. But then again, this was just something that ultimately worked for me–it might not be possible for you, depending on how your story works–but it’s what helped me kind of reconcile the two needs! Hopefully that helps somehow!

Okay, the funny thing is, there was another “Blade” in the original novels–like just this random minor character who looked a lot like Blade, happened to also be a Ket prodigy, and had a very similar personality type but was mildly warmer and more confident (though Blade was still superior to him in skill), and all of the characters noticed it and used it as a running joke and pretended to like him better to be irritating; and Blade silently HAAAAAATED him, like HATED him, he was the only character that Blade was openly hostile to and unprofessional with in the series (who wasn’t an antagonist lol). Like he wasn’t fond of Red, but he was just cold or aloof to him or a little sharp, but it wasn’t really that noticeable considering how unsociable he could be with like 90% of the people he encountered on a daily basis; but with this guy, he’d openly snub him or make some snippy comment under his breath if they ever had to be in the same room. 😂 That was the original Daren (before I made game!Daren–who’s a separate character who just happens to share the same name–like a suck-up teacher’s pet lol), so this scenario has actually happened in the books! In the game, if another “Blade” lookalike showed up:

Blade: *stubbornly refuses to see or understand any resemblance* 😒 *mildly insulted by the comparison*

Trouble: “oh God, there are two of them? fucking yuck 🙄”

Tallys: *would use the opportunity to ask low-stakes Blade (who she doesn’t care about) questions she would never dare ask the real Blade LMAO… like what is Ket dirty talk like*

Shery: *kind of intimidated by knock-off Blade, also feels sorry for real Blade because she wouldn’t feel very nice being compared to someone similar to her, so she’ll act a little protective and biased, like, I don’t think he’s anything like our Commander!! 😤 while Blade is in earshot, basically trying to support him in her own way and openly picking sides when it’s not really a situation where you’d have to take them 😂*

Riel: *has already determined second Blade is inferior to the original and therefore beneath his notice, therefore completely ignores him and his existence*

Chase: “lmao so what, do they just pop you guys out of a factory somewhere? *to Blade, who loathes him* are the Ket allergic to originality or something, lmao??” *finds the scenario hilarious and won’t cease ribbing Blade about it every chance he gets, just clowning on them both*

Red: *snickers when he realizes it* *then quickly pretends he doesn’t see the resemblance and has no idea what anyone is talking about, so Blade doesn’t have a reason to get even madder at him*

It’s like his equivalent of innocuous whistling and looking away to have plausible deniability

Ayla: “uh-uh, no way. stay away from me. I can only take one of him, I don’t have any patience or capacity to deal with a second one” *actively is repulsed by/rudely avoids the knock-off Blade* It’s kind of a mix of genuine “I don’t have time for that” but also a little bit of aloof (?) protective bias, like “I’m full-up on friends thanks, not looking for any more!! you’re not Blade so get out of my face and stop wasting my time!!”

Briony: “omg! 😮 are you guys related?? no?? but… you’re so alike…” *spends time with knock-off Blade because she’s morbidly fascinated by the similarities… wonders if that means there are knock-off versions of all of them out there somewhere… probably ends up becoming his friend and annoying Blade with comments like ‘he’s actually really nice, Blade, I think you’d come to like him if you just gave him a chance, you have so much in common!’*

Lavinet: *mildly interested, mildly pitying (doesn’t know what it’s like to be imitable 💅🏼), maybe tries to give knock off Blade advice on how to differentiate himself and be more interesting LOL like the unasked-for “you might try brooding a little less, darling, the people around here are very used to that and would like something a little fresher”*

Halek: *genuinely does not see the resemblance* what, just because he has dark hair? do you think all Hunters are the same then? -_- *makes it a whole thing*

Hi anon, thank you so much for the fun question! It’s been a long time since I’ve played the game all the way through just for the experience of playing it (most of my time is consumed with either writing the damn thing or testing it, which doesn’t really need me to play as a cohesive character and is more randomized), but when I do play, I tend to try two different builds. The main one is based off of the protagonist of the original ShoH novels–Arainia Niriviel–so I model my character as closely as I can to her, choosing the choices that I think she would make, emulating her physical appearance (dark hair, violet eyes, beige-gold skin), etc. She’s an Elf-raised Battle-Mage who was taught at the Circle, has high Nerves of Steel and Heart of Gold, medium-high Silver Tongue and Bright Mind, and extremely low Razor Wits! :’) Her main romance is intended to be Blade, as in the novels, but really I let her flirt with/romance everybody in sight because it gives me power to make as many people fall in love with me as possible, even if it leads to a complete mess down the line. 😂 Arainia is pretty reckless and tends to spend the Words of Power left and right, even when she doesn’t technically have to lol.

The other character I tend to try out is Hyperia Wildegarde, a Ket-raised Mage with rose-gold hair and turquoise eyes! She’s more studious and serious than Arainia is, so her highest traits are Bright Mind and Silver Tongue, with medium-high Razor Wits and lower Nerves of Steel. Her specialization varies based on my mood, but she’s most frequently an Enchanter, but is sometimes an Elementalist! She’s very deliberate, so she never uses the Words of Power if she can help it and is pretty utilitarian in her thinking, trying to aim for the outcome that involves the least amount of risk or loss while netting the greatest benefit (rather than basing her decisions strictly on morals, feelings, and instincts, which is what Arainia tends to do). Her main romance also tends to vary on my mood (since she’s less ‘concretized’ and more experimental than Arainia is), but she tends to focus on Red (whom she is exes with) or Tallys, though I have a feeling that relationship will end in heartbreak for both of them! I headcanon that she has a fat crush on Lavinet that will wane over time, and that she’s a good deal more angsty/noble and dignified than Arainia, who sort of has Trouble’s dumb himbo jock energy lol.

There are a few other characters I’ve dabbled with from time to time: Kellen Talward, who’s usually a Norm-raised Wild-Mage but sometimes a Healer, who’s shy and sweet and gentle in nature and is head-over-heels for Riel; and Nichothades Vespertine (Nick for short lol), who’s well-meaning but sort of funnily pathetic and tends to fail upwards into situations, whom I haven’t really solidified a romance for yet (I’m suspecting Ayla or Briony, though Lavinet is a contender) but will probably be my stupid mode MC when the time comes!

I didn’t! In the original novels, Trouble was always an Equalist experiment (just like in the game), having been abducted as an older child, whereas Chase was from a separate branch of the Equalists (in Conte, not Haven) that experimented on children in the womb. So I didn’t switch anything from Chase to Trouble, they had separate storylines and only Chase’s was changed!

Hi there, thanks so much, I’ve been doing well: I hope you’ve been doing great and taking care as well!!! Sadly, I haven’t watched the Sea Beast–I assume it must be good!! And yes, in the novels at least, there was definitely at least one sea Endarkened called the Leviathan, if I’m remembering correctly, but it only actually appeared during an AU I wrote where this horrific demon apocalypse actually happened happened and the Shepherds became a band of survivors emerging from a bunker like 1 year into their version of a fantasy apocalypse… I completely forgot about that! Anyway, I don’t know yet if the Leviathan is canonically a thing in the game universe, but I imagine there’s got to be something down there to terrorize the Undine! Or maybe the Endarkened have no interest in conquering the waters of Blest… yet!

I don’t have access to my old documents right now so I can’t go digging at the moment, but I specifically remember Halek being an obnoxious brat and pushing Wintry too far after she comes back to headquarters from a stressful mission (unbeknownst to him), like just poking and prodding and teasing to get a rise out of her like he usually likes to and Wintry growing increasingly agitated and annoyed while she storms down the hallway, and at some point she whirls around and actually has tears in her eyes out of vexation and frustration, and he immediately completely changes his entire demeanor after realizing that this shifted from fun banter to actually hurting her when she’s had a bad day, and he softens up and gentles his tone and turns all tender and apologetic and sincere; he immediately leads her by the hand to some break room to fix her up a cup of khav or something, and Wintry is sitting on a stool and hiccuping and furiously brushing away her tears (and still mad at him), and she asks miserably and suspiciously, “…Why are you suddenly being so nice?” as he pushes the khav into her hands, and he looks her dead in the eyes and says quietly, completely seriously: “…You don’t know?”

And then they just start MAKING OUT. Like, hard.

And then Shery is in the background having wandered into the break room like

I’d be delighted to! ✨ Wintry was the novel!MC’s best female friend: they met during training in the Shepherds’ academy and became extremely close, partially because as Arainia grew older, her emotional needs were not being met by socializing only with well-meaning but admittedly stupid boys, so she was not as attached to the hip to her childhood friends Blade and Junoth as she had been. Wintry and Arainia became confidantes to each other during the academy and helped each other get through training, and remained extremely fast friends ever since. (They’re always roommates in any modern AUs I conjure up, and are also godmothers to each other’s kids!)

Wintry was calm, driven, level-headed, mature, supportive, and naturally nurturing towards her friends and teammates: she was always ready to lend a shoulder to cry on and a patient ear, though she also tended to be brutally honest if she thought you were in the wrong or were overlooking an obvious solution (she was not an enabler like Briony or Ayla, lol). She could be counted on to come out with things like “It sounds like your fight was actually about X, so why don’t you just do Y?” and basically tolerated 0 bullshit, cutting straight through the chatter to get to the heart of the problem–but not in a mean way! She was endlessly selfless, she just had no time for beating around the bush. While she was never as passionate or hot-tempered (like “you want to fight??”) as Arainia, she was very determined, skilled, powerful, and had a strong sense of pride: she brooked no insult and wouldn’t hesitate to put you in your place and make you respect her, all with an icy, unflappable sense of composure. She just had an aura where you didn’t want to mess with her! She had a dry sense of humor and also had a slightly intimidating, authoritative energy that made her the “mom friend” of most groups: she was the type of person who would silently load food onto your plate in the middle of planning a stressful mission and sternly say “Eat” and you would sort of just meekly obey her without thinking about it, like, “Yes, mom.” This even worked on Blade and Trouble, who respected Wintry enough to simply go along with whatever she said, even though she was very chill in everyday life and never did anything remotely scary–there was just something about her that made you compelled to listen to her! 

The only person who really got under Wintry’s skin was Halek, who basically flirted with her by being a brat, like, “And what if I don’t want to eat?” (This was very out-of-character for him, since he was extremely lackadaisical and easygoing with everyone except Wintry.) The two of them would bicker frequently and Wintry always acted thoroughly annoyed by Halek, almost to the point of outright hating him, so Arainia was completely clueless and incredibly surprised when it came out that the two of them liked each other. She was like, “What?? Him???” when Wintry admitted they’d gotten together–kind of like Jane and Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice when Lizzie’s like “but I love him 🥺” It takes years for them to get together, but they are the first Shepherd couple in the series!

She was also extremely trustworthy, dependable, and professional in work contexts, loyal to the chain of command and often called “the perfect soldier” by her superiors and teammates, having a pristine mission and disciplinary record (as opposed to members of Corvus Squad like Trouble, Arainia, Chase, or Junoth). She was an amazing crack shot and most often wielded pistols as her weapon of choice, though she was also a fair hand at using a sniper rifle. She was also a trained airship pilot in the books and considered to be the best flyer in the Lunar Corps, though she often preferred piloting actual airships (as transport or escape vehicles) over glyphs (which were used for aerial combat). She was of average height, quite muscular and severe of build, with sharp shoulders and pale blonde hair scraped back into a tight, impeccable bun. She had dark brown eyes, a round face, and a long, proud nose, and was most often seen in a large man’s overcoat, trousers, and combat boots!

In most versions of the books, she’s the oldest sister of five girls and was set to inherit her parents’ popular flower shop in Haven once they retired, but decides to join the Shepherds after realizing that she doesn’t want to follow the track her family set out for her: she is secretly passionate about much more unconventional things (like guns, ships, and mechanical repairs). She’s still extremely into things flower arranging and baking–it’s just not what she wants to do as a career, and it’s her ability to comfortably and unselfconsciously combine traditionally very feminine hobbies and interests with more unorthodox career goals that teaches Arainia that she doesn’t have to avidly be a tomboy for the rest of her life, and that she can show an interest in “girly” things without undermining her own power or reputation or putting herself down for it. In other versions of her backstory, she’s the daughter of farmers rather than florists, which somewhat better explains her talents with a gun, and after Halek retires from the Shepherds and fulfills his dream of opening his own restaurant, it’s Wintry’s family’s farm that provides the fresh produce and ingredients! 

Thanks so much for your question, I always love talking about the characters who didn’t get to make it into the game! 💖

Hi there, you can read all about the original novels in the #original novels tag, and your specific question has been answered here and here!

Hi there, thank you so much for your interest!! You can actually read all about the original novels in the #original novels tag: I answered your question a few times here, here, here, here, and here! I’m very honored that you’d want to read them, but they’d take a lot of work to polish for public consumption, so at the moment, no other pair of living eyes besides mine has seen them in all of their wretched glory lol! 👀

Aw, I miss Junoth! He was kind of like the baby of the group, even though I think Riel was technically the youngest: he was a bit naive, boisterous, had boundless puppy energy, and always had dreams of becoming a great hero or do-gooder in the world. He was always eager to help others and was adamant about doing the right thing and didn’t have a ruthless bone in his body, which was why he never rose high in the ranks of the Khehi Ket or the Shepherds, but everybody loved him for it, anyway. He and Blade attended school together in Ygrath and went through their equivalent of like basic training or boot camp together, so they were childhood friends and grew up together (and got closer after Arainia, the novel’s protagonist, had been sent away to Mage school, where they weren’t able to follow her). Although their personalities didn’t seem all that compatible on the surface, Blade felt obligated to watch Junoth’s back because he knew his good heart and impulsivity were going to get him into trouble, and Junoth would have followed Blade or Arainia to the ends of the world and really looked up to both of them, but especially Blade, who everyone viewed as kind of the class prodigy and an ideal Ket son! There was never any jealousy or rivalry involved, though; Junoth was just happy to be included, if that makes any sense. Once he ended up joining the Shepherds (after Blade and Arainia decided to join, and after realizing he didn’t really have a future with the Khehi Ket), he was kind of like everyone’s hyper, happy, sometimes annoying younger brother. He could be a bit oblivious or slow on the uptake (he wasn’t a tactical thinker…) but he made up for it in sheer goodheartedness and determination. You could never tell him something wasn’t possible or something couldn’t be done, especially when he got it into his head that it was the right thing to do. He would be like “but why can’t we build a wall to save that village from being flooded?” “we don’t have time, we need to move on to hold off that army before it arrives” “but why can’t we do both??” Real shounen protagonist energy. Although quite wiry and shorter than many of the other team members, often teased as being “scrawny” (his fast metabolism and arma often burned up food before it could be turned into muscle), he was the team’s physical tank thanks to his obscenely strong arma and could be sent in to bowl over enemies and break up entire mobs or serve as a loud distraction; he was really poor at stealth, but really physically strong! He favored really large weapons, particularly claymores, battle-axes, morning stars, and mauls.

He was always getting into people’s stuff, just like a little brother, and people were always reprimanding him while he just cheerfully ignored it, so you could always hear people groaning around the office, like, “Junoth, I told you not to borrow my pens!” or “Junoth, would you shut up, we’re trying to have a mission briefing!” and he’d be like “Sorry~” and then just do it all over again the next day. He wasn’t deliberately an agent of chaos or a prankster like Chase, he was just kind of like a gamboling puppy who gets into everything and knocks over your trash cans or barks at the mailman without actually meaning to upset you. He was in love with his childhood sweetheart, Anneth, a Ket girl from a very high-born and noble family back in Chicora, who returned his feelings but wasn’t strong-willed enough to defy her family. Everybody told him that a marriage between them was impossible, since Anneth was betrothed to someone more befitting of her situation, but Junoth swore that one day he would marry her. Sadly, that dream never came to fruition, as he was killed in battle during the… I’m pretty sure it was Book I of the Storm of the Worlds, The Thunder March, right at the end. The novel protagonist Arainia sees Junoth get shot and is scrambling through the battlefield to get to him (to heal him), when she’s suddenly captured by enemy soldiers and hauled away screaming. I think those are the last pages of the novel before it cuts to Book II, when she’s been held hostage by the enemy for several months and is planning her escape! She doesn’t find out for sure until she makes it back to Trouble, Chase, and Red’s squad and asks if Junoth’s all right, and they have to break the news to her that he died… and that Blade died after being separated from the team in the same battle! :( It’s a very hard opening to get through… And Blade also didn’t really die, which makes things super awkward when he shows up again in Book… III? Or the end of Book II!

[Mild spoilers for Justice League and Justice League Unlimited: I saw the Justice League animated show after Junoth died in the novels, but I always thought he was a lot like The Flash (Wally West) in the Justice League, where he kind of unconsciously represented the “good one” or the innocence or moral compass of the group, and when he was killed, it left everyone feeling lost, and everything kind of went to hell for a while.]

I do think he exists in some form in the game universe! He could either be a childhood friend and comrade-in-arms to Blade and is still in the Ket Rebellion, or you can interpret a version of him existing in one of Blade’s stories on Patreon, where a character named Junoth features prominently, and there’s room for him to potentially show up in some post-game future again! I haven’t definitively decided yet, though! Thanks for your question!