SGE Prequel Characters As Mythical Things:

SGE Prequel Characters as Mythical Things:

Marialena: eye of newt from Macbeth

Vulcan: wool of bat from Macbeth

Pan: finger of birth-strangled babe from Macbeth

Rafal: the water of life from the fairy tale "The Water of Life"

Rise Rhian: unicorn horn (allegedly has healing properties, can purify water)

Fall Rhian: crocodile tears (symbol of hypocrisy)

Midas: pure spun gold from "Rumpelstiltskin"

Hook: snakeskin cloak

Aladdin: snake oil cure-all (a scam tonic or liniment)

Kyma: the diamonds from the fairy tale "Toads and Diamonds"

The Storian: monkey's paw (or in context, Wish Fish eggs)

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Does anyone disagree or have other ideas?

My next fic is the quietest I’ve ever written. It’s the least eventful of them all. In fact, everything that “happens”—all the events—are narrated in the background of the present. Literally, it’s almost all conversations and resolutions.

Oh, and a version of Good Rafal experiences and grapples with guilt for the first time in his life, over Rufius of all people. It's like a foreign body his body is trying to reject. He also actually feels doubt about himself for once, and cracks and panics a little.

AU Idea

So, there's a particular moment in book one, in which Sophie hears a voice, from "somewhere deeper than soul." And, this may be a reach, but I have a theory.

First, look at this:

This is the voice that convinces her not to go along with Rhian's corrupt soul. It says the very same line that both prequel Rafal and later, Lady Lesso have said. It could very well be Sophie's own subconscious, but what if it wasn't? What if it came from outside of her? It could be ghost Rafal's presence, who appears shortly thereafter. The true Rafal. And although this line probably appears in the series four times, at least, the real Rafal is the first person to say it, chronology-wise. So, why couldn't it be him?

Anyway, now, for this AU, we're taking Rafal's "ghost" presence into consideration, not necessarily any variations of his character depicted in canon.

The concept in the screenshot above, about a warlock sincerely believing he's a paladin, a devout holy knight, recalls Sophie's initial denial of her Evil soul fairly well, so in this AU, Sophie could be a high priestess/sorceress (perhaps, like a Morgan le Fay/Lady Morgana figure?), who mistakes herself for Good, as usual.

Meanwhile, everyone else would quite transparently see that that the "benevolent deity" she serves clearly isn't that Good (and neither is she). Thus, again, it's obvious to everyone but her, which makes for staggering comedic potential. Like:

Someone else: Unleash the witch! [said with a similar, booming intonation as "UNLEASH THE HOUNDS!"]

Sophie: Not a witch, darling.

Someone else: Fine, priestess.

Sophie: Indubitably so.

For further context, this Rafal was a vengeful spirit, wrongly slain and never properly laid to rest, elevated to the status of eldritch god by having a patron. So, he tries to coax Sophie's Evil out, little by little, but can't seem to move her to consciousness. And, she's absolutely, infuriatingly irremediable. That false, incurable belief of her Goodness is well-entrenched in the bedrock of her being by this point of her life. So, he continues to work tirelessly to no avail, while she is doing irreparable damage to her psyche, denying her true Evil's emergence, suppressing it, along with his influence. Though, everyone else should be rightly grateful toward the fact that Sophie hasn't awoken the full extent of her deity-derived powers.

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"Who's your deity?" Agatha asked skeptically.

"Rafal of House Mistral, Sorcerer King, Master of the Dark Arts, and Magus of Deception," Sophie stated primly.

"Sophie... are your sure that you're a holy high priestess? That name—it sounds... Evil."

"What tripe!" Sophie rebuffed. "You're just splitting hairs that this point, Aggie, darling. An eldritch god is an eldritch god."

"Whatever you say." Agatha held up her hands in surrender. "I'm not getting between you and that thing of yours."

This "thing" you speak of would not hesitate at murdering you by unpleasant means, a deep, spectral voice seethed from Sophie's lungs.

"Why that's beyond the pale, Rafal! I will not be your vessel for an act like that," Sophie's voice returned to overtake the deity.

You're boring.

"And you're terribly uncivilized," she argued. "Find another follower if I won't do!"

But the other mortals don't understand.

"Then stay dormant when Agatha's around, or speak from the sky or the mists for all I care, not my airways, mind you. And don't let your winds ruin my hair. I expect to look presentable from all angles."

You expect me to use my sorcery for that?

"I won't do my libations for you otherwise. You'll wither before I next restore you."

Fine.

Agatha shook her head. "You need an exorcism."

I am sharing the funniest dnd character idea I’ve ever had bc I know I’ll never get to play them and I refuse to keep a joke to myself

Sources of Conflict, Secondary Characters, and Agency in SGE

The supporting cast of the prequels is awful as far as them as human beings with the barest shreds of common decency goes. I'm tempted to say they have no restraint. They are madmen—take the Pan for instance—unlike the Coven, Agatha (not that she's a side character), and even book one Beatrix, who all have some ethical standards and rationality to them. Really.

The brothers are the only "Good" characters, possibly along with Kyma, Midas, and Rufius, albeit, about two of these three don't have the most major impacts on the plot. (And classing either of the brothers as moral is a stretch by itself.)

Literally everyone is against them, if we're operating with protagonist-centered morality. The brothers have a solid relationship, and external factors tear them apart. It's a man vs. society/world conflict with them.

And, nearly all the supporting characters, the jerks in particular, enter the narrative by themselves. They are out for their own personal gain. Aladdin fits this description, to a point; he's on a fine line. And, Vulcan, Marialena, and the Pan definitely fit without question. They are invaders. I'd add pre-reformation Hook to the list, but to be fair, Rafal "recruits" him by kidnapping/human-trafficking.

In contrast, the main series cast of secondary characters are mostly decent people, which makes for a completely different atmosphere, however hostile the Schools may be with Evil Rhian at their head. These side characters were simply trying to live their lives, have a normal school year. Then, Sophie and Agatha arrive, and their appearance creates a major disruption.

Things don't go on as they normally would because they are meant to overhaul the status quo while Rhian and Rafal were meant to uphold it, which is an interesting juxtaposition by itself. The creation twins and the destruction twins. Both forces/freaks of nature, the pairs. Inevitably leading to upheaval and uproar. They're forces of order and chaos, plain as day.

Nearly all the supporting characters in the main series are ambivalent and are dragged into the plot/tale by the sheer force of Sophie's drama. She's the prime mover, with the magnetism of a black hole. She's the will of Man, the engine for conflict. The supporting cast is just trying to stay alive and exist alongside our all-consuming protagonists. They're not truly out to get anyone until they're offered the chance to leap at, until they're given any kind of motivation to take offense. They revolve around Sophie and Agatha and the tale, while the prequel side characters revolve around themselves and their own desires.

The main series' supporting characters aren't active agents in their own stories—unlike Marialena, Vulcan, and Aladdin, all with indisputably ulterior motives—they're along for the ride: the Coven, Tedros, even poor Agatha... The story revolves around Sophie and her decisions/actions. The conflict stems from them, her and Agatha.

Meanwhile, in the prequels, the conflict arguably stems from a wide array, a multitude of sources, and the brothers themselves are only one factor or source of conflict among all the rest. Rhian and Rafal are along for the ride in everyone else's games (the Storian's included). And the brothers are both active and reactive.

Their decisions matter, sure, but the determining factors are often out of their hands. For two immortal School Masters who would/should probably have control over a lot of the Woods/the future of civilization under usual circumstances, they sure don't have much agency on an in-narrative, plot level.

Look at Rhian, even on a lesser, personal level: his soul seems to override his self, sort of, and he ends Fall as if he's been possessed by his own inherent Evil. That's the most obvious example I can point to.

Basically, my point is that, unlike Sophie, unlike even Sophie and Agatha as a duo (and they are mere, seemingly powerless Readers), Rhian and Rafal do not orchestrate the events of their own plot nearly as much. You'd think the brothers, as aware of their genre and the workings of their world as they are, would have the advantage, but no.

They aren't the "authors of their own misfortune," at least not entirely. It doesn't matter how much claim free will seems to have. (It doesn't have much, considering we have a non-negotiable prophecy in play at all.) It doesn't matter how much the narrative claims they have free will (it doesn't really claim that to begin with). They're both far more beholden to the yoke of fate than Sophie and Agatha could ever be.

The dynamics in these pairs of twins are similar, on a small scale, but how they interact with their plots is different. Therefore, Man/free will/choice wins in the main series, and Pen/Fate wins in the prequels.

Dear prequel Rafal (could be him still alive in Rise or his ghost in Fall after he died), how would you feel if i told you your brother's true love is female? ;)

Rise Rafal: [He bowls over with laughter, until his laughs turn into silent convulsions. Finally, his laughter subsides and he stares you dead in the eye.] You’d have to be a complete simpleton to believe that. To think you can delude me into believing you. In what future could Rhian ever like a girl?

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And now, we ask the simpleton himself, shortly after the Fall:

Ghost Rafal: [woodenly] In truth? I don’t care. Not anymore. [seething] I tried to save Rhian, from himself, from his "romances," and what did that get me? Nothing. Nothing but a traitor. [His eyes glaze over into a hollow, thousand-yard stare.] The impossible is capable of happening. It's now fathomable to me since Rhian murdered me. I could fathom anything at this point...

Hey, can I get being the Best friend or close Friends With Rafal or Rhian ( Or maybe both? ) maybe the reader is a childhood friend or something. The gender can be whatever or whichever you prefer.

That's if you are comfortable writing that. 😁

My apologies. I wasn't really planning on taking writing requests of this type since I'm not currently interested in writing reader prompts. At times, I sort of view most readers as a blank slate rather than a character themselves, unlike the way an OC or a canon character would have a more definitive personality.

Thus, determining reactions by the reader would be difficult unless I gave the reader a defined personality I chose and made up, which might not align with what you or others want from a self-insert. Sure, I suppose I could fill in the blanks myself, and give the reader traits, essentially making them closer to an OC, but I'm not particularly interested in writing an SGE OC at this time either.

So, overall, I think I'd have a bit of a hard time with the vague nature of this request/anticipating what the reader "should" be like since it doesn't really give me a "plot" to work with, just a blank "character," if you understand what I'm getting at. Sorry if this is at all unclear.

That said, when I originally said you could address characters directly (in this post), perform actions and get them to respond, or give them information or a query to react to, I am open to writing Rhian or Rafal responding to a friend-like gesture or a what-if of some kind, say, what if a reader gave Rhian and Rafal a gift as a friend. This would give me enough specificity to more easily work with.

It's just that I don't plan on representing the asker/reader as anything much further beyond an entity, as if they were the bringer of content/information or the doer of a deed.

In a lot of cases, a typical response might take a form like this:

What would happen if I/you/the reader did/gave/said [this] to the brothers?

And the response would be the aftermath of that action/prompt, usually, written more passively, so as not to involve the reader/asker/doer/whomever:

Q: What would happen if Agatha were given a bouquet?

A: She would sneeze because of her pollen allergies.

Or, alternatively, an answer might look like this:

A: Agatha: [sneezes] Thank you for the flowers, but I'm afraid I'm going to hand them off to Sophie instead. She will appreciate them more than I could.

So, in conclusion, you could "do" something, essentially, perform an action/impart a (potentially dramatic) piece of information, but I won't usually take requests the type of relationship you're requesting. Yet, feel free to send another ask, if you have anything in mind that I might actually write.

For further clarification, what you could probably expect to get from a non-reader request is something with more focus on the character(s) involved and their reaction to an item/action/question posed.  This would mean the focus inherently won't be on the doer of the action (the reader/asker) whether it's on themselves, as a person, or on a relationship with the canon characters.

Overall, I simply don't plan on establishing new relationships with non-canon characters in the case of asks, and I'll only tend to work with new events/novel scenarios/prompts, involving existent characters and relationships.

Most likely, I'll try to keep to some form of canon (or if specified, my fics), as far as characterization or relationships go, depending on what an ask requires. While I think the idea of the brothers having a best friend is sweet, it doesn't really fit with my (very subjective) sense of their characters. Albeit, Rhian might be open to having a friend outside of Rafal.

So, to sum this up: I don't (usually) take formal writing requests or those involving a reader, and I'm sorry if I had ever been misleading about this before. (When I wrote dialogue or scripted scenes for other prompts, it was because I was given a premise/writing prompt that actually contained a "plot"/inciting incident/central concept of some kind, and chose to make the characters respond to events/information/other content within what I interpreted, sort of, to be the bounds of canon or the particular hypotheticals.)

None of my previous asks have been complete stories (they tend to be scenes or snippets) like the nature of this request seems to suggest(?), and I'm tempted to say this is because a relationship is a state of being, not a singular event, and such a thing could require much more development or the invention of a self-insert's "character." Also, honestly, I'm not an expert on reader-inserts as a genre, so I might not be the ideal person to ask.

However, again, if you would like to perform an action or give me dialogue of some kind, addressed to the brothers, I'd (usually) be willing to let Rafal and/or Rhian or anyone else from canon respond to such a gesture or events, if the gesture isn't by you or another hypothetical person with a major role.

So, apologies again, but I don't plan on taking requests that involve readers in the vast majority of cases, yet what I will write are Rhian and Rafal (or other characters) responding to concrete things or scenarios, usually in the context of their already-existent relationships, unless they otherwise happened to meet someone from canon they did not previously know.

Basically, these conditions would exclude a new, blank-slate relationship since I can't be absolutely sure what a reader-insert should be like, to successfully align with an asker's tastes, and simply don't have an interest in writing this type of dynamic at the moment.

Finally, if you or anyone else would like me to clarify anything they didn't understand (sorry if anything was explained too circularly), or if anyone has more questions on what I am generally willing or not willing to write, please don't hesitate to ask!