Hello everyone! Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate the holiday! Here we are with the answers portion of the Q&A. Thank you to everyone who left a response, and I hope that you all enjoy. In the future, we might do more of these if everyone liked this. The fanbase has grown rather large. At least compared to the very start, and I am shocked at how many people have read this series.
Thank you all! Now, without further ado, let's answer some questions.
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Q: I always thought of the four characters in your cover (Olivia, Davi, Ken, Sieg) as equal protagonists in your story. But, is that not the case? Is there a protagonist that's actually the MC of the story or are some of these characters more important than the other in PF?
A: For the most part, Olivia, Davi, Ken, and Sieg are all vastly important and can steal the show. I do think I haven't done the best job with Sieg fully, but he'll be shown a lot more volume two onward. Out of which character will be the most important from those four, that is without a doubt Olivia. As to which character will get the most screen time, I'd say Davi. As for which character I'd like to be the true main character, I'd say that goes to Ken. Lastly, the character who has the best "story" I think will be Sieg.
Q: When's the beach chapter coming out?
A: The guild base is already on the beach, so anytime they're at the base, it is a beach chapter. If we hit 10k followers, I'll write a fan service beach chapter for everyone.
Q: Is there any chance that you made a separate chapter with only the summary of how the magic works?
A: I talked about it before, but yes. I do have plans to do a databook chapter that will explain more stuff about the world and the system. I know some things can be a bit confusing, so I'll try to have a single place that can be used to understand it all.
Q: Will Olivia ever be at the point where her being in a Roman-style Triumph march would be reasonable, and if she is can I have her as a crossover in my book?
A: Sure. Why not.
Q: who's your favorite character
A: Adam Hawker.
Q: Who's your favourite side character so far?
A: So I guess this depends on what we consider a side character. If we go off the character I like the most that answer would be Adam. Adam is the Main Character, though, so I don't think he should count as a side character. If we say only Davi and Olivia are the main characters, then my other option would be Ken Yuan. I love writing her, and also think the artist did a great job with her design. She is the best-looking character, in my opinion, and I have a blast writing her scenes. The story wasn't meant to be an FFM ship, but Ken was a character I liked so much I sort of forced her into the dynamic, and in a lot of ways, I like to bully her the most. If we say she counts as a main character, because she's featured on the cover, and is very important, then I would say my next favorite character is Laerton Eman. If you want to say Phoenix Flight characters are all main characters, then my final answer would be Tori Helios.
Q: How mapped out is Volume 2?
A: I would say Volume Two is mostly figured out. I freeball some stuff, but have all the major arcs figured out.
Q: How big is this story going to be, and how does it compare to Spectacular World? Would you say the scope is bigger for PF or SW?
A: BIG. Spectacular World was my first massive project and hit over a million words and is on its way to two million. It still has at least one more part to it, as well as the current arc it is in, so I imagine it'll end around three, maybe four million words. Phoenix Flight is planned to be a lot bigger. The first volume was more or less a setup volume made to put everything in motion, and I imagine it'll end up being the smallest. At the moment, I have ten full volumes all planned out and I imagine we'll hit around five million words by the time we finish those ten volumes. Five million or around one thousand chapters is my goal; that said, this will likely only grow as I am very bad at keeping things short or small. I prefer to write big and have been inspired by series like One Piece or Shadow Slave, where arcs are long.
Q: What do you look for when you're designing the magic system?
A: To be honest, I based my magic system on a lot of different things. I tend to make a system that gets complex or bigger the more you dive into it. I love YouTube videos that are "Series X Power System Explained!" where it is one guy ranting for twenty minutes explaining the system of power a series has. When I was making the system in my own series, I turned to the Manga series known as Bleach. I love how there are many different races, and they all cause various effects. I sort of just smashed together everything I liked into one series and figured out how to explain it as I went…
Q: Face reveal when?
A: One million followers.
Q: When will we see my boy, Chad Sylas, and Philosophers in the story?
A: King Sylas is a character I have some plans for. The same goes for his land. I am excited to get into the Sovereign Philosophers; that said, it likely won't be for a bit of time. It'll take a while before we build up to the level needed to understand that. We might see "glimpses" of King Sylas soon, though. If you're referring to the current Sylas, Prince Sylas, I honestly have even less clue. I know what role they'll play but am unsure when I want to get into it.
Q: davi x liv smut when?
A: One million followers/when I decide to have them end up together. I am very bad at writing romance and like mega slow burn. There are smuts with Davi and another woman, and Olivia and another woman, on the Patreon and plans for a Olivia and Ken one eventually. Support me on Patreon.
Q: Do any of the characters have confirmed birthdays?
A: Olivia doesn't. Davi's is a spoiler. Sieg's would be on December the Twelfth. Ken's would be on October the Tenth. Adam's would be on September the Ninth. Susie's would be on November the Eleventh. A lot of characters with birthdays share the same day as the number of the month just to make it easier.
Q: Why did you think blood magic was a good idea?
A: I wanted a type of magic that felt like it had some restrictions and weaknesses on it. Blood magic was easy because I could just say, "She's weak since she ran out of blood". At the same time, as the story progressed, it would be easy to work around this limitation and would make it look like Olivia is growing stronger by getting rid of the weakness.
Q: What aspect of the worldbuilding do you like the most?
A: I love going into the power system as well as the history. It is a lot of fun for me to have these massive paragraphs that go into a small topic or subject of the novel. If I had to pick just one it would be moments like when I drop mentions of historical characters and things they did.
Q: Where will the gang go next?
A: After volume two they will go into volume three.
Q: What is the tech level of the setting exactly? I'm guessing it's modern. How modern? Are they in a 2025 equivalent and suffering from LLMs?
A: It mainly depends on where you look. In the main kingdom, they have tech around ours, likely a bit more advanced, as they have airships and power armor. They have been around for only nine hundred years and would mainly be in the 1000s of historical years. If you look at Rossum or Mordheim, their level of tech is still stuck at the very early levels. Rossum is based on Cultivation novels, while Mordheim is based on Samurai stories, and so their time periods are around there. Gallenth would be far, far advanced than us, being in the future.
Q: What's your favorite scene so far?
A: I really liked writing the Ken x Raven smut. It had a lot of moments I enjoyed because they were "sexy" and Raven was a good character. I also enjoy yuri in general. Besides that, in the actual novel, my favorite scene would be the one where Davi fought the Dragon during the third exam. I feel like that showed off his character well. He is fun to bully.
Q: Did they ever discover nuclear weapons? Do atoms even exist in this setting, or is everything just mana?
A: Atoms do exist, but they operate a bit differently. We'll see more about this in the setting, but the existence of mana has added a new element to the universe, and so particles, gravity, time, space, and especially light, all have fundamental new laws. Nuclear weapons also do exist, but only in Gallenth. There is a single being in Esteria who can use the power of a nuke.
Q: If the main characters were animals. What animals would they be?
A: Davi would be a hawk or a shark. Olivia would be a snake or a bunny or a cat. Sieg would be a peacock or an eel. Ken would be a fox or a bunny.
Q: Whose Olivia based off of?
A: Olivia is based on Mary Roads, also known as Wish from Spectacular World. Olivia is basically what would happen if Wish's soul ended up in a good universe and she didn't suffer so much. Wish herself is based on Mahito from the series Jujutsu Kaisen.
Q: If Davi moved half his body into his shadow vault and something forcibly cancelled the spell. Would he be able to reattach the two halves? Or would he just die?
A: If a Shadow Mage tried this, they would die. If Davi tried this, it might work if he were determined enough not to die.
Q: How long do you plan on making this story?
A: Until it ends. Right now, volume ten.
Q: If your main characters each had a theme song, what song would they have?
A: I am really not good with music… I'd likely say each character would have a sad melody. Something more sober or peaceful with a hint of sorrow behind it.
Q: When will we get the Sieg only arc? Also, on that note, does he only have the neck tattoo?
A: I do have plans for an arc with Sieg as the center character. I don't know if there will ever be a character-only arc, though. Sieg has markings down his chest and back as well.
Q: What motivates you to write every day? What makes you go through the slog? How much is discipline vs inspiration?
A: All of you motivate me. Every comment makes me happy and gets me to work twice as hard.