Warhammer Chronicle of Isha, the Goddess of Life (Warhammer 40,000)

[Nidhog153]

A/N I'm not going to be putting as much effort in these sections, because I want to prioritise the main story.
The way I've organized it is by chapter. Some of these might be quite short. I'll just put any random bits of irony/references/foreshadowing I've made here.

TItle: I just thought it would be great to have an ironic title for a section that's in the Sea of Souls where there is no forwards or backwards, yet a linear sense of progression from one state to the next. i.e. Aeldari Pantheons existed, then died. For a place that doesn't have a concept of time, the very fact that these things have an order of occurrence is insane. There's no way an 'eternal' war can end, but it did.

Main Part: No real references to other books or real world events. There is a some foreshadowing here for future events.

Spoiler: Future chapter

Specifically, the Chaos gods infecting each other when they hit each other with their full might.

Isha using a Wraithbone spear to fight against the creatures of Nurgle, using her minions (the plants and animals), or a medium (the wind and ice) is also foreshadowing for that same future chapter.

Also, although I left the scale of Isha's domain vague on purpose, it's the size of several planets in real-space.

I wrote about it somewhere else, but the events in the chapter are a very loose reference to the fate of the Aeldari.

The acts of the gods are more symbolisms of what the canon Eldar did to rebuild.

Khaine drawing out his aspects and focussing on brutal training etc. was a nod to how the Eldar rebuilt part of their society by using the Aspect shrines to focus their minds and block out Slaanesh.

Morai Heg's pouch symbolises the way the Eldar split apart to follow their own paths; Corsair, Craftworlder, Outcast, Exodite, Commoragh, etc.
They're no longer the one united Eldar empire, but all chasing their own destinies.

Cegorach holding the strings of fate for the Harlequins is a nod to the fact that becoming a Harlequin is one way to prevent being soul sucked by Slaanesh.

Asuryan was more of a, "That would be kinda cool to have him do, rather than just be the guy that screwed up everything." sort of moment. Anyways, Slaanesh broke Asuryan's edict when she killed him a second time. (Isha's being freed from the tree being a foreshadowing of that.) Plus, the flames of Asuryan are a thing, and I needed a reason for them to fall out of the Warp so Eldar could collect them.

If I had to add anything to the above...

Spoiler: Future chapter

it would be that Asuryan's role as the one who commands the mortals elevated to gods and the one who binds the gods and restrains them to certain functions is a reference to a future plot point

 

[Nidhog153]

A/N I'm not going to be putting as much effort in these sections, because I want to prioritise the main story. My story makes a lot of references to other real world events or mythology, so I've made these to elaborate since some of the symbolism and references are hard to get for some non-native speakers as well as younger native speakers.
The way I've organized it is by chapter. Some of these might be quite short. I'll just put any random bits of irony/references/foreshadowing I've made here.

Title: I had a hard time coming up with a title, because there was no rule or previous example I could fall back on. I almost gave up and just had chapter numbers.

Main Part: This is a really short chapter, but coming up with the next part's Tech Priest sass was taking longer than I'd liked, so I just made it its own seperate chapter. It also gave me a feeling of what length I wanted. I used to write until I had 10,000 word chapters before posting, but editing and reviewing such huge chunks of writing is soul sucking, so I'm not going back to that format without being paid for it. Although, I ended up going for +5000 word chapters recently, so I might end up with chapters that long someday.

The drafting process for long chapters is way worse. If you feel like 1 scene isn't going right, you can scrap that and recycle stuff pretty easily. If you have a chapter with multiple scenes that cross-reference each other, redrafting one scene can force you to change stuff that you actually liked or felt was good.

I've legitamately burst out laughing like the Joker because I realized re-writing one scene screwed up 3 weeks worth of work. (That's probably why I'm borderline insane at the moment.) So, yeah, future writers. Keep the chapters short and stylish.

It's insignificant for the reader, but making this first chapter so short allowed me to figure out a good pace and way to set-up chapters. 1 scene+optional flashback per chapter is my current rule. Anything more, and it just gets tiring. That might lead to slower plot progression, but I wanted the story to be as showy as possible, so what I want to say is often in the actions and descriptions of the characters as it is their words.

The only bit of foreshadowing is where Isha's body is strong enough to land on the planet without being hurt. It's not normal flesh and blood, but a symbolic construction of all the information that lies within her. However, like the Emperor's blazing figure on a golden path, Isha has her own 'true' form that does not look like her mortal body as well.

 

[Nidhog153]

A/N I'm not going to be putting as much effort in these sections, because I want to prioritise the main story. My story makes a lot of references to other real world events or mythology, so I've made these to elaborate since some of the symbolism and references are hard to get for some non-native speakers as well as younger native speakers.
The way I've organized it is by chapter. Some of these might be quite short. I'll just put any random bits of irony/references/foreshadowing I've made here.

Title: I still had trouble writing chapter titles, but at this point I was thinking it would be best to just have them be as descriptive as possible. The one twist was that Isha frees herself at the end, only to be trapped on the planet by the Emperor, so it was a bait and switch that made the chapter title true. I think that was when I decided that the chapter titles should not only be descriptive, but have an element of irony or sarcasm to them.

Main Part: The Xenobiologis dialogue was really fun to write. I don't think we'll get a similarly comedic section any time soon because vivisection and mentions of genitalia are apparently borderline content for the Creative Writing rules. Gallows humor kind of needs that stuff to be sinisterly funny. More Tech Priests will appear... someday... probably... maybe!

I have an anime-ish comedy interaction planned between with the Emperor and Isha, but from what they're talking about, it'll have to be placed after they go to Terra. I have a bad feeling shippers will start flocking here after that section. (If it ever gets posted.)

The idea that one of Isha's weapons being her voice and her Truth really grew here during the drafting stages. This was the time when the prologue and Chapter 2 were being drafted at the same time, so ideas shown here flowed backwards into the prologue.

Well, to tell the truth, that entire part with Isha's Truth and the effect it had on everyone was the part that was written first (Not this Chapter, but the entire story). The idea about the target being the Tech Priests came much later. You can sort of tell, since the last part talks about wine, but the Tech Priests don't drink wine. That's because that section didn't have Tech Priests until much later.

I think I started writing the Prologue after I had the part of Isha's voice/Truth done, so I kind of wanted Isha and Slaanesh to be song/voice based after that. It felt right because the Aeldari are such graceful aliens, and they also do the bonesinging thing. There was also a not insignificant pleasure taken in the macabre irony that the two gods who are most opposed to each other share a core trait. That's sort of an underlying theme for the story.

As for foreshadowing, the only one I can remember putting here is that Isha is strong enough to tear blast doors apart. That's relevant later. Also, her song and voice will come up again.

 

[Nidhog153]

A/N I'm not going to be putting as much effort in these sections, because I want to prioritise the main story. My story makes a lot of references to other real world events or mythology, so I've made these to elaborate since some of the symbolism and references are hard to get for some non-native speakers as well as younger native speakers.
The way I've organized it is by chapter. Some of these might be quite short. I'll just put any random bits of irony/references/foreshadowing I've made here.
Title: This chapter title had some people confused to what it was referencing. The explanation is below.

"Avē Imperātor." and "Pax Hūmānus." are references to imperialistic conquest and cruelty.

"Avē Imperātor." comes from Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant which is the (supposed) greeting criminals and captives (prisoners of war/kidnapped peasants) were forced to give to the Emperor Claudius before they were ordered to die in a mock naval battle for his amusement.7

"Pax Hūmānus." is a reference to "Pax Germanica" which is a from WW I propaganda when Germany invaded Belgium and France.

In short, it was to stress the Isha is not a refugee or beggar coming to the Emperor. She is an unwilling captive of the Emperor and is only following him because she has no choice.

Main Part: In the original Space Battle Forum post, my Skaven Under Writer wrote this Writer's Note. I have added it here, but the reason this WN was written by the Skaven-Underwriter was because there were actually a lot of foreshadowing in this section. The fact that Isha turned into a furry for a moment was foreshadowing that she was undecided regarding whether it would be better to let the Emperor imprison her in a dream sleep, or whether she should fight. It was only after she was wrapped in chains that she came to a conclusion that being sent into a dream sleep would not be optimal for her or her children.

The other spoiler related content is when the Skaven-Underwriter wrote that Isha took everything from "Dead-thing-slaves". This is specifically referring to the Necron, and not the Necrontyr. This is actually in reference to someone who asked what would happen if Trazyn or one of the other Necron ever found Isha as she is.

My answer was that they would either run away, or nuke the planet from orbit and then run away. Isha has destroyed entire Tomb Worlds during her service to the Old Ones. There is a reason she knew how to penetrate their pylon fields in the first place.

A/N I'm not going to be putting as much effort in these sections, because I want to prioritise the main story.
The way I've organized it is by chapter. Some of these might be quite short. I'll just put any random bits of... Hey! What are you doing! HELP! THE SKA-
NOW I TALK TALK HERE HERE YES-YES! MAN-THING ALREDY SPEAK-SPOKE ABOUT THIS-THIS IN DIF-DIFFERENT POST-POST! NOW UNDER-WRITER POST-POST HERE!

Title: I steal-steal man-thing formatthing-thing! Good Skaven under-writer always steal-take! Yes-Yes! First-first Must Co-Copy-Paste-Paste Man-Thing Post! For GREAT HORNED RAT!

"Avē Imperātor." and "Pax Hūmānus." are references to imperialistic conquest and cruelty.

"Avē Imperātor." comes from Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant which is the (supposed) greeting criminals and captives (prisoners of war/kidnapped peasants) were forced to give to the Emperor Claudius before they were ordered to die in a mock naval battle for his amusement.7

"Pax Hūmānus." is a reference to "Pax Germanica" which is a from WW I propaganda when Germany invaded Belgium and France.

Main Part: NRrrGH! MANPEROR Golden thing make Skaven under-writer eyes hurt-hurt! Thing is thing! Not man! Not MAN! Thing-thing oozes wrong-truth! Talk-talk in circles Man-thing does! Yes-yes!

Not like GREAT HORNED RAT! Truth of horned rat simple-simple! Take-take all-all! For GREAT HORNED RAT!

Manperor think-thought false-mother danger! Danger-Danger false-mother is-is! Yes YES! Big War had many god-things!
Not like GREAT HORNED RAT! But, strong-stonger than Skaven under-writer... yes. yes.

False-mother Take-took all from Dead-thing-slaves. Dead-thing-slaves plagarize work of Great Skaven-Under Imperium!
Skaven shoot green zap-zap! Not Dead-thing-slave! Skaven under-writer will send-send Cease-stop order to Dead-thing-slave!

Skaven Under-Imperium live-long-last forev-
Edit: Forgot that this was also mentioned in a post.

[Magos Khmash]: Enlarged rodent specimin contained. Glory to the omnissiah. Accessing archeotech communication device... processing... [[ERROR TECH HERESY DETECTED]] TERMINATING

Cegorach's section references some theatrical terms. The most obtuse is probably the one below. I was quite frustrated nobody got the joke at the time.

Restorative comedy is a comedy style that was used to portray men and women getting together, fighting, and having shennanigans.
Ignoring the part that it's the Eldar talking about it, the point was that everyone in the audience thought that was a stupid idea.
The Emperor is neither male nor female. Isha is gendered femininely, but she isn't a woman.
That's the joke.
*sigh I feel like an Eldar having to explain my language to a Mon-keigh.

 

[Nidhog153]

A/N I'm not going to be putting as much effort in these sections, because I want to prioritise the main story. My story makes a lot of references to other real world events or mythology, so I've made these to elaborate since some of the symbolism and references are hard to get for some non-native speakers as well as younger native speakers.
The way I've organized it is by chapter. Some of these might be quite short. I'll just put any random bits of irony/references/foreshadowing I've made here.

Title: Diaspora = the dispersion or spread of a people from their original homeland. So, it's pretty on the nose.

Main Part: I wanted to show the cold calculating portions of the Emperor here. He also had no orginal intent of letting Isha speak to her children. He was just going to kill them and be done with it while still deciding what to do with her. It was only after she offered to parlay with her children that he allows her to do that.

That of course shows that the Emperor has other plans for Isha, besides using her to talk her children out of a fight. They were mentioned much later when he thinks about all the gene-tech and him hoping to use Isha as a source of information alluding to the fact that he was hoping to use her to better the Primarchs and Space Marines.

Additionally, there was a lot of foreshadowing in this section. Isha was leading the Emperor to an old battlefield where there were weapons she could offer the Emperor to see how receptive he was to her.

Isha's mind dug deep into her memories of the borders of the Aeldari domain; ancient holdouts from the War in Heaven, forgotten battlefields, and buried bunkers. After a few seconds, she found what she was looking for.
"There is an Aeldari world that used to hold a colony. Its environment is harsh, too harsh for humans, but survivable by the Aeldari."

Some people on other sites were saying that Isha doesn't seem to be cunning enough. I think she's pretty cunning, and the fact that all those people didn't see that through foreshadowing like this probably proves my point even more.

 

[Nidhog153]

A/N I'm not going to be putting as much effort in these sections, because I want to prioritise the main story. My story makes a lot of references to other real world events or mythology, so I've made these to elaborate since some of the symbolism and references are hard to get for some non-native speakers as well as younger native speakers.
The way I've organized it is by chapter. Some of these might be quite short. I'll just put any random bits of irony/references/foreshadowing I've made here.

Title: Yes, the connection to Everqueen is pretty obvious here, since the Emperor and Khaine are both described as Gods of Death. Of course, this was all a massive red-herring. However, this does also allude to the fact that Isha and the Emperor were borderline thinking of just killing each other in this chapter.

Main Part: I was worried I'd made the Emperor too big of a bad person here. Also, the conflict was meant to take place in the hallway with a Custodes, but I felt it better to have Isha all by herself and singing. In the original draft, she was meant to investigate a Custodes out of curiosity, and that attracted the Emperor's ire.

That cheeky nature of Isha in the drafts is still part of the character. She does the entire stretch thing to illustrate that fey personality without giving an obvious reason for the Emperor to be so mean to her.