Monster Party Book Seven Author Commentary:

I LIVE!

Yes I'm finally taking a break from Warframe and other stuff to finally do some posting.

I'm glad that when the time came that this huge peroid of deadspace happened, I didn't leave you guys hanging in the middle of a story. In theory it would have been even better for me to have finished up the commentary, but like I said at least I didn't leave you wondering what would happen next, and all that is left for Book 7 is some, well, bookkeeping.

That said to make this go a little "quicker" or at least get something posted, I'm going to break it into three parts.

Part 1 is going to cover my thoughts on the story over all and its themes, parts two and three will be the first and then second half of the adventure on a chapter by chapter basis.

Anyway, I hope that this is worth the wait.

Due to how long it took me to write this story, my thoughts may be a bit more jumbled/inarticulate than normal (and hey they're probably pretty jumbled to start with all things considered) so I'm just gonna bounce around a few topics that have to deal with this story first, and then get around to describing it on a chapter by chapter basis later.

So, to start with, despite the fact that he's had three "books" which feature him as the "main character" (and he had quite a bit of focus in book six also, there's a reason that book eight is going to feature Devi, the only member of the group who hasn't gotten a book to herself yet, just because he's the alpha (and part of him is a being on a god like scale though not actually a god) doesn't mean Alex gets all the limelight) I think it is safe to say that book seven is much more Alex's story than either of the two that came before it.

As I've previously mentioned, the real "main character" or at least the character around who the story pivots even if they don't do most of the fighting (a good example is Lord of the Rings, the story pivots around Frodo even if Aragorn does a lot more fighting) is the one who suffers the most.

To repeate what I've said before so you don't have to go bouncing all over my various commentaries and expand on it a little, Book Two was the story of Mikhail Zolnik coming to grips with his nature as a lycanthrope. It was the story of how even though that particular curse has quite literally been passed down from father to son, he won't let it change who he is as a person. Mikhail finds the strength of character to refuse to serve his father as a man or as a wolf, and refuses to hide who and what he is from the woman he loves, which was the very mistake/sin which began Gregor's transformation from noble hunter to cruel tyrant. Mikhail proves himself a better man than his father, a man who will not be tricked or tempted into becoming a darklord, and in doing so frees his country from the grasp of the Dark Powers, not to mention the endless winter they'd brought to Vorostokov.

Book Five is the story of Wyan grappling with his both his faith and the power he now holds as head of the Tempest's Inquisition. Power that he never particularly wanted, but power that is necessary to organize a cohesive defense against the monsters that would prey on the people of his realm. Wyan has managed to avoid being actively corrupted by that power, but at the same time is he still unintentionally doing more harm than good?

Now that we know more of Alexander Diamondclaw's past you can probably see why he ended up being so strangely compassionate to Wyan despite his normally standoffish and gruff approach to others. Alexander saw in Wyan a man traveling down the exact same path that he took, and yet doing so with a humble heart where Alexander became haughty. Wyan is the man Alexander wishes he could have been back when he was simply a mortal man, because if he had been, then he never would have needed the Eye of Fenrir or an encounter with Florence Bastien to avoid possibly becoming a darklord himself.

Book Five is about Wyan's pain of discovering that even when he acts with the best of intentions and to the best of his knowledge, things can still go awry, yet at the end to have not acted all would have only lead to still greater tragedy.

In this book though, as I pointed out in my end of chapter commentaries, Alex is unquestionably suffering. When he finds out that he's in G'Henna, he starts with one simple goal, to get a chance to drink a proper G'Hennan brewed beer again.

Also just to be clear, don't think that I'm including liquor just as a short hand for humor. It is clearly written in the adventure books. Let me quote directly from Circle of Darkness… (starts on page five goes onto page six) "To the east of Dervich lies most of the arable land, the Fertile Valley. Farms and private estates dot the windy steppes and industries struggle along the muddy banks of the northern Eel's Flow River and the turgid southern Drogach River. Although little more than a blot of green on the dusty G'Hennan landscape, this area provides a single resource, the grapes for G'Hennan red wine."

Even more importantly on page 16 describing the breweries…

"At one time G'Hennans imported grain from Falkovnia and used it to brew some of the best beers and ales in all of Ravenloft. With the domain's isolation, many of the breweries lay idle."

So it is canon that there is liquor produced in G'Henna, it is canon that some of it is especially good liquor!

Alex wants to get his hands on some of it, and he can't. That may seem like a rather simple minded and in fact downright silly reason for suffering/going on a domain spanning adventure, but Ajay Ghale just wanted to spread his mother's ashes. Simple desires have a way of becoming very complex when you're trying to carry them out in oppressive theocracies/dictatorships.

Alex wants that liquor, and at every turn he has to deal with the pigheaded fanaticism of Zhakata worshipers, people who have joined a religion that is effectively a slow motion suicide cult, and seem perfectly happy about the prospect.

Granted, some of that "happiness" is probably because being seen as unhappy with the worship of Zhakata is going to get the inquisition called on you, and then you'll really have something to be unhappy about!

To make this book even more Alex's story, the villains properly reflect him. This can be seen somewhat in book two, where Alex is a dark reflection of Gregor (Gregor is a straight up Maladaptive Lycanthrope and Alex's transformations based on sharing a body with Fenrir is more appropriately approximated to Maladictive Lycanthropy than anything other type of shapeshifting) in that they both started out as heroes of their communities who genuinely deserved that particular position.

In turn they both let the the glory and praise which came with that position go to their heads, and the fact that Alex got cut off from it/kept himself cut off from it, probably an important aid in helping him reform.

Even more tellingly, look at how Gregor acts towards his Boyarsky and how Alex treats the other members of his own group. Gregor rounded up ordinary people and those who opposed his rule, and turned them into monsters who had no choice but to serve him. Alex directly sought out monsters (Devi being an elf is enough to qualify her for "monster-hood" in Tepest and a few other places) and Cal, who if of course a jackass. Gregor twists ordinary people into monsters, Alex convinces monsters to serve the needs and goals of ordinary people.

As for book five, well it is a good thing that the comparison between Alex and Wyan is so strong because book five's villains are a bit of a let down all things considered.

We go through about four different ones (the boowray, the lady of the lake, the Three Sisters and finally Loht) with none of them being on screen for more than a chapter each. None of them are super compelling on their own, and the fact that Loht doesn't get resolved until another story/adventure book is partly to blame for that.

Circling back to this book…

We have three villains in this story, but unlike book five they're all compelling/interesting in their own ways and they all stick around for more than a chapter.

Even better, all three villains can serve as dark mirrors of Alexander Diamondclaw, at least when he is taken as a whole.

If you wonder what I mean by that, lets start with the one you probably think is the longest reach…. Malistroi.

Malistroi isn't a mirror of the "Douglas" part of Alex (see my newest side story if that doesn't make sense) but of Fenrir. Malistroi is an immoral being that was locked away and now seeks to be set free and get revenge against the one who imprisoned him.

That is of course in the broad strokes, exactly Fenrir's back story.

We can even tie them a little closer together by saying in both cases their being bound away forever was really the fault of the one who did the binding and not the one who was bound. The prophecy which foretold how Fenrir would kill Odin freaked him out so much that he decided to inflict massive suffering upon a currently innocent creature. Malistroi never would have been in G'Henna in the first place if Yagno Petrovna hadn't realized that his faith was so empty that he needed the concrete proof of actually talking with Zhakata (which completley undermines the point of "faith" as we understand it in a world where gods aren't expected to talk to us or grant us magical powers when we invoke their names) in person.

This similarity between them is why Alex pauses when first confronting Malistroi and isn't able to bring himself to attack the demon until he starts taking advantage of the mongrelmen, thus crossing one of Alex's big red lines about how nobody will hurt those he has sworn to protect.

Of course once you start looking closer the similarities start breaking down, and you can see why Fenrir can be a hero but Malistroi is still ultimately a force for evil.

Fenrir was True Neutral before being imprisoned and after being imprisoned became Chaotic Neutral. Malistroi was Chaotic Evil before and after his imprisonment. He may claim that he has suffered, he may even genuinely have suffered, but at the end of the day Malistroi is a chaotic evil fiend, it is in nature to harm, warp, twist, and corrupt everywhere he goes, Yagno imprisoning him gave him an excuse, gave him a reason to target Yagno in particular (because he can't leave so long as he's stuck in Ravenloft, and he can't even leave G'Henna so long as it is a pocket domain thanks to Yagno) but it in no way made him the demonic monster that he is today, he was that same monster even before he was locked away.

Not only that, but look at how they go about enacting their desired revenge once they get a chance. Fenrir breaks free, and like a fury missile heads straight for Odin, and kills him. Malistroi breaks free… and immediately starts twisting and corrupting everything around him to create an army to conquer G'Henna, and make Yagno suffer further by proving he is powerless before Malistroi's mystical might. Malistroi would only be happy if Yagno suffered first and had no problem harming innocent people to achieve that effect, Fenrir just wanted Odin dead and took most direct route possible to that outcome.

Hence why Fenrir (through Alex) can honestly say that he never wanted "revenge" simply "justice" instead. Needless to say Fenrir desiring "justice" is to a great deal caused by him wishing to embrace the concepts that Tyr taught him growing up.

Once upon a time Fenrir (or at least my version of Fenrir) genuinely believed in/respect the sort of honor and justice, approach to life that Tyr espoused. After Tyr himself betrayed Fenrir, he saw that if even a god of honor can be made to act dishonorably then clearly there is no merit to the concept.

The concepts that do have merit however, that he still believes down in his heart of hearts, is the very Norse (as I understand the concept/religion feel free to correct me if I am wrong) that if you want to make a name for yourself, you do it by taking on and defeating great challenges. Great heroes are defined by the great foes they overcome. That's why even at his most enraged, Fenrir doesn't have it in him to be a tyrant, because bards don't write songs (not approving ones anyway) about the man who sits in a castle and oppresses the peasants; they write songs about the man hero who slays the dragon.

So, in the end Fenrir has nothing but contempt for Malistroi, because he wishes to corrupt and control rather than to achieve something so awesome that people will be left so awestruck they'll venerate you without even needing to ask for, let alone command it!

Next up is Yagno Petrovna himself, who represents a dark mirror of "Douglas The Ardent" in that he is a leader of people, who is now causing them suffering rather than protecting them from it.

Not only that, but both of them are more or less completely blind to their own flaws and weaknesses.

Douglas' rule was a great deal more secular in nature (fear of the Fey came first, a religious way to way to explain/comprehend the Fey came second) while Yagno's has always been religious first and foremost instead.

Alex also hates Yagno because at any given time Alex is typically about 75% Douglas and 25% Fenrir (except when channeling the combined power of Yagno and Malistroi to assume his true wolf state then he becomes 75% Fenrir and 25% Douglas) and that 25% has a lot to say about gods, except that since gods themselves don't show up much (make that "at all" in Ravenloft) it gets passed on down to clerics instead.

Alex can overrule this particular desire/instinct as he did in the case of Wyan, but he and Fenrir are both all too happy to agree that Yagno Petrovna is an asshole, and Alex/Douglas would also have some very choice words (and actions) for any followers of the Iron Faith who tried to seriously get him to fall in line.

Yagno is the most contemptible of the three villains of the piece (having reaped the rewards of his villainy the longest) also gets to suffer the most in turn. Where Yagno Petrovna once lived with the uncertain itch in the back of his skull that he might be serving a god who did not truly exist… now he will live out the rest of his days (and if a darklord has ever died of old age I haven't heard of it…) with the certain dread in his stomach that he serves a very real god, a real god who does not like him in the least and would be happy to smite him if he steps a toe out of line.

Not because he serves a particularly angry or vengeful god, but because Yagno backed the wrong side in a divine conflict, and now he's the clerical equivalent of a prisoner of war. Yagno is thus going to be forever in Alexander's shadow for as long as he remains in the domain, and by the time Alex is ready to leave Yagno will have become a figurehead in his own faith with Petchko actually being in charge.

Yagno Petrovna, who spent all his life looking for a god… has finally found one, and that god hates him. Such sweet suffering, is it any one why the Dark Powers allowed Alex to get away with so many technicalities (like probably granting magic to people who worship Fenrir) if the end result was delivering unto them an entirely new way to make one of their favorite prisoners suffer?

Finally, we have Madar/Rega. Rega is a dark reflection of Alex as he is now, a schemer who is devoid of respect for rulership be it secular or divine.

Rega isn't a darklord, he doesn't have as many huge personality hangups/defects and so in his argument with Alexander even if he (Rega) gets outplayed and outplanned him, he is never quite out argued.

This is Ravenloft, villains are supposed to be complex, they're allowed to make valid points/arguments every so often.

Granted, their particular differences can best be summarized by looking back at the works of Fredrick Nietzsche (whose arguments I am highly likely to be interpreting wrong so once again please correct me)...

Basically when a system of overall morality begins to become corrupt/decaying/no long properly functioning for the good of society, it will need eventually need to be torn down.

In the process of tearing it down there will be a conflict between two competing forces.

Force A is "The Last Man" (BOO!) the person who is aware that the framework they're supporting has become horrifically corrupt and nonfunctional, but at the same time wishes to prop it up/continue it, simply because doing so will allow them to maintain power, prestige, and a privileged position in the system as it currently stands. Rega is effectively the "Last Man" of G'Henna, while Yagno still in his twisted mind believes that the mindlessly devote theocracy he's created is a good thing, Rega knows it is nothing but hollow words… but doesn't have an especially great problem with that so long as he becomes the new high priest to who everyone bends a knee. His problem with Yagno's current repressive theocracy is that its a regressive theocracy where Yagno Petrovna holds power and not Rega.

Force B which opposes the Last Man is the Ubermensch (YAY!) a man who seeks to tear down the ineffective and corrupt old system and replace it with a new one. Alex is the Ubermensch in G'Henna and just about everywhere else he goes. In a world as corrupt and dark as Ravenloft where well a good solid three quarters or so of the time governments are actively creating problems for their people rather than solving them (three quarters of that three quarters because the Darklord is/is in control of the official government) morality becomes a bit trickier.

While in the real world obviously one of the main ways to be a good person (or at least avoid being a bad person) is simply follow the safety handrails that society has put in place and don't break the law, that isn't going to work in Alex's situation. So many times the laws that he's confronted with (this book is an excellent example) were created not to further the common good but to secure the grip of tyrants, if not simply at the will of tyrants for no particular purpose.

So Alex has decided that he will refuse to be bound by the laws of any land, and will break them however and whenever he sees fit. It is worth pointing out at this time that if you haven't realized it yet, none of our six main heroes are of the Lawful alignment, Alex and James are both Chaotic Good, Florence is Neutral Good, Devi and Cal are True Neutral, Mirri is Chaotic Evil.

Anyway, so having torn down the rotting structure of the conventional morality he has been presented with, the Ubermensch proceeds to build in its place a new better and brighter code of morality! In Alex's case, his driving principle is, well honestly for most part it could best be summed by part of the Chorus of "Sophia" by Cruxshadows.

Do not injustice to another,

Defend the weak and the innocent,

Let truth and honor always guide you,

Let courage find a life within.

Stand up when no one else is willing,

Act not in hatred or in spite,

Be to this world as a perfect knight,

Even if it means your life!

That said, being Chaotic Good, Alex views these more as guidelines rather than hard and fast rules (thus why at times he is at times a tremendous dick, he/Florence/the group in general just make sure his dickery is pointed squarely at people who deserve it).

So when Madar argues that Alex's philosophy basically boils down him using his strength to impose his version of "Might makes Right" on everyone he meets and everywhere he goes, it is a valid point.

Madar's neutral evil philosophy in turn also boils down to "Might makes Right" at the end of the day.

The devil (or at possibly the angel) is in the details though… or to be even more apt go back to what Florence said in the mos recent side story, you can only know the truth of a tree by examining its fruit.

When Alex says "Might makes Right" he genuinely means "Right". He means that this world is broken, warped, cruel and wicked (which this being Ravenloft is a pretty accurate statement) and so his Might be used to set things Right. Might is a tool used to transform the world and bring about a state of moral rightness.

When Madar says "Might makes Right" he means that he will use his strength to make it so that there are none who can stand against him.

Both Alex and Madar have torn themselves free from the conventional morality that G'Henna tries to impose upon its occupants, but only Alexander Diamondclaw is a Ubermensch because he has replaced that lost conventional morality with a new code of ethics and morals, all Madar has left is his own unfettered lust for power.

Anyway now that we have have established the situation (in almost ludicrous level of detail), the time has come to actually talk about the book itself on a chapter by chapter detail.

Or to be more exact, the time as has come to do that with my next update….