Blades of Light and Shadow 2 Q&A
It’s been 84 years… But the Blades of Light and Shadow team is back and have answered some of your most pressing questions. Can you handle the suspense? Let’s dive in!
How will the relationship you established with your love interest in the last book continue into the sequel?
Emi: You and your love interest(s) have faced a lot together already, but the toughest challenges are still ahead of you. While the world might try to push you apart, you always find a way back together. You may even get to hear those 3 magical words.
Kathleen: Watch out, because a new wife just dropped and she's gonna kick your butt (in a sexy way… But also in the regular way).
How will Aerin be featured in this book? Will he make a comeback?
Kathleen: Aerin sacrificed everything and betrayed everyone in exchange for power in Book 1, and then that power was snatched away. He’ll be dealing with those consequences over the course of the book.
Emi: Book 1 certainly wasn't the last you'll see of our favorite betrayer prince, especially if you captured him. As for where his story goes from here, well, that's partially up to you.
What does a typical day look like in the office for everybody who is developing the story's plot? What is your writing process and how do you handle writing the steamy scenes?
Kathleen: Something no one tells you about writing is that a lot of the time it looks like lying on the floor to stare at the ceiling for 10-20 minutes until you say, "Oh, yeah that works", and then getting up to type some more.
Lil: I really appreciate that PB lets us work from home, so I can heart eyes the Blades love interests on my own couch for as long as I need where the only one who can judge me is my dog.
Emi: As for steamy scenes, I tend to enjoy a lot of the same stuff as our players, so I usually let that be my starting point. Though I don't recommend working on them in public unless you're really good at keeping a straight face.
Danielle: I’m not a writer but a day in the life in production requires incognito mode and not public places…
Jay: Being the producer on this book is like herding cats who have magical powers and are very talkative. In terms of working on our steamy scenes, I’ve worked on so many of our steamies at this point that I’ll have one of our books open on a steamy moment and wonder why my friends are giving me horrified looks. Then I come back to the real world and remember that not everyone does this for a living. 😂
Where do you draw your artistic inspiration from? Specifically for Blades of Light and Shadow
Tom: We draw inspiration from so many places, but nothing quite beats the vibrant, super fantastical, and often whimsical art of the vast and varied Dungeons and Dragons universe! We looked at a lot of classic D&D paintings from veterans like Larry Elmore and Jeff Easley when designing the locations, races, and outfits in Blades. There is something very comforting and accessible about the art of D&D which is a great fit for the world of Morella.
Danielle: Outside of D&D many other fantasy worlds such as Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and even Narnia gave us a good idea of what we wanted to create. But mostly we were inspired by the phrase, “suns out guns out”. 💪
Are we going to be seeing any new races and extravagant outfits in Book 2?
Tom: Yes and yes! (feel free to elaborate)
Danielle: No need to elaborate, you’ll see. 😏
Emi: It was an absolute requirement that ALL dwarves have beards.
Lil: And that all goblins be sexy.
Kathleen: Also the goblins are all non-binary.
Lil: Yes that’s what I said.
Jay: The four pillars.
What is the process of visually developing a fantasy world for stories such as Blades?
Tom: It's a process equal parts laborious and fulfilling! Our phenomenal writers are so good at building incredible worlds, giving the artists a really solid foundation to work from. Morella is a huge world filled with many races, creatures, and beautiful (and deadly!) locations, so we allow a lot of time for concepting. We work closely with the writers to figure out what each character and place should look like–what do houses look like in a magical forest with trees as tall as skyscrapers? Would a seafaring orc wear a fur vest? Creating the art is so much fun, but the real reward is reading the book for the first time and seeing your art as part of the story!
Kathleen: This is one of my favorite parts of the process! I do a lot of art outside of work and have many Opinions™ about it. At the concepting phase, the writing team's job is to describe the characters/places/whatever and how they relate to the plot. Then the art team works with us to turn our word-pictures into, y'know, actual pictures.
Will there be any new game mechanics or collections we can look forward to?
Kathleen: There's a whole new set of skills, weapons, and lore to collect!
Jay: It’s been a fun little puzzle for me as I dive deeper into the mechanics that were already in place for Book 1 and then adding our own spin on things. The artists and writers have done a fantastic job bringing fresh ideas while keeping true to what was already there!
How will our premium choices in Book 1 be featured/included throughout the sequel?
Lil: In Blades 1, the premiums allowed you to collect a lot of information about both your companions and your world. That knowledge pays off throughout Book 2 in terms of deepening your connections with the characters and with understanding the relationship between the realms of Light and Shadow. And, of course, as promised in Book 1, capturing Aerin has real consequences, the biggest of which is more Aerin screen time. You get a very different story if he's imprisoned in Whitetower at the start of the book.
Emi: Not to mention the elite skills you learned from the rest of your party. You never know when those will come in handy!
How does the team decide what music should be added to each scene? And will there be new tracks for Book 2?
Kathleen: Ideally we craft a book's soundtrack to have a consistent sound that makes sense for the world (no techno in Morella). Beyond that it's just about choosing the track that works with (or creates) the right emotional vibe for a given scene.
Jay: Playing the first chapter when we have new music is one of my favorite moments of working on a Choices book! I’m super excited for this one in particular for obvious reasons!
What's the meaning behind Raine and Aerin's names being anagrams of each other? Are they narrative foils & enemies to lovers?
Emi: Raine isn't the name of everyone's hero in Blades, but I would say the two serve as an excellent contrast to one another. They started in completely opposite circumstances, with Raine an orphan from the middle of nowhere with a really amazing brother and Aerin as the prince of the kingdom with possibly the world's worst brother. And then Raine's rise to power coincides with Aerin's loss of it. Frankly, I think Aerin could stand to learn some empathy from Raine and Raine could stand to lose their rose-tinted glasses by looking at the world the way Aerin does. They're certainly enemies for now... but lovers? Who knows?
If the Blades characters were in modern-day America, what jobs would they have?
Lil: I feel like Nia would be one of those genuinely nice social influencers who teaches people about sustainability and social justice. Imtura would be a stuntwoman turned film director. Mal would probably be doing what he's doing now just liberating artifacts from museums to go back to their cultures rather than tomb raiding. Tyril would be an event planner. I will not be taking questions at this time.
Kathleen: I think Imtura would be the influencer and her page is just a million videos where she walks up to dudes in the gym and does one-arm curls with the barbell they loaded up for a deadlift.
Lil: Your Honor, I love her. Really they could all be influencers. Except Tyril. That’s a lot of social and emotional labor for our very private elf boy.
Danielle: Cherta would be a model.
Jay: A beard model.
Tom: Aerin would work at Starbucks, part time.
What astrological signs would each Blades character have?
Emi: I have strong opinions on this! For my own sanity I'm just giving you everyone's sun signs. Raine's a Cancer, Nia's a Pisces, Imtura's an Aries, Tyril's a Capricorn, Mal's a Scorpio, Aerin's a Leo, and one of our new characters, Valax, is an Aquarius.
Kathleen: I also have strong opinions on this and my opinions are that I hate it. Something something Mercury's in the microwave.
Lil: I just want to point out that elven astrology has a figure whose parties basically saved civilization, and I love that for them.
Will we get to seduce another bug monster? Say yes.
Danielle: Depends, will you romance it?
Emi: I'm not sure you're going to want to seduce the new monsters we've got in this book--Who am I kidding, of course you're going to want to.
Jay: 👀
How many of the writers expected that Blades of Light and Shadow would have a sequel?
Emi: You always hope for the best, but with Blades we really weren't sure. However the love and attention it received from its fans is certainly part of the reason we're making another one!
Lil: I'm in this very weird position because I've only joined PB recently, and Blades of Light and Shadow was one of the first Choices titles I ever read when I was just a fan. I always felt there was room for the story to continue, so a sequel just felt right. But it was absolutely amazing to step in on my first day and hear how Book 2 is going to change things. You guys are in for a wild ride!
Jay: It’s been something on the horizon for so long, like looking up from the base of a mountain and thinking wow one day we’re going to reach the summit, that it’s actually incredible to be here today with production in full swing. It feels like I’m taking part in creating a piece of Choices history now haha!
And last but not least… How many fingers am I holding up?
Danielle: Yes.
Emi: It's 3. It's always 3.
Danielle: Wait I change my answer.
Jay: Oh my gosh, Danielle! Make up your mind!
Lil: You changed after you asked this. You know you did.
Kathleen: Twelve.
Tom: How ever many feels right to you right now.
Thank you to our Choices Community for submitting so many fun questions for our Blades 2 team to answer. We had a blast and can’t wait for the 2023 release! We’ll see you for more Blades of Light and Shadow 2 content on our social pages soon!
<3 The PB Community Team