Phil seemingly always had the cultural issues in mind, and it was true that the peace between wood elves and humans opened up some fascinating issues. We were clear that this was Syr’Nj’s extended sequence, setting her up to step back from field work and let Bandit into field command, so I thought I could get away with only raising the issue in a single page. I was definitely channeling some of my Jewish friends’ experiences here, albeit painting in very broad strokes.

Bringing back Embraisch’Nj as messenger and focusing on his particular response to speciesism–the small ways he collaborates with the regime, without even thinking twice about it at this point–kept the page from being an entirely tell-don’t-show exercise. I had no intention of bringing him back a third time, but when I said so to Phil, he immediately started thinking in terms of an arc. You’d see the results of that in about six more chapters.

Phil also revised the dialogue a bit and brought Kur’Ik into the convo, which was certainly for the best.