A Grace of Crowns | ☑ Queenkiller, Kingmaker #1

Author's Note

↝ this work contains violence, profanity, and sexual references ↜

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↝ Media and Illustrations ↜

CHAPTER AMBIANCE
Each chapter contains an ambiance video designed to complement your reading experience and should not be distracting. Click play to listen as you read (^_~) Each video belongs to their respective creators on YouTube.
   

ILLUSTRATIONS & CHARACTER ART
Join the A Grace of Crowns Pinterest board to see chapter illustrations, character art, and other aesthetics: https://id.pinterest.com/AMPrabeswar/a-grace-of-crowns (linked also in the in-line comment, and on my profile).
I highly suggest you to visit each chapter board as you read and not to go further ahead in order to avoid potential spoilers. You can also check out the book trailer linked in my profile!

    
MAPS & GUIDES
Maps, terms and terminology, as well as a pronunciation guide are available in the [BONUS] chapters at the end of this book. However, a separate book, Queenkiller, Kingmaker: Appendix, is also available to read on my profile for added reference.

   
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↝ Support Me ↜

PATREON
If you like my work, please consider supporting me by becoming a patron at https://www.patreon.com/AMPrabeswar (also linked in the in-line comment and on my profile). You'll have access to exclusive content including Behind the Scenes snippets, writing workshops, short stories, and other work I don't post on Wattpad. Plus, patronage can be revoked at any time!

         
VOTES & COMMENTS
A free and quick way to show support! Votes help me get this story out there to more readers, so if you enjoyed a chapter, please do spare a second to click on the star to vote. If you would like to receive updates, don't forget to add this story to your library and reading list. Also, do feel free to follow, or just drop by my profile to say hello.
I also appreciate all forms of feedback and criticism, so please don't hesitate to leave your thoughts behind, whether positive or negative.

   
DISCORD
Join the Queenkiller, Kingmaker kingdom in the official Writers' Paradise discord at https://discord.gg/vqSDTPwcu8 (see in-line comment or my profile).
You can find my section there under THE ISLES OF RAJA.

    
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↝ Source Inspiration ↜

Is this story based on Indian/Hindu mythology?

I get this question a lot, so I want to be clear on my source inspiration.

Southeast-Asian countries have intermingled so much that we share a lot of cultural and political history. I am happy that readers from all areas of the region are able to identify with and recognise parts of their culture in this work. Creating SEA-an-esque fantasy worlds for predominantly SEA-an people is exactly why I write in the first place.

The predominant setting of this book is heavily inspired by my own country specifically and Southeast-Asia generally as a broader region.

If there is a majority source of inspiration in my creation of terminology, it will have to be the Javanese and Balinese languages, as well as other and more antiquated Indonesian ethnic languages. However, due to our history and geopolitical location, we do share a lot of root Malay, Arabic, and Sanskrit words (and thanks to centuries of colonisation, even Dutch and Japanese).

All that said, none of the kingdoms in this story are an analogue-world meant to depict or represent any one particular existing country or culture.

I do not like to use existing terminology/concepts from one culture and mixing and matching them with concepts from other cultures, especially in the context of a made-up, fictional world. For example, using the Japanese shuriken in a world where the people wear the Korean hanbok and live in Chinese siheyuan houses.
To me, this muddles and confuses origins to people who are unfamiliar with said cultures. POC cultures are already viewed and mistaken as "the same" and interchangeable to non POC all the time, and this practice further perpetuates such bias.

At the same time, since SEA-an sociocultural identities have intertwined so much throughout the region, I won't be doing anyone justice by using terms/terminology belonging to one particular source when they are shared and belong to everyone.
For this reason, I prefer to find similarities--identify common/similar root-words, use repeating concepts/mythologies/cultures, that are found throughout the region--and spin them to create a completely new (albeit similar) concepts.

This is why you might recognise root words used in new terminology, or recognise similar mythology or concepts under different terms. They are not spelling errors or misattribution, they are just new words inspired by pre-existing patterns of pre-existing languages.