Valkyrie's Shadow

Winter's Crown: Afterword

Winter's Crown: Afterword

Afterword and Author's Notes

Hmm, well, things happened. Winter’s Crown has reached its conclusion, possibly leaving more questions than answers. Thank you, dear readers, for your continued interest in Valkyrie’s Shadow!

Where do I begin…I guess the first thing I have to say is having major characters start in separate positions is hard. Not in the sense that they are difficult to write, but the idea that they are ultimately meant to be together. I suppose that’s why most origin stories are separate from the ‘primary narrative’ of a setting.

Usually, the crew in a story comes together fairly quickly, allowing for what feels like a faster-paced more and vibrant narrative where these characters play off of one another. By virtue of their disparate backgrounds, Valkyrie’s Shadow cannot do that with its main characters. They come from different races, different nations, and appear at different points in time as the Sorcerous Kingdom grows.

Hopefully, I still managed to make things interesting. All of the commentary and feedback the story has received has been quite enlightening in this regard.

Having Winter’s Crown start with the two main characters apart led it to feeling something like two different stories that merge towards the end. Indeed, you could say that it might have been divided into a Ludmila/Qrs volume, then an Ilyshn’ish/Ludmila/Sigurd volume. It certainly has the word count >_

Where are we in the canon Timeline?

This volume was probably easier to track with all the maps and dates attached to them, but the story covers a three-month period: from the first week of Lower Wind month to the first week of Lower Fire month. This puts us roughly two months away from Volume 12 of the Light Novels, the beginning of which happens entirely in the Holy Kingdom of Roble. The HK’s Paladin delegation doesn’t arrive in the Sorcerous Kingdom until mid-winter – about five months away.

The New World and the Old New World

As Valkyrie’s Shadow features natives of the New World, we get to explore a lot of what Overlord only hints at or glosses over. Martial Arts and class systems. Spell, ability and skill development. How societies evolve out of this ‘biology’ and the cultures that arise out of them. This volume explores a few tribal Demihuman cultures and starts poking around a bit about how integration between said cultures and the Human-centric culture of E-Rantel starts to occur. This Human-centricity also extends to Nazarick to a significant degree, as its denizens are designed by Humans for Human interaction in a game developed by Humans for Human consumption.

The Light Novels also focus on a thin sliver of time, but Valkyrie’s Shadow involves the New World’s history in its storytelling. Races that think in terms of centuries or even aeons exist, and how they view the frenetic Human society that we’re used to seeing in canon is quite different.

The Krkonoše, in particular, are a race that has spent most of their existence outside of the brief, 600-year ‘Human’ history of Overlord. Though individually short-lived, they have a rich culture and history that’s older than dirt™. An ‘old race’, so to speak – one that knows far more than what they care to tell ‘young races’. Their kind lives in a state more reminiscent of the ‘old’ New World, with a worldview that considers even centuries as a wink in time.

Dragons, too, have a form of this ‘old’ view, but their race was irreversibly changed by events that occurred 500 years before the arrival of Nazarick. Ilyshn’ish’s attitude and perspectives are a sort of sad echo of this time; a nature evolved out of an existence that can no longer exist.

Elves like Merry are probably the ones that slip under the radar, but you see it in her character as well. A woman much older than the northern Human nations, who once adventured with Andrei Zahradnik and continues to keep a loose eye on his descendants. Her seemingly frivolous nature is greatly at odds with the weight that sometimes lies in the shadow of her words.

As Valkyrie’s Shadow progresses, the story will run into more of these sorts of elements, especially when it gets out to places where nations haven’t been table flipped by catastrophic Yggdrasil-related events and have developed a long and rich history.

Player Contamination

Something that may be a bit taken for granted in Overlord is the effect that Players have on the world. Though there are certainly some things that are telling, such as rewriting the rules of the world itself or genociding an entire species, broader elements are often reduced to mere tidbits that have no real effect on the setting. This is in part due to the principle narrative of Overlord, but, in a story about New World natives, even ‘minor’ instances of Player Contamination has a colossal effect on the lives of the people, altering the evolution of culture and society.

The Frost Giant plot showcases this in an in-your-face manner, but the principal case of Player contamination is Nazarick itself. As foreshadowed in Birthright, the citizens of the Sorcerous Kingdom are beginning to change to be more in line with Yggdrasil influences. Some characters, like the Adventurers, adopt language and embrace mechanical knowledge relevant to their vocation. Others, like Ludmila, take the knowledge she is exposed to and correlates it with previous Player knowledge embedded in her religion. By doing so, she creates a clearer picture of how past efforts to incorporate this knowledge were implemented, where it works, and how to advance.

We live in a class-based society

One of the more blatant handwaves of the Overlord series: classes broadly exist, yet don’t appear to have any telling effects on the world outside of direct combat or some gimmick that Maruyama decides to showcase. I’ve even come across people that assert that some classes do nothing but take up levels for no reason. We know they do something, however: someone has to make that Adventurer’s gear, their consumables and everything else that goes into their kit. Non-production vocations, such as leaders and merchants also exist with demonstrable skills. We know that they need levels to do what they do and that most of the inhabitants of the world don’t really live a life that puts their lives on the line.

Unfortunately – and inexplicably – the New World appears ignorant of this notion. Some races, like the Krkonoše, Dragons and Gnolls, have racial class levels that fall perfectly in line with their natural existence. Others, like Humans, are not so lucky. For these races, it’s like it never occurred to them what the difference between a smith that can only work steel and a smith that can work mithril is, despite it being a crucial vocation in every nation, and their existence can result in success or ruin. Many key vocations face this problem, and the ignorance over it is so broad that it begs belief.

Fortunately for Valkyrie’s Shadow, this leaves a lot of room to explore how such a society functions and is optimized. Between Birthright and Winter’s Crown, the foundations have been laid, and I look forward to fleshing out and exploring how this aspect of the world affects the state of civilization.

A Clash of Systems

One of the overarching narratives – one might even say that it’s the underlying meta-narrative of Overlord – is the collision between the systems of the Dive MMO Yggdrasil and the systems of the New World. Overlord can be interpreted as a transitional narrative between old and new: with Yggdrasil representing the popular trends that one finds in modern gaming, MMOs and fantasy writing, while the New World is the ‘old’ fantasy of past TRPGs, games and stories from decades ago which have waned in popularity and cultural memory. This gap in prominence is symbolized by the gap in power in Overlord.

In the Overlord canon, we primarily go through the story over the shoulder of those representing the Yggdrasil side of things, or those that interact closely with characters that are on team Nazarick. The sheer difference in power for the most part trivializes the New World and anything it can bring to bear against Ainz and Nazarick. Various mechanics and features of the New World are only brought up as points of comparison, and all points of comparison are inferior(power-wise) to their Yggdrasil counterparts. As Overlord is fundamentally mousou – that is, power fantasy/wish fulfilment where Maru wants to tell a story about the ‘strongest’ protagonist – elements of the New World that might taint this impression are deftly sidestepped or mentioned as a vague aside.

There are some ‘rules’ to this dynamic, however. Simply put, as Yggdrasil represents what it does in the meta-narrative, it is powerful, yet limited/constrained by design. The New World is relatively weak but has infinite potential within the arbitrary bounds forced upon it. As Overlord carries forward, we are slowly introduced to more and more of the New World, but every native mechanic is, as above, introduced as a curiosity and trivial to the concerns of the high-power cast of Nazarick.

Valkyrie’s Shadow, however, is a story told primarily from a New World perspective, at the levels of strength that can be found in the New World. Here, we take this clash of systems and portray it on a more level playing field. Strengths and weaknesses for how each ‘side’ addresses things are examined and weighed against each other. There are many places where the answers provided by a game are insufficient to meet the demands of reality, or reality is supplanted by the arbitrary nature of a game.

Since the povs are primarily natives, the New World’s systems have a direct and telling effect on their lives. As such, these systems are explored far more than they were in both the Web Novel and Light Novels of Overlord. A different perspective is presented on many familiar things. Though these New World elements are regularly explored in Valkyrie’s Shadow, Ludmila’s new reality in the shadow of Yggdrasil-driven events is something of a potent reminder that the New World has a nature of its own, and the world does not depend on Yggdrasil to dictate the course of events.

Competence, Incompetence, and the Tyranny of Reason in Storytelling

In the first half of Winter’s Crown, I came across some interesting feedback – or perhaps backlash – when I used a set of real cognitive biases to construct the case of Ludmila’s series of training deaths in the Adventurer Guild. It’s not a surprise that people like reading about competent, likeable people and follow them as they struggle, learn, grow, and succeed. What is a surprise, though, is that the pitfalls that come with intelligence and competency are treated with outright hostility when attention is brought to them. Everything requires a logical, purposeful rationale to it – as if all problems are designed to be solved.

In this case, what the characters involved had to face was a combination of the Dunning-Kruger Effect and the Curse of Knowledge. As the old Adventurer Guild was an institution that wasn’t big on ensuring the success of their newer membership(it was literally sink or swim) and new to teaching, it felt like a perfect place for one of the most valuable lessons one can ever learn.

For those that are unaware, the Dunning-Kruger Effect is the irrational tendency for low ability individuals to overestimate their ability, and for high ability individuals to underestimate it. The Curse of Knowledge is when experts don’t understand that they aren’t communicating properly to those who don’t share the same degree of expertise.

The result is that the Adventurer Guild seniors assume that Ludmila knows what she needs to know, and underestimate how much more they understand relative to their students. For some reason, however, when I wrote about this common problem, it was labelled as character breaking/incompetence/stupidity. This was a bit of a shock to me, especially when the cognitive biases that served as the main pivots for character growth in Birthright felt generally well-received.

What Cage Match?

Despite being shown otherwise in canon, direct comparisons of power appear to be the order of the day for many readers of Overlord. Or perhaps it’s more of how Gamelit/LitRPG fans just love to put two characters/factions/nations up against one another and speculate over who beats who in a face smashing contest. While Valkyrie’s Shadow does have a few fights that qualify as duels, the vast majority of combat presented is larger in scale and far more intricate than what is presented in canon. Strategy, tactics, logistics and psychology are in the driver’s seat; powerful champions and heroes have their own challenges in the grand scheme of things.

This reality is something that New Worlders are far more accustomed to than the denizens of Nazarick, who are essentially designed as a reactive force to base invasion. A huge border is not something they are accustomed to defending, as Nazarick is tiny by comparison and invaders fit into relatively small spaces where the terrain is static and outcomes arbitrarily limited by game design. This is not to say that the NPCs are stupid, but they are used to doing a certain way, and this behaviour is inherited from the Supreme Beings. It’s not something they would let go of it so easily, considering it the proper way to do things.

The realities of combat have also changed for the New World natives working for Nazarick(and those who end up facing it). Old ideas may no longer work, or work even better than before. Things considered too fanciful to be put in practice suddenly become optimal. When it comes to dealing with the rank and file forces of the Sorcerous Kingdom, both native and Nazarick characters must learn how to best adapt to their new circumstances. The rise of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s army will be an ongoing story in Valkyrie’s Shadow. Hopefully, people will enjoy that part of the worldbuilding.

Character/Arc Notes

Qrs, Ysvrith and Avod

The Demihuman army ended up being a more contentious arc than I anticipated. Some readers thoroughly enjoyed this journey, while others decidedly did not.

Conceptually, Qrs is a ‘winner’ in the context of the New World: the dad that can beat up your dad. He is a successful, respected leader with a loving family. Unfortunately, none of this helps when it comes to Nazarick: if they decide to ruin your day, it will be ruined no matter how many correct decisions you make and regardless of your history. In Qrs’ case, the only thing that mattered was that he lived on the wrong side of the fence, and Demiurge wanted some experimental subjects. This isn’t the last we see of the Gan Zu tribe, however, as Light Novel readers have noted.

Avod and her Goblin army is a homage to D&D, much like Enri’s Goblin army in Overlord canon. Like their inspiration’s counterparts, Goblinoids have a penchant for organizing in Overlord, though this is something that works in the background of the LN and is only directly presented in the WN. In Valkyrie’s Shadow, we see it happen ‘naturally’ – as opposed to being summoned by an item – complete with cultural attitudes and how they interact with the world around them.

Rather than primitive and savage, they are orderly and are intelligent enough to actively work at increasing their power. Canonically, Goblin societies that advance past a certain point are stamped out by the Slane Theocracy’s scriptures or a nearby nation’s security forces, but this army formed rather abruptly through Nazarick’s manipulations.

Ysvrith and her Gnolls are an example of Demihumans that have a strong racial focus, being natural Rangers. They are something like the unsung heroes of the Demihuman army, doing things mostly out of sight and notice. As demonstrated, they utterly outclass Ludmila in the same tactical style: where their target isn’t even aware of their impending doom until the moment it happens. Their fate – or at least the fate of their surviving members in Demiurge’s keeping – is also a homage to d20 settings, where primal Gnolls fall under fiendish influence. In the setting of Valkyrie’s Shadow, the Fiend that fills this role is Demiurge.

Overall, it is something of a tragic story, where the best good people can do isn’t enough and falls to the whims of an unprecedented power. Ludmila unknowingly serves as the executioner at the end of a cruel experiment; her heritage and faith facilitating the extermination of what she sees as dangerous invaders with her typical steadfast approach. It’s also the first time we see the new army of the Sorcerous Kingdom in action in this story, and the various problems that it must overcome when things aren’t as simple as people lining up and waiting to get stomped.

Sigurd

As many have probably noticed by now, Sigurd and his fellow Frost Giants are something like Vikings on crack. With the almost-entirely D&D characteristics and setting delivered by the Frost Dragons in Overlord canon, it was an irresistible thing for me to write their canonical rivals according to that very same setup. It has its own Overlord-style twist, however, with their culture being the result of Player contamination.

Powerful, proud and orderly in disposition, the Frost Giants will be an excellent addition to the Sorcerous Kingdom’s collection citizenry. It will take them some time to sort themselves out, but they represent an avenue that is not really explored in Overlord canon: maritime power. Sooner or later, their great longships will sail the seas of the New World again – bearing the ensign of the Sorcerous Kingdom.

There is a lot of North Germanic(Viking) history incorporated into the story, with Sigurd, Gudrun, Gunnar and Brynhild all connected to one another in Germanic legend. Sigurd is the hero known for slaying the Dragon Fafnir, and so I thought the name suited for a champion of the Frost Giants, who have Draconic rivals. As for the rest of the myth, well, it gets messy. It won’t happen to them in Valkyrie’s Shadow. Probably.

There is a small subversion of another bit of Viking history as well. Holmgang, which Sigurd used to call out Vali Stenberg, was historically abused by Berserkers to murder people and take their stuff. In this story, however, a Berserker invokes this rite to save his people, proving definitively to Cocytus that the Frost Giants are worth incorporating into the Sorcerous Kingdom.

Ilyshn’ish=Verilyn

The second MC of Valkyrie’s Shadow starts out by being snatched away from her quiet life in the Azerlisia Mountains and dumped into the rapidly changing Sorcerous Kingdom. The advantages that she’s gained over her siblings mean very little on their own, and her nature as a Frost Dragon – both in terms of her biology and her attitudes – often serve as an obstacle to her own success. Fortunately for her, Shalltear Bloodfallen has taken note of her skills and is dead set on turning her into a tool for her ambitions.

She is something of a foil to more ‘orderly’ characters like the denizens of Nazarick or the Nobles of the Sorcerous Kingdom, presenting a perspective more in line with the primal realities of the New World. She still holds this outlook, but she has learned to curb her more impulsive and outspoken attitude with the understanding that even a Dragon isn’t safe from reprisal in her new environment. Compared to the Ilyshn’ish of the first half of Winter’s Crown, her current self is more analytical and calculating.

As foreshadowed, she ends up under Ludmila Zahradnik, albeit both suddenly and unwillingly. Though she has learned that denying Shalltear is futile, Ilyshn’ish still works to escape her fate as a pet. With her basic acclimation to Human society out of the way, she now studies under her new liege for her future role as an agent for Shalltear and the transportation network. In typical Dragon style, she has settled in to play the long game that only biologically immortal beings can play. Unbeknownst to her, however, her new liege can now play that game as well…

Ludmila Zahradnik

Ludmila has a tour de force of sorts in Winter’s Crown, with her newfound conviction as a noble of the Sorcerous Kingdom springboarding her into the various duties that a Frontier Noble like herself sees in their lives. From overseeing her territory’s administration and development to fighting enemies from the frontier, Ludmila tirelessly juggles her noble duties, faith and adventuring life in the earnest and stoic manner that she tends towards.

There is a sort of hiccup in her character journey when she finds herself in a sort of death loop with the Adventurer Guild. It ends up being a valuable lesson for a leader that is responsible for many, however, and gives her a new appreciation for the care, traditions and faith that have contributed to her existence. The more militant aspect of her character is on full display in the latter half of Winter’s Crown with her command of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s forces in the upper reaches. Unlike the flamboyant displays of Re-Estize or the shows of disciplined force like Baharuth, Ludmila is a shrewd commander raised to exploit every advantage that her forces possess over their opponents while maintaining her control over the theatre.

Her first Adventure brings her life to an early end, though it doesn’t stop her from carrying out her duties. She’s been able to compartmentalize and stow away many events in her life, but Ludmila’s belated realization of what has occurred has cast her adrift: uncertain about the meaning of her new existence.

Demiurge

Nazarick’s magnificent bastard makes an appearance in Winter’s Crown as the primary driving force behind the events of Acts 5 and 6. A cunning master manipulator and one who spares no effort in his work to expand the knowledge, resources, and influence of Nazarick, his plans never only have one purpose – they have dozens, often reaching far into the future. Qrs’ story is one example of this: a reminder that it is not only Pandora’s Actor who works in the background of Valkyrie’s Shadow.

It is my hope that, in future story arcs, people are more cognizant of the possibility that major actors such as Demiurge are working behind the scenes.

Pandora’s Actor

Like Demiurge, Pandora’s Actor continues to work behind the scenes as the almighty janitor of the story: often serving as a helpful advisor to the other Guardians as they collaborate to build up the Sorcerous Kingdom. With much of his focus now on determining how class systems and levelling mechanics work, he has become a font of knowledge when it comes to this topic. Some of his speculations sound pretty out there, though.

It occurred to me that there isn’t actually any scene of Pandora’s Actor doing his work as the Guardian of the Treasury in canon, so he ended up having one here.

Cocytus

Cocytus is introduced to Ludmila and Ilyshn’ish at different times in this volume, picking up where Volume 11 of the Light Novels left him off. With the discussion between Ainz and the Lizardmen in mind, he has acted to move some of their population around. A number now live in E-Rantel and, more notably in this story, a colony has been established in Warden’s Vale. To his great concern, however, Cocytus’ policy of open-handed benevolence has resulted in some problematic behaviour amongst the Lizardmen he’s been ruling over.

Later on, we find him in the nascent planning stages of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s army, maintaining the ongoing security of the Dwarven highway. Ludmila’s conflict in the upper reaches and the Frost Giant ‘campaign’ that follows two weeks later gives Cocytus and his general staff much to think about. With the Frost Giants now under his extended rule, a new navy also lies within his grasp. As the ‘Grand Marshal’ of the Sorcerous Kingdom, he has embarked on a path fueled by his own initiative, learning not only from his personal experiences, but reaching out to others to develop his vision for the Royal Army.

Shalltear Bloodfallen

Shalltear continues her work building up both her achievements and her network of useful people. The foundation of the transportation network has been established, and her push for improvements to land infrastructure is well underway. With the Frost Giants now under the banner of the Sorcerous Kingdom, she is bound to begin considering maritime transport as well.

She has taken strides to have those she’s been working to bring under her influence to be associated with her in the eyes of Ainz, though predictably these individuals are capable and attractive women who suit her personal tastes. Speaking of tastes, Ludmila just checked off one huge box on that list. Understandably, Shalltear is ecstatic about this.

The ‘intelligence’ displayed by Shalltear Bloodfallen is occasionally called into question in Valkyrie’s Shadow. Perhaps it has been a bit too subtle, but what she says and does can generally be placed into three categories. The first is that it’s something that she’s experienced or heard in the past, and she often does things like refer to incidents or the words of others from the Light Novels.

Secondly would be when she is coached or run through an idea or course of action. The latter half of Winter’s Crown has several examples of where it is blatantly the case – Pandora’s Actor’s involvement in the planning for Ilyshn’ish’s future role, Shalltear’s participation in Demiurge’s experiment, and the role that she plays in bringing the Frost Giants into the Sorcerous Kingdom. There are several other instances of this occurring as well, and one should be able to tell whose intellect or knowledge she’s leaning on to come up with what she says.

Thirdly are her statements and actions derived from intuition, which Shalltear has in abundance. This has been expounded on before, but I can’t stress it enough. Though her methods may be brutal and direct at times, they are more often than not the best way to deal with something in a given situation. She doesn’t think too much – she just speaks her mind or acts on her impulses. In the future, as she gathers intelligent and talented people under her, this intuition will often lend her a tremendous advantage over her more logic-driven peers.

Moving Onwards…

Valkyrie’s Shadow continues with its next volume, Legacy of the Plains. Ludmila needs time to digest her new state of being, Ilyshn’ish has a lot to learn, and we’ll be catching up with many of the developments that have occurred in the Sorcerous Kingdom on the domestic front. The titular Katze Plains, which doesn’t get much attention at all in Overlord canon, will be receiving its first round of exploration.

Once again, thank you for reading Valkyrie’s Shadow, and, if you’re following this story on Royal Road, please consider contributing a shiny rating or even writing up a review!