Warning: This write-up contains major spoilers for all routes.

WRITING:

We originally wanted to make something shorter than M3NTICID3. The proposed length was 10k words with 5 CGs. Then things got out of hand. When I started writing , I realized the scope of the story was just way too big to be contained to 10k words. (This always happens to us.)

I realized it’d be fun to do actual routes because we didn’t get to do that last year and I’ve always dreamed of making a multi-route otome. That part was only mildly hellish, to be honest. I used Twine to make a flowchart but wrote the actual script in LibreOffice.  There are no bad endings, but I imagine if there were, they'd be really, really grim. I didn't want to get caught up in that for the sake of time, so we decided against putting them in.

Overall, I wish I could have made it longer because there are a few pacing things that I think the story would benefit from near the end, especially with Finn’s route, but that will have to wait a bit.  I’ll probably add another patch with extra scenes . Nothing super crazy or plot-important, just more character interactions near the end of the story. Act 3 does go by pretty quickly due to time constraints and I think it could benefit from more “padding” and down-time after the battle.

I was kind of dying and going insane near the end to be honest. I missed a few college lectures in March because of FIANNA. When I did go to class, sometimes I was researching classical antiquity instead of doing my work. I even had a dream where I lost some of my game files?

CHARACTERS:

We knew we wanted the main villain to be a Roman. Esquilinius was originally supposed to fill that role, but I love a good traitor arc and I thought Roman society and values could definitely produce an interesting yandere. So I had to put my grubby fingers in the pie and make him into a romanceable character (and give him fluffier hair.) Esquilinius changed A LOT during the brainstorming phase. It went from Random Generic Roman Villain Guy -> Weird Proto-Esquilinius -> Esquilinius. 

Isidorus came out of nowhere after we made the decision to make Esquilinius romanceable and we just rolled with it. He’s not a very developed antagonist beyond just doing his job, defying orders sometimes, and being a piece of shit about it but that’s okay. He was born to be an asshole and then get turned into dust.

Finn is based on Fionn Mac Cumhail (no way) and his colors are based on a spawning salmon. We were initially thinking it’d be cool for him to have dark hair in the beginning and gain white hair when he is revived, but decided against it because white-haired anime boys suffering is iconic. He wears a cool bronze age helmet that Delyths husband used.

Kveldulf is based on Kveldulf Bjalfason from the Egils saga. His troll form and lore is loosely based on the Varulv werewolf myth, specifically the bit about good werewolves aligning themselves with mankind by drinking beer.

Delyth is inspired by a combination of characters. The Morrigan is one of the Tuatha De Dannen, and has multiple interpretations to pull from. Though not explicitly stated in the narrative, we are going for the three sisters approach. 

Esquilinius isn’t based on any myth but we took mild inspirations from a few figures from Roman history.

HISTORICAL ACCURACY:

I have never written historical fiction before. I was armed with Google, some really neat history websites, a few JSTOR papers, and a dream. FIANNA is not completely historically accurate. I probably missed some stuff, and I did purposefully ignore a few small things for the sake of coolness or convenience, but I think I did an okay enough job all things considered. I honestly want to write more historical stuff now.

I was kind of in the dark about fishing practices in 277 CE but I did my best to be accurate to a medieval fishing guide. Not the same time period whatsoever, but I’ll take what I can get. The idea of fishing has generally been the same for many years, so that's good. Same with archery. 

Nobody in Fianna seems to be affected by falling off a horse. In real life, falling off of a horse can kill you. But that’s not really cool, is it? I needed excuses for characters to dismount that are more exciting than just getting off of the damn horse (with no stirrups, by the way! Those weren't invented yet.) Gotta keep up the battle momentum. Just fly off the horse and slam into a wall, who cares? Writing battle scenes is actually kind of grating after a while, and programming the animations was mildly annoying but I'm satisfied with the results. I've gotten a better hold over Ren'py's ATL language at least.

Two people on a single horse is not great to do in real life, and fighting in a battle with two people on one horse is a terrible, terrible idea. But Euphrates is a strong boy I guess. Also, Finn is the only one who is mentioned to have a shield. I kept writing myself into a weird hole involving shields, so I just got rid of them. Romans did have some really cool shield tactics in real life though!

Esquilinius’ full name was hard to settle on and it changed a lot. I was torn between historical accuracy and cool points. The main issue was that there were a very limited amount of praenomina (Roman first names) that were actually used in real life and none of them fit him. In my opinion, a lot of them are just kind of lame. I already used the only real-world praenomen I really like on an FFXIV character and I couldn’t re-use that. So his first name isn’t 100% realistic. 

Also, I tried my best with the Latin bits but  I’m sure I made mistakes. If anyone knows Latin and spots a mistake, please let us know! Or if anyone notices any other discrepancies or anachronisms. I know there are DEFINITELY typos I missed >_>

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ART:

The art was rather straightforward. 

Character designs were the first area I tackled. Almost every character stayed more or less true to their initial sketch … except for Esquilinius. Esquilinius was once again molded and changed until he was just right. As evident from the first drawing, he has a very dour and hawk-like look. We had to round out his edges and splash some colors onto him. 

Each of the main boys have roughly 35 unique sprites, which is quite the upgrade from M3NTICID3. I wanted each of them to have their own “Wow!” moment: Finn donning Naoise’s armor and Kveldulf’s transformation. Esquilinius unfortunately did not get that “Wow!” sprite. He was supposed to wear a cool mask with his helmet during the battle at Hadrian's Wall, but the sprite ended up being unused.  

The villagers in the beginning are actually based off of our dads, except for Simon, who is loosely inspired by a coworker that I hate. At first, we weren’t sure if we even wanted villager sprites, but their absence would have made the intro and tavern scenes less engaging. In the same vein, I would have liked to have made generic Fenian and Roman soldiers for the battles if I had more time.

I was surprised by how many CGs I was able to do this year, considering M3NTICID3 only had 3!  

I absolutely detest doing backgrounds, it is one of the hardest parts of VN development. I would say my favorite one is Delyth’s Hut Interior, while both the Luguvalium backgrounds are my least favorite. Nature scenes are my only respite -_-*. 

CONCEPT SKETCHES:

As you can see, Esquilinius went through a lot of changes.

With FIANNA done, we are resuming work on Omake Captive.