And here is your new (late) page! My apologies for it being a day late; I didn’t want to post it until I had written up a response for the very interesting dialog that you guys were having in the comments of last week’s post. I’ve been kind of mulling over what to say, how much to say, but let me give you some background info before I ask for you guys’ opinion. (There are some mild world-building spoilers ahead, fyi. But yeah.)

In the story, “diamond year” is the year that the prospective heir to the throne starts to wear the diamond crown, which basically is the current monarch endorsing this particular prince/princess. Why is this so important? The way succession works in Senripoza (the kingdom) is not based on firstborns but rather on the strength of a power called Will (you can make your assumptions on what that is :P) By granting the diamond crown to the heir, the monarch is saying “I recognize this person as the prince(ess) with the strongest Will, and when this person’s Will outmatches my own (because Will fades over time) I will step down peacefully.” It’s a very big thing, and while everyone kinda knows who will be the diamond prince(ess) well ahead of time (it’s relatively easy to tell who has the strongest Will, especially if you’re the help that works in the castle), having the diamond crown granted seals one’s place as heir apparent.

So, what year (age) is the diamond year? Well this is kind of where I have a couple planks over the possible plot hole. I was thinking anywhere from 20 to 40. But what makes it THE diamond year? Eeeeh… Yeah. These kinds of things happen when you decide to refer to something that’ll be important later, but aren’t immediately necessary so you haven’t done all the worldbuilding for it yet -_- I value you guys’ inputs; it was comments like last week’s that help me realize where I missing the mark. Do you have any opinions on this? I won’t be able to tell you what I’m going to do in the end (though I may change the dialog a bit in the end), but I’m interested to hear your opinions if you have any