Bewitching Monsters

Notes & Pronunciations

-  I wanted to address the fact that the main character (MC) of this story is mostly nondescript. While initially, I wanted to do this so more people could (if they wished) insert themselves into MC's shoes, I've come to understand that this choice can make her assumed-white. In my mind, I don't see MC as white, but I know simply stating that outside the story doesn't mean much. I also realize that certain descriptions I might have used lead to a white/lighter skin characterization — like descriptions of MC blushing. Now that the story is finished, I'd like to go back and edit any such descriptions to be more inclusive, but idk when I'll have the energy to said editing. There are other things I'd like to edit (like the werewolf arc), because I don't feel they ended up coming out as well as I intended, but that's another topic.

- I also wanted to clarify that MC isn't necessarily cis or afab. While she is femme presenting, uses she/her pronouns, and I label pairings as "f/__", I don't mean to make her explicitly read as cis/afab. This is a world of magic; so much is possible. Again, I have my own ideas about her, but wanted to leave such details ambiguous for similar reasons as to why I didn't describe her skin tone. And again, this might not have been the best call on my part.

-I am not an expert on kink and bdsm, but unlike other authors (*cough* 50shades *cough*), I DO have some first hand experiences, and also do research before writing things I don't know of well. That said, I still might not write certain bdsm/kink things well; and at times I might play up certain tropes because this is a fun, non-serious, smutty, fantasy series. None of the things I write are meant to be instructional; don't take what I write as perfect examples to replicate. Please do your own research before engaging in bdsm/kink.
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Name Pronunciation Guide
- Did my best to write out guides; didn't use IPA because that's more work than I care for.

Main Characters:

Caera: Key ruh
** Irish/Gaelic for beloved or friend
Aero: Air oh
Valzok: V-all zuck [like suck with a Z]
Citra: Sit truh [like trust]
Mosaiko: Moe s-eye koh
** Greek for mosaic. Her name is a nod to the fact she's a Mirror Spider
Vérus: V-air us
Lybras: Lee br-us
Aleril: Uh leer ull [like ulna]
*Aside from Aleril, the vampires in his arc take their names from actual people related to Corvin Castle's history and can be looked up on Google
Theophania: Thee oh fawn yuh
O'dos: Oh dose
Qiriol: Kee ree ull
Izeth: Ih [like if] zeth [like Seth with a Z]
Darav: Daw raw-v
Quendi: Ken dee
Kashga: Caw-sh gaw
Imdes: im [like him] dezz
Ekor'ghar: eh-cur gar [like car with a G]
Lori: lore ee

Other:

Feis: fesh [like fresh without the R]
*taken from the Irish Gaelic word. While irl, it more so relates to Irish dance competitions, here it's used as another word for "celebration," specifically for the 8 major holidays
Feiseanna: fesh awe nuh
*plural of feis
Autumnalis: awe tum null ees [like geese]
*start of Autumn
Autumnal: awe tum null
*mid Autumn; aligns with equinox
Brumalis: brew mall ees
*start of Winter
Brumal: brew mall
*mid Einter; aligns with solstice
Vernalis: ver n-all ees
*starts Spring
Vernal: ver n-all
*mid Spring; aligns with equinox
Aestivalis: es tih v-all [just like festival] ees
*starts Summer
Aestival: es tih v-all
*mid Summer; aligns with solstice

Note - I know (by modern definition) the seasons change on the equinoxes & solstices, not on the midpoints between them. After a research rabbit hole, I decided on this format instead and on these names for the holidays.