the world is a game of chess. every move you make, someone is watching on the other side of the board, planning to strike you down. aradia was a pawn. that, she had always known. she was a tool made to be used in someone else's war. but even still, she fights through every scheme, trap, knight and rook. she fights, b...
𝐄𝐔𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐀 | Happiness, but better translated as "human flourishing"; to flourish by realizing one's ideal end or goal, by achieving the purpose of human life with excellence or virtue. In Ancient Greek theater, a Greek tragedy is a play where the protagonist is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow. In...
𝐀𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐀 | No way out, nothingness, or the impenetrable. A puzzle or something puzzling. Esmerelda spent the school year dog-hunting after discovering the truth about the mortal side of her family during a 'visit' to the Underworld. Her summer vacation was spent trapped in a never-ending labyrinth where she was co...
𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐒 | privation; a state in which things that are essential for human well-being are scarce or lacking. Esmerelda had suffered through some pretty awful summer vacations before like that one time she was nearly sacrificed to a world-ending Titan, and that other time where she went through a war while deal...
𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Moral choice. Nothing is properly considered either good, or bad, aside from those things that are within our own power to control, and the only thing fully in our power to control is our own volition. Esmerelda's attempts of having a decent school year go awry when a basilisk decided to go arou...
𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐀 | Unveiling, uncovering. The Greek notion of truth. Esmerelda knew everything was going to change the second her super nice foster father suddenly turned into a snake monster and tried to eat her. She just never expected for all of it to lead her to a life full of gods and magic. BOOK ONE
𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐎𝐒 | "Doom; fate" the personified spirit of impending doom, who drives mortals to their deadly fate. Esmerelda thought she had left all those feelings of pain and suffering behind once the Second Titan War ended, but another war was brewing and she knew that she was going to be forced straight into the frontli...