Below is a casual space for the meaning behind each of the chapters in To Chance Upon a God, mostly for my own reference but also good for you, the reader, to understand bits of what’s going inside my head as well as the characters :)
Starting from the very beginning in chapter 1, the story is already dedicated to explore different areas of my own mind and imagination, calling the structure a temple and hinting at a Creator, which you now know is a self insert of me, the author himself. As for how the temple looks on the outside, think of the Sumerian ziggurats, while the ruins surrounding the temple can be imagined as structures in the Greco-Roman style. As for the exterior of the ‘central tower’ (a.k.a. The Sanctuary), it is based on descriptions of the Temple of Solomon.
In chapters 2 and 3, the plot quickly escalates with, well, things that didn’t make sense and Roya just dropping dead, being miraculously revived, saying crazy things before he got carried away as a lunatic. At the writing of these chapters, I didn’t have a very clear vision of how the story should progress, but I was sure that I wanted to begin hinting at a higher power now, especially when the setting of the world is one without an existing concept of a god. One can say this is a kind of atheism as it is, literally, a world without a god. But then again, without a concept of god, do the people even need to define the concept of ‘no god’ when that is their default?
Beginning in chapter 4, I essentially lost the plot. The uneventful night in hindsight feels like a filler chapter, serving not to do much but to hint at raising the stakes a little. In chapter 5, this was the first chapter written after a two week break. Here I blatantly self-inserted myself as the Creator and talked to the main character, Sofis, for the first time. It serves as an introduction to the more messy, philosophical conversations that come up later in the story, but as there was such a long break before and after I wrote the chapter, I nearly forgot about everything I set up there. The concepts I still think are cool though.
Chapter 6 is when I reached the lowest of my blocks. I was not ok in the head during the writing of that chapter, and it reflected in my writing process, creating a scene that was just outright depressing and tiring. The characters were (literally) feeling dull, doing monotonous tasks under a heavy poisonous air. I honestly felt similar at the time, with writing becoming a very difficult chore that I couldn’t write about anything but something related to what I was feeling at the time.
Chapter 7 is similar in terms of where my mental health was at, but with a ray of hope. In a way, I wrote it as a way to encourage myself, and it did feel honestly pretty uplifting by the end of it, especially when I had Sofis have her moment of glory by doing something she usually wasn’t comfortable with at all, breaking out of her comfort zone in the same way I wanted to break out of my rut.
That breakout did come. Quite rapidly in fact. I got motivated by the writathon deadline. From here on out, I was essentially churning out chapters (probably also when you all noticed my story in ‘Latest Updates’ quite frequently) and putting my ideas into writing as soon as possible. Chapter 8, ‘Forgotten’, mostly speaks about my worry about forgetting certain details and perhaps even people, as reflected when the entire band temporarily forgot major chunks of their memories. In chapter 9 it is a resolution of the previous problem, with Temia now having her moment of glory.
Because of the interaction between Sofis and Temia during chapters 8 and 9, I accidentally created the possibility of a ship, which I then exploited to the extreme in chapter 10, exploring the dangers of sexual lust as well as general addiction. Now, I will not disclose what I was exactly struggling with, but the feeling of addiction is something that I believe is applicable to many, if not most people. Chapter 11, being a resolution of chapter 10, represents a complete burning of anything related to those addictions, cutting away from the past that haunts us. Though in real life, cutting away from addictions is not that easy, I hope it offers a glimmer of hope to those struggling or on the road of recovery.
Chapter 12 then becomes the turning point. In the chapter itself, my self-insert appears for the first time in person, in front of all the characters, says a bunch of things… and then is promptly killed by Temia. Why did I do that? In a way, it’s to create drama, setting up the doubts Sofis has against the Creator which also fits in well with her character setting being more self-reliant and independent in her thinking. Though to a minor degree, it also somewhat explores the concept of ‘killing a god’ to establish rebellion and a desperate wish to be in charge of one’s own destiny, a major theme I have in other stories.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
From chapter 13 onwards, this becomes more chaotic in the sense of me kind of trying to fulfil the imaginations of my younger self. Chapter 13 and 14 deals with my childhood obsession with dinosaurs, with kid me used to drawing loads of them with pens and pencils. The T-Rex in particular was my favourite, so naturally I featured it in the chapter before the papers got torn up, signifying my break with this obsession and the deaths of my first creations.
In chapter 15, this deals with an interest I had with submarines (while as a kid as well) and somehow drawing only exteriors with windows facing the front. I personally describe it as something of an actual submarine operating on Peppa Pig logic: with random buttons, levers and joysticks. It was honestly a really fun chapter to write, and I just let my brain run wild during that session.
Chapter 16 originally should’ve been an extension of chapter 15, but it soon developed into a representation of my interest with the vast, empty space, the idea that one can just travel forever for no end, with no destination. It is here when all of the unnamed cast is removed, half out of convenience, half out of… convenience. Sorry. I really don’t have an excuse here.
In chapter 17, I created the concept of golems right then and there, being the first thing that isn’t actually directly related to whatever I was interested in as a child. However, it is tangentially related to the fact that I used to enjoy putting four 2x2 Lego bricks together to create ‘minifigures’, sometimes merging them to become mechs or separating them in explosions. The concept of golems here work similarly.
And starting from chapter 18, things get a bit crazy. I don’t have a concept of who was actually controlling Sofis during that chapter, but I’ll say this: canonically it was me, the author, because who else can it be? It hints towards how we are ultimately controlled by something around us, but there is still a chance to break free, just not by our own strength and merit.
In chapters 19 and 20, I introduce not only cameos of the main characters from my other stories, but a whole load of philosophical concepts relating to what I personally believe in. Now, I don’t expect you to agree with what I seem to be arguing for, nor is that my intention in the first place. It’s more of a representation of my internal debates, fighting between two conflicting ideas of how I should see myself and the world. Simply put, it’s a struggle of my own worldview.
In chapters 21 and 22, I move back to another childhood interest: dragons. The image I had in mind for the big fight was actually the woman (yes, she is my first original character) fighting against a large phoenix. Well, it turns out that I draw far more dragons than I do phoenixes, so I switched the identity of the ‘boss’ in the battle. Sofis is painted to be quite useless here, and that’s intentional. For all her talk about agency and control, she is ultimately not a strong character at all, needing to be bailed out by a much stronger character. Yes, the woman is designed to be overpowered. Yes, she is the most overpowered character I have ever created, and I intend to keep it that way.
Finally, in chapters 23 and 24, I do a final turn back to the philosophical. In a way, I feel the content of chapter 23 and 19 are quite similar in that the woman and Avalel both argue for the same point, that ultimately everything is governed by a higher being whether one likes it or not. The twist in 24 is that the higher being, me, is ‘perfect’ only in terms of the context of the fictional world. And that has to be true. The author by default is ‘perfect’ in their own definition, becoming an omnipotent god ruling over their creation. An ‘imperfect’ author would mean that they are bound or flawed in some way by the fictional world’s rules, which is stupid because let’s face it, no matter how strict a world system is, the author always has the right to change it, even if it does completely ruin a story. It is simply a right by virtue of being an author and creator to change one’s creation.
And that’s all for my rant. The story started off kinda innocent, but then it just went into a spiral and became, in Sofis’ words, a ‘mouthpiece’ for the Creator: me. It could’ve been better planned, I guess, especially with the early bits being kind of a drag and the dragon bits (pun not intended) being slotted in between two thought-provoking (at least intended to be) and related parts. Still, overall it has been an enjoyable ride, and the characters may or may not make a return in the future if I feel like.
In the end, at least it’s a good story… right?