Story Focus Meta
What the Story is About. This is a bad subtitle.
The Goal: Take the most cliche possible Isekai setup and use it to examine questions of moosen. So many moosen.
Story Overview
Don't read while you're walking home! That's the lesson that 20-year-old Jason Duck learned when he tried to cross the street outside his Middlesburgh University campus. Thoroughly engrossed in the ongoing Fantasy Yaoi Romance webnovel, Crimson Court: Heart of the Demon King, he failed to notice the oncoming danger of Truck-Kun. That's where his story should have ended... but it didn't. Instead, he woke up inside the world of that very webnovel in the body of Gabriel, a new arrival at the Crimson Court. It should be a dream come true... but what sounds good in fiction rarely works out as well for a person in real life. Even if their life has become "fiction," too.
Meanwhile, in another world, a miracle has occurred - despite being struck by a bus at high speeds, medics have succeeded in saving the life of a certain young college student. The trouble begins when Jason Duck wakes up from his medically induced coma without memories of his family, friends, or even his own name. The begs the question: If Duck's soul has been spirited away to Empirica Sin, then who exactly is it that just woke up?
The Basics
Genre
Crimson Court (the actual story/setting, not the fictional book inside the story/setting) is a dark fantasy isekai story with a heavy dose of politics, romance and drama. Notably, it also has a primarily lgbtq cast, which isn't really a genre as such but it is relevant.
Is that a complicated mess of genres? No! Or maybe it is but it fits together just fine, trust me.
Tone
Per this model of fictional tone, Crimson Court leans primarily to Bleakcore but will also tend to swing 1 level along either scale. This largely depends on which character or characters you're following at any given time as the world looks very different for Samael Asther than it did for, say, Rami.
Here I'm emphasizing the darker elements because, first of all they're my favorite but also because I know that Isekai stories bring to mind a certain image, and deconstructing that image is part of what I'm trying to do. So yes there will be joy and beauty, levity and adventure as well, I promise.
A Certain Webnovel
There is a much longer breakdown of what happened in the webnovel that Duck was reading when he was hit by truck-kun elsewhere (specifically here), so here I'm just going to do a brief overview for the purposes of better understanding the actual fiction vs the fictional fiction.
The fictional webnovel, Crimson Court: Heart of the Demon king (generally referred to as A Certain Webnovel to avoid confusion), is a fantasy yaoi romance webnovel written by an anonymous author who goes by the pseudonym Anyone. The story was ongoing as of Duck's arrival inside its world. It revolves around Dante Savoy, who comes to the Crimson Court of Amaya to investigate the disappearance of his childhood best friend, Rami, who had been a member of Samael Asther's "harem" at the time that he vanished. Over the course of the webnovel, Dante becomes drawn into the politics and romance of the court, as well as deals with his uncomfortable attraction to Samael, despite considering him both a monster and a likely suspect in Rami's disappearance. Ultimately, Samael is betrayed by his closest friend and forced to face his own demons (hurr hurr) and learn to grow as a person.
While ostensibly a romance, the book was known to include some darker themes (e.g. characters with backstories involving abuse or sexual violence, not to mention sexual servitude is a key part of the plotline), and drew criticism for its choice to gloss over those topics and mostly use them as fodder for traumatic/tragic backstories.
The World and Its People
Setting Overview
The larger setting, the bird's eye view, so to speak, is Empirica Sin. This is the name of a massive pangaea-like continent that is divided into three realms: Astrum, Gaean and Incaendium. Each realm is separated from one another by a golden wall, Golden Cage - there are gates in the wall that can be freely passed through by anyone, but the wall resists attempts to pass it at any non-gate point. Each Realm is the origin point for one of three Races, the Celestials (Astrum), Mortals (Gaean) and Demons (Incaendium). Despite the "native realm" situation, people of all types can be found in all three Realms.
Ages ago a catastrophic diplomatic failure triggered a horrific and destructive conflict between the two superpowers, now referred to as the Caelestise-Sura War. The war was brought to a (premature?) end when a mysterious alliance of Celestials, Demons and Mortals created The Golden Cage. Since then, a cold war has sprung up between the Astrum and Incaendium seemingly with no end in sight. Fortunately as it stands, they mostly just keep an eye on - and occasionally sabotage or spy on - each other.
The different realms each have different culture and hierarchical systems, which will be touched on below and can be found in a more prolonged form in the proper articles on the realms (once they're done cough).
I would be remiss not to acknowledge that there is also the The OtherWorld, which is (or resembles at least) modern Earth.
Topography
Empirica Sin's Three Realms each have their own unique features, howver they also have commonalities. Geographical features are often vastly oversized by Earth standards - trees can be as wide as houses, mountaintops can disappear into the clouds, fields of flowers can feature flower stalks the height of an earth tree, bushes can form the equivalent of walls. Rivers are wider, lakes are deeper, and generally it is both intimidating and magnificent to the eyes of, say, a college student dropped into it without warning. Astrum is known having more than its share of floating islands, and for having waterfalls that seem to fall from the sky. Gaean is noted for its many vast forests that can sustain entire civilizations in its trees. Incaendium is known for its beautiful but deadly lava flows, and rivers and lakes that seem nearby bottomless.
Technology, Magic, and All That Jazz
As a generality, you can expect roughly Victorian era technology, with Gaean being the most advanced and Astrum being the least so. This has a great deal to do with the relative power levels of the different types of people present: while Celestials and Demons are both born with inherent 'powers,' mortals are not - any power they have is born from study and skill, and some do not have any talent to hone. As a result, they were simply more motivated to innovate. Due to the intervention of isekaied persons from various worlds, there may be some anachronisms, as well.
All supranatural abilities are contained within four major systems:
Note that these are all generalities - due to things like interbreeding and the occasional isekai, there can always be special cases and variations,
Amaya - Where the Magic Is
The main story takes place in Amaya, the largest and most powerful nation-state within the Demonic realm of Incaendium. Even moreso, the focus is specifically on the titular Crimson Court, which includes both high-ranking aristocracy and the most influential of Samael's hari suum. While this is basically just the royal court of Amaya, it functions somewhat differently due to the culture of Amaya, and the personalities of those who forged the nation (The House of Asther, and most specifically Gorgo Asther and Samael Asther). The whole of the Crimson Court is defacto involved in The Blood Game (see below).
The culture of Amaya can be considered similar to that of the Roman Empire, but pumped up to over 9,000 in terms of decadence, machinating, and hierarchically-based justice or injustice. That said, Amaya does not even pretend not to be an absolute monarchy, with the head of the House of Asther as its tyrannical "king."
Incaendium as a whole, and Amaya is no exception, can be described as darkly beautiful. Its borders almost entirely encompass The Lonely Sea, Due to the many lava flows, many natural and manmade structures are built of polished volcanic rock, but the architecture itself most closely resembles "elven" archtecture (although there are no elves in this world).
There are extreme wealth disparities in Amaya as well as a cruel and rigid class-based hierarchical system , leading to some of the most beautiful areas one could imagine, as well as areas that are genuinely unfit for habitation and yet support vast numbers of people nonetheless.
Narrowing our focus even farther, the majority of the story takes place specifically in the capital of Amaya, Ruavine (coloquially known as Bloodwood Fall). This is a vast metropolis that is bordered by a great forest on one side and the Lonely Sea on the other. The city itself rings the Palace home of the Asthers, often referred to as the Crimson Palace.
Characters
The story has a number of major characters, but ultimately a few of them can be seen as the most important:
Dante Savoy
Dante was the protagonist of A Certain Webnovel. He has a "badboy" vibe mixed in with a "mysterious figure" vibe.
Samael Asther
The Demon King from the title of A Certain Webnovel. In that story-within-the-story he was an antagonist and then a love interest. What will he be here? Hard to say.
Astaroth Dracothis
Samael's lifelong best friend and potential betrayer. The villain of A Certain Webnovel. Despite his powerful affection for Samael, he resents Samael's power and control over everything, including him.
Cain Amortus
Samael's former long term partner. A minor character in A Certain Webnovel, but more important within the world itself.
More information about the characters inworld can be found at the Characters page, while more substantial notes on the characters, their role in in the story and what inspired them can be found under Character Notes.
Relevant Social Network
Beyond the specific primary focuses for our story, there are also several major "cliques," so to speak, which are especially relevant to our tale. These include:
The Crimson Court
The titular Crimson Court is the social and political center of Amayan Society. Its members, by default, include all of the Hari Suum, personal acquaintances and favorites of Samael's, any number of local aristocrats, high-ranking military or professionals, and members of household. Every major character (at the opening of the story, at least), is de facto considered a member of the Crimson Court. There is also a strong overlap with the second major group of relevance.
The Players
Players are people consider themselves participants in the Blood Game. This includes a significant portion of the Court, but also includes anyone who aspires to join the court, and anyone who comes to court hoping to climb the social ladder. Players are exceptionally dangerous because of the rules by which they live their lives, which include an instruction to form relationships and alliances, but also to always be prepared to stab anyone in the back, regardless of your relationship to them, if it is advantageous.
The Hari Suum Basa
No way about it, this is a harem. Specifically Samael's - it includes (or... seems to include?) many of the major and some of the minor characters. They have their own internal politics and relationships and agendas, but overall it's probably the "safest" space in Amaya, as they tend to have each other's backs at the end of the day.
Story Focus
Recurring Themes
If I'm honest I sometimes have a hard time separating out themes from elements of the plot but I'm doing my best here:
The "Need-to-Survive" Condition and the Ripple Effects of It
We all need to survive, but for some of us that is more complicated and difficult than others. For someone like Mastema Amarandos, he avoided the death of his own self-worth by simultaneously hiding his true face behind a mask of mediocrity and developing a hunger to consume power that outstripped even those who thought poorly of him. For Gabriel and Dante, like for Cain before him, survival means learning and adapting to a strange new world that works in ways antithetical to their inherent natures. They, like most characters - and most people - are formed by their need to survive in a world that is not always (or perhaps never) cooperative or friendly to their needs or desires.
That's all well and good - occasionally tragic, but nonetheless "fine..." except these survival skills do not turn off when the danger has passed. Instead they linger, creating ripple effects that can change - or warp - the world.
The most salient example of this is Samael Asther, who grew up in a brutally abusive home and has ended up creating a culture that echoes and reaffirms his experience, and thus produces people whose experience of the world mirrors his own.
This is relevant to everyone, but especially to Samael and Cain, the latter being perhaps the person most shaped by Samael's troubled personality.
Relationships formed under the threat of betrayal
In Amaya forming alliances, friendships, and romances are a key part of the Blood Game. Relationships are formed for mutual protection and advancement but even the most utilitarian initial alliance can deepen and become genuine: people bond, become friends, fall in love. But what happens if that connection becomes disadvantageous?
One of the rules of the Blood Game is to strike without remorse even if your victim is dear to you... and the price of breaking that in favor of loyalty is risking the ire of the all-powerful Lord whose will formed the culture, Samael Asther.
Can people sacrifice their own good to stand by their loved ones? ...if they do, will their loved ones do the same for them? And really, can a truly soul-deep connection even form under the threat of constant betrayal?
Sometimes Things We Like in Fiction are Terrible in Real Life
The inworld novel that Duck has now been transported into handles a number of controversial or disturbing topics, but does not treat them with much gravitas and mostly uses them as backstory fodder. I'm actually not saying this is a bad thing, it's kind of how fiction works, but what I am saying is that sometimes fiction will gloss over the edges that seem irrelevant to their point... yet if you were truly in the situation, or a similar situation, those things would be impossible to ignore.
Think about all the complicated, problematic characters and/or relationship dynamics that many people find exciting and fun to read about despite their being, from a real-world perspective, toxic.
It's the reality of how painful it would be to love one of those "asshole male romantic lead who changes by the end of the story." It's thinking too hard about the implications of the fact that John Arbuckle has prolonged conversations with a cat who can't respond or speak, so really he's just talking to himself. It's imagining what the real impact would be of an entire school house being designated as the bad ones, and how that can easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's being tossed into a romance novel and realizing that the broody romantic lead is actually terrifying when you're in the room with him.
That's not all, though. It's also the things like considering what the lives of background characters would be like, and how important a person might be in the "reality" of a world, while the fictional version of that world doesn't linger on them at all because they aren't relevant to the plot.
This is obviously most relevant to Gabriel's story.
There is More To It Than That
More to what? More to everything.
There are depths beyond the cold face of monsters, and cute things can be dangerous. There are levels and complications to relationships that are known only to the people in them. History is not wholly accurate. Common Wisdom can be foolish, and common knowledge can be wrong. Everyone has their own story, and it may look different to them than it does to you.
This is the most relevant to Dante's story, as his search for Rami's fate may inevitably bring him behind the curtains and masks of those who seem the most straightforward.
Story Focus Points
For my purposes, at least, probably the most important part of this document. Hopefully it can keep me focused on what's actually relevant for the story so I don't get lost in the reeds micromanaging the flow of tides. Leaving that to Dagon.
The Blood Game, A.K.A. Toxic Court Politics
A "game" of intrigue and shifting alliances inside Amaya's Crimson Court all with the same goal: keeping Samael Asther interested enough to avoid inspiring his displeasure or, worse, his boredom. The Blood Game is a byproduct of Amaya's brutal and rigid class hierarchy as designed. It is also incredibly destructive to the formation of actual connections, as described above. All four of the primary characters are heavily involved in the Blood Game in one form or another, willingly or unwillingly.
Sex, Romance and Both Together
Crimson Court may be a meditation on fiction and reality, power struggles, abuse cycles and the ripple effects of suffering, but it's also a sexy harem story about a demon lord and his beautiful hari suum, so let's not take ourselves too seriously. Samael is, among other things, half-lust demon, after all, and he keeps himself, his court, and especially his favored ones in decadent luxury most could scarcely imagine. Love stories and tales of hope, loss, and heartbreak play out against this opulent background.
Power Struggles
Whether it's the seemingly endless Silent War between Incaendium and Astrum, the tendency for Demonic Houses to cannibalize one another (sometimes literally) for power, or just personal betrayals like the metaphorical knife Mastema shoved in Samael's back, there are always people vying for power, influence or titles in Empirica Sin. This extends far beyond the current characters... but there are even power struggles inside the humble home that is Samael's hari suum basa...
Drama Points
There are personal (interpersonal), local and wider scale dramas. Since the story itself is more local/personal, I'll focus on those smaller-scale situations, but still note the larger conflicts and situations at play in broader strokes as well.
Fallen Towers of Amaya
Once, the four Wise men, also called the Towers of Amaya, were the closest and most unconquerable alliance in Incaendium. Since then, the members have fallen out or drifted apart: Mastema Amarandos has been exiled for betrayal and Grigorius Bieloskytes somehow ended up in Samael's hari suum basa. Of the four, only Samael Asther and Astaroth Dracothis remain close... but even Astaroth is beginning to show the strain of living in Samael's endless shadow. In the meantime, Mastema is attempting to climb his way back up to his former status.
Isis's Bad Habits
Isis Asther is Samael's mother, as well as his most trusted adviser. Her political pull is second only to Samael's... and she is dedicated to keeping him strong, powerful and in control. Unfortunately this tends to manifest in the form of collecting blackmail material which she utilizes against anyone who even thinks about forming a resistance to Samael. More catastrophically for him, it also means that she often sabotages his close relationships if she feels that they are threatening to change him in any way. In other words, she isolates him, she destroys his foes, and she does it all without him being fully aware of it.
Puppetmaster of The Crimson Court
Astaroth is Samael's closest friend even now for a reason: they share an appetite for drama and a dark sense of entertainment. That's why Astaroth has become the puppetmaster of the court, covertly moving "pieces" and arranging for situations (which he calls "plays") that force people into difficult corners with disastrous consequences. It's rumored, very quietly, that he is actually responsible for some of the most heinous atrocities of the Blood Game... but he never gets his hands dirty, so who's to say?
The History and the Mystery of the Aedvectis
Every so often, someone from some world beyond the Boundless Sea appears. Sometimes they come in their own bodies, and sometimes they snuff out the soul of an already existing person and inhabit their bodies like a possessing spirit. Either way they are an invasive "species" and seldom leave the world the same as they found it. And it's unknown how many there have been, since many of them hide their identities - or in the latter type's case, they continue to live as the person they've inhabited. Who knows... maybe there are still some living now?
Incaendium: A Realm of Wars
The joke is that there's always a war of some kind happening between internal territories in Incaendium. That's not completely accurate... but it may as well be. One could break out any minute. Any time. For any reason, or no reason at all.
Astrum's... Concerns
It's fair to say that Astrum and Incaendium are not on great terms, but Astrum has long taken an interest in keeping track of Samael in particular. He represents something that troubles even the Seven: the potential of archdemons to rise to the level of gods. The problem is, every time they've sent someone to observe and report on him, that person never returns...
The Many Eyes of the King of Crows
Samael often seems omniscient. As it happens, this is actually because of his ability to control and communicate with animals and insects, which enables him to use them as his network of near-invisible and arguably unavoidabe spies.
XOXO
A certain Living Book network reports on the salacious inner workings of the Crimson Court. Whoever is writing it must have a great deal of access, but it's not clear who it might be...
The Complicated Romantic Geometry of the Court
Samael will tend to have a single favorite among his many lovers, who he treats especially well but is also prone to discarding at will. His favorite for the last decade or so has been Asmodeus, but Asmodeus is always aware tht this could change any time. The Evidence of this is Cain Amortus, who was Samael's consort for centuries before being discarded... though there is still a great deal of unspoken affection between the King and his former love. Enough that it makes the long and intensely intimate friendship between Cain and Grigorius Bieloskytes more difficult to navigate... given that Grigorius has been in love with Cain for nearly all of the centuries they've known each other. And really... that's just the beginning.
...And So On And So Forth...
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