Hello everyone! First of all, welcome to "Miscellany of Oblivion"!

The name states pretty much all its purposes: miscellany concerning the world of "Oblivion, A Timeless Void". Side stories, brain dumps, character appearance and development concepts, symbolism in titles, anything and everything!

If you're reading this, then you have likely either read the book or I've somehow caught your curiousity. Whichever the case, I want to note that if there's anything you'd like to ask about or discuss, or if there's something you're curious about concerning OATV, feel free to ask at any time!

Be warned, though, I will yap! So, if you have no issues with that, then I fully welcome the opportunity to talk about this book. It's something I'm very passionate about - it's, in the simplest way possible, my brain baby. The product of 5 years and counting of thinking, plotting, writing and rewriting, and agonizing over different aspects of it. Of trying to bring the story - the realm - within my mind to life and sharing it with the world.

OATV, in its third draft now, is about halfway done. The plot is practically finalized with most chapter names already thought of, and most character arcs decided. I hope that you will accompany me on this stellar journey through the void of dreams - that you will bear witness to Alcestis's story throughout her life with me.

At the mention of Alcestis - now, without further ado, let's dive into her chronology!

Alcestis Ashwood: her appearance, her name, her age, and snippets of her personality. Can't reveal too much now when the story is far from being over, eh?

At the very beginning, the name I'd given her was Kiara, back around 2020. Now, you may wonder, "how did you create her in 2020 when the story is 5 years in the making?"

Well, dear reader! This will be explained in Mavis's chronology. Mavis was the beginning of it all, so it's only fair that she gets the spotlight in this.

Back then, I never really gave names much thought or put much symbolism behind characters' names and appearances. So, even now, I'm not entirely sure what the name 'Kiara' means. What I do know for certain is what 'Alcestis' means.

Alcestis is a name of Greek origin. It means 'Valiant'. For a fun fact, it is the name of the wife of King Admetus of Thessaly. With the help of Apollo, he'd extracted a promise from the Fates that if anyone were willing to die in his place, they would allow it.

His death would happen early as he had forgotten to pay an offering to Artemis. As the day of his death drew near, no one would volunteer to die in his place. No one except Alcestis, his wife. She was then saved from the underworld by Hercules as a token of thanks to Admetus for his hospitality.

How this ties to our Alcestis is, in the simplest way, the fact that she would die for her ideals and for the one she held in the highest regard. As for who that is... I can't reveal that now, can I? 😉

Race hasn't changed. Alcestis is human through and through.

Now, age. Originally, given how the plotline was before such drastic changes took place, she was 15 - as mentioned in the profile. However, as I reworked the story, her age was thus changed to 20.

I believe it was mentioned in chapter 4 already, but quick reminder: Alcestis is half Egyptian and half Japanese! She lived in Egypt her entire life up until the start of the story, raised from around the time she was 8 by her maternal grandparents.

Alcestis is an engineer who graduated from Cairo University, Egypt. Fun fact! This little detail is indeed the situation of yours truly 😉. You may wonder, how can one graduate at the age of 20?

Well, in recent years, Egypt has allowed IGCSE students to graduate should they finish their required subjects by year 11. That's one year off. The other year off is actually from back when I started school - I started a year early!

(As you can see, I'm a burnt out gifted kid. I'm 17 rn, though, not 20. Going on my 2nd year of college. Anyway! Moving on.)

Her height remains unchanged, but her birthday doesn't! It was moved to January 27th (which is also my birthday. Look, there is a lot of myself in Alcestis. Let me be!).

As for her interests, they are still kind of accurate to her character. But they're not exactly what she likes most now. I'll talk about them more in the second part of her chronology, which I'll only post when the story is over!

Design-wise, her appearance didn't change that much. The only thing that did was her Geo - originally, the element was 'love', not ice. But then I changed it to ice with the rewrite because why not? It simply fit her and the previous holder's situations better.

That's it for her original character! I had also coloured it about a year and a half ago. The character profiles were actually drawn by me, though I used a base since I'm not very adept at drawing. The colouring and her facial traits were, however, drawn by me! Wholly. I promise.

Now, moving on! We're almost done now. First - this is an AI concept I had done for her at the start of the year. It's not very accurate, however.

And last but not least. Drum roll, please!

One of my favourite things ever: a true to reality drawing of Alcestis. This was done as a birthday gift to me by a very dear friend of mine.

As you can see, it's quite detailed: the scar and Al's blind eye (chapter 14), the red ring around her pupils, the hairstyle, the necklace - I love everything about it. Shoutout to Aicha even though she's not here!

Aaaand that's it for Alcestis's basic chronology! Look forward to the rest of this book. It's gonna be one big yap session! (Seriously. This part is already over 1k words...)

~ With love, Astraea