The four kingdoms/empires in this story are based on real cultures. 

Vistile is an Ottoman/Roman/Spanish hybrid. 

Musila is an Egyptian/Nubian/Mali hybrid.

Adraea is a French/English/German hybrid.

Zahran is a Russian/Japanese hybrid.

None of these hybridized cultures exist in real life; this is merely where the inspiration is derived from. Please do not look at this story for accuracy.

Historically, however, this story is very good. Every conflict in it is taken directly from history books. I believe that it makes the conflict that much more exciting. Once again, though, I took some liberties. 

Please do not imagine all of the characters as white. I try to be as explicit as possible, but I am consistently surprised by how often readers skip over the most obvious descriptions of POC (see The Hunger Games's Rue). Unless stated otherwise, assume that Vistilians are MIDDLE EASTERN OR MEDITERRANEAN, Musilans are AFRICAN, Adraeans are EUROPEAN/WHITE, and the Zahranese are WHITE OR EAST ASIAN OR BOTH. Northern Zahranese tend to be mixed or white, and Southern Zahranese tend to be mixed or East Asian.

This story does contain depictions of slavery in Vistile. This slavery resembles the system in Rome and is not based on skin color. This system will not be abolished in the story. 

I am depicting the very real and very unfortunate marriage practices in history.  Many characters will be underage, and all marriages will be heteronormative. However, there is a multitude of LGBTQ+ characters. No character is 100% gay or straight, just like humans in real life. If you have a question about the sexuality of any character, just ask in the comments (though not all of them will have a clear category to fall into). Because this is loosely based on history, very few modern terms will be used to describe the sexuality of every character within the book itself. 

Rape, child abuse, and gore will be depicted. Read at your own risk.

Want to cast the characters in this book? Go to mycast.io and search for "Pawn" to vote on your favorite choices for each role, and even suggest some actors of your own!