omg tenku for an oc story ask asldkjg
so the obvious for those that don't know is the story was inspired by the music video for DAM by SB19 bc it's a cinematic masterpiece

as for other inspo.. the little bits of politics are inspired a bit by the reforged series by seth haddon, just very very loosely bc seth does a much better job than me with politics lmao

vael'nox is v much inspired by both nald'thal from ffxiv and "nox" is v similar to chaos from hades (supergiant games)

there's a little peppering of lord of the rings, dune, dragon age, world of warcraft, final fantasy xiv, fable, guild wars, and game of thrones inspo sprinkled in there (tho i've never seen game of thrones funny enough)

vael's abilities (that i haven't touched much on yet) are inspired by an oooold guild wars 2 oc of mine, aurelie, who is a mesmer. i really like the idea of illusory magic so i really want to play with that with vael'nox so you'll probably see a lot of similar abilities to gw2 mesmers lol

some of vael's personality is also inspired by zavrius and oren radek from seth's reforged series as well. zavrius is so fucking sassy and true to himself while still being a great king and radek has this sardonic kind of wit, i love them both sm (even if i didn't trust radek at ALL in the 1st book)

damihan's kingdom is inspired v much by the storm coast in dragon age inquisition while vael'nox is more similar to garret?? i think his name is?? from fable 2, his funky mage tower.

delan's return to the living world takes after aragorn's whole falling off the cliff bc of the warg debacle, i feel like that's p obvious once i point it out lol

vael and dam are def the two most fleshed out and i'm sure the others will come with time. i kind of want to incorporate something similar to what happens to king cailan in dragon age origins, perhaps without the permadeath and crucifixion.

i think that's about it? there's still so much work to be done fleshing this all out but i love them all so so dearly and i'm so in love with how everything is turning out thus far.