EP02: Introducing The Pirates of Sissa - TRANSCRIPT

Hi! You're listening to Hyba is Writing, and I am your host, Hyba. In this first handful of episodes, I've decided to go through and introduce all of my active projects, which I'm officially keeping down to about four works-in-progress. Today, I want to introduce the second installment in my high fantasy series called The Qarran Tales. This book is called The Pirates of Sissa. Before I get into some of the juicy stuff, I'm going to go ahead and read the blurb for this book out to you:

Sahra despises the Sissans for what they have done to her people.

Vadra hates the pirates for what they have done to his.

Both of them have blood on their hands.

When the two of them are forced to work together to usher in an era of peace among the Sissans and the pirates, they must learn to overcome their differences in search of a common goal.

A study in the politics of discrimination, imperialism, and the effects of decades-long conflict, The Pirates of Sissa delves into topics that remain relevant on a global scale today.

So, as you can probably tell from this blurb, it's a book that deals with some pretty heavy stuff. In essence, it's about the politics of imperialism and how they play out through a variety of different dimensions, and I try to explore this very large, complex topic through the narrow perspectives of a range of individuals.

Now, this book takes place in the same world - in fact, the same continent - as The Fall of the Black Masks. However, it takes place in another empire. Whereas The Fall of the Black Masks takes place in the Empire of Belvatria - or Imbraturiat Belvatria - The Pirates of Sissa takes place in the Sissan Empire.

This means that The Pirates of Sissa also features a different - but not completely different - set of architecture and art. It's still very much Islamic-inspired art and architecture, but this time, it leans more towards Indian and Persian iterations of Islamic art, which to me are very evidently distinct from more Arabian-Islamic art and architecture (though, to be fair, Arabian-Islamic art and architecture itself is a huge myriad for so many styles and influences).

Again, here, I want to stress the intricacies of Islamic-influenced art and architecture, and I want to emphasize its variety and nuances which are often lost in Eurocentric portrayals. Most of the time, I see Disney's Aladdin and romanticized orientalism being portrayed rather than what it was really, truly like - and while they do emphasize some of what makes this style of art and architecture iconic, they also limit just how varied it can be in media, effectively homogenizing it, and neglect so many other facets of it because of that, if that makes sense.

The Pirates of Sissa also features an entirely new cast. Mila and Ragnar cameo briefly in this story, but otherwise the cast is completely shiny and new. It's actually interesting because it's the only story in The Qarran Tales that does features this particular cast of characters, but I decided to include it because it takes place chronologically speaking right after The Fall of the Black Masks and before the third book. It really gets its follow-through in the second series, and possibly even further than that, depending on how the story-writing plays out.

This book actually often comes more easily to me to write because of the topics and themes held within. I actually studied politics and imperialism and various related fields, and so going into this, I already had the theoretical and educational view of these subjects - all I had to do was apply it. I do hope I do all of these things justice, and I'm trying to be as thorough as possible in my telling of this story, though I doubt that I'll be able to mention or describe the entirety of the reach of the politics of empire.

In fact, here's that second blurb that I mentioned earlier:

A decades-old conflict that won't die.

A hatred that grows day by day.

A death toll, constantly on the rise.

The Empire of Sissa has, for decades, abused their indigenous minority. Referring to them with the derogatory term of 'pirates', the Sissans have effectively pushed out most of this minority, forcing them to live in the Black Desert - a harsh and unforgiving place where they must struggle for survival on a daily basis.

As such, the pirates have turned to violence and criminal activity to find food and supplies. They are constantly clashing with Sissan forces, with lethal results on both sides.

For the Sissans, their hatred is justified. For the pirates, theirs is even more so.

When both parties blame one another - when so much blood has already been spilled - when they have passed the point of no return - can peace truly become a reality, or is it simply a distant dream?

So that gives you a bit more background on the story as well.

What I also really enjoy about writing this story is the dynamic of two characters that really start off the story despising each other - I mean, they're basically racist towards one another - and having to learn to respect one another throughout the book. I think that's a really interesting dynamic for characters. I don't write romance, but the idea of having Sahra and Vadra have a sort of enemies-to-lovers arc is something that I've played around with in my head for a while. For now, it's really more of a hatred-to-respect arc, which I think is vastly more important and more realistic for this storyline, which actually tends to be quite gritty.

There is so much more I want to discuss about The Pirates of Sissa, including the distinction between pirates and Sissans, their history, how the conflict began, the characters, the settings, the worldbuilding, and so on. I hope to do that in future episodes, so please stay tuned if you're interested in learning more about The Pirates of Sissa!

That's all for today. Thanks so much for listening, and I hope you enjoyed this episode. To leave me comments, asks, suggestions, or thoughts, you can leave me an ask via my tumblr, which is hyba.tumblr.com, or you can let me know through my Twitter, which is @HybaIsWriting.

Until next time!