Fun Facts About The Assassin Game Archives
*Note: While there are ten humanity ruptures, there will actually be eleven main novels.
Valakresch is fond of cozy "Christmas episode" wrap-ups, so the final installment will be rupture-free.
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1) The inspiration behind The Assassin Game Archives originated with The Sword of Truth/The Legend of the Seeker! The first idea for The Assassin Games sparked for Valakresch in 2015 due to a question she had about Terry Goodkind's famous novels and corresponding TV series. From then on, she started on an elaborate, years-long plotting journey while writing other novels on the side.
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2) In 2020, Valakresch pitched the show version and her pilot screenplays to studios in Hollywood. Some actors were attached to the pitch deck. The actress who vied to play Queen Faelynn was an elf in Lord of the Rings, and the actor for Aleksander was a stuntman on Game of Thrones. Due to COVID-19 shutdowns, when production companies were out of work and funding, she finally finished turning the story into a book to expand upon the world's development. Valakresch used the first two episodes as an outline for the first half of the novel, An Anthem of Suns.
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3) Over the course of a few years, Valakresch rewrote the first book from scratch several times, hoping to have better luck querying. Due to the word count, agents wouldn't read the book and refused to consider the project. One even said it would require "too much effort."
4) Valakresch doubled down and started to query the first two novels, An Anthem of Suns and A Thousand Years of Frost, as a pair in 2023. She was told the world was too massive with too much worldbuilding. She was told that thicker books were less profitable. She was told by one agency that they would come out with something similar soon, and it would be a conflict of interest. She was told she wasn't well-known enough. She was told it didn't make sense for an agent to work with an author who struggled with mutism (which wouldn't work for events or media videos).
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5) The release of the books almost didn't happen. In a last-ditch effort, in 2024, Valakresch hired an editor to see how awful her storytelling really was. Instead, she received a raving review. The editor said it was "the best book she'd ever edited and had probably ever read in her life." By 2025, Valakresch returned to self-publishing.
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(6) The brass telescope inside the special edition hardcover sleeve of the first book is designed after Valakresch's father's telescope. He taught her how to use it in his study at a young age. This is the reason her work often has strong "sky" themes. The typewriter she inherited from him is also one of many reasons she always took such an interest in writing.
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7) There were several different versions of the story following different characters, timelines, perspectives, and plot lines before the end result was settled upon. As Valakresch aged up, so did Arizbeth.
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8) The first several drafts of the book didn't have epigraphs above the chapter headings. Valakresch only added them later on after noticing how aesthetically pleasing they looked in a Brandon Sanderson novel.​
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9) The names for cities and towns within certain regimes have hidden meanings. Since Titanica was named after the ship, The Titanic, some settlements, such as Hellström and Flegenheim, were named after people who embarked upon the original voyage. Shackleton was named after Earnest Shackleton, the Antarctic explorer. In Quaredonn, some settlements like Edelweiss were named after renowned botanists. Similarly, while re-drawing the map for Orinwaard and Axerés, Valakresch was re-watching The Princess Diaries, and that's why there's a settlement called Jhuenoviah (Genovia). It's also why there is a settlement called Rjenaldis, named after Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi. As for Harkaam, it was named after the Arkham Asylum, and Mordanna's Massif was named after Morgana from Merlin. In the sea regime, some settlements are named after Princess Ariel's sisters or variations of their names. Etc.
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10) A later draft of the book was called The Emperor's Stolen Son, after the name of the pilot screenplay. Episode 2 was called The Duke's Runaway Daughter.
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11) In one early draft, Nuallan Umfrey had not replied to Arizbeth's letters because he had been enduring the ten humanity ruptures as a Bruscha-Jeki himself. He and Arizbeth were meant to meet at the Circle, both confused/furious as to how the other arrived. His plot line changed, ultimately because Valakresch believed he was too self-righteous to become something inhuman.
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There was also a version where he was still the stable hand at Nyrinn Manor. He was hired by Aunt Taffeta (who was alive) and Uncle Florian to find her after she had disappeared. He was even offered her hand in marriage if and when he succeeded. In that draft, he had an entire side quest (so did Evadne), which pushed the word count to over 250,000.
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​12) Evadne's middle name, Dellapatra, was inspired by Cleopatra and Dellarose. The concept of Queen Hollis having her ship's sails drenched in perfume so people would be able to smell her arrival was also inspired by Cleopatra, who used the same tactic to seduce Marc Antony.
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13) Astaroth the cat-syph was inspired by the Cheshire Cat and a Cat-Sith, a fairy creature popular in Celtic mythology. Whereas a Cat-Sith was a black cat with a white chest known to steal souls of the deceased before the gods could claim them, Astaroth was made to be a sometimes-friendly orange tabby with little wings and horns to help him watch over and protect the Bruscha-Jeki Archives.
Astaroth's line, "If tales tattled by tattlers with tails entails such hostility, then perhaps I should be on my way," was one she wrote for the screenplay, Red Queen, which was a prequel to Alice in Wonderland. The concept was: Before Alice fell, before the Hatter went mad, there was a woman named Scarlett in Wonderland, and she would be queen.
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When the screenplay wasn't picked up, she didn't wish to waste the line. She gave it to Astaroth instead. Similarly, in book two, when Zadkiel dances with his partner and asks her how the music makes her feel, she answers, "Loud." He says, "Then dance loudly!" This was a line Valakresch originally wrote for the Mad Hatter.​
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14) The vorexia is based on the vodyanoy from Slavic mythology.
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15) Lots of fairytale elements are woven into the world. Queen Hollis was inspired by Rapunzel. In book two, Arizbeth's stained-glass dress, tiara, and slippers are inspired by Cinderella. She was also physically based on Esmerelda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The sai in the stone is based on King Arthur's sword in the stone.
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16) When naming the Bruscha-Jeki, the word "Jeki" was derived from the Star Wars Jedi.