iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 01/10/2026

If you see this, post a vampire that isn't Dracula. (Peggy from #sunderedmarches)

A grotesque black and white image of a many-eyed, long-nailed woman with tattered wings on parchment.

Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 30/09/2026

it really bothers me that they call this "blue eyes white dragon" ALMOST EVERYTHING IS BLUE. A FEW HIGHLIGHTS ARE WHITE.

an extremely weird and lanky metallic dragon from Yu-Gi-Oh!

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 29/09/2026

Can't wait for my editor forever, though. Surveys are out for backer short stories and articles (that's the "Divertimentos" section), and I'll be gathering more artwork and maps soon.

A Microsoft Word outline

Prelude
Anacrusis
Movement I: The Unraveling Knot
First Intermissive
Movement II: Arcane Epicycles
Second Intermissive
Movement III: Red Tape, Tide Low
Third Intermissive
Movement IV: A Marred, Grave Tapestry
Fourth Intermissive
Movement V: Warps and Folds
Fifth Intermissive
Movement VI: The Looming Horizon
Sixth Intermissive
Movement VII: Threading the Needle
Seventh Intermissive
Movement VIII: Operation Synodic Malfunction
Coda
Appendix A: Divertimentos
Appendix B: Alovian Nations
Appendix C: The Lanvan Order of Battles
Appendix D: Lanvan Ranks & Insignia
Appendix E: Glossaries & Pronunciation

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 26/09/2026

Then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

You know Christians, Jews and Muslims lived peacefully for 1000 years until the birth of Israel.

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 19/09/2026

how to get semantic satiation in three lines

Rook noun (RUUK) • plural rooks (RUUKS)
(Informal). Variant spelling of RUCH.
Ruch noun (ROOKH or RUUK or RUK) • plural ruchs (ROOKHS or RUUKS or RUKS)

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 18/09/2026

If you want another reason this appendix isn't going to be in the paperback, only hardcover: this is going to be a nightmare to find a good layout for on hardcover and I'm not even gonna try that part yet. even leaving it the ugly default colors for now. Hardcover will probably be B&W, mb spot color

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 18/09/2026

408 headwords *ded* This is almost certainly only going in the hardcover. You don't need it for the story and it's *50 pages*. It's a nice-to-have that I spent way too much time on, lol.

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 16/09/2026

this one though, this one's easy to explain why I like it. I just think "Mare Interregnum" is a really fucking cool name

Mare Interregnum noun (MAH-ray in-ter-REG-num or MAIR-ee in-ter-REG-num) anthroponym Marean
(Informal). The northern half of the Messon Isles, currently under disputed sovereignty between the Sultanate of Messona, the Duvencht Empire, and various and sundry pirate emiras in the land.
Context. It literally means “the unruled sea” in an older Giraln dialect, a nickname given by Giralnian sailors to taunt the Duvencht. In time, it has become quite popular with the natives of the region. However, most naval charts still label the region as Duvencht Messona, even if it seems increasingly unlikely that the Duvencht will ever reassert a claim here.
During the Red Death, the various islands of the Mare sloughed off Duvencht rule as the Imperial Navy dwindled in capability. It proved a pyrrhic victory when the empire, in retreat, chose to destroy the magical reef ecosystems that so long defined the islands.
With rampant piracy, a poisoned sea, and two centuries of cultural separation from the Sultanate, no power has pushed particularly hard to lay sovereignty over the isles in the last two decades. But sheer proximity to the South Seas Marches and the imperial blockade has forced the Sundered Marches to regularly negotiate with the emiras here.

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 16/09/2026

I'm not entirely sure why I like this part of the setting so much, since I am not generally disposed to swamps or anything, but I do. I guess I just like that it represents how climates can change over time which I don't think shows up enough in fantasy worldbuildiung.

Marais Maudit noun (ma-RAY moh-DEE or MA-rye MAW-dit) anthroponym Marasian or Mauditan
The northern half of the Western Marches. Originally from a Giralnian language, most likely Witwanese, meaning “damned swamps”.
Context. In a bit of irony, the massive wandering age glaciers of the Western Marches finished melting during the Eisiger Frieden of the eighth century – creating the ubiquitous bogs and freeing the drakes which characterize the region today.

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 16/09/2026

I really enjoy writing unreliable narrator history

Chawbigham noun (CHAW-big-um)
1. A major river of Miltahwark, running out to the Ruhe Ocean in the north.
2. A bridge of white stone crossing the eponymous river, mythically conjured by Audrey the Conqueror during the eighth century R.A.
Context. Although the flawless white marble that makes up the bridge is almost certainly conjured, scholars in the modern day argue that summoning an entire bridge of that size and complexity was well beyond even the impressive magical capabilities of Audrey Reighd III. The leading theory today is that the bridge was the result of a massive ritual which Audrey merely led.

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 15/09/2026

I'm beginning to appreciate why the IPA exists

Two words, Rook and Ruch, where Rook is depicted in a simple english pronunciation guide as RUUK, and Ruch with ROOKH.

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 13/09/2026

to the kid in elementary school who made fun of me for reading dictionaries too much: history has vindicated you anyway I wrote the book to not need these and gloss the terms as I write / coin them to suggest real-world analogues but YEAH and a pronunciation guide for @asparecora.bsky.social

Glossaries
A spoiler-free appendix for the confused reader

And then over a page to just get through the "a" section

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 09/09/2026

Me for most of my life: "ice cream trucks sound so cute I wish we had an ice cream truck" One year of living on a street where the ice cream truck comes 3 times a day, lingering for an hour, with that repetitive fucking jingle:

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 05/09/2026

this has led to me an incredible discovery: m-w's usage examples are prone to picking up typos

Their largest investment segment after pubic equities was private companies, at 15% of their portfolios.
— Robert Frank, CNBC, 27 Aug. 2026
Last year, former Facebook pubic policy director Sarah Wynn-Williams released a dizzying book claiming that the company had been exploring ways to expand targeted ads to minors as early as 2017.
— Joe Wilkins, Futurism, 20 Aug. 2026

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 04/09/2026

I have never been to Maine, I visited NYC once, and I just moved to Philly. I have been to Milwaukee, lived near Minneapolis, and work out of a Minneapolis company. lol

I talk most like someone from Maine; about 54% of my answers match a typical resident.

Cities most like me: Portland, ME; Philly, PA; NYC
Least: New Orleans, Milwaukee, Minneapolis

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 04/09/2026

tbf this can be as much about your determination as your dialect

"What do you call the area of grass between the sidewalk and the road"

One of the options is Parking

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 01/09/2026

funny aside. these were the top four results for "maquis" over the whole ATmosphere.

the "Riker Googling" account asking how to join the maquis four different times over the last year and a half

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 31/08/2026

Not the pilots, but the flying infantry of the aerie (shorties with winged rocket packs) are called aerinyes. The general term for personnel on skyships is aeronaut or skywythe, wythe being the gender-neutral noun for a person in the setting.

A red-garbed redhead twink with mechanical wings, two pistols blazing, and a manic expression.

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 28/08/2026

don't recognize this species, but it's a fun design

blue alien in a vest and kind of a tubby shape. Kind of reminds of like a fat Italian-American man from New Jersey, even has kinda rough features on lips and brow like mustache and bushy eyebrows. A flat but broad horn thingy between his eyes.

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 28/08/2026

Wasn't expecting there to be a character creator at all but it's pretty decent

Black woman with curly hair and vivid green makeup.

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 25/08/2026

I'm the kind of sad that finds notable odometer numbers interesting Not as good as one of the 4th power numbers, but i missed 11⁴ since I was on the road, so this is my condolence prize

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 24/08/2026

I have a problem: I'd like to see more of the US but I hate travel

A US Where I've Been map
Never Been: 24 states
Passed Through: NJ, Iowa, Kansas, Tennessee, Colorado, Oklahoma
Visited: Texas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Indiana, WV, NY, Georgia, Florida
Stayed a While: Idaho, Ohio, Kentucky, the Carolinas, Maryland
Lived There: ND, Michigan, Virginia, Pennsylvania

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 18/08/2026

the only HR training that really bothered me was Target's anti-union propaganda

Norman Rockwell's "Freedom of Speech", also known as manstandingup.jpg

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 17/08/2026

this isn't the same but it's a very reasonable proxy:

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 08/08/2026

8 to 8, what an incredible fit for my schedule

Scheduled Delivery by:
08/08/2026, 08:00 AM - 08:00 PM
Deliver to:
[Redacted]
“Delivery flexibility to fit your schedule”

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Sunsette / Cynthia Skye @sunderedmarches.com · 05/08/2026

ok. the big ten. I get it. you don't want to change the number every time you increment. but the Atlantic Coast conference is like half off the coast and they're in California too??