Inheritance
"Inheritance", a short story by Gabrielle Harbowy, was released as Pathfinder Tales web fiction in October 2013.
Chapters
- "Unexpected Arrivals" - October 9, 2013 - link
- "Adventure" - October 16, 2013 - link
- "The Wound of the World" - October 23, 2013 - link
- "People and Causes" - October 30, 2013 - link
Characters
"Inheritance" features the following characters:
Index
- For an alphabetical listing of all the relevant terms in this story, please visit its Index.
Plot summary
Author's viewpoint
The author, Gabrielle Harbowy, has written about creating "Inheritance" twice on her own blog:
Some choice excerpts from the first blog are quoted below:
“"I wanted to explore the gnome psyche, and also take a look at adventuring through a novelty-seeker's eyes. This meant that even though Zae, the gnome, is the main character, it's not entirely her story. Rather, I wanted to show another character's story through her gnomish [sic] point of view.
Enter: the human. Keren, a crusader, and a character with which the reader can identify. I love writing character-driven fiction, so even though Keren is a bad-ass warrior, she's still a three-dimensional human with a life off the battlefield and a full range of emotions. I knew I'd hit the mark because writing the banter between the characters was a delight.
"I knew that I wanted Zae to be a cleric, and it was important to me that she worship Brigh, because Zae's whole mindset about healing is that it's functionally equivalent to tinkering: fixing what's broken so that everything runs smoothly and correctly. Brigh is one of the lesser gods in the Pathfinder lore, so there isn't much information about her. I also knew I had to take the game mechanic (clerics must spend time in meditation to prepare the spells they can use for the day) and weave it into narrative. The gear that Zae uses in her meditation came naturally once I started writing — it just made sense that if gears have teeth, ticking a finger down the teeth of a gear would be a great way to keep track of prepared spells. I wrote that scene in my hotel room at PaizoCon, and arrived the next morning to tell (Managing Editor) James Sutter, "I think I just invented the rosary." He loved it, and it stayed."
”
Gabrielle Harbowy has also discussed "Inheritance" in the Paizo blog on October 25, 2013.