Thread:Sebolto/@comment-104549-20180730232014/@comment-104549-20180731225902

I definitely look forward to your "read them all in order" take.

I wondered about the way to present the fourth and fifth trials, but ultimately narrative flow won me over (it's the same reason I cut the whole Abattoir down to seven levels from nine, although losing the allusion killed me a little). In-universe, although Anzati are all Force-sensitive to some degree, most aren't powerful enough to be Force users, so the Abattoir is designed for normal (although highly skilled) Anzati; I imagine Darth Vandak blew through a couple levels without much trouble too. Out-of-universe, Abattoir was intended as something of a foray into the horror genre, and I felt the fourth and fifth levels would've detracted from the suspense and pacing needed to sustain that; either I could've written out in more detail how Alecto blew through them and there would've been less reader concern for her safety/sanity, or I could've made them harder and it would've been even more of a slog for both Alecto and reader (although I'm reassured that you, at least, wouldn't have found it a slog). As an additional in-universe practical point, she was already injured and starving; too much time invested in levels four and five and, even if she'd made it through six and seven, she would've been in no condition to take on Azeroth.

And yes, I 100% pictured the winged keys from Sorcerer's Stone for Level Five.

"Vaszas" and "Vandak", I assume; yeah, I have to say that would've been a lot easier to sort out if you'd read The Fog of War.

Thanks for your feedback! I genuinely appreciate it.