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@merieshenanigans

Yes!! I liked how that book mainly explored Anne sort-of-not-really-accidentally meddling in other people’s affairs xD So much everyday craziness.

Exactly! And I think it really shows how a story doesn’t have to be super high-stakes to be engaging. It was still so much fun to read!

Hard to say! The ending broke me but… I still loved it. I really like how the MC’s love for her old home never got overshadowed by her new experiences in America, which seems to happen a lot both in real life and in YA. It’s hard to explain because I’m biased, I guess xD

LOL, I’m biased too XD I love that too, so far! Almost every other book I’ve found on it has an arc where the character stops missing their first culture and it just completely fades, which is really weird? It really defeats the entire point of the book XD

I remembered reading it when I was younger and I’d end up wanting to yeet the book across the room XD Also, that character being a side character instead of the main character? Idk if you’ve encountered this as well, but I’ve often read stories where the character who is the center of conflict is a side character, which kinda defeats the purpose?

Ah, I see! How do the tribes differ? Also which one is the MC from?

So, there are seven tribes, and the biggest differences are geographical, political, and cultural.

The Lehabim are mostly based on Old-Testament Israel, though the story is set later. They’re one of the nomadic tribes, they stay in the eastern wilderness part of the country. They have a long dynasty, but they also have a group of Elders who are able to disagree with the monarch and even cancel their decisions or get them off the throne if necessary. It’s a safety measure to keep the monarch from abusing their power.

The Kezbes are closer to Byzantine, at least in the v i b e s XD They’re not nomadic, their main source of income is agriculture. They live in the southern mountains. They have a really interesting political system. It looks like a monarchy on the outside, but the ascension goes to the most experienced of the three subordinate commanders instead of the oldest son. And if someone defeats the ruler in a duel, they become the ruler. I could go into why this actually works better than you’d expect, but I won’t XD

The Orme are based on vaguely West-African and Sub-Saharan cultures. They’re nomadic as well, they’re in the west part of the country. They have probably my favorite political system. They have a married king and queen, and when one of the two dies or they choose not to rule, they elect another couple. I think the philosophy behind this is that they balance each other out and that two rulers will usually be fairer.

The Gitakan and Sanat are based on Classical cultures. (Think Alexandria during the Roman period) They live pretty much anywhere, though the center of government for both is in a city called Hisar. The Gitakan have a triumvirate that’s elected every four years. The Sanat are led by the seven leaders of the guilds.

Neither of those two tribes has been in any serious conflict for a long time, so they’ve been able to spend more time on technology, art, science, and study, especially the Gitakan.

The Sanat and Gitakan work together closely, and sometime after the story I think they end up uniting since they’re so intermingled by that point anyway XD

The Nebatan live in the northern coastal region. I didn’t really have any solid culture to base it in, so it’s vaguely New-Testament Israel with some more Celtic and European influences because of a wave of immigrants that came from there about two generations ago. So, they differ culturally from the Southern tribes, also because they’re more isolated from them by the desert. It gives off some rather funny mishaps XD

They have a vaguely feudal system. After their original monarchy was overthrown, there was a long famine and two or three of the farmers had stored enough grain to sell. The only way most of the smaller farmers could afford to buy grain was by selling their land, so most of the land ended up belonging to a few wealthy farmers, who would lease the land to the others. Because of the way it’s managed, it’s barely possible to save up enough money to buy the land back, so there’s a major power imbalance.

The Qeyik exist, that’s about all I know about them XD They actually don’t feature at all, I just wanted seven tribes. They’re in the same area as the Nebatan, but their primary income is trade, and they’re led by the richest merchants.

My MC is the Princess of the Lehabim. I have a main character from each of the tribes except Qeyik, so there’s a lot of interaction, cultural clashing, and general chaos.

Oh, goodness, you asked one question and got an essay XD I’m sorry, I tend to get very long-winded when I’m excited XD