Worldbuilding

Over the years, S.A. Chakraborty has done a number of interviews, live chats, and Reddit AMAs; answering questions about the world and history of Daevabad, her characters, and her writing process. This section is an attempt to gather and textualize those answers.

If you would like to help with this, there is a mighty need for transcribing her video/audio interviews. You can go to Special:Community for more info.

Please also note that this section is very long; using the table of contents to find what you're interested in is advised.

## Regarding Daevabad's History

#### The Nahid-controlled city/palace

**Question:** Where did the idea to have the Nahid able to control the city/palace itself come from?

**Shannon:** This was something I wanted to have early on: the idea that the city was essentially birthed and built by Nahid magic and would therefore by linked to them.

source: Reddit

#### Have you considered writing about the OG Zaydi al Qahtani and that period of Daevabad history?

**Question:** Have you ever considered writing about the OG Zaydi al Qahtani and that period of Daevabad history?

**Shannon:** Oh man. Speaking of things I just never got to include in the story: I wrote so much backstory for Am Gezira, so much backstory for why their language is the way it is, how their beliefs evolved, how the war ends up... And it just did not fit into the books at all! Every book I would try to include a little bit of it and it just-- it was backstory, it was backstory for other people's tales and unfortunately I didn't get to include it. And I don't know! I would both love to fear and write Zaydi al Qahtani's story. Because I've toyed with ideas and outlines. And it's a grim book. And I think after Empire of Gold, and after the past 18 months, I kind of felt like I needed to focus on some stories of hope and progress. And the ideas I had for his story were-- I mean I like to explore things so it was meant to be a nuanced portrayal-- but that idea of, what happens when the war you fight for very good reasons, I mean I think, I never wanted to really show that the idea that-- the original idea of "we are taking Daevabad so that the shafit can be treated equally" is-- there's no, *oh, there's two sides for that,* that's like saying there's two sides for the American Civil War. Then how that breaks down, and how that would sort of work in, you know, once somebody, an idealogue gets to the city and gets to Daevabad and watches it just all fall apart in some ways. How that would work. I had a lot of ideas and I don't even remember at what point what parts made it into the story.

I think there's a line about it in Empire of Gold. But even that idea that Zaydi al Qahtani loses his son to Dara, during the battle right before Dara becomes enslaved by Qandisha. And I wrote it kind of --I'm going to get angry emails about this-- but I wrote it in the perspective that--I don't know why I'm gonna say this-- but that essentially his son was young. And he was lured in a bit unfairly and it did not go well. And Dara sends back a message similar to how he received news of his sister's body. And Zaydi al Qahtani snaps. And I don't know-- as much as I think there's a lot of-- that story would be interesting to write, and I think I would enjoy doing it, I don't know that I would enjoy doing it right now, because I think that's just a darkness I don't really want to delve into and write. Maybe one day. I would love to find some way to write a Daevabad book that actually talks about all the things I had set up for the Geziris.

We can see so much that of the point that in my next novel, because they are-- so my next series are essentially meant to take place in the same world, because it's meant to be OUR world. So we get little hints of the djinn and the Daevas, so we'll see some little easter eggs, we'll see one Larger easter egg, but-- even in that, I was like, *can I pull some of the things I wrote for the Geziri and finally put it in this book?* So we see a little bit of that. If you're familiar with any of the backstories of Bilquis, you might guess where I'm going with that. So maybe we'll see it one day, maybe we won't. Because if I wrote about the OG Zaydi al Qahtani, I would have to write about the OG Afshin, and like. My email just recovered, guys! So, not anytime soon!

source: Instagram Live Q&A - September 15, 2021 (since deleted)

## Regarding Characters

### Historical References

#### Were Ali and Muntadhir influenced by the histories of Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb?

**Question:** I was wondering whether Ali and Muntadhir were influenced by the histories of Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb?

**Shannon:** In part, yes, they were one of the princely pairs that I looked at though I think their example is a bit extreme (an excellent story however though).

I've always been fascinated by royal families and by the trope of "the scheming princes always trying to murder each other." Primogeniture has little basis in Islamic law (though actual practice can be different) and was not part of the inheritance practice of a lot of pre-Islamic regional empires. In practice, this is great right? May the best man rule, not the first-born son. And sometimes (usually in the earlier part of the dynasty) this makes sense. The prince best suited rules and he's got a core group of loyal relatives around him.

And sometimes, many times, this goes WAY downhill because humans can be terrible, jealous balls of rage and if you think sibling rivalry is an issue when you're fighting over the dinner table, try adding an empire and untold riches. In particular, I liked examples where people recognized this was going to be a problem, tried to fix it, and blew it all to hell either way. (I modeled Ghassan's decision to make Muntadhir emir and Ali Qaid after Harun al Rashid's division of his empire between two of his sons. Which, spoilers, didn't go well).

The Dara Shikoh and Aurangzeb comparison is more apt when it comes to their religious practices. I don't think Ali is an Aurangzeb, but if religious orthodoxy is not the worst fuel to pour over a sibling rivalry like theirs, I don't know what it. I think in the hands of the powerful, religion is an excellent weapon. You're not after your brother's position out of jealousy, he's an unbeliever who's unfit to rule. You might even believe that, but even if you don't, it's a great way to rally opposition.

source: Reddit

#### How much did you draw on myth for your character creation of Sobek? (EoG)

**Question:** How much did you draw on myth for your character creation of Sobek? More about his personality vs myth, etc.

**Shannon:** So I took a little bit of Sobek from mythology, but something I wanted to explore with the Daevabad books and especially with Empire of Gold, is sort of the relation to pre-islamic beliefs-- the djinn and islam -- because I am of the opinion-- and there's a lot of different opinions, there's no straight answer for this because it crosses a line of what is faith and what is academic history-- but I am of the opinion that a lot of the stories about the djinn pre-date islam --they do, there's fact in their earlier stories, and are influenced-- I mean even the idea of the daevas a lot of the-- there was a reason I wrote them in it-- the daevas and the djinn are actual stories, and I very much believe a lot of the evidence that links them together.

And a lot of the stories we get, especially named ones, are pre-islamic pagan deities or primeval spirits. And I wanted to kind of explore the history of religion in that. what does it feel like to have been worshipped as a god and then feel like you were replaced? How does that work? So I pulled some from mythology for Sobek, but I very much wanted to kind of have all these different traditions, I wanted to see if I could pull them all into one world together. Some aspects I did take from fact, like if you read about the crocodile army that was, you can look it up, Roman Egypt crocodilian armor, you can see examples of it that was said to be from the Cult of Sobek.

The site they stop at along the Nile.. what was it called.. because there were a couple of sites, but it was meant to be an old temple site for Sobek. So it was meant to be the Sobek that human history knows, but brought back into a sort of larger tradition.
(Kom Ombo temple site later asked and confirmed to be the site Nahri and Ali visit.)

source: Instagram Live Q&A - September 15, 2021 (since deleted)

### General Character Thoughts

#### Emotion evoked by Nahri, Ali, Dara, and Ghassan?

**Question:** What emotions do you feel when you close your eyes and think about the following characters: Nahri, Ali, Dara, Ghassan.

**Shannon:** Nahri: this woman really needs a vacation

Ali: frustrated pride

Dara: disappointment

Ghassan: oh, Ghassan, you are so terribly fun to write but I meant every word in The Kingdom of Copper

source: Reddit

#### Characters favorite food?

**Question:** What are some of the favourite foods of the characters? We know Nahri likes feteer, but what dishes do the other characters like? :3 And are there any resources or books that describe medieval Islamic clothing or lifestyle?

**Shannon:** I mean, I think it becomes very clear (one might say dangerously clear) how fond Ali is of tamarind juice in the second book... ;)

As far as favorite dishes, I'm not sure I could pick just one! I like to play around with the idea of food and emotion: that feteer makes Nahri homesick, Hatset feeds Ali the Ayaanle dishes he loved as a kid, the stew Dara is finally able to conjure is his mother's. Preparing and gathering for a meal is a huge part of human culture and society and this is another way to make fantasy characters feel closer to readers.

I couldn't recommend a single book on medieval Islamic lifestyle because it's simply too vast and varied a topic but if you're looking into clothing, textile collections and museums and art from the period is a great start!

source: Reddit

#### Ranking the Daevabad parents from best to worst (also thoughts on Nahri as a mom)

**Question:** Will you rank the parents of the Daevabad trilogy, from best to worse? (bonus, who would make the best parent from the characters without kids, eg. Nahri, Ali etc)

**Shannon:** I feel like there's a spoiler version of this question but I'll resist! From best to worst:

The Sens

MYSTERY

Hatset

Seif

MYSTERY

Dara's parents

Kaveh

Manizheh and Ghassan, Ghassan and Manizheh....you know what, I'm very barely putting Manizheh before Ghassan. He's still the worst.

I think Nahri would make a good mom. I'm sure she'd be super anxious about it, but she's been through enough horrible things and fought for her own ambitions that I can see her being very understanding, supportive, and fiercely protective.

source: Reddit

### Regarding Ali

#### Is Ali a "fanatic"?

**Question:** In the book, Ali is often called a "fanatic" but, is he though? Or just by the standards of Daevabad, which are more... free?

**Shannon:** Ah, Ali, religion, and the court culture of Daevabad--this is part of the book I really enjoyed writing and one that I felt I had to walk a narrow path between historical fact and modern understandings of politics, religion, and Islam in general. Though the book opens in the human world of the 17th century, I wanted the djinn world to seem further back in time and therefore modeled it after the medieval courts of places like Baghdad, Damascus, and Cairo where you had very mixed populations of multiple faiths and cultures. These were incredibly religious societies, ones in which it was understood were ruled and dominated by Islamic law (though in practice, rich powerful men are going to do what they want). And yet when you look at some of the lifestyles, high art and culture....whew. Wine poetry and courtesans and the public intellectuals of the day using Quranic verse style to praise their male lovers. Things that shock my own sense of orthodoxy, things that would likely endanger your life in certain places today. And while this sense of permissiveness waxes and wanes (trust me, when you stepped out of line, the powers that be were plenty willing to use religious edicts they overlooked earlier to punish you), it's undeniably there, particularly for the rich and powerful. I imagined this being the atmosphere that Muntadhir would have embraced, that Ghassan might have ruled from; where they were so confident in their people's dominance, they could let loose personally.

But Ali is not that way. Don't get me wrong, I think in the beginning of the book he's ignorant and bigoted towards the Daevas--in the exact ways an 18-year-old isolated and raised in a military school founded to occupy a Daeva city would be. But when it comes to faith, he practices in a way that much of the lay population does, and this marks him as a fanatic in his father and brother's eyes. I think it would seem strange (and dangerous!) to them that he didn't indulge in the privileges his position grants him--and if he's devout enough to turn away small luxuries like wine and women, what then when he gets older and realizes his family's corrupt and oppressive ways are FAR worse of an affront to God? In so many ways, he's a growing threat to his family's rule (that even outsiders like Kaveh and Anas can see) and this earns him the fanatic label, whether they're applying it to his politics or faith.

Also in terms of representation, it was important to me to show that yes, young men can and do hold themselves to the same religious traditions of modesty that a lot of people (from both outside and inside the community) seem to think only apply to women. I wanted to flip the script a bit, having the male MC be the shy, conservative one while the female MC, Nahri, is more openly like "hey, immortal warrior dude is pretty hot and you only live once. why not?"

source: Reddit

#### Did you write out Ali's journey across the ocean and can we see it one day? (EoG spoilers)

**Question:** Did you write out Ali's journey across the ocean near the Empire of Gold and can we see it one day?

**Shannon:** I have a more expanded version of that, it's such a mess I don't think I'd be able to edit it so that it could be seen. But I do think-- see this is why I have to stop because in my head I'm like, *I would love so much to write more stories about Ali after Empire of Gold* and because I think he's in such an interesting place in his life, and --trying to talk around spoilers-- what he can do and what he can see. And I think, as much as how Empire of Gold ends, he has changed and it is a sacrifice, I always felt like for someone like that who has such a scholarly pursuit and wants to know so much and see so much, it must have been such a blessing to *explore*. To see places and travel places, I mean that kind of ability to snap your fingers and be someplace completely different, I think that would be a dream come true. That for as much as he is cut off from certain aspects of his djinn heritage, I think that would be a gift. And I think that would be the exploration of that and realizing that it's a gift. The sort of things you would learn, the sort of things you would see, and could bring back to your people. I mean that is what the djinn are in my stories are said to do. They essentially visit humanity and they take the best parts and the interesting parts and bring it back to their civilization to improve upon it. So I always thought like, he could just see so much.

So I--again, trying to move on! And write new stories about new characters! But, maybe one day I'll get to see that a bit. We shall see.
(*livechat comment: He brings back toy chickens*)
No! I mean at a certain point the man's going to grow up and mature and think about things besides toy chickens. Philosophy! Science! And all those sorts of things.

source: Instagram Live Q&A - September 15, 2021 (since deleted)

### Regarding Dara

#### The craft of creating Dara (EoG spoilers)

**Question:** Dara is one of my favorite characters. Can you talk about your process in writing him?

**Shannon:** I loved writing Dara. He originally was not going to be a point-of-view character. When I wrote The Kingdom of Copper, I wrote the third point of view from Kaveh's perspective, and I rewrote the book in like 6 months. And I gave it to my agent and my editor, and they-- it was a very different story. It was more political, but it was also worse-- and they were like, "you've created so many different themes and ideas in The City of Brass about like, *who is the hero, who is the villain, how do you choose these things,* why are you not writing from the perspective of the person you're making a villain?"

And I was like, oh that's a good idea. I didn't want to write him originally, I was kind of like, no it's supposed to be a metaphor-- *Oh, the most powerful person in the trilogy is essentially a pawn.* Writing about pawns isn't very exciting, it kind of removed his agency. And once I started writing from him, the story just went in really interesting places. Because so much of what I wanted to write with Dara is the idea of, "how far can you push readers and understanding to *this person is a villain but I like them and I understand his reasoning, but he's done monstrous things."*

And I always wanted to make that clear, that he does monstrous things. I mean, he aids and abets genocide not just once, not just twice, arguably three times. And he does it-- I mean the first time, I think you can say, you can give a little bit more about what happened in-- [responding to livechat responses:] *Sending crying emojis.* Listen, the man knew what he was doing! And he knows what he's doing. And I wanted to investigate that because so much of history and of violence is perpetuated not necessarily by easily--*oh they're a monster, they don't care about anybody*-- it's people who have twisted themselves into knots, saying *"this is best for my people, for my leader, for me."* And I wanted to show that. And I knew that would be difficult, I knew there would be all sorts of conversations both for and con and against. Con and against are the same thing. Writer. (laughs) But I wanted to really investigate that kind of person because I think we live in a difficult world. And a lot of times we won't be forced to make choices between 'should I aid and abet genocide?' -- hopefully the answer is no! But, you're kind of responsible for your path in the world, and I think standing up to do the right thing, in stories we make it seem very clear and it's not. So I really wanted to show a character who does make the wrong decisions. And investigate, "how do you move on from that? Can you move on from that?"

We talk a lot about redemption arcs in stories and it comes with a lot of baggage. Personally, my feeling is that a lot of redemption stories in the West are sort of overlayed with this idea of what redemption is in Christianity. And that's obviously not what I believe. I wanted to discuss more the idea of atonement. Of recognizing that you have done bad, and engaging with that. Not just saying, *"oh I will have an easy answer, for I will fix things, or I will die, or I will sacrifice myself,"* but more the idea of, looking at the pain you've caused and can that ever be fixed. To spend an entire eternity doing that. So I really wanted to reckon with a lot of those themes and everything.

And again, the book is a lot about choice. There is one line, I didn't put it in The Empire of Gold, because it was out of character. But it was supposed to trace back to The City of Brass. When you have that sparring scene between Ali and Dara. And it ends of course with Dara kind of seeming to realize a little commonalities between them, where he's looking upon Ali and he's both nostalgic and a little regretful, and he's talking about how, *"I was also a warrior of the powerful people and you would have done the same things that I did, pray you're never asked to."* and Ali says, "I wouldn't." And when the books end, you do realize in a way, Ali and Nahri didn't. And I kind of wanted to explore that way different characters made different choices. In terms of how people respond to violence and how sometimes to fix a world, you need to break apart everything you know, and that includes yourself sometimes.

source: Instagram Live Q&A - September 15, 2021 (since deleted)

### Regarding Manizheh

#### Inspiration for writing Manizheh (KoC)

**Question:** What inspired you to write Manizheh?

**Shannon:** Oooo, I don't know what I can say about Manizheh that isn't a huge spoiler except that I tried to imagine how Nahri might fare (and what she might be willing to do) after another two centuries of being Ghassan's prisoner and watching him hurt the people she most loved.

source: Reddit

## Regarding the Series

### Themes

#### Reflecting our world's political themes, and hero vs villain characters

**Question:** 1. Did you purposefully write the story in such a way that it mirrored the political situation of this world? It may be fantasy fiction, but there are multitude of layers that are like a harsh reality. The oppression faced by immigrants, the already powerful and rich hungry for more power, the list continues.

2. There is always a hero and villian in every story. The good prevails over evil. But I could never really side with any character throughout. Every character had a justified reason as to why they behave in certain ways. I want to know who is your favorite character. A character according to you who has done nothing wrong.

**Shannon:** I very much wanted the books to mirror some of today's political themes because to be frank, they're not just today's. Humans seem to play out the same cycles of oppression, hatred, and corruption in every time and place. I wanted to write a book that looked at the cold reality of some of those topics and make the politics of the world a part of the story, not just window dressing. Particularly I wanted to write characters who were forced to come to terms with their own place in this cycle (Ali being the son of a tyrant and a member of the majority religion persecuting the minority one, Nahri being a member of a family and leader of a faith that oppressed the shafit, Dara being well...Dara. I think we all like to imagine we're the hero of our own story, we would stand up for what's right even if it got hard. But that's not always the case and I wanted to come up with characters that didn't necessarily fit the mold of hero and villain.

source: Reddit

#### How do you combine history and fantasy? And thoughts on depicting violence & war

**Question:** How did you go about combing history and fantasy? What was the research process like? What scene were you the most hesitant to write?

**Shannon:** I talked a bit about research above but I rather like combining history and fantasy. I like having real events and ideas to jump off of and also enjoy the challenge of writing to certain historical "rules."

I won't spoil it, but there's a scene about 3/4's of the way through in The Kingdom of Copper that gutted me to write. It's essentially a terrorist attack that I always knew the plot was leading up to, one I felt I needed to write for a multitude of reasons, but damn, if I did not rework that scene in at least a dozen different ways and it left me in knots each time.

In general, I try to be very careful with how I depict communal violence and war. I think fiction that treats the nameless dead as little more than cannon fodder to propel the main character's journey is disrespectful and doesn't fully interrogate the systems of power they've built up. It was also important to me to make clear to readers that some of the characters I knew they'd love are murderers--they're committing brutal acts that no matter how they justify it in their heads, would rightfully be seen as monstrous from the other side and in a just world, would end up with them in a prison cell.

source: Reddit

#### In a world of magic, what's special about humans?

**Question:** It seems the daevas, peris, and marids have cool powers but humans who are made from earth according to Dara doesn't have anything. Is there something special about humans?

**Shannon:** I think humans are the most clever! This verges into slight spoilers for the third book, but djinn built much of their own advanced society off human concepts and innovations. Magic makes life easier for them and that's a tool humans don't have the luxury of utilizing.

source: Reddit

### Medicine

#### How did you go about making the complex medical characters and scenes?

**Question:** Your books have a lot of healers and medical stuff - I liked the medical scenes especially in Empire of Gold which were kinda graphic! How/why did you go about making these complex medical characters and scenes?

**Shannon:** I knew I wanted to make my main character a healer, but I also wanted to get it right (I was working in an ob/gyn clinic at the time and watching my own spouse go through medical school and a grueling residency). I wanted to play with some historical techniques and procedures such as the theory of humors, cupping, and trepanation. But more than that, I wanted it all to feel real. I wanted Nahri's training to be as grueling and time-consuming as a modern medical student. I wanted some of her patients to be incredibly difficult and I wanted her to make mistakes that would get people killed. It was important to show the arc that gives her the confidence to do surgery in the third book--because you need a certain level of insane confidence to cut into someone's head! But this also comes with responsibility. For all the politics and war and magical shenanigans (and romance, yes) her overriding ambition is to survive and take care of her patients.

The scenes! I really like the history of medicine so first came the research (and some memorable trips to medical history museums in both the US and the UK). But for the final pass, I always made sure to run everything by the aforementioned spouse. There's always plenty to nitpick and criticize when you read any book, but let me tell you...I know I got the brain surgery correct!

source: Reddit

### Romance

#### At what point did you decide to pair Nahri and Ali? (EoG Spoilers)

**Question:** I wanted to ask, at what point did you decide to pair Nahri & Ali?

**Shannon:** Ah, but the romance. With the Daevabad Trilogy, I really wanted to center the romance from Nahri’s point of view and explore the different ways love, attraction, and passion might weave in and out of her life throughout a period of years. And I wanted it to feel as real, nuanced and messy as love often does in real life. What is it like to have her first crush? To learn how to trust? To be betrayed? To have to navigate a political marriage? How would all this work in terms of her own agency and desire rather than prioritizing the feelings of male characters? And I wanted the story to reflect how Nahri herself felt about love: that it could be a sentiment not to be trusted, a distraction. That in the end, there were other things she desired just as much, if not more.

Spoiler territory: it was always my intention to show Nahri with more than one man. I find the concept of a single true love a bit depressing along with the idea that the first man a woman kisses is her last. Let female characters do some exploring! I wanted to show a younger Nahri fall in love for the first time in a bewildering madness she doesn't even understand and then be truly heartbroken and betrayed in a way that it takes her years to recover from. I wanted to see her try to work an unwanted political marriage to her benefit and normalize the fact that she might not love her husband but enjoy the sex. And then I wanted to show a different, slower, wary kind of love take root between her and Ali: that of partners. And it was important to me to show that it's just a possible beginning for them, one of many. I had a lot of beta readers pushing for another kiss or a marriage but that felt rushed. They were both so traumatized (and young still!) and had other goals they wanted to meet, a city to fix. That they could find a quiet peace and happiness in supporting each other's dreams while letting their hearts heal and maybe grow together without pressure was its own kind of love.

Non-spoiler thoughts on romance since I have a spot to put them: I am not unaware this topic has roused some passionate debate among readers! Frankly, I'm content to have written the canon and let readers find joy in shipping whoever they want. It's an adult book and we're in the middle of a pandemic, steal your happiness where you can find it. But I hope people can do so without tearing into each other. Fictional men (heck, many real ones) aren't worth that much negative energy.

source: Reddit

#### Why wasn't there more romance at the end of Empire of Gold?

**Question:** Why wasn't there more romance at the end of Empire of Gold?

**Shannon:** So I will talk a little bit about how I wanted to show romance with this book series. People don't believe me, but when I wrote this, I started this when I was 22, and I was somewhat new to fantasy. I was very much like Ali in the effect of-- I was quite religious, there were some things I was unaware of. So first of all I did not know that fanfiction had an association with certain types of more explicit kinds of fanfiction and did not know that until about a year after City of Brass was published and I kept using that term and everyone was like, *you know what that means, right?*

So I did not-- there was no intentions of love triangles. And honestly I think love triangles can be interesting and done well. But what I wanted to show with Nahri was that it's not really like, *"oh, who will I end up with"* because again, talking about the messiness of women's lives, that you see she starts out young and she can have different feelings for different people: they can be sexual, they can be romantic, they can be friendship, they can be political. I always did feel like that for all the "oh it's a triangle" -- Muntadhir is her actual husband who she sleeps with, and never gets linked into any of this! But I just wanted to show that, that she could be someone who was moved by passion and the heat of the moment, who could have her feelings change and go about that, but what she was trying to do in this series was find her own path. And become a doctor, and become a leader to her people, and that, you know, you could see men rise and fall in that in levels of importance.

But there was a chapter in Empire of Gold that I wrote with her conversation with Hatset that just was my feelings exactly. When it was kind of like, *She knew what people said about her and Dara, she knew about what people said about her and Ali,* and Nahri wasn't being forced to choose. and that's kind of how I wanted to show romance with it, that it can be-- people can have differing opinions and differing likes and they can be broken and they can pick themselves back up. Again, just even kind of being like, how the books end are not to be, like, *Nahri believes the right way about romance or about life or about politics.* I don't necessarily think we should be writing as, like, *these books are the moral good* -- I don't think that's how most writers think. We're just trying to explore human experiences in different ways.

So I didn't want it to be... I'm gonna try not to spoil it, but for me, at the end of Empire of Gold, Nahri gets what she wants. She is a doctor, she is a leader to her people, she is fixing herself and she has learned about her roots, and she's starting on a path of healing. And that path of healing does not include just being immediately attached with somebody. I think this poor girl would need about ten years of Daevabad therapy to ever be able to trust someone again. And quite frankly a lot of that trust was meant to be shown that, when she is betrayed at the end of City of Brass, that breaks something in her. And it takes her the entire trilogy to start to recover from that. So I wanted it to feel like a beginning. And that she was starting to let herself have connections with people again. Connections to all sorts of people, and that she could sort of mourn what might have been, y'know and have complicated feelings about all that without necessarily everything ending in like, kisses and forgiveness and quick marriage contracts.

So that was why there wasn't more romance at the end of Gold. I felt like the story didn't call for it, she wasn't there yet in her journey, and it was meant to be her journey first and foremost.

source: Instagram Live Q&A - September 15, 2021 (since deleted)

### Tropes

#### Flying carpets

**Question:** I admit that you almost lost me with the first flying carpet. I was like, "she is not going to find a carpet... Nope. I can't do this." But! The way you just made it a foot note and not another "magic carpet ride musical" was perfect, and I'm so glad because I'm loving your books.

**Shannon:** Hahaha, I did want to gently poke at some of the tropes. Suleiman is said to have had a flying carpet in some of the folklore and one of my favorite tales (also about squabbling brothers) in 1001 Nights uses one. It also allowed for them to travel faster!

source: Reddit

### Book Speculation/Future

#### Break down the KoC ending and what it means?

**Question:** If you could, without spoiling anything in the sequel, can you break down the ending and what it means going forward?

**Shannon:** Without spoiling is a tall order! Hmm, I suppose I can say I meant the epilogue to be taken quite literally. I thought I gave far more away than it seems I did.

source: Reddit

#### Speculation for third book's title

**Question:** Is the third volume going to be titled something regarding zinc?

**Shannon:** If I had my way, it would be rock quartz because there are some really beautiful old works that use this as a base but I'm not sure my editor would let me title something on the basis of "but look how cool this crystal dagger is!"

source: Reddit

#### Future plans for Daevabad?

**Question:** I know this book set is a trilogy, but are there any plans to eventually create other series in the same universe?

**Shannon:** I have something in mind for my next project that is more straight historical fiction (and far lighter in tone) but I would love to return to Daevabad's world in the future. I'd probably do something set further in its past, however. I'd like to bring Nahri, Ali, and Dara's stories to a close (which will likely make me weep, but I think it will be time for them to belong to readers' imaginations more than mine).

source: Reddit

## Regarding Shannon's Writing Process

### Research

#### What got you interested in medieval Islam and Arabic culture?

**Question:** What got you interested in medieval Islam and Arabic culture?

**Shannon:** How I got interested in medieval Islam and Arabic culture is honestly hard for me to pinpoint a certain event or discuss because it's fairly wrapped with my own conversion and pulling them apart is personal and difficult and something I won't attempt on Reddit! Though I will say by college I was pretty fixated on the medieval period. I'd interned at the Sultan Qaboos Center in DC and taken a great course on trade in Cairo that left me wanting to focus on research in the late antiquity/early medieval era of the Indian Ocean sphere.

source: Reddit

#### How much time did it take to research the lore and mythology?

**Question:** How much time did it take to research the lore and mythology that so beautifully informed these books?

**Shannon:** Maybe 8-9 years? This is actually a bit hard to pin down because the research came first. I've been into history since I was a kid, honing in on the medieval Islamic world since my late teens. So it was lore and stories that I had been familiar with for years and kept reading up--even when my plans to study it professionally went a bit sideways. I liked magic and I liked fantasy so while I was working in unrelated field, I started writing on the side, setting little stories in this alternative world of djinn that pulled on a lot of the historical places and people I loved. By the time the actual plot and main characters rolled around in my head, most of the research was done.

source: Reddit

#### What's your favourite of the 1001 tales?

**Question:** What's your favourite of the 1001 tales?

**Shannon:** The one I named my book after, of course! I absolutely love the story of "The City of Brass." It is this wild almost steam-punky adventure that is one part Indiana Jones and one part every sermon that's ever been spoken about the temptations of the dunya. I can just envision a story-teller spinning this tale of murder statues, screaming sea djinn, lost ancient cities, beautiful dead ladies and then when he's worried it's getting a bit too indelicate, reminding everyone that the only reason he's REALLY telling them this story is to warn them that the pleasures of modern life are fleeting. It is excellent.

And since you mentioned the threads, here's the one I did on Twitter.

source: Reddit

#### What is your favorite and least favorite historical period?

**Question:** What is your favorite and least favorite historical period?

**Shannon:** Favorite: early Abbasid era. Least favorite, if only for the fact that it dominates pop history: WW2

source: Reddit

### Writing

#### Which chapters were more enjoyable to write (in CoB/KoC)

**Question:** Which chapters would you say you enjoyed writing more, Ali or Nahri?

**Shannon:** I honestly like writing them both though it's a bit easier to slip into Ali's head (I don't know what that says about me). I've been a socially awkward, religious teen who puts their foot in their mouth too often and I like teasing this from the distance of adulthood. Nahri feels more inspirational to me. I wish I had her confidence!

source: Reddit

#### Which character was the most fun to write?

**Question:** Which character was the most fun to write?

**Shannon:** I like to let loose a bit with my secondary characters. Muntadhir can be quite fun to write and I got a kick out a working with Aqisa and Lubayd, Ali's friends in the second book.

source: Reddit

#### Did your personal or educational background come into play much in writing these books?

**Question:** Did your personal or educational background come into play much in writing these books?

**Shannon:** Both. I wrote a lot of my own experiences as both a Muslim and a convert/newcomer to a religious community into both Nahri and Ali's arcs.

Educational: I've answered this in another question but the books actually came after studying history so they were born directly from that. One anecdote: I had a great class at AUC on the history of Egyptian art and architecture in which the professor would take us on field trips and during the one to al Qahira, she went on a whole lecture about how the Ottomans had contributed nothing and let the cemetery fall apart and were too snobbish to be buried there....and yes, this is where that whole section in the City of Brass comes from!

source: Reddit

#### Which authors influenced your writing style?

**Question:** Which authors influenced your writing style/current books? What are some Fantasy books you would recommend?

**Shannon:** I read a good amount of historical fiction along with fantasy and think those authors likely influence me just as much, if not more. My favorites are Laila Lalami and Amitav Ghosh (I also just finished Ruqaya Izzidien's Watermelon Boys, which was incredible). They're doing the same thing a good fantasy author is trying to accomplish: bringing to life and humanizing characters from another time and place and I think it's a model to learn from.

Some fantasy faves this past year (2019): Empire of Sand, anything Nicky Drayden writes, The Pasha of Cuisine, Gods of Jade and Shadow, Winter of the Witch, The Raven Tower, and The Stone Sky, and Trail of Lightning.

source: Reddit

#### Is writing something you learn through experience or examples?

**Question:** Is writing something that one learns through experience and examples (like reading other authors’ work)? Or would you suggest taking lessons in writing?

**Shannon:** I don't think there's any definitive answer to this question. Every writer is different and everyone has a different process. But most importantly, I think you need to read. Read outside your genre, inside your genre, the classics, the new pulp books in the drugstore. Get a feel for what good storytelling is, the characters that grab you, the plots that make you keep reading when you should be asleep. And then WRITE. Get your butt in a chair, finish your work (it doesn't have to be perfect) and get used to revising and sharing your work again and again and again because this is how you get better. And while classes and workshops can be great experiences, no, I don't think everyone needs them (nor are they accessible to everyone considering the costs/time). I'll be honest: I haven't taken so much as an English class since high school, let alone one on creative writing. I would have loved to, but it wasn't in the cards as it's not for a lot of people who find success in writing anyway.

source: Reddit

#### Type of writer: plotter or pantser?

**Question:** Question about your writing process! Are you the type that plans everything ahead of time or someone who writes and lets the story take you where it wants to go?

**Shannon:** I truly wish I was the kind of writer who could plot ahead. I am a meticulous planner in all other facets of life, have an embarrassing number of to-do lists, schedules...but when it comes to the creative process, it sparks 90% of the time when I'm already writing. I really need to write out a scene to see where it's going, having a feel for how the characters would react, etc. This makes me fairly slow as I end up reworking a lot of material at the draft stage or having things go in a completely different direction, but it seems to be my process

source: Reddit

#### How do you keep your writing organized?

**Question:** What is your process for writing a book? For example, do you outline it or free write it.. how do you keep it organized?

**Shannon:** I have a slightly similar question above, but I free write while keeping notes, outlines, ideas, etc in a separate document. I am not particularly organized, but I do make sure I write EVERYTHING done even if it's a random thought or line I might not need for 300 pages.

source: Reddit

#### Writing struggles: plot indecision

**Question:** (the question was deleted by the original poster)

**Shannon:** Cycling through the many struggles of writing, one I've found myself returning to recently is indecision. When you're drafting, it feels like the story is the monstrous tree with a thousand different roots and it can be very difficult to know which is the right path to follow (because sometimes you'll make mistakes and have to backtrack past ten of those forks!) And sometimes there is no right answer, multiple directions can create equally fascinating stories. But making that decision, especially if you're early drafting alone, can be difficult.

source: Reddit

#### Would you ever write sci-fi?

**Question:** While you seem to be more into historical fiction, do you have any ideas or plans for some scifi?

**Shannon:** Maybe one day. I feel slightly traitorous for admitting this, but sci-fi was my first love, way before fantasy. I saw Return of the Jedi when I was a kid and my mind was just blown. I love fantasy but sci-fi turns me into a giddy nerd. ::types faster so she can go watch Discovery::

I would love to write it one day but I'd definitely need to do some research. My creative mind has been stuck in the past for a very long time!

source: Reddit

### Publishing

#### Why go by your first initials?

**Question:** Why did you decide to go by your first initial instead of your first name?

**Shannon:** I had the naive idea that it would somewhat protect my privacy. "Shannon Chakraborty" is pretty unique and I'd dealt with some harassment and having personal information available online the year before I queried the book that left me pretty unsettled. But like less than a few months after it sold, I had bot accounts collecting all my details anyway so now I use SA/Shannon pretty interchangeably.

source: Reddit

#### What inspired you to write Daevabad? And ideas behind the cover art

**Question:** What inspired you to write The City of Brass and The Kingdom of Copper? And can you tell us about the idea behind your cover art?

**Shannon:** The books were born out of history research but when it came to the characters and plot, I wanted to write your typical swashbuckling adventure, but one that featured a Muslim hero and a woman who could save herself. I also knew I wanted to delve into the thornier issues of politics, leadership, and the way clashing views of the past can have repercussions on the future.

I have a brilliant cover artist who comes up with amazing concepts, but I knew I wanted Nahri on the cover of the first, in an abaya and headscarf that actually looked like the real garments. The second one I wanted to be a subtle nod to Ali, pulling in the elements of water and traditional south Arabian architecture.

source: Reddit

#### How have your connections with the other Fantasy/Spec Fiction authors in Brooklyn influenced you?

**Question:** How have your connections with the many other Fantasy/Spec Fiction authors in Brooklyn influenced you?

**Shannon:** The only reason I'm a published author is because of the specfic community in Brooklyn! When I joined the Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers, I had not an ounce of experience and they really helped me whip the manuscript into shape. It's an awesome, thriving writers group and I really recommend anyone interested in SFF in the area check it out on Meetup.

source: Reddit

### Cooking

#### Favorite meal to cook?

**Question:** What’s your absolute favorite meal to cook?

**Shannon:** It's not a meal and I've only made it once, but it was so unbelievably good, I feel the need to share it as frequently as possible: date fritters. It came from a translation of a thirteen-century Syrian cookbook and it's basically dates that have been stuffed with pistachio-rosewater marzipan and then battered, fried, and dipped in syrup multiple times. It's the kinda thing you take a bite of and go "yes, this is definitely what someone with a continent-spanning empire would indulge in."

And yes, I have a recipe.

source: Reddit

#### What recipes do you recommend, and how did you settle on djinn cuisine?

**Question:** What recipes would you recommend to excite the tongue and sate an empty stomach? How did you settle on djinn cuisine?

**Shannon:** Asking me to recommend just one recipe is impossible! I will say I do a lot of recreations of medieval cuisine and judhaba remains my fave. I am in general a fan of giant stews because it means I don't have to cook for days.

Djinn cuisine: I figured they would rip things off from the local humans and then improvise with magic. Rukh kebabs, anyone?

source: Reddit

## External Links

* SAChakraborty.com - Events & Interviews list
* Reddit.com/r/books S.A. Chakraborty AMA - Jan 31, 2019
* Reddit.com/r/books S.A. Chakraborty AMA - July 7, 2020
* Reddit.com/r/Fantasy S.A. Chakraborty AMA - July 14, 2020

## References

1. ↑ SAChakraborty.com - Events & Interviews
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 S.A. Chakraborty on Instagram - September 14, 2021 - IG Live Q&A for River of Silver and Pirate Trilogy