From
The Toast:
- The Elders would like a word with you.
- The Ritual is about to begin.
- Something that has not happened in a thousand years is happening.
- You are going to the City. There is only one City. It is only said
with a capital C. No one needs to bother saying the name of the City. It
is the City.
- Certain members of the Council are displeased with your family’s recent actions.
- A bard is providing occasional comic relief; no one hired or invited him and his method of earning a living is unclear.
- The High Priest is not to be trusted.
- Someone is eating an apple mockingly.
- There is one body of water. It is called the Sea. The Great Sea, if you are feeling fancy.
- You live in a region with no major exports, no centralized
government, no banking system, a mysteriously maintained network of
roads, and little to no job training for anyone who is not a farmer.
- You have red hair. You wear it in a braid. Your father was a simple
man, and you don’t remember much about him – he died when you were so
young – but you remember his strong hands, as he fished or carpentered
or whatever it was that he used to do with them.
- You’re going to have to hurry, or you’re going to miss the Fair – and you never miss the Fair.
- There is trouble at the Citadel.
- Your full name has at least one apostrophe in it.
- It is the first page, and you are already late for something. Your
mother affectionately chides you as you gulp down a few spoonfuls of
porridge; she will be dead by page forty-two.
- There are two religions in your entire universe. One is a thinly
veiled version of Islam. It is only practiced by villains. The other is
“being a Viking.” You are a Viking.
- There are new ways in the land that threaten the Old Way. Your
grandmother secretly practices the Old Way, as do all of the people of
the hills.
- The real trouble began the day you arrived at court. Every last
nobleman hides a viper in his smile. How you long for the purity of life
in your village, which is currently on fire or something.
