Trivia / Codex Equus

• Creator Breakdown: Brutalityinc, the creator, co-author and main editor of Codex Equus, had recently admitted in status posts and comments that his issues against character as well as scorn and distaste for certain tropes, plots and character types stems partly from undisclosed, ongoing Real Life issues that are afflicting his life and his home country, events that are leaving him positively 'trembling' with anxiety, rage and despair. He had often hinted between the lines of comments how uncomfortable he is to even look at those tropes and stories, since they often remind him too much of the ongoing situation and people back home and often serving as his personal berserk buttons, trauma buttons or misery triggers. He had kept this to himself until recently as he does not want them to get in the way of the project, and out of principles and respect for other readers and writers he does not prohibit entries and stories that contains them, insisting that these are his 'personal problems' and he would do everything possible to support his fellow writers with their stories despite his discomfort.
  Brutalityinc: Problems started because of news about things turning for worse on my end of the world. Don't want to depress you with details, but everyone we know is certain where we live is effectively fucked by pressing circumstances. That's on top of stress I'm already having.
  
  Brutalityinc: Too many things are hitting way too close to home these days. Mother told me to avoid the news and try and distract myself with my studies and media. Studying already stressful as it is, that leaves only the media.
  
  I go online hoping to read or watch anything but things which would remind me of the crumbling situation back home, and what do I get? Every other thing I see pressing my berserk, anxiety and depression buttons. Repeatedly. Sometimes all three at once.
  
  There is just no escape anymore.
• Creator's Favorite:
  • By Godzillawolf's admission, Flashwing and Whirlwind are his two favorite Skylanders characters. As such, when they started being adapted, they were the first two he did as Prism Wing and Commander Maelstrom.
  • Randomfan11 at one point admitted that her most favorite (and most developed) characters are Moon Ray Vaughoof and Blue Suede Heartstrings, the Codexverse's expies of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Elvis Presley, respectively. While this is partially due to enjoying their music, Randomfan11 felt their fates were tragic considering what they both went through beforehand, and vowed to give them a life better than what they got. Indeed, both Moon Ray and Blue Suede are depicted as highly successful prodigy musicians, gods, and patriarchs of huge families, and while not devoid of flaws, they are both much happier in the Codexverse.
  • BrutalityInc made extensive efforts in worldbuilding Malregnar and the UGPR, being attempts at reconstructing a Lawful Evil civilization and a functional socialist nation respectively.
• Promoted Fanboy: Due to being a collaborative work, many of the newer entries are from fans who were previously okay with just reading the entries.
• Refitted for Sequel: According to her creator, Empress Blackrose's original character concept was a Tragic Villain who was consumed by revenge on Discord to the point she does outright villainous things in pursuit of it. This was changed during development to turn her into an Anti-Hero with some Good is Not Nice traits. Her Fatal Flaw being Wrath was a holdover from this. This concept was reused for Despotic Destiny and Broken Harmony in the War Against Order Arc, something Blackrose now Rosedust makes reference to by comparing them to herself at her worst.
• What Could Have Been:
  • One of the Codexverse writers, Randomfan11, originally intended Mitta and Silver Bane to become demigods as part of their Character Development. However, BrutalityInc advised her to write them as mortal/immortal heroes instead, feeling that such characters were being underrepresented in comparison to the Codexverse's divine entries. Given how their official entries were well-received, it may have been the better decision, and Randomfan11 even expressed relief that she decided to seek help during the writing process.
  • Blue Suede Heartstrings, an Alicorn god of Music and Humility who is based on Elvis Presley, was originally going to be named "Blue Heartstrings", presumably as an early draft and to keep the references to Elvis subtle. Apparently the writer responsible thought that wasn't a good idea, as she later added "Suede" to the name when she wrote his entry.
  • Moon Ray Vaughoof, who's based on Stevie Ray Vaughan, was originally conceptualized as a Music deity. However, Randomfan11 decided to forego that in favor of making Moon Ray a god of Death, Temperance, Water, and Forgiveness after reading about Stevie Ray's death, his battles with addiction, and his childhood growing up with an alcoholic father.
  • Rajin was intended to receive a much more serious punishment compared to Emera, but Godzillawolf realized that Rongoa/Remy was too much of a Nice Guy to have a sense of vengeance and it'd make more sense for him to show her mercy rather than seek payback.
• Word of God: BrutalityInc dislikes Chrysalis viewing her as one-dimentinally evil (a trope he dislikes such his works treat them with scorn or rewrite to be more nuanced) idiot who's only effective when the heroes were made more idiotic or inept. It's only due to her (he thinks undeserved due to canon failing to show what they praise) popularity with fans and writers that he includes her as is, limits bashing, gives her praise when due, and leaves her competence open to interpretation in-universe and out. But the reason they wrote the Changeling Court entries, and thus the main basis of the whole Codexverse, was to expand on the Changelings civilization in order to marginalize Chrysalis.
• Write Who You Know:
  • Prince Shamrock is explicitly asexual and has had a few issues dealing with it. His creator, Godzillawolf, is openly asexual/aromantic and based much of Shamrock's character off his own experiences.
  • By Randomfan11's own admission, one of her characters, Beren, a Blue Jay Northern Griffon student from the Terran Empire, was partially based on her own experiences and struggles with autism (Randomfan11 was born autistic with all that entailed). And while she was bullied in real-life, it was not to Beren's degree.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: In response to a reader asking about the lack of Worldbuilding for other canon races, the author admits that he pretty much invokes this trope for the work as a whole, which is the reason for the multiple counts of Sequel Gap and why many multi-parter entries were Left Hanging for years before being resumed. That is, if they were ever resumed at all.

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