The German influences for Bjornborn are a bit more nuanced than the Balkan or Irish ones. German literature can be very introspective, but the ways it chooses to approach these concepts is admittedly different from how Bjornborn does.
In many German stories, the environment can act as a symbolic backdrop to the story itself. The weather can change to reflect a character’s inner joy or turmoil. Dark forests are a staple of a lot of German tales, filled with unknown horrors as well as unexplainable phenomena. German stories are also fairly existential.
A lot of the inspiration I gleaned for Bjornborn did come from the Brother’s Grimm. I have no doubt many people have seen the likes of The Little Mermaid or Snow White. When I wrote Bjornborn, the environment around Kreideberg, the fortress housing the Dragonguard, was directly inspired by the tone set by those stories.
The German approach to emotions, I do like to write some characters where their duty is supposed to trump their emotions. Essentially, focus on the problem first, feel the emotions later because you need to fix what’s wrong so it doesn’t become a problem. Coming from a family that has been ifluenced by German ancestry, I have actually seen that first-hand. But I’ve also seen the darker side of it. Where you must put your emotions aside for a moment to fix an issue now, what if the issue goes far longer than you anticipated? What if before you can process your emotions a newer, bigger threat arises that robs you of that time to reflect?
That was something that I thought would make an interesting challenge for a leader who’s set routine of grief and duty is completely shattered by a new arrival. I thought that showing this mentality, and showing how it can be challenged by very emotionally charged incidents, actually shows that while this is a good practice, it can have flaws. Like any other culture’s approach to emotions and processing grief or trauma, there is a limit to how much those practices can help before the dam breaks. This character can do her duty, and performs it with precision, but the cracks are beginning to show.
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