1. This story was conceived and heavily influenced by a very prolific week where I viewed the film "Cone and See," played the entirety of the World at War campaign, and took a weekend trip hunting hogs one winter with my own Kar98k. It is not the sniper variant, but nonetheless, the influences of that one week were strong enough to inspire me to plan and draft this story.
2. Dietrich was meant to have been alone for the story, and it was meant to be a slice of life esque book with no clear end or direction besides the daily life of Dietrich being transplanted in a different world.
3. Dietrich and Katya were originally meant to be around the same age, but this was changed to expand upon both Dietrich and Katya's mother/son relationship with each other and their respective character growth.
4. Kasma was meant to be killed by Krisch'a and it would have been the catalyst for the bandit village destruction.
5. Kasma having magical properties, and magic itself, was not meant to appear at all in the story. The idea to include a more fantasy setting was a spur of the moment change and one can see where it changed due to how ground in the world seems before Kasma is saved. Before he is saved, everything is taken into account such as resources and a focus on small details, but when magic is introduced, it helps to supplement the ability to overlook those details.
6. Hiroshi and Hudson were not meant to be put into the story at first. But an idea came later which made their inclusion paramount.
7. If this book sometimes feels like it is influenced by Skyrim and DND, thats because it is. In fact, this book shares some elements with both settings.
8. I somewhat regret not making Kasma a female of appropriate age because Dietrich would be getting some. I've wanted to try and write a lemon just to see if I'm good at it, but I'm not going to just write one and put it in at the risk of the rest of the story. I think I've got a pretty decent shot at it in my next story, though.
9. I had a few extra thousand words of just Dietrich skinning Krisch'a. No joke. I took cues from memories and experiences when hunting in real life and crafted a finely detailed excerpt. As I explained before, I didn't feel that it would add anything to the story at that point.
10. Each human character represents one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse from Revelations in the Bible. Dietrich is Death. Hudson is War. Katya is Famine. Hiroshi is Conquest.
11. All major protagonist characters represent parts of the Yin and Yang and each human character has a Thrask world counterpart that shares their spot with the exception of Dietrich Fischer.
In good, there is bad: Hudson and Sehth'ker. Hudson is a good man of God, but has to go against the word by serving as a flame trooper in the war. Sehth'ker is what one would call "An Honest Thief." She was a bandit, but ends up quitting that life to do good when given a choice.
In bad, there is good: Hiroshi and Cynfael. Hiroshi cares for the initial hostages and others along their journey while being a Japanese officer. Enough said there. Cynfael is quite literally the personification of a bloodsucking demon, yet he comes to aid those who need help desperately because it is the right thing to do.
There is pure good: Katya and Kasma. Both are pure and honest in heart, with love knowing no bounds. This is represented by both of their abilities to see beyond Dietrich's evils while decrying violence.
And then, There is pure evil: Dietrich Fischer. He is the exception. He did have a counterpart. But he was so evil, he skinned her in a Thrask slaughterhouse.
12. With that last fact, Krisch'a was meant to live. Obviously, she did not.
13. The scene with Dietrich teaching Kasma about the K98k and how to use and operate it is an allegory for sex. Let's be realistic: Dietrich having Kasma grab his long wooden rod and telling him how to work it so that a certain reaction expels something?
14. Dietrich truly did save Kasma out of the good of his heart. He saw his little brother in the battered Thrask and could not help himself in keeping him safe through the story.
15. I drew heavy inspiration from Predator and Predator 2 in this story as well.
16. Dietrich was originally going to be a random soldier, but I felt that a sniper role fit the story better with the aspects of hunting, terror, and fear.
17. I toyed with the thought of Cynfael bringing a Sherman into the world, but the inclusion of Stuka the horse cemented the horsemen theme.
18. The main characters from the Call of Duty: Zombies story were a slight inspiration for the human characters in this book, but they share little in common besides country of origin and maybe a few mannerisms, if any.
19. Dietrich actually does not know much about firearms in general, just the ones he would be around the most or what is popular. This showcased when everyone receives a new gun. He knows about the Soviet PPSh and Tommy Gun, but doesn't know what the Type 99 LMG is. He also does not know that the Tommy gun is an M1928 Thompson variant, just that gangsters used it, reinforcing what he knows about specific guns.
20. Hiroshi was meant to carry a Type 99 Arisaka, but I felt that Dietrich and Katya having their K98k and SVT-40 would make for a less dynamic method of attack. By that same standard, Hudson was meant to carry a shotgun (M1897, of course). However, the idea of a flamethrower was pretty fun. It also serves as a point of importance for the Thrask world in realizing that those without magic can be just as dangerous if not more than those with. (They can control fire with nothing but pure technological advancement.)
21. At the conclusion of the story, one comes to figure out that Dietrich did not learn anything or have any sort of life altering moment. Everything he did was "In the heat of the moment" just like it is during war. Because, a war story is not teaching, moral, or encouraging. In fact, the only time where one might learn something is the part where Cynfael and Dietrich discuss morality and what the future holds in Chapter 28. The intended takeaway is that war changes not just the body but the mind, and once both are separated from war, then one can see just how much it changes you.
22. Dietrich and Kasma have a relationship which switches between a father/son relationship and a siblings one, as well.
23. Humans live to be almost twice the age of the average Thrask.
24. The Shalthak race of dog like people was meant to be another sentient race, but this was excluded because I just did not feel it would have added to the story in any meaningful way. They did make their way in the story to act as a sort of proto-red herring.
25. Dietrich's knife is a H-man youth knife, apt for his background.
26. Cynfael was originally named Petri, but I was giggling to myself for like four hours when I thought of the whole "Cynfael-Sinful" thing.
27. The title of the story is representative of Kasma and the others. Dietrich is the sinful one, so he would not be alongside himself. I made the title as such because I wanted to represent not just his story, but the others as well because they are just as much of it as Dietrich is:
28: Cynfael comes out of the pit looking like this. The Metro: Exodus Demon. A bit on the nose for his character, wouldn't you agree?
29:I've always wanted to envision three characters that tell an overarching story of emotion and intrigue. In my stories, they are: The Soldier, The Sinner, and The Survivor. It merely happened by circumstance that they involve furries and anthro races.
Moving on, each character was written to represent different ideas and levels of emotional status.
The Soldier, Mikhail Stachenvsky, was written to explore the concept of full range emotional change in an individual. His arc starts with him being somewhat normal in the emotional aspect. Then, he begins to lose his emotions as the war begins and drags on, becoming a shell of his former self. Then, at the end of his arc, he slowly begins to recover what was lost.
The Sinner, Dietrich Fischer, was written to describe the idea of emotional selfishness. He has a complete disregard for others and their thoughts in many occasions. He only does what he does for himself. Alongside such an issue, Dietrich is the most in tuned with his emotions, though he often casts them aside in favor of taking logical approaches to issues.
Dietrich also represents the ideologies and emotions of the Third Reich. It is by design. He does what he does only to further himself, regardless of whether it is at the expense of others. He feels that what he does is for the best, but it often is clearly not. Such a disregard for others is a representation of the Reich.
Dietrich was also written as a more shallow and basic character than Mikhail, however. There is no major character development for Dietrich throughout the story because it was also intended to represent war in and of itself on a basic way. A true war story is not moral, encouraging, instructional, or suggesting in any way of proper human behavior. There is not supposed to be any inspiration or uplifting feelings captured by his story, just a feeling that there is an allegiance to wars obscenity and evil on display.
Dietrich and his story are prone to strange encounters, and while it may seem that he changes a little regarding many aspects, it is meant to represent the idea that you can lose yourself in the worst of times. A good hunter aims to preserve and conserve nature, not destroy it. Perhaps the war and indoctrination from the Nazi Party have skewed what he always felt and only when he is separated from both can he return to what he normally feels?
The only message from Dietrich's story is that, at the end of the day, we are products of our upbringing. Nobody is born or inherently is evil from their conception.
And at the conclusion of Alongside Those Who Are Sinful, you should absolutely come to the conclusion that World War 2 is a horror story where the monsters look exactly like us because at the end of the day, every 'monster' was just a person.
Making them seem like some sort of greater or overarching evil takes away from the fact that any and every person is capable of doing terrible and horrible things. And by extension, every person is capable of doing terrific and great things.
Dietrich is meant to be representative of this line of thinking. He's not magical. He's not a demon. He's not some sort of immortal soul with god powers. He's a man who is doing monstrous things like anybody else could.
The Survivor, who will be my up and coming protagonist, will perhaps be an even more complex character than Dietrich or Mikhail ever were.
He will represent the indomitable human will to persevere even in the face of extinction. He will be my favorite character. He will be the most intriguing and conspiratorial character as well within the purview of the story he resides in.
The survivor will always do what his title is: Survive. He's like a roach: You'll seal up all your cracks and he'll keep coming back.
Why?
Cause he keeps smelling the syrup. Jokes aside, The Survivor is gonna have a real hard time and this story will be about overcoming hardship.