I'm glad you enjoyed the book. The Great Leviathan is a character but originates from the oracles. Originally, the oracles were a race called the Nebo. The Nebo are unique in that they are a sort of hive mind but aren't all connected. Each individual Nebo is a hive mind in and of itself that consists of spore-like creatures, and while the individual Nebo do have a connection with one another, the connection is weak, and they are ultimately considered individual people. Because of their unique nature, a kind of informal religion developed among them that prioritized unity among them and the pursuit of knowledge and technology, and over time, their civilization developed technology far beyond the rest of the world of Koln. They used both physical and magical means to create their technology but preferred physical means because (as a kind of tradition) they consider it more difficult to work with and thus requiring more intelligence, making it a kind of pride to create something complex using only physical materials. Although they discovered many similar technologies to Earth, they are behind us in some areas and ahead of us in others. Another part of their religion is moderate pacifism. They do not strictly forbid conflict but shy away from it whenever possible. They do not like to fight personally or even do so by proxy of any weapons they create. Therefore, as soon as their technology had developed enough to pursue it, they began the 'guardian' project, in which they began to develop their first macrobiological weapons. Unlike microbiological weapons (viruses, gas, etc), macrobiological weapons did not have to be wielded by anybody because they would effectively wield themselves. They were basically independent super soldiers. However, in the first batch, one of the soldiers' neural generation was done incorrectly, and his pride/territorial nature was overtuned. The short version of the story is that, upon seeing other soldiers of equivalent status to him, he killed them all, and because the Nebo tried to control him, he decided that it would be a cruel twist of fate for him to become their masters and controlled them by threatening an organ called the Nebo core. Destroying the core wouldn't kill them, but it would compromise their ability to work together and achieve technological progress. In short, they negotiated, and as long as they were allowed to work towards what they longed for, he would be their masters. Later, conquered the Babylonian Empire, which was originally a human empire, and, in order to impose his order, he commanded the Nebo to create the leviathan races and made them create metal suits for themselves to hide their true natures. If the hierarchy in Babylon wasn't clear before, the lowest level is the Low Leviathans. They are the most common. Next come High Leviathans. If you are valuable to the empire (you are a strong general, a famous merchant, or something else the princes or serpents like), then you may be granted a High Leviathan bloodline. Next come the Noble Leviathans. The social class they typically belong to is formally called the Princeps Dominorum, but they are informally referred to as princes. There are a few Noble Leviathans outside of that (such as what Lao was going to become), but they are rare. Their specific duties vary depending on which serpent they serve, but they are almost all members of a court of some kind and may govern local lands. Finally, there are the Royal Leviathans. They are formally referred to as the Serpentis Reges and informally as Serpents. There are seven of them (the seven hearts of Babylon), but only six are publicly recognized. Mot (he is on the cover) is the only serpent not publicly recognized. Except Mot, they all rule one of the six provinces and are only under The Great Leviathan himself. As for magic, it's a system I designed personally that takes inspiration from others but I haven't seen anywhere else yet. The magic system is similar to chemistry or some

For Farron, it resembles a monsoon more than it does rain.

No problem. I love interacting with readers.

Elise's? No. Her gift was True Humanity. Can't decide if or where I want to reveal it later, but basically, it kept her true to her humanity and made her resolve and race incorruptible. She was part of Babylon before she escaped it. However, in Babylon, everybody is required to be a leviathan, and when she was put into the body of a leviathan, her gift stripped it of its bloodline. The leviathan race is spreadable btw, so there should be no excuse not to be one, but she was chased out because her gift prevented her from being one. Life took her gift when she failed.

Decent thus far. It's a brand new book right now, but it doesn't seem like just another super shallow book that you see all the time. seems like it'll become something interesting in the future.

I agree. The magic system is a hell of a beast. I've been trying to work out the kinks, but it always seems like I left something unexplained. I'm planning to leave it like it is for now, though and instead work on the story. I'm much better at that. Thanks for the review, though! :D