Jan 18, 2025
Author's Commentary #318:
Time to talk about Chapter 318: Tirade of the bloody baron.
With the contest over, I can now catch up on my author commentaries and game logs for the series. But before I delve into the behind the scenes stuff with this chapter, I first want to highlight some things about Jad, aka Roman von Ungern-Sternberg.
ロマン・ウンゲルン (Roman Ungern) and ロマン・フョードロヴィチ・フォン・ウンゲルン＝シュテルンベルク (Roman Fyodorovich von Ungern-Sternberg) are how he's referred to in Japanese, while Унгерн фон Штернберг (Ungern von Sternberg) and Барон Ро́берт-Ни́колай-Максими́лиан Рома́н Фёдорович фон У́нгерн-Ште́рнберг (Baron Robert-Nikolai-Maximilian Roman Fyodorovich von Ungern-Sternberg) is how he's referred to Mongolian, according to Wikipedia. ニコライ・ロバート・マクシミリアン・フライヘル・フォン・ウンゲルン＝シュテルンベルク (Nikolai Robert Maximilian Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg) is how his full name would be spelled in katakana.
(If I made any mistakes with the translations, feel free to correct me).
If you recall way back in his introductory bio, I listed Jad's birthday as January 10th. This is also Ungern-Sternberg's birthday, meaning that birthday served as a hint to his true identity. In the same bio, I also stated his favorite piece was the king, which makes sense in greater context as he wanted to restore both the Russian monarchy and the Mongol empire.
Two more clues hinting at his identity were his violent nature, and Raymond name dropping his first name, Nikolai back in Chapter 312: Scourge of Urda. And for the final clue, the fact that Ulaanbaatar is now Urda again. Since Ungern-Sternberg hated communists, I doubt he'd allow the capitol city of Mongolia to be named "Red Hero", especially since the name was given to the city during the formation of the Mongolian People's Republic. Now with the Ungern-Sternberg facts out of the way, on to the behind the scenes stuff with this chapter.
I think the Okisato vs Jad fight is a cinematic masterpiece, however, it was easily one of the most difficult games to write, mainly due to wavering levels of motivation. Most of that lies with the IRL Mal x Honeyfeed 2024 writing contest, which was wrapping up around the time I reached this point in the story. The other factor was the game itself being almost 60 moves. When I fist got writing it though, I was super motivated, even having a blast writing it. But I came close not to getting this chapter out in daily fashion due to me being preoccupied with other works at the time.
It all worked out though, and as a result, we get Okisato giving an epic roast of Ungern-Sterberg, who will still be known as Jad throughout the series, in Mongolian nonetheless. Okisato really struck gold when he gained the ability to learn any language with ease. Now he's fluent in English, Danish, German, Finnish, Esperanto, Hungarian, Estonian, Polish, Romanian, Hebrew, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, and Mongolian in addition to his native Japanese. He truly is a polyglot among polyglots.
One final thing I'll mention is the opening Jad played that went 1. h3 e5 2. e3, which previously went unnamed. But henceforth, it shall be dubbed the Ungern-Sternberg opening. And with that, Japan's men's team gets their first perfect victory of the tournament, while also sending the message to Mongolia that they won't be conquered. Now all that remains before the round's conclusion is to check up on some of the other teams. This was an exhausting round to write, mainly because of the behind the scenes stuff with the contest, but it all worked out. After these next few chapters, round 6 will kick off, and I promise tensions will be higher than ever as Japan faces it's toughest opponents yet in tournament.
That's all for this commentary. I hope you enjoyed it.
