(I can’t really explain Yola because she’s supposed to be random.  She falls into a similar category as Lost and Bob from War of Nytefall.  The big differences is that she’s a goddess, which means her random chaos is on a higher level.  I made the post below when Merchant of Nevra Coil was coming out, so it doesn’t cover what happened afterwards.  Not that it was a lot beyond here continuing to serve Baron Kernaghan to some extent.  I’m still on the fence about giving her a one-shot book in the future to create more closure or leaving her to the current final fate.  Part of it is because a lot of people made fun of her ‘surname’ and I don’t want to deal with that again.)

It’s only right that I talk about Yola Biggs before Merchant of Nevra Coil is released next month.  She causes everything that happens and gets a good evolution as well as revealing more about the world of the gods.  So you know the Chaos Goddess has to have an interesting origin.

*checks notes from long ago*

Where in the world did this nutcase come from?

Seriously, I don’t know what possessed me to create Yola or put a goddess on the side of the Baron.  She didn’t really have a purpose at the beginning beyond transporting other villains and defending the Baron.  Kind of like an overpowered limo and bodyguard rolled into one.  There isn’t even a hero that she matches up with like the others.  Unless I got it in my head to pit Yola against Timoran or Dariana.  Nothing about that in the old notes, so what was I thinking?

It really doesn’t matter because Yola is responsible for a lot of my god-based decisions. I created the Law of Influence to explain why the gods are restrained in their actions and why Yola is not with them.  She’s an exile who broke the one rule and ran away instead of facing a trial.  The Baron happily took her under his protection since it meant he had a powerful ally.  By the time I put her into the story, I had only a basic idea of her history and she’s been bouncing around the background for a while.

Then something changed.  I found a sense of freedom when I wrote Yola scenes because of her level of power and loopy personality.  This led to me figuring out a way to give her more to do.  The challenge was that she couldn’t spend much time outside of Shayd because the other gods would eventually come for her.  Even her unique and wild powers of reality manipulation couldn’t save her from the other gods.  What was the answer to this issue?  Well . . . that would be The Merchant of Nevra Coil.