The Lore of The Luckless

When I first started writing The Mapweaver Chronicles, the character of Lai was never meant to become my self insert. In fact, she wasn't supposed to exist past Book 1 at all. But by the time I started writing Book 3, and as my life was truly falling apart, she had started taking on the qualities I wanted to see in myself. The things she said to her father on the page as my own dad was dying in the real world became all too heartfelt and poignant. I didn't even realize how much of me had bled into her until one of my readers and closest friends at the time pointed it out. He made me realize Lai was more to me than just a character in a book. He believed in her potential as something bigger long before I did.

And it wasn't just him. So many readers came to me asking for more about Lai, and more about The Luckless -- her personal pirate crew. They fell in love with this thing that was never a part of the plan. Which, as it happens, exactly the specialty of my Luckless pirates: surviving things that were never a part of any sort of plan.

The idea of the Pirate Goddess's own chosen people has grown even more since The Mapweaver Chronicles came to a close last year, and I'm already working on several new stories that take place aboard their ships. They have even become a special faction in my tabletop RPG book, and they have become their own little fandom nested within my Mapweaver readers.

Eventually, demand for some sort of emblem or symbol fans could buy to feel like they belonged to The Luckless themselves grew, and I was thrilled to oblige. I posted this little bit of lore on my discord server last week, along with a mockup of something that I am truly excited about sharing.

The Luckless Coin: Monsters and Misfortunes

Anyone can be a pirate ... but it takes a special kind of soul to become one of the Pirate Goddess's own chosen Luckless. Her crew may sail under different flags now. They may even be recruited by different captains. But all of them carry a special coin that signifies their loyalty, and their standing within the goddess Lai's own heart.

These coins do not sport Heads or Tails the way another would ... instead, both are etched with symbols of doom. Of disaster. Of luck running out.

Monster, or Misfortune.

Are you being chased by things going wrong your whole life? Is that what led you to the sea? Or do you feel you, personally, are the problem? Are you plagued by monsters, or are you beset by misfortunes?

And ... once you find yourself labelled a Luckless ... which of those two sides of the coin do YOU truly become? Either one is a menace ... but one is capable of slaughter, while another is capable of chaos.

I can't WAIT to share the Luckless Medallion with all of you. All who need reminding some days that luck is what you make of it. All of us who need reminding that we are stronger than the days that luck fails us. We are who you want in your corner when everything goes wrong, because we can take it. We fight back. The scrappers. The struggling. The survivors. All of us who fall down 9 times and get back up 10. When everything is dark, we become the monsters who thrive in darkness. We become our own light. We become more than mere luck would make of us.

So ... will you join The Luckless? Will you sail by the side of the Pirate Goddess? Hold your head up, darling. Hold onto your coin and remember ... you're not finished yet.