The Adventures of Rania Mortal the Perfectly Normal Elf

“I am legally required to inform you that she is a Perfectly Normal Elf,” the devil said. Rania Mortal would have told you that herself. She was never sure why her normalcy was subject of debate in the first place. Sure, she knows very little about how society works and treats a painted pebble as a treasured companion. She also bases an alarming number of decisions on what would look the coolest in a book. But she has perfectly logical explanations for all of those things! Her fellow adventurers agree that she is probably just eccentric. Perfectly ordinary behavior for a shaman. Those are always a little off. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the god of stories has taken a personal interest in their mission, and Rania is certainly not helping on that front. The setting is inspired by Dungeons and Dragons, with several unusual twists. For example: - Necromancy is widely used for manual labor - Paladins work as mercenaries for whichever god pays best - The goddess of entropy does not care about killing, because everyone dies eventually anyway Writing style note:Some chapters spend significant time exploring how and why this world works. The rules are strange, but they are not arbitrary, and the explanations matter. Readers who enjoy deep, internally consistent worldbuilding tend to love this; others may find it slower. Content warnings: - A shapeshifting character who changes sex; social norms around gender and relationships are more flexible due to magic and history - One (mostly comedic) panic attack scene - Arachnophobia — not spiders themselves, but prejudice against them. This makes Rania very sad, because her pet spider is adorable.