Interlude

Interludes are chapters in Pact and Pale (as well as Wildbow's other works) that are narrated from the point of view of a character other than the primary protagonist or protagonists. For the purposes of this article, all such chapters are considered interludes, including those which are otherwise labelled within the work itself (such as Blood Run Cold 0.0, the prologue to Pale).

Spoiler warning! This article contains plot details about an upcoming episode.

Structure and usage

Interludes are primarily distinguished from regular chapters by being indexed by letters instead of numbers (e.g. "1.x" instead of "1.1"). The letters used for interludes do not always follow a specific pattern, but generally will use "a, b, c" for interludes at the beginning or middle of an arc, and "x, y, z" for interludes at the end of an arc. Most arcs have an interlude as their final chapter.

Some interludes break from the ususal pattern. One of the most notable such instances is Signature (Arc 8 of Pact), which is entirely told from the perspective of Mags Holt and can thus be considered an entire interlude arc in itself.

Wildbow generally does not use the same character more than once as the subject of an interlude, unless they have gone through a major change in personality or identity.<ref>beleg_tal: I've heard that WB doesn't reuse interlude characters, but it looks like 5.a and 5.c are both Clem. Is this an exception to the rule or am I mistaken about whose perspective is in those chapters?
Wildbow: Exception.
I wouldn't call it a rule, exactly. Just feels like a bit of a waste to retread characters, unless it's particularly arc-relevant.
Or a character takes on a new identity/role.
-WoG on the Doof! Media Discord server</ref> Interludes are almost always important to the main storyline: intricacies to the setting are revealed, agendas are elucidated on and numerous other things are revealed. They are usually very detailed and have interesting backstories, rather than simply being plot dispensers. Some interludes are told from the perspective of characters that Wildbow had previously considered using as the works' protagonists.

Pact Interludes

Interludes in Pact are classified into two categories: Gathered Pages and Histories. The former consist of excerpts from in-universe textbooks, diaries, notes, etc. The latter are narrative chapters, generally narrated in third person (unlike the rest of Pact), and either continuing the story from an alternative perspective or providing background on events occurring before the story began.

Arc	Interlude	Category	Contents/Perspective character
Arc 1 : Bonds	Interlude 1.x	Gathered Pages	excerpts from the diary of Rose Thorburn Senior
Arc 2: Damages	Interlude 2.x	Gathered Pages	excerpts from Famulus, Implementum, and Demesnes
	Interlude 2.y	Histories	Maggie Holt
Arc 3: Breach	Interlude 3.x	Histories	Sandra Duchamp
Arc 4: Collateral	Interlude 4.x	Gathered Pages	excerpts from Black Lamb's Blood
Arc 5: Conviction	Interlude 5.x	Histories	Joseph Attwell, Matthew Attwell, Malcolm Attwell
Arc 6: Subordination	Interlude 6.x	Histories	Aimon Behaim
Arc 7: Void	Interlude 7.x	Histories	Isadora, The Eye, Astrologer, Sisters of the Torch, The Shepherd
Arc 8: Signature	(entire arc)	(Histories)<ref name="histories">This arc is not labelled as an interlude within the work itself, but structurally takes the form of a Histories interlude.</ref>	Mags Holt
Arc 9: Null	Interlude 9.x	Histories	Jeremy Meath
Arc 10: Mala Fide	Interlude 10.x	Gathered Pages	Andy's notes
Arc 11: Malfeasance	Interlude 11.x	Histories	Midge, James Corvidae, Green Eyes
Arc 12: Duress	Interlude 12.x	Histories	Alister Behaim
Arc 13: Execution	Interlude 13.x	Gathered Pages	excerpts from Padraic's diary
Arc 14: Sine Die	Interlude 14.x	Histories	Faysal Anwar
Arc 15: Possession	Interlude 15.x	Histories	Chauffeur
Arc 16: Judgment	(none)
n/a	Epilogue	(Histories)<ref name="histories" />	Dominic

Pale Interludes

Unlike Pact, Pale does not have two different kinds of interludes. Instead, all interludes are narrative in form, and content that would have been published as "Gathered Pages" interludes in Pact are instead published as Extra Materials. Some extra materials are narrative in form, but unlike interludes they are not included as chapters within the work itself, but are instead included alongside the work.

Interludes in Pale use header banners that do not contain images of the Kennet Trio, but which use the same background as the header banner associated with whichever of the three girls has the closest connection to the perspective character or narrative for that interlude.

References

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