Thanks - see my response to your comment at the end of this chapter.

There’s a clear theme to a number of your comments, and - genuinely without wishing to be facetious - are you familiar with epic fantasy series like Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen or Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time? This type of series has a cast of dozens, if not hundreds of point-of-view characters - the idea of a single "main" character isn’t really how they work. As a result, the build-up of plot takes a lot longer as there is a much larger cast to introduce, and far more world-building to establish.

Thank you!

It is a race name - but race names aren’t proper nouns. You wouldn’t capitalise "human", would you? "Vaivardi" isn’t a nationality, but the name of a species.

Thank you. Bear in mind this is just the prologue, though - by definition, it’s separate from the main story. It’s designed to inspire a bit of mystery and pique interest. It absolutely is not designed to introduce any main characters - if the prologue were focused on the main characters, then I’d argue it wouldn’t be a prologue!

Absolutely - by design, not by mistake. It’s repeated for emphasis - it’s the theme of this passage.

No, far from it.

I’ve been deliberating over this one - you’re not the first person to take issue with it - and I think I agree. I did have a reason for the mid-sentence start, but I think I’m abandoning that original idea.