Meet the Characters - Terence

Since this blog revolves around my story, it only makes sense I'd post a few things about the characters, right? 

And, as it is with every story, the best character to start with is the protagonist. 

I intend to start with a series called The Unicorn's Crown. This is where it all began; this is the story I thought up way back in 2005. Needless to say, it went through countless changes, but the improvement in quality has been incredible. At long last, it's becoming my own story and not just another carbon copy of Harry Potter or The Hobbit or The Last Unicorn. 

For the record, The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle lit the whole spark for this thing, both book and movie. 

I've always been a unicorn nut, and after I discovered this story, as well as Bruce Coville's The Unicorn Chronicles, I just knew I had to create a unicorn story all my own. 

In The Unicorn's Crown, the main hero is Terence Silvermane, who later takes on the surname Lactantius. In case you're wondering, "Lactantius" is a Latin name; it was the name of the early Christian author and advisor to Constantine I, Rome's first Christian emperor. Since my story is a Christian fantasy, it seemed perfect; I like names that are catchy, meaningful, and not overly complex.

Terence is, as you may have guessed, a unicorn. It's also a fairly foregone conclusion that he becomes a human. 

Regardless of what shape he's in, one thing remains the same: he's very, very attractive!

I imagine him with a real nice Scottish accent, which is quite interesting, considering the unicorn is the main symbol of Scotland. If he ever gets filmed, James McAvoy is my first choice for his voice.

I often describe Terence as "a unicorn with attitude." For all my love of unicorns, they're not too terribly expressive; even Peter S. Beagle's unicorn, as pretty as she is, would be quite flat if not for Mia Farrow's voice work. No, really, this is how her face looks for virtually 97% of the movie.

So, Terence is much more expressive, more like Spirit from Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.

(Screencaps courtesy of Animation Screencaps)

In my book, unicorns skirt the line between humans and animals. They're not quite animals (never call a unicorn a "horse" to its face, and you can forget the saddle and bridle when riding one) but they still exhibit plenty of animal-like behavior, like the way they walk, eat, drink, and sleep. 

They can talk like us, and they can tell you exactly what a horse, dog, cat, or bird is saying. So, you might not want to know what your dog or cat is thinking about you after all! 

Unicorns don't live forever, but the aging process for them is a lot slower. Ten years for a unicorn are equal to one year for a human, and they can see a thousand years if they're lucky. Terence starts out at age 190, which makes him 19 by our standards. 

He definitely has the mindset of a teenager, seesawing back and forth between maturity and immaturity. He doesn't consider himself a child anymore, but he gets offended when people assume he's "old," especially when he becomes human, since he still keeps his white hair and goatee.

In the beginning, Terence is quite lonesome. He never had a real friend, most unicorns stay away from him (even those who are nice to him don't interact with him much), and the only family he's got is his older brother, Tristan; the two brothers don't see eye to eye, to say the least. 

Pretty much the only unicorn who shows Terence any real kindness is Nicodemus (still don't have a set design for him) who's like the unicorn version of Gandalf the Grey, which would make Terence like Frodo Baggins.

Nicodemus isn't part of Terence and Tristan's family, but they do sort of adopt each other. Nicodemus was also a good friend and mentor to their mother, Amethyst, and he looked after her sons after her tragic death. As far as Terence can recall, his mother's the only other creature he knew for a fact loved him. 

I'll tell a little more about Amethyst later, but the way she died is very heartbreaking; it makes Bambi's loss look time. Every now and then, I can't resist saying, "Eat your heart out, Bambi."

So, Terence spends his days wondering what he's good for. Everybody considers him an "oddball," including Tristan, although Tristan cares a lot more for his brother than he'll admit. 

As much as Terence admires Nicodemus, he longs for a companion a bit closer to his own age. 

Skipping the details, Terence ultimately makes his first real friend: with an elf named Aldridge, who's half the height of most humans. Although far from the kind of friend Terence had in mind, he and Aldridge grow extremely fond of each other in a very short time. Even after they forge other friendships further down the road, they remain the most intimate by far with each other. 

Terence also grows surprisingly fond of a young girl named Wendye; yes, that's the way her name is spelled. She's small but scrappy, and they unofficially adopt each other as brother and sister. I thought we could use more female and male characters who don't see each other in a romantic light, but they still care a great deal about each other and will always have each other's backs. Their kids even call them "Aunt" and "Uncle."

So, who does Terence fall in love with? 

With a human named Rhiella, Princess Rhiella Meldor. 

I'm a hopeless romantic, but I prefer stories that don't completely revolve around romance. I like to focus more on a character's unique growth, and true love just happens to be part of the parcel. 

In stark contrast to popular "romances" out there, Terence and Rhiella genuinely respect one another, each can stand on their own feet, and they "take turns" saving each other. They love each other for loads more than their gorgeous looks, although there's nothing wrong with acknowledging a pretty face. In fact, that's what makes Rhiella fall for Terence in the first place; he admires her for her. He doesn't treat her like a toy or a piece of property, he doesn't look down on her or coddle her, and he'll help her when she really needs help. 

To summarize, they are equals in everything. 

Goodness knows we need more couples like that nowadays. 

And what of Terence's enemies? After all, where there's a protagonist, an antagonist is bound to follow, right? 

In this case, you're right. 

Terence's greatest enemy is Scorpio Shadowblade, a half-elf who's a king, a soldier, and a dark sorcerer, all rolled into one. 

Again, I'll reveal more details about Scorpio another time. Suffice it to say that Scorpio will stop at absolutely nothing to destroy Terence. 

Either Terence shall die at his hands, one day or another, or he, himself, shall die trying. 

However, Scorpio happens to be a deeply, deeply sympathetic villain. It gets to the point where even Terence can't help feeling sorry for him; at one point, Terence asks straight out, "Why can't I just hate him?"

Besides Scorpio, Terence finds himself dealing with a pack of werewolves, possibly the most feared monsters in all the world. Some people find a dragon less terrifying.

So, as you can see, Terence ends up with a tremendous load on his plate. He learns the hard way to "be careful what you wish for," although his character growth is quite phenomenal, if I do say so myself. 

Besides the invaluable morals he picks up along the way, Terence is a pretty nice guy on the whole. 

He harbors a sincere desire to help others; he wants to do something to contribute to society. 

When someone he cares about is in danger, he won't hesitate to risk his own life for them; he'll even save a foe's life if necessary. For all his quarrels with his own brother, each will always be the first to do something about it when the other's in trouble.

Despite his own vanity, he's quick to admit when someone else is attractive or downright awesome. He'll say, "I'm amazing, and you're amazing, too. We're both amazing!" Even then, his ego never gets out of hand; he's still teachable and takes every lesson to heart.

His respect for women is almost insane. As aforementioned, Rhiella falls in love with him because he treats her loads better than other men have, while Wendye embraces him like a brother. 

I try to give him some fun quirks, too. For instance, he's an incredible dancer; few can rival him on the dance floor. 

He can easily hold his own in a fight. Even as a man, he retains many of his unicorn traits, which means he's alert with lightning-quick reflexes, and he manages to stay graceful the entire time. 

When at last he fights back, he does not hold back.

You never know what will come out of his mouth. He's a pro at sarcasm, and he's not afraid to tell anybody, including people of high position, exactly what he thinks of them. 

It's hard to say whether he causes more damage with his hooves, his horn, his fists, or his tongue.

One trait that I have extra fun with is Terence's passion for swimming. He's passionate enough as a unicorn, and that passion only increases when he's human. Whatever body of water is deep enough, he'll jump straight in, and don't expect him to set foot on dry land again for at least two or three hours. 

Rhiella's the same way; you can't tell who loves the water more or gets the most soaked. If they lived in our world, they would really take advantage of snorkeling and scuba diving. 

So, as far as literary heroes go, I think Terence is off to a promising start. He's already the most famous of all my characters on my other social media pages. 

Let's see if I can do him justice when the book's in permanent print.