Meet the Characters - Varian

While I should probably focus on one adventure at a time, I do have several adventures in mind for The Caer Epics. In my defense, I get burned out if I spend too much time and energy on one thing, and you might as well grab the ideas before they get away, right? Furthermore, an idea for another story just might trigger an idea for the other story you're working on. You never know.

Anyway, besides The Unicorn's Crown, I've got another series in the works that I'm pretty excited about, called The First King. 

This one is a lot more recent; it was my 2018 NaNoWriMo project, and my most successful one at 90,000 words. 

In case you don't know, "NaNoWriMo" means "National Novel Writing Month." Every November, aspiring writers try to write 50,000 words. A very basic challenge; there's no real competition, no prize to be won, though you get a certificate of completion if you reach your goal, and you can still buy some cool merchandise, like mugs and notebooks and T-shirts. 

But it's great fun and terrific practice for those who take writing a bit more seriously. The best thing about NaNoWriMo is that neatness doesn't count; you just put as many words on paper (or laptop, in my case) as possible. And yes, a few people have ended up publishing their stuff; I hear that Water for Elephants and The Night Circus (neither of which I've read and I'm not sure I want to) stemmed from NaNoWriMo. 

Once again, it goes to show you never know until you take an honest stab at it.

So, back to The First King. I like titles that mean something, and this title is very meaningful. Every kingdom has to start somewhere; someone's got to be the first one to wear that crown and sit on that throne. One of the main morals of this story is, "What makes a king or queen? How well do they deserve to be called so?" 

And if you saw my previous post, while we're on the subject of protagonists, I will shed some light on TFK's primary protagonist, Varian Macleod. Actually, he's not the focus of the entire story, but bear with me here. 

Most of my inspiration for this story came from The Prince of Egypt (I can't stress enough how AWESOME that movie is) and Varian is modeled mostly after Moses, or better yet, the way Moses is portrayed in the DreamWorks movie. 

If you've seen the movie, then I'll go ahead and say that Varian's character development is essentially the same, with a few obvious differences. 

He starts out very lighthearted and carefree, a little naive and quite arrogant, but good-hearted on the whole. He hails from a powerful royal family, and he's the youngest of four sons. He knows full well how high they stand on the social ladder, so, while he's not cruel (he's certainly the tamest of his brothers, and none of them come close to their father), he still looks down his nose at the people beneath him. 

In this age, unicorn hunting is a sacred tradition.

Besides the terrific monetary value of a unicorn's horn, bringing one home earns you a great deal of public praise, and Varian's father has quite a few horns mounted on the wall. So, it's Varian's fondest dream (at the moment) to bring home such a trophy all his own. 

Then this mindset totally back-flips when Varian meets a unicorn named Silvan, along with Silvan's mate, Theia. 

Theia is extremely wary of humans, for plenty good reason. Silvan, while far from ignorant, finds humans much more interesting if not downright amusing. He even notes the irony of a human and a unicorn "shooting the breeze" with one another, and as you can guess, Varian can't bring himself to harm this strange yet charismatic creature. Hunting a unicorn proves to be a far cry from hunting a stag or a rabbit.

As time goes on, Silvan becomes Varian's friend, pretty much the only real friend Varian ever had. Therefore, Varian grows increasingly fearful for Silvan's life if the rest of the royal family found him out, and everybody learns the hard way that just because something is traditional doesn't make it right. 

Just like how Moses learns the dark side of his noble Egyptian family, and how his so-called "father" alienates him with that chilling statement, "They were only slaves."

I won't spoil the rest of this story, but suffice it to say that Varian gets to the point where he runs away and seeks to build a kingdom all his own, one that's not founded on oppression and cruelty. 

I call my story the family-friendly version of Game of Thrones (very, very family-friendly!) and I ask my audience: is it possible to be kind in a cruel world? Do the nice guys always finish last? Is love stronger than hate? What legacy follows a good person, as opposed to a nasty person? 

Although Varian gets an unpleasant reality check and goes through a lot of hell, he's a much better person for it at the end. He becomes wiser, more humble, more resourceful, and so much more open-minded. Some people who should be his allies end up becoming his enemies, while others who have all the makings of an enemy help him when he needs help the most. Even some of the poor people he once scorned prove to be so much nobler than he gave them credit for. 

To me, character growth is the most vital aspect of a story. The best characters are the ones who are most definitely not the same characters they were before, for good and bad.

(Screencaps courtesy of Animation Screencaps)