Have you ever wondered how a character in a series is born? How do they become the hero? The villain? How does an author decide what the character's goals are? What begins their journey? How does an author decide when to kill one of their characters? These and thousands of other questions are quite common among readers, and often these are the questions authors will be asked when face to face in an interview. I decided that sharing with you an in-depth look at each character would give you, my readers, the opportunity to see where my mind went to work on them and brought them to life piece by piece. So for the next few weeks, I plan on doing a series on the Draegonstorm characters, enabling each of you an in-depth look into their lives, personalities and backgrounds. I'd like to share my own perspective on how some of the decisions were made during the development of characters in my own series. Some of my characters are already very well-loved by fans around the world, while others are just emerging into the light in the series. So, I want to share how some of them came to be, and the people who inspired their creation.
Today's character profiling is Lord Reivn Draegon. Hero, father, husband, Warlord Prefect... Reivn has many roles to fill throughout the series. From book one, where he struggles against a taint of very dark origin, to the final book where he ascends in both power and position, his beginning was actually one of the strangest. His first and last name came from a friend of mine, who used it in LARPing. I fell in love with the name and thought it deserved so much more. So I decided to give it new life. I fleshed out the rest of the name and the character, Lord Reivn Christoff Dimitri Draegon, was born.
The name may have started in a role play, but the character's personality came from the tales I used to tell my children when they were young. The original stories were geared to help them build a moral compass of their own that would last them through not only their childhoods, but their adult years as well. Reivn is the embodiment of the person that deep inside we all want to be. When I began weaving his story, I wanted to show that even through great adversity... honor, fealty and wisdom could prevail. Reivn's actions and behavior throughout the series exhibits his strength as a warrior and leader, but his journal entries reveal there is far more to him than that. Those show that even a man who is forced by his circumstances to stand strong against corruption, does not have to lose the gentle hand that can comfort a small child in need. Like a multi-faceted diamond, he has many aspects to his personality: the love that drives him to risk his own life; the determination that justice will always prevail even when it means risking his own life; and the savage strength needed to not only survive a brutal battle, but to win it.
When I began creating the character Reivn, I had to determine what he wanted and where he was going. Why would Reivn care so much for the Alliance in the first place? Why is he so loyal to his father and the Council? These were not easy answers to give, and it took years to fully develop those answers. His loyalty to his father and to the Council was, in a way, bred into him when he was born to his human life. He is from ancient stock, and the world he came from was very structured. They had the upper, middle and lower classes just as we do, but they were far more defined and much more rigid than they are today. The lower class were either servants or slaves, the middle class: soldiers and merchants, and the upper class: nobles, men of wealth and Royalty. Those who were soldiers did not have the luxury of walking away from their duties. Some were even flogged and put to death if they tried. So for him, duty is the same as breathing. When he was human, that sense of duty was to the tribe of people he was born to. However, when Mastric took and remade him, the realization that his new Creator could just as easily have destroyed him came with it, and that alone commanded Reivn's loyalty and respect. Then came the recognition of the Alliance's self-designated mission: defending humanity from destruction. For him as an awakened Immortal, this also meant his own survival. The Immortals could not easily survive without the human race, and would not be able to create new children when others died. So he chose to embrace that crusade and become its Champion. Initially this was as a servant to Mastric, but over time it evolved into a leadership role, as he rose in the ranks to become one of the most powerful Warlords of the Alliance.
The inner strength he has carries over into almost every situation he faces, yet you can still see the very human side of him that struggles not to let the endless conflicts he and his family endure drag his thoughts into a darker place. His love for his family comes before all, even his duty and loyalty to his maker, Mastric. That often puts him in positions where he must make sometimes dangerous choices to protect those he loves. On the battlefield, you see him staunchly leading his people, but in the privacy of his own mind, and sometimes among his family, you get a glimpse of the gentler man who would go the distance to protect his own. The kind of man he presents in this series is the embodiment of what most leaders are desired to be, and just like those leaders, Reivn has his failings. Not every order he gives is perfect, some of his decisions are flawed, and there are incidences where the price paid for a wrong choice is not only devastating, but brutal.
Reivn is such a complex character, because in presenting him as the Warlord, he can show no weakness to his subordinates. Yet there are moments when even he needs to allow himself to feel. His journal is such a wonderful exploration of his inner self, and more often than not lets him tell the audience what their totalitarian society will not let him say. Theirs is a society where everything is measured in absolutes, and he slowly realizes no society... indeed no race, can survive that way. It will slowly corrode itself and destroy itself from within. In the first book, he begins to search for ways to change their people, and fights against the laws that so rigidly bind them, even though he still serves the Alliance loyally. He knows that leaving the Alliance will only condemn all those he has worked with, befriended or loved, to fall into the shadows alone. He knows he can best protect them by staying where he is, and so he does, with the determination that if necessary, he will give his life to defend them.
Reivn's home is Draegonstorm Keep, and is the central focus on where a lot of his decisions and actions begin to unfold. It is the fortress Mastric aided him in building after first binding him, before he even became a fully awakened. It was the one boon Mastric gave him that would be not only cherished, but would stand the test of time. However, I doubt even Reivn knew the extent to which it, and his family, would grow over the centuries. The journey with him in the beginning of the series' creation was incredible. His personality is so strong that it almost overshadowed other characters. That changed when their voices began to develop. As it turns out they are all equally as strong. So Reivn was free to be himself. There are, in fact, some very dark scenes in the series, where Reivn is left optionless, and has to enforce the laws they live by. During these occasions, the reader also sees repeatedly the inner conflict he feels, and the great lengths he goes to in order to avoid those absolutes. More than once he not only risks the Council's anger, but finds himself disciplined for those decisions. He is a Warrior, complete with a Warriors courage and regrets. The more you read about him the more you want to know. The more you know, the more you understand not only what drives him, but what his real goals are. No spoilers here though! I'm going to leave you with this last thought. Honor is the seed planted and the Draegons nurture it with every word and deed. When darkness intrudes into their world, the face it and fight it head-on, finding a way to fight back. They are the embodiment of the twin dragons whose image they wear... strong, fearless, and willing to fight for what they believe in.
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