I’m going to preface these question/questions with a lengthy though necessary plot/character summary, so please-please-please bear with me. I’m going to use their current names, but as you read you’ll see why I’m contemplating changing them.
My story takes place in Irillia, a collection of loosely scattered village-states. Each village is independent and mostly self-sufficient, though some are going through a lot. The villages are named by compound words (ie Redspring, Riverdistance, Gorgefall) that usually have something vague to do with where they live. For example, the village of Ancientwing huddles under a mountain…growth, which arches like a protective wing over the village. The magic system is simple–four mages, each with one magical element (these elements are wind, life, water, and stone). It’s a small-ish island, about 375 miles across, with mostly geographically correct jungles, mountains, deserts, forests, grasslands, a volcano, a geyser, an ancient ring of willow trees, a crater, some marshes, and a large, large patch of thorny chaparral-esque land. The prevailing wind is west to east.
The basic plot is that all of the mages of the land but one (actually two, but we don’t know it) go missing, so two characters set out to find out why. As their out, they figure out they have a much bigger opponent: the Fever, and its creators.
[name]HERBERT[/name]–Okay, [name]Herbert[/name] is protagonist number one. He’s tall-ish (maybe between 5’7" and 5’9"?) for his age of fifteen, and of average build. He’s the prince of Irillia (his older brother is the king) and is currently studying magery for his tutoring. He’s the older brother to Celwaithe (more on her later), and younger half brother to [name]Henry[/name] (whose really not all that important.) He has hair somewhere in the spectrum of black to light brown, but I haven’t decided on it yet. I picture his eyes of a kind of swampy gray-green. He’s a classic story-book big-brother, who loves his sister with all his heart. He’s pretty easygoing, unless a child will be hurt. At first, he kind of fits into the role of ‘classic prince,’ but as the story goes on, he becomes more daring and more loving. He’s a sweet kid with quite a lot of guts in him–he just doesn’t know it yet. He becomes enamored with [name]Claire[/name] (more on her later) as the story goes on.
CELWAITHE–Meet the original protagonist number two, though she is currently fading into the background. She is twelve and a half, roughly, and the first Supreme Mage born this millenium (she controls all four elements). She’s a sweet little girl with a slightly spunky side. She has short, stubbornly straight yellow hair and dark brown eyes. Things name-wise are kind of complicated by the fact that she is captured by [name]Minor[/name] Villain and renamed (currently) ‘[name]Kitron[/name]’ in Chapter Four. (And we’re thinking fifty-chapter story here!) She has an uncanny resemblance to [name]Rose[/name], both in personality and in looks (see GAHNIL).
GAHNIL–Speaking of [name]Minor[/name] Villain, meet the man himself. He’s the wind mage (yes, the one who doesn’t disappear) with quite a backstory. I’d rather tell it in his own words, since it’s much too hard to summarize. This is a conversation between him and [name]Herbert[/name]:
“Come. Sit.” The two sit down on the ground, leaning against a wall. Gahnil sits in a small, compact position, his legs folded crazily; contrarily, [name]Herbert[/name] sits half-crouched, legs poised for a run if needed. Gahnil begins to speak…
“It is a long tale, and a tale with a not at all satisfactory ending. [name]Don[/name]’t,” he says, holding up a hand, “interrupt. This is the first time I will have told my tale in full, omitting no part. You will regret asking, young man, but there are some things you need to know.
“I was, as your sister, an indirect mage. I was born to [name]Hazel[/name] and [name]Elijah[/name] [name]Smith[/name], silversmiths in the town of Or. I was their sixth son, their eighth child, a rare combination in that place of one or two children. I exhibited from early on signs of magery.
“When my hair grew in, it was silver. This was the first sign. My parents were, at first, being ignorant of mages, perplexed but happy. I was their ‘silver child’. Whatever it is I wanted, I got. Then the first mage came to the village…
“Her name was Calaera. She was tall, commanding. Without knowing why, I looked up to her right away. She had the longest, most beautiful auburn hair that swept the ground—all mages’ hair does, but she was the first I had seen, after all. Her eyes were the purest green. She was the mage of life at the time.
“But you are not interested in her looks. She was kind and understood all the intricate workings of the human mind that I, a wind mage, can only aspire to. She saw right away that I was a mage—had my silver hair not been a dead giveaway, it would have been clear from the way I sometimes walked on air.” He gives a tight laugh, which [name]Herbert[/name] takes as an opportunity to interrupt.
“With all courtesy, sir,” he begins, suddenly respectful of this man who had figuratively killed his sister, “I don’t see how this answers my question.”
“Oh, it will, boy, it will!
“I was your age at the time, ridden with longings and desires. She was three years older than me—and everything I wanted. She took me aside and taught me how to be a mage. She told me all I needed to know—what it was to use magery, how it is our responsibility to keep the world pure.” He laughs again. “She also taught me, without knowing it, what it meant to fall in love.
“I won’t go into details of our courtship. It was, in a word, forbidden. My parents, once they found I was a mage, practically disowned me. I was not their little silver boy anymore—I had powers they could only aspire to.
“So, in secret, Calaera and I wed. Within months, she was pregnant with our first—and last—child. We kept it a close secret, since no mages had ever gotten married before, much less had a child. Some mages from long ago wed humans—thus the indirect mages—but two mages with one another…it was unprecedented for us to wed.
“Nonetheless, our precious daughter was born. We, against all mage naming rules, named her [name]Rose[/name].”
“[name]Rose[/name]?”
“Yes, [name]Rose[/name]. She was a lovely child. [name]Golden[/name] and happy, with hair streaked her papa’s silver and her lovely mother’s auburn. Her eyes were amber—kind of golden, like the sunshine.
“I loved her more than life itself.”
“Wow,” says [name]Herbert[/name]. “I thought you said the story had a sad ending.”
“It does.
“The mages discovered [name]Rose[/name]. They were worried that she would ruin their hierarchy. They—they killed her. Horribly. Please, I see the look on your face, don’t ask how. [name]Even[/name] what I know is horrid.
“They put my wife to death. They would have out me to death too, but I…”
“What did you do?” [name]Herbert[/name]’s voice is hushed; he is totally engrossed in the story.
“I threatened to uproot the mage council. Literally.
“They let me survive, with one requirement: together they put a spell on me that forced any words I speak to be binding—I must keep all oaths, even ones spoken in jest, spoken in anger.”’
So, he has become a much more sympathetic villain, so he’s not exactly a villain anymore. To finish the dialogue: he kills all of the mages and then shouts to Celwaithe in a fit of anger that "he’s going to kill her’. Yeah, oops. I hope the backstory gives you a bit of his personality. [name]Kinda[/name] dark and brooding, but fiercely loving. He has ridiculously long silver hair (all mages have really long hair–there’s a practical reason for this, but I haven’t figured it out yet) and a face and voice described as ‘ageless’. I picture him as about forty, but I haven’t worked out the math yet.
[name]CLAIRE[/name]–[name]Ah[/name], good ol’ [name]Claire[/name]. My totally unintentional, why-don’t-we-change-the-entire-story-for-me second protagonist. [name]Herbert[/name] was wandering along in his journey, and he stumbled into this little place called Frogtown. [name]Herbert[/name] was just going to spend the night at [name]Claire[/name]'s place and go on in the morning, but she had other ideas–or, the Fever did, more accurately. The day after [name]Herbert[/name] arrives at Frogtown, [name]Claire[/name]'s sister [name]Annemarie[/name] gets sick with the Fever and dies. [name]Claire[/name], being the fiery, sharp, shattered girl that she is, swears she’ll heal the Fever. So…[name]Claire[/name] and [name]Herbert[/name] (and Gahnil and [name]Kitron[/name]) end up wandering the nation, searching for a Cure. Because [name]Herbert[/name] stopped in a swamp village instead of a mountain village. There are reasons I don’t use outlines.
ISECH–The real protagonist. He’s a potionmaster, which in Irillia is akin to being a devil worshiper. He captures magery and puts it into liquids, which can then be used for wonderful–and horrific–purposes. backstory time The thing is, the Fever was introduced by the mages to kill [name]Rose[/name] (remember her, Gahnil’s daughter?), but it wasn’t meant to be contagious. Isech’s meddling in potions did that, and now he’s desperately trying to fix what he’s done, but in doing so he’s sacrificing children (yes, children, I’m sorry, it’s a plot device, I don’t like it either!) and animals (which is slightly less horrific in a land where sheep are the main commodity).
THE DOGS: Speaking of animals, meet The Dogs. [name]Max[/name], [name]Grace[/name], [name]Rufus[/name], and [name]Leo[/name]–my comic relief and dogs-eye view into the Isech plotline, these little fellows got the story started for me. [name]Max[/name] is a spunky, stubborn miniature black Dachshund, with quite the floppy ears. [name]Grace[/name] is a dignified mid-sized gray mutt with a keen nose and keener sensitivity to evil. [name]Rufus[/name] is the stubborn sheepdog who sees Isech’s sham before anyone else. [name]Leo[/name] is a naive, sweet little ginger-copper-ish Pomeranian with an irritating bark. They are actually–much to the chagrin of my librarian, who hates talking animals–a vital part to the story.
Now…
look at the names and sob wildly. It’s bad. It’s really, really, bad. Which is where your help comes in.
Any naming advice for these crazy fellows?
