Fantasy Characters

As a lover of tabletop role-playing games, creating characters is a daily occurrence in my life. One of the best parts of being a Game Master is having the space to create as many characters as you like to populate your world. These NPCs (non-player characters) are an endless source of joy and stories that I always want to tell, but rarely get the chance.

Every single character I create has a story of their own. Each of them has needs and wants, which play out through any interactions my players have with them. More often than not, they play out entirely in the background. Each tale subtly reshapes the world, just as even the smallest actions we make in our daily lives can change our world as well (even if we don’t always notice).

Sometimes my head gets a bit crowded, with quite so many voices clamouring for me to tell their stories. At times, I’ve thought this crowded reality qualified me as a little bit bonkers. It was with absolute joy, therefore, that I have found I’m not alone in this phenomenon.

Reading Charlie Jane Anders’ brilliant work on writing (Anders, 2021), I was delighted to find a kindred spirit who also delighted in the brain invasion that characters can undertake:

‘I think of as being like when you have a hard drive, and you partition it - so instead of one drive, you have two, occupying the same piece of hardware. That’s kind of what it can be like when you create a character and they come to life. They take over their own separate space inside your head.’ (Anders, 2021, 13)

The problem with having quite so many characters taking up residence in your brain is that you can’t tell all their stories all at once. As such, to let off some of the steam, I often find myself writing random scenes.

One of the first random scenes I wrote, almost three years ago now, was about a family of strange and contrasting characters. I knew instantly I needed to tell their stories and this single scene emerged from my brain and onto the page in a fit of creativity that sparked a plethora of other tales that I can’t seem to stop!

That scene, set in the surroundings of a manor house with some strongly ‘gothic’ vibes, became the springboard. You can read it below if you like.

A Tense Breakfast

‘Where were you?’

Persephone glared at Rhuk across the breakfast table. Her talons rapped angrily on the aged wood surface.

‘I told you, there was urgent business that needed to be attended to. I responded.’

‘Rhuk, I know when you are lying to me. You have been disappearing more and more. You think I do not notice that you stay away all night? You think the servants have not noticed? You think that questions are not being asked?’

She folded her hands neatly on the table, fixing him with her stare. Rhuk knew better than to meet it.

‘Whilst your skills at gathering intelligence are formidable, Persephone, I would request that you please refrain from applying them to my personal affairs.’

‘So it’s a personal affair that drags you from this house at all hours and several times a week? That causes you to miss training sessions with your nephew when his Binding fast approaches? That makes you miss his lessons when he is in even greater need of your guidance than ever?’

‘Persephone. Leave it alone.’

Rhuk looked back down at his porridge, avoiding his sister-in-law’s enraged gaze.

‘Veydenn leaves today.’ She hissed. ‘He’s going to miss Gezryn’s Binding of Bone tomorrow, as he will be under cover. I warn you now, Rhuk. If you miss that ceremony? If you are not there to support Gezryn, then I will eviscerate you myself and you know full well I am capable of it.’

‘Noted, Persephone.’ He looked up with a sigh, placing his spoon down by the empty bowl. ‘I will be there. I promise.’

‘You had better be. But you still have not answered my question.’

Her brows softened, the deep brown eyes that stared at him across the table softening from righteous anger to concern. She wasn’t going to let it go.

‘I have been attending to a matter of personal importance, Persephone. If circumstances allow me to share more, then you and Veydenn will be the first to know.’

‘Well, I should bloody well hope so,’ Persephone scoffed. ‘Whatever it is, you know you can trust us? Surely?’

Rhuk sighed, pinching the top of his beak between two talons in frustration. He wanted to tell her. The tentative future unfurling before him was everything he had hoped for. But it was far too dangerous to share news of his intentions yet. It would endanger them all.

‘Seph, you know I trust you. With my life. Yet, I must ask you, please, to trust in me. Please trust that if there is something I am concealing, then it is for the benefit, safety and well-being of the whole family that I do so.’

Persephone frowned, the feet of her chair scraping on the polished floors. Green silk crumpled to the floor in waves as she straightened her gown and fixed him with her most imperious stare.

‘That is precisely what I am afraid of.’ She sighed, shaking her head.

Anders, Charlie Jane, 2021, Don’t Say You Can’t Survive: How To Get Through Hard Times By Making Up Stories, (New York: Tom Doherty Associates)


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