Update: Mages and Corsairs have been changed to Ethereants.
I started writing Harbinger of the Ancestors when I was thirteen, and I finished the first draft at fifteen. Of course, at that time, neither the fictional universe was called Harbinger of the Ancestors nor was the first book called The Guardian’s Mantle.
The first version was called Zebra Skin, a name I’ll explain the origin of at some point, but it’s not relevant now.
I often think I could have published Zebra Skin as a young adult fantasy novel. After all, that’s what it was: a battle between good and evil, with deities intervening on behalf of each side depending on the different moments of the plot.
There’s nothing wrong with that, but as I grew older, it became clear that this wasn’t the story I wanted to tell.
What do I want to tell? What do I want to express? Why do I write? These questions present themselves to me as some of the main obstacles I face as a writer. I don’t want to generalize by saying they’re obstacles for all writers (I mention this because it crossed my mind, but the truth is, I don’t know what other authors face).
At this point, I imagine you might be wondering why I’m making such an introduction, such an existential statement, when this text is supposed to be about the changes I want to make to the characters in Harbinger of the Ancestors. Well, everything is connected, and if you bear with me, I promise it will all make sense.
Why change?
“Why change?” and “Change what exactly?” These are the questions we need to address this time.
The first question can be answered by referring back to the introduction I made earlier. Something I often say is that as I grew up, my style and my work grew with me. Growing, maturing, changing.
What I wrote 21 years ago bears no resemblance to what I want to express today. I mentioned that sometimes I think I’d like to have published the book as a young adult novel. Today, I’m grateful to the Duilio who decided to sit down and review the story for the first time, to correct that first draft. And I’m grateful to the Duilio who wanted to rewrite that book. And to the Duilio who decided to build the Fictional Universe to have a foundation before improvising the books. So many versions of Duilio that made key decisions.
So, why change? What was wrong with the previous version? Nothing was wrong, but the truth is, I want to make changes to the plot because I need it to resemble more closely the book I want to publish.
Now, who’s to say that in five years I won’t change my mind again?
Honestly? I hope I’ve finished writing Harbinger of the Ancestors before five years go by.
Change what to what?
There are a few aspects of HotA that I’d like to change now, while I’m still rebuilding the plot. Names, backgrounds, and character details that won’t require a complete reworking of the storyline.
Without further ado, let’s get to the changes.
Character Names
- From Chárs to Chärsian
The protagonist of the initial plot hasn’t just undergone a name change, but also a demotion from protagonist to main character. The story no longer revolves solely around him, as other characters have gained more relevance in the plot.
I really like how “Chärsian” sounds; it keeps the “char” syllable at the beginning, which is a play on the English word char, meaning to scorch or burn. It also retains a connection to the character’s original name, “Charles,” which didn’t last long but helped give him life.
As for why I named him Charles over twenty years ago, I honestly can’t remember.
- From Vännya to Vännysa
Another protagonist with a name that has evolved over the years. She started off being named Vanesa, I suppose because I liked the name at the time, and now Vännysa retains a phonetic similarity to that original name.
- From Dracönis to Dräconir
Dräconir sounds significantly stronger than Dracönis, something I like for this character. It also moves away from the Latin word “draco” declined in the genitive (for the Latin nerds out there, you know what I mean).
Identity of the Summoners: Ethereants
A fundamental change in the whole fictional universe is the concept of Magicians and Corsairs. These two orders have always been linked, but they lacked an extra component.
Also, for some time now, I’ve felt that “Magician” was a word that didn’t represent anything specific in my story. It’s not like the word Jedi or Witcher, which on their own encapsulate an entire fictional universe. I wanted that. I want that.
I wanted a word with identity, and that’s how I arrived at Ethereant, which works just as well in English. I love how it sounds in both languages.
Ethereants maintain a close connection to the ethereal planes, more specifically:
- Magicians: now called Arcane Ethereants, tied to the ethereal plane of magic, Enären.
- Corsairs: now called Spiritual Ethereants, tied to the ethereal spiritual plane, Eshïra. However, the term Corsairs is still used colloquially to refer to these summoners.
Types of Arcane Ethereants
In Harbinger of the Ancestors, Arcane Ethereants (or just Ethereants, since Spiritual ones are simply called Corsairs) can only summon one type of element.
The key is that they don’t choose the element; the element chooses them, so to speak (though that’s not exactly how it works, but it’s not the time to explain that now).
Moreover, what we’d consider “humans,” the Kanaöni, are divided into eight races, each with a different elemental affinity.
Since the Ethereants are composed solely of Kanaöni at this point in the story, it sometimes happens that an Ethereant’s natural affinity matches the element they’re assigned. For example, Chärsian is a fraïno and a fire Ethereant. In theory, this makes an Ethereant stronger in their element, but it has been proven that, in the long run, it’s not a determining factor. And here I go rambling again.
The point is that originally, some of my characters followed the same elemental pairing as Chärsian. Such was the case with Vännysa, who is a quelära and was originally a water magician.
Do you know how many female characters are given the water element? I can start with my favorite, Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender, but then I saw this pattern repeat so many times that I just couldn’t envision Vännysa as a water Ethereant anymore.
The answer came to me in a song I wrote for Chärsian and Vännysa, which I won’t sing, but it goes, “Vännysa, you will always be his light” (oh, how romantic).
So:
- Vännysa – from water magician to light Ethereant.
And this creates a chain reaction that rearranges the other characters in a way I love (sure, I could repeat elements, but where’s the fun in that?):
- Dräconir – from light magician to energy Ethereant. Interestingly, Dräconir was originally an energy magician, so this is a very interesting rollback.
- Röen – from energy magician to air Ethereant.
- Fleý – from shadow magician to water Ethereant. The original concept for Fleý was an ice magician, so this is another rollback that I really like.
- Dënia – from earth magician to shadow Ethereant. I didn’t want to leave out the shadow element from the group of protagonists, so as not to introduce an element that is instantly associated with “evil.” What I don’t want is to fall into a literal battle between good and evil. While there are shades of that literary trope throughout the plot, I don’t want it to be the central focus.
Other Changes
These aren’t changes to characters, but I want to list some changes to elements of the fictional universe that I’ve told you about before, or have mentioned in the past and now need to correct:
- Officially, the Nayrïni no longer have wings. The only race derived from the Naöni that had wings was this one, and due to certain changes in the story’s outcome, it’s necessary for them to lose this characteristic.
- Nibïria has gone from being a city trapped in a “pocket plane” to being a city hidden in the cliffs of eastern Khäria.
- No more gods, no more divine intervention, no more events caused by cosmic entities at war for millennia. While we’re keeping some of these entities, the responsibility for the events that occur in Harbinger of the Ancestors now falls on the characters and not on omnipotent beings influencing the plot for the benefit of one side or another.