Hello again. I'm privileged to introduce a bit information on this book and was frankly more fascinated by the author's personal dossier than anything else. I do want to read this book, but my designated task involves Top Ten author facts and Character Casting, both of which I enjoyed.
Top Ten
List
10:
Ren was once engaged to a woman 25 years his elder.
9:
Ren visited New York City and admired the World Trade Center towers just a
month or so before the tragedy of 9/11.
8:
The FBI once put a gun in Ren's face.
7:
Bad hearts run in Ren's family. He's already outlived most of his paternal
grandfathers, all of whom died in their 30's.
6:
Ren's poor eyesight went undiagnosed until he was in the 3rd grade. Up until
that point, he was considered "mentally challenged".
5:
Ren broke his neck playing volleyball in college.
4:
Ren often sleeps on the floor, finding it more comfortable than the bed.
3:
Ren was once held at gunpoint and frisked by the guards of the Prince of Saudi
Arabia.
2:
Ren was introduced to his wife via Match Makers International.
1:
In a vast extended family of exclusively brown-eyed people, Ren somehow managed
to get blue eyes.
Character
Casting
LORD
KABYL OF BLANCHEFORT:
‘Kay’
is the eldest son of Lord Davage and Countess Sygillis of Blanchefort.
Green-eyed, purple-haired, he is considered handsome like his father and
beautiful like his mother. He is the next in line as lord of the House, and the
de facto leader of ‘The Gang’ with his cousins Sarah and Phillip. Like his
father, Kay has the Gift of Sight. His status as a ‘Shadow tech Male’ has
altered his Sight, changing it to the ‘Dark Sight’, allowing him to see and
interact with objects great distances away and into the past and future.
Not
overly strong, Kay was never able to lift his father’s seventy-seven pound King
CARG. He therefore forged a smaller CARG infused with Silver tech power that he
named SAMMIDORAN, after his love. After a horrendous set of tribulations in the
Temple of the Exploding Head, Kay recently married ‘Sam’ in a grand Vith
ceremony. They are eager to bear children. Once Sam finishes her traditional
Monama Jar, they will begin.
LADY SAMMIDORAN OF
BLANCHEFORT:
An
Anuian Monama of the Astralon tribe, Lady Sammidoran is the Ne-Countess of
Blanchefort, wife of Lord Kabyl.
A
Monama princess with prophetic powers, ‘Sam’ dreamed of her love, Kay, from the
time she was a little girl, even before he was born. He came to her every night
in her dreams, and she fell in love. Sam stared out her window into the fog and
dreamed of the day she and Kay would be wed. She also knew that she would be
turned into a Berserkacide one day by the horrid Horned God and would die by
Kay’s hand. Planning for years, she devised a successful scheme to thwart death
involving an ancient Machine of great power. Using the Machine, Sam was
returned from the dead.
Sam
is an Anuian Monama, very rare in the League these days. She is much bigger
than a standard ‘Conox’ Monama; buxom, solid, standing about six feet
tall. She is bone white with a massive head of black Monama hair that
goes down to her ankles. Her eyes, like all Monamas, are completely black,
including the eye whites. She is incredibly strong, much stronger than a standard
Elder and fast as a deer. Her fingernails, hard as iron, can be deadly weapons,
should she choose to make use of them. In an unusual role-reversal, Sam is the
muscle of ‘The Gang’, while Kay is the swordsman/trickster. She is also
extremely susceptible to the cold of the north. She must wear an arcane Silver
tech medallion called ‘Snugs’ to protect her from the cold. Without the
medallion she would quickly die.
Sam
loves life at Castle Blanchefort and maintains a comically combative
relationship with Kay’s cousin, Sarah, though Sam loves her as a sister. Sam
tends to consider herself a Vith lady, casting aside her Monama roots. Using a
power sander, she files her nails down every day to a Vith-like length, she
also wonders if she should cut her gloriously long hair. Sam is working to
finish her Jar, otherwise any male children she might have would die. As
Monamas are extremely fecund, Sam wears a protective bolabung to prevent her
from becoming pregnant until the jar is finished.
LADY SARAH OF
BLANCHEFORT:
Lady
Sarah is the eldest daughter of Lady Poe of Blanchefort and Lord Peter of
Ruthven. She is the twin sister of Phillip of Blanchefort—she loves to tell
people she’s ten minutes older than Phillip. A typical Blanchefort, Sarah is
tall and slender with a head of Vith blue hair she doesn’t fuss with much; just
pulled back into a simple ponytail with bangs is her typical style. Hating gowns,
Sarah always wears ‘boy’s clothes’: boots, pants, a sturdy shirt and her trusty
black duster, similar to the coat her father, Lord Peter, once wore during his
pirating days. Her best friends are her brother, Phillip, and their cousin,
Kay. They have been inseparable their whole lives. Their favorite hang-out is
the Mystery Library, a well-organized space Sarah built on the 50th floor
of Xyotle Tower, full of books of ghost-stories, monsters, urban legends and
various unsolved mysteries. She’s very organized and anal about things—would
make a great librarian. Sarah has always hoped the three of them would
remain together forever, best friends always. Maybe that’s why she disliked and
mistrusted Kay’s love, Lady Sammidoran, so much in the beginning; she was
afraid ‘Sam’ would break up the gang.
Unlike
her cousin, Lady Kilos, Sarah’s never bothered with the Kanan social scene many
ladies partake in. Sarah’s an adventurer at heart, bold and tenacious, always
ready for a new mystery to tackle. Brash and opinionated, Sarah’s
rough-and-ready personality can rub people the wrong way. Though it took her a
long time to accept Lady Sammidoran, Sarah always admired Sam’s strength and
now adores her as Kay’s wife and member of ‘The Gang’ though they tend to fight
constantly.
LORD PHILLIP OF
BLANCHEFORT:
The
twin brother of Lady Sarah, Phillip is a study in contrast with her. While
Sarah is loud and forceful and a bit impulsive, Phillip is quiet and cerebral,
always taking things in and assessing the situation. Everything Phillip puts
his mind to he does well. A brilliant pilot, Phillip learned to fly his
father’s Goshawk ship at a very young age. His uncle, Captain
Davage, has always hoped Phillip would join the Stellar Fleet as a helmsman.
Like
his sister, though, Phillip loves to investigate mysteries and savor the thrill
of an adventure, he’s just not as noisy about it, letting Sarah do all the talking.
Like Sarah, he considers his cousin, Kay, his best friend.
A
ruggedly handsome fellow, Phillip has always had many ladies hoping to court
with him at a social level; however Phillip has always found the socialites of
Kana too tame for his liking. He has a weakness for strong-willed, verbose,
powerful women (those much like his sister in spirit.) On an adventure in the
Xaphan city of Waam, Phillip met just such a woman: Thomasina, 19th of
Waam, a strong matriarch of the old House of Woolover, and fell in love, though
he refused to admit it. Thomasina fell for him as well and, quite literally,
chased him through the streets of Waam in an epic battle of wills, Phillip
savoring the chase. Eventually, Phillip proclaimed his love for her. They
agreed not to marry until Phillip finishes his schooling, Thomasina reluctantly
remaining far away in Waam.
MAGISTRATE KILOS OF
TUSCK
Growing
up on wild Onaris near the city of Tusck, Kilos was the 11th daughter
of a very impoverished family. Growing into a tall, strong young woman, she
married a childhood friend with a genius IQ.
Struggling
to support themselves, “Ki” joined the Stellar Marines. She had a rough time of
it; her temper getting the better of her again and again. She was selected from
a work detail to infiltrate the Fleet Warbird Seeker and
gather information on its captain, Lord Davage of Blanchefort. Upon
meeting Captain Davage, Ki was enchanted and the two became fast friends. Ki
sailed at Davage’s side for thirty years, becoming his first officer and
eventually joining the Stellar Fleet.
When
Captain Davage and his new countess, Sygillis, had children, Ki was a perfect
mentor for them, watching them grow into young adulthood. One day, Ki would
follow Davage’s son, Kay, into the darkness of the Temple of the Exploding
Head.
Eventually,
Ki would have a son of her own, Sebastian. She retired from the Fleet and was
offered a job as the Magistrate of Blanchefort Village. She was given the
key to Pendar Tower in the west end of Castle Blanchefort and moved in with her
husband.
Her
husband is a professor with a reputation for finding answers to difficult
questions. She also has an ever-lasting Tweeter bird given to her by Lady Poe
of Blanchefort twenty-years prior. With these resources available to her, Ki is
known as a ‘Manhunter’, able to solve difficult cases.
KING
An
adaptation of the tried-and-true Tweeter design, King is a Silver tech familiar
created by Lady Poe of Blanchefort, the mother of Sarah/Phillip of Blanchefort.
King has all of the directional and tracking abilities Tweeter has, with the
added ability to attack and kill if need be. King can fly at rail-gun speeds,
can carry impossibly heavy loads and can destroy Shadow tech with silvery light
from his eyes. Ashamed of the potent killing-power of her creation, Lady Poe
keeps all her Kings out in the Servants Graveyard, surrounded by protections.
She also built into King a self-destruct mechanism—when his tasks are complete,
King will be compelled to return to the graveyard and be reincorporated, thus
ending his life.
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