#hes literally divine to me. hes a star. hes celestial. hes not really mortal. hes all of my ideals put into one character

[rucow]

saw too many ppl having awful takes on nerevar and voryn and the tribunal etc etc on twitter, so now im drawing soft sweet nerevoryn bc i can. im going to balance out all the negative energies in this fandom, one drawing at a time 🫶😊

[yellingmetatron]

The Light in Heaven

So.

Well.

Something like two freaking years ago, or thereabout, I told @kissofmistletoe I was writing a little character study about Metatron and Baldr.  Various things took up my time, I had difficulty getting into a desired headspace, and this little character study never materialized-- until now.  It’s short and it’s not beta’d but I think that it does what I set out to do, and again, it’s been something like two years. So, to @kissofmistletoe: Sorry for the wait, and I hope it’s at least somewhat entertaining.  Hope other people enjoy it, too.

----

Metatron has always enjoyed watching people.  It’s a good thing, considering his purpose, and especially considering he has so many other inclinations that seem at odds with that purpose.  But life can’t be all torment, even for an archangel.

There’s something about perceiving a person, recognizing them as another self that Metatron finds… what’s best word?  Enrapturing, enthralling, intoxicating?  None of those words seem to speak very well of the person being enraptured, enthralled, or intoxicated.  All of them imply loss of control, and Metatron hates not being in control, especially when the matter is self-control.

Metatron often hates things he thinks he shouldn’t want.  Often, but not always.

Baldr wanders the wildlands of the Shamayim, Heaven, like a native.  The geography of Heaven is much like the geography of the Levant, but as it was before so many empires demanded their tithes of lumber for ships and incense.  Aromatic cedars stretch tall and wide all across the mountains, boughs covered in snow.  In the valleys between the mountains, ice-cold rivers run into the eternal sea of Heaven that stretches quite literally into infinity.  Baldr has told Metatron before that he was pleasantly surprised by Heaven.  He had feared it would be a dead, white place.  Metatron had managed not to be offended, at least not by Baldr.

How do humans keep getting things so wrong?

Metatron watches Baldr. The god had seen the sun rise over the mountains, and expressed a desire to take in the winter sun.  Metatron had told him of course he could, and he didn’t need to ask: He was an ambassador, not a prisoner.  Baldr mused there was overlap in those categories; after all, his presence must be accounted for, his movements verified.  Metatron had told him nobody expected him to sit in his room all day and only come out for political discourse.  That sort of treatment was reserved for Sheol, not Shamayim.  Baldr had smiled, but then said that of course the most responsible thing he could do as a guest was to seek the approval of his host before adventuring.  He had tilted his head in innocent inquisitiveness; wasn’t he Metatron’s charge, for the time being?

They had gone on like that for a while, a kind of verbal play-fight that ended with Baldr on his back—as it were.  The kind of deference shown by someone who knows they’re going to get exactly what they want, and who knows a little show of submission can be a balm.  Baldr, fuck him, had worked out long ago that Metatron liked it when people were mindful of his authority.  So few of his siblings were, nowadays, and the lower choirs were only frightened, most of the time.  One of the humans, some Italian or another, had once said that love and fear could hardly exist together, and that if you had to choose, fear was the safer bet. But fear is lonelier than love. It’s lonelier even than simple respect. Well, Baldr gives Metatron respect, and as for the other thing—

--that doesn’t bear thinking about right now.  Baldr fits the landscape too well.  He shouldn’t; for one thing, he’s not wearing a fucking shirt, and it’s only just above freezing.  If he were a human, this would be a clear sign of madness or masochism.  But the incongruity somehow melts away in the image as a whole: A lone, golden figure, ankle-deep in snow, meandering the mountains with no purpose but pleasure in the cold and quiet.  The winter light seems to flow over Baldr’s skin like anointing oil, tarrying over the angles of his body, reluctant to leave him. Metatron has seen deer walk through the snow, lean in the winter yet somehow serene, patient for the Spring. As Baldr stops, turning around to see how far he’s climbed, chest rising as he breathes in cold air and the scent of snow and cedars, Metatron knows Baldr doesn’t need to be patient for Spring: Warmth and life are already inside of him, and will be always.

It's so fucking infuriating.

The archangel may as well be a statue as he watches.  His arms are folded in across his own broad chest, and his wings, six in this form, are stock still, not a feather out of place.  His expression is difficult to read; it could pass for either melancholy or irritation depending on the beholder.  He feels neither-- not exactly.  There are two feelings that come to mind, neither of which translate well to English nor Aramaic nor Hebrew.

Saudade.

Hiraeth.

But neither of them fit perfectly.  Both imply longing, a quiet-leaning-to-unquiet desperation for something lost or missing.  The former implies an unconquerable expectation, and that’s accurate enough but not complete.  The latter implies time and place specifically (he remembers old mountains that once were taller, he remembers lavish tents and smoke that smelled of incense and burnt offerings).  But what do you call a longing that isn’t quite?  How to you express an incomplete yearning?  Because however much he misses the past, he doesn’t want it back.  However much there is of an old god left within him, he wants to be an angel more.

Metatron remembers the Old Days, when he and his siblings were young and terrible.  He had a chance to challenge Haddad for kingship, and he vehemently refused it.  Strictly speaking, not much is stopping him from issuing a challenge now.  He has a duty to the One-As-Three, but it could be fulfilled in many ways.  His angelic brethren would be horrified, of course, but he knows for certain that a number of his Canaanite siblings hold a quiet conviction that Metatron—Malakhael, some still call him-- would make a better king than Haddad.  Not enough to agitate for it while it’s clear Metatron doesn’t want the job, not enough to plead with him to reconsider his loyalties, but…

Oh fucking cactus-sodomizing shit, now Baldr is lying down in an actual fucking snowbank.  And he looks so fucking pleased about it.  He’s luxuriating in the winter sun like a snow-leopard, not caring about the cold but only the light.  That sounds like some kind of stupid inspirational quote mortals would plaster on their dorm bedroom walls.  Something corporate-sponsored snowboarders would quip with a vapid grin.

The light that shines off snow can blind men and animals.  There’s a fucking quote for you.  But it’s nothing to gods and angels, and Baldr himself shines more brightly than anything else around him and oh fucking Sheol why is Metatron thinking like this?

Baldr still hasn’t gotten up from the snowbank.  Metatron wonders if he’ll doze off like that.  It’s not as if frostbite or hypothermia are a problem, and he’s angled so he’d be getting sun pretty much for the rest of the day.  For a Prince and state dignitary, it really doesn’t take much to make Baldr content.  Maybe he won’t even feel the need to get up at sundown; these past few nights have been clear and cold as glass, the moon and stars shining down with rare intensity.  It’s because of Baldr, Metatron is sure; light celebrating its ultimate source.

Mortals sometimes have difficulty wrapping their heads around the fact that more than one divinity can be the ultimate source of anything, that two or more celestials can personify the same concept.  It doesn’t help that it’s hard to explain it in a way they can understand, some answer limited to four dimensions.  Metatron’s go-to answer is “What’s infinity plus infinity?” which has the benefit of being no answer at all.  It almost works, and sometimes almost is enough.  Most people manage to be quite content with almost.

Metatron and Baldr are both beings of truth and light.  They are more than that, they transcend that-- and they are not the same entity.  There is more to each of them.  And yet somewhere, deep in Metatron’s sephirah, there is something that makes no distinction between himself and the godling.  The phrase “kindred spirit” is used carelessly by mortals who don’t understand the depths of those words taken together— certain saints and poets being an exception.  The highest level of self-awareness most mortals attain is the ability to look in a mirror and know, That’s me.  Gods and angels don’t have the luxury of leaving things at that.  An archangel must be careful when looking into certain gods’ eyes, because in an instant they may recognize something even deeper than mere surface-self.  Two sets of eyes can lock, and suddenly the line between I and Thou becomes dangerously blurred.

And oh, we must be careful of that.  It’s such a sweet poison, like wine and mead.  Two selves lost to each other.  Quintessence seeing itself, shattering any illusion of division.  All light is light; all truth is truth.

It would be so easy to leave the illusion of a lone ego behind.

But what would one come back to, when one is no longer one?

Metatron discovers that unthinkingly, he has managed to turn away from Baldr and his light.  Now his expression is recognizably melancholic.  Letting a feeling besides anger make it all the way to his face is an indulgence, but he needs some kind of outlet, and anyone no-one’s around to see.  He walks back into his library proper from the loggia from which he had watched his guest.   It’s well-lit, lamps burning with the clean light of Heaven, and yet it seems undeniably dimmer.  As he walks down the porphyry-columned hall, past the cyclopean bookshelves, under dome and arch, Metatron feels lonely—but only briefly.

Pining, still? Comes Sandalphon’s voice in his mind. The question would be intolerable from anyone else, but this is his sister, so it makes him smile a little instead. She’s not here physically—so much work of her own to do—but they’re never really apart.

I will concede that I am, he replies.  He stops a moment, and suddenly the hall isn’t a hall, it’s a reading room—there are still porphyry columns, of course.  One has standards.  Though I couldn’t tell you for… what, exactly.  He reminds me of so many things, achoti.

Its been a long time since you’ve had much traffic with elohim outside of the family, Sandalphon notes. And then suddenly she is present physically, reclining on a sofa by the window, wings tucked neatly behind her. Metatron sits on a perpendicular sofa. Mediterranean seating arrangements used to be much easier for people with wings, and in Heaven there’s no need to discard useful fashions.

“Don’t see family having much to do with it,” Metatron says.  “As making much difference one way or another, I mean.  I get fucking moody when I have to talk to Haddad, too.”

“But not moody like this, achi.  You’re used to Haddad.  He doesn’t make you so… nostalgic.  Not the best word, I know, but it will do.”  She smiles, a little sadly.  “You’re so used to each other.  When you look at each other, you don’t think eloah or angel, you both think brother.”

“I have dealt with foreign elohim before,” Metatron says a little more impatiently than he intends—but of course Sandalphon knows his heart, and takes no offense.  “None of them… did this to me.  It’s like…” he sighs, running a hand through snow-white hair. “It’s not just that he’s an eloah.”

“It’s the kind of eloah he is,” Sandalphon says.  “I understand.  But I do think the intensity of your feelings is due to how novel all this is.  It’s been so long, achi.  So long since you’ve had anyone but me to be so close to.”

“I have my subordinates,” Metatron says wryly.  “And hey, who needs more fucking company than people who are all kind of terrified of you?”

They are silent together for a time.  The sun of the Shamayim sinks a little lower, and the shadows of the bookshelves move with it.  The moon is barely visible, a ghost against the blue.  Metatron at last breaks the silence.

“Am I worrying you, achoti?”

“Always, Metatron,” Sandaphon laughs, “I’m your sister, that’s my prerogative.  You’re much more fun to worry about than anything else.”  He smiles crookedly in return.

“I promise I won’t… withdraw from this,” he says, “Because I know that’s the big fucking worry.  I can handle having feelings, Sandalphon.  Just a little out of practice.”

They stand and embrace. Metatron realizes it’s been a few months since they last hugged.  He squeezes his sister tight, and when the separate she gently punches his shoulder.

“Just remember,” she tells him, “I won’t have anyone treating my twin worse than he deserves to be treated, and that includes you.  If you need to talk, about this eloah or anything else, come to me.  Everything’s easier together.”

And then she’s gone, but not really.  They’re never really apart.

Metatron smiles softly, and looks out the window.  He can see Baldr from here—really, he could see him from anywhere in his palace-library. The young god is wandering leisurely back towards palace, still fucking shirtless.  Really, that’s insufferable.  The dimming light is just as flattering.  And worst of all, his expression is one of perfect contentment.  He’s had a good day.  He’s thoroughly enjoyed his time here, in this place that Metatron rules.  He’s probably going to make irritatingly excellent conversation tonight, especially over wine.  Metatron’s going to have to deal with so much sass.

The angel’s hand goes to his chest thoughtlessly.  His sephirah feels warm.

He allows himself a brief, sweet awareness that it’s not so different from a flesh-and-blood heart.

[jamesharringtoncreativeworks]

Hi Jim,

I’m currently trying to create some characters for my book, but am having trouble. I just finished reading Drakin and was wondering if you could tell me who your favorite character is out of all the books you’ve ever written. It would be helpful if you could go through how you created that character. Thanks!

TLoki

Hi “Tloki”,

I think I may have covered this previously, but I can’t find the original post, so I’ll go over it again. I actually have two that I really love. So one comes in first with the other very close behind.

Let’s start off with the runner-up:

Mary Jane Kelly – Soul Siphon 

Mary Jane Kelly is actually not original, in that I didn’t create her out of thin air. Because Soul Siphon is basically a story about a group of undead warriors who do the bidding of a disgruntled angel, I wanted to have one character whose murder was fairly well known aka, someone who actually existed. I thought it would add quite a bit of color to the story.

I knew I had to be careful here. I didn’t want to be disrespectful to the dead and certainly didn’t want to offend anyone’s family.  So I went back over some of the most famous murders that people remember… The Simpson murders were too recent, the Manson Family murders still had family that would likely not be too happy about what I intended to do, plus both of those… well… I mean they kind of faded over time. I wanted something… for lack of a more appropriate term, more enduring in the murder mystery world.

Then I decided to go back to my own studies of the Jack the Ripper case in college. (Yes, I did recreational research in college.) There were five (potentially more) perfect examples of what I was looking for. All I had to do was pick one that fit the role I was looking for; Relatively young, female, unmarried. So I went through the canonical victims to see if any of them matched what I was looking for…

Mary Ann Nichols – 43 years old… too old, and based on her biography… a bit too run down for what I was looking for.

Annie Chapman – 47… again, too old. Married to a relative and had children… okay no. I know that was common back then, but… just no. Plus, she was noted as being depressed on had given up on like. I really didn’t think I could write her as the character I wanted to create.

Elizabeth Stride – 44 (yeah this was the pattern). Too tall, married… and so on.

Catherine Eddowes – I actually really wanted to go with her given the mystery surrounding her death and the ‘from Hell’ letter. However, again too old, the description of her is too vague, and I had very little else to go with in terms of her personality.

Mary Jane Kelly – At this point… admittedly I was ready to rule out the Jack the Ripper Victims. None of them fit the bill for what I was looking for. Then I re-read her bio… 25 years old, quarrelsome, known for becoming intoxicated and singing Irish songs. Possibly married, but never confirmed. Not exactly a prostitute like the others as she worked in a brothel. Yes, this I could work with.

There was just enough information on her to lay the groundwork for an interesting character. A foul-mouthed young woman, not afraid to speak her mind, and enjoyed a sip of alcahol every now and then. However, what about the rest of her personality? As a human being, there had to be more to her. Well… details on her life were extremely sketchy and most of them came from her ex-boyfriend, Joseph Barnett. So what was I going to do?

Well, Soul Siphon takes place in the modern day, so I literally had around 150 years after her death to work on character development.  Her backstory involved her being resurrected by the previously mentioned angel and imbued with immortality and powers reflecting how she died; She could shroud herself in the shadows, move silently, possessed super-human speed, and was extremely proficient with knives. She was then given leave to hunt down Jack the Ripper, whom she was actually able to identify. However, she spent a lot of her time trying to protect the other brothel workers from being roughed up in White Chapel. When she finally located Jack the Ripper, she failed to catch him and kill him. He alluded her for years before dying on a shipwreck, fleeing the country. She then came to find out that he was responsible for even more deaths. Her failure cost even more lives.

At this point, I added a level of regret and bitterness to the character as well as personality depth. I don’t want to give too much away, but she’s actually probably the least dynamic character in the book. That being said, as you learn more about her, you realize the character she actually has is very admirable.

I guess I really love this character because she was really fun to research and write. I don’t know if she’s anything like the real Mary Kelly, but I did my best to guestimate what she’d be like in that situation. I am actually thrilled with how she came out.

And with that… my favorite character of the ones I created…

General Xaphan – Damnation/Soul Siphon

So this character went through a lot of developement. After writing Divinity, I began to entertain the idea of writing a sequel but didn’t want to do a direct continuation of the original story. I needed a new story with new characters set in the same universe. So I set out trying to create the main character… and failed over and over again. I just couldn’t create the warrior angel that I truly wanted to.

After several failures, I decided to go back and look at some of the other stories I’d written that could never be published. I stumbled across the first full-length novel I’d written, which was a Star Wars fanfic: The Face of Evil.

The primary character in that story was the villain, Darth Malys. A young Jedi that had turned her back on the order. She was extremely powerful but had trouble controlling her energy, or her emotions. She was a competent warrior and brilliant strategist that nearly brought the galaxy to its knees.

I remember how much I loved this character, but she’d never really see the light of day outside of my circle of friends and blog posts. It was something I really regretted. At that point, I began to try to figure out a way I could actually use her as a character in my new book. Granted, a few things would have to be changed, but I felt I could make it work.

General Xaphan was born out of that character. I borrowed her name and backstory from Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal and merged that with Darth Malys. A relatively young, but capable commander and warrior, and a brilliant strategist. Instead of a fallen Jedi, she was an angel who sided with Lucifer when he rose up against the Most High. She completely believed in Lucifer’s cause to free their angelic brothers and sisters from an eternity of servitude and commanded his forces in battle. Though absolutely ruthless in combat, she viewed the spilling of angelic blood to be a terrible waste, and when attacking non-military targets, she’d offer the civilians a warning before the attack took place. There were no civilian casualties when the Celestial Temple burned thanks to her disobeying Lucifer’s orders and warning the inhabitants. She fought against her counterpart, St. Michael to a stalemate for eons until Lucifers forces were finally defeated. She fled and began a resistance movement in the Celestial World until she was captured and exiled to the underworld. Her time there made her angry. Eventually, Lucifer sent her to the mortal world to do some reconnaisance. To do this, she was given a human form and had her memory wiped. During her time on Earth, she became involved with a young Florentine Soldier, whom she married and spent several years with before Lucifer came for her. After the events of Divinity, Lucifer no longer possessed the ability to remove the human memories from her and instead simply restored her original memories, hoping they would overpower the human. The result was a fractured personality and a divided conscience that made it difficult for her to reconcile her existence. She wound up fighting with herself over whether she truly wanted to continue her role as Lucifer’s general or live out her days with the human she loved so much. That’s pretty much where the adventure begins.

I loved this character so much that I wanted to have a physical representation of her on the cover of the book, something I’d never done before. I knew I couldn’t use my concept sketches of her, but I had to figure out something…

Fortunately for me, one of my friends is a fairly brilliant photographer,  who specializes in dark and very mystical shoots. I had all but given up on my hope to create the character because I couldn’t find a model to fit the bill… that was of course until he posted one particular piece that I admittedly thought was absolutely awesome. The image is still one of the backgrounds on my computer:

The more I looked at the picture, the more I realized… wow, she actually looks a lot like what I’m going for! That face looked shockingly similar to some of the concept art I’d done. I went back and looked at the other photo he posted from that shoot…

Sold, this model looked the part. We worked the whole thing out and he returned with a great photo for me to use. Then I had the graphic designer I work with, Brett Warniers, create my character.

The results pretty much spoke for themselves.

After Publishing Damnation, I wanted to use this character again in some form, so I gave her a cameo appearance in my next book, Soul Siphon.

So there you go. Those are my favorite characters and how I came up with them. Readers, do you have a story with how you created one of your characters? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks,

Jim

  Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.

jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com

I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.

Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Note: If you have read my books, PLEASE log into Amazon and post a review. I really love to hear everyone’s thoughts and constructive criticisms. Reviews help get my book attention and word of mouth is everything in this business!

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

Picking Favorites… Hi Jim, I'm currently trying to create some characters for my book, but am having trouble. I just finished reading Drakin and was wondering if you could tell me who your favorite character is out of all the books you've ever written.

[jamesharringtoncreativeworks]

Hi Jim,

I’m currently trying to create some characters for my book, but am having trouble. I just finished reading Drakin and was wondering if you could tell me who your favorite character is out of all the books you’ve ever written. It would be helpful if you could go through how you created that character. Thanks!

TLoki

Hi “Tloki”,

I think I may have covered this previously, but I can’t find the original post, so I’ll go over it again. I actually have two that I really love. So one comes in first with the other very close behind.

Let’s start off with the runner-up:

Mary Jane Kelly – Soul Siphon 

Mary Jane Kelly is actually not original, in that I didn’t create her out of thin air. Because Soul Siphon is basically a story about a group of undead warriors who do the bidding of a disgruntled angel, I wanted to have one character whose murder was fairly well known aka, someone who actually existed. I thought it would add quite a bit of color to the story.

I knew I had to be careful here. I didn’t want to be disrespectful to the dead and certainly didn’t want to offend anyone’s family.  So I went back over some of the most famous murders that people remember… The Simpson murders were too recent, the Manson Family murders still had family that would likely not be too happy about what I intended to do, plus both of those… well… I mean they kind of faded over time. I wanted something… for lack of a more appropriate term, more enduring in the murder mystery world.

Then I decided to go back to my own studies of the Jack the Ripper case in college. (Yes, I did recreational research in college.) There were five (potentially more) perfect examples of what I was looking for. All I had to do was pick one that fit the role I was looking for; Relatively young, female, unmarried. So I went through the canonical victims to see if any of them matched what I was looking for…

Mary Ann Nichols – 43 years old… too old, and based on her biography… a bit too run down for what I was looking for.

Annie Chapman – 47… again, too old. Married to a relative and had children… okay no. I know that was common back then, but… just no. Plus, she was noted as being depressed on had given up on like. I really didn’t think I could write her as the character I wanted to create.

Elizabeth Stride – 44 (yeah this was the pattern). Too tall, married… and so on.

Catherine Eddowes – I actually really wanted to go with her given the mystery surrounding her death and the ‘from Hell’ letter. However, again too old, the description of her is too vague, and I had very little else to go with in terms of her personality.

Mary Jane Kelly – At this point… admittedly I was ready to rule out the Jack the Ripper Victims. None of them fit the bill for what I was looking for. Then I re-read her bio… 25 years old, quarrelsome, known for becoming intoxicated and singing Irish songs. Possibly married, but never confirmed. Not exactly a prostitute like the others as she worked in a brothel. Yes, this I could work with.

There was just enough information on her to lay the groundwork for an interesting character. A foul-mouthed young woman, not afraid to speak her mind, and enjoyed a sip of alcahol every now and then. However, what about the rest of her personality? As a human being, there had to be more to her. Well… details on her life were extremely sketchy and most of them came from her ex-boyfriend, Joseph Barnett. So what was I going to do?

Well, Soul Siphon takes place in the modern day, so I literally had around 150 years after her death to work on character development.  Her backstory involved her being resurrected by the previously mentioned angel and imbued with immortality and powers reflecting how she died; She could shroud herself in the shadows, move silently, possessed super-human speed, and was extremely proficient with knives. She was then given leave to hunt down Jack the Ripper, whom she was actually able to identify. However, she spent a lot of her time trying to protect the other brothel workers from being roughed up in White Chapel. When she finally located Jack the Ripper, she failed to catch him and kill him. He alluded her for years before dying on a shipwreck, fleeing the country. She then came to find out that he was responsible for even more deaths. Her failure cost even more lives.

At this point, I added a level of regret and bitterness to the character as well as personality depth. I don’t want to give too much away, but she’s actually probably the least dynamic character in the book. That being said, as you learn more about her, you realize the character she actually has is very admirable.

I guess I really love this character because she was really fun to research and write. I don’t know if she’s anything like the real Mary Kelly, but I did my best to guestimate what she’d be like in that situation. I am actually thrilled with how she came out.

And with that… my favorite character of the ones I created…

General Xaphan – Damnation/Soul Siphon

So this character went through a lot of developement. After writing Divinity, I began to entertain the idea of writing a sequel but didn’t want to do a direct continuation of the original story. I needed a new story with new characters set in the same universe. So I set out trying to create the main character… and failed over and over again. I just couldn’t create the warrior angel that I truly wanted to.

After several failures, I decided to go back and look at some of the other stories I’d written that could never be published. I stumbled across the first full-length novel I’d written, which was a Star Wars fanfic: The Face of Evil.

The primary character in that story was the villain, Darth Malys. A young Jedi that had turned her back on the order. She was extremely powerful but had trouble controlling her energy, or her emotions. She was a competent warrior and brilliant strategist that nearly brought the galaxy to its knees.

I remember how much I loved this character, but she’d never really see the light of day outside of my circle of friends and blog posts. It was something I really regretted. At that point, I began to try to figure out a way I could actually use her as a character in my new book. Granted, a few things would have to be changed, but I felt I could make it work.

General Xaphan was born out of that character. I borrowed her name and backstory from Collin de Plancy’s Dictionnaire Infernal and merged that with Darth Malys. A relatively young, but capable commander and warrior, and a brilliant strategist. Instead of a fallen Jedi, she was an angel who sided with Lucifer when he rose up against the Most High. She completely believed in Lucifer’s cause to free their angelic brothers and sisters from an eternity of servitude and commanded his forces in battle. Though absolutely ruthless in combat, she viewed the spilling of angelic blood to be a terrible waste, and when attacking non-military targets, she’d offer the civilians a warning before the attack took place. There were no civilian casualties when the Celestial Temple burned thanks to her disobeying Lucifer’s orders and warning the inhabitants. She fought against her counterpart, St. Michael to a stalemate for eons until Lucifers forces were finally defeated. She fled and began a resistance movement in the Celestial World until she was captured and exiled to the underworld. Her time there made her angry. Eventually, Lucifer sent her to the mortal world to do some reconnaisance. To do this, she was given a human form and had her memory wiped. During her time on Earth, she became involved with a young Florentine Soldier, whom she married and spent several years with before Lucifer came for her. After the events of Divinity, Lucifer no longer possessed the ability to remove the human memories from her and instead simply restored her original memories, hoping they would overpower the human. The result was a fractured personality and a divided conscience that made it difficult for her to reconcile her existence. She wound up fighting with herself over whether she truly wanted to continue her role as Lucifer’s general or live out her days with the human she loved so much. That’s pretty much where the adventure begins.

I loved this character so much that I wanted to have a physical representation of her on the cover of the book, something I’d never done before. I knew I couldn’t use my concept sketches of her, but I had to figure out something…

Fortunately for me, one of my friends is a fairly brilliant photographer,  who specializes in dark and very mystical shoots. I had all but given up on my hope to create the character because I couldn’t find a model to fit the bill… that was of course until he posted one particular piece that I admittedly thought was absolutely awesome. The image is still one of the backgrounds on my computer:

The more I looked at the picture, the more I realized… wow, she actually looks a lot like what I’m going for! That face looked shockingly similar to some of the concept art I’d done. I went back and looked at the other photo he posted from that shoot…

Sold, this model looked the part. We worked the whole thing out and he returned with a great photo for me to use. Then I had the graphic designer I work with, Brett Warniers, create my character.

The results pretty much spoke for themselves.

After Publishing Damnation, I wanted to use this character again in some form, so I gave her a cameo appearance in my next book, Soul Siphon.

So there you go.

  Readers,

Do you have a question about writing, publishing, my stories, etc? Please feel free to post a comment or email me.

jimthewritingwizard@gmail.com

I’ll use those comments to select my next blog post.

I have been writing for several years, have 4 published works, experience with publishing and independent work, so I can hopefully be of assistance.

Please note, I only do one of these a day and will do my best to respond to everyone, but it may take some time.

Also, feel free to check out my works of Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Available on Amazon and where ever books are sold. See the link below:

http://www.amazon.com/James-Harrington/e/B00P7FBXTU

Note: If you have read my books, PLEASE log into Amazon and post a review. I really love to hear everyone’s thoughts and constructive criticisms. Reviews help get my book attention and word of mouth is everything in this business!

Thanks friends!

Catch you on the flip side!

-Jim

Picking Favorites… Hi Jim, I'm currently trying to create some characters for my book, but am having trouble. I just finished reading Drakin and was wondering if you could tell me who your favorite character is out of all the books you've ever written.