Fantasy Monsters? CHECK!

Hello everyone, this is ESB ‘Stringfellow,’ and I heard that the Dark Side has free cookies, and this is...

The Villains of a Path of a Hero Post!!

BEHOLD! My Legion of DEATH!!

In my last two posts, you got the idea of what the story is about, as well as the characters on the side of good; Cyan and Magus are the heroes, Glenn, Rosa, and so many others, help them on their journey to find the legendary sword of light, Masamune, all so that Cyan can conquer his inner darkness, the void.

But what of the rest of the story? I mentioned the Monster War, but new readers are probably quite curious what that entails. You know that Cyan starts this story on a revenge quest, but who is he seeking revenge against? Well, this post here will fill you in on those specific details!

To start things off, this story takes place on the Continent of Trino (I’ll put up a map in the next post), which is divided by three kingdoms: Palasanctus, located in the northeast part of the continent (where Cyan and Magus hail from), Nobilis, located in the south part, and Caelestis, which takes up the remaining northwest part. These three kingdoms have a strong alliance with each other, to the point that if one is attacked, then all of them are attacked. If one kingdom fights, then they all fight.

Which is why our designated villains must attack all three kingdoms at once, all in the efforts to keep them apart and to make rendering aid to each other nigh impossible. On the night that the war starts, massive armies composed entirely of the most nightmare inducing monsters and orcs rampage across all three kingdoms, each army making a beeline for the castles. Of the monsters involved, you got your usual types such as goblins, trolls and ogres, but then are the behemoths, dragons and giant-sized griffins, plus all kinds of other nasty beasts and fowls.

Who amassed such an army? Why, it is none other than a mysterious figure known only as Lord Abyss. No one knows who he is, because he keeps himself away from the fighting, letting his underlings deal with that sort of thing. But no one argues that he’s the Big Bad Boss (BBB), because his followers are always shouting, "Hail, Lord Abyss!" or other such phrases. Abyss is called the Lord of Monsters because he has somehow managed to tame just about every monster imaginable, including the types that were deemed untamable. A master of war, there are those who even wonder if Abyss was even born of this world...

Now because Abyss likes to take a backseat to the actual bloody bits of war, he has arranged three generals to lead his armies, one for each kingdom. His chosen champions? More monsters, though these three have human-like intelligence and cunning, which coupled with there monstrous personas, makes them the most deadly combatants to ever invade Trino.

Starting this list of the monstrous trio, we have General Fenx, the one who attacks the Palasanctus Kingdom, and who is a dominus beast. A dominus beast is a ferocious and very conceited creature. Insult one’s pride, and it could very well be the last thing you ever do. They are tall, with Fenx being about nine feet, bipedal, covered in fur and with wild manes. They have clawed feet and huge fists. They have heads that resemble jackals, with the only difference is that dominus beasts have two horns coming straight out of their foreheads. Finally, they are known for their lust of battles, gigas strength and the ability to survive natural disasters, their bones designed in a such a way that it makes it very rare to see one with a broken leg or arm. Think Klingons of the Path of a Hero universe.

Fenx is as bloodthirsty as they come, and he relishes every moment of it. However, he has a deadly temper, and when he cross blades with Cyan, the young samurai earns the wrath of the beast (man, that sounds like a good title for a future story!). Yes, Fenx is the one who takes away Cyan’s home, his family and friends, putting our hero onto the beginnings of his dark path. And Fenx will also go down his own path of darkness in order to get his own vengeance against Cyan, destroying anything or anyone in his path to do so. The only difference is that he doesn’t care about being a monster, because he enjoys way too much.

After Fenx, we go to the one who attacks the Nobilis Kingdom, the one who is called General Gormek. Cyan and Magus first meet Gormek a short time after starting their quest to find Masamune, and at that time, Nobilis is declared under Abyss rule, because this monster general actually managed to seize the castle and force the king and his soldiers to run. However, Gormek finds that the King of Nobilis and his followers are not so easily beaten, who resort to small scale attacks that aim to undermine Gormek’s efforts to reign supreme. Throw in Cyan and Magus into the mix, and the rulership of Gormek will become short-lived.

Gormek is an orcma, which is basically an offshoot species of orcs, with the difference being that they are really tall, usually around ten feet, and possess the anatomy that allows them to have six arms. Because of these extra appendages, Gormek and his kind are extremely versatile in combat, able to wield a weapon for each arm and use said weapons fluidly in a way that no human can match. Fortunately for the people of Nobilis, Gormek is not exactly the best of the generals, being incredibly boastful, sometimes foolish and quite often more concerned with saving his own skin. The only reason he fights under Abyss’ command is because he feels that his opponents, a bunch of two-armed humans, are child’s play. Maybe if he had heard of some of the greatest feats of Trino’s greatest heroes, he would have thought twice about signing up for Abyss’ monster army...

The last villain to round out this cast of devils, who leads the assaults against the Caelestis Kingdom, is General Demana, who is the sole female villain in this story. I must say that I am very sorry that I had never thought of creating more than one female villain at the time of writing this story. I’m even more sorry that I had used tired tropes such as Sexy is Evil or Evil is Sexy. Yeeeeeaaah... (shifts eyes nervously) Look, I had a very different view of things back then, so different that I even gave Demana a costume that, today, I would never have used (think Wonder Woman’s battle bathing suit). If I ever get the chance to, I will retcon the hell out of Demana, or at least her outfit.

Okay, with that cleared up, I do want to say that I’m still very pleased with how I wrote her as a character. Yes, she is incredibly vain and flirty in a way that makes you think of unwelcome scenarios. But I made her a warrior, through and through, wielding twin scimitars with such expertise that she’s able to deflect fireballs thrown at her. Not only that, she’s sadistic and will go out of her way to torture anyone for her amusement. Have a loved one on the battlefield? She will take a detour to find that someone and flay him or her alive and will be sure to tell you all of the details with the utmost demonic pleasure. That, more or less, sums up Demana perfectly, so lets get down to what type of monster she is.

Demana is a lamia, the female term for the snake-people species (males are called nagas). Snake-people are very varied, almost to the point that no two snake-people are exactly alike. Some are quite humanoid with only minor reptilian features, with others being all snake with human-like limbs. Demana falls somewhat into the first category. She has a very human-like appearance, with the major difference being that she has blue skin and pointed ears, with the only snake-like factors, at first glance, being her fangs and forked tongue. However, she has this curious thing about her, even among snake-people. Demana possesses this incredibly long red hair, so long and thick that, at a distance, it looks like a giant snake’s body attached to the back of her head. Spoiler-alert: her hair is NOT a snake’s body... it’s multiple snake bodies, and these scaly strands are able to move in a way that allows Demana to pick herself off of the floor and tower twenty feet over her opponents.

Sounds pleasantly disturbing, doesn’t it?

And that, my dear readers, is all she wrote (or I wrote). That is the story of Path of a Hero, from heroes to support characters to villains. But don’t go thinking that I spoiled everything. These tidbits should be more than enough to entice you, and at this point, I strongly recommend utilizing the link to the right to find this book on Amazon and enjoy all of the stuff that I did not divulge here, such as...

How did Cyan and Magus meet? What were the circumstances? How do their fights with the monster generals go? And do they get Masamune?

If you wish to find out, there’s really only one way to do so...

Until next time, my dear readers!

Sincerely, ESB ‘Stringfellow’

This is their Flag... You should buy one...

The NPCs of Path of a Hero

Hello everyone, this is ESB ‘Stringfellow’ and I will show no mercy if you eat all of my beef jerky, and this is...

The Next Path of a Hero Update!!

Admit it, you want a button or t-shirt of this. Available at Boosk-isms!

Okay, last time I shared the synopsis of PoaH and some details regarding our leading two heroes, and so now I will tell you about some more story details and some things about the supporting characters.

First up: When Cyan loses everything and everyone at the start of the Monster War, he is saved by a wizard named Professor Krygo Divree, who is a teacher at a school for training mages (a word for magic casters for those who don’t know). Cyan has some magical skills, not a lot, but enough to encourage him to get training at the School of Magi. Cyan’s magic, though limited they are, consist of four different elements, fire, water, ice and lightning, and he is able to shoot small projectiles of these elements out of his left hand and use the same elements to cover any weapon with a blade, such as sword or dagger. The ability to cover a sword’s blade with elemental magic means that Cyan is a sword mage, and because of this aspect, he is able to continue his training in sword fighting.

With all of that revealed to Cyan, he decides to dedicate himself to training in this field of magic, as well as keeping up his knowledge in the ways of the samurai, all so that he could become strong enough to obtain his vengeance. About a quarter of the way through the story, I do a time-skip of two years, where a fourteen-year-old Cyan had grown into his new role as a samurai mage. During those two years, Cyan makes a new friend in a young man named Glenn Marinus, who has aspirations to become a knight. Glenn helps Cyan through his grieving process, gives support and encouragement whenever he thinks it is needed. To Cyan, Glenn is as good as a brother. Then there is Glenn’s mother, Rosa Marinus, a healer that works in the castle of Cyan’s home kingdom, Palasanctus. Rosa is an emotional sort, which acts as a double-edged sword in her case. She is extremely passionate about the work she does, caring so much for others that she’s willing to face the ordeals that comes with the job, but she also feels immense pain for those that she can not save or comfort. When she had lost her husband, years prior to the story, she had become even more protective of Glenn and more fearful of what the future holds.

Also at the School of Magi are other students, with three particular characters that serve to give Cyan frustration and to push his rage buttons. Yvron Goldez, a shadow mage from a wealthy family, Icis Flitz, an ice mage with a sense of cold cunning, and Lavas Cole, a fire mage with a mean streak. It should be noted that Icis and Lavas don’t really talk much, because in the beginning I meant for them to be mere lackeys to Yvron, who started off as a rival for Cyan. But as time went on, I had actually grown fond of the trio, and decided that these three deserve to be shown to be best friends, even if they are obnoxious bullies. During Cyan’s time at the School of Magi, these three are used as something to test Cyan’s patience and, whenever his patience fails him, someone to take his anger out on, and believe me, over the two years, Cyan has truly nurtured his inner anger and hate to a frightening level.

Among the students is one who I came to like so much, that I actually have future plans for him, and his name is Auroro Darkes. He absolutely hates his first name, so he insists everyone just call him Darkes, but this sadly makes it easy to tease him by just simply referring to him as Auroro. He is not so much as a friend to Cyan, nor is he a rival. He is simply there to help provide a foil to Cyan. Darkes is something of a self-serving coward, but when he sees Cyan risking it all, he’s encouraged to stick with his own friends, no matter how terrifying things will get.

Rounding out the School of Magi cast is Lady Sashasee, the sword instructor, and Master Fuso, the founder and headmaster of the school. Lady Sashasee is a middle-aged, charming woman who knows how to handle a fight, either with her bare hands or with a weapon, and really favors Cyan as a student. Her primary goal is to teach sword mages how to use their weapons effectively in combat. Because her training exercises focus solely on the physical aspects, the fact that she is not a mage herself is rendered moot. She does, however, own a katana that allows her to cancel and nullify magic spells, which is useful for dealing with unruly students who decide to have magical duels outside of classes. As for Master Fuso, he is an old sage that radiates power and just seems to have a way of reading people that seems to go beyond the mere physical. Wise, powerful to the point of being intimidating even when he’s just sitting down, and good natured enough to make Cyan feel that he can trust Master Fuso on matters that are very personal to him, such as his inner darkness that threatens to consume whatever he has left of his humanity.

Halfway through the story, after a few failures and gaining an epiphany, Cyan realizes how close to darkness he has gotten, and in order to fight said darkness, he decides to go on a quest that will take him clear across the Trino Continent. At this point, Magus had joined him, and the two set off to find the legendary sword known as Masamune, a Sword of Light. Cyan got it in his head that in order to vanquish his inner darkness, or the void as he calls it, is to defeat the very monster that had created it. In Cyan’s mind, the two are tied together, interchangeable and linked in a way that allows them to feed each other, which in turn weakens Cyan.

...Okay, maybe that sounds psychologically impossible in the real world, but bear with me on this. Consider that the human mind is a strange place to begin with. There are people in the real world who become emotionally attached in inanimate objects and treat said objects like one would the Companion Cube from Portal. Another thing to keep in mind is that in this story, magic exists, Magus, a magically imbued rat that can talk, can be transfigured into other creatures without pain or other harmful side effects, and Cyan is looking for a magic weapon that can slice through solid rock. So, I think people’s imaginations can be stretched just enough to say that an actual link exists in this mystical world that causes Cyan to believe that he has to kill a monster in order to end the void. Just roll with it...

As Cyan and Magus search for Masamune, they come across other supporting characters, with the most prominent one being a man named Clyde Stratos, a soldier from the Nobilis Kingdom. He sees in Cyan what most people don’t... the potential to be the greatest warrior in all of Trino. But Clyde also recognizes the darkness in Cyan’s heart, and being the experienced man that he is, Clyde decides to give them his help. That is, after Cyan and Magus help him and his people reclaim their home. During the two years of the Monster War, the Nobilis Kingdom seemingly was taken, which forces the people of that kingdom to fight in the shadows of defeat. No spoilers, but as that threat is being handled, Cyan and Magus also meet Linka Terrace, a warrior monk (someone who specializes in hand-to-hand combat), who has quite the history with Clyde. Then there is King Kynoah Strogest, an unorthodox ruler who seemed to have neglected his lessons in formalities.

As the story progresses, Cyan and Magus, guided by Clyde, meet the last of the supporting cast in the Caelestis Kingdom, featuring two women who seem to be polar opposites, but are incredibly close friends. First is Echia Dusk, a powerful mage that gives one the impression that she is a witch. She wears mostly black, wears jewelry that has skulls, snakes, spiders and rats designed on them, and has a very alluring air about her. Playful at times, she is also known for a fiery temper, which puts her in contrast with her friend, Mi’Leeya Chi, a head priestess of the Astral Shrine. Mi’Leeya is the quiet type and is a healer like Rosa, but her magic goes deeper than others. Mi’Leeya has an affinity with the spirit world, and thus can use the powers of that realm to aid her finding out certain things or generate certain barriers or, in some rare cases, help people gain a spiritual blessing that will grant that someone a new power. *wink-wink-hint-hint*

And I think that about covers all of the support characters. I might have left some out, but that is either because they are so minor that they don’t warrant any mentioning or I thought that it would be too spoilery.

With that said, I will leave it here for now (just so you know, there is a lot to cover, considering that PoaH is almost six hundred pages long). Next week, I will give you details about the villains, because what is a story about an up-and-coming hero without villains?

Until next time, this is ESB ‘Stringfellow’ signing out.

Path of a Hero Basics

Hello everyone, this is ESB 'Stringfellow,' and I am hooked on a feeling, and this is...

A Path of a Hero Synopsis And Heroes Basic Information!!




A bit understated, but it is still a nice cover.

Synopsis

Vows made... Swords drawn... The cries of battle... The rages of war...

In the mystical land of Trino, an attack by an unknown enemy has taken the people by surprise and left a bloody and destructive path in its wake. Orcs, monsters, dragons and demons... an army designed for one purpose only... to destroy anything or anyone in their path.

Thousands will fight, to stand against this evil force that threatens to destroy their land. In honor of their country and rulers, they will fight and die to defend their homes and loved ones.

But only one will rise above the others... only one will endure the trials of body, mind and spirit... in the end, only one will be granted the title of a Hero.

Cyankazu Omondi... his Path begins when he is twelve years old.

Every Hero has a beginning...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In Path of a Hero, we explore the origins of who, you might say, our my mascot characters, Cyankazu Omondi (Cyan for short) and Magus (who is just simply short).

For the uninitiated, Cyan starts this story as twelve-year-old (well, eleven in the first chapter, but I time-skip a year later in the second one), who we see is being trained by his parents to become a samurai. Things were going pretty darn good for him. A loving family, trusted friends, a humbling home and a promising future where he showed great potential to be a great and honorable warrior.

But then everything changed when the Monster War started... Without warning, a fierce, bloodthirsty and overwhelming army of monsters and orcs attack Cyan’s homeland, the Continent of Trino, where our hero’s village is among the very first places to be consumed and destroyed by the carnage.

Cyan becomes a victim of war... He did not die, but he does lose everything, giving him survivor’s guilt, depression and a mountainous amount of grief... but born within this darkness that has consumed his heart, the void as he comes to name it, is also his anger and hatred of the monsters that had destroyed his life. Shortly after the war started, Cyan vows revenge... but how far will this dark path take him? What risks or price is he willing to pay? Will his obsession with vengeance give him solace, or will it lead him further away from his heritage as a samurai?

This may start as a story of revenge, but at some point, Cyan will realize the danger he faces of losing his humanity and will thus go on a quest to regain his honor, his true inner sense of self. He will come up with a plan that will not make a lot of sense to a lot of outside observers, but it will mean the difference to Cyan, where it will either destroy the last shred of nobility he has left or lead to his ultimate redemption. In this story, Cyan does not start off looking to be a hero, but in the end, he will be remembered as one of Trino’s greatest.

Now, any story of a hero would be incomplete without a cast of characters to render support or help in the hero’s time of great need. To start off, Cyan is accompanied by his magical animal companion, Magus. For those wondering, a magical animal is a normal creature, any creature, that was infused with magic at the time of their birth. Magic, in this universe, can have strange effects on any living thing, and in some cases, it can result in turning a normal animal into one with magical abilities, with some changes being greater than others. For instance, Magus is a black rat that can cast some minor forms of spells on his own, but it is not much by human standards, but the greatest thing about him is that his magically changed body now ages at a slower rate than normal rats, putting him on the same aging process of humans. So, when he meets Cyan, Magus is in fact seventeen years old in actual human years, and on top of all that, he can also communicate via telepathy.

So, before I go into further detail about Magus, I would like to point out something about how the story is structured, of how the world looks and feels. I wrote Path of a Hero with a classical knights, wizards, etc., versus dragons, demons, etc. type of feel to it. So, everyone behaves like Dungeons and Dragons type characters... Everyone except Magus.

I wanted Magus to be the comic relief character, but in a definite out-there sort of way. How out-there, you might be asking? By making him act like someone from modern times, where he speaks with slang words like cool or dude. If that sounds cliched to you, then I profusely apologize. You have to forgive me for doing that, considering that I was still a teenager myself when I first wrote this. But I just loved the idea of having Magus be that one character who was in stark contrast to how everyone else behaved, where his mannerisms, where they would be normal by our standards, would be seen as odd or inane by others, which for me (at the time at least) struck as comedy gold. I do promise, that as the years went by and my writing became a bit more refined, I was able to make Magus more comical (I hope) in more nuance ways. Quirks that help further set him apart from Cyan, so that he would be a perfect foil to Cyan’s more calm and levelheaded demeanor.

And that is, more or less, the basis of Cyan and Magus, human samurai and magical rat. Cyan settles to be more thoughtful, while Magus goes to speak whatever comes to his mind. Cyan is mostly silent, and when he speaks, he tends to do it with softer tones (unless he gets angry [which happens a lot in Path of a Hero]), while Magus is energetic (bordering on hyperactive) and he has a tendency to hardly ever clam up. Cyan is disciplined, Magus is brash. Cyan jokes some and does a sarcastic comment every now and then, Magus is a fan of making bad puns and delivering a lot of snark. Cyan hums old folk songs, Magus does air guitar whilst singing Rock-n-Roll.

Those are your leading two characters, my dear readers, and I honestly hope you enjoy them just as much as I do.

And I think I will leave it here for now. Next time, I will share more story tidbits and other support characters. Until then...

Sincerely, ESB 'Stringfellow'