Rachel: Characters...yes :)

I just woke up, and, even though I REALLY want to continue sleeping, my brain won't let me; it immediately made me start thinking about my nano book, which I have decided to call Soul Debt (I'll explain that title all in due time :P.) Anyway, I decided that I feel like rambling about my characters for a while, since I want to make sure I have a really good grasp on them by November and typing about them to other people gives me ideas. I'm not going to go into appearances right now (it's possible that I never will, unless one of you left on the blog is dying to see what they look like or some such thing), but I will talk personalities. Which I'm still developing. Actually, I don't even know what I have in terms of personalities so far. I guess I'll find out RIGHT NOW.

Anilom Salinikera: As previously stated, Anilom is my main character. Weirdly, I probably know the least about her than I do about any other character. I know that she is fiercely loyal to her village. Oh, and that she's independent and possibly confident, since she grew up without her parents. I kind of see her as being sort of serious, but I want to steer away from that if I can because that's no fun! She's best friends with Mewko, so maybe that will bring out a playful side in her. I don't know. I have a feeling that I won't know too much about her until I start writing, and then I'll have something to tell you guys.

Fell Ko: Okay, so I was thinking that Fell would be kind of a sweetie and MAYBE not the sharpest tool in the shed. I'm not sure how prominent I want this to be in him, but I'm considering making it his foremost characteristic. If I do that, I think he will be good for providing comic relief, and he will also be a prime candidate for character development. I can see him loving flowers and other cute pretty things, and also being the type of person who will laugh at ANYTHING. But he is also very loyal to his village, and he will do what he has to to protect it and to preserve his way of life. As a result, I think he'd be a surprisingly good fighter. We'll see. He's still in the works, like everybody else.

Inlilia Lit: Inlilia is one of those people who is quick to anger and quick to fight about it. She can be very impulsive, which can be both a good and both a very bad thing. She doesn't seem to want friends and doesn't let people get very close to her, but I'm pretty sure this will change by the end of the book. I think she will be a lot nicer and much less of a fighter than she pretends. She rarely ever has to actually hurt anybody--acting like she will is enough--so her reputation is preserved even though it's not an accurate representation of who she really is. She will become much more of a personable character by the end of the book.

Mewko Monroe: For some reason, Mewko is kind of tough for me. She's tiny and feisty, but feisty-ness isn't  the meat of her character. I can see her as something of a motherly character, mostly because I have decided that she takes care of orphans that are too young to take care of themselves in her free time. I think she's someone who thinks a woman's place is with her family and children, and she really has no interest in hunting or fighting or anything. In fact, she thinks it's barbaric. But I don't want her to be a total wuss or girly-girl. When someone she cares about is in danger, I think she can prove to be a total bad-ass. She's good at medical things, which will definitely come in handy. Man, I still have to do some work on Mewko :(

Senn Mehr: Senn is the classic strong, silent type. He's training to be a warrior, and is extremely serious about it. He rarely speaks, but when he does, what he says is important. He never smiles, but I'm thinking that he will near the end. I don't know much about his story, but I'm leaning towards the idea that he is following in the footsteps of his father and his grandfather and so on, and that that is very important to him. He can be cruel and heartless when the situation calls for it, but on the inside he has this kindness and softness to him that is sort of reminiscent of the person he used to be when he was a child, but deeper. Like, when he's alone, he might silently appreciate and understand the intricate beauty of a flower (where Fell would roll around in them.) If that makes sense. Though outwardly he expresses little to no emotion, I think that he would feel very strong emotional ties to people, which is what drives him to protect and fight for them. He's actually very loving, which I didn't know until I typed that just now.

Stim Nyznik: Well, Stim is super annoying. There's no way to tiptoe around that. She's very self-confident and bossy, and she thinks she knows what is best for everybody at every given time. She infuriates everyone, but she has a way of passive-aggressively silencing anybody who challenges her authority because she feels like she should be in charge. I think she secretly has pretty low self-esteem, which is why she feels like she has to be the best at everything; if she's the best, she's worth something. Sadly for her, though, I think she has some training to do before she can call herself good at fighting (which is very important to survival in Samot.) She doesn't handle being wrong very well, and she refuses to take blows to her pride. That actually ends up getting her killed. She has the opportunity to save herself and accept help from someone else, but she consciously chooses death instead. Kind of tragic.

Chek Hartford: Chek is the mischievous one of the group. He is witty and has kind of a biting sense of humour, and he takes great pleasure in playing tricks on people just because he is very amused at seeing them annoyed. It's this that makes him arguably the best fighter in the group (except for probably Senn); he loves to use people's impulse and anger against them. He thinks he is positively hilarious, and he laughs hysterically at his own pranks even when no one else does. He's essentially a pretty selfish person, which is why he has no troubles with making people mad just to make is day more interesting. Needless to say, he's most dangerous when he's bored, especially if you're on his bad side. Outwardly he seems rather impartial to anything or anybody, but his secret fear is dying alone, despite his natural inclination to make people hate him. So, yeah. That's Chek.

Ketta Wolefnoll: Ketta's another one that needs some work. What I know about hims so far is that he's albino, which is fine when he's underground (most of Samot is underground), but not so great when he's out in direct sunlight, so he wears a blindfold around. He's an excellent archer, though, even with his blindfold on, which I think is fairly bad-ass. Anyway, personality-wise, I've got some holes. I can see him being pretty manipulative; he can get people to do things for him without them even realizing that they're doing him a favour. Strangely, though, he's oddly gullible himself, and very trusting. But...ugh. Like Mewko, I have hard time with Ketta. If any of you have some ideas, they would be greatly appreciated.

Cossm King: Okay, I DO know a little bit about Cossm. He's the chief (or whatever)'s son, and so he is expected to be in charge of Samot one day. The problem with that, however, is that Cossm was TOTALLY not cut out to be a leader. He's related to the goddess Bion, who is the most revered of the gods, but he has none of her characteristics. He's a total wimp and very easy to bend to someone else's will. He tries to step up and be strong, but it just doesn't seem to be in his personality. He's sort of the joke of the village, though nobody would ever say so in a place where his father could hear (but they would where HE can hear.) He has a lot to live up to, but he knows that he can't. He ends up dying in a very epic, heroic way, though, and he is respected far more in death than he ever was in life. So it turns out that he does have what it takes to be a leader--he just never had the chance to show it.

Seddo Egglian: Seddo's Samot's version of a nerd (though he's not scrawny or anything like that.) His father was exiled from the village for endangering people's lives with his bizarre experiments, and Seddo lives with him (he's allowed in Samot, though.) He is really in to "science" (Samot really knows nothing of science) and completely worships Rideltra (god of knowledge). As is to be expected, he's very inventive and innovative, and has a knack for inventing just as his father does. He likes people and is personable and friendly, but he sometimes turns people off with his enthusiasm for...well...everything. He's very intelligent, but sometimes he can be the most naive; he is so fascinated with everything in the world that he can be blinded by it. He's also one of those people who misunderstands sarcasm frequently, which I think is funny, and so do lots of my characters--they take pleasure in seeing him confused every once in a while.

So that's everyone! It only took about fifty thousand hours, but I did it. And it helped, except in the case of Mewko and Ketta, who I am still somewhat stuck on. I'll end this post before it gets any longer and continue my perpetual nano planning.

-Iridian