Meet the characters!
Meet Jun, Aurel,Casey, and the rest of the cast from Soultaming the Serpent!
If you’ve been following along on my journey, then you’re probably already familiar with the main three characters from Soultaming the Serpent, but here is some info about them as we get closer to pub date.
On top of the main three, I’m also going to introduce you to a few other characters in the book. Because yes… there seem to be less than ten characters in total 😅
Jun Weaver
Jun is actually looking forward to her 60th birthday even if that means another year of being ridiculed for being single and having no family. All her life, Jun has wanted to do something but never had the motivation, so she spends her time weaving and increasing her collection of useless knick-knacks from travelling merchants.
Original concept for Jun was a young woman wanting to escape her village to go on a quest to prove to herself that she could do it. That changed drastically as I decided I wanted the fantasy equivalent of “crazy-cat-lady” as an older main character instead. And then I decided, why not go all out and make her a hermit afraid of adventure?
Aurel
The suspected Chosen One, Aurel has the appearance of the famed northerners with pale silver hair, unnaturally purple eyes, and even paler skin that burns too quickly. He is easily offended and even more easily won over, with a petulant personality that leaves a lot to be desired. If only he wasn't so pretty.
For those of you who have an inkling of who I am, this character is most likely the reason why. There is something about the silent, cold, mysterious characters that always draws me in. His character was decided on to begin with and only changed to the little snot at the beginning of the story toward the end of the 1st draft.
Casey Brewer
Casey is the village brewer and owner of the only tavern, making him the richest one in the village. If only that meant something. He is known to fall in love easily and is a romantic at heart. Sadly, he is already twice widowed with four children and has had his eyes on Jun for the past decade or so with no reward.
Casey’s original concept was a love rival and somebody who fought Aurel for Jun’s affections. He was supposed to be the jealous and obsessive character to get in their way, but as the story progressed not only did I fall in love with him, but so did others! He turned from a boring love rival to a best friend and then something more.
(ps. quick note about Casey’s art - it has changed! There is another version floating about, but I wasn’t completely in love with it, so I gave AI another try and I absolutely *love* this version… if only he had a wooden leg!)
And now! The best part about these three and something that made me smile so wide my cheeks were hurting. I got my first ever FANART - courtesy of Greg Yates, author of Not Your Mountain. Thank you so much for this!
The next three
And now, we have our other three characters that make repeat appearances.
Sophar
For those of you who haven’t read the story, all I’m going to tell you about Sophar is that he is charming, beautiful, has golden eyes, and is loved by many people. I don’t want to spoil his main role but considering the three above, you could probably guess.
The Sage
Clearly, I hadn’t come up with a name for this character and there are actually two of them with the title in the story. We have the Sage that helped Aurel out when he was in trouble pre-story, and then we have the Sage that Aurel raised and trained and gave all his knowledge to.
The Dragon
Here, I am referring to the dragon that is mentioned in the first line of the story. Yes, the one that died. He was mentioned a few times later on in the story as he had a very strong connection and important role to play in everybody’s past and future - and I’m not just referring to the fact that he made it rain.
Wait! There are two more!
And yes, in the newest version and the one going to pub (not on here) there is an additional character:
Flay Rainborn
Flay Rainborn is only introduced in the last chapter as the new “Chosen One” and then the POV right at the end switches to her so we can experience what it means to be a Chosen One. She is barely ten years old and all we know about her is that the Sage personally chose her to look for Jun. Anything else is a major spoiler!
And, lastly, there is one other character that was only briefly mentioned in the story, but I think deserves a mention here:
The dragon that started the cycle
She has no name yet, but she was considered the last dragon of the species before the cycle that led to this story started. Because she was only mentioned in passing but has such a huge effect, I am thinking about writing a short story about her and how she started everything and why. Well, the reason is in this book, but there is something about experiencing it ourselves instead of as a story within a story, right?
And this is it!
Outside of the characters mentioned above we also have Casey’s sons (only one of which has a name), the Empress, the villagers, and the Chosen One’s followers. But yeah… very small cast for this story that I didn’t even realize how small it was until I started writing this!
And that is it! If you haven’t had a chance to read Soultaming the Serpent yet, the 2nd draft is available up here for free. There are changes between this draft and what is going out to readers and you can learn about them here, or you can get your own copy of this queer romantic fantasy here.
Thank you!
Great write up of the characters in this fantasy romance story filled with adventure.