New character profiles will be added regularly!
SEVARDIN HARKER
He/Him | DOB: Ophiuchus 7th, 2321 | SKIN: Warm sepia | HAIR: Black (graying) | EYES: Bronze
LIKES: Good stories, motor vehicles, machinery, classic rock, stoicism, whiskey, romance, poetry
DISLIKES: Callousness, drama, condescension, bigots, fruity drinks
OPUS: Engine maintenance
BIO: Originally born in Scandinavia, Sevardin’s family moved to Arroyo when he was eleven. Mere months later, moved by the stories of heroics his father had raised him on, he enrolled in the Arroyo Athenaeum. There he befriended Juel Flores, whose father, Ajola, served as Sev’s paragon and idol. After completing his eleven-year matriculation and graduating in the top percentile of his class, he begins an intrepid career in the Arroyo Keeping Force…
NOTES: Of my three protagonists, Sev is by far the hardest to write, because he is so different from me. In many ways, that makes him my most important character. He is the person I hope to grow into. A patient mentor and protector. A down to earth man who rarely complains about his lot in life, no matter how much I torture him. And writing him brings me closer to that reality.
ALINORE VALMONT
She/Her | DOB: Aries 15th, 2332 | SKIN: Flushed porcelain | HAIR: Jet black| EYES: Dark Brown
LIKES: Competence, humility, fiber arts, rock music and heavy metal, Japanese food
DISLIKES: Injustice, prejudice, bullies, special treatment
OPUS: Cross-stitching
BIO: Despite prohibitions against political titles, the Valmont family is effectively the Erician Amagium’s royalty—a fact that vexes Alinore Valmont to no end. Lin’s father recently held the title of Archon, one of the nine global leaders of the Amagium. Despite her mother’s desire for her daughter to lead the life of an heiress, diplomat, or other ‘more suitable occupation,’ Lin enrolls in the Arroyo Athenaeum with the intention of serving in the peacekeeping force, like her famed older brother and legendary father before her…
NOTES: Not to get all “we live in a society,” but I think one of the core problems with the world we live in is that men are conditioned to not look up to women as role-models. I do my damnedest to challenge that status quo with all my lady characters, but Lin is really my thesis in arguing that point. (I know, I know. I said I look up to Sevardin. I look up to her too.) I put more of myself into Lin than any other character, period. Her struggle with medications. Her difficulty reconciling her privilege with her good intentions. Her monstrous expectations of herself. But where I would stumble, Lin catches herself. Where I would say “good enough,” Lin says “I can do better.” When I say “fuck this,” and walk away from a challenge, Lin says “fuck you,” and proceeds to kick ass.
HACE MATTHEWS
He/Him | DOB: Leo 9th, 2332 | SKIN: Sun-kissed| HAIR: Auburn | EYES: Cerulean
LIKES: Reading, romance, games, legerdemain, spicy food, fruity drinks
DISLIKES: Fae, boredom, exploitation, liars, bigots, bullies
OPUS: Card games
BIO: Born to an elven royal of the Summer Court and a used bookstore owner, Hace Matthews was blessed with tremendous sorcerous talents, and a rare urdic condition that the Amagium finds intensely useful. Hace resents himself, as his father’s “courtship and affections” cracked his mother’s psyche. With fissures spreading steadily through the barrier between her wyrd and her mind, he enrolls in the Athenaeum on a generous scholarship, hoping to earn enough money to save his mother and become a peacekeeper who can protect other people from the perils of the Faed…
NOTES: Hace is a blast. He is my outlet for the “Farmboy of Destiny” tropes I grew up on, and the protagonist with whom I identify most easily. (Yeah, I know what I said about Lin. There is more of me in her, which is why she is harder to put up with.) If Lin represents my medicated self, Hace is my fantasy of not needing meds. He’s cool, he’s fun, and he gets the job done. I tried to complicate his traditional formula with his half-fae heritage, daddy issues, and relatively poor upbringing (all things that I don’t really have personal experience with) and then I realized I somehow made an even more cliched hero. But you know what? The world could use a few more cliched heroes right now.
CYPHIRA QUINN
She/Her | DOB: Sagittarius 13th, 2332 | SKIN: Snowy | HAIR: Evergreen | EYES: Golden
LIKES: Challenges, games, rainy days/gray weather, sour food, comic books, fighting
DISLIKES: Boredom, insincerity, spoiled people, bigots,
OPUS: Wind instruments (still refining)
BIO: [CLASSIFIED BY CONFIDENTIAL INTERESTS CHAPTER]
NOTES: (You didn’t think you’d get the inside scoop that easily, did you?) Cy is one of my most vocal characters which makes her very easy to write. She is also my most willful, surprising character, which means she fucks up my outlines more than anybody else. But I honestly love it when a character’s force of personality railroads me. I believe it’s one of the most satisfying experiences you can have as a writer.
PENSEY HAYES
She/Her | DOB: Libra 1st, 2332 | SKIN: Peachy | HAIR: Spun-sunshine | EYES: Sapphire
LIKES: Romance, helping people, law and politics, performing arts, pop music, sweets, animals, cute things, most things in general
DISLIKES: Bullies, cruelty, gore, apathy, resignation, hypocrisy
OPUS: Ballet
BIO: Born as the only child of an upper-middle class family in South Arroyo, Pensey Hayes was raised with a great deal of love. Such privilege has a way of spoiling people, yet somehow Pensey is unpretentious, generous, and relentlessly kind. Initially, Lin is offput by Pensey’s perky disposition and seemingly saintly personality. But when Pen is targeted by bullying, Lin comes to her aid and quickly discovers a fiercely pragmatic intellect and ambitiously benevolent young woman hiding in plain sight.
NOTES: A beta-reader told me that everybody needs a “Pensey” in their lives, and I firmly believe that’s true. Writing Pen actually helps pull me out of my funks. Thinking “what would a good person do?” can be exhausting, and actually doing it is even harder, but it’s also a generally effective practice for happiness. Searching for silver linings. Coming up with ways to help friends… It all sounds like a preachy pain in the ass, right? But if you channel your inner Pensey within reason, those positive actions will help you feel good too. It’s like plugging a power strip into itself for infinite power. It sounds stupid. It is stupid. It shouldn’t work. And yet…
JUEL FLORES
He/Him | DOB: Virgo 8th, 2321 | SKIN: Terra Cotta| HAIR: Black (graying) | EYES: Dark Brown
LIKES: Films, romance, miniatures, sym-games, burritos, muscle cars, classic rock, whiskey
DISLIKES: Condescension, dry reading/dull research, cheaters, criminals
OPUS: Model Building and Painting
BIO: A third generation member of the Arroyo Keeping Force, Juel Flores befriended Sevardin a few years into their studies at the Athenaeum. Roommates for the majority of their matriculation and sharing a common idol in Juel’s father, Ajola, their bond runs deeper and thicker than blood. Juel is driven to live up to the ideals that shaped his upbringing. Something of a nerd, Juel is a major cinephile, gamer, and hopeless romantic, eagerly seeking the right woman to share his life with.
NOTES: Juel is a bundle of contradictions (a gentle soul in a violent line of work; a nerd in a career dominated by machismo who tries to pass as a tough guy) and his voice is also somewhat understated, which makes him one of my harder characters to write. Even though he is no less ambitious and nearly as skilled as Sev, he is generally more comfortable following others’ lead than taking charge himself. Begging the question: what happens when it’s up to him to save the day?