Episode #187: A Unique Culture Always Enriches The Story {3}

I found the missing glove the other day, so the right is saying to the left, "you say goodbye, and I say hello."

In today's post we'll be talking about the various traits/personalities that I have graced my characters with. While I will be primarily talking about the MCs, I will also be touching upon a few of the SCs as well.

Even though all of my characters have traits/personalities that make them truly unique, for all but three of my female characters, both MC and SC, I have christened them with hair spirits. I have always been fascinated with the concept of symbionts, so I decided to see just how far I could go with it. I have already used the hair spirit trope, with some degree of success, in two of my published novels, The Inner Sibling and The Friendship Has Begun (which I really need to get restarted on again), but this will be the first time that I've really fleshed them out as unique sentient beings in their own right. 

Of the remaining three female MC's, Bella and Ilka, do not have hair spirits. They do have other basic traits, of which I will elaborate on later in this post. The third, Nyx, while she does not have a hair spirit per se, she does borrow her mother's from time to time, and she does play host to a pair of symbiont tattoos, which I will also elaborate on later in this post.

With the very small background dump out of the way, let us now explore the remaining cast of characters. Oh, one other thing that I should note: telepathy is a (mostly) natural life skill for all.

1} Jhon: Jhon is basically a Caucasian guy with no special skills beyond being an immortal, a high threshold for pain, a tolerance of a liquid edible called blood, and an extremely vivid storyteller, among other traits. Jhon became who he was due to a very extensive history, both public and private, with the Aztecs.

2} Myla: was an escapee from the Pod Planet, who originally was sent to the Pod as a captured slave (?). She was genetically modified to be a hybrid with vampire tendencies. I haven't really decided what her ethnicity should be, beyond being a few lighter shades of what her sister is (who is currently unknown to her). Her hair spirit is similar to her, personality-wise, in that she takes no prisoners, is stealthy and does not tolerate any kind of nonsense from her at all. Is also genetically different as per a previous post.

3} Ilka and Bella: both are members of the Incan empire. Petite in stature, but ginormous in personality, supremely confident in themselves and in each other, telepathic, warlike (Bella) and studious (Ilka). Are currently playing the role of ladies-in-waiting to Myla, who they consider to be their queen. Also, they do not have hair spirits, and one is genetically predisposed as per a previous post.

4} Adeola: Jhon's ex-wife, warrior-like, and still works for the Aztecs. Nationality is unknown due to her skin color being aqua-marine, does not have a hair spirit, highly intelligent and telepathic, and is/was mentally/emotionally/spiritually/physically connected to her ex. Also is one of three mentioned in a previous post as being genetically different.

5} Macha: The aforementioned sister of Myla, who is officially known as the Pod Queen. She is what most people would call an "identical twin", right down to the toned physique and fiery red hair. Ethnicity is unclear, but she also has a hair spirit, who does not have a filter and is loyal to a fault, sometimes to her own detriment.

6} Nyx: Her mother was mentioned previously as being Scandinavian, as she was the beginning of the genealogical line, but she is the proverbial end. Ethnicity could be either from Central or South America. Does not have a hair spirit, but uses her mother's from time to time. Was genetically modified to be both a hunter and a breeder prior to her assimilation to the Pod Planet. Does have a pair of symbiont tattoos to who she plays host to. Is telepathic and is discovering new powers from time to time (such as the ability to turn a mere human immortal, with certain caveats).

7} Thanatos: Nyx's foster son who grew up on the Pod Planet as an orphan. Does have basic telepathic powers, but has a skill set second to none, who has traveled to other planetary worlds to acquire more knowledge.

8} Roberto (Black) & Melissa (White/Hispanic mix): true blue North Americans (probably US) who are current members of the military who were captured by Nyx and company while out on a camping trip. After a horrific week spent as "unpersons", they were offered the opportunity to become immortal by Nyx, which they took. While the both of them are learning how their new bodies work, Melissa managed to acquire a hair spirit, who is very much a newbie.

9} Lady Nordic: As mentioned previously, she is the prototypical Scandinavian-Nordic person (blonde with blue eyes, pale skin and healthy physique). Beyond that though, she is someone completely unique. While she doesn't have a hair spirit in the traditional sense, she does have a wooden cedar vine mirror that helps out from time to time. Also has telepathic skills second to none, with both human and non-human entities, and quite a bit of medical skills.

10} And finally, the last major player in the story is everyone's favorite canine from Sulfur City: Cerberus. I actually did a bit of Wikipedia research on the three headed dog, because in the original version of the story, at one key scene in the second novel, I had other dogs involved. So naturally, down a rabbit hole I did explore. But anyways, I decided to tweak the dogs to make them quite knowledgeable and quite indestructible. Among other things, they can understand virtually any type of verbal/non verbal language from any human/non-human, and I gave them the ability to act like normal dogs.

11} Other assorted secondary characters. I do want to note that the hair spirits are really symbiotic in nature, which is why, I believe, they can get away with saying certain things and doing certain things more often than others. Having said that, I would like to touch upon the assorted secondary characters that are strewn about the story.

There are four horses that are named: Blanco, Akhal, Xenia and Carlos, all of which have telepathic powers. While Xenia is a bit of a flake, Carlos carries a bottomless saddlebag that contains whatever you made need at a given moment, while the other two have distinctive personalities that come off like Burt (serious) and Ernie (laid back). There are three humanoids who are mute, thus talk in generic sign language, and rudimentary telepathy; a slave/lover for one of the main characters, and the aforementioned tattoos for that same main character.

Overall, I do enjoy creating characters that are very much out of the norm in stories these days. What I do is cultural appreciation, as I'm not trying to talk about a particular character's country origin and what they've gone through on a personal level, only a basic background that required an above average amount of research (like I did with the Incas and the Aztecs). In fact, for just about all of my characters, I did an above average amount of research for what was needed. When I do write about something, regardless of whatever kind of noun it happens to be, I always do the research required so that I don't come off like an idiot.

Doing the required research for the mini-world building that was needed for this trilogy will be the final topic of choice for this series. Until next time, have a safe and sane start to your week.

{c} 2023 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved