Inspirations: Entry 2

Ven Devar is not my first in-depth character study; however, he is one nearest to my heart. For years, like many individuals who enjoy fantasy, I dabbled in the realms of Dungeons and Dragons, among other TTRPGs. I had a handful of beloved characters, such as Tolmie Trickfoote, a gnome ranger (yes, gnomes are my favourite fantasy species), and the harrowing and brooding Ragos, a dragonborn assassin. Now is a good point to mention that throughout my TTRPG homebrew campaigns and characters, I have taken many names and places from those worlds and integrated them directly into Litore. For instance, Agan was originally a Zabrak Jedi from the Fantasy Flight Star Wars games. Rhogar was the kingdom of my own Dragon-bloods, a far better version of the dragonborn (shhhhhh). Now, ‘shadow’ as a theme is apparent in all fantasy. Many stories even take the shadow literally, but I wanted to take it once again to the extreme. The ShadowScorn, as a concept, came to me through many inspirations, and I wanted to explore a creature born of pure darkness. After homebrewing a very playable race, I arrived at a rough concept of what the Scorn would be. Scáth delivers it best in the chapter ‘… is a Journey’s Beginning’ of The Mighty Ven Devar, when she tells the story of her species’ abrupt and agonizing creation. Seemingly overnight, the God of Shadow, Aceia, transforms a small town of mixed species into the First Scorn.

Growing up on Vancouver Island, I was always in awe of its natural and raw splendour. I knew from a young age that it was unlike many other places in the world—Canada’s mini version of New Zealand, if you will. It was a no-brainer for me that this is where the Ven Devar Saga would begin, and likely end. I took the inspiration of the abundantly beautiful and deadly wildlife here and cranked the dial up to 11, like most high-fantasy settings. From there, we got the imposing Great Northern Rainforest, the mythical Faenla, an ancient and mysterious coastal wolf drawn towards Ven, and my very own species of elf, the Kyst. The Kyst are among my favourite creations. At the time the Second Age dawned, there was only one race of elves. Yet some of these elves fled to the borders of Litore in search of sanctuary, which then evolved into the Kyst, who could deep-sea dive on a single breath and climb kilometre-tall trees. Over the course of the Second Age, the first elves became five that we know of.

If you can take anything away from this blog, I hope it is that I strive for originality above all else. I want my stories, characters, and monsters to feel authentic and unique in their design. True inspiration is that elusive unicorn we all search for, but only by presenting our creations before an audience can we discover that world of fresh imagination.

How it Began… Entry 1

In truth, the thought of writing a novel was never at the top of my project list. At the time, I was deep into filmmaking, having produced, written, directed and edited 2 Star Wars short films, a 1920s gangster short, and a fun light-hearted LGBTQ+ short. Among other smaller projects and collaborations, I was gearing up to produce my first feature-length film based on a particularly fascinating piece of British Colombia history. There are a million things that can stop production in the film/tv industry, but this was at the beginning of 2020. When COVID-19 hit, the whole world shut down, including my filmmaking goals.

So, as an immune-compromised individual, what did I do to fill the void of being stuck in my house and afraid to leave it? Well, I always wanted to run a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. And right about then, all my artist friends were also looking for something to do! So, I ran a homebrew campaign online for my closest friends, all of who are on our D&D podcast, Fables of Litore, set 10 years before The Mighty Ven Devar. About 3/4’s of the way through that year-long campaign and still no easy route back into the filmmaking industry, I realized if I can create an intricate story for my friends as I had, I could create a whole word and write a truly captivating fantasy narrative.

So began the world of Litore and the Kyst, Kintar, and ShadowScorn that are so prominitely featured. I soon understood that I had found the realm I was meant to create in, High-Fantasy! After spending a year honing in the details that make a fantasy world captivating, not to mention learning an entirely new craft that people spend a lifetime perfecting. I was ready to release The Mighty Ven Devar.

One could say TMVD was received well and I was encouraged to continue moving forward in this ancient art form. As I have just released the third book in the series, Requiem of Celestia, I do not foresee myself slowing down.

As always, stay-tuned for the next entry and we’ll see you in the wilds of Litore!