Farah al-Kalim is the newest Ambassador from the Mezrani Empire to Rosemoor Dell. As a member of the Diplomatic Corps, she represents the interests of the Imperial Authority anywhere she goes, enforcing Imperial law, negotiating treaties and deals, and reporting back any findings of interest to Mezrani City.
In this blog post, I'm going to take you into Farah's history, so you can learn how she came to be who she is today. You'll discover how she grew up, and gain insight into her relationship with Alex, which predates Summer Twilight and is the cause of consternation for Caidy. If you want more, make sure you check out this article, all about Farah's personality and motivations. Alex and Caidy get a lot of love on this site - for good reason, as the protagonists. However, Summer Twilight has a diverse cast of characters, all of whom have complex backstories and their own trials and tribulations to overcome. Over the next few months, I'm going to give you a lot of background and secrets about the major characters in my blog!
I've also written an article series which will give you a "profile" of each character, so you can learn more that way. The purpose of these blog posts? To share the hints of character history that otherwise will take books and books to all reveal. Keep reading to discover more about Merric Adley, Captain in the Rose Guard and the personal bodyguard to Caidy. Warning: before clicking "read more", I strongly recommend you finish Summer Twilight. This post is focused on exploring a major plot twist that has shocking ramifications for both of our main characters, Alex and Caidy. I'm so excited to finally share some ~secrets~ about what happened - but be warned! If you click into this blog post you will encounter spoilers.
Proceed at your own risk. We anchor our years through the holidays we celebrate. Think about it: we celebrate new beginnings, commemorate great moments of religious significance, and remember great moments in our national history. Holidays possess their own traditions, superstitions, histories, and importance. Different holidays matter different amounts (looking at you, President's Day).
Because holidays are woven so deeply into the fabric of any society, when you're designing a fictitious world, it's weird if there is nothing celebrated regularly. When I designed Summer Twilight, I put a lot of thought into one particular holiday in Rosemoor Dell: the Harvest Festival. In this article, I'll take you though some of the processes I used to develop the holiday and help it feel authentic. For as long as I can remember, I've carried around a notebook. The one which stands out most vividly in my mind is the one I had when I was 10: it was white with a puppy on it wearing a cartoon crown and "holding" a wand. My notebooks were filled with fragments of stories - scenes that popped into my mind, characters I wanted to explore, and the beginnings of worlds I wanted to create.
The first "book" I wrote was called The Story of the Unicorns. It's a story I wrote under pine trees during summer camp, on my family's PC, in my bed with only the purple lights hanging in my room for illumination. I wove in themes and moments from my favorite books: I added in a dragon when I read Eragon; started calling my characters a fellowship when I read Lord of the Rings. It was a wide-ranging narrative where my main character, a priestess named Aria, explored an entire island, visiting wood elves in the northern forests and the seaside villages of the southern plains. I still have the book (a 200+ page narrative) saved and look at it sometimes for inspiration. |
AuthorBridget is the author of Summer Twilight, available for purchase now! Categories
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