Of Elves, Priests, and Demons

Good morning, everyone! It is Day Two of following the Indie Writer’s Maytober prompts, and today’s question is about the villains of the book. A lot of the prompts are actually about villains–not a majority, but a significant minority. Therefore, it is important that you are properly introduced to them.

I will say this about my fantasy book: there is no main “villain” in the way most people think about fantasy villains. There is no Saruman or White Witch. However, there are three characters that count as antagonists. An antagonist, by definition, is simply a character who opposes the protagonist, or hero. Antagonists are not necessarily evil. Think about your favorite sports movie. The opposing team isn’t evil for wanting to win the championship. However, since we’re rooting for the main character or team, and since the opposing team is typically portrayed as having poor sportsmanship, we’re eager to see their downfall.

The first antagonist I want to discuss is Anai. He is the second in command of the main elvish city-state, and his technical title is Commander of Galvettena. Of the three antagonists, Anai is the least evil. He is simply a materialist (someone who doesn’t believe in the supernatural) who does not want to waste resources on what he perceives as a pointless quest. His main concern is the governance of Galvettena, and he dismisses the concerns of the main characters in order to do what’s best for his own people. That said, if my fantasy book becomes popular and I’m compelled to turn it into a trilogy, Anai will feature more heavily as an antagonist. He has lots of potential.

The second antagonist is the priest of Maywin’s hometown, Bennerick. I’m in the process of changing his name at the moment, so let’s call him Elder P. Elder P is simply a jerk. He’s of the belief that if anything bad happens to a person, it’s divine punishment for their sins. He’s pharisaical, cruel, and uncaring, never helping anyone with anything. In fact, my main problem in writing him is making him too unlikable. I might have to tone down his cruelty a bit in the editing rounds.

The last antagonist is not a person, but rather a spiritual force, and it comes closest to being the actual villain of the story. I mentioned the fae in my last post. They are basically a mix between vampires and the demons of The Screwtape Letters. There is one fae in particular who spends his time stalking our hero Maywin. Since this fae has shapeshifted itself into the form of Maywin’s brother Gregor, it earns the name of Not-Gregor.

Not-Gregor has been a challenge, but also so much fun to write.

Sometimes, he’s plainly visible to everyone. Sometimes, he’s only visible to Maywin; at other times, he is completely invisible yet still audible. He shows up in dreams, in half-conscious thoughts, in overwhelming waves of despair and hopelessness. Not-Gregor has made my book so much darker, yet so much more compelling.

I have other unsavory characters, of course. I particularly hate Old Tanner, the leathermaker who is heavily implied to be abusive towards his daughter. The drekavacs aren’t humans, and they’re interesting enough to deserve their own post, so I won’t discuss them here. But I also have a lot of good, upright characters, and they’re the ones that are going to win out in the end.

Which villain are you most excited to read about? Let me know in the comments below! God bless you, dear readers, and dont’ forget to follow us on Twitter!