Esme had one big fear in life: being captured as a thief by the city's guardsmen and being executed for her crimes, and that so heavily weighed on her mind that she increased her risks by being distracted in the middle of a heist.
That's when she r...
To my mother: may we meet again, in a kinder world.
(For those who do not like seeing where things come from, skip to the next chapter.)
When my mother passed, I was in a headspace where I couldn't really get into stories I was then working on because real life was more dramatic than fantasy. But I was emotionally overtaxed and wanted to read/write a simple story of living under the burdens of loss even while the one you would one day lose was still with you. So while the story is simple-and in no way a story of my mother-a lot of my anxiety around this time slipped into what was supposed to be a simple story, giving it a depth that I struggled to keep as light as possible. I don't know if I have or will ever have that balance just right.
But the crazy part is that my personal descent into grief is more the Male Lead's story than the Main Character's.
This was never meant to be a Magnum Opus.
But in some ways, it is. It's an integral part of me in a way far more complex stories won't be.
But outside of that, there were some other sources for how I came up with this tale.
Cue two well loved video games:
Skyrim:
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Witcher III:
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I'm not a highly visual person, but just seeing these two male characters sparked a "what if?" that became Althalos. Even his name is close to the god Talos in Skyrim.
Elves built like barbarian warlords like Conan?
Ok. What can I do with that?
...What wouldn't I do with that? (lol, not really: I married an Orc, like the first character he made for Elderscrolls Online looks too much like him).
I know the render for the Thalmor guard likely "caught him midst fight", but he look so startled...and adorable, which is hard to pull off in Skyrim because the artwork for the game is rather gritty.
But the thought of "What would I have to do to startle a man that badly?" stuck with me and became this story.
