Sundering the Gods: Inspirations #4

Alu and Kinesee

Alu and Kinesee have been in my head for many years, but their characters have been influenced by my real world. 

In their original incarnation they were just the daughters of a fisher who are orphaned by the Shadows of Man, and they struggle their way through until reaching higher stations. However, real life intervened in the creative process somewhere along the line. My wife and I have adopted two girls, and out of nowhere, Solineus ends up adopting Alu and Kinesee right in the middle of my writing. First, it made total story-sense, but second, it allows me to draw further on the emotions of a protective adoptive father without going Liam Neeson on anyone... yet.

The characters themselves are different from their real-world counterparts, although the sisterly love and bickering are spot on (and underplayed thus far). There are also some basic personality traits at play: Alu is a bit of a mother hen, and Kinesee prefers to remain a child. In the real world, however, Kinesee is a second degree black belt and the sword lover instead of Alu... but, really, both are warriors to one degree or another.

As Whispers of Ghosts continues to develop, I expect to see more personal entertainment value in the interaction of these two characters, and then someday... the real-life sisters can read the books and see how much of themselves they see in these two characters.

A father’s love... or Revenge?