Okay...so I already posted this under Fantasy, but I think that you guys here could have some interesting feedback for me as well. What do you guys think?
I'm nowhere near the part of my story where I will have to worry about this, but I'm kinda stressing about it already, and I am looking for some feedback.
Now I hadn't planned on it, but a group of my characters formed this love-triangle thing that I need to resolve in the end. Here are the characters involved and a little bit about each one.
Morissa Achsenth is the handmaiden to The Grey Lady. The Grey Lady is a goddess of death who comforts the souls of the recently dead and escorts them from the mortal world. Morissa is her agent among the living. She can see the souls of the dead who remain in the world and talk to them. Morissa's job is to be a guardian of those souls: to help them to move on, as well as to protect the dead from any of the living who might mess with them, such as necromancers and grave-robbers. She had been married once with children, but her husband betrayed and divorced her, and now she can never see them again. Because of the source of her power, she is surrounded by an aura of necromancy that, even for those who can't recognize it for what it is, is rather off-putting. Basically, she's creepy, and people tend to have a hard time trusting her because of it, so she's lonely as hell. The only ones since then who have stuck around her long enough to get past that and get to know her are Sir Iril Honvero, Varren Reed, and Simeon Bleuch. Simeon is happily(ish) married, but Iril and Varren both fall for her, and vice versa...though I think she is leaning more toward Iril. The trouble is, by the Grey Lady's power, she doesn't age. She's got divinity in her, even though she's mortal. She can be killed, but she cannot die of old age, disease, or poison, so assuming she doesn't get killed, she will outlive anyone she decided to be with, even if it was a full-blooded elf.
Sir Iril Honvero is your classic chivalrous knight. At least, he wants to be. He values his honor very highly and believed that it's what makes him who and what he is, but throughout the story, he learns the very painful lesson that sometimes honor and chivalry don't get the job done, and sometimes good people have to do bad things in order to ultimately achieve what they hope to. Through this process, Morissa counsels him through it and helps him to cope with his conflicting feelings about the things he has to do without brushing off his guilt as pointless, or judging him for the things he's done, even though he was less than friendly toward her when they first met because of her aura, and she was just trying to help. Also of note, he and Varren (and Simeon) are mercenaries who have traveled and worked together for years. The three of them are the best of friends.
Varren Reed is half-human, half-elf, and he is one of the rare cases of a half-elf with no magical ability. His greatest talent is with a sword, and being raised in a community of wood elf druids, he was always looked down on because 1-he was a half-breed, 2-he couldn't use magic (which in that community, is considered as severe a handicap as blindness), and 3-His one skill is something they consider useless because they are far too peaceful for their own good. Varren also reacted to Morissa with distrust initially, but she earned the whole group's trust by helping Simeon and Iril rescue him from jail the night before he was to be executed. Now, after a lifetime of being treated like he was useless, handicapped, and a burden on his poor mother, here's this woman with a very important purpose saying she needs him. A woman who considered him worthy enough for her to stick out her own neck to save him, so he starts to fall for her.
Okay...so those are the characters and why they are drawn to one another. Here are my options for how I can wrap it up:
1-Obviously, they could all live and she could choose one or the other (probably Iril) to stay with until he died and say goodbye to the other.
2-She says goodbye to both of them and goes her separate way to avoid the inevitable heartbreak that the Grey Lady warned her about
3-The one she does not choose dies, and she waits with him for the Grey Lady to see him to the afterlife, so he gets those few moments with her before moving on, and she gets to be with the other.
4-The one she does choose dies, and she does the same thing I described in number 3, and says a bittersweet goodbye to the other one, having realized that love was not a luxury she could afford given the major task that the gods had assigned her, and that was the price she has to pay.
Part of me wants to cut the poor girl a break and give her someone to be with, but she really leans more toward Iril, and I don't want to kill Varren off because I have other stories to tell that include him that I could use for other books.
So...as readers...what sort of ending do you guys like?
First of all, your characters sound amazing and very well thought out. I really feel I know them pretty well just from reading this post.
Secondly, is there anyway for morrisa to sort of retire? The grey lady can maybe ask her to choose another to take her place or better yet, what if the guy that loved her most ended up not being the guy she choose and he loved her so much that he consulted with the grey lady to make a trade so he could be forever damned and she could live her life out with the man of her choice.
Fantasy Romanctic subplot Resolution
Okay...so I already posted this under Fantasy, but I think that you guys here could have some interesting feedback for me as well. What do you guys think?
I'm nowhere near the part of my story where I will have to worry about this, but I'm kinda stressing about it already, and I am looking for some feedback.
Now I hadn't planned on it, but a group of my characters formed this love-triangle thing that I need to resolve in the end. Here are the characters involved and a little bit about each one.
Morissa Achsenth is the handmaiden to The Grey Lady. The Grey Lady is a goddess of death who comforts the souls of the recently dead and escorts them from the mortal world. Morissa is her agent among the living. She can see the souls of the dead who remain in the world and talk to them. Morissa's job is to be a guardian of those souls: to help them to move on, as well as to protect the dead from any of the living who might mess with them, such as necromancers and grave-robbers. She had been married once with children, but her husband betrayed and divorced her, and now she can never see them again. Because of the source of her power, she is surrounded by an aura of necromancy that, even for those who can't recognize it for what it is, is rather off-putting. Basically, she's creepy, and people tend to have a hard time trusting her because of it, so she's lonely as hell. The only ones since then who have stuck around her long enough to get past that and get to know her are Sir Iril Honvero, Varren Reed, and Simeon Bleuch. Simeon is happily(ish) married, but Iril and Varren both fall for her, and vice versa...though I think she is leaning more toward Iril. The trouble is, by the Grey Lady's power, she doesn't age. She's got divinity in her, even though she's mortal. She can be killed, but she cannot die of old age, disease, or poison, so assuming she doesn't get killed, she will outlive anyone she decided to be with, even if it was a full-blooded elf.
Sir Iril Honvero is your classic chivalrous knight. At least, he wants to be. He values his honor very highly and believed that it's what makes him who and what he is, but throughout the story, he learns the very painful lesson that sometimes honor and chivalry don't get the job done, and sometimes good people have to do bad things in order to ultimately achieve what they hope to. Through this process, Morissa counsels him through it and helps him to cope with his conflicting feelings about the things he has to do without brushing off his guilt as pointless, or judging him for the things he's done, even though he was less than friendly toward her when they first met because of her aura, and she was just trying to help. Also of note, he and Varren (and Simeon) are mercenaries who have traveled and worked together for years. The three of them are the best of friends.
Varren Reed is half-human, half-elf, and he is one of the rare cases of a half-elf with no magical ability. His greatest talent is with a sword, and being raised in a community of wood elf druids, he was always looked down on because 1-he was a half-breed, 2-he couldn't use magic (which in that community, is considered as severe a handicap as blindness), and 3-His one skill is something they consider useless because they are far too peaceful for their own good. Varren also reacted to Morissa with distrust initially, but she earned the whole group's trust by helping Simeon and Iril rescue him from jail the night before he was to be executed. Now, after a lifetime of being treated like he was useless, handicapped, and a burden on his poor mother, here's this woman with a very important purpose saying she needs him. A woman who considered him worthy enough for her to stick out her own neck to save him, so he starts to fall for her.
Okay...so those are the characters and why they are drawn to one another. Here are my options for how I can wrap it up:
1-Obviously, they could all live and she could choose one or the other (probably Iril) to stay with until he died and say goodbye to the other.
2-She says goodbye to both of them and goes her separate way to avoid the inevitable heartbreak that the Grey Lady warned her about
3-The one she does not choose dies, and she waits with him for the Grey Lady to see him to the afterlife, so he gets those few moments with her before moving on, and she gets to be with the other.
4-The one she does choose dies, and she does the same thing I described in number 3, and says a bittersweet goodbye to the other one, having realized that love was not a luxury she could afford given the major task that the gods had assigned her, and that was the price she has to pay.
Part of me wants to cut the poor girl a break and give her someone to be with, but she really leans more toward Iril, and I don't want to kill Varren off because I have other stories to tell that include him that I could use for other books.
So...as readers...what sort of ending do you guys like?
Re: Fantasy Romanctic subplot Resolution
Lol anybody? Bueller...? Bueller...?
Re: Fantasy Romanctic subplot Resolution
First of all, your characters sound amazing and very well thought out. I really feel I know them pretty well just from reading this post.
Secondly, is there anyway for morrisa to sort of retire? The grey lady can maybe ask her to choose another to take her place or better yet, what if the guy that loved her most ended up not being the guy she choose and he loved her so much that he consulted with the grey lady to make a trade so he could be forever damned and she could live her life out with the man of her choice.
Just my thoughts...good luck!