Wolfe

Meet the first of our protagonists...

So Wildelore is what they call multi-protagonist, which means there are probably too many POVs, but it’s the kind of story I like (not unlike A Song of Ice and Fire / Game of Thrones).

But if I had to say there was a lead, top billing character, it would be Wolfe.

Now before I introduce Wolfe properly…

Yes, I’ve been down the Midjourney rabbit hole for Wildelore.

Yes, it’s actually been helpful to have images of the characters and settings as I write.

Yes, I’m hoping we have a human designer at some stage.

Yes, I know he looks a bit like Timothee Chalamet and Eddie Redmayne had a lovechild.

No, I do not get writing or editing help from AI.

So with that out of the way, let’s proceed!

Hopefully you’ve had a chance to read the first chapter (if not, please do!), and you’ll be feeling for poor Wolfe and his battered face and broken guiterne.

That’s a spoiler.

Here’s a little insight into the character, from my perspective.

Quick note - I’ve started using Obsidian for characters, places, and all my world building reference docs. It’s free and I must say that so far it’s working nicely.

Wolfe was the spark for the whole story. Before I’d conceived of the whole master plot, which I won’t give away, I created this character.

I wanted someone intelligent and sensitive, but hardened by a shit life. I wanted Wildelore to be dark, low fantasy, to portray the struggles and the threats that people must have faced in their daily lives in medieval times.

Particularly progressive thinkers. And women. And anyone who was different.

I wanted the world to be fear-driven, bigoted, superstitious. I wanted gross injustice and brutal inequality. Why? Realism, firstly. And so that these free-thinking, oppressed characters had a profoundly challenging path to forge.

Wolfe is not me at 17, but it’s how I felt. I never felt seen, heard, understood - not at home, not at school. I largely resented the world around me. But there was light in my soul, and it came out in those rare moments I felt safe.

I wanted Wolfe to be the voice of every person, young and old, who’s been shunned or bullied for being different.

I didn’t want to create a warrior, or a wizard, or a king or an assassin. I wanted to create someone stuck in the rut of an ordinary life. But someone capable of being extraordinary.

I wanted someone flawed, and selfish, and self-doubting and self-pitying, like most of us were as teenagers. But also capable of great courage and tenacity, of kindness and love and loyalty.

Anyway, here’s what is written in Wolfe’s profile.

PROFILE

Gender: Male
Age: 17
Bornday: Yaraine, 1st day of Springtine, 857 AC (Bloom child)
Heritage: Eirean (Highlander, mother) / Elan (father)
Nicknames: Faerie (derogatory)
Height: 5’9” (growing toward 5’10” at 18 or 19)
Weight: 140 lb (63 kg)
Hair: Dark (black/brown), wavy, medium length
Eyes: Storm grey

DESCRIPTION

Of Highlander descent, though with an unusual look, for these parts. Fae-touched, some whisper.

Wolfe is lean, with the rangy frame of a boy who’s grown too fast on too little. He is all restless motion and wiry tension.

He is pale, with a smattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks. His skin is soft, smooth, and he has little hair on this face or on his body.

He has a pretty face, fine features, almost effeminate, offset by an unkept, unruly tangle of dark black/brown wavy hair that often falls in his eyes, and thick dark brows. His nose, jawline and cleft chin are finely sculpted.

His eyes are an uncommon shade of storm grey, sharp and bright, catching the light like silver or steel, and can look blue or green, depending on his mood and the reflections of the sky or water.

His hands are slender, dextrous, yet worn and strong. Calloused from hardship, yet nimble and deft—built for music as much as survival.

A scattering of scars and bruises tell of past fights, some won, most lost.

PERSONALITY

Wolfe’s free spirit and sharp mind are completely at odds with the harsh reality of his life.

The contrast between who he is inside (creative, a dreamer, a thinker) and who he has been forced to be (a survivor, a carer, an outcast) is key to his character.

In some ways older than his years, hardened, bitter. In others, still innocent and open to childlike wonder.

Quick of mind, and quick of mouth.

Tenacious. He is a survivor. A reluctant fighter. Does not back down, a trait that often gets him into trouble.

He has a strong rebellious streak, and tends toward disrespect for authority. Believes respect should be earned, not demanded.

Wolfe was never really parented. He has never known what it is to be cared for. To be looked after. This has created a toughness, and a difficulty trusting others.

He is restless, and often reckless.

He is a critical thinker, a questioner, a seeker. He wears his cynicism like armour, but beneath it, he is desperate for something more — a life beyond busking for coppers, beyond scraping by in a world that doesn’t see him.

He is creative, talented, but stubborn. Has a love of stories, of words and songs, and talent as a player. Beautiful singing voice, clear and bright, strong range.

Can be sullen, moody, negative. Has a self deprecating sense of humour. And is loyal - especially toward Wilde.

BACKGROUND

Wolfe was born in the Highlands on Yaraine in the Spring of 857 AC. His family name is Eidenlore, though his mother has not taken this with her when she fled the Highlands.

Childhood

They moved to Feldhart from the Highlands when his sister was a babe, in Midwinter of 861 AC. Wolfe was almost 4 yaren old, though he remembers little from this time, and finds it hard to separate fact from imagination, and his mother, his mamere as he calls her, does not speak of it.

He lives with his mother, Etain, and younger sister, Wilde, in a small, rundown farmhouse cottage on the outskirts of Breton, on the property of Dirty Declan. Cabbages, onions and potatoes surround them.

They are poor. To Wolfe, it is a wretched existence they live, and he resents his mother for it.

She is not well. Her mind is fractured, and she lives often in a sort of dream state, seeing the world through eyes that he does not share. Oh, she loves him, yes, and his sister. But she is not there.

And that has been hard for Wolfe to grow up with.

He and his sister were left alone for much of his childhood, with his mother lost in her dream states. He learned to fend for himself, to cook, and forage, and hunt, and beg, just to eat.

Too young, he was forced into the role of carer, of himself, his mother, and his little sister.

Wilde, now 13, is blind, and has been from birth. The two are close. Close as twins. They were each other’s saviours, growing up.

Wolfe doesn’t remember his father, and does not care to know. He resents his mother for her ravings of a fae Prince, though he used to like to imagine his father as such.
If his father was anything, he was a drunk or a farmer, a coward who left them to starve. He has no use for myths and fairytales, they don’t put food on the table.

In the moments she was present, Etain was an adoring, playful, loving mother, which in many ways only made it worse, when she was not. She carved him a bonepipe for his tenth birthday, and he learned to play by imitating the birds.

As he grew older, he started working to support them, whatever work he could find. Farming the fields for Declan, running errands for Old Ronit and some of the other locals, doing what he could for copper bits to keep food on the table, and shoes on their feet.

He rarely ventured away from Breton, but for one magical time at Yaraine when he was 13, when he accompanied Old Ronit to the Great Fair of Lore Eir. They were the greatest days of his life.

But with time, the villagers of Breton came to shun Wolfe and his family. ‘Fae-touched’ they branded them. It became harder to find work, and he took to stealing food from farms and stalls.

The Hood

Around the age of 13, he started hanging around with Finn Owan, the Baile’s son, and some of the other lads around his age. The Smoker’s boys, Domnal and The Goat, and a few others.

And when Finn fell in with the Hood, he started loaning Wolfe coppers to feed his family. Wolfe soon found himself indebted to the nefarious guild, forced into doing jobs with them. Small tasks at first - a message here, a package there, but the jobs soon grew less savoury. Debt collection, robbery.

One such job, around a year ago, involved roughing up Scarface Erdna’s general store. Wolfe felt such shame, he told Finn that he was done. No more jobs.

But it is not so easy to escape one’s debts to an organisation like The Hood, and Finn and his cronies have harassed him ever since.

Master Graye

At age 14, in the Fall of 871 AC, Etain gave him a strange bronze coin, and sent him to the estate of one Master Rhydian Graye.

Upon seeing the coin, a marker of some sort, Wolfe guessed, the imposing teacher took Wolfe on as his student.

A natural talent, and a quick study, Wolfe learned to play the guierne, and the lute. He learned to use his voice in song, and tale.

He started canting in the village square in Breton for coppers, most of which is taken by Finn to pay down his debts and line the Hood’s pockets.

There is much, much more - his role and archetype, his goals, conflicts, arcs and turning points, and they help enormously.

It’s hard to keep track of so many characters, and it’s very important to me that each character’s story is believable.

This is fantasy, but I don’t want a reader to have to suspend their belief for one second, I want Wilfelore to be truly immersive, and absolutely plausible.

That’s the kind of fantasy I like.

Take care, be wilde.

Andre