#(fun fact taylor used to be named rich because of bmc. it was mostly a placeholder)

[rising-above-stars]

i wanna know about your characters :3

!!!!! i love them so much i have written bits and pieces i have an entire google drive dedicated to this series

im going to put a read more because this might get long

So first off we have Taylor Connery. He's sort of the first character we focus on. This is very much a fantasy series and I often call him 'accidental King Arthur'. Taylor attended a very elite and strict all boys school that specialised in training knights (there is an all girls counterpart school). The schools are just full of government propoganda and elite teams are often picked to shadow police.

Taylor isn't quite meeting the standards. He's not even being given weapons that suit him. He's not doing as well as he should, so he just gets left behind. But he has this desperate need to prove he's worthy. At some point he breaks into the school's armoury and steals a sword mounted in stone and he improves a lot.

Then things start getting all weird. Taylor isn't quite good with his negative emotions (the cursed shadow dagger he found doesn't help) and he blacks out during missions and such and is often the only survivor but he has no recollection of doing anything, even if there is very clear evidence he did. There's clearly something up with him, but the government is much too worried about protecting the image of the schools they fund so they cover it up. He's required to join the young adult covert rescue guild the local council is starting up so they can keep an eye on him.

I love him, he is so important to me. He's a wonderful swordsman and at some point comes into possessions of Excalibur and forms a connection with Nimue, who offers to train him. He was never supposed to own any of the weapons he has, but he does. He's disrupted the King Arthur time loop (is the best way to put it). He's fiercely loyal, very hyperactive, and very deadly.

Then we have Jade Laureate, but she prefers to go by Jade. She's an archer who just so happens to basically share a consciousness with Artemis. One of her distant ancestors made a deal with the fates: they get to share some of the powers of a god, yet they have to live out their stories. She goes on an anarchy arc by the end of the series (or that is what's planned. She gets a well deserved villain arc). She keeps to herself a lot, but she grows very close to Taylor and Aleso (basically siblings). She's not very great at taking care of herself, often putting everyone else before herself. She's sassy, bitter, and it's a great surprise when she shows affection to someone. She doesn't trust very easily.

Aleso is the definition of a hero complex. He has such a huge ego. Him and Jay basically have a queer platonic rivalry. They did not like each other at first, (the blackmail did not help), but Jay did reluctantly admit that Aleso was pretty good and they could do with having him on their team. He is defintely the more experienced out of the three, coming from being part of the youngest team to ever win the highest guild tournament awards. He does care a lot about people, but because of how much he cares and how much of a hero complex he has, he doesn't let his closest friends in on some of the bigger plans he has even though it would be very useful for them to be in on it as well. He's essentially a magic user.

These three are the main focus of the series. Very much rivals to friends, essentially sibling coded in my mind.

There's also Ajgiel, Aleso's childhood best friend who shows up for revenge at some point (I wrote a very wonderful scene where Ajgiel and Jay reluctantly dance together at a fancy charity evening because they don't want to cause a scene).

Then there's the members of the theatre troupe:

There's Harlow Mecurious, Jay's queer platonic partner. Their focus is on languages and communications, the only person to make Jay soft.

Cam, the owner of a sentient mimic bar. He's one of the very few people who chose to not learn how to use magic. He's a good fighter, good with a sword, and learning to do fire tricks would also help greatly in combat. (The bar is named Mimikos. I like to imagine when it's not in full bar form, its just a mini version of the bar but with legs that follows Cam around)

Lester Mitter is another favourite. His father learnt necromancy, his mother learnt plant magic, he learnt both. He summons dinosaur skeletons, using plants to make up the muscle. Usually they're just for entertainment.

Sarah is basically a phoenix. A lot of fire imagery, she does have a tendency to burst into flames and 'die' at times. Sometimes when she's stressed, sometimes to be dramatic. Usually to be dramatic.

There's Zak who has a connection somehow to the Midgard Serpent (not fleshed out), Jayda who works with animals, and Haleigh who is essentially angry Tinkerbell

This is so messy and not as coherent as I would like because it's late but I love them so much. I have so many thoughts on them and the plot to this whole story and it's all on a google drive (the purpose was so my co-author/illustrator could see it but he is hopeless and doesn't listen so we're really not making much progress)