BUILDING A LEGENDARIUM: An Exercise in Character Development
THE RIDDLE OF XERIN THE GREY
Corey had two Masters. Corey was apprenticed twice.
I determined this had to be the case when I first developed my saga. Corey enters the tale at a low point for "The Forces of Good", mainly because The Archmage disappeared for an extended period when he was needed the most. A war rolled across the continent in his absence, and though it technically ended in a stalemate the surviving population had been seriously traumatized by the experience. Hundreds of thousands of lives had been snuffed out for no apparent reason, and those who were left began to wonder why they should continue resisting the "Dark Mages" who were slowly rebuilding their power base. By the time The Archmage returned most of his allies were either dead or in hiding... and a few had even joined forces with The Dark One.
For the first two decades after his return, The Archmage was constantly on the run and in no position to care for a child, much less train him. So he dropped Corey off in an orphanage, among countless other foundlings who had lost all family in the war, effectively hiding the boy in plain sight. When the youth grew old enough to be trained in the mystic arts, The Archmage was still in no position to take the boy under his wing... so he arranged to have another wizard do the job for him.
The name of the other wizard was Xerin the Grey... and for the longest time, about the only thing I knew about the character was his name. Well, that's not entirely true: the "Grey" epithet represented the fact that he was a shadowy mercenary, rarely showing his face in public and willing to work for just about anyone if the price was right. Also, Xerin must have done some notable work for The Dark One at some point, as I envisioned Xerin literally grovelling for mercy when he first meets The Archmage... and being rather surprised when The Archmage not only spares him but hires him to be Corey's mentor and guardian. Indeed, I envisioned the relationship between the two wizards becoming rather amiable as time went on...
Even though I only envision Xerin appearing in three novella-length tales (which I may repackage as a good-sized novel), he's a pivotal supporting character at this stage of the saga. Every time I thought about the character, I kept asking myself the same question: Why did The Archmage choose Xerin to protect and train Corey? Granted, at this stage of the conflict The Archmage doesn't have very many people he can turn to for help... but why take a chance on a mercenary who's already done work for The Dark One?
For years, whenever I thought about that question I either got nowhere or came up with horrifically contrived solutions which I soon rejected outright. One of my worst ideas was that Xerin was actually a clone or simulacrum made by The Archmage... but I quickly realized that even if The Archmage could create such a being there was no way The Dark One wouldn't recognize the handiwork and destroy the creature immediately.
The whole problem rested on the issue of Xerin's past association with The Dark One. I had to figure out a reasonable explanation as to why he wouldn't try to sell out Corey and The Archmage. After all, he'd do anything for money... unless there was a reason why Xerin refused to deal with The Dark One ever again.
One recurring theme in my saga is that The Dark One's most dedicated opponents are all former servants of It... and once a creature leaves Its service they *never* go back; The Archmage himself is the defining example. I suddenly realized that Xerin didn't just perform "work for hire" for The Forces of Darkness -- Xerin *must* have previously been one of The Dark One's servants. He can never go back, no matter what he does... not that he wants to, because he knows that The Dark One is an Omnicidal Maniac attempting to destroy the universe. So Xerin is more than willing to help The Archmage with his struggle against The Forces of Darkness, and The Archmage has good reason to believe that Xerin would never betray him.
I suppose I could have just let Xerin's back story end there, but I decided to take it one step further and asked myself the question: How did Xerin leave The Dark One's service? This is not a trivial matter, as a long time ago I tried developing a story about a wizard named Kurrik who faced this exact problem: he was a member of a family of wizards who were bound in The Dark One's service... but Kurrik decided he wanted to get out of the deal once he realized what The Dark One's plans were. But I just couldn't figure out how Kurrik would have successfully escaped... unless he had outside help.
And with that I suddenly realized: There were actually two wizards named Xerin The Grey. The original Xerin was pretty much the shadowy mercenary described earlier in this piece. Kurrik hired Xerin to help get out of one of The Dark One's strongholds. Xerin was killed in a battle with some of The Dark One's agents, although Kurrik did manage to kill all the witnesses. Needing to hide his true identity, Kurrik decided to "become" Xerin... and the fact that Xerin almost never showed his true face was an enormous help. Through the judicious use of masks, makeup, illusions and polymorph spells, Kurrik managed to pull off this masquerade for about 20 years before The Archmage called him on it. And for the record: The Archmage had known about the switch for about a decade, but had deliberately stayed away from Kurrik/"Xerin" all that time, but not because The Archmage didn't trust him. Rather, The Archmage stayed away so as not to direct unwanted attention to Kurrik. The Dark One is rather nasty when dealing with Its former servants...
I can explain why/how The Archmage knew about this identity switch when no one else was aware of it... but I'll save that explanation for the stories themselves. I don't want to give away all my secrets...
Questions and comments are welcomed.