"This isn't a dream. I'm not your mind playing tricks on you. This is real."
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Vampires have existed almost as long as humans themselves. Why haven't we heard of them then? They purged their ranks for fear of rebellion, and those few stray survivors have kept to the shadows ever since a Prophecy foretold their fall. But things have started to change; a new breed of vampires has emerged and the old ones are getting restless. One night's event sets the whole conflict in motion...
DreamSear is the first novel that I've ever successfully finished writing a first draft for, so that immediately makes it special to me! It has taken a while to write so far, but every moment was exciting, and I'm really happy to have given this idea life.
And what is that idea?
I've decided to blend together vampires and Greek gods; original vampires so powerful that they were worshipped as deities. Each vampire carries a special gift or power that they used to carve their place in history. But times rapidly changed, and a Prophecy neutered the vampires' violent lust for power; they stepped back into obscurity, and an elite few slowly started eliminating the weak. None could be allowed to survive.
Thousands of years later, and the ancient vampires are getting restless. A new breed of "un-pure" vampire has arisen from the ashes of the old. Protecting humanity from the shadows, they are hunted by the ancients, but not yet beaten. The resistance, though small, is powerful; but they face the most deadly of their kind. One night's events could change everything. It is on this night that our story begins...
At the moment, DreamSear follows a mainly action-based style. I've probably been quite influenced by my love of manga culture, but I don't want it to be just a completely shallow venture that's only concerned with fighting, and so my second draft will hopefully make an attempt for a better balance between violence and plot-twisting. I'm also considering a couple of potentially drastic changes to the story and history, but I hope it will all be for the better. I won't be updating the version currently online until I've gone over it all, since I want to put version two out as a complete piece.
The version that is currently available to download is around 350 (A5) pages! If I add a lot in terms of additional story/plot, then I might end up having to turn it into a series of smaller books. It would be really interesting to give each of the fifteen Council Members and each of the nine Rebels an interesting story purpose rather than just being there as opponents for each other. Whilst we're on the topic of characters, why not take a look at some "biographical" deatails for the characters? Of course, the below information will contain spoilers if you've not read the story so far, so read at your own risk!
REBELS
Phillip
Phillip (don't call him Phil) could be considered our protagonist. The name was inspired by a guy I lived with in my first year at university - he just oozed "cool", and I really wanted to give my character that same feel. However, I think he comes across as quite arrogant for the majority of the first section of the novel. As the story evolves, however, I think another side of Phillip emerged - his vulnerability and lack of self-confidence. He is able to combine Ares' and Hyperion's styles of fighting, creating his own unique combinations. He is 26 years old.
Sandra
Sandra is studying art and design at her local university. She spent much of her youth with her paternal grandparents, and now lives with three other students in a rented house. They have all gone back to their respective homes for the Easter break, leaving her alone when the story begins. With Sandra, I wanted a sassy and confident young woman who wouldn't fall into the wallflower or the super-girl stereotype; she is only just discovering her powers as the story progresses, which I think helps keep her from becoming either. She can control time, and is 19 years old.
Wraith
Wraith is the leader of the Rebels. He is wise and strong-willed. Its a little embarassing to admit, but I imagined him to look like Revolver Ocelot from the Metal Gear Solid games, since there's something about the moustache and grey hair that really suits his character. Wraith has fought as a General in both World Wars. He has ghostly powers, as you could probably infer from the name, and whilst he is over 200 years old, he looks somewhere in his fifties.
Vishvamitra
Vishvamitra is the first Rebel that Wraith recruits. He is extremely old and uses his experience of life to help others with the challenges they face. The name is taken from Hindu mythology, with Vishvamitra being an important King and sage, who realised that strength from penance far oughtweighed any that could be achieved by physical might alone. I like to think of Vishvamitra, or "Old Man" as Phillip insists on calling him, as a grandfatherly figure. He has powers of creation and negation and is thousands of years old.
Samson
Samson is big. Very big. His name is taken from the biblical figure whom I first encountered in Milton's Samson Agonistes. Apart from their legendary strength, however, there is little else that the two Samsons have in common. Our Samson has been terrified of fire ever since his house burnt down in his youth, leaving him homeless and without a family. Since then, he has opened his own orphanage to help out those who struggle in life like he has. He has no powers other than his strength, but would still rush head-first into battle to save those he cares about. He is 35 years old.
Anna
Anna is one of Samson's orphans. Unable to control her immense powers, Anna has had to place a limiter on herself in order to avoid drawing the Council's attention. This limiter has caused her to remain in the background of the Rebellion for the most part, making her feel as though she is of no real help at all. She has the power to transform her body between the three states of gas, liquid and solid, but the capabilities of these transformations have been seriously hindered whilst she is hiding her true potential. She appears to be twelve years old, but is actually sixteen.
Yukiku
Left as a baby with a group of monks, Yukiku has spent her life training in Mount Ibuki, Japan. When she found out that she was a vampire, she left the monastery to follow her own path, and is learned in various forms of martial arts, ninjutsu and many kinds of weaponry. Her life of isolation and the frozen terrain that she calls her home have led to her viewing others with immediate suspicion. She is capable of emitting a wave of freezing cold air from her palms, which has enabled her to craft intricate ice-weapons from scratch. She is 21 years old.
Vicente
When Vicente first realised that he had vampiric powers, he used them for his own personal gain, buying drugs, booze and sex. Since the Rebels found him, his lifestyle hasn't changed - in fact, he has only become richer, more powerful and more decadent. He runs ViceCorps, and is a multi-billionaire. Somehow, he has managed to retain a low profile as a vampire. The heavily-tattooed Mexican's power is the Midas touch, allowing him to change anything he touches to solid gold. He is 29 years old.
COUNCIL
Since I'm changing how the "Council" members have integrated into the modern world, the character traits that I'm establishing here are going to be implemented in the forthcoming second draft, (i.e. they are not currently in play in the version that is available to read at the moment).
The Ancients
The ancients are far too powerful to ever integrate with human life. As would be expected, they are far older than any of the later vampires.
Chaos
Not much is known about Chaos, other than that he is the single-most powerful being on the Council. In a moment of randomness - of, well, chaos - he spawned the first vampires. Through a process of natural selection, only the strongest survived; and yet they were bound to serve him. His motives and goals are unpredictable, and the Council is constantly trying to balance out the chaos that he unleashes on the world. He is non-corporeal, using a puppet of shifting appearance as his material contact with the world, and his powers are too chaotic to classify.
Gaea
The second non-corporeal being of the Council, Gaea filters the large-scale actions of Chaos on a global level by turning them into natural disasters. She ensures that these don't cause irreparable damage on a huge scale; however, she is unable to affect the course of actions on a smaller, more personal scale - hence the Council. Being of the earth, Gaea can summon herself a physical form from any natural land environment, be it soil, tree or stone.
Chronos
The last of the three Ancients, Chronos is the only one who spends the majority of his time in a corporeal body. He is the master of the flow of time, existing both outside and within it. An eternal loneliness plagues him, since none others share his isolated life - none, that is, until Sandra appeared. Chronos has a strange manner in which he conducts conversations, inserting the words he wants to say into the past, so that the conversation has already happened - strange indeed!
Lords
Between them, the three Lords once controlled the land, the seas and the underworld.
Zeus
Zeus is perhaps the antagonist of the story. He could certainly be considered as Phillip's nemesis, the two of them battling a number of times over the course of the story. He has spent his "human" life in various capacities, all of which have become boring and hollow for him; he seeks the power and fear he once wielded over humanity, but nothing he does seems to capture it as well as the times he was worshipped as a god. This is what motivates him to repeatedly upset the balance. His powers are, of course, centred around lightning and electricity.
Hades
Hades has spent his time in the human world building a vast mining empire, finding precious metals and gems deep underground and earning himself great wealth in the process. And yet he too finds something lacking in the "human" experience. A cowardly but shrewd tactician, Hades would love nothing more than to gain control of the Council at the least possible risk to himself; his cocky attitude is part-inspired by the Disney version in Hercules. His powers are in the domain of the dead and undead, with legions of ghosts and zombies and an affinity for poison.
Poseidon
The Lord of the Sea doesn't have a "human" life; he instead spends his time at the bottom of the sea, shipwrecking sailors and starting tsunamis. He is a vengeful and short-tempered vampire, and always lusts after more power for power's sake. He is an ally of Zeus only because he can't afford not to be - the threat of lightning keeps him in line. He would prefer, of course, to be liberated from this state. His powers include total dominance over water and earthquakes.
Upper Councillors
The Upper Councillors are the oldest of the remaining Council members, though this does not mean that they are the strongest...
Thanatos
Thanatos, like Poseidon, has no "human" life. This is entirely by choice; he sees human mortality as fickle and fleeting, watching it from a chalice that contains within it the "Seas of Life", monitoring it for any small ripples that occur when someone fails to die at a pre-determined time. He is broadly neutral, carrying out his task of dealing death with an unrelenting efficiency. Thanatos and Wraith have a long-standing rivalry as swordsmen; Thanatos' powers are his near-immortality, diamond-hard black wings and various bone-related spells.
Erebus
Erebus is a dark and shadowy magician/scientist of the Council. He is inspired in part by the Bleach character Mayuri Kurotsuchi. In his "human" life, he is the head of a scientific research lab with a branch dedicated to biological warfare. Erebus is one of the most cunning vampires of the Council, working as a spy for various different members and playing them all off against each other to gain personal favours and benefits, including live subjects for his experiments. His powers are all to do with darkness.
Eros
Eros is the Council's assassin; he has never yet failed to miss a target. And yet he is blind, something that initially resulted in him being discarded as a waste of space when the Council was first being formed. He also sells his skills freelance in the human world, using an actual human to make contact with his clients - he wouldn't want them to reject him due to his impaired vision too. Eros always tries to appear fashionable, wearing a suit and his hair slicked at all times. He is proficient with all forms of ranged weaponary.
Moirae
Moirae prophecises for the Council, though she doesn't have complete access to the future - it comes to her in fragments, and is never explicit. She is also able to interpret the will and actions of the Ancients, relaying this information to the Council so that they can decide how to best act, and is an expert in tracking vampiric aura. Work in the human world is unneccesary for her; she has on occasion used her powers to make money, using humans as a proxy for winning lotteries and the like, and rarely dabbles in mystic work. She has a pet snake.
Lower Council Members
The Lower Council Members are the youngest surviving vampires from the old days.
Mnemosyne
If Moirae's domain is the future, then Mnemosyne's is the past. She is able to tap into the memory of those she comes in contact with, navigating truths and implanting falsities. She is rather meek and mild, following the commands of the Council without question, despite the strain living with other peoples' memories causes her. Mnemosyne is afraid of dying. She is one of the few Council members to treat Hephaestus with dignity and respect. She doesn't work in the human world.
Aphrodite
Aphrodite, the beauty of the vampire world, is also one of its most secretive members. Married to Hephaestus, her sexual-lust drives her to an affair with Ares and probably countless humans - though he is unaware of this. Her work in the human world is predictably as a model, and she has been known to dabble in pornography; her abilities involve the capacity to clone herself a number of times, as well as a paralysis inducing technique. She has an uncanny ability to persuade people to follow her commands.
Ares
Ares is the only vampire who is still authorised to convert humans to vampires; he turns these new vampires into the mindless slaves that form the army that protects the Council and carries out its menial tasks. Some of them are force-fed copious amounts of blood until they are addicted to it, turning them into "Blood Lusts"; huge, monstrous beasts whose sole motivation is destruction. He is a fatally proficient fighter and strategist. Ares recruits Erebus to spy on Zeus for him in return for test-subjects, both human and otherwise. His human career lies in the military.
Hephaestus
Hephaestus was looked down upon by the Council due to his ugliness, his lame leg and his impotence. However, he is a strong fighter and an expert craftsman, and this fact, combined with his impotence, meant that he was assigned Aphrodite as his wife, satisfying her sexual lust without pregnancies, and giving him a reason to continue to work for the Council. He is a humble builder in the human world, despite the fact that he can control fire and craft anything.
Hyperion
Hyperion is slightly based on the idea of Shiva, i.e. a god-figure with multiple arms (in this case, six). Hyperion also embodies the idea of enlightenment, although he is aware of it and comes across as an arrogant man when we initially him. He writes political speeches in the human world, though he is uninterested in particular policies and works for the highest bidder, whoever that may be. Hyperion occupies a strange position, suggesting and implying but rarely stating. He is Erebus' opposite, wielding light as his main weapon.
As you might notice if you're reading this after going through my current draft, I've excised three characters (Boreus, Orion and Echidna) since I felt that their roles could be taken on by others...they were really only there so that the novel had an interesting numeric conceit at its centre (9 rebels, 18 councillors). Moreover, some of the characters will now be used in very different ways, the Ancients in particular, as well as other significant changes to the plot. It's all very exciting though, and I think it will make the novel better overall! :)