Dramatis Personae, Part II

In which we continue to explore the characters and their developments:

The Rider-of-Stars Family

Fælen: (nickname Fay) 40-year-old Evayan, member of Resistance High Command, Captain in the Cineachan Army, partner of Gwilym Fire-of-Skies

Character Development: Fælen (fay-e-len) has existed longer than his partner has, being conceived only a couple of months after the first draft of the Elaine story (see previous post for dates).  His name is one of the few “good-guy” names without Celtic origin, though Celtic parallels can still be drawn—his name actually originated in the girls’ name Faolan (fah-len).  Fælen’s original appearance was very comparable to Orlando Bloom’s Legolas in the LotR films, but with the rewrite of TRoL, his looks and even his personality changed drastically—actually to differentiate between him and Gwilym, as they were much too similar.  Fælen and his firstborn son were originally portrayed as a father-son team, with varying back-stories as to the mother in the family, ranging from “at home” to dead.

Rhian: 40-year-old Evayan, wife of Fælen

Character Development: Rhian (hree-an) made her first true appearance roughly the same time that Gwilym did, and eventually ended up Gwilym’s cousin, lending a back-story as to how Gwilym and Fælen met.  Rhian is very much a supporting character rather than an acting character, but her role of support is what her friend Mairéad Fire-of-Skies needs.

Evynn: (nickname Ev) 18-year-old eldest child, member of his father’s Resistance team, volunteer in the army

Character Development: Evynn is only other character besides Aleine surviving, in different incarnations, from the original ’04 story—interestingly, a combination of two characters, Lenirvas and Erridyn.  Both characters had their origins in The Lord of the Rings: Lenirvas, a blond Elven archer-prince like Legolas, and Erridyn, a human king-in-hiding like Aragorn.  In later stories, the characters merged, though I really don’t remember how.  The main-hero-throughout-the-years remained blond and a world-class archer, but also became a king-in-hiding, and the name Erridyn eventually became Evynn.  In this transitional  period between ’04 and ’08, the hero also became a man one could identify with Robin Hood.  Evynn used to be an exact physical copy of his father, but in ’09, Evynn retained his father’s facial features and original coloring while Fælen’s physical appearance changed almost completely.  Originally 16 in TRoL, Evynn became 18 in the ’09 rewrite so as to maintain the longstanding 2-year difference between himself and the twins.

Maiwen: (nickname Mai) 17-year-old eldest girl, scientist-in-the-making

Character Development: Maiwen (meye-win) was born in ’08 with the majority of the younger characters in TRoL, and quickly became similar to the character Mary Ellen in the ‘70s family show The Waltons: feisty, outspoken, tomboyish, and a bit obnoxious.  Like Evynn and actually half of the children of both families, Maiwen’s age changed when the twins’ did—originally 15, she became 17.

Caddell: 15-year-old

Character Development: Unfortunately, there’s not much to say about Caddell.  He’s rather something of an extra, almost—the character that you know has to be there, but just doesn’t make it on-screen very often.

Deniel: 14-year-old

Character Development: Just about ditto, sorry.  He (den-yil) and Caddell are pals with Duncan Fire-of-Skies, but that’s about it.  Except that his name is Brittany’s form of Daniel.

Sibéal: 11-year-old

Character Development: Sibéal (shib-bayl) is sort of a companion for Duana Fire-of-Skies.  What I really like about her is her name—Sibéal is actually the Irish form of Elizabeth (Hebrew Elisheba: God is my oath).

Kenn: 8-year-old

Character Development: He’s a sweetheart, just like one of my brothers when he was little.  At least the younger children have some background in that all the little ones in both families were inspired by my youngest siblings.

Neil: 6-year-old

Character Development: …I hate not having much to say about my characters, but honestly? these are child extras.  These are the kids that you pay a lot of money for in a film just so that you can see them for all of five minutes total.  Probably less.

Miach: 4-year-old

Character Development: Miach’s (mee-ach/mee-ahk—“ach” as in “Bach”) name was originally Cullen.  Then it came to be that the Governor of Cineach became the Cullan (Gaelic coll, or chieftain) of Cineach.  So little Cullen had to get a new name to avoid confusion.

Bridey: 3-year-old

Character Development: Cute little girl and holy terror.  Bridey (breye-dee) is a “made-up” diminutive of the name Brigid (Irish saint Brigid of Kildare).