Arthur's Quest - A peek into the creative process

[wiseheart]

This post will be full of spoilers, so, in the unlikely case that you intend to read the story, you shouldn't look behind the tag. On the other hand, if you don't mind being spoiled and love to discuss different aspects of a story, you're welcome to look.


So, I've finished Chapter 06 today, and the story has already taken a few interesting turns.

Canon characters I have included so far are (not counting the main cast, of course):
- Morgause - well, sort of; she isn't really active or whatnotand will probably be killed off, eventually. Morgana needs to become a person of her own, not just Morgause's puppet;
- Isilder, the Head Druid;
- Hunith;
- William (the farmer boy who posed as Arthur in "The Once and Future Queen");
- Lancelot;
- Gwaine;
- Sir Leon;
- Elyan;
- Percival;
- Alice;
- Gilli;
- Sir Godwyn;
- Princess Elena of Gawant;
- Geoffrey of Monmouth;
- Sir Owein and Sir Pellinor, the two young cockerels who fought the Black Knight and lost - I decided that they didn't die but had been lying in magically enchanted sleep between life and death ever since... and yes, I even came up with an explanation how that happened, even though that explanation probably sucks; Owein has also been identified with Sir Owein the Bastard from the legends;
- Branwen - the maid Lady Helen presumably kills in the pilot episode; I simply assumed that she recovered after Helen's magic had been broken, because I needed a familiar face in the castle;
- Alis, Beatrice, Cathryn and Rowena - all female characters who appeared chiefly in "The Witchfinder"; I promoted them to castle servants, for the abovementioned reason;
- Sir Bedivere - it is only mentioned that he somehow got lost when they hunted the Questing Beast; I assumed that he was injured and came away with a stiff leg, becoming Uther's cup-bearer;
- Sir Alynor - the highly successful knight from "The Once and Future King", where the assassin Myror killed him... well, badly injured, in my little AU;
- Sir Geraint, who had the common sense to retreat when he saw that they had no chance;
- Gregory, Captain and weapons master of the Castle Guard;
- Morris, one of the castle servants;

Characters borrowed from the Arthurian legends and twisted around to match the requirements of this story:
- Sir Erec of the Marshes, who here is the brother of Tristan du Bois' wife and half-brother of Lancelot;
- Sir Kay, who is the son of Tristan du Bois and the foster son of Sir Erec; he is, by default, Arthur's cousin;
- Gaheris, Agravaine and Gareth, who will soon be revealed as Gwaine's half-brothers;
- Sir Bors and Lionel, Lancelot's cousins, who are the younger brothers of Sir Leon here;
- Sir Orilus, the Duke of Lalande;
- Lady Itonje, his wife, sister to Sir Geraint and Sir Erec;
- Sir Erec, brother to Sir Geraint and Lady Itonje; supposedly injured during the Great Dragon's attack and still recovering;
- Lady Enide, his bride;
- Lady Cunneware, wife to Sir Geraint and sister to Sir Orilus
- Sir Yvain the Valiant, half-brother to Sir Owein the Bastard;
- Sir Girflet;
- various other knights were also introduced but had no role whatsoever so far, so I won't name them just yet;

Original characters:
- Benet, a journeyman blacksmith, working for Elyan;
- Zulfiya, the apothecary's apprentice; a character loosely based on "Robin Hood"s Saracen girl, Djaq;


A character list has been created and added to the Database of my Otherworlds fantasy and horror Yahoo group; unfortunately, only group members can see it. Currently, it contains 67 characters, but there will be more, eventually. I'll post another entry about what mythological/mythical/fantasy elements I have added to the series' quite convulted mix.

Comments

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

To be perfectly honest, she's the one character I haven't figured out yet. I just loved her in the handful of Robin Hood episodes I actually got to see (still haven't found the rest, grrrrr!) and wanted her in the story as a love interest for Elyan.

So far, the only thing I've thought of is that her father was a healer in a land beyond the southern sea and was brought to Albion as a slave. How she got away from their owner, who that owner actually was and how she became the apothecary's apprentice, I still have no idea.

[artemis10002000]

Hmm, I dunno, if you make her the daughter of an escaped slave, you would have to fit slavery into your world building as well. While not free people (ugh, the English term just keeps escaping me!) are canon due to Gaius, actual slavery of people from other lands would probably be a wholly different matter - different tradition with different historical background, I mean.

I think them being free people who ended up in Albion could be interesting as well, though how that would work would depend on what century you're putting your story in - what with BBC Merlin's mix-and-shake approach to history, I reckon several centuries are free game. It might even make her culture pre-Islamic, which is really interesting, too.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

In one episode of Season 3 (I can't remember the title at the moment), Arthur and Merlin are captured by a slave trader named Jarl. So yes, slavery is actually present in the show.

But I could have them shipwrecked in Albion, too, I'm still not finished with Chapter 17 which marks Zulfiya's first appearance. We'll see.

Can you give me any pointers on pre-Islamic culture? I'm not familiar with it at all!

[artemis10002000]

I don't know much about it either, I only read some tidbits about it when I studied Islamic mythology for my demon summoner story. I checked Wikipedia and Merlin might be too late for that, though, Islam already became prelevalent in Persia during the 7th century. So you're probably talking Umayyad Caliphate, which got to Spain in the early 8th century. Which would mean Zulfiya wouldn't even need to be from an Arab country, her family could have lived in Andalusia, which would make it easier for you to get her to England regardless whether as slave or shipwrecked :)

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's fantastic, thank you! It's much more plausible than bring the Holy Land into the game - which, like every other aspect of actual religion, is missing from the show. Not that I mind the lack of religious platitudes, but it's not easy sometimes to place things in the right context without it.

[artemis10002000]

Yeah, bringing the Holy Land into the show when apparently Christianity doesn't exist (or at least hasn't reached England yet in their AU) would get complicated. I'm no expert on Al-Andalus, but Sicily under Emperor Friedrich had a sizable Saracen population as well, so I have to study them a bit. Thus, ask away if you wonder about something for her or her family's background. I might be able to provide you with helpful Wikipedia keywords, at least.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Will do! Finding the right keywords is half the business, and I generally suck at finding them. Thanks.