Behind the Character: Alyx

Very early in the creation of Stormborn Sorceress, I knew I wanted Cass to have companions. Side characters are almost always my favorite characters in other stories, and I knew there was only so far I could personally take a solo character before I ran out of ways to maintain the narrative, so I always intended for Cass to slowly build up a team of friends around her.

Alyx was the first of these.

In my earliest notes, she is just called the ‘dragon princess’. She was going to be a rigid and upright character, putting a lot of value on ‘honor’. This original Dragon Princess leaned heavily on tropes of knighthood and honorable nobility. This was going to contrast with a slightly more cynical—or perhaps practical—Cass. In these early sketches of the characters, Cass was supposed to be more of a reluctant hero, who talks herself into heroics for ‘practical’ reasons. Central to that idea of Cass was a mindset of not particularly caring about promises or lying if it serves her goals and saves people. In contrast, Alyx was much more concerned about upholding her word and maintaining honor.

Obviously, these are not the characters I ended up with. Cass, in that first draft, became increasingly idealistic, especially from her continued interactions with Salos. I embraced that so she could contrast much more strongly against the larger world of the Fractured Skies. But this meant that Alyx didn’t need to maintain that original honor streak either.

As I developed her backstory, I was increasingly sure that she wasn’t going to work as a ‘princess’ the way I initially envisioned, either. I wanted her to be someone on the edge of her society. She needed to be someone at odds with her family, enough that some of them could be willing to have her killed. This led to her bastard status. But, a bastard on the outs with her family had no reason to be strictly honorable. In fact, it would probably be a disadvantage.

This pushed her to be a craftier character, willing to compromise on a lot of aspects of ‘honor’ if it means her survival. She became someone who would happily provoke a fight if it would help her, ruthlessly digging at the weaknesses of her rivals if it serves her (consider any of her interactions with Kohen for an example, such as in Book 2, Chapter 29: Banquet). She became a sharper and more guarded character, someone who needs to hold strangers at a little bit of a distance.

And yet, she aspires to uphold the loftier ideals of nobility, especially those around the powerful caring for those under their power (perhaps most obviously seen in her desire to see the unnamed village taken care of after she and Cass rescued it from fire and monsters in book 2, Chapter 22: Arrival). The strongest piece of her original characterization to survive is her determination to pay back debts, something you’ve seen her cling to from the moment Cass saves her to the end of book 3. She is someone with a soft core, who cares about people and wants to see the world better than it is.

In addition to Alyx, I knew she needed some companions as well. In the earliest sketches of her character, she was supposed to have an entire team around her for her trip into Uvana. In those early plans, Cass was supposed to save Marco and perhaps other members of Alyx’s party as they escaped Uvana. However, as I was writing it, I realized the story was stronger by limiting the focus to just Salos and Alyx instead, giving them the space they needed to develop before I started adding others. This cemented the rest of Alyx’s original team as villains (making them mercenaries hired to kill her) and forced her loyal subordinates to wait for her outside Uvana.

As ‘dragon princess’, I always knew she was going to have a dragon. How exactly that was going to work has changed a number of times over the development of the story and setting. Initially, I didn’t even know if dragons were going to be people or if I was going to be just beasts. You can see where I am preparing for the possibility of them being just beasts in the item description of her crown:

Aura Crown

Class: Accessory

[A circlet crafted to broadcast the wearer’s aura in a defensive halo and projects peerless confidence to all who see it. This is an artifact from another age, knowledge of its construction has long been lost.

Increases Effective Frt by 20% in areas covered by the Aura.

Increases Effective Frt by 5% over rest of contiguous body.

Increases the effect of Aura, Leadership, and Taming-related skills.]

But, by the time I finished book 1, I had pretty much decided I wanted dragons to be sentient beings. It was just the more interesting of the options.

This led to the Festival of books 2 and 3. There is a lot I can say about the design of dragons, why I went with dragonlings over eggs, why they are cursed the way they are, but I think I’ll save that for a future behind the scenes. What is relevant is the number of dragons I decided to put in play. I knew having one dragonling available for binding was the least interesting option. The math for any savvy reader would easily calculate to a perfect victory for Alyx. By introducing two, there would at least be the question of which of her family would get the second and what that might mean for Alyx.

In truth, there was originally only going to be the two dragonlings. In the earliest sketches of books 2 and 3, Alyx and either Fioreya or Ahryn were going to win dragons. But as I was writing book 3, I was increasingly sure I wanted to highlight two mindsets: the default of this world with Velkora adhering to what her teachers told her, picking someone who is strong; and something softer and more human with Emenes choosing her friend Ahryn in order to save him. This is a choice that is echoed in Alyx’s actions. She could have won the Festival the traditional way and she would have bonded with one of the dragonlings (adhering to the wisdom of her teachers and choosing strength). But in doing so, she would have lost Cass and Kelstor (losing human connections she values far more than strength).

Deciding that Ahryn and Fioreya both got dragonlings meant I needed a third dragon for Alyx, and that could only be her mother’s dragon. Overall, though it wasn’t the plan when I started book 2, I couldn’t be happier about where we’ve ended up.

It’s funny how things change as ideas develop. This Alyx is so different from the “Dragon Princess” I started with, and yet, this Alyx wouldn’t exist if I hadn’t started there. I’m looking forward to seeing where she goes from here, especially with Kelstor now at her side.