Magiford Universe: Wizards

In order to make things easier on myself with this new world, I’m releasing blog entries about Hazel’s and Killian’s world. I’ll link back to them in the Urban Fantasy book section, and I’ll occasionally update them/add new information, so keep an eye out for them on the website. Today, we’re going to take a look at Wizards!

Wizards are humans born with the ability to pull wild magic through their bodies and transform it into a form that they wish, though it mostly has to stay in an elemental form–like fire, water, air, electricity, etc. While there are humans that specialize in other types of magic (in example, seers, who can see bits of possible futures) that technically fall under the umbrella of being wizards as they are magic-wielding humans, the actual term wizard is applied only to humans are only able to use elemental magic. (Meaning unlike Fae, a wizard can’t cast hypnosis, use glamours, etc.)

Because they are essentially magic humans, wizards are considered the weakest of magical society despite their strong streak of magic. This is mostly due to the role modern wizards have taken on. Previously they were key players in wars, but wizards have ceased studying most forms of combat magic due to supernatural society turning away from wars and anything that would cause massive casualties/excessive bloodshed.

Wizards live together in a House, which is named after the family line that established it. The House possesses powerful magic of its own, and a special bond with the Adept–the leader of the wizards who have sworn oaths to the House. Houses will grow/shrink according to their bond with the Adept when the Adept “Ascends.” Ascension is the official ceremony that bonds the House and Adept together with the use of a signet ring–the conduit between the House and Adept that allows them to communicate and improves the Adept’s the ability to cycle magic through the House.

Wizard Houses have different focuses and talents. One House might be more prone to academic pursuits, while another focuses more on political power. Regardless of their focus, the House shapes itself to suit the needs of the wizards that live in it. Wizards typically congregate to the House that best suits their end goals–in example, a peace-loving house over one that has the tendency to be used as a policing force.

Wizards may leave their old House and swear their allegiance to a different House–provided they submit the proper paperwork and follow the correct registration procedures. However, the majority of wizards remain in the house they are born into. Wizard frequently wear their House colors or coat of arms on their clothes, and their magic matches the House as well. For example, all House Medeis wizards have blue magic, because House Medeis’ colors are blue and gold.

Wizards who have sworn oaths to a House don’t necessarily have to live there–this is especially true for larger/more popular Houses who have more members than they do space–but it is a fairly unusual practice.

It is worth mentioning that due to the magic in their blood, wizards smell horrid to vampires, who might normally be tempted to drink from an unwilling wizard because consuming wizard blood grants the vampire immunity to that wizard’s magic. However, the magic in a wizard’s blood with smell so horridly to a vampire that they are unable to partake, unless they come to trust the wizard, which will make the scent of their blood change. Even that doesn’t guarantee a vampire can safely drink the blood of a wizard, however, because unless the wizard in return trusts the vampire, the magic will make the blood taste rancid and the vampire won’t be able to swallow.

Donkeyskin: The Similarities, Part 1

It’s time to go over the similarities between the original fairy tale, Donkeyskin, and my loose retelling in the Hall of Blood and Mercy Trilogy. Unfortunately the series is a trilogy, and I put parts of the original story in each book and I don’t want to blab spoilers, so we’re going to split the similarities up into three separate blog posts!

Before we get started, if you haven’t read my extremely sarcastic paraphrase of the original (creepy) story, you might want to click this link to check it out, or there’s a good chance you won’t know what I’m referencing. Now, let’s get started!

Straight off the bat, the first similarity you can see between Hazel’s story and the unnamed princess from Donkeyskin is that their mothers die, and both sets of parents aren’t exactly acting honorable.

Hazel experienced and continues to go through a lot of pain because of her parents’ inexplicable decision to seal her magic when she was a baby, which was a nod to everything the princess goes through because of her parents–Queenie-the-selfish and Gross-King–and their inexplicable and inexcusable actions.

Obviously, just as the princess lost her mother, I knew I needed Hazel to lose her mom…but I wasn’t touching that weirdo dad-daughter-marriage thing with a ten foot pole. So I decided the best  way to make the story play out in a not-icky way, but keep the pain caused by parents was to have both of them die in a car crash and betray her together in a certain sense.

However, I still wanted a forced marriage to be a key factor in the book. When I started working on Mason and building him up as the villain character, I decided I wanted him to try and force Hazel into marriage. I couldn’t go through with making the marriage offer only because he was a total creep–that didn’t seem like a deep enough motivation for him if I really wanted him to play a worthy villain–so I made it part of his plan to take over House Medeis.

The next part was the entire driving force behind the series, and it was the reason why I was even willing to tackle this creepy story: I wanted to make the heroine flee an admittingly bad guy, and seek safety with a character who–in the original story–was prince charming, and instead I wanted to make him worse than the bad guy.

As you Champions know, I love to make little twists to fairy tales that are a bit like me sticking my tongue out at the original story. You can see it in the way Elle breaks her leg instead of getting kidnapped, witness it in Cinderella’s step-mother who isn’t cruel and unfeeling, spy it out in my Little Mermaid retelling where Dylan uses a slate to communicate instead of wandering around like an idiot, and possibly most strongly view it in Quinn, the soldier-hero of the Twelve Dancing Princesses while some of the actual princesses are closer to villains than the heroines they were in the original.

This act, making Hazel flee to a character who was more dangerous and lethal than Mason, was my gleeful twist on Donkeyskin in which the princess flees to a prince who appears to be noble but is secretly a pervert. (Well, this and the fact that I don’t kill a donkey for the story, but I would hope you guys know I’m never ever capable of hurting any animals in my books anyway.)

Once Hazel is granted safety by Killian she–like the original princess–is made into a kitchen servant. (Admittedly, her kitchen career is pretty short lived.) After that, the similarities/borrowed threads slow down for a bit, and you mostly just get glancing references (Until Magic Redeemed… 😉 😉 )

One of the biggest pieces I added in that acted as a nod to the original and was still somewhat plot motivated was Hazel’s dress, which she wears when she goes out to eat with Killian. It is sky blue–much like the first dress Gross King orders for the princess when she requests it at the behest of her fairy godmother. Which brings me to to a second similarity: Great Aunt Marraine!

Marraine is the French word for godmother–which was my cheeky way of pointing out the fairy-godmother-eque character of the story, and also a tip of the hat to the original author. Donkeyskin was first recorded by Charles Perrault, who was basically the French version of the Brothers Grimm, so I used a French word in his honor. You don’t get to see too much of Marraine in Magic Forged, but you see enough to sense the kind of spit fire she is–which is exactly the kind of person you’d want as your fairy godmother!

There are a few smaller references–instead of having Killian spy on Hazel while she’s changing clothes, as the perverted prince does to the Donkeyskin princess, Killian barges into her room when she’s sleeping. Aphrodite the hairless cat is my ever so faint nod to Allerleirauh, a variation of the Donekyskin fairy tale. In Allerleirauh, the heroine asks for a mantle made of the fur from every animal in the kingdom. I was never going to do that–as we have established I don’t have the heart to hurt animals in my stories–but I decided to put a hairless cat in the book as a sort of wink to the mantle.

And that’s just about everything in Magic Forged! I hope you enjoyed this compare-and-contrast post, Champions, and thanks for reading!

Magic Redeemed

Wow, wow, wow. So much has happened and I am so far behind because, SURPRISE, Magic Unleashed was longer than I expected. (My team, shockingly, was not surprised, and was rather sarcastic about this revelation.)

But while I’m going to be rolling out a bunch of Hall of Blood and Mercy themed posts this week, we’re going to start with the happy reminder that Magic Redeemed is now available for pre-order, and launches this Friday!

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I thought life would be easier after I unsealed my magic.

Spoiler: it’s not.

I want to free my family from my traitorous cousin, but with all the allies he’s got guarding his back, even my new powers won’t be enough to beat him. My best bet is to use my parents’ signet ring to prove my claim of leadership.

There’s just one problem…

I can’t find it!

Things aren’t looking so good for my vampire housemates, either. As Killian Drake’s conflicts with the fae get worse, it’s clear that war will break out soon if something doesn’t change.

Plus, Killian has gotten really weird about smelling me and invading my personal space. Every time he comes near my heart almost pops out of my chest, but I’m sure that’s just terror caused by being so close to the most feared vampire in the region.

At least that’s what I keep telling myself.

So, I’m a wizard searching for a ring while trying to survive living with a bunch of vampires and their deadly and suddenly touchy-feely leader. Yeah, life is definitely not easier.

Wheeee, only…*tries to do math, gives up* a few days until It’s available to read! As usually I am preparing a short story to celebrate this book’s launch! This time the short story is from Rupert’s point-of-view! Ooooohhhh!! 😉 Hopefully you guys will enjoy it! (And the book, too!)

In other interesting…interests (I’m struggling with words this week, it’s a side effect of scrambling to meet deadlines, haha) for those of you who have a Facebook account, I’m holding a Faceboook Live Stream Wednesday, 3/18 at 7 pm central! It will mostly just be a hang out session and I’ll be answering any questions you might have, but I’ll also be chatting about the Hall of Blood and Mercy trilogy as well.

And finally, because I think we could all use a chortle right now, here is a dog for your consideration…

Have a splendid day, and I shall see you Champions on the morrow! 😉