IAN TROY's Character Interview

MEET MY CHARACTER

1.      Who are you?

Ø  What is your name?

·   Ian Troy

Ø  Are you a fictional or historical character?

·   Fictional

Ø  What should we know about you?

·   I am one of the Shinree, an ancient race born with a natural ability for stone magic.

o   We can sense the aura from a stone pulled from the western mines where our empire once thrived a thousand years ago. Absorbing that aura, we shape it and cast it back out into the world.

o   Along with that ability, comes an addiction and a price. Our spells need energy to be born. Some it takes from us. The rest it takes from whatever surrounds us; plants, animals, people. Not Shinree, though. It may weaken us, but it never kills. We get to wake up and see the destruction we have wrought. Our magic has no discretion and no mercy, and it also feels like nothing else. But euphoria comes with a steep price.

o   Even knowing the death we can bring to others, ignoring the urge to cast and overlooking the symptoms of withdrawal, are sometimes impossible.  

·   The Shinree race consists of different types of magic-users. Our abilities are determined by our bloodlines. When our empire fell, we lost our home, our empire, and our identity. The other races rose up against us. We were drugged to suppress our magic and enslaved. For hundreds of years we have been bred and sold like cattle.

·   I was raised free, but bound before birth to the land of Rella by a spell. I have no choice but to use my magic to protect her people.

o   They trained me in soldiery and magic from childhood.

o   When I was seventeen, they sent me to fight in their war with the Langorians. The conflict had been raging since before I was born. For six years, I watched my fellow soldiers die while I restrained myself from using magic on order of the Queen. She didn’t trust it. She wanted an honorable win. But we had no hope of winning, no hope even of surviving. On the brink of defeat, I used an ancient Shinree relic, the Crown of Stones, and cast. I knew nothing of the crown’s true purpose or power. All I wanted was to end the war. But fate had other plans, and the price I paid that day, will forever haunt me.

2.      Tell us about your story:

Ø  When and where is your tale set?

·   My story takes place on the continent of Mirra’kelan, which means ‘The Restless Land’ in the ancient language of my people. Mirra’kelan is made up of the realms of Rella, Langor, and Kael. Each realm has their own ruling King, and their own problems.

o   Langor is a harsh, mountainous realm on the Western coast.

o   Kael stretches along the entire East coast and is full of forests and fishing villages.

o   Rella holds the lands to the south and the Midwest. The northeast is a foul swampland no one cares to claim. Unfortunately, I’ve spent more than my share of time there.

·    I was born in a time of war, in the Rellan city of Kabri. Kabri is an island situated off the Rellan coastland.

o   Long ago, before a great quake tore the land of Mirra’kelan apart and destroyed the empire of my people, Kabri was part of the mainland.  After, a great castle was built upon it and Kabri became the seat of power for the Rellan royal family. It was long known to be the most beautiful city in all of Mirra’kelan.

o   When I was six, the Langorians burned Kabri to the ground for the first time. There was nothing I could do. I had no magic yet. Now, I do. 

·        Now, as the realm I gave up everything to protect is once more in the grip of war, I am bound to answer its plea for help.

o   I have no choice but to stop the magic of the Crown of Stones from being set loose upon the world—because that’s on me. I found it. I used it. I alone know the crown’s dangers and its pleasures.

o   Recovering it and destroying it is the only hope I have of stopping the bloodshed as war spreads across the realms.

Ø  What is your personal goal?  I mean, what do you ultimately want?

·   I want what every soldier wants: peace.

·   I want the wars and the savagery that have forever plagued and divided this land to end.

·   I want the realms united and for no king to have a use for me or my magic ever again. 

Ø  What is standing in your way?  What conflict(s) do you face?

·   The rift between the races of Mirra’kelan goes back to the ancient times of the Shinree Empire. Then, my people were the oppressors. When Langor rose up, they claimed that role without mercy.

o   Rella has tried to hold the peace.

o   Kael’s loyalties blow with the wind.

o   The Shinree have been beaten into submission so long, many don’t even remember how to cast. Some have no knowledge of our history.

·    Mirra’kelan has been a war-torn land ruled by prejudice and fear and steeped in deception for a thousand years. That’s not an obstacle easily overcome.

o   Neither is the stranglehold the Langorian tyrant, Draken, has obtained over the land. With the help of a formidable Shinree, he seeks to seize control of Mirra’kelan from shore to shore.

·   And in the middle of it all is the Crown of Stones. In the wrong hands, the power the artifact holds could destroy the world.  Yet, are my hands any better?

o   The crown’s magic stirs a frightening temptation in me. Using it is changing me somehow. My magic is changing. And I have my doubts it’s for the better.

3.      How do I get a copy of your book?

Ø  What is the title or working title for this piece?

·   The Crown of Stones Trilogy

Magic-Price (Book 1)

Magic-Scars (Book 2)

Magic-Borne (Book 3)

Ø  Is it available now or when can we expect to see it released?

·   The entire trilogy is available on Amazon in paperback and for Kindle.