Let’s start with everybody’s most hated character (judging by the comments and polls), Rosaluna Galbradia.
Originally, she was a tiny, stoop shouldered exposition device. That was it. I initially saw her as an anime standard grandma type. A competent mage, but nothing special. And she had a tongue, and could speak.
[https://i.imgur.com/Qw6FKjn.png]
Her job was to rescue Jack from the Hero’s Glade and explain to him how the world worked. He’d be on his way and we’d never see or hear from her again.
Tiarraluna came along later, and caused the first change to the old woman. If Tiarraluna was to be the beautiful granddaughter, then Rosaluna had to become, at least, in the past, beautiful as well, and therefore, not so comically anime old. I haven't gotten a pic made yet, so just imagine a more withered and stooped Tiarraluna.
Her history grew out of the notion that there had been a number of previous heroes. I decided she’d have been the original hero’s enchantress. And, potentially, his lover, which came to be where the idea of Tiarraluna being her descendant came from.
As I considered what might have happened afterwards, that is to say, after the events in the prologue, the Rosaluna seen in the finished product gradually came into being. Her great power grew from the notion that she’s had a great deal of time to study, and a huge weight of vengeance urging her forward, along with considerable experience beyond the norm, both as the first hero's companion and her subsequent solo adventures.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
As I wrote the rest, her own separate story fleshed itself out to the point that she could probably get her own novel if I was willing to write a fiction that ended with the heroine being consumed by bitterness, giving up her quest, and retreating to a cottage in the woods to study and practice her magic. And I like happy endings too much for that.
She’s become a little more open since I started posting the book on RR, largely as a result of comments and PMs complaining about her. Which honestly, still confuse me.
HERE FOLLOWS A SHORT RANT. FEEL FREE NOT TO READ IT IF YOU HATE HER THAT MUCH.
I thought I’d given her some pretty good traits to go along with the negatives. She’s incredibly generous. She healed Jack, taking eight or nine months of her time and spending a great deal of energy, and presumably magical ingredients, to heal him, despite the pain his very presence caused her. She asked for nothing in return.
When she sent him on his way, she returned everything save the pistol and ammunition. Above that, she gave him a magical pack that, by Jack’s own words, had a compartment inside that might as well have been a small shed, which negated both the size and weight of objects placed inside. She gave him clothing and provisions, a very expensive translating ring, and sent word to Mohrdrand to expect him. All before she knew he’d be Tiarraluna’s protector.
She even sent for her great, great granddaughter, by her own words, the only thing on Mund she truly cares about, to guide him to town. Again, she asked nothing.
Even her supposedly nefarious plan to “use” him to solve the world’s problems wasn’t done for her own sake, but for the sakes of those people he might save. She was fully capable of taking care of herself.
Her servants were created and used in the furtherance of destroying the demon lord and protecting the countryside. First for vengeance, later as protectors of the land. Far more of them than would be needed to protect her own cottage, or even Tiarraluna.
And, yet, all I heard was that she didn’t turn over a handgun and 46 rounds of ammunition. Even given her reasoning, it persisted. Was that such a devastating event as to subsume all else she’d done? Cripes, give the old woman a break.
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