Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Megabyte Me!

Alexander was originally designed to be gruff, hot headed and overall depressing character. As I continued to write his scenes, however, I revealed a lot more sarcasm and humor than I originally meant to. He remained a depressing character with his negative view on his “life” and what he had become, but he also became a source for witty banter.

Another thing that actually didn’t change at all is that Alexander was always meant to be extremely clever, crafty, intelligent and most importantly; Unpredictable. The unpredictability of his character is not only what gave him the tools he needed to survive, but it created a greatly interesting character for reader’s to follow.

When he was a child, Alexander was the first son to a very violent man. His father became a drunk after Alexander’s mother died in the process of giving birth to Alexander’s younger brother, Thomas. Despite hating the child that she died to create, Alexander’s father began to detest his first son, perhaps thinking that the birth of Alexander weakened his wife’s body, making her die during her second pregnancy. This thought fuels over a decade of violence and general dislike toward his first son, and also has him turn into an alcoholic.

Tyrale Corren replaces Alexander’s father as the male, violent, dominant figure in his life when Tyrale pays the young man a visit. According to Alexander’s memories, Tyrale reveals that he has followed Alexander for some time, watching him in his life. Something about the child perks Tyrale’s interest and eventually, he turns Alexander from human to Vampire. Not only is Alexander a direct descendant from Tyrale Corren, but he is actually the second Vampire to ever be born.

For the next century or so, Alexander is under the control of Tyrale Corren. Not only believing it is fruitless to resist his new master, but Alexander is also tormented by the idea that if Alexander disobeys, Tyrale has access and the knowledge of where his father and brother still live and may kill them as a form of punishment. At one point, Tyrale actually holds Alexander’s father hostage and Alexander decides that perhaps it’s better to kill his own father then let him be a pawn in Tyrale’s plan. This burdens him for many years and continues to haunt him in the back of his mind for possibly the rest of his life.

While years pass by, Alexander actually looks for and listens for rumors for people who may have the power to attack and defeat Tyrale. Possibly realizing this, Tyrale begins to spread the idea that if the head of a bloodline dies, the rest of the bloodline will die as well. This would mean that if Tyrale died, so would Alexander and the rest of the Vampires in the entire world. Hoping this would keep any of his own kind from betraying him, Tyrale doesn’t realize that Alexander is, for all intents and purposes, suicidal.

Alexander finally breaks away from Tyrale when the Father Vampire threatens to kill his younger brother Thomas, who is discovered to be a Guardian, the mortal enemies of the Vampires. Furthermore, Thomas is considered a High Guardian, a Guardian with even more enhanced abilities and thus, is a major threat to Tyrale. While hesitate to get rid of his “ace card” over Alexander, possibly one of his most potentially powerful allies, he recognizes that he cannot let a High Guardian survive without risking himself and his other people. Tyrale goes to kill Thomas, but Alexander confronts him. Moments before Tyrale is apparently about to murder Alexander, however, a witch named Zaris stops him with magic, knocking the Father Vampire out cold and erasing Tyrale’s memories of Thomas and supposedly Alexander. Thanking her but feeling paranoid about accepting someone’s help since living life under Tyrale’s wing, Alexander asks why she has done this for no apparent reason. Zaris reveals that there was actually a purpose to her heroics, that she actually wanted Alexander to be indebted to her. Leaving shortly after revealing this, Alexander decides that Thomas is best left alone, with no connection to him, feeling himself to be a bad influence in his current state. Never wanting to feel indebted to anyone or powerless against another creature, Alexander decides to go off on his own and become more powerful.

For several years, he strikes out against the world on his own. He develops his powers beyond anything Tyrale taught him and as time goes by, he begins to integrate himself back into human society. As he becomes close to people who are in situations much like his own as a child, or lost without any family, he “adopts” them and turns them into Vampires. In time, he considers these new Vampires to be his family members, brothers and sisters to him. What he doesn’t realize until later is that Thomas is found by the Guardian society and trained to become a Vampire Hunter. While never being taught who he or his brother is, Thomas is actually put in charge of bringing Alexander down and comes close when he sends a small army against Alexander’s family, killing all of them except his own brother. It’s there that the Vampire reveals his past with his brother and while Thomas doesn’t believe it at first, he finds out eventually that Alexander was telling the truth and begins to have mixed feelings about the situation. Everything in his younger years tells him that Vampires are evil and must die, but as he continues to hunt Alexander, he watches his brother do good deeds for people for no apparent reason and begins to question his own black and white views of the war their two races are waging.

Alexander’s loss with his family strikes him hard and he vows to never take into another family member again. He vows to live his life alone and without anyone’s help.

In the end, Alexander seems to inevitably always do the right thing. He doesn’t always seem to enjoy it and sometimes he even seems to express a desire to not care, but in the end, he realizes it goes against his nature. He hates Tyrale Corren with a passion and develops a similar hatred for Zaris. In the end, he begins to regard most Witches with dislike, except for the few that truly prove themselves to him. He constantly protects his brother and while they occasionally do come to blows, he knows he would never dare kill or truly harm Thomas. He does hate what he has become and even while he begins to embrace his life, he still wishes he could die. However, he feels he owes it to people he’s killed or let die that he should kill Tyrale Corren before he dies, and refuses to give in until then. As he gains fledglings like Sandra and others, he begins to feel another family connection to them, if not a responsibility to survive so they do not die as a result of his bloodline dying off.

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