Character Cast of Taken

I thought I'd introduce you all to the main characters of my main project right now. For now, it is called Taken, and I'm in the editing stages of it.

The protagonist's name is Tyv (actually a Danish word for thief). As the name implies, he's a fifteen-year-old thief living in a bankrupt country. His usual facial expression is a scowl, and for the most part he only cares about himself - the exceptions being Nitri and Ambyr, who are below. Deep down he struggles with the idea that he was abandoned as a baby, but not even he realizes that it bothers him.  He's very realistic, verging on the point of pessimistic, and is skeptical of just about everything and everyone. Once he gives his trust though, he's loyal to a fault. And contrary to what is expected from a thief, he keeps his word once it is given. The whole plot of Taken only happens because of Tyv's loyalty to Ambyr and the promise he'd given her. Without his loyalty to that promise I'd have no plot!

My drawing of Tyv

(excuse the lack of face - I hate drawing small faces).

Next up is Nitri (I'll be honest and admit he's my favorite baby). He's Tyv's best friend, though a few years older and a bit scarier. While Tyv is all grim and scowl-y, Nitri is laid-back and grins a lot. So why is he scarier? There's a chance he's slightly insane. I'm really not sure if he is - all I know is that he mimics a child's hide-and-go-seek "I'm gonna find you!" tone while he's threatening death on his enemies, and he enjoys scaring the wits out of the other people living in the slums. He is also a lot more heartless than Tyv is. He rules over the other thieves by terrifying them into giving up portions of whatever they steal. He takes way more risks than Tyv is comfortable with and seemingly has no care for his own life. It all stems from his silent struggle with a past tragedy, which he refuses to reveal to anyone.
He's unilaterally deaf, so he relies on Tyv for hearing approaching danger when they're surrounded by a lot of noise. He also has the disconcerting habit of tossing his knives in the air and catching them, without looking. One day he's going to seriously hurt himself, I'm sure. He's ridiculously vain as well, and refuses to take off the black coat he stole from a ship's captain.

My drawing of Nitri

The last important "good" character is Ambyr. She is the only female character in the entire book, and I did try to find way to bring more girls into it, but in a book set in a medieval style army, there aren't many chances for girls to be around. Ambyr herself is only around in the first quarter and then last chapter of Taken, but her influence on Tyv keeps her in mind through the whole thing.
Ambyr is the only truly "good" person in my main cast. She has a set moral code, is selfless and charitable, and dreams of one day leaving her hometown and setting up a wonderful life somewhere, a life in which she won't have to collaborate with thieves and live in the slums. She's fifteen like Tyv, and like Tyv, is an orphan - though she actually knew her parents. She trades items Tyv and Nitri steal with respectable shop keepers and merchants to lessen the chance of Nitri or Tyv being recognized. She refuses to steal anything herself, however, something that earns her derision from Nitri. One of Ambyr's chief goals is to get Tyv (and Nitri, though she doesn't care for him as much) to set up a respectable life instead of subsisting on thievery. She wants to inspire Tyv to be a better person.

My drawing of Ambyr

The last character I'll go over is my antagonist: High General Keir Durjaya. Think of Khan from Star Trek: Into Darkness and you've got a fair idea of his general bearing and appearance (it wasn't until I was well into the writing process that I realized I was imagining Keir as Benedict Cumberbatch - go figure). Keir was so injured by the death of his wife that he resolved never to get emotional again. Because of this he never hints at having emotion at all, and presents a frightening picture to anyone who is in his way. He does have a deep love for his son and for his country, but to anyone else he is callous. His method of waging war is brutal, and he uses any means at his disposal to ensure that he'll win a battle before it is even started. Keir isn't the antagonist because he's a villain, though. He's the antagonist simply because his extreme patriotism and desire to wreak vengeance for his country conflict with Tyv's goal of ending the invasion which my plot revolves around.

Benedict Cumberbatch - Keir Durjaya

So, that's it! It took me ages to develop these characters - most of them started out being about as interesting as cardboard, and it was a challenge to make them each unique from each other. I proved it to myself by giving the characters the Myers-Briggs test (I'll blog about that later)!

My favorite is Nitri because of his fun-loving nature and his tragic past. Who's your favorite character from your writing and why?