Araina’s Original Power

The concept of Araina’s character is probably my favorite. In fighting comedies, there’s always that older adult who turns out to be monstrously strong. But they’re always a side character – just a passing trope, even when that character is one we all want to see. Well, you don’t have to worry. Araina is front and center in The Shadow Spinner!

Inspiration

Last post, I talked about N’Halia as the classic mage of the fighting team. But even more classic than a mage is a purely physical fighter. I knew that I had to have one. I also knew that I wanted most of the characters to not seem like powerful warriors. A grandmother was the perfect fit for my physical fighter.

Limitations on Strength

Like elemental powers, I wanted more reasonable limitations on Strength. As a physical therapist, I was very familiar with the toll extreme physical activity could have on your body. So I figured, if you were exerting high amounts of Strength, it’d be potentially very harmful. The only way around that would be to brace your body appropriately.

‘If you punch someone, the power is generated from the ground up. In physical therapy and sports training, the line that the force travels (from your feet, through your hips, up the spine, and into your fist) is called the kinetic chain. So I made Strength wielders have to Reinforce this in order to shield themselves from harm. And, of course, I renamed it the force meridian because that sounds awesome. ‘If you punch someone, the power is generated from the ground up. In physical therapy and sports training, the line that the force travels (from your feet, through your hips, up the spine, and into your fist) is called the kinetic chain. So I made Strength wielders have to Reinforce this in order to shield themselves from harm. And, of course, I renamed it the ‘force meridian’ because that sounds awesome.

Original Idea – Speed

The problem with Reinforcing the force meridian is that it changes based on posture, how you’re standing, and what movement you’re making. Based on a variety of factors, the same motion of punching could have a slightly different force meridian from moment to moment. And failing to properly Reinforce the correct meridian would have grave consequences. This, and the time lag that it took to summon Strength, were the main limitations.

In the interest of making Araina an unusually skilled Strength wielder, my initial idea was that she was just exceptionally fast at Reinforcing the different meridians. In fact, I had it so that she was basically a once-in-a-lifetime genius at it. She could calculate and Reinforce the proper force meridian so fast that she could actually Punch with enhanced Strength while moving. Another of my original ideas was that she could actually Run by basically Jumping from foot to foot.

Future series idea

On an unrelated note, all of my brainstorming around Strength wielding and the limitations for the body made me think of an idea for a completely different series. For those curious, it’s set in the near-future where a form of super strength has been unlocked in selective humans. People have this strength to varying amounts, like any genetic quality. It has a whole power system to it based on the body’s functional anatomy. The story focuses on a high school student who is one of the genetic super-responders and is selected to go to a special school for these people. But anyway, back to The Shadow Spinner!

SPOILER

If you haven’t read the first 20 chapters of The Shadow Spinner, then be warned, what follows is a spoiler.

Next up

Next post will be talking about Shoku and his Power, especially the contrast between Shadow and Light.