Destroying the Twisted

The Twisted want to kill the Champions so they can enter the Peaks. After doing so, they’ll unleash demons on Dome that will kill pretty much everyone else the Champions ever cared about.

As bad as that sounds, this simple kind of good vs. evil motivation does not generally make very rich conflict. Today’s post will go over the reasons for why each Champion wants to destroy the Twisted in general and then one specific Twisted in particular.

N’Halia

N’Halia loves to fight. She hates to lose. And she hates to run away from a fight. These are all the necessary ingredients to bake a general motivation into the story for her! She has been explicitly Chosen to fight, losing would mean death, and running away would mean demons destroy Dome.

But on a personal level, it should be pretty clear who she wants to kill. The book starts off with Malleus’ new taxes straining her already poor family. The hike in taxes initiates the conflict that ends in her family’s death. Her training journey in the first book is mostly focused on becoming strong enough to wreak revenge. Fire vs. Lightning was always inevitable.

Araina

Araina loves her family. Above all else, she is a caring grandmother. So her general motivation is pretty straightforward: beat the Twisted or they’ll release demons that will kill her family.

Like all the Champions though, the conflict is much more personal for her. Throughout the book, she and Arol are portrayed as humble and devout. While they aren’t devotees of the Church of Blood specifically, they do hold a high reverence for the Church. The Church’s greatest betrayal is the fact that it is nothing more than a cover for Incus to gather strong mages to both serve him and act as hosts for the demon army. If you’ve read the first book, then you know that the Church also kidnaps someone very important to Araina.

Her primary conflict is between her and Incus. He, of course, is the head of the Church and is viewed by the world as one of the greatest forces for good. She, on the other hand, is a rebel outlaw who is wanted throughout the entire land. One of my favorite scenes is in the second book when they are in New Port City. She and Arol have to go to a church to buy a carriage and there is a statue of Incus that people pray to. You know how Araina does with wobbly pillar-like structures…

Shoku and Fahrad

Shoku and Fahrad are generally linked throughout the books. While they are each independent and have their own wants and needs, they function as a unit.

First, for their general motivation. Shoku is introduced as a very self-centered character. His interest in beating the Twisted is entirely self-preservation. However, as I mentioned in the ‘Character’ posts, Shoku is the soul of the series. He undergoes the most growth and his motivations become much more noble. Fahrad has a simple motivation because Fahrad is simple himself. It’s important to note that Fahrad is simple, but intelligent. His simplicity isn’t in the lack of depth of his thoughts, but rather the lack of depth in his worries. He is Seratia’s Oracle and she told him to fight and kill the Twisted. So he’s like, “okay.”

If you’ve read the first book, then the specific conflict is very obvious. Just like how Araina and Incus are similarly wreathed in religion, but show the inner value of it much differently – Shoku and Stapes are wreathed in Light, but Shine much differently. Stapes uses her Light to manipulate and control people. It’s like people are in darkness and she Shines a path forward for them, but only in the direction she wants. Shoku learns to be much different than her. He uses Light to inspire and empower people. If people are in darkness, he both functions as a Light to them, but also helps them Light their own way.

Oh, but you want that specific reason. Right, she also ordered his execution and manipulated him into agreeing. So, there’s that.

Bonus: Hermit

Hermit isn’t a Champion. And no, for those of you who haven’t read the books, he’s not a secret Champion who swoops in at the last moment and kills all the Twisted for them. That would be really lame. Or really awesome, I’m not quite sure now. But either way, he is a main character and so he has his own motivations as well.

On a general level, I believe Hermit wants to defeat the Twisted for no other reason than to annoy them. He takes a sadistic delight in foiling their well-crafted plans with his own poorly cobbled together, impromptu plans. Of course, he doesn’t want them to kill the Champions and destroy Dome and blah blah blah.

His specific motivation is much more interesting. He doesn’t hold a grudge against a particular Twisted. Instead, he needs them to be defeated for a specific reason. Doing so will open up the Gates to the Peaks. And he really needs to get to the Peaks because there’s someone in there who is very important to him…

Next up

Next post will be talking about a specific event in The Shadow Spinner: the hypnosis scene with N’Halia.