Black Blood's Counsel

Thanks for writing in the great questions, everyone! You know what you want, and I'm excited to give it to you. Today I'm going to address a rather popular question about Oblivion's Gate:

Where did you get the inspiration for each of the Fallen?

In truth, this is an incredibly tough question to answer because the inspiration didn't come with a picture of the final product, nor with a mold left behind by another character. I didn't know the Fallen as "the Fallen" when I first created them. I came to know them over time as I studied out their lives, temperaments and tendencies.

Several of your letters have asked if I based the Fallen on other existing characters or persons (I got a kick out of some of your proposed allusions), but other than Hades, Anubis and Loki (who are mythic gods) none of the Fallen were based on any particular character or set of them. A few of the Fallen do have a fabled character to which they have linked themselves (like Tangaroa's choice to become the embodiment of the Flying Dutchman, or Zuren's Grim who were forced into a certain appearance by a curse, for example), but it was each Fallen's individual history that actually effected their personality, appearance and obsessions. The Fallen arose from scratch.

In fact, there is only one character in all of Oblivion's Gate that was designed to pay homage to another, but until the series is complete and that homage is officially revealed I will keep that character's identity a secret. All other characters in Oblivion's Gate are drawn from myth, legend and 98% scratch.

In the original sketches for Oblivion's Gate, the Fallen Ones were a syndicate of very stereotypical villains who had joined together in hopes of breaking free from the humdrum lives they had found themselves in. I never cared for the idea and only used it to fill in the blanks. It wasn't very original, it didn't mesh well with the body of the story, and it was rather childish and boring. So I actually scrapped the Fallen altogether and moved on, hoping that a wholly different idea would inspire me when the time was right.

I finished developing the complete world of Oblivion's Gate (the realms, the races, the dialects, the complexities, etc.) by lacing together the real, modern world and the worlds of ancient myth. Then I rounded out the protagonists and scenery. When I finished, everything was ready but the villain. My ideas for a villain just didn't want to come together. Then as I was reading through my notes on the Life Bloods one day, I had a new idea. It stemmed from the effects of Black Blood and inspired me to breathe new life into the forgotten concept of the Fallen Ones.

Black Blood does more than just change appearances and blend things together; it tampers with everything. And when living things are exposed to it, it has terrible effects on the mind. Certain characteristics of the Exposed are amplified and/or given new dominance, all based on the circumstances surrounding the moment of exposure. Sometimes the effects and new found obsessions are so emphatic that it seems the original entity has been entirely lost.

Considering these effects, I pulled together a host of regular, everyday characters, perfectly synonymous with their home realms, kingdoms and circumstances. Once I had each of their personalities, appearances and histories down, I took a great deal of time to consider how, when and why they might be exposed to Black Blood. (Was it on purpose or accident? Were they prepared or not? Questions like those.) And after discovering how the characters would behave, it became obvious how the exposure would affect each one. And that is when the Council of the Fallen became the force we encounter in Mimgardr.

The Fallen in final form are incredibly complex, and I'm almost sad that you readers don't get to know them very well during the first book. But, as the trilogy goes on you'll learn more about the days prior to their demise and you'll learn what made them into who and what they are.

Did that answer your question? Please comment below with follow-up questions and personal thoughts? And don't forget to email me questions about new topics HERE.