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Day Four: Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!

One of the first stories/characters that wasn't appallingly Mary Sue drivel and will never see the light of day because of it's awfulness is the story The Corazon Empire and the lead character, Dregen. The Corazon Empire was a sci-fi-fantasy story set on a planet called Corazon, with a city-continent of the same name. The rest of the planet was uninhabitable, resisting even the most advanced terraforming techniques. The lower levels of the city were full of pollution and garbage and was where the lowest social groups lived, the poor and homeless. As well, it was the part of the city given over to drug trafficking and prostitution. The highest levels of the city were where the rich lived, the rulers, the socialites, the politicians and the religious order that was the main religion for the Empire.

The story followed Dregen from childhood, born to poor parents and living not quite in the lower levels but near. He was gifted with music and his father was a trader who died in a space accident when Dregen was twelve. At thirteen, his mother sold him into slavery and Dregen was taken down into the lower levels of the city to work for his owner. When he reached adulthood, he was turned into a rent boy. It could be said that this is not exactly the happiest of backstories but I chose to make Dregen's life in the brothel a happy one - he had friends, he had an adult encourage him in his music, he found a place to hang out with like minds who loved music, he joined a band. He was good at his job and well paid and got on well with his clients.

In his twenties, Dregen met two acolytes from the temple in the upper levels of the city. At the same time, political machinations were going on and Dregen and his new friends and others were caught up in the political games that ended with the planet itself taking revenge on the ruling class. The city was destroyed as the residents who realised this wasn't a joke fled into space on deep-space freighters in an exodus looking for a new home.

The story is full of all sorts of cliches of the genre: mystical powers, made up science and technobabble, magic, politics, poor boy is elevated to almost messiah status. It was around 210K words all up and I don't really have any plans to revist it and rewrite it or fix it up or anything.

Date: Tue, May. 4th, 2010 10:49 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] vayshti.livejournal.com
So is there any particular reason why Dregen has chosen to be foremost in your mind for this part of the meme? Is he pouting and asking to be let back out of the box?

Date: Tue, May. 4th, 2010 11:52 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] misslj-author.livejournal.com
No, not really. He's just the first character I could think of that doesn't make me cringe in embarassment!

Date: Tue, May. 4th, 2010 02:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] corellian-sugar.livejournal.com
LOL! But it all seems so familiar somehow! Hmmmm. ;)

Poor Dre. I miss him.

Date: Tue, May. 4th, 2010 07:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] misslj-author.livejournal.com
XD Plus you're one of the very few people that's read this one iirc.

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