Journey of a Hero

Today I'm going to talk just briefly about the hero of not just my novel, but also the role that heroes have played in the past. It seems only appropriate that word hero comes from the Ancient Greek ἥρως or hḗrōs. Originally, hero was actually a demigod and not just a given term for the protagonist of a story, legend or parable. It later turned into the term we use for our self-sacrificing, moral upholding and courageous characters we see today. 


Classic heroes usually were measured by their martial courage. The heros of Greek mythology, like Heracles and Achilles are seen in this same kind of heroism. Modern heroism is modified and more morally based. There doesn't have to be a massive battle that takes place, but rather just a grand gesture of heroics. 


I would definitely have to say that Julian is a classical hero. He may not be our fighting a war or protecting the innocent, but there's a lot to him that is the hero. Julian was not the first character I came up with in this universe. In fact, he was probably the third character or so. I started with a lot of bad guys. I had ideas of all the trouble that would be going on and then once I had figured out what kind of world they were in, I discovered what kind of hero they would need. Of course, there's always the temptation to create the strong, manly, fearless in the face of danger type of hero, but I decided that I wanted someone who was going to have to do a lot of learning before he even realized what he was. 


Julian is very much the reluctant hero. He is unsure of himself, unsure of his place in the world, unsure of his next step in life. All he knows is that he has his entire path laid out before him and he has to follow it, whether he wants to or not. This path, the one that takes him to the throne, is by no means clear cut, so somewhere along the line he is going to be challenged to do more than just follow the path. He doesn't know it yet, but it will require a lot of growth on his part. 


I think what I am most excited about with him is the amount of learning we get to do with Julian. We are going to discover the world outside his castle walls while he does. He knows very little about the world and as he finds out all of these different creatures, people and villages, we will get to do the same. Hopefully you find it as exciting as I do.


Tomorrow will either be talk about the decisions that heroes have to make or the definition of the anti-hero, which does come into play in this plot. Comment below! Let me know what you think of... well, anything!