Tag: Bellators

Gabriel and Evander – Character Sketches

Miranda TurnerLeave a comment

I recently commissioned Sarah Jo Chreene to create line drawings of Gabriel and Evander, and she went above and beyond. They’re gorgeous! I’ve typed up character sketches to go along with them and share with you all. You can find Sarah Jo Chreene’s page here.

Gabriel Sinclair

Description:

6 feet tall, long dark hair, swimmers build, changeable eyes (violet, blue, gray), graceful, pale skinned, 28-years-old, androgynous, high cheekbones, full lips, arched brows, stubborn jaw

Character traits:

self-sacrificing, snarky, damaged, dominant (but not a jerk about it), fights for the underdog, his mouth gets him in trouble, smart, powerful, trained fighterNotes: Only half-angelus/half-daemon to ever exist, considered an enemy of both as he’s an abomination, the Creator assigned him mentors, one Daemon and one Angelus

Background:

Abandoned in an alley as little more than a toddler, Gabriel was taken in by a Catholic orphanage. Until the age of seven when a priest tried to kill him due to his unnatural traits and a belief he was possessed and needed an exorcism, he lived with the nuns and the other children who came and went from the orphanage. During the exorcism, Gabriel’s powers acted to protect him and flashed him into an alley where a dark mage was waiting for him, having been searching for a power source for a long time.

The following six years of his life were spent as a prisoner (more details in the books), and he was abused regularly. At the age of thirteen, he was rescued by the archangel Michael and was promptly introduced to the Daemon Barabbas, both of whom became honorary uncles and mentors for the young halfling. They trained him to survive at all costs, and he spent the next fifteen years dodging agents of both the Light and the Darkness and fighting them off when necessary for survival. 

At the age of twenty-eight, he was once again forced to change his life when Michael showed up with a team of Bellators, agents of the Light, and a mission for him. There is, of course, a prophecy. 

Father: Daemon Prince, once second to only Lucifer himself, seriously evil

Mother: details currently unknown, Angelus, one of the only females

Other information:

When his story begins, he is fully suppressing his dark side using pain as a coping mechanism. He must feed on blood as well as regular food to maintain full strength, though he does this as little as possible causing his true power levels to be masked. He has only killed in defense of himself or others and remembers every kill.

Evander Ryan

Description:

6’5″, brown hair, green eyes, tanned skin, muscular build, classically handsome

Character Traits:

Arrogant, Leader, Strong, Organized (until Gabriel throws him off), Strategist, Narrow-minded, Believes his own hype, ignorant when it comes to interpersonal relationships, an idiot when it comes to Gabriel

Background:

Evander is the last of the Creator’s handcrafted Bellators brought into being centuries after the others who the Creator had long since granted the ability to find mates and procreate, sustaining future generations on their own. Something of a favorite of the Creator, he was very sheltered and kept ignorant of a lot of the world in effort to create a “perfect” Bellator. (More about Evander’s background in book 2!)

Other Information:

most powerful Sustainer in history, leader of the most powerful Bellator group, Gabriel’s sodalis vitae (life/soul mate)

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into Gabriel and Evander!

BoT World Lore & Announcements

Miranda TurnerLeave a comment

When I was looking for subject matter for my blog tour for Shadowing the Light, I decided it would be fun to share background information that would never make it into my books. I shared small snippets on the blog tour, but I’m going to expand and further explain here in weekly posts. There will also be updates about my writing progress, publication dates, takeovers, promo, etc., but this is something that I’m really excited to share with you.

The Boring Stuff ;P

Let’s take care of the housekeeping first. Here are my updates and announcements:

I’ll be finishing A Blaze in the Dark, Antonio and Bain’s novella, today, self-edits tomorrow, and off to the beta and editor. The novellas will be published as a separate series because of Amazon’s lovely numbering rules. Tentative publication date: February 7th.

January 20th ~ I’ll be doing a takeover in Ana Newfolk’s group at 7:30. There will be takeovers all weekend in there so you should check it out. https://www.facebook.com/groups/208814836439843/

January 30 – February 3 ~ I will be completely unplugged. My kids’ dad is coming into town and I’m retreating to an Airbnb with lots of snacks and my laptop to try to reach the end on book 2 of Gabriel and Evander. I have big plans to rework the first half of the book that I’ve already written before then because I realized I don’t quite like how I was approaching it, and I will hopefully add a few more new words and be ready for the home stretch when I lock myself away.

I will not be sending out newsletters for a while because of the pesky physical address rule. While I love you all, I’m not sending out my home address to strangers. As soon as I’m able to maintain a PO Box, I’ll do newsletters. In the meantime, you can follow me here.

Part 1 – Immortal Warriors Creation

Before humans walked the earth, it was an inhospitable place. The waters boiled, the lava flowed, earthquakes shook the land, and a war raged. Daemons and Angeli were pitted against each other in an eternal battle neither side could win. For centuries they roamed the earth, destroying everything in their path, fighting on the wind and sea, devastating the planet, but neither good nor evil ever triumphed.

The Creator and Lucifer became weary over the centuries; the constant struggle for supremacy weighed heavily upon them, and they lost heart. They were ready to lay down their weapons, rest, and try to enjoy their immortal lives without the constant bloodshed. Calling a temporary truce, they met at a neutral location and made the decision to retreat from the earth and ban Daemons and Angeli from roaming there. They would bring the earth back to life and create others who would live and thrive on the surface and not require their control but be free to live as they saw fit.

To police the Earth, maintain the balance, and keep the Angeli and Daemons away, they each created their own set of immortal warriors. The Creator brought the Bellator Luminis into being, and Lucifer the Tenebrix Meam. The Bellators would defend the light, fight off the darkness, and be a force for good in the world. The Tenebrix would oppose the light and spread darkness, for without darkness, the light cannot be appreciated.

When creating these special immortal warriors, the Creator and Lucifer decided to give them traits of both celestial beings and humans. Bellators would have a mixture of the Angeli’s blind faith in the Creator and the human gift of freewill. The Tenebrix would have the same human gift and a deep commitment to Lucifer’s agenda. It was when they were sent to earth that problems began to arise.

Living among the humans, the immortal warriors began to long for their ability to create bonds with one another and have relationships and families. These were privileges that had been denied the warriors by the rules which governed their existence. This dissatisfaction led to them becoming apathetic and endangered the balance. The Creator and Lucifer met once again and decided to combat their warriors’ dissatisfaction by granting them mates and allowing the Bellators and Tenebrix to breed future generations instead of expending the energy to keep creating them. The only rule was they must stay away from the humans and any others not of their own kind.

However, in their rush to fix the problem, they had forgotten one important fact: the choice of their warriors’ mates was not up to them. Mates were under the purview of the Fates.

I hope you enjoyed the immortal warriors creation story. I’m going to go deeper into it and talk about everything from how things got twisted between them to maybe some Gabriel things that won’t make it into the books.