Today we’re going to once again explore some of the secondary characters from the Hall of Blood and Mercy Trilogy!
If it isn’t obvious from all of my backlist books, I’ve got a thing for old buildings with character. I am unapologetically obsessed with libraries–I think they’re the greatest places ever–and in general I just like fascinating architecture, and places that seem to have their own…moods.
House Medeis was built out of my interest in old buildings, and was partially inspired by the dollhouses I played with as a kid in that I wanted things to happen to the people living inside the house that weren’t necessarily their choice.
While the building itself is basically a magical fun-house, when you swirl in a personality that is a mixture of a loving but slightly overbearing grandparent, that’s when things get crazy!
House Medeis will throw your own shoes at your head if you leave them out for other people to trip on. If you make it mad it will only give you cold water for showers. It’s the kind of building that will purposely lower door frames so tall people ram their foreheads into it, and it will raise light switches out of reach of shorter wizards just to get its point across.
Similarly, if it works with an Adept it likes, it is crazy powerful.
House Medeis will adjust itself to the wizards that live within its walls, and the desires of the Adept that leads them. When House Medeis bonds with Hazel, together they create a fortress that seems suspiciously and unnecessarily large…
The Paragon could honestly have his own post. I had so much fun with him!
Given how all the other leaders/monarchs/head honchos of the various supernatural races act stately, poised, and polite–from the individual House/Family/Court/Pack levels all the way up to the Regional levels–I wanted to make the Paragon the opposite of what most people say would make a good leader.
He hates drama and tries to avoid his people as much as possible, but is also super nosy and doesn’t like to be left out. He wears fancy clothes but stores the entrance to his pocket realm in a unicorn coin purse. While he looks like he’s as old as dirt, he speaks using modern slang, has magical artifacts that are older than the country of America, and also proficiently uses his cellphone. Perhaps most importantly, he has the necessary pet that most sassy, mentor-type characters usually possess…except she’s a hairless cat named after a Greek Goddess because it harkens back to the Renaissance’s obsession of painting her without a stitch of clothing.
Josh accidentally subverts most vampire tropes. The Paragon purposely shatters them.
He’s also a good balance for Killian.
Although the Paragon technically has more power than Killian, as he emphatically likes to point out he’s the top fae representative, and isn’t truly their overlord no matter how others view it. Unlike Killian, he avoids throwing his political weight around, and he wants people to overlook him/think of him as an eccentric old man and not the quick-silver, cunning fae that he really is. (Most times, other characters appear to even forget that he’s a fae!)
He’s strong enough to call out Killian on his actions, wily enough to see what’s happening between Hazel and Killian, and yet soft enough that he’s willing to do Killian a favor and shows up to support Hazel when she’s about to enter a show down with Mason.
So, which character do you like more? You’ll get to see more of House Medeis in Magic Unleashed, but I think you’ve got a pretty accurate depiction of the Paragon. 😉
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