Inspirations for Guardians of Aria
This is actually quite a difficult question to answer, because this book has a lot of myself reflected within. As is the custom with most books, the characters and the story would be closely related to the author themselves. By looking at the heroes and the villains one would get a window into the mind of the author and with my book it’s no different. It takes some guts to have something so intimate be available for all to read, but back to the point, what were some of the inspirations that were present within the novel.
One reviewer was quick to point out Avatar the Last Airbender because of my love of elemental combat, however, this isn’t entirely accurate. Whereas I love the Last Airbender cartoon my main inspiration for the combat system came from early videogames like Onimusha and Legacy of Kain. In the Onimusha series, a Japanese videogame developed by Capcom, the protagonists are given weapons imbued with elemental magic such as lightning, fire, air, light, earth and much more. You can see the parallels with my novel already and in the Legacy of Kain series, in Defiance, the final game and the first one I was exposed to, Raziel and Kain also gain the use of various elemental disciplines. Raziel received standard elements, fire, water, light, dark, earth and air. He received them in matching yet opposite pairs like the light and dark reavers which are obtained one after the other in the game. This was also my source of inspiration for the Dezi-Arians in my novel but it was Kain’s elements that had a major impact on my main character.
In both Avatar and Legacy of Kain, the idea of balance is a prevalent one. And yes although Aang, master of all four elements and bridge between the spirit and human worlds act as a symbol of balance and harmony, it was Kain’s balance emblem that I found fascinating. Without getting too much into the lore of Legacy of Kain (of which there is a lot), Kain is the Balance Guardian and his elements, Flame, Dimension, Lightning and Time were far different than the average, which is why I wanted to create my own elements which became the demonic elements in the novel. The elements themselves were inspired by the various games and some books that I read in my youth.
And though I did play a lot of videogames when I was young, I also read a lot of books. Chief amongst them would be the Harry Potter books, which I thoroughly enjoyed and still enjoy today. But I also read a lot of young adult fiction when I was little which is why I wanted to try my hand first and foremost at a young adult fiction novel. Thanks to the hereditary nature of magic in Harry Potter I came up with a robust system for the elements in my own novel to have it derived both by nature and by parentage. I wanted my stipulations to be a bit stricter however, even when young and so made it that only Arians could beget Arians, unlike in Harry Potter where sometimes Muggles could beget Wizards, albeit due to some forgotten magical ancestry.
Later in life I discovered philosophies and ideologies and then created a coherent worldview and only then could I truly bring the world of Aria to life. I was still an amateur at best however, and though I am proud of the novel, it is far from my best work. Other things began to fall in place later on in life however, like the decision to use aristocracies as the prevalent systems of government in Aria, allowing the Arians to be those that were a cut above the rest than the average person, and to use the demons and the villains as particular metaphors that can relate back to the modern world.
Lord of the Rings would also play a part in the making of this world, but I was rather young when I first saw the films and didn’t fully understand the novels until much later (and I’d argue that I still don’t and would require further revisiting). I’ve read the trilogy only twice and now I am better equipped to have this influence the world of magic within Aria. So these were some of the more impactful inspirations on the novel, early videogames, books and later on philosophy. I’m still learning and I know that my succeeding books will better incorporate what I wish to say whilst still being entertaining. I may have other books that will be published and stories besides the Guardians of Aria novels, but I still feel as if this story is closest to myself. This series of novels in particular will be the truest reflection of myself inside a story, my other novels that are unpublished are somewhat removed from me and focused more on a message or a fight that needs highlighting.
Beyond this there aren’t any other general influences I can speak about unless I were to be asked about a specific place or character, and even then it takes some rumination to determine what sprouted the seed in my mind for that particular thing. In some cases I can only attribute some details in the book to the Muses as I can’t tell you honestly where the idea blossomed from only that it did, suddenly and spontaneously. These things do happen, inspiration can strike from outside and those are usually the sections of the book that I’m most praised for and it feels odd at times because when I do reread certain parts of the novel I often say to myself, ‘Did I write that?’ But it also makes me smile, whether you believe it to be divine intervention or simply talent, it is my calling and what I was destined to do, nothing else brings me the fulfilment that writing does and I hope I can share many more stories with my readers for many years to come.