I
have been in the process of writing the sequel to "Legend of the Mystic Knights",
I am in the final process of finishing the book, before I
send it to my publisher. Hopefully, it
will be accepted and then the editing process can begin.
As with “Legend of the Mystic Knights” I have tried to
incorporate creatures based on medieval legend. Having an existing creature,
even mythical, has many advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is that I have an
existing description of a creature. There are many existing documents from this era about
these creatures including their size and characteristics.
These same advantages are also a disadvantage; this is
because when I write my novel, I try to be as historically accurate as
possible, even with mythical creatures. This means I am limited to these
characteristics described by medieval people. I will let other author’s take vampires and
turn them into love struck teenagers, as for me the vampire is a loathsome demonic
creature who attacks the living during the night.
The following is a list of creatures which play an important
part in the sequel:
OGRE: The name ogre may come from different sources. One is
it is based on the biblical king Og, who was an Amorite king and last of the
race of giants and was defeated and slain by Moses.
The name could also be derived from the French word and
could come from the Orcus who was an Etruscan god who ate human flesh.
The 2nd variation of the name is important,
because unlike the current concept of an ogre, traditional ogres feed on human
flesh. The other features of an ogre are that they were incredibly tall and had
oversized heads and were covered in hair, again, unlike the current famous
cartoon ogre we are used to today.
In my sequel I picture the ogre as a 12 foot tall,
overweight with oversized head and hands. For clothes it wore a bearskin. As a weapon it uses a piece of a tree trunk
as a club. I could imagine the ogre as a large Neanderthal Man, while still
maintaining the human flesh eating characteristic from legend.
WARG: Many people believed this was a creature created by
J.R.R. Tolkien, since it is used throughout his novels about middle-earth. In
legend, the warg is a creature of Norse mythology, and usually represents
Fenrir, a giant wolf who will end up killing Oden during Ragnarok (similar to
Christian’s Apocalypse).
In the sequel, the Warg is twice the size of a large wolf.
It had fierce red eyes and oversized teeth and claws. Although larger than a
standard wolf, they still show the same characteristics, they are a pack animal
and can be manipulated as one would a wolf.
In the novel, I use a trick used by Eastern European hunters
called fladry. This is a technique where a rope is tied between trees, and
large red pieces of cloth or flags are tied to it. A wolf will not cross this
line and they can also be herded into one area using this technique.
DRAGONET- This creature has 2 sets of legs, a set of wings
and appears as a normal dragon, except it is barely 5 feet long. Although it
can breathe fire, its main weapon is its blood, which is extremely poisonous.
Even a few drops of blood on the skin can kill a full sized knight.
I wanted to describe the dragon as unintimidating, almost
appearing as a colorful snake or frog. This is because a knight in my novel, who
was unfamiliar with how dangerous it was, kills one, not knowing that its blood could kill.
LACERTA- (Also known as “gigas lucernta” or giant lizard).
This is a creature I created. It is a lizard which humongous in size (150 feet). It has a
thick hide which is harder than plate armor, making it almost invincible. The
lizard is flat, and has two rows of spikes running down its back.
Originally, I wanted to call this creature a Dyrodor, being
a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs who created it in one of his novels, but I was
afraid it was still under copy write protection, so I came up with my own
monster.
When I thought of the lacerta, what came to mind was those old
cheap sci-fi movies. Where they took an iguana or other lizard, and glued
spikes on them, and then filmed them so they would look like they were
dinosaurs.
So now you have a sense to the sequel of "Legend of the Mystic Knights",
there are many more monsters and creatures planned in my
sequel, and we will cover more next week. I hope that if you have not already, you will
get a copy of my current novel, and also the sequel when it comes out.
As always thank you for visiting and if you want, please
leave a comment.
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