Domerin; An Introduction

I’ve been writing about Domerin for awhile now. He’s one of my favourite characters, largely because he manifests with such strength. I think it’s time to give him a proper introduction.

Who is Domerin Lorcasf?

(This was made by the lovely and talented Beth Alvarez)

Here he is! You may have noticed that Domerin dominates my writing prompts. He also receives regular mention in my Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook feeds. He’s responsible for dragging me out of bed early on weekend mornings to write about his whispers. He’s that one incessant character that won’t shut up if I’m not working on his story right that moment. (Pay attention me!)

Despite all that, I love him to bits. I’ll be sad if he ever stops whispering his stories to me. (Don’t tell him I said that.)

Where did he come from?
Domerin is not my oldest character (that distinction goes to Rose, more on her another day), but he has been with me for more than a decade now. Around the time Domerin was ‘born,’ I participated in a role playing forum. The board ran rampant with ‘in your face’ characters, where players picked a specific characteristic to hammer during chat sessions, usually with the intent to make people uncomfortable. As you can imagine, sexuality became the forum’s pet topic.

It bothered me. I would call it offensive. Not because people chose to play openly homosexual characters, because they hadn’t put any thought or depth into their creations. It’s a sad and sorry reality that people in the LGBT community are presented with an overwhelming number of underdeveloped, cardboard characters who seem to repeat the same story loop. They deserve characters as rich in experience and variety as they are, and even writers who are not members of the LGBT community should strive to write such diverse characters.

Thus formed the backbone of Domerin’s creation. I sat down and outlined a character, leaving plenty of room for him to grow. Then I popped over to the forum to give him a test drive.

The scene went well, but the character was nothing like my notes. He sprung into my head fully formed, introduced himself, took off running, and expected me to keep up. He’s always known where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do. He’s quite vocal if I interfere. (So when bad things happen to him, it really is his fault.)

Why do I love Domerin so much?
All jokes aside, Domerin is a pleasure to write. He challenges me, and I like that. It stretches my skills and makes me a better writer. Domerin forces me to put myself into the mindset of a person with a different perspective. He forces me to pay attention to the diversity of my work. He has even forced me to re-evaluate my views on certain subjects (such as polyamory).

Domerin was the first character I allowed myself to test in alternate realities by adjusting one or two major details of his past to see how he changed. As you may have noticed from my prompts, I write Domerin in a wide array of universes. Sometimes he is the hero of the story, sometimes the villain. His motivations change depending on his past. Most of the time he wants to help people, even if he gets nothing in return. But in the darker worlds, where he hasn’t overcome his past, he’s not the kind of man you want to cross.

Domerin tends to be an elf (unless magical creatures don’t exist in that particular world). He is always dark-skinned with long, midnight hair. He is often a soldier, sometimes a mercenary and, once, he was a doctor. Domerin has a long list of vices and they make him more interesting. He tends to be clueless when it comes to social graces, and speaks his mind bluntly no matter how much trouble it gets him into. Most of the time he has good intentions, even if they end up twisted.

Recently, Domerin provided me with a reason why he appears in so many different universes (aside from the fact that I like changing the scenario and seeing how he turns out), though I’m uncertain if I’ll ever be able to write the whole story. In the mean time, while he waits to appear in a proper novel, Domerin does his best to take over my fun writing by dangling irresistible carrots in front of my nose and watching as I scurry to catch them.

To date, five different incarnations of Domerin have appeared in my writing prompts (none of them the original ^^; ). The first lives in a modern world, much like ours, infused with all the elements of high fantasy (magic, elves, ghosts, demons, ect). The second is a displaced version of the aforementioned Domerin, trying to make a life in a world entirely unlike his own. The third is a sci-fi version who lives in the far future of another galaxy. The fourth is a twisted, irredeemable general who has embraced his dark side. And the fifth is an assassin from an urban fantasy world.

I hope you enjoy reading about Domerin as much as I enjoy writing about him, because he isn’t going anywhere any time soon ;)