One of the ideas that has evolved as the Klarion books have evolved is the migration of a family over centuries. I’m not writing a family over centuries; I’m only taking a slice of about 100 years and detailing the events of 3 generations that change the balance of the Klarion story. An introducing idea that was thrown out this summer at Taos was that maybe the OTHER sorcerers had the scroll in the Middle Ages, but I’m not going near that idea for several other books. What I need are MORE characters. Yeah.
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So, this takes us to the journey of the Klarion family. Our story begins when Erasmus Klarion, who lives in Alexandria, Egpyt, finds the scroll of Solomon that controls demons in the Library of Alexandria. Through a series of events, it’s decided by the supernatural powers involved in all of this political infighting that he will guard the scroll through the generations, and that demons will be subservient to the Klarions. More on this in cosmological notes.
Eramus’ family is Roman. He has moved to Alexandria to follow his scholarly potential. The family moves from Rome to Egypt back to Italy. They remain in Italy through the Holy Roman Empire, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and then make their way to England, during the peak of the Renaissance there. The Klarions remain in England but they have ties in Egypt always, given the cosmological issues involved with their charge.
When you see the names of the Klarion characters, you will find classical names: Drusus, Octavia, Gregorius, Flavia, Marcellus, Lucia. Alternative names will begin to find their way in as generations change: both Esme and Errol are named by their British mothers. The Galt characters tend to integrate a bit of Greek into their traditional names, although classical Roman names are still present: Eurydice, Atreus, Stephanus, Tiberius.
Whether readers will care about this or not, what I am trying to do is import a sense of history and human journey. I’m also trying to get away from making up fantasy names, and doing something just a tad different in flavor.
Next: demon naming conventions. Why are they all named after members of the Egyptian pantheon(s)?
