Surprise! I’m back with another blog post! Sometimes Facebook just doesn’t cut it, and especially when you want to write something a bit longer.
Unfortunately, the next trilogy of the Cymrian Saga has been delayed thanks to the publisher going on temporary hiatus. Rest assured that if the company does fall through for whatever reason, I will publish it myself (commercial publishing options are very limited for a series that is halfway through and has lost its original publisher, sadly).
Anyway, moving on to less depressing matters – something I’ve been thinking about recently is a theme which I noticed emerging very consistently as the series went on. In the end, one of the biggest themes of the Saga is the search for belonging. The search for home.
In the beginning we have Arren Cardockson, the boy who doesn’t belong. He’s trying to be something he isn’t in order to belong, but only manages to be tolerated, not accepted. After the events of The Dark Griffin he begins to search for a place to go – but ironically, by the end of his story he is even more lost than before. Not only has he lost his home, but he has lost himself.
Then, in The Shadow’s Heir, we meet Laela – a girl who doesn’t belong. Her journey is to find a place where she can be accepted, but sadly she never finds it, and she too is ultimately lost. We also meet Kullervo, and he too is in search of a home, and the love he longs to have. But Kullervo has what neither Arenadd nor Laela had: a pure heart. Thus he earns what he is search of.
In the upcoming trilogy, The Southern Star, the protagonist is a young Southerner named Kearney Redguard (last seen in The Shadow’s Heart as a boy). Kearney, usually called Red, has a home – and yet he has to deal with the shame of his family heritage, and is determined to prove himself and clear the Redguard name of the dishonour his late uncle brought upon it. Ultimately, he too will be set adrift. Will he ever find his way back? Perhaps, if he can find the courage.
The very end of the series is, not to give too much away, a literal journey home, and the final question to be answered is – can the protagonists reclaim the peace and happiness they have lost, or is it too late to go back?
The Cymrian Saga is, in the end, about people (and griffins!) who are marginalised for one reason other another. Because of their race, their physical appearance, their ancestry, or their past mistakes. All of them must fight to right those wrongs – for themselves, and for one another. And in the end they must come to see that no-one can fight alone…
