We start up another week in this first month of summer with a new interview! As always, the third week is dedicated to Side Characters, and for tonight we have quite the intriguing guest. I have to admit, I didn't have the pleasure to speak with a full-bloodied knight yet, and this was a pleasant first!
Tonight's guest is Thompson Kross, a Knight of the Kingdom of Erdoria and Lord of Karkoss, who's sworn to protect Princess Amarette - who seems to have put him in a bit of a problem, despite being a lovely woman.
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| Quite the intense gaze too! |
He comes from Charlotte Ducharme's fantasy novel "The Last Dragon Rider" - Charlotte is a lovely woman who seems to have a very interesting, fantastical world to give us access to through her writing!
She also has a
blog where she covers a number of aspects of writing - not only technical, but emotional as well, as for example some suggestions to get over self-doubt. You can check it out following this link!
https://charleywritesblog.wordpress.com/
But let's get to know Thompson, shall we?
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And here we are at the third week of June! Damn, the time seems to fly during the summer… but that ain’t stopping us! We’re back to the Side Characters as per usual, and tonight we have another interesting guest - would you please introduce yourself, your book and your author to our audience?
Alright, hello I am Thompson Kross, Lord of Karkross and I suppose a side character of The Last Dragon Rider, although last time I checked knights were often the main heroes… But I guess the hero is the beautiful Marvelle, who is a Dragon Rider so it is fitting. My author is Charlotte Ducharme.
Oh my, hello there! By the way you’re describing yourself and your world, I dare say we’re venturing into some unusual territory here - can you please tell us a bit more about the world you live in?
I have been told my world is different than yours. I come from a Kingdom called Erdoria that split apart in rebellion from our mother Kingdom, Khelan, centuries ago. We follow King Rohar and I serve his daughter, Princess Amarette, as her sworn knight and guard. It is not the only Kingdom though, there are many others, my ancestors from one called Eskar, but I have never left my Kingdom before.
The life of a knight seems pretty interesting there. How did you end up in that position? Is that something you always strived on? Or was this something you wouldn’t have expected?
I was actually born into the position as a Lord which gave me access to combat training. Through that I learned that my love was the sword, and I wanted to become the best knight that Erdoria had ever seen. I swore my vow to become a knight also to give my sister the proper title of Lady of Karkross, giving up my own birthright. She was far more suited for the role than me. But I suppose I always have wanted to be a knight.
I’m glad you found your life’s calling then. Is it all you expected it to be? Or are there some sides of it that you discovered you might not agree with? Sometimes we idealize or think about a position so much we can’t see its drawbacks after all…
It is far more complicated than I initially thought, especially when it comes to vows and honor. Sometimes it can be difficult to decide what is the right thing to do, what is the honorable thing to do, and which path I should follow… I love what I do, I love protecting the Princess, but such questions can keep me up at night.
Have you ever found yourself disobeying or ‘forgetting’ your vows for something you found morally more righteous? For example turning a blind eye as a starving kid ‘borrows’ some bread, or something along those lines.
… Sometimes it can be hard to decide on what I should do in those situations. When one starts to pick and choose which rules to obey and which to break then what is the point of such rules anyway? I am only human however… Some rules are too strict, and in some cases it is higher justice to not allow a unjust punishment to take place… that is all I will say on the subject though, as to not dishonor my family.
Completely understandable, indeed. I imagine honor is one of the most important things for a knight. Let’s change the subject a bit - tell us about your protegee. You say you protect Princess Amarette, right? What sort of person is she?
Princess Amarette is… she is the jewel of our Kingdom. She is patient, and kind, although quiet. Personally she has always treated me with respect and she is someone that I would be glad to give my life for.
I’m definitely glad to hear that...it does sound like there’s something more underneath that response, but I won’t be prying too much. Is there anyone you really can’t stand, instead?
Her uncle, Prince Tirius. I would never say it to his face, but there is something about the man that bothers me, let alone that he hates me. He calls me a “vapid nobleman” I’ve heard. I don’t quite care enough to give him a response though.
Some people really don’t even deserve the time of day to respond to them. Tell us about the story - how did you get involved into it?
What happened was that the Princess was set to be married to Prince Corrad of our mother Kingdom, Khelan. Although she “disappeared”, most thinking she was kidnapped. I went with the Lord of the Valley of the Dragons Marc Lavelle to go and look for her in the Draconic Forest, only to find that the Princess was in his castle with his sister, they had run away with the help of another girl and were in hiding to escape the marriage… I had taken vows to protect the Princess, which is how they got me looped into their foolish plans.
Wow. That does sound like quite the complicated situations to be in. But… vows aside, do you agree with her? Do you think she’d be happier with someone else than with Prince Corrad?
It is not for me to say. My Eskarian culture puts different emphasis on different matters. We find it important to let a lady choose who she wants to marry. Things are not the same in Erdoria. If the rumors are true and Prince Corrad is as dangerous as some say, then I do not think that she should be forced to marry him. But… I am not the King, and so it is not my decision to make. All I can say is that I would not let my own sister marry him.
I think that definitely says a lot… since we’re speaking about love, by the way. I don’t know if you’re aware, but we’re currently in Pride month. How does your world fare in that respect? Is there acceptance for different kinds of relationships?
As with most things, it does depend on the culture. I have heard in the culture of the Islands they are alright with it, my friend Tario says that his family accepts it fine with his brother. In Eskar where my culture is rooted it is not something we speak about often, although it isn’t shunned as far as I know. In Erdoria it seems to be much the same way, no one truly speaks of it, although I do not see such relationships often.
I understand completely. And I can definitely imagine how, in a culture where succession to power seems to be coming through bloodlines, things might be a bit more complicated as well. Are you aware of any instances when that happened? We swear we won’t tell you told.
Not in our Kingdom, although there is another Kingdom called Ilnya with a famous tale of two Lords who ruled together. It was said that their love was strong. One of the Lords fathered a bastard and the two named that child their successor. So it is not unheard of. But as you said it would be very complicated. Such matters are already complicated. But that Kingdom seemed to make it work without issue, if the story was a true one.
That’s very nice to hear, that they managed to make it work! And what about you? Are you interested in someone? And...have you ever had interest for someone of your own gender?
I have never had true interest in my own gender as I have with women, although there are many fine looking men around me. But no, at the moment the most beautiful person I can see is Marvelle Lavelle. My heart is hers if she wishes.
My my~ And by someone who takes vows and their word as seriously as you, that might make for quite the intriguing story! Anyway… unfortunately we’re getting out of time for tonight - is there anything you wish to say to our audience? Anything at all!
Hm… Well I suppose all I would say to them is to enjoy their lives. Life is meant to be lived and we were created to enjoy the world we live in. Perhaps that was too deep and you were looking for something more common. I’m not sure, I am not used to being interviewed!
Who knows, perhaps this will become more common in the future~ But that was a wonderful message. Thank you so much for coming tonight! It was a pleasure having you!
Thank you for giving me the time to speak! You are a wonderful interviewer, this was pleasant.
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And that does it for this week's blog interview! I have to say, talking with him was quite the interesting experience, and it's always nice to see someone who takes values like honor and duty so seriously.
As always, a reminder that YOU can have YOUR characters interviewed on this blog too! Just send me a message on Twitter! You can find my profile on the sidebar, or follow this link: https://twitter.com/m_arbanassi
Thank you all for coming around! Come back next week to meet a new Background Character!
Toodles~
