Creating Gods with Krystal Wade : Immortal Monday

I’m back! Truly back and in full swing. Let’s get this immortal party started!

Immortality. What could be more fitting for Immortal Monday than gods and the creation of them? Today we’re lucky enough to have the fabulous author Krystal Wade here with her young adult fantasy, Wilde’s Fire (Darkness Falls Trilogy), where she’s created interrelated gods and goddesses within her world.

She’s now celebrating the release of the final chapter in her story, Wilde’s Meadow. What does that mean for you? There’s no wait to find out how the story ends! Isn’t that super sensational? So run, don’t shuffle, over to amazon and snatch up her books. And while you’re waiting for UPS to drop them at your door or the e-version to load, she has graciously agreed to play victim to my inquisition (insert maniacal laugh). Let’s ask her a few questions about the creation of her gods, shall we?

*Rubs hands together*

But first, novel tease. The blurb!

Happy endings are hard to find, and even though Katriona is in the middle of a war with someone who’s already stolen more than she can replace, she aches for a positive future with her Draíochtans.

Armed with hope, confidence in her abilities, and a strange new gift from her mother, Kate ventures into the Darkness to defeat a fallen god.

 Losses add up, and new obstacles rise to stand in the way. Is the one determined to bring Encardia light strong enough to keep fighting, or will all the sacrifices to stop those who seek domination be for nothing?

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DK: In the Darkness Falls Trilogy you not only got to play creator with the characters, but you scripted gods as well. In other words, you basically designed a religion from the ground up. To do this did you use any existing mythology as an example when establishing each god, their role and relationship to each other?

KW: I actually did a lot of research on Norse Mythology. I’d sit for hours and hours (literally) reading Wiki entries (I hear you yelling at me; I know, I know, Wiki is not all that accurate, but it has the most info) about gods and worlds and wars and battles between them. Griandor’s original name was Freyr . . . until one night my husband looked at me and said “why don’t you make up your own stuff?”

Let me tell you, I glared at him for a good hour. I may have carried a grudge into the next day, but he was right. I needed to make up Encardia’s EVERYTHING. So, I built Griandor from Freyr, but I changed quite a few things. The Wiki entry on Freyr reads: Freyr was associated with sacral kingship, virility and prosperity, with sunshine and fair weather, and was pictured as a phallic fertility god, Freyr “bestows peace and pleasure on mortals”.

If you remember the times Kate comes in contact with Griandor, you’ll know how he made her feel at ease, warm, hopeful. Kind of how the sun makes people feel (generally), so the god of the sun was born.

Griandor’s sister Gramhara was built off Freyja, Freyr’s sister. Now, in Norse mythology, Freyja (Old Norse the “Lady“) is a goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr, war, and death. So, naturally, the power she possesses is one of great love. Those are the two most important gods we meet in Darkness Falls, aside from Dughbal, who is loosely based off one of Freyr and Freyja’s enemies. 🙂

DK: Are your gods really immortal? Or do they just use really good face cream? 😉

KW: They are truly immortal, so long as their father permits them to be. If they commit unthinkable crimes, he will strip them of their immortality and sentence them to live in Daigre (the underworld) once they are killed without godly interference–aka, once our heroine Katriona kicks their butt!

DK: Love it!  Any chance they’re actually beings from another planet experiencing time and aging at a different rate?

KW: Well, that depends on how you look at it. They govern the Heavens, a place without time, therefore without aging. The Heavens are tangible, meaning they can see and touch ground, other people, interact, etc. So, technically speaking, you could say it’s another planet. Wow. This is quite philosophical.

DK: It’s established in your novels that the goddess, Gramhara, represents love. And you’ve now informed us of Griandor’s godliness. What’s Dughbal the gods of?

KW: My overly historical answer of question one goes over this, but Gramhara is built off Freyja. Griandor is the god of the sun, and Dughbal is the god of the night. The name Dughbal literally means dark foreigner. I liked how they were complete opposites with love in between.

DK: When you were creating your gods and their religion did you establish a standard practice of worship that had once been followed?

KW: I didn’t deeply establish worship, however, their use of the inherent powers–old magic–served as a connection between them and the gods. When they stopped using old magic, the protection over the land vanished, thereby allowing the daemons to enter where they should never have been able to go.

DK: Dughbal represents your opposing force. He’s been ousted as a result of a family feud and it would appear that both anger and vengeance have fueled his actions. What five words would best describe him?

KW: Power-hungry, Jealous, Bored, Self-Righteous, Proud

DK: Those characteristics bring a few others to mind as well. Many stories have gods. What did you find the most challenging in creating yours?

KW: Their individual voices. They’re old, strangely alike in their opposite natures, so I found it hard to create unique voices. In the end, I was able to imagine and old, kind man while writing Griandor’s voice, and a middle-age, sarcastic asshole while writing Dughbal. I think it worked rather well.

DK: If you could be a god in your story, one not already mentioned, what god would you be?

KW: I think I would very much like to be “the father”. He’s never named or explained beyond that, but he’s truly the one with ALL the power.

DK: Thank you, Krystal. We sincerely appreciate you sharing your views with us today. We’ve had a lot of fun discussing gods and their creations today. We hope the virtual lines at the internet bookstores for the Wilde’s Fire trilogy have remained constant.

What about you, readers? Have you read any books in Krystal Wade’s trilogy? Do you have any stories regarding her gods you’d like to share? How about some stories about a little god creation of your own? We love hearing from you., you enjoy the “god” complex. It’s not to unlike being a writer in some ways, is it not? Having all the power of creating worlds, and lives, and destroying them just as easily, all within a few strokes of your fingertips.

~oOo~

Krystal Wade can be found in the sluglines outside Washington D.C. every morning, Monday through Friday. With coffee in hand, iPod plugged in, and strangers–who sometimes snore, smell, or have incredibly bad gas–sitting next to her, she zones out and thinks of fantastical worlds for you and me to read. How else can she cope with a fifty mile commute?

Good thing she has her husband and three kids to go home to. They keep her sane.

You can find her on her blog, twitter, or chatting away on Facebook and Goodreads. Swing by and introduce yourself.

~oOo~

Reminder: this blog will be relocating to a self-hosted site at some point near the end of the year. I hope you’ll follow us to the new digs. My fabulous designer, Laird Sapir, is working her tail off for us. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with.