Since I’ve ended up filling the ranks of side characters with background NPCs and fleshing them out to the point of basically being original characters, I’ve been considering adding OCs with no basis in canon to the mix. I’m already halfway there by giving Katelyn’s unnamed brothers a story, so why not?
For example, members of noble households. Nursemaids and pages and groundskeepers and such.
Kenmur would have had at least one nursemaid when his old village was attacked who would have likely been with him at the time of the attack and therefore likely been the one first able to get baby Kenmur to some semblance of safety and possibly survived as a result. Pages were men or boys employed to be personal attendants to people of rank who might have also done chores and errands for the household or establishment they worked for, and each of the Ro’Meave brothers might have had a page around their own age growing up, Zane might even have the same page he had when he was young still on his service as an attendant when he’s grown. Meteli’s a pretty backwater and casual place, but a Lord’s household is still a Lord’s household and so the Zvahl family probably had a few servants who might have lived in or very near the household, a groundskeeper among them that I think Cadenza would have been close to and learned about flowers from.
There’s also a big thing about succession in MCD, so I’d need to add some heirs and apprentices to the Lords in the various villages, plus actually fill some of the villages we never see in canon. Nahakra needs an heir, so do the Neopolitan villages, I need to figure out Matataki’s whole situation and someone has to fill the void in Boboros’s leadership after Gene killed both the Lord and the heir and they also need a head guard.
I’ve been dabbling with how I’m handling the families of the main and supporting cast that we don’t see or hear about in canon too.
Zenix was an only child and his parents belonged to a sect that worshipped the Destroyer and he grew up worshipping Shad instead of Irene alongside the rest of their small settlement. The settlement was found and divided when he was about ten, and his parents raised him in seclusion where it was safe after that. All three of them died in a house fire Zenix set by accident when he was a teen, and after being brought back Zenix can’t remember much about them due to injuries sustained in the fire.
Nana has an absolutely massive family. In MyS she mentions being the seventh child of twelve. In her clan’s compound in Tu’la there’s the main branch of the clan which includes Nana and her siblings, their parents, a scattering of uncles and aunts and cousins, and any nieces or nephews she may have. Then there’s the vassal clans under them, at least one of which should be a clan of craftsmen so they don’t have to outsource their gear or clothing very often. They also have the servants of the household and possibly their families, any gladiators sponsored by the clan, tradesmen under contract to the clan, and possibly any orphans the household sponsors and trains to eventually make a contract with. There would also be aides and attendants and advisors. When I say massive family, I mean it.
Then we also have a few of the main and supporting cast where I completely fudge the canon. One of Cadenza’s bio parents is a Shadow Knight and that’s why Shadow Knights are always after her. Esmund and Xavier had an older sister, then Xavier had a wife and several kids that turned into the Ro’Meave line. Aaron had a brother who’s only a few years older than Jacob. Vylad has a slew of half-siblings across the continent. Travis has a twin who the Demon Warlock stole away to make his successor when they were young. Kiki and Brendan are estranged from their father and sister. Ein was the unnamed pup from the werewolf tribe near Brightport and was adopted by an older woman from the werewolf kingdom after being split from his tribe. Dante and Gene had a father who they never saw because he was always working, alongside their canon mom and uncle. Malachi has a whole line of indirect descendants because his parents had another kid after he was sent away, and they have old family stories where being turned into a ghost like their ancestor Malachi is what happens to bad kids. Enki and Kul’zak had two kids, one by adoption and the other by magickal means.
This isn’t even getting into my whole Seven Sinners of Virtue thing, which is basically the generation before the Divine Warriors if they were part of a cycle of people whose purpose is to keep the world spinning by whatever means necessary. There’s the Seven, the families, their enemies, and the gods who were worshipped before the Divine Faith came about.
This is. So Many Characters.
