During last week’s retrospective on Archbishop Gamaliel, I said I would consider going back and giving the other leads of TTWC1 a second look. I’ve decided to make this a semi-regular feature, hence the new “Character Spotlight” title. We kick things off with the first lead of TTWC1, King Solon.

When I was designing the prototype for what would become The Trident Chronicles, I didn’t have much of an idea for the character beyond “wise old king”, hence his original name of Solomon. (I used to have impeccable subtlety, you see.) Honestly, he didn’t really have much development beyond that original concept until the current version of the story.

You may recall that in the previous version of the story, I didn’t give each lead an equal number of chapters. Their sections were as long as the stories I had to tell and Solon’s was one of the shortest because, frankly, there wasn’t much there and seeing as how he dies before the fleet even reaches Notos, he only served to kick off the plot. By forcing myself to give each of the leads equal screentime (at least in terms of the number of chapters), I had no choice but to shore up shallow characterization and so Solon developed into the person he is now.

When I thought of his inauspicious birth, I realized that isn’t something that you can just walk away from. (I realize that the details haven’t been revealed yet, but you already should know from Xanthe’s epilogue that Solon and the Monarch Lich are “twins” of a sort.) Solon grew up surrounded by whispers and rumors and was completely despised by his father. When the King remarried (to a woman just five years Solon’s senior) and had a second son, Solon ceded his birthright and entered into the seminary. There he studied with future Archbishop Ieremias (the “reformer” so despised by Gamaliel in his prologue). Solon would have entered the priesthood were it not for his brother Carpos’ untimely death. While it was possible for Solon’s nephew by his half-sister Antigone to claim the throne with his father acting as regent until he reached the age of majority, Solon instead chose to reclaim his birthright with the intention of reforming Zephyr (with Ieremias’ encouragement as the two idealists sought to work both inside and outside the Church to achieve change).

While there had been relatively few all-out wars between Zephyr and her non-human neighbors, there was certainly no love between them and the Church’s teachings about them certainly didn’t help matters any. Solon took a chance by extending an olive branch and at least in the Elves’ case, he was lucky to find a young (by Elven standards) queen just as idealistic as he was. In the Dwarves’ case, their natural suspicions of the humans erupted into the disastrous Nanoi Campaigns, which ultimately resulted in the forced removal from Zephyr of the surviving Dwarven community. This seems rather cruel in light of the picture I’ve been painting of Solon, but it was the lesser of two evils as prevailing opinion was that the Dwarves should have been exterminated completely.

I would say Solon’s greatest weakness was that he was so committed to his ideals and his principles that he was blind to the world around him. Not completely blind, mind you, but he never truly appreciated how great the opposition to his policies was, leaving a situation where no one but a cunning and brutal tyrant could have held on to the kingdom in his wake. Daphne grew into her role as a leader rather well, but she could never be ruthless enough to fight tooth and nail to hold on to the throne (but that’s a subject of a future entry).

In the end, I find him to be a rather tragic figure who dreamed a dream too big for his world to contain. To call him too good for this sinful earth would be an exaggeration, but his high-minded principles were a two-edged sword that I fear cut him more deeply.

Next time, we’ll take a look at Queen Xanthe. Stay tuned.

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