Meet My Character: Eirik Gaelson

 So I'm starting a new blog series (and for some reason Blogger decided to ignore my schedule to post this on Monday and posted it early so just pretend this came out on Monday the 28th). This is my attempt to be organized in my blogging schedule this summer, so I'm hoping to publish this six post series every Monday through the first week of August. Then after this series is complete hopefully I will be able to introduce at least one or maybe both of those new WIPs I keep teasing you about.

In this series, I shall introduce you to each of my main characters (which I count as having a POV) from my two WIPs Rage Like the Gods and Of Stars and Shadows.

(all images via Pinterest, I take no credit for them)

This is Eirik Gaelson, he is my cheeky half-elf bard from Rage Like the Gods.

If I truly had a special ability given to me by the gods, it would be the ability to lie. Which is why I took it upon myself to decide that I would do a rotten job at saving the world. If I got caught up meddling in such affairs, I would probably only end up making everything a whole lot worse, prophecy or no prophecy. If I am truly a chosen one then the gods should have done a better job at the whole choosing part. They could have done better. Bloody Skyhold, literally anyone else would have been better than me.

Personality-wise he is cheery and usually optimistic, he can become easily caught up in his thoughts and sometimes they take a dark/melodramatic turn, but no matter what he goes through he always bounces back. He is resourceful and likes to be able to think highly of himself. He is charming and knows his way around most social situations. He is also relatively proficient with a bow, as well as being able to play a lyre, and flute. He always carries a notebook with him in which he scribbles down song lyrics as he tries to somehow figure out a ballad that will someday be sung from mountain to mountain. He lives by a creed that if he can get away with stealing something, that it deserves to be his.

ENFP/Slytherine

"Oh well, live and let learn. Next heist I’ll actually figure out a plan."

Theme songs:

High Hopes

Shattered

Dust and Gold

Perfect

Eirik has the luck of the devil on his side, and the charm of a bard. He doesn't quite know what he wants but he knows how to get it. The only thing that could stop him is his own indecision, and perhaps a poisoned sweet cake because that boy couldn't turn down a honeyed treat to save his life.

“You are very honest,” I say, slowly. We have only just met and already I know more about this Sassa than I think I even know about Bjorn. And I consider him like a brother to me.

She turns to me, pressing her lips into a thin line before quirking her brow. “What reason is there not to be?”

I shrug. “I don’t know, I suppose there isn’t. But a lot of people don’t even need a reason to be dishonest.” Including me. There are probably other ways to get what I want, to get people to like me, to get out of what I don’t want to do. But lies are so much easier.

As part of his good fortune, Eirik doesn't actually have a tragic past (which is really saying something when it comes to my characters). Both of his parents are still alive, as well as his drunk uncle who lives with them. His mother is a Lower Elf alchemist and his father a Lowlander with a hidden past (they are key characters in a different Ruskhazar book that takes place before the events of RLtG). Due to his father hiding from something in his past, Eirik does not carry a family name like Lowlanders tend to so he either takes the name of his father and goes by Gaelson in the Highlander fashion, or will simply go by a title such as The Bard in the fashion of the Lower Elves. Eirik has not actually spoken to his parents in some time on account of him running away from home to be a bard. It was not a well thought out plan, although to be fair most of Eirik's plans are not, and he has just been working up the nerve to reconnect with his family.

Besides, I’m me. And Alexi doesn’t stand a chance against me when I set my mind to wanting something. No one ever does.

I’m a thief, I’m used to taking things that shouldn’t be mine. Even Sassa.

The darker side to Eirik includes him having a bit of a drinking problem, a past as an incorigible flirt, and a skewed moral compass.

However Sassa, the lady knight, who Eirik has given his heart to is there to help be the moral center of his life. And to help beat up anyone who might oppose Eirik, because despite his penchant for thievery, he is opposed to taking a life. And his loyal best friend and fellow bard Bjorn is there to get into trouble with him if the need arises.

There are a lot of identities I am leaving behind to do this. The farmer’s son who is Sassa’s betrothed and a bard named Eirik is gone. Tonight I become the Masked Wolf and it’s a sacrifice I need to be able to make if I am to prove myself to myself. Once I am finally certain that Eirik is worth it, I will become him again. Until then I suppose I’m simply a public servant disguised as a thief.