Series Introduction
"The Sahara Chronicles" has several characters throughout the trilogy. Many of them are mysterious for a majority of the book and you'll know their personality only when you read it all, since it's not all in the same place.
Here, I am going to post "Get to Know the Character" for you all, to acquaint yourselves with them and see if they are how you had imagined them to be. Well, this is how I imagined them.
The first character that I am going to present is Yor Castel.
Character Introduction
Yor Castel, you should know, never had a name when he was first created. He was always referred to as "the young Foreigner", with the capital F. In fact, I had never imagined that I would ever write the story at all! It was originally just a piece of fantastical one-shot written for an examination, back in my second year BA. The prompt was that there was a wealthy farmer, who had a wife and two sons (if I remember correctly). Some tragedy befalls them and we had to elaborate on it. I wrote what is to-day Part I of "The Young Foreigner". The Prologue was added months later, followed by the rest of the story.
Yor Castel has the recurring dream of seeing a girl in the well of his home village, Selina. As a young boy, he would frequent the nearby forest that is deemed to be dangerous, and that is how he first comes across it. So, the well in his dream is very much real. But, what is new is the face he sees in it. Therefore, when he sees the same face making an unexpected appearance the next week, Yor is taken aback. Also, as she starts living with them, he develops a certain curiosity and wonders why she had to be the one to appear in his dreams constantly. What was so special about her?
That is why, he is always trying to make her talk, on the day of the Spring Festival. When she does, he is captivated by the sound of her voice and gets slightly addicted to it, wanting to hear more and more of it.
Character's Magical Abilities
Yor Castel is also an alchemist, apprenticed under the greatest Wizard of the century, Merlin. His speciality is making different potions using chemicals, but he is also shown quite adept at wielding his master's staff, the Rudra. For his chemical potions, he has a magical belt, which was a gift to him from his master just before he embarks on his journey to seek his fortune.
Character's Physical Features
Yor Castel is around 5'8" and has a lean figure. He is tanned skin and curly black hair. When he is first introduced in the Prologue, he was around 17 years old and by the time he meets the Hudsons, he is 18 years. He prefers wearing long coats over whatever he is wearing, like his father used to wear. People who had known him since his childhood would say that he looks exactly like his father did, except that he had his mother's unusual green eyes.
Unlike a typical Grant denizen, Yor is shy and does not make friends easily. He likes to people first, before interacting with them. His journey, in one way, eliminated this to some extent. Also, meeting Elmeida made him forget his shyness, owing to his innocent curiosity about her taking precedence in his mind.
Character Relationships
Throughout the story, "The Young Foreigner", Yor either develops or shown to already have certain relationships with different characters. He was childhood friends with Lady Lorel and Linel. Also, in "The Forbidden Journey", we realise that he had known Bastinda, too. Bastinda was Elmeida's younger sister, who is later revealed to be the villain of the first book. Lorel and Linel were Yor's closest childhood friends and they all used to meet up during the holidays, until their fathers went on a journey and ended up as missing denizens. Yor's mother went in search of his father, but she, too, never returned. Yor had a rather good relationship with his parents. He idolises them, to the point that he sometimes wonders if they would be proud of him if they saw him now.
In "The Forbidden Journey", we realise that Yor has had a daughter with his wife, Elmeida, called Yory, named after him, and whom he had much affection for. Yory was obviously precious to him and he is worried that she may not recognise him after spending a majority of her childhood away from him, on Earth.
With Merlin, his master, Yor had a parental relationship. Yor adored Merlin just like her had adored his parents. He trusted his master very much and learned all he knew about alchemy from him.