Character Interview: Korrian Undran
Posted by: Finch in Character Interviews, tags: character“Tell me about your home.”
He frowns. “Where I grew up, or now?”
“Either. Both.”
His lips twitch briefly into a half-smile. “I grew up in the north, on a small farm just outside Forgent. Life was hard but simple. You worked or you died.”
“What kind of work?”
He shrugs. “Farming in the short summer. Hunting, trapping and fishing year-round. Seems like we always had nearly enough, but not quite.”
“You watched a lot of people die.”
He looks away, takes a breath, nods without meeting my eyes, a small, sad smile on his lips. “Yes.”
“Which death was the most painful?”
He almost frowns, a flicker of anger, quickly mastered. “My father,” he says softly, finally looking back at me. “Father was the hardest.”
“How did he die?”
“There was a famine in the summer,” Korrian says, his voice unnaturally steady. “He’d given up too much to mom, to me. Hadn’t kept enough for himself. The cold killed him.”
“Did you have any brothers? Sisters?”
He nods once, sharply. “By then they were all gone.”
“Why was he the hardest for you?”
“Because he knew,” Korrian says, his face betraying the pain he prefers not to acknowledge. “He knew he was responsible for us. He just wanted to make sure we were provided for. Knowing he had to leave us killed him as sure as the cold did.”
“Your mother died soon after.”
He nods slowly, his eyes bright. “I buried her that spring, but she died when father did. It just took her that long to realize it.”
“Then what did you do?”
“I wanted to die. I… I didn’t have the courage. I went to Forgent. The smith took pity on me, made me his apprentice.”
“That’s where you found Dalor?”
“No,” he frowns. “That’s where Dalor found me.”
“The Gochin attacked Forgent.”
“Yes,” he said, shaking his head. “So many people died. So many lost their children, their wives, everything they had. I realized then that I wasn’t alone. I realized why all those stories about Dalor show him weeping while he kills. I found that I agreed with him.”
“Even if it were to mean that all your men would die?”
His eyes narrow, his look fierce, protective. “My men all come to me for the same reason. They hurt, they see the world for what it is. They know it’s wrong. They are the very best of men. They’re not fighting for themselves; they’re fighting for a future they’ll never see, for people they’ll never know. If I ultimately lead them to their deaths, how does that make me any different than any military commander? On the other hand, if we can trade our simple lives for a healed world, doesn’t that seem a fair trade?”
“You care a great deal for them.”
“They die for me. Of course I do.”
“What if you should let them down?”
His face angles fiercely. “I have never let them down.”
“You’re mortal, aren’t you?”
The sharpness fades, dulls into a faraway concern, the shadow of a reasonable doubt. “I can’t let them down. They need me. They trust me. There’s not a commander in all the world who’s as good as I am, sir, and that’s no boast. If I can’t keep them alive…”
“What if you can’t?”
He understands the question this time, shakes his head and smiles tightly. “I will. I understand what you’re saying. But I will.”
January 9th, 2007 at 11:32 pm - Edit
[...] In another tip of the hand, another character interview, Korrian, is now up and available for reading. Yes, this means that Paldor’s right-hand man will play a larger role in the Grey Lord. Fiercely loyal, naturally competent and steadfastly resolute, Korrian is both more complex than he seems and simpler than he should be — two things I quite like about him. [...]