The Author’s Kingdom is a series of articles, where the Author explains his perception of Heirs to the Kingdom. It is written to cover the festive season of Christmas 2016.

The Monsters of Morgan le Fey

One of the main aspects, and I might add some of the greatest fun when writing HTTK, is all the monsters Morgan creates to face the Specialists, and terrify Harry. Like all things within the books, I have spent some time behind the scenes creating not just the beasts, but also an origin, which is not always seen in the books. I thought today I would walk a devious path and show you a little more of the monsters and how they were created, I also like the fact that this close to Christmas I can add a little horror to the blog.

There is far more to Morgan le Fey than first meets the eye, and this was first hinted at in book two when Leenard and Runestone discuss the black book, which at the time was rumoured to be a myth. The book is the research of a member of the Fae Ofmoon known as Branna, she was placed in Avalon in the days before Rhiannon arrived, and her research was focused on the secrets of the Merle. Branna discovered a way to use the Merle to corrupt the creations of Hearne and Eve,and  she documented her work and mixed it with Fae magic with devastating results. This was a very long time ago, and the magic at the time was very rough and crude.

The book was hidden from Maud, one of Branna’s children, as Branna felt that Maud was far too destructive and dangerous to possess it, but when Morgan first began her work within the Whites Lines, she realised the power she could have if she could mix the two, and as a result she spent an age seeking the Black Book for her own. How she acquired I cannot at this point say, as it does have a part in the final book of the series, but I can say that she immediately began to work on improving all of Branna’s research.

Smoggets/Soul Taker.

In book three the group enter the castle of Morgan le Fey, and they encounter many vile creations, one of which appears at first relatively harmless, but this particular creature was created by Branna as one of her first weapons. The Smogget, as named by Jade at the time, was actually referred to as a Soul Taker by Branna. The puffs of smoke seek out a soul, and then begin to copy the image of that soul, as a result they grow into a smoky form that is an identical copy of the container of the soul i.e. a person.

The smoke then solidifies to look solid, and as it deepens in a smoky grey, the creature pulls its victim into a death hug, and as it embraces them, it slides into the body and takes control of it. It is a chilling sight to witness, and the body, soul and mind of the victim are taken over and become a puppet of the master or mistress. In the case of the castle at Dunnottar, it was the Dark One. They can be defeated by either confusing them, hence Ruby and Rowan as they laughed at the Smogget as it writhed to take a form, or once they begin to solidify they are vulnerable for a short time and can be killed with any blade or sharp weapon.

Houlen

Houlen means hole black in the old language, and again they were an experiment of Branna that went horribly wrong. She never managed to perfect the creature which was made by fusing the Merle with a Fae victim. Her problem stemmed from the fact that such was the corruptive power of the merle, the Fae she introduced to it died in horrendous ways. It was later that Morgan le Fey understood that Branna had only used Fae Ofmoon, which were also sky based like the Merle. With a few changes to the spell, and the introduction of Fae of Earth, she realised she could ground the Merle within the body which adapted better to Earth, and as a result she created a line of elegant and attractive dark creatures that had the ability to change at will into horrendous almost rabid like beasts.

They were initially named Houlen (Hole Black) due to the fact that when they changed from Fae like looking people into the skin stripped snarling creatures Robbie faces. Their inner personalities became so vacant, that if you were to look within them, they had become pure darkness and empty of anything remotely seen as a life form. Morgan’s first Houlen were crude but none the less terrifying, but they were earth bound and easily wiped out by the Marshals of Fae. After many years of work she refined them to add an ability to fly by manipulating the Fae ability of popping into a sprite like spirit. She also added an ability to grow increased claws and a capability to secrete a deadly poison or a sleeping poison that burned the body slowly over a prolonged period of time. Both deaths were incredibly painful before the end, and most died long before the full process was complete simply due to exhaustion and fear. I rank the Houlen as probably the most evil of all her creations.

Army of Death.

In book four we finally get to meet Harry’s greatest fear, in book three he sees them but they are dormant, in the fight on the moors he has to face thousands of them. The Army of Death, or as Scarlet names them ‘The Coffin Boys’ are the reanimated soldiers who died in previous battles. There were created to cause fear and it does to some degree work, most soldiers will bolt long before the slow methodical and semi mutilated body’s walk zombie like towards them. All things dead are Harry’s greatest fear, and I must admit I really enjoyed introducing them to him. Writing Harry as he slashed bits off them to find they did not die was a great experience, and there was a great deal of laughter as I sat alone composing each part of the battle scenes. I think the more twisted side of my nature created the Army of the dead specifically for Harry, hence the “Nice Earmuffs” joke from Jett.

Darkmares/Fear Faces

Morgan le Fey created the Fear Faces at Dunnottar as a side experiment of the Black Guard, a fearsome steroid pumped human with unnatural fighting abilities. She found out later that they had been named by Jade Darkmares, and changed the name as she thought it was a far better description. The reasoning behind Jade’s naming was that these leather clad warriors showed no skin or body part, they were encased in leather, with only the single panelled face mask that was removable. As the Darkmare lifted its mask, instead of seeing the soldiers face, you get to see the tortured face of the one you love most, hence your worst nightmare dressed in black, a Darkmare. I honestly cannot remember what actually inspired me to write Darkmare’s, I have a vague memory of being afraid of something, and from that moment I was able to create them and write down my thoughts, as is much the case with a lot of things I write, I am triggered by an event, but alas I cannot remember the source of inspiration. Maybe it is a good thing I no longer remember, what I do remember is writing the passage where Morgan is stood on the beak of her stone raven, as they fly out from the castle and she wails with laughter as she feels they will overcome Robbie and group, to which for a moment they almost did.

Bronteal

The Bronteal were inspired because of my son’s absolute love of dinosaurs. Alfie has a massive knowledge of them that even leaves me scratching my head, because to be honest I have no idea how he remembers the Latin names, let alone is able to translate them in a way that makes absolute sense. I had originally planned for Morgan to release large toothed eels into the waters of the Mirrored Lake, but as Alfie sat there waffling on about how such a Latin name meant actually long necked plant eater, I was so impressed with my son who was about eight at the time, that I put a Brontosaurus with my original eel and created the Bronteal. You can meet them in book six if you want to, although I would suggest you do not swim with them.

Marsh Hounds

The Marsh hound is a natural beast that lives in the marshes of Avalon, although Morgan has captured many and trained these large scruffy haired disgusting dogs for her own purposes. They have foul breath, flee infested matted fur, and much to the surprise of Jade they taste wonderful. I think the lesson here has to be, do not judge your food via the looks, have a taste before standing in judgement. Although it is strongly advised that you do not tell Steph.

The Marsh Hound is based mainly on my fear of large dogs. When I was seven I was bitten on the face by a dog, and as a result I am still afraid or at least untrusting of large dogs. I still have the scars on my face, so the thought of a giant dog snarling at me as it pounded towards me is still something that would cast me into a cold sweat of fear.

I have always felt that one of the greatest weapons you can use is fear, and Morgan who you have to understand has far less powers than those of the circles, uses fear to great effect. I want a new monster to appear in book eight, but as yet have not created one yet. I will at some point find something very scary and terrifying to add to the book, but I want to talk fear with a few people before I go away to concoct them. I was going to provide an explanation of the Piper Dwarves, who you last saw in book three. As you may recall, Robbie shoots at red cloth, and as the figure falls he fears he has killed a child. They did at the time appear to be an odd creature to have in the castle, but as with all things me, they were there for a very good reason, and you will be meeting them again in book eight. The final book is going to take you back to the past and the roots of Morgan le Fey, and part of that journey will show you many of the reasoning behind some of the things you have already met in HTTK, as I have always said, nothing is written without good reason, and so It is my hope to try and make this next book the best one to date, which is no small feat as I have a huge amount of pressure to match, let alone beat all the previous books.

I can promise a lot of monsters, devious acts and some truly inspiring skulduggery, and I hope that it will meet with all your approval.