Guest Post: Matt Xell

The Canids of Wendsil

Hey everyone! And thanks so much, Ashlinn, for having me on your blog.

In this post (I hope it's not too long) I'll be talking about the Canids, a race of sentient (self aware and conscious) wolves that I developed for my book Tower of Parlen. We'll be looking at what they are exactly and what their role is in the fictional world of Everlon (the setting of Tower of Parlen Min and The Narrow Escapes of Ves Asirin series of books). We'll also be looking at their design and features, what inspired me to come up with these characters, and then, of course will be looking at their unique language.

In the world of Everlon, other than the humans, there are five other sentient beings (or Naru'ei) that inhabit the world. These include the wolves (or Canids) that reside in Serbian Europa, the prime-apes (or Kolus) of Etrik, reptilians ( or Dilas) in Bradil and the Hordhogs ( or khumbas) in the Opus Empra’s India. These powerful beings exist as guardians of the four great Jinn; Bei’alumos of the fire, Katu’nga of the wind, Maori of the water and Hendiri of the earth who are angel like spirits with pivotal roles in the structural balance of the nature, ecosystems and the climates in the world of Everlon. This structure was set up by Noah after the great flood under the instruction of Elohim (the God and Creator of Everlon).

The average adult wolf weighs about 300 to 500 pounds and stands at a height of about 8 to 12 feet (when standing on hind legs only). An average wolf can run at an approximate speed of 75 - 150 miles per hour. There are generally three kinds of wolves: the Kapke (or grey wolves), the Mayake ( or blue wolves) and Haduke (or black wolves). Wolves usually travel and live in packs of over 100. A pack leader is known as the Zagnol, which means 'the great alpha.’ He’s the largest and the strongest of the pack and is distinguished by his silvery-white fur. Of course all packs around the world are ruled by one Queen-wolf known as Ne'era; distinguished by her scarlet fur, she is also the only wolf that can summon the Jinn of fire; Bei'alumos.


The wolves (and the other four sentient beasts of Everlon) communicate via a type of telepathic mind language (which is a dialect of the angels' language) called Kapriseik; what most normal men would make out to be faint and meaningless whispers. But the closest it really sounds like to those that have studied the language (and me 'cause I made it up) is mixture of old middle eastern languages like Hebrew or Aramaic. An example would be my personal favourite line from the second book in the series Eclipse Over Atuwis Wood, which goes,  'Hesta du Christe, ha'ud de alui,'  that means ' Thank you lord, for I am alive'.

As for where the idea and inspiration for the Canids came from, it's pretty lame actually --  its just wolves, I love wolves (tah dah). When I was working on Everlon, I obviously wanted it to have fantasy elements like magical creatures but I didn't want something too mythical like Minotuars and Elves, and nothing to generic like vampires and werewolves. Werewolves almost won me over though, 'cause I liked the way they looked in the Van Helsing movie. Then I thought, why not just separate the man from the wolf -- but keep the wolf form of the man (I dunno if that makes sense). When I saw the wolf-like creature called the Scrunt in the Lady in the Water movie that pretty much sealed the deal -- there would be massive wolves in Tower of Parlen Min.

In the book (warning - spoiler up ahead!), a pack of wolves known as the Canids of Wendsil (and also the pack with the Queen-wolf) have just returned to the district of Meden in the country of Machus Ina (where the Tower is located) from Serbia during the start of winter in that region, taking residence in caves at the foot of Mount Enim. It is there that they, in a surprising move, are attacked by a mysterious and powerful individual who, in the attack,  basically steals the Jinn of fire from the queen and disappears.

After recovering, the wolves are given what's called the Order of Isbari by their pack leader, which is an order to hunt and kill the thief of the Jinn and retrieve it. And this pretty much puts everyone living in the district of Meden in great danger and a lot of people that enter the nearby Meyr Woods are attacked, some of them gravely injured and nearly killed.

The protagonist of the book, Ves Asirin, has a few encounters with the Canids, most of them life threatening. And during the most deadly encounter with them he learns that not only can he hear their language Kapriseik but he can in fact speak it just as fluently as they can. And from them he also gets a hint of  who or what he is ultimately destined to become ... should he survive the coming disastrous and tragic events that are about to befall the whole district of Meden ...

And that's it, I hope you enjoyed it! Thanks and cheers for readin'!

Matt
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Click the link to have the chance to win Tower of Parlen Min!Click here Contest ends August 2nd,2011.

Thanks so much for reading and thank you Matt!
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