So today I'm focusing my spotlight on the Xhelian character that people know the most about.Yes, our favorite undead knight, Skulhoarse. If anything I'm just going to shed some light on his development history in very general terms, so that I don't have to keep trying to explain things.
This guy's name in general goes way back, back to the days when I just mashed words together to make names (well heck I still kinda do, but instead I do it with syllables now). He was some random skeleton general guy who was a bad guy but that's about it. That old story died, and so did he, but I resurrected his name and attached it to a familiar zweihander-wielding undead knight when I first made the Immortal Avatar about 3 years ago, making him one of its 10 protagonists. Here's what he looked like then:
He looked a bit more ragged but otherwise the same guy. I liked this look actually, but at some point I got fascinated with gothic armor (probably thanks to Medieval 2) and decided it would be cool if he was a fully armored guy, essentially making the armor his body. And plus I was getting tired of people saying he looked like Skeletor. I don't have any beef with Skeletor or anything but I usually prefer my characters to stand on their own. So yeah, I came up with his current appearance.
Some months after, I decided to create the Hundred Suns storyline and took most of the IA protagonists and stuck them in there, except for Skul and a couple others. Skul's story was still strong on its own so I decided to keep it that way. After the GW Tourney hype died down, and I started reading more graphic novels (specifically Conan ones), I got some serious influence and wanted to make a storyline series that follows one guy's adventures around the world, where I don't have to write huge long-winded stories every time and instead write smaller episodes. With that in mind, I started to go crazy creating possible Skulhoarse stories and it just took to the sky after that.
So we come to today, where he's pretty much the poster boy of Xhelia and his story is basically the flagship of it. Other than Skulhoarse's story, the Xhelia story I'm developing the most is Immortal Avatar, to which he is still a protagonist. So yeah, he's definitely the bigshot now. Not bad for a formerly invalidated character.
So why did I get so attached to him? Probably because he represents some of my desires and ideals in some cases. I'll admit that the concept of immortality and being able to travel the world without risk of harm and with all the time of the world is perhaps my biggest unattainable dream.
At the same time, I made sure that Skul was not like every other undead protagonist you see out there, who is usually some kind of antihero or is woefully powerless to their own dark side. Nope, Skul is a total saint and the personification of a "white knight", and the only thing dark or evil about him is the fact that he's undead. This goes as far as making him actually dislike the idea of vengeance even though he was brought back from the dead to bring about just that.
Does that make him a mary sue? Well from what I know, a mary sue is a character for whom all good things happen and always wins. In this aspect, he definitely isn't, because a lot of his stories revolve around his idealism making him gullible to manipulation and the fact that he seems powerless to save the people he cares about despite his best efforts. Dying wasnt enough for this guy; fate constantly throws him a crappy hand and he has no choice but to shoulder it.
But at the same time, he has a strong will as undying as his body and is determined to do what mortals or weaker beings are unable to do so they don't have to do it themselves. So no matter how much crap fate buries him in, he will constantly push on and continue to do good deeds. Besides, he's immortal and he's undead. What excuses does he have?
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