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Have you wondered what it would be like to be a humanoid plant? Explore insights into their thoughts and experiences through available quotes. Read about a fan favorite scene and why it was selected among so many great moments in the book. Learn of the world in which they exist within with entertaining memes and related artwork. The behind-the-scenes creation, the step-by-step process that led to writing this book is available to learn about. Travel into a mysterious forest to discover the hidden treasures found in the book.
“The reason you are this way is because of her. I wanted a race of human born that reflected her kindness, love, compassion, everything that she shared with me. I wanted to be surrounded by those just like her.” - Gaia
Fan Favorite
A scene selected from the book.
There is a scene where Vaialen is doing something that his culture refers to as "rejuvenation" or the act of rejuvenating. To do so, an individual removes as much clothing as possible to expose their skin to the sunlight. Meanwhile, they dig a hole that they step into and push dirt up to about their ankles or lower leg. What is neat about this scene is that the act itself reflects a plant burying its roots in the ground and exposing its outer layer to the sunlight. It allows the individual to enhance their body's capability to use photosynthesis to create the energy they need. Also, it's a cute scene between Emeraial and Vaialen. He is shy reacting around her while she starts to think of him as a potential romantic interest.
“We’re more plant than animal. We are kind of a hybrid between the two.” - Emeraial
Relevant Images
“Ruby soon found a small home where three dragons lived. There was a daddy dragon, a mommy dragon, and a baby dragon… I’m sorry. How about this? Ruby soon found a small home where three dragons lived. There was a mommy dragon, a mother dragon, and a baby dragon…” – Emmanuelle
Origin Story:
So many versions...
This novel went through multiple drafts that the author lost track of how many changes were made. The original draft was written several years before returning to the book. The first version versus the final are so dramatically different that there is few similarities that would connect the two.
The original story had the vampire character "cured" of his vampirism by Gaia after she stole him from Lillith. He was leading a normal life as a human when the vampire goddess discovered his location, transported him to this hidden community and handed him off to one of her disciples that lived in this village.
The first version featured a village of elves living up in the treetops of an ancient forest. They rarely went down to ground level. There was a much larger cast with the main protagonist was Marian. Her friend Emeral became one of two reactions to this mysterious being. The whole time it's not revealed that the community is elves and there is this mystery of, "If they're not human, what are they?" In the mind of the author, the final revelation was anti-climactic.
Originally the former vampire, now human, was tortured extensively by a member of their community. He belonged to a cult of evil elves that hated humans. They were bigots to an extreme and the son of one of the high-ranking members felt they weren't going far enough and murders his father.
Eventually the human is discovered, and healing begins. Part of the story is about his road to recovery. Marian works with her father as a healer, leading to her curiosity concerning the stranger as a potential romance is hinted at.
Origin Story:
Well, you see...
The cast of elves in the original draft included Marian, her two parents who were also healers. Emerial who was a friend who thought humans were attractive compared to Marian who was mostly curious. There was their mutual friend, a guardian that was wanting to be with Marian but she wasn't interested in him. There was the elf who tortured the human, his father that he eventually murdered, his stepsister who was worried about her own life from her brother. There was a collection of "elders", two males and a female. One being Emerial's grandfather. On top of all of that, there was four baby dragons that acted more like little kids with magical abilities that showed up near the end. It was an incredibly thick, semi-confusing storyline. At one point Lilith shows up at the outer border of this sanctuary with an army of demons, werewolves, vampires, all to attack this community to get back what was stolen from her. Gaia, who didn't appear until near the end, finally intervenes and with the help of the traveler and the two dragon parents, forces the vampire goddess to escape. At the end, Marian and Emerial leave their homeland with the original vampire and the first werewolf accompanying them on their journey. The End.
By the time the author returned to the original draft of the book, he had made a multitude of changes to the series, including that there were two female dragon parents instead of a male/female. He wanted to make the dragon children to behave more like newborns, not grown-up kids. Several changes were needed.
The biggest change was making the elves into plant people. This developed them into being a unique race not found anywhere else in the world. It helped accent the fact that Gaia was responsible for the origins of the Human Born.
Origin Story:
Sunfire Influence
In the novel, Tinker's Treasure, Lexia meets the future daughter of Dryad, who is a plant based individual. Her name is "Gaia". At the time of writing this novel, he had reached a point that he knew that Dryad would be temporarily traveling between different realities. The goddess is inspired by this multi-demensional visitor to create a human born race of plant people. In turn, Dryad names her future daughter after her close friend, Gaia. The two series, the Human Born and Sunfire Chronicles crossed paths, one influencing the other.
In the first draft of the novel, Gaia was the little sister of the first vampire. He is corrupted by Lillith and becomes evil, harming his sister. This concept was eliminated in the second draft in that he was developing the history of the gods.
The elements of "evil" members of the society was removed to focus on a nurturing, ideal utopia free from violence, hatred, and bigotry. Because of this, the second draft eliminated the sadistic son, the stepsister, the murdered father, and the malevolent cult. The one who tortured the vampire was Lilith and Gaia was reacting to the theft of the eggs by stealing him from the vampire goddess. The author attempted to keep Marian's parents involved as well as the guardian friend, but it didn't feel right in the second version developed.
In this second version, the vampire was found in the village, cared for by the healers, and carefully watched over by the guardians of the elf community. Marian was still a main character, Emerial was actually close to being removed. Vaialen and Baiablio weren't even a concept at this point. Lastly, the scenes involving the three elders were cut out to streamline the narrative.
Origin Story:
Try again?
The new version of the dragon family was first introduced in the second draft. What became the opening scene in the final version was originally revealed in chapter five. Also, there was a series of scenes in the second draft involving Marian entering the mind of the vampire, helping him heal psychologically. It was a bizarre concept and led to these three personalities. One was when he was human, before he met Lilith. The second being his blind loyal self that gets a hint at in the final draft but quickly moves beyond that. The third being his post rebellion against Lilith. He has to reconcile all three versions of himself to discover the truth of who he is. Gaia communicates with him in several scenes as a voice, sometimes making appearances off screen, never seen. It is how she becomes more involved then appearing at the end in the first version.
Draft three changed everything and was a major step towards the final version. It's at this point that the author had the idea of making Maraian as Gaia in disguise. Word choice was difficult to prevent her from telling a lie. She would carefully never include herself as a part of the community or being like the others. That left Emeraial to become the central protagonist since she was a much more interesting character versus the previous version of Marian. It was also during this draft of the story that Vaialen and Baiablio are introduced. In the second attempt, both were also gods in disguise. Mariana's parents are removed for obvious reasons and the guardian friend only gets a cameo when he encountered the baby dragon. He is the one who has his memories removed.
The biggest change was moving the dragon scenes to the first of each chapter and expanding the number that featured this beautiful family.
Origin Story:
Finally Finished
The final draft made some minor changes that affected the story. First off, Vaialen was no longer "the traveler" and was an original character. Too many people turning out to be gods felt silly. Certain scenes involving him were changed, new ones like the rejuvenation scene with Emeraial was added. His romantic interest on Maraian was eliminated, turning those feelings towards Emeraial in that he was no longer a god who knew who Maraian was. Lyuben made an appearance in the third draft, shortly before the kids ran off and so his involvement in finding the third child had to be fixed. The story of the three dragons was originally told by Kaida to her daughter on the tree branch but was changed for Emmanuelle to tell the story. Vaialen was cut out of the final scene involving the dragons and the vampire. No longer a god, he didn't served a role in that scene. There was a preparation for war scene that was reached, the vampire discussing strategy with the dragons to confront Lilith, when the author gave up on this version of the story. He felt that changes had to be made.
The final draft came into existence with the changes mentioned earlier. The final chapter took a few attempts. One version had Emeraial visiting Vaialen to say goodbye. The final scenes with Maraian were not finalized until a last-minute change hinting at the existence of the Tagonist Knights. There was trepidation going forward with naming them. He knew that this was an origin story for the knights as well as Mythos, Knight of Fables being Emerald. It was hinted at in the previous novel that this was true. There was a flashback scene involving Gaia talking to Dryad during her time as a knight. That cross over between series was a thrilling concept but didn't feel right. This book went through more dramatic changes and various versions of the story than any other written by this author.
“I am the reason why the vampire nation exists. I was the first of my kind.” - Gilgamesh
Easter Eggs and Inspiration
The ending of the novel hints at the fact that the Human Born series is the origin story of the Tagonist Knights. The five gods are representative of the five genres that become each of the knights. Gaia points out that Emerald will grow up to become Mythos, Knight of Fables and Folklore. Originally, the author was hesitant to mention the Tagonist Knights but the whole series was leading up what will connect to several other novels.
“To be clear, we could incinerate you, leaving you nothing more than ash and dust before you were even within arm’s reach of our children. All of your power, your strengths, speed, ability to heal, it means nothing to us.” - Kaida
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