A hidden facet of Lord Damantin

Lord Damantin is indeed a really awesome character in An Ominous Book. Quite frankly I have no idea how he popped up. It's like, in which moment of my life could I have ever concieved such an awesome character? When I was writing the scene where he appears in Diaspora (he briefly appears in the 3rd novel Exile but I have already mentioned in an earlier post that I am a really weird person and the first book of this series that I wrote was Diaspora), I wanted to prove to Spaulding that not only was the exiled elf clan really bizarre and "different" from the rest, I wanted the clan to have a member that was beyond amazing. Strong, excellent in sorcery and fencing, handsome, brave, noble, a unique yet entrancing personality and pretty much all-around awesome.

I was in my bedroom one Saturday morning just typing in a hurried frenzy with a tad too many Red Bulls and the second it came to naming this unique character, I sort of recalled that villanous character in Sailor Moon R for a brief instant and the name Damantin simply appeared on the keyboard. I blinked for a moment and realized that the name was just so suitable for this new character that I kept it.

For weeks I was imagining the amazing scene where Damantin summons his demonic beast and it was a huge joy when I finally went around to writing it. The Arcana has the unique shape of a floating eyeball with elongated red and blue eyelashes that resemble tentacles. The beast can shoot energy beams with a potentially inifite amount of destructive power, the capacity of carrying passengers (albeit Damantin uses this ability as a last resort because he feels pain whenever something touches the ultra sensitive eyeball) and the huge military advantage of long distance espionage that doesn't require Damantin to be in full meditation.

Whereas normal beasts require the user to be in meditation to engage in long distance espionage, Damantin's unique ability allows him to verbally relay what the Arcana is seeing in real time. Yet another reason why Froylan was so desperate to invite him to join the guard.

Damantin has many facets that are hard to discern at first sight. However, one of them that intrigues me the most is his love life. He somewhat admitted to have slept with random women (given he has visited a pirate haven named Yurtoda Bay, it isn't out of the possibility that he's visited a brothel or two during his long lifetime), but has Damantin ever really loved a woman before?

One of the more peculiar scenes of A Calamity (book 5 of the series) is when he wakes up fully nude in a bed alongside a very attractive female guard named Kerfalmin. She drugged him and they slept together (albeit Damantin has no memories of what happened). While he was expectedly very upset, he later on bumps into her in Richard's castle in Ayrtain dressed in his clan's robes and she rudely slaps his face and insults him. At that moment, a spark appeared in his heart and he started to harbor feelings for the arrogant guard.

While we discover in the 6th novel Quandary that their relationship fizzled with few hopes of them getting back together, I thought this drawing would be fun to make because it's an aspect of Damantin that is seldom seen in the novels.

I hope you enjoyed it although Damantin never kisses Kerfalmin wearing his clan robes in the story!