Queshire
Istar
So the three main characters I have now are an unfazed everyman type guy from our world resurected as a zombie that feeds off magic living in a magical world, a sweet, bubbly slightly-cloudcuckoolander Necromancer Girl, and a psycho White Mage who will KICK YOUR ASS with healing magic.
Now I need a fourth main character at least, a guy to balance out the guy-girl ratio, and preferibly a rogue-type character to fill out the classic fantasy team roster. So I thought, what about a ninja? Not one of those generic black PJ wearing ninjas either, the type of Ninja that might actually have actually been around in feudal Japan, you know, peasents using farming tools as weapons to secretly fight back against their Samurai overlords, that don't LOOK like ninjas, often infiltrating the enemy compound over weeks or months disguised as gardners or other types of people that others just ignore.
Then there's the question of what race to make him, at first I thought about having him be a generic fox-person, a kitsune, but that's too generic.
So I asked myself, what race would make the worst ninja? Naturally I thought of Orcs.
Now Orcs in my story are slightly different. They were magically created as by the Elves as labourers and foot soldiers. After gaining their independence in the chaos following The Great War they set up their own civilization that's a combination of ancient rome and samurai Japan. They are still big, strong, green, and have a warrior culture, though it's more refined then the general tribal berserker type of Orc.
On one level, a ninja orcs could work, any warrior nation needs special operatives, though there would be few of them, and considered "not real orcs" by more classical orcs, on another level though, I'm afraid it'll stretch the reader's suspension of disbelief, and I'm afraid I'm just trying to create cheap humor by simply messing with expectations.
I don't want to be the type of writer where the readers can say "Oh hey, he's describing this big, horrible monster, just wait, the monster's gonna end up being a real nice guy that invites the heros to tea" and end up being right.
So, any thoughts?
Now I need a fourth main character at least, a guy to balance out the guy-girl ratio, and preferibly a rogue-type character to fill out the classic fantasy team roster. So I thought, what about a ninja? Not one of those generic black PJ wearing ninjas either, the type of Ninja that might actually have actually been around in feudal Japan, you know, peasents using farming tools as weapons to secretly fight back against their Samurai overlords, that don't LOOK like ninjas, often infiltrating the enemy compound over weeks or months disguised as gardners or other types of people that others just ignore.
Then there's the question of what race to make him, at first I thought about having him be a generic fox-person, a kitsune, but that's too generic.
So I asked myself, what race would make the worst ninja? Naturally I thought of Orcs.
Now Orcs in my story are slightly different. They were magically created as by the Elves as labourers and foot soldiers. After gaining their independence in the chaos following The Great War they set up their own civilization that's a combination of ancient rome and samurai Japan. They are still big, strong, green, and have a warrior culture, though it's more refined then the general tribal berserker type of Orc.
On one level, a ninja orcs could work, any warrior nation needs special operatives, though there would be few of them, and considered "not real orcs" by more classical orcs, on another level though, I'm afraid it'll stretch the reader's suspension of disbelief, and I'm afraid I'm just trying to create cheap humor by simply messing with expectations.
I don't want to be the type of writer where the readers can say "Oh hey, he's describing this big, horrible monster, just wait, the monster's gonna end up being a real nice guy that invites the heros to tea" and end up being right.
So, any thoughts?