The Relics of War: The Scenes That Didn’t Make It
I was recently asked if there was anything in The Relics of War that I’d originally included as part of the story, then decided to scrap. The answer is YES. There were several.
With the original version of the story, I knew there were some issues, which is why I decided to rewrite the whole thing. During that process, I cut a number of viewpoints, storylines that were irrelevant to the overarching plot, and unnecessary fluff. I wanted to focus on the main players in the conflict and make sure the reader was emotionally invested in all of them. The removal of extraneous “stuff” had to be done. But there were pieces of the story that never made it into the original version, either.
These are all plot lines that I might one day revisit as part of a short story or related novella, but I have no plans to pursue them at present. It’s just interesting to think about.
Coreyaless’ backstory
I included this as “part one” of the original version of The Moon’s Eye. She went into detail about how her people were nearly destroyed by the Nameless god’s plague, how and why Karmada chose to spare her (and Danness), and some of the adventures that led to her meeting Arianna Janis.
Alone, it would have been a good enough story. Added to The Moon’s Eye, it was an unnecessary layer of complexity for a character that was not ultimately a major player in the final events.
I might one day revisit this story line, as I liked it, but it’s place should not have been in the main trilogy.
Tamarin Serales’ viewpoint
The young Deluchan queen plays a role in both Dranamir’s story and Ravin’s. In the original iteration of the series, she had her own set of viewpoint chapters. It added a bit more information about the circumstances surrounding her ascension to the throne and there was more about her relationship with Jasom.
Hers was a viewpoint I went back and forth on for sometime before deciding to cut it from the series entirely. The key elements of her story unfold well enough without it. (She’s also not a very likeable character, and I feared readers wouldn’t connect with her at all.)
Jyr Za’Lan, the Storyteller
Jyr was featured in the original stories relatively prominently. He was a traveling storyteller and a man with the talent for magic, though he’d never been trained. At one point, he encountered Alyra, who attempted to seduce him, but for the most part, his storyline was extraneous fluff. I liked his character, but it detracted from the main story rather than enhanced it.
Unfortunately, Jyr had to go.
Berasin Jarens’ viewpoint
As the Radiant, he has a different perspective of the Council of Auras and the world’s politics than Tavesin does as an apprentice. However, his story didn’t need to be shown, since it was covered between Tavesin’s, Emra’s, and Ravin’s chapters.
His story featured a bit more detail about his connection to Shan’tar and some of the lengths he went to in order to spare his family the shame and backlash that certain events led to. Unfortunately, I can’t go into much detail about those events, since some of them aren’t revealed until book three.
In the end, I decided to cut his viewpoint entirely, as it did little to enhance the overall story.
Thanks for reading this week’s post! If you’d like to learn more about The Relics of War, you can do so by clicking here: The Relics of War series page
