I am a fan of manga. But sometimes I am not satisfied with the standard story formulas of your average manga. I refer to the usual young boy hero type storylines. I look at some of the things that usually happen in these stories and I think, "Thats okay but it could have been much better".
So I decided to create my own shonen manga type series. It would have a young teenage boy hero and martial arts action fights and magical powers but it would not follow all the same story formulas. I can't get into all of the differences yet because I am not done writing it and I don't want to give away any spoilers.
However I do have some art to share for most of the main cast from the story. Most of the art was done for me by a wonderful artist who goes by the handle oblivionwriter on deviantART
We will begin with the main character our young teenage boy hero, his name is Kaer.
Kaer possesses the title Dragon Spirit. There are many wild spirits that go around possessing people and wreaking havoc. The Spirit Binder Sorcerer council binds the spirits within individuals who can control them. Sometimes the spirits end up in children where they become dormant. When those children reach adolesence the spirits awaken and need to be bound and controlled.
The Dragon Spirit is the most powerful and dangerous spirit of all and Kaer ended up with it pretty much by chance alone. There are some who believe the spirits should be used as weapons. If the spirit carriers were ever militarized the Dragon Spirit would be the most valualable weapon of all.
Kaer is not some destined or prophesized hero. He is just a kid who ended up with this power by accident. I try to adress the issue of why anyone would give teenagers immense magical powers, in this case it was not given to them, the spirits jump into their hosts totally randomly.
I do my best not to make Kaer too heroic or altruistic. He is the main character of Dragon Spirit, he is the "hero" of the story, but that does not mean he is some paragon of virtue. He has very human motivations for what he does.
And next is Master Yen, the leader of the Spirit Binder Sorcerer Council and primary mentor and father figure to our hero Kaer.
Master Yen looks like your average kindly old martial arts sage character and to be honest that is what he will seem like for a good part of the story. It will not be until later that you learn how far he is willing to go to protect his world, to prevent the spirits from being used as weapons and to keep Kaer from being overtaken by the Dragon Spirit.
Now we have the sort of girl-next-door/childhood female best friend character, her name is Alina.
Alina possesses the Dancer warrior spirit. Now she does indeed have a crush on Kaer at the start of the story and of course Kaer is totally unaware of her feelings. But when you think about it unrequited love is tricky enough, when you add teenagers with magical powers to the mix it becomes dangerous and instead of dragging anything out I try to deal with it early on. Alina has a small character story arc and at the end she considers that maybe the problem is not with herself, maybe the problem is Kaer and maybe she deserves better than him.
By the way here is another image of Alina in a different version of her usual outfit, I think this might be a more "mature" version of her from later in life.
And now we have the other childhood best friend, his name is Shou.
Shou possesses the Fighter warrior spirit. He has been friends with Alina and Kaer since they were kids. I guess you could consider him the upbeat happy go lucky best friend of the cast. But Shou is also something a prodigy. He is one of the first spirit binders to do more than just dominate his spirit, he formed a partnership with it. Shou does not struggle to control the Fighter Spirit because he has befriended it.
Next we have the best friend rival character, his name is Vick.
Vick possesses the Storm elemental spirit. In terms of raw power he is one of the only characters who is almost an equal to Kaer and the Dragon Spirit. Of course because they are so similair they do not like each other and a rivalry begins. However Vick kind of gets over the whole rivalry thing pretty quickly and instead concentrates on flirting with Alina.
And next up is the disinterested love interest character, her name is Esther.
This piece was done by an artist called AkumaSoul on deviantART
Esther possesses the Bear beast spirit. So sometimes she can turn into a bear. Of course as soon as Kaer sees her he is infatuated and of course Esther is not interested at all in his advances. Now in most cases eventually she would realize her true feelings and fall in love with the hero. I don't think that is going to happen here. Like most teenage boy heros sometimes Kaer can be selfish jerk and cause trouble, the other characters tolerate this because he is the "hero". Esther however always recognizes when Kaer is being selfish and does not tolerate it or find it in any way lovable or endearing. And for the most part Kaer is not interested in Esther because she is such a wonderful person, he wants her because he can't have her and there is nothing more noble or pure than that about the attraction.
Next we have Owain and Mihn.
I put Owain and Mihn together because they are a couple, they are married, they are husband and wife. They are not teenagers. They are probably in their thirties. They are both members of the Spirit Binder Sorcerer Council and teachers to the teenage spirit binder heroes. Owain is much more laid back in his teaching approach while Mihn tries to enforce strict discipline.
I am still not sure exactly how old Owain and Mign are but I do know they are old enough to have a teenage daugther, her name is Eliza.
Eliza possesses the Shadow demon spirit. Owain and Mihn have a very hard time controlling their daughter. She is constantly running off and getting into trouble. She is the bad girl character of the story. Eliza has one of the more rare demon spirits. The demon spirits have a much higher rate of overtaking their hosts and causing mayhem. There is a certain stigma attached to demon binders that Eliza resents. People are quick to judge Eliza.
Next is another adult character, his name is Zael.
Zael is a member of the Spirit Binder Sorcerer Council. He is also the teacher and mentor to Esther. Esther has a bit of a crush on her teacher Zael. Now you have seen this sort of thing before, a teenage girl is attracted to her older male teacher but he is totally oblivious. The difference here is that Zael is aware of Esther's attraction to him and it kind of freaks him out. Zael knows what could happen to his reputation if anything inappropriate were to happen between him and Esther. But at the same time he has put a lot of time and effort into shaping her into a gifted Spirit Binder and he does not want to abandon that progress. Then again he feels he has a whole new opportunity for shaping the next great spirit binder hero when he meets Kaer.
Next we have the smug asshole character, his name is Rook.
Rook possesses the Swordsman warrior spirit. Rook is an old friend of Zael's. Rook was once a member of the Spirit Binder council but these days he works "freelance" for the military. Now just about every story has a character like Rook. That one character who you can tell just by looking at him that he can't be trusted. Everything about the way this character moves and smiles tells you he is going to stab the hero in the back eventually. I'm not going to say that Rook is not the sort to stab someone in the back. I don't want to spoil anything but don't be to quick to judge any character, even the obvious backstabbing ones. You never know when their might be a bigger picture.
Finally we have the first "villian", his name is Witz.
Witz possesses the Earth elemental spirit. Witz is certainly an antagonist but I am reluctant to call him a villian. Witz does attack Kaer and the other characters early on but there is a bigger picture to everything. Witz got a glimpse of that bigger picture and decided the best way to do good would be to destroy the Dragon Spirit's host.
There are still a few more characters to go but that is all I have so far.
