#timor

República overprint, Portuguese Timor, 1913

Like Father, Like Daughter - Gift

Playing around with my sketch style still, and decided to draw the parents of Coco, Gizmo and Timor, a tiefling and warforged couple that was able to have a child thanks to a wish. Coco and Gizmo belong to @melithyst

'The balance is off.' - timor

'You mean the balance between host and symbiont?' - dax

'What other balance is there?

Someone's not playing fair. It wouldn't be Dax, so it must be the host.' - timor

'You're saying the problem is with Jadzia' - sisko

'No, no, not necessarily. It could be any one of the hosts.' - timor

West Timor Doors, Indonesia, 19th century,

Carved wood,

For this, I decided to talk about Timor, the protagonist of my original medieval fantasy story The Four.

5. How did you choose their name and why? Was it simply based on vibes or is there any specific meaning behind the name? Are the reasons behind their name different in- and out of universe?

The first thing you need to know about Timor, and this story in general, is that I came up with it when I was twelve. Speaking with the wisdom of hindsight, it was the first original novel I ever came up with that actually showed real promise, and the only original story from that stage of writing that I've kept around. Suffice to say, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, I just knew I wanted to write a fantasy story. The main concept for this character was that he starts out scared of everything, and through the course of the story, finds courage and eventually comes into his own by the end. So when I set about naming him, I just looked up "fearful" in the thesaurus and saw the word "timorous," which I'd never heard before. Thus, Timor was born. I still think it's a really solid name.

6. What was the thought process behind their appearance? Did you go mostly for the aesthetic or are there other reasons they look the way they do?

During the summer leading up to the school year in which I began developing The Four, I started reading the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander. The first installment, The Book of Three, had this cover in the publication I had:

While reading these books, I used to lie in bed just gazing at the covers and daydreaming, imagining completely new stories based on nothing but the cover art. Most of those daydreams led nowhere, but one thing I clung to was a character inspired by this picture of Taran.

In the end, Timor is almost nothing like Taran in terms of personality - Taran is impetuous and wants desperately to be a hero and a warrior like in the tales, while Timor would really rather just hide under the bed until the adventures and heroics find someone else. But I got that from the fearful look in Taran's eyes in this picture. And I also took his black hair as inspiration, and that band around his forehead? That became the catalyst for the whole plot!

But in case you're wondering, no, The Four has never included a pig nor a red-haired girl with a glowing bauble. I think even Baby Novie realized that would be too derivative XD