Adapted from my remarks at the Stone Serpent book launch May 26 2026
Bobby Sands was a real life hero - a poet, a soldier, an elected member of parliament, and a prisoner of war. At 27 years old, he gave his life for his nation after 66 days on hunger strike on May 5 1981. An Irish lad from a working class neighbourhood, Bobby had no royal blood, no magic, he was not a “chosen one”, yet he inspired millions worldwide by standing up to the brutal occupation of his homeland - a cause he was willing to sacrifice everything for. And what more can be asked of a hero? A hero stands for something, fights for something, and is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for that something. In this regard, the heroes of literature and of fantasy in particular could learn a thing or two from their real world counterparts.
Magic Blood: Fantasy as an Aristocratic Genre
Fantasy, as a literary genre, has its origins in fairy-tales. Fairy-tales being essentially folk-tales reformulated and rehashed for European aristocratic or bourgeois audiences between the 17th and 19th centuries. From the beginning, they were meant to entertain princes, princesses and the well-to-do, not working class boys from Belfast! The best that a commoner can generally hope for in a fairy-tale is to marry the king’s daughter, the medieval equivalent of winning the lottery, thereby raising his family to noble status. His friends, neighbours, village etc. would be expected to know their place and respect their betters in an idealized feudal order that could only exist in fairy-tales.
Fantasy is a fundamentally conservative genre. Emerging in reaction to the sweeping societal changes of the Industrial Revolution, it appealed to traditional notions of authority: thus it was not enough for Bard to have killed a rampaging dragon in The Hobbit, to become ruler of Laketown he also had to be a legitimate descendant of the Kings of Dale. Traditional fantasy heroes are special because of their illustrious lineage that marks them for greatness and is often the source of their magic and fantastical abilities. Aragorn is bigger, stronger and more long-lived than other men thanks to his royal Numenorean blood - 80 years old at the start of Lord of the Rings and still in his prime! While the Hobbits in Lord of the Rings might not be descended from royalty, with the exception of Sam they hail from the Shire’s gentry and are effectively nobles in their own right. Tolkien makes a big deal of their ancestry and Bilbo only embarks on his adventure with Thorin and Company because his “Tookish blood” takes over long enough to override the “respectability” of his Baggins ancestry.
This magic blood trope hasn’t gone away. It shows up in Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and almost every other fantasy franchise you can name. I myself used it in my Falhorne novels in which the main character Tagus derives great power from his mother’s sorcerous bloodline. However, I consciously avoided it in Stone Serpent. Ta, its protagonist, has no innate power and must consciously learn all of the mystical abilities he comes to wield in the course of his perilous quest to save Kenetchi from the Serpentmen. In the upcoming sequel to Stone Serpent, Arena of the Gods, Ta’s father will even admit to his son that he is not a descendant of the legendary heroes of Kenetchi as he previously believed - the same heroes that he idolized in childhood. Instead, Ta’s father was an orphaned peasant boy and the Askarii powers that he wields can technically be learned by anyone with sufficient discipline and focus. Blood does not matter.
I had to laugh when game designer and Youtuber Matt Colville had his mercenary DnD party The Chain of Acheron get hired to confront the evil “Invincible Overlord” who rules most of the known world. This would be like Blackwater getting hired to take on the Pentagon and it beggars belief in even the most outlandish fantasy setting. A more realistic approach would see the Chain of Acheron already working as hirelings of the Overlord (who almost certainly has the deepest pockets) before being betrayed by him and witnessing the deaths of most of their comrades. Now it’s personal. Now the formerly unscrupulous mercenaries have a reason to challenge a superpower with all of the deadly and unprofitable risks that entails, similar to the Bridge Burners in Steven Erikson’s Malazan novels, effectively becoming the partisans and resistance fighters that they would otherwise be tasked with crushing for their paymasters.
I consciously rejected the heroic mercenary trope in the Falhorne novels. Tagus, the protagonist, is part of the Falhorne - an ancient order of warriors dedicated to defending the now persecuted followers of the Old Gods. He’s not in it for the money. He’s fighting for his people, risking his life to protect family and community, the very things that the goons hired by his enemies are trying to destroy. Heroism isn’t something you do for money, it’s above and beyond that. People who are in it for the money in Vinos and the Thousand Cities are more than willing to cut deals with evil, even when that evil is of the non-breathing kind that drinks blood at night!
All that being said, the “heroic sellsword” can and often does subvert the “magic blood” trope discussed earlier. Conan The Barbarian can become the legitimate King of Apollonia through brute force and military skill despite not being of royal blood - something that would make him a usurper in a place like Middle Earth. Sword and sorcery heroes don’t have to be blue bloods, they just have to be tough. Frodo (even Sam) could have become King of Gondor if the Lord of the Rings were a sword and sorcery epic, though he’d have to grow some muscle first. As an aside, even if Frodo wouldn’t dare challenge Aragorn for the crown, one Tummington Pattifoot III (aka “Slim Fatstacks Pattiwhacks”), Halfling adventurer extraordinaire and protagonist of my longest ever campaign of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, most certainly would have!
The future sequel to Falhorne, Gendarme, will follow members of the Royal Guard of Vinos, the elite Gendarmerie, and their transformation from loyal soldiers to rebels against church and state. Set in the same principality that forms the main setting for the Falhorne novels, the soldiers of the Gendarmerie are tough men and women many of whom were once sellswords and, despite now being soldiers in a professional army, continue to display a lot of that unscrupulous “beat people up for money” ethos. Each of them are flawed in their own ways and bear mental and physical scars, yet they are the ones who will ultimately change everything. They will transform into defenders of the people they were trained to repress and lead a revolution that will change the Thousand Cities forever.
Stone Serpent
Stone Serpent, like the Falhorne novels, is sword and sorcery but with real heroes rather than mercenary anti-heroes. Ta, our teen protagonist, begins his journey fighting for basic survival. Like Mad Max his post-apocalyptic world is one of “fire and blood”. But as he grows up amid the ruins of his native land of Kenetchi he learns the moral principles that he will ultimately fight for.
Stone Serpent chronicles the downfall of a civilization, ancient culture and way of life that we get a picture of in Chapter 1 with the celebration of the Ancestors’ Day Festival in Ta’s home village of Ne-Ket. We see an outcast teenager who wants to be man, desires respect as defined by his society and culture while also craving the excitement and adventure that farm life doesn’t allow for. This leads directly to Chapter 6 when things fall apart and a teenager’s curiosity is enough to initiate the downfall of a society with fundamentally rotten foundations.
And who survived this cataclysm? Who survived the downfall of the ancient realm of Kenetchi with its priests, landlords and toll collectors? People survived. People built new homes, tried to care for their families, or fled to safer lands, but never forgot where they came from. Chapter 17 tells their story.
These are my heroes - frightened teenagers, refugee labourers, washed-up army veterans, failed academics - they don’t always share the same culture and language, they are scared/flawed in their own ways, but they are the people and they will save the world from evil. No saviour or lost king is returning to save them. Together they must find the strength to save themselves and that’s how it’s always been.
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