Cem (pronounced “Gem”) is convinced he’s destined for greatness that will “shake the world.”
He’s a Sipahi warrior, son of a Sanjak Bey, and hunting a wolf is frankly beneath his superior intellect. The entire concept is beneath him: tromping through the woods, hunting a feckless beast which has no chance against a mind like his.
Except he doesn’t know the first thing about hunting.
He doesn’t know wolves travel in packs. He’s too proud to ask his men for help. And when he finally agrees to set a trap, he falls asleep in the tree while waiting, nearly tumbling out when the goat they’re using as bait lets out its natural bleating call.
Cem jerks awake in terror, convinced the animal is possessed and about to summon a djinn.
His scout has to gently explain: “It is a sound some goats make, beyim. Not uncommon. I wouldn’t expect you to have troubled yourself with the calls of livestock.”
Cem remains completely oblivious. Even while dangling from a branch, bow dropped in the dirt below, he’s fantasizing about how he’ll “shine brighter than the sun” and show them all.
This is one of the major protagonists of Brotherhood of the Wolf.
Most fantasy heroes are competent from page one. Brooding. Destined. They know what they’re doing.
Cem is none of those things. That gap (between who he thinks he is and who he actually is) makes him more compelling than a hundred “chosen ones” combined.
The 30,000-word False Light novella gets us inside his head in a way the graphic novels can’t quite reach. You’re living inside his delusion while he’s confidently, cluelessly wrong about everything. And somehow, that makes you care about him more, not less.
He’ll eventually become the badass he already thinks he is. But watching him get there (failing, mismatched, and completely unaware of either) is what makes the story worth reading.
That’s what we built Brotherhood of the Wolf to do: give you characters who feel real because they’re wrong about themselves in ways that matter.
Brotherhood of the Wolf: Blood Tax. Issues #1 & #2 (66 pages of full-color art) + False Light digital novella (30,000 words) available now:
https://talesofkhayr.com/blood-tax/
-Wes