What is a drow? Have you ever seen a bonnacon? Have you heard the howl of a yeth hound? Ever visit the feywild?
Because I write fantasy and am a little obsessed with fae, sometimes I find myself worn out from all things fae and elvish. Strange, right? So, in my Twisted Tales: Crown of Roses series, I wanted to implement a character or two that were something a little different. And I thought it’d be important to fill my story with creatures not typically mentioned in fantasy romance stories.
Rather than only fae or elves, I went with a drow. Drow are thought to live underground—similar to dark elves if you’re familiar with your fantasy races. However, I created my drow to be a bit different. With gray-ish to purple-colored skin, they used to live in underground tunnels deep within the feywild, lovingly named The Wilds in my series. With luminescent plants that lit up their world, they were contentedly tucked away from the happenings above ground. Until, of course, the curse hit Shadoria. Then, The Wilds, once contained by the fae Winter Queen, began to expand and all things living underground began to disappear. The drow lost their homes and were forced to live above ground.
While the majority of the drow adapted and became something new, Balthoron held on to many drow traditions. Balthoron utilized glyphs to keep his home hidden because drow are extremely protective of their homes. All drow are warriors, but it is the males who create the home in drow society. Male drow take great care to create a home worthy of the female he wishes to take as his mate and everything in that home is meant to impress her.
As the drow had to move above ground, the daylight of The Wilds transformed them into shadows, so they wore heavy cloaks if they had to venture out during the day, but they mostly slept until nightfall. At night, The Wilds transformed from a normal-looking forest with exotic plants to an entirely different entity, brought to life by the moon. The Wilds glowed purple and even the color of the river water changed. Creatures which roamed by day hid away, leaving the night to be dominated by otherworldly animals no one had ever seen.
The Wilds are home to many creatures, notably the magical creatures too dangerous to live freely anywhere else. As The Wilds spread, those magical creatures were able to expand their territories and come into contact with the peoples living blissfully unaware of their existence until that point. Enter the bonnacon. In true mythology, those beasts were bull-like creatures with inverted horns and the mane of a horse. They excreted a fiery substance from their backsides as defense, but in my story, they trailed fire with every step they took. Much more ferocious that way, I think. And those yeth hounds? Truly creepy. They are believed to have human-like faces with dog-like bodies and lived in packs led by a dominant hound. They were governed by an evil leader, in the case of my story, a wicked and treacherous fae, to whom they were completely loyal.
If you’d like to experience The Wilds and all its magnificent creatures, check out my series Twisted Tales: Crown of Roses. The first book, The Sleeping Princess mentions The Wilds, but the second book, Broken Curse, will take you deep into the magical world of The Wilds and introduce you to all of these exotic, new creatures you may otherwise not meet in other stories. You’ll have an exceptional tour guide in the form of Balthoron, a sexy drow, who happens to be one of my all-time favorite characters I’ve ever written.