Celestria

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Tonight, as promised, I am talking about the main character in Cursed with Power.  Tonight I am speaking about Celestria Hale.  How did she become one of the five Dark magicians?  What made her evil?  What formed her past?  Why does she narrate the story?  I will answer all of these questions and more.  Mind you you'll have to continue reading further into this post to hear the answers.  (Don't worry, though, I'm not giving away any spoiler information.)
Celestria Hale...you'll either love her or hate....

The name Celestria is actually said to mean "heavenly", though any of you who have read the book know Celestria is anything but this.  I did not uncover the meaning of her name until after I already chose it; however, I think for the context of the storyline it's insignificant of the meaning of her name.  I did not chose names because they had a meaning that fit perfectly with the character.

For the Magicians series I set out researching names everywhere.  I felt I needed to find names that were unique --and first on my list of names needed to be the names of the five Dark magicians.  I've always had this theory that magicians were unique people, therefore giving them names that were uncommon seemed like the appropriate action to take.
Celestria happened to be the first name that caught my eye, hence why she became the first Dark magician on my list.  When it came to who the first book would focus on I knew it would be her.  Without a doubt, she was to be the main character.
With the first Dark magician determined, I began thinking about the essentials.  What made her evil --had it been an event in her past or a decision she had made on her own?  I suppose you could say it was a bit of both.  I began brainstorming this idea where Celestria had a sister who was also a Dark magician, but something terribly wrong had happened to her.
It's rather evident to see that Celestria struggles with her emotions in the book.  However, as I look back on those decisions I made to form her character, I do not regret any of them.  She does indeed have a very dark past, but this shows the significance it has on her future.

Who would have thought I would have a Dark magician narrating the story?  I certainly did not, but after I wrote the prologue --the letter Celestria addresses to Adam--I felt the entire book needed the same feelings and mood that Celestria had brought into the prologue.  She had a new way of dealing with problems and she looked at the world in a different view; if anyone could tell her story there was no one better than her herself.  Besides that, I think the reactions from readers would have changed greatly if there had been a different narration for the story.  While our main character here often feels she does not deserve to be punished for the sinful deeds she has committed, she has a tragic background we can't help but feel sympathy for and she has an intriguing way with interacting with other characters.

Why is she evil?  Honestly I never thought twice about what kind of character Celestria would be.  The moment I decided she was a dark magician that remained true.  Her character did not switch back and forth.  Thinking about it now, I do not know how Celestria could ever be a protagonist in the story because her personality usually goes against such traits and characteristics.

And how about her and Leal....?  (Don't worry, I'm NOT going to spoil anything.) The interaction between Celestria and Leal has been something everyone has reacted to in a different way.  Some readers found their interactions to be interesting and helpful to the plot, while others were entirely shocked and at a loss of words.  At first Celestria and Leal were never going to meet each other more than once in this book, but as you can see that changed.  I'll tell you more about this major decision when I post about Leal.

That seems like quite a lot to take in, so if you just read this entire post your mind's probably exploding with a thousand thoughts.  Hopefully, though, you've found this semi-interesting.

Who is Celestria Hale?

Read Cursed with Power to find out.
If you already are a reader of Cursed with Power and would like to give your own account of Celestria or add your thoughts on her please comment.  If you have more than a few sentences to say, please email me.  I'm curious for your thoughts.

Character next in line: Leal
The post about Leal will be coming up on the blog shortly in time to come.  For now I'll let you take in what Ive said so much relating to Celestria.  In the mean time I'll find other matters to post about on this blog, though I'm sure you never doubted I'd run out of ideas.

"There's a lot that I want." He said. He smirked as he said it like he knew he was pushing my patience.