Blood Guard - Inspiration & Development

The inspiration for the creation of the Blood Guard came from three different sources, specifically three people. It was not until I started this blog that I realized that the true idea, that initial spark, was actually from my Merlin fan fiction story called 'Rise of the Dragonwitch'.

The story was originally designed to happen before The Great Purge and the official pairing were both original characters. The first being my OC, original character. The second OC was specifically designed to be her male counterpart, that which complimented her strengths but also shielded her weaknesses.

This character was the leader of the Blood Guard, the protectors of the High Priestess of the Old Religion. This story is the birth place of Benedict Strathem. His revamped version is the First Captain and he is basically the other half of her soul.

They are not soul mates, simply two halves of the same soul, torn asunder when the power of light and the power of darkness became too much for the physical body to handle. Therefore it was siphoned off into another body which ultimately formed the First Captain.

This creation was also the same event that would result in the birth of the demonic butler and the Hollow of Death. Both of these creations needed to happen simultaneously, otherwise the plot would not have been able to progress.

Now...what actor/celebrity inspired the creation and appearance of the First Captain? Here's a hint...detective, eugenics, dragon, and doctor. The answer is below.

If you guessed Benedict Cumberbatch, then you're correct! He plays a detective in BBC's Sherlock, he plays Khan in Star Trek: Into Darkness, he is the voice of Smaug from The Hobbit, and he plays Doctor Stephen Strange in Doctor Strange. When portraying Sherlock, it was his intelligent mind that first kick started the character of Benedict Strathem. His later portrayals as Khan and Strange inspired his overall appearance, but still left much of his actual style up to the readers.

The personality of the First Captain aka Shadow is a bit ambiguous due to the fact that he does not actually appear within the first book of The Star Chronicles called Stardust. This could change later as the story is still being developed and a few chapters have already been published on fanfiction.net. He is mentioned at some point, mainly in regards to his inability to be in the same universe as The Star Child, specifically her younger self. Starting out, she has no powers, is freshly regenerated, and one touch from him would stop her heart because his power/presence would be too much for her younger self to handle. Normally this would not be a problem, but due to him being the vessel of her darkness, they are constantly pulled toward each other within the same universe. This is a compulsion that neither can resist and thus the reason why he remains in The Realm during her early years.


Moving right along, the next person to inspire the creation of the Blood Guard is actually two versions of the same character but at two different points in his life. My love for this character is off the charts which is saying a lot considering I am a Whovian. He did originally start as one character which in turn inspired a good chunk of the story before a specific image nearly broke my brain from the insane amount of ideas flying about my head whilst breaking the transwarp barrier. To fully understand his true impact, you'll have to go to YouTube and watch the playlist containing all his scenes...yum. *clears throat* Before that however, I will show you the first image which will act as the representative for this particular character. Then i will explain the first character he inspired and afterwards, show you the image that nearly broke my brain from imagination overload.

Go ahead and scream, Oncers, because oh yeah...he is the one that made the Blood Guard into this monumental explosion including their own parallel pocket universe. To the Oncers, he is Killian Jones aka James Hook, Captain of the Jolly Roger. To the non-rabid fan girl/boy crowd, he is known as Colin O'Donoghue; actor, singer, and musician, acoustic guitar specifically. His portrayal as Killian was the insane amount of fuel thrown onto the spark that was Benedict Strathem. I will freely admit that after watching the entirety of the Once Upon A Time series that this character is my absolute favorite character of all time. I will forever love the Doctor but this guy is just plain mine.

In The Star Chronicles, he has two versions of himself with both existing within the same body; however, in later rewrites, this concept switched from split personality to two separate souls. Much later down the road, they will have separate bodies, but for the majority of The Star Chronicles, two souls in one body with the capability to switch freely from one to the other. This first version of him is Poseidon Killian Jones, often referred to as Sei. He is the Third Captain of the Blood Guard and a member of the Prism Guard. He is also a member of the upper echelon known as The Prism.

Poseidon is the Star Child's second most trusted individual and he is one of the three men that save her life at the very beginning of her timeline in their world. Without all three working in concert, she would not have been able to escape an absolute certain death. Poseidon is known as The Child of the Sea also known as a water elemental. He is able to generate and control water, even transform his entire body into water. There is a lot more that he can do, but I will save that for the more in depth character profile.

Now here is the image that literally created a whole different character, along with a new origin story and chain of events.

Now hear me out...there are several versions of this particular image, but the point of the image itself is the color of his eyes. Poseidon's eyes are a vibrant ocean blue, but this version of him has what I call mirrored obsidian eyes. This image combined with the mirrored silver eyes of Riddick from Pitch Black, Dark Fury, and The Chronicles of Riddick, out popped a whole new character which better reflects Killian's darker side in Once Upon A Time.

This version of him is known as James Hook, commonly referred to as Hook or Jimmy. He is considered the true captain of the Jolly Roger and he is The Fourth Captain of the Blood Guard. This man is the person Her Ladyship trusts most and for many a reason. Those reasons will be revealed when I do his in depth profile later on. Now Hook is radically different than the Third Captain, whom he usually calls Brat. Aside from an almost identical appearance and the fact that he is a water elemental as well, everything is different.

Hook is known as The Heart of the Ocean. Where Killian has exceptional control over water, Hook has raw power. The entirety of the ocean would obey his command, but his control is not nearly as refined as Poseidon's. The reasons for the different skill sets will be explained later. Here is where things get interesting. Killian is considered to be the nicer of the two, often viewed as polite, kind, gentlemanly, and sweet. *coughs* Clearly these people do not know him very well. Poseidon is on the colder side of the emotional spectrum, mainly in part to his origin story.

Killian will often push his emotions aside to focus on a problem, thus allowing for greater control over his elemental powers, but when provoked, no force in creation will stop him from killing his enemy. Not even the Star Child could stop him. Giving him a direct order could potentially stop him, but Poseidon has a high tolerance for pain and the brand wouldn't have enough time to generate a level of pain severe enough to hinder him, let alone stop him which means that his target is long since dead before the order takes full effect.

Hook, ironically, is at the hotter end of the emotional spectrum. He is far more expressive and open with his emotions than the Third Captain. He is also the only person in the whole of creation that the Star Child will always obey. She gave him complete control over her actions to prove to him that he was what she most desired and loved. It is true that she would choose him over everybody else but there are some extenuating circumstances involved with that. The irony is that Hook would obey his wench even without a direct order. He is constantly thinking about how she feels and what she would want instead of simply doing as he pleases.

The truth is...he loves her. He loves her so completely that when she is run through by a sword originally meant for him, he would deliberately skewer himself on the same damn sword. 'Where you go, I will always follow'. This shows how much he cares because he is willing to follow her in death just so that he could be reborn and find her again. This kind of devotion plays an important role in the story and ultimately changes everything whether good or bad. Admittedly he is quite a bit rougher with her in bed as opposed to Poseidon, who has a bad habit of treating her like glass which usually results in Hook having to take over so she wouldn't be the crap out of their shared body.



That's three...but I did say that one was technically two, so there is another character which provided the final leap and basically cannon balling into the development of the Blood Guard and The Realm. This individual is from the TV series called Sanctuary and was originally a one off character that dies near the end of the episode. He is played by one of the main actors of the show, Robin Dunne. His usual role is the profiler, Doctor William Zimmerman, but this one off character is known as Captain Jack Zimmerman. Many believe this character to be Will's grandfather but that is not verified anywhere so he takes on a slightly different blood relation to William.

Now this image doesn't really do him justice so I'm going to provide a slightly modified version of Dr. Zimmerman, seeing that these two are physically identical with the exception of the eyes.

I do apologize for the colors being a bit off from each other...two different apps were being used, the top one for the vibrant blue color and the second to show the effect of his powers. Now to clarify, Captain Jack Zimmerman is, in fact, The Second Captain known as Light Zimmerman aka The Lightning Fang. He is a lightning elemental that generates a constant supply of lightning. He is exceptionally powerful but wielding the more destructive side of his power is quite difficult for him. This is due to the fact that out of the four captains, he is in fact the youngest.

Much of his training was geared towards a single purpose, to forcibly command a person's body to regenerate in a specific way. In this case, it was to allow the Star Child to survive in their world. If he hadn't, a single breath in this new atmosphere would have been extremely toxic for her and she would die of asphyxiation, simply unable to process the air which chokes her to death. Thus the reason why Light focused so much on finite control so that he could take control of the electrical signals in her brain and command her entire nervous system. Given enough time, the process would have been completely painless, but due to a near imminent death, he had to work quickly and at a much higher voltage, forcing Poseidon to take control of the fluids in her body to keep her heart beating. In doing so, both he and Hook endured the same pain she did and it sapped them of most of their strength, more on this at a later date.


Whew...that was a long one. Just wait until I get to everyone's profiles, histories, abilities, and family trees...which does not include the whole student/mentor thing and opposites training and then there is the partnering system and The Hall of Memories. *giggles* There is still so much more to tell you. We've only just begun our journey through The Realm. Oh and sorry for any spelling or grammatical errors. I'm doing this completely from my phone and auto correct is annoying. 

Next up is an analysis of the elementals; natural elementals, awakened elementals, powers and resistances, typical life spans and how they relate to both nature and magic. Yes... There is magic but don't worry, it has a scientific core to it...or as much of one as possible considering I'm meshing many different universes together into a single storyline. And this is me shutting up. Seeya!

The Unlimited Bladeworks

The Unlimited Bladeworks is the secondary branch of the Blood Guard and has not yet been fully defined. There are several groups within this division that have been relatively flushed out.

The overarching name is The Bladeworks, mainly dealing with combat. Within this division, smaller groups exist such as The Knights and The Blades.

The Knights consist of certain individuals from the TV series, Merlin, but have been repurposed and much of their history has been altered.

The Knight of Courage
The Knight of Valor
The Knight of Strength
The Knight of Wisdom
The Knight of Will
The Knight of Honor
The Knight of Loyalty

Of these Knights, the first three are often found on Sol side and the last three are usually within The Realm. The Knight of Wisdom mainly stays transitory, going to whichever side where he is needed.

The second group are The Legendary Blades, most commonly referred to as The Blades. The Leader of the Blood Guard is also a member of this group, but usually remains with his fellow Hollows. This elite group is loosely defined but does have several members already in place.

I'm trying to keep the Guard from becoming too defined as to allow as much wiggle room as possible. It is quite the hassle to rewrite an entire universe just to insert a single character which is why having less definable borders is a great writing technique.

As more characters, information, and histories are added, so too will there be updates in regards to everything within The Unlimited Bladeworks.

The Mark of the Blood Guard

Before launching into the more in depth explanations of the specific groups within the Guard, certain aspects need to be explained as to prevent at least some of the confusion.

The title of this post is in regards to a crest, also referred to as a brand, that each member of the Blood Guard possess. This mark is located on the back of either hand and in some cases, some members possess a crest on each hand.

Thus far I have three ways and maybe a fourth for how each member receives their crest. For each crest, there is a name and a purpose. In regards to most of the Prism Guard, they usually have either a rank, title, call sign, or a notable position of authority.

The first and primary means of receiving a mark is the Star Child herself. By giving them a name and a specific purpose, they receive their crest, denoting who they are and in which faction they reside in. This is often referred to as the naming ceremony and is considered to be one of greatest forms of honor that Her Ladyship can bestow upon them.

The second means is quite rare and currently only one group has been created for this particular branding. Their crests are granted to them by their own souls. The emergence of a crest usually occurs after meeting the Star Child and can take mere minutes to several years in order to appear. It is up to the Guard to locate these individuals and give them a home, people to love them, a family to protect.

The third means has been used only once. The Star Child wouldn't normally do this and the only reason why she did was due to some rather extreme circumstances which required to shut off her heart, becoming emotionless and fully analytical.

She forcibly branded a man deemed as the perfect assassin. At the time, he did not possess a soul but in a moment of weakness, her soul acted on its own accord, placing one of the lost souls she had saved but they didn't have bodies of their own.

The assassin had a power called Empathic Clarity. It granted him the ability to use a person's emotions to predict their every move. Thus the reason why he was considered the perfect assassin.

However, upon receiving a soul, that ability became clouded with his new emotions which allowed Her Ladyship to brand him, not once but twice. She has never branded anyone else like that. A forced crest results in a disconnection between the bearer and the rest of the Guard. It took quite some time before the assassin could form emotional ties to anyone besides Her Ladyship.

The fourth means is still under development and is to be used predominantly within The Bladeworks division. More information will be provided at a later date...just a few wrinkles to iron out...I hope.

The Prismata aka The Prism

Here is where things are going to get a bit confusing. Most of you will either not know who the characters are or you won't know where they came from. Fear not, after the summary stage is over, I will be posting the basic character profiles, along with some images so that you have an idea of what they look like.

As stated in a previous post, The Prism are the ones in charge of the safety, well-being, and happiness of their founder, The Star Child. To that end, The Prism was further divided into specialized groups, each with their own responsibilities and duties to perform.

Two groups are considered the same rank and has one member in both. These groups are The Deathly Hollows and The Captains. The shared member is the leader of the Blood Guard, Benedict Strathem.

The Deathly Hollows are the first three members to join the Guard. Each one has unique responsibilities and a specific role to play within Her Ladyship's life.

The Hollow of Destruction
The Hollow of Death
The Hollow of Rebirth

The Hollow of Destruction is the leader of the Guard and his duty is ensuring the safety and happiness of the Blood Guard. His role is simply the continuation and protection of Her Ladyship's family.

The Hollow of Death is rather unique individual and is commonly referred to as The Demon of the Blood Guard. His initial purpose was simply to serve the Star Child; however, he became more than just a servant.

He uses his powers to not only traverse both the reverse realm and mirror verse, he siphons off her negative emotions in order to keep both her power and her heart as pure as possible. This self appointed duty allows the Star Child to do many impossible acts.

The Hollow of Rebirth is a unique case. She is referred to as The Snow Maiden of the Blood Guard, but she possesses the powers of both ice and water. Her water abilities are rarely used and there is a reason for that.

She is the Hollow of Rebirth due to her unique origin. She comes from the distant future, sent back through time so that the Star Child could stabilize her after being brought back from the dead via the blood of a vampire.

The vampire blood had been too strong for her body to handle because she was a child at the time of her rebirth. She was sent back to a time when Her Ladyship's power was at its purest and most powerful, ensuring her survival.

The Hollows share the responsibility of the darkness, meaning that they often perform acts considered to be cruel or evil in origin; specifically torture, assassination, and mass murder.

They do this so that the Star Child does not have to. They protect her and she knows this, but it does not stop her from wishing that such radical actions were not necessary.

The second group within The Prism are The Captains. These four men share the deepest connection to the Star Child and they are the ones she trusts most. The level of trust is portrayed by their ranks, first being the least and fourth being the most.

The Captains carry one of the greatest responsibilities that the Guard has, protecting the Star Child...from herself. To that end, each captain is entrusted with something precious to the Star Child.

The First Captain - Family
The Second Captain - Hope
The Third Captain - Faith
The Fourth Captain - Light

They hold the strongest bonds of love and devotion, willing to do anything for her, be everything for her, endure her wrath, witness her tears, and prevent her from shutting off her emotions for the sake of survival.

The next two groups are also considered on equal terms with each other but serve different roles. These two groups are The Magi also referred to as The Mages and The Time Keepers also known as The Oracles or The Fates.

Magi of Light
Magi of Flame
Magi of the Air

Please note that there may be either alterations or additions to this group as the story progresses. The Time Keepers will not have any additional members.

First Oracle - Fate of the Future
Second Oracle - Fate of the Past
Third Oracle - Fate of the Present

The Magi serve mainly as wild cards. Their powers allow for a great deal of versatility and are often utilized in rather unexpected ways.

The Time Keepers carry the greatest burden of the Blood Guard, to maintain the continuity of Her Ladyship's timeline. The First Oracle sees her future and when something threatens the timeline or causes a deviation too great, the Second Oracle uses her power to transport people back and forth through time, up until one second before the present.

The Third Oracle is difficult to understand, mainly due to how her power works. She sees the entirety of the present all at once. She literally sees everything everywhere and often speaks cryptically or uses fragmented sentences that need to be pieced together or interpreted.

There are other groups within The Prismata, but have yet to be fully defined. The Prism Guard itself is still currently loosely defined to allow the creation and addition of new members. Basically a glorified plot device or something to fill in a plot hole.

What is the Blood Guard?

As a favor to you all, I've decided to give a brief synopsis or summary of what the Blood Guard is. First of all, this rendition of the group has very little to do with the Blood Guard mentioned in the TV series, Merlin...they were the protectors of the High Priestess of the Old Religion.

This version of the Blood Guard is an organization founded by a single individual. This person is known as the Star Child, later known as the Lady of the Blood Guard.

The purpose of the Guard was not meant to be a militant group or some diabolical organization wanting to rule the world. The Blood Guard is a family...that happened to grow into quite a large number and thus the confusion of their intent.

The Star Child is very kind and gave her love to whom she deemed worthy of it. She created The Realm to act as a true sanctuary, a home for all the strays she kept bringing home.

Each person that joined the Guard was welcomed and embraced by this rather unusual and quite frankly, dysfunctional family of misfits, goofballs, geniuses, pranksters, oddities and crazy people.

As the Guard began to grow in number, it was decided by the Star Child and her closest friends that systems needed to be put in place to educate new arrivals, initiate those that wished to join the Guard, and the division of the Guard into smaller or specialized groups.

The first two divisions were the Prism Guard and the Unlimited Bladeworks. The Prism Guard contained the individuals that Her Ladyship trusted most. The Unlimited Bladeworks was the first step towards an education and training program, given that many of the new arrivals possessed special talents or gifts that required specialized training in order to control their abilities.

These two groups grew in number and the stress caused by this inflammation caused the Star Child to collapse and she spent several weeks in a coma before eventually regaining consciousness. During that time, the man known as Benedict Strathem and the first member of the Blood Guard, had implemented several changes to the internal structure of the two main factions.

The first change was the creation of an upper echelon within the Prism Guard. These individuals were the ones that held the greatest impact on the Star Child. This group became known as The Prismata, later shortened to The Prism. This group were responsible for the care and well-being of Her Ladyship.

The second change happened within The Prism itself, a simple division of the members into specific categories, each with their own responsibilities and duties to perform. Listed below are the main groups of the Prism, but does not include the others, given that they are either unnamed or not created yet.

The Deathly Hollows
The Captains
The Magi
The Time Keepers
The Seven Deadly Sins
The Blades

The third change was within the Unlimited Bladeworks. It was divided into specialized groups and one main group. Listed below are some but not all of these groups.

The Bladeworks - main branch
The Legendary Blades aka The Blades
The Knights

Development of the Unlimited Bladeworks is still on my to-do list but as more information is solidified and all issues resolved, there will be updates... hopefully in the near future.

In summary, the Blood Guard is a family that has grown throughout time, spanning the ages and influencing much of history in the process...not always intentionally either. Accidents do happen after all and they have to clean up their own messes.

Further explanations and a more in depth look into specific factions and groups is coming up next, but do keep in mind that my sister and I are novice website makers and know absolutely nothing about coding, so I apologize for the initial disarray.

Everything will be sorted into specific categories as we poke at the ones and zeroes in a lame attempt to make them NOT dance to the beat of their own drum.

Welcome to The Realm

Hello everyone and welcome to the home of the Blood Guard. This site is your guide through The Realm and will make it easier for first time readers to know just who the characters are, where they are from, and the inspiration behind each character.

As time goes by, more information will be added to the guide including, but not limited to, locations, artifacts, personal histories for each character, the separate factions within the Guard, family trees, education systems, training and mentoring, and so much more!

Make certain to follow the site, so you can receive notifications about the newest additions and feel free to leave comments on any post. The feedback you provide may just spark an idea for a new event, locale, character, or even a brand new world!

Please note that all images and depicted characters are owned by their respective companies/individuals. Some of the plotline is used as the initial base, but any variation from the original source belongs to me and my sister. All changes made to the original characters are also of our design.

If you wish to utilize any of the information contained within this site, please credit the source and creators. In addition, either post a comment on the site or contact us, so that we can totally read/view your awesomeness and make a special announcement when your works are posted/published and where to find them.

One final note before I start generating/posting character profiles...*sighs* My sister has requested that I post a poem that I had written quite some time ago, but remarkably still holds true today.

I, Tina Craven better known as Artz Lanaria, presents the poem simply known as Faces.

Everyone has two faces, One during the day, The other they hide in the shadows.

Everyone has secrets, everyone tells lies,
To cover up their fear and ultimate demise.

What people see is not always true,
But how can you tell...cuz you do it too.