12/20/2025
Why is your main character a protagonist or antagonist, and what is your personal “why” for creating them? https://www.royalroad.com/profile/628242/fictions
For me, most of my “main characters” sit somewhere between protagonist and potential problem. They are forces that can tilt the universe either way.
Character: In Stone Chronicles, Tess is a protagonist because she keeps choosing responsibility over comfort. Her default response to chaos is “organize, protect, make it survivable for everyone.” In-universe, that makes her a stabilizer.
Why: My personal why for creating her is that I wanted a leader who is not chosen by destiny, but by doing the work when nobody else wants to.
Character: In Dani Mack, Sarah “Dani” is a protagonist, but she is also a threat to herself. In the world, she is someone trying to survive grief, media noise, and expectation.
Why: My why for creating her was to explore what happens when a person’s inner narrative and the world’s narrative about them collide.
Character: For Leo, he is a protagonist because the story literally cannot read the world correctly without him. In Stone Chronicles/ Veil of Titans, Leo is the kid who feels what is wrong before anyone can name it. He is anxious, hyperaware, always noticing the “Freeway Ghosts” the adults and even Tess would rather walk past. Where Tess responds to danger by organizing and protecting, Leo responds by sensing and mapping. His journal, his diagrams, the way he freezes and looks twice at quiet streets or idle cars, all of that makes him the early warning system of the story. Which is also why things seem to come easy to him. That is a protagonist function, even if he is not always the one holding the sword.
Why: My personal why for creating Leo is that I wanted to honor the “scared” kid who was actually right. The child who is told they are too sensitive, too nervous, too much in their head, but who is reading the room more accurately than the adults. That's why he doesn't back down when treatened, but he is smart enough to know when or when not to fight. Leo lets me show that hypervigilance is not just a flaw. It is a survival trait, a kind of inner radar, and a valuable strength. He is my way of saying that tenderness and fear can sit inside a hero and still count as courage, especially when we stand for something we believe in.
Bonus: On the more cosmic side, with the Nasu and figures like Rodeo, Orvik, or Mackiaveli, my why is to ask: What happens when beings who could be monsters decide, even briefly, to reach for something better? They are not just “good guys” or “villains.” They are experiments in what power does to empathy and what empathy does to power.
~ Doc
