Broken

“I hide my feelings

beneath the veil of a false 'Me'.
I show no one the tears

which ruined me long ago,

like a castle during times of war.


I shut myself away,

in order to cherish my past.

And I lock up my shattered heart,

lest I lose the pieces.


Trust wanes

and everything ceases to matter.

Whatever tomorrow may bring,

I couldn't care less.

 

My eyes are cold,

as are my heart, my soul
and all of the hope I had left

is broken."

 

 

Vyon
Vyon - A young darkelf, the main character of Broken.

Hmm... Now I see why people mean by "lost in translation". Because you see this text? It's actually the rough translation of a German poem I wrote many years ago (I think it was around 2006 or something). It’s quite dark, isn’t it...? Well, it’s no surprise to be entirely honest.

I wasn’t feeling well when I first wrote it – though I don’t remember the exact circumstances, let alone the year, I do recall the day clearly. It was in summer, during my holidays, I had travelled to the Baltic Sea with my parents and I argued with them. At the very same time I also was arguing with my Ex-boyfriend and to put things bluntly, I felt like everything was going downhill.
So as I sat at the waterside of the "Bodden", I wrote this poem and just the night after I dreamed of a stranger... A young darkelf, who was uttering the exact same lines I had written previously. The moment I woke on the next morning I began to draw him. And that’s how I first 'met' my dear Vyon.

 

Back in the day I would never  have thought that one day Vyon would become the main character of my largest and most important work – my novel Broken. And the poem itself? Well, it not only became the eponym of the whole novel, but it was also the inspiration for the plot of first half of the first book and also somewhat of a recurring theme for many of the main characters. All of them are damaged people and throughout the story and their struggles, they try to heal.
Ever since that day by the water, I’ve been working on Broken, writing and rewriting the many chapters and drawing more pictures of my beloved characters than I can count. I even ended up trying to draw an old comic (even though said project in particular will never be continued, unfortunately. I'm not made to draw graphic novels, not when I treat each panel like a painting and spend weeks, if not months on them *laughs*) and wrote various short stories about the characters. But to think that it all just started with that one poem...It's amazing.

Although the poem sounds so utterly hopeless and sad – and though Vyon really has to go through a lot, he eventually might regain the happiness he once lost. But why start at the end, when I could at least tell you a little about how the story begins? See, the first volume of the novel mostly focuses on Vyon's journey to find out who he really is. He has to overcome his despair after having lost everything. Throughout his travels he will uncover that fate has a lot in store for him, far more than he expected - and that in truth, his destiny is but a part of a greater design. One, that the friends he makes along the way are entwined in as well. For example there’s a sister he did not know of, or a wolfman and bounty hunter with an insatiable appetite who has a thing for getting himself in trouble, who will become something like a brother-figure to him. And let's not forget my two favorites, who play an equally important role in the story as Vyon:  a shy bard with a heavenly voice but a dark past or a rather vain sorcerer who likes to think HE is the hero of the tale, but who has his own burdens to bear.

My, there’s so much more I could tell you about my novel and there are many more of my beloved characters I'd like to mention here, but I really have to try hard to stop myself and remain as vage as possible. *laughs* After all I don’t want to give away any spoilers because I want to publish my novel at some point (it's a dream of mine to be able to do this one day). So I’m sorry, you’ve got to wait a bit longer :)

I do hope I made you curious though! If you still want to find out a little bit more, you could go and 'meet' my dearest heroes. To do so, simply follow this link.