Zephyr: The Elemental Clans

A/N ~ 40k Reads! (My Inspiration)

Exactly one week ago, Zephyr had achieved a whopping 30k reads and in order to celebrate this, I had hosted a "Week of Zephyr" during which I published one new chapter of Zephyr: The Elemental Clans each day of the week. That week was intended to be my thanks to you all for your continued support on this story. Well, as it turns out, on the final day of the Week of Zephyr, the story had finally crossed the 40k reads mark! That's right, in one short week, Zephyr: The Elemental Clans had amassed an additional 10,000 reads and simultaneously crossed the 3k votes mulestone!

I was absolutesly astonished and blown away by the fact that this amazing community was capable of something so astounding. Yes, I say the community and not the story because the truth is that it is all of you who have made this possible. While I'd love to have a second Week of Zephyr immediately, it is impossible for me to keep this type of schedule for seven more days and I also feel as if it's far too soon and it would ruin the unique flavor of the event.

Even so, I wanted to do something special for you all in order to continue to express my gratitude, instead of just saying a mere "thank you" for the millionth time. In a fairly recent comment, I was asked a simple question by a fan, "What was your inspiration for Zephyr: The Elemental Clans."

I intended to respond as I usually do to the comments on the story, however I realised that there was far too much to say and a simple comment would do no justice. Thus, I decided that I would write an extensive piece detailing my full answer to this question (see below).

Once again, thank you all for following this story and showing your support! I hope to see every one of you from now until the end!
~tO_x-in

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Question: What was your inspiration for Zephyr: The Elemental Clans?

Answer: Zephyr was built on the core concept of humans who could bend the elements. I have always been intrigued and attracted to the idea of the elements and wielding them to one's will. In some ways, this interest was brought about by series such as Avatar: The Last Airbender and Kaze no Stigma (Stigma of the Wind), both of which dealt with nations and families blessed by elemental manipulation.

So yes, these series did play a part in making me love what would become the core concept of Zephyr: The Elemental Clans. However, to say that Zephyr is directly inspired by them isn't the complete truth.

Long before I even had the smallest thought of Zephyr, I had created a number of stories, characters and tales based on the idea of elemental clans. All of these stories were written in intricate detail in my head but I'd never gotten around to putting them in words. The thought of doing so really didn't even cross my mind until one day around four years ago when a certain event occured.

A close friend of mine since childhood, AkashChaitram, had posted a link on Wattpad to an original story titled The Lagoon Chronicles. He had written this novel based on his own characters, world and lore. I was more than intrigued by his creation and it was this person whom introduced me to Wattpad in the first place as well as inspired me to pen my own stories.

I knew that I didn't want to write down the dozens of stories I'd created in my mind long before because I'd played out those scenarios too many times. I wanted something that was a bit different and hence, more exciting.

Thus, I decided to create a new line of stories and characters which I separated from the old casts and stories that I never did write. I unofficially labelled the old stories as "Phase 1".

"Phase 2" would be my new era of characters and stories that would all be written down on Wattpad for anyone to read. "Phase 2" began with my story, The Dragon's Consortium. Soterios and the primary cast of the first The Dragon's Consortium book were the first "Phase 2" characters I created. With The Dragon's Consortium, I wanted to keep the story fairly simple. Some turns and surprises would exist, of course, but the idea in mind was to make the The Dragon's Consortium series just a straight, epic, fantasy adventure set in a semi-medieval world. I had meticulously planned the entire story of The Dragon's Consortium spread across a number of books along with spinoff/side stories such as The Dragon's Consortium: The Four Continents and The Demon's Consortium which would feed into the main story. Only after this, did I begin writing the first book of The Dragon's Consortium.

During the process of writing the first book, my mind had been running rampant, developing new ideas, characters and stories for different books. At this time, I had begun re-reading some of the stories that my good friend, AkashChaitram, whom I mentioned earlier had been working on. Of all of his worlds, Canistrus had always been my favorite and his own creation, the Desian species, had always been the most memorable to me. In a nutshell, his Desians were elemental beings who could manipulate their respective elements. This reignited my love for this concept and inspired me to return to a story which revolves around the natural Elements.

My mind wandered back to the rich characters, worlds and stories I had thought of as part of my "Phase 1". Even though I wanted "Phase 2" to be its own thing, there was always a part of me that had wanted to incorporate these older "Phase 1" worlds into these new stories. After all, that was where my adventures with my own original characters first began.

Zephyr became the first story to significantly build off of an old, established lore I had created as the basis of my "Phase 1" worlds. Other stories, including The Dragon's Consortium are in a similar position to varying levels as they have connections to some of these "Phase 1" worlds. These "Phase 1" stories would have taken place a long, long time before the stories of the "Phase 2" books but throughout these "Phase 2" books on Wattpad, there are some references to that "First Phase". In fact, both Zephyr and The Dragon's Consortium either already have or in the future will have references to characters or events from "Phase 1".

After realising that Zephyr would be set in this private "Phase 1" world, I created the entire story from scratch. Everything from its lore, history, present day and characters were revised and created. I knew from the beginning that the story I wrote after The Dragon's Consortium was one I wanted to be filled with suspense and mystery, then fueled by action, adventure and modern-fantasy. I truly wanted to explore relationships in that next story, not only in a romantic sense but also the relationships between friends, siblings, families, rivals, allies and even enemies. As you all now realise, Zephyr turned into that next story and adopted all of these traits. In my head, I followed Xyder's entire journey from start to finish and allowed the story to go where I felt as if it naturally flowed. Only after this was completed did I begin work on writing the story.

The original Zephyr story from my mind was a fair bit shorter than it is now, however as I wrote, I realised there were things and relationships I wanted to expand upon such as the connections between Zephyr with other Elemental Clans and the exploits of Xyder's parents to name a few. Though the story I planned to write at the start remains largely the same, it had evolved on its own in many ways and has grown into what I still write today. Perhaps there will be further evolving for Zephyr to undergo as I write the remaining chapters but even I don't know what the future may hold.

So, to focus on the original question in short; what inspired me to write Zephyr? My love for the elements grew due to series such as Kaze no Stigma and Avatar. My desire to write was sparked by my friend, Akash, along with his book, The Lagoon Chronicles. Zephyr was built off of old worlds and stories I'd created but never written. However, everything... each corner, nook and cranny... it all came from my heart and mind. It was all what I felt was right at that time I translated thoughts to word.