They say you need a project while waiting to hear back from agents, and mine has been imagining cool artwork that could go along with my book.  Fantasy maps and family emblems – that kind of thing.  I have absolutely no talent in the fine arts, but luckily my honey has been helping out in that department, working from my primitive sketches.

So I’m ready to unveil a few prototypes just for fun.  My novel THE SEVENTH PLEIADE has a rather large cast of characters, grouped by family clans, who I derived from Plato’s account of Poseidon’s ten sons—five sets of twins—in the Critias dialogues:

“The name of the eldest son was ATLAS, who was king of the entire island, and from him the Atlantic Ocean takes its name.  His twin brother was called, in the Atlantean language, GADIR.  He had for his portion the extremity of the island near the Pillars of Hercules, and that part of it has since borne the name Gadiric.  The next pair of twins were called AMPHISOS and EUDEMON, and the others respectively MNESEUS, AUTOCHTHONOS, ELASSIPOS, MESTOR, AZAES and DIAPREPOS.

These princes reigned in prosperity in the island for several centuries, and established a supremacy in the midst of the ocean over many other islands, as well as over those which are near Egypt and Tyrrhenia.”

From this passage, we get the legend of ten Kings, an oligarchy that passed down through generations.  Each filial line became a family clan.  I came up with symbols for the royal Houses, and names for their descendants who—at the time of THE SEVENTH PLEIADE—are dozens of generations removed from their founding fathers.

Based on Plato’s account, and ancient world customs, I imagined the royal society as patriarchal, with sovereignty passing from father to son, based on birth order, resulting in a long list of Crown Princes in line for the throne:  the King’s brothers, sons, grandsons, nephews or even cousins depending on the case.  Thus, the main characters from my story are indicated as firsts, seconds, thirds, etc.

Here, I’ve only indicated the families who play a prominent role in my story. 

The House of Atlas

Governor:  PYLARTES

Province:  The island of Atlantis and its surrounding Cays

Governor’s wife:  THESSALA

Crown Princes: First – AERANDER (Pylartes’ only son); Second – ARTEMON (Pylartes’ eldest nephew)

Governor’s daughters (Princesses):  ALIXA and DANAE

The House of Eudemon

Governor:  EULIAN

Province:  The Fortunate Isles

Governor’s Wife:  GRECIA

Crown Princes: Fourth – LYSIMACHOS (Eulian’s eldest son); Sixth – CORYDALLUS (son of Eulian’s eldest brother) ; Seventh – CORYTHYLLES (twin brother of Corydallus); Eighth – KOSMOS (son of Eulian’s younger brother); Ninth – LEONITOS (Kosmos’ younger brother)

The House of Gadir

Governor:  HESPEROS

Province:  Upper Azilia

Governor’s Wife:  MERYLIBUND (deceased)

Crown Princes:  Thirteenth – DARDANOS (Hesperos’ third-born grandson); Fourteenth – EVANDROS (Dardon’s younger brother)