Prince Charles

He is the first antagonist in the story, in general he is not exactly a bad guy, even if he is slightly hot-headed. Yes, he is bigoted against Mutants, but I hope that his encounter with Prelestia in the story makes it clear that pure bigotry against them doesn't really make them victims in anyway, as in, you show unjustified hostility to Mutants at your own peril. Besides, it is far the only personality characteristic he has.

He is sort of an intellectual that lives in an Ivory Tower. Which of course doesn't mean he is harmless, I guess that is part of what I wanted to put in this character. He is the kind of intellectual who, if he was an economist and his model completely wrecked an economy, would say that the world was wrong, not his model. Partly because of his upbringing, partly because of his position in life and partly because of his very real intelligence and skills, he has never really needed to compromise or been told he was wrong in any situation, which kind of gave birth to that personality, which thinks he can brute force through anything with the right tool.

Each candidate in the race represents something about human nature, and I guess his is this interesting proclivity to invention. Human are tool creating and tool using creatures, and in general this has been a good thing for us, even if sometimes we might get too invested in them and lose some of our social aspect, which I guess is a big part of Charles' downfall.

In the end, I feel it's sort of a shame that he ended up dying as early as he did, since I didn't get to flesh him out as much as i'd have liked, but hey, sometimes that's how the cookie crumbles. Hopefully I get to do something a little more solid with him in future stories that feature parts before this Great Race.

Duke Prelestia

He has only appeared in one chapter, but I hope he was able to leave a deep impression. In a way he is a very paradoxical character, a big mix of a not-human who loves and is fascinated by humans, tyrannical father and oedipal mother, at the same time aware of his flaws but not quite able to reign them in.

He is just as likely to reward someone with a fortune if he is presented with something that touches him ashe is to ruthlessly kill someone who he feels has slighted him or someone he values. While not exactly unpredictable, he might not be someone you want as a friend if you're of an artistic bent, but he is definitely not someone that you want to make an enemy of. It's not so much that he loves humans so much that he hates them, he is extremely passionate and doesn't take disappointment very well. Once quite violent, he has been tempered and now deals with enemies in more subtle ways.

Once a creature is affected by the Pools of Reorigination and becomes a Mutant, pretty much anything can happen. There isn't a hard and fast rule and, for example, in terms of physical strength there are just as many Mutants who are weaker than humans as there are stronger, although it ends up skewing towards them being generally stronger since the weaker ones tend to not live very long unless they have an ability that gives them a big edge. Prelestia in particular was blessed with exceeding strength and intelligence and in terms of combat prowess, he is among the strongest beings in the world who are also self-conscious.

Before becoming a mutant, he was a lyre bird, and like many mutants he has a certain flexibility in having a more bird-like or human-like body. Generaly he prefers to have a mostly human-like body with wings on his back, although he can shrink either wings or arms if he feels like it, his nails can quickly become extremely sharp talons, his preferred weapon. To his dismay, he was never able to make his face into a sufficiently human one, always falling into the depths of the uncanny valley, so eventually he gave up and leaves his head completely bird-like.

He controls the biggest stretch of territory in the Wildlands, governing through a mix of force, cooperation with other Great Nobles, effective administration and development of a unique and strong culture. He also promises an almost unending stability: Like many of the other Great Nobles of the Wildlands, one crucial component of his mutation is that he does not age.