This post contains spoilers for the ending of my novel, Immortality Awaits. If you have not read my novel, this will either ruin everything for you, or, I’d hope, get you interested. If you haven’t got a copy yet and would like to, it is available here.
The first image I ever had in my mind that made me want to write Immortality Awaits was that of a shadow, which eventually made its way into two shadows known as Varnio and Xandio. I saw Xandio floating above a group of people, sticking to the ceiling with his long, tattered black robe swaying in a gentle breeze as various lightning flashes illuminated him. I saw the image as though it was in a film, and the camera was on the ground pointed up. I thought it was truly horrific, really, and it caught my attention enough that I had to write toward it. Where did it come from? Why was it chasing them? What was it besides a shadow?
We all have a side to us that we never want anyone to see. The side that houses all of our bitter thoughts. All of our negative emotions. The “dark side” we oftentimes even deny of ourselves. According to psychologist C.G. Jung, the shadow self mostly consists of the “primitive, negative, socially or religiously depreciated human emotions and impulses like sexual lust, power strivings, selfishness, greed, envy, anger or rage, and due to its unenlightened nature, completely obscured from consciousness.”
This, in its essence, represents Varnio and Xandio, who represent Donovan and Druin’s shadow selves in physical manifestation, posed as a challenge to each other. (Trust me, I know that sounds complicated.)
Immortality Awaits 