(Minor spoilers for Steps of Power)

+ In Kings or Pawns, an enemy lieutenant named KRAESIN was slain in a short, rather “unimportant” fashion. His death was noted, but seemed inconsequential at the time. He was just a dude.

Shortly before his death, an enemy CAPTAIN was stabbed and left for dead by LORD.

+ In Heroes or Thieves, a man we will call BASTARD joins a seedy group of mercenaries on the human continent.

On the elven land, new recruits join the army to be trained by CAPTAIN. One of these men was an old, magic using mercenary we will call OLD MAGE who use to be part of the seedy mercenaries BASTARD joined.

At the end of the book, CAPTAIN meets LORD again and, with OLD MAGE still under his command, strikes LORD down.

+ In Gods or Men, OLD MAGE is elevated to the important and difficult to attain status of lieutenant, filling the gap left by Kraesin in Kings or Pawns.

I have an entire two novels to continue to utilize this unintended character as best serves the story now while all the while having him appear entirely intended.

There are a lot of subtly or strongly connected threads in these listed events. And yet they all sprang from seeds planted, but not planned as trees.

Truth is:

Kraesin’s death was originally “irrelevant”

OLD MAGE was just a seedy mercenary to give him experience. OLD MAGE was also placed in the book to expand upon a humorous dinner scene to piss off CAPTAIN and add flavor to how the costs of war are being handled.

Later, I needed a mage to take out LORD—oh look at that, I already had a character in existence to fill this roll rather than pulling a random NPC out of the woodwork.

Oh look, there is an empty lieutenant position we need to fill. Instead of grabbing a random NPC, we can now use a relevant character who has earned it.

And yet, if you read the current Steps of Power books, all of this would have looked mighty planned because seeds were planted early all off the quick death of some random lieutenant named Kraesin.

That’s the power a seemingly “inconsequential seed” can offer you.

(return to Planting the Seeds of Your World Building)