Dominic Deegan began as a character in a Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition game my friends were running. There was something about the character that clicked with me and I began thinking about him away from the game, to the point where I was doodling comics about him. They became the first pages of the Oracle for Hire years and the beginning of my long career in webcomics.
Makena Obuno (spoiler, that’s his last name) has a very similar origin. He began as, and currently is, the character I’m playing in my friends’ Pathfinder Second Edition campaign, Strength of Thousands. Much like Dominic, there’s something about this character that’s clicking with me and has me thinking about him away from the game. While I haven’t made any comics about him like I did in Dominic’s early days, he has made a few appearances on my Patreon page.
As similar as Makena is to Dominic in his origin and his rent-free space in my mind, I won’t be making him a permanent protagonist. This new format for The Legacy is all about switching from one location to another and exploring new characters in a changed world. To have one protagonist taking us from one place to another, like Snout, wouldn’t be adhering to the change I’m looking for as a creator. So don’t expect Makena to be sticking around for consecutive stories any time soon…
…but that doesn’t mean he won’t be making frequent appearances. When this first short story wraps up we’ll go somewhere else to meet some new characters, but Makena won’t be gone for good. I want to explore his character as much as I want to travel around the changed world and introduce plenty of new characters. I’ll have to be careful about striking that balance.
I’m excited about Makena. But I’m also excited about dwarves. And elves. And the qualenti. And the human cultures beyond Callan and Semashi. And the oneirics. And even other planets.
There’s a lot to see beyond my excitement for one new character.