Every world needs a heartbeat. Before the draw boats, before the dorsal pilots and the White Sapphire Crystal, there were just two people standing on a beach with the sun on their faces.
This is how I first saw Shane and Mila.
When I started this journey, I didn’t begin with maps or star charts. I began with a feeling. Two people who are completely at ease with each other: no masks, no games, nothing to prove. Pure, clean and natural. If I could hold that feeling steady, I knew everything else in the world could grow around it.
Shane
Shane has lived a thousand lives, but you’d never guess it from the grin. He’s barefoot, sun-worn and a little wild around the edges, a man who would rather be in the surf than anywhere else. He carries the weight of an ancient purpose, protecting the water planets of our universe, yet he carries it lightly. That’s the key to him. His power over water only works when he’s playing with it. The harder he tries, the less it flows.
Mila
Mila is the one who keeps him honest. She hauls in the fish from the middle reef, laughs at his strange little habits, and when she asks a question, she gets an answer. Her long hair is always moving with the wind, like she’s already halfway to the ocean. She isn’t a sidekick, and she isn’t waiting to be rescued. When Shane finally tells her who he really is, she doesn’t flinch. She packs the house.
The colour of this world
You might notice the red in their hair. That’s Lady-Sun. On this planet the evenings burn amber across the sky and the sand, and anyone who lives by the ocean wears it. Chestnut turns to copper, skin turns golden, and everything takes on that soft, sun-bleached glow. It’s the light of a world that is still clean and still breathing.
Why this matters for world building
A world as big as Lord of Water, with three moons, living oceans and dark forces gathering beyond the stars, can easily swallow its characters. Locking in who Shane and Mila are, how they look, how they move, how they laugh together, gives me an anchor. Every storm, every dive into the deep, every new face on the journey gets measured against this couple on the beach.
If they still feel like these two, the story is on course.
From here, the cast grows: Gary at the helm of Hi-Sun, cheeky Max and Pei, and the dorsal pilots gliding beneath the keel. But it all starts here.
Read Chapter 1 of Lord of Water free at lordofwater.com and meet them for yourself.
— Mike