7 inspirations for my academy fantasy protagonist

Yote Diamondback is my kick-ass protagonist in the young adult academy fantasy, Arcane Elemental Academy. And there’s a lot of inspiration behind her.

Many YA academy fantasy heroines are hot, confident, or naturally gifted. Yote Diamondback’s none of the above, and that’s exactly why she’s the best damn protagonist I’ve ever created.

Guys like Sion Zona (Elementals of Nordica) and Quinn Cozens (Beyond the Lost) are hot heads, while Liza Fury (Terrian Chronicles) and Kaija Jokiharju (Catenarian Chronicles) can be too tropey at times.

Then, there’s Yote. A rather shy girl whose sheer skills outlast and outplay her confidence issues. She’s not a beauty queen, nor is she someone who people will look at and give a chance based on her demeanor and vibes.

There are reasons for this, and it extends into the seven inspirations behind this complex protagonist. Some of them are definitely underdogs, while others beat the odds even when the cards were stacked against them.

1 – That girl in the gym

I based Yote’s physical features on a girl I’d seen watching me for a while in the gym. She’s got that same long, frizzy, rust-colored hair, the light skin, the brown eyes, and ultra-petite frame. I’d have put her age at around 23-24, give or take a year or two.

Also like Yote, nobody in the mainstream would’ve called this girl good looking, but, for some reason, she wore her features, however forgettable, rather well. Without makeup (my personal preference), she looked good to me, even if most dudes would look at her and look away after about two seconds.

There are instances in The Arcane Prophecy when characters like Loki Kahne and Storm Sharpe tell Yote that she’s much better looking than she thinks. No, she’s not magazine cover-worthy or anything even remotely near that. But those who really appreciate her features, especially guys like Loki and Storm, understand that there’s an underlying beauty in Yote.

2 – Harry Potter, obviously

Harry Potter is the entire reason this young adult academy fantasy exists. No, it’s not a retelling of Potter, since Yote’s 14 in Book I and she’s no Gryffindor. Plus, she’s got a pentagram-shaped birthmark on her arm, and not a lightning bolt scar on her forehead.

But there was a prompt on Quora of, ‘What if Voldemort just adopted Harry,’ that got me thinking. And that’s where we’re at with The Arcane Prophecy and the entire Arcane Elemental Academy series.

All of that said, Yote and Harry don’t have a ton of similarities. Yeah, they’re small and skinny for their ages, and yeah, they’re marked. But other than that, there’s not much to go on because I wasn’t interested in reinventing the wheel.

3 – That open-minded statist

At the end of this article, you’ll find The Arcane Prophecy’s prequel, Arcane Awakenings. And in it, Yote’s a bit of a statist, like a lot of kids who attend either government schools or those micro-managed private schools.

To Yote, the state regulates and dictates the curriculum for everyone’s own good, even if it’s nothing but propaganda. And when someone has enough balls to challenge that propaganda, well, they might just face consequences.

Not because they’re wrong, but because the establishment doesn’t like to argue when they have nothing to defend themselves with once they’re caught in a lie. So, what do they do? They erase their opposition.

4 – The chosen-one archetype…kind of…

If you’ve been reading my author blog for a while, you’ll know one thing: I hate mind-numbing formulaic genre fiction. It’s why genre-first readers hate my work. So, if you’re in that category and you love the young adult academy fantasy genre, chances are, you’ll hate The Arcane Prophecy.

One of the reasons is that I play with tropes. Is Yote a chosen one? Yeah, in a manner of speaking. But she’s also not a chosen one, because the good old prophecy trope is, well, rather open.

In other words, there’s no “down to Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom” kind of deal. That might leave genre Nazis feeling confused and pissed off. But if there’s one thing I’ve always known, it’s that they’re always pissed, so I’m not losing any sleep over them.

5 – Johnny Hockey (Johnny Gaudreau)

Johnny Gaudreau’s legacy lives on with the Calgary Flames and Columbus Blue Jackets, no doubt. But before his and his brother, Matthew’s, untimely deaths in August 2024, I’d injected a lot of Johnny Hockey into Yote.

For one, she’s an undersized star forward for her box thrashball team – think a cross between hockey and lacrosse, but no sticks involved. For another, she wears number 13, also like Johnny.

And, if you remember correctly, Johnny once signed with the Blue Jackets as a free agent back in 2022, shocking the hockey world. He was fine playing for a bad hockey team, and it’s why he instantly became a Blue Jackets legend. Well, Yote’s in a similar boat, more than cool with playing for the ailing Scorpii Venom.

6 – Lord Voldemort (seriously)

Yeah, Yote’s got a lot of Harry Potter in her, but she might also have even more of Lord Voldemort’s qualities, albeit in a different way.

She’s not a psychopath or mass murderer; I mean, she’s a lovable protagonist in a young adult academy fantasy. But Yote’s got nothing but Slytherin qualities, a strange obsession with her family history, and was born on December 31st, or, in my world, 31st Joulokuuta.

Then, there’s the fact she’s rather advanced in just about all of her endeavors, even if she needs to work her ass off to get there. Oh, and unlike what you might see in most aspects of genre fantasy, her teachers (or guides) love her. She just possesses that charm.

7 – Yours Truly

I remember telling my friends I wanted to boast a muscular, yet lean and athletic build after high school. They met me with eye rolls. I also wanted to start training at least five days a week to lay the foundation back when I was in the eighth grade. They also met me with eye rolls.

I said I wanted to be a professional writer. And, once again, they met me with eye rolls. I also said, as part of that professional writing, I wanted to be a novelist. Yep, you can guess they met me with another batch of eye rolls.

Like me, Yote’s that lovable underdog. She’s not built like an athlete unless she works her tail off, not very good looking even if she’s got makeup on, and, really, not someone who you’d think would accomplish much. But, she’s got big-shot potential because she’s simply taken more shots in life. That’s why she can come into her own and be uber-talented.

And the difference between the big shot and the small shot is that the big shot took more shots. In the prequel to Arcane Elemental Academy, Yote takes a few of those shots and, for once, takes a small step outside of her comfort zone.

If you’ve made it this far, I’m sure you want to know more about her and what Arcane Elemental Academy is all about. So, go pick up your free copy of its short prequel, Arcane Awakenings, where you can meet Yote and some of those ‘mean girls’ who’d like nothing more than to bring her down.

But, as you probably guessed, Yote’s got to give them all they can handle.