Meet Liza Fury—The character who redefined the Renegades Epic
Liza Fury is my universal answer when I’m asked who my favorite character is in the Renegades Epic. And there are many reasons behind this.
Every author has a favorite character, and for me, Liza Fury fits the bill. Liza exhibits many characteristics similar to my own, so despite basing the physical features of some characters on myself, Liza’s personality best matches mine. There’s also no other character in the Renegades Epic dealt a worse hand. At least in Phase I.
Liza is my youngest protagonist, first appearing in The Discovery at just sixteen years old. She’s barely seventeen when she takes center stage in Catch 22, and, unfortunately for Liza, she’s faced with a horde of expectations in both books.
Despite her shortcomings, Liza’s so much tougher than she looks. The kid is the epitome of what somebody can become when they put their mind to something. But she also has a dark side. And with a rather scatter-brained personality, Liza faces more internal struggles than perhaps any other character not just in the Terrian Chronicles, but the Renegades Epic.
More Than Fiction: My bond with Liza Fury
Most of my family and friends would read the Terrian Chronicles and immediately believe Braden Hawk’s my favorite. Like Braden, I’m an Arizona Cardinals and Arizona sports fan, with the Buffalo Sabres as the one outlier.
Braden’s a workout warrior, and so am I. He’s stubborn, and he can hold grudges. That said, I check the same boxes Braden checks. But Liza’s so much more headstrong, and that only becomes more of the case as her character develops.
One approach I took to the Terrian Chronicles is that the characters, even the main protagonist, Tarja Titan, are flatter and not as well-rounded. A stark contrast to Sion Zona in Elementals of Nordica, or Mina Hirai in Chronicles of Rondure. But Liza is the one major exception.
Where chaos meets character growth
Liza can be a vengeful soul, even if she follows, reads about, and even writes for peace advocates. This implies hypocrisy, but we need to remember that Liza’s a 17-year-old kid who’s impulsive time and again.
Apart from being the most believable character in the Terrian Chronicles with those flaws, Liza’s that one character unafraid to fight with even those closest to her. This is something you’ll see in Tarja Titan: Sophomore Year, and more interestingly, it deals with Liza taking Tarja and rounding her out more than you may think.
She almost single-handedly makes Tarja’s character arc more impressive. On the surface, Tarja can be a stereotypical Christ-like character with few flaws. Sure, she can be naive, but when you read Tarja Titan, she deals with few internal struggles. Liza changes that in later books.
Symbolism Shows
If you read the Terrian Chronicles or any book in the Renegades Epic closely, you’ll notice that I love using colors to symbolize different things. Check out Braden’s love for the Cardinals, and you may notice that their colors are red and white.
White (and to a degree, purple) represents the Spirit Element in the books, while red represents Fire. Liza’s a Fire Elemental (though she can also control smoke and later, metal), while Tarja’s a Spirit Elemental.
White stands for peace, which is the vibe you will feel when you get to know Tarja. Red, on the other hand, symbolizes passion, aggression, and even anger. These are traits we see in Liza, who has a “shoot first, ask questions later” personality. But it gets even more interesting.
Braden and Liza aren’t blood-related to Tarja, but they’re close to her. Closer than any other character. And if you look closely, all three represent a unique side of the spectrum. Tarja represents the light side (Valo Oikea), while Liza represents the dark side (Tumma Vasen). Braden, whose personality is aggressive, yet often finds middle ground, sits in the center.
The fork in the road for Liza Fury
When I wrote this in 2023, I was heavily editing Tarja Titan: Sophomore Year, and it was interesting to see Liza Fury, Tarja Titan, and Braden Hawk attempt to draw one another closer to the middle of the spectrum. Of course, Braden’s already there. But Tarja and Liza face the internal struggle, with Tarja trying to tug Liza in one direction while Liza tries tugging Tarja in the other.
Tarja realizes she can’t always be the goody-goody girl, while Liza slowly starts to see hypocrisy in her own actions, despite her libertarian viewpoints. However, the final scene in Sophomore Year will leave a few question marks regarding Liza, with the main one being: What will she do to save somebody she loves?
Will this girl take the high ground? Or do we have an Anakin Skywalker-like fall to the dark side? And better yet, will she ultimately drag Tarja into darker tendencies? Will Tarja raise Liza’s vibrations, or will they both find more middle ground?
Overall, Liza Fury’s that one character who you won’t know if she will fall to the dark side. Of my five Ones and five Escorts, something like this was bound to happen. Her personality and growth over the last two novels will show you that Liza throws a dagger into what some may have considered a cozy Terrian Chronicles.
Liza changes the entire scope of the series, and that aura of mystery is the main reason she’s my favorite character. If I had to rank my characters of how much I like/dislike them, Liza would be Number One not just in the Terrian Chronicles, but the entire Renegades Epic. Meet Liza Fury in The Discovery.
