Why Tarja Titan’s POV is not first-person

To avoid all spoilers, I won’t dive into detail regarding Tarja Titan and her role in the Renegades Epic or Terrian Chronicles, so I’ll be cryptic here.

As you may know, the Terrian Chronicles is part of the shared Renegades Epic. And you may have read Tarja Titan, wondering why her POV is third-person, past-tense while Braden Hawk’s and Liza Fury’s POV is in first-person, present-tense. If you read Civil War (Chronicles of Rondure: Book I), you will also notice the same for Mina Hirai.

So what gives? Why mix and match POVs? I’ve seen differing reactions to my choice behind it. Some readers love it, others hate it, and others have no opinion. But the main reason behind it is that, in the Terrian Chronicles, Tarja Titan is the main protagonist.

Some books feature other protagonists in this fantasy mash-up series. Liza Fury is one of them, and you may have read my freebie anthology, The Renegades, featuring a story from Braden Hawk’s point of view. He, too, is a main character, and I tell both stories in the same first-person, present. But there are other reasons behind this decision, and I will discuss them below.

Tarja Titan’s Role in the Terrian Chronicles and Renegades Epic

Tarja’s role in the Renegades Epic puts her on par with other high-profile protagonists in different series – Elementals of Nordica, Sentrys of Terrene, and Cymraeg Tales, with similar roles.

Tarja’s also connected with these characters, which really hones in on the fact that the Renegades Epic is a shared one.

But, there is more than just her role in the Epic. Tarja is the kind of character that I want you and all my readers to care deeply about. The same holds true for characters in my other series. And I felt with a first-person POV, I could only do so much with her.

Enter Braden Hawk’s and Liza Fury’s stories. Although Tarja is either mentioned (Hawk) or plays just a minor role (Fury), she is also talked about and referred to often. I sort of compare the situation to how much I personally cared about Hannah Ballard in World of the Gateway. Jess Ballard was the obvious main character and she told her story in the first-person, past tense, so there is a bit of a difference here. But a common denominator also exists: Readers care a lot about Hannah, literally from the moment she and Jess cross paths.

And to rev up the emotional attachment, it made more sense for Braden to tell this story, or Liza, as opposed to Tarja. In a way, you can even think of Tarja Titan as Braden telling the actual story. It’s also a lot like Mina’s story in Chronicles of Rondure. Yeah, you will care for Mina. But odds are, there are other characters you may find yourself more emotionally attached to.

What about Sentrys of Terrene and Elementals of Nordica?

If Mina and Braden telling their respective stories heighten emotional attachment, then why not let Tage Ras-Svendson tell the story from a first-person, present-tense POV? Fast-forward to Rise of the Sentrys and there’s a good reason for this.

Or Sion Zona in Elementals of Nordica? One of the reasons behind Sion’s lack of first-person POV came because Elementals of Nordica, especially Wind Wielder, is a retelling of an earlier book series of mine that was rich with blood, gore, and suggestive themes – The book literally read like an M-rated video game. And before you ask, no, it’s not for sale – though it might fit the grimdark sub-genre.

That book was told in third-person, past tense, because at the time, I didn’t think about even attempting first-person, present-tense. Had I tried to write in first-person present in the past, chances are I would’ve tried it.

Around the time I shared the first incarnation of Wind Wielder under a different name back in 2018 (it was terrible, by the way), I also wrote the first drafts of Tarja Titan. 

The Original Tarja Titan

In that draft, Braden Hawk was actually an investigative journalist while Tarja was a high school student outcast. Her older sister, Stef Titan (known as Stef Fury in Tarja Titan), and her cousin, Veronica, routinely looked down on Tarja, as did the rest of her family.

In that draft, Tarja lived with her biological parents and she was not the character readers know her for today. Instead, she and her best friend, Floor Jetta (still a supporting character), stumbled upon a portal that astral projected them to a ceremony run by global elitists – the precursors to my Machi and Intrepid factions.

Tarja reached out to Braden following her exposing that faction of elitists, who happened to have a special ability. This storyline was something Skeeter Gotham implied in Liza Fury: The Discovery, and it’s later touched on in Catch 22, so there are some nominal links to the original Terrian Chronicles. 

Meanwhile, Kira Myoi was known as Kira Eriksson, and she didn’t possess Spirit Elemental abilities, but a unique ability that I dropped from the series. The Veronica character was combined with another antagonistic character and retooled later into Stacey Peyton. Meanwhile, Liza was a problem child from the North Hills of Pittsburgh sent to live with a relative of Braden’s, who he would later mentor.

This entire book was written in third-person, past tense. Even Braden Hawk’s POV, which only occurred in the first and last chapters. At the end of that book, Braden revealed himself as a Wind Elemental. Anyway, I had a few other books drafted up in the Terrian Chronicles, or the original Terrian Chronicles, that all followed third-person, past-tense POV.

There is yet another link, however: The original Tarja Titan, Braden Hawk, and Liza Fury: Discovery covers WERE the intended covers for those respective books before I rebranded them.

One cut character

One main character, Brock Patrick, is one who I cut out because I felt he was too much like Braden. But Lenny Cyclone, who appears and plays a minor role in each Terrian Chronicles novel, was originally Brock’s cousin, not Braden’s. Lenny simply one-upped Brock but possessed no actual Earth Elemental abilities.

The solution? I fused Braden and Brock into the same character. Braden, like Brock, often plays second-fiddle to Lenny. He also inherited Brock’s quick-to-anger personality.

Also, in Tarja Titan, you’ll cross a character named Jay Fury. In the original drafts, he was Jay Patrick; Brock’s dad and Braden’s former boss. So yeah, a lot changed with Tarja Titan and the entire series. But, as mentioned, everything was in third-person, past-tense POV.

But Sentrys of Terrene is original, right?

Sentrys of Terrene is the one book series whose plot was brand new until the Catenarian Chronicles, yet without a first-person, present-tense POV. So again, why is Tage Ras-Svendson’s POV not first-person, present-tense? It’s literally made for that! This is because the Tarja Titan type of character in Sentrys does not have a POV in Book I. Instead, two characters share POV time: Tage Ras-Svendson and Sabre Kjaergaard. 

Since Tage loves the Tarja equivalent so much, the book could have been more of an emotional roller coaster with first-person, present-tense POV. But like I said earlier: Rise of the Sentrys answers that question.

Plus, Sentrys isn’t less emotional, more action-packed. It has its moments, but overall, Sentrys is the high-octane book series I always wanted to create. It reads more like an action movie than anything else, so I wanted to take the emotional aspect down a notch. In fact, emotional detachment is one of the book’s themes.