New Fiction Idea #21

Because the vampires get all of the attention these days.

Working Title: Dynblaidd

Genre: Fantasy

Protagonist: Aaron, a half-Dyn with wavy, dark brown hair. He's rather tan, with hazel eyes and a crooked but white smile. While he's very friendly, sometimes even a doormat, to those he considers his family (which in this world encompasses close friends), he's cold to others and rarely lets them in. He still smiles a lot at them, but when it comes to aristocrats he can't even manage that much. He pursues Robin-Hood-like fantasies as well.

Other Main Characters: Galen, an aristocrat with very dark, reddish hair. His eyebrows would be thick enough to warrant suspicion he's not entirely human if he weren't the eldest son of his very noble (human) family. He's incredibly hostile towards the Dyn of any variety and does not smile in public (it's doubtful he would in private, either). He's engaged to the daughter of the wealthiest family, though he's never met her, and as such has been practising to become the effective ruler.
Andraste, a quarter-elf with platinum blonde hair and violet eyes. She's very quiet but is eager to help anyone that makes requests of her. As far as racism goes, she's extremely open-minded for her time.

Antagonist: Seona, a blonde elf of an averagely pale complexion with light blue eyes. She's indiscriminately hospitable, but she's excellent at ensnaring people. She's very protective of her family but can be irresponsible when it comes to her extreme prejudice of the Northwest.

Setting: A large island, separated into the Northwest and Southeast by the River Tell. The Northwest is populated by a vast majority of humans, and the Dynblaidd (Dyn for short). The Dynblaidd appear mostly human, but with thicker hair and eyebrows, as well as claws of steel-like consistency; a larger but more stooped stature; tails about half the length of their forearms; and long, sharp teeth with slightly larger canines. Their strength waxes and wanes with the moon; the new moon has them near death, while any sliver of moon has them about the same strength of humans and the full moon at about thrice the strength of humans. Regardless of other heritages mixed in, all have a taste for human flesh (whether pureblood human or human-Dyn "mutt") but can resist to degrees varying from Dyn to Dyn. They've occupied the lowest castes of society since a group of technologically-superior humans drove them to near extinction. The Northeast is an aristocracy with a fairly high quality of life, for humans.
The Southeast is populated by a majority of elves, and humans. While every species has access to magic, the elves are particularly skilled at it. The Southeast is broken up by mountains into city-states, but a king claims control over its entirety.
The two sides of the island have finally stopped warring some forty years ago. The Northwest has yet to fully recover and still distrusts and fears the other side, particularly the elves. Little commerce or communication is carried out between them, and immigration more or less doesn't exist.

Plot: A starving Aaron finally secures a job as one of many servants in Galen's household. He uses the position to his advantage, Robin-Hood-ing it every chance he gets, and slowly makes the unfriendly acquaintance of the young master. Eventually the two antagonize each other enough a private fight ensues, and Aaron pulls the expensive, heavily-jewelled family amulet off Galen's neck to discover it had been repressing Galen's Dyn nature. Now under threat of death, Aaron is forced to assist the young master in finding the elven woman who cursed him to be Dyn before it becomes permanent and hereditary.

Point of View: Third-person, limited to Aaron.

It seems sort of counter-intuitive to have werewolves vs. elves instead of the more traditional lineups, but I'm hoping that can turn out to be a good thing.

One of the Lukes has suggested it needs another element to not be hackneyed. I've been able to come up with two, one of which would only amount to a twist ending, and other being a conversion of the story to fan fiction (and I'm sure we all know who would have to be Galen).