The Ordeal

With the official release of The Empyrical Tales Book III: The Secret Queen about a week away, I wanted to revisit the original purpose for this blog. Originally, I had intended to give a "making of" commentary and work my way through the story. Like Book III, Book I: The Fourth Queen closely follows the plot of the Hero's Journey. Check out the archive to see older posts, but I left off with "The Ordeal".

The Ordeal is the point where the story reaches a central crisis. The aspiring hero character either literally or metaphorically dies in order to be reborn as the hero. It is a point where the hero must face a dark version of, in this case, herself. She must challenge the villain and it must be extremely difficult to defeat him. This should be the time when the hero faces her greatest fear. As Joseph Campbell said the ordeal signifies the death of the ego, an apotheosis.

*****SPOILERS*****(Highlight to read)*****In The Fourth Queen, the older sister, Zandria, is the hero figure. She has passed through the other stages of the journey and has reached the Ordeal. Instead of a single event, Zandria's ordeal spans a few chapters. The hero's death occurs as she rides the pirate ship called The Dragon's Wing. When the ship crashes, Zandria is knocked unconscious, symbolizing her death. Her rebirth does not occur until a few chapters later. Zandria faces the villain who has chased her the entire story, the lead werewolf. This confrontation is her greatest fear because this monster killed her father, which started her on this journey. The difficulty comes from the setting: Zandria does battle over the open maw of a bottomless pit. Once the wolfman is defeated, Zandria is "reborn" to face the climax of the story and her resurrection.*****END SPOILERS*****

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