Younger Toguro and Yusuke Yurameshi

The main event of War of Nytefall: Savagery is the appearance of actions of a ‘man’ named Alastyre.  He made a brief appearance at the end of Ravenous, but this is when he really shows up.  So, what can I say about him?

Not that much since I would like because his origins ended up turning into a big reveal in the story.  He does tie into past events in the series, which was part of the original concept from the first version.  I was going to have him be a recurring threat that continued to plague Clyde in every book.  Alastyre wasn’t going to be part of the overall events, but just a man who is determined to destroy Clyde.  That has stayed in place with a desire to do something about the Dawn Fangs.

The difference I made is that he’s connected to a few previous events while not showing his true nature.  At the least moment, I realized that it would ruin his impact if he was always around.  The big battle would be anticlimactic and dull.  Not to mention, I forgot to have him appear in a few volumes since the planned attacks threw off the rhythm.  Clyde was on a mission and trying to handle a problem.  Then, Alastyre would attack for a slugfest that had no effect on the rest of the story.  It isn’t like Clyde would be killed or take permanent damage.  So, I had a very powerful gnat that kept showing up in the books to ruin the flow of the story.  What was I to do?

All I can say is that it’s a good thing I couldn’t make up my mind and had 2 outlines for the series.  One had Alastyre showing up repeatedly for a fight with no real reason given for it.  He would have new tricks and be determined to kill Clyde, who would either be too distracted to kill him or not think it’s worth his time.  That’s the one that made the series too comedic and broken.  Alastyre was supposed to be this monster that could rival Clyde and here he was being a running gag.  So, the other option was to pull out War of Nytefall: Savagery and bring the book from 7 to 8 books.  It was a faint idea at first that got beefed up by other situations such as Kai’s situation, Mab’s addiction, Desirae existing, and the vampire civil war being in a stalemate.  In this way, Alastyre turned into the catalyst for the series to enter its final stage.  Obviously, I was much happier with this route.

Thankfully, the easiest part was to design Alastyre to be a monster who could rival Clyde in terms of power.  All I had to do was make him strong, tough, and aggressive.  He surpasses Clyde in a few areas too, especially in terms of brutality.  This makes sense.  Alastyre has been battling Dawn Fangs for a long time, which requires a lot of violence and carnage to make sure they’re dead.  Clyde has been coasting through most of his fights.  So, running into a fellow monster will be a shock to his system.  This is why he has to train in order to get strong enough to stand up to Alastyre.  His pride will take a major hit here as well, but that’s not surprising.

Yeah, this is a tough post to really make.  I can’t give details into Alastyre without giving away big events.  So, check out War of Nytefall: Savagery to see what kind of chaos he unleashes on Nytefall and Nyte.  You may be very surprised to see who steps up to hold him back while Clyde does his training.