From Childhood Imagination to Published Print

How Aidee Aréchiga turned her childhood hobby into her passion.

Aidee Aréchiga has always loved video games and books, with one of her favorite video games being Final Fantasy for the roleplaying and adventures from the open world you experience both the combat with monsters and story development. Her love for video games and books always created opportunities to spend more time with her sister, where Aréchiga would create fictional stories that combined her and her sisters’ favorite characters together. Aréchiga started creating her own characters here which soon developed her Warmane characters.

Originally, Aréchiga was writing Warmane as a video game script. With her background in Graphic Design and Creative Writing from university, it started out working well for her as a script, but later she decided to convert it into a novel. However, the novel itself just did not feel like enough for what Aréchiga wanted for her work, so she has started illustrating the graphic novel.

Aréchiga spent several years expanding the first book of Warmane, but once the whole core of the story was built, writing book two only took her six months.

Warmane Vol 1: The Wizard follows Schéa, an elf, and William, a wizard, in Altriny, a land that had no magic except for a select percentage of the population through the Great Awakening/Darkening, where five factions of different types of magic wielders (Witches and Warlocks, Conjurors, Sorcerers, Wizards, and Necromancers) united and created a battle for control on who would control Altriny instead of the original royalty and non-Magiq users. The Wizard Warmane, a mysterious wizard, leads his own resistance against the factions with the goal of eliminating each leader to hopefully get rid of the conquest and torture that the Magiq factions are causing.

Warmane Vol 2: The Faery continues in the William and Schéa’s story where William takes her to his family’s castle and she meets his father, Wrathurin, and his sisters, Wealthen, Worke, and Wista. The group also meet some new friends along the way who become apart of William’s mission, and continue to take out each leader of the factions one by one.

Aréchiga has more planned for the Warmane series, with a novella planned for Myles, William’s best friend and second-in-command, as well as a third book about Schéa and William particularly following them after the attack of the factions and retributions and grudges for William. Aréchiga also has additional books planned for parts of Morby’s family as well as Lunella and Zerth.

In questions about any deleted scenes or something that was taken out, Aréchiga stated that there will be more in the graphic novels, including a scene where Wrathurin and William’s friends were playing parlor games in Wrathurin’s manor while William and his sisters are in Hatha trying to save the world.

When Aréchiga originally started writing, it was always writing when you felt like writing; however, now, Aréchiga forces herself to sit down and write and try to create more space for new things to come along by bringing herself into a balanced, present state so she can be more open and receptive to ideas for her characters.

When asked about her favorite characters, Aréchiga states that Morby is her favorite side character in Volume 1 and 2, but Schéa became her favorite main character especially with their own similarities such as how both Aréchiga and Schéa both dye their hair purple. Aréchiga took a lot of inspiration from the Lord of the Rings movies particularly with the elves which inspired the elves in Warmane like Schéa and her parents.

When creating and developing the series, Aréchiga designed her characters first before deciding if they will get their own books or not. When in school, she learned an assignment that gave her a way to create plenty of details such as zodiac signs, what would be in the characters pockets, and other details so she can build a strong character.

Aréchiga stated that Warmane Volume 2: The Faery was her favorite book to write specifically because of William’s sisters: Wealthen, Worke, and Wista, who hid their powers as faeries, with “faeries hiding they were faeries”, and pretended that they all receive Magiq powers like the rest of the world. Additionally, William was able to learn stories about his parents, his childhood, and what life was like in Hatha.

Aréchiga enjoyed the relationship she created with William and Schéa saying, “they seem well-matched,” Aréchiga said. “I understand why they’re together with Schéa’s warmth and brightness and William’s intensity when they work together and it shows their compatibility.”

Warning: This question is a spoiler from Warmane Volume 2: The Faery

Curiosity bit the cat when I decided to ask about why Aréchiga decided on Vallian becoming king of Altriny when William took down all of the faction leaders. Aréchiga said she’s a major fan of Redemption Stories.

“He was just placed in where he was and was just finding his way,” Aréchiga said. “I needed him to have a big presence for the upcoming books as well.”

For Aréchiga, it was a clean solution to the story and it shows that William realization to how he misjudged the whole situation and showing extreme grace towards Vallian. She did confirm that future books will be getting darker, especially since the former factions are still upset at William eliminating all of the faction leaders.

Aréchiga wants to plan all of the books out and have outlined primarily. While she has lists of titles, she also has several outlines completed. She wants to hopefully publish a book a year and get them out to the world.

What started as a way to entertain her sister became a passion and project that she wants to present to the world. In a world where power meant everything and your worth, there lied a man who wants everyone to be equal regardless of power, and a woman who wants to live happily helping others. Warmane created a bright and colorful environment with a variety of characters and personalities, and Aréchiga is just getting started.

About the Author: Aidee Aréchiga

Aidee Aréchiga started writing stories as a teenager with the sole purpose of entertaining her little sister. The characters she created took on a life of their own and now feature in a saga that she is lovingly illustrating, still with her sister in mind as her primary audience. Her art influences span from Disney to Castlevania, and she is fascinated with and inspired by fairies, Merlin, and Arthurian legends. She is a hobby seamstress, semi-retired gamer, and eternally in her heart, dog mom to the bestest boy German Shepherd, Cass, who is forever playing “no take just throw” across the rainbow bridge.