So those of you who have read Magic's Minister (and if you haven't then what are you doing here?) might be curious to learn all the changes and developments that Sedgewick went through to get to the character he is today. No? Not curious? Well, too bad! Because I'm telling you anyway.

The first inkling...

It was a dark and stormy night....

Okay, okay, BUT I was in my super-awkward-middle-school stage so that's close enough. Anyways, Eleyna, Fenroy, Feyla, and even Beryn already existed at this point, albeit only in my mind. Everything was going swimmingly in the land of my daydreams when I decided that I needed another "smart" character. Someone who would share Eleyna's love of reading and learning while also being a bit of a romantic rival to Fenroy. And thus was born...

A random palace librarian whom I never decided on a name for.

Okay, so he wasn't quite Sedgewick but he did provide the groundwork for Sedgewick's place in the group. I discarded him pretty quickly because he just wasn't very interesting. A couple of things did carry over, however. Namely, Fenroy hating his guts.

Sedgewick the Younger

Now this is where Sedgewick first makes his appearance. I decided to bring in another mage, someone who could mentor Eleyna and be someone she looks up to. One of the biggest differences from now was that Sedgewick was WAY closer in age to the others in the group, making him more of a big brother than a father-figure to Eleyna. He also only popped up during emergencies because usually he was out in the wilderness researching rare magical phenomenons. I considered doing a Fenroy/Eleyna/Sedgewick love triangle but he and Eleyna never quite clicked as a paring so I cut it.

Sedgewick the...Vulcan?

So Sedgewick started popping up more and more in my story ideas/daydreams and he also started acting more and more like a father-figure. Realizing that Sedgewick's skill as a mage didn't quite make sense with how young he was, I decided it was time for a revamp. I upped his age by...a lot. Like 5,000 years a lot. Maybe more. He also stayed at the palace more and became Eleyna's magic teacher in addition to the Minister of Magic. At this point in time, his hair was also a strawberry blond instead of a darker auburn. The biggest difference? His personality. I was still experimenting with how magic worked in this world and one of the things I was considering was having magic require control over your emotions. Thus, mages were supposed to be stoic and aloof. The plan was to have Sedgewick be this harsh, emotionless teacher who rarely got angry and kept his cool at all times.

It...didn't work.

Not for lack of trying! But the more I tried to squeeze the guy into this mold, the more he blew his top and became irritated with everyone around him. Keep his cool? How could I expect him to do that when there were so many idiots around him? (Especially that Fenroy guy. Distracting his favorite pupil with silly romantic subplots. The nerve.) Eventually, I gave up and Sedgewick gained his temper and a smaller version of his famous ego.

Changing the past...

Now at this point, I started working on Sedgewick's backstory. Since I made him so old, I decided to have him be born in the Second Age (now nixed). He was also a childhood friend of Bilara (nixed). Present at the Great Crossing (nixed). And accidentally caused the deaths of hundreds of people he was trying to save. (One of the few tragedies in his backstory that was, yes, nixed) Originally, I was going to have him live all the way to the Third Age but once I decided to make him not ancient (but still older) I had him turned to stone only to be unfrozen millenniums later (annnddd, nixed).

Now, I know what you're thinking, "But Vanna, all that stuff sounds super cool. Why did you change it?"

Well, several reasons. See all that stuff up there? That was all supposed to happen in one century. And as cool as it all was, it ended up eclipsing what were supposed to be the major turning points in Sedgewick's life (which weren't supposed to happen until after he started working at the palace). Having Sedgewick already live through so much loss and tragedy diminished what were supposed to be the major events that made him the man he is. So, I simplified it. Moved his birth to the Third Age and set his age in the 700-800 range. Some specific backstory elements carried over (his relationship with his parents, for example) but a lot of it was replaced with...

What? Did you really think I'd spoil the rest of his backstory here?

To bachelorhood and beyond!

Now, some of you are probably thinking, "But where does Feyla tie into all of this?" Trust me, I'm getting there. After upping Sedgewick's age, he really didn't have a love interest. Well, unless you count Bilara.  Their present-day relationship was MUCH less antagonistic and much more...flirty. So much so that they actually had linked scrying orbs and secretly met up for duels and drinks every half century or so. Sedgewick viewed her as more of a worthy opponent instead of "the woman who betrayed me and whom I now utterly despise".  It stayed this way for quite a while until Feyla entered the scene.

Since Fenroy and Eleyna were a couple, when the team split up, it was usually Feyla and Sedgewick that got stuck together. They played off each other pretty well and since both of them cared about Eleyna (but were on opposite sides of the Fenroy debate) it made for some interesting interactions. Until one day, back when I was still determined to not write down any of the stories circling through my head, I decided to amuse myself by thinking up what weird pairings might develop if they were published and popular.

Hmm, Fenroy and Feyla, maybe? Oh! Sedgewick and Feyla! Yeah, that would be weird. I mean they're so different.

...Yet strangely complimentary. Huh.

The more I thought on it, the more I liked the idea. They just...worked, you know? But there was one major difference from now. Okay. You might want to sit down. This is a doozy.

At one point in time, Sedgewick was the one who confessed his feelings and Feyla was the one who was all confused. No, seriously. I'm being serious. Can't you see my serious face? (well, actually you can't but that's beside the point) I had a couple different ideas for how it might go. One was that Sedgewick would be rushing off to do something life-threatening and heroic but before he left, he'd pull Feyla over, give her a kiss, say he loved her, and then dash off before she got a chance to answer.

But my favorite was the one where Sedgewick would pull a Mr. Darcy by coming over to her house in the middle of the night and ranting about how annoyed he was that he couldn't get rid of these feelings, followed by saying he loved her and then asking her out to dinner. Feyla would be so startled that she'd sputter out a yes only to close her door and wonder what on earth happened and how she felt about it.

The change to the reverse happened pretty gradually. I thought up countless scenarios but I still couldn't figure out exactly how these two would get together. What would tip them over the edge? What would upset the careful balance of their statue quo?

It was then that I began messing around with the idea of writing a story about Sedgewick. It would have to be something big, yet personal. He was a powerful mage and needed a challenge to match. But it couldn't involve him losing his magic or anything like that. I mean, that would just crush him and we can't have that— Wait. Isn't writer a synonym with torturer? And doesn't most writing advice say to take your character through what he most fears?

And thus Magic's Minister was born.