War Hero

War Hero is the eighth book of the Blood Moon series, and the the tenth chronologically speaking. It follows the journeys of Bakra, a struggling addict and Cinder, an orphaned youth as they fight to survive in a world at war.

## **The Big Picture**

**When House Aiataar failed them, the dragon Vaeliang was slain and the warlocks left leaderless, Darkness is forced to regroup and call forth the Dark Lord before he can be reincarnated so that he might direct their victory over Creation. Benniszth orders his necromancer generals to march north to Araia, Raknos to eradicate Lypter through plague and his subordinate warlocks to scour the continent for the successor to the Flame Aeon. He then enacts the rites that will allow his own body to be used as a surrogate third vessel to anchor Mikhalinn to the world. With the Protectorate destroyed and the weaknesses of Serpahis revealed to him, Drakon is confident that he can end the solfar once and for all, and besieges the city with armies of morbi, zimbwi and sirrush under his dawon generals.**

## **Part One**

### **Arc One**

* **Introduce the world and tone of the story**
* **Introduce main character** **with an entrance**
* **Foreshadow the moral change - the character's flaw**
* **Introduce the other major players**
* **Plan other props/skills of the character through their backstory**

**Chapter I (Bakra):**

**Chapter II (Cinder):** Cinder enjoys a village festival but escapes to the other side of town with her betrothed for some fun.

**Chapter III (Bakra):**

**Chapter IV (Cinder):** Cinder witnesses the utter destruction of her village and everyone she has known when a warlock and its draugr pass through.

**Chapter V (Bakra):**

**Chapter VI (Cinder):** Cinder hides in the ruins of the village until she is "rescued" by a squad of bandits - Jerren, Mordak, Waazig and Elias.

### **Arc Two**

* **The character resists their call to action**

**Chapter VII (Bakra):**

**Chapter VIII (Cinder):** Entering a village, the bandits cause trouble, and Cinder is too scared to leave their company.

**Chapter IX (Bakra):**

**Chapter X (Cinder):** The bandits assault and murder some fellow travellers, and Cinder flees in terror into the woodlands surrounding them.

**Chapter XI (Bakra):**

**Chapter XII (Cinder):** Cinder is attacked by demons in the black woods at night, and rescued by Elias, who reveals that he is a paladin of the Light.

### **Arc Three**

* **The first half-hearted attempt at action is shot down**

**Chapter XIII (Bakra):**

**Chapter XIV (Cinder):** The group proceed out of the woodlands and enter the blasted heaths of central Andar, heading eastwards. Mordak has his eye on Cinder, intending to eat her.

**Chapter XV (Bakra):**

**Chapter XVI (Cinder):** Mordak attacks Cinder in the night as the group camp out, but the demented kiasyd is slain by Elias, run through the back.

**Chapter XVII (Bakra):**

**Chapter XVIII (Cinder):** Elias and Cinder proceed eastwards to Sandoria, but Jerren and Waazig continue northwards, away from the blighted lands.

### **Arc Four**

* **The second, genuine attempt to overcome adversity also fails**
* **The character's flaw gets in their way**
* **There is a strong hint at the character's need to change**

## **Part Two**

### **Arc Five**

* **Confrontation with the need to change in order to eventually succeed**
* **The character's eyes are opened to reality - that they must "change or die"**
* **The character retreats to lick their wounds**

**Chapter XXV (Bakra):**

**Chapter XXVI (Cinder):** Cinder and Elias meet clerics of Maiar as they destroy a serpentine demon and the band warn them off proceeding into the doomed land of Sandoria.

**Chapter XXVII (Bakra):**

**Chapter XXVIII (Cinder):** The pair witness a plague walker as it stumbled across the horizon as the sun sets, but still press onwards.

### **Arc Six**

* **Creation of a new plan of action**
* **Now the character is prepared to take a different approach**
* **Resolve to change for the betterment of the self and of the world**

**Chapter XXXIV (Cinder):** The pair enter a village in the narrow end of a valley and find bacillus demons feasting upon corpses. Then they are attacked by zombies.

**Chapter XXXV (Bakra):**

**Chapter XXXVI (Cinder):** Escaping the village, they realise that the city of Lypter is in view.

### **Arc Seven**

* **The character puts their final plan into action**
* **The character is almost destroyed in some manner in the process**
* **The tables are turned on the adversary/antagonistic element**

**Chapter XXXVII (Bakra):**

**Chapter XXXVIII (Cinder):** Elias and Cinder enter Lypter but must then escape a colossal horde of the dancing dead - the city's massacred populace reanimated.

**Chapter XXXIX (Bakra):**

**Chapter XL (Cinder):** Outside the city, Raknos explains his purpose and departs into the sky as the pair stare in horror and disbelief at what they have witnessed.

### **Arc Eight**

* **The adversary has one last opportunity to defeat the character somehow**
* **The character fully triumphs and the world is bettered**
* **BUT leave some form of a cliff-hanger to set up the next book in the series**

**Chapter XLIII (Bakra):**

**Chapter XLIV (Cinder):** Elias begins to panic as his church has been decimated and he is left without a cause to uphold. his guardian angel tells him to claim Cinder's soul before the warlocks get it.

**Chapter XLVIII (Cinder):** Cinder is slain by Elias, who in his disturbed insanity sees this as the only way to protect her soul from Darkness.

## **Epilogue**

Elias is soon overwhelmed and destroyed by a koschei, who then claims the Aeon of Flame and returns to its lair after examining the two broken corpses at its feet.