Thoughts On Writing Romance:

How long does it take for your characters to fall in love with each other?

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You seem of the assumption that whirlwind romances or short term relationships and love at first sight are impossible and do not happen in real life. This is a limited way of thinking which implies that only YOUR way of seeing a relationship is capable of working.

As in everything in life, what works for one may not work for another. What works for you, may not work for me. What works for me, may not work for you.

The same cane be said of love, romance, relationships, and marriage. What works for one couple may not work for another.

It is never safe to assume. When you assume, you make and ASS out of U and ME. Assumptions lead to judgements. Judgments lead to hurt feelings. Hurt feelings lead to heartache and divorce.

When you make assumptions about the validity of another person's relationship, it is a tell-tale sign that you have trouble in your own relationship - trouble that you brought on yourself, by making assumptions about your partner, leading to you being judgmental of your partner.

Think about it and you'll see what I mean.

But let's move past that and take a look at some real life couples I have personally known.

There is a couple at my church (Cape Elizabeth Ward of the Augusta  Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, aka we are Mormons) who got married the same day they meet - they will be celebrating their 60th anniversary soon.

Bob and Gale Devilline. Natives of Quebec who each (separately) moved to Maine in the 1930s and became US Citizens. Ended up meeting in Portland, during the War and got married the same day. Lived on Allen's Avenue in Portland for decades. Now living in Parsonsfield, Maine, moving there in the late 1990s after the death of their wheelchair bound son, Benjamin (who was born with cerebral palsy).

What happened was this:

WWII she got the news that her boyfriend was killed overseas. She refused to believe he was dead so went to the docks and wait every day for the soldiers to come home in hopes he'd be one of them. After several months of this a group of Navy sailors came home from the war. One of them saw her and asked who she was looking for, then helped her look. Couldn't find him After a while she told the sailor, she had already been told he was dead. The sailor said to her: "Will marry me and I'll take care of you." They got married an hour later.

They didn't even know each other, had no clue if they'd ever love each other. They just decided they needed each other and that was it.

It's funny when I think of all the couples I've known over the years - there's a woman (my aunt) who has been divorced 12+ times and keeps saying she can't find love. I've known several couples who lived together 3 or 4 years before decided to get married only to get divorced in less than a year. They always say something about "love dying".

So many couples put their sights on love and romance and are divorced within 3 years... yet the couple that never considered either love or romance, and only decided that they needed to be devoted to taking care of the other, they are the couple that lassted.

Myself? An arranged relationship. I was 12, he was 37. We celebrated our 30th anniversary last August. We are Gypsies. Our culture is dramatically different than Americans. We do not marry for love. We do not believe in divorce. We believe a relationship is formed when 2 people agree to work together and share the responsibilities of building a family. Any 2 people, together long enough, grow to love one another. We see love as a result of a commitment, not a reason to become committed. Love is not a firm foundation on which to build. Relationships built on love never last. This is because few people can tell the difference between lust and love. When most people say they married for love, usually they actually married for lust/infatuation without really, truly, deeply loving thee person.

Our culture looks at the American method of marrying for love and sees it as flawed, sees it as being a perversion, with people simple running around like dogs with their noses up each others asses instead focusing on looks and sex instead of building a relationship on trust and commitment. I know many Americans see our culture and ways as strange, but you must understand, that you are just as bizarre to us. We see the American obsession with love, lust, and sex to be outlandish, barbaric, and animalistic, and not becoming of someone who claims to be civilized and more intelligent then cavemen. Of course, we Gypsies also have strict moral codes about sex and promiscuity - there is no such thing as sex outside of marriage in our culture, and we look at the Americans with their rampant obsessions with sex outside of marriage and see them as wild dogs with not only no morals, but also with no self control.

There was a scientific study done a few years ago, which compared marriages (types, how long they lasted, ve how the marriage had come about, stuff like that) and in the end the scientists who did the study, had concluded that what most people call love, was actually lust, and that lust lasts for about 3 years. If a person marries for "love" (lust" but does not learn to ACTUALLY love their partner within 3 years, the marriage is doomed to fail, because lust wears off. If however the couple learned to love each other within 3 years, their marriage would last 50 or more years.

I think that says love and romance are overrated and that devotion and commitment to a goal are what really make or break a couple. Love is just a fickle, fleeting emotion. Commitment is an active decision.

And so on to your question:

And so, with all of what I already said, you should now be able to understand how I come to write my characters' relationships as I do.

I write a long running series, so the same couple appears in each novel, thus in many novels you see them already together. But going back to the first few novels, where they first meet...

Did they do the things on your list?

Did they....

• develop feelings for each other only after a few days of meeting, even hours

Yes. But the feelings were not love.

One (Unicorn) was a scam artist trying to trick the other (Quaraun) into doing a criminal act so that he would take the blame for what the other (Unicorn) had done. Quaraun realized he was being taken advantage of, but had a deviant little plot of his own. So both were using the other to get what they wanted. Within a few hours of meeting, each immediately had strong feelings for the other, but as I said, it was not love. Both were aware they were being used and both became intrigued with the idea of seeing how long the other would hide their motives and what lengths each would go to to hide their true goals from the other.

And so it became sort of a game for each of them to go out of the way to try to trip the other one up. This in turn resulted in them becoming addicted to the thrill of trying to not get caught, and the sense of danger that came with the fear of getting caught.

So yes, they do develope feelings for each other after only a few hours, but those feelings are not yet love.

The thing I wonder about your question is this...

If someone does not develope feelings of somesort with the first few MINUTES of meeting a person, why then would that person decide to spend an hour with this new person they have meet? If in those first few SECONDS they did not feel SOMETHING, why then, would they seek to spend time with the person and get to know them.

The initial feeling does not have to be love, but there does have to be something felt in those first few seconds, to inspire these two people to want to get to know each other, other wise WHY would they agreee to spend time together a second or third time?

Some spark of feeling, no matter how small, ignites in the first seconds of meeting, to cause two strangers to eventually become a couple, otherwise no couples would EVER be formed and the Human race would have died out centuries ago.

In the case of Quaraun and Unicorn, it is not love at first sight, but the first time encounter does have a powerful effect on both of them emotionally. Each of them is intrigued by how the other makes them feel.

Quaraun feels a sense of danger and mystery around Unicorn. This is a feeling he's not felt around others and one that he finds exhilarating and desires to feel again. This sense of danger, the thrill of the fear of being close to a predator, is what initially draws Quaraun to Unicorn. 

• build a stable and healthy relationship

No. Their relationship is both unstable and unhealthy. Very much so.

Their relationship is shaky throughout the entire series (all 130+ novels).

While Unicorn remains faithful and never has a relationship with anyone else, he frequently becomes frustrated with Quaraun and often just leaves. There are times when he wants to leave and doesn't, and in those cases, his frustration builds up resulting in violent outbursts. Unicorn has a short temper and frequently beats up Quaraun, then afterwards regrets it and ends up staying in the relationship out of guilt and the fear of doing even more damage.

Quaraun, though he deeply loves Unicorn, he is also scared of him. Quaraun is nervous and flighty and when Unicorn goes into one of his violent temperamental outbursts, Quaraun is often quick to run away and hide... usually in the arms of an "understanding lover". Enter GhoulSpawn who then gets beaten up by Unicorn as well.

Over the course of his life, Quaraun has 4 wives, and 2 male lovers, and multiple short-lived affairs with both men and women. While Quaraun does deeply love Unicorn, he was raised in a polygamous culture and has difficulty grasping the concept of monogamy.

Unicorn tends to overlook Quaraun's relationships with females, but become extremely jealous whenever Quaraun adds an additional male lover. Unicorn himself feels no attraction to females, so he does not become jealous of Quaraun's attraction to them.

Quaraun's habit of spending time with prostitutes, also is overlooked by Unicorn, who doesn't pay attention to the fact that Quaraun focuses a lot of his attention on only one prostitute at this particular tavern, and dotes on her half-Elf children. The girl is in fact not a prostitute. She is Quaraun's 2nd wife, and the father of her children.

• spend time getting to know one another

No. They became lovers, as in sex partners, almost immediately after meeting, without knowing each other at all.

Quaraun is described by everyone who meets him as being "the most beautiful creature they ever saw". EVERYONE is trying to get in bed with him. However, Quaraun is demisexual and refuses the sexual advances of almost everyone. Unlike GhoulSpawn, Quaraun is not prone to having sex with random strangers. It takes quite a bit of coaxing and getting to know someone and forming an emotional bond with them, before Quaraun will have sex with someone.

With Unicorn, Quaraun submits to having sex with him, the first night they meet, but this is because Quaraun is wounded, has lost a lot of blood, is weak and light headed, and then was drugged by Unicorn. The scene is dub-con (dubious consent) very much crossing lines into rape. Quaraun is not fully in control of his senses and passes out from blood loss soon after sex starts. Quaraun's being unconscious, does not stop Unicorn from finishing what he started.

Quaraun has suffered from a sword wound to the belly, his injuries being quite severe and remains in a semi-comatose state after that. It is many days before Quaraun fully wakes up again, at which point he finds Unicorn asleep in bed with him, and immediately pulls a knife on the sleeping Faerie intended to slit his throat, but Unicorn wakes up and stops him. Quaraun, as is his nature backs down from a fight, and so immediately releases the knife.

Quaraun remains confused as to what exactly happened that night, unable to remember most of the events due to his injuries. He is uncertain if Unicorn raped him or not, uncertain if he actually did agree to bedding with the Phooka that night. The two part ways, but in the next novel, you see Quaraun spending a lot of time thinking back to that night with Unicorn and wishing to be with the Phooka again. His lust for the Phooka and burning desire to spend another night with him, leads Quaraun to seeking out Unicorn and them now spending time getting to know each other.

Quaraun's friends BeaLuna and Bullgaar are quick to point out that Quaraun's attitude towards sexual activities has changed drastically. Prior to meeting Unicorn, Quaraun is a Wizard-Priest who took a vow of celibacy and had shunned sex for many decades. His suddenly being addicted to frequent, daily, sex with Unicorn is a change in his personality that shocks his closest friends. 

It is later discovered that this dramatic change in Quaraun's attitude towards sex, was a result of a drug called Yoruba, which Unicorn had been putting in the Elf's eggnog. Yoruba is a powerful (real world) afrodisiace that clouds a person's judgment, heightens their sexual desire, and causes a tingling/burning sensation in the genitals resulting in the person's intense desire to have their genitals rubbed to relieve the burning pain.

Unicorn is daily putting Yoruba in Quaraun's drinks, and over time conditions the Elf to submitting to Unicorn's daily sexual advances. Over time Unicorn no longer needs to drug the Elf, as Quaraun has an obsessive personality and once in a routine of doing a thing daily, will continue to do so.

Quaraun has a small, micro penis, something that he frequently bemoans. However, like most men with small penises, Quaraun has unusually large testicles, which he also complains about. Upon meeting Quaraun, Unicorn at first assumes him to be a female, because of the way his is dressed. Quaraun however has a deep, distinctively male voice, and when asked about his gender, says he is male. He also uses male pronouns. This intrigued Unicorn, who has at first assumed the Elf was transgender and was trying to be female. Upon discovering the Elf was not transgender, and was instead a transvestite, he asked Quaraun why it was he wore dresses. To which Quaraun explained that his balls were to big and wearing pants was incredibly uncomfortable for him, due to the constricting of his testicles and chafing of his ball sac.

Quaraun's blunt openness in explaining this, led to Unicorn's becoming obsessed with wanting to see Quaraun's balls to see how big they actually were, but when invited to bed with the Phooka, Quaraun immediately declined, stating that he was a virgin priest devoted to his sect and would never have sex with anyone. Thus why Unicorn drugged the Elf's drink to begin with.

Once Unicorn realized that Quaraun indeed had a very large pair of balls and that Quaraun enjoyed having them played with, Unicorn became obsessed with getting Quaraun naked as often as possible. Thus why Unicorn continued to drug Quaraun after their first encounter.

Thus is how Quaraun and Unicorn become sexual partners, living together and daily have sex, without first getting to know one another.

Each of the three of them has had multiple lovers, but each of them in different manners.

Unicorn tends to be semi-monogamous, having many partners, but only one at a time. He will not cheat on the partner he is with. He becomes very devoted, faithful, and loyal to his current partner and does not seek out a new partner while his current partner is alive. Unicorn is the oldest of the three. Being a Faerie he has the longest lifespan and is more then 2,000 years old at the time he meets Quaraun. Because he avoids other Fae and takes Elves as lovers, he has thus outlived many partners. Quaraun is the last partner he takes, and is the one he is with the longest, with then remaining together around 300 years, until Quaraun's death. Unicorn dies the same day as Quaraun. 

While they are all males, Unicorn is actually the only character in the Quaraun series who is gay. Unicorn in his youth had multiple female wives and fathered several children. He however had no interest in females and only had wives because of pressure from his social ranking. (He was at the time the King of the Realm of Fae and was expected to have a Queen.) His being attracted to males and not females, was the primary reason for his renouncing his role as King and escaping from Fae to live in the same dimension as Humans and Elves instead. After escaping Fae he never again has a female partner, from that point onward only having male lovers.

The Quaraun series classifies as what is known as "Seme-Uke Yaoi". Unicorn is the Seme. A Seme is a very dominate, often excessively violent, gay man who refuses to bottom for any other male. Seme's are generally seen as villains, because they are prone to not only be dominate, but also tend to be lustful predators who stalk younger, weaker beta males intended to rape them. Unicorn is what is known as "a Classic Seme". Unicorn finds very young, very beautiful, very feminine men and stalks them, kidnaps them, and forces them into sexual submission. 

Unicorn will not allow another male to fuck him. If another male tries to have sexual intercourse with him, however, he will quickly bares his fangs, and lash the man's head of with his sharp eagle-talon-like claws then eat them.

Quaraun, though readers have dubbed him "the gay Elf wizard", is in fact not gay. Quaraun is a bi-sexual demi-sexual. Like a true demisexual, Quaraun is not sexually aroused by either males or females. Being demisexual, means he is asexual and does not feel sexual arousal towards either gender, but unlike a truly asexual person who adamantly refuses to have sex, even with their spouse, a demi-sexual will submit to sexual intercourse to satisfy his partner's needs. Because Quaraun feels not sexual attraction to either males or females, he is able to form strong emotional bonds with both males and females. Once he has formed an emotional bond with someone, male or female, if that person desires sexual intercourse with him, he will agree to it to satisfy them, making him bisexual, not gay, as he has sex with both genders equally.

Quaraun is polygamous, meaning he has multiple spouses all at the same time. When asked he acknowledges having 6 spouses: 4 females and 2 males. While he classifies the 4 females as his wives, he in turn considers himself to be the "wife" of the 2 males. 

GhoulSpawn is polyamorous and prone to promiscuity. (And as the word is often used incorrectly, I'll tell you what the definition of promiscuity is: Promiscuity is the practice of having casual sex frequently with different partners or being indiscriminate in the choice of sexual partners. In other words a person who has frequent one night stands with total strangers and someone who uses prostitutes.) GhoulSpawn just plain likes sex a lot. His is the single most sexually active character of the series, engaging in sexual with multiple partners, multiple times a day. GhoulSpawn with fall into bed with any pair of legs willing to spread for him, regardless of gender, race, species, or age. He has intercoure with Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Demons, and if you know the series well, you know all about GhoulSpawn being a farmer with a lot of female sheep.

The trio of wizards is frequently being chased out of villages by mobs of angry husbands, fathers, and sheep farmers. GhoulSpawn is a Ursiug, a type of Chaos Demon, similar to a Centaur (Horseman) or Satyr (a Goatman) or Fawn (Deerman)... the lower half of his body is that of a sheep. 

When sexually aroused, he gives off a musky scent that acts as an overpowering aphrodisiac. This results in his being able to convince everyone to bed with him, even loyal wife who would never think of cheating on their husband, and little girls not old enough to know what sex is. GhoulSpawn is prone to targeting married women, prostitutes, and prepubescent girls. He boldly states his reason for doing this as well. He simply does not want to be bogged down with the responsibility of a family. e chooses married women because their husbands will assume the child is theirs, young girls because they are not yet fertile, and prostitutes because getting pregnant comes with their career. 

GhoulSpawn takes a very distant stance on sex and does not see any need for emotional attachments. Interestingly, GhoulSpawn never chooses male sex partners, and states of several occasions that he detests the very thought of a male on male relationship. This is interesting because of his relationship with Quaraun.

Quaraun is older then GhoulSpawn by 400 years. When they meet, GhoulSpawn is a teenager. Despite his already having had sex with hundreds of girls, wives, and prostitutes, and being chased out of several dozen towns by the angry fathers and husbands of said towns, GhoulSpawn is only 15 years old.

Orphaned at a young age, and supporting himself by becoming a very adapt pick-pocket, scam artist, thief, and con-man, GhoulSpawn is in essence a very wild, feral child with no morals, no social skills, and no manners at all. He was never taught right from wrong, never taught how to interact with others, and growing up on his own, never learned how to form healthy emotional bonds with others.

When they first meet, Quaraun is serious wounded by a spell GhoulSpawn was attempting to cast. Quaraun was passing through and inadvertently walked into the young sorcerer thief's path.  Feeling guilty about having nearly killed Quaraun, GhoulSpawn takes the old Elf back to his hideout out and tends his wounds... while also stealing everything Quaraun had been carrying on him. Quaraun wakes up in GhoulSpawn's care, and quickly realizes the young Demon has stolen his things but overlooks it as he also realizes GhoulSpawn is only a child.

Quaraun has a weakness for children, especially orphans, and is often quick to befriend them and care for them, something he attempts to do with GhoulSpawn. GhoulSpawn however, though extremely young, is also a highly intelligent con artist, and is able to outwit the smartest adults. While he lacks social skills, his street smarts are above and beyond average and he is far better at taking care of himself then most adults. GhoulSpawn thus does not see any need to be coddled by an adult and he and Quaraun, quickly part ways once Quaraun's wounds are healed.

Both being wandering vagabonds, the two meet up on the road again multiple times, and GhoulSpawn joined Quaraun's caravan on multiple occasions when they camp for the night.

A year after their initial meeting (with GhoulSpawn now aged 16) the two arrive at the same village, and GhoulSpawn, now seeing Quaraun as a friend, joins Quaraun and Unicorn in their nightly tavern hangouts. While in this village, GhoulSpawn because critically wounded by a Thullid attack, and runs off terrified. Knowing the high mortality rate of a Thullid infestation, Quaraun spends 3 years looking for the wounded youth, then gives up assuming him dead.

Quaraun and Unicorn settle down in an abandoned lighthouse, at the edge of an abandoned town and live peacefully for a few months, until, GhoulSpawn (now 19 years old) arrives on their doorstep, suffering from the late stage side effects of Thullid infestation. Quaraun quickly takes the dying youth in and attempts to help him, but GhoulSpawn dies a few months later from the Thullid infestation.

Normally, one would immediately destroy the body to prevent the Thullid for reanimating it, but on his deathbed, GhoulSpawn makes Quaraun promise not to kill the Thullid, but instead treat it as though it was still him. With GhoulSpawn dead and his body now the host of the alien that killed him, Quaraun reluctantly continues to call him GhoulSpawn and treats the alien that stole GhoulSpawn's body as though it was GhoulSpawn. Eventually the alien submits to this agreement and pretends to be the young man it killed.

Over time everyone, including the Thullid itself, forgets that GhoulSpawn died and the "new" GhoulSpawn becomes very emotionally attached to Quaraun, the two of them becoming lovers.

While the three of them bed together, Unicorn and GhoulSpawn never have intercourse with each other, each of them only ever having intercourse with Quaraun, often at the same time. While Quaraun submits to other men fucking him, he only ever fucks females.

In the end... Quaraun becomes sexually active with Unicorn a few hours after they meet, them having sex the same night they meet, while Quaraun does not become sexually active with GhoulSpawn until 9 years after they meet.

• see if they are actually compatible in terms of personalities

Quaraun is an extreme beta male. Nervous, flighty, and terrified of everything and every one. Frail, sick, and very short (5'6"), his life has been endless bullying that resulted in his fear of everyone bigger than himself, which is almost everyone. While he is very short tempered and quick to have outbursts of screaming hissy fits, he's also a coward and quick to back down if a physical confrontation is presented. Normally quiet and docile, most people are so startled by his sudden outbursts that they back down without a fight, not realizing that he would quickly run off had they stood up to him. He's thus prone to rely on bluffing is way out of things.

Unicorn is a very dominant, very possessive, very aggressive, and very violent alpha male. He always has to have his way and quickly loses his temper when challenged. While he does truly love Quaraun, he lacks the mental or emotional understanding of how to express love. He dislikes being pushed around, and if someone tried hit him, he'll quickly tackle them to the ground and pummel their face in. He acts before thinking and can be very vicious, vindictive, and uses excessive violence as his answer to everything. Being a Lich, he takes almost no damage, delvers damage much harder then it appears he could, and when killed, simply gets right back up and attacks more viciously then before. Pretty much everyone is terrified shitless of him.

GhoulSpawn is a beta male who tries to be an alpha male to protect Quaraun, but does not have the physical strength to stand up to a powerful alpha male in an actual fight. One of the few people bold enough to stand up to Unicorn, he often takes a beaten that was intended for Quaraun, as he is quick to get in the middle of their frequent fights and try to break them up. The voice of reason who believes there is a peaceful solution to everything, he is rarely listened to and often ignored by both Quaraun and Unicorn when they are fighting.

Quaraun, having killed a dragon and now possessing it's vast hoard, which fills an entire volcano, is extremely obscenely wealthy. He makes Scrooge McDuck and Richie Rich combined together both look poor.

He is likely the wealthiest person in the universe, let alone on the planet, but he can not count, and because of his Autism has no concept of how to use money, nor any ability to grasp the concept of wealth, so is blissfully unaware of the true wealth he is in possession of. He really has no need to work, but he also doesn't realize that.

Unfortunately, because of his mental handicap, many people he encounters quickly realize that he is both very wealthy and also too retarded to know he is wealthy, making it easy for people to take advantage of him. He frequently encounters Humans who find ways to scam him out of his money and is constantly in need of Unicorn and/or GhoulSpawn to usher him away from unscrupulous people.

Both Unicorn and GhoulSpawn are aware that Quaraun suffers from a serious mental handicap, but neither draw attention to it and both tend to let him "do his thing" while they keep a look out for people who would hurt him or take advantage of him. Because Humans are greedy, money hungry bastards with no moral decency, it is usually Humans who go after Quaraun's money.

Because Quaraun thinks nothing of handing people an entire handful of gold coins when they asked for only a penny, along with the aloof 'not-caring-about-money' manner in which he does it, this often leads people to believe he is arrogant, elitist, or stuck up. This in turn results in him frequently being bullied and not understanding why. He remains baffled over why he is accused of being arrogant and does not understand the Humans' insatiable lust for money combined with their insatiable hatred for everything that is not Human.

Quaraun is in fact the least arrogant, most caring, most compassionate character of the series and is seen as arrogant by people who are in fact themselves arrogant and see him through the tainted glasses of arrogance in which they view others.

While Quaraun is a working wizard for hire and goes on quests for people needing magical assistance and makes magic items for people, charging deeply overpriced fees for both services, he actually has no need to work and could if he wanted to, easily do absolutely nothing, just living off the vast hoard of gold he keeps in Fire Mountain.

Quaraun is obscenely wealthy. Quaraun is a craftsman and makes magic items for other wizards and is making and selling these items at standard D&D guidebook prices, meaning even wealthy noblemen have to save for many years to afford to hire him.This also means that Quaraun only has to make 1 magic item to earn more money in one week then the average king will see in his lifetime.

Because his skill at making magic items is so rare, he has virtually no competition and can charge whatever the hell he wants.

Interestingly, while Quaraun charges HUMANS the insane prices, he will often make those same items for non-Humans at a fraction of the cost he spends on materials. For example, while he'll charge a Human 3,125,000 gp for a Flying Carpet, he may decide to charge a Gnome only 350 gp for that same carpet. And for his friends, especially GhoulSpawn, he'll give them the item for free. 

While it is Unicorn whom Quaraun is in love with and emotionally dependant upon, Quaraun makes no secret of the fact that GhoulSpawn is his favourite lover. GhoulSpawn has an obscene amount of magic items, dozens and dozens of them - all gifts from Quaraun.

Quaraun frequently makes magic items to give as gifts to his favorite prostitutes, the mothers of his illegitimate children, and as gifts to said children. He like wise does the same to his wives and their children.

Marriage in Moon Elf society is dramatically different than what we Humans think of as being marriage.

That being said, Quaraun acknowledges having 6 spouses: 2 males and 4 females, as follows:

• * a female Moon Elf (died same day as her 4 children)
• * King Gwallmaiic/BoomFuzzy the Unicorn; a male Faerie (Phooka)
• * GhoulSpawn, a half Elf (half Demon)
• * a female Human
• * Pippiatta, a female half-Elf (half Human) (who is also his daughter by his 2nd wife)
• * Empress Glacious, a female Frost Elf/Crystal Elf/Chrystonite

He has 8 children that he generally acknowledges publicly as being his. These 8 being born to his wives. His first wife had 2 sets of twins. His third wife had a pair of twins as well.

Three of his children go on to become extremely famous and are primary characters of The Twighlight Manor series:

• twin bothers King Vielder & Melaca Swanzen
• their "baby brother" Dr. Gwaneesh Vangoneese Swanzen

He has an additional 37 half-Elf children by non-Elf prostitutes that he pays support for and frequently visits. There are multiple times when these are twins.

As mentioned, he does occasional use prostitutes and has many children of various mixes races from this as well. An exact number is never given, though one novel does state that he "fathered 37 illegitimate children with prostitutes" and there is frequent mention of the fact that he returns to certain whorehouses multiple times a year to check in on his children by the various prostitutes to see if they are in need of anything. While rarely in their lives, he does pay the mothers very large sums of money/gold coins so they can provide for the children he fathered.

In the case of the prostitutes, when/if he learns they've had his child/ren he offers to marry them and bring them into his family, but these women tend to be very independant and not seeking a husband or married life and thus decline his offer. 

In Zebulon's Captive he is taken into slavery and used as a breeder. When Zebulon buys him, the seller tells Zebulon that Quaraun had fathered 14 children in their facility, including multiple sets of twins, but that he was a difficult Elf to work with, was refusing to bred with the females, and had to be forced to do so, by mated to females willing to forcibly bred him. Later in the same novel, Zebulon tells another slave owner that Quaraun had fertilized "more then a dozen females" and that most had given birth to twins or triplets.

1. Quaraun deeply loves his children, 
2. but he is seriously mentally unstable 
3. and, is also a serial killer, 
4. and did kill 4 of his children, 
5. along with their mother 
6. during a fit of mental breakdown. 
7. He is constantly tormented with guilt 
8. and night terrors over what he did to his children, 
9. though he does not regret killing his wife.
10. Quaraun has strange morals
11. Quaraun does not like Humans
12. the Human Zebulon was Quaraun's breaking point
13. after escaping from Zebulon, Quaraun begins killing Humans on a regular basis
14. Vielder & Melaca are his favorite sons
15. at age 10 Vielder beheads his first Human and brings the head to his father as a gift
16. as teenagers Vielder & Melaca go on Human hunting excursions
17. the twin boys amass a huge collection of Human heads 
18. When his daughter/3rd wife (pregnant) and her 2 sons Vielder & Melaca (aged 19) are murdered, 
19. Quaraun lashes out at the entire planet in an event that would later be known as "The Battle on Ongadada" 
20. where he murdered 3 billion people in a massive Lich making spell to resurrect his beloved twin sons
21. the only survivor of Ongadada is Empress Glacious
22. whom Quaraun kidnaps and rapes
23. resulting in his youngest son, Dr. Gwaneesh Vangoneese Swanzen
24. Quaraun is murdered to stop him from killing again
25. His twin sons, now Liches, go on a interplanetary killing spree, 
26. murdering 28 Billion people across the galaxy in response to their father's murder
27. The Twighlight Manor is built as a monument to Quaraun the Insane
28. The mansion, possessed by the soul of BoomFuzzy The Unicorn 
29. and comes to life and eats every one who sets foot inside of it.

Quaraun, obviously is the main character. He is a complicated and difficult person to get along with. Few people can tolerate being around him for very long, due to his whiny, bitchy, sharp-tongued, hissy fits, his constant complaining about everything, and his assumption that everyone exists solely to serve his every whim.

Unicorn and GhoulSpawn, likewise are each as difficult to get along with in their own ways. All 3 of them are generally looked down upon by society, not well liked, usually excluded from social gatherings, and generally get along with other because each of them is a hard headed egomaniac that gets off on the challenge of pushing each other around. The 3 of them are each well aware of the fact that they are annoying as hell, but none of them is willing to change, and each of them is willing to accepting each of the other 2 with all of their flaws.

All 3 of them are hot headed, each has strong personalities, each has strong (and often fanatical) belief systems, and each are often in stark disagreement with the others. They often break out into fist fights. Quaraun is daily bitch-slapping Unicorn only to end up on the ground with a bloody nose after Unicorn punches him.

They are often in taverns drinking and once drunk, lunge at each other's' throats. They near daily start barroom brawls. Their fighting goes far beyond just yelling at each other, with their fights often getting bloody. Multiple occasions Quaraun has pulled a knife on Unicorn and stabbed him. Several times both Quaraun and GhoulSpawn have suffered broken bones from being beaten by Unicorn. 

Unicorn is a predatory monster, who eats Elves, and when angry enough, will bite Quaraun, pinning the Elf to the ground, then drinking the blood from his wound until the Elf passes out from blood loss.

Their 3 way relationship is brutal and violent. They do hurt each other. And yet, each one loves the other two. When they are not fighting, they are prone to cuddling and coddling each other. When one is sick, injured, or hurt, the other two are quick to care for him and hover over him like a mother hen. While they fight with each other, they will quickly band together and gang up on any one who tries to harm one of them. They are fiercely protective of each other.

Thus the 3 of them form a strong bond with each other, bound together more by their differences then by their similarities. Their bond goes beyond love, to something far deeper. Their soul bound nature defies logic.

• jump straight into the juicy part of love

Does love even have juicy bits? Are you sure don't mean lust and sex?

Sex DOES NOT = love. I find myself so very annoyed by authors who use the term "making love". Sex and love are not the same things and should not be used interchangeable.

Yes, their relationships do jump right into being sexual before any of them really knows each other. All 3 of them are very sexually and have no trouble admitting that they each are strongly driven by their sexual attraction to the other. While they do all eventually come to love each other in time, in the early stages of their relationship, lust, passion, and strong sexual attraction is the driving force that keeps them together.

All three of these men are highly emotional and very driven by their lusts for each other. Eah has a strong emotional need for the companionship of the other two. There are several times throughout the series where they become separated, and they each become frantic in their search to be reunited.

The 3 of them have been together for decades, and by the time they are old, they are each emotionally distraught if out of the sight of the other two for even only a few minutes. They become inseparable companions who thrive of each other's company.

• resulting in "deep" relationships between people who barely know each other

Quaraun, Unicorn, and GhoulSpawn all love each other in their own way. Their 3-way relationship is complicated. They thrive more on the thrill they get from their bickering and fighting, more then they do on their gentle cuddle times. While to an onlooker it may seem that they hate each other, especially when their fights get physical and they are punching each other out, but the reality is, each of them is the type of male who enjoys that sort of relationship and they do in fact gain some level of satisfaction from their confrontations with each other.

Each of the 3 of them is highly sexually attracted to the other 2 and each of them has some levels of jealousy, when 2 are enamoured with the 3rd not included, which is often the source of their fights. And in most cases, their fights go from bickering, to violently abusing, to ending up in bed together.

While the series is not Erotica and rarely shows the sex scenes on page, their is a highly erotic nature to their relationship, which far outweighs any love or romance.

In short, they are 3 very horny men who enjoy aggressive relationships. While their relationship style may not "work" with other couples, for them and their personalities, it works. In the end, they thrive on their rocky, highly sexual relationship and yes, it does draw them together on a deep emotional level.

The series follows them from their young age into their senior years. You see them much more sexual early in the series, and decades later when they are much older, you see them evolve into a much more stable relationship. Unicorn is much older than the other two, and eventually goes blind and developes health issues that prevent him from getting around well, becoming an invalid, resulting in Quaraun & GhoulSpawn needing to take care of him. It's at this point when you see the much more emotional, non-sexual, deeper love between them.

• how long does it takes before your characters get together meaningfully

They begin living together a few weeks after meeting. They meet GhoulSpawn a few years into their relationship and he begins living with them the same day he meets them.

When does it become "meaningful"? Do you mean, stable? In multiple stories it references the fact that Quaraun and Unicorn were living together for 30 years before either of them acknowledged being in love with each other. It was Quaraun who first acknowledges being in love with Unicorn. Unicorn laughs at this notion and it is not for a few years after that before Unicorn himself mentions that he loves Quaraun.

GhoulSpawn never admits to loving either of them, something he deeply regrets after they die. Quaraun is informed of this when future GhoulSpawn, after Quaraun's death, returns to the past to tell Quaraun he regretted never saying he loved him.

GhoulSpawn lives with them for "about a decade" before his relationship with Quaraun reached the point of pushing the jealous Unicorn into trying to kill both Quaraun and GhoulSpawn.

While their relationship is unstable, unhealthy and often results in their own physical harm... the 3 of them remain together their entire lives. Quaraun and Unicorn are both executed the same day, and GhoulSpawn goes off by himself after, becoming a sheep farming hermit and is unable to go back to living in normal society.

After Quaraun's death the series continues on, with his grandson Roderic has the new MC of the series.

• see if they are actually compatible in terms of values

Quaraun is the nephew of the King, raised in the royal family, he is smug, arrogant, and vain. He cares more about his clothes then his people. He will not think twice about beheading someone who accidently splashed mud on his dress. Thinks he can get his own way with everything and everyone. Has no morals at all when it comes to the lives of others. As a pure blooded Elf, he tends to see himself as superior to everyone, his ego reaching insane levels to the point of believing himself to be a god. He views Humans as parasites destroying the planet and believes the only good Human is a dead Human. While he seemingly has no morals in terms of value on life, he is also a vegan, animal rights activist and over the top protector of nature. He'll viciously kill to protect a flower from harm. There is one scene where he murders an entire Human village, just to give a turtle a safe way to get across the street.

Unicorn is the King of Fae turned drug dealer and pastry chef. As a trickster Fae (Phooka) he delights in gruesome bloody pranks, the gorier the better. He thinks nothing of putting poison in someone's food then laughing hysterically while watching them vomit up their bloody dissolved organs and dying in agony. A wild feral Fea, he is quick to eat everything and everyone that moves. Nicknamed 'The Elf Eater" for his habit of hunting down, torturing to death, then eating raw every Elf he encounters. That his lover (Quaraun) is an Elf, baffles everyone.

GhoulSpawn is the polar opposite of his two villainous, serial killing lovers. A peace loving, tree hugging, pro-life, vegan, animal rights activist, LSD addicted hippie from the 1970s, he is constantly at odds with his 2 lovers, both of who put little value on life and see nothing wrong with killing on a whim.

• see if they are actually compatible in terms of hobbies

Yes and no.

Quaraun is a wizard for hire, specializes in making magic items for other wizards. When left to himself he spends his days sewing, embroidering, and beadworking elaborate robes, capes, gloves, hats, etc for his wizard-clients. His free time is spent cultivating roses, gardening, and reading grimoires/studying magic to advance his skills. Credited as "The World's Most Powerful Wizard" he is known as "The Pink Necromancer" for the outlandish bubblegum pink sequin ballgowns he wears. He murdered his wife and 4 children, then killed his father, then his uncle the king, crowned himself king, then killed everyone in his kingdom and now wanders the world a vagabond wizard for hire. Though the main character of the series, he is also the "evil super villain" on the universe he dwells in.

Unicorn is the King of the Realm of Fae. A warrior general. These things out of birth and necessity. When able to do so, he and his cousin fled the Realm of Fae, cast aside his past, and took up residence at the North Pole as Santa's head chef. He perfected a denser gingerbread and built Santa gingerbread village. He left Santa's village, his cousin Krumpas stayed behind. He set up shop in an Elf village, living in a gingerbread house out of which he sold drugged candy to the Elves, so he could eat said drugged Elves. He chose said Elf village because he knew it was the home of the world's most feared necromancer (Quaraun) and he wanted to trick said wizard into turning him into a Lich. Unicorn uses Quaraun, playing with his emotions, gets Quaraun to fall in love with him, them commits suicide, resulting in Quaraun having the mental breakdown which results in his killing his wife and children as part of a Lich making ritual to resurrect Unicorn as a vicious, undefeatable Lich.

GhoulSpawn is a teenaged sheep farming dungeon master from the 1970s, who encounters a time traveling AMC Gremlin (car) that takes him to the 1400s of an alternate earth, where Elves and Fae are fighting to survive against the ever increasing Human population, while squid headed Lovcraftian aliens from Neptune's moon attempt to take over the planet; where GhoulSpawn becomes a self-taught/unschooled bumbling wizard/sorcerer/alchemist/magical jack of all trades but master to none... and uses Dungeons and Dragons manuals to teach himself magic, in a world where he is able to actually cast the ridiculous over the top 4th ed D&D spells, resulting in his eventually becoming the most powerful wizard of all time, and ultimately destroying the planet.

So, there you go. That's how I did it in my novels.

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