When did Himself decide Nynian would be a major character?

Nynian, in her cover role as a madame, gets introduced to the readers when Merlin sweeps the Archbishop of Charis off his feet as he comes down the steps of her establishment back in Off Armageddon Reef. There's nothing to indicate at that point that she's going to become a major character, though regardless of what Himself intended back then, it would make no narrative sense for her to be presented in her first scene as anything other than a one-time character.

My question is has Himself ever stated if He planned on Nynian being a recurring character even back then (perhaps only as Ahnzhelyk Phonda as part of the story arc of the Fall and Redemption of Erayk Dynnys) or if her intended role expanded over time.

Hmmmm...

I'm not aware of anything that he's said about her - but the evidence is that he had her pretty fully imagined on first presentation, because he already knew that she and the Sisterhood would be needed later. He's known the broad outline of the story for ~30 years now, after all.

The slow build-up of eventually-major characters is certainly a recurring pattern. The odds are pretty good that at least a couple of the 'spear carriers' in the last book aren't.

Salisria wrote:Nynian, in her cover role as a madame, gets introduced to the readers when Merlin sweeps the Archbishop of Charis off his feet as he comes down the steps of her establishment back in Off Armageddon Reef. There's nothing to indicate at that point that she's going to become a major character, though regardless of what Himself intended back then, it would make no narrative sense for her to be presented in her first scene as anything other than a one-time character.

My question is has Himself ever stated if He planned on Nynian being a recurring character even back then (perhaps only as Ahnzhelyk Phonda as part of the story arc of the Fall and Redemption of Erayk Dynnys) or if her intended role expanded over time.

I'll agree it's fairly clear from the context of her appearance in the next book that He had plans for her by then, though the extent of His plans is not. Thing is, not all of the spear carriers who could be developed into significant recurring characters are. For instance, Alyk Lizardherd, the captain of the church-chartered Desnairian galleon Wind Hoof, seems to have been setup to be a recurring character, but he was only used in that one scene where the Wind Hoof was captured by the privateer Loyal Son in the second book. I would have liked to have seen more of Alyk as he would have been well-suited to examine the perspective of someone who didn't care about the two sides but was stuck in the middle anyway. I suspect Himself had at least some potential ideas for future appearances, but they got cut and/or were not developed for reasons of space.

It's worth noting that the outline for Safehold is VERY old like the 2nd poster said.

In fact; I believe there was an interview/post from RFC talking about this... basically the 'condensed version of safehold' which appeared in the Dahak series was based on the already existing Safehold writings that existed at the time.

So to answer OP. I'm VERY sure that the fully fleshed idea of the Nynian character existed before the first (OAR) novel was even published.

My guess would be that Nynian was always planned as a major character. The first book has to establish why Nimue felt she had no choice but to become Merlin; it can’t do that if Safehold is obviously already full of strong female characters in positions of power. Safehold has to be established as a world where women aren’t equal and no-one would accept a female sejinn.

So the strong female characters are all ‘hidden’. Sharleyan is being forced to help her worst enemy; Nynian is apparently in a ‘service’ job (servicing men). Adoree Dennys only gets a name check…

Bluesqueak wrote:My guess would be that Nynian was always planned as a major character. The first book has to establish why Nimue felt she had no choice but to become Merlin; it can’t do that if Safehold is obviously already full of strong female characters in positions of power. Safehold has to be established as a world where women aren’t equal and no-one would accept a female sejinn.

So the strong female characters are all ‘hidden’. Sharleyan is being forced to help her worst enemy; Nynian is apparently in a ‘service’ job (servicing men). Adoree Dennys only gets a name check…

I think you are right. I agreed with you!