🌿 Roots of the Old World – Meet Aidan Douglas

Apr 26, 2025

Some characters enter with a bang.

Aidan? He walks into a lecture hall, already haunted.

🧙 Who is Aidan Douglas?

He’s not your typical urban fantasy lead. No trench coat. No brooding inner monologue. No smouldering glances across a flaming sword.

Instead:

A failing academic.
A former druid without his grove.
A man with too much past, and just enough future left to be dangerous.

In another life, he might have been a folk hero.

In this one? He teaches Environmental Studies 101, wears his guilt like a coat, and knows the names of things that should not exist.

🎧 His Theme: Roots of the Old World

Where Astra’s theme is forged from vengeance, Aidan’s comes from memory… and the weight of what can’t be undone.

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“The earth remembers, the roots resist / The modern world’s a clenched fist.”

This track is powerful. Less fight, more reckoning.

It’s the song of someone who walks between the old and the new worlds and no longer knows where he belongs.

Let it play as you read.

🎵 Roots of the Old World:

📖 Chapter 2 Preview: Lecture Halls and Lore

Aidan’s first scene in The Three Faces of Fate is deceptively simple: a man giving a lecture. But the moment you hear him speak, you’ll know: this isn’t just a professor with a thick accent and a weird turn of phrase.

He’s hiding something.

And Valhaven’s already whispering his name.

📖 Read Chapter 1 below, complete with toothy surprises, goth girl side-eye, and a student named Jen who’s smarter than she lets on.

Chapter 1

You can do this.

Aidan stood outside the lecture hall. His hand was on the door, but his body wasn’t ready to take him over the threshold.

They’re just folks. I’ve had a wee chat with a few of them in my time.

He adjusted his satchel, squared his shoulders, and walked inside. The lecture hall waited, students dotted about the curved banks of seats, all looking down at him. He hesitated in the doorway, then remembered why he was here.

Ah, I’m the one tasked with imparting wisdom on these young ones, am I? Well, good luck with that.

He put on his best stride and walked to the podium, climbed the steps, and put his satchel down. Aidan wished he could say all the faces were expectant, eager youths wanting to sip at the cup of knowledge, but that would have been a lie.

No, wait. In the front row was a young woman who looked like she wanted to be here. She was thin, with square glasses, but smiled when he looked at her. He offered his own slightly tarnished version back, dumped his satchel to the ground, and took stock.

Just stick to the script and everything will be grand.

He cleared his throat, which didn’t need any clearing at all, leaned on the podium for comfort, protection, and brotherhood, and said, “Well now, hello there, lads and lasses! A hearty welcome to Environmental Studies 101. ’Tis a right good adventure we’ve got ourselves into today, poking about in the tangled bits of nature that connect us all to our dear old planet. As we all well know, Mother Earth is facing quite the bunch of troubles. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and all sorts of other things…” He trailed off. Blank faces. A cough from the back. Aidan rallied. “And that’s why it’s more important than ever before to get a handle on these problems and find some solutions.”

A man in the second row snorted. He was about the size and demeanour of a silverback. “Solutions? What do you know about solutions?”

Aidan looked down at the podium. At how his hands gripped the side of it. He felt how his heart thudded, perhaps disturbed at his dishonesty. “Thank you kindly! Always a pleasure to be in agreement with a wise person such as yourself.”

The gorilla blinked. “‘Agreement’?”

“Aye, tis a wee talk prepared and all, but it might be better off in the old bin. Sure, there’s no harm in giving it a go, but sometimes it’s wiser to let things go and move on.” Aidan looked across the lecture hall. A few students had straightened. The thin girl still paid attention. The gorilla offered surprise and interest. In the back, a goth girl looked up from beneath her hood, which was probably the best he could hope for. “Tis an honour to stand before you all today as we set off on this grand adventure together. And sure, I know a bit about time. It’s a precious thing, and folks don’t always appreciate it until it’s gone. But let’s make the most of every moment we have, shall we?” The gorilla’s jaw was slack, as if Aidan had slapped him. “What is environmental studies? Anyone?”

The girl with the glasses raised a tentative hand. Aidan pointed at her, and was surprised to find her voice stronger than her frame should allow. “Environmental studies is an interdisciplinary academic field that focuses on understanding the complex relationships between humans and the natural world. It encompasses ecology, conservation biology, sustainability, environmental policy, social science, economics, ethics, and law.” She beamed.

Aidan blinked, then recovered. “Always good to keep things tidy and in order. Quite right, miss..?”

“Jen. Uh. Syd.”

“Miss Uh Syd,” Aidan gave his best smile to take the sting out, “you’re quite right. And quite wrong.” Her face fell. “Ah, now don’t be too hard on yourself! Everyone makes mistakes from time to time. The important thing is to learn from them and move on. Anyway, you didn’t get it wrong. It’s the world that’s wrong.” Aidan came from behind the podium, walked to the front of the stage, then sat on the edge, feet hanging over the end. “Back in the good ol’ days, folks knew that the earth was a living thing, full of wee spirits and gods that controlled just about everything. They respected these beings and worked with them to keep things balanced and running smoothly. It’s all about living in harmony with nature, like.”

The goth girl was staring too, her eyes intense, like black fire, taking him back to a time before this all began. She reminded him of a seanchas, a keeper of tradition, despite her attire being at odds with everyone else in the room.

“Balance?” Jen brought him back to here and now. “Order?”

“Aye, the old earth is shedding a few tears these days, it seems. The winds are howling, the rain and storms are raging, and poor old Mother Nature’s crying out, with no one to give her a wee hug. It breaks me heart, it does. But let’s not forget that we can all do our bit to help soothe her pain, shall we?” Aidan looked across them again. The gorilla was trying to recover his composure, mostly pulling it back together under a leather jacket that had seen a lot of wear. “Aye, tis crucial to understand how everything in nature is all tangled up together. We need to find solutions that show respect for the wisdom of Mother Nature.” Aidan was completely off script. In this world, he’d be fired on the spot—on his first day!—if the faculty heard him. “In this here course, we’ll be poking about in the secrets and mysteries of the world. Ecology and policy, you say? Well, I sees it more as a cosy little relationship with the Earth herself. And that’s exactly what we’ll be learning all about.”

He could feel the goth girl’s stare and glanced at her. She was, beyond doubt, a keeper of tradition. As surely as he knew the moon governed tides and held sway over the dreams of mortals, he sensed this woman wielded an otherworldly influence. The black of her hair and eyeliner, the stark black clothing and hood, and the porcelain of her skin reminded Aidan of the cycles of life and death.

“What if I want to study ethics?” The gorilla’s voice sounded almost uncertain, like he was lying to himself.

Aidan wondered if he knew the man. Something about him was familiar… But no. He’d only been here five years, and he remembered them all. This man was no one he knew. He beamed, then stood. “Oh, there’s no question about it, this is a right important class for you to take. And the Earth herself deserves it too! So let’s get learning, shall we?”

“Who are you?” Jen blinked at him from behind her glasses. “And are you speaking… English?”

“My manners! Always good to mind your Ps and Qs.” Aidan laughed. “I’m Aidan Douglas, aren’t I? And I’ve got a right noble goal in mind – changing the world for the better.”

* * *

They’d all left; Aidan was alone with his thoughts and satchel. He fetched it closer, patted it companionably, and said, “Aye, well now, I wouldn’t want to offend anyone, but fuck.”

The satchel wasn’t offended. It was used to him.

He reached inside and drew out a plastic sheet protector. The map inside was good enough, showing Valhaven’s coastline, city, and woodland shawl. He tapped the coastline. That’s where it’s coming from. There was a sickness in the world. He hadn’t lied to them. But the sickness was a festering sore at the waterfront. He felt it, an itch under his skin, a soreness in his throat he couldn’t swallow away.

Aidan put the map down, then fetched the teeth from the satchel. He turned them about. He’d not seen anything like these in a lot more than five years. They had the look of teeth from a wild animal, but he knew they weren’t. Sídhe fionnugain. “Redcap bastards.”

“What?”

Aidan jerked about. Jen Syd stood in the lecture hall doorway, laptop clutched in front of her. He wondered what she thought she’d heard. “Oh, just chatting away with meself.”

“I do that too.” She scuffed one of her Sketchers against the other. “Did you mean it?”

He glanced at her. Took in the downturned face as if afraid to look the world in the eye. The laptop, held like a shield. She needs something. Thirsty, like a woman in the desert. “I did. We all have our little moments of madness, don’t we?”

“Cool.” She shuffled closer. “What’s that?”

Aidan tucked the map away. “Just a bit of nonsense.”

“Because it looked like a map of Valhaven.”

“Your specs still do the trick.”

“And those look like teeth.”

Aidan winced. He tucked the teeth back into the satchel. “Don’t you worry, they’re not yours to deal with.”

She nodded, then hopped up to sit on the stage beside him. Not close enough for him to mistake the movement for something it wasn’t. “Do you need help?”

“With teeth?”

“Research.” She looked at her laptop, still clutched close. “You look like you’re about to go on a field trip.”

Aidan wondered what it might be like to have someone help him, then shook it off. If they went hunting redcaps, there’d be a fight. And the last time there was a fight, a woman he’d known died, and he’d ended up here. “Maybe next time round we’ll give it a go.”

“Maybe’s what we say when, like, we mean no.”

She seemed nice, and also looked like the world had been unkind to her. “Out there, beyond just the two of us, there’s a big planet with a mouthful of teeth.”

“I know. The vampires left, and now there are monsters everywhere.”

He thought about that for a few moments while the air conditioning hummed. “There have always been wee beasties lurking about in the shadows. It’s just that sometimes folks have a hard time seeing them for what they really are.”

“Oh, like, because people are the real monsters. I get it.” She gave him an eye roll.

He chuckled. “Even way back in the day when there were vampires about, there were still wee beasties lurking in the shadows. They were just good at keeping themselves hidden. And speaking of old tales and such, do you know about the sídhe fionnugain?”

She mouthed the unfamiliar words. “No?” It sounded like a question.

“If you ever figure out how to take care of them, you’ll be right there alongside me.” He slid off the stage, then offered her a hand.

Ignoring his hand, she clutched her laptop and slid down under her own power. “Fair enough. Thanks, Mr Douglas.”

He sighed. ‘Mr Douglas’ sounds like a right gentleman, all starched up and proper-like. “Aye, no worries at all. And sure, see you tomorrow then?”

She glanced over her shoulder. “‘Maybe’.”

🔁 Writer’s Note

Aidan was one of the most important characters I ever wrote for this trilogy. Before Astra had a mask or a name, I knew there would be a teacher in a city that had forgotten what it meant to listen. Someone caught between eras. Someone who heard the old gods and still showed up for a 9 a.m. lecture.

I had the image early: a former druid walking into a modern classroom with a satchel full of secrets, still carrying the old world in his bones. A man who once commanded storms but now fumbles with HDMI cables.

This chapter’s been through dozens of rewrites (not least because writing an Irish brogue is hard, man). And every time I tried to change him, the real Aidan came back. Weighed down. Fractured. Still fighting.

Because underneath the jokes and gentle wisdom, there’s a deep ache: the ache of someone who knows what’s been lost, and who carries that loss in silence. He’s not here to save the world. He’s here to understand why it broke.

He’s not the storm-wielding guardian he once was. Technology, noise, the pace of modern life… it’s all dulled his edge. But he still walks forward. Still listens to the wind.

He might be one of my favourites.