Subject: Okay, here goes
Author:
Posted on: 2013-01-12 21:05:00 UTC
I'm currently working on an adaptation of Sherlock Holmes in the Redwall universe, because the only thing better than a modern spin on it is a spin on it with badass medieval furries. While the characters are inevitably based on some character of the SH canon, I'm trying to make them my own, both in terms of a few personality traits and backstory, so that they feel very Redwall-flavor.
Quindon Russet is the Watson, a young squirrel who, as of the beginning of the story, recently left the services of the Long Patrol. (There are a number of reasons I didn't make him a hare, one of which being that the Baskerville story takes place in Southsward with the royal squirrels, and a plot point in the original is that someone mistakes Watson for Sir Henry and warns him off, which clues him in.) In this, I made Quindon a bit of a free spirit, which aside from his crippled footpaw drives him to leave the Long Patrol at all. His other main weakness besides the limp is a crippling fear of water, which I couldn't resist giving him to give the inevitable Reichenbach scene more tension, as well as to add comedic scenes when Damon Thorn (Holmes) drags a protesting squirrel onto a boat for some reason or other. Also, the friendship between the two leads is an unlikely one, and almost doesn't happen at all since Thorn is a ferret. In fact, the first thing Quindon does upon seeing Thorn is attack him. Of course, right afterward Thorn drags him to the scene of a murder and asks for his healer's opinion, and that is the start of a beautiful friendship.
Halftail is the Wiggins of the story, a tough, scrappy rat child who leads a small gang of equally young and scruffy rats in Mossflower Woods. At one time they had aspirations for infamy as a feared band of cutthroats, but age and inexperience threatened to get them all killed or pressed into a horde before long. Luckily, Damon Thorn found them before then. Halftail was suspicious at first, but Thorn offered them proper clothing, food, shelter, and medicine if need be, in exchange for the gang's services as his spies, informants, and messengers. Over the course of a few seasons, Halftail warmed up to the ferret and became incredibly loyal to him. He and his gang, now dubbed the Baker's Tavern Irregulars when they're out of earshot, address Thorn as "Chief". He's a bit wary about this strange squirrel joining things, but he gets used to Quindon after a while.
Finally, Shad Swiftpaw and Ivy are a pair of weasel friends that frequent the Baker's Tavern and often give Thorn information about the various villains and ruffians he has to contend with in his adventures, being as they are from a less than desirable background themselves. Shad was a former hordebeast and Ivy used to sing and dance in seaside taverns, and both of them still have connections with old comrades and fellow scoundrels. They're based off of Kitty Winter and Shinwell Johnson, two characters that showed up in only one Sherlock Holmes story, but I liked them so much that I decided to make them recurring minor characters.