Birthday: November 29, 1993
Method of Creation: #1- they're my double names of the month! Also a little of #2 because they're ever so slightly based off someone I go to school with.
Creation Story
Every so often, I'll get a name I really like stuck in my mind. It's called the "Name of the Month" although it's more like every couple months. I've had this trend of favorites go back to at least 8th grade when my favorite name of the time was Bethany. After a while I began creating a new person with my month's favorite name or really whenever any name got stuck in my head. After writing out the story and history of Slade Burke, in which one of the two students was named Sorrell, I fell in love with the name. I thought I was being cool by taking Sorela and taking off the A, but when I wrote it out on Word I noticed it wasn't underlined in red which means it's an actual name recognized enough to be in Word's too-small dictionary. I looked it up and sure enough Sorrell was a name (although it was pronounced SO-rull and not so-REL). Within a few days the brand new visage of Sorrell Burke was leaving my pencil and coming to life on the pages of my notebook during Literature, which is the class this term that most of my drawings happen.
Around the same time, I had a dream about a friend of mine which led to, among many things, adding the name Daniel to my list of favorite names. I couldn't let Sorrell go alone, as both of these names gained equal favor on that list, so I gave him a twin brother!
As I thought of Sorrell and Daniel, strong images of those dramatic black and white portraits of smiling faces with the really sparkling eyes came to mind. Since it was just Sorrell at first, I pictured him with wide and lightly colored eyes holding some sort of woodwind instrument, an eventual professional musician. When Daniel came along shortly thereafter, I imagined him taking a different path through music and becoming a conductor and band director in addition to a woodwind musician. Without any question I determined them to both be clarinet players.
With this image of them in my mind, I had to decide what exactly they looked like. They're both extremely photogenic, the kind of people that look good no matter when you snap a picture of them. They dress in nice clothes with those button-up plaid shirts or fitted sweaters paired with some slip-on shoes like Vans. The jeans are always fitted, never baggy or ratty, and their hair is always done up nicely, completing their polished look. I refer to the men that wear this style as "Pretty Boys." I love the term Pretty Boy and as I drew them I set out to overly exaggerate this. Here's what I came up with and I must say I am very pleased with how they turned out!
Sorrell was drawn out first. I love love love love how sparkly his hazel eyes look! He's definitely not dark! It took so long to get the hair just right but once I did it became easy to draw again because his brother dresses the same way!
Daniel was next, drawn the next day because I didn't have time to finish before class ended and I had to make a mad dash to my next class. He's got on a plaid button-up shirt over some band shirt or something and has that same spiked hair that his brother does. :P Same eyes, too!
With their portraits drawn, I set to work writing out their stories, as in that short time it took me to draw them I could already pick up on their unique auras. They're not identical but look very much alike (Daniel has lighter hair and different colored eyes). That being said, their personalities are near identical. They often joke that their different looks are what builds their character (saying identical twins with identical personalities are too hard to distinguish). They are the best of friends and do everything together. Both love to read books and articles and then write reviews of said material. Both are adept at writing essays which should greatly help them when they get to college. They play the same instrument, the clarinet, and both are planning to major in music when they go to college very far away from their flat and big city homeland. One of the only differences really is that Daniel is more education and teaching oriented and Sorrell is more performance oriented. They are also very compassionate, sweet, and kind (which means they'll probably team up with Nathan to do good works for others!) and have the gift of listening.
I had already long decided that they were indeed directs descendants of Slade Burke, which isn't too hard as most of Tensk and the surrounding areas carry his crests. Thanks to the history of Slade that I had just written about a month ago I gave the state of Kiishla something to be famous for (the big triumph battle where Slade reveals his true allegiance for you history buffs keeping track). The capital city of Raanlen is home to the battle site, a huge museum of history dedicated to the facts of that entire battle (Terabi's War), and... it's the hometown of the Burke twins! Yes, I threw a curveball and they're not from Tensk but the state to the north. Oh well, people move around a lot in 700 years!
With that small but significant fact came a pride about their ancestry. Both boys are well versed in the history of Slade and all of the things he did and are proud to be descendants. It seems like all my peeps as of late know their stuff when it comes to Terabi and Osai! :P
Anyway, since I won't have much to write about on them until next summer when I hope to put them into the Lochgren Series, I'll leave you with some fun facts!
1. Sorrell is older by 13 minutes
2. Both boys are lefties!
3. They taught themselves the extinct language of Kiillra and love to speak it.
4. They love to take the train down to Tevernid with friends to get penny candy and to hear the multitude of orchestras and bands perform.
5. Both visit Kaywood every summer for the annual Kaywood Music Festival.
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