Dark Blaze

Dark Blaze is the second novel by Darryl M. Finch-Ellis. Dark Blaze is independently published through K.D.P. on Amazon while Darryl reaches and begins talks with literary agents.

Dark Blaze focuses on four stories centered around the main protagonist (Nicholas Aero) and the main antagonist (Hadrian Voivode), sharing the stories evenly, with two set during World War One (1915-1916) and post-war (1918-1920).

Nicholas Aero is a veteran of the First World War who enlisted at the start of the war in 1914, aged only 16. During his time in the Great War he is exposed to the fact that the creatures of the night do indeed exist.

During his time fighting in Europe, he comes across who would become the main antagonist of the novel, Hadrian Voivode, who fought for the Central Powers.

On December 27th, 1918, two days after Christmas, Nicholas returns home only to find, for him, the war was still not over.

Hadrian is the least of Nicholas' problems once he returns to the British Isles, with fouler forces exploiting the huge lose of life from the Great War to their advantage and creating chaos in their aimless lust for flesh.

After the traumatic event of December 1918, the young ex-soldier spearheads a personal vindictive crusade against all the supernatural creatures that walk the night, these creatures that stalk and feed off the flesh of the innocent, and Nicholas will not rest until every monster he comes across is erased from the face of the earth.

The (nearly A4 size) complete version of Dark Blaze is 799 pages long, however, the two part A5 version is 710 (part 1) and 639 (part 2).

Setting:
Dark Blaze takes place both during and after the Great War. The stories are set in multiple locations across Continental Europe and England, from 1915 to 1920.

Darryl M. Finch-Ellis uses only real world locations for this novel, all based roughly on how they were during that time period. Authenticity was something which Finch-Ellis researched endlessly.

Nicholas Aero (1918-1920):
Returning to Barley, Lancashire, after the war, Nicholas discovers that his family had been butchered by a vengeance-stricken Hadrian Voivode. He spends the years hunting down Hadrian whilst also dealing with any other supernatural threats he comes across, these include; a werewolf, daemons, cultists, ghouls and various forms of spirits.

Alundra Gardner becomes his reluctant partner in 1919 after she is forcibly courted by Hadrian, who had tasted her blood. Knowing that she was the strigoi's affection, Nicholas kept her close and over time their bond grew into genuine love for each other.

Nicholas Aero (1915-1916):
Nicholas attempts to survive the horrors of trench warfare with his Lancashire countryman, Benjamin Campbell. When Benjamin collides with Hadrian during a night time raid, Nicholas is unable to save his friend from dying, it is here that Nick is introduced to the P.C.O. (Protestant Church Order) and indoctrinated to their cause, now that he had pierced beyond the veil and discovered that the creatures of the night did indeed exist.

Upon joining the P.C.O.'s Ascalon Squad, commanded by Father Vivian Williams (a chaplain with the rank equivalent to major), Nicholas travels with them to deal with supernatural problems and fight with the strigoii's elite fighting force; the Strigoi-Trupp.

Hadrian Voivode (1918-1920):
Exiled to Great Britain for his actions during the Great War, Hadrian is on a mission to find his new wife who will replace his one true love; Miranda Lefèvre. His subordinate Reginald Parker discovers Alundra Gardner, who is identical to Miranda except for the fact she is English.

Hadrian attempts to sire Alundra whilst at the same time has to deal with his own pack, his new bride, Eliza Bowie, and attempt to display to his father, the Grandmaster of the Thule (Hadrian's strigoic faction) that he is worthy enough to return to Munich and end his exile in Great Britain.

Hadrian Voivode (1915-1916):
During the Great War, Hadrian first attempts to join the Strigoi-Trupp, however, during his trial he is wounded and taken to a strigoic hospital behind German lines to be healed up. There he meets the one true love of his life; Miranda Lefèvre. Upon being healed, he keeps in correspondence with Miranda whilst he takes a final trial to join the ranks of the Strigoi-Trupp, this time being successful.

After becoming a member of this illustrious, elite Thule specialist force, Hadrian has to fight for his strigoic faction on all sides, as the Protestants and Catholics had united in the west, and in the east Russia's strigoic faction (the Klyki) had risen up against the Thule to break away from the Thule's sphere of influence. Although he is one of the creatures of the night, Hadrian must also endure horrors that are extraordinarily hard to recover from both mentally and physically.

Background:
Darryl M. Finch-Ellis has always been a fan of horror, and has desired to write and publish a novel of that genre since 2013. It was in 2014 that Darryl began to talk with friends about the potential to write a horror novel, at first naming it Black Blaze and basing it on modern day.

Over the years the plot was laid out further until completion, and Darryl desired to make it stand out and have a unique flavour by having it being based around the First World War. He had wanted to write a novel based around that time period and believed that these two ideas would fuse well together.

Finch-Ellis had managed to write three chapters, however based in the modern time, before he decided to change the beginning. By the time Darryl began the second version of the novel he had already began writing Cataclysm which halted any working on any other projects, as he felt he needed to give his undivided attention to Cataclysm.

Once Cataclysm was complete, Darryl desired to finally complete his long desired classic gothic horror novel he had previous started four-years-prior. By this time the grounds for the novel being based in and around the First World War had been noted down and Darryl began his new project.

Dark Blaze began, at first, to be around twenty-three to twenty-five chapters long, however, the novel grew and grew, until it was four stories rolled into one and became eighty-eight chapters long.

Main Protagonists:

 * Nicholas "Nick" Aero
 * Alundra "Ally" Gardner

Main Antagonists:

 * Hadrian Voivode
 * Mircea Voivode
 * Eoin "The Celtic Crusader" O'Leary
 * Eliza Bowie
 * Baal

1915-1916 Cast:
You can find the cast list HERE

1918-1920 Cast:
You can find the cast list HERE

Encountered Factions:
Below is a list of the major factions which appear in all four stories within Dark Blaze:
 * La Famiglia Intintola
 * Los Strigorios Mexicanos
 * Sitra Achra
 * The Adze
 * The Black Dog Society
 * The Jiangshi
 * The Kataphraktoi
 * The Klyki
 * The Kuran Chi
 * The Midnight Confederacy (The Committee)
 * The Neamh-Mairbh
 * The Osmanlı-Strigoilerii
 * The P.C.O. (Protestant Church Order)


 * The Rocky Mountain Strigoii
 * The Thule
 * The Vetala
 * The Vatican (The Papacy)

Mentioned Factions:
Below is a factions which have only been mentioned and not much is known on them within Dark Blaze:
 * Clan Blois - Strigoic faction based in Canada.
 * Clan Helms - Strigoic faction based in Canada.
 * La Famiglia Capello - Strigoic faction based in America.
 * La Famiglia Gandolfini - Strigoic faction based in America.
 * La Famiglia Luciano - Strigoic faction based in America.
 * La Famiglia Vaccarelli - Strigoic faction based in America.
 * Rua Familia (Jararaca) - Strigoic faction based in South America.
 * Santos Familia (Jararaca) - Strigoic faction based in South America.
 * Strigoic Oceanic Tribes - Strigoic factions based in Oceania.
 * The Estries - Cousins to the strigoii.
 * The Gotneska Ættin - Strigoic faction based in the Nordic countries.
 * The Strigoios Florida - Strigoic faction based in Florida.
 * The Vampyrer - Cousins to the strigoii.
 * The West Coast Strigoii - Strigoic faction based on the American West Coast.

Sub-Factions:
Below is a list of the major sub-factions which appear in all four stories within Dark Blaze:
 * Hadrian's Pack
 * The Strigoi-Troop
 * The Ascalon Squad
 * The Count Killers Squad

Minor Sub-Factions:

 * The Absolver Order - their parent faction is the Vatican, it is unknown who leads them.
 * The Burning Legion - their parent faction is the Vatican, it is unknown who leads them.
 * The Thule Stormtroopers - their parent faction is the Thule, led by Basarab Voivode.
 * The Grey-Pygmy Army - their parent faction is the Thule, led by Mótsognir.
 * The Wycombe Warriors Squad - their parent faction is the Protestant Church Order, led by Cpt. Donald Glover.

Creatures Species:
Below is a list of the creatures species encountered or mentioned within the novel:
 * Astral Creatures
 * Hellspawn
 * Lycanthropic
 * Polytheist Deities
 * Strigoic

Human & Supernatural Adversaries:
Below is a list of the human and supernatural adversaries encountered or mentioned within the novel:
 * Absolver
 * Apex-Werewolf
 * Black Dog
 * Brood Mother Strigoi
 * Daemon Legate
 * Druggan
 * Estrie
 * Fallen Angel
 * Feral Werewolf
 * First-Class Strigoi
 * Ghost
 * Ghoul
 * Grey-Pygmy
 * Iusto Daemon
 * Parvabub
 * Poltergeist
 * Polytheist Deity
 * Rex / Regina Daemon
 * Satanic Cultist / Warlock
 * Sired Strigoi
 * Supreme-Strigoi / Giant Bat
 * Vampyre

Plains:
Within the world of Dark Blaze there are four plains, listed below: Earth is where all living things converge together and attempt to keep a balance between order and chaos.
 * Earth - Domain Of The Living
 * Heaven - Domain Of The Pure
 * Hell - Domain Of The Damned
 * Purgatory - Domain Of The Beasts

Heaven is where the souls of those who have followed a pure existence travel to.

Hell is where the souls of those who have followed a wicked existence travel to.

Purgatory is where the souls of those who followed their beastial instincts travel to.

Astral has been described by Finch-Ellis as "if Earth, Heaven, Hell and Purgatory were islands, the astral plain is the sea which connects them together. Those who drown, are stranded or swim back are the ghosts, spectres and poltergeists of the world."

Release:
Dark Blaze was released on the 1st of September, 2020. The novel is currently available through K.D.P. on Amazon in kindle form (which is the complete novel) and paperback form (which had to be split into two volumes due to K.D.P.'s page limit being 828).

In late September, after Darryl M. Finch-Ellis was recovering from appendicitis and the removal of his appendix, he figured out the way to release Dark Blaze as one whole novel through K.D.P.'s lacklustre services and has re-published it as an entire novel.

Critical Response:
The critical response has been highly positive, especially on social media, however, there has not yet been any reviews posted on Amazon. The controversies of the novel were quickly addressed by Darryl M. Finch-Ellis and his response can be seen in the Controversies section below.

You can find all the reviews on Amazon HERE

Themes:
The themes covered in Dark Blaze include dealing with losing loved ones and how that can affect oneself, different manifestations of P.T.S.D., how the tenured aspects and perspectives of life differentiate between those who are mortal and those with immortality, abuse - both physical and emotional - and how those cope and overcome such adversities, how determination and fanaticism can be both the fuel plus the deterioration of an individual's body and state of mind.

Darryl M. Finch-Ellis uses the supernatural elements of horror to explore these themes more thoroughly, with the expanse of what the horror genre grants authors, allowing for extraordinary conclusions to certain philosophical ideals.

Controversy:
Dark Blaze has garnered controversy for Finch-Ellis, who has not shied away from portraying the time period accurately and includes acts and speech that those of a sensitive predisposition would find quite offensive.

The novel tackles taboo subjects, such as racism, homophobia, prejudicial attitudes, domestic abuse - both psychological and physical, P.T.S.D., rape, misogyny, sexism, amongst others.

Although there are two warnings at the beginning of the novel, Darryl M. Finch-Ellis has made his stance very clear on the matter, stating "difficult topics and subjects cannot be explored and tackled if all of the characters are those who subscribe to modern ideals. Characters must first believe in morally obtuse beliefs before they can be redeemed, either by themselves or through the aid of others, or seldom become an example of how extreme ideologies can misshape one's perspective and warp their outlook throughout their remaining years, moulding them into beasts of a darker sort, closed-minded and opposed to any form of change."

Locations:
This section is still under editing.

Dark Blaze uses real-life locations. The 1918-1920 storylines takes place entirely in middle and southern England, whilst the 1915-1916 storylines revolve around the trenches and surrounding areas within France during the Great War; in addition to the finale taking place in Prussia.

Current Released Sample Chapters:
Darryl M. Finch-Ellis has currently released three sample chapters.

You can view all of the first three chapters in their first draft forms exclusively on Finch-Ellis' website, linked HERE

The sample chapters are vastly different in regards to grammar and structuring due to the samples being only the first drafts.

Trivia:
Warning this section contains spoilers of the novel ahead.
 * The novel was originally going to be named Black Blaze, however, Darryl changed this later into the project, around 2015.
 * Majority of the antagonists were not going to be in Black Blaze, it was not until the title and setting change that they were all added.
 * Dark Blaze has been in the works since 2014.
 * Dark Blaze was originally going to be set in modern day, beginning in mid-2012. However, Darryl M. Finch-Ellis desired to place the story in a periodic piece setting to give it more character and uniqueness.
 * Finch-Ellis has confirmed that there will be chapters during the First World War, as flash backs or maybe a back story running alongside the current story of the novel.
 * Darryl desired to revitalise old and classic gothic horror lore and these traditions in the genre are canon within the novel's universe or are nodded to as hidden tributes.
 * Darryl M. Finch-Ellis has confirmed that this story takes place in the real world and uses real world locations.
 * Miranda Lefèvre's character is inspired by Florence Nightingale.
 * The chapter name "December Snows" is a reference to the Fozzy song Judas.
 * The chapter name "Wayward To Weymouth" is a reference to the Kansas song Carry On My Wayward Son, which is also a prominent song in the horror show Supernatural.

Buying & Additional Links:
Darryl M. Finch-Ellis has additional social media accounts you can visit, the links are listed below:
 * Dark Blaze Paperback (U.K.)
 * Dark Blaze Paperback (U.S.)
 * Dark Blaze Kindle / E-Book (U.K.)
 * Dark Blaze Kindle / E-Book (U.S.)
 * Darryl's Official Website


 * Darryl's Official Facebook Page


 * Darryl's Official Twitter Page


 * Darryl's Official YouTube Account


 * Darryl's Official Instagram Account


 * Darryl's Official Soundcloud Account


 * Darryl's Official Patreon Account