Wanderers #1 - Hanuman the Elder
- daholleyauthor
- Mar 20
- 4 min read
In last week's blog post, I covered the events leading up to the formation of the Halls of Time, and the imprisonment of the first Wanderer, Hanuman. Today, we're going to take a closer look at the character himself, his role in Tears for the Moon God, and how he views the world around him.
Quick Facts | ... |
Place of Origin | Dosh Alaen Forest, Island of Ul Sadh |
Race | Katcyakin |
Ethnicity | N/A |
Magic Type | Spirit Calling |
Mentor God/Spirit | Echo the Rope |
First Appearance [Book/Chapter] | Tears for the Moon God / Prologue |
By the time we arrive at the events of Tears for the Moon God, Hanuman is a pale reflection of the person he was when he was free. The Halls of Time have taken an immense toll on him, as his early explorations of this new frontier ultimately led to a slow poison leaking into him, and thus compromising the core features of his identity. The other Wanderers view him as a man not to be trusted, with a volatile personality, who has gone quite mad in his time of isolation. Xi Didura, the second of them to have been imprisoned in the Halls of Time (who I will cover next week), is perhaps the only one among them who views him as a friend. But then, his view of the man is informed by a time when he was more whole, and thus more reflective of the man he once was.
Hanuman's great sin is exploring the arcs of lives that are not his. The Halls of Time are riddled with scummy ponds which house the memories of those others who were affected by the reclamation of each of the Wanderers. With each new inmate taken into them, the labyrinth expands, and the memories stolen from those who knew these men, or knew of them, are pulled into its corridors along with them, allowing the people who once knew them to live on as if they had never met them.
These pools are a kind of forbidden fruit. They promise knowledge of the goings on in the world outside, as fixed in a certain place in time. For a while, those memories may even be relevant, may taste like pieces in a puzzle at the end of which is escape, but to enter a pool that does not belong to you chips away at the soul, stripping a man of his own memories and reshaping his personality to reflect the sensibilities of the one it does belong to.
Hanuman's madness is the product of having stepped into hundreds, maybe even thousands of these pools. He has a very loose sense of identity, with his core memories the only ones he can be certain are his, the grounding force holding him together. His early adventures in the memories of others came out of a well intentioned place. Alone in the Halls of Time for thousands of years, the memories of his people became a crutch for him to lean on when the loneliness threatened to tip him over the edge. There was comfort in the familiar in those early days, but with the arrival of Xi Didura, and then Ank the Sanark, and the others, he found a renewed desire to find a means of leaving. If others could be compelled into this hellish prison, then perhaps their incarcerations could be reversed.
His pursuits became increasingly exploitative as he sought answers to the questions that plagued him, and became more and more certain he would have them when he took the next plunge, the plunge after that. This pursuit is an addiction and an obsession for Hanuman the Elder. By the time Sao Njack has come around, he is barely himself at all, and yet cannot stop himself from continuing to pursue answers as it comes to light that Sao was imprisoned in the stead of his lover, who by every appearance had committed far more heinous acts than him. The why behind the acts of the gods in incarcerating Sao Njack, once ruler of the Nixian Empire, become a vice to him that he cannot shake, even as his pursuits chip away at the very most intimate memories of his past, leaving him more and more hollow until there is almost nothing of him left.
In a sense, I suppose you could view Hanuman's arc as a slow progression toward hitting rock bottom. He has convinced himself these pursuits are for the greater good, and an enabling influence in his father (who desires retribution against the Lesser Gods of the Waxing World), who seeks to use him in a complex plan with uncertain ends. Hanuman's is a story of addiction, acceptance and the pursuit of recovery. It is also the story of a broken man clinging to a desperate wish to keep himself alive, and retain what remains of his sanity.
Tears for the Moon God is available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. I sell signed copies directly, as well. If you're interested in a signed copy, please send inquiries to daholley.author@gmail.com.
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