Honor and Prophecy was a really fun part to write. It has Hellboy, Abe, Liz, a Griffin, a witch coven resurrecting their Witch Queen, and a whole lot of witch puns.
I originally wanted to write this because, well, why not? And that's what I really sort of want out of writing the Space Between, is that I can put whatever and I want and have them do or fight whatever I want them to. This specifically was great because I was able to sort of move away (temporarily) from superheroes into something more supernatural, which there's not going to be a lot of.
At the beginning I knew that I wanted to explain in my own way why John Myers got reassigned to Antartica in between the first and second Hellboy movies. And no reassignment can go without a going away party, and no going away party can go without beer and cake.
I also had a whole backstory about the Witches, the Griffin, the Book of Merlin, and Merlin's last descendant planned out. (Which is as follows)
Some hundreds of years after Merlin and Arthur, the last of Merlin's bloodline, Branwen, inherited the Llyfr Myrddin o Hud (The Book of Merlin) and began to travel around the countryside, befriending all manner of mythological creatures, including the Griffin, and filling in what few blanks Merlin's book had.
The Griffin became her travelling companion, and they eventually fell in love.
Unfortunately, while travelling through Wales, Branwen was attacked by a coven being led by Queen Esyllt. The Book of Merlin was stolen and Branwen was sacrificed to give Queen Esyllt more power. The Griffin ultimately killed the Witch Queen, and as punishment for his inability to protect Branwen, hid the Book of Merlin in the woods near Tintern and now roams the same woods to protect it.
In early 1967, the Griffin received word of a special meeting of his race, which mainly concerned the hunting and near extinction their species was being faced with at the time.
At the same time, a young woman named Mary who regularly went into the woods to pick wild food, took another path than she usually had and accidentally found the Book of Merlin. She took it back to her house and read a little bit of it before she went to sleep last night. During her sleep she had horrific nightmares that tormented her and led her to believe that the object was cursed.
Mary first asked a Priest to exorcise it, but he didn't really believe that the book was cursed. She tried to burn it, but then it wouldn't burn. She took it to the ruins of Tintern Abbey, which was a common place in her nightmares and Mary believed that if she took it there and 'gave it back' that she'd be able to get rid of the curse.
By doing so she instead gave power back to the witches, who in turn sacrificed her, and several other young women in Tintern, to resurrect Queen Esyllt.
When women began to disappear, the Priest that Mary had sought out contacted a group of Witch Hunters, who were in turn acquainted with Doctor Bruttenholm and a Professor Sterling. (OMC - A minor Wizard who specialized in Occultism and often helped Witch Hunters. His daughter, also Professor Sterling, has a little bit of magical sensitivity. She can feel magic, but she has no real knack at casting.)
The group tracked the kidnappings to the ruins of Tintern Abbey, and slew Queen Esyllt. Doctor Bruttenholm took the book with him for safe keeping.
The Griffin had arrived in time to see the end of what had happened, and knew that Bruttenholm would keep the book safe for many years. He continued to live in the woods around Tintern up to the beginning of the part.
There are a few minor things that happen during the part that are important to note:
- Earth-1617105 was not just picked out of a hat or grabbed from a random number generator, it's actually the date that Hellboy was conceived, October 5, 1617.
- The line 'A cold wind, is blowing from the North.', that the Griffin says to Kitty isn't just gibberish, it's a prophecy. I can't really say much more than that without spoiling something that's coming up, but it's not just something dumb and out of place.
-EDF
When women began to disappear, the Priest that Mary had sought out contacted a group of Witch Hunters, who were in turn acquainted with Doctor Bruttenholm and a Professor Sterling. (OMC - A minor Wizard who specialized in Occultism and often helped Witch Hunters. His daughter, also Professor Sterling, has a little bit of magical sensitivity. She can feel magic, but she has no real knack at casting.)
The group tracked the kidnappings to the ruins of Tintern Abbey, and slew Queen Esyllt. Doctor Bruttenholm took the book with him for safe keeping.
The Griffin had arrived in time to see the end of what had happened, and knew that Bruttenholm would keep the book safe for many years. He continued to live in the woods around Tintern up to the beginning of the part.
There are a few minor things that happen during the part that are important to note:
- Earth-1617105 was not just picked out of a hat or grabbed from a random number generator, it's actually the date that Hellboy was conceived, October 5, 1617.
- The line 'A cold wind, is blowing from the North.', that the Griffin says to Kitty isn't just gibberish, it's a prophecy. I can't really say much more than that without spoiling something that's coming up, but it's not just something dumb and out of place.
-EDF
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