Gladiator fights for his life and memory in series kickoff

By Max Bowen

In a story informed by psychological research and real-life gladiator training, “A Vengeful Realm: The Scales of Balance” (First Torch Books) by debut author Tim Facciola is the beginning to an epic fantasy series.

The story introduces Zephryus, an amnesiac gladiator with a mysterious prophecy, who must fight for his own freedom as he spies for the prince and thwart the queen’s bloodthirsty plot to overthrow the king and take the throne for her rebellion.

Tim sets the stage for this book, which was 10 years in the making! He talks about how the story changed over that time and was inspired in part by his own physical training program and psychological research. He shares the origin of Zephryus and how his being an amnesiac shapes the tale.

Also, listen to the battle-ready theme song on TikTok!

I read that this book was 10 years in the making. How did the story develop or change during that time?
Wow. Yes. This trilogy has had a 10-year gestation period and over the course of that time it has changed, evolved, and sharpened to what it is today. But over that time period, I changed and grew a lot as a person as well. I don’t know many first-time novelists who don’t manage to write themselves into their work in different ways—whether conscious or otherwise, it just seems to happen. But I made a conscious effort not to create based on people or experiences in my life. Looking back, however, each POV character and nearly all of the interpersonal relationships were parts of me. I think one way in which that helped develop the story is that after I made that realization, I was able to go back and lean into it—get to those dark, dirty areas that, during the early years of this project, I wasn’t ready to process, let alone explore. The result I hope is a deeply nuanced emotional journey as opposed to just the action story that it was initially slated to be.

The main character has no memory. How does that shape this person?
Having a main character suffering memory loss was a fun concept to explore. Having no cultural biases, familial obligations, or formative belief-systems to conform to, Zephyrus is forced to rely on his intuition and principles to forge his own way through the world. It makes for a constant struggle and several forms of different conflicts, whether they be with societal institutions, other people wanting him to conform to XYZ, or even strife between who he is now and who he was then as his memories start to return.

What went into making this character?
Having a character that is trying to discover his identity while forming his own opinions was fun, but the struggle came with how a person in such circumstances would develop their moral reasoning. One part of the process was learning about psychology. I studied Kohlberg’s Theories on the Development of Moral Reasoning to understand how Zephyrus might engage with his world and the people in it based on his limited self-understanding. It took time to make sure his growth as a character matched up with his moral development as he goes from a self-serving survivalist to a highly principled leader over the course of the trilogy.

This is the first book in a series. What can we expect in future books?
Because of a few popularly unfinished epic fantasy series that shall remain unnamed, it was important to me to begin with the end in mind and finish all of it before I released any of it. So, the full trilogy is finished and set to come out over the next six months (October 2023- April 2024). With that said, I have a prequel currently in the works! But otherwise, my readers can always expect some form of gladiator-esque content, whether it takes place in a steampunk world or a space opera. And always, my stories, despite how dark, will conclude with hopeful outlooks and positive themes.

I read about your Gladiator Training program. I imagine this helped a lot with the action scenes.
Being an athlete growing up and having worked in the fitness industry since I was 19, I always learned by doing. The kinesthetic connection came naturally to me. Considering the biomechanical and physiological responses to combat training made my fight scenes feel more grounded, and I hope that translates to readers. But at the very least, it made my workouts more fun! Being able to quite literally act out some combat scenes has been a game changer!