Dear Reader:

There is nothing I find more annoying in the literate world than a mary-sue.

Don’t get me wrong, there are hundreds of little, seemingly insignifigant, aggravating things I’ve come across whilst traversing the various writing guilds and roleplaying forums the internet has to offer. Disregard to the ‘New Speaker, New Paragrah’ rule, complete ignorance of our beloved comma, and little to no capitalization are all examples of things I have found. In one entry.

Now I must tell you a story.

The person who wrote these entries is an old enemy of mine. She, a Celtic-oriented and the writer of a ‘bible’ for her own religion (which centers around her, the great mother dragon dancer goddess), I, a writer of serious and aspiring high fantasy. She, who we’ll call The Wanderer, writes prophetic poetry and claims to be a lover of darkness, shadows, and the night. She knows nothing. Why else would her character for her attempt at fantasy, Rowan, who is– and I quote– “golden haired and golden eyed”– ride a huge white elemental dragon of fire and air named Ama Teria with a golden sun emblem on its chest? The idea simply screams ‘mary-sue!’. If The Wanderer were truly into the darkness and shadows, perhaps she could have had a character like Khy’rad Grael’ablarr, a male drow assassin with little to no magical talent whatsoever? But alas, The Wanderer insists on having a heroine who can tell the future through a deck of magic cards– a true mary-sue, indeed. And what makes it even more annoying is that she beleives she’s actually good at writing... and shoves it in everyone’s face.

But I digress. This is not a time for enemy-bashing, as much as I love that activity. But her piteous character development is why we- my four friends and I- decided to create this. To prevent the creation of mary-sues in the future. This comprehensive guide explores all aspects of the mary-sue, ranging to their prevention and proper character development, as well as a list and definitions of every type of conceivable mary-sue. I hope that this will prevent future mary-sues, and maybe even fix a few of the past.

Except, of course, The Wanderer. Without her, Sarri and I would have nothing to talk about in science class. With all due respect,

Throgmorten