Eila Doyle

Part of Characters.

Main protagonist of the Dream Engine. A 15 year old Builder of a multigenerational Builder family.

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Copied form the Story World Docs - July 24th.

Eila Doyle

One Sentence Summary

Eila Doyle is the eldest child in one of Waldron Gate’s most renowned families. Like her father, she is a builder, an elite breed of citizen responsible for the manifestations that enhance the life of the city’s citizens.

Summary

Something’s been wrong with Eila for a while. She feels as though she has been living two lives, one in Waldron Gate, and another outside, or underneath, or around it — she can’t be sure. She doesn’t know when she’s living this life, only that she is, and that new memories seem to fill her. She can’t understand or explain these visions, not even to her parents or her best friend, Cora. Eila can only listen to the memories that don’t belong to her, and see where they go.

Conflict

After Eila learns the truth about Alterra, she wants to help. But this isn’t as easy as it seems. She must force herself into the feelings, because while caring for others first is in her nature, it hasn’t been nurtured at all. She has a place and position in society to maintain, and a family name to protect. Worst of all, Eila is addicted to Crumble, addiction being a word that wasn’t in her vocabulary when the wool was still over her eyes. She starts the book oblivious to the truth, but aware of something, to being fully armed and ready to see what’s on the other side of Alterra’s fog, right along with us.

Epiphany

Eila realizes that no matter how hard it is to give up the Crumble, and face whatever lay in the Fog, she had no choice but to end the suffering of others.

Eila’s Narrative

Eila’s family is one of the most prosperous and loved in all of Waldron’s Gate. Her father is a Master Builder, just like his father’s father before him. The Doyles are responsible for some of the city’s best Builds. They are wealthy, respected and happy.

Eila is strong, and always willing to speak her mind. She says intelligent things, but never anything that promotes conflict. Conflict, for the most part, hasn’t existed in her world.

Eila is thoughtful, and observant, willing to believe the impossible. It’s easy to find her in a smile, even (or especially) in uncomfortable situations. Her voice is a melody, and even her blunt truths are musically beautiful.

Eila feels weighted by expectation. Though she has three siblings, two sisters and one brother, who are barely in this book, she is the eldest by four years. Her brother is behind her, then two little sisters after that. Men are not seen as better than women in Alterra, so it doesn’t matter that she’s female. Eila is the eldest, and all eyes are only on her.

Her father, Attwell Doyle is Chief of Science at the Ministry of Manifestation. Her mother is Head of Fashion in the Ministry of Decorum, responsible for the city’s most beautiful clothes.

Eila is a quick study and infinitely curious. She is a good soul, but because she’s spent a life without conflict, without ever having to bear witness to it, she doesn’t know what empathy is — she has no sense of hurting on behalf of others.

But Eila is a Builder through and through. Her work is beautiful, and fast. She articulates in a way that others can’t quite manage, even after years of study and practice. Her colors are brighter, the curves of her corners somehow just so. Her father is proud, and after a lifetime of training petitioned for Eila’s early acceptance into the Ministry, transferring her from Academy to Ministry with a stamp.

Eila is well liked by all her friends, but there’s no one she likes more than her best friend, Cora. She and Cora have known one another their entire lives. Cora lives on the opposite corner of Rowley Row, the street where they both live. They’re only a few weeks apart in ages, and their moms were in birthing class together. They’ve shared everything for their entire lives, until Eila was forced to keep Cora from the truth.

For Eila’s entire life she’s had an incurable itch, something at the edge of her consciousness that won’t ever leave, and barely fades. A feeling that there’s more to the world, something bigger that she can’t quite see. When Eila starts to see things that cannot be real, she doesn’t doubt them so much as wonder what that says about her.

Eila is odd in that she doesn’t believe in Jonah, the Whale God who lives in the ocean past the Fog. Alterra’s religious believe that heaven lies past the Fog, and that it’s a giant ocean that holds him. When you die, you go to the infinite space inside him. But despite her mother’s belief, Eila thinks Jonah is silly, and thinks the ocean is full of ships and pirates and mermaids and monsters, all the stuff from the stories. She also thinks there might be other lands, magical and far away, with flying ships made of metal, instead of giant balloons.

Eila doesn’t know how to be giving because she’s never had to, but she has a naturally giving nature, an absolute sense of right and wrong, and will never ignore her conscience twice in a row.