Six Degrees: From Ivan to Dr. John Dee

Good morning and welcome back for another installment of Six Degrees! Last week, DJ introduced us to the Brothers Karamazov. In that post, he talked about one of the brothers, Ivan, whom he described as "cool and collected and someone who is rather fond of himself. He seems perpetually to be in control and he likes it that way. But his heart is so cold and his assumptions about the world so base that he ends up cynical and prideful. Though intellectually gifted, he uses his mind to twist reason and turn it on its head, justifying his actions through a sort of Darwinian pragmatism that is, at its core, thoroughly evil." This reminded me of just such a character in a series of books with one of the longest series names I've ever encountered: The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. The character Ivan reminds me of is a man named Dr. John Dee. He is the main antagonist in the series, dedicated to stealing Flamel's book of secrets so he can discover the secret of immortality, without needing the blessing of one of the Elders, highly ancient and powerful beings. He seeks to bring control of Earth back to the Dark Elders. However, when he fails them one too many times, they declare him to be an outlaw, and he decides to climb aboard the crazy train and attempts to go back in time to destroy all the Elders and remake the planet in his own image. The thing that makes Dr. John Dee such a good villain is how convinced he is of the righteousness and sanity of his plan.Nicholas Flamel is an alchemist who has lived for nearly 700 years with his wife Perenelle. Flamel has spent most of his life searching for the "Gold and Silver Twins of Legend" so that he can train them to save the Shadowrealm from Dr. Dee and the Dark Elders. However, despite his best intentions, Flamel has made many mistakes along the way... mistakes he sort of refuses to take responsibility for. Perenelle is the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, which enables her to speak with ghosts. She is more decisive than her husband, and more willing to take responsibility. She believes whole-heartedly in their cause and is not as bothered as her husband by the casualties of war.When Flamel meets Josh and Sophie Newman, he believes he has found the twins of legend. Josh loves history and is a natural when it comes to strategy, but he is suspicious of Nicholas and this causes him to temporarily switch allegiances and work with Dr. John Dee for a time. He is also jealous of how easily their new talents seem to come to Sophie, and this is part of why he wants to strike out on a different path for a while.Sophie is the more patient of the twins, and the more trusting. She is protective of her brother and most of her motivation stems from trying to keep him safe.Other characters of note are Niccolo Macchiavelli, yes, the historical figure, he is also one of these long-lived characters, who begins by working with John Dee and the Dark Elders. However, he has more compassion in his heart than Dee and eventually this leads him to re-evaluate his oaths to the Dark Elders.We also meet Billy the Kid, who is working with Macchiavelli. Billy is a classic, American outlaw who is courageous and a bit rash, but in the end he has a good heart.Another notable character in the series is Scathatch, a warrior whose job is to protect Josh and Sophie at all costs. She is a warrior of much renown and fame. She can use every weapon known to man, she is a vampire, and has an extremely interesting family. She is the creator of all the modern day martial arts, and as such, is described as fighting with "no style at all." Scatty is possibly the most interesting character in the series (despite not being a main character) and is definitely the character that kept me reading until the end.There are many, many other characters in this series, and I cannot go into them all now. If you like a tiny bit of history blended with a fantastic amount of fantasy fiction, this is a great series. Seriously, if you are playing Six Degrees and none of these characters spark an idea, feel free to go to THIS SITE, which does a good job giving bios on most of the characters in the series!If you wish to play, it's so easy, and super fun! And you can just participate whenever you want to, no commitment required! Just be sure to go to THIS post on DJ's site to read the "rules" as they were, and enter the name of the book you're linking TO and the URL of your blog POST.