Rondomo is a very nasty piece of work. A very sophisticated villain, to say it in his own words. He was a particularly difficult character to shape, yet also a very fun one.

Rondomo plays a major role in three stories of mine, of which Dyrt, is merely one, and also his debut. I later wrote two prequel novels, "Weniaria" and "De waanzin die "liefde" heet"(The madness called "love"), and in both novels his role is also major at least.

In the first concept I pictured Rondomo as an arrogant, yet extremely clever man. This also puts arrogance in a different perspective than with his partner in crime Kirana, who is also very extremely arrogant, but also very extremely stupid. His trademark to always use the word "sophisticated" or its negative variant "unsophisticated" was just a wild pull, but one I soon liked so much that I began to put emphasis on that. I also pictured him as, what we call in Dutch a "gladjakker" or "gladjanus". If you look at how perfect his hairdo was done and how much care he took in picking his clothes, perhaps you know what I mean (in which my artist did adept his clothing to the world of Phantasar).

Rondomo is a skilled alchemist, although in the game we do not see him perform that craft, yet his bombs are a product of that. He learned the trade from his mother Cannicula, who was 20,000 years before the events in the Dyrt game, a criminal woman on death row, who escaped and hid in the forst for years. Rondomo has always protected her during this time. The relationship between Rondomo has his mother has been loosely based on the stereotypical stories of how mafia leaders, very dangerous people, are doing everything for "la mama" and who get triggered when you insult " la mama"

You may think that Rondomo was acting a bit out of character when he gets furious over Irravonia insulting his mother, but no this was all part of the bigger plan. In "De waanzin die "liefde" heet" you will also see him getting mad when he thinks his mother is in danger. His mother is his Achilles heel.

Now alchemy is one of the few kinds of magic humans can perform on Phantasar, as it doesn't require magic gifts granted by your own body (like Faires and Elves have by nature). Although many humans fear alchemy (and some even consider it a dark art), Rondomo is in the first place a swindler, and among swindlers known as the best of the best. This was were Rondomo was a challenge for me. Rondomo states both in the Dyrt-game as in both novels that he never lies. Truth is, that he does indeed never lie, or at least I tried not to make him to. Rondomo is specialized in telling "half-truths".

What is a "half-truth"? If I say there is one apple in the dish, and that is all I say, you might think the dish is apart from that apple empty. If you discover then that there's also tons of bananas, oranges and pears, you will find out the dish is actually quite full. But since I didn't mention all those, I didn't lie. You assumed the dish was empty because I only mentioned the apple. That is a "half-truth".

Rondomo excels in "half-truth" to fool his customers (read: victims). He could therefore make tons of money. Whenever I made Rondomo speak I had to weight all words carefully to make sure he was not telling lies (at least not knowingly, since even a clever man as him can be misinformed) yet still making implications that get people on the wrong track.

Rondomo is not entirely bad though. Even he does have a good side, however, explaining that will require me to give out a few spoilers to those who want to read the novels but did not yet do so.

Rondomo was actually one of the people who met Weniaria in person, when she was still a mortal girl, and although he pretends to look down on her, he actually admires her (in a non-romantic way), due to her devotion in the arts of healing, without any desire to gain anything from it, but the good feeling she helped somebody who desperately needed that.

Although none of the stories sate it or even hint to it, but I can reveal that deep down, he was upset by Weniaria's murder, (which led to her rebirth as Goddess of Healing).

He also is revolted by the kings of the Two Great Kingdoms of men, and for good reasons, as those kings were actually despicable. Although he loathed Kirana from the first time he saw her, he actually did lend a hand to her, and he used alchemy to craft the scythe she uses in combat, so she could defend herself in the cruel realm that Dyrt used to be. He also took pity on Jim when Weniaria died.

All this make Rondomo a character who is hard to follow sometimes. Rondomo was a bit born out of my believe that there is no true good and evil, and that all humans have good and bad sides, meaning that even the most dangerous criminal has a good side and even the most saint-like selfless person still has a bad side. Of course, being the son of a father who was executed when Rondomo was still young, and having to protect his mother from the law, knowing she would be executed if soldiers of the king ever found her, may not have brought the best in him. Not to mention that both he and his sister were raised by Canicula to be criminals, and that didn't really help either. All this show that although Rondomo has many deeds on his name that are inexcusable, you can deem him a victim in some ways, since his life would certainly have been different, and that he does deep down have the characteristics that could have made him an honorable man. So one should be careful about their judgment about criminals, as there is quite often a story behind their deeds. Don't get me wrong, I am not justifying his actions. However if you can understand how Rondomo became a criminal in stead of an honorable man, then you may have found out how a real-life counterpart of Rondomo might be prevented from becoming a criminal. For Rondomo it was already too late, but for others it may not be.

I liked Rondomo as a villain. He was a hard character to write, but due to his cleverness (and also sarcastic and cynical nature) one that gave me great fun. And since he does show his good side every now and then, he becomes a bit of a mystery. They say that well set up villains are often more important than well set up heroes. Well, even though I say so myself, I guess that Rondomo was a job well done... Or should I say that I just had one of my "more sophisticated" moments when I set him up?

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