Millennium Exile started with one character. Then Ty Hanson created others. Then he created a world and a story where all these characters could exist.
“MillEx started with Vincent’s character design, for an assignment at university. We were asked to write a back-story for our characters; from there it was something of an addiction,” said creator Ty Hanson.
“I designed more characters and wrote for them, something of a series of short stories.
“After doing this for Vincent, Zero, Agito and Lan, I realized that perhaps these characters could exist within the same world.
“So I decided to try my hand at writing something bigger, I had recently been inspired by Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and quickly got to work.”
Ty Hanson is into lore. It’s what he liked most about Tolkien, his favorite author. “Of course, I’m very inspired by the works of Tolkien. His immersive storytelling and lore-rich world is absolutely astonishing.
“I adore how deep the history runs in Tolkien’s work. The world is a living breathing thing that feels like it has lived long before you have even picked up the first book.
“It all feels so….genuine. Nothing is written for mere convenience of plot.”
Millennium Exile’s story also has an ancient history that resurfaces.
See millenniumexile.com for the full ancient background to the story. But Millennium Ex is about Vincent, an orphan with superhuman strength, living on the streets in the Ryuuga Ghettoes in Japan. His power has been carried on genetically for a thousand years, since the days of the wars between angels and demons, and the time of the eight Mages. Recruited into GRAVE, an anti-terrorist organisation, he meets others with special powers. But an entity known as the Wrath is awakened and enters Vincent’s body. Then a cannibalistic demon escapes from Hell, and leads the Shadow Syndicate, hell-bent on conquering the world. It is up to Vincent and GRAVE to stop them.

-continued next page
-copyright Simon Sandall