I usually don’t like posts like this. I’m hardly ever interested in people’s characters unless those people are my close writing pals or their character are legitimately awesome. So I’ve never planned to go off ranting about my charries to people who didn’t care about them.

But… you guys do care. Or at least that’s the impression I’m getting. And that completely blows me away. The amount of support and enthusiasm you’ve shown for my WIP series Warfare is beyond anything I could ever imagine! YOU ARE THE BEST.

So here’s to hoping you’re interested in hearing about the antagonists from my current WIP novel Warfare Book I! I was originally going to offer the six very main characters for questions, but I think it’ll be more bite-sized to introduce them in groups. Here are all the baddies for now.

I don’t have face claims for them yet (I know, I know, lame. I’m just not allowed to search for images anywhere), so I’ll just hope my descriptions are descriptive enough.

DAKU MARUKO

• antagonist
• 35yo man
• usurper after the shogunate of Japan
• half-western, half-Japanese. Has dark brown eyes, and dark brown hair to his shoulders.
• rough and buff XD
• an orphan trained as a bounty hunter until he was 26. Then he decided he wanted to become a political leader and has planned for 9 years to put inside men and betrayers inside of the government, posing as high-level political leaders actually out to kill anyone in Maruko’s way.
• ennegram: individual.
• ideal: origin.
• fear: commonness.
• desire: authenticity.
• vice: envy.
• core need: to… stop going insane to rule and feeling like you have to earn everything. Accepting the free gift of God’s mercy would help him a lot.

I just love this guy. He’d bad and he’s mean, but if I were a male bad guy and was not saved, he’d be me. Literally.

Determined, self-driven, self-motivated, self-conceited, self-aggrandizing, rude… yep. Madison Lorfing as a non-saved, male bad guy. XD His political leaning is himself, the person he most admires is himself… XD I just die laughing each time I read his character interview.

Maruko also has anger issues (which I don’t have), which give him his actually evil side: relentless, needless bloodshed. He’s on an insane power trip and must have control of EVERYTHING and will kill or torture to death anyone who stands in his way. Which, for this book, is POOR WITTLE SCARED ARI (the protag).

He and I are both very committed to what we do, and tend to be strategic until we get too impatient. He’s like my evil soul mate.

JOSEFU KAZANAWI

• mini-antagonist
• 35yo man
• Maruko’s right-hand man
• half-western, half-… European? Wait, isn’t that the same thing? What did I write in this character interview???
• blue eyes, dark brown hair, pale-ish skin
• I think he’s actually more buff than Maruko. Sorry, ‘Ruko. You got beat in looks by your #2.
• GUYS THIS IS SO SAD. He used to be an alcoholic and KILLED HIS WIFE AND THEIR UNBORN BABY IN A DRUNKEN BRAWL. *dies sobbing* Maruko trained him himself when Maruko was 26. The two are great buds.
• ennegram: helper.
• ideal: freedom.
• fear: unworthiness.
• desire: love.
• vice: vainglory (well, really anger, but that was the closest the ennegram chart could get to describing him.)
• core need: to accept Jesus.

I totally forgot his first name. I always address bad guys by their last names and in the first draft, I had no idea about a first name for him anyway. Everyone calls him Kazanawi.

He struggles a lot with unworthiness to be loved and hates alcohol with a passion… and yet it is his greatest weakness.

He’s very rash as a result, especially toward Ari, whom he doesn’t personally have anything against but Maruko does, so Maruko hires him to keep trying to kill her (lol just read the book this is confusing), and Kazanawi loves chances to take out all that angerrr, and poor innocent Ari suffers as a result.

I made up his name (back in my I-REFUSE-TO-RESEARCH days of Loyalty [Warfare drafts 1-3]… *cringes*) and it actually sounds pretty Japanese, so I kept it.

He and Rasako (coming up next) rival to be Maruko’s #2. So far, Kazanawi is able to keep his spot as Maruko’s right-hand man, but it’s hard with conceited and annoying Rasako trying to outdo him.

RASAKO DEYUAN

• mini-antagonist
• 23yo man
• talented assassin, Maruko’s #3
• Ukranian parents. Looks exactly like Ari Kireina in male form. Hint, hint. He has light brunette shaggy hair and brown eyes.
• tall, thin, muscled.
• He was kidnapped before Ari was born (sorry alphas I literally just spoiled Book II for you), then escaped using baby smarts and ended up at an orphanage where he was taken in by Norin Shihai (no questions sorry >:)), head sensei of Satsujin-sha Shinobi Academy for training immoral assassin men. He trained there until he was 18, when Maruko heard about his almost matchless skill. Despite his brutal training, he hates assassinating and only does it to be accepted and loved by Maruko and Norin.
• ennegram: helper.
• ideal: freedom.
• fear: unworthiness.
• desire: love.
• vice: vainglory ALL THE WAY. ?
• core need: to accept Jesus.

Okay, so while I was writing the first draft of Loyalty back in ’16, my brother Russell thought having a female ninja was soooo stupid and lame and all the guys reading my book one day would want a guy ninja. So bam! Rasako was created as Ari’s long-lost brother. And I made up his name, too. I think I did pretty good, so I kept it.

Because Russell suggested the character, Rasako is modeled after him. Literally, in Rasako’s 102-question character interview, I asked Russell a lot of the questions. XD His last name, Deyuan, is “Duane” in Japanese, which is Russell’s middle name.

Rasako is super self-conceited and has a love for dropping the mic with epic one-liners, something both me and my brother love.

In the first three terrible, terrible drafts, Rasako had a slight love interest with Anata Tsuari which develops in Book II (only you know what I’m talking about, Chloe ?), but since revising the series, I cut it out. It was an unnecessary, unrelated subplot. Badly developed, too.

Rasako is now much better developed and has an actual mini-arc.

Hmm… seems I have no evil gals in this book.

But that’s only because we’ve only got an evil one writing it.

Wait, that’s a lie. Maruko has a few female warriors in his mercenary crew, but they aren’t in the spotlight. I don’t even name ’em. So no main evil gals. Just an evil writer.

WHEW. I’m so nervous to post this. Who actually cares enough to read all about someone else’s characters, much less ask them questions?

Guess I’ll find out in the comments below. ?

Ask any character above any questions; no limits, no boundaries! The last day to ask questions is Sunday. And please, it’s your turn to rant about your favorite charries of yours. Unleash it all on me. I DARETH YOU.*

*I’m Grand Sensei Dareth. And I dareth you to join my dojo! ? Who got it?