♦Welcome to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop!♦
Topic #134
Who is your favorite antagonist/bad guy/villain in your
books and why? What makes him/her tick?
Welcome back to another edition of the Open Book Blog Hop! If you’re new to the series, the authors included are grateful for your reads and appreciate, even more so, when you share our writings with your friends. If you’re new to the series, welcome aboard. The authors engage and impress weekly. Be prepared to become a regular reader.
I’d like to say that my favorite villain is Carsten Reiniger from OP-DEC: Operation Deceit, but I’d be lying. As sexy and bad as he is, Carsten is also good man underneath it all. He’s a complicated character operating in complicated times. It’s way too easy to point to him. Doing so would just be hiding the real villain on my shelf: The Baron, Morgentus.
This character is antagonist through book one of The Trailokya Trilogy. He’s not complicated at all. He’s a straight up monster. Literally. You see, he’s what modern Christianity refers to as a demon. In the books, his race is danava, the shadowalkers; those cast from Zion for major crimes including treason, rape, and murder. They are former duta (angels), some of the most powerful beings in the universe. When they were incarcerated in Jahannam by the king, a dark world that serves as a prison, their power was corrupted and weakened. Without the perpetual light, they lost a great deal of strength. Readers should not think for one moment, however, that makes them nothing to be concerned about.
Danava have been pecking away at the bonds of their shelter for eons, making inroads into the lower plane called Samsara. From there, they launch small scale attacks and clandestine operations in an effort to take back Zion.
That’s just in the book. Books all have a place from which they spring. Trailokya is no different. The series is the culmination of lifelong learning and personal experiences. When I was younger, I would have nightmares about this pale stranger with the jet black hair. He would stalk me through a seemingly innocuous dream, turning it sinister just by his presence. That presence filled me with so much fear. As a child, that was especially troublesome. The visits went on for years, thankfully spaced out for months and years. I still remembered him, due to the horrible impression he made. Even as an adult he would arrive suddenly, and I would feel like a scared girl again, ready to piss like a puppy.
That was until I had enough. Sometimes, we are strong enough to manage to take control of a dream. Lucid dreaming is an interesting experience in itself. I used the moment to rally my power and send this figure from my head forever. For more than ten years, I did not see him, but I have recently, and his power over me was completely gone, but for the concern that he was able to show his face once more.
These dreams inform the character that I arranged for the book. It is my hope that readers will feel some of the terror that I once did at his presence. It’s hard to tell if it’s effective, because I have so thoroughly dealt with such fears. Writing it out doesn’t impact me as it once would have.
Morgentus is a prototypical psychopath with narcissistic tendencies. His history is tragic one, but we do not feel pity for this fallen. He committed terrible crimes, which I will not enumerate here, because you’ll just have to read the books to find out all that he had done. During the course of The Shadow Soul, you’ll be subject to his sudden appearance and tenacity, all aimed at our troubled hero. The Baron feel unstoppable, a cat toying with a mouse. His sadistic pleasure at waiting out his victims shakes you at the core. His power is impossibly great, despite his fall. Combine that with his origin story and you have quite an intimidating villain to read, if you dare.
