This one will be a challenge to elaborate on without spoiling things too much, but I’ll see what I can do.
Writing Goal This Month
The goal would be 15,000 more words, but with yet more travel plans this month, it may not be possible. We’ll see. Other than that, I hope to add several more layers to my BZR art project and begin work on transferring some of my sketches into a digital format.
Moodboard For Your Villain
The sub-board called “Project: Black Zones and Imperium” is the closest thing I have to a moodboard https://pin.it/2Lzef0F
Who Is Your Antagonist?
There are two main antagonists in Black Zone Reports. The first takes the form of an animated obsidian dust that consumes, mutates, and melts any living thing it comes into contact with. The second that’s recognized by the minority of people is a company called Imperium that works arm in arm with the government.
Saturday Snippet
“Through his tears, the lights of the valley seemed to dim. Scooting to the corner and peering out into the night, he saw a fog sweeping over them. It must have been a very thick fog, he thought, for soon the lights twinkled in and out behind it. In a blink, the city was snuffed into utter darkness. Voids of pitch black were all that was left behind. He watched then, frozen, as tendrils of glittering smoke sprung over the neighborhood wall at the base of the hill, wrapping house after house in the maws of a great shadow.”
Antagonists Summarized As An <Adjective Noun>
Apocalyptic Duststorm and Dystopian Megacorp
Antagonist Wants What?
When a Black Zone appears, the obsidian dust seems to desire nothing but to destroy or alter lifeforms. Plants, insects, people, animals – even micro organisms, but what the goal of this might be is unknown. No one can agree on what caused them, and some believe the entire crisis to be the result of a terrible accident.
Imperium sets out to aid the government in containing these massive outbreaks, prevent cities from spiraling into anarchism amidst the chaos, capture or eradicate infected people and animals, study the effects of these mutations, and establish barriers to control the growth of the Black Zones. The catch is that they will do anything to accomplish these goals, regardless of collateral damage.
Antag Meets Protag How?
Violently and infectiously in most circumstances. However, one of the perspective characters in this book is an Imperium employee, so they are both the antagonist and the protagonist.
Antagonist Justification
There seems to be no justification for the Black Zones or the obsidian fog that creates them. They simply are.
Imperium calls for desperate measures in these desperate times, doing “what must be done” in order to save society from coming down on itself, no matter how unpleasant.
Inspiration For Antagonist
I no longer remember where I got the idea for Imperium, but it was probably a handful of scattered sources. It started out as a very generic “big bad government” trope when I was in my teens and evolved over time from there as the story demanded it. Unfortunately, I came up with most of these ideas before Covid, and I’m mildly concerned that people will look at Imperium as a form of social commentary since much of the language is that of containing a pandemic and controlling the populace.
The obsidian dust and Black Zones didn’t exist in the original versions of Venture Imperium, and has been added for… larger contextual reasons.
Does Antagonist Have Fears?
The dust doesn’t seem to fear much of anything, but strangely, it also isn’t stupid. It will avoid attempts made to eradicate it, and on occasion, will even learn how to evade traps.
Imperium as a company states concern over the lack of security being provided to the innocent civilians that survived the initial impacts of the BZs and warns against anyone seeking to further threaten what stability remains by disregarding emergency mandates and the instruction of officers on the ground.
Saturday Snippet
“You surprise me, Ms. Candell. You’re very aware of your surroundings, and articulate as well. That’s a very good sign. I know this is not where you expected to be, but I’m going to have to ask you to remain calm. Can you do that for me?” The man’s words were kind, but the cold curiosity in his eyes remained. It made her uneasy.
“… I’ll try.” She managed.
Trope Antagonist Fits
Black Zones: Apocalyptic and mutants
Imperium: Corporate Dystopia / Dystopian Government
Is The Antagonist Hopeful Or Hopeless?
Imperium’s board of directors state that they are hopeful that if everyone can hold things together for the next couple of years, they may have a way to effectively combat the Black Zones and perhaps begin curing those that had come into contact with the dust.
Is Antagonist Romantically Involved?
Not applicable to these antagonistic forces.
Does Antagonist Work Alone or with Henchmen?
The obsidian fog usually works in its animated black cloud form, but there are suspicions that some infected creatures may also serve it like drones.
Imperium is mostly made of henchmen, all of which serve the board of directors and Imperium’s CEO.
The symbol for Antagonist?
I’m still considering a proper “symbol” used for marking Black Zones, but Imperium has one logo that’s stamped on just about everything they own and produce, making their presence easily identifiable. It’s a stylistically rendered mathematical symbol that means “for all”, which usually looks like so: ∀
This logo also matches their slogan, “One For All, All For One”.
Does your Antagonist have powers?
The obsidian dust’s ability to so rapidly self replicate and mutate living organisms is like a power in its own way.
In the sense of magic? No. In the sense of money, influence, and technology? Most certainly. Imperium is one of the largest, most affluent global companies in history. Power is their middle name.
Saturday Snippet
“As he ran, he could hear a ticking sound, like hundreds of thousands of tiny metal shavings bouncing and cutting into the stones and trees around him. It formed a white static noise that engulfed the hillside. It was so loud that the black wolf’s panicked and wounded cries barely overpowered that metalic rush of the swarm.
As he slid down the next ledge, he came face to face with it. The wolf was tumbling down the rocky cliff beside him, its limbs tangled in brambles and a sickening crack resounding from its skull impacting a boulder. Fur and skin seemed to melt from its sides with each of its final steps, leaving a trail of flesh that was quickly engulfed in blackness. It collapsed in the snow with a gurgled whine a moment later, now a zombified husk of exposed muscle and bone.”
Antagonist Tie into Theme
The antagonists really set the theme for Black Zone Reports rather than being tied into it. They create the dark, dystopian, apocalyptic, and hopeless setting all on their own.
Favorite Thing About Antagonist
The dust swarms definitely have a fun presence to them as they act like airborne tsunamis or living shadows. They set up excellent visuals that are fun to write and make it easy to convey the scope and terror of the Black Zones.
Writing the logic behind why Imperium does what it does is probably the most enjoyable part about them. Most of the interactions between the MCs and the company are through the foot soldiers and peons, but the mind at the top of that ladder is more complicated than just “seize power for the sake of power.”
Least Favorite Thing About Antagonist
The dust creates a lot of horrific imagery by the nature of what it does, so finding ways to relate that quantity of gore without turning this book into a total bloodfest is a little complicated sometimes. I’ve also never attempted to write horror before, and this makes horror unavoidable.
Imperium is a massive entity with hundreds of functions and a lot of political sway, so working out the connections they have to all these other giant entities and how they get what they want out of them because of reason X and solid persuasion Y gets pretty meticulous.
Antagonist Keep Pets?
I mean, they’re not really pets, but I suppose you could view both antagonists as keeping mutated creatures as “pets”. The Black Zones make them, and Imperium will often capture them temporarily to run experiments and gather research before throwing them into a kiln.
Is Antagonist in Love with Protagonist?
Most definitely not. You could say that Imperium’s statement to serve humanity is a sort of love, though.
Antagonist’s Biggest Downfall
For the obsidian dust… that’s some serious spoiler territory.
Overall, Imperium’s downfall comes down to size and the standards they choose to hold on local levels.
Saturday Snippet
“What about three eighty-eight? Are they scheduled for refuse?” A man’s voice asked.
“No, that one has been stable. No particles and no excessive growths like seventy-four and fifty-three. I think it’ll be transferred to an observation post if nothing else emerges.” A woman’s voice answered.
“Excellent. Too many of them have been dying or getting out of hand before we can learn anything from them.” The man said. “How many of them are conscious?”
“Only a few. Three eighty-eight just had a spike, so they might be awake now.”
“Let’s check. If they are, we’ll bring in a technician and start with the diagnostics.”
Antagonist’s Philosophy
Imperium’s slogan sums up the director’s philosophy pretty well. “One for all, all for one”, but how that mindset plays out is for readers to figure out as the story progresses. The peons at the lower levels all have their own unique philosophies for why they’re doing what they’re doing; some are eviler, and some are genuinely well-intentioned. Some take the power granted by being an officer to abuse others, and some see their duty as the only means of preserving humanity’s future. And then, of course, there are the people that just want to get paid.
Antagonist Sense of Humor
This isn’t really applicable to a cloud of black fog and a giant corporation, but there are many people that feel that these forces use their power to mock their suffering after everything they’ve already lost and the pain they’ve already endured.
Antagonist Hates What?
It’s hard to say if the fog is capable of necessarily “feeling” anything, but nevertheless, there are men directly involved in the containment of Black Zones who feel that a deep hatred emanates from those flying shadows as if enraged by their inability to escape. It’s an understandable sentiment to hold after witnessing or hearing stories about what those clouds do to people if ever it finds an opportunity to strike.
Imperium hates disobedience more than anything, and this is true for the vast majority of the employees. The director, however, has a hatred for small-mindedness.
Antagonist’s Biggest Desire?
I’m getting a little repetitive at this point, but suffice it to say that no one knows what the dust “wants”, if it’s even capable of wanting things in the first place.
Imperium states that it wants to protect society from coming down on itself and to at least mute the effects that the Black Zones have had on the nation. Whether that statement is the truest or not is up for debate amongst the people, but it’s all anyone really has to work with.
Do You Like Your Antagonist?
Yes and Yes for both. I always make a point of liking my villains, because if I can like them, that means they’re thought out and logically stable if nothing else. I very rarely make villains that are evil for the sake of being evil. Every person thinks that they are the good guy, so their reasoning must be justifiable somehow even if the outcome of those intentions earns them their own enemies.
The obsidian dust and the resulting Black Zones are awful, obviously, but they’ve turned out to be so fun to describe and experiment with. I also love the way that they weave into the greater story that will be told from series to series.
I didn’t like Imperium when I first started working on their role because I didn’t understand the why behind what they did. It took years of scrapping ideas and trying on new motivations to drag the concept away from the shallow 2D villains they were. Now that the director has become the guiding point for the force at large, it’s been much more rewarding to work on its development. The best part about these antagonists is that by fighting each other, they make each other more complex and more engaging. By comparison, the protagonists in Black Zone Reports are hardly even on these antagonists’ radars as they are mostly concerned with the presence of the other, which is far more interesting than them always bearing down with a personal vengeance on the perspective characters.