Ah, yes. Darklord. Or ‘Dark’ as he is known in later chapters. Who is he? Where does he hail from? Why is he chilling out in a gas station office building at the start of the book? Hm, what a fascinating tale it all must be!

Description: Tall. Covered in sleek, glossy black armor. There is no visible seam or fastening that would hint at how the armor is to be removed.

And that’s it. Not much to go on, huh? And yet I gave a brief description like that to Thomas Hugo, the artist that drew my book’s cover. And he was able to come up with this:

Zounds! I didn’t even know I WANTED spinal plating along his back but it turns out—I did! I’m not sure what’s in those bags, though. Maybe it’s a police belt Dark swiped from Mackaba? Then it would be filled with all kinds of survival equipment. Gosh, that would be helpful. Maybe I should go back and write it into the book, ha,ha.

Personality: Dark is very protective of his true identity. However, he is generally cooperative in other matters. He follows Mean and her group, allowing his armor to be tossed around by her gravity magic. A human battering ram, as it were. However, he will step into a leadership role when he feels it is needed. His true goals and desires are unknown.

Abilities: The armor Dark wears is powered by a magical source. The suit will absorb any impact until that power is drained. Then it is able to be broken. The armor can also transfer its entire battery of magical power into another vessel.

Dark’s voice carries out through the helmet, but he is unable to use magic while inside, as the entirety of his body and mind are contained within the suit.

Inspiration: Back in the early 1990s I played a Game Boy game called Final Fantasy Adventure. In that game, the main villain was a dude called “Darklord.” He was the ruler of some evil kingdom and had a minion by the name of Julius. “Yes, Darklord,” Julius would say as he received his next wicked task.

Now, I was thirteen at the time, so I was entering my rebellious phase. When my Dad would tell me to do a chore I would reply “Yes, Darklord.” I thought it was funny. But soon I thought: “Hey! I want to be the boss! I’m the one that should be called Darklord!” So I made it my America Online screen name. Then it became my nickname in real life. And some individuals call me ‘Darklord’ to this very day….

So, it was only natural that I would imagine a Darklord character in my stories. Covered in armor! Mysterious! What fun!