I'm rolling out a few character previews/bios as we get close to the launch of the next story on Thursday, April 20, 2023. First up is Maximus Savage, the founder and leader of the Savage Gang. The Savage Gang has terrorized numerous cities across the nation as it spreads its criminal enterprise, with Savage overseeing the entire operation. He appoints different gang members to take command in each city, and only travels to those cities himself when he feels it is necessary, or when the mood strikes him.
Video clips of Savage's exploits fill the Internet and television news reports, showing not just his combat skills, but his lack of regard for person or property. He doesn't hesitate to maim or kill those who stand in his way, or even those who are just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Savage strikes an imposing presence, wearing tight clothes that highlight muscles so large they almost seem cartoonish. His strange eyes add to the intimidation factor, as one is pale blue, with an orange discoloration in the iris, while the other is brown.
The public hasn't seen his face, as he wears the telltale half-mask of the Savage Gang during gang operations. The mask, made of a hard rubber-like material, obscures most of his features, leaving his mouth and jaw visible. The mask almost makes him look like a gargoyle, but without the horns, as it is made of a swirling black, gray, and white color. His mask is different than the masks of his men in only one way -- the area around his eyeholes are colored a dull red, highlighting his strange eyes.
Not much is known about what motivates Savage to perform his acts of brutality, but there is definitely something from his past that troubles him, or at least influenced his personality or outlook on life. He was in the military, but nothing from his records reveals why he acts as he does.
Savage is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant, with extraordinary strength to go along with those skills.
......Not really drawing the connection between the Savage Gang and the activities of Azari and the silver-eyed man at the moment, but it was great to hear about the person behind the Savage Gang as a whole. His habit of rarely showing his face and only traveling to select cities personally if he feels the need to reminds me of a villain that I wrote for my PCU series (from Phase 2, Book 2 -- “Mastermind”). But other than that, they’re completely different entities.
The fact that he’s ex-military is all sorts of heartbreaking and intriguing at the same time. He likely has so much training under his belt, then, but to see him using it for such brutal purposes brings me to absolute ruin. For me, the villains who do genuinely have good qualities in some ways (like Maximus’s combat experience or Duncan’s scientific intellect) but are pushed down a path of darkness typically tend to be the best ones.
There’s.....three more character bios after this one, right? Lookin’ forward to them!