Secret File vol.1 Bios
Welcome to the first volume of the databook series for The Dark Rituals saga! We have character art, bios, author comments, mixtapes for the characters and an exclusive interview between the author and the series artist/character designer! Enjoy! (Disclaimer: in the concept art some of the stats and details differ slightly from the bios. The bios contain the accurate information)
Jahari Jones
History - Haitian-American Jahari Jones is perhaps the most central character of the Dark Rituals saga. He is one of the star agents of the shadowy conglomerate of mystics known as B.R.A.H.M.A.S.T.R.A, tasked with protecting the world from paranormal threats. As a newborn he was sacrificed as a part of an occult ritual. The sacrifice gave him a number of psychic powers, such as psychokinesis, astral projection, the ability to see ghosts, and empathy. Unfortunately for him, it also damaged his spirit’s connection with his body, which leaves him vulnerable to possession and other forms of ghostly attacks. He seeks the truth about his origins, and to protect people from the forces of darkness. Jahari is a person who is burdened by circumstances beyond his control; can he find strength in the weight he carries? Or will his spirit be crushed? Find out in the introduction to his story, Hecatomb of the Vampire, the first book in the Dark Rituals Saga!
Personality- Jahari is the kind of person who may come off as cold or guarded at first, but underneath the surface is a deeply compassionate person who loves matters of the mind. He is witty, clever, and focused.
Height: 6’2
Weight: 155 lbs
Eye color: Black
Hair color: Black
Age: 23
Birthday: February 11th
Star sign: Aquarius
Likes: Battle Rap, reading comic books, Capcom games, oatmeal, puzzles
Dislikes: condescending people, roaches, the color yellow
Special skills: speaks 5 languages, kickboxing, photographic memory
Favorite color: Purple
Character Mixtape
For the tapes I tried to hit a sweet spot between music that described the character and music they would actually listen too. Enjoy, let me know what y’all think
Author Comments
G: I remember in 2012-2013 I was really into Berserk. I had discovered it on my own, and I thought Guts was such a cool character. He almost made you dislike him at times with how he behaved. This sounds lame but I found out about the concept of the Byronic Hero through Guts’ wikipedia page. That discovery helped me decide what kind of character I was really looking to create. I’m not sure you could classify Jahari as a Byronic Hero; I feel like he has too much of a heart. But I did like the idea of a cursed hero. I think everyone can relate to dealing with a problem unique to them. The ghost thing was my way of going about that, and a little homage to Guts being “marked.” Putting Jahari’s symbol on the back of his neck is partially an homage also, but it also has a much more philosophical reasoning. I want to see if y’all will catch it in the coming books.
I think Jahari is a character everyone will like and connect with. He’s very cool. He was robbed of a normal life, and most of his colleagues are older than him. So when he cuts loose and acts his age, you get some funny moments. I try to make all my characters as real as possible, so they all end up having little bits of people I know in their DNA. It’s kind of funny that he’s the probably the most central character, but he was created last. A lot of the character’s elements were repurposed and fully fleshed out from ideas and concepts I’d had in other stories I made up for my brothers or just for myself. Funnily enough, one of the characters that got dissected was a vampire-like creature, so in a way Jahari and the vampire are that character’s descendants. I gave him and Moriko alliterative names because they do it in old comics a lot, and I wanted Jahari to have a very recognizably black name. Alliterative names are also easier to remember.
His hair and design changed a couple times while we were working. Ben suggested the different color palettes, like a fighting game character. I liked the dark blue, it gave him a lot of personality and added a little unrealistic flair. I really wanted these characters to look unique and recognizable, like a real signature character. Instead of looking cool for cool’s sake, I wanted them to tell a story with their design and Ben really helped me do that, even in the design phases. The silver ring was an idea we cut, he was also supposed to carry dice to help him calm himself down. That was cut too, and replaced down the line with something that was actually important in the story and was a little less stupid.
Moriko “Mori” Miyazaki
History - Moriko Miyazaki is one of the protagonists in the Dark Rituals saga. She was born in Japan but has bounced between living there and in the United States for her entire life. After her life is turned upside down by the mysterious circumstances of her father’s disappearance and supposed death, she ventures into the cursed forest of Aokigahara for answers. The question is, will she return? Even if she survives, what will she do next? And are the secrets of her lineage worth it? Find out in Hecatomb of The Vampire, the first book in the Dark Rituals Saga!
Personality - Moriko is brash, brave, cheerful, and optimistic even when things get tough. She’s the type of person to give her all in everything she does.
Birthday: July 30th
Star Sign: Leo
Likes: skating, fashion design, anything baseball related, collecting fitted caps
Dislikes: smoking (she tried it once and threw up), classical music, hiking
Special skill: She is an excellent artist
Height: 5’2
Weight: 125 lbs
Age: 22
Hair color: Brown
Eye color: Light brown
Favorite color: Green
Character Mixtape
Author Comments
G: Moriko probably had the least amount of changes in the design process. I came up with her really early on, I’d finished the first story by then. Technically she’s the first recurring character/protagonist you see in the story. I almost scrapped her and the story entirely, because the same year I’d started writing it an American MOVIE about Aokigahara came out. I got really discouraged because I thought I was being original, at least in the West. I had shelved the story for a bit, and then I actually watched the movie and it was ass. It taught me to trust my writing and do what I want, regardless of the art around me. That remotivated me. I always wanted to have at least half of my cast be female, and Moriko was kind of the start of that.
She was originally only half Japanese, but I thought it would be better for her to be fully Japanese and be a little more in touch with her heritage. Her first name means “forest child” which I thought fit really well with the story, and her last name refers to shinto shrines of the cape or peninsula. Apparently people living in the Miyazaki prefecture took the surname way back. I picked the names because they’re alliterative and because I like Hayao Miyazaki’s work, and the meanings were a little bonus. She got a little taller and heavier than I first envisioned, mostly because I still don’t understand how women’s weight is distributed; I’m an idiot. Honestly all the character’s height and weight changed a little compared to the prompts in the concept art. She has a habit of holding grudges, I always thought that was a funny quality, you’ll see it later. She’s one of my favorite characters, she’s so spunky, and such a good friend. I feel like subconsciously she’s got a lot of bits and pieces of female friends I’ve had over the years personality-wise, but I can’t really pinpoint where.
VAMPIRES
Vampirism is a bloodborne curse originating thousands of years ago. The curse condemned its victims to a life of pain, decay, savagery, and loneliness by forcing the vampire to sustain its life on the lives of others. Because a vampire’s body and spirit are in a constant state of rot, it must drink the life force of other humans through their blood. The curse of vampirism was met out to the extremely greedy, violent, and those who lived off the backs of the weak. This is why vampires are generally well off.
The process of becoming a vampire is a quick and agonizing one. One must receive a large transfusion of infected blood, and the volatile nature of the blood kills the unlucky initiate, who rises again at the next setting of the sun. Those who die from a vampire’s kiss return as feral ghouls. Ghouls do not drink blood, but rather eat human flesh. Vampires can only survive on human blood, although many vampires claim that fasting from blood has given them unique abilities. Animal blood is a quick fix, but ultimately only serves to exacerbate their thirst.
Vampires’ physical forms vary; with regular feeding they generally look like they did in life, but a blood starved vampire can display morphological changes as extreme large, wing-like growths sprouting from the shoulder blades and doubling in size and weight. Generally speaking, a vampire’s strength depends on the potency and dilution of the blood that turned them; fewer vampires in the “lineage” will result in stronger vampires. Regardless, all of them possess physical strength several times that of a normal human, enhanced senses, and some degree of control over bodily functions such as hair growth. Vampires are able to regenerate from injury extremely quickly, however this healing burns through their blood supply. Driving a stake through the heart of a vampire has been found to be a reliable way to kill it, as the massive blood loss tends to immobilize the creature. At the same time, this is easier said than done, considering how fast vampires are and how hard their skin is.
There are a number of mysterious abilities that vampires have and they have a good grasp on how to use the majority of them from the moment of their death. This is because with the cursed blood of the vampire comes the instincts of a vampire, like natural aversion to sunlight and garlic, fatigue in the daytime hours, etc. Vampires can fly through the air, control animals that have close relationships to death and vermin (dogs, cats, rats, etc) with their blood, and survive in almost any environment. Furthermore, vampires gain new powers as they grow older.
A vampire’s familiar is an animal, or in some cases a human in small doses, that has ingested the blood of a vampire. There have been reports of the animal behaving with humanlike intelligence, and even the vampire emerging from its familiar’s body, but there’s no evidence to support such claims.
However they are not without their weaknesses. Sunlight leaves intense burns on a vampire’s skin and enough exposure will spell certain death. Contact with garlic creates an anaphylactic reaction in the vampire’s system, but is rarely fatal. For reasons that are currently unknown, being submerged in running water triggers a state of tonic immobility in a vampire.
Information on vampire societies is scarce. Because of the expansive nature of their territories and hunting grounds, vampires are mostly solitary predators, and conflicts between vampires are dangerous affairs. What we do know from speaking to vampires firsthand is that turning humans is a carefully documented and regulated process.
G: I always thought vampires were really cool. Two works of fiction that influenced my writing in the first place featured vampires heavily. I’m probably going to talk about which ones on the website later. As for the vampire itself, I feel like the concept has been a little over explained, which is hilarious considering I spent a couple hundred words explaining my own take on the creature. The point is, the vampire has been done so much with so little or so much variation depending on the theme of the work. In many cases vampires have become stale, the carcass has been picked clean, drained of its creativity. So why would I write a book featuring a vampire so prominently? There’s three reasons. The first is that I read an article on how to sell ebooks a long time ago and the article said I have to have keywords that people would search for in the title of the book. The book’s title was different for years, but now it’s more important than ever. I don’t think anyone is typing “Hecatomb” into their search engine..yet. As cynical as it sounds, I needed someone to actually read the book, so I picked something that I liked that was popular. The second reason is I feel like a lot of vampire media takes the vampire out of a vampire. Either they can go out in the sun, or they don’t have to drink blood, or this or that for romanticism’s sake. I wanted to make vampires monsters, but not too monstrous. At the heart of a vampire is a human shaped monster, the horror of subversion. I wanted to do a vampire story in a specific way. The third reason is I really like vampires.
Exclusive Ben & G Character Design Interview
Below is an interview between myself and Ben, the artist for the book. I just realized I kinda just jumped into questioning him but it isn’t rude because we’re friends. You can find his amazing art at @Benastrianism on IG and Twitter.
G: Did you have a favorite character you worked on or favorite aspect of the designs you did?
Ben: Definitely the more fantasy type elements like Cifra’s loadout and Maya’s powers. I could just do more with them, than with Moriko’s stuff for example.
G: it’s funny because those characters that came later were fleshed out more, I think we’d kinda gotten the hang of it all by then. Maya’s not even gonna be in this one 😂😂 cuz spoilers.
Ben: It was easier later om. LMAO keep goin, retcon this.
G: Lmao i might keep it just cuz, Rock (Cifra) does actually appear in the first book but she does not have as big a role. She’s kinda a breakout character to be honest, you really liked her and I had plans for her so she got a big ol’ stimulus package. Did you have a favorite detail that you added? I liked the colors for Jahari’s coat, originally it was gonna be more bland.
Ben: I like the idea of jahari having silver on him but we didnt even use that LMAO Vincenzo’s outfit and overcloak design was fun as hell.
G: The silver is actually in the book funny enough, and I have big ideas for it (aesthetically) but that’s like the last batch of art for the third book. It’s impact on the story was a little more subtle. I feel like Vincenzo’s was the hardest design for me as far as what he would actually wear, you did a really good job.
Ben: *backflips*
G: *throws treat*
Ben: *dodges*
G: Lightskin gets +3 to saving throw. I did like the research process which was basically just watching movies.
Ben: For you maybe 🫵🏾. I was on pinterest DIGGING.
G: I also got addicted to pinterest. There’s a bunch of stuff to come that’s already there that I’ve been tinkering with.
Ben: The boards going crazy.
G: Ballin, I put numbers on the boards. FMK which characters are you taking? The f is fremulon
Ben: FORNICATE.
G: I don’t know what that means, I am a man of science.
Ben: Cifra maya enzo
G: Tough break for the Italian. Anything else you would like to say to the adoring public?
Ben: Netflix adaptation coming soon buy da BOOK
G: Thank you for your time lol
Ben: That was insightful
