One of the most exciting things about working on Blackwell has been creating new and interesting characters to populate Hideo’s world. For my next few blogs, I’ll be introducing these characters and sharing some of Jessica’s concept sketches, which will eventually make their way to our character page as well. Today, I’d like to introduce the main villain of Blackwell: Colonel Tiernan.
All soldiers have scars... some more than others.
If you know about Hideo’s world (check out the about page if you don’t!) then you know that a decades-long conflict between Hideo’s home nation Meridian and the Outlands has finally ended. This begs the question: what has become of the heroes of that war? In large part, Blackwell is about the personal fallout some of Meridian’s war heroes have endured in the years following the armistice. Colonel Tiernan served in the war as well… as a scientist working for Outlands Special Forces.
Tiernan engaged in brutal experiments on prisoners of war, developing deadly chemicals with which to enhance Outlands military hardware. His superiors were happy with the results and knew better than to ask questions about his methods. Despite the injuries he and his scientists sustained working with unstable chemicals, Tiernan remained steadfast in his commitment to winning the war.
Tiernan was infamously contemptuous toward the Outlands government; he commonly declared his allegiance was to his countrymen rather than the cowardly bureaucrats who tried to control them. Ultimately, Tiernan’s disdain for his government contributed to his undoing.
Immediately following the war, when proof of his experiments came to light, Tiernan’s government had no qualms about handing him over to Meridian for the sake of peace. He was promptly extradited and found guilty of war crimes in the Armistice Tribunal. Nothing if not resourceful, Tiernan escaped captivity before his sentence could be carried out.
Despite being a fugitive, Tiernan went into business for himself, using his military connections to smuggle weapons from the Outlands for sale in Meridian’s black market. But now, someone has hired Tiernan—someone with enough coin to buy him a way back home—and wants Tiernan to oversee the destruction of Blackwell. If returning to his family means burning Blackwell to the ground… well, Tiernan’s okay with that. The question is whether anyone can stop him.
There’s still more to come—I wonder which I should write about next time…
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