NaNoWriMo Prep 2017

Antagonist Profile

Joanna Archibald

Joanna Archibald is thirty-six years old. She was the youngest child of four to Henry and Catherine Francis. Her father was a Pastor with the Southern Baptist Church, at least until the outbreak of S-284Z. They lived in a small rural mountain town in West Virginia, called Hamberville. Joanna was five years old when the outbreak happened and her father moved the family into a small bunker beneath their house, where they lived for three years.

During those three years, it would shape Joanna into the person she would become as an adult. Her father would read them the Bible and enforce that what was happening to the United States was because it was filled with sinners. In essence, it had become Sodom and Gomorrah. When they did finally emerge from the bunker and she got to see the world and see the Ferals, it altered the way she viewed the world.

As she grew, she focused on her prayer and appreciated her father and the Word he spread to the survivors. She never thought of her survival or those of her family as being lucky, just as an affirmation that they were good. Things began to change within their religious sect. Due to nearly three quarters of the population succumbing to the outbreak, Henry began to realize the importance to repopulating the country and making sure that the Lord's Word was spread as far as possible.

Because of this, many people married and got pregnant. Those who were already married got pregnant as well. Even Henry and his wife got pregnant. Many of the families would go on to have numerous children. Joanna's parents would have four more kids before they couldn't get pregnant. Another side affect of this new branch, Henry's children (as well as other members' children) were placed into arranged marriages at young ages simply to enforce the importance of repopulating the country. There was a very strong fear of evil and sin and the devil. The eldest child, Henry Jr., married at 18 years old. The next, Lucy, married at 16. Margaret married at 14 and then Joanna married at 12, the onset of menstruation.

Joanna felt it as an honor and a duty. She would find out she was pregnant a day before her thirteenth birthday. Her husband, Charles, who was ten years older than her, was made Deacon to the little sect. He was seen as a replacement to Henry. Many would think of it as a shock, thinking Henry Jr. would replace his father when the time would come. Instead, it came as no surprise to anyone. Many knew that Henry Jr. just didn't have the same gumption and desire to follow in his father's footsteps. They knew that Joanna did, but because of Baptist's rules, she could never become a Pastor to the Church.

The name of her father's church eventually took the name of The Knights of the Order of Christ, or The Knights for short. It grew exponentially over the years. Henry had 40 people when he walked out of that bunker and within 4 years, doubled it. By the time he died in 2118, it had grown to nearly 800 people. Besides growth from within, many came from all over the country to join their sect.

Charles would take over The Knights and Joanna would become Deacon. They had eleven children by this time and pregnant with their twelfth child. Joanna took her father's church very seriously and ran things with an iron fist. If anyone was caught sinning in any manner, they were expelled. There was no second chances and no mercy. One would be left to defend themselves against the Ferals as they would wander off to find the next settlement.

At open of the story, Charles and Joanna learn of The Hollowed Order of the Cathari, a sect devoted to the Ferals, or as the Order calls them, the Cathari or "Pure Ones". They also reveal their own secret agenda, the meshing of their beliefs with those who had done experiments in those who hadn't succumbed to the outbreak.