Adam Ikari-Wright

Overview

Major Adam Ikari-Wright is an EDF Special Forces legend and is the main protagonist of Draconis, as well as the leader of the crew. Adam is a veteran of multiple wars and incursions. He’s the best of the best and he was tapped specifically by Special Forces operational command to neutralize the growing threat of Crowley’s cult, Lea Monde.

Adam is a kind man with a deep spirit, a heavy sense of honor and a commitment to duty and respect for those around him. Though over his many years he’s adopted some jadedness and cynicism, at his core he is a person who always tries to do the right thing when possible. He’s a lot of things. He’s leader, he’s a quiet guy, a smart guy, a fair guy, and a guy who takes responsibility seriously.

Like anyone, he’s flawed, and one of his flaws is that he tends to hold things in. He doesn’t want to burden his team with his problems or his hang-ups or his fears, so he keeps those things to himself, and as a result he’s closed off and even his closest friends often feel shut out.

Origin

Adam hails from the moons around Saturn and Jupiter. In that region, there are several moon colonies and space stations that rely mostly on farming and mining. It’s a sparsely populated region with a small-town feel.

While Adam moved around the Saturn and Jupiter colonies growing up, as an adult he settled down on Titan before joining the military.

Adam’s Playlist

  1. Backyard Aquaponics Farming Fresh Fish and Vegetables | PARAGRAPHIC
  2. SURVIVAL GARDEN EMERGENCY‼️✌🏽PLANT NOW EAT LATER‼️Motivational
  3. How to Grow Kratky Hydroponic Tomatoes
  4. How to Cultivate Cordyceps Militaris Mushrooms | With William Padilla-Brown | Grow in Jars or Bins
  5. 10 Wild Edible Greens to Harvest- Foraging Plants
  6. Garlic Harvesting with My Son (round 3)

Favorite Foods

In Draconis, the crew rotates cooking duties. Adam’s taste is a mixture of Caribbean, New York City street food and backyard barbecue.

  • Red Beans and Rice
  • Sausage and Peppers
  • Blackened Chicken
  • Philly Cheesesteaks
  • Oxtail Stew
  • Fruit Salad
  • Reuben Sandwiches
  • Jambalaya
  • Lobster Rolls

Author’s Note

Adam, like most characters, went through a lot of evolution during the writing process. I first envisioned him as Donald Glover’s character from Atlanta, this sort of jaded, detached guy, in the role Snake from Metal Gear Solid. I pictured him as a guy who listened to a lot of Bad Brains. He’s based somewhat on this real world sniper named Nicholas Irving I found when I was researching. There’s a little bit of Bishop from X-Men in there.

I think there’s still a lot of that in the baseline, but as I developed the plot and his dynamics with other characters, I wanted him to be a character who embodied the archetype of a Knight, an honorable soldier, whatever the futuristic version of that concept would be. Not just because that’s cool, but also as a foil to Crowley who is this very high-minded chess player type of person, as compared to Adam who is all about doing right by the people around him.

As I was writing, I found that I sort of kept drawing these comparisons in my mind to Lenny Kravitz, and so there’s a little bit of that ‘what if Lenny Kravitz was a special forces agent’ idea in there, not just in terms of looks, but also in terms of personality, because Adam is just a cool dude overall.

When I really felt like I was on the right track with this character is when I watched a youtube video about black characters in sci-fi, and they were talking about Laurence Fishburne and how he wanted to be the main character of a big sci-fi franchise like Star Wars, and I felt like, ok, I’m delivering the role he wanted but never got, and so I liked that.

When I watched that video, and that was after I’d already completed most of the book, I felt validated like, okay, this is someone people like Laurence Fishburne or Samuel L. Jackson or people I’ve known in these comiccon communities and fandoms I’ve been in and out of most of my life would appreciate.

I didn’t want him to be a statement on race, the book’s not really about that, especially since the book’s far in the future and race just isn’t a huge topic in the world of the book anymore. Instead, I wanted him to be what he is: a cool dude in a kickass thing.