Raziel Graves

Overview

Raziel is the hotshot rookie, fresh out of ranger school. He’s still early in his career, but he’s considered to be top of his class in every way, and CENTCOM assigns him to Adam’s squad so that he can learn from the best. In many ways, he’s being groomed as Adam’s successor.

Raziel is sarcastic, funny and impulsive. He’s a perfectionist who wants to be the best at everything. Fights, school, meditation, cleaning, debate, humor, grooming, archery, chess. Everything. On the flipside, he can be quite arrogant and annoying, as young hotshots can be, and he often finds himself butting heads with Adam and the other members of the crew.

Raziel loves guns, cars, motorcycles, extreme sports and other cool things. When he’s not on duty he can usually be found dirt biking around Europe.

Origin

Raziel comes from an aristocratic family in Europe on Earth. Indian-European, he spends a lot of his time in places like Monaco, Paris, London and Spain, playgrounds for the aristocrats on Earth.

Part of the reason he’s so perfectionistic is because military service is considered to be beneath his station, and as the only son of a well established family, unless he becomes the best in his chosen field, he’s betraying the expectations of his family. As a result, he’s very driven to prove himself.

Raziel’s Playlist

  1. Novitec McLaren 765LT Spider, is it better than a Ferrari SF90?! / The Supercar Diaries
  2. GunfightersINC 1 Mag Review | Nighthawk Korth Custom .44 Mag
  3. Valleys Xtreme 2023 | No Help Zone | Highlights
  4. 04 Kendo Basics I – Seiza and Mokuso (meditation)
  5. Dream Jump – Dubai 4K
  6. Top 10 GREATEST Motorcycles Ever Made

Favorite Foods

In Draconis, the crew rotates cooking duties. As with everything else, Raziel strives to be the best. His taste is fine dining Indian-French fusion.

  • Gunpowder Dosas
  • Beurre Blanc Onion Bhajees
  • Paniyaram
  • Idli Chutney Chicken Cordon Bleu
  • French Onion Soup
  • Chicken Fricassee
  • Crepes Palak Paneer
  • Uttappam

Author’s Note

Raziel, more than anyone else, went through a lot of evolution. I knew I wanted the ‘hotshot rookie’, but I couldn’t get a good bead on what I wanted his personality to be like until I was actually writing scenes and Raziel’s voice emerged as this person who was able to look at Adam, this legendary, highly decorated, super experienced veteran soldier and have either the confidence or the arrogance to be like “Dude, I don’t think you know what you’re doing.”

Then everything came together and Raziel emerged as this sort of combination of Raphael from the Ninja Turtles and Damian Wayne, with obviously a lot of this sort of rich kid Dubai world traveler playboy thing mixed in. Another big influence is a comedian named Akaash Singh who, personality-wise, very Raziel.

I also knew I wanted an Indian guy to round out sort of the very international (interplanetary!) nature of the crew, and I knew I wanted a guy who was not some token stereotype, but was an individual who was Raziel Graves not some Indian guy. And some of the idea for Raziel’s adrenaline junkie personality came from this idea that, ok, in America the Indian stereotype is often this doctor, engineer, scientist thing, but in India they have all these crazy Bollywood action movies, so why isn’t there a guy like that over here?

So he does have this Bollywood action movie thing in his personality, you can kind of picture him growing up watching those movies and absorbing them into his personality, which explains a little why he wanted to grow up to be almost like an action movie star in real life.

Some other big influences for Raziel were Armie Hammer’s character from The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Pete Davidson in terms of his sense of humor, young Ocelot from Metal Gear Solid 3, Frenchie from The Boys and Jay Shetty (in terms of just being a super handsome Indian dude).