#WordWeavers 2025.10.16 — If you wanted to achieve your antagonist’s goal, how would you approach it?
[The antagonist is not a villain, except when she needs to be, of course. —RS]
Rainy Days throughout the series states she wants to prevent the extinction of the human species. The consistent long term rate of decline is about >100K per year, 240 million stated in the current wip. A lot of issues make humanity's eventual extinction seem intractable, all of which are spoilers.
The author knows that a population of pre-singularity humans exists on (spoiler), but aren't as (spoiler) as the current population. If allowed (spoiler), their culture might eventually dominate—but their genes definitely would, wiping out the epigenetics that created variants like day angels. Think of how feral dogs over tens of years end up all resembling a back-curled tailed progenitor. For humans, it might take a few centuries, but Rainy Days knows it would happen. Worse, the pre-singularity humans once in the majority would forget some of their relatives have wings and horns and would eventually end up hunting "the monsters and sorcerers."
If I approached the antagonist's goal this way, she'd likely slaughter that pre-singularity population to thwart me. Loss of the social structure and genetic diversity she fostered would be a worse type of extinction in her mind.
BTW: This question answers motivational questions for characters in a novel that did not have a firm ending. Now, thanks to this question, I know the answers. So. Thanks for proposing the question!
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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