Dragons Sage Characters

A breakdown of the main and important characters in the Dragon Sage universe

Sophie Adanna Brady: Sophie is a 25 year old woman of African/Irish decent, a martial artist and the main character of "Dragon Sage". She is nicknamed "Irish Coffee" by her friends, but is slightly estranged from her family. But through her training, she reconnects with her family and becomes a more mature, wise and compassionate person.
Sophie is a well-built woman, muscular with the bright Irish green eyes, light black skin and very short dark hair with red tint that grows during the duration of her training.
On the outside, Sophie is active, good-nature, friendly with a bit of sarcastic sass, outgoing, a bit motherly, humorous, respectful, a bit competitive, and exuberant. But beneath the kind and friendly exterior is a brash, direct, a bit unforgiving, guarded, petulant and angry girl who refuses to look at the ugliness of her own life and hides her pain under smiles and carefreeness. This caused her to become estranged from her mother and have little interactions with her twin siblings, Killian and Karrah, outside of babysitting them after school. There is also a sense of low self-worth and hopelessness about her, as she feels that there is no point in fighting life, to give up and just "follow the current of the River of Life with everyone else".
Sophie is trained in various styles of Kung Fu and Qigong, capable of armed and unarmed combat and is skilled with swords and the bo staff. She even dabbles in Lucha style wrestling and jiu-jitsu. Her physical prowess as a 5th Degree Blackbelt is impressive, but she greatly lacks in spirituality; while she uses mediation to control her emotions and that dark part of herself, she never saw the greater benefits of meditation until she began her training with the Dragons.
As a child, the only person she could really look up to was her older brother, Darius, since her father, Liam, was overseas and didn't see much of him. When he was medically discharged and returned home, it took a while to get used to her father and they had good times together as a family with new siblings on the way. But it didn't last as her father's PTS became too much and out of fear of potentially causing harm to himself or his family he left. Sophie never understood why, but seeing the affect it had on her mother, Adiola, and no longer having a father around caused Sophie to hold a great deal of resentment towards her father, which would grow to rage later in her life. After Darius graduated high school, he started training to be a cop, being a strong role model for Sophie that she began her martial arts training at 12. But during the May Day protests, Darius was severely injured in an effort to protect the peaceful protests from anarchists and he was paralyzed from the waist down. His brave front to Sophie kept her oblivious to the growing depression inside until he committed suicide. Sophie found him first, scarring her and causing a rift between her and her mother. Darius's death also fueled her anger towards her father more, as he never returned home to help pick up the pieces and unfortunately caused her to see Darius in a negative light and develop some spite towards him. Sophie left home at 19 and settled into a good job at a retirement home.
While she is very close to her friends at work and her classes, only Vincent and her teacher, Dennis, seem to know how damaged she really is. Dennis, helping her find relief through martial arts and Vincent being her confidant. She eventually forms a strong bond with the dragon Lo and develops something of kindred spirits with Xuan Teng. As she trains and looks back on her past, she learns to reconcile with her parents and reconnect those ties, let’s go of her anger to become a wiser, patient, conscientious, compassionate, high-spirited, and hopeful again.

Liam Farrell Brady: Adiola's husband and father to Darius, Sophie, Killian and Karrah. He has strong roots to his Irish ancestry, but was a bit of a rebel, going against his family’s wishes and married a lovely black woman. He went into the military in order to support his wife and son. When Sophie was born, he was sent on numerous tours overseas, hardly seeing his family for months at a time. When Sophie was 9, he was injured in the line of duty and was medically discharged. While he did spend a few happy months at home, he was deeply haunted by the things that happened overseas; the bombs, shootings, near deaths and watching friends and enemies die in horrific ways. He suffered terrible nightmares and it affected his overall mental stability that he felt he was a risk to Adiola and the kids. He and Adiola would argue, trying to find solutions and help him get through it, but in the end, he left, and stayed with his brothers.
He hit a very low point after leaving his family that he succumbs to drugs and alcohol. His brothers intervened and got him into rehab. After a year of rehab, he spent the next few years getting his life back together and numerous times thought of reaching out to Adiola, but he never worked up the heart to do so, feeling that he left a bad taste in everyone's mouths and didn't want to stir up bad feelings he left behind. He had heard of Darius's funeral, but was still too afraid to make any connection to his family. After 10 years in solitude, sobriety and work, Sophie found and confronted him, demanding an explanation as to why he left. She punched him in the face, but allows him to explain; he was afraid of looking like a monster to her, afraid of hurting her, but in being away and staying away had caused her a great deal of pain. He apologized to her, returned home to apologize to Adiola and meet Killian and Karrah for the first time. Afterwards, Liam rebuilt his marriage and became a good father to his kids again.

Adiola Brady: Liam's wife and mother to Darius, Sophie, Killian and Karrah. She spent most of her life as a stay at home mother until she later became a successful business woman managing some very successful hotels in Washington. She is a good mother, very loving, forgiving, strong and firm woman, but suffers moments of heart break when Liam left, Darius died and Sophie leaving after she vented her anger on her mother for what happened to Darius and Liam. Adiola did her best to keep the family together and for a long time had Darius to help support the family.
After being estranged from Sophie for 6 years, Sophie came back to reconcile with Adiola and even begged her mother forgiveness. After the two reconcile, Adiola revealed that she forgave her father with the understanding of why he left but had the wish for him to come back. After Sophie brought Liam back, the two worked things out and are now living together.

Darius Garrett Brady: Sophie's older brother by 12 years, a police officer and biggest role model to his younger siblings. Also of African/Irish decent, he has light brown skin with the Irish green eyes; he is muscular and tall with his hair tight braid in his youth which he later shaved. He was always seen as caring and warm, but had to take on a lot of responsibility and mature after his father left so as to help care for his siblings. He was Selfless, encouraging, enthusiastic, dutiful,

He was often there to explain hard things to Sophie without babying her and was often stern when needed. What made him a great role model was in growing up as fast as he did, he learned to put others needs before his own, so became very selfless and giving, looking out for his colleagues; he's even been known to lend a "guiding hand" to troubled and confused teens and young adults.
However this very much changed after he was attacked during the May Day Protests; in an effort to protect peaceful protesters and innocent civilians, he and his unit engaged with hostile anarchists and he was paralyzed from the waist down. Disabled and unable to work on the street and despite the chief giving him work at the station or refer him to another position in law enforcement, Darius fell into depression. He spent his whole life supporting his family and looking out for them and being unable to that or care for himself drove him to commit suicide. The image of the kind, selfless brother Sophie knew was shattered and she was never the same since.
He still haunts Sophie to an extent, even when she meditates; she thinks he is preventing her from meditating properly when in fact it was her fear of facing that pain again that keeps her from doing so. He even comes to her metaphysically and tells her this, even apologizing for causing her such pain and anguish.
Two mementos she keeps off him are his badge and his goggles (He wore to stop three burglars using tear gas). After Sophie becomes a full-fledged Dragon Sage, she visits his grave more often.

Killian Jengo Brady & Karrah Neassa Brady: Sophie's 16 year old twin siblings, with Karrah born first by 10 minutes. Killian has a much light complexion that closest to white while Karrah's complexion is darker, both have the Irish green eyes with a hint of brown, Killian has spiky dark hair and Karrah was almost curly dark hair.
Both kids consider they are each others best friends and share similar personalities, such as being amiable, exuberant, bright, loving and jovial, there are some differences between the two. Karrah is easy going, pleasant, obsequious, optimistic, mature, and considerate while Killian is stubborn, a bit rambunctious, sarcastic, confident, and slow to mature and sensitive. But both love Sophie despite her short comings and Darius despite their short time with him. Both want to be more relevant in her life, which is why both got enrolled in Martial Arts, and they try to give her a more positive outlook on the world.
Even though the two didn't get to go to China, they both did help to send Sophie and after she came back from her training, she apologized to them both for not being a better sister, telling them both what happened to their father and Darius. Wanting the best for them, Sophie brought back Liam to meet his kids; Killian was all too happy to have a father in his life again while Karrah took a bit longer to get accustomed to having a father home again.
Some of their past times include playing Go together and training. Otherwise, Killian is into freestyle tap, dancing and skateboarding while Karrah prefers yoga and rollerblading.


Master Dennis Lloyd: Sophie's Martial Arts instructor, a Dwarf, and is a man who will drop a full sized person faster than a hat if his height is mocked in any way. He is the closest thing to a father/authority figure Sophie has, having been under his tutelage since she was 12. He wise, balanced, extremely encouraging but stern, decisive, frank, he does have his humorous moments such as when he proves his prowess to normal sized people and sitting on them. He is also strongly protective of his students and very intolerable of foul, vulgar, abusive language or action, reacting strongly and defensively; Sophie recalls a story of Dennis taking down and kicking out a drunk pervert who walked right into the school and attempt to touch a female student with inappropriate remarks. She has great respect for him, even to defend him and be restraint against people who talk down to him. The respect runs deep enough that she takes punishment from him for any transgressions she commits.
Dennis is one of the few people who know just how hurt and angry she is, having knowledge of her father and counseled her through most of her grief after Darius's death. He taught her how to channel the anger and rage while also teaching self-restraint through Martial Arts, even brought to a separate class to learn Qigong. While being a kind, concerning teaching, he is very stern and understands that Sophie needs to learn things on her own; especially one very important life lesson she does eventually learn through her training with the dragons.
Sophie received her Black Belt in 6 years and 7 more years to reach 5th degree. Dennis has her help teach class, assist in Rank tests, lets her teach Woman’s self-defense classes, and made her a lead for the schools Demo Team for national tournaments and even demonstrates to the monks in China. He has often noted that Sophie has been very inspirational to the younger students, even she never saw herself as such.

Vincent Christopher Braun: Sophie’s oldest friend (both literally at 41 years of age and figuratively for 11 years), and confidant. The two met when Vincent enrolled in Martial Arts a year after Sophie and they have been close friends and training partners since. Vincent is a big dude; muscularly toned and tall with dirty blonde hair and deep blue eyes with reminders of his father’s abuse. While he has his own complexities, he is empathetic and sympathetic towards Sophie, respectful and loyal, humorous, a healthy sense of modesty, truthful in his friend’s flaws and strengths with being condescending, and affable.

A widower and a divorced man, Vincent understands the value of his friends and does what he can for them with generosity returned to him as well. Having lost his first wife and his second unfaithful wife tried to steal from him, he knows Sophie’s pain all too well, allowing her to drop her guard and open up to him; he’s the confidant who listen to her plight or shoulder her anger when she needs to vent without the others seeing her ugly side. Even on a bad day or when Sophie is injured, Vincent has never been one to stoop so low to take advantage of her emotional or physical vulnerabilities. Sophie’s values Vincent’s advice equal to Master Dennis.

Having been training together for 11 years and is also a 5^th Degree black belt, they know and trust each other implicitly; going full force without causing actual harm. He is part of the Demo Team with Sophie, share similar taste in old movies and tea, looks after her stocks and even allows to crash at his place if she needs to. When Sophie returned from her training, he was the first to notice a change in her, emotionally and urged her to run with it to ultimately make amends with her parents.

Justine Chantal: One of Sophie’s friends who has been training with her for a long time; she was halfway to brown when she met Sophie. A 27 year old, tall, slender woman with grayish-blue eyes with long dirty blonde hair shaved on one side and tightly braided on the other and habitually colors it. Justine is described as adaptable, adventurous, optimistic, cheerful and effervescent with perseverance. Her friends often say she is so high spirited she’s in the stratosphere.

In fact, it was her positive, happy attitude that kept her from sinking into despair when an automobile accident left her paralyzed from the waist down and never to obtain her black belt. While she was bummed in the beginning, she adapted to possibilities of life in a wheel-chair like sports or even continuing with her martial arts to some extent. She works from home and is still very active.

Sophie not only sees Justine as her emotional support pillar due to her bubbly attitude, but a bit of a spiritual advisor; Justine is into alternative and natural medicine, keeping her chakras aligned with gem stones and lots of meditation. In fact, Justine sensed that Sophie was troubled and angry deep down inside, but she never pushed the matter, knowing that Sophie will ask her on her terms. When Sophie returned home before she finished her training with the Dragons, she sought Justine’s help to try and align her remaining chakra’s without dealing with them emotionally. When it didn’t work, Justine offered to be there to help her clear them, but agreed to step back since she understood that it’s something Sophie had to do herself.

It has been often debated amongst the group of sexual orientation; though Justine just avoids the answer by saying she loves everyone. She is however a very staunch supporter of the LGBT community and frequents rallies, events, and bars. It is later revealed during Sophie’s spiritual exercises that she is introduced to Justine’s wife.

 

Takoda Shizuka: A 21 young man of Japanese/Native American decent, Sophie’s youngest friend with a natural talent of martial arts. Tanned skin with dark eyes, slender build with long black hair tied back in a ponytail. Takoda is very quiet, reserved kid who can be charming and sweet, but very diligent in his study. Being the youngest in the group, he is often on the receiving end of everyone’s jokes, but the they also look out for him, especially Justine, who always ensures he eats right, sleeps well and meditates regularly.

Takoda first met Sophie 5 years prior to the China Trip, hoping Martial Arts would help overcome his shyness and make new friends. Both he accomplished and now in film, wanting to be a director someday. He teams up with his friends and films the demo team or makes short live action films from video games of shows. He attends the China Trip and films the venture for a film festival and even bits for music videos.

When Sophie does become a full-fledged Sage, she expresses a desire to chronicle her adventures on film, something Sophie would think about

Terry Friedle: A 25 year old young man who is liked as much as he is criticized for his rude behavior. He’s noted to be a bit conceited, facetious, arrogant and a bit of a playboy. But makes up his flaws with his dependability and reliability, as he gets a task done when the incentive is good; whether it’s getting props or cameras for Takoda, tickets to movies, shows or conventions that otherwise hard to get, or some hard to get candies. He is average built kid with a hint of Scottish accent in his voice, brown eyes, spiky brown hair that is tied into a short pony tail and numerous tattoos all over his body. He trains in Shaolin style Kung fu, but also trains in Lucha style wrestling with Sophie.

 While he may not have much from Sophie, he has a bit in common with her in terms of hobby’s and likes: they both enjoy watching Lucha Libre, train together, have an affinity for older black & movies, hate tween movies that ruin their favorite genres (Like horror and fantasy), both work in the same retirement building and are FWB. Terry is also quite gregarious, probably explains his connections and the strings he pulls to get things for his friends; like the folks that watch Lucha Underground with him and Sophie.

Terry is actually one who helped majorly in paying for Sophie’s ticket for the China trip; He sold his blood and stem cells for the money. Sophie most of all was shocked but grateful of his selfless act. Later, when Sophie returned home and Terry heard of Sophie’s transformation, he wanted to become a Sage too. But sadly he didn’t have, as Sophie put it, “The Stuff” to be a Dragon Sage.

 

Ilain Blasko: Known as the “Friend-Mom”, Ilain Blasko is the Sous Chef at the retirement building both Terry and Sophie work in; Terry in the kitchen and Sophie in the dining room. Candid, Attentive and diligent, she has mastered the art of keeping her social and work life separate; in the work place, she can be bossy, but also motivates and looks out for the cooks and even the dining staff. She meticulous in her work, making everything as consistent as possible; but she also a very proud woman, often butting heads with the Executive Chef (Whom she calls a self-worshiping, narcissistic, sociopathic jack-a*s) and refuses to take crap from him. Outside the work place, she tends to be very motherly and has no problems being very vocal about it; like correcting grammar and speech, making sure one eats right, doesn’t text and drive or that there is designated driver. Ilian is 32 years who looks more like she in her 40’s, and is on/off with Martial Arts. She is a stout woman with some build to her. Shoulder length black hair always tied back in a tight bun, bright brown eyes with a blue tint and pale aged complexion.

Being a very busy Sous Chef, she attends class a few times a month. The times she does socialize with the group is after work and days off. She objected quite vigorously to Sophie returning to China to train with the monks some more (dragons were a secret), feeling Sophie could lose her career. But Sophie left anyway, feeling that work in a retirement building was ample “Career ground”. When She returned, Ilain first scolded her, then expressed her worry since Sophie lost touch with them, and then eagerness to have her back at with her. But when she noticed that Sophie wasn’t happy, Ilain asked her what she could do for her. At first Sophie didn’t know; afterwards after becoming a full-fledged sage, Sophie just asked for Ilain to keep being herself: motherly, proud, candid self.


Lo: A 400 year old Dragon who befriends Sophie when she arrives to train as a Sage. He has always been labeled of the “Odd Duck” amongst dragons and even receives a bit of animosity from Xuan Teng. However, unlike all the other dragons, he has no memories of his past.

Lo reminds Sophie of Vincent in that he is also affable, loyal and amiable. Lo is very sincere but never speaks poorly of others, is very formal and projects a sense of innocence as he has never been outside the caves. He is the one who first bonds with Sophie and “chipped” down her emotional defenses to find the source of her anger. At the same time, having spent all his life in the caves, he was nervous of defying the other dragons to see the outside world; but his fascination with Sophie allowed him to venture out and get a glimpse of her world. As a result of this and his strong friendship with her that he has since grown bolder and courageous, standing up to dragons like Xuan Teng.

Lo is blueish-green with a dark blue hue on his scales with soft green colored underbelly. His eyes are light brown with flecks of green and he has two horns with a slight hook near the top. His tail slight resembled a blades mace, allowing him to deal heavy damage as well as produce powerful gust of wind. He also has no hind legs, so he holds himself up on his forelegs and almost slithers around. As a result, Lo is powerful constrictor with the traditional ability to breathe fire.

While Lo has no recollection of his past, he does recalls the story of the last outsider to be trained as a sage named Flynn Lockwood about 300-400 years ago; an English man who got lost in the wilderness and in his training and it is said that he never truly found himself. While Sophie has spent her life running from her past, Lo has been searching for and the two manage to help each other; Sophie facing the pain in order to open and clear her chakras and Lo understanding the link between the man in the story and himself.

 

Xuan Teng: A dragon that was born in the mist of the ancient wars that nearly drove the dragons to extinction and has a great intolerance for humans, even the monks who safeguard them. Xuan Teng has so deeply wounded and scarred by the war that it in a sense mirrors Sophie’s own pain; she sees in Xuan Teng what she could become if she allowed her own anger to consume her. That understanding in the pain of loss makes Sophie and Xuan Teng something of kindred spirits and has allowed them to go bitter enemies to allies.

Xuan Teng is a loner; his anger, hate, and petulance keeps him isolated from the other dragons. Fierce and domineering, disparaging of Sophie and obstinate, never believing that someone like her could ever become a Sage. However he is not entirely without refined moments. He curves his ferocity in the presence of the older, wiser dragons, addressing them formally and backs off when told. But his animosity towards Sophie drove him to defy the elders, destroy the monastery above their cave and run a destructive rampage in nearby cities and villages. It took all of Sophie’s being to bear the full brunt of his rage and show him compassion and empathy that he finally let it all go. Afterwards, Xuan Teng becomes her companion alongside Lo, protective, thoughtful, selfless, and reliable friend.

Xuan Teng is a dark gray, almost black colored dragon with hues of red and yellow on his scales and light gray underbelly. There are numerous scars on his body and is missing a few scales. His eyes are very bright blue with flecks of green, two curved horns with 4 long spikes along the cheeks with spikes down his spine, covering his tail. Xuan Teng can breathe fire and scalding hot water; he can even thin the jet to cut through boulders and whole buildings. He is one of the few dragons with what Sophie calls a “Sonic Roar”, a roar so concussive and powerful, it can send people and tanks flying back several feel, shatter glass and cause hearing loss and internal damage.

 

Longwei: The Dragon Elder and the oldest surviving dragon and the one who saw the potential in Sophie to become a Dragon Sage. Wise in his long years, warm and gentle, very hospitable and ever faithful of a future where Dragons and Humans live together again. He is the one dragon Xuan Teng obeys unconditionally and respectfully; he is calm, fair, and patient.

In his advanced years, his blue scales have turned white with a pale-blue hue. He is also partially blind with pale dark blue eyes. He has four horns with two spines on each side of his narrow face. Longwei, in his prime, was a powerful dragon; breathing streams of multi-colored fire, produce hurricane-like gusts of wind and turn rivers into raging tsunamis. In his later years in seclusion with the others, long years of meditation, he has internalized his abilities; he is able to read ones soul and chi, see their memories and show his own memories, and pass some of his own chi to others. He passes the ability of memory sight to Sophie before she returns home, supposedly giving up; this ability comes into play to help Lo recover his own lost memories and to see the Xuan Teng’s memories to find the source of his pain. Longwei later gives her the ability to read souls and chi in order to find suitable candidates to train.

When Sophie was first brought to Longwei, she was initially intimidated by his energy and sense of insight. He saw there was a great deal of pain and anger within her, something even she believed wouldn’t make her worthy of being a Sage. But he also saw happiness and empathy buried underneath that just needed a little help to come out. He explains to her the original purpose of the Sages and what her training would bring. After she achieves the first stage and survives a brawl with Xuan Teng, Longwei shares with her the origins of the Sages, how dragons live long peaceful years with humans until the Europeans came over, the wars they brought with famine and death in its wake and the ultimate decision to erase the existence of Dragons completely.

Longwei never lost faith in Sophie, even when she continued to doubt herself, because in her he saw hope of Dragons one day being in the sun again and living amongst humans. He dreamed of one day an outsider becoming a Sage and leading both humans and dragons to peace, even if he doesn’t live to see that day come. Because of this, Sophie has grown to have infinite respect for Longwei.

Author's Note

Let me know what you think of these characters. Expect more details soon.