CHARACTER BIBLE for Chicago Wars. The AI is not great at making characters. But it helps...

 

John, here is a full, rich, story‑ready CHARACTER BIBLE for your novel — integrating the new worldbuilding you just added: the three oligarch‑built “citizen shelters,” the betrayal, the Chicago sanctuary, the underground circular complexes, the slave revolts, and Maya’s deep personal history with the city.

This bible gives you major characters, secondary characters, factions, and the emotional engines that drive them. It’s built to support your 24‑chapter structure and the final showdown underground.

I’ll keep everything grounded, morally complex, and non‑graphic — exactly your style.

📘 CHARACTER BIBLE — THE QUIET REBELLION

I. MAYA TORRES — PROTAGONIST

Role

Former Army intelligence officer
South Side Chicago alderman
Single mother of three
Reluctant leader of the Chicago Sanctuary Defense

Age

Mid‑30s

Family

• Oldest child (10–12): perceptive, anxious, protective of siblings
• Middle child (6–8): curious, asks dangerous questions
• Toddler (2–3): Maya’s emotional anchor, the reason she keeps going

Background

Maya grew up in Chicago’s South Side, raised by a mother who worked two jobs and a father who drifted in and out of the picture. She learned early how to read people, how to de‑escalate conflict, and how to survive in a city that never stops moving.

She joined the Army to escape poverty, served in intelligence, and returned home determined to make her neighborhood safer. As alderman, she forced police, gang leaders, pastors, and community groups into the same rooms — sometimes literally locking the doors until they talked.

Personality

• Direct, unpretentious, impossible to intimidate
• Exhausted but relentless
• Pragmatic, not idealistic
• Deeply protective of children — all children
• Carries trauma quietly
• Trusts slowly, forgives rarely

Skills

• Tactical planning
• Reading body language
• Negotiating with dangerous people
• Understanding gang hierarchy
• Community organizing
• Guerrilla strategy

Flaws

• Overextends herself
• Struggles to ask for help
• Holds grudges
• Sometimes sees people as assets, not humans
• Fear of losing her children drives her to take risks

Arc

Maya begins as a survivor trying to protect her kids.
She becomes a leader trying to protect a city.
She ends as a revolutionary trying to protect the future.

Her final act — destroying the Koch underground city — is not vengeance.
It’s prevention.

She refuses to let her children inherit a world built on cruelty.

II. GOVERNOR RICHTER — THE ARCHITECT OF THE SANCTUARY

Role

Governor of Illinois
Co‑creator of the Chicago Underground Sanctuary

Personality

• Calm, analytical, quietly furious at federal collapse
• Believes in civic duty over politics
• Willing to break laws to save lives

Arc

He and Mayor Johnson secretly built the underground megashelter years before the collapse, anticipating climate migration. He becomes Maya’s political ally, giving her legitimacy and resources.

III. MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON — THE CITY’S SHIELD

Role

Mayor of Chicago
Co‑architect of the Sanctuary Project

Personality

• Idealistic but hardened by crisis
• Deeply loyal to the city
• Understands the gangs better than most politicians

Arc

He refuses to let Black Rock enter Chicago.
He supports Maya’s coalition even when it risks civil war.

IV. THE GANG FACTIONS

These are not monolithic. They are ecosystems.

1. Third‑Generation Members

Profile

• Born into the gang
• Smart, strategic, trapped by family loyalty
• Many could be in college if not for inherited street roles

Arc

They join Maya because they see the oligarchs as a threat to their families. They become her most reliable — and most morally complicated — allies.

2. Mid‑Level Enforcers

Profile

• Crew leaders
• Dangerous, numb, unpredictable
• Can flip from calm to sociopathic in a heartbeat

Arc

They respect Maya because she doesn’t flinch.
They follow her because she gives them purpose.

3. Teenagers

Profile

• 14–17
• Scared, impulsive, trying to act hard
• Raised under drones and propaganda

Arc

They become the emotional heart of the rebellion.
Maya sees her own kids in them.

4. Shot‑Callers

Profile

• Older, political, calculating
• Understand the stakes
• Know the oligarchs will wipe them out eventually

Arc

They keep the younger factions in line — barely.

V. THE BIKER CREWS

Profile

• Nomadic, heavily armed
• Veterans, truckers, mechanics
• Fiercely independent
• Control the highways

Arc

They join Maya because the oligarchs’ private cities threaten their freedom. They become the rebellion’s mobility and supply chain.

VI. THE FRACTURED POLICE

Profile

• Most left for private armies
• The ones who remain are old, principled, or too rooted to leave
• Distrust the gangs but trust Maya

Arc

They become the backbone of the sanctuary’s internal security.

VII. THE OLIGARCHS

Role

Old‑money dynasties building three massive underground “citizen shelters” across the country — supposedly to protect civilians, actually to control them.

Personality

• Detached
• Entitled
• Obsessed with legacy
• See themselves as the rightful rulers of the future

Arc

They betray the public shelters, sealing them off and using them as labor pools. They retreat to their own private underground cities — circular complexes built around massive vertical shafts for transport.

Their downfall begins when they open the doors to bring in “family and friends,” accidentally triggering slave revolts.

VIII. THE KOCH PRIVATE ARMY

Role

The last surviving oligarch army
Roaming marauders
Kidnapping refugees
Attacking convoys

Arc

They become the final threat to the Chicago Sanctuary.
Maya destroys their underground city to prevent their ideology from surviving.

IX. THE REFUGEES

Profile

• From drowned coasts
• From scorched southern states
• From abandoned federal zones

Arc

They become the population of the Chicago Sanctuary — the future Maya is fighting for.

X. THE SANCTUARY ENGINEERS

Role

Designers of the underground megashelter
Operators of the self‑replicating construction machines

Arc

They become Maya’s technical advisors, helping her understand the oligarchs’ underground complexes — and how to destroy them.

XI. THE UNDERGROUND COMPLEXES

Design

• Massive vertical shafts drilled deep into the earth
• Circular apartment rings built around the shaft
• Central lift systems for moving goods
• Fenced‑off central void
• Self‑replicating machines expanding the structure

Symbolism

The oligarchs build downward, not upward.
They are burying themselves — and Maya finishes the job.

If you want, I can now build:

1. A full character arc map for Maya

2. Character sheets for key gang members

3. A detailed blueprint of the underground sanctuary

4. A blueprint of the oligarchs’ circular underground city

5. A scene where Maya first learns the oligarch shelters are a trap

Just tell me which direction you want to go, John.