William Briggs

William Briggs is originally from the planet of Yewess.  Looking up to his uncle - Percy Gehel - Briggs decided to make a career for himself in the military.  Because of his family ties, Briggs moved quickly up the ranks.  The only other officer to move up the ranks as quickly was Thomas Shallowhorne - and this irked Briggs to no end.  To add to the tension was the fact that both men fell in love with the same woman.  But the final straw for Briggs occured at Twin Buttes on the planet Endía.  There, Shallowhorne disobeyed a direct order from Colonel Percy Gehel which resulted in Shallowhorne killing the colonel.  Briggs would have shot Shallowhorne, were it not for the fact that Shallowhorne's entire regiment defected along with him and saved him that day.  William Briggs determined from then on that he was going to avenge the death of his uncle.

When I was coming up with a nemesis for Shallowhorne, I wanted him to be someone that the reading audience would not feel sympathy for.  I decided to take the qualities that I least liked in people and wrap them up into one neat package in this character.  At the same time, I didn't want to fall into the trap of the "ugly" villian, so I made him to be kind of self-absorbed with his appearance, which manifests itself in little quirky habits he has.  As far as his name is concerned, it came to me when I was standing at a urinal; it was a Briggs brand urinal.