The characters

Here’s a quick look at the key players in The Rephaim series, in their own words.

(I was also asked by The Starry-Eyed Revue back in 2014 how I visualise these characters in a guest post)

Rafa

Age: 139 years
Based: Pretty much anywhere with a bed.
Favourite food: Lamb shanks
Favourite weapon: Katana
Favourite place: Patmos
Best friend: Jude
Favourite way to relax: Use your imagination. I’m also partial to beer.
Earliest memory: Sneaking into the armory and trying to lift Nathaniel’s broadsword. It was taller than me and I knocked a bucket off the bench. Nathaniel caught me dragging the blade around the room. He made me stay in the armory until I could grip it and swing it properly. He thought it was punishment.

Gaby

Age: 19 (or 139, if we’re being pedantic)
Based: Pandanus Beach, Australia
Favourite food: I eat just about anything, but I especially love an authentic Thai green chicken curry.
Favourite weapon: It turns out I have some skill with a katana.
Favourite place: Pandanus Beach. At least my memories there are real.
Best friend: Maggie
Favourite way to relax: Jogging. Hanging out at Rick’s Bar.
Earliest memory: They’re all pretty vague…

Mick Butler

Age: 23
Based: Pan Beach
Favourite food: Steak, eggs and chips at the Imperial
Favourite weapon: Sawn-off shot gun
Favourite place: Campsite on the mountain
Best friend: Joffa
Favourite way to relax: Shootin’ shit.
Earliest memory: Stealing beer from the old man’s esky then copping a hiding for it.

Maggie

Age: 19
Based: Pan Beach
Favourite food: Too close to call:  cured kingfish or pan-fried scallops.
Favourite weapon: Clearly this question is not for me.
Favourite place: Melbourne. Paris (I haven’t been there yet, but I know I’d love it.)
Best friend: Gaby
Favourite way to relax: Knitting and sewing; yoga; jogging; happy hour at Rick’s.
Earliest memory: Being on the beach with my dad, trying to out run the wash of the waves. He was laughing and he put me on his shoulders. I remember thinking he was the strongest man in the world.

Ez

Age: 139
Based: No fixed address (but we’re often in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)
Favourite food: Fried Jewish artichokes
Favourite weapon: Long knives, katana
Favourite place: The Pantheon in Rome when everyone has gone. Especially if it’s raining
Best friend: Zak
Favourite way to relax: Sharing a meal with friends.
Earliest memory: Finding a perfect white feather on my windowsill. I was four or five. I thought an archangel had come to see us in our sleep. Years later I realised it was probably Nathaniel’s. I kept it until we left the Sanctuary.

Zak

Age: 139
Based: No fixed address
Favourite food: Souvlaki
Favourite weapon: Katana, fists
Favourite place: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Best friend: Ez
Favourite way to relax: Any beach where Ez is in a bikini.
Earliest memory: Watching Brother Alberto’s hound whelp pups in the kitchen. She delivered them in front of the pantry. Very messy, but I made myself watch. He let me name them.

Jason

Age: 139
Based:  An apartment in New York. It’s empty a lot.
Favourite food: Home-cooked ravioli
Favourite weapon: I hate violence.
Favourite place: Tibet.
Best friend: I haven’t been close to anyone long enough to have one.
Favourite way to relax: Listening to acoustic guitar.
Earliest memory: Finding my mother crying at the foot of an angel statue in our village. I thought it was piety. A few years later I fell out of a sycamore tree unscathed and found out the truth.

Simon

Age: 19
Based: Pan Beach, born and bred
Favourite food: Tapas
Favourite weapon: Ignorance
Favourite place: Anywhere there’s no Rephaim, or demons, or snarling hell-beasts.
Best friend: Tommo
Favourite way to relax: Putting the bike through its paces up the mountain.
Earliest memory: Pulling Maggie’s hair in kindergarten. She cried so I let her hit me. We’ve been mates ever since.

Daniel

Age: 139
Based: The Sanctuary
Favourite food: Risotto with shaved parmesan and truffle oil
Favourite weapon: Katana
Favourite place: Bordeaux, France
Best friend: That’s a somewhat juvenile term, but to answer, I have great respect for Uriel.
Favourite way to relax: Reading
Earliest memory: My strongest memory is watching the monks painstakingly copy a page from the Codex Vaticanus. They were working from papyrus that had survived from the fourth century. I wanted to touch it. I didn’t.

Mya

Age: 139
Based: All over
Favourite food: Grilled cheese sandwich from Grahamwich, Chicago
Favourite weapon: .45 automatic. I don’t know why we don’t use firearms. They might not kill a demon but they definitely slow them down.
Favourite place: Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon
Best friend: Ez
Favourite way to relax: Clubbing.
Earliest memory: Nothing I want to reminisce about.

Jones

Age: 139
Based: Wherever the fight is.
Favourite food: Paella
Favourite weapon: Nun chucks are fun but not always practical, so I usually go with the katana.
Favourite place: Thailand
Best friend: In the old days it was Daisy. Rafa was always good value before Jude disappeared. These days I spend most time with Mya.
Favourite way to relax: Tai chi
Earliest memory: Swinging on a rope from one of the pines outside the Sanctuary. Made me wish I had wings. Shifting is fine, but I’d love to really fly.

Taya

Age: 139
Based: The Sanctuary
Favourite food: Beef vindaloo
Favourite weapon: Katana
Favourite place: Haven’t thought about it. I don’t mind Canada – love watching professional ice hockey
Best friend: Malachi
Favourite way to relax: Training
Earliest memory: Punching a boy in the village for trying to take the bread I was carrying for the brothers.

Malachi

Age: 139
Based: The Sanctuary
Favourite food: Veal parmigiana
Favourite weapon: Poleaxe – but the katana is more practical
Favourite place: Banff, Canada, in ski season
Best friend: Taya
Favourite way to relax: Skiing
Earliest memory: First snow fight. It was against Jude and Rafa in the main piazza. I lost.

Daisy

Age: 139
Based: The Sanctuary
Favourite food: Saltimbocca
Favourite weapon: Twin-bladed sais
Favourite place: The Dead Sea, floating with my face to the sky.
Best friend: Jones, before he followed Mya out the door with the rest of them. Then Gabe, before she disappeared.
Favourite way to relax: Painting. I suck, but it calms me.
Earliest memory: Wandering off in the forest on my own. I climbed a huge pine tree to try and find the Sanctuary and got stuck. It was freezing. Nathaniel found me about an hour later with ice in my hair. He completely freaked out.

Micah

Age: 139
Based: The Sanctuary
Favourite food: Jam donuts
Favourite weapon: Katana
Favourite place: San Francisco
Best friend: Gabe
Favourite way to relax: Playing guitar.
Earliest memory: I found a bowl of melted chocolate in the kitchen and ate about half of it before Brother Alberto caught me. He said my gluttony would be its own punishment. It was: I had shocking stomach pains and then threw up on myself in front of Rafa and Jude. They thought it was hilarious.

Jude

Age: 19
Based: Backpacker hostels
Favourite food: Fresh crab and a cold Corona
Favourite weapon: Channel Islands Flyer shortboard
Favourite place: Bell’s Beach, Australia
Best friend: Probably Gaby, given the amount of time we spend together travelling.
Favourite way to relax: Surfing.
Earliest memory: Racing down a hill in a homemade go-kart with Gaby behind me. She had the helmet. We stacked it at the bottom and both ended up bleeding and sore. We dusted ourselves off, hauled that thing back up the hill and did it all over again.

45 Comments

  1. Darcy Thomas says:

    Hello !! I’m currently re-reading the series and I was just wondering – were Jude and Daisy ever in a relationship ?

    1. Paula Weston says:

      Hi Darcy,
      In my mind, they were always great friends, but never in an intimate relationship.
      Thanks for the question! 🙂
      Paula

    2. Stephanie says:

      Hello! I’m still missing this series, three years on!

      Any more thoughts on whether there may be a 5th book in the series?

      Many thanks!

      1. Paula Weston says:

        Hi Stephanie,

        Thanks for stopping by! No news yet on a fifth book, but I still daydream about those characters so it’s still a possibility at some point! (I’m working on something else at the moment, and having fun with it. Long way to go though…) Thanks for reading the series. So glad you enjoyed it so much.

  2. Hey Paula,

    Just really want to know… would you write a another book like book 5 of the rephaim series? please i love to hear more of your amazing and most interesting books i ever read. One more question are any of the charactors real?
    -Kyra Knapaysweet

    1. paulaweston says:

      Hi Kyra,

      Thanks for your message.

      I only ever intended to write those four books, and leave the ‘what happens next’ part for readers to imagine.

      But I do love the Rephaim characters – and there are still stories to tell – so I may return to them one day. I don’t have any immediate plans though, as I have other stories in the works (and a brand new book out this August called the Undercurrent).

      As for whether or not the characters are real…they’re not based on real people per se, just creations of my imagination. But they feel real enough to me. 🙂

      Thanks again for taking the time to leave a comment.

      Paula

  3. iz says:

    I wonder the rephaim’s first language. I know they use to live in Sanctuary, Italy but the book written in English ( obviously) and characters are from different places. Ps: I love this series a lot. Believe me it changed my life and helped me to have a piece of mind while I was having some trouble with work issues. Btw I live in Turkey and I really want to meet you one day. If you come to Turkey, I promise I’ll bring you Turkish Delight (’cause I think Gabe is not the only one who loves it lol) ily ♥

    1. paulaweston says:

      Hi Iz 🙂
      What a brilliant question! Here’s what I think:
      Nathaniel, naturally, speaks the language of the Garrison and, given he raised the Rephaim, he would have taught them some some basics (bearing in mind they’re unable to communicate without words the way the Fallen do in Burn). This would’ve been the only language they ‘learned’ as they were born with the inherent gift of understanding all languages. But yes, it’s a good question as to which is their ‘first’. I think it would have originally been Italian because they were raised in an Italian monastery surrounded by Italian-speaking monks. But then, as they spent more time in the world, they moved to using English given it’s widely spoken in many countries. Of course, when they speak to each other in the books it could be any number of languages, you just happen to be reading it in one you understand. (That’s a cheat’s answer, I know!)
      And yes, Gabe is not the only one who loves Turkish Delight. Turkey is definitely high on my list of places I want to visit, so I’ll let you know when I’m coming. 🙂 Glad the series helped you when you needed a distraction.
      Thanks again for the question.
      Paula

  4. Sierra says:

    I’m waiting for my copies of burned to get here. Since I’m in america and it doesn’t come out till June 7th. I love the series so far, But my question is.. What are all of their last names. I can’t remember if any were given. But I’d really like to know.

    1. paulaweston says:

      Hi Sierra,
      In their lives at the Sanctuary (and as Outcasts), the Rephaim raised by Nathaniel never needed surnames – so they don’t have them. Gaby’s ‘human’ surname is Winters. (Which was the name given to her as part of her false memories.)
      Hope that helps!
      Paula

  5. İrem says:

    Actually, this is my second comment in this platform because I thought a lot about to find the right words to express my strog feelings but I realised they are not enough to do it. It is just like a fire burns my soul until steal my dreams and suddenly I find myself in a chaos. I like everthing about The Rephaim and I am appreciate Paula Weston to remembered me the emotion of loyalty still exist in the world -or the world I want to live- I haven’t had a chance to read the last book of the rephaim because it hasn’t published in our country yet. But I hope Jude doest’t turn into human. Although he left Rafa, I love him too. And I hope you come to our country to blog tour because I want to met you.
    PS: I don’t want to a life without Rephaim I know it will end up one day but least, can you write a sequel about the rephaims life before the riot and after it had happened. It can be a historical fiction so we can read two more book about the life I have always wanted to live.
    -It was just a request. I don’t want to misunderstand.-
    And… thank Mrs. Weston. 🙂

  6. İrem says:

    Isn’t Rafa Jude’s best friend? Beside I thounght Jude is 139 too isn’t he? And also I am really into The Rephaim. I can’t even imagine a life without them. They are everywhere and I like it. If one day I meet Paula Weston, that time will probably be the most real moment about the fact that they have never been real. Athough, I really want it.
    Thanks Mrs. Weston to meet me the real life I want to live.
    I hope you publish novellas about the rephaim’s life before riot and after it had happened.

    1. paulaweston says:

      Hi 🙂
      Thank you for your comments about the Rephaim series (in this post and the next one). Jude’s profile was written from his perspective before he remembered his past. 🙂
      I’m glad you’re enjoying the series and hope you enjoy Burn!
      Paula

      1. İrem says:

        Thank you for answer and I don’t want to force Mrs. Weston but will you write novellas or has it finished? -Please it hasn’t been finished yet. I really admire the characters. Even Mya.- Can you think to write novellas?

        1. paulaweston says:

          Hello again. 🙂 The series has finished for now. I’m working on a new novel and have ideas for other stories I’m keen to explore. But I do love those characters and that world, so I may go back one day and novellas is probably the way to go. Thank you again for writing.

  7. Katrina says:

    I was just wondering, the way you closed Burn ( absolutely amazing btw 🙂 ) left possibility’s open for another series?? Possibly? Just wondering whether there’s a chance we’re could possibly get a new series soon?? Haha lots of possibles here, I absolutely adore this series, so thankyou 🙂

    1. paulaweston says:

      Hi Katrina. Thanks for that! Yes, I did leave a few options there in the event I want to go back and explore this world some more. (And yes, there are some character relationships I can think of straight up that would be fun!) But I really want to explore other totally different stories and worlds first. So – the short answer is that I have no immediate plans, but never say never. 🙂

  8. Esmé says:

    I have just finished shimmer and I loved it I can’t wait for haze to find out just exactly what made her and raga fight, I hope it doesn’t get in the way of there relationship- I ship gafa-lol that sounds weird

    1. Esmé says:

      I meant rafa the first time stupid spell check

  9. Susan says:

    Hi there! I’ve read a lot of books in this genre & I have to say that your take on the nephilim was a bit different than others I’ve read. But saying that, I loved reading Shadows & absolutely loved reading Haze even more because of the Rafa & Gaby storyline. I only picked up ‘The Rephaim’ series 2 wks ago, so there’s only less than a month to wait till Shimmer is released (Yay!). I was wondering how many books will this series have?

    1. paulaweston says:

      Thanks Susan. 🙂 There will be four books in the series – so, only one to go after Shimmer (due out next year).

  10. hazzy says:

    Hii . Im currently reading shadows and its a really good story. But I have one question here , is Simon also a rephaite ? Thanks ! ?

    1. paulaweston says:

      Glad to hear you’re enjoying it. Seeing as there are lots of twists and turns, and I want to keep you on your toes while you’re reading…I can’t tell you that. 🙂
      Hope you keep enjoying it.

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About Me

I’m the author of the Rephaim series and The Undercurrent.

For my day job, I’m a writer-journalist-professional communicator, where my writing involves a lot less profanity.

I grew up in regional South Australia and now live in the Scenic Rim with my husband and a retired greyhound.

If you’re interested in how I came to land a publishing deal, you can read the short version in this post from August 2011. There’s a longer version (in a guest post) here.

Paula Weston

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