When Murray falls ill with COVID-19, his cells try their best to save his (and their own) lives.
Erlona
A female neutrophil.
She's still a young cadet and her kind is not made to kill and eat viruses, yet she's determined to fight King Matthias and his pack.
Earl
A male alveolar macrophage.
He's the first cell who personally meets SARS-CoV-2 (King Matthias), and learns that it is not an ordinary coronavirus.
The picture shows his activated form. His inactive form is smaller and resembles a housecat.
Jarred
A male neutrophil, Erlona's older brother.
He's the sheriff (leader) of the neutrophils. He's a good leader most of the time, but might be too stubborn to believe that the novel coronavirus is possibly dangerous. All previous ones they've met, were mild and easy to defeat, so why would this one be dangerous, eh?
Mitzi
A female red blood cell.
She's curious and playful, but will act serious when needed. Mitzi wants to help the immune cells, but only does so by aiding the ones who have been ordered to protect the non-immune cells, kids, elderly and weakened cells.
She befriends Prince Meech, a friendly SARS-CoV-2 virion.
Pale/pinkish colored red blood cells might be an indication of a disease of the blood, but Mitzi's color palette is just a design choice!
Togo
A male red blood cell, Mitzi's older brother.
He's extremely protective over Mitzi and he dislikes her friendship with Prince Meech. He also wants to help the immune cells, but also actually wants to fight alongside them.
He developes a strong hate toward King Matthias.
Zip
A male platelet, Togo's best friend.
His kind is naturally gentle and solely exists to heal, but Zip is rather bold and he eventually discovers his hidden fighting skills.
Like Togo, he wants to join the immune cells and fight alongside them.
Hijacked Cells
Damaska
A hijacked cell, King Matthias's majordomo.
Originally the sheriff of the interstitial macrophages. While hijacked, she serves King Matthias and Co, and she commands all the other hijacked cells on 'her king's' behalf (while King Matthias only commands his virions). She's very sweet usually, but when hijacked, she's not very pleasant to be around with... not to non-hijacked cells at least.
Her pupils have the same color as King Matthias's eyeshine. I do this to make clear that a cell is under a virion's mind control. Characters see normal colored pupils.
The Sarbeco family actually includes all member species within the Sarbecovirus subgenus, but this is about the SARS-CoV-2 bloodline. More specifically the D614G mutated one.
The current virions are responsible for Murray's infection, and eventually the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
They're also the first virions known to hijacks cells and 'employs' them as their servants.
King Matthias
The Murray Pack's dangerous king (leader). Unlike his kids, he speaks with an English accent.
He's strong and cunning, and his goal is to kill Murray and eventually, all of mankind.
Meanwhile, he just tries to be a good father to his kids too.
King Matthias is my personal comfort character.
Prince Scratcher
Middle child of King Matthias's first litter, lead-heir (next king) of the Murray Pack.
Flamboyant, yet arrogant and hothead virion, who's proud of his pretty looks and glossy proteins.
He's also a sadist who loves to torture cells for his own amusement.
He's mostly seen with a creepy smile on his face and he sounds similar to Chucky when he laughs.
Prince Brooke
First born of King Matthias's first litter.
Was supposed to be lead-heir due to his birthrights, but he kindly declined and asked to be leveled down to the regular prince rank.
He's calm and gentle, and often seen together with his younger brother, Prince Scratcher. He kinda acts as a 'voice of reason' to his younger bro, whenever the latter gets angered or is planning to do something stupid.
Prince Meech
Youngest of King Matthias's first litter.
Kindhearted virion, who doesn't wish to inflict any harm to his host or cells. His dream is to heal others and be recognized as a friend, not the enemy.
But, he's a virus, which he deeply despises. He manages to get Mitzi to trust him, thus befriending her.
His eyes look different. This is to make him appear friendlier than the other virions, but in the comic's universe, his eyes look more human-like due to a minor mutation in his genes (his grandfather was friendly too, yet he had the usual slit pupils).
Virions From The Past
King Haojiao
King Matthias's direct wild-type ancestor AND the virion who infects 'patient zero' in China.
He's wild and aggressive, and, unlike his later descendant, he acts more by instinct than strategy. He also howled a lot, which was SARS-CoV-2's original and main way to tell other packs and cells to stay away, before the species mutated and learned to talk.
嚎叫 (háo jiào) is Chinese for 'howling'. Given the original wild-type form of SARS-CoV-2 didn't learn to speak yet (and thus most likely didn't name their pups), virions were named by cells. King Haojiao was named for his howling habit.
Never actually seen, except for from the inside. Humans basically serve as the background 'landscape' and home to both their own cells and invading pathogens in this story.
*Because I can't draw humans, human characters have no official artworks. Instead, their looks are described in their bio's, to give you an idea of what they would look like.
Murray Rivers
88 year old, slender Afro-American man, with graying hair and large glasses. He's kind and he loves nature and animals, especially his great dane, Silver. He's married and he was born and raised in the state of Tennessee.
Murray is home to trillions of cells, and host to billions of SARS-CoV-2 virions. The cells love him dearly, so they try everything to protect him and defeat the virus.