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So... I feel like I've come up with an amazing antagonist for my upcoming series of Mario fan fics by expanding upon a rather underutilized (and perhaps even loathed—no, seriously, I always thought it was stupid) piece of fanon that originated on the Mario fansite Lemmy's Land:

DAD: The first Koopa, now viewed among many Koopas as a god of sorts. You know, as in "Oh my DAD!!!" Koopas who worship DAD are known as Familikoopas. (Important Terms)

A Google search of the site reveals that Familikoopism was only mentioned in the above quote and in six submissions and from the looks of it was only ever considered the Marioverse's form of religion. "DAD," being the website's swear substitute for "Oh my God," obviously saw much more use. I even recall reading stories where DAD was more than a swear word and was an actual character (usually the antagonist).

My story won't feature DAD, but rather, the concept of Familikoopism as a historical belief system. My idea is as follows:

There was at one time a sect of Koopas, known as Familikoopas, who worshiped their ancestor as a god, referred to as 'The First Koopa' or just 'The First.' However, a Koopa warlord—an ancestor of the current Koopa Royal Family—waged war against them and their civilization fell. The warlord wiped the majority of them out and the remaining few assimilated into the warlord's new kingdom. He proclaimed himself king of this newly established 'Koopa Clan' and ruled with an iron fist. Nearly all records of the Familikoopa society were turned to ash by the warlord-turned-king's own fire breath in an attempt to prevent rebellion of his newly-conquered subjects. Due to this, Familikoopism eventually died out and, today, not much else is known about the religion or the society that practiced it. Rumor has it, however, that Bowser's Royal Adviser, Kamek, possesses a few documents that escaped the burning hidden away in his private study...

In a sort of meta sense, the belief system dying out mirrors the fact that Lemmy introduced the idea in his "Important Terms" section of the website close to the beginning (like, at least 2003, possibly earlier) and hardly anyone used it (with the exception being DAD as a swear substitute).

Also, because it has mostly died out by the time of my story, I don't have to explain the actual beliefs of Familikoopism in much detail so it won't be based on any real world religion (I'm pretty sure one of the people who chose elaborate on the concept did just that and it didn't turn out well at all).

Now, you might be wondering, "Wait a minute, what about the villain?" Well, as I said, it isn't DAD, but it is someone who believes in him. As I'm typing this, I don't want to reveal too much because it'll give away what is arguably the best twist in the story. I will say, however, that the villain is a descendent of the original Familikoopas and still believes their ways. He appears at first to be a sort of a religious extremist, but there is much more to his character than that. Again, don't want to spoil too much...

Anyway, I'm excited that over time I was able to turn what basically originated as one-sentence back story for a swear substitute into this really cool villain because of what it implied. I'm kind of geeking out about it since I haven't even mentioned the best part but I want to keep that a surprise.

I suppose I should also note that this villain is not the one from "Silva," but from a sequel story (there's gonna be at least two).