Walter Steele

Walter Steele is a major antagonist, serving as one of the central main antagonists in The Assassin of Darkness. He was the head of the Black Heart Military Corps and the acting lord of Mandrafall. He was believed to be the mastermind behind Connor Kramer's murder and the massacre of his family.

Backstory
As a child, Walter had a bad relationship with his father, who was physically abusive to him. All that was known about his mother is that she was a good mom. One day Walter stood up against his father and killed him, his mother shortly passed away from illness. Later in life, Walter gree to be cynical man and think of heroes as fools who get themselves and others hurt. In spite of this, Walter ended up having a wife and became soldier in the Black Heart Military Corps, and eventually became the head of the military. His wife died in an unknown accident and brought fresh roses to her grave on a regular basis.

Personality
At first Walter played off a facade of a congenial man, but, in reality, was a volatile and depraved sociopath and a cold-blooded murderer. He was a smooth talker, easily able to talk his way out of situations using his "charm", and was able to use his manipulative abilities to coerce others into doing his own bidding. He is immensely intelligent, cunning and calculating; he is also not a person who can be caught off guard so easily. Walter is also a perfectionist carefully planning out all his schemes. He was obsessed with protecting the people that he cared about by taking charge and doing what he saw as the only way of survival for his people, which included killing anyone who was a potential threat to them without hesitation. He also had dark secrets.

He gradually became a much more cold-hearted and barbaric person. His dark personality was only exacerbated when Michonne broke into his apartment and killed his zombified daughter, thus triggering severe homicidal desires within him. From then on, he lost most of his sanity and only desired to be on a warpath, seeking retaliation on Connor and the Freedom Fighters and setting out to slaughter them all. Walter's desire to destroy Connor was so strong that he slaughtered almost every member of the Black Heart military when they refused to aid him in his quest.

Walter is easily angered, also has a low opinion of people below him, such as homeless people living the poor district, and has an unmatched hatred of Dark Siders. His ego is inflated even more when he uses manipulation to his advantage and can exert as much power as he likes.

Connor Kramer
Connor and Steele once had a repsectful relationship, Connor fully trusted and was fiercely loyal to him, Steele in return treated him as his close ally. However their relationship becomes rather tense when Connor disobeys his orders to burn down a farm family who Steele believed to be a hidden group of Dark Siders, Connor refuses and leaves the corps, much to Steele's anger. Their relationship eventually is completely destroyed, when Steele hires The Living Shadows to assassinate him and his wife and daughter, which he succeeds and even executes Connor himself, but was later resurrected by the Dark Master. After that, Connor swore revenge to kill Steele painfully and slowly, and eventually succeeds.

Kerr
Walter hired Kerr and tasked him to assassinate Connor's family, at first Kerr did so with no hesitation, but later confronts Walter about lying to him when he said that Connor would be not present during the assassination. Kerr later started feel regret for what he had done and developed bitterly hate towards Walter and says he's done doing his dirty work. Whatever respect they had for eachother was soon destroyed after Kerr assists Connor in his mission to kill Walter. The two later engage in a brutal sword dual with Kerr being the victor. Despite, Kerr fatally severing Walter's arms with his sword, Walter survives the injuries, but is later killed by Connor.

Trivia

 * Walter is the first main antagonist in the series, the second being Carver Hayes and the third being Silas Church.