This week, we decided we’d like to write a few short introductions to some of our lesser-known kuparkuke characters. Since re-launching our website in October, we’ve been slowly working our way through our roster of characters, giving them fully-fledged biographies. Whilst we’re having fun doing that, those biographies can take a while to get through, and so today we decided we’d introduce ten kuparkukes we’re excited about, but who aren’t exactly first in line for their own pages. Without further ado, let us introduce the kuparkukes!

Angel Wings

As the Enoki tribe’s hunter, the mean and moody Angel Wings is all business. He takes his role very seriously, and he has no time in his busy schedule for fun and frivolity. He likes to keep to himself as much as possible, finding the parties and festivals that the rest of the tribe love putting on to be too much to handle. Angel Wings likes to spend his time out in the wilderness, tracking prey and taking down wild beasts with his trusty spear. He’s a skilled combatant – not that there’s much fighting to be done when you’re with the Enoki tribe!

Although nearly every kuparkuke in the Enoki tribe looks upon Astraeus as a father or grandfather figure, Angel Wings has a special place in his heart for the elderly former chief. Astraeus took him in as a lost child, welcomed him into the tribe, and raised him as if he was his own. Though Astraeus has never asked for anything in return, Angel Wings is fiercely protective of him and defends him with his life.

Astraeus

Up until about a year ago, Astraeus was the beloved chief of the Enoki tribe. He held that role for over thirty years, and under his leadership the tribe experienced a golden age of peace and prosperity. He stepped down and handed his role of chief to Chaga, when he got a bit too old for it, but the kuparkukes of the Enoki tribe continue to turn to this venerable old sage for guidance and wisdom. As one of the tribe’s oldest and most influential kuparkukes, Astraeus is a father – or grandfather – figure to nearly everybody.

One of Astraeus’ best and most defining traits is that he sees the potential in everybody. He goes above and beyond to ensure that outsiders – like Angel Wings, Ecoim, and Malus – feel part of the Enoki family, and he encourages kuparkukes like Kinoko to be true to themselves and use the gifts that nature has given them. All of this makes Astraeus an incredibly popular kuparkuke, and one whom every single other member of the tribe respects.

Beefsteak

Kuparkukes come in many different shapes and sizes, but even amongst them Beefsteak is an anomaly. He’s incredibly tall and incredibly strong, and he’s completely unpredictable. His appetite for food – especially fresh meat – is insatiable, and he has more energy than anyone. He’s always got fuel to burn, constantly working out and scarfing down more meat. He serves the Enoki tribe as a defender, ensuring no invaders break their way through the village gates – not that they would dare, knowing who stands on the other side!

Although Beefsteak is perfectly friendly and intelligent, his unpredictability means that many of the other kuparkukes of the Enoki tribe fear him. His best friend is White Buttons, the pure white kuparkuke with the heart of gold. The two have been companions for the longest time, and Beefsteak has vowed to crush anyone who hurts his best friend.

Chaga

Since the beloved Astraeus stepped down as chief, the Enoki tribe has been led by the younger and less experienced Chaga. Nobody but Astraeus ever really saw the potential in Chaga, and he knows it. Nevertheless, he’s determined to prove himself, and he’s already upset a few kuparkukes with some of the changes he’s enacted. He’s struggling with his new role, and he’s paranoid about Kinoko’s popularity amongst the other tribe members, feeling deep down that the yellow kuparkuke would make a better, more respected chief than him. He needs a lot of reassurance from Astraeus, because he sure isn’t getting it from anyone else.

Chaga and Kinoko were actually good friends once upon a time, but, ever since being selected as Astraeus’ protege and eventual successor, Chaga had to become all political and studious, whilst Kinoko got to go on causing trouble. This created a rift between the pair, and unfortunately that rift never quite healed.

Champignon

Champignon may not be the only chef in the Enoki tribe, but he’s certainly the jolliest. Along with the cool and confident Kombu who cooks fish, and the gruff, one-armed Scaber who cooks red meats, Champignon contributes to the tribe by running the village’s kitchen. His meals are more extravagant than the others’, and he takes immense pleasure in his role. He’s always seen to be smiling and laughing, and he’s always got a song in his heart. He loves to dance, and, although he doesn’t play, he’s a huge lover of music, especially when eating and drinking.

It’s impossible not to like Champignon, and as such he’s friends with pretty much everyone – even impossible-to-please kuparkukes like Arnoldii and Wrinkled Peach! More than anyone, Champignon knows that food is the truest way to any kuparkuke’s heart. He gets immeasurable satisfaction out of feeding his beloved Enoki family, and he finds joy in just about every experience, big or small.

Maitake

Just as Kinoko is the de facto leader of his own friendship group, Maitake is the ringleader of a group which comprises himself, Boletus, and Funguy. He’d also really like to ‘recruit’ Marasmius, which he knows would improve the group’s social standing tenfold, only Marasmius really doesn’t like him very much. Maitake will do anything to be more popular, and that includes bullying others, like Kinoko, to make himself look witty. Since Boletus and Funguy laugh at his jokes, he thinks this makes him funny, but ironically it just makes him less popular with the rest of the tribe. Nobody likes a bully.

Maitake’s role within the Enoki tribe is that of an archer. Kuparkukes never really engage in combat, so the archers spend most of their time on the village walls, acting as a deterrent to ward off potential enemies. He dreams of becoming an actor, and so he’s constantly cosying up to Arnoldii, eager to get a starring role in one of his plays (if he would ever finish writing them).

Marasmius

As Cosmo’s worst enemy and Harpette’s dream boy, Marasmius has the whole of the Enoki tribe at his feet. Just about everybody seems to love him, and, together with local ‘it girl’ Chanterelle, he makes up one half of Enoki’s most powerful and influential couple. He’s relentlessly charming and he simply oozes charisma. Cosmo absolutely despises him, but Marasmius is so cool he doesn’t even need to fight back, instead letting Cosmo do all the work and wind up looking like a fool.

Despite his towering confidence and larger than life personality, Marasmius is actually rather short as far as kuparkukes go – he’s even shorter than Chanterelle, his girlfriend. He wears a special, custom pair of high-heeled boots which help to hide it by giving him a couple of extra inches. He’s secretly insecure about his height, but you’d never know it judging by the way he struts about the Enoki village!

Stinkhorn

They say you should never judge a book by its cover, but Stinkhorn’s name really does tell you everything you need to know about this kuparkuke. You’ll always smell Stinkhorn before you see him, thanks to his distinctive ‘rotting meat’ odour. No one really knows what he does for the tribe, and nobody really cares – as long as he isn’t handling their food! He’s an annoyance, and he always knows how to get under another kuparkuke’s skin. He drinks to excess, and he’s an angry drunk. He also really likes meat pies.

Stinkhorn doesn’t really have any friends of his own, so he likes to spend his days spying on everybody else, looking for things to report to Chaga. He considers himself to be Chaga’s number one confidante, and has a particular disliking for Kinoko and his friends. He knows that Chaga feels somewhat threatened by Kinoko’s popularity, so he’ll often attempt to exploit Kinoko’s antics in order to curry favour with the tribe’s chief for himself.

Wood Ear

We’re sure you couldn’t possibly have guessed it by looking at him, but Wood Ear is the Enoki tribe’s forester and lumberjack. Even though the Enoki kuparkukes live inside hollow mushrooms, they still require lots of wood for furnishings, as well as for walls and other defensive structures, so it’s Wood Ear’s job to provide it. Nothing is more important to kuparkukes than nature, so Wood Ear takes care to cut down trees in a sustainable way, always replanting two saplings for every tree he fells. Under Wood Ear’s stewardship, the forest is protected.

Wood Ear may know a thing or two about nature, but he’s out of his depth when it comes to other kuparkukes! He’s one of the few kuparkukes to live outside of the village proper, residing in his own hut in the shade of the village’s walls. He prefers to keep to himself, and dislikes it when other kuparkukes come by unexpectedly. His best friend is his axe – or maybe it’s the bird which has recently mistaken him for a tree and decided to nest in his fur!

Wrinkled Peach

Wrinkled Peach (formerly, we assume, just Peach) is so-named because she’s the oldest kuparkuke in the Enoki tribe. She has no time for the young kuparkukes in her advancing years, and she isn’t afraid to show it. It’s been a long time since she retired and had any meaningful work to do around the village, so now she spends her days poking her snout into things and criticising everything from Champignon’s cooking to Kinoko’s ears. She’s always got to be heard giving her opinion on things, and she loves nothing more than pointing out how much better things were back when Astraeus, not Chaga, was chief.

We’d love to say Wrinkled Peach has a heart of gold underneath her blunt exterior, but honestly we don’t think she does. She’s particularly mean to anyone who looks ‘different’, and, what with the big ears and everything, Kinoko looks more than a little unusual. She considers him a disgrace, and isn’t afraid to tell him so.

Want more characters?

Well, there you have it! We hope you enjoyed learning a little bit more about these ten selected kuparkukes. As I said in the beginning, we wanted to write about some of these lesser-used kuparkukes who don’t have biographies of their own yet, and who we haven’t talked about much in the past, but of course we’d love to write proper biographies for every character eventually.

If you want to see the biographies we do have, make sure you check those out in the ‘explore’ section!