Ripred is usually sarcastic, snide, and overbearing, but he has occasionally shown compassion and tenderness, especially with the main character's younger sister, Lizzie.
The books describe him as being just as large as the other six-foot rats of the Underland, having a gray coat, and is marked by a diagonal scar across his face.
During one of the rare peaceful periods between rats and humans, they shared a beautiful garden filled with apple trees and other delicious fruit.
One day while many rats were enjoying the garden, the humans, led by Solovet and her son Hamnet, launched a surprise attack.
He ends up being a representative of the rats on a quest to find a cure for the plague, a plant called starshade, in a treacherous jungle.
When Gregor meets Ripred in the cave under the human city of Regalia for his lesson one day, he has brought along the Bane, who has now reached a stage in his growth like adolescence.
In the final volume of the series, Gregor and the Code of Claw, Ripred is portrayed as helping humans to command their troops as they fight against the Bane and his followers in a brutal war.
In Gregor and the Code of Claw, Ripred uses the following prophecy, written by Bartholomew of Sandwich, to his advantage, after he half-denies half-accepts in modesty.
Ripred received a wound crossing an old scar, using it in order to convince the Underlanders that he should be the rats' representative in the post-war peace talks.
The Bane despises Ripred, because he believes the rat treated him unfairly as he was growing up and was hurt by his constant sneers and insults.
At negotiations after the war in the fifth book, Ripred returns alive against what all humans thought and steps forward as a representative for the rats.
Hamnet did, in fact, deeply regret his actions and even ran away from Regalia to the jungle after the battle, only to resurface ten years later at the Arch of Tantalus as a guide for the party seeking the cure to the plague.
He lets Lizzie ride on him and lay on his back and tells her things that the other characters don't know about him, including his family and their death.