Major Characters

Asmodeus

Asmodeus, King of Demons, Prince of Hell, Lord of Sin and Bearer of the Bloodied Mace.

There are many stories and legends spoken of Asmodeus. Some say he is the child of Lilith and her lover, the angel Samael. Others say he is a cambion, the son of King David of Israel and the succubus Agrat bat Mahlat. Still others believe him to be the youngest son of Adam, born to him by the fallen angel Naamah.

Regardless of his origins, Asmodeus has been around for many an age, and has climbed up the ranks of the Abyss to stand atop its infernal legions as one of that dark realm's lords and masters. He wandered the Earth for many years, selling his services to kings and warlocks, allowing himself to be bound by mortals in exchange for knowledge and influence over the affairs of mankind. He came to understand humanity intimately during this period and began to corrupt our societies from the inside. Eventually, he even became king of his own dark empire, and lead countless souls into damnation, until he was banished by Solomon, cast out into the Abyss.

But cunning Asmodeus had been planning for that eventuality. He summoned to him all those souls he had damned to the infernal realm and bound them to his service. He carved a path of destruction through the Abyss, until the other lords of that dark place acknowledged his power, and he ascended into the ranks of the demon princes.

Today, Asmodeus commands the largest army of demons in the Abyss. His kingdom stretches to very gates of Hell, at the deepest reaches of the Abyss, and it is said he has even communed with Lucifer himself. He rarely answers summons now, but he has countless minions willing to serve as agents of their master's will and spread his Sin across all of creation.

The Bogeyman

He wasn't the oldest of the horrors, no that goes to the primordial Cain and Able of fear: The Man in Black and the Sack Man. Nor was he the most powerful, not when compared to great beasts such as the Leviathan and Cucuy. However, he was blessed with a vision that allowed him to see beyond the petty squabbling of the Netherworld.

Over the following centuries, the Bogeyman's control expanded across Shadow, bringing under his control dozens of other factions. He gave those who bent the knee willingly a place in his council, known as the Nightmare Court, though his left and right hands were ever the Man in Black and the Prophet of Endings. To further this show of unity, the Bogeyman gave the average horror a means to speak and address their concerns to the Court's members. Over the years, this became codified as the advisory body known as the Parliament of Shadows, an elected body that represented the desires of various groups of horrors to the King and Court. Indeed, the Parliament was so influential that the grand citadel itself became known as the Parliament... causing no end of confusion for later scholars.

The unity of the horrors made them a force to be reckoned with. Though alone, a horror could not stand against a demon or wizard, as a haunting they could fight, and win equal ground. It was this unity which he took to the Celestial Conclave one day in the early 9th Century AD, and convinced the Archangels to end the age of magic, and begin the age of science, the age of reason, the age of man.

The rest of this history is rather well-known. The angels and horrors fought a brutal war against the various other supernatural forces in the Middle East which ended in the supernatural races signing the Veil Treaty in Baghdad. The Bogeyman himself was at the signing, and famously proclaimed "Yehi láyla!" To translate from Hebrew, "Let there be night," or more symbolically, "Let there be adversity." The Veil spread across the Abbasid Caliphate, separating the mundane world from the magical. For the first time in humanity's history, they were masters of their own destiny.

And the horrors, masters of the shadows, were there to guide humanity, whispering to them and stoking their fears.

It's not known exactly when the Bogeyman vanished. He fades out of the records as the 9th Century progressed. References to his disappearance are first seen at the turn of the millennium, but they seem to indicate he'd been missing for some time by then. After he vanished, the Nightmare Court continued performing their duties as if nothing had changed, and when it became clear that the Bogeyman wasn't coming back, the Court declared itself the regent in his absence, while leadership of his particular faction was taken up by the once-human rogue known as Jack O'Lantern. Today, the Court still rules over the Netherworld, and the Parliament of Shadows still performs the messy duties of governing one of the oldest, and largest, nations in the world.

And, in the centre of the Chamber of Parliament, the black stone chair of the King of Shadows still sits, empty.

Cain

Father of Murder and the first alukah, leech, vampire. Ancient beyond ages, Cain is the most powerful vampire in the world, enough to make Dracula, or Orlok, or Báthory seem like mere gnats in comparison. He is not as involved in human society as his "aunt" Lilith, but his offspring have spread the curse of vampirism to the far corners of the globe. While he can spend decades in slumber of seclusion, when he chooses to act, the ramifications echo through history. 

Chad Richards, CEO

Chad Richards isCEO of the Byfrost Group of Companies, an incredibly skilled businessman, and Wall Street's darling. An absolute financial genius, he used his investing knack to help launch several major internet companies back in the 90s through Byfrost Investment. He survived both the Dot Com Bubble and the Great Recession largely unscathed, and came out the other end one of the world's richest, and most powerful, capitalists. He's also not all that bad of a programmer, given how he got his start, but his real knack is in management and psychology--he knows how to read not only people, but society, and can stay one step ahead of the curve.

He might not have magic or supernatural allies to draw upon, but he has a brilliant mind, and cutting edge technology at his disposal. He has used his companies to fund monster hunters, and to produce technologies that help to balance the battlefield between the mundane and the supernatural. He has even become a major supplier to Occult Intelligence groups, like Majority-12, Department-7, MI18, and the DGSX. His Byfrost Group now has significant holdings in pharmaceutical labs (Pandora Life Sciences), technology startups (Basilisk Capital Partners), agribusinesses (Pomegranate Agricultural Technologies), petrochemnicals (Vulkan Chemicals), new media (Ziz Media), virtual reality (Otherworld Digital), aerospace engineering (Northern Crown Aerospace), and weapons manufacturing (Mjolnir Arms Factory), as well as its own series of off-the-book labs scattered throughout the United States and Western Europe.

Lilith

Adam's First Wife, Queen of Night, Mother of Monsters, Ki-Sikil-Lil-La-Ke, Old Screech Owl, Archmage of Creation--Lilith has as many titles under her belt as centuries. Perhaps the oldest living human in existence, Lilith has dedicated herself to bringing ruin upon the sons and daughters of Eve.

It is said that Lilith was seduced by Samael, an angelic assassin whose very whispers were poison. In return, Lilith took the secrets of enochian magic from Samael--the magic of the angels that would form the basis of much of humanity's magic. However, for bringing this forbidden magic into Eden, for violating her vows to Adam, and for refusing to bow and ask forgiveness, she was exiled and branded a demon.

She's has not yet forgiven humanity for the slight.

In some traditions, it is said she found the body of Cain after the first murderer finally gave into his grief and committed suicide. Unwilling to let such a precious resource go to waste, she tapped into the holy energies of the Empyrean and perverted it, drawing Cain's soul back to his dead body and turning him into her own angel of death, the first alukah, blood sucker, vampire. And its not just vampires Lilith is associated with--nearly every monster has been tied to her in the past. It was Lilith who, in a battle with Luna, corrupted the blessing of the moon-spirit's favoured children, werewolves, so their bites infected humanity with a rabid, basal form of lycanthropy. Lilith was the one who seduced the Queen of Air and Darkness and corrupted her into the wicked queen of Winter she is today. Lilith was the one who taught the Bogeyman the secret paths of the Netherworld, allowing him to unite horrorkind beneath his violet banner. It was she who whispered secrets to the early Templars, corrupting them down the occult paths which almost destroyed them. It was Lilith who encouraged the Atlanteans to reach too high and invoke the flood that ended the Age of Myths. If you look hard enough, it was Lilith. Or so the paranoid conspiracies go.

Mab

Queen of Air and Darkness, Lady of the Winter Court, and ruler of all that is dark and beautiful. All the evil queens and wicked stepmothers from fairy tales and legends? They were inspired by Mab. The Queen of Air and Darkness is the embodiment of the stories about the the archvillain, the dark lord, and the "big bad evil guy". She is the consummate villain, who embraces her role as archnemesis to the heroes of mankind with gusto. She loves pitting her mind against the best and brightest we have to offer--and then crushing us beneath her heels to demonstrate the superiority of evil. 

Merlin Ambrosius

The Wild Man of the Woods, the Right Hand of the Once and Future King, the Archmage of Britain, the Bard... Myrrdin Emrys has carried many names over his two thousand years of life, but the most notable has been Merlin Ambrosius.

The son of a virgin and an incubus, he was both blessed and cursed with visions since a young age. These visions would seize his entire body, driving him to the brink of madness. It is known that he fled into the far regions of Caledonia at a young age, but what he learned in the cold highlands is not known. His first confirmed appearance was in 48BC, when he appeared in Rome, bringing his prophecies to the new dictator, Julius Caesar. After Caesar's assassination, he returned to Britain bringing with him a close friend he made while in the service of the Dictator: Aurelius Ambrosius. Aurelius, a skilled commander, would eventually found a noble lineage in Roman Britain, a house that would become known the House of Constanstine. As part of some debt to Aurelius, Merlin continued to serve the house of Constantine, through to Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon and King of Camelot. In the legends, Merlin was betrayed by his apprentice Vivienne, who trapped him and took his place as Arthur's advisor.

It's not advisable to bring up Vivienne around Merlin at all.

It was unknown how long Merlin was bound by his apprentice, but the Archmage eventually escaped, only to find the world much changed. Where magic was once commonplace, it was now hidden behind a veil. The populace treated the stories of Arthur and Camelot and even himself as little more than legend. However, Merlin was not willing to give up on his duty, and became a key advisor to Elizabeth I, Queen of England. His relationship with the Crown and the government of England has been rocky ever since. He actually left the United Kingdom for several decades after a rather vicious spat with Victoria--turned out Her Majesty much preferred the more occult magics so popular in the 1800s, including that up-and-coming cultist (at least in Merlin's mind) and future archmage, Aleister Crowley. He only returned when Winston Churchill asked him to take a stand against the occult magics of the Thule Society during the Second World War. Merlin served as the ceremonial first head of MI18, now known as Her Majesty's Occult Security Services. However, Merlin and Churchill were cantankerous old bastards, and Merlin ended up vanishing again in the 1950s. He's shown up here and there since then--mostly serving his own interests and stopping the odd calamity. What he's up to nowadays, though, nobody can say. He hasn't even taken an apprentice on since the 1970s.

Titania and Oberon

The King and Queen of Summer. Titania has ruled the Summer Court since at least the Age of Magic--some say she's held the throne since the time of the Flood. It's known that there were Summer monarchs before her, but none are recorded--not in any histories that survived the changing of ages. She is the twin sister of the Queen of Air and Darkness, as glorious and inspiring as her sister is dark and terrible. She is blessed with incredible beauty, cunning and power--she commands the power of summer, both in its life-giving warmth and furious, unrelenting wrath. She prefers diplomacy, with peaceful and just resolutions, and is widely renowned as a mediator and voice of reason within supernatural politics. Yet, she is still a Gentry of the fair folk--her morals do not align with those of humanity, and her logic is not our logic. She does not always act in ways we, as humans, would expect. And that makes her a very unpredictable ally--and a very dangerous enemy.

Oberon was a ruler of the wyldfey--or fey who do not support the major faerie courts. Indeed, he set up his own court, the Court of the Green, and styled himself as "King of the Wyld" for a while. But he was convinced to throw his lot in with Titania during the Middle Ages, and brought his wyldfey to heel under the banner of Summer. It was a relationship of passion, and of politics--but there's little doubt that Oberon and Titania truly care for each other. And yet the heart of a fey is difficult to fully tame, and both Titania and Oberon have had numerous dalliances over the centuries since their union. This fact doesn't stop Oberon from challenging most of his wife's lovers to duels for her heart. It's the principle of things, you must understand.

See, fey live and die on principle, and Oberon has been at this for several hundred years now. Still going strong as the undisputed King of Summer. And lest you need to be reminded, he's the less powerful one in the relationship with his wife.

Titania and Oberon have several commonly acknowledged children, but their eldest is no longer their heir. See, he fell in love with a mortal, as fey tend to do, and when she ultimately died, he attempted to do everything in his power to bring her back. Then he went further, defying the laws of his people by embracing dark magic, communing with demons and outsiders, and violating the sanctity of mortal death. He was cast out by his own mother on the eve of what he believed to be his greatest discovery--and the act froze his heart solid. He turned on his family, his nature, his own archetype, and even tore apart his own name. He became known as Jack Frost, Prince of the Winter Nights, and general of his aunt's armies.

Vlad III Dracula

Vlad III Dracula was prince of Wallacia. Much of his life was identical to what the history books say. Other than the fact that, while in exile, he made a pact with some dark spirits for a second chance at rulership. The nature of these spirits remains a matter of some controversy. But they were powerful enough to aid in reclaiming the throne of his homeland not once, but twice. And then, when he fell in battle against the Ottomans, they rose him again as a strigoi, a leech, a vampire.

After that, it is known that Dracula fled into the shadows of the secret world. He sought out loyal followers and allies and turned them into undead like him. Many of these followers came from Dracula's own knightly order, the Order of the Dragon and these vampires called their new alliance the Sons of the Dragon in homage to both the order, and Dracula's own father, Vlad II Dracul.

The Sons of the Dragon continued their crusade against the Ottomans for several centuries, undermining the rule of the Turks from the shadows. However, they soon found themselves embroiled in a struggle for control of the region against several rival forces, including several werewolf clans and the Cainites, a branch of vampires from the Middle East who claimed descent from the First Murderer.

The Vampire Crusades of the 17th Century saw the Sons of the Dragon (now commonly called the Draculesti) align with several other European vampire factions to drive out the Cainites and other Middle Eastern vampires, as well as breaking the power of werewolves, fairies, and other supernatural beings in Eastern Europe. They were unexpectedly successful, as many of the powers of the region had become complaicent with the status quo. In so doing, the Draculesti became the most powerful faction of vampires in Europe, and Dracula himself became a legend among their kind.

And the Draculesti's rise couldn't have happened at a better time. As their power expanded into Germany, France, Spain and England, those nations were embarking on colonial expeditions across the globe. And the strigoi travelled with them. Four centuries of colonialism later, and the strigoi are the most common form of vampire in the world.

While Dracula was happy to rule his network from his castle in the Carpathians for several centuries, the changing of global politics lead for his relocation of London, where he's resided since the late 1800s. Stoker's own tale tells of this, though in a slightly more fantastical take than the historical truths.

Many of the other leaders of the Draculesti remained in Romania for a few decades afterwards. But they would find themselves faced with their own complacency and the rise of a new threat: communism. The occult divisions of the Soviet Military, including the infamous Red Library, sought to coopt the powers of vampirism for the benefit of the Soviet Union and the global revolution. Much of the Draculesti's leadership fled west, to Vienna, Paris and London. While some have returned to their homeland after the fall of the Iron Curtain, today the capital of the Draculesti is not Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest or Budapest. Instead, it is Vienna, the city that held out against the Ottomans and never fell to the forces of communism.

Dracula, however, remains in London, where he can monitor his global network as well as watch over the politicking of the Veil Treaty that hides beneath the city's streets.