History Characters / HereticalEdgeStrangers

A former Seostenic infiltrator who abandoned her people to marry a human she had fallen in love with. [[spoiler: An Eden's Garden Heretic named Haiden Moon, to be exact. They went on to have twin children, Vanessa and Tristan]]. Her former colleagues later found her and attempted to retrieve her, which didn't end well.

* DefectorFromDecadence: Inverted, as he actually defected ''to'' decadence. But he defected ''from'' are a despotic empire of slavers, so it's still a step up.

Salten is a Peryton, an Alter-animal that's like a pegasus, only it's a deer with wings instead of a horse. She was raised primarily by Hannah Owens at Eden's Garden and is now being cared for by Seller in her absence.

[[folder:Choo]]

[[WMG: Other Alter Species]]

[[folder:Akheilosan]]
A race that resembles a human-shark hybrid.

* HorrorHunger: He peels apart and eats [[spoiler: the organic mask he was using as a disguise]].

* MrExposition: He knows quite a bit about the history of both humanity in general and Heretics in particular. And he's almost eager to share that knowledge. [[spoiler: Understandable, as its the first opportunity for conversation he's had in centuries.]]

* KilledOffscreen: By the time of the main story his case is considered resolved. [[spoiler: Of course, this doesn't account for his creator.]]
* NothingIsScarier: We only ever see him from a Bystander's perspective, which means any time we would have seen what he looks like the narrative jumps right past it. Played again when the main characters are reading the case file, we never get any description on what he was or what he did to his victims.

* TheUnperson: One of his victims was completely removed from the memories of other Bystanders, [[spoiler: likely by his creator]], making his true body count impossible to know for certain.
* WasOnceAMan: [[spoiler: He was once a human before being twisted by the stranded Fomorian. Whatever the end result was, it was so inhuman that it triggered the Bystander Effect and even the Heretics that killed it didn't notice anything off.]]
* WouldHurtAChild: Most of his victims were children.

[[folder:The Stranded]]

A [[spoiler: Fomorian]] left stranded on Earth after most of his race was sealed off from accessing it. He's spent the ensuing centuries hiding from Heretical attention and attempting to undo the enchantment that keeps his race away. [[spoiler: He eventually finds what he needs in the form of Koren Fellows.]]

* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler: His attack on Koren and her neighbors seven years ago was engineered to make Crossroads more likely to accept Joselyn Atherby's granddaughter as a student.]]
* BodyHorror: He wears an organic mask, uses real eyes as security cameras, and [[spoiler: remakes Koren's mother's heart so it needs to be manually pumped while also adding living booby traps. And that's not even getting into what he did to make The Hiding Man]].
* DeadpersonImpersonation: He takes the guise of [[spoiler: Koren's father]], erasing all memories of the original so no one can uncover his ruse.
* DidntSeeThatComing: He spent a solid decade searching for [[spoiler: Joselyn Atherby or one of her children]] for his purposes before he [[spoiler: found Abigail and Koren]], at which point he had to spent another seven years waiting for the right opportunity. As a result, he's understandably surprised when another one ([[spoiler:Flick]]) drops right into his lap.
* HorrorHunger: He peels apart and eats the organic mask he was using as a disguise.
* HumanShield: He connects several babies to himself that will die if he's harmed.
* KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler: By Nevada.]]
* ManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: To The Hiding Man.]]
* MrExposition: He knows quite a bit about the history of both humanity in general and Heretics in particular. And he's almost eager to share that knowledge.
* NoNameGiven: He never provides a name for himself. [[spoiler: One could call him The Hiding Man, but [[AmbiguousSituation it's unclear]] whether that alias better suits him or the creature he created.]]
* ThisCannotBe: He can't imagine that anyone is capable of getting the better of him. When it happens, his reaction is shock and disbelief.
* VillainousTeleportation: He has some method of teleportation, though we never see it.
* WouldHurtAChild: As seen under HumanShield, he sees the lives of infants as a small price to pay for his own safety.
[[/folder]]

[[WMG: Akharu/Vampires]]

[[folder: Akharu In General]]
Called Vampires by Heretics, the Akharu are an ancient warrior race seeking a cure for the Blood Plauge inflicted upon their race by their mortal enemies, the Vestil. All Akharu possess SuperStrength, SuperSpeed, SuperSenses, and {{Immortality}}. The blood plague forces them to replace their cursed blood by drinking that of other creatures. They can also share blood with human beings, which turns said humans into Akharu-hybrids with all the same powers on top of an added weakness to sunlight.

----

[[folder:Djinni]]
A race of Alters capable of altering or creating objects.

* OurGeniesAreDifferent: They can only create physical objects or alter existing ones rather than the nigh unlimited power of most portrayals. If it's a particularly large item or change, it requires physical contact with the target.
* SlaveRace: Most Djinni are bound to a master, trading hands like property.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: They can change their own appearance at will. One speculates that this is because of the overlap between their "objects only" power limit and the slave nature of their race.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Besides the aforementioned limits on their power, all changes they make are temporary unless they've been claimed by a master.

[[folder:Harabeold]]
A race of small goblin-like creatures that can transform into living dust devils.

* ElementalShapeshifter: A limited form. They can turn into vertical columns of swirling sand, granting them incredible speed and maneuverability.
* MultiarmedAndDangerous: They have four arms.

[[folder:Harpies]]
Human-bird creatures capable of manipulating creatures through their blood.

* BloodMagic: If they get some of your blood they can do some nasty things to you.
* {{Flight}}: They have bat-like wings they use to fly.
* HitAndRunTactics: They prefer to hit targets quickly, get some blood, and withdraw. Given their magic, that's usually enough to end the fight.

[[folder:Heretics]]
Ordinary humans that were significantly changed through exposure to Alter blood. While they were once rare, organizations like Crossroads and Eden's Garden now manufacture them through diluted sources utilizing Reaper blood. Despite this, most Heretics still consider themselves human and dedicate themselves to eradicating all other Alters.

[[folder:Blemmye]]
A race of savage creatures that live in the jungle surrounding Eden's Garden.

* {{Cephalothorax}}: They lack heads, while two eyes and a vertical mouth cover the front of their torsos.
* BladeOnAStick: They're quite fond of spears.
* FullFrontalAssault: None of them wear clothes and they're apparently "heavily endowed". Flick is not happy about this.
* InTheBack: They're not above trying to stab you from behind before you even realize they're there.
* OverlyLongTongue: Two of them, which they use to drag foes into their many teeth.

[[folder:Djinni]]
A race of Alters capable of altering or creating objects.

* OurGeniesAreDifferent: They can only create physical objects or alter existing ones rather than the nigh unlimited power of most portrayals. If it's a particularly large item or change, it requires physical contact with the target.
* SlaveRace: Most Djinni are bound to a master, trading hands like property.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: They can change their own appearance at will. One speculates that this is because of the overlap between their "objects only" power limit and the slave nature of their race.
* WeaksauceWeakness: Besides the aforementioned limits on their power, all changes they make are temporary unless they've been claimed by a master.

[[folder:Heretics]]
Ordinary humans that were significantly changed through exposure to Alter blood. While they were once rare, organizations like Crossroads and Eden's Garden now manufacture them through diluted sources utilizing Reaper blood. Despite this, most heretic still consider themselves human and dedicate themselves to eradicating all other Alters.

* ComboPlatterPowers: The reason they're so feared by other Alters. Against any other Alter you know what you're up against, but Heretics could have any number and combination of powers.
* KillEmAll: The prevalent attitude of Heretics against Alters.
* SuperPrototype: Originally Heretics were created by exposing a human to Alter blood and burying them. The powers awarded varied depending on the Alter used but they were more numerous and powerful than the powers initially awarded to modern Heretics. This came at the drawback that, unless the Alter used was a Reaper, they wouldn't be able to get any more powers than what they originally got.
* TomatoInTheMirror: Despite their crusade against Alters, most Heretics consider themselves human.
* WasOnceAMan: All were once humans before being exposed to some Alter catalyst that gave them their powers.

[[folder:Jekren]]
Large boar-like creatures that spit lightning and spawn smaller versions of themselves upon death.

* AsteroidsMonster: Though limited to one spawn at a time.
* BizarreAlienBiology: Rather than one set of large organs, they have many smaller sets which are located ''inside'' their bones. The large organ cavity instead holds a large sack containing a smaller copy of themselves. As they grow, so too does the copy. Once the copy reaches the size the original was it creates its own smaller copy. This process repeats with no known limit, creating a living matryoshka doll.
* BornAgainImmortality: Despite appearances, they don't have this. Each "layer" is its own entity, with the smaller version contained within a completely separate creature.
* BreathWeapon: They shoot blasts of lightning.
* ChestBurster: How the smaller versions emerge.
* FullBoarAction: They can grow to immense proportions, enough to trample trees with ease.

[[folder:Knockengerwicht]]
Zombie-goblins that can possess inanimate objects.

* DemonicPosession: They possess inanimate objects, moving them if they're small enough and hiding inside them if not.

* {{Poltergiest}}: They're the source of these stories.

[[WMG: Akharu/Vampires]]

[[folder: Akharu In General]]
Called Vampires by Heretics, the Akharu are an ancient warrior race seeking a cure for the Blood Plauge inflicted upon their race by their mortal enemies, the Vestil. All Akharu possess SuperStrength, SuperSpeed, SuperSenses, and {{Immortality}}. The blood plague forces them to replace their cursed blood by drinking that of other creatures. They can also share blood with human beings, which turns said humans into Akharu-hybrids with all the same powers on top of an added weakness to sunlight.

[[folder:The Stranded]]

A Fomorian left stranded on Earth after most of his race was sealed off from accessing it. He's spent the ensuing centuries hiding from Heretical attention and attempting to undo the enchantment that keeps his race away. [[spoiler: He eventually finds what he needs in the form of Koren Fellows.]]

* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler: His attack on Koren and her neighbors seven years ago was engineered to make Crossroads more likely to accept Joselyn Atherby's granddaughter as a student.]]
* BodyHorror: He wears an organic mask, uses real eyes as security cameras, and [[spoiler: remakes Koren's mother's heart so it needs to be manually pumped while also adding living booby traps. And that's not even getting into what he did to make The Hiding Man]].
* DeadpersonImpersonation: He takes the guise of [[spoiler: Koren's father]], erasing all memories of the original so no one can uncover his ruse.
* DidntSeeThatComing: He spent a solid decade searching for [[spoiler: Joselyn Atherby or one of her children]] for his purposes before he [[spoiler: found Abigail and Koren]], at which point he had to spent another seven years waiting for the right opportunity. As a result, he's understandably surprised when another one ([[spoiler:Flick]]) drops right into his lap.
* HorrorHunger: He peels apart and eats the organic mask he was using as a disguise.
* HumanShield: He connects several babies to himself that will die if he's harmed.
* KilledOffscreen: [[spoiler: By Nevada.]]
* ManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: To The Hiding Man.]]
* MrExposition: He knows quite a bit about the history of both humanity in general and Heretics in particular. And he's almost eager to share that knowledge.
* NoNameGiven: He never provides a name.
* ThisCannotBe: He can't imagine that anyone is capable of getting the better of him. When it happens, his reaction is shock and disbelief.
[[/folder]]

[[WMG: Other Alters]]

[[folder: Twister]]

A pooka, a type of Stranger that can shapeshift into various animals. Twister's default form is that of an eleven year old girl with fox ears and a tail. She works as a bodyguard and is an old friend of Asenath's, [[spoiler: who hires her to protect Lincoln Chambers in the daylight hours. She was also a part of his wife Joselyn's revolution before it was ended.]]

----

A mysterious Stranger responsible for a string of disappearances seven years before the story begins, leaving only black roses behind. Koren Fellows encountered him when she was ten. [[spoiler: He's a Fomorian.]]

* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler: His attack on Koren and her neighbors seven years ago was engineered to make Crossroads more likely to accept Joselyn Atherby's granddaughter as a student.]]

* DidntSeeThatComing: The Hiding Man spent a solid decade searching for [[spoiler: Joselyn Atherby or one of her children]] for his purposes before he [[spoiler: found Abigail and Koren]], at which point he had to spent another seven years waiting for the right opportunity. As a result, he's understandably surprised when another one ([[spoiler:Flick]]) drops right into his lap.
* MrExposition: He knows quite a bit about the history of both humanity in general and Heretics in particular. And he's almost eager to share that knowledge.
* {{Sadist}}: Based on what little we see of him, he appears to enjoy ''scaring the shit'' out of his victims. He apparently spent a fair amount of time screwing with Koren's head for kicks, although since we see this from her [[{{Muggle}} Bystander]] perspective, there's a lot don't see.
* ThisCannotBe: The Hiding Man can't imagine that anyone is capable of getting the better of him. When it happens, his reaction is shock and disbelief.

[[WMG: Other Alters]]

[[folder: Twister]]

A pooka, a type of Stranger that can shapeshit into various animals. Twister's default form is that of an eleven year old girl with fox ears and a tail. She works as a bodyguard and is an old friend of Asenath's, [[spoiler: who hires her to protect Lincoln Chambers in the daylight hours. She was also a part of his wife Joselyn's revolution before it was ended.]]

[[WMG: Akharu/Vampires]]

[[folder: Akharu In General]]
Called Vampires by Heretics, the Akharu are an ancient warrior race seeking a cure for the Blood Plauge inflicted upon their race by their mortal enemies, the Vestil. All Akharu possess SuperStrength, SuperSpeed, SuperSenses, and {{Immortality}}. The blood plague forces them to replace their cursed blood by drinking that of other creatures. They can also share blood with human beings, which turns said humans into Akharu-hybrids with all the same powers on top of an added weakness to sunlight.

* AdultFear: A species wide one. While Akharu who were alive when the blood plague was cast are still free of Vestil control, purebloods born ''after'' that point get the full package: total slavery to the Vestil.
* TheAgeless: Vampires can be killed, but their immortality is complete enough that it's ''really'' hard.
* CursedWithAwesome: ''Human'' vampires are this. They can't survive the sunlight anymore, but they also get kickass superpowers and an immunity to the [[WeirdnessCensor Bystander Effect]].
* DaywalkingVampire: Pureblood Akharu are unaffected by sunlight. None of them understand why human vampires are killed by it.
* FateWorseThanDeath: The original purpose of the Blood Plague was to permanently enslave all Akharu to the will of the Vestil. The watered down version they actually got paralyzes them.
* HalfHumanHybrid: The primary form of Akharu reproduction at this point, because half-Akharu babies like Asenath are free of the curse unless they choose to become vampires later on.
* HumanAliens
* OurVampiresAreDifferent
* TheUndead: Averted. Heretics assume that vampires are undead when in reality they're [[{{Immortality}} immortal.]]

[[folder: Tiras]]

A pureblood Akharu warrior who was one of the explorers that found earth after millenia of searching for a cure to the blood plague. There he met Jiao, a dying Chinese woman who he saved by turning her into a human vampire. They soon had a daughter they named Asenath. In 1803, when Asenath was eight, Tiras was forced to return to his homeworld to once again combat the Vestil, who were preparing another curse that would wipe out everyone that had Akharu blood (which by then included Jiao and Asenath). He promised to return as soon as possible.

* DisappearedDad
* InterspeciesRomance: With Jiao.
* IShallReturn: He promised Senny that he would return one day, when the Vestil were stopped, even if it took him a thousand years. So far it's taken him more than two hundred years.
* ParentalAbandonment: He left his family to stop the Vestil from wiping out all who had Akharu blood, promising that he'd be back as soon as possible. He made that promise in 1803 and still hasn't returned.

[[folder: Asenath]]

The half-human, half-Akharu daughter of Jiao and Tiras born in 1795. Asenath took her father's blood to become a vampire when she was around twenty years old and has spent the time since traveling, helping people, getting Journalism degrees from various universities, [[spoiler: and was part of Joselyn Atherby's revolution for decades before it was ended]].

[[spoiler: She's set on Ammon's trail by the mother of one of his victims and catches up to him on the same night he makes his move against Flick. After Flick's traumatic encounter with Fossor, she promises to help her deal with him in any way she can. For the time being, that means protecting Lincoln Chambers from Fossor, Ammon, or anyone else that might seek to harm him.]]

* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler: Enters the story proper by busting in through a window and saving Flick from Ammon.]]
* [[BigBrotherInstinct Big Sister Instict]]: Asenath hasn't seen her younger sister since Reathma was a baby, but still remembers her scent and drops everything to speak to and comfort her when they reunite.
* CoolBigSis: To her half-sister when they meet again. [[spoiler: And to Columbus, because being Shiori's brother makes him Senny's brother too.]]
* DaddysGirl: Even though she hasn't seen him in over two hundred years, Asenath loves her father deeply and eagerly awaits his return.
* EmbarrassingNickname: When Twister calls her "ol'Assy."
* FakeMemories: [[spoiler: Asenath's memories of the decades she spent in Joselyn Atherby's revolution have been erased or censored by the spell that wiped Joselyn from general knowledge.]]
* FireForgedFriends: [[spoiler: With Flick.]]
* FriendlyAddressPrivileges: Her friends and family call her Senny.
* FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire
* GenreSavvy: Asenath quickly guesses that the odd RecurringDreams she and Twister start having are actually memories they can't quite recall, [[spoiler: and that meeting Flick is what set them off.]]
* GoodIsNotSoft: Asenath is one of the nicest, most heroic characters in the story. That doesn't stop her from eating unrepentant criminals. [[spoiler: Or stabbing a nine year old SerialKiller in the chest. AmbiguousInnocence or not, she has every intention of killing Ammon for what he's done.]]
* ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty: Justified. Asenath waited until she was a young adult to take her father's blood and become a vampire.
* LethalChef: Asenath can't cook. At all. In her own words, she doesn't get along well with stoves.
--> '''Twister''': Or toasters, microwaves, blenders, those little toy ovens that make brownies with a light bulb...
* LivingForeverIsAwesome / WhoWantsToLiveForever: While Asenath mostly enjoys her immortality, she exhibits signs of both these tropes. On one hand, she's amazed by all the wondrous things she's seen over her long life and can't wait to one day tell her father about everything he missed. On the other hand, she's tired of outliving her friends.
* LongLostRelative: Asenath has a much younger half-sister named Reathma who their mother gave up for adoption. [[spoiler: But she has no idea that Reathma was recruited by Crossroads under her new name, Shiori Porter.]]
* NoodleIncident: She met Seller in Texas once. She claims that he still owes her for whatever happened and he'd rather not talk about it.
* OccultDetective: She spends a fair amount of her time investigating supernatural occurances on behalf of those who can't help themselves. She mentions that she's earned journalism degrees from three separate universities over the past century as a way of keeping her detective skills up in a changing world.
* RecurringDreams: [[spoiler: Soon after meeting Flick, Asenath begins remembering her time with Joselyn's revolution in her dreams.]]
* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: She's over two hundred years old.
* VampiresAreRich
--> ''You think I’ve been around for a couple hundred years without having a pretty damn sizable savings account or two?''
* WeHelpTheHelpless: It doesn't matter to Asenath if you're a kidnapped boy in need of rescue, a grieving mother who needs justice for your murdered daughter, [[spoiler: or a teenage Heretic who just had your entire world turned upside down]]. She'll help you. It's what she does.

[[folder: Jiao]]

A Chinese woman Tiras met in the eighteenth century. She was on the verge of death when he saved her by sharing some Akharu blood with her, turning her into a vampire. They went on to have a daughter, Asenath.

Jiao later had another daughter with a different man over two hundred years later in 2000. She gave her younger child, Reathma, up for adoption for her protection, going so far as to have the man she entrusted Reathma to change her name ([[spoiler:to Shiori]]) before placing her in the foster care system.

* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou: Jiao has enemies (such as Heretics) that wouldn't hesitate to hurt her child to get to her, which is why she gave Reathma up for adoption. She was so worried about the possibility that Reathma would get hurt that she had her renamed to erase anything that could possibly link them.
* GiveHimANormalLife
* InterspeciesRomance: With Tiras. Also with whoever fathered Reathma. Jiao was born human, but she's a vampire now while Reathma's father is human.
* SenselessSacrifice: [[spoiler: Not only was Gaia able to ascertain Shiori's biological relatives in spite of the steps Jaio took to hide that information, she had Shiori recruited specifically because she's part-Alter. This could easily place Shiori in the very danger Jiao sought to protect her from.]]

[[WMG: Vestil]]

[[folder: The Vestil In General]]
The ancient race that cursed the Akharu to win the war on their shared world.

----

* FinalSolution: After thousands of years, they're still trying to wipe out the Akharu. And not just the pure Akharu, but anyone with Akharu blood.

[[WMG: Meregan]]

[[folder: The Meregan In General]]
The Meregan are a race on the brink of extinction. Their world was once the home of a thriving, peaceful civilization. Now it's a ruined wasteland, and all that's left of them lives on a single spaceship originally meant for exploration.

* BreakTheCutie: A species wide example.
* GentleGiant: Most Meregan are this, as they usually grow to be around nine or ten feet tall and tend to be peaceful.
* PacifismBackfire: The Meregan were a highly peaceful society that was totally unprepared for a threat like [[{{Necromancer}} Fossor]], who nearly wiped them out.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Many Meregan have bright hair colors.
* WideEyedIdealist: The surviving Meregan are still alive because they were on-board Binsayeac, which means "Friend-Finder." It's purpose was to seek out other races and worlds and form an intergalactic community.

[[folder: Gavant]]

Gavant is a Meregan, an Alter race capable of space travel. They grow to be around nine feet tall. He appears to be a leader, or at least an influential member, of his people. [[spoiler: And he's a good friend of Flick's mother.]]

* AFriendInNeed: Is always willing to help his friends, even when he has problems of his own to deal with. He tries to help Tristan Moon while his people are in the middle of a crisis [[spoiler: and immediately promises to help save Joselyn from Fossor when he hears what happened (while still facing the same crisis)]].
* BerserkButton: Fossor. He pushed the Meregan people to the brink of extinction to obtain their corpses. [[spoiler: Gavant is furious to learn what happened to Joselyn.]]
* BoldExplorer: Gavant and his crew were exploring space before they were called back to their homeworld to help fight Fossor. [[spoiler: By the time they made it back, he had already destroyed their civilization.]]
* NiceGuy
* MrExposition: Very knowledgeable, and is much more comfortable explaining things to people than he is threatening them. [[spoiler: He quickly falls into this role when Flick and Shiori wake him up]].
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: What does Gavant do when he finds strange humans in his ship after being woken up from long-sleep? Calmly give them the chance to explain themselves, that's what. Although he keeps weapons trained on them, just in case. [[spoiler: It helps that they're there because of a beacon meant to call for "Friend-Joselyn Atherby."]]
** And what does he do when a strange child appears on his world? Tries to send him back home of course! Then when it doesn't work, Gavant provides a safe place for Tristan to live while they work to figure out the problem.
* StrangeSyntaxSpeaker: He hasn't quite mastered English, but he's perfectly and consistently intelligible.
* TakenForGranite: The Meregan have a method of inducing "long-sleep" that turns people into statues for long periods of time. It's mostly used when traveling in space.

[[folder: Purin]]

Another Meregan, specifically their "master of explore," (the guy in charge of recon). He maintains the K’lecnahn vehicles the Meregan use to travel.

* NiceGuy: Very friendly, and laughs off getting knocked around a bit when he was a statue.
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: His hair is a deep bronze color.

[[folder: Alecra]]

A female Meregan who maintains their ships beacon technology, what they use for communication and teleportation.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Her hair is green.

[[folder: Dis]]

Purin's son, one of the Meregan children taken by Nicholas Petan

* TranslatorBuddy: He speaks for the other children, apparently having a greater mastery of English than the rest (or maybe he's the only one with a translator).

[[WMG: Other Alters]]

[[folder: Twister]]

A pooka, a type of Stranger that can shapeshit into various animals. Twister's default form is that of an eleven year old girl with fox ears and a tail. She works as a bodyguard and is an old friend of Asenath's, [[spoiler: who hires her to protect Lincoln Chambers in the daylight hours. She was also a part of his wife Joselyn's revolution before it was ended.]]

* AbsurdlyYouthfulMother: Justified due to having given birth to her child in one of her previous lives, when she had an older body.
* FakeMemories: [[spoiler: As a former member of Joselyn Atherby's revolution, a lot of Twister's memories have been modified by the spell that [[UnPerson Un-Personed]] Joselyn.]]
* GenreSavvy: Realizes that she and Asenath are being affected by Heretical Magic when they both start having weirdly realistic RecurringDreams.
* HiredGuns: Twister works as a mercenary, generally not working without payment. That said, she mostly limits her contracts to bodyguard gigs, and sends at least part of her pay to her child.
* OlderThanTheyLook / YoungerThanTheyLook: Twister is both at the same time. She was born in the early twentieth century. But the way her immortality works is that when she dies, she gets a new, biologically nine year old body with all her memories remaining in the back of her head. When her body is biologically eleven, that means it's actually only two years old while her total lifespans add up to 107. Confused yet?
* RecurringDreams: [[spoiler: Soon after meeting Flick, some of Twister's memories of her time with Joselyn's revolution start coming back when she's sleeping.]]
* ResurrectiveImmortality: When a pooka dies, they resurrect in a younger body. Twister starts over at the biological age of nine.
* SupremeChef: Over the course of her life, Twister has studied cooking under three world famous chefs. Flick compares her cooking to her post-stranger killing reaction.
* VoluntaryShapeshifting: Twister is a pooka, meaning that she can shapeshift into a number of animal forms.

[[WMG: Werewolves]]

[[folder: Werewolves In General]]

Werewolves don't appear to have much of a society beyond arranging themselves in packs, which run themselves differently depending on what pack you're talking about.

* HealingFactor: A very fast and effective one.
* KryptoniteFactor: Wounds dealt to werewolves by [[SilverBullet silver weapons]] will not heal right away.
* LongLived: According to WordOfGod, werewolves can live to be around 150-200 years.
* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: ''Heretical Edge'' werewolves are pretty standard, for the most part. Wolf transformation? Check. Vulnerable to silver? Check. A single bite won't turn someone into a werewolf though, they have to consciously choose to infect someone else.
* PainfulTransformation: The very first time a new werewolf transforms is ''excruciating.''
* SlidingScaleOfAnthropomorphism: Werewolves have three forms: Human, wolf, and wolf-man hybrid.
* SuperStrength: After killing one, Flick becomes strong enough to lift 1000 pounds.

[[folder: Mateo Dias]]

Mateo is a Colombian werewolf who leads a small pack in Bogota, the nation's capital. [[spoiler: He's also Sean Gerardo's uncle. Not by blood, but because he's in a long and committed with relation with Sean's biological uncle, Sebastian Gerardo.]]

[[spoiler: He later brings Roxa Pittman into his pack after Lemuel turns her into a werewolf and she's forced to leave Crossroads.]]

* BadassGay
* CoolUncle: [[spoiler: To Sean. Not by blood, but he and Sebastian are close enough that they might as well be.]]
* CureYourGays: Mateo was the victim of a group of crusaders that saw it as their duty to "cure" sinners and transform them into werewolves.
* TheDogBitesBack: Escaped the aforementioned crusaders after convincing them he had been "cured" and then ripping his recruiter's throat out when they turned him.
* OlderThanTheyLook: He looks like he's in his early thirties, but he's about twice that.
* PapaWolf: One day when his nephew was a kid, Mateo found him about to be tortured by a gang who had mistaken him for someone's brother. Mateo promptly went wolf and tore into the bastards.
* SupremeChef: Mateo makes some of the best food you will ever eat.
* YouAreNotAlone: [[spoiler: He's brought in by Gaia and Seller to help Roxa Pittman after she gets turned into a werewolf. He immediately offers her a place in his home and with his pack.]]

[[folder: Lemuel]]

A werewolf who lives with his pack in the jungle beneath Eden's Garden. He's not quite a Nocen, but still a huge bastard. At least as far as Heretics are concerned.

* CruelMercy: [[spoiler: Rather than killing her, Lemuel turns a wounded and virtually helpless Roxa Pittman into a werewolf and leaves her for dead, thinking that even if she survives all the jungle monsters around, she'll still spend her life being hunted by the people who were supposed to be her allies.]]
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: It's pretty obvious that Lemuel has reasons to hate Heretics (which is why he's not listed as a Nocen at the moment). But the sheer vindictive pleasure he takes in hurting a wounded and virtually helpless Heretic student who has yet to actually do anything makes it hard to view him as anything but the monster the Heretics assume he is.
* {{Sadist}}: At least as far as Heretics are concerned.
* ScaryBlackMan

[[folder: Valentine]]

A werewolf in Lemuel's pack. He looks kind of like David Spade.

* DidntSeeThatComing: He's quite surprised when an opponent of his pulls out a silver knife. To be fair, said opponent didn't have one until [[ItMakesSenseInContext a monkey brought it out]].
* {{Sadist}}: Valentine is the type of guy who gets excited at the notion of crippling a prisoner he knows will heal and survive.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: He spend his fight with [[spoiler: Flick]] assuming it won't take him much effort to win.
* WeHardlyKnewYe: He's killed [[spoiler: by Flick]] soon after his introduction.

[[folder: Fezzik]]

An enormous Samoan man who's real name is Rangi, but only answers to [[Film/ThePrincessBride Fezzik]]. He's part of Mateo's pack.

* TheBigGuy
* DoNotCallMePaul: Prefers Fezzik to Rangi.
* {{Geek}}: He's named himself after Wrestling/AndreTheGiant's character from Film/ThePrincessBride and is a huge StarTrek fan.
* NiceGuy

[[folder: Lesedi]]

A black South African woman in her early twenties and part of Mateo's pack.

* CoolShades: She wears a pair of sunglasses with shades that match her hair.
* TheNicknamer: A habit of her's. She calls Fezzik "[[IronicNickname Shorty]]" and a new recruit ([[spoiler:Roxa]]) "Pup."
* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: She dyes her hair purple.

[[folder: Franklin Corson]]

A pale, red haired man in his early twenties who was born in Texas.

* LastNameBasis: Nobody calls him by his first name, just Corson.

[[folder: Hasty]]

Real name Nicole, Hasty is a Colombian woman in her late twenties and another werewolf in Mateo's pack.

* LeeroyJenkins: She's quickly noted to have a tendency to act without thinking.
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: Nobody really calls her by her actual name.

[[WMG: Nocen]]

[[folder: Ammon]]

Ammon is a young [[HalfHumanHybrid half human, half something]] boy with a CompellingVoice, absolutely no conscious, and a desire to find and do "interesting" things. [[spoiler: On top of being half-human, his father also made him into a Heretic.]]

He's also Flick's half-brother.

* AbusiveParents: Generally speaking, Ammon's father spoils the living hell out of him. Right up until Ammon disobeys him. There's a reason his father is pretty much the only person Ammon is afraid of.
** [[spoiler: Fossor turned him into a Heretic through an old method. By burying him alive while bathed in the blood of an Alter.]] Please note that Ammon was eight years old in his introduction, which means he was eight years old ''at the very most'' when his father did this to him. It was probably a lot earlier than that.
* AmbiguousInnocence: Let's not sugarcoat it, Ammon is a SerialKiller. He's just as much of a monster as Crossroads claims all Strangers are. But with an upbringing like his, what else could you expect? He legitimately doesn't know any better because he's never had the chance to be anything ''but'' a monster. [[spoiler: On top of that, it's later implied that his inability to feel emotions like sadness or guilt isn't natural, but the result of something Fossor did to his head.]]
* CainAndAbel: Ammon is a rare evil Abel, but only insofar as he doesn't want to outright ''kill'' his sister. He just wants to torture her. Because he's pretty sure he likes her.
* ChildByRape: Possibly. The circumstances behind the disappearance of Joselyn Chambers are unknown when Ammon first shows up. [[spoiler: Later revelations make it very clear that this is the case.]]
* ColdBloodedTorture: This is what Ammon does to the people he ''likes.'' People he doesn't like get off comparatively easy.
* CompellingVoice: Any command he gives after saying "My name is Ammon" will be followed.
* CreepyChild: To put it mildly.
* DidntSeeThatComing: His response to people who [[spoiler: are unaffected by his CompellingVoice]] is usually to freeze up in shock. He never sees it coming and doesn't know how to react.
* EnfantTerrible
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: ''At all.'' As hard as Ammon tries, he seriously can't wrap his head around concepts like empathy and altruism in any way. He can't even understand why his sister is never happy to see him.
* EvilUncle: [[spoiler: To Koren Fellows. He's very happy to find another relative that his father ''hasn't'' forbidden him from seeing.]]
* FreudianExcuse: Ammon has a whole slew of these. He's ''seriously'' messed up in the head.
** His father is a mass murdering psychopath that alternates between spoiling and scaring the living hell out of him.
** His mind control powers make it extremely difficult for him to see people as anything other than tools or toys, exacerbating his already extreme (and possibly unnatural) sociopathy.
** [[spoiler: His mother is his father's slave.]]
** [[spoiler: He's grown up watching his father, an immortal necromancer, casually play with the laws of life and death. As far as Ammon is concerned, there's no real difference between his mind slaves and Fossor's zombie servants. As a result, he thinks absolutely nothing about killing people.]]
** And finally, [[spoiler: Fossor did ''something'' to him that changed him into... well, you should have a pretty good picture by now.]]
* GreenEyedMonster: He's upset that Flick cares about other people like Avalon and Shiori more than him.
* HealingHands: In sharp contrast to the rest of of his powers, Ammon is capable of healing other people's injuries. Unfortunately, he mostly uses this ability to keep torturing people after they've reached their limit.
* HealingFactor: Potent enough that falling face first into concrete from three stories up doesn't really bother him. He doesn't heal immediately, but he barely reacts when he finishes.
* HumanPet: He considers his mind slaves to be his pets and counts Flick as one of them. She's his sister after all. In his mind, that means she belongs to him.
* ItsAllAboutMe: To an extreme degree. Ammon is totally incapable of understanding that people other than him matter. Exemplified when he calls Flick a bad sister for not helping him [[ColdBloodedTorture figure out if he likes her or not]] and then "forgives" her for ruining his "game" by stopping him from murdering a bunch of people.
--> '''Flick''': What about the innocent people you hurt and kill? You destroy lives, Ammon.
--> '''Ammon''': They're not me.
* KidsAreCruel: Extremely cruel.
* LackOfEmpathy
* LonelyRichKid: Once you strip away the sociopathy, sadism, and insanity, Ammon is basically this.
* LongLostRelative: He's ecstatic to learn that he has an older sister and almost immediately disobeys his father to set off on a cross country road trip to find her. [[spoiler: Seller is one of their ancestors.]]
** [[spoiler: He and Flick also have older twin siblings born in the sixties, Wyatt Rendall and Abigail Fellows, as well as a niece, Abigail's daughter Koren.]]
* MeaningfulName: Ammon is a name from the bible that means "the son of my people." [[spoiler: One of the reasons Fossor gave him that name was to state his intention to use Ammon to rebuild his the society of his own race, which he enslaved, the way he thinks it should be.]]
* MoralMyopia: To an insane degree. Ammon's understanding of morality is based entirely on whether or not people are "nice" to him by doing anything and everything he tells them to. Anyone other than his father (the disciplinarian) who ''isn't'' nice to him is a "terrible, awful person" in his mind. He quite simply does not understand that people other than him matter.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler: He purposefully doesn't tell his father that he met someone other than Flick who is immune to his powers when he infiltrated Crossroads because he doesn't want to be forbidden from seeing her. As a result, Koren and Abigail are at least temporarily safe from Fossor, although Koren is still in danger from Ammon himself.]]
* NoSell: [[spoiler: All of Ammon's blood relatives are immune to his CompellingVoice, and he in turn is immune to their powers.]]
* {{Sadist}}: Ammon thinks hurting people is "interesting."
* TheSociopath: He doesn't feel things. [[spoiler: This actually bothers him, as he really ''wants'' to. That's why his "games" are so brutal. He thinks causing pain to people he might like will help him feel things.]]
** [[spoiler: Later, it's implied that this isn't natural.]]
* SpoiledBrat
* ThickerThanWater: Perhaps the closest thing Ammon has to a sense of morality is the understanding that "family is supposed to care about family." This largely translates to him believing that his family members other than his father are supposed to do whatever he says (like everyone else) and also makes him more likely to "forgive" them for disobeying (unlike everyone else).
* UsedToBeASweetKid: [[spoiler: According to his mother, at any rate. Joselyn claims that Ammon used to be a sweet boy before Fossor did something that turned him into... ''that''.]]
--> '''Joselyn''': [[spoiler: Ammon sweet before. Good boy. Fossor did something. Changed him. Broke him.]]

[[folder: Fahsteth]]

Fahsteth is a notorious member of the [[ThreateningShark shark-like]] Akheilosan race. He is extremely dangerous and extremely evil.

* TheDreaded: Hearing his name instantly makes Seller get serious.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Shows up in the third interlude quite some time before he actually enters the story.
* HiredGuns: He usually works as a mercenary.
* ImAHumanitarian: He gleefully tries to eat an eleven year old girl when he needs to replenish his strength, pausing only to lament that he didn't have enough time to enjoy his meal. Other Akheilosans appear to enjoy eating humans as well.
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: [[spoiler: He was hired to murder a young Hannah Owens in such a way that would leave her looking like a random victim.]]
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: He has several rows of shark-like teeth.
* PoisonedWeapons: His blades are coated with an incredibly deadly (and very painful) poison.
* ThreateningShark
* WouldHurtAChild

[[folder: Reggie Owens]]

Reggie Owens was an ordinary alcoholic who violently abused his young daughter Hannah until one day when he was mortally wounded by Fahsteth and subsequently left for dead by the Heretics who knew what he'd been doing to Hannah. He survived long enough to be saved by a passing vampire, who shared some blood with him to save his life. Now he's a vampire. And unlike the other vampires on this page, he's actually evil.

* AbusiveParents: He regularly beat and berated his daughter for the first eleven years of her life until she was saved from him.
* TheAlcoholic
* ArchnemesisDad: To Hannah Owens, [[spoiler: who changed her name to Avalon Sinclaire.]]
* OffingTheOffspring: He tracks his daughter down roughly a year and tries to kill her.
* ScarilyCompetentTracker: Hannah and Seller have ''no idea'' how he keeps tracking her down year after year. [[spoiler: It's later implied that Professor Tangle's lover is giving him her location.]]

[[folder: Fossor]]

--> ''I will not be prevented from doing as I please.''

Fossor is an age old and undeniably evil [[TheNecromancer Necromancer]] with a well deserved reputation as TheDreaded. He's dangerous enough that he ''alone'' justifies a lot of Crossroads' xenophobia against Strangers. The pre-Crossroads Heretics attempted to banish him from earth rather than actually deal with him. They thought they could do this by [[{{Curse}} cursing]] him to only be able to step on the ashes of his enemies. It didn't work. Turns out that Fossor has enough enemies on his homeworld to render this a nonissue and no problem sacrificing as many people as he needs to in order to walk around. Fast forward to the present day and even centuries old Heretics like Seller and Ruthers hesitate to so much as speak his name.

[[spoiler: He's responsible for the disappearance of Joselyn Chambers, having kidnapped her when Flick was seven. His intended target was actually ''Felicity'', but he thought it would be fun to restore Joselyn's memories of her life as a Heretic [[{{Sadist}} so she would understand what he was going to do to her daughter]] and she took the opportunity to convince him to [[TakeMeInstead Take Her Instead]].]]

[[spoiler: [[ChildByRape He fathered Ammon on her]] in the time since, and still intends to take Felicity for himself when she turns eighteen.]]

* AbusiveParents: His son is terrified of making him angry. [[spoiler: He also did ''something'' to Ammon that turned him into the sociopath serial killer he is today. This may or may not have been after he turned the kid into a Heretic by burying him alive with the blood of an Alter.]]
* AmazonChaser: In one of the darkest ways possible. He finds certain strong women "intriguing", and immensely enjoys taking that strength for his own use by breaking them to his will.
* BadassBoast: He has a habit of making these calmly or even casually to tell or remind someone what he's capable of and how foolish it is to think he can be beaten.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: [[spoiler: He caused TheBlackDeath.]]
* BerserkButton: Don't try to tell Fossor what to do. He'll take it personally. When the Heretics tried to curse him to stay off earth, his response was to base himself there out of spite.
* BigBadEnsemble: Possibly the Biggest Bad of the setting as a whole. Definitely the BB to his own race, as he conquered their homeworld and farms it for ghosts that turn into ashes he can step on; and to the Meregan, who he pushed to the brink of extinction in order to use their giant corpses. [[spoiler: Unquestionably one of Flick's greatest enemies.]]
* ControlFreak: He ''hates'' being disobeyed.
* {{Curse}}: He can only walk on earth by stepping on the ashes of his enemies.
* TheDreaded: Fossor's reputation is earned and formidable enough that even someone as old and experienced as Seller will avoid saying his name out loud if he can help it. [[spoiler: On a more personal level, Flick is understandably terrified of him.]]
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Making a joke about his ancient curse and then laughing at the suggestion that he could ever run out of enemies.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Well, ''had'' loved ones at any rate. A young Fossor genuinely loved his mother and sister. But they've been dead and gone for thousands of years.
* EvilGloating: His introduction in a nutshell. He shows up at the end of one chapter and spends the next gloating until he leaves.
* EvilPlan: [[spoiler: The details are still unclear, but he's planning on using Joselyn to wipe out every Crossroads and Eden's Garden Heretic in existence, save (presumably) Joselyn and her children.]]
* ExactWords: Very much the type of guy who concerns himself with the letter of an agreement over the spirit. [[spoiler: Case in point: the deal he made with Joselyn was to leave her child alone in exchange for her servitude and obedience in all things. But it only applies as long as Felicity is Joselyn's ''child''. He can and fully intends to take her like he originally planned once she's an adult.]]
* FauxAffablyEvil: Fossor looks and sounds more like a children's dentist than a necromancer. That just makes him creepier in the face of how ''fucking evil he is.''
* FreudianExcuse: Subverted. His interlude looks like it's going to take this route at first when you see what happened after his mother's death. But then he [[spoiler: murders his sister to make her "immortal" (turn her into a zombie)]], making it clear that he was pretty messed up in the head from the beginning.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Fossor, the ancient necromancer who conquers planets and wipes out entire species, began life as Merakeul, the average son of a farmer.
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Smokes cigarettes.
* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: [[spoiler: He went out of his way to visit Flick on her seventeenth birthday to tell her what he did a decade earlier and that he was coming back for her in a year. And for the record, "out of his way" doesn't mean he took an inconvenient trip, it means he arranged a massive number of simultaneous Stranger attacks across multiple population centers so the Crossroads ''and'' Garden Heretics would be too busy to interrupt or notice the chat he wanted to have with her.]]
* INeedYouStronger: [[spoiler: The stronger Flick is when Fossor takes her, the more fun he'll have breaking her. One of the reasons he warns her that he's coming is to give her the motivation to make herself as strong as possible.]]
* ItAmusedMe: Pretty much every move Fossor makes depends on how much it will amuse or intrigue him.
* ManipulativeBastard: His first major action on earth was when he took advantage of how the (pre-Crossroads) Heretics were dealing with a different threat to cause massive casualties. [[spoiler: To be specific, he convinced them to let him help and then betrayed them by unleashing TheBlackDeath on Europe.]]
** [[spoiler: During his chat with Flick he brings up damning details about her mother's history with Crossroads while leaving out important context (for example, making a big deal about how they left Joselyn defenseless without mentioning that the alternatives were execution [[FateWorseThanDeath or worse]]) in an effort to get her to distrust her teachers and superiors.]]
* MeaningfulName: "Fossor" is a word that was used by the early Christian church for gravediggers. The word most likely came from him, considering that he's been using it for thousands of years.
* MundaneUtility: His ghosts can serve as cigarette lighters. Seriously.
* TheNecromancer: He's got an army of ghosts and zombies from multiple Alter races at his beck and call.
* OnlyYouCanRepopulateMyRace: [[spoiler: He wants to rebuild his people's society under his direction, and for various reasons has decided that he wants to use Joselyn Atherby and her daughter to do it.]]
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Fossor is powerful enough that he can legitimately be called a one man extinction event, fully capable of wiping out races and destroying civilizations on his own.
* {{Sadist}}: Takes great pleasure in hurting and scaring people. [[spoiler: He restored Joselyn's memories specifically so she would recognize him and realize what he would do to Felicity if he took her, and he's highly amused by Flick's emotional distress when he tells her this a decade later.]]
* StartOfDarkness: A nine year old Mera discovered his necromantic abilities during his mother's funeral, when he attempted to prevent her ghost from moving on and was stopped by a priest and his father. Seven years later, he tried to [[spoiler: make his sister "immortal" by turning her into a zombie]], only to be stopped by his father before he could finish. He spent the next seventeen years in one of the worst prisons on the planet. When he finally escaped, he decided that he was never going to let anyone stop him from doing what he wanted again.
* TakeOverTheWorld: According to WordOfGod, he's already taken over his homeworld.
* TermsOfEndangerment: Has a habit of saying "my dear," to women. [[spoiler: He also repeatedly calls Flick a "prize."]]
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: When Flick sees him for the first time, she's surprised by how utterly ''normal'' he looks. Nothing about his appearance suggests that he's anything other than an ordinary, friendly man.
* VillainsNeverLie: Flick quickly pegs him as the kind of guy that enjoys hurting people with the truth.
* VillainTakesAnInterest: [[spoiler: He took an interest in Joselyn Atherby decades ago. This was eclipsed by interest in her daughter when he first learned about Felicity.]]
* WalkingSpoiler
* WeHaveReserves: He sacrifices his ghosts at the drop of the hat because he has a ''lot'' of them on top of a steady supply to replenish his losses.
* WhatTheHellHero: Fossor appears to enjoy calling out Heretics on their less savory actions. [[spoiler: This is one of the reasons he wanted to kidnap Felicity in the first place. He thought it would be "poetic" to take the innocent child of the revolutionary the Heretic leaders [[KickTheDog crossed]] [[MoralMyopia so]] [[WouldHarmAChild many]] [[IHaveYourWife lines]] to stop and turn her into a weapon against them.]]
* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler: He relished the thought of kidnapping Joselyn Atherby's seven year old daughter and raising her to be his servant and weapon.]]
* WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou: When Fossor gives someone a command, he's giving them a choice. Obey, or be punished for disobeying.
* YouAreNumberSix: [[spoiler: "Fah-Seur" simply means "thirty-four," in an old language from Fossor's homeworld. It was the number given to Merakeul when he was imprisoned for murdering his sister.]]

[[folder: The Hiding Man]]

A mysterious Stranger responsible for a string of disappearances seven years before the story begins, leaving only black roses behind. Koren Fellows encountered him when she was ten. [[spoiler: He's a Fomorian.]]

----

* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler: His attack on Koren and her neighbors seven years ago was engineered to make Crossroads more likely to accept Joselyn Atherby's granddaughter as a student.]]
* CallingCard: The only clue he left behind was a black rose at most of his crime scenes.
* DidntSeeThatComing: The Hiding Man spent a solid decade searching for [[spoiler: Joselyn Atherby or one of her children]] for his purposes before he [[spoiler: found Abigail and Koren]], at which point he had to spent another seven years waiting for the right opportunity. As a result, he's understandably surprised when another one ([[spoiler:Flick]]) drops right into his lap.
* MrExposition: He knows quite a bit about the history of both humanity in general and Heretics in particular. And he's almost eager to share that knowledge.
* {{Sadist}}: Based on what little we see of him, he appears to enjoy ''scaring the shit'' out of his victims. He apparently spent a fair amount of time screwing with Koren's head for kicks, although since we see this from her [[{{Muggle}} Bystander]] perspective, there's a lot don't see.
* ThisCannotBe: The Hiding Man can't imagine that anyone is capable of getting the better of him. When it happens, his reaction is shock and disbelief.
* WouldHurtAChild: Most of his victims were children.

[[/folder]]

* DefectorFromDecadence: Abandoned his/her people to save some early experimental subjects.

* TermsOfEndangerment: Often calls those who interest him "my dear." [[spoiler: So far, this has exclusively been Joselyn and Felicity Chambers.]]

* TheNicknamer: A habit of her's. She calls Fezzik "[[IronicNickname Shorty]]" and a new recruit ([[spoiler: Roxa]]) "Pup."

* PapaWolf: One day when his nephew was a kid, Mateo found him about to be tortured by a gang who had mistaken him for someone's brother. Mateo promptly started tearing into the bastards. [[spoiler: And he actually turned into a wolf to do it.]]

* TheNicknamer: A habit of her's. She calls Fezzik "[[IronicNickname shorty]]" and [[spoiler: Roxa]] "pup."

"Stranger" is the blanket term used by Heretics to describe magical creatures. All of them, regardless of race or sapience. As far as they're concerned, all Strangers are AlwaysChaoticEvil monsters who seek nothing less than the total destruction of mankind. This is, of course, utter nonsense. In reality Strangers are just as widely varied, complex, and nuanced as human beings. Arguably moreso, given that the term refers to magical animals as well as sapient races.

* CoolUncle: To Sean. Not by blood, but he and Sebastian are close enough that they might as well be.

* PapaWolf: One day when Sean was a kid, Mateo found him about to be tortured by a gang who had mistaken him for someone's brother. Mateo promptly started tearing into the bastards. [[spoiler: And he actually turned into a wolf to do it.]]
* SupremeChef: According to Sean, his uncle Mateo makes some of the best food you will ever eat.

[[folder: Mateo]]

One of Sean's uncles, although he and Mateo don't actually share blood. Instead, Mateo is Sebastian Gerardo's boyfriend. [[spoiler: He's also a werewolf.]]

* {{Geek}}: He's named himself after [[Wrestling/AndreTheGiant]]'s character from [[Film/ThePrincessBride]] and is a huge StarTrek fan.

[[/folder]]

* DoNotCallMePaul

[[WMG: Nocen]]

[[folder: Ammon]]

Ammon is a young [[HalfHumanHybrid half human, half something]] boy with a CompellingVoice, absolutely no conscious, and a desire to find and do "interesting" things. [[spoiler: On top of being half-human, his father also made him into a Heretic.]]

He's also Flick's half-brother.

* AbusiveParents: Generally speaking, Ammon's father spoils the living hell out of him. Right up until Ammon disobeys him. There's a reason his father is pretty much the only person Ammon is afraid of.
** [[spoiler: Fossor turned him into a Heretic through an old method. By burying him alive while bathed in the blood of an Alter.]] Please note that Ammon was eight years old in his introduction, which means he was eight years old ''at the very most'' when his father did this to him. It was probably a lot earlier than that.
* AmbiguousInnocence: Let's not sugarcoat it, Ammon is a SerialKiller. He's just as much of a monster as Crossroads claims all Strangers are. But with an upbringing like his, what else could you expect? He legitimately doesn't know any better because he's never had the chance to be anything ''but'' a monster. [[spoiler: On top of that, it's later implied that his inability to feel emotions like sadness or guilt isn't natural, but the result of something Fossor did to his head.]]
* CainAndAbel: Ammon is a rare evil Abel, but only insofar as he doesn't want to outright ''kill'' his sister. He just wants to torture her. Because he's pretty sure he likes her.
* ChildByRape: Possibly. The circumstances behind the disappearance of Joselyn Chambers are unknown when Ammon first shows up. [[spoiler: Later revelations make it very clear that this is the case.]]
* ColdBloodedTorture: This is what Ammon does to the people he ''likes.'' People he doesn't like get off comparatively easy.
* CompellingVoice: Any command he gives after saying "My name is Ammon" will be followed.
* CreepyChild: To put it mildly.
* DidntSeeThatComing: His response to people who [[spoiler: are unaffected by his CompellingVoice]] is usually to freeze up in shock. He never sees it coming and doesn't know how to react.
* EnfantTerrible
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: ''At all.'' As hard as Ammon tries, he seriously can't wrap his head around concepts like empathy and altruism in any way. He can't even understand why his sister is never happy to see him.
* EvilUncle: [[spoiler: To Koren Fellows. He's very happy to find another relative that his father ''hasn't'' forbidden him from seeing.]]
* FreudianExcuse: Ammon has a whole slew of these. He's ''seriously'' messed up in the head.
** His father is a mass murdering psychopath that alternates between spoiling and scaring the living hell out of him.
** His mind control powers make it extremely difficult for him to see people as anything other than tools or toys, exacerbating his already extreme (and possibly unnatural) sociopathy.
** [[spoiler: His mother is his father's slave.]]
** [[spoiler: He's grown up watching his father, an immortal necromancer, casually play with the laws of life and death. As far as Ammon is concerned, there's no real difference between his mind slaves and Fossor's zombie servants. As a result, he thinks absolutely nothing about killing people.]]
** And finally, [[spoiler: Fossor did ''something'' to him that changed him into... well, you should have a pretty good picture by now.]]
* GreenEyedMonster: He's upset that Flick cares about other people like Avalon and Shiori more than him.
* HealingHands: In sharp contrast to the rest of of his powers, Ammon is capable of healing other people's injuries. Unfortunately, he mostly uses this ability to keep torturing people after they've reached their limit.
* HealingFactor: Potent enough that falling face first into concrete from three stories up doesn't really bother him. He doesn't heal immediately, but he barely reacts when he finishes.
* HumanPet: He considers his mind slaves to be his pets and counts Flick as one of them. She's his sister after all. In his mind, that means she belongs to him.
* ItsAllAboutMe: To an extreme degree. Ammon is totally incapable of understanding that people other than him matter. Exemplified when he calls Flick a bad sister for not helping him [[ColdBloodedTorture figure out if he likes her or not]] and then "forgives" her for ruining his "game" by stopping him from murdering a bunch of people.
--> '''Flick''': What about the innocent people you hurt and kill? You destroy lives, Ammon.
--> '''Ammon''': They're not me.
* KidsAreCruel: Extremely cruel.
* LackOfEmpathy
* LonelyRichKid: Once you strip away the sociopathy, sadism, and insanity, Ammon is basically this.
* LongLostRelative: He's ecstatic to learn that he has an older sister and almost immediately disobeys his father to set off on a cross country road trip to find her. [[spoiler: Seller is one of their ancestors.]]
** [[spoiler: He and Flick also have older twin siblings born in the sixties, Wyatt Rendall and Abigail Fellows, as well as a niece, Abigail's daughter Koren.]]
* MeaningfulName: Ammon is a name from the bible that means "the son of my people." [[spoiler: One of the reasons Fossor gave him that name was to state his intention to use Ammon to rebuild his the society of his own race, which he enslaved, the way he thinks it should be.]]
* MoralMyopia: To an insane degree. Ammon's understanding of morality is based entirely on whether or not people are "nice" to him by doing anything and everything he tells them to. Anyone other than his father (the disciplinarian) who ''isn't'' nice to him is a "terrible, awful person" in his mind. He quite simply does not understand that people other than him matter.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler: He purposefully doesn't tell his father that he met someone other than Flick who is immune to his powers when he infiltrated Crossroads because he doesn't want to be forbidden from seeing her. As a result, Koren and Abigail are at least temporarily safe from Fossor, although Koren is still in danger from Ammon himself.]]
* NoSell: [[spoiler: All of Ammon's blood relatives are immune to his CompellingVoice, and he in turn is immune to their powers.]]
* {{Sadist}}: Ammon thinks hurting people is "interesting."
* TheSociopath: He doesn't feel things. [[spoiler: This actually bothers him, as he really ''wants'' to. That's why his "games" are so brutal. He thinks causing pain to people he might like will help him feel things.]]
** [[spoiler: Later, it's implied that this isn't natural.]]
* SpoiledBrat
* ThickerThanWater: Perhaps the closest thing Ammon has to a sense of morality is the understanding that "family is supposed to care about family." This largely translates to him believing that his family members other than his father are supposed to do whatever he says (like everyone else) and also makes him more likely to "forgive" them for disobeying (unlike everyone else).
* UsedToBeASweetKid: [[spoiler: According to his mother, at any rate. Joselyn claims that Ammon used to be a sweet boy before Fossor did something that turned him into... ''that''.]]
--> '''Joselyn''': [[spoiler: Ammon sweet before. Good boy. Fossor did something. Changed him. Broke him.]]

[[folder: Fahsteth]]

Fahsteth is a notorious member of the [[ThreateningShark shark-like]] Akheilosan race. He is extremely dangerous and extremely evil.

* TheDreaded: Hearing his name instantly makes Seller get serious.
* EarlyBirdCameo: Shows up in the third interlude quite some time before he actually enters the story.
* HiredGuns: He usually works as a mercenary.
* ImAHumanitarian: He gleefully tries to eat an eleven year old girl when he needs to replenish his strength, pausing only to lament that he didn't have enough time to enjoy his meal. Other Akheilosans appear to enjoy eating humans as well.
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: [[spoiler: He was hired to murder a young Hannah Owens in such a way that would leave her looking like a random victim.]]
* MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily: He has several rows of shark-like teeth.
* PoisonedWeapons: His blades are coated with an incredibly deadly (and very painful) poison.
* ThreateningShark
* WouldHurtAChild

[[folder: Reggie Owens]]

Reggie Owens was an ordinary alcoholic who violently abused his young daughter Hannah until one day when he was mortally wounded by Fahsteth and subsequently left for dead by the Heretics who knew what he'd been doing to Hannah. He survived long enough to be saved by a passing vampire, who shared some blood with him to save his life. Now he's a vampire. And unlike the other vampires on this page, he's actually evil.

* AbusiveParents: He regularly beat and berated his daughter for the first eleven years of her life until she was saved from him.
* TheAlcoholic
* ArchnemesisDad: To Hannah Owens, [[spoiler: who changed her name to Avalon Sinclaire.]]
* OffingTheOffspring: He tracks his daughter down roughly a year and tries to kill her.
* ScarilyCompetentTracker: Hannah and Seller have ''no idea'' how he keeps tracking her down year after year. [[spoiler: It's later implied that Professor Tangle's lover is giving him her location.]]

[[folder: Fossor]]

--> ''I will not be prevented from doing as I please.''

Fossor is an age old and undeniably evil [[TheNecromancer Necromancer]] with a well deserved reputation as TheDreaded. He's dangerous enough that he ''alone'' justifies a lot of Crossroads' xenophobia against Strangers. The pre-Crossroads Heretics attempted to banish him from earth rather than actually deal with him. They thought they could do this by [[{{Curse}} cursing]] him to only be able to step on the ashes of his enemies. It didn't work. Turns out that Fossor has enough enemies on his homeworld to render this a nonissue and no problem sacrificing as many people as he needs to in order to walk around. Fast forward to the present day and even centuries old Heretics like Seller and Ruthers hesitate to so much as speak his name.

[[spoiler: He's responsible for the disappearance of Joselyn Chambers, having kidnapped her when Flick was seven. His intended target was actually ''Felicity'', but he thought it would be fun to restore Joselyn's memories of her life as a Heretic [[{{Sadist}} so she would understand what he was going to do to her daughter]] and she took the opportunity to convince him to [[TakeMeInstead Take Her Instead]].]]

[[spoiler: [[ChildByRape He fathered Ammon on her]] in the time since, and still intends to take Felicity for himself when she turns eighteen.]]

* AbusiveParents: His son is terrified of making him angry. [[spoiler: He also did ''something'' to Ammon that turned him into the sociopath serial killer he is today. This may or may not have been after he turned the kid into a Heretic by burying him alive with the blood of an Alter.]]
* AmazonChaser: In one of the darkest ways possible. He finds certain strong women "intriguing", and immensely enjoys taking that strength for his own use by breaking them to his will.
* BadassBoast: He has a habit of making these calmly or even casually to tell or remind someone what he's capable of and how foolish it is to think he can be beaten.
* BeenThereShapedHistory: [[spoiler: He caused TheBlackDeath.]]
* BerserkButton: Don't try to tell Fossor what to do. He'll take it personally. When the Heretics tried to curse him to stay off earth, his response was to base himself there out of spite.
* BigBadEnsemble: Possibly the Biggest Bad of the setting as a whole. Definitely the BB to his own race, as he conquered their homeworld and farms it for ghosts that turn into ashes he can step on; and to the Meregan, who he pushed to the brink of extinction in order to use their giant corpses. [[spoiler: Unquestionably one of Flick's greatest enemies.]]
* ControlFreak: He ''hates'' being disobeyed.
* {{Curse}}: He can only walk on earth by stepping on the ashes of his enemies.
* TheDreaded: Fossor's reputation is earned and formidable enough that even someone as old and experienced as Seller will avoid saying his name out loud if he can help it. [[spoiler: On a more personal level, Flick is understandably terrified of him.]]
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Making a joke about his ancient curse and then laughing at the suggestion that he could ever run out of enemies.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Well, ''had'' loved ones at any rate. A young Fossor genuinely loved his mother and sister. But they've been dead and gone for thousands of years.
* EvilGloating: His introduction in a nutshell. He shows up at the end of one chapter and spends the next gloating until he leaves.
* ExactWords: Very much the type of guy who concerns himself with the letter of an agreement over the spirit. [[spoiler: Case in point: the deal he made with Joselyn was to leave her child alone in exchange for her servitude and obedience in all things. But it only applies as long as Felicity is Joselyn's ''child''. He can and fully intends to take her like he originally planned once she's an adult.]]
* FauxAffablyEvil: Fossor looks and sounds more like a children's dentist than a necromancer. That just makes him creepier in the face of how ''fucking evil he is.''
* FreudianExcuse: Subverted. His interlude looks like it's going to take this route at first when you see what happened after his mother's death. But then he [[spoiler: murders his sister to make her "immortal" (turn her into a zombie)]], making it clear that he was pretty messed up in the head from the beginning.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Fossor, the ancient necromancer who conquers planets and wipes out entire species, began life as Merakeul, the average son of a farmer.
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Smokes cigarettes.
* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday: [[spoiler: He went out of his way to visit Flick on her seventeenth birthday to tell her what he did a decade earlier and that he was coming back for her in a year. And for the record, "out of his way" doesn't mean he took an inconvenient trip, it means he arranged a massive number of simultaneous Stranger attacks across multiple population centers so the Crossroads ''and'' Garden Heretics would be too busy to interrupt or notice the chat he wanted to have with her.]]
* INeedYouStronger: [[spoiler: The stronger Flick is when Fossor takes her, the more fun he'll have breaking her. One of the reasons he warns her that he's coming is to give her the motivation to make herself as strong as possible.]]
* ItAmusedMe: Pretty much every move Fossor makes depends on how much it will amuse or intrigue him.
* ManipulativeBastard: His first major action on earth was when he took advantage of how the (pre-Crossroads) Heretics were dealing with a different threat to cause massive casualties. [[spoiler: To be specific, he convinced them to let him help and then betrayed them by unleashing TheBlackDeath on Europe.]]
** [[spoiler: During his chat with Flick he brings up damning details about her mother's history with Crossroads while leaving out important context (for example, making a big deal about how they left Joselyn defenseless without mentioning that the alternatives were execution [[FateWorseThanDeath or worse]]) in an effort to get her to distrust her teachers and superiors.]]
* MeaningfulName: "Fossor" is a word that was used by the early Christian church for gravediggers. The word most likely came from him, considering that he's been using it for thousands of years.
* MundaneUtility: His ghosts can serve as cigarette lighters. Seriously.
* TheNecromancer: He's got an army of ghosts and zombies from multiple Alter races at his beck and call.
* OnlyYouCanRepopulateMyRace: [[spoiler: He wants to rebuild his people's society under his direction, and for various reasons has decided that he wants to use Joselyn Atherby and her daughter to do it.]]
* PersonOfMassDestruction: Fossor is powerful enough that he can legitimately be called a one man extinction event, fully capable of wiping out races and destroying civilizations on his own.
* {{Sadist}}: Takes great pleasure in hurting and scaring people. [[spoiler: He restored Joselyn's memories specifically so she would recognize him and realize what he would do to Felicity if he took her, and he's highly amused by Flick's emotional distress when he tells her this a decade later.]]
* StartOfDarkness: A nine year old Mera discovered his necromantic abilities during his mother's funeral, when he attempted to prevent her ghost from moving on and was stopped by a priest and his father. Seven years later, he tried to [[spoiler: make his sister "immortal" by turning her into a zombie]], only to be stopped by his father before he could finish. He spent the next seventeen years in one of the worst prisons on the planet. When he finally escaped, he decided that he was never going to let anyone stop him from doing what he wanted again.
* TakeOverTheWorld: According to WordOfGod, he's already taken over his homeworld.
* TermsOfEndangerment: Often calls those who interest him "my dear." [[spoiler: So far, this has exclusively been Joselyn and Felicity Chambers.]]
* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: When Flick sees him for the first time, she's surprised by how utterly ''normal'' he looks. Nothing about his appearance suggests that he's anything other than an ordinary, friendly man.
* VillainsNeverLie: Flick quickly pegs him as the kind of guy that enjoys hurting people with the truth.
* VillainTakesAnInterest: [[spoiler: He took an interest in Joselyn Atherby decades ago. This was eclipsed by interest in her daughter when he first learned about Felicity.]]
* WalkingSpoiler
* WeHaveReserves: He sacrifices his ghosts at the drop of the hat because he has a ''lot'' of them on top of a steady supply to replenish his losses.
* WhatTheHellHero: Fossor appears to enjoy calling out Heretics on their less savory actions. [[spoiler: This is one of the reasons he wanted to kidnap Felicity in the first place. He thought it would be "poetic" to take the innocent child of the revolutionary the Heretic leaders [[KickTheDog crossed]] [[MoralMyopia so]] [[WouldHarmAChild many]] [[IHaveYourWife lines]] to stop and turn her into a weapon against them.]]
* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler: He relished the thought of kidnapping Joselyn Atherby's seven year old daughter and raising her to be his servant and weapon.]]
* WhyDidYouMakeMeHitYou: When Fossor gives someone a command, he's giving them a choice. Obey, or be punished for disobeying.
* YouAreNumberSix: [[spoiler: "Fah-Seur" simply means "thirty-four," in an old language from Fossor's homeworld. It was the number given to Merakeul when he was imprisoned for murdering his sister.]]

[[folder: The Hiding Man]]

A mysterious Stranger responsible for a string of disappearances seven years before the story begins, leaving only black roses behind. Koren Fellows encountered him when she was ten. [[spoiler: He's a Fomorian.]]

----

* BatmanGambit: [[spoiler: His attack on Koren and her neighbors seven years ago was engineered to make Crossroads more likely to accept Joselyn Atherby's granddaughter as a student.]]
* CallingCard: The only clue he left behind was a black rose at most of his crime scenes.
* DidntSeeThatComing: The Hiding Man spent a solid decade searching for [[spoiler: Joselyn Atherby or one of her children]] for his purposes before he [[spoiler: found Abigail and Koren]], at which point he had to spent another seven years waiting for the right opportunity. As a result, he's understandably surprised when another one ([[spoiler:Flick]]) drops right into his lap.
* MrExposition: He knows quite a bit about the history of both humanity in general and Heretics in particular. And he's almost eager to share that knowledge.
* {{Sadist}}: Based on what little we see of him, he appears to enjoy ''scaring the shit'' out of his victims. He apparently spent a fair amount of time screwing with Koren's head for kicks, although since we see this from her [[{{Muggle}} Bystander]] perspective, there's a lot don't see. [[spoiler: Possibly subverted.
* ThisCannotBe: The Hiding Man can't imagine that anyone is capable of getting the better of him. When it happens, his reaction is shock and disbelief.
* WouldHurtAChild: Most of his victims were children.

[[/folder]]

[[WMG: Reapers/Hangmen Demons]]

[[folder: Reapers In General]]

The Reapers are a highly secretive Alter race capable of absorbing the memories of those who die in their presence. Or, if they're responsible for the death, they also get the abilities and powers of said victim. Those that indulge this secondary ability are called Hangman Demons instead of Reapers.

* TheAssimilator: Just like Heretics, Reapers absorb powers and abilities from those they kill ([[spoiler:this is because the Heretic version of the ability is derived from the Reapers]]). Unlike Crossroads and Eden's Garden Heretics, Reapers also absorb the memories of those they kill.
* GeneticMemory: The standard use of the absorption ability is to pass memories from parent to child.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: A Reaper who kills too often will eventually be overwhelmed by their memories of their victims, which is why Hangmen Demons are classified differently than Reapers and tend to be a lot crazier.

[[WMG: Seosten]]

[[folder: Seosten In General]]

The Seosten are an ancient Alter race old that rules an inter-dimensional empire. They're one of the two most powerful forces in the universe, matched only by their hated rivals, the Fomorians.

* FantasticCasteSystem: Their society is divided into the Seraphim, who rule; and the Choir, who serve.
* FantasticRacism: It's pretty common for Seosten to look down on anything that isn't one of them.
* LightIsNotGood: It really isn't.
* OurAngelsAreDifferent: It's implied that the Seosten are the origin of the idea of angels, what with their ethereal beauty and commonly ending their names with "-iel."
* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler: The Seosten created the [[WeirdnessCensor Bystander Effect]] to keep humanity isolated and under control. They later possessed a man named Hieronymus Bosch and used him to build the Heretical Edge and found Crossroads for the same purpose.]]
* PuppeteerParasite: They're capable of possessing living creatures.
* ScaryDogmaticAliens
* SlaveMooks: The Seosten maintain armies and camps of Alter slaves to do their bidding.

[[folder: Sariel [[spoiler: Moon]]]]

A former Seostenic infiltrator who abandoned her people to marry a human she had fallen in love with. [[spoiler: An Eden's Garden Heretic named Haiden Moon, to be exact. They went on to have twin children, Vanessa and Tristan]]. Her former colleagues later found her and attempted to retrieve her, which didn't end well.

* FallenAngel: In the sense that she abandoned her angelic race.
* GodGuise: Impersonated the Greco-Roman goddess Artemis/Diana in ancient times. [[spoiler: She chose the surname "Moon" as a reference to that time.]]
* GoingNative: After spending thousands of years living among humans, Sariel grew to like and want to join them.
* HappilyMarried: She ''was.'' But her former comrades decided that this wouldn't do.
* InterspeciesRomance: With a former Eden's Garden Heretic. They were HappilyMarried with [[UntoUsASonAndDaughterAreBorn twins.]]
* ParentalAbandonment: She and her husband were forcibly separated from their children and each other when they were sucked into a interdimensional portal and scattered across multiple words. [[spoiler: Only Vanessa remained on earth]].

[[folder: Puriel]]

A loyal Seosten who has been running infiltration operations on earth for thousands of years. He's Sariel's former superior, and the one sent to retrieve her for re-education from earth only to end up getting sucked into an inter-dimensional portal.

----

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: Puriel found the stories the Greeks came up with to be entertaining, yet has totally failed to learn anything about the [[PrideBeforeAFall dangers of hubris]] or the [[SelfFulfillingProphecy folly of trying to prevent prophecies]] from them.
* GodGuise: Masqueraded as Zeus/Jupiter in ancient times.
* FantasticRacism: He views humans as filthy savages.
* {{Jerkass}}: He calls Sariel's family (which includes young children) "a lie" to their faces.

[[folder: Apollo]]

Another Seostenic renegade. Apollo was once an agent and infiltrator like Sariel and Puriel, but abandoned them thousands of years ago to enjoy life. He's well known among the Seosten as a traitor.

As of this writing, Apollo hasn't actually appeared in story. All this information comes from WordOfGod.

* DefectorFromDecadence: Inverted, as he actually defected ''to'' decadence. But the people he defected from are a despotic race of slavers, so it's still a step up.
* GodGuise: He pretended to be the god Apollo. Hence the name.
* HonoraryUncle: [[spoiler: To Sariel's children.]]
* LikeBrotherAndSister: His relationship with Sariel, who pretended to be Artemis. At least according to him. Sariel herself doesn't see things the same way.
* SymbioticPossession: In contrast to the direct possession practiced by the majority of Seosten, Apollo only possesses willing hosts who like seeking out thrills as much as he does. He helps them go beyond human limits and frees them from the [[WeirdnessCensor Bystander Effect]] in exchange.
* ThrillSeeker: Apollo spends most of his time looking for the next thrill, doing crazy {{Film/XXX}}-esque stunts.

[[WMG: Fomorians]]

[[folder: In General]]

The Fomorians are another inter-dimensional powerhouse on par with the Seosten, their most hated enemy. They're bio-engineers that field armies their monstrous creations. They tried to invade earth in the late nineteenth century, at roughly the same time as the beginning of the UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar. It lasted a few years until Gaia Sinclaire, working with an independent Heretic named Joshua [[spoiler: Atherby]], managed to seal them off from earth [[HeroicSacrifice at the cost of Joshua's life]].

[[spoiler: The human race as a whole is one of their experiments, designed to be capable of taking on the traits of other races and interbreeding with them. They want the human race back.]]

* AncientAliens: [[spoiler: They created the human race, and a traitor brought them to earth.]]
* BioAugmentation: They tend to augment both themselves and their victims.
* BodyHorror: The only term that can adequately describe what they do to their "experiments."
* FantasticRacism: Played with. The Fomorians think human beings (and their abilities to take on traits of and interbreed with other races) are ''awesome.'' But they still look down on humanity, considering them tools to be used.
* NamedByDemocracy: THey don't actually call themselves Fomorians, that's just a name that was given to them after beings from human myths. But even other Alters and Seosten infiltrators use it to describe them. The Fomorians themselves [[SureWhyNot don't seem to have any problem with the name]].
* OrganicTechnology
* SlaveRace: [[spoiler: Not them, but humanity was created to serve as their slave army.]]

[[folder: The Traitor]]

ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. This Fomorian Traitor earned the name when they stole some early biological prototypes many thousands of years ago and destroyed all the data that led to their creation. Even to the present day, this individual is spoken of with pure hatred by the first Fomorian we actually meet.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: [[spoiler: ''All'' of human history happened because this individual brought the early humans to earth.]]

A pureblood Akharu warrior who came to earth a few hundred years ago in search of a cure for the {{Curse}} that was inflicted upon his people by their enemies, the Vestil. This curse gives anyone with Akharu blood a need to constantly replenish it and paralyzes any who don't manage it. The Akharu also have magically enhanced physicality and immortality as a result of winning a war for dominance on their homeworld. The Heretics named them [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]].

While he was on earth he met Jiao, a dying Chinese woman who he saved by sharing his blood with her, making her into a human vampire. They soon had a daughter they named Asenath. In 1803, when Asenath was eight, Tiras was forced to return to his homeworld to once again combat the Vestil, who were preparing another curse that would wipe out everyone that had Akharu blood (which by then included Jiao and Asenath). He promised to return as soon as possible.

The Fomorians are another inter-dimensional powerhouse on par with the Seosten, their most hated enemy. They're bio-engineers that field armies their monstrous creations. They tried to invade earth in the late nineteenth century, at roughly the same time as the beginning of the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar]]. It lasted a few years until Gaia Sinclaire, working with an independent Heretic named Joshua [[spoiler: Atherby]], managed to seal them off from earth [[HeroicSacrifice at the cost of Joshua's life]].

[[folder: Sariel]]

A Seosten who abandoned her people to marry a human she had fallen in love with. [[spoiler: An Eden's Garden Heretic named Haiden Moon, to be exact. They went on to have twin children, Vanessa and Tristan.]]

* GodGuise: Impersonated the Greco-Roman goddess Artemis/Diana in ancient times.

A Seosten who was sent to retrieve Sariel from earth.

Called Vampires by Heretics, the Akharu are an ancient warrior race seeking a cure for the Blood Plauge inflicted upon their race by their mortal enemies, the Vestil. All Akharu possess SuperStrength, SuperSpeed, SuperSenses, and {{Immortality}}. Their curse forces them to replace their cursed blood by drinking the blood of others. They can also share blood with human beings, turning said humans into Akharu-hybrids with all the same powers on top of an added weakness to sunlight.

* CursedWithAwesome: ''Human'' vampires are this. They can't survive the sunlight anymore, but they get kickass superpowers and an immunity to the [[WeirdnessCensor Bystander Effect]] too.

* OurVampireAreDifferent

Purin's son.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Mateo]]

One of Sean's uncles, although he and Mateo don't actually share blood. Instead, Mateo is Sebastian Gerardo's boyfriend. [[spoiler: He's also a werewolf.]]

* BadassGay
* CoolUncle: To Sean. Not by blood, but he and Sebastian are close enough that they might as well be.
* PapaWolf: One day when Sean was a kid, Mateo found him about to be tortured by a gang who had mistaken him for someone's brother. Mateo promptly started tearing into the bastards. [[spoiler: And he actually turned into a wolf to do it.]]
* SupremeChef: According to Sean, his uncle Mateo makes some of the best food you will ever eat.
* YouAreNotAlone: [[spoiler: He's brought in by Gaia and Seller to help Roxa Pittman after she gets turned into a werewolf. He immediately offers her a place in his home and with his pack.]]

[[WMG: Nocen]]

[[folder: Ammon]]

Ammon is a young [[HalfHumanHybrid half human, half something]] boy with a CompellingVoice, absolutely no conscious, and a desire to find and do "interesting" things. [[spoiler: On top of being half-human, his father also made him into a Heretic.]]

He's also Flick's half-brother.

[[folder: Lemuel]]

A werewolf who lives with his pack in the jungle beneath Eden's Garden. He's not quite a Nocen, but still a huge bastard. At least as far as Heretics are concerned.

* CruelMercy: [[spoiler: Rather than killing her, Lemuel turns a wounded and virtually helpless Roxa Pittman into a werewolf and leaves her for dead, thinking that even if she survives all the jungle monsters around, she'll still spend her life being hunted by the people who were supposed to be her allies.]]
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: It's pretty obvious that Lemuel has legitimate grievances against Heretics. But the sheer vindictive pleasure he takes in hurting a wounded and virtually helpless Heretic student who has yet to actually do anything makes it hard to view him as anything but the monster the Heretics assume he is.
* {{Sadist}}: At least as far as Heretics are concerned.
* ScaryBlackMan

[[folder: Valentine]]

[[/folder]]

[[WMG: Reapers/Hangmen Demons]]

[[folder: Reapers In General]]

Tropes describing the Reapers and Hangman Demons as a whole.

* TheAssimilator: Just like Heretics, Reapers absorb powers and abilities from those they kill ([[spoiler:this is because the Heretic version of the ability is derived from the Reapers]]). Unlike Heretics, Reapers also ignore memories.
* GeneticMemory: The standard use of the absorption ability is to pass memories from parent to child.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: A Reaper who kills too many other beings will eventually be overwhelmed by their memories, which is why Hangmen Demons are classified differently than Reapers.

[[WMG: Seosten]]

[[folder: Seosten In General]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: In General]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tiras]]

A pureblood Akharu warrior who came to earth a few hundred years ago in search of a cure for the {{Curse}} that was inflicted upon his people by their enemies, the Vestil. This curse gives anyone with Akharu blood a need to constantly replenish it and paralyzes any who don't manage it. The Akharu also have magically enhanced physicality and immortality as a result of winning a war for dominance on their homeworld. The Heretics named them [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampires]].

While he was on earth he met Jiao, a dying Chinese woman who he saved by sharing his blood with her, making her into a human vampire. They soon had a daughter they named Asenath. In 1803, when Asenath was eight, Tiras was forced to return to his homeworld to once again combat the Vestil, who were preparing another curse that would wipe out everyone that had Akharu blood (which by then included Jiao and Asenath). He promised to return as soon as possible.

* DaywalkingVampire: As a pureblood Akharu vampire, he's completely unaffected by sunlight.
* HumanAliens: The Akharu are indistinguishable from humans at a glance. Tiras is noted to have features resembling Native Americans.
* InterspeciesRomance: With Jiao.
* IShallReturn: He promised Senny that he would return one day, when the Vestil were stopped, even if it took him a thousand years. So far it's taken him more than two hundred years.
* ParentalAbandonment: He left his family to stop the Vestil from wiping out all who had Akharu blood, promising that he'd be back as soon as possible. He made that promise in 1803 and still hasn't returned.

[[folder: Asenath]]

The half-human, half-Akharu daughter of Jiao and Tiras born in 1795. Asenath took her father's blood to become a vampire when she was around twenty years old and has spent the time since traveling, helping people, getting Journalism degrees from various universities, [[spoiler: and was part of Joselyn Atherby's revolution for decades before it was ended]].

[[spoiler: She's set on Ammon's trail by the mother of one of his victims and catches up to him on the same night he makes his move against Flick. After Flick's traumatic encounter with Fossor, she promises to help her deal with him in any way she can. For the time being, that means protecting Lincoln Chambers from Fossor, Ammon, or anyone else that might seek to harm him.]]

[[folder: In General]]

[[folder: In General]]

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Gavant]]

Gavant is a Meregan, an Alter race capable of space travel. They grow to be around nine feet tall. He appears to be a leader, or at least an influential member, of his people. [[spoiler: And he's a good friend of Flick's mother.]]

[[folder: In General]]

[[folder: In General]]

Tropes describing the Reapers and Hangman Demons in general.

[[folder: In General]]

* FreudianExcuse: Ammon has a whole slew of these.

[[folder: The Meregan kids]]

[[folder: The Traitor]]