A listing of characters that appear in C. Chancey's A Net of Dawn and Bones. Beware of unmarked spoilers!
open/close all folders
The Good Guys
Myrrh Shafat
Myrrh Shafat
- The Archmage: An incredibly powerful enchantress who can go toe-to-toe with Demon Lords for a short time, possesses knowledge about all four styles and power sources of magic, and regularly pulls out magic that floors most magic users she comes across.
- Badass Bookworm: A font or arcane and religious knowledge who loves books while being an experienced demon slayer. She still holds a grudge for the Library of Alexandria. Father O’Malley is worried about her finding Amazon.
- Black Cloak: Her shadow shift has this appearance while in Hell. When back on Earth she shifts it to a different form to keep it from drawing attention, though it does tend to change depending on what she requires of it.
- The Dragonslayer: Mentions offhandedly in Seeds of Blood that she had to slay a dragon sometime in the past.
- Demon Slaying: Essentially the other half of being a hell-raider, apart from being The Soulsaver.
- Doom Magnet: Admits trouble would find her no matter where she went.
- Experienced Protagonist: Myrrh has been a hell-raider and demon slayer for around 18 centuries, and has all the experience and magical expertise involved.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Due to having been in Hell for 26 years. Is implied she’s done this before, though never for such a long gap.
- Flaming Sword: A sword of blazing light capable of slicing through demons
- Flash Step: Capable of moving in a blur of movement faster than the eye can see
- Fragile Speedster: Immensely fast and capable of dishing out immense magical damage, but still has all the frailties of a human body.
- Glass Cannon: Capable of dishing out immense magical damage and immensely fast, but still has all the frailties of a human body.
- Good is Not Nice: Admits that 30 years ago she would have spelled the security guard at the bank to sleep then dragged the vampire bloodslave to the Church for purification whether she wanted to or not.
- Healing Hands: Capable of healing a depressed brain injury in an instant, when other magical healers would have struggled to keep a person with that kind of injury alive.
- I Have Many Names: Myrrh Shafat, Myrrh the Heretic, Mah Myrrh (Saint Myrrh) Myrrh the Gnostic, Myrrh of Alexandria, Myrrh the Demon-slayer… and Oh Lord Not Her Again Arrrgh.
- Immortal Procreation Clause: Myrrh cannot have children due to being in a body that is really just a magical construct.
- Last of Her Kind: Last known hell-raider still active.
- Made a Slave: Myrrh has been made a slave a few times in the past. Usually she escaped quickly, although it took her longer when she was imprisoned with lead.
- Master of One Magic: A master enchantress, who admits she does not have the inborn talent required for magecraft, nor has she learned sorcery or wizadry. On the other hand, she is so capable with enchanting that it really doesn’t matter.
- Meaningful Name: Myrrh is implied to not be the name she was born with. As for the meaning:“The solemn perfume, the incense for the dead”
- The Mentor: To Aidan.
- Mystical White Hair: White hair and a powerful enchantress.
- One-Man Army: Hell-raider.
- The Paladin: A holy warrior who hands out both wisdom and smitation when the situation requires it.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Myrhh may be small, but takes down vampires effortlessly and can channel enough power to go toe-to-toe with Demon Lords. The Big Bad even questions how a human is able to manage the sheer magical output she can manage without external backup or killing themselves.
- Reality Warper: A low level example, but in Seeds of Blood Myrrh states that her enchanting is basically her asking the universe to work in the way she wants it and reality generally obliging. Aidan observes that there is a distinct aspect of world-shaping
- Really 700 Years Old: About 18 centuries old. More or less.
- Red Baron: See I Have Many Names
- Religious Bruiser: A devoted Christian, albeit one of a sect deemed heretical by the others, who spends her time fighting demons and uses Psalms as incantations
- Resurrective Immortality: Myrrh can resurrect herself when the light of dawn touches the skull she leaves behind when she dies. The problem comes if somebody seals it away where the dawn cannot reach it, then she is trapped in Hell until is it unsealed.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Was stuck in Hell while her anchor to Earth was kept in a box.
- Spanner in the Works: For demons. It’s her job.
- Worf Had the Flu: Spends most of her time significantly drained in A Net of Dawn and Bones due to escaping from Hell and exhausting herself with several powerful magic workings.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: A rare heroic example, she has a phial that absorbs souls while she is in Hell so she can later release them to Heaven.
Aidan Lindisfarne
Aidan Lindisfarne/Christophe Savonarola:
- Animal Motifs: Has been compared to a lion on multiple occasions, from his physical appearance to his senses. Considering his father, it makes sense.
- Badass Longcoat: Wears what appears to be a mix of trenchcoat and sweatshirt after his resurrection.
- Casting a Shadow: Reveals the ability to control shadows towards the end of Seeds of Blood by managing to temporarily bind both Yaldabaoth and Aariel with shadows to keep them from killing Church, Usagi and Eagleman.
- Elemental Hair Colors: A Fiery Redhead who has control over fire, he originally had black hair before his Traumatic Superpower Awakening.
- Feed It with Fire: Literally. Aidan gains energy from fire, with a rakshasa in Seeds of Blood observing his aura growing stronger as he absorbs fire from a blaze he accidentally set in the forest.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Not quite as bad as Myrrh, due to having been in Hell for just 25 years.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Half-fire demon. It turns out that his mother wasn’t fully human either.
- Heartbroken Badass: After 25 years in Hell, still thinks the worst day of his life was his last on Earth.
- In Love with Your Carnage: Thinks the itty-bitty demon-slayer dusting vamps is so cute.
- Legally Dead: Buried, even. This becomes a plot point.
- Locked into Strangeness: Originally had black hair and brown eyes. When his Traumatic Superpower Awakening happened, his eyes turned amber and his hair turned red.
- Meaningful Name: Aidan Lindisfarne was deliberately picked by Myrrh; a saint associated with fire. Turns out his first name was deliberately picked as well; his mother was determined to make sure Christophe (Christ-bearer) would not be a case of Villainous Lineage.
- Nice Guy: Yes. The half-demon is one of the nicest guys in town….
- Playing with Fire: Possesses fire magery.
- Smoking Gun: To the Intrepid Police Department, Aidan is this… if they can convince him to admit it.
- Super-Senses: Can see in the dark of Hell, darkness on the Earth is no problem. After commenting on Church’s conversation with Annabel over the phone Myrrh has to remind him that most people don’t have senses like he does.
- Training from Hell: In Hell, actually, but he certainly has the trauma from it.
- Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Awoke to his fire magic when being pushed to his limits during his Training from Hell with Sword Aariel.
- Upbringing Makes the Hero: Between his mom and Father O’Malley, he turned out all right, despite still having some underlying thought processes that are inhuman.
Detective Church
Detective (Jezebel) Church:
- Badass Normal: Outside of Second Sight, Church has no magic. She does carry holy water and silver bullets. And improvises.
- Drives Like Crazy: Church apparently took honours in evasive driving. Lampshaded by Steven, who notes that while no sane driver could have survived the trap he sent up, Church is not a sane driver. It’s heavily implied that her Second Sight is a major factor that keeps her from crashing.
- Embarrassing First Name: Actually saves her from mind magic, because Church never gives people her full name willingly the effects of using her true name are reduced to a fraction.
- Supernatural Sensitivity: Church has Second Sight. Ouch.
Father O'Malley
Father O’Malley
- Badass Preacher: Successfully kept one half-demon kid on the straight and narrow so well that the kid stayed that way. After twenty-five years in Hell.
- Cool Old Guy: On the wrong side of 80, yet happily engages in theological debates and challenges Myrrh to translation competitions.
- Good Is Not Soft: “Love the Lord, love your neighbor, and give evil a smack in the kisser.”
Xanthippe Coral
Xanthippe Coral:
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Medusa. In a black veil.
- Geometric Magic: Possesses knowledge of protective runes, which she used to ward Church’s apartment.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Was in the middle of this when she found out Church was alive after all.
- Meaningful Name: There’s a legend about coral being formed from the blood of Medusa falling on flowers. She is annoyed that people don’t understand the reference.
- Mundane Utility: Implied. She’s in the funeral business. Specifically, granite carvings and memorial markers….
- Really 700 Years Old: Old enough to remember Sparta. Which makes her well over 2,000.
- Taken for Granite: She is a medusa after all. Inflicts this on the Intrepid Police Department when they are possessed. She notes she has a way to undo the process.
Sister Usagi
Usagi:
- Bringing in the Expert: An expert on rakshasas and creatures of Buddhist origin.
- Delicate and Sickly: Usagi has Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a serious heart illness which prevented her from joining the police academy. It gets triggered during the drinking competition. Aidan may have been burning out all the alcohol in the mead, but there is enough stimulant to cause her some serious trouble.
- Genki Girl: Always cheerful, even in situations where it may not be completely appropriate.
- Staff of Authority: Carries around a khakkhara tipped with panchaloha, and she knows how to use it.
The Bad Guys:
Steven Savonarola
Steven Savonarola:
- An Ice Person: An extension of his water magic.
- Cain and Abel: The Cain to Aidan/Cristophe’s Abel. He even successfully killed him before the story began.
- The Chessmaster: Playing a Long Game over more than 25 years, he masterminded the breaking of The Masquerade, tarnished the reputation of the Hunters using the death of his own brother and manipulated the resulting climate to aid in the creation of the Demongate.
- The Corrupter: Failed with Church. He had hoped to corrupt her with knowledge of magic, instead she became suspicious of him.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Half-fire demon. With water magic. The guy has issues.
- Hero Killer: Was behind Myrrh’s death 26 years ago, and there are some hints that he may have had a hand in the deaths of other hell-raiders.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Imprisoning Sword Aariel bites him in the ass when Aariel blows up his house while fighting Myrrh and leads to his physical body dying.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Towards Aidan, who has both fire magic and the favour of Yaldabaoth.
- Making a Splash: Uses water magery, despite his father being a fire demon. His mother was a descendent of the Finfolk, which gave him his water magic while blocking any fire magic he might have.
- Meaningful Name: Another saint. Unfortunately for his mother, this one didn’t work.
- Serial Killer: Using Human Sacrifice to build the foundations of the Demongate.
- The Un-Favourite: Steven, compared to Aidan for both Yaldabaoth and Jeremiah Savonarola. When he finds out that Aidan isn’t even the former’s son… he takes it poorly.
Sword Aariel
Sword Aariel:
- Badass Family: His brother is Yaldabaoth.
- Combat Pragmatist: According to Aidan he doesn’t have the time to muck around in a fight, so he kills his enemies as quickly as possible.
- The Dreaded: Church is terrified of him after the events of A Net of Dawn and Bones
- Evil Mentor: To Aidan. With the revelation that Aidan is his son, the evil part is in doubt.
- Flaming Sword: A black one.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Myrrh flat out tells Church that should he appear on Earth she should run.
- Noble Demon: Quite literally.
- Magma Man: Described by Aidan as a lava-lion at one point.
- Physical God: Myrrh puts Aariel on the same level as Hariti, a rakshasi turned goddess. Usagi is inclined to agree with her.
- Playing with Fire: Favours using quick blasts of fire that kills his enemies quickly.
- Supernatural Gold Eyes: Amber eyes that he shares with his son.
- Undying Loyalty: To Yaldabaoth. It is heavily implied that it is the reason he Fell. He is so loyal that, even if he regrets it, he would have killed his own son if he hadn’t been interrupted.
Lord Yaldabaoth
Lord Yaldabaoth
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: A powerful demon lord.
- Elemental Shapeshifter: Lord Yaldabaoth is mentioned to constantly be shifting his appearance with three themes holding constant: the fire, the darkness and the lion.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Steven may be the one on Earth trying to open the Demongate, but Yaldabaoth was the one who insured he would be in a position to do so and provided the knowledge. Steven even notes that summoning him before he has completed the gate would be very foolish.
- Physical God: Goes toe-to-toe with the asura Lord Ahi when on Earth
- Playing with Fire: Evidently enjoys torturing people and demons slowly with it.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: One of the strongest demons in Hell, and the leader of his court.
Others:
Halo
Halo (Harry Lowe):
- Light Is Not Good: Aidan sees his magic as a harsh white light, and Myrrh suspects was given by a Power of Heaven. Somehow though, somebody always gets hurt as a result of his visions.
