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Races
Humans
- Humans Are Average: Human characters have no Banes besides mortality, and only one Boon.
- Humans Are Special: Humanity was the favored race of the now-dead gods, and humans are all inextricably tied to the threads of fate.
- Humans Are Survivors: Humanity's main strength is stated to be their adaptability and willingness to imrpove themselves in order to survive in the harsh world they inhabit.
- Semi-Divine: A Blackbird with the Godling Boon has some trace of the old gods in them, allowing them some minor, unique supernatural powers.
- Taking You with Me: The Death Frenzy Boon allows the character to instantly kill all mortal targets within melee range and critically wound anything else, but they can only use this ability right before they die or are knocked unconscious.
- Winds of Destiny, Change!: The Cat's Cradle and The Winds of Destiny Boons allow the Blackbird to subtly alter Fate, re-rolling failed rolls or negating Misfortune.
Aes
- Biomanipulation: Some Aes are able to twist the flesh of the living with a single touch, often mutilating them or twisting them into nightmarish monstrosities. The Fleshcrawl Boon allows a player to do this as well, which can be used to harm or heal.
- Cannot Tell a Lie: The Truthsayer Bane prevents the Aes from ever being able to willingly and knowingly tell a lie.
- Cold Iron: The Aes are vulnerable to weapons made of iron, and it is one of the two reliable ways to bypass their Resurrective Immortality. This doesn't require any special kind of iron either- literally any iron will do, including alloys.
- The Fair Folk: While they are by no means universally evil, many of them regard humans with disdain or even outright hatred. The houses of the Full Moon and the Gibbous Moon are the most malign of the Aes houses, the former being brutal pragmatists and the latter a horde of vengeful barbarians seeking retribution for the destruction of their decadent, oppressive civilization.
- Glamour: Each Aes is disguised by a magical glamour that makes them appear human, as well as influencing the emotions of mortals who see them in subtle ways. The exception is Aes of the House of the New Moon, whose Glamour just makes them look like an ordinary person without influencing those around them at all.
- Glamour Failure: The Aes' glamour doesn't work in reflections, and any Aes with the Tell Bane has some kind of Red Right Hand that allows a person to see through the illusion.
- Holy Burns Evil: While not necessarily evil, Aes with the Profane Bane are repelled by holy symbols.
- Mirror Monster: The Lurking Glass Boon allows an Aes to hide their bodies of light and shadow inside a reflective surface, and remain as long as they like. If the surface they hide inside is destroyed, they are instantly slain.
- The Needless: Due to having a body of magic and light rather than one of flesh, the Aes do not need to eat, sleep, or drink, though they can do so if they choose.
- Our Elves Are Different: The Aes are far closer to old folkloric depictions of fey than they are to standard fantasy elves, being immortal creatures of pure magic bound by strange rules.
- Pure Magic Being: Aes are beings of magic energy with a mask-like face of unmoving bronze. This causes them to have an innate ability to sense the Od, an immunity to disease, aging, poison, suffocation, exposure, or starvation, and a limited form of Resurrective Immortality, but also makes them unable to benefit from mundane forms of healing. Unusually for this trope, Aes are incapable of manipulating the Od and are thus unable to actually perform most forms of magic, though they do have a few unique tricks.
- Resurrective Immortality: If an Aes is killed with anything except magic or iron, they dissipate rather than truly dying, leaving behind their bronze, mask-like face, and reform the next dusk in the same place as their face.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Aes with the Contort Boon are able to twist their bodies into new shapes; growing claws and fangs to attack their foes, extending their limbs, or twisting their bodies in impossible ways to move through even the smallest gaps.
- Walking Wasteland: Aes with the Hexmarked Bane disrupt the natural flow of the Od with their presence, causing increasingly dire calamities the longer they remain in a single location.
Daimn
- Our Dwarves Are All the Same: While they are called Dwarves and certainly share some of the hallmarks, they stray far from the typical fantasy model. They were originally Aes who chose to remake themselves, becoming
Jotunnkin
- Awesome, but Impractical: The Jotunnkin are huge, strong, and durable, making them excellent melee combatants. But this same size makes it hard for them to even fit within many human structures, and requires almost all of their equipment to be specially-made and more expensive due to the increased quantity of materials required to craft it.
- Cannibalism Superpower: The Roaring Devourer Boon allows a Jotunnkin to recover health by consuming part of a freshly-killed human corpse.
- Dying Race: The vast majority of Jotunnkin resided within the Ash of Thule, and died when it was destroyed by the Oligarchs. There are still a not-insignificant number remaining, but they will never recover. Their fate is sealed, and their extinction is inevitable.
Nephilim
- Claimed by the Supernatural: Nephilim are descendants of human Theurges who made a bargain with Outsiders: Power, for themselves and all of their descendants, in exchange for service from the same. Creatures with Odsight can see a different marking depending on which Outsider court they are descended from, such as a Nephilim of the Court of Ignorance having an ethereal third eye in the center of their forehead.
The Extinguished Gods
In General
The primordial gods of old, now dead.
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: The gods were beyond all mortal understanding and morality. Whatever their desires and motivations were, any alignment with mortal views of right and wrong were entirely coincidental.
- Death of the Old Gods: The gods of old are dead, slaughtered by the Oligarchs in their bid for godhood.
- Eldritch Abomination: Subverted. The old gods, for all their strangeness and incomprehensibility, were neither alien nor otherworldly. They served as the basis for the mortal world and the laws of nature.
- The Old Gods: The gods were ancient primordial beings, so old and mighty that the distinction between them and the laws of nature were difficult to discern.
- Red Baron: Each of the old gods as a number of epithets, as mere names were seen as too petty to fully capture their magnificence.
- You Cannot Grasp the True Form: The gods were something unimaginable to mortals, and to see the entirety of a god's form would break a mortal's mind.
The Rider
Goddess of the sea and all the rivers that flow into it.
- Hellish Horse: She typically appeared to mortals in the form of a massive horse, made of black abyssal waters in which could be seen glimpses of pelagic horrors.
- Human Sacrifice: Sacrifices to her were typically imprisoned criminals or captives from raids who were drowned in the sea or bled into rivers.
- Lord of the Ocean: She held sway over all the world's seas, as well as the rivers that fed into the ocean.
- Red Baron: Foam-breaker, wave-wrestler, sheen-skinned swimmer, thrall-taker, fathom-thane, rock-beater, abyss-wife, hoof-thunderer.
Mother Wolf
Goddess of the woods, and all animals that walk.
- Canis Major: How she typically appeared to mortals, as a massive she-wolf
- Human Sacrifice: Sacrifices to her were typically criminals who were released into the woods and given a three-day head start before the entire community started hunting them. The few who survived were released and pardoned, this being viewed as a sign of the goddess's favor.
- Red Baron: Pack-mother, night-pelted, many-teated, endless-runner, bone-gnasher, tribe-maker, beast-spawner, all-rutter, first womb.
- Savage Wolves: A goddess of wilderness and hunting, she was a brutal and violent goddess who often appeared as a massive wolf and who held wolves as her sacred animal.
Yggdrasil
The god of time, plant life, and thresholds.
- Human Sacrifice: Sacrifices to Yggdrasil were often volunteers, or decided by drawing names from a basket if no volunteers stepped forward. The chosen were fed a feast of wine and cakes, bathed, dressed in fine robes, and nailed to the oldest known tree in the area.
- Physical God: Unlike the other gods, Yggdrasil's body was rooted in the mortal world in the form of the massive Ash of Thule.
- Red Baron: Eldest, leaf-bearded, wind-dancer, cloud-crowned, knife-branched, bird-host,winter-toothed, age-rimed, well-drinker, rune-keeper. Following its death, when it was reduced to a blackened, broken stump by the Oligarchs, it gained new epithets: lack-speared, poison-hearted, bug-hoarder.
- Token Good Teammate: Downplayed. It's noted to have been much less wrathful than the other gods, and somewhat more benevolent, such as "adopting" the Jotunnkin and sheltering them within its wood. It still wasn't really "good" though, and still accepted human sacrifices. Though the rituals surrounding these sacrifices were somewhat kinder than those of the other gods, with the sacrifice being chosen by volunteer or lottery rather than executing criminals or captives, and their family being granted a measure of wealth in recompense.
- World Tree: The Ash of Thule served as the door between the mortal world and that of the gods, and as such Yggdrasil was the first of the gods felled by the Oligarchs in their invasion of Heaven.
Corvus
The god of death, and a patron of thieves and liars.
- Creepy Crows: He typically appeared to mortals in the form of a colossal crow, and is strongly associated with corvids in general. While most birds are said to have been born from Yggdrasil's leaves, corvids are believed to have been called from the lands of the dead by him.
- Human Sacrifice: While he was said to prefer sacrifices of precious metals and other wealth, communities without much wealth would instead attempt to placate him by hanging thieves at bridges and crossroads. The sick were also sacrificed during times of plague, hoping to sate his taste for death enough that he would lift the disease.
- Meaningful Name: Corvus is the latin name for... well, corvids.
- Red Baron: Soul-stealer, branch-dancer, sky-toucher, night-watcher, ghost-guide, doom-crier, carrion-feaster, charnel-beaked, ash-cloaked.
- Thieving Magpie: Like most corvids, he loved shiny objects. One myth claims that he stole the north star itself from the sky to decorate his nest, only reluctantly returning it when coerced by the Norns, and it was common practice to sacrifice jewelry and other wealth to him in an attempt to win his favor.
Ouroboros
A god of the eternal cycle, of change and opposing forces.
- Human Sacrifice: Its sacrifices were typically infants and the elderly, burned alive in large, egg-shaped ovens. If none were available, strangers to the community would be locked in large wooden statues and burned alive inside them.
- Hypnotic Eyes: Ouroboros's gaze could enthrall any who met it, even the other gods. Prayers and sacrifices to Ouroboros were often requests to enthrall one of the other gods into granting the wish of its petitioners.
- Red Baron: Mail-skinned, two-tongued, jewel-eyed, egg-eater, limb-quickener, pyre-lighter, the dragon that is the world.
The Norns
The arbiters of Fate, who wove destiny into the Od.
- The Dividual: Possibly. It's unclear if the Norns were a trio of entities or a single being who chose to appear in the form of three women.
- The Hecate Sisters: The Norns appeared to mortals in the form of three sisters: Urd, a wizened crone who stored the threads of the past; Verdandi, a middle-aged woman who worked the threads of the present; and Skuld, a young maiden who looked to the future. This wasn't set in stone though; sometimes Skuld would appear old and Urd would appear to be the youngest, for example.
- Red Baron: Wheel-spinners, lot-casters, thread-hens, stitch-wives, doom-hags, scourge-nurses, grandmothers dear, hearth-nuns, kindly dames.
The Oligarchs
In General
The mortals of wealth and power who schemed to murder the gods of old and steal their divinity.
The specific Oligarchs listed below are just a few of their number.
- The Corruption: Each Oligarch twists the minds and bodies of those touched by their influence, changing them in ways both subtle and overt before eventually killing them.
- Cosmic Keystone: The Oligarchs have embedded themselves into the fabric of reality, and killing them would severely damage the world at large as whatever aspect of reality they now embody would be destroyed: slaying the Child of Longing would kill off all insects, the Allmother's death would destroy the very concept of identity, and so on. The rulebook hints that these disasters could be mitigated if new gods rose to take their places.
- Deity of Human Origin: The Oligarchs were once a cabal of powerful, wealthy, and unscrupulous mortals who aspired to usurp the gods themselves, and succeeded.
- Eldritch Abomination: While the Oligarchs were once human, their ascension has made them something unnatural and incomprehensible.
The Child of Longing
Once known as Caoimhe-Ailis, the only daughter of a brutal warlord named Caoimhe-Ondrej. Ondrej joined the Oligarchs in their quest to usurp the gods, but at his moment of triumph Ailis murdered him and stole his divinity.
Now she is the Child of Longing, a goddess governing metamorphosis, insects, and hunger.
- The Baby of the Bunch: The only child Oligarch to be featured.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: As a mortal, Ailis had a habit of mutilating animals and building gruesome sculptures from their body parts. Her father, Ondrej, encouraged this behavior.
- The Corruption: Hers is simply called the Change, and causes the afflicted to become easily distracted, forgetful, childish, and terribly hungry, all while flesh-eating insects grow within them. As time goes by these symptoms worsen, until they're nothing more than immobile hives for the insects crawling through their bodies, kept alive in unbearable agony until someone draws near and they explode in a shower of blood and a swarm of ravenous bugs, finally dying.
- Enfante Terrible: She's described as having engaged in casual cruelty from a young age, and stole godhood from her father when she tore out his throat at the age of ten.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: She was once play-mates with Balion Sothis, current ruler of Mero, and used her powers upon her ascension to save him from a ritual sacrifice by making him immortal. If someone was somehow able to harm him anyway, that person would earn the full brunt of Ailis's fury.
- Evil Is Petty: Ailis is notable among the Oligarchs for not really having any grand plots or overarching goals, instead being guided solely by her own capricious whims, committing acts of horrible cruelty mostly just to amuse herself.
- Expy: The Oligarchs in general are clearly inspired by the Apostles, but Ailis is this for Rosine specifically, being a young girl with a mothlike true form and a habit of abducting people to transform them into insectoid monsters.
- Horror Hunger: Those touched by her influence undergo a horrifying transformation known simply as the Change. Among the symptoms are a voracious hunger, though they seemingly gain no weight no matter how much they eat. At later stages the afflicted becomes so hungry as to eat nearly anything edible, including filthy scraps, food stains, and even people.
- The Lost Woods: If she manages to return to the mortal world, the wilderness around her body becomes impossibly thick and filled with dangerous wildlife.
- Man Bites Man: It's specifically said that she killed Ondrej by tearing out his throat with her teeth, rather than using a weapon.
- Moth Menace: Her true form is that of a gargantuan moth with childlike human features, which itself is filled with an enormous number of flesh-eating great Caoimhe moths.
- Parasitic Horror: Those who gain her attention or are otherwise touched by her influence will often be afflicted with a horrifying transformation simply called the Change. The afflicted suffer a variety of symptoms from voracious hunger to memory loss, but the most viscerally horrifying is the innumerable flesh-eating Caoimhe moths gestating within their bodies. At its final stage, the victim is reduced to little more than a human bomb filled with the moths, magically kept alive and conscious while being trapped in an agonizing existence of waiting to explode while feeling thousands of flesh-eating insects crawl through their bodies.
- Self-Made Orphan: She gained her godhood by murdering her own father just as he was about to ascend.
The Plague of Beauty
Once known as Afet al-Wazabi, the beautiful daughter of an extremely influential merchant family from Corbel’s satellite port of Ipswald, she used her family's vast fortunes to join the Oligarchs in pursuit of godhood, seeking to preserve her youth and beauty forever.
Now she is the Plague of Beauty, disease and goddess of beauty, flowers, and the pleasures of the flesh.
- Bright Is Not Good: Her true form and chosen appearances are covered in brightly colored flowers, but all of her beauty is entirely superficial.
- Eldritch Location: The bathhouses used as bases by her servants don't actually exist within the mortal world, instead being wounds in the Od shaped by her power. Their dimensions shift to accommodate any number of occupants, they cannot be found unless the resident Rose Witch wishes for it to be, and their entrances are typically found in alleys that were never actually built and instead just appeared spontaneously when the bathhouse needed an entrance.
- Feel No Pain: Those afflicted with the Plague begin to feel less and less pain as their condition progresses, while their capacity for pleasure deepens. Unfortunately, this abruptly ceases to be the case right before the disease agonizingly kills them.
- Foul Flower: Flowers cover everything related to her, from her body to her servants to her victims. Some of these are made of the bodies of those killed by the Plague, while others release perfumed scents that addle the mind and lower inhibitions.
- Mystical Plague: The eponymous Plague emanates from her, seeping through cracks in the Od and touching those whose desire to be beautiful surpasses all of their other wants and needs, as well as being spread through sexual contact. It causes the afflicted to become almost totally inured to pain while making them supernaturally beautiful, charismatic, and drawn towards pleasures of the flesh. All the while, the disease eats away at the sufferer's internal organs and muscles until they're nothing more than skin held together by magical bindings, until they finally collapse into a green-brown loam that quickly begins to sprout fleshy flowers.
- Vain Sorceress: Part of why she joined the Oligarchs was due to her fears of losing her beauty with age. Among her servants are the Rose Witches, women hand-picked by her for their vanity and to serve her without question in return for otherworldly and eternal beauty.
- Vanity Is Feminine: Though the Plague of Beauty afflicts and appeals to many people regardless of gender, her greatest servants are the all-female Rose Witches.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: Afet's beauty was as legendary as her family fortune, and many suitors murdered each other just for a look at her face.
The Golden Messiah
Once known as Allard Noielles, a high-ranking cardinal in the complex orthodoxy of the City of Painted Glass who rose through the ranks to become king in all but name, with a legion of devoted followers before him. When he failed to officially seize the title, however, he hatched a plan to lead a cohort of the world's elite to murder the gods and steal their thrones.
Now he reigns over Vichy as a brutal theocrat, a shining idol of golden light and religious fervor.
- Animalistic Abomination: The Messiah's most powerful servants are the Primum Slugs, massive quantities of living gold in the shape of slugs. Their mere presence warps the world around them and the minds of onlookers, turning the land to gold and surrounding mortals into brainwashed devotees of the Golden Messiah.
- The Corruption: His is called the Fervor, and a person can become afflicted with it just by believing his teachings. It causes the afflicted to become steadily more zealous and devoted to him, all while their body slowly turns to gold. As time goes by they begin hearing his voice and seeing visions from him, eventually culminating in them undergoing an agonizing transformation into an inert gold statue.
- Feel No Pain: One of the upsides of his influence causing one to turn to gold is that the afflicted becomes increasingly numb to pain in the golden parts of their bodies.
- Knight Templar: His influence causes his worshipers to become zealous fanatics who become increasingly close-minded, xenophobic, and violent.
- Light Is Not Good: He is absolutely covered in divine, golden imagery, and presents himself as a great and benevolent messiah even as he plots to turn the entire world into a brutal theocracy filled only with his devoted worshipers.
- Midas Touch: Even those who merely hear of him and believe his teachings begin to slowly and inexorably turn to gold, culminating in an agonizing death as they transform into a lifeless gold statue.
- Sinister Minister: Prior to his ascension, he was a ruthlessly corrupt priest who seized more and more power through murder, blackmail, and propaganda.
- Take Over the World: His ultimate goal is to begin a crusade that will conquer the world, spreading his faith to all peoples and creating a world where everyone worships him without end.
- The Theocracy: What he has transformed Vichy into, and what he plans to make the entire world.
The Allmother
Born the heiress to a noble Corbellion lineage, Belladonna Cicero schemed and manipulated her way all to the royal court of Thule. But no matter how much she schemed and how much the royal family trusted her she knew that she would never be able to gain a legitimate claim to the throne. So she set her sights even higher, and joined the Oligarchs.
Now the Allmother is something akin to a sapient virus, sowing death and paranoia in a mad attempt to sate her deep-seated need for control.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Before her ascension Belladonna took care to cultivate the image of a kind, motherly figure. She was widely known as a kindly and sympathetic woman and close confidant to the royal family of Thule, hiding her pitiless nature and obsessive need for control.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Her influence - which can be spread with something as innocuous as unwittingly glimpsing one of her servants - causes the afflicted to become increasingly paranoid, convinced that society has been infiltrated by inhuman monsters masquerading as ordinary people. Due to the Allmother's general MO these conspiracy theories are often somewhat accurate, but their paranoia is so obvious that almost no one would believe them anyway.
- Control Freak: She holds the iron-clad belief that she is the only one who is fit to make decisions, and that the world can only be perfect with herself in complete control. She even views murdering and replacing people as actually doing them a service, making their lives better by forcing them to let her make decisions in their stead.
- Kill and Replace: Her Modus Operandi, murdering people and replacing them with doppelgangers called Orphans who all possess her own personality.
- My Beloved Smother: A particularly nasty and horrifying take on this trope, being a malevolent goddess who seeks to completely control every single action taken by every single person.
- One Bad Mother: Her title as the Allmother references her My Beloved Smother tendencies, as well as her innumerable "children," the Orphans. Ironically she isn't an actual mother, and is noted to have been infertile when she was human, joining the Oligarchs specifically because her infertility meant that she wouldn't be able to forge any direct blood ties to the throne.
- Right Hand Versus Left Hand: She has replaced many powerful people with her doppelgangers, but these doppelgangers also possess free will and the same ironclad certainty that they should be the only one making decisions, leading to them mostly scheming against each other. The horrifyingly brutal civil war gripping Elklund is ultimately a totally pointless war waged between her innumerable doppelgangers, using the inhabitants as pawns to undermine one another.
Outsiders
In General
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Most Outsiders choose to appear in comprehensible (if still monstrous and grotesque) forms when they appear to mortals. The exception is the Nameless Court, whose members don't even bother disguising how utterly alien they are.
- Deal with the Devil: One of the main sources of magic in the setting is Theurgy, wherein a Theurge performs a ritual to contact a single Outsider and bargains with them for power. There are three forms of these deals: a Rapport, which is more a tenuous relationship than any formal agreement; a Communion, a negotiated contract of precisely what Vitiations are available through this bargain; and a Pact, wherein the Outsider agrees to serve the Theurge in perpetuity, allowing the Theurge to use its power freely. An Outsider can be Pacted to only one Theurge at a time, but can freely make any other agreements.
- Demon Lords and Archdevils: The Outsiders are separated into three castes, as well as the innumerable hordes of lesser Outsider which serve the aristocracy.
- Imps are the least of the Outsider's aristocracy, though only relatively as they still command legions of lesser Outsiders.
- Villeins are ranked higher than Imps, and offer more power - though demanding more from their Theurges in return.
- Lords are the mightiest caste, regarded as near-godlike by mortals and summoned by only the most experienced of Theurges.
- Eldritch Abomination: Outsiders are beings from the depths of the Od or perhaps someplace even beyond it, otherworldly and alien.
- I Know Your True Name: Knowing an Outsider's true name makes them much easier to summon during the Pythonic Liturgy. It can also be used in negotiations to gain some leverage over the outsider, though this is likely to anger them.
- Our Demons Are Different: Though not called demons, they clearly fit the archetype.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Each one has some kind of Weakness, which will typically banish them or prevent them from manifesting to perform Vitiations or Techniques. The nature of these weaknesses varies wildly, but most are fairly common, such as egg yolks, water, or crowds.
The Court of Ignorance
Also known as: Scribes, Scholars
In general
- Evil Luddite: Subverted. Despite their name and their goals of the eradication of all human records, they don't actually want to destroy knowledge. They instead seek to become the only source of it, making humanity dependent on the court for all information.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Surprisingly they're on the receiving end of this. They often attempt to wheedle information out of members of the Nameless Court, but any information gained this way seems to slowly drive them mad.
- Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge: The Scholars hoard knowledge, doling it out in return for service. They offer it freely to begin with, steadily making those who deal with the Court more and more dependent on them.
Scrivilias, The Scribe
An Imp of the Court of Ignorance, who appears as a monstrous, hunched-over vulture woman.- Berserk Button: Scrivilias is deeply offended by any words not written on paper, and refuses to treat with a Theurge when in the presence of any who wear such a thing openly on their person.
- Couldn't Find a Pen: When empowering Vitiations, she plucks out one of her own feathers and writes in one of her books using her own blood as ink.
- Forced Transformation: One of her Pact Techniques, Maledictum Liber, transforms a living person into a book, into which is written their entire life story. The transformed person can be communicated with by writing in the book, with any responses showing up in the book as well.
- The Nose Knows: A Theurge who has treated with her is able to track nearby writing by scent.
- Vile Vulture: Her chosen appearance looks like all the nastiest parts of a dead vulture grafted onto the body of a scrawny, stooped old woman.
Tillisillus, The Seer
A Villein of the Court of Ignorance, who appears as a knothole in a nearby vertical surface.- Logical Weakness: It only appears on walls and other fixed vertical surfaces, and is therefore completely unable to manifest when there are no such surfaces.
- Villains Never Lie: Tillisillus loves to spread rumors which cause strife, but none of these rumors are ever actually false.
Obsimrex, The Many Ayed
A Lord of the Court of Ignorance, who appears as a group of human nobles.- Berserk Button: He hates being told "no." Any refused request will have him vanish and refuse to answer the Theurge for an hour.
- The Dividual: Obsimrex appears as a gaggle of distorted figures that look like a parody of a royal court. Though he typically speaks through a single body - an eyeless bald man with strange proportions - all of these figures are equally Obsimrex.
- Eyeless Face: The people he appears as never have eyes.
- Fat Bastard: The "main" body he speaks through is a short man who is so rotund he's almost spherical.
- Rules Lawyer: One of the benefits he grants to his Theurges is the ability to manipulate the law, allowing them to find legal loopholes that let them avoid prosecution.
- Summon Magic: Those who have formed a Communion with him are able to use the Archon Technique to summon a powerful Archon servant.
- Verbal Tic: He has an odd tendency to punctuate every sentence with "Aye!"
The Court of Joy
Also known as: Jesters, Those Who Smile
In general
- Gaslighting: As the court's ultimate goal is to drive everyone to madness where they are no longer able to distinguish truth from figment, they frequently use this and other techniques to make mortals doubt their perception of reality.
Tabernacle, the Unwanted Child
An Imp of the Court of Joy, who appears as a monstrously deformed fetus sitting atop a gilded altar.- Booze-Based Buff: The passive bonuses for his Theurges allow them to imbibe a large amount of alcohol or other mind-altering substances in order to gain bonuses in combat, at the cost of penalty to all skills.
- The Corruptor: Tabernacle loves to push people to perform acts of sin and vice, and many of the Techniques available to his Theurges require them to engage in some kind of vice or allow them to more easily tempt others.
- Evil Smells Bad: His appearances are always surrounded by burning incense in an attempt to mask the putrid scent of amniotic fluid.
- Fetus Terrible: Tabernacle appears as a human fetus with one bird's wing, and insect eye, the teeth of a shark, and the feet of a fetal pig.
- Weaksauce Weakness: He cannot stand the sound of cracking eggs, and can be banished for a full day if touched with raw yolk.
Fliberdijiberit, The Puppeteer
A Villein of the Court of Joy, who appears as a clownish hand puppet on a person's hand.- Invisible to Normals: One of the few Outsiders to Avert this. When it manifests, it is totally visible to everyone present. Due to its mundane appearance, it normally just passes itself off as an ordinary clown puppet when it needs to manifest in a situation where knowledge of its true nature would cause trouble for its Theurge.
- People Puppets: Fittingly for a Perverse Puppet, several of his Techniques allow a Theurge to control the movements and actions of other creatures.
- Perverse Puppet: He's an otherworldy demon in the form of a clown-like hand puppet of whoever's hand he chooses to appear on.
Bleconixx, Scion of Anxiety
A Lord of the Court of Joy, who appears as a slender, boneless, vaguely-humanoid creature.- Dream Walker / Dream Weaver: The Nightmare Journey and Nightmare Walk Talents allow a Theurge to enter the dream of another person and change it into a horrible nightmare.
- Grand Theft Me: The Rider Within Talent allows a Theurge to become immaterial and enter the body of another creature, gaining control of its body.
- Supernatural Fear Inducer: Many of its Techniques allow a Theurge to cause fear in others.
- The Unintelligible: It speaks in a mumbling gibberish, though its Theurge can understand it perfectly.
The Court of Peace
Also known as: Messengers, Murderers
In general
- Nonindicative Name: While most of the courts have somewhat misleading names, the Court of Peace is the exact opposite of what their name would indicate, with a love of violence and the ultimate goal of making the world a place where bloodshed is the only possible option in any situation.
Blith, Lover of Pain
An Imp of the Court of Peace, who appears as a rotting, child-sized humanoid with an upside-down face twisted in an expression of intense rage.- Bloodlust: Blith loves blood, to the point where you can't even communicate with him when blood is present because he's too excited.
- Forced Transformation: The A Taste of Horror Technique transforms a creature into a twisted pile of still-living and randomly rearranged limbs and organs.
- I Am a Humanitarian: He loves the taste of flesh and blood, especially internal organs.
- Loves the Sound of Screaming: “Let’s hurt as many people as possible together, shall we? Maybe they will scream!”
- To the Pain: The A Taste of Terror Technique fills a creature with fear by the Theurge describing exactly what they are about to do to them.
Eurynomos, the Quiet Remorse
A Villein of the Court of Peace, who appears as the corpse of the last person killed by her Theurge. She does not appear to those who have not killed.- Perception Filter: The Wanton Blade, Foolish Witnesses, and None Shall Pass Witness Techniques allow a Theurge to kill in broad daylight without those around them being able to remember the Theurge's presence at all as long as they flee the crime scene afterwards.
Asisaxasias, Duke of Butchery
A Lord of the Court of Peace, who appears as a lean old man with bright red eyes and skin.- Cats Are Magic: Asisaxasias refuses to manifest when cats are present, and his abilities have no effect on them.
- Hate Plague: Let There be Rage, Let There be Murder, Words of Blood, and Boon of Fury all cause the targets to fly into a murderous frenzy.
- Psycho Knife Nut: Asisaxasias loves cleavers. His manifestation carries about a dozen of them, and several of his techniques involve his Theurge summoning magical cleavers to attack their foes.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: The cleavers summoned by his Techniques all have the Throwing property, with some even having a Summon to Hand feature as well.
The Court of Silence
Also known as: Beasts
In general
- Evil Luddite: The ultimate goal of the Beasts is to tear down civilization and reduce all of humanity to feral, mindless beasts.
Trammus, The Dual Hound
An Imp of the Court of Silence, who appears as an emaciated dog with a head on each end, abnormally large eyes, and far more teeth than normal.- The Beastmaster: Several of his Techniques allow a Theurge to dominate or manipulate animals.
- Forced Transformation: The Mark of the Beast Technique transforms a single person into a beast until the sun sets and rises again.
- Kill It with Water: Well not "kill" exactly, but Thammus does not manifest near bodies of water.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Both heads have far more teeth than a normal dog.
- The Nose Knows: One of the benefits enjoyed by his Theurges is a heightened sense of smell, being able to track others like a bloodhound.
- Stock Animal Diet: Trammus loves bones, though he's rather picky about where they come from.
- The Unintelligible: It speaks in the whines and barks of a normal dog, though its Theurge can understand it perfectly.
Flist, The Murmuring Flame
A Villein of the Court of Silence, who appears as a face in a flame.- Logical Weakness: Flist manifests in fire, and thus cannot manifest if there are no nearby flames.
- Playing with Fire: Unsurprisingly, many of its Techniques involve magically summoning and manipulating fire.
Father Longlegs, Eater of Despair
A Lord of the Court of Silence, who appears as an enormous, spiderlike creature with an emaciated human torso.- Allergic to Love: Sincere acts of physical affection terrify him. If he sees one, he curries into a corner and refuses to leave it until sundown.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: He seeks to destroy mortal minds with eldritch and forbidden knowledge.
- Spider People: He manifests as an emaciated, grey-skinned humanoid torso attached to a massive, spherical, spider-like abdomen.
The Court of Truth
Also known as: Masquers, Illusionists, the Army Invisible
In general
- Perception Filter: The Masquers outright deny the existence of the Nameless Court. When confronted with one of the Nameless or proof that they do exist, minions of the Court of Truth always have justification for why such proof is false, or they simply are unable or unwilling to see and acknowledge the presence of the Nameless at all. This holds true even when one of the Nameless is literally standing behind them and physically manipulating their movements.
Accord, Imp of Agreements
An Imp of the Court of Truth, who appears as an idealized reflection of their Theurge.- Copycat Mockery: She often mimics her summoner, seemingly just to annoy them.
- Demonic Possession: Her favorite tithe to ask of her Theurges is for momentary control over them, allowing her to speak and act as them for a short time.
- Living Lie Detector: Fool's Wisdom allows any Theurge who forms a Pact with her to automatically know when someone is trying to betray or "play" them.
- Logical Weakness: Due to being a Mirror Monster, she needs a reflective surface nearby in order to manifest.
- Mirror Monster: She never manifests as a physical form, only in reflections.
- Words Can Break My Bones: The Deadly Mockery Technique allows a Theurge to insult someone so powerfully that it kills them.
Clip, Thief of Souls
A Villein of the Court of Truth, who appears as a cloaked, shadowy figure with a hidden face.- Impossible Thief: Several of its Techniques allow a Theurge to magically steal things from others.
- Open and Shut: There Are No Locks allows a Theurge to open any door, lock, or container with a simple touch, as long as it isn't magically secured.
- A Sinister Clue: It always appears playing with some valuable object in its left hand.
- Weakened by the Light: Clip will not appear in daylight, and can't be bargained with if daylight is even visible.
Tannin, Green Diplomat
A Lord of the Court of Truth, who appears as a green-clothed gentleman with a reptile living inside of his mouth.- Puppeteer Parasite: It's clear that the reptile in the man's mouth is what is actually doing the talking, though it's something of a meaningless distinction when both are technically the same being.
- Snake Talk: He often emphasizes sibilant sounds when speaking.
The Nameless Court
Also known as: The Nameless
In general
- Eldritch Abomination: Even moreso than other Outsiders, as those of the Nameless Court don't bother appearing to mortals as anything even vaguely human, and their motives are unknown and perhaps unknowable.
- Horrifying the Horror: Members of the Court of Peace seem to actively fear and despise the Nameless, though they would never openly admit this.
- Starfish Language: Rather than speak, some of the Nameless choose to communicate by doing things like manipulating light or touching the internal organs of those who they are communicating with.
- Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: A more extreme example than most, as some of the things known to the Nameless seem to be things that even other Outsiders weren't meant to know; members of the Court of Ignorance often try to wheedle information, and seem to be slowly driven mad by it.
Xox, The Angel of Distress
An Imp of the Nameless Court, who appears as a tiny, indistinct shape inside of a transparent object.- Disaster Dominoes: It is obsessed with small actions that cause great chaos, such as a single stone causing an avalanche or a single careless word sparking a war. Many of its techniques allow its Theurge to invoke this, using weak points in a person or object to cause an enormous amount of damage without actually needing to do much.
Folio, The Formulae
A Villein of the Nameless Court, who appears as a mathematical concept expressed through geometric shapes that taper into infinity.- Cessation of Existence: Zero Sum Insight allows the Theurge to remove a single object that bears the Mark of Folio from existence, leaving behind no trace, and Subtraction does the same for creatures.
Glissaindaira, Queen of Chitin
A Lord of the Nameless Court, who appears as a swarm of insects local to the region.- The Corrupter: She focuses on bringing the high and mighty to debasement and depravity, but in such a way that these excesses are known publicly and accepted and as such seeks the general moral degradation of entire societies.
- Invisible to Normals: Like Fliberdijiberit, Glissaindaira is one of the few Outsiders to Avert this by being fully visible when she manifests. Unlike Fliberdijiberit, The Queen of Chitin doesn't even try to disguise her appearance, which is extremely conspicuous and makes it clear who summoned her.
- Pest Controller: Several of her techniques allow a Theurge to control small insects to spy on others, or call an entire plague of them to swarm over a large area.
- Summon Magic: My Attendants allows a Theurge to summon three Lemures, an Eidolon, or an Archon.
- The Worm That Walks: She has no body of her own, instead collecting local insects together into a roughly-humanoid form. The My Body technique allows a Theurge to temporarily transform into one of these as well.
Courtless Outsiders
Ondrej, the Shattered
Once a human warlord who joined the Oligarchs in their quest to usurp the gods, Ondrej was murdered by his own daughter just as he was about to ascend to godhood. Somehow, whether by some quirk of dark magic or distortion of the laws of reality, he rose again as an Outsider.- Berserk Button: He despises acts of weakness or selfless charity, and is enraged by anything to do with the Oligarchs.
- Demon of Human Origin: The only known Outsider to have once been mortal. How exactly this happened is unclear, and due to the highly unusual circumstances surrounding his death it is unlikely to ever happen again.
- Facial Horror: He still bears the wound that killed him, a massive tear in his throat and face out of which his tongue lolls.
