Beware unmarked spoilers!

open/close all folders

The Player Character

In General

You. An average Joe/Jane who, through one channel or another, stumbles upon knowledge of the Hours and decides to find a way to become immortal, no matter what or who has to be sacrificed to do it.

Badass Bookworm: The eldritch powers the player character is meddling with can elevate their minds and bodies far beyond the human norm, if it doesn't kill them or drive them mad.
Bishōnen Line: In a rare protagonist version, the transformation into a Long involves the player's appearance becoming progressively more unsettling: the skin becoming loose and translucent with light leaking out for Lantern, growing grotesquely swollen with new organs popping out in inappropriate places for Grail, and charring yourself into one huge burn scar for Forge. This is reversed if you manage to complete the transformation though, with the Lantern Long leaving their body behind to dwell in the Mansus, the Grail Long literally giving birth to a new immortal body for themselves, and the Forge Long emerging from ashes phoenix-style.
From Nobody to Nightmare: They start off as a fairly ordinary person; at most, an heir to a moderate fortune or a doctor. From there, they can become a Humanoid Abomination and attain immortality. Even without the eldritch aspect, they can garner a following of a couple dozen fanatical followers who are perfectly willing to kill, steal, and abduct at their word.
Humanoid Abomination: Following any of the paths to ascension will gradually transform you into something that barely resembles a human being — and fully ascending to the Mansus will transform you into a Long, completely shedding your humanity in the process.
I'm a Humanitarian: On both the Enlightenment and Sensation paths, the only way to increase your Marks (and thus get closer to victory) is to consume people. Spiritually and psychologically for Enlightenment, physically for Sensation. The Medium eats the dead to obtain their memories.
Immortality Immorality: There are few things the Player Character and their cultists would not be willing to do for the sake of Ascending to the Mansus.
Immortality Seeker: The end goal of the paths of Ascension is to become one of the Long, making yourself immortal in the process.
Instant-Win Condition: If you achieve a Senior Position at Glover & Glover, you can commit Passion to dedicate your life to your mundane work, abandoning your life as a cultist. Given the tone, however, it's treated more like a Non-Standard Game Over.
Legacy Character: Each successive game is an inheritor, literally or figuratively, of the previous game, whether that person ultimately ascended to the Mansus or not.
Omniglot: Downplayed, but the protagonist has quite a talent for languages. Just to start off with, you'll probably pick up Greek, Latin, Aramaic and Sanskrit relatively early, so you can translate occult texts. Later on, you can learn a collection of dead (and fictional) languages, which you need for more advanced texts. However, you're not necessarily speaking the languages conversationally, just translating books written in them with references on hand.
Villain Protagonist: At least, if you ask the Suppression Bureau.

The Aspirant

"June the 28th, once again."

An everyman who ekes out a meager existence as a hospital orderly until a patient wise in eldritch matters takes a shine to them, and decides to pass on what they've learned...

Alternate Self: The title quote implies that all Aspirants are alternates of each other in the various Histories.
Brick Joke: The default name of the benefactor who gets you started is J.N. Sinombre. A later bit of occult lore mentions in passing that this name, or synonyms of it in other languages, is an incredibly common alias among occultists to the point of being a cliche. Also sin nombre is Spanish for "unnamed."
Canon Name: Not the Aspirant themselves, but the "previous player character reference" that gets them started on their journey will always be "J.N. Sinombre" if you're starting a fresh game. It's an ailing Sinombre who wills them the eldritch clues that get them started.
Master of None: Doesn't have any particularly noteworthy traits, and only receives the bare minimum necessary to advance in the game.
Unexpected Inheritance: The Aspirant's path begins properly when they receive a bequest from a patient at a hospital where they worked as an orderly.

The Bright Young Thing

"Endowed from birth with wealth and talent. A life of ease, comfort and delight stretches ahead like an amber carpet."

A bored heir(ess) to a rich family, they mostly waste their days doing whatever strikes their fancy... until their father, who recently had grown rather careless with his fortune, takes mysteriously ill and dies. It's only when going through their father's papers that they discover exactly what papa had spent all the money on...

The Big Guy: Possibly due to their youth, the Bright Young Thing starts off with more Health than everyone else. They're still just as vulnerable to Illness and Injury as anyone else, however.
Idle Rich: The Bright Young Thing's first job is "This and That," which is basically doing just screwing around until their allowance arrives. This quickly changes once their father dies, however.^note
Impoverished Patrician: Downplayed by the 'Bright Young Thing' beginning. Your father dies, and his business and fortune both vanish in debt, leaving you with no job and a serviceable chunk of leftover inheritance. You're unemployed, but you're strong and healthy enough to pick up and excel in a Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job to keep yourself afloat.
Personal Effects Reveal: When their father dies, it is discovered that the Bright Young Thing's father had squandered most of the family's money, and a little digging uncovers the occult texts he blew his cash on.
Really Gets Around: They get introduced to the Ecdysis Club before they even start dabbling in the occult, implying they were a promiscuous thrill-seeker.
Tome of Eldritch Lore: They inherit one from their father. It can potentially give you very advanced lore right out of the gate.

The Detective

"I am an Inspector in the capital's police, charged with the investigation of the most vile and wretched things that one human does to another."

A detective in the Suppression Bureau, the secret police division tasked with keeping the existence of occult phenomena under wraps. However, they can only stave off curiosity for so long, and a chance look at some old case files starts them on a very different path...

Beat Them at Their Own Game: It is, with some effort, possible to keep working for the Suppression Bureau far into your own occult studies. And you're much better at it than any of your rivals.
Face–Heel Turn: Although they start off working for the Suppression Bureau, it is ultimately intended that they will abandon their position and begin on the path of a Cultist in earnest.
Hunter of Their Own Kind: You can easily become a secret occultist working for the Suppression Bureau, using your position to investigate your rivals.
Instant-Win Condition: If they successfully arrest and prosecute the Troublemaker, they get a Favour from Authority which they can trade for a Promotion, which is considered a minor victory. However, given the tone of the ending, this is treated more as a Non-Standard Game Over.
Magikarp Power: The Troublemaker is initially just a useless character taking up space on the playing table. If you can wait around until you can gather enough of your Aspect to Exalt followers, however, you can Exalt them as a part of your cult as well, even if they don't share your Cult's Aspect.
Occult Detective: It is possible to consider yourself this, hunting down other occultists with their own powers. Especially if you take a Noble Demon approach, though you'll have to keep it a secret. And it's an open question whether you'll stay one of the good guys.
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: If you keep working for the suppression bureau, it's very easy to get favors from authority by investigating your rivals and arresting them. This makes getting away with your own crimes far easier.

The Physician

"As the patient descended into the final delirium, I made copious notes. In the buzzing heat of the night, I re-read those notes, and they began, at last, to make a kind of sense."

A respected doctor at an accredited institute, their whole life is a breeze... until a patient arrives who makes some rather startling proclamations. They don't understand at the time, but one muggy night, they read the notes they took on the patient's ramblings, and the truth of their words finally sinks in...

Bedlam House: The Institute where they work is implied to be this sort of place.
Boring, but Practical: The Physician can always work at the Institute, which produces two funds every minute. It pays moderately well and doesn't generate Mystique or expire if ignored for too long, which can be very useful.
Reasonable Authority Figure: The Position at the Institute is the only Career where you can avoid showing up regularly and still have it waiting for you. This is because the Director of the Institute is apparently "very understanding."
The Smart Guy: Starts off with more Reason than any other character (although they have to sacrifice at least one Reason to unlock their Passion and Temptation).
Ultimate Job Security: The Physician is the only starting profession whose occupation doesn't disappear or decay with time like the Inspector, an employee of Glover & Glover, or a professional dancer. This gives them a reliable, if rather mundane, source of income. Possibly they have tenure at their university or something like it.

The Dancer

"I am young and I am strong and for a time yet I will be beautiful."

A dancer at a club called the Gaiety, who finds a mysterious poem in an abandoned shoe which sparks something in them, leading them to the Ecdysis Club, and its mysterious proprietor, Sulochana Amavasya...

Creepy Doll: Finding one that you recognize from your dreams is an early sign that your life is about to get very strange. Depending on your choices it gives you a minor Heart or Moth artifact right out of the gate.
Dancing Is Serious Business: The character is set up to go for the Change temptation right away, which involves changing themselves via dance to something much, much more than human.
Dark World: One endgame state has a strong connection to the Meniscate and her mirror worlds. If you perfectly balance Heart and Moth ascension you instead enter the House of the Moon, waiting with the Wheel for the Sun-in-Splendour to be reborn.
Heart Is an Awesome Power: They start off with bonus Passion and Health, each of which can be used to dance (and get two different endings from the Change desire).
High-Class Call Girl: What your work at the Ecdysis Club often amounts to, though it is framed as part of the rituals you are performing.
Irony: Regarding one endgame state. The Carapace Cross considered turning themselves into humans to be enough of an upgrade to do it en masse. By the end of the Moth path your character has gone to an enormous amount of trouble to turn yourself back into one.
Trophy Wife: Or Trophy Husband, as the case may be. They can impress one patron at their regular job so much that they get invited to private sessions and eventually get a marriage proposal.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: The path is all about this, including a series of quests where you take an animal form via Astral Projection to complete esoteric rites.

The Priest

"In visions have I seen St Agnes. I have learnt not to speak of the form she takes."

A priest of little import, who delivers quiet sermons at a quiet parish after getting in trouble for speaking of things they shouldn't have. One day, though, a strange wound appears on their body, and it reopens their mind to the worship of more eldritch gods...

Cool Gate: Your goal is to become an organic one.
Dark Messiah: Your ambitions, if you continue on the Knock path, include becoming a gate for your congregation to ascend at great pain to yourself.
Fate Worse than Death: Arguably inflicting this on yourself is your goal, becoming a living gate into the Mansus for your congregation and followers in the future. This is also, from a certain perspective, a Heroic Sacrifice.
Glasgow Grin: One of the many, many scars you inflict on yourself.
The Heretic: The invisible arts are not an approved part of the Church's religious practice, and mixing them into your sermons is a great way to get the Suppression Bureau on your ass. Your congregation on the other hand is heavily implied to have been heretical for a long time and the deacon privately admits that they've been waiting for a priest like you to lead them.
Hijacked by Jesus: Inverted, the Priest works Christianity into the pantheon of the Mansus.
Messianic Archetype: In a deliberate perversion of Christianity, your goal is basically dying for your congregation's sins. Also, if The Gospel of Zacharius is to be believed, Jesus was literally following the same path you are now - a cult leader and disciple of the Mother of Ants.
Scaled Up: While your victory involves turning yourself into a Cool Gate, in one History it also transforms you into something similar to the Hooded Princes and Younger Sisters.
Self-Harm: Flagellation and scarification are the least of what you do to yourself along this path.
Sinister Minister: If you decide to seek out a Desire, then you'll turn them into nothing more than another cult in the service of your ambitions. This is subverted if you pursue the Priest's special ending, though, as you make a Heroic Sacrifice to let your congregation enter the Mansus through you.
Transflormation: If things go wrong. If you die of poor health, after you have given yourself several knock scars but before you finish, the Mare-In-The-Tree takes notice. You sprout as a haunted tree in the graveyard that leads anyone who dreams near you into the Wood, with the Mare. You seem happy about it, but it's quite unlikely to end well for them.

The Medium / "The Ghoul"

"Everyone knows that I speak with the dead. I have been called a prophet, and a ghoul. I have no reason to disabuse them of their illusions."

A bogus medium who, one day, becomes a conduit for the real voices of the dead and delivers a terrifying prophecy. Unfortunately, it gets them fired, and they are left with nothing but the clothes on their back and a few names rattling around in their head: Montmerenzi, Naenia, and a mysterious third party. The names spark a memory in them, and they head to the Montmerenzi-McDonald Gallery, finding a mysterious painting that seems to speak to them, calling them into the service of the Elegiast...

Back from the Dead: Unlike other ascension paths, this one doesn't make you immortal. At the culmination of your quest, you die. The Elegiast brings you back from Nowhere afterwards, and you have a set death date that's impossible to change for anything, giving you enormous protection.
But Thou Must!: On the Ghoul path you are locked into the Remembrance temptation, even before you create the elixir and eat your first corpse. Winter has its claws in you and it isn't letting go. Your only way out is to refuse the occult entirely, which will only end badly for you.
Cruelty Is the Only Option: For most of the path you can avoid murder through grave robbery, but there's no way to obtain your first corpse beyond killing someone. Even then, grave robbery quickly becomes a poor option as the authorities start to keep a close eye on the cemetery.
Early-Bird Cameo: An early book of Winter lore describe's an occultist's quest to create The Palest Painting as a masterwork. As The Ghoul you follow the same path.
Eat Brain for Memories: Their "Remembrance" desire and Winter ascension path requires them to eat the bodies of the dead to absorb and use their memories. They can use these memories to make their Phony Psychic routine a lot more real. If they have a very special remnant from a special enemy they defeated during an expedition, they can even use it to paint a special painting.
Fictional Color: A recurring theme is discovering colors that simply don't exist anymore after the death of the Sun-in-Splendour and most of the Gods-from-Stone.
Genuine Human Hide: Creating your great work, the Palest Painting, requires a human corpse to make the canvas.
Horror Hunger: The Medium will start to hunger for the flesh of the dead, and gains power by consuming such flesh. And they will be devoured by the Crowned Growth if they fail to feed this hunger.
I'm a Humanitarian: On this path consuming human remains is a necessity. Note that unlike the humans that get devoured for the Lantern and Grail ascensions, who need to be taken alive, this path specifically requires dead bodies (or body parts). You can even chew on your own decrepitude, though this is a risk since you are never ever getting that health back.
Mad Artist: Even more so than the others. Their path to ascension involves painting a special painting using memories that they have consumed. As they progress, the painting becomes increasingly eldritch until it eventually becomes a stairway leading to Nowhere that consumes their life as they descend.
Not-So-Phony Psychic: The Medium starts the game with a job as a Phony Psychic — theatrical and profitable. Until the dead decide to make them exactly what they pretended to be.
The Man in the Mirror Talks Back: Acquires a strange painting early on that does not "talk" conventionally, but discussing memories with it or your own Restlessness will provoke a response. The painting soothes your Restlessness by assuring you that everything ends, including pain. And if you discuss a "lucrative" memory with it, a check in the mail worth a sum of money somehow shows up.
Self-Harm: Victory requires you to eat a piece of your own decaying body, in the form of Decrepitude, while you are still alive. Additionally, Descending to Nowhere requires feeding your attributes to the painting one by one, draining away your life. It has to be done deliberately, the Elegiast will not just take your life without permission.

The Exile

A very different character from the others. You are a former member of the Reckoners: an occult mafia that trades in years of life. You are not a cult leader, and definitely not an Adept. You are an adventurer and fugitive trying desperately to run far and fast enough to stay ahead of your pursuers. Oh, yes. You betrayed your mentor, stole seventy seven years of life, and ran for it. Did we forget that part?

Assassin Outclassin': You'll be doing a fair amount of this, either killing them or holding them off. And defeating your foe is, of course, the key to several Edge victories.
Blue-Collar Warlock: Relatively Speaking. While you are in some senses rich, having enough cash from stolen life not to sweat the small stuff, in the occult world you are very much small-fry. You can make excellent connections in the ordinary world among criminals, officials, and nobility. But you aren't even able to enter the Mansus, never mind getting your hands on the kinds of lore and resources the other characters do.
Book Dumb: Very much so. They can't even speak Latin, are uninterested in the vagaries of the Histories, and are unable to use ordinary Lore or enter the Mansus due to the Reckoners on the whole being on bad terms with the Long (to say nothing of the Hours themselves). When we see them compared to the other paths they're probably better off for it.
Cast from Lifespan: Literally. Most of your abilities and options, from making local connections to raising funds, involve trading your stolen life away.
Cunning Linguist: You don't speak Latin, or other occult languages. You have more practical concerns... like being able to blend with the locals from London to Siberia and everywhere in between.
Deceptive Legacy: There's a lot of this here, if you manage to track it down. And it is implied that discovering this had a lot to do with your rebellion against the reckoners. Firstly Duffoure, your Foe, is also your father. Secondly, it turns out that you are descended from the Wheel and the Flint, which has implications in certain endings. Finally, Christopher Illopoly strongly implies that no less than Teresa, the Baldomerian, is your sister.
Desecrating the Dead: You can do this ritually to a slain Reckoner Assassin or Lord. You present the body to be devoured by Labhites, Edge creatures of the sky. And this is also a fairly easy way to increase your edge lore. As the game puts it, "some knowledge is only properly conveyed in the blood of an enemy."
Do Not Go Gentle: They may have come to terms with mortality as a reckoner, but they're sure not going to make killing them easy.
Dueling Scar: You can get one to recruit Count Jannings at a club dedicated to the Colonel. It work as a minor tool you don't have to carry with you.
Featureless Protagonist: Averted for the first time. While many details of your characterization are still up in the air, you still have clearly expressed preferences and an extensive personal history.
Guide Dang It!: Exaggerated. Not only is the Exile an Unexpected Gameplay Change from the other Lives, even the in-game Beginner's Guide has no information whatsoever on what to do.
Healing Factor: Unlike the other paths, where injuries rapidly become permanent Decrepitude, the Exile's wounds heal automatically.
- Even moreso for those dedicated to the battle mysteries of the Lionsmith. These include a Heart aspect, which have a chance to spawn Vitality to heal your wounds every time you use them.
Heel–Face Turn: Rebelling against the Reckoners can likely be seen as this, since it is implied that they crossed too many lines even for you. But it is entirely possible to consider your character genuinely repentant, even when everything possible is known about them. In some endings, Connie Lee can also offer you a job with the Suppression Bureau.
I Shall Taunt You: Part of the process of enhancing your rivalry. Sending your foe a powerful magical weapon as a present, for example. Or just sending them your location and daring them to come at you.
The Medic: It takes a forged medical license to practice, but your results are real enough. You just don't want to tell anyone how you're doing it. You can also spend a decade to remove your wounds in a hurry.
Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond: In the occult world you are middling at best, at least at first. Among mundane society you are staggeringly rich, and hobnob with the wealthy and powerful. Even royalty sometimes.
Point of No Return: There are several destinations you can choose, all of which are Remote, where you can travel and no Reckoner except your Foe will be able to follow. They are intended for a final confrontation alone at the End of the World. Examples include a Lighthouse Point in Norway, an island artist's colony, a monastery in the mountains of Tibet, and similar.
Professional Killer: One ending allows you to become THE professional killer, even among the Long. Your rap sheet includes several powerful monsters, your foe, an Alukite Forge Obliviate, and King Crucible.
Retired Monster: Several endings involve you heading into obscurity to enjoy your staggering wealth, never mind what you may have done along the way or the Percussigant Pelt by the fire.
Sealed Evil in a Duel: A very strange (and spoilery) example. This is the Edge method to become immortal, forming a mystic dyad with a rival that mirrors the Corrivalry between The Colonel and The Lionsmith. Then you get to spend eternity trying to kill your Worthy Opponent, spreading conflict and revolution across the world as you go.
Self-Deprecation: In a meta sense this comes up sometimes. "The Watchman comes before the Velvet... is the kind of thing Adepts say. I think it means that mist is a damper kind of darkness."
Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: The Exile has dozens of contacts, close friends, and people who owe them favors all over Europe, Russia, and the Middle East. And you'll make quite a few more as you go. They have also met some of the occult authors from the base game, such as Peel.
- Exaggerated for followers of the Colonel, naturally. Betraying rebellions not only generates money and obscurity but gives free contacts with Rulers. These normally cost a full decade to establish.
Super-Toughness: Not invulnerable, but you can survive up to seven wounds that could be lethal for an ordinary mortal.
Trademark Favorite Food: A stew with juniper berries and white wine, particularly from a cheery little bistro in Strasbourg.
Truce Zone: One relates to an endgame state. Not finding one, your Foe will track you to the end of the world. But with enough obscurity and a good safe house, you can found one yourself. Of course no Reckoners are allowed.
Un-person: Several other conditions involve doing this to yourself, either mystically or by more mundane means.
Victory Is Boring: This is a major problem for your character in the end. Even if you escape clean and kill your Foe you will be drawn into new challenges unless you're very, very comfortable. And even then you always keep it as an option.
We All Die Someday: Doesn't much mind dying, as long as they're free and it is on their terms. This is a sharp contrast to other paths, where the player is obsessed with immortality. If there's one thing their time with the Reckoners taught them, it's that no matter how many years you have they always run out.
Wicked Cultured: Ironically, given your character's lowly position in the occult world, you can have a very refined sense of style and accommodation. Just how good a retirement you arrange for yourself is part of what determines your victory state.

The Apostle

A follower of the PC who remained loyal after their ascension to Longhood, and who plans to help them rise even higher to become a Name. Unfortunately, it's not so easy as it sounds: to gain great power for their master, the Apostle must pay an unimaginable price, and besides, other Long are not so keen on letting others rise above them...

Apostle Aestuant

"The one who shaped us has ascended to a higher state... in one history, at least. The past is uncertain. But I will tend the crucible for their next ascension."

The Apostle of a Forge Long, seeking to aid their ascension as a Name with the aid of Mrs. E. This will require them to find a flaw in the world and once there, force open the Tricuspid Door using a magical nuclear bomb known as the Dawnbreaker Core.

Alchemy Is Magic: Unlike other Apostle Victories, you don't assemble individuals to witness or partake in your Shaper's ascension. Instead, you upgrade Forge ingredients and tools into the Dawnbreaker Core and its fuel, Blue Gold, which you use to tear open the skin of the world and propel your Shaper to demigodhood as a Name.
Brown Note: The Chosen Compass is a follower who can see the flaw in the world that your Shaper can ascend through, and who leads the Apostle there. Once they gaze upon it, though...well, they won't be seeing much of anything again.
The Constant: As it turns out, Kerisham, the village that you nuke to open the way for your Shaper's ascension, is present in all five of the Histories, and always has the same name.
Cosmic Flaw: Almost referenced by name. Kerisham and Vienna are said to house "flaws in the world", places where the world's skin is thin and allows for easy passage between Histories - or more relevantly to your Shaper, between the Wake and the Mansus.
Doomed Hometown: You and your Shaper have become the cause of this for other people, destroying Kerisham in a nuclear blast.
Doomsday Device: The Dawnbreaker Device definitely has the feel to it, especially since it is detonated in Kerisham and the in-universe spiritual implications to bringing the dawn.
Evil Is Easy: It is, technically, possible to raise the Incandescence required without hurting anyone though a lot of juggling and difficulty... or you could simply feed a few prisoners to the Spider Door.
Impossibly Cool Weapon: The Dawnbreaker Core is a Fantastic Nuke powered by alchemical fuel rods and a fragment of the Sun-in-Splendour, capable of tearing open a hole into the Mansus. Need we say more?
Magitek: The Dawnbreaker Device and the increasingly refined alchemical products that culminate in Blue Gold are definitely technology, but just as definitely cannot be created without the Forge's influence.
Radiation-Induced Superpowers: An alchemical nuclear bomb, set off in the right place, makes your Shaper a Physical God.
Visionary Villain: You are trying to raise your Shaper as a Name to change the world, and we've seen that the setting definitely needs changing. And you know full well that success will destroy you and are doing it anyway, without any obvious mind control or blackmail. Pity about the methods.

Apostle Entheate

"The Illuminated One waits in the House of the Sun - waits to rise higher. I am their hand."

The Apostle of a Lantern Long, seeking to aid their ascension as a Name with the aid of Frau Schlessel.

Deader than Dead: The people you sacrifice in this ascension aren't just dead, you've also mutilated their souls.
Glamour: A powerful psychic version. Part of your quest is creating a powerful beacon in the Mansus that will trap dreaming souls. It's powered by the same Fascination that is trying to drive your character insane.
Identity Amnesia: Begins the game with no memory of who they are.
Mind Hive: The cloud of souls you gather are reduced to this. Or raised to this. It's all a matter of perspective.
Never Sleep Again: You are the one arranging for people to die in their dreams.
Passed in Their Sleep: Anyone your character recruits as a Witness. Additionally, finally opening the Tricuspid Door causes this for hundreds of people.
Reforged into a Minion: Your character themselves, by implication. Your identity and memories were eaten (just as you did to others in the Lantern Ascension) and now you serve your illuminated master.
Spirit Advisor: You serve as a malicious one. You employ Mansus spirits to find the souls of hapless dreamers, and bring them up the Ascent of Knives. This is technically a form of enlightenment... but they don't survive the process in a meaningful way.

Apostle Obsonate

"The one who nourished us has ascended to a higher state... in one history, at least. The past is uncertain. But I will prepare the feast for their next ascension."

The Apostle of a Grail Long, seeking to aid their ascension as a Name with the aid of Marinette.

Consuming Passion: All over the place, with yourself as the ultimate meal. Since this is Grail, it's unsurprising.
Devoured by the Horde: The final part of the Vitulation is to turn yourself into a feast for the Host, spiced by Marinette with the Seven Graces that you flavored with Three Savours. Eaten Alive no less.
Food Chains: Possibly. One interpretation of the game start is that your blood sickness actually originates from first tasting your Delight.
Holy Grail: The closest version in this universe anyway. To complete the Vitulation you will have to go on a quest track down the Chalice Murmurous on the far side of the world.
Horror Hunger: This is definitely the path for it. Most notably, most of the time you sound like you want to eat yourself. Also inverted, in that you want to be eaten as well.
I Taste Delicious: You really, really think you look like a good meal. Which is of course the point.
Loophole Abuse: This is why the Apostle has to be the centerpiece of the Vitulation. To ascend as a Name of the Grail, your Delight has eat someone they have given life to without committing the Crime of the Sky. The Apostle has to consume the Delight's blood to survive, so they're someone the Delight has given life, but they aren't the Delight's biological child, so eating them isn't the Crime of the Sky.
Noble Demon: Averted, this is one of the most explicitly and personally evil paths. You're going to have to feed a lot of people to monsters in the name of yet another monster.
Reincarnation: The scraps of you left after being Eaten Alive at the Vitulation are gathered by the Applebright in Nowhere, who promises you will see life again. Who the Applebright actually is isn't specified, other than implicitly being associated with the Witch-and-Sister in a similar way to how the Mare-in-the-Tree is associated with the Sister-and-Witch.
The Renfield: You are endlessly devoted to your Delight, serving the purposes of an immortal people-eating monster. If that wasn't enough to drive the point home, they regularly supply you with Delightful Blood that you have to drink to survive.
Soap Opera Disease: The disease your character suffers is quite vague, other than that "My blood is wrong. My bones are sick". It is possibly a poetic description of Leukemia, or perhaps something more supernatural. It can only be temporarily cured by consuming Delightful Blood given by your Mentor.
Supernaturally Delicious and Nutritious: Exaggerated Trope, your entire quest is to become delicious and nutritious enough to ascend your Delight as a Name.
Tainted Veins: Played with in that, while you are deathly ill from a blood sickness and drinking the blood of your Delight restores you to vigorous health, it's that very health and the delicious serums you see in your body which are the supernatural taint.
The Power of Blood: A recurring theme, naturally enough.
Yandere: As a Grail cultist, this is expected. Not only do you refer to your patron as your Delight, but you are enthusiastically preparing yourself to be eaten alive in their name.

The Cultists

In General

"Student, helpmeet, defender, champion, dupe, sacrifice... companion."

The various fools and dreamers who follow your characters, whether to their deaths or to unimaginable power.

The Blacksmith: All the Forge aspected followers are able to repair broken mystical items, or work in illegal mystical operations for money.
Came Back Wrong: You can revive them as undead, should they die. Ascending with your lover's zombie unlocks special endings and achievements.
Crippling Overspecialization: By default a cultist has no secondary aspects. Zig-Zagged with more experienced cultists however. With one wound a Cultist becomes as proficient as a Believer in that field, and with two wounds and an appropriate gift they can match a full Disciple. It is theoretically possible, though unlikely, to have an Exalted follower who is also a Disciple in Edge Winter or Knock and equal to a Believer in the other two.
Deceptive Disciple: With the Dancer update, your followers can become Rivals, who seek to achieve their own ascension, denying you yours in the process.
Demolitions Expert: Forge Cultists are very good at blowing up doors.
Heart Beatdown: Heart Cultists can defeat almost all Curses, some of the most annoying and destructive obstacles in the game. They can also manage your reputation, keeping your notoriety down because no one that nice could be involved in anything shady. They can also help you cross stormy seas.
The Hedonist: Grail cultists, naturally.
I Can Rule Alone: If one of them becomes a Rival, they seek to become a Long themselves, instead of aiding you in your ascension.
Magikarp Power: As Believers, they're of minimal use on expeditions or Cult Business, but they become much more reliable when promoted to Disciples. Exalted Cultists are almost guaranteed to succeed at their Cult Business and can singlehandedly handle any obstacle that can be bypassed with their aspect.
Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: If you treat your followers poorly, they may become Rivals, who seek to ascend in your place.
Mundane Utility: Most of your cultists can find relatively mundane uses for their supernatural skills. Forge, for example, can simply work as crafters for money.
Necromancer: Moth cultists with Winter wounds can easily become this, animating a corpse in a Rite with no tools or assistance at all. Winter cultists with Edge wounds can do the same, as can an Edge cultist who survives two Winter wounds.
Psycho Serum: Indoctrinating cultists in forbidden lore doesn't do wonders for their mental health, even if it does increase their Aspects and, thus, their chances at succeeding at their respective tasks.
The Power of Love: Lover cultists have their primary aspect boosted by 1 - an exalted cultist may wind up with 11 technically stronger than most summons and only 1 away from matching a Name!
Power at a Price: They can become substantially more powerful and useful to the cult, even beyond their normal buffs from promotion. But only by failing on missions and recovering from injuries. This results in a bit of a perverse incentive for the player. You want them to fail to toughen them up, but not so much that they're too fragile to risk using.
The Social Expert: Heart cultists charm people, convincing everyone that they have your reputation all wrong. Moth cultists are excellent at cons and deception. Grail cultists, meanwhile, quite literally charm the pants off of people.
Summon Magic: Can become quite proficient at it with Knock wounds and a Rite. Conveniently, the cultists with the aspect to become the best summoners are also those most likely to be injured in Cult Business.
Sycophantic Servant: All of the Cultists, once indoctrinated, are absolutely loyal, and will carry out any task given to them, even if they're woefully unprepared to handle it.
- Averted as of the Dancer update, however: Push them too far and they will turn against you.
Take Away Their Name: All Winter followers, if exalted, pay their names as a price.
Turn Undead: Winter cultists can repel the dead with their presence.

Hangers-On/Pawns

"I have negotiated this one's service for a little while."

Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": They're identified by some trait related to their aspect, like "A Practical Disciple" (Forge) or "A Sturdy Disciple" (Edge).
Faceless Goons: Unlike your named Followers, your Pawns have no discernible identities or personalities or, in fact, names.
Go Mad from the Revelation: Promoting your Moth-aspect Pawn will make them unstable, which will cause them to lose their sanity and, eventually, die from self-destructive behavior.
Kid with the Leash: Implied to an extent. Many summons have an aspect of eight, while promoted Pawns have an aspect of two. This makes believer-summon pairs a simple way to max out chances of success while saving other followers for something more useful.
Mooks: This is the role your Pawns basically play- too weak to do much of anything on their own, but highly expendable if you need Cannon Fodder or sacrifices.
Sharp-Dressed Man: They wear suits when promoted.
Sinister Shades: All your Pawns wear them.

Slee

"Craig Slee, the astronomer and avant-garde poet, has developed an interest in the esoteric as his health wanes."

Applied Mathematics: He blends poetry and math into a unique form of Magibabble.
Eccentric Artist: Slee is described as an avant-garde poet with numerous theories. As he is promoted, he approaches full Mad Artist territory as he begins to blend mathematics into his poetry, with it becoming harder to distinguish the difference between the two.
Gratuitous Iambic Pentameter: When Exalted Slee starts speaking exclusively in a mixture of poetry and math.
Mundane Utility: It's noted that, as he is promoted, his poetry improves dramatically.
Room Full of Crazy: If Slee is ever imprisoned, his cell quickly turns into this.
"Slee writes poetry on the walls, obsessively. If we don't provide him ink, he uses what he can."
Sickly Prodigy: Slee is a skilled artist in poor health, whose illness (which involves crippling migraines) becomes worse as his abilities become more pronounced.

"Pope" Clifton

"A bellowing and unorthodox Catholic with a mystic streak and an untrimmed beard."

Blasphemous Boast: He got his nickname because he refuses to be addressed as anything other than "your Holiness," despite supposedly being a devout Catholic.
The Power of the Sun: Clifton has an obsession with the Sun, as might be expected for a follower of Lantern. If he is Exalted, he will start each morning by staring directly into the Sun, to find out what it wishes of him.
Sinister Minister: He's this from most sane perspectives.
Turbulent Priest: From your perspective, he's a religious firebrand fighting against the oppression of society and the Suppression Bureau.

Cat Caro

"'Cat Caro', as she styles herself, earns a living as a stage medium and a fortune-teller. She may have deeper talents."

Dreaming of Things to Come: Her true power lies in dreams, and the visions they provide.
Fortune Teller: This is how she makes her living, although unlike most Fortune Tellers, she actually has some genuine mystical talent.
Phony Psychic: Before she is indoctrinated into your Cult, this is basically her job. As she is promoted, however, it gets a lot less phony.
Stage Names: Cat Caro, with its Alliterative nature, is not her real name.

Tristan

"Tristan dislikes distractions. Tristan gets things done."

Berserk Button: Tristan does not like distractions, and he's always willing to do what's necessary to get results.
Kill It with Fire: Metaphorically. As a rival, he is 'unafraid to use fire.' Also possibly literally.
Utopia Justifies the Means: As a rival, he is building a "little kingdom," and he has no problem doing extreme things when required.

Valciane

"Valciane has operated her establishment for almost twenty years. She has never employed an assistant. Her hands are terribly strong."

Destructo-Nookie: In a romance she may flirt about testing the design tolerances of your bed.
Emotionless Girl: They are quite certain Valciane is not, in fact, a machine, because she occasionally makes mistakes. Otherwise, it is difficult to tell. If she becomes a Rival, she deals with her enemies "With the remorseless brio of a youth smashing bottles".
Loners Are Freaks: Despite owning a business for twenty years, she has never employed an assistant.
Ultimate Blacksmith: All forge followers are very good. But when Exalted Valciane stops using tools altogether because they just get in the way.

Laidlaw

"Laidlaw is a tinkerer and mechanic with an uncanny knack."

Master of Unlocking: "Laidlaw's door is bolted, not locked. We know better than that."
Noodle Implements: "Laidlaw has learnt the cleverer uses of fire and copper, wax and acid."
Shown Their Work: These are all things used in elaborate metalwork and jewelry craft.

Rose

"Rose is a sly miss, and she recognises you as someone uncommon."

Calling Card: When she is going to kill someone, she sends them a yellow rose as a gift first, to warn them she's coming. It doesn't help them, mind...
The Dividual: Aside from being brother and sister, Rose and Victor are incredibly similar. Their Disciple quotes are even identical.
Deadly Euphemism: Rose doesn't have targets. She has "subjects".
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Her and Victor's romance texts suggest they're siblings. And sleeping together. Even if you are married to one of them. They do seem to genuinely care for you as well, for what that's worth.
Femme Fatale: Emphasis on the "fatale" part. As an Edge Aspected follower, the primary service she provides is assassinating your enemies.
Wrong-Name Outburst: During her romance, it's mentioned she once calls you by the name of another cultist mid-coitus. "Victor".

Elridge

"An elegant man of inelegant habits."

Blood-Splattered Warrior: Not a good thing, in this case — as an Edge Aspected follower, his primary job is killing people on your behalf, and he starts off quite sloppy. This improves as he is promoted, however.
Improbable Weapon User: He needs special precautions if imprisoned.
"Elridge is not permitted a spoon, or a plate. It is probably unwise to permit him even the sharper vegetables."
No Social Skills: Quoting his Believer description: "He has almost learnt not to pick his teeth with his knife. He has not yet learnt to keep his knife in his boot." He improves dramatically by the time he is Exalted, at which point he is never seen with blood on him, no matter what he's been up to.
Suspiciously Specific Denial: "Elridge is never seen with a spot of blood upon his person. Not a spot."

Victor

"Victor is a sly fellow, and he knows an unusual opportunity when he sees it."

Apologetic Attacker: He likes to apologize to his victims before killing them; it's for this reason that he tends to get friendly with targets.
The Dividual: Aside from being brother and sister, Rose and Victor are incredibly similar. Their Disciple quotes are even identical.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His and Rose's romance texts suggest they're siblings. And sleeping together. Even if you are married to one of them. They do seem to genuinely care for you as well, for what that's worth.
Good Hair, Evil Hair: Has a distinctive pencil-thin mustache, as appropriate for his role as an Edge Aspected followers.
Meaningful Name: Like other Edge-aspected cultists, he's a nearly unstoppable killer once Exalted - very likely to be the victor in any confrontation, in other words.

Violet

"Violet has always given unstintingly of her time, easing the pain of the dying."

Eccentric Artist: She loves to paint, but hates painting people. There are enough people in the world, in her mind.
Mercy Kill: She enjoys easing the pain of the dying, and doesn't mind bringing their end about sooner to do that.
Misanthrope Supreme: Of a sort. She doesn't seem to hate anyone specifically, and can be compassionate from a certain point of view. But she seems to think there are too many people in the world, and that killing anyone is a mercy.

Auclair

"Auclair has a scholarly aspect and a morbid streak."

Consummate Professional: When serving as an assassin. She carefully and quietly waits for the perfect moment to strike.
Despair Event Horizon: If imprisoned, she does not speak or eat.
Ice Queen: More literally than most. Talking with her is described as like a fencing match, and she's hardly effusive in her affections. She can be quite sincere in them, though.
No-Nonsense Nemesis: Quiet, meticulous, and remorseless. She would prefer to kill you before you even knew she was there.
Smart People Play Chess: Romance texts mention that she enjoys date nights involving playing chess. With variant rules even! The games never get finished though.

Dorothy

"Dorothy is an enthusiastic sort with an eclectic reading habit. She's fascinated by my hints about the shapes beneath the world's skin."

Eccentric Artist: Her Heart Aspect expresses itself as a love of dance.
Magic Music: More then the other Heart-aspected followers, her Exalting evokes music. Drums, naturally.
"When Dorothy moves, we hear the drum. When she speaks, we see the dance. Her determination is her shield and her weapon."

The Pollyanna: A twisted version: she is described as endlessly enthusiastic, and intrigued by hints of "shapes of things beneath the world's skin."

Clovette

"Clovette is happy in a way that brooks no counter-argument to happiness."

All-Loving Hero: Well, 'hero' may be pushing it given the company she keeps. But she really does love everyone, personally and sincerely. It's a Heart thing.
Friend to All Living Things: She's so relentlessly optimistic that even the Detective can't bring themselves to hate her as a Troublemaker, even as they are hunting down evidence to arrest her.
Hope Springs Eternal: Even when imprisoned and dying, she keeps waiting for things to turn around. They won't.
The Pollyanna: Taken to a terrifying level. She actually weaponizes it as she's promoted.
"Clovette's optimism is daunting. She wields her joy like a hammer."

Leo

"Leo is an earnest sort with an interest in the occult. He hangs on your hints about the invisible arts."

Determinator: Like all Heart Aspect followers, he has pledged not to cease. For the others, this means unceasing dance or unceasing optimism. For Leo, it means unceasingly striving towards bringing the Cult to greater heights.
Utopia Justifies the Means: His primary defining trait is his willingness to do anything for his cause. Anything.

Saliba

"Saliba is a man of prodigious appetites. He is long past the point where their satisfaction has given him any pleasure; but he has learnt so very much."

Emotion Eater: Implied, given how all his partners leave him "a little less". This is also a hint that taking a romance ending with him as a very, very bad idea. While this still counts as a minor victory, you are implicitly drained away to nothing.
Expy: Resembles an older Bela Lugosi in appearance — especially given Saliba's association with blood and Lugosi's famous Dracula role.
The Hedonist: Though noted to have indulged in physical pleasure for so long that he no longer derives any real joy from it.
He-Man Woman Hater: The Grail represents both blood and birth, but Saliba only understands blood... at least, at first. He becomes more egalitarian as he is promoted.
Really Gets Around: What you'd expect of a Grail follower, but he is specifically noted to have an unending parade of partners going to his rooms.
Schmuck Bait: You can romance him, even though he's explicitly mentioned to destroy all his lovers. He outright tells you that "this will end badly". It does.
Tranquil Fury: If imprisoned, his anger "burns like buried lava".

Renira

"Renira has been found not guilty three times in three separate jurisdictions. She will likely never be found guilty of anything."

Creepy Souvenir: Alongside flowers, jewelry and poetry, some of Renira's admirers are implied to send her these.
Femme Fatale: Renira has been found "not guilty" in three separate jurisdictions, although for what is not clear.
I Have Boobs, You Must Obey!: Implicitly part of how her Grail powers manifest.
Karma Houdini: As her quote states. The Detective notes that not only has she never been found guilty despite her activities, but that "she will likely never be found guilty for anything."
Really Gets Around: Inverted. She very pointedly only returns the affections of those she finds worthy, and has very high standards.

Sylvia

"Sylvia lost her eye in the woods when she was nine years old. Every year, at Candlemass, she returns to the place she buried it."

Cloud Cuckoolander: No one is quite sure what Sylvia wants, not even herself.
Eye Scream: Lost her eye when she was nine years old. As her quote says, she commemorates the event annually.
Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Listed among the things she is very familiar with is Irish Whiskey.
Living Lie Detector: A part of how her Moth Aspect reveals itself- all she has to do is close her remaining eye, and people start spilling their guts to her.
Making Love in All the Wrong Places: Romance with her is described as including this, as well as her cutting off both of your clothes.
Maybe Ever After: A romance ending with her is described as extremely tempestuous, and involving infidelity in both directions. But you do always find yourselves drawn back together. Whether that is a good thing or not is unclear.
Stealth Expert: When Exalted, she can leave a room "almost before she enters it".

Porter

"Porter was a barber, until the court case."

Expy: Loosely, a number of details about him are reminiscent of Sweeney Todd.
I Know Your True Name: Presumably why he collects people's names. As a rival he even somehow begins an ascension path based on his name collection.
Noodle Implements: It's not clear how he puts his scissors to work now that he's no longer a barber, but it seems to be quite helpful to the Cult.
Noodle Incident: Whatever court case got him fired as a barber.
Shear Menace: There are many worrying hints about what, exactly, he does with those scissors.
Stalker without a Crush: The Detective discovers that Porter enjoys collecting people's names, although he can't figure out why.
Stealth Hi/Bye: "Like a spider, Porter is found in the most unexpected places."
Stealth Expert: "Porter goes unnoticed, until he's ready."

Ysabet

"Ysabet has always been most comfortable by moonlight. She has excellent night vision. She is often overlooked in daylight."

Macabre Moth Motif: More than any of the other Moth followers Ysabet draws parallels to the literal insects. In a romance ending she collects or raises live moths and lets them loose in the house.
Not a Morning Person: Ysabet prefers to sleep through the day and do her work at night, which may be a part of her connection to the Moth and the darkness of the Wood.
Shaped Like Itself: Her behavior is so peculiar that it can only be described as "what an Ysabet does."
Stealth Hi/Bye: "Ysabet was just here, just a moment ago. Just here. Almost certainly." Even more than other Moth followers she is focused on being unseen.
Will Not Tell a Lie: Once she becomes a Skintwister. Specifically, she never needs to lie.

Neville

"Neville pauses before he speaks, and flinches easily. He laughs whenever he thinks you've made a joke."

No Social Skills: Aside from being very nervous, he is awkward and has a hard time recognizing social cues.
Self-Imposed Challenge: He just really likes opening doors, and wants to open as many as he can, while he can.
Shrinking Violet: He is an extremely nervous fellow, or at least appears that way. He starts to become more confident as he is promoted.

Enid

"Enid speaks softly, and sometimes her gaze doesn't focus on anything visible. It may be that you've dreamed the same dreams."

Blind Seer: It is implied that, the better her supernatural sight becomes, the more her actual eyesight deteriorates, although this doesn't seem to be much of an impediment for her.
Cloud Cuckoolander: Enid often stares at things that are not visible, although it is difficult for her.

Spider-Sense: She always sees her enemies coming.

The Patrons

In General

Cunning Linguist: Four out of Five Patrons can tutor you in another language, in exchange for an Iron Spintria or better. Madame Bechet will teach you Greek, Count Jannings can tutor you in Latin, Dr. Ibn Al-Adim can instruct you in Aramaic, and Sulochana can tutor you in Sanskrit.
Eccentric Mentor: To a greater or lesser extent. While they don't grant you knowledge by themselves, turning in Commissions for them can net you Erudition and Glimmering, which are essential for studying or subverting Lore.
Mugging the Monster: Menaces which randomly target Two of the Five who aren't mortal will cause them to fail and be destroyed by them.
Weird Currency: The primary benefit of having Patrons is that they give you Spintrias- the currency of the supernatural- in exchange for Commissions.

Poppy Lascelles

Adult Child: Despite being an older woman (with some disturbing interests), she is often described as being cute and childlike in her demeanor.
Creepy Cute: She speaks in a cute, childlike manner, but requests Commissions on Knock and Winter Lore- the Lores most commonly associated with loss, sacrifice and death.
Deal with the Devil: The first time you meet her, she promises to give you support so long as you introduce her to someone who will "end things properly." If you accept her bargain, she'll give you a whopping ten Funds, along with a Silver Spintria, but after a certain period of time, you'll need to give her one of your cultists as a sacrifice. Otherwise, you'll get a Non-Standard Game Over. Once you do that, however, she becomes like all the other patrons, exchanging Commissions for Spintrias.
An Ice Person: While she lacks any special magic powers, as far as we can see, she appears to venerate the Sun-In-Rags, and leaves behind a Winter-Aspected Influence wherever she goes.
Rich Boredom: Described as a "woman of property," with a self-described interest in "matters of blood and ice." Seems to make Commissions simply to fill her time.

Mme Bechet

Eldritch Location: She runs the Kerisham Review. Kerisham, you later learn, is a Vanishing Village on the English Coast.
Femme Fatale: Has shades of this, particularly given her fascination with Grail and Moth lore.
Hidden Depths: She seems like she's simply an occult tabloid reporter at first glance. She also is from a Vanishing Village, speaks Greek, and her interest in Forge implies far broader interests than you would expect.
Lurid Tales of Doom: Runs the Kerisham Review, a gossipy tabloid that focuses on "material too ghastly or thrilling" for other, more reputable magazines.

Count Jannings

Adaptation Expansion: He is a recruitable party member in Exile, and keeps a townhouse in Rostok where you can lay low.
Brotherhood of Funny Hats: Despite the unusual nature of their interests, Count Jannings' "confraternity" tends to evoke this more than any Ancient Conspiracy. Subverted, since the club includes at least one person possessed by a Strix and the scarification in the initiation evokes the Colonel.
Dueling Scar: He requires you get one as an initiation at his club for him to be willing to join you.
Gentleman Adventurer: He and his "Confraternity of physicians and duelists" seem to evoke this.
Mad Doctor: He is a vivisectionist, using his powers of Edge to take things apart and Heart to put them together again.

Dr Ibn Al-Adim

Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: His lack of mortality, his name, and his interest in Secret Histories implies that he's the 13th-century historian and biographer Ibn al-Adim
The Ageless: He's one of the two Patron who lacks the Mortal Aspect, implying that he's one of the immortal Long
I Have Many Names: He is also referred to as the Aleppine.
Magical Asian: Aside from his name implying an Arabic heritage, his other name- the Aleppine- implies he is from Aleppo, located in modern-day Syria. As for the Magical part, see The Ageless above.
Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Has a particular interest in the Secret Histories and Lantern Lore, both of which are tied to mind-blasting revelations.

Sulochana Amavasya

Ambiguously Human: Like Al-Adim, Sulochana doesn't have Mortal aspect. When you're getting ready for dance to get Instar: Far-Travelling, she mentions that she gets nearly as far as you, but in the end chose a different way to ascend to Mansus. She also thinks of warning her sisters about your eventual ascent.
Eats Babies: She's Ligeian Club member, which means that she's an Alukite and had committed Crime of the Sky at one point. Getting the location to Miah from her will even make her tell you to relay a threat against children of people who want to ask about her when you got there.
Knowledge Broker: She is one of the Ligeans, and she's been around for a long time. She knows a thing or two. Such as a method to ascend via dance or even the weakness of an immortal Implacable Man. She doesn't trade knowledge for money though, instead doing business with those who impress her.
Magical Asian: Like Al-Adim, the Ambiguously Human part kind of makes her fit in the Magical part, especially since she's the owner of the Ecdysis Club, which seems to know a lot of the occults. Her name and appearance, and the fact that she's Sanskrit tutor, also heavily implies Indian origin.
Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: When the Apostle Obsonate expresses their desire to complete the Vitulation she asks if you're really doing this. And then, disturbed or disappointed in her unflappable way, she gets you in touch with her sister and nopes out. She doesn't come back.
The Unblinking: She's described as this. This is standard for Alukites.

The Ligeans

A group of several old, powerful, and hungry entities that consider each other sisters. They are all Alukites of various forms, and are extremely dangerous, but are usually willing to work with you for the right consideration.

Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Considering how heinous the Crime of the Sky is regarded normally, the fact that the Ligeian Club members aren't hunted down can be surprising. This is because they're the Keyholders necessary to elevate a Long higher.
Eats Babies: All of them are Ligeian Club members, who are all Alukites, which means that they had committed the Crime of the Sky at one point.
Loophole Abuse: It's a law of the Hours that no one can hold or own the Keys. As Alukites, however, they are already abominations and outside the law.
Mugging the Monster: In Exile they count as distractions, meaning that when Reckoners are hunting for you they may run into the Ligeans instead. Ordinary operatives, assassins, and underbosses are devoured without a trace, and even your Foe may be wounded.
Not Blood Siblings: The Ligeian Club members all consider each other to be sisters, even if they're totally unrelated by blood.

Frau Schlüssel

For Science!: She is so eager to help your patron ascend because, basically, it's a rare opportunity and just plain interesting.
The Hecate Sisters: Her name is apparently Kleidoukhos, which is one of Hecate's epithets.
Morality Pet: She keeps a little puppy. It hides under her skirts. Whether it is actually a puppy is, of course, an open question.
Nice Girl: Unlike her sisters, she is happy to aid your mentor in the opening of the Tricuspid Gate and asks for nothing in return. In Exile she will also accept a reckoner corpe, though she will take a Decade or devour a betrayed ally if offered instead.

Marinette, 'Our Lady of Wires'

Adorable Abomination: When interacting with her and offering someone for sacrifice the little "[grail]?" when she's hungry and the enthusiastic "[heart]!" when she's finally sated makes it sound like she's a pet asking for a treat.
Expy: Her name and skeletal appearance is a reference to a Vodou Loa, dangerous but also associated with revolutions and fighting for freedom.
Stripped to the Bone: The people she eats, not her, though she is of course a puppet made of bones. The victims are stripped to the skin actually. She sometimes leaves the bones too.
Tom the Dark Lord: 'Marinette' doesn't seem like it'd be an Alukite's name.
Villainous Glutton: In contrast to Mrs E. She doesn't care who she eats, or even if they're occultists... she just cares that there are a lot of them.
Wingdinglish: She only speaks in lore symbols.

Mrs E.

Anti-Frustration Features: She'll usually want an Exalted follower as a sacrifice in return for her help... but if you're playing as the Society of St. Hydra, which cannot Exalt followers, she'll waive the sacrifice requirement, so the Legacy doesn't become unwinnable this far in.
Hidden Depths: She is apparently interested enough in the Histories that a cult devoted to St. Hydra gets you off the hook for a sacrifice.
Monster Progenitor: She calls herself Echidna when the Exile meets her in Marakesh, and has frequently worked with the Lionsmith.
One-Winged Angel: Her human shape is only a polite guise. And is not the shape she prefers.
Picky People Eater: Requires an Exalted follower before she gives her assistance to an Apostle. Unless you're in Secret History cult, since you can't have Exalted cultists.

Mme. Matutine

Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: If you offer her enough secrets, she will help you ascend as a Long in the name of the Velvet.
Cool Boat: She keeps one, The Sapphire, and travels the seas of the world on it. This is also how she turns up if summoned.
Given Name Reveal: Her first name is unknown in Cultist Simulator. However, Book of Hours reveals it to be "Margot".
Summoning Artifact: When she is encountered in the Exile path you can arrange an audience with her. She offers a deal that is key to one of the victory conditions, and gives you a bone flute that can be used to summon her anywhere by the sea.
Un-person: She can do this to you, and ascend you to being a Long in the process, at the cost of being given enough powerful secrets and relics in exchange.

What Is Not Seen

Medusa: This is why she is not seen. It's unlikely she turns you to stone, but that is not actually reassuring when you wonder what she might do instead.
Anomalous Art: The way you can tell she is present in the city, in a very strange way. None of the statues in the city have their eyes open.
Missing Time: When you arrange a meeting with her. You simply wind up missing an hour, and are unsure that you actually met a Ligean at all except for the injuries.
Only Smart People May Pass: Medusa's Riddle, which you may recall from other paths as one of the ways to get through the Stag Door. This is not only a bit of eldritch lore to become a Know but also what is required to meet her.
Time Abyss: In the Dancer path Sulochana mentions that she is the oldest Ligean alive. Given their general age and power, that's saying something.
Wound That Will Not Heal: She gives you one, permanently reducing your hit points. It works as a mystical tool, and also is useful for certain endgame conditions.

The Hunters

In General

The Anti-Nihilist: It is possible for a Hunter to develop this attitude in response to your attacks, with both the Grim and Idealist qualities. Hunters like this are mentally unshakable, and can only be harmed by physical attacks.
Bat Deduction: Hunters with the "Erratic" trait can find evidence against you even without any Notoriety to use, using esoteric knowledge and unexpected angles to find clues even you can't conceal. Of course, these methods are not entirely reliable.
The Confidant: You can play them this way, oddly enough. Regular conversation with them on low level lore can help maintain your sanity at the cost of suspicion, especially if they themselves have developed an immunity to those mental influences.
Face–Heel Turn: As of the Dancer update, Hunters can become Troublemakers and Rivals that seek the same ascension they once tried to stop you from gaining.
Hero Antagonist: Opposes the Player Character at every turn, by building cases from the Notoriety you generate in pursuit of your Ascension.
Heroic Second Wind: If a Hunter survives an attempt to kill them or drive them insane, they have a chance to become resistant to similar attempts to get rid of them in the future. Worst case scenario is instead they chose to embrace the occult and becomes your rival.
Hidden Depths: All of them have the potential to become dangerous and powerful occult rivals under the right circumstances. What's more, if you then recruit them they show extraordinary capabilities even beyond your regular cultists.
I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: If a Hunter is able to generate Evidence but gets killed before they can make an arrest, other Hunters can use that Evidence to try to arrest you or your followers.
Iron Woobie: Despite how difficult they can be for the player to deal with, in honesty they are hugely outclassed. But they can survive and continue to hound you despite all the supernatural horrors you throw at them, and if they're lucky they may even take you down.
Magikarp Power: Recruiting a Hunter is a laborious process, particularly at full strength. It requires you to corrupt them and then nurture their development to becoming Long In The Making, while keeping them from interfering with your own business, before offering them a very powerful magical tool. But if you succeed they are some of the most powerful followers in the game and allow you to have Exalted followers outside of your cult's aspect.
No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine: Just because they are trying to find enough proof to lock you away forever doesn't mean you can't have a civil conversation. It can even be a reliable, but risky, way to produce Dread or Fascination to counter your various insanities.
No One Could Survive That!: Some Hunters are Tenacious, and this trope is said word-for-word when they survive an attack that should have killed them.
Occult Detective: The Suppression Bureau investigates and prosecutes crimes surrounding the Mansus and its many occult mysteries.
Pretentious Latin Motto: A plaque in Book of Hours reveals the Suppression Beaureau's to be "ALLIS LICET TIBI NON LICET." "To us it is permitted; to you it is not permitted." Which sums up the way the Bureau works pretty well.
Tailor-Made Prison: Considering the capabilities of your cultists, this is a given. Described precautions include avoiding locks, which would just be disassembled, and not giving them anything that could conceivably be a weapon. Down to the wrong vegetables.
- Properly Paranoid: While this may be overkill for simple Believers, for Disciples and especially Exalted it is more than justified.

Doctor Natalia Dragon

Adventure Archaeologist: If you manage to recruit her she is very effective in this role. Forge defeats environmental barriers and destroys sealed doors, while Lantern locates hidden ones. She needs a partner if any fighting is involved though.
Curse Escape Clause: When at full strength she is notable for being able to reliably repel The Worms in the World, a remarkable feat. She can also repel a Dry Soul Curse.
Awesomeness by Analysis: As she has the Meticulous Aspect, she always produces Evidence from Notoriety, making any sort of suspicious activity even more dangerous while she's hunting you.
Determinator: Her study of occult Lore got her kicked out of her respectable university job, but that didn't stop her from pursuing her studies, which is how she wound up at the Suppression Bureau.
Hidden Depths: If recruited she has ten Lantern and seven Forge. She has a brilliant insight and is practical, methodical, and never gives up.
The Pollyanna: As a Hunter with the Idealist Aspect, she can't be driven insane with Dread or Winter-Aspected Lore. However, Lantern-Aspected Lore and Fascination have a much higher chance to affect her.
They Called Me Mad!: She was laughed out of respectable academia for her research into the Secret Histories. She was also entirely correct.

Connie Lee

Adaptation Expansion: She tends to be the narrative face of the bureau in supplemental materials. In Exile she reports on how the struggle with your rival went, and even possibly recruits you, while notes from the future show that after the Suppression Bureau was disbanded due to budget cuts she formed a private organization of monster hunters to keep up the fight.
Anti-Magic: She is incredibly resistant to supernatural attack, to the point that the PC has a better chance killing her than a being like King Crucible.
Determinator: She starts with both the Tenacious Aspect, which makes all attacks against her have a one-in-three chance to fail, even when they'd normally succeed. She also has the Mystic Aspect, which makes her essentially immune to creatures from the Mansus. In short, she is very, very hard to kill.
- Connie was even tougher in the earliest versions of the game, because her Tenacious and Mystic Aspects stacked exponentially. Once players brought this to the designer's attention, he re-coded the mechanic to make Connie (slightly) more vulnerable.
Gentleman Adventurer: She's from a rich family, she won't sit around when there are dark forces afoot, and she has an incredible talent for surviving even when facing staggeringly powerful supernatural enemies.
Given Name Reveal: Book of Hours reveals that "Connie" is actually a diminutive : her full first name is Constance.
Hidden Depths: If recruited she is called a Conqueress, and it is noted that she will not be satisfied serving forever. She has a full ten strength in Edge and seven in Grail on top of it. She is seductive, deadly, and ambitious.
Non-Idle Rich: She's from a wealthy family, but has decided to use her resources and skills to hunt down cultists at the Suppression Bureau.

Inspector Wakefield

Awesomeness by Analysis: Like Doctor Natalia Dragon, he is Meticulous, which means he always produces Evidence when he finds Notoriety. You need to be extra careful when doing anything shady while he's hunting you.
Curse Escape Clause: When at full strength he can reliably repel a Fifth Eye Curse by invoking the Elegiast.
Determinator: He has the relentless patience of Winter.
Given Name Reveal: If he leaves the Suppression Bureau you learn his first name is Zachary.
Hardboiled Detective: With his Grim Aspect, he evokes shades of this.
Hidden Depths: If recruited he has ten strength in Winter and seven in Lantern, representing a chilly insight.

Spencer Hobson

Anti-Magic: He has the Mystic aspect, his eclectic knowledge, erratic nature, and skill at escape letting him evade and defeat your monstrosities.
Bat Deduction: How it's implied he manages to produce Evidence even without Notoriety to work from.
Cowboy Cop: Indicated by the Erratic Aspect. While he's more likely to fail to create Evidence from Notoriety, he also has the chance to create Evidence even without Notoriety.
Demonic Possession: BOOK OF HOURS mentions in "The Affair of the Endless Guest" that he has been infested by the Worms. Alarmingly, it's said he retains a considerable amount of control over his mental faculties relative to previous known Worm hosts and considers them to be his "guests".
Hidden Depths: If recruited he has ten Knock and seven Moth. He is erratic, unconventional, and takes paths others cannot.
Renaissance Man: Has had a collection of jobs, and though he has seemed reasonably competent at all of them, he was too Erratic to stay on any one job long.
You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: When his erratic nature fails to produce results in his investigation, your character's commentary takes this tone.

Weary Detective

Cowboy Cop: Normally not at all, but if provoked enough to become a Rival rather than a Hunter, it is implied by the text that he's delving into eldritch stuff just to see what all the fuss is about and to stop you by beating you at your own game.
Create Your Own Hero: The Weary Detective is the least dangerous of the potential Hunters, but failed attempts to kill him or drive him insane can cause him to pick up traits that make him much more threatening.
Create Your Own Villain: Another possibility, if the player's attempts to drive him mad make him decide to "see what all the fuss is about" and begin practicing the eldritch arts for himself.
Deadpan Snarker: Though he doesn't speak, his description indicates this sort of personality. Even if he's been captured by your cult, he mostly seems annoyed that he doesn't get to read his morning paper.
Given Name Reveal: If you try to bewilder him with eldritch lore he has a chance to instead become a Rival, and then it gives him the name "Douglas." BOOK OF HOURS further gives his surname as "Moore".
Hidden Depths: If recruited he has a full ten strength in Forge. It represents his implacable nature and refusal to give up. On top of his being a Copper of course.
Old-Fashioned Copper: Lacks any special Aspects, and seems like just an ordinary beat cop who got put on the Suppression Bureau for some reason.
Rank Up: Pre-release materials for BOOK OF HOURS show that he's been promoted to Detective-Illuminate, much to his dismay.
Starter Villain: A patch turns him into the first investigator who'll start following your trail (originally any Hunters can be your first), but isn't much of a threat unless you're exceedingly careless. Once you get rid of him, however, you'll draw the attention of the more effective, named Hunters.

Other Mortals

Mr. Alden

Klingon Promotion: You can send a minion to kill him and take over his position at Glover & Glover.
Mean Boss: As the Supervisor of Records at Glover and Glover, he has a lot of opportunity to make your life miserable (assuming you take a job with them), and he often forces you to work overtime. If you refuse to put in overtime when he wants, or don't put in additional effort in the form of Reason, he docks your pay.
Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: It's not terribly surprising if you get tired of being forced to work overtime for him, but fortunately there are a few ways to deal with him: you can send an Edge or Winter Aspected minion to assassinate him, or a Grail Aspected minion to seduce him and ruin his reputation with scandals, or you can send a Moth Aspected minion to drive him insane. Or you can just wait until he retires and he'll hand you the Senior Position himself.
Stealth Mentor: Seems to be one reason for Mr. Alden forcing you to constantly work overtime- he's preparing you to take over his job for him.

The Hours

In General

Abstract Apotheosis: Several Gods-from-Blood, such as the Moth and the Red Grail, are abstract concepts given form.
Deity of Human Origin: Several Hours were once mortals who penetrated the Mansus - these are known as the Gods-from-Flesh. It's also possible for some Gods-from-Blood ^note to have once been mortals.
Eldritch Abomination: The in-game art depicting them is more a symbolic representation than anything else; their 'real' appearances aren't quite comprehensible to humans.
I Have Many Names: Most Hours are known by several different names.
The Old Gods: Two flavours. There's the Forge of Days and the Sun-in-Splendour, both of whom descended directly from the Glory, and the six Gods-from-Stone, which existed before humanity.
- Death of the Old Gods: A long time ago, the other Hours rose up and killed all but two of the Gods-from-Stone.

The Moth

"We call upon the Moth, who beats within the skull; who is dappled; who seeks among the trees of the Wood."

The Hour of chaos, yearning, madness, passion, and identity. Also known as the Dapple-King.

Abstract Apotheosis: Moreso than other Hours. The Moth is abstract enough to name the aspect it embodies.
Dead Person Impersonation: Killed the Wheel, one of the Gods-From-Stone, by subverting its identity. He didn't do as thorough a job as he thinks he did.
Go Mad from the Revelation: The Moth embodies the knowledge-seeker who goes mad. It always answers "Yes" to the question of the Glory, even to its own destruction. "Into the fire we fly."
Moth Menace: An ancient god of madness, chaos, loss, and yearning in the form of a giant moth.
Mad God: As a being born of the primal madness of humanity, the Moth is utterly insane. Higher lore makes parallels to Dionysus.
Shear Menace: The reason the Moth aspect is so closely associated with scissors. When the Moth subverted the Wheel, he's described as first cutting off its fingers, then hair, then 'everything else'.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Both of shape and identity.

The Door in the Eye

"We call upon the Watchman, who navigates; who illuminates; who is not compassionate."

The Hour of light, reason, enlightenment, knowledge, and mercilessness. Also called the Watchman and the Doorkeeper.

Deity of Human Origin: He's a God-from-Flesh as well as a God-from-Light, with one part of his origin being an Unwise Mortal who learned the arts of Flint during the days of the Carapace Cross and ascended to the service of the Egg Unhatching, who he ended up merging with within the Glory to become the Watchman.
Eye Scream: "The Watchman's eye was opened: not in the usual way, but with a knife."
Go Mad from the Revelation: The merciless Watchman is the Hour embodying this concept.
Light Is Not Good: Rather, light is not compassionate. Knowledge, being knowledge, does not care what its effect on you might be should you learn it.
"Mercy," saith the Watchman, "is found only in shadow."
Messianic Archetype: Of a sort. He is one of the Gods-from-Light, originating from the Glory, and in time, he will return, bringing seven worthy souls with him.
Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: So far he's the only Hour to have 3 origins all at once, which is referred to as Amber by a writer, namely being a God-from-Flesh ^note, God-from-Stone ^note, and God-from-Light ^note. There are, however, lores that dispute the Watchman's origin as a God-from-Light.
Visual Pun: One of the three entities that merged to form him was the Egg Unhatching. Now he's a giant eyeball.

The Velvet

The Hour of darkness, secrecy, and shelter. Also known as the Black-Flax and Moldywarp.

Alien Kudzu: Its presence or influence in the Wood is heralded by vast flows of moss.
Animal Motifs: Moles. "Moldywarp" is an old word for mole, and she is depicted as a mole on her tarot card.
Barrier Maiden: Stands with the Horned-Axe to contain the Crowned Growth.
Blackmail: It goes with the territory of being a goddess of secrets. One notable example has her offering the Hooded Princes blackmail on the Moth, Ring-Yew, and Witch-and-Sister after they refused to help the Princes fend off a Timurid army. Needless to say, their next appeal to those Hours was much more successful.
Cats Are Magic: One of the Velvet's Names can only be seen by certain cats, and following Cats in Exile will lead you to a shrine of the Velvet.
Refusal of the Call: The god of this, among other things. The Velvet rejects the Glory where the Moth embraces it, and keeps the Wood's canopy sealed against its light.
Secret-Keeper: It is said to guard the secrets of the other Hours.
The Extremist Was Right: The Velvet is entirely correct that pursuing the Glory is guaranteed to be dangerous, immoral, and self destructive.
Un-person: As the Hour of secrets, this is her domain. One of her servants is even called the Nameless Name.

The Malachite

"We call upon the Ring-Yew, who is succulent; who encompasses; who renews."

The Hour of fertility, bees, desire, restlessness, and whimsy. Also known as the Ring-Yew and the Honey-Tree.

Animal Motifs: Bees. Her tarot card is covered in dripping honeycombs, and when the Hooded Princes called on her to help them defend India, a quarter of the invading Timurid army was eaten alive by bees.
Deity of Human Origin: As a God-from-Flesh.
Fertility Goddess: Associated with plants, growth, and renewal.
The Hecate Sisters: One of three feminine Hours worshipped by the Sisterhood of the Knot that give this impression. The others are the Red Grail and the Horned-Axe. Ironically, none of these Hours like each other very much.
Liminal Being: Maybe. The highest level Moth lore reveals her liaisons with the Mare-in-the-Tree. The Mare-in-the-Tree "has sometimes been the Witch's Sister", which if true would put the Malachite as another aspect of The Witch. But none of this is confirmed in lore, since they're tangential to the player characters' interests.
Nature Equals Plants: She represents the renewing, vegetative, and creative aspects of living things. This is in contrast to the Red Grail, which represents its consumptive aspects.
Star-Crossed Lovers: She has secret (but rumored) liaisons with the Mare-in-the-Tree, a God-From-Nowhere.

The Thunderskin

"We call upon the Thunderskin, who cannot be stilled; who demands the dance; who is beaten, like a drum."

The Hour of vitality, protection, music, storms, dance, and eternity. Also known as the Heart Relentless, the Vigilant Storm, and the Pine-Knight.

Deity of Human Origin: He was originally a musician from Phrygia (a region in the west-central part of modern-day Turkey) before being forcefully transformed into an Hour by the Red Grail.
Flayed Alive: Repeated references to flaying in pieces of Heart lore, a comparison between the Thunderskin and the mythological satyr Marsyas, statements that the Grail "ripped the Thunderskin from Flesh" and that the Thunderskin "pleaded at his ascension", and the Thunderskin being described as being "beaten, like a drum" seem to imply that the Thunderskin's transition from mortality to Hourhood involved being unwillingly flayed alive by the Red Grail.
Genuine Human Hide: As an Hour, he essentially is this.
The Medic: In his aspect as the Vigilant Storm, where he breaks curses. He can even destroy Worms infesting a cultist, though it takes a lot of power.
The Scapegoat: Some accounts show his flaying by the Grail to be recompense to the Horned-Axe for the Hours’ killing of the other Gods-From-Stone to placate her.
Thunder Drum: Very much his thing, evoking both drumming and mountain storms. He, of course, is the drum.

The Mother of Ants

"We call upon the Mother of Ants, who encircles; who opens; who arises from wounds."

The Hour of wounds, doors, oracles, serpents, poison, and martyrhood. Also known as the Daughter of Venoms, the Key-Serpent, St. Agnes, and Nagi.

Deity of Human Origin: As a God-from-Flesh.
Hijacked by Jesus: She is conflated with St. Agnes by Christian cultists. Also zig-zagged. The Gospel of Zacchaeus suggests that Jesus was a Knock occultist in service of the Mother of Ants... who it names the "Mother of Salvation". It even cites how Knock can subvert all other aspects as evidence that she should be considered Top God.
Kill the God: Ascended, along with the Colonel, after helping him kill a God-From-Stone called the Seven-Coils.
Meaningful Name: One of her aliases, "The Daughter of Venoms." Depending on her origin she was baptized in, drowned in, or arose from the blood of the Seven-Coils.
Multiple-Choice Past: There are several different accounts of her ascension. The Colonel, with the help of a mortal priestess, slew the Seven-Coils, but from there, things get complicated. One version says the Colonel baptized the priestess in the Coils' blood to make her into the Mother of Ants, another that she drowned in it, and a third saying she arose from the Coils' blood. Perhaps all are true. Or perhaps none are.
One Bad Mother: Her name might be a clue. Played with, however - she's actually one of the more merciful of the Hours, and her Rite spares the assistant who is ritually offered to her.
Poison Is Evil: Is also referred to as "the Daughter of Venoms." You can sometimes find bottle of Sthenic Venom, which is associated with her, and kills its victims by "opening the body in uncountable places." Whether this means literal wounds, bleeding from every orifice, old wounds opening, or all of the above is unclear: all these options occur in different parts of Knock lore. Regardless, it may be fast, but it isn't pretty.
Snakes Are Sinister: Despite her name, she is also closely associated with monstrous serpents - her "Younger Sisters" - that appear throughout the game, impeding your path. Subverted — if you invoke enough Knock, you can defeat Younger Sisters by reminding them of the Mother of Ants and making them cry.
You Kill It, You Bought It: She is not the Seven-Coils, who she and the Colonel killed together, but she has a number of similarities beginning with her serpentine form and associations with wounds.

The Witch-and-Sister and the Sister-and-Witch

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_witch_and_sister.png

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_sister_and_witch.png

"We call upon the Twins, who cannot be touched; who cannot be separated; who are pearl."

The Hours of hunger and healing, the moon and the sea, crossroads and shores, unity and dissolution. Collectively referred to as the Twins, as well as the Two-One, the Sea-Twins, and the Crossroads-Twins.

Arch-Enemy: They are in eternal conflict with the Horned-Axe because of their conflicting natures. The Twins unite, the Horned-Axe divides.
Brother–Sister Incest: Of a sort. While they're Not Blood Siblings, they consider themselves sisters and often meet to seek union.
Driven to Suicide: When they were mortal they ascended to Hourhood in part by drowning themselves. This is why Heart can be invoked to calm storms.
Heart Beatdown: The Sister side of the Sister-and-Witch is quite strong in Heart, and uses it to her advantage.
Light Feminine and Dark Feminine: The Sister is Light, the Witch is Dark. The Sister-and-Witch's chiefest aspect is Heart, and the rite used to petition them involves an assistant offering their hand in marriage. The Witch-and-Sister's chief aspect, on the other hand, is Grail.
"'The Sister-and-Witch were born in two wombs, one poor one rich, across the sea. The Sister was stronger in the aspect of Heart, and so their survival was assured; the Witch was stronger in the aspect of Grail, and so they were not satisfied...'
Light/Darkness Juxtaposition: Naturally. Aside from their powers in Heart and Grail, this is reflected in their origins. The Sister was born a rich princess, and the Witch was born a poor 'monster'.
Liminal Being: It's not clear whether the Sister-and-Witch and Witch-and-Sister are two aspects of the same being, or two separate but related beings. References to how the Mare-in-the-Tree "has sometimes been the Witch's Sister" do nothing to clarify the situation.
Love Goddess: The Sister-and-Witch unite. One of the ways this manifests is love, and one of their rites invokes a symbolic marriage.
Opposites Attract: Despite their vast differences in character and nature, they love each other to the point of being inseparable. If they are, in fact, separate entities at all.
Tome of Eldritch Lore: Their story is told in The Geminiad, the only book that can be used as a tool (specifically as a Knock tool, which is incredibly useful for summoning) after being read. It also provides a lot of valuable lore and a useful rite. It's an extremely powerful book, as such things go. Despite all of the above, it actually sells for a pittance to the muggles and hobbyists who don't know what they have.
Twin Telepathy: Despite being born to separate mothers, and even in separate countries, they consider themselves sisters, and possessed the ability to communicate telepathically.

The Colonel

"We call upon the Colonel, who is blind; who is scarred; who cannot be denied."

The Hour of scars, efficient warfare, tactics, strategy, experience, cunning, ruthlessness, the old, and the status quo. Also known as the Cartographer of Scars, the Tribune of Scars, the Scarred Captain, the Thousandman, the Chiliarch, and the Great One.

Adaptive Ability: Any weapon or attack used successfully against The Colonel leaves scars. The scars mean it will never work again.
A Lesson in Defeat: "All scars are weapons."
Arch-Enemy: He's engaged in a millennia-long battle against the Lionsmith.
Arrogant God vs. Raging Monster: The Arrogant God. Again the archetype of experience pitted against rage and power.
Both Order and Chaos are Dangerous: He forms half of this dynamic, along with the Lionsmith. Both sides have self evident virtues and glaring flaws. The Colonel is duty, stability, authority, and civilization. He is also tyranny and colonialism.
Chevalier vs. Rogue: The Rogue to the Lionsmith's Chevalier. The Colonel's main followers are an order of assassins, and he emphasizes skill over power.
Colonel Badass: The epitome of the concept
Covered in Scars: Ritually, for protection. They were applied by the Mother of Ants when they were not yet Hours.
Deity of Human Origin: As a God-from-Flesh.
Disability Immunity: He deliberately had his entire body, including his eyes, ritually scarred in order to protect him from the gaze of the Hour known as the Seven-Coils.
Disabled Deity: Blindness. Self-inflicted.
Everyone Has Standards: Possibly in The Account of Kanishk at the Spider's Door. After learning Kanishk stabbed his lover in the back so he could gain immortality, the Colonel forced Kanishk into his eternal service. Then again, given that he embodies loyalty, this may have just been him acting according to his nature rather than out of any personal disgust.
Force and Finesse: Finesse
Full-Circle Revolution: He forms half of this dynamic, along with the Lionsmith. He is the re-establishment of order and the status quo after the revolution.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: Depending on your Alternate Character Interpretation regarding where The Colonel falls on the axis of Civilization to Tyrant.
Handicapped Badass: He's blind and heavily scarred, but still an extremely dangerous Edge-Hour.
Implacable Man
Kill the God: Ascended, along with the Mother of Ants, after killing the God-From-Stone known as the Seven-Coils.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Blue to the Lionsmith's red: he has the Winter aspect, and is associated with authority, cold, patience, and cunning.
The Reliable One: The Colonel is duty. This, among other things, is why he is in charge of guarding the Worm Museum.
Soldier vs. Warrior: The Soldier to the Lionsmith's Warrior
Suffering Builds Character: The god of this, among other things.
Tiger Versus Dragon: The Dragon to the Lionsmith's Tiger. Rival powers bound by destiny, with the Colonel representing experience cunning and wisdom.
Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: The Immovable Object, part of his dynamic with the Lionsmith. The Colonel cannot be wounded, and cannot be denied.
War God
War Is Hell: He symbolizes the notion of war as a place where people get scarred, both physically and mentally.
You Kill It, You Bought It: Less so than the Mother of Ants, but they both gained divinity together by killing another god.

The Lionsmith

"The nature of the Lionsmith is to be stronger; to be seamless; to make monsters."

The Hour of strength, romantic warfare, valor, honor, betrayal, challenges, the young, and revolution. Also known as the Golden General and the Shaphur.

Always Someone Better: It is said that it is the Lionsmith's nature to be stronger, and to become stronger still.
Arch-Enemy: He's engaged in a millennia-long battle against the Colonel.
Arrogant God vs. Raging Monster: The Raging Monster. Again the archetype of experience pitted against rage and power.
Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: The Book of Thrones implies that Memnon of Rhodes was one of his identities before his apotheosis, though he is also said to have studied under the Perseid dynasty long before the historical Memnon was born.
Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: He is associated with radicals, anarchy, and revolution.
Both Order and Chaos are Dangerous: Forms half of this dynamic, along with the Colonel. Both sides have self evident virtues and glaring flaws. The Lionsmith is courage, change, revolution, and freedom. He is also anarchy and treachery.
Challenge Seeker: Being the intersection of Edge and Forge, this is his bailiwick overall. He has started wars and created monsters so that he might become stronger from his subsequent victories.
Chevalier vs. Rogue: The Chevalier to the Colonel's Rogue. Chivalry and strength matched by cunning and skill.
Deity of Human Origin: As a God-from-Flesh.
Dissonant Serenity: The Lionsmith heals without scars, mental or physical, in contrast The Colonel. Which leaves them cheerful and unharmed in the midst of brutal combat.
Force and Finesse: Force
Full-Circle Revolution: He forms half of this dynamic, along with the Colonel. He is revolution, transformation, and anarchy.
General Ripper: The Golden General, and god of the passionate and romantic notion of war.
Horrifying the Horror: The Worms are scary enough that even the Lionsmith, as much as he hates the Colonel, will not challenge the Colonel for the job of guarding the Worm Museum; either because he genuinely doesn't want the post, or because he takes their threat seriously enough that even he won't put their rivalry ahead of Worm security.
Insignia Rip-Off Ritual: Subordinate-instigated version. The Lionsmith shattered his sword when he turned on his mentor, the Colonel, increasing his own power through the symbolism of the act.
Maker of Monsters: He has created countless deadly beasts, and many still survive.
Monster Knight: The Lionsmith is the intersection of valor, romance, and brute force.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to the Colonel's blue: he has the Forge aspect, and is associated with rebellion, rage, fire, and bravery.
Soldier vs. Warrior: The Warrior to the Colonel's Soldier.
The Starscream: The Lionsmith is said to know the secrets of betrayal. In practice he betrayed The Colonel, and derives his initial power from the act.
Tiger Versus Dragon: The Tiger, or rather lion. The Colonel and Lionsmith are linked rival powers, with the Lionsmith representing straightforward power.
Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: The Unstoppable Force, part of his dynamic with the Colonel. The Lionsmith is stronger, and becomes stronger still.
War God
War Is Glorious: He symbolizes war as its romanticized incarnation, a place where men become stronger, strong men become heroes, and heroes become legends.

The Elegiast

"We call upon the Elegiast, who calls each of the Dead by name; who cannot be deceived; from whom nothing more can be taken."

The Hour of the dead, memory, loss, and grief. Also known as the Ivory Dove and the Keener.

Best Served Cold: The Elegiast will never forgive or forget the murder of the Gods-Who-Were-Stone.
Beware the Honest Ones: The Elegiast cannot be deceived, never lies, and always keeps its promises.
Dark Is Not Evil: A death god, but a reasonable and dutiful one.
Dark and Troubled Past: When invoked, he is described as one from whom "no more can be taken."
The Dead Have Names: The Elegiast remembers the names of all the dead, because no one must be forgotten.
Defector from Decadence: Despises other Hours for murdering the Gods-From-Stone, and made a secret pact with the Long of the Ordo Limiae (later Obliviates) to save their souls from other Hours if they die.
Don't Fear the Reaper: He's a Winter Hour with dominion over the dead, but he's also the one Hour who is never cruel, and he refuses to forget those who have died.

Mysterious Past: The other Hours have origins that fit fairly cleanly into a number of categories. But for the Elegiast, no origin is given at all.
Plague Doctor: He has this appearance when he takes human form. Or, more likely, plague doctors dress like him.
Prophecy Armor: He won't make you immortal. But he will fix the date of your death, and you are absolutely not dying before that point. Even if he has to haul you back from Nowhere himself.
Reasonable Authority Figure: The Elegiast always remembers and keeps its promises, and is never cruel. When you ascend as a Long under his auspices you have to die, but he won't kill you even if you've reached that level of commitment. You have to do it of your own volition.

The Beachcomber

"We call upon the Beachcomber, who sees what is lost; who opens the earth; to whom belongs what is not possessed."

The Hour of hoarding, thieves, spies, voyeurs, and gossip. Also known as the Beach-Crow.

Clever Crows: A gossipy collector of lost and broken things.
Collector of the Strange: It hoards rare and curious things, ranging from curios to the shameful, secret affairs among the other Hours. Those things it takes from others which are most precious, it claims 'found'.
Deity of Human Origin: As a God-From-Flesh.
Insistent Terminology: It doesn't steal its most valuable possessions, it finds them.
The Peeping Tom: A cosmic version.

The Meniscate

"The Meniscate is found in moonlight; her light is cold; we cannot turn away from her."

The Hour of the moon, revelation, mirrors, and space. Also called the Mirror-Queen.

Dark World: The Streets Strange By Moonlight, an eldritch phenomena where you can walk an otherworldly version of London by night. Also the House of the Moon, which you become a part of by balancing the number of Old Form and New Form dances at the Ecdysis Club while pursuing a Change victory.
Not Quite Dead: Not the Meniscate herself, but there is a very important secret connected to her. The Wheel still turns in the House of the Moon, even though the Moth is supposed to have killed it. Learning this makes Christopher Illopoly very thoughtful in one endgame scenario.
Pieces of God: One of the three Hours created from the division of the Sun-in-Splendour, alongside the Madrugad and the Sun-in-Rags.
Poison Is Evil: Glassfinger Toxin is sacred to the Meniscate. Glassfinger Toxin kills painlessly. The victim simply sublimates away into a Winter influence.

The Sun-in-Rags

"We call upon the Sun-in-Rags, which is distant; which burns; which is not as it was."

The Hour of dusk, sorrow, and beautiful endings. Also known as the White.

Deadly Euphemism: The "beautiful endings" that it brings are this. Granted, what little information we have on them indicates that they are genuinely beautiful from a certain perspective, but any way you slice it they're still deadly.
Inadequate Inheritor: Justified. Before the Sun-in-Splendour's division, the Sun-in-Rags was simply one of his Names, representing his aspect as the departing sunset. After the Intercalate, however, it's been forced to act as the solar Top God at all times of day, a role which it's completely unsuited for.
Light Is Not Good: A solar Hour with Lantern as one of its aspects. Also one of the few Hours whose domain is unavoidably lethal.
Pieces of God: Created through the division of the Sun-in-Splendour.

The Horned-Axe

"We call upon the Horned-Axe, who bears two blades; who permits passage when passage is to be permitted; who waits at the threshold."

The Hour of thresholds and guardians, separation, and distinction. Also known as the Double-Edged.

Arch-Enemy: The Horned-Axe is eternally fighting the Twins due to their conflicting natures. The Twins unite, while the Horned-Axe divides.
Barrier Maiden: The Horned-Axe watches all thresholds to ensure that the Crowned Growth does not break out of the Mansus.
Beware the Nice Ones: She is a fairly benevolent protective force, at least for an Hour. None of the new Hours that arose from humanity wanted to challenge her when she was considering revenge. It makes sense, as Knock is able to subvert every other aspect and Winter is, among other things, death.
The Hecate Sisters: One of three feminine Hours worshipped by the Sisterhood of the Knot that give this impression. The others are the Ring-Yew and the Red Grail. Ironically, none of these Hours like each other very much.
Last of Her Kind: She's the last remaining God-from-Stone.
Liminal Being: She exists on thresholds and divisions.
The Mothman: Her most humanoid guise evokes the Carapace Cross rather than humans.
Multiple-Choice Past: Strongly associated with the many different Histories, and the way the Knock aspect connects them.
The Old Gods: The last survivor of the Gods-from-Stone.
Time Abyss: Having existed before humanity, she is, at a minimum, millions of years old.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Narrowly averted after the Gods-from-Flesh slaughtered the other Gods-from-Stone. She was convinced not to pursue revenge, but only after a great deal of argument and compromise with the other Hours.

The Madrugad

"We call upon the Madrugad, which goes before the Sun; who quells and quiets; who cannot be unbalanced."

The Hour of silence, death, dawn, and precision.

Balancing Death's Books: In a completely amoral fashion. The Madrugad is the Hour that Reckoners invoke to work their trade in stolen years.
Neat Freak: She's described as "[looking] unkindly on sloppiness", with the Exile taking special care not to make any mistakes when calling on her to help convert their stolen decades into years. It's never stated how she punishes those who don't live up to her standards, but given that she's an Hour it's likely not very pleasant.
Pieces of God: Created through the division of the Sun-in-Splendour.
Psychopomp: One of the Hours responsible for collecting and escorting the dead.
The Quiet One: Silence is a recurring theme when the Madrugad is involved; the process of converting decades of lifespan into years under her gaze needs to be performed in absolute silence before dawn, and the nine years she spent ruling Abydos were characterized by "silent beauty".

The Red Grail

"We call upon the Red Grail, who gives life; who takes life; who is not sated."

The Hour of birth, blood, hunger, lust, pleasure, and sensation. Also called the Great Mother, the Mother of Mountains, the Mountain-Mother, the Cinnabar Cup, and the Source.

Abstract Apotheosis: Even more than most Hours. The Red Grail is abstract enough to simply name the aspect she embodies.
Birth-Death Juxtaposition: She's both the goddess of birth and the feast, representing how animal life as a whole grows by consuming itself.
Blackmail: The Red Church, her holy place in the Mansus, is full of stained glass depictions of people fulfilling their desires. Often they're not very nice, and sometimes you conveniently recognize someone important in them.
Consuming Passion: The epitome of the concept.
The Corrupter: It comes up a lot with the Grail, especially in context of Horror Hunger.
God-Eating: The Red Grail ascended to Hourhood by drinking the Tide.
The Hecate Sisters: One of three feminine Hours worshipped by the Sisterhood of the Knot that give this impression. The others are the Ring-Yew and the Horned-Axe. Ironically, none of these Hours like each other very much.
Hemo Erotic: Very much so, between the sexuality and hunger and thirst.
Horror Hunger: All appetites are amplified to horrific and monstrous degrees, with a special emphasis given to thirst.
Love Goddess: She represents sexuality and fertility, among other things.
Not Wanting Kids Is Weird: Her Names don't quite know how to react to the House of Lethe and other Long who forswear heterosexual sex. On the one hand, they honor the Grail through sex; on the other, they aren't bearing fruit.
One Bad Mother: She's also referred to as the Great Mother and the Mother of Mountains. And while she is most associated with thirst and devouring, her other primary aspect is birth.
Thirsty Desert: Referenced. The Grail's power over thirst allows her followers to cross deserts.

The Wolf Divided

"Three natures hath the Wolf Divided; he unmaketh; he unmaketh; at the last, he unmaketh."

The Hour of agony, hatred, and annihilation. Also known as the Divided One.

Expy: Of the Fenris Wolf.
Hannibal Lecture: If you pledge yourself to its service in Exile, you get to hear a speech comparing fire to the Corrivality and the Wolf's use of it to bring about the apocalypse.
One day, then, sooner than you think, the world will be all aflame. And a final function of fire: if you've ever cooked meat, you'll know it brings out the juices. So when the flame burns down, the Wolf and all the wandering flames will feast. My mouth is watering already.
Omnicidal Maniac: It hates everything, and wants to devour the entire world and then itself.
Savage Wolves: A nihilistic embodiment of despair and destruction. Also a wolf.
Suicide Attack: Starting a cult of the Wolf Divided in Exile allows you to recruit fanatics, who are very effective at violence and very willing to die for the cause. They have a finite lifespan before turning to a corpse, and are referred to as Damned.
Wound That Will Not Heal: The personification of one. The Wolf Divided is said to be the wound from the Sun-in-Splendour's division.

The Vagabond

"We call upon the Vagabond, who tells her tale to the willing and the unwilling; who cannot be stayed; who cannot be exhausted."

The Hour of wanderlust, exploration, and storytelling. Also known as the Centipede, the Pilgrim, the Laughingthrush, and the Sight-Thief.

Berserk Button: Punishing her for going forbidden places. As an Hour she cursed Miah for when, as a mortal, she was punished for entering a temple district. She has a similar attitude to the other Hours for exiling her from the Mansus.
Best Served Cold: As an Hour she didn't forget Miah's treatment of her as a mortal, and returned there specifically to curse them for it.
Beware the Silly Ones: One of the few powers who can be reliably invoked to defeat the Worms, prone to cursing those who cross her, and managed to commit some offense that outraged even the other Hours.
Court Jester: Served this role to the Sun-In-Splendor before its death.
Flying Dutchman: The Vagabond has been everywhere. Everywhere. Except the Mansus, which she cannot enter, and the Glory, which is her destined final destination. You can follow her Maps to some of the most distant and obscure places found in the Secret Histories.
God Is Flawed: She founded the House of Lethe, a society of independent Long who later would become the Obliviates, but abandoned them halfway. They still resent her for this.
I Have Many Names: Almost every Hour is known by more than one name, but she takes the cake: she's also known as the Laughingthrush, the Centipede, the Sight-Thief, and the Pilgrim, among others. Unlike other Hours, these are not just aliases, but masks, each with its own role and personality.
Motor Mouth: The Laughingthrush tells her tale to the willing and the unwilling, and cannot be exhausted. You can imagine how this goes.
The Navigator: In the aspect of The Centipede, who knows the way. This is true both literally and metaphorically, meaning that The Centipede may need to be invoked even if you have access to higher Moth lore.
Orifice Invasion: The Centipede is described as finding her way in anywhere there is a path, with eyes ears and mouth specifically mentioned. Others are delicately alluded to.
Timey-Wimey Ball and Noodle Incident: She, or at least some of her forms, are barred from the Mansus because of some unspecified event. This event is yet to occur.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Strongly implied, as a Moth Hour with names referring to a variety of different animals and forms.

The Flowermaker

"The Flowermaker cannot touch you; he cannot find you; he always has what you desire."

The Hour of dreams, hallucinations, addiction, greed, desire, and self-destructive pleasure. Also called the Lilyking.

Alluring Flowers: The epitome of the concept, and creates the deadly Foxlily Meadows in certain high mountains.
Flower Motifs: In this case, some of the ideas being invoked are opium poppies and the Lotus Eaters of Greek mythology.
Forbidden Fruit: The god of this.
Mad Artist: The Flowermaker is associated with artists, particularly ones outside the norms and driven by mad passion and brilliant insight. In Exile you find the Flowermaker's influence among the bohemians of Paris and a remote island artist colony, for example.
Schmuck Bait: The god of this concept, among other things. He won't hurt you unless you seek him out, and he will give you what you want. And it's almost certainly going to destroy you.
Your Heart's Desire: Is said to have this.

The Forge of Days

"We call upon the Forge of Days, who remakes with fire; who ends what will not change; who will end all nights."

The Hour of fire, smiths, creation, transformation, destruction, ingenuity, and progress. Also known as the Unburnt God, the Burning Queen, St. Spark, and the Leashed Flame.

Abstract Apotheosis: Even among the other Hours. The Forge is one of three Hours who simply name the Principle they embody, the others being the Red Grail and the Moth.
Captured Super-Entity: In one of the Histories she was captured by a version of the British Empire. They were proud enough of it to actually call themselves The Sovereigns of the Leashed Flame. It didn't end well for them when she escaped.
Kill It with Fire: Naturally, but especially during her time as the patron of the Sovereigns of the Leashed Flame.
Kill the God: She killed not only the Sun-in-Splendour, but also the Flint, who was the Hour of remaking before her.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When the Forge killed the Sun-in-Splendour to keep them from becoming Alukites, the Worms bred in his corpse. That hasn't worked out well for anyone.
Samus Is a Girl: Some occultists were surprised that the ancient god of smiths was in fact a goddess.
Star-Crossed Lovers: She loved the Sun-in-Splendour, but ultimately killed him, which is stated to be the one thing she would regret were she capable of the emotion. It was likely to prevent them from becoming Alukites when they consummated their love.
Ultimate Blacksmith: As the chief Hour of the Forge Principle, she is both this and the Ultimate Forge at the same time

The Crowned Growth

His the power of lust and disease, his the will to infect and become. Do not permit him to touch you. Do not even look upon his face.

The Hour of decay, disease, and assimilation.

The Assimilator
Blob Monster: It seeks only to infect and become.
Eldritch Abomination: As a God-from-Nowhere, it is eldritch even compared to the other Hours.
Horror Hunger: A being whose strange hungers frighten even the other Hours.
More than Mind Control: If things go wrong and you are devoured by it you don't actually seem to mind.
Zombie Apocalypse: It has on occasion been known to cause this among the dead at the White Door. The teeming spirits become infectious avatars of its power and presence, even if the Horned-Axe, the Velvet, and other older Hours keep it from fully escaping the House.

The Mare-in-the-Tree

"O Demeter, who dwelleth in the earth; who sends up gifts; who art the mare who destroyeth in mercy..."

The Hour of deception, seduction, and false friends.

Dark Is Evil: A God-from-Nowhere, and is said to be one of the most perilous Hours of all.
Eldritch Abomination / Humanoid Abomination: Despite being a God-from-Nowhere, she is usually depicted in human form.
False Friend: The goddess of the concept.
Liminal Being: She "has sometimes been the Witch's Sister". What exactly this entails is unclear, but adds to the already complicated situation involving the Twins.
More than Mind Control: If things go wrong and you become a monster under her power you seem quite happy about it.
Schmuck Bait: She sends gifts. As the Goddess of False Friends they tend in this direction.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Secretly lovers with the Ring-Yew, sharing forbidden couplings with her in the Wood.

The Sun-in-Splendour

"Noon, the saying goes, is not what it was."

The deceased Hour of the sun, light, and Glory.

Big Good: Possibly. The subtly post-apocalyptic state of the world was certainly caused by his death, and there are prophesies of his return. The game's tagline is even "Bring The Dawn", and while you cannot restore him in-game the events of several paths could contribute to it or hint at how it could be accomplished.
Messianic Archetype: According to prophesy, it will return to life in the Second Dawn.
Posthumous Character: Of sorts. It was divided into pieces by the Forge of Days, and isn't currently alive as the Sun-in-Splendour.
The Power of the Sun: The first and mightiest of the solar deities.
Rainbow Motif: Of a sort. When the Ghoul acquires memories of before the Sun's division they note that colors were far richer, and many existed that simply don't anymore.
Star-Crossed Lovers: With The Forge of Days, which ended poorly .
Top God: The ruler of the Mansus before the Intercalate. The Mansus is still referred to as The House of the Sun.

Summonable Spirits

The Baldomerian

"Oh, the world is flat; oh, but it's flat! I won't stay long. I shan't stay long. Tell me a secret."

Teresa Galmier was once an occultist and apparently Christopher Illopoly's lover, who wrote The Locksmith's Dream series of books that you can study, until she went off a deep end and ends up becoming a Name of the Door in the Eye.

Blackmail: She is quite displeased with the Suppression Bureau for their persecution of her lover, Christopher, and will sometimes give you their incriminating secrets.
Casts No Shadow: One of the indicator that she's not quite human anymore is that she's described this way.
Half-Human Hybrid: Possibly. When in her cups, she occasionally claimed her mother cast no shadow. This seems to be a trait common to Lantern-Long like her. And the Exile path suggests that her father was descended from the Wheel and the Flint.
Information Broker: She has extensive knowledge, and even more extensive contacts. You need her to get in contact with a Ligean in the Lantern Legacy.
The Medic: She has Phylaxian, which means she can preserve you against death from poor health.
Non-Malicious Monster: She's the only summon that will not go out of your control.
The Reliable One: As far as an occultist is concerned, since she is always successfully summoned. Of course you very rarely have need for twelve lantern influence... unless you're caught by surprise by an enemy Long attacking your dreams.
Sanity Slippage: Underwent this as a mortal, with the third and fourth books in her Locksmith's Dream series being little more than incoherent ramblings and paranoid theorization respectively. She becomes more lucid after her ascension, though.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Christopher Illopoly is this to her, as opposite-sex intercourse is forbidden once you cross the Tricuspid Gate and gain immortality.
The Quiet One: Subverted. While she lives in Lodge of the Sage Knight, which is accessed through The White Door, which robs speech, she can still speak. That's because she didn't arrive there through the Door. What she did, how, and why, she won't explain. She's not proud of it.
Was Once a Man: She's now a Name. However, her appearance when you summon her is still that of a human.
Younger Than They Look: Or rather, far younger than you'd expect of a Name. Most immortals mentioned have a provenance of centuries, while Teresa was publishing books and apparently mortal as recently as 1926. This implies a positively meteoric rise in the Mansus, much like the player.

Burgeoning Risen

The growths of the Wood have encompassed the corpse's organs, swelled its skull like a gourd, twined around its heart. It eyes are moist with cunning, and it moves with jerky puppet grace. Its bones are rotten wood, and soon it will take root, but until then it will be a swift and subtle servant.

A corpse that has been reanimated by the ritual implantation of plants, causing it to rise and do your bidding, at least for a time. Far more enduring than the other basic form of undead, the Shattered Risen, since with pruning and maintenance its countdown can be reset.

Botanical Abomination: A cross between plants and the undead.
Fantastic Religious Weirdness: Even for this game. There is a story of someone who became a Saint by being made into a Burgeoning Risen as a means of redeeming their sins after death.
I Love the Dead: The most likely form of undead to raise your lover as, since unlike Shattered Risen it isn't doomed to decay.
The Medic: One of several spirits with Phylaxian, which means it can preserve you against death from poor health.
Our Zombies Are Different: One of two varieties of zombies in the game. May qualify as a Technically-Living Zombie due to the plants that grow inside of it.
Plant Person: A Burgeoning Risen is created by taking a corpse and planting seeds in various parts of its body. For a time, the plants animate it, but it loses its power once it grows enough to take root.
Zombie Gait: Averted- the Burgeoning Risen are described as surprisingly subtle and swift.

Caligines

At the corners of the Forge, in the bounds of the Mansus, the Glory's fire meets baser elements. Here is a cunning vapour to infect your enemy's dreams.

A Mansus spirit that is created when the power of the Forge burns away less pure elements. Can be used to attack enemies in their dreams.

Deadly Gas: Affects an enemy's dreams rather than their bodies, but is quite dangerous all the same.
Super Smoke: Takes the form of "a cunning vapor to infect your enemy's dreams."
The Blacksmith: Despite being technically incorporeal, its high Forge rating means it's quite good at repairing broken magical items.

Ezeem, the Second Thirstly

"Change me. Change me. Change me harder. Now: my turn."

A Name-Emanation of the Red Grail, an inveterate seducer and hedonist with an intimate understanding of change.

Achilles in His Tent: After his timer runs out, it simply says "Ezeem is Sulking."
Expy: He greatly resembles the Chatterer Cenobite from Hellraiser, a being obsessed with receiving and giving the ultimate pleasure to those who had summoned him and his fellow Cenobites.
Eyeless Face: Has no eyes, just a big, grinning mouth.
Hot as Hell: As an emanation of the Grail, Ezeem is a master of seduction, with the highest Grail score in the game.
The Medic: One of several spirits with Phylaxian, which means it can preserve you against death from poor health. In this case, through feeding you a single drop of its blood.
Noodle Incident: What happened to the first Thirstly? Given that it serves The Red Grail, certain possibilities spring to mind. Alternatively, Thirstlies' number may simply indicate rank rather than seniority, and the First Thirstly is alive and well.
Our Vampires Are Different: References to Thirstlies in the Mansus give the impression of hedonistic vampires in service of the Red Grail. Possibly one of many varieties, since there is also talk of Lovelies and Ivories.

Hints

The Hinter are most comfortable behind. Behind the scenes, behind the mirrors, behind you. They can slide under doors and can kill with glass, but they cannot survive the gaze of a living mortal.

Frail wisps formed from those who have died and entered the Mansus, Hints live in mirrors to avoid the direct gazes of mortals. When they do leave their glassy homes, they prove to be vicious and subtle killers despite this weakness.

Enemy Rising Behind: Said to be their preferred method of attack, to avoid potential eye contact and subsequent shattering.
From the Latin "Intro Ducere": In-universe, their name actually stems from a pun or mistranslation. On What Is Contained By Silver names them as "Behindlings", and other texts refer to them as Hinter (from "Back" or "Behind") before the name settles on the modern Hints. Which, while appropriate for their Lantern aspect, leaves out important information about their strategies and behavior.
Glass Weapon: They kill using mirror shards.
Gone Horribly Right: With 8 Edge, their main purpose is as an assassin. If they break free during a summoning, they'll happily turn that Edge on your cultists.
Mirror Monster: Live in mirrors to shield against human sight, and weaponize them when needed.
The Quiet One: Noted for a lack of flashy theatrics when summoned. Given that drawing attention could be fatal, it makes sense.
Rubber Man: Played for horror. They can survive despite their weakness to being seen by being able to stretch, fold, and flatten themselves through any gap and hide behind anything. It's specifically noted that they can easily creep under locked doors.
Was Once a Man: Hints are said to be former humans, altered into something much stranger.
Weaksauce Weakness: For all their power, a direct gaze from a mere human will kill them instantly.

King Crucible

"IN THE DESERT I WAIT IN THE RUINS I BURN -- METAL IS WATER -- STONE IS WAX -- FLESH IS SMOKE -- ENTER ME AND BE NO LONGER."

A Name-emanation of the Forge of Days, King Crucible is a being of fire and destruction.

Cunning Linguist: Will teach you Deep Mandaic.
"TOGETHER WE WILL COMMEMORATE THE TONGUE OF THE UNBURNT GOD."
Destroyer Deity: Primarily, though it is noted that this is actually a prerequisite for The Power of Creation.
Large Ham: He always speaks in an overblown and dramatic manner.
No Indoor Voice: King Crucible's dialog is always rendered IN ALL CAPS.
Only Sane Man: Relatively. He was perfectly aware that the Forge and the Sun-in-Splendour would end badly.
Playing with Fire: Melts down and destroys everything.
Ultimate Blacksmith: Has the greatest Forge score in the game.
Undying Loyalty: To the Forge of Days, despite his disapproval for her relationship with the Sun-in-Splendour.

Maids-in-the-Mirror

"The ascent is glass. The walls are knives. Each step is blood." The Dead who rest before a new-cracked mirror, who pass through the Peacock Gate, who master the Sharp Stair: those Dead enter the service of the Sun-in-Rags.

A dead person who rested in front of a cracked mirror, who has entered the Mansus through the Peacock Door and came into the service of the Sun-In-Rags. Exceptionally skilled at killing in a quiet, efficient manner.

An Ice Person: Is quite strong in the Winter Aspect, even if their equally powerful Edge Aspect is more generally useful.
Mirror Monster: As their name suggests, a Maid-in-the-Mirror usually appears in the mirror, right before they attack.
Sadist: Noted to be particularly cruel.
Stop Copying Me: Maids have no expression of their own, instead perfectly matching anyone they interact with.
Turn Undead: Maids-in-the-Mirror, with ten Winter aspect, leave the Dead terrified and unwilling to approach.
Was Once a Man: Was once human, but after crossing into the Mansus, they have changed substantially.

Percussigants

The Percussigant! It loves the sistrum's shiver, it loves the thrum of the tympanos, it recalls with fondness the flaying of Marsya, and so it will not

will not

will not stop dancing.

A Heart-aspected spirit that never, ever, ever stops dancing. It can learn any dance, but prefers only one.

Beast Man: The design evokes this, along with Wild Man and a touch of Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti.
Big Ball of Violence: A rare serious version. An attack by a hostile percussigant is described as a whirling ball of violence and music.
Dance Battler: Implied, given how it's a good fighter that literally is always dancing.
Died Standing Up: Even extremely dead, and skinned, a Percussigant pelt keeps trying to dance.
"EPPUR SI MUOVE"
Drums of War: Deadly Edge, and loves the sound of drums.
Heart Beatdown: Very good at resisting curses.
Madness Mantra: A more physical form with their dancing. The description evokes it with repetition, and it's portrayed as an unstoppable compulsion.
The Medic: One of several spirits with Phylaxian, which means it can preserve you against death from poor health.
Music Soothes the Savage Beast: Averted - it enjoys music, but it is perfectly capable of dancing to the beat of drums while flaying you alive.

Raw Prophets

Sometimes it divides, sometimes it unites, sometimes she speaks words of warning, sometimes he advises on appetite. Its prophesies are confusion, their whispers confound.

A strange, inchoate spirit that constantly shifts its shape, and doesn't even seem to have a distinct agenda aside from causing chaos. Also known as Undergoers.

Adorable Abomination: It's an oozy Blob Monster... but when summoned successfully, it's described as having the personality of an affectionate puppy.
Chaos Is Evil: Zig-zagged, depending on whether the Raw Prophet is serving your needs or if it has rebelled against you. Although it can be debatable which side is "evil."
Covered in Gunge: When interacting with it it is noted that you're going to need new shoes.
Half-Human Hybrid: They produce them, getting pregnant by humans rather than the other way around. Several generations down the resulting hybrids are called 'five-goers'. They have a powerful Grail affinity, and a certain amount of maleability to their form.
Hot as Hell: Their Grail aspect allows them to seduce potential threats on expeditions. It's unclear whether they play the Shapeshifting Seducer role to do it, or if they have a supernatural ability to instill desire despite being horrifying in appearance.
The Medic: One of several spirits with Phylaxian, which means it can preserve you against death from poor health. Its method involves sloppy blob makeouts.
Non-Malicious Monster: Played with. All indications are that it's genuinely friendly, and if the summoning goes awry it won't hurt anyone on purpose. But uncontrolled it will drive you insane regardless just by it's nature.
Starfish Alien: It's fairly amorphous, but it is indeed consistently shaped vaguely like a starfish.
Tentacled Terror: Yeah, it's a non-malicious tentacle monster. Its Grail aspect makes it, against all appearances, incredibly seductive.

Shattered Risen

A rending force has dragged this corpse back to near-life. When it moves, it crunches like broken glass. Its fists are claw-nests of bone-shards. It won't hold together for long.

A corpse brought to life by a shattering force. It is close to alive, but slowly disintegrates from the power that animates it.

Absurdly Sharp Claws: Composed of its own shattered hand bones.
Everything's Deader with Zombies: Thanks to its Edge Aspect, it has got a decent shot of assassinating anyone you send them against.
Literally Shattered Lives: Going through a slow motion version of the Ice variant as their Winter and Edge aspects tear them apart. It's bad enough that they crunch like glass when they walk.
Our Zombies Are Different: One of two types of zombies, along with the Burgeoning Risen.

Voiceless Dead

Sometimes the Dead enter the Mansus by the White Door. At its threshold they lay down their power of speech forever. Call them back to the world, and they will have no voice, but their skins of dust are yours to command.

A dead soul that has crossed through the White Door into the Mansus, and as such has lost their voice.

No Mouth: Like all spirits who have passed the White Door. There's a reason they're Voiceless.
Our Ghosts Are Different: Unlike the Risen, the Voiceless Dead are purely spirit.
Sense Freak: They long for the sensations of life, which allows them to be summoned. They contantly stare, trying to drink it all in.
The Quiet One: Like all who cross through the White Door, they lose their voice.

Supernaturals

The Carapace Cross

Mothlike insect people who lived before humanity. Now extinct, though some allegedly survived for some time after the rise of humanity.

Insectoid Aliens: Of the Ultraterrestrials variety.
The Mothman: Certainly have some similarities.
Moth Menace: Giant moths associated with madness.
The Old Gods: Worshipped the Gods-From-Stone before they went extinct.
Posthumous Character: We only know of them through fragments of lore, such as Songs of the Carapace Cross, and from memories and visions on the Medium or Priest path. Some of the endings of Book of Hours bring them back.
Precursors: The Carapace Cross predate the rise of humanity.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: One of the options on the Change path transforms you into one.
Was Once a Man: Inverted. The Carapace Cross gradually transformed themselves into humans. The magics used involved cutting off their wings.
The Carapace Cross is gone, extinct as the dodo or the dragon. Only humans remain. But still my wings unfurl, and still my skin has hardened to scales, and still the facets of my eyes are shining anthracite.

The Great Hooded Princes

Great princes lie hooded in garments of striped black and yellow and rich ornaments of gold, upon the fields of bone. Their eyes are open to the sky. Their scales are scarred and cold. Now at last are they visible, and to look upon them is long-forbidden knowledge. This did not occur.

Alternate Self: In most Histories there are fifty four Hooded Princes. In the Fifth, none remain...and in yours, there are 108.
Deadpan Snarker: They show a tendency towards this. One, who wrote an occult manual detailing all forms of escape and evasion, has a writing style described as irreverent and chatty. Another, a worshipper of the Thunderskin, cheekily refers to himself as Peel. This refers to both snakes shedding their skin and the Thunderskin's origin.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: One occult author among them noted that, while the secrets they were recording probably aren't safe, recording it is critical in case they need to flee again. And so if the others want to punish him for it, that's their problem.
Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: The fifty four Hooded Princes in one History were doomed to die, so they evacuated en masse to another and allied with their counterparts.
Serpent of Immortality: Immortal, or at least incredibly long lived, Snake People with great occult knowledge.
Snake People: Nagas, or something similar.
Sorcerous Overlord: They usually rule India. How well they rule is unknown, but it is known that they defend India against various colonial powers. Usually successfully.

Miss Naenia

A painting of a dark-skinned woman with snow-coloured eyes and close-cropped ivory-coloured hair. She stands before a small marble tomb overgrown with star jasmine. The painting is signed 'Jonas B. Munch, 1811'.

Gentlest of the Elegiast's Names, Miss Naenia plays a small part in the Heart path of the Dancer legacy and a major one in the Ghoul legacy.

Creepy Changing Painting: Played With. The painting itself doesn't change, but her moods are shown by the way you interpret the painting so it gives this effect.
Emotion Bomb: She amplifies both your Dread and your Fascination, should you discuss them with her. Played with in that this is voluntary on your part, and often beneficial. Creating more Dread to counter Facination or as an Edge influence, for example. She will also swap your Restlessness for Reminiscence and back again.
Mad Oracle: She's very helpful in providing information, but as a Name she's not really sane by any human definition.
Mysterious Benefactor: She's very good at providing useful advice and information in exchange for the memories you give her.
Mystical White Hair: Which forms a stark contrast with her dark skin.
The Shrink: She is very helpful for managing your sanity, surprisingly enough.
Spooky Painting: She manifests her power through one.
The Quiet One: As a Winter Name. While she can communicate quite clearly, she never uses words.

Vak

"I am Vak, both the tongue and the Goddess. I am the only entrance into secret light. I was worshipped before you upright apes, and I will be still when all of you are ugly ash. Listen, and I will prove it."

A non-summonable Name. Vak is both a language and a goddess of language. She is also the spirit of the Peacock Door.

Abstract Apotheosis: Vak the goddess is Vak the language. This is a reference to Vedic goddess Vāc.
Cunning Linguist: As the goddess of language. She teaches Vak, the first language, to those who meet her.
Threshold Guardian: Vak is not only the goddess of language but the spirit of the Peacock Door, symbolizing how the language she embodies is the key to the highest mysteries of the House of the Sun.

The Worms

Eldritch Abomination: Even for this setting. The Worms terrify the other Hours, have overrun at least one History, and remain an existential threat in all others.
Horrifying the Horror: Even the Lionsmith, Maker of Monsters and Hour of self-empowerment through conflict, wants nothing to do with them and allows his Arch-Enemy the Colonel the duty of keeping them penned in.
It Can Think: Not only are they insidious parasites, but they engage in sophisticated strategy. They appear to have overrun at least one version of Vienna through manipulating secret societies, and can learn new techniques over time.
Mercy Kill: If a character is taken by the Worms in the World curse, it is implied that they don't die from the infestation. Instead it is the point where the infestation has become irreversible and you kill them to avoid the horror that is to come.
Non-Elemental: The Worms don't fit into the standard Aspect system, which is one reason they're so hard to fight with magic. A Tantra of Worms suggests Winter and Moth are closest... but that source is unreliable at best.
No Kill like Overkill: Response to the Worms starts at this and then escalates. An infested corpse is reduced to ash, and then you have to sift the ash to remove anything that survives.
Orifice Invasion: Sometimes Worms simply drill their way through the skin. But other times they'll use existing paths.
Paranoia Fuel: On a few levels, even beyond the obvious. For a start, Worms stalking through a city leave mystics seeing them as things that look exactly like eye floaters. There is a book that describes how to fight them, and remove them from bodies. It is completely impractical, and the techniques would kill the person you're trying to save. Is this incompetence, is it a consequence of how hard the Worms are to deal with... or is it Schmuck Bait put out by the Worms themselves? Most evidence suggests the later.
Poison Is Evil: The most dangerous poison in the game is Worm corpses. The remains are still deadly even centuries dead.
Puppeteer Parasite: Not at first, but they learned. It's how the Second Worm War was lost.

Hostile Long

In Apostle Legacy, you will face enemy Long that will try to stop you from fulfilling your Mentor's goals.

In General

Abusive Parents: Longs and other immortals are compelled to devour any offspring they have with other immortals as soon as they become aware of their existence. This is known as The Crime of the Sky. Usually it's the mother who ends up doing the deed as she's, well, right there. Those who commit the Crime of the Sky become Alukites.
The Ageless: Long can't die from old age. They can be killed, but it'll take a lot of punishment to take them down for good.
Awesome, but Impractical: Your foe launching an attack through the Mansus, using its denizens to devour your mind, is pretty horrifying. But not only do dream attacks need to consume two stats to win rather than one, the defenders destroyed are are expendable summons rather than irreplaceable cultists.
Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: A character with max physique and the Murder skill can fight the Long themselves rather than sacrifice their followers. It works... but you break yourself in the process, crippling you and destroying your Physique skill entirely.
Can't Have Sex, Ever: Because of the risk of committing The Crime of the Sky, Longs and other immortals tend to avoid heterosexual sex, with one in history going to far as to castrate himself to avoid the urge.
Energy Beings: Lantern-Long stoke their inner light, thinning out their mortal bodies until they are gone.
Fire Purifies: Forge-Long literally burn away their mortality, necessitating hotter and hotter fires each time, until they are hairless, smooth as marble and imperishable.
Morton's Fork: Fighting them is this: are you going to directly trying to stop the Long's action against you, increasing the Long's stat and making them more likely to bring out bigger guns ^note, or suffer whatever action they're taking? Balancing between these two is a key to delay and prepare for the eventual fight against the Long.
The Starscream: Beating each of them grants you a method to betray your mentor and, with exception of J.C.'s method, allow your character to ascend into Longhood. This also serves as a backup victory condition if you ends up in a situation where you cannot win Apostle victory due to critical ingredients and such being lost.
Your Mind Makes It Real: If the Long directly attack you from the dream, this trope applies. As the game described: "The battle is imaginary. The war is not". If your Passion and Reason drop to zero, you will die. The same goes in the reverse: enough wounds in the dream, and the Long will die.
Nigh-Invulnerable: Long can be hurt... it just takes attacks that would kill a normal human a dozen times over.
No-Sell: Every Long is immune to assaults by some Mansus-spirits, usually ones associated with their Principle:
- Captain Welland is immune to Caligines, implied to be due to his connection to the Society of the Noble Endeavour.
- As a Lantern-Long, The Diarist is immune to attacks by Hints. He's also immune to attacks by Maids-in-the-Mirror due to being on first name basis with the Dead of the the Ascent of Knives.
- Due to his nature as a Winter-Long, Julian Coseley is immune to attacks by Maids-in-the-Mirror.
- As a Grail-Long, Tryphon is immune to attacks by Raw Prophets.
Your Days Are Numbered: Winter-Long have made a deal with the Elegiast, which sets a death date for them. Until that day, they cannot be killed, even by the complete destruction of their body, but on that day they will die beautifully.

Captain Welland

"This is no Noble Endeavour. We'll have no Jack-come-quickly jumping up the House ranks."

An old Forge Long who has fought in many wars, in many eras, under many names. He holds "the great secret of betrayal" that made the Lionsmith betray the Colonel.

Aristocrats Are Evil: He is one of the Sovereigns of the Leashed Flame, and he's certainly your enemy. Of course, 'evil' is relative here.
Blue Blood: He seems to hate your patron because he considers them a pretentious upstart, unlike him.
Playing with Fire: He's a Forge-Long, so this goes with the territory.
The Starscream: Not him personally, but he holds "the great secret of betrayal", which is taught by Darius to the Lionsmith, making the Lionsmith betray the Colonel, and later told to Alexander to make him stop his conquest and turn back. He'll bequeath you this in his letter if you managed to defeat him, letting you pull one on your mentor.
Straw Misogynist: If the letter he gives to the Apostle post-mortem is any indication, he never considered the possibility that he could have been beaten by anyone other than a "sir".
Worthy Opponent: If you defeat him, he considers you to have been this. He says you deserve better than to be pyre fuel for your patron's ascension, and urges you to pursue your own immortality.

The Diarist

"Your pretender is going to make a damned good footnote. But I wouldn't expect anything more than that."

Formerly Lars Westergren, the Diarist is an adventurer, interviewer of spirits, biographer, and notorious murderer.

Energy Beings: As a Lantern-Long, he doesn't have a physical body outside of the Mansus. Because of this, direct assault by the Diarist is impossible; he'll only attack you directly through the Mansus, or via proxies before he takes matters into own hands.
Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Referred to only as the Diarist, though he's implied to be Lars Westergren, author of The Concursum Diaries.
Hidden Depths: Maids-in-the-Mirror, some of the most deadly entities in the game, won't attack him. Not because he has some mystical protection, but because they've talked and he's been genuinely interested in them and their stories.

J.C.

"No more Names. That's it; I'm sorry; I don't have time to make conversation."

Julian Coseley was a 16th-century occultist, the author of The Six Letters on Necessity, an owner of books stored at the Gwaer Inn library, and part of an organization of free Long seeking to overthrow the rule of the Hours. Now he's your enemy.

Ambiguous Situation: What exact state he's in after being defeated is unclear. He's probably not dead, exactly, but whether he's simply given up or has been more permanently taken out of the picture is unclear. It's apparently even debated In-Universe, according to some flavor text of a painting of him found in Book of Hours... although he does have the potential to show up in person during Numa, so he's definitely still around in some form.
Boring, but Practical: He doesn't specialize in an attack method, and just focuses on increasing his stats. This means you can't predict how he will attack you, and you don't have much control over when.
An Ice Person: He's a Winter Long, so this goes with the territory.
I Die Free: He offers you this chance if you defeat him, urging you to forsake your mentor and immortality alike.
Nigh-Invulnerable: Due to his Winter affinity, Julian can't die until a fixed date, even with wounds that would have killed other Long. He'll merely give up and retreat if you hurt him enough.
Rage Against the Heavens: He is a 'Worm', as warned against by his former student, in sense that he is part of the faction of the Obliviates who want to overthrow the Hours and the Mansus.
Wild Card: He's the only Long who isn't bound to a specific ascension route. Plus, he's the only one whose betrayal method doesn't give you any alternate temptation.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: His description and letter after you beat him implies that he grows tired of being an Immortal. His method of betraying your Mentor merely removes the Mentor card but doesn't give you standard temptation that other Long give, implying he wants you to remain mortal.

Lady Tryphon

"No, He cannot harm you; He cannot find you. But I suffer no such circumscription."

A 3rd century saint who ascended as a Grail Long, and seems to have changed gender in the process.

Best Her to Bed Her: A particularly twisted version, where she's apparently really into the fact that you've killed her. This is ostensibly why she offers you the means to betray your mentor.
Crimefighting with Cash: She is, through the right connections, able to completely destroy your savings.
Historical Gender Flip: She's a female version of Saint Tryphon of Campsada. However, The Rose of Nuriel describes her with male pronouns, implying she may have been assigned male at birth but transitioned some time after her ascension.
I'm a Humanitarian: She followed the Grail ascension path, and The Rose of Nuriel mentions that in the process she ate both corpses and living people. Additionally, the method she offers you for betraying your mentor involves eating a small fragment of her corpse.
Malicious Slander: She makes effective use of social attacks, including spreading rumors of things even you haven't done yet.
Woman Of Wealth And Taste: When not preventing the rise of new Names, she spends most of her time travelling across Europe and staying in luxurious hotels... with no end of companions, of course. Also has killer nail game.

Exile Characters

The Foe

"Seasoned like oak and scarred like sea-cliffs. I have seen his strength, and I would be a fool not to fear it."

The Foe, also known as Duffoure, is a Reckoner Lord and the Exile's archnemesis after the latter stole 77 lifespan years from the organization. The Foe is the Final Boss of the Exile DLC, being the most formidable enemy the Exile can face and the game's goal is to either defeat him or hide from him well enough. In the meantime, it is best to avoid his attention at all as when he finds the Exile, his strikes are truly dangerous. He is also implied to be the Exile's father.

Archnemesis Dad: The Foe is heavily implied to be the Exile's own father, as the last of the Antaean Initiates informs you. He fell in love with the Exile's mother and abducted the baby after she died during childbirth despite her categorically refusing to have him raise the child. It's implied the Exile hates the Foe too and that it was destined for him to betray the Foe at some point as he was "born under the shattered sword" and thus marked by the Lionsmith, which is the rival of the Foe's patron Hour, the Colonel.
Covered with Scars: The Foe is described as being "scarred like sea-cliffs".
The Dreaded: The Foe is the most formidable Reckoner the Exile will face and it is ultimately his personal wrath that you are trying to escape. He serves as the ultimate enemy, being able to wound the Exile twice, can easily kill any ally, and the Exile not even feeling confident he can face up to the Foe unless he has a very high Edge lore (or enough battle experience and techniques). Indeed, even the Exile acknowledges that he would be a fool not to fear the Foe's strength.
Duel Boss: If the Exile reaches a Map's Edge's destination, then he will be able to face the Foe in a duel, which is advantageous because the Foe usually summons an assassin with him to pile up on the Exile and his allies.
Evil Mentor: The Foe taught everything to the Exile, who specifically recalls learning to play chess, to cheat at cards and to end lives under the Foe's tutelage.
French Jerk: His real name Duffoure sounds positively French, he is an occult gangster with violent tendencies and various people have a poor opinion of him. Your most knowledgeable contacts are glad you left his side and in Alexandria, Dr. Blackwood calls him a scoundrel.
Rank Scales with Asskicking: The Foe is a Reckoner Lord and he is the strongest Reckoner the Exile can face. Unlike ordinary Reckoners with die after two wounds and inflict one every attack in return, the Foe takes seven wounds to defeat, will inflict two wounds upon attacking and is immune to profane weapons.
Immune to Bullets: The Foe is immune to all mundane weaponry, which includes guns.
Implacable Man: The Foe will never stop chasing after you and he outpowers you easily, having 7 wounds, being able to wound you twice every attack, is immune to ordinary weapons, can also break your sacred weapon when they are used against him, and he will follow you anywhere. It takes a lot of preparation in order to be able to properly challenge him and even then you may lose everything and still die.
Nigh-Invulnerability: Just like the Exile, the Foe is exceptionally durable. On top of his seven wounds, he is immune to profane weapons.
Weaksauce Weakness: The Foe is sensible to either Trembling Heat, Freezing Winds or the Sea. The weakness of the Foe is determined randomly and is said to make him slow and stupid, thus going to the right place allows the Exile to use the weather as a distraction. However, he is only susceptible to one of the three every game.
Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: The Foe has hidden fears which can be used to distract him. The phobias are determined randomly and thus you can have the Foe being afraid of either cults, heights or even cats. However, he is only susceptible to one of the three every game.

Characters / Cultist Simulator

The Player Character

Apostle Aestuant

Apostle Entheate

Apostle Obsonate

The Cultists

The Patrons

Frau Schlüssel

Marinette, 'Our Lady of Wires'

Mrs E.

Mme. Matutine

What Is Not Seen

The Hunters

Other Mortals

The Hours

Summonable Spirits

Supernaturals

Hostile Long

Exile Characters

Previous

Index

Next

Characters / Cultist Simulator

Edit Locked

The Player Character

Apostle Aestuant

Apostle Entheate

Apostle Obsonate

The Cultists

The Patrons

Frau Schlüssel

Marinette, 'Our Lady of Wires'

Mrs E.

Mme. Matutine

What Is Not Seen

The Hunters

Other Mortals

The Hours

Summonable Spirits

Supernaturals

Hostile Long

Exile Characters

Previous

Index

Next