The Arcanists are a secretive organization of spellcasters and artificers, dedicated to the belief that humans should have the freedom to embrace and develop their magical potential. To the general public, they come across as an organizations of anarchists and criminals, blatantly flaunting the Guild’s laws on the use of dangerous magics. In reality, they’re more a collection of loosely allied mystical groups with the ambition and drive to try to break free from the Guild’s iron grip on the arcane and forge their own path ahead.

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Shared Tropes

Magitek: More so than every other faction in the game. The Arcanists have some of the best examples of the game’s signature steampunk magitech at their beck and call.
Order Versus Chaos: Representing chaos in their conflict with the Guild. The Arcanists believe that humans should have absolute freedom to practice and experiment with magic as they like, which clashes with the Guild totalitarian control over the magical arts and the production of soulstones.
We ARE Struggling Together: The Arcanists do not have nearly as much of a united front as the public generally thinks they do. The leaders of each of the little groups that make up the Arcanist coalition rarely see eye to eye on anything, be it methods or even their final goals.

Arcanist Keywords

Academic & Elemental

Many of the Arcanists aren’t looking for a fight, or even to overthrow the status quo. They’re merely scholars and academics, interested in understanding the true nature of magic and advancing mankind’s understanding of the arcane. But with the Guild’s iron fist’s control over the practice of magic, sometimes they have to use their knowledge in self-defense. Or to remove those who stand in the way of progress.

Sandeep Desai

^{Font of Magic}

Born in Guild-occupied India, Sandeep Desai spent his youth being trained in the arcane at a small temple, where he showed an unprecedented talent for commanding the elements. However, the Guild’s oppression slowly build a seething anger in him, until his master and many of his fellow pupils were executed for taking part in a protest against the occupation forces. In his anger, he took up his master’s cursed gada and went on a rampage, gaining both revenge and an impressive criminal record at the same time. In need of a quick exit, he was able to escape to Malifaux with the help of Victor Ramos and the Arcanists, accepting a position as a teacher of magic to many of their more promising students.

Badass Teacher: Sandeep’s main job is to be a mentor for the Arcanist’s more academically inclined students, but he’s still an incredibly dangerous mage when pushed into battle.
Elemental Powers: Arguably the most powerful example in all of Malifaux. Most factions get one kind of elemental minion, if any at all. Sandeep gets all of them, including a few that are entirely unique to him.
Enlightenment Superpowers: His Font of Magic form, where he’s entered a meditative trance so deep that he’s completely stripped away his own magical limits.
Moment of Weakness: He certainly considers his vengeful rampage against the Guild to be this.
Mook Maker: His untitled version’s main gimmick. Sandeep can absolutely drown the field in elemental minions, using whatever best fits the situation to gain an edge.
My Greatest Failure: Rasputina’s betrayal and the apparent death of Lohith Bhatt continues to torment Sandeep long after it occurs.
Orphanage of Love: Sandeep lost his family young, but the temple that took him in was kind and the master taught him the magical arts that would later define his life.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Went on a massive one when his adoptive family was murdered. The Guild lost a lot of soldiers that day and he earned a permanent criminal record.
Summon Magic: Sandeep’s speciality, letting him summon up and control elemental spirits called gamins.
Suppressed Rage: Despite his outward calm, Sandeep has a lot of anger bottled up from his childhood in occupied India. The rare instances where it slips his control tend to end in bloodshed.

Banasuva

Not every demon is born in Malifaux. Earth does have its own native population of horrors. Banasuva is one among them: a powerful asura that menaced India thousands of years ago. He was eventually defeated by a great hero and imprisoned, but his spirit remains, bound to the gada that the hero wielded in battle against him. Now said weapon is in Sandeep’s possession, with the demon within ready to spring out whenever the guru’s anger grows to strong to restrain him.

Breath Weapon: Can breathe fire to take out his enemies at long range.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: A man-eating asura who is quite happily married to another equally man-eating asura.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Four arms, all the better to tear people limb from limb.
Our Demons Are Different: Banasuva is one of the asuras from Indian mythology instead of the Western horns and cloven hooves kinda things.
Playing with Fire: While Sandeep is more a Master of All when it comes to elemental powers, Banasuva specializes in fire.

Arun Rajput

With age comes experience, and that remains true for both magic users and fighters. Arun Rajput is both, and has experience to spare. An old friend of Sandeep Desai, Arun specializes in martial training as opposed to his friend’s mystical specialties. He made his mark teaching Tori Ironsides her unyielding mastery of fisticuffs and now serves as one of the premier martial arts masters in all of Malifaux.

Good Old Fisticuffs: A master of many martial techniques, but most famously an extremely talented boxer.
Heroic Resolve: Has the ability to get up and keep fighting by spending his Focus when he would otherwise go down.
Kung-Fu Wizard: While his specialty is in hand-to-hand combat, he’s still a skilled magic user and empowers his fists with raw elemental power.
Meaningful Name: The Rajputs were a group of clans from Northern India who formed a famous warrior caste in the 12th century.
Old Master: Old enough to have white hair and a massive beard, but still strong enough to mop the floor with anyone who dares challenge him.
Shout-Out: His ability to get back up when he should have been knocked down is called “I Didn’t Hear A Bell”.

Kandara

Banasuva didn’t prey upon mortals on his own. Everywhere he went, he was accompanied by his loving wife. Kandara managed to escape the hero who defeated her husband, but was forced to hide in human form for centuries, looking for a way to free him. When Sandeep’s fury roused her lover, she followed them both to Malifaux, where she cut a deal with the mage to help him out until she can find a way to free Banasuva from his prison.

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Even after hundreds or even thousands of years, she traveled to an entirely different dimension to reunite with her imprisoned husband the instant she found out where he was.
Dual Wielding: Kandara’s favorite way to deal with her enemies is her paired knives.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Still an asure, still has four arms, still ready to tear her enemies to pieces.
Playing with Fire: Not as much as her husband, but Kandara still has traces of this, including being immune to burning.

Kudra

Kudra lost her family to the Guild’s corruption, but, lacking a convenient cursed artifact to empower her, had to go looking for tutelage to get her revenge. She joined the Arcanists and was assigned to Sandeep as a pupil, where she quickly excelled at everything he could teach her, becoming his favorite pupil and his right hand woman.

The Beastmaster: While her mentor specializes in elementals, Kudra has a natural talent for commanding animals and other simple-minded beasts.
Junior Counterpart: She’s basically Sandeep if he was younger and rawer. And also a woman. But otherwise their backstories are pretty much identical.
Kung-Fu Wizard: As skilled in martial arts as she is in commanding the elements.
Revenge: Her primary motivation. Much like Sandeep, she lost her entire family to the Guild’s corruption and she came seeking his training so she could avenge them.

Augmented

With the capture of Victor Ramos, many of his workshops and half-finishing projects were left unattended all across Malifaux City, and even beyond. The Amalgamation Office was tasked with ensuring they were harmlessly disabled, but Ramos’s tech is so advanced that they’ve had to make some backroom deals with Ramos’s own people to safely get his research under control.

Charles Hoffman

See his entry in Malifaux Guild

Mechanical Attendant

See its entry in Malifaux Guild

Joss

Joss has been a bodyguard for a large portion of his life, so it was no surprise when he was picked to be the personal bodyguard to Victor Ramos and his officers. Ramos’s arrest threw his life into disarray, as his failure to protect the eccentric genius slowly ate away at him. But he soon found new purpose in uncovering Ramos’s lingering secrets and protecting the Arcanists from whatever traps that the former president had left behind in his many hidden labs and workshops all across Malifaux City.

Artificial Limbs: Lost an arm somewhere, but the Arcanists were happy to replace it with an even stronger one made of solid steel.
Bodyguarding a Badass: While Joss is no slouch, his main charge was Victor Ramos, one of the most powerful men in Malifaux. Both in influence and in the magical ability to electrocute people to death.
Broken Pedestal: Realizing that Ramos was willing to throw the Union under the bus for his own ambitions and to hide his secrets hit Joss hard.
Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon: He looks like this on the surface, being a huge, muscular guy with an equally massive axe, but he’s smarter than he looks at first glance.
Shock and Awe: His axe and arm both include electrical generators to let him add some voltage to his attacks.
Unfulfilled Purpose Misery: He felt aimless and lost when Ramos was imprisoned for his crimes, though his alliance with Hoffman may be the thing he needs to get out of his rut.

Chimera

The Order of the Chimera is a secret society of mages who have learned how to tap into the primal forces of Malifaux, infusing themselves with the might and appearance of beasts and gaining command over some of the most deadly predators that Malifaux has to offer. With their power, the weak can be culled and the power of the wild can once again become the world’s dominant power.

Marcus

Markus

^Alpha

Marcus started his time in Malifaux as one of many academics looking to research the strange flora and fauna that covered the new world. However, his decision to study the subject in the field turned into one disaster another, leaving him forced to survive in the wild alone as an old man. Despite everything, he not only prevailed, but flourished, managing to touch the primal magic of Malifaux’s wilderness and develop powerful abilities that he had never dreamed of before. Others heard of his miraculous discoveries and slowly grew into an group of acolytes around the powerful mage, forming the Order of the Chimera.

Cosmic Plaything: It would be easier to list what didn’t go wrong on his first expedition into Malifaux’s wilderness. Making it out alive was a miracle in and of itself.
Deal with the Devil: Marcus isn’t even entirely sure why Titania seemed interested in allying with him, but it’s probably not good for anyone but her.
Evilutionary Biologist: The main goal of his research now is to find out new ways to improve and ‘perfect’ humanity through his bestial shapeshifting magic.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Marcus was an aging academic when he first came to Malifaux to study plants. One bad trip to the wilderness later and he became one of the most deadly mages in the world.
Older Than They Look: Marcus is in his seventies, making him one of the oldest human characters in Malifaux. One of his magical discoveries allowed him to restore his body to his physical prime.
The Social Darwinist: After surviving the world seemingly trying to deliberately kill him, Marcus has very much come to believe that the strong survive and the weak perish.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: One of Marcus’s primary magical talents. He can not only transform himself, but also his allies into more powerful and bestial forms.

Jackalope

One of Marcus’s first projects in creating new beasts, the Jackalope has kept his attention far longer than most of his other experiments. It’s mutable form and seemingly endless ability to regenerate fascinate him, even as he tries to figure out exactly what caused them in the first place. Unraveling its secrets could allow him to obtain true immortality, something even his impressive nature magic hasn’t granted him yet.

Healing Factor: The main thing that keeps Marcus fascinated with it. It has the most powerful regenerative abilities he’s ever seen, even enough to revive it from death.
Killer Rabbit: A very literal example. The Jackalope is a large jack rabbit with horns and the ability to tear out throats when threatened.
Resurrective Immortality: Nothing has managed to keep the Jackalope down permanently yet. It just keeps healing up, no matter how much damage it takes.

Myranda

Myranda was one of Marcus’s students even before his disastrous trip into the wilds. They used to butt heads constantly over their differing personalities, but when Marcus got in touch with his wild side, they found that they were actually remarkably compatible with each other. With her teacher a vigorous young man again, it wasn’t long before she was not only his best student, but also his lover.

I Just Want to Be Free: Myranda was always flightly and irresponsible, chafing under rules and restrictions. She took to Marcus’s new wildness like a fish to water.
Teacher/Student Romance: She’s Marcus’s lover, or mate as they like to call it, as well as his greatest apprentice.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Even more so than her teacher. She has the greatest shapeshifting abilities out of anyone in the Order of the Chimera, able to change her form into virtually anything at will.

Cojo

Cojo is Malifaux equivalent of a great ape: huge, powerful, intelligent, and vicious enough to survive in the twisted wilds. It took Marcus a long time to come to an accord with the ape, as it was too intelligent to just fold to his beast controlling magic, but they eventually developed something resembling friendship. Plus, listening to Marcus means that there’s always a good fight around the corner, and Cojo loves a good fight.

Blood Knight: Cojo loves a good fight, especially when he gets to put his massive strength to good use.
Killer Gorilla: Basically the Malifaux embodiment of this trope.

Ferdinand Vogel

Ferdinand Vogel was just another business man looking to get a foothold for his business in Malifaux. Then he was arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. Before he could even argue his case, he found himself in the middle of an Order of the Chimera attack on the Guild and his body transformed into a savage beast. Yet despite his forced transformation, he found that he liked the power, and once he cleared his name, he went looking for the Order to understand his new powers.

Clear My Name: Vogel actually managed to successfully convince the Guild’s lawyers that he was an innocent victim in all of the chaos he was thrown into. It was even true. At the time.
Evil Feels Good: He was a, relatively, honest businessman before his encounter with Marcus, but letting the Beast run wild is such a rush that he happily joined the Order of the Chimera.
Frame-Up: Vogel’s new life all started from one of his business partners getting greedy and deciding to get him out of the way with some false accusations.
Jekyll & Hyde: Played with. He has the aesthetic and he acts as if his bestial side is another individual inside him, though the two personalities are allies rather than enemies.
Our Werewolves Are Different: He checks basically all the boxes, though his condition was magically induced by Marcus’s people rather than a bite from another werewolf.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The first thing he did upon gaining the ability to release the Beast Within was let it hunt down and slaughter all of his treacherous business partners.

Paul Crockett

Paul Crockett is an outdoorsman of the highest caliber, but he’s never had much in the way of people skills. After an argument Earthside turned deadly, he decided to skip town for Malifaux to stay ahead of the law. A chance meeting with Marcus and some of his beasts found the two men bonding over their discomfort with civilization and he quickly found himself inducted into the Arcanists. He’s also found some manner of respect for fellow frontiersman Cornelius Basse, but not enough to stop spying on him for his true employers.

Defeat Means Respect: Paul managed to earn Marcus’s respect by successfully hunting and killing his Sabertooth Cerberus.
Enraged by Idiocy: Paul’s Earthside crimes were provoked by a bunch of incompetent novice hunters refusing to listen to his much more experienced advice.
Hunter Trapper: Fits the archetype pretty damn well. He’s made his living doing this for basically his whole life.
No Social Skills: Paul has never gotten on with people very well and much prefers the solitude of the wilderness to dealing with people.
The Mole: He respects Cornelius Basse’s outdoor skills, but he’s loyal to the Arcanists and always looking for an opportunity to learn something useful from his sometimes companion.

The Scorpius

Project Scorpius was an experimented headed by an engineer named Glauco Parante. Considering himself one of Victor Ramos’s intellectual rivals, Parante sought to create a more cost efficient replacement for Ramos’s famous Mecharachnid. He did this by capturing a giant scorpion-like beast called a Steelclaw Stinger and enhancing it with extensive steam powered augments and a logic engine to control it. When it inevitably slaughter its maker, Marcus took the enhanced beast in hand and took it with him.

Beware My Stinger Tail: Its stinger tail is even more deadly after it got a giant metal needle added to the end of it.
Didn't Think This Through: Parante decided that the best way to one-up one of the smartest men in Malifaux was to weld magic prosthetics to a giant scorpion and then turned it on without testing it. It’s amazing he lasted long enough to finish the project to begin with.
Scary Scorpions: The Scorpius is a giant cybernetic scorpion with a taste for human blood.

December

The Cult of December has existed in Malifaux for as long as humans have. Countless, hunters, hermits, and madmen have been drawn to the call of the imprisoned Tyrant over the years. However, no one can survive in complete isolation, and their allegiance with the Arcanists provides them with new ways to harness their potent ice magic and spread their influence over the Northern Hills.

Rasputina

^Abominable

Rasputina, like many others, arrived in Malifaux as a convict laborer, doomed to work herself to death in the Guild’s mines. Not willing to accept such a fate, she managed to escape her chains and flee into the wilderness. No one but Rasputina knows what occurred in the mountains, but the Tyrant December chose her as its vessel, granting her great power over snow and ice and placing her in control of its followers in the Cult of December. For a time she was little more than a slave, but as her own power grows, December’s influence wanes and her own ruthlessness and ambition grow.

An Ice Person: The definitive example in Malifaux. December is the Tyrant of Winter and as his chosen, she has overwhelming control of snow and ice.
Bad Powers, Bad People: Has power over ice and snow as well as control of a cult of vicious cannibals. She’s without a doubt one of the least moral Arcanists.
False Friend: Sandeep came to her looking for help in controlling Lohith Bhatt’s powers. She responded by effectively feeding Bhatt to Witness as an experiment.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Rasputina was a timid, desperate woman, barely alive on the northern tundra. Then December chose her as his champion.
I'm a Humanitarian: The Cult of December all participate in eating human flesh, but some rumors say that this is how she survived the wilderness in the first place.
Personality Powers: A ruthless, cold-hearted cult leader with the power to control ice.
Villain No Longer Idle: She used to spend most of her time in the Northern Hills plotting, but Ramos’s arrest has gotten her more directly involved with the goings on of the Arcanists.

Wendigo

Wendigos are a nasty breed of horror that lurks in the Northern Hills. Born from starvation and desperation, it’s a constantly hungry menace, always looking for more and more food to consume. The fresher the meat, the better. It seems to be native to the Ten Peaks, so it’s ties to the Cult of December aren’t really a surprise, but how Rasputina, or even December itself, bound this creature and for what purpose remains a mystery.

Ambiguous Situation: No one really knows what the Wendigo even is. It follows Rasputina around and has similar powers and behaviors to the rest of the Cult, but no one seems to know where it actually came from.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Of hunger and famine. Possibly also of December’s power, but that part is less clear.
Horror Hunger: The Wendigo is the literal incarnation of hunger and famine. They’re always hungry… for anything they can get their hands on.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: It has more mouth than face, really.
Wendigo: Why yes, it is.

Snow Storm

Years ago, December made a gamble to attempt to completely subsume Rasputina, turning her into a puppet for his consciousness. His attempt failed when Rasputina managed to redirect the ritual, pouring the excess magic into one of her priestess, known as the Silent Ones. The result was a strange pair: the Silent One named Snow mystically bound to an incredibly powerful Wendigo known as Storm.

An Ice Person: Considering their entire existence is due to draining some of Rasputina’s excess power, it should be no surprise that they’re also this.
Cult Defector: Zigzagged. Storm’s willfulness has stripped Snow of her blind loyalty to Rasputina, but the pair are still loyal to the Cult of December. For now.
I'm a Humanitarian: Both halves of the partnership are quite happy to indulge in some long pork when given the opportunity.
More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Storm has a massive toothy maw and takes a particular delight in using it.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: To say that they didn’t like each other to start would be an understatement. However, they have warmed up to each other over time.

Ceddra & Sightless Snow

Once, there was a wise woman who braved the high mountains the bring aid to the local villages. As reward for her efforts, Malifaux granted her a mystical stag to serve as her eternal companion. But then His cult came and turned the mountains to their own. Trapped my ensorcelled blizzards and starving, she turned her knife upon her companion and feasted from his innards. The stag was immortal, yet his body died. Now she must release the beast within so he can feed, and in doing so has damned them both.

An Ice Person: Mostly in her human form. The Sightless Snow has an impressive control over ice magic after her years of service to December.
Go Mad from the Revelation: The kind sorceress who only wanted to help the people of the Northern Hills is long gone, consumed by her regret and madness after eating her mystical compaion in a fit of desperation.
I'm a Humanitarian: Like most of the Cult of December, she’s long since embraced the act of eating human flesh to survive the desolate Northern Hills.
Only Known by Their Nickname: Ceddra is the ‘‘stag’’, while the woman is known only as the Sightless Snow.
Resurrective Immortality: The stag is still immortal and they just keep getting back up if someone kills them in Ceddra’s form.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: The woman and the stag are one being now, but they’ve learned to share their body rather than being stuck in one form or the other.

Foundry

While the Miners & Steamfitters Union is primarily concerned with artificers and the workers in the many mines of the Northern Hills, their reach extends to many other related industries, including the rail workers that expand civilizations reach beyond the city and the foundry workers who forge their tools and supplies.

Mei Feng

See her entry in Malifaux Ten Thunders

Forgeling

See its entry in Malifaux Ten Thunders

Boilermaker

Constructs perform all sorts of labor for the people of Malifaux, powered by the mystical energy of soulstones. As machines with no mind or will of their own, they hardly noticed when the Burning Man arrived, but magic can do strange things. A tiny one of the Burning Man’s portals opened within the construct that earned the nickname the Boilermaker, burning away its soulstone and empowering it with the raw, fiery power of the would-be Tyrant. Though the Burning Man’s dispersal saw the construct’s power fade, echoes of his chaotic magic occasionally animate it again and see it return to labor, or battle, beside its coworkers once again.

Grew Beyond Their Programming: Has the ability to call out to the Burning Man for aid, implying that it’s gained actual awareness of itself and its powers.
Playing with Fire: As a construct powered by the Burning Man, the Boilermaker is immune to flames and possesses some fiery powers of its own.

Neil Henry

Neil Henry was a railway worker with an almost legendary reputation. His ability to lay track and hammer stakes was all but superhuman. This didn’t sit well with Condor Rail, who very much wanted to poach a contract he was working on from the Foundry. They kidnapped his family to try to blackmail him into compliance, only for Neil to smash their guards, kill the men responsible, and work for two days straight to beat them anyway. The Foundry was thrilled to offer him a permanent contract after that.

Drop The Hammer: Whether for hammering in rail spikes or smashing faces, Neil is never far from his hammer.
Expy: He’s very clearly Malifaux’s version of John Henry.
Papa Wolf: Kidnapping his wife and son was perhaps the worst possible thing that Condor Rails could have done to try to slow him down.
Scary Black Man: A massive muscle bound black man who fights with a massive hammer.

Willie

Demolition workers are always in short supply, both because of the sheer amount of work that needs doing and the danger of their profession. But there’s always a new mine that needs clearing or a tunnel that needs carving and there aren’t a lot of people who are as good at their job as Willie is. Though no one is sure how he hasn’t blown himself up yet.

Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Willie is totally off his rocker, convinced that he can hear the dynamite talking to him. But damn if he doesn’t do a good job.
Mad Bomber: Everyone who meets Willie is convinced he’s totally insane and probably shouldn’t be let around as much dynamite as he is.
Outrun the Fireball: Does this often enough with his own explosions that it’s practically his trademark.

M&SU

The Miners & Steamfitters Union is, on the surface, a labor organization dedicated to the protection and support of all of the workers in the Guild’s mines and workshops. And they are that, but they’re also the largest cover organization acting to shield the rest of the Arcanists from Guild scrutiny.

Toni Ironsides

^{Union President}

Toni Ironsides never had an easy life. Her parents were escaped slaves who ultimately paid for their freedom with their lives after being apprehended by the Guild. She spent years as a cage fighter and then as a resistance fighter against the Guild. Eventually, her passion and skill brought her to the attention of Victor Ramos, who recruited her as one of his troubleshooters and grew to trust her enough to place her in command of the entire public front of the M&SU. But when the Governor-General made an offer she couldn’t refuse, she had to pick between her mentor and her cause. Toni knows she made the right choice, but that doesn’t make it easier.

An Offer You Can't Refuse: Marlow offered her the complete abolition of slavery in the USA in exchange for Victor Ramos. Toni couldn’t put one man ahead of all of those lives, no matter how much it hurt.
Badass Bureaucrat: Toni is the head of Malifaux’s biggest (and only) labor union and can run Guild lawyers in circles. She’s also one of their best fighters and can crack skulls with the best of them.
Black Boss Lady: The daughter of escaped African-American slaves and also the head of a major labor union.
Deal with the Devil: As far as she’s concerned, her deal with Marlow was one of these, though one that she couldn’t turn down.
Desk Jockey: Has found herself stuck dealing with more paperwork and less leg breaking since Ramos’s arrest, much to her frustration.
Et Tu, Brute?: Toni was Ramos’s right hand (or maybe his left), and he trusted her to head a full half of the Arcanists. She still sold him out to the Guild.
Fight Clubbing: Toni learned how to fight in underground fighting rings, and she learned well.
Good Old Fisticuffs: Toni is a brawler first and foremost, and she can mix it up with anything from Guild soldiers to Neverborn monsters and come out on top.

Mouse

Mouse isn’t the best fighter or the most powerful mage in the Arcanist movement, but he’s still one of their most dangerous members. Mouse is a spy master to rival the best Malifaux can throw at him, and his information networ is crucial to the movement’s survival. But when push comes to shove, he’s more than capable of taking on a little fieldwork.

Height Insult: Mouse has suffered his fair share of discrimination and insults over his dwarfism through his life.
Mister Big: He’s a literal dwarf, but also one of the most dangerous spies in all of Malifaux.
The Spymaster: The head of the M&SU’s and the Arcanist’s intelligence network and very good at his job to boot.

Amina Naidu

Amina Naidu is the bane of the Guild’s legal stranglehold on Malifaux. She’s the Union’s best lawyer and chief representative in the city of Ridley, where she’s constantly crusading to keep the Union workers treated fairly and to root out corrupt elements of the Guild. She’s almost single-handedly kept the Guild out of Ridley’s politics, which is a titanic feat in and of itself.

Crusading Lawyer: Amina is famous for being one of the few lawyer in Malifaux who genuinely cares about justice and her clients.
Deadpan Snarker: Noted to have a very dry sense of humor that can rub people the wrong way.
Mysterious Backer: Amina has some kind of patron back on Earth who is interested in Breachside politics, but who they are remains a mystery.

Joshua Fitzsimmons

Joshua Fitzsimmons has always seen himself as one of the working men, happy to roll up his sleeves and help out on the floor of his own brewery rather than sitting in an office. When the Guild shut down his factory over some light smuggling charges, he bought his entire staff into the Union and started working the picket lines. He wasn’t going to let the Guild put more honest men out of work.

Benevolent Boss: Can and will fight tooth and nail to make sure that every single one of his employees is well treated and taken care of.
Grumpy Old Man: Cantankerous and sharp-tongued, Fitzsimmons can rally people just by being too stubborn to let them give up.
Molotov Cocktail: Has a bottle in his pocket with a rag stuck in it and an ability called ‘Arson’. You do the math.
Waving Signs Around: Always pictured with an oversized strike sign covered in anti-Guild imagery.

The Captain

No one really knows who the man known as The Captain really is. No one seems to even know what his real name is. But despite that, his loyalty to the Arcanists is unquestioned and his talents undeniable, so he continues to act as one of their most valuable assets in battle.

Blow You Away: The Captain has an uncanny mastery of wind magic and can command the wind with impressive power and precision.
Drop The Hammer: When he’s not using his mastery of the air, the Captain is more than capable of taking his foes down with his massive relic hammer.
Mysterious Past: No one knows a damn thing about the Captain’s past, but it was clearly impressive, given his skills and experience.
Old Soldier: One of the most common theories about the Captain’s history is that he’s a veteran of the Black Powder Wars. He certainly has the attitude and ability for it.

Howard Langston

Originally one of many miners working in the Northern Hills, Langston had the fortune, or perhaps misfortune, of suffering a serious injury when Victor Ramos was visiting his work site. With no family to miss him, Ramos took him to test a number of ‘experimental’ prosthetics and enhancements on his body. Langston has never complained about his new body. Indeed, he served Ramos loyal in thanks for his exceptional work.

Cyborg: One of the more blatant examples in the setting. Langston has had most of his body replaced with weaponized steel.
Spider Limbs: The entire lower half of Langston’s body has been replaced with pneumatic spider legs.
Undying Loyalty: Langston was always loyal to Ramos first and the Arcanists second. He’s starting to question his place with them now that Ramos is gone.

Performer

The Star Theater is the largest and most renowned playhouse in Malifaux City, putting on shows ranging from stunt shows to dancing girls. But some of the stage magic is a lot more real than it looks like on the surface and the owner is more than happy to use her contacts to do some smuggling work to pay back her Arcanist allies.

Colette Du Bois

^Smuggler

Colette Du Bois is the owner of the Star Theater, the most famous playhouse on the Malifaux side of the Breach. Every night, she and her girls put on amazing shows of dancing, stage magic, and other breathtaking spectacles to amaze and delight their patrons. The fact that half of it is real magic hidden behind fake smoke and mirrors never ceases to amuse her. But with the Guild always snooping around for illegal sorcery, Colette needed the Arcanist’s protection to ensure she and her girls stayed free. Her contacts and charisma made her a natural saleswoman and even with the recent shake-ups among their ranks, she remains their top smuggler of soulstones and other arcane items.

Black Market: Without a doubt the biggest smuggler and distributer of black market soulstones in all of Malifaux.
Hidden in Plain Sight: How Colette and the girls hide the actual magic in their acts. They draw so much attention that no one even considers that they would be breaking the law in plain sight.
Master of Illusion: Colette’s magical talents lie in this direction, which she works into many of her own magic shows.
Personality Powers: She’s a flamboyant stage magician with a natural talent for illusion magic.
Showgirl Skirt: Wears one of these when on stage, just like all of the other showgirls who work for her.
Stage Magician: Colette is both this and an actual mage at the same time. Mixing the two up is how she keeps it a secret.
Venturous Smuggler: The biggest smuggler in the entire setting, to the point that it’s the focus of her second version.

Mechanical Doves

Colette’s mechanical doves are a central part of her act, made of brilliant platinum and brass and designed to amaze the audience when they take flight at the climax of her performance. They’re also a key part of her soulstone smuggling operation, each one powered by a stone that’s carefully hidden within its chest to be removed later to be sold, or to be used as an emergency source of magical power in a dangerous situation.

Familiar: The doves fulfill this role for Colette, and their soulstone hearts make them smarter than they look at a glance.
Mechanical Animals: A trio of doves made entirely of metal and gemstones and infused with a semblance of life from a soulstone each.

Carlos Vasquez

Carlos Vasquez came to Malifaux, and the Star Theater in particular, with the sole goal of becoming rich and famous. Despite the usually all female cast, he persisted in his efforts to earn a spot on stage until an incident involving a burned wardrobe led to Colette giving him a chance at the big time.

Casanova Wannabe: Carlos would desperately love to be a ladies man, but he turns into a stammering mess whenever he tries to make a move.
The One Guy: Carlos is the only man in both the Star Theater’s line-up and in the entire Performer keyword.
Playing with Fire: Carlos is a stuntman with a talent for pyrotechnics and dance that is great on stage or in a brawl.
Shirtless Scene: Carlos’s performance costume does not include a shirt, much to the delight of his female fans.

Cassandra Felton

The number two at the Star Theater, there’s no one that Colette trusts more than Cassandra Felton. Her one time rival is now one of her best friends as well as her second in command, whether that means helping the girls with their shows or leading smuggling expeditions for the Arcanist cause.

Burlesque: Cassandra is famous for having some of the more ‘risque’ shows at the Star, and she’s all for it.
Friendly Rivalry: Colette and Cassandra used to be business rivals, but now they’re partners and best friends, pushing each other to put on the best shows they can muster.
Master Swordsman: Surprisingly. Cassandra is incredibly talented with a sword and incorporates it both into her fighting style and her shows.
Mysterious Past: No one really knows the details of Cassandra’s past before she came to Malifaux and she seems determined to keep it that way.

Tina Grenville

The latest up-and-comer since the reopening of the Star Theater, Tina Grenville is far more than she seems. She’s sung and danced her way into the hearts of Malifaux’s elite, and also put a knife into the same hearts as one of Malifaux City’s most daring thieves and lethal assassins, the Shadowlark. A mix of shadow magic and dimensional control helps her keep her two lives separate, and she dons a feathered mask when she’s called upon to steal and kill. Her talents are enough that both Colette du Bois and Damian Ravencroft are quite eager to retain her services for the foreseeable future.

Animal Motifs: Birds, mostly the lark and the raven. Fitting for someone who’s both a songstress and a shadowy assassin.
Casting a Shadow: The Shadowlark specializes in shadow magic that lets her teleport, conceal her identity, and store stolen items into a pocket dimension hidden in her own shadow.
Secret Identity: More so than a lot of her coworkers, Tina keeps her two lives totally separate, complete with mask and dramatic costume.
Teleport Spam: Her favorite method of killing is to appear in a burst of shadowy feathers and strike her target down before leaping to the next in the blink of an eye.

Angelica Durand

The Mistress of Ceremonies at the Star Theater, Angelica Durand is an integral part of the operation, despite only appearing between acts to introduce the next show. Her charisma and her excellent vocal training ensure that every night at the Star is one that the audience with never forget.

Circus Brat: Her father was a carnival barker and he taught her everything he knew about showmanship and drawing a crowd.
Fluffy Fashion Feathers: Part of her costume is a large, purple feather boa.
The Host: Her main job at the Star Theater. She’s not a magician or a showgirl, but she’s still a crucial part of the cast.

Wildfire

The core of the Arcanists is made up of mages, visionaries, and rebels who would like nothing more than to break the Guild’s hold on the practice of magic for good. Their firebrand members tend to favor direct solutions, including sabotage, arson, and assassination to take care of Guild enforcers and push their objectives.

Anasalea Kaeris

^Reborn

Anasalea Kaeris started her life as a troubleshooter for the M&SU, often by shooting anything that troubled them. Her Arcanist ties gave her a fascination with the arcane, but she never displayed any talent for the sort of magical engineering that they practiced. It wasn’t until she lost her temper and her fiery power erupted out of her that she discovered her talent. Victor Ramos took her as a student, teaching her how to harness her powers and making her into the public face of the Arcanist movement.

Good Wings, Evil Wings: Kaeris’s wings are an iconic part of her appearance, making her look like a flaming angel of vengeance. When the Burning Man enhances her powers, her metallic wings are replaced with ones made of pure magical fire.
Hot-Blooded: Appropriately. Kaeris doesn’t do anything by half measures and is an incredibly passionate person.
Number Two: She was Ramos’s Number Two on the Arcanist side of his operations as well as their most public operative.
Personality Powers: A fiery, hot-headed rebel who is also the setting’s premier master of fire magic.
Playing with Fire: Kaeris is one of, if not ‘’the’’, most powerful pyromancers in Malifaux. Her powers only get stronger when the Burning Man returns.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Went on an absolute rampage after Ramos was arrested, burning Guild properties and slaughtering their men.
Spared, but Not Forgiven: The current state of her relationship with Toni. She knows why she did what she did, but Ramos meant too much to her to just let it go.
Tragic Keepsake: Her wing harness turns into this once Ramos is arrested.
We Used to Be Friends: How she views her relationship with Toni. Ramos was everything to Kaeris, and selling him out to the Guild was unforgivable, no matter what they were offering.

Eternal Flame

Kaeris has attempted to test the limits of her magical powers in many ways, with mixed success. While her elemental powers give her some ability to summon gamin, her creations were just as unstable and volatile as the rest of her magic. Ramos helped her construct a vessel to pour her power into, creating the construct known as the Eternal Flame.

Hair-Trigger Temper: The Flame is eternally angry and erratic, but Kaeris is happy to let it turn its anger against her enemies.
Playing with Fire: As basically the embodiment of Kaeris’s magic, the Flame is just as good at this as she is.

The Firestarter

Most people would take being called a pyromaniac and an arsonist an insult, but the Firestarter wears the titles with pride. He doesn’t actually care all that much about the Arcanists or their cause, but their rebellion against the Guild calls for destruction, so they let him indulge his passion for flames. As far as he’s concerned, that’s more than enough.

Ax-Crazy: He’s a dangerous lunatic who loves nothing more than burning things. Places, people, he’s not picky.
Bandaged Face: Is described as being constantly bandaged and burned from his work, but his face is notably mostly covered in all his art.
Not in This for Your Revolution: He couldn’t care less about the Arcanists or their cause, but they’re the ones who let him indulge his desire to burn, so he sticks around and behaves himself.
Pyromaniac: Very much so.

Deacon Hillcrest

Deacon Hillcrest is just one man, but he’s a man with a divine calling. His magic awakened by the arrival of the Burning Man and his soul enlightened to his true purpose, he now considers it his sacred charge to prepare the way for his master’s new world. Anasalea Kaeris and Reva Cortinas are clearly fellow disciples, ones that he’s happy to help if it means drawing new followers to his cause.

The Chosen One: Considers himself the Burning Man’s chosen disciple in Malifaux and is quite eager for recruits to his cause.
Cult: There are plenty of cults in Malifaux, but Hillcrest is one of the more blatant ones.
Playing with Fire: Like most of those empowered by the Burning Man, he specializes in fire magic.
Set the World on Fire: His ultimate goal. Hillcrest believes that Malifaux must be burned to ash so it can be remade to the Burning Man’s desires.

Elijah Borgmann

Elijah Borgmann spent most of his life fighting against the Guild, struggling against their iron-fisted control with minimal success. But when the Burning Man appeared in the sky over London, a power he had never felt before awoke inside him, filling him with twisted mystical inspiration. When the battle of London ended, he made his way to Malifaux and into the employ of Anasalea Kaeris. Together, they could burn the whole Guild down.

Crossover: Elijah and his followers are basically Cult of the Burning Man units from The Other Side put into the Malifaux side of the game.
Playing with Fire: Like most of Kaeris’s followers, he specializes in fire magic. Unlike a lot of them, his comes from the Burning Man and is, if anything, even more chaotic.

Witness

An entire underground of mages and artificers exists in the back streets of Malifaux, hiding in plain sight from the Guild’s enforcers. Those who seek knowledge can find their way to some of the most ancient and dangerous secrets the world has to offer. Including right to the door of the Tyrant Witness and its followers.

Damian Ravencroft

^Unbound

Damian Ravencroft has been one of the Arcanist’s most dedicated researchers for years. His utter refusal to allow a puzzle to go unsolved led him to countless discoveries, and into countless dangers. He even allowed himself to be captured and transformed by the Witch Hunter Division just to gain access to the infamous Yellow Crypt. But in the end, it did lead him to the solution to the ultimate puzzle: the location of the final Tyrant, Witness. And with her, infinite power.

Anti-Magic: Damian allowed himself to be turned into a witchling, stripping him of his arcane power and giving him the ability to negate magic instead. He gets better once he embraces Witness’s power.
Badass Teacher: Is another of the Arcanist’s most famous teachers, as well as one of their most dangerous members.
Order Is Not Good: Very much so. Witness is the ultimate adjudicator, determined to remove all things that do not conform to her perfect order, and Damian is all in on her vision.
Order Versus Chaos: The only Arcanist who is on the other side of this trope, considering his alliance with the Tyrant of Order.
Seeker Archetype: His drive has always been for knowledge and understanding above all else. Anything else is secondary.
Unseen No More: Damian was mentioned in lore plenty of times over the years, but only appeared in person in Madness of Malifaux.
Willing Channeler: He was utterly thrilled to become Witness’s servant and the vessel for her power.

The Puzzle Box

Damian Ravencroft was always fascinated with puzzles. That would be both his downfall and his salvation. When Sonnia Criid’s magic attempted to burn his consciousness away, his soul fled into a carefully prepared puzzle box. When it was solved, it would return, restoring him to who he was once again. But like a pitcher emptied of water, a few drop of Damian remain within, making for a strange but useful tool that can offer strange insights.

Companion Cube: The fragments of Damian’s soul that are still stuck inside it make it more than just a fancy box.
Soul Jar: It’s primary purpose was to hide Damian’s soul so that he could come back from being a witchling.

Bellaventine Thorpe

Bellaventine Thorpe knew going in that joining the Witch Hunters was for life. She was content with that, at least until she noticed something very strange about out of her witchlings. The one that had once been Damian Ravencroft. Yet something compelled her to look the other way to his increasingly strange behavior. And when he regained himself, she left the cell door open and came to find him.

Defector from Decadence: Abandoned the Witch Hunters and risked Sonnia Criid’s wrath because she saw something in Damian that she believed in.
Lima Syndrome: Damian was one of the witchlings under her control, but he fascinated her to the point that she let him escape.
Sword and Gun: Carries both a blade and a pistol, both relics of her time in the Witch Hunters. Both are also impressively enchanted.

Lohith Bhatt

Lohith Bhatt was born with a gift he never wanted. The elements around him responded to his presence with vigor, but no obedience. These spirits, these gamin, attacked him viciously, even tried to kill his daughter. He came to Malifaux, and to Sandeep Desai, hoping for a way to banish the demons from his life. But the old master could not help him and the winter witch betrayed them both, leaving his soul imprisoned within a great soulstone geode to suffer. At least, until Damian Ravencroft came, seeking the geode’s other inhabitant...

Blessed with Suck: Lohith had an incredible talent for attracting gamin, but absolutely no ability to control the wild elemental spirits.
False Friend: Rasputina pretended to care about his problems, only to use him for a pointless magic experiment.
Family Man: Loves his wife and daughter more than anything. He only wanted to learn more about his powers so they would stop being in danger from him.
Misplaced Retribution: Sandeep was honestly trying to help him and had nothing to do with Rasputina’s betrayal, but try telling Lohith that.
Rock Monster: He’s become one of these since being trapped in the soulstone geode, having a body of living magical stone.
Treacherous Advisor: He considers Sandeep to be one, not realizing that the teacher was just as duped by Rasputina as he was.

Leger de Main

Everyone knows that unlicensed magic is illegal in Malifaux. Apparently no one told the man who calls himself Leger de Main. He practices magic so blatantly that no one suspects that his street corner prestidigitation is almost entirely done with real magic. A man with that kind of guts and talent proved quite useful as an asset for a man like Damian Ravencroft.

Attention Whore: Most of his actions are done just because he loves the attention and thumbing his nose at the Guild.
Gentleman Thief: When he’s not teaching other illusionists or performing on the street, he’s stealing magical artifacts for Damian.
Master of Illusion: Almost on par with Colette Du Bois and even more blatant about showing of in public.
Stage Magician: His cover for his magical talents, as well as his entire aesthetic, cape, top hat, and suit included.

Marco Bonatti

Marco Bonetti was one of many people who awakened a latent magic power when he passed through the Breach and into Malifaux. And like many others, he was captured by the Witch Hunters in short order and taken to be turned into one of their witchlings. Damian rescued him from that fate, but his old body is a thing of the past.

Animated Tattoo: What Marco’s innate magic let him do, and now his entire existence, following Damian’s risky attempt to free him.
Brain Uploading: Marco is basically a magical version of this, using magic to transfer his magic and consciousness into a construct body.

Other Arcanist Characters

There are plenty of freelance arcanists and strange magical phenomenon still lingering in Malifaux, not directly associated with any of the larger factions in the Arcanists, but still with their bit to say about the future of the organization, and Malifaux as a whole.

Victor Ramos

Victor Ramos was the founder of both the Arcanists and the Miners & Steamfitters Union. He always believed that magic should be explored and reveled in, not restrained the way that the Guild wanted to. However, as he grew in power, he started to become more selfish and obsessive, putting the good of the movement and its members second to his own ambitions and projects, eventually leading to his own right hand, Toni Ironsides, turning him into the Guild. He’s currently rotting in prison in Vienna with no way out and no one coming to rescue him.

The Ace: Ramos was considered the best of the best when it came to arcane science and making constructs and everyone knew it.
Ambition Is Evil: As he started to obsess over his personal projects and increasing his magical power, Ramos became progressively less moral and less concerned with the collateral of his experiments.
Mad Scientist: Ramos fits the aesthetic better than just about anyone else in the Arcanists and he was definitely starting to get a bit off the deep end before he was taken down.
Put on a Bus: He’s not dead, but being locked up in the world’s most secure prison back on Earth means he’s out of the game until further notice.
Shock and Awe: Ramos was a master of electricity, both for creating electrical machines and as his main form of magical power.
Spider Tank: Had a tendency to make his constructs look like mechanical spiders of varying sizes, up to and including walking tanks.

Envy

Like all of the Crossroads Seven, Envy doesn’t really remember the night that the Hotel burned to the ground. But he remembers the deal he was promised and the abilities he was given. No more watching while others got the things he deserved. He had been promised everything he could ever want. Now it was time to seek his fortune.

Green-Eyed Monster: Shock of all shocks, the man named Envy is utterly consumed by his jealousy at other people.
Mini-Mecha: His pipe organ is basically one of these, complete with spider legs and gatling guns.
Ominous Pipe Organ: Rides around on a mecha that is basically one of these. He even has an ability that lets him benefit from using it as such.
Seven Deadly Sins: Yes. Like all of the Crossroad Seven, he embodies the sin that he’s named after.

Harrison Frodsham

Timepieces are a mark of style and prestige in Malifaux. The price of a good, precision piece makes it hard for the common man to get their hands on something decent. And there are few watch makers with the prestige that Harrison Frodsham commands. Unknown to most, each Frodsham piece also has a tiny soulstone powered recorder hidden inside, perfect for gathering secrets for his friends in the Arcanists.

Clockwork Creature: Frodsham specializes in making these, ranging from small clockwork minions to a replica of himself.
The Spymaster: While not quite on the tier of English Ivan or Mouse, Frodsham is a spy and information broker extraordinaire.
The Watchmaker: Both literally and figuratively. Frodsham has a supernatural command of precision and time as well as actually making watches.

Altus Keene

Conmen are a dime a dozen in Malifaux, but there are few who have the reputation that Altus Keene does. He fled Earth ahead of the authorities after he grifted one too many unfortunate dupes. There, he threw his weight behind the M&SU, at least until his spouse’s criminal network was uncovered and he promptly had to go underground again. Now he puts his influence behind the shadier side of the Arcanists, always looking for a leg up and a way to make a quick buck. Even if it means he has to take on a few dirty jobs from the Arcanists or Condor Rails.

Con Man: Altus has been a conman for his entire life, born poor and determined to claw his way to the top by any means necessary.
Brother–Sister Team: Works extremely well with his sister, Irena, and is all the more dangerous for it.
Master of Illusion: Altus supplements mundane slight of hand and trickery with outright magical illusions and deception to make his cons even more effective.

Irena Keene

The secret to staying hidden is to be perfectly normal. That’s what Irena Keene learned on the run from the authorities. After all, what better place is there to hide than in plain sight? She’s always had a talent for eluding people, slipping out of their memories like oil on water. It makes it all the easier for her to hide her murderous steam-powered augmentations until the right moment to strike.

Brother–Sister Team: Works extremely well with her conman brother, using her talent to go unnoticed to protect him and make off with valuable stolen goods.
Cyborg: Irena has half her limbs replaced by huge, bladed steam prosthetics. Her inherent magical talents are all that keeps people from realizing how monstrous she really is.
Forgettable Character: Magically enforced. People have the strangest tendency to ignore and outright forget Irena, even when she’s standing right next to them.
Make It Look Like an Accident: Her memory powers make her very good at arranging for ‘accidents’ for the enemies of the Arcanists.

Mechanical Rider

Some legends tell of the four horsemen who will herald the end of the world. Scholars have discovered that Malifaux has similar legends, much to their great concern. Rumors tell of a woman riding upon a mechanical steed, wielding a spear charged with arcane might and leading a horde of constructs in her wake. She seems to appear in battles involving the Arcanists, only to vanish again when the battle draws to an end. No one knows what her goals are, but all agree that they can only be an omen of some ill fortune to come.

Aloof Ally: She seems to support the Arcanists, but she never explains herself, just appearing to fight with them and vanishing again.
Ambiguously Human: She looks like a woman in a strange machine mask, but she’s seemingly something native to Malifaux. Exactly what she is is anyone’s guess.
Because Destiny Says So: She, like all of the Horsemen, can generate Fate Counters and use them to force their powers to activate.
The Cavalry: All puns aside, she and the other Horsemen are known to do this for their favored faction, only to vanish again shortly after.
Horsemen of the Apocalypse: One of Malifaux’s interpretation of the Four, but she doesn’t seem to line up with the traditional symbolism.
Mechanical Animals: Her iconic horse is some sort of magical construct, hence her title.

Characters / Malifaux Arcanists

Arcanist Keywords

Academic & Elemental

Augmented

Chimera

December

Foundry

M&SU

Performer

Wildfire

Witness

Other Arcanist Characters

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Characters / Malifaux Arcanists

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Arcanist Keywords

Academic & Elemental

Augmented

Chimera

December

Foundry

M&SU

Performer

Wildfire

Witness

Other Arcanist Characters

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