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Residents Of Onolo
Michael Seer
See Seers
Daniel Hopper
See Seers
Christian Vade
Appears in: The City of Never
"My name is Christian, and your name is Daniel. Being the village Headman means jackal-shit, because people are just people and that is that. Nothing goddamn special about 'em."
A miserly, tired old politician who serves as the Headman of Onolo. Christian is dutiful and cares about his village and people, but a life of misery and familial pain has left him yearning for more quiet days. Estranged by his own son and with his parents both dead at a young age, Christian became the Headman of Onolo in the early 90s, and introduces himself to Daniel shortly after the Passenger rampages around the village, setting up a book he calls the “Memorycatcher” to document what's happening in the village.
- Cool Old Guy: Christian's in his sixties at least, but he's brave enough to trek into the City and deliberately lure eldritch creatures away from his allies and go toe to toe with Lucia, even getting a good few hits on her.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Like many people in Onolo, Christian's got ties with the City. Specifically, Christian's father was Driven to Suicide when he was a young kid by the Consultant — the same fate as all the rest of the Vade patriarchs — and he was forced to keep records for the Consultant in the Memorycatcher, which ultimately pays off with the Consultant snatching up his granddaughter as one of its candidates.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Unceremoniously torn apart by Lucia in the climax.
- Grumpy Old Man: A curmudgeonly, tired old man who's glory days are clearly long behind him.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Christian's snappy, tired, and easy to anger, but he's still a fundamentally good, caring man who showcases his decent traits much earlier than Michael.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Lucia tears him into two bloody pieces rather suddenly in the final part of the story.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The Headman of Onolo and one of the people at the forefront trying to solve the mysteries of the City and what is is, even going into the City and risking his own life for the sake of his own citizens.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: There's no indication Christian's on death row or even in mortal peril until Lucia suddenly sneaks up behind him, impales him, and rips him in half.
Katrina Summerwood
Appears in: The City of Never
"Alessa... I'm sc-sc-scared. I'm s-s-so scared..."
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)A timid, stuttering young girl and the daughter of Mathilda Summerwood. Shy but energetic, Katrina is one of the first people to discover the slab on Onolo's beach, keeping it out of curiosity. When she suffers a horrific nightmare as a result, Katrina gives the slab to Daniel in a panic – only to find herself at the forefront of the carnage brought onto Onolo by the City.
- Badass Adorable: Small, timid, willing to fight the Consultant in order to find and protect her mother. That's not getting started with Katrina smacking Lucia in the face with an iron bar for Alessa's sake in the final battle, serving as crucial support in the final battle between Lucia and Alessa.
- Beware the Quiet Ones: Katrina's withdrawn and not as outspoken as Alessa, but she's just as capable as Alessa when push comes to shove.
- Brilliant, but Lazy: Katrina is a smart young lady, but she's something of a total slacker when it comes to school.
- The Cutie: A small, stuttering Shrinking Violet with a handicap who provokes defensive reactions in everyone, even Michael.
- Disappeared Dad: Her father died long ago.
- Handicapped Badass: Katrina walks with a limp due to having fractured and malformed her ankle years back when she was still a child, but she still proves herself to be a competent Action Survivor who braves the horrors of the City with her sanity still completely intact. Even despite being rendered completely rendered to stand on her leg, Katrina still manages to sneak up on the Consultant in the climax and attack her, providing a vital moment for Alessa to turn the tables and spear her in the face.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Alongside Alessa, Katrina ends up apparently giving her life to give her mother and Hansel some time to escape the City as they fight off the Consultant, plunging into the City shortly after as opposed to facing the Emperor of Rain head-on.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Alessa. Not so heterosexual by the end, though.
- Morality Pet: At his nastiest, Michael seems to have a very close soft spot for little Kat.
- Shrinking Violet: Downplayed. Katrina's shy, fairly easy to tears, speaks with a pronounced stutter, and noted as reticent in comparison to her outgoing best friend Alessa, but she's still completely capable of engaging in everyday conversation with other people and is just as courageous as any of the adults in the cast, going into the town hall to directly face the Consultant for her mother's sake.
- The Slacker: Compared to Alessa, Katrina procrastinates on her schoolwork and prefers to lounge around and sleep rather than enjoy the outdoor activity.
- Speech Impediment: Talks with a prominent stutter.
- Tagalong Kid: Alongside Alessa, Katrina's a young teenager who has absolutely no real way to defend herself against the creatures of the City. This doesn't stop her from managing to survive two up close encounters with the Consultant and ultimately being one of two people to defeat her for good at the end.
- Took a Level in Badass: The kid can step up when she needs to and by the end faces off against a sadistic fallen goddess to stop her from destroying the world.
- Uncertain Doom: The ultimate fates of Alessa and Katrina are left somewhat ambiguous at the end; while they plunge themselves into the City, they don't end up disintegrated by the Emperor in the process and remark they're going “into the unknown” beforehand, with the narrative never explicitly confirming their deaths either way.
- Violently Protective Girlfriend: She's Alessa's girlfriend by the end, and touching Alessa will make Katrina resort to violence. Even if you are a vicious, billion year old fallen goddess.
Alessa Hopper
Appears in: The City of Never
"Love you. Always have... always will."
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The spunky, energetic daughter of Daniel and the sister of Crystal and Mark. An athletic, sports-loving girl who was born on the island and got to know Katrina not a few days after she came to the island, Alessa is attacked and her arm is partially eaten by her father while he's under the effects of a City creature's venom. Proclaiming her father's innocence regardless, Alessa is left in the care of Michael and Onolo's officials while her father is healed up – only to find that the creatures of the City start coming for her too.)- Badass Adorable: Alessa's an energetic, spirited fourteen-year-old girl who happens to personally stop the machinations of a billion-year old sadist hellbent on destroying all reality.
- Badass Normal: Despite being a kid far outweighed by the nightmarish creatures of the City, Alessa is one of the most accomplished characters in the cast, willing to throw herself in harm's way to help Katrina find her mother. At the end, even after losing her siblings, her father, and her home, Alessa still retains her will to survive and ultimately becomes the one to defeat Lucia, despite the latter being a Nigh-Invulnerable ex-goddess – which means shockingly little in terms of a sharp piece of metal to the face.
- Big Sister Instinct: From what we see of their relationship, this is Alessa's instinct toward her vulnerable, sickly younger sister, Crystal.
- Break the Cutie: Rather viciously torn into throughout the story, having her mother killed, part of her arm eaten by her own father, her siblings horrifyingly mutated and killed, and her own father die all before her eyes. Unlike her father, though, Alessa refuses to give up all throughout the story despite all this.
- Broken Tears: Collapses into these when her father dies.
- Cool Big Sister: Alessa is one of these to her sickly young sister, Crystal, being very protective of her without treating her as a liability. When it's revealed what happened to Crystal, Alessa breaks into horrified tears.
- Determinator: Alessa is the cutie who refuses to break. She absolutely refuses to give up or shatter.
- Disappointed by the Motive: Alessa's reaction to Lucia's Motive Rant. Alessa demands why Lucia killed her entire family, and Lucia's response boils down to "because I can" and "I hate everything." Alessa's... less than satisfied.Alessa: "You... just hate life? That's it? That doesn't explain... why you hurt my family."
- Genki Girl: Much more energetic and lively compared to Katrina.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Alongside Katrina, Alessa ends up apparently giving her life to give Mathilda and Hansel some time to escape the City as they fight off the Consultant, plunging into the City shortly after as opposed to facing the Emperor of Rain head-on.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Katrina. Not so heterosexual by the end, though.
- Stepford Smiler: Alessa's exuberant exterior hides a traumatized young girl trying to cope with the grief of having her mother slaughtered. Alessa tries to keep up the ruse as the plot progresses while her family is taken by the City, to mixed success. It ultimately does collapse at the end – but even then, Alessa refuses to give up.
- Tagalong Kid: Alongside Katrina, Alessa's a young teenager who has absolutely no real way to defend herself against the creatures of the City. Seemingly, anyways — Alessa, alongside Katrina, ends up being the one to ultimately fight off Lucia long enough for her to be destroyed for good by the Emperor.
- Uncertain Doom: The ultimate fates of Alessa and Katrina are left somewhat ambiguous at the end; while they plunge themselves into the City, they don't end up disintegrated by the Emperor in the process and remark they're going “into the unknown” beforehand, with the narrative never explicitly confirming their deaths either way.
Mathilda Summerwood
Appears in: The City of Never
"What justifies hopelessness, Seer? What gives logic to pessimism?"
Katrina's mother and a nurse on the island. A doting parent to her single child, Mathilda is nevertheless a little overprotective, partially due the death of her husband Sebastian due to malaria, which has only convinced Mathilda to keep her daughter as close to her as she can. When Katrina and her end up at the forefront of the City, Mathilda resolves to do anything to protect her daughter.
- Despair Event Horizon: Not as obvious as Daniel, but Mathilda is implied to cross it at the end, after watching Katrina sacrifice herself against Lucia. In the climax, she's noted to seem more like a machine acting on instinct, any remaining hope in her seemingly extinguished.
- Good Parents: A happy, cheerful, doting mother to her only child Katrina, who would do anything to protect her daughter Katrina.
- Happily Married: Was this to Sebastian Summerwood until his untimely death. Mathilda bonds with Daniel, who lost his own wife, Leandra, over this while they're marooned in the City with their kids.
- The Idealist: In comparison to someone like Michael and more in line with Daniel, Mathilda is much more optimistic, something she retains even when the City starts to attack. Her firm belief that things will eventually get better briefly puts her at odds with Michael, who firmly believes that they won't.
- Housewife: Seems to evoke this image in general image and personality, although she's a nurse instead of a stay-at-home wife and a single mother on top of that.
- Mama Bear: Mathilda is willing to venture into the depths of the City to protect her daughter and fearlessly stares down the Consultant for her daughter's sake. Sadly, she doesn't take the apparent death of Katrina too well.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Katrina appears to die in the climax of the story while Mathilda lives as one of the few people to come out of the ashes of Onolo alive and (physically) well at the end.
- Sole Survivor: Alongside Hansel (and technically Michael) Mathilda is the only named survivor of Onolo.
Joe Candy
Appears in: The City of Never
"'Ave ya seen dis place? 'Tit's topsy turvy, naow, jus' lik' ah thou' 'dit woul' be on' day! Hee-hee-hee!"
An eccentric, incredibly fat man with possible schizophrenia regarded as a pest around the island. Beloved by the island's children but regarded as a menace by everyone else, Joe is unemployed and gets off through petty thievery, taking a special interest in the slab Katrina finds and later trying to buy off Daniel for it before the Passenger arrives. As Onolo is repeatedly attacked by the City, Joe decides to cut his losses and fully embrace his insanity.
- Ax-Crazy: Not immediately violent at first, but as time goes on and the attacks of the City become more prominent, Joe turns to murderous violence.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Joe isn't on the same plane as everyone else on the island, rambling on about his delusions and becoming obsessed over the slab.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Dies alongside many of the other residents of Onolo taken to the rosefield when they're consumed by the Emperor of Ashen Rain, resulting in him being horrifically and agonizingly unmade.
- Fat Bastard: An incredibly fat, incredibly dangerous man who nearly murders Daniel's young kids in order to get him to cough up the slab.
- Friend to All Children: As vile as he turns out to be, Joe's still noted to be particularly beloved by the children of the island (the only people who put up with his presence) and he in turn entertains them with his odd tales.
- Would Hurt a Child: Even with his friendship of most of the island's children, Joe's still got no qualms trying to murder Daniel's children to extort the (long-gone) slab out of him.
Crystal Hopper
Appears in: The City of Never
"You're alright, right?... [Joe] didn't hurt you?"
Alessa's sickly younger sister, who ends up vanishing from the island and taken by the City. The whereabouts of her and her infant brother, Mark, are the main crux for Daniel's storyline and the motivation for him to go into the City to find them.
- And I Must Scream: Tortured and horribly violated with leeches by the Consultant for days on end – but left in that state completely alive and aware until Daniel finds her. By the time she's found, her body's already starting to rot, but she's still alive.
- Apocalypse Maiden: She ends up being the ultimate host for Draynak, and it's through her body Draynak means to annihilate all reality.
- Bespectacled Cutie: She's a shy girl who wears glasses to increase how vulnerable she seems. She remarks Joe once tried to buy them off of her because he claimed the "stuff the lenses was pure diamond.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Suffers by far the most horrible, prolonged death in the entire book: Crystal, over the course of days at the hands of the Consultant (in the form of her own father, to boot) is tortured, raped, violated physically and mentally, horrifically mutated and left to rot and agony, and only killed when her body is possessed by Draynak.
- The Cutie: Small, sickly, vulnerable, and utterly adorable. None of this stops the Consultant from torturing her.
- Delicate and Sickly: It's not exactly specific, but Alessa's frail, sickly, and seemingly has a variety of ailments that bog her down immensely.
- Kill the Cutie: Crystal is a small, adorable thing given the most horrific death imaginable.
- Shrinking Violet: Even more so than Katrina, never seen outside of her sister or father's side.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Only has a scene of any meaningful dialogue before she's later found abominated and tortured by the City, at which she's barely capable of even the most rudimentary vocalizations.
Welter Faye
Appears in: The City of Never
"Disturb you as it may, my absolute favorite pastime is to watch the anomalies of this world unfold as they do!"
An eccentric paranormal researcher contacted by Christian Vade in the wake of recent, bizarre incidents happening around Onolo. Faye is a chipper, perpetually-smiling man who seems entranced by the odd happenings around Onolo, with little else known about him aside from he originated from somewhere in Detroit and apparently helped to found an illicitly-funded paranormal agency in Detroit. As the City's attacks intensify, Faye reveals a few of his secrets as well.
- Admiring the Abomination: Faye loves the City Beasts, viewing them as adorable and fascinating....whcih extends to anything twisted and grotesque.
- Affably Evil: Eccentric, cheerful, talks to everyone like close friends – and attempts to brutally murder his own associates to fuel his own depraved obsession with the City.
- Cloud Cuckoolander: Faye's a giggly mess who openly considers the City's abominations "cute." He's also a deranged sadist with an... unconventional view of the world.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Faye wears enormous spectacles and is a purely evil monster under them.
- For the Evulz: Faye does what he does simply to see the world in motion, with no other purpose but the enjoyment of the chaos he sows.
- Giggling Villain: Faye has a disturbing tendency to giggle a lot and he's one heck of a bad dude.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: Faye is a villain running his own game, hidden under the Consultant's own activities.
- Hidden Eyes: His eyes are constantly hidden under his particularly thick spectacles.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Compared to the strange morality of those in the City, Faye is very deliberately malicious when he does his part in killing people in Onolo, making his monstrosity all the more unique and horrifying in comparison.
- Keet: Faye is a very excitable man despite being middle-aged, always giggling, elated, and quick-talking even after being thrust into the face of near-death. He still retains this demeanor after he reveals his true colors, albeit with a more vicious edge.
- Lack of Empathy: Faye cares nothing for living beings, simply enjoying seeing people devoured by monsters just as 'tests.'
- Mad Scientist: Once the City's creatures start rampaging around Onolo, Faye sees the ensuing chaos as the perfect opportunity to use as a testing ground, referring to the act of trying to have eight people devoured by the slag-behemoths as a “lighthearted test.”
- Omnicidal Maniac: Much like his "partner" Lucia, Faye is knowingly and openly assisting in the complete annihilation of every living thing in the multiverse.
- Perpetual Smiler: Faye is always, always smiling, no matter what the circumstance: talking about the bizarre creatures of the City, nearly being killed by said monstrosities, trying to murder his colleagues, being throttled to near-death, and so on. Faye's smile drops exactly once in the entire story, but he's quick to rebound.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Faye's bizarre and disturbing views on life and death coupled with his Keet nature means nothing remotely scares him. Any sort of eldritch horror inflicted pain is just intriguing to him.
- Uncertain Doom: Faye is last seen dragged off by Lucia with no indication he actually dies.
- Walking Spoiler: Much more to him than meets the eye.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Faye is likely still alive by the time Lucia drags him off into another dimension, but unlike many of the other people Lucia kills, we have no idea whether or not Lucia disposed of him or not.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: One interpretation of what Lucia drags him off for.
Edison/"Eddie"
Appears in: The City of Never
"I've fucking seen things, man. Fucking things that no fucking person in their right fucking mind should ever have to see!"
A caustic-tempered, neurotic fisherman. Known to Onolo by the simple nickname of "Eddie," Edison's constant and frantic overreactions to the mildest things prompt irritation from the other Onolonians, and after the Passenger's attack on Onolo he seems to disappear completely. However, Edison harbors deeply disturbing secrets relating to the City themselves that justify his perpetual paranoia.
- Brutal Honesty: A master practitioner of it. He's not shy to let Daniel know that his crusade to get his kids back is most likely a completely fruitless crusade and his idealistic behavior won't win him anything. Sadly, on all counts, he's completely right.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Once a resident of the Canadian town of St. Howard's, which was torn apart by the Consultant — and, after having the luck to survive it, Edison found all records of his life erased and his only friends, including the young girl Zyra, murdered.
- Defiant to the End: Even in his last moments, Eddie continues to spit at and defy the Consultant, and dies with a crooked smile on his face.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Edison explodes when Daniel calls him "Eddie," demanding he's called by his full name of Edison rather than the nickname.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Unceremoniously murdered by the Consultant.
- Dying Smirk: When the Consultant knifes him to death, Edison's last expression is a defiant smile.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How the Consultant kills him, gutting him with one of its knives until he topples over dead.
- It's All About Me: Ironically for someone who calls people out for always looking out for themselves, it's clear Edison really couldn't care less about the misery of anyone else, letting Daniel know it to his face.
- Jerkass: A caustic, caustic human being who rips into Daniel's optimism. Having been one of the sole survivors of St. Howard's and having had his entire life destroyed before him, it's somewhat understandable — and he softens when he sees Daniel's children.
- Nervous Wreck: Edison spends most of his time on Onolo in a constant, paranoid fit worried about even smaller fishing loads than usual. He's got a good reason for it.
- Nominal Hero: Edison's abrasive, caustic, quick to violence and anger, and doesn't care about anything or anyone save his own personal crusade against the city. This isn't to say he's entirely unsympathetic, though, as he has a damn good reason to act the way he does, and he's just as sickened about the fate of Daniel's children as anyone else.
- Pet the Dog: As much of an intolerable jackass as he is, Edison's just as horrified about the fate of Daniel's children and refuses to stoop to his usual vitriolic behavior when imploring Daniel to Mercy Kill them, even offering to do it himself to spare Daniel the grief.
- Revenge: His primary motivator for wanting to stop the City, as it turns out. He doesn't care about how everyone else around him has been slighted (at least, not until he sees what's happened to Daniel's kids) and is only focused on getting personal revenge for the destruction of St. Howard's and the death of Zyra.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Easily the most foul-mouthed character in the story. Not one sentence he says isn't peppered with curse words.
- Shrinking Violet: Edison is deliberately set up as one before he's properly introduced to the story. He's anything but.
- Walking Spoiler: Discussing anything about him and his past reveals the existence of St. Howard's and the fact the City's been to Earth before.
Cultists
Helen Valentine
Appears in: Valentine | Valentine Man | Stories Never Told
"You know, in my family, there is a recurrent saying: il segreto della felicità è libertà. 'The secret of happiness is freedom.'"
The mayor of an Italian commune named Bacio. First appears in Valentine.
- Abusive Parents: Helen raises her own children as disposable orgy-fodder in the Padre's cult, to be mutilated and serve her endlessly.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Helen even goes for animals, more particularly the humans she's mutated to resemble them.
- Big Bad: Of Valentine and Valentine Man, as the mayor of Bacio and all the deranged happenings within.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Helen is all smiles, pleasantries and sweetness...and then she reveals the devious sadist she truly is.
- Bondage Is Bad: Played with. Helen is a sadomasochist in all ways, whose perversions are shown through her love of torture and mutilation. Granted, there are numerous characters who practice healthy, consensual forms while Helen only cares about her own gratification.
- Control Freak: It's revealed Helen dominated all her children in every way. Helen controls their education and religion. She dictates what they wear, what they eat and makes sure everything is dependent on her, including sexually. Any hint of defiance is liable to earn pain or death.
- Depraved Bisexual: Helen is insane, sadistic, indulges in horrific mind-control orgies, and doesn't seem to discriminate based on gender. Or species.
- Disney Villain Death: After the Padre sucks out half her blood and Bruno rips out her heart, Henri dispatches her by tossing her into the canyon-deep bowels of the Padre.
- Eats Babies: If she's in a mood? She takes a bite out of one of her own babies at one point and tosses it aside without a care.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Seems so with her clear joy with the Padre...except she only seems to care for it and the pain she sows with it in the end. She's even cheating on it with Y'golonac of the Severn Valley Mythos. Valentine Man reveals this not to be the case as she has actually been enslaving Il Padre the whole time.
- Evil Is Petty: Helen hides it well, but even asking her the wrong question can result in torture or death, all while she never loses that charming smile.
- Extreme Omnisexual: Helen is not choosy with sexual partners, being omnisexual with a love for human beings of all ages, eldritch nightmares and even people she's twisted to resemble animals.
- Faux Affably Evil: Helen's a deranged sadist with very unconventional views, but she's very good at convincing people she's civil, and she doesn't drop the civility even when she finally reveals the true nature of Bacio's "festival" to Henri, even cheerfully watching as she makes a mutated Anita violate Henri.
- Immortality Immorality: She became immortal using the fluids of the Padre, and giving people to it to twist and violate.
- Karma Houdini: Helen ends the story confident that she'll live forever, albeit there is a sliver of hope Henri will be able to return with help from the outside world.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: One year later, Henri, alongside Helen's renegade son Bruno, tear out Helen's heart and kill her once and for all right on the cusp of Valentine's Day.
- Large Ham: Helen can go off when she starts dramatically talking about love.
- Laughing Mad: Helen erupts in hysterical laughter when her own husband is injured, showing how completely insane she truly is under that veil of sweetness.
- Love Freak: A much, much darker take than usual, given Helen's particular definition of "love." Helen is fanatical for love, caring about the depraved aspects of how much it can hurt.
- Love Hurts: Helen practices this as an ideology. Helen waxes on that "true" love is the ability to embrace carnality without any limit or restraint, and has a fascination with how much love can hurt, even laughing when her "husband" is stabbed by Henri and starts writhing in pain.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Helen is insane and turned on by horror and violence. It's also implied she's willing sleeping with Y'golonac the Defiler on the side from her husband the Padre.
- Offing the Offspring: Helen has killed many of her children. In Children of Valentine, Bruno recalls one child who asked too many questions promptly had his mother bite his throat out who then asked if there were any more "silly questions" from the rest.
- Parental Incest: Many of Bacio's villagers are her own children with the Padre, and she participates in the horrific orgies with them. She did this with her children that she had with Y'golonac as well. Her eldest surviving son, Salvatore, remembers her as the woman he loved.
- Unholy Matrimony: Helen is wed to a horrific monster known as the Padre, and is very happy with it, and causing agony with it. Granted, not happy enough that she won't screw The Defiler on the side as his 'adulterous friend.' Valentine Man reveals this not to be the case as she has actually been enslaving Il Padre the whole time.
- Villain with Good Publicity: The world knows Helen as a charming philanthropist and not as a sickening cultist.
- Villainous Incest: Helen's villagers are her own children, and she conducts horrific blood orgies with them.
- Would Hurt a Child: Helen would take a bite out of a baby, so there's that. Helen is also explicitly confirmed as a particularly cruel and manipulative pedophile who abuses her children from young ages and uses the Padre to have them enjoy it.
Eliphas Coyte
Appears in: The Englishman | Sangue Serenissima | Stories Never Told
"Those who stare past the threshold often go mad, but a select few of us go onward into the unknown abyss, to spread their enlightenment to others. Perhaps we shall have a Renaissance of our own some day. "
A mysterious Englishman and self-proclaimed purveyor of forbidden knowledge who first appears in 1670.
- Abhorrent Admirer: He seems to have a thing for Eliza and he's nothing if not abhorrent.
- Admiring the Abomination: He loves to stare into the abyss, and his ultimate goal is to perceive all its horrors.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When Coyte is down and realizes the horrors that await him, he resorts to pleading for his very soul.
- All for Nothing: All his actions, all his scheming, all his evil deeds end up falling apart, and worse? The second he left Nyarlathotep's service, Coyte realizes that his ex-master could have taken his revenge at any time. He was never, ever going to get what he craved.
- Berserk Button: Hardestadt calling him a 'cringing coward' afraid of the dark and decrying what he's done to himself seems to draw genuine contempt and anger from Coyte.
- Big Bad: In The Englishman. He also returns as the Big Bad of Sangue Serenissima, having since warped himself into a horrific Eldritch Abomination in his mad pursuit to claim the Remeditary and all the knowldge within.
- Big Bad Wannabe: For the saga as a whole. While Coyte is effective, he reaches far too high, bites off way more than he can chew and makes glaring errors that lead him to a horrific end from beings far more worthy of the title than he. He also realizes at the end that Nyarlathotep could have exacted retribution upon him at any time and the second he tried to turn his back on him, his fate was sealed one way or another.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Coyte acts friendly and pleasant, inviting to Eliza while he's initially welcoming her into Flor, and retains his calm and affable edge when he returns in Sangue Serenissima, but his interests in the wellbeing of others are decidedly nonexistent.
- Black Speech: Whatever language he speaks in Sangue is an awful, monstrous sounds that hurts Eliza to process into English, and his dialogue is rendered in exclusively bold text.
- Body Horror: He has warped and mutated himself hideously in pursuit of the knowledge he seeks. By the time of Sangue Serenissima, he resembles a massive humanoid serpent, with his body having become a patchwork of alien biology and various artificial organs, limbs and tissues he's grafted upon himself to the point the only remaining human bit of him is his eye.
- Bullying a Dragon: He is blithe and dismissive of the presence of Adam and Hardestadt, considering the former a 'moroi, a dhampir or maybe a repressed Strigoi" when Hardestadt is actually a half-Devil, and dismisses Adam as a "wayward toy" and underneath his notice entirely until the minute Adam actually almost manages to turn the tables with his Magic Eye.
- The Corrupter: He has made Flor his own little kingdom, warping the people there into monsters.
- Deal with the Devil: Coyte made a bargain with an amoral being known as 'Masque' to seize the Remeditary, happily paying the price to exterminate countless lives for what we craves.
- Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Teases his victim Peyton of how he must 'love' surprises when he feels intense agony at the thing draining his brain, and seems to think a row of dangling, talking corpses is a quick, funny greeting for Hardestadt.
- Eye Scream: Eliza planted her dagger in his eye back in Flor to escape him. He doesn't quite seem to have gotten over that in Sangue, and reveals he was never able to restore his eye with all attempts to have done so coating his face in horrific bluish growths that have enveloped a large part of his face.
- Facial Horror: What hasn't already been warped into a nightmarish, fanged mouth in Sangue is either overgrown with tumorous alien flesh or rotted, necrotic skin. It's little wonder Coyte decides to hide his face.
- Fantastic Drug: He's using the brains of Seers as a stimulant to feed upon.
- Faux Affably Evil: He's pleasant, even scholarly seeming, but this is just a mask for a callously man who sees everyone around him as a tool or a specimen. He continues this in Sangue Serenissima, with his arrogance constantly underscored by a genteel and educated way of talking and seemingly no malice for the people around him even as he makes it his life's mission to destroy everything Eliza, Adam and Hardestadt hold dear for their intrusion upon his scheme.
- Godhood Seeker: His ultimate goal is to become a god.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Coyte discovers a bit too late that pissing off eldritch horrors is not conducive to one's longevity. The Defiler was not thrilled by Coyte ditching him, but it's implied that it backed off in favor of the much stronger Nyarlathotep, who waits to the opportune moment to take his payback and let Coyte see how screwed he is...and then Coyte is delivered to the Ending Eye, which is very, very, very eager to have its wayward disciple taught a terrible lesson.
- Humanoid Abomination: Whatever he is now, he's no longer human and is a disgusting creature under that human guise. He drops the "humanoid" part in Sangue, with the only recognizably human part of his body in the 1750s being his one eye.
- I Am a Humanitarian: By Sangue, he has taken to feasting upon human flesh.
- It's All About Me: Coyte is borderline solipistic in his views, dealing with and abandoning many, many eldritch gods and monsters so he can enhance and improve himself.
- It's Personal: He has a horrific grudge against Eliza Cortly for her actions in Flor.
- Lack of Empathy: Coyte has no understanding of the feelings or importance of others. He cares zilch for their well being or lives in pursuit of his goals.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He is sent screaming back to the Ending Eye to face punishment for abandoning it.
- Make It Look Like an Accident: He offers to arrange an 'accident' for Eliza's idiot husband to free her into joining Flor's little commune.
- Malevolent Masked Man: He wears a black mask over the lower half of his face, and he's certainly malevolent.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: He replaces that fleshy beard with a mouth full of jagged, horrific fangs in Sangue Serenisisma.
- Nothing Is Scarier: We are given little indication to what's under that cloak, but nothing makes it sound appealing.
- Offing the Offspring: He fathers children with eldritch horrors solely to destroy them in experiments.
- Oh, Crap!: He has an epic one when he realizes all of his theories about Hardestadt were wrong and he's incurred the wrath of a particularly infamous Devil.
- Reality Warper: He has the power to bend reality around it, and somehow managed to not only warp the interior of the Li Fonti manor into a pocket dimension outside Earth, but managed to stitch a sub-realm of the City to it as well.
- Self-Made Orphan: Coyte drove his own father insane and later murdered him.
- Scaled Up: Coyte, as of Sangue, is capable of turning into a humanoid serpent capable of crushing enemies under his powerful coils. It's not a particularly pretty transformation.
- Serial Rapist: If Coyte wasn't revolting enough, he once served The Defiler of the Severn Valley mythos, which entails repeated rape and dragging innocents to be ravished in his then-master's dark orgies.
- Sinister Minister: Coyte wears the robes of a Presbyterian priest. He is, however, only the priest of a horrific Eldritch Abomination called the Eye. It is revealed he has served many monsters after the Eye, including Nyarlathotep.
- Smug Snake: While he's a competent schemer and not as on-the-nose despicable or slimy as previous villains — especially in the Kindness of Devils side — Coyte still suffers from a seriously overblown confidence in his abilities that lead him to dismiss Hardestadt and Adam, nearly leading to his early demise at Adam's hands, and he underestimates Eliza enough that he's visibly surprised that she managed to sneak in without alerting his wards. He also seems to feel that pissing off monstrous deities is a sound strategy. Including the ridiculously possessive, petty and sadistic Nyarlathotep.
- The Sociopath: Coyte ticks every box. He's breathtakingly egotistical, utterly self-absorbed, obsessed with his goals and has no moral restraints whatsoever.
- Stalker with a Crush: Coyte is hounding Eliza Cortly and seems to have a disturbing Villainous Crush on her.
- These Are Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: Coyte's raison d'etre is hunting the forbidden. He hungers badly to not only look into the abyss but to perceive it and all it has to offer. He has warped his physiology hideously in the process of that end goal.
- Underestimating Badassery: One of Coyte's greatest errors is not taking Adam or Hardestadt seriously as he probably should.
- The Unfettered: Nothing stops Coyte in pursuit of his goals and he regularly states he has thrown off the chains of human limitations.
- Villainous Breakdown: He edges closer as his plans are waylaid, snapping when Eliza defeats him, growing even worse when he realizes Hardestadt was dead right about Nyarlathotep's designs on him...and then he panics when he realizes The Ending Eye is going to be his final fate.
- Villainous Crush: It's hard not to read his attentions towards Eliza at least partly through this lens, continuing further in Sangue Serenissima. Coyte hungers to have her in his grasp and to learn everything from her, which sees more than a touch lustful.
- Villains Want Mercy: He has the temerity to beg Adam not to send him to the Eye at the end.
- Was Once a Man: By the time of Sangue, Coyte isn't even remotely human or anything close to it.
- Would Hurt a Child: Among the many Seers it takes and horrifically murders, the twelve-year-old Julio is the one that marks it as especially vile — especially considering it promises to spare him to Eliza not minutes before.
Nazi Germany
Reinhard Heydrich
Appears in: The Wolves of War
"When undergoing an infestation, you do not invite the vermin to move. You exterminate them."
The Man with the Iron Heart. Heydrich is a genocidal Nazi and head of the Gestapo, who has dark designs in World War Two.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: In this with Dietrich Boehmer for The Wolves of War.
- Bullying a Dragon: He has no problems toying with the much physically stronger Dietrich and taunting him.
- The Chessmaster: He is masterminding a great deal of the crimes and evil of World War 2, having manipulated the start of the war and much of what happens next while running his own agenda.
- Deader than Dead: In contrast to Dietrch, Heydrich is utterly annihilated by his own cache of psychic energy, leaving nothing left.
- Didn't See That Coming: He sure didn't see Eliza tricking him and Elazar taking a shot to result in his utter obliteration.
- The Dragon: To Heinrich Himmler, who is ostensibly in charge of the conspiracy. Heydrich is his second there.
- Dragon-in-Chief: Heydrich is more knowledgable, intelligent and active than Himmler. In practice, he is the actual leader of the eldritch conspiracy.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Dies offpage, when he is assassinated the same way his real life counterpart did. Subverted when he reveals himself to be alive as he a seer, and can survive having his body destroyed if his mental avatar lives.
- Evil Is Petty: Heydrich is sadistic, cruel and enjoys twisting the knife in small ways.
- Face Of An Angel Mind Ofa Demon: Heydrich is a handsome man, but he's a sadistic, murderous Nazi.
- Faux Affably Evil: Polite, pleasant, but a devious and murderous sociopath behind it.
- Final Solution: Heydrich is the architect of The Holocaust as in real life and is planning the eradication of the 'undesirables.'
- Ghostapo: Heydrich leads the secret police in the Nazi regime and mixes in supernatural affect there.
- Historical Domain Character: He's Reinhard Heydrich, the man himself.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Like the real man, Heydrich's eyes are frigid blue.
- Karmic Death: Heydrich harvests the psychic energy from everyone who dies in World War II, all as energy to fuel his deification spell. Heydrich gathers all the energy he needs for his ascent—and then the tether he's using to control the energy is ruptured, leaving Heydrich with no way to control the ensuing storm of psychic energy that tears him to pieces.
- Killed Offscreen: He's mentioned to have been assassinated in Czechoslovakia, which changes the game immensely. Of course, Heydrich is playing the part. He's a Seer, meaning he's immortal unless his mental avatar is destroyed.
- Nazi Nobleman: He plays the part well, acting as A Man of Wealth and Taste and a high-ranking Nazi.
- Non-Action Big Bad: In direct contrast to Dietrich, who openly goes out on the field to fight with his City-beasts, Heydrich prefers to stay behind the scenes, managing the affairs of the conspiracy.
- Offing the Offspring: He arranges the death of his own son Klaus to prove a point to Eliza.
- One-Winged Angel: In his battle in mindspace, he assumes a seven-headed draconic form.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He's a Nazi and views anyone not fitting that ideal as subhuman.
- Psychic Powers: Heydrich is a seer who discovered his abilities years prior. In addition, he's the most powerful one Eliza has ever seen.
- Softspoken Sadist: He rarely lifts his voice, but Heydrich relishes the pain of others.
- The Starscream: Heydrich plans to use his Seer abilities to shatter the minds of Hitler and the Nazi High Command.
- The Stoic: Heydrich is described as barely emoting, seemingly have nothing but ice water in his veins.
- The Strategist: A planner who organizes the complete annihilation of the resistance against the Nazis.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: He has supernatural beings targeted and eradicated or captured for experimentation, all to eliminate rivals or gain fodder for experimentation.
- Villainous Crush: He views Eliza as the perfect 'consort' to his glorious Reich.
Dietrich Boehmer
Appears in: The Wolves of War
"The smart man speaks a thousand words, but an intelligent man lets them speak for themselves."
A cold, vicious Gruppenführer Nazi in alliance with Reinhard Heydrich, secretly harnessing beasts from the City.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When he is badly wounded and finds himself at the mercy of Adam, who intends to viciously torture him before sending him to the realm of the Ending Eye, he wants nothing more then mercy but is unable to speak.
- And I Must Scream: His fate when Adam claims him and sends him to Xi'Acerbia. Adam decides to visit some Cold-Blooded Torture on him first and tells him he'll never forget it even with the eternity ahead.
- Alien Blood: With his strange heart, he now bleeds black.
- Ambiguously Human: Dietrich's humanity is a bit suspect now that he's incorporated pieces of the City of Never into himself.
- Bad Boss: Cross Dietrich and you get Fed to the Beast.
- Bait the Dog: He's furious a Nazi guard crippled a Jewish inmate at his camp, but only because the man damaged valuable livestock. He shoots the inmate and has the guard thrown to the monstrous slag-fathers.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: In this with Reinhard Heydrich for The Wolves of War.
- Blood Knight: Dietrich relishes combat, likening it to being back in the trenches at World World 1 again.
- The Brute: Dietrich is a hulking juggernaut who relishes physical combat. While he's more cerebral than he appears, his favorite tactic is to rip through his enemy with his bare hands in an unstoppable frenzy of violence.
- Bullying a Dragon: His wife 'Helga' is far more powerful and dangerous than he is. Dietrich almost sees fit to attack her. Given she's the Shadows' Consultant, this ends painfully for him.
- Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: Dietrich forgets his place when he attacks Helga—who, in actuality, is the Shadows' Consultant, resulting in her giving him a highly unimpressed beating-down that shows exactly what Dietrich is to the Consultant.
- Evil Old Folks: One of the oldest members of the Nazi conspiracy, being a veteran of the first World War. Helga is much older due to being the Shadows' Consultant.
- Evil Sounds Deep: Has a raspy, menacing voice described like that of a gargoyle.
- Evil Versus Evil: He and Heydrich never got along, given the former preferred the idea of exploiting Jews while the latter preferred extermination. In chapter 14 they come to blows, and Dietrich destroys Heydrich's body.
- Fate Worse than Death: He is sent to Xi'Acerbia, a realm of eternal torture and pain.
- Large and in Charge: Dietrich stands a towering 6'6 tall, and his very presence looms over everyone else.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Defeated by a stronger warrior than him, Dietrich stumbles back to his room, only to run into Adam who is furious at Deitrich for nearly killing Saviri. Dietrich finds himself tortured and sent to Xi'Acerbia to face punishment for his sins.
- Laughing Mad: After his fight with Elazar, Dietrich is howling and cackling in exultation, showing how much sanity he has left.
- Made of Iron: Dietrich's skin is nigh on invulnerable and sword strikes barely do anything to him at this point.
- Nazi Grandpa: He's the eldest Nazi, having been a soldier in World War One, and is as vile as can be imagined.
- Nazi Nobleman: He's an old, aristocratic soldier and a dedicated member of the Nazi party.
- Not So Stoic: Give him a chance to hurt someone and Dietrich will begin grinning savagely.
- Old Soldier: He's the eldest seen member of the Nazi conspiracy and was a soldier in World War One.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He's a Nazi, and his disagreement on treatment of the 'undesirables' is more form than substance. Dietrich views them as animals fit to serve, as opposed to eliminating them entirely.
- The Resenter: Dietrich is an Old Soldier and one of the oldest members of the Nazis, being a veteran soldier of World War One. He has a deep anger towards the arrogant, younger members of the Third Reich who hold themselves above him.
- Sadist: Dietrich loves the agony of others.
- Sanity Slippage: As his wife experiments on him more and more, Dietrich begins losing his mind until he simply becomes a gibbering lunatic.
- Slasher Smile: When his blood's up, Dietrich flashes a monstrous grin.
- The Stoic: Dietrich is blunt and frigidly unemotive, with the most visceral emotion he displays being a single, vicious smile at the end of his debut chapter.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Dietrich isn't winning any prizes. He's huge, craggy and likened to a gargoyle. His wife Helga, on the other hand, is gorgeous.
- Unholy Matrimony: His wife, Helga, is equally monstrous and finances his operations.
- Villainous Breakdown: When he realizes Helga has no more use of him and the end of the war is approaching, Dietrich snaps and becomes a savage madman. He breaks down harder when he realizes he's been deprived of a glorious death and he's about to face eternal torture.
- Villains Want Mercy: He deeply wants mercy when facing the prospect of being sent to Xi'Acerbia, a place of eternal, hellish torture. He doesn't get it.
- Would Hurt a Child: Dietrich is willing to butcher children, overseeing the infamous Dirlewanger brigade in Belarus.
Heinrich Himmler
Appears in: The Wolves of War
Reichsfuhrer of Nazi Germany, and the (ostensible) head of the supernatural Nazi conspiracy.
- Afraid of Blood: Himmler's noted to be uncomfortable at the sight of blood—ironic, considering his genocidal aspirations.
- Authority in Name Only: Ostensibly the head of the eldritch conspiracy in the Nazi ranks, but Dietrich and especially Heydrich have overtaken him in practice.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Himmler's authority is only technical. Heydrich unnerves and discomforts him while practically running the conspiracy himself, while his and Dietrich's plots gradually overtake Himmler's influence.
- Cyanide Pill: Himmler takes one, like in real life but Hardstadt reveals that Heydrich replaced it with a pill that causes a much more painful death.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He wears a pair of spectacles that enhance his cruel nature.
- Happily Married: He does seem to have some affection for his wife.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Himmler is, of course, virulent antisemite and racist, being one of the top men of the Third Reich.
Helga Boehmer
Appears in: The Wolves of War
"You can't make me promise a thing, dear."
The wife of Dietrich Boehmer. Seemingly more than she appears.
- Arbitrarily Large Bank Account: Helga is absolutely loaded, financing a covert operation completely off the books all by herself.
- The Baroness: As fitting for the powerful wife of a powerful Nazi. She's more outwardly friendly than the norm, but she's utterly self-interested, sadistic, and dominates even her mountain of a husband.
- Did You Just Have Tea With Cthulhu: Hardestadt has a friendly dance with her at a party, unaware he's waltzing with the Consultant of Shadows who hates him more than she hates almost anyone else who ever lived.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: A seemingly innocuous background character, Helga is the Shadows Consultant, one of the chief villains of the Neverkind Saga.
- Dragon-in-Chief: Helga is ostensibly Dietrich's wife and lesser, but Helga has made it clear from every approach she dominates her husband in every aspect. She is, in actuality, the Shadows' Consultant, and she holds no illusions about who is superior when Dietrich mouths off to her in private.
- Fangs Are Evil: When she lets her mouth open, she has a terrifying set of sharp teeth.
- Faux Affably Evil: Helga has a sharp sense of humor and she's quite talkative and friendly with Hardestadt, but she's also manipulative and harbors much, much darker secrets underneath her flirty exterior.
- Fiction 500: It's hinted Helga is loaded considering she's able to covertly finance the entire supernatural Nazi operation out of her own pocket.
- Humanoid Abomination: It becomes clear the longer Helga's onscreen that whatever she is, she isn't human, revealing this at first when she corners an unlucky soldier and is all but explicitly said to have devoured him. She's actually the Shadows' Consultant.
- More Deadly Than the Male: Helga is clearly the dominant member of the Unholy Matrimony she and Dietrich have, and she freely chastises him whenever she has a chance. Dietrich mouthing off to her results in her giving him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
- Unholy Matrimony: She's a creepy, terrifying figure and wed to the nightmarish Dietrich Boehmer. She, however, is clearly the more dominant of the two.
Dr. Kurt Sindermann
Appears in: The Wolves of War
"This entire process has been fascinating for me. Truly beyond anything. I've catalogued everything, every minute detail. Logged, diagrammed, recorded, every setback overcome and every specimen maturing beautifully."
Dietrich's grimy scientist experimenting with the City.
- And I Must Scream: Adam sends his mind to Xi'Acerbia for an eternity of agony.
- Dirty Coward: Sindermann is a sniveling lickboot who folds immediately under any hostility toward him—hence how Dietrich and Heydrich are able to control him with merely glares. He's not even devoted enough to Dietrich to stick through to see the end of his plan, and decides to leave the world to face the consequences of his research.
- Eye Scream: Adam takes out his eyes before killing him.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Has a pair of spectacles that glint ominously when he's showcasing his "research" to Dietrich.
- Herr Doktor: A classic, mad scientist-type Nazi scientist, involved in studying the strange and horrible abominations from the City.
- Mad Scientist: Involved in experimenting with eldritch beings named slag-fathers, and he's very openly honored to have the chance to work on it.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Sindermann's enthusiastic and talkative about the research he's done on the eldritch, horrific beasts of the City and the unfortunate specimens he's been allowed to test on.
- Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: When Dietrich is on his deathbed and is still pledging to unleash his slag-spawn upon the world, Sindermann decides—perhaps not unwisely—the best course of action is to just skip town and get as far away from the chaos as he can. It doesn't save him from Adam.
- Smug Snake: Sindermann is an unlikable little toad of a man who thinks too much of himself.
Josef Mengele
Appears in: The Wolves of War
"Seeking the mysteries of the human brain…and the inhuman brain as well."
An up-and-coming Nazi scientist working with Heydrich's supernatural affairs.
- And I Must Scream:
- The brains of seers he extracts are conscious and in pain.
- Happens to him when Adam tracks him down and sends him to Xi'Acerbia, the realm of the Ending Eye.
- Argentina Is Nazi Land: He flees to South America after the war, like many other Nazis.
- Faux Affably Evil: He's cheerful and enthusiasm, but it's just a mask for his devious sadism.
- Herr Doktor: The Nazi mad scientist, and just as vile as his contemporary Sindermann in this story.
- Historical Domain Character: Based off the real Josef Mengele, who committed sadistic, experimental atrocities on POWs in WWII.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: He gets away with his crimes for decades...until it's implied Hardestadt sends his location to Adam, who sends him to eternal torture.
- Mad Doctor: Josef has all the atrocities he committed in real life, and horrible experimentation on supernatural creatures into super soldiers as well.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: A doctor only in name only, which he uses for ghastly experimentation.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Like Sindermann, Mengele relishes the horrific monstrosities they work with.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Escapes Auschwitz after the death of Heydrich and manages to find a life in South America. Dozens of years later, Adam tracks him down and sends him to Xi'Acerbia.
Others
Stefano de Cortly
Appears in: The Englishman | Empty Memories and Cold Graves
"My God. Even freshly out of bed you are beautiful, Eliza."
The Conte de Valer, and the husband of Eliza Cortly in the 1600s first glimpsed in The Englishman. A vain, foppish man with a predilection for admiring himself and his wife's beauty, with no suspicion of her true nature.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Nobleman or no, when you're facing Nyarlathotep, all you can do is beg for your life. Unfortunately, Nyarlathotep's views on mercy are nonexistent.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: All he suffered at the hands of Nyarlathote.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Nobody likes him. Eliza thinks very little of him, Eliphas Coyte thinks he's a twit and offers Eliza the chance to arrange an 'accident' for him, and as Hardestadt finds out from the vampire Francesca, even other nobles could not stand him, which nearly got him murdered by Francesca when he managed to insult her carelessly....and Nyarlathotep despises him.
- Brainless Beauty: Stefano is easy on the eyes, but is a blithering idiot.
- Fate Worse than Death: Nyarlathotep keeps him imprisoned, torturing him for a century all for a cruel whim.
- Hidden Depths: For all his flaws, Stefano reveals that he truly loves Eliza and makes an effort to understand her while not truly realizing who she is, acknowledging he is far from what she likely wants. And when taken by Nyarlathotep, he endures the Crawling Chaos's tortures for a century without saying a word for Eliza.
- Tempting Fate: Saying Nyarlathotep's name. Worse, he mispronounces it. This is rather unwise to say the very least.
- Uncertain Doom: He is mentioned, in Sangue Serenissima to have mysteriously vanished shortly after his wife did. As Eliza is alive and well in Venice as of the 1700s, this raises questions as to just what happened to him. Finally revealed that Nyarlathotep simply wiped out the entire Cortly lands on a 'dark little whim' because Stefano annoyed him
- Upper-Class Twit: An Italian noble, as blue blood as you can get, and not a very intelligent man.
Henri Barrow
(Credit)
A journalist dragged in to do a story on the commune of Bacio, where he discovers some horrific secrets.)- Always Save the Girl: Henri refuses to leave without Anita and desperately tries to save her from Bacio. Unfortunately, there's nothing left to save by the end.
- Badass Normal: Henri manages to wound an Eldritch Abomination and escape Bacio, vowing to return for payback eventually.
- Berserk Button: A year after the monstrous events in Bacio, even hearing Doug and Anita's names make Henri erupt.
- Body Horror: The Padre's fluids resulted in Henri's body changing; his bones were eaten by his own tissue from the inside-out, and the rest of his body can degenerate into "human spaghetti" and much more at—or out of—his discretion.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Subverted: Henri is genuinely like a brother to Anita so when she starts trying to mess with him romantically and sexually, Henri is horrified and keys in to something being wrong.
- Combat Pragmatist: Henri has zero compunction being "delicate" when fighting Bruno's monstrous siblings and gains an advantage by ripping open the beast's scrotum.
- Good Is Not Soft: Humble, timid, and doesn't like killing people unless he has to, but Henri has no mercy whatsoever toward his chosen prey and is willing to take any measure to defeat his opponents.
- Guile Hero: He defeats Helen not by overpowering her, but by tricking her and making a deal with the enslaved Padre behind her back, resulting in her final defeat.
- Horrifying Hero: After Valentine, Henri develops Body Horror powers and the ability to meld his body into virtually anything he wants, none of which is particularly appealing to the innocent bystanders who see Henri and only see a horrible monster.
- Humanoid Abomination: He's a benevolent example, Degenerated from a normal human into a grotesque, body-shifting horror as a result of his exposure to the Padre's fluids, to the point where Henri notes early in Valentine Man it takes more effort to keep up his human shape than it is to simply let himself fall apart.
- It's Personal: He holds a deep grudge against Helen for the horrors she's inflicted upon people, particularly what she did to his friend.
- Lovecraftian Superpower: Of the Body Horror variety. Henri goes from an Action Survivor to a full-out Humanoid Abomination in-between Valentine and Valentine Man as a result of the Padre's fluids splashing him. Henri can grotesquely shape his body into just about anything he pleases as a result, though it runs the risk of him losing control of his own mutated body.
- Only Sane Man: Of all the short story mains and in the story, Henri is the only one who showcases sheer rationality the whole way through, recognizing something is horribly wrong with Bacio and reacting accordingly.
- Not Distracted by the Sexy: Henri is immune to being seduced, whether by Helen when she's putting on a front of affability, or anyone else. He barely notices Red or Hardestadt's attractiveness, either.
- Red Baron: 'The Valentine Man,' as he calls himself.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Henri reasonable decides to get the fuck out of Bacio when things go south.
- Shrinking Violet: Noticeably socially awkward around people and admits he's more comfortable "behind the lens". Somewhat understandably, he's even more terrified of human contact in Valentine Man with the exception of his boss, Vincini, who treats Henri's powers as a trivial deal. He's somewhat more open by Children of Valentine, but still comes off as withdrawn and demure compared to Bruno.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Not hard to blame him considering how stressful his life is—he tends to curse less when he's in a more level mood—but Henri grows rather fond of the Cluster F-Bomb the closer he gets to Helen Valentine.
- Took a Level in Badass: Henri goes from a photographer to a body horror superhero, fighting bad guys across America with Bruno Valentine as his trusty sidekick.
- Working-Class Hero: Henri is a blue-collar photographer-cum-barista, but he's the hero of the Valentine series.
Bruno Valentine
A scrawny fifteen year old and the son of Helen Valentine and the Padre. Freed from their control by Henri's actions, Bruno seeks Henri out to assist him in destroying Helen and Bacio itself for good. Completely unaware of how the normal world works, Bruno proves to be a considerable challenge as Henri attempts to educate him in being a normal teenager upon their time together.
- The Anti-Nihilist: For all he's been through, you can't get Bruno Valentine down and he refuses to give up on stopping Helen and finding a normal life.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Bruno has many virtues but he has the attention span of a fruit fly and is easily distracted.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Henri is the first person to show Bruno unconditional warmth and kindness which wins Bruno's love and loyalty.
- Big Eater: Bruno devours anything put in front of him and can eat a restaurant out of business if he's so inclined.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Helen encouraged this among her children, Bruno only recently realizing it was wrong.
- Cain and Abel: The Abel to a lot of Cains in his half-siblings who want revenge on him.
- Caught with Your Pants Down: Henri catches Bruno doing this, given how he was taught in Bacio, at just the wrong times and is quite embarrassed over it.
- Cheerful Child: A teenager, but still a child in many ways. Very little gets Bruno down or dampens his enthusiasm.
- Cute Mute: Bruno is mute as a result of Helen biting out his tongue, except for his sign language.
- Cynic–Idealist Duo: He forms one with Henri, being the idealist to the more jaded Henri.
- Deadpan Snarker: Bruno manages to snark at Henri by just using sign language.
- Determinator: Bruno's willpower is quite impressive and he dragged himself out of Bacio to find Henri and stop the horrors within.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Bruno is the child of the Padre, a genuine monster and Eldritch Abomination and a human sorceress. Ironically his mother is by far the more monstrous of the two.
- Happily Adopted: He calls Henri by his first name, but Bruno considers Henri his true father and loves him unconditionally.
- Pyromaniac: Bruno has a serious fixation with fire and enjoys burning things.
- Parental Incest: He mentions only recently realizing Helen's 'touches' were wrong.
- Raised by Wolves: Bruno has no idea how to function in a normal society because of being raised in the twisted ways of Bacio.
- Rape as Backstory: It's all but stated Helen uses her mentally dominated children as playthings.
- Red Right Hand: His right hand is blackened and scarred. Played with as he stopped being a villain when the Padre's control over him was severed and he seems no reason to be ashamed of it now.
- Sad Clown: Bruno may appear to be the cute comic relief, but he's actually a traumatized kid barely keeping it together through all the smiles and humor.
- Scars Are Forever: His right hand is hideously scarred and disfigured.
- Self-Made Orphan: He rips out his abominable mother's heart at the end of Valentine Man.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Bruno shuts down his big sister Vittoria's attempt to challenge him about Helen, deconstructing her motives and also telling her in no uncertain terms how horribly Helen abused them both.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Bruno can have a few odd and disturbing quirks. He enjoys burning spiders, has no real reaction to gruesome deaths and his views on sexuality can be a bit twisted.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist: Bruno refuses to consider much going wrong and remains wide-eyed, starry and focused on the happy future.
Mr. Bright
Appears in: The City of Never | And to All a Good Night
"“I have little, if any, faith that we'll be able to stop these things, and I'm skeptical things are going to go in our favor at all. But it's no reason not to try; a rabbit does not outrun a wolf by submitting itself."
A mysterious man who washes up on Onolo's shore after the Passenger attacks. Gaunt, pale, and apparently on the brink of his sanity by the time he's found by Onolo, the man recalls his name only as “Mr. Bright” and acts as a harbinger of things to come, relaying his tale of his seven year trek through the City. With no other details about his past and desperate to find out, Mr. Bright joins the people of Onolo in their effort to survive and find out more about the City.
- Big Eater: After his experience in the city, Hansel sure can eat.
- Determinator: Mr. Bright manages to survive a harrowing journey through the eldritch labyrinths of the City for at least seven years, retaining his sanity in the process as well.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: At the end, Hansel is penniless in an apartment in Toronto — but he's alive in the face of impossible odds, sane, not bogged down by any of the trauma that breaks Mathilda, and on his way to rebuilding the life that was stolen from him by Lucia. Come And to All A Good Night, he is good friends with Eliza, has recovered from his ordeal and sees extremely happy and at ease.
- Fantastically Indifferent: Downplayed, but present in his appearance in And To All A Good Night. Though clearly taken aback by the fact Grete is a werewolf, his myriad experiences in the City and whatever he's been doing with Eliza since Onolo lead to it quickly becoming tangenital to him. His only reaction to the impossible ages of his compatriots, too, is nothing but "sometimes I forget you people live forever."
- Freak Out: Suffers a major one when he returns to Earth after years in the City. He recovers the following day, managing to retain his sanity in spite of everything.
- Handicapped Badass: Mr. Bright is severely, severely malnourished and gaunt as a result of having lived off of literally the bare minimum in the City, and has to walk with a cane. Even then, Mr. Bright fearlessly faces down the beings of the City, and beats the much more well-built Faye — who's also armed with a knife — by choking him out.
- Herald: To the people of Onolo as a whole, revealing the existence of the City and the monsters within it and prompting the journey to go into it right after. He was also deliberately meant to be this as part of Draynak's scheme, disseminating the knowledge of the City among the townspeople before the Consultant and the others arrived to find its candidate.
- Knight in Sour Armor: As his page quote implies, Mr. Bright's pessimistic about the possibility of fighting off the City and initially warns Christian to stay as far away from it as possible, but he nevertheless helps the people of Onolo without any reservations as he feels he's obligated to them for taking him in and saving his life.
- Nice Guy: When he gets over things, and has recovered after his ordeal in the City? Hansel is nothing but a kind, sweet man who gets on great with the charming Eliza Cortly.
- Nothing but Skin and Bones: Almost literally. As a result of having spent years subsisting off of nothing but the occasional glob of edible slime, Mr. Bright is essentially a walking skeleton by the time he finally arrives back on Earth.
- The Reveal: His identity is one of the major mysteries of the book. About halfway through, we learn Mr. Bright was a man named Dr. Hansel Brighterson, a psychological professor from Ireland who was implanted the knowledge of the City by Draynak and tricked into going into the City by the Consultant. Hansel's entire purpose to the scheme, as it turns out, was essentially just to act as a messenger.
- Sole Survivor: Alongside Mathilda (and technically Michael) Hansel is the only named survivor of the City. Outside of Michael, he's also arguably the best off afterwards.
- They Called Me Mad!: Developed an obsession with the City and the Remeditary when he still lived in Ireland, earning him scorn and ridicule from his colleagues. This was the mentality that goaded him into accepting "Shaw Sultan's" deal to go into the City directly — and what stranded him for seven years after.
- Unwitting Pawn: Was this to the Consultant and Draynak, implanted with the knowledge of the Remeditary and the City by the latter and tricked into wandering around the City for years by the former to eventually pop up somewhere and disseminate the knowledge of the City wherever he appeared – this being Onolo.
Harold Rye
Appears in: The City of Never
"There's a goddamned rhythm to this crap and you're screwing it all up! All of it, you tight-lipped little cheat!"
An irritable, albinistic man and the CEO of a trading company Onolo has an agreement with. Harold comes to Onolo once the fog around Onolo clears for a brief time, only for the fog to enclose around him and his entourage and trap him as well.
- Asshole Victim: His mangled body is unceremoniously found stuck on a fence after the attack. Since all records of him have been erased by the time the fog clears, nobody seems to care much.
- Hidden Depths: As much of an unpleasant asshole as he is, Harold does at least mention a major reason that he's irritated Onolo has been silent is that he needs to feed his family.
- Jerkass: Contemptuous, stingy, confrontational, and gives Christian absolutely no time to explain himself – and possibly homophobic as well, Christian notes.
