Characters / The Secret World: Transylvania NPCs

A character subpage for The Secret World. For the main page, go here.

Inhabitants of Harbaburesti

Sophie

Voiced By: Leigh-Allyn Baker

The optimistic barmaid of the Owl and Eagle taverna in Harbaburesti.

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• Affectionate Nickname: "The Lady Sophie."

• The Empath: Able to sense pain and death, Sophie experiences piercing headaches every time a villager of Harbaburesti dies; in fact, she recalls the first days of the vampire incursion, when the death toll was so high she was barely capable of walking. She is also particularly sensitive to deaths violent enough to leave ghosts behind, as "Death and Axes" demonstrates.

• Half-Human Hybrid: The Forest God says that she is actually descended from a bygone race of fairy that have long since left Transylvania.
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Shows signs of romance with the Forest God, if the poetry and hand-holding are any evidence.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: If someone dies in the village, Sophie will know immediately.
• The Pollyanna: Sophie almost never loses sight of her optimism and good cheer; even the influx of death and pain can't ruin her good mood for long.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Chirpy, light-hearted and friendly, she becomes the red when teamed with the Forest God.
• Security Cling: An emotional one with The Forest God. Because they've both lost almost everything else they know, they keep each other from succumbing to despair.

The Forest God

The Lady Sophie calls me Cern in jest, but I do not have a name. I am Cernunnos and Faunus, and the Horned God and the Green Man. I am the Sorcerer, and I am neither of them. I am simply of the Forest... and I am the Forest.

Voiced By: Bertie Carvel

The god of the local forest, the recent Vampire incursion and Filth infection have forced him from his domain and into Harbaburesti. He currently resides in the Owl and Eagle, drowning his sorrows and writing poetry about Sophie.

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• Affectionate Nickname: "Mr Stag-Head," from Sophie; also "Sweet," and occasionally "Cern."
• Cernunnos: He's a forest god, hes essentially the living incarnation of the forest, in the form of a huge man with a stag's head and antlers. Although he has no name of his own, he's been known as the Green Man, the Horned God, Faunus, and, of course, Cernunnos... although the barmaid affectionately calls him "Cern".
• Drowning My Sorrows: Apparently, being a god does not make him immune to inebriation, and after a few too many flowery love sonnets, even Sophie has to politely inform him that he's drunk.
• The Eeyore: Suffice to say that being forced out of his own forest by both the Filth and the Vampires have left him decidedly pessimistic.
• Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: With Sophie.

• I Have Many Names: Notes quite a few of the old names he went by in the past, as the quote demonstrates.
• In the Hood: Though he does allow his antlers to protrude from it.
• Mayfly–December Romance: Likely several millennia old, he is clearly attracted to Sophie, if his poetry is anything to go by.
• My Significance Sense Is Tingling: As the god and incarnation of the local forest, he feels the effects of the Filth infection upon the land as physical pain.

• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The melancholy Forest God is undoubtedly the blue when paired with Sophie.

Petru

Voiced By: Tim Watson

A Blajini who has become an avid student of Marxist principles, and is now attempting to apply them to his own situation - the key word being attempting. He currently lives with others of his kind in a trailer park in Harbarburesti, trying to inspire them to revolution.

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• Chummy Commies: There's no friction between him and the others in the village, or the player character.
• The Fair Folk: Specifically a Blajini from Romanian Folklore.

Vasile Varias

Voiced By: Steffan Boje

A visiting doctor trapped in Harbaburesti by the vampire army, he is currently assigned to caring for the wounded defenders of the town, treating them for both typical injuries and supernatural ailments. At first, most of his energies seem entirely focussed on the influx of patients; however, it eventually becomes apparent that Dr Varias didn't end up in Harbaburesti by accident...

• Foil: To Nicholas Winter; both are the sons of famous or notorious fathers, both had to endure Parental Abandonment, both sought out their fathers' work and ended up trapped in their respective areas as a result, and both face the prospect of becoming exactly like their fathers. The main difference lies in the fact that Vasile at least has his work as a doctor to keep himself from sliding into insanity; Winter has nothing to do but stare at the abandoned amusement park, getting more unpleasant with every passing mission. Plus, the fate of the elder Varias remains unknown, but Nathaniel Winter is positively identified as the Bogeyman ruling Atlantic Island Park.
• Frontier Doctor: Unable to find work in the cities, he's been pushed to the smaller communities in the search for people willing to make use of his skills. Granted, he probably wasn't expecting to find himself running a field hospital, using fishing wire for sutures and booze for disinfectant.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: A bad habit picked up from his days at medical school, Vasile tends to smoke like a chimney in times of stress - which tends to be quite a lot of the time.
• Like Father, Like Son: Both the Illuminati and the Dragon after-mission reports worry that Vasile's obsession with learning his father's secrets, ostensibly motivated by his desire to find closure and redeem his family name, might one day drive him to continue the elder Dr Varias' research despite his better judgement.
• Parental Abandonment: Once he was found out as a Soviet collaborator, the elder Dr Varias fled for his life - leaving Vasile and the rest of his family to face the music.
• Nice to the Waiter: One of the many valuable things he's learned in wartime is "Never Abuse Your Orderlies." Quite apart from the danger of someone taking a shit in your locker, there's only so much a doctor can do alone. Given that you serve as his orderlies during his missions, he's understandably polite to you, if a bit morose.
• Renaissance Man: Already an MD, the magical nature of the crisis has forced him to take on a number of additional disciplines: as he puts it, he has to be a medical student (all over again), a veterinarian, a psychiatrist, and an alchemist.
• Sins of Our Fathers: As a Romanian who willingly collaborated with the Soviets during and after the occupation, Vasile's father ended up with a very nasty reputation long before he joined the Red Hand. As a result, the family has ended up tainted with the same reputation, making it almost impossible for Vasile to find work anywhere in the cities, ultimately forcing him to seek out paying work in villages too isolated to turn down his services. As such, one of his major ambitions in life is to find some redemption for his family name.
• Walking the Earth: Most of Vasile's time prior to his arrival in the town was spent wandering Romania in search of work. However, he later reveals that he was also looking for information on the Red Hand, and that the trail eventually led him to Harbaburesti and the abandoned Soviet Bunkers on its outskirts - but the vampire attacks and the sudden surge in patients have prevented him from investigating too closely.

Iorgu

Voiced By: Andrew Kishino

• Blood Knight: Really likes killing vampires.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Never says what this is, but apparently has seen a lot of violence in his life.

Father Lucian

Voiced By: Neil Newbon

• An Offer You Can't Refuse: The KGB elements in the church are threatening someone he loves.
• Could Say It, But...: He is under orders to keep the secrets of the Red Hand. However, if someone were to, say, stumble over them totally accidentally while clearing out the ghouls in the graveyard, that's hardly his fault. Right?
• Sinister Minister: Subverted for the most part, despite having a few of the trappings. For starters he is assigned to the chapel by the KGB elements still in the Russian Orothodox Church, with the orders to keep the secrets there at any cost. Problem is that he isn't exactly leaping at the chance to do so.

Forest Dwellers

Cucuvea

Voiced By: Susan Brown

A kindly immortal living under tree near Harababuresti, Cucuvea has dedicated to herself to protecting the people of the village in whatever way she can; this includes assisting the player in whittling down the vampire army lurking in the surrounding forest.

• Animal Motifs: The Owl in Dracula's prophecy of the Owl, The Eagle and The Dragon.
• Barrier Maiden: Clearly not a maiden, but her entire reason for settling in Transylvania. Lilith gifted a cult of her worshipers with immortality that allows them to come back again and again after their physical forms are destroyed. Cucuvea wandered across them and couldn't undo the immortality, so she sealed them into their places of death where they could only harm whoever wandered in. Unfortunately, Cucuvea had to stay around to power the barriers.
• Cain and Abel: As it turns out, she calls Lilith her sister, and has been working against her for many years.

• Hopeless with Tech: Though she does her best to use what examples of modern technology she's been able to acquire over the years - including a camera and a home computer - it's clear that she's having no luck with any of it. For good measure, she considers most of it primitive compared to some of the Magitek she's seen in the past few millennia. It's less being hopeless with technology, and more because modern technology is so much less user friendly than what she's used to.
  • Not to mention that the camera and computer are obviously salvaged Soviet tech from the 70's-80's. The fact that she could even boot up the computer is a miracle because, age aside, it has no power source.
• Last Of Her Kind: The Dragon after-mission report to "The Gathering" states that though they aren't entirely sure of Cucuvea's origins, they know that she is undoubtedly the last of her species - whatever that species may be.
• Meaningful Name: "Cucuvea" is the Romanian name of the little owl.
• Miniature Senior Citizens: Justified, given that Cucuvea clearly isn't entirely human.
• Shapeshifter Longevity: Cucuvea has a notable gift for shapeshifting in a setting where non-werewolf shapeshifters are comparatively rare, being able to transform herself into an owl. Indeed, she prefers not to leave her Arboreal Abode except in animal form. She's also incredibly old, having teamed up with Vlad Dracula himself in order to save the world several hundred years ago, and actually recalls the events of previous Ages. For context's sake, an Age is a previous iteration of the universe.
• The Owl-Knowing One: This magic, occasionally owl-shaped, old woman is one of the best sources of information in the region.
• Primal Polymorphs: Zig-zagged. A mystic known mainly for her ability to transform herself into an owl, she lives the life of a Solitary Sorceress under a tree in rural Transylvania, wears clothes made from leaves, makes tea out of bark, and dislikes modern technology. Plus, she only ever leaves in owl form. However, it turns out the reason she dislikes modern tech is because she's [old enough to remember the impossibly advanced Magitek of the Third Age and finds 20th century computers and cameras primitive by comparison.
• Time Abyss: The Illuminati speculate that she may actually be one of the oldest beings in the world, but they haven't been able to pinpoint Cucuvea's exact age just yet.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: In the event that she decides to venture out, she'll usually do so in the form of an owl. In fact, after being clued into the prophecy of the Owl, the Eagle and the Dragon, you actually first meet Cucuvea by following her owl-form from the outskirts of the village to her tree.
• Walking the Earth: In her pursuit of Lilith. This eventually led her into Transylvania, where she found a cult worshiping Lilith. See Barrier Maiden above. She's still resentful, and believes Lilith arranged all this specifically to torment her by keeping her in one spot.
• White Mage: Along with shapeshifting, Cucuvea excels at healing magic; in the one mission you spend working as a team, she acts as The Medic while you go on the offensive.
• What Happened to the Owl : Lilith is first mentioned by name by Cucuvea, the significance of Lilith to the game's plot kicks into high-gear after the Mortal-Sins arc in Transylvania, and yet, we never really hear from Cucuvea again. Her sister never even bothers to reference her, leading Cuucuvea herself to become an example of this trope.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Zigzagged; Cucuvea remarks that she probably would have been able to really enjoy her immortality had she not spent it in an extremely damp hole in the ground in rural Transylvania, but then remarks that she probably would have chosen to live in an extremely damp hole in the ground in rural Transylvania anyway, but it would have been nice to have the option to go somewhere else. And, for all the millenia she's lived, she STILL hasn't learned how to brew a good cup of tea.

The Dimir Family

Voiced By: Susan Brown (Olga); Jo Dow (Silviu)

Living out of an isolated homestead deep in the forest, the family currently consists only of Silviu and his mother Olga; despite being cut off from the rest of the human population and unable to raise crops in the polluted soil, the two of them still continue the family business to the best of their mutual ability. Unfortunately, this business involves capturing magical creatures, butchering them and eating them; and though vampires, ghouls and many other hostile creatures have been killed in the Dimirs' hunts, the same purges have resulted in a considerable death toll among more benevolent races like the fauns. Utterly indifferent to the fact that Harababuresti despise them for attacking their allies, Silviu and Olga regard visitors with considerable suspicion - particularly the player.

• Abusive Parents: On top of the poor upbringing she gave Silviu, Olga doesn't seem to have anything nice to say to her son in any of her scenes.
• Ax-Crazy: Silviu.
  "...Kill. I like to kill... to feel the soft flesh tearing... the warm blood running."
• Bilingual Bonus: Unlike most languages in the game, the Romanian spoken by the Dimirs remains untranslated - specifically the ominous little chant Silviu mutters during the introduction to "The Cellar Door." A rough translation reveals that he's talking about how his fairy victims cry before he butchers them into sausages.
• Brains and Brawn: Ogla's the brains, Silviu's the brawn.
• Cannibal Clan: Subverted. Though very happy to kill and eat magical creatures of any description, Silviu claims that people "are not for sausages." However, he doesn't sound entirely convinced of this...
• Creepy Basement: Featured in "The Cellar Door." It's actually an abandoned Soviet bunker; once used for the Red Hand Project's experiments, it's now used to imprison the Dimirs' future meals before they're finally slaughtered. Most of the current inhabitants are ghouls, but there's one Faun that you have to rescue. Much more disturbingly, it's revealed that this place is actually the root of Silviu's insanity; as a child he was kept down here, apparently alongside his future victims.
• Dope Slap: Olga often performs these on Silviu.

• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Investigating the Dimir farm in Issue #7 reveals a heartfelt note from Olga to her absent husband; though the tone swings wildly from nostalgic longing to psychotic desperation, it's pretty clear that she really did care about him.
• Even Evil Has Standards: One point that Olga has at least tried to drill into Silviu's head is the fact that "people are not for sausages." For good measure, despite her vicious behavior, Olga seems genuinely offended by accusations of child-killing.

• Fantastic Racism: Olga justifies the slaughter of numerous supernatural beings by reminding you that none of them were human, so technically the Dimirs didn't break any laws by slaughtering them. For good measure, Olga actually goes so far as to call the magical beings "the lesser races."
• Hypocrite: Despite their zero-tolerance attitude towards magical creatures, the Dimirs are willing to accept the help of the ghoul "Patches" in herding less-intelligent ghouls into their slaughterhouse.
• Industrialized Evil: Rather than taking on the supernatural one victim at a time, the Dimirs use a number of surprisingly sophisticated techniques in order to capture and kill magical creatures en-mass. For example, ghouls are herded down from the mountains with the help of Silviu's pet ghoul "Patches" and into the pen, kept docile through sedative-laced meals, then fattened up until they're ready for slaughtering. For good measure, the mincer used for making sausage is an industrial model powered by a carefully-maintained generator. In the case of more powerful creatures like Fauns, they're rounded up in a pretty similar way (except with tamed wolves replacing Patches) and imprisoned in the old Soviet holding cells beneath the homestead.

• Laughing Mad: Silviu often lapses into this, as "The Cellar Door" demonstrates.

• Necessarily Evil: Olga claims that the Family is needed in order to curb the magical population, which she claims would have eventually corrupted and destroyed the human settlements long ago without the Dimir's help. She even claims that - despite their vocal disapproval of the family's work - the villagers of Harbaburesti are willing to look the other way and let them continue butchering if it means their safety (though it's much more likely that the villagers are too scared of the Dimirs to oppose them). One of their missions (from which the following rant comes) is even called "A Necessary Evil".
  "You should be thanking us. We are helping, making things easier for all of you. Oh, it is so easy to call us evil, to call us monsters. But you cannot do anything about it: you will not, your leaders will not. You cannot wash your hands of us; you need us! Your world needs us to do what you cannot do! You need us!"
• Psychopathic Manchild: Silviu. Midly retarded, addicted to violence and bloodshed, often found talking to himself and giggling madly, and can only be controlled by his "Mami." Olga claims that this behavior is due to Silviu's father being infected with syphilis at the time of conception. "The Cellar Door" demonstrates that this is just the tip of a very big iceberg.

The Iele

One of the few uncorrupted Fey left in the Shadowy Forest. Currently combating the fungal Filth which is infecting the forest.

• The Fair Folk: Of the Romanian variety.
• Famous Ancestor: According to the Dragon and Templar mission reports, she is the daughter of Alexander the Great.
• Stab the Scorpion: In the introduction to her first mission, she leaps down from her tree, giving every impression of being about to impale the player on her spear - only to reveal that she was aiming for the fungal spider crawling up behind you.
• The Voiceless: The Iele never speaks to player.

Mosul

Voiced By: David Peart

An unimaginably old spirit in who took the form of man after winning/losing a wager - Mosul is no longer entirely sure which. He's spent the centuries traveling the land, collecting and telling stories; most recently, however, he has settled down at a bridge over a river in the Shadowy forest, where he spends his days fishing and chatting with the player characters.

• Immortal Genius: He's used all this time to learn stories from his experiences and from everyone he's encountered, telling those stories for money, eventually gaining a reputation as an all-knowing hermit haunting the forests of Transylvania. In the intro to "Paradise Now," he admits that was once sought by Theodore Wicker for knowledge, and at the time, Wicker was known as one of the most accomplished mages of this Age!

• Time Abyss: He implies he's older than the mountains of Transylvania. In one of his mission intros he implies he personally remembers The Second Age, meaning that he's one of reality-hoppers.

Octavian

An elderly immortal living out of a secluded cabin deep in the Shadowy Forest. Two thousand years of life, combined with the fact that he was at least seventy when he gained immortality, have left him world-weary and bitter; as such, until you find some way of getting his attention, he's content to snooze on his couch and ignore you.

Voiced By: David Rintoul

• Ancient Keeper: It's revealed that Octavian is the bearer of the Transylvania arc's MacGuffin, entrusted to him by Dracula himself; once you've convinced him that the world really is worth saving, he'll give the artifact to you.
• Animal Motifs: As a Roman Legionary, he represents the eagle in Dracula's prophecy of the Owl, The Eagle and the Dragon.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Drops one in his introduction.
  I've been waiting since he passed. The fate of this world, he said, in my hands. Well... fuck that! Fuck the world! Fuck Dracula and Mara and Lilith! Fuck everyone trying to make the world into their own twisted paradise!

• Dirty Old Man: Milosh all but accuses Octavian of being this for hanging around with his teenage daughter. Amusingly, it's Emilia who's offended by this.
• Driven to Suicide: One of the reasons he initially refuses to help you is because the incoming apocalypse might actually be able to kill him.

• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Sports a number of old lacerations running across his lips and forehead.
• Gonk: On top of being bigger than any other human in the game, Octavian sports a scarred face, a deeply furrowed brow, and an extremely wide, unsmiling mouth.

• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: In their one notable scene together, it's pretty obvious that Emilia is absolutely minuscule compared to Octavian.
• Inconspicuous Immortal: Unlike most of the immortals in the game, he lives a much less dramatic lifestyle - partly because he was in his seventies when he was cursed with immortality but mostly because he's grappling with a major case of PTSD. On the occasions when he hasn't been forced to return to the battlefield in defense of Transylvania, he prefers to spend his days in an isolated homestead in the forest, giving every impression of being a tired old farmer who'd rather not be bothered by uninvited guests.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Emilia. More specifically, they're currently friends, but their big scene together implies that they're edging towards actual romance.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: His long life and many traumatizing experiences have left him deeply cynical.

• Mayfly–December Romance: He clearly has feelings for Emilia, she is in her late teens to early twenties, he is several centuries old.
• Perpetual Frowner: It's not certain if Octavian is even capable of smiling.
• Restored My Faith in Humanity: After being rescued by Octavian (from a disaster you orchestrated), Emilia manages to finally convince him that the world is worth saving.

• Senior Sleep-Cycle: Both world-weary and physically weary, Octavian spends most of his time asleep on his couch until you find some way of getting his attention.

• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Justified; Octavian's immortality was specifically intended as a curse by Lilith. He's been an old man - with all the aches and pains that go with it - for two millennia.

The Draculesti

Overall Tropes

• Heir Club for Men: Milosh regrets this and wishes his daughter could be his successor but is currently unwilling to break tradition.
• Romani: The Draculesti are a group of Romany.
• Vampire Hunters: This is their thing, although they also hunt other preternatural creatures.

Milosh

Voiced By: André Sogliuzzo

Current leader of the Draculesti.

• Action Dad: If Emilia doesn't see her dad doting over her, it is usually because he is out killing something big and scary.
• A Father to His Men: The Draculesti consider themselves to be family which makes him their father-figure.
• No-Respect Guy: Emilia certainly makes him feel undermined.

• The Münchausen: He enjoys telling tales of Vlad Dracula's legacy and how it relates to his extended family.

Emilia

Voiced By: Tara Lynne Barr

Milosh's daughter.

• The Lancer: Much veneration is given her based on who her father is. She frequently questions her father's judgments though.
• Mayfly–December Romance: With Octavian, despite several centuries between them, the two clearly have feeling for eachother.

• Small Steps Hero: While Milosh is busy preparing for raids on werewolves, liches and rabid faeries, Emilia is rightfully concerned about a contaminated water supply - a Filth infected water supply, that, if unattended will turn the entire forest rabid.

Mihas Blaga

Voiced By: Nicholas Boulton

One of three brothers who joined the Draculesti.

• Bash Brothers: Not that we get to see it in game, but according to Mihas, The Amazing Brothers Blaga are a force to be feared when he, Zsolt and Andrash fight as one.
• Big Brother Instinct: Towards the Draculesti and his own brothers but especially where Tibor and Luminita are concerned.
• Mercy Kill: You end up needing to do this to his brother, Andrash, who was bitten and turned into a werewolf.

• The Münchausen: In order to pass the time while on his guard duty, Mihas regales his troop with every adventure he and his brothers has supposedly had, everything from fighting arch-demons, to taking out a court of evil nobles to fighting their own shadows, without losing a breath between each tale.
• Training from Hell: He will put you through this to prove you are worthy of the Draculesti.

Zaha

Voiced By: Miranda Raison

Look-out for the Draculesti. Learned witch who plies her powers for hunting vampires.

• Lipstick Lesbian: According to Luminita "Zaha doesn't like boys. She likes girls.". You would honestly never know outside of that small bit of dialog.
• Magic A Is Magic A: Her mission, The Cost of Magic, is entirely a walk-through about the proper mechanics of arcane rites.
• Mage Marksman: Of the The Magic Gunman variety. She may be a witch but she still carries guns at her look-out post.
• Team Mom: She has taken Luminita under her wing to teach her magic early, and be responsible with it. Both Tibor and Luminita talk about her as the senior female head of their tribe/family.

Tibor and Luminita

Voiced By: Haydon Downing (Tibor); Yasmin Garrad (Luminita)

Two children who reside in the Romany Camp in the Shadowy Forest. The two spend their time in a corner of the Romany camp in the shadowy forest. For now, they practice for their role as future Draculesti fighters, while still acting very much like little kids.

• The Apprentice: Both of them. Tibor to Mihas as a hunter, Luminita to Zaha as a witch.
• Heir Club for Men: Tibor appears to be the possible heir to the Draculesti due to this law.
• The Squire: Both of them. In addition to their studies, both are expected to pull their weight in the tribe polishing weapons, setting traps and setting up camp.
• Training the Gift of Magic: Luminita is having her talents nurtured by Zaha.
• Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Tibor in the introduction scene to "Trial of the Draculesti".

The Dragon, Vlad Dracula

Voiced By: Nicholas Boulton

The Founder of the Draculesti.

• Historical Villain Upgrade: In-universe. Vlad is the historical figure, not the literary one, and in-universe the Draculesti are quite upset with Bram Stoker for the insult done to their founder. This makes sense, considering that he’s a Folk Hero in Romania.
• Non-Indicative Name / One-Steve Limit: No known ties to the Dragon faction.
• Posthumous Character: Lived and died when the historical figure did.

The Vampires

Mara

Voiced By: Laura Aikman

Queen of the local Vampires, "daughter" of Lilith and Vlad Dracula's beloved.

• A Beast in Name and Nature: Earned herself the nickname "The Beast of Bucharest" thanks to her atrocities in 20th century Romania.
• Black Eyes of Evil: Paired with red irises.
• Love Ruins the Realm: The only reason she's back is because Dracula was unwilling to finish her off the first time around. However, he put in place measures to fix that.
• Dying as Yourself: When Vlad Dracula purifies her of her vampiric taint, they have one last conversation as herself, unaware of what she became - right before Vlad finishes her off.
• Tainted Veins: Black veins surround her eyes and hands.
• Vampire Monarch: Sired by Lilith herself.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Turning into a vampire seems to have turned her hair white.

Callisto

Voiced By: Bertie Carvel

In life, a dilettante from Venice who resided in the royal court of Transylvania. In undeath, a remorseful vampire living a hermit-like existence. Also an ex-lover of Mara.

• Expy: Of Louis.

• Only Known by Their Nickname: His original name was Allesandro, until Mara gave him the name Callisto from her Greek studies; since then, he's content to be known only by the alias.

• We Used to Be Friends: Used to be friends with Vlad Dracula. Then he fell in love with said friend's wife, who turned him into a vampire.

Hasdatean

Voiced By: Tim Bentick

A vampire noble and a proud Romanian nationalist. Having rejected the Vampire Crusade out of disgust for the current generation of his kind, he is currently hanging out in the local church under a flag of peace.

• Sophisticated as Hell: Speaks very eloquently but is not shy from using the appropriate language to describe the disgraceful vampire "army".
• The Last DJ: Considers himself the last true "wampyr" with a code of honor.
• Token Heroic Orc: In his words "I was a solder before becoming a wampyr, and a man before a soldier." He views himself as a Transylvanian first and foremost, and the current vampires are attacking his homeland.

The Grey

Others

Aurelie and Celine

Voiced By: Corrine Kempa (Aurelie); Emily Lucienne (Celine)

Two French tourists who are holed up in the giant windmill, fending off werewolves.

• Badass Normal: No magical powers, no special training, just a couple of girls on vacation whose boyfriend/brother led them into danger. That doesn't stop them from learning to fend off attacking werewolves.

The Hunter

Voiced By: Dave Fennoy

A highly cynical but very effective hunter of vampires and other creatures found near the Soviet facilities around Harbaburesti.

• Body Horror: His body was very badly burned.
• Badass Normal: Nothing special about him, just some good hunting skills and a set of concoctions.
• Death by Origin Story: In issue 7, the character learns that the hunter's family was kidnapped by Orochi, leading to his generally cynical view of the Secret World.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Has a very low opinion of members of the secret societies; sadly, this attitude doesn't thaw even after you end up doing half the man's work for him.
• Stab the Scorpion: Does this to a vampire in one of the missions he provides.

The Contact Core

Our program is a gateway to the stars. Together, we will explore the mysteries of the cosmos.

Voiced By: Nathaniel Parker

The supercomputer in charge of the Red Hand facility near Harbaburesti, the Contact Core is still functional and still overseeing experiments, even though the Soviet Union abandoned the facility decades ago. Never properly shut down, the computer has devoted itself to assisting the only surviving test subject, Halina Ilyushin, in her insane attempts to become a Phantom Cosmonaut - and does not take kindly to the intrusions of the players...

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Quite apart from failing to switch off or end the Red Hand's long-defunct experiments, it's likely that its creators never intended it to develop such a close relationship with any of the test subjects.
• The Computer Is Your Friend: Technically, the Contact Core is just doing its job in weeding out undeniable elements from its newest test subjects and ensuring that the original experiment is completed. It's just gone a bit beyond the call of duty.

• The Dragon: To Halina.

• Mission Control: To the Red Hand Facility, prior to it being abandoned.
  • Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: At present. While nowhere near as eccentric as the Pyramidion, it's a whole lot less personally affable and clearly out to kill the players.
• Soviet Superscience

Halina Ilyushin

The goal of the program is to create the first voyager. Not someone who floats in a suit, mere mind-miles from the earth. No, someone to explore the inner-outer reaches...

Voiced By: Katie Lyons

The only survivor of the "Phantom Cosmonauts", an attempt by the Soviet Union's Red Hand program to create individuals capable of exploring other dimensions. Despite the official failure of the project, the dispersal of the Red Hand and the collapse of the USSR, Halina still dwells in the ruined laboratories under the Transylvanian countryside; with the aid of the Contact Core, she carries on in her obsessive attempts to achieve the project's goal - even infusing herself with Anima and Filth (which she calls "anti-anima").

• Alas, Poor Villain: Courtesy of the Bees in the final lore entries for "The Facility."
  The static and crackle. Halina sent out so many calls. Long after she is gone, after his planet is dust, after your sun collapses to a gravity smear, her voice will survive as a radio wraith, exploring the universe as she always wished. Poor Halina. Sleep now, little one. Sleep as you did when a child, and smile and dream of the stars that scream.
• Arc Villain: Of "The Facility" dungeon.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: Halina's Anima form is essentially a female version of the Gatekeeper of Agartha - a tall glowing humanoid figure with no genitals, no nipples, and rather abstract features in general.
• Cool Gate: The boss arena where you fight her has two gates, one to Agartha, one to the Dreaming Prison. Energy shields guard the gates, and these connections are used to supply Anima and Filth to Halina.
• Deal with the Devil: At some point following the collapse of the program, the Dreamers offered her the chance to explore the universe. Needless to say, Halina took it without a second thought - hence the reason why her experiments now threaten all of Transylvania and the world beyond.
• Gold-Colored Superiority: Zigzagged; Halina's Anima-infused form glows a vivid shade of gold, signifying her status as the most successful of the Facility's test subjects... up until she infuses herself with Filth, transforming her into a humanoid mass of thick black smog.
• Humanoid Abomination: As a result of the Red Hand's experiments and the continuous infusions of cosmic elements, Halina has transformed into a mixture of Anima-composed Energy Being and Filth-infected physical monstrosity; this becomes particularly blatant as she final battle progresses and Hallina's body slowly grows and distorts into a semi-tangible mass of Filth, ultimately resembling a cloud of fog crudely sculpted into a human shape.
• I'm Cold... So Cold...: Her last words are, "The Cosmos is cold... and pierced with promises."
• Levitating Lotus Position: While waiting for you to enter the final arena, Halina sits patiently on thin air, hovering six feet off the ground as she infuses herself with the energies of the two portals.
• Posthuman Nudism: When you finally meet her in "The Facility" dungeon, she's become a bald, completely-naked humanoid figure composed entirely of golden light.
• Pretentious Latin Motto: During the fight she has a permanent buff called "Sic itur ad astra"^note "Thus we go to the stars".
• Psychopathic Manchild: Tragic example. Everything that Halina does is in pursuit of her childhood aspiration to see the universe, and Halina herself has grown increasingly childlike in her attempts to make the dream real: among other things, she seems to have adopted the Contact Core as a Parental Substitute - to the point that she actually concludes her boss battle by saying goodnight to him, as if the Contact Core were putting her to bed; desperate for further companionship, she's resorted to remaking her old teammates as living dolls made of Filth. And of course, then there's the temper tantrum she throws upon being denied access to the cosmos.
• Replacement Goldfish: Has created "Filth constructs" to replace the cosmonauts who died during the experiments.
• Sanity Slippage: It's quite clear from the beginning of the dungeon that Halina isn't entirely sane; after all, she's had to endure the Red Hand's brutal experiments, the constant exposure to Anima and Filth, the failure of the project, and being left alone for several decades with nobody to talk to except the Contact Core. However, it's not until the second stage of the boss battle that Halina really her grip on sanity as the side-effects of the final dose of Filth hit home.
  The gold turns to black! The blood keeps coming! Blood and whispers!
  Infinite void, accept me.
  Black stars collide with the mind. Please adjust the pressure, I’m not comfortable.
  Screaming stars impale me with beauty! The anthem of dreams!
• Sequential Boss: Particularly during Nightmare playthroughs. Initially, Halina fights you as her "ordinary" Anima-infused self; however, once the player has done enough damage, she then starts pumping Filth into the room, forcing the player to either huddle next to the Anima emitters or dodge the spreading Filth. Then, once this stage of the battle is over, Halina begins infusing herself with more and more Filth until she levels up into a much stronger boss - and refills her health bar in the process.
• Soviet Superscience: At once a product and a devotee of it.
• Villainous Breakdown: Already upset by the players' intrusion and the deactivation of the Contact Core, Halina is quite clearly enraged when the players attempt to stop her from achieving her dreams, and spends most of the first half of the battle ranting furiously at you; then the Filth-infusions start, and breakdown gives way to full-blown meltdown.
• Volcanic Veins: Looking closely at Halina's anima-infused body at the start of the battle reveals a number of faint, glowing veins traced across her body.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: All Halina wanted was to explore the cosmos; over the course of her life, this innocent childhood dream led to her being redirected from the space program and into Facility-9, where she spent the next few years of her life suffering the torturous experiments of the Red Hand. And after all that, she never got a chance to see the stars: instead, the program was shut down and she was left to spend the next few decades trying desperately to fulfill her ambitions - even going so far as to make a deal with the Dreamers to do so. The tragic nature of her character only becomes more blatant as the final boss battle continues, and Halina's dialogue grows more and more frenzied:
  Why do you ground me?! I trained for this! THEY MADE ME FOR THIS!

Anastasia and The Wagon

The forest is ancient. The wagon is older. It is the home of Anastasia the Seer, though it does not belong to her or any mortal. It is the property of the Vântoase - the capricious female spirits of air and travel, known to the Romanians. Time and space shivers open to their caress.

Lore Entry

Voiced By: Katie Lyons

Traian

A blind werewolf hermit living deep in the Carpathian Fangs, Traian has long since given up on the violence of his younger counterparts. Disgusted by the feral rage that is consuming the werewolves and infuriated by their subservience to the vampire army, he enlists the players' help in thinning their numbers and assassinating their leaders.

Voiced By: Tom Mannion

• Cool Old Guy: Traian is one of only a handful of werewolves who've survived long enough to transcend the animalistic rage of his younger days; it's for this reason that he's become a fairly reasonable quest-giver. It's also implied that he might be capable of influencing other werewolves towards more peaceful lifestyles, which is likely why the vampires want him dead.
• Defector from Decadence: Traian's violent days are long behind him, and he has no interest in seeing the follies of his youth repeated by later generations of werewolf.
• Driven to Suicide: According to the Dragon, Traian took the loss of his sight very badly, exiling himself to the depths of the Carpathian Fangs with the intention of Dying Alone. But instead of starving himself to death, Traian found himself learning to live with his blindness, growing wiser and stronger as the years passed - until the whole thing ended as a Happily Failed Suicide.
• Fur Against Fang: A notable opponent of vampire control over the werewolf packs, Traian seeks to put the masters and their servants at each others' throats. Ultimately, this paves the way to the mission "Dogs of Wars" in which the player has to plant evidence of vampire brutality against the werewolves, enough to incite an uprising against some of Mara's officers.
• The Nose Knows: Having been blinded by German bombs during World War II, Traian relies on his sense of smell to guide him. It's because of this that he decides to trust you, because you "smell of honey-sweet, of the world tree around you.''
• Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Despite being Macedonian, he speaks with a very distinctive Scottish accent.
• The Promised Land: Traian feels the call to "an elder place, where we are safe from you and you are safe from us," and hopes to inspire others of his kind to join him on his pilgrimage. According to the Dragon, this place is hidden deep in the Ural Mountains, and is home to all the werewolves who have managed to transcend the need for bloodshed.
• Retired Badass: Even without the brutality of pack life, the life expectancy of the average werewolf is about fifty years; Traian is over a century old, having survived the loss of his sight and his self-imposed exile to the Carpathian Fangs. At least one hunting party of Winterkills mistook his age for weakness - and ended up paying the price for it.
• Token Heroic Orc: The only werewolf in the entire game capable of rational thought, and likely one of the few who've managed to escape being recruited by Mara's army. For good measure, Traian hopes that by killing the most destructive of the pack-leaders and assassinating their vampire masters, it might be possible for the pack to recover their sentience and "find the place where the long-toothed go."
• Warrior Poet: Traian is surprisingly eloquent for one of his kind.