History Characters / HereticalEdgeOtherCrossroadsHeretics

* WellIntentionedExtremist: Each and every one of them firmly believes that Crossroads's methods are necessary.

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: [[spoiler: Flick eventually does start sneaking around and engaging in subverseive behavior, just as some Counselors insisted she would. Not because Joselyn conditioned her to do it, but because their insistence in keeping her in the dark directly led to her distrusting Crossroads as a whole after her encounter with Fossor. They could have saved themselves a lot of trouble if they had been upfront with Flick about her mother's banishment from the beginning.]]

* [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Hoist By Their Own Petard]]: [[spoiler: The decision of the Committee to keep Flick in the dark is what directly led to her distrusting

* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: This is the body that was almost convinced to [[spoiler: cast a blood plague on all the Heretics in Joselyn's Revolution after "capturing" her did not stop them, which would have condemned them and all their descendants to an eternity of slavery.]] Notably, they repeatedly voted ''against'' this course of action, but the suggestion kept coming up and the votes were distressingly close calls by the time another option was presented.

* HeelFaceTurn: [[spoiler: She was convinced of Joselyn's claim over the course of the revolution, before Zeke's birth but after the birth of her second youngest child.]]

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: Litonya doesn't have a high opinion of Gaia, thinking she is too soft.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Comes across as this despite remaining a KnightTemplar and being one of the only counselors to believe that "[[SinsOfTheFather blood is blood]]." Unlike the counselors who vote against letting Flick into the Academy based on unfounded assumptions [[spoiler: that Joselyn has been conditioning her]], most of the reasons Geta gives for wanting to keep Flick out (the Committee's inability to agree on how to deal with her, the lack of obvious benefits to her inclusion compared to the potential risks, believing her safe where she is) are much more valid arguments.

* VilainHasAPoint

* ArbitrarySkepticism: He considers it impossible for Strangers and humans to interbreed. That's right, in a world where plenty of Strangers are sapient HumanAliens and fantastical magic is relatively common, Ruthers draws the line at [[HalfHumanHybrid Half Human Hybrids]]. It's silly enough when he first voices the belief, but it becomes ''really fucking stupid'' when you consider how humans become Heretics in the first place.

* IHatePastMe: It's been suggested in-universe (and confirmed out of universe via WordOfGod) that the sheer depth of Ruthers's IrrationalHatred for [[ZombieAdvocate people who don't assume all Strangers are evil]] is actually him projecting his own guilt and self-loathing over his past mistakes.

** Believes that [[spoiler: Joselyn Atherby]] abandoned her family to keep them safe after regaining her memory even though he knows full well that she was only captured in the first place because he [[spoiler: kidnapped and threatened to murder her babies. Leaving Lincoln and Felicity unprotected in a place where he could reach them whenever he wants would be the ''last'' thing Joselyn would do to protect them. And that's before you get into his belief that Joselyn trained Flick to infiltrate the Academy, which directly contradicts his claim that she was trying to protect her family by leaving]].

* SelfFulfillingProphecy: His ironclad belief that [[spoiler: Joselyn's children]] are working for her directly leads to them siding with her over Crossroads

* SinsOfTheFather: Ruthers genuinely believes that he doesn't bear [[spoiler: Joselyn's children]] any ill will. But it's obvious that he's too emotional about the situation for that to be true, and he's ultimately caused them plenty of harm.

* WouldHurtAChild: It's not surprising that Ruthers' hatred of Alters extends to Alter children. [[spoiler: It's somewhat surprising that he's willing to burn human children alive as well.]]

* DramaticIrony: Part of the reason he voted against letting Flick into the school was because he believes that she was perfectly safe where she was. [[spoiler: Fossor would probably laugh his ass off if he heard that.]]

* ImmortalityBeginsAt20: Jue appears significantly younger than the other counselors.
* KnightTemplar: She's quick to threaten violence against Teach [[spoiler: for trying to discuss the possibility that Strangers aren't automatically evil]].

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: She doesn't actively believe that Strangers can be good, but appears to be more open to the possibility than the hardliners.

[[HistoricalDomainCharacter Publius Septimius Geta]] was a son of Septimus Severus, the man who came out on top as Emperor of the Roman Empire after the Year of Five Emperors following the murder of Emperor Commodus. He ruled as Co-emperor iwth his brother, Caracalla. In RealLife, Caracalla eventually murdred him. In ''Heretical Edge,'' Geta claims that his brother was being controlled by a Stranger.

* BeserkButton: Speaking ill of his brother, a big inversion of real life, where Caracalla ''was'' his BerserkButton.

* SinsOfTheFather: DoubleSubverted. For all his irrationality, Ruthers genuinely doesn't bear any ill will towards the children of his human enemies. [[spoiler: At one point he even starts to assure Flick that confessing to spying for her mother would shield her from the worst of the fallout before he's cut off.]] But his extreme paranoia ultimately results in him causing them harm anyway. [[spoiler: Hell, the only people who can be said to have harmed Joselyn's children more than him are Fossor and the Hiding Man, and that's debatable.]]

The second member of the Committee to be named, Sophronia is in charge of the "tourist-busters," Heretics who target Strangers that pass through/lurk in travel stations like airports, train and bus stations, etc. Zeke Leven is her son.

* MurderIsTheBestSolution: As one might imagine, Sophronia makes to attempt to discern wither or not those her people notices are actually doing anything. They just kill everything they find that isn't human.
* ShoutOut: Out of universe, her name is taken from a section of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Delivered Jerusalem Delivered]]. In-universe, that section was based on her.

** [[spoiler: Gaia really did conspire with Joselyn at times (though not to the extent he suspects) and later does the same with Flick.]]
** [[spoiler: Joselyn actually does have allies capable of undoing the memory wipe Crossroads preformed on her (but Fossor found her first).]]
** [[spoiler: And Flick eventually does start convincing students that Strangers are not all evil (but on her own, not because Joselyn trained her to do it).]]

* SinsOfTheFather: DoubleSubverted. For all his irrationality, Ruthers genuinely doesn't bear any ill will towards the children of his human enemies. [[spoiler: At one he even starts to assure Flick that confessing to him that she's spying for her mother would shield her from the worst of the fallout.]] But his paranoia tends to lead him to causing said harm anyway. [[spoiler: Hell, the only people who can be said to have harmed Joselyn's children more than him are Fossor and the Hiding Man, and that's debatable.]]

* SinsOfTheFather: DoubleSubverted. For all his irrationality, Ruthers genuinely doesn't bear any ill will towards the children of his human enemies. [[spoiler: At one he starts to assure Flick that she won't be in any trouble if she confesses to spying for Joselyn before he's cut off.]] But his paranoia tends to lead him to causing said harm anyway.

** [[spoiler: He's also impact Wyatt's sisters' lives, though nowhere near as much. Abigail met her husband Kenneth Fellows because of him. And as noted, Kine directed Flick towards the picture proving Joselyn graduated from Crossroads Academy.]]

* ShoutOut: Her name is taken from [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Delivered Jerusalem Delivered]].

** He has a very distorted view of the methods and motivations of reformer Heretics [[spoiler: like Joselyn]], often attributing murderous actions to them despite it being very obvious that the reformists in question are very obviously not willing to go as far as he assumes they do.

** Believes that [[spoiler: Joselyn Atherby]] abandoned her family to keep them safe after regaining her memory even though he knows full well that she was only captured in the first place because he [[spoiler: kidnapped and threatned to murder her babies. Leaving Lincoln and Felicity unprotected in a place where he could reach them whenever he wants would be the ''last'' thing Joselyn would do to protect them. And that's before you get into his belief that Joselyn trained Flick to infiltrate the Academy, which directly contradicts his claim that she was trying to protect her family by leaving]].

** [[spoiler: Joselyn actually does have allies capable of undoing the memory wipe Crossroads preformed on her (but Fossor found her first).]

* SinsOfOurFather: DoubleSubverted. For all his irrationality, Ruthers genuinely doesn't bear any ill will towards the children of his human enemies. But his paranoia tends to lead him to causing them harm anyway.

* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: This is the body that was almost convinced to [[spoiler: cast a blood plague on all the Heretics in Joselyn's Revolution after "capturing" her did not stop them, which would have condemned them and all their descendants to an eternity of slavery.]] Notably, they repeatedly voted ''against'' this course of action, but the suggestion kept coming up and the
votes were ''very'' close by the time another option was presented.

A hardliner Heretic. [[spoiler: He encountered Nevada once when she was a Djinni and nearly killed her before Deveron [[BigDamnHeroes stepped in]].]]

[[folder: Gabriel Ruthers]]

A former Headmaster of Crossroads Academy, Counselor Ruthers currently sits on the Committee, which is the governing body of all Crossroads Heretics. He's a hardliner convinced of the supposed AlwaysChaoticEvil nature of Strangers.

* BigBadEnsemble: Ruthers represents everything that is wrong with Crossroads Heretics and is by far the most active threat to any notion of reformation or peaceful coexistence. [[spoiler: His history with Joselyn also makes him a personal enemy of Flick's.]]

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: His FantasticRacism is extreme enough that this trope applies. He literally cannot understand that Alters who fought with the revolution against Crossroads were not slaves and servants, but friends and allies of the rebel Heretics.

* IHatePastMe: It's been suggested in-universe (and confirmed out of universe via WordOfGod) that the sheer depth of Ruthers' IrrationalHatred for [[ZombieAdvocate people who don't assume all Strangers are evil]] is actually him projecting his own guilt and self-loathing over his past mistakes.

* IrrationalHatred: He is completely incapable of thinking rationally when [[spoiler: Joselyn Atherby]] is involved and stubbornly refuses to hear any evidence that contradicts his opinions.

* MoralMyopia: In his mind, Ruthers is a hero doing what is necessary, no matter how utterly atrocious his actions are and people who resort to comparitively tame tactics are scum.

* ProperlyParanoid: Mostly [[AvertedTrope Averted]]. Ruthers is completely wrong about the vast majority of the things he's paranoid about, but he does get a few specific details right. [[spoiler: Gaia really did conspire with Joselyn at times (though not to the extent he suspects) and later does the same with Flick, Joselyn actually does have allies capable of undoing the memory wipe Crossroads preformed on her (but Fossor found her first), and Flick eventually does start convincing students that Strangers are not all evil (on her own, not because Joselyn trained her to do it).]]
* SelfServingMemory: Remembers [[spoiler: Joselyn Atherby's revolution]] as a defeated nuisance brought up by "malcontents." He's apparently forgotten that it lasted over seventy years and that his side needed to resort to using a worldwide memory spell to end it because they couldn't actually win through conventional means.

* WellIntentionedExtremist: He genuinely believes in everything he says.

[[WMG: Historical Heretics]]

[[folder: Hieronymus Bosch]]

A Dutch Renaissance painter born in 1450, Hieronymus Bosch became a Heretic when he managed to kill a Hangman Demon in (apparent) self defense. He then drained the demon's body of its remaining blood and mixed into the paints he made his art with. Later, he went on to create the Heretical Edge and found Crossroads as an organization.

* {{Badass}}: A Heretic pretty much has to be badass to survive long enough to retire.
** BadassGay
** RetiredBadass

** [[spoiler: He's also impact Wyatt's sisters' lives, though nowhere near as much. Abigail met her husband Kenneth Fellows because of him (Kenneth is Kine's cousin's grandson. And as noted, Kine directed Flick towards the picture proving Joselyn graduated from Crossroads Academy.]]

* EveryoneWentToSchoolTogether: [[spoiler: He was one of Joselyn Atherby's classmates.]]

* WildCard: According to WordOfGod, Jeremiah Dallant is one of the few people Gaia would trust with [[spoiler: Flick's safety]] if she had to... and is also completely trusted by Gabriel Ruthers at the same time.

[[folder: Hieronymus Bosch]]

[[folder: Jeremiah Dallant]]