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Practitioners
Finders
Hazel
A practitioner who entered the Paths in order to find a way to bring back her murdered daughter and escape her abusive husband, and remained stuck on them for more than 104 years. Her journal, 100 Years Lost, serves as a founding document for the Finder community.
- Determinator: Anyone willing to spend more than a century traveling the Paths, all to figure out a way to bring back her daughter, truly has an indomitable will.
- Hero of Another Story: While we only see excerpts of her journal, what's shown of her century-long story could be an epic in its own right.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Acquired a friendly kitten who spent its time inside the pocket of her coat containing the warmth of a summer's day, and she's shown to be a very kind person.
- Magnetic Hero: Traveled with a whole party of Lost she picked up exploring the Paths, though many either parted ways with her or died to The Wolf.
- Nice Girl: It's noted that she's very kind and that went a long way to getting the Lost to cooperate with her.
- Older Than They Look: By the time she got to tell her story to an outsider, she was at least 124 years old but hadn't aged a day since entering the Paths.
- Only One Name: While she presumably had or has one, Hazel's surname has been lost to time, and so she's only referred to by her first name.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Had a daughter who was murdered by her husband.
- Took a Level in Badass: Starting out she was just a dabbler who managed to find her way onto the Paths, but by the end of her journal entries she's acquired so many boons from the Paths she's visited that it's made her a very dangerous opponent.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Went back on the Paths after giving a practitioner family her story, and hasn't been seen or heard from since.
Other Practitioners
Anthem Tedd
Father of the Tedd sisters and a close associate of Abraham Musser, whose power base is centered around Wisconsin.
Practice: Sorcerer of Fighting Practice, Warmonger
- The Dragon: He's effectively Musser's #2 amongst the anti-Carmine Exile alliance.
- Defeat Means Friendship: After Lucy manages to defeat him, he goes through therapy and is sufficiently supportive of her that he helps train her going forwards and even fights alongside her at the Sword Moot.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Depending on your definition of "evil", but everything he does, even the terrible things, is driven by genuine love for his daughters, and to a lesser extent genuine longstanding friendship with Musser.
- Heir Club for Men: Defied, He refused to have a son until his family agreed his daughters wouldn't be seen as lesser. This led to him being cut out of the family until he became powerful enough they had to beg him to come back. He agreed to come back if Liberty and America were acknowledged as full heirs and given an apology.
- The Lost Lenore: Anthem's been unable to get over his wife Vicky's sudden death, both emotionally and sexually, as while he's in the midst of combat he thinks about how he hasn't known a woman's touch in ages because the spider webs Anthem sees reminds him of pantyhose.
- Knight Templar Parent: Threatens grievous bodily harm on the trio if his daughters come to harm because of them. He's also willing to kill those he deems bad influences on his daughters, which is why Toadswallow fled to Kennet in the first place.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: He chooses to surrender to Kennet and Toadswallow's mob of goblins and spend time in Kennet Found because while he's pretty certain that he'll win the ensuing battle, it'll leave him too weak to deal with the super-powerful Others patrolling Ontario... and possibly because doing so would risk irrevocably harming his relationship with his daughters.
- One-Man Army: Anthem is one of the most skilled war mages in the story, and shows himself to be all but unbeatable in a straight fight.
- Poke in the Third Eye: One of his tools, the Cat's Eye Sling, is a weapon specialized for interrupting augury-based scrying.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: He can subvert Kennet Found's rules against violence via his connection with Law, in particular trial by combat.
- Self-Duplication: Can split into nine different selves based on his emotional states.
- Self-Made Man: He was cut off from the Tedd family for refusing to have another (male) child, but became so respected and powerful on his own that they begged him to reenter their fold.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Both of his daughters take strongly after him in terms of looks.
- Submissive Badass: Both he and Avery believe that he may very well be an even more powerful warrior than Musser in a straight fight, but he chooses to remain Musser's second rather than usurp him.
- Would Hurt a Child: He shows no hesitation in dueling Lucy, and manages to mess her up quite a bit in the ensuing battle.
Witch Hunters
The Lighthouse
In General
- Knight Templar: In their eyes just about anything is justified in the name of protecting humanity from magic users.
- Locked Out of the Loop: They have no idea about the Carmine Beast's death, or the exact importance of the throne battle, and enforce this by having a tendency to shoot first and ask questions never.
- Van Helsing Hate Crimes: They'll kill Others and practitioners on sight whether they're actually evil or not.
- Wild Card: They prove to be just as much a problem for our protagonists as they are to their enemies.
- Would Hurt a Child: Not a single Witch Hunter seen hesitates to attempt murdering kids as long as they're practitioners.
- Ungrateful Bastard: When John argues for the Witch Hunters who stumble into the Carmine contest to be allowed to leave after Cleo's death, and asks that they leave Kennet alone, they tell him that they owe him nothing.
Mr. Samaneigo
Leader of the Lighthouse and an experienced Witch Hunter.
- Animal Motifs: Avery compares him to the Wolf.
- Evil Old Folks: He's an elderly fanatical Witch Hunter who Ted tells Clem she shouldn't trust.
- Never My Fault: Blames Kennet for his Witch Hunters dying when they attacked first, and his past partners for the issues in his relationships.
- Unseen No More: After being The Ghost in Pact and most of Pale, he makes his first onscreen appearance in Arc 19.
Raphael Tindall
A Witch Hunter who comes to Kennet on a mission, associated with a Witch Hunter group known as the Lighthouse.
- Badass Normal: Can't use magic, but manages to subdue a Dog of War of John's caliber.
- Dark and Troubled Past: If his dream woven by Alpeana is any indication, his friend group mostly met its end between the hands of the bogeyman known as the Milkmaid, and practitioners that were working with her directly covering everything up. This left him with a hatred of practitioners and Others, believing that all of the former only exist to sell other humans to Others for power.
- Hired Guns: Was hired by an unknown party (Later revealed to be Guillherme) to come to Kennet, and offers to give Melissa 5% of his pay if she stands aside and lets him shoot Lucy, but she refuses.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In the end, he's defeated by Maricica using one of his own traps on him.
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Compared to most of the other Witch Hunters, Rapheal has some standards, such as not being willing to kill an innocent to get at a practitioner, whereas Cleo in the same situation would've probably just shot them both.
- Mage Killer: A Witch Hunter who specializes in hunting practitioners, though he has plenty of tricks for taking on Others.
- Trick Bullet: Uses a rifle armed with bullets that were left in a soldier's grave that have the effect of weighing down people who've been shot with them. John gets shot and he's not able to even move until Lucy manages to get the bullet out.
- Would Hurt a Child: If they're a practitioner, he'll do his best to shoot them dead no matter how young they are, as he attempts to kill the 13 year old Lucy and is only stopped by Melissa refusing to move out of the way. Even then, he just says he'll try to kill her later.
Gerald Haris
A middle-aged Witch Hunter who leads a group of Witch Hunters sent to Kennet to investigate following Rapheal's disappearance.
- BFG: Knows how to use an eight foot long punt gun, which he shoots at Musser's car.
- Combat Pragmatist: Attempts to shoot Musser in the back of the head with a one-handed crossbow when he turns around while he's still talking to them, only to be foiled by Musser's catcher's mitt.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He's killed by getting sliced up by Musser.
- Large and in Charge: He's about 6'6" and the leader of the Witch Hunters sent to Kennet, though in this particular instance he defers to Elise since she knows the larger group better.
- The Nose Knows: Seems to be able to smell when magic is in the air.
- Old Soldier: He's 56 years old and still an active Witch Hunter.
- Religious Bruiser: Implied to be Christian and believes God helps with the Lighthouse's endeavors, and he's no slouch in a fight.
Elise Norwood
A Witch Hunter specializing in normally impractical weaponry.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Her Aware specialty is an affinity for weapons that for other people would be impractical, such as the chainsaw she uses against Verona.
- Killed Offscreen: Is implied to have been killed by Musser while the other Witch Hunters were distracted watching Drowne get revenge on Reid, as despite being supposed to be the leader, Cleo ends up leading the remaining Witch Hunters in Kennet, she's nowhere to be seen afterwards, and Raquel mentions that Musser had managed to kill three Witch Hunters (Gerald was killed on screen which leaves Elise and one other by process of elimination).
Leann Norwood
Elise's mother, who died years before the story's events.
- Good Is Not Soft: She's willing to do brutal actions to protect others, but compared to the other Witch Hunters she doesn't really appear to relish in it.
- The Medic: Serves as the medic for her cell because she had nurse training prior to joining the Lighthouse, though she failed out of nursing school.
- Posthumous Character: She's only seen in a flashback Interlude, which by the final portion taking place in the present she's been dead for some time.
- Token Good Teammate: The only Witch Hunter we see with a nuanced enough view of things that she doesn't view Others and practitioners as automatically evil.
Clint Marcum
A Witch Hunter with the ability to place things in his removable heart without damage to himself.
- And Show It to You: The Others pretending to be his family ripped his heart out, but he can still survive without it.
- Beat Still, My Heart: His heart beats even outside his body.
- Heart Trauma: Others removed his heart, and as a result he can literally hold something in his heart and put it away using a hatch on his chest for easy access. It's very useful for resisting Emotion Control and pretty much any given Curse.
- Kill and Replace: His mother, stepfather, and baby brother fell victim to getting killed by Others who took their forms.
- My Significance Sense Is Tingling: Can immediately tell something is going on in Kennet because he gets heart palpitations from the Carmine blood everywhere.
- Only Sane Man: Of the named Witch Hunters, he's the only one who has the sense to realize that they're in over their heads trying to deal with the battle for the Carmine Throne after learning about it from the Alabaster Doe, makes a temporary truce with the Trio in order to get information, and decides it's better to just leave and let the practitioners kill one another.
- Properly Paranoid: His distrust of the Alabaster Doe proves prescient when we learn how terrible of a job she was actually doing as a Judge.
Francis
One of the younger Witch Hunters, having been kidnapped by fairies before getting rescued by the Lighthouse and raised amongst them.
- Forced Transformation: For interfering in the battle for the Carmine Throne, the Aurum Coil is implied to have turned him into coinage. It's unclear whether he's in any way still aware or if it outright killed him, but either way he's neutralized.
- Moral Myopia: He's pissed that none of the Judges seem to care that Cleo died, despite having originally come inside the Arena to kill everyone in it.
- Small Role, Big Impact: His shooting Lauren in the head brings out her Familiar and sets the stage for the latter portion of the Carmine Throne battle.
Montreal Witch Hunters
Cleo Aleshire
A Witch Hunter from Montreal who closely works with the Lighthouse, but isn't part of the group.
- Asshole Victim: While her death is terrible to watch, apart from Francis none of the Witch Hunters are especially choked up about it because as far as they're concerned she led them into a trap and was asking for it by using practitioner tools.
- Badass Biker: Rides a motorcycle and is a skilled fighter.
- Battle Trophy: Collects the fingers of practitioners she's killed or maimed, with the state of the fingers determining which is which.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Practitioners that she doesn't kill she keeps alive as a power source for her magical items after taking a finger as a trophy. Those fingers are intact compared to the shriveled ones of those she just kills.
- Collector of the Strange: Likes to collect magical items from the practitioners she kills.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: She gets torn to pieces at the end of her Throne battle.
- Faux Affably Evil: Comes off as initially friendly to Avery before trying to murder her without remorse, and treats her hunting of Avery like they're having a friendly conversation.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Verona describes Cleo as someone who fought the darkness for so long that she took it on, and she's every bit as vicious as the worst of practitioners and Others.
- Magical Camera: Her first weapon is an originally cursed magical polaroid camera she got off a practitioner she killed whose developed photos return people to exactly where they were when the photo was taken. Apart from using it to prevent people from escaping, she can use it herself as an escape route or to heal herself.
- Serial Killer: Loves hunting practitioners and wears a necklace containing the fingers of practitioners she's killed or "merely" maimed because they serve as a power source for her items. The condition of the fingers tells you which is which.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Samaniego is wary of her and tells the other Witch Hunters not to let her into a leadership position, but she ends up taking said position anyway when most of the leadership dies fighting Musser, and ends up leading everyone right into the battle for the Carmine Throne, which ends in her death.
- You Are in Command Now: When the normal leadership is killed by Musser, by dint of charisma Cleo gets the remaining Hunters to follow her.
- Would Hurt a Child: Tries to kill Avery without pity or remorse because she's a practitioner, and mentions that some of her finger collection was taken from young practitioners.
- Token Evil Teammate: While all the Witch Hunters we see are ruthless individuals, Cleo is the only one we see that seems to outright relish in killing people.
Sargent Hall Aware
A group of Aware who live in an apartment complex run by Bristow; he sends the ones capable of functioning outside out on missions on his behalf in exchange for reduced rent and other favors. As Aware, they have touched or learned about the magical world in some way while remaining fundamentally Innocent - they don't know the full details of the practitioner world, though some suspect it to varying degrees, so using the Practice against them or otherwise carelessly involving them in the supernatural can lead to karmic backlash.
Clementine 'Clem' Robertjon
A Gilded Lily - someone who tends to find and interact with magical items. In her case, these have largely brought her tragedy. She's the viewpoint character of 5.a and 5.c.
- Bazaar of the Bizarre: Sells the items she finds to practitioners.
- Blessed with Suck: Finding magic items constantly? A blessing. Not knowing how they work, and most of them being cursed in horrifying ways that have cost her her family, most of her friends, and any hope of an ordinary life? Sucks.
- Boyish Short Hair: Downplayed, Verona describes her as having short parted hair that looks like a schoolboy's, but with a physical presentation and larger than average chest that would make it hard to mistake her for a boy.
- Cool Key: Has a rusty key with a randomly changing number that is implied to serve as a portal to the Goblin Warrens, which works by using it to unlock a door with a number corresponding to the number it has at the time, but increased use of it comes with greater attention from goblins.
- Creepy Doll: Has a used stuffed monkey originally belonging to her brother that whispered of dark secrets and human ugliness, encouraging Clem to blackmail and lash out against those around her. When Clem refused, the monkey then taunted her with the knowledge that she was inadvertently responsible for her mother and neighbor's deaths due to the cursed items she acquired, causing her to bury it and become truly Aware. A few years later an encounter with a goblin and fairy duo planning on stealing away the unborn children of her stepmother and brother's girlfriend forced her to dig it back up so that she could get their Other names from the doll and use it to vanquish them.
- Draw Sword, Draw Blood: Has a Killing Knife acquired after watching an attacker kill a dog with it that can kill with just a nick, and will find flesh through "accident" if not provided with regular victims. It ended up killing Clem's father when he took it away after an argument with her.
- Glamour Failure: While Clem can't fully perceive Others due to not being Awakened, she can perceive that Others taking the form of people are off in some way.
- Hero of Another Story: Her diary entries and the stories surrounding her make it clear that Clem has been forced through many escapades and adventures as part of the items that find their way to her.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: She desperately wishes she could live a normal life without all the pain and heartache caused by cursed items falling in her path.
- It's Not You, It's My Enemies: She's very conscious that she can't let people get close to her, because they'll inevitably get hurt by the magical items she attracts.
- Like a Son to Me: Mrs. Preston thinks of her like a daughter, and plans to give her an inheritance once she dies. As Wildbow points out in a comment, however, this also comes with a high chance of being gifted another cursed item.
- Locked Out of the Loop: She desperately wants to know more about the magical side of the world, but all the practitioners she asks won't tell her anything because it'd likely end badly for them or her. Her dossier theorizes that her Innocence is what has protected her from the worst of the cursed items over the years and if she became a Practitioner those protections may weaken if not outright disappear.
- Mask of Power: One of her items is a magical pure white mask with a mind of its own that protects its wearer from most harm until they go to sleep, at which point it pops off, but at the cost of physical and emotional numbness, and whatever harm gets diverted gets repaid back in some way.
- Morality Pet: Despite Daniel's questionable grasp on morality and hunger for glamour, it's because Clem is talking with Avery that he doesn't attempt to shake her down for glamour.
- Mystical Pregnancy: Not her, but a flower (Either plastic or natural, the dossier isn't sure which) she acquired in Gatineau, Quebec in 2012 had the ability to create life, which ranged from giving having bugs appear everywhere, including inside bodies in the case of intestinal parasites to making the family dog, Clem's stepmother, her brother's girlfriend, and two classmates pregnant within one year's span. The dog in particular is noted to have had two litters despite having no encounters with male dogs on top of being spayed, and store-bought eggs would have chicks inside despite being unfertilized, so the humans are implied to be under the same effect.
- Nice Girl: Is a genuinely nice person, despite all the bullshit she has to deal with.
- One True Love: Met a nice non-binary person and spent a weekend fooling around before cutting off contact because of how screwed up her life is. Alexander's sight identifies them as Clem's "soulmate", and Lucy convinces her to reach out anyway and they've begun a relationship.
- Ring of Power: One of Clem's finds was a magical ring belonging to her aunt that increased her health, including partially restoring the vision of her eye that got scarred by the ghoul's tooth, but took vitality from her classmates to do so, making them sick with what appeared to be a bad wave of flu or hospitalized, and killed her teacher. After that she decided to take it off.
- Secret Test of Character: It's made clear in a later chapter
that all of the items that found their way to Clem are this to a degree. Does your life suck? Have a fairy lover and the chance to live in a magic kingdom. Have horrible scars? This item will fix you bit by bit but they're going to drain vitality from everyone you love. The point is that she passed all of these tests one way or another and makes sure the dangerous items aren't obtained by people unable to handle them. - Scars Are Forever:
- Has scars on her neck, eye (Leaving it blind until her ring made it only partially blind instead), and crook of her elbow as the result of obtaining the tooth of a ghoul as a child, the residual energy of which started to turn her into a ghoul, who she perceived as a homeless man and the source of her injuries. She normally wears a scarf to hide the neck scar. The scars can be perceived by the Sight as an eye in the case of the neck scar, and an "X" in the case of her eye scar.
- She also has a scar on the back of her forearm from when she got cut by her instakill knife while trying to get it back from her brother, which would've proven fatal if not for the magical mask she was wearing, which repaid her not dying by giving her numerous nightmares of dying via heart attack from getting stabbed by the knife.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She genuinely wants to get out of Kennet soon after she arrives, but the timepiece interferes and she has to go looking for Daniel and Sharon first.
- Sinister Car: Her beloved truck likes to kill people and can't be destroyed. Clem actually likes the truck, and reasons that if the truck's with her, at least it's not out killing people.
- Space Master: Has a puzzle bracelet that she uses to dump the most dangerous magical items she has in a room that doesn't exist.
- Trauma Conga Line: Ever since she discovered her first magical item, her life has been plagued with tragedy after tragedy, including the deaths of both her parents and a friend.
- Weirdness Magnet:
- The nature of being a Gilded Lily; she constantly attracts supernatural objects, seemingly by random chance. When she was younger it used to be seasonal starting from her first acquisition in 2008, but around the summer of 2014 she started running into at least one new item a month, though the dossier notes that it's perfectly possible she'd been collecting things from long before, or had come across such items but not took interest in them. By Crossed with Silver 19.5, she's started running into items every six to ten days.
- In her own Interlude she runs into a plaque containing an implied bound demonic mote, a cursed watch that interferes with the perception of time, a supernaturally desirable earing, and the literally diced remains of the Carmine Beast, though she decides she's better off not picking up the last one. The latter three all occur within an hour or so of subjective time.
Shellie Alitzer
A Bright-Eyed - someone who was exposed to the Faerie and internalized their way of thinking. In Shellie's case, she and her brother were sold to the Faerie as children; she was used as a slave and eventually escaped. She takes care of her brother and is implied to enjoy hunting and killing faeries.
- Abusive Parents: Again: her parents literally sold their children to the Fae.
- Anti-Magic: Can break rituals simply by being there similarly to Sharon, but unlike her, Shellie can actively weaponize it.
- Big Sister Instinct: Inverted as she's the younger sibling, but Verona telling her about what he's been up to in Kennet has Shellie telling her to make sure her brother's safe or she'll suffer Shellie's wrath.
- Cloudcuckoolander's Minder: She spends a lot of time as Daniel's caretaker, which he needs because his very loose grip on reality can very quickly result in him getting into bad situations.
- Color Motifs: Silver, which she intentionally invoked because silver is anathema to the Faerie (excepting Winter).
- Defeat Means Friendship: She's a lot more cordial to the trio after the events of Gone Ahead.
- Despair Event Horizon: She hit hers after Daniel lost himself to the dirge.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Played with. She's more grounded and aware of what's going on than her brother Daniel, and often has to take care of him - but she is also a lot more murdery.
- Hunter of Monsters: Specifically, she enjoys hunting and killing the Fae.
- Jerkass: Invoked by Shellie's anti-Fae preparations: They're good at making deals, so she intentionally screws up any deal presented to her, just to avoid being trapped again. This didn't stop her from being drawn into Bristow's net, however.
- Kick the Dog: Interrupts the ritual the Blue Heron Institute is doing to help Jessica find her cousin's echo just because she can, and shows no remorse when confronted on it by the trio.
- Malevolent Mutilation: After going through so many forms at the hands of the Faerie as a child, she's not at ease on her own. Her method of coping is extensive body mods, often interworking silver to better secure her against Fae. The malevolent part comes in with her general ruthlessness and murderous streak against Fae and anyone involved with them.
- More Deadly Than the Male: Unlike her brother she's far better at killing and is a far more violent person while also being far more sane.
- Not Himself: In Gone Ahead 7.6, Verona suggests that Shellie is drawing strength from Kevin and Ted, making her more violent, more jealous, and more persistent than normal.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Guilherme tells Daniel that if he went back to the Fae without his sister, she'd eventually come to understand- but she'd spend the time between him leaving and her understanding his decision killing every Faerie she could.
- Would Hurt a Child: Zig-zagged: she doesn't have a problem with trying to hurt or even kill the main trio, but she calls Kevin out when he targets a father and gets his children hurt in the process. She also didn't have a problem with Kevin targeting Laila, which caused her death.
Daniel Alitzer
A Glamour-Drowned - someone who was taken by the Faerie and lost themselves in glamour. Like his sister, he was sold to the Faerie as a child; he was shown the death of a queen of the Dark Spring and was set singing a dirge that continued for seventeen years. As a result, his singing is unearthly and hypnotic. He's the viewpoint character of 5.b.
- And I Must Scream: His years in the fae realms have left him acclimated to stimulation he can't get in the real world; he’s dealing with an extreme case of sensory deprivation every day.
- Beware the Silly Ones: Despite not being all there, he can use glamour almost as well as any fairy, using it to turn a little girl into a flock of birds, and his desire for more of it makes him equivalent to a particularly desperate drug addict.
- Charm Person: Being Glamour-Drowned makes him supernaturally charming, with almost everyone he meets falling at least a little in love with him despite his oddities, and him with them in turn.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Part of being Glamour-Drowned. He barely knows what's going on around him at the best of times, and has to be watched to ensure that he doesn't get lost in a daydream and accidentally wander into traffic or fall down some stairs.
- The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: He constantly rambles, but it's clear that he can see things others can't, even if the people around him don't understand what he's trying to say.
- Cutting the Knot: Invoked this trope on Maricica and Guilherme. The two have a long story in play where Maricica tries and fails to steal Guilherme's letter- so Daniel simply offers the letter to Maricica, which ruins the story.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: His disconnect with reality makes him the foolish sibling to his sister's responsible one, even if she's considerably more bloodthirsty.
- Friend to All Living Things: His singing can call birds and animals to him, if sung correctly.
- Happiness in Slavery: He actively wants to invoke this trope. He finds the real world so horrible compared to the Faerie realms that he throws himself at Guilherme and begs to be his slave.
- Mind-Control Music: His music has an enthralling effect on those who hear it, even Skeptics like Sharon. Fortunately or unfortunately, he's too out of it to use this in any really directed manner. Most of the time, that is.
- Morality Pet: He's the only thing we see Shellie treat with kindness as opposed to contempt.
- Purple Prose: His narrative uses distinctively more ornate descriptions than others.
- Romantic Wingman: Declares that he'll help Clem find normality so that she can develop a relationship with her one-night stand.
- Spanner in the Works: Him just offering the letter of Guilherme's past lover to Maricica threatens to ruin their game.
Kevin Noone
A Maji - someone with an evil eye. In Kevin's case, his gaze can cause people to struggle and lose opportunities. He's the viewpoint character of 7.a.
- Broken Masquerade: To a degree. Kevin is aware that there are supernatural forces at work, and that he has a power. He wants to know everything he can and step 'behind the curtain', as it were; however, he thinks Bristow or someone will let him into the masquerade if he does enough for them/proves himself, which won't happen because Bristow wanted Kevin right where he was and nobody else would want to take responsibility for him.
- Disproportionate Retribution: He'll happily use his eye on anyone who even mildly annoys him.
- Evil Is Petty: He'll curse people with his evil eye just because they annoy him, such as when he gave Rae's mother a stroke because he found her annoying, and kills Laila just because she just so happened to have a physical resemblance to a girl who rejected him when he was a kid.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Literally. His evil eye opened because of his anger and jealousy, and he's noted to have unusually vivid green eyes.
- Hate Sink: By far the most awful of Bristow's Aware. Even Sharon at least believes the things she says and legitimately sees herself as fighting against con-artists, while Shallie has a deeply traumatic backstory. Kevin simply has the power to ruin people's lives and uses it, in full understanding of what it means, both for his own benefit and out of pure pettiness.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- He used his evil eye to recklessly ruin the lives of everyone around him, sometimes to benefit himself and sometimes out of jealousy; this overuse caused Power Incontinence that kept him from turning it off, which led to problems when it started destroying the lives of people whose ruin impacted him, like his landlord and employers.
- In Gone Ahead 7.a, he thinks of a number of times when he used his eye on people who annoyed or angered him, but in all of those cases, things didn't get better for him either.
- It's been all but stated that Rae became Intertwined because Kevin used his eye on her too many times. In Gone Ahead 7.a, Kevin finds a prediction by Alexander Belanger that 'his girlfriend' will be the one to kill him.
- Jerkass: He is a thoroughly repellent person who ruins the lives of those around him purely for his own betterment and who was only able to maintain a relationship by using his evil eye to draw his partner down to his level. Nicolette's dossier flat out says that the Belangers think he'd shoot someone if he thought he could get away with it. It's even worse in his interlude, where we get to see first-hand just how horrible he is, as he casually attempts to ruin people's lives just because he can.
- Logical Weakness: As he needs to actually see someone to use his eye's power on them, anything that prevents him from seeing stops him from using it, as shown when Ted stops him just by putting two fingers in front of his eye.
- Magical Eye: As a Maji, his gaze brings misfortune to people he uses it on. He once had control of it, but has overused it to the point where he no longer does.
- Power Incontinence: He has overused his Magical Eye to the point where it's now always on. It's also the main reason why the Belangers haven't recruited him despite Augury combined with an evil eye being a quite potent combination.
- The Resenter: His evil eye opened after he saw his younger brother graduate with good grades, a potential offer to study at an Ivy League school, a girlfriend and lots of friends, after Kevin had graduated with none of those things due to his family's fortunes taking a downturn at the worst possible time for him.
- Would Hurt a Child: He's used his eye on kids before, and has accidentally hurt kids as a result of using his eye on others, and feels no remorse for it. To get at Wye when he's wearing a charm to protect himself from Kevin's evil eye, he has a car explode that has children inside, and uses his evil eye to cause Laila's death from falling just because she bore a physical resemblance to a girl he disliked.
Rae
An Intertwined - someone who, due to supernatural forces, has had their fate mixed up with someone else's. In Rae's case, she can only be hurt or hampered by Kevin Noone, her boyfriend.
- Achilles' Heel: As stated above, Kevin is the only person who can hurt or hamper her.
- Domestic Abuse: She's more Kevin Noone's victim than his girlfriend, especially since his Interlude shows that he doesn't actually want her around now.
- Hates Being Alone: A hatred of being alone is implied to be part of the reason why she stays with Kevin (aside from the supernatural ones).
- No Name Given: Her last name hasn't been revealed.
- Sanity Slippage: Gone Ahead 7.9 implies that she's barely clinging on to her sanity.
- Would Hurt a Child: In Gone Ahead 7.9, she makes it clear that while she doesn't really want to, she's willing to shoot kids if she has to.
Ted Havens
A Worold - someone who went through a transformational test or event. In Ted's case, he was caught in a "Groundhog Day" Loop to defeat a horrible monster, eventually training himself to do so and acquiring incredible skills and overwhelming Karma in the process.
- "Groundhog Day" Loop: He was stuck in one of these for a long, long time, forced to relive his entire life over and over until he managed to defeat a particularly horrible monster implied to be an Primeval. A side effect of this is that he has amassed a larger amount of good karma than would be possible in a normal human lifetime.
- Morality Chain: He tries to be this to Bristow, telling the trio that the main reason he still stays around the likes of Bristow and Kevin despite being fully aware of the type of people they are is because his good karma means they have to act better than they would otherwise. Whether this actually works is unclear; the one time he vaguely suggests to Bristow that perhaps, at some unspecified point in the future, they may not need to work with people who murder children, Bristow immediately shoots him down.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: Part of the reason why despite having at times a better understanding of magic and karma than many practitioners, he still has the protections of an Innocent, is because he actively avoids going down a path that could lead to him losing the tenuous amount of Innocence he still has.
- Nice Guy: Unlike several of the complex's other residents, Ted genuinely tries to serve the greater good, and is legitimately a hero who defeated a powerful monster.
- Obliviously Evil: Nicolette's (possibly biased) notes on him state that when Bristow sends him out on missions, Ted is generally led to believe that they serve the greater good, but that "this isn't always or even often the case."
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After John kills Alexander, Ted decides to go travelling to escape being enslaved or killed by people like him.
- Walking the Earth: Following the battle for the Blue Heron he's been busy wandering around, but he still keeps in some degree of contact with Clem.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: He supports Bristow for this reason, believing that only Bristow's brand of authoritarianism can save people from the sorts of threats the supernatural world contains.
Sharon Griggs
A Skeptic - someone whose refusal to believe in the supernatural is intense enough to actively suppress it, and one of three such Skeptics living in Bristow's properties. In Sharon's case, she rejected her occult-obsessed family and eventually became a skeptic on the universe's equivalent of YouTube. She has tried to move from skeptic-focused videos to more conspiratorial Alt-Right material, but her debunking videos still get the most views.
- Agent Scully: The nature of being a Skeptic, of course, is to deny the supernatural or to come up with mundane explanations for it.
- Anti-Magic:
- She's a walking source of it; the supernatural doesn't work as well as it should around her, if at all, and Others are driven away. A group of Witch Hunters once attempted to use her to weaken Others they were hunting, but her leaving them upon feeling messed with left the whole group to be killed by trolls. Bristow on the other hand is far better at weaponizing it, with Alexander implying that the main reason he keeps people like Sharon around is that their Skeptic nature blunts the effects of cursed items, as demonstrated when Sharon manages to shut up the demonic plaque Clem acquires.
- Interlude 7.a reveals that she can even do it on the phone while not even looking at the thing in question.
- Berserk Button: Getting reminded of being basically a nobody, as she gets angry enough to threaten Verona with a rifle when she purposely presses said buttons.
- Brutal Honesty: She never minces words when it comes to her opinions, even if the opinions are in some way offensive.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Decides that the best way to deal with Verona challenging her worldview on top of messing with her stream is to brandish her rifle and shoot it above Verona's head while her back is turned, all the while demanding that she tell Sharon who she is.
- Hollywood Atheist: Is not only atheist but actively hostile towards religion in general, as shown by Sharon's implied reaction to one of her boyfriend's friends and her faith.
- Hypocrite: Talks a big game about using logic but believes in anti-vaccination and antisemitic conspiracy theories on top of being racist in general, and says she hates charlatans while considering herself best friends with someone who she views as selling fake occult stuff, and even asks to have dibs on some of the stuff if Clem moves.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: A downplayed example, since the way the Pact setting is set up makes it pretty easy to ignore magic (and most people remain ignorant of it), but Sharon, as a Skeptic, is defined as having encountered it repeatedly and refusing to accept it, and so the spirits acquiesce by making magic not work around her.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Even "friend" is pushing it, but she's mostly this to the other Aware, who keep her around due to a combination of proximity and her being a Skeptic being able to blunt the effects of cursed items in the case of Clem.
- Jerkass:
- The rest of the group barely tolerates her, as even apart from her racism, she can just be a plain obnoxious person to be around. Clem considers having to spend time around her to be so bad that she retroactively thinks the mission she received from Bristow was a trap, and this is while Sharon thinks that she and Clem are friends. There's also no love lost between her and Daniel, he considers her incredibly dull and one of the things that makes living outside the fey realm a pain, and Sharon considers him annoyingly childish.
- When her implied boyfriend calls her out on being rude to his friends, citing being rude about the faith of one such friend in particular, she not only doesn't take responsibility for what happened, but changes his screenname from "Slowsweetharddeep" to "Dickless Betrayer". When talking to a friend about it later she just says that he was mad that Sharon "knew more about his friend's culture than she did".
- Politically Incorrect Villain:
- She is not merely racist but actively seeks to monetize her racism online, only to run into a brick wall due to the misogyny common to alt-right spaces. While thinking of Clem as her best friend (a feeling not reciprocated), she asks if her hobbies have to do with being "oriental".
- When confronted by Verona, during their argument she reveals that she also believes in antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish people controlling the world.
- Spends most of her time in Kennet blaming everything around the missing kids at the highschool on the only minority teacher there.
- Show Some Leg: Is willing to flirt with people in order to grease the wheels of her endeavors, such as in her dealings with some Kennet police officers.
- Small Girl, Big Gun: Sharon is consistently described as very short, enough so that she tells a Kennet police officer that she thinks she's too small to become a cop, but her firearm of choice is a rifle she keeps in her car.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Talks a big game despite her subscriber count for her alt-right material only being 400 people. Verona points out that apart from being a nobody without a degree or connections who takes jobs from her landlord for lower rent, she has a classmate doing low-quality videos based around a Minecraft Expy who has 300 more subscribers than Sharon does.
- Some of My Best Friends Are X: When Verona calls her out on sending police after Mr. Lai mainly just because she thought he was a sketchy Asian man, Sharon says she's not racist because (without naming her) Clem, who is Asian, is her best friend.
- Verbal Tic: Uses "hon" to refer to other women and girls, whether she likes them or not. Verona turns it back on her to rattle her when they meet for the first time.
- Would Hurt a Child: Threatens Verona with a rifle after getting rattled enough by her, and even fires a shot above her head.
Jeannine Preston
A centenarian Lesser Forewarned who witnessed spiritual retribution in the form of horrific attacks by corrupt elementals in a mining town in Chaul during the British Raj.
- Cool Old Lady: She's one of the oldest people in Bristow's properties, and one of the friendliest.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Grew up in British-controlled India, witnessed spiritual retribution that left her the Sole Survivor, has been widowed twice, is estranged from her daughters, and Alexander sees that she's suffered PTSD from her experiences.
- Long-Lived: She's about 104.
- Shipper on Deck: Not-so-subtly encourages Clementine and Alexander to get together.
- "There's nothing wrong with an older provider."
- Sole Survivor: Whatever the exact nature of the elemental's actions in Chaul, she was left as the only survivor.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: As a Forwarned she's meant to be the type of person who explains what a given threat is which causes those around her to become aware and thus easier for a given threat to target them.
- Further she plans to leave her possessions to Clementine when she dies. Ordinarily, this would just be a kind gesture, but given Clem's nature as a Gilded Lily, Jeannine evidently has some magical items she doesn't know about...
- Your Days Are Numbered: She's cursed to live until she comes across a circumstance mirroring the one she suffered in her youth and tells others about it, her mere presence increasing the chaos of the situation, and potentially leading to the creation of more Aware. Since that hasn't happened yet, it's implied to be why she's a centenarian.
Roberto Figureoa
A guy who gets rewarded for being an asshole.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Unfortunately, while he gets rewarded for bad behaviour, he also gets punished for good behaviour. He had a crush on another Aware, and in his attempts to woo her, she got killed.
- Karma Houdini: Literally his entire shtick is the universe rewarding him for being an asshole.
Vaughn Hind
A guy with astronomically bad luck.
- Born Unlucky: Manages to get attacked by fae when he wasn't even in the same building as them.
- The Chew Toy: Refers to his Aware label as "Chew Toy", and is treated like the universe's hind end.
- Cosmic Plaything: Whenever magic is involved, he gets the butt end of it.
-
Designated Monkey: Deconstructed. Vaughn is incredibly depressed about his role in the universe as a designated Butt-Monkey.
Pauline Dishman
A woman who habitually wanders into various realms.
- No Sense of Direction: If she's distracted, she will wander into a realm. She even takes Avery with her at one point.
Others
The Roles
A quartet of powerful Others who oversee a large portion of Ontario. Roles, otherwise known as Judges, are regular People or Others who were elevated to oversee an area, anywhere that lacks a Lord or proper hierarchy will probably be overseen by some Role.
In General
- Blue-and-Orange Morality: The Judges are shown to have a mindset more in league with old-fashioned notions of justice. For instance, they tell John while testing him that had anyone asked them to judge the trio for Bristow's fate (Noting that they only won because Bristow considered Judges a relic and wouldn't bother calling them) and accusing Finnea of Maricica's crimes, they would've forsworn them on the spot. This is despite the fact that the Aurum Coil in particular knows full well that the former was disguising themselves as the latter. As for Charles, since he wears the Furs and is closest to the throne, it's implied they didn't bother asking him any questions like that.
- Elite Four: Four immensely powerful Others who oversee a large portion of Ontario.
- Friendly Fireproof: According to the Alabaster Doe, the Judges cannot permanently harm one another.
- Irony: It's noted by the Judges that in some way they must have traits contrary to their role, lest they just lose all independent identity and merely become Incarnations:
- The Alabaster is supposed to represent Mercy, but she's the coldest out of all of them.
- The Sable represents Death, but acts as a living being.
- Charles as Carmine used to be a Forsworn who was outside of Law, but now dictates it as Judge.
- Physical God: Being in a Judge's throne makes you akin to a major god, with the Judges doing amazingly casual acts of incredible power, and treating the Witch Hunter's attempts at interfering as if they were particularly annoying mosquitoes.
- Position of Literal Power: If someone takes a Seat their overview and thus power extends the whole of that territory, and even into magically adjacent realms. There they will have final say on all matters with magic relating to their function, and what Others may be created, with even gods requiring the approval of a Role to interfere. It does have the downside that a Judge cannot leave their place of power, nor can they sense outside of it.
- Klingon Promotion: You take on a Role by killing its current holder, and if the Role is currently empty, you gain it by killing any other competitors. The Aurum Coil's role in particular tends to have the highest turnover, with its previous holders dying just within roughly 200 years.
- Masquerade Enforcer: A largely benign example, neither malevolent nor benevolent they try to keep the larger human population Innocent by heading off magical disasters before they can happen. Their peers in Prince Edward's Island enforced a "Groundhog Day" Loop until the person it centered on could deal with the local Beast of the Apocalypse.
- Mercy Kill: In order to take the Alabaster role, one must create a scenario in which death for the previous holder is preferable to any alternative.
- Red Is Violent: The Carmine Throne is red, dyes its holder red, and is centered around violence, whether interpersonal or on the level of war, as well as governing over the creation of violent Others. It doesn't even need to be physical violence, as the Carmine Exile is able to listen in on Lucy's phone call with Musser because it's a tense argument between two people.
- Time Master: Judges can interfere with the flow of time inside their domain, with their peers in Prince Edward's Island enforcing a "Groundhog Day" Loop on the area, and the Carmine Exile speeding up time to avoid having to listen to a particularly annoying challenger.
- White Is Pure: The Alabaster Role, which governs over mercy, is associated with white.
Judges at the Start of the Story
The Carmine Beast
The being at the centre of the story, a Role who handled "monsters and those who kill monsters".
Type: Role (Formerly an Animus)
- Above Good and Evil: She ruled over matters concerning things like war, murder, carnage, blood, monsters, execution, and justice. Her decisions may not have always been popular, but she acted out of necessity. The Alabaster Doe describes her as something that simply was, instead of mapping to any concept of good or evil.
- Animalistic Abomination: A dog-shaped Other that actually tints the area red around it, and happens to be an embodiment of the human Primal Fear of predators in the wilderness hunting them and/or their livestock at night.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: After decades of pushing everyone away, nobody came to her aid when she really needed it.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: Avery's Alcazar vision shows that the Carmine Beast killed herself rather than wait the days it would take the Hungry Choir to fully devour her by tearing out her own throat.
- Canis Major: Takes the form of a giant red canine. Louise describes her as resembling a cross between wolf and fox, while Yalda leans more towards wolf. While she's normally "only" about as tall as the treetops, the Carmine Beast could grow so large she could encompass her entire territory, an area spanning most of Ontario save for the portion around Toronto, and some of Manitoba.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: She was partially blinded both physically and spiritually by Maricica, the Hungry Choir took her to pieces, and she decided to end her misery by tearing open her own throat rather than wait the days it would take them to completely devour her. The pieces were then taken by the conspirators who'd asked the Choir to kill her, presumably so they could use her power.
- Death Seeker: Lucy's view of her memories implies that towards the end, she very much desired death and may very well have let the conspirators kill her.
- Despair Event Horizon: The curse Marcicia cast on the Beast made it so she could not sense a way out of her situation due to despair.
- Dying Curse: As she dies the Carmine Beast decides to purposely bleed over the area in order to cause chaos and spite the conspirators for murdering her, and Miss for allowing it to happen because she felt her own plans would work better with someone else sitting on the Beast's throne.
- Eldritch Location: Her domain. It takes a day to get there no matter how far or fast you go, you have to be traveling away from civilization, you have to follow an injured animal to get there, and the entire place is covered in blood.
- God's Hands Are Tied: While she had vast, godlike power within her domain, she found that she wasn't able to use it for the things that she felt really mattered.
- Living MacGuffin: Well, formerly living MacGuffin. Finding out what happened to her and who was responsible is the core of the story.
- Lonely at the Top: Lucy's Alcazar vision shows that near the end of her life she was quite lonely due to her position. Maricica even invoked this trope by name to the Beast's face.
- Outdated Hero vs. Improved Society: Her job was previously to remind humans why they feared the night and the wilds so much. But humanity moved on and started building cities and lighting up the night, and there wasn't any place for the Beast there.
- Posthumous Character: Her death is what starts the plot, and everything we learn about her is postmortem.
The Sable Prince
One of the Roles of Ontario, he is, in his own words, "chthonic death, gatekeeper, guide and guide of the other guides and psychopomps of our reality." He appears as an eerie man in a black suit and dress shirt with no tie or buttons, his hair and beard black and barely tamed.
Type: Role (formerly a higher spirit)
- Borrowin' Samedi: While his skin color is never mentioned, his role as the judge of death, the gatekeeper, and as governing psychopomps, coupled with his Sharp-Dressed Man outfit, clearly evoke this archetype.
- Creepy Good: He embodies death, among other things, but he's generally fair and even-handed; he agreed with the girls to avoid seeking Edith's death, and stuck around to calm things down afterwards even though it wasn't required and they hadn't thought to formally request it.
- Don't Fear the Reaper: While death falls into his domain, he serves a necessary role and seems to pursue it fairly.
- The Dreaded: Edith, who had been gearing for a fight, surrenders immediately as soon as she sees the girls have brought him in.
- Dream Weaver: Part of the Sable's purview is the dream world.
- Judge, Jury, and Executioner: As part of his role as a Judge; while the role obviously entails Exactly What It Says on the Tin, it also includes holding the power to personally execute his judgments (though he implies he's capable of enforcing them from afar without being physically present.)
- Reasonable Authority Figure:
- He goes out of his way to be fair to the girls, and gives them extensive advice on how to pursue their case or about what they can do if things go wrong. He's also the only Judge to apologize to the Trio for John's death.
- Downplayed later, when his "warning" for Verona accidentally blocking the entrance to the Carmine Contest is to teleport her in front of a group of hostile Witch Hunters without any cover to hide behind.
- Spock Speak: While Pale as a whole runs on Exact Words, judges like the Sable Prince are particularly focused on it as part of their job description; and he in particular hates ambiguity or discussions of emotion, immediately pointing out any hints of wavering in anything anyone says.
The Alabaster Doe
One of the Roles of Ontario, a deer-shaped Other believed to represent helping those who need it. She is the oldest of the current Judges.
Type: Role
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She takes in people who really need help for as long as they need it... but as it later turns out, she's been doing the bare minimum for this for generations, only protecting those who can deliberately seek her out. On top of this, she intentionally uses them as human shields to protect herself, having essentially made them her cult.
- Cruel Mercy: After telling Lucy that Guillherme isn't quite as fond of her as she is of him, she states that sometimes mercy can be the worst cruelty there is.
- Dirty Business: Admits that other Alabasters would probably be aghast at her using her charges to protect her as human shields, but most of the other Alabasters had been killed and skinned long ago, so she considers it worth it.
- Eldritch Location: Reaching her domain requires traveling for a day into uninhabited places and asking for help, but once you enter you're free to stay as long as you please in return for being kind, gentle, and protecting it/her since as an embodiment of Mercy, she can't harm others even if they wish her harm.
- Face Death with Dignity: While she shows shock at the concept that she'll die, she doesn't bother cowering or bargaining, and apart from telling her replacement that the Seat will destroy them before Lucy shoots her, goes out with some degree of grace.
- Had to Be Sharp: The Alabaster's role is normally considered the easiest to acquire since the holder can't fight back. This Alabaster has held their role the longest out of all the Judges, mainly due to having the flexibility to rely on her charges for protection and the curses given to those who unjustly harm the Alabaster.
- Jerkass to One: Provided that they're capable of reaching her, she's willing to open her realm to everyone except the forsworn, who she deems as being unworthy of her mercy.
- The Marvelous Deer: Her true form is that of a gigantic white deer, one that towers over mountains.
- Mortality Phobia: The girls accuse her of being so focused on maintaining her own life, that it's gotten her stuck in her ways and caused her to neglect her duties as Alabaster.
- Murder by Inaction: The girls consider her responsible for John's death, and everything terrible that follows, because she chose not to mention or do anything about the ephemeral bird allowing it to take the ring used to control Yalda and sealing John's fate.
- Shapeshifter: Can switch between her true giant deer form and a giant, white-haired woman wearing deer furs.
- Time Abyss: She's been around since before there was a Canada, and if one of her flock is correct, she may have been around before there were even humans in the New World, which would imply that at minimum she's more than 20,000 years old.
- This Cannot Be!: She reacts with shock when Ontario's personification chooses to agree with the girl's assessment that she's been doing a terrible job as a Judge, and that she's about to die very shortly.
The Aurum Coil
One of the Roles of Ontario, governing wealth fortune, and progress. He appears as a young teen, about thirteen years old, with straight dark hair, wearing what looks like a glittering gold silk bathrobe, and rides around on the head of a giant golden centipede. He is the youngest of the Judges at the start of the story.
Type: Role (Formerly practitioner and familiar fusion)
- The Almighty Dollar: He's effectively a god of wealth, and has the ability to turn people into coinage.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Him and the Carmine Exile end up being the primary antagonists of Pale's climax, as the Aurum agrees to safeguard his Crucible to preserve his own life.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The Innocent perceive him as just a very large centipede, and he rides atop a giant golden centipede.
- Creepy Centipedes: He is closely associated with centipedes and rides around on one. He also smiles while telling Reid there's no way out of the battle for the Throne without winning or getting unmade.
- Laser-Guided Karma: His ultimate fate. He sides with the Carmine faction and committed terrible deeds in order to live forever. He ultimately gets his wish, but only as a Sealed Evil in a Duel with no domain or authority, endlessly struggling against the empty shell of the very Carmine whose evil actions he enabled.
- Mortality Phobia: He's obsessed with maintaining his own life, well aware that the Aurum role has the highest turnover rate of all four. It's why he chooses to throw his lot in with the Carmine faction, deeming them the most likely to help him live longer.
- Out of Focus: Receives the least attention of all the Judges at the beginning of the story, but by the climax he starts gaining more prominence.
- Was Once a Man: Was originally a practitioner named Ryan who'd managed to fuse with their city spirit familiar before taking on the Role in order to escape being chased by an Incarnation of Luck.
- Would Hurt a Child: Francis is under 16, but that doesn't stop the Aurum Coil from turning him into coinage for interrupting the Carmine Throne battle.
Post Carmine Contest
Following the events of the Carmine tournament, there's a shakeup in the Judge lineup.
The Carmine Exile (Unmarked Spoilers)
Type: Role (Formerly forsworn practitioner)
The Carmine Beast's replacement as Judge.
For more, see Charles Abrams' section here.
The Alabaster Assembly (Unmarked Spoilers)
A regional spirit of Ontario, replacing the Alabaster Doe as Judge after she is deemed no longer fit for the Role.
Type: Role (Formerly regional spirit)
- Anthropomorphic Personification: They're a regional spirit of Ontario, comprised of most of Ontario's humans, and it's more intelligent Others, but shaped so that she's not influenced by their worst qualities.
- Eyeless Face: She has flowers where eyes would be on a person, representing Ontario's Other influence. The type of flower changes based on what she's looking at.
- Good is Not Nice: They may be an embodiment of Mercy willing to give shelter to all who need it, but they're also rather terse in personality.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: Can invoke this on people in her territory, preventing the last Alabaster's most fanatical followers from killing themselves following her death.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: They're not exactly nice, and makes it clear to the Kennet trio that they're not allies, but they want enough of the same things that they're allied more often than not.
Carmine Contestants
The numerous contestants vying to replace the Carmine Beast as Judge.
Ongvarg
Type: Ephemeral Alpha
Leader of a pack of Ephemeral Animals, Maricica secretly made a deal with them.
- Deal with the Devil: Trades his life and the lives of most of the animals in his pack so that his human children can be taken care of in the fae courts.
- Self-Sacrifice Scheme: He joins the contest not to win, but to help set the stage for John to lose.
- Papa Wolf: Literally, a doglike Other who's fighting for a better future for his children.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Like most of the throne contestents, he dies irrevocably in the same volume where he's introduced.
Cagerattler
Formerly known as Cole Olson, a bogeyman consisting of a man's skeleton fused with a metal cage, his own father Lucas trapped inside.
Type: Bogeyman (Deep Abyssal [Cole] & Abyssal Pearl [Lucas])
- The Bully: Was an absolute terror as a child in ways ranging from pranks to assault.
- Caged Inside a Monster: Cagerattler is a bogeyman consisting of a man's skeleton fused with a metal cage containing the man's own father.
- Deader than Dead: They choose to surrender, and so are destroyed completely.
- Dem Bones: A skeleton-based bogeyman.
- Dragged Off to Hell: Cole dragged Lucas into the Abyss, but wound up there himself and Lucas refused to leave him.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In their final moments before getting unmade, Cagerattler cannot understand why, despite being in a position to free himself by stabbing Cagerattler in the heart located within reach at the top of the cage, and having every reason to do so, Lucas chooses not to because he still loves Cole as his son. For his part, Lucas admits to not understanding his wicked son either internally, but says nothing as they get reduced to nothing.
- Flunky Boss: Is assisted by a group of fellow bogeymen while fighting the Witch Hunters, who Cagerattler summons by using his chains to pull them out from the Abyss.
- Had to Come to Prison to Be a Crook: Cole ended up in prison at one point, and it made him even more of a criminal than he was before.
- Happily Adopted: All of Lucas's kids prior were adopted and he and his wife were Good Parents to them, but their one biological child, Cole, was an Enfant Terrible for them.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Lucas has such a strength of character that despite being stuck in the cage for a long time, even after he had long forgotten most of who he was, he failed to be completely changed by the Abyss.
- Morality Chain: His father Lucas, stuck in the cage, allows Cagerattler to drain power from him only if his violence is directed at those who deserve it.
- My Greatest Failure: Lucas feels that he could've done more to prevent his son from becoming the kind of person he eventually became.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: Cagerattler uses Lucas as a power battery, which he allows only as long as Cagerattler directs violence only towards those who deserve it.
- Was Once a Man: Was once a young man known as Cole Olson, who dragged his father into the Abyss but fell in himself. Unlike most bogeymen, who attempt to bring themselves back up to wreak vengeance, Cagerattler chose to dive deeper into the Abyss, only being kept from being completely broken down by his tie to his father.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Like most of the Throne contestants, he dies irrevocably in the same volume where he was introduced.
Faceful
A Mimeisthai that takes part in the contest for the Carmine's throne, noted to have been created relatively recently.
Type: Mimeisthai
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He's slowly torn apart by Breastbiter's goblins, before Breastbiter himself rips him in two.
- Flying Face: He's comprised of just a floating face.
- Really Was Born Yesterday: He was created such a short time ago that he's effectively a child and doesn't really understand that he's volunteered for a battle to the death, and needs simple concepts to be explained to him like a child.
- Man Bites Man: He attacks by biting.
- Meaningful Name: His name's Faceful and he's a giant face.
- Super-Scream: He can scream at defeaning levels.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Dies soon after his introduction.
Breastbiter the Chonk
A goblin formerly of Gerhild's host who seeks to claim the Throne to be free of her.
Type: Goblin
- Affably Evil: Goes out his way to make friendly with several of the contestants, even though he's planning to kill them for the seat.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Gerhild's too much even for him, which is why he's attempting to escape from her. He also assists John against Lauren's demon-tainted familiar, since allowing demonic corruption to spread is too much even for him.
- Breast Attack: His name implies attacking the chest is one of his favorite pastimes, it's a whole shtick with him.
- Enemy Mine: When John has to fight Lauren's demon-tainted familiar, Breastbiter gives him locks of power-infused red hair in order to power up his bullets.
- Friendly Enemy: Seems to honestly like John, and Kennet's plans actually sound interesting to him, but the nature of the contest, combined with the promise he made to Gerhild to allow her free reign if he wins, forces them to fight to the death.
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Makes a point out of noting that he only uses weapons when absolutely necessary, preferring to use his fists for everything else. Being that he's an implied superior goblin, it works out pretty well for him.
- Top-Heavy Guy: Described as having a caricature of a bodybuilder's build, with a massive torso but relatively tiny legs.
- Monster Lord: His name and title imply that he's a superior goblin, if on the lower end, and he has a host of goblin followers helping him.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much: He's a goblin, but he admits to having an appreciation for the darker fae courts, which would be considered unbecoming for one of his kind.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Is introduced in the battle for the throne, where everyone who participates except the winner dies. While he's one of the longer-surviving combatants, he still doesn't last long and dies in the volume where he was introduced.
Lauren Snyder
A practitioner who gets involved in the contest in order to permanently die.
Practice: Divine
- Boom, Headshot!: Francis shoots her in the head, but due to her Familiar, she comes back to life once John defeats it. It takes being shot again and then being thrown by the flaming tree until the time they'd agreed to runs out for Lauren to stay down for good.
- Death Seeker: Seeks to die in order to be rid of her affliction, even if it means being completely unmade, as oblivion is preferable to being fully tainted by a demon.
- Delicate and Sickly: She's noticeably sickly as a result of her demon-tainted familiar and nearly collapses several times, and states that the power she gets from her goddess is the only thing keeping her alive.
- Familiar: Her familiar is a spirit named Manu, who got infected by a demon, and draws power from the goddess Lauren pledged herself to from the age of fourteen by using Lauren as a conduit.
- Heroic Sacrifice: She entered the contest with the intention of dying and being unmade, so the demonic taint could be dealt with and kept from infecting anything else.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: Lauren's spirit revives her once it dies, and the same proves true the other way around, so just killing herself is not an option.
- Nice Girl: She's one of the nicest people there and even manages to briefly bond with Reid despite the nature of the contest.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Like most of the throne contestants, she dies irrevocably in the same volume where she's introduced.
Other Others
Der Schweinehundmann
A German-speaking bogeyman attracted to Kennet after the arrival of Bristow's Aware who controls a sounder of pigs and pack of dogs.
Type: Bogeyman
- The Beastmaster: Keeps around a pack of dogs and a sounder of pigs he controls.
- Card-Carrying Villain: When a helpful woman says that people are basically good while he is nearby, his response is ick bin nicked gutnote - "I am not good."
- Degraded Boss: He returns in Arc 22, attacking the girls and some captives at Maricica's behest. Verona, hosting Enginehead, pastes him in one line.
- Full-Frontal Assault: He's clothed at first, but he loses all his clothes when he teleports and what's left of the animal's hide left clinging to him isn't enough to protect his modesty.
- Gratuitous German: All of his dialogue is in German. Or more accurately, in phonetic German to represent how Avery, the current viewpoint character, doesn't actually understand the words he's saying.
- Malevolent Masked Man: He wears a pig's face as a mask, stapled on over his own. Each time he teleports, the mask changes to the face of the most recent animal he tore his way out of.
- Resurrective Immortality: Like any bogeyman, every time he dies the Abyss will spit him back out eventually.
- Sinister Swine: A hostile German-speaking bogeyman who wears a mask that's actually a pig's face stapled to his own, and has control over a sounder of pigs.
- Staff of Authority: Carries a skewer with a baby pig on it like a scepter. It's, if not the source of his influence over dogs and pigs, linked to it given how it still seems to be alive and vomits maggots when injured.
- Undignified Death: The goblins deal one out to him, courtesy of... well, being goblins given free reign to kill.
- Villain Teleportation: He can teleport through his herd, vanishing and reappearing by tearing his way out of any of his pigs or dogs.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Dies in the same chapter where he's introduced. He comes back briefly much later, but this time he dies in one line.
The Ballerina in Blue
A friend of Miss, seen on the Promenade, and native to Falling Oak Avenue.
Type: Lost
- Big Damn Heroes: She appears to defend Miss when Anthem attacks her shortly after Kennet Found is established.
- The Dreaded: Jude is notably afraid of her due to her infamy from killing so many Finders, and worries when Avery lands next to her.
- The Faceless: Always faces away from whoever is looking at her, even while spinning.
- Hero Killer: Notorious for killing Finders on Falling Oak Avenue.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Miss implies that her murderous nature on Falling Oak Avenue is just what the rules of that Path require of her; when Avery encounters her on the Promenade instead, she's helpful and answers her questions.
The Wolf
A Lost who is a major part of the Forest Ribbon Trail.
Type: Lost
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Inverted. The Wolf takes on a form people aren't comfortable with at all, and is unique to every person. Avery sees an old woman, John sees a practitioner, and Brie sees Yalda.
- The Dreaded: The Wolf is feared by everyone on the Paths, Lost and practitioner alike (except, apparently, for other mass-murdering Lost) for how dangerous they are. Avery and the Garricks are willing to brave danger and possible death in any number of ways on the Paths, but when they get a warning the Wolf will soon arrive on the Promenade, they immediately start pulling back to get out in time.
- Implacable Man: Even John struggles to shift them as they tear up the Promenade after Avery, and as a human, they chased after Hazel for decades on the Paths.
- Non-Indicative Name: Although they're called The Wolf, and a literal wolf is among the forms they can take, they can appear as just about anything those who observe them find unsettling.
- Outside-Context Problem: When the Wolf appears on the Station Promenade, they can move even when the clocks are stopped, which throws everything out of whack for the Finders and allies.
- Would Hurt a Child: Apart from wanting to kill Avery, as a human they killed Hazel's daughter from her first marriage.
The Milkmaid
A Bogeyman who preys on humans to turn them into cow/human hybrids to milk.
Type: Bogeyman
- Body Horror: She inflicts it on the people she catches by putting them in stalls, nailing and chaining them in place, and then sewing cow skins around them, turning them into cow/human hybrids she constantly tortures for the fear and pain-laden milk they produce.
- Booby Trap: She does this to the area around her farm, warping and moving things to serve as traps for any humans who stumble in- a rock on the road will puncture a tire, a seemingly-intact floorboard will break if someone steps on it, a solid patch of ground will turn someone's ankle.
- Canon Immigrant: She was first discussed in a Reddit comment and had one minor appearance in Poke, before finally making her proper debut in Pale.
- Emotionless Girl: She never smiles or shows any emotion, apart from annoyance when the Alabaster Doe introduces her as the Milkmaid.
- Hates Being Nicknamed: Implied to not actually like the "Milkmaid" moniker, as when the Alabaster introduces her as such, she gives them an intense look before the Alabaster amends to calling her "Clara Tucker".
- Implacable Man: Stab her, she won't even wince. Fight her, you'll buy a few seconds at the most. If she gets her hands on you, you're fucked, barring luck or a miracle. It's noted by Verona that she's not especially stronger than a normal human, but is more capable of bursts of strength and speed that most people can only do as acts of desperation powered by adrenaline.
- Resurrective Immortality: Toadswallow tells Verona that he's never tried to kill her because being a Bogeyman means that even if he succeeds she'll just come back from the Abyss with both a scar and a grudge eventually.
- The Speechless: Appears to be entirely mute.
- They Look Just Like Everyone Else!: Part of what makes the Milkmaid so effective and scary is that unlike a lot of Others, she looks like a perfectly ordinary human woman who happens to be wearing simple, if a tad archaic clothes (a homespun dress, a calfskin cap and a leather apron). When Raphael and his friends fell prey to her traps, they initially willingly handed a friend over to her because they thought she'd come to help them.
- Was Once a Man: Was once known as Clara Tucker before becoming a bogeyman, and still considers herself such.
The Page of Suns
A powerful being said to appear when someone approaches the unprecedented or when one is about to fall victim to the Paths. Noted to have a sun for a head.
Type: Lost
- Celestial Body: Has a sun for a head and wears a suit with buttons that appears like the night sky.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Is said to appear differently to all who see them, but they always wear a sun-themed mask.
- Vocal Dissonance: Hazel notes that despite his out there appearance, his voice is actually pretty ordinary sounding.
Sockgnash
An outside goblin brought in by Toadswallow to help with the goblin market. Notably has a broken chainsaw fused into his shoulder and back by scar tissue.
Type: Goblin (likely mid-tier)
- The Big Guy: Lucy describes him as so big he puts Bluntmunch, himself much larger than a man, to shame.
- Chainsaw Good: The chainsaw fused into his shoulder isn't just there for decoration, it serves as a weapon as well. According to Bubbleyum he got it when someone attempted to drive it into him, only for it to be stopped by his skin.
- Early-Bird Cameo: First appeared in Poke under his real name, Cockgnash.
- Smarter Than You Look: He's big and ugly, but Bubbleyum mentions he's much smarter than he appears.
Kennet Invaders
The Bathos
An Animal from the Abyss that invades Kennet with other Others.
Type: Bathos
- It Can Think: Subverted. The Trio learn that it's more akin to a wild animal than a thinking being as they deal with it.
- Monster Is a Mommy: It planned to use Kennet as a nesting ground for it's brood.
- Sinister Car: Takes the form of one to hide from innocents and stalk the trio.
- The Brute: Serves as the Muscle of the Kennet invaders, being the strongest of the four.
The Lout
A Jockey that invades Kennet with other Others.
Type: Jockey
- Body Snatcher: The Lout possesses people who are drunk enough.
Bridge
A Watch that possesses people and makes them do crime.
Type: Jockey
- Body Snatcher: Bridge's basic method of operation; anyone who the watch can slip onto gets possessed.
- Miscarriage of Justice: Bridge was created when a police officer mutilated a man's hands so he'd more accurately look like a perp to a witness lineup.
