Gather round, children. Let me tell you a tale.
As you probably know, the world is populated by not only humans, but also a myriad of other strange beings. We have Angels, the shining and righteous protectors of the innocents that reside high up in Heaven or, as I like to call it, Lord's Domain. There are Luciferians, a horrible and ruthless group of demons led by Angels that have fallen for their maliciousness and therefore lead their sacrilege campaign against the world. Finally there are Fae which arrived on this planet first and come in variety of shapes and sizes. Their personalities are as different as they are.
And finally we have the newest addition to this group of sentients: humanity.
Ever since Lord has given up his life to breathe a spark of existence into the first human, their kind strived through the misfortune and hardships to conquer the world for themselves, fighting off Luciferians and Fae alike... sometimes not even Angels were safe. Eventually humanity began fighting with one another. Even today, in year 2000, so long after the creation of first human, they have not let go of their grudges and keep antagonizing everyone, even themselves. Sometimes it makes me wonder if my old friend did the right thing after all, though these are just passing thoughts. I've learned my lession in that regard.
In any case, this is a special year. On that year eight young men and women shall be born to combat great evil, also born on that year. You see... beyond humanity, Fae, Angels and Demons there exists a fifth race that rarely had left their domain before. Only madmen or people powerful enough dare to venture into the dreadful dark and plea for Abyss' help... but it will be stopped. I'm certain. The main question however is, which one of the Eight will survive to tell the tale... and which ones shall be claimed by Death's cold hand?
With that little introduction out of the way, I, the writer, welcome you to my still-in-progress universe that, I dare to say, existed a longer while already in some indefinite shape. Hoping to finally put some more coherence into this.
Children of the Millennium is an Urban Fantasy place with a lot of Shonen-inspired mix thrown in. The set of main characters, called simply The Eight, is choke-full of unusual individuals destined to combat the great evil of Abyss, although at the cost of their own lives. One after another Children will perish until only one of them stands victorious. Neither them nor the great evil are aware of the prophecy, at least early on. In-between combatting the unknown they still, however, must put up with Luciferians and Angels trying to profit away with their own schemes, not to mention various third parties and the like.
...there's a lot of characters in this.
Some General Tropes applying to the universe in question:
- Angels, Devils and Squid: The big conflict that persists through the story in the background and sometimes has characters get tangled in it:
- Heavens are Angels: lawful and righteous self-proclaimed defenders of mankind. It does help that humanity is in better contacts with them than Luciferians. On the flip side however, their elites hide many morally questionable characters, ranging from ambiguous(Akrasiel) to downright unpleasant(Areus, Michael). It also has the biggest amount of Abyss Knights in it.
- Luciferians are Devils: a bunch of warmongering beasts that Rape, Pillage, and Burn their way through the realms. A mere basic Mook has a chainsaw for a primary weapon and in general they're much cooler-looking/armored than their angelic counterparts. The elites aren't that bad of people too.
- Abyss is the Squid: a bunch of beings of incomprehensible origin that don't seem capable of understanding anyone but themselves, mindlessly devouring everything in their way.
The Eight
Our heroes, ladies and gentlemen.
As the name implies, there are eight of these extraordinary teenagers. All of them were born in year 2000 and chosen by winds of fate to be a part of the ancient prophecy to combat great evil of Abyss. However, all of them but one will perish in the process. The sacrifice to defeat the dark requires seven deaths, after all.
General Tropes applying to The Eight:
- Exact Words: Children's sacrifice to defeat the evil of Abyss requires seven deaths. Not necessarily seven people, something which Alexander exploits to take place of another.
- Blood Knight: He really enjoys fighting though perhaps not to extent of Kim. His particular favorites are scuffles with Alexander.
- Elemental Powers: Has control over all four elements together, known also as Tetra.
- Good Feels Good: His personal philosophy.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Milo.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Not necessarily. The sole reason for Marcus to pick up a katana was that it looked cool enough in his eyes. As such, his technique leaves a lot to be desired, since he is less about slashing and more about whacking wildly with it.
- Nice Guy: A polite and compassionate individual, just about bordering on All-Loving Hero.
- Official Couple: With Kate. They eventually get married and have two children.
- Scarf of Asskicking: Like with the katana, he picked it up for the cool factor.
- Badass Normal: Compared to the rest of Eight he has no powers other than his own training and pragmatism. Even Tsuyoshi develops a ki-esque technique while Alexander stays in the same position and still manages to be one of the most dangerous of the group. Except there is something he delierately hid all this time...
- Dual Wielding: His primary weapon is a pair of crimson cleavers although most of the time he prefers to fight barehanded.
- I Am Not Left-Handed: Though ruthless, Alexander generally doesn't like to kill, preferring to fight with his two arms and legs or, if the opponent is serious enough, with the dull side of the blades. If the opposition proves too powerful or beyond redemption however, he will swiftly change to the sharp side and go all-out.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How he dies for the first time, courtesy of Midnight.
- Jerkass: The "smugly polite" kind. He addresses his peers properly, but the condescension behind his voice makes it hard to take his words as genuine.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He does care about his friends however, even if he doesn't show it too much. Care enough to take a bullet for them and effectively give destiny a finger.
- Doom Magnet: Skirts the line between the two. Unfortunate incidents happen to follow him wherever he goes. It turns out Daeva marked him with his magic, both to hone his skills on increasingly stronger opponents, so that he can be fully prepared for the incoming fight against Abyss... and to amuse himself watching him flailing around.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: Carries a sawn-off with himself as a back-up weapon.
- Thanatos Gambit: The prophecy states that seven deaths must be dealt before Abyss is defeated. That doesn't mean seven people and Alexander, being already dead, takes the attack meant for Marcus which completes the prophecy and allows the latter to deal a killing blow to Midnight.
- Blow You Away
- Deadpan Snarker: She has her moments, particularly when she's struggling to keep up with Marcus and/or Milo's train of thought.
- Meaningful Name: "Galeforce". Three guesses as to what can she do, first two don't count.
- The Medic: Just like her ancestors, she too is an accomplished healer, capable even of raising the dead although she chooses not to.
- Combat Medic: Her ability to command wind gives her an effective way of self-defense whenever she gets jumped. She still lags behind everybody but Sammy, but she can at least defend herself properly.
- Official Couple: With Marcus. They later get married and have two children.
- Animal Battle Aura: Battle Beast Kim has a faint shape of a wolf.
- D-Cup Distress: She's not happy with her chest at all.
- Good Old Fisticuffs
- Lightning Bruiser: Physically she's the single strongest of the Eight, easily eclipsing the others in that regard with her inhuman resistance to damage, equally disgusting strength and agility. This gets even further amped up when in Battle Beast form.
- Meaningful Name: "Ironfist". It doesn't get any better than this.
- Sanity Slippage: She doesn't take Milo and Megumi's deaths well. Luckily she gets better.
- Super-Strength: Strong enough to punt a man through a concrete wall.
- Tranquil Fury: Compared with Tsuyoshi who's a lot more vocal about raging, the most one can get from Kim is a Death Glare and a well-placed Precision F-Strike.
- Unstoppable Rage: Degenerates into this during her second-to-last fight with Goldbaum which allows him to fight on even terms despite the massive power-up of Battle Beast, coming close to almost killing her.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer…: Her general fight plan amounts to "run up to and punch/kick the enemy".
- Cards of Power: His weapon alongside the revolver. They can either summon monsters or simply explode in one's face in one way or another. Their effects are entirely random and tend to surprise everyone present, even Milo himself.
- Cowardly Lion: Out of the Eight he's usually the first one to lose confidence when confronting anything beyond Mooks. He's, however, always there when he's needed.
- The Gambler
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Marcus.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: Carries one as his backup weapon.
- Sharply Dressed Man: Almost never seen without his trademark green suit.
- Non-Action Guy: In a stark contrast to the rest of the Eight, Sammy has no combat ability beyond basics of karate and therefore sits out all major fights.
- Renaissance Man: To make up for her lack of combat ability Sammy does a whole lot of other stuff: she can draw, work with machines, is a talented hacker, a master photographer, sings and plays piano like a champ etc. She had a lot of time to learn all these.
- Walking Spoiler: Let's say that her true powers are not what you would expect.
Luciferians
Creations of Lucifer, The First Fallen Angel.
Ever since he's been cast away and corrupted by The Cause of Evil Lucifer grew obsessed with destroying everything that God has created, humanity included. To this end he gave birth to a new brand of creatures, simply called Luciferians. While the original few of Luciferians were created on his will alone, another ones needed to have some sort of fuel inside them... and so, they began hunting down humans, so that they can retrieve their souls and put them in empty Luciferian shells to give them life.
Luciferians' main base of residence is the other half of Purgatorio they've managed to win over countless fights with Angels from which they access the human world by being transported in by portals or, if powerful enough, willing themselves in there. The man in charge, Alastor, is rarely seen, prefering to leave the work to his Four Generals and special units under his direct jurisdiction. Generals themselves command huge armies of Mooks although when the need arises they shall jump on the action on their own.
Four Generals
Luciferians' main command group. These four have been hand-picked by Alastor after Lucifer's disappearance and the subsequent dissolving of his general cast, usually because they can back up their words... and these are some powerful words.
General Tropes applying to Four Generals:
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: They're the very top of the food chain in Purgatorio and for a good reason. Somewhat subverted by Himler who, despite being a capable fighter and a good tactician, doesn't seem to be as strong as his peers. Unless you push him too far.
- Anti-Villain: Type I. He holds no grudge against the heroes or even Heavens - guys he's supposed to hate as a First General - and cares a lot about keeping things as civil as they can get in such a conflict. That said, he acknowledges himself as a villain and doesn't pull any punches.
- Badass Army: Damonisch SS. Compared to Purgatorio Regiments, these guys don't screw around.
- Father to His Men: No matter who, all his soldiers are his companions and he will carry them on his back if need to.
- Noble Demon
- Those Wacky Nazis: Both now and before his death. Somewhat subverted, since he was a part of Wehrmacht and never took any activity in party's deviations. People still confuse him and his peers for one though. Might be something to do with his army being called Damonisch SS.
- Bald of Evil
- Big Bad: While it's not readily apparent, what's with Midnight being a General of Alastor, it is him that the prophecy mentions as "great evil". He laters bails out on Luciferians with his entourage, which makes him a more obvious example... maybe.
- Casting a Shadow: His primary means of offense other than summoning Abyssians.
- Dying as Yourself
- Evil Wears Black: Is dressed in a suit so black it seems almost uniform.
- Humanoid Abomination: It's clear to everyone that Midnight only looks human and isn't one, a Luciferian or even a Fae. True to form, he's basically the purest Abyss coated in a human body.
- That Man Is Dead: "Martin Hammerstone is long gone."
- Tome of Eldritch Lore: Never seen without a small, leatherbound booklet he's reading at almost every opportunity. Nobody is quite sure just what exactly is that, but the trope in question seems most probable to all observers, considering Midnight's command over Abyss.
- Blood Knight: She really enjoys a good scrap. Her particular favorites are scuffles with Uriel, mostly because of how similarly the two fight.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Her combat attire is a jet-black suit with a toxic green tie, complete with gloves.
- Playing with Fire: Not any normal fire, but Hellfire too.
- Succubi and Incubi: True to her heritage of First Succubus, whenever she's not kicking asses.
- Boke and Tsukkomi Routine: Boke to YMIR's Tsukkomi although he's less dumb and more insufferable.
- I Shall Taunt You: Compared to other Generals, Blackwell loves Trash Talking their opponents into complete infuriation, particularly when he has a solid back behind him.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Right down to a Glass of Chianti.
- Necromancer
- Smug Snake: While no slouch in combat, Blackwell's main source of confidence comes from having various meticulous plans, all of them based on his more powerful allies. Left to his own devices he starts to panic. Hope manages to firmly hand his ass to him in their fight.
- Ace Custom: Has two unique machines he pilots to give him some extra edge against his opposition: Kugelblitz, roughly based on Kugelpanzer
, but much, much more jacked up suited for ground combat and Zalamander which is a Heinkel He 162, also on extra steroids for aerial combat. Then there's the third one, a skeleton-shaped giant mecha. - Bloody Horror: His insides are on full display ever since he was Gutted Like a Fish as a human by Sonia. The view is disturbing enough. The fact that Goldbaum had learned how to effectively strangle people with his own intestines doesn't help one bit either.
- The Dragon: Himler's personal assistant and right-hand-man.
- Implacable Man: Compared to other top units of Alastor Goldbaum has no extraordinary powers other than being highly proficient in combat. He, however, won't stay down, period. Anything thrown at him can only mildly inconvenience him at best. Being blown up inside his own tank puts him down only for a short while. Getting shot off the air? Merely a flesh wound.
- Mad Scientist: While no longer endorsing this image, his past was rather shady. He's the one responsible for creating Sonia Flayer and, well, torturing countless other prisoners to engineer an artificial "superhuman". He's still rather proficient in science and uses it to his advantage when fighting.
- Malevolent Masked Man: Never seen without his heavy lead gasmask. It breaks once Kim delivers the finishing blow and kills him.
- Swiss-Army Appendage: Goldbaum's right artificial hand can be replaced either with Hook Hand or a more combat-suited blade.
Angels
The guardians of peace and knights in shining armors. That is how they portray themselves, at least. Angels.
Before humanity God created an entire caste of servants that would be responsible for creating the world alongside him and taking care of it as its guardians. This first generation of angels was created purely by Lord's own power and is often known to the public as "Origin Angels". However, Lucifer's riot gathered a large amount of followers and the subsequent riot by Azazel's hand thinned out the populace of these even more. To countermeasure this, a new generation of Angels was created: not quite as powerful, but easier to handle. By today's time most Origin Angels have descended into madness, known simply as The Fallen. They're rarely seen, but every single one of them is mind-boggingly dangerous even at their weakness. It's a good thing they usually keep to themselves.
Current Heaven is managed by Chief Council consisting of five Archangels and Sammael, a mysterious Origin Angel overlooking them.
Chief Council
Five Archangels that keep Heaven as organized as possible. Each of them has a specific role to fulfill and they're all pretty good at what they do. While Gabriel is the official leader of the Council, almost all decisions are first discussed with Sammael first.
General Tropes applying to Chief Council:
- Dysfunction Junction: Apart from Gabriel, Chief Council consists of a General Ripper with an almost pathological hatred of humanity, insensitive time mage with some extreme OCD, a bloodthirsty pyromaniac and a disgruntled, cynical jackass. The mere fact that aforementioned pyromaniac is the nicest out of the four speaks volumes of Chief Council's general mental state.
- Rank Scales with Asskicking: Not to Four Generals' extent, but all of them sans Raphael can kick copious amounts of butt in battle, particularly Michael and Uriel. The latter at the same time subverts this however, as he doesn't have that much of an actual authority to begin with.
- The Musketeer: Fancies himself that way, being armed with a rapier and a flintlock pistol.
- Nice Guy: Compared to his peers, Gabriel is genuinely polite and well-meaning, if a little silly at times. That said, if there's a need to step in, he will personally deal with whatever trouble there might be. Such as leading what's left of Heavens' army in Michael's absence.
- Reality Warper: As an Archangel of Miracles, he's able to create almost anything he can think of, on a whim.
- BFG: A 20mm caliber minigun with seven barrels, loaded with holy ammunition. There's also a three-barreled pistol as a back-up weapon.
- BFS: A giant curved blade with five spikes on its blade, easily longer than most characters are taller. He wields it one-handed.
- Coat Cape: Wears his military jacket that way.
- Hammerspace: The one frightening thing about Michael is that he doesn't have neither his giant blade nor his minigun on his person, but rather summons them when the time is high.
- Large and in Charge: Stands at whooping 9' 9''[297 cm, to be precise] and happens to be the head leader of Heavens' army.
- Multiple-Choice Past: It's unknown how Ritter came to be. Two popular theories assume that he's either a suit of Animated Armor or an Ascended Demon. Nobody comments on the matter.
- The Speechless: Incapable of speech in any shape or form.
- Posthumous Character: Still around, but in a form of a mindless sphere of light.
Freelancers
Various third party characters, usually mercenaries of all shapes and sizes.
General Tropes applying to Freelancers:
- Cold Sniper
- Dem Bones: Fully skeletal.
- Dark and Troubled Past: The girl has some issues. First, her father tried to make her family's life better by bringing Abyss to help. That backfired horribly, obviously, and turned him into a mindless blob of dark that grew so powerful Heavens were forced to intervene and shoot it straight away. Her mother gets gunned down shortly after by the same squad of angels - admiteddly by being a succubus more than anything else - and her younger sister falls victim to a rampaging band of Luciferians. Fast forward to present day and we have an almost genocidally hateful teenager steering a mech and hell-bent on annihilating every trace of all three forces.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Half-succubus, courtesy of her mother. She is not pleased when finally finding out.
- Mini-Mecha: Her weapon of choice, a stout robot armed with a giant spiked mace, tons upon tons of minirockets and able to transform into a wrecking ball.
- Morality Chain: Is this to Crimson Viper. The effect is mutual.
- Nominal Hero
- The Power of Hate: Said to get her going. Is actually so monumentally powerful that it allows her to shut down Midnight's attempt at making her into another Knight of Abyss almost immediately.
- Ace Custom: His giant black chopper that he personally built from the scratch.
- Dem Bones: A skeleton pilot with a truly disturbing smile. Not that he can help it, being a skeleton and all.
- Morality Chain: To Heidi. The effect is mutual.
Other Characters
Various other characters that don't fit into any other folder.
Midnight's Entourage
Three relatively unknown individuals that serve as Midnight's personal guard and minions. They have no affiliation with Luciferians other than their loyalty to the big man himself and often work on their own.
- Eldritch Abomination: It's utterly incomprehensible due to both being and not being present everywhere in the world. It appeared at some point and started geometrically growing in power with each evil deed done until The Catastrophe made it so powerful that not even God could do anything but ignore it.
- As Long as There Is Evil: Due to its feeding on evil - although Daeva theorizes that it has long reached a point of gaining maximum power available - it effectively cannot be killed or even weakened, period.
- Minor Major Character: It has no lines to speak or doesn't make an appearance itself, but its very presence was enough to corrupt Lucifer and create Undead. It's also responsible for giving birth to Abyss.
