InsaneJournal

Example Characters

Aristocrats

Lord Jeffrey Morrison Grimbald III - Last of a doomed line, Jeffrey Morrison Grimbald is the nineteenth Baron Grimbald. Queen Beatrice I created the barony at the end of Reclamation for outstanding service during those troubled years. Since then, the Grimbalds have fallen on hard times: the family is bankrupt and cursed, the ancestral holdings fallen to ruin.

Despite a life of tragedy, including the accidental deaths or suicides of no less than nine members of his extended family, Jeffrey Grimbald has persevered. After his parents were killed in a freak carriage accident, young Jeffrey, penniless and troubled, quit school and joined the Deathwatch where he attained the rank of captain. Years later, he briefly returned to academic life, determined to become a medical doctor. Finding his studies unfulfilling, Jeffrey decided to become a professional adventurer. For the past eight years he has traveled the globe, selling his services to private concerns as a mercenary, scout, and explorer.

Having recently returned to England, Jeffrey is determined to spend the small fortune he has amassed to restore his family seat, Morstane Manor. The manor is located in a particularly blighted region of Keeling Heath off the Norfolk Coast, a place of dread and misery said to be sinking into the marshes. It was here that Jeffrey's great-grandfather went mad and slaughtered the servants before being torn apart by their animated corpses. Morstane Manor was also the site of the bizarre suicide of Jeffrey's Uncle, Dorian Grimbald. Before his death, Dorian swore that under a full moon with all the doors wide open, the walls of the place would reveal great and terrible secrets. Uncle Dorian succumbed to wounds of the face and torso while he attempted to devour his own flesh. The place also saw the deaths of Jeffrey's older brother, a sister-in-law, two nephews, three aunts, and four cousins. Though most killed themselves, Jefferey's brother, Scott Allen; Scott's wife; and their two sons perished in a fire that consumed the east wing.

Work on restoring the house is slow. Local workmen will not go near the place, and those that can be imported either leave the residence refusing to return or suffer tragic accidents.

The Baron Grimbald's striking features give him an unmistakable aristocratic look. He is tall and muscular with a handsome, careworn face. His blond hair hangs long yet is well trimmed and stylish. He is energetic and speaks passionately. Jeffrey Grimbald is a decisive man who is used to taking the initiative, and thus finds himself uncomfortable at society events, preferring the company of his hunting dogs to most people.

Lilliam von Kassl - The daughter of a Prussian baron and diplomat, Lilliam von Kassl is well known to the British aristocracy. Von Kassl immigrated to London with her family in 2086 while her father was on a special mission to negotiate a new treaty with the United Kingdom. Though hostilities escalated in the following years, her family remained in the UK so that her father could continue his work. Lilliam remained in London to attend school when her family returned to Prussia in 2093.

Since that time, Lilliam has clawed her way to the top of Neo-Victorian society. She surrounds herself with sycophants and informants that keep her apprised of events throughout the city and is part of a small group of aristocrats who have vowed to use their combined influence for the betterment of its members. Among her allies are the sons and daughters of nobles, industrialists, and highly placed politicians. Lilliam uses these powerful connections both in London and abroad to help members of her circle reach prominent positions in society. However, she also wields scandal like a scalpel, removing her rivals as fast as they cross her.

Lilliam von Kassl is the picture of poise and confidence. A slight, natural beauty with dark hair and an ageless quality suggesting wisdom beyond her mere twenty-three years, she has left scores of potential suitors ruined in her wake. She speaks in a clear voice touched with an unmistakable German accent. Though most often charming and pleasant, her temper is notorious, and those on the receiving end of her cutting wit avoid her gaze, not to mention her wrath, thereafter.

Lilliam is fragile due to hemophilia and prefers not to be touched. If touched by a stranger, she gets exceedingly upset and reacts most unpleasantly. There is at least one physician who is intimately knowledgeable of her medical condition and will come immediately when summoned if she is in any kind of danger.

Lord Wintanweorth Addison Harkbourne - An aging bureaucrat, statesman, and former Home Secretary, W.A. Harkbourne was created the first Earl Harkbourne in 2098. Though his public service is exemplary, the true extent of Harkbourne's activities may never be known. What is certain is that his legacy is intimately tied to a shadowy government organization known as the Secret Intelligence Bureau.

The Bureau, a joint espionage and counterintelligence initiative of the Admiralty and the War Office intended to control secret intelligence operations in the UK and overseas, does not officially exist and has never been mentioned publicly. Harkbourne's affiliation with this organization constitutes a state secret. Only a few outside the highest levels of Her Magesty's Government know that he headed such an organization from 2083 until the time he retired in 2097. During this time, Harkbourne served as spymaster of the United Kingdom with agents throughout the world. During his tenure, the Bureau was primarily interested in gauging the growing strength of France, Prussia, and the Papal States while maintaining security at home.

The son of the eleventh Baron Harkbourne, Wintanweorth was already a lord by the time of his creation as Earl Harkbourne. He had a spectacular career, first serving in the Royal Navy and later abroad as an agent of the Secret Intelligence Bureau. Returning home, Harkbourne joined Special Brance, applying his counterespionage to track down homegrown anarchists. After his retirement from field duty, he became an MP before serving as Home Secretary. Leaving politics in 2083, he returned to head the Bureau. Now age one hundred and four, Wintanweorth Addison Harkbourne is officially retired, though he still acts as consultant for both the Bureau and CID.

Despite his retirement, Harkbourne is believed to maintain a vast network of informants that keep him apprised of events throughout the Neo-Victorian world and beyond. There is little of consequence that is beyond his notice. From time to time, Harkbourne has been known to interfere with ongoing operations and investigations that catch his fancy. Sometimes he even goes so far as to discreetly interview field agents and detectives about their current cases, offering advice and information for "old time's sake."

W.A. Harkbourne cuts a striking figure. Tall and trim, Harkbourne appears to be in excellent physical condition despite his advanced years. Though his hair has turned white, it remains full, and his eyes are still sharp and penetrating. He speaks with the voice of a man skilled in diplomacy and interrogation, displaying a quick wit and keen sense of humor. Those whom he does not terrify find him to be genuinely likable.

Less obvious to the casual observer is that the earl has a Ticker, an prosthetic heart that forced his retirement nearly a decade ago. That he has lived this long with the device is an extraordinary credit to his endurance, a feat that stuns his physicians. Harkbourne has the practiced habit of winding his Ticker in the midst of interrogations.

Criminals

Detective Howard Barrentine - CID Detective Howard Barrentine is a keen-eyed ghost of a man. The good detective holds aegis over the streets of the East End. Regularly assigned to J Division, Barrentine's territory is Bethnal Green, where he is well respected if not outright feared. He has cultivated close associations with the criminal underworld there and is known to turn a blind eye to petty crime. After hours, he sometimes frequents East End brothels where he occupies his time playing games of chance and gathering intelligence. Though he is little trusted by the uniformed police officers that patrol the East End, Barrentine is a tremendous resource to New Scotland Yard. His extensive knowledge of London's criminal element has lead to breaks in numerous cases that would have gone unsolved without him.

Despite his service record, rumours plague the detective. His detractors complain that Barrentine has been known to shield his closest friends from the law and to provide information to the gangs of the East End. Though there is certainly some truth to these allegations, the rank and file do not realize that Barrentine's trespasses are a well maintained facade intended to give him access to the deepest levels of the criminal underground. He acts with full knowledge and support of his superiors, but even his closest friends are unsure whether Barrentine is thoroughly corrupt or simply doing his job.

In appearance, Barrentine is average in every way, possessing one of those curious faces that seems to elude the memory. He is neither handsome nor ugly. He is of modest height and simple means. His appearance is shabby but not overtly so. His carefully cultivated demeanor is disarming and personable, allowing him to make friends easily. The most remarkable thing about Howard Barrentine is that everyone he associates with knows his identity and occupation, yet they feel free to share the most intimate details of their criminal dealings and sordid lives with the detective.

When he needs a show of force, Barrentine is likely to rely on the constabulary or on muscle acquired from his gangland associates. Howard Barrentine is not a man who likes to get his hands dirty.

Lindsay La Froste - Formerly a denizen of the slums of Whitechapel, Lindsay La Froste has become one of the most proficient cat burglars operating in the West End. Having graduated from petty street crime, she relies on a combination of her own resources and informers looking to make some fast money to break into the homes of the best families and make off with jewels and heirlooms.

La Froste has insinuated herself into the fringes of aristocratic society by posing as an adventuress. Her involvement with a number of the Metropolis' most notorious bachelors provides her with pleasant diversions, a modest income, and a cover for her nocturnal activities. These "friendships" also provide her with access into some of the most heavily guarded estates in the whole of London. Occasionally, these dalliances even provide her with valuable intelligence.

La Froste is a careful thief who never undertakes a job unless she has had time to plan it in thorough detail. She sometimes spends months gathering information, checking the facts, and memorizing the floor plans. After plotting a caper, she waits before acting, observing her target from a distance and quietly laying low to allow suspicion to pass her by. Once everything is to her satisfaction, she acts with cool professionalism, taking only what she came for and leaving before anyone is wise to her presence.

Lindsay La Froste is a beauty of twenty-two with bright blue eyes and an unforgettable smile. Always dressed in the height of fashion, she moves with a practiced poise that completely masks her lower-class origins. When seen in public, she is perpetually on the arm of some well-heeled young aristocrat ready to come to blows to defend her honour.

Mary Ann Walker - Mary Ann Walker is known by a dozen aliases throughout the Metropolis. Within the Family, she is best known as "Bloody Mary", a free agent who sells her services to the highest bidder. Mary is a wanted woman who makes her living as a debt collector and hired killer. She has spent nearly half of her thirty-odd years in various prisons and institutions since she was first sentenced to hard labour at the tender age of twelve.

Feared for her brutality more than her proficiency, Mary first made a name for herself at fourteen when she murdered a rival of her lover, who was a minor East End mob boss, with a hatchet and a lead pipe. Though the murder was never officially solved, word of the incident spread through the criminal underworld, securing her reputation as a stone killer. Three years later, she was locked away for a stint after, armed with an ice pick, she assaulted a prostitute on the street over an unpaid debt. While locked up, she killed three women in a jail-yard dispute, which added several years to her sentence. Upon release, she turned her energies toward refining her raw potential and going into business for herself. In addition to participating in innumerable gang skirmishes and retribution killings, Mary eventually made a name for herself by eradicating the hierarchy of the Stark Fellows gang, who were at one time the terror of Lambeth.

Most recently, she was nearly apprehended attempting to murder a witness in a trial against City financier Winthrop Holmes, a thoroughly disreputable industrialist now serving a twenty-year sentence. In the aftermath, three Metropolitan Police constables were slain, and Mary only barely effected her escape. She is now among the most wanted criminals in the whole of the city, a distinction that she has not allowed to slow her work. Mary spends the majority of her time in hiding but emerges whenever business calls. Her brutality has only intensified with her notoriety, as though she now has nothing to lose.

Despite her rapacious nature, Mary Ann Walker maintains a loyal circle of friends and numerous lovers of both sexes. An attractive, slight, blond woman only five feet in stature, Mary is known for her childlike amusements and infectious laugh. She is a master of using these disarming traits to her advantage, turning from an apparently impish beauty to a cold killing machine in a heartbeat. Despite a powerful loyalty to her long-time friends, she extends no protection to her lovers, which she sacrifices at will. For this reason, any who truly know her keep Bloody Mary at arms' length.

Francis Kestrel aka 'Black Tongue' - Better known in the criminal circles as "Black Tongue", Francis Kestrel is the boss of the Watermen, a dangerous gang that preys on river traffic. Kestrel operates from his seemingly legitimate apothecary near the docks. His shop does a good deal of illegal business and is known to rogue alchemists and reanimators throughout the city.

From that base, Kestrel orchestrates raids and smuggling operations up and down the Thames. He depends on a network of bribed or intimidated river workers to keep informed of other's activities while hiding his own. Unscrupulous river men also keep the back room of his apothecary well stocked with ordinary contraband goods. Kestrel, his men, and his close associates regularly speak in Rhyming Slang.

Kestrel's Watermen are known as fearsome cutthroats who are completely loyal to their leader. This loyalty is, in part, inspired by the threat of a grisly retaliation for betrayal: more than once, Kestrel has experimented with untested compounds on a member of his gang suspected of treachery. Most men would rather rot in prison or take their own lives than turn on Black Tongue. Even his pseudonym reminds those who would cross him of his fate. Kestrel is notorious for utilizing certain rare herbs and noxious chemicals to eliminate his enemies. His alias refers to the stains left on the mouths and lips of his victims after his poisons have done their work.

Kestrel is a giant, standing a good head taller than an ordinary man. His hair is slightly long, but well kept, and his moustache and beard are manicured. Kestrels eyes are perpetually agitated and reddened, giving him a look of constant displeasure and illness. He wears a modified great coat filled with hidden pockets for tools, weapons, and potion bottles. An unnatural chemical odor drifts from the man due to his constant exposure to noxious herbs and compounds.

Dhampir

Cyril Bellamy - A pale wisp of a figure, Cyril Bellamy is among the favoured male prostitutes servicing the theater crowd of Covent Garden. Bellamy is known as a quiet, pretty, unassuming young man with a great number of friends in Neo-Victorian society. Among his many associations can be counted artists, aristocrats, criminals, and politicians who value both his discretion and company. Bellamy is a keen observer who can give excellent council in times of need, but secretly, he is also a valued informant who regularly trades information with Metropolitan Police detectives in exchange for protection and favours.

Like many prostitutes, Bellamy contracted vampirism from a client. He survived and adapted quickly to the changes wrought by the disease. Instead of succumbing to the hatred and melancholy that plagues many others of his kind, Bellamy simply returned to his chosen profession, which was now even more profitable due to his newly exotic appearance.

Despite his apparent good nature, Cyril Bellamy possesses a great cunning and the wild passions of a Dhampir. Those who cross him in business or in love come to feel his full wrath. When roused in anger, he has been known to turn to both physical violence and social machinations to make his displeasure known.

Generally, he operates through intermediaries, but he has killed at least one rival with his bare hands, a crime that was covered up with the help of his friends with the CID.

Cyril is a tall, thin man who appears to be in his early twenties. His extraordinary grace and near-perfect fluid motions set him apart from humanity. When seen in public, the Dhampir is always dressed in the height of fashion. Bellamy prefers to wear a brass and leather respirator outdoors, as much out of style and habit as to keep clean.

Mariel Vanbrugh - Mariel Vanbrugh is a no-nonsence, ice-cold professional, and her business is killing vampires. She once aspired to become a major financial power broker, but after a feral vampire attack left her near death in a rundown hospice, her life was changed forever. Having beaten the vampiric infection, she was approached by agents of the Noctuary while convalescing.

Originally the organization intended to use her specialized knowledge and web of contacts to fund its operations, but Mariel had other ideas. She agreed to the Noctuary's offer of membership, but her intentions were to fight on the front lines rather than act as a broker for back room business dealings. Once she recovered, Vanbrugh focused completely on transforming herself into a living weapon, the perfect vampire hunter. Today, she is a proven field agent who has aided in the destruction of dozens of vampires, including three she extinguished personally. Should she ever manage to put her anger behind her, Mariel Vanbrugh could ascend to the highest levels of the organization, but for now, she is merely counted as one of its most proficient soldiers.

Vanbrugh is a reserved young woman of twenty-four with a stern disposition and hard eyes. Though her youth is genuine and not an illusion of her altered biology, she is clearly aged beyond her years. At all times she moves with purpose, and those who can not keep up are left behind. She is all business when on the job. Between the layers of armour and array of weapons, her battle dress leaves little question of her profession. Her off hours are spent in constant agitation, as though the world moves too slow for the consummate killer.

Alexios Demarchis - Alexios Demarchis is a wanderer and professional vampire hunter. A citizen of the Greco-Turkish Republic, Demarchis was raised in a fortified village located on the Laconian plain of southern Greece. Born a Dhampir, his life has been shaped by tragedy. His father, a native vrykolakas (as Greek vampires are known), was extinguised by an angry mob before Demarchis was born. The villages considered Demarchis unclean, so he was raised in virtual solitude by his uncle, a veteran soldier who made his livelihood by hunting vampires and animates.

While on a hunt with his uncle at age fifteen, Demarchis destroyed his first vampire, but not before the creature slew his beloved uncle. Gripped by wanderlust and despair, Demarchis returned his uncle's remains to their home and bade his mother goodbye. For the next thirty years, he traveled the Continent, selling his services wherever they were required. He has hunted feral vampires in Greece, Bohemia, Anatolia, the Low Countries, and within the territories of the Prussian Empire. He single-handedly ended the Valsassina legacy of Salzburg. Demarchis finally made his home within the walls of London, where he prospered in the years that followed.

Though he is over fifty years old, Demarchis scarcely looks a day over thirty. His facial features are sharp and hawkish, though handsome. He peers out at life with brooding, discerning eyes that can blaze with a threatening intensity. His skin is remarkably dark for a Dhampir, a quality he attributes to his strong blood and years of travel. Demarchis always dresses fashionably and is known to keep lovers among the adventuresses that service the higher classes. He is as likely to be found in the company of the aristocracy as he is to be making his way through the streets of the Metropolis on another deadly hunt.

Doctors

Walter Crane - Walter Crane is a sickly, broke-down wreck of a man. Though professionally trained as a physician, his primary occupations are self-pity, gambling, and satisfying his opium addiction. In his spare hours he is a drunk, penniless derelict. When he can be bothered to keep sober, he practices medicine, treating those with no one else to turn to. He has even been known to make calls to the Underground when the pay is sufficient. Crane's poor reputation precedes him, and none but the most desperate would ever solicit his administrations.

The last of a proud line of surgeons, Crane never took to medicine. After finishing at the bottom of his class, Crane attempted to play the dutiful son and take over the family practice from his ailing father. His poor bedside manner and questionable abilities caused him to immediately lose a good number of his father's longtime patients. His business failing, Crane turned to alcohol and later the poppy. His true ruin came when a patient in his care died due in childbirth due to minor complications and his negligence. Ashamed of his son's utter failings and weaknesses, his father cast him out of his house and closed the family practice forever, leaving Crane to make a way for himself on the streets of the Metropolis.

Though a fairly young man by the reckoning of years, it is impossible to discern his true age with a casual glance. Hard living has taken an indelible toll on the doctor, body and mind. Stooped and shaky, he has the barren eyes of an unrepentant drug fiend. His short brown hair is shot through with gray. When he speaks it is with a low, hoarse growl made worse by his habit of mumbling and repeating himself. His disheveled appearance is made all the more comical by the aged and patched suits that he wears, remnants of his brush with gainful employment. All in all, Walter Crane is not the sort of person you wish to meet on the street, let alone to call upon to treat what ails you. Despite his obvious failings, Crane is a natural survivor who has outlasted many better men.

Divinia Grey - Divinia Grey has startling secrets. Small and mousy, the painfully shy young woman operates a private medical practice in the West End that caters to aristocratic parents and their spoiled children. However, despite her keen medical skills, Grey has little interest in helping her patients. She is an expert at passing off a poor bedside manner and forced cheerfulness as professionalism.

Her off hours are spent volunteering at the Metropolis' many hospices. This occupation is not philanthropic; these establishments, understaffed and busy, provide the perfect forum for Grey to carry out her primary preoccupation, the study of the human form in extremis. She can stare at the dead and dying for hours in rapt attention. She yearns desperately for the day when she can vivisect a human specimen and has spent a small fortune preparing a private anatomy theatre beneath her home for the purpose. For now, she contents herself by occasionally dissecting black market corpses or simply lying with them in the cold of her basement.

While attending medical school at the University of London, Grey spent her off hours in the Nonhuman Pathology Department's animate kennels. It thrilled her to sit just out of reach and let the creatures paw at her. Sometimes she turned off the lights so she could just hear them in the darkness. The practice earned her a brief stay in a private sanatorium. Ultimately, Grey intends to turn her skills toward the reanimation of the dead. Her interest is not out of any compulsion to see the dead return to life but simply to study the exanimate form in motion.

Divinia Grey is a short, wiry woman who looks much younger than her thirty years. Her eyes are bright and alert, constantly exploring the world around her. She does not know the strength of her deceptively strong hands, which occasionally leads her to hurt her young patients.

Ji Guo Lao - Ji Guo Lao, a renowned alchemist, operates out of the depths of Limehouse. He has made a name for himself by blending modern anti-agapic techniques with traditional Chinese alchemy. Though unlicensed and maligned by his peers, Ji Guo Lao has many admirers who support his thriving practice. Among his patients are Chinese community leaders, bosses of criminal organizations, and desperate aristocrats seeking immortality.

Ji's patent serum for immortality, the "Ghost Life Formula," is said to require annual doses of the foulest concoction. Those who imbibe the substance certainly prolong their lives, but at great cost. Anyone missing a single dose suffers a rapid and irreversible disintegration of their internal organs within a month. Even those who regularly receive his tainted draught take on an ashen appearance, their hair thinning and the colour fading from their flesh.

With so many utterly beholden to his ministrations, Ji Guo Lao has grown quite powerful. The "Smoking Ghost," as he is sometimes known, is notorious among the Chinese population of Limehouse not because of his direct actions but rather because he keeps a large number of brutal crime lords living well past their natural time. However, there are those who understand the nature of his power and feel enslaved to his dark arts. One day he may be destroyed by one of his immortals, but until that time, Ji's power only grows.

Ji Guo Lao maintains a virtually supernatural control over himself. A steely pragmatist, he has no compassion or base concern for others. All that interests him is his internal transformation. Experimenting on others is simply a means towards an end.

Tall and lanky, Ji Guo Lao strikes an imposing figure. His long dark hair, always pulled back in a braid, forms a stark contrast against his unnaturally pale skin. Even more disturbing, Ji's penetrating eyes are said to glow faintly in the dark, a side effect of his alchemical experiments. His very breath is said to be poisonous and can choke the life from birds and plants. Ji's long fingers end in impressively long and well-manicured nails, and he always appears dressed in fine silk robes of jet black.

Dr. Elias Fell - Dr. Elias Fell, respected member of the Royal College of Surgeons, is a physician par excellence. His medical credentials are beyond reproach, and his skilled hands have saved countless lives in the operating theatre. He is widely acknowledged as something of a miracle worker: the hopeless cases, the terminally ill and the dying may find hope in the talented ministrations of this great man. His tireless efforts among the unfortunate of the city, countless hours devoted to the care of the city's poorest and most wretched inhabitants, have earned him a reputation as a philanthropist and reformer.

Among his peers in the Royal College, Dr. Fell's name is revered for his contributions to the study of medicine. The scientific literature bears witness to his long and distinguished career masterminding new surgical techniques and uncovering the mysteries of aberrant physiology. The doctor takes his work home with him as well: a number of badly disfigured unfortunates, some bearing the scars of old operations, make up the retainers of the manor Dr. Fell keeps on Harley Street.

Literature circulated more privately among the peers of the college reveals a hidden dimension to the doctor's research: he does not limit himself to correcting Nature's mistakes and not all of the doctor's household are, in the proper sense, fully human. The doctor is pursuing lines of research that require the creation of specialized human variants for study and, when necessary, surgical modification. The process is arduous, but he has perfected many surgical techniques on the vat-grown lab rats. Those that survive their abnormalities and the surgeries are kept in the doctor's personal care.

Dr. Fell maintains the appearance of a healthy and robust man in his mid-forties. He is tall and slim but well built, carrying the musculature of an active man on a frame nearly two meters in height. His handsome face is marked with the lines of a life of study and diligent effort, and his thick dark hair has begun to gray at the temples. This appearance has remained unchanged for decades, the result of carefully calibrated anti-agapics. None can be found who remember the doctor as a young man, but his true age is unknown. His eyes are a startling steel-blue, benign in repose but disturbingly incisive and penetrating when brought to focus. There are few even among his peers who can withstand the force of that dissecting gaze.

There is something untoward about Dr. Fell. Though there is nothing in his appearance or bearing to give alarm and nothing in his manner to inspire revulsion, somehow his proximity is not endurable for long. The skin crawls slightly at a casual touch from this man. He has given up shaking hands entirely, and the benefactors of medicine do not introduce their eligible daughters to this physician despite his fine credentials. Animals will not submit to his touch unless restrained, and children hide behind their mothers' skirts at his approach. Dr. Fell's reputation is generally sufficient to counter the effects of this uncanny aura where his name is known, but he goes into society very little and maintains few intimates, preferring the rewards of private research to the company of his fellow man.

Mourners

Ashley Cutter - Ashley's first step in devotion to the Quiet Service occurred during childhood when she survived the spontaneous animation of her mother in the family's quiet West End home. Ashley's nurse was the first to fall to the new animate's depredations, Ashley's father and sister following in quick succession. Ashley, acting with a precocious determination, destroyed the animated corpses of her family one by one before calling in the authorities. When the Deathwatch arrived on the scene, they found the four dispatched animates, heads crushed and neatly severed from their bodies, and twelve-year-old Ashley, badly upset and covered in gore. Ashley was left in the guardianship of the Mourner's Guild, at her own request, after surviving relations displayed no inclination to take in the strange, quiet child.

Ashley began her training almost immediately. At fifteen, she underwent a total hysterectomy at her demand--a symbol of her dedication to the Mourner's pledge of chastity. Ashley is currently twenty-one years of age, a full Mourner, but retained by no particular family. She prefers to sell her services as required to families who cannot afford the full-time services of one of her profession.

Ashley is small and slender with a strength that belies her size. Her early hysterectomy prevented full development of secondary sexual characters--her features and body are almost perfectly androgynous, a trait she takes care to emphasize. A carefully maintained medical regimen ensures her continued health as well as the unusual strength and near-inhuman endurance required by her profession.

Bertram Henrie - People have been worried about Bertram Henrie since he was very young. The only son of a remote branch of an old and pure-blooded family, Bertram spent much of his childhood on family estates distant from the Metropolis. Here he was supervised by fearful nurses as he watched his mother descend into delirium and his father grow smaller and grayer with each passing season. In this environment, young Bertram's morbid inclinations, which were perhaps owed in part to generations of insufficient out crossing of the family line, flourished unrestrained.

After his mother's inevitable retirement to a private "hospital," Bertram was moved to London and placed in the care of his father's relatives, who found the boy's behaviour to be cause for alarm. Upon Bertram's arrival, pets began disappearing; doll's belonging to Bertram's girl cousins would vanish, only to be found days later, dismembered and horribly abused; strange noises were heard in the night, the source of which no one much cared to investigate. The boy was soon transferred to the education of the Quiet Service, where despite the rigor of the training, he seemed to thrive.

Bertram is eighteen years old and has recently attained the status of a Mute. He is tall, standing in excess of two meters, and cadaverously thin; his unusual height and skeletal build, together with his smog-stained black garments and lank, greasy blond hair, give him the appearance of a diabolical scarecrow. He has found no permanent appointment as of yet, and he has taken to supplementing the allowance his family provides with freelance work alongside the city's Undertakers. The vile, violent, dangerous work is greatly to his liking, and there is some question as to whether the cloistered Mourner's life will suit the young man for long.

Madam Elizabeth Leith - Madam Leith has been in the employ of the Quiet Service for over fifty years. For much of that time, she was attached to the Smethurst family, living as a private retainer to Lady Smethurst. In the course of her employment, in addition to the customary duties of a Mourner, she acted as a private investigator, personal security, and even assassin, as the needs of the family required. Now, however, the last of the Smethurst family has lain under the three days' vigil of the old family retainer; the family estates are sold, and Madam Leith's career as a privately retained Mourner is over.

Madam Leith appears much younger and more vital than her seventy years, thanks to a faithful course of anti-agapics, but she is aware that her strength is not what it once was. Rather than seeking employ with another family, she has returned to the Guild as an educator and mentor. She is master of a Hospice of the Quiet Sleep in Stepney, a guardian of the city's dying. A number of young Mourners are finishing their studies under her tutelage, gaining familiarity with death and reanimation on the busy Hospice grounds. She has developed close ties with the local community, including the criminal elements. More than a few bodies have escaped the grip of the incinerator, "clay" status confirmed by the Madam's experienced eye and blade, and found their way into the city's private dissecting rooms. The Madam has found her new business enjoyable as well as profitable. She has taken an interest in the peculiarities of the body trade and has begun considering expansions of the enterprise.

Madam Leith is unremarkable in appearance, neither tall nor sleight, with a middling build that has begun to show some heaviness with age. She appears younger than her true age, presenting as a well-kept woman in her fifties. Her hair is graying, and she no longer bothers with dyes, preferring the grandmotherly appearance granted by the heavy silver streaks in her dark hair. Her eyes are dark and deep set, gleaming with an unmistakable intelligence. Though a casual observer would notice nothing unusual about the old woman, those who are familiar with Madam Leith recognize in her gaze and bearing the signs of a dangerous cleverness and an iron will.

Undertakers

Basil Lamb - Basil lamb grew up on the outskirts of a rookery in South London and married at a young age. Lamb took to nobbling for a local mob to pay his rent. Possessing a strong stomach and a talent for dealing grievous bodily harm, Lamb later turned to Undertaking. Not only did it pay better on a good night, but it also passes for an honest profession. Despite his rough beginnings, Lamb is well-known and popular amongst his peers.

Lamb is an affable fellow, prone to smiling and possessing a deep belly laugh. However, he is profoundly ugly. Aside from the latticework of scars, Lamb's face may as well have been carved from granite. A superficial examination of his features reveals a shapeless nose, a torn ear, and missing teeth. He keeps his hair shorn close to the skull and constantly wears a leather coif over his head, even when drinking at the public house.

Morris "Crow" Feller - A melancholic spectre of man, Crow Feller is an albino Undertaker of questionable reputation who operates alone in the Wastelands. A man of few words and no friends, Crow sometimes wanders the Wastelands for weeks on end, hunting thropes and animates. Crow has been known to escort parties into the Wastes, if the price is right, but his demeanour leaves no doubt that the man looks out for himself first. Rumour has it that he has been the sole survivor of more than one expedition.

Crow Feller is of indeterminate age. He habitually wears a weather-beaten top hat over a rubber and bronze respirator with photo-reactive lenses. Even while indoors, his pale eyes are hidden behind black tinted goggles. Crow smokes cheap cigars and speaks in low harsh tones. He is patently poor company, preferring silence to conversation.

Grainne McGregor - In Undertaker circles, Grainne McGregor is a living legend. McGregor rose to prominence in the slums of the East End at a tender age. By the age of sixteen, she had already made a name for herself as a fearsome bounty hunter and gunfighter. Over the next twenty years, she passed through most major Neo-Victorian cities, splitting most of her time between London and Edinburgh. McGregor prefers to operate in the cities rather than the Wastelands, and her favourite prey are human mass-murderers and feral vampires. The ferociousness she shows in battle betrays the pain she still carries within her from losses endured during her childhood.

McGregor is a lethal shot and willing to prove it. She has killed twelve men in fair duels and is rumoured to have killed a great deal more in bar brawls and street altercations. She is known to be a fierce drinker who is dangerous to approach when in her cups. Though she has few friends, those she does have are tested and true.

McGregor is seldom seen without her custom-fitted armoured long coat, which conceals no less than six automatic pistols at any time. Around her neck hangs a tarnished crucifix, a treasured family heirloom. She has long red hair, faded a little with grey, which she wears tied back when on the job. Rather than wearing a full gas mask, McGregor prefers a respirator and photo-reactive goggles. Despite having grown up on the streets of London, she speaks with a thick Scottish accent that has not thinned over the years.

Others

Flock Helming - Operating out of a squalid attic studio cluttered with props and backdrops, Helming is a melancholic young man with limp hair, a drooping mouth, and graceful wrists, which he flaunts beneath rolled up sleeves. Photography is his questionable trade, and a respectable number of the pornographic postcards on the market were framed by Flock's ashy hands. Collectors mostly note his use of a masked model with noticeably strong teeth, a well-formed body, fine posture, and lustrous hair, and this girl sets his work apart from the usual muddle of aging whores and pockmarked brats that compromise the sex photo stock and trade. The model's anonymity, ensured by the mask, has lead to much speculation on her true identity. Rumours regularly pass through the upper-crust circuit that this or that young socialite is the true face of Helming's hussy, and many a huffy letter has been written to the society papers categorically denying such accusations.

Mr. Helming, when not in his studio, is often found at his local public house. There he hunches over dreggy cups of lukewarm tea, enjoying the company of his bohemian friends. The do not so much converse as hold forth over one another so that sometimes the bitter monologues commingle into a harmonic chorus of despair, and the landlady is moved to wade in among them and strike out with hands, boots, and mop.