Entities in Blackbird Dreaming

Characters in Blackbird Dreaming Entities in Blackbird Dreaming Open Plot Points in Blackbird Dreaming Blackbird Dreaming

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not read fully through the Blackbird Dreaming story, these character files may contain major plot spoilers. Proceed with caution, reader!

Beings

'Beings' of indeterminate affiliation or alignment go here.

Spot

“A wyrm?” She blinks in surprise at this, before shaking her head—laughing softly. “They’re small, flightless dragons—it must have registered you as a matron, if it was protecting you." - Frost

Right behind her stands something the size of a large wolf, though its features suggest anything but; it is decidedly reptilian, bulky in shape with a pair of ram-like horns curled out from its head—the hide is ruddy and without scales, forelegs ending in thick splayed talons that curl into the sand. The creature snorts a hot breath, nostrils flaring, and stares the strange man down with similarly glowing eyes—though its’ are a dull orange, instead. Jennifer feels the thick tail of the thing curl partly about her side, a bass-filled growl rumbling beside her.

Spot is a wyrm, a traditional animal mount for valkyries. He was gifted to Jennifer when she was a child, though she didn't know it until adulthood as it all occured on the other side of the threshold, and Munin had submerged those memories in order to keep her safe. She is always hungry, very strong, has claws that assist her in climbing up solid rock walls vertically, and fiercely protective of her freki. Otherwise she just acts like a big slobbery (if scaly) golden retriever.

Reshmi

A ebon-skinned woman sits in sharp black business attire with a white rose tucked into her breast pocket; black hair drawn neatly into a bun, her legs crossed and hands folded against her lap as she watches Harold on the floor with eyes that seem almost metallic in the dull green light, her nails neatly tended and seemingly painted black.

"Harold. Curious." She speaks in a smooth and pleasant tone--beneath which the man so named could swear to hear several other voices whisper. "Father said a forge had found Coyote." Her lips draw to a smile, canines pronounced. "You've been touched it would seem--and had an...unseelie welcome." She leans forward in her seat, gesturing towards the woman at Harold's flank. "We weren't expecting you, but you're 'arrival' was quite noticed; there are few fires like yours in the shadows these days." Eyes glinting, the woman draws her lips to a thin line--a faint pang of familiarity stirring at the back of the doctor's mind from her face. "Mind who you -do- share it with, of course; there are many spirits anxious for access to a forge."

"You'd attracted the interest of dozens back there; that one was especially eager for your influence." A woman's deeper tone emphasizes the last word as her eyes flit to the wrapped figure again. "We brought her, with you--your touch was helpful for expedience." She grins. "And timely." Stepping back, she folds her hands before her. "You've little enough for now, yes? We'll see you roused." She smiles, dipping her head briefly. "You ought consider making use of that one, though; she's substance enough." A pause. "Forging, that is; we feel you left certain…obstacles behind."

Some chick - spider’s daughter? - who harry meets after he touches the spider gate thing after his faerie abduction.

...or maybe not.

“I share certain insights with my family.” She murmurs. “You’ve (Harry) met one of my sisters.”

Bahiti

One of the 'Anubians' as Jennifer has named them, the dog-headed people of the Egyptian pantheon. Bred to be loyal soldiers, Bahiti is bound to Jennifer after the latter rescued her from a pocket realm in which she was trapped. She is currently help guard the survivors at Witch Mountain while the PCs are invading the Mount Weather base.

Fenrir

"Fenrir relishes any of father's kin, no matter how distant their relation." - Valda

"We can't kill him. Nothing can until the day he is fated to devour father." - Valda

"The Wolf is a ferocious beast, but not without cunning behind that reckless rage, nor is there wholly bestial intellect beneath a berserker's fury." - Inari

"I should clarify--that thing is ravenous. We had to steer clear and stay separate even when Fenrir was in 'good graces' with father and the rest of us--which was not always out of the question when we went to war with the other pantheons over the centuries. Still, he has devoured sisters before, and other offspring--and craves to do so when the opportunities avail. Father used to try and pass this off as why he wanted to keep us from having families, but part of me knows that he sicced him on us on purpose. When Fenrir hunts, he is black. We were always considered...prey." She winces. - Valda

The giant wolf from Norse mythology. His affiliation isn't certain. Chained by Odin for quite some time and used as a threat to keep the valkyries in line, he is now free and traversing the real world, looking for... something. He joined in the fight against the Nightmare King and his forces at Mount Weather, ultimately suffering himself to be ridden by Jennifer. As she wasn't immediately eaten afterwards its posited he may not be the indiscriminate devourer of valkyrie he's been painted as.

Fenrir's last known whereabouts are in the Meeting Place pocket realm.

Kebechet

Daughter of Anubis and lover of Eugene, Kebechet was in disguise as Phoebe after she was 'kidnapped' by the PCs as a bargaining chip to escape the Egyptians realm. 'Phoebe' wished to experience the waking world as the last time she had visited (in the 1920s or so) she had fallen in love with the place; sadly its gone downhill a bit since then. She decided to settle on falling in love with Eugene instead. Her natural form is a snake, and her duties in the pantheon included being a purification goddess (she was in charge of the entire Nile river delta).

Now Kebe sits on the throne of the Gate at Mount Weather after the victory of the PCs in the Battle of Mount Weather, which led to the weakening of the Nightmare King and the removal of the Little Girl (Nora Fitch) from his control. The plan is to have her purify the rains and weaken the infected and thus the Pale Man, but to truly purify the world Jormungandr, who the group believes is causing the red rains, needs to be taken out. Until then Kebe and the Egyptians hold and control the gate.

Badb

Alex's grandmother and a Celtic goddess of war, one of the Three Sisters (War/Famine/Death). The location of the other two sisters as well as Magpie herself is currently unknown, though Magpie is in the physical realm. She left after being insulted by Allison.

Magpie, The (Anca)

One of the prisoners found in the bowels of the Witch Mountain prison. Coyote said it was very important to find and release her. She was used as some kind of mimic/spy/assassin by the army people like Vic and the Dean. Now she thinks she's Jennifer's sister and Valda's daughter, though Munin says she's the offspring of one of the Old Guard and a God. Assuming Norse god since she said she was a cousin on Jennifer's mother's side.

Queen Mab

From across the table the other woman laughs a long and bubbly sound. "Isn't my gift, I care not for her pursuit. I have my focus, and they are safe." The second woman reaches, arm sleeved in colorful markings before she scoops up a wine glass, giving its dark contents a swirl before leaning back to sip. "Did the others perk? I am curious of events--my lair bores." While the cloak of the second woman drapes down from her own seat, a burgundy loin cloth resting between her legs before they lead to the table above. -Queen Mab

“Mab possesses potent reserves of fae glamour; of those who remain in existence among spirit-kind, she is nearly peerless in her control of formless essence.” Joy’s lips purse. “Witchcraft, as you would know it, is based on the elicitation of such essence as well. The decline of deific worship has not affected Mab.” - Joy

“Her power is not derived from mortals—among the courts, her prowess is considerable and may be likened to the present gods.” - Joy

"Whatever her own reasons, Queen Mab supports the hidden efforts to aide her neighbors across the threshold in their strengthening and survival." - Joy

“Little. Fairy queen with many titles and many creatures loyal to her.” He grunts. “I have heard it said that she has a palace full of riches--and have heard her to be very beautiful." - Gunnar The queen of the fae. Has an interest in human children. she has some kind of deal with the nightmare king. Court of Shadow?

"Queen Mab; there was some talk that she remains potent--that her power does not require worship." The man grunts, lifting broad shoulders in a shrug. "It would make sense." - Gunnar

“Most fae can change their appearance or shape.” He offers quietly. “But you said an old hag stole children?” His brow knits; Zuri perks up once more and Gunnar glances towards her. “She asks of Queen Mab.” Zuri nods. “Mab has hags, yes.” Gunnar looks again to Jennifer, broad shoulders lifting in a shrug as he gestures towards the other woman. “What creatures are loyal to her?” Again he blinks--and again it is Zuri who speaks. “Quite a few in the courts between sídhe, unseelie and otherwise. Numerous spirits have pursued refuge with the courts and have found new purpose there.” Leaning forward, Zuri smirks. “A variety which has grown more diverse I’m sure.”

To paint them in a very broad stroke, the courts are organizations of spirits; again, mostly fae are families or leading bodies who spend a lot of time politicking and engaging in elaborate games.” Zuri purses her lips for a moment before gesturing before her. “The seelie and unseelie are courts in a broader sense. They can be sectioned and subdivided in so many twisted and confusing ways that I expect there aren’t many who could stand explaining their relations in detail; suffice to say that the seelie are the ‘summer’ court and tend towards the absence of shadow and the unseelie are the ‘winter’ court and tend towards the shadow.” Offering Jennifer a sly smile, Zuri leans forward. “You’ll find they mean dozens of things.”

"Mab certainly has influence among the courts and many who jump at her beck and call--but no individual commands the courts uniformly, no. A different vantage finds elaborate games in the affairs of others.” She shrugs. “Why did she say she was taking children, if anything at all? I doubt it is Mab herself--more likely some vassal or another, or a hag as was said.” At the question of conveyance, Zuri’s lips purse. “Magic, like as not--or what may as well be called such. With things destabilized as they are in the waking world, many of the restraints and rules have grown lax--leaving fae, like other spirits, more readily able to access their reserves.” Again Zuri shrugs. “Mab very well could have a gate for all I am aware; she’d certainly see the value in access to one.”

"There’s no ‘map to Mab’--if you want any hope of finding her you’d need to have a guide who knows the way--unless you want to spend months, or even years wandering between realms.” - Zuri

Queen Mab was the 'bubbles' voice heard in the meeting place when Alex and Jennifer followed Joy the first time.

Shingo

A tengu Alex met.

Timur

A big ol' bear. He mostly sleeps in a cave near the Norse realm, helps others sleep as well and do an Inception kind of dream within a dream thing.

The Artist

The artist is an old shadow. -Joy

The Artist shapes, creates--and at times, unmakes... Remnants of others, collected. It is what the Artist does. They are remnants, 'alive' as you suggest cannot be ascribed. -Joy

One of the prisoners in the special cells in the lowest level of the prison at Witch Mountain. He'd turned his prison into some kind of portal to the other side. It was filled with artwork. Statues, painting. But they were at one time people or events that the group had encountered. Or the Artist had encountered, perhaps. Anyway he can make these paintings and statues come alive and fight. When they hit they smear paint on you that burns and presumably if you get enough on you or entrapped by them you become a part of his collection. Jennifer managed to get Maya away from him. Eerie music played in his cell, and he seemed to be kept back by lightning or something.

"The Artist was interred by those who presumed they had control. Association, but every lit form casts a shadow; there is no accompaniment." -Joy

"The Artist, mom--you started talking about the Nightmare King." She grimaces, rubbing the back of her neck. "They're like, exiles or something--from the shadows. Blue talked about it one time..." She trails off for a moment, reddening a tinge. "...but I think the Artist was really high up. Like, a general or something. I just... didn't think it was a good idea to go digging into those things--"

Blue

A woman that rescued Maya from one of the refugee camps before the doctors could start determining her talent and took her across the dreamscape, finally leading her to the Artist. This has been determined to be Joy.

Bat-Boy

A dark brown pelt upon a form lean and muscular, long arms ending in those wickedly hooked claws while sheets of thick veined flash draped beneath either arm to form the thing's wings. Large dark eyes. Big batlike ears.

"Sensitive hearing, if the radar ears weren't a giveaway; from somewhere down in South America far as I can recall." - Anca

A non-sentient bat-eared shrieking flying giant bat... boy. Another denizen of the lowest prison level. They set him free. It likes peaches.

Baba Yaga

Lives in a chicken-footed hut, rides around in a mortar and pestle, interested in Harry's abilities for whatever reason. "Her vision extends beyond the threshold of what most may truly see" - Hugin

Joyeaux (aka Joy)

The bared form of a short olive-skinned woman pours into the leather seat; errant jewelry seems to glimmer and materialize shortly thereafter —- bands about the woman’s thighs, anklets of silver, rings adorning several fingers and toes along with bracelets and bands about her arms—and broader rings about her neck. Each accessory glints of patterned silver before settling against that dusky form—while inky markings are glimpsed in kind, sprawled in lengthy patterns which seem to shift subtly under observation. Eyes a striking silver now familiar to many among the assembled for a variety of spirits; her lips in turn are stained a vibrant blue. Her voice is that of many women, tones woven together in whispers and croons which strike an eerily melodic chord.

The sword of Charlemagne. A talking, sentient shape-changing sword that takes the form of a blue-lipped woman. The same blue-lipped woman that spoke to Hobbs during his dream about the boat on the red sea. Jennifer took control of her. She confers ability to sword fight and was working of her own volition with Athena and the others who Alex and Jennifer spied on at the Meeting Place pocket realm. Jennifer lost her after following Martin and Nora through a Nightmare King-invoked portal during the battle of Mount Weather. Her current whereabouts are unknown.

Herne

"I also met Herne, who's real keen on the effect the rain's had; he's got antlers, yeah?" - Zuri

"Herne's some forest spirit from bloomin' Berkshire. I think he was a deity a long time ago, maybe pagan-style; when I met him he was pissed, but not so pissed he didn't want to chat me up for an hour once I got him to stop hollering." -Zuri

Jiang

A water dragon from (ancient?) China. Found in cell 9-36 in the prison in the Witch Mountain base. He can fly and is bonded to Jennifer. Terribly injured by Macan and the traitors in the battle for the Mount Weather gate, he seems drained of essence. He is recuperating in a water tank at Mount Weather.

His body glinting of ebony, obsidian and gold. That violet eye is matched by another, set together above a snout that resembles faintly that of the wyrm, with the bases to a pair of horns set towards the back of its skull; these protrusions rise similarly to that of a stag’s, though narrower in growth. Both antlers seem to have been broken off in many places—specifically cut in others—leaving the pair whittled down.

The creature’s head is positioned atop a long thick neck that trails almost serpentine to a body much the same; he stands upon four legs with talons, the pairs of which limbs are some distance apart with a slightly sagging portion of a thicker, coil-like bulk. Thick golden scutes plate the neck and underbelly of the creature from head to tail, largest beneath the bulkier middle of the form. Beyond his hindquarters stretches on longer still in a tail which ends in a tawny tuft of fur, cramped together at the far end of the cell. Similar tufts are seen along the creature’s spine and off of the joints of his limbs, with a thicker ‘mane’ about the base of his horns; he stands larger in bulk than Kebechet’s present form, though roughly a third of the serpent’s length.

Grimm

"A terrible loud green shirt," he says, not caring who he cuts off. "Like vomit, but worse. Cluttered office full of all sorts of shit. His desk is stacked with papers and envelopes and shit, yeah?" He nods. "I met that guy. Just this side of disturbing, speaks in riddles like the rest of 'em do, but there's something funny about his voice." He frowns. "He puts emphasis on the wrong words, maybe. I don't know. Is that him?" -Eugene

Grimm is a broker; he facilitates the recovery and delivery of artifacts and other tools. - Joy

There's a crack of thunder and I'm in, ah, Grimm's office, all of a sudden. It's raining outside of that, too. I remember a green desk lamp, like bankers used to have, and a hula doll, but mostly just papers and shit all over. The guy's going bald and has thick glasses, real fuckin' Coke bottles, you know? And that shirt. Like if you crossed toxic waste and vomit. Just thinking about that color makes me want to hork my breakfast. Excuse me if I move on." He takes a drink, pausing just long enough to do so.

"I remember, the first thing he said was 'not a bad deal if you ask me.' Except I didn't ask him and he hadn't told me what the deal was. He goes on talking to the crow in the next seat, like they're old pals, talking about me like I'm not there. 'It's going to take time to put a proper package together,' whatever that means, and 'seems like he's pleasant enough.' Now that I know what 'pleasant' means, that sentence makes a lot more sense." Gene stops for a moment, fast-forwarding the memory until he's passed the part with the razor. Going to leave that particular cat in the bag, for now. "He tells me to shoot them, emphasis on them, and that my deadline is 'at least five moons still, but you haven't even gotten a pocket back from the cleaners.' He says I'm a mess. He says I can't hear the music. He calls me Dante, twice, then tries to grab my camera." He blinks. "Then I wake up. That's it." - Eugene

"Grimm had some jobs for me using my 'talents'--a bit of legwork, pick-up, delivery." Zuri purses her lips for a moment. "Little things, mostly--but we traded. I didn't see any birds with him when I visited, though; damned if it wasn't always rainy." She smirks briefly, crossing her arms against her stomach. "Guys like Grimm have their fingers in a lot of pies but aren't so much the sorts who go out and get things done themselves. Trade favors, information--regular brokers, yeah? Grimm's not the only one like that, but he's the one I'm most 'familiar' with--if you even want to call it that." Again she shrugs. "I got the impression that he 'hires' a lot of talent to put things in motion but I don't think Grimm is a player in all this." -Zuri

"What did I trade him? Mostly information; I needed someone I could talk to to figure myself out."

I nicked a couple things for Grimm." She counts off against her fingertips. "A deck of cards, a set of specs, a poker chip, a razor, some jewelry--earrings and the like." She shrugs. "That was all weeks ago." -Zuri

the Devil, possibly? Horned guy in a loud shirt or suit, likes to sell timeshares, offer up bargains and contracts. Gave Gene the razor. Talked about Dante's inferno. Zuri also ran into him.

The Caribou

A caribou that Greg and Allison met while in wolf form in some forest pocket of Greg's. They killed and ate him. Maya met him briefly, taken there by Blue, and so did Zuri. She spoke to him. What'd he say?

"Specifically, cryptic half-prophecies and doom-saying; the harbingers walk, the hand of the King stirs, that the 'tyrant lords' live again, that the nightmare are legion." Zuri presses her lips together, eyes glinting as she peers to Jennifer. "From what I gathered there are beings who are sort of like 'generals' to some bloody nightmare army and they were dormant for generations. Having a wink, I suppose. A lot of the shadow-dwellers give fealty to the King and apparently something really took the piss."

Jormungandr

"Venomous enough to destroy even our kind; of your maddened dreamers I know only that they reach us no longer." - Sekhmet

Yes, that Jormungandr - the worm that gnaws at the roots of the world tree. Only this time the Pale Man (we presume) has set it up to bleed into the waters of the world and cause he red rains that feed the infected (we presume). We have to kill it in order to stop the rains and be able to drive the Pale Man and his minions out.

Lara

The smith is struck with the smell of dimethyl sulfide (like cabbage or corn) before it shifts to a sharp aroma of vanilla which floods his nostrils. The form of a lean, muscular woman. The lab grows colder in a palpable wave before the sensation begins to abate.

After a moment of his eyes adjusting, Eugene manages a better look at the woman's form--marked definition, pale complexion, short-cropped black hair and dark tattoos about her shoulders and back.

A pale hand snatches his wrist and squeezes, numbness spreading from that grip.

Knees wavering, the woman lifts Eugene from his feet--holding the man several inches above the ground. Then she's speaking again, and in between not understanding a word she says Eugene notices that she has awfully sharp teeth, from the look of things. Some kind of vampire thing?

An S-Class dhampir with a strong connection across the threshold--nether, specifically, deep-submersion. With most of the talent out ranging, she was providing a conduit to safeguard the facility from trans-threshold entities. - Dr. Spears

Speaks Russian, has red eyes. Was used at the Mount Weather base as some kind of battery power for their talent dampening stuff. eugene found her in a sensory-deprivation tank.

Emma

A fair-skinned heavily freckled woman with long red hair seated in a black straight-jacket and strapped to a metal chair; she sits barefoot, ankles tethered to the floor--her head bowed with a mask about the lower half of her face, eyes glinting a bright and brilliant gold which gleams in the low light. Short and skinny, with thin silver wire wrapped about her wrists, ankles and neck. The red-haired woman's brow furrows as Jennifer presses past thickly woven cords--the form before her compressed and tight, while a pulse is felt to quicken. With sensations from Maya still lingering at the back of her mind, Jennifer can feel the freki grow anxious within her gut. After a few brief moments, Jennifer is swept with a dizzying apprehension--the well beneath the surface felt to flare and strain against its bindings as she finds strange and unfamiliar eddies of essence roiling deep within the form before her.

She's a self-proclaimed tourist, was in Atlanta before she ended up in the cell downstairs, captured in '99 (1999 or 1899?). Knows a lot about the unseelie court, the nightmare king, the faceless man (who she calls the harbinger). Says her real name is Ümjanëmnfütsä. She's some kind of Norse something or other. There is an Emma Jespersen on the list.

Kai

Invisiblity poncho fairy thing Harry found in Roanoke. Yes, it has a name. It really likes him.

Fasti

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Immense bulk powers towards the women, the white-furred titan of a wolf scarcely seeming to breach the dusted surface; no trail is left beneath that tread as the muscular predator approaches. Golden eyes gleam, black lips drawn back to a maw of ivory fangs. To find such here! A voice booms within the minds of the women. Dance with me, little daughter! Show me your battle songs! From the wolf himself only the strong scent of pine seems to prevail.

A young white wolf (still huge) Jennifer Alex Allison and Munin met on their way to find Baba Yaga's house. He's named after someone Jennifer really wants to find, and has tasked him with doing so. She beat him in combat of sorts and brought him to heel as a mount, which is why he agreed to try and find his namesake.

He mentioned a Völva when he smelled Allison, but said it was like and yet unlike her. Is this Völva a witch as well, then?

Maya

She is a young dreamer who shares in many songs; she may bridge many gaps in time.

Maya was the girl found in the Artist's prison cell. She is now Jennifer's oldest daughter, Maya Srinivasan. She can open anything that is closed or locked. Including gates. Blue/Joy found her in a government camp after the Fall and ferried her across the flipside, where she met Fasti (before he was so named) The Morrigan, the caribou, and others, to prepare her for what challenges are to come.

The Little Girl/Nora Fitch

"He's so strong." She all but whispers, taking a further step. "Uncle Bob tried to stop him, but he's too strong." Again the wind howls, growing more intense by the moment beyond the building as it rumbles.

"So I need to stop him--I need to stop the pale man."

A little girl, with dark hair and blue eyes.

Dr. Robert Fitch's niece. She had an inoperable brain tumor. She was supposed to only have six months, if that, to live. She had been having increasingly frequent, vivid hallucinations. Her parents were among the first hit with cerebrosus, and Robert ended up caring for her. The tumor brought attention to a certain chemical composition in the brains of children; it diminishes with maturation. This chemical totally suppressed symptoms of cerebrosus. It was not, however, a cure--children could still carry the disease, it would simply stay dormant. Robert's 'counsel' introduced the first steps of an actual vaccine, but the initial several renditions of it outright killed the infected, and caused severe brain damage to those not. Mixture with the chemicals he had discovered in his niece stabilized it, to a degree.

Nora was having terrible hallucinatory waking nightmares, and they believed her infection with cerebrosus was the cause. In administering dosage to counteract it, she ended up brain dead. Robert snapped, and disappeared for weeks. Dr. Agupta stepped up in his absence. Ultimately, he had one of the C.D.C. teams attempt to determine what made the mixture react as it had with Nora alone. They vivisected her.

Nora Fitch is the Nightmare King's human vessel, his way of reaching into the waking world. Currently posited that the Pale Man and Nightmare King had been working together and that the Pale Man was the one who originally set up the Nightmare King in Nora's body, and that this may well have been why he ingratiated himself with Dr. Robert Fitch.

Nora was removed from the Nightmare King's influence by Jennifer and Martin during the Battle of Mount Weather, when the survivors infiltrated the secret military base holding the Gate at the facility of the same name and defeated him, thus gaining control of the gate. She is currently at Mount Weather.

The Machine Spirit

Gradually, Eugene attempts to visualize the mesh of electronics beyond the threshold--a strange, abstract sort of sense beginning to slowly coalesce. Flitting images begin to enter the man's mind as he strains, visions of a…mass of tendrils, interlaced and interlocked, glittering cables of copper and gold writhing and re-aligning befo--

01001101 01000101 01000001 01010100 00100000 01010011 01010000 01000101 01000001 01001011 01010011

01010010 01000101 01010110 01001001 01000101 01010111 00100000 01010011 01001111 01010101 01010010 01000011 01000101

           ~greet sweetly~

01000011 01001111 01001110 01010100 01000001 01000011 01010100 ~does it see?~ 01010100 01001000 01010010 01000101 01010011 01001000 01001111 01001100 01000100 00100000 01000010 01010010 01000101 01000001 01000011 01001000

--a loud ringing is heard inside Eugene's skull like

         tinnitus, 
 head aching as his fingertips grow bold
             numb
as if having
 been sho
      cke

                d.

Old Guard

Those determined to be contingent of the 'old guard' go here.

Hugin

"Sees all. Listens to more. Greedy for secrets, hides many for others." A brief pause. "Thief of seeds." - The Artist

Formerly the servant of Odin, not a great deal is known about Hugin by the group. He was first encountered by the actress Allison Winters outside of Salem, West Virginia. While attempting to attack the woman, he was bound to her instead. Resigned to his new role, he defended Allison from various dangers they encountered while attempting to meet up with the group. So far he seems capable of being a deadly combatant with a sword, changing from human to bird form and reading the thoughts of others.

Hugin is 'the' Hugin of Norse myth, and the twin brother of Munin (see below). Once as mischievous and free-spirited as his brother, Odin ground down his personality over the eons to such an extent that he lost all personality and will of his own, obeying The Old Man unquestioningly to the extent of betraying his own brother, which led to the latter's imprisonment. Sent to retrieve something for Odin on this side, he ran into Allison and was overcome by her ability. After many incidents with the group, he slowly seems to be regaining some of his autonomy.

Munin

Formerly the servant of Odin, he is 'the' Munin of ancient Norse myth. A trickster and member of the 'Old Guard' like Coyote, he is the twin brother of Hugin 'Thought'. As Hugin can read minds, so can Munin 'Memory' access their memories. Unable to forget anything, the weight of a such a burden eventually drove him from Odin's side, the god's actions leading to lots of bad ones. He can also remove memories, either selectively or altogether, at least temporarily, and would often do so for the valkyrie upon request when the weight of centuries of bloody battle and loss became too much to bear.

He was betrayed by his brother to Odin and subsequently imprisoned for years until freed by Coyote, and has never forgiven his brother for this and other transgressions. Even though it has been pointed out that his brother was perhaps not doing such things of his own free will (not apparently seeming to have any left after years of being ground down by Odin's will) Munin swears there will be a reckoning and he will confront his brother. He is currently working to restore the world with Coyote et al. but so far as resided on the dream side. He helped bring Kumar, Jennifer's husband, to her, pulling him from wherever he was and through the dream realm before depositing him within Witch Mountain in the gym. Kumar has no knowledge of the 24 hours previous to his appearance there.

Coyote

“Well, that’s interesting.” A man’s voice murmurs. Jennifer’s gaze is drawn to a strange lean man ‘perching’ on a boulder, his eyes giving off a soft yellow glow, pupils vertical slits. He grins at her ear to ear, bringing mischief to mind. The man, previously garbed in what looked like a track suit, is now wearing a pair of red swim trunks; she sees his body riddled with what could be tattoos, though they have little rhyme or recognizable reason to their shapes. He grins with perfectly white teeth and notably elongated canines. “I am a humble traveler and observer, my dear lovely lady.” He bows his head low, sweeping an arm out, small dark claws at the ends of his fingertips. Call me what you like, if it makes you feel better. Zix, Jack, Meng, Gog, it makes no difference to me.” He pauses, and then holds up a finger. “Maybe you might call me a Púca. That might work.” He beams.

Before her eyes the strange man's body warps mid-air before an immense weight thunders against the beach, sending sand kicking up beneath huge hooves. Standing there before Jennifer is an enormous black stallion, eyes glowing the same fierce yellow from before. "Shall we?" It intones fluidly.

Trickster spirit from the Americas. He has been known by many names in many pantheons, though for now he is just referred to as Coyote. One of the first of the Old Guard the group came into contact with, he has proven to be a steadfast ally and implacable foe of the Four. Together with the rest of the Old Guard, he seeks to protect the dreamers (human race) and try to bring balance back to the world, ultimately defeating the Pale Man and Nightmare King. He has faced the former in battle and (barely) lived to tell about it after rescuing Jennifer from the Nightmare King.

His current whereabouts are unknown.

Inari

Trickster spirit from Japan. Occasionally takes the form of a fox. She tricked Greg into changing form into a female and bearing her child, Gwen, who later joined the Egyptian pantheon. She did this in order to remove him from the grasp of the Nightmare King from whom he was partially descended after he began to exhibit ravenous tendencies.

Anansi

Trickster spirit from Africa that often takes the form of a spider. He has spies (in the form of spiders of various sizes) everywhere and is always willing to bargain for his aid... but he always has a price. Perhaps the least trusted of the Old Guard, his motives seem to be his own.

Pantheon

Those known components of the pantheons go here.

Greek

All believed to be 'killed.' Athena, however, still lives and also works with the Old Guard, though in secret, for if her survival were known she would likely be hunted down and killed.

Athena

A raven-haired woman with sharp, strong features, high cheekbones and a profoundly athletic and statuesque stature; she stands adorned in what by all accounts appear to be plain black BDUs. There is a decidedly serious air about her—though her steely gray eyes.

Atalanta

"Later on I met Atalanta, if you can believe it--well, more that she spotted me and had a word about wolves and the like." - Zuri

"Greek, yeah--lady's fast. Warned me off of wolves, said she was doing some hunting." -Shit, she's going to kill Greg and Allison for killing the caribou.

Egyptian

Anubis

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Leader of the Egyptian gods. Mother/Father (she shapechanges as well) of Kebechet. Former member of the Old Guard (Jackal, a mideastern trickster) she gave that up to be a responsible pantheon leader. All deaths in the Middle East ended up in Anubis' domain, so she has a lot of formidable warriors among her souls.

Sekhmet

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Lion-headed goddess of war, longtime enemy of the Norse pantheon; there is no love lost between the two factions.

Sobek

Crocodile-headed god of war. He did show up with reinforcements at the Battle of Mount Weather and currently leads the Egyptian troops stationed there.

Ra

MIA Egyptian god of the sun.

Norse

Odin

Head god. De facto leader. Father god. Kind of a dick to his kids.

Frigg

Frigg is Odin's wife.

Hel

Goddess of the dead. The ordinary souls, not he heroes. That gives her a shitload of currency and sway among the pantheon. She's not pleasant. Also sister of Fenrir.

"The spirits of the deceased are the ticket to seeing Hel--but short of somehow coercing Fenrir to come and visit her, I can't speak for what might please her." - Valda

Týr

The smith of the Norse gods. "One of the best combatants father has. He sacrificed his hand when Fenrir was first bound." -Valda

Freyja

Sees to Valhalla (and according to Sekhmet sleeps with all who enter it). Freyja is Óðr's wife. " Freyja oversees Fólkvangr--it is where half of those who die in battle go, the other half to Valhalla. She and my uncle both see to fighting spirits--so both saw to my sisters and I at times." -Valda

"Freyja is the Ásynja who overlooks Fólkvangr--it is, in a way, like Valhalla." Her lips purse. "Besides father, Freyja 'oversees' the Valkyrie." -Valda

"Freyja doesn't handle spirits now. She hasn't for a long time now, there have not been a wealth of the dead to go around so Hel took the full duty over." - Valda

Heimdallr

Without Hugin, Heimdall is the eyes of the Norse. He sees everything through a magic pool of water.

Nanna

One of the lesser members of the pantheon that the valkyries would go to for support or commiseration. She is Baldr's wife, and passed from grief at her husband's death.

Baldr

One of the lesser members of the pantheon that the valkyries trust.

Óðr

An unreasonable god to reach, according to Valda, but one that might be amenable to their plans.