Characters / Arcane – Online Mystery Serial

The Heroes

Ophelia

Ophelia MacDermoth

Gregor's daughter, gifted with psychic abilities at birth.

• Action Girl: Downplayed, since if anyone tends to run into physical threats, it's usually Prescott. But she does manage to incapacitate Brother Barnstable with a sneak attack and she's also the one who both takes out the Guardian and ensnares Shub-Niggurath.
• Blessed with Suck: While her psychic sensitivity is certainly useful, they can prove to be rather problematic and overwhelming when she picks up even the faintest vibrations.
• Catchphrase: "I must concentrate."
• Cool Old Lady: In the present day, she aids Bishop in finding out how the Elder Star was defeated.
• Deadpan Snarker: Rarely, but noticeable when she does.
  Ophelia: (flat monotone, after seeing Alvin Carter's corpse in the wardrobe) There's a skeleton in this closet.
• It Amused Me: She pretends to be senile to annoy her nurse.
• Missing Mom: Her mother was driven mad and institutionalized for the rest of her life. Ophelia never met her, except in a vision.
• The Ophelia: Played with. Despite sharing the trope's name and having strong psychic abilities, she's actually quite sane. However, she inherited her powers when her mother was driven insane.
• Psychic Powers: She frequently has visions that give her glimpses of the future and aid her in finding clues.

Gregor

Dr. Gregor MacDermoth

Ophelia's father.

• Badass Bookworm: He's the chairman of the Department of Anthropology at Southwick University, which helps immensely in his pursuit of the knowledge to banish the Great Ancients and stamp out their worshipers.
• Catchphrase: In The Miller Estate, he uses "Blast my light" and "Hell's bells" on a semi-regular basis.
• Cool Old Guy: Out of the trio, he's the most knowledgable on the Great Ancients and their cults. His age hasn't slowed him down in helping to banish their various manifestations. Notably, it's his incantation that destroys Shub-Niggurath.
• Large Ham: His original voice actor was rather strongly expressive over almost everything, even having an unexplained semi-British accent despite being in New England. In The Stone Circle, he can still be a little dramatic, but is a bit more dry.
• Occult Detective: More so than either of his companions, his focus is primarily on finding hidden knowledge and collecting relics to help solve the mystery.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Why he hunts the Great Ancients and their worshipers. His wife was driven insane on an expedition after witnessing a tribe summon Cthulhu.

Prescott

Prescott Bridgeman

A brilliant engineer and a paranormal investigator.

• Agent Scully: Despite having worked with Ophelia and Gregor for some time, he remains skeptical about the existence of supernatural manifestations, calling anything to do with them "nonsense" or "preposterous". He seems to have outgrown this mindset somewhat after personally witnessing the Guardian.
• Badass Longcoat: In the second season, he wears a gray one.
• Badass Normal: Unlike Gregor, who's fluent in occult knowledge, or Ophelia, who is aided by her psychic powers, he's just a normal man. This doesn't stop him from killing or incapacitating several members of the Elder Star.
• Catchphrase: In The Miller Estate: "My detection equipment is infallible." Though notably, he only says this twice.
• Deadpan Snarker: Given his skepticism on the paranormal in a setting where its existence is well-established, it's only inevitable that he'll make the occasional sarcastic quip.
  Prescott: (seeing Gregor trapped under a pile of planks) You should have taken the stairs.
• Empowered Badass Normal: When he wears the Amulet of Mnar, which protects him from being brainwashed by Brother Barnstable.
• Foil: To Gregor. Both of them are highly intelligent paranormal investigators dedicated to hunting the Elder Star cult, but whereas Gregor is an old man who has no doubt about the existence of the Great Ancients, Prescott is a younger man who remains a skeptic in the face of the supernatural. And where Gregor's intelligence is more rooted in anthropology and occult knowledge, Prescott is more focused on building mundane gadgets to aid him in finding hidden hidden clues.
• Genius Bruiser: He's big and strong, but capable of making his own technology to aid him. He's also debunked many frauds who claim to have witnessed paranormal activity. Though notably, he's more likely to use his wits than his strength to take out various threats he faces, with the one exception of his Traintop Battle with Brother Barnstable.
• Occult Detective: A paranormal investigator who makes a career out of debunking frauds.
• Skeptic No Longer: As of The Stone Circle, he's outgrown his skepticism and seems to acknowledge that the supernatural exists. Though notably, he still relies more on science than mysticism.
• The Witch Hunter: Not one himself, but he's descended from one of the executioners from the Salem Witch Trials.

The Elder Star

The Cardinal

The Cardinal

The enigmatic and powerful leader of the Elder Star.

• Badass Longrobe: Wouldn't be a Cardinal without one.
• The Bad Guy Wins: Twice. First when the heroes activate the Duncan Creek node, then the Stonehenge node. However, it's implied that if the series continued, then he would have eventually been beaten at his own game.
• Big Bad: As the leader of the Elder Star, hellbent on world domination, this comes naturally. Though he shares this duty with Alicia Blackwood as of The Stone Circle.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He knows full well that the Great Ancients are pure evil, and willingly takes their side, believing that there is no real good in the universe.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": He's only ever called "the Cardinal". Although a book in the Miller Estate's library on the theory of Leys is written by one Cardinal Kardec, who may or may not be him.
• Evil Is Hammy: Of the Large Ham variety in the first series, but mellows out (slightly) in the second and becomes more of a Cold Ham.
  The Cardinal: (in Ophelia's first vision of him) FOOOOOOL! Are you too dumb to understand my intentions? EVEN if you choose to close your eyes, YOOOOOOOOUUUU will have CHOSEEEEEN!
• Evil Old Folks: Around the better part of 700 years old, is immensely powerful, and wants to release the Great Ancients upon the world.
• Faux Affably Evil: He mockingly congratulates the heroes on dispatching the Guardian and Shub-Niggurath and thereby activating the nodes, calling them "partners" and "friends", thanking them for their unintentional help in restoring the reign of the Great Ancients for his own benefit
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Despite having a clear enough personality, there's never any real reason given why he wants to bring the Great Ancients back other than because he's a power-hungry, seemingly insane Straw Nihilist.
• Knight of Cerebus: The series is already undeniably dark as it is. But whenever he shows up, things get a hell of a lot worse and nightmarish, changing the narrative from the standard Lovecraft Lite where the good guys seemingly triumph over the Great Ancients and their servants into a Cosmic Horror Story where their efforts only helped hasten the doom of humanity.
• Manipulative Bastard: Oh, so much. Everything the trio — and the gods — did to try and beat him at his own game was all according to his plan.
• Omnicidal Maniac: His goal is to unleash the Great Ancients upon the world.
• Puny Humans: "Poor little creatures ..."
• Really 700 Years Old: At least 700 years old.
• Sinister Minister: He may or may not have been a cardinal from the Vatican.
• Straw Nihilist: His speeches to the heroes have give this impression. He scoffs at the notion of free will and sees the universe as little more than a playground for the Great Ancients.
• Third Eye: Has one painted on his forehead in the first season, and in a couple episodes of the second. It's strangely absent in the final episode, though.
• Touched by Vorlons: He is thought to have tapped into the Great Ancients' power to some extent, which would explain his own power and his advanced age.
• Xanatos Gambit: It doesn't matter what course of action the heroes take, or if the new gods are assisting them. Thus far, he's beaten the heroes both times, although his winning streak apparently didn't last forever.

Alicia Blackwood

Alicia Blackwood, aka Baroness Alicia Vonaburg

A mysterious woman who wants to usurp the Cardinal as the leader of the Elder Star. She conspired with Alvin Carter to destroy the Guardian in The Miller Estate.

• Asshole Victim: She's been playing with the heroes throughout the whole story, and is hellbent on world domination. One can be forgiven for thinking that she deserved to die gruesomely.
• Beware the Nice Ones: She is kind and hospitable to her guests, even looking after Ophelia while she recovers from her journey through time. This, of course, is all a ruse.
• Big Bad: Of The Stone Circle, although she shares this duty with the Cardinal.
  • Big Bad Friend: She sets the events of the Stone Circle in motion by inviting Ophelia to perform at a concert in London and hosts and assists the protagonists throughout their stay.
  • Big Bad Wannabe: In the end, she just isn't savvy enough to be the true Big Bad, and dies gruesomely for her efforts to be one.
• The Chessmaster: Under the guise of Baroness Alicia Vonarburg, she invited Ophelia, Gregor, and Prescott to London for Ophelia to play at the London Philharmonic Society, leading them to find the remains of Shub-Niggurath scattered across England. This was all part of her plan to awaken and enslave the demon and assume the mantle of the master of the Elder Star.
• Did Not Think This Through: Apparently, she didn't take into account that awakening Shub-Niggurath would require a blood sacrifice, so she ends up serving as one.
• The Ghost: We only get to read her letters and hear her voice on a phonograph. That is, until she's revealed to be Baroness Vonaburg.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: In The Stone Circle, she turns against the Elder Star and asks Prescott and his companions to find the relics, and dies shortly afterwards. Or so we're lead to believe.
• I'm Melting!: How she dies.
• Ouroboros: It's on her tiara.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: After awakening and trying to enslave Shub-Niggurath, she melts and her blood feeds the beast.
• Rich Bitch: Comes with being a baroness and a member of the Elder Star.
• Shout-Out: Her surname is likely one to Algernon Blackwood, who served as a major inspiration to Lovecraft's works.
• The Starscream: She wants to overthrow the Cardinal.
• Walking Spoiler: It's telling that almost everything relating to her is marked as a spoiler. After all, she's hiding in plain sight throughout season 2.

Henchmen

The Henchmen

The Cardinal's Mooks, dressed in black hats and trench coats.

• Badass Longcoat: Black trench coats.
• Brown Note: Simply revealing the Elder Sign in their hand will instantly drive someone irrevocably insane.
• Dark Is Evil: They wear black trench coats and hats, with most of their facial features obscured. And they're members of the dangerous Elder Star cult.
• The Faceless: Their facial features aren't discernible, except their eyes.
• Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: One of them is encountered smoking a cigarette on the boat.
• Prophet Eyes: White sclera with no pupils or irises.
• Put on a Bus: After two episodes of confronting them, they are never seen again. However, since one is last seen being knocked overboard into the River Thames by Prescott and the other is left stranded and unconscious on a decoupled train car somewhere in the countryside, it's very easy to excuse why they aren't seen again.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: Maybe not really bosses, but in case you were getting used to just avoiding aimless clicking, they came in and became the first physical threat you have to face.

The Great Ancients and servants

Great Ancients

A primordial race of evil beings.

The Great Ancients in general:

• Adaptational Villainy: H. P. Lovecraft portrayed the Great Old Ones as not so much evil as they are beyond simple morality as we know it. Here, they are stated to be truly malevolent, and their only goal is to “restore their reign of chaos, and of terror.”
• Adaptational Wimp: The Book of Yhe says that the Talisman can be used to enslave or kill them, whereas they are usually portrayed as either being Nigh-Invulnerable or having Complete Immortality.
• Always Chaotic Evil: Quite literally. They reigned over the Primordial Chaos prior to their banishment. Their sole purpose is to bring about destruction and chaos.
• Devil, but No God: The new gods that had defeated the Great Ancients don't have as much earthly influence as them.
• Eldritch Abomination: It goes without saying. After all, they’re an interpretation of the Trope Codifiers.
• Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: Averted. They seem to have no qualms with sending their own out to Earth if it means a hastening of their return.
• The End of the World as We Know It: What else would happen if a vengeful race of Eldritch Abominations were unleashed upon the earth?
• Greater-Scope Villain: None of the series' events would have happened if it weren't for them.
• Primordial Chaos: “In the beginning, only chaos existed …”
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Most of them are trapped somewhere outside time and space as we know it, while Cthulhu slumbers in the city of R’lyeh and Shub-Niggurath had his dismembered remains scattered across England.

Shub-Niggurath:

• Adaptational Wimp: Unlike the cloudlike abomination s/he is often portrayed as that can spawn an endless number of its horrible Thousand Young at will, this interpretation of Shub-Niggurath is limited to swatting and headbutting, and is subservient to (and can be destroyed by) the Talisman of Yhe, and an incantation. Not to mention that he's painfully easy to beat.
• Artifact of Doom: His dismembered body parts. When the monks tried to bury them on holy grounds, they were almost always met with a catastrophe of some sort.
• Gender Flip: Many authors after Lovecraft’s time depict Shub as female. That’s not the case here.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Evil, of course.

The Guardian

The Guardian of the Stone

A servant of the Great Ancients, responsible for the disappearance of many of Duncan Creek’s denizens.

• Blob Monster: Although it sometimes assumes a more humanoid shape.
• Eldritch Abomination: Like its masters, albeit a lesser one.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Not much is really known about it other than that it's a powerful and dangerous monster that's responsible for a rash disappearances in Duncan Creek.
• The Heavy: It's responsible for the events of The Miller Estate, and is more of an immediate threat than the real Big Bad of the series, the Cardinal.
• Humanoid Abomination: It sometimes looks roughly human in appearance, although it's still really obvious that it's not.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: If the game over screens for The Miller Estate episode 4 are anything to go by, it has rows upon rows of sharp teeth.

The Shadow

The Shadow

An unnamed creature that assumes a shadowy form. It appears in a few episodes with every other pointless click of the mouse, and will either drive the player character insane or kill them if they click in the wrong place too many times.

• Ambiguous Situation: Whether there is one shadow throughout the entire series or multiple, and what their nature is. It is implied, but never confirmed, that the shadow encountered in the first episode is a manifestation of the Guardian, as are the other threats faced throughout season one. The shadows encountered in season two on the other hand are never given any context- it is unknown whether they are connected to Shub Niggarath, or even to one another.
• Eldritch Abomination: Assuming that it doesn't devour you outright, it's too horrific to be comprehended, as it can drive Prescott mad with a single glance at what's likely its true form in episode 1 of The Miller Estate. It also appears to have some sort of Reality Warper abilities.
• Nothing Is Scarier: You never see its true form, though one can assume from their reactions that the protagonists do.
• Unseen Evil: All that can ever be seen of it is its shadow.
• The Unfought: It cannot be fought or killed. You just have to be cautious about clicking aimlessly.

Other Characters

Bishop

Steven Bishop

A young man who comes to visit Ophelia for guidance in the nursing home where she resides.

• Meaningful Name: Word of God says that had the series continued, he would have been revealed to be the Cardinal in disguise, coming to finish Ophelia off and bring the Great Ancients back to earth.

Smith

Ebenezer Smith

An elderly museum curator and an old friend of Gregor.

• Driven to Madness: He’s so unsettled by Gregor revealing the hand to him that this apparently happens to him.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: We only get to see him once in the entire season, and one can only assume things didn’t end well for him.

Mrs. Mac Dermoth

Mrs. MacDermoth

Ophelia’s mother and Gregor’s widow.

• Go Mad from the Revelation: She witnessed an African tribe summon what is implied to be Cthulhu, and was so traumatized that she lived the rest of her days out in a mental hospital.
• The Lost Lenore: To Gregor.
• The Ophelia: Ironically, more so than her daughter.

Janet

Janet

Ophelia's ornery nurse.

• Fiery Redhead: Has red hair and a bad temper.
• Jerkass: She's incredibly rude and easily annoyed by Ophelia's (supposed) insanity.
• Lack of Empathy: Regardless of Ophelia's Obfuscating Insanity, you'd think someone of Janet's profession would be a bit more sensitive to people suffering from mental illness.

Alvin Carter

Alvin Carter

The Miller villa's last tenant and a penpal of Alicia Blackwood.

• Posthumous Character: All that's shown of him outside of flashbacks and journal entries is his near-skeletal corpse in a closet. It's implied that he was murdered by the Cardinal.
• Unwitting Pawn: To Alicia Blackwood.

The New Gods

The New Gods/The Elder Gods

Benevolent deities who fought the Great Ancients and banished them beyond the frontiers of the universe.

• Adaptational Heroism: The Elder Gods, according to Lovecraft, were more of a neutral force that fought the Great Old Ones out of territorial obligation. But here, they're allies to the human race, and want to save them. Justified, because that's August Derleth's vision of them, and his interpretation of the Cthulhu Mythos is especially prominent in this series.
• Big Good: They leave artifacts scattered throughout time to help humanity to defeat the Great Ancients.
• The Ghost: They're never encountered in-game, and are only spoken of or represented by idols.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: As with just about everyone in the game's universe, the aid they offer is completely compatible with the Cardinal's schemes.