Heretical Edge Seosten Empire / Characters

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The multidimensional galaxy spanning empire behind much of the plot.

Do not read this page if you haven't finished arc 12 at an absolute minimum. Having finished arc 27 would be better. Having finished arc 34 would be ideal. There's a LOT of potential incidental spoilers here.

Seosten

Seosten In General

The Seosten are an ancient Alter race old that rules an inter-dimensional empire. They're one of the two most powerful forces in the universe, matched only by their hated rivals, the Fomorians.

A Lighter Shade of Black: The Seosten Empire is an extremely oppressive, racist regime that enslaves every "lesser" race they find... but pretty much everyone agrees the Fomorians are even worse.
Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: The Seosten government is very reluctant to kill individual Seosten, even in the case of treason. There aren't a lot of them, so they prefer to keep criminals and traitors alive as often as possible.
Berserk Button: They absolutely freak out if someone manages to turn their trademark possession ability against them.
Big Dumb Body: Tend to favor this kind of person as hosts for the Fomorian front, since it's the Seosten who's making all the decisions in the pair.
Demonic Possession: Their signature power. Seosten can possess a body and control it. Only part-Alter humans are immune, because possessing one is fatal to Seosten.
Fantastic Racism: It's pretty common for Seosten to look down on anything that isn't one of them.
- Seosten with broken possession powers have it even worse, with numerous laws specifically restricting their activities and most of them never being given a name. They're just called "Lies".
Glass Cannon: Even by Heretical Edge standards Seosten have offense and mobility disproportionately better than their defense.
Light Is Not Good: It really isn't.
Our Angels Are Different: Seosten are the origin of the idea of angels, what with their ethereal beauty and commonly ending their names with "-iel." The wings come from a few of them with incredibly powerful energy wings and others trying to imitate the look.
The Man Behind the Man: The Seosten created the Bystander Effect to keep humanity isolated and under control. They later possessed a man named Hieronymus Bosch and used him to build the Heretical Edge and found Crossroads for the same purpose.
Memory Tropes: Memory Magic is a specialty of theirs. They can modify the memories of their victims. They also created the Bystander Effect.
New Body, Old Abilities: A Seosten, or someone else who's obtained Seosten possession, can use any powers that aren't completely dependent on their own body/equipment while possessing someone else.
Scary Dogmatic Aliens
Slave Mooks: The Seosten maintain armies and camps of Alter slaves to do their bidding.
Super-Empowering: The Seosten have a boost ability that allows them to temporarily enhance all of their abilities. If they're possessing someone else, the boost works on all abilities of both the Seosten and their host.
Tyke-Bomb: Seosten children are raised directly by the military to serve the empire, rather than allow "untested" parents to raise them.
You Have Failed Me: Non-Seosten troops and subordinates who don't follow orders successfully tend to have a low survival rate. Many are more afraid of failing their orders than being killed by enemies.

Olympians

In General

A group of Seosten Super Soldiers that once crewed the space ship Olympus thousands of years ago. They were sent to investigate the recently discovered Earth by infiltrating the ancient Greek civilization and impersonating the gods of Classical Mythology. They were the ones who eventually cast the Bystander Effect and created the Heretical Edge.

In the present day, some of them are still running operations on earth, others have moved on to high level positions elsewhere in the Seosten Empire, and a few have gone rogue.

The Ageless: They all stopped aging once their enhancements really set in.
The Dreaded: Those of them that are known among non-Seosten imperial slaves tend to be feared, such as Radueriel "The Butcher" And Charmeine "The Nemesis."
Lack of Empathy: Deconstructed, as the ones who are willing to empathize with what the others view as "lesser races" tend to be more effective than those who don't.
- It's arguably a case of Redemption Promotion for those who have Heel-Face Turns. The empathy that makes them more effective tends to push them to defect or become reformists.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: The sheer length of their service, combined with the natural Seosten perfect memory and the lack of mental health care options have left some of them with some pretty serious issues.
Superpower Lottery: Each of them has a single superpower or group of closely related powers, such as Sariel's Improbable Aiming Skills and Puriel's Energy Manipulation. If any of them can be said to have won the lottery, it would have to be Chayyiel.
Super-Soldier: Each of them were a part of the Summus Proelium project, where they were subjected to extensive genetic modifications that enhanced them and left most of them with superpowers.
We Used to Be Friends: The Olympians were True Companions when they were still stationed on the Olympus until beginning the process of casting the Bystander Effect set off a series of events that ultimately ripped them apart. Nowadays, while many of them at least maintain a professional relationship and some individuals are still on friendly or even loving terms, a lot of them have come to despise each other. And not just the defectors.
Walking Spoiler: They're all neck deep in the deepest known layer of conspiracies, and only two appear before Arc 27's massive twists. Do not read this folder if you aren't up to date and don't wish to be spoiled rotten.

Sariel

Sariel Moon is a former infiltrator who abandoned her people to marry a human she had fallen in love with. An Eden's Garden Heretic named Haiden, to be exact. They went on to have twin children, Vanessa and Tristan. But her former colleagues later found her and attempted to retrieve her, which didn't end particularly well for anybody. She gave birth to a pure-Seosten child she named Tabbris within a couple of years.

Action Mom: Having kids didn't slow her down at all. The second she's let out stasis she promptly starts kicking ass to protect her kids.
Androcles' Lion: Her decision to not enslave and eventually protect Larissa rewarded Sariel years later when she needed help while looking for her family.
- And choosing to secretly protect Flick by having her made immune to possession payed off big years later when she played a key role in reuniting Tristan and Vanessa and started throwing a major wrench into the Seosten's plans.
Badass Bookworm: She was a lab tech on the project that created the Olympians.
Baby Factory: Her fate after being sent back to her people. She was imprisoned as a traitor and artificially inseminated to produce children. This is how Tabbris and Spark were born.
Being Good Sucks: The universe has shat on Sariel HARD ever since she defected. She spent twenty-one happy years with her husband, then her family was scattered across the universe, she was shipped off to Kushiel's Baby Factory, she had to give away her fourth child to save her from being raised as a Seosten soldier, and was unable to prevent her third and fifth children from being taken away to be raised as such, and she wound up accidentally tossing Larissa into Seosten space to save her from a Fomorian (ruining her plan to get back to Earth).
Berserk Button: Do not touch her kids. If you do, she'll drop right into combat mode and slaughter you without compunction, even if she's barely functional from trauma otherwise.
Beware the Nice Ones: Sariel is one of the only Seosten we see with a conscience and empathy for non-Seosten. She's also their best infiltrator and a nightmare in combat.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Sariel stopped using the standard Seosten method of taking constant and complete control of her hosts in the late seventeenth century. Her comrades saw this as strange, but she was the best infiltrator they had before and after the switch, so no one stopped her.
Consummate Liar: It only becomes clear in retrospect that Sariel severely undersold how much she was suffering when she started interacting with an adult Larissa Mason. She never gave so much as the slightest hint to what was happening until she willingly explained it.
Crazy-Prepared: Sariel gave Tabbris contingencies for everything she could think of. Which includes a lot of highly improbable scenarios like needing a cheap win against Radueriel.
Fallen Angel: In the sense that she abandoned her angelic race.
God Guise: She played the Greco-Roman goddess Artemis/Diana in ancient times. She chose the surname "Moon" as a reference to that time.
Going Native: After spending thousands of years living among humans, Sariel grew to like and want to join them.
Happily Married: She was. But her former comrades decided that this wouldn't do.
Heel–Face Turn: Before she had enough with the Empire's methods, Sariel was the best covert operative on the Seosten payroll, and it took her thousands of years to work up the courage to defect after realizing the Seosten were in the wrong.
Improbable Aiming Skills: Sariel can put a pebble through a helmet slit. At thirty feet. At night. In the rain. It's her gift from the enhancements she received. Apparently she's even better with a bow.
Interspecies Romance: With a former Eden's Garden Heretic. They were Happily Married with twins.
Mama Bear: Oh yes. It was in her job description as Artemis, and in the present she's defected, attempted suicide, offered up her own life, and willingly given up any hope of seeing her own daughter all to protect one child or another.
Mommy Had A Good Reason For Abandoning You: It wasn't her decision in the case of Vanessa and Tristan. Banishment spells are nasty like that. Nor was it her choice to lose Spark and her fifth child (name unknown) to Kushiel's clutches. But for Tabbris, Sariel banished her daughter to the other side of the universe (Earth) so she wouldn't be raised as just another Seosten soldier. Also to keep Flick safe. She had multiple plans to enable some degree of contact, but those all fell through when the Fomorian attacked Larissa.
Noble Demon: Post transition to hands off possession at the latest to when Sariel finally worked up her courage to leave. She was still an operative of the Seosten but taking the effort to not completely dominate her unknowing hosts lives. And going by the fact that it was in her job description as Artemis, she always had a soft spot for children - to the point where being ordered to possess a ten-year-old girl named Larissa was one of the final straws.
Parental Abandonment: She and her husband were forcibly separated from their children and each other when they were sucked into a interdimensional portal and scattered across multiple words. Only Vanessa remained on earth.
Spanner in the Works: Ends up semi-intentionally throwing a pretty impressive one into her former colleague's mission when she has Larissa Mason make Felicity Chambers immune to Seosten Possession.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Kushiel's torture has traumatized her badly enough that she can't possess people without letting her emotions bleed into them.
Theme Twin Naming: Averted. She's had twin children, but did not give them similar-sounding names. She did, however, inspire the naming of Sarah and Sandoval Mason.
Took a Level in Badass: Started out as a lab assistant. Ended up as Olympian after surviving Uriah Gambits from Kushiel.
You Didn't Ask: Her modus operandi for lying. Sariel has not been caught in a direct lie yet - but leaving out information is a frequent occurrence.

Puriel

Originally The Captain of the Olympus, Puriel continued to run operations on earth until 2007, when he attempted to retrieve Sariel and ended up getting accidentally banished off to parts unknown by her Heretic husband Haiden Moon. He has since returned to Elohim, but something happened to him in the meantime that left him in an agoraphobic state. He now rarely leaves his home.

Abusive Parents: Lost all interest in his biological daughter as soon as it became apparent she was born as a lie.
- Or maybe not. Apparently he's responsible for getting her sent Earthside. Jophiel thinks he might actually care about her these days.
Be Careful What You Wish For: Once told Chayyiel she thought too short term. Her response was to start an entire sub-faction that does things her way.
The Captain: Puriel was the commanding officer of the Olympus.
Combat Pragmatist: Ignored Chayyiel's demands to leave Arthur Pendragon to her by dropping an army on their heads. It worked. At least temporarily.
Dramatically Missing the Point: Puriel found the stories the Greeks came up with to be entertaining, but failed to learn anything about the dangers of hubris or the folly of trying to prevent prophecies from them.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Cannot remotely figure why Sariel and Apollo do what they do.
- He tried to shame Apollo/Lucifer by casting him as the Devil. It had the exact opposite effect.
Fantastic Racism: He views humans as filthy savages.
God Guise: Masqueraded as Zeus/Jupiter in ancient times.
Jerkass: He calls Sariel's family (which includes young children) "a lie" to their faces. That's a dick move even before you learn the connotations that word has in Seosten society.
Parental Substitute: As The Captain of the Olympus, Puriel was essentially Chayyiel's father figure on board the ship.
Reasonable Authority Figure: Thousands of years ago, yes. Now not so much.
Shell-Shocked Veteran: Something seriously messed Puriel up after Haiden Moon accidentally banished him. He's not missing, but according to Jophiel he almost never leaves his home anymore.
Shock and Awe: Puriel's enhancements left him with the ability to manipulate forms of energy, which is the source of Zeus's ability to control lightning.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Puriel was MUCH nicer when first became captain of the Olympus.

Apollo

Another Seostenic renegade. Apollo was once an agent and infiltrator like Sariel and Puriel, but abandoned them thousands of years ago to enjoy life. He's well known among the Seosten as a traitor.

He finally appears in the story when he contacts his surrogate niece and nephew.

Beware the Nice Ones: The second good adult Seosten we learned of. Like his self-proclaimed sister Sariel, Apollo is incredibly powerful and dangerously competent.
Beware the Silly Ones: Troll. Slacker. Goofball. Three thousand year old renegade spy/commando. Just because he's usually playing around doesn't mean he isn't really dangerous when he isn't playing around.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: This is a man who signed a note to his nephew and niece requesting a meeting to talk about saving their mother with 'Uncle Satan,' casually wiped out a Heretic kill team just so the Alters he saved could deliver that note to Gabriel Prosser and he would give it to the Moon twins, who should have had no way of knowing where said twins would be, where Gabriel Prosser would be or where said refugees would be attacked, but found out anyway. Apollo is a goofball, a troll, a slacker and a loose cannon, but he's also devastatingly competent when he cares about something.
Cool Uncle: To Sariel's children.
Crazy-Prepared: Planted a magic EMP bomb and forced teleportation spell in Radueriel's cybernetic spine before he left so he could have one free getaway. This ends up being used by Tabbris.
Defector from Decadence: Inverted. He defected to decadence. But he defected from a despotic empire of slavers, so it's still a step up.
- He's also been running various anti-Seosten schemes on the side while goofing off.
Do Wrong, Right: He's more annoyed by the Inconsistencies in Satan's portrayal than anything else.
I mean honestly, can you point to a single coherent tale of my misdeeds that isn’t logically baffling and incompatible with any other story about me? Honestly, it’s as if they just took a bunch of stories about other villainous creatures and copy-pasted my name in their place no matter how little sense they made.
Fallen Angel: For the same reason as Sariel, only he did it centuries earlier.
God Guise: He pretended to be the god Apollo. Hence the name.
Honorary Uncle: To Sariel's children.
Like Brother and Sister: His relationship with Sariel, who pretended to be Artemis. At least according to him. Sariel herself doesn't see things the same way.
Meaningful Rename: Abandoned his original name in favor of the one he used to interact with humans.
Papa Wolf: To young Chayyiel.
Pop-Cultured Badass: In his first appearance alone, Apollo gives away enchanted shoes to preform magic when their heels are clicked three times, warns his niece and nephew not to say Biggie Smalls's name near a mirror, compares his portrayal as Satan to being copy and pasted as the dark bane of Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, and Twilight Sparkle, and reveals that he named his secret Year Inside, Hour Outside room the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.
Propaganda Machine: Before he left, Apollo's job was to spread propaganda about the Seosten "gods." Which basically means that he made up a lot of Greek Mythology.
Satan: Apollo's original Seosten name is Lucifer, Apollo was the bringer of light, so Puriel thought that by associating that title with the ultimate evil he could shame Apollo into returning. It didn't work, of course.
Satan Is Good: Well yeah. He's a defector from an evil cross-dimensional empire.
Subbing Versus Dubbing: Apollo watches both. And the originals. Because he's a storyteller, and he likes seeing how other storytellers handle a work.
Symbiotic Possession: In contrast to the direct possession practiced by the majority of Seosten, Apollo only possesses willing hosts who like seeking out thrills as much as he does. He helps them go beyond human limits and frees them from the Bystander Effect in exchange.
Thrill Seeker: Apollo spends most of his time looking for the next thrill, doing crazy XXX-esque stunts.
Troll: All those less-than-flattering stories about the various Olympian gods? That was just Apollo using his position to screw with his colleagues. He thought it was hilarious to spread stories that painted Zeus as a voracious sex hound to annoy the uptight Puriel, or cast Aphrodite and Eros as mother and son when Jophiel and Paschar don't get along.
- The ones about Apollo? He made them up too, because they provided excellent cover for mocking the rest and he finds them amusing.
Took a Level in Badass: Started out as a lab assistant. Ended up as Olympian after surviving Uriah Gambits from Kushiel.
Turncoat: Infamous among the Seosten for his treason.
Year Inside, Hour Outside: His 'planning room' works like this. Very useful for plotting how to interfere with his old bosses without using up all his goofing off time. Also handy for giving his niece and nephew three weeks of instruction in 20 minutes.

Manakel

A Seosten operative comparable to Puriel in rank. He's currently on assignment on Earth to gain access to Hieronymus Bosch's Blood Vault before any Heretics do, although we don't know who he's possessing. Revealed to be possessing Kohaku in Desperate Measures 37-07. Killed by Felicity Chambers and Sariel Moon in Desperate Measures 37-08.

Bad Boss: To any subordinates he doesn't deem valuable enough to keep around, like Lies and Isaac. He doesn't hesitate to threaten their lives if they don't preform to his satisfaction, and he tries to make good on this threat when it becomes clear that Lies failed to stop Flick from getting the Ring of Anuk-Ite.
God Guise: He played Hades in ancient times.
Necromancer: Handling ghosts and zombies and the like is the power he got form his enhancements.
Overt Operative: Manakel is more used to leading and bossing slaves around openly, so he has some difficulty adjusting to an infiltration mission.
The Jailer: Was given responsibility over Sariel at one point in her imprisonment.
Laser-Guided Karma: Tried to kill Tabbris in front of Sariel. He pays for it soon after when she possesses him and makes him kill himself.
- Also loses his primary hostage when he tries to take Flick hostage as well giving her an opening to use the expel rune on him.
The Man Behind the Man: He's a driving force in The Conspiracy to murder Avalon.
Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: He was originally the Chief Medical Officer of the Olympus. He doesn't seem to be practicing anymore.
Moral Myopia: Makes repeated references to how much Avalon deserves to suffer and die for all the trouble he's caused. Never mind that all she was really doing was trying to not die.
The Mole: One of his main jobs, basically.
- Mole in Charge: Since his host was Kohaku, the head of Crossroads' security, he was free to mislead or stymie the investigations on the murder attempts on Avalon all he wanted while enacting them himself.
Took a Level in Jerkass: Manakel was a genuine Nice Guy back when the Olympus first launched. Compare that to the cruel Jerkass he is in the present.
Would Hurt a Child: Tries to kill Tabbris shortly before he dies.

Charmeine

Manakel's partner. She's working with him on earth to gain access to Bosch's blood vault.

Killed by Felicity Chambers in New York Minutemen 27-05.

Demonic Possession: She's good at it too. Good enough to fool even the loved ones of her victims.
Disproportionate Retribution: She makes a point of repaying anyone who crosses her one-hundred fold.
Evil Is Petty: Very much so. Her reaction to being insulted by Columbus is to threaten to systematically destroy Shiori's life until she's satisfied by his begging her not to.
Faux Affably Evil: Good at keeping her disdain for humans hidden under a veneer of friendliness while on assignment.
The Friend Nobody Likes: Subverted. It initially seems like nobody outside her own Choir cares about Charmeine after Flick kills her. But Athena eventually makes it clear that many of their former crewmates will not be happy about it. It's implied that Manakel's need to torment Flick as he was trying to kill her was out of payback for Charmeine's death.
Gender Bender: She's a female Seosten who has been ordered to possess a male body at least once. Columbus Porter, to be exact. Appears to be a habit of hers, as she only discusses possessing men when discussing what would happen if her current host dies.
Genre Blind: A moment of pure Bond Villain Stupidity on Charmeine's part gets lampshaded to her face and she doesn't take the hint.
God Guise: Charmeine was Nemesis, the goddess of revenge in Classical Mythology.
The Mole: She's possessing Columbus in order to help kill Avalon, and is later ordered to keep an eye on Flick as well.
Murder Is the Best Solution: Charmeine seems to think so. When a problem pops up, her first instinct is usually to kill something. Jophiel mentions having to repeatedly remind her that killing a specific target would do more harm than good.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: One rushed decision to skip a precaution against eavesdroppers on Charmeine's part is enough to let Flick overhear her talking about her mission and subsequently start rooting her and her comrades out.
Out-of-Character Alert: Her Columbus impersonation is good enough to fool Shiori (at least while she's distracted by her own problems), but she repeatedly slips up when Flick makes references to Columbus' favorite superhero that fly over her head. Unfortunately she corrects herself fast enough that Flick doesn't even notice.
Overt Operative: Long-term infiltration missions aren't Charmeine's forte. Word of God states that she's more used to quicker missions, specifically assassinations. She drops her act and outright kidnaps Flick when she realizes that she's been compromised.
Revenge Before Reason: A serious flaw of hers. If she feels she's been crossed, she will try to pay it back, no matter how much of a risk that means taking.
Sadist: Big time. Charmeine could easily keep her hosts unconscious and unaware. Instead she lets them know everything that is happening so she can enjoy their misery.
- This ultimately gets her killed, as Flick's team was only to survive facing her because she was toying with them.
Smug Snake: Charmeine looks down on basically everyone that isn't on her side and takes pleasure in tormenting her hosts. The attitude starts to fall flat when she fails to notice that Flick is on to her, then comes back in full force when she eventually figures it out.
Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Tries to Avert this by arguing to simply kill Flick when it's made clear that she's immune to Seosten possession and magic, but is overruled by both Manakel and their superiors.
- Ironically, she falls victim to this trope on her own when she finally has Flick at her mercy and changes her own plan to immediately send Flick to Seosten space in favor of punishing her for all the trouble she's caused.
Would Hurt a Child: Beyond her torment of a teenage Columbus, Karees reveals that she slaughtered all his grandchildren when his wife begged her to spare them.

Paschar

A Seosten that specializes in using Love Potions. He was originally the Head Chef of the Olympus.

Didn't Think This Through: Apparently never considered that telling Liesje Aken about her father's possession by Radueriel would lead her to try and put a stop to it.
God Guise: He played Eros/Cupid in ancient times and still makes regular use of "Love" Potions that induce obsessive feelings in their targets.
The Man Behind the Man: Paschar is responsible for basically every bad thing that ever happened to Avalon before she came to Crossroads. Her mother's death, Fahsteth's attack, her father's vampirism, and Torv's rape attempt were all his ideas.

Jophiel

Another high-ranking Seosten. She's possessing Elisabet of the Crossroads Committee in something of an atypical arrangement.

A Lighter Shade of Black: While she's fully complicit in all Seosten operations she oversees on earth (including the attempts to murder Avalon) and is an unrepentant imperialist, Jophiel comes across as slightly better than most of her colleagues and subordinates by lacking their overt Fantastic Racism and cruelty. She and Elisabet also believe the Seosten should uplift humanity to fight the Fomorians rather than control them.
- Jophiel actually sees the current state of the Seosten Empire as a necessary evil and would rather not permanently control other species, but isn't willing to compromise the war effort against the Fomorians to change that. But she is willing and able to try and change things such that she doesn't have to compromise the war effort, even by treasonous means.
Ambiguously Bi: She's only shown to be in a long and committed relationship with a woman. But as she played Aphrodite once upon a time, it's possible that she's attracted to men as well.
An Offer You Can't Refuse: They don't threaten their lives, but the deal Jophiel and Elisabet offer Flick and Sariel's children when confronting them openly for the first time can be summed up as "agree to be trained by and obey us so we can present you to the Seraphim; or we will foil your mission to save Sariel and find some other way to make you agree later."
Beware the Nice Ones: Not as nice as Sariel or Apollo, but she's far more reasonable and less of a bigot than her comrades, and generally more dangerous than them. And when working in conjunction with Elisabet she's extremely powerful. The two of them working together are more powerful than any other Committee Counselor because their link does not share Jophiel's boost power.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Jophiel goes WAY out of her way to keep up appearances, even when she's been using the same cover for so long she could slowly phase out those habits and no one would bat an eye. It has nothing to do with appearances and everything to do with what Elisabet wants to spend time doing.
Crazy-Prepared: Jophiel goes so far as to secretly attend her host's descendant's middle school plays in her spare time. All in the name of keeping up illusions. And also because she wants to let said host see her descendant's plays.
Evil Mentor: She and Elisabet effectively force Flick, Tabbris, Tristan, and Vanessa to accept training from the two of them.
Fantastic Racism: Jophiel's lack of this towards humanity is part what makes her so much more dangerous than other infiltrators like Charmeine. She's much less likely to underestimate her enemies. And it allowed her to recruit her lover, giving her an incredibly powerful asset.
- Despite this, Jophiel maintains a paternalistic belief that the Seosten's place is to "control and protect" every other species, with a few of them (including humanity) having the potential to eventually join them at the top.
Foil: To Sariel. Both Seosten women fell in love with a human, but Jophiel doesn't doubt their people's methods as strongly as Sariel. So while Sariel ran off with Haiden, Jophiel recruited Elisabet instead.
- Also to Gaia Sinclaire. They're both Internal Reformists who believe their faction's methods do more harm than good.
- To other infiltrators as well, as noted in the Fantastic Racism entry. It's arguably to the point of Sanity Has Advantages.
God Guise: Portrayed Aphrodite/Venus in ancient times.
The Mole: A Seosten infiltrator that sits on the Crossroads Committee.
Most Common Superpower: Noted to be very buxom.
The Man Behind the Man: Jophiel outranks and gives orders to most of the Seosten that are more direct threats.
Mysterious Protector: Jophiel has been preventing her people in general and Kushiel in particular from harming Sariel's daughter Vanessa Moon since the family was split up and does the same for Tristan when he arrives. She approves of human/Seosten relationships and wants to see what human-Seosten hybrids are capable of.
Sadly Mythtaken: Paschar (Eros/Cupid) is not Jophiel's son, Radueriel (Hephaestus/Vulcan) is not her husband, and the Abbadon (Ares/Mars) is Radueriel's lover, not her's.
So Proud of You: Jophiel and Elisabet feel proud of the accomplishments Vanessa has made under their watch, although they know she likely won't reciprocate their fondness if she learns about them.
Unholy Matrimony: She may be a despotic Knight Templar dedicated to the enslavement of humanity and any other non-Seosten species, but Jophiel truly and genuinely loves her partner, who loves her back. The fact that said partner is the Heretic she's supposed to be controlling complicates things.
Villain Takes an Interest: Well, Anti-Villain Takes An Interest in Flick and Tabbris. Jophiel and Elisabet decide to make the girls their example of human-Seosten partnerships to the Seraphim once they learn about Tabbris, on top of the interest they already held in Tabbris's half-human siblings Vanessa and Tristan.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Jophiel genuinely believes it is the right of the Seosten to rule over every other species in the name of fighting and destroying the Fomorian.
Jophiel: Given time and opportunity, it is quite likely that many other species could reach the level of the Seosten. But, the Fomorians will not be giving them that time nor opportunity. They will kill them all. The only chance in stopping those creatures lies in the power of the Seosten. But to do that, we must become as strong as possible. Amends may be made once the threat has been dealt with.”
Wild Card: Her and Elisabet's goal of uplifting humanity into an alliance with the Seosten makes her this to the Seraphim and other factions. As one example, they're as likely approve a plan to abduct and dissect Flick as they are to help her get more powers in the hopes of freeing her mother.
- She occasionally provides covert support to the Aelaestiam when it suits her goals as well.

Radueriel

A Seosten engineer and inventor, and the true creator of the Heretical Edge. Chief Engineer of the Olympus.

Affably Evil: Radueriel is surprisingly nice and polite to a set of captive Heretics, offering Flick sincere congratulations for killing Charmeine and planning to put them in perfectly livable quarters instead of cells. Torturous experiments aside, he intended to make their time with him outside his lab as pleasant as possible.
Cyborg: His right arm and one of his legs are mechanical. There's at least one weapon, an Arm Cannon, built into them.
Foil: He contrasts heavily with Charmeine, who he temporarily replaces as the main Seosten threat after her death. Unlike her, Radueriel is more of The Minion Master than a direct combatant, is far less of a sadist, and is a lot more willing to learn from his mistakes.
Gadgeteer Genius: Radueriel's skill with technology is the result of his enhancements.
God Guise: Hephaestus was his role in the Classical pantheon.
Nothing Personal: Radueriel is a guy who never seems to intend or even take anything personally.
Mad Scientist: According to Sariel, his experiments are almost as bad as the things the Fomorians do.
Manipulative Bastard: Tricked Geta into believing the Alters he saw around his brother were responsible for Caracalla's desire to assassinate him when they were actually trying to protect him.
The Minion Master: Radueriel "upgrades" his non-Seosten subordinates to allow him to take direct control of their bodies. It functions as an effective countermeasure to anyone who tries to possess them.
Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Averted. Radueriel doesn't want to kill Flick and her classmates that were stranded in Seosten space, he wants to experiment on them. But he's fully willing to kill them rather than let them escape to be a greater threat later on.

Kushiel

The Seosten who portrayed Hera/Juno in ancient Greece and Rome. Her current assignment is to combat the Seosten's birthrate issues.

Abusive Parents: Not giving her lie daughter a name is a standard abuse in the Seosten Empire, but Kushiel went an extra few dozen miles and tried to “fix” the little girl’s possession power, which amounted to torturing her into insanity.
Baby Factory: Only 10% of Seosten pregnancies are successful. Kushiel's responsibility is to produce children, which she does by artificially inseminating Seosten criminals and traitors as often as possible. If a child doesn't make it to term, the mother is immediately impregnated again. If a child is born, the baby is taken from the mother, who is immediately impregnated again. Rinse and repeat over and over again. That's how Sariel gave birth to Tabbris.
Evil Is Petty: Putting Sariel in her Medical Rape and Impregnate facility wasn't enough for Kushiel, and she also repeatedly lied to her about her children being dead. Furthermore, most of her interactions with Jophiel consist of petty jabs and power plays.
- She got Aletheia the Elder sent to some backwater because Aletheia was her love rival.
God Guise: Apollo didn't have to exaggerate Hera's vindictive personality when spreading propaganda about her.
Hate Sink: The Baby Factory operation she has running is enough to draw this on its on. Combined with Apollo's lack of embellishment in the more negative tales about Hera, it's clear that there's not much to like about Kushiel. And that's before you find out how she treats her daughter for being born a Lie.
Insistent Terminology: Only refers to earth as Rysthael, the Seosten name for the planet, because she considers the human name vulgar.
Medical Rape and Impregnate: Her method of producing as many children as possible from Seosten criminals and dissidents.
Never My Fault: Kushiel considers her offspring's disability a failure the child needs to atone for while conveniently forgetting that she herself is far more at fault than said child.
Smug Snake
That Thing Is Not My Child!: Kushiel gets mad at Lies for calling her mama because she doesn't consider Lies worthy of being her daughter. Or having a name, for that matter.
Tyke Bomb: No, she isn't one. But she has been making ones loyal only to her from some of the Seosten born at her baby factory.
Unholy Matrimony: While many of the familial and marital relationships between the Olympians were fictional, Kushiel and Puriel (who played Zeus) are actually married.
Uriah Gambit: Attempted to make use of these with Apollo and Sariel. Resulted in ReassignmentBackfire

Mercury

The Seosten who played Hermes. Is actually a Lie who took the body and identity of a Seosten named Amitiel after Amitiel attacked him for being near a young Chayyiel.

Consummate Professional: Doesn't care about pride or recognition. Just getting the job done. Specifically, accomplishing whatever Chayyiel needs him to do.
Delayed Causality: As well as Accelerated Causality. Mercury can lengthen, shorten, or postpone any magical effect placed on him if he chooses. So his boost can last far longer than it should, debuffs can go away almost instantly, and possession countermeasures can be put off until he can let them run their course in private.
Meaningful Rename: Prefers the name Mercury to Amitiel or Hermes.
No-Sell: He's not actually immune to possession counters, but he can effectively fake immunity by using his ability to delay their effects until he can get to someplace safe, although he can't hold off those effects forever.
Stealth Expert: So good that Manakel and Charmeine have no clue who he's possessing.
The Dog Bites Back: The original Amatiel attacked and intended to kill the nameless Lie when he saw him close to an unconscious Chayyiel and assume he was molesting her. Said Lie took his body and identity and is now one of the heroes of the empire.
Took a Level in Badass: Amatiel was apparently no joke even before the bodyjacking, as he'd done quite well on the Fomorian front till he was maimed. Now he's both a legendary infiltration specialist and a time-manipulating combat monster.
Undying Loyalty: To Chayyiel. She treated him as an actual person when no one else did and helped him cover up stealing the original Amitiel's body and name. He'll do ANYTHING for her. Including treason.

Athena

Auriel played Athena when the Olympians were acting as gods on Earth. These days she's gone rogue and leads a resistance against the Seosten Empire: The Aelaestiam. The group wants to replace the Seosten Empire with a civilization that doesn't casually treat all other species as slaves and hosts. She also mentored Arthur and introduced knighthood to Earth as Nimue.

Archangel Uriel: Auriel was the inspiration for Uriel in addition to her God Guise as Athena.
The Atoner: She was involved in the initial tests of the Bystander Effect. Since then she's been trying to undo the Bystander Effect and tear down the Empire.
Antiquated Linguistics: A minor case, but Athena has a habit of referring to Flick as 'my lady' or lady Felicity as though they still lived back in Camelot, even though it isn't really applicable to a modern day American. She extends this to Sariel's children as well.
Awesomeness by Analysis: Appears to be the only person to succeed where her former colleagues, the Atherby Clan, Gaia, Fossor, Fahsteth, and Flick herself all failed by figuring out why Flick is immune to possession and Seosten magic. Not one of them got it, but Athena guessed that she was already possessed by Sariel's child almost immediately.
Became Their Own Antithesis: Auriel was a tremendous stick in the mud, as well as a racist and a definite villain. Athena is quite relaxed, friendly, and waging an interstellar war against the Seosten Empire over the enslavement of non-Seosten.
Beware the Nice Ones: Continuing the trend of good Seosten being horrifyingly dangerous, Auriel leads an open rebellion and fights with dangerous Combat Clairvoyance powers. Radeuriel's personal guard weren't even worth drawing her sword.
Big Damn Heroes: enters the present story by saving Flick from being captured by Radueriel.
Combat Clairvoyance: Her enhancement gift.
Cool Sword: It's Excalibur.
Defector from Decadence: Is trying to get rid of the empire that puts her species on top of the pecking order.
Fallen Angel
Fantastic Racism: She hated humans until her My God, What Have I Done? moment.
Foil: Auriel is in many ways the Seosten equivalent to Joselyn. But where Joselyn started her revolution as a young Heretic Auriel was already a decorated veteran when she joined the Aelaestiam.
- She's also one to to Jophiel, who actually agrees with Auriel on a lot of things, but not her priorities. Jophiel places stopping the Fomorians over fixing or replacing the empire, Auriel doesn't.
Gender-Blender Name: Uriel is usually depicted as a man.
Genius Bruiser: Auriel mentored Arthur, created the Atherby anti-possession rune, leads the Aelaestiam, and is fully capable of wiping out over a dozen elite troops in seconds.
Heel–Face Turn: Formerly worked for the despotic body-snatching empire. Now trying to overthrow it.
I Have Many Names: Auriel (her birth name), Uriel (a slight corruption), Athena, Minerva, and Nimue.
My God, What Have I Done?: The chaos caused by casting the Bystander Effect on Athens in the ancient past shocked Auriel into a Heel–Face Turn.
Parental Substitute: To King Arthur. She essentially raised him as Nimue, even giving him the name Pendragon.
Rebel Leader
Reluctant Retiree: She was forced into "retirement" and showered with "honors" after trying to convince the other Seosten not to go through with implementing the Bystander Effect. It was essentially imprisonment, and she escaped a few centuries later.
Shout-Out: Her fighting style is almost identical to Ariadne's from Intrepid save for the part where Auriel has overwhelming speed and strength to back up the perfect execution.
The Strategist: According to Jophiel Auriel's skills as a leader are the main thing keeping the Aelaestiam going.
Took a Level in Kindness: She was a humorless hardass when the Olympus launched. Now she's openly friendly and kind to her allies, subordinates, and charges.

Abaddon

The Seosten who portrayed Ares and Mars.

The Brute: Abaddon is an enormous seven feet tall.
The Collector: His Olympian power functions by allowing him to "copy" up to 30 hosts and transform into them.
Dumb Muscle: Averted. He's a pretty straightforward guy, but he's also fairly perceptive and even points out to Kushiel that paying attention to Apollo's stories is a good way of figuring out how he thinks.
God Guise: Ares and Mars, obviously. His name also appears in the Hebrew and Christian bibles.
Humans Through Alien Eyes: Unlike many of his colleagues, Abaddon actually likes some of the things humanity has come up with.
Lightning Bruiser: One of the fastest and strongest Olympians sans Chayyiel, and his ability gives him one of the best passive defenses in the entire setting - killing him requires killing all 30 copied forms.

Cahethal

Originally the head of research and development on the Olympus, Cahethal went on to portray Demeter and later Ceres. In the present she's Jophiel's counterpart at Eden's Garden.

Body and Host: Cahethal attempted to replace her current host with Flick when she was fourteen, but couldn't because Tabbris was already possessing her.
Electronic Eyes: A Magitek pair that allow her to see across multiple spectrums of light and see at a microscopic level. She lost her original eyes.
Enraged by Idiocy: More or less her opinion of Manakel after his repeated failures, driving Theia to run away, and getting himself killed by underestimating Flick.
Evil Matriarch: For all intents and purposes, her host's descendants are her family, not the host's. And while she is genuinely fond of that family, she sees them as favored pets rather than loved ones.
For Science!: She has a very strong sense of scientific curiosity.
Green Thumb: Cahethal's Olympian power is to control the growth of plants she can create. These plants can also produce fruit that can give temporary enhancements and other magical effects to whoever eats them.
I Need a Freaking Drink: Has this reaction to finding out she couldn't possess Flick because Flick was already possessed by a six-year-old Seosten.
Lima Syndrome: A downplayed case, almost to the point of subversion. Cahethal has possessed her current host for centuries, first taking them when they were a child. In that time she has come to feel a small amount of affection for them, but not any real sympathy.
Mole in Charge: She's highly ranked in Eden's Garden's power structure. Specifically, she's one of the Victors of Eternal Eye, Flick's friend Miranda's tribe.
Pet the Dog: Cahethal makes an effort to ensure that her host's family are not sent out to be host bodies out in Seosten space. She claims this is another example of her Pragmatic Villainy, but admits to herself in private that she does have some level of affection for them.
Pragmatic Villainy
- Cahethal treats her hosts relatively well by Seosten standards because it makes them less likely to rebel or otherwise distract her.
- She gives her Lie subordinates names primarily to make it easier to give them orders as well as appreciating the greater loyalty it brings her.
Reasonable Authority Figure: To the Calendar. Instead of the usual abuse she's completely hands off. They have their missions, and they do them well, and she doesn't object to them forging their own little family group. As a result they're quite loyal to her and highly effective.
Villain Takes an Interest: Cahethal is deeply intrigued by her failure to possess Flick and actively sought to have them brought to Eden's Garden so she could study them in closer detail. She's even more intrigued when Flick apparently kills Manakel, and annoyed when she's ordered to leave her alone as a result.
- To a lesser extent, she's also interested in how Abigail Fellows might change things at Eden's Garden.

Aletheia

The Seosten who portrayed Aletheia, Greek Goddess of Truth.

These days she's Chayyiel's right hand woman.

Awesomeness by Analysis: The Order half of her power is non-combat only version. Aletheia is impossibly good at data analysis and management.
The Rival: She and Kushiel had a NASTY rivalry. Why? Kushiel was very unhappy that Puriel was taking advice from Aletheia.
Reasonable Authority Figure: This was kind of her thing.
Reassigned to Antarctica: Kushiel managed to do this to her.
Reassignment Backfire: Then Chayyiel recruited her. Now Aletheia is one of the most powerful Seosten outside the Seraphim.
Winds of Destiny, Change!: The Chaos mode of her power is a limited version of this - she makes thing go wrong for targeted enemies.

The Seraphim

In General

The Seraphim are the governing body of the Seosten.

Authority Equals Asskicking: Defied. While almost every other faction is led by the most powerful combatants, the Seraphim are not necessarily serious combatants.
The Man Behind the Man: As the leaders of the Seosten, this group (not necessarily everyone on it, depending on when they were elected), are responsible for almost everything the Seosten do on earth.

Metatron

An ancient Seosten who has been on the Seraphim for a very, very long time.

Elderly Immortal: The man is old by Seosten standards, and actually looks it.
The Man Behind the Man: He's the Seraph with overall authority over earth, and therefore the one most directly responsible for everything the Olympians did and do there.
Meaningful Name: "The Metatron" is a high ranking Archangel in real life Judaism.

Chayyiel

Another Olympian Seosten who has since joined the Seraphim. She is extremely dangerous.

Ape Shall Never Kill Ape: Her threat to kill Puriel is a conspicuous aversion of this trope, in contrast to the Empire's usual stance on killing their own kind. Furthermore, Puriel was a father figure to Chayyiel.
Antagonist in Mourning: A possible explanation for her refusal to set foot on earth after Arthur's death.
Awesomeness by Analysis: She has two abilities. The first is the power to perceive the weakness of anyone she sees. The second is to immediately acquire all the skills of any opponent.
The Chessmaster: Her interlude reveals that she's been nudging events behind the scenes for some time, such as when she secretly directs Haiden Moon, Larissa Mason, and Ulysses Katarin to Dries Aken's prison.
Determinator: Three thousand years ago ten year old Chayyiel promised to fix everything. Since then, almost everyone she cared about on that day has turned into a monster, ended up an enemy at least on paper, died, or several of the above. She's watched her surrogate family tear itself apart. They're literally torturing and killing each other these days. Her father/captain stabbed her in the back and ruined her best plan to fix everything. He seems to have suffered horrible motive decay. And she's STILL trying. And making a ton of progress. Without any motive decay.
The Dreaded: Word of God states that her power and reputation serve as an effective deterrent against Fomorian aggression if she's close enough to fight.
From Nobody to Nightmare: Once was a ten year old child accidentally left in an empowering portal - over three thousand years later - is The Dreaded to the Fomorians and part of the Seraphim.
Genius Bruiser: Incredibly powerful combatant. Also good at literally everything thanks to her ability to copy skills.
God Guise: She portrayed Hestia/Vesta on earth.
Honor Before Reason: Chayyiel had apparently been trying to kill Arthur personally to the point of refusing help to deal with him.
- She wasn't trying to kill to kill him. She was trying to get him to join forces against the Fomorians.
- She also displays distaste for the use of spies when discussing Isaac Acosta.
Internal Reformist: Like Jophiel, Chayyiel wants to reform the Empire without outright destroying or overthrowing it, unlike Athena. But unlike Jophiel, she's not remotely subtle about her wishes and intentionally achieved her high rank as a Seraphim so she could fight to affect her reforms as openly as possible.
Only Sane Man: Part of what makes her so effective is basic common sense and decency. Like not treating 'Lie-type' Seosten as scum because they were born with a defective power. Treating one as just another Seosten as a little kid is how she ended up with Mercury answering to her over the Seraphim.
Older Than They Look: An over three thousand year old woman with the appearance of a child.
The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Had this attitude towards Arthur Pendragon. She was so offended by what Puriel did to him that she swore to kill him if he ever tried to order her around again.
Required Secondary Powers: Averted in regards to her skill theft ability. She can take an opponent's skills, but she doesn't copy their physical capabilities or natural superpowers.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Played with. Chayyiel follows her own personal ethics over laws and orders. Her loyalty is to the Seosten people, not their government.
- She's currently trying to resurrect Arthur in direct opposition to the orders of the Seraphim as a whole because she has a plan to end the Fomorian war and reform the Seosten Empire that requires his help.
Secret-Keeper: She's been covering for Mercury's illegal and permanent possession of Amitiel for thousands of years, ever since she saw their confrontation (where Amitiel was about to murder the lie because he assumed she had been molesting Chayyiel and he possessed him in self defense).
- Secret Secret-Keeper: She is also aware of Jophiel's relationship with Elisabet, and what she's doing with Sariel's children and Flick.
Tagalong Kid: Chayyiel is the youngest of the Olympians. While she's thousands of years old now, back when they first started out she really was a kid to the rest of them.
World's Strongest Woman: Not literally, but she is singled out as being one of the top ten most powerful Seosten of all time.
Worthy Opponent: She came to genuinely enjoy her duels with King Arthur. So much so that Puriel began to worry they could lead her to defect like Apollo did.
- She was actually trying to convince Arthur to become her host willingly so they could combine their powers to defeat the Fomorians.

Raphael

A member of the Seraphim, and one of the seven Seosten enhanced by the Archangel project.

Archangel Raphael: He was one of the Seosten who created the popular image of winged angels.
Armor-Piercing Attack: All but the absolute most powerful defenses are completely ignored by his wing blasts.
Person of Mass Destruction: He brings firepower on the order of the largest starships to swordfights.
Power Gives You Wings: Or in this cases ... power manifests as wings.
Wave-Motion Gun: Raphael's wing blasts are comparable to starship weaponry. Michael is the size of a normal human.
Whip Sword: One of the things he can with said wings.
Winged Humanoid: Raphael and six other Seosten have wings that do various things from enhancement projects. This is where the idea that angels have wings come from.

Other Seosten

Lies

Also known as: Theia.

Lies is a handicapped Seosten whose possession power comes with a serious flaw. Once she takes control of someone, she's stuck there until the host dies. For this reason, her treatment at the hands of her people has been... less than ideal. She is currently possessing the Eden's Garden Heretics Pace. All the personality related tropes on her entry apply to Lies.

She's also the biological daughter of Puriel and Kushiel, not that they would ever admit it.

Lies eventually goes rogue after her bosses realize she didn't stop Flick from taking the Ring of Anuk-Ite from her.

Abusive Parents: Kushiel carried out various torturous experiments on her to try and fix Lies's possession power.
Animorphism: She seems to have a fondness for possessing werewolves. She used her previous werewolf-body to turn Pace before possessing her so she could keep being one.
Ax-Crazy
Because You Were Nice to Me: The basis of her friendship with Doxer. He's pretty much the closest thing she has to a friend. She's not happy when Flick kills him.
- Similarly, Lies isn't receptive to Pace's offer to work together until she hears the word "we."
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Don't let her ditzy antics fool you, she's deadly.
Enemy Mine: With Miranda and Abigail. Lies offers to tell them everything she knows in exchange for fixing her disability so she can leave Pace.
- And before that with Pace, because the two of them didn't start working together until after Lies went rogue and her host became her only ally.
Feel No Pain: Technically she feels pain, it's just that her pain tolerance is so high that pain causing spells that normally make people completely unable to do anything but make it stop don't even make her flinch or grimace.
- It's a result of trying to make Kushiel proud by torturing herself until she could resist screaming during Kushiel's "experiments". It didn't work - Kushiel thought the her "experiments weren't working if Theia wasn't screaming, so Theia faked being in pain.
Handicapped Badass: By her people's standards, at any rate. Her disability arguably makes her more dangerous, because her victims are trapped with her until they die.
Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Goes rogue when it becomes obvious that Manakel intends to kill her over Flick getting the Ring of Anuk-Ite.
No Name Given: "Lies" is not actually her name. She doesn't actually have a name. The Seosten use their language's word for lies to refer to all their children born with her specific possession-related disability without naming any of them. The English word for lies is simply what she calls herself.
- Abigail Fellows eventually gives her the name “Alatheia” (the Greek goddess of truth), which Lies shortens to Theia and considers a nickname.
No Social Skills: None is overstating it, but Lies doesn't understand certain things, for instance that when you get caught checking someone's ass out, you're not supposed to ask them to move so you can get a better look.
Obfuscating Insanity: Possibly. Lies is genuinely crazy, but her behavior in Isaac's interlude and her thoughts in her own suggest that she's a lot more lucid than she typically acts.
Obliviously Evil: To some extent. Her horrific upbringing has skewed her sense of right and wrong immensely, but her lucidity in her own interlude as well as the way she mocks her host for "sulking" over her victims can be taken as an evidence that she isn't as oblivious as she sometimes appears. Although it becomes something of a moot point when she begins taking cues on morality from Abigail and Pace.
Sadist: Apparently thinks her hosts' pain and her own is hilarious. While being tortured in a previous host body she kept trying to egg the tormentors on.
Tragic Villain: Why is Lies so crazy? Because her mother tortured her as a child and her bosses casually abuse her and there's nothing she can do about it, and she broke. It was either snap and start enjoying it or just shut down.
Troll: Plays up her insanity to give her an excuse to mess with people. For instance, acting like Wyatt and Avalon were flirting with her when they tossed her around a little.
Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Once upon a time Lies was a kind young girl who just wanted her mother to love her and had friends. Then her mothers tortures, frequently involving forcing her to possess said friends then killing them when Lies's disability prevented her from unpossessing them drove her crazy.

Yaqum

A Seosten soldier assigned to watch over a slave work camp.

Bad Boss: Doesn't think twice about killing his non-Seosten subordinates.
Demonic Possession: As a Seosten, of course he can do this. But Flick turns around and possess him once she gets the chance.

The Calendar

As a whole

Cahethal's team of Seosten agents at Eden's Garden. All of them have broken possession powers.

Berserk Button: Do NOT use the word Lie to refer to them.
Quirky Miniboss Squad: Sort of. They're not actually combatants, but they're a quirky squad of antagonists.
Undying Loyalty: To each other. NOT to the Empire or Cahethal.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

The youngest of the bunch. Is somewhere in the range of 11 to 12 when canon starts. Is blind visually, but has an energy sense that acts a lot like Daredevil's 'sight'.

ADHD: Has the Seosten version thereof. Not the exaggerated pop culture one either.
Child Soldiers: Even by Seosten or Heretic standards someone so young shouldn't be in the field.
Disability Superpower: Her eyes don't work, she's got an 'energy sense' instead that's just plain better.
Genki Girl: December is absurdly hyper.
Le Parkour: How she gets around.
Motor Mouth: Has to be reminded to put space between her words.
Super-Speed: December is very, very fast for a Seosten of her age.

Non Seosten

Ivak

Not a Seosten, but an Alter that has made a life for himself running parts of their bureaucracy.

Dirty Coward: He's quick to give up whatever he knows to to stay alive.
The Quisling: Has no problem working for the despotic Seosten if it means his comfort.

Jokai

A chameleon-like Alter slave who escapes his work camp.

Ain't Too Proud to Beg: It's easy to beg for death when the alternative is to be brought before "The Butcher" Radueriel to be experimented on.
Cowardly Lion: He's terrified when combat starts, and he can't really fight. He still successfully escaped the camp, kicked off the uprising, and piloted the escape ship.
I Die Free: His response to seeing Radueriel's battleship about to blow away the hijacked asteroid miner he's piloting? Try and ram it, just to do a little damage and die on his own terms.
Interspecies Romance: With Jazz.
The Runaway: Escapes a slave camp at the first real opportunity.
Sole Survivor: Jokai and his friends were trained as pilots, but the rest of them were killed by an incompetent Seosten overseer blaming them for his mistakes.
Support Party Member: Jokai is not a fighter in person. At all. Put him at the controls of a starship, though and he's got nerves of steel.

Karees

An ancient Relekun who has been a Seosten slave for a very long time.

Cool Old Guy: He's ancient, as well as an excellent leader and planner.
Crazy-Prepared: Has long been preparing for an opportunity to escape slavery, learning the Empire's trade language just in case he might need it some day.
Plant Person: He's a Relekun, a tree person.
Sole Survivor: Of his family. Charmeine killed his daughter and her mate because said daughter resisted the Seosten. When his wife begged Charmeine to spare their grandchildren, Charmeine killed them too, followed by Karees's wife.
Tears of Joy: When he learns Flick killed Charmeine.

The Aelaestiam

In general

A resistance group fighting the Seosten Empire, the Aelaestiam want equal rights for everyone and an end to Seosten tyranny. Athena currently leads the group.

Cool Base: Their main hideout and refuge is a giant habitat station inside a star.
Defector from Decadence:
Good Is Not Soft: Seosten members of the Aelaestiam will use body-jacking when necessary.
- Athena raids Seosten Empire transports carrying Seosten kids to the Choir they're assigned too. That's kidnapping kids to save them from institutionalized child abuse.
La Résistance: Yeah, it's their thing.

Miss Handsy

The school secretary.

Rovon Reinswald

One of the instructors. An Edge heretic abducted by the Seosten for use as a warsuit and rescued by the Aelaestiam.

Disproportionate Retribution: Someone arranged for him to get sent off to the Fomorian front as a possession victim because he didn't want to recruit one particular girl as a heretic.
Heel–Face Turn: Used to be a hardliner. Then he got severely injured, benched for a time, kidnapped by the Empire and freed. Now he teaches kids of all species.

Richton

One of the Seosten kids at the Aelaestiam base. Meley's brother by mutual adoption.

My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Richton has a very low opinion of most Seosten.

Chef Gisby

The cook at the Aelaestiam school. Does not use menus, will make anything on request.

Supreme Chef

Meley

One of the Seosten kids at the Aelaestiam base. Richton's sister by mutual adoption. Brunette.

Kisea

Of of the Seosten kids at the Aelaestiam base. Looks vaguely Asian and has black hair.

Demeas

Of of the Seosten kids at the Aelaestiam base. A redhead. Looks a bit like a miniature viking.

Bandy

An alter kid at the Aelaestiam base. Species not named, has red fur with bits of white, a foxlike face and bunny ears.

Reft

An alter kid at the Aelaestiam base. Species not named, made of magma.

Magma Man

Aerlicht

An alter kid at the Aelaestiam base. Earth club member.

Grisson

An alter kid at the Aelaestiam base. Same species as Bandy. Earth club member.

Layuerk

An alter kid at the Aelaestiam base. Earth club member.

Ferrdries

An alter kid at the Aelaestiam base. Earth club member.

Other Rogue Seosten

Michael

A Seosten super soldier from another project. Went rogue sometime after the Bystander effect was deployed. Adopted a little girl who grew up to become Lancelot/Guinevere.

Can manifest wings that act as highly flexible extending blades or extremely powerful energy weapons.

Archangel Michael: Took this name for sume time.
Armor-Piercing Attack: All but the absolute most powerful defenses are completely ignored by his wing blasts.
Going Native: We're not sure on the details ... but he's gone very native. He's a major player in the anti-Seosten conspiracy, after all.
Light Is Good: Micheal's power manifests as wings and beams of light. And he's part of the anti-Seosten conspiracy.
Person of Mass Destruction: He brings firepower on the order of the largest starships to swordfights.
Power Gives You Wings: Or in this cases ... power manifests as wings.
Wave-Motion Gun: Michael's wing blasts are comparable to starship weaponry. Michael is the size of a normal human.
Whip Sword: One of the things he can with said wings.
Winged Humanoid: Michael and six other Seosten have wings that do various things from enhancement projects. This is where the idea that angels have wings come from.

Larees

A 'normal' Seosten Empire soldier jailed and later sent to Kushiel's factory after attacking her commanding officer when he ordered a rebelling city destroyed from orbit. Has a blue-green tattoo of a firebird's profile on the left side of her face, with her left eye where the bird's eye is.

Rescued at the end of Hoc Est Bellum. Let out of stasis in Convalescence 38-06.

Action Girl: Easily hands three Eden's Garden heretics their assess.
Defiant Captive: Immediately attacks the first Seosten she sees on release, not realizing she's been rescued and assuming it to be Kushiel in disguise. As it's actually Sariel she gets blocked.
Energy Absorption: Her firebird does this.
Fantastic Racism: Has the standard Seosten reaction to Seosten with broken possession powers. Her initial reaction to the idea of hybrids is disgust mixed with shock.
I Need a Freaking Drink: Upon understanding the situation, pulls booze out of hammerspace.
Heel–Face Turn: Was, at some point, a normal Empire soldier. We're not sure what led up to the incident that got her jailed, but after that, she's in her own words 'on Team Fuck The Establishment'.
Hot Wings: When merged with her firebird summon.
Kill It with Fire: When merged with her firebird summon.
No-Sell: Fire doesn't work on her. If you're lucky. If you're NOT she uses it to power up.
Our Angels Are Different: Beyond the usual, Larees definitely has the avenging angel look when merged with her firebird.
Power Tattoo: It lets her summon a firebird that can fight along side her or combine with her.
Sir Swearsalot: Turns the air blue when released. Mostly in Latin.
Winged Humanoid: When merged with her summon.
You Fight Like a Cow: Mocks her enemies as she kicks their asses.

Jesus

A Lie who refused to follow standard Seosten teachings. While possessing a human, he developed a following that intimidated the Seosten so much they possessed Judas to have his host executed. Jesus himself escaped after his host died, but the Seosten eventually caught him after 40 days.

Ambiguous Situation: We don't know what happened to Jesus after the Seosten found his real body.
The Ghost: His only mention in-story has been that Crossroads knows he wasn't a Bystander. The rest of what is known about him is from Word of God.

Characters / Heretical Edge Seosten Empire

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