"Imagine if the world as you know it... was nothing more than an illusion. What if creatures like elves, dragons, vampire, zombies and werewolves walk amongst you every day... but you never see them. This is the world I walk in. I am called Byron. And these are my chronicles."
The time? Present day, or something not too far off. The place? Portland, Oregon. The problem? More like problems. The Vatican's trying to prevent a Zombie Apocalypse, some idiots in England freed a bunch of fallen angels from their prison, Satan's lost his daughter and is not happy about it, and a new street drug is turning the home less people who use it into monsters. It's up to Byron, an immortal superhuman of unknown origin, to save the day.
The Byron Chronicles is an audio drama series from Darker Projects
and Eric Busby Presents dealing with the troubles behind maintaining The Masquerade. David Ault stars as moody Byron, a being with immense powers who spends his life protecting humans and keeping the peace in his chosen home of Portland. He's been around awhile, and he's not happy that things keep going wrong. Joining him in his endeavors is Christina Sparrow, a young woman who had a run-in with a monster that left her very changed, and together they explore the underworld of magic that lies just beneath the surface of reality.
Season One dealt mostly with Christina's introduction to Byron, as well as werewolf pack politics, a street drug that turns long-term users into monsters, and an angel prison known as the Labyrinth. Season Two wrapped up the Labyrinth storyline and swept Byron and Chris up in a vampire clan conflict that almost destroyed Portland, while tormenting Byron with the consequences of past actions. Season Three introduced Sam from Vermont, and delved into Byron's past when he began his battle against a powerful being known only as Leviathan. Season 4 sent Byron and Sam on a journey from realm to realm as they try to save all of reality from Leviathan's schemes.
This podcast provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Chris, Gabriel, Agent Kathrine
- Action Survivor: Sam
- Jo from "A Time of Rising": she survived a week on her own in a town full of zombies and Religion of Evil cultists bent on human sacrifice, but only by not going outside.
- Adrenaline Makeover: Chris goes from a naive college student to a badass Demihuman with superhuman strength.
- All for Nothing: Despite all the efforts to keep Leviathan from gaining the stones, she does. This turns out to be all part of Logan's plan, and in the last episode of season 4, the world and everyone in it is destroyed.
- All Myths Are True: not only myths and legends, but multiple fictional stories. See Shout-Out below for some examples.
- Anti-Hero: Byron is reluctant to get involved with other people's troubles unless It's Personal, to prevent The End of the World as We Know It, helping a friend or the problem is his fault.
- He also seems protective of his adopted home of Portland, Oregon.
-
Amateur Cast: While David Ault and Laura Post are moderately well-known voice actors, most of the cast are unknowns. - Apocalypse How: Rome's fall was between types 0 and 1.
- A mirror world Byron visits experiences a Class X, and in the same episode Gabriel tells Byron of another that experienced a Class 6 indirectly due to his companion Jo's actions.
- The Leviathan is after a Class Z, the total destruction of God's creation.
- Apocalypse Maiden: Chris
- Arc Words: "Leviathan dances"
- Artifact of Doom: the stones that Leviathan is seeking. They'll destroy both the world and all its mirror worlds.
- The Atoner: Byron's comments indicate that his present heroic actions and duties are an attempt to balance some rather questionable actions in his Mysterious Past.
- Bad Santa: In "Nicholas", Byron takes Chris to the North Pole and reveals that Saint Nicholas is in fact a powerful demon condemned to give out presents as atonement for past sins.
- Beethoven Was an Alien Spy: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle turns out to be a werewolf in the episode featuring him.
- Brought Down to Normal: Happens to Byron for a time if he pushes his power too far, like in Season Two.
- Byronic Hero: Guess
- Came Back Wrong: Lazarus (aka that one guy whom Jesus brought back from the dead) not only didn't die naturally again, but precipitated the entire Zombie Apocalypse.
- Cataclysm Climax: In the volcanic mirror-universe, Byron and Sam escape just before the Army base where they've been staying moments before it's swallowed by a lava flow.
- The Chessmaster: Leviathan
- Chekhov's Gun: the Noise
- Christmas Episode: Four so far: "Nicholas - A Christmas Tale," "Alistair and the Strange Case of the Christmas Undead", "Christmas Special 2011", and "Father Christmas"
- Church Militant: The Watch, a secret branch of the Vatican
- Cold-Blooded Torture: In the past, Byron has been sealed in concrete while poisonous green dragon venom is injected into him via an IV.
- Come with Me If You Want to Live: Byron to Sam in Blackthorn
- Convenient Replacement Character: Byron's female companions tend to qualify, in keeping with the Doctor Who-esque vibe the show has.
- Creator Cameo: Eric Busby plays the vampire Edmund in "Noise", "Autumn Twilight", and "Autumn Dawn". He's also played various bit roles throughout the series:
- 1x02 "Disoriented": Wraith
- 1x06 "A Time of Returning": Cultist
- 1x09 "Nicholas - A Christmas Tale": Elf 2
- 2x10 "Alistair and the Strange Case of the Christmas Undead": Guard
- 3x08 "In Fire": Gargoyle
- 4x08 "October": Pilot
- 4x09 "November": Scientist
- 5x05 "Krampus": Kettle and Jack O' Lantern
- Deadpan Snarker: Byron, especially in the face of danger. It's actually one of his most famous traits in-universe.
- Max, the Armani-wearing, merlot-downing demon.
- Chris picks it up from Byron by season three.
- Demihuman: Chris, post-monster attack.
- Demonic Possession: Caroline in "Dead Time".
- Damsel in Distress: When Chris first appears, she's attacked by a Rush user-turned-monster and must be saved by Byron.
- Dracula: Wants to kill Byron. Though, to be fair, Byron did kill his wife.
- The Dreaded: Multiple factions are extremely terrified of Byron. For good reason. The exact protocols vary between "kill on sight", "imprison forever" and "don't piss him off".
- Elaborate Underground Base: Many of the vampires live in complex subterranean chambers to protect themselves from the sun.
- Empty Shell: Chris's dead body is possessed by Leviathan.
- The End of the World as We Know It: "All Things Face an Ending"
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Byron gets his in episode 1, where he abandons Agent Kathrine to be nuked or eaten by zombies so he won't be recaptured by the Watch. Turns out it was zombies, and she survives. So to speak.
- Sam's is in the first episode of season 3, when she accepts Leviathan's "religion" just so that the local crazy will leave her alone.
- Slate's is in "Forgotten Sins", when he snipes at Byron during a family meeting.
- Agent Kathrine in "All Things Face an Ending," she chooses to fight Lucifer even though she knows she will be killed doing so. Also, in "A Sort of Homecoming," where, when she meets Bryon, she immediately shoots him in the chest.
- Fantastic Drug: The new street drug Rush, a potent psychedelic, is growing popular amongst the locals of Portland... and turning its long-term users into vampire-like monsters. Byron can't find the secret ingredient until Chris comes along - she was bitten by a user and became a vampire-like human. Turns out it's vampire blood that's causing all the trouble.
- Fate Worse than Death: Faven, a half-demon, is trapped within Byron's tower after breaking in. Chris's imprisonment in Dracula's machine also counts.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: At the beginning of Season Two, Byron is trapped with Jo on a mirror world by Logan so that Logan can free Lilith from Byron's realm. Later it is revealed that Byron could have returned at any time to his own realm without Jo but chose to stay to try and get Jo home, thus invoking this trope. However Jo dies and Lilith is freed anyway.
- The Fundamentalist: The Watch, Agent Kathrine in particular. Ironically, she ends up starting an extra-marital sexual relationship. Which eventually becomes a pre-marital relationship.
- Fur Against Fang: "Code of Conduct" has almost-vampire Chris meet a female werewolf named Amy. They don't get along.
- Subverted at the end of Season 2 when the eastern council of vampires and the werewolves join forces against Dracula and begin to broker a more permanent peace.
- Future Me Scares Me: In Season 3, Vastator is a powerful, future Evil Overlord version of Byron. Present Byron eventually becomes Vastator, and Vastator becomes regular Byron again. It Makes Sense in Context.
- Halloween Episode: Four so far - "Faven's Fate", "Dead Time", "The Night of '68", and "October".
- Government Conspiracy: The Organization, introduced in "A Time Of Rising", is a branch of the U.S. Government dealing with things like angels and keeping the public in the dark.
- Hell Is That Noise: In-universe - The episode "Noise" has the human population of Portland driven mad by a high-frequency sound. Also qualifies as a Brown Note.
- Historical Domain Character: Lazarus, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in "Alistair and the Strange Case of the Christmas Undead".
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- Chris kills the creator of Rush, but she wouldn't have been able to kill him without the drug.
- In Chaos Faction, Ep 6, someone reluctantly betrays Byron and leaves him for dead, for the greater good. It's not clear if he notices the irony.
- Horror Hunger: The thirst Byron describes in "Autumn Dawn" as he's being turned into a vampire.
- Humanoid Abomination: Leviathan
- Byron himself may qualify, due to his unique nature and odd appearance.
- Chris may also qualify, due to her One-Winged Angel nature.
- Nicholas definitely qualifies. He spends most of his time as a wrinkled, filthy, hideously ugly demon in a dungeon.
- Intercontinuity Crossover: Evangeline, the main antagonist of The Leviathan Chronicles has met up with Byron a couple times at "The Salty Squid," a bar located in the Leviathan universe. This is due to the fact that Laura Post, who plays Evangeline, also plays Chris in "Byron." (Angus, the bartender, also makes a guest appearance in these episodes.)
- Interspecies Friendship: Slate, Byron's older brother, and the archangel Gabriel.
- Invisible to Normals: Chris realizes how much of the world is magically concealed after she's attacked by a Rush user.
- Jerkass God: God created the world and sent Jesus to die for humanity, but now he doesn't give a crap.
- Though for some,
Alternate Character Interpretation applies here: is God simply using his angels and Byron to accomplish his goals? - In "The Dark Labyrinth," Legion reveals that God is just one of many, and that He imprisoned all the older gods out there.
- Though for some,
- Kiss of the Vampire: In "When the Storm Breaks," a goth girl willingly gives herself to be eaten by the vampires Zafrina and Demetri.
- -> "It is not murder if I give myself willingly to them. This is something I have dreamt of all my life."
- Knight Templar: Agent Kathrine of the Watch
- Living Battery: Chris for the portal device
- Long Game: Leviathan manipulating vampires into creating Rush so that Chris will become a living vampire and be able to support the portal device
- Louis Cypher: Logan, though he's not actually trying to hide his true nature.
- Mage Tower: Byron's home in the Rose Gardens
- The Man Behind the Man: The One Who Is All who is revealed to be Logan
- The Masquerade: referred to by name and actually made into law via the Masquerade Pact, which prohibits humans finding out about the nature of reality en masse.
- The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Surprisingly averted - Chris's transformations actually enhance her love life, giving her exciting new dating prospects in Byron.
- The Multiverse: Bryon and his companions often travel between different Earths in their attempts to stop Leviathan.
- My Greatest Failure: Byron has a lot of these in his past but the greatest may be being forced to kill Chris.
- My Nayme Is: While Agent Kathrine has had several iterations of her name, none of them are common spellings of it: Kathryn, Katharine, and Kathrine. All are variants of the more commonly used name Katherine (or Catherine).
- My Secret Pregnancy: "Code of Conduct" has Amy the werewolf pregnant by Gareth, a member of her pack (but not the one she's supposed to mate with). She conceals her pregnancy to save her own life; in the werewolf laws, a female who doesn't mate with the Alpha to preserve the bloodline is killed.
- Mysterious Past: Byron himself, of course, and his three siblings as well. They all have their own realms, and it's hinted that they control the four seasons (Byron being autumn, while Slate is winter, Zoe is spring and Aestiva is summer), but most of their true nature remains unknown. Some of it is actually addressed.
- Though we do discover that Byron once called himself Alistair.
- Bryon is referred to as the Pale Man. However, he is told by God that he is going to have to meet the Pale Man, which confuses even Byron.
- And his father liked to fish, and that his name is Peter.
- Byron also had something to do with the fall of Rome, and whatever he did not only caused the imprisonment of Death but makes everyone afraid of him.
- It is implied that Byron traveled with Jesus. It's also revealed that he betrayed someone important.
- Naïve Newcomer: Chris, Sam, Morgan, and Jenny though Morgan and Jenny don't last long. They each are killed in the episode they're introduced in.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Voices of Flame and Leviathan
- Not in My Contract: Max will only do what he and Chris bargained for - to the letter. Even if that means letting the villain escape.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A regular occurrence of the series.
- Byron has destroyed Rome, created a demonic mist and refused to save its third victim before imprisoning it, created a race of super zombies For Science! and refused to give up Lilith to angels which may result in the destruction of all reality. Among others.
- Perhaps the most spectacular example is the season 2 finale, in which he thinks that killing Chris will stop Leviathan from entering the world, but in reality merely creates an Empty Shell for the malevolent spirit to possess.
- Hurray Jo, you saved the world from the fallen Seraphim! By releasing them into another world where they killed everyone.
- Even Jesus gets one of these! Turns out he brought Lazarus back from the dead alright - as the first flesh-eating zombie.
- Byron has destroyed Rome, created a demonic mist and refused to save its third victim before imprisoning it, created a race of super zombies For Science! and refused to give up Lilith to angels which may result in the destruction of all reality. Among others.
- One-Winged Angel: Chris can assume a monstrous form if angry or threatened.
- Only In It For The Merlot: Max, a demon summoned by Chris to find out what's causing the Noise.
- As he puts it, "like banks, there are no vineyards in Hell." Apparently wine's quite hard to come by when you're a demon.
- A season three episode explains that the wine can restore energy and some magic after a shock or exertion.
- As he puts it, "like banks, there are no vineyards in Hell." Apparently wine's quite hard to come by when you're a demon.
- Our Monsters Are Different: Angels, vampires, werewolves, and zombies all make appearances.
- The angels are all fallen, cast out of heaven by an apathetic God. Though some still serve him out of loyalty.
- The vampires are made due to a virus that is spread by being bitten.
- The werewolves worship the goddess of the moon and have a matrilineal society in which the genetic strength is passed through the female.
- Zombies can be brought back to humanity with a drug, but only remain human if not fully turned and continuously taking the pills.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": In "A Time of the Fallen", Jo, in an effort to escape from some cultists, opens a number of code-locked doors by punching in 007.
- Police Are Useless: Both justified and played straight. An entire pack of werewolves are running loose in Portland the night of a full moon in "Code of Conduct", making no effort to conceal themselves, but the cops aren't called once. Later, the entire city breaks down into anarchy in "Noise", but the police are just as affected by the noise as anyone else.
- Power at a Price: Death gives up his staff in order for Byron to cross worlds in order to stop Leviathan. In return, once his quest is fulfilled, Byron must return, and take Death's place.
- Power-Up Food: Wine and rice pudding for any magical/demonic/angelic beings
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: the portal machine that brings Leviathan into our world
- Public Domain Character: Dracula and his wife Mina
- Pro Bono Barter: Chris gets Max's help in exchange for a case of merlot.
- She did offer to pay him, but his reaction was less than pleased:
- -> "You think there are exchange rates in Hell? A branch of Western Union to cash a check?"
- She did offer to pay him, but his reaction was less than pleased:
- Religion of Evil: Leviathan's "religion", which not only marks believers with a tattoo-like symbol but protects them from going insane.
- The Seraphim's cult in "A Time of Rising"
- Sacrificial Lion: Chris
- Sadistic Choice: A running theme of the show. Byron preserves himself above all else despite his protectiveness of the mortal world, and many of his enemies will make him have to choose between saving the world/his friends/etc. and saving himself.
- He's made the selfish choice before in-series; this keeps the trope from becoming repetitive because each new dilemma makes him respond differently.
- Santa Claus: Is actually a evil Humanoid Abomination!
- Satan: Well, he prefers to be called "Logan" these days.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Agent Kathrine and Ryuk make a last ditch attack on Logan, and are promptly destroyed.
- Spin-Off: The series is spun from 'Byron's Tale', an episode of the Darker Projects' series "Night Terrors".
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Comes in a variety of flavors. They inevitably escape.
- Fallen Seraphim and Leviathan are imprisoned in a dimension called the Labyrinth until Logan releases them.
- A demonic mist created by Byron that can possess victims and turn them into serial killers is sealed in a bronze box created by Tibetan monks.
- Nicholas aka Santa Claus is imprisoned and let out once a year and forced to deliver presents to children.
- Byron himself from time to time, courtesy of both Dracula and the Vatican.
- Byron keeps some himself, including Lilith and a race of super zombies he created.
- Shout-Out: Too many to count. Apparently, not only is The Byron Chronicles in the same universe as every other podcast from Darker Projects, but multiple fictional universes as well.
- In the very first episode, 'The Taint', which deals with Zombies, Byron says, "You wouldn't want another of those nights from '68 happening again, would you?" Night of the Living Dead was released in 1968.
- Byron once quipped that "Harry's quite a nice fellow. Pity about that Voldemort business."
- Prime Minister Saxon was responsible for almost destroying the Earth with angry fallen angels.
- Chris met a coven of animal-feeding vampires who live in Washington.
- The government organization mentioned that they were concerned about a vampire in New Orleans named "Lestag" who was publishing his memoirs.
- Berry the Cat references a TV show about a guy who travels in a red telephone box.
- When discussing the threat of the Leviathan, a cabal of immortals using that same name is mentioned, as well as a covert agency named "Black Door".
- In The Leviathan Chronicles podcast, one immortal makes mention of having received a gift from an old friend named "Byron."
- In the first episode of season 5, Agent Kathrine's mission is to go to Portland, Oregon. She then asks, "Isn't that where they film that 'Grimm' TV show?"
- Tailor-Made Prison: Byron has the half-demon/god, Lilith, trapped in a magical cage in his house.
- Tall, Dark, and Snarky: Byron. He especially has a habit of interrupting villainous monologues with sarcasm.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Blackthorn, Vermont, where everyone went crazy.
- Unwitting Pawn: Everyone in the series to Logan.
- Everyone to Leviathan.
- Byron to Leviathan in "In Fire".
- Urban Fantasy
- Verbal Tic: "Oh, kittens!"
- Weakened by the Light: Chris's reaction when she's affected by Rush.
- Sunlight can also burn the vampire venom out of someone, causing death or healing them if they haven't fully transformed.
- Wham Episode: The last episode of season 2, ending in Chris's death. Also "All Things Face an Ending" which resulted in the destruction of the world by Lucifer.
- Womanchild: Byron's sister Zoe is about as old as he is, but acts very much like a child... and a Cheerful Child at that. As Byron notes, though, this does not mean she should be underestimated.
- The World Is Always Doomed
- Zombie Apocalypse: Seems to happen with alarming frequency. Byron even lampshades it.
- Zombie Infectee: Agent Kathrine, Cullen Tate.
