Basically they all set up the idea that the universe these people inhabit is some weird space between Lovecraft Country, Jules Verne and Marvel Comics. I threw a lot of touch stone Lovecraft lore, real historical figures and mystic mumbo jumbo into these. They are rather lame attempts to justify an aesthetic experiment that is more about form than narrative fidelity. Still fun to write though!
Gammar police may want to skip these.
Below are the mini-bios I typed up before writing "Doctor Glamour."
Walter Gilman
Walter Randolf Gilman is defined by the pedigree of his name. The scion of the respected, old money Haverhill Gilman family, Walter finds himself the vessel of more than his own ambitions and dreams. He is the sole heir to a fortune and prestige long past its prime. The family's funds have dwindled, their prominence shrunk and the withered family tree's last best hope lay in his bright young mind.
His Grandfather presided as Dean of Miskatonic University, and his father was a renowned explorer and field scientist. Both disappeared mysteriously, years apart, but damaging rumors of madness still swirl in the closeted chambers of the New England aristocracy.
At lot of expectation and prejudice now follow Walter into his first year of graduate studies, but rather than be crushed by such pressures, Walter relishes the challenge. Groomed from birth for a life of academic super stardom, he already possess undergraduate degrees in four subjects: Mathematics, Folklore, Ancient Philology, and Engineering. Thus easily spanning the knowledge base of his forebears and then some.
Indeed, Walter is "go, go go!" all the time, and for all the rewards it has brought him, his inner life is rather hollow. He has allowed no time for relationships, introspection or any kind of real growth. Who he truly is, what he truly wants, even he can't say. But one cannot remain a blank slate forever, and this desire for definition is bubbling to the surface, desperate for some catalyzing change to burst forth.
Eve Walpurgis_
Eve is an Arkham local, and the Walpurgis family has deep roots in the town's sordid history. Haunting tales of generational witchcraft and bloody sacrifice to unnameable entities checker the past of Eve's bloodline. The death of Eve's mother, Asenath Waite Walpurgis, is one of these haunting tales, as it coincided with death of her grandfather on her father's side. Hushed voices across the darkened hearths of Arkham recount the story of the grand old Walpurgis warlock attempting to transfer his soul into the body of his own son's bride, only to be thwarted by his progeny.
Eve's father, Edward Walpurgis, has denied the truth of this tale utterly, for fear that it might foster resentment in Eve. Unknown to him, the story has caused quite the opposite reaction. Eve is a voracious reader, dabbling in all subjects, but foremost in the science of the forbidden tomes locked away in her father's study. It is this lust for knowledge that has provided the fuel for Eve's success.
Eve's arrival on the steps of Miskatonic University as its first female student has been hard won. Rejecting home schooling at an early age with unruly and violent outbursts, Edward was forced to send his rowdy daughter to boarding school in Boston. Away from the creaking backwardness of her home town, Eve flourished and her academic success led to a meeting with Ellen Richards, who immediately recognized the girls talent and put her forth for admission to MIT.
This did not jive with Eve's true collegiate aspirations, however, as the real objects of her intellectual desire lay buried in the restricted regions of Miskatonic University's library and not the mainstream science of the Ivy League. So Eve declined the invitation to enroll at MIT and instead began a campaign to change Miskatonic's gender discrimination policies. She faced an outrageously stodgy and change-adverse board of trustees, but she cleverly used their superstition to her own ends by crafting "witchballs" and launching a subtle campaign of terror upon the board and their families. Cow towed by these tactics and the Walpurgis family history, Eve was finally admitted. This is not the first, nor likely the last time she uses her innate magical gifts to get what she wants...
Eve Walpurgis_
Eve is an Arkham local, and the Walpurgis family has deep roots in the town's sordid history. Haunting tales of generational witchcraft and bloody sacrifice to unnameable entities checker the past of Eve's bloodline. The death of Eve's mother, Asenath Waite Walpurgis, is one of these haunting tales, as it coincided with death of her grandfather on her father's side. Hushed voices across the darkened hearths of Arkham recount the story of the grand old Walpurgis warlock attempting to transfer his soul into the body of his own son's bride, only to be thwarted by his progeny.
Eve's father, Edward Walpurgis, has denied the truth of this tale utterly, for fear that it might foster resentment in Eve. Unknown to him, the story has caused quite the opposite reaction. Eve is a voracious reader, dabbling in all subjects, but foremost in the science of the forbidden tomes locked away in her father's study. It is this lust for knowledge that has provided the fuel for Eve's success.
Eve's arrival on the steps of Miskatonic University as its first female student has been hard won. Rejecting home schooling at an early age with unruly and violent outbursts, Edward was forced to send his rowdy daughter to boarding school in Boston. Away from the creaking backwardness of her home town, Eve flourished and her academic success led to a meeting with Ellen Richards, who immediately recognized the girls talent and put her forth for admission to MIT.
This did not jive with Eve's true collegiate aspirations, however, as the real objects of her intellectual desire lay buried in the restricted regions of Miskatonic University's library and not the mainstream science of the Ivy League. So Eve declined the invitation to enroll at MIT and instead began a campaign to change Miskatonic's gender discrimination policies. She faced an outrageously stodgy and change-adverse board of trustees, but she cleverly used their superstition to her own ends by crafting "witchballs" and launching a subtle campaign of terror upon the board and their families. Cow towed by these tactics and the Walpurgis family history, Eve was finally admitted. This is not the first, nor likely the last time she uses her innate magical gifts to get what she wants...
Doctor Glamour
The place is Prague, 1840, and an orphaned infant of Bohemia's teeming serf population is left of the doorstep of the ailing Bernard Bolzano. Attached to the babe's basket is a note, containing the odd symbols and incantations of the superstitious underclass. Bolzano knows the words, it's the language of the faerie, a plea to the fae folk for a protective glamour. A world renowned scientist and philosopher, Bolzano is only too aware of the class strife bubbling on the streets of his beloved city. He takes the child in. Thus begins the journey of Jaroslave Gregori Glamour.
Intensely educated from birth by Bolzano, Glamour showed great promise in his first few school years, but his tutelage was cut short by the revolutions of 1848. As chaos enveloped the capital city and the King of Bohemia send his clockwork soldiers to quell the rebellion, Bolzano and the ruling elite became targets for the rioting mob of serfs that swept the streets. In a desperate attempt to save his family, Bolzano carved a swath through the rabble with his lightening gun and managed to reach a caravan headed for Russia. With a liberal bribe, passage was secured for the young Glamour, but his mentor was left behind to be consumed by the mob's flames.
The caravan drove north through Russian territory, until reaching the cold outskirts of Siberia. Here the caravan master introduced Glamour to his family, part of the Saami tribe. With Glamour's scientific and medical foundation in place, and being the only one able to further study the textbooks in his possession, the tribe found a niche for him as a medicine man. To Glamour's surprise, this was not the only component of his duties. The great old shaman of the tribe was impressed by the boy's manipulations of the material world and decided to make Glamour his apprentice. Vistas of thought were opened for Glamour. Astral projections, bizarre incantations and whisperers of beings old and terrible filled his days leading up to manhood.
On Glamour's 18th birthday, the elders of the tribe met. Industry and the modern world had finally reached their doorstep. A representative from Saint Petersburg arrived in the village to inform them of a factory being built a few miles south. Realizing the need for a link to this modern world, it was decided by the elders that Glamour should go into civilization to learn its ways. With a heavy heart, and a twinge of excitement, Glamour headed out for the Saint Petersburg Technology Institute.
Once enrolled, Glamour caught the eye of the young professor Dimitri Mendeleev. Blown away by Glamour's grasp of theoretical science of quantum synthesis, Mendeleev, barely Glamour's senior, invited him to join various scientific societies within the Russian Aristocracy. But what started off as a productive scientific partnership grew into something more between them and behind the stuffy closed doors of the university, love blossomed.
Their secret relationship did little to distract the two brilliant minds from focusing on research. In 1862, they made a breakthrough that would change dimensional studies forever. By merging quantum theory with Glamour's extensive knowledge of shamanic rituals, the pair successfully opened a physical portal to the collective unconscious. Exhilarated by the success, Glamour insisted that the experiment be replicated for the public. Mendeleev was hesitant, as the small scale of the portal would leave many doubting as to what was on the other side. A compromise was reached and a portal large enough for a man to walk through was created for the press on Oct 15, 1862. In front of the assembly Mendeleev walked in. The portal closed behind him.
Unable to reproduce the experiment without his missing lover's expertise, Glamour was awash in grief. Years were spent in isolation, trying to undo that fateful day through scientific means. Eventually, Glamour accepted Mendeleev death, and left the university back for his tribe. Despondent, he told the shaman of his journey in civilization. With a firm hand on the shoulder of a broken Glamour, the shaman quietly informed him that there was another way. An old way. A forbidden way. Unsheathing the tribe's black, gnarled copy of the Necronomicon, Glamour read over a ritual that would launch him into the astral sea, never to return by his own means. It was there that Glamour vowed that what happened to Mendeleev would never happen to another living soul and as he entered the swirling portal and looked upon the earth for what might of been the last last time, he knew he had a last found his calling, he had become the defender of dreams, rescuer of the lost, DOCTOR GLAMOUR.
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