Characters

Veronica, the older of the two gargoyle sisters, has never fit in to gargoyle society, and started to act upon her dreams of the outside world as soon as she reached adulthood. Rather than completely leave her home, however, she decided to have her cake and eat it too: living amongst the other gargoyles by day, and sneaking out at night to explore the nearby city of Prague in her endless pursuit of experience, even eventually picking up Czech as a second language. (The other gargoyles speak English, the language of their creators.)

Veronica has a deep love of pop culture, often quoting human television and movies. She also has an extensive (and false) "human" digital identity, including a driver’s license, passport, and credit card.

Veronica is street-smart, but is reckless to the point of foolhardiness, having rejected the idea of living in fear to such an extent that she’s often dismissive of all personal risk or consequence.

Veronica's birthday is April 1, 1984, which makes her an Aries, though she doesn't know that. She and Maeve share one of their respective four parents, one of their mothers.

Orientation: Omnisexual aromantic

Maeve, the younger gargoyle, used to fit in perfectly with gargoyle society. She was content to think of herself as a cog in the machine, working together with her brothers and sisters for the good of all.

Maeve’s only problem was Veronica, her wild-child sister and best friend who refused to integrate into society, and refused to recognize the danger she posed to herself–and then one day, when Maeve’s worst fear came true, she was forced to make a choice: remain in the only life she’d ever known, or follow her friend into the unknown outside world.

Maeve's birthdate is October 31, 1988, a Scorpio, though she doesn't know that. She shares one of her four parents, a woman, with Veronica.

Orientation: hetero demisexual, gargoyles only

CTO of multinational communications corporation Incom, Peter Moore is exactly as smart as he thinks he is. Friendly, chatty and somewhat flexibly moral, when he learned of Veronica's existence he first began a sexual relationship with her and then they planned murders together for over a decade. But it's fine! They were all bad people.

He loves Veronica and wants to protect her, which is exactly what Veronica doesn't want ever.

Orientation: heteroflexible

Beverly Baxter was born a werewolf to a werewolf family in northern Manitoba. Rather than marry a man and have pups--a hard no on both counts--she bolted, eventually driving truck across the country, picking up hitchhikers and scaring the bejesus out of them if they got out of line.

Orientation: gay as hell

Leader of the Firmament, an angelic-themed faction of the Arcana, Azrael is an insightful forward-thinker--but she didn't imagine her husband murdered by one of the gargoyles of the society she had created and kept hidden for centuries. Now she's desperately trying to keep the creature from destroying everything she's built and the rest of the world in the process.

Orientation: straight, but after 800 years you try a few things

An Unseelie fae black widow spider, who used glamour and trickery to snare humans and other magical creatures on the streets of Thunder Bay and hold them prisoner in her den, feeding from their life force--or magic, when possible--until they faded out. She captured the Arcana mage Rebecca Black in 1983.

Orientation: opportunistic and predatory, like all faekind

A young (100 years old on record, 60 chronologically) Arcane mage. Chronoturge.  Her strengths lie in research and book-learning, and her magic leans toward the realm of the sciences: molecular transfiguration and time travel.

Assigned as the Watchtower of Winnipeg in 1980, carefully took on a street-punk persona to better interact with her protectorate—and was immediately imprisoned for 40 years. Book-smart, not street-smart.

Orientation: asexual

Sentry, devised by Incom as a military contract, was a virtual-assistant AI with additional hardware components, specialized for tactical applications. As it happened, it didn't sell and the project was dropped.

Until Incom's CTO Peter Moore made a certain gargoyle friend who liked to post on Pinstagram and Onlystans and didn't give two rips about her digital footprint. How to keep her from being scooped up and dissected? Waste not want not, Peter figured, and he dusted Sentry off and tasked it with inhabiting Veronica's phone, tracking any flags she might set off, and pre-screening her clients.

And over time the Sentry AI gained more and more access to the Internet, and absorbed more and more data. And more and more and more...

The enigmatic Ms. Cipher is fairly highly-placed in the ranking of the System, the cabal of technowizards who like to dress real severe. Don't any of these magic people have normal names? Honestly.

Orientation: she certainly has one but she'll never tell you

One of Veronica's clients. Lives in London.

Unlike the majority of Veronica's clients, who either agreed not to out her as a non-human creature, or were silenced by Sentry online, Kip's conspiracy-theory beliefs only presented themselves after their engagement.

Orientation: straight

One of the artificial intelligences running the internal workings of the System, GalatAIa appears in the form of an image formed out of stimulated magic particles naturally occurring in the atmosphere--or a "hologram," if you like being wrong about things. She'll definitely tell you when you are.

Orientation: asexual, and literally binary

The elemental spirit encompassing--and incarnating--the province of Saskatchewan. As a creature of nature, it can form a physical body out of the rocks, dirt and plants of its province. It's aware of the coming war between the Arcana and the System, but is a little vague on the social graces if you know what I mean.

Orientation: asexual, nonbinary

An Arcane mage of the Firmament, one of Azrael's acolytes. Age indeterminate. Less sanguine about the ends justifying the means. Named for the archangel of hope.

Orientation: straight

A Firmament Arcana mage, at least eight hundred years old, sent by his wife Azrael to retrieve (or destroy) Veronica after her escape from the gargoyle mountain. A gifted tracker with energy-based magical skills.

Orientation: straight, but after 800 years you try a few things

The leader of the Czech gargoyle society, so aged that he has literally become part of the mountain itself. Imperious and terrifying, his secret is that he is actually neither of those things and not in fact the leader at all.

Orientation: asexual

One of Peter's assistants (and driver) at Incom, when he's in London. One of a fair few Incom employees familiar with Veronica's nature and status. Wife and mother of seven-year-old Toby, Tonka enthusiast.

Orientation: straight

A German hacker who agreed to do a google search on behalf of a helpless boomer.

Orientation: bi

Half gargoyle, half other gargoyle, Pavöl is one of the denizens of the Czech mountain colony, and is a fairly standard representative of that society. His mate's name is Amberly.

Orientation: stodgily hetero

Part of the Halifax society of gargoyles, Autumn is a nine-foot-tall Fire element warrior, often tasked with guarding the perimeter. Because of her size she has even less opportunity to experience the outside world than the rest of the Halifax colony.

Orientation: lesbian (not permitted)

During her years on the streets of Prague, Veronica befriended, and violently defended, many sex workers. Eliska was one of them.

Orientation: professional

He's not antisocial, he's just five hundred years old. And German.