The Cabal
The city of Portland is a haven for the supernatural. Vampires, Trolls, Werewolves, Rogue Mages and Witches, Demons, Unseelie, etc. It's like Chicago in the Twenties, ruled by corruption and the Mob. Only this time, the Mob is run by a cartel of Supernatural entities: The Cabal. The Cabal has friends in city, state, and even the federal government. The police are "encouraged" to look the other way. Those that don't tend to disappear.
As the Cabal grows in power, it works on weakening the Veil. It's only a matter of time before the Veil falls and the Ancients return to re-claim the Earth.
The Supernatural element in Portland varies in terms of organization and resources. There are hermit loners like Trolls and less-than-intelligent monsters that live under bridges and in abandoned buildings. They prey on the homeless and the occasional drunken college student. There are packs of lycanthropes that live in the National Forests and sometimes venture into town. The Vampires, Demons, Mages, and Unseelie are more organized and form the backbone of the Cabal. They are organized and well-protected.
There is a black-market in humans to serve the needs of the Supernatural, be it sustenance or sacrifice. Currently, they are careful to cull the herd of those who are more easily missed: the homeless and the children. Prosperous adults who are more integrated into the web of society and cute blonde girls, especially virgins, whose disappearance tends to attract media attention are culled less frequently but are more highly prized. There are secret "speakeasies" where the Supernatural go to feed or purchase victims. Government corruption combined with a denial fueled by self-preservation protects the secrecy of these speakeasies. The vast majority of the mundanes are unaware of the existence of the cabal, its activities, or the scope of these disappearances.
Known Leaders of the Cabal
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Jyiel the Serpent, Prince of the Unseelie
Jyiel is the overlord of the Unseelie, the dark fairies of "The Veil", the land of the fairies. Jyiel is clad in chain armor with the softness and weight of silk and wields a silver sword. He rides a white charger. He is generally attended by several Unseelie Knights, armor-clad warriors riding powerful horses, and Lesser Knights, diminuitive warriors who ride stags. They may only leave the veil during the Wyld Hunt, a special pass provided by the Seelie Queen. They must leave at dusk and must return to the Veil by midnight. Passage through the veil can only occur through a Fairy Circle, a circle of toadstools generally found near a Ley Line Nexus such as the one found on the summit of Mt. Tabor.
Jyiel rode forth into Portland during a Wyld Hunt to retrieve his daughter, Raelin, but was defeated in battle and had to retreat gravely wounded and empty-handed.
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Ignacio Vallejo, "El Carnicero Rojo", "The Red Butcher", "The Inquisitor"
Ignacio is a tall, strikingly handsome Spanish man. He is very refined, with excellent taste. He typically wears snappy designer clothes and two gold earrings.
Ignacio was born in Spain in 1600. He was a priest and a member of the Spanish inquisition. He specialized in Vampire identification and elimination and earned the nickname "El Carnicero Rojo" or "The Red Butcher". In 1630, he was turned by one of his own torture victims. As a vampire, Ignacio fled to the Americas where he became, in turn, a thief, a pirate, a plantation owner, an importer/exporter, a businessman, and an artist. He maintains his vocations through anonymity and pseudonyms. He met his wife Isabella in Florida in the year 1756 while he was a pirate captain. Ignacio moved from the Carribean to Mexico City in 1810, during Mexico's War of Independence, and finally to San Francisco, California, in 1849, where he made great profit off the Gold Rush. Ignacio has met and battled with Slayers before. In 1989, he killed the Slayer assigned to Alec Gormann. Ignacio takes great pride in this accomplishment. Ignacio has kept his distance from Slayers ever since. The reclusive millionaire moved to Portland, Oregon, in May 2003. He is currently the leader of the Cult of Dahaka.
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Isabella Vallejo
Isabella is the daughter of a Spanish Naval Captain. She was born in Florida in the year 1730. She met Ignacio Vallejo in 1756, at the time a Pirate Captain, fell in love, and was soon turned into a Vampire. She has been his loyal companion ever since.
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Mickey
A petulant brat and foster-child to Ignacio and Isabella. Mickey is the Vallejo's bodyguard and shadow.
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Nicholas Darque
Ignatio's human agent on the street.
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Jienna Church
Isabella's human agent on the street.
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Kareem, aka "Foulblood"
Leader of the Stumptown Lupine Pack.
Kareen survived a werewolf bite during a visit to Siberia in 1996. He soon fled his family to live in the wilderness of Northern California. Over time, he worked his way up the coast to Oregon, killing to survive. He eventually came to revel in his new identity.
Inevitably, some of his victims survived. To his surprise, they, too, left their families to join him. Soon, he was the leader of a pack of Lycans. Kareem even intentionally turned a few victims into Lycans to flesh out his pack and help in hunting.
While on the coast, Kareem and the pack lived like nomads in RV's, preying on vacationers, campers, hikers, and tourists.
The pack moved closer to Portland in 2002 where they would have better access to a steady supply of food. They live in their RVs on the outskirts of Forest Park. They've also made contact with the local supernatural population and have learned to tap into the same organized food supply network.
In 2004, Kareem was invited to represent his Lycan pack in the Cabal, and he accepted.
Now, during the full-moon of each month, the pack usually sequesters themselves in the Portland Underground with an ample food supply, lest they endanger their secrecy. Still, one or two lycans occasionally don't make it back to the safe-houses in time and find themselves loose and out of control in the wildernesses around Portland.
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Ulysses Farrell
Leader of the Order of Mages.
Ulysses is a powerful sorceror and leader of the local occult lodge known as the Order of Mages. He is unscrupulous and power-hungry. One of his pupils is Phillipus Knight, chairman of Nike, and much of Ulysses' wealth and power comes from his shadow-control over Nike.
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Phillipus Knight
Mage.
Phillipus is the second in command of the Order of Mages and is Farrell's star pupil and right-hand-man. He is also chairman of Nike and a multi-billionaire. Most of his success comes from his use of ritual magic and diabolic divination.
Disclaimer- This is a fictionalized version of Phil Knight and should in no way be construed as an actual representation of the real Phil Knight.
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Yoggatha
Demon Avatar
Yoggatha is the avatar of the demon of the same name. Yoggatha was summoned to Earth in the year 1862 by sorcerors sympathetic to the Confederate cause. Yoggatha performed many acts of sabotage and brutatlity for the Confederacy before his summoners were slain by Union soldiers in 1864. Yoggatha was freed on Earth and continued many of the ideals of his summoners.
At first, he terrorized and preyed on freed slaves. He was forced to move west by Union sorcerors in 1869. He settled in Portland where he became the bane of the local Chinese populace. Yoggatha provides assistance to hate groups, white supremacists, and xenophobes of all types. Lately, he has turned his efforts towards new immigrants including the Vietnamese and other Asians, Mexicans and other Latinos, and Blacks moving north from California.
Yoggatha's avatar is that of a blue-skinned evil, covered in ritual tattoos, meant to instill fear in the superstitious. Yoggatha's true form is that of a muscular light blue clammy-skinned hexapedal beast with a mass of long writhing tentacles where its head should be. It smells of rotting corpses and its flesh is pliant and putrid, like raw chicken.
Yoggatha has surrounded himself with many human and lesser demon servitors and protectors.
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