#you can badmouth Mergus for a lot

[ceph-the-ghost-writer]

What my series of posts about the Unseen Hand factions fails to convey is that the leaders of this nefarious organization live as if they're on a sitcom together. Party of Five, or The Big Bang Theory but, you know, evil.

You have the main couple, a vampire and necromancer who've been in an enemies-to-forced-allies situationship for over a thousand years based on a mutual need to rule the world. Mergus, the vampire, is friendly and social and charismatic, so he takes care of all the PR, busywork, and hobnobbing that the necromancer detests. Hawthorne, the misanthropic necromancer, carries out all the godless, unspeakable sorcery behind the scenes that keeps their enemies in check and maintains a hold on their assets. These ancient monsters constantly try to one up each other, exchanging snippy texts and veiled death threats all the while, but neither would've gotten this far without the other--and they know it. Which just drives both of them even more out of their minds.

Next is the character who isn't in every episode. They're the wacky neighbor or ne'er-do-well sibling who shows up out of the blue, and when they do you know anything could happen. Ceph, the poltergeist, only leaves their room/shrine full of hoarded trinkets to write passive-aggressive sticky notes and cause in-fighting amongst the rest of the household. They can often be recruited to distract or annoy one of the others for a price--and at the risk of them turning on the instigator at a whim.

Then there's quirky, upbeat Tristan, the psychic vampire torturer. They're genderfluid and soooo funny! She wears rainbow shoelaces on her blood-spattered sneakers and listens to playlists while committing crimes against humanity! You never know what he's going to do next which is part of the terror! Cue the laugh track!

Finally, Wes Mayer, the werewolf, and his great grandfailsons are the egotistical idiots. The guys everyone loves to hate. They try to solve everything through force and/or money, completely confident in their own power, only for it to backfire spectacularly. Bullying them is one of the few things the rest of the cast can unite on.