Hunters

From the beginnings of Mundane civilization, it has been necessary to have certain members willing to step up to fight the monsters in the dark and thus ‘Hunters’ were created. For some, it was seen as a noble or religious calling, or a family livelihood, or in some circumstances, a punishment. One thing has been clear though, except for sheer numbers, Mundanes have always been the underdog and fighting a losing battle against the Shadows, given their initial lack of magical ability or special skills.

That is, until around 2,000 years ago. Legends say ancient, ethereal beings -- whom many say were angels -- appeared to Hunters around the world, gifting them with the ‘Spark’. This gave Hunters and their descendants the ability to inscribe magical runes on Mundane skin or on weapons, allowing them to offer a fair fight to the unnatural creatures that stalk Mundanekind from the Shadows.

With these newfound abilities, Hunters have been able to contain the threat from the Shadows, although it’s not always been easy. Thanks to their efforts, as centuries have passed, most Mundanes have forgotten creatures like Werewolves, Vampires and Changelings exist. Hunters continue to see it as their mission to protect other Mundanes from learning about the Shadows and fight to preserve their innocence.

The earliest Hunter archives go back to Roman times and various waves of Hunters have immigrated to Britain over the years, each introducing their own traditions, but by the 19th century, the Hunter community in Britain have had long-established training protocols and methods for dealing with creatures from the Shadows. There are several prominent Hunter families who have dedicated their lives to the cause and they train their children from an early age to be warriors in the cause or to fulfil supportive roles such as healers, archivists, weaponsmith, etc.

There is no official governing body of the Hunters but the community has a loose network of Citadels, which various families are associated with and cover hunting grounds that they rarely stray out of, except in extraordinary hunts. In the UK, the main Citadels are in London, Plymouth, Cardiff, York and Edinburgh. The Citadels hold the Hunters’ archives, which hold the collected wisdom and lore and spoils of war taken from non-Mundanes, such as blood libraries, alchemist ingredient lists, ritual books, magical artefacts and more.

Fostering is common in the community, particularly as the mortality rate is high and several families have been nearly wiped out during difficult or poorly planned hunts. Hunter families tend to intermarry amongst themselves but occasionally a Hunter will marry a mundane. Some well-to-do Hunter families have mundane families serving them, and potential brides/grooms often come from there, as they already know about the Shadows and their inhabitants.

While the Spark can be passed to a mundane through an arduous ritual, the progeny of a Hunter and a mundane will always inherit the ‘Spark’ that allows them to use runes.

A Hunter can choose to walk away from the lifestyle but if they decide to do this, they are shunned from the community and stripped of their runes. Families teach that they have a sacred duty to protect Mundanes - but in the 19th century, more young people are walking away from the community. Some do so because they believe that as the world modernises, Mundanes no longer need the same protections, some because the skirmishes are getting more vicious and some because well… maybe they’re starting to believe that they have a choice, rather than a duty to be Mundaneity’s protection.

Runes

Alongside the Spark, Hunters were taught basic runic magic by the ancient ‘Angels’ and consider the runes given to them to be sacred. While many Hunters cover themselves in runes specific to their family’s hunting style, there are a few classic runes commonly used, such as Heal, Revitalize, Power, Banish, Ward. All Hunters learn how to inscribe these classic runes but the more intricate ones are reserved for the family’s weaponsmith, who inscribes the more complex runes on skin/weapons.

Inherent magic

The Spark gives Hunters the innate ability to withstand basic magical attacks, including the Vampires’ mesmerisation, Werewolves’ pheromones, etc. This takes willpower, which is not inexhaustible and so can only be used once every two hours.

In Britain, the families tend to follow one of three ideologies - the path of the Archangel Gabriel (strength and purity), the path of the Archangel Raphael (healing and mercy), or the path of Uriel (enlightenment and wisdom), which influences how they hunt and perceive the other factions.

Hunters who are Gabrielites have a puritanical worldview and traditionally believe all non-Mundanes are lost causes and the best that can be done is to give them a good death. They tend to favour traditional weapons, such as stakes for Vampires or silver bullets for Werewolves.

Urielites tend to favour an erudite or scholarly approach to the hunt and will use whatever tools or methods are at their disposal. They are the ones who have often worked alongside or pay Changelings to assist them in difficult hunts or to contain demonic occurrences. They are pragmatists and the scientists of the faction.

Raphaelites - the smallest of the paths - believe non-Mundanes will be damned in the afterlife and so Hunters have a mission to reach out and understand Vampires, Werewolves and Changelings, in order to one day find a way to remove their curse of magic and make them Mundane again. While Raphaelites still hunt, most work in archival roles trying to find this cure, and some brave, foolhardy ones have even attempted to live as missionaries amongst non-Mundanes and… mostly lived to tell the tale.

Regardless of their ideology, Hunters have grown up in a world that appears normal, but where every shadow and dark alley can pose a danger. Nearly all Hunters have lost loved ones to hunts and, despite their runes, they are still usually at a disadvantage. They are often forced to deal with the fact that every day could be their last.

Most were born into this hunting tradition, but Hunters may embrace or rebel against it. As the world modernises, many Hunters wonder how the Hunt will progress. Some favour the old ways while others think a new non-violent approach is needed. Hunters will always be necessary, as demons, Unseelie predators and other Shadows griblies are not going to disappear but many newer hunters wish they didn’t always have to be on their guard against Werewolves, Vampires and Changelings.

Hunters are brought up to see the other factions as threats to Mundaneity and that colours their worldview, no matter how sympathetic they might find individuals. They are taught not to trust the other factions, particularly those immortal beings with long memories; old grudges can have unintended consequences for a Hunter’s family decades or even centuries later. Of course, personal experience and hunts also plays into how they will view a Werewolf, Vampire or Changeling.

Gabrielites are the faction hardliners, believing in a binary worldview in which only Mundanes are good and any other sentient creature is evil. They also believe in a hierarchy of Hunters as superior, then Mundanes and then everyone else. They might see the necessity of treating with a Werewolf pack in order to gain access to information on a rogue wolf, but they will keep their interactions to a minimum. They despise Vampires and particularly the retainer system, and most will not welcome the comparison that some Raphaelites have pointed out in their own system of having mundane servants. When it comes to Changelings, most cannot look past the fact that many have a demon for a parent.

Urielites will take a more moderate view on the other non-Mundane factions. It’s often been Urielite families who have tried to agree to truces and spell out parameters for non-Mundanes as to what will trigger a Hunt, unfortunately, none of these have ever held up to this point. While Gabrielites see themselves as avenging angels, Urielites tend to see their role as custodians, responsible for policing the Shadows. As a rule, they tend to believe that as long as a non-Mundane is not harming Mundanes in their lifestyle, there is no need to interfere with their lives.

As per their philosophy, Raphaelites are fascinated by and sympathetic to non-Mundanes, but ultimately believe they are fundamentally flawed. However, they are a lot more aware about what really happens in Vampire covens, the structure of wolf packs or what Changelings get up to during their long centuries of life, especially when compared to the other Hunter philosophies.

In their day to day outfits, Hunters typically wear practical clothes in muted colours. They often follow the mundane fashion of the time, ie. 1880s fashion.

Cross-dressing is a common practice and both men and women cross-dress when on a hunt, such as wearing trousers when pursuing an enemy cross-country or wearing dresses and bonnets for sneaking into Vampire balls. Cross-dressing day-to-day is less common but would not be remarked upon; as long as the person is ready to fulfil their duty and join the hunt, who cares what they wear?

Regardless of their dress, there are two commonalities across all Hunters: they have an inordinate amount of weapons stashed amongst their person, and underneath their clothes, they are covered in runes, which can be seen peeking out of sleeves, and necklines.

What’s happened with them since the Accords were signed?

After the Accords were signed, the hardcore Gabrielite Hunter faction rose to power, taking advantage of the Accords’ omission to legislate against murder. Their ranks have grown over the years as they focus on hunting down the vampires and the number of citadels have grown as their mission becomes all the more certain.

Some more moderate Urielite Hunters have also taken strides in gaining more power to better fight the supernatural, working in step with Raphaelite missionaries on forging an alliance with the Romulus wolves to enforce their own fashion of justice on supernaturals who step out of line. But by working with the wolves and the Gabrielites searching and looking at new ways to grow their power outside of runes and rune-powered weapons, are Hunters starting down the road to becoming the things they hunt?

It’s not just in approach that the Hunters are fragmented either: some Hunters were inducted with a quiet tap on the shoulder at Oxford and Cambridge, others found their way to the cause through stumbling across supernatural activity in the hotspots of Whitechapel and Wapping in London, and the dockside areas of Liverpool, for example, and vowed to protect their communities, areas which the more upper class Hunters would not deign to venture. An uneasy truce exists across the classes as they fight back against the darkness in their own way, but will it last?

Themes we expect this faction to deal with:

• Divided forces forced to work together to achieve a common goal.

• Do the ends justify the means?

• What does a monster actually look like?