People and characters

Source context: this record describes the earlier local Arcfall adaptation, not the owner-supplied Everterra world or its Day 17 instance. See Everterra and Idlewood for the original lore and the source correction.

This page records identity, relationships, and motivations. It intentionally omits classes, levels, ability scores, combat statistics, and other player mechanics. Use the separate local people/factions indexes for expanded dossiers where available.

The heirs and their ally

Seraph is one of the three men who escaped the Ninth Gate and inherited Corvin's farm. He is a darkling and remembers the displaced prisoners as people with names. He protects the farm, but refuses to murder bound prisoners. His physical nature and history are part of who he is, not evidence that he is destined to become evil. The book's default party and campaign promises establish this framing.

Hugo is Seraph and Garr's fellow escapee and a co-heir to the farm. He is unmarked by the Gate, and that absence gives him a particular role in the foundation's mechanism: he can interrupt a circuit that the other marks help complete. He is Edrin Coalhand's nephew.

Garr is the third escapee and co-heir. He bears a Gate brand that responds to the foundation, and he recognizes details of the Ninth Gate that Seraph and Hugo do not. The campaign treats his silence and choices as his own; no one should demand that he speak to prove his agency.

Zed is a halfling thief, patient archer, burglar, and improviser who entered the story carrying a stolen Crown letter. His raven Eve scouts and carries simple signals. The opening premise and current accepted actions are summarized in Premise and history.

Eve is Zed's trained raven and companion. She is a practical scout and signal carrier, not a source of automatic knowledge about places she has not observed.

The dead farmer and the Office's agents

Corvin Marrow was a patient, secretive farmer who felt guilty about helping build the Office's first moving gate. His letters, ledgers, neighbors' memories, and foundation echoes reveal his past. The inheritance was a choice offered to the heirs, never a command about what they must do.

Captain Orlan Vance was an Office of Gates field captain who valued the status of secret orders and underestimated the farm's defenders. He is dead at the accepted checkpoint. His signet, orders, and the signals sent under his command continue to matter as evidence and context.

Maelin Thorne is an architectural diviner, trained to read buildings as memory. She is precise and calm, and believes controlled atrocities can prevent much greater disasters. She poisoned Corvin and favors forged consensus over open force. Her conviction explains her actions without excusing them; the campaign does not establish that she must become an ally, an enemy in combat, or anything else before the characters encounter her. See the book's People and Factions and the expansion's Thorne negotiation and tactics.

Witnesses and local allies

Mara Vale runs the Lantern and Sheaf inn and can turn a frightened crowd into an organized committee. She cares about protecting her staff and resists lies that transfer danger to another villager.

Brother Pell keeps the chapel's records. He noticed problems in Corvin's burial entry and can authenticate the second ledger, though he does not want to accuse the Crown alone.

Edrin Coalhand is Hugo's uncle, a retired charcoal burner with damaged lungs. He offers Crow Hollow as a refuge, but has limits and needs a safer plan if the danger continues.

Oris Dane is one of the three surviving prisoners. He wants protection from the Office and from those who killed Vance; concrete plans with people and places help him cooperate. He knows Vance received private instructions and that Wren carried the tube.

Pellin Ro is another survivor. He trusts public process and can identify military forms and procedural irregularities. Once he sees the counterseal, he recognizes that Vance bypassed ordinary recording.

Kes is the third survivor. Kes wants proof that witnesses will be kept alive, saw Maelin Thorne's name and mourning-pin disguise, and knows the counterphrase “Stone stands where consent placed it.” Kes's testimony is given voluntarily in exchange for concrete guarantees.

These prisoner biographies and current checkpoint status come from the Chapter 5 expansion and the accepted playthrough summary.

Additional established figures

The source material also names Wren, scout Lysa Quill, keeper Halvek, Ilyra Senn, and Office Marshal Cera Vaun. They appear in prepared future chapter material, not as events that have necessarily occurred in accepted play. See the relevant chapter sources before introducing them. Local faction and geography indexes should carry fuller dossiers to avoid duplication.