Achlis - known aliases: Ajax Crowley, the Troll, the Viking Beast of the North, Suicide King - When an operation exceeds the capacity of even the Novum Collegium of l'Université Invisible to keep it quiet, a call for an expert in a heavier grade of magical wetwork is required. And Achlis is on the speed-dial of every Novo Collegian Invisible's bonefone. A towering veteran with experiences in every battlefield the strange world has to offer, Achlis has acquired more decorations and scars than a passel of Prussians. A combat mage second to none and a mercenary of legendary ferocity, the Invisible known as Ajax Crowley has been a deciding factor in too many battles to count. Some of his more notable exploits include the demolition of the Buckingham Hive, the assassination from orbit of the Oni King, and engineering the escape from Labyrinthine Hall which led to the shattering of the power of the Weeping. Born with ogre and Viking blood, Achlis is most often seen wearing his ancient, battered promethium-weave flak jacket and swinging his mystic axe with berzerker abandon.
Actionhero - known aliases: Johnny Chinaman, 'Hero, the Man of Mystery, the One Who Walks Alone - Actionhero seemingly stepped into the world from nowhere and was one of the guiding forces in making it the strange place it is today. His organization, Man of Mystery, Inc., was formed shortly after his departure as an active member of the Invisible College, an event precipitated by the affair in the Yucatan. Man of Mystery, Inc., has gone on to become the premier troubleshooting service for all matters that can be dealt with, in some fashion, by shooting. Renowned primarily for his mastery of the Way of the Endless Clip, 'Hero is perhaps the world's foremost shootist with semi-automatic handguns. He is furthermore an expert in the usage of almost every firearm ever invented or conceived, and a fifth-dan master of both Shaolin Shadowboxing and Wu-Tang Kendo, with a hard-on for esoteric blades. He has also accumulated what is perhaps the fifth most impressive collection of bleeding-edge technology in private hands today. Among his foremost innovations are the legendary Fiction Suits, an accumulation of mystical and technological weaponry which are tailored to meet almost any conceivable need. Johnny Chinaman embodies an aesthetic that is considered to be the finest blending of East and West in the world of freelance mayhem. A man known to be something of a weirdness magnet, Actionhero's web of eccentric friends, chummers, and contacts are almost as legendary as his own exploits.
Action's Angels: The group of talented, capable, deadly and scantily-clad women Actionhero keeps around him at all times, employed by Man of Mystery, Inc. Along with full-time employees like Pix and Suki, contract workers such as Miz Dandy and ACA and frequent sources such as Blackbird also qualify. In the twilight world of Invisibles, adventurers and shadowrunners, getting a position in Action's Angels has become something of a hip thing to do, like working at Borders.
The Agent AAM: A faceless assassin equipped with deadly weaponry and gear on loan from Doc Oblivion and a few knicknacks boosted from Wheel's basement, AAM briefly gave Actionhero and Quentin Holte a run for their money before being summarily dispatched in issue 21.
Professor Albus Dumbledore: The Headmaster of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as well as a renowned member of the Literary Council, sharing the Chair with Gandalf for the last five years, Professor Dumbledore had a memorable encounter with Actionhero in issue 16, discussing 'Hero's time at Hogwarts as a transfer student.
The Anaconda Guard: The ceremonial guards in the employ of Aztechnology, and Dr. Curare's personal lackeys. The Anaconda Guard is recruited from the finest military schools and deadliest insurgent camps and most efficient narcotrafficantes in all of Sur y Centroamerica. They use a wide variety of weapons, but are most renowned for their skill in the whip, which they are trained in extensively at the mysterious insistence of Curare.
Aramis: An African Grey parrot with a foul mouth, a sarcastic demeanor, and the persistent insistence that he is, in fact, Aramis the swashbuckling priest of the Three Musketeers. Tiny rapier and all, Aramis accompanies Dr. Xanith Epicoene on teir travels, oftentimes much to ta chagrin.
Area Politician: Mysteriously nameless and faceless, Area Politician was suspected by Padraig of having occult affiliations in issue 12, but shortly after making the connection, the Monkey King decided to enter show business instead. Area Politician, evil dentimarkings and all, is still at large.
The Benevolent Dictatorship: Domain of the Empress and her Consort, the Dictatorship is the most gloried and storied of the shadow courts of Europe, hidden pockets that follow the older ways hidden throughout the ancient continent. The Dictatorship is forested, mountainous, and renowned for its rare natural beauty and faerieland qualities.
Blackbird - known aliases: One - The clubs, discotheques, and mood-lit music-thumping illicit dens of the world have a tendency to attract the hip conspirators and highly askew social circles the graduates of the New College of the Invisibles travel in. Most of them, unfortunately, are sociopaths with colossal egos and no social graces outside of gunplay and casual sex. So when they need an in to the hard-driving techno-pulsing Clubland, they contact Blackbird. A dancing queen and a social butterfly, the One is the bad lady with contacts that run deep into strange worlds of party drugs manufactured in the wombs throbbing Lovecraftian horrors and synthslave musicians frantically generating music from their forebrains at gunpoint.
Buckingham Hive: During one dark night in British history just after the Second World War, the Queen was attacked and enseminated by an alien called a chioth, a carapaced spacefaring insect. Years later, after long convalescence and a false birth for the ease of the public mind, the Queen gave birth to a massive brood of eggs, and simultaneously turned into something huge and hideous herself. Buckingham Palace became a throbbing hive pulsating with drones and worker princes, until it was eventually destroyed by a massive coordinated assault by almost every active agent working with the New College of the Invisibles. Wheel was the last one to escape, with the help of Weaver Black, prior to the Hive's annhiliation by Achlis and his band of devastators.
Circe - known aliases: the Dark Lady, Divine Slattern Poet, ma'am - Even the deepest information probes and most intense questioning of various spirits, ghosts and deities have failed to determine whether the woman who calls herself Circe is, in fact, the same sorceress who hammed up Odysseus' travels in bygone times. While not entirely shocking, this would nonetheless make her a forerunner for the eldest human being who has become entangled with l'Université. Regardless, a lady never discusses her age. This lady does, however, use dark magicks of uncertain origins to establish a massive power base in the so-called Estrodome and, with the assistance of a passel of slavish followers and the nefarious 'Pet and Kai, begin to wrest power in New Orleans away from the shadowy Dr. Curare. Information on exactly how deep the Estrodome's meddling has gone is hard to come by, styming even the ICEbreakers of Man of Mystery, Inc. and the unexpectedly sentient Spanish Inquisition AI in the employ of Wheel. She and the rest of the Estros are, however, suspected of having a hand in the recent monumental increase of ley-line energy and chronon activity surging through the Crescent City.
Circe's Slinks: Magically-spawned shades created only to steal. They are the greatest thieves in the world, slipping in undetected through all known forms of intrusion countermeasures and slipping out with their target secreted in extradimensional folds of shadow that muffle tracer spells and lojacks. They aren't great conversationalists, but they sure can steal.
Claude: The surliest waiter at the old Napoleon Bar, renowned for having spit in Huey Long's beer and for kicking the Queen of Mardi Gras in the crotch when he felt she undertipped him. He was lovingly rendered unconscious by Wheel in issue 30.
The Consort: Loyal mate to the Empress of the Benevolent Dictatorship, the Consort sits always at the Empress' left hand, providing her companionship and a worthwhile confidante with which to share her rule. He will willingly give his life to protect her, and is every bit as fierce as he is wise. Theirs is truly a fairy-tale marriage, as evidenced by their frequent encounters with witches, ogres, trolls, singing dwarves, dancing shoes, and enchanted princesses, this last most unusual in a land where there is a clearly-defined royal family of precisely three.
Doctor Curare - known aliases: that bastard, the Shadow Doctor, El Doctor, the tall man - One of the greatest engimas known to the Novum Collegium Invisibles, Curare is, in fact, one of the first graduates of that mysterious and venerable institution. His first assignment was working with Jim Crow and Enoch to shadow a squad of government spooks investigating of a recent spate of murders that matched the pattern of traditional Mesoamerican blood sacrifices in the French Quarter. All three vanished for a time after that. Crow refuses to talk about what happened. Enoch never returned. And when Curare was next seen, he had established a sizable base in the Yucatan which eventually became the first Temple for Aztechnology, the faceless futureware corp of which Curare was head. He severed almost all contact with his former comrades, and worked in his own disturbing and mysterious ways. Frustrated, the College sent an enthusiastic young Actionhero to infiltrate the Temple and report back, but the gunslinger ended up in the midst of a one-man war with the dark doctor's strange armies and bizarre tesseract technologies. Although a few agents went rogue to extract him, the lack of any official action on the part of the College led to Actionhero's split from the group and the founding of Man of Mystery, Inc. There are some who suspect that this game of "divide-and-conquer" was Curare's intention all along. He has since been seen all around the world, always where he is least expected and most troublesome, and his corporation has only gained in influence. He is singlehandedly responsible for the reintroduction of velociraptors into the wild. He was recently seen eating a mysterious beignet in New Orleans.
The Curry Place: A small hole-in-the-wall in the City, tucked away not far from Natcher Alley and facing onto Murdock St. It is renowned for serving the most esoteric and delicious curries available anywhere, and if a favorite haunt of Invisibles and other twilight folk. Shiva and Kali sightings abound. The Curry Place was once thought to hold some significance, but this was demonstrated to be a mistake in issue 11.
Deacon: In issue 10, Doc Oblivion undertook a singularly vicious one-man quest to find the lost Johnny Chinaman, for reasons best known to himself. In the course of his search, he captured Deacon, a heavyset administrator for a papershuffling wing of the Bureau of National Interests, and interrogated him on the plane of Leng before incinerating him.
Eclipse - known aliases: Lady of the Waters, the Dauphine, Waverider - Rolling in and out of piddling human affairs like the tides, Eclipse works strange rites where the sea is green as glass and where it is black as the night. She is a datasmith, a hacker taken unto the level of deity, who works with information on a level simultaneously primal and exalted. Sources further suspect she alone of landbound humanity has cracked the language of the cetaceans, and this suspicion is corroborated by the many dolphin and whale agents seen acting on her behalf, most notably during the assault on the glacier of the white wyrm and the sinking of the U-boat Unsterblicher Geist. She has also done extensive work with the pseudomammal known as Platypus, and has of late joined with Wheel in a most unique marriage to the Psychedelic Illuminate. Eclipse is something of an unknown factor in the everyday affairs of l'Université despite her graduation from that stalwart institution. All her many talents aside, the simple fact that Eclipse essentially has agents with brains the size of Yugoes who can hear for thousands of miles ranging over 75% of the Earth's surface assures that she will remain a force to be reckoned with.
The Empress - known aliases: Her Royal Highness, the Benevolent Dictatrix - The Empress is the enthroned ruler of the largest and wealthiest of the hidden lands of Europe. Ruling over her Court alongside her Consort, she lives a life of decadent luxury that has been been lovingly maintained by shadow courts since the years before the Industrial Revolution. Her benevolent dictatorship is a model for noble autocrats everywhere, almost Platonic in scope. But the hidden thrones of Europe do not remove themselves from the affairs of the world. The Empress' web of spies, seers, and agents provacateur, under the watchful eye of the Heir, provide the benevolent dictators with information on all the goings-on from the underbelly of the world. Her Court is a favorite haunt of Actionhero, who comes to rest in splendor in between jaunts hunting oni yakuza through the neon-soaked streets of Tokyo and riding the unlikely roads of American mysteries. She is an exceptional hunter, skilled with running hounds and falconry, as well as an accomplished fencer, although her primary talent lies in her remarkable personal magnetism.
Estrodome: The mysterious haven of feminine mystique owned and operated by three extremely powerful and well-connected women. The Estrodome has only recently come under direct scrutiny from the Invisibles as a result of their involvement in an apparently ploy to ensnare Actionhero and Archimedes Lochs. The Estrodome has now come under suspicion of involvement in a wide array of old mysteries from the Invisible files, such as the wholesale zombification of the entire city of Pensacola and the baffling transfiguration of all the men in a nightclub in Sacramento into a herd of pigs.
Estrodome Cabana Boys: The gaggle of tall and tanned and young and tender men kept as footmen, dressers, pages, dishwashers, and manservants at the Estrodome. They exist only to provide sensual delight and manual labor, and are frequently killed as a way for the Estro-Sirens to blow off some steam.
Gigi: A beautiful and mysterious Creole woman seen throughout the nightlife of New Orleans, suspected of being an agent for Doctor Curare. Her actions in issue 39 may have foreshadowed Doctor Curare's comments in issue 47.
Glasgow: Originally a small salmon-fishing village at a crossing point on the River Clyde, Glasgow has been shaped by Battles, World Wide Trade and Heavy Industry to become a truly International City. Founded by a Christian missionary (St Mungo), Glasgow became a major religious centre. Mungo's original church was destroyed by the wars which swept the country in the years after his death. Today's Cathedral dates from the 12th Century and has been added to in the years which followed. In 1451 Glasgow became a l'Université city. The Highland College of the Invisible was originally built in the High Street area of the city, but was moved to its present site in Glasgow's West end in 1870. Glasgow has also been the site of many battles, most recently the Kurgan Affair, an event which brought together a band of Novum Collegium Invisibles and a handful of associates to try to hold off a long-buried legion of lead Roman automata who, under the leadership of an immortal swordsman, had swept across the Severan Wall.
The Gojira: The riverboat owned and operated by Weaver Black, which serves as the base of operations for his consulting detective agency. The Gojira is always seen docked, and has never been observed, by any means, actually in transit, although it has made it from St. Louis to Shanghai in a single night. The boat has also demonstrated some unique defensive capabilities; when Black left the boat docked on the Yangtze while he went looking for the Paper Tiger, the boat's autonomous defenses managed to put down a phalanx of Yellow Mountain ninji.
The Heir: True to her name, she is the heir to throne of the Empress, destined to take power in the Benevolent Dictatorship. She is preparing herself for the rigours of the crown by overseeing the intrigues of the shadow court, and serving as liaison to the outside world. As beautiful as she is willful, the Heir provides endless entertainment for the shadow courtiers and boundless hope for the future of the Empire.
Heph - known aliases: Professor Hephaestus Gryphon, the Beard, the Iron Flutist, Troubadour Historian, the Irish Hammer - As an epicure and a scribe, Heph is unparalleled. His advances in the culinary arts border on sorcery ... of the combative variety. He once created a pasta sauce that actually melted the carborundum basin it was stored in. A true Renaissance man, Heph is also a trained initiate in the Way of the Six-String, the bardic magic combat style that parallels the Way of the Six-Shooter. Further, his researches into the esoterica of ancient history have brought him many unique discoveries. He was the first temporally current human to set foot in the Valley of Lost Histories, as well as its first cartographer. In his travels, he has accumulated strange archaeogothic technologies, many of which are carried in the unlikely bulk of the airship Layla. While not as much of an active, gun-blazing agent of the Invisible as some of his contemporaries, Heph is a valued ally with much strange knowledge and many unique talents at his disposal. He also provides the only regularly reliable form of transit to the Valley.
Holly: One of the Estrodome's many trained assassins, Holly is a martial artist who, in issue 39, managed to give six seconds of pause to Quentin Holte.
The House: Over the years, Wheel has taken his relatively simple hermitage and added bric-a-brac from across time and space, expanding the interior to almost Dr. Strange dimensions. Eschertoriums, tesseracti, wormhalls, hobbit doors and Wonderland basements abound, and the House is packed with all the materiele Wheel cannot fit into his shirt pocket universe when he's on the road, and furthermore serves as the home for a number of unusual lifeforms, such as Q'yph, the garden gnomes, tangletrees, and a family of superintelligent Architeuthis cosmosis, the cosmic squid.
The Interest: A uniquely American institution formed by generals, spies, defense contractors, and ancient plutocrats who have an interest in maintaining American supremacy and the military-industrial complex. They frequently run afoul of the Invisibles, and sent a retributive hit-team after Wheel in issue 24, following his disruption of the drug traffic to Lemuria.
Janet: The woman who posed as Actionhero's girlfriend while the Man of Mystery was braindrained and amnesiac, living as a yuppie in Maushaven, as seen in issue 15. She was actually hivemind controlling fourteen thousand centipedes living in a human skin, but fortunately, Actionhero didn't know that.
Jesuits: Members of the Roman Catholic Society of Jesus founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1534. Given to intrigue and equivocation, they have had connections to many strange mystic movements and have engineered a good many of the Vatican's byzantine conspiracies. They have a base of power in New Orleans, and as such have for quite some time alternately clashed and worked with the forces of Doctor Curare. They had only recently reached an equilibrium when the Estrodome popped out of nowhere. They are reeling for control in the chaos that rocks the Crescent City.
Johnny Nitro: A Mafiosi of Cuban and Italian descent, Juan Luciano demonstrated a sufficient talent for explosive mayhem to catch the attention of the puppetmasters of the CIA, and ended up eventually becoming a button man for a much larger conspiracy than La Cosa Nostra. Then Wheel broke his neck in issue 24.
Junglefreak: Spawned from the devil-only-knows-what in the deepest jungle primeval, the Junglefreak is a blue-scaled monstrosity of unparalleled ferocity. Creating mischief and madness wherever it goes, the Junglefreak moves at blinding speeds and is capable of limited dissociative teleportation and total stealth camoflauge. Somehow this beast has come under the control of Doctor Curare, and now runs only at his behest.
Kahn: One of the Estrodome's two favorite cabana boys, who have since graduated to the status of full-fledged errand boys. His favorite book is Green Eggs and Ham.
Kai Girl - known aliases: Punk Lolita, the Girl in Pink, That Grrl - The Estrodome is run by three mickle powerful ladies. Circe provides the cruelty and the magic. 'Pet provides the muscle and the street connections. Kai Girl is the unknown quantity, the disruptive force moving like Holy Ghost in mysterious ways. She is known to demonstrate a fondness for the very rare, the very cuddly, and the very chic ... a fondness which belies her vicious unnamed martial style, one which focuses entirely on disabling strikes that are capable of leaving a man blind, deaf and numb in every part of his body except for five precisely shattered bones, begging for his mother and telling everything he knows, even if he was previously born mute. Obviously, the easily-distracted Kai serves as the interragatrix for the Estros, and provides a disquieting element of chaos to their operations.
Kid Eternity - known aliases: the Kid, Rock Star, She - A mysterious force walks the mystic paths and shining chrome highways of the underbelly of America. Going by a seeming infinity of aliases and easily-shed identities, she has been dubbed "Kid Eternity" by frustrated researchers. A powerful force, Kid Eternity remains a complete enigma, even in the times of nanocameras, bacterial camera infections, watcher spirits, and living satellite eyes. Certain hidden documents, procured at great cost by mystery archaeologists reporting to Man of Mystery, Inc., have demonstrated that the Kid may, in fact, have once been (or may STILL be) a professor for l'Université Invisible. For all the strange, brilliant people it has recruited, trained and created, very little is truly known about the Invisible Colleges. There is a dark side to that school, and if the rumors are true, Kid Eternity walks on that side ... and has many capable students to her credit, including the ladies of the Estrodome, and one Doctor Oblivion.
Kingsley Shacklebolt: An Auror and a member of the Order of the Phoenix, Kingsley Shacklebolt is an old comrade of Actionhero's, and is fondly remembered for a long-ago penchant for afros.
Kirby Cycle: They call him Wheel for a reason. Wheel has never managed to get behind the wheel of a conventional automobile, which caused a significant problem during the Berlin Overrun. He does, however, usually travel by Kirby Cycle, a device he put together from an unlikely assortment of pieces. The wheels of the device actually turn at hypersonic speeds, and the device rides not on them but on the frictionless static field they generate. The Cycle features a number of offensive and defensive capacities, and can be remote operated or left under the control of its own level 5 intelligence.
Kiyagi: The handler assigned by Doctor Curare to the Junglefreak, and the head of training for the Anaconda Guard, Kiyagi is a skilled warrior with a talent for bureaucracy that has made him a valuable asset to Curare Aztechnologies, Ltd.
Knock - known aliases: *DELETED* - *DELETED years ago, Knock was one of the foremost hackers in America. Having participated in the Grand Central Gibson run and *DELETED with R.U. Sirius and *DELETED, he was considered the top mind in the field, bringing his knowledge of games theory, chaos math, *DELETED and *DELETED to the table along with his innate computer talents. That all changed on *DELETED 23rd, *DELETED, when a power surge ran through an experimental simsense rig designed by *DELETED while Knock was *DELETED in the Berlin Free Zone. Knock's corporeal form was burned to ash and grease, but his mind now roamed free along the Matrix. He has, in essence, become the most powerful entity in the world, capable of being everywhere at once and with unlimited space for knowledge and all the world's technology at his disposal. Only lack of interest keeps him from taking over the world. No known infiltration defenses haven proven capable of stopping him, as seen in the affair at *DELETED, and the only people who have proven able to catch his attention for any length of time are his old comrades Wheel and Weaver Black. Their alliance dates back to *DELETED*DELETED*DELETED*END OF FILE*
Lady Jean - known aliases: Miss Grey, Lady Jaye, Madam Iron Butterfly - Most people are recruited to the New College of the Invisible. Others are hunted down by it. Still others simply stumble across it in the course of daily affairs. Such was the case with Lady Jean, who in her previous life was an unmild, ill-mannered music writer for a large metropolitan magazine. In the course of one of her long evenings sucking down whiskey at a blues club, she became fascinated by the stately, tweed-dressed bearded bluesman who arrived and departed so mysteriously. Also some of his friends, who all seemed to favor longcoats and concealed pistols. She was a good reporter, and they were not always entirely careful after a night of blues and whiskey, and so it was that Lady Jean, what with one thing and another, ended up a prisoner of the Weeping in the Valley of Lost Histories, only to be freed by Professor Hephaestus Gryphon and later take part in a revolution, along with Padraig and Achlis, that toppled the power of the damned things in the Valley. She has since split her time between covering the sordid lives of rockstars and following the sordid lives of agents of the invisible.
The Layla: Professor Hephaestus Gryphon's preferred mode of transport, the Layla is an airship put together out of technologies from histories that never happened, Heph's area of study. She is perhaps the most unique thing in the air, even in a world as strange as this one, and holds secrets that baffle even esoteric technologists like Wheel, Doc Oblivion, and Dr. Curare.
Leng: The plane of eternal winternight, scoured clean by dark gods long ago. The only thing left is the sprawling labyrinth of the Library maintained by the sages of Leng. Doc Oblivion is one of the few mortals with easy access to the plane, and he makes good use of it, as seen in issue 10.
Liam: A thug in the employ of the Estrodome who was given to them as part of a talent exchange with Doc Oblivion's organization. He briefly considered putting his Ghost-grade cyberware up against Quentin Holte, but was talked out of it by Holly in issue 39, instead escaping with the unconscious Padraig.
Mad Rashid: A paraplegic former hashishin now living alone in a forgotten corner of the Cayman Islands, he has developed strange tastes. In exchange for past favors, he has been promised by Actionhero the opportunity to do unpleasant things to Doc Oblivion's corpse.
Man of Mystery, Inc.: The corporation of which Johnny Chinaman is CEO and Chairman of the Board which was formed after Actionhero cut his official ties with the New College of the Invisible following the raid on the Temple of Aztechnology in which 'Hero was cut loose. According to the SEC, the corporation is simply an import/export business, but it takes under its purview such diverse business interests as treasure hunting, technological speculation, futures past, kingmaking, munitions trading, vampire slaying, ninja extermination, and, where applicable, pimping. Man of Mystery, Inc., has only a handful of full-time employees, including Pix and Suki, but offers significant financial stakes to long-term contractors such as Miz Dandy and ACA. The corporation is also the only multi-national business to have official diplomatic relations with both the nation of Japan and the shadow courts of Europe.
Marie Laveau: The most prominent figure in American voodoo, Laveau was the Witch Queen of New Orleans for a long, long time. Almost nothing exists in officially recorded histories about Marie, but much has been passed down about her through the oral histories of the French Quarter. Her grave is a holy site, as well as a common place for Curare watchers to congregate.
Mariposa: Curare's angel of death, Mariposa is a china doll capable of killing a man so quickly he'll walk five steps before he realizes he's dead. Trained only in the lethal arts, she is a living weapon of terrible grace with the uncanny ability to read her opponent's bodies as if paging through a book. An encounter with Mariposa causes even the most devoted follower of the Way to pause and consider, as seen in issue 47.
The Marquis de Lafayette: Marie Jean Paul Joseph Roche Yves Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, French soldier, born at the castle of Chavagnac, in Auvergne, September 6th, 1757. The family has been for more than three centuries distinguished in French history. Son of Michel Roche Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, colonel of grenadiers, who was killed in the battle of Min-den, 1 Aug., 1759, and Marie Louise, daughter of Joseph Yves Hyacinthe, Marquis de la Riviere. The Marquis ostensibly died May 20th, 1834 in Paris. He was kept alive as part of an old deal with the carbonari, and wandered the world with les marchants mort, growing stranger as the decades went by, until his essence was dissipated by Wheel in New Orleans, April 1, 2004.
Meatpuppets, Ninjas, and Thugs, assorted: Everyday fodder encountered as one travels the underbelly of the world. Easily dispatched in any number of creative fashions, and useful primarily as a diversion. But every one of them has a mother. Except the clones.
Miz Dandy - known aliases: Laramie Kraftwerk, the Lively Girl - Miz Dandy is a mystery archaeologist of unparalleled skill and ingenuity who has been an unofficial contractor for Man of Mystery, Inc. for quite some time, getting the initial footwork done for the dual-page splash raids Actionhero and his private army have staged on the forces of evil around the world. Skilled with sword and handgun, she nonetheless tends to rely more on her cunning and agility, and as such will likely enjoy a longer life than most Invisibles, assuming that she isn't blasted, rotted, cursed, crushed, folded, spindled or mutilated by the forces of unearthly terror she regularly points flashlights at.
New Orleans: Louisiana was claimed for French king Louis XIV in 1699 and is the only state that was once a French royal colony. "La Nouvelle Orleans" was founded in 1718 and ruled by France and then Spain for nearly 100 years. It is the only U.S. city where French was the predominant language for more than one century. The Louisiana Purchase was signed in New Orleans in 1803. In 2003, the 200th anniversary of the signing will be commemorated in a year-long, statewide celebration of activities. New Orleans is the American city occupied longest by enemy troops (the Union Army 1862-65) during the Civil War. This city depended for 185 years on a canal system (108 miles) much more extensive than that of Venice, Italy. By 1852, the city had become the third largest and second richest in the nation. Also a home to more vampires, zombies, voudouns, dark priests, wild spirits, mana surges, and alien incursions per square mile than any location on Earth, New Orleans has proven to be a favorite city for the Invisibles. Both Dr. Curare and the Estrodome reside there, sharing space with branch offices of Man of Mystery, Inc., and CIA regional office in a Masonic temple that serves as the Southern base of operations for the Interest.
Nicky and Alex: Two borzoi hounds who course at the command of the Empress, as seen in issue 48. Magnificent animals. Lord Nixon the Vampyr: Richard Milhous Nixon, born in 1913 and elected President of the United States in 1968, was turned by a vampiric proconsul to Romania in 1970, and after vanishing from the public following the Bloodgate scandal, reigned as a power behind the throne for the next three presidencies, until finally being dispatched by Weaver Black, Wheel and Knock when the Untouchable Trinity raided the Crimson Room of the White House in 1982.
Doc Oblivion - known aliases: Z'm de'iB, Bastard Mercenary, the Smoking Man, Silencer - l'Université lost a great student when Oblivion, in the middle of his training, abruptly vanished and reappeared in the tutelage of Kid Eternity. Curiously, he continued to appear on the encrypted rolls of the College, even while he was detonating heads in Bolivia and grinding souls to powder in Beirut. He has never lost contact with the New College of the Invisibles, and has worked with other graduates on more than one occasion. In fact, he is largely responsible for the return of Actionhero to active service after forces unknown left Johnny Chinaman amnesiac in a world of civilians. On the other hand, he's a relentlessly mercenary bastard with a taste for blood who will not hesitate to exploit a weakness for profit. He has engineered these profits into a very streamlined and efficient organization which has made him a force in the underworld. His autosurveillance techniques are unparalleled, and only matched by the personal detective talents of Weaver Black and Quentin Holte. He is also an accomplished mage in several schools, and has accumulated some interesting bits of technology through a few sidewise dimensional jaunts. You can trust Doc Oblivion with your life, as long as the check cleared.
Operative 112263: Yet another product of the Interest's seemingly endless line of perfect-soldier clones, Operative 112263 died a rather horrible death when he was blown apart by a cannonball during a test run in issue 24.
Padraig - known aliases: Monkey King, the Voice, that Irish lad, the whore - Blessed with God-given talents of a most unusual variety, Padraig was one of the finest Invisibles to operate out of the Novo Collegium. Operating under the name Monkey King, he used his Voice - a rare combination of subharmonics, low-grade telepathy, and glamour - to wile his way past the most stolid guards and into the most secret chambers of the Conspiracy. But somewhere along the line he realized he could make money off of his talents. A LOT of it. And so he left with a jaunty wave for thirty-thousand dollar casino bookings, free high-roller suites, and hot and cold running women. But he can't help but dabble his fingers in the pool every now and again, such as the time he freed Wheel and Heph from a cabinet of curiosities where they were being exhibited, or that epic night when he spoke for the defense when Achlis was put on trial by machine intelligences. None of the thrills are enough to make him leave his opulent lifestyle, however, much to the disgust of more staid personalities such as Doc Oblivion.
The Pimpmobile: A vintage '55 El Dorado convertible modified by Silky Sakai and Suki, the Pimpmobile is matte black with a liquid crystal glaze glowing with constantly shifting symbols and decals. The rest of the ride is a conglomeration of armor, weapons and gold rims, complete with fuzzy dice loaded with probability tamperers. Actionhero is often seen driving it hard and barely legal, just like he likes it. People with good taste have been known to die of convulsive shock on seeing the vehicle go by.
Pix: A receptionist for Man of Mystery, Inc., who held down the fort when Actionhero vanished and the rest of the underworld was running around in circles. Renowned for her cool smile, dead aim, and devastating penchant for cutting a man down to size, Pix has been a mainstay for the day-to-day business affairs of an extremely sketchy company.
The Prof: An ancient Sumerian demon trapped in ageless human flesh by a Babylonian sorcerer in bygone days, as detailed in issue 5, the Professor divides his time between teaching random classes at the Novum Collegium, and assissting mage students in their field work, particularly anything diabolical in nature. Jolly and absentminded and almost limitlessly powerful, the Prof is a fine fellow to have at your side. At least for now.
Quentin Holte - known aliases: Archimedes Lochs, the Old Man, the Quiet Man, Mr. 5-Second Fight - When one makes a list of the dangerous martial artists in the world, it is challenging to whittle it down to 100, difficult to narrow it to 20, and incredibly hard to reduce it further to 10. The top 5, however, are beyond question, only shifting positions among themselves. And always near the top of that list is Quentin Holte, a mild-mannered reporter with uncanny deductive talents, a penchant for old world magick, and a fist that can shatter iron. He has also, somewhere along his lonely road, picked up the knack of reading minds. This unusual talent has become invaluable on several occasions, such as when Holte woke up naked and without memory in the middle of a taiga. He managed to arrive, dressed in the latest London fashions, at the office of the man who had put him there two days later. One of the favored students of the College, frequently called upon as a speaker and trainer, Holte has connections all across the globe, and walks the earth, doing good and kicking the occasional butt.
Q'yph: A felinoid imp from a relatively footloose part of the fifth dimension, Q'yph was captured in a bottle of generic cough syrup by Pennywise Gambol, the world's cheapest conjurer. After Wheel bought Gambol's estate at auction, he inadvertently released Q'yph into his service when he attempted to add the nineeen-year old cough syrup to a rum punch.
Remus Lupin: A former Hogwarts professor for Defense against the Dark Arts and a world-renowned adventurer, Lupin is also a lycanthrope. He was a favorite of many of the students of the New College of the Invisible who visited Hogwarts as part of the ongoing student exchange program.
Reptile People: A group of extradimensional harbingers of pure malevolence who have slowly infiltrated our world, taking over the lives of various government officials and sinking their teeth into the meatier conspiracies. They have been exceedingly careful about being discovered. Only Wheel and a handful of Invisible affiliates even believe they exist.
Saatano Paskiainen: A tall and pallid Finnish death metal enthusiast and Satanic bard, Paskiainen was famed throughout Northern Europe for both his fanatic devotion to the Dark Lord and his awesome headbanging technique. To make money to support his black church/metal bar, he took jobs on the side, sending pitiful mundane souls to Hell. This was quite a lucrative sideline until he had a cross driven through his heart in issue 24.
Sabrina: Particularly gorgeous, even by the rigorous standards of physical beauty at the Estrodome, Sabrina has managed to connive her way to a secretarial position with sufficient pay and fringe benefits to almost make up for the constant, looming spectre of sudden death at the hands of her volatile mistresses. She does, however, get to wear their old clothes when they're bored with them.
Silky Sakai: Pimp Samurai, number one procurer in Tokyo, and the best lay on the Pacific Rim as chronicled in Hot Like Wasabi magazine. Silky is renowned as one of the world's greatest drinkers, most deadly swordsmen, and is unquestionably the pimpingest mo'fo on two legs. Moreover, Sakai is one of Actionhero's closest friends, providing him with Pimpmobiles, bevies of steaming-hot sloe-eyed beauties, and all the kanji-engraved ammunition heneeds. He last appeared assisting Miz Dandy in issue 9.
Simone: For a receptionist at an unassuming firm of financial analysts in the City, Simone is full of surprises. For instance, the small gun always strapped to her calf. Or the manner in which she is capable of killing a man with her thighs. Or the fact that she is the daughter of a succubus and a CIA spook, trained as a triple agent by the Bureau of National Interests.
Spoik: A British vampire of indeterminate age and incredibly irritating demeanor, often seen in the company of professional vampire hunter ACA. Numerous attempts to have him and the rest of his glamorous vampire-world associates killed have yet to meet with success.
Strindberg: A large black German shepherd of sardonic demeanor, Strindberg accompanies Dr. Xanith Epicoene and Aramis on their travels, providing the brute force security only a massive dog with soupbone-crushing jaws can offer.
Suki: A taut-bodied Japanese mechanic and Girl Friday for Man of Mystery, Inc., Suki has an almost slavish devotion to the cars in the company motorpool, particularly the Pimpmobiles from the Silky Sakai collection. She can get any motor running.
Teacher's Pet - known aliases: James, the Enforce-Her, Robobabe - Sometimes, the subtleties of Circe's spells and blades and the chic chaos of Kai Girl just don't fit the bill. Sometimes there's skulls to be broken, armored personnel carriers to be battered open, and hapless henchmen to be scattered like tenpins. That's when Teacher's Pet is called upon. A true child of America, 'Pet is a hellraiser and rabble-rouser. She knows how to break up a party and how to get one started. Like all the Estros, she's an absolute fashion plate, but her haute couture is draped over a frame rife with high-grade government cybernetics and mystically-enhanced muscles. Her familial contacts have helped the Estrodome vanish into the backdrop of American urbanity time and again. She has been rated a solid 7.2 on the Norris Bad-Ass scale, and her strength definitely pushes the limit at 0.78 Hulks.
Temples of Aztechnology: The strange cathedrals to the greatness of a world of the dead used by Dr. Curare as bases of operations for his mysterious transnational corporation. The Temples incorporate tesseract technology which make them larger than they have any right to be on the inside, numerous deathtraps designed by subsidiary CS Architecture, and genetic experiments ranging from the quetzalraptor to the pythonesses. The Temples are open from 8:30 AM to 9:00 PM on weekdays, and 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM Saturdays and Sundays. Tours are available by appointment, and waivers must be filled out in triplicate.
Thor: One of the Estrodome's two favorite cabana boys, who have since graduated to the status of full-fledged errand boys. His favorite book is The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Thought Forms: Traditionally, thought forms only existed on the aetheric plane, where mages and followers of the Art could travel bodiless and explore worlds beyond the ken of man. Through recent advances in technology in the form of a device shaped like a 1934 Radiola Gold Bond Radio bought by Wheel off a tradeship from a now-closed branch of the Bleed, the trans-aetheric tulpaic realizer enables users to project fully-functional images of themselves across any distance. It has been combined with Doc Oblivion's SimSense system to provide full sensual feedback, allowing the thought forms to touch you, as seen in issue 27.
Tonks: A pink-haired London riot grrl currently finishing her term at Hogwarts. She briefly attracted the constantly-wandering eye of Actionhero back in issue 16.
l'Université Invisible: The Invisibles have existed as a shadow organization, in one form or another, since some time prior to the unholy unification of the Knights Templar and the hashishin. They have cropped up more visibly at crucial points throughout history, particularly the French Revolution and the First World War. In order to recruit and train new members, the elder Invisibles came together to form l'Université, a school with no real home which teaches classes in forgotten monasteries and undersea habitats. The sheer volume of strangeness in the world during the 20th century precipitated the founding of Invisible Colleges across the globe and beyond, as more permanent places to learn to be Invisible under the aegis of l'Université. The New College of the Invisible was founded among the shell middens and swamp magic of a forgotten corner of Florida during the psychotropic 1960s, and has produced some of the most unique individuals to grace the organization. The Novum Collegium, as it is fondly called, has become the benchmark for other Invisible Colleges.
The Valley of Lost Histories: A strange place far to the south, lost amid the high plateau jungles of the New World, the Valley is a home to all those histories that might have been but never were, for those that were forgotten, and for those that never should have been. It is a place where Benjamin Franklin killed George Washington in a fit of rage in 1774; where the Japanese never attacked America and instead formed a huge economic empire which came to dominate the world after the Nazis wore out the Americans with endless waves of coastal bombing; where Frederick the Great rode Fenrir through the streets of Moscow. The place is strange, and was given to great malice prior to a revolution led by Invisibles under the leadership of Professor Hephaestus Gryphon, the first man to map the Valley.
Weaver Black - known aliases: Sammy Suicide, the Charred Spider, the Consulting Detective, that creepy guy - As a shaman of Anasazi, the trickster spider of the Southwest, it was only natural that Weaver Black should have come into contact with Wheel, a man who spent seven years walking the Trickster's Path, encountering laughing spirits all over the world. Weaver is not much of a jokester, however, and is much more akin to Anasazi as the spider. Patient, skilled, efficient, and merciless, Black is unparalleled when it comes to hunting down his prey and laying a trap for them. His web of contacts is unrivalled, even among such social butterflies as Actionhero and Quentin Holte, and his penchant for digging to the heart of the matter has made him an invaluable comrade for the Invisibles of the New College. With his knack for melding into the shadows and vanishing and his apparent ability to go for days without food or water, it's uncertain if Weaver has or needs a traditional "home", but he does have offices aboard the riverboat Gojira, a tall titan of yesteryear packed with absurd tchotchkes and strange hypertechnologies.
Wheel - known aliases: Fizzlewick Napoleon Orpheus Roarty Ducksoup, the Psychedelic Illuminate, El Ruedo Loco, Agent 23 - Some magical philosophers have theorized that there will be in every generation, among workers of the Art, embodiments of the forces that make up the heart of reality. If this is so, then chaos has been embodied in Wheel, the mad Invisible. A collector of strange antiquities from the future and bizarre atomic doodads from the past, and a center of gravitic weirdness, Wheel has blazed a strange trail across the underbelly of the world (even faster than before since he replaced his Berthold anklets with the Garrick Impulse speedsoles). Wheel has always attracted strange company, such as his wife Eclipse, his dearest friends Weaver Black and the dataentity known as Knock, and even extradimensional hangers-on such as the felinoid imp Q'yph and the immortal panchromatic amoebic symbiont Wheel calls the aloha shirt. As a pop culture shaman, Wheel draws upon the magic created by a hundred years of mass media which has throbbed in the global consciousness, and as a trickster avatar, he is entitled to ask for favors from any one of a number of capricious deities, most of whom have learned not to take his calls. He got really deeply involved in the conspiracy theory classes at the Novum Collegium, and periodically vanished, only to turn up with wild tales about reptile men controlling NASA and Nixon being a vampire. Of course, when the lizards used enslaved human astronauts to construct a castle on Phobos, and Nixon was caught on camera draining the blood out of Caspar Weinberger, you'd think the world would have started listening. Not yet.
Dr. Xanith Epicoene - known aliases: Note: all attempts to divine any further into names used by Dr. Xan resulted in things too terrible to recount here. We'll just say, none. - There are mystery archaeologists, archaeotechnologists, chronologists, and even Archieologists working with the Invisibles. There is only one arcanologist. Dr. Xanith Epicoene wanders the world down paths few dare imagine, let alone tread, and discovers the secrets that the mundane world never even thought to look for. Te is a very dapper entity, always nattily dressed and prepared with the finest in charms and wards, and te is furthermore considered to easily be the foremost expert in magical theory alive today. While combat mages such as Ajax Crowley might give ta pause on the battlefield, it is unlikely te would be maneuvered into such a situation. As one of the foremost thinkers on the teaching staff of the New College of the Invisible, Xan is always watchful, always considering, and always seeking out new knowledge.
Zulma: The secretary for Weaver Black's consulting detective agency. Zulma is a tall, cartoonishly-voluptuous woman with striking pure-black eyes and a taste for enormous flies.
3. Possible Achlis Introduction - with extra beastliness
4. Wheel Introduction - first intentional usage of "Invisible"
5. The Arcanologist, Prof, et al Introduction - Beginning of a separate but equal story arc
6. The Arcanologist and Co., pt. 2.
7. The Arcanologist and Co., pt. 3 - Closing that arc
8. Padraig the Monkey King, Doc Oblivion, Heph, and Lady Grey Introduction
9. ACA, Blackbird, Pix and Miz Dandy Introduction - rarely seen character bonus!
10. Doc Oblivion in Leng - continuing the Actionhero's Return saga
11. Wheel on the Run - Drawing out the damned saga a bit more, with cameos by Doc Oblivion, Arcanology, Inc., and Eclipse.
12. Padraig Does Something Mysterious, and a Man has an Evil Tooth
13. Tangential Material - Course Listing - with ultra-rare Achlis, Dr. Curare, and Miz Dandy references
14. Actionhero Summary - with mysterious Dr. Curare reference!
15. The Return
16. The Return Part II: Actionhero at Hogwarts - The Invisible New College reaches everywhere
17. The Tao of Bruce - introducing important philosophical bullhockey
18. Actionhero On the Kerouac Trail - and one or two references after this cross back and forth between reality and reality
19. Who Tried to Kill Doc Oblivion? - a prelude to the Clash
20. The Clash Tightens, pt. 1 - Bonus! The return of Quentin Holte!
21. The Clash Tightens, pt. 2 - Introducing Circe and Teacher's Pet, featuring a cameo by Doc Oblivion
22. The Clash Tightens, pt. 3 - with a titillating hint of pornography!
25. The Clash Tightens, pt. 6 - with cross-referencing to pt. 7
26. The Clash Tightens, pt. 7 - with much mocking of Actionhero
27. The Clash Tightens, pt. 8a, which continues without interruption to part 8b - now with more nudity!
28. The Clash Tightens, pt. 9 - Dr. Curare. Egad!
29. The Clash Tightens, pt. 10 - 'Pet's first solo adventure
30. The Clash Tightens, pt. 11 - introducing Weaver Black, with cameos by 'Pet and Dr. Curare!
31. The Clash Tightens, pt. 12 - crosses over with Wheel's story
32. The Clash Tightens, pt. 13 - cameos by Padraig, the Anaconda Guardswomen, Circe, and Heph's airship!
33. The Clash Tightens, pt. 14 - debuting the Junglefreak
34. The Clash Tightens, pt. 15 - introducing Kai Girl
35. The Clash Tightens, pt. 16
36. Wheel's Flash - tangential to the Clash Tightens arc
37. The Clash Tightens, pt. 17 - reuniting Kai Girl and Circe
38. The Clash Tightens, pts. 18a and 18b - Introducing Dr. Xanith Epicoene and teir faunae friends with bonus Quentin Holte reference!
39. The Clash Tightens, pt. 19 - with further appearances by Quentin Holte and Padraig
40. The Clash Tightens, pt. 20
41. The Clash Tightens, pt. 21
42.The Clash Tightens, pt. 22, with bonus Doc Oblivion crossover
43. The Clash Tightens, pt. 23 - Introducing Eclipse and Platypus, with bonus Wheel reference!
44. The Clash Tightens, pt. 24 - featuring Heph and Achlis!
45. The Clash Tightens, pt. 25 - featuring Quentin Holte, 'Pet, and a cameo by Eclipse!
46. The Clash Tightens, pt. 26 47. The Clash Tightens, pt. 27 - featuring Quentin Holte, Wheel, Mariposa and the Junglefreak! 48. The Clash Tightens, pt. 28 - deviating over to a far-off kingdom, we introduce the Empress, the Consort and the Heir. 49. The Clash Tightens, pt. 29 50. The Planetary Guide to the New College of the Invisibles