The guy that started it all. Isaac Chroner was a boy-preacher who came to the small Nebraska town of Gatlin with a mission. To rid it of it's adult inhabitants and make way for the glorious coming of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. The original "giver of his word" took over after the children of Gatlin began to see him as a leader figure, following him into the corn and listening to his preaching of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. Eventually, the children completely converted to his way of thinking, and murdered their own parents at his will. He has good points, as well as bad. He's loyal to He Who Walks Behind the Rows, and follows his rules. Unfortunately, we see that Ike seems to get a little too power-hungry at the end, which causes his ultimate un-doing at the hands of his own God. (At least till COTC 6 comes out)
The second leader after Issac, Micah was a slightly different case. While Isaac obeyed He Who Walks Behind the Rows by his own free will, Micah was posessed by him in the cornfields. He Who Walks Behind the Rows forced his essence into Micah's body, split and destroyed the good that was in him, and replaced it with the seed of evil. Sly, and careful, Micah was a formidable leader and more then a match for anyone. Definately obsessed with completing the mission. He let nothing stand in his way. In short, Micah knew exactly what he was doing. He also brough Hemmingford's children to his will.
Eli is a strange one to describe. Though he has a connection to He Who Walks Behind the Rows, and definately serves his will, he's a different creature. Eli appears human, but is really a huge creature with tentacle-like claws and fangs. He does one better, as he spreads the evil that started out in Gatlin all the way to Chicago. He starts off turning a high school student population to almost-mindless drones, following the orders of He Who Walks Behind the Rows. He also carries a bible with him (though not Christian) which acts as his "other half". He's sort of like a worm, one half being his body, the other the book. So to destroy a worm, you must destroy both sides at the same time. He also has a half-brother, whose father adopted him when he was left orphaned. Of course, Eli murdered his parents by burning them alive (colorful imagination ain't it?) His brother, Joshua is very close with Eli. (or so it seems....)
Jociah was a boy preacher when he was alive. His mother abandoned him at a very young age, and he was taken in by a band of traveling preachers. Through some miraculous way, he learnt to preach as though it were in his blood. People came to hear him, and the preachers made money off of him. But they knew that to keep the people coming, and the money rolling, Jociah had to look as young as possible. So they didn't let him sleep, they fed him poison, and did everything to keep him as young as possible. Of course, all this torture made poor Jociah go insane. The preachers finally decided to sell his soul in return for his youth. Not being to able to take anymore, Jociah hacked them to death in the middle of the night. But people found out, dragged him out into the cornfields, and burned him alive. Jociah comes back later to avenge his death, and get his life back. The only way for him to fully come back however, is to find a child that was just as abandoned and lied to as he was, and sacrifise the child's life for his. He's obsessed with regaining his life, so that makes him pretty dangerous. He also has strong power over the children, which are like hypnotic.
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