There are terrible things in the world, horrid, lurching things that stutter and quiver in pale nights and dream of times when all was chaos, untamed and not unbroken, for there to be a shattering there must be a whole. When creation was solidified in the void of everything, many such things were trapped or entreated to enter, touching the world with their pulsating limbs and corrupting what they encountered, their gibbering forms roiling through creation and leaving a wake of chaos. They possessed no conscience, for such things had no need of a conscience, lacking any of the fundamental drives of life, for they dwelled far beyond them.

To some, they may have seemed like gods. Dark, uncaring gods whose passage meant death or madness, but gods nonetheless. Many ancient cultures worshiped gods to keep them away, while others hoped that whatever terrible things their gods might visit upon the world would strike them first, that they would not have to live through the torment their madness would bring. To others, they might have seemed as demons, knowing only destruction, but this, too, is merely the behavior of the primitive mind attempting to fathom that which lacks the most simple directives of the brain.

Many slayers went about in those days, hunting down these things and casting them out, preventing their arrival, or sealing them away. Some were too powerful for one person to seal, even with all the backing of creation behind him. Such was the case with the Unnamed One, a being with such apathetic malevolence that the mere act of gazing upon it was said to bring madness to the most hard-hearted of men and women.

The knight Percival Wakeman was a member of a small army meant to drive the horror from the land, succeeding only in weakening the terror for a short time. In desperation, his sister cast the spell of binding drawn from the cerulean sign and locked the Unnamed One within herself, using her own body as the binding stone. Knowing that only a short time would remain to keep the creature bound, Percival went about the land, seeking an answer to the temporary solution when a witch in the frozen lands offered him a more permanent one. Unto each generation of his family twins would be born, like he and his sister. The seal would be given to the next woman in line and the man must go forth and father a new set of twins.

So it went for generations. The Wakeman family was granted a small section of land, becoming prosperous and then fading into obscurity as the knowledge was buried and forgotten. Now, the Wakemans own a small trading company that operates shops in four cities and keep mostly to themselves, maintaining ties with a few churches here and there, specifically the higher clergy, keeping the truth of the seal from most of the members.

Or so the story goes.

However, one cannot keep a powerful thing contained forever, no matter what it is; over the ages, the seal has started to “rub off” as it were, and bits of the Unnamed One have begun to leak through. With the current generation, one Lillie Wakeman has inherited the seal, and during the re-binding process, the family was interrupted, and one corner of the Unnamed One's cage broke open, a mere sliver of a slip, but certainly enough to reach out and begin prodding the seal. Unfortunately, it reached out into the child's dreams and found itself stuck fast. The two were now glued together, swiftly becoming one, each suddenly aware of the other.

The child slowly drifted into adulthood, and a child's dreams became a young adult's. The entity itself, the Unnamed One, began to feel pangs it never had during this time, learning of things as despair and hope and pain and pleasure. Tempered by the human mind, the inhuman entity had begun to develop things it never had even known before, growing something no such creature had: a conscience and ambition.

Miriam Wakeman: Previous holder of the Unnamed One, Miriam is now married and a much more calm woman than she was. Still, here eyes are partially sunken and her lips constantly tug at the corners of her mouth, and even when she sits unmoving her body twitches involuntarily. She has borne a child with her current husband and raising her son has been a great help in allaying her own madness, which has reduced to only those minor tics and expressions. Her husband is the owner of a general store in a rather large city, and uses the urban life to steady herself.

Carter Wakeman: Lillie's father and a tired man in his late 30s, Carter is a rail of a man, spindly, but with thick hands and a beak of a nose perched on uncertain cheeks. He is a kind man, if only in that he was forced to see after the madness his sister developed as the Unnamed One rattled the cage bars throughout her life. He oversaw the transference when his daughter was born and personally disposed of the thief who had so rudely interrupted the family during the transfer. He currently wishes that his daughter retains what seems to be a frightening semblance of sanity and intellect. He does have a fear stemming from the fact that his daughter hasn't seemed to have aged in the past few years, but wants to wait another few years and see how things pan out.

Cheryl Randolph-Wakeman: Having married into the Wakeman family, Cheryl is not pleased that her first daughter was given the Unnamed One to contain. She is not certain, due to her sister in law's behavior, how different her child is, but becomes more and more distraught as she continues to have sons.

Brandon Wakeman: Lillie's twin brother is a broad boar of a man with heavy arms and a loping brow, but a more erudite man the world may not know. He currently manages many of the economical aspects of the family while maintaining a good business relationship with several merchant guilds. He has not married, and his mother constantly eggs him on about it, wanting to do her best to speed up the process. He maintains a very calm demeanor through most of her urging and the madness of his work, being largely soft spoken when not with family, but still stern and unforgiving to those who would try to take advantage of or cheat him.

Jacob Wakeman: Lillie's younger brother is still attending school, and is known for the delinquent behavior that comes standard with children.

Chadwick Wakeman: Lillie's infant brother's hobbies include babbling incoherently, stacking things, pissing, shitting in a diaper, and the occasional vomit.

Richard Wyatt: A friend of the family for many years, Richard was sheriff of the city in which the family dwelled for some time. When Lillie was ten, he discovered her perched on an outcropping overlooking one of the city walls, and he engaged her in conversation far too intellectual for a child of her age. He subsequently looked for the family's past, and discovering the truth behind what she held inside her flesh, became fearful of what mind happen should that seal break. He aims to find some way to cast both girl and monster from the world before something “terrible” happens. Unfortunately, he can't seem to get anyone to believe him, not even the local clergy or the family itself.