Supernatural Factions

Many supernatural “kinds”—wizards, vampires, faerie, etc.—are considered to belong to their own supernatural nation under the Unseelie Accords. (However, given the differences between the Vampire Courts, and the differences between the Summer and Winter Courts of Faerie, there are several separate ”nations” of vampires and faeries.)

Here’s a quick run-down of the major factions in play.

(For further details on the nature of each of these types of beings, see What Goes Bump in the Night. For discussions of specific individuals, see Who’s Who in the Dresdenverse.)

The Roman Catholic Church

While many priests believe in the Devil, only a handful have accurate information on the Prince of Darkness, much less the various Vampire Courts or the Faerie Courts. The general attitude of clued-in people in the Church is that anyone involved with the supernatural is either evil or sliding that way, with few exceptions.

A scattering of priests, monks, nuns, affiliated laymen and others know and stand sentinel against the darkness. Few of them have any real skill with magic, but some have particular areas of knowledge or individual alliances with supernatural factions. For example, the Knights of the Cross (though their calling comes from a higher source than any mortal religion) is strongly associated with a faction within the Church, which provides what support they can for the Knights.

Mortals

Mortals aren’t a supernatural faction per se. But they are both prey and a threat (especially en masse) to many of the supernatural nations.

HARRY: We’re talking mobs of villagers with pitchforks and flaming torches here.

While more-or-less clueless to the supernatural shenanigans happening around them, hordes of mortals roused to action can be a danger to the supernatural nations. Before the beginning of the Vampire War, calling mortal authorities into an arcane fracas was akin to calling in an airstrike. After the Industrial Revolution, with the wide availability of steel weapons, guns, and ever more deadly technologies, the mortal threat upgraded to “nuclear” (literally!). For the past three hundred years, the supernatural folk have laid a bit lower than they had in the past.

Unfortunately, opinions on the dangers of mortalkind seem to be changing. Recent Red Court attacks in the Vampire War have killed thousands of unsuspecting mortals in the Third World with impunity. Furthermore, the rise of the entirely mortal  John Marcone to the status of Freedholding Lord has had some sort of ramifications among the supernatural set regarding mortalkind—

HARRY: My take is that, all of a sudden, mortals are now an even larger threat than before.

—but what those are exactly is as yet unclear.

Other Mortals

Clued-in mortals , werewolves, scions, and hedge wizards (especially the members of the Ordo Lebes) all play fairly minor roles in the overall supernatural situation. Most often, they are simply prey, targets, or obstacles to the larger and more powerful factions.

Sorcerers are often catspaws and pawns for the darker supernatural nations and Freeholding Lords. They usually don’t have enough oomph to stir up “international” trouble on their own.

On the other hand, big-time necromancers (especially powerful ones, like the Disciples of Kemmler) are individually a sort of “banana republic” in the overall supernatural nations schema. Given their power and undead legions, they cannot simply be controlled as sorcerers are. They are loose (powerful) cannons, which must be jostled into position or squelched, depending upon the larger supernatural factions’ aims and goals.

In two more weeks, you’ll have the White Council to deal with.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

General old world order, setting