The Hunters sort of have their own religion, I never bothered giving it a name but it’s your standard monotheistic religion, they don’t have any special rules or weirdo rituals, it’s just something the community usually believes in but new blood and the newer age tend to be more open toward different religions and some of them bring that stuff in. The main characters I use, though, aren’t terribly religious but is something they grew up with (so they sort’ve have that “Well… I think there is a god but I don’t know anything about my religion and don’t much care for it.” thing going on).  

Claire practices Claireism. (She thinks she is God, in a way).

I’ve mentioned that Veene used to believe in a higher power (and entertained the idea of higher powers, plural) but doesn’t think there is a god or many gods anymore, or that, if they are, they’re just creatures like him. Nothing truly special. 

I had a character who was Zoroastrian but I don’t remember who it was anymore (whoops).

Wesha’s time has a bunch of different religions and deities, she’s too busy viewing the past and the future to be bothered much with it herself but it does come into her interactions a fair bit.

And, yeah, I have a few spiritual characters.

But for the most part, no, religion doesn’t affect too many of my characters. Not significantly, at least, though, for some of them who are it does influence what they did or do and how they do or did things.

I guess the largest real family I’ve actually gone to sit down and create would be the Huthian family (and it’s off-shoots and relatives and what not). I was TOTALLY GOING TO SAY Veene’s family but his family isn’t “a” family it’s a bunch of families who aren’t really related except through him and are all SCATTERED THROUGHOUT TIME so I didn’t think it really counted.

The Huthians are a family of extremely well known monster/demon/supernatural-entity killers, they sort’ve hunt these things for bounties but the system is ridiculous and needs to be re-thought out. They’re set in a world similar to ours, modern day and everything, just with monsters and stuff (just the majority of the population doesn’t really know the monsters exist). Their family goes back, though, the Huthian branch itself was prestigious it (and few other families) were known for raising incredibly successful hunters and were (and still sort of are) the families everyone in the hunter community wanted to marry into. RICHES AND STATUS FYEAH.

Usually I only really think or focus on one of the modern families (Arro, Illya, their mother, Meginna, their father, Crestin, and their grandmother on Crestin’s side, Gratia as well as their vampire, Denre) but there’s another set of Huthians living elsewhere who never interact with that family, ever. Those Huthians are amazing hunters but they’re also completely ruthless and sort of think themselves above basic moral codes.

I’m going to get the rest horridly confused because I have it written out somewhere but I’m not entirely sure where “somewhere” is and I think about the rest of their family so little that I’m positive I forgot things.

SO.

On the lesser end of the spectrum of OMG AWESOME HUNTER FAMILIES they’re related to the Vithia family who aren’t so much hunters anymore and are more researchers (they look into faeries, mostly). Crestin used to keep in contact with them but since he died they haven’t been in touch. They’re never home much since they travel around a lot, but they have three kids who see their nanny as more of a parent figure then they do their parents (what they don’t know is that the nanny is a shape-shifter BUT THE CHILDREN KNOW and think it’s awesome even if she has weird habits as a result).

There’s two other families I forgot the names of and don’t really remember much about them but THEY DO EXIST.

And then there’s the Lavine family who are pretty much AVERAGE except not really. As far as other hunters are concerned their the equivalent of a “middle class” family, which they’re fine with. The kids (of which there are five) are all better hunters than they should be given their upbringing, in a way they have MAGICAL POWERS (except not really) which they’ve collectively decided has to be a result of the father none of them have ever met. Their mother swears he’s just busy and never comes home but loves them (she’s also failed to come up with a name for him that would align with a hunter family and not be suspicious) but then she tells her friends she was totally knocked up by an Incubus (her friends don’t believe her). They have a serious ghost/spirit problem at home since one of the kids just ATTRACTS benevolent spirits who wind up making a mess of things around the house.

OH there’s also the Shadewither family who CLAIM TO BE DISTANTLY RELATED TO THE HUTHIANS but aren’t, at all. Their eldest son, Itziin, was two years older than Arro and they were all “Yeah our boy will partner with yours and he’ll make sure Arro’s safe and stuff” and then Arro had to protect Itziin and on their second hunt together Itziin died and Arro was royally pissed off. The Shadewithers stopped claiming to be related after that.

I HOPE THAT MADE SENSE.

mrs-steph replied to your post: hey how did faetal meet cwestin?

doesn’t faetal hang around arro? or does he hang around denre and avoid arro? ALSO: how was crestin aware of faetal’s existence? how did faetal know about crestin???

No, Faetal will only hang around Arro if Denre’s around or if Denre left them together. He doesn’t seek Arro out and it’s only in recent years that he’s felt more comfortable around Arro and allowed himself to be in his presence (and this is significantly after Crestin’s death).

Faetal is buddies with Denre, they’re extremely close but while Denre was staying at the Huthian’s they didn’t speak as much since Denre would have to go visit Faetal since Faetal refused to come visit a bunch of filthy, untrustworthy hunters.

Crestin was aware of Faetal’s existence since he asked where Denre goes when he goes out (gotta make sure Denre isn’t eating people) and he told Crestin, vaguely, about Faetal. Crestin REALLY WANTED to meet Faetal but that never happened.

Faetal knows about Crestin because he and Denre talk about EVERYTHING together, which I half mean as a joke but it’s also true.

They didn’t. Crestin is aware of Faetal’s existence but Faetal absolutely refused to be anywhere near the Huthian’s or their kind until after Crestin’s demise. He doesn’t trust people and he trusts hunters even less.

Gratia is Crestin’s (Arro’s dad’s) mother. Their name, Huthian, is actually passed down from her side of the family, the man she married wanted to be associated with her name since he wasn’t from a super awesome hunter family so he went “DUDE LET’S KEEP YOUR NAME”. So that’s what they did.

She used to hunt monters, too, but she’s retired. She thinks it’s necessary there are hunters otherwise monsters would eventually RULE THE WORLD or just destroy humanity. She also thinks all monsters, no matter what, are evil and deserve to die. Part of why she’s incredibly uncomfortable with Arro is because he’s so close with Denre, and she thinks her son’s death was a result of his naivety and trust in monsters (it had nothing to do with him trusting monsters).

She’s been teaching Illya how to hunt, but she also teaches her WOMANLY SKILLS like cooking and sewing (but she teaches it in a more survival-way instead of a please-your-husband way). They’re pretty close, Illya really looks up to Gratia but sometimes they disagree on certain things.

Gratia doesn’t look as old as she is because she’s led a very active and healthy life. If you get close enough you can see the wrinkles in her hands and face suggesting age but you wouldn’t know it just by looking at her. She’s a small woman, petite but lean. Her hair’s black and hasn’t started to really grey, yet, there’s a few strands here and there but they’re pretty much unnoticeable. It used to be long but she’s cut it short to make it easier to maintain. She has the same black eyes Arro has and a bit of his attitude, too. THEY’RE BOTH INSANELY STUBBORN AND SARCASTIC. But she’s a little more quiet and reserved and doesn’t curse as much as he does.

Denre actually came to them because he wanted to learn more about the hunters (he wanted at their personal library). He approached them after Faetal said he’d heard Crestin was a whack-job who seemed to like monsters so Denre figured he’d give it a shot. Crestin was ecstatic.