Name: Han Lee
Age: Over 400; looks to be in his 20s.
Gender: Male
Species: Dragon
Appearance:

Abilities/Skills:
In human form he is slightly quicker and strong than most people.
He is a ‘jianke’ – a skilled swordsman with the Chinese Jian sword using a style of martial arts combat called taijijian – basically t’ai chi with weapons.
He can turn into a dragon. In dragon form he has incredible strength and limited invulnerability – most types of weapons will bounce off his shining skin, though enchanted weapons will still hurt him.
If flying as a dragon he can, when he chooses, cause a small storm (basically thunder and lightning).

Weakness:
He can only hold his dragon form for a short time and with the growth of lighting in cities has to be careful not to be seen. If he tries to hold this form too long, he will eventually revert forcibly back into his human form and collapse, exhausted.
He has a strange effect on technology: if he tries to use anything more modern than an electric lightbulb it will almost inevitably go wrong. His computer crashes with monotonous regularity, and his landline telephone is only borderline reliable; as for mobiles – forget it. He gave up driving almost as soon as he got a car (not only could the mechanic not fix it, he couldn't work out what was wrong with it).
he has a sense of responsibility that means he will put himself at risk to protect others.

Personality: Quiet, disciplined and soft-spoken. Han has an air of authority about him. Although often thoughtful and allowing others their say, he can be opinionated and stubborn. He may feel protective of some of the younger or weaker supernaturals he knows of. He has a very dry sense of humour, seldom noticed by those he meets.

Brief history/background: Han was born in what is now Nainjing province in China in the reign of the Emperor Yingzong (around 1440). Growing up in a poor peasant family, Han had no desire to work the land like his father and brothers. Visiting the nearest town, he quickly developed a taste for women, strong drink and gambling. He fell in with a bad crowd and ended up joining a group of bandits; the leader took a shine to the young man and taught him the basics of swordfighting. After he’d been with the bandits for a couple of years they made the mistake of attacking a monk, who turned on his attackers, killing most of them. He was eventually stabbed from behind by the bandit leader. Han, prompted by an impulse he didn’t understand, fought with the leader and killed him. The other bandits fled and Han turned to the monk, who was clearly dying. As Han held him the monk whispered words, presumably a prayer, and clutched at the young man. As the monk died, Han felt a terrible pain on his back, like a brand burning him and passed out. When he came to, he had the tattoo of a dragon on his back.
He soon found out this tattoo had a strange effect on him: he could no longer continue with his previous dissolute lifestyle; if he tried to indulge in drinking and whoring his back would burn like fire, and he could no longer turn his sword against innocent men – in fact, he found himself drawing his blade against his former friends – quite against his will; the dragon seemed to be controlling him.
In desperation, Han searched for other monks. It took a long time, but he eventually found their monastery. The monks explained that their murdered brother had clearly ignited the spark of goodness in Han’s heart and bestowed the dragon upon him – the dragon would not allow its human bearer to commit any evil act as it was the guardian of innocence. To live in peace with the dragon soul he now housed, Han would have to follow the path of righteousness. He stayed with the monks for many years, learning how to master the powers the dragon had given him, as well as learning how to use the sword and becoming a genuinely better person.
He travelled to Europe during the 1600s, accompanying some Europeans merchants. After passing through most of mainland Europe he arrived in Britain – he can’t remember the year, but it was during the end of Elizabeth I’s reign. What with one thing and another, he never went back.
Han works nowadays as an antique dealer, specialising in Chinese antiques. He used to be helpful in returning items the Europeans had ransacked from China back to his homeland, but has been reluctant to do so since the Cultural Revolution. Though it pains him, he’s beginning to think it’s better for an item to be preserved in the Metropolitan or British Museum where it can be viewed by all rather than being sent back to China to be held by some shady businessman who will lock it away in his vault.

Anything else: In his human form, his dragon form is shown as a tattoo on his back.

Name: Jessica (usually Jess or Jessie) Mackay
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Species: Selkie


Abilities/Skills:
Jess is capable of changing from human to seal (or seal to human) form using her magic sealskin.
As well as having all the usual abilities of a seal, she is a strong swimmer in her human form and able to hold her breath underwater for several minutes.
She’s a skilled dressmaker/tailor, whatever the correct term is – custom clothier is the one usually used.

Weakness:
If she ever loses her sealskin she’ll be unable to change and will be trapped in her human form.
She needs to swim at least once a week and eat fish several times a week to stay healthy.
Apart from her swimming, in human form she has no more abilities than normal humans.
In seal form, she can only swim in salt water, so she can’t live away from the sea.

Personality: She comes across as shy and withdrawn; amongst friends, or people she trusts, she’s slightly more animated and playful, even mischievous. She has a good eye for detail and is a conscious worker - she is passionate about her trade and can spend hours looks through second-hand clothing for anything to salvage and renovate.

Brief history/background:
Born to a family of selkies (human/seal shapeshifters) that originally lived in the Orkneys but travelled south and settled in the Scottish highlands. Although she was happy living the traditional life of a selkie, swimming with her siblings in either form, her gaze always wandered to the horizon and she wondered what lay out there. She enjoyed making things, and discovered she had a real knack for sewing. She started making items and repairing clothes, eventually making them from scratch.
She studied fashion at university before being offered an internship at Angels, the famous costumers working in their alterations department in Hendon. Although it meant leaving home, she knew it was a golden opportunity and accepted. She moved down to London and when her internship finished stayed on as a permanent member of staff for almost two years before leaving and going freelance. She now works as a custom clothier, making exclusive items to order. Her experience of working on fancy dress means that she can make clothing for the rather unusual demands other supernaturals may have without too many difficulties and can be guaranteed to be discrete. She’s fashioned her sealskin into a coat that she wears all year round. It looks like suede or even velvet at a casual glance.
She lives in a flat on the edge of the Thames in Greenwich; the family clubbed together to buy a property in Southend on Sea in Essex. Members of her extended family will sometimes come to visit her and use the property as a holiday home, swimming with the normal seals that can be seen on the nearby Foulness or Wallasea Islands.

Anything else: her seal form is a grey seal. Don’t mistake her for a common seal – she hates that. And don't ever ask her if she can balance a ball on her nose.

Name: Aibhlinn (pronounced Ave-leen; she introduces herself as Evie) Brennan
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Species: Human (part banshee)



Abilities/Skills:
When she sings any traditional Irish songs, she raises ghosts that she can command. Other people may see these ghosts as a vague mist or just feel a coldness as the ghost floats around them. Evie can see them, the more recently dead the clearer - ghosts that are more than several hundred years old are only a human shaped blur. She can't hear them, but can sense how powerful they are. All of them will scare normal humans, who will want to get away from them. The stronger ghosts can be ordered to attack people. These attacks are more psychic than physical – a victim may feel a terrible coldness as though their heart or brain has been squeezed by an icy hand; this will stop most would-be attackers in their tracks. If they persist, the ghost will use a stronger form of the same attack that will hurt people - presumably they could even be killed this way, but it hasn't happened yet.
One ghost she often sees is that of a young woman in turn of the last century clothing. She thinks this is her great grand-aunt Kathleen. This ghost seems to regard her with familial affection and will attack anyone who threatens her.
If she gives a banshee scream she can drop everyone nearby to their knees in agony and make dogs howl; this will give her time to run while they’re recovering.

Weakness:
Apart from her voice, she’s a human – gag her and she can be dealt with as any other human.

Personality: Evie is cheerful, friendly and upbeat. She has quite a steady temper, but when goaded enough will explode. Energetic, she doesn’t like sitting around with nothing to do, and if she doesn’t have a guitar in her hands she’ll usually be drumming her fingers on any nearby surface; this habit has driven friends mad before now.

Brief history/background:
Born in Kildare in Ireland, Evie has one brother, Liam, who has almost ten years older than she is; she was only born after several miscarriages (hence her name, which means ‘longed for child’). Her enthusiasm and talent for music developed at an early age. She loved singing the old songs that her granny taught her, but when she hit puberty her banshee tendencies began to develop. Her granny insisted the blood of the fae had joined the family long ago, and she had inherited the talent from ‘poor, sweet great aunt Kathleen’ who had hoped to make her fortune in America, but had the bad luck to sail on the Titanic. The first spirit she ever summoned was of the young woman she believes is her great grand-aunt; she will appear if Evie sings more than a few notes and is a reassuring rather than a frightening presence.
At 16 she applied for and was accepted in the BRIT school in Croydon, a suburb of South London. She developed her talents and even though she sings material that’s a mix of Celtic rock-pop and folk to avoid summoning ghosts, she has dreams of being the next Mary Black (her personal idol).
She’s currently living in Camden, making a decent living playing live gigs in the many pubs in the area, working a couple of nights behind the bar of a pub and working on a stall in the market that she co-owns with a friend of hers selling general bric-a-brac.

Anything else: She’s friends with Jessie, having met the selkie when she was inspecting the vintage clothing in the market.