Name: Apprentice Josephine
Age: 19
Gender: Female

Weapon: Rakuyo, Repeating Pistol

Appearance:


Brief History: Who knows how long ago the Red Moon descended over Yharnam? Josephine certainly can’t remember when the night began, or why it has yet to end, or even if ‘day’ still exists. She was born to an average family of little note, living in fear when the plague of the beasts began. Her parents made it no secret that she was not her child - not like her younger brother and older sister. She was doomed to being both the middle child and only adopted one. She could get away with anything she wanted as long as she didn't inconvenience any of the other family members. This was more a curse than a blessing. She grew up without any semblance of routine or discipline, but was firmly chastised if her parents' respective plans were disturbed by her wishes or actions. Reginald, her brother, never quite understood why she was treated so differently, being too young to know why blood relation meant so much more in a world where blood was the source of destruction and decay. Josephine always thought him wise beyond his years - a boy who could have changed the people, even if he was too frail to fight beasts.

The first significant memory she has, for her childhood was more than a disappointment, is opening her eyes, staring down the maw of a Scourge Beast. Her rags were tattered and every part of her body throbbed in agony. The weight of the wolflike beast’s front paws weighed down heavily on her shoulders as saliva began to douse her top. She closed her eyes, ready to accept the gruesome death that seemed imminent.

And in the next moment, the creature was tackled away and lying on the ground, lifeless, with its head still rolling for a couple of feet. Josephine blinked, her eyes fixed on the corpse as it twitched only once or twice before falling completely still. Standing over it, she saw the back of a man, holding a macabre, ornate katana. It was dripping in blood, but Josephine had the eerie feeling that it wasn’t only Scourge Beast blood. Did they really still exist? The hunters and huntresses who actually fought for the people? Josephine had never seen one before, she thought they were myths, that blood had addled them all.

The Master Hunter, Edmund, took her to his/her workshop, which was adorned with weapons and clothes and arcane items – none of which Josephine knew how to use or hold. She wouldn’t be the only new apprentice, but she’d be one of the only two who excelled so quickly. The young apprentice took to the Hunt like a fish to water, learning how to use a few weapons, but she fell in love with a weapon that The Master said was also wielded by the great warrior Lady Maria, a renegade who left the Vilebloods behind at Cainhurst Castle. On her left hip, she carries a Repeating Pistol, but she still feels like she has a long way to go before she can be called a real Hunter.

When, months later, she finally confided in him how her foster parents had treated her, Edmund's eyes seemed to flash with momentary anger and pity. Although she was not raised abusively, her childhood had certainly been neglected, and she still knew not of her parents. Since the day that she was led back to the man's home, Josephine has not seen or heard from her parents. Truth be told, she's rather grateful for this.

She, along with Kael, become one of his star pupils, though it seemed their training was more rigorous than some of the others'. Was it simply because they were young and held so much potential?

Name: Master Hunter Edmund
Age: 50
Gender: Male

Weapon: Chikage and Hunter's Pistol

Appearance:


Brief History:

How long has he been fighting the beasts for? 20 years? 30? In the eternal darkness of the unending night Edmund has long since lost count.
Having arrived to Yharnam all those years ago in hopes of helping extinguish the plague he has never left, in near constant battle against man and beast alike. What was meant to be a simple excursion turned into an adventure filled with battles unlike which he could ever imagined, defeating foes which many could only dream about. He'd traveled to every end of the world seemingly, always trapped within the Nightmare. Every battle seems almost meaningless as every beast he slays two more seem to rise and take their place. There is no end to the chaos that the Nightmare has unleashed, and if he ever hopes to escape its clutches he needs to find a means of ending it.

Defeating the Nightmare and bringing an end to it is no job for any single man, this much Edmund knew. In hopes of finding allies in his cause he set out further than he had ever gone before, traveling to the furthest reaches beyond Old Yharnam. It was here that he would find his staunchest life-long ally in Lady Maria, atop the Clocktower dutifully defending her post. Their first meeting was... Less than keen. In a fight that nearly saw the Clocktower destroyed he managed to calm the proud woman and explained his position, an idea that at first she laughed at. For who in their right mind could hope to do what Edmund preached? The idea must have grown on her however as before long she came to him and offered her support, albeit tentatively. To end the Nightmare and free themselves would require feats which seemed impossible to achieve yet they had to try, for it was better than continuing on as they had been.

In order to bring about their goal they would need yet more help. To this end Edmund and Lady Maria both searched for survivors young and old who were willing to take up arms and fight back the scourge. Had it been any other Hunters they might have been scoffed at and turned away but by this time anyone alive knew of their prowess, and many agreed to take part. Yet not all that were chosen were effective Hunters and indeed many failures set back their plans initially. Their best recruits happened to be the youngest of the groups, and none were more effective than Josephine and Kael. Though they were but children when Edmund took them in they were quick to take up the life of Hunters and showed great promise. It would still be some time until they were ready to fight on their own. They were the future though, of this Edmund had no doubt, and with others like them his dream of bringing the Nightmare to and end may be realized.

Name: Apprentice Kael
Age: 18
Gender: Male

Weapon: Simon's Bowblade

Appearance:


Brief History:
"We are born of the blood. Made men by the blood. Undone by the blood." Not exactly the most uplifting ideas for a child to grow up with. This was the reality in which Kael grew up however and these words were eerily common for him and his fellow Yharnamites. The blood was meant to help people, to cure illnesses and impairments and make the old young again, this was what they had been taught growing up. Yet as the saying went blood was anything but a godsend and more of a curse as it would lead to their people's demise. Partaking in the blood would lead men to become beasts, good men grew crazed and bloodthirsty and slaughtered one another, and sometimes their own family. On the night that the Blood Moon appeared the chaos began and it has still yet to cease.

Like many others Kael had grown up in obscurity, neither rich nor poor and the eldest of three children. Like other children his age he went to school, had friends, he helped around the house and planned one day to take up his father's trade of hunting. Their lives had been relatively tranquil despite the Blood Moon looming over them. Incense managed to keep the beasts at bay and what few Hunters remained took care of any who dared come too close. Yet with no outside supply of incense their own lanterns would inevitably dim, and with each light that faded the beasts encroached further and further. No one went outside anymore except for necessity, and even then only if it was absolutely crucial. One by one families and houses around them experienced the horrors of the Blood Moon. Family members were lost to the beasts or joined their numbers, those who ventured out to try and fight back the plague never returned, and families which were once close became strangers and isolated themselves from one another.

Kael's father was the first to go, slain while out hunting for food. He had been largely detached from that death though and only heard of it in passing, a strange blessing in disguise. He would lose his mother and his two younger siblings then and their deaths he would have to bear witness to, and it would come at the hands of his very own father. Lost to the beasthood his father tore them to ribbons and would likely have done the same to Kael if not for an opportune intervention by a Hunter. In the blink of an eye his mutilated father was cut down, sliced in two by the Hunter's sword. With his entire family slain and the world collapsing in around him he'd nowhere to go and may soon have given himself to the beasts, if not for the Hunter's offer.

"Join me and learn to fight the beasts. Don't let their deaths mean nothing."

So he did. His time was spent largely as a hollow shell, shambling mindlessly through training. Even so he showed promise and with a new lease on life vigor returned and Kael took to his new life with enthusiasm. Alongside Josephine he was one of Edmund's best students, taking up an iteration of Simon's Bowblade for his own. He would do whatever he could to help curb the beasts and bring an end to the Nightmare, he owed that much to his family, and to himself.