As I work on the human characters, I’m also developing monster hunting organizations! First off— the ones with the dogs.
The Graveyard Houndsmen are a primarily rural brotherhood, formed to deal with ghoul outbreaks centuries ago. While not a strictly religious order, their work is highly ritualized and most of their traditions are safety rules turned into superstitions.
The Houndsmen adopt and breed dogs that have survived attacks by ghouls near graveyards, unknowingly breeding for resistance to the blight of the undead while believing the animals themselves to be supernatural— church grims. Because these dogs are often strays, the breeding lines vary wildly in traits.
The members of this order take vows of chastity and refuse to see doctors, as they are virtually all infected with the undying plague, the poorly-understood magical phenomenon that turns the dying into ghouls. The curse is in the blood and can be sexually transmitted or passed to a child that is conceived by them. (Some houndsmen exploit a loophole by having non-reproductive sex with each other, though. Don’t be a snitch, the head of the chapter doesn’t need to know.)
Because the order is a lifelong commitment, Houndsmen give up their family names, all using “Grim” as a surname. The majority of them are men, but women are not banned from the order unless they have living children.
gummygunk
blakekathryn
germansingergirl
