Lore sensitive post. This is your one and only warning not to potentially spoil yourself.
Big D’s adventure meeting at least one were-wolf concluded not by defeating it, but through fucking one.
Werewolves in World of Darkness will often choose breeding partners among mortal humans based on their virility, character and skill.
We know that Big D has been around, gets around, and is prone to marry and divorce people at a whim.
I submit to you, Big D did not necessarily defeat the werewolf he met via trial by combat. He charmed the pants off of them. Big D likely has at least one were-wolf child. Be it a daughter, or son.
And given the parallels and analogues to WH40K, there’s more than one wolf among his sons. Lunar Wolves, The Vulka Fenrika/Space Wolves, and the World Eaters are often depicted as stray, violent dogs.
The Changing Breeds would be all over Big D, honestly. Because that’s how they get down. I don’t think they’ve told him everything about what they’re about- it sincerely sounds like he can get close enough to make guarded small talk and fuck but his comments about them, “Fighting a war we barely understand,” leads me to conclude he either knows and doesn’t want to talk about it, or doesn’t know shit. Their cosmology would scare Kitten a bit much for now, methinks. Especially given what we all suspect Kitten actually is.
But mark my words. Kitten either has a lost love in the ocean, or will have one.
These are spoilered. If you don’t know World of Darkness games, these may not mean much to you. And, actually, this is kind of self-indulgent. These speculations are just put here to look them up later and see how accurate I was about them. If at all.
The subject of Big D.
I think Big D is a mortal, but he is a product of a bunch of Mages, Dreamspeakers in particular, combining their efforts to create a perfect man. His family tree includes members of Werewolf or general fera kinfolk, Fey kith, Dhampirs from misc. Eastern European and Meditteranian family lines, the works. Big D is born in just the right proximity to just the right combination of people to have his foot in many different pies and reap the benefits and privileges of all of them. In true Emperor of Mankind fashion.
He has advantages when operating in most every possible supernatural field, having an absolutely disgusting assortment of Supernatural merits, probably with as few flaws as possible, and his stat block is probably as many 6/5s as can be minmaxed into existence as he can reasonably and just on the opposite side of unreasonably, get.
We’re including exotic and absolutely ridiculous shit like possible Dhampir/ghouled disciplines that he uses vampire blood to maintain his vitae powers on. Which would mean he may have a good 5 in vampiric Blood Sorcery countermagick. That means, that ole Tremere Kevin was better off using a knife than trying to resort to blood sorcery. Hilariously. It’s not a guarantee that Big D has Anti-Thaumaturgy, but I’d bet on it. That can make the difference between being able to use thaumaturgy to compel a person, and just alerting them that you’re there.
This also means Big D is likely in relationships with many Wraiths/Geists. They aren’t his minions, but being able to speak to angry ghosts (ones interested in speaking to the living) helps one understand where to go, what to do and if not why, at least, how to get there. He has ways to get around having no living contacts or leads to clues- just ask the dead. And it also means he may have some wraith allies just waiting to go angry fuckshit.
The problem we get into is under normal circumstances, one cannot be an Imbued (Hunter) and a Mage at the same time. Under normal circumstances. If Big E is running this game he may have just fudged it because DMPC type shit. And of the two, I’d say Big E comes off as more a Mage than a Hunter. But I’m not ruling out he’s a thrall of an actual Demon, like from Demon: The Fallen.
He may also just be a Sorcerer. What’s the difference between a Mage: the Ascension mage, and a sorcerer? The Avatar. The familiar. Mages have an Avatar/Familiar that is a weird spooky personal totem type thing that is their connection to True Magick. It allows them to impose THEIR view of all of reality and creation on basic reality- which is implied to have already had a creator. So, mages impose their will upon something that was already willed into creation.
Sorcerers do not have Avatars/Familiars and are not Awakened. They’re just supernaturally learned mortals that can learn holistic paths to invoke the supernatural parts of the world to operate how they should. This is a more natural and limited path that is nowhere near as boorish and vulgar, but nowhere near as versatile or powerful. It’s limp dicked by comparison, but can do more amazing things than nothing at all.
So I’d wager whether from his Dreamspeaker associates using their True Magick, his Zoanthrope Kinfolk (non-transforming, non-shapeshifting, usually otherwise mortal with a smidge of supernaturality to them of were-creatures. Their support structure), his fey allies, Big D is versed in the ways of Spirit, Mind and Matter.
I’m not ruling out a Marauder, either. Marauders are Mages that have gone mad and for all intents and purposes are just avatars of chaos and disruption incarnate. He’s insane and by the nature of his connection with the cosmos, so long as he’s operating on the cosmos’ behalf (unconsciously), his blowback from Paradox is deflected onto other people. So his punishment and penalty for operating True Magick is a slap on the wrist compared to a singular True Mage.
Just. What I’m getting at here is Big D is a complete and utter monster of a human being and his stat sheet probably looks like someone filled out every multiple choice question in all boxes on the test or completed their character’s gold bars in Disgaea. Just, the highest possible stats he can have.
Also he confirmed he knows a god damned MUMMY. HOLY FUCKING SHIT OF ALL THE THINGS IN WOD YOU DO NOT WANT TO FIGHT A MUMMY. EVER. But he apparently made friends with it so. Yikes. Just, yikes. I pity the dude that has to deal with Big D’s Ride Or Dies if he ever passes because that’s just asking to get a whole assed pyramid dropped on your head.
What I think his ultimate fate will be is he takes an absurd amount of Aggravated damage and winds up a catatonic vegetable bound to the Golden Goose, cared for by Kitten.
The Subject of Markus.
I predict really bad things happening to Markus. Given that we can assume some analogousness to Magnus in Emperor TTS, we know Markus is a studious and scholarly person that loves arcane knowledge. This, in 40K, gets in him trouble. A lot.
It’s Magnus’ breach of the Council of Nikeah that winds up destroying Big E’s project to enable travel through the warp by using elven webway gates. He winds up going on a visionwalk, getting stuck in the warp, tempted by Tzeentch, foretold of a horrible future event happening involving another of his brothers betraying his father, passing through a barrier to escape the warp and return home, and in the process unleashing daemons upon the collective psyche of all of mankind and heaven.
So how could that translate to WoD? Well. Magnus not knowing enough and resulting in an absolute monster escaping containment, partially because Big D neglected to tell him anything, has already happened. So I’m not sure if things will progress quite the same way.
But supposing Magnus wound up taking a similar path- falling to Chaos. In WoD terms, I have a difficult time seeing Magnus going vampire. Unless he’s embraced to be a Tzimisce or Gangrel or something and then pursues Blood Sorcery. But that just seems like such a waste.
I think it’s more likely Magnus will discover he’s either kith to Trolls, Redcaps or kinfolk to Fianna were-wolves. And then he’ll fall to the Wyrm- the badguys in Werewolf games.
Big D did ask if he, “has always had spider eyes.” I sincerely doubt he’ll go Ananasi/Were-spider. But.. I’m not ruling it out.
What I think will be his ultimate fate is either he gets corrupted by Wyrm taint as a mortal, and Bane after Bane possesses him until his body is effectively no different from how it appears in WH40K. Very tall, red as fuck, missing an eye, able to manifest sorceries (likely, spirit Charms), and more spirit than mortal being.
To be Tainted by Banes would explain his fluctuations in height, the Rage, the sorceries, even the red flesh, wings (feathered or not) and even the war-form.
The subject of Kitten.
I mean. At the very least I suspect he’s kinfolk to Bastet (were-cats.) And I can’t help but suspect he’s part of the Ceilican breed. The fey-cats. Smaller, basically were-housecats. Very often friends of European witches and sorcerers.
I’m inclined to believe he’s at LEAST homid/human born, because he was childhood friends with Markus. But I do not know. He refuses to show his face or skin, but he’s very clearly patriotic and British. Though he’s canonically a slightly browner shade than would be the norm for Britain. Perhaps Arab, or South/East Asian.
But supposing he was a were-cat, perhaps skulking about in a human enough form to pass but also maintain some advantages of his forms, I’d rule out the following tribes/breeds:
He’s not tall or heavy enough to be a Khan/Were-tiger. Nor is he likely Pumonca, Balam, Qualmi, or Simba. That leaves Ceilican (fey-cats of Europe), Swara (were-cheetah), Bubasti (kyphur). Bagheera is a possibility, but I’m not holding my breath.
I would say Bubasti.If Kitten were Egyptian, that would explain a lot about his aesthetic. Perhaps with some flaws that give him an unsightly appearance.
The Subject of Door:
I mean. I think Door is either a Mage or a Hunter. And I veer towards Mage. He just doesn’t know he’s doing anything magical. But he clearly can make things absolutely ridiculously strong for their components.
The Subject of Boy:
I think Door may have either adopted Boy or be his biological father, but I’d wager Door adopted Boy. And I believe Boy is either a 15th generation thin blooded vampire, or a Dhampir.
There’s at least one bloodline of vampire that can’t get nourishment from just blood. They have to eat flesh or they start to rot. I’m willing to bet this is not true of boy, but it’s a possibility.
I think Door adopted Boy after killing at least one thin-blooded parent of his. A vampire so weak and thin-blooded they can carry babies. The creators of Dhampir. He felt bad about it. Boy is his penance and a reminder that perhaps not every single vampire is a corpse or inherently monstrous.
