Crown's hunters
Millenia-old calling
For as long as creatures roamed the night, hunters followed. The history of London itself is moulded by the hands of countless individuals working in the shadows. And though they never lived old, tragedies made for an endless renewal of fresh blood. It didn't take long for them to gather around and form hunting parties when London was nothing but several towns bordering the Thames. Strength is in numbers, and it has never been truer than when facing the unspeakable. For a time, these groups were small in size, mostly made out of family members, friends and the rescued victims. Quick to form, even quicker to disband or disappear. It was also at this time that the first Hunter families were born.
With little communication between them, those groups only ever shared circumstantial information between them, and most of it has been lost to time. The habit of writing bestiaries and encyclopedias appeared in the middle of the 11th century, and only in the most educated parties. It is around this time that we find the first traces of the Hunter's code, a sort of unwritten rule between hunters, edited by great hunter families of the time.
Hunter families
Lineages coming back up to the roman empire, hunter families give the hunt as a legacy to their descendants. They often have a family vault where they store relics and notebooks containing specific information never disclosed to anyone. Thanks to their centuries of existence, they have at their disposal a collection of assets even the Crown doesn't have access to.
The Foolish Three
From the late 16th century to the early 17th, some groups became more and more influential by gaining partisans at an unprecedented rate. The death rate of hunters lowered drastically and the night of London was almost clear, as even the eldest vampires were reluctant to show themselves and fight the newfound powers. Unfortunately, the three major groups were not seeking peace, but control over the streets. As soon as monsters became scarce, they turned against each other. Companions that yesterday fought side by side were now at each other's throats, led by the megalomania of their leaders.
Little by little, their number dwindled. Humans were nothing to veteran hunters that have been honing their skills to defeat beasts far stronger than them. Skirmishes were quick, silent and bloody. The sudden abundance of bodies overwhelmed the capacity of the city's funeral. As corpses filled with occult diseases and curses were left rotting in the streets, rats handled the task of getting rid of them, further spreading the illness. Being the cause of the Great Plague that wiped out a fifth of the population did not stop the belligerents. Their turf war culminated in the Great Fire of London, during which they had no one to fight but themselves and angry citizens. By the end of the catastrophe, both headquarters and leaders except for Harry Durman were consumed.
Shortly after, the underworld rose again and wiped the remnants of hunter organisations, resulting in a severe lack of manpower for the survivors. Being the only living accountable, Harry was tracked down by his former support and handed to the vampire families. A gruesome example was made out of him to dissuade anyone to federate the hunters again. The royal archives report this event with vivid details that are best left out here.
Royal Gathering
As both a declaration of war to the vampire aristocracy and a will to avoid another disaster like the Foolish Three caused, Queen Victoria founded a new order in 1840. She called for every hunter in London fighting against the dark beasts of the Abyss to rally under the royal banner and unite as the Queen's hunters. The hunter community was hesitant at first. The Crown never showed a big interest in them, and the vampire families were very powerful in political circles. This, in addition to the memory of Harry Durman's execution still carried as a warning, made them reluctant to approach this new organisation.
Eventually, the promise of payment, high-quality gear and formation won them over, one by one. Some of the eldest hunter families bowed to the Queen, and it was the trigger for a lot of smaller parties. Two years after the order was created, the Queen's hunters counted more than 2000 men and women bent on repelling the darkness of the night. Just like two centuries ago, the large-scale organisation of the hunters proved to be effective.
Unfortunately, humans are not the only ones to learn from their mistakes. During the dark age that followed the fall of the hunters in the 18th century, the night creatures grew stronger than ever. More resilient too. This new surge of counterpower was not taken lightly, and retaliation hit stronger than ever. Even though the death rate didn't lower this time, it is viewed as a lesser evil by most hunters who continue to follow the Queen's command. Now more than ever, siding with the biggest organisation is the best way to fulfil one's quest for vengeance.
Crown's hunters
The name of the organisation underwent a major change since its creation. It may not seem much, but was initiated by the Queen herself as someone prompted this question:
To who would the Queen's hunters' loyalty go, should the Queen suddenly die?
While it was badly regarded at the time, it raised a real issue: at the time, Queen Victoria was the only one supervising this small army of highly trained soldiers, and her life was threatened daily, by mundane and occult factions. She reformed the organisation, transferring the loyalty of the hunters not to her but to the Crown as a whole, and entrusted some ministers to overview the hunters.
Lone hunters
If the Queen managed to win over most of the hunters, she couldn't convince the resolute lone wolves. Many of them were part of hunter families and wished to maintain their independence, while others simply didn't want to rely on anyone. Rather than fustigate and ostracize them, the royal hunters decided to provide them with some degree of assistance, especially in dire situations.
These hunters experience a freedom that Crown's hunters, with tight schedules and duties, don't, but often find themselves short on money and hardly take care of their equipment. Their number greatly varies over the years, as they near eradication on a regular basis, especially since the Abyss is becoming increasingly hostile to hunters.
Recruitment process
When a bystander is rescued from their impending doom by a group of hunters, their life is changed forever. When that happens, they are offered a new career as well as the opportunity to get revenge on whatever caused them to fall into the Abyss. Tragic events are so common that it allows for a perpetual renewal of manpower. When in dire need of new blood, they will actively seek recruits of potential in asylums or jails.
When an unfortunate soul is made aware of the Abyss without the helping hand of a guide, they will go mad more often than not. Nobody would believe their crazy story about monsters lurking in the dark. In the best case, they will learn to shut up and keep what they saw to themselves, but in the worst case, they keep talking until they are interned or go on a killing spree. Hunters recruited this way have a tendency to be mentally unstable, and as such, they are only sought as a last resort.
Training
Novice hunters are not thrown into the battlefield without preparation. In fact, they undergo drastic training meant to maximise their chances of survival. First, they follow a theoretical course regarding history, creatures of the night and the occult. They are also made aware of the dealers they might encounter during their service. Of course, I am myself a topic of interest in their studies. I even taught a class about alchemy, several years ago. It turns out that teaching is very time-consuming, and that I am a poor professor. The course was abandoned the next year, and alchemy was deemed to not be essential to a hunter's knowledge.
Physical training is, of course, the main focus of the study. Strength, dexterity, and speed, need to be in top condition. Ghouls and weaker creatures are captured by seasoned hunters to train recruits in real-life scenarios where their teamwork, adaptability and ease with various weapons are also evaluated. Speaking of which, many tests have to be taken during the ten months of the training, once per month. There is no way of cheating during these exams, as everything is allowed. However, they only get one second chance each time. If they are not able to pass a second time even with all the tools at their disposal, then they are not cut to be a hunter and sent to an aftermath party.
Many fail that way, especially in the last two months often described as hell by aspiring hunters. Failure is hard to swallow after so much time spent on training. Young people in particular tend to reject the decision. Should they insist too much, they are expelled from the order and forced to prove themselves by hunting alone, with minimal support.
In the hunter's backpack
Tall figures in leather gear lurk in the dark alleyways of the city. Crown's hunters, when they are not hunting a specific target, patrol the night to get rid of anything threatening the peaceful day. To fulfil their task, they are given access to a wide range of accessories, only a few of them being mandatory
The gold insigna
Its design changed quite a lot over the years, as features were added or removed. Crafted by the royal forge masters, the intricate or angular shapes on the badge serve different magical purposes. From identifying the bearer as a royal hunter to magic detection, it is filled with minor enchantments and runic shenanigans.
Leather coat
Tailored from [tooltip:Dragonkin is an umbrella term for all lizardlike creatures of the night with either thick hide or robust scales. While not all are biologically related species, the property of their skin is alike. Note that the term dragonkin is correctly employed only when talking about protective material.]dragonkin hide, the signature coat of the Crown's hunter offers great protection against fire and acid while being resistant to tearing and shredding. Nothing as effective as metal plating, but down here the best defence is to avoid getting hit at all.
Knives holder
Small blades are always useful, as they have many uses. While the most obvious is stabbing others, the utility of such tools should not be understated. One blade often falls short, so most hunters carry multiple with them, with some models of coats able to carry up to twenty-four knives.
Elixir pouch
Most hunters carry flasks to accelerate wound recovery or coat their weapons with deadly poisons. Not every mix is brewed by yours truly, as I am a sole man unable to provide for so many people. The royal alchemists, although not as skilled as me, can make lower potions just fine.
Tools of the trade
Of course, the most distinctive feature of a hunter is their weapon. Firearms may have been groundbreaking in the business of human killing, they did not do much against creatures of the night. Such beasts don't break as easily as a human from a gun wound, and they are as slow as they are loud. Traditional weaponry doesn't fare better, as the damage they deal is not enough to vanquish their supernatural opponents.
Hunters have thus a history of handmade weapons obtained by piecing together blades and hammerheads. With access to the royal forge, old designs and pipe dreams became reality. If novice weapons are quite bland and unimpressive, seasoned hunters require tools tailored to their liking, suiting their fighting style. Saw-scythes, bladed maces and poison injectors are an integral part of the hunter's identity
Culture of secret
The Abyss is all about secrets, unsaid things and concealment. One of the first missions of the Crown's hunter is to keep it that way. Should the world of the night be revealed to the common folks, an unprecedented wave of panic would surge into the city as two incompatible populations collide. The consequences of such chaos would greatly weaken the country and the whole world would be at risk of collapsing. Thus, by Queen's order, the hunters can do anything they deem necessary to keep the secret. This goes from recruiting burdensome witnesses to silencing them while the constable conveniently looks away. In less drastic situations, it may lead them to borrow the might of royal sorcerers to fix the aftermath of a confrontation or bring the corpse of an abomination to a church to dissolve the remains.
Secrecy is so important to the hunters' duty that a special unit is rumoured to exist inside the Crown's hunters. Hardened veterans that have seen more than a human is able to handle form the Wolfpack, a team said to specialize in taking down rogue hunters. It is not to say that hunters aren't allowed to leave the order, but they have access to a quantity of information that makes them a liability to the nation's security. They tend to disappear shortly after their defection and resurface only as corpses or Ghouls.
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