Skye is driven, sharp, and uncompromising, shaped by a harsh childhood in Dublin and a rough start in London. Raised without the safety net of a solid family, she learned quickly that the world wasn’t kind to those without power. By sixteen, she’d started making her place in London’s underbelly, first as a worker and eventually as a savvy businesswoman. Now the owner of The Moth & Lantern, Skye has turned her brothel into more than just a means of survival — it’s a stepping stone to bigger things. She values loyalty above all, especially from those closest to her, like her brother Eoin, though their relationship is complex. Skye doesn’t leave room for weakness or sentimentality; everything she does is calculated, and she’s determined to climb higher in the world, no matter the cost.
Nathaniel Blackwood
Tall, dark, and imposing in his presence, Nathaniel Blackwood is a furnishing undertaker who has taken over his role in the family business and is currently on a venture to further solidify their enterprise’s name in the professional London scene.
Giovanni De Mura
Giovanni was born in Naples and came from a poor background. His father was a foundry worker, and his mother a seamstress. Giovanni started out as a street singer. At 22 he made his stage debut in Naples, and lived for a few years the life of a starving artist, traveling around Italy and Portugal and earning very little. His voice grew in power and weight as he aged, and at the age of 29 in Milan he met an opera manager from London who, after hearing him sing, engaged him for a six season contract with the Royal Opera. In London, Giovanni suddenly finds himself very successful – for the first time in his life, he has money, fame and recognition. Whether or not he can survive the allures of success remains to be seen.
Ippolita Celetti
Prima Donna Ippolita Celetti has risen to international fame for the unmatched quality of her lyrical voice. Both her parents were opera singers from Sicily, and she spent her entire life traveling the stages of the world. Despite being of Italian heritage, she was born in Spain and spent most of her youth in New York, where she debuted at 16 years of age. She performed at 18 for the first time in Covent Garden and saw such grand success that she chose London as her base and purchased a house there. Then she went on to conquer the European continent, performing in Paris, Vienna, and St. Petersburg, and becoming an idol. Her voice is known to move tsars, kings, and generals to tears. She is business-savvy and demands extravagant fees. She is at the height of her fame, and it is rumored that she is set to marry a marquess.
Lisette Berwald
The famed “Swedish nightingale” Lisette Berwald is a star soprano opera singer. She resides in London, and will do so for at least the next two seasons. Her performances at the Royal Italian Opera have been met with rave reviews and much acclaim by critics and laypeople alike. Born in Sweden, she was discovered for her extraordinary voice and has been a court singer in Sweden and Norway, followed by engagements in Berlin and Vienna, where she was mobbed by admirers and received by royals. Now in London, she has secured the most lucrative deal of her career – but fate is capricious and past struggles with vocal damage may (or may not) come back to haunt her.
Jacob Smith
More widely known as Mr Forsythe, Jacob Smith is an illegitimate son of the late Marquess of Sligo, a medium, a performer, and a charlatan. Utilising his knack for acting, he targets wealthier relatives of recently departed and strives to make them depart with their fortunes as well. A person of dubious morality, he is out for himself and his closest associates. Jacob is determined to make his séances more popular while not getting caught.
Joseph Warrens
Only the best of the best survive the harsh streets of Whitechapel, and Joseph Warrens has long since proven himself among those ranks. Born and raised in the poverty-stricken and dangerous streets he would later police, Joseph has a keen understanding of the woes and challenges that the people of his jurisdiction face. He spent his entire career in Whitechapel, and now has risen to the rather unenviable position of superintendent over Division H of the London Metropolitan Police. He is responsible for every success and failure of his men, and with the unique challenges Whitechapel offers, it’s often more failures than successes. While he is fiercely loyal to his men and fiercely protective of the streets that are his to protect, he has long since learned to play the bureaucratic games that his position requires. While his integrity (such as it is) has mostly remained intact, it has not made him the most popular of the Met’s superintendents, and the political aspects of his position also mean that he isn’t the most popular with his own constables, either. Still, Joseph puts the work and the people of his jurisdiction first, and will continue to do so until death takes him or he is relieved of his position.
Queenie Kirkham
Orphaned at age five by the death of an ill mother she cannot remember, Queenie has never known more than a life of hardship. Her older sister, Cat, did whatever needed to be done to keep the both of them off the streets, jumping from brothel to brothel to keep a roof over their heads. Queenie didn’t argue when she became old enough to sell her own body, but she and Cat have been plying their trade for a decade at The Gun, and the pull of the associated Black Powder Gang has been stronger than Cat’s warnings. In addition to her brothel work, she acts as a courier now for Rosie Wilkes, earning a reputation but no coin, and has grand ambitions to pull herself and her sister out of prostitution forever.
Rhett Fitzroy
The Duke of Grafton is the best friend and worst enemy one could ever have. He is married to the love of his life, but that does not prevent him from considering other options within reason. He is a precocious man who loves roses, politics, and fencing. The Duke is willing to offer his expertise in all three, often picking and choosing his battles on the last two without provocation.
Cat Kirkham
Orphaned at age ten when her mother died from consumption, Catherine “Cat” Kirkham has spent most of her life scrabbling to keep herself and her younger sister off the streets. From early on, that meant selling her body, but she was lucky enough to land at The Gun brothel not long after it fell into the hands of Rosie Wilkes. There she could at least guarantee a roof over her and her sister Queenie’s heads and protection from the worst of her Johns’ abuse. But Cat knows better than most that nothing comes for free, and if she had fantastical notions of keeping Queenie from “the world’s oldest profession,” those withered long ago.