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Filth abounds in the misted Appalachian Hills. There live a solitary people, living secret, solitary lives, and deep in their mountains dark creatures await. The Morrison line, once the Reynolds line and before that, who knows, has had its claws sunk into the black flesh of the land since the first winters that the white man set foot there. One dark-haired bitch, smarter than the rest, made a pact with the wet black dirt in exchange for power, and for survival. Lilach feeds the Hill blood and depravity and it protects her, and the poor frightened villagers gather around her strength so as not to be consumed by the frigid winter. They are unable to rebel against her, even as their children disappear in the night, sacrificed and then devoured by their patroness.
She lives, she rules with her darling little pigs rolling and grunting at her feet, sacrificing their children to her, and when she needs a successor, she takes one of their men and fills herself up, and so the line goes. An unwaveringly matriarchal coven blooms from the darkness. Women are most powerful, thus they are loved, feared, and obeyed.
The world outside the Hill continues on at the pace of progress into the modern day, but on the Hill, things remain very much the same, though corrugated metal shacks replace mud huts, gene pools grow shallow, and a collection of beasts begins to fill the basement beneath the large wooden house where the witch lives. More children are needed to feed them, and the poor, filthy peasants living at the witch’s feet are obliged to provide.
The line of the witches flourishes, roots sinking deep into the Hill for centuries. Eden Morrison and her siblings are the fifteenth generation of witches born to the filth.
The Morrisons:
Previously the Reynolds family, before that who knows. Momma Reynolds and Baby Bethlehem came from a long line of witches. Their blood is tied to the dirt of the hill they live on. Ensconced away in the mists of the Appalachian range, they are the rulers of a little kingdom. The surrounding hill folk worship and obey and obey them, and also don't protest when their children are stolen away and eaten: both by the witches and the hideous creatures they keep in the basement of their home. After Momma was devoured by the harpy Kitkun, Bethlehem was the last living member of the line. She eventually married Tallendi Morrison and had six children: Lehi, Adina, Helah, Eden, Ram, and Othniel. The most important goal to the Morrison family is to repopulate their line with outside blood, and to inevitably then withdraw completely back on to the hill and breed in their own madness. Traits of a Morrison are both dark hair and dirt-black eyes. Black eyes dominate in most, despite Tallendi's blue, but Othniel and his nephews Mattan and Havilah are blue-eyed. Even the most level of the Morrisons have a strain of madness in them, are actively bred to be as such: Adina's torture of her son makes even her sister nervous. The family is a matriarchal sect, all women answering to Bethle and Adina, and all men answering to women. There is a secondary hierarchy amongst the hyenas that run loose on the hill. Most active in the night, the Morrisons worship and give blood sacrifice to their hill and in turn, the hill protects them. With the entire family present, the Morrison hill is impregnable, no way in or out without their permission.
The brood mare. Youngest daughter, second youngest child, twin sister of Ram, she bruises easily and generally prefers not to be touched. As Adina and Helah both grew, it became more and more apparent that neither would have children forced upon them which left Eden to expand the line. Forced first to conceive with her twin brother, then her sister Adina's choice, Christopher Bonheur, and finally with her closest friend outside the family, Kelly Bridge. She has five children, the only one she fully consented to is her youngest. Eden is very emotionally and mentally distant from the world, often found wandering alone. She has no duties on the hill other than to bear children, and is left to her own devices the rest of the time. She has frequent nightmares about her first miscarriage, but has very loving relationships with all of her children. She has no hopes of ever leaving the hill.
Mother of Monsters. The absolute Matriarch of the Morrison family. Eden would never defy her, ever and Eden supposes that is love.
Father of Monsters. Her father, he loves all his children and doted on her accordingly. She does not resent him for not protecting her.
Uncle. Her father's best friend, a doting uncle. Eden is very sorry that he has been so hurt and angry. She wishes it were not so.
The eldest brother. Lehi has always looked out for his younger siblings. He is devoted to the family as a whole, he would never tolerate anyone trying to tear them apart. Eden knows he can always be relied on to help her, so long as it does not defy Mother.
The eldest sister. Adina has always known she is next in line. She manipulates and controls her siblings. She is to be obeyed as closely as mother. There is always love in their family, but Adina is emotionally cold to all. Power is her only meter.
The middle sister. Helah is closer to the beasts than the family. She spends little time with any of her siblings. She obeys Adina and Mother faithfully: coven is coven. She cares very little about what they inflict on Eden.
The youngest brother. The twins and Othniel have grown up in the same tight knit that their older three siblings did. Othniel has taken great pains to avoid their mother and Adina's attention. Othniel and Eden are confidants and best friends. She consents to a fifth child in order to be his lover's surrogate mother.
The twin brother. Ram has always known of his mother's intentions for his twin sisters. He resisted as long as possible, but was punished until his spirit broke. He resents his family, his father especially, for doing nothing to spare his sister. He and Eden are close as husband and wife and could never have a cold feeling for one another, though she cannot stand to have anyone but her children sleep in her bed with her.
Adina's choice. The first time Adina met Christopher she decided she wanted his blood in their line. Opposed to fathering children on Eden against her will, he eventually consented as he came to understand that he could protect the girl by putting claim on her. She went untouched for ten years while promised to him. He is always kind to her and Eden sometimes finds sanctuary at his home.
A friend. An unlikely friendship was built between Eden and Kelly, and eventually between Kelly and Othniel. Both Morrisons were immensely upset by Kelly's abusive relationship to Matthew White and as Kelly became more attached to Othniel, he consented to let the Morrison magic free him from his current life. The price was seed, which he was immensely reluctant to give after watching Eden suffer after her pregnancies. Their second child was conceived mutually after she offered to be a surrogate mother for him and her younger brother.
The pureblood. Forced to breed with her twin brother, Eden conceived Sapphira at the age of sixteen. The first attempt resulted in miscarriage, and the second gave her her first daughter. Built on blood and dirt and abomination, Sapphira is a powerful creature. She loves her family, has always been treated well by them, but recognizes them for the evil they are. She plots the murder of her grandmother, her aunts, and her cousin. Very much like her father, protective of her mother and her siblings.
The twins. Christopher's sons. Mattan and Havilah live with their father and have been spared much of the darkness on the hill. They both recognize their father's boyfriend, Reilly, as an influence in their life. The twins are very beautiful boys, the magic of the Morrisons and the dreamchasers balanced unexpectedly well in them. They are coveted desperately by Bethle and Adina, and so they are not on the hill so often as they would like, but they visit their mother and she visits them. Such good boys.
The girls. Kelly's daughters. Qetzi'ah (known as Cassia by Kelly) was the price charged to Kelly by Bethle in exchange for his freedom from Matthew White. Kandake (known as Candace by Kelly) is the child agreed upon by himself, Othniel, and Eden. Both girls recognize all three as their parents. The elder Qetzi'ah is a quiet but vibrant thing with a taste for herbology, while the younger Kandake is a born leader, chafing in the Morrison hierarchy. Their father tries to protect them from the Morrison madness, but he has no power on the hill.
Adina's only lover. Eden has no desire to ever cross paths with him, occasionally it is unavoidable.
Adina and Starling's son. A terribly twisted child. Another presence Eden would prefer to avoid, but has even less success with the son than with the father.
Nekoda's pet jackal. Brought to the hill to birth and care for her pups, Eden and Anubis get along very well together.
The hyenas. Nekoda and Anubis' children. Wild and dangerous, but Eden and Anubis raised their children together and the hyenas respect her more than they might have otherwise: weak little thing she is. Obedient to the upper family, they are mostly concerned with their own internal power struggles, and entertaining themselves like typical rednecks: hunting, fucking, drinking, smoking, fighting, eating, sleeping, and watching cars.
The harpy. Considers Tallendi her 'maggot brother' and would very much like to eat Bethle and all of her children.
The monster hunters. A tightly knit trio of people who at some point became incapable of fear. Very broken humans, Margarette is especially unstable and is rarely left on her own. Close friends and business associates of Tallendi; friends of the Morrison family.