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Thad moved in the valley after causing massive chaos both at Joja and the Ministry. (Not his fault, he did exactly what he was told to do.) Not that the townspeople know that, or anything about him, really. He lives alone deep in the woods and visits the town rarely. Despite that they consider him a helpful and cheerful neighbour. He's a good listener but will carefully avoid saying anything about himself. He also pays really close attention to everything that goes around him, has a really good memory and will dig through everyone's personal objects, but most people haven't figured out that yet. (Old habits die hard.) He's very curious and always down to try or learn new things.

Had a mutually beneficial deal with the Ministry while working at Joja - they help him get out of there while he helps them investigate if Joja is illegally messing with magic. (Of course they were.) An agreement everyone at the Ministry ended up regretting after it was revealed that multiple mages from the Ministry were secretly helping Joja. Part of the reason the situation in the Badlands got out of control this horribly was because everyone at the Ministry was busy with the fallout of the newly discovered corruption within their ranks. They also regretted getting Thad out in general, since they're pretty sure he's not even human any longer, but Thad considers it payback for forcing him to work at Joja in the first place.

He and Magnus already know each other since it was Magnus who 'hired' him to help with the Ministry's investigation. (Magnus is also now responsible with keeping Thad from messing with magic too, but everyone already know that's not going to happen in a depressed acceptance kind of way.) Every mage and adventurer knows about him and about the whole mess, and a few blame him directly for all the paperwork and investigations they had to go through.

His presence in the Valley causes weird things to happen due to his contradictory and unstable magic - life/forest and void/death. (Qi and Grandpa are to blame for the odd combination.) He has trouble using his magic because of it. Ever since he moved to Pelican Town dark magic is starting to get stronger, monster are more agressive and more likely to breed and leave the mines, and dark creatures almost unheard of before have been spotted in the woods. But nature and forest magic are also getting stronger - plants grow faster and healthier, rare or nearly extinct animals are starting to thrive, pollution is disappearing or at least affecting the environement less, and magical creatures that were droved away by humans and especially by Joja are tentatively moving back into the Valley, like junimos and fairies. (This means lots of interesting research opportunities but also lots of extra worry for the already overworked Ministry/Order members.)

Like his magic, Thad has a very contradictory and changing personality, but keeps most of it hidden (despite seemingly having no filter). He doesn't trust people and never opens up. He's generally mocking and sarcastic in a playful way, doesn't take anything seriously and always wastes his time instead of working. Very smug and annoying, will start fights by saying things people don't want or need to hear. Doesn't apologize or regrets what he's done no matter how bad the situation gets, he'll always choose to double down instead of backing off. But he can also be surprisingly calm and obedient. His personality changes fast, sometimes within minutes, and makes predicting his reactions hard. Which is a problem since he has violent tendencies, especially when his dark magic is stronger than the forest one. Gets along weirdly well with Lance, who's often called to calm him down or get him out of some place.

He has lots of animalstic and inhuman traits or behaviours, like making weird noises, especially when talking with other supernatural beings, smelling magic more than feeling it, and his eyes sometimes glow in the dark like a cat's. Also lots of horror-like traits, like his face sometimes looking wrong when someone is watching him from the corner of their eyes or looking at his reflection, but normal when they look directly at him. (He's not aware that this happens and doesn't understand why people suddenly react weird to him when he's not doing anything.) He died while working at Joja and his body sometimes forgets he's alive again, so randomly he'll stop breathing or won't have a pulse. (He's not aware of that either and doesn't feel it, his magic just takes over until his organs start working again.)

Player character is called the Apprentice, to match the Horticulturist from the first game. The Thaumaturge didn't work since Eli is also referred by this title.

He's an orphan who met Eli when he was around 14 or 15 and became his apprentice. Unofficially he basically got adopted by him. At the time when the game takes places he's around 18-19 years old.

He has lots of visions and prophetic dreams and strong psychic abilities. Basically the cards and story snippets you get at the end of each day are information seen to him during dreams. They become more common and more violent when he's anxious.

He's generally a nervous coward who really really tries to make Eli proud of him. Aside from Verona, he's like the only person who likes Eli.

And despite his distant and cold attitude Eli is actually really protective of him in turn.

Eli isn't thinking too highly of either Thaddeus or Barton. Although he is on polite speaking terms with the later at least. He's often suspicious of them because the casket thing wasn't the first disaster they caused. And they often went behind his back in the past. Those two wouldn't mind a closer relationship with him, it's Eli who keeps them at arm's length.

Eli and Verona are close friends. They're both intimidating asses that very few people like so they get along great. Despite not being as vicious as Verona, Eli is just as feared due to his stern nature. At least Verona jokes from time to time. They do like to gossip together even if they don't look like it.

Because of their similar profession, Eli and his brother move in the same circles and them being on non-speaking terms is making things hard for their acquaintances. While Eli is the most respected of the two, Thaddeus's less scary personality earned him more friends. And convinces lots of people to not tell Eli what he's up to even when they probably should.

People tend to avoid the shop because of Eli's general unapproachable personality. They ended up having for more customers than usual during the game's plot after the word spread that his apprentice is manning the shop. Even after things get back to normal, people are more likely to visit the shop if they don't see Eli in it or try to stop the Apprentice in town and speak with him when alone. Eli doesn't mind it.

Strange Antiquities isn't Eli's main income source. He mostly gets his money from research and travelling around to deal with various occult dangers. Unlike Verona, who's more likely to remain around Undermere instead of travelling too far. Although he stopped leaving too often after he adopted the Apprentice. The Objects in the shop are also on the weaker side, anything too strong is kept locked away.

Since he seemed to come from a well off family, with both him and Thaddeus being highly educated, and since the Apprentice is new to Undermere while still being known by a few characters, I assume he doesn't live in Strange Antiquities and has some proper house somewhere outside the city. Although there are still rooms readied for sleeping in the shop overnight (in some upper floors maybe?).

Barton doesn't seem to have much money since he pays in artifacts. Yet his job of unearthing powerful magical artifacts would probably be a well paying one. Barton is not good with money.

Barton is basically the classical movie action hero. Not exactly a good thing in this Lovecraftian setting.

Verona and Francesca are probably together considering that the later takes Verona's death harder than her own daughter does. Or at least Francesca has a huge crush on Verona.

Edmund isn't too interested in the occult and doesn't know much about it, at least compared to his ancestors. But he still has a huge collection of useful books and some rooms with rare equipment so both Eli and Verona visit him often.

Both Eli and Verona are at the top of their professions. The Apprentice also learned from Eli and could easily compete with far more experienced Thaumaturges in skills and knowledge. He mostly still has his apprentice status because he works under Eli. And because they both plan for him to work at Strange Antiquities for life.

They have multiple Objects of the some kind in their store, and always commission parts to make more from trusted artisans that are willing to respect very strict requirements. They then enchant the new Objects themselves in the shop. The Nalean Casket seems to be the only Object that's one of a kind.

Gods are an actual active presence in both games, as in they answer prayers and there are magical artifacts that draw power directly from them, yet pretty much the only people who actually worship them are cultists. You'd expect people to care more about religion when the land is littered with ritual spots and various signs that gods did something for someone for whatever reason and yet most people you encounter couldn't care less about them even when they specifically seek you out for some magical request.

There are like only one or two people each game that mention gods without being weird about it. The rest, at best, do fucked up rituals or ceremonies, like scarring their own face as a sign of devotion. At worst, they're trying to kill everyone because they worship some homicidal asshole. And no one respects these worshippers either, they're actively viewed as weird and dangerous despite, again, being able to prove that they are indeed communicating with a god, or at least some powerful being.

And another interesting thing is that no important character that actually works with magic cares about the gods at all. You'd really expect the people who deal with dangerous beings and curses to at least seek protection or advice from some god. But they seem to be even less likely to interact with the gods than the already apathetic general population.

The only exception is Barton, who got cursed by the gods, got a message from them and tried to actually follow their orders, but even then he just wanted to safely get rid of the Casket rather than please them specifically. He didn't care about their message at all until the Apprentice tells him to go decipher it. He also isn't scared of retribution from said gods if the Casket gets destroyed instead of handed over to them, despite them being potentially angry that they lost the power contained in it and might blame him specifically for not bringing it to them.

It's pretty funny if you think about it. The pool of worshippers gods get is actually quite sad. The experts in magic and the occult, who could actually be useful servants, are completely dismissive of them, with only people who know little of the esoteric seeking them out, and even among those it's mostly the unhinged ones with something to prove. Not exactly quality help. I mean, The Sisterhood nearly got wiped off because they just couldn't talk like normal people with Verona, who actually knows a lot about the occult and wasn't just some clueless 'civilian', and only survived because one of them had enough common sense to basically betray them to get help. And Holgar might want to punish humanity, but his own followers are more busy ripping each other to shreds in the wilderness than actually helping him fulfil his revenge. In fact these maniacs are utterly useless and can only open the Casket if the Apprentice fucking drags it over to them. They aren't even trying to look for it, leaving an inanimate magical object to do all the work and possess like half the town for a chance to open itself. I'm sure Holgar is very proud of them all.

Actually could it be Holgar in that casket? He's apparently this powerful scary god that defeated whole eldritch abominations and salivates at the thought of killing a large number of non-worshippers and yet he is utterly absent from the plot despite the Casket being his grand plan to fulfill this, with a detailed prophecy and manifesto and all that. And he will only take his revenge after the Casket will be opened all while there's been a suspicious lack non-worshipper killings in the recent past. So is it actually possible that he's sealed in there? Or some part of him, or his power, or something.

So the rose faction of Hell is the monarchic one and the one who ruled Old Hell, right? And current Hell formed after a revolution and it currently has its own even more revolutionary factions, yeah? During the Fourth City's time Hell was still ruled by the monarchy, and since tales about London's war with Hell mention burning fields of roses it means that Hell's monarchy ruled past London's descend for a while, right?

But then again, The Blind Pianist said that they should have killed that grand devil while the Fourth City was still around, implying that the revolution happened before London. So then what's with the burning roses? It doesn't seem like current Hell likes roses very much so I assume they wouldn't keep whole fields of them just to remember Old Hell. Did those fields belong to the Fourth City and were just surrounding London at the time, and them burning were because Hell attacked back?

And what's with Old Hell's spider faction? They seem to be closely related to the rose one, since webs and roses are constantly together in the Sunken Embassy. Are they just different symbols representing/working for the monarchy? And lastly about Hell, Coppers were mentioned alongside the rose faction in either in the Sunken Embassy or in the Fourth City, can't remember which, are they the faction that will become current Hell?

Moving on, I got an Oneiromantic Revelation in exchange for my hard earned more than half a thousand pages of bureaucratic marvels, and it's by far the most lore dense item I have in my possession. Actually, its description is one of the most lore heavy text I encountered so far.