#nthbd

raz and shevaun are voidsouls, which are essentially revenant dead that spawn in the nether as a kind of afterlife, usually as a result of a traumatic and untimely death. they're tangible, so not exactly ghosts, though they bear some similarities. they can also be killed again, though usually not permanently - if they suffer mortal injury or illness, they'll disintegrate upon death and "respawn", usually where they first appeared. they can't use magic, unlike some inhabitants of the nether, and any nether inhabitant that returns as a voidsoul after death loses any magical ability they might have had. raz and shevaun were both regular humans before death, though, so they're not missing out on anything in that department.

raz is a former internet personality (some combination of streamer and youtuber) focusing on the occult and paranormal. she's a trans woman, and only started transitioning after death and some time to come to terms with certain realisations. the appearance of a voidsoul reflects how they perceive themself, so as raz's understanding of her identity changes, so does her appearance to match, which is pretty neat. raz had a pretty rough childhood, with her parents having been indoctrinated into a cult where she herself was abused and groomed by the leader, who developed a fixation with her, and was liberated from in her mid teens, resulting in her being forced to rapidly come to terms with much that she'd missed while being cut off from the outside world, including basic schooling and sociocultural norms, which she's privately rather insecure about. she's fairly laid-back, but this is a result of her anhedonic, traumatised nature rather than genuine placidity. she's charismatic and attractive, which leads to people tending to become obsessed with her on a shallow surface level, which she secretly dislikes, but isn't above exploiting. she has a cruel streak, and doesn't mind hurting people to get what she needs. annie is one of the few people who sees her as a person and is still devoted to her, and raz just straight up doesn't care that annie is a terrible person, or rebuke her frequently unsuccessful attempts to be more than a monster, which is why they get along so well. raz died by suicide, and still carries that passive suicidal ideation with her in death, so she doesn't really understand why annie is so passionate about not letting her get killed again, and slightly resents his protectiveness of her when it gets him hurt, even though she appreciates his concern for her dignity.

shevaun is also a former public figure; a political journalist to be specific. they were shot and killed with extreme prejudice by an unknown assailant; they covered a lot of controversial topics, so it could have been almost anyone on the political spectrum. her appearance often reflects this - voidsouls experience something known as "traumatic recall" where, when stressed, they begin to manifest the wounds and general appearance of their state of death (to the point that they can be cut off mid-conversation with you by having their jaw ripped off, or water from when they drowned flooding their lungs and rising in their throat to spill from their lips, or something like that). shevaun is a lot more neurotic and anxious and insecure than raz, so they have a tendency to literally "lose face" (well, a chunk of it that was blown off by the bullet that got her in the head, to be specific) while attempting to socialise or assert themself. she's understandably pretty freaked out about this. she hasn't adjusted well to the nether at all, and tends to respond to the entire thing with the attitude of someone who sees any discomfort as an inconvenience, and is easy to rile up, which makes her the object of a lot of people's ridicule (though less now that they're travelling around with vacille).

annie is a chimera by birth, being what's known as an "ideolite" - the hybrid offspring of a titan (often based on mythical figures; a long-lived, powerful species that populates the nether, sometimes worshipped as deities, but not inherently divine) and any other species. annie is the daughterson of lamia, a titan with the lower body of a snake and upper body of a beautiful woman, cursed with an insatiable hunger she can never fill, which tends to lead to her losing focus and devouring both her mates and her young. annie is one of her few surviving children, as lamia gave him up to her human partner's family to raise after eating him out of some inscrutable motivation (she doesn't appear to feel guilt). annie has some pretty understandable issues and psychological complexes about being related to a legendary figure known exclusively for relentlessly, indiscriminantly fucking and killing, particularly as she matures and develops more chimeric traits and grows to resemble her mother. unlike lamia, however, annie's chimera parts are draconic, and cancerous - he grows excess clawed limbs and dragon heads like tumours along the length of his serpentine lower body, which is in fact a stress response to his concerns about being perceived as weak and incapable of protecting the things and people he loves. annie is utterly besotted with raz and fiercely devoted to her. the two met when annie was a gladiator/pit fighter, and annie left that life behind to pursue one with raz.