Ethan Graves

### Alias(es)

The Occultist, Bearer of The Mark, The Falling Man, The Son of Solomon, The Would-Be Prince of Darkness, The Dark Detective

### Affiliations

Occult Society
Bruiser Brigade

### Family

* Merlyn (ancestor, alive)
* Cartier Revanche (grandfather, deceased)
* Nadla Dupont-Revanche (grandmother, deceased)
* Solomon Graves (father, deceased)
* Katherine Merlyn (mother, deceased)
* Ambrosia (prophized mother, alive)
* Antoinette Roudanez (legal guardian, alive)
* Elise Revanche (half-sister, alive)

* Dr. Moreau (darker half, alive)

### Creator(s)

Morpheus

> Do you know how **insane** you sound? We are talking about a potential threat to society who **uses the occult** to **justify** what he is doing. He has been seen at crime scenes where **mass death happens**, unexplainable incidents, and someone **up-high** is protecting him! **Who is he, Commissioner?** And why are we letting him **roam free?!**
>
> **Lieutenant Buffy Mars**

**Ethan Graves** is a desert-based neurotic writer, cynic, hypocritic, chain-smoking occult expert who hunts **The Many-Angled Ones**. He has become one of the most notable occultists of the 21st century. This is due to his dark dry wit, frequent encounters with Lovecraftian creatures, and bearing The Mark of Cain. As the protector of humanity, Ethan relies on mystical artifacts and contacts, such as **Damon Wolfe**, **Dr. Harper Declan**, **Edward Nalence**, **Tobe Nwigwe**, and **Antoinette Roudanez** who taught him the occult to begin with. Quite the opposite of a conventional hero, Ethan is just trying to survive the week.

## **History**

"untitled unmastered."This article isn't fully mixed and mastered yet. What you are reading is subject to change.
### **Occult Studies Volume I**

Ethan Graves was born in 1988 in **Cilvia City, Nevada**. Ethan's father, **Solomon Graves**, was murdered by Lucifer the same day. This was because of Solomon's betrayal five years prior. Lucifer then bestowed Ethan with The Mark of Cain. He hoped that one day, Ethan would become his prince of Hell as a final revenge act against Solomon. Sometime later when Ethan got older, his mother, Katherine Merlyn, was killed by **The Many-Angled One**, Nyarlathotep, with whom she had a deEthan-long feud. Ethan was sent to New Orleans to live with a family friend, the immortal Voodoo Priestess, **Antoinette Roudanez**. She began teaching him about the occult to hopefully avenge his parents.

#### **A Written Testimony**

In 2009, Ethan decided he was competent enough to handle a supernatural case. Antoinette would get cases or requests from New Orleans and bring Ethan along for the ride. However, Ethan felt ready to handle a case which Antoinette believed was an excellent idea. The first case Ethan received - by way of Antoinette - was from a local church, St. Patrick's Cathedral, specifically Father John Michaels. He was having a supernatural problem related to a newly acquired Bible he obtained from an unknown source. When Ethan investigated the disturbance, he found four nuns running out of the cathedral, wailing. Inside, he found the mutilated body of a virgin nun who had attempted to transcribe the Bible.

Ethan would take the Bible after using anti-demon gloves and bring it to an old friend of his, **Tobe Nwigwe** inside his nightclub. Here, Tobe and Ethan poured over the book with Ethan not needing to transcribe it as The Mark allowed Ethan to read the language fluently. Here, the two realized that the Bible was not the Holy Bible, but instead, the once-thought-lost Codex Gigas, or The Devil's Bible. What killed the nun wasn't that she transcribed it, but that she read aloud a verse from the Codex Gigas. This verse released the demon Pazuzu. After arming themselves, Ethan and Tobe returned to St. Patrick's where they exorcised Pazuzu from Father Michaels. Pazuzu had possessed him and terrorized the nuns who worked for the church. With Pazuzu freed from Father Michaels, Ethan used The Mark to banish Pazuzu back to Hell who vowed to return.

#### **For Whom The Bell Tolls**

In 2013, Caade received a call from Tobe Nwigwe about a case in San Francisco. However, he was too busy to handle it and offered it to Ethan. At first, Ethan was apprehensive as he didn't like New California and it was a dicey state with the current political climate there. However, Tobe told him that he would give him ninety percent of the pay but take ten percent as a finder's fee. The next day, Ethan landed in San Francisco and met up with a local novice occultist named Patrick Diamond. Patrick reached out to Tobe Nwigwe for help. Patrick worked with two other novice occultists, Irene Lamar and Simon Lenton. They worked together to stop a believed haunting inside The Hallidie Building.

Believing this to be a simple salt-and-burn routine, the group researched the building and who had died within it. That was when they discovered that during the building's restoration the same year, a worker had been trapped within the fifth floor walls. The group assumed that the worker was the cause. After hours, they traveled to The Hallidie Building while Ethan researched the worker's life. His family were part of an expedition to the Sahara to retrieve something. However, many of them never returned and since then, the worker's family has been plagued by strange deaths. As Ethan pieced together the clues and realized it wasn't a haunting, it was already too late.

Irene died first after being dragged into the dark corner of the fifth floor. Patrick, Simon, and Ethan stuck together as they tried to leave the building. Simon died after being torn apart by two shadow hands. This forced Ethan to generate light from his lighter that contained Balthazar's eternal soul. While it illuminated the floor they were on, it also revealed that the Many-Angled One that killed his mother, Nyarlathotep was behind this. Patrick attempted an incantian that usually banishes a demon. However, Simon was driven insane after being shown the true face of Nyarlathotep and killed himself by jumping off the fifth floor window. In a last-ditch effort, Ethan utilized The Mark to banish Nyarlathotep back to where he came from. However, he nearly lost his sanity in the process.

Deeply traumatized, Tobe forcibly admitted Ethan into The Bellevue Hospital and called a meeting with The Occult Society heads of power. Here, he showcased what had occurred and the Occult Society had to reckon with the fact that both H.P. Lovecraft and Edward Nalence were right.

## **Personality**

Ethan is a mystery to those who have met and interacted with him. He is mysterious because he chooses to be or even mysterious in the sense of the word, he is just **odd**. He is wildly neurotic with many people considering him to be ADHD or some other form of attention deficiency at the very least. As a conversation with him progresses, he will talk about two different things at once, allowing the person to respond to one thing then he will callback to a previous point in the conversation that should have passed but bring it up again as if it were the main conversation, creating two separate conversations at the same time. However, his neurotic tendencies have been used for good. Ethan gets information out of people by "weirding" them out to the point that they just want the confusing conversation to end.

He is critical and pays attention to details, down to the smallest. He overanalyzes conversations, attempting to interpret the meaning behind people's words which both helps and hurts him. Lovecraftian beings say things with hidden meanings which is great for Ethan as he will literally decipher their words as they are spoken to him but horrible when it comes to normal interactions where he will seem overly critical. As he is very much "brains-over-brawn", Ethan is logical by nature, using both real world science and pop culture references to understand what he sees or interprets.

Ethan has a cynical side, born out of depression. He points out glaring flaws in the world such as people, governments, money, and more. He will rage against systems and topics relating to the world at large. However, he is self-aware enough to know that he is part of the problem and another cog in the machine. Ethan understands that he saves a few people and does a few benevolent deeds. However, he isn't a hero as he kills creatures or other sentient beings. He even points out other people's flaws and holds them to a higher standard than himself and becomes frustrated by people who do evil deeds but knows he is no better than them as he risks his and others' lives in the pursuit of maintaining supernatural peace. He is a hypocrite in this sense as Ethan will do things that others consider evil or vile such as disrupting the natural order but for the greater good. Yet, he condemns villains such as Hurr Sherman and Armie Luther who do the same thing. He calls them out for doing it for selfish reasons which isn't too far away from why Ethan did it in the first place.

He also has a history of struggling with mental health. After his mother died and he saw a Many-Angled One when he was 13, Ethan was horribly scarred and plagued with night terrors and irrational fears. The only thing that brought him out of this was Antoinette and her occult teachings but his depression never left. After The Hallidie Incident occurred, his mental state only worsened to the point that Tobe forcibly checked Ethan into Bellevue Hospital. While Ethan's time at Bellevue helped, Ethan has never fully recovered from The Hallidie Incident as the entire incident was perpetrated by The Many-Angled One that killed his mother. Ethan does not have a tight grasp on humanity because of this. However, The Hallidie Incident and his stay at Bellevue Hospital gave Ethan a sense of determination. He finally knew what he and The Mark were meant to do. He was meant to investigate and hunt The Many-Angled Ones, becoming the first occultist to specifically hunt them and their emissaries.

Barring his cynicism and hypocrisy, Ethan is sarcastic with a dark and dry sense of humor. While Ethan is brave, he isn't brave enough to not admit out loud at an extreme volume that something is going poorly or he thinks he is going to die. Most of the time when something pops off, Ethan is at the forefront of it, screaming expletives out of genuine fear. Ethan is an oxymoron for this because he is an occultist who hates horror. He is known to be obsessive. This has led to Ethan locking himself in his apartment for days, pouring over research and concepts to solve or crack a mystery. His tendency to do that has retroactively made him an introvert who has trouble relating to people or making friends that aren't occultists. This has led to Ethan seeming somewhat reserved at times. As stated before, Ethan is a mystery to both himself and others.

## **Attributes**

Ethan is a clear example of a pulp "brains-over-brawn" hero. In history, Ethan is never known to physically fight someone; instead, he uses his magical artifacts or his mind to resolve situations. Using magic is impossible with the Mark of Cain. Due to this, Ethan is significantly weaker than most occultists. Nevertheless, he has an advantage over them. To use magic, other occultists must pay a toll. The mystical items Ethan uses to simulate magic free him from paying physical costs. Furthermore, Ethan is an excellent detective, capable of piecing together clues and suspects without outside assistance. Observing Dracula's body inside Flatbush Nightclub and a google search led him to find out who The Queen of Vampires was. His manuscripts of his opponents also reveal Ethan's talent as a writer. These manuscripts are utilized by the Occult Society to further their knowledge of The Many-Angled Ones and are references for new occultists.

The Mark of Cain itself gives Ethan some noteworthy abilities however. While The Mark is largely unknown, Ethan has shown to interpret, understand, and speak ancient languages that are either dead or should not exist. These include Demoniac, Cambronian, Enochian, and R'lyehian. This has allowed him to fully read text that would otherwise be untranslatable or written off as fictitious. This was shown when he spoke to Yidhra in her own tongue. He can also sense demons and Many-Angled Ones with The Mark along with seeing what demons see which is people who are possessed, the hellish landscape of Earth, and more. Seemingly, The Mark protects Ethan from mystical dangers such as halting his vampire conversion and repelling magical spells. In fact, the protection provided to Ethan is so strong that if Ethan is attacked by other occultist or supernatural creatures, the damage would return to the attacker sevenfold. This is much like the biblical stories The Mark is derived from. Researched by Tobe Nwigwe, The Mark stops its owner from aging after a certain point. For Ethan, that was when he turned thirty. After he was killed in Baton Rouge by a Wendigo, The Mark resurrected him almost instantly and fully healed him.

Another interesting note is that Ethan can use The Mark to dispatch demons who aren't possessing a person back to Hell, almost commanding them to return. It also works on Angels, sending them back to Heaven which is what he did to Gadreel which surprised everyone, Ethan included. The most surprising part of this is that Ethan sent members of The Many-Angled Ones back to where they came from. The first time he did this was against Nyarlathotep and the second was against Ambrosia. This was when Ethan sent The Necronomicon away. A harrowing question is where these beings and objects end up. Edward believes that The Mark can do this because The Mark of Cain was meant to be a sign or an omen of dark comings.

### **Weaknesses**

As stated before, Ethan cannot utilize magic because of The Mark. If he attempts to use magic in any shape or form, his body will openly reject it and potentially kill him without resurrecting him. In addition to this glaring disadvantage, Ethan cannot enter churches, missions, hallowed grounds and holy water can harm him. If submerged in holy water, however, it will kill him if held longer than a couple of seconds. Another thing to note is that The Mark only resurrects Ethan from mystical deaths. This means that if he were attacked by someone with superpowers or a random person with a gun, he would die. This also extends to Lovecraftian beings, allowing them to kill Ethan permanently.

Another weakness of The Mark is that Ethan cannot stay in a single place for more than a few months. He can return to the location after traveling but never live a settled life. The Mark was activated on Ethan's sixteenth birthday. If he resides in one location longer than a few months, supernatural plagues will befall the location he is in. Mass deaths, unnatural weather phenomena, the dead rising, and then Ethan's eventual unnatural death. This was discovered when Ethan stayed in New Orleans a few months after his sixteenth birthday. He was nearly killed by Hellhounds during a hurricane **in February**, something that hadn't happened in over 70 years.

## **Paraphernalia**

### **Equipment**

Ethan possesses an assortment of mystical items to perform his duties as an occult detective. As a "graduation present" from Antoinette Roudanez, she gave Ethan a full set of mystical Tarot cards known as "**The Courts**" that she blessed and bathed in Metatron's blood. These cards are used to interpret the possible future but it is imperative to understand that they are not always accurate. Later, Ethan reversed an exorcism to trap the eternal soul of the demon, Balthazar, in his personal lighter. This has granted him a lighter that can release balls or beams of fire and still function as a normal lighter.

After encountering Ambrosia for the first time, Tobe would gift Ethan **The Leveler** which is a World War II MI9II. It's importance comes from a soldier named Anthony Martin who used it to have a last stand against Nazi werewolves. After Anthony died on a full moon and on Friday The 13th, his gun became mystical empowered to be able to slain werewolves, and later vampires with simple bullets that are fired from the gun. However, due to Ethan's tinkering and calling on a few contacts, the was morphed into the Beyond Model Colt "Thieves" Double Action Revolver. It has since become a stable of Ethan's.

After moving in with Antoinette, she gave him a typewriter to write down all of his feelings. Instead, Ethan wrote what occurred to his mother. Since then, Ethan has used the same typewriter to write every case, monster, person, place, or thing down. He has hundreds of manuscripts that act as his subconscious and personal journals. At Edward's request, Ethan has recently started sending his manuscripts to the Occult Society. They use them to further their knowledge of The Many-Angled Ones but grow increasingly concerned about Ethan because with each ongoing installment, they become darker. The typewriter allegedly belonged to prolific writer, August Derleth, a close friend of H.P. Lovecraft.

## **Notes/Trivia**

* Ethan smokes Marlboro Reds specifically.
* There are too many genres to list here but suffice to say, Ethan listens to a wide range of music.
* While Ethan typically operates alone, he says his favorite person to work with is Edward Nalence.
* Frustratingly, Ethan cannot solve Rubik's Cubes and has been working on one for two weeks.
* Ethan suffers from strong PTSD and depression from The Hallidie Incident and often refuses to talk about it.
* Ethan was never religious but since The Hallidie Incident, he has begun to see a priest outside of a church.
* Ethan was born in 1985, twenty-one when he began his life as an occultist. Twenty-five at the time of The Hallidie Incident and thirty-five currently.
* The Mark of Cain resides on Ethan 's right hand.
* There is an ongoing theory within the Occult Society that Ethan is an emissary of The Many-Angled Ones, or at the very least, has a cosmic connection to Lovecraft. This school of thought began when Ethan wrote a story in his youth called "*And Then There Were None*" which told a story of an unnamed protagonist who discovered a lost city in the ocean based on coordinates from a book the protagonist discovered. Antoniette took this story to the Occult Society because it mirrored Edward Nalence's journey to the lost city of R'lyeh. However, Ethan was 12 and had never heard the story before.
	+ Another piece of evidence is Ethan's non-reaction to having encountered The Many-Angled Ones and his boundless sanity. This was a key point during The Hallidie Incident. He was not phased by Nyarlathotep's presence but was instead shaken by the PTSD he had associated with Nyarlathotep due to him killing his mother.
	+ Lovecraft could also command The Many-Angled Ones which Ethan could do through The Mark but not as potent as Lovecraft. He could command them to do tasks and a litany of other things while Ethan could only send them back to their native plane.
	+ The most recent piece of evidence is when Ethan invoked The Necronomicon himself accidentally during his fight with Yidhra. While he didn't use it because Ambrosia was summoned alongside it, Ambrosia commented on Ethan's unknown connection to The Necronomicon. She also commented on how it does not beckon when she calls it. Later, Edward discovered that Lovecraft could summon The Necronomicon as he also had a similar connection to the book.

## **Appearances**

* Occult Studies Volume I: Abyss Callin'
* Occult Studies Volume II: Slippin' Into To Darkness
* Occult Studies Volume III: Dare Iz A Darkside
* Occult Studies Volume IV: Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge

## **References**

1. ↑ Hi Di Ho Man
2. ↑ Hail To The Queen
3. ↑ Pink Matter
4. ↑ The Masquerade
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 A Written Testimony