Erasmus Wretch

**Erasmus Wretch** is a Frankenstein and part of the Crowley Crime Family. He is one of the three boyfriends and primary minions of Alice Crowley. His character is intended to serve as a dark reflection of Amity Blight.

## Appearance

Erasmus Wretch is muscular with yellow skin, white eyes, shiny blackish green hair, and dark lips. Erasmus often wears sunglasses when in public due to his heightened sensitivity to light.

## Background

Erasmus is an artificial humanoid life form created by Alador Blight, Erasmus was created from the body parts of dead witches and brought to life through an occult process that involved electricity and alchemy. Alador toiled for months to create Erasmus and bring him to life; only to then neglect his new creation. Odalia treated Erasmus like a slave, ordering him around the same way she would an abomination and hurting him when he failed her or made a mistake or if she was just in a bad mood. Odalia's abuse created a feedback loop of stress which kept him in his low functioning mode (explained in the section below) causing him to make more mistakes and thus for Odalia to hurt him again and again.

To this day Erasmus still questions why Alador created him, why Alador considered him a failure, and what he could have done differently to gain Alador's approval and attention and avoid Odalia's abuse. The horrible truth is that Alador created Erasmus simply to prove that he could, and once he'd succeeded he just moved onto another project. Alador wanted to prove a hypothesis and satisfy his own ego, and once he'd succeeded he moved on to another project. The idea that once he'd created new life he'd be obligated to care for it didn't occur to him. Odalia was upset with her husband for spending his time and resources on a personal project that couldn't be easily monetized; and she transferred some of that anger to Erasmus.

Eventually Odalia decided that Erasmus wasn't worth the money it cost to feed him, and so decided to lock him in a room to starve to death. Eventually Erasmus escaped and ran away. Erasmus spent some time homeless, but he wasn't well suited to surviving on the streets. He was later discovered and taken in by Alice Crowley, and he has been her loyal servant ever since. She

## Personality

Erasmus Wretch has a "high functioning mode" and a "low functioning mode". In his low functioning mode he is nonverbal and communicates mostly through grows grunts and other noises. In his low functioning mode he tends to move in a slow, heavy, and awkward way (though he can move very fast if he needs to, such as if he needs to defend himself or attack somebody). In his high functioning mode. In his high functioning mode, Erasmus is articulate and sophisticated, and has better posture. When Erasmus is at home or in his lab, he's usually in his high functioning mode. Some days Erasmus is able to go out in public and remain in his high functioning mode, other days he isn't.

Erasmus is highly competent when it comes to engineering, physics, mathematics, and abomination magic among other things.

Erasmus is ashamed that he can't be high functioning all the time. He's ashamed at himself for stemming.

Erasmus not only loves but practically worships Alice Crowley. His worst nightmare is that someday Alice will decide he's failed her, is no longer worthy of her love, and will cast him out. Erasmus is replaceable and he knows it. She has two other boyfriends after all. Alice will sometimes remind him that he was on the brink of death when she discovered him and that he owes her everything. Alice is controlling and abusive but because she's not as bad as Odalia and often shows him superficial kindness, Erasmus doesn't recognize Alice as being abusive.

Erasmus's self-esteem is centered around being of service to Alice Crowley, and he is ruthless in his devotion. Erasmus believes he has to justify his own existence and that he can only do that by being of service to Alice Crowley, so he'll try his best to do whatever she asks of him no matter who or how many people he has to hurt.

Erasmus understands that Emira, Edric, and Amity were born naturally not sewn together from spare parts like he was, yet he still describes them as having been "made" or "created". When referring the twin's relationship to Amity he refers to them as her "prototypes" and to Amity as the "final product". Erasmus thinks of Emira and Edric as his "fellow failed experiments" but resents Amity who he views as Alador's "masterpiece". Erasmus directs towards Amity, anger and resentment that it would be more logical to direct against Alador and Odalia.

## Trivia

* Erasmus Wretch's physical appearance is based on how Frankenstein's monster is described in the book.
* Wretch is one of the various nicknames or epithets that Frankenstein's Monster is referred by in the book (the creature has no canonical name) and I believe the term is also sometimes used to refer to Victor Frankenstein himself.
* The dichotomy of Erasmus's "high functioning" and "low functioning" modes is inspired by the contrast how Frankenstein's Monster is characterized in the book vs in the Universal movies.
* Erasmus Wretch is intended to serve as a dark reflection of Amity Blight