The Inspector

Illustration by Chris Bodily

**The Inspector** is a being of unknown origin who hails from the world beyond the Rift. In a human disguise, he works with the Pacific Glade police force to investigate strange phenomena throughout the Neverglades. He has a counterpart in the Everglades named Stephen Smith (often referred to as the Detective).

## Timeline

### Prehistory

* After Earth was abandoned by its creator, the Inspector took interest in the small planet and became its watcher. He developed a fascination with humankind and eventually made contact with a tribe of early humans, but his very presence caused a near extinction event that reduced the world's population to about 55,000. Mortified by the mass genocide he caused, he withdrew from Earth, but continued to watch from afar.

### Dawn of Civilization

* After the human population began to thrive again, the Inspector took notice of various entities slipping through the rift to prey on humans, including the empathic giants. He condensed his form into a fleshy body to move among the humans and pursue the beings that threatened them. In this borrowed shape, he continued to help humanity from the shadows.
* During this time, the Inspector formed an unusual friendship with another intelligent entity calling itself the Semblance. Both were fascinated by humanity, but the Inspector valued their fighting spirit and loyalty, while the Semblance saw them as violent little playthings. Together they placed a bet to determine whether humans were inherently good or inherently evil.

### Venice, Italy (1631)

* In the guise of a plague doctor, the Inspector treated patients sick with the Black Death, which he believed to have a supernatural origin. He was able to track the source to a king rat lurking behind the rift, but destroying the entity drew attention to his powers and made the people of Venice fear him.

### Tombstone, Arizona (1881)

* In the guise of a gunslinger, the Inspector tried to maintain order in the increasingly violent desert town. On the day of the OK Corral shooting, he chased a fugitive he believed to be the Semblance, thinking that his old friend had been pushing the humans to violence; however, the fugitive turned out to be human after all, making the Inspector reevaluate his perspective.

### Dresden, Germany (1945)

* The Inspector finally confronted the Semblance after the bombing of Dresden, believing the entity had gone too far and pushed humanity into the atrocities of World War II. However, the Semblance argued that it had nothing to do with the war, and that humanity brought this violence upon themselves. The Inspector fought with his old friend, now turned enemy, and sealed it away to prevent it from meddling in human history anymore.

### Boston, Massachusetts (1985)

* The Inspector took on the role of a bartender at a gay bar called the Aurora, where he hoped to track down an entity that traveled by night and fed on the energy of crowds. Since locking away the Semblance, he had spent the remaining years working alone again.

### The Neverglades (2017)

* Noticing it as an area with unusually strong rift activity, the Inspector headed to Pacific Glade in the guise of a federal agent. He formed a partnership with homicide detective Mark Hannigan and together the pair protected the town from a number of rift-related threats. In the aftermath of Hannigan's death, the Inspector formed a new alliance with Sheriff Olivia Marconi to continue offering Pacific Glade his protection.

### The Inspector Investigations (2018)

* Following the events in Pacific Glade, the Inspector traveled the country chasing various leads related to rift phenomena. His investigations uncovered an organization called Rosen Corp that was behind a number of strange incidents, including experimenting with human augmentation and summoning entities from beyond the rift. The Inspector managed to crippled their stronghold with the help of Tom Ingram, but Tom's body was destroyed in the process.

### The Neverglades (2018-2019)

* While continuing his investigations with Sheriff Marconi, the Inspector runs afoul of his old enemy, the Semblance. Despite the entity's many attempts to hurt the Inspector and the people he loves, the Inspector is able to defeat it and seal it away again. He is also still haunted by the death of Mark Hannigan, but eventually is able to help his echo find some rest.

### A Thousand Glistening Threads

* After attempting to return home to Pacific Glade with Marconi and the Ferryman, the Inspector's consciousness is fractured across the multiverse, preventing his body from waking up. His fragmented mind resurfaces in pocket dimensions modeled after his memories, as well as previously existing universes, such the Semblance's shadow prison and the endless library of the Creator of All Things. Thanks to the efforts of his friends from Pacific Glade, as well as Marconi's own fractured presence, he is able to confront his old nemesis once and for all and return home again.

### Journey's End

* The Inspector travels to the Moonverse (along with Marconi and Ruth Hannigan) to see the alternate timeline's Mark Hannigan and ask him to come home with them. The investigative team reunites once again, and the Inspector settles into a relatively peaceful life with his newfound family.

## Multiverse Incarnations

### Dark Side of the Moon

* In the Moonverse, the Inspector sacrificed himself in Mark’s place, leaving only his fedora behind. The impact of his death tore open the rift even wider and led to the apocalyptic monster invasion.

### Something Monstrous

* In this story’s universe, the Inspector is a celebrity and a household name. He protects the world using his superhero identity, the Purple Specter.

### Playing Pretend

* In this story’s universe, the Inspector comes into Mark’s life when he is still a child, protecting him from the shadow beings who want to replace the people of Pacific Glade.

### Silver Screen

* In this story’s universe, the Inspector’s world-saving adventures are more widely known, and he sells a script to Hollywood based on his experiences.

### All Things End

* In this story’s universe, the Inspector made an agreement with the Ender, giving it freedom to feed in Pacific Glade as long as it only consumes the souls of the dying. He helps to birth the Enderling when the Ender stops carrying out its duties.

### Smoke Over Blacktooth Valley

* In this story’s universe, the Inspector takes on the alias of the Gunslinger and protects the denizens of the American West from all sorts of otherworldly creatures. The Blight takes his form to infect the people of Widow’s Creek.

### Tourist Trap

* In this story’s universe, the Inspector’s friendship with Mark is retroactively erased due to the time-eater’s meddling. He attempts to protect the world from the time-eater’s influence by transporting the entirety of Pacific Glade inside the rift.

### The Old Block

* In the aftermath of Mark’s sacrifice, the Inspector grows more distant from Pacific Glade, but returns every year on the anniversary of Mark’s death to remember him at a family memorial lunch. He is constantly on the hunt for the Other, although he knows nothing about the entity’s true nature.

### Blood Moon

* The Inspector’s dark counterpart (the Sightless) threatens to destroy the multiverse when he starts tearing down the walls between dimensions. The Chronicler recognized the danger of this particular incarnation and tried to stop him early on by removing his eyes, but this only heightened his cruelty and desire for revenge.

## Known Powers

* Smoke manipulation (Lost Time, others)
* Super strength (Zombie Radio, others)
* Explosive energy (Zombie Radio)
* Psychic manipulation & immunity (Remember Me)
* Rift traversal (The Wendigo, Purple Moon, others)
* Matter manipulation (Lucid Dreams, others)
* Invulnerability (Lucid Dreams, others)
* Limited resurrection abilities (Fallen Night, mentioned only)
* Soul extraction (Black Valentine, used only on the Ender)
* Consciousness splitting (Fear No Evil, Last Sparks of an Ephemeral Fire)
* Fast travel (Last Sparks of an Ephemeral Fire)