Children of Fire
Encyclopædia 0.1

Characters

Adams, John William

(1879-1913) A "minor symbolist poet" and author of only one book: Songs of Metal and Flesh. He dedicated this volume to his lover, Sissy. He was involved with a "radical off-shoot of the Order of The Golden Dawn" named the Brethren of the Sundered Body.

Bloodstone, Richard "Rick"

(1955-1992) "Was born in Hackney (a district of London, England) in 1955" or in Cornwall in his Great-Aunt Sissy's house. His mother abandoned him at the age of 5 and he was raised by Sissy. She died of cancer when he was 14. He didn't see his mother again until he was 19. When she asked him not to see her again for fear that an illegitatme son would harm her husband's political career, he sold his story to "The News of the World" for £10000. He used this money to travel to America on the QE2. On the ship, the only thing he had to read was Sissy's copy of Songs of Metal and Flesh. His favorite poem from the volume was a sonnet named Orchid For a Dishonoured Prince. Once in America, he discovered that he loved bartending, concluding that it was "very honest. People stated their needs. You satisfied them. They rewarded you." He shot his father in Medicine Hat, Alberta. He eventually ended up in New York's Boiler Room, bartending for JP Monroe.

Channard, Dr. Phillip

Doc's court-appointed psychiatrist. He kept the police photographs of the Penman murder in his private files.

Cooper, John

(?-1987) Rick's father. A Canadian seaman who inpregnanted a chorus girl while on leave in London. He was shot three times through the left eye by his son, while enjoying a beer in Medicine Hat, Alberta.

Edwards, Natalie

See Flora Pender.

The Fan

He paid See-Dee $100 to introduce him to Slither. After taking drug with Slither and Lamia, the three of them participated in some S&M play while listening to Slither's newest album. The Fan was tied to a bed, sliced open in various parts of his body, and had candles placed in the wounds.

Fisher, Daniel Erwin "Doc"

(?-1992) He "had two formative experiences as a boy: seeing Shane at his local drive-in and being given an 8mm movie camera by his uncle Mort." Worked at Channel 8 in New York as a cameraman. He was hired by Penman to film the invocation to summon the Power. He left his camera recording the invocation, but slept in his own apartment. When he returned in the morning, he found Penman and his five guests "spread them over the walls and ceiling like lumpy and steaming puree." He was insitutionalized for three weeks from the shock of the sight. Aftwards, he claimed to have completely forgotten the event.

Fisher, Ray

Doc's father. He was "killed in a drunk-driving accident when Doc was three years old."

Hammerstein, Jimmy "See-Dee"

(1967-1992) DJ at the Boiler Room. "The kids loved him both for his impeccable sense of dance floor zeitgesit and for the ease with which he could obtain whatever their drug-of-choice might be." He introduced the Fan to Slither after the Fan paid him $100. He accidentally observed the Fan, Slither and Lamia engaging in S&M.

He Who Dwells In The Deep

See The Power.

Lamia

definition
Slither's girlfriend. After taking drug with the Fan and Slither, the three of them participated in some S&M play while listening to Slither's newest album.

Pender, Flora

Also: Natalie Edwards, Natalie Silver
(1936-?) Rick's mother. A chorus girl, she was forced to quit her job when she became pregnant at the age of 19. She moved in with her grandmother's sister Sissy. She abandoned Bloodstone there in 1961. She married a Member of Parliment. She met Richard again in 1974, and asked that he not see her again, fearing that an illegitamate son would damage her husband's career.

Penman, Woodrow, III

(1914-1977) "Inheritor of a vast family fortune." "A lifelong bibliophile, Penman had for the last seven years specialised in collecting obscure works of an occult nature." In the writings of John William Adams and the papers of the Brethren of the Sundered Body, he discovered an inovation to summon the Power. He hired Doc to film the event. Doc left his camera recording. He did so in front of five guests and they were "spread them over the walls and ceiling like lumpy and steaming puree."

The Power

Also: He Who Dwells In The Deep
What Penman wanted to summon. He discovered an invocation in the writings of John William Adams and the papers of the Brethren of the Sundered Body. More than likely, these were other names for the Cenobite Pinhead. When Penman summoned the Power in front of five guests, it "spread them over the walls and ceiling like lumpy and steaming puree."

Silver, Natalie

See Flora Pender.

Great-Aunt Sissy

(?-1969) Flora's maternal grandmother's sister. "A lapsed bohemian, [she] was the only relative who had whole-heartedly supported Flora's choice of career." "She had outlived two thoroughly respectable husbands and, childless, had inherited the cottage from her second." After quitting the chorus, Flora moved in with Sissy. Sissy delivered Rick and took care of him when his mother fled. She died of cancer in 1969.

Slither

Lead-guitarist for Thanatos and friend of See-Dee. After taking drug with the Fan and Lamia, the three of them participated in some S&M play while listening to Slither's newest album.

Locations

The Boiler Room

A club in New York own by JP Monroe. Rick was the bartender at the main bar and See-Dee was the DJ.

Cornwall, England

One possible birth location for Richard Bloodstone. Home of Great-Aunt Sissy.

Hackney, London, England

One possible birth location for Richard Bloodstone. Where John Cooper seduced Flora Pender.

Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Where John Cooper was killed by his own son.

New York, New York

Home of the Boiler Room and Channel 8.

Objects

Arthur Machen - A E Waite Correspondence

biography - biography
Contained a postscript that caught Penman's eye: "I see MA's capers with our misguided brethren have lost him Fleet street's favour. What flesh will sing his songs now?" This confirmed to Penman that the JWA mentioned in the Brethren of the Sundered Body was, in fact, the poet John William Adams.

The Brethren of the Sundered Body

A radical off-shoot of the Order of the Golden Dawn formed by A E Waite. John William Adams was a member. Public knowledge of his membership caused a scandal.

Invocation to a Power

"By careful cross-referencing of clues, portents, and hidden instructions in the Brethren [of the Sundered Body's] papers with certain lines from certain poems in Adam's [Songs of Metal and Flesh], [Penman] was convinced that he had unearthed a buried invocation to a Power." Penman used this invocation in front of five guests. The summoned Power slaughtered them all. Part of it made it into Slither's lyrics for his new album Orphans of Ecstacy, Children of Fire, which were borrowed from the poem of the same name in Songs of Metal and Flesh.

Orchid For a Dishonoured Prince

Rick's favorite poem from Songs of Metal and Flesh. It was an unrhymed sonnet whose closing sextet was:

The room is dimmer now. The thirteenth comes.
The philosophic stone is steeped to blood.
The petals of the black rose port like wounds.
And razor tongues within sing slow pavanes.
Now strikes the filial hand (unholy joy!)
And scarlet rivers ease the pain of years.

Order of the Golden Dawn

definition
An occultist group. John William Adams was involved with the radical off-shoot The Brethren of the Sundered Body.

Orphans of Ecstacy, Children of Fire

Slither's new album and the name of his favorite poem from Songs of Metal and Flesh. It contained part of the Invocation to a Power:

And the fish that hides the stone.
Three cycles back and the eye in your hand.
Before the sky was blue.
Babylon's cauldron and eighty to go.

Songs of Metal and Flesh

John William Adam's only volume of poety. It was dedicate to Sissy.

Timeline

1879	John William Adams is born.
1911 Win	Sissy and John William Adams spend the winter together. Adams' involvment with the Brethren becomes public knowledge.
1913	John Willam Adams dies.
1914	Woodrow Penman III is born.
1936	Flora Pender is born.
1955 Sep	Richard Bloodstone is born.
1961 Apr	Flora Pender abandons her son.
1967 Aug 22	See-Dee is born.
1969	Sissy dies.
1974	Richard Bloodstone meets his mother for the last time and leaves for New York.
1977 Win	Doc is institutionalized for 3 weeks after witnessing the aftermath of Penman's ritual.
1987	Richard Bloodstone kills his father, John Cooper.
1991	See-Dee begins DJing at the Boiler Room.
1992	Rick, Doc and See-Dee are turned into Cenobites.

References

"Children of Fire" by Peter Atkins
Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth by Peter Atkins and Anthony Hickox