What few outside the Midnight Cabaret realize is that nearly everyone in the show is a war refugee from some faraway magical realm, worlds overrun by evil. Despite leaving their conquered homes and taking human form, the enemies of these survivors sometimes send minions after them; perhaps to thwart future reprisals; perhaps to finish the job. The performers always look for signs of incursions by their old enemies as they travel around the troupe’s new home.

Lucian Dark can usually pass as fully Human, even though he’s really a hybrid of Human and one of the native lifeforms from the extra-dimensional realm of Susur. In medieval terms, Chiaroscuro is the progeny of an incubus and a witch.

…He has a plush coat of vibrant purple fur, turquoise eyes, ivory teeth and claws, and iridescent feathers that range in color from salmon pink to lemon yellow to turquoise blue. A bright pink nose tops his cat-like muzzle, and the insides of his large, fan-shaped, scalloped ears repeat all the colors in his feathers…