Emily Esser

Emily Esser is a Thyrsus Proximus and a Hero. She has the power to swallow and regurgitate souls, and after vomiting up her own soul, she must prey on the souls of Beasts to survive.

Emily is a nurse by trade, and she was originally sent to work with a mage named Anomandus who worked with victims of soul loss. Emily swallows the souls of her deceased patients and brought them to Anomandus for transplant. However, Anomandus became involved with someone called Phillip Strange, whom Emily privately referred to as "the Stranger." Strange corrupted Anomadus, promising him the souls of his victims, and when Emily confronted them Strange attempted to kill her. Emily vomited up her own soul, discovering in the process that Beasts cannot feed from the soulless. Anomadus was identified as a Reaper and taken into custody, and Emily, unable to find her own soul, swallowed the Stranger's soul to sustain her.

Emily soon found that other mages, and indeed other supernaturals, had been corrupted by Beasts, and set out to save them. She also discovered that she had become a true soul-eater: any soul she swallowed eventually faded away, but the soul of a Beast, its Horror, lasted far longer than human souls. She hunts by targeting a Beast's kin, particularly ones with whom it has formed Family Ties, and turning them against the Beast. She then swoops in after the action, if possible, to swallow the soul.

Emily is a mousy young woman in her early 20s, often dressed in scrubs. When not on the hunt, she still tries to help patients suffering from soul loss, and had also learned that swallowing the souls of the living gives them a temporary protection from a Beast, though this is dangerous and painful for both Emily and the victim.