Professor Alvin Gunter Pangloss is Belgian professor of forensic sciences, who is also confined to a wheelchair at the age of 35 thanks to a rare genetic condition. Because of this, he constantly thinks back to the last time he was truly free and happy in his body: his adolescence. He is a solitary, miserable man who lives vicariously through programs like Pariah Online, the only place where he can feel like a complete human again.

Gunter was raised in Ghent to a chemist father and a physicist mother. He was declared a young genius at the age of 12, where he completed his first university degree in forensics. By fourteen he had worked his way into a graduate degree, and by sixteen he'd been diagnosed with a rare neurodegenerative disease. His dreams of becoming a world renowned detective were suddenly slashed, and he used his parent's connection to get a job at a university to work full time as his body began to weaken. By the age of twenty he was completely bound to his wheelchair, and began to teach his classes almost completely online.

It became no wonder when the technology advanced that he could use a device to play a game where he could once more have full control of his body that he would leap for the chance to once more walk, run and play. He took the form of his ultimate secret desire; something he never even told his parents or closest confidants: he was always obsessed with young teenage detectives; as cartoon series starring them had been popular when he was young. It was the basis of his early studies in forensic sciences, after all. Basing his new form on that, he took the form of Gunter, a precocious wizard in the realm of Aetheria.

Gunter, Genius Mage and all-around detective, appears quiet and unassuming. That's exactly what he wants you to think and by the time you have spoken a single word, Gunter appears to have figured everything about you out. If this was the real world, maybe that would be true, but this pompous attitude of his had led to him getting into more trouble with other players than he'd like to admit.

Gunter is the kind of player before the big "death day accident" who would stick to quests that had an air of mystery to solve, and then actually solve them quite well, usually before the rest of his party had a chance to even ask questions or investigate themselves. This has led to Gunter being kicked from 12 parties to this date, to which Gunter will also accuse his former teammates as being nothing more than mental barbarians and neanderthals who could not keep up with his intellect. Most people would be lonely and miserable living such a life, but Gunter revels in the drama, and is not afraid to push others he views as inferior as he cosplays a genius child while in the real world is simply a broken middle aged man.

They say if you can’t throw the first punch, throw the last. Rook says: why settle—throw both.

Rook’s a veteran. Since Pariah’s first beta, she’s been there, to everyone’s chagrin but her own. At first she hated it; which was fair enough, no love lost either direction. PvE was fine, she guessed. Killing big monsters was cool, shiny loot was cool, and suffering catastrophic bodily damage only to respawn shortly thereafter was cool too.

Less cool was that most of this had to be done with other people. People with loud voices, dumb faces, and slow, stupid hands or heads or whatever it was you played Pariah with. They’d interrupt the fun to do shit like ask questions or socialize, and when she reacted accordingly, she was more often than not kicked. It was bullshit.

Then she discovered PvP, and oh, the stars, they just aligned. Here was a world where she could inflict herself upon others and be rewarded for the resulting carnage. She jumped in with both feet and never looked back. Rook didn’t just thrive here, she excelled. What she lacked, tremendously, in working with other people, she more than made up for with her ability to hurt them. Duels, free for all’s, even team-based games; as long as she could punch someone, she was happy.

With a seemingly bottomless furnace of rage, fueled by a steady stream of angry DMs from salty opponents, Rook found a home for herself. A home on the PvP leaderboards, a home on Pariah’s battlegrounds, and a home on the shit lists of damn near every PvP guild and bounty hunter in the game. Her life became a revolving door of challengers and arenas and PEGI 18 rated bloodsports.

She wouldn’t have it any other way.

When you're born into an arms trade syndicate, many expect you to have to dirty your hands at some point in your life. But not Verusya—the youngest and only daughter of the notorious Lapina crime family.

Unlike her elder brothers, Verusya would have little hand in the trade herself. Her father considered Verusya his мышонок, and instead propped his only daughter up like royalty to keep her hands clean. She had a lavish childhood surrounded by plenty of bodyguards and other miscellaneous servants to tend to her every need. Ballet was her exercise of choice, and more often than not Verusya had her nose shoved in a novel alongside a warm cup of tea or kompot by her side.

All and all, Verusya had grown up like a steward of noble purity. She was the Lapina princess; caring, kind and gentle. Nevertheless, despite how much as her father tried to keep the bloodshed away from his daughter, the Lapina name still painted an unfortunate target on her back, and Verusya would soon find herself with constant reminders of such a fact.

It happened on the eve of a blizzard in Moscow. A car previously marked for her father was instead sent to pick up Verusya so she wouldn't be stuck in the storm. The vehicle hadn't made it more than a few blocks before it had blown up and left Verusya with severe wounds, being the unintended target of the planted explosive device.

Rushed to the nearest hospital, doctors toiled away throughout the night to save Verusya's life. Although she ultimately made it through, the damage had already been done: the resulting surgeries forced the removal of an eye and a leg, leaving Verusya a distraught shadow of her former self.

Pained by the sight his мышонок was now in, her father tirelessly sought every method to help Verusya return to her lively self, spending a fortune to find anything that had potential to work. One of these methods happened to a new form of "immersion therapy", using the newly released Pariah Online to help heal the mind from the ailments it had.

Although Verusya had been uncertain about giving it a go, she was willing to do anything to see her father smile once more. If that meant having to having to play some virtual game, she was willing to give it a try.

In the world of Pariah, Verusya is an abnormality. Whereas most appear more muscular, taller, etc., Verusya appears more as of herself. She remains the short, doll-like princess she had been in the real world, albeit with both legs and eyes having returned.

Her strong desire for normality, or rather in more specific terms, a "return of her father's smile", has heavily influenced a certain skill set for her Pariah persona—chronomancy.

Despite having never played any sort of MMO before, the powerful abilities she has gathered over her gaming career has drawn the interest of many a guild or party. Coupled with her gentle, approachable nature, Verusya has become a household name for her willingness to help and assist when needed in various sorts of content.

From a young age, Joshua was taught to hide himself from the world, following what is said to be accepted. He was the second child to Joshua SR., something that his older half-brother Justin would take a threat to his own standing with his father. The notion that his own father gave his name to his baby brother, a child not of his mother, instead of his first born caused a rift between the siblings that would last for over a decade. Joshua was never able to form a connection with his brother, constantly shunned and forced to play on his own. This treatment would play a role in creating his timid nature, causing school life to be one the worst periods of his life.

Bullying was the name of the game when it came to school. Joshua was never one to speak up when people took from him, he had been well adjusted to being treated such a way by his brother, never allowed to fight back or catch a right hook. Justin would never defend him, deciding that Joshua wasn't someone he wished to protect. Life would only grow harder when Joshua would decide to help a kid who was also being picked on. He was okay being bullied but, the hate of watching others be bullied caused him to finally stand up despite how it would affect him. The whole ordeal led to him being beat up, and parents being called; this exchange would change Joshua's life for the better.

Joshua Sr. would take his son aside, and praise him for sticking up for another, whilst condemning Justin, furthering the divide. For years to come, Joshua would hold his father's word closely. Realizing how alone Joshua was, his parents would instead begin investing his time into gaming. They both were avid gamers and their precious baby boy would take to gaming like a bird learning to fly.

Eventually life would take a vicious turn when cancer would take his father's life.

Pariah would soon become Bayle's new home. His parents had been running a successful Guild known as Utopia, a guild meant to help those of Pariah, from the kid needing help with a lost cat to fighting monsters. Bayle would join his parents alongside his brother Seethe, becoming the faces of the Guild. Unable to handle other roles, Bayle would gravitate to magic, learning to become a summoner, sticking to the backline, summoning arcane creatures and applying buffs to others. Pariah became a haven for him as he was highly respected for his efforts in the backline. Unfortunately those good feelings would end after his father's passing.

The Guild was rocked by the loss of his father, leaving a hole for Seethe to step up, his mother unable to play for some time. Bayle would ignore the world, hiding away in Pariah to keep himself from having to grieve. Eventually his mother would comfort her son, finding that they were able to grieve together through continued play of Pariah, those that respected Joshua SR coming together to give him a loving farewell. Seethe, on the other hand, would further the divide by distancing himself from both.

Bayle would soon learn that his father's last words to him would come to pass.