Editing The Dresden Files RPG (section)

====Regular humans/ Vanilla Mortals====
Mocked and derided as prey and cattle, but most predators appreciate how dangerous an angry mob of confused and scared humans can be, to some extent or another. Most supernatural beings just operate under the idea that not pissing off all the mortals might lead to an easier life, assuming they haven't noticed that the potential mobs are much bigger than the ones in the sixteenth century, and that the torches and pitchforks have been replaced with assault rifles and attack helicopters. As such there are plenty of mortals, both groups and individuals, regularly take on the supernatural and kick ass, such as paramilitary strike teams, monster hunters, and even a giant fraternity of librarians a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the supernatural community, involving human law enforcement in a supernatural dispute is the equivalent of waving around a nuclear warhead. (Un)Fortunately, most humans will try to rationalize and forget most encounters with the supernatural so they can get back to their safe, normal, mundane, lives. So the Masquerade in the Dresden Files isn't a massive conspiracy of epic proportions, its more of a series of low to medium level bribes and coverups.

*'''Susan Rodriguez''': Reporter and Harry's sometime lover. They met when Susan kept trying to use Harry to write an article about the supernatural, which would have made no difference to the world at large because she works for a tabloid. Other than that, she's pretty smart (but lacking in foresight at times, leading to several spoilery plot points).

*'''Waldo Butters''': Coroner and Harry's go to forensics guy and sometime "guy who takes care of my bullet/sword/claw/fang wounds". A literal genius and polka aficionado cursed with an unfortunate name

*'''Malcolm Dresden''': Harry's father, and "a Good man". Malcolm Dresden was a stage magician in the age when television and technology was making more magic than magic could. He raised Harry as well as he could while they lived on the road. Died of a brain aneurysm in his sleep when Harry was 6. His ghost, or memory, or potentially his soul came back twice during the events of Dead Beat to give Harry life advice, because the other side had "cheated" whatever that means.

*'''Mac''': The owner of McAnally's, Harry's preferred pub and the brewer of the greatest beer in the Great Lakes area (according to Harry), Mac is a tall, gangly, bald, 30-50 year old white male so surrounded in mystery that it's impossible to tell if he's human, inhuman, or a facet of reality given flesh. He rarely speaks or emotes, and often only giving monosyllabic advice when he does, Mab treats him with respect, he's on a first name basis with Donar Vadderung (Odin), the Queens of Faerie and their Knights (the ones that aren't complete scumbags anyways), and Kringle, his pub is Neutral Ground under the Unseelie accords, one of the Outsider walkers refers to him as "Watcher", and when Harry presses him for information and help, the only answer he gives is "I'm out." According to WoJ "He's not a god, or the scion of a god. he ''is'', however, dangerous." and that Jim stated in a public talk at the Trails West Library, Liberty, MO he has "already told you who he is, but you'd have to be pretty nerdy..."

=====Criminal Underworld=====
Most organized crime probably has some connections to the supernatural, they may not be directly involved in it, but they probably know about some of the supernatural predators and organizations in a given area and try to give them a wide berth. Some crime lords have a preference for hiring half-demon hitmen and ancient norse security consultants.

*'''John "Gentleman Johnny" Marcone''': the "Baron of Chicago" and the man in charge of the Chicago Outfit, he's extremely ruthless and efficient, a man who believes its best to rule with two parts respect, one part fear. While the city was locked in a gang war as a result of the more entrenched families imploding, his rise to power began, he kept killing the competition until he was the only capo left. He realized that people are more loyal to you when you treat them nice, so all his underlings get decent working conditions and medical insurance. Violent crime and crimes involving minors (he's got a code: don't hurt kids) dropped to its lowest in years during his reign, thus making the streets more efficient, orderly, and easy for him to control. The police don't like to go after him partially because they're afraid of his replacement being worse than he is and partially because he'll have them fired, threatened, bribed, coerced, or failing those killed and thrown into Lake Michigan. Harry doesn't like him, but he knows that Marcone is almost always the lesser of two evils when it comes to organized crime. So turn a blind eye; the streets are safer, human trafficking is at its lowest, nobody's peddling drugs to your kids, and who do you have to thank? John Marcone of course, your friendly neighborhood real estate mogul and philanthropist, what an upstanding citizen! Let's make sure he stays in power why don't we? John Marcone is almost definitely an assumed name, and in the short story ''Even Hand'' he's implied to either be ex-military or law enforcement. He's a bit of an odd duck as far as crime lords go in that while he does have a code of honor(based off nordic and germanic models), he doesn't believe in old school italian mafia tradition and ceremony. He dresses less like The Godfather and more like the executive of a multimillion dollar corporation. He doesn't tolerate any interference with his personnel or any attempts by the Five Families on the East Coast to muscle in on his territory.

*'''"Cujo" Hendricks''': Massive bodyguard for Marcone. Quiet, loyal, and thick-skulled in every sense of the word. Has studied philosophy.

*'''Troubleshooters''': Marcone's heavy hitters, named so because their job is to find trouble, then shoot it
**'''Childs''': Marcone's top troubleshooter. A man of apparently African descent with peroxide blonde hair and a caribbean accent. He may or may not be fully human

=====The Paranet=====
A recent faction of low level magic users and concerned citizens, its an online community that tries to distribute knowledge about the supernatural for self defense without things like giving up one's humanity or going through complex and humiliating initiations. Depending on who's using it, it can be anything from a support group to a grapevine to an online anarchists's cookbook for those looking to shove a thumb in the eye of a supernatural predator.
*'''Elaine Lillian Mallory''': a rare non-warlock wizard who doesn't belong to the White Council. Harry's adoptive sister/ first lover(look, its complicated). Harry and Elaine were unrelated orphans who were adopted at roughly the same by Justin DuMorne and they subsequently grew up together. As one would expect, when the two turned into horny teenagers, one thing lead to another and they became lovers (although DuMorne might have encouraged it since it would enable him to gain leverage over one by manipulating the other). While Harry was able to escape DuMorne's psychic headlock, Elaine was not so lucky and ended up enthralled. When Harry burned DuMorne to death, he lost track of Elaine in the smoke and assumed that she too had died. Harry beat himself up over this for years until he learned that Elaine was alive, she had never contacted him until then because being enthralled and then seeing her father figure burn to death traumatized her. Then '''SPOILERS''' happened and they '''SPOILERS''' and ended up '''SPOILERS''' the '''SPOILERS'''. She was one of the founding members of the Paranet, providing much of the knowledge about the supernatural world required to get it off the ground. She's less powerful than Harry but better with more delicate magic, in combat she uses lightning evocation.
*'''Mortimer "Morty" Lindquist''': Chicago's resident Ectomancer and spirit medium, by his latest appearance he's probably powerful enough to get on the council, but he lacks the generalised skill set of a full Wizard. He's an admitted coward, and at his introduction has barely any power left after squandering it on false seances and other cons. He grows more confidant and powerful throughout the series, but he continues to try and convince other people to leave him alone. He and Harry have an adversarial relationship based on mutual respect, Morty admits that Harry is powerful and usually means well, but every time he crosses Harry's path something goes excessively wrong in Morty's direction, while Harry gets a look at the things Morty deals with when his power starts to return, and starts to treat him like a person rather than a useful tool.
*'''Gary The Conspiracy Guy''': One of those guys, lives in his mother's basement and tracks everything calling it "Studying the Paranormal through Statistics".

=====Special Investigations=====
The branch of CPD that everyone else foists all the weird, supernatural cases on in the hopes that they cook up a rational explanation (read: bullshit) for it that allows everyone else to sleep at night. Its also the CPD's equivalent of a siberian detention camp, ask too many questions or piss off the wrong people and you'll get transferred to SI. People in SI rarely get transferred to other divisions and many leave the force soon after being put there.

*'''Lieutenant Karrin Murphy''': Head of CPD's Special Investigations and one of Harry's closest friends and allies. Below average height, most people underestimate her, only to be proven wrong when they inevitably find out that she's both a gun nut and a master of aikido and several other martial arts. For most of the series, she's been the second half of an awkward hybrid will-they-won't-they + cop-buddy relationship with Harry.  Her father was in a precursor to the SI, the Black Cat Division, and he ended up killing himself at his desk (it's implied that he was forced to by... something). She's been married and divorced twice, the second time to an FBI agent who promptly got remarried to her younger sister, earning both of them  her eternal hatred. She's often times suspicious of others, confrontational, and a bit of a bitch, but she's loyal to her friends and doesn't afraid of anything.

*'''Henry Rawlins''': A veteran beat cop and friend of the Murphy family. Worked with Murphy's father for a time, and eventually got transferred back into SI. Is one of the only people on the planet brave enough to call Lieutenant Murphy "Little Carrie Murphy". A friend and ally of Murphy's and Harry's, with a solid head on his shoulders. A real bro-tier guy. Generally a skeptic, but willing to suspend his disbelief when the situation calls for it.

*'''Rudolph''': A whiny, corrupt, little shitstain who who got "promoted" to SI for sleeping with the wrong politician's daughter, before kissing enough ass to get into Internal Affairs. As he's in complete denial about his experiences with the supernatural and is implied to be unknowingly on the take from various supernatural nasties, he is one of the most despised characters in the entire series, both in-universe and by readers. He shows up every once in a while to make things difficult for Murphy and Dresden.