Holmes, Sherlock

Amomng the ranks of Gothic Earth's criminals, no name was ever so feared as that of Sherlock Holmes. Referring to himself as a "consulting detective", the great investigator became famous for his almost superhuman proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science, and logical reasoning, which he employed while investigating cases for a wide variety of clients, including Scotland Yard.

It is public knowledge that Holmes died in 1891, falling from a narrow and rocky path over the Reichenbach Falls while engaged in hand-to-hand combat with the criminal mastermind James Moriarty. Many Londoners wore black armbands in mourning when this loss was revealed, but some consolation can be taken from the fact that Holmes appears to have brought an end to the life of a great villain at the same time.

Most of what we know about Holmes comes by way of his friend and biographer Dr. John H. Watson. Holmes was born in 1854, and has at least one sibling, the government official Mycroft Holmes, his elder brother. Despite his abrupt and often caustic manner, and a general avoidance of casual company, he forged friendships with Watson and the noted writer Arthur Conan Doyle. Watson usually accompanied Holmes during his investigations and has been his roommate, and in 1887 he began publishing summaries of the detective's most interesting cases, with Doyle's literary assistance. Holmes frequently called Watson's records of Holmes's cases sensational and populist, suggesting that they fail to accurately and objectively report the "science" of his craft. Financial difficulties led Holmes and Dr. Watson to share rooms together at 221B Baker Street, London, a residence maintained by their landlady, Mrs. Hudson.

The great detective was known for "reading" his clients and suspects: observes their dress and attitude, noting skin marks (such as tattoos), contamination (such as ink stains or clay on boots), emotional state, and physical condition, in order to deduce their origins and recent history. He also frequently relied on the style and state of wear of a person's clothes and personal items. For example, he once inferred that Watson had recently been out in vile weather and had "a most clumsy and careless servant girl". When Watson asked how Holmes knew this, the detective answered: "It is simplicity itself ... my eyes tell me that on the inside of your left shoe, just where the firelight strikes it, the leather is scored by six almost parallel cuts. Obviously they have been caused by someone who has very carelessly scraped round the edges of the sole in order to remove crusted mud from it."

Holmes's clients varied from the most powerful monarchs and governments of Europe, to wealthy aristocrats and industrialists, to impoverished pawnbrokers and governesses. He was known only in select professional circles when Watson began chronicling his cases, but was already collaborating with Scotland Yard. However, his continued work and the publication of Watson's stories raised Holmes's profile, and he rapidly became well known as a detective; so many clients asked for his help instead of (or in addition to) that of the police.

Doyle described Holmes' personality in extreme terms, saying he was "as inhuman as a Babbage's calculating machine and just about as likely to fall in love". While Holmes could be dispassionate and cold, during an investigation he became animated and excitable. He displayed a flair for showmanship, often keeping his methods and evidence hidden until the last possible moment so as to impress observers. He was willing to bend the truth (or break the law) on behalf of a client, lying to the police, concealing evidence or breaking into houses, though Watson notes that generally these situations are morally justifiable. Said to have a "cat-like" love of personal cleanliness, at the same time Holmes was an eccentric with no regard for contemporary standards of tidiness or good order, to the frequent frustration of his roommate Watson.

Watson once wrote that he had "weaned" Holmes off of cocaine (which is a legal drug in 19th century London), but noted that the the detective remained an addict whose habit is "not dead, but merely sleeping."

Despite running in some of the same circles as qabalists, Holmes never joined any qabal. Some might argue that Holmes’s personal network (including his Baker Street Irregulars and other intelligence gatherers) served the same function for the Great Detective.

Holmes studied at a number of prestigious schools, but never completed any formal program or degree. He was a master chemist and an expert criminologist, and had a great familiarity with physical and social sciences. These skills, combined with his brilliant analytical mind and almost perfect memory, enabled him to solve virtually any mystery that came before him. Those who outwitted him, including the mysterious Irene Adler, were few and far between.

In 1891, after a long series of conflicts, Holmes had pierced Moriarty's greatest secret-- though he never revealed it to his ally and chronicler Watson, who has never even met Moriarty. On the verge of delivering a fatal blow to Moriarty's criminal organization, Sherlock was forced to flee to continental Europe to escape the mastermind's retribution. Moriarty vowed to Holmes that "if you are clever enough to bring destruction upon me, rest assured that I shall do as much to you"

Holmes tried to persuade Watson to return to England for his own safety, knowing that Moriarty would now devote himself entirely to vengeance against the man who destroyed his schemes. But the faithful Watson refused to leave his friend's side and the two of them continued to travel, next going to Switzerland, where they planned to see the majestic Reichenbach Falls.

However, Watson was lured away from Holmes by a distraction Moriarty orchestrated, and when he reached the falls, he found a note from the great detective. It revealed the Holmes knew he was on his way to confront his archenemy alone. Footprints and other evidence showed that Holmes and Moriarty had walked up the muddy, narrow dead end path, and that they had fought. It is also all too clear that during the fight, both fell to their deaths down the waterfall.

Forbidden Lore
In truth, both Holmes and the criminal mastermind Moriarty survived their conflict. They remain in hiding from one another to this day.

The reason Holmes was able to break Moriarty's criminal empire was that he discovered an occult secret: Moriarty was actually one of the rakshasa, that breed of powerful spirits who wield their malevolent power in the shadows of India, and thus possessed inhuman command over the power of illusions and magic.

In fact, Moriarty's was not the only supernatural conspiracy Holmes discovered in his career. London has no shortage of cultists, zealots, and fanatics looking to inflict their iniquitous schemes upon the unwitting populace, as well as vampires, werewolves, ghosts, hags, golems, trolls, zombies, and demons. Before his descent at Reichenbach, Holmes secretly inspired and recruited many to the cause of humanity’s defense against occult threats. Today, Holmes’ associates Doctor Watson and Professor George E. Challenger continue this work as best they can.

Perhaps as a posthumous recognition of his brother’s secret work, Mycroft Holmes has caused the establishment of Scotland Yard’s Special Branch Section 13, tasked with investigating strange and supernatural threats. As of yet, however, this new branch of Her Majesty’s government has little more than a fraction of the occult expertise possessed by qabals like Die Wächtern or the Ghost Circle, and its understanding of eldritch matters remains woefully incomplete.

Holmes was also the sometime ally of Abraham Van Helsing, to whom he was introduced by Pope Leo XIII himself, during the affair known as “The Case of the Vatican Cameos." Van Helsing is one of the few people aware that Holmes is alive, and that the Great Detective is not only busy finishing off the remains of Moriarty's nefarious network, but on the trail of another, intercontinental plot, which he described to Van Helsing as "a conspiracy against time itself."