Johannes Cabal the Necromancer

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Johannes Cabal has never pretended to be a hero of any kind. There is, after all, little heroic about robbing graves, stealing occult volumes, and being on nodding terms with demons.

His purpose, however is noble. His researches are all directed to raising the dead. Not as monstrosities but as people, just as they were when they lived: physically, mentally, and spiritually. For such a prize, some sacrifices are necessary. One such sacrifice was his own soul, but now he sees that was a mistake - it's not just that he needs it for his research to have validity, but now he realizes he needs it to be himself.

Unfortunately, his soul now rests within the festering bureaucracy of Hell. Satan may be cruel and capricious but, most dangerously, he is bored. It is Cabal's unhappy lot to provide him with amusement.

In short, a wager: in return for his own soul, Cabal must gather one hundred others. Placed in control of a diabolical carnival - created to tempt to contentiousness, to blasphemy, argumentation and murder, but one may also win coconuts - and armed only with his intelligence, a very large handgun, and a total absence of whimsy, Cabal has one year.

Johannes Cabal the Necromancer is the first novel written for Jonathan L. Howard's Johannes Cabal series. Before the novel, Howard has written several short stories in the Cabalverse. JC the Necromancer is followed by Johannes Cabal the Detective.

Howard has also written a character sheet for Cabal, available here.

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Tropes used in Johannes Cabal the Necromancer include:

• All There in the Manual: In addition to the three main novels (Necromancer, Detective, and Fear Institute,) Johnathan L. Howard has also written several short stories about Cabal. These short stories can be read as standalones, but provide readers of the novels extra insight into Cabal's character. (Good luck finding “Exeunt Demon King” and “Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day” - they were published in a now-defunct magazine.) The House of Gears, the latest Cabal short story is available online.
  • Jonathan L. Howard also released a Dungeons and Dragons character sheet for Cabal. It includes a good amount of additional back-story and even includes floor plans of Cabal's house.
• Aloof Big Brother: Horst Cabal, Johannes' suave older brother.
• Ambiguously Evil: Cabal
• Anti-Hero: Cabal is a Type V, probably.

Old Man: You're not nice. Cabal: Your...founder has given me the task of sending one hundred souls to eternal torment. To be quite frank, I don't think my name is ever going to become a byword for popularity.

• Back for the Dead
• Back from the Dead
• Badass Bookworm: Cabal, though it's more prominent in the second book
• Badass Normal: Frank Barrow
• Better Living Through Evil: Cabal wants to cure death, and will do anything researching how to do that requires.
• Big Bad: Whether it's Satan or Cabal depends on who you ask
• Black and Grey Morality: Cabal isn't good, but his goal is noble and by the end, we find out that he could be so much worse.
• Body Horror: Dennis and Denzil, as their bodies decay
• Came Back Wrong: Dennis and Denzil
• Carnival of Killers: In a more literal sense. Per Horst's suggestions, Cabal summons a variety of demons for is carnival, each with different specialties. Some of them do include killing.
• Celestial Bureaucracy: The novel's portrayal of Hell.
• Circles of Hell: Arthur Trubshaw's bureaucracy is considered it's own circle of hell.
• Combat Pragmatist: Cabal prefers certainty over subtlety or style. Hence, the Webley .577, "a weapon of egregious aspect."
• Creepy Cemetery
• Cutting the Knot: Cabal's favored method of dealing with revengers
• Dangerously Genre Savvy: Cabal. In his profession, he needs to be in order to stay alive.
• The Dark Arts
• Deal with the Devil: Deconstructed. Cabal initially sells his soul to Satan in exchange for the secrets of necromancy. Cabal is dissatisfied with his soulless state as he is unable to trust the results of his experiments. He spends the first novel trying to get his soul back via another deal with Satan.
• Deadpan Snarker: Horst and Johannes, but the former is more prone to this.
• Death by Origin Story
• Death Equals Redemption: Horst, though mostly not his own redemption.
• Death Is a Sad Thing: Cabal genuinely dislikes killing, as it's a waste
• Death Is Cheap: Played with every which way, but ultimately averted.
• Demonic Possession
• Does Not Understand Sarcasm: Satan's avatar.

Old Man: Neat, eh? Goes down a bomb at parties, I can tell you. Cabal: Really? I’ll have to hold a soirée just to impress my friends. Old Man: You haven’t got any friends. Cabal: I’m not holding a soirée, either. You have a problem with sarcasm, don’t you?

• Dying Moment of Awesome: Horst, again
• Dysfunction Junction: The countryside Cabal's train roams has problems with escaped mental patients, murders and a few demons.
• The Dragon: Ratuth Slabuth to Satan
• Evil Is Hammy: Ratuth Slabuth loves a good entrance. Rufus Maleficarus also one for dramatics - a fact that Cabal is happy to take advantage of.
• Evil Plan: Satan's, until Cabal proves to be a Spanner in the Works.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Many
• Femme Fatale: Layla the Latex Lady
• Functional Magic: Played with. Magic exists, but it's not particularly functional.
• Genius Bruiser: One of the carnival's constructs
• Genre Savvy: Horst, when asking Cabal for some blood:

Horst: Look, what's bothering you? It's the homoerotic aspect, isn't it? (Runs after Cabal) Well, don't flatter yourself. It's just a transfusion, for crying out loud.

• Girl in a Box
• Ghost Town
• Girl Next Door: Leonie Barrow. Beautiful country girl that Cabal is drawn to at first sight, or bothers him by looking familiar, she is also the only female in the book that is portrayed in a truly positive light, especially when compared to Femme Fatale Layla or Nea Winshaw.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: Maleficarus, though he wasn't the picture of mental health beforehand.
• Grotesque Gallery
• Guile Hero: Horst, arguably
• Hand Cannon: The Webley .577.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Satan
• Ho Yay: Horst suspects this is why Cabal is uncomfortable with being Horst's blood donor.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Leonie Barrow
• Infant Immortality: Averted, then played straight with Nea Winshaw's baby.
• Karma Houdini: Cabal, because Satan finds that he causes more chaos alive than dead.
• Karmic Death: While not exactly death, victims who signed their souls over to damnation were usually tempted by vices that they already had.
• Kick the Son of a Bitch: Cabal does this to Ratuth Slabuth and Trubshaw.
• Last-Name Basis: Johannes Cabal is most often simply known as 'Cabal,' while Horst Cabal goes by his first name.
• Love Makes You Evil: Cabal's ultimate motivation.
• Mad Scientist: Played with with Cabal
• Necromancer: Cabal.
• Necromantic
• Noodle Incident

Horst: (to Johannes) Good God, you’re not still bitter about that time at Conrad’s party, are you? I’ve apologised for that a dozen times over. It was a joke.

• No Social Skills: Cabal realizes this, but concludes that people are simply unworthy of his time. This comes back to bite him when his wager with Satan requires him to run a carnival. Cabal is grudgingly forced to run to his brother Horst for help.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Arthur Trubshaw. His talents earned him a position in Hell.
• Our Vampires Are Different: Horst has both proven and debunked many of myths: sunlight kills him, but he doesn't need the coffin. Vampirism is spread via the mixing of blood and not the bite. He still has a reflection.
• Our Demons Are Different
• Pardon My Klingon: When English and German cannot sufficiently express his anger, Cabal swears in dead languages.
• Pet the Dog: Cabal gets a few moments of this.
• Phenotype Stereotype
• Refuge in Audacity: How Cabal survives Hell
• Serial Killer: One of the prison escapees. He kills people because that is the only way for people to notice him.
• The Lost Lenore: Pretty much the basis for everything.
• The Soulless: Cabal
• Spanner in the Works: Several. Most notably Horst, who steals one of the 100 contracts Johannes needs to get signed in order to win his bet with Satan.
• The Spock: Surprisingly, Cabal's soulless state did little to contribute to this.
• Starfish Language: A few of the languages Cabal uses for swearing
• Sword Cane: Cabal has one, concealing a 3-foot steel blade.
• The Un-Smile: Cabal practices this all the time daily in order to scare small children and the elderly.
• Those Two Bad Guys: Dennis and Denzel. Until Cabal kills them and zombifies them with Batch 247.
• Those Two Guys: Again, Dennis and Denzel
• Totalitarian Utilitarian: As seen throughout the novel, and very poignantly in this interview, Cabal doesn't give a shit about the means, only the ends.
• Villain Protagonist: Possibly also related to the fact that Cabal is a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• Weapon of Choice: A Webley .577 handgun.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Take a wild guess.
• What a Senseless Waste of Human Life: While Cabal has no problem with committing violent acts of murder, he does not like to.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Horst to Cabal, often.
• Wicked Cultured: Both of the Cabal brothers.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Cabal's favored method of human interaction.
• You Kill It, You Bought It: Cabal with Maleficarus' horde of sanitarium escapees.
• You Killed My Father: Rufus Maleficarus claimed that Cabal killed his father. Cabal claims that it didn't count because, technically, Maleficarus's father was already dead.
• Your Soul Is Mine