Catalina Castillo

Catalina was born in Spain, in a city named Santander. There she grew up raised by her grandmother, who, while secular, secretly practiced witchcraft. Catalina had no knowledge of this at all, until she was in her early teens. Awoken in the middle of the night by a ruckus, she found her grandmother scurrying about. As Catalina watched in the shadows of the hallway, her grandmother ran at the wall and simply walked through it! Perplexed and thinking that she must be dreaming, she saw her grandmother rush back out of the wall, potions and scrolls in hand, which the older woman promptly stowed into a pack, and then rushed out into the night.

Now, certain that she was awake, Catalina followed her grandmother on foot, through alleys and down roads for a long time. In the forested Cantabrian Mountains, Picos de Europa National Park, she still followed the old woman who followed a hiking trail and then veered off. In the dark night, the young girl tripped and tried to remain silent, but her grandmother heard her. Spinning on her heels, the old woman yelled a word as her hand glowed purple and Catalina cried out. Realizing whom it was- her grandmother calmed a moment. However, just then, little green men with red eyes, duendes, leapt from the trees to attack the ladies. Her grandmother fought them back with her magic, but the duendes were too numerous. As Catalina screamed in confusion and panic, bright white lights filled the forest nearby.

Anjanas, a type of fairy-folk, came to the rescue of the humans. Swarming like bees they cast spells and chased away the duendes back into their underground caverns. Her grandmother had been told of duendes in the mountains and had come to end the creatures before they could spread out. Together, with the aid of the anjanas, they managed to destroy all the duendes in the caves as Catalina could only sit and watch. Afterwards, her grandmother explained that she was a witch and hunted monsters in the countryside to keep the area safe. Catalina desperately pleaded to know more, and she grew over the years into a powerful witch. Commanding shadow magic as easy as light magic, she walked a middle ground between the dualities. Her grandmother lived a long life, until she was killed in Spain by a demon.

Catalina managed to destroy the demon, but it opened up her eyes to a whole new world of darkness. The monsters in the mountains were nothing compared to the demon. She started a new journey in remembrance of her grandmother and mentor, spending the next several years honing her magic to specifically target demonic powers. Taking to the world travel, Catalina slew demons and their cults wherever she could scry them. This led to the U.S. government approaching her and offering her a job as a Bureau of Demonic Analysis agent. Accepting the offer, she joined the elite group’s magic and spells division. For three years she helped the BDA defeat cults and demons within U.S. borders, until given a mission in Portland, Oregon. As a lead agent, she was to neutralize Heloise Laveau, a powerful voodoo priestess gone rogue. Heloise had fallen under the sway of Ah Pwash, a dark god, and grew close to opening a demonic portal. On first reconnaissance, her agents encountered the Bishops, zombie hunting siblings with a personal vendetta against Heloise. Catalina informed Arion and Ayana that they were to vacate Lone Fir Cemetery and not return.

Planning their attack and securing the area, Catalina’s forces were about to move in when Absinthe Van Gothen arrived. She had come to aid the Bishops. Catalina warned the monster hunter that she needed to leave, even going as far as warning the lethal force would be used as a deterrent, but Absinthe refused to abandon the siblings. As the agents swarmed the mausoleum used as the base of Heloise’s operations, hordes of demonically animated zombies poured forth. Though the agents destroyed countless undead, there were more than they could have ever realized thanks to the sheer size of the graveyard. Abandoning her agents to their demise and using them to draw away the zombies, she showed up to find the Bishops combating Heloise.

It will never be known if Arion and Ayana could have managed to defeat their foe in direct combat, because Catalina intruded. Angry at the blatant disregard for her authority, she actually used it to throw back the siblings before engaging Heloise on her own. Unfortunately, Ah Pwash’s power combined with Heloise’s natural magical affinity proved too great for Catalina, and she found herself defeated. The Bishops had lost their own chance and were bound as well. The Bishops watched as Heloise ordered her zombies to ravage the BDA agent, and when they were done, she was nothing more than a mindless corpse and puppet. Only minutes later, Catalina’s final end came when Absinthe Van Gothen destroyed her as she made her way to her friends.