The Pope Family

The Pope Family are part of The Book of Falling by Rob Pegler.

The Popes—or certain branches of them—have been fighting the supernatural for centuries. The family tree can be traced back to Absalom Pope, a ruthless demon hunter in the 17th century, and includes such unlikely heroes and heroines as Jessamine Pope, who made the mistake of standing her ground against Molech and the Filth in 1876, or the unnamed ancestor who tried to assassinate several of the Middling Lords in the early 1800s and ended up losing both arms (and presumably his life).

The “Roseburg Popes” began with Malachi Pope, Gabriel’s great-grandfather, who arrived there in 1921 with Nadja Pope (his Romanian wife) and Moses Downwright (his hunting partner). The two men set themselves up as “Downwright and Pope, Investigators” and began making trouble for the various supernatural denizens of the city, especially the vampires. This tradition has continued through three more generations via Malachi’s son Jericho (who brought Meliad into the business) his grandson Lazarus, and now his great-grandson Gabriel. Each generation has brought his own unique approach to monster hunting, and not one of them has died in bed. Though the Downwrights haven’t had a stake in the business since the 1960s, the Popes keep their name on the door for tradition’s sake.

The history of the Popes is mostly recorded in the “Pope Family Journal”, a hefty and antiquated tome containing records of their deeds along with an encyclopædic store of information on the various creatures they’ve hunted over the centuries. The book is locked up in a safe deposit box at a small and exclusive bank in North Roseburg; Gabe and Mel keep a scanned backup copy around the office for easy reference.