OC Profile - Chaney, Spirit of Strife (Ruby Gloom)

Chaney, the Spirit of Strife and Anguish, is a frighteningly unhappy dude. It’s his job to take care of the damned souls of the underworld and put seeds of doubt in the minds of mortal and unnatural men alike. He’s pure self loathing and hatred incarnate - and he’s good at what he does. He’s also Ruby Gloom’s father. The resemblance is uncanny, I know.

When Chaney was young he met and married a mortal girl named Penny Dreadful. The two tried to make a new life for themselves on the surface world, but sooner or later Chaney was roped back into his family business as a way to support his wife and child. He excelled at what he did but lost the trust of mortal and unnatural people alike, and also lost him the love of his wife. It took years for Chaney to finally find Ruby after Penny abandoned her in Gloomsville, but ever since then, he’s tried to be a good father and only thinks about what’s best for his little girl. Yes, while Chaney may be the warden of the damned, he’s not technically “evil” himself, and only wants to make the people he loves happy. This is easier said than done as a Spirit of Strife can’t really create “happy” things. So he can only do what he does best: abuse his power and occasionally loose his cool in an explosive, manic episode.

Ruby doesn’t really excel at her father’s gift of cruelty, which frightens Chaney. Ruby is an anti-martyr; what future is left for if she doesn’t fill the role of evildoer?! Naturally there’s a lot of baggage between father and daughter there, but the two still love each other regardless. After all, Ruby can see through the bad things. She understands her father is scarred from his youthful exercise in trying to be one thing while knowing he has to be another.

Notes:

-Chaney is named after Lon Chaney and Lon Chaney Jr of Universal Horror fame.
-Does Chaney have feet? You will never know….
-His ideal voice is somewhere between Vincent Price, Claude Raims, and Danny Elfman.
-Chaney’s design is purposefully reminiscent of the webcomic Zoophobia, which also has a devil character struggling to understand his child.
-Ruby gets her eyebrows and hair color from Chaney. She also has his all black demon eyes, though hers are a lot rounder and sweeter.
-Yes, Chaney is the Ruby Gloomverse’s take on the devil. And yes, that makes Ruby sort of a failed-antichrist.
-Chaney was originally a hoity-toity angry guy who did nothing but bash Ruby until her friends came to support her. As the bones of You Think You Know a Gloom came to be, he evolved out of that characterization fast.