| “ | Monsters are extremely obedient to the summoner. They're much more pliable that way than humans. | „ |
| ~ Kevin |
Kevin is a minor villain in the game Shadow Hearts and the mayor of the small town of Bistritz, in the Transylvanian highlands. He is a corrupt official that began study of the occult to acquire power and wealth.
Biography[]
Kevin was the Mayor of the small town of Bistritz, he was greatly unhappy with his post as the town was a small isolated settlement in the Balkan highland's of Transylvania far from the rest of civilization with little to offer tourists, researchers or attract revenue in general. One of the few features the town had was it lay beneath the Blue Castle, an ancient castle built for the original royalty of Transylvania up until the sixteenth century. Local legend had it that the nobles that once ruled from the Blue Castle were vampires and so the castle was long since abandoned even by the people of Bistritz. Kevin began researching vampires when he heard the legends of the Blue Castle. His research eventually lead him to the discovery of the Blood Rites practiced by the Valentine aristocrats that once ruled there. Kevin and one of the other citizens of Bistritz, named Terry, started collecting research on the vampires and the Blood Rites and how to replicate them. But when Kevin's research started to pay off allowing him to summon undead creatures Terry became nervous and when Kevin started letting the creatures roam throughout the town potentially hurting the people of Bistritz, Terry dissolved his partnership with Kevin. Terry knew Kevin would try to silence him and ran to get help for his town before Kevin had a chance to kill him. Terry eventually made his way to Prague and encountered two Exorcists that had been making a name for themselves in the area, Alice Elliot and Zhuzhen Li. Terry just barely had time to tell the two that his home in Bistritz was being attacked by monsters before he was killed by a particularly powerful ghost called Arcane Olga, whom Kevin had summoned to assassinate him.
Trouble in Bistritz[]
Alice and Zhuzhen went to honor Terry's last request and journeyed to Bistritz to investigate the strange happenings there. The town seemed isolated, but peaceful enough so with no supernatural activity to stop the two exorcists went to the shop run by Terry's wife and daughter. Terry's wife, Michelle, ran the shop with their daughter, Nina. After the grim news of Terry's death was delivered Kevin arrived in the shop to check up on the strangers. When he heard the news he feigned sorrow for Michelle and told her she could come to him is she needed anything then left. When Alice and Zhuzhen asked about the monsters in town Michelle confirmed that some monsters had been wondering around town on and off for a few days which had lead everyone to stay in doors and lock-up at nightfall. Alice and Zhuzhen asked about any legends or supernatural history the town might have had that could be lined to the monsters and Michelle hesitantly told them about the legends of the Blue Castle. Nina spoke up when her mother mentioned the castle saying the vampires in the castle were real but they would never do anything like summon monsters to attack Bistritz. Michelle encouraged Nina to keep quiet but Alice and Zhuzhen assured her they would not condemn Nina and inquired about Nina's knowledge of vampires. Nina told them she had been up to the castle to investigate a loud crash she had heard a few months earlier when she was attacked by wolves and that she was saved by a handsome vampire. She had also been back to visit a few times but she had to stop going when the people started thinking she had become a vampire herself. Alice and Zhuzhen could see Nina was not a vampire but thought that the legends of such in the castle were a good place to start and decided to leave to get to the bottom of Terry's death.
Sure enough when Alice and Zhuzhen left the shop the town was filed with a red mist and undead creatures were appearing from within it. At the castle Alice and Zhuzhen eventually met Keith Valentine, the handsome vampire Nina had met. Keith was the heir of his family and remained asleep for three hundred years but the crash that Nina had been there to check on was also what woke him up. Keith was not an evil vampire and had enjoyed Nina's company when she came to visit, telling Alice and Zhuzhen that the biggest draw-back to being undead is how boring eternal life gets. Once Alice and Zhuzhen were convinced Keith was not to blame for the monsters in Bistritz though they had to wonder what was. Keith insisted on returning to the village with them to see if he could help as he both wanted to visit Nina and felt it was his responsibility as the rightful Lord of Bistritz to protect the town.
The monsters were still lose when the three returned to town. Keith was happy to see Nina again but Nina was very upset and Michelle was nowhere to be seen. Nina told them that Kevin had come to hit on her mother again as he often did when her father wasn't around. Michelle thought that he had just come to make advances again and tried to turn him down at first but soon found-out that time he was there to size up the visitor's strength as exorcists. Kevin had had-his-fill of laying low too and admitted to Michelle what he had been doing. Terry had a friend in America who had become a famous botanists and quite rich for his research. Kevin had heard that Terry's friend had sent a gift to Nina, a valuable one. Kevin wanted to know where the gift was, he told Michelle he knew it was a parcel of gold as that was the only thing in such a size package that could be that valuable. Kevin wanted the gold so he could leave town, for even a few pounds of gold would go a long way in that small part of Europe and Kevin would be happy to suspend his research of the vampires if it meant cutting out the middle-man and just becoming rich, or at-least rich enough for him to move to a more prestigious post to continue his research. He abducted Michelle and told Nina that if she wanted to see her mother again she would get the gold out of hiding and bring it to his house or else he would feed her mother to his monsters.
Confrontation[]
Kevin transformed into Tindalos
Nina showed Keith Alice and Zhuzhen her gift but wasn't sure Kevin would accept it. Once they saw it they understood why but simply told her to keep it while they went to free Michelle. Alice, Zhuzhen and Keith fought their way through town to Kevin's house and confronted him. In Kevin's house they found many strange pieces of occult research. Keith saw that Kevin had been using the Blood Rites of his family that had been passed down for generations, or rather a bad knock-off of them, to summon the monsters and became outraged. When Kevin asked how Keith recognized the rites he told him he was the vampire lord of Blue Castle. Kevin became nervous but ultimately didn't believe him and asked where the gold was. Alice and Zhuzhen told Kevin the gift was not gold but that didn't matter since he was going to release Michelle anyway or face them. Kevin laughed off the threat and showed the extent of his powers by transforming into a monstrous hell-hound called Tindalos. Keith proved his superiority with the Blood Rites and Alice and Zhuzhen proved their skill as exorcists by killing Kevin in his monstrous form and freeing Michelle.
Michelle went home and Nina used her gift, a parcel of seeds that her father's friend had genetically modified to grow crops even in Bistritz's harsh environment, granting them a chance to give the town a steady revenue. Once Keith saw the power that Alice and Zhuzhen wielded however he asked for their help getting rid of the monster that had crashed in the side of his tower. He said it had looked like a giant monster but when he had gotten close to it, it had turned into a young man and attacked him. Alice and Zhuzhen knew the young man must have been their friend Yuri Hyuga who had been possessed by the Seraphic Radiance and who had lead them to do exorcism work in the first place, looking for rumors about him. So with their new friend Alice and Zhuzhen left Bistritz to exorcise their old friend.
Trivia[]
- Tindalos is actually one of the eldritch horrors encountered in the game Koudelka, and one of numerous subtle allusions to the game prior to the three big connecting elements from the game.
- The name Tindalos is taken from the short story The Whisperer in Darkness by H.P. Lovecraft and one of numerous tributes to Lovecraft spread out over the series.
- Tindalos was killed in Koudelka so if it is the same creature it is likely Kevin invoked it's spirit as a demonic benefactor. Though it is possible it was just a random spirit Kevin inadvertently bound to himself over the course of practicing his rituals.