Dewan

The current dewan. Art by Rem.

A member of the Shadow Council; the werewolf adviser to Queen Victoria. A loner and a true alpha (he can assume Anubis form and metamorphosize people). He metamorphosed Soap (Phineas B. Crow) and becomes Sophronia's patron. Styled as the Earl of Upper Slaughter, though he holds no actual country seat. The current dewan is mostly concerned with military matters, and is the Commander in Chief of the Royal Lupine Guard. He sees to werewolf assignments in the army, among his other duties.

Appearance

The dewan is a large, older-looking man with dark hair, a wide face, and deep set eyes. His mouth is full and he has a pronounced cleft in his chin. He wears an "assertive" mustache and mutton chops.

In The Books

Curtsies & Conspiracies

The dewan is attending Professor Braithwope's experiment going into the aether. He is in attendance with Lord Vulkasin Woolsey (Alpha of Woolsey pack). When the test goes wrong, the dewan steps in to help question and arrest Professor Shrimpdittle.

Waistcoats & Weaponry

The dewan and Captain Niall attend Sidheag back to Sophronia's, where the girls learn of Lord Maccon's successful Alpha challenge of Woolsey and the death of Vulkasin Woolsey. Later, they cross paths with Sophronia and her friends as they are being fired upon by Duke Golborne. During the altercation, Soap is shot and Sophronia bargains her service as an intelligencer to the dewan in exchange for his attempt to bite the dying sootie to metamorphosis. The bite is successful and he takes Soap with him. The dewan also reveals that Captain Niall is going to be the new Alpha of the Kingair Pack. He goes one step further and announces the engagement between Sidheag and Niall, so that she can stay with the pack.

Manners & Mutiny

The dewan attends a dinner party at Lord Akeldama's. He participates in the debate about mechanical regulation. When there is an explosion, he does his best to protect Petunia Hisselpenny. Later, he uses the explosion to push the Clandestine Information Act. In the end, he gives Sophronia her first assignment: becoming the nanny to Alexia.

Changeless

The dewan is present for a meeting of the Shadow Council in the beginning of Changeless, where they are all faced with the mystery: what is causing supernaturals in the London area to become mortal? He also asked Alexia to get her husband to get the Kingair Pack under control after the loss of their Alpha - Niall.

Blameless

In Blameless, the dewan gives Lyall the copy of an aethographic transmitter slate revealing a death order for Alexia Maccon. At the end, the dewan came and took a report from Lyall on the killing of the potentate and congratulated Woolsey on their Alpha's successful metamorphoses.

Heartless

The dewan attends a meeting of the Shadow Council with Alexia Maccon and Lord Akeldama when Alexia receives what she believes is a threat against the queen from a ghost. Later he is summoned by Alexia to attend her at Lord Akeldama's home (which he was not pleased about) only to leave him alone with Lord Akeldama to catch him up as she left.

Quotes

• "For a werewolf who was at least a hundred years old, the facial hair was stylishly modern." (Curtsies & Conspiracies, Session 7)
• "That's why the dewan works for the queen. Keeps peace between the Alphas." (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Session Four)
• "The dewan entered the Temminnick's shabby family parlor. Oh, how chagrined Mumsy will be. Then again, perhaps not. As silly as Captain Niall's appearance was, the dewan looked sillier. He was a large man who had been metamorphosed somewhat late in life. He had dark hair tinged with gray, and a wide face with deep-set eyes. His mouth was a little too full, reminding Sophronia of Felix. He had a cleft in his chin, and his mustache and muttonchops were quite bushy. For a werewolf who was at least a hundred years old, the facial hair was stylishly modern. Unfortunately, Gresham's clothing was stretched to indecency. It was doing little to disguise the necessary, and looked as if it might stop doing that at any moment. All the protruding parts, of which there were a great deal, were covered in such a quantity of hair as to make the young ladies present wonder if the dewan were not partly wolf all of the time." (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Session Seven)
• "Lord Maccon has made his bed and must lie in it. The bed is Woolsey. Frankly, with Vulkasin the way he was, it is not so terrible an outcome. Politically, Lord Maccon will be good to have closer to town. I'll give him plenty to do, keep him out of trouble." (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Session Seven)
• "Allow Captain Niall and me to manage Kingair, and me to deal with their punishment. Exile, I think, for a decade or two." (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Session Seven)
• "The dewan was speaking as they ambled closer. '...and firing on a train, Your Grace! I mean to say, this can't be authorized by the queen, I should have known about it. And you know you can't use cannon fire in a private matter on home soil. What were you thinking? The entire countryside reverberated with the sound. People will think we are at war!" (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Session Fifteen)
• "He was not a man who tolerated being waylaid on a trip." (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Session Fifteen)
• "The dewan walked back toward them, looking very put-upon...and very hairy and, well, dangly." (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Chapter Fifteen)
• "The dewan looked utterly confused at being ordered around by a small bundle of a girl who was apparently quite insane." (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Chapter Fifteen)
• "The dewan appeared to be considering everything that had happened recently - the fact that Sophronia had kidnapped a train and scared off a duke. But he was no fool. Only a cautious werewolf could have survived so long a loner and sit in the queen's shadow. 'It's a fair offer. But you understand our deal will stand whether my bite is successful or not?" (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Session Fifteen)
• "I won't hold you to our bargain. A new werewolf is gift enough. It happens so rarely." (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Session Sixteen)
• "All too often, being a werewolf isn't fair." (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Session Sixteen)
• "Ladies' - he looked severely at Dimity and Sophronia - 'I'll buy you two first-class tickets back to Wootton Bassett at the next station. And some proper attire.' Considering the fact that he was still naked, both girls giggled." (Waistcoats & Weaponry, Session Sixteen)
• "The dewan kept his cards close, and a new werewolf was an ace in the hole." (Manners & Mutiny, Crisis Six)
• "She was not surprised, therefore, when the dewan turned up. He sent a curt nod in her general direction. She understood that this meant their arrangement was to continue a secret and found it no challenge to ignore him." (Manners & Mutiny, Crisis Six)
• "You cannot blame the government for a failure in private enterprise.' The dewan defended the Crown." (Manners & Mutiny, Crisis Six)
• "The dewan, Sophronia realized, had very little training in the matter of conversational manipulation. I shall have to educate my own patron. How tiresome." (Manners & Mutiny, Crisis Six)
• "The dewan seemed to think that greater controls should be in place over mechanical technology. His stance was that the government might have to step in and remove or destroy them all, by force if necessary. 'Knives are dangerous, my lord, but we do not regulate them!' objected the inventor. 'True,' said the dewan. But gas can explode, and we regulate that." (Manners & Mutiny, Crisis Six)
• "The dewan used the explosion to push his agenda. He has something on the queen's desk called the Clandestine information Act. It's designed to seize technological power for the Crown in the guise of patent control." (Manners & Mutiny, Crisis Seven)
• "He was, after all, landed as the Earl of Upper Slaughter, even if he couldn't boast an actual country seat." (Manners & Mutiny, Crisis Seven)
• "Young people these days. Incorrigble." (Manners & Mutiny, Afterword)
• "Of course, they said the same thing about the dewan. Her Majesty's werewolf advisor. He was a loner who has been around almost as long as the potentate, concerned himself mostly in military matters, and stayed out of pack squabbling." (Soulless, Chapter Four)
• "Well, there you have it,' snarled the dewan, 'The affairs of the British Empire must wait on squatters and your good graces.' Landed as the Earl of Upper Slaughter but without any real country seat, the dewan was one of the few werewolves in England who could give the Earl of Woolsey a fight for his fur and had had occasion to prove it. He was almost as big as Conall Maccon but slightly older-looking, with dark hair, a wide face, and deep-set eyes. He ought to have been handsome, except that his mouth was a little too full, the cleft in his chin a little to pronounced, and his mustache and muttonchops astonishingly assertive." (Changeless, Chapter Two)
• “Alexia had spent long hours wondering over that mustache. Werewolves did not grow hair, as they did not age. Where had it come from? Had he always had it? For how many centuries had his poor abused upper lip labored under the burden of such vegetation?” (Changeless, Chapter Two)
• "So, what are we dealing with? A whole pack of preternaturals?' That was the dewan. He was prone to thinking in numbers, the consequences of an overabundance of military training." (Changeless, Chapter Two)
• "I am not bringing it to BUR. I am in bringing it to the Woolsey Pack. Lady Maccon, regardless of the gossip, is still married to a werewolf. And I am still the dewan. The vampires simply cannot be allowed to indiscriminately kill one of our own. It's not on. Why, that is practically as bad as poaching clavigers and cannot be allowed, or all standards of supernatural decency will be lost." (Blameless, Chapter Ten)
• "Just keep my name out of it. This is a domestic matter between Woolsey and the vampires. I wash my fur of the entire debacle. I told you not to marry that woman, Conall. I said no good could possibly come of it. Imagine contracting to a soulless.' He sniffed. 'You youngsters, so brash." (Blameless, Chapter Ten)
• "Well, well, well, a metamorphosis and a dead vampire all in one night. My, my Woolsey has been busy." (Blameless, Chapter Fourteen)
• "The dewan was a large gruff individual who reminded Alexia of her husband, in character if not in appearance or manner. Not that she would ever tell this to either of them." (Heartless, Chapter Four)
• "Thus, the dewan and Lord Maccon tended to circle each other, both in and out of polite company, rather like two tugboats drawing freight - widely and with much tooting." (Heartless, Chapter Four)
• "Right at that moment, there was a scuffle in the hallway and the door to the drawing room burst open to reveal the dewan. 'What is the meaning of such a summons as I just received?' He barreled into the room all loud bluster, bringing along an odor of London night air and raw meat." (Heartless, Chapter Eight)