Gladys and her brother Claud were raised by their father in the Knochenwalde, isolated from Streitstadt. Their family is not Christian, being descended from a long line of pagans who made their home traveling in the wilderness, and Claud and Gladys both have virtually no knowledge of the Christ. What they do know is survival in an inhospitable environment. Besides the rigors of normal day to day life, their small family has withstood the threats of the supernatural for years, though the twins lost their mother when they were about seven. Their small family was able to make a meager living by trapping, hunting, fishing, gathering food from the forest, recognizing and utilizing medicinal materials, and most importantly, knowing how to defense against, or at least avoid, supernatural threats.