Jeremiah Harwood

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This article is about Jeremiah Harwood. For other characters, return to the full character list.

This article features elements from Delta Green, a Lovecraftian setting where incomprehensible horrors are very real. Prior knowledge of the setting is not required.

Garland Jeremiah Harwood (born 14th February) believes that he may be cursed. Of course, he knows that he isn't, but sometimes, as he looks over the rolling hills of the Appalachians, he can't help but wonder. The trees hide things that man was never supposed to know about - things that, for one reason or another, Jeremiah has had the unfortunate pleasure of seeing.

Sometimes, he wonders if the universe is playing some kind of cruel trick on him - luring him into the wilderness, only to show him the horrors that hide there. It's too late to go back now, though. He's started down this path, and he knows it's going to haunt him forever. In an effort to keep himself sane, Jeremiah holds onto one hope - that being, that through his suffering, he can help other people. If he has to see the creatures that lurk in the dark, perhaps he can be the one to hold them back, and perhaps he can prevent anybody else from going through the same thing.

Jeremiah is in his mid-30s. He has wavy, dark brown hair and blue eyes. He has a short, rugged beard that is closer to stubble than anything else. His expression is typically serious and forlorn, with eyes that dart about at even the slightest of noises. When he isn't wearing his NPS uniform, he wears well-worn, outdoorsy clothes in muted, natural colours.

Garland Jeremiah Harwood (named after his material grandfather) had a happy childhood. He, like his brother (Elijah Trevor Harwood, named after their father and known as Trevor), has always gone by his middle name, a family tradition born out of habit and the need to not confuse the different generations with each other.

He grew up in Strawberry Plains, Tennesee - a small, sleepy town with nothing much going on. It has a rural beauty to it, as well as a quiet isolation. The town is just over an hour's drive from the Tennesee edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and 20 minutes drive from Knoxville.

The two brothers had a happy childhood. Their parents loved them, and they were allowed to roam and play across the fields surrounding the town (providing, of course, that they came home in time for dinner). Naturally, Trevor was protective of his younger brother - especially because Jeremiah, the more outgoing of the two of them, had a habit of charging off and finding trouble. It was nice, and it was all very normal.

From a young age, Jeremiah had been interested in the natural world around them. Like most of the boys in the area, he loved to hunt and fish, but he also loved to watch the birds, count the trees, and just immerse himself in the world around him. When he ultimately decided to study Wildlife and Forestry at university, nobody was surprised - just as nobody was surprised when he graduated top of his class and immediately took up a park ranger internship.

Knowing he wanted a career as a park ranger, Jeremiah chose to do an internship at Yosemite National Park. It was here that he had his first taste of the unnatural and unknown. While doing his duties near Grouse Lake, he heard a wailing noise, somewhat reminiscent of a puppy. Concerned, Jeremiah made his way over to the lake to see what was happening. As soon as he came to the lake's shore, the noise abruptly stopped - not only that, but all noise in the surrounding area seemed to stop too. Confused but figuring that he probably wouldn't have found the animal anyway, Jeremiah began to leave - but as he turned, he was faced with a small boy, dripping wet and grinning eerily, standing behind him.

Naturally, he jumped in surprise, falling backwards into the lake. Jeremiah flailed about, his legs getting tangled in some kind of plant that seemed to be pulling him down into the depths, but he ultimately climbed out. When he did, the boy was gone. There was no trace of him - not even a damp blade of grass where the child had been standing.

When he relayed this story to some of his colleagues, Jeremiah was told that the noise he had heard had been no dog. Over a hundred years ago, an Ahwahnechee boy had drowned in that lake. Since then, whenever a lone traveller passed by, the ghost of the boy would cry out, trying to lure unsuspecting people to the water, where he would then pull them in and drown them.

This shook Jeremiah, but he dismissed it as nothing but his imagination and carried on with his life. However, he found himself keeping a closer eye on his surroundings after that - and, with that, he began noticing things that he wouldn't have before. Unexplained footprints in the snow, blurred shapes in the forest, and so on.

In the last year of his internship, a child went missing in the park. Jeremiah was involved in the search, but nothing came of it. His mind was cast back to the boy at the lake and, for a moment, he wondered if another lonely spirit would be wandering the steep cliffs and valleys. By this point, he was slowly becoming open to the idea of the stories of there being something more out there being true after all.

After three years in Yosemite, when his internship was complete, Jeremiah moved back to Tennessee, getting a job close to home as a park ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Part of him hoped that this move would leave all the strangeness behind him, but he knew in his heart that this wouldn't be true. The Appalachians were full of stories of strange events, and if Yosemite had its ghosts, then the Smokies certainly did too.

He continued experiencing the unusual and unexplained, only now the sense of unease that accompanied such events was stronger, and it lingered far longer in his mind. From stray stag heads on spikes, to a lone human hand in the grass, to the voices of unseen creatures following him, to lights in the sky overhead - Jeremiah saw it all.

As the years went by, he found himself looking over his shoulder more and more, and sleeping less and less. He became withdrawn - a shell of the man he previously was, constantly watching his shadow. Word must have got around that he was the guy that usually ended up seeing the things that inhabited the forest, because he began to get strange mail in the post. Somebody would write to him, asking questions about what he had seen and the legends of the area he was in. Jeremiah didn't know who he was speaking with but, figuring his experiences may as well be useful for something, he responded to the letters.

After he had been in his position for ten years and writing to his mystery correspondent for around half of that, Jeremiah was doing his rounds in the woods, the moon high in the sky, when he came across something that would change his life forever. Ahead of him, clear as anything in the pale moonlight, he saw a giant, pitch-black wolf. Jeremiah froze, not wanting to prompt the creature to attack. The wolf seemed to notice his presence, as it turned its great head towards him, looking at him with dark red eyes. It then looked away again, returning to what Jeremiah noticed was a deer carcass at its feet.

Slowly, he began to back away. Step by step, Jeremiah crept from the bed, walking backwards the whole time. It was then that he stepped on a twig, snapping it - the noise ringing out in the silence of the forest. The wolf's head swung away to meet him again, and this time it did not seem content to leave Jeremiah be. The creature snarled as it began to stand, revealing that it walked on two legs like a man. Something in Jeremiah snapped and, terrified, he began to run.

Fleeing from a predator was never a good idea, but common sense went out the window as he ran as fast as he could, not stopping until he had reached the ranger's cabin that he called home. Jeremiah rushed inside, barricading the doors and turning off all the lights. The wolf followed him, though, and for the rest of the night, he could hear it snuffling around outside.

In the morning, it was gone, but it returned again the following night, and every night that week. Jeremiah never saw it, but he could hear it, and he lives in fear that it will one day come back again.

Soon after that, his brother, Trevor, concerned for him, brought him a puppy, which Jeremiah named Dog. It was also not long after that he received the first sign of an identification mark from the person he had been corresponding to for years - a green triangle on an envelope, and the request to show a few FBI agents around the Smokies in a few days time…

Until recently, Jeremiah had never worked as a Delta Green agent, only a friendly. He doesn't really know who Delta Green are, only that they serve to protect the nation - perhaps even the world - and that if they ask for his help, he'll give it.

Among his colleagues, Jeremiah is known as a bit of an odd figure. Everybody's heard the stories of what he's seen. Obviously, most of them don't believe the stories, but they still respect him because, at the end of the day, he's good at what he does. Jeremiah knows the park like the back of his hand, and he's always there to lend a hand when things get tough.

Nowadays, management generally leave him to do his own thing. They trust that he knows what he's doing and, more importantly, they know that weird things happen in the park sometimes. Not wanting to admit to this, they turn a blind eye and allow Jeremiah to deal with it on his own. It's a tactic that has worked out well for them so far, so they're unlikely to change their policy any time soon.

Outside of the park. Jeremiah is well-known and well-liked in his home town of Strawberry Plains. On his days off, he regularly returns to the town to volunteer his time - helping with all sorts of odd jobs, from building fences, to assisting with the school bake sale, to teaching the kids how to fish.

No longer the outgoing boy he once was, Jeremiah tends to keep to himself. His main source of company is Dog, his pet dog. Dog is a black mouth cur. He's medium-sized, with tan fur, a black muzzle, and deep, brown eyes. He is bold, energetic, and with a high work drive. He's very protective and constantly alert to the sounds of the mountains.

Jeremiah brought Dog home after his brother, Trevor - concerned for his brother's behaviour and thinking he would appreciate the company while out in the mountains - gifted him the puppy. The two of them quickly became best friends, and it's now not an uncommon sight to see Dog following Jeremiah like his second shadow.

Trevor is who Jeremiah spends the next largest amount of time with. Whenever he returns to their hometown to help out, he's always sure to stop by his brother's house. Trevor is a mechanic. He's tall, lanky, and often covered in smudges of motor oil. He's worried about his brother, but he doesn't know how to help him. In fact, he doesn't even really know what's wrong with him in the first place!

Other than volunteering within Strawberry Plains, Jeremiah likes to spend his free time birdwatching. It's an activity he finds relaxing - something he is desperately in need of! Every year, he buys a little notebook and keeps it on his person, keeping track of all the birds he's seen while out in the park.

Jeremiah does not sleep well at all, and he hasn't for years and it's only got worse since the incident with the wolf that was not a wolf. He lies awake in bed at night, listening to the sounds of the forest outside, alert to every little noise that passes by his cabin. And, when he finally does drift off to sleep, he's plagued by nightmares. Everything he's seen, and everything he fears he might see, haunts him, and nothing he's tried has been able to help with that in any way.

This article describes common pre-established verses. Other verses are available but must be discussed prior to any threads. Individual interactions occur in their own separate universes unless otherwise discussed. Please send an IM if interested in plotting any interactions.

Jeremiah follows the majority of information described on this page.

A victor from District 7, Jeremiah has regular nightmares about most of the things he faced in the area, but the worst of them are about the dog/human hybrids he had to fight off to seize his victory. He didn't really understand how he won, nor did he know what to do with his life after.

It surprised him when, years later, some officials from the Capitol offered him a covert job out of the blue. Some mutts had escaped and were roaming the district's vast lumber farms, and someone needed to deal with them. Still feeling like a loose end, Jeremiah accepted - and the job went surprisingly well! It certainly didn't help the nightmares, but he finally felt like a purpose again. There are still more mutts out there (in District 7 and elsewhere) and, though he's sworn to secrecy about their existence and knows he can't expect any kind of support from the Capitol if something goes wrong, Jeremiah has accepted the offer of hunting them down too. After all, considering he doesn't know what else to do with his life, what's the worst that can happen?

As a satyr, Jeremiah is naturally very concerned about the state of the natural world. A park ranger for Great Smoky Mountains National Park, he's trying to do his bit to preserve the wilderness as it should be, but his job is made difficult by the monsters that lurk in the forest and the occasional demigods that come to ask for his help.