Hunt: Showdown 1896 - The Shadow Under the Cowl

About the add-on

The Cowl is a mantle chosen by a man who knew how quickly order could become chaos with just the thrust of a blade. Once called Horatio, as a child he would confuse the pheromones of an ant colony and watch them march in a spiral until death. Or sit with a hand outstretched and a lamp lit, waiting for bugs to settle on his palm. He bottled them, studied them, and confided in them, for he had no one else. Horatio learned his insects were closer to humankind than others liked to think. He noticed that we both arrange ourselves into groups with leaders and common goals, sometimes for betterment, sometimes not. Like his father, Horatio went to an Officer Academy, where, surrounded by hierarchies, his obsession with undoing them only grew. The queen of a hive is worth the lives of a thousand workers. Horatio’s philosophy did not go unnoticed, and eventually he was dishonorably discharged. Though Horatio had nothing, his only pity was for his bugs—they depended on each other so much that they were vulnerable when alone. So, he developed what he knew, and made his living by thrusting his blade in just the right place to leverage the most destruction. His work brought him to the bayou: another moth, another flame. Horatio found others like him, wracked by Corruption. His first Hunt, he came face-to-face—or lack thereof—with the Assassin, who slashed his chest open in a single stroke. Left for dead with beetles enveloping him, he had a revelation: the swarm of creatures shrouding him may have had no leader, but they were all driven by a base instinct towards their greater purpose. It was from that plight that The Cowl would emerge, swearing to ascend to his highest potential.