Nicodemus

Nicodemus is a shitty person. He lords over a micro-community of degenerate hacker-types, manipulating and conditioning them to play into his narcissism while they all waste their time making the average person's life harder for their own gain. He is contacted privately by the elusive Atonement Bureau, convicting him of excessive envy and informing him he is to join their ranks if he hopes to have any chance of redemption. 

Nicodemus may be an asshole but he isn't a fool, and he begrudges the Bureau a visit - though he fully plans to game the system until they have him skip the most important step: reincarnation. The whole point of Bureau work is to start over with a fresh slate, and while this was indeed the part Nico planned to fudge, he's deeply unsettled by the implications this carries and the look on the agent's face. It's impossible to know if you're on your ninth life; and for all Nico cares it's always been an old wives' tale anyway. Right? right...?

The wind blown out of his sails, Nicodemus lets the Bureau do what it wants, and he is forcibly moved to a distant city under threat to behave or his redemption will be terminated. All of his contacts - friends, family, and gaslighting victims alike - are informed that he has passed to his next incarnation, and they respectfully distance themselves. He now finds himself alone, halfway across the country, doing thankless work fighting shadowbeasts, and he's gotta suck it up and try to be a better person.

Nicodemus is not a particularly pleasant man, and is selfish, argumentative, and disagreeable. He is disillusioned and a little too serious for his own good, fueled by a distaste for this work since he feels it's pointless pandering.