Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness (1899) is a novella by Polish-English novelist Joseph Conrad about a narrated voyage up the Congo River into the Congo Free State in the so-called "heart of Africa". Charles Marlow, the narrator, tells his story to friends aboard a boat anchored on the River Thames. This setting provides the frame for Marlow's story of his obsession with the ivory trader Kurtz, which enables Conrad to create a parallel between what Conrad calls "the greatest town on earth", London, and Africa as places of darkness.
Arcana Heart
is the main protagonist in the series. She is a normal high school student who shares a passion for justice with the superhero television shows she grew up watching. She also assists her mother in running the family-owned restaurant Cafe Aino, and hopes to one day make something that can be placed on Cafe Aino's menu. Her Arcana is Partinias, the Arcana of Love. An angel with two pairs of wings who can manipulate light, she is Heart's partner and friend.
, the "Crimson-Eyed Criminal", became a cold-hearted assassin after losing her family. She travels the world alone, accompanied only by a leg-less ball-jointed puppet which carries the consciousness of , her older sister. Her Arcana is Gier, the Arcana of Shadow, a creature composed of purely negative emotions that Lieselotte summons with drops of her own blood.