Some kind of split layer?

[Garm]

Hi, I am a total noob outside of a couple of very simple repeated operations. Now I have ended up trying to work on an image I didn't start, and I can't figure out whats going wrong: I have a single layer containing both figures and a background. I can move my own picture into the image, and it covers the background with the figures showing up in front of it. So far, so good. But now I want to remove a couple of the figures, and that has proven frustrating. If I try to make the figures transparent, all I get is transparent pixels in the shape of the figure. The underlying picture does not show up. If I check the background, it is all cut out in a rectangle no problem.

It really feels like I am trying to work on two different layers, but can only see one. 

Here, I have unlocked the alpha channel and done a rectangular cut to remove one of the figures: The outline of the figure remains, while a rectangle space is cut out from the background -which is on the same layer as the figure. The mostly dark section is what I have inserted and it is supposed to be showing in the transparent pixels. As you can see, the background is not showing up. I can raise the background up, but then it covers the rest of the figures.

[Ofnuts]

Are all layers modes set to "Normal"?

[PixLab]

I can't picture out what you're trying to explain,
Please post a screenshot of your layer stack (like the one below) but name each layer with the layer mode and opacity percentage

   

or even better put the .xcf in a zip and upload it

[Garm]

Ok, yes I can see that is confusing. The layer mode is normal and the opacity 100%. I'll explain why it doesn't help to alter it. The backstory is, I bought a fancy character sheet online, but its for 5th ed, and I want to alter it to 3.5/pathfinder. I can hadle most operations on the way, but I've run into this one issue.

I am uploading an image of the layer stack:
   
They are set to normal, alpha channel is there and can be unlocked, opacity 100%. The layer called "Background" contains the objects I want to remove on a decorated yellow background:
   
Now, if I toggle on the character picture, the layer called "Elamiah" the picture appears between the background and the object. Both of which are in the same layer:
   
Next, I've cut out the object i want to remove. Bear in mind that I want to retain most objects on this layer. As you see in the final shot,
   
I get transparent pixels but the underlying image does not show up. Also, whatever way i try to separate the object from the rest of its layer doesn't seem to work. If I for example alter the transparency of it, every other object gets the same effect.

While writing this it has occurred to me though that I can brute force it by cutting the shapes piece by piece following the background colors and filling the cut out shapes with background colors manually.

[tmanni]

Ensure the Composite Mode of the layers (in the Layer Attributes dialog) are set to Auto.