Realistic or Modern Behind the Veil - Characters

[CryoLilly]

Here is where to post Characters for the Urban Fantasy Campaign, Beyond the Veil. Below is a rough idea for a character sheet, please feel free to add or alter categories as it makes sense to you, if you don't have an answer just yet, that's fine too. If you'd like to keep certain information hidden, or lie about it IC, we can discuss that as well, though for OOC purposes it might be good to share it.

Name:
Species:
Faction:
Occupation:

Age (appearance):
Age (approximate/optional):
Height:
Build/Weight:
Hair:
Eyes:
Notable features:
Appearance:

Magic/Abilities:
Personality:
Flaws:
Skills:
Weaknesses:
Likes/Dislikes:

Background:
Notable Connections:

 

[_Wander]

Name: Sibylla Amber
Species: Human
Faction: Criminal Underground
Occupation: Diener(publicly)/ Back-Alley Doctor(Side Hustle)

Age (appearance): 24
Height: 172cm/5'8''ft
Build/Weight: 56kg/123lb
Hair: Dark Brown
Eyes: Hazel
Notable features: Uses an elbow crutch to support her limp
Appearance:

Face Claim: Jennifer Connelly(y.2000)

Magic/Abilities: (tbd)
Personality: A little bizarre and prone to wide mood swings. Despite the seemingly shy attitude, she is quite talkative, a trait she developed to make other people feel comfortable around her. She is also quite a 'go with the flow' kind of person, not judging people by what they are of what they want, simply trying to be helpful if it somehow benefits her too. When it comes to her work she brings her utmost A-game, save for the casual *accidental* needle pricks, which she seems to thoroughly enjoy.
Flaws: Weak physical and mental health( a lame leg and psychological problems), corrupt
Skills: A clever girl with an abandoned doctorate in medical science, good at reading people when face to face.
Likes: Sweet wine, Lemon pies, People helping her with manual labor, money and the finer things in life(music and theater).
Dislikes: Driving herself, being shamed, stairs, winter and cameras( being photographed).

Background: (tbd)
Notable Connections:
*Loosely associated with Russian Mafia.
*Sibylla's mother, an elderly woman, who the girl lives with.

 

[ChaosBisexualPirate]

Name: Jasmine Ahuja
Species: Shifter (doesn't know)
Faction: TBD
Occupation: Medical Student

Age (appearance):

Age (approximate/optional): 26
Height: 5'6"
Build/Weight: Pear shaped, 136 lbs.
Hair: Black
Eyes: Honey
Notable features: Her striking eyes
Magic/Abilities:
Personality:
Lovable
Honest
Brave
Requires Constant Attention
Hates Conflict
Good Mannered
Mischievous
Motivated
Warm
A fast learner
Lives for the moment
Skills: She is an excellent judge of character, loves to volunteer at animal shelters and is an active member of the community garden in the city.
Likes: Opra, classical music, reading, hanging out with her Gran and Mom.

Background: She grew up with her Mother and Grandma in the low income residential area in the city, with her father having abandoned them when she was only three. She never asked about what happened to him, just thought he had left. Her mother never really spoke about him, and her grandma always went quiet after being asked by a curious Jasmine when she was a child. After that time, she never asked again and the curiosity melted away with time. She went on to public school, where she excelled in all her classes and was able to get into an Ivy League college through a scholarship program. She's back in town for the summer hols, visiting her grandma and mom. This is where she will discover something more of herself.
Notable Connections: TBD

 

[CryoLilly]

Name: Ciara
Species: Human (ish)
Faction: Taken // Unaffiliated
Occupation: Bookseller and Peddler of Information

Age (appearance): Ciara has that characteristic appearance of a gracefully aged young woman, she could easily be anywhere between 27 and 44.
Age (approximate): A gentleman shouldn't ask and a lady wouldn't tell... Not that Ciara knows, mind you.
Height: 5'11
Build/Weight: Wiry and rail thin, at 130 lbs Ciara has an awkward grace. She seems equally at odds with her own body and yet entirely too comfortable with the way she moves.
Hair: Anybody who frequented her bookstore might assume Ciara is quite addicted to dyeing her hair as the colour seems to change constantly, almost every day. More often than not it's some unnatural hue, though on occasion it'll be black, a natural red, or even streaked with grey. Her hair itself is quite thin and hangs down to her mid back, even the way she styles it seems inconsistent. Somedays it's lined with braids so intricate as to be impractical, others curled in tight ringlets or falling in unrully waves. Often enough, it's thrown up in a messy bun.
Eyes: Ciara's eyes are cold and distant, the kinds of eyes which look right through you most times, as if staring at someone standing right behind you. Frankly, it's unnerving. As is what must be a penchant for coloured contacts as she sometimes has different coloured eyes than her typical grey, though she must use them far less than she dyes her hair.
Notable features: One of the most consistent things about Ciara's appearance is the tired rings around her eyes, and the way she often goes distant and then snaps back into focus. She has an unseemly scar splayed across her back left shoulder blade. Strangest of all, occasionally when seen out of the corner of one's eye or for the briefest glance in an old mirror backed with silver, Ciara looks almost like a very different person. Freckles pepper across her nose and cheeks.

Appearance: Ciara's traits, for all their occasional strangeness and shifting styles, are all mostly normal for people to have, and in individual, none of them would be particularly unnerving or anything that made one feel eager to end the conversation... and yet in aggregate... Ciara's presence can often do just that for most people. Her appearance isn't outright unattractive, but her angular features, her height, and her general way of holding herself certainly wouldn't conventionally be considered beautiful. Her skin tone is rather light, though not unnaturally so for a woman who spends much of her time indoors.

Spoiler: True Appearance

In her time among the fae, Ciara was changed. Her features sharpened, not only in the sense of her face but her teeth and nails (though not quite so much to consider them fangs or claws), even her eyes, both in shape and in what they pick up. Her true appearance is almost predatory in nature, her prowling steps almost feline and not always in a graceful or elegant way, she occasionally seems unfamiliar with the way that she walks. Her eyes are entirely solid and the dark grey of a brewing thunderstorm while her hair is shorter than her glamour would suggest and jet black streaked with silver. Her jawline, shoulders, and upper arms are streaked with thin, stark white scars which have never faded, small though they are. She seems nearly devoid of colour, her skin a pale grey and veins visible streaking darkly underneath, though their paths seem more like branching thorns than veins. Those thorns curl tighter around the scar on her shoulder blade and as she moves or uses her magic, they'll sometimes twist or shift in a way that has her eyes flinching and jaw clenching in pain.

Magic/Abilities: The magic of the Fae world is wild and unpredictable, especially to those humans trapped there, subject only to the whims of the Fae themselves though the opposite could equally be true, that the Fae are subject to the whims of their magic. Ciara's magic is suffuse with that chaos. it seeps from her without her intention, impacting herself and the world around her, sometimes making it somewhat more like the world she became familiar with among the fae. Her slight alterations in appearance are on such manifestation. She has on occasion run a hand through her hair only to find it turning to a bright shade of violet or red. Odd though it is, she finds the bright colours refreshing.

Ciara's magic is largely within the domain of obscuring and revealing. She casts glamours upon herself or the world around her, heady and powerful illusions capable of tricking the senses and exceptionally difficult for normal humans to see through. They do not alter the physical nature of things, they are certainly able to feel quite real, but there are limits. Oddly enough, the other side to that coin is equally within her purview. Revealing truths, knowing the unknown, encountering the hidden. It very rarely manifests in a way that she can comfortably control, and tends to reveal things in strange ways. This side of her magic is most present in her bookshop. She has occasionally tried to focus this side of her magic through the use of things like tarot cards, quartz, incense, and even once a crystal ball... to extremely mixed success. The only one which seemed to occasionally work were the tarot cards, though she could never be sure. All the same she keeps the paraphernalia around it adds a nice ambiance to the shop.

Ciara is also a moderately capable herbalist. While the world of the fae contains odd and unfamiliar flora and fauna, the intuitive understanding she slowly built of what was safe, even helpful, and what was dangerous seemed to mesh well with her magic, and has carried over to this world. She has learned to use her magic to assist in creating teas, poultices, and ointments. While incense does not help to focus her power, she has found ways to use smoke from herbs to have other magical effects. She is able to provide medical aid, particularly in supernatural ailments, as well as create calming, sleeping, focusing, or other similar minor magical effects with these skills.

The Bark and Bramble Bookstore: Ciara's bookstore didn't used to be hers. In fact, she's not entirely certain just when it did become hers. She found a job there 5 or so years ago, under an kindly Taken man who's skin had turned to bark in his time with the fae. While no humans could see his true nature, she certainly could. He was pleasant enough, and took her under her wing, teaching her the ins and outs of the shop. In time she began to notice that he very often seemed to fade into the walls of the bookstore, something she found happening more and more until one day she realized she had been running the store on her own for weeks. Over the years, the bookstore has altered somewhat in the presence of her magic. While under the former owners purview it was organized and well maintained, she failed to keep that organization. New books seemed to show up on the shelves, priced oddly and in the entirely wrong place. At first she was puzzled and concerned by it, until she found that for every person who stepped foot in the door, one of the books on the shelves almost seemed to leap into their hands.

As she watched it work, she began to understand the bizzare and cryptic nature of the magic, the way her talent for discovering the hidden seemed to be so open to helping others. And every time one of those customers left, she found herself wandering exhausted through the stacks to a little cot she kept tucked away in the back. While it might sound unpleasant to some to spend all her time in what could easily be seen as a pocket of the fae world, Ciara doesn't mind it. It might take a lot out of her, but she truly loves to help her customers find what they're looking for, and odd though it may be, the Bark and Bramble held nothing compared to the perilous dangers she faced among the fae.

Personality: Ciara is certainly a bit odd and often somewhat distant, though if you can get past it, she's a warm and caring person with a quiet, wry sense of humour and an extroversion that might not be expected. She wants to help others, and strives to do so at every turn. Her smiles are slow, but genuine, and her moods in general often seem muted. She is certainly tired almost all the time, and seems addicted to black coffee and energy drinks to keep her going at times. She's typically very quiet, but among those who have seen past the Veil, she can brighten quickly and talk with them endlessly about the quirks of the world, and is especially delighted by the prospect of introducing newer individuals into the fold, explaining to them the whats, hows, and wherefores of the world they are coming to know. As such, despite her reticence to affiliate herself with any particular factions, those in the Taken community and the Veil at large know she is open to teaching others about their new lives.
Flaws: Ciara's capacity for empathy is sorely lacking, as good as she is with knowing, seeing truth and uncovering secrets, understanding the heart is another thing entirely. In large part this self-described deficiency is why she tries so often to go out of her way to help. In many ways she feels guilty for it. She is also easily distractible, her ability to see truth easily able to take her focus away from the task at hand.
Skills: Ciara is an able healer, though her methods are hardly conventional and certainly aren't a catch all. Binding a wound and applying a poultice to heal it quicker? Of course. But she can't do a damn thing about most diseases aside from maybe brewing a tea to help the fever pass more quickly. She's a very effective investigator with a strong intuition and curiosity which drives her towards the truth of the matter, and towards finding sources of information to help in her task. She is an exceptional liar, but is rarely willing to .
Weaknesses: Ciara has little to no combat ability or physical strength, she's quick enough in short bursts but physical activity wears her down quickly, as do strenuous or significant uses of her magic. Her magic takes a lot out of her and is difficult to focus, she isn't good at using it in out of the ordinary ways, and they exhaust her quickly or even cause her physical pain. While she might be good at physically changing her appearance, she has a difficult time dampening her personality and behaviour, while she lies well, any sort of extended scrutiny of her behaviour would raise red flags for most anybody. Ciara is utterly hapless when it comes to technology.
Likes: Conversation, learning. She loves the quiet, though prolonged silence or solitude grate on her and she inevitably seeks out company and other people. Cats, she loves cats, even has a stray which lingers around the Bark and Bramble who she has taken to calling Oscar. She wouldn't dream of considering him hers though. She loves plants as well, life is quite sacred to her though she sees life and death as inevitably entwined. Caffeine in any form. Sigur Ros, probably.
Dislikes: Cages are the big one, impositions on freedom for anybody. She hates the idea of ownership in general. She takes promises and guarantees very seriously, those who break their promises or fail to follow through on favours owed infuriate her. Decaf drinks???? She doesn't get it why would you do that??????

Background: Ciara barely remembers her time before she was taken. Vague impressions are all she has. Paper cuts from old books, the smell of cinnamon and baking. Scraped knees and playing in the woods near her family's home. The laughter of other girls her age, glasses slipping down her nose as she scribbled notes in a dilapidated classroom, bright red hair and a toothy smile. She knows she was on the young side when she found her way into the depths of the woods, best she can remember she was maybe 16. She remembers going for a walk, what had started as a partly cloudy day soon grew overcast entirely and a light mist had begun to sprinkle the sparse woods, and soon the loam underfoot was soft and giving. At some point she must have gotten lost. It shouldn't have been possible. It wasn't that large of a wild patch in the town she lived. The trees shouldn't have grown that tall, been that old, and the fog shouldn't have laid that heavy over thick carpets of moss and decaying leaves. She remembers walking faster, running, slipping and falling. She tumbled down a hill and onto a trail. The undergrowth and trees seemed to frame it, even though it the grass and moss underfoot hadn't been beaten down, she knew it was a path. She shouldn't have followed it. She should have turned and scrambled back up the hillside through the brambles and run. But she didn't, step by step she walked down the path. And she walked willingly.

Ciara doesn't know how long she was gone. It certainly felt like an eternity, decades at least. She was always shocked that she hadn't yet turned decrepit and old. Some of the other humans she met certainly did, ones who had arrived younger than she and had a foot in deaths door while she had barely aged a few years. She tries not to think about them too much, the humans who worked in the gardens. She tries not to think about most of that time. About how easily things could have gone differently for her had she invoked her mistress' ire more than the one time. She remembers her escape far better the run through thick patches of brambles that seemed to reach out and slash at her face and arms with malice. Blood dripping off of her fingers to the emerald earth beneath her, staining it brown with rot. She'll never know if her escape was products of a decade long plan to run away, or if it was a gift given to her for loyal service. She didn't take chances. She hid in the forest, in between worlds for months finding shelter in brambles that had once sought to rake at her. They turned others away for the most part, and she found that the wood was rife with things she needed, which helped her to tend her wounds and survive. It took those months to find a way out. The labyrinth of space and time which laid over that place was impossible to map, and still she tried. And eventually.. she made it out. Relatively unscathed for her journey, Ciara emerged into a world utterly changed from the one half remembered, and painfully unfamiliar from the one she had come to call home. And now, she has finally come to find her own space in the world. Understanding life Behind the Veil and being utterly delighted to share in that knowledge with others like she once was.
Notable Connections:
- Ciara has a handful of connections to small conclaves formed by the Taken. She tends to avoid bigger structures in that regard.
- In her work at the bookstore, Ciara has a few connections to various factions who focus on information. The Alchemists occasionally purchase antique books through her, as well as a number of Mages, and even the occasional vampire.
- She's known within her general neighbourhood to be a pleasant and informative person and good at helping new members transition and understand life behind the Veil. Sometimes people will be sent her way.

 

[wickedlittlecritta]

• Basics
• Magic
• About
• Bio
• Other

• Name: Finley MacIver
  Species: Human
  Faction: Unaffiliated
  Occupation: Courier
  
  Age: 29
  Height: 5’10”
  Build/Weight: Lanky, wiry muscle/170 lbs
  Hair: Blond
  Eyes: Brown
  Notable features: n/a
  Appearance: Being of medium height and average build, Finley tends to blend into a crowd. He has shaggy ash blond hair that always manages to look like he's a little overdue for a cut, pale and freckled skin, and long fingered, calloused hands. He tends to wear a lot of black, especially when working at night, to help him avoid being spotted when he's climbing around on rooftops in the dark. It makes for a very interesting comparison when he's at the docks in his wellies and big old yellow fisherman's coat.
• Magic/Abilities:
  Sigil magic—While traditionally done in pen and ink, Finley typically works with spray paint, limited only by his ingenuity and his ability to place them correctly. He uses sigils to keep his routes clear, to keep his passage and his safe caches secret, to interfere with cop scanners, and, of course, to mark his turf. While his sigils usually work fairly well and precisely, there is a lot of trial and error to getting them just right.
  
  Folk charms—Not the flashiest of his magic, but Finley has an extensive repertoire of charms and hexes and prayers passed down through his family like well-worn family heirlooms. And much like heirlooms, he prefers to use them for personal rather than professional use. He finds them incredibly unpredictable—the same charm or hex can have wildly different results every time its cast, and he has never found a rhyme or reason to explain it.
  
  Divination—Another part of his personal arsenal, Finley’s skills with divination bleed out from a handful of related folk traditions. He has a well-worn deck of tarot cards that live in an inside of pocket of his jacket that he favors. He finds it a lot like his sigil work—it can be incredibly precise, but there’s a lot of trial and error to get there, and it usually doesn’t happen until later.
• Personality/Flaws:
  First impressions of Finley are typically that he’s friendly and charming, and easy enough to like. That’s about as far as most people get: caught in superficial charm like a bug in sap. It’s not that he’s trying to be secretive, really, or even that he isn’t actually mostly sweet and agreeable. He’s just a private person, and in his line of work the less his business associates know about him, the better, as far as he's concerned. And honestly, he wants thing to be that simple. He wants fair deals and easy favors and amicable partings. He's disappointed when they don't work out so nice.
  
  Dig a bit deeper, and Finley is as stubborn and self-assured as any crusty fisherman further up his family tree. Once he’s made up his mind it can’t be unmade, and he’ll ride out bad decisions to the end once he’s made them. His family, being more familiar with this facet of him, tend to think of him as an obstinate mule, but what else would they expect of a MacIver man? He's not easy to anger, and hates to cause a fuss, but he remembers every sour bargain or favor held over his head. Finley's the resent and remember sort rather than the forgive and forget kind.
  
  And further down? There’s something perhaps quintessentially Gaelic diaspora there, poetic and romantic and melancholy, though he’d hate to admit it.
  
  Skills: Finley is skilled in parkour and generally getting into places he shouldn't reasonably be able to get. He owns a terrible little boy racer with a big spoiler that he occasionally uses for work but more often uses to harass other drivers in illegal street races. He's also gotten into enough fights to know how to handle himself in one. He doesn't call himself an artist out loud but he is one, and proud of his craft. And, of course, he knows more about ships and sailing than he'd like to.
  Weaknesses: While certainly in better shape than the average human, Finley is still only human and has a body prone to breaking. He's also mostly deaf in his left ear from a childhood illness, which can sometimes affect his balance. This typically manifests in dropping everything he's carrying when he's walking across the kitchen rather than beefing it in a parkour stunt, which he doesn't understand but is not about to question.
  Likes: Late nights, high perches, neon lights on wet pavement, gasoline and burnt rubber, coffee and cigarettes, old Gàidhlig songs only half understood
  Dislikes: Early mornings, the smell of fish, obligations, people who get angry when you ask "what?" more than once, cold hands
• Background: Finley was raised by his grandparents in the Little Hebrides, a coastal neighborhood mainly comprised of fishermen gathered on the poorer side of the city and on small islands nearby. Finley was raised by his maternal grandparents after his father’s death in an accident at sea when he was three, and his mother’s escape to a less isolated city a year later. This was a point of contention between both sets of grandparents well into his teens, and is still a sure way to cause ill feelings between the two sides of his family to this day.
  
  A large portion of his childhood was spent at sea, on the docks, or tagging along at his grandmother’s heels, picking up bits of folk charms that she only half-believed in. Growing older, Finley realized all his family could offer him was a job on a cod boat and a handful of prayers that had failed to save his father, and went looking for something else.
  
  What he found was magic.
  
  Via a combination of trial and error and hunting down mentors, Finley learned magic and, perhaps more valuable, how to navigate the city’s magical underbelly. He found his niche in spray paint and the weight of his word, and instead of taking to sea he took to the city streets to make a living, which impresses his family but has never made them proud.
  
  Notable Connections:
  Finley’s job involves moving valuable, powerful, and delicate information and objects on behalf of the city’s magical factions as a private courier (and, occasionally, outside of the city). He has contacts within the city’s major players, and maintains them via a strict policy of neutrality and discretion. There’s no faster way to lose what he has then to blow that policy.
• Aesthetic
  
  Vibes

 

[Jigajig]

Name: Zeek Chu
Species: Human/Mage/ Semi Immortal
Faction: The Alchemists
Occupation: Nightclub owner/ Underground Bank
Age (appearance): 30
Age (approximate/optional): 200

Height: 6,2ft
Build/Weight: Tall and lithe/140lbs
Hair: Black
Eyes: Left Golden, right full White
Notable features: Numerous tattoos coating his body, large scar running through his right eye. Left hand is golden. Golden Eye
Magic/Abilities: Zeek has a good knack for Alchemy having been taught it by his father and mother before him. Having mastered the basics, being able to turn things like iron into silver, he spent many years of his life looking into the fabled "Philosopher's Stone". Having found it, Zeek finally managed to unlock the secrets of Alchemy, the legend of "Turning lead into gold" What he didn't know was that it came with a price.
Personality: Zeek is a pretty laid back man, tending to have an optimistic view upon the world, unlike some of his species. He tends to go with the flow of life, living in the moment as it were having spent much of his time in the past, studying and learning. Now he lives a nearly carefree life.
Flaws: Is somewhat obsessed with finding the stone.
Weaknesses: Blind in his right eye, left hand is solid gold but still retains movement. Wears gloves to cover it up
Skills: Having lived a VERY long life Zeek is pretty skilled in a number of areas having been able to spend time learning things. He is Polyglottic, an excellent cook in multiple cuisines, plays numerous instruments. He is also a master Blacksmith and Craftsman, using the Alchemy to create the things he needs.
Likes: Reading, listening to classical music, the finer things in life, making new discoveries.
Dislikes: Some of the "Elders", having lost the stone

Background: TBR
Notable Connections: The Alchemists, a group of mages and witches dedicated to the Alchemy craft.

 

[Gravitational Force]

Name: Nathaniel Levi
Species: Human (Larval Leviathan Host)
Faction: The Leviathan Cult
Occupation: Author and Editor

Age (appearance): 28
Height: 6'1
Build/Weight: Thin but well-muscled 190 lbs.
Hair: Blue-black
Eyes: Green
Notable features: His body and body language reminds people of a snake or shark.
Appearance:

Magic/Abilities: Nathaniel has an aura about him that allows him to force reality to work like a metaphysical 'ocean' around him. His powers are relatively weak currently, so the most he can usually do is keep people from noticing him, breath underwater, enhance his charisma (in a way that makes people instinctively feel he's somehow above them), and occasionally teleport between areas within his aura that contain water. When pressed he can tap into the power of the larval leviathan within him to partially transform his body into an amphibious shape with increased strength and durability, but doing so exhausts him quickly if he does so in dry areas. Nathaniel using anything more than his charisma powers for reasons in-line with the larval leviathan's urges risks increasingly eroding his own personality though and has a feeling of wrongness so he only uses them if he really needs to.

Spoiler: Larval Leviathan Form

Personality: Nathaniel is introverted unless he's discussing a topic that interests him. He's capable of mustering superficial charm when he needs to, and can even be so caught up in trying to be charismatic that he ends up doing so sincerely.
Flaws: Nathaniel is quick to anger when he is insulted or in his view falsely accused. He's also quick to envy others, especially if he views them as undeserving of whatever they have.
Skills: Nathaniel is a talented author when it comes to churning out books designed to appeal to the power fantasy market. He's also able to spot problems and devise solutions quickly, is good at connecting with people, and has an excellent memory. He's also very good at using the internet to find things or people.
Weaknesses: Especially weak to extreme heat and dehydration. Is instinctively drawn towards people who he can hear or see actively praising him and has a hard time harming them.
Likes: Music, books, knowing things most people don't, sweets, water, power.
Dislikes: Loud noise, unwanted company, spicy food, hunger, heat, dehydration, boredom, being kept out of the loop, feeling powerless.

Background:
Nathaniel's luck tended to be retroactive or based on pure chance rather than him purposefully pushing it. Being born to well-off parents meant he was able to develop his talents to their fullest (and snag a job as an editor where he could work at home) and the connections he made along the way meant he had people he could reach out to when he needed help. Some people would have ended up spoiled by this, but Nathaniel was always intensely aware of how lucky he was.

But then Nathaniel's life changed. He kept having dreams of swimming through sunken ruins as a massive serpentine monster and felt his body changing in ways that puberty couldn't explain. Then the Cult of the Leviathan came. They told him that his body was merely the first stage in a series of transformations that would see him become a godlike being destined to rule this world as he fused with the larval leviathan within him. Nathaniel thought most of that was nonsense, but there was a kernel of truth there and the cult's resources were too tempting to pass up.

The Cult's benefits were made immediately clear as Nathaniel was able to amass quite a bit of money by publishing a paint by the numbers, unoriginal power fantasy novel series and see it become a best-seller, although Nathaniel personally believed that just proved the intelligence of the readerbase. But even though he was one of their objects of worship, Nathaniel was still among the lowest-ranking members and so was assigned the duty of moving to Canter and waiting for the "clear portent" the cult leader claimed he'd eventually find there. Nathaniel doesn't mind as it's not that bad a place to live, but he's still irritated at how his life's been dictated.

Currently Nathaniel's living a quiet life, but he's always got an eye out for whatever it is he's supposed to be looking for. He's looking to get involved with whatever supernatural strangeness is going on in Canter, but he's unsure of how to do so. Nathaniel's ultimate goal is to ensure as much of his original personality survives as possible when the metamorphosis completes when he fully fuses with the larval leviathan inhabiting his body.

Notable Connections: The Leviathan Cult, an organization spread throughout North America from the 1980s onwards based around the claim that those who lead it are inhabited by the larval forms of Leviathans who will rise and conquer the world. In practice it's like a less evil actually real version of Scientology with most of it's efforts going towards following the vague 'prophetic visions' of the Cult's leader Helen Ronald. The truth is there ARE larval Leviathans, they ARE in the cult, but it's unclear how much of the cult's other claims are true and how much is just Ronald's imagination.

 

[Graystone713]

Name: Fellryxtus, but you can call them Fel. Probably not their real name.
Species: Claims to be a demon, but no-one is sure.
Faction: Criminal underground, slowly building a faction of their own.
Occupation: Negotiator, Legal advisor, and Loan shark.

Age (appearance): They appear to be somewhere in their mid to late twenties.
Age (approximate/optional): If you ask, they'll claim they're older than the garden of eden. That's obviously a lie, but who's got the proof to refute it?
Height: 5,9
Build/Weight: Thin, Androgynous, but not frail.
Hair: Dark, shoulder length.
Eyes: Dark, seems natural at first. But if you keep looking into the abyss... Well, they ARE eyes. You KNOW they're looking back.
Notable features: Their body doesn't SHOW any demonic features, but they're almost certainly glamoured, and often wearing a mask.
Appearance: Few ever knowingly see Fel without their trademark suit and mask, but those who do can't agree on the details of their face. They all agree on the dark hair, the black eyes that stare through your soul, and the pale skin, but few can agree on much else. Some talk about a chiseled, strong jaw with a predatory smile. Others speak of soft asiatic features and bright red lipstick. One claimed he was staring into the stern face of a Valkyrie. Again, it's probably a glamour.

Magic/Abilities:
Fellryxtus, if nothing else, is a very, VERY potent magician.
Pact Magic: The hallmark of nearly all demons and devils, as well as many wizards, this magic governs all forms of mystic contracts. Literal deals with the devil, the pact of the familiar, and many forms of court-ordered punishments are all based in powerful Pact Magics. And in this art, Fel is an absolute master, carrying with them many receipts of debts owed and favors given... As well as plenty of blank legal pads for new ones.
Enchantment: Enchanting of persons and objects is no new art, and Fel is quite good at it, offering magic items, charms, and bolstering spells in exchange for yet more writs of debt. As a result, many of Fel's personal effects (possibly ALL of them) have at least SOME magical effect. It is known their mask and suit are a form of magic armor, but few other effects are known for certain.
Illusion: Fel is known to bestow Glamours onto others, and possibly themselves, but they've never shown any mastery over illusion beyond this rather simple application. However, very few demons need or learn this magic, leading some to wonder why Fel knows it.
Personality: Fellryxtus presents themselves as a cold, calculating businessperson, solely out to accrue the debts of others. A liar, but a predictable and agreeable one. Someone useful. But anyone who looks can see the elaborate game they play, their plotting and planning as they treat this city like a chessboard. Setting threats against one another, gaining favors from those in power, building a network of contacts and debtors as a spider builds a web. They desire control, power, an empire of their own. Nobody can see the endgame, but those who are watching closely can sense that when it comes, it’ll be checkmate in only one stroke. They just have to set it up…
Flaws: Fel might put on a very, very convincing facade, but they’re not heartless. In fact, they’re lonely. Very… Very lonely. Nobody truly knows Fel. That’s how the game is played. And it hurts.
Skills:
Deep knowledge of the mystic laws, across multiple fae, demonic, and wizard courts.
Parkour Amateur
Reads people like books
Weaknesses:
Lawyer, not a fighter!
Can be somewhat repelled or weakened by “true” holy symbols, deep faith, or hallowed ground.
Alchemical iron burns their skin on contact.
Likes/Dislikes:
Likes Spicy-Sweet foods, with a special affinity for Mexican Chocolate.
Likes overcast days, when things are gloomy and quiet.
Likes small power moves. Sitting at the head of the table, even if it’s reserved for someone else. Surrounding themselves with big, powerful bodyguards and treating them as servants. All those lovely little turns of phrase that say “I’m in charge” without directly saying it.
Dislikes all those damn kids asking for love potions and charms.
Hates cold weather
Despises being diminished or having power moves turned on them, but never shows it.

Background: Nobody is entirely sure where Fellryxtus came from. Rumors abound about summonings gone wrong, portals to hell, possession and telemarketing but nobody has proof. All people know is that ten years ago, they just opened a law office and made a few uninvited appearances at important negotiations between the big families.

They wrote the contracts, sealed pacts, and put powerful magic into it. All in exchange for the promise of more work. nobody really trusted them as a person but their work was top notch, and the contracts themselves carried no trickery. So people began to contract them out. More contracts, more writs of debt, more receipts for services rendered. But that was just the start.

Fel had a reputation after their first two years in town, and people started to go to the devil for other dealings. Charms, enchantments, and dark deeds began to flow from the little office of evil, turning one minor demon into an agency. Instead of souls, Fel would trade favors for favors, and services for time serving. The little demon became a reliable enough employee that some folks came to them for work up front, and it just kept building. After five years in Canter, one of the families noticed.

Don Tepes wanted a cut of Fel’s deals. Their office was in his turf, and he let Fel operate unimpeded. Fel refused. The Don pushed them for protection money. Another refusal. Then some thugs came to rip up the office, and things got violent. Fel nearly lost everything fighting the Tepes mafia, everyone knows that. But what people remember is just how much Fel really had. Hit men from every family found their debts called in and targets assigned to them. Couriers delivered messages in the form of explosive runes and dismembered limbs. Ordinary citizens would shadow their members, bear witness to their crimes, and get the authorities involved. There wasn’t a conclusive winner in the end, but nobody dared forget that the little devil was a match for Don Tepes; And it didn’t forget how much that fight cost it, or how many writs of debt they spent.

These days, Fel’s reputation has sunk deeply, and they mostly deal with fools and desperates. The fallout of the debtor gang war has left them with few debts and fewer willing to potentially become Fel’s weapons or tools. But everyone’s got a price…
Notable Connections:
-Most of the large crime families still use Fel’s services, despite the risk. Simply negotiating a contract for someone typically doesn’t carry a high price, and many local gang lords will trade the service of a goon for a few days in exchange for negotiations and contracts.
-Fel has explicitly signed multiple non-aggression and non-competition pacts with the Alchemists, as Fel’s enchantments can have very similar effects to their works, and the distribution of Alchemical Steel weapons and ammo was… Problematic for the devil.
-Has a small cadre of bodyguards whose members rotate, fluctuate, and change as their service contracts expire and they are replaced by others. Fel has five active at most at a time and will sometimes be escorted by as few as two. Only one seems to be theirs on any permanent basis.

 

[Nimbus]

Name: Damián Alexej Černý Hrabě. His list of nicknames include:

Aleš (diminutive of Alexej)
Laz(ar) (codename)
Paprika
(the) daywalker (derogatory.)
(the) vampire (derog.)
(the) Alchemists' pet (derog.)

Species: Homunculus, chimerized.

Spoiler

(DNA: human, vampire, ?????). By using different catalysts for the process, Damián's original body was affected at a cellular level.

Faction: Alchemists' Guild/??????

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A subset of the Alchemists' Guild revived one of their members using unsanctioned transmutation rituals, known as Project Lazarus. Damián is the product of Project Lazarus. However much the Alchemists Guild wants to claim him as their property, he maintains his own free will.

Occupation: Damián hasn't said much about his work. You just know he DOES work somewhere, since he complains about sometimes needing to work evenings and weekends.

Spoiler

You wouldn't be surprised if he worked at the same law firm as his sire, but...do you really want to go there to find out?

Age (appearance): Your best guess is early to mid twenties, but you can't really be certain. When you ask him, he always manages to change the subject somehow.

Age (approximate/optional): ??

Height: 6'1"

Build/Weight: Lean and long limbed, Damián has just enough muscle mass not to look gangly. He doesn't keep track of his weight.

Spoiler

But it's definitely in his file at the Alchemists Guild.

Hair: Damián likes to keep his hair long and loose. Currently, it falls past his shoulders and collarbone. Its hue is a vibrant red that has often been described as "paprika."

Eyes: Dark and deep set, his stare is one that can look intense with little effort.

Spoiler

His eyes have a great quantity of nyctalopin, which means he has better low-light vision than a human. They do shine in some low light conditions, but it's not quite the same as the tapetum lucidum found in canines, felines and other animals.

Notable features:

Damián has an additional pair of canines along the upper dentition and one extra in the lower dentition.

Spoiler

He also has a curved palate protrusion on the roof of his mouth, which ends directly behind his front teeth. It's not readily visible, so unless you happen to be his dentist, you probably haven't seen enough of it to identify what it is.

The surface of his skin is cool to the touch unless a heat source comes close to it. Fortunately, it readily absorbs heat.

Spoiler

Pretty convenient considering Damián needs to convince the outside world he's not undead. Still, he prefers to wear long sleeves, which doesn't hurt his chances of passing as human.

Other beings with superior smell report he has a persistent scent about him, akin to that which follows thunderstorms.

Spoiler

Vampires don't usually smell like that.

Appearance:
"Lazar"
Damián
Alexej

Magic/Abilities: Damián has a number of vampire abilities, though they pale in comparison to that of a pure-blooded vampire, even a fledgling one. The flipside is that sunlight, the natural weakness of vampires, does not affect him any more than it might a human.

Mesmerize:

Spoiler

Damián can alter his presence and aura to make himself more amenable to others' perception when engaging two or more of the target's senses.. Mesmerize is like a low-rent version of what "pure-blooded" vampires use to enthrall "lesser" beings like humans. Damián uses this ability the least because it reminds him of that disturbing practice. But sometimes a friend needs relief from their pain for a little while. He doesn't mind helping like that when he can.

A few foolish vampires have tried to troll Damián by attempting to thrall him. Ask them about their missing teeth sometime.

Enhanced Senses: Damián has superior senses to a human.

Spoiler

Most of his senses are advantageous at the same level as a full-blooded vampire's, particularly balance and smell/taste. However, many supernatural creatures and even animals with different physiology do beat out those vampire skills.

The drawback of having, say, sensitive ears is that a loud noise is SO much louder and can be painful to endure. Follow through with the other senses and it's easy to understand why Damián avoids very hot or very cold substances, startles at flash photography and sudden noises, and gets triggered by strobe lights. For some reason, he can listen to music at loud volumes in the open air with no complaints. Maybe that diffuses the sound...or maybe he's just a masochist.

Improved Strength: Damián is stronger than an unaugmented human even without using his magic.

Spoiler

Vampires and other supernatural beings punch above his weight class, so to speak. As for mages, well...that depends on skill and size.

Damián tries to keep his body in good condition in case he needs to use this ability in an emergency. However, when he is feeling less than his best, this ability is more difficult to access and saps his endurance when used over time.

Improved Speed: Damián's speed is more reliable and longer-lasting than his Improved Strength. He can reach a top running speed of 40 mph, so cheetahs and cars can still beat him in an out and out race. He has discovered, however, that he can exceed his top speed in very short bursts.

??????????: Damián can take a lot of hits from blunt objects when his body has adequate rest and fuel. He's not sure why, but a break in concentration makes the pain even sharper.

Spoiler

If this happens, he has to feed before he can use this ability again.

????????: Damián knows other Homunculi can give some of their magical energy to another being for a while. Perhaps if ever a situation is dire enough, or if he learns to trust someone implicitly, Damián might unlock the secret to this energy transfer.

??????????: Damián fell asleep in the courtyard last week and dreamed a strange, barely comprehensible dream. When he woke, the grass where he lay had withered and desiccated. Weird, right? At least he didn't have any headaches that morning.

Personality: Damián gives strangers an impression of a charming, if coolly arrogant young man with a collected, calculated demeanor. Damián often stirs up debates for their own sake, in the middle of a lecture or in the checkout line. Even though he's comfortable taking any side for sport, he is not the type of man whose support can be bought.

He has conflicted feelings about the communities he is supposed to belong to and hovers along the periphery of both while trying to make friends with (most) everyone else who shows genuine interest in him. He only lets most people so close. Will keeping others at a distance truly help him?

Thanks to his earliest "check-up" trips to Alchemists Guild labs, Damián was able to put a name to what he was. He knows he used to be someone else - researchers continually asking what, if anything, he remembers, made that obvious. What that means for his life, and what he wants to do, is still something he's figuring out. He enjoys trying new experiences. He also is mildly compelled to want to please others, which ranges from merely annoying to deeply troubling depending on circumstances. Damián chafes at the limits the Alchemists Guild has set on his independence. Maybe if he figures out what his former self used to do, they'll let him try that at least.

Flaws: Damián manipulates others to avoid conflict or discovery. Lies roll off his tongue so smoothly sometimes he doesn't realize he's been lying. Damián is also used to wrapping his insecurity in a facade of control. These are a recipe for natural suspicion of others, which lingers even when Damián realizes he in fact gives a damn about the object of his suspicion.

Skills: Damián has experience reading other beings and determining what it is they really want. He doesn't always get it right, but most of the time he only needs to come close. Damián has a fair hand at sketching, but is reticent to show his artwork to anyone these days. Damián picks up new concepts and theories quickly, which has assisted his adjustment to his widening little slice of the world. Even though he cannot use magic, he knows about Alchemy through the offerings of the Guild's library and the occasional indulgence of senior Alchemists. Due to regular testing since his creation, Damián has become more athletic and agile. He hasn't decided if he wants to play any sports yet, but he likes watching people play them in the park.

Weaknesses: Homunculi are normally a mirror of their blueprint, whatever or whoever that might be. Thus, they inherit one type of Magic from that blueprint.

Spoiler

Damián's vampiric physiology has messed that up.

Damián cannot use magic in the way mages, witches or alchemists do. Instead, his state of being uses the energy one may place as a ritual catalyst more like muscles - to lift and move and support his own body. Thus, if he were to be attacked with a spell or ability that drains magic, Damián would be severely ennervated.

Spoiler

Damián needs to drink fresh blood about twice a month, even with medicine, a supplemental diet of synthetic blood and foods rich in b-vitamins, magnesium and iron. Damián also needs to consume additional blood in order for his body to replenish blood loss greater than 500mL in a 24 hour period. While he has certain reservations, Damián has accepted that he must consume blood. He believes that blood tastes good to him because his body needs it, so in that sense he "eats to live" rather than the other way around.

Damián suffers from sleep disorders (insomnia, somnambulism, RLS, etc.) due to his body's inability to regulate sleep cycles. He finds it difficult to fall asleep unless he takes sedatives. In rare cases, when he is certain he is safe, he might collapse somewhere and try to wait for sleep to come. Last time it worked, he had a strange dream...

Likes/Dislikes: Damián likes

Rain and storms, especially when they bring out a pleasing scent of petrichor.

Plants and gardening. Most animals too.

Art. Making it. Experiencing it. Critiquing it. He generally also likes artists, even though some have personalities that are just "too much."

Warm drinks. He holds them in his hands until the surface of the mug cools, then drinks them. He is too prideful to ask for kids' temperatures, even though that would get a hot drink down to his preferred temperature faster.

College Radio. A sampling of songs that speak to him: Veil-y Bois

Damián dislikes

The taste of

Spoiler

synthetic blood. "It's cough syrup-y but also like you're eating an empty can. Just because it's the most ethical option doesn't mean I can't say, 'Thanks, I hate it.'"

People who touch him without his permission. This happens outside of the lab more than you would think.

Laboratories. Hospitals. Any similarly bright and hyper-sterile location.

Horror movies. He gets enough jump-scares living in the city.

Summer in Canter. The weather's too hot and bright, everything smells like sweat and rotting food, and there aren't even any cute tourists…ugh.

Background:

Spoiler

Project Lazarus concerns the first modern attempt to revive a member of the Alchemists' Guild in the composite-catalyst chain method normally used to create Homunculi with multiple genetic "blueprints." Ironically, Damián was never intended to be a vampire. The human used for Project Lazarus had no contact with vampires prior to his death. Researcher(s) on the project used, among other things, questionably obtained vampire blood to revive Lazarus. Unbeknownst to them at the time, the blood turned the Lazarus test subject while healing his body and/or the revival ritual became the catalyst for vampiric mutation. In some respects he is "more" vampire than traditionally turned vampires. He somehow still is strong enough to walk in the sunlight as the subject for Project Lazarus was in his first life (possibly due to other alchemical components).

Damián's oldest memory is of cold metal, blinding brightness and an all-encompassing hunger. Not knowing how he had come to be restrained in a lab amongst all these people he didn't recognize, he panicked. To everyone's surprise, he broke the restraints and fled the lab, bowling over equipment and people in his way.

He evaded his pursuers and nearly all of their magic, instinctively launching himself into the room he thought smelled best and wedging the heavy door shut behind him.

This room, a vault, stored plenty of useful items. Damián ignored the weapons and cracked open the safe-seals of its chest Refrigerators to get at the containers of delicious-smelling, semi-viscous liquid inside. He drank until all the pain and hunger ebbed away.

Their charge having fled into a high-security zone, the Alchemists responsible for the being who would come to be known as Damián called in Specialists on the heels of their Director's visit.

The Director entered the vault, flanked by two Specialists, codenamed Růžena and Šárka respectively. The highly redacted official report claims, under supervision of the Director, a cloaked Šárka shot a tranquilizer round into the target's nape while Růžena distracted him in "the usual manner." Damián's account, however, makes frequent allusions to a discussion with Specialist Růžena. Perhaps this unorthodox handling of a containment breach influenced the Director's decision to later assign these two specialists to Damián long term.

After the target was incapacitated, the official report notes, he was transferred to a certain safehouse under the Director's authority. Despite a significant increase in personal comfort

Spoiler

and a steady supply of experimental synthetic blood

, Damián remained wary and skittish in this new environment, successfully escaping twice before being recaptured by the assigned specialists.

This brought the matter of Project Lazarus to the wider attention of the Guild. Factions were divided between those who wanted to retain the sole subject of Project Lazarus to study him and those who wanted to destroy the dangerous and (allegedly) ravenous creature.

Spoiler

Exactly one (1) attempt was successful in capturing Damián during transit between the safehouse and the research lab. The perpetrators dragged Damián out from a wrecked vehicle into the sunlight. They expected it to be his demise, as it is the one unquestioned weakness of vampires, regardless of age or strength. They did not expect Damián to be able to stand in full sunlight, much less put up a fight. But fight - and escape again - he did.

Recognizing the need for further intelligence on the asset, the Director approved retroscopic antigen testing of the asset's blood. Tests provided interesting results: a slight majority of the markers belonged to a single "sire." Ambrož Hrabě, one of the few first generation Upirnik in the nation, was not especially influential in the politics of the Veil, or truly interested in accumulating power or siring underlings to do his bidding. Ambrož was not prepared to learn that the blood he had assumed was sent to a bank for emergency transfusions was actually used by the Alchemists Guild in a revival ritual. He was even less prepared to discover that said revival ritual created a vampire who could walk in the sunlight. To avoid legal action (among a great deal of other potential retribution), the Guild signed a settlement with Ambrož. For a specific weekly allotment of synthetic blood, Mr. Hrabě would act in a consulting capacity as a "subject matter expert" concerning the education and health of Damián.

Months after the Director assigned them to his security detail, Adéla and Marina pushed for Damián to be allowed more freedom inside the Guild. But the Guild seldom gives without taking in return. Damián was first put on the same rotation as any initiate might be - menial chores like sweeping the lobby floor and cleaning the bathrooms were how he earned his keep.

Damián tended to wander over to the glasshouse and the courtyard towards the end of his night time shifts to spend time with the plants. With this habit and Marina's lectures on how to properly care for plants, it wasn't a difficult journey from janitor to groundskeeper.

Tending the plants alone kept Damián's spirits from sinking for a little over a year. The trouble was, the Guild was trying to make him remember things from before. All he or they succeeded in was giving Damián a headache and a blue mood.

Concerned for his well-being, Adéla and Marina petitioned for the Guild to consider specialist battlemage training for Damián, even though he technically can't do magic. Surprisingly, the battlemage corps agreed to give him a chance - with some unique conditions. First, he has to maintain his "check-up schedule." Second, he has to "pass" as a civilian outside of the Alchemists' Guild. And thirdly, he cannot leave Canter.

Currently, he's working on that second part by exploring as much of Canter as he can and practicing the concept of hiding in plain sight.

Spoiler

As long as he doesn't smile too wide, Damián can navigate the suspicions of the mundane world and gently bury them in lies and silvered words. Can he keep his true origins a secret from those with magic?

Now that he's had a taste of another's "normal" life, can he ever get out from under the thumb of the Alchemists' Guild? And what about the strange dream he had, where he looked and felt smaller than he ever was? Does that have to do with what the Guild wants him to remember? What does it mean? What does this make him?

Notable Connections:

The Alchemist Guild's relationship with him is "complicated." His creation was their doing, but some of their number still perceive him as a threat. Others want to use him...for what, he is not exactly sure. The following individuals are his closest allies in the Guild and the only people with whom he trusts his life, such as it is.

Adéla Kveta "Růžena" Černý (legal guardian) - Artist. Friend. Battlemage.

Spoiler

Adéla Černý, codename Růžena, kept in communication with Damián after her first encounter with him. To her, it was obvious that he was confused and afraid that day. Something about him reminded her of someone close to her. Prior to her assignment to him as a bodyguard, she visited the safehouse to check on and chat with him. Adéla once brought a deck of cards to teach Damián different games. The first card he got into his hands he stared at.

When she asked him about it, he said, "the design is beautiful."

Adela chuckled. "If you like it so much, you can keep it."

The next visit, she brought him a sketchbook and pencils, encouraging him to make beautiful designs on the pages. He hasn't left a single page blank.

Together they tried many different kinds of art. Adéla even set up a little website to sell what couldn't fit in the safehouse and price out commissions. The sales typically fund Damián's growing collection of books and art supplies, but occasionally he will use his commission money on something different.

Marina "Šárka" Otieno-Černý (legal guardian) Gardener. Friend. Battlemage.

Spoiler

Marina Otieno, codename "Šárka," officially met Damián when he was first transported to the lab after recuperating in the safehouse. Things fell apart not long after Damián was herded out of the elevator. The lab had been noisier and brighter than the last time he'd been here. Damián refused to let anyone get near him with EKG equipment, much less theore esoteric tools created by the Guild. Marina told the researchers to turn down the lights and volume. They ignored her, of course.

With a long-suffering sigh, Marina pulled out her sidearm and shot out the lights. She'd definitely face disciplinary action, but she didn't particularly care if it made this long day shorter.

"Is that better, kid?"

"Y-yeah," Damián rasped as his eyes adjusted.

Marina walked Damián through the process of preparing for an EKG before the emergency power kicked in. The researchers made an absolute fuss, of course. But Damián did not bolt. Glancing occasionally at Marina, he abided an amount of prodding most vampires in his situation would have broken fingers over, to start.

Damián thanked her as he was led towards the exit that day. There was something about this kid, as quiet and skittish as he was, that reminded Marina of Adéla.

Damián is not well-known among vampires, but he is not exactly capable of fitting into that crowd either. The older vampires believe him to be some upstart, or worse, part of a conspiracy to control Canter. Their younger, rowdier brethren prefer to pick fights with him just because they can.

Ambrož Mstislav Hrabě (primary sire) - Director of Finance for the firm Pulkrabek, Dvorak, and Associates in Downtown Canter.

While their relationship began contractually, Ambrož has grown fond of Damián and tries his best to be a patient and understanding, albeit awkward, father figure. He has since moved to Canter, taking up a post downtown at the law offices of Pulkrabek, Dvorak, and Associates.

Spoiler

There is one block of downtown Canter that Damián could use as a sanctuary if he needed to. He could sneak out to stargaze on the rooftops, attend one of those after-hours museum soirees, sip a boozy coffee, watch a late night movie, or - if he's feeling adventurous - grab a snack. A certain law firm can't offer him as much protection from magical threats as the Guild can, but they do keep the riff raff out and Damián's public-facing paperwork tidy so hardworking Mr. Hrabě can ensure those quarterly audits go off without a hitch.