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10:26, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

character backgrounds/bios.

Posted by ArtemisFor group 0
Artemis
GM, 9 posts
Wed 9 Oct 2013
at 12:52
  • msg #1

character backgrounds/bios

Post here your back story should you wish.
Father Simon Cole
player, 1 post
Exorcist
Demon Hunter
Wed 9 Oct 2013
at 17:26
  • msg #2

Re: character backgrounds/bios

Simon was born David Cole. As a young man he heard the story of Nimrod, Genesis 10:9 "He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord." He was granted a vision of this man, and it was not what he expected. When he heard the story he thought of a big tough outdoorsy type fellow with thick flowing hair and a chest like the front end of a locomotive. What he saw shocked him: a small, almost meek man with a thin ring of hair around his skull. The small man was given a power that the man he had envisioned could never have even guessed at. He watched this man tear apart a demon with his bare hands!

As his vision ended, God's voice was clear and distinct - I will make you my new hunter and your name will be Simon. From that day on David trained, not his body, but his mind and his faith. His parents, though of modest means, still gave what they could toward his goal. They were in fact proud that their son was so dedicated to God at such an early age. They sent him to Catholic School in Boston through High School, and then he went Boston College on a Church Scholarship. He was academically ahead of most of his classmates, but what most of his teachers and mentors often notice was his faith. He has an unshakable faith in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.

His faith was what drew the attention of the Church in the Vatican. He was tapped to be taken into a very small group, the Church Exorcists, called simply the Order. He spent a year training with one of the most proficient exorcists in the church and once he successfully performed an exorcism he was sent back to the US, ordained and given a position as an itinerate priest in a large parish, but in reality he investigates and exorcises demons...
This message was last edited by the player at 20:53, Wed 09 Oct 2013.
Jacques DeBay
player, 1 post
Wed 9 Oct 2013
at 19:25
  • msg #3

Re: character backgrounds/bios

Jacques' family made its money in the fur trade in Quebec. Jacques father received a comfortable sum of money at the passing of his oldest uncle. He used the funds to purchase a large orchard in Fitzwilliam New Hampshire. In 1842 he moved south with his wife and newborn son. They grew apples, kept chickens, bees, and rabbits and maintained a small kitchen garden. Jacques grew up helping with the chores, maintaining the equipment and pursuing game for the family table. He was the oldest of seven children.

When war broke out, his time hunting in the fields paid off and he qualified for service as a Volunteer with Berdan's Sharpshooters, an elite Union force. Jacques' talent for maintaining the famous Sharps rifles and developing special loads for the best shots in the unit landed him a posting as the brigade's armorer. When the war ended, Berdan asked him to continue working for him in the future.

Jacques assisted with the design and prototype of the Berdan Rifle and was soon tasked to serve as the company's representative to the Russian Army. Jacques found himself in St. Petersburg with little knowledge of the Russian language. His early education in french helped him to make a few friends in the Court of Alexander III. He was a quick study and  became adept at the language in less than a year. During that time he made connections customizing the hunting rifles of highly placed officials and joining them in the field. His efforts were rewarded when the Russian army agreed to purchase the Berdan as their main battle rifle.

Jacques stayed on to make sure that the transition went smoothly. It was during this time that his career as a hunter began. He was on a boar-hunt with a friend and the man's extended family when the man's nephew disappeared. Jacques helped to investigate the disappearance which led to the discovery of a Rusalka lurking in the swamps. They destroyed the creature with the help of a local priest.

Jacques was fascinated with the man's work and joined him on a number of hunts until the priest was killed during their battle with a werewolf. This occurred as Jacques business with the Tzar was coming to an end. He returned to New York after years abroad with a passion for hunting and a burning desire to prevent the spread of the monsters he had fought in Russia from becoming established in America. He was soon to learn that they had always been here. He thanked Berdan for all of his opportunities but resigned from his position to continue with his new mission in life.
Penny Dreadful
player, 5 posts
Thu 10 Oct 2013
at 08:30
  • msg #4

Re: character backgrounds/bios

History:

Lady Penelope Ann Veracity Darkmoor, of the eastern Darkmoors, is the eldest daughter of an aristocratic clan whose rambling estate and ancient, brooding, run-down family pile sprawl over the lonely moors of England. The Darkmoors are an elder family; certainly, they predate the Conquest, being listed in the Domesday Book in more or less their current location. Many lurid tales have been told about the Darkmoors over the centuries, with gruesome deeds committed by its lords in medieval times, accusations of witchcraft, a whispered family curse and some outbreaks of insanity, and some dabbling in not one, but two Hellfire Clubs. The last century saw the construction of certain follies and grottoes on Darkmoor lands, which seemed to have some connection to, and were built in the style of, old Celtic religious sites. Nevertheless, the family, and their manor, were much decayed by the late 19th century, with dwindling fortunes and fewer Darkmoors.

Penny was the first-born of the latest generation, and, unfortunately for her father, female. With no male heirs forthcoming for her domineering, increasingly reclusive and irrationally ill-tempered father, she was forced to handle a number of affairs of the estate, and she grew up inquisitive, intelligent, and, in opposition to her father, free spirited. She explored the mansion and its secret passages and wandered the estates, playing among the follies, grottoes, and forbidding stone circles, and she even climbed the local tor and ventured into a winding tunnel that lead into a deep cave adorned with primal paintings left by Stone Age peoples. She also delved into the dusty tomes in the mansion's library, chasing after the family history and stumbling across all manner of strange tales and weird lore. It all gave her a taste for history, legend, adventure, and the macabre that was generally not fitting a young lady.

Finally, when she was of age and a debutante, it was expected that Penny would be married off to a suitable husband, a good match for the family. Penny had no desire to be a dutiful lady wife and breed, however. Instead, she sought a career as an independent woman, and more than a governess or secretary. She went to an Oxbridge university, received a broad education in the sciences, history, the classics, and mythology, and discovered a particular talent for solving other people's problems, from the mundane to the dark side of human nature, and beyond. She moved to London and set herself up, first as a scientific consultant to the police, and then as a private and consulting detective, in a manner similar to her colleague Mr Sherlock Holmes, from whom she learned the art of deduction. Her forwardness, logical manner, and choice of occupation proved quite shocking to male-dominated society, and as a woman she was often underestimated, which was to her advantage.

She soon discovered all manner of peculiar cases, with weird things coming from the fringes of the British Empire and old, dark secrets at its heart. Her earlier studies of the old lore made her aware of possible solutions beyond the mundane and ordinary, and she soon found them. An investigation of an alleged haunting she suspected to be a hoax to drive the owners out of an old house turned up a very real, very angry ghost. Penny headed back to her books of lore to find a way of putting the spirit to rest. Soon, everywhere, she discovered true cases of the supernatural, grotesque, monstrous, and otherworldly. What's more, Penny had a knack for seeing beyond the veil to the magical world behind the everyday. She adopted a pseudonym, "Penny Dreadful", after the lurid horror pulps, to protect her family name from scandal and enemies. She specialised in the bizarre and unexplainable cases that stumped the police and even Mr Holmes, though their solutions necessarily remained unknown to the general public for fear of causing a sensation. She necessarily such cases sought out, as she couldn't make a living waiting for the unnatural to come to her, becoming what some would term a "hunter".

She investigated mediums and fortune tellers, ghost hauntings, vampires, demonic possession, mischievous fey, mythical British monsters, and elder and incomprehensible things. She solved Holmes's unsolved case of Isadora Persano, found stark staring mad before a match box containing a worm unknown to science. She slew a Spring-Heeled Jack and an Owlman, sighted the Loch Ness Monster, and kept the Lambton Worm from awakening. She also hunted down the notorious Jack the Ripper, the most horrific of monsters. But far from a demon, she found him to be a perfectly ordinary, completely depraved, human. He came close to ripping out her guts when she turned the tables, and the knife, on him. The scandalous nature of the Ripper's identity meant the case had to remain officially unsolved, and her own position in London was precarious, so Penny decided to retreat to the colonies, to expand her business horizons. She considered India and Australia, but a letter from the Men of Letters settled the choice: America. It seemed she'd made an international reputation, and they apparently sought her expertise. Thus, she set sail for New York and new hunting grounds.

Allegiances:

Penny holds allegiance to Great Britain, queen and country. She supports the Empire, but deplores its excesses and cruelties, both abroad and at home. She is also a suffragist, taking part in protests and campaigns for women's right to vote and other freedoms.

She is strongly in favour of law and justice, but preferably the latter. She'd rather a good person go free for a crime than suffer unjustly, if she agrees with their motives, good character and honour, and amends and recompense are made. Similarly, the courts and gaols are not equipped to handle demons, so she's found it necessary to take the law into her own hands.

She also argues for the scientific approach, of logic, rationality, and the art of deduction.

She believes that monsters, the demons and the vampires and so on, stand against all these things she believes in, and that they must be stopped.

Personality:

Penny is highly intelligent and observant, and handles all her problems in a logical manner and applies the arts of deduction and scientific analysis. However but she won't stop at the impossible solutions when the supernatural is involved. She can determine a lot about a person on first glance, from habits to occupation, and its the discrepancies and oddities that give away an inhuman monster. She'll apply the same techniques to a monster's murder site as she would to an ordinary crime scene, and learn all that occurred. She is always polite and well mannered, honourable, and has a firmly British stiff upper lip.

She believes she is as good as any man, if not better, and she's right. She won't use her so-called feminine wiles or intuition, nor claim to be too delicate for anything. She's not above pretending to be a man if it can get her further or avoid undesirable attention, however. Some men may think her cold and unwomanly: Penny isn't one to scream and cry, shrink at the sight of blood, or turn hysterical in the face of terror as they may expect. Nor is she immune to the sight of such horrors, only inured through experience. The grisly murder scenes and cruelties she's witnessed, and especially those of Jack the Ripper, haunt her at nights. Her response is to throw herself into her work and treat them with an air of clinical detachment.

Growing up in her eccentric family left her distant and subtly off in her interactions. In a later century, she might be termed mildly autistic, or a case of Asperger's. She does have a caring side, as much as any person, but has difficulties showing it. Nevertheless, she is always confident of her abilities, though not unreasonably so; dignified in any situation; and independently minded. She's never one to be put off by social conventions or class divisions, treating all the same as she pushes through barriers. Science has shown her that all men and women and races are equal.

Having lived in a repressed culture of brief, chaste courtships and lifelong marriages of convenience, lacking great social skills, while pursuing activities many men find distasteful in a woman, Penny has had no romantic engagements. She is also, of course, a virgin, which makes her a potential target for virgin sacrifice. This isn't a topic for polite conversation, obviously.

Penny is capable of defending herself, but is no strong fighter. She learned the basics of the European gentlemen's martial arts of fighting with a cane or umbrella, kickboxing, and knifefighting from the London street gangs. She's also learned to fire a pistol or rifle, which proves more effective in scaring away ruffians or dispatching monsters.

She has a wide range of knowledge from her university days and travels, supplemented by her training in the arts of deduction from Sherlock Holmes, and some more illicit skills from the better class of London thug who occasionally owed her a favour.

She enjoys reading, both academic papers and books for research, and the new scientific romances of Wells, Verne, Doyle, and the like, as well as the "penny dreadfuls" she took her name from. These horror tales tend to be inspired by genuine monster encounters, with a few facts buried amongst the fiction. She also, to some embarrassment, collects souvenir spoons from the places she has visited, and all around Britan, Europe, and now America. She has a larger collection stored in London, and usually one or two on her person. After all, one never knows when they may need some sterling silver. A silver spoon,
correctly placed, can take an eye out of a werewolf, Penny can attest.

Penny has an affiliation with Scotland Yard, whom she regularly consults with, is a member of the Library of St. John the Beheaded in London (a secret vault of old occult books once banned by the Vatican), and soon to be one of the Men of Letters, though she criticises the choice of name.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:32, Tue 29 Oct 2013.
Jacob Anderson
player, 9 posts
Thu 10 Oct 2013
at 15:50
  • msg #5

Re: character backgrounds/bios

Jacob stands at just over 1.80 meters with dark brown hair and hazel colored eyes.  He speaks with a Boston accent and is far from affable, as Jacob rarely speaks except for the matter at hand.

Jacobs history is one of loss and pain.  Born and raised in the rural southern farmlands near Boston, Jacob found his purpose in life at a young age as he met the woman he would marry at a young age. Things went as well as could be expected as a young couple worked hard long hours to make a living but it was a honest living and they had each other.

During a trip to the city to get needed supplies for the upcoming planting season Jacob came back to a burnt down homestead and the loss of the one he had loved. Based on the broken arrows and tracks left behind Jacob knew who did it.

The rain was almost refreshing as it came down during the simple ceremony. He had spent the morning digging the grave himself and made sure to dig it deep enough so no wild animals would attempt to dig the grave open. Mr. Reynolds and his wife Doran stood silently , they were neighbors that lived just over the hill. They were a kind older couple and would often bring warm bread over during the colder months. These were the only people that Jacob and his wife Catherine really knew out here.

Father Simon stayed silent for a moment as if letting Jacob have another moment. It had not been easy for Jacob to even seek out a preacher , he did not have a strong belief system but his wife did. He found out after his loss that maybe he did need the guidance.

Jacob looks up into the sky as the cool rain splashes down on his face as he closes his eyes before hearing hearing Father Simon speak. The words were said but the anger clouded anything that was said that day.

Fueled by his loss , Jacob lost control of what was right or wrong as he spent the next year hunting down the tribe that had done this to him and picked them off a few at a time. He showed no mercy as both woman and children fell to his vengeance.

Jacob cares for only one thing now as he fights for the salvation of his soul.He cares not for his own personal safety, but he will help the rest of humanity as deemed by the Lord's call to love thy brother and sister. He is haunting at night by the images of the innocent he slayed and has a tough time sleeping.
Sebastian Goodhue
player, 4 posts
Man of Letters
Dilettante and Gadabout
Tue 17 Jun 2014
at 17:14
  • msg #6

Re: character backgrounds/bios

The sole child of extremely wealthy New York elite who had made their fortunes through importing luxury goods from the far east, Sebastian wanted for nothing during his childhood. As he became older, it was expected by his father that he would start to take a more active role in the business, so that he might one day take over when it was time for his father to step down. But it quickly became apparent that Sebastian himself had no such desires. Flighty, impulsive and headstrong, he resisted his father at every turn, deflecting any and all attempts to engage him in the family business with his considerable charm.

Once he gained access to his trust fund, Sebastian began to stray even further from the path that his family had laid out for him, squandering huge amounts of money on drink and other vices. Perhaps he would have shaped up and sorted himself out, or perhaps he would have sunk further into iniquity until his family were forced to disown him, but neither of those outcomes were what fate had in store for him. One eve, on his way home inebriated, as usual, he was accosted by a hooligan in a dark alley. Before he knew it, the he had blasted the man with some sort of strange force that he was barely even able to comprehend.

After this, the strange occurrences increased exponentially. He would hear snippets of others thoughts, and objects would float or fall off tables when he grew irritated with something. It was only when he was contacted by a mysterious envoy from an organization calling themselves the Men of Letters that he finally understood what was happening. They told him that he was psychic, and that they could help him control these powers and make something of himself. Without hesitation, Sebastian accepted, seeing this as merely an opportunity for excitement. He could not have been more wrong.
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