TheIronJef/Alkurah
Name: Alkurah
Caste: Twilight
Motivation: Unmake the term and meaning of anathema
Anima: Chained horse breaking free
Concept: Rogue Scholar
Attributes:
Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 4
Charisma 4, Manipulation 2, Appearance 3
Perception 4, Intelligence 5, Wits 3
Abilities:
Martial Arts 1, Melee 5, Athletics 2, Awareness 1, Dodge 3, Integrity 1, Performance 2, Presence 4, Resistance 3, Survival 1, Linguistics 1, Ride 3, Socialize 1, Craft 2, Investigation 4, Lore 4, Medicine 3, Occult 2(Vistani Mysticism +2)
Backgrounds: Allies 1, Artifact 3, Contacts 2, Familiar 1
Virtues:
Compassion 3, Conviction 2, Temperance 3, Valor 2
Virtue Flaw: Overindulgence(Temperance)
Willpower: 7
Health: -0,-1,-1,-1,-2,-2,-2,-2,-4,Incap
Essence: 3
Essence pool:
Charms:
First Excellencies
Melee, Investigation, Ride
Second Excellencies
Dodge, Lore, Medicine
Melee
Dipping Swallow Defense, Bulwark Stance, Hungry Tiger Technique
Resistance
Ox-Body Technique, Durability of Oak Meditation, Spirit Strengthens the Skin
Presence
Majestic Radiant Presence
Ride
Worthy Mount Technique
Medicine
Touch of Blissful Release
Investigation
Evidence-Discerning Method
Equipment: Loose fitting drawstring pants, reinforced buff jacket, Shine on the Water(wavecleaver daiklave), small pouches, rope.
Character Description
Age: 38-43, he isn't sure
Appearance: Slim and compact, just a hair over 5'8. Built similar to a circus tumbler or contortionist. Straight black hair blends neatly with his almond skin tone, he's of earthy stock and has a short-cropped but full beard. His hair is pulled tight over the top of his head, leaving a pronounced widow's peak. At the back of his head, his hair is gathered with a cord and hangs in a loose ponytail to his belt. His features are sharp but pleasant, with Arab and Chinese influences visible in the sharp cut of his nose and the epicanthic fold in his eyes. His eyebrows are enormous, looking for all the word like paired black wedges, generating a pleasing symmetry with his widow's peak hair. His clothing doesn't change often, tending to rotate between a few similar pairs of loose-fitting drawstring pants, and a jacket. The jacket is a relic, a tailored, fitted, and seemingly ornamental reinforced buff jacket that opens in the front, which he generally wears open over either a small vest or no shirt.
History: A gang violence orphan, the lives of Alkurah's parents were short, brutal, and pointless. He'll never know, however, because as quickly as they were lost, he was swept up by a cliché as old as pre-history, child-thieving gypsies. The family that took him was exhibiting equal parts human decency and flint-eyed mercenary instinct, and so Alkurah rapidly became a part of the band's daily and business life. His adopted father, a scheming, wiry, grizzled man named Yanim, recognized the natural talents in his new ward from the earliest days and capitalized on them. Alkurah, possessed of a naturally upright bearing and commanding voice, became a barker and salesman. His lithe frame and extraordinary dexterity lent to his training as a horseman and trick-rider, and his incredible senses were honed for the purposes of basic shell games and false-prophet trickery.
Now it could have been that Alkurah was to live out his life in relative comfort with the chicanery and simple joys of a nomadic lifestyle, but fate intervenes when it must, and Alkurah's idyll was shattered at the age of 19. While his band was camping on a high-ridge overlooking the Barony valley, Alkurah worked to break a new horse the group has acquired. A spirited charger and sure to grow into a massive brute of an animal, Alkurah has given the animal the name Ezma, a word in one of his three or so languages that simply means "Challenging Task." Tired from a day's hard riding and sore from many falls, Alkurah rode towards his camp, only to be stopped up on the outskirts by a terrifying sight. Bandits! Generally a silent peace existed between the hill bandits and the gypsies, but something was different about this group. They dressed identically and moved with great precision and terrible swiftness. Alkurah watched in horror as his family uprooted and fled in their wagons, routed and shunted by mounted bandits towards an unknown goal. Alkurah, having explored the area, made haste to intercept and give aid, but a solid blow to the back of the head ended his pursuit. He awoke several days later, in a provincial slum in a town he'd never before seen. A long glance out the window shocked him to no end, he was on the other side of the mountains! He'd never seen the outcroppings of rock that now stared back. Learning from his fellow captives that he faced slavery and a life of hard labor, Alkurah planned and executed a daring escape, pausing only to recover his one possession of value in the world now, Ezma. Dismayed and convinced that he'd never find his family again, he turned and rode into the world, determined to rediscover his fortunes.
From this point Alkurah has many adventures and makes it all over the world, accumulating possessions, making small contacts and friends, and gathering stories he'll return to tell. He makes it as far west as Port Calin, where his exaltation occurs in a desperate and triumphant fashion. Wandering back to an inn late at night from a card game, Alkurah (now in his late thirties) is again cracked on the back of the head and awakes in motion. He's being pulled towards a large crowd of other men, chained and morose. With all his experience, he immediately assesses the situation (a press-ganging) and the dismay that overtakes him is incredible. He slumps in his captor's arms, seemingly unconscious, but actually having a brief and memorable conversation with the Unconquered Sun. He's told that his life has been a chute, ever narrowing and focusing, to lead him to this moment. That he will now be a great seeker of mystery, a digger of secrets, and an enforcer of the old ways. He shall be given the strength and tenacity to accomplish these things, and suddenly the desire to learn all of creation's great secrets blooms within him. With a sudden expulsion of air, Alkurah comes to. With unimaginable speed he slips loose his bonds and rushes the gang-leader, a water-aspect dragonblood of ill manner and ill form. He wrenches loose the prince of the earth's blade and strikes him down, before turning his crazed eyes on the rest of the gang. Horrified, they flee into the night. As he frees the other slaves, one asks "Why? Why not wait to escape or jump ship in the future?" Alkurah replies "I hate the damn sea."
Expanded Backgrounds
Shine on The Water
Wavecleaver Daiklave
About 2 ½ feet in length, with a gentle curve similar to that of a Chinese broadsword or naval chopping saber, made of black jade and mother of pearl inlay down the blade's center, with traces of blue jade-steel along the cutting edge and a nacreous sheen throughout. Three rings extend from pierced holes along the back of the blade, each ring is an unbroken jade circle, unremovable and seemingly impossible to have put there in the first place (each is clearly made of a different jade-steel alloy than the blade itself, of varying colors). The old blade clearly has a long lineage, but surprisingly has had few owners. It's spent at least a few hundred years stuck in a wooden mast at the bottom of the sea. As far as the current holder knows, it was only held in the hands of one other owner, a nasty Dragon-blooded pirate and trafficker in human misery. The blade was originally designed as a safety aid for essence-wielding oceanic explorers during a different age, and the magical capacities it offers bear witness to this.
Stats
Speed 5
Accuracy 3
Damage 7/3
Defense 3
Rate 2
Attune: 6
Tag: O
Special Effects:
- The blade was designed for nautical travelers and loves to be used for its intended purpose. It grants the wearer an intimacy to open waters. This isn't a compulsion, a wielder feels no need to be at or in the water, it just gives them a feeling of comfort and confidence when over water in general. This is mostly an RP function, since it's really hard to give someone a command to harm or betray the ocean.
- Essence Spring: An attuned wielder can channel essence through Shine on the Water to produce natural, flowing streams from any open earth or rock outcropping by plunging the naked blade into the earth. Varying amounts of water can be produced with different essence expenditures, and springs can be made as permanent or temporary as the wielder commands. A mote of essence can produce a fresh stream of water large enough to sate 4 people or so, or twice as much saltwater, where 5 motes of essence can create a pond overnight or a smallish saltwater waterfall. Temporary and permanent streams cost the same number of motes.
- Fluid Embrace: Shine on the Water acts with the basic function of a hearthstone (doubled essence recovery) for a wielder who is resting on or adjacent to, or immersed in at least chest-deep water. This has to be natural water, so sleeping on a river's edge counts, but not sitting in a deep fountain.
