Setting Information
| Nichatus Von Trier |
| Thursday, 09 April 2009 21:16 |
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Name: Nichatus Von Trier Gender: Male Age: 27 Race: Human Occupation: “Consultant” to Arrandus Vargo, one of the more aggressive promoters of magic within the Conclave. Physical Appearance: Nichatus has handsome and youthful. His Almain ancestry is still fairly clear in his facial features, despite the addition of more cultural diversity within his family’s gene pool over the past few generations. His eyes and hair are of very similar russet shade, though the irises veer more towards brown than his hair does. His physique is not that of a warrior or even a physical laborer. Nor his he unfit, however. What muscle he has is decently conditioned through infrequent rigorous exercise, and clearly visible beneath his clear, lightly tanned skin. The man’s favored outfits usually consist of pants and a coat of earthy red tones or black, and a pair of brown leather boots. The only armor he wears is a leather breastplate with a plate of light metal protecting the front half. The metal piece appears to have originally been part of a full-metal breastplate, and its lower edge is flared, suggesting that the original piece was intended to be worn with a fauld. Personality: The most common word in peoples’ list of ways to describe Nichatus is pretentious. As someone with a natural ability in magic he views himself as better than non-magical folk, and even some who do have skill with magic will find themselves being sneered at. It is all a matter of whether he views their abilities as “useful” or not. It is somewhat unfortunate, in the eyes of some, that he is of that mindset, however, as he can be a very charismatic person. Being who he is, though, he prefers to use that particular character trait to cover up the things people see as flaws in himself and coax out information that he can not simply snatch from someone’s mind. Due to this outlook, and some of the beliefs of the Augen des Gemüt which are still planted firmly in his mind, Nichatus has developed masochistic tendencies. In situations where one would normally chastise themselves quietly Nichatus tends to punish himself physically, the previously mentioned rigorous exercise being a light form of his self punishment. He also tends to gravitate towards more “dangerous” company and will often do things that he sees as necessary that others would avoid due to the risk of injury. His moods are also quite unpredictable and capable of changing in an instant, going from one extreme to the other or something milder. Nichatus has a strange fondness for fae, as well. Not on any sexual or physical level, but more from the fact that they interest him. Their race having so many variations and unpredictable factors involved. This fascination is also boosted by the belief that members of some wild fae tribe saved his life once.(Also, he squeals happily at the sight of pink bunnies  )Magics: First and foremost Von Trier is what most would call a mind reader. He uses this ability through some strange form of magic that not even he completely understands the workings of. What he does know is that this magic allows him to sense the energies that form thoughts and memories within the mind of a person and translate them into the proper sensory perceptions (images for sight, sounds for hearing, etc. internal thoughts are heard as if they were spoken word). The easiest parts of a person’s mind for him to read are current thoughts and the freshest memories (up to 1 hour in the past). He is yet to meet a person that can stop him from reading these basic areas of the mind, but delving deeper is progressively more difficult. Some individuals with a strong psyche (player characters with an, to put it in D&D terms, above average wisdom) add another lair of difficulty, as stronger minds will instinctively protect themselves from “intruders.” This does not mean that the person will know he is “in their head,” but their minds will form barriers against Nichatus without conscious effort or realization. He also has the ability to tamper with the energies of the mind. The most difficult, though not the most taxing, form of this tampering is in the altering of information stored in the brain. He can cut off the flow of energy to certain areas and effectively repress a memory (he can also do the reverse of this), or he can alter the flow of energy to make an individual’s mind less hectic and easier to access. The other form of this manipulation is to alter the energies that make up a person’s senses, essentially creating an illusion which can encompass all five sense instead of just sight. These illusions come in three “stages.” The first stage is at the outer distance of his power’s range of effect (about 10-20 feet from the target) in which he is only capable of altering one or two senses. At a closer range he can alter all of the senses. With both of these stages the number of senses he attempts to manipulate, and the mental strength of the individual, can greatly effect the realism of the illusion. The third and final stage of his illusion casting can only be managed with skin to skin contact, which allows him to connect almost directly with the persons mental energy. At this level he can create an illusion so real that if he creates the proper one (drowning in a river, buried alive) he can cause the persons body to believe they are really experiencing the illusion and kill them. For death to actually occur with this method he must hold the illusion for just as long as it would take for the person to die if they were actually in the situation. Only very strong people (player characters and important NPCs) can resist this power, and even then it will take some effort. The main side effect of his tampering is physical fatigue. This fatigue can range from mere tiredness to him falling to the floor unconscious depending on how long he does it for and the extent of his tampering. The only real drawback to his mind reading is the fact that some people’s minds can actually harm him. Strengths: To compensate for a lack of skill in physical combat Nichatus can read an enemies attacks before they are made. When fighting someone with skill or some formal training it is unlikely that he will do more than survive the enemy’s attacks, as the actions involved in fighting are very often second-nature for these people. He is also a very self-sufficient person, as the religion he was forced into believed in a goddess that did not answer prayers. According to their texts she despised those that made them, and rewarded “doing for ones self” as a virtue. Weaknesses: Nichatus’ fear of physical injury and death is not as strong as in most people. In some cases this can actually be a good thing, but in most instances it leads to him making choices that aren’t exactly beneficial to his health. It is not completely unheard of for him to become obsessed with the way a particular person thinks or the way their mind works. He will eventually (or has in the past) get bored with the person’s inner workings after a while. He also has an irrational and somewhat unexplainable fear of horses, which makes travelling long distances a bit more difficult for him. Possessions: Aside from what is already stated and the obvious (a home, clothing, a small collection of books, etc.) Nic also owns a light-weight short-sword of decent quality. It is rare that he carries this sword as he believes his lack of skill with the weapon makes it a needless encumbrance. Character History: Nichatus was born in one of the agriculture based settlements near Verre Zon. His father, Alphonse, was of the third generation of the Von Trier merchant family to live outside of Almainy. The family was not rich, having no ties other than name and blood to the other Von Triers, but they did well enough through farming and craft works. Their two sons were properly provided for, even if their father had to take extra work when the crops were bad. Based on his parents’ ages he was already considered something of a miracle child, but then Nic developed through the stages of infancy quickly, learning to walk and talk much early than was normal. By the age of four he was already learning to read. It was also around this time that he began to show an uncanny ability to answer peoples’ questions before they were spoken aloud, though he didn’t do it often and was usually “off in his own world” when he did. The parents thought nothing of this, attributing it to him being an observant child. The next year when he was old enough to start school his mother and father sent him to live with his older brother, Adler, in Verre Zon so that he could attend. Though Adler treated him well and provided for him better than their parents had Nic still hated living there. In his young mind he viewed it as his parents abandoning him. His view of the situation, and the feelings of resentment he held, continued to grow bleaker with each day that passed without his parents returning for him. By the time the school year ended he completely loathed the thought of his parents and refused to return home with them. In his third year of school it was abundantly clear that young Nichatus would not fit in with the kids his age. He was quiet in a brooding sort of way and enjoyed making snide comments about the ignorance of the other children. This later activity ended up pitting him against others in physical disputes quite often. One of these happened to catch the attention of a man named Elric, who saw a group of kids twice Nic’s age roughing him up. Elric broke up the fight and offered to lead Nichatus safely home, an offer which the young boy quickly accepted. On the way he demonstrated his strange ability, and did not notice in the least the interest the man took in it. He was surprised to find Elric waiting to guard his trip home the next day, but took the offered protection anyway. This continued for about a month in much the same way. Elric would be waiting on Nichatus after school and then they would walk to the boy’s home with the man asking all sorts of strange questions about mind reading and magic. At the end of that month the man told Nic that he had spoken to his brother, and the elder Von Trier had requested that his little brother be taken in by the man. For some reason, whether it be the shock of the situation or simple childish ignorance or something else, Nichatus begrudgingly accepted the fact and went with the man. They traveled far to the north to a compound like temple inhabited by a cult of people who wielded various forms of mental magic. Everything from simple illusions to mind reading to complete control of another’s body. These people were known as the Augen des Gemüt, or the Eyes of the Soul. His time there began normally enough, or as normal as a life after being kidnapped to join a strange and secretive religion could be. He learned all the same things he would have in ordinary school, and even some things that children years older than him were not yet being taught. The members of the group were very intelligent, and prided themselves on their scholarly pursuits. After two years of his family being unsuccessful in finding him the Augen began attempting to train him in the use of the powers he had not previously known existed. This was when the harshness of his life began, as the men and women that had taught him so lovingly before now turned vicious and would often beat the young boy mercilessly when he failed in some task or upset the tenets of the religion. The body is a tool, the mind is the guide. The body shall perish, the mind is forever. Solinn shall reward her faithful. His time with the cult ended in a furious fight between he and Elric. The two had began arguing over a particular law within the Augen, and Elric let slip in anger the truth of Nic’s coming to be in the group. By this time Elric had become much frailer with age, while Nichatus was in his early twenties, so the other man was easily overwhelmed. The illusion Nic had pumped into Elric’s mind with such force was only meant to frighten the wits out of his opponent, but the boy was to angry to release it. He wanted more, he wanted the man’s life to end. He awoke later in the council chambers to find himself accused of murdering his master. The young man was beaten nearly to death and left to die far from the temple. Somehow, though, he survived, and a large part of him still believes that he saw a pack of fae at some point in his trips between consciousness and the black and that these fae rehabilitated him. Somehow he found his way back home. Upon arriving he learned that his parents were dead and his brother had become a body guard for his hometown’s representative. After their oddly sedate and emotionally-distant reunion Adler helped him in getting hired onto the representative’s tally of servants. Nichatus proved to be very helpful to Arrandus Vargo, and even began to be trusted with information that Arrandus didn’t even trust his own family with. So it was that when Arrandus learned of the past one of his biggest opponents within the Conclave. Of the way the man had treated his younger sister, and of the rumors of the same girl being trained to kill, Nichatus was the first to know. He was also the one that Arrandus decided to send to retrieve the girl, in the hopes that she would use her new found power to destroy her once-tormentor on sight. It was certainly a clever plan, but Vargo never expected what Nichatus would find after nearly two years of searching. |