Centuries ago in London, England Alfred Ashcroft was an elite warrior of The Order of Slayers. Back in those days, before humans and magical creatures had any civil diplomatic relations, slayers walked the streets at night bringing death to the wicked creatures that lurk in the shadow of mankind. Of all the slayers there was none that hated the abominations more than Ashcroft did, nor was their any better at killing them then he. Alfred, being the son of two slayers, was destined to continue on his family legacy and had been diligently studying since he was young. When Alfred was about nine years of age his mother was killed in the line of duty. His father, devastated by the loss of his wife, stepped down from The Order of Slayers, in pursuit of a less dangerous, more family oriented life. When Alfred herd that his mother had been killed he was devastated, it was at that moment that he declared war against all creatures, he had loved hearing stories about them as a child, but now, he vowed t slay every last one of them. Alfred's beloved father inwich he used to idolize and respect, became dead to the boy. Alfred, filled with hate for his father for dropping out of The Order, filled out extensive and complex paperwork to have his father striped of his titles, name, and position as head of the family. The boy cast his grief stricken father out into the streets and began working full time as a slayer at the age of eleven years old. Alfred was very successful in The Order, in his first five years slaying he built up quite a reputation and was awarded more honors and titles then either of his parents ever had. To Alfred's great dismay the other slayers at the order took to calling him “Grimlip” on account of the peculiar scowl the boy had acquired. There was a girl in town that Ashcroft was rather found of, she was a childhood friend of his from the days before he became a slayer. Ashcroft would visit her at the flower shop from time to time as a way of escaping from the pressures of being a slayer. Ashcroft knew his friend was always up early to open the shop, and once after a long night of slaying vampires Ashcroft made the fatal mistake of going to see her before the sun had fully risen. The following night vengeful bloodsuckers descended and took the girl from her home in an attempt to bait Ashcroft into his demise. Ashcroft mercilessly slaughtered every last vampire in their group by himself, using an oversized silver broadsword and the Order's early attempt at a shotgun. By the time he had rescued the girl and held her in his arms again, Ashcroft realized that he was to late. Ashcroft stared into the cold, undead eyes of the only girl he had ever loved beside his mother, and with a sigh and a bang, he shot a giant hole through her head. Alfred felt the rapid beat of his heart start to slow, as his sword became more and more painful to hold on to. Alfred quickly sterilized the wound from where she bit him and injected several pints of a franticly concocted anti-venom into his chest with the silver needle and supplies he brought along in his slayer emergency kit. Ashcroft was able to stop the transformation in its tracks and fend off the advances of vampracy, through daily anti-venom regiments and rest. Although Alfred could walk in the sunlight and wield his silver weapons again after a month or so, feelings of deep hatred, self loathing, and guilt resurfaced in him. He was constantly reminded of these feelings every time he looked in the mirror, for his eyes no longer resembled his mother's, they had lost their soft, gentle, luster, now they radiated with the same cold, inhuman, presence as the monsters'. It was around the time of this incident that the warm, youthful, and cheery, expression, Alfred used to walk about with, was replaced with the awkward, and uncomfortable, scowl, of the slayer with the single dwarf vampire fang, that inspired the nick name “Grimlip.” With Ashcroft's now slightly above human speed, strength, and sight combined with his textbook knowledge, and superior skills, he went on to surpass all the other slayers, and accumulate a reputation that struck fear into the hearts of even the most treacherous of teddy bears. Ashcroft was in the process of bringing down a powerful coven of witches, The Order of Slayers had been doing battle with this particular coven for centuries with little to no significant progress before the assignment was handed down to Ashcroft. Upon taking on the task Ashcroft had managed to slay a great number of their wicked brew. The coven was in a state of complete disarray, for never had their been such a real threat that even their most well hidden, skilled, and high ranking, sisters could be slain in the night. The coven was getting desperate, as the head witches started to go into hiding. Alfred had managed to track down one of their most elite sisters to her lair, she had fled to italy and forged. When Alfred confronted her she froze up in a state of disbelief that The Order possessed a slayer resourceful enough to track her to Italy, powerful enough to defeat her, determined, and confident enough in his ability to slay her, to make the long voyage all by himself without any magic. Had the order such a valuable weapon in it's possession, surely they'd never let it leave the safety of England just to chase after a single witch, right? These were the last thoughts that passed through the women's head as she was burned at the steak. Alfred was just about to begin the unpleasant task of disposing of the witch's charred remains, when he noticed a bone white bird lingering around. Contrary to popular belief and seemingly in spite of everything that's already been mentioned about Ashcroft's character thus far in this ridiculous, unnecessarily long, back story; Ashcroft, with all his self loathing and hatred of magic/magical creatures, has a inexplicable sort of weakness for small animals. Without stopping to clean up the witches remains first or wonder why/how the hell a swan would be walking the streets of Italy, Alfred runs off with his super-human speed in the direction of a market he had passed pursuing the witch, in order to get something for the scrawny little swan to snack on. By the time Alfred had returned to the burnt up pile of witch, the swan had already departed and the locals had started to get frantic as to what the hell was going on with this mysterious, fast running, women burning, foreigner. Realizing that the geographically incorrect bird had already waddled away, and that he had overstayed his welcome, the slayer let out a quiet sigh and proceeded to scoop up the remnants of the witches crispy corpse. Upon his return, Ashcroft was honored as The Order of Slayers' greatest agent, and as a valiant defender of justice and humanity. It was on that evening that grand festivities were held for Ashcroft, for the following day he would charge in to battle and bring down the rest of the, now severely weekend and vulnerable, coven of witches. It took a wile for Alfred to emotionally recover from all the tragedies and horrors he had gone through over the years, but he had finally done it, Alfred was finally happy with his life again. Alfred was proud to be a slayer, to be blessed with the strength to protect the good people of london, and honor his mother's memory. Before heading into battle Alfred made amends with his father and the other slayers and promised to come back alive. The coven knew that Ashcroft was headed to Spider Country to slaughter them, and that none of them individually had enough power to stop the slayer. In an effort to buy more time the coven pooled all their magic together h a single spell to freeze the slayer in time. When Ashcroft did not return The Order assumed the worst, fearing they may have gravely underestimated the witch coven, formal diplomatic relations were extended to the coven. The Order feared the witchs' potential, they believed they were powerful enough to defeat their greatest slayer, and so they were more then generous in negotiating an armistice. In the centuries that followed diplomatic relations improved between the human and magical communities and The Order Of Slayers changed over time into a sort of 'magical police force,' Only slaying “Pure Evil” and dangerous creatures; opposed to their old stance of purging and nondiscriminatory monster genocide. When Alfred was finally free from the spell, he awoke to a world that no longer shared his hatred. The slayer found himself in the center of the witch coven's den, his frozen body had been kept a secret and locked away in a magical vault for all that time; for the premise of the peace negotiations was that The Order of Slayers believed the witches possessed the power to kill Ashcroft. The slayer was agitated, and more then well rested, he quickly ravaged his way though the magic jail cell that he found himself in. Ashcroft slaughtered and burned every single witch in the coven, regardless of the massive increase in size and strength of the coven that had occurred over the years. Ashcroft helped himself to a meal in the dead witchs' kitchen, and salvaged a few interesting items from the den before embarking on his journey home. The slayer was eager to return to London and tell his friends and family of his momentous triumph. Traveling back through spider country, there were far less arachnids then Ashcroft remembered, it was if they had all just left for some reason... ( They All Followed Xirea to TJA4!!! >:} ) When Alfred finally returned to The Order Of Slayers and discovered how long he had been gone for, and how different the world was, especially regarding the relationship between humans and monsters, he was outraged! The old Order would have showered him with honor, titles, and gold for taking for finally taking down that entire coven of witches singlehandedly! The Order had spent centuries trying to kill those damn witches, before Ashcroft was even admitted! Instead of legendary praise and recognition of a job well done, the new,o more humane Order or Slayers, reprimanded Ashcroft, revoked his slaying license, and required that he attend classes at a magic integrated school and learn to be more tolerant, if he ever wanted to wield so much as a silver butter knife ever again. Ashcroft furiously agreed, promising that once he's finished at TJA4 he's going to assume control of The Order of Slayers, as it's most senior and decorated member, and restore it to it's former glory!
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Originally Posted by Captain Ivan
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