You're good haha, I'm an aviation electrician. I don't do much of the engineering but I work with it enough sometimes I feel I could be an electrical engineer.
I'm an EE over here. Almost decided to be a mechie, but electrical engineering is more valuable to the military - double majored with criminal justice because I didn't think my life sucked enough.
Appearance: Milo is roughly 5’11(1.8m) He sits at 170lbs (12stone). His skin color causes him to be slightly more tan than others due to his mixed heritage. He has a friendly face, and rough and calloused hands. He has a scar which runs from just under his left year ending on his right cheek bone. He wears a leather flight suit (Similar to the BoS uniform.) Over the top he wears a ragged cloak, old and worn leather boots and on his back he carries a homemade rucksack, with a metal backing. He carries a long pipe rifle of his own design, its shelled in 20mm, its slung across his shoulder while traveling. For close encounters he uses a short sword crafted from a jagged piece of metal grinded down to a point and to have an edge. The handle is but para-cord wrapped around the hilt. Other than that gear he keeps a pair of long johns in his rucksack, extra rope, a small medical kit, with a single stimpack, some stitching thread a needle, and homemade bandages. He keeps a small amount of cat food on him for dire emergency.
Race: Human
Personality: Although he’s been through hardship after hardship Milo keeps a positive attitude, he’s always kind to those he meets and tries to help out whenever possible. He’ll give his last bit of food to a stranger, or spend time with those who are dying. It's not often Milo doesn’t have a smile on his face, if he doesn’t it's because he’s either asleep or eating. Quick to drop a joke during a stressful time, or to make light of a tense situation.
Milo has worked hard to change his personality to what it currently is. In the past milo hunted humans, robbed, and stole what he wanted when he wanted. He was a proficient hunter, and killer. He has a warped sense of right and wrong, though slowly he is understand what they both truly mean.
Skills/Attributes: Sniper, Through years of training and personal experience milo has become an excellent sniper.
Scavenger, having become very resourceful on the land he’s discovered a natural talent for finding useful junk.
Gunsmith, from being trained at a young age, he’s able to piece together guns, or maintain current ones.
Hunter, he’s learned to hunt from those he met on the land, and from his time on the ship.
Self defense. Having been in multiple scuffles over the years he’s learned to defend himself in hand to hand combat, and has become very proficient.
Back-story: Born on an aircraft carrier in the year 2249 with only a meager twenty people left on board the ship drifted aimlessly. Milo was trained from a very young age to maintain, and piece together weapons. It was his primary job while on board the ship. He was apprenticed under his Uncle Max. Throughout his life he participated in several raids on main lands the last being America, they’d fly in one of the two Vertibirds which worked on the ship to steal, and plunder. Often killing those in their way. Sometimes they’d take in new recruits, and breeding stock to diversify the gene pool. Milo’s other job was to man the rifle-cannon. He was the anti-vehicle sniper and occasionally personnel. During Milo’s time they never allowed new recruits on board it was saved for the strictest emergencies. The decision was made to sail across the “pond” as their captain frequently called it. At some point during their trip in the dead of night an explosion ripped a hole through its hull, they couldn’t shore up the hole it was several decks long, and very wide. He never figured out what happened, but they couldn’t contain the fire or fix the damage, between the flooding and the damage from the fire they lost the birds and the ship. As his father burned to death, the last captain of the ship himself and a few other managed to make it to the life-boat.
It had room to hold, thirty people. They had enough rad-x and radaway to last a year. He was made captain of the boat and they sailed away from the burning mass in the center of the ocean. They drifted for five long months. They left with five souls on board. The first died in the first week, due to injuries sustained from the fire. They survived off of mutated sea life, and birds who landed on the boat. They had a prototype g.e.c.k.o. which was outfitted for the US navy, it supplied them with limited bottles of water per day. The second died two months into it from starvation. The other three did what they had to, to survive. The third and forth both died from dysentery, a week before they hit land.
He ran aground early in the morning, it was raining. He managed to find shelter in an abandoned building taking what meager supplies he had with him. Over the next year he moved from location to location taking what he could and surviving off what little food he had. He took to stealing from the unfortunate souls he came across often robbing them and stealing their goods. More often than not he left them dead so they couldn’t identify him. Eventually he pieced together his rifle, from parts at abandoned military outposts, the dead servicemen, and other various locations. He came across a small settlement near the coast, he watched them for several days remembering the training he received from the holo-tapes and the books he read. He monitored their routines, found chinks in their defense, and eventually found out who the leadership was. The following morning, he began his assault, his rounds would tear its target apart, painting those next to them in the blood of their loved ones. They’d built a wall with one exit, and it took him almost two hours to kill everyone settlement. There were only eight people, as he searched through the dead he found that one of the women were pregnant, and she was holding onto life, his bullet had shredded her abdomen. He sat next to her, and laid her head in his lap, she told him everything as she lay there dying.. At this moment in his life he decided things had to change, for some reason this woman had, had a profound impact on his life.
He changed his ways slowly, but eventually did. He helped those he found that were in need. He buried the dead, and fed the hungry. Eventually he found a small settlement to live in, one who had no idea of his past. He’d started collecting ammo for his weapon instead of spending it. He rarely had to use it, he still felt as an outcast and didn’t quite live within the village of Silvershaw. He was fairly sure that no one believed that he was American or had an idea what it was. Just as he barely knew about this place.
@vietmyke The helicopter I work on "Sea Dragon" is a work of art, just kidding the Electrical engineers who designed the electronics were actually sadist.
Personality: Having grown up in a world that had only recently seen the devastating, life eradicating, power of the atomic bombs dropped upon the United Kingdom by various foreign powers, William knows too well the desperation and sheer risk that even the most logical of humans allow themselves to be clouded by in their struggles. He is a somewhat worldweary man, prone to certain bouts of cynisism and what to an outsider would look like utter boredom towards things that may make even some veteran humans squirm. William also shows something of a 'do-gooder' streak, in that he would whole heartedly assist any seriously harmed individual he comes across - provided he knows they aren't going to shoot him in the back moments after. Despite what the many think of ghouls in general, William is an overall quiet and rather peaceful person, that doesn't favour violence all that much. He is quite soft-spoken, and gentle when dealing with peaceful people; at any circumstance, he tries to avoid violence, even if he is rather competent at fighting against other, more base ghouls. He has a remarkable level of self-control, which he utilizes mostly to live in peace with humans (despite their constant beratement), though should the need arise he will dwell with more... unhinged creatures provided they aren't ones to attack. Though of course he will always prefer the company of a fellow ghoul. To the outsider, he comes across as emotionally distant and perhaps a little harsh in the way he distains a large amount of other, more base, mutants, particularly ferals. Perhaps if one were to delve deeper, and get to know him, then they may find that he is a fairly friendly and loyal person.
Appearance: Extremely tall in height, reaching somewhere along the lines of 197 centimetres, William possesses the raw, rotting, and necrotic frame that all his ghoulish kind share. His body is, actually rather well muscles for a ghoul - which is still not saying much in particular. He has sharp, edged, and most certainly noble features, in the form of high cheekbones, a slightly pointed chin, thins lips, a straight and thin nose, thin eyebrows, and rather perfectly shaped eyes. Though, these have all seen better days due to the ravaging ways of radiation and the agony of ghoulifcation. These features are thin, but not to the point of appearing gaunt and sickly, if anything they are brimming with life when compared to others of his sort. His eyes have a rather icy, bright blue/grey colour, in contrast to his necrotic skin which runs the gambit from pus yellow to scabby reds.. His hair, what is left of it, is a bright ginger mane which covers the most of his head (akin to a man with a receeding hairline). His facial hair is similar, but not patchy surprisingly, it is in a style similar to Lord Kitchener's mustache. Perhaps notable, are his teeth. Rather than some manner of pearly white or rotten, his teeth are extremely sharp and almost a blurred yellow in colour...how or why they are sharpened is best to left to more private talks, however.
Facial Hair - farm1.static.flickr.com/40/87788938_a6.. orig14.deviantart.net/354f/f/2010/282/.. He is most often found in a rather scuffed up suit of traveller's clothing, that being composed of: A tattered up old off-white shirt, a pair of similarly filthy trousers, a surprisinly clean and new looking pair of shoes, and a beat up old grey trenchcoat. Some old combat armour resembling that used by the old British army is worn under or over all this.
Skills/Attributes: Swordsman - William is rather adept at using swords and other manners of one-handed bladed weapons. His ghoulish nature prevents much in the manner of outright brute forcing a person, hence the lack of blunt crushing weapons and favour of a more easily wielded (for a ghoul) weapon.
Marksman - In accompanying his knowledge of blades, William is also a fairly good shot with mid-sized hunting bows. A skill that was more on the side of being forced to learn as many creatures of the wastes grew in size and ferocity. His skill is not the best, nor the worst, able to hit a moderately sized object from a moderately far distance.
Rad Resistance - As with all Ghouls in the wasteland, William is entirely uneffected by nigh on all forms of radiation, though he has yet to see if that extends on to the more...man-portable, means.
Perceptive - Despite rotting tissues and necrotic nerves which dimish strength to slightly below human averages, William is highly perceptive of the wastelands and boasts rather keen senses even for a ghoul as old as himself.
Medical Professional - During his life in the Havens, William learned much about the human body and ways in which it can be treated or otherwise healed.
Back-story: Born during a time which had only somewhat recently felt the awesomely destructive potential of the atomic bomb, William and his familiy lived in one of the many 'Havens' which dotted the United Kingdom. He and his family were of a northern stock of the Yorkshire variety (one of the Havens of York, to be exact.) and much of the populace of their Haven where similarly from the local area. His early life was a promising one, he was smarter than most and had a rather grande future being planned as some manner of doctor, or perhaps even engineer for the Haven itself. Needless to say, the early years were certainly golden ones.
Over the course of his life, William stayed much within the norms of his Haven. However, it was not untill now that he began to notice certain things, certain rather shady actions. Things which usually were sturdy and well constructed began to suddenly fail or falter in some manner, and even the water purifcation systems became less and less useful as an increasingly drastic amount of radiation and dirt began to seep into the water supply from the outside. It became so bad that even the Haven itself was breeched eventually due to a malfuctioning generator. The situation became desperate, and with desperation became the first of the ghouls.
Unbeknowst to the populace of the Haven, the amount of rads in the areas where systems vital to the Haven's continued self-sustainability had become sufficient to...warp, the people that worked there. Their facial, head, and even body hair began to fall from them and some compained of skin irritations. The Overseer, a slave driver of a man, cared not. Such was his complete contempt for the people under him, that when the engineers began to die or were so in pain as to become bedridden he would merely send more down there to keep the vital systems in working order. No price was too high, and William was among those whom were sent down there. To certain death.
His week of work were short at the very most, William now had grown to be a man of thirty-three years that was fit in mind and body. He had worked as a medical professional, or as professional as the Haven could make them, and he had seen firsthand the effects of the radiation upon the workers. Skin was necrotic, cartillage became weakened or outright became useless, and their apperance resembled more akin to classical zombies than actual people.
It was not before long that William himself succumbed to these illnesses, skin became to crack and resemble a whole mass of burnt or necrotic tissues. Hair began to fall out. His mood deepend to outright depression, and visions of something...better.
While only the security of the Havens had any access to more 'viable' weapons such batons or even the odd firearm, they were not a match for the groups of disgruntled workers... when they themselves were part of the newly ghoulified members of the Haven. Numbers of the 'normal' and ghoul became roughly even, and a Haven-wide civil war began. On one side, the human elite (for all of them held prominent positions within the Haven, while Ghouls were forced into worthless jobs) that feared these "zombies" and on the other the ghouls themselves. Fighting was brief and violent, with many being slain or visciously wounded by the onslaught. William himself led a half dozen fellow ghouls as they fought off against the hostile guard forces. The overseer himself, along with his whole family, was forced into the most radiated of areas of the Haven where they themselves simply died slow agonised deaths.
The now ghoul-controlled Haven was, drastically different from the pre-take over. While previously the Haven was ruled by a central, increasingly small human upper caste. It was now a more equal society, but it was not viable. Numbers were small, and the populace found themselves lacking ability to have children. The outside was needed, and needed drastically.
It was a heavy idea, one which no one truly wanted, but one which they needed to complete. And that, is why William now wanders the wastes.
-- Posting what I have. Will give this a once over once I'm back.
Aaron Logan
Age: 24 Appearance:
A young man of African descent, Aaron Logan stands just over 180cm in height, and weighs in at roughly 75 kg. Logan is rather lithe and sinewy and he sports an athletic build suited for running and climbing. His once smooth complexion is pockmarked and marred by various scrapes, cuts, and injuries not properly healed. His hair is cut close, and his eyes are a dark, calm brown.
Over his clothes, but underneath a duster, Logan wears a set of ballistic pads and plates- thick, sturdy plastic plates backed by Kevlar and leather, not uncommon amongst 21st century motorcyclists. These thick pads provide Logan with protection against potentially flesh tearing, sharp edges, along with relative protection against blunt force impacts. While these plates won't protect him much from a giant club of concrete and rebar being swung at him, they do provide him with ample protection against fists, the occasional shiv, and the flailing limbs of feral ghouls while being lightweight enough to more around in without much difficulty. A few parts of his armor has been replaced with metal, either due to damage or because of its usage.
In regards to armament, has a crude blade without a guard, as well as a variety of smaller blades hidden on his person. His primary armament is a pre-war crossbow he found while scavenging around the outskirts of the old military base.
Race: Human
Personality: Direct and to the point, this quiet, serious man is rather blunt. Level headed and calm, Logan has a very analytic attitude and can be very perceptive and intuitive in regards to people. Aloof but confident, Logan acts on a mixture of instinct, and tactical awareness. Unless he has a well established relationship, Logan is typically distrustful of others, and will often show a lack of compassion an disregard for those he doesn't know- though children appear to be an exception to this rule. Possessing a well developed, but jaded sense of morality, Logan is quite gray in regards to ethics. He acts in what he believes are in the best interests of himself and those he cares about- not necessarily caring for what is good or bad.
Skills/Attributes:
Tracking/Navigation - Aaron is an excellent tracker, his keen eyes and senses easily picking out details in the land while following or searching for individuals or creatures. Aaron is also well practiced in traversing most landscapes with little difficulty, running, climbing, swinging, and other such modes of personal transportation come easily to him.
Survival - A key skill that any wastelander picks up in order to live. Aaron knows how to rummage and scavenge like the rest of them, and knows how to properly hunt and safely consume various wasteland wildlife.
Melee Combat - Bladesmanship and Fisticuffs. While Aaron is plenty capable of fending off a feral ghoul, facing down an untrained fighter, or holding his own against a raider, he will have difficulty besting any well practiced duelist or fighter
Marksmanship - Keen eyes and a patient demeanor contribute much to Aaron's marksmanship. A crack shot with a crossbow or a firearm, Aaron can put a fist sized group of crossbow bolts in a target from over 90 yards away, though his most common engagement rage is closer to 30-50 yards.
Guerrilla Tactics - Not capable of handling large groups of foes through his own combat prowess, Aaron relies on traps, misdirection, tricks, and illusion to throw his enemies into disarray. Often using his terrain to his advantage, Aaron will patiently pick at his foes over periods of time rather than striking at them forcefully in hopes of a decisive victory.
Back-story: Born in the ruins of Winchester, Aaron, like most, had a very tumultuous childhood and like many other children, was lucky to make it through his first year of life. Forced to learn how to scavenge from a young age, near starvation and hardship was routine for Aaron and the group of scavengers he was born into. A sort of clan, made up of a few small families, these scavengers roamed from place to place, avoiding raiders, marauders and slavers, and scrounging the city ruins for valuable food, water, and other resources. The group’s number fluctuated often- close friends dying or abandoning the group, or newcomers desperate for survival joining in.
Around the age of 12, Aaron’s group of scavengers came upon an old pre-war military base, inhabited by the descendants of one of the UK’s pre-war military units, calling themselves the Regiment. While originally only interacting with the scavengers to trade for food and other scavenged resources, the pre-war base eventually allowed the scavenger to enter the base and integrated them with the Regiment. Integrating most of the younger scavengers into their ranks, the Regiment took advantage of the scavenger's affinity for sneaking and scampering around in the wastes, teaching them combat skills, and warfare techniques from the stores of manuals and equipment within their base. Much more flexible and adaptable than the strict, by the books tactics utilized by the Regiment regulars, these new scavenger-soldier hybrids became one of the cornerstones of the Regiment, allowing them to quietly observe potential foes and raiders from afar, and allowing them to make precise strikes to defend themselves, as well as being able to safely scavenge and operate away from the base for long periods of time.
Young Aaron, at only 16 years old, was one of the primes of their scavenger-soldier force. Easily picking up and learning the tactics and techniques taught to him by the Regiment's regular military men, Aaron proved to be quite resourceful and capable, smartly picking his fights and always managing to make it back to the settlement with a pack full of supplies. A talented marksman with his pre-war crossbow, as well as a capable survivalist, Aaron, was regularly praised by his instructors, and was often looked up to by younger, aspiring soldier-scavengers.
As the years went on, the Regiment slowly began to run out of its stockpiled supplies. The military base had long since used up the majority of its weapons and ammunition supplies, firearms were reserved only for the top ranking guardsmen of the military base, forcing the rest of the people in the base to use more primitive crossbows and melee weapons. The base had also scavenged almost all of the usable supplies within the immediate area, and its scavengers had to go out farther and into more dangerous territories for longer periods of time to acquire the supplies needed to keep the base running. This, along with numerous attacks from marauders, raiders, and slavers had stretched the people of the Regiment thin. Eventually, short on numbers and supplies, the remaining men and women of the Regiment were forced to abandon their base and flee with their remaining supplies.
The survivors eventually found their way to Silvershaw, a small town built around the husk of a Haven, an old pre-war shelter. These survivors eventually integrated themselves with the village of Silvershaw, proving once again how their soldier-scavenging skills could be useful. Rebranding themselves as 'Rangers', Aaron and the rest of the survivors from the old Regiment pre-war base often serve as scouts for the town of Silvershaw.
Appearance: Lux is short, thin, and wiry, but from the way she moves and handles herself, it's clear that she's not feeble, physically. Her skin is quite pale, mostly due to the fact that she keeps herself almost entirely covered most days. The lower half of her face is often covered by a scarf or other sort of mask, while her shoulder length dark brown hair shrouds most of her face, save for her dark green eyes. She has a tattoo on her left cheek, reaching up to her eye, in what appear to be old Celtic designs. Her eyes are often heavily shadowed, and her ears have a number of small rings pierced through them. She bears a few scars on her face, most hidden by her scarf or hair, but one notable one crosses the bridge of her nose in plain view.
For clothing, she dresses for the wasteland, wearing mostly leathers. She has strong hiking boots, worn leather pants, a dark leather jacket over a thin black hoodie, gloves, and the aforementioned scarves. She wears goggles either around her neck or on her head, and carries a large backpack tightly strapped to her body.
Lux's tattoo extends from her face all the way down the left side of her body, ending at mid-thigh level, all in dark Celtic patterns. Anyone familiar with the Daughters of Ishtar will recognize the marks, though many that come in contact with them don't live to tell the tale.
Personality: Extremely quiet, in every possible way. Lux will rarely speak when she isn't spoken to, and even then she often keeps her mouth shut. Most social interaction she avoids entirely, and she's actually quite uncomfortable with regular communication with people. She does better with strangers, performing business interactions. When it comes to interaction, she gets her task done, and then leaves.
She has an undeniably savage nature, expressed in the way she prefers isolation, and how she performs with absolute certainty in dangerous situations, never flinching away from violence when she deems it necessary. She has a very grim view on the world, and any desires or hopes she might have for it have thus far been overridden by her experience, and what she's seen to be true. All that said, her actions in recent years have expressed a sort of selflessness, and she hasn't been known to bring harm to any members of "civilized" towns and settlements. In quiet moments among a group, one could often find Lux in the shadows, keeping to herself, and watching the other people interact with an intense interest. Behind that scarf, sometimes she even smiles.
Skills/Attributes: Stealth - Lux's primary talent is the ability to avoid being seen or heard. She knows how to examine an environment, path out the quietest route, and take it. Many a wastelander has been with just a few of her, and never known. These talents also extend to the arts of pick-pocketing and lock-picking.
Knife-Work - That little switchblade might not look like much, but Lux puts it to frightening use when she needs to. Her strikes are lightning quick, putting multiple holes in an enemy before they even have a chance to move. She has plenty of experience with it, and knows just where to stick it to cause her target the most possible bleeding, or pain, if that's the goal.
Demolitions - She's no gunsmith, but things that go boom are well known to Lux. Various kinds of mines and grenades in particular. She almost always has a couple on hand, and she knows how to make more from spare parts she finds around the wasteland. In addition, she's quite adept at detecting and disarming traps that might be set for her or her allies.
Scavenging - Lux has an eye for valuables, and seems to know all the good hiding spots people might think to put them in. Any room that she's never been in before will receive a look-over, followed by a thorough search if she has the time. She's a little pack rat, too, and can carry loads in that backpack of hers, as well as all of her pockets. Her bartering skill could use some work, but she's not really concerned with that.
Backstory: As far as the village of Silvershaw is concerned, Lux is just a quiet girl who comes by every now and then, weighted down with a wide variety of goods from who-knows-where. After assuring them her goods weren't stolen from any friendly sources, they agreed to take them off her hands. From the outside, it looked like Lux was getting ripped off, giving away her hard earned salvage and treasures for dirt cheap, but eventually it became clear that Lux wasn't really interested in getting much in return. Sometimes, the people of the village would just find little packages of supplies dropped in the center of town, with a note pinned to it with her name.
Repeatedly Lux was offered a place within the village's walls, a steady place to stay, but Lux politely declined every time, offering no reason. She continued scavenging the area around Silvershaw, and even some further locations, returning often to check on the town. Her motives were never cleared up, but at some point the people decided it was best not to look their gift horse in the mouth. When contact was lost with the town of Oking to the south, the mayor decided to try recruiting Lux into the group, to use her skills in stealth, scouting, and general wasteland survival skills. To the village's surprise, Lux quietly agreed.
Lux was born to one of the Daughters of Ishtar, her father being a slave that belonged to her mother. She was raised among the group of entirely female raiders, and learned most of her skills from her mother and other members of her clan. Lux was always closer to her father, however, an awkward situation given his brutal treatment at the hands of his captors. When she was able, she would spend time alone with him, and learn of the home he once had, now destroyed by slavers. She came to despise the alliance her people held with other raider groups, and their willingness to work with slavers. At 19, an incident occurred which led to Lux abandoning her clan in the night, and leaving to make her own way in the wastes. She keeps almost entirely to herself, but has taken a liking to the village of Silvershaw, and helps it how she can from a distance.
Well, here's my CS. I know you said to PM it, @Kingfisher, and I have done, but I still want to leave it here to convey the gist of my character, lest anyone muscle in on my turf ;)
Wigstan
Gender: Male
Age: 26
Appearance: Wigstan is remarkably well preserved complexion, spending much of his life downwind of the sedgy, untainted expanse of the brecon mountains and far from the near-glowing-green hulks of decaying cities to the east. A wanderer at heart, he grows his hair thick and matted, a crude first-line against the winters, made ever more bitter by the scattered trees and dusty atmosphere thrown up over 200 years ago, and his face is smoothed and wind-beaten, pinking at the rounds of his cheek and on the bridge of his too-short nose. His face casts a stoic picture - his lips almost perma-chapped and tucked into the mouth, and his eyes plumped from squinting at the winds and the cold of the exposed flatland-midlands. Nonetheless, he is considered to be of a mild, bland sort of attractiveness, despite a just north of lithe build.
Race: Human
Personality: Wigstan has grown to be tired and revulsed at the sedentary, subsistent lifestyle that abounds by necesity in the wasteland, finding himself much more at home on the road, camped out and freezing in one England's more dramatic landmarks, ones ancient even to the pre-war world. As a result, he has become rather brusk and condescending with the more "simple" folk he encounters in villages, but becomes all the more animated when talk turns to the curisoities and wonders to be found away from the bounds of villages and farms. Having grown up in the relatively untouched midlands, he reacts with depression and hopelessness when shown the scars left on the old world - so much of his drive life derived from a hope for the future. Nonetheless, he is not openly rude or anti-social, and makes for an excitable travelling companion.
Skills/Attributes: Masterful swordsman, owed to his time spent in the The Ordinem Caelitum, Wigstan is less adept at hand-to-hand encounters, relying instead on dodging the clumsy swings of his opponent and revealing a crippling weakspot. This is not an exact science, and through his travels Wigstan has accumulated quite a few mis-set bones from mistimed steps and aborted parries. He is also an acomplished trekker and survivalist, having spent many years onthe road, learning the tropes of the land so as to find likely shelter and food. Unlike most in the wasteland, he can also read and write well.
Back-story:
Wigstan's parents were well into their thrities when they finally resolved to have a child, far above the "safe" age in the virulent and tumutltous wasteland which has kept life expectancy to a barbaric minimum. They had metas travellers, his mother in the ethnic sense, the daughter of the remenants of the English rooted sect of "Irish travellers" turned to horse-cart trading and roaming once more with the destruction of the roots of the cities. Wigstan's father had been a soldier-of-fortune for a decade of his twenty-eight year life when he stumbled into to the trading forum of his future-wife, Rosy, and whilst the travellers were habitually insular, marrying their offspring only to membersof what now constitutes a tribe, the air of the foreign, of individuality about a man who made a living apart from a family and a band drew Wigstan's mother to elope.
Together, they roamed the crumbling "Great Em-Six" as far north as Manchester and Carlile and south to where the severn met the irradiated sea and was absorbed by it, where bone-ridged, cripple-like dolphins could been seen poking a long,irradiated snout from beneath the foam. They became a couple of some fame, and oftetimes being sought out by desperate town-dwellers beset by maddened ghouls or those who would much rather take than wait and let grow their sustenance fora swift, and invariably deadly solution.
This notority, however, begot a bitter price. To thrive, the famously chaste Ordinem demanded tribute from those it ministered to, including, with pious generoisty, the Traveller clans. It had been many years since the Ordinem last exacted their gambit, and tales of a mercenary couple, one half sporting orange-tinged locks and an almost alien manner of speech provided the promise of a renege on their investment. They sent a lone emissary to track down Wigstan's parents, demanding that Rosy forsake her roving spouse and devote herself and her skills to the service of the Lord - no other candidate suited their needs and if she refused, the Ordinem would forsake the patronage and protection they affordedRose's family and declare them "ungodly". Backed into a corner, Wigstan's father sought to exploit and bargain the Ordinem's fatal flaw. Devout Catholics, the Ordinem celebrated the gendered theology of the ruined Church, the claimthat humility, receptiveness and nuturing were the cornerstones of the female, not the body-giving, protective nature of the man, and for this reason, very few women were accepted into their Knightly ranks. To this end, Wigstan's fatheroffered a deal - he claimed his wife was "with child", not a week or two past, a child who a "wizard" master of the old world discipline of "medicine" had confirmed was male. Wigstan's father promised that when this child was old enough to walk, that he would personally carry him to the Ordinem's nearest hearth.
Satisfied, the Knight departed, eager to report news of the boon reaped from his endeavour, but Wigstan's father had lied - there was no child, and he knew of no way to know if it was male, at any rate. It seemed a faultless ruse, the mercenary would keep his beloved wife and travelling companion, and the ordinem would never bother them again, in return the couple would simply dissappear into unremarkable ignominity.
To this end, Wigstan's father slowly lead the couple to the north, towards a settlement he had promised himself that, one day, he would settle himself in - Warwick Castle. Far from the nuclear blasts that had levelled so much of England'smonuments, Warwick Castle stood, an uncrumbling, thousand year old fort, walled, watered and protected against anything Wigstan's father had heard of beseting it. Too, the settlment, grown around the encircled green, was exceptionallyselective when admitting reisdents, and largely ignorant of its ducal past. In the shadow of this settlement, Wigstan's father professed his exhaustion at what he called his "hollow life", and his enduring desire for an honest family to care for. Rosy accepted the proposal, and, discarding their weapons and donning more humble attire, they approached the gates.
Both were accepted without much deliberation - goodly, toughened people, strong enough to police and protect the settlement were in far too short supply, and they were both given roles as watchmen. The settlement was generally peaceful,and over six years of living, they had scarcely seen a hostile soul crest the only accesible horizon and between the half-burnt trees to assail the enormous fortification. In their security, Wigstan neglected his oath to the Ordinem, and he and his wife finally sired a son, Wigstan himself, though that was not his original name.
For the first ten years of his life, Wigstan lived in idellic bordem. Aprenticed as a farmhand at the age of six, Wigstan longed for the evenings, when he would sit around the fire and demand his parents regail him with tales of theirtravels, now long even in their memories, enamoured with the twisted spires of metal and glass that spoked from the southern grounds, and terrified at the prospect of the shuffling ghouls that dotted the roads and roved around the farmlands just beyond the walls. Most days, whilst permitted to leave his studies as a farmer, he would exploit his father to let him climb the battlements to the tallest of the spires, to look out over the green-land, stretching just enough to meet the smoking desolation of the cities to the north. The uniquely verdant landscape, the chance for blissful monotony seemed poisioned to the young Wigstan, the tales of his parents exploiting ringing in his ears and pulling,unerringly, from the heaving battlements and out into the vast and decidedly un-monotonous world beyond.
Within two years, though, at the age of 12, Wigstan got what he wished. The Marauders, a confederation of the most vicious raders that remain, picking at the husk of England, freshy formed, needed to make markers of what little unpicked-scraps remain. Warwick was the perfect target. Resolving to carve their name into the folkloric physche of the wasteland, they besieged the settlement - their leader challenging Warwick's fiercest "champion" to a duel to save their town.
Desperate, Warwick's leadership turned to the outside. Evesham Abbey, a stronghold of The Ordinem Caelitum, was only three days walk away, and it was clear that Warwick now needed a kind of protection they could never provide, whateverthe personal cost. Wigstan's father overheard the plans and, knowing that if they were summoned, the Ordinem would claim its tribute in recruits from him too, his son, and so took drastic measures to avert it. One dawn, the castle looked down in horror as Wigstan's father, crude machete and piecemeal leather in hand. The old mercenary fought valiantly, but even with the salvation of his son to drive him, time and comfort had taken their terrible toll, and with one, maddened swing of board, the Marauder launched Wigstan's father's skull into the sky. In horror, his wife ran to bring save his corpse from becoming their trophy, but mistaking her grief for agression, the marauders felled her, too.
It took three more days for the Ordinem to relieve the siege, and once they strode, triumphant through the groaning portcullus to collect their prize, Wigstan was far too reclusive and numb to care, not when he was carted off to the Abbey, not when he was branded in the cross and cooled in baptisimal fonts.
Over many years, they filled the bitter memories of his old, sedintary life with the tinge of revulsion. Wigstan, a name gifted to him by the Abbott of the order, was taught that his presence here was to absolve and oppose the sins that had plagued his progenitors. Wigstan's parents, he was told, had been brash hedonists, trapsing the world and killing with abandon in the pursuit of wealth, and then "settling" to reap their own selfish sustenance. The Travellers, he was taught, flew in the face of the untity brought by "Christ", their insular nature a backwards, trivial extension of selfish self-preservation. All this could be absolved through his service to the Ordinem, through his blind obedience to the Abbott, and through his zealous destrtuction of those that sought to test man's Stewardship of God's creation.
For most of his life, Wigstan subscribed fully to the ideals of his order. When he became a Knight, he relished he savants into the wasteland, hunting down and destroying the tainted, restoring duty and alturism to the human race.
That was, until he found damning disproof of the Ordinem's xenophobia. Whilst pursuing a Ghoul, one who had been thieving from a nearby town, he stumbled upon a baby, crying in a cloistered cave deep in some thicket. Reaching out to save the child, he heard a cruch of twigs behind him. Turning, there was the ghoul, stolen grain and sweet-things in hand. It had been a friend's, a woman, a great love kept apart from him by the trappings of his decaying features, whonow had no-one but him. This ghoul, the ordinem saw as an infiltrator, a plague to be irradicated, but beneath his creased exterior law a soul capable of all the beauty he had once though reserved for humans.
Shaken, Wigstan let the creature depart, though he took the child back to the abbey, to give it a future worth living. There, he asked his Abbott to send him south, beyond the bounds of the Ordinem's purview, to expand and evangalise,co-opt the wasetland to their beliefs. In truth, he felt moved to some time away from the Ordinem's beliefs and practices after his experience, but the Abbott believed his intentions were pure, and it was agreed that he was to be sentsouth the day after christmas, to return not more than two years later.
And so, Wigstan set out, in the snow, frigid and stumbling, in the hope of clarity to guide his future path.
Other:
- Weapons : A crude sword made from melted brass and bronze, wrapped at the hild in tapered leather. A small bronze dagger fastened at his back. - Apparel : A woven silk and salvage nylon cloak, complete with hood - blue. A gas mask, one eye cracked, painted in the colours of the cross of Saint George. Painted curiass of salvaged kevlar and carbon-weave, though weak where the patches are sown. Thick, fur stuffed boots.
Just in case my own CS got buried under other stuff. Warning: I made this when I was clearly high on something, this guy was meant to be an over the top jack ass turned up to 11 so sorry if I offend anyone.
Bonus points if you can guess the two major inspirations behind him (telling you now, it not easy :p)
Garand "McKilt" McCarren
"Ehh? Ya wanna piece of meh ya crazy Protestant fookbucket? I'll rek ya face in fo the glory o de revolution fooker.
Name/Nicknames: "Me name's Garad and me parent's name's McCarren. Most folk justa call meh "McKilt" though or some variations like "the Kilt" or "Kiltlington the Third" or "Holy-fook-its-the-guy-ina-fooking-kilt".
Age: "Twas born no more than 32 yeers ago today, give 'n take a munth or four."
Appearance: "Ima by far the must handsome bastard ya'll ever meet. I stand at around a gud, oh I dunno, two meters just about? Me eyes are black as the nioit 'cause Im edgy n shit. Me hair and glorious beardo here are both, whaddya call it, allburnt brownie? Dunno, all ya need to know is that Ima both gud lookin' enough and strong enough to fook up ya face and fook your girl. Chilsed abs and faces tends to be pretty popula dese days ya know."
"As fo what Im wearin', I got meself a nice jacket made o strong stuff, called it "rockweave" in me village. Durable shit it is. I've got me self some bit 'n bobs o armor, most stuff for me shoulders and upper chest; can't swing a sword if me arms are dead and well... if me heart stops workin' then I'm just as dead. The entre thing is pretty asymmetric if ya will, one shoulder has a flat plate on it while the other is more layerada. Same with me shins, plate metal and spiked boots, perfect fo dilverin' a swift kick to ya gonads. Knife down 'ere toom just in case. Of course, then there's me kilt 'n shit, all made by me mather. Last bit o' stuff I've got is a sleepin' pad rolled up behind meh with a knapsack above it. Got sum poutches on me belt for extra stuff. 'N me gin
Race: "Ima an Oirish-Scottish-Kockny-English-Something mix and a human if ya can't tell. Whut? Ya expecting a talkin' lamp post?"
Personality: "Ima a jovial and friendly man who love spreadin the words of Jaysus Christ 'n the gud Charman Mao, teachin' people about love 'n kindness 'n generosity 'n socialism. I love me a good story and fud, Ima always huntin' for a man or woman who can grill me a fine slab 'o meat."
"As for killin' raiders and protectin' the many innocent, gentle lambs of de world, just try 'n stop me. Ol' McKilt will always foind a way to winna foight. As fo heathen... well... Second the first and as the third; now tellin' me where they are so I can pu'em ina herarse."
Skills/Attributes: "I gotta say, Ima damn fine with me sword right here, no I dun callin' her 'Betsy' o what ever that crap is. I guess Im gud with most o the heavia two-hander 'n dat ain't to to no 'luck o' the fooking Oirish crape'. Also notta bad speaka, tellin' stories, preachin' the ways of the Revolution 'n quotin' Charman Mao has made a me a damn gud speaka."
"Fo sum o' me otha skills, I'd waga Ima decent enough crafter, sword don't sharpin itself ya know. I also know enough 'bout the wild to know how to survival in it as well as some o' the basics o' medicine."
Back-story: "So, ya wanna hear about me life do ya know? Well alright, sidown fo McKilt storytime you little buggas. I was born into a small lil' farmin' village in the old Highlends. Loife was alrigh' there, ain't much to see o' do besides farmin or keepin' the village alive dough. But then, when I was a makin' my awkward transitor flum a wee lil' lad inna man. It was then that I pick meself up a copy of "Quotatins frum Charman Mao" and got me self into communism, it just seems to work so well, lookin' after the common man like me religion."
"When I foinally gotta to the arge o' 17, I decided to pack up and haul ass witha me father's old sword. Beautiful thing it is, served me all me life. Any ways, I became a mercenary and a damn fooking gud one at that. Been doin' people good and hired work since then, preachin' about the gifts o' God and the glory o' the revolution. And here I am here! Imagine that!"
Other: "Meh weapon is me sword. Good solid claymore made 'o that nice old world steel beam, none of the crap you find made today. Served me well, fancy guns 'n crap make men weak and dependent on the fookin' things so I dun use. Callin' it 'Betsy' will earn you a free stab to ya guts."