Character Name: 'Captain' Lorenzo “Loren” Fiorenti
Race/Species: Human - Praelior
Gender: Male
Age: 43
Role: TBD
Skills/Traits:
- Wordsmith: A good Captain has to be able to persuade others without relying on brute strength or blackmail. Loren has always had a cunning – and often alluring - tongue, but years of practice has turned him into an expert at honeyed-words. He can usually get his own way in negotiations before he’s even made a promise to his opponent.
- Basic First-Aid: Although hardly a Doctor, Loren has picked up a good few skills over the years from various shipmates and healers. He’ll do well for you in a pinch if you’re injured, and can usually keep people alive until better aid arrives.
- Sailing & Sealegs: You don’t become Captain of a ship without working hard for it, and Loren worked his way up from the bottom. Starting off as a powder-monkey, Loren soon developed his skills in how to help run a ship. Navigation, rigging, tying ropes and pulling sails – the only skill he never learnt was that of cookery. One instance of nearly setting the ship on fire ensured he was to stay out of the kitchen at all times.
- Swords: He wouldn’t be a very good pirate if he couldn’t fight now, would he? Picking up the skill as a young whelp, the basics were taught to him on dry land. It was only when he was press-ganged that the skill was finessed, and he began to learn the art of sword-fighting, rather than just waving his weapon around in hopes it would stab something. Joining a pirate crew in his late teens gave him a new form of fighting, and so his skill in using the sword grew.
- Swimming: A skill he learnt as a child, before even stepping foot on a ship. The mercenary group he ran with had decided that the lads needed to learn how to swim to do a certain job, and so he and his friends were tossed into rivers daily just to try and learn. A tad brutal, but it worked. Over the years he’s practiced more, and with his knowledge of how the sea currents work now, Loren has become a skilled swimmer out in the ocean.
- Hand to Hand: While no specific expert in brawling, Loren knows enough to keep him on his feet for a bar fight or boxing match. He much prefers his sword, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared in this world.
Weapons: - Sabre: Long, thin, but made of a durable steel.
- Daggers: Has several of varying sizes pocketed around his person.
- Gladius: One of his older and more battered of possessions, it’s served him well over the years and always remains at his hip.
Physical Description: Standing at 6’2” with a broad pair of shoulders and chest, Lorenzo’s height and colouring is telling of his Praelian roots; and, his colourful life both on land and sea. While his is figure is more athletic and lithe than that of a body-builder, he still has enough muscle showing to prove he likes to look after his body. In the sense of exercise and maintenance, that is - when it comes to matters of scarring, he hasn’t quite been as careful.
His olive-toned skin typical of his homeland has been tanned, weathered and freckled from years of toiling under the often harsh conditions out at sea. The palms of his hands are calloused and rough from continuous manual labour and handling weapons, and his enemies in the past have left more than a few marks on his body and faces. Old wounds and scars range from minor scratches from lucky jabs by swords, to fresher bullets wounds peppering his torso after he tangled with the wrong group of Dwarves and a yellow-bellied Quartermaster. Some are deeper and more unsightly than others, but he isn’t perturbed by them, nor has anyone who’s shared his bed in the past. Either way, those individuals who made most of those marks were left much worse off than Lorenzo. He made sure of that.
As for his facial features, it’s fair to say he has a handsome, if weathered, face. A strong jawline that’s kept clean shaved as often as possible is paired with a narrow nose, long sideburns, thick eyebrows, and blue eyes framed with surprisingly dark eyelashes. Surprising when compared to his hair, which originally was a light brown. Years of working under the sun has all but bleached his roots, leaving it a coppery blonde, with streaks of darker blonds and gray running throughout. It’s fairly straight, but cut rather choppily; left shorter at the sides and longer on top, Lorenzo usually has it swept backwards over his head – depending on how long it takes for him to take shears to it, he keeps a leather tie handy to ensure it doesn’t become meddlesome.
Loren’s style is typical of that of a Captain; leather duster, weathered tricorne hat, leather boots and lightweight – but durable – shirt and pants.
Armor: None; he doesn’t like to be weighed down.
Equipment/Other - Various lucky charms from around the world
- Hip Flask
- Tinderbox
- Waterskin
- Whetstone
- Compass
- Telescope
Mental Description/Personality: Loren can sometimes seem a bit paradoxical. In some ways, he’s a laidback sort of fellow. Easy-going, warm-hearted, joking; however, in certain areas he can be quite serious, especially in terms of doing his job well. The latter comes from a strong work-ethic instilled in him from a young age – if you don’t work, you don’t get anywhere except a coffin, and that’s if you’re lucky. However, he also learnt rather quickly that you need to be liked in a lot of places to climb up the ranks. He had always been naturally charismatic and friendly, so he always uses this to his advantage – be it to make friends, de-escalate dangerous situations, or to just get some free drinks at a pub somewhere. This trait has proven invaluable to him as a Captain, and he has struck some strong bonds in the past thanks to it. For newer folk, Loren is generally polite to them until he gets a better look at what the individual is like. If he deems them good, he’ll treat them warmly. If not, he’ll be cold to them. However, it would take for the person to do something particularly bad for Loren to start actively disliking them.
Over the past few years, Loren has developed a darker, more cynical streak. The betrayal of his crew-mates that led to the deaths of his loyal friends have made Loren more distrusting of others. It has also drained him of mercy in most cases, preferring to end lives needlessly to ensure his enemies won’t come back for revenge in the future. He’s driven by his own need for vengeance, and while he will refuse to let that get in the way of his future crewmates, it won’t be forgotten any time soon. In regards to the new crew aboard the
Sea Reaver, Loren would appreciate any help they’d willingly give to his own goals. But he would sooner die by himself than endanger any of them for his own failings.
Goals/Apirations: To find his wretched former crew and make them regret their betrayal; not just for their mutiny, but for the deaths of his loyal comrades who fell to protect their Captain. Also, to perhaps move on from his old shipmates deaths with a new crew – a hopefully more trustworthy one, this time.
Background/History:Lorenzo had a humble and common beginning to his life – born to a prostitute in a typical Praelian whorehouse, Loren was the fifth bastard child of a woman who couldn’t afford to look after him properly. His care was handed over to his eldest brother, Marco, as soon as he had been weaned and could toddle about by himself. Marco had looked after several of the children born at the whorehouse, even though he was only at the young age of thirteen. Early on in Loren’s life he was tasked with committing petty crimes, simply to make the job of being raised easier for his brother. Stealing a loaf of bread here, pinching a coinpurse there; anything that would make life a bit better for him and the other urchin bastards scattered around the underbelly of Praelior. When he turned 8, however, he was able to join the local mercenary gang: The Jackals. It was an unimaginative name, but they weren’t a particularly creative group of people – many of them young, homeless, and all of them bastards or runaways. The only difference for Loren now was that he had a larger group of people looking out for him – and of course, other perks came with the job. Larger crimes meant more loot, and the older boys began teaching him how to use a weapon. Nothing too fancy, but he soon learnt how to duel well enough to either run away or kill someone much larger than himself.
For three years, Loren worked with this gang of street urchins. Their crimes were petty enough to keep them out of the limelight, meaning the guards and larger, more prominent groups didn’t pay them much heed. Still, it was better than how he was doing before. Loren would have been quite happy to continue living with his group of friends for the rest of his life, but fate had other plans for him. After a night of wandering down dark alleys on his own close by the docks, he found himself quite groggy the next day onboard a ship. A ship belonging to the Praelian Navy had decided it needed a new powder-monkey, so he had been snatched and press-ganged.
His newer life had a disappointing lack of freedom to it. Not only did he suddenly have a lot of ridiculous rules to abide by, the Officer responsible for press-ganging him seemed to have taken an interest in the young lad. Perhaps he appreciated Loren’s fire despite the unfair situation he’d be thrust into, or simply admired his enthusiasm for fighting. Either way, the Officer wanted to ensure that Loren could one day move up from the rank of powder monkey, and began to task him with even more jobs. Loren was taught how to read and write, manners, politeness, how to speak like a gentleman and basic etiquette – not everything stuck, but the one thing that did were his lessons in sword fighting. Every spare moment of his time (Not that he had much to begin with) was spent sparring and going through endless exercises with this Officer. Loren certainly resented his mentor; not just for the over-working, but the harsh words, lack of praise, and beatings for not doing something right. Still, he had a grudging respect for the man. In no time at all, Loren had become an expert with his blade, and could win sparring sessions with most onboard the ship. His manners also improved, enough so that it became shocking for most to find out about his actual start in life on the street.
After staying with the navy ship for five years, and putting up with five years’ worth of beatings and tireless training, Loren finally got a break in the middle of the Sea of Swords, under the guise of a pirate ship.
The Silent Nomad.
Although the navy ship put up a good fight, it was clear they were to be overwhelmed. One by one, the sailors fell to the pirates, while Loren watched on from the crow’s nest. He watched the scene unfold quite brazenly; not wanting to be mistaken as a coward for not fighting, but simply because he owed nothing to the ship or the crew. After the last man was cut down – his mentor, ironically enough – Loren descended the mast, hoping that the pirates below would be somewhat sympathetic to his reasons. Luckily for him, the Captain of the crew was rather understanding. After some deliberation, it was decided amongst the crew that they would take Loren in as a crewmember, as long as he was happy to do so. Some distrust was there amongst the others to being with, but that was only expected after having slaughtered the boy’s entire crew. Eager to be living a slightly more fun-filled life with pirates, Loren joined them. And it didn’t take long for him to become a valued member of
The Silent Nomad.
For 15 years Loren worked his way up the ranks of the pirate ship, getting involved with most roles onboard to get a larger understanding of what everyone did, how the ship worked, and how everyone worked together. The pirates had a larger sense of comradery than the navy men did, and that was something Loren appreciated. It felt more like a family, than just a bunch of loud-mouthed killers people usually saw pirates as. It was a hard day for all when their Captain passed away – not in the glory of battle, but consumption. By this point, Loren had been made Quartermaster, and it didn’t take long for the crew to vote on who their new Captain should be. After giving the old captain’s body back to the sea, Loren was given his new job. And there he stayed for another ten years, thriving under his new role, and most of his crew doing well following his lead. However, a rather unexpected event occurred that changed everything for the worst. A mutiny, that not only cost Loren his ship, but the lives of those he considered family.
After a raid on a rich man’s seaside manor, something had gone awry in the plan. A sailor, not following his orders properly, had ended up shot and fatally wounded. The ship’s healer could do nothing to save him, and he ended up dying. Most were unsympathetic, as the man had acted like an idiot that could have got even more people injured and killed. Still, Loren spoke well of the man at his wake, and gave his share of the loot to his brother Jarid, who happened to be Loren’s quartermaster at the time. Jarid didn’t want the loot – instead he wanted vengeance, and as the guard’s had already been killed at the manor, he held only one person responsible: Loren. Wanting to instigate a coup, Jarid began sowing dissent amongst the others, convincing some of the more greedy and shady members that the raid had been too risky, and the Captain wasn’t worthy of his job anymore when he got his crewmates killed so easily. As
The Silent Nomad slowly approached the coast of Praelior, a vote was called on the deck about relieving Loren of his duty. Those who had sided with Jarid obviously stood against Loren, but he still had a large number of his crew still stand for him. The ship was divided, and a fight to the death begun. Jarid’s people had never wanted to win this the fair way anyway, and many of Loren’s loyal friends were slain in cowardly ways. Loren himself, after cutting down several of his traitorous crewmates, was blown backwards of the ship after being shot several times by Jarid. Deciding that he was probably dead as his body sank below the waves, they took the ship and sailed away. Little did they know, that it would take more than a few wounds to take Captain Lorenzo down.
He wasn’t entirely sure how he made it to dry land, but Loren managed it somehow – perhaps out of pure stubbornness on not wanting to die. Licking his wounds and taking odd-jobs here and there across the country, Loren bided his time, eyes constantly drifting back towards the horizon. While he ached for revenge, he bitterly missed the sea and her ways. Dry land was tiresome after a while, and far too static. He took to travelling as much as he could just to try and sate some of his wanderlust.
This happened three years ago, and now, he has arrived at Seacliffe. The thought of being on a ship once again is a tempting one, but the possibility of regaining his Captainship made the decision for him. Loren would make his way onboard
The Sea Reaver, no matter how much he had to prove.
Relationships:
