[CHAR] Thermonuclear Magic: A World War II Fantasy

[Kierkegaard]

CS Template

Name:

Appearance: (Photo optional)

Age:

Nationality/Ethnicity:

Political Affiliation: (Is your character a Nazi sympathizer? Uncomfortable bystander? Civilian just trying to keep their head down? Make their political views clear here.)

Occupation:

Personality:

Magical attributes (if applicable): (Researchers or people otherwise closely related to the Humboldt University projects will have inexplicable magical qualities about them. Unlike most RPs, our players will have a very difficult time learning to control their magic, although it’s feasible that they get used to it enough to channel it at will. It’s impossible to predict how magic will manifest in any individual. Think of it as the character becoming a “gravity field” of magic, if you will. For example, people could begin levitating, causing objects to float, or spontaneously combusting at no harm to themselves. Just remember that magic is chaotic, unpredictable, and terrifying. Initially, it’ll be more of an inconvenience than anything, but it’s conceivable that with enough practice someone could start to control it at well.)

Background:

[Kierkegaard]

Name: Klaus Foerster

Appearance:

Klaus looks like he was stretched at puberty and never properly filled in his gangly form. Tall, blue-eyed, with an uncontrollable mop of blonde hair, he manages to meet all the Nazi standards of “Aryan perfection” while…not. They made Klaus take his spectacles off for this photo, which is probably why he's squinting.

Age: 27

Nationality/Ethnicity: German. Klaus is partly Jewish on his father's side, but passes for Aryan.

Political Affiliation: Klaus is vaguely aware of what's going on outside of Germany's borders only to the extent that he knows it's affecting funding at the university. He's not thrilled about the war, but prefers to keep his head down and concentrate on his research.

Occupation: Assistant Professor of Theoretical Physics, Humboldt University of Berlin

Personality: Klaus is mildly autistic, scatter-brained, clumsy, and more than a little naive. He has a gift for social tactlessness. He’s skittish, very particular about little things (god help whoever misplaces his work pencils), and easily anxious. Deeply appreciates classical music. Likes cracking bad jokes at inopportune moments. He lives for his research, and could spend days in his lab without talking to anyone. He’s avidly enthusiastic about physics and incredibly excited about magic, but has very little patience for politics or other factors that interfere with his work.

Magical attributes: It’s been several months since Klaus was first exposed to magic in the lab, and frankly, he’s getting scared. He has a form of telekinesis over which he has absolutely no control. He’ll wake up in the middle of the night, levitating two feet over his bed. Random objects in his vicinity have begun floating unpredictably. Anything made of glass in his apartment has spontaneously shattered. Things are especially bad when Klaus is anxious or scared, but it’s embarrassing enough for his clipboard to float out of his hands in the middle of conversations.

Background: Klaus earned his degree in theoretical physics at Humboldt University five years ago and has never left, nor does he intend to. Over the last decade he has been an undergraduate, graduate student, teaching assistant, instructor, and finally assistant professor in the physics department.

In 1940, Klaus became the principal lab assistant to Dr. Jakob Engelhardt on a project on thermonuclear fusion. Several months ago, however, Dr. Engelhardt abruptly fled the country when the Jewish faculty at Humboldt was abruptly fired. At 27, Klaus became project leader of a German effort to develop an atomic weapon.

They found something better. They found magic.

Klaus was present at the first, terrifying lab incident, when three lab assistants were injured and one was killed. He was present when the board decided to continue the project- he, in fact, was the project’s most ardent defender. He’s been present at every subsequent experiment and simulation since, and spends every living hour in the basement laboratory trying to decipher the origins of this mysterious power source and how to tap it.

[Adriane]

Name: Rosalind (Ros) Wolff

Appearance:
Unfashionably (for the times and longer than the pictures) long blonde hair almost always fashioned into a bun or braids, blue eyes, stands about 5'6".
1
2
(Veronica Lake)

Age: 25

Nationality/Ethnicity: German

Political Affiliation: participant in Hitler's Youth and now the Nazi Party. Not very interested in politics, she's following what she believes is the cause her parents lived their lives for.

Occupation: SS officer working as a codebreaker, hired by the Linguistics Department at Humboldt for the war effort. Additionally doing a secret investigation of Klaus Foerster for the Nazi officials.

Personality: Rosalind was a very well-behaved child, responding well to direction and instruction and flourishing under the love and support of her parents. After years of bringing pride to her parents and pleasing the leaders of the League, she found it much harder to work in a more independent setting of simply translating. Ros aspires to please everyone at all times in all aspects of her life and would easily agree the worst thing to be is a disappointment. She's so accustomed to authority figures giving her direction that she feels lost without instruction and she struggles a lot when she is not acknowledged for her achievements by her superiors. She views her personal and work achievements through the light her colleagues and superiors shed on them rather than in the light of her own personal pride, and will continue with her projects until they are perfect. She responds well to authority but poorly to aggression and will shut down when faced with aggression in any form. She is very protective over people she cares about and the only thing stronger than her want to please and follow authority is her need to protect and keep her loved ones safe.

Magical attributes (if applicable): Very mild exposure to magic from repeated close proximity to Klaus Eichmann, yet to manifest in any sort of way.

Background: Ros was born to once-wealthy German parents who cared for her very much, but didn't last long. Her mother died of unknown causes when she was very young, after which she and her father moved into the heart of Berlin. A decade later her father died working as an SS officer, stranding her with the choice of moving into an orphanage or joining the League of German Girls. Wishing to follow in her parents support of Hitler, she joined the League at it's start and became a perfect model of the Aryan race for Hitler's Youth. In her time prior to the war she found an aptitude for physical activities such as gymnastics and swimming and was a star candidate for the Faith and Beauty Society to be married upon coming of age - but that all changed when she discovered her talent for languages.

As a child she had picked up on bits of Polish from her parents and upon going to a class for it she found Polish and Russian surprisingly easy to learn. For a few years she worked in German's national relations with other countries translating letters and conversations, and as the war drew closer she was educated in English and French as well and eventually hired by the Linguistics Department to decode the Allies' messages and war plans. Recently she was given the task of getting close to Klaus Foerster, a valuable researcher they wanted to assure would not defect to the U.S.

[Obscene Symphony]

Name: Aaron Bachmeier

Appearance: Aaron is thin and lanky, and standing at 6’2 and weighing 170lbs, he seems to be all arms and legs. His hair is sandy blonde, nearing brown and in need of a cut, and his eyes are a colour that could be dull grey, green or blue, depending on the lighting. He has a single lock of white hair, a birthmark, on the front of his head. If one were to look closely, they'd also see a few strands of greying hair, despite his age.
(The fact that he is close to, but not quite fitting the Aryan standard tends to make him a little nervous.)

Age: 28

Nationality/Ethnicity: German. Agnostic, baptized as a Catholic, and possibly partly Jewish.

Political Affiliation: Aaron is very aware of the happenings under the Third Reich, yet against his better judgement, lets self-preservation overcome his ethics and retains his position in the university, continually playing the part of a loyal German, despite how the things he continues to learn and research disturb him.

Occupation: His title at the university is 'Biomedical Researcher,' but simply put, he's a doctor called upon to observe and track magic's effect on both himself and the researchers who discovered it, as well as stand by in the case of negative effects.

Personality: Aaron is nothing if not a kind soul. Wholeheartedly devoted to the significance and preservation of life, and has been known to throw himself into nearly every case he’s handled. Prone to stress and frustration, especially when he has trouble solving a problem, or is forced against his ethics (wink). Forgiving, finds it hard to stay angry at someone without good reason. Professional, patient, understanding, and courteous, very rarely angry. Some may call him weak, tends to keep his head down and do what he’s told, even when it kills him inside.

Magical attributes: Having been present on the day of magic's discovery several months ago, Aaron was exposed to a rather hefty dose of it. Since then he has developed a fascinating tendency for parts of his body to disappear and reappear at random. They do, of course, remain very much 'there' and physically tangible, but simply become invisible. As of yet, this does not affect anything other than his own body, and has frightened various technicians by giving them a view into the inner workings of his body when a part of his skin has decided to become transparent.

Background: Aaron had an interesting start in Berlin, but an otherwise ordinary upbringing. He and his fraternal twin brother, Mitchell, were born to a Catholic mother, their father long gone. Rumours circulated that their father was a Jew, hence the Hebrew names, but their mother refused to talk about him.
Otherwise, their upbringing was fairly standard. They didn’t have much money, and both boys began working from a young age to support their mother.

Aaron had always wanted to be a doctor. There was nothing else he had ever aspired to be. He flew through standard school with flying colours and made it through the Humboldt medical program through scholarships and careful saving. He was quickly recognized for his skill, especially as a surgeon, and graduated top of his class eight years ago, off to begin his residency.

He’s fresh out of residency now, and had begun work as a consultant for a research effort into atomic weaponry. Despite his hesitance, he’d worked with them under recommendation from his professors and the premonition that networking would be important to his career.

He was present the day they’d made the discovery of magic, and the notion astounded, fascinated, and terrified him at once, with the latter taking significant priority at the time.
It was requested of him that he remain to study the effects of magic on the human body, and possible offensive uses as well. Reluctantly, he agreed, fearing the rather ambiguous consequences of leaving now that he had borne witness to the discovery of the very top-secret and possibly most powerful weapon in recorded military history.

[Keyguyperson]

(Early WIP App, current one below)

[Keyguyperson]

Name: Józef Pilecki (Uses Josef Schmidt as an alias in Germany)

Appearance:

As luck would have it, Józef happens to appear rather Aryan despite his Polish heritage. Underneath the cap in the picture lies a head of blond hair. He has also built up a non-trivial amount of muscle over the years, which he tends to hide behind a coat of some sort. While he has blond hair and blue eyes, his facial structure doesn't match up with that of a "true" Aryan. However, it was deemed "close enough" by his comrades in the TAP.

Age: 27

Nationality/Ethnicity: Polish. Baptized as a Roman Catholic, recently began to consider himself atheist.

Political Affiliation: Józef is a member of the Tajna Armia Polska (Secret Polish Army), and is actively working to fight the Nazi occupation of Poland. He has a deep hatred of the Nazis, and makes sure to keep up with the latest intelligence on their activities. His main goal has always been to liberate Poland, though recently his hatred of the Nazis has extended far beyond its original bounds.

Occupation: Cavalry Lieutenant (Pre-War), Laboratory Assistant (Cover), TAP Lieutenant

Personality: Józef is always somewhat aloof, and only talks to others out of necessity. Rarely does he express emotion in his speech, instead covering all of them up with clinical words and a forced bored monotone. When he does express emotion, it is always in the form of losing his temper. Since about a month after he joined the project, he has become increasingly hostile towards the others. Every so often he will pepper his speech with passive-aggressive insults and more spiteful tones. This is all thanks to his deep hatred of the Nazis, along with his inability to see the difference between Germans and Nazis. He considers everyone around him a monster, and it is often all he can do to not just assault them. He is constantly paranoid of having his cover broken, and his impulsive tendencies don't make him feel any safer. He tends to form deeply held opinions about others just after meeting them, and changing these opinions is often nearly impossible.

Magical attributes (if applicable): Józef has had significant exposure to magic, having been present on the day of its discovery as well as cleaning the room afterwards. While he most certainly has magical ability, it took him months to realize it. He often woke up with a random object in his hand, always something he had seen in a dream (Though not always a dream he remembered). For the most part, it was an innocent object like a pencil or random laboratory instrument. Obviously, he began to think that someone was messing with him, and became extremely paranoid that he his cover had been broken.

Then, one morning he woke up holding a letter from his brother. It was one sent a while back, brought all the way from Auschwitz by TAP operatives. It was the first one that described the supposed POW camp near the town in detail, and thus had gone straight into the fire after being read. There was no way it could have possible been put into his hand. Even if it hadn't been burnt, if someone else had found it he would have been dead by then. He began to suspect that it was the magic, but didn't bring it for fear of being found out.

As time went on, he began to summon objects with increasing frequency. Every morning he would wake up with something in his hand, which he usually either left at the lab or burnt. Some things, however, he just hid. Finally, he summoned something outside of bed. While he was cleaning laboratory tools, his old saber appeared in his hands with a flash of light. Needless to say, explaining his possession of a Polish Cavalry saber wasn't the easiest thing to do (He settled on saying a friend in the Wehrmacht had sent it to him after the invasion). Since then, he has had many more accidents. Luckily, he's always come up with a way to explain or hide the summoned objects. Even so, he doubts he can keep it a secret for long.

The summoning ability had clear-cut limitations, absolutely none of which anybody is actually aware of. The summoned object must exist/have existed in the past. As such, it is absolutely impossible to summon an object from the modern world. Józef must also have seen the object in question personally. This means he might summon things he only saw in his peripheral vision. However, it also means that he can't summon anything he has only seen in a photograph, or anything he's never seen/heard of for that matter. Only inanimate objects can be summoned, so it is impossible to summon something like a dog or a horse, much less a person. Finally, it is impossible for the object to be summoned without touching Józef's hands.

Background: Józef was born to the Polish Pilecki family in 1914 in the town of Wilno (AKA Vilnius), Lithuania. He was Józef Pilecki after his grandfather, who had the same name. The family's history was a turbulent one, having been forcibly resettled to Karelia, where Józef's brother Witold was born. In 1910, the family moved to Wilno, his parents giving birth to him four years later. When he was barely a week old, the Great War broke out. The family managed to stay together, with Józef's father being disabled an unable to fight in the war. Even so, they still felt its effects. In 1915 the German Army moved into the town and placed it under occupation. Witold became involved with the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association (ZHP) in 1918, and shortly afterward Lithuania was granted control of the city in the Act of Independence of Lithuania.

For a brief while, the newly formed nation of Poland controlled the city. However, the Soviets soon took the city. Józef's brother Witold, being part of the ZHP, conducted partisan warfare against them for a time. In 1919 Józef fell ill with an unknown sickness, while at the same time Witold joined the Polish Army's Cavalry. While Witold fought the Soviets, Józef fought his sickness. The very fact that he survived was a miracle, and every doctor predicted that he would die before his sixth birthday. In 1920 Witold returned to Wilno in an operation to liberate it, marking the first time in two years that he had seen his family.

Józef, having defied all odds and fought off his illness, didn't even remember his brother. Even so, for the short time they were together, they became very close despite the substantial age difference (Witold was 19 at the time). When he left, Witold continued to write home to Józef, and their bond only strengthened. When the war was over, the two spent a lot of time together in Wilno. At that point it was an independent nation (The Republic of Central Lithuania), thanks to the events of Żeligowski's Mutiny. In 1922, when Józef was eight, the city was annexed by Poland after highly contested elections. In 1923, the international community recognized Poland's sovereignty over the city (which had only a 6% Lithuanian population).

In 1933, at the age of 19, Józef enrolled in the Stefan Batory University in Wilno. He recieved a degree in physics from the university, and made a new friend by the name of Marian Zdziechowski. Marian was one of his professors, and an outspoken critic of Fascism, Communism, and totalitarianism in general. Marian's ideas rubbed off of Józef, and combined with his unbreakable bond with his brother, led him to join the Polish Army in 1938. He joined just in time for a Soviet bullet to shoot his horse out from under him in the invasion of Poland.

It was pure luck that he escaped the incident unscathed. He jumped off the horse at just the right time to avoid being crushed, and made it out on the back of a fellow cavalryman's horse. When Poland fell to the Nazis and Soviets, he was invited to join the TAP by Witold, one of the three founding members. Filled with hatred of the occupiers, he accepted and acted as a courier. Though he was only supposed to carry messages, he often read them as well. This led him to carry out the orders in the message, instead of delivering it to the agent who was meant to do so. These were usually attacks on Nazi and Soviet officers, and over time, Józef became an expert at killing.

Combined with his strength and experience gained during his short time in the Army, his attacks were frightfully effective. Sometimes he simply used a gun or Molotov cocktail, sometimes he fashioned a bomb, and sometimes he just picked up the nearest blunt object and battered the target to death. Seeing his skill, Witold offered to make him an official assassin, an offer he immediately accepted. He was given free reign on how to deal with the target, and he often infiltrated meetings in order to do so. He generally stole a uniform and gun, smuggled in a grenade, listened in on the meeting until the end, then threw the grenade and ran. Anyone who got in his way, he killed. Failure meant identification, and he never let himself be identified.

When Witold decided to willingly go to Auschwitz and write of what was truly going on, he made a proposition to Józef. Spies in Berlin had discovered that the Humboldt University was working on some kind of secret physics-related project. If the Nazis were working on a secret project, it couldn't mean anything good for the allies or the TAP. He gave Józef the option of infiltrating the university and learning what was going on. After a couple days of thought, he agreed. The two went their separate ways, one to hell and the other to Berlin.

He infiltrated the university, earning a job as a laboratory assistant in the project. His hatred of Nazis didn't mesh well with the environment, and he mostly kept to himself. When he got a letter from Witold, he became far more aggressive towards the Germans around him. The letter (passed through the camp's laundry) described the horrors of Auschwitz, speaking of the gas chambers, the crematoriums, the backbreaking work, and even rumors of horrific experiments carried out in secret. It only fueled his hate of the Nazis, and every day it got harder for him to hold back his anger.

He sees magic as nothing more than another Nazi weapon, an accidentally developed one, but a weapon nonetheless. He knows that the Reich will eventually try to use it in the military, and when they do, he will have to stop them using any means necessary. Otherwise, the Resistance-perhaps even the Allies-will have no chance at victory, and the horrors in Auschwitz and the other camps will end only when there is nobody left to kill.

[Zombiedude101]

Name: Konrad Aachen

Appearance: Once, Konrad was considered quite handsome, despite lacking a few of the Aryan traits many idealise so. Wiry, yet of average height. Blue-eyed, yet with charcoal hair instead of blonde. It did not matter; he qualified all the same with his so-called 'pure' (or, that is, non-semitic) heritage and otherwise good looks. However, war has not been kind to him; shrapnel scars run along the right side of his face, criss-crossed where it carved into his jawline and cheek, and judging by the eyepatch covering what was once his right eye it's likely he was blinded by the wound. In addition to this, his left hand appears to be amputated at the wrist whilst his right leg is amputated just below the knee, replaced with a prosthetic.

Konrad, prior to his injuries.


Age: 27

Nationality/Ethnicity: Austro-German - Konrad's mother emigrated from Austria before the Great War and married his father, an ethnic german. As far back as can be found, he appears to lack any jewish heritage.

Political Affiliation: Politics generally do not interest Konrad, instead he views himself as loyal to his country rather than those who run it. However, his time at war has done its share of damage by eroding away a good chunk of the patriotic vigour and he finds himself somewhat disillusioned with the idea of expansion. Likewise, he does not feel resonant with the Nazi ideology of racial purity and finds himself more interested in the welfare of soldiers on the front.

Occupation: Oberleutnant (1st Lieutenant) in the Wehrmacht

Personality: First and foremost, Konrad considers himself a soldier, loyal to his country - not an ideology. He views politics as irrelevant and instead considers the interests of the people - soldiers among them - to be most important, and as a result bears elements of the old Prussian mindset drilled into him by his father that compels him to be honourable in his conduct in his own words “An officer of the Heer.” He idolises the likes of men such as Erwin Rommel and, before his injury, strived to compose himself in a similar manner whilst in the service of the Fatherland.

However, his time at war and the injuries he endured have left him somewhat jaded, the concept of patriotic vigour and glory that once inspired him having been eroded by seeing men ripped apart by artillery shells and shredded by machine gun fire, whilst atrocities committed against Poles - civilian or soldier - have left him feeling somewhat distanced from the propaganda spewed out from the mouth of the Third Reich.

Magical attributes: In recent times, Konrad has begun to experience a number of strange phenomena in regards to himself and his surroundings. Any metallic objects or objects that are composed of metal appear to behave strangely when in close proximity, to the point he has found doorknobs to turn on their own accord, or cutlery to contort into deformed shapes far different to what they originally were. In addition to this, objects that utilise electricity appear to behave strangely, causing lighting to flicker on and off whilst radio sets emit large amounts of static. So far, all of this phenomena he has dismissed as a figment of his mind, yet all the same he questions whether or not this is truly another bout of madness, or something else altogether.

Background: Born before the Great War, Konrad found himself raised with a strictly military upbringing; his family had a proud history of military service and, as a firstborn son, he was expected to do the same. So it was that, in the wake of the loss of the Great War, the rise of the National Socialist party and the widely popular militarisation and industrialisation of the fatherland, Konrad was one who sought to enlist to do right by his country, paying little mind to the more hardline, ideological sentiments that the new regime bore and instead welcoming the idea of restoring the fatherland to its former glory.

Intending to follow in the footsteps of his father (A senior officer within the Heer) and the fathers before him, Konrad enrolled in Kriegsschule where it quickly became apparent that he possessed a number of positive traits; intuitive, determined and an overall aptitude for leadership. Consequentially, when he was finally commissioned as an officer, it seemed that he was more than capable for the role.

Assigned to an infantry company, Konrad briefly saw his first taste of service in Occupied Czechoslovakia before being shuffled over to the frontline when the invasion of Poland began. Despite earning a promotion to Oberleutnant and the relatively swift victory of the campaign, Konrad could not help but feel troubled by the grim truth of the invasion, having witnessed the disturbing atrocities committed both by some of his fellow servicemen and by the Waffen- SS, the former of whom he felt were obliged to act with honour and decency and latter of which he regarded dubiously (due in part to his father’s own sentiments against them for their apparent incompetence).

Likewise, he felt the truth of the frontline was quite disconnected from the patriotic songs and propaganda spread all throughout the Fatherland, and weighed heavily on both heart and mind. Despite this, he continued his service with all the dedication and faith that he could muster, up until yet again he found himself re-assigned to another campaign for the Third Reich, this time in France, and where his service on the frontline saw its end.

Whilst leading a unit of troops to seize a town deemed to be of strategic value by High Command, Konrad was maimed when explosive charges set by retreating French and British troops were detonated within close proximity to him and sent a brick wall toppling over him, burying him alive. It was not for another hour that he was found, only noticed by the twitching, damaged hand noticed sticking out from beneath the rubble and when they finally pulled him out, it was soon apparent that he had been maimed, losing an eye, his left hand and his right leg below the knee. Before long, Konrad was returned home to Germany as a broken man - both in body and in spirit, unable to serve on the front yet unwilling to allow himself a ‘useless’ reassignment to a desk job, hundreds of miles from the men still dying on the front for the Fatherland. It was not until an employee of Humboldt University paid a visit to the hospital, searching for wounded volunteers willing to assist in medical research for the benefit of wounded, maimed and traumatised soldiers that, once again, Konrad found himself a purpose.