Character #1:
Name: Nestor Salvage, "The Vanisher"
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Appearance: Nestor looks somewhat similar to the below image.
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Eye Color: Green
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Physique: Nestor has a thin, well-defined body with its fair share of scars and pimples. He looks his age, for his beard does not grow very long and his complexion looks innocent, despite his tired eyes. He is tall, around 6', making him fairly intimidating. His hair is disheveled and moderately long, as he only brushes it when he bathes. His skin is usually covered in a thin layer of dirt, including his face.
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Distinguishing Features: Various thin scars along both arms and legs, one long scar on his right cheek(temple to mid-jaw), interesting llamellar chestplate, large feet.
Personality: Closest archetype - The Trickster.
scores are between 0 and 4.
+ Warmth 1.2
-----Warmth is how nice to people you are. Low scorers are impersonal, distant, cool, reserved, detached, formal and aloof. High scorers are outgoing, attentive to others, kindly, easy-going, participating and like people.
+ Reasoning 3.6
-----Reasoning is how good at abstract thinking you are. Low scorers prefer common sense, high scorers prefer abstract thinking.
+ Emotional stability 2.1
-----Emotional stability is how in control of your emotions you are. Low scorers are reactive emotionally, changeable, affected by feelings, emotionally less stable, easily upset. High scorers are emotionally stable, adaptive, mature, and face reality calmly.
+ Dominance 3.3
-----Dominance is how assertive you are when dealing with people. Low scorers are deferential, cooperative, avoids conflict, submissive, humble, obedient, easily led, docile and accommodating. High scorers are dominant, forceful, assertive, aggressive, competitive, stubborn and bossy.
+ Liveliness 1.8
-----Liveliness is how much energy you display. High scorers are serious, restrained, prudent, taciturn, introspective and silent. Low scorers are lively, animated, spontaneous, enthusiastic, happy-go-lucky, cheerful, expressive and impulsive.
+ Rule-consciousness 1.5
-----Rule-consciousness is how much you abide by authority. Low scorers are nonconforming, self indulgent and disregard rules. High scorers are rule-conscious, dutiful, conscientious, conforming, moralistic, staid and rule bound.
+ Social boldness 1.6
-----Social boldness is how socially confident you are. Low scorers are shy, threat-sensitive, timid, hesitant and intimidated. High scorers are socially bold, venturesome, thick-skinned and uninhibited.
+ Sensitivity 1.9
-----Sensitivity is how much you can be affected. Low scorers are utilitarian, objective, unsentimental, tough minded, self-reliant, no-nonsense and rough. High scorers are sensitive, aesthetic, sentimental, tender-minded, intuitive and refined.
+ Vigilance 3.1
-----Vigilance. Low scorers are trusting, unsuspecting, accepting, unconditional and easy. High scorers are vigilant, suspicious, skeptical, distrustful and oppositional.
+ Abstractedness 3
-----Abstractedness is how imaginative you are. Low scorers are grounded, practical, prosaic, solution oriented, steady and conventional. High scorers are abstract, imaginative, absent minded, impractical and absorbed in ideas.
+ Privateness 2.8
-----Privateness is how honest you are about who you are. Low scorers are forthright, genuine, artless, open, guileless, naive, unpretentious and involved. High scorers are rivate, discreet, nondisclosing, shrewd, polished, worldly, astute and diplomatic.
+ Apprehension 1.2
-----Apprehension is how troubled you are. Low scorers are self-assured, unworried, complacent, secure, free of guilt, confident and self satisfied. High scorers are apprehensive, self-doubting, worried, guilt prone, insecure, worrying and self blaming.
+ Openness to change 2.3
-----Openness to change is how not stuck in your ways you are. Low scorers are traditional, attached to familiar, conservative and respect traditional ideas. High scorers are open to change, experimental, liberal, analytical, critical, free-thinking and flexibile.
+ Self-reliance 2.7
-----Self-reliance is how contained your needs are. Low scorers are group-oriented and affiliative. High scorers are self-reliant, solitary, resourceful, individualistic and self-sufficient.
+ Perfectionism 2.1
-----Perfectionism is how high you standards are for yourself. Low scoerers tolerate disorder are unexacting, flexible, undisciplined, lax, self-conflict, impulsive, careless of social rules and uncontrolled. High scorers are perfectionist, organized, compulsive, self-disciplined, socially precise, exacting will power, control and self-sentimental.
+ Tension 2.4
-----Tension is how driven you are, crossed with impatience. Low scorers are relaxed, placid, tranquil, torpid, patient, composed low drive. High scorers are tense, high energy, impatient, driven, frustrated, over wrought and time driven.
+ General Overview : His main attribute is his arrogance and pride. Nestor has an unrelenting self-confidence which drives him towards his goals. He is unfriendly towards everyone, except those he holds dear, and has a plan to kill whoever he meets. No matter who is beside him, he will trust no one with a task, and will accordingly have a back up plan just in case. He adamantly states that "plans never survive first contact," and, "right when a situation starts going your way, you've been ambushed." Thus he never lets his guard down, no matter how pleasing a situation looks. and no matter how strong his friends are.
+ Social Interaction : Until a relationship with someone is intimate, Nestor tends to act coldly and doubtfully towards others. A conversation with him can get quite lively, as he is very assertive and eloquent, a silver tongue, selecting each word and gesture to its best affect. As such, he is also a great deceiver and actor, capable of worming his way out of awful situations and misunderstandings without need for force. If left with only one person for an extended time, he would need a great deal of time to warm up to them, but would eventually look at his/her strengths as opposed to his/her weaknesses.
+ Goals : Overall, his goals are simple: Plan, Money, Food, Learning. Because of bad experiences with improvisation, he made it a goal to plan out situations as much as he could before entering into them. In the future, he really wants to have a lot of money, and to eat more than he has in the present. Because he survives off of strategies and techniques he learned from books, it is his goal to learn as much as he can so that he can be as strong and efficient as is possible. He has no long term plans for the future, thus he wanders about with caravans and traders.
Equipment: Nestor always travels light, no matter where he goes. He has a side-pack, a sheath, a rucksack, and a belt.
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Supplies:+ Cloth - Two small, rugged rags. Kept in rucksack.
+ Medicine - Various herbs collected during travels. Kept in side-pouch.
+ Food - A loaf or two of stale bread and a chunk of expired cheese. Occasionally a few strips of dried meat. Kept in rucksack.
+ Drink - An animal bladder filled with water. Kept in rucksack.
+ Tools - A short skinning knife which is kept, in its sheath, within his rucksack, some heavily worn flint, a whetstone and an array of pick-locks which are kept in his side-pouch.
+ Money - A small money pouch. Kept in rucksack.
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Weapons:+ Melee - Two thin, double-edged and sharply pointed daggers. One kept in a concealed sheath at his hip, one in a concealed sheath in rucksack.
+ Ranged - A sling with 20-25 lead bullets. Kept in rucksack, unless in active use, in which case it is kept at hip within an individual pouch.
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Armor:+ Lamellar - A section of armor encompassing the chest and shoulders. Various strips of leather and steel are tightly woven together in a straight, tidy array. Weighs 16 lbs. Insignificant reduction in mobility.
+ Clothes - Wool tunic and breeches.
+ Shoes - Rawhide low-boots.
+ Cloak - A fairly thick, folded piece of black wool extending from the shoulders to the ankles. One half of the fold can be pulled above the head for rain protection.
Power: Nestor has a thought-type power which is called Straw Man. Straw Man is an active power which has no usage limit. This power is only known to exist in twenty other humans within Haldor.
- Overview:
This power allows the user to make one or more visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, and tactile representations of himself in space which can move and talk depending on the skill of the user. Straw men are not tangible, however it will react with the environment around it, and anything which touches it will "feel" it. Straw men cannot, however, alter the environment, thus if they are in a predicament where a force should be applied to them by an object, or a force should be applied by them unto an object, they will disappear. No heat is given off by straw men, however one will feel heat given off by them if close enough. Minor atmospheric forces such as wind, gravity, particles(sand, dust, snow, rain) and water puddles will appear to affect the straw men. When a straw man disappears, the transition is instantaneous, as if it was never there in the first place.
- Mechanics and Usage:
The user can create as many straw men as is desired. The straw men can either act independent of the power-user, or under direct control of the power-user. Controlling straw men is immensely difficult, especially controlling multiple at a time. Each straw man must be controlled in the same manner one's own body is controlled. Straw men can be used for many purposes, some of which are distraction, intimidation, entertainment, espionage, and transmitting information. If the power-user loses focus on a straw man he is taking direct control over, the straw man will disappear. If the user falls unconscious, his appearance changes significantly(for example, he loses an arm or bleeds over a significant portion of his clothing), or he dies, all the straw men will disappear.
- Limitations:
Each straw man must be controlled in the same manner one's own body is controlled, thus making two or more straw men conduct different actions at the same time requires immense concentration. The power-user can always move on his own accord while using this power, however, the less he moves, the actions the straw men make will be more frequent, numerous and complex. The user can provide a particular mindset for a straw man before making it so that it acts, on its own, in a certain way. Straw men all have the exact same appearance, voice, and mannerisms as the power-user. Once a target recognizes the thought power being used, the sensory alteration which the targets detect are lessened significantly, thus the straw men appear slightly transparent, sound quieter, smell less, cannot be felt, and can not be tasted.
History:Nestor was born into a city called Midriff, which had a slightly higher crime rate than most other cities. Nestor's parents were both exceptionally busy most of the time, so he and his brother grew up more-or-less independently. Nestor adored learning, but somewhat despised the school system, so after he found his thought power at around the age of 17, he decided to leave his city. His mother was fatally injured by a drunk weeks before his planned departure, but after chasing the murderer and sparing him, Nestor decided to leave early, without a second thought.
His experiences in combat, espionage, survival, and diversion all made him who he is today. His "Straw Man" ability is exceptionally useful, however, without it, he is only moderately skilled with a dagger. His shooting skills are average at best, and his muscles have been developed for athletics and aerobatics as opposed to brute strength. His arrogance comes from his flawless planning and execution ventures in the past, as does his coldness. He became well known as "the Vanisher" due to how he uses his Straw Men to make himself appear to "vanish" in the blink of an eye.
For most of his youth, Nestor was raised by his parents in a moderately well-kept house and an adequate school in the town of Midriff to the North West of the capitol. Midriff was a fairly large city built within the top of a rather high mountain. It was always cold near the outside walls and plantations of Midriff due to altitude, but the town itself was generally warm from geothermal heat and lit by large sky-holes, windows and the candles toted about by the inhabitants of the city. It was fairly dark throughout most of Midriff due to the way it was dug out of the mountain, so within its walls was a slightly higher crime rate than most other cities had. Murders and thievery was less surprising in the city, so most people carried around a small weapon like a dagger or a sword.
Nestor's parents were both busy at work for most of their lives, only sparing their free time to eat, rest, and raise their two sons, Nestor and Gilbert. Nestor's father was a guard for the town, always patrolling about and settling disputes with a wide smile across his face. His mother was a trader, selling her goods in the marketplace from sun-up to sun-down. They were very friendly and supportive of their two sons, but the time they could spare for them was not always enough. Nestor and Gilbert were often left with a few pieces of silver to wander the streets and enjoy their day after learning their daily lessons. They taught and disciplined their sons well, and every minute of the parents' time was spent helping the sons build character. Nestor truly loved his parents, and longed to be with them more often, so he grew to dislike jobs with long hours.
Nestor and Gilbert were closely bound together for a considerable amount of time, however, once Gilbert found his power, a deed power which allowed him to levitate certain metals(magnetism), he started to ignore his brother. He focused more on training his physical body than learning new things, encouraging Nestor to skip school very often so that they could train together. Nestor and Gilbert slowly started to lose their affection for each other, as Nestor loved learning a great deal. Eventually, Gilbert asked his father to train him as a guard when he reached his fourth year of school, and thus his relationship with Nestor more-or-less ended. This escapade of Gilbert also led the two brothers to gradually dislike their father because, at this point in time, he was starting to ignore them and focus more on his job.
Nestor continued going to school and learning, and after reaching his tenth year, still having no idea what his power was, he graduated to an academy. There he was instructed harshly, often studying constantly for many days so that he could master the material he was learning. By his fourth year, he had graduated the academy, but he still had no idea what his power was. As a result, his parents hired a specialist to test his abilities and determine his power. During a test requiring meditation, the specialist discovered that an exact copy of Nestor appeared beside him, and thus, Nestor discovered his thought power.
A few weeks after discovering his power, his mother was brutally attacked by a drunk man in the marketplace, leaving her with fatal injuries. The man fled town after this, and Nestor chased him because of his attachment to his mother, visualizing bloody murder. It did not take long for him to find the murderer, who was peacefully napping against a tree with a smile on his face. Nestor took out his knife and, stepping towards the man, contemplated killing him. His thoughts were conflicted: self-control versus justice. The man soon woke up and, seeing Nestor towering over him with a drawn knife, fled to the forest, never to be seen again. After this, Nestor decided to choose self-control, to formulate plans before every situation and to remain at least three steps ahead of his opponent.
Since that day, Nestor decided to start travelling, no longer wanting to deal with the stressful contempt of professors or the endless, boring tests associated with the lessons. He was able to use his thought power exceedingly well, well enough that he stunned his professors with just two "Straw Men," as he called them. Instead of taking an apprenticeship as a professor, he decided to travel around and seek adventure, wanting to prove his abilities to the world. Nestor took on jobs for acquiring information, scouting out areas, negotiation, espionage, assassination, message delivery, and even Caravan security. He was very good at using his power secretively, keeping them out of sight and making them disappear out of sight so that he appeared to teleport. He became well known within the walls of a few towns as, "the Vanisher," because of his exceptional diversion tactics. He was also very good at using a sling, often using his Straw Men to make a volley of lead bullets to scare off large groups of enemies, or to break formations for his allies. His general distaste for bows and crossbows and his love for the light weight and portability of the sling led to his decision to use this munition as opposed to others.
He grew cold and distrustful towards people because he was so vulnerable without his Straw Men. He did not want anyone at all to know what his thought power was, so he told no one. In his experience, people often chased his Straw Men without a single thought otherwise, even if he was just standing, watching from behind a bush a few feet away. As a result of the ease with which he could manipulate people, he grew arrogant and prideful of his skills. Eventually, he became so arrogant that he challenged a master strategist to a duel, a story he keeps dearly in the back of his mind. The person he is today is the result of a relatively exceptional amount of experience and wisdom he has acquired over the few years of his travels.
