aladdin_saneName: Vanja Janković
Age: 47
Ethnicity/Race: Bosnian
Appearance: Vanja stands around 5’8 and weighs around 150 lbs. He has blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. He recognizes the importance of a good dress sense; situation allowing he is fond of a tailored suit and Gucci loafers. He is considered very fit for his age. He engages in various athletic hobbies including fencing, jogging, and he is an excellent equestrian.
Personality: He has been described as intelligent, inquisitive, and incredibly stoic; his perfectionist temperament is well known. He is not one that has time for many accouterments offered by life and lives a rather minimalist existence all things considered. Though the wild days of his youth are behind him, he is not averse to taking bold risks every now and again. As a mercenary he has led a great many large-scale operations, while not all were successful he manages to perform them without a tremendous loss of life. His profound personal charisma, intelligence, and adaptability have made him famous within his field; he is often entrusted with great responsibility accordingly. Those that know him intimately are aware that he struggles with the guilt of his misdeeds; he also has an emotional hole in his heart that he is never able to fill.
History: In 1973 Vanja Matija Janković was born in the Dolac, a small village that bordered the relatively larger city of Tavnik. It is located in Bosnia-Herzegovina which at the time of Vanja’s birth was one the six socialist republics that comprised Yugoslavia. His father was a foreman in the village’s match factory, a position that allotted him and his family a great deal of celebrity in the local community at; his father also held a small position in the local branch of the Communist Party which the man was immensely proud of. The first memory Vanja can recall about his childhood is the smell of the new apartment in Tanvik his family managed to procure due to his father’s political connections; being only three years old the move was unprecedented as in his mind as Tavnik was the largest city in the world, compared to Dolac Tanvik seemed like Belgrade itself.
This memory is a reminder of simpler times, times before all the turmoil and fighting. Most of all it was a reminder of her…Rakel Vilhjálmsson. Her family moved into a neighboring apartment when they both were around eight years old. At the time she was his opposite plucky and rambunctious, while he was shy and withdrawn; through their friendship Rakel managed to draw Vanja out of his proverbial shell and help erode his aversion to risk taking. They spent their youths traversing the countryside causing all sorts of shenanigans and assorted mischief. Vanja admired at the time what he thought was Rakel’s active imagination as she would say in hushed tones that the reasoning for her family’s unique names were that they were actually Bortbyting or shapeshifters that fled a dying Fey kingdom located somewhere in Scandinavia to avoid persecution. She would describe to Vanja different customs of the fey and their powers; she even suggested that she could change her appearance at will but was forbidden to by her parents. She supposedly taught him some of their language, but the years have robbed Vanja any ability to speak any of the words. Her proof of all of this was an odd tattoo she had on the back of her neck; she said she could manifest it at will, but Vanja presumed at that it was just covered by her long hair. Vanja never actually believed this as when he questioned his parents on the ethnic origins of Vilhjálmssons he was only told that they were fellow Yugoslavians whose heritage was cemented in the Great Patriotic War; as a child the Great Patriotic War seemed like a catchall adults gave him when they did not want to give him answers to a particular question.
In stark contrast to Yugoslavia and communism itself slowly imploding around him, as his youth progressed his friendship with Rakel only continued to blossom and it seemed destined to develop into romance. Even though despite being a young adult at the age of fifteen, Rakel held onto the eccentricities of her youth that were becoming socially unacceptable at this point and still retained quite an active imagination; despite her oddities Vanja could not deny his affections for her. To this day he remembers the passion of their first kiss and they way they were wrapped up in each other; the joys of young love. Though, it was an affair that was not destined to last. The year was 1990, and the young couple was seventeen; it was this year that Rakel informed him that her family had to leave country because of the perceived instability looming on the horizon. Her kind apparently was no longer safe here and she wanted Vanja to leave with them. Vanja was on the cusp of the first major decision of his life attempt to gain admittance to a prestigious university in Belegrade or leave with her to some unknown destination in the West. Vanja regrets the way he handled the situation he said a lot of harsh words towards her, he insinuated many things about her sanity and the patriotism of her family out of fear…fear of change. She gave him a brass pendant that was crudely inscribed with what appeared to be a compass and told him if he ever wanted to find her he only had to recite a few words in the language of the fey while holding it; at the time he was dismissive of her words and almost contemplated destroying the trinket, but never did and still possesses it to this day it. When he is feeling reflective he will take the pendant off the chain around his neck and hold it in the palm of his hand for hours, hoping against all hope that he remembers the words she instructed him to recite.
Although he failed to gain entry on his first attempt, Vanja succeeded in his second attempt in applying for admittance to university. He was known around campus as a troublemaker, he got into numerous fights both on and off campus ; while his devil-may-care attitude was frowned upon by the staff it did win him the admiration of his peers and during his tenure he was quite popular. When he graduated university in 1996 the world was a changed place, Yugoslavia had devolved into infighting and sectarian conflicts, while the communist experiment was officially deemed a failure in Eastern Europe. At age 23 on the urging of one of his closest friends they both joined a mercenary outfit that was hired to fight in the First Congo War. He never returned to Bosnia or any of the former republics that comprised Yugoslavia again.
The group of East-European mercenaries hired by Zaire’s President Mobutu Sese Seko had little effect on the overall conflict and were unable to coordinate with his forces as neither group spoke the same language. Because he became fluent in both English during his schooling Vanja was able to communicate with some of the other mercenary units that were under the employee of the president. It is here he met Roger Bonheur and was introduced into the lucrative trade of hunting the supernatural. Vanja earned the respect of Bonheur in a particularly brutal bar fight between their two mercenary groups, Bonheur was a man who enjoyed projects and wanted to morph Vanja’s youthful anger into a tool in his arsenal. Vanja was offered to join in on a more lucrative bounty. Bonheur and his group joined the conflict not for political aims or even for the meager payout offered by the President, but to extinguish a Vampire who had entrenched himself here. Bonheur and his men styled themselves Hunters for profit and promised shadowy secret societies of the religious type results in riding the world of God’s unwanted creatures. Using the cover of the civil war the group managed to track the creature to Kinshasa, where they killed the Vampire and some of his spawn without maintaining too many of their own casualties. Vanja was nonetheless shocked to find out that Vampires actually existed and almost perished himself in the fighting. Any innocence he retained died while the group hunted down the remaining spawn of the Vampire in the jungles of the Congo.
For the next twenty-four years Vanja spent his time honing his skills against a wide variety of Vampires, but he has also been called into assassinate regular human beings or topple a regime every once in a while. In his years of combat, he has become a capable operative in the field and is known as figure of ill-repute amongst the supernatural community. He spends his free time searching for leads on the remnants of the Fey community he heard about in his youth, but this has yielded few tangible results thus far. Even under torture most of these supernatural creatures are hesitant to produce reliable information. While, most mercs lust after loot finding his lost love has become Vanja’s white whale; he intrinsically is disgusted by his line of work and what he has become, but his obsession drives him to continue. He has recently been ordered by Bonheur to go to Gravette and lay the groundwork for an upcoming operation.
Weapons: His sidearm is suppressed semi-automatic Beretta 71 pistol in .22LR, a cartridge that suppresses far better and provides rapid follow up shots. He also carries a silver straight razor on his person.
Supernatural Target: Vampires
Strengths:
Marksmanship – As a mercenary he has a working knowledge in regards to a plethora of different firearms. He is more than comfortable using a gun and is known to have astonishing accuracy.
Underground Connections - Having been in this line of work as long as he has been, Vanja has procured some relations in the criminal world. He is able to obtain contraband and false documents rather easily.
Hand-to-Hand Combat (Above Average) – Vanja is also trained in hand-to-hand combat and his personal fighting instructors consider him a competent combatant with good form.
Indomitable Will – The rigors of combat have hardened him against great physical pain and psychological trauma. He is able to push himself to his limits.
Physical Conditioning – His strength, speed, stamina, senses, agility, reflexes, and durability, are greatly heightened. However, they pale to those with enhanced abilities.
Bilingual – He can speak Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) and English. He is subconsciously aware of a Fey dialect, but has lost any ability to speak it.
Weaknesses: When it comes down to it he is a human being after all and he is vulnerable to all the same physical weakness that plague humankind; despite his physique a well-placed shot will cripple if not kill him. He has no natural resistance to magic. Psychologically speaking, his obsession with finding Rakel is certainly a proverbial soft spot. Offering him information or assistance in this matter would dissuade him from pursuing any action against your personage. He also just a hired gun after all and his loyalty to Bonheur has limits; their relationship is rocky on the best of days. He is a wanted man in some countries and has made plenty of enemies; knowledge of this might come in handy to one clashing with him.
Stance: Active. He is a hired gun, though as far as he is concerned someone else is responsible for pointing him at a target. It is not personal.
Other: He can play the Harpsichord on a professional level. At university Vanja developed an interest in the plucked-string keyboard instrument. He was encouraged to continue in this field, but ultimately refused an offer of becoming a member of the national orchestra. He would nevertheless keep his interest in the musical world and has been composing a cantata on and off for a few years.
Age: 47
Ethnicity/Race: Bosnian
Appearance: Vanja stands around 5’8 and weighs around 150 lbs. He has blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. He recognizes the importance of a good dress sense; situation allowing he is fond of a tailored suit and Gucci loafers. He is considered very fit for his age. He engages in various athletic hobbies including fencing, jogging, and he is an excellent equestrian.
Personality: He has been described as intelligent, inquisitive, and incredibly stoic; his perfectionist temperament is well known. He is not one that has time for many accouterments offered by life and lives a rather minimalist existence all things considered. Though the wild days of his youth are behind him, he is not averse to taking bold risks every now and again. As a mercenary he has led a great many large-scale operations, while not all were successful he manages to perform them without a tremendous loss of life. His profound personal charisma, intelligence, and adaptability have made him famous within his field; he is often entrusted with great responsibility accordingly. Those that know him intimately are aware that he struggles with the guilt of his misdeeds; he also has an emotional hole in his heart that he is never able to fill.
History: In 1973 Vanja Matija Janković was born in the Dolac, a small village that bordered the relatively larger city of Tavnik. It is located in Bosnia-Herzegovina which at the time of Vanja’s birth was one the six socialist republics that comprised Yugoslavia. His father was a foreman in the village’s match factory, a position that allotted him and his family a great deal of celebrity in the local community at; his father also held a small position in the local branch of the Communist Party which the man was immensely proud of. The first memory Vanja can recall about his childhood is the smell of the new apartment in Tanvik his family managed to procure due to his father’s political connections; being only three years old the move was unprecedented as in his mind as Tavnik was the largest city in the world, compared to Dolac Tanvik seemed like Belgrade itself.
This memory is a reminder of simpler times, times before all the turmoil and fighting. Most of all it was a reminder of her…Rakel Vilhjálmsson. Her family moved into a neighboring apartment when they both were around eight years old. At the time she was his opposite plucky and rambunctious, while he was shy and withdrawn; through their friendship Rakel managed to draw Vanja out of his proverbial shell and help erode his aversion to risk taking. They spent their youths traversing the countryside causing all sorts of shenanigans and assorted mischief. Vanja admired at the time what he thought was Rakel’s active imagination as she would say in hushed tones that the reasoning for her family’s unique names were that they were actually Bortbyting or shapeshifters that fled a dying Fey kingdom located somewhere in Scandinavia to avoid persecution. She would describe to Vanja different customs of the fey and their powers; she even suggested that she could change her appearance at will but was forbidden to by her parents. She supposedly taught him some of their language, but the years have robbed Vanja any ability to speak any of the words. Her proof of all of this was an odd tattoo she had on the back of her neck; she said she could manifest it at will, but Vanja presumed at that it was just covered by her long hair. Vanja never actually believed this as when he questioned his parents on the ethnic origins of Vilhjálmssons he was only told that they were fellow Yugoslavians whose heritage was cemented in the Great Patriotic War; as a child the Great Patriotic War seemed like a catchall adults gave him when they did not want to give him answers to a particular question.
In stark contrast to Yugoslavia and communism itself slowly imploding around him, as his youth progressed his friendship with Rakel only continued to blossom and it seemed destined to develop into romance. Even though despite being a young adult at the age of fifteen, Rakel held onto the eccentricities of her youth that were becoming socially unacceptable at this point and still retained quite an active imagination; despite her oddities Vanja could not deny his affections for her. To this day he remembers the passion of their first kiss and they way they were wrapped up in each other; the joys of young love. Though, it was an affair that was not destined to last. The year was 1990, and the young couple was seventeen; it was this year that Rakel informed him that her family had to leave country because of the perceived instability looming on the horizon. Her kind apparently was no longer safe here and she wanted Vanja to leave with them. Vanja was on the cusp of the first major decision of his life attempt to gain admittance to a prestigious university in Belegrade or leave with her to some unknown destination in the West. Vanja regrets the way he handled the situation he said a lot of harsh words towards her, he insinuated many things about her sanity and the patriotism of her family out of fear…fear of change. She gave him a brass pendant that was crudely inscribed with what appeared to be a compass and told him if he ever wanted to find her he only had to recite a few words in the language of the fey while holding it; at the time he was dismissive of her words and almost contemplated destroying the trinket, but never did and still possesses it to this day it. When he is feeling reflective he will take the pendant off the chain around his neck and hold it in the palm of his hand for hours, hoping against all hope that he remembers the words she instructed him to recite.
Although he failed to gain entry on his first attempt, Vanja succeeded in his second attempt in applying for admittance to university. He was known around campus as a troublemaker, he got into numerous fights both on and off campus ; while his devil-may-care attitude was frowned upon by the staff it did win him the admiration of his peers and during his tenure he was quite popular. When he graduated university in 1996 the world was a changed place, Yugoslavia had devolved into infighting and sectarian conflicts, while the communist experiment was officially deemed a failure in Eastern Europe. At age 23 on the urging of one of his closest friends they both joined a mercenary outfit that was hired to fight in the First Congo War. He never returned to Bosnia or any of the former republics that comprised Yugoslavia again.
The group of East-European mercenaries hired by Zaire’s President Mobutu Sese Seko had little effect on the overall conflict and were unable to coordinate with his forces as neither group spoke the same language. Because he became fluent in both English during his schooling Vanja was able to communicate with some of the other mercenary units that were under the employee of the president. It is here he met Roger Bonheur and was introduced into the lucrative trade of hunting the supernatural. Vanja earned the respect of Bonheur in a particularly brutal bar fight between their two mercenary groups, Bonheur was a man who enjoyed projects and wanted to morph Vanja’s youthful anger into a tool in his arsenal. Vanja was offered to join in on a more lucrative bounty. Bonheur and his group joined the conflict not for political aims or even for the meager payout offered by the President, but to extinguish a Vampire who had entrenched himself here. Bonheur and his men styled themselves Hunters for profit and promised shadowy secret societies of the religious type results in riding the world of God’s unwanted creatures. Using the cover of the civil war the group managed to track the creature to Kinshasa, where they killed the Vampire and some of his spawn without maintaining too many of their own casualties. Vanja was nonetheless shocked to find out that Vampires actually existed and almost perished himself in the fighting. Any innocence he retained died while the group hunted down the remaining spawn of the Vampire in the jungles of the Congo.
For the next twenty-four years Vanja spent his time honing his skills against a wide variety of Vampires, but he has also been called into assassinate regular human beings or topple a regime every once in a while. In his years of combat, he has become a capable operative in the field and is known as figure of ill-repute amongst the supernatural community. He spends his free time searching for leads on the remnants of the Fey community he heard about in his youth, but this has yielded few tangible results thus far. Even under torture most of these supernatural creatures are hesitant to produce reliable information. While, most mercs lust after loot finding his lost love has become Vanja’s white whale; he intrinsically is disgusted by his line of work and what he has become, but his obsession drives him to continue. He has recently been ordered by Bonheur to go to Gravette and lay the groundwork for an upcoming operation.
Weapons: His sidearm is suppressed semi-automatic Beretta 71 pistol in .22LR, a cartridge that suppresses far better and provides rapid follow up shots. He also carries a silver straight razor on his person.
Supernatural Target: Vampires
Strengths:
Marksmanship – As a mercenary he has a working knowledge in regards to a plethora of different firearms. He is more than comfortable using a gun and is known to have astonishing accuracy.
Underground Connections - Having been in this line of work as long as he has been, Vanja has procured some relations in the criminal world. He is able to obtain contraband and false documents rather easily.
Hand-to-Hand Combat (Above Average) – Vanja is also trained in hand-to-hand combat and his personal fighting instructors consider him a competent combatant with good form.
Indomitable Will – The rigors of combat have hardened him against great physical pain and psychological trauma. He is able to push himself to his limits.
Physical Conditioning – His strength, speed, stamina, senses, agility, reflexes, and durability, are greatly heightened. However, they pale to those with enhanced abilities.
Bilingual – He can speak Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) and English. He is subconsciously aware of a Fey dialect, but has lost any ability to speak it.
Weaknesses: When it comes down to it he is a human being after all and he is vulnerable to all the same physical weakness that plague humankind; despite his physique a well-placed shot will cripple if not kill him. He has no natural resistance to magic. Psychologically speaking, his obsession with finding Rakel is certainly a proverbial soft spot. Offering him information or assistance in this matter would dissuade him from pursuing any action against your personage. He also just a hired gun after all and his loyalty to Bonheur has limits; their relationship is rocky on the best of days. He is a wanted man in some countries and has made plenty of enemies; knowledge of this might come in handy to one clashing with him.
Stance: Active. He is a hired gun, though as far as he is concerned someone else is responsible for pointing him at a target. It is not personal.
Other: He can play the Harpsichord on a professional level. At university Vanja developed an interest in the plucked-string keyboard instrument. He was encouraged to continue in this field, but ultimately refused an offer of becoming a member of the national orchestra. He would nevertheless keep his interest in the musical world and has been composing a cantata on and off for a few years.
