________________________________________ Chadwick Astorio
Male | 253 | Astorio _______________________________________________"A thrust is elegant, a cut is powerful, but sometimes the best move is a headbutt."________________________________________
Likes
- Owlry
- The lamentations of a defeated opponent
- Contests of wit, surprisingly
- Crafting mages into warriors
Dislikes
- People with that prey look in their eyes
- Cowards
- Anyone who makes threats of a non-physical variety
Habits
- Puts his hand to his chin when someone gets in his face, as if in thought. He's waiting for a punch.
- Comments wrongly on the flavor profile of any blood he samples, purely to get a rise out of any nearby enthusiasts.
Misc.
- Chad is always up for a spar, even against opponents that vastly outclass him, as he sees refusal of such an invitation without an acceptable excuse to be a sign of weakness.
- He's formally trained in most weapons used in conventional warfare, as expected of an Astorio, though he's partial to the longsword.
- He keeps a pet owl, mostly delegated to the care of one of his still-loyal mages, though he occasionally sends it out to hunt when he can spare the time.
Theme
| "The Sinnenodels believe that physical training and discipline are unnecessary. With mages, media, and the mental resources to direct them, muscular strength and agility are thought to be merely conceits. They are wrong."
Appearance
Chadwick is a 6'2" column of sinewy muscle that clings tightly to his frame, with a broad torso and long limbs whose lankiness belies their supernatural dexterity. Though he lacks the sheer burliness of many among his bloodline, he is no less imposing. Observers often note - with a tinge of wariness in their voice - that he looks much bigger in person than he does on television. His hair is a dull gray, having lost its pigment early into his unlife, and he refuses to dye it in pursuit of vanity. In contrast, his eyes are far more vibrant, a brilliant cyan that doesn't quite suit the icy gaze they often hold.
Personality
Ruthlessly charismatic and charismatically ruthless, Count Chadwick Astorio is the last person one would believe had defected to the rebellion. A true Astorio at heart, he believes a vampire's status should rest solely on their personal combat prowess and cares little for the petty politicking of his peers. A vampire is a hunter, the apex predator of the night; coddled weaklings who hide behind blackmail and backroom deals are an embarrassment to their kind, and those that entrust their own defense solely to mages are masters of nothing - naive fools that would find themselves woefully unprepared should their prized pets ever call their bluff. After all, the only thing an immortal stands to truly lose is their life.
Chad carries himself with a cocky nonchalance outside the realm of combat, unconcerned as he is with mundane matters beyond the battlefield. However, one should be careful not to underestimate him as an inelegant brute like many among his bloodline; despite this seeming indifference, he possesses an antagonistic cunning, using it to goad and unsettle his foes rather than charm the cameras or his peers. Every witty remark, every cutting jab, all are merely invitations to cross blades with him, where status and resources melt away and only one warrior remains in the end. That isn't to say he isn't resourceful; Chad prefers to keep a number of mages on hand of a more subtle variety, solely for digging into his potential opponents and uncovering their weaknesses. If he had his way, every duel he fought would be won before he ever drew his sword. In the midst of conflict, he's a marginally different beast; an edge of intensity and aggression comes out, though the graceful confidence remains. A victory isn't as sweet if one doesn't look good while achieving it, of course.
Beyond this simple utility and their status as a superior food source, Chadwick sees mages little differently than the rest of their mortal ilk. They are certainly the most powerful warriors of humanity, a feat worthy of respect, but a foe who can be bested simply by waiting a few decades is hardly what Chad considers capable of rivaling a vampire. Nevertheless, he considers his own mages an interesting diversion to pass the time. None in his house would suffer a weak-willed mage, but short-lived as their physical prime is, they present a sort of challenge to see what heights he can cultivate in them. And of course, a challenge to inspire new heights in his own skills, as Chad takes them as healthy competition to keep his skills honed.
Bio
The first century or so of Chadwick's life was fairly typical of an Astorio fledgeling, and thus, unremarkable. He trained, he fought, he conquered. His older brother held much of his sire's attention and subsequently familial responsibilities, and thus Chad was left much to his own devices outside of his family's training regimen. Free from the imposition of courtly politics and territorial management, he whiled away the first century of his life in idle leisure - or what passes for it in an Astorio household, violent as they are - taking up sport dueling as a means to entertain himself. He grew tired of sparring with the same few opponents, and rather than wait the agonizing years it would take to raise a new generation of mages to vary the selection a little, Chad opted to throw himself to the wider world in search of a challenge.
Though Chad did not seek it, the act earned instant approval from his sire. Raising a strong contender in the arenas would doubtlessly improve his own standing, and thus he excused Chadwick from most of his remaining household duties so long as his career continued, to allow the young vampire time to solely focus on honing himself. And hone himself he did; Chad gained public renown in his twelfth decade when he achieved an upset victory against Count Damien Eve, a vampire over a century his senior with skills to match, in a risky maneuver that cost Chad an arm and Damien his heart. Now thrust into a spotlight, it was then that he first began to play the game. The fame didn't particularly interest him, nor did the machinations of his peers that he was now privy to with his newfound connections, but he didn't ignore the whispers in his ears as he pretended to.
There was no point in souring a business deal for someone he marginally disliked, no reason to sabotage his rivals if he only stood to gain things he never wanted in the first place. Petty fun, perhaps, but there were easier ways to achieve that. Still, information was a weapon, and it always paid to be armed. So Chadwick flitted about the edges of high society, occupying his time at classy events by incensing some limp-dick count or chickenshit duke in hopes they'd come to blows, all the while keeping an ear out for anything of use. His competitors had weaknesses and all it took was someone to slip one of their pesky little habits - a minor tidbit of information compared to the grandiosity of Count So-And-So's big move on Count What's-His-Name's holdings in the metallurgy industry, and thus easily thrown out by the rubes who didn't understand Chad's game.
Dismantling an opponent before they ever stepped into the ring became his pastime, riling them up beforehand until their frustration led them to make the mistakes he expected. The act was almost more fun than the duel itself, and Chad expanded his brand into the TCL just to get more of it. As expected of an Astorio household, Chad expected nothing less than ruthless combat efficiency in his mages, and providing them an outlet to show it off was met with minimal protest. There he coached his little pets for three whole generations, dissecting the opposition and passing his conclusions to his mages for them to exploit at their leisure.
Unfortunately, the onset of the war put an end to his fun, as his brother requested Chad's presence in a grander game. His territory had become a key engagement zone against Dawn Rising early on, and the count found the strategems devised centuries ago in some doddering Astorio's theorizing that he had based his initial defense on didn't hold up to the reality of modern mage-on-mage warfare, and so he called on Chadwick for reinforcements. As he took to the field, the flaws in his brother's command quickly became apparent. Outdated tactics were a flaw that could be easily corrected, major information leaks and saboteurs were not. Chad's brother had never been one to be lax on his mages, but he'd cracked down especially hard after one of them had expressed some minor interest in Ryner's revolutionary drivel. And as beaten dogs often do, his pets grew vicious. Fear kept them in line for now, but defections were not uncommon and as much fun as it was to gorge himself on the first few traitors, Chad felt his time was better spent attacking the enemy ship rather than plugging holes in his own.
So, when one of his brother's especially bold mages plotted an assassination, Chad pretended to be none the wiser. After his brother had been reduced to ash and the offending mage found herself suddenly missing a good chunk of her ribcage, Chad tossed her body aside and assumed fealty over his brother's holdings. There was a short period of cleaning house - he considered himself much better at maintaining morale than his late brother, but one can't make an omelet without cracking a few skulls, or whatever the mortal idiom was - but afterward Chad found himself in command of an effective piece of the Council's war machine.
Naturally, it was all a farce to remain in the midst of the action, but Chad would have his fun while the combat lasted. It was for this reason that the foundation of the Dreaming Court in 524 gave him pause. In the Sinnenodels he saw the death of warfare, that the conflict and all future conflicts would be reduced to the petty scheming of mind mages to undermine each other and end the opposition without a single sword ever being swung. Lord Pieron's departure from the conflict after Ryner's defeat seemed only to confirm Chad's misgivings - if his progenitor had lost his interest in the war, it would only be a matter of time until his lesser children followed. Chad wouldn't suffer the death of his newfound hobby just so Sybil could throw a few mages more firmly under the yoke and, in a spectacularly unprecedented move, Count Chadwick Astorio emancipated his mages and defected to Dawn Rising.
The next few years were spent in violent revelry, with Chad sating his bloodlust while he could as the war wound down. After the loss of Benjamin Eve, he flirted with the idea of returning to the fold, but with things miraculously looking up for the rebels despite their leadership falling to a girl barely half a century old, he's content to wait and observe for now. |
Member
Messengerofgods
BunniesOfDoom
SammyMcW
BayRat
Kronshi
Izurich
Xiro Zean
xxjessicaxx
Asura
Rightful Heir
