A N D R E W /// G R A V E S
Personal Dossier
NameAndrew Matthews Gray
AvatarGraves
Age23
GenderMale
VisageAndrew's defining trait is his height. Measuring in at six feet and four inches tall, he naturally draws in the eye with his towering height. His appearance is made all the more striking by just how thin his frame is. Gray can't count the number of times he's heard the 'how's the weather up there?' line, though he knows he gets it almost as much as the 'do you play basketball?' question. He finds his height to be obnoxious, more than anything- but the same can't be said for his weight. Lacking any muscle at all, Andrew's incredibly self conscious about just how thin he is. No one wants to appear weak.
That's where he and his avatar in Pariah differ.
While Graves and Andrew share equal height, his in-game persona possesses a far larger frame. A chest as broad as an ox and muscle like coiled iron, Graves is a force to be reckoned with. The imagined character was designed to compensate for it's designer's perceived flaws, granting Gray the physical strength he's only ever dreamed of wielding.
Other differences are more aesthetic in their reasoning. Andrew abandoned his painfully average dark hair in favor of a brighter, sleeker silver. It's equally as long, and often kept up in the same messy ponytail that Andrew has grown so accustomed to both in and out of game. His eyes remain the same shade of blue, though they're a great deal sharper and more confident when he's Graves, the legendary bounty hunter rather than Andrew, the gas station clerk.
PersonalityGraves is everything that Andrew is not. Where Andrew is meek and quiet, Graves is confident and boisterous.
He is without inhibitions; unconstrained by societal norms or fear of reprisal from others. Graves does whatever he wishes and anyone that doesn't follow him can either get the hell out of his way or be ran over. Many consider this behavior to be destructive and backwards. His abrasive bluntness catches many off guard, and has on more than one occasion gotten Graves into a fight with someone who didn't wish to deal with his arrogance.
In his actual life, Andrew despises confrontation. In game, he thrives on it. Combat is visceral, and it allows him to live out every power fantasy he's ever craved. To be strong, to be confident, to have a place in the world. All of the pent up aggression and hostility that Gray has internalized for so long can be released in an act of savage violence.
He has little time to service others, caring for himself above all else. Graves doesn't waste time helping those who cannot offer him something in return. With an endless world of possibilities at his fingertips, there's far too much to do in Pariah to lose even an hour on something he cares little for. Someone else will come along to help; they always do.
One trait that Andrew shares with his counterpart is his love of solitude. Though Pariah is meant to be a shared experience, Graves spends much of it wandering the expansive environments alone. Companions slow him down. Party members falter and fail whenever Graves counts on them. When he's going solo, Graves doesn't have to worry about watching someone's back, and the blame for his failings can fall on his shoulders alone.
BackgroundAndrew was born in a little town in Ohio to two loving parents and eight siblings. He was unlucky enough to be one of the middle children, so it was no surprise when he was overshadowed by his more talented and capable siblings.
His town was small, and his high school even smaller- which meant finding friends and penetrating the normal clichés was quite difficult for someone that had gotten used to quietly observing. Gray wasn’t exactly an introvert. He could be loud, excitable and social- but he just…never got the chance to. He didn’t have many friends at all.
That is, until he had scrounged up enough cash for his first MMO. He used his low grade laptop to play the game at its lowest settings; it was choppy, constantly lagged and rather ugly…but he loved it. He loved everything about the game. Gray retreated from his less than stellar normal life into the world of a generic role playing game. He ignored his tanking grades, few acquaintances and boisterous family to play for hours on end.
He started off grinding on his own, as most do. But he chanced upon a party of likeminded individuals that needed a secondary tank. Andrew melded seamlessly into their company. They were all chill people, for the most part, and willing to help teach him how to play the game properly.
They continued to play together for months, the size of the group ever expanding as they built up a sizable guild of their own. Andrew became near addicted to raiding. Fighting bosses was the most visceral and exciting experience he’d ever had in a game.
Eventually Andrew was (somehow) able to graduate high school and purchase a real computer. All was well for him. His family only occasionally harassed him for being a bum. He had a steady job at a backwater gas station, making minimum wage for very little work. He had made a decent circle of friends for himself within the guild. Life was simple; it was good.
Things didn't stay that way forever.
It started off as something infinitesimally small. A couple of arguments over petty issues. Andrew tried not to get involved, most of the time; he just wanted to focus on playing the game and enjoying himself. But as time passed, the arguments grew in number. They got more serious. Issues between his friends grew; problems from a past that Andrew wasn't around for reared their ugly heads. All of it was stupid and inane, in his eyes. He did his best to act as a mediator when he could, but it rarely worked.
Things came to a head when a shouting match over voice comms ended with the guild's leader- and Andrew's closest personal friend- leaving the guild in the hand's of his second. Things fell apart from there as him stepping down only furthered the divides between the others. One by one, the original group Andrew had joined left. Contact became sparse, and then they all went radio silent. This thing that had consumed Andrew's life for the better part of a few years was now gone, and there was...a void.
Andrew hadn't felt this alone in a long time. He quietly retreated further into himself. Months passed with his life being little more than keeping to himself and working a dead end job with no future in sight. It wasn't until the local game store announced that they'd received a shipment of VR headsets and were planning to hold a giveaway to celebrate that things changed for him. Andrew entered the giveaway, and he won! A copy of one of the most hyped MMOs in history came with an equally desired piece of hardware worth obscene amounts of money. Andrew didn't waste any time throwing himself into the game.
ReputationGraves is not a widely known name due to how much he keeps to himself. His infamy has been growing recently, however, among the more attentive members of the bounty hunting community. The profession is used by a large chunk of the player base; however, the few hundred or so individuals that claims to be 'professional bounty hunters' are a highly competitive and inclusive group. So when some no name young blood starts snatching up important contracts and taking down a high level bosses and esteemed players, the smarter heads start to turn.
He's an above average raider that joins public groups, dominates his enemies and takes what he needs before disappearing again.
Andrew is above average at best. He's no professional, and lacks the experience or gear to take on the really big names.
Yet.
He's dedicated himself to becoming the absolute strongest hunter in the game, and he's going to do it by almost any means necessary. The only thing he's wary of is teaming up with other players. He's partied up a handful of times, but never long enough to get attached- he knows where that particular road leads.
However, there are some obstacles which cannot be overcome alone. Some enemies cannot be defeated through sheer force of will and hours of scrolling through guides and wikis online. On occasion, Graves has to team up with others- usually to do bosses or gank unsuspecting targets that he can't beat alone. His temporary help always gets a 'piece of the pie' so to speak; he makes sure they get something out of the effort, even if he doesn't plan to stick around for very long.
Attribues & Additional Information
RoleTank
AffiliationSikth
ProfessionBounty Hunter
Weapon of ChoiceA halberd he affectionately refers to as his 'pike'
Domain(s)Water
Drain
Benchmarks (Physical)Tough Skin: Graves is naturally more durable than other non-tank characters. He doesn't wear particularly heavy armor; however, his naturally high health pool allows him to take incredible amounts of damage for a character with relatively low defense gear. The trade of for this is he's weighs a hell of a lot more than other classes, and is thus slower and can be kited by ranged or agile enemies. He gained this trait through hundreds of hours of getting the shit kicked out of him without armor on, which has led to increased durability without the need for heavy armors.
Potion Addict: Graves has been relying on potions for his tanking abilities since he started playing Pariah. After chugging down countless elixirs, his physiology has an easier time adapting to the ingested liquids. Potions last longer and are more potent on Graves than others. A small side effect being that Graves can’t function very well without them in his system. He usually carries potions for lifesteal, iron skin and healing- to make him even harder to kill.
Blood In The Water: Much like a shark, Graves gets a sort of sixth 'sense' whenever a target is bleeding. It allows him to track them within twenty five meters (doubles if he was the one that made them bleed); it's less like echo location and more like a compass that points him in their general direction. It won't reveal the exact position of a hiding enemy, nor does it tell Graves if they are above or below him- simply where they would be on a two dimensional field. Dozens of hours of trying to hunt down that last monster for his bounty hunting quest has made the tank a decent enough tracker.
Enhanced Strength: The weapons and armor used by a tank are heavy. Graves is required to have above average physical strength if he wants to use them effectively. This also means he's able to carry more (when not impeded by his regular gear) and hits slightly harder with unarmed attacks.
Executioner: Graves tends to fight harder when his enemy his on the back foot. He pushes his advantage and attempts to go for killing blows as often as possible. A slew of decapitated and mutilated foes behind him, Graves has learned how to more effectively hurt enemies that are already wounded. Enemies very close to death's door take more damage from Graves' attacks, although he also heals less off of them and takes more damage from them- so he has to be careful with certain monster types or enemies with 'deathrattles.'
Benchmarks (Mental)Monster Bestiary: Graves has studied the average field and dungeons mobs extensively. He has a fairly good grasp on what most common enemies are capable of, what their weaknesses are, ect. More rare beasts, especially those he isn't high enough level to be fighting anyway, wouldn't apply.
Boss Bestiary: Graves is a raider at heart. He loves MMOs for the massive, titanic battles between huge parties and giant bosses. It's his favorite part of Pariah. Thus, he's invested quite a bit of time into learning some of the boss enemies in the game. The tougher, higher end leviathans that require teamwork, determination and raw power to defeat. Knowledge is power in these sort of encounters, and Graves has made sure he knows about the general workings of the bosses he's likely to face.
Meditative Healing: Since Graves' combat stance is entirely based on healing, he figured he could use an out of combat healing ability too. Essentially, Graves can sit down and focus his magic on repairing his wounds. How long it takes depends on the severity of his injuries. The stance is extremely taxing, takes awhile to start and takes forever to finish if he's hurt- and it can't heal things like broken bones or eviscerated organs. He'll need a real healer for that.
Metalworking: Required field to get to Weapons' Repair. He uses this as a source of income, creating very basic items and selling them either on the market or to NPCs. He would much rather get money from killing mobs all day and pawning off legendary raid items, but sadly working the marketplace is the only real way to get a stable source of income.
Weapons' Repair: Graves likes his Pike. It's his favorite weapon. He isn't very good with much else, and doesn't have a backup for when it breaks. So, instead of constantly paying vendors and other players to fix it for him, he decided to spec into Weapons' Repair and do the damn thing himself.
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