Vigfast — Roleplayer Guild

Sorry for the double post! 

However, a brief draft of my CS is now complete. Alas, I fear my inspiration petered out a bit at the end, so some edits are due in the near future, but hopefully Roger is at least tolerable.

 Birth Name: 
Roger Alexandre Martin

 Other Names: 
Prefers to simply be called Roger, he has jokingly been called the "Bloodhound of Paris" by his former colleagues and a number of criminals, but it is a nom de guerre he neither relishes nor tolerates without complaint.

 Gender: 
Male

 Age: 
27

 Rank/Titles/Social Class: 
Monsieur Martin is of humble origins (lower class). However, he has an exemplary service record, having served a number of years as a detective with the French civil police force, the Sûreté Nationale. He left the bureau on cordial terms and as far as the French constabulary is concerned he remains an upstanding citizen.

 Appearance: 
Roger is decidedly average in height (6'1") and has a solid build; the result of life long pursuit of urban adventure. His skin is light, but touched by time spent in the sun, and Roger has a healthy vigor to his appearance. He has the sharp brown eyes of man always on the lookout for trouble and straight brown hair kept perennially short. He sports a well-kept mustache and meticulously trimmed beard, to ward off the cold of night according to his own claims. He walks with the grace of a man certain of his place in the world and confident in his own abilities to handle himself when things inevitably take a turn for the worse. Roger has a small collection of scars, chiefly on his hands and arms, courtesy of time spent in the field. His nose, although expertly set, has clearly been broken a number of times.

Roger wears a gray coat with covered buttons and matching waistcoat, dark trousers, short turnover shirt collar, and black bow tie. In regards to footwear, he favors a pair of sturdy leather boots. His practical outfit is completed by a well-worn bowler hat. Like many gentleman of the day Roger also carries a cane with him everywhere he goes, he see it as a proper gentleman's accessory, and more importantly it is a useful but discrete weapon. In addition to this, Roger does not venture far without the added security of carrying a loaded firearm on his person.

 Personality: 
Roger is a pragmatic and hardworking individual by nature. He is even-tempered, rarely allows his emotions to get the better of him. He is meticulous in his planning and deliberate in his actions. Exposure to some of the less noble aspects of humanity has left him a bit of a pessimist and he is notorious in the society for his dark sense of humor. A career spent sifting through the lies that people create to hide their crimes has also left him rather distrustful of other people. However, man is a social creature, and despite presenting a gruff exterior, Roger is agreeable and warm to those that show themselves worthy of his trust.

Far from a coward, Roger is willing to face danger when required, but he does not idly risk himself or others. If he has learned anything in life, it is the importance of adapting to the situation at hand and that more often than not actions speaks louder than words. Having long since parted ways with the Catholic Church and similar archaic institutions, Roger is concerned with results, rather than tradition or convention.

 Psychic Talent: 
Monsieur Martin's psychic talent is his remarkable ability to track the trace psychic impressions that a person leaves behind them. This 'aura trail' can however be muddled by the passage of too many people and like all things, it fades with time. Of note is the fact that Roger can also get a hint of the emotion a person was feeling and on rarer occasions still, he has been able to sense the motivations of the person he is tracking.

Roger has possessed this remarkable talent for as long as he can remember, but for most of his life he had simply convinced himself he was blessed with a remarkable understanding of how others think or act when trying to hide or flee.

 Skills: 
While Roger has the benefit of neither of a noble upbringing nor a lengthy education, his time spent in the service of the state has afforded him an adequate knowledge of the most commonly spoken tongues of Europe. His French is concise and to the point, his dialect very clearly the Parisian of the common man. He speaks English fluently but with a slight accent and he has gone to great pains to acquire a passable level of German fluency. At present, he has only the slightest grasp of Czech, enough to order a pint of beer or a bottle of wine and to get directions to the nearest washroom.

In regards to his professional talents, Roger is a decent enough carpenter and an exceedingly well-trained policeman. He has several years of successful police work to his name and brings with him a number of hard lessons learned patrolling some of the most crime ridden districts of Paris. Thanks to the unique methods employed by the Sûreté, he also has a particularly noteworthy amount of knowledge concerning undercover work and he has acquired a knack for blending into a crowd or disappearing into the urban milleau of any sizable city.

A man of many routines, Roger engages in a series of calisthenic and gymnastic exercises every morning. Although it is not the primary purpose of his early morning activities, these exercises have the added benefit of keeping the Frenchman in excellent shape.

 Weapons/Fighting: 
Roger is an excellent shot with most manner of firearms, but like any good policeman he views the use of lethal force only as an option of last resort. Furthermore, gunshots have a nasty habit of attracting unwanted attention, something neither Roger nor the society is particularly keen on attracting. Since joining the society, Roger has taken up the normally aristocratic sport of hunting and when not occupied with official business he enjoys spending time in the countryside pursuing all manner of game.

During his time with the Sûreté Nationale Roger was trained in the the techniques of Savate (a French martial art which uses both the hands and feet) and Canne d’Arme (stick-fighting). A practical rather than flashy fighter, he relies on efficient and often brutal techniques to dispatch an opponent. As an experienced police officer he is familiar with how to best subdue or even disarm a suspect, with the amount of harm inflected on said suspect determined by the level of resistance encountered.

A man used to venturing into the heart of crime ridden slums, Roger carries a revolver and a cane (weighted with lead on one end) with him at all times. While a proud Frenchman, Roger is a firm believer in stopping power and thus currently holds the .455 calibre Webley Mk. I as his revolver of choice.

 History: 
Roger Alexandre Martin born in Paris, in the Winter of 1863, to Monsieur Auguste Philippe Martin and Madame Marie Françoise Martin. The oldest of seven children, he was forced by necessity to grow up quickly. His father was a talented carpenter and his mother was a hard-working seamstress, however despite the dedication of his parents, the large family was often destitute. Roger grew up in the slums of Paris, spending most of his youth not far from the dilapidated neighborhood where he was born. The Paris he knows is one, whose streets were, and still are rampant with crime. However, despite his humble origins, Roger had a happy childhood. After all he had his loving parents, doting grandparents, cherished younger siblings, and a seemingly endless number of relatives around him.

He completed his primary education with only average grades, but was a voracious reader. Given the poverty of his family, he fortunately showed little interest in continuing his formal education and soon after his thirteenth birthday he secured a job in a furniture factory thanks to the help of his father. Showing much of the same talent as his father, Roger did well for himself, or well...about as well as a factory worker in 19th century France could do. However, with the passage of a several of years, he had grown weary of working long grueling hours for little pay and days spent hidden from the sun. Seeking a fresh start and inspired by the newspaper reports about the growing police force seeking to bring order to city of Paris, Roger joined the civil police force at the fledgling age of seventeen. Driven ever onwards by a desire to do some good and the hope of finding some much needed adventure.

He proved to be a quick learner and displayed an impressive aptitude in all things related to police work. Eventually, Roger even managed to secure a position as a detective in the Sûreté Nationale, the most illustrious bureau of the modern police force tasked solely with criminal investigations. Following the tried-and-true methods of the legendary bureau, he participated in an extensive amount of undercover work (especially for the era). Together with his colleagues he pursued all manner of thieves, cheats, con-artists, fraudsters, thugs, violent criminals, and murders. As a member of the bureau, he shared in numerous victories and far fewer defeats (that nonetheless left their marks). In the process, he also received a respectable number of battle wounds; a testament to the volatile nature of police work. He was particularly noted for possessing a remarkable talent for tracking down even the most elusive of suspects and bringing them to justice. Unwilling or unable to accept the talent he had borne with him for a lifetime, Roger simply attributed his success a strong instinct for police work.

A chance encounter with the paranormal resulted in loss of one fellow officer and the death of two civilians, forever shattering Roger's faith in the normalcy of life. Left in doubt and questioning all that he had once known, Roger did the only thing a detective can do when faced with doubt, he sought out the truth. Leaving his colleagues at the Sûreté Nationale, ventured out into the world in search of answers. In seeking these answer he eventually found his way to the Ianus Congreatio. 

Satisfied with the honorable goals of the organization and convinced by the information they guarded he embarked on a decidedly different career. Since then, Roger has faithfully served the Ianus Congreatio.

 Random: 
Bullet format (for now):
an avid pipe smoker, rarely seen without his favored pipe, a simple briar wood pipe, simplicity at first betrays the exquisite craftsmanship that went into the construction of the minimalist pipe. large half bent billiard shape, bent, black stem, light reddish wooden bowl
carries a sizable amount of tobacco with him at all times
stores his pipe and related items in a leather tobacco pouch, engraved with his name (R. A. Martin)
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