Well, a few minutes after making that post, I had an idea. Wyn's powers should be opposite, yet complimentary: Her vampiric half manipulating the physical, while her demonic half manipulates the magical. I might also give her a companion. Considering that romance isn't the exact point. If Wyn had a companion that were already a romantic partner, I could explore the romantic aspects of her character, without shoehorning it into the plot. If there's room for Wyn and [companion] to include another lady in their love nest, the option could be open.
Okay, as I mentioned to the co-gm, my problem with Wyndressa is a couple of things:
Her powers feel a bit underdeveloped. I'm especially having a difficult time differentiating her vampiric blood magic and her demonic magic. This is odd, considering that I have references that do. But, I think the problem is that I'm basing this completely off the Bloodhunter from D&D, which kinda merges these things together.
Her backstory feels unvague and unfocused. I realize this is something of a flaw in my character development: I often try to avoid the typical "family's dead, seeking revenge" tragedy that most people write. But, then I have a difficult time making a character's motivation seem interesting.
Okay, this is a work in progress. But, this is what I have:
Wyndressa is on the taller side, and maintains an athletic frame. As per tradition, her body is decorated with an intricate set of artistic scars, from head to toe. Her fangs are less pronounced than your typical vampire. In fact, she appears as your run-of-the-mill human. She often wears long coats, robes, tabards, and similarly "flowy" outfits. But, she'll never be caught dead in an actual skirt, or dress. Her fashion oft includes dark colors. She tends to favor blacks, and shades of red and/or violet leaning towards that of wine.
Race: Dhampir/Half-Demon Hybrid
Despite what the name implies; Wyndressa, and her kin are not chimeras in the traditional sense. Since their establishment, the huntresses of The Chimera Family have taken to interbreeding with benevolent monsters to produce powerful offspring. Each offspring take on traits from their parents that are most compatible with one another. In Wyndressa's case, she has some of her mother's vampiric traits, and the demonic half of her "father's" traits. However, her vampiric side is most dominant.
Like a Dhampir, her aura appears to be that for a human female. However, this changes when she uses her abilities. However, a quirk in the Chimera family's bloodline is a complete romantic and sexual disinterest in men. As a matter of fact, since their establishment; those of the Chimera Family have always been female, and exclusively attracted to women. The family's secret to maintaining their bloodline is a carefully guarded secret...
Magic/Abilities/Equipment: Wyndressa has ability in both hemocraft, and demonic magic. So, her abilities are divided as such.
Vampiric powers include:
Physical Enhancement: Being Half-Vampire (or Half-Dhampir?), Wyn's strength, speed, and agility are about on par with your typical vampire. Not only this, but her sense are very sharp -including nightvision, and she possesses the ability to cling to surfaces.
Bloodbending: Within 50 ft of her, Wyndressa can manipulate blood. This can either be that which has been spilled, or even the blood within a target. However, manipulating the blood within a target requires more concentration than just the stuff lying around. This is because, Wyndressa would also need to overcome the strength or willpower of said target.
Blood Drain: When Wyn drinks blood, it has the effect of healing any wounds and/or injuries, and replenishing her reserves. Another feature is that consuming the blood of a magic user can further enhance her abilities. Biting a monstergirl would allow her to gain one of their abilities for 5 hours
Demonic powers include:
Magical sense: Wyndressa can sense mana, up to 23 yards around her, and up to 50 yards, if she concentrates.
Curses: Wyndressa knows a variety of curses to debilitate her foes. This can range from making them weaker or slower, causing blindness or defeaness, making them more vulnerable to a particular element.
There's also a particularly debilitating stigma Wyndressa can brand an enemy. This one painfully disrupts any attempt to use magic or other supernatural abilities, magnifies damage done to them, and allows Wyn to track them wherever they go. However, this can only be done on a single target at a time.
Shadow Step: Wyndressa can teleport up to 50ft.
Combining her blood and dark magicks allows Wyn to
Project powerful blasts of energy
Enchant her weapons with elemental effects, using her blood as a catalyst.
*There are other abilities. But, they've yet to be discovered.
Equipment:
Corpse Maker: A longsword Wyndressa commissioned as an homage to a favored series of novels. It's made from Mithral, making it light as a feather, but razor sharp. Strangely, she never had it enchanted. "What? And cover up the inscriptions? Are ye' mad?!" She'd explain. Still, it's quite a useful conduit to channel magic within.
Daggers: A pair of daggers Wyndressa keeps in her boots. Plain, and unassuming in design, they're silver plated. Especially useful in killing monsters.
Common Gear: What every adventurer needs; tents, bedrolls, mess kit, woodcutting axe, 50ft rope, waterskin filled with wine, erotic novels, scented candles. All conveniently kept in a bag of holding.
Personality: One would expect a woman with Wyndressa's profession to be dark, brooding and melancholy. So, they're often taken aback by how fun-loving and humorous she actually is. Every fight sees her dancing circles around her enemy as she rends their bodies with a weave of sorcery & swordplay, while rending their feelings with her sharp wit. Fun, freedom, and friendship are what Wyndressa values most, and declares an unseen benefit of her work.
Seeming to never take anything seriously, Wyndressa tends to treat politics, responsibilities, and other serious matters with flippancy and nonchalantry. Still, her friends and family swear to her loyalty and strong sense of justice. As such, she shares her family's disdain for The Order, and their sanctimonious attitude. Nothing puts a smile on Wyn's face like making a fool of those sorry sods.
Despite her wit, and overwhelming confidence; Wyndressa is quite awkward when it comes to matters of the heart. It doesn't help her case that one of her responsibilities is to find benevolent monsters to take as wives. A responsibility her parents are becoming increasingly pushy about.
A few other important details:
Wyndressa is NOT a morning person. Sure, she can go out during the day, unlike her vampire relatives. But, requiring Wyn to be up at the crack of dawn is a good way to see her surly side. She especially hates hot, and humid places like deserts, and swamps. However, she loves overcast, rainy, and snowy weather.
She has has a thing for cute animals. When around dogs, cats, and similar furry creatures; Wyn will be overcome by an instinctive urge to pet them. This also goes for Monstergirls from beastmen lineages.
Background: Daughter of the (in)famous huntress, Victoria Chimera, and her vampire wife, Desdemona; Wyndressa trained since birth to hunt monsters, along with her sisters; Hilda, Rain, and Berasa. Despite being second born of her household, Wyndressa was named the eventual heir to her branch's estate. This always left the sisters confused, since Hilda was the oldest.
The explanation was that Hilda's monster traits failed to manifest. As such, other Chimera branches considered "mundane", and thus unfit to succeed Victoria. Despite this, Wyndressa still supported and bonded with Hilda. Yet, when Wyn was seventeen, there was an argument between Victoria and her own "Father". After that, Hilda disappeared; having run away.
Things only got more complicated when Wyndressa, and her mother became targets of their vampiric relatives. Despite having eloped with Victoria, Desdemona was still considered a contender for her mother's seat of power. Desdemona and Wyndressa's disdain & disinterest for their inheritance fell upon deaf ears; Wyn's cousins would still appear to end a potential rival, or an enemy -depending on who you ask.
When Wyndressa was finally ready to take on hunts of her own, she decided to go out to look for her sister, Hilda. In one city, a contact mentioned seeing Hilda in the employ of The Order, of all things. The shock turned Wyndressa's search more desperate, even going as far as to break into one of their headquarters to see her. Of course, Hilda wasn't there. But, what Wyndressa did find was that she was being put on an assignment cooperating with Orja.
And then, Wyndressa gets a request from a certain fox lady...
As for favorite monster girl; the ones I like include Ryuu, Kunoichi, Titania, Cupid, Aspara, and a bunch of others I can't think of off the top of my head.
Hm, I actually have a character that would fit into this setting like a glove... Sort of.
So, this character is a sort of hybrid. The idea is that she comes from a family of monster huntresses who have been interbreeding with benevolent monster girls in order to produce powerful offspring. These children tend to inherit traits from both parents that are most compatible.
In this character's case; her parents are a Dragon/Demon (Succubus) hybrid, and a vampiress. So, the traits she inherits are that of the demonic side of her "father", and her mother's vampiric traits, since those two are the most compatible. Her powers focus on using a combination of blood and soul-affecting magics to enhance/augment her physical abilities, and track & hamper enemies.
Or, think of a Reaper from Final Fantasy XIV, or a Profane Soul Blood Hunter from D&D.
Finally, as per the tradition of her family, one of her tasks is to find benevolent monster women to take as wives. For this story, I can imagine she was hired by Kyokou-sama to investigate what's going on. Especially, since her own family would have beef with The Order, for reasons that would be revealed later, if this character is approved.
Profession: Investigative Journalist, consequentle vigilante, public advocate, occasional amateur fighter
Marital Status: Single (Divorced)
Peronality: There are two types of people in this world (relatively); those who avoid trouble, and those who look for it. If Jack isn't looking for trouble, he'll welcome it with a smile. He's the same off camera, as he is on; Authentic, straight-forward, witty, bold (or reckless), relentless, and brutally honest. This has caused Jack to make a growing list of nemeses; between corrupt public officials & celebrities he's lampooned and/or exposed, a duplicitous rival anchor in the pocket of said officials, a lunatic conspiracy theorist with a cult of slack-jawed hicks, a disgraced MMA fighter he beatdown on live television, and his ex-wife.
Jack is often distrustful of authority figures, and is skeptical of rumors, and so on. A well-known phrase of Jack's is "CITATION NEEDED!", or more popularly: "And the source cited is his/her/theirASS/ES!" But, when he does talk about various issues, some of his anti-corporation, anti-authoritarian, and centerist rhetoric is dismissed as conspiracy theory shlock. Which is no end of frustrating, since Jack often goes out of his way to debunk popular conspiracy theories. "The Earth is ROUND, damnit!"
Lastly, Jack is surprisingly insightful and open-minded. He's grown to lament his generation turn into the same stuffy, close-minded stiffs they rebelled against in their youth. This, and his authenticity is what endears Jack to most people; they feel like they can just be themselves around him. Even if he doesn't quite get what that is.
Bio: Jack's life has always been a fight to be himself: At sixteen he ran away from his militant household, literally fighting in the mean streets of Los Angeles to survive. At nineteen, he met and married who he thought would be the love of his life... Until she divorced him after ten years of marriage, and ran off with their son, Nick, to be with a man she'd been cheating with for years. His career as a journalist saw Jack spout the same corporate-friendly rhetoric he railed against in his youth, through a plastic smile that got heavier through the years.
For a while, Jack was depressed. He went through life on auto-pilot, before trying to drown his sorrows in a bottle of Jack Daniels, night after night. Then he got a story; another shooting where a little girl lost everything. As his "colleagues" tried to use this heartbroken girl as soapbox for their prepackaged bipartisan politics, and the police practically looked for an excuse to ignore the case; Jack snapped. He tore into everyone; the callous news network for practically celebrating tragedy and worshiping the witless elites that were turning the world to crap, his ex-wife and her wealthy family for making him give up who he was for a life he'd grown to hate, and himself for allowing the promise of what his parents denied him to marry that bitch in the first place.
And so, The Raging Reporter was born. No more did Jack bite his tongue and lie through his teeth. No more did he distance himself from his estranged son. No more did he just sit idly by as the world seem to fall apart. Jack became the man who fought for the truth. Often literally.
He hunted down the man who killed a little girl's family in a drive-by and dragged him to the police, kicking and screaming. This man turned out to be a corrupt police officer.
He went on camera saying an infamous MMA fighter was a cheat who only got by fighting "tomato can fighters" to boost his record. When challenged to an exhibition match, Jack brutally beat the man within the first round, causing him to retire in shame and seek revenge
While taking his son, Nick, to an Asian pop concert, they stumbled upon a plot to kidnap the idol duo. This led Jack to uncover a conspiracy within the idols' agency itself by goading their more obsessive fans to kidnap them.
Jack is well known for a heated rivalry with a certain anchorman on Fox News, beat him in a debate, and then in a boxing match.
One of Jack's most well-known accolades was investigate conspiracy theorists, only to uncover and thwart an attempt to blow up NASA by a group calling themselves "The Sovereigns". All led by an infamous conspiracy theorist, who is perhaps Jack's mortal nemesis
Finally, some trivia about Jack:
Jack's favorite bands include: Suicidal Tendencies, Pantera, Down, Tool, Rage Against The Machine, Deftones, Stone Temple Pilots, Nirvana, Fear Factory, and Scorched-Earth Policy
Nick, Jack's son, actually got him into anime. His favorites include Hokuto No Ken (Fist Of The North Star), Dragonball, and Gunsmith Cats. (Section is WIP)
Jack is a lifelong martial artist. His father had him take up boxing, and he picked up various techniques during his days as a street fighter.
He owns an arsenal of guns with varying degrees of legality.
Jack is investigating a grand conspiracy about Arlen. Maybe about old Arlen history or about Strickland propane or about some big government cover up of something or other. Maybe he came across Dale Gribble on some deep web site and is convinced Dale "knows too much" and is actually a fed trying to do something insidious. He could be spying around town trying to gather information but drawing too much attention to himself due to him being impulsive, fighty, and Arlen being a fairly small town.
Okay, I didn't mean for Jack to be a conspiracy theorist. But, rather someone who actually understands how things work, and why many things are the way they are. In fact, he'd be the kind of guy who actually goes out of his way to debunk conspiracy theories. The problem is, because most people aren't as well informed on various matters as Jack is; he'd come across as your typical conspiracy nut.
I'd imagine, he gets plenty of hatemail from actual conspiracy theorists calling him either a government shill, or a traitor... And hatemail from people calling him a conspiracy nut, for pointing out actual shady government practices that boil down to mundane stuff like cronyism, corruption, etc.
TL;DR He'd be the Jon Stewart to Dale's Alex Jones.
As to your other ideas;
Maybe a drinking problem. Maybe a DUI. Maybe he gets into a big dustup and ends up in the Arlen County Jail. Maybe he starts a Fight Club. Maybe he goes to music shows and sees John Redcorn's Band or Bobby's Band or Connie's Band or Joseph's Band. Redcorn had similar musical tastes, I could see him or his son being into the same stuff as Jack. Maybe he runs in to some of the cast at a gun range. I could see Dale or Redcorn at a gun range. Joseph too. Hell all three together.
Okay, I do want to believe Jack is more disciplined with his drinking than to get himself into trouble while drunk. He's plenty capable of that while sober, thank you.
Starting a fight club would be too much hassle for him, but participating in one is more his speed. Perhaps he's tailing someone who goes to one?
The music scene also sounds like his speed. That and the gun range idea. If there's anything Jack can bond with Dale over; it's guns.
@BangoSkank Dales wife actually stopped being unfaithful to him and Redcorn became Bros with Dale. fyi
Wasn't there an episode where the truth is revealed, and Dale made up this crazy conspiracy suggesting aliens impregnated Nancy with John's "DNA" to conceive Joseph?
BrokenPromise
Landaus Five-One
