Vahn
Jul 24, 2011 8:32:13 GMT -6
Post by Vahn on Jul 24, 2011 8:32:13 GMT -6
(Gaspard Ulliel)
NAME: Vahn (formerly Vahn von Radolfzell)
TITLE: N/A
AFFILIATION: N/A
AGE: 27
OCCUPATION: Scholar, occultist
LIKES: Books, traveling, language, history, philosophy, theology, rain, thunderstorms, cold weather, puzzles, riddles
DISLIKES: Cruelty, arrogance, narrow-mindedness, unnecessary violence, hot weather, eggs
QUIRKS/HABITS: Unless it's necessary for the sake of clarity, he rarely uses personal names in speech or writing; He has a terrible sense of direction, and gets lost very easily; Has frequent nightmares about the night he lost his mother; He's left-handed (okay, that's not really a quirk, but I didn't know where else to put it)
FEARS: Never seeing his siblings again, humanity's capacity for self-destruction, spiders
TOXIC SECRET: Branded a heretic, he has been exiled from his homeland.
FATHER: Maximilian von Radolfzell
MOTHER: Klara von Radolfzell (deceased)
OTHERS: Matthäus von Radolfzell (younger brother); Adelaide (younger sister); Gerald von Radolfzell (grandfather, deceased)
HISTORY:
Vahn is the eldest son of Maximilian, 2rd Knight of Radolfzell and the grandson of Gerald the Spear, 1st Knight of Radolfzell.
Originally a man of gentle birth, but lacking any real titles, Gerald chose the life of a soldier. He served valiantly in the siege of Weibertreu castle and the Crusades, under his lord, Herman III, Markgraf of Baden. For his services, Gerald was granted the title of Ritter and a small fief with it: the town of Radolfzell and its surrounding area.
Like his father before him, Maximilian also became a knight. Vahn's mother, Klara, was the daughter of another knightly family. She was a beautiful and kind woman, but alas she was taken from this world before her time.
When Vahn was six, there began a series of "bloodless murders" in Radolfzell. Several people went missing, and some of them were later found dead and drained of blood. Eventually the murders were traced to a recently deceased man who had risen as a vampire.
Klara was among the first victims. It happened one summer night, while Vahn and his siblings were catching fireflies with their mother. The monster struck from the shadows, taking hold of Klara and snatching her away before their bodyguard could even react. Her body was among those never recovered.
Maximilian and Gerald, leading a band of townsfolk, managed to track down and slay the monster. The creature did not go down without a fight, and several men were injured, including Gerald. Though it pained him, Maximilian had the men put to death, including his own father, for fear of the vampire's curse spreading. Once this foul deed was done, Maximilian banned all talk of what had transpired. In time, he would grow fearful of the occult, leading several witch-hunts in the following the years.
These events would have a great impact on Vahn in the years to come. Some viewed Maximilian as a heroic and pious man, including his liege lord, Herman IV, who increased the land holdings of the Radolfzell family. Vahn, on the other hand, came to view his father a zealot and a murderer. He had seen the monster that took his mother. It was nothing like the people his father put to death. They were just normal people. In time, Vahn would make it his mission in life to learn about the creatures that stalked the night. He desired to use such knowledge to help people, and track down the true monsters, not incite panic or put innocents to death, like his father.
At the age of seven, Vahn was sent to live at Hohenbaden Castle, the residence of his father's liege lord, where he would serve as a page. It was the first step on the road to knighthood, but it was a road Vahn had no desire to take.
He was a precocious child, possessing a strong desire for knowledge from a young age. He spent much of his free time reading whatever he could get his hands on. What caught his interest the most was books on occult lore, which he took pains to hide from his elders. He was caught once, however, at the the age of twelve, and received a harsh beating for his interest in such "unholy" topics.
In time it was clear that he showed more potential as a scholar than as a knight, much to the disappointment of Maximilian. At the age of fourteen he finished his time as a page and, after much debate with his father, Vahn was allowed to study.
While Matthäus would go on to become a squire, Vahn was sent to the monastic school at Göttweig Abbey, a major center of learning, located near the town of Krems. For the next several years he lived an ascetic life style, studying alongside novice monks and other young scholars. First he studied the three subjects comprising the trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. This was in preparation for the quadrivium, which comprised of arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy/astrology (there was no real distinction between the two in the Middle Ages). Yet, for the serious scholar, these were preparatory for the higher faculties. At the age of twenty Vahn took up the study of theology and philosophy.
These were not the only things he studied at the abbey, however. His fascination with the occult had not dwindled, and throughout much of his time at the abbey he conducted his own personal studies in secret. Ultimately he was found out and rumors began to spread around the abbey that Vahn was practicing witchcraft. Fearing that he would be arrested, or worse, he chose to flee Göttweig Abbey.
He returned home in disgrace. Maximilian's fear of the occult had grown to outright paranoia by this time. Already viewing Vahn as a failure for not walking the path of a knight, he would of had his own son put to death as a sorcerer and heretic, if not for the intercession of his siblings who pleaded on his behalf. Instead, Vahn was disinherited and exiled from the lands of his father and liege lord. He was twenty-one at the time.
Cast out of his home, Vahn fell into depression, wandering aimlessly for a time. However, he would eventually come to see these unfortunate turn of events as an opportunity. Although it was not an easy life, and he dearly missed his siblings, he was free. The world seemed so much larger than before, and there was still so much yet to learn and do, and so he sought to study under the master called "life".
In the following years, he has traveled, seeking out the supernatural and the occult, but exposing hoaxes more often than not. Most recently, he has heard rumors of the kingdom of Solraya, and of the beast that plagues it...
RP SAMPLE:
(This is with a different character. I hope that's okay.)
Silence pervaded the air around the old cathedral, only broken by the shrill calls of a group of scrawny ravens perched on its spires. It was hard to believe it was located near the center of Junk Town. Though blocked from view by the plate, the sun had just recently set.
A figure in a tattered black trench coat passed through the graveyard, a pensive look in his dark red eyes as he viewed the crumbling tombstones. Often he would wonder about the people buried here, who they were, what they did, and what kind of people they were.
In any case, he continued on to the large wooden doors of the cathedral. They creaked and groaned with age as he opened them, entered, then closed them. It was dark inside, the building had been without electricity for some years now.
Knowing the layout of the cathedral by heart, Claude moved past the lines of broken pews that laid before a once grand alter. He entered one of the backrooms, where he light a candle. The dim light revealed the room to be bare, except for a threadbare bedroll on the ground where he slept and a pile of torn books, most of which were contraband. On the floor, in a dark corner, sat a standard-issue Public Security Force handgun and a small box of ammo. Both were covered in dust, not having been touched in sometime.
He removed the trench coat and let it drop to the floor. Unrolling his bedroll and sitting down, Claude set the candle next to him and picked up a book and beginning to read. Over the next few hours, he continued to read, the candle a mere stub now.
