Aethelstan
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| ...not as tough as he looks? | |
| Aethelstan | |
| Player: @Aeslehc | |
| Origin: | Natural |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Brute |
| Threat Level: | ' |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Drogo Woden |
| Known Aliases: | Stone, Aethelstan |
| Species: | Vampire, Malkavian |
| Age: | 202, appears late 40's, early 50s. |
| Height: | Close to 7 feet |
| Weight: | 287 lbs. |
| Eye Color: | Blue-Gray |
| Hair Color: | Brownish gray |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Danish |
| Occupation: | Enforcer, mercenary |
| Place of Birth: | Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Base of Operations: | Rogue Isles |
| Marital Status: | Widower |
| Known Relatives: | ' |
| Known Powers | |
| ' | |
| Known Abilities | |
| ' | |
| Equipment | |
| Large stone hammer, strapped across his back except when not in hostile territory. An antique silver locket on a leather strand around his neck. | |
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Contents |
Life and Death
The Early-to-Mid 1800s.
Drogo Woden was born in Copenhagen two years before the "Gunboat War" between Denmark-Norway and the British Navy in the time of the Napoleonic Wars. He was raised in a very cramped, impoverished household by his mother and father and somewhat aloof maternal uncle. His parents were prolific, producing fifteen children once all was said and done. Only two of them were male- the oldest child, Garrick...and Drogo, who was born right in the middle of the brood. His two youngest sisters died of starvation before he turned ten, the second-to-oldest child commited suicide on the day of his 15th birthday. His mother soon followed by killing herself as well only six days later. The very next year, his twin sister Annis vanished in the night completely. While he was able to bear the losses of his other sisters and his mother in good grace, the loss of his twin sent him down into the spirals of a deep depression for nearly five years. During that time, Drogo left home with his brother, Garrick to "seek their fortune". In all reality, the two had become bandits and highwaymen. Their crimes ranged in severity and cruelty. Garrick was the plotter and the brains of the operation, Drogo was the swift and violent attacker. He had no precision with a knife and terrible aim for a gun, so he generally employed his brute muscle, as an idle threat was not a part of their schemes. Part of their plan was to always attack in rocky areas. Very few travelers expect a large boulder to suddenly crush their horse's skull out of nowhere.
This lasted for quite awhile, he and his brother slowly amassing a horde of stolen goods and money. Drogo was twenty-six by the time he decided that he should stop his life as a criminal. He came to that decision during an attack on a stagecoach. He had killed the horses and the driver. A man and young, veiled woman that was more than likely his wife had been riding inside. The man had run off while Drogo was distracted, only to be chased down by Garrick, knife in hand. Drogo, however, "occupied" himself with the veiled woman. She took the treatment silently, as if quite used to it by that point. The only word she spoke was uttered an instant before he snapped her neck. A one-word mutter of realization. "...Drogo...." When he pulled away the veil, he found that the girl bore a horrifying resemblance to his missing twin. She had apparently been taken in the middle of the night and sold to this man as a child bride. In horror, Drogo ran and never spoke to, nor saw his brother Garrick again.
Drogo left on a ship for a short trip across the North Sea to Norway. He lived out the rest of his days in a small town on the very edge of the country. Rationalization for what he had done took the edge off the pain and, slowly, he came to accept and even appreciate the act. She hadn't protested, after all. And he had put her out of what he was sure was misery with the man she had been forced to marry. There was no longer any guilt.
Drogo married a girl from the town when he was in his mid-thirties, who birthed two children by the time he was fourty-one. Their life was simple; it was happy. It lasted for about fourteen years, altogether.
During a visit to the local pub, Drogo found himself watching a shadowy wisp of a figure sitting in the corner. A veiled woman. The memory of his sister came back to him and, though he knew it couldn't be her, he approached the girl in the corner, who pulled back the veil and gave a wicked, sharp-toothed smile. Despite himself, he didn't run. He sat beside the girl who looked like an ivory image of his dead sister and didn't move until he, himself, had seen Death and been viciously torn away again.
The Mid-to-Late 1800s and the 20th Century
He came to find out that the girl he had raped and assumed to have killed was his twin sister, Annis. She had been sold to her husband at sixteen and lived in service to him in his household for three years before he had revealed his true nature and turned her into a vampire like himself. During the attack on their stagecoach, Garrick had chased him down while Drogo was with her. Garrick, though his life was spared, now spent his time wallowing in his own feces as a gibbering madman in the dark corner of an institution. Drogo had been allowed to leave untouched at her request. She had only come to find him once her husband had been killed. Mysteriously, one might add. It seemed he vanished into nothing about the same time Annis received an unusual boost in her power. Funny thing, that.
Drogo stayed with his sister, learning from her, protecting her, until she had decided that it was time for her to move further West. That was the night he woke up to an empty haven, nothing but a note reading simply "goodbye" and a chainless locket to remember her by.
He made due without her, eventually making his way West himself several decades later, ending up in Mexico of all places. He didn't stay there for very long, as the way things were run reminded him too much of his brother, if his brother had been dipped in taquilla. After three years of that, he ended up in the Rogue Isles.
As a Person...
Appearance
Drogo is a very large, imposing figure. His entire upper body is covered in various tattoos, mostly strange, random symbols of his own devising. His right eye is missing. There's a mumbled rumor, though from where it stems, nobody seems to know, that he clawed his own eye out with a sharpened stick after believing he had violated and killed his own twin. Drogo is also covered in various other scars, most quite obviously self-inflicted. Mingling with the tattoos on his arms, there is a perculiar design that was created in his teens with a dagger. He has large, calloused hands, also riddled with various scars.
Personality
80% of the time, Drogo seems like a relatively good natured and likeable man, if a bit ill-mannered from time to time. He has a level head and an easy grin and a lazy posture. Despite his appearance, he doesn't tend to act very threatening, even going so far as to attempt to mediate between opposing parties on occasion.
There is, however, the other 20% of the time, usually coming after he has fed....
Strengths and Abilities
Natural Strengths and Abilities, both extraordinary and mundane
Physically, Drogo is extremely strong, fast, and resilient. It isn't a particularly inhuman strength, but that which comes from being a very large man who spent most of his life doing physical labor. Given the clan he was Embraced into, being a vampire hasn't particularly granted him any more physical strength than he previously posessed. It has, however, made him able to push himself much, much farther than he ever could now that he has no fear of death from certain injuries. He can take a punch, a stab, a gunshot wound or three without so much as a flinch. Depending on the night and his mood, he might even like it.
His aim isn't very precise, but with the way he fights, it doesn't need to be. It's hard to miss a target when you're weilding a giant stone hammer.
Despite his appearance and his problems, Drogo is actually very charming. What he lacks in appearance, he makes up for vastly in charisma. Of course, his appearance also has its own appeal in a rugged old man sort of way. At any rate, his charisma enables him to talk his way into and out of very near anything. In a way, his silver tongue can be considered almost manipulative, but he doesn't normally use it to get his own way on a regular basis in those regards, as manipulation isn't particularly part of who he is.
Drogo is, surprisingly to some, very intelligent. He isn't a genius by far, but he knows a bit more than some and a lot more than a few. He isn't horrible when it comes to Mathematics, speaks English better than 90% of modern day highschool students as well as his native language of Danish, though he hasn't used it in his few decades of living in North America. He knows the Mexican dialect of Spanish well enough to be just short of fluent. History is a strong point, particularly when concerning the Napoleonic Wars. He's quick on the uptake and eerilly observant from time to time.
Powers/Disciplines (You know: the purely IC stuff.)
Auspex: With this ability, Drogo can heighten any one of his five senses to a superhuman level. If he chooses, he can see the auras of those around him, getting hints about their particular natures and attitudes. He can also glean useful information from objects by sensing an imprint left upon them by someone who held them previously.
Dominate: He can only use this when he can lock eyes with an intended target. If he speaks in a language the individual can understand and doesn't attempt to force them to be self-destructive or to defy their own nature (such as getting someone with a phobia of heights to jump off a roof), Drogo can issue simple, one word commands (i.e. leave, sit, hide) and generally be obeyed, provided he's not trying to Dominate a more powerful vampire or someone with mental protection. He can also use this power to rewrite a subject's memory.
Obfuscate: Consider this invisibility and the ability to disguise himself. Though he generally prefers to be upfront, particularly when being confrontational. With this ability, he can disappear right from in front of somebody if he needs to, hiding in plain sight. In general, as long as he doesn't attract attention, he can remain hidden.
Weaknesses
Drogo is very strong, very resiliant physically. His mind, however, is quite a different thing. Drogo suffers from various derangements, all seeming to tie in with feeding. He will attempt to go for nights without feeding, the belief in him that when he takes the blood of a human, he also takes a part of their soul. The deviant in him enjoys this little "knowledge" and it is often pressing him to kill his victims, to take every part of their essence (in reality, it is the fact that he starves himself before feeding that causes this). At the end of a meal, whether he's killed anybody or not, he suffers from a horrible depression. The symptoms of his depression range from simply not leaving his haven for a night, sitting in the dark and retracing the scars in his arms with a knife to a sudden and vicious moodswing towards extreme anger. In these cases, he has been known to attack even close friends. He is almost always able to calm this behavior, however, either within hours or a matter of nights with the same rationalization. "It feels good. They must like it. They wanted it. I just had to force them so they wouldn't feel bad about it and each of us has come away with something in the end."
Associates, Friends
- Paola Flusso: He met Paola as a young girl of about six when he was travelling Westward, going through Italy. She was on the verge of being the victim of a werewolf attack and, compelled by something he still cannot explain, he attacked the creature and put his hammer through its skull. Coming to the Isles and finding the little Italian girl once more has come as quite a surprise to him.
