Victus

[Victus]

Victus I'm on the wrong side of heaven, And the righteous side of hell." Appearance Race: Human Gender: Male Age: 26 Summers Birthday: 26th Day of Winter, 488AV Birthplace: The Tent City, Sunberth Appearance: Victus makes no attempt to soften or conceal what he is: a man forged and molded into a fighter, a brawler and a gladiator for the satisfaction of a ruthless master and the entertainment of a braying crowd. Every inch of his six-and-a-half-feet cries out that this is a man whose life is devoted to combat. His limbs and torso are covered in corded muscle, pitted and gouged with healed scars and, most distinctively, the charcoal-filled notches across his upper chest that proclaim him as property of Tall Johnny. Black eyes regard the world through a permanent scowl, always suspicious and cautious. His hair hangs down the back of his hair in thin, coarse dreadlocks, as much a product of his rarely washing as it is style and braiding. Victus bears many scars of the cage, speaking of both victory and defeat. Most have faded to white lines or indistinct little knobbles of healed flesh, but a few in particular stand out: -a livid red tendril of scar tissue down his back, from his right shoulder halfway down his spine -an ugly, badly-stitched red stab wound on his left bicep -a puckered gash of white and purple across his chest, from his right pectoral diagonally down his torso Character Concept Gladiators are mortals, with all the frailties and foibles that such possess, but Victus seems to many to be any empty shell, devoid of purpose save from within the Cage. Taciturn to the extreme, he speaks little and questions less. His thoughts are his own, but his actions... they speak to a man bent solely towards his service to Tall Johnny. In the cage of Johnny's Casino, the brooding, silent man becomes a veritable firestorm of nigh-joyous violence, worthy of Myri's Children in far off Falyndar. Only in the Cage, hemmed in by wooden stakes and metal bars, does he find a kind of perverse freedom. There he has worth. There he can express what cunning and inspiration his brutish mind possesses. There his life becomes bereft of concerns other than besting his enemy, basking in the crowd's approval and proving, if only for one more day, that he has purpose in the world. What lies beyond the cage fighter and gladiator is unknown to most. Sold to Johnny at a young age, stripped of his past by rod and training, Victus does not look to a past that grows more hazy and irrelevant with each season. The simple shrine he has in his alcove are the only sign of any sentiment he holds outside of bloodlust and endless fighting. The only hope, mayhap, that he stands more than just a killer. Character History The man known as Victus was not born with that name. He has not revealed it to anyone since his bondage to Tall Johnny, and only Johnny knows it. That boy was born a pauper to a family of them in the Tent City, home to the bedraggled dregs of Sunberth. The first years of his life were spent skulking and begging and filching what food and comforts he could, though what coin he scraped together was immediately taken by his parents. His father, in particular, needed ample funding for his gambling... and it was this vice that was to cost him his son. Tall Johnny came to their hovel one day when the boy was not even ten Summers tall. He came with a pair of hulking minders, seeking payment of the debts the father had so recklessly accrued. Words were exchanged and grew heated; then the blades came out, glistening with stark promise as Johnny's smile did. If the debt could not be paid in coin, then he would take it another way. His eyes roved to the clutch of trembling children in one corner, and the man the boy became would remember it took so little time for his father's head to drop... and his hand to point his way. The boy fought. He begged, he cried, he cursed and spat and pounded against the mountain of unrelenting muscle that snatched him from his brother and sister and carried him away. His last sight was of his mother crying and his father's stoic face, asking simply if the debt was paid. Johnny nodded, and it was done. Or it should have been. When they returned to his Casino, Johnny saw promise in the fury that the boy displayed, attempting to escape and best a man thrice his size. The wily entrepreneur always had an eye for potential. Instead of a quick sale on Slaver's Row, he instead decided to make his payment into an investment. The boy grew behind bar and locked door, nurtured anew into a fresh direction. Johnny instilled not only physical training into him. He gave him a chance to feel something he had not on the streets: power. The fierce joy of victory. The cheers and approval from older, harder men when he beat a sparring partner into the ground. The years passed and the boy was judged ready. Tall and rangy, toughened by years under rod and shackle, he was thrown into the Cage to fight as one of Johnny's house gladiators. The investment proved to be wise. From bareknuckle bouts to death matches, the boy he named "Victus" was oft-bloodied, sometimes defeated... but he survived, and he never failed to learn from a loss. Johnny smiled from the gallery as he saw the weakness of the boy he had first taken beaten out of the man that so ruthlessly plied his skills in the cage. Now, in his twenty-sixth Summer, Victus stands only as that: a weapon loyal only to the Cage, and to Johnny. He knows little of the world beyond the Casino, and seeks little enlightenment. For more years than he was free, he has been a slave, and the only freedom he knows is through combat. Language Fluent Language: Common Skills Skill EXP Total Proficiency Unarmed Combat 30SP, +1, +3, +3, +3, +3, +2 45 Competent Weapon: Gladius 15RB, 10SP, +3, +4 32 Competent Observation +3, +3, +3, +3, +4, +5 21 Novice Tactics 10SP, +2, +2, +2, +3 19 Novice Endurance +2, +4, +2, +3, +3, +4 18 Novice Brawling +1, +3 4 Novice Bodybuilding +1 1 Novice Philosophy +1 1 Novice Acrobatics +1 1 Novice Intelligence +1 1 Novice Interrogation +1 1 Novice Lores : Lore of Sunberth Street Layout Lore of Sunberth Culture The Day I was Delivered to Tall Johnny Three Days Spent in The Hole Sharing a Cell with Vicious Rats Rastus: The One who Stole Me Tall Johnny's Ultimatums Disgust and Victory in Killing Walkir My Name is Victus Tarak: The Akalak Unarmed Combat: Blocking With Arms Unarmed Combat: Sacrificing Offense for Defense Unarmed Combat: Blocking With Chins Tall Johnny's Lesson: Stand and Fight Acrobatics: Rolling to Avoid an Attack Hedley: Man Who Marked Me Hatred Makes Good Fuel Chiseling a Man from a Block Fight With What You See, Not Your Heart Tall Johnny is Master, Not Tarak Efrain: A Test Before Cage Efrain: Wounded Pride Efrain: Size Matters Proving One's Fighting Worth I Am Victus, And I Fight Tall Johnny: Man Up or Be Sold Keeping Oneself Busy While Waiting I Hate Waiting In the Cage I'm Free I Fight Better Without a Weapon One Cannot Successfully Wield a Large Ax with One Hand Tall Johnny Approves of Me I Own my Victory Tall Johnny's Warehouse: Temporary Training Arena Training with Imaginary Spars Master's Casino Restorations A Match Against Carsas The High Price of Victory Possessions 1 Set of Clothing -Simple Shirt -Simple Pants -Simple Undergarments -Simple Cloak -Simple Boots 1 Waterskin 1 Backpack which contains: -Comb (Metal) -Brush (Metal) -Soap -Razor -Balanced Rations (1 Week’s Worth) -1 eating knife -Flint & Steel Heirloom: Housing Location: Tall Johnny's Casino and Cage Fights House: A rickety and worm-eaten bed in the corner of the servant's quarters, with a small alcove carved into the wall gods-know-when for his possessions and a crude shrine. Ledger Purchase Cost Total Starting -100gm (Slavery) 0gm Thread List Flashbacks: Time and Task - 14th of Spring, 498AV Teachers - 27th of Spring, 498AV Chipping Away - 50th of Summer, 498AV Stronger - 17th of Fall, 499AV Like Fire - 13th of Spring, 504AV 514: Little Lion Man (Tink) - 25th of Fall Faint, Fleeting, Forever - 34th of Fall One Step Beyond - 62nd of Fall