Dusky
Succubus
[*]
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Cord Heilig || Unterland || Homelander || Academic || Death Count: 0
When the curse hit, it certainly did a number on his steam pump business, but nobody seemed too concerned with the economy by that point. Cord abandoned his stations that had been flooded and overcome without sending word or help to his employees there, assuming them long gone. Then he consolidated still further; only those shops in the safest areas of the realm remain open. With his production stunted but his operating costs far lower, he spent some time overseeing his teams and installing defensive measures, then returned his attention to what was truly important: research.
His business was a well-oiled machine and Cord thus spent his free time as an academic with broad interests ranging from engineering to biology (or, as he called it in polite company, "medicine"). He was among the first to recognize the occult in the strange happenings, the improbable disrepair of equipment he had personally ensured to be top quality. This kicked off a new flurry of occult research that dropped his reputation at the college he affiliated with considerably at first but shot it to new heights in the aftermath of the curse's abrupt destruction of the nation.
He was willing, then, to do things other scientists balked at, so he pioneered the biological examination of the risen dead in Unterland. Fascinating, really, the internal workings or lack thereof of a Deadman autopsied while still living (or carrying out his approximation thereof). Fascinating, the Deadwoman's reactions to injury, the healing time. He tried, once, to hook her up to some machinery, to see if he couldn't harness whatever it is that broke such a cardinal law of science and reanimated the dead. An energy strong enough to overcome the body's reliance on a heartbeat could replace steam several times over.
Unfortunately, steam was all he knew, and her blood, while surprisingly just as effective as water, did not seem to imbue machines with any additional properties. It was a dead end.
In fairness, this was largely as he had hypothesized.
With her blood spent, she died again. He was sure to dispose of her in one of the motes surrounding his academy before she could rereanimate. He wouldn't risk her coming back changed.
The unpredictably evolving reanimation these walking corpses underwent fascinated and enticed Cord, who was sure that this was an unrefined process of transcending the limitations of humanity. Surely after sufficient study he could use his knowledge of engineering and medicine to manipulate this phenomenon, to eradicate death and evolve his species.
He was never the most mentally sound of scientists, but the curse didn't help matters. With the sea creeping ever closer, angry and howling in the night - or was that the strange beasts outside the walls, too fearsome to subdue and dissect? - there was an ever-nagging whisper on the air, lodging itself firmly in his ear. The Deep called to him.
But he refused to let it take the land and tear down innovation, and he was willing to fight fire with fire - or water with water, as it were. So when he recently found the Black Mark while bathing - no doubt acquired on account of his frequent studies of the Marked - he did not despair. The self does not make an ideal subject of experimentation, so he would of course seek to remove the Mark, but in the meantime he would also continue his research on the properties of the Mark, the state of the undead, and how he could use either or both to his advantage.
Meta
Objectives:
[*]Cancel or reduce negative side-effects of reanimation. (loss of self, being a literal corpse, instability, etc)
[*]Remove his own Mark. (Having already eliminated conventional methods i.e. cutting the skin off.)
[*]And, as an afterthought, protect his business interests.
(Disclaimer: I fully expect that many of these will be behind plot walls and am okay with that. Wouldn't be any fun if it was easy for him.)
Motives:
[*]Personal freedom.
Hangups/Problems:
Cord is somewhat effeminate, with a body that is neither muscular nor scrawny, but rather lithe and slender. His face is of a haughty caste, handsome in a very classical way, but almost always softened by a small smile. On the nape of his neck there is a dark, inky black mark, shaped almost like a wave. The skin there is of a strange texture, like the roasted seaweed they eat on the shores of Unterland.
He has sandy blonde hair and blue eyes, and he dresses well.
Attributes
Physical
Mental
Social
Strength
1
Intellect
4
Bearing
3
Dexterity
2
Intuition
3
Guile
2
Fitness
2
Willpower
2
Composure
2
Skills
Physical
Mental
Social
Awareness
2
Academics (+)
5
Empathy
Athletics
Artisan
Leadership
3
Defense
Craft
3
Persuasion
Melee
Medicine
4
Perform
2
Stealth
Occultism (+)
4
Taming
2
Sailing
Navigation
Subterfuge
Thievery
Investigation (+)
4
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Cord Heilig || Unterland || Homelander || Academic || Death Count: 0
When the curse hit, it certainly did a number on his steam pump business, but nobody seemed too concerned with the economy by that point. Cord abandoned his stations that had been flooded and overcome without sending word or help to his employees there, assuming them long gone. Then he consolidated still further; only those shops in the safest areas of the realm remain open. With his production stunted but his operating costs far lower, he spent some time overseeing his teams and installing defensive measures, then returned his attention to what was truly important: research.
His business was a well-oiled machine and Cord thus spent his free time as an academic with broad interests ranging from engineering to biology (or, as he called it in polite company, "medicine"). He was among the first to recognize the occult in the strange happenings, the improbable disrepair of equipment he had personally ensured to be top quality. This kicked off a new flurry of occult research that dropped his reputation at the college he affiliated with considerably at first but shot it to new heights in the aftermath of the curse's abrupt destruction of the nation.
He was willing, then, to do things other scientists balked at, so he pioneered the biological examination of the risen dead in Unterland. Fascinating, really, the internal workings or lack thereof of a Deadman autopsied while still living (or carrying out his approximation thereof). Fascinating, the Deadwoman's reactions to injury, the healing time. He tried, once, to hook her up to some machinery, to see if he couldn't harness whatever it is that broke such a cardinal law of science and reanimated the dead. An energy strong enough to overcome the body's reliance on a heartbeat could replace steam several times over.
Unfortunately, steam was all he knew, and her blood, while surprisingly just as effective as water, did not seem to imbue machines with any additional properties. It was a dead end.
In fairness, this was largely as he had hypothesized.
With her blood spent, she died again. He was sure to dispose of her in one of the motes surrounding his academy before she could rereanimate. He wouldn't risk her coming back changed.
The unpredictably evolving reanimation these walking corpses underwent fascinated and enticed Cord, who was sure that this was an unrefined process of transcending the limitations of humanity. Surely after sufficient study he could use his knowledge of engineering and medicine to manipulate this phenomenon, to eradicate death and evolve his species.
He was never the most mentally sound of scientists, but the curse didn't help matters. With the sea creeping ever closer, angry and howling in the night - or was that the strange beasts outside the walls, too fearsome to subdue and dissect? - there was an ever-nagging whisper on the air, lodging itself firmly in his ear. The Deep called to him.
But he refused to let it take the land and tear down innovation, and he was willing to fight fire with fire - or water with water, as it were. So when he recently found the Black Mark while bathing - no doubt acquired on account of his frequent studies of the Marked - he did not despair. The self does not make an ideal subject of experimentation, so he would of course seek to remove the Mark, but in the meantime he would also continue his research on the properties of the Mark, the state of the undead, and how he could use either or both to his advantage.
Meta
Objectives:
Identify what exactly animates Deadmen.
Replicate the inability to stay dead.
- Harness the energy animating Deadmen as a new source of power.
[*]Cancel or reduce negative side-effects of reanimation. (loss of self, being a literal corpse, instability, etc)
Observe the interaction of known preservative methods with function as a Deadman.
- Identify link between body deterioration and mental deterioration.
[*]Remove his own Mark. (Having already eliminated conventional methods i.e. cutting the skin off.)
Examine the composition of the Mark.
- Make contact if he hears of someone who knows more about the Mark.
[*]And, as an afterthought, protect his business interests.
(Disclaimer: I fully expect that many of these will be behind plot walls and am okay with that. Wouldn't be any fun if it was easy for him.)
Motives:
- Hedonism.
Cord needs no other reason than his own fascination to expend energy on a task, and concerns himself with problems of societal advancement only inasmuch as he gets a power trip from changing the world.
- Lust and gluttony are well enough but not his personal vices. Cord masturbates his mind, primarily.
[*]Personal freedom.
Hangups/Problems:
- Views all Deadmen - regardless of how far gone they may or may not be - as subhuman and insentient, thus having some existential issues with his Marking and less-than-ethical research on Deadmen.
Not enough to stop, though.
(This will probably change p. quickly as he interacts with the party.)
- Is as interested in scientific progress as self-preservation, thus warring the two against each other with alarming frequency.
- Maintains an easily upset balance between manipulating and rejecting authority figures/institutions/concepts (i.e. safety inspectors, the academy, morality, the laws of nature).
Cord is somewhat effeminate, with a body that is neither muscular nor scrawny, but rather lithe and slender. His face is of a haughty caste, handsome in a very classical way, but almost always softened by a small smile. On the nape of his neck there is a dark, inky black mark, shaped almost like a wave. The skin there is of a strange texture, like the roasted seaweed they eat on the shores of Unterland.
He has sandy blonde hair and blue eyes, and he dresses well.
Attributes
Physical
Mental
Social
Strength
1
Intellect
4
Bearing
3
Dexterity
2
Intuition
3
Guile
2
Fitness
2
Willpower
2
Composure
2
Skills
Physical
Mental
Social
Awareness
2
Academics (+)
5
Empathy
Athletics
Artisan
Leadership
3
Defense
Craft
3
Persuasion
Melee
Medicine
4
Perform
2
Stealth
Occultism (+)
4
Taming
2
Sailing
Navigation
Subterfuge
Thievery
Investigation (+)
4
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