Shining Lotus Sage
Avatar of Vanity
"You are familiar, no doubt, with the spate of police- and special agent-centric action movies that emerged in the late nineties and gained popularity after the Afghan–American Incident, early aughts. Most of them are entirely fictional.
They don't go far enough."
Rasheed Alwar was born in 1935, back when Thoth decided that the British Empire was never going to return the engravings they had looted from His worshipers, after all, and set about producing a few Scions to adjust the national temperament. How did he miss the Aesir's growing militancy, and the obvious threat that the Ultimate Reich was shaping up to be? Ask Bastet. She does the prophecy. He just wanted his damned tablets back, okay?
World War II reshaped everything.
Rasheed never became the studious historian his father had been hoping for when he seduced a bright-eyed immigrant girl with new hope of being allowed to study. The price of war was paid by many in blood, but by all in dreams. Rasheed's were swept up in the emotion of the day, and reforged into something far more hands-on.
The atrocity that was Nazi Germany could not have happened, he concluded in his teens, without extensive propaganda. Here, his father's gift for words blossomed into a natural faculty with using them to change hearts and minds. Naturally, he went straight to Uni for an advanced degree in the rapidly-growing field of psychology. Just as naturally, he enlisted SIS the day after his dissertation was accepted, to put his knowledge to work ensuring that no new Hitler could ever emerge again. Inevitably, he was unimpressed with the social and political changes that occurred in his homeland during the Cold War.
By the time he retired, a young-faced old man quite tired of spy games and "acceptable levels of civil compromise", SIS was officially called MI6. Thoth, for his part, was not pleased to lose a well-positioned child who showed great potential for growth in his chosen field. Rasheed's response amounted to an eloquently phrased obscene gesture, and several Birthrights were promptly reclaimed.
Since then, Dr. Alwar's private hypnotherapy practice had really taken off. Best of all, it required nothing more than his mortal competence. The first few years were really touch-and-go, especially with the occasional mummy attack, or the traces of Polonium in his tea. But within a decade, even the Titanspawn eventually forgot about him. Things were nice. Almost human.
Then London exploded.
MI5 called the next day, said it was terrorists. They said his skills were needed to extract information, so they wouldn't have to resort to torture. They said the kingdom needed him. He said he was outside Thames House and could they please let him in; the security guard was proving unusually resistant to his (admittedly rusty) techniques.
Since then, the eldritch horrors spilling out of the bricks and stones (bricks and stones) of the London Bridge crater have persuaded Dr. Alwar that retirement was a mistake. There is, ultimately, no escape from his fate as a child of heaven. Plus the Aesir are behind yet another war on British soil, and their opposition turns out to include at least one otherworldly beauty who appreciates his ability to plumb the depths of the unconscious, not just the way he uses language to do it.
Dr. Alwar has not been "poached" by Tlalzoltéotl, or even formally adopted. Even spurned, Thoth would never allow that much loss of face. But he sees the merit in her idiom. And she finds his spy background appealing. And sometimes he sacrifices people to her whose dark secrets were a threat to national security. And she has replaced many of his confiscated Birthrights with more "suitable" ones. But adoption? That would make him *her* problem. The Sin-eater is happy to offer absolution, but neither she nor Alwar wants the relationship to progress beyond double-agency.
(When something atypical is explained, the mechanically relevant trait is in italics.)
Calling: Psycholinguistics Savant
Nature: Cynic
Pantheon: None, really, but né Pesedjet
Patron: Tlazoltéotl né Thoth
Virtues:
Duty (3) instead of Piety, because the old ways caused all the problems that must now be fixed by coordinated action.
Order (1), because that action is law.
Vengeance (4) instead of Harmony, because the universe is a messy place, requiring messy means to restore a lost balance.
Conviction (2), because that means messy hands.
Attributes: STR 2, DEX 3(1), STA 2(1), CHA 3, MAN 4(2), APP 2(2), PER 4, INT 4(2), WIT 3(1)
Abilities:
Academics 3
Animal Ken 2
Art (Poetry) 2
Awareness 3
Brawl 1
Command 2
Empathy 5
Fortitude 1
Integrity 3
Investigation 1
Marksmanship 2
Medicine 1
Occult 2
Politics 3
Presence 4
Birthrights:
Relic 2: The Worries Stone. A "worry-stone" is a roundish, square-ish piece of rock with a thumb-sized indentation on one side. It's a distraction. You rub it when you're nervous, and it helps you focus. This one, made from fossilized monkey dung, lets Rasheed focus his custom-tooled mind clearly enough to make sense of the tumultuous and self-defeating patterns of human behavior, as well as the complex emergent behavior of the natural world. It grants access to (the presence of mind needed to use) the Chaos and Judgment domains. (2 domains)
Relic 3: Eye in the Dark. Dr. Alwar's ironwood walking-stick is far more often carried than used for its intended purpose, but it just makes him look so dignified. The polished obsidian orb at the top is eye-catching, and seems almost infinitely deep, an effect that tends to quiet the conscious mind of those who look at it. Accordingly, the Serpent's Gaze knack may be used by directing the target's gaze to the orb just as easily as by sustaining eye contact. This frees the wielder to concentrate on other problems without multiple-action penalty so long as the victim can see the orb. As a bespoke gift from Tlazoltéotl, it also shares her association with the hidden things in the earth. When the golden cap on the other end is struck hard against the ground, the owner can discern far more from the resulting vibrations than should be possible. This is identical to the 2-dot Earth boon Echo Sounding. (One 1-dot power, one 2-dot power)
Boons:
Chaos:
Eye of the Storm
Justice:
Judgment
Magic:
(lost to renunciation)
Knacks:
Epic Dexterity:
Trick Shooter
Epic Stamina:
Eternal Youth, locked somewhere near the intersection of Hale, Spry, and Distinguished. Old like the wise should be, but not short of vigor.
Epic Manipulation:
Overt Order
Instant Hypnosis
God's Honest
Epic Appearance [Refined, handsome, preternaturally virile]:
Serpent's Gaze
Perfect Actor
Epic Intelligence:
Fast Learner
Language Mastery
Epic Wits:
Social Chameleon
Legend: 3 (8/9)
Willpower: 7/7
Join Battle: 6 (1)
Combat:
-some standard-issue sidearm or another, stats as Beretta: Acc 6(1), Dmg +3L, Range 20, Clip 15, Spd 4, Piercing
Soak: 3B/2L/1A (include any armor and its rating)
Health: -0/-0/-0/-1/-1/-3/Incap
DDV: 4 PDV: 3 unarmed
Movement: Walk 4, Dash 11 (multiply Dash by 6 for full round dashing), Vertical Jump #, Horizontal Jump #
They don't go far enough."
Rasheed Alwar was born in 1935, back when Thoth decided that the British Empire was never going to return the engravings they had looted from His worshipers, after all, and set about producing a few Scions to adjust the national temperament. How did he miss the Aesir's growing militancy, and the obvious threat that the Ultimate Reich was shaping up to be? Ask Bastet. She does the prophecy. He just wanted his damned tablets back, okay?
World War II reshaped everything.
Rasheed never became the studious historian his father had been hoping for when he seduced a bright-eyed immigrant girl with new hope of being allowed to study. The price of war was paid by many in blood, but by all in dreams. Rasheed's were swept up in the emotion of the day, and reforged into something far more hands-on.
The atrocity that was Nazi Germany could not have happened, he concluded in his teens, without extensive propaganda. Here, his father's gift for words blossomed into a natural faculty with using them to change hearts and minds. Naturally, he went straight to Uni for an advanced degree in the rapidly-growing field of psychology. Just as naturally, he enlisted SIS the day after his dissertation was accepted, to put his knowledge to work ensuring that no new Hitler could ever emerge again. Inevitably, he was unimpressed with the social and political changes that occurred in his homeland during the Cold War.
By the time he retired, a young-faced old man quite tired of spy games and "acceptable levels of civil compromise", SIS was officially called MI6. Thoth, for his part, was not pleased to lose a well-positioned child who showed great potential for growth in his chosen field. Rasheed's response amounted to an eloquently phrased obscene gesture, and several Birthrights were promptly reclaimed.
Since then, Dr. Alwar's private hypnotherapy practice had really taken off. Best of all, it required nothing more than his mortal competence. The first few years were really touch-and-go, especially with the occasional mummy attack, or the traces of Polonium in his tea. But within a decade, even the Titanspawn eventually forgot about him. Things were nice. Almost human.
Then London exploded.
MI5 called the next day, said it was terrorists. They said his skills were needed to extract information, so they wouldn't have to resort to torture. They said the kingdom needed him. He said he was outside Thames House and could they please let him in; the security guard was proving unusually resistant to his (admittedly rusty) techniques.
Since then, the eldritch horrors spilling out of the bricks and stones (bricks and stones) of the London Bridge crater have persuaded Dr. Alwar that retirement was a mistake. There is, ultimately, no escape from his fate as a child of heaven. Plus the Aesir are behind yet another war on British soil, and their opposition turns out to include at least one otherworldly beauty who appreciates his ability to plumb the depths of the unconscious, not just the way he uses language to do it.
Dr. Alwar has not been "poached" by Tlalzoltéotl, or even formally adopted. Even spurned, Thoth would never allow that much loss of face. But he sees the merit in her idiom. And she finds his spy background appealing. And sometimes he sacrifices people to her whose dark secrets were a threat to national security. And she has replaced many of his confiscated Birthrights with more "suitable" ones. But adoption? That would make him *her* problem. The Sin-eater is happy to offer absolution, but neither she nor Alwar wants the relationship to progress beyond double-agency.
(When something atypical is explained, the mechanically relevant trait is in italics.)
Calling: Psycholinguistics Savant
Nature: Cynic
Pantheon: None, really, but né Pesedjet
Patron: Tlazoltéotl né Thoth
Virtues:
Duty (3) instead of Piety, because the old ways caused all the problems that must now be fixed by coordinated action.
Order (1), because that action is law.
Vengeance (4) instead of Harmony, because the universe is a messy place, requiring messy means to restore a lost balance.
Conviction (2), because that means messy hands.
Attributes: STR 2, DEX 3(1), STA 2(1), CHA 3, MAN 4(2), APP 2(2), PER 4, INT 4(2), WIT 3(1)
Abilities:
Academics 3
Animal Ken 2
Art (Poetry) 2
Awareness 3
Brawl 1
Command 2
Empathy 5
Fortitude 1
Integrity 3
Investigation 1
Marksmanship 2
Medicine 1
Occult 2
Politics 3
Presence 4
Birthrights:
Relic 2: The Worries Stone. A "worry-stone" is a roundish, square-ish piece of rock with a thumb-sized indentation on one side. It's a distraction. You rub it when you're nervous, and it helps you focus. This one, made from fossilized monkey dung, lets Rasheed focus his custom-tooled mind clearly enough to make sense of the tumultuous and self-defeating patterns of human behavior, as well as the complex emergent behavior of the natural world. It grants access to (the presence of mind needed to use) the Chaos and Judgment domains. (2 domains)
Relic 3: Eye in the Dark. Dr. Alwar's ironwood walking-stick is far more often carried than used for its intended purpose, but it just makes him look so dignified. The polished obsidian orb at the top is eye-catching, and seems almost infinitely deep, an effect that tends to quiet the conscious mind of those who look at it. Accordingly, the Serpent's Gaze knack may be used by directing the target's gaze to the orb just as easily as by sustaining eye contact. This frees the wielder to concentrate on other problems without multiple-action penalty so long as the victim can see the orb. As a bespoke gift from Tlazoltéotl, it also shares her association with the hidden things in the earth. When the golden cap on the other end is struck hard against the ground, the owner can discern far more from the resulting vibrations than should be possible. This is identical to the 2-dot Earth boon Echo Sounding. (One 1-dot power, one 2-dot power)
Boons:
Chaos:
Eye of the Storm
Justice:
Judgment
Magic:
(lost to renunciation)
Knacks:
Epic Dexterity:
Trick Shooter
Epic Stamina:
Eternal Youth, locked somewhere near the intersection of Hale, Spry, and Distinguished. Old like the wise should be, but not short of vigor.
Epic Manipulation:
Overt Order
Instant Hypnosis
God's Honest
Epic Appearance [Refined, handsome, preternaturally virile]:
Serpent's Gaze
Perfect Actor
Epic Intelligence:
Fast Learner
Language Mastery
Epic Wits:
Social Chameleon
Legend: 3 (8/9)
Willpower: 7/7
Join Battle: 6 (1)
Combat:
-some standard-issue sidearm or another, stats as Beretta: Acc 6(1), Dmg +3L, Range 20, Clip 15, Spd 4, Piercing
Soak: 3B/2L/1A (include any armor and its rating)
Health: -0/-0/-0/-1/-1/-3/Incap
DDV: 4 PDV: 3 unarmed
Movement: Walk 4, Dash 11 (multiply Dash by 6 for full round dashing), Vertical Jump #, Horizontal Jump #
2
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