Fandom The Hunter’s Tavern - Characters [1x1]

[ThePowerCosmic]

Name: Vardi ‘Forge’ Langford
Age: 33
Race: Altered-Human
Physical Description: Vardi's frame is usually obscured by combat armor, a slew of weapons and accessories strapped along his person, and a flowy, dark grey cape that has a patterned, azure silk lining. Underneath all of his accoutrements is an athletic build at 6'2" and 210 lbs. His eyes are a striking blue, contrasting with his pale skin and light chartreuse hair braided into a pony tail secured with beaded ornaments.
Personality: Neither a traumatic childhood, nor the unforgiving hostility of the Frontier, can deter Vardi from his optimistic outlook on life. Though his eyes have seen plenty, they still have a spark of wonder about them. His outspoken curiosity for how things work can be mistaken for naïveté, and can sometimes be downright intrusive, but his intentions are pure. Usually. While he takes pride in his occupation as a hunter, his true passion is tinkering with machines, especially from mutant and Nobility manufacturers.
Special Quirks: Vardi might not be the strongest or fastest Hunter, but he makes up for it with an impressive mind, coupled by improvisational skills, and a knack to remain calm and focused when under pressure. Even more impressive is his ability to retain complex information like maps and engineering blueprints; Show him how to do something once, and the probability of him replicating the task without fault is significantly high. It's uncertain as to whether or not this is an altered trait passed on from his parents, who both have family histories where genetic mutation from radiated environments are the culprit, but Vardi has yet to show signs of any complications.

Backstory: Edward and Connie Langford were traveling contractors who went from settlement-to-settlement to solicit their trade. They were a free-spirited couple content with living on the road, until Connie was pregnant with their only son, Vardi. They opted to settle down at a coastal village in the Western Frontier called Sodim, known to be a central trading hub for adjacent settlements. His parents hoped to live to see the day when he'd take over the family repair shop, marry, and have kids of his own, but the unruly malice of the Frontier had other plans.

The Matrobi Werewolf Clan was a pesky group of bandits that terrorized Sodim, way before the Langfords moved in. An overconfident mayor thought his village was untouchable because of the hired guns on his payroll. However, his pockets weren't deep enough to maintain their loyalty for long. In the cruelest act of betrayal, his lawmen made a deal with the Matrobi; For some serious coin, all they had to do was get the hell out of dodge on the night of the raid. The lawmen agreed. They abandoned their station, letting the werewolves have free reign on Sodim's people. The mayor was among the first to be slaughtered. Young Vardi watched as his parents were being eaten alive, and just as he thought he'd face the same cruel fate, a hunter named D saved him from death, along with the rest of the survivors, singlehandedly.

With nowhere else to go, Vardi insisted that he accompany the hunter, and begged to learn his trade so that he too can help prevent more people from suffering at the hands of evil doers. D rejected the offer, but Vardi insisted, and followed the man until he finally gave in.

Rather than dwell on the tragic deaths of his parents and villagers, Vardi sank all of his focus into becoming a huntsman. D was a man of few words, his tutelage more show than tell, but it proved to be a useful method in conditioning the boy to figure things out on his own. After a couple more years on the road, Vardi became an independent young adult, signaling to D that his work was done and bid the young hunter farewell. Vardi traveled the Frontier, seeing most of the world, until he ended up in Garucia, where he’d find his next teacher. Polk was an old engineer who owned a rest stop in town. Vardi made Garucia his hub as he found work around the area, always going back to Polk to see what kind of machine he was working on. When the hunting jobs were low, he signed on as Polk’s apprentice. This is where his passion for machine tinkering let loose, laying the foundation for his unique attributes as utility hunter. For the next couple of years, he experimented on conceptual weapon tech and went on dozens of hunts to tweak and adjust his gadgets.

By the time he first encountered Lydia, Vardi had become a seasoned hunter, and their interactions were mainly bound by the fact that she visited Sodim just after he left with D. Their passing and going would continue for several years. In a cutthroat industry of greedy back stabbers, it was nice to have reliable friends. They earned each other’s trust by partnering up on jobs and exchanging information about hunts, until they officially realized they liked each other’s company enough to partner up. The duo has since made a name for themselves in the Hunter community, and currently en route to their next job.

Miscellaneous: Vardi has an eclectic arsenal. From a concussive sound blaster, a UV flash shotgun, and an array of firearms, but his most favorite weapon is a silver-tipped chainsaw spear. His solar powered combat suit gives a slight performance enhancing boost for strength and speed, but it’s mainly used as a generator to power his gadgets. A collapsible helmet is installed around the collar of the breastplate. It has a filtration system for traversing hazardous environments, and a limited oxygen supply for underwater excursions.

 

[Lucyfer]

Name: Amaranth Valcourt
Species: Vampire - once human.
Age: 14,579 (turned at 18)
Sex: Female

Appearance: Amaranth Valcourt stands at 5’6”, with a seemingly soft and fragile build, slight of figure, who’s curves are only notable because of the slim waist. She has silver eyes, and dark red hair that falls in waves to the middle of her back, though some strands do corkscrew around her face. Her face is rounded and soft, adding to that seemingly gentle appearance she has, that wouldn’t otherwise be marred save for the unnaturally white skin and fangs that she bares. Her nails are also unnaturally long – nothing like the Mayerling claws, but nothing someone not accustomed to a life of luxury, or with unusually strong nails, would bear. Usually painted red.

She tends towards long corseted gowns of red, black, gold, or green hues. She does have armor, and “science” attire, though she doesn’t make a show of wearing either in public, or often, if she can avoid it.

Notable Talents: As part of the Ruthven bloodline, she is a telekinetic, and is notable for using the skill to manipulate tiny things – shards of glass, shards of metal – to do her bidding and tear someone to shreds. She also has an armored cloak for the purpose of manipulating with telekinesis as a shield.

Background: Amaranth Valcourt was not born under that name. Once upon a time, she was Myrine, daughter of Nikola, and on a path to be a priestess in the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. Though she retains these memories of being a human, she was not human for long. She caught the sight of a Noble, who came to visit her often at night when she was tending to her duties to the moon goddess, playing at being a god, Morpheus.

Despite his terrible insistences, the young Myrine put him off – she had sworn vows to Artemis and had no desire to break them, not even for a god. The deities took vows seriously, after all.

Needless to say, Artemis didn’t intervene when the man she’d eventually known as Byron Ruthven decided he wasn’t going to let a human dictate what he could and could not have. She was taken from her temple, and changed into a creature who would only ever see the night again – and always, with Byron. For as much as she hated him, however, she could not strike out against him. It was his blood that ran in her body, and his blood that forced her to obey.

During those years, she was no longer Myrine, but Kore, and later, Doll, names adapting with time, but those two stuck for a while. Those years seem a blur even to Amaranth, who mostly recalls them as being on autopilot – living, but only because she had to. She picked up talents, of course. Byron wanted her working on things for him, and she was a quick learner. When Humanity finally brought themselves to ruin, the Ruthvens were among those who rose up, and showed what they were, truly, capable of with their sciences.

There had always been one advantage to her being formerly human: she remembered what it was to fear mortality, to fear death, to fear time. She worked so much harder for that fear of running out of time, and as they began to look into the weaknesses of vampires, she always hoped to find a way to break her bond to Byron.

She did not – but he went to sleep one day.

In the silence of his sleep, Amaranth found herself…and escaped.

She did not stay in the capital, destined to fall a couple of centuries later, back into human hands. She escaped far, taking a chariot, and one wolf she’d had for company – Marshall. This wolf would later become among her first experiments on her own, to become the Sheriff of Elysium, a world she built at the edges of the Eastern frontier.

Now several thousands years old, with Byron but a terrible memory, Elysium has risen up and remains one of the few true Noble strongholds. For a while, it lived in isolation from others when humans rose up – and any who came through to hunt her, or to cause havoc, were usually changed, losing their memories, and becoming another of the mutant guards. This slowed as time went on – and then, the non-consensual mutations stopped all together after a visit from D.

Though she had seen D’s face before – in the Sacred Ancestor, a man she retains fond memories of, in spite of it all.

“Transient guests are we.”

His words never left her.

Nor have D’s. Another quirk of humanity: change. While vampires always strove to make scientific changes, so many were stuck in their ways – but Amaranth would change, and so, Elysium changed. Elysium opened, and only those who wanted to be mutated, would be.

D’s visit was less than five centuries ago.

And another problem has arisen for Elysium: the tomb of Byron Ruthven is empty, with no evidence of his death.

 

[Lucyfer]

Name: Lydia Tepes
Species: Mutant
Age: 480 (although she recalls only 180 years)
Sex: Female

Appearance: Lydia stands at 5’3”, with an agile, toned build, from years working as a mercenary for hire. She would seem entirely human, were it not for the black tattoos that run along her body, twisting around her like serpents, and moving of their own accord, or on her whims. The black stands out from her golden tan. She also has black hair, and dark purple eyes that can seem black without enough light.

She tends to dress mostly in slacks and simple shirts, usually sleeveless. She doesn’t wear armor, since her weapon is her own blood – being torn open isn’t a terrible concern to her, as it usually spells the end of her foes.

Notable Talents: Blood-Bending – however it is her own blood only that she can control. Her blood is notably poisonous to most, and capable of having an acidic response, burning away skin or scales. However, it smells like ambrosia, sending many vampires to their death for their craving of it in spite of the danger. Once it’s in someone…she can control it there, too, after all.

For herself, she also seems to have rapid healing, not to the point of pulling a limb back together, but closing wounds and the like to keep from bleeding out.

Background: Lydia Tepes remembers her life from 180 years ago. Prior to that, she has no recollection – although Barbaroi has always felt like home.

It is, of course – she was born in Barbaroi, and some years ago, she was among 5 who went with the Sacred Ancestor, saving Barbaroi, and damning most of them. She survived the experiments, but was not considered a “success”, as she taught him nothing he wanted to know of overcoming vampiric weaknesses.

She does not remember this.

She simply remembers waking up in what was once Sighisoara, and trying to figure things out from there. Her blood talent soon became obvious, and with that kind of skill, she found herself hopping into and out of various mercenary bands, ending up in Barbaroi more than once, unrecognizable to anyone there, and taking on various missions.

She went to a village that had been overrun with werewolves, but she arrived after it had all been cleared up, after someone had already left with the Hunter who was there before. She stuck around for a bit, though, seeing the devastation left in the wake of it first hand inspiring her to stay a while and help teach them some things that could be useful, as well as helping put the village back together.

And then, she moved on.

She would encounter the one from that village on a few hunts, only learning of his residency in passing in a few conversations they had. They were rivals for a bit, friendly, more or less. Friendlier than some, certainly, and through their continued meet-ups, and comments on it, eventually they decided to work together.

They’d worked together on enough missions, by then.

Now they’ve caught wind of something like a dragon in the East, and they’ve decided to head that way and see what the fuss is about.

 

[ThePowerCosmic]

Name: Serpico Loche
Age: 45
Race: Human
Physical Description: At 5’11”, he has a wiry frame, but despite his subdued countenance, he is very much an active presence. Serpico has hawk-like facial features with a hooked beak of a nose, a pencil thin mustache, and jaded, almond-slit eyes that are always observing, judging, and calculating. His wardrobe is very aristocratic, almost something a noble would wear with its patterned silks and gold ornaments.
Back Story: Serpico comes from generational wealth that somehow survived the nuclear fallout, and the Frontier’s vampiric takeover. Loche industries has a hand in many different cookie jars, the most notable one being a proprietor for efficient rocket fuel. His brother Nicolas is the current CEO, who has no plans to retire anytime soon, leaving Serpico to indulge in all sorts of extracurricular activities to pass the time. His current muse is funding his own Bounty Hunter company, Swords of Serpico, and is actively hands-on in their day-to-day operation. His airship, The Hudsonian, acts as a transport and delivery service.