Lain Foegol

[Lain]

Player Name: Jacob
Name: Lain Foegol
Age: 28
Race: Human
Height: 5’9
Weight: 193
Physical Description: Lain’s appearance is not intimidating, shorter than average and lacking the finely toned body of some, there is little reason to fear him from his physique alone. While he is a bit broad in the chest, his weight is not mostly from muscle. His posture is not good, and the way he carries himself makes him look even weaker. He keeps his head low, shoulders forward, lessoning how broad he appears, his movements are always cautious and shaky, as though he is nervous.

Lain’s face is round and nothing about it really stands out. His skin is very fair and he sunburns easy because of it. Lain’s eyes are narrow and a grayish green color. The pupils have a milky white glint to them in light due to developing cataracts. There is no fire or passion in his eyes, just a drained look that can inspire the urge to take a nap. He has a scruffy beard that matches the scruffy nature of his chin length brown hair. His hair stylist is the wind, and she is an unforgiving one, leaving his hair a wavy mess that Lain will only bother touching if he is pushing bangs out of his eyes. His voice inspires the same urge to take a nap that his eyes do; it is quiet, ranging from a whisper to library appropriate volume and it really only has two tones, tired annoyance and tired amusement. On the rare occasions that he does talk loudly, his voice frequently cracks and gets raspy very quickly, his vocal cords not used to the strain.

Lain is almost always wearing a well tailored red robe. The robe’s sleeves end right at the beginnings of his hands and the bottom of the robe stops right at the bottom of his ankles. Under the robe he wears the black leather body suit issued to him, and also the metal leg armor issued to him. Over the top of the robe he wears the rest of the plate armor, the polished metal contrasting well with the red of the robe. Over his hands he wears the red gloves that identify him as a battlemage.

Possessions: Lain owns very little, taking advantage of the services being a public servant (indeed that is what he views his job as) of the city provides. His personal possessions include:

Crossbow- A standard issue crossbow that all guardsmen have access to, he keeps the satchel of bolts hanging off the right side of his waist.

Longsword- A well-crafted but otherwise unremarkable 41 inch longsword with a double fuller cross section, the hilt and scabbard are both black, with polished steel for the locket and chape of the scabbard. The sword is worn on his left side.

Armor- The set of armor that is issued to the city guard and battle magi, Lain wears all pieces of it except for the helmet, not liking the entrapping feeling having his head covered produces.

Journal- A small leather bound book filled with little two line notes that contain names and a very brief summary of an even associated with that name. It is with this book he keeps notes as to what memories are not his, and he is very protective of it.

Powers or Strengths:

Reanimation- “By forcing the body to remember how to live” as Lain would describe it, he is able to bring two bodies back to some semblance of life. The bodies must have been killed in a non organ damaging fashion, and decay must not have set in yet. The corpses must remain within 100 yards of him, and he has a magical link to them which constantly siphons a bit of energy from him, too keep their dead organs working and to keep decay from setting in. The reanimated bodies only really have Lain's muscle memory and whatever mental orders Lain gives them. The bodies of people magically capable brought back with this ability are not able to use the magic they were once capable of, and Lain is not able to use magic through the bodies. The bodies become useless if they are dealt a wound that would kill a living person, the magic link between Lain and the body being instantly severed. He currently has two city guardsmen bodies as his thralls, whom are dressed like he is, only with normal gloves instead of the battlemage gloves; they have on their bevors and helmets as well. The thralls each carry a mace.

Memory acquisition- By placing his head against the head of another, and making them think about a situation the person was in, he can acquire their memory of it as though he was there himself. It takes just about a full minute for him to copy a memory if they were thinking about it alone, longer if the person’s memory of the event is distorted, or if they are thinking about more than just it. He can remember it as clear as if it just happened, but he is limited to the perspective of whoever he acquired the memory from. Some people have trouble remembering the memory he copies after he does this, especially if they struggled while he was copying it though it is not always the case. It is not uncommon for Lain to suffer a nosebleed while using this technique.

Memory distortion- By transferring magical energy through his voice, Lain can attempt to alter people’s memories to whatever he says. The degree to which this can work depends on the situation. While whispering into a lone persons ear will give him a high chance of success of replacing the persons memory with the one of his own creation, talking to a crowd of people will more than likely result in the people having a bit of trouble remembering whatever it was that Lain was trying to alter. This requires the subject to be paying attention to what Lain is saying, and it requires Lain to describe his false memory in great detail, making it as realistic as possible, less the mind of his victim reject the memory as simply impossible. Trying to alter memories very close to someone generally does not work, and at best Lain can make it a bit harder to remember, as though it happened some time ago, even if it was recent.

Swordsmanship- Lain has some skill with his sword. While someone with actual training and some experience could beat Lain almost every time, someone who hasn’t been in many actual fights, or doesn’t have any real training maybe at a disadvantage to him.

Weaknesses:

Coward- Lain is not a brave man, so much so in fact he seems to get nervous even in the dark. As long as he has his thralls with him he won’t necessarily shy away from danger, but even then he will almost never directly confront someone, preferring to ambush people unaware. Lain has no ego when it comes to running, and it is next to impossible to goad him into staying and fighting if he knows he is out classed. Lain’s talent is investigation, not fighting, and he is well aware of this. If backed into a corner he will panic, and much like an animal, he will fight fiercely but sloppily, any skill he has being replaced with quick, uneven and un thought out strikes that while they may catch someone off guard at first, as long as they remain calm they should have no trouble blocking or dodging.

Lacks Offense- While having two thralls with the skills of guardsmen certainly gives him more of an edge over non magical folk; the people he is tasked with sniffing out are not non magical folk. While the power of these people can vary wildly, sometimes there are those who are able to wipe out entire squads of guardsmen, and in these cases Lain frequently will employ the help of others in the actual apprehension of magical offenders if he does not think he can take them in an ambush.

Addicted- Lain has two addictions, neither of which are to any substance. First, he gets completely obsessed with his investigations, treating them like some sort of game between himself and the person he is tracking down. As the game continues, he shuts himself more and more off from everything else, and will be less tolerant of any distractions. Investigations that go on long enough will eventually drive him to take increasingly drastic and disturbing measures, often times he begins to think of everything as expendable as long as he wins in the end. Lain’s second addiction is to constantly using mana. Keeping his thralls alive near 24 hours sense he discovered the power 12 years ago, he cannot stand to not be channeling his magic. While he is constantly drained and not very energetic at all most the time, if he stops channeling mana he becomes distracted and jittery. He will be jumpy and won’t be able to keep his mind from thinking about too many things at once.

Cataracts- Do to the physical abuse he was subjected to as a child, specifically hits to the eyes, trauma induced Cataracts have formed, slowly getting worse as he aged, in till now everything farther than ten yards in front of him is blurry, and anything 100 yards in front of him is near impossible to make out. Because of this, the crossbow he carries around is mostly for show and for pointing at people in a threatening manner. Hitting something past point blank range with it would require quite a bit of luck for Lain.

Memory Confusion- Because his ability to copy memories makes it as though the memory was his own, Lain has a very hard time distinguishing between what memories are his and what are ones he copied. He keeps a small journal now to write down a brief reminder of who each new memory belongs to, but he only started doing this sense becoming a battlemage. He has hundreds of possibilities for what he did before becoming a battlemage, it having been so long sense he copied some memories, he really cannot tell if they are his. Lain literally has no clue which childhood in his mind is his, and if asked about his past he generally just picks whatever memories he thinks are most interesting at the time. He can get frustrated and very annoyed when people pry him for too much information, or bring up obvious continuity errors in his stories.

History:

Part I: An Unwanted Childhood

No celebrations accompanied the birth of Lain Foegol, and if any tears were shed by his parents, they certainly were not tears of joy, only sorry over the thought of another mouth to feed. The poor farmers from Shim already had five children which they struggled to keep from being hungry, and with Lain around, that was just going to be that much harder. A few months after Lain’s birth, the mother Foegol passed away, having gotten sick and not having the energy due to malnutrition to fight off the illness, a simple virus that most people would have recovered from in a few days. While Lain’s father knew better than to blame the presence of the baby for his wife’s death, Lain’s siblings (three brothers and two sisters) were another story. The eldest being only 8, they developed a stigma against their new brother, though they never quite came out and said why they hated Lain so. He grew older thinking that there had to be something wrong with himself, given the constant harassment from his siblings.

The physical beatings didn’t start in till Lain was 7. His siblings would wait in till their father and oldest brother were out in the field, and then start playing ‘games.’ These games consisted of forcing Lain to do exceedingly humiliating things, and abusing him if he did not succeed or just flat out refuse. Lain learned how to hide, how to stall and avoid his siblings in till his father would return from the fields. He became fearful of his own shadow; any movement he thought could be his siblings. He kept quiet about what they would do to him though, knowing full well that his father couldn’t be there all the time and they would beat him worse once they were alone with him. During one of his daily sneaking sessions about the house, he broke his eldest sister’s favorite possession, a little clay figure that their mother had sculpted and painted a long time ago in her own youth. Lain panicked, certainly he hadn’t meant to do it, but he knew his sister wouldn’t believe him, and his young mind was quite sure she would kill him. The sound had given away his hiding spot, and he quickly did the only thing that came to mind. Breaking the nearby window, he fled from the house, and stumbling upon the road east, he ran away from Shim.

A few hours later would have Lain on the side of the trade road, feet bleeding, stomach empty, and the urge to curl up and just let the world have him to do what it will getting stronger in his mind. Luck would have a trader traveling down the road that day. Ian Kingsley had recently taken a liking to traveling the older trade routes, in part due to the ‘incident’ in a town on the southern trade route, and also these underused routes tended to have untapped opportunities. A smile crept across his face as he came upon the small boy curled up on the side of the road, free labor, perhaps for years, if he played his cards right. A kind word, a gentle embrace, and the offer of food quickly won the boy over to him, and Ian Kingsley felt satisfied that he had just made a good investment taking the boy in, little did he know just how good the investment was.

As they traveled to Tian Xia, they talked very little. Ian had been in the business of dealing with people his whole life, and the middle aged merchant knew it was best not to force emotionally wounded children to tell you anything. He made himself open, but never pushy, though he was curious as to the boy’s story, and he tried to keep the mood in the air as light as possible. Not used to people being so…happy… Lain took to Ian quickly. Ian didn’t even have to ask Lain for his help, Lain would volunteer to do anything and everything Ian would let him. Lain wanted to prove his worth to Ian, which only reassured him his investment would be worth it. The boy was desperate to stay with him. Lain was as cheap as labor came, some food and some clothing and he was as happy as a lark to do any task asked of him. Months would pass by and Lain found himself actually enjoying life, and soon life would get even better, for it would be discovered Lain had an ability that could make Ian richer, and by extension happier.

Part II: The Investment Pays Off

The boy had magical aptitude. Ian was sure how he felt about it at first, especially considering the way he had found out. Lain had a nightmare and woke up in the middle of the night, not an uncommon occurrence, and Ian really didn’t mind having to comfort the boy back to sleep, it fulfilled the paternal instincts that would never get fulfilled otherwise, but this night, after calming the boy down a bit, Ian couldn’t deny his curiosity any longer, and he asked what the boy was doing on the trade road when he found him, being sure it was known to him it was okay not to answer. The story the boy told disturbed Ian greatly, not because of the subject matter, no, in fact he was quite used to what the boy described. The story the boy told disturbed Ian because it was Ian’s own story.

Lain described it so vividly, the feeling of the man’s throat in his hands, how blank his mind was, how completely unaware of the tavern patrons eyes watching as he choked the life out of the man on the wooden floor. Lain shook as he spoke, ending his story by saying he remembers doing it so vividly, but he couldn’t remember why he did it, or who the man was, or even where they were when he did it. Ian explained the man had been a rival merchant, who had just screwed Ian over in a deal with some rather hair splitting semantics. Ian, who had had at least one too many at the time, wasn’t going to stand for the gloating, and he made sure that the rival merchant’s last breath was his.

Ian didn’t make too much of a fuss about it in front of the boy, just telling him that he didn’t do that, so not to worry about it and to go back to sleep. Ian however, did not get sleep that night. He had grown up in eastern Eyropa, where his parents had been believers of the Puradynic Religion. Ian did not put much belief in anything but money, still, his whole life he had been told about how corrupt and evil magic was. Ian thought the situation over the whole night, and when Lain woke up the next morning, Ian had an idea for a test. While he had some misgivings about magic from how he was raised, Ian loved money enough to overwrite it. After a few hours, the boy was able to remember were Ian kept the keys to his chests of money, despite the fact Ian had never shown him.

This started a new period of wealth for Ian and Lain, whom Ian had taken to calling his son. He loved the boy, or at least loved his penchant for making him money, which was as close to love as Ian got. They had a few methods of how they operated. Sometimes Ian would take a fellow merchant out drinking, and once the merchant was drunk enough that he probably would remember, Lain would come and press his head lightly against theirs. They most of the time wouldn’t notice the pressure, through their drunken haze, and the boy could easily pick out the location of their wealth once Ian would bring up hiding money in conversation. Other times Ian would have Lain sneak into the homes of merchants and try to get them to think about the location of their money while in their sleep. This was much less successful, but it would work occasionally. Ian only took from merchants though, considering it merely being out playing the competition with better assets.

9 years passed by like a dream, Ian and Lain had good times and wealth in no small quantities. Lain could not have been much happier, he was important to Ian, his presence was wanted, vital even. They rarely stole from other merchants by the time Lain turned 16, they had more than enough money, they even would give a substantial amount to the lower classes, whom Ian always stressed were important (“because they buy things” Ian would add under his breath).

A merchant Ian worked with occasionally came to them with a proposition that would keep them from ever having to earn money again. According to the merchant, a Tian Xia noble liked to go hunting alone in a certain patch of forest that time of year. Having heard rumors that Ian had an expert information extractor in his employ, the merchant offered to provide the muscle if Ian could have his man get the information of the noble’s wealth, they would split it 50/50. Ian agreed, and soon Lain was off with 4 others. However, Ian did not trust the situation completely, and he gave Lain instructions to see if he could get the memory of the men being sent along instructions. That night on in the camp they set up, Lain crept into the leader of the muscles tent, and absorbed the memory.

Their instructions were pretty simple, take Lain out to the forest, the noble would be a no show because there was no noble. Upon their return, Ian would be dead from poison, though it would look like natural causes. The merchant would then make an effort to hire Lain for his own devices, and also acquire all of Ian’s wealth. Lain took his horse and rode as fast as he could back to Ian’s manor. The scene wasn’t pretty. The assassin the rival merchant had hired had gotten in, but had been noticed by Ian’s guards as he was poisoning the food Ian would be eating. The guards were dealt with quick enough, a poison dart to each of their necks. The assassin then simply slit Ian’s throat, it was the way he operated if his plans got botched. Lain found the bodies, less than an hour dead. Devastated, he had no clue what he was suppose to do. Working for Ian was the only life he was sure about, and having stole so many memories over the years, he had no clue what set was actually his. He turned all the rage he was feeling towards the bodies of the two guards, it had been their job to protect Ian, and they failed. He hurled every curse and insult he could at the bodies in till his voice was gone, and finally, as he had on the road so many years earlier, curled up, resigned to let the world have him.

Lain awoke hours later, drained of both energy and emotion. As he struggled to get to his feet, he became aware he was connected to something, an indescribable link between his magic energy and something else. Stumbling through the manor, he found the two guards, dead the night before, now standing watch over the entrance, silent and unmoving. It took him a few hours to figure out what exactly was going on with the two, that he was powering their life, and that they were essentially next to mindless thralls. Lain decided he had one more thing he wanted to do before resigning himself to whatever fate the world had in store for him, he would kill Ian’s assassin.

Part 3: Endgame

Lain watched as the man who had been his opponent for so long walked down the main street of the city of the Marn. It was…so very public…but it was his chance, his opponent had left himself open. For ten years Lain had played the game with his opponent. Oh he hadn’t known quite how to play when he first stole memories from the merchant who had hired his opponent to kill Ian so very long ago, but he learned quickly. City to city, village to village, he learned about his opponent, one lead from memories at a time. His opponent never gave a name, and never killed when he wasn’t hired to do so. That is his mistake. Lain smiled as he thought out his orders to his thralls. From alleys on either side of the man, two men came out, covered in a patchwork of old armor, and carrying rusty weapons; they made a move for Lain’s opponent.

Lain had long forgotten about revenge, this had become something else, as he learned how to play the game of the hunt; it became more and more exhilarating. As of 4 years ago, it had stopped being about avenging Ian Kingsley, and became about beating his opponent at the game. After 10 years, he finally had gotten a one up on his prey, for he discovered that he had some form of personal tie in the city of Marn that caused him to return to the city occasionally. Lain had been waiting there for only a few weeks when he finally caught site of his prey, and now he watched as his thralls charged his opponent.

Lain slipped out of his alley a few yards away, and drawing his long sword, he too charged at the man. His tattered cloak fluttered about as he held his sword up high, running as fast as he could towards the man who had been his entertainment for a decade. The man was almost a friend, Lain thought as his thralls stabbed their weapons into him, he had been the only thing on Lain’s mind now for such a long time, he wondered what he would do now that the game was over. Lain’s sword slid easily through the neck of his prey, and as gasp and screams erupted around him, he shed a tear for the death of the man closest to a friend he had for such a long time.

As the guards charged him, he cut his link from his thralls, who collapsed to the ground with a dull thud. He let go of his sword and held up his hands, letting the guards beat him over the head and begin to drag him off. He had won his game, and for a moment he was not afraid of the death that was surely coming for him. The guards pulled him through the streets towards the Justice hall, people on the streets paused from their mundane lives to catch a glimpse at the newest criminal to be caught in Marn. One man walked briskly in front of the guards, and as they yelled at him to get out of their way, he glanced down at Lain.

Lain’s eyes widened, his opponent was standing right in front of him. Tipping his hat in the direction of guards’ prisoner, he mouthed ‘twin brother’ before moving out of the guards’ path and disappearing into the crowd. Lain smiled wide, it turned out he hadn’t won the game at all; in fact, he had lost it in a rather spectacular fashion, and that excited him. His opponent’s tie to Marn was his brother, whom Lain had mistaken for his prey himself. At least I wounded him in the end.

Lain decided he had one last bid to get back in the game, and despite the guards warnings and occasional beatings as they walked, he kept repeating that they saw the man he kill pull a knife and come at him, and he merely defended himself. Over and over and over he repeated it, putting as much of his mana as he could into his voice. By the time they reached the Justice Hall, the guardsmen didn’t even have their hands on them, telling him that taking him here was merely a formality before he could get on with his business. The guards may have been fooled by his spell, but the battlemage whom met them at the Justice Hall was merely amused by his attempt to do the same to him.

The torture he was subjected to lasted for days, and it seemed as though every bad memory he had ever acquired filtered to the surface of his mind. In the rare moments he was not being subjected to physical torture, he was reliving every bad memory as though it was happening all over, feelings Lain had not felt sense he was a child consumed him once more. Again his shadow frightened him, and with his captor not letting him see the sun light, he was never safe from the darkness he was sure would abuse him further.

A clear picture of Lain's life would be difficult for his captors to decipher from the inane babbling the broken man would mumble. He would list off hundreds of locations of keys and chests and secret caves and hidden rooms located all across Eyropa and Tian Xia, hoping to placate the shadows that he seemed convinced were going to consume him at any moment. During the torture sessions themselves he would frequently beg his assailants to stop by calling them brother or sister, and warning them that Father would see the marks once he got home from the fields.

Lain learned something during his time in the dark. He hadn't just been playing a game with the man he had hunted for years...he was playing a similar game with death. Lain came to the conclusion that if this was the consequence of losing the game with merely another man, if he let death catch him, his reward would be much worse. He would do whatever it took to make sure he was unattainable prey for death; and for that reason, he signed his name in blood when it was his turn to receive the choice.

[Niabi]

Well...From reading your character I get a felling that you have a fairly good understanding of the setting, the only thing is well we don't usually allow new members to play battlemages do to how powerful they are and within our setting they can do pretty much anything they want.

I'm going to have to talk about this with the admin and the other moderators.

As far as the character goes, I want to point out a few things.

the people he hunts are often capable of killing entire squads of guards at once.

That in fact isn't necessarily true. Battlemages are sent out to arrest anyone with magical powers who use them illegally. A good deal of time he might be arresting people for rather minor magical offenses. He might even be arresting those that have used healing magic without the permission of the Judges.

By the time they reached the fort, the guardsmen didn’t even have their hands on them, telling him that taking him here was merely a formality before he could get on with his business. The guards may have been fooled by his spell, but the battlemage whom met them at the fort was merely amused by his attempt to do the same to him.

There are a few things wrong with this.
1. Fort Marn is in the Historical District of Marn and it used as a hideout for criminals and their activities. I think you are thinking of the Guard's Headquarters building.
2. If Lain was spotted using magic, he would be taken to Justice Hall to be looked up in the more secure prison cells where he could be tried by the Judges and quite possibly tortured by Battlemages.
http://www.tharshaddin.com/setting/map-marn.php

He was offered a choice, which to him was not much of a choice at all. He could either be executed, or be given the chance to play the game with many opponents, mainly any magic users in the city. Lain took the offer, he didn’t care what rituals they had to do to insure his loyalty, or any sort of obligations he had to fulfill as a servant of the Judges. Not only did he get to live, he got to play his favorite game which would help the average people of Marn, whom Ian had so long ago said were important to help. It frustrates him to no end that the citizen barely seem to tolerate the battlemages, they fight for their protection, and some modicum of respect should be shown.

Lain wouldn't be a servant of the Judges, he would be a slave of Lord Belatucadrus, Shim's resident vampire. He would most definitely be tortured before being allowed to become a battlemage and he would have to go through a ritual similar to the one described in this thread: Of Torture, Nightmares & Becoming

[Frug]

The guard HQ is formally named Fort Omenbryn: http://www.tharshaddin.com/setting/marn-buildings.php#

[Lain]

Edits complete! I'll list them here to save you the time:

All mentions of a Fort have been changed to the Justice Hall.

I changed the wording of the Memory Distortion power description some, to make sure it is clear that the power doesn't always work. Also I have weakened the reanimation spell a bit, making it so that his thralls only really have as much skill with their weapons as he would, which is not that much. On another note with the reanimation spell, I have made it clear that not only can the bodies not use any magical abilities they may have been capable of in life, Lain cannot use magic through them either. If the thralls get dealt what would be a mortal blow if they are alive, they will become useless and Lain's link to them is automatically severed.

The wording in this has been changed to reflect the fact not everyone he hunts is offensively powerful:

"Lacks Offense- While having two thralls with the skills of guardsmen certainly gives him more of an edge over non magical folk; the people he is tasked with sniffing out are not non magical folk. While the power of these people can vary wildly, sometimes there are those who are able to wipe out entire squads of guardsmen, and in these cases Lain frequently will employ the help of others in the actual apprehension of magical offenders if he does not think he can take them in an ambush."

These paragraphs have been added to the end of his history to make it fit more with becoming a battlemage:

"The torture he was subjected to lasted for days, and it seemed as though every bad memory he had ever acquired filtered to the surface of his mind. In the rare moments he was not being subjected to physical torture, he was reliving every bad memory as though it was happening all over, feelings Lain had not felt sense he was a child consumed him once more. Again his shadow frightened him, and with his captor not letting him see the sun light, he was never safe from the darkness he was sure would abuse him further.

A clear picture of Lain's life would be difficult for his captors to decipher from the inane babbling the broken man would mumble. He would list off hundreds of locations of keys and chests and secret caves and hidden rooms located all across Eyropa and Tian Xia, hoping to placate the shadows that he seemed convinced were going to consume him at any moment. During the torture sessions themselves he would frequently beg his assailants to stop by calling them brother or sister, and warning them that Father would see the marks once he got home from the fields.

Lain learned something during his time in the dark. He hadn't just been playing a game with the man he had hunted for years...he was playing a similar game with death. Lain came to the conclusion that if this was the consequence of losing the game with merely another man, if he let death catch him, his reward would be much worse. He would do whatever it took to make sure he was unattainable prey for death; and for that reason, he signed his name in blood when it was his turn to receive the choice."

[Niabi]

I'm locking and approving this character, but as I've discussed with Lain, he will play another character for the time being and then once he has been around for a while and we get to know him better, he will then be able to play this character.