Azuel Vyaduka

[Azuel Vyaduka]

Player Name: Valyr

Name: Azuel Vyaduka (Ay-zoo-el Vya-doo-ka)

Age: 22

Race: Human

Physical Description: Azuel is a mildly short young man with deeply tanned, Middle Eastern skin and slick black hair pulled strait backwards. He has somewhat dopey features, with his eyes slanted down at the outside and his nose dropping a bit at the tip. He is neither attractive nor ugly, but he is very distinctive.

He has modest muscle structure born from his guard training. His eyes are a rich, dark green.

Possessions:

Kanun- He owns a fancy Kanun and all the materials necessary for its play and upkeep. He tends to leave it in his room, and rarely plays it when other people are around.

Musket- His musket is decorated just enough to mark him as one of privilege and status, but he insisted it not be decorated to the extent that it would ever impede function. It has a rather pretty image of vine and leaves on the grip. It has a bayonet.

Horses- He owns two stallions he has never bothered to name.

Family Resources- If he really needed to, he could attain just about any object he wanted to from his family wealth. Unfortunately, he’d likely need to appeal to his father to do so, which he isn’t terribly enthused about doing.

Powers or Strengths:

Kanun- He can play a Kanun decently, though not to the extent that anyone would hire him as entertainment. This is one of his favorite hobbies, but he is too lazy to get further lessons. He sometimes sings as well, but he is fully aware he isn’t any good at that and only sings when no one else is around.

Poker Face- Azuel can bluff like a champ. He learned the skill quickly in order to survive the tense but functioning Vyaduka family life. His usual tactic for arrests is to wave his gun in the offender’s face with a steely, cold visage plastered onto his features, although in keeping with the manner he learned it, it only holds up until steel is drawn. Additionally, combatants standing close enough to engage in a melee will find that he has a few tells, most notably darting eyes which are scanning for an escape route.

Crowd Control- As a guardsman Azuel can get his voice to carry across noisy crowds very well. It makes him very useful at suppressing riots, bar fights and lynchings.

Intelligence/Observant- Azuel has sharp eyes and a sharp mind. He is good at putting together clues for investigation. His education has also left him with an unshakeable desire to read, and has collect many books on various subjects, including some which do not belong in a puradyne library. To name a few specific materials in his collection: Snowmane’s notes, the Tomes, and Common Ancestry: The Origins of Elven and Humankind. His attentive reading is by no means limited to those few.

Racist- Normally this would show up only under weaknesses, but Azuel uses it to repress another, more significant weakness. He is the son of a judge, so he can easily get away with it. Elves often pass by without hostility, but if he ever encountered a shifter, faire or other intensely magical creature, they could count on prejudice, especially if female. Female “monsters” make him feel uncomfortable, if you get my drift.

He is not yet violently racist, but would always take the word of a human over the word of a nonhuman. He considers nonhumans more likely to be deceptive and/or malicious.

Well armed- He has a musket, and could feasibly acquire just about any common weapon he wanted. Firing it is just about his only offensive tactic, however.

Nepotism- Being the grandson of a judge has advantages. He can requisition a wide array of weaponry or potentially even alert battlemages to a problem, should he deem it necessary. Additionally, if any suspicious accidents ever harm him, you can bet there would be a serious investigation. People are slow to bring complaints against him and his surname is recognized widely throughout the city.

He can also afford to be quite brave in the political scene, and particularly savvy captains have taken advantage of this fact by using him to investigate otherwise untouchable officials.

Greater Good- Azuel has a remarkably strong sense to right and wrong, and is willing to compromise his own morality to achieve what he deems the best possible outcome. He can make tough decisions quickly and worry about guilt after the crisis has passed, though he only maintains this calm if he is not physically threatened by the conflict.

Kind Hearted- Azuel isn’t a bad guy, despite all his flaws. He is a nice person who will always try to help others. Despite puradyne leanings, he would be far more concerned with convincing the mage to not use magic in the first place than locking up the mage in question. Nor will his argument be “magic is scary.” Instead, he will say something to the tune of “please don’t damn your soul.”

Weaknesses:

Cowardly- Without a firm numerical or tactical advantage, Azuel can be counted on to bolt in a physically dangerous situation. For a guardsman, this is obviously quite a serious problem. Even his considerable ancestry cannot save him from a firm charge of dereliction of duty.

Insecure- Azuel is very self aware, and understands his own weaknesses quite well. For example, he is fully aware that were it not for his lineage, he would never have been accepted into the guard force. Unfortunately, he is not terribly comfortable with that fact, nor any of his flaws. Upsetting him is quite easy on this basis.

Philosophical- Azuel’s personality amounts to a cynic-in-training. He is prone to rants of cynicism he lacks the personal experience to back, which can grow somewhat aggravating, especially to someone with actual know-how. He is aware that he lacks the sob story required to be a “real” cynic, but it comes up in his speech often anyways.

He also has an annoying tendency to be needlessly abstract during his monologues. While his tangents would be handy at a long winded speech, on a personal level they are difficult to endure.

Poor Combat Skills- Once the first shot of his firearm is spent, he is fairly useless until he goes through the arduous process of reloading. He can put up a good bayonet fight in a training ring, but there is a big difference between training and reality; if cornered, he’d lose battles against nearly any reasonably armed or skilled opponent. Though he would if given an obvious opportunity it almost never occurs to him to fight dirty, which makes him a very predictable opponent.

As far as standard guard training goes, he lacks significant experience with standard issue melee weaponry such as maces and swords. He was able to convince his captains that since he'd just be using the musket and its attached bayonet anyways, it would make more sense to focus his training in that direction.

Lazy- He joined the guard for two reasons: to keep his father from asking him what he was doing with his life, and out of a halfhearted desire to follow his grandfather’s footsteps. He lacks much personal interest in the work, and often slacks in his duty when possible. Due to his skills in observation and investigation, he has considered seeing if he can make it with the inquisition, rather than the main guard force.

He is also fairly easy to overwhelm, and doesn’t like dealing with multiple problems at once. His response to such conundrums is usually to give up on all of them. His thought process basically follows “well if I can’t solve all of them, why should I bother trying one in the first place?”

Fetish- Azuel has a weakness for humanoid women with inhuman features. For the puradyne son of a judge, this is an obvious hindrance, and he has buried this side of him as deeply as he possibly can. Of all his flaws, this is the only one he flat out refuses to face, and his racism was cultivated specifically to keep himself from acknowledging these desires.

This can also compromise his integrity as a guardsman, as he would feasibly arrest a nonhuman when a human might have been more likely to commit a crime.

The Vyaduka Family:

Grandfather: Judge Khayyam Vyaduka

Grandfather Vyaduka has ruled his family with an iron fist for quite some time. Like his grandson, he began his life as a guardsman. Unlike his grandson, he began from relative poverty, using his firm sense of duty (and all important claim to citizenship) to rise through the ranks over years of hard work and dedication. Once he became a guard captain, it became a matter of letting the right nobles get away with the right petty crimes and soon enough Khayyam was a judge. He has always believed in a very active government, and unlike his fellow judges would prefer to reveal the existence of the rebellion to the people such that they can send the guards to more formally defeat it. So far, however, he has limited his views in this area to attempting to bring the other judges to his side; he is not so foolish as to act without support.

He firmly believes that people turn to magic predominantly when they have no other choice but to survive, and promotes programs which are designed to reduce poverty; this has made him an unintentional advocate of the lower classes, going so far as to offer such criminals which support his views government jobs (usually with the implied promise of avoiding the torture many magic users go through.) He has developed a small network of lower class, magically talented citizens who back him from loyalty as a result. He often willingly ignores upper-class magic scandals to continue believing in his worldview.

In the family, he has always favored Azuel, often taking his grandson on his knee to teach him about life. It is likely from these lessons that Azuel came to believe in a stronger Marn government, and his stories which inspired him to one day join the guard himself. Khayyam never really got along with his own son due to conflicting worldviews, but has gradually if grudgingly been turning more familial power over to him.

In person he is very emotive and rarely bothers to disguise his emotions. He is unusually fit and capable for his age, though not to an unreasonable degree. He tends to set his mind on an idea and refuse to accept anything short of it.

Father: Maalik Vyaduka

Marn’s official City Comptroller, he is currently set on dominating the Vyaduka family’s affairs as Khayyam becomes more and more embroiled in his duties as a judge. His philosophy is one of diplomacy and subtlety, which sets him at odds with his more active father; the two have only a grudging respect for each other, as their duties and philosophies are very different.

He has some rebellion sympathies of unknown strength, and the few who know him well theorize he may be using his position to divert government funds to the rebels. There is little to no evidence of this, so if he has been doing this he has been doing a miraculous job at covering his tracks.

He has made a few attempts to connect with Azuel over the years, but ultimately views Azuel as Khayyam’s puppet. Azuel returns the mild hostility in kind. Regardless, it is likely Maalik’s influence that has left Azuel with his preference for subtlety and intelligent action.

His marriage to Azuel’s mother was one of political advantage rather than love, though both accepted the match as simply the result of their station in life and eventually grew to care for each other, even if they never truly fell in love. She died of disease during Azuel’s early teens.

He is an incredibly serious person. To see him smile is one of the rarest occurrences in Marn. Latifa and Jafar, Azuel’s elder siblings, will tell you that this was not always the case, and that his sense of humor has been on a steady decline since even before his wife died.

Elder Brother: Jafar Vyaduka

Jafar is Azuel’s older brother by three years at 25 years of age. They got along very well growing up, as Jafar always had a remarkable patience for those younger than him; it was often said he would make a fine father one day, and now that he is engaged to a quiet, stabilizing young woman the entire family is looking forward to seeing the claim come true. He kind and extroverted, but tends to be bullheaded and not realize when his actions hurt other people. He is also completely convinced of his own morality, and believes that since he is clearly a ‘good guy’ he doesn’t often need to worry about ethics or rules. Even so, he is arguably the most well-adjusted of the Vyaduka children.

He tends more to his father’s philosophy than his grandfather’s, and has accepted a job under Maalik that has something to do with “incredibly boring paperwork” in his words. As a young adult, Azuel has been harboring a gradual distaste for his older brother due to Jafar’s irresponsibility and choice to align himself with their father. Jafar would be concerned about his little brother’s increasing negativity if he weren’t such an optimist; he has chosen to believe everything will turn out fine for Azuel and focuses on his upcoming marriage instead.

Elder Sister: Latifa Vyaduka

The family’s biggest embarrassment, Latifa is quite infamous for her hedonistic ways. Azuel’s elder by two years at 24, like the Vyaduka brothers she feels very overwhelmed by the expectations set upon her. Unlike the brothers, she has long since stopped caring about actually meeting that example, often heading out to questionably legal “parties.” The family has been unable to control her, so they are currently content to ignore her, doing little more than providing her housing when she stumbles home drunk.

Despite her vast array of problems, she has a very good sense of people and has a better image of Azuel and Jafar’s inner turmoils than even they do. She enjoys using her superior understanding to tease her brothers, but she occasionally carries these practical jokes too far and angers one or the other. She maintains she has always only been trying to help.

History:

Azuel was born into a privileged family. The third child of the Vyaduka family, which names Minsters, politicians, traders and even a Judge among its ranks, he was destined to grow up with all the privileges Marn aristocracy could muster. To the credit of that aristocracy, it saw that promise true throughout his childhood. Young Azuel wanted for little, with a few key, childish exceptions.

First among those exceptions was the Vyaduka scorn of servants. Often vocalizing these complaints along with his older brother Jafar, the Vyaduka siblings were never waited on by any sort of servant. In a rare moment of unity between their elders, both his grandfather Khayyam and his father Maalik agreed that servants held no place in their home. They considered use of such people to detract from the potential of their progeny, having both grown into power through predominantly personal merit.

It is in part thanks to this specific deprivation and general family attitude of merit-based achievement that Azuel and his siblings didn’t quite grow into the typical Marn aristocrat’s spoiled brats or wide-eyed idealists. However, thanks to the shadows of their highly successful family members, it remained true none of the children had to put much effort into growing up, nor did they see much reason to try. Azuel was no exception. For the duration of his schooling, he was much more concerned with reading his own collected materials and when young, playing at heroism and mock war with Jafar.

While Azuel turned to Jafar for entertainment and sport, it was Latifa who studied and toiled alongside him. He would often discuss serious matters with her, and she was particularly useful for teaching Azuel how to survive in their peculiar family. Latifa had never been much for books smarts, and in return Azuel helped her along in formal schooling.

Azuel’s mother died during his early teens, claimed by disease after refusing magical treatment which could have (possibly) cured it. Azuel, a staunch puradyne even then, respected her choice greatly. His father disagreed, claiming that the point of the anti-magic laws in the city was to preserve life, not staunch it.

During his teenage years, he found himself possessed by a distinct dislike of his father, whom he increasingly came to regard as a dangerous, uncontrollable man whom regarded order and stability as beneath him. Partly out of spite, he turned to the one figure that he knew his father disapproved of: his grandfather.

Grandpa Khayyam wasted no time in teaching Azuel his way of things, realizing that even though he had been ceding control of the family to Maalik in the name of his duties as a judge, he didn’t need to lose his influence on it completely. To be fair to Khayyam, he didn’t force his beliefs on Azuel. For the most part, their ideologies simply linked up and Khayyam merely reinforced what Azuel already believed. Azuel’s insecurity led to him easily adopting the values he did not already possess.

Meanwhile, Maalik began spending more time with his eldest son, mirroring Khayyam’s focus on his youngest grandson. Latifa was soon neglected, and it was during this critical break in the family’s attention that she began exploring venues of entertainment she would have otherwise been prevented from attending.

Despite the mounting tension in the family, Azuel continued his normal schooling by attending the university. He developed a new favorite hobby, which was pretending he would never grow up and be expected to start working. He also continued his proud tradition of doing just well enough that his father could not reasonably complain, and eventually graduated having studied predominantly literature, having always been an excellent reader.

After about a half a year of sitting around the house and stalling, his father finally stopped implying he wanted Azuel to begin working at something and began demanding it. Ever eager to avoid more conflict than was strictly needed, Azuel began thinking about what he might do. He had always regarded Jafar and Latifa as his betters, and they had both wound up rather miserable, with Jafar at an ambiguous, dull desk job he was hardly suited to and Latifa all but dependant on her family’s continued good graces. He quietly and mournfully concluded that if neither of them had been able to break from their ancestors’ shadows, he had no chance. Azuel grudgingly informed his grandfather he was interested in signing on with the guard force.

Khayyam was delighted that his grandson was interested in the public defense, but worried that guard captains might not see the same potential in Azuel that he did. He talked to his former friends in the guard, men and women who had once served under him and now held positions of authority themselves. He assured them that his grandson would one day be a very capable guard if they merely relaxed his entry requirements and gave him a chance to grow into the role.

Khayyam’s politically honed charisma was an inevitable tide which the captains crumbled before, and Azuel soon found his way into the guard fast-tracked. For several months now, he has been taking the easiest patrols on offer and dealing with aristocratic corruption less clever guards are ill suited for. It is only a matter of time before his luck runs out and he has to deal with a real problem for the people of Marn, and when it does, he may find himself vastly underprepared to deal with it.

[Saruna]

Approved.