Gallus Vastel

[GallusVastel]

Name: Gallus Vastel
Age: 43
Race: Human
Height: 6”1
Weight: 160lb

Physical Description: Gallus is a fairly plain-faced human, he has dark brown hair and grey eyes, no noticeable markings on him save an old scar that runs from above his left eye to the same corner of his mouth. He typically wears a thick, dark leather top, with many pockets and a hood, on his hands are what he calls Marksman Gloves, they are the same leather as his top and cover the hand and bottom two fingers, the first and index finger are exposed. He wears a dark grey cloth around his neck that usually sits on his chest, if need be he can pull it up to cover his mouth and nose. He wears matching pants with more pockets and spaces, with a belt filled with loops and clips to attach things to, and high wool-lined boots.

Away from prying eyes underneath his shirt he is covered in scars, as well as a tattoo of an arrow head. He rarely smiles and does not usually look people in the eyes, he also never touches anyone, refusing handshakes and hugs.


Possessions: Slung over his back is a very old and work quiver, most of the time sporting no more than five or six simple steel arrows. He owns a dark wooden recurve bow with the words: “Arvus Don Mourn” etched into it. No one knows what language this is, but it means: “Fear not the Dead.”

Gallus also carries a small dagger, useful to cut string, small branches and twigs, animal skins and occasionally flesh. He also owns an orange cat, this animal-that he named Atticus-spends a lot of time out and about, but somehow always manages to find Gallus again. Gallus himself has no idea how this cat came to be his, it simply started following him one day. He does not feed it, rarely pets it and sometimes talks to it. It sometimes brings him birds. He usually carries a small tent and camping equipment around too, as he does not own a house.


Powers: As far as magic goes Gallus runs dry. He doesn’t use magic, he doesn’t trust magic, he doesn’t like magic. He is fairly ordinary, his only skill worth mentioning is his archery, he’s been using bows as long as he can remember, he doesn’t like the feel of a sword, and can just stand to use a dagger. His special bow, which he nicknamed Arvus (Due to the words inscribed on its body) is the most personal thing he owns. He is not terribly sentimental, however he would kill and more to protect that bow.


Weaknesses: All his life he’s had an explosive temper, it easily gets the best of him and has landed him in hot water more than once. His method for keeping it in check is usually alcohol, however he heard someone say once that it ruins archers accuracy so he attempts to not drink (This doesn't always work out well). He’s not very good socially, mostly a loner, not one for idle chatter he shies away from deep conversation about anything serious, preferring his own company to other peoples, he is fairly racist, mostly towards elves. His favourite race is dwarves due to their distaste for magic, he often wishes he was a dwarf. Due to his history, Gallus has a strong fear of magic, if he is sent up against a powerful mage, he is likely to freeze up, fail to aim properly or just surrender.


History: Gallus very rarely speaks of his past, as it holds more bad memories than good. He grew up in Tian Xia, with his mother and father. His father was a scholar, sort of, he loved magic, had no general flair for it but loved the idea of bending the rules of reality, when Gallus was eleven his father died after he attempted to conjure a simple flame and ended up burning himself alive. Gallus was then taken out of school and told to look after the family, for the first nine months he got food by begging and stealing, until he met Pyrus Vastel. Pyrus saw a bit of himself in Gallus, young and barely managing to survive, so he taught him how to hunt, and what began as a few archery lessons and some gold turned into a great friendship. Pyrus was an amazing archer and he taught Gallus everything to know about the skill, he helped him feed his family by hunting animals with the young boy and teaching him how to sell them at markets. Pyrus had come to Tian Xia to flee gambling debts in Eyropa, however the people he was fleeing discovered his location and hired a mercenary squad known as Red Wing to find and kill him. Some go,d passed hands and Red Wing learnt that Pyrus had befriended the young boy and raided his home whilst Gallus was away.

His mother and sister were there and the mercenaries tortured and killed them. They eventually found Pyrus, teaching Gallus how to run and move like an archer, after Pyrus killed the four sell swords and Gallus learnt of his families demise he went to live with Pyrus, adopting his name: Vastel. When he turned twenty, Pyrus gave Gallus three things; his bow, the quiver and the custom Marksman Gloves. Gallus whole outfit is based around Pyrus and those gloves.

Gallus has become fairly used to death by now, after losing his father and now mother and sister, his mind simply shuts off to the idea of death. He avoids speaking of it and can be superstitious at times, he will never touch dead people.

After he left home Gallus found himself in a rut, he had no money, no food and no friends. He was on his own, wallowing in a pit of self-despair and loathing for his life, he attempted to just...walk off a high bridge. He leapt off the top and plummeted down into a waterfall, the fall didn't kill him but his legs were broken and he could hardly move. After drifting listlessly for days and on the brink of death he was saved by a chirpy young man roughly his age named Callum Walker.

Callum was in the mercenary business, and had heard of Gallus skill. Callum's upbeat attitude and personal code appealed to Gallus, to be truthful anyone being nice was a friend to him. Gallus was unsure when Callum first asked him about mercenary work, he told his friend about his mother and how he didn't want to be another blade for hire. Callum spoke with him about a code, only accept certain jobs, say no to killing innocents, Gallus's mind was made up when Callum plopped a large pouch of gold on the table, told Gallus that was one job. The two quickly became good friends, their skills complimented each other, Callum was an outstanding swordsman whilst Gallus was a brilliant marksman. Callum would lead the mark out into the open where Gallus could quickly put three arrows in their neck.

After a few years the two were famous, and they accepted a highly lucrative job that had them invading a castle for a rogue mage. They operated the usual way, Callum went in first, but when he did not leave Gallus followed. When he got inside he found that the mages were performing some sort of possession ritual on Callum, attempting to allow a demon from the Astral plane to enter his body. Gallus managed to stop the ceremony but Callums' soul was forever tainted. A few years later, Callum simply started fighting people, having violent and crazed outbursts, every time he would attack more and more people. Until eventually Gallus was forced to put an arrow in him to stop him from murdering a young child. Gallus lost his father and trusted friend to Magic, still to this day does not trust or condone it. He came to Thar Shaddin a few years later to escape the memories of Callum, he attempted to find Pyrus to say goodbye but could not.

He first came to Marn when he was thirty-nine, he quickly learnt that Thar Shaddin was not Tian Xia and he had nothing to his name. For a few weeks he just drifted, until a quick and bloody run in with some mages ended up with him saving a government officials life. They offered him 'quiet' work and he's been there ever since.

He now spends his time mostly doing small, discreet jobs for the Marn government. He is in support of the magical ban, and this is why he usually stays quite close to Marn. His fear of magic is something many have taken advantage of, and the reason that almost all his work is from the Government and anti-magic groups. He is not part of the Marn guard, and if ever asked himself and the government there would deny his involvement. He detests the people but sees the necessity to regulate magic, as he has witnessed first-hand how dangerous it is.

Gallus spends the majority of his free time out hunting, or training with his bow. He makes his own arrows, this keeps him fairly occupied during general day-to-day down times. He never drinks alone and when he does drink he feels guilty about it.


Edit: I've added some more history now, so he's been in Marn for 4 years.

[Katona]

Hi, Gallus! Welcome to Thar. This is a great application, but I think we should expand the history a bit for clarification.

First of all, Ayana probably isn't a suitable setting location for where Gallus grew up. I personally don't know much about Ayana, but considering the sort of character you're going for, I'd suggest Gallus be from somewhere in Eyropa or Tian Xia instead.

So why did Pyrus take Gallus in? Was he a friend of the family, or a stranger who took a liking to the boy? Who were the mercenaries, and why were they after Pyrus? Just let me know if you don't want to get into too much detail about the mercs in your app.

You haven't really said much about how Gallus feels regarding murder, or the death of his family. He hates magic because his father and friend died using magic, but he became a mercenary even though his mother and sister were killed by mercenaries? Did he know much about the people he was helping Callum take down, and did he feel it was justified? How far did they travel during their work together?

How long has he been in Marn now? Is he considered a part of the Marn guard, or is his association with them kept more private?

You should also try to add more throughout the application about who he is as a person, the things he likes to do in his everyday life, his friends and perhaps family if he's ever been married, or had children. Anything like that? Hobbies and interests? Friends in the government?

Aside from that, a few grammatical errors that I'm not too concerned about, but you might want to be more wary of anyway. If you have any questions about anything, you can reply here, send a PM my way, or catch a moderator in chat. Leave a reply here when you're done editing as well, so we can take another look.

[GallusVastel]

I've added some more details to Gallus's bio. Note he is now from Tian Xia. Let me know if there is anything else I should change!

[Katona]

Approved! Welcome to Thar Shaddin.

We encourage all our members to be active when looking for threads and writing partners, so make sure to check out the Plot Discussions forum or just browse the active RP threads to see what people are working on right now, and you can post your character in the Characters Available for Plots thread to let people know you're looking for a thread yourself.

If you see a player or character you might like to RP with, don't hesitate to send that player a PM to see if you can get something started. And, as always, if you have any other questions or if you need anything, you can always send a PM to me or one of the other mods. Have fun writing!