Edgard Hérail (vampire)

Basic Information

Birth Name: Edgard Hérail
Aliases: Edgard the Silent
Place of Birth: France
Agereal and apparent) Born 1272. Turned in 1307. Over 700 years old.
Male/Female: Male
Current Occupation: Bodyguard, agent, etc...
Past Occupation: (If different from above) Templar Knight, Soldier of Fortune

Appearance

Hair Color: Black
Length and Style: Cropped short
Eye Color: Deep blue
Skin Color: Fair
Height: 6'3"Â?
Weight: 220 lbs
Nationality: French by birth, but has lived in every European country.
Race: (I.E. Vampire, human etc.) Vampire
Body Type: Tall and well-built.
Description (if an NPC) or name of your creator(if a PC): Created by Megan Bjorn

Personal Questions

1. Describe your character's personality:

Edgard does not speak, and is not shy about showing his severed tongue to humans who pester him to be more social. He has the sending ability, yet rarely uses it even amongst other vampires. After centuries of silence, he just feels more comfortable expressing himself through subtle body language and facial expressions. When he does communicate with words, he is very eloquent and expressive, although he can be short and terse with those he does not respect or like.

Edgard was raised and trained to be a warrior, and lived the first few centuries of his life as one. He is not hesitant to use violence or physical intimidation when it is necessary. He is no longer bloodthirsty and violent, although he does have quite a vicious streak when angered.

Edgard is not particularly chatty, for obvious reasons, however he is not unfriendly. He enjoys the company of others, but is very slow to trust, due to the betrayals of his past. He has made few close friends, but the ones he has made are friends for life, and he is unswervingly loyal to them. He has an active sense of humor and enjoys practical jokes.

2. Describe how your character would appear to a stranger (I.E. typical dress, way they carry themselves etc.)

Edgard is armed at almost all times with both sword and firearms, and wears a large black trench coat to conceal these weapons. On the rare occasion when he finds himself in a situation where he must leave his blade at home, he dresses in the style of the times, and would even be considered well-dressed by most.

Outside of his dress, he appears to be a tall, muscular, and attractive man. If he possessed a tongue, he would be quite popular with the ladies. He walks with the posture and self-assurance of one who has spent centuries in various militaries, and exudes an aura of absolute confidence in his ability to handle any situation.

3.What does your character like?

Edgard enjoys the rush of combat above all things, although he does not seek out confrontations (but never does he shy from them, either). Besides this, he also enjoys dark novels and films, and has been known to play indoor soccer from time to time. He enjoys drinking expensive liquors and wines, and likes kittens. He also loves motorcycles, seeing them as the modern equivalent of a warhorse.

4. Dislike?

Edgar will murder liars and betrayers and bathe in their blood. Beyond that, he also dislikes overly wordy and pompous people, and despises the discussion of religion (although he has many strong views on world politics which he might share if asked right). He is also rather impatient and despises being forced to wait for anyone or anything.

5. (For humans) Describe what abilities you see your character having if they were turned.
6. What are your fears?

More than anything, Edgard fears again being betrayed by those he trusts. He also fears once again losing his place and purpose in the world, and also the thought of once again being alone and unable to speak to anyone. There are few physical things which scare Edgard.

7. What is your character's strengths and weaknesses?

His biggest strength is the life of wars that he has led, leaving him with few experience unlived. There is little in this sort of arena that he has not done before and can not handle.

His greatest weakness is his inability to trust anyone or communicate at a deeper level, although he is learning.

Hobbies & Skills

Edgard has lived all across Europe, and can speak any of the major languages of the region. He is also well educated in European history and culture, although the relevance of these skills remains to be seen.

In addition, Edgard was born into a family of Templar Knights, and became one on his twentieth birthday. He trained and fought as heavy cavalry for over a decade before his turning, and then fought on for centuries more, taking part in nearly every major European war. He knows how to fight. His swordsmanship is superb, and he is an excellent marksman. He was originally trained in the use of a longsword, but eventually abandoned it in something faster and sharper, to be more applicable in modern times. He now uses a long, sharp, slightly curved sword approximately three feet in length and made of carbon steel. He is also very knowledgeable on both tactics and strategy, having been a part of and even leading several military special forces groups during his life.

He is very good at soccer.

Abilities

Sending, Fierce Visage, Telekinesis

Flaws

Missing Limbs (tongue), Afraid of Priests (and other religious figures)

Cosmetic Traits(These must be minor, see the rules)

Edgard does not wear makeup.

Quirks and Habits worthy of mention

Edgard's tongue was removed before he was turned, and he cannot speak out loud. He can send thoughts, but this still does not allow him to communicate freely with humans.

He also smokes, both because he enjoys it, and to further his "mysterious and silent"Â? image that he likes to portray amongst humans.

Personal History (Please be detailed, this creates your basis for your character)

Edgard was born in Paris, some time in 1272. From birth, he was groomed to follow his father and grandfather into the order of the Knights Templar. When he reached the age of 20, he entered the order and was trained as a knight before being sent off to the Middle East to spend over a decade fighting against Muslim occupiers of Jerusalem. His return home in the early months of 1307 found the political climate of France to be radically different than when he had first left it.

King Phillip IV, later dubbed Phillip the Fair, was aggressively trying to extract money from the Templar treasuries in order to fund his wars. Met only with refusal and frustration, Phillip turned to the Pope to threaten excommunication if the Templars did not comply with his wishes. The Pope, as well, refused. Phillip responded by having the Pope killed, and before long, a much more timid and pliable man held the office; one who was willing to go along with the King's plan and have the Templars excommunicated.

On October 13, 1307 (the now-infamous "Friday the 13th"Â?), every Templar in France, thousands of them, was simultaneously arrested by agents of King Phillip, on charges of heresy. Edgard was one of these, and he went willingly when they came for him. He had nothing to fear, for he had lived his entire life as a righteous and god-fearing man, following the edicts of the church. This could be nothing more than a misunderstanding, or at worst, the entire order was being blamed for the indiscretions of a few of his peers, and the mistake would surely be corrected.

Edgard was wrong. King Phillip's interrogators were told that the Knights Templar were skull-worshipping, demon-serving sodomites. They were told to extract confessions, and they would not take no for an answer. Edgard denied their accusations, sure that this was only a trial, and as one of God's faithful servants, His will would protect him. The days went by, though, and the King's torturers became even more and more persistent in their efforts to force a confession to crimes he had never committed. All around him, Edgard saw his friends and fellows cracking under torture and confessing to heinous acts that they had never done. Still, Edgard refused to confess, for he was adamant that the test would soon be at an end.

He was wrong, and the torturers had all the patience and malice in the world. Weeks passed, and Edgard still would not confess, even though his body was little more than a bloody and scarred shell, and his soul was tattered and torn. The interrogators had had enough of this man - his unbroken spirit was a shining declaration of their ineptitude and failure. Edgard was chained, standing, to a wall, and approached by his tormentors.

"This is your final chance, Knight,"Â? one of them said, spitting the last word, and then striking Edgard hard across the face.

"Confess, and all the pain will end,"Â? said another, following his promise with another blow to Edgard's head.

"There is no escaping the pain, and there is no escaping this place. Do it for your own sake,"Â? said the last, and once again the sentence was punctuated by a hard hit that left Edgard disoriented.

A moment of silence passed, as the tormentors waited, hoping for an answer. When Edgard's wits returned to him, he raised his head and spat a mouthful of blood into the face of the middle torturer, then said, merely, "God will give me justice."Â?

Infuriated, two of the interrogators continued with Edgard's beating, while the third left the cell on some brief errand. He returned within moments, holding a red-hot pair of tongs that had been freshly pulled from a fire. The other two men held Edgard still and forced his mouth open, while the tong-wielding torturer thrust the device into Edgard's mouth, clamped it down on his tongue, and with a forcible twist-and-pull movement, ripped Edgard's tongue cleaned from his mouth.

Bloody gurgling erupted in the place of what should have been screams, and the torturers all laughed at the man's flight. His arrogance and fortitude had earned him this. The orders of the King had been to interrogate until a confession was given, and now, Edgard lacked the ability to give one. He was doomed to spend the remaining days of his short live in this cursed dungeon, being subjected to pains and horrors from which he could not even scream to escape.

Edgard had gone limp, presumably from the overwhelming pain and massive blood loss. The interrogators moved to remove him from the wall, so that they could lead him down into the deeper depths of the dungeon, where those poor souls who had personally displeased the king where kept. The horrors of the upper levels were nothing compared to what awaited Edgard below.

The men undid Edgard's chains, not bothering to restrain him. They thought him too weak to be able to mount and kind of resistance. In fact, they suspected that they would have to carry him. They were wrong, and as soon as Edgard's limbs were all free, he burst into movement, knocking aside two of the men in his lunge towards the instrument table where various blades, hammers, and the cooling pair of tongs rested. The men tried to stop Edgard before he could arm himself, but they failed.

All three died horribly grisly deaths, yet their pain was far too short-lived to be considered any kind of justice for what they had done in their lives. Edgard, out of breath, starved, beaten, and choking on his own flowing blood, staggered out of the room and down the corridor towards what he believed what the exit. Almost through strength of will alone, Edgard killed or eluded the few guards between him and freedom, and burst out of the prison. He staggered away as fast as he could, but he did not make it very far. He collapsed from exhaustion and blood loss in some dirty alley in the streets of Paris, his will to live completely broken.

In the moment that the torturer had torn out his tongue, Edgard finally understood one thing: There was no God, or if there was a God, he had no care for one such as Edgard. The only thing that would ever save a man from anything was his own personal strength, or perhaps rarely, the goodwill of others.

These were Edgard's final thoughts as the world around him began to fade into darkness. He had almost closed his eyes for the final time, when he heard a voice:

"Do you want to die?"Â?

Was this the voice of an angel, willing to grant mercy and forgiveness for Edgard's doubts? He opened his eyes. No, this was no angel that stood over him, and that was the only thing that he knew as he tried to gurgle out an answer to the question. Regardless of the unintelligible response he had given, the being above him must have known its intent: he did not want to die - not yet.

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Edgard awoke several days later in a dark, windowless bedroom. Despite the darkness, he was able to make out another creature in the room with him. It was a young male, tied up and gagged in the corner of the room. His uniform marked him as a guard at the prison where Edgard had been tortured. Suddenly overcome by rage and instinct, Edgard surged forward, lifted the man off of the ground, ripped the head back, and then sank his newly elongated fangs into the man's neck. He was not gentle, and blood spilled all over Edgard and the floor beneath.

Shortly after, his savior came to the room to speak with him. Everything was explained to him, and through experimentation, he learned that with enough concentration, he had the ability to send his thoughts into the mind of another, and thus he could communicate despite the lack of a tongue. Content in his new life as a vampire and with nowhere else to go, Edgard decided to dedicate himself to the one that had saved him. Her name was Megan Bjorn, and Edgard served as her bodyguard, advisor, and companion for several decades as they traveled across Europe before finding another calling.

In 1337, war broke out between England and France. Lusting for battle and anxious for revenge against his fellow countrymen, Edgard asked Megan for permission to leave her side and join the English in the war. She acquiesced to his request, and he left, vowing to
return to her when it was over.

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Edgard's military life and experience as one of the heavy cavalry of the Knights Templar made him a very valuable warrior and tactician. He killed the French, and he killed them very well, with his final kill count numbered into the thousands. At first, he enjoyed the killing and his revenge, but after a century of war, he found that killing Frenchmen no longer filled the empty hollow inside of him, and he returned to France to seek out his creator. When he returned though, he realized that his worst fears were once again realized: She had long ago left for lands unknown, and he was once again alone and directionless, without purpose.

He fell back onto the only thing he knew: warfare. He spent the next several centuries wandering the continent of Europe and fighting as a mercenary while taking breaks to soak in the culture and history of the land. In this time, he traveled to every country in Europe, learned all of their languages and histories, and participated in every major war that was ever fought.

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After World War II, Edgard decided he had had enough of war for the time being, and set off once again in a world-wide search for his creator. He has, at last, found her.

Odd Questions

(To help define your character)
1. A stranger at a bar offers your character a drink, what is a typical response? If the stranger was a fellow vampire, Edgard would gladly accept the drink, thank the stranger, and strike up a conversation. If it was a human, Edgard would merely glare at them and scare them away. As much as he would wish to accept, his inability to speak makes the situation too awkward for him to accept the drink. However, if Edgard was in a particularly foul mood, he might accept the drink and then turn his back on the human, ignoring him and hopefully goading him into violence.
2. Your character finds a lost child alone on the streets. What do they do? Edgard would leave it to its fate. Unless he was hungry.
3. A barfight erupts in the nightclub your character is in, what do they do? Edgard would gleefully join the fray, but would leave his sword sheathed.
4.What animal does your character most identify with? The Pit Bull: unerringly loyal to those that have shown him friendship and compassion, and completely willing to eviscerate those that would do them harm.

OOC Info:

Player name (online is fine): Jinheim. I played a shaman by that name on Solusek Ro, and I am also a MAFIA mod on TAC.
Other Characters you play This is my only one.
How you came to SA (Other board, friend, etc): Mae browbeat me into it.