Dulcamara (the Ottoman Jester) Application for abaxrpg
player information.
name: Aisu
are you over 18?: yes
personal lj: aisuyoukai
contact on aim: goldxlll
characters in abax: betrayedblade, justabitoffun
in character information.
series: Assassin's Creed
name: Dulcamara (the Ottoman Jester)
sex: Male
age: 30
race: Templar Human
height: 5' 9½"
weight: 158
canon point: 1511. After Ezio and his apprentices have killed all his fellow Templar associates and he decides to get the hell out of Dodge City Constantinople.
history: lol whut history
"A Venetian expatriate who had a taste for bold adventure, the Ottoman Jester joined the Borgia after his antics caused the ruin of a Sultan's beloved vizir. He was tasked to perform as an entertainer at the Topkapı Palace, in order to destabilize the Ottoman dynasty from within. But after the Borgia's downfall, he acted as a free agent for Templars in and around the city." -Assassin's Creed Wiki's description on the multiplayer character list
Please see below in the alternate history section for further details all nicely fleshed out for your teal;deer reading pleasure.
alternate history: Dulcamara was born in Venice, Italy sometime late in the year of 1481. Though it is believed he was born into a noble family all documentary records of his existence were lost in history's passage, including his real name. Depending upon the rumor this could have been purposefully "cleansed" from the records due to the fact that his mother was a courtesan mistress instead of his father's legitimate wife. Either way, lost or purged from history, little of Dulcamara's early life is now known.
What is known is that he received some sort of education while young because at the age of sixteen (1497) he began his first tentative correspondences to Cesare Borgia. It is believed he wrote his own letters because at the time he would not have had the money to pay someone else to write them for him. It has been thus suggested that before the age of ten he was raised as part of a noble family but that lineage, as many Italian houses did during that time period, slowly choked itself to death with frivolous expenses that eventually led to its ultimate ruin. As a way of staving off its lack of monetary resources the family eventually sent the unwanted boy off to a monastery. He didn't stay there for very long. Well known for his mischievous antics as an adult, it is not hard to imagine they manifested in his early years quite frequently as well; the roving gypsies and street performers were an attractive delight to a boy of his age and behavioral tendencies, and he was soon to be found among them instead of the priests of the monastery.
Between the ages of ten and eighteen he continued to learn and hone his skills as an entertainer from the gypsies of Venice. It is unclear what exactly the upstart jester did to earn both the attention of the ruling class of Venice and thus consequently his banishment from the city but what is known is that by then he was unofficially working for the Borgia in some capacity. Upon his exilement in 1499, Dulcamara headed straight for Rome.
In 1501 the Venetian expatriate found a better offer of high adventure. He set off for Constantinople where eventually he managed to charm his way into the Topkapı Palace as a highly sought entertainer. After his crude antics ruined the beloved vizir of a sultan it was quite expected that he would be banished again from the city. However, as an official agent for the Templars by this time he was unconvicted of any would-be crime on his part. He continued to undermine the Ottoman dynasty from within their own palace unmolested for the next few years. After the downfall of the Borgia though it became apparent that the jester was slowly loosing his interest in playing the fool for the royal families and became more active in other Templar efforts. Notably, he became quite the accomplished assassin himself in hunting the Assassin Brotherhood's members down for various Templar employers.
When the Assassin Mentor Ezio Auditore da Firenze entered into the equation for control over Constantinople the Ottoman Jester was still merrily hacking his way through the Brotherhood one oblivious Assassin at a time. By the end of the year 1511 almost all of Dulcamara's Templar freelance associates were suddenly slain by the Assassin Brotherhood as the tide of influence over the city began to fall into Assassin control. Though he played one for fun, the Venetian exile was no fool; the jester high-tailed it out of Constantinople to save his own hide from falling prey to the growing number of Assassins.
It is unknown where the jester fled after his leave of Constantinople. Presumably, he covered his tracks well enough to disappear off the grid and escape further notice. It is still unknown when, where, or how he died.
personality: "Behind his sinister smile lies a deadly, twisted killer, on a mission to charm his way into your heart using his two khanjar daggers to make sure it stops beating."
Some might say that with a childhood as neglected and dismal as Dulcamara's might seem that the jester has a logical, psychological reason for his ill-begotten behavior and lust to act out in revenge cycles by killing those he can get away with killing. They would be sadly mistaken. Dulcamara's upraising, or lack thereof in some respect, is not a direct cause for his sociopathy. The simple truth of the matter is that he likes what he does and has no care in the world for what others think of him. He does not hide behind his jester mask but rather it is an extension of who he is, perhaps a means and an ends in some regard but to him it is less a lie than his true face. His physical countenance can change to suit his needs--it can provide false indicators, it can lie to those that gaze upon it--but his mask never changes, never shows another emotion, and it certainly never lies. Dulcamara has no remorse or regret or sadness for what he does, and in fact is quite happy with it. The smile on his mask is the true expression of his person and anything else is only a lie.
He does not fight for a cause as many Templars do, nor is there honor or glory to be found in his killing; he merely does what he does because he is surprisingly good at it, he enjoys it, and he can get paid for it if he goes to the right person. It is as simple and straight-forward as that and no reasoning is needed for him. He simply does not care to worry about such things as they have no consequence to him by his standards.
Though the strange and mad jester is Dulcamara to the truest factor there is a person beneath it. He is somewhat complicated if only because he is a master of pretend and falsity and lying through his teeth. He can just as easily be one sort of persona as the next and any will be as real as the next--that is to say, not really truthful at all. It is a game to him to be the fool one moment and then turn around the next to be as quiet and unassuming as possible.
As a youth he was full of mischief and pranks and purposefully angering any and all around him for what he considered fun. When he was discarded the mischief led him to the streets and all the worldly wonders they had to offer. Learning to perform, and in many ways to lie to an audience to get a specific reaction from them, the orphan became aware that he was uniquely adept at more than simple mischief. Eventually mischief turned to deviousness to get what he needed to survive the streets, and in turn deviousness turned into maliciousness to take what he wanted out of life. While playing the part of a foolish jester that causes laughter and happiness in others, Dulcamara easily cheats, swindles, and lies his way into getting what he wants. And whether its the latest bauble on the streetcorner or the death of the nearest person next to him Dulcamara will get it. And not care in the least how he manages it will effects others.
The act on the outside of the mask has many faces but the common denominator in each is an ease of charming those around him. Whether it is charming a crowd into trusting him, mistrusting him in the wrong manner, or simply ignoring him altogether for a fool makes no difference as he will use whatever works. Many of the Ottoman Jester's performances rely more upon visual stunts than verbal ones; likewise, Dulcamara is usually a quieter sort of person in that he does not chatter needlessly. He can and will if given the right opportunity but it is not a usual behavior for him. He often speaks softly to subdue the higher pitch and foreign accent of his voice--except when he is taunting from behind the jester mask, then he lets the odd tone echo eerily from behind the fixed smile. He likes to get reactions out of people for the simple sake that he can and he isn't particular about what sort of reaction it is as long as it's obvious and because of something he did or did not do as expected. It is as if the audience is not the crowd watching him but him watching the crowd. As with everything else he does ill-conceivably this too is simply for his own merriment.
While the reasoning behind the way Dulcamara lives is dangerously simple--do as he wants, take what he wants, don't care for what others think--the lifestyle behind it is not always so simple itself. Everything is a game to him but even games have consequences, and the jester is quite well aware that some are more serious than others. Over the years he learned how to mitigate the consequences and in some cases to actually further his goals. He learned how to use other people to get what he wants and in fact that is exactly why he works for the Templars. They provide him with so much more leeway than even his role as a fool grants. So long as he is loyal to them he can literally get away with murder. But as much as he has a "carpe diem" outlook on life his second biggest ruling trait is his infinite distrust and constant paranoia of those around him. Dulcamara is not a trustworthy character and likewise he does not expect those around him to be honest. He is aware that most people reveal the truth in their expressions and reactions but nevertheless he knows what he is and knows the type of work that he does usually comes with severe consequences whenever caught. Just because he doesn't plan on getting caught doesn't mean he isn't constantly on edge and on the lookout to be caught. And in his line of work everyone eventually dies.
abilities/powers: Dulcamara possesses the uncanny ability known as Templar Vision that allows him to see his targets and/or pursuers in a special aura color-coded fashion. It is a brief experience that occurs more often than not when he's under high stress (ei: he's being relentlessly pursued or his target managed to throw him off) and which he doesn't like to trigger very often due to it giving him annoyingly persistent headaches.
The rest of his skills are all of a learned sort. He is a highly skilled entertainer who specializes in comedic, juggling, and acrobatic acts. He is also known for his crude sense of humor and mortifying (and often death-defying) antics. In particular, his handling of blades as entertainment props is well known and oddly tolerated even within the palace.
He is a capable and skilled hunter of the human sort of prey, using his skills as a jester to amplify his talent for stalking people within the streets. As agile as he is from his acts it is little wonder that he is an excellent traceur and free-runner, and from learning to juggle daggers without harming himself or a partner he is eerily efficient in the use of blades for deadly intent. And as an actor he is excellent at performing silent, undetected kills from both near and afar.
Surprisingly enough it is worth the mention that the Ottoman Jester is oddly proficient in not just playing the fool but acting as a spy. For several years in at least two cities he worked undetected as a rogue informer and instigator for the Templar forces. Unfortunately, it has given him an unhealthy dose of paranoia and a distinct lack of trust in others.
miscellaneous: Simply wanted to point out somewhere that while Dulcamara's face beneath the jester mask is being PBed by Dominic Cooper he decidedly does not sound anything like him. Dulcamara's voice is somewhat higher pitched than possibly expected, has a heavy Italian-to-Turkish accent depending on what language he's speaking, and he has a crazy laugh eerily similar to the Joker. (You know, from Batman.) He is also ridiculously fabulous at making obscene sounds such as flatulence and animal noises. (Yes, these are his various taunts.) Speaking of languages, Dulcamara is surprisingly fluent in quite a few: Italian, English, Turkish, and Arabic. He knows a few words and phrases of Romani and Greek. This knowledge has simply been accumulated upon necessity from living and working within cities with diverse populaces. He can only read and write Italian and English.
first person sample: [Accidental Video]
Che cos'è questo? Ho un nuovo gingillo sembra. [He chuckles in amusement.] Mi chiedo che cosa fa.
Merhaba? Kimse var mı? Artık gelebilir. Ben şaka sevdim! Bu ince biridir!
Sen beni farkında olmadan bunu nasıl bana öğretmek için olacak!
[[translations: What's this? I have a new bauble it seems. I wonder what it does.
Hello? Anyone out there? You can come out now. I liked the joke! It is a fine one!
You will have to teach me how you did it without me being aware!]]
third person sample: There was no one there. At least, no one was answering his cries for them to show themselves. Dulcamara tilted his head slightly in curiosity as a bird might when staring at something new. He was looking at the door out--he presumed it lead out to somewhere--unless it was a joke too he supposed. He didn't expect to see anything that would give him a clue but he was listening carefully for anything beyond the passageway.
He had to admit: this was an interesting prank! He had hardly ever had any played on him. Not like this. And usually not without him being aware of it ahead of time or figuring it out during the act. He was quite intrigued!
The jester slid from the tabletop and padded across the room as silently as a cat. He wouldn't have even consciously registered the fact that he was naked if it weren't for the fact that he was cold. The embarrassment most people would have felt from such an immodest predicament did not even phase him. It would have made for a very interesting show to prance around in the palace in his birthday suit. As such, he would simply make an act out of his situation where he was!
The jester threw open the door and pranced out into the hallway, arms wide open, laughing maniacally and calling out, "İşte ben! Sana nasıl hizmet edebilir, signore e signori?" He swept an enthusiastic bow that spun him completely around. Unfortunately--or fortunately--there was no audience to get a grand view of his butt as he bent low to the ground.
He turned to look at and assess the empty hallway with a frown. Not the silent response he was hoping for--a few gasps of surprise would have been nice.
So, there really was no one here.
Oh, well.
He'd simply have to go out and find his audience!
But first--! A weapon to threaten their pretty little necks with once he got a hold of them for this poorly executed joke. How could they leave him with no audience?
case no: 04-14-81