L4D Application
✇Player Info✇
Name: Brandon
Journal: anzila
Means of contact: AIM: Anzila86
Other Characters: None
✇Character Info✇
Name: Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden
Age: 37
Canon: The Dresden Files
Canon Point:
Post Turn Coat
History:
Harry never knew his mother, but spent the first six years of his life living with his father, Malcolm Dresden, a stage magician. When his father died from a brain aneurism Harry spend four years lost in the national childcare system, until he was adopted by Justin DuMorne, a powerful wizard who raised Harry and Elaine, Harry’s first love, until Harry was 16, when Justin put Elaine under a thrall spell (at the time Harry thought she betrayed him) and tried to kill Harry when he resisted. Harry managed to kill Justin (and he thought for a long time, Elaine), but had to make a deal with his fairy godmother Lea, which has haunted him to this day. The only piece of his old life he was able to save was a skull belonging to Justin that housed an air spirit of Harry named Bob.
After killing Justin Harry was arrested by the White Council of Wizards for breaking the first law of magic by using magic to kill. Normally he would be executed right out, the council ruled it self defense and put him under the Doom of Damocles, a probation period during which if he broke the law again he would be killed immediately. Harry became the ward of the Wizard Ebenezar McCoy, who taught him control and imparted a philosophy of magic that Harry would embrace for the rest of his life.
After a few years Harry set off on his own, and eventually ended up being trained as a PI and becoming Chicago’s only professional wizard (At least, the only one listed in the phonebook under wizard). He eventually was hired by Lieutenant Karin Murphy as a special consultant to Chicago PD Special Investigations unit, the police who solve the cases that are unexplainable and then make the paperwork look normal. He has forged a very close relationship with Murphy, who until recently was the head of SI.
Over the past few years Harry has been in the center of a series of world changing events. He inadvertently kicked off a war between the Red Court Vampires and the White Council when rescuing his girlfriend Susan from the Red Court.
The next year he stopped a war between the Winter and Summer Fairy courts, preventing massive damage to the world as a whole, killing the crazed Lady of Summer in the process and securing an alliance between the White Council and the fairy courts.
The following year saw Harry trying to keep a group of fallen angels possessing human hosts from releasing a devastating plague. He succeeded, but ended up with a fragment of the demon Lasciel in his head, where she hid for two years before repeatedly trying to temp him to use her powers.
Some time after battling the Fallen Harry in short order accidentally acquired a dog named Mouse, found out he had a half brother in the White Court vampire Thomas, defeated the King of the Vampire White court in combat with help from his allies, and suffered a crippling burn to his hand that left it badly scarred.
The next big event in Harry’s life came about when he was forced to race against a group of powerful Necromancers to find a powerful book. Harry needed the book to keep a vampire from destroying Murphy’s career, while the Necromancers wanted to become a god. Harry triumphed, but the discovery of Lasciel and his promotion to a Warden of the White Council, the same people who had tried to kill him, further complicated his life. He did find out his hand was slowly healing.
Harry then became embroiled in a battle with fear eating fairies and White Court Vampires that revealed the machinations of a much larger conspiracy going on in both Fairy and Vampire courts, and the possible presence of a Black Council of Wizards. Harry also took on an apprentice, his friend Michael Carpenter’s daughter Molly, who’s use of black magic got both her and Harry put under the Doom of Damocles (Harry’s first had been lifted years ago for stopping a black wizard).
Just a month ago Harry was forced to deal with an internal conflict within the Vampire White Court, which had been attacking people with minor magical talents to undermine the wizards. Harry won, but the battle cost Lasciel’s fragment (who had begun to change for the better by her time with Harry) her life. After all of this Harry was now more convinced that ever that the Black Council exists, especially after one of the necromancers he thought he killed two years ago returned to attack him with demons. There were also hints that Harry himself has a much larger role to play, and that his mother had made plans to aid him in a greater conflict to come. What that role is, remains to be seen.
One year later, he became embroiled in an attempt by a group of fallen angels to capture the Archive, the repository of all human knowledge in the form of a girl named Ivy. At the same time Harry came under attack by the agents of the Summer Court of Fairy, who tried to assassinate him. He managed to stop both parties, and it seemed that both major powers were set in motion by the Black Council. During the course of the conflict, Harry was entrusted with the power of Soulfire by the archangel Uriel, giving him limited access to the fires of creation, in exchange for pieces of his soul. He also began a romantic relationship with his superior in the Wardens, Anastasia Luccio.
Harry’s life did not calm down for long, as soon enough Morgan, the Warden of the White Council who had persecuted Harry since he joined the council, showed up on Harry’s doorstep badly wounded and begging for asylum. It turned out that a traitor on the White Council, who had been feeding the enemy information for years, had set him up, and he sought out the last person anyone would expect him to. Over the course of his investigation, Harry eventually managed to uncover the traitor’s true identity and expose him. The cost of this, however, was high, and Harry was scarred both physically and emotionally, as several of his most precious relationships, including his bond with his brother and his relationship with Luccio were shattered. Furthermore, he now believed that the Black Council had managed to infiltrate the highest tiers of the Wizard’s leadership. Forced to work in the shadows to try and oppose an organization most won’t even acknowledge exists, Harry hoped his life wouldn’t get even more complicated.
Of course, being Harry, it naturally did.
Personality:
The first thing anyone who meets Harry notices is that he is an irredeemable wiseass. He has a tendency to respond to dangerous, uncomfortable, or frustrating situations with fine tuned sarcasm, even when he wishes he could keep his mouth shut. Harry himself has admitted that his way of dealing with fear is through running his mouth, although just as often he does it because he enjoys getting a rise out of people.
Those who truly know him, however, quickly figure out that at his core Harry genuinely wants to help people. He hates seeing innocent people hurt with a passion and has frequently put his life in danger for complete strangers. Harry lives according to the belief that magic comes from life, and that it should always be used to preserve life. He also has a chivalry complex towards women that is constantly getting him into trouble, although he has been reining it in lately. Growing up an orphan has left him with a soft spot towards orphaned and estranged children. Not having a family himself for much of his life, he hates to see the families of others dissolve or be torn apart. Furthermore, he will fiercely defend the strange assortment of family and friends who have entered into his life over the years.
He also takes an almost childlike joy in finding new and innovative ways to use magic and in his own life and to help people. He is fascinated by puzzles and loves reading, particularly mysteries. Nothing satisfies him more than coming up with the solution to a challenging problem or mystery. He is also a huge horror movie buff, and has been know to play role-playing games from time to time.
Harry does have a dark side, however, one that has grown with the tragedies that he has suffered over his life, as well as years of facing off against all forms of evil, both human and supernatural. He has killed in cold blood, tortured supernatural enemies both to save lives as well as in retaliation for lives they have taken, and temporarily allied himself with mobsters, vampires, fairy queens, and other even more dangerous entities when he had to. When he loses his temper he has a tendency to lash out with vast destructive power, causing immense property damage (One mob boss has specific countermeasures for when Harry visits any of his buildings to keep them from burning down). Harry is still haunted by one instance in which his temper may have killed innocent victims of a vampire, and has been working to keep a tight control over himself, but it is not always easy. Harry’s job requires him to make many tough choices, and there is almost never a clear distinction between good and evil.
Harry is both aware of, and terrified of, his own dark side, which leads him to constantly question whether or not he is becoming the very things he is fighting. He knows he is far from perfect, and when he believes his actions have led others to harm he can sink into a spiral of depression and self-recrimination. This means that he holds himself to extremely high standards, and he has certain lines that he will not cross. On the other hand, it also means that he is very open minded, and is often able to empathize with and understand those he encounters. He’ll put the bad guy down if he has to, but he doesn’t simply fireball first and ask questions later. Still, recent events have made him a bit more paranoid, and he’s liable to respond to open hostility in kind, rather than give an enemy the chance to get the jump on him. Still, he has also grown far craftier, and is much more inclined to make contingency plans and think his actions through than in his earlier days.
However, for all his darkness and doubt, Harry is stronger that he gives himself credit for. His quick thinking, unorthodox solutions, and immense capacity to be beaten into the ground and keep coming back for more has allowed him to triumph over beings and organizations vastly more powerful than he is. His intelligence and cunning are his most valuable tools, not his magic, and he is more likely to deceive an opponent into beating themselves than to attack them head on. He believes that there is good in the world, and that it is worth fighting for, is worth dying for. At the end of the day, those who know him know they can count on Harry to stand up for what he feels is right.
Abilites:
Powers:
Harry is a Wizard, which allows him to manipulate magic to do things like track people across a city, fade from sight, and hurl fire from his hands. His immense reserves of raw magical power mean that even the strongest wizards acknowledge his potential. He is capable of creating enough fire to burn down a building, and has in the past unleashed the spirits of all of his enemy’s victims upon her, reanimated a zombie Tyrannosaurus Rex, and flipped a car on top of an opponent. He specializes in fire, wind, and force magic, and has a talent for tracking spells.
Harry also has a lifespan that is centuries longer than the average humans, and Wizards Sight, which allows him to strip away illusions and see the truth about the people and places he looks at (although what the truth he sees is itself is often symbolic and hard to interpret). Recently his Sight has begun to expand, granting him glimpses of possible futures in the form of dreams. This development is natural for all wizards at his level of development, but is unreliable, and it remains to be seen if and how Harry will be able to use it.
Harry is also able to make potions which can perform any number of effects, such as allowing him to escape a hostile situation by passing through walls, or divert others attention from him. Unfortunately, without the Spirit of Intellect Bob around to give him recipes, the numbers of potions Harry can make are severely limited.
He has developed the ability to Listen, which may or may not be magical, but gives him much better hearing that the average human when he focuses. Looking into his eyes for more than a few seconds provokes a Soulgaze, in which both parties have a vision that reveals the others inner soul through a series of metaphors. The Soulgaze is one time only, but the memory lasts forever without fading.
Because of the efforts of his mother before he was born, Harry has the ability to destroy or banish Outsiders, demonic creatures that exist beyond the borders of reality, and are normally immune to mortal magic. Apparently any wizard born under the specific signs Harry was would have this ability, and it is what allowed him to survive his foster father’s attempt to murder him.
More recently, Harry was granted the ability to use Soulfire, the fire of creation itself, by the Archangel Uriel. Harry can use Soulfire to supercharge his magic, and give it more of a physical presence in the world. In one instance, Harry used Soulfire to power up a force spell, which caused it to manifest as a giant silver hand. Like all great power, however, Soulfire also has a price. To use it, Harry must fuel it with pieces of his own soul. Although those pieces eventually regenerate, if he used it too much, he would die.
On the matter of death, wizards also have an ability called a Death Curse, with which they can impart a powerful parting curse upon those they feel are responsible for their death. Harry’s mother’s death curse was able to cripple the King of the White Court of vampires by rendering him unable to feed. The downside being, of course, that one has to be dying to use a death curse.
Physical Abilities:
Harry’s long legs and regular jogging have left him very fast, and he is surprisingly nimble. He knows how to use firearms and is an above average shot, as well as having some knowledge of fighting with a sword or staff. He has had little martial arts training, but a lifetime spent fighting against all manner of enemies has left him an accomplished brawler who can hold his own in a fistfight. Harry also has an incredible amount of endurance, which allow him struggle on in the face of sleep deprivation, injury, and hunger. He can take substantial punishment for a human, although eventually he will have to succumb to his injuries. None of this is supernatural, just the result of human determination and endurance taken to the limit.
Mental Talents:
Harry is highly intelligent and incredibly observant, especially after years of training and spending much his adult life as a private detective. Harry knows a lot about legal systems, investigative techniques, psychology, and the supernatural (although the absence of Bob his air spirit of knowledge limits the information he has access to). He sees things others miss, and makes connections even police officers fail to realize. He has become vary good at thinking on the fly, and often comes up with clever solutions while being chased by massive fanged nightmares or shot at by trained assassins.
Ability Limitations:
While Harry has a lot of power and skills available to him, at the end of the day he is fundamentally a human being, and is subject to every human frailty.
Furthermore, using magic drains him, and like any muscle if he pushes it too hard he can damage it and hurt himself. In addition to this drain, his magic is also subject to the nature of the environment he is in. When asked why he did not blast his way out of a room he was locked in, Harry replied that doing so would likely kill him from the backlash of heat, as well as burn up all the oxygen in the room. Using black magic (aka magic that alters another’s mind or using magic to kill via curses) has a damaging effect on the caster, twisting his mind and corrupting his soul.
Like all wizards, Harry causing any technology made after the 1940’s to eventually blow itself out, and the more complex the tech the more likely it is to fail spectacularly. Therefore, he has a hard time using modern technology, and tries not to rely upon it.
Also, Harry has difficulty with more delicate magic, causing him to rely on complex rituals and magical tools to handle spells that require finesse. These rituals can take time, and require careful focus, making them highly impractical in a combat situation. Most of these rituals also require a wide variety of odd components, and in the absence of his lab Harry will have to devote a lot of time to locating and reassembling the materials he needs. Furthermore, without Bob, the air spirit who serves as his magical database, there are some rituals he simply won’t remember how to do. If deprived of his magical tools and foci his magic becomes less focused, more wasteful, and harder to control.
Anything he sees with his wizard sight stays with him forever, and it is usually horrible. This side effect means that he is reluctant to use the Sight, and cannot leave it open for too long lest he go insane. One instance when he used his Sight on an eldritch horror left Harry curled up and helpless the second he thought about the memory, and it was only by battering his psyche with the memory that Harry was able to overcome his Sight trauma. Still, he has stated that this technique of dealing with Sight trauma leaves a mark on a wizard, and doing it too much will fundamentally alter their psyche.
Harry also has a huge guilt complex, and can get very depressed if he feels he has hurt innocents or failed to protect people. He tends to mouth off at inopportune times, and has a chivalry streak that gets him into trouble a lot. He can be impulsive and stubborn when he wants to be, and is a bit thickheaded about people at times.
Of course, there’s also that problem where for some reason his magic goes glitchy on the zombies. While he can torch common ones fairly easily, they still suck up power at about the same rate they’d suck up shotgun shells. For the bigger zombies though, it takes either spell that would seriously drain his mystical batteries, or in the case of a tank enough power to drain him completely with no guarantee it’ll take the thing down. Therefore, for anything above a common zombie, guns are just more cost effective. firebullets
Weapon:
Name:
Staff
Description:
A long smooth pole of polished ash wood with numerous runes carved into the entire length
Abilities/Powers
A wizard’s staff is a tool, one that allows him to apply forces, maneuvering and manipulating them to his will. Harry uses it to amplify his magic, particularly wind, force, and earth magic, to allow him to generate more refined and efficient spells than he would otherwise be able to produce. Furthermore, by directing his will into the staff, Harry can strengthen it enough to bend metal bars through properly applied force. Also he can hit people with it.
Limitiations:
Miscellaneous Items:
Force rings: A set of double banded silver rings Harry wears on his right hand, these rings store up a little kinetic energy every time Harry moves, and can unleash that power all at once before having to be recharged.
Enchanted Duster: A leather coat enchanted so as to be as strong as a suit of armor, protecting Harry from most forms of close combat weapons and small arms fire, though it does not keep him from feeling the physical force of the blows, it only prevents them from piercing his body.
Shield Bracelet: A small band of shields made from a number of different metals wrapped around his wrist. The bracelet allows him to channel his magic into a shield that can fend off physical matter, kinetic energy, heat, cold, electricity-even sound and light and supernatural forces. However, the shield requires a lot of magical juice, and too many attacks can overwhelm it.
Mother’s pendant: A silver pentacle, the pendant itself is not innately magical, but Harry uses it as a foci for light and tracking spells, and it is a symbol of his true faith in magic.
Appearance:
Harry is six foot nine with a lanky build. He has dark hair that is usually kept short but is often messy, and dark intelligent eyes. Similarly, he tries to shave regularly, but his lifestyle frequently leaves him looking scruffy. Harry is reasonably handsome, although not classically good looking, and his life style often leaves him looking a bit tired and ill kept.
Harry usually dresses wears comfortable functional clothing such as jeans, combat or cowboy boots, and his distinctive leather duster. He also wears his mothers silver pentagram around his neck, a bracelet made of small shields woven together by several different metals, and a number of silver rings on his right hand.
His right hand is heavily scarred from absorbing the heat of a flamethrower, though he usually covers it with a black leather glove. He also has scars on his wrists that look like they were created by thorns, a bullet scar on his upper arm, and a scar running from his throat to his stomach from a hooked knife. More recently he received two further scars, one running from his forehead before skipping his eye and crossing his cheekbone, and another that cut his lower lip and down his chin at an angle.
✇Samples✇
First Person Sample:
You know, if it weren’t for the fact that these zombies still aren’t as dangerous as the ones back home, I would be very inclined to second whoever called ‘zombie bullshit’ on them running. Granted, it makes a hell of a lot more sense than all this havoc being wrecked by a bunch of corpses moving at a slightly slower pace than senior citizens at the mall, but I have no problem with things not making sense if they mean I have a better chance of not getting my face ripped off. Frankly I like walking corpses when they do just that, walk. Of course, I like them even better when they’re on my side and directing their several tons of toothy fury at people I don’t like.
Or even better, no zombies at all. That would be best.
Oh, and for those here who might have been offended by my comments about the superiority of my zombies to the local breed, first of all you need a life, but secondly don’t take it too personally. It’s not that your zombies aren’t terrifying, just mine are a whole new level of horrible above that. Now don’t you feel better knowing there’s always someone worse off than you?
You’re welcome.
Third Person Sample:
Saving the world was a funny thing. Even if you did it five or six times, in the end it was only the one time you didn't that really mattered.
Not that Harry could have actually done anything to avert this particular doomsday scenario, but that didn't mean that in the days after the world's slow rotting decay had begun he hadn't entertained thoughts of how he might have stopped the slaughter before it had a chance to consume everything. One thing that had not died that day had been his hatred of feeling helpless.
Yet in truth helpless was what they all were now, from the smallest child to the most powerful wizard. Helpless and waiting to be overwhelmed by the risen dead that now outnumbered the living. For many, that knowledge alone had been lethal, the utter despair and hopelessness driving them to just curl up where they were most comfortable and wait for death to come. Not Harry, though, he had been cut from a different cloth, the kind that had him fiercely cling to life even when all it seemed to offer him was pain.
Pain, and an excessive amount of mosquito bites.
Feeling another sting against the back of his neck, Harry's hand moved automatically to smash what felt like the millionth bug, adding his own blood to the sweat that was caking his skin. Really, even given how much of the earth had been rendered impossible for human habitation, Harry could still think of a half dozen places he would rather be then wandering through the jungle, the buzzing of bugs and rustle of the leaves and ferns the only sound in what was otherwise a deafening silence. In bed was at the top of that list. Yet here he was, creeping through the underbrush searching for a wayward child.
Feeling the reassuring weight of his gun in his slick palms, Harry kept his eyes and ears alert for any sign of movement coming towards him. That was one thing you could say for the walking dead, they very rarely snuck up on you. Every footfall sank slightly into the wet soil, the muck sucking at his boot as he lifted it back up again.
Keeping his companion in his peripheral vision, the tired wizard whispered, "How far out could she have gotten?" He didn't want to think what would happen if something else found their runaway first.
Name: Brandon
Journal: anzila
Means of contact: AIM: Anzila86
Other Characters: None
✇Character Info✇
Name: Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden
Age: 37
Canon: The Dresden Files
Canon Point:
Post Turn Coat
History:
Harry never knew his mother, but spent the first six years of his life living with his father, Malcolm Dresden, a stage magician. When his father died from a brain aneurism Harry spend four years lost in the national childcare system, until he was adopted by Justin DuMorne, a powerful wizard who raised Harry and Elaine, Harry’s first love, until Harry was 16, when Justin put Elaine under a thrall spell (at the time Harry thought she betrayed him) and tried to kill Harry when he resisted. Harry managed to kill Justin (and he thought for a long time, Elaine), but had to make a deal with his fairy godmother Lea, which has haunted him to this day. The only piece of his old life he was able to save was a skull belonging to Justin that housed an air spirit of Harry named Bob.
After killing Justin Harry was arrested by the White Council of Wizards for breaking the first law of magic by using magic to kill. Normally he would be executed right out, the council ruled it self defense and put him under the Doom of Damocles, a probation period during which if he broke the law again he would be killed immediately. Harry became the ward of the Wizard Ebenezar McCoy, who taught him control and imparted a philosophy of magic that Harry would embrace for the rest of his life.
After a few years Harry set off on his own, and eventually ended up being trained as a PI and becoming Chicago’s only professional wizard (At least, the only one listed in the phonebook under wizard). He eventually was hired by Lieutenant Karin Murphy as a special consultant to Chicago PD Special Investigations unit, the police who solve the cases that are unexplainable and then make the paperwork look normal. He has forged a very close relationship with Murphy, who until recently was the head of SI.
Over the past few years Harry has been in the center of a series of world changing events. He inadvertently kicked off a war between the Red Court Vampires and the White Council when rescuing his girlfriend Susan from the Red Court.
The next year he stopped a war between the Winter and Summer Fairy courts, preventing massive damage to the world as a whole, killing the crazed Lady of Summer in the process and securing an alliance between the White Council and the fairy courts.
The following year saw Harry trying to keep a group of fallen angels possessing human hosts from releasing a devastating plague. He succeeded, but ended up with a fragment of the demon Lasciel in his head, where she hid for two years before repeatedly trying to temp him to use her powers.
Some time after battling the Fallen Harry in short order accidentally acquired a dog named Mouse, found out he had a half brother in the White Court vampire Thomas, defeated the King of the Vampire White court in combat with help from his allies, and suffered a crippling burn to his hand that left it badly scarred.
The next big event in Harry’s life came about when he was forced to race against a group of powerful Necromancers to find a powerful book. Harry needed the book to keep a vampire from destroying Murphy’s career, while the Necromancers wanted to become a god. Harry triumphed, but the discovery of Lasciel and his promotion to a Warden of the White Council, the same people who had tried to kill him, further complicated his life. He did find out his hand was slowly healing.
Harry then became embroiled in a battle with fear eating fairies and White Court Vampires that revealed the machinations of a much larger conspiracy going on in both Fairy and Vampire courts, and the possible presence of a Black Council of Wizards. Harry also took on an apprentice, his friend Michael Carpenter’s daughter Molly, who’s use of black magic got both her and Harry put under the Doom of Damocles (Harry’s first had been lifted years ago for stopping a black wizard).
Just a month ago Harry was forced to deal with an internal conflict within the Vampire White Court, which had been attacking people with minor magical talents to undermine the wizards. Harry won, but the battle cost Lasciel’s fragment (who had begun to change for the better by her time with Harry) her life. After all of this Harry was now more convinced that ever that the Black Council exists, especially after one of the necromancers he thought he killed two years ago returned to attack him with demons. There were also hints that Harry himself has a much larger role to play, and that his mother had made plans to aid him in a greater conflict to come. What that role is, remains to be seen.
One year later, he became embroiled in an attempt by a group of fallen angels to capture the Archive, the repository of all human knowledge in the form of a girl named Ivy. At the same time Harry came under attack by the agents of the Summer Court of Fairy, who tried to assassinate him. He managed to stop both parties, and it seemed that both major powers were set in motion by the Black Council. During the course of the conflict, Harry was entrusted with the power of Soulfire by the archangel Uriel, giving him limited access to the fires of creation, in exchange for pieces of his soul. He also began a romantic relationship with his superior in the Wardens, Anastasia Luccio.
Harry’s life did not calm down for long, as soon enough Morgan, the Warden of the White Council who had persecuted Harry since he joined the council, showed up on Harry’s doorstep badly wounded and begging for asylum. It turned out that a traitor on the White Council, who had been feeding the enemy information for years, had set him up, and he sought out the last person anyone would expect him to. Over the course of his investigation, Harry eventually managed to uncover the traitor’s true identity and expose him. The cost of this, however, was high, and Harry was scarred both physically and emotionally, as several of his most precious relationships, including his bond with his brother and his relationship with Luccio were shattered. Furthermore, he now believed that the Black Council had managed to infiltrate the highest tiers of the Wizard’s leadership. Forced to work in the shadows to try and oppose an organization most won’t even acknowledge exists, Harry hoped his life wouldn’t get even more complicated.
Of course, being Harry, it naturally did.
Personality:
The first thing anyone who meets Harry notices is that he is an irredeemable wiseass. He has a tendency to respond to dangerous, uncomfortable, or frustrating situations with fine tuned sarcasm, even when he wishes he could keep his mouth shut. Harry himself has admitted that his way of dealing with fear is through running his mouth, although just as often he does it because he enjoys getting a rise out of people.
Those who truly know him, however, quickly figure out that at his core Harry genuinely wants to help people. He hates seeing innocent people hurt with a passion and has frequently put his life in danger for complete strangers. Harry lives according to the belief that magic comes from life, and that it should always be used to preserve life. He also has a chivalry complex towards women that is constantly getting him into trouble, although he has been reining it in lately. Growing up an orphan has left him with a soft spot towards orphaned and estranged children. Not having a family himself for much of his life, he hates to see the families of others dissolve or be torn apart. Furthermore, he will fiercely defend the strange assortment of family and friends who have entered into his life over the years.
He also takes an almost childlike joy in finding new and innovative ways to use magic and in his own life and to help people. He is fascinated by puzzles and loves reading, particularly mysteries. Nothing satisfies him more than coming up with the solution to a challenging problem or mystery. He is also a huge horror movie buff, and has been know to play role-playing games from time to time.
Harry does have a dark side, however, one that has grown with the tragedies that he has suffered over his life, as well as years of facing off against all forms of evil, both human and supernatural. He has killed in cold blood, tortured supernatural enemies both to save lives as well as in retaliation for lives they have taken, and temporarily allied himself with mobsters, vampires, fairy queens, and other even more dangerous entities when he had to. When he loses his temper he has a tendency to lash out with vast destructive power, causing immense property damage (One mob boss has specific countermeasures for when Harry visits any of his buildings to keep them from burning down). Harry is still haunted by one instance in which his temper may have killed innocent victims of a vampire, and has been working to keep a tight control over himself, but it is not always easy. Harry’s job requires him to make many tough choices, and there is almost never a clear distinction between good and evil.
Harry is both aware of, and terrified of, his own dark side, which leads him to constantly question whether or not he is becoming the very things he is fighting. He knows he is far from perfect, and when he believes his actions have led others to harm he can sink into a spiral of depression and self-recrimination. This means that he holds himself to extremely high standards, and he has certain lines that he will not cross. On the other hand, it also means that he is very open minded, and is often able to empathize with and understand those he encounters. He’ll put the bad guy down if he has to, but he doesn’t simply fireball first and ask questions later. Still, recent events have made him a bit more paranoid, and he’s liable to respond to open hostility in kind, rather than give an enemy the chance to get the jump on him. Still, he has also grown far craftier, and is much more inclined to make contingency plans and think his actions through than in his earlier days.
However, for all his darkness and doubt, Harry is stronger that he gives himself credit for. His quick thinking, unorthodox solutions, and immense capacity to be beaten into the ground and keep coming back for more has allowed him to triumph over beings and organizations vastly more powerful than he is. His intelligence and cunning are his most valuable tools, not his magic, and he is more likely to deceive an opponent into beating themselves than to attack them head on. He believes that there is good in the world, and that it is worth fighting for, is worth dying for. At the end of the day, those who know him know they can count on Harry to stand up for what he feels is right.
Abilites:
Powers:
Harry is a Wizard, which allows him to manipulate magic to do things like track people across a city, fade from sight, and hurl fire from his hands. His immense reserves of raw magical power mean that even the strongest wizards acknowledge his potential. He is capable of creating enough fire to burn down a building, and has in the past unleashed the spirits of all of his enemy’s victims upon her, reanimated a zombie Tyrannosaurus Rex, and flipped a car on top of an opponent. He specializes in fire, wind, and force magic, and has a talent for tracking spells.
Harry also has a lifespan that is centuries longer than the average humans, and Wizards Sight, which allows him to strip away illusions and see the truth about the people and places he looks at (although what the truth he sees is itself is often symbolic and hard to interpret). Recently his Sight has begun to expand, granting him glimpses of possible futures in the form of dreams. This development is natural for all wizards at his level of development, but is unreliable, and it remains to be seen if and how Harry will be able to use it.
Harry is also able to make potions which can perform any number of effects, such as allowing him to escape a hostile situation by passing through walls, or divert others attention from him. Unfortunately, without the Spirit of Intellect Bob around to give him recipes, the numbers of potions Harry can make are severely limited.
He has developed the ability to Listen, which may or may not be magical, but gives him much better hearing that the average human when he focuses. Looking into his eyes for more than a few seconds provokes a Soulgaze, in which both parties have a vision that reveals the others inner soul through a series of metaphors. The Soulgaze is one time only, but the memory lasts forever without fading.
Because of the efforts of his mother before he was born, Harry has the ability to destroy or banish Outsiders, demonic creatures that exist beyond the borders of reality, and are normally immune to mortal magic. Apparently any wizard born under the specific signs Harry was would have this ability, and it is what allowed him to survive his foster father’s attempt to murder him.
More recently, Harry was granted the ability to use Soulfire, the fire of creation itself, by the Archangel Uriel. Harry can use Soulfire to supercharge his magic, and give it more of a physical presence in the world. In one instance, Harry used Soulfire to power up a force spell, which caused it to manifest as a giant silver hand. Like all great power, however, Soulfire also has a price. To use it, Harry must fuel it with pieces of his own soul. Although those pieces eventually regenerate, if he used it too much, he would die.
On the matter of death, wizards also have an ability called a Death Curse, with which they can impart a powerful parting curse upon those they feel are responsible for their death. Harry’s mother’s death curse was able to cripple the King of the White Court of vampires by rendering him unable to feed. The downside being, of course, that one has to be dying to use a death curse.
Physical Abilities:
Harry’s long legs and regular jogging have left him very fast, and he is surprisingly nimble. He knows how to use firearms and is an above average shot, as well as having some knowledge of fighting with a sword or staff. He has had little martial arts training, but a lifetime spent fighting against all manner of enemies has left him an accomplished brawler who can hold his own in a fistfight. Harry also has an incredible amount of endurance, which allow him struggle on in the face of sleep deprivation, injury, and hunger. He can take substantial punishment for a human, although eventually he will have to succumb to his injuries. None of this is supernatural, just the result of human determination and endurance taken to the limit.
Mental Talents:
Harry is highly intelligent and incredibly observant, especially after years of training and spending much his adult life as a private detective. Harry knows a lot about legal systems, investigative techniques, psychology, and the supernatural (although the absence of Bob his air spirit of knowledge limits the information he has access to). He sees things others miss, and makes connections even police officers fail to realize. He has become vary good at thinking on the fly, and often comes up with clever solutions while being chased by massive fanged nightmares or shot at by trained assassins.
Ability Limitations:
While Harry has a lot of power and skills available to him, at the end of the day he is fundamentally a human being, and is subject to every human frailty.
Furthermore, using magic drains him, and like any muscle if he pushes it too hard he can damage it and hurt himself. In addition to this drain, his magic is also subject to the nature of the environment he is in. When asked why he did not blast his way out of a room he was locked in, Harry replied that doing so would likely kill him from the backlash of heat, as well as burn up all the oxygen in the room. Using black magic (aka magic that alters another’s mind or using magic to kill via curses) has a damaging effect on the caster, twisting his mind and corrupting his soul.
Like all wizards, Harry causing any technology made after the 1940’s to eventually blow itself out, and the more complex the tech the more likely it is to fail spectacularly. Therefore, he has a hard time using modern technology, and tries not to rely upon it.
Also, Harry has difficulty with more delicate magic, causing him to rely on complex rituals and magical tools to handle spells that require finesse. These rituals can take time, and require careful focus, making them highly impractical in a combat situation. Most of these rituals also require a wide variety of odd components, and in the absence of his lab Harry will have to devote a lot of time to locating and reassembling the materials he needs. Furthermore, without Bob, the air spirit who serves as his magical database, there are some rituals he simply won’t remember how to do. If deprived of his magical tools and foci his magic becomes less focused, more wasteful, and harder to control.
Anything he sees with his wizard sight stays with him forever, and it is usually horrible. This side effect means that he is reluctant to use the Sight, and cannot leave it open for too long lest he go insane. One instance when he used his Sight on an eldritch horror left Harry curled up and helpless the second he thought about the memory, and it was only by battering his psyche with the memory that Harry was able to overcome his Sight trauma. Still, he has stated that this technique of dealing with Sight trauma leaves a mark on a wizard, and doing it too much will fundamentally alter their psyche.
Harry also has a huge guilt complex, and can get very depressed if he feels he has hurt innocents or failed to protect people. He tends to mouth off at inopportune times, and has a chivalry streak that gets him into trouble a lot. He can be impulsive and stubborn when he wants to be, and is a bit thickheaded about people at times.
Of course, there’s also that problem where for some reason his magic goes glitchy on the zombies. While he can torch common ones fairly easily, they still suck up power at about the same rate they’d suck up shotgun shells. For the bigger zombies though, it takes either spell that would seriously drain his mystical batteries, or in the case of a tank enough power to drain him completely with no guarantee it’ll take the thing down. Therefore, for anything above a common zombie, guns are just more cost effective. firebullets
Weapon:
Name:
Staff
Description:
A long smooth pole of polished ash wood with numerous runes carved into the entire length
Abilities/Powers
A wizard’s staff is a tool, one that allows him to apply forces, maneuvering and manipulating them to his will. Harry uses it to amplify his magic, particularly wind, force, and earth magic, to allow him to generate more refined and efficient spells than he would otherwise be able to produce. Furthermore, by directing his will into the staff, Harry can strengthen it enough to bend metal bars through properly applied force. Also he can hit people with it.
Limitiations:
Miscellaneous Items:
Force rings: A set of double banded silver rings Harry wears on his right hand, these rings store up a little kinetic energy every time Harry moves, and can unleash that power all at once before having to be recharged.
Enchanted Duster: A leather coat enchanted so as to be as strong as a suit of armor, protecting Harry from most forms of close combat weapons and small arms fire, though it does not keep him from feeling the physical force of the blows, it only prevents them from piercing his body.
Shield Bracelet: A small band of shields made from a number of different metals wrapped around his wrist. The bracelet allows him to channel his magic into a shield that can fend off physical matter, kinetic energy, heat, cold, electricity-even sound and light and supernatural forces. However, the shield requires a lot of magical juice, and too many attacks can overwhelm it.
Mother’s pendant: A silver pentacle, the pendant itself is not innately magical, but Harry uses it as a foci for light and tracking spells, and it is a symbol of his true faith in magic.
Appearance:
Harry is six foot nine with a lanky build. He has dark hair that is usually kept short but is often messy, and dark intelligent eyes. Similarly, he tries to shave regularly, but his lifestyle frequently leaves him looking scruffy. Harry is reasonably handsome, although not classically good looking, and his life style often leaves him looking a bit tired and ill kept.
Harry usually dresses wears comfortable functional clothing such as jeans, combat or cowboy boots, and his distinctive leather duster. He also wears his mothers silver pentagram around his neck, a bracelet made of small shields woven together by several different metals, and a number of silver rings on his right hand.
His right hand is heavily scarred from absorbing the heat of a flamethrower, though he usually covers it with a black leather glove. He also has scars on his wrists that look like they were created by thorns, a bullet scar on his upper arm, and a scar running from his throat to his stomach from a hooked knife. More recently he received two further scars, one running from his forehead before skipping his eye and crossing his cheekbone, and another that cut his lower lip and down his chin at an angle.
✇Samples✇
First Person Sample:
You know, if it weren’t for the fact that these zombies still aren’t as dangerous as the ones back home, I would be very inclined to second whoever called ‘zombie bullshit’ on them running. Granted, it makes a hell of a lot more sense than all this havoc being wrecked by a bunch of corpses moving at a slightly slower pace than senior citizens at the mall, but I have no problem with things not making sense if they mean I have a better chance of not getting my face ripped off. Frankly I like walking corpses when they do just that, walk. Of course, I like them even better when they’re on my side and directing their several tons of toothy fury at people I don’t like.
Or even better, no zombies at all. That would be best.
Oh, and for those here who might have been offended by my comments about the superiority of my zombies to the local breed, first of all you need a life, but secondly don’t take it too personally. It’s not that your zombies aren’t terrifying, just mine are a whole new level of horrible above that. Now don’t you feel better knowing there’s always someone worse off than you?
You’re welcome.
Third Person Sample:
Saving the world was a funny thing. Even if you did it five or six times, in the end it was only the one time you didn't that really mattered.
Not that Harry could have actually done anything to avert this particular doomsday scenario, but that didn't mean that in the days after the world's slow rotting decay had begun he hadn't entertained thoughts of how he might have stopped the slaughter before it had a chance to consume everything. One thing that had not died that day had been his hatred of feeling helpless.
Yet in truth helpless was what they all were now, from the smallest child to the most powerful wizard. Helpless and waiting to be overwhelmed by the risen dead that now outnumbered the living. For many, that knowledge alone had been lethal, the utter despair and hopelessness driving them to just curl up where they were most comfortable and wait for death to come. Not Harry, though, he had been cut from a different cloth, the kind that had him fiercely cling to life even when all it seemed to offer him was pain.
Pain, and an excessive amount of mosquito bites.
Feeling another sting against the back of his neck, Harry's hand moved automatically to smash what felt like the millionth bug, adding his own blood to the sweat that was caking his skin. Really, even given how much of the earth had been rendered impossible for human habitation, Harry could still think of a half dozen places he would rather be then wandering through the jungle, the buzzing of bugs and rustle of the leaves and ferns the only sound in what was otherwise a deafening silence. In bed was at the top of that list. Yet here he was, creeping through the underbrush searching for a wayward child.
Feeling the reassuring weight of his gun in his slick palms, Harry kept his eyes and ears alert for any sign of movement coming towards him. That was one thing you could say for the walking dead, they very rarely snuck up on you. Every footfall sank slightly into the wet soil, the muck sucking at his boot as he lifted it back up again.
Keeping his companion in his peripheral vision, the tired wizard whispered, "How far out could she have gotten?" He didn't want to think what would happen if something else found their runaway first.