Tarrant's application
Your name: Tetradecimal
Your LJ: tetradecimal.livejournal.com
Your email: tetradecimal [at] pandemona [dot] net
Your AIM, MSN, or Yahoo handle: Tetravolte
Invited by: (If you are already playing at Trans9, ignore this)
Character's name: Gerald Tarrant
Character's LJ: coldfire_adept.livejournal.com
Character's canon: the Coldfire trilogy by C.S. Friedman
Brief (around 300 words) personality outline of your character:
To strangers, Tarrant is cultured, charming, and polite. He insists on adhering to the careful, structured etiquette of his world's Revivalist period, even preferring its fashions and hairstyles long after they have ceased being in vogue. He proffers chairs to any ladies in his company, he bows formally rather than shaking hands, and he enjoys a little conversational fencing now and then. Beneath the polished aristocratic facade, however, is a ruthless, vindictive man that always has to be in control. Surprises mean he's failed to plan for all contingencies; challenges to his power aren't welcome diversions, but possible threats to his existence. Tarrant isn't interested in world domination or cackling maniacally atop his dark throne (although he does sort of have a dark throne); what he wants is to exist in absolute safety and comfort, free to work his will upon the world at his leisure.
For centuries, Tarrant maintains absolute power in the region in which he lives by ruthlessly hunting down his enemies and those who might attempt to harm his servants -- not because he cares about his underlings, but because people need to know that his power is not to be trifled with. He carefully constructs a base of operations over the course of a thousand years for the express purpose of providing an impregnable shelter for himself and better pooling the dark fae that fuels his sorceries. He even meddles with the surrounding ecosystem, changing each living organism within his forest's borders slowly over time so that the flora and fauna are uniquely suited to survive in the lightless tree cover that shrouds his Keep and guard him against outside threat. In short, he's an extremely meticulous, paranoid man who eschews personal danger whenever possible.
Personal survival is the single biggest motivating factor in Tarrant's life. It, along with his rapacious intellectual curiosity, is why he sacrificed his family to become an undead sorcerer. It's why he's spent the last thousand years consolidating power so that no one could oppose him, and it's also why Tarrant can never break his word without dire consequence. Because of the tenuous nature of the pact keeping Tarrant alive, his life is a constant balancing act; while he's sacrificed his humanity for power, becoming too inhuman, by the natural laws of Erna, would render him nothing more than a mindless demon. Tarrant's sense of Revivalist honor serves as a sort of anchor, giving him strict rules to abide by to maintain his sense of individuality, so breaking that code of honor (by, say, promising not to harm someone and harming them anyway) would threaten his very existence as a sentient being. Conveniently, it also provides an excellent motivator to get him to cooperate with those he finds distasteful.
In a way, Tarrant is both sustained and trapped by the darker parts of his persona. His need to know what becomes of his church and avoid whatever grisly fate awaits him in the afterlife drives him forward and keeps him alive, but the innocent lives he sacrifices to secure his future ensure that the tortures he'll be subjected to after death will be that much more terrible. He lives long enough to know that his human dream -- the creation of a God of Erna -- has succeeded, but he is unable to look upon it because exposure to its power would instantly destroy an undead creature like himself. He could escape the tortures of his future afterlife by sincerely repenting and asking to be forgiven for his earthly transgressions... but that would admitting that he was wrong, and he could never truly deliver a sincere apology, or truly repent for his misdeeds. Not when there's still knowledge to be gleaned and control to exert.
Brief (around 500 words) history and background of your character OR link to a really good wiki page with their history. In either case, explain where they cut off from the timeline:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldfire_Trilogy
Gerald Tarrant was once a loving father and husband, a powerful sorcerer, and one of the foremost figures in the establishment of the Church of the One God on the planet Erna. He served the Church as its Prophet, becoming a formative figure in the creation of Church doctrine. Unfortunately, he also had a falling-out with other major figures in the Church, who not only declared sorcery morally wrong, but established the idea of a nameless, evil being that would act opposite to the One God, which would punish wrongdoers (including sorcerers) in the afterlife. Because human belief in these tenets actually had the power to manifest this being, Tarrant was essentially caught between giving up his sorcery or ultimately falling victim to it.
Tarrant took a third choice: he sacrificed the lives of his wife and children in exchange for immortality and power, choosing to haunt Erna as the mysterious Hunter rather than surrender himself to whatever fate awaited him after mortal death. As the Hunter, Tarrant set up operations in the forests of Jahanna, crafting the environment and wildlife to serve his purposes and creating a stronghold for himself against the warriors of his former Church. After he broke the back of the last major Church offensive into the Forest, Tarrant became almost a creature of legend -- a thing no one in his region dared challenge.
Rather than expanding his base of power, Tarrant was content to remain centered in the Forest as a regional power, observing from a distance the development of his church and of human civilization in general. He even monitored the descendants of his last surviving child, although he forbade them to ever lay claim to his former title as the Neocount of Merentha. It was only when a group of memory-devouring demons from the south trespassed on his territory that Tarrant roused himself from his Forest to hunt them down, though an unfortunate promise quickly forced him to travel far from the Forest to battle sorcerers even worse than himself -- human sorcerers who, like Tarrant, had taken advantage of the fae to obtain incredible power, sculpting man and environment alike to suit their own ends.
Tarrant worked with the priest Damien Kilcannon Vryce to rid first the mysterious rakhlands, then the sprawling eastern Wastes of the demons and sorcerers manipulating Erna and its currents of power for personal gain. Their travels eventually revealed a common thread: each of these sorcerers was in contact with a powerful demon named Calesta, whose desire to feed on human sadism drove him to attempt to recreate humanity as a species constantly engaged in bloody war. Tarrant eventually sacrificed himself to destroy Calesta and bring about a world in which humanity's fears would no longer haunt them in the form of faeborn demons, and only those willing to sacrifice their lives in exchange would be capable of sorcery.
Timeline cutoff is before Tarrant breaks the terms of his pact by saving the society of the Eastern continent from turning its destruction in on itself.
Sample post (just a general, everyday, puttering-around-the-ship post; please include a snippet of dialogue):
http://insertmeathere.livejournal.com/74444.html?thread=15732172#t15732172
If the character has magic, mutant, or otherwise metahuman abilities, please explain what they are and outline EXACTLY how they function, as their powers may not work due to the nature of the ship or may need to be limited somehow:
The fae is a force that emanates from natural phenomena, such as seismic activity (earth fae), darkness (dark fae), sunlight (solar fae) or gravitational forces exerted on a planet by its moons (tidal fae). The animals and plants of Tarrant's world manipulate this force and are manipulated by it without thought. For example, if the plants need vegetation to feed on, rainclouds will form; if Erna's version of acacia trees grow higher branches, the next generation of giraffe-analogues will be born with longer necks. With the proper training, the humans of Erna can also learn to manipulate the fae to perform what is basically sorcery: manipulating their environment or living beings around them in response to their will. Tarrant is an adept, a human born with the natural ability to see and manipulate the flow of fae.
In addition, because of the pact he made with an entity on his own world, Tarrant is kind of a psychic vampire. He feeds primarily on human fear (although blood is a secondary option). Malevolent manifestations, like ghosts and ghouls created by the fae, are generally sucked in and devoured if they get too close to him; this is something that happens without conscious control.
There's a long list of things Tarrant is capable of below, but the basic gist of it is that he can manipulate existing people or things. For example, he can command an enemy to give him information, misdirect someone's attention, use the currents of the fae to bring him information about someone, or interfere with their sorcerous Workings. He cannot materialize weapons and food out of thin air, teleport, turn into a dragon 100 times his size, or fire lasers out of his eyes. He can divert someone to investigate a dead end if they're not aware of his location, but he can't make himself invisible if he's already been seen. The fae generally allows people to manipulate their environment, not create things out of whole cloth or ignore reality.
Things Tarrant can do:
Calm animals
Render a person or animal unable to move
Command a living being to obey him
Freeze things
Manipulate weather patterns (for instance, nudging it to rain tomorrow)
Influence the evolution of animals/plants
Send messages over long distances
Obscure his presence from other sorcerers
Use the fae to obtain information about a specific target
Plant inaccurate information about a target for other sorcerers to find
Make it more likely for someone to overlook something
Use the facts of the present to make educated predictions about the future
Create 'dead' areas in which no fae exist
Create wards against demons/supernatural creatures
Share his sight/memories with others, steal memories
Enhance his eyesight or make his voice carry
Fix torn clothes, fix his hair
Create simulacra (sort of like extremely convincing magical doppelgangers, used to force an enemy to concentrate on the double instead of their intended target)
Shapeshift into other living creatures (usually this is a large bird)
Absorb heat (used for relieving fevers)
Disinfect a gangrenous wound (think of magical maggots that eat infected tissue)
See in the dark
Navigate rocky shoals
Inflict internal damage on someone
Kill hair follicles
Track animals/people
Things Tarrant can't do:
Tarrant cannot perform any kind of healing magic or manipulate fire or sunlight directly. Solar fae, which is present in sunlight, actively burns him and enough exposure will kill him. In conditions where earth fae is scarce (traveling on a deep body of water, for instance), he must find another source of power (dark fae, the earth fae stored in his sword), or be unable to Work any sorcery. Tarrant cannot Work during earthquakes, as the surge in earth fae would fry his brain. Tarrant is also unable to manipulate tidal fae. So he's mostly limited to working in proximity to the soil, or in areas where sunlight doesn't destroy dark fae.
Non-superhuman special abilities of note (Is your character a master ventriloquist? A naturally-occurring super-genius? The best martial artist in the world? Say so here):
Tarrant possesses a keen, analytical mind, some considerable charisma, and incredible determination and will to live. He's a decent swordsman and a meticulous keeper of records. He might even have been a successful scientist if his world wasn't so ill-suited for the profession.
Your LJ: tetradecimal.livejournal.com
Your email: tetradecimal [at] pandemona [dot] net
Your AIM, MSN, or Yahoo handle: Tetravolte
Invited by: (If you are already playing at Trans9, ignore this)
Character's name: Gerald Tarrant
Character's LJ: coldfire_adept.livejournal.com
Character's canon: the Coldfire trilogy by C.S. Friedman
Brief (around 300 words) personality outline of your character:
To strangers, Tarrant is cultured, charming, and polite. He insists on adhering to the careful, structured etiquette of his world's Revivalist period, even preferring its fashions and hairstyles long after they have ceased being in vogue. He proffers chairs to any ladies in his company, he bows formally rather than shaking hands, and he enjoys a little conversational fencing now and then. Beneath the polished aristocratic facade, however, is a ruthless, vindictive man that always has to be in control. Surprises mean he's failed to plan for all contingencies; challenges to his power aren't welcome diversions, but possible threats to his existence. Tarrant isn't interested in world domination or cackling maniacally atop his dark throne (although he does sort of have a dark throne); what he wants is to exist in absolute safety and comfort, free to work his will upon the world at his leisure.
For centuries, Tarrant maintains absolute power in the region in which he lives by ruthlessly hunting down his enemies and those who might attempt to harm his servants -- not because he cares about his underlings, but because people need to know that his power is not to be trifled with. He carefully constructs a base of operations over the course of a thousand years for the express purpose of providing an impregnable shelter for himself and better pooling the dark fae that fuels his sorceries. He even meddles with the surrounding ecosystem, changing each living organism within his forest's borders slowly over time so that the flora and fauna are uniquely suited to survive in the lightless tree cover that shrouds his Keep and guard him against outside threat. In short, he's an extremely meticulous, paranoid man who eschews personal danger whenever possible.
Personal survival is the single biggest motivating factor in Tarrant's life. It, along with his rapacious intellectual curiosity, is why he sacrificed his family to become an undead sorcerer. It's why he's spent the last thousand years consolidating power so that no one could oppose him, and it's also why Tarrant can never break his word without dire consequence. Because of the tenuous nature of the pact keeping Tarrant alive, his life is a constant balancing act; while he's sacrificed his humanity for power, becoming too inhuman, by the natural laws of Erna, would render him nothing more than a mindless demon. Tarrant's sense of Revivalist honor serves as a sort of anchor, giving him strict rules to abide by to maintain his sense of individuality, so breaking that code of honor (by, say, promising not to harm someone and harming them anyway) would threaten his very existence as a sentient being. Conveniently, it also provides an excellent motivator to get him to cooperate with those he finds distasteful.
In a way, Tarrant is both sustained and trapped by the darker parts of his persona. His need to know what becomes of his church and avoid whatever grisly fate awaits him in the afterlife drives him forward and keeps him alive, but the innocent lives he sacrifices to secure his future ensure that the tortures he'll be subjected to after death will be that much more terrible. He lives long enough to know that his human dream -- the creation of a God of Erna -- has succeeded, but he is unable to look upon it because exposure to its power would instantly destroy an undead creature like himself. He could escape the tortures of his future afterlife by sincerely repenting and asking to be forgiven for his earthly transgressions... but that would admitting that he was wrong, and he could never truly deliver a sincere apology, or truly repent for his misdeeds. Not when there's still knowledge to be gleaned and control to exert.
Brief (around 500 words) history and background of your character OR link to a really good wiki page with their history. In either case, explain where they cut off from the timeline:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coldfire_Trilogy
Gerald Tarrant was once a loving father and husband, a powerful sorcerer, and one of the foremost figures in the establishment of the Church of the One God on the planet Erna. He served the Church as its Prophet, becoming a formative figure in the creation of Church doctrine. Unfortunately, he also had a falling-out with other major figures in the Church, who not only declared sorcery morally wrong, but established the idea of a nameless, evil being that would act opposite to the One God, which would punish wrongdoers (including sorcerers) in the afterlife. Because human belief in these tenets actually had the power to manifest this being, Tarrant was essentially caught between giving up his sorcery or ultimately falling victim to it.
Tarrant took a third choice: he sacrificed the lives of his wife and children in exchange for immortality and power, choosing to haunt Erna as the mysterious Hunter rather than surrender himself to whatever fate awaited him after mortal death. As the Hunter, Tarrant set up operations in the forests of Jahanna, crafting the environment and wildlife to serve his purposes and creating a stronghold for himself against the warriors of his former Church. After he broke the back of the last major Church offensive into the Forest, Tarrant became almost a creature of legend -- a thing no one in his region dared challenge.
Rather than expanding his base of power, Tarrant was content to remain centered in the Forest as a regional power, observing from a distance the development of his church and of human civilization in general. He even monitored the descendants of his last surviving child, although he forbade them to ever lay claim to his former title as the Neocount of Merentha. It was only when a group of memory-devouring demons from the south trespassed on his territory that Tarrant roused himself from his Forest to hunt them down, though an unfortunate promise quickly forced him to travel far from the Forest to battle sorcerers even worse than himself -- human sorcerers who, like Tarrant, had taken advantage of the fae to obtain incredible power, sculpting man and environment alike to suit their own ends.
Tarrant worked with the priest Damien Kilcannon Vryce to rid first the mysterious rakhlands, then the sprawling eastern Wastes of the demons and sorcerers manipulating Erna and its currents of power for personal gain. Their travels eventually revealed a common thread: each of these sorcerers was in contact with a powerful demon named Calesta, whose desire to feed on human sadism drove him to attempt to recreate humanity as a species constantly engaged in bloody war. Tarrant eventually sacrificed himself to destroy Calesta and bring about a world in which humanity's fears would no longer haunt them in the form of faeborn demons, and only those willing to sacrifice their lives in exchange would be capable of sorcery.
Timeline cutoff is before Tarrant breaks the terms of his pact by saving the society of the Eastern continent from turning its destruction in on itself.
Sample post (just a general, everyday, puttering-around-the-ship post; please include a snippet of dialogue):
http://insertmeathere.livejournal.com/74444.html?thread=15732172#t15732172
If the character has magic, mutant, or otherwise metahuman abilities, please explain what they are and outline EXACTLY how they function, as their powers may not work due to the nature of the ship or may need to be limited somehow:
The fae is a force that emanates from natural phenomena, such as seismic activity (earth fae), darkness (dark fae), sunlight (solar fae) or gravitational forces exerted on a planet by its moons (tidal fae). The animals and plants of Tarrant's world manipulate this force and are manipulated by it without thought. For example, if the plants need vegetation to feed on, rainclouds will form; if Erna's version of acacia trees grow higher branches, the next generation of giraffe-analogues will be born with longer necks. With the proper training, the humans of Erna can also learn to manipulate the fae to perform what is basically sorcery: manipulating their environment or living beings around them in response to their will. Tarrant is an adept, a human born with the natural ability to see and manipulate the flow of fae.
In addition, because of the pact he made with an entity on his own world, Tarrant is kind of a psychic vampire. He feeds primarily on human fear (although blood is a secondary option). Malevolent manifestations, like ghosts and ghouls created by the fae, are generally sucked in and devoured if they get too close to him; this is something that happens without conscious control.
There's a long list of things Tarrant is capable of below, but the basic gist of it is that he can manipulate existing people or things. For example, he can command an enemy to give him information, misdirect someone's attention, use the currents of the fae to bring him information about someone, or interfere with their sorcerous Workings. He cannot materialize weapons and food out of thin air, teleport, turn into a dragon 100 times his size, or fire lasers out of his eyes. He can divert someone to investigate a dead end if they're not aware of his location, but he can't make himself invisible if he's already been seen. The fae generally allows people to manipulate their environment, not create things out of whole cloth or ignore reality.
Things Tarrant can do:
Calm animals
Render a person or animal unable to move
Command a living being to obey him
Freeze things
Manipulate weather patterns (for instance, nudging it to rain tomorrow)
Influence the evolution of animals/plants
Send messages over long distances
Obscure his presence from other sorcerers
Use the fae to obtain information about a specific target
Plant inaccurate information about a target for other sorcerers to find
Make it more likely for someone to overlook something
Use the facts of the present to make educated predictions about the future
Create 'dead' areas in which no fae exist
Create wards against demons/supernatural creatures
Share his sight/memories with others, steal memories
Enhance his eyesight or make his voice carry
Fix torn clothes, fix his hair
Create simulacra (sort of like extremely convincing magical doppelgangers, used to force an enemy to concentrate on the double instead of their intended target)
Shapeshift into other living creatures (usually this is a large bird)
Absorb heat (used for relieving fevers)
Disinfect a gangrenous wound (think of magical maggots that eat infected tissue)
See in the dark
Navigate rocky shoals
Inflict internal damage on someone
Kill hair follicles
Track animals/people
Things Tarrant can't do:
Tarrant cannot perform any kind of healing magic or manipulate fire or sunlight directly. Solar fae, which is present in sunlight, actively burns him and enough exposure will kill him. In conditions where earth fae is scarce (traveling on a deep body of water, for instance), he must find another source of power (dark fae, the earth fae stored in his sword), or be unable to Work any sorcery. Tarrant cannot Work during earthquakes, as the surge in earth fae would fry his brain. Tarrant is also unable to manipulate tidal fae. So he's mostly limited to working in proximity to the soil, or in areas where sunlight doesn't destroy dark fae.
Non-superhuman special abilities of note (Is your character a master ventriloquist? A naturally-occurring super-genius? The best martial artist in the world? Say so here):
Tarrant possesses a keen, analytical mind, some considerable charisma, and incredible determination and will to live. He's a decent swordsman and a meticulous keeper of records. He might even have been a successful scientist if his world wasn't so ill-suited for the profession.