| #1Ganymede425Dec 14, 2014 15:47:21 | Let me know what you think of this character build and brief backstory.
He's a human Blade warlock with the Old One patron, and will have a three level dip in rogue for Cunning Action (to synergize with his Mobile feat) and Arcane Trickster abilities.
Most would consider Ingram Duquesne a handsome man. He stands at 5’10” tall and has a lean and lanky build. His shoulder-length hair is a bright blonde and bound in the back by a loose white ribbon. It is parted in such a way that the strands cover the right side of his face, leaving one sky blue eye exposed. He has a prominent wedge of a nose and his lips are often curled into something halfway between a smile and a smirk.
Ingram wears the finery of an aristocratic setting, but his clothes are worn with travel and time: brown leather boots, pressed tan trousers, and a sharply tailored cream tunic paired with a matching silk cravat. For armor, he wears a teal vest of studded leather, dotted with tiny bronze suns and crossed along the chest with three leather straps. Ingram is often seen with a basket-hilted, flame-bladed rapier and a pair of dirks hanging off of his belt, proper noble’s weapons. A signet ring for the house Duquesne is worn proudly on his left hand, further informing any onlooker of his noble heritage.
One of Ingram’s more striking features lies hidden under the golden strands of his hair. Instead of being blue, his right eye is an orb of the purest black. It has no visible pupil or iris, and instead appears to be a well of inky darkness. The flickering of tiny stars can be seen within if one stares long enough, stars like those of a long lost galaxy. Ingram does not like to expose this deformity, so normally covers it with his hair.
Ingram’s mannerisms and personality are a study in ambivalence. While he walked the courts of his home city, he was known for his way with words and his charm. On the other hand, his recent transformation and magical awakening have left him embittered and cold. He is suave and personable when in a good mood, but biting and vindictive when his mood turns sour. He is comfortable in a leadership role but is quick to lay blame to others when things go wrong. While he scorns his father and the unwritten rules of nobility that put him in his current situation, he secretly believes that the aristocracy is his proper place and would do anything to return to it.
With the onset of his new powers, Ingram enjoys toying and experimenting with the magic under his control. He uses his spells to ease the burden of living on the road; with his magic, he cleans and mends his clothes, presses his trousers, shines his boots, and heats his meals. Ingram also uses his spells in order to cover up the presence of his deformed eye. While he can launch bright flares of force from his fingertips, he prefers to confront his foes in “a more civilized manner” with his family rapier.
Occasionally, Ingram’s attention is pulled toward macabre hallucinations. A vision of a gaping maw or a peering eye could appear on a brick wall, a tree trunk, or the face of a portrait. The visions might whisper the secrets of a magical incantation or peer toward an object or direction of interest. Mostly, they just remain silent and motionless in the periphery of his vision, a constant reminder that something from beyond this world is watching him, studying him, goading him on toward an unknown direction.
Ingram was the son of a wealthy and powerful family in his home town. Ever since his adolescence, and with his mother long dead, his father steeped him in politics and the ways of the aristocracy. He spent most of his teenage years chasing intrigue and women and could often be found sneaking through a lover’s second story window, betting on games of Dragonchess at a bawdy tavern, or listening for gossip while at court. While he did not have the patience for his studies save for fencing, he was a compelling debater and had garnered a name for himself in the city council. By the time he was eighteen, Ingram had used his father’s contacts to secure himself a council patron and, with that, a fast track to a position of power.
On his 21st birthday, otherworldly powers conspired to change his fate. After the celebration at his father’s manor, he crept to a hill outside of town with his lover. There they made love and lay out under the stars. As she slept, Ingram looked up to the sky and was transfixed by a peculiar red star that he had never seen before. After a moment of star gazing, the star let out a crimson flash. Suddenly the landscape before him twisted into a nightmare. The grassy hill became a carpet of oozing flesh covered with hundreds of gnashing mouths. Trees became tentacles twisted into maddening shapes and that red star was now an eye peering down at him. Then, the vision disappeared as suddenly as it came. He returned to reality with the sight of his lover screaming and crying before him. Except, she wasn’t frightened by the previous vision; she was screaming at him. Her eyes fixated on Ingram as if he was the monster. She then ran off into the night.
Thoroughly shaken, Ingram returned to his father’s manor. It was there he discovered lasting consequences of that night. His right eye had become an inky black orb, rimmed and dripping with tears stained red. It looked as if something had violently clawed out his eye and hastily shoved a lump of obsidian in its place. Seeing the horrible deformity, Ingram’s father ordered him to pack his belongings. His father related a tale of a dark family secret, one involving a tryst with an eccentric half-elfin woman, a faked pregnancy, murder, suicide, and visions of a red star. He handed the young man a sack of coins and told him to leave, never to return.
Since that day, Ingram has discovered that the touch of the red star left him with certain advantages to go with his deformity; the experience granted him the ability to call forth mystical energies. Unfortunately, his newfound magical prowess came at a cost. Not only was he essentially penniless and without any friends, echoes of the previous vision continued to haunt him. The gory hallucinations were more than an ever-present distraction, they always appeared to prod him toward an unknown goal. Now that he has dwindled his remaining coin on wine and tavern rooms, Ingram seeks to use the touch of the red star to return to influence.
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