Umber
03-22-08, 01:34 AM
I did my best to balance some of the ideas I have here, but I'll understand if things are still considered a little too overpowered. Let me know.
Isadore “Izzy” Umber
Age: Twenty-eight
Race: Human
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Green
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 210 lbs.
Current Occupation: Druid
A Brief History
For all the “fun” Umber will claim to have had, his life really reads like a laundry list of minor offenses with only but a few forays into truly heinous activity. Generally he has attached himself to some band of hellions stealing, drinking, reaving and roving until said group burns out and he’s left the last man standing. Then he spends his time sulking, sometimes traveling and sometimes living alone in the wild, until he stumbles into the watering hole occupied by the next band of hellions. It’s a process that has served him well, and historically he has deviated from it only a handful of times.
He has never held an honest job, but he’s been plenty of things: strong-arm, brute, goon, pirate, hired-hand, thug, bouncer, patsy, mercenary.
He did not descend into this life a victim of circumstance, but chose it. The story goes that Umber was the firstborn to an affluent duke in southern Salvar, and started off all right. He had a taste for hunting his cousins and younger siblings didn’t share, but otherwise lived the life expected of him. There was little reason to believe the Umber household wouldn’t fall comfortably upon his shoulders and go on its merry way just as it always had.
The stories differ about what it was that caused things to change. The romantic ones say a direling couple came far to the south in a fit of wanderlust and was invited into the Umber household as a curiosity, and while staying at the manor the Maiden of the North sang in the primal growl they called music. While his family universally cringed at the sound, something deep and primitive within Isadore was awakened and wooed and could never be put to sleep again. The pragmatic stories fie upon the romantic and say instead that Umber was denied his rightful inheritance and had a great big hissy fit, and has been having one ever since. Both stories are, of course, true.
Soon after thoroughly corrupting a small harem of serving girls and peasants, vandalizing the gardens and three-hundred-year-old stonework, and ultimately burning down half the manor house, Umber fled the authorities in Salvar and began his wandering.
Most recently he became involved in a most foolhardy venture in Fallien with a band of “treasure hunters.” Predictably, it didn’t go well, and Umber likely would have died if not for the intervention of The Green – a sentient plant claiming to represent plant-life as a whole. Sensing a kinship and a compatibility of purpose between itself and Umber, The Green forged a pact between them: he would be its right hand in a war against civilization.
Personality
Some say Isadore has some vague moral creed, but it’s more likely that his uncharacteristic whims are dictated by whatever emotional state he happens to be in. He is primarily interested in his own goals, and has no qualms with harming others or breaking rules. While his actions involve the general degradation of law or the undermining of moral values, he doesn’t cause chaos for chaos’ sake – there must be some immediate personal benefit. He is most assuredly power-hungry, destructive, and selfish, but also markedly intelligent and goal-oriented, even if the goal is just personal amusement.
Physical Description
While most sink to the rabble of Althanas involuntarily or as a matter of course, Umber chose it and exists there as a member of good standing – and he looks the part. He is built broad and stout, limbs heavy with muscle. A fair elf once wronged by him declared him “apish, no more man than a thing up out of the jungle,” and while there are certainly many men closer to apes than Umber the accusation isn’t entirely baseless. With his mighty shoulders, deep chest, and thick arms, and his general bearing of menace, he cuts a formidable shape.
Umber’s face is the kind that promotes shadows: a low, broad brow, with deep eyes, a hard, wide jaw line and a small, grim mouth. His eyes are striking, not for their dull green color but for the intensity of thought therein. His hair is rather dark, thick, long, and naturally straight and kempt. What little facial hair he allows is kept in tidy, trim muttonchops. His smile, thankfully rare, is a disturbing thing: his teeth are uniformly sharp since connecting with The Green, and his jaw is noticeably more muscular than that of the typical human being.
He dresses, now exclusively, in leather. Due to his newfound ties with The Green he cannot comfortably wear anything derived from plants, which obviously precludes practical materials like cotton or linen.
Equipment
The clothes on his back: Or rather, a pair of leather pants, a studded leather belt, and a bulky set of leather boots. All are in good condition, but offer minimal protection – Isadore bought them with style in mind, not defense.
A knife: held in a sheath strapped along the entire length of his right thigh, it’s the sort of weapon that brutes use for intimidation factor over efficacy. It’s happenstance that the whole thing is beautifully crafted from bone (and thus does not have a wooden handle), and though the blade is sharp and deadly it’s not near as durable as a metal blade would be. If it were to forcibly meet anything harder than iron, the blade would surely snap.
Skills
After nearly ten years of life in the dark underbelly of more than one society, Isadore has procured a great deal of knowledge. That he survived so long without any outside help is a testament to his abilities, but now that The Green has cast its favor upon him he is even more formidable.
Level Zero
Personal Skills and Talents
Brawling: Isadore was never formally trained in any sort of combat, but being the instigator of his fair share of barroom brawls meant needing to catch on to the basics quickly. He reacts 1.5 times faster than the average person when attacked, and most would agree that he’s easily 1.5 times stronger than most people of his height and build. All-in-all, he’s an above-average unarmed combatant.
Blades: Umber is less comfortable in combat when weapons come into play, but will sooner reach for his trusty dagger than a sword of any sort. He’s an average combatant when armed with his dagger, able to hold his own with other common warriors but incapable of anything extraordinary.
Bow: A hunter at heart, Izzy was trained at a very young age in the use of a bow and arrow. He’s a bit out of practice even with his experiences as a mercenary, but a decent shot in a pinch. He used to be quite good with a bow in his hands, but abilities tend to atrophy. He’s now an average bowman, but with a great deal of potential.
Note that he does not currently own a bow.
Woodsman: Isadore has spent a fair bit of time outside the city limits across Althanas, sustaining himself on whatever he can catch, find, or build himself. As such, he is comfortable in the wild, but not quite as comfortable as an experienced woodsman. While he knows the basics of self-reliance, he is yet a slightly below-average survivalist.
Powers
Keeper of The Green: Umber is inexorably connected to The Green. His supernatural abilities all stem from the gifts it grants him, and he can feel its presence always. He can “meld” with The Green by touching any form of living plant, from a dandelion to an oak. As of now, this only equates to a mental connectivity and it is unknown what benefits this grants.
Being so close to The Green has changed Isadore in notable ways. He now finds the destruction of plant life disturbing – he can no longer eat any plant or wear anything derived from plants. He will always avoid being within wooden structures for prolonged periods of time, and will prefer not to sit at a wooden table or drink from a wooden mug. The use of tools with wooden handles is unsettling to him – it feels akin to wielding a severed limb. He is now perfectly carnivorous, almost monstrously so, and depends on tools constructed from bone, leather, metal, or stone.
Barkskin: The first gift bestowed by The Green is barkskin, which is exactly what it sounds like. Isadore’s skin is transfigured to a hard substance not at all unlike the outermost layer of a tree, though it is far more flexible. It is unknown how deep the transfiguration goes – if it is just his skin or his entire physiology or something in between – but the transformation comes with strengths and weaknesses.
1) Isadore's speed and strength remain unchanged. His body creaks and groans with movement, like an old oak assaulted by strong winds or the beams of a ship stressed by the sea, which makes any sort of stealth impossible. It also makes the use of weapons difficult, if not altogether impossible.
2) Isadore becomes much more difficult to damage. His skin becomes almost as hard as a thick hide, save for the general areas encompassing his forearms which become as hard as iron, and he cannot be made to bleed. He becomes immune to human illness and disease, and no longer needs to breathe oxygen in order to live (instead, he inhales carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen, albeit at a much slower rate). However, his barkskin form also feeds off of sun- or moonlight – the longer he spends without some source of sunlight, the more lethargic he becomes.
3) Isadore can assume barkskin form for but a short period of time (equal to three posts), and doing so is draining - he will only have the stamina to transform once per battle.
Isadore “Izzy” Umber
Age: Twenty-eight
Race: Human
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Green
Height: 5’8”
Weight: 210 lbs.
Current Occupation: Druid
A Brief History
For all the “fun” Umber will claim to have had, his life really reads like a laundry list of minor offenses with only but a few forays into truly heinous activity. Generally he has attached himself to some band of hellions stealing, drinking, reaving and roving until said group burns out and he’s left the last man standing. Then he spends his time sulking, sometimes traveling and sometimes living alone in the wild, until he stumbles into the watering hole occupied by the next band of hellions. It’s a process that has served him well, and historically he has deviated from it only a handful of times.
He has never held an honest job, but he’s been plenty of things: strong-arm, brute, goon, pirate, hired-hand, thug, bouncer, patsy, mercenary.
He did not descend into this life a victim of circumstance, but chose it. The story goes that Umber was the firstborn to an affluent duke in southern Salvar, and started off all right. He had a taste for hunting his cousins and younger siblings didn’t share, but otherwise lived the life expected of him. There was little reason to believe the Umber household wouldn’t fall comfortably upon his shoulders and go on its merry way just as it always had.
The stories differ about what it was that caused things to change. The romantic ones say a direling couple came far to the south in a fit of wanderlust and was invited into the Umber household as a curiosity, and while staying at the manor the Maiden of the North sang in the primal growl they called music. While his family universally cringed at the sound, something deep and primitive within Isadore was awakened and wooed and could never be put to sleep again. The pragmatic stories fie upon the romantic and say instead that Umber was denied his rightful inheritance and had a great big hissy fit, and has been having one ever since. Both stories are, of course, true.
Soon after thoroughly corrupting a small harem of serving girls and peasants, vandalizing the gardens and three-hundred-year-old stonework, and ultimately burning down half the manor house, Umber fled the authorities in Salvar and began his wandering.
Most recently he became involved in a most foolhardy venture in Fallien with a band of “treasure hunters.” Predictably, it didn’t go well, and Umber likely would have died if not for the intervention of The Green – a sentient plant claiming to represent plant-life as a whole. Sensing a kinship and a compatibility of purpose between itself and Umber, The Green forged a pact between them: he would be its right hand in a war against civilization.
Personality
Some say Isadore has some vague moral creed, but it’s more likely that his uncharacteristic whims are dictated by whatever emotional state he happens to be in. He is primarily interested in his own goals, and has no qualms with harming others or breaking rules. While his actions involve the general degradation of law or the undermining of moral values, he doesn’t cause chaos for chaos’ sake – there must be some immediate personal benefit. He is most assuredly power-hungry, destructive, and selfish, but also markedly intelligent and goal-oriented, even if the goal is just personal amusement.
Physical Description
While most sink to the rabble of Althanas involuntarily or as a matter of course, Umber chose it and exists there as a member of good standing – and he looks the part. He is built broad and stout, limbs heavy with muscle. A fair elf once wronged by him declared him “apish, no more man than a thing up out of the jungle,” and while there are certainly many men closer to apes than Umber the accusation isn’t entirely baseless. With his mighty shoulders, deep chest, and thick arms, and his general bearing of menace, he cuts a formidable shape.
Umber’s face is the kind that promotes shadows: a low, broad brow, with deep eyes, a hard, wide jaw line and a small, grim mouth. His eyes are striking, not for their dull green color but for the intensity of thought therein. His hair is rather dark, thick, long, and naturally straight and kempt. What little facial hair he allows is kept in tidy, trim muttonchops. His smile, thankfully rare, is a disturbing thing: his teeth are uniformly sharp since connecting with The Green, and his jaw is noticeably more muscular than that of the typical human being.
He dresses, now exclusively, in leather. Due to his newfound ties with The Green he cannot comfortably wear anything derived from plants, which obviously precludes practical materials like cotton or linen.
Equipment
The clothes on his back: Or rather, a pair of leather pants, a studded leather belt, and a bulky set of leather boots. All are in good condition, but offer minimal protection – Isadore bought them with style in mind, not defense.
A knife: held in a sheath strapped along the entire length of his right thigh, it’s the sort of weapon that brutes use for intimidation factor over efficacy. It’s happenstance that the whole thing is beautifully crafted from bone (and thus does not have a wooden handle), and though the blade is sharp and deadly it’s not near as durable as a metal blade would be. If it were to forcibly meet anything harder than iron, the blade would surely snap.
Skills
After nearly ten years of life in the dark underbelly of more than one society, Isadore has procured a great deal of knowledge. That he survived so long without any outside help is a testament to his abilities, but now that The Green has cast its favor upon him he is even more formidable.
Level Zero
Personal Skills and Talents
Brawling: Isadore was never formally trained in any sort of combat, but being the instigator of his fair share of barroom brawls meant needing to catch on to the basics quickly. He reacts 1.5 times faster than the average person when attacked, and most would agree that he’s easily 1.5 times stronger than most people of his height and build. All-in-all, he’s an above-average unarmed combatant.
Blades: Umber is less comfortable in combat when weapons come into play, but will sooner reach for his trusty dagger than a sword of any sort. He’s an average combatant when armed with his dagger, able to hold his own with other common warriors but incapable of anything extraordinary.
Bow: A hunter at heart, Izzy was trained at a very young age in the use of a bow and arrow. He’s a bit out of practice even with his experiences as a mercenary, but a decent shot in a pinch. He used to be quite good with a bow in his hands, but abilities tend to atrophy. He’s now an average bowman, but with a great deal of potential.
Note that he does not currently own a bow.
Woodsman: Isadore has spent a fair bit of time outside the city limits across Althanas, sustaining himself on whatever he can catch, find, or build himself. As such, he is comfortable in the wild, but not quite as comfortable as an experienced woodsman. While he knows the basics of self-reliance, he is yet a slightly below-average survivalist.
Powers
Keeper of The Green: Umber is inexorably connected to The Green. His supernatural abilities all stem from the gifts it grants him, and he can feel its presence always. He can “meld” with The Green by touching any form of living plant, from a dandelion to an oak. As of now, this only equates to a mental connectivity and it is unknown what benefits this grants.
Being so close to The Green has changed Isadore in notable ways. He now finds the destruction of plant life disturbing – he can no longer eat any plant or wear anything derived from plants. He will always avoid being within wooden structures for prolonged periods of time, and will prefer not to sit at a wooden table or drink from a wooden mug. The use of tools with wooden handles is unsettling to him – it feels akin to wielding a severed limb. He is now perfectly carnivorous, almost monstrously so, and depends on tools constructed from bone, leather, metal, or stone.
Barkskin: The first gift bestowed by The Green is barkskin, which is exactly what it sounds like. Isadore’s skin is transfigured to a hard substance not at all unlike the outermost layer of a tree, though it is far more flexible. It is unknown how deep the transfiguration goes – if it is just his skin or his entire physiology or something in between – but the transformation comes with strengths and weaknesses.
1) Isadore's speed and strength remain unchanged. His body creaks and groans with movement, like an old oak assaulted by strong winds or the beams of a ship stressed by the sea, which makes any sort of stealth impossible. It also makes the use of weapons difficult, if not altogether impossible.
2) Isadore becomes much more difficult to damage. His skin becomes almost as hard as a thick hide, save for the general areas encompassing his forearms which become as hard as iron, and he cannot be made to bleed. He becomes immune to human illness and disease, and no longer needs to breathe oxygen in order to live (instead, he inhales carbon dioxide and exhales oxygen, albeit at a much slower rate). However, his barkskin form also feeds off of sun- or moonlight – the longer he spends without some source of sunlight, the more lethargic he becomes.
3) Isadore can assume barkskin form for but a short period of time (equal to three posts), and doing so is draining - he will only have the stamina to transform once per battle.