Otto
01-09-13, 02:20 AM
Full name: Otto Bastum
Age: 25, or thereabouts.
Race: Orc
Hair colour: black
Eye colour: amber
Height: 175 cm
Weight: 90 kg
Occupation: junior armourer, foot soldier (Corone Armed Forces)
Personality: Otto does not speak overmuch; he prefers parsimonious and, preferably, monosyllabic responses, rarely goes out of his way to start a conversation, and never instigates small talk. He requires some form of physical stimulation to truly focus on a task – preferably to work with his own hands on something. Without this he becomes detached, impatient, and irritable. People’s first impression of Otto is of a dour, humourless, and overbearingly cynical individual, but those who come to know him well suspect he has moments of remarkable sarcastic and vitriolic wit. The cynicism, however, is a definite.
It would surprise many to know that Otto also has a strong sense of loyalty and duty, and even generosity. He understands that he probably would not even have survived childhood without the charity of his old master, and of the importance of forging friendships – few but strong ones – to help weather prejudice and abuse from others.
Otto can be a little slow in conversation, and has underdeveloped social skills. When roused, he will fight aggressively and with speed. Otto has learned to keep a reign on his temper, but has trouble letting go of a grudge completely. Other than that, he is a fan of large meals and strong beer.
Appearance: Otto is not particularly tall, but heavy manual labour for most of his life has made him rather stocky. He has slate grey skin with bristly patches of thick black hair on much of his body – chest, back, legs, arms, and head. Often, his face and arms will be coated with soot from the forge. Old burn marks adorn his arms, and some of the hair there is usually singed off. His arms are long for his body, reaching nearly to his knees. He is broad shouldered, and has a slight hunch.
Even for an Orc, Otto is not considered handsome. He has a wide and slightly upturned nose, jutting jaw and forehead with large eyebrows, small, deep set eyes, high cheek bones. Two fangs rise a couple of centimetres outside his mouth from his lower jaw. His thick, wiry hair is usually brushed or tied back, and he has grown his beard out by about an inch.
He has a deep, slightly rasping voice, and speaks with a slight lisp due to his mouth shape.
History: in CP 1776, Marten Smith found a swaddled infant on his Radasanth doorstep. Upon inspection the foundling turned out to be an Orc, accompanied only by the blanket he was wrapped in. For whatever reason, Marten and his wife Katarina took him in and named him (Otto understands the decision was made by Marten, but never pressed either of them what Katarina’s position had been at the time). Somehow they acquired the services of a wet nurse for the orcish infant and raised him without major incident for a year, until the human couple’s first child – Emric - was born. Marten would say later that even if things didn’t go well with Otto, at least is was good practice for their first son.
Possibly because of the strain of raising two dependents, Katarina never showed much affection for Otto, and Marten – while never neglectful or cruel – was at times gruff and impatient. From little past the age that he could walk, Marten had Otto assisting him around the forge. Otto would help carry raw materials, fetch tools, and sweep the floors, but not until he was about nine did Marten allow him near the forge proper or to port the finished products. At this time, Marten took the lad on as an apprentice with the additional duties of assisting Emric when he began to learn the trade, and later, so long as Otto remained in Radasanth, the expectation that he would work for Emric when he took over the family business. Apart from the armourer's trade, Marten also instructed Otto in some standard blacksmithing that the old man had learned from his grandfather, who had lived in a time with much less demand from the military. Meanwhile, Katarina did her best to teach Otto basic literacy so he could help with some of the paperwork for the business. He was a very slow learner, constantly losing focus and his frustration with the (to his mind) dry and dull lessons was ever compounded by that at his lack of progress. Orcs are not the most numerous members of the populace in Radasanth, and Otto was cajoled and taunted by others his age (more so than normal, even for children). Still, there were two or three who didn't partake in this, and Otto usually spent what little spare time he had in their company, roaming the streets, wharfs, and occasioanlly the rooftops of the poorer areas.
Once Emric had started learning from his father, Otto was given the majority of the hauling and cleaning jobs so that Marten’s son could have more to time to practice the trade. Otto, however, was bored and frustrated with the unskilled work and desired more time at the forge. The Orc had felt both the satisfaction of creating something with his own two hands and, now also intrigued, the enkindled desire to learn and master the craft. Otto began waking before the others so he could finish carting in the iron and coal as the forge was lit, and stayed back late to clean and tidy.Unfortunately for Otto, this occasionally meant a missed meal, and often a lack of sleep. Nonetheless, he persevered, until Marten came up with a new duty for both him and Emric.
Marten believed that an adequate weaponsmith had to understand what it was they were making – which required first-hand experience. After a couple of weeks of practice at the hands of his master, Otto and Emric were sent up to the Citadel two or three times a week to spar with acquaintances of Marten in the Corone Armed Forces. One week might be spent learning to move under the bulk of byrnie, the next on swordplay, and the one after that, how to wield a polearm. Emric slowly developed his skill with all manner of swords, and these became his focus at the forge. Otto quite liked the heft and familiarity of a good hammer, and felt it was well balanced with the reach of a spear. As they trained, the apprentices learned the impact balance had on a sword, how much padding one required underneath one’s chainmail, the benefit of smaller, lighter weapons in protracted battles, and the like. Otto and Emric moved on to sparring each other, then other youths and even the odd experienced fighter who had time for them.
This carried on for twelve years until, with the civil war, Otto was drafted into the Corone Armed Forces. Now fresh into the ranks, Otto has been assigned as a field armourer and foot soldier. He is drilled by day at the garrison and the Citadel, but orders will have him marching against the rebels very soon.
Skills:
Literacy: poor. Good enough to struggle through invoices, receipts, and work orders, but don’t expect him to make any valuable contributions to the Radasanth Weekly Book Club. He is only versed in Tradespeak.
Language: adequate. Otto is versed in Tradespeak, although you might not know it at first.
Armourer: competent. He can make simple armour and chainmail with leather, iron, and steel, and make it to fit. He can also craft swords, axes, maces, hammers and spears, with greater skill regarding the last two. Lastly, he can usually repair these items at a forge, or at least keep them from falling apart a bit longer.
Blacksmith: novice. This covers metalwork that is not part of an armourer’s craft but is essential to everyday life, such as fitting horseshoes, toolmaking, and crafting various metal goods such as nails, railings, hinges, gears, etc.
Hammers: competent. Otto knows his way around a good, single-handed hammer at the forge and on the field.
Spears: adequate. Otto has trained with spears, and their reach complements the length of his arms.
Shield: competent. Otto favours wooden round shields and is accustomed to hefting one in combat. He has some skill in using a shield to catch incoming blows while minimising trauma, using it as a counterbalance, and even as an extra weapon if need be.
Abilities:
Scent: Otto has an excellent sense of smell, and can easily detect animal traces on the wind or left behind where an individual has resided for some time. Smells which stand out are sweat, urine, faeces, and, in particular, blood. This made growing up in a medieval-era city about as enjoyable as you’d expect. Otto’s sense of smell is about half that of a canine on the lower end of the olfactory sensitivity spectrum in regards to the mentioned odours, and half again for other scents.
Stamina: Otto has twice the stamina of an average human. While also strong, constant labour and hours at the anvil have given Otto more upper body stamina than brute strength. He can’t run all day, but this allows him to keep his shield up and his hammer swinging for, perhaps, an hour longer than an average trained human of the Corone Armed Forces.
Precision: Otto has twice the control of an average human when using hammers. Thanks to the demands of the forge, Otto can place a blow with near-perfect accuracy and the desired force. Blades on the anvil rarely fight back, though, so this ability has not translated perfectly into combat, and is obviously affected by the mobility and unpredictability of an opponent. This does not extend to his ability with a spear.
Equipment:
• Linen undergarments, shirt and trousers
• Woolen overcoat
• Leather belts, hoops/catches for weapons/shield
• Leather boots, knee height
• Leather apron, fire resistant
• Linen tabard, CAF insignia on scarlet (military issue)
• Iron-shod oaken round shield, 1 metre in diameter (self-made)
• Iron chainmail hauberk over supple leather padding, knee and wrist-length (self-made to fit)
• Iron plate greaves, shin and lower thigh (self made to fit over boots)
• Iron plate gauntlets over supple leather (self-made to fit)
• Iron helm, sallet (self-made to fit)
• Iron-headed war hammer with reverse spike atop oak handle, single handed, 75 cm long (self-made)
• Iron-tipped oak spear, 6’ (self-made)
• Bronze amulet of Trisgen on a thin leather cord (self-made)
• Iron blacksmith’s hammer
• Iron and leather maintenance equipment (oils, small knife, whetstone, file)
• Burlap rucksack & field gear (canteen, tinderbox, linen bandages)
Age: 25, or thereabouts.
Race: Orc
Hair colour: black
Eye colour: amber
Height: 175 cm
Weight: 90 kg
Occupation: junior armourer, foot soldier (Corone Armed Forces)
Personality: Otto does not speak overmuch; he prefers parsimonious and, preferably, monosyllabic responses, rarely goes out of his way to start a conversation, and never instigates small talk. He requires some form of physical stimulation to truly focus on a task – preferably to work with his own hands on something. Without this he becomes detached, impatient, and irritable. People’s first impression of Otto is of a dour, humourless, and overbearingly cynical individual, but those who come to know him well suspect he has moments of remarkable sarcastic and vitriolic wit. The cynicism, however, is a definite.
It would surprise many to know that Otto also has a strong sense of loyalty and duty, and even generosity. He understands that he probably would not even have survived childhood without the charity of his old master, and of the importance of forging friendships – few but strong ones – to help weather prejudice and abuse from others.
Otto can be a little slow in conversation, and has underdeveloped social skills. When roused, he will fight aggressively and with speed. Otto has learned to keep a reign on his temper, but has trouble letting go of a grudge completely. Other than that, he is a fan of large meals and strong beer.
Appearance: Otto is not particularly tall, but heavy manual labour for most of his life has made him rather stocky. He has slate grey skin with bristly patches of thick black hair on much of his body – chest, back, legs, arms, and head. Often, his face and arms will be coated with soot from the forge. Old burn marks adorn his arms, and some of the hair there is usually singed off. His arms are long for his body, reaching nearly to his knees. He is broad shouldered, and has a slight hunch.
Even for an Orc, Otto is not considered handsome. He has a wide and slightly upturned nose, jutting jaw and forehead with large eyebrows, small, deep set eyes, high cheek bones. Two fangs rise a couple of centimetres outside his mouth from his lower jaw. His thick, wiry hair is usually brushed or tied back, and he has grown his beard out by about an inch.
He has a deep, slightly rasping voice, and speaks with a slight lisp due to his mouth shape.
History: in CP 1776, Marten Smith found a swaddled infant on his Radasanth doorstep. Upon inspection the foundling turned out to be an Orc, accompanied only by the blanket he was wrapped in. For whatever reason, Marten and his wife Katarina took him in and named him (Otto understands the decision was made by Marten, but never pressed either of them what Katarina’s position had been at the time). Somehow they acquired the services of a wet nurse for the orcish infant and raised him without major incident for a year, until the human couple’s first child – Emric - was born. Marten would say later that even if things didn’t go well with Otto, at least is was good practice for their first son.
Possibly because of the strain of raising two dependents, Katarina never showed much affection for Otto, and Marten – while never neglectful or cruel – was at times gruff and impatient. From little past the age that he could walk, Marten had Otto assisting him around the forge. Otto would help carry raw materials, fetch tools, and sweep the floors, but not until he was about nine did Marten allow him near the forge proper or to port the finished products. At this time, Marten took the lad on as an apprentice with the additional duties of assisting Emric when he began to learn the trade, and later, so long as Otto remained in Radasanth, the expectation that he would work for Emric when he took over the family business. Apart from the armourer's trade, Marten also instructed Otto in some standard blacksmithing that the old man had learned from his grandfather, who had lived in a time with much less demand from the military. Meanwhile, Katarina did her best to teach Otto basic literacy so he could help with some of the paperwork for the business. He was a very slow learner, constantly losing focus and his frustration with the (to his mind) dry and dull lessons was ever compounded by that at his lack of progress. Orcs are not the most numerous members of the populace in Radasanth, and Otto was cajoled and taunted by others his age (more so than normal, even for children). Still, there were two or three who didn't partake in this, and Otto usually spent what little spare time he had in their company, roaming the streets, wharfs, and occasioanlly the rooftops of the poorer areas.
Once Emric had started learning from his father, Otto was given the majority of the hauling and cleaning jobs so that Marten’s son could have more to time to practice the trade. Otto, however, was bored and frustrated with the unskilled work and desired more time at the forge. The Orc had felt both the satisfaction of creating something with his own two hands and, now also intrigued, the enkindled desire to learn and master the craft. Otto began waking before the others so he could finish carting in the iron and coal as the forge was lit, and stayed back late to clean and tidy.Unfortunately for Otto, this occasionally meant a missed meal, and often a lack of sleep. Nonetheless, he persevered, until Marten came up with a new duty for both him and Emric.
Marten believed that an adequate weaponsmith had to understand what it was they were making – which required first-hand experience. After a couple of weeks of practice at the hands of his master, Otto and Emric were sent up to the Citadel two or three times a week to spar with acquaintances of Marten in the Corone Armed Forces. One week might be spent learning to move under the bulk of byrnie, the next on swordplay, and the one after that, how to wield a polearm. Emric slowly developed his skill with all manner of swords, and these became his focus at the forge. Otto quite liked the heft and familiarity of a good hammer, and felt it was well balanced with the reach of a spear. As they trained, the apprentices learned the impact balance had on a sword, how much padding one required underneath one’s chainmail, the benefit of smaller, lighter weapons in protracted battles, and the like. Otto and Emric moved on to sparring each other, then other youths and even the odd experienced fighter who had time for them.
This carried on for twelve years until, with the civil war, Otto was drafted into the Corone Armed Forces. Now fresh into the ranks, Otto has been assigned as a field armourer and foot soldier. He is drilled by day at the garrison and the Citadel, but orders will have him marching against the rebels very soon.
Skills:
Literacy: poor. Good enough to struggle through invoices, receipts, and work orders, but don’t expect him to make any valuable contributions to the Radasanth Weekly Book Club. He is only versed in Tradespeak.
Language: adequate. Otto is versed in Tradespeak, although you might not know it at first.
Armourer: competent. He can make simple armour and chainmail with leather, iron, and steel, and make it to fit. He can also craft swords, axes, maces, hammers and spears, with greater skill regarding the last two. Lastly, he can usually repair these items at a forge, or at least keep them from falling apart a bit longer.
Blacksmith: novice. This covers metalwork that is not part of an armourer’s craft but is essential to everyday life, such as fitting horseshoes, toolmaking, and crafting various metal goods such as nails, railings, hinges, gears, etc.
Hammers: competent. Otto knows his way around a good, single-handed hammer at the forge and on the field.
Spears: adequate. Otto has trained with spears, and their reach complements the length of his arms.
Shield: competent. Otto favours wooden round shields and is accustomed to hefting one in combat. He has some skill in using a shield to catch incoming blows while minimising trauma, using it as a counterbalance, and even as an extra weapon if need be.
Abilities:
Scent: Otto has an excellent sense of smell, and can easily detect animal traces on the wind or left behind where an individual has resided for some time. Smells which stand out are sweat, urine, faeces, and, in particular, blood. This made growing up in a medieval-era city about as enjoyable as you’d expect. Otto’s sense of smell is about half that of a canine on the lower end of the olfactory sensitivity spectrum in regards to the mentioned odours, and half again for other scents.
Stamina: Otto has twice the stamina of an average human. While also strong, constant labour and hours at the anvil have given Otto more upper body stamina than brute strength. He can’t run all day, but this allows him to keep his shield up and his hammer swinging for, perhaps, an hour longer than an average trained human of the Corone Armed Forces.
Precision: Otto has twice the control of an average human when using hammers. Thanks to the demands of the forge, Otto can place a blow with near-perfect accuracy and the desired force. Blades on the anvil rarely fight back, though, so this ability has not translated perfectly into combat, and is obviously affected by the mobility and unpredictability of an opponent. This does not extend to his ability with a spear.
Equipment:
• Linen undergarments, shirt and trousers
• Woolen overcoat
• Leather belts, hoops/catches for weapons/shield
• Leather boots, knee height
• Leather apron, fire resistant
• Linen tabard, CAF insignia on scarlet (military issue)
• Iron-shod oaken round shield, 1 metre in diameter (self-made)
• Iron chainmail hauberk over supple leather padding, knee and wrist-length (self-made to fit)
• Iron plate greaves, shin and lower thigh (self made to fit over boots)
• Iron plate gauntlets over supple leather (self-made to fit)
• Iron helm, sallet (self-made to fit)
• Iron-headed war hammer with reverse spike atop oak handle, single handed, 75 cm long (self-made)
• Iron-tipped oak spear, 6’ (self-made)
• Bronze amulet of Trisgen on a thin leather cord (self-made)
• Iron blacksmith’s hammer
• Iron and leather maintenance equipment (oils, small knife, whetstone, file)
• Burlap rucksack & field gear (canteen, tinderbox, linen bandages)