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the undercurrents > dossier
CERBERUS DATABASE: Pierce, Lucas
VIRTUE: Faith VICE: Wrath CONCEPT: The Last Man in the Team |
BIOMETRICS.
KNOWN ALIASES AND TITLES: Luke DATE OF BIRTH: November 29, 2041 AGE: 25 NATIONALITY: Australian-Maori FAMILY:
DISTINGUISHING MARKS:
APPEARANCE:
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HISTORY & PERSONALITY.
Sections have been written out on a separate page, linked here. |
HUNTER DOSSIER.
CLASS: Card (Hanged Man) HOME CONSPIRACY: Zangyaku (originally stationed at Tangaroa [Sydney, Australia] - recently transferred to Gisi [The Falner Estate]) RANK: Oni-Tsukai {Koeda}/Nami {Eda} POSITIONS HELD:
AFFILIATED COMPACTS/CONSPIRACIES:
OTHER AFFILIATED GROUPS:
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COMBAT ASSESSMENT.
TACTICAL DESIGNATION: Mid-Range Fighter (Defense/Control) FAVORED WEAPONS:
ABILITIES: Card. At its base, a Persona is the crystallized set of urges, drives and impulses that your character possesses – he or she is a direct reflection of the most powerful facet of its Card, what truly represents the Card for who he or she really is. Beyond that, however, a Persona is also an “archetype” – that is, a collection of symbolic ideas pertaining to a particular set of beliefs dedicated by the collective human consciousness. World literature and lore is populated by figures that represent something – Personae are similar to them, in that fashion. If this analogy doesn’t quite make sense, let’s bring psychology back into the equation. Freud speaks of the Ego, the Id, and the Superego. The Card is the Ego. The Persona is their Id and Superego, combined. Of course, the “human” aspect of a Persona is the Card, since his or her Persona was born from his or her psyche. It does not, however, possess any of the contradictions of thought and feeling that the Card possesses, and “lives” to act according to the rules and stipulations of what it represents. That, in turn, is governed by its Arcana. The individual powers and abilities that a Card has depends on two things: the Card's Arcana, and the Social Links he or she ends up making with other sentient creatures. At the end of the day, a Card and her Persona are like two souls dwelling in the same psychic space, made up of exactly the same stuff – one merely represents a different side of the other at its “highest” and “finest” point without the limitations of the physical mind and body, including the burden of contradictory urges and feelings. The Hanged Man. The Hanged Man Arcana is the Arcana of consequences, of negotiating human suffering. The drawing of the Second Breath of a new Hanged Man is often a cause for concern among other Card: it means someone, somewhere, is going to feel hurt deeply. And while it’s no guarantee that it’s Hanged Man fault, it’s sure that he will do something about it. Cards dealt under the Hanged Man usually have tragic pasts; the number of betrayals and suicides suffered by the members of the Arcana are second to none. As a result, they are sensitive to the nuances of pain and despair; disturbingly, some have learned to revel in it. The Arcana calls to it those who are capable of surviving the morass that is human suffering. Its duty is clear: to ensure the survival of the human race, it must weed out those who would be victims to the darkest of emotions. In a way, the Arcana does what other Arcana, even Justice, would not: to weed out the infirm, the weak, the spineless. It is still unclear, however, if Cards of this Arcana do this simply out of deference to their creed or out of sheer sadistic pleasure for the sort of power they now possess. Luke has only recently drawn his Second Breath, and is still too used to fighting on a "human" level - as human as a trained Zangyaku oni-tsukai can get, anyhow. |
ITEMS & EQUIPMENT.
HUNTING EQUIPMENT: Zangyaku
The Midnight Riders
PERSONAL POSSESSIONS:
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DOSSIER ON LUKE'S PERSONA
Source: here.
According to legend, the first six generations of the Te Reinga (Te Rē inga) region, from Iwhara to Hinekorako (Hinekōrako), were not humans as humans are today; instead, they were a race of water-spirit with an element of the human race as well. Hinekōrako, a taniwha guardian of the region, however, changed that forever when she fell in love with a human male.
The human's name was Tane-kino (Tāne-kino), and they both fell in love and married. She bore him a son named Taurenga.
Unfortunately, the family of Tāne-kino did not accept his taniwha bride, and they insulted Hinekōrako's ancestry, especially after the birth of her son. She abandoned her husband and son and moved to live under the Te Rē inga waterfall, where she remains to this day.
Another version of this story attributes Hinekōrako's departure to a broken promise rather than social circumstances. Because Hinekōrako descended from a line of water-spirit, she had to break the spell of her ancestry in order to remain a fully human wife and mother. Hinekōrako, before she bore the child, explained to her husband that he would have to care for baby, including the nursing, until the child could care for himself. Despite the socially unusual request, Tāne-kino promised Hinekōrako he would fulfill her wishes.
Tāne-kino kept his promise until the time Taurenga could crawl. As customary, Tāne-kino and Hinekōrako took their son to a meeting of the tribe, and Taurenga, in the midst of the tribe's gathering, relieved himself, to the disgrace of himself and his parents.
Tāne-kino, ashamed of his son, left the meeting. In his shame, he forgot his promise, and he called Hinekōrako and asked her to clean the child quickly. Hinekōrako took her son to a stream which flows past the Te Reinfa Marae, where she washed and fed him.
It was not long afterwards that Tāne-kino realized that he had broken his promise completely. He searched for his family, and when he found Hinekōrako, he begged her to forgive him for his thoughtlessness and broken promise. However, no amount of sorrow could remedy the situation, Hinekōrako would remain a taniwha by her ancestry forever.
Hinekōrako wept over her son until she finally handed him to his father. She told him that his broken promise removed any chance of her staying, and so she had to leave the land and return to her home under the Te Rē inga Falls.
While she did not remain with her child, she did watch over her descendants in a way only a taniwha could. Once, a heavy flood in the Hangaroa River pushed the Ngati-hine-hika out in the middle of the night. The flood stole away the various waka (canoes, ships) and soon the waka and those within would be smashed against the waterfall, which had become a heavy, treacherous cascade in the midst of the flood. Luckily, an old man remembered Hinekōrako and called out to her for help, and the waka stopped, despite the movement of the flood towards the waterfall. Hinekōrako saved the waka and all those within.
Everything about Hine-kōrako is saurian: she is beautiful and totally alien, dangerous, quiet, and predatory. She speaks little, choosing to observe from wherever she is and let him do the talking for them both. Many will think that she is a shark swimming around in Luke's shadow until she actually emerges from it - and that is a rare occasion. She is often content with keeping nearly everything of herself save for the top of her head "above water".
Luke is her boy, her surrogate son in place of the one she lost. They are bound together in the name of promises that should not ever be broken.