- Joined
- Apr 30, 2019
- Messages
- 13
- Reaction score
- 20
- Points
- 178
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-
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The line between passion and obsession is thinner than a thorn, but just as sharp.
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-
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-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-
The line between passion and obsession is thinner than a thorn, but just as sharp.
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-
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❁ ConceptA defector of the cloth turned scientific researcher whose morbid fascination with deadly flora often leads him to trouble. Despite his best intentions and hopeless optimism, something more dangerous than his innate curiosity stirs just beneath the skin...
❁ Basic Info
- Name: Bram Severin (brahm zeh-veh-REEN)
- Christened Name: Abrihem Anki
- Race: Alior
- Culture: Anglian (Half Cearden)
- Age: 23 (June 4th)
- Gender: Male
- Alignment: Chaotic Good
- Religion: Agnostic (Ex-Unionist)
- Occupation: Head Botanist at Perennica Labs
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Where is the angels I knew in the Bible? I heard, I can't see it,
I don't pray for survival I know that theres more.
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❁ Appearance
Bram's dedication to science and research shines forth from his howie lab uniform, sporting the iconic greens and golds of Perennica Labs with his field journal attached at the hip. Despite his unassuming nature, his face is a constantly morphing canvas of bruises that never seem to get the time to heal properly.
- Hair: Brown, Undercut
- Eyes: Olive
- Skin: White
- Height: 6'1
- Build: Lean
INFJ-T - Bram is polite to a fault, smiling through the best and worst of situations as best he can. While his practiced pleasantries can come across as disingenuous and a little unnerving, it's as far as his limited social experience goes. He's eager to avoid conflict and will try to remedy rising tensions with a distraction or unsolicited fun fact. His true self easily shines when in discussion of his passions, always eager to share his knowledge with others or learn something new. However, he is quick to worry and dwell on worst case scenarios, leading to uncharacteristic bursts of irritability. His only coping strategy is to distract himself with work until he's run himself dry.
❁ Skills
Bram is hopelessly devoted to the study of natural sciences, specifically the evolutionary patterns of local and exotic flora. Working at Perennica Labs allows him to cultivate all kinds of plants and put their unique properties to alchemical use. His magnum opus is his growing Herbarium of Natural Anomalies that lists a number of mysterious, deadly flora and how not to be killed by them.
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There's some kind of burning inside me. It's kept me from falling apart.-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-
And I'm sure that you've seen what it's done to my heart, but it's kept me from falling apart.
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❁ Backstory
-
For the first 23 years of his life,
Abrihem'sBram's whole world fit inside the walls of his all-male Unionist monastery, tucked away in the Anglian countryside far beyond the influence of other people, cultures, and ideas. As the son of the exalted Abbot, Bram's only purpose in life was to follow his father's footsteps in priesthood and to never to set foot beyond the monastery, even barred from knowing his own mother. Yet despite his clear destiny, his efforts were quick to fall short of the clergy's expectations. A persistent stutter muddled his prayers and recitations. His difficulty grasping theological nuances meant he lagged behind his unimpressed peers, their disappointment baring down on him like a guillotine. As hard as he tried to earn their respect, Bram knew his true calling would not be found in religious tomes. Instead he was drawn to the abundant flora surrounding his home, a companionship free of judgement and ridicule. - The years leading up to his inevitable priesthood weren't much kinder. With leaders unwilling to accept his learning and speech difficulties, Bram's struggle never ceased. By his adolescence the clergy's disdain had simmered to an annoyed disinterest, setting their attentions on more promising pupils. Taking advantage of their turned backs, Bram would further his personal studies with the scarce scientific texts that slipped into their donation supplies. His intellect thrived on facts and systematic explanations that finally, finally made any sense to him. For once, Bram didn't feel utterly worthless, he just felt he was in the wrong place for his kind of mindset. The more he learned, the more restless he became, but choice was not a luxury he could afford in this holy tomb he called home.
-
WIP
Bram remembers his scattered footsteps echoing down the hall, the shake in his hands as he reaches the door handle, the priest's sour expression. Bram blinks…
His robes are wet. The priest is at his feet. The floor is red. -
WIP
He never looked back. He couldn't. All Bram knew for sure was that someone was dead and the blood on his robes wasn't his. So, he fled, leaving behind the only place he'd ever known. But why did this happen? Better yet, how? If he wanted answers, he'd have to face this alien world head-on, maybe documenting a couple new plant species along the way. -
WIP
Bram has come a long way from his turbulent beginnings, now a familiar, happy face among Regalia's people and co-founder to an advanced research institute known as Perennica Laboratories. Despite this positive incline, persistent monster-hunters and efforts to conceal his "condition" continue to threaten his delicate social setting.
❁ Synopsis
A majority of Bram's life would be spent in religious servitude at an all-male unionist monastery to inevitably become a priest like his father. Due to a speech impediment and learning challenges, he consistent fell behind the expectations of the clergy. He found fulfillment in the quiet company of nature and in the few scientific books he managed sneak from donation bins. As he got older his hunger for knowledge made him restless... WIP
❁ Plot Hooks
Green Thumb
With his blatant affinity for all things nature, Bram can list the properties and applications of a vast variety of plants by heart. He takes great joy in imparting his knowledge on willing or unwilling ears and testing said knowledge on alchemical experiments with varying degrees of success. He's always looking for more botanical assistants to join his lab.A Whole New World
Given the fact a majority of Bram's life was spent sheltered within an all-male monastery, his knowledge of the world around him is rather limited, but steadily growing. Concepts like modern technology, cultural conflicts, and, well, interacting to women are still quite new. Never shying away from a learning opportunity, Bram's questions may seem juvenile and ignorant, but come from a place of genuine curiosity. Some people might use his limited perspective for their own gain.For Science!
What Bram considers "occupational hazards", others might define as "near-death experiences". For him, no obstacle is too great in the pursuit of knowledge, leading Bram to many misadventure with little to no regrets. Being no stranger to injury What is in a Name?
It's clear to anyone who meets Bram that he is a through and through Anglian, from his lingering accent to his skill in holding his liquor. But the surname Severin is a bit of a wild card, its spelling and pronunciation foreign even to Bram. Those with the right historical knowledge might recognize the family title is actually Cearden, but it seems Bram with his limited world knowledge has yet to realize this.Under the Skin (See: Monster Invoke)
Maybe it's how he hangs onto his smile like a lifeline, or maybe its the way he can bend his joints beyond normal function, but to the more inquisitive there comes a thought: theres something a bit off about Bram. Daily life in Regalia is a performance of survival, Bram teetering on the blade's edge of normal civilian society and a dark secret lurking just behind his ribcage. What would it take for that dark something to snake its way to the surface?· · ─────── ˃̶༒˂̶ ─────── · ·
-ˋˏ ༻❁༺ ˎˊ-God, hear my plea as I will cry for you. Hold my head up and I will try to do,
What makes me stay alive, I want to live tonight. Help me let go or I will die a fool.
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TW: Body Horror Descriptions
❁ Monster Invoke
❁ Monster Invoke
- Title(s): Beast of Blood and Thorn, The Mangled One,
Spiky Meatball
- Common Name: Stekel (Stay-cull)
- Origin: The Covenant ((Subject to edits pending Magic update))
- Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
- Concept: A family curse born from a mysterious barter made by Bram's ancestors to survive the fall of Ceardia. The fractured remnants of this unknown power exist within the Severin bloodline as a semi-sentient beast that is believed to be kept dormant through Unionist devotion.
Liars.
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268 AC, when the first wretched tendril stabbed the skies over Ceardia, Bram's father was but a boy, too young to fully grasp why the adults around him looked so scared or why he couldn't see the sun though the mangled thorn hedge that surrounded their village overnight. While the rest of the continent was being shattered by voidal infestation, their village of Donner was severed from escape by a massively mutated wall of writhing brambles, thorns like barred teeth closing in on the trapped denizens. Food quickly grew scarce, as did hope, and desperation soon turned their hunger against each other.
Meat is never is short supply.
Within the boarded up Severin home hid a stoic father put to the test, a calm mother clinging to composure for the sake of her children, a young son struggling to comprehend his reality, and a baby girl innocent to the carnage around her. What is a family to do when a community that once revered them were now their worst nightmare? For the once faithless parents, all they could do was whisper an anguished pray to whatever power could hear him over the rabid scratching of skin-stretched hands clawing at their front door.Let me in. Let me in.
Save them, they begged, save our children so that they might walk in the sun again. Let them live long, happy lives far from this wickedness. Save them.Find them. Take them.
Then, from the depths of the splintered Ceardian earth, something answered:
Only if they bring me with them.
The things that emerged from that house were not the same proud Severins known for their cunning and strength. They were something more, something as twisted and ravenous as the encroaching sea of brambles. The windows and doors exploded with a flood of tendrils like the bloated tubes from a rapid meat grinder, their thrashing stalks adorned in needled fangs that shredded familiar faces into a crimson slurry. They needn't even touch the massive hedge for the clotted branches to bend to their unholy might, finally granting freedom to the only twothreesurvivors of Donner Village. Now nothing and no one would stand inour way.
When the young boy arrived at the docks with a baby clutched tightly in his arms, no one could pry a useful word from him. No mention of their parents, no clues to how they survived the devastation, only a hushed plea that at least his sister would get on the next boat. Unionist missionaries were the first to usher the lost children to safety across the ocean, never to see their home country or family ever again.I am all you need.
To be written:
- Children hop around orphanages. Monster form is revealed when they attempt to separate the siblings.
- Unionists arrange elaborate exorcism in Grace's name to "cure" the children.
- Siblings become devout unionists to "pay" for their sins, yet the curse lies dormant.
- Bram's father is sent to start a monastery in Anglia. Sister sent elsewhere and strays from the faith, going missing.
Where a debt is still owed, the children will pay for the sins of the father. -
Bram's monstrous companion exists as a sprawling network of blood-red vines and toothy thorns lurking beneath a cage of human bone and flesh. These semi-sentient vines, nicknamed "Stekel" (Stay-cull), live in turbulent symbiosis with its human host, sometimes acting beyond Bram's control for what it considers to be their best interest. Triggered by intense emotion, fear, or danger, the thrashing vines blossom from the host's chest, shredding away the visage of humanity strip by bloody strip. Its only form of communication is by clattering its thorns together in a menacing rattle.
- Bram and Stekel have finally achieved some form of understanding where the two can now work together in conflict resolution, though this is dependent on how much they agree with each other on the given dilemma. While they remain as separate personalities, it seems they've managed to influence each other in subtle ways, becoming more alike the more they collaborate. Their dependency on one another has become far more vital as Stekel has now begun replacing Bram's organs and muscles with its own superior function, making separation near impossible.
- While only occurring once so far, Stekel's has the potential to exist beyond the constraints of Bram's body. As a last ditch effort for their survival, Stekel may consume what is left of Bram in order to emerge as a hulking, amorphous clot of vines tangled around their host's skeleton. This plant-flesh hybrid is alone, forced to face a world it doesn't fully understand, acting out of curiosity or survival rather than malice. Basically, the two swap places: Stekel is now the host while the remains of Bram course through Stekel's circulatory system to be used later. In this state, Bram is trapped in suspended animation, unable to think or make decisions, and his body can only be reconstructed the next time Stekel is bested in conflict. But with each total reconstruction, not all of Bram's humanity survives, loosing some small part of his humanity along the way.
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Whatever you do. Whichever way you choose.
We are trapped and free. We are trapped and free.
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❁ Stats
Attack Stat: STRENGTH
Defense Stat: CONSTITUTION
[14/14 points spent]
Proficiency Points:
Attack Stat: STRENGTH
Defense Stat: CONSTITUTION
[14/14 points spent]
Proficiency Points:
- STR: 7
- Bruiser Stance (ST) FREE
- Weapon Throw (IT) FREE
- Bruiser Tackle (IT) FREE Alior
- Force Toss (IT)
- Bruiser Rampage (PT)
- Bruiser Agony (PT)
- Technique Parry (CT)
- Bruiser Feint (CT)
- Building Scale (MT)
- Steady Body (CT)
- CON: 4
- Rage Counter (PT) FREE Alior
- Thick Hide (PT)
- Iron Will (PT)
- Breather (PT)
- Status Endure (PT)
- DEX 2
- Escape Artist (IT)
- Flexible Maneuver (PT)
- Magic:1
- Monster Invoke (Void)
- Intelligence: 0
- Wisdom: 0
- Faith: 0
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Thank you for reading!
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