He comes (original) (raw)

Here is my proposal for the stats and back story of the character I wish to play in Hyenastatue's chronicle. Regular char creation dots are in black, freebie point purchased stats are in blue. Let me know if anything is amiss, or objectionable, thanks.

Wolf name, Nox Steelhand, Human name, James D. Ronson.

James grew up in a middle class house in the suburbs with adequate if emotionally distant parents. James knew from a young age that there was something wrong with him, and actively tried to tease it out. He was taught things by people or animals in his dreams, he thought he could feel a rottenness in the world all around him. Early on in his school career he settled for being a C student, his feeling of otherness, and the concrete fact of the returning cast of characters in his dreams stunted his development of an appreciation for formal education. He preferred instead to learn about fairy tails, swords and sorcery fantasy, bad horror books and movies, and when he came of age to appreciate it, Heavy Metal trivia. His grades troubled his parents, who were happy when he expressed active desire to learn the guitar, paying for lessons, music was after all an enriching experience.

His troubled teens, naturally, were more troubled than most humans, and with the assistance of self medication, a nearly soundproof attic bedroom, and a knockoff Stratocaster to shred on he attempted to explore the inner wrongness of his being that he was ever conscious of. It was, however, when his first girlfriend broke up with him that James encountered his first change, underneath a starry sky at the end of a camping trip that he had had such adolescent optimism for. There was much human confusion, later the story seemed to settle, his girlfriend had been mauled by a bear, surviving, but with some very nasty scars, and it was James who had fought the beast off. Somehow despite this self servingly heroic narrative, that seemed to come out of his ex like it was her own idea, and not one James insisted on they remained broken up. James knew what had actually happened. She made him angry, and he became a beast and made her hurt the way he hurt. He found it difficult to be properly ashamed of it--though he did try--when it was final confirmation of what he always knew must be true, he was something different, primal, and less forgiving than a human boy.

Weeks later, when the controversy around the issue settled down, James' parents introduced him to a visitor. A cold woman with the same hazel eyes and blond hair that he had, but his parents lacked. She was, they told him, his other mother, and it was time for him to go live with her.

James was introduced to the world of the Garou, and discovered that he came from a fairly illustrious lineage of werewolves, the Shadow Lords renown Steelhand family. Like his mother, and presumably his ancestors before him, James's wolf form had one paw with a glossy steely gray "sock" fur coloration. James also had this steel in spots on his face and chest, where the rest of his fur was black, but his steel right hand marked his line.

He was introduced into the social maneuvering and backstabbing of a Shadow Lord controlled sept. His other mother was icy, where his real parents, as he continued to think of them for a while were merely distant. When she discovered his prowess with the guitar, however, she quickly made one of his dreams a reality. In a whirlwind rise, he had a band, a recording studio, and in short order, contract with a label.

The band, Dominus Nox, found brief success, and even had their own chart topping single, Kraken Milt, written by a market research company. For a while it seemed like he might be on track to bring Heavy Metal back to prominence in America, but that swiftly fell apart. James' income was all banked in the name of a front company for his sept, a fact that his mother used to elevate her own station in sept politics. He received only a relatively meager allowance of the millions his band made.

Growing resentful of his other mother's use of him for social climbing, and disgusted by the songs that were written for the band, James retreated with his cohorts (minus the bassist who he knew was his other mother's personal spy), and together they wrote their own album of songs largely about teenage alienation, parental emotional abuse, and the peculiar, though never explicitly stated fact that James suspected his mother had other children living with other foster families who never would find their potential and change as he had, and would never know what they were the heirs to.

The album was cut, and his fans revolted. He had to sneak out of the amphitheater of the album's first promo tour gig. Anyone watching his rise lamented, he had gone emo! The band's previous three albums were a complete bait and switch, they'd have none of it!

Debt ate a good chunk of his previous earnings when the tour was canceled. His mother's inflated position in the sept weakened. James, now known as "Nox Steelhand" after his band and family lineage, retreated into himself, acquiring a silent brooding cast over his normally extroverted persona, unable to bear critical reviews that complained of the adolescent whining that was the first album he had ever actually written.

Ultimately, another Shadow Lord took advantage of the situation, fearing Nox's musical career might rebound and make the steelhands in the sept financially influential again, arranged that Nox, now twenty three, should be sent as an envoy of goodwill to a sept far away from his scheming mother. Nox took the assignment stoically, hoping he might prove himself worthy in this way, if he was no longer useful for his musical talent. He didn't entirely miss the political impact of his own financial flop, and he knew he'd never be ordered away if he kept cranking out popular albums. James vowed that he would use this new assignment to discover the true meaning of brutality, and write an epic metal saga that would launch his solo career. For now though, he waits, and frequently restyles his cover of "Of Wolf and Man."

And no, he won't play Kraken Milt, even if you ask nicely.