Post by Solface on Aug 20, 2017 16:08:16 GMT -8
Albrecht Thorburn
-Appearance
Age: 35 to 40
Sex: Male
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Height: 6'(1,83 m)
Physical Description:
Standing at a slightly taller average stature of six feet, Albrecht is overall thoroughly built, but not quite impressive in terms of physical appearance. While years of living and hunting in the wilderness have provided him with an ample amount of physical exertion and generally left him in good health, his body has only little lean muscle to speak of, due to a lack of performing exercise or hard labor.
His skin is rather coarse and tanned by the sun; pockmarks adorning his rather hollow cheeks, though usually covered by thick stubble. In addition to this, Albrecht sports a ragged moustache as well as sideburns, his slightly protruding chin being the only part of his face he regularly shaves and keeps free of hair.
His eyes are of grey color and small size, lying deep within their sockets under bushy eyebrows. His nose is thin and prominent with flat nostrils, as well as being slightly crooked as the result of a brawl from his younger years.
Albrecht has puce, shaggy hair which he tries to keep short, though trimming the hair on the sides and back of his head even more.
Being one who once made it his trade to deal in corpses, his body bears a certain number of marks, missing one bone on the little finger of his right hand, as well as a chunk of his left ear lobe. In addition, there are two scars noticeable enough to be worth mentioning, one horizontally running over his entire lower back and one running from the right side of his chest up to his right shoulder.
Attire:
Preferring to remain inconspicuous and not draw attention, Albrecht's attire can be summed up as distinctive yet simple. Most notably, he's wearing a rather worn looking leather duster coat of light brown color, a little frayed around the right shoulder. One of the coat's pockets has a noticeable patch on it, much darker in color than the coat itself.
Underneath, Albrecht is wearing a reinforced gambeson, vertically striped and colored reddish brown.
A thick pair of pants covers up his legs, rather sordid in appearance though nonetheless decent in condition.
Around his waist he is wearing a leather belt with a golden buckle, a sheath holding his hunting knife being attached to it, though generally hidden from sight since it is covered up by his coat. A leather strap of similar color like his duster coat is used to fasten his hunting rifle on his back.
His leather boots are custom-made, bearing small swirly adornments around their buckle and overall in similar condition like the rest of his attire.
On his right hand Albrecht is wearing a blackish grey leather gauntlet, the only piece of clothing one could possibly recognize him by, if only because he isn't wearing one on his left hand as well. In fact, he used to once wear a second, which was however lost and destroyed in a struggle with a guard dog, an incident which also cost him the upper part of his little finger. Refusing to get himself a new pair of gloves, he instead opted to wear only one gauntlet and keep his left hand bare thenceforth.
-Biography
Quirks:
+Quick Reflexes: Years of hunting after both beastly and human quarry have paid off for him, it would seem.
+Observant: A keen eye has always been crucial to spot those that would rather keep themselves hidden within crowds and shadows.
+Man Slayer: Human life might hold value to some, others may have seen it expire enough times to know better. Especially when it did so by their own hand.
-Curious: Conventional bloodshed having become almost trivial to him, anything a little more...quaint is sure to draw his attention.
-Distrustful: Paranoid or cautious? Whatever the case, allying himself with another will never be as simple to him as merely exchanging hollow words. For better or worse.
-Antisocial: Speaking to this one might get you a curious glance at the very least - or a blank stare and no answer. For most, it will be the latter.
Backstory Synopsis:
Driven by nothing more than a curious thirst for anything other than conventional diversion, this man unfailingly seeks a way to test his own limits. Challenge is as welcome to him as the prospect of being able to converse with someone he considers particular enough to be worth talking to - an appropriately rare occurrence. Paired with the more than unusual sense of morality that inhabits his mind, one may be inclined to think of him as ever traveling along the boundaries between sanity and madness. Whether or not these traits a fine bounty hunter make, one can judge for oneself.
It is beyond doubt, however, that said career choice has only managed to entertain him for so long - though still over a span that encompasses half his current life. Tired of whatever by now dulled thrills the life as a more or less professional killer held for him, he turned to the far less condemned occupation of a hunter. Wild beasts proved to be just as intriguing a quarry to him as men had before. Though even then, he still felt a longing, something to truly satisfy his fancies of a perfect hunt.
Word eventually travelled to him of a dishonored, infested and truly godforsaken Hamlet that was said to house the most unimaginable of nightmares known to man. Two days later, he set foot into a frail old stagecoach, navigated by a hunched figure with a crooked smile.
Full Backstory:
Born a bastard child to a locksmith and a barmaid, Albrecht's early life was characterized mostly by struggle. Whenever he wasn't out on the streets offering service as a bootblack or errand boy, he was back home playing with whatever inanimate objects he could get a hold of. Frying pans, wooden plates, even rusty nails and cords. A pastime which eventually grew lackluster to him. Refusing to go out and interact with other children, he was forced to become ever more creative in his means to entertain himself.
So inevitably, Albrecht discovered inanimate objects could prove eminently more diverting when used on all things living. At the tender age of seven, he took to regularly hunting down rats using a steadily growing arsenal of blunt and pointed tools. It was not so much the act of killing itself that he deemed intriguing but that of the hunt. His parents - or rather, his father, since his mother had been claimed by sickness years earlier - did not find this concerning but rather useful and even encouraged his son's activities.
However, this came to an end the day Albrecht, eleven years of age by now, in his pursuit of diversion took a pocketknife his father had unwisely left lying on a table and ended the life of an injured young dog he found limping in an alleyway. It was the first time he truly felt remorse for this particular action, even though he himself could not exactly discern why. Nevertheless, he was left feeling strangely hollow and laid down his weapons and tools in shame. It wasn't until over two years after this that his fascination with the hunt would awaken anew - a peculiar incident, not to be written down in detail here. It may be said, however, that it would herald the start of a new segment in Albrecht's life, leaving him without a home and forcing him to seek his fortune out in the harsh world surrounding him.
Fate would eventually have him run into a grizzled, cynical drifter who took the still young boy under his wings and shared with him his own personal secrets of weathering hardship. For many years, Albrecht would follow and serve that man, slowly but surely adapting not only his skills but also his views on people and life itself. Occasional episodes of traversing and dwelling within the wilderness also provided Albrecht with an appropriate amount of useful lessons. Sure enough, their travels were not without occasional occurrences of violence and battle, be it with thugs, cutthroats or common folk. Every once in a while, even innocents would find themselves at the end of their blades, Albrecht's mentor not being one to shy away from profiting from crime. This would eventually prove to be his downfall. A failed attempt at robbing a nobleman and his companions left the old man slain, while their target escaped. This did not leave Albrecht as devastated as one might believe, however, his mentor having always preached the inevitability of him meeting his end like this one day and thus preparing him mentally.
In the end, his mentor's death should not prove to be without merit for the now nineteen years old Albrecht, for he knew there was a bounty set on the head of the old man since half an eternity. Using this to his advantage, he carried the drifter's corpse to the nearest constabulary, claiming the price for himself. Now bereft of a partner in crime, he decided he would not follow that same path the old man had, not wanting his face to end up on a wanted poster as well. Instead, he found there was something far more satisfying in by pursuing and hunting down those foolish enough to have suffered that very fate.
As eventful as the first half of his life was, so in turn was the second - and yet, the latter can be summed up with a vastly lower number of words. For over one and a half decade Albrecht resorted to exercising the profession of a bounty hunter in order to sustain both himself and quell his growing thirst for the hunt. A great many fugitive souls fell victim to his unfailing efforts, though from time to time there were - such that could consider themselves blessed by a curious fortune. These rare occurrences were usually evoked by that strange sense of morality that inhabited and still inhabits the bounty hunter's mind, one that rejects the simplistic concept of good and evil and divides both the world and its inhabitants in far more...peculiar categories. As such, there were those people, those he would pursue and eventually track down, only to decide to end his hunt and leave them be. In most cases, the people in question would never even figure out the true intent behind Albrecht's presence, let alone the fact that he was pursuing them specifically and thus never thank him for sparing their lives.
Years passed and sure enough, the bounty hunter's interest in his line of work began to slowly fade, replaced by an increasingly dulling sense of apathy. Bloodshed, killing and even the hunt for his target itself began to feel trivial, the one thing he feared most becoming reality. And yet, Albrecht continued for many more years, lacking the determination to give up on it entirely. That is, until three years ago, when his patience and sense of purpose came to an undeniable end. Declaring his man hunting days over, he left the strangling narrowness of civilization and set out to live in the wild, hoping to discover thrills utterly unfamiliar to him.
Unsurprisingly, he soon took up hunting beast, with great enthusiasm at first, though once again, it was quick to fade. Even the acquiring of a new acquaintance, someone he'd thenceforward call his ally, was only fit to satisfy his overall minor need for human conversation. As it seemed to him that he was doomed to wander the earth steadily and unavoidably becoming hollowed out by his own urges and ambitions, hearing the strange and monstrous tales surrounding the Hamlet and its horrors seemed an unimaginable godsend to him. It was a fateful decision he then made: He'd find his fortune there, in that crawling, festering tomb, laden with madness and pestilence. Either that or resign to the idea, the terrible truth that he was truly never going to find contentment in his mortal existence - and consequently put an end to it.
Misc. Notes: (Special items, notable scars, scents, how they walk, or talk, etc.
- he usually speaks in a rather soft yet articulate manner, carefully choosing his words and avoiding to slip into mumbling or slurring. Even when angered, he will still make an effort to not raise his voice too much
- the one item in his possession he considers the most valuable to him is a small-sized, heavily rusted hammer, the first tool he used as a child when hunting after rats. He carries it within a small burlap-sack, sewn into the inside of his coat
-Skills & Equipment
Weapons:
- his trusty flintlock hunting rifle employed in his service for many years, attached to his back with a leather strap
- a small axe he carries on his belt, usually not used for combat but chopping wood, especially branches among other things
- a hunting knife to acquire the coats of his beastly prey, kept in a sheath attached to his belt
- a middle-sized dagger concealed within his left boot, a relic from his bounty hunting days when he would use it to ambush and fatally stab his human quarry
Armor:
- a reinforced gambeson which he carries under his leather coat
- a leather gauntlet glove of anthracite color which he carries on his right hand
- a pair of custom-made leather boots
Other gear:
- a self-made purse of fabric, kept in the inner pocket of his coat, holding what little coin he still possesses
- a set of dice as well as playing cards, gifted to him by an acquaintance he met while living in the wilderness. The set is however missing the ace of spades and thus has to be replaced by a joker card
Strengths:
-due to his experience in tracking down and studying people gone into hiding he has a significantly advanced ability to observe and read people
-as one would expect of someone who makes a living by killing, he is experienced in using most one-handed blades as well as hunting rifles
-in combat, he excels at ambushing and picking off his targets by using the element of surprise
-having lived in the wilderness for years, he can adjust well to reside there for a longer time if necessary
Weaknesses:
-his overall rather anti-social and sometimes very rude attitude makes it difficult for him to find allies in times of need and is bound to make him rather unpopular
-in addition to this and despite his ability to read people well, he will distrust people more often than not, sometimes bordering on paranoia, making it even more difficult for him to find allies
-due to his tendency to take his enemies by surprise, he is not very used to fighting them head on, leading to him overestimating his own abilities when it comes to dueling
-his thirst for a good hunt makes him susceptible to being reckless in pursuit of that goal, ignoring possibly more important matters and potentially letting others down
