The Windy Road: Player Characters: Bearskin

Bearskin, Baron of Romance

Characteristics

Domain Description

The purview of Romance, then, is not the world as it is, but the world as it should be: brighter, louder, full of wit and poetic justice and irony. Exploding starships, sword-fights, and musical numbers are the trappings of lush Romance, but they are far from its heart. The breathless sense of wonder at a four-hundred story tower, the marvel of the potentials contained within a stick of chalk, and the laws of fairyland are closer to the main. To the Romantic, it is true that if a man is asleep he cannot be awake, unavoidably, and it is true that if I have five apples I have more than four apples and fewer than six. But it is not true, necessarily, that those four apples must have grown on a tree, for the Romantic can imagine apples smelted from raw ore in massive apple foundries, and this is as reasonable and logical a source as any other. It is not true, necessarily, that because a man lies in the sun he grows tan, for the Romantic can imagine one's skin darkening after the consumption of oranges, or chocolate, or milk -- no causal relationship is self-evident. To the Romantic, all things are possible, within reason.

Gifts

Good at killing: His great knack, however, which first won him the attention of his patron the devil, is his tremendou s facility for killing things. Bearskin is a master of up-close-and-personal ph ysical violence, easily capable of defeating an entire army if able to fight the m one at a time. His weapons of choice are a saber in his left hand and a flint lock pistol on his right, but these are mere window dressing. If it can rationa lly be imagined and it falls within the sphere of personal violence, Bearskin ca n do it. Even the most powerful Imperators respect his uncommon faculty in this area.

Pockets full of gold: His coat is also notable in that its pockets are always filled with gold, or loc al currency if the extant economy is not gold-based. The gold, once made, exist s perpetually, and can be given to others with no ill effects (unlike some fairy -tale sources of infinite wealth).

Invulnerable: While Bearskin is wearing his coat, he is invulnerable: all but indestructible. He can grow tired or hungry, but will not starve or weaken from exhaustion. He is likewise very difficult to injure: blades, bullets, and chainsaws all glance off his skin. In the event that he suffers wound from a source powerful enough to injure him, but survives, he would heal completely within a week. He can, however, be drowned or hurled into the sun, and would not survive either experience.

Handicaps

Virtue (Honorable)

This last Virtue is one most central to his character: no power on or beyond Christendom could make Bearskin break his word.

Code of Heaven

This is an Imperator-granted restriction, and Bearskin's own code.

Promises to the Devil

He can not sleep in the same bed twice and he is forbidden to pray (which includes part icipating in certain rituals and setting foot in certain sacred buildings). He is also forbidden to reveal his Christian name.

Oaths

1. Never attack a great-grandmother, even in self-defense.

   During Bearskin's hunt of the Beast of St. Albans, he ventured through a darkened wood, along an old Roman road. On this road he met a pilgrim, an aged and decrepit woman who tried to flee at his approach. When he chased after her (Bearskin's natural inclination is to chase anyone who flees from him) she accused him of brigandry and begged him to pity a poor great-grandmother. Bearskin swore he would never attack a great-grandmother. Mollified, the old woman gave Bearskin a silver trumpet he later used to tear down a mountainside onto the Beast of St. Albans, crushing it under tons of stone.

2. Always give priests proper respect: listen to their counsel and treat them well.

   When Bearskin left home to join the King's Army and fight the huns, his mother kissed him goodbye and bade him promise to be a good boy and give priests proper respect. To please his mother, Bearskin did so… and it's a good thing, too, for years later, when Bearskin was searching for the Glastonbury peaches, he met an old friar in a tavern. The friar was unable to settle his sizable account at the bar, and Bearskin -- out of respect for a man of the cloth -- made good on it. The friar, grateful, warned Bearskin: the feather in his new tricorner hat was bewitched, and for so long as he wore it he would never set eyes on any fruit.

3. Never leave a building by the same way he entered it.

   Shortly after Bearskin's battle with Arawn, he met a tall man dressed all in blue with a long blue sword, who proclaimed his lifelong quest for vengeance was nearly complete. The Blue Swordsman's uncle had been wronged by Arawn, and long had he sought the foul villain out. When Bearskin explained that he had already dispatched Arawn, the Blue Swordsman grew wrathful: his dream of revenge had been thwarted. Bearskin and the Swordsman fought.

   The battle raged for seven days: the Blue Swordsman's skill was inferior to Bearskin's (of course), but his blue sword was so long and fast and light that Bearskin could not penetrate his defenses; every blow Bearskin struck was parried. After seven days of inconclusive fighting, Bearskin and the Blue Swordsman agreed to call it a draw. The Blue Swordsman agreed to forfeit his claim of vengeance that had transferred to Bearskin, and (as it was a draw) Bearskin swore an oath of equivalent grandeur, to never leave an building by the same way he had entered it. The two heroes shook hands and sealed their bargain, and then the Blue Swordsman died of exhaustion (having neither ate, nor drank, nor slept for seven days).

4. Always give mercy to red-headed women who request it.

   On one of his rare ventures to the prosaic world, Bearskin tracked an Excrucian-shard from Christendom all the way to Cleveland, Ohio. While seeking the base villain, Bearskin met a woman with fair skin and hair the color of red hair, who reminded him strongly of his late wife. Stirred (and distracted from his mission) by her charms, Bearskin plied her with fine wine and exotic cuisine, and told her of his many adventures.

   The red-headed woman listened to his tales with interest, and marveled at his great deeds. Indeed, she teased him, and claimed to grow fearful of staying overlong in the presence of one so potent. Bearskin then promised her he always showed mercy to red-headed women, especially lovely red-headed women with whom he shared fine food and drink.

   And then he was nearly lost, for of course the woman was a Deceiver.

5. Never refuse an offer of hospitality.

   During his trip through the mountainous kingdom of the flying serpents in search of the missing Duke of Horn, Bearskin as he was descending from the peaks encountered a doctor of philosophy going the opposite way up the mountains. As it was dusk and the nearest hostel many miles away, the two men made camp and ate together. Over wine they discussed many deep topics: Sin, Ethics, the Obligations of the State to its Citizens, and Good Manners. The conversation turned to the duties a host has to his guests, and to the ancient custom of never refusing a stranger hospitality. The doctor asked if Bearskin would do the ancients one better, and swear to never refuse an offer of hospitality, which Bearskin (a gentleman, after all) readily did.

   The crafty doctor then invited Bearskin to accompany him back through the mountains, for it was late springtime and the bull flying serpents were aggressive and a danger to the unprepared traveler. Bearskin accepted this offer, of course, having known full well that the doctor would make such a demand of him, for he saw through the doctor's disguise, and recognized him to be the Duke of Horn, in hiding.

Bonds

[TBD]

Background

See the character history for more details.