A Little Help
Feb. 5th, 2004 12:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyesOkay, one of the guys in my Tuesday gaming group is making up a soundtrack for our games, and asked us all to pick songs that remind us of our characters. Since I am bad at this, I'm going to ask you for help.
Teh campaign setting is a modified version of d20's Urban Arcana setting -- basically the premise is that the supernatural exists in the forms of fantasy (Shadow) creatures and magic, but normal humans cannot see them -- they just see normal things in their places.
Zackery Marshall was born in California in the early 1970's. His parents were laid-back types who didn't take much interest in their son provided he got good grades and stayed out of trouble. Believing the local public schools were subpar, his mother
enroled him in the local parochial school, run by the Catholic Church. His father, out of a belief that his bookish son needed some 'toughening up' enrolled him in a fledgling martial arts school.
It was through these decisions by his parents that Zackery discovered his passions. Religion gave him a sense of place that he never felt he had at home and, as he matured, his own personal levels of faith strengthened. Through it, he also discovered history and languages -- two things he found fascinating.
Contrasting to his bookish habits, were his martial arts lessons. Zack took these quite seriously and stuck though it until he graduated high school. His sensei was a Japanese immigrant by the name of Ken Katsuyama. Though the two often butted heads on philosophical matters as Zack got older -- something Zack secretly enjoyed, as Katsuyama-sensei had a knack for making him think about matters he tended to take for granted. Katsuyama-sensei was a mentor and almsot a surrogate parent figure. When Zack left for seminary -- deciding to formalize his religiousness by joining the Catholic clergy -- Katsuyama-sensei gave him a sword, the first real one he had owned. Zack was never quite sure what it was about it, but it seemed special somehow.
Zack attnded seminary, where it was quite clear he was more suited to the scholarly side of the priesthood than the public side. He had a tendancy to stutter in front of large groups. He was a capable scholar, though -- perhaps a little more inquisative than his teachers liked, but enthusiastic.
After gradutation, Zack bounced from positionto position before winding up working in Rome in the late 1990's. It was these that he had his first encounter with true supernatural. He was nearly killed by a vampire walking after dark one night, and was rescued by a man who gave his name as Leon. After that, Zack started being able to see things for how they really were. For a while, it nearly drove him mad -- he was convinced the creatures he saw were demons or somehting similar. He managed to work up the courage to talk to the elves and dwarves and gnome she had discovered were living among huamns and discovered that they weren't really any different than their human neighbors.
In 2003, Zack was called by Leon again -- it appears Leon wanted him for some sort of hidden organization and his superiors were quite content to sign away his services. Zack was put into a group with a motley crew of peopel he wasn't too sure on, and forced to make moral decisiosn that worried him -- it was all right and good to realize that the people and creatues they were fighting were endangering human lives, and sometimes violence was the only way to prevent unnecessary bloodshead, butit was a nother matter to have to make this decision himself. Zack took to haunting the local churches when he had free time, head bowed in silent prayer for the guidance that he was doing the right thing. He also took to practicing the katas he had learned under Ktsuyama-sensei, hoping that, one way or another, he could find peace.
There was also the matter of magic. In his research, Zack had come acros mentions of magic, but dismissed it as either the belief of credulous peasants or elaboration on the part of the archivists. However, after he began to see truely, he began to wonder. When he joined the team, he met his first real mages.
Magic most of all unnerved Zack and he refused to let it be cast on him. It was a source of power he didn't quite understand, therefore he feared and msitrusted it. After all, if things such as demons were able to physically exist in the world -- as opposed to the 'inner demons' of spirit that seemed to make much more sense to Zack in school -- than might not magic be something demonic in nature? However, Zack was often given little choice. He often was injured in fights, and it often came down to his teammates casting the spells on his unconcious body.
On a mision, Zack's team accidentally discovered the truth about the Shadow creatures -- they were prisoners sent to Earth (after proper memory modification) by an interstellar empire. Then they accidentally both turned off the you-can't-see-me field keeping the vast majority of Earth unaware of them and got themselves cryogenically frozen for thirty years.
Whent hey awoke, they discovered that their old boss, Leon, had formed an organization with the Drow to hunt down and kill all Shadow creatures -- and had managed to accumulate enough pwoer to be de facto leaders of the world. Zack also discovered that said interstellar empire had, in 2008, showe dup on earth and wiped out most of the world institutions, including the Catholic Church.
This sent Zack into a bit of a tailspin... one of his major beliefs was that the Church was at least somewhat protected by God. To have it wiped off the face of the Earth... it was shocking. He started to wonde rhow much of what he believed was a security blanket -- things that felt good, but were just a comfortign illusion.
Then he remembered somethign Katsuyama-sensei once told him in one of their discussions. Regardless of what deity they pray to, those who do good are workign for the forces of good, and those who do evil, work for evil. Zack knew that what Leon was doing was wrong -- most of the Shadow creatures were law-abiding sorts who just wanted to live thier lives in peace, and he actually liked the two Shadow creatures on the team. Therefore, as a moral being he had to stop Leon form harming innocents. This ephiphany also altered his view of magic, allowing the party mages to finally be able to use cure spells on him without a fuss. Though Zack still disapproves of offensive magic, he will concede that perhaps magic can draw from the forces of good as well as evil.
Teh campaign setting is a modified version of d20's Urban Arcana setting -- basically the premise is that the supernatural exists in the forms of fantasy (Shadow) creatures and magic, but normal humans cannot see them -- they just see normal things in their places.
Zackery Marshall was born in California in the early 1970's. His parents were laid-back types who didn't take much interest in their son provided he got good grades and stayed out of trouble. Believing the local public schools were subpar, his mother
enroled him in the local parochial school, run by the Catholic Church. His father, out of a belief that his bookish son needed some 'toughening up' enrolled him in a fledgling martial arts school.
It was through these decisions by his parents that Zackery discovered his passions. Religion gave him a sense of place that he never felt he had at home and, as he matured, his own personal levels of faith strengthened. Through it, he also discovered history and languages -- two things he found fascinating.
Contrasting to his bookish habits, were his martial arts lessons. Zack took these quite seriously and stuck though it until he graduated high school. His sensei was a Japanese immigrant by the name of Ken Katsuyama. Though the two often butted heads on philosophical matters as Zack got older -- something Zack secretly enjoyed, as Katsuyama-sensei had a knack for making him think about matters he tended to take for granted. Katsuyama-sensei was a mentor and almsot a surrogate parent figure. When Zack left for seminary -- deciding to formalize his religiousness by joining the Catholic clergy -- Katsuyama-sensei gave him a sword, the first real one he had owned. Zack was never quite sure what it was about it, but it seemed special somehow.
Zack attnded seminary, where it was quite clear he was more suited to the scholarly side of the priesthood than the public side. He had a tendancy to stutter in front of large groups. He was a capable scholar, though -- perhaps a little more inquisative than his teachers liked, but enthusiastic.
After gradutation, Zack bounced from positionto position before winding up working in Rome in the late 1990's. It was these that he had his first encounter with true supernatural. He was nearly killed by a vampire walking after dark one night, and was rescued by a man who gave his name as Leon. After that, Zack started being able to see things for how they really were. For a while, it nearly drove him mad -- he was convinced the creatures he saw were demons or somehting similar. He managed to work up the courage to talk to the elves and dwarves and gnome she had discovered were living among huamns and discovered that they weren't really any different than their human neighbors.
In 2003, Zack was called by Leon again -- it appears Leon wanted him for some sort of hidden organization and his superiors were quite content to sign away his services. Zack was put into a group with a motley crew of peopel he wasn't too sure on, and forced to make moral decisiosn that worried him -- it was all right and good to realize that the people and creatues they were fighting were endangering human lives, and sometimes violence was the only way to prevent unnecessary bloodshead, butit was a nother matter to have to make this decision himself. Zack took to haunting the local churches when he had free time, head bowed in silent prayer for the guidance that he was doing the right thing. He also took to practicing the katas he had learned under Ktsuyama-sensei, hoping that, one way or another, he could find peace.
There was also the matter of magic. In his research, Zack had come acros mentions of magic, but dismissed it as either the belief of credulous peasants or elaboration on the part of the archivists. However, after he began to see truely, he began to wonder. When he joined the team, he met his first real mages.
Magic most of all unnerved Zack and he refused to let it be cast on him. It was a source of power he didn't quite understand, therefore he feared and msitrusted it. After all, if things such as demons were able to physically exist in the world -- as opposed to the 'inner demons' of spirit that seemed to make much more sense to Zack in school -- than might not magic be something demonic in nature? However, Zack was often given little choice. He often was injured in fights, and it often came down to his teammates casting the spells on his unconcious body.
On a mision, Zack's team accidentally discovered the truth about the Shadow creatures -- they were prisoners sent to Earth (after proper memory modification) by an interstellar empire. Then they accidentally both turned off the you-can't-see-me field keeping the vast majority of Earth unaware of them and got themselves cryogenically frozen for thirty years.
Whent hey awoke, they discovered that their old boss, Leon, had formed an organization with the Drow to hunt down and kill all Shadow creatures -- and had managed to accumulate enough pwoer to be de facto leaders of the world. Zack also discovered that said interstellar empire had, in 2008, showe dup on earth and wiped out most of the world institutions, including the Catholic Church.
This sent Zack into a bit of a tailspin... one of his major beliefs was that the Church was at least somewhat protected by God. To have it wiped off the face of the Earth... it was shocking. He started to wonde rhow much of what he believed was a security blanket -- things that felt good, but were just a comfortign illusion.
Then he remembered somethign Katsuyama-sensei once told him in one of their discussions. Regardless of what deity they pray to, those who do good are workign for the forces of good, and those who do evil, work for evil. Zack knew that what Leon was doing was wrong -- most of the Shadow creatures were law-abiding sorts who just wanted to live thier lives in peace, and he actually liked the two Shadow creatures on the team. Therefore, as a moral being he had to stop Leon form harming innocents. This ephiphany also altered his view of magic, allowing the party mages to finally be able to use cure spells on him without a fuss. Though Zack still disapproves of offensive magic, he will concede that perhaps magic can draw from the forces of good as well as evil.
