[hider=Marcel Gawain][center][h3]Marcel Gawain[/h3][/center] [center][sup][sup][h3]Male Breton | 33 | The Atronach[/h3][/sup][/sup][/center] [sub][h2]Basic Information[/h2][/sub] [sup][sup][sup][hr][/sup][/sup][/sup] [indent][b]Place of Origin[/b]: Camlorn Principality, High Rock [b]Appearance[/b]: Marcel would best be described as timid and cautious. While these are mostly personality traits, Marcel is a person who has taken these traits to heart, and thus, manages to look timid and cautious as well, the traits having seeped into his visage, his clothing, and his expressions. He is of medium length and build, although admittedly in pretty good shape. His expression is a calm one - although also a distant looking one. The man has a chiseled face, bony and oval, with questioning, distant green eyes, a tiny mouth, and an aquiline nose. His sunken cheeks further accentuate his gaunt look and make his cheekbones stand out more. His rather high hairline, which, combined with the onset of hair recession and short cropped hair, makes his head look somewhat bigger than it actually is. His brown hair has started to grey, with white streaks occasionally cutting through it. He has a trimmed, short beard, well groomed. Marcel prefers to wear simple clothes that suit his line of work, with a well-crafted but plain gorget covering his neck, a leather buff coat covering his torso, and baggy pants covering his legs. He’s recently switched his suede shoes for riding boots, and bought a caped greatcoat alongside a fur-lined kolpak, to keep himself safe from the cold climate of Skyrim. [b]Personality:[/b] Marcel’s one of those sorts of people who are so nice it’s somewhat off-putting. Having gone through a good education, and having had good parents, he is polite, soft spoken, and nearly always means well, a bona fide nice guy. However, it’s this that makes him look unbelievable – he’s nice, sure, but he’s quiet, somewhat shy, and never seems to let people in his personal sphere, though the problem starts there. It’s hard to tell if he’s just hiding his true personality from people, or if the nice guy exterior really is also the interior. Despite his somewhat frustrating line of work, he has never been seen angry, not even once, and is well known for his soothing presence. His birthsign has reflected upon him in his personality, in that he never shows any outburst of emotion on his own, and in fact dulls others to a calmer, serene outlook with his lack of reaction to any emotion. An experienced witch hunter, he is cautious and prefers to plan every move, trying not to waste any of his time or energy. One can say he’s a nice guy – too nice, even, to a point it feels like he’s lying. [b]Background[/b]: [hider=History] Marcel Gawain was born to a wealthy burgher family in Sun’s Dusk 4E 172, on a cold Tirdas day. His father, Adrien, was a government official, and his mother, Jeanne, hailed from a family of wealthy traders. It was certainly no marriage of love, but it wasn’t a loveless marriage either, and Marcel spent a rather uneventful childhood as part of the upper-middle class in Camlorn, spending most of his time eating pastry and tending to his small aquarium. As Marcel grew up, he was educated by his mother, and after her untimely death, his governess, Mme de Camarille. It was a simple life, and Marcel was a simple child, and a quiet one after his mother’s death. He grew up to be admittedly quite dull a person, but undeniably a nice, decent one as well. At 4E 188, Marcel was psychologically evaluated by a wandering Altmer diviner, who claimed that the boy’s dull, static nature was due to his birth sign, that of the Atronach – according to the man, the young lad was like a battery, draining all the magic and excitement in things. His father would realize that the diviner had used the word ‘magic’ in both senses of the word after witnessing Marcel read a magic scroll he had taken from the family archive while tending to his fish, get engorged in a ball of fire, and walk it off as if nothing had happened. His father decided to pay for his tutelage at the local Synod Hall, hoping that maybe his son was talented in magic, but the boy was never really accepted amongst the Synods, for they believed his presence somehow dulled the effects of their own magic. Thus, Marcel was well-educated in scholarship and magic, but never made into a proper mage. Following his son’s rather disappointing tutelage at the Synod Hall, Adrien Gawain decided to send Marcel to a proper university instead of making his son pursue a line of work where he wouldn’t be accepted as a peer. Marcel enrolled at the College of Ykalon, where he was taught history and natural sciences. He also picked up the hobby of fencing, which, combined with his natural talent of absorbing magic, would lead to his employment as a ‘Witch Hunter’ after the events of 4E 192. During Marcel’s second year of education at the College of Ykalon, a vile sorcerer had begun attacking the citizens of the city at night, either breaking in houses and absorbing the life energy of the inhabitants, or simply latching onto people on the streets and striking them with a touch of lightning. One Middas night, while walking back to their respective cottages, after attending the autopsy of a Spriggan, Marcel and the son of the Count of Ykalon were attacked by the ‘Lightning of Ykalon’, who, after paralyzing the Count’s son with magic, grasped onto Marcel’s face and attempted to shock the life out of him… and failed, Marcel having shrugged off the electricity and stabbed the Lightning in the side with his practice sword. The sword had acted as a conductor and led the electricity through Marcel’s body and back into the sorcerer, and crisped the bane of the citizens of Ykalon in an instant. Learning of these events from his son, and wanting to reward the young Marcel with a good position where he could continue his education and root out magical threats in the county, the Count of Ykalon employed Marcel Gawain as an apprentice Witch Hunter. Marcel was reluctant to be at such a position at a rather young age, and his rather sheltered upbringing also implied at possible failure in his newfound line of work. Fortunately for him, he was assigned as apprentice to Diarmid Goupeville, an old and experienced Witch Hunter hailing from the Reach, who used obscure magic to help him in his trade. Diarmid’s cordial nature and the wish to have a protégé meant that Marcel went through an extensive, but also good-natured and well balanced training. Unlike the Synods, this man believed that Marcel’s magic-dulling nature was a godsend, and made sure to capitalize on this, teaching Marcel the somewhat forgotten art of Mysticism – slowly, however, thanks to the boy’s muffling quality when it came to magic. The old man was glad to see that he had managed to earn a successor in his craft, and began giving Marcel more important tasks as apprentice – while the boy had simply been organizing letters, learning directions and gathering information, he now had a more active role, following Diarmid to the source of the complaints and helping him get rid of it. No doubt the man’s older age also had a part in this, but Marcel had undeniably progressed in harnessing his anomalous talent. Marcel became a witch hunter in earnest after a scuffle in the Wrothgarian Mountains, with the two hunters chasing a Vampire of the Lyrezi clan. Having followed the beast into a tomb, Marcel and Diarmid were almost butchered by the Vampire, who bore the power of invisibility and silence. However, Marcel was able to put an end to the beast’s unnatural life after stabbing it in the back while it was too busy trying to take down his master, and then chasing it to a flooded part of the tombs, where its invisibility was unable to make an effect on hiding its direction of attack. After witnessing Marcel emerge with the beast’s head, Diarmid decided that Marcel was no longer an apprentice. Deeming the young lad his successor, he gifted the boy with a gorget of spell absorption after turning in the bounty, apparently a favorite of vampire hunters and a gift that would be helping Marcel in his future, and promptly retired, satisfied with his apparent successor. The young witch hunter wasn’t very sure on what to do at that point. Having spent almost six years alongside his tutor Diarmid, he was an experienced hunter, sure, but not very experienced in living life itself. Deciding to go ‘wherever the wind blows’, he moved to Hammerfell, where he ended up accidentally becoming a member of a Cult of Meridia, and then to Colovia, where he had a short love life with a widowed noblewoman about fifteen years older than him. He moved to the Imperial City after the relationship was put on hiatus because of complications. Wanting a somewhat calmer life, he settled down in a room above a pastry in the Market District, where he spent almost half a year eating various forms of cake and educating wealthy residents’ children. He could not sustain this lifestyle, however, and eventually moved out and continued his original profession, wandering from village to village and rooting out problems (which more than often turned out to be products of pure superstition rather than actual magical threats). As of Sun’s Height 11, 4E 205, he has been stuck in the College of Winterhold after an unexpected visit. [/hider] [/indent] [sub][h2]Capabilities[/h2][/sub] [sup][sup][sup][hr][/sup][/sup][/sup] [indent] [b]Skills[/b]: [list] [*]Expert Mysticism [*]Adept Alchemy [*]Adept One-Handed Blade [*]Apprentice Speech [*]Apprentice Light Armor [*]Apprentice Athletics [*]Novice Acrobatics [*]Novice Hand to Hand [*]Novice Marksman [/list] [b]Spells[/b]: [u]Mysticism[/u]: Detect Life, Dispel, Reflect Spell, Spell Absorption. [b]Combat Style[/b]: Having been trained in the art of fencing, Marcel’s fighting style is heavily technical, and is based mostly on quick, debilitating strikes. Marcel, being Marcel, is often unable to be in the aggressive position, and thus stays on the defense, waiting for openings in the enemy’s attack and striking whenever available with a quick hit, one that hopefully connects. Having mostly faced foes that have preferred to use their natural or magical capabilities, Marcel does not have much actual experience of the usual, to-the-death fighting against capable warriors. Still, he has not forgotten the fencing lessons he has taken during college. [b]Weaknesses[/b]: [u][b]Battery:[/b][/u] Marcel is practically a magical coil, unable to cast anything conventional – he can only store, detect and reflect. Other schools of magic are beyond him, with disastrous results should he try to cast from scrolls. [u][b]Creep:[/b][/u] Marcel’s manners are too nice for his own good. Most people are off-put by his good behavior, finding it quite creepy out of the fact that it often feels heavily out of place and insincere. [u][b]Magnetic:[/b][/u] Marcel's absorbent quality has a rather unpleasant effect of magnetizing magical effects on him. Spells often end up homing in on him even when targeted at someone else. [u][b]Static Space:[/b][/u] Marcel's presence makes mages uncomfortable and unable to focus, like a dog whistle would bother a dog. The stronger the magician, the stronger the effect. [b]Relations and Affiliations[/b]: Few would know, but Marcel was the consort of Fair Lady Theodora of Skingrad for some time. He still has some feelings for the woman. He was also made an honorary member of the Order of the Morning Star, a Cult of Meridia based in Hammerfell. He occasionally writes letters to his father, Adrien Gawain, to let him know that he's alive and doing well, but aside from that, he doesn't have much contact left with him. [hider=Opinions] [b]Jorwen:[/b] Well, he was a sad, but well-meaning man. Sad to know that he was last seen surrounded by Kamal. [b]Solveig:[/b] Marcel's afraid of the new highs of anger she may reach upon learning of what happened to her father. [b]Sadri:[/b] He seems like a man hiding his sadness, a man longing for something. What is he sad about, and what he longs for, Marcel can only speculate. [b]Sevine:[/b] Marcel's happy that she's not dead. It would be awful for morale, and she seems nice enough. [b]Leif:[/b] This man seems like the complete opposite of Marcel – an outgoing philanderer. Marcel wants to empathize, but is frankly unable to. [b]Sagax:[/b] This young man reminds Marcel of himself, although he strikes Marcel as more sociable a person. Hopefully he’ll lead a good life. [b]Keegan:[/b] Marcel's kind of put off by Keegan's constant cowardice, but can't blame the fellow for being afraid - Marcel himself has saved the fellow from violent death at least twice. [b]Tsleeixth:[/b] Another nice person trying to live his life with the trade of magic and sword. Hopefully Marcel won’t bother him. [b]Roze:[/b] She seems like the sort of person who’s nice to her friends, but uncaring about anyone else. She reminds Marcel of his childhood loves – makes him feel a tinge of bitterness. [b]Rhasha’Dar:[/b] While Marcel's not exactly trustful of caravan cats, nearly getting mauled to death by a tree-witch isn't something he'd wish on someone he doesn't know much. [b]Vurwe:[/b] Well, she [i]was[/i] annoying, but she was still on their side. Sad to see her go. [b]Do’Karth:[/b] This fellow has made his mistakes – and more importantly, made his peace. Marcel hopes that he can stay on the path he has chosen for himself. [b]Kaliri:[/b] Marcel is relieved by the fact that she's not around, mostly due to his fear of people that he can't understand. [b]Daixanos:[/b] Quiet and effective. Good to know that he's on his side, and, well, yeah, good guy, Marcel would guess. [b]Bharzak:[/b] She's quiet, and from what Marcel has seen not much of a fighter. Can't hold that against someone, but given the way they've met, he's not exactly very keen about her. [/hider] [b]Other Capabilities[/b]: Marcel is heavily magic resistant, owing to his Breton heritage. He’s also a fast reader, for reasons unknown. [/indent] [sub][h2]Inventory[/h2][/sub] [sup][sup][sup][hr][/sup][/sup][/sup] [indent] [b]Cash[/b]: 150 septims [b]Keys and Lockpicks[/b]: None [b]Tools and Crafting Materials[/b]: -1 Needle Compass -1 Candle Lantern [b]Clothing and Armor[/b]: -1 [url=http://www.polishhussarsupply.com/sitebuilder/images/kolpak2-213x294.jpg]Kolpak[/url] -1 [url=http://westcoastcwc.com/images/store/Mounted%20Greatcoat.jpg]Greatcoat[/url] -1 [url=http://www.armouronline.com/foto/produkty/titulni_459_renaissance_gorget.jpg]Gorget of Spell Absorption[/url] -1 [url=http://www.karlrobinson.co.uk/images/Commisioned%20work/Buff_Coats/Buff_coat_2.jpg]Leather Buffcoat[/url] -2 Linen Trousers -1 Pair of riding boots -1 Pair of gloves -3 Shirts -4 Pairs of underwear [b]Weapon and Ammunition[/b]: -1 [url=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FWe5pt_H51g/T0i1TnjGieI/AAAAAAAADUQ/e0bYLSXwJjg/s1600/entiere.jpg]Silver Smallsword[/url] -1 [url=http://c0728562.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/MI23277_HR.jpg]Steel Sword[/url] [b]Potion and Arcane Supplies[/b]: -2 Potions of Cure Disease -2 Potions of Cure Poison -2 Potions of Restoration [b]Jewelry, Valuables and Personal Belongings[/b]: -1 Circular Locket, containing a tuft of hair [b]Books and Documents[/b]: -1 Comprehensive Map of Tamriel [b]Food, Drinks and Ingredients[/b]: -1 Satchel, containing nuts and berries -1 Pouch full of madeleine cakes [b]Load Bearing Equipment[/b]: -2 Sword belts with attached scabbards -1 Belt with satchels and pouches attached -1 Flask of water [b]Other[/b]: -1 Woolen Blanket [/indent][/hider]