[hider=Joseph Mingan][Color=LightSkyBlue][center][h3]Joseph Mingan[/h3][/center][/color]
[Color=LightSkyBlue][center][i]Age:  53[/i][/center][/color]

[Color=LightSkyBlue][b]Appearance[/b][/color] Joseph is tall and gaunt; appearing to be starving and/or ravaged by illness. His skin, pulled tightly in some places, loosely in others over stretched sinews held together by a revealed or protruding skeletal structures. High cheekbones and drawn in cheeks accentuate his emaciated appearance. Joseph's long grayish-black hair is occasionally pulled back into a neat braided ponytail while often disheveled and wild in appearance. His dark brown eyes appear hypnotic to peer into. It is advised not to look him in the eye.

He dresses in the buckskin attire of traditional Navajo people, but occasionally wears white man clothing; a buttoned shirt or distressed cotton trousers and camel colored small flat brim round hat. He prefers moccasins to boots. He will rarely wear animal furs, but does carry an old bearskin coat for winter. He has a few artistically woven multi-colored blankets to keep him warm during inclement weather. 

On certain nights, Joseph will paint a two-inch wide black band across his eyes from hair line to hair line and a multitude of small red and white dots scattered across the lower half of his face with his lips colored black.

[Color=LightSkyBlue][b]Occupation[/b][/color] Formerly, a medicine man, but as of recent, employed as a Livery hand and Ferrier at Morgan's Livery Yard in Job, Nevada.

[Color=LightSkyBlue]Personality[/color] Joseph appears reticent and detached from others. He prefers to remain alone, avoiding contact with others as much as possible. He enjoys working with animals; making him a natural livery hand and Ferrier. Joseph avoids eye contact. When cornered, Joseph will attack.

[Color=LightSkyBlue]History[/color] Joseph was born to the Navajo people and named, [b]Kaneonuskatew[/b], which translates to [i]One who walks on four claws.[/i] He was destined to serve as a Medicine man due to an unquenchable curiosity about all things in nature. He watched the tribe's medicine man work on those people afflicted with illnesses and learned the way quickly. He helped to save family and friends in his tribe from pain and misery.

As a young adult, Joseph became known as [b]Chevayo[/b], [i]Spirit Warrior[/i] as he learned to fight against evil spirits. He learned that his soul was imbued with special magical abilities. Most of his abilities were of the healing nature and helped him to cure people of their afflictions. He could wipe out a fever with the laying of his hands or use herbs, salves and powders to fight off a plague. He became quite a talented medicine man in his tribe; using natural remedies to help perform his magic.

In the midst of a bitter cold winter, during Joseph's 37th season, a troop of white men raided his village killing many of his people including his aged mother and father. Joseph grew bitter, hating the white man. He sought revenge. This hatred fueled Joseph to learn more; a way of fighting back. He discovered an old man living amongst his people who told him about a darker side of being a medicine man. 

[hider=SSIC][color=Darkgray][i]He would have to disavow the art of healing, literally turn his back on the people and learn how to serves as a harbinger of death. This was a foreboding time for Joseph Mingan and the more he learned, the more he felt compelled to continue; losing any ability to turn from this path.

By his 43rd season, Joseph was known as Mingan [/i][b]Grey Wolf[/b][i] when his all consuming anger and thirst for the dark arts of a medicine man drew him in completely. The final act that solidified his place in the world was the killing of his brother. This act defined him as a [/i][b]yee nahgloshii[/b][i] and commenced his sojourn on the path as a [b]Skinwalker.[/b]

Joseph has traveled the mountains in search of his destiny. He avoided living with others for many years until he learned to control the demon that has taken over his life. He has acquired the ability to transform into any animal of his choosing. Joseph prefers the wolf form, but can be seen as coyote, fox, eagle, owl or crow and is not someone to be trusted. Even in bipedal human form he can run as fast as a deer or a wolf. He can fight with the ferocity of a bear. He has adopted the special traits of the animals he changes into. He conceals his supernatural ways by using them only during hours of darkness. He has never transformed during daylight hours, remaining at the livery. It is not a nightly event to change form, but only when the hunger rises up inside and the need to feed drives him mad. He is truly a lost and darkened soul; empty of all happy emotion.

Joseph can control his metamorphosis, but the hunger, forces him to kill. The victim must be a human. He thirsts for the taste of human blood much like a vampire. His heart yearns for the freedom of the night and may be prone to howl at the moon like the werewolf. The longest he has gone without a change is three months. This experience left him badly weakened enduring a feeding frenzy lasting for six nights.

Five years ago, Joseph Mingan found his way to Job, Nevada. He left his tribe after becoming a Skinwalker. He spent two years with a Paiute tribe in Western Utah, but left them after killing a set of twin babies. He made sure to save their finger and skull bones to grind into powder. The powder is known as [/i]Corpse Powder[i].

Corpse powder or corpse poison is a substance made from powdered corpses. The powder is used to curse a victim. The effect is a curse and disease, usually indicated by an immediate action to administration of the poison, like fainting, swelling of the tongue, or lockjaw. Sometimes, however, the victims simply wastes away, as from a normal disease.

In these past ten years, Joseph has learned to use his eyes to hypnotize a victim into becoming compliant to his ways and desires. They become his minion or pet and will serve his wishes. Joseph must curse the victim with his corpse powder and then the victim will die away slowly once Mingan is done with the victim.

The latest skill Joseph Mingan is learning to command is the ability to change his appearance to look like another person. It has been a difficult challenge to take on, but he is up to the challenge and works on it on various evening hours when he is alone.[/i][/color][/hider]

When Joseph Mingan arrived in Job, Nevada he quickly found employment with Morgan's Livery Yard. He has known how to take care of horses for many years, but learned to shoe and care for their hooves the way white men do only in the past five years. He has gotten quite good at it. Although, he does not interface with customers, he does care for the animals and helps Charles Morgan when needed. It is a job, Joseph enjoys performing.

[center][Color=LightSkyBlue][b]Mystery and Hand[/b][/color][/center]
[Color=LightSkyBlue][b]Personal cards-[/b][/color] 1
[Color=LightSkyBlue][b]Hand-[/b][/color] 2
[Color=LightSkyBlue][b]Mysteries-[/b][/color] The Case of the Bovine Butcher- Main Mystery (Current)[/hider]


If you read the SSIC, please read this...
[hider=Note]Note: To all who read the contents of the SSIC, just because you, as an author know something about Joseph Mingan, it does not mean your character knows anything. All your character knows, is that he is the quiet frail old Indian who works at the Livery Yard, tending to the horses. Using your knowledge about his "secret" in character can be interpreted as Metagaming. This is a Role Play violation and is frowned upon. It is a quick way to chase me out of the story.

[quote]Metagaming is when a player applies OOC-retrieved information to their IC character, such as participating in a war that you only saw was stated to be happening on a clan's thread on the forums, or hearing whispering because you saw the text, and knowing a character's name because you saw their username. This is the most commonly broken rule of role-play and most infuriating for many.[/quote][/hider]