udonoodles — Roleplayer Guild

submitting my character sheet for perusal! i think i've covered everything, but let me know if anything needs to be added or changed.  
Elías Delgado



"Relax a little. I can see your worry lines growing in."

Name: Elías Delgado-De la Cruz 
Gender: Cisgender male 
Age: 23 
Sexual Orientation: Gay

College Degree: Bachelor's in elementary education
Witch or Warlock: Warlock 
Schools of Magic: Alteration (Transmutation) 

Personality:
Elías—or Eli, or El—doesn’t have an abundance of close friends. It’s not because he keeps to himself: He’s quite personable, bringing a relaxed presence that chills out those around him. He’s rarely emotional in public, either positively or negatively, which can make him both comfortable to be around and difficult to read. Fortunately, he’s not a person that needs much reading into: Social decorum be damned, Elías is not one for filtering his speech. He says what he is thinking without malice or sugarcoating, which can be both a blessing and a curse—some appreciate his upfront honesty, while others find it harsh or mistake it for sarcasm, even if that isn’t his intention. For these reasons, and his apparent difficulty with picking up on social cues, Elías is not someone with much of a social circle. These communication barriers are the source of much frustration, though he struggles to overcome them

His loneliness certainly bothers him, but he’s learned to live with it: He’s an ambivert, acclimating comfortably to extroversion or introversion. To him, it’s an unfortunate truth that he’s the one everyone knows but no one is close to—but Elías is nothing if not stubborn, and does his best to put himself out there regardless. His strong sense of empathy drives him to help and comfort, though often to his own detriment—it can be easy for him to forget to take care of himself whilst worrying over someone else. 

Though he remains composed around others, he can also be quite emotional while alone—he can have no reaction to something around others, and be moved to tears with it when no one else is around. The one exception to his rule of composure around others is his tendency to become overstimulated: Excessive sensory input can lead to him becoming easily stressed, forcing him away to somewhere more quiet to regain his cool. Thus, he appreciates calmer spaces and people, favouring the quiet types over those louder or more boisterous. 

History/Bio:
The Delgados have always flirted on the fringes of magic: Though they fled Spain centuries ago to escape the Spanish Inquisition’s attempts to uproot witchcraft from Navarre, their interest in the arcane waned over the years as they integrated into the local, heavily Catholic, Latino communities of New Mexico.  

It wouldn’t be until years later, when the Delgado patriarch emigrated in the 1940s after serving time in the war, that interest in the occult sparked once again for their bloodline. His time in Europe had exposed him to the supernatural, as he learned the harebrained schemes of the Axis Powers to control the unknowable were perhaps not so baseless after all. Fortune tellers with eerily accurate predictions in Italy, local French faith healers able to turn the enemy’s fallen against them—it didn’t take much digging through the family archives for Mr. Delgado to uncover his family’s ties to these mystic arts. So, despite the protests of his elders, he uprooted from their home in Albuquerque to head for a small town in Washington state by the name of Tanner. Eager to learn the secrets of magic, he threw himself headfirst into the coven’s teachings and unlocked the powers of invocation. 

And he was terrible at it. 

For quite a while, the Delgados were a bad joke amongst the higher ups of the Tanner coven: Nouveau magicians, headstrong and overconfident and incapable of clambering out of the lower ranks of warlock. A daughter only able to transmute things into frogs, a grandson who teleported himself into a wall—it seemed magic was not in the family’s cards. 

A glimmer of potential arose, however, with the youngest son of the family: Elías’ parents insisted on him joining the coven, despite his hesitancy—there wasn’t exactly an outstanding precedent for his success, after all. Surprisingly, though, Eli proved to be far more capable of wielding his powers than those that came before him. Determined to defy their heritage of mediocity, his parents urged him to continue his studies into magic. Eli refused, however, determined to continue his life normally. He split off from the coven to attend college, and it appeared he had finally escaped the small town of Tanner—somewhere he had always believed was a dead end for his future prospects. 

It seemed Elías would never return—however, the sudden death of his father changed that. Natural causes: They'd all been expecting it for some time, but it still took him by shock when he got the news. Whether out of guilt, obligation, or something else, Eli returned to Tanner to attend the funeral and reenter the coven he had sworn off when he was younger. Now, he finds himself at a crossroads: Which life will he choose? One with the coven, or one out in the world where he longs to be? Or can a compromise be struck to please himself and honour the memory of his father?

here's my character! i had a lot of fun writing his bio, especially when it came to researching rwandan myth. 
Name: Elijah Uzeyman

Age: 28

Gender: Cisgender Male 
Appearance:  

Tall and lithe, Eli stands at an impressive 6’3. His earlobes and septum are pierced, and he frequently wears many rings and bracelets on his fingers and wrists. For clothing, he prefers comfortable wear such as hoodies, with neutral, dark or earthy colours. On his back, above his left shoulder-blade and at the base of his neck, he has a black star tattoo, through which cuts a lightning bolt.

Notable habits/speech features: Uses big words often. Relies heavily on nonverbal communication, such as gestures. Twirls his hair as an idle fiddle.

Concept: Paranormal problem solver 

Personality: 
Eli has always been a bit of an oddball. From an early age, he’s never felt he’s quite fit in, and it’s a mentality that’s chiselled his personality into the analytical, reserved and yet hopelessly awkward and socially inept mess it stands as today. 

Eli is clever: He picks up on small details most would gloss over, coming to grips with new concepts with ease and keeping an open mind when it comes to expanding his picture of things. Whereas most frown when they can’t understand something, Eli smiles—he’s a puzzle fiend, craving the satisfaction of solving quandaries that others would shrug at. He asks questions, challenging his own perception regularly and constantly seeking to expand his knowledge. 

Eli’s focus on details does, however, come at a detriment. Often, he struggles to see the big picture, fixating on whatever has captured his interest instead. His social skills are certainly lacking, fumbling awkwardly around small talk and tripping over social cues. He can be blunt, eschewing metaphors and clever phrasing that would soften his directness. 
Contrary to what initial impressions might imply, he’s actually quite an empathetic person—he cares for the greater wellbeing of others, and can become upset if he is unable to help someone struggling or suffering. However, his inquisitiveness often trumps that empathy, and he can neglect other’s emotional needs not out of malice, but simply out of ignorance or carelessness.     

His emotions are also quite unpredictable, despite what his veneer of tired detachment would imply. He can overreact in some situations and underreact in others, never seeming to find that balance. If upset, he will withdraw and act cagey and defensive, shunning sympathy and support in favour of his own company. 

Traits: Logical, personable, socially awkward, intelligent, empathetic, focused, mercurial, excitable, passionate, stubborn.

Bio:
Elijah was born to Odette and Antoine Uzeyman, Tutsi people who fled their home of Rwanda to escape the ruinous civil war. Surrounded by extended family, Eli’s birth was heralded as a turn of good fortune for the Uzeyman clan after the heartache they had endured escaping their home. Regrettably, however, their misfortune had only just begun. 

The whole Uzeyman family, consisting of Eli’s brothers and sisters, mother and father, aunts and uncles and grandparents, lived in their house—except for one. His grandfather, Antoine's father, was killed in the conflict, spurring the Uzeymans to finally leave. But his body was left desecrated without proper burial, picked at by carrion feeders and left to rot. His spirit could not leave the material world, and so remained in Rwanda where it wandered the bush and stewed in the miserable energy created by the horrors carried out across the country. Mr. Uzeyman became attuned to this energy, and his spirit was transformed into an Obambou: Wraiths of misfortune left behind to curse a family for not honouring their dead. 

Once Obambou became tired of their wandering, they return to their relatives to haunt them, bringing misfortune in their wake. And misfortune came to the Uzeymans, who found themselves at the epicentre of paranormal retribution. It began with their family heirloom, a golden mantel clock, passed down through generations. Its glass shattered and its hands stopped, there was no positive energy left, and the wave of bad luck fell upon the Uzeymans. Nothing seemed to go their way, little lights only appearing to soon be snuffed out. Yet they willfully ignored their accidents, their bad luck, the downturns of their personal and professional lives. They had escaped their sadness, left it in Rwanda. They looked at the clock and could not see its broken face or its halted hands, could not see the fracture in their family—the only one who saw the stopped clock was the one Uzeyman who had never set foot on Rwandan soil: Elijah. 

Naturally inquisitive and attentive to tiny details, Eli noticed this recurring pattern of misfortune amongst his relatives. Always, it would begin with minor turns of bad luck, which would gradually worsen into a great loss—sometimes material, sometimes personal, always irretrievable. And the cycle would repeat endlessly, and the Uzeymans would turn their eyes to their ghastly patriarch’s influence with a shrug of “that’s life”. Eli poured over every text he could find, combing his library’s local archives and plumbing the depths of the internet. He discovered the world of the unexplained, the supernatural—and was convinced this was his way out. He focused, taught himself the intricacies of the system. It took him years, years of enduring hardship and delving deeper into the studies of the arcane—but finally, he could attune himself to the spiritual.

It was a Sunday night, Eli will always remember. Sunday, September 26th. Eli’s 16th birthday was two weeks away. He had school tomorrow, but there was no time to wait: This was his moment. He reached out into the spirit world, pushing past the miasma of misery that had been blocking his third eye’s sight for so long. He called out into the great beyond, and a voice answered: His grandfather, Mr. Uzeyman.
He appeared in a ghastly shape indeed, gaunt with deep dark pits for eyes and cloaked in a woman’s mushanana dress—in his old-fashioned mind, a symbol of the shame on the Uzeyman name. He could have said many things: He could have cursed his family for abandoning their home and leaving him to rot. He could have laughed at Eli, a skinny, sorry excuse for a man, who had spent the best years of his life away with the fairies studying silly little spells. He could have simply wept, so alone, so cold, never able to see his grandson until now. But instead, he made one request, a request Eli’s research had led him to expect: Mr. Uzeyman asked for a home. 

Eli brought the clock into the shed, where he worked tired days and sleepless nights to repair it. With new glass set and the gears replaced, the symbol of the Uzeyman clan began to tick once again. The family could see now it had been broken, could rejoice in it finally being repaired—could feel hope that this truly was a new beginning. The clock became a “fetish”, an object given power by magic or strong emotional energy. Hope flowed through it, and Mr. Uzeyman came to rest within, feeling the positive energy wash over him.
Eli tore the floorboards of the shed away, digging up the dirt and burying the clock six feet—lord, were his arms tired—deep. He gathered some dust from the grave, retrieving the box whittled for the clock for if ever the Uzeymans were to transport it. Today was October 10th, Eli’s birthday—and the day Mr. Uzeyman’s journey to the afterlife would begin.

The Uzeymans danced and sang as they celebrated Eli’s birthday, a vital part of the ritual to free an Obambou. The morning after, Eli arrived at the shed with the box and the smattering of dust he had collected, placing it in the cabinet. With a hammer, he nailed a white cloth to the door—and finally, the ritual was complete. The ties binding Mr. Uzeyman’s spirit were broken, the negative energy cleansed. He had been buried in his own home—the shed—alongside his family. He could finally be at peace; he was so proud of his grandson. 

When it was done, Eli wept. There was a sense of emptiness: Eli had devoted much of his life to breaking the Uzeyman’s curse, and now it was done. What was he to do now? Carry on with a normal life, after all the things he had learned? The sights he had seen? 
And then a thought occurred to him. The entire family had been under Mr. Uzeyman’s spell. It was only due to the unique circumstances of Eli’s spell that he was able to see past the illusion. How many more people were out there that weren’t so fortunate? How many lived under assault from the spirit world with no way to fight back, or even notice the war going on before their shut eyes? They’d have to live their whole lives in misery and misfortune, and the spirits haunting them would be trapped in an eternity of sadness. Someone had to help them—and who better than Eli? This was it. This was what he’d do: He’d help the living with their paranormal woes, and help the dead get their affairs in order and pass on. 

It would be an arduous undertaking—half the battle would be convincing people he was telling the truth, and he was sure plenty of them wouldn’t listen. But he had to try. There was a whole world out there, a world most knew nothing about—and a world in desperate need of a diplomat. Eli would be that middleman, a shaman, an exorcist. With a stopgap job as a yoga instructor to pay the bills, Eli was free to pursue his passion for the paranormal. Doing it as long as he has, it only stands to reason he'd eventually become entangled with like-minded individuals...

Powers/skills: 
Friends on the Other Side - From his research into the supernatural, Eli has unlocked the door keeping him out of the spirit realm. Though he cannot fully cross over, he can commune with the other side—seeing invisible poltergeists, detecting supernatural presences, and fortifying his mind and soul against paranormal assaults such as possessions or curses. He also makes for an easy conduit, allowing him to briefly share his body with spectres so they may communicate. 

Magic Touch - As a shaman, Eli’s magic is primarily specialised into the supportive category. He can do psychic battle with spirits to exorcise them or free others from their possession, dispel hexes, negative energy or curses through special rituals, and anchor weakened spirits to the real world through the use of “fetishes”—items with magic energy, usually crystals or items of great sentimentality, that attract and trap wayward spirits in much the same way as a bug zapper attracts a fly. 
On the human side of things, Eli can touch his fingers against a person’s temples to establish psychic contact, relieving them of negative emotional energy, inducing sleep or wakefulness, or reading or sharing thoughts and memories between the two minds. 

Fate in the Cards - The spirits are an awfully cryptic bunch, aren’t they? Rather than telling Eli exactly what he needs to know, they instead communicate with him predominantly through tarot. From his well-loved deck, Eli can draw up to three cards, each carrying a different meaning: The first gives him a read on the current situation, the second hints at a possible action he could take, and the third card reveals the broad-strokes consequences of this action. For example:
The Moon - You are lost, searching for something.
The Hermit - Did you check your room?
The Wheel of Fortune - Ah, there’s your charger. 
Bag of Tricks: Eli carries a variety of tools on his person to help with his job. These include:

Dowsing Rods - L shaped steel rods used to detect buried gemstones (or more often natural health shops). Gemstones can be left in the moonlight to gather magic energy, effectively acting as batteries for rituals or recharging Eli’s personal reserves. 

Gemstones - Varying in size and type, Eli carries these for the purposes mentioned above. 

Sage and Rosemary - Herbs with magical properties. Sage can be burned to purify negative energy, whilst rosemary can be used to ward off dark magic from malevolent entities. Eli carries cuttings of them in a small satchel, alongside a flip lighter to light the sage. 

Chalk - Crayola brand. Used for drawing magic circles, through which energy can be channelled and rituals can be performed within. 

Tarot Deck - A worn rider waite tarot deck, used for tarot divination. 

Heavyweight Tote Bag - Well, where else is he gonna keep all this? 

Well-Spoken: As his family is from Rwanda, Eli grew up speaking English, French, and Kinyarwanda. 

Danse Macabre: Eli plays the violin, and he plays it quite well. A timeless instrument, its sounds please ghosts from all sorts of centuries. 

Feel the Burn: Magic and spirituality are not all spells and grimoires: As the Buddhists know, yoga is an ideal way to channel ones’ vital energy. As an instructor, Eli is quite well versed in the intricacies of the ancient physical art. Thus, he is incredibly flexible, and more than able-bodied.

udonoodles Member

One thousand lonely stars

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