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[wethrinaer]

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Cassandra
Over the age of 18? Yes
Your preferred contact: tirescannotdefeatme @ gmail/sociologize @ plurk
Other Characters: n/a

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Maias
Canon: Original CRAU (Consigment), antagonist forced into being as close to a protagonist as he can get
Canon point: Right after the truth regarding the prophecy (which will be explained below!)
Age: 38
Species: Undead human
Appearance: Link! (his PB is Aaron Taylor-Johnson). He looks to be in his early to mid twenties rather than pushing 40, due to his magic (which will be explained below). He stands at 6'3", and while not muscular by any means, he's in decent shape for a man his age. Also, because he's undead, he always looks pale, sometimes ashen, depending upon his energy levels and other factors. He has a huge scar going across his neck as well, as though someone slit his throat at one point, and another on the back of his neck, just under the base of his skull.

Background: The setting of Maias' world takes place mainly in the island country of Daear, a pre-medieval world rich with culture and magic. From elves to dwarves, humans to dragonborn, Daear has all manner of creatures living in it, both in the main capital of Carmathen - where Maias was born and does a lot of his business - and the surrounding towns and villages scattered across the lands. Once a sprawling kingdom, Carmathen is the main destination for anyone who wishes to make a decent living, whether it be legal or not. And while it is far from fair city, with the nobility succeeding and the poor becoming poorer, it is still a magnet to many - including thieves, bandits, and those who fall on the lower end of the morality scale.

Unfortunately, that isn't the only thing wrong with Carmathen, and Daear as a whole. Humans despise elves, and elves look down upon humans, and in this hatred has spawned and even deeper and more violent hatred of children born of both species. That isn't to say that everyone in Daear feels that way, but it has been a problem for hundreds of years, and with no signs of lessening. Of course, that doesn't stop elves from migrating to the city regardless and taking up jobs and starting businesses, and while there aren't riots or outright fights between them and the other human merchants, tensions are, oftentimes, at an all-time high. Being the two most prominent species in Daear, they are the ones who run most - dwarves and others merely slide under their radar, and half-elves (the aforementioned despised children of both humans and elves) choose either side to blend in, or don't bother with the capital at all. It's much safer that way, after all.

This brings us to Maias, once a high-born noble with a fruitful life ahead of him. Born into a very rich family of wizards, Maias was the eldest son and thus, was to become the head of the family once he became of age. And in doing that, he was supposed to carry on the family's traditions, which include the study of magic as well as having their proverbial fingers in the pots of the city.

It was a life many would kill to have. Maias, on the other hand, would kill to get away from it.

You see, Maias is what his family calls a "black sheep" - despite being born with a fairly powerful pool of magic, he was unable to cast even the simplest of spells. To his extended family, it didn't matter how intelligent and skillful he was; he couldn't cast magic, and thus, couldn't become a wizard like his ancestors before him. And after his younger brother started showing signs of being able to fulfill the duties Maias could not, it became clear that Maias would no longer be given the responsibilities promised to him at birth.

Maias didn't mind, though. It wasn't as if he wanted it in the first place, you know? And his younger brother, who Maias adored more than anything in the world, would do a much better job of it. Even if his father assured him he would still become the Head, there were many a precaution taken to make sure other family members didn't . . . interfere. Maias was forbidden from leaving his family's estate, and there were always talks - arguments, really - where aunts and uncles and cousins alike wanted Maias sent away, or worst, dead. Maias heard it all, and in his fifteenth year, with his brother's help, decided to do something about it.

First, a servant went missing. A young maid who left behind a letter claiming she was returning to her family in the countryside. Another servant not too soon after that, also claiming to have returned to his family in the north. Even though letters had been sent from outside of the estate, suspicion grew and, as more went missing, thoughts lead to foul play.

The truth was discovered on a rainy, summer's night. A maid who had been cleaning the far side of the manor walked in on Maias, covered in blood and knife in hand, standing over what would have been the latest missing servant. He had been stabbed, and his throat slit to prevent his screaming. And Maias, smiling, without a care or regret in the world. he family was horrified, and even more so by the lack of remorse Maias showed for his crimes. Left with few options, Maias' father chose the only one he felt appropriate, given the family's standing in Carmathen and the love he still had for his son: he stripped Maias of his family's name, took his inheritance, and kicked him out with enough coin to provide for himself for a month, with a warning to never return.

But Maias is not a man who looks at his misfortunes with sadness or anger - no, he sees the bright side of things and, embracing his new freedom, immediately made his way to the far side of the capital, known as the poor district, to begin his new life. And like many others who did the same before him, began to take campaigns.

And who knew, but campaigns suited him very well. For a decent bag of gold, a man could go to the poor district and hire a group to do almost anything - clear out monsters in the woods, investigate a series of caverns said to contain treasure, murder a rival across the capital . . . literally anything, and Maias took to it with a vigor none could match. Skilled with a dagger and with nothing but his natural charisma, Maias quickly became someone many sought out to hire, and a young man that earned the trust of many who worked with him. He was efficient if a bit, well, murderous, and if one wanted another killed, Maias was your man. The more he worked, and the more he took those jobs and honed his skills, he ended up picking up the nickname Maias the Bloody - ridiculous, sure, but it still struck fear into those who only heard whispers of his "accomplishments".

But Maias wanted more, and if nothing else he was a businessman at heart. With so many trusting him, and many clambering to work alongside him, Maias formed a group of the men he trusted the most - affectionately named his "merry band of misfits". They were efficient, varied in their skills and all loyal to Maias first, and to the man that hired them second. Bandits, thieves, and swordsmen, with the occasional wizard or mage to provide protection.

Not everyone was pleased with Maias' success, however. And the campaign business is anything but friendly. One particular man decided to do something about it, though, and while Maias was traveling alone to meet up with his men, attacked him along with a few other men and left him for dead out in the middle of the forests. However, luckily for Maias, a group of hunters found him, and brought him back to their village and to their healers, who saved his life and offered him a place to stay until he was completely recovered. Lucky for Maias, but unfortunate for the village; Maias felt the same way many did about half-elves and their sympathizers, and the village he had ended up in was one of the many hidden ones found throughout Daear.

But while disdain was normal, Maias hated them. They were abominations to him, things that didn't deserve to exist. And here he was, right in the middle of a village full of them as well as humans and elves who weren't bothered by their existence. It was disgusting, and something had to be done. So, he decided the village had to go. His men had tracked him down, and one night they torched the village and murdered everyone there, including a young girl Maias had fallen in love with - she refused to leave with him, after all, and in the end she was a half-blood. He pushed her off a cliff, thinking he'd killed her.

It was the only thing he would ever regret. For more than one reason.

Life after that resumed as normal. As he grew older, Maias took a step back from participating in many of the campaigns. Not one to miss out on action, though, he still followed along, allowing his men to do the "dirty work" while he would enjoy the spoils with them after. And with all the traveling they did, he wasn't about to miss out on enjoying the other spoils of travel - mainly the beautiful women, though he always preferred the brothels to anything more serious. He'd already fallen in love once and it went terribly wrong, so why bother trying again?

But as campaigns grew more difficult, Maias decided that they needed to hire a magic user on permanently. It was on one particularly difficult campaign that he began to hear of The Tempest, a powerful mage skilled not only in defensive magic, but offensive as well. And not only that, but a temper few dared to trigger. Maias decided he needed this mage immediately, and upon a return trip to Carmathen, sought out the mage and hired her (a woman, much to his surprise) immediately. She had requested to come and go as she pleased, but as long as she showed up when he needed her, he didn't care.

It was business as usual after that. Take on a campaign, contact Tempest to join them, and earn a good amount of coin. And as the years went on, he grew to fancy Tempest - and who wouldn't? A strong, powerful woman certain in her actions and not afraid to take a life? Maias wanted her, and he always got what he wanted. It took a bit, of course, to wine and dine her, but eventually they began a casual relationship - dinner, some talking, and a night in bed together. It was perfect to him, and Maias would reflect, more than once, that he wanted nothing more than the life he was living now.

And then one night, after once again trying to charm Tempest into bed, it didn't go as planned. As it turns out, Tempest was Aurae - the young girl he'd fallen in love with years ago, who he thought he'd killed. He didn't even have time to be charmed that she spent her entire adult life searching for him, because she wasted no time in slitting his throat and taking her revenge. Fair and all, given what he had done.

And that was that.

. . . eeeexcept that he wasn't dead for long. Or at least, to him. Next thing he knew, he was waking up in an abandoned cabin, half-dead and left enough food and water to last his recovery. Which was a little awkward, really, since whoever brought him back didn't do a good enough job. And the strangest of all: a symbol burned into his chest, resembling an M.

But that wasn't it; his recovery was slow, and his wounds were taking far too long to heal. It took months for him to recover some of his voice, and to this day it still goes in and out, and overall leaves it raspy at best. He was weak nearly all the time, and once he reconnected with the few men who survived Tempest's revenge, was told that he looked as though death was just around the corner, waiting to reclaim his life. And the oddest of all was that no healer, no physician could really explain exactly what was wrong with him.

Until one day, a man cloaked in black approached him in a bar with a story so outrageous he still has a hard time believing it true. The Seer, a woman Maias had certainly never heard of, had Seen the end of their world, and that he had been Chosen as one of those tasked with preventing it. He had laughed at the man, of course, but the man went on to speak of Maias' death in such a way that he couldn't ignore - in fact, the man was the one who had brought him back.

Furthermore, the man explained that Maias' "condition" was due to his revival - while he had been brought back to life in nearly every sense of the word, he still existed in a place between both life and death - a creature on the cusp, who could go either way. Because Maias had lived a life of such darkness, he was essentially cursed. If he went along with the Seer's vision, he would be given the chance to atone and, one day, the cursed magic would be lifted. But if he refused? His condition would become worse and worse, until the day he lost his sense of self and humanity, and became nothing more than a creature of the undead.

Left with no other choice, Maias agreed, and the next morning set off to find the rest of those chosen.

And it is at this point that Maias is brought to the CDC, as part of the Red Team under the leadership of Dagger. While Maias' time at CDC, plot-wise, was not very significant - he stayed on his best behavior, followed orders, and basically did his best to "blend in", as they say - it was significant in that he became quite close with a young woman, Isha Devan. Maybe it was due to the stress of being in a foreign world with foreign technology, or maybe it was the stress of constantly being on guard and worried that one would lose a life if they so much as stepped wrong, or something else, but - Maias grew fond of Isha, and a relationship formed between the two. Romantic, sure, but not in the traditional sense, and more often than not the two sought out comfort, rather than pleasure. Maias even went as far as to tell her things he hasn't breathed a word of since his youth, including why he was kicked out of his home in the first place. It's safe to say he was pretty serious about her, although at first it was, in fact, a way to gauge just how she would react to the type of person he was. She passed with flying colors.

But as always, all good things must come to the end, and Maias was shortly transferred out (ie: dropped) and later, returned to his world.

Where shit continued to hit the proverbial fan. He split from the group he was meant to be working with - the chosen - and worse, been captured by their enemies, those of which they were unaware of at the time. Kidnapped and tortured for weeks, Maias was eventually rescued by Tempest (a fellow Chosen, ironically), but after that he wasn't quite the same. It took weeks to heal, and their travels became slow because of it. He lost some of his charisma as well, and rather than slapping up his usual mask, he could be found quietly considering the countryside as they passed by instead, rather than talking up a storm about whatever thought came to mind.

But their enemies were still there, and a rather disastrous ambush left most of their party dead, and Maias barely alive himself . . . that is, until the same magic that brought them all back in the first place brought them back again, spurring them on to finding the Seer and demanding answers as to just what the hell was really going on.

And what was that, you ask? Well, as it turns out, there's no prophecy. There's no real Seer, there's nothing - what truly is going on is that these enemies of theirs are their world's equivalent of demons, who have found a way into their world from another plane/world to seek revenge on them for their parents' crimes. Or well, for preventing them from really destroying the world, long before any of them were born, but - wait, what?

It's at this point, where as Maias is trying to process all of this, that he is once again taken from his world and brought here, to Redshift.

Personality: On the surface, Maias comes off as a friendly, if morally gray charismatic bandit. He loves life, he loves the ladies, and he loves talking about all manner of silly things, anything from adventuring stories to ones he's made up himself. A bit distant when it comes to real friendships, Maias is still a man that many would love to be friends with . . . of course, if they don't know about his reputation.

But behind the facade lies a terrible, calculating man. Murder and theft are a business, and one he, up until his death, made sure to exploit to get the highest coin he could for both himself as well as his men. He holds no regrets for any of the lives he's taken, nor does he feel guilt. He is a man who is both charismatic and cunning, demanding respect of those who follow him while instilling fear into those who hear his name. He is not a man to be trifled with, and he makes sure to uphold that reputation, even after his untimely death and subsequent switch to the so-called "good side".

But putting aside all of his terrible, murderous traits, Maias is a man who exudes confidence, even when he's awkwardly flirting with the ladies - which is part of the act, of course. It's not just seen in his words or the way he carries himself, but in his skills with a dagger as well. There are very, very few men who have tried to challenge him and lived to tell others about it, and he makes certain of that.

On the other hand, he is a bit of walking contradiction. While he'll go on and on about his hatred of abominations, or half-elves, in the same breath he'll happily tell you how terrible humans are, as well. Half-elves may be monsters, but humans? Humans, while superior (always superior), are the scum of the earth as well, despicable, disgusting creatures. It's these very thoughts that "help" him when he does take a life - he certainly doesn't discriminate there, save for the women he sleeps with. He may be a piece of shit, but he'd never kill a brothel woman. That and it would be terrible if it got out he was killing the women he was sleeping with!

Then again, while he can play nice in appearance and mannerisms, it wasn't unheard of for him to kill an elf in his party, just because they were an elf.

As for himself, Maias hates talking about Maias. Instead, let him regale you the tale of how his men took down twenty beasts in the caverns of the south! Or instead, wouldn't you love to hear about the beautiful women who litter the coast? Anything that turns the subject away from him is better, and he is one to keep his secrets close to his chest. Not even his most trusted know of his origins, and he prefers to keep it that way - even if it's never come up before.

Finally, while it isn't entirely obvious, his manner of speaking is far more polite and formal than your average mercenary - but most people attribute this to his grandiose way of behaving. Grand gestures are common when he's talking, as if he's retelling a play rather than a story of his and his men's exploits. He isn't one to lie about it, but even the simplest of stories can and will be turned into grand displays of this or that when Maias is the one explaining. And he certainly doesn't let his "condition" get in the way, either.

Of course, with recent . . . events in his life, everything above is a bit muted as of late. He certainly tries when he has the energy, and he certainly does put up a mask with people who aren't familiar with what happened, but otherwise . . . it won't last long. Sooner or later, he'll be back to himself, and certainly quicker once he's tossed into yet another modern world.

All in all, Maias is just a Nice Guy. Or at least, that's what he wants you to think.

Abilities/Skills:
- Weapons; Maias is skilled in most weapons from his world (swords, axes, etc), but prefers a dagger over all. More than one, as he tends to hide as many as he can on his person. He's also somewhat skilled with guns, thanks to his time in CDC.
- Since Maias is a seasoned traveler, he has an excellent sense of direction, and is very good at reading maps. He's also good at drawing maps, though he rarely indulges in that.
- Magic; Maias is not able to cast any of his magic, despite having a big ol' pool of it at his disposal. That isn't to say other wizards/mages/etc can't draw off of him, though, if they're the type to do that. If you need a pool of magic, Maias is your guy.

His magic also accelerates his healing, but the curse slows it down. It honestly depends on where Maias falls on the morality scale that day. If he's being good and being something of a decent person? His human side starts to win out over the curse. On the other hand, if he's a piece of shit and, more extreme, takes a life? Then the curse wins out and he begins looking more and more like a curse.
- Pick-pocketing/thievery/hiding a bunch of objects on his person: what is says on the tin - he's a bandit, he knows how to steal without you noticing, and is very good at hiding things in his clothes - though it mostly refers to knives.
- Power-wise, Maias is just human. Anyone stronger than a healthy, human man could handle him, and beyond that he stands no chance.
- Charisma - smile, be friendly, and talk your way out of a situation or stab them when they aren't looking. Maias is very good at his act.

Inventory:
- black tunic
- black pants
- black boots
- dark brown belt
- black leather gloves
- black cloak with hood
- cloth bandages (worn wrapped around his neck)
- (1) ornate dagger kept on his belt
- (10) normal throwing daggers, hidden all over his person
- a traveling sack with an extra set of clothing
- a bag of gold coins (about 50 or so)

SAMPLES
Redshift's testdrive! And a reunion with another former CDC person - the only one that matters.
Another testdrive, Kyriakos. I wanted to link this one, as it goes to show just what kind of person Maias is, even without his memories - utterly polite and friendly, as well as self-serving and threatening, when threatened.
From CDC! Showcasing that while Maias is hard-working, he does like having an advantage on his side, ie: bringing a dagger when he wasn't supposed to.
Another from CDC, and probably one of the most important ones regarding his development there. Despite his firm grasps on his secrets, he grew close to Isha Devan and, eventually, shared things with her that not even men who've known him since his teens back home knew.