Ananaksus

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Seeming Wizened Smith
Court No Court
Freehold The Truly Free Freehold of Truth or Consequences, NM
Player J. Derrick Kapchinsky

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Overview

Seeming: Wizened

Kith(s): Smith and Metalflesh (USA-SW-LC-0801-85027)

Alias(es): Professor Andy Zance

Real Name: Andrew von Sankt

Age: Appears to be in his early 30s

Concept: Mad Scientist / Courtless Zealot

Motley: The Crew of the Malcebacle Superior

Entitlement: Margravate of the Brim (USA-SW-LC-0801-85025)

Physical description: Mask: Andy is neither handsome nor ugly, but is always moderately well kept. He always dresses in khaki slacks with a white dress shirt, over which he always wears a blue tie and white lab coat. His red hair, however is the one exception to his otherwise organized appearance. It is always unkept, unruly, and usually pointing in all manners of different directions.

Mein: Exactly the same as his Mask, except that several parts of his body have had the skin flayed from his bones, and replaced with copper plating. Prominent visible examples of this include the right section of his lower lip and chin, a section of his left cheek that extends to encompass his ear, his right eye and the surrounding areas, and his entire left hand.

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Character Information

Please note that any of the following information is subject to change pending approvals, ST intervention and / or player involvement.

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Known History

Basic Timeline:
1900: Andrew von Sankt is born on July 17. (USA-SW-LC-0801-85024)
1912: Andrew's father dies of polio, leaving him to care for his mother and brother, Todd.
1918: Andrew joins the US Army and prepares to serve during the Great War. However, a cease fire begins before he sees any action.
1919: Andy returns home after the Treaty of Versailles is signed.
1924: The newly christened Andrew Zance earns a doctorate in physics from the University of Chicago and accepts a position as a junior professor there.
1924: Andrew is abducted by the Machinist and renamed Ananaksus.

Time spent in Arcadia: Roughly 4 years pass for Ananaksus.

1990: Returned from Faerie with his brother, Todd and Stephen Daedalus, among others.
1990: Andrew Zance, tenured professor at the University of Chicago dies on September 7. Andy attends his own funeral.
1990-Present: Andy joins Daedalus and others on several ventures into the Hedge to help and rescue other Lost who are escaping from Arcadia.
1991: Andy travels to Stillwater, OK. He stays there for several years as the guest of his friend, Cahalenn.
1992-Present: Andy starts frequenting the Bad Penny, and forms a strange and curmudgeonly camaraderie with Ed Clerogen.
1993: While engaged in combat with a group of Loyalists, Andy's brother Todd is killed. Andy blames a nearby Changeling named Dredmil for the death as she was powerful enough to have assisted in the battle, but chose not to.
1998: Andy parts ways with Cahalenn and her motley, after several very heated arguments. Cahalenn and Andy don't speak for several years.
1999: Joins the Margravate of the Brim.
2000: Andy and his motley found Vigilant Freedom, the Truly Free Freehold (TFF) of Truth or Consequences, NM.


Current Activities:

Background: Andrew von Sankt was born at the turn of the 20th Century in Chicago on July 17th to German immigrants. As a boy, the two things that defined Andy were his extremely nimble and inquisitive mind, and a strong sense of right and wrong coupled with a burning desire to do that which was right. It was this desire that caused him to leave school at the age of 12 to provide for his family, following the death of his father, despite his strong performance and extreme enjoyment of education. It was also this desire that made him leave his family to join the war effort once he came of age. Small of stature and slight of frame, Andy was not quite cut out for the trenches, however his mechanical aptitude ensured that he had a place for himself as an Artillery operator. Unfortunately for Andy though, the cease fire had already begun by the time his training had ended, and his military service consisted of very little more than routine maintenance.

After returning home in 1919, Andy threw himself into his studies. His zeal remaining intact, without being tempered by the gruesome realities of warfare, he entered the University of Chicago, under the new name of Andrew Zance (to avoid the growing anti-German sentiment in the US), immediately after his return. He studied physics and engineering, with a fervant desire to use his abilities to help protect America from whatever enemies may rise in the aftermath of the Great War. Through a combination of brilliance and sheer tenacity, he excelled at his course work and was able to earn his doctorate in an astonishing five years. He was offered a position as a junior professor of physics from his alma mater the very next fall, in 1924, which he readily accepted. However other plans would take hold of him very shortly.

Almost immediately after accepting his post at the university, Andy was abducted. While his memories of the initial kidnapping are fuzzy at best, he does remember waking up in chains in a world that could only be described as mechanical...the entirety of his new surrounds was a giant, nearly organic machine. He was soon introduced to his new master, Machinist and was renamed once again, to Ananaksus. Ananaksus worked under the Machinist in his research and development department and was responsible for designing and building fantastical weapons of war. At first, he reveled in the oppurtunity to create works of unparalled science that he did not give thought to his captivity. However he was soon disallusioned of this notion, especially as he began to hear tales of the horrors that his machines were inflicting. It soon became too much for him, and he stopped production, an act that was countered by Machinist plucking his right eye from his head and replacing it with a mechanical one. The flesh surrounding that eye was also stripped and replaced with copper plating. Ananaksus returned to work. His conscious would not allow him to remain at his work for long though and he would stop and come back several more times over the course of the following four years. Each time though, another part of his body would be removed and replaced with metal and machinery. It was during this time, that he was introduced to the works of Cahalenn. The manuscripts that he read filled him with such hope and inspired him so fully with its message of freedom and liberation that he returned to his work with a new ferver that he had not enjoyed in years. However, all of his latest designs were created with one thing in mind, and he began plans to make his escape from Faerie. He set these plans into motion when his younger brother was abducted.

While performing a routine test run of one of his latest designs, an invisible flying machine he calls 'The Malcebacle Superior,' Andy put his plans into action. After collecting Todd, they fought desperately to find their way back through the Hedge. Despite the ship's invisibility though, the magic of the Fae was more than enough to ensure that they were heavily pursued at all times. Through a combination of glancing hits by their pursuers and Andy's unnerving habit (especially for anyone flying with him for the first time) of hanging himself out of the window of the ship, barely hanging on to the steering wheel, so that he can shoot more accurately at his enemies, the Malcebacle crashed. Luckily though, a particularly fearsome lost was nearby and heard the crash. Together with Stephen Daedalus, Andy and Todd were able to hold off their pursuit long enough for Andy to make the necessary repairs to have the Malcebacle resume flight. After an equally long and whirlwind chase, the Malcebacle burst furth from the Hedge...into the Sears Tower, almost. Marveling at the new world of 1990 that lay below him, and unaccustomed to buildings being as high as he was, Andy nearly flew the Malcebacle directly into the Tower, but narrowly avoided a collision.

After landing the Malcebacle, Andy sought out any sort of information regarding the time period in which he now found himself. He quickly found that the Chicago Sun-Times was still in operation and devoured that day's edition. When turning to the obituaries however, he was shocked to read that a respected professor of physics at the University of Chicago, named Andrew Zance, had passed away the previous day and that his funeral would be on the following day. Andy made it a point to attend that funeral and confirmed the fact that it was him that was being mourned. He sat near the back of the procession and watched in grim astonishment as the life he never led was laid out before him, as the family he never knew grieved for him, and he swore revenge on those responsible for stealing his life from him. He fled Chicago after that. The city was not what he remembered and his life there was no more.

After leaving Chicago, Daedalus and Andy headed south, originally aiming to visit Daedalus's home of Houston, TX. However, when passing through Oklahoma, Andy was introduced to very affable Spring Courtier named Cahalenn, the very same Cahalenn who had so inspired him during his time in Faerie with her poetry. Andy quickly formed a very strong friendship with Cahalenn and decided to remain in Stillwater, OK while Daedalus continued south to Houston.

Andy was not content to remain idly in Oklahoma, however. He made several trips out into the Hedge, both with his friend Daedalus and alone, and was responsible for returning an innumerable number of Lost out of Arcardia. It was just after one of these trips, in 1992, that Andy discovered a small tavern on the East Coast called the Bad Penny. It was soon discovered that this was a safe place for Lost to congregate and Andy decided that it would be acceptable for him to let his hair down. Unfortunately, Andy's version of letting his hair down involved loudly espousing his various beliefs, including his opinion on the Spring Court and on those Lost who were not actively striving to hinder the Gentry in some way, shape, or form. Naturally a Spring Courtier who happened to also be frequenting the Bad Penny took offense to this, which meant that Ed Clerogen, the proprietor of the Bad Penny also took offense. Long story short, it took every ounce of tact that drunken Andy possessed not to get kicked out of the saloon. However, during their brief verbal spar, Andy and Ed came to an understanding. For the first time in his life, Andy found someone who understood the frustration he felt while trying to work within the confines of the Seasonal Courts. In Fast Eddie, Andy gained a mentor, of sorts...for while Fast Eddie never really gave lessons, he did listen to Andy bitch to no end about Cahalenn and her foolish obsession with maintaining the balance of the Courts; and he did show Andy that it was possible to be a successful and connected individual without relying on the pomp and circumstance that the Courts offered. Andy spent many evening, over the course of many years, at the Bad Penny, and it was there that he first conceived his idea for an entire freehold that was built upon neutrality.

All was not sunshine and roses for Andy during this time however. One of the most traumatic points in Andy's life after his escape came in 1993 when he and his brother Todd were attempting a Hedge run to find newly escaped changelings. The information with which they had been supplied proved to be a trap and Andy and Todd were ambushed by a group of whom appeared to be Loyalists. The Zance brothers were able to successfully fight there way out of the ambush, however Todd was killed in the process. Enraged with his grief, Andy lashed out at the nearest person he could, a changeling he had just met named Dredmil. Dredmil was nearby during the entire combat and Andy could feel her power, yet for some reason, she chose not to join the fighting. Andy was convinced that her assistance could have spared his brother's life and immediately launched into a tirade directed at Dredmil. This tirade soon devolved into physical conflict and Andy was proven right in his assessment of Dredmil's power, as he later woke up at the Bad Penny with several bruises and broken bones. While he has encountered Dredmil several times since then, the bad blood that was borne of this event persisted for nearly a decade.

Andy lived like this for several years, staying primarily in Stillwater, yet making frequent hedge runs with Daedalus and getting out to the Bad Penny as often as he could. And he was mostly content with this lifestyle. His only only real source of frustration coming from the fact that as his opposition to the seasonal Courts cemented, his friend Cahalenn and her motley began to increasingly revel in pageantry of the Courts. Even going so far as to discuss the creation of an Entitlement whose sole purpose was to strengthen the Lost's reliance on the Courts. It was for this separation in ideology that caused Andy to leave Oklahoma. In the spring of 1998, while in the midst of a discussion whose original subject has been lost to time, Andy and Cahalenn into a very heated and passionate argument regarding the Courts. Tempers flared on both sides and words were spoken that each would later come to regret. However by the end of the argument, it was apparent that Andy could no longer reside in the same freehold as Cahalenn or her motley, nor could things ever be the same between them.

So, Andy hastily gathered all of the possessions he cared enough about to take with him, loaded them up in the Malcebacle, and headed west for New Mexico. He chose New Mexico, specifically for one reason. Having always been keenly interested in technology, Andy wasted no time upon arriving in 1990 in studying the vastly different tech level of the current era, as well as all the tech that he had missed between his abduction and his escape. That being the case, one of the things that had piqued his interested the most was the atomic weaponry that had ended WWII and began the nuclear age that in which the world now found itself . During the course of his studies in the history of nuclear weapons, Andy ran across the name of White Sands Missile Range, located in southern New Mexico, which of course was the site of the world's first atomic testing.

Upon arriving in New Mexico though, Andy's first thought was to establish contact with the local Lost society, whom he assumed would be located in Albuquerque, the state's largest metropolitan area. What he encountered when he first came to Albuquerque though, was far different than he had expected. His first changeling contact in New Mexico was a large individual who looked more than a little like a lion. Andy greeting himself, and the lion-esque fellow introduced himself as Oliver Branton, Margrave of the Brim surrounding Albuquerque. Andy declared his intention to enter into Albuquerque, Oliver said that he would not allow that as it was after dark and none who entered after dark ever came back out, Andy said he didn't care about hokey superstitions, and then Oliver said that if he was going in, he was going in through him. Suffice it to say that when Andy woke up, he was in a strange room and he felt as though he had the worst hangover of his life. He walked out of the room to find Oliver discussing something with a Changeling he had not seen before. After the other Changeling had left, Oliver apologized for having had to knock Andy out, but after explaining the unique situation of the freehold of Abluquerque and with the realization that more violence would probably have the same results as the previous night, Andy accepted Oliver's apology.

Andy stayed with Oliver for several days while Oliver explained the beliefs of the Margravate of the Brim. Andy was intrigued by this, finding a philosophical route from his earlier discussions with Fast Eddie and quickly realized that the path of the March Lord was for him and stayed with Oliver permanently. Over the course of the next two years. Andy learned all he could from Oliver, while assisting Oliver in his task of protecting visiting Lost from succumbing to the curse that had lingered over Albuquerque for the past ten years. It was during this time, and through these many and lengthy discussions with Oliver, that Andy began to finalize his plans to create a neutral freehold and found this place where he would make that a reality. Soon coming to these conclusions though, a reckless changeling ventured into Albuquerque after dark and Oliver was unable to stop him. Even though Andy tried his best to dissuade him of his foolish endeavor, Oliver was convinced that he could find the renegrade changeling before anything untoward could happen. Andy wished him well and insisted that, if he was going to go through with this insanity, he would at least do so well prepared. He then tossed Oliver the keys to the Malcebacle. Andy found the van abandoned near downtown Albuquerque, but never saw Oliver again.

Andy searched for Oliver for several days, to no results, and finally had to accept that his friend and mentor was lost. After spending a full day at the Bad Penny, drowning his sorrow, he gathered up Oliver's rag-tag group of researchers, explorers, and treasure hunters and took them south down I-25 to Truth or Consequences. He finally was able to put his dream of a completely neutral freehold...a freehold that was truly free, into practice. The first year of the TFF was spent organizing his new charges, shaping the hedge around Truth or Consequences, and keeping the Brim safe, not only surrounding Truth or Consequences, but around Albuquerque as well.


More coming Very Soon

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Allies

Stephen Daedalus: Daedalus and Andy helped each other escape from Faerie many years back, and formed a bond during that ordeal that has lasted past Daedalus's heavy involvement with the Summer Courts and Andy's own passionate rejection of all of the Great Courts.

Cahalenn: Andy was first introduced to her while in Arcardia, when some of her writings were passed to him. He later met her in person, when he travelled south from Chicago to Stillwater, OK. They remained extremely close friends for several years, until a nearly violent argument caused Andy to leave Stillwater. However, over the past two years, they have started to reform their friendship and are once again on speaking terms.

Ed Clerogen: Andy sees a kindred spirit in Ed. A Wizened, like himself, who eschews the Seasonal Courts in favor of the freedom that neutrality offers. He's a frequent patron of Ed's Bad Penny saloon, which, in fact, served as his inspiration for the TFF.

Dredmil: Andy originally blamed Dredmil for the death of his brother, Todd, because of her refusal to assist them in the battle that cost Todd his life. However, after nearly a decade of bad blood, there relationship appears to have at least turned into something of reluctant allies. Andy refuses to comment more on this though.

Omar of Glass and Sand: Omar is a new comer to the TFF, whose strength, passion, and will are admirable, even if his methodology is questionable.

Lambert Chauchevsku: Lambert recently moved to the TFF and has sworn to help Andy out whenever he needs to. Andy takes this kind of devotion seriously and sees to it that Lambert's faith will not have been misplaced.

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Enemies

Probably several

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Character Inspirations

  • Redfoot from The Usual Suspects: General personality
  • Professor Benjamin Franklin Dixon from Adventure!: 1920s pulp super science
  • Han Solo: Reckless and wild flying style
  • V from V For Vendetta: His philosophy of Freedom
  • The A-Team: Because the best way to defeat your enemies is to be captured by them and then held prisoner in a small shed (or equivalent) with your van and enough scrap metal and spare tools to turn said van into an engine of pure destruction. Also because I love it when a plan comes together.
  • The Question from The Dark Knight Strikes Again: Faceless guerilla warrior against The Powers That Be.
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Soundtrack

  • Theme song from The A-Team (Jammed in the tape deck of the Malcebacle Superior, on loop)
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Quotes

  • "I told Andy he was reckless, narrow-minded, and dangerously unrealistic. He told me I was flighty, self-absorbed, and toyed with people's emotions. It took two years of us not speaking for me to realise he was right. For that, I'm grateful, and I hope we can rebuild what we once had." - Cahalenn
  • "I will not bend, I will not yield. I will not accept the corrupt way of things...nor will I be martyred!" - Excerpt from Andy's first Inauguration Address as March Lord to the newly formed, Truly Free Freehold.
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Rumors

  • Andy hopes to draw the Gentry out of Arcadia, where their power is weakened and assault them using modern technology to even his odds.
  • Andy has taken a keen interest in the nearby White Sands Missile Range and has made several clandestine trips there for unknown purposes.
  • Andy drinks only distilled water or rain water, and only pure grain alcohol.
  • Andy enjoys video games, especially those with a cyberpunk, dystopian feel. He's supposedly quite fond of Final Fantasy 7, for that reason.
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