Paladin

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Seeming Elemental Manikin
Court Autumn Court •••
Freehold Denver
Player Jeff Chasteen

Contents

mask.jpg
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Devil in the Details

Alias(es): Paladin, Mr. Lynch
Real Name: Michael Paladin - Public name (He has never given out his real name since returning.)
Location: Denver, CO
Age: 30s
Seeming: Elemental
Kith: Manikin
Court: Autumn
Virtue: Charity
Vice: Wrath
Concept: Toymaker forced to build Changeling toys
Keeper: The Princess Marionettiste
Summation:
Once a great toymaker, stolen away to the reaches of Arcadia. He was forced to warp the bodies of new Changelings into toys for the Fae. Years of hatred built up and finally exploded. He ran far and fast, finally breaking through the Hedge back into the real world... Only to find that everything he loved had disappeared decades ago.

They say you can never go back... And they were right.

Physical description:
Tall, with a very brooding demeanor. His skin has a waxy, almost laquered appearance. It is generally assumed that the ticking that can be heard near him is a very loud pocketwatch.

Character Livejournal: Inevitability

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History

Basic Timeline:

  • 1930 - The Toymaker is born.
  • 1948 - Married to the Smiling Woman.
  • 1949 - First child is born.
  • 1950 - Second child is born.
  • 1951 - Third child is born.
  • 1952 - Fourth child is born.
  • 1953 - Taken by another Changeling through the Hedge.
  • 1980 - Returns through the Hedge into the modern world.
  • 1983 - On his 53th birthday, he kills his Fetch, suffocating him in a rest home.
  • 1999 - Paladin Software opens it's doors.
  • 2003 - Under severe protests, Paladin Software begins releasing the most contraversial games on the market.

Background:

There is nothing like watching a child with a toy that they are playing with for the first time. Dolls are my favorite. The children dress them up and talk to them and have tea parties. They carry on with their new best friend as if it was a living, breathing thing. In my little town, the dolls I made were loved by each and every child in the village, as well as some of the adults.

At Christmas, I would do quite well for myself, but I always remembered that not every child could afford the craftsmanship that I could supply. I always made a few extra and left them with the hospital or orphanage. I had not grown up well myself. Orphaned when I was six, I had dedicated my life to making sure that those less fortunate than me now were remembered.

There is nothing like watching a child with a toy that they are playing with for the first time. Dolls are my favorite. The children dress them up and talk to them and have tea parties. They carry on with their new best friend as if it was a living, breathing thing. In my little town, the dolls I made were loved by each and every child in the village, as well as some of the adults.

My wife and I always wanted children. We wanted dozens of them running about the house. We loved children, and not only our own. We hosted tea parties and picnics for all the children of the village.

My wife made the best tea, with just the right amount of honey and mint. There were those within our village that waited for us to ask them to tea after church on Sundays. She was the perfect hostess, too. Almost never in her chair, making sure our guests were well-fed and content.

We did have children of our own, too. There were four beautiful children – three girls and one boy. They were the lights of our hearts. We swore to raise them properly, respectfully, and in every manner the best we could.

At Christmas, I would do quite well for myself, but I always remembered that not every child could afford the craftsmanship that I could supply. I always made a few extra and left them with the hospital or orphanage. I had not grown up well myself. Orphaned when I was six, I had dedicated my life to making sure that those less fortunate than I were remembered.

It was one of these Christmases that I was locking up the shop and taking my last two dolls to the hospital when I noticed something odd down the alley beside. It was well into the evening, the sun already having set, and yet there was a faint, dancing glow coming from the alleyway, as if armies of fireflies were engaged in a great battle beside my shop.

Then my mind could not process what I looked upon when I ventured a look around the corner. Now I know what I saw, but the memory of those days is blurred. It’s almost alien. I know they saw me. I know they were looking for me. I had little chance against them, knowing so little about what they were.

The transition across the Hedge left my soul scarred. The transition into a toy for Fae left my body scarred. But my mind, they left intact. After all, what better toy than one that can build more toys?

What do you do when your entire existence is to take others and make them as miserable as yourself? There is precious little you can do. Glamour forces your body to act. Your limbs move of their own accord. All the while, your mind screams at them to stop.

Unless you have been there, you cannot understand. You cannot know. Do you know what it is like to be wound up? To function only when the key is turned? Have you watched your limbs hang lifeless, wanting to scream, cry, rail at the world, but your impotent rage doing nothing but amusing your masters?

My flesh was wooden. My heartbeat was the ticking of the gears inside me. My blood replaced with oil and grease. My organs replaced with cogs and springs. I was their clockwork toymaker. I did as my master bid. As I performed my little tasks, the hatred of them and what they had done grew. I knew that I would have to escape. I had heard the earth murmur and secrets of escape were whispered by the wind. The walls said it wasn’t worth the effort and that I should resign myself to my lot.

The fire, though… The fire remembered. As she skipped and danced under the mantelpiece, she recalled dancing around a fire. She remembered the music and her tambourine. She talked in hushed tones of once being called Nika.

We plotted and planned. We made what preparations we could when the masters weren’t looking.

Time passed and our chances of leaving grew smaller and smaller. Eventually, she forgot Nika and the tambourine. She danced under the mantelpiece and never spoke of it again.

I swore to never forget. I swore to make it back. I found my chance and summoned my courage. I never had run so fast, so hard or so long. I came crashing through the Hedge, cut, beaten, soul tattered, but alive.

It came to pass that I sat beside the bed looking down at myself. Apparently, I lay dying in a rest home. I had found my fetch. He had lived my life. He had raised my children and my grandchildren. He had loved my wife. He lay here looking old and weak and frail.

And I hated him.

He had stolen everything from me. In the end, because of him, he had even robbed me of any grief my family would have felt at losing me.

And I hated him.

He looked up at me. The emotions that flowed across his face were amusing, at first, then disconcerting. He was afraid. He knew why I had come. Then he smiled. He smiled!

And I hated him.

My hands were around his neck, choking what little life was left in him. The rage of decades lost squeezing the last breaths from his wretched body. As suddenly as I had started, I was holding nothing more than one of the dolls I created. I stumbled back, at bit shocked at myself and as I watched, the doll dissolved into nothing.

I quickly left the building, unnoticed as I was when I entered. I returned to my office and looked out over the city.

It didn’t understand, but it would.

My new empire is building and growing.

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Crimes & Accomplices

Groups

Associates

  • Adra - Don't toy with this one. You are likely to lose more than you realize if you do.
  • Candy - She is an individual on which you can get drunk. Though the pains you feel when you sober will last you a lifetime.
  • Eau - Deadly as her name would describe. She will drown you with her charms... literally.
  • Evelyne - The music box dancer... One of my loveliest creations.
  • Robert Goodfellow - Mr. Goodfellow is a unique one. I dare say that meeting him could be a life altering experience.
  • "S" - S is not the brightest, but do not let that lull you into some false sense of superiority. It might be your last assumption.
  • Speedy G - What can I say? Should you want services promised to be services rendered, I can think of no better person for the job. We have an understanding.
  • Vermin - I am surprised he has survived this long.
  • Vestigere - A provocative thinker and a true example of what it means to be Autumn Court. Look to him should you have any question about what terror is.
  • Wilhelm - My right arm and Major Domo in all things. To threaten me is to threaten him. To threaten him, well that is just foolish, at best.
  • X-Caliber-8 - Looks can be deceiving. Not in this case. He is as hardened as they come.


Seeking

  • Seeking Character Tie-ins Did Paladin turn you into a toy for the Fae? Have you played one of his games and tried to get to know the man behind the madness? Do you work with him in his illegal affairs? Or are you one of the faithful of fear as well? Email me!
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Character Inspirations

Mr. Dark - Something Wicked This Way Comes
Frank Costello - The Departed
Tony Soprano - The Sopranos
Mr. Croup - Neverwhere
Al Swearingen - Deadwood
Thief Taker General Chance - Plunkett & MacLeane

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Soundtrack

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Words of the Madman

Understand that I mean you to suffer. I won't kill you, because obviously you won't learn anything from that. Pain you will understand. Pain will help you to remember. My enjoyment of your pain and my willingness to inflict again are merely bonuses for myself. You needn't concern yourself with those.

You see my associates over there? That is Mr. Whilhelm and Mr. Vestigere. They are ever so eager to meet you. I imagine that you, however, will not come away as satisfied from the introduction.

Walk with me...

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Words of the Mad

(Feel free to add your own quotes about Paladin.)

Better listen to the man, he knows way more than you and he might actually consider your well being. I won't. - Wilhelm

Mr Paladin is a shrewd businessman, and a very determined one. My polite suggestion? Don't cause him enough grief to make you his business. You will regret it. - Speedy G

Brilliant creature, that toymaker, turning the children into his personal army. You doubt me? Look closely into the eyes of those future warlords...and you will see...there's something there...that should...not...be. - Vestigere the Usurper

He has turned his rage against the Gentry into a sour thing of causing fear in humanity. Pity him but do not give him sympathy for it. He will find the right path in time. - X-Caliber-8

He does not turn away when I feed them and does not scream when the blood flows. He simply shakes his head and sighs ever so softly. - Eau

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Rumors

(Lies! They are all vicious lies!)

The wind whispers that Paladin is a very bad man and does icky, nasty things.

The streets remember blood he has spilled when another tried to take him back.

The fires said they have burned brightly around some rituals to his Mistress.

He is what he was created to be. Do not the eyes of his dolls seem so real, so soulful?

Retrieved from "http://changeling.cam-wiki.org/Paladin"
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