Vestigere

From Changeling Venue

Contents 1 Chronicles 1.1 Chapter I: Origin 1.2 Chapter II: Capture 1.3 Chapter III: Loyalty 1.4 Chapter IV: Irony 1.5 Chapter V: Return 2 Description 2.1 Visage 2.1.1 Mask 2.1.2 Mien 2.2 Persona 2.2.1 Acquaintance 2.2.2 Details 2.3 Psyche 2.3.1 Demeanor 2.3.2 Nature 3 Practices 3.1 Dealings 3.1.1 Harriers 3.1.2 Motley 3.1.3 Prey 3.1.4 Other 3.2 Employment 3.2.1 Blacksock 3.2.2 Paladin Software 3.2.3 Sidejobs 4 Shriekings 4.1 Declarations 4.2 Whispers 4.3 Statements 5 Coaxings 5.1 Film 5.2 Legendry 5.3 Literature 5.4 Music 5.5 Quotes 6 OOC 6.1 Seeking 6.2 Mechanics 6.3 Credits 6.4 Contact 6.5 Others

Keeper	The Choir Empress
Title	Autumn King
Birthname	Unknown
Aliases	Digicide, Lightcap, Spectre
Identity	Ephraim Suture
Birthplace	Edinburgh
Seeming	Darkling Leechfinger
Court	Autumn Court •••••
Entitlement	Unknown
Freehold	The Hall of the Mountain Kings
Motley	The Dread Exchange
Society	The Priory of Deimos
Journal	Loyalty Spurned
Player	Loyalty Spurned

Chronicles

Chapter I: Origin

Everyone has to come from somewhere. In this case, a child unnamed lived in a modest house nestled between a forest and the city of Edinburgh. Whimsical, imaginative and daydreaming, the child loved his faerie tales and playing in the woods. His all-too-brief time of innocence was soon to change, though...

Chapter II: Capture

No one knows how he did it, but it happened...and it offended them, more importantly. A mushroom ring, ancient beyond compare and sacred to the servants of the Others, was opened numerous times before it was discovered. For his trespass, he was taken by Lords of Arcadia and made into a Darkling. Punished in ways no human should know and brainwashed by their insane ravings, he eventually succumbed and became the creature known as Vestigere; a nightmare beast from his own faerie tales...

Chapter III: Loyalty

Abuse takes its toll, and some of the abused become part of the problem. He may have been treated like the redheaded stepchild of the family, but he was still part of the family in his mind. Emotionally abused in subtle ways, his Keeper and lover fed him the tears and emotions of the frightened, warping his body and mind even further until he had seemingly forgotten the world of his origin. He hunted the escapees from Arcadia, having grown to find them ungrateful thieves of the grace of their rightful masters, either killing them or dragging them kicking and screaming back for their punishments. Decades went by on earth and the long years, being relative in that strange, eldritch place, made him a young adult. This long period of servitude eventually would change, though...

Chapter IV: Irony

His execution had been ordered, owing to the capricious nature of the Fae. No one knows why, after decades of service, that his loyalty was so easily and so bitterly spurned. All that is known is that he and his fled for their lives through the Hedge, his mind grasping for anything, anytime, anywhere that would not lead to his demise. Survival is a necessity, and some things that were long forgotten became to spark in his mind. But he had been there for too long, and those fleeting glimmers of memory were not enough. It would be through the actions of another that he would make his escape...

Chapter V: Return

Vestigere was pulled through and vanished, appearing in Edinburgh in January 2007. He entered the dreams of his few comrades and, wandering from door to door, made it to Denver in 2007. Since then, he has tried to adjust to Earth and his newfound asylum with his former enemies, securing an unorthodox array of employs and joining the Autumn Court with the valuable half-remembered snippets of intel he could provide on the minions of Arcadia's whims. His malevolent and dangerous past has made numerous changelings despise him, some of them never realizing why, and so the world is hideous and his future uncertain.

But who knows what that future could bring? It is as capricious as the Fae themselves...

Description

Visage

Mien

• Age: 18/19
• Height: 5'11"
• Weight: 170lbs
• Hair: Long, stringy black. Tied back in warbraids and twigs.
• Eyes: Black on black; no visible pupils or irises.
• Complexion: Chalky white, speckled and tipped in inky black.
• Digits: Long and black, tipped in ragged nails.
• Maw: White tongue and gums, filled with sharpened teeth.
• Ears: Slender, pointed, tipped in black.

Persona

Acquaintance

• Quirks: Quiet, tends to loom.
• Stance: Almost perpetually poised in a threatening manner.
• Habits: Drifts to the nearest shadow.
• Commonality: Antisocial; keeps to himself and his few associates.
• Voice: Soft booms, hisses and rasps of an almost demonic quality.
• Movement: Smoothly graceful or deliberately stilted like a marionette puppet with its strings cut.

Details

• Bents: Sadism, illogical need to destroy things or draw out fear.
• Intelligence: Highly analytical and creative.
• Sociality: Gifted on a level contradictory to his antisocial nature, but focused upon preying on others.

Psyche

Demeanor

• Addictions: Sadism, self-harm, substance abuse, suicidal tendencies.
• Aptitudes: Technology, music, art, combat, stealth, survival.
• Memories: Nightmarish, details twisted out of proportion.
• Qualities: Honor, fanatical loyalty, bravery, determination, fast learner.
• Desires: Acceptance, revenge, sanity.
• Despairs: Maladjustment, rejection, abandonment.
• Fears: The Choir Empress, death or a fate worse than death.
• Rages: The Choir Empress, all Keepers, most changelings, humanity in general.

Nature

• Symptoms: Paranoia, hallucination, chronic nightmares, violent tendencies.
• Cause: Maladjusted to Earth. Too much time in Arcadia.
• Clarity: 3/4
• Drives: Hatred, fear, survival.
• Virtue: Fortitude
• Vice: Wrath

Practices

Dealings

Harriers

• Nepenthe - A fairest of dark proclivities and darker appetites...no surprise that they once hunted together.
• Khamûl - A fellow dark being tasked with backing up the beasts as they tracked.
• Morag MacGillivray - Morag came out in Colorado, ended up in Scotland. Vestigere came out in Scotland, ended up in Colorado. Coincidence?
• Raina Hart - A hunterheart tracker who has become somewhat...strange recently.
• "S" - A hunterheart tracker who has faithfully stayed by Vestigere since their return to Earth.
• The Megalospyropoulos - Fellow darklings who served The Troika.

Motley

• Eau - A fellow spirit of vengenace.
• Emma Hart - The only member stranger than him.
• Paladin - A source of employment and guidance.
• Robert Goodfellow - A source of spirituality and guidance.
• "S" - Former fellow Harrier and faithful friend.

Prey

• Adrian Grey - Lured into the Hedge in 1964.
• Aklia Grimm - Lured her into the Hedge in May of 1956, foiled her first escape.
• Aretas - Hunted him for years in the Hedge after his escape from the Others. Granted passage from him on January 2, 2007 not long after his emergence.
• Brand - Countless clashes between these two occurred until Vestigere's escape. It is said that Brand has rescued at least one changeling in peril from him.
• Delphi - Tracked and harried her repeatedly, she was one of the few targets that always seemed to elude Vestigere. One might almost think she knew he was coming...
• Edria Meredith - Numerous confrontations in the Hedge, each time leading to numerous captures and returns to Arcadia. Each time, she learned and adapted. And planned for the next attempt.
• Evie Greene - Lured into the Hedge and captured numerous times to be taken back to The Choir Empress for punishment, she has borne the consequences of Vestigere's loyalty more than most. First evaded her on January 1, 2007.
• Gaea - Coaxed her into a doorway through the hedge when she was young (1991), kidnapping her for The Choir Empress. Encountered her again at a hostel in Texas on January 4, 2007.
• Maelstrom, Regent of Storms - Lured him into the Hedge from a Tokyo Shaolin monastery at the age of 12 in 1942.
• Rigger - Ran into Love Lies Bleeding chasing one of their number in the Hedge and fought them. Outnumbered, he fled them.
• Rue - Ran into Love Lies Bleeding chasing one of their number in the Hedge and fought them. Outnumbered, he fled them.
• Stephen Daedalus - Tried to take him and a group he was escorting back to Arcadia in 1992.
• Tanis - Retrieved her once trying to escape their Keeper. He did not catch her the second time.
• The Valkyrie - In a truly devastating Hedge battle, Vestigere took the German aviator back to his Empress for a time. It is whispered that Vestigere is the only man ever to have captured or conquered the Nordic warrior-woman, and she, one of the only Lost in Arcadia ever to really make him sweat and bleed for a victory. They clashed again many times over the years, their enmity winning them both a queer sort of intimacy with the other. Their regard for each other now is complex, seemingly poised between hatred and respect.
• Tommy Blue - A series of duels in the Hedge finally saw her captured. Ironically, she helped him in mid January 2007 chart a course through the doors to Denver.
• Thorn - Briefly captured him in the Hedge before he flew away.
• Vladimir Karakov - Tried to keep him from escaping the hedge in 1987.
• X-Caliber-8 - Clashed with him numerous times, each time observing and learning tactics until the Hedge War that brought about his final escape.

Other

• Belle Chanson - "Liberated" her from her previous Keeper in Arcadia at the order of The Choir Empress and protected her in transit to the delivery. Since then, a strange accord has existed between the two.
• Bianca Snow - An employer of a miscellany of different services since his return to Earth. As with many of her dealings, the exact nature is kept strictly off the record, and many assume the worst.
• Creanna - Surprisingly amicable dealings with her in the service of presenting escapees back to Tartaro, her Keeper, for an incalculable amount of time in Arcadia.
• Crystal - A clash of some kind occurred on Earth in February of 2007 between these two. Since then, they have considered one another enemies.
• Harry Leroy - The goblin that unleashed him onto Earth by shoving him out of the Hedge, they appear to have dealt with one another as business clients for a few years prior.
• Lilium - "Liberated" her from her previous Keeper in Arcadia at the order of The Choir Empress. Relations between them are unknown.
• Nathaniel Fellows - These unlikely comrades in arms have an unknown history in Arcadia.
• Mother Rowan - Stayed at The Haven January 28, 29 and 30, sent away abruptly by its proprietor when she realized who he was.
• Scarlett - Dealings are unknown. No one seems to know how these two know each other, but rumors abound.
• The Mouse - A brief and fleeting obstacle in the capture of an escaped Changeling once. Once.
• The Nameless - Difficult to say exactly what Vestigere's thoughts are on this one, but they do seem to have some history back in Arcadia. V always perks an eyebrow when its name is mentioned.
• Vicky Sage - An employer of odd jobs in the past. Yes, she is one of those to blame for having assisted in Vestigere's continued survival upon reaching Earth. Stayed at her home on January 4, 2007 thru January 7, 2007 before moving on.

Employment

Blacksock

Composition and instrumental performance for one of the newest and most disturbing bands in the underground scene. Chilling performances, surreal songs and macabre lyrics certainly demonstrate Vestigere's touch upon this meeting of talented minds.

Paladin Software

Technical advisor. Someone as inured to the vagaries of fear and violence can provide much to the content of the leading manufacturers of controversial videogames and software. As if that was not enough, changelings with an interest in these products may notice a few of the creatures bear a disturbing similarity to a certain darkling...

Sidejobs

Acquisitions, you might call it. Enforcement. Miscellany. The price for these tasks is more often favors than money. All things are negotiable.

Shriekings

Declarations

• "Your fear is a sweet bouquet."
• "I never said I deserved to escape or survive."
• "I remember you, distant echo."
• "It's not me you hate, changeling. You hate what you became because of me."
• "You will never wake up."

(Vestigere said something? Put it here.)

Whispers

• "I tell you, I'm not convinced that this guy escaped. I think he's still working for the Gentry in some checkmate scheme against us."
  • "Nah, he escaped, but he had help from one of his own prisoners."
    • "More like he sacrificed that prisoner to help him escape."
  • "He may actually be going back to Arcadia. Good riddance."
• "He caused such an imbalance that the Hedge spat his black soul out just to set everything right."
• "I heard that before he went into the hedge he was actualy a real Vampire! I hear he was changed a lot but he still hungers for blood!."
• "I hear that he was some kind of axe murderer before he was taken. Arcadia only gave him better tools to get the job done!"
• "Footsteps of the wind, might of the mountain, hunger of the flame; what more could a Gentry wish in a Hound?"
• "I hear Vestigere is really just a big softie, and loves both puppies and kittens. Chief among them is Mr. Butch.
  • "Uhh, yeah. Right. So you didn't see the recipe book or the salt and pepper shakers. Got it."
• I think that the Keepers are watching through him and weakening others through his terrors. Just be careful.
• Deep down, Vestigere just wants to be loved...and a pony...
  • ...to eat.
• Vestigere's keeper removed his heart, replacing it with a lump of stone, so we would have no pity on those who screamed for mercy as they tried to escape.
  • It wasn't The Choir Empress that removed it, that was Vestigere's own decision. He tore it out when he realized that feeling pity would disappoint his Keeper.
• Vestigere, like Chuck Norris, has two speeds: walk and kill.

(Gossip away. You have nothing to fear.)

Statements

• I find him a necessary evil. On top of that, the other reason he survives is because she asked me not to pursue him... I hope he liked the present.

~ Abel Grimm

• Twice is he responsible for my existance in Arcadia. I may forgive him that someday, but I doubt my brothers ever will. Perhaps I should feel sorry for him instead.

~ Aklia Grimm

• One merciful act, one moment lost within so many. There was a time when he served as the nightmare that awaited me in the Hedge. There was a time when he took joy from the pain and thrill of the chase. I wonder if he felt that same elation when he was pursued, regardless. One merciful act, one singular moment when I saw in him, the very thing I had felt long before. It's my hope that he will not forget it.

~ Aretas

• Cette voix. Je me rappelle l'une fois. Férocité terrible et belle tonalité.

~ Sung from a distance in an angelic frightened whisper by Belle Chanson

• ...

~ Cain Grimm

• I have dis feelin' he undastands me beddah than some an' he knows wheah I come from.

~ Creanna

• His sorrow was a delicious treat, so much hidden under the snowdrift. But I got to peek.

~ Crystal

• They say it's hard to judge a Lost by what they did in Arcadia but that would be only half-truth. There is something in us that bends or does not to their will and while I will never judge a lost now on what they did for the gentry then, I would lie if I said I had forgotten any of it. He and I will dance again someday, in knowledge or not, and we will see who's plans and hopes win this time. I do not fear him; it is useless to fear what is understood and useless to frighten what you do not have the power to frighten.

~ Edria Meredith

• V isn't that scary... he's a boogeyman supreme with chilly and cheese! Wait... that's supposed to be scary isn't it? *giggles*

~ Emma Hart

• I trust Vestigere as little as he trusts me. Some nights, I fear that he was more my Keeper than She was.

~ Evie Greene

• He's got his one chance. If he F*'s it up then I'll take him out myself, hopefully he'll prove redeemable.

~ Gaea

• Vestigere pays well. I never did ask him what he wanted from the contracts I fulfilled for him. Don't plan on it, either.

~ Jiro Takahashi

• Vestigere? That creepy bastard? God, I swear if I catch him breathing down my neck one more time I'll scream like a little girl. Or break his nose.

~ Johnathan Prince

• As at home in the dark as I am. Once we worked together. With good fortune we shall again. He is a true artisan of terror.

~ Khamûl

• There is no more frightening predator in all of nature, than the one which does not hunt for itself.

~ Maelstrom, Regent of Storms

• You treat him like the bogeyman. Who stalks and hunts and kills under the cover of the night. Who with the first rays of daylight will sink back into the darkness from which he was created. You forget that not all horrors are bound to the night and the dark. That not all horrors retreat from the light. Yet again, that is assuming he really is a bogeyman.

~ Nathaniel Fellows

• Vestigere is the most deliciously evil individual I have met in quite some time. If you think you have exhausted all possible methods of torture, you need only speak to him and you will find that he is a veritable treasure trove of the demented and twisted.

~ Paladin

• Almost pack...but something smells foul about him. S keeps close, treats him as pack...but he is harsh to me. He can't read me anymore...maybe this is a good thing, I don't know. Perhaps he is this way because he's jealous that I have adjusted better to life on Earth. You think that I have made a mistake by moving on...by joining Spring Court. Remember this my fellow, living in the past will do one no good. That is why I have began to move on and sought joy instead of terror or pain.

~Raina Hart

• Everything moves in patterns. The lust in his eyes, the thrill of battle...how much can he have truly changed? And how long until the cycle returns him to past?

~ Rigger

• Every Changeling with a dream of escape feared this creature. No one really has any reason to trust him. But still, sometimes the question haunts me -- Did I do right?

~ Mother Rowan

• He seemed like an innocent lost soul I took into my home, till he revealed his true face. I have not slept right since then

~Scarlett

• I don't know where he might be these days, but I know how to handle him next time. Strike him blind and put him down like the wounded animal he is

~ Stephen Daedalus

• Boy takes equal measures responsibility and blame for what he's done. He doesn't need mine, as well.

~ Tanis

• Everyone gets one more chance. If and when he uses his up not even Wilhelm is getting in my way

~ The Captain

• It...it remembers you, Vestigere. It remembers you walking beside Her, in Her place of honor. It remembers the cries of your prey as they were brought before it to be catalogued, numbered, and placed where proper in The Dulcet Empire. It remembers your smile, your absolute glee at the Empress' praise. Oh, it remembers all right - and some day, some where, some time you shall reap all that you have sown. And on that day, you will wish you were back in the Empress' good graces once more. What you deserve is a thousand times what you delivered on the heads of other Lost."

~ The Nameless

• Tabula rasa, Vestigere. Remember: don't lose it again."

~ The Valkyrie

• Round and round the mulberry bush, the Hunter chased the Huntress. The Huntress thought t'was all in fun. Pop....goes the weasel.

~ Tommy Blue

• They say, the eyes are windows into the soul. I say never stare down a man that is dead inside.

~ Valentine

• He is really good at what he does, no I do not ask him how he does it, but then again I do not ask Vladimir Karakov which pocket he has the doves stuffed in either.

~ Vicky Sage

• Even the darkness can sometimes redeem itself.

~ Vladimir Karakov

• Scary little bugger. Sometimes he reminds me of the one I used to work for.

~ Wilhelm

• I don't see why everyone is so afraid of that sneaky spy. Because of him, I've been through the forge a few times. Each rebuild made me stronger and better. Perhaps someday we will thank him properly for it.

~ X-Caliber-8

• I remember you.

~ Xeranthemum Annuum

(Don't worry...we won't tell Vestigere what you write.)

Coaxings

Film

• Dementors, Harry Potter
• Sith lords, Star Wars
• The Nine/Ringwraiths, Lord of the Rings
• The Operative, Serenity
• Kurgan, Highlander
• Blix, Legend
• Bartleby, Dogma

Legendry

• Bogeymen and body snatchers.
• Nightmare beasts.
• Shadow creatures, apparitions, ghosts, phantoms, etc.

Literature

• Dementors, Harry Potter
• Rorshach, The Watchmen
• The Nine/Ringwraiths, Lord of the Rings trilogy

Music

• Boadicea, by Enya
• Sleep Now, by Hughes Hall
• Opening Theme: The Bounty Soundtrack, by Vangelis
• Blue Room, Legend soundtrack, by Tangerine Dream
• Darkness, Legend soundtrack, by Tangerine Dream
• Goblins, Legend soundtrack, by Tangerine Dream

Quotes

• "Black as midnight. Black as pitch. Blacker than the foulest witch."

• "We'd better get back, 'cause it'll be dark soon, and they mostly come at night. Mostly."

• "I will show you fear in a handful of dust."

• "I felt a great disturbance in The Force--as if millions of people suddenly cried out in terror...and were suddenly silenced. I feel that something terrible has happened."

• "My mommy always said there were no monsters--no real ones--but there are."
  • "Yes, there are, aren't there?"
    • "Why do they tell little kids that?"
      • "Most of the time it's true."

• "If sweet, sweet God loves you so, then I will make you worthy of His love...but it's only in the face of horror that you truly find your noble self, and you can be so noble. So: I will bring you pain, I will bring you horror, so that you may rise above it; so that those of you who will survive this reign of Hell on Earth will be worthy of God's love."

• "I'm not going to live there. There's no place for me there, anymore than there is for you. Malcolm...I'm a monster. What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but it must be done."

• "But I know the rage that drives you, that impossible anger strangling the grief, until the memory of your loved one is just...poison in your veins. And one day, you catch yourself wishing the person you loved had never existed so you'd be spared your pain."

• "Some men aren't looking for anything logical. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

OOC

Seeking

• Changelings I hunted and caught.
• Changelings I hunted who escaped.
• Changelings I clashed with in the Hedge.
• People who assisted me in January 2007 the first month back on Earth.
• Members of my former hunting party.
• Other bogeymen.
• Allies are rare, but possible.
• Anyone else that might be interesting.

Mechanics

• Clarity: ••••
• Mantle: ••••• (applying)
• Wyrd: •••••

Credits

• Banner: Rick MacLennan
• Content: Bryan M. Bowden
• Graphics: Elizabeth Hunt
• Sigil: Derek Burrow

Contact

• Player: Bryan M. Bowden, US2002076403
• Journal: Ilthok
• Region: North Central
• Domain: Corazon del Obscuridad, CO-016D
• Venue Storyteller: John "Decker" Pool
• Domain Storyteller: John "Decker" Pool
• Domain Coordinator: Eugene "Val" McManamy

Others

• Clark Redfeather, Irraka Hunter-in-Darkness
• Robin Ripley, hermaphrodite vampire
• Sergei Kaptsov, mortal mafia hitman
• T.E.M.P.E.S.T., monastic technomage (retired)
• Tomorrow's Architect, a.k.a. "Tome", politician and arcanist