Race: Wick
Birthday: 42nd Yaris, 2687
Age: 32
FC: Arthur Darvill
Current Location: Vienda, Anaxas
Occupation: Mercenary, Journalist (Kingsway Post)
...
Player Name: Amphion
Oisin is a stern and stoic man, who seldom smiles. At 5'10 he is fairly tall for a Wick, though shorter than the Humans he grew up with. He has tired features, and tired eyes, and moves through the world with a weariness that would be better suited to a much older man. Oisin is unimposing and unassuming, his physique lean and practical, athletic enough to not seem frail, and yet not so much that he seems outwardly threatening. The rest of him is equally practical, and decidedly average, seemingly the result of deliberate effort: his hair is an uninteresting shade of brown cropped into a nondescript style, his manner and movements quiet and subtle, easily ignored or forgotten, his voice soft and calm enough to avoid unnecessary attention and being overheard. One might be forgiven for thinking of Oisin as deliberately boring, or dull; Oisin prefers to think of himself as intentionally discreet.
Oisin is a thoughtful man, though more in terms of contemplation than sentiment. He is always in thought, always contemplating and calculating, constantly indulging the curiosity and thirst for knowledge and information that was starved during his childhood. Not able to satiate that curiosity through conventional schooling, Oisin strives to learn by every other conceivable means: through observation, example, experiment, eavesdropping, traded favours, and anything else he happens to think of or stumble across. Despite this passion for learning, Oisin keeps his curiosity close to his chest, though more out of habit than anything else.
Thanks to his chequered past, Oisin has a complicated relationship with the rest of the world, and the people in it. He has witnessed the cruelties that men are capable of inflicting upon those they see as different, as well as the cruelties they are willing to inflict upon those they see as the same. He has seen and experienced the fickleness of social status, and has a distaste for the premise, though respects the value of it and understands the desire for it. He also perceives what he considers to be a certain futility and redundancy in the way the world works, though Oisin has no particular urge or desire to see it change or bring about that change: it is merely a fact of how the world is, something to be accepted and understood, not challenged.
Much of Oisin's attitude and mentality is defined by the constant feeling that he is an outsider. As a Wick raised among Humans, the social order held no particular place for him; but having lived a civilized rather than nomadic life, Oisin had no place among the other Wicks of the world, either. As a mercenary, his magic raised him above the Human rank and file, but his lack of learning alienated him from the Galdori officers, leaving him in limbo between the two. Now, having returned from abroad to Anaxas once more, he finds himself out of place once again, craving the structure and order of his mercenary work, and not accustomed to the casual frivolities of city life, nor the freedoms that are open to him now that his actions are no longer the sole result of orders.
Oisin is a Tsat, born from an illicit union between a Human and a Galdori. He is unaware of the specifics of his heritage, though there are rumours, half-forgotten and second hand by the time Oisin was old enough to hear them, that described a forbidden romance between his Galdori mother and the Human soldier, sailor, merchant, or servant with whom she'd shared her tryst, a love affair so scandalous that a secret pregnancy had ended with Oisin abandoned in a wicker basket in the middle of the docks. Oisin never quite formed an opinion on whether he believed those rumours or not, and for much of his childhood carried a heavy suspicion that it had been made up to ensure that he felt indentured to the merchant that had taken him in: it was certainly a story that was frequently recounted whenever the young Oisin complained too loudly about his lot in life.
Though Oisin possessed magical potential, education at a magical university was never on the cards for him. Instead, Oisin learned his magic from others: mostly Wick caravans that passed through Old Rose Harbor on their travels, or merchants and sailors who were more than willing to show off for the wide-eyed young tavern boy once they'd got enough drinks in them. Oisin's interest was not always rewarded, however: not all Wicks were happy about the Tsat sniffing around and trying to learn their ways and traditions, and the Human youths that Oisin was raised alongside saw Oisin's interest in magic as a reminder that he was different, a deviance that they would often volunteer to try and beat out of him. Still, Oisin persisted, learning to become more subtle and evasive with his interest and studies; eventually, his fledgeling exploits in magic were enough to earn the attention of one of the Wicks living in the city, who graced Oisin with a proper introduction to Wick Magic and Tricks.
When Oisin was in his late teens, a group of mercenaries arrived in Old Rose Harbor, preparing to leave via steamship for a contract abroad. After a few too many drinks, a few rowdy mercenaries managed to spark off a brawl, one that led to their Sergeant becoming injured as he attempted to break it up. Oisin was quick to offer his services and rudimentary magic to help patch up the mercenary's injuries: the Sergeant became fascinated with the boy, and eventually convinced Oisin that a career as a mercenary might offer him the kind of purpose, belonging, and adventure that his life in Old Rose Harbor had failed to provide. Oisin eventually agreed, and joined the mercenaries as a medic and new recruit on their deployment abroad.
Oisin's time with the mercenaries gave him the opportunity to travel, satisfying the Wick-like wanderlust that Oisin had always felt but never indulged. He spent a considerable amount of time in Mugroba, working alongside local Mugrobi militias and the Regiments of Anaxi Armed Forces garrisoned there. Decades removed from a real war, Oisin's experience of mercenary work was as part of peacekeeping garrisons and border patrols, and he spent as much time helping to patch up soldiers after mishaps and brawls as he did tending to combat injuries. Oisin found that he got along well with the AAF's soldiers, familiar with the kind of lives and upbringings that many of them had come from, and found that the structured and orderly lifestyle of a soldier held more appeal to him than his own mercenary career. Unfortunately, while the rank and file Humans of the AAF held little malice regarding his Wick nature - and certainly weren't about to refuse his magical aid when their wounds needed tending - their Galdori superiors and supervisors were not nearly so open-minded. In the AAF, Oisin saw a life where he might perhaps feel like he belonged, and had value; yet it was a life he knew he could never have.
That realisation scoured the sheen off Oisin's mercenary life, reminding him of the same imposter-like feelings that had plagued his youth back home. Oisin increasingly began to feel that his magic, for which he was so maligned by the Galdori, was also the only aspect of him which held any value. Oisin grew increasingly dependant on it, both for his self worth and then later as a physiological need, almost to the point of addiction. His mood, his attitude, and his performance all began to change, to enough of an extent that the Sergeant who'd first recruited him felt compelled to intervene. Whether Oisin left of his own volition or at the Sergeant's behest is unclear to everyone involved, Oisin included: but after twelve years as a mercenary, Oisin returned to Anaxas, to try and create a new life for himself.
Embracing his fate as an irredeemable outsider, and his childhood passion for observation and study, Oisin decided to embark on a new career in journalism, managing to secure a job with the somewhat sceptical editor-in-chief of the Kingsway Post.
Average
Good
Poor
Long-Term:
- A sense of belonging
- Learn about his parentage/heritage (maybe?)
- Become a jack of all trades (ie. collect "useful" skills)
- New journalism career
- Cultivate contacts/sources
- Pick up some useful city-dweller skills