Name: Roderic Harkenstone. He prefers just Roderic, but sometimes he’ll be called Roddy.

Age: 32. He appears 32.

Gender: Male.

Preferred pronoun: He.

Race: Human. Sometimes painfully so.


--Physical: Appearance--

Height: About 5’9”-8”

Weight: About 180 lbs.

Build/Body type: Medium. Strong enough to throw his sword around, yet somewhat lithe.

Skin: Tanned brown.

Hair: A slightly oily black.

Eyes: Brown

Facial Details: Roderic has a smooth scar that runs from the tip of his right eye, to the tip of his chin.

Other defining features/extra anatomy: Tucked into the hatband of his fedora is a seven of diamonds. When he bought the hat, the tailor had tucked the card into the hat with a knowing wink, before letting the now intrigued Roderic leave the store.

Clothing: Well-worn taupe corduroys; some light hiking boots; a thick, blank, navy blue T-shirt underneath a light-brown Denison smock topped off by a dark-grey homburg with seven of diamonds tucked into its hatband.


--Physical: Movement--

Gait/Demeanor: Roderic has a lucid demeanor of self assurance that could change at a moment’s notice. He walks easily, eyes always darting from place to place. He is usually lost in thought, a touch of introversion making him rather reluctant to engage in most social encounters.

Voice/Speech patterns: Roderic speaks simply. He tends to avoid the unneeded trappings of formal language, and much prefers to state or question softly than to yell.


--Personality--

Loves: The smell of the cleansed world after a rain, a good book, the thrill of discovery.

Hates/Fears: His past, the unknown, the darkness.

Strengths: Adaptability. Roderic changes as the fight goes on. He incorporates new knowledge into his fighting style as the person fights. Utilizing his precognition, he can anticipate the move in advance of the person making it, and thus make a suitable counterattack. Roderic is perceptive and somewhat knowledgeable; he catches and remembers most details quite easily. Alongside his combat prowess is a multitude of survival-skills and first-aid techniques that have helped him survive on the streets.

Weaknesses: Roderic is not a butterfly; he does not dance on his tippy-toes and speak words slathered in sugar. Roderic also tends to be more calculating than empathetic. Roderic’s main ability gives out after thirty seconds, so he can’t see into the future every single moment. He also has to consciously tell his ability to activate, so he can be caught off-guard rather easily. Another folly is that Roderic constantly wants to believe the best of a person. Sometimes this fails him and he ends up stuck trapped between a rock and a hard-place.

Attitude in a group: A downright lurker, Roderic usually doesn’t speak-up in a group unless his input can assuredly help them on their way.

Pick one of the SEVEN DEADLY SINS that your character relates to, and one that your character does not relate to: Envy(relates), for Roderic wonders what it could have been like… Gluttony(doesn't relate), Roderic finds overindulgence illogical, especially when it can mean the difference between life and death when on the run.

Pick one of the SEVEN HOLY VIRTUES that your character relates to, and one that your character does not relate to: Fortitude(relates). Roderic can endure, and he will endure. Faith(doesn't relate), for when his mother died, this left him destitute.

Quirks:
1. Roderic is a shameless nailbiter. He’ll do it even when someone is talking to his face.
2. Introspection is the name of the game. Roderic searches himself often, and sometimes he finds the answers he was looking for.
3. Roderic does not drink. Roderic does not swear. He’d already done plenty of that when he was younger.
4. Roderic wants to believe the best of a person when he first sees them and tries to avoid judging negatively.
5. Roderic’s falchion was a gift from his grandfather, and so far, the heirloom has not failed him. He treats the old blade with respect and reverence, and thus preserves it as best he can.
6. Roderic is mix-handed. The most prominent example of this, is that he wields his falchion right-handed, and his switchblade left-handed. There are also a myriad of other smaller tasks he performs with both hands. When eating, he tends to drink with his right-hand, and eat with his left, etc.

Other: Roderic secretly wishes he had an armchair he could read in.


--History/Background--

Setting: Present, Roderic is from America. (And later Darken.)

Family: His living relatives include his father, two brothers, and his grandparents on his mother’s side.

Friends: He hasn’t seen his friends in an eternity, and thus his friendship with them has probably waned.

Backstory: Roderic has possessed his abilities since birth, although his precognition manifested itself as anxiety. At the age of eleven, his grandfather gave him the ancestral blade and told him how to take care of it. After that, tensions rose and fell in his household as he got older and went through the school system with varying degrees of success, eventually this tension culminated in the death of his mother during the summer, after which he had a temporary nervous breakdown when his precognitive ability used the weakening in his defenses brought on by grief as a chance to settle in. After that, Roderic slowly drifted into self-imposed exile, stating he needed some time to find himself. He has wandered the U.S.A. since then, not quite sure when he’ll stop.

--Combat--

Fighting Style: Adaptable. Roderic shifts to accommodate his opponent’s new abilities or weapons in stride. (Although this has a limit, he doesn’t stop trying.)

Weapons/Gear: Roderic carries pockets full of stuff, every bit useful in some situation. The ones he’ll be relying on are a silvered switchblade, some rubbing alcohol, some medical bandages and other first-aid items.

Unusual Abilities:
1. Precognition (3): In 30 second bursts, Roderic can see what anything in his line of sight is about to do. These future actions are expressed as silvery apparitions that stretch forth and mime what the object is about to do, before the item of interest catches up to the silvery living shadow. In between these bursts, Roderic must wait two minutes to use it again, leaving him as vulnerable as anybody else.

2. Weapon Properties (3): His Damascus steel falchion is a weapon that has been passed down through his family for generations, although he knows little about who was the first to wield it, there is a legend about a man who wielded the blade in defense of the burial mounds in Ireland... Damascus steel itself is an alloy of legendary sharpness and was used by both the Japanese samurai and the Mongols of Asia during their massive empire. Aside from these physical qualities, Damascus steel possesses the ability to hinder magic. An antimagic-field that is given-off by the falchion (that extends to 1’5” when the blade is sheathed and 3’ when it is not) is able to halt lesser magic with its field, and greater magic when comes in contact with the blade. Also, When in Death’s domain, Roderic can hear the spirit of his ancestral grandfather through the falchion. His grandfather gives emotional support and advice while Roderic is wielding the falchion, but is unable to speak to him when Roderic is not physically in contact with it. Even when someone else picks-up the falchion, they are unable to hear Roderic’s grandfather, so he may seem a bit unhinged when someone sees him talking out-loud to a voice in his head.

3. Fast Healing (1): Whenever Roderic is asleep, he heals at a curiously fast clip. While nowhere near the ability to regenerate lost limbs, superficial cuts and bruises heal almost overnight and more grievous wounds begin the slow process of scabbing over much faster than normal. Bones set much more easily, and he feels much more rejuvenated after a good night’s sleep.

Physical Attributes: Roderic is athletic. His muscles toned by his exile. While not abnormally fast or strong, he is not a physical or mental slouch, keeping his body and mind active with various exercises. Utilizing his precognition can make him seem abnormally fast, but he is not, nor is he abnormally strong.

Group combat techniques: Roderic works well with his grandfather, but he isn’t part of a team otherwise. He’s not quite sure how he’d act in a team.

--Tournament--

The Soul: His mother. She died of lung-cancer as a result of her chain-smoking problem. Roderic blames himself for not trying hard enough to halt her addiction, and thus carries a substantial amount of guilt with him.

Team: His ancestral grandfather who was the sworn protector of the burial mounds, and a veritable field-expert on all sorts of fell-creatures and magic. He is a bit confrontational when Roderic doesn’t perform admirably and sometimes the two get into shouting-matches. The (as Roderic would describe him) 'cantankerous old swordsman' often refers to Roderic as "Boy" and occasionally speaks cryptically about the supernatural creatures he has fought before. Other than that, he's relatively normal and occasionally rambles about his old adventures because Roderic is the only one who can't stop listening.

Other: It is important to remember that Roderic is human, and therefore is not immune to trickery and such. He’s just as fallible as you or I, although his grandfather does his best to protect him.


--Last Words--
List the three most important things about your character.

1. Roderic knows when to run, even though his grandfather decries the despicable practice.

2. Roderic is usually rather laid-back. It takes a bit to get him riled-up.

3. Roderic is observant. He notices patterns, shifts in stance and subtle changes in the surroundings. This has led him to have a healthy amount of paranoia.