'''Name:''' Jessyd Achilleon
'''Age:''' 24
'''Race:''' Passive
'''Place of Origin:''' Anaxas

!!!Backstory

Jessyd was born to a prosperous household and had as comfortable an upbringing as anyone could hope for. With six children, the Achilleon family was larger than average and the quiet fourth child was rarely at the forefront of his parents' attention, but as he was intelligent, curious and quite happy to learn from any book he could get his hands on or anyone who would allow him to simply watch in silence, little Jessyd began to furnish himself with an excellent understanding of the world.

He had three main interests in his early years. The first was anatomy and biology, into which he was inducted by his father, Darryn Achilleon, a notable Anaxi doctor with skilful hands that Jessyd loved to watch at work. The second was magic, a fascination prompted by his beloved eldest sister Belle whose success at Brunnhold was a constant inspiration to her adoring brother and something he hoped dearly to emulate. The third was technology and the mechanical workings of things, an interest he held apart from any of his family members, and which frequently led to the exasperation of his mother as he dissected any machine he could get his hands on. His ability to put things back together again afterwards was the only thing that saved him from punishment on many occasions.

There was little strife in Jessyd's world until, at the tender age of ten, his initiation test revealed him to be a passive. Branded as a freak of nature, his parents gave him up to the school where his former aspirations were quickly swept away. Gone was the glamorous potential of galdori life, and in its place the prospect of a lifetime of servitude. He entered into his new world in a quiet state of shock and it did not take long for him to become resigned to his fate: he had always been told that everything was best in its rightful place, and all that had happened was that his place had changed.

Though he never overtly rebelled, one thing that Jessyd could not do was to give up learning. Even though every new piece of information was obtained at the cost of a huge fear of being caught, he never passed up any opportunity to expand his knowledge, whether through trying to overhear lectures, reading illicitly obtained instructional texts or simply watching the students practise their skills. Though his knowledge of magic slipped far behind those who had a capacity for it and it became impossible for him to progress in his understanding of anatomy without any actual teaching, he kept up his fascination with all things mechanical and managed to learn a little of the theory that drove the discipline. When he began fixing things in the kitchens, his mechanical aptitude was noted and he was put to work maintaining campus equipment such as gardening tools, phosphor projectors, and other items not considered important enough to warrant the attention of a galdori technician. While this was still monotonous, unstimulating work, it let him keep practising with machines and he considered it a step up from the drudgery of simple cleaning, so he was grateful for the change.

Not long after that, he came to understand the galdori's disdain for passives. When a young student hurtled past him in a corridor, he felt himself lash out at her in a way that was unfamiliar and scary: with his previously unknown diablerie. The spell was the normally harmless Read, but cast with such intensity that Jessyd began to lose his sense of self in the student's thoughts and emotions, and as the magical perception began to delve into her deeper thoughts and personal secrets her revulsion at having those thoughts exposed gave him a sense of extreme disorientation and a nasty headache. Before he had fully recovered from one of the most traumatic experiences of his life, he was beaten and locked in a cellar for violating the sanctity of a student's mind.

From that day on, Jessyd's natural temerity quadrupled. He did his best to keep his head down and his mind to himself, but after his diablerie had manifested once it began to recur. Because of this, he was kept away from the galdori occupants of Brunnhold as much as possible and it became harder and harder for him to eavesdrop on lessons. Largely kept away from classrooms during teaching hours, he found himself becoming all too familiar with the workings of the university's boilers and other mechanical gubbins, while what little pseudo-academic learning he had been able to scratch together before slowed to a meaningless trickle.

!!!Personality

Jessyd has not lost the intelligence or quiet curiosity that characterised him in his youth, and indeed his desire to keep increasing his knowledge is one of the few things that has allows him to remain sane at Brunnhold. He keeps those aspects of his personality heavily guarded and has learned to be incredibly cautious in his illicit attempts at studying to avoid punishment, living in constant fear of being discovered.

The possibility of his diablerie manifesting is another thing that casts a significant shadow over his personal freedom, as even his own birthright seems set on causing him unpleasantness. He tries to remain calm at all times in the hope of keeping the spell from triggering and is very non-confrontational as a result, preferring to bear an insult than risk an incident.

He is quite devoutly religious, observing the tenets and practices of Circlism as best he can in case it turns out that there is someone up there who might one day take pity on him. Somehow, though, the principles of Vitanism seem more logical to him - a thought he does his best to suppress, fearing it as heretical and suspecting that this might be the source of his misfortune.

He fears a lot, in fact: himself, those around him, upsetting the status quo, loneliness, pain, and many other things besides. His fear frequently traps him into inaction, whatever he may really want to do, and is undoubtedly the reason that he has never even considered joining any sort of resistance that might theoretically exist. Along with the ingrained belief that slavery is his rightful place in the order of things, his fear makes him subservient and simply disinclined towards rebellion.

!!!Physical Description

Jessyd is short at 5'3 and slightly built, having largely avoided the hard physical labour that most of his kind are put to by developing his technical expertise. His hair tends towards the blond while his eyes are blue, and his features are largely unremarkable - if he was given a thorough scrubbing and dressed properly his unusual hair colour might attract him some interest, but as it is he is simply another anonymous face in the background. He looks old for his years, aged by hard work, stress and insufficient sleep, and his usual, deferential posture and resigned expression combine to make him seem rather worn out. Though he would never reveal it willingly, his back is criss-crossed with scars from when he has received the lash, and he does not need to be deprived of many meals before his ribs become very obvious in his chest and sides.

!!!Diablerie

Jessyd's diablerie is relatively active. His spell is Read, and it manifests rather more often than he would like. It tends to be a powerful casting that causes side effects, from getting the target's thoughts and feelings confused with his own, to painful headaches when his magical awareness bores too deeply into someone's mind. The unpleasantness of this means he sometimes remembers very little from the experience, rendering it all depressingly unnecessary in his opinion.

!!!Inventory

Clothing:
*A heavy blue tunic that is rather too large, with the sleeves cut off just below the elbow and pockets sewn in along the front.
*Two pale shirts with tight fitting sleeves, repaired many times.
*A wide black sash, worn like a cummerbund, with pockets sewn inside.
*Two pairs of grey trousers.
*A pair of very worn black shoes.

Items:
*A monocle with lenses of three different levels of magnification that can be flicked into place, his prized possession.
*Will usually have various simple tools (hammer, screwdriver, wrench, etc.) about his person that belong to the university but must necessarily be provided for him in order for him to perform his job.

!!!Career

Handyman (servant)
*Mechanical maintenance and improvement, mostly practical but with a little theory
*Keeping a low profile and a lower temper
*Understanding of basic first aid

!!!Goals

Though he is not particularly aware of it at a conscious level, Jessyd has a vague belief somewhere deep inside of him that if he continues to apply himself and improve himself in any way he can, he may eventually become useful enough to someone that it will raise his standing in the world. He lacks specific ambition, but would dearly like to meet someone with whom he can form a personal connection of the sort he has been lacking for fourteen years now. He harbours some thoughts of trying to learn how to control his diablerie when it manifests, and of exploring his Vitanist leanings, but is too afraid at present to do much about either.

Welcome to Thorns!

Thanks for submitting your well-written sheet. The mods are going to be discussing it and we'll get back to you shortly.

Thanks! I'm really looking forward to starting to roleplay here.

Hey Jess,

Since we've talked a bit on Thornschat already, I know you have an idea of what to expect. I'm sure you've considered a bit, and that's awesome. So, here's some definite changes we'd like to see in your sheet. Thanks for your patience!

1. As a passive who's grown up in Brunnhold is unlikely to have so many "specialties;" the idea of having a working knowledge of biology/anatomy/medicine and engineering is unrealistic and almost overpowered for a servant. It would be best to pick one subject to dabble in and the rest to be curious about instead.

Passives aren't allowed in the Library unless it's their job to clean it, they aren't allowed to check out books, read, or otherwise be caught studying. If you would like a more in-depth and slightly less risky way of knowing about a particular subject of interest, making Jess a manservant to a professor is an option for you. Otherwise, it's much more realistic to choose one subject to at least know something about, though it would still be very limited.

2. The last two paragraphs about Jess' diablerie and such are confusing and slightly misguided. Any student would be in a large amount of trouble for getting caught beating a passive. While it's not impossible, I have a feeling the proper word for how the girl would feel would be disdain, not distrust. Galdori are taught to be afraid of how dangerous passives are and most would rather avoid them.

Second, the diablerie is fine, but the girl wouldn't backlash unless she cast a spell poorly or with wrong intentions. A diablerie is different from a spell; there is no backlash from it's occurrence. However, if the girl tried to cast a spell on Jess during the chaos that ensued from his Reading, there is a possibility she might have experienced backlash because she was disoriented and miscast.

Thirdly, a diablerie doesn't usually have physical ramifications beyond weakness, headaches, or other such aches and pains. Unless the spell is fatal or explosive, most passives to not experience seizures as a result of the mona choosing to act on their own accord in their bodies.

Finally, the reality is that diablieries are not caused solely by stress or physical harm. What makes them so dangerous and terrifying is that they're completely unpredictable—any time is a good time for a diablerie. So, even if Jess was not being beaten or otherwise harassed, he could've simply passed a student in the hall doing his duties and experienced a diablerie instead. That may be something to consider when tweaking your backstory—it could've been a normal day that suddenly turned sour.

3. Realistically speaking, if Jess' diablerie is as frequent as implied, he would be kept as far away from students, faculty, and staff as possible. He would be considered extremely dangerous—no one could be mocking him because they wouldn't be seen in public.

As a side note on frequency, all diableries would be moderated, and I feel obliged to remind you that requires constant companionship of a mod. While we don't mind throwing in some random fun on occasion, such as a diablerie, us mods are very busy. If you'd like your character to have a chance at exploring campus and interacting with others, you may want to tone down the implied frequency of Jess' diablerie to a more safe option of "often" or "more often than most."

4. Lastly, in terms of galdori/passive genetics, 5'7" is very tall, not short. The average for a galdori (and thus a passive) in terms of height is closer to 5'4"/5'5", so if you'd like Jess to be short, please edit accordingly.

Thanks for being such a trooper in chat! We look forward to your changes!

Thanks for the post!

I think I overdid my meaning with what Jessyd knew before, so I've toned down the language there. His real area of expertise is mechanical stuff, and I've decided to keep him learning from experience as a general servant rather than learning "academically" by sneaking peeks into a professor's books. I've made the diablerie less frequent and got rid of the physical side effects - mostly I see what happens to him as a result of suddenly being aware of two people's thoughts instead of just one, and one of those people not wanting him to know what they're thinking.

I have also made him shorter, and added the word 'gubbins' into the backstory because it's a brilliant word and should be used more often.

If there's anything else or that needs tweaking further, then let me know!

Wow. Quick response-time there. Those edits look great.

I don't think it's necessary for another once-through; you've obviously done your homework.

You're approved. Have fun!

Yay! Thanks for getting me up and running, guys!