Vinton Mercer
| Vinton Mercer | |||||||
| Male Tiefling | |||||||
| Player: Iron Paws | |||||||
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| General Information | ||||||||||
| Full Name: | Vinton Mercer | |||||||||
| Nicknames: | Mercer, Red | |||||||||
| Age: | 27 | |||||||||
| Deity: | Hoar | |||||||||
| Alignment: |
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| Occupation: | Bounty Hunter | |||||||||
| Faction/Rank: | None | |||||||||
| Place of Birth: | Cimbar | |||||||||
| Physical Attributes | ||||||||||
| Height: | 6'1" | |||||||||
| Weight: | 186lbs | |||||||||
| Eyes: | Pale blue | |||||||||
| Hair: | Vivid red | |||||||||
| Complexion: | Smooth, ashen | |||||||||
| Physical Build: | Athletic | |||||||||
| Physical Features: | Horns | |||||||||
| Skills | ||||||||||
| Lockpicking and traphandling as well as the basics for sleuth work | ||||||||||
| Equipment and Items | ||||||||||
| Full plate and two short swords | ||||||||||
Personality
On the surface, Vinton Mercer can seem unfeeling and disdainful, owing to the fact that the man rarely smiles. Yet he is far from just unfeeling and disdainful: he is also a curious individual who seems to find pleasure in the cripple, the misshapen, and the ugly. Not to say that he disregards 'normal' or 'pretty' people, but deep down inside, he is far more interested in freaks. As he's found, even in Sigil - a city of freaks - there are some worse than others. When disregarding his penchant for freaks, there are only a couple of things to mention, such as his love of justice.
We all have a certain love of justice, especially when it relates directly to ourselves and our situation, but Vinton Mercer takes it a small step further. Justice to him, in most cases, is directly related to death. When he read about the lawgiver, Draco, who in answer to the question of why he had fixed the death sentence for most crimes said: "It's fitting for the lesser crimes, and I have no greater punishment for the higher crimes" - Vinton Mercer was positively enraptured. Unfortunate for him, that brand of justice is very rare. Should you actually ask Mercer what he thinks the purpose of the penal system is, he would most likely tell you that it is just as much prevantative as it is final - that is, both to disuade future crimes from being comitted as well as removing the current criminals. It is something that goes hand in hand.
Other than this love of justice, he has some urges, but they rarely amount to much else than a simmer within him. His delight at the perfectly planned and executed kill is more or less directly linked to a pedantic side of him: all that can be planned, should be planned. It is not so much because he is afraid of failure, though who isn't?, but rather because of a deeply rooted belief that appearance is everything. And appearance? It reflects how you wish to be perceived. Having everything planned, gives the appearance of control. Being properly dressed, taking care of your hair, skin, and teeth, gives the appearance of grace and ... once more, control. Many things about Vinton Mercer can be traced back to control, actually. Perhaps that is also why his urges are kept at only a simmer with him? And maybe that is for the best. Absent of control, Vinton Mercer might not be such a pleasant individual.
Ambitions
Having heard a bit about Vinton Mercer as an individual, you might conclude that he would love to see all crime stopped, all criminals punished, and have lots of freaky children with heinous women. This is not alltogether wrong, though with some miner corrections.
First of all, Vinton Mercer would love nothing better than to see criminals punished - especially if he is the one doing the punishing. But to see all of them gone and away? Well, he might say otherwise, but he would prefer that at least some remain. What would poor Mercer do if there were no more injustices to avenge, bounties to collect? It would be an odd situation, but if Ao came to Vinton Mercer and said: "Mercer. My boy. I can clean the world of all injustice if you want. What d'you say?" Well. Then Vinton Mercer might just have to say: "Nah, don't bother. That's what you got me for, isn't it?" Perhaps it's just him being selfish, but there is something to be said of doing the hard work yourself.
Second of all, ugly women are great to look at and speak to. Hells, most of them are a riot in bed! The depravity of desperate women is not to be underestimated. But children? Maybe it's better that he doesn't go down that road. Ever. To put it sweetly, Vinton Mercer isn't exactly "parent material", and he's well aware of that.
So what does he want? Well. An established reputation for professionalism wouldn't hurt. Perhaps intermingled with a little fear? Delightful. A house of his own, richly decorated with rich oil paintings of justices done, both historical and mythical? Add a sculpture or two, maybe one of himself, and you've got yourself a deal. Naturally, there's also authority, power, so on and so forth - you know: the usual.
But if you had to tempt him with something really good, and I mean something fingerlicking good, it would be the slow and agonizing death of a fatcat or two: those puppeteers who employ murderers and thieves to aggrandize themselves. With his own hands, of course. Why would Vinton Mercer care if some schemer found his death at the hands of another?
History
So what lies behind it all? Well, Vinton Mercer was born in Cimbar. His mother, Aryanna Mercer, had had this affair with a man, whilst married, and it was not before Vinton was born that she discovered that this "man" must have been some kind of demon. Vinton was born with a tail, six fingers, and six toes. It was a wonder that he was not thrown out to be judged by wind and weather right there and then. Perhaps it was the pleading of Aryanna to have mercy on the child or the desperation of the husband to have a son, or perhaps something third, but Vinton Mercer, despite everything, was allowed to live. But his survival was not unconditional. The fingers, toes, and the tail had to go, and when the horns began growing - these had to be filed down and hidden beneath his hair. For all intents and purposes, he had to at least look normal.
And so it happened that he came to look normal. The husband seemed satisfied and Aryanna? She seemed happy. However, under the surface, mistrust and unfulfilled expectations silently simmered: denial rarely solves the issues that provoked it, and then they discovered something about Vinton that they couldn't hide: his reflection - or lack thereof.
Naturally, it wasn't this discovery alone, that broke the camel's proverbial back. It was the constant need to keep Vinton's heritage hidden; the fear of discovery, a fear of what other people might think, and an unwelcome reminder of Aryanna's misstep. It was the child's own confusion and fear, which is something that any parent has a hard time not being affected by, on a very emotional level. It was the immense desire to see the child succeed in life, knowing full well that this might never happen - that the child would forever be a freak; an outcast.
There might very well have been more to it than that, but whatever the case, it sparked an unwelcome reaction in the parents. Old wounds were re-opened and eventually, Aryanna had had enough. The husband found her hanging in the bedroom. The eight-year old Vinton sat in a corner and simply looked at his dangling mother. He might have been crying and most likely, he had tried to pull her down when he had found her, but none of this registered with the husband - now widower.
Not long after, the young Vinton Mercer was left on the streets of Cimbar and soon found himself hungry and dispairing. Few took pity on the horned child, but after a few years of living as a homeless thief, he was swept up by one of the many mercenary companies of the city-state - and why not? Cimbar had entered into yet another war with one of the other Chessentan city states, in their constant fight for power, and needed all the soldiers it could gather. And when a mercenary company gets paid for fielding a thousand-strong force, but only really has ninehundred soldiers? Then the streets are emptied of paupers, gutterrats, and whatever other people could count as soldiers. Naturally, he wasn't sent to the front, but was sent out to loot the dead bodies of the battlefield and grant the wounded enemies the final mercy.
So Vinton Mercer discovered that he could be a mercenary, and was a decent one at that. They shaped him as they found fitting and found in him a willing and loyal recruit. That was his life for many years, and he found his niche very quickly: he was remorseless and never objected to a given task. It was something that was very useful to the mercenary company, but also something that worried them. When they discovered that he had been spending time within the church of Hoar, even become a follower, their worry grew. Perhaps the talented tiefling might turn on them?
He was dismissed and while he might have turned his full attention on the Doombringer faith, he did not. Instead, he began freelancing and became Vinton Mercer the Bounty Hunter. Those bounties took him all across Faerun, yet he always came back to Cimbar, until that one, final bounty, which took him away from Toril entirely.