Arran

Basic Information:

Birth Name: Anoshiruvan Mirza of the royal house of Margu
Aliases: Arran
Gender: Male
Place of Birth: Satrapies of Margu, Erānshahr (Fourth Sassanid dynasty, Second Persian Empire, Central Asia)
Date of Birth: 500AD
Date of Turning: 540AD
Real Age: 1466
Apparent Age: late 30s
Current Occupation: Independently wealthy
Past Occupation: Merchant, diplomat, warrior

Appearance:

Hair Color: Black
Length and Style: Shoulder length straight hair, fringe on front.
Eye Color: Brown
Skin Color: Tanned, clean shaven
Height: 6ft 3in
Weight: 180lbs
Nationality: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record. Persian nobleman of Erānshahr, presumed deceased
Race: Vampire
Body Type: Comparable to Olympic class gymnast.

Personal Questions

1) Describe your characters personality:

Anoshiruvan hasn’t been human for a very long time, but he still finds amusement, curiosity and occasionally excitement in observing and studying humans.

He’s the guy that stands at the bar with a drink in hand, sizing up every other guy in the joint, and checking out every woman worth looking at - and half the time the other party isn’t even aware of it.

He prefers to listen and watch, and only comments if there is something worth saying.

That being said, Anoshiruvan is approachable, polite and socially engaging.

Describe how your character would appear to a stranger:

Walks with a purpose, straight posture.

Dresses simply - matching jacket and trousers, a collarless cotton shirt, with leather belt and boots.

Character Likes:

Anoshiruvan is a people watcher. He has been all his life and unlife. He enjoys meeting and talking with people from all walks of life, and values the knowledge and experience he can glean from one interesting conversation.

Anoshiruvan also enjoys tea, rice wine and mead. He is partial to seafood, enjoys cinema and theatre, reads classical and modern literature and loves to travel.

4) Character Dislikes:

The exploitation of the weak, the poor and the dispossessed. Still, Anoshiruvan is a long lived vampire and he regards most humans as either cunning wolves or interesting sheep. And while he has no compunction to help the sheep, he has no prohibition against hunting the wolves.

6) Character Fears?

]The Curse of Immortality: Anoshiruvan dreads what eternity may do to him. He entertains fears that with each passing century he is becoming more and more inhuman. In the end Anoshiruvan believes he will lose the fight to maintain a semblance of humanity and become little more than a killing machine in a human shell. Is this fate already begun to weave itself into reality? Only time will tell...

Human Descendants: Anoshiruvan has an irrational fear that somewhere, sometime in the future he will be confronted by his human descendants and they will ultimately condemn him.

]Vampire Hunters: Anoshiruvan knows from experience in his past there are vampires who hunt vampires. Not because they were sanctioned to, but because they thirsted for vampiric blood. If there is a fate worse than being condemned to eternity as a senseless beast, or an eternally slumbering vampire, it is being kept alive to be fed on.

7) Character's strengths?

Anoshiruvan is a student of human nature. He is an expert at reading a person’s body language (even cross-culturally), detecting subterfuge, deceit and lies, and reasonably gauging how a person feels. With mild concentration Anoshiruvan can pull off minor feats of deductive reasoning based on a person’s accent, appearance, posture, and choice of clothing and accessories.

Anoshiruvan’s knowledge of human anatomy and skill in martial combat is such that he has learnt how to strike with pinpoint precision. He can manipulate the nervous system to induce pain relief, relaxation, sexual arousal, and when called for, extreme agony. A single strike can often end a confrontation, incapacitating a limb or joint, or crippling an opponent’s ability to breathe, move, hear or see.

Anoshiruvan is a natural teacher and advisor. He has had many students over the centuries and enjoys passing on his knowledge and experience to worthy pupils. He is exceedingly well educated, likes to keep abreast of modern developments in a variety of fields and exercises regularly to test his own skills and abilities.

Character Weaknesses?

Anoshiruvan hates to lose face in public. There is nothing worse than being cut down by a snide remark or witty comment and being unable to reply. Anoshiruvan will often nurse a grudge for a real or imagined offence if he believes the attack was against him personally.

Anoshiruvan has been known to stalk a human for no apparent reason other than the vicarious thrill of being the unnoticed and unseen observer. Anoshiruvan won’t harm his ‘subject’ but will shadow them until he becomes bored.

Anoshiruvan has a streak of vigilantism. Unfortunately for the would be bully, criminal or armed offender this can mean anything from a simple humiliating beating to inflicting sadistic physical pain as a means of punishment.

Hobbies & Skills:

Anoshiruvan is a skilled linguist, trader, diplomat and orator. It is unknown exactly how many languages and dialects Anoshiruvan knows and his accent is impossible to place.

Anoshiruvan is highly skilled in massage and relaxation techniques (corresponding to forms like acupuncture and Shiatsu). He has learnt through the centuries to apply this skill successfully to vampires as well as humans.

Anoshiruvan is exceptionally well versed in a multitude of hand-to-hand and melee combat styles, is an accomplished rider, and has a very well rounded education.

Abilities:

Command
Perception
Gliding
Agility

Flaws:

]Cursed
Heavy sleeper
Won’t feed on children

Cosmetic Traits:

]Anoshiruvan has old scars on his chest and back, courtesy of a tiger he hunted and killed in his youth.

Quirks and Habits worthy of mention:

Refuses to eat Pork. Bathes/Showers twice a day.

Personal History:

I was born Anoshiruvan in the Satrapies of Margu in the year 500AD.

I lived during what modern historians call the fourth Sassanid dynasty, during the rise of the second great Persian Empire. It was an Empire that stretched from Europe and Africa in the West, across the countries of the Middle East to Arabia, and on to distant India and China in the East.

My name means “he of the immortal soul” and for a time I was immortal.

For I was born into the royal house of Margu, to a lineage of noble Kings.

And I - I was a Prince of Persia.

At the age of 16 I was already considered a man. I could ride and hunt and fight with bow, sword, spear , and dagger. I could wrestle a man twice my size and throw him to the ground. I could navigate by map and by stars.

I had been schooled in literature, astrology, economics, politics, diplomacy, medicine, philosophy, poetry and writing, and yes, even love-making.

Life was good in the oasis-city of Margu.

Margu - strategically situated along the famed Silk Roadand both the Persian and Chinese Empires had a common interest in preserving and protecting the trade.

I had ridden with patrols along the Silk Road and was no stranger to the dangers that lay in the desert. For as long as caravans and merchants have travelled the Silk Road there have been bandits and cutthroats lying in wait for the unwary. And for this reason there had always been patrols from both Persia and China to maintain the peace and enforce the law.

I had killed my first man at 14. The arrow had flown straight and true, taking the Northern Barbarian in the chest and sending him staggering backwards. The second thin shaft had pierced right through his throat and sent him to the ground.

There were many kills after this. But I still remember my first.

My reputation as an archer and swordsman, even at that young age, eventually reached the ears of the Chinese Imperial Court.

And though it was not custom at the time, I was given the unusual honour of continuing my education and military service under the Chinese Emperor. All this and I was just 16. Escorting a caravan I rode along the Silk Road to the East. To China. And where immortality, ironically, would come seeking me.

For over twenty years I remained in the service of the Chinese Emperor. A Persian diplomat, advisor, and warrior.

I learnt the language, history and culture of the Chinese. I attended Court and when I was not in attendance I patrolled the borders to keep barbarians from the North from attacking caravans. And when I was doing neither I was being instructed in the Chinese way of doing things. Some things were very similar to what I was taught in Margu, and yet others were very different.

But the ways of the Chinese were not as strange as one might think, for Persians and Chinese had long considered themselves more civilized than the Western Barbarians from far away crumbling Rome.

It was in the year 535AD that I met a woman who would forever change my life. She had studied me for almost ten years at Court, and I being none the wiser, had not noticed her at all. Yet she, like me, was an emissary of sorts from a land further East and across the sea.

I do not know why the Chinese Emperor agreed to send me with this beautiful young woman as one of her Honour Guard. Perhaps it was fear. Or something else. I will never know.

Clan Background:

Anoshiruvan was brought into the folds of a small band of Eastern vampires that was most likely an Eastern offshoot of Clan Anantya.

Anoshiruvan travelled back through Asia along the Silk Road and eventually to the Holy Land in 1150AD. Anoshiruvan was attacked by an unknown group of vampires in Jerusalem and barely managed to dispatch his attackers. His actions gained the attention of Clan Anantya, and after some initial misgivings, he was eventually accepted into the Clan proper after his lineage was confirmed.

Anoshiruvan is exceedingly loyal to Clan Aantya and has a deep mistrust of Clan Tacharan whom he considers little more than assassins and murderers. He has not seen his Creator or any of the other Eastern vampires he trained under since his time in Asia.

Anoshiruvan has primarily held the role of instructor and teacher during his time with Clan Anantya, although occasionally he has acted in the capacity of emissary, advisor, bodyguard and enforcer.

Creator:

Name: Mistress Katsumi
Age: Unknown
Last known Location: Okinawa, 1918
Present Location: Currently residing in Los Angeles, USA
Clan Knowledge: Known to many Elder vampires from the Orient as a teacher and instructor. Most though have never seen her since the 1500s.

What can I say about the one who created me? She who gave me this eternal curse.

Discipline.

And Fear.

Always.

She had the apparent youth of a girl-woman that had not seen seventeen summers. Beautiful and serene. But not innocent. And such pale, supple skin that could delicately caress the lines of my cheek or effortlessly crush my wrist as if her slender fingers were made of marble.

And I was hers to mould with as she saw fit. She shaped my body as she shaped my mind. She took a hardened blade and sharpened it even further.

I could live and die for that smile. And those dark eyes that held the promise of destruction and lust.

And then I was free. She had not tired of me. But she had taught me all she could. Five hundred years and I was once again my own master.

The rumours have travelled with me down the centuries. A glimpse here, an appearance there. And there have been times when I have shivered for no reason, as if she were nearby watching me.

Perhaps one day I will find her again.

And I pray that I have not failed her.

OCC Checklist
Player name: Arran
Other Characters you play: Alex West
How you came to SA: Through Vex's deviantArt site
Have you read all the Rules? Yes
Do you understand that this is an adult board with adult content (sometimes graphic and violent in nature)? Yes
This board is adult only. Are you over the age of 18? Yes 31 and ¾