Vicente App

[servessithis]

Name/Nick; Arwing
LJ name: arwingyoshi
Other characters currently played
Lockdown :: Transformers Animated :: ruthless_hunter
Garrus Vakarian :: Mass Effect :: officer_garrus
Gin Rummy :: The Boondocks :: classywigger
E-mail: onslaught352003@yahoo.com
AIM/messenger: Arwingyoshi

[series]: The Elder Scrolls (character in question is from the fourth game)
[character]: Vicente Valtieri
[character history / background]: Vicente’s backstory isn’t elaborated on in the game except for a few details. Therefor, some of this backstory is made of head canon. Head canon details are colored blue. For more information on the setting, here's a quick link: Here. More information on the Dark Brotherhood can be found here.

Vicente was born in Cyrodiil and had a relatively normal childhood. His father was a hunter while his mother was a smith. When he was old enough, his father taught him how to fight and hunt, while his mother taught him about different weapon types. His father was killed during a hunt when Vicente was 15, and within time, his mother died of old age. As a young man, Vicente got married and become an adventurer. One day, Vicente went on an expedition to the Ashlands of Morrowind, where he was attacked by a vampire. Vicente killed the vampire, though he had been infected. He was unable to get to a healer before the infection became permanent. Vicente now wandered through Morrowind, hunting people for their blood and struggling to keep himself from giving in to his feral side like most vampires. It took a century before he was able to master control of his hunger. He dared not return home, fearing his wife would only see him as a monster. She eventually died of old age.

After 100 years of wandering, he found his way back to Cyrodiil. He was soon found by a Speaker for the Dark Brotherhood and recruited into their order. Vicente was stationed at the Sanctuary in the city of Cheydinhal, under an abandoned house. In the following 200 years, Vicente killed many people for the Brotherhood and rose through the ranks of his Sanctuary, reaching the rank of Executioner. Eventually he was given the duty of training and passing along contracts to new Family members before they were ranked highly enough to report to the Sanctuary Mistress, Ocheeva. The Speaker in charge of his Sanctuary was eventually killed during a mission and her successor, Lucien Lachance, took her place.

One day, Lucien recruited a new Dark Sister (the player character) into their ranks, and Vicente took her under his wing like many Family members before her. He gave her contracts to kill a pirate, an old man (making it look like an accident), a prisoner, and in one odd case, help someone fake their death (the client paid the death price with his mother’s life). Upon her promotion to Eliminator, he offered to make her a vampire, which she accepted. Even though she no longer reported to him, she still went to Vicente for advice regarding her contracts, which he was pleased to offer. The last time he saw her was before she went to see Lucien for an important assignment.
[character abilities]: Vicente is a vampire, and vampires in The Elder Scrolls IV have their similarities and differences to traditional vampires. He is stronger, faster, and sneakier than a regular human, has a high magic defense, high resistance to normal weapons, and can resist certain types of spells, such as paralysis. The longer a vampire goes without feeding, the stronger they become. Also, the older they are, the more powerful they are. Vicente is over 300 years old, and is thus one of the stronger vampires. This doesn’t mean he’s as strong as Superman or as fast as The Flash. Rather, he’s strong enough to wield very heavy weapons easily and not be weighted down by heavy armor, and is fast enough to outrun normal people and most animals. When he feeds on someone in their sleep, he does it so silently and stealthily that the victim doesn’t even wake up. He can sense heartbeats, which allows him to find prey and know when a person is scared or excited. He cannot physically age thanks to his condition, though he can be killed in battle.

Vampires also have powers that come with their condition. Whichever powers they have depends on how long they have gone without feeding. Because Vicente is an elder vampire, he can use all of them. The first is a minor power called Hunter’s Sight, which allows him to see in the dark and see body heat, even through walls. The second power is Vampire Seduction, which makes someone friendly towards him and easily seducible, letting him get an opportunity to bite them. The second is Reign of Terror, which makes a target too scared to fight. This power is administered through touch. The final power is Embrace of Shadows, which turns him invisible and lets him see in the dark. All these powers except Hunter’s Sight may only be used once per day.

Vampires also have their share of weaknesses, such as weakness against sunlight and fire. The longer they forgo feeding, the more vampiric they look. Vicente has long lost the ability to hide his condition and be out in the sun for more than a short while. Unlike all other vampires in the game, Vicente has an odd weakness to garlic. Just touching it can greatly reduce his strength, stamina, and magic resistance. Vampires may also be killed through conventional means, such as through normal weapons and magic.

Being an assassin, Vicente is good at fighting and sneak attacks. His main weapon is an enchanted claymore, which he can carry and wield effortlessly thanks to his vampire strength. He is also well-trained in using short swords and knives. He knows a variety of knife combat techniques, which are very handy for an assassin to know. He also knows which areas of the body are best to strike, and how to damage such a spot, such as cutting certain neck veins or muscles. He doesn’t show any of this in the game itself, but given his role and rank, it can easily be inferred that he can do these things.

Like all Bretons, Vicente is skilled at magic, despite not being a full mage. He knows some useful spells, such as Silence (temporarily muting a target and preventing them from using magic), Cure Disease, Feather (temporarily reducing the weight of his inventory), Dispel, Frost Damage, and Fireball. He also knows some alchemy.
[character personality]: Inferences and aspects derived from head canon are colored blue.

Vicente is, quite plainly, an assassin for hire. He has no qualms with killing, but that doesn’t mean he’ll just grab a sword and go on a random killing spree. For the most part, he’ll kill for his organization. He is part of an organization of murderers called the Dark Brotherhood, as described in the link. In a nutshell, the Brotherhood accepts contracts to kill people for those who call upon their services. In doing so, they are also appeasing their god, Sithis, and his bride, The Night Mother. Vicente is devoted to the Brotherhood, and like many members, thinks of the organization as his adopted family, with the others being his brothers and sisters. The Brotherhood members (or, at least the members of the Sanctuary the player can join) love each other as family. He is something of a father-figure in his Sanctuary, being the oldest and most experienced member. Despite being a killer and worshiper of Sithis, he is not a complete monster. Like almost all Dark Brotherhood members in the Sanctuary, he’s actually very affably evil. Unless he’s sticking his knife into someone or berating someone, Vicente’s a nice gentleman; he’s polite and always willing to offer advice to any friend who asks for it. He does not hand out trust and friendship on a whim, and both must be earned from him. However, just because he’s nice doesn’t mean he won’t stick his knife into a target without hesitation. He is detached from “normal” society, but is very dear to those close to him.

Vicente’s not a very social person, mostly because of his vampirism. When not out fulfilling a contract he spends most of his time reading, taking care of his weapons, training new Family members, and learning/honing skills. He is not easily angered, but those who get on his bad side may expect him to drain a few pints of their blood to teach them a lesson. If a Family member under his tutelage forgoes the bonuses he offers by choosing to lack subtlety during their contract, he will be annoyed at them. In his book, lack of subtly can mean killing those other than the target during a contract or not covering their tracks. For that matter, lack of subtly and unnecessary bloodshed in general annoys him. Unless the client says otherwise or the Brotherhood wants to send a message, many contracts are carried out with secrecy, hence his annoyance. In fact, for a couple of contracts he gives you, he clearly states that you will get a bonus for not killing anyone but the target. Not all murders at their hands have to make it clear that they were the ones who did it. If the Brotherhood is out to send a message with a murder, he puts his annoyances aside. Any Family member who ultimately proves useless and unwilling to follow important instructions will earn great disappointment from him and he will exile them from the Brotherhood. If they are just a beginner who made a mistake he’ll be much more lenient and continue to train them so mistakes do not happen again. Vicente himself usually takes contracts that may be carried out at night and make the most of his vampire skills, like his extra strength and stealth. He also takes care of paperwork, since he spends most of his time in the Sanctuary.

He refers to vampirism as “the Dark Gift”, and it is not something he goes around spreading. Only when someone has truly proven themselves to him and become close friends with him will he offer it. If they refuse, then he respects their wishes. Any vampire he is befriended to is considered his kin. However, he is apathetic to vampires who have let their feral sides take over and live as animals. He has excellent control over his hunger, unless he goes way too long without feeding and never puts his vampire needs before those of his Family. He has long learned to live with his vampirism and see it as a good thing. The extra powers and skills help him be a better killer and not aging means he can help the Brotherhood for centuries.
[point in timeline you're picking your character from]: Right as the new Sister leaves to go see Lucien.

[journal post]: The unoriginally named City was unlike any place Vicente had ever been. It was nothing like Cyrodiil or Morrowind, or indeed anywhere in Nirn. Granted, he had never been outside of Tamriel, but he was well-read on his foreign lands. No book had ever described a place similar to The City. At first confused by his new surroundings, he now found it very intriguing, if a little too brightly lit. And vampires were much more well-treated here than in Tamriel. This pleased him, though he still could not bring himself to drop the habit of hiding his face in public. Thinking of other vampires made him remember his friend Janus Hassildor, and he allowed himself a brief chuckle at the thought of the vampire Count and what he might make of this world. The laugh was followed by a gloomy sigh as he was reminded of his friends, now a whole realm apart from him.

It was not easy being away from his Family for so long, and he missed them so much. Even Gogron’s blatant disregard for delicacy drew a pang of longing from him. Sithis only knew when he would find a way home and see them again. Ever since the Dark Brotherhood found him, they were everything to him. After being turned, he had nothing. No home, no family, and no friends. The Brotherhood gave him purpose, gave him something to care about. The Dark Brotherhood was his family and he loved his brothers and sisters.

He wondered how they were doing without him. Was Ocheeva taking the new recruits under her tutelage in his absence? Had they gained any new Brothers or Sisters while he was gone? He was saddened that he could not be there to greet them and let them know that they had a loving family now. The vampire hoped Ocheeva was not too stressed out at the Sanctuary, now that he was not there to share the responsibility. It also disappointed him that the Night Mother was unheard of here. Could she even hear it when he prayed for her? He could not even carry out murder in her name here and know that she had seen it, because there was no Listener. Of course, he could always try the Black Sacrament.

That brought another matter to Vicente’s mind. If he was going to be here for an indefinite amount of time, he might as well try and start a new chapter of The Brotherhood. They could use his basement as a Sanctuary and he would have a fresh batch of murderers to teach. But he was no Speaker, nor the Listener, and could not know who the Night Mother found worthy to be her children here. Of course, this was a desperate time, and so he would have to take on Speaker duties until he found a member who deserved the rank. He had sometimes wondered what it would be like to be in Lucien’s shoes, and indeed he had been offered the position of Silencer to Lucien’s predecessor before. He had turned it down, because his place was in the Sanctuary. As for finding new Brothers and Sisters, the vampire would just have to watch carefully and use his best judgment. He did not want to return to Cyrodiil only to learn that the Night Mother was displeased with him for not carrying out his duties while away.
[third person / log sample]:
[Video/Private and unhackable]
[Vicente is sitting at his desk in the basement he’s calling home, the light from the device being the only illumination, lighting up his pale, gaunt face.]

To my new Brothers and Sisters, this message is for you.

I welcome you to your new Family, for you are now children of the Night Mother. It is regrettable that we cannot declare you as such legitimately, but under the circumstances I believe it may work. As you all know, I am Vicente Valtieri, and you will be reporting to me. I am sure you have all figured out by now that I am a vampire, but fear not. I do not drink the blood of Family members or pass along the Dark Gift without consent.

But enough about that; let us speak of the Five Tenets. All Family members must follow them, or face the Wrath of Sithis. If the Wrath does not exist here, know that I shall deal with you personally. The Tenets are as follows: Do not betray the Dark Brotherhood or its secrets, do not dishonor the Night Mother, do not disobey a Dark Brotherhood superior, do not steal from a Dark Brother or Sister, and do not kill another Dark Brother or Sister.

I have established a Sanctuary, where you may rest and take shelter. I will send each of you its location through the device. You are to tell no one else of this place, not even other friends. You will be asked for a password, answer thusly: “Sanguine, my brother”. If you have any questions, you may contact me through this device. Just make sure the line is private.

Now then, I am afraid I must take my leave. I do hope we will all get along and perhaps learn to love one another. Welcome to the Family.