Odysseus

by San

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  1.   1.  Appearance
  2.   2.  Personality
  3.   3.  History
  4.   4.  Miscellaneous

Odysseus is a wandering swordsman.

He was born in a prosperous Spanish port town, shackled by a different name and a certain set of expectations that he disclaimed once he came of age. Stowing away on a merchant ship, he found freedom on the Mediterranean, until a disastrous crossing of the Atlantic nearly cost him his life. There he met his savior and eventual lover, Montague, whom he accompanied to New Orleans to form a mercenary band that became like a close-knit family. However, a dangerous disease ravaged the gang and left a mark on Odie's psyche; even hundreds of miles of distance and some years between him and the traumatic event did little to help him. As he succumbed to negative tendencies, Odysseus burned bridges until there were finally none left.

Traveling east, Odie wandered as a loner for a few seasons before eventually arriving in New Brunswick. Via friendships and local events, he became accustomed to the region yet did not settle down until winter threatened his lonely lifestyle. In the aftermath of a series of small earthquakes, Odie decided to join Casa di Cavalieri. He remained with the Cavalieri for about a year, serving as a guardsman and sometimes-deckhand, but felt like an outsider in the close-knit pack. His usual vices -- as well as an entanglement with a woman on the run -- led him to abandon the knights.


Overview

Basics
  • Date of Birth: 3rd March 2016
  • Gender: Male
    • Sex: Female
  • Luperci: Ortus
  • Species: Dog
Heritage
Affiliations
OOC Information
Assumptions
  • --
Plot Opportunities
  • --

1.  Appearance

Physical

Odysseus is a mongrel, born into a bloodline of rabbit hunters and general working dogs. As a result, he is slender and agile, with proportionally long legs for his diminutive size, but sturdier in shape than the typical sighthound. His short coat is not as sleek, either; often disheveled, it is coarse and thick enough to suggest feral blood somewhere in his ancestry. Rather than the batlike ears of most podencos (though he’s inherited the size), his semi-prick ears flop unevenly. His muzzle is slender and handsome.

He is dark in coloration, streaks of shadow brindling the murky brown base of his coat, disturbed only by a smatter of white on some toes and a locket on his chest. An almost-symmetrical white blaze breaks up his black mask. His eyes, shadowed and tired even above an animated and supercilious grin, are a wildtype amber coloration. In his favored Optime form, his black mane falls nearly shoulder-length; silky when well-cared-for, it’s often tousled and constantly being flicked out of his face. Small scars nick snout, ear, and cheekbone: enough to draw the eye, but none individually distinct enough to lend itself to description.

Forms

  • Lupus: 22 in (56 cm) ↔ 44 lbs (20 kg)
  • Secui: 38 in (96 cm) ↔ 118 lbs (53 kg)
  • Optime: 5ft 6in (66 in / 168 cm) ↔ 139 lbs (63 kg)
Interaction
  • Speech: Bright and a little husky. Natively fluent in Spanish, has a faint accent and uses foreign words for flair. The tempo of his speech changes with his mood, from fast-talking to ponderous pauses.
  • Scent: Calamus, pine, leather, liquor, blood, sun-warmed stone.
  • Physical Expression & Quirks: Relaxed and confident, will often stand "at ease" with a hand resting on his sword hilt. Smiles a lot, especially when he doesn't mean it.

Adornments

  • Dressed at minimum in dark trousers and some form of top (billowy white linen shirts being his favorite, but undyed wool is more common).
  • Black leather (much of it faded or imperfectly dyed) is worn both as practical armor (bracers, partial chestplate, etc.) and for extraneous decoration.
  • Understated gold or bone earrings are common, sometimes rings (that tend to get lost).
  • Openly carries a lot of bladed weapons (most of which are of poor quality).

Palette

by Despi by Raze by San by Budskull

2.  Personality

Summarized: Brash, courageous, flamboyant, troubled, self-loathing

On first impression, Odie has the air of a swashbuckler. Full of reckless bravado befitting a much younger man, he is quick with his tongue and seemingly unafraid of consequence. His presence is flamboyant and loud, and he addresses even strangers in a friendly and familiar way. He seems drawn to trouble, but he rarely causes it — on his own behalf. Instead, Odysseus is driven to defend the honor of those who cannot defend themselves: a chronic hero, he doesn’t hesitate to swoop in with a flurry of insults or a flurry of steel. He is capable of careful tenderness when the situation calls for it, belying his brash and foolhardy demeanor. Brave and good-hearted, if aggravating, he makes for a good and loyal friend, and an entertaining and flashy lover.

Until he sobers up.

Motivated ultimately by escapism rather than good morals, the reason Odie throws himself so passionately into others’ affairs is because he prefers to forget his own. Parties, flings, alcohol, and daring adventures all serve to keep the darkness at bay. Odysseus is intensely self-loathing, and without adequate preoccupation (or with hangover symptoms), this negativity spills out and affects others: he becomes cynical, snappish, and altogether unpleasant to be around.

The deepest truth of his heroic antics is simple: perhaps if he dies in the pursuit of justice and honor, it will make up for the rest of his misdeeds without need for further effort.

  • Motivations: Defending the weak, maintaining his fighting ability, forgetting
  • Fears: Strong storms, drowning, hurting and disappointing others, rabies
Biases
  • Species: Has feelings of camaraderie toward other dogs, but no real biases; he's gotten along with all sorts.
  • Gender & Sexuality: Open-minded in comparison to his birth culture (in part due to his own identity). Still, Odie holds ideals about some gender roles (although he's accepting of those who eschew them). He would be confused about gender that falls outside the binary.
  • Wildlings: Somewhat patronizing toward those who choose a more feral lifestyle, but not hateful.
Sexuality

Bisexual and a flirt; seduction is more rewarding for Odysseus than the sex itself. He prefers men, but tends to act more open about his attraction to women. He has no qualms with fooling around with multiple people, and no expectations of monogamy on behalf of his partners. That said -- his heart in its entirety belongs to Montague, and no one can hope to hold a candle to his love for the man.

Spirituality

While he doesn't partake in its rituals (beyond a tendency to wash his hands in any basin he finds), Odysseus still vaguely subscribes to the faith of the Lantern. He's been exposed to multiple religions over the years, and it makes the most "sense" to him that each one is part of a greater truth.

Substances

Alcoholic.

3.  History

Courts & Coasts
Onuba
Duration: March 2016 - August 2017
Role: Member of the Outer Court

Odysseus was born in a Spanish port town, shackled by a different name and a certain set of expectations. His youth was spent playing with street urchins and the sons of sailors in the port, selectively absorbing lessons of etiquette and culture, badgering amused cousins for sword-fighting lessons once he could shift, and general good-natured troublemaking. Lively and quick to defend the less fortunate despite their standing, he was popular among his immediate peers, and his parents were permissive in his adolescence — believing that the antics of their “tomboy daughter” were harmless enough.

However, when Odie came of age, this tolerance abruptly ended. He was to marry the son of an affluent family, to beget children, to bring his family into greater esteem in the eyes of the courts. Odie, who had come to realize why specific cultural mores felt so stifling and wrong to him, refused this. Following a verbal altercation with his father, who told Odie he could “pretend” what he wanted as long as he “did his duty” and acted “properly” in court, the young man disowned his family and left.

Familiar with the docks, Odysseus stowed away on a foreign merchant vessel — a scheme short-lived, as he was discovered merely a couple days into the voyage. The crew nearly threw him overboard (their rations of dried meat and fresh water too tightly measured to waste on a stranger), but the captain was a nurturing and spiritual man who sympathized with Odie’s plight. He was permitted to stay, in exchange for a debt of manual labor. Though exhausted and callused from work, hungry and a little bit dehydrated, Odie made it to port.

He didn’t stay there long, as the conditions of his debt weren’t yet satisfied; he was to crew the same ship until the next stop in the Mediterranean. Rather than view this as punishment or servitude, Odysseus had a romantic notion about his time at sea: crossing choppy waves, navigating by the stars, all of it was part of a great adventure. He absorbed little information about proper sailing (although he became handy with ropework), but learned other things from the eclectic group of sailors and the various port towns they docked in.

However, when their ship attempted its first voyage across the Atlantic, bringing trade goods to a new market, a terrible storm wrecked the vessel. Thrown overboard, Odie barely managed to survive the waves, clinging to flotsam as his crewmates met their own disastrous fates.

Miraculously, Odysseus was able to last the night, and another ship (manned by a more experienced captain who stowed their sails at the first sign of poor weather) came across the wreckage that dawn. Its captain wanted to give a wide berth, but one of the crewmembers, a wolf named Montague, spotted Odie and convinced them to rescue the man. It was Montague who tended to him, too, the best he could: keeping the traumatized dog company and nursing him through sickness resulting from his near-drowning. As a result, once he was coaxed out of his state of shock, Odysseus bonded quickly with Montague.

This burgeoning friendship was strong enough that, once the ship docked in Barbados and Montague decided to take another to North America proper, Odie accompanied him.

New Orleans
The Golden Grin
Duration: April 2018 - July 2020
Role: Swashbuckler

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North America

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Casa di Cavalieri
Casa di Cavalieri
Duration: 12 December 202217 February 2024
Ranks Second Officer (Feb 2024)
  • First Cadet (Apr 2023–Jan 2024)
  • Second Cadet (Jan–Apr 2023)
  • Recruit (Dec 2022)
Co-Ranks • Guardsman

• Sailor

Banner Magenta Fang

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4.  Miscellaneous

Triva
  • Odysseus was first created as an NPC in a Wildemount campaign I ran for about two years, as a swashbuckler rogue member of the Golden Grin (a secret society in the setting that promotes freedom). While the players didn't follow his plot hook, I loved the character too much not to do something else with him! He's basically the same, just a dog.
Awards
  • Odysseus won the Biggest Ham and Loner of the Year superlatives in the 2022 Yearbook.
  • He won the Most Rizz superlative in the 2023 Yearbook. (Don't let it get to his head!)
Categories: 2016 Births | Dog | Loners | Raze