Victor was born Wong Ke Lo to a comfortable middle class family in Taipei in 1979. His father, Wong Fai Hun, was a businessman with vague connections to the Bamboo Union, one of Taiwan’s main triad organisations, through his Kuomintang background. An only child, Victor was an unimpressive student, a loner who only found solace in the gymnasium. Victor was a good gymnast, but lacked the competitive drive to truly excel.

After the senior Wong annoyed the wrong Bamboo Union functionary, Victor was targeted for recruitment – a subtle punishment for the upstanding businessman. He was an easy target as his antisocial tendencies made him comfortable with the life of crime while welcoming the social contact the triad provided. His father was mortified, but warned to stay away by Victor’s new ‘friends’ He was only 16, but quickly became a useful second story man for the Triad, breaking in to allow enforcers into buildings as well as minor thefts. The Union taught Victor to fight and use a gun as well as the basic intricacies of alarm systems.

At 17, Victor was nearly convicted for burglary after a job went wrong. Fai Hun interceded to bribe the cops responsible for the bust and decided he had to get the family out. Immigration to Australia seemed the best way to get Victor away from the triad as well as avoid any further shame to the family. In 1996 the Wongs moved to Melbourne as economic migrants, buying a news agents and settling in Box Hill. Victor was just young enough to come with his parents.

Melbourne didn’t help Victor’s behaviour. He quickly fell in with 14K, a Sydney based triad with Melbourne offshoots, and got back into his old ways and quickly became estranged from his parents. But a period in jail in 2001 helped scare Victor, convincing him he wasn’t invincible. After he got out, he moved to Bidawal, not telling any of his triad friends where he was going. He started to look around for other ways to make a living, scraping by on odd jobs and the occasional break in but generally trying to keep his head down. Eventually Sonny Kim, the Bidawal Police Department’s Asian Community Liaison officer, told Victor that he might know of some work for someone with skills like his. Sonny was as corrupt as they come, but he could see that Victor was trying to get out. Now Victor is with OSERE. He’s hoping that he’ll be able to make a living, find some of what attracted him to triad life and stay out of jail.

Today I found (via Very Short List)  this cool flickr set of 1920′s passport photos. They’re of famous people but they’re largely not recognisable (and not all of them are still famous). Perfect for a Pulp game or some 20′s Call of Cthulhu.

Ashelle Litwyn was born as just another of the Dalish Elves. Both her parents were well liked and active members of the Clan and she wanted fo nothing.

As she grew she was expected to take a more active role within the Clan and it was noticed by most that she had quite an abtitude with the bow. It is this that lead to her nickname, Ash. She was never seen with out her ash wood bow. She started ranging far and wide as the aravel made their stately way across Ferelden learning more and more as she went.

However it was her first meeting with humans that really started her down the path she is on now. Unlike many of her kind this meeting was not particularly traumatic and it didn’t end in the death of all her family. Rather, Ash stumbled across a human child lost in the forest and returned her to her farmholder parents. In gratitude the family invited the young Elf in for dinner and told her stories of their familes.

Since that day Ash has been fascinated with Humans, Human culture and Human history. Her parents dispair that it will inevitably end in her death and the rest of her Clan think her slightly mad to be interested in the race that almost caused ther distruction.

She is slightly short for an elf, but with her peoples natural grace. She is naturally inqusitive but it is her naivity that really amazes people. Despite having encountered the good, the bad and the ugly of humanity she still sees them as facinating creatures and wishes to know all she can about them.

Cælin thus Huscarl was a PC in a shortish game I played with the Oakleigh Roleplayers Club. You can get most of the background from the campaign wiki but basically it was a Dark Ages game played with the HarnMaster rules, using the GM Kyle’s own setting.

Cælin is a young huscarl in the service of the Eorlderman. At age 7, as with all Bronding children, he was fostered out to learn a trade. In Cælin’s case this was to Offa, his mother’s brother. Offa was a huscarl and he trained young Cælin in the ways of battle.

There was little doubt that Cælin would become a warrior – he was a strong but slow witted child, with none of the mental spark of his brothers and sisters. 4th in line, there was no way he would inherit property and he had no flare for craft. Cælin liked to hit things and so a warrior he became. When he came of age he inherited his uncle’s franciska and was given a ring byrnie by the Eorlderman. These are his most treasured possessions and he keeps them in immaculate condition.

But for all his dullness, Cælin was well liked amongst the clan. He had a sense of fun, a willingness to do almost anything, and he delighted in eating and drinking all kinds of things. Where ever mead flowed and meat was roasting, there was Cælin, looking for a story to hear (for he had no talent in that regard) or a woman to fondle. His like of drink and his strength meant that Cælin could find himself in trouble, as he was easily led, but so far nothing to untoward has happened.

Of some concern to his parents and Offa is Cælin’s friendship with Alric, the seneschal’s assistant. Alric has always been a reliable source for Cælin to get things from the larders and Cælin has rewarded this with stanch loyalty. For those who know Alric’s reputation for dubious moral sense, Cælin’s friendship seems misplaced. But Cælin’s reputation for slow wittedness has helped disguise the fact that he has fairly lax morals himself.
Finally though, Cælin has a secret which none know but Offa. Once, while hunting near the Henna, Offa and Cælin saw a gigantic black boar with but one tusk staring at them from the edge of the woods. Thinking it to be the Mæstbar of legend, the two hunters charged heedlessly into the forest. While in pursuit, Cælin tripped and fell down a steep slope, hitting his head hard upon a rock. When Offa scrambled down to check on him he found Cælin in the grip of some uncontrollable fit. The moment passed, but Cælin lives in fear that another blow may set him off again, this time either in battle or in front of the other clan members. Cælin believes it is a curse upon him from the goblins who haunt that forest. Offa has agreed to keep his secret, but worries that it to do so may be a mistake. For Cælin, the dark woods of the Henna hold a hidden fear. As a result, nether have ever told of the time they saw the Mæstbar.