John Spiegel

SUBJECT TO CHANGE! I'M LEARNIN' STUFF EVERYDAY!~ 

John Spiegel
It's just JJ... or just Just John... or wait a second...
JJ!
Gender	Male
Race	Hyur
Clan	Highlander
Citizenship	Unaffiliated
Occupation	Adventurer, hired hand, swordslinger, father
Martial Status	Widower
Hobbies	Eating, fighting and adventuring
Namesday	22nd sun of the 10th moon

BIOGRAPHICAL  

Full Name: John D. Spiegel

Birth Name: Jnsyn Silversheath

Various Surnames: Bloodscythe, Scythesword, Darkblood, Skysmasher

Nicknames/Aliases: JJ, Baldy, Big Bad John from the Badlands, Badlands John

Pronunciation: Ja-on Dee Spee-gul

Origins: John’s true given name was a variant of a common name in Ala’Mihgo. John’s paternal tree was a long line of metalworkers. John was orphaned between the age 1-2. His non-Highlander-sounding last name is attributed to an early event in his adventuring days and he just kind of stuck with it, though he does occassionally use his birth-surname or one of the various surnames he's gathered over the years. 

APPEARANCE

Age: 52-54 (at ARR launch; he was at Dalmund)

Height: ~6 fulms and 7 ilms

Weight: ~290 ponzes

Body: Whether it be his Highlander blood, a lifetime of fending for himself or something else, John has maintained his physique well into his 50’s. His hands tempered over years of adventuring, working and fighting. 

Hair: Bald; originally brown, greying of the eyebrows. 

Eyes: Brown; lost right eye

Skin: Tanned and covered in scars.

Clothing: The Dalmund Incident forced JJ’s attire to change somewhat, having lost his possessions and his body armor to be obliterated. He will be seen draped in furs combined with remaining pieces of his Darksteel armor (gloves, boots, pants) until he gets around to getting new clothes. 

Marks: A scar from his lost right eye to the bottom of his chin is most apparent. His abdomen, arms and legs are covered with various kinds of scars from different ages. Arrow wounds, stab wounds and magic-induced scaring.

HISTORY

(Some italicized stuff. This outline literally covers six decades... I got a more specific outline, but I marked it out based on uber major events.)

I. Birth - Old Crystalline (1518-1537)

II. Old Crystalline (1537~1544)

III. Departure for Greyer Mountains (1543-1557)

IV. The Fall of Ala Mihgo through pre-Dalmund (1557-1572) 

V. Dalmund - now (1572-present)

SKILLS

Combat: John’s specialty in combat is two-handed weapons, but he has been known to dabble in one-handed weapons, hand-to-hand and ranged weaponry in the past.

• Scythes and great swords were JJ’s primary two-handers, known to carry two great swords and a scythe on his back into combat. One might ask why you need two great swords, JJ would reply with a different reason or story each time of past or potential future needs of a second great sword.

• John’s no expert in one-handers, but he’s not to be ignored. Where he lacks in finesse, he makes up for an increase in agility due to not lugging his large weapons around. 

• Hand-to-hand combat is another that John does not excel at, but is fairly good at grappling and throwing really hard punches. 

• Aside from conventional combat techniques, John is capable of unpredicted moves as well ranging from explosive-filled oranges to diversions one might see during a circus performance (confetti and the like). 

Primeval/Darkness: From a young age, John displayed an innate and sometimes uncontrollable surge of energy that came about when he is in severe danger. He calls this the “Darkness” as that he’s done cruel things in the past as a result of losing control. In his late teens and early twenties, he learned to mostly control this and tap in to it as one would their magick reservoir. During these outbursts, it is not uncommon that if John were to be disarmed, he would lunge at the target and strangle or otherwise try to incapacitate his target with his bare hands. One may argue that this doesn’t truly enhance John’s physical powers, rather than remove the metaphorical chains that he himself placed. 

Magic: When it comes to magic, John is absolutely lost. He has an innate ability towards the Dark Magicks, which involve sapping the life and energy from foes, as well as some basic elemental and support magicks. Even with an affinity towards the Dark Magicks, his inner reservoir to cast multiple spells in a row is still laughable.

Knowledge: Having been adventurer/mercenary/on his own since he was thirteen, John is knowledgeable in survival and has adopted all sorts of medical and other kinds of concepts and ideas from all walks of life over the years. When it comes to distant history or other academic endeavors, John, most likely will not know it or will have some local name or made up name for an herb.

He carries garlic, pepper and other spices and herbs to either spice his meat as he smokes it or to ward off predators and silly demons. 

JJ is proficient in the Highlander tongue and knows conversational amounts of various other races and clans that he's picked up over his years. 

Weaknesses: Having lost his right eye, he is vulnerable from surprise attacks from that side. To compensate for this, in buildings or closed areas, John positions his right side against a wall in the event he drops his guard. His magick pool is severely low, only being able to cast a spell and perhaps a magick-absorb spell before it needs to replenish. As a result, foes with considerable physical resistance require a bit more tact than normal. Unless he’s not wearing his heavy armor and lugging around his heavy weapons, he’s forced to block –rather than dodge- fast attacks. He tries to compensate for this by going to brief hand-to-hand if the opponent is close.

Likes

Food -- Being a high-energy individual even at his age, he requires, admires and desires hordes of food

“Collecting” different fighting styles, some of which he adopted and altered to his way of fighting. (Note: He does not master new styles, he just appreciates them and attempts to take a particular method and blend it with his.)

His children (and all children). He’s a child at heart.

Adventuring

Pinwheels

Weapons

Dislikes

• Garlean Empire/Oppression of any sort
• Magitek
• Fine dining. John does not believe that using the proper fork and speaking about mundane topics is how meals are supposed to go. He believes that celebration and merriment should be had for another day of living. As a result, John will more often than not (politely) be asked to leave or just mocked. JJ doesn’t care, JJ made away with their duck, four lamb legs and two pies anyways.
• Hurting those close to him

Demeanor 

On the surface, John seems to be a walking contradiction: A big brute-looking of a man who's mere glare could kill, but always got a stupid smile and a look of a kid in a candy store in his eye. He seems to be rather extroverted, but is actually rather introverted. He does not actively talk about himself aside from bragging about his children or what he wants for dinner. Most of the time, John listens rather than speaks. At times one may sense the pain in John's heart from all he has lost and all he has sinned, but that does not deter John from grinning on. One can also sense a horrific innocence or a blissful guilt. 

When time of conflict arises, a big yet small change washes over John. A certain dread, though desire for combat energizes John even more so than your average battle-hungry bafoon. He approaches combat as a child would approach a game, though this demeanor can change to a stoic machine hellbent on surviving. 

As for romantic relationships, John was always tongue-tied when talking to ladies. He doesn’t pick up subtleties like if a woman is hitting on him. John was never good at verbalizing his feelings yet he’s more able through actions. 

RELATIONSHIPS:

Family

Parents: ____ & ____ Silversheath

Wife: Emilynn Windfist (deceased)

Children: Alex Spiegel, Grace Spiegel

Alex Spiegel - The male twin, late 30s (~38). He took fancy to academics and the books rather than combat. He has been a scholar that traveled some for research. While he is not battle-hardened, he knows his way around a mace or a bow as well as some magick he picked up along the way. He's a little below average height, as attributed from his mother's side of the blood. He has blond hair and greenish blue eyes, again, taking after his mother. The prominent JJ features are in the face. Alex exhibits the same stupid grin that JJ has. He is soft-spoken, having been the submissive of the twins, but not easily pushed around.

He's fiercely defensive of his sister, even though Grace can beat off crude remark makers easily. Due to the disappearance of his sister and father as a result of Bahamut's Tyranny, he has just immersed himself in his work, somewhat confident that if they were to die, they'd have sent a letter or something. 

Grace Spiegel - The female twin, early 30s (~33). (She was a time jumper). She was the wilder child growing up. She first took to the fist as her mother was a fierce pulgist, then she adopted staves and dabbled with some other weaponry. Grace accompanied John on some adventures, as well as went out on her own yet she always returned home. Her physique is similar to her mother’s, her hair blond and eyes greenish blue, her bust a C-cup. She speaks rather gently, but clearly sounds like her mother when she gets agitated. Despite being the wilder child, she has been known to scold her father much the same way Emilynn did.

Grace appeared on her own at the Dalmund Event, much like John did. She wanted to fight the empire that killed her mother, grandfather and uncle.

 

Other

fefw

THE RUMOR MILL:

Common Rumors

• “Did you see that large monster of a man just outside of town? He’s making pinwheels for the children! Pinwheels!”

• “There’s a big bald bastard out there in the woods. Speaks our tongue, too. Offered to house ‘em for the night. Said thanks and gave me some furs, but declined a room. Weird feller.”

• “There’s a brute of a man covered in dark armor and furs wearing an eyepatch, another one of those people, I bet. A Highlander… wonder what side he’s on.”

• <an old timer> “Hmmm, that feller looks familiar… must have been almost 40 years ago!”

Moderate Rumors 

• “Did you hear about that crazy bald guy? He took on a buffalo and –rode- it through some choppy water!” 

• <an old timer> “Hmmmm, that man looks familiar… was he the guy that killed that big demon… or was he the demon?”

Rare Rumors 

• “My old man told me about that John Spiegel, feller, I heard durin’ the fall of Ala Mihgo, he went into a rage and tore up so many of them Magiteks that ya couldn’t count how many!” 

'Player Rumor (add your own! Don't be obnoxious, unless it's really good!)'