Edric Wolfgang

Edric Wolfgang
A selfish Ala Mhigan criminal. No buttstuff.
Gender	Male
Race	Hyur
Clan	Highlander
Citizenship	Ala Mhigo
Age	28
Alignment	Neutral Evil

Basic Info

A lot of words could be used to describe Edric Wolfgang: thug, criminal, ruffian, bully; All of them accurate. There are very few things he wouldn't do for the right price, and his moral compass was discarded years ago. He can normally be found in Ul'dah, either at the Quicksand or somewhere in Pearl Lane, at his favourite tavern, the Coffer & Coffin, or relaxing at The Drowning Wench. If you need a job completing that's too dirty or violent for your average mercenary, Ed is the man you're looking for. He gets most of his jobs from his friend Ivan, a shady information broker he's known since childhood.

History

While on a trading mission to Ala Mhigo from her home city of Ul'dah, a young Midlander woman fell for Ulric Bloodclaw, a then soldier whose normally brutal outlook on life was softened somewhat by the appearance of the charming woman in his world of combat and death. The result of their brief romance and resulting marriage was Edric, the son that they both had high hopes for. Ulric hoped he would grow up to be a fierce killing machine not unlike himself, and would earn a worthy surname. Maria, the mother, had plans to teach their son the subtleties of commerce and the gil based life of Ul'dah, eventually wanting him to become a renowned merchant. Because of their opposing plans, they often fought, eventually agreeing to teach Ed seperately: His father had him throwing and taking punches from as early as 5, making him fight with other children his age and showing him where the pressure points on the body are, repeatedly hitting Ed's to desensitise them; His mother taught him to count, with much difficulty, while also showing him how to manipulate and trick people, something he had an easier time learning.

By age 8, Edric was clearly leaning more towards his father's side of the teaching than his mother's. He could count fairly well, he'd started getting more and more violent, his pain threshold was far above most at his age, and he was showing clear talent for hand to hand combat, able to beat all but the biggest boys in a fair fight, and could use dirty tactics to take even those out eventually. Unfortunately, his focus on the physical aspects of his training often had him ignore most other forms of learning: reading, writing and manners to name a few. Before his mother could grab him by the ear and force him to pay attention to things other than fighting, the Garleans invaded. Ulric had thus been able to avoid Theodoric's wrath due to his new position as a Royal Guard, but he was unaware of his wife's involvement with the rebels until the Garleans were already inside the walls. When he found out, he grabbed her by the neck and squeezed the life from her. In the face of the Garlean forces, he had a moment of cowardice for the first time in his life, and fled to Ul'dah with his son.

After being threatened by the leader of a local criminal syndicate and removing the man's head, Ulric became the new man in charge of it, using the ruthless tactics he'd learned from the Ala Mhigan military to command the group of hoodlums. Years passed, the group grew and Ed had already become accustomed to the lifestyle of a hoodlum. It started off small at first, he'd take some food while someone distracted a merchant, or be the distraction himself. He'd met a younger boy while doing this, Ivan, and had become fast friends after the young Midlander had tried, and failed, to steal from him. As he got older, and more physically able, though, his father used him as an enforcer when needed, teaching him how to rip answers from a man through torture, and where best to cut to cause pain, but not death. Eventually, Ed was in charge of his own small group that did the more difficult tasks, but they were mostly wiped out after a hit job went seriously wrong. Mentally shook by this event, he decided to step back from the gang life and traveled for a while, taking solo jobs and competing in illegal fighting rings to make a living.

Personality

Having relied on his own talents to survive for most of his life since arriving at Ul'dah, Edric doesn't trust most people he meets, and is often rude to them. The main exception to this is if they're someone he can relate to, for example a fellow Ala Mhigan refugee, in which case he will probably drop most of the initial distrust and will be reasonably friendly with them, to a point. This being said, he's not the type to be loud and overly obnoxious, preferring peace and quiet most of the time, especially if he's just finished a job. Living on the streets has also made him fine with low quality in life, especially when it comes to food, drink and sleeping arrangements. However, due to his size and how much physical activity he does, he tends to eat quite a lot when he gets the chance, and will never turn down free food or drink.

Sharing his mother's need for gil, he will gladly mug someone if he thinks they can't put up much of a fight, especially if they look rich. This has become almost a hobby because of his criminal past, and he'll often sit around Pearl Lane waiting for a victim whenever he's low on gil (which is most of the time). Even if someone looks like they're fairly tough or dangerous, Ed might still try to start a fight with them. Sometimes painful memories come to the surface, and he's found that the best way to push them down again is by fighting, the harder the fight the better, and thus he's constantly working himself just as harsh as his father once trained him. This love of fighting means that he'll often insult and berate people, especially when he's in a foul mood and needs to take his mind off of things.

Taking after his father's brutality and from his own experiences growing up, Ed has no problem with killing or torturing someone if it'll benefit him or get the job done properly. He doesn't gain pleasure from doing this unless the victim is someone he has a personal hatred of, but it's a skill in his arsenal and he thinks it would be a waste not to use it. He's also very selfish, just as Ulric was before meeting his wife (and returned to being after leaving Ala Mhigo), and would sell out practically anyone other than his closest of friends as long as there was enough gil involved and he didn't think the person was going to scam him somehow.

Physical Description

Due to his Midlander blood, Edric stands just short of the average height of a Highlander man, but his broad shoulders make him just as wide. The head atop those shoulders is topped by short, messy hair that is dirty blonde when not covered with actual dirt, which makes it darker. His face consists of a set of dark brown eyes, often mistaken for being black, a nose that has been broken more times than he can count, a scar on his left cheek from quite a long while ago, and a dry mouth, normally frowning slightly. What's most unusual about Edric's face are the thick eyebrows ((Definitely not permanent marker!)), a seemingly rare trait for Highlanders, and most likely something inherited from his mother's side of the family. His body has seen enough abuse to last three lifetimes, scratches and faded scars covering most of it, and is overall built like a brick shithouse: large triceps to punch like a horse kicks, abs as hard as rocks and knuckles that protrude from the rest of his big hands like a mountain range. There are also tattoos covering most of his arms and shoulders, put on him when he became an enforcer for his father, intended to make him more intimidating, but the patterns have distorted slightly due to how much he's grown since.

Skills

Since an early age Ed has been training in hand-to-hand combat, and his years fighting in pits and rings have given him even more experience with one on one fights. Due to these factors, he's most comfortable when facing just one person when either unarmed or equipped with his familiar claws, which are practically a part of his body after all the fights he's used them in. While he doesn't have much difficulty fighting enemies that are also using melee weapons, he struggles slightly when against particularly swift ranged fighters, and would take a few minutes to figure out how to attack someone using an unconventional or highly technical weapon that he hasn't seen before. Also, although he can fight multiple opponents at once, he prefers not to as the short reach of his weapons and the aggressive fighting style he usually employs aren't suited to fighting more than one or two people at a time.

Due to not having much entertainment when young and homeless, Ed taught himself to climb, eventually becoming rather adept at it after a lot of cuts and bruises from falling. He doesn't often climb for leisure anymore, as his hands and feet have grown too big to practically scale most walls, but he has been known to carry around a cheap pair of claws that he can throw into surfaces, using the handles as either a foothold or as a way to maneuever across a wall. This is never very subtle due to how noisy it tends to be, as well as how large his body is, but it's useful in very specific situations.

While not a skill, Ed has a very high pain threshold. His body has been trained to take hits and throw them back harder, tearing his muscles and shattering the top layer of his bones just for them to grow back stronger. Also, his father's harsh practice of rubbing the vast majority of non-lethal pressure points on his body has succeeded in numbing most of his nerves, and has made his resistance to physical pain far above that of most people. However, since magic wasn't commonly used on the poorer streets of Ul'dah, and was flat out banned in most of the underground rings he fought in, Ed doesn't have a lot of tolerance when it comes to dealing with aetheric damage. This has come with the addition of a slight mental trigger when faced with magic, due to his recent week of torture at the hands of a Thaumaturge on a slaver ship.

Finally, Ed has recently started being able to manipulate his own internal aether, similar to how Monks use their chakra. Unknown to him, one of his chakras was forcibly opened during the last mission him and his gang took. Since then, he discovered that he could make his fists as hard as rocks by applying aether to them, and has used this skill more than once, with varying degrees of success. During his escape of the aforementioned slaver ship, he also briefly turned the aether surrounding his fists into more of a fire-aspected type, and is currently searching for someone to help develop these talents, even if his skepticism towards the Fist of Rhalgr monks has stopped him from actively seeking them out.

Rumours

Common rumours

• "I've seen the bastard around the Quicksand before, he's just a troublemaker" - Quicksand patron.
• "The one with the tats? I hear he put a knife to the artist's throat and forced him to do it, and that's why they're so weird looking" - A random Ul'dahn.
• "Reckon he used to be part of a gang in the refugee camps" - Ul'dah citizen.

Moderate rumours

• "I hear he gets free drinks at the Coffer & Coffin. Hmm, can't remember why..." - Coffer & Coffin patron.
• "Swear I've seen him around the Wench. Normally seems quiet, though" - Limsa Lominsa citizen.
• "I've seen him roughing people up before. Wish the Blades would sort the ruffian out, and soon" - A rich Ul'dahn.

Rare rumours

• "Don't go near that psycho, I heard he choked a guy just for calling him 'Eddie'" - A Pearl Lane resident.
• "Isn't he the son of that gang boss? Talk about a rough family" - An Ul'dahn criminal.
• "Must have a friend in Pearl Lane somewhere, seen him walking through the same place more than a few times" - An Ala Mhigan refugee.

PC rumours

• "His eyebrows are some of the thickest I've ever seen. 'Like two hairy caterpillars fighting one another' a woman said once." *chuckles* - Vincent Sarkoza

Other Notes

Not every little detail on Edric is showed here, just the general idea. It's best to leave some things to discover, after all.

Gallery

• 

  A full view of Ed's tattoos, while he's sat on the usual box in Pearl Lane.

• 

  Ed with some clothes on.