Vassago Bowbeast

[Veridya‡]

Name: Vassago Bowbeast
Moniker(s):Vassago the Breaker, The Wraith
Gender: Male
Age: 27
Species: Ferret
Occupation: Mercenary, Assassin, Bird Watcher, Serves the Warlord Romulus

Physical Appearance:

Vassago looks every bit the average ferret, though with a squarer jaw and broader shoulders than most, Vassago's musculature is lean but strong. Genetics has left the Assassin with somewhat oddly colored fur; the dense coat is black all over save for the middle of his forearms to the tips of his paws, his muzzle and a few inches down his throat, and from his footpaw-tips to mid shin. The parts that aren't black, however, are a light tannish brown, his bi-color fur-pattern tends to help him blend in with his surroundings, but just to be sure, Vassago tends to wrap his paws and wrists with thin, black-leather strips to conceal the tan fur. His eyes have that bright gleam of Spanish gold, though the left one actually has a small splash of brown in it, matching his dark leathery brown nose.

With a good bit of searching, you can find scars of varying severity beneath his fur, as a lifetime of both a dangerous profession and a very strict childhood have left him physically and emotionally scarred. While the visible scars may have healed over, Vassago's emotional issues haven't quite vanished completely.

{Clothing} During the spring and summer months, Vassago chooses to wear a dark gray, sleeveless tunic with a thin black belt. In the fall and winter, Vassago wears a long-sleeved, hooded tunic of the same shade as the previous one, complete with belt, only the garment is of a thicker, more durable quality. If the ground is covered in snow, Vassago will put on a pair of thick, heavy boots, thick, padded trousers, but his paws (save for the leather wrappings) are always uncovered.

Possessions:

• A beautiful Cypress longbow polished with wax and resin. This longbow has a range of over 250 yards, and the arrows are all fletched with black feathers.
  
• A small, leather-bound notebook he uses to draw in. It contains dozens of detailed drawings of birds of all types – in flight, on the ground, etc.
  
• A small flask of whatever he feels like quenching his thirst with (usually filled with stream-water, thanks to the short supply of Fire-Whiskey in Mossflower Woods).
  
• Coin purse
  
• black and blue leather quiver of arrows with various arrowheads
  

Personality:

Vassago is a few steps above your common vermin type; though ferrets are considered stinky, stealing, untrustworthy creatures, this particular ferret tends to be the outlier in most vermin bands. Vassago's only loyalty is to money and food, his services easily bought with both – however, don't expect him to be your undying servant out of sheer admiration. Vassago admires no beast, cares for no beast and expects to be treated with the same indifference he shows everyone else. Cunning, cutthroat, and extremely survival-oriented, Vassago's pride can sometimes be at odds with his sense of self-preservation. His pride can get him into dangerous situations, and his self-preservation usually gets him out – it's when the two combine, (that bold fearlessness meeting his strong desire to survive) that his greatest potential, both as a hunter/Assassin and as a warrior are reached. Though he has not had a true formal education, he speaks better than a majority of his brethren, picking up the quiet, 'do not speak unless spoken to', reserved nature of his father and grandfather before him. Vassago prefers not to bother with right and wrong; his job and his personal moral code have nothing to do with each other, and he prefers it that way. This ferret would rather kill a few innocent beasts while on the job, yet help some struggling old creature carry in the firewood when 'off duty'. It's a peculiar way of going about things, but it's Vassago's Way, and who would he be to change it all now?

He is every bit the product of a cruel family home; Vassago learned the art of spilling blood from his father, the cold detachment from his mother, and the harshness of life from the death of his younger brother. Vassago lives only for his job and his peculiar obsession with birds; placing no value on life besides his own, he was born a killer and will die a killer, choosing to live a life marked by death and bloodshed, immune to all of its consequences. Vassago Bowbeast didn't always come off as such a heartless vermin; there was a time when he used to be a fearful, weak but happy creature, constantly seeking the approval of his father and the love of his mother. The seasons have stripped him of the naivety and the undeserving affection he felt for his parents. The back of his father's paw knocked the 'niceness' right out of him.

In it's place is something akin to a super soldier – the kind who can kill without asking questions, follow orders without fault, and perfectly separate personal feelings from business. He tends to stick around until a job is finished, however, it a better opportunity comes along, Vassago usually takes it. Vassago doesn't hold grudges, but Vassago isn't the kind of creature to back down when challenged, or when he becomes the object of someone else's grudges. Those few he's come across that aren't immediately disturbed/disgruntled/agitated by his cold, abrasive personality prefer to say this about him:

“You can kill Vassago Bowbeast a thousand times over in your dreams. It won't change the fact that you're still gonna wake up with both 'is eyes on you and his arrow aimed at your heart.”

They've adopted the best possible method of living with a creature like Vass. Keep out of his way. Speak to him only when you have to, and do not give him any reason to dislike you. It's probably best not to get in Vass's way, considering he has no kinship towards any of his vermin brethren, he will shoot through you to get to his target. He will leave you behind. He will have forgotten you even existed by the time your body hits the ground.

The obsession: ever since Vassago was but a babe, he has been fascinated, nay, obsessed with creatures of the avian variety. Perhaps they were a source of hope for him, or perhaps he envied their ability to fly away from danger when it began closing in. To him, birds were beautiful and sweet, fearsome and wild. Each one seemed to have a trait he wished for in himself – whether it was the sparrow that sang early in the morning, or the crow, with it's clever eyes, constantly on the alert for new things. Or even the magnificent goshawk, with it's fierce eyes and pride unmatched by all – save for the king of the skies, the mighty eagle. He would spend hours watching those birds, wishing he would grow a pair of wings to reach them or that they would at least come down and talk to him. But none came, not while Varg Bowbeast still prowled nearby.

Strengths:

• Excellent Marksman
  
• Careful Tactician
  
• Clever, Intelligent despite no formal education
  
• Has a 'leadership' quality about him
  

Weaknesses:

• His pride occasionally trumps his survival instincts
  
• Cruel, willing to kill regardless of the cost
  
• Can't Swim
  
• Weak at close-range fighting
  
• Won't kill children or birds
  
• Disloyal
  

History:

Vassago Bowbeast was born to Varg Bowbeast and Verdessa Goldeyes, two stern older ferrets who had both spent time serving under the same Warlord. In fact, it was during the horde's disbandment that they'd met and fell in love (well, grew to like each other enough to start a family), Verdessa giving birth to their first child in the early spring. Varg, who was an excellent marksbeast was a bit of a difficult father, had trouble relating to his first-born son, and would often times leave the nurturing and the child-rearing solely to his wife. Varg tended to really only engage his son in conversation when Vassago was old enough to ask about Varg's bow and arrows.
Archery was truly the only thing Vassago and Varg every had in common; it was also the only useful thing Varg ever taught Vassago. They were by no means the picture-perfect father-and-son pair; perhaps it was because of jealousy over Vassago's apparent skill with a bow and arrow, or perhaps it was the way Varg had been raised... Whatever the reason, Varg chose to beat his oldest son whenever he felt he needed to – whether Vassago's actions were accidental or deliberate, he always felt the back of his father's paw in consequence. It was then, at 10 years old Vassago began to build extreme resentment towards his father. His mother didn't hit him, but she wasn't the spitting image of love and tenderness either; she didn't feel need to interfere with her husband's methods of discipline, not even when her second child, Vassago's younger brother Vim was born.

Vassago absolutely hated his father by the time of his twelfth birthday, and now that he was a big brother to Vim, he vowed to never let his father lay a hand on his baby brother ever. Nurturing Vim and showing him the kindness he had never received, Vassago could be considered a 'good beast' during those years, and Vim looked up to him a great deal, in awe of Vasssago's abilities and blossoming under Vassago's kindness. Their father, however, wasn't too pleased with Vassago's 'parenting methods', and the beatings increased, Varg's fear of Vassago's abilities increasing right along with it. However, if one keeps chipping away at a dam, it will eventually burst and drown anybeast in it's path. The final trigger was, surprisingly, the death of Vassago's baby brother Vim. Vim had been 6 years old at the time, Vassago 16, and the younger ferret had drowned in the River Moss (nobeast in the ferret family knew how to swim). Completely alone with his horrible parents, combined with his father's lack of sadness over the death of Vim, Vassago finally reached his boiling point.

For 16 years, Vassago had kept track of how many times Varg had struck him. For 16 years, he had grown to loathe his heartless, jealous father. For 16 years, everything had been building up to that one night in Mossflower Wood...

He Deserved It

During one nasty fight between father and son, Vassago went berserk; he stabbed his father 56 times with a broken iron fence-spike, which was equal to the number of beatings he had received from Varg's on two paws. Long after life had fled from Varg's body, Vassago continued to stab him, snarling while he did so – all of his pent up rage driven into this single instance in which Varg had actually fought back. Once Varg was very much dead, the murderous son tied rocks to his father's body and dumped his body into the River Moss – which was symbolic in a way...
Perhaps Varg could relate to his poor drowned son Vim a little more now?

The rest of Vassago's life has been fairly straight-forward;

After killing his father, Vassago left his home and his mother behind him, taking his quiver of arrows with him as he set off for anywhere but Mossflower. Vassago furthered his education in weaponry at a fortress in the Northlands and officially went solo at the age of 23, It was during this time that he began earning the moniker 'the Wraith' for his stealthy assassinations and ability to blend in with his surroundings to seemingly vanish at the blink of an eye. Vassago returned to Mossflower Wood to bury his mother, Verdessa Goldeyes, at the age of 25, and shortly afterward he encountered the Warlord Romulus. Eager to lend his services to a creature who could appreciate them, Vassago went under the employment of the ambitious mouse with the highlander accent and has been a part of Romulus' horde ever since.

Vassago began bird-watching at the age of 5, and has kept up this hobby ever since.

Relationships:
Varg Bowbeast – Father, deceased
Verdessa Goldeyes – Mother, deceased
Vim – Younger Brother, deceased

Other:

Vassago's issues with killing children comes from his own past as an abused child, and because he knows Vim wouldn't approve of it.

Eh, I don't like how his personality came out, he seems kinda like a cardboard cut-out villain... xD But then again, sometimes Jacques' villains are cardboard cut-out villains too, so I guess I don't feel so bad. I'll just have to make him really stand out in RPs!

[Prankster101]

I like it. It's evil, cold, and villain-like, and has an odd obsession with birds.

Approved!

Prank




_{(Posted while still a staff member of this site)}