Hephaestus

Hephaestus
Concept:	A Cantankerous Artificer
Path:	Obrimos
Order:	Mysterium •••
Consilium:	Launceston --
Legacy	Forge Masters
Cabal:	N/A
Player:	Bear Stephens
Storyteller:	Launceston VST

Hephaestus

Personal Information

INFORMATION HERE IS CONSIDERED OOC UNLESS OTHERWISE MARKED.

Appearance

Early 40’s, six foot flat, broad shouldered, the embodiment of ‘burly’, fat and muscle stacked in measure, and hairy to boot! Heavy English/European features, hard to place, and hands like hammers. A mane of wiry mostly-black hair, and a long beard like burnt steel wool, hints of both red and grey belying a complex heritage. Easily 130kg soaking wet, with rough, olive skin and brown, wild eyes; eyes haggard from many a late night before a hot fire and an early sun.

Hephaestus, in his mortal life, keeps it incredibly simple with grey short sleeve shirts, a leather apron if he’s working, cargo shorts/pants, and boots. Rarely does he wear a watch, sometimes a jacket. He may carry a black duffel bag of some of his equipment. Might sometimes wear a flat cap. Post-Awakening, Hephaestus has been looking more into his heritage, striking out in a surprisingly modern hybrid kilt with the ubiquitous Royal Stewart tartan pleated with a black outer layer and a plain but serviceable sporran, paired with heavy boots, and a sloppy black or dark graphic t-shirt. Sometimes he’ll wear leggings or tall socks with his kilt, sometimes not. He always runs his kilt breeched – no point having your balls hang free. His kilt belt, with Pentacle buckle, sports many belt attachments, one sometimes for a fancy tome, one for a hip flask on a clip, some kind of pouch here, a case there, one a sheath for a… Is that a hammer? Just a regular old round peen forging hammer.

Nimbus

• Long Term Nimbus: Symbolic Craftsmanship is emboldened, weak craftsmanship is lessened; the good seems better, the bad seems worse, and the line between Supernal and Fallen is emboldened to those that can see.
  
• Immediate Nimbus: Waves of heat and a full-body wreath of Supernal blue fire, like combusting mana, the ground beneath his feet cracking and cratering; the mere memory of of the power of blood, sweat and fire that forged the vessel of his soul - standing in its presence is utterly withering.
  
• Nimbus Tilt: -2 Stamina, -1 Composure, -1 Resolve
  
• Signature Nimbus: Supernal hammer marks on the Patterns of nearby objects, scorching and/or cleaner, sharper craftsmanship.
  

Personality

In Mortal Life, Hephaestus is fairly muted, with a light Scottish twang to his accent, but he otherwise keeps his lid on - the dangers of Mage life are too great to risk drawing undue attention. He gives everyone space, and generally tries to get on by in the background.

With regard to the Supernal, and occasionally when he can't hold his tongue with Mortals, Hephaestus is loud, brash, lightly insulting at all times, incredibly cynical and equally filled with bravado, with a fresh dab of that classic brand of Scottish Elitism - 'Everything's better when it's in/from/by/about/for Scottish.'
He's a fighter and a lover, but mostly a fighter; he'll defend his kin and clan, trusts like a dog, and bites when that trust is broken - real heart of gold among layers of a shitty life that was salvaged by Awakening.

Characteristics

Likes

• The Expansive, Unyielding Mystery of Magic (fucking Mystagogues.)
  
• Simple, Effective Answers to Complex Problems
  
• Making Things
  
• Drinking
  
• Bonnie Lasses
  
• Fighting
  
• Probably in that order, honestly

Dislikes

• Beings Who Destroy Magic
  
• Banishers
  
• Seers/Guardians
  
• Genuinely Rude People
  
• People With Their Heads Up Their Asses
  
• Wasted Potential
  
• Fancy Talkers
  
  • To that extent, Time Wasters in General
    
• Again, probably all in that order.

Specialties

• Steadfast; He's not the strongest there is, or the best trained, but Hephaestus has a steely resolve and is utterly determined - even without magic, he is a force to be reckoned with.
• Crafty; A mind dedicated to making complete solutions to problems, and doing it faster than you. He crafts all things, moving or not, with specific Area of Expertise in Smithing. You want a weapon or armour made? Hephaestus makes arms for the Gods.
• Spellcraft: Hephaestus now prides himself on his Imagos, crafting incredibly robust, long-lasting and ludicrously potent symbols of power for all his spells, with nary a whiff of paradox.
• Item Imbuing: A true Artificer, Hephaestus can produce fantastically powerful items with the ability to cast and hold spells.

Hobbies

• Cooking - Mean at the Forge, and meaner still in the Kitchen, Hephaestus loves to put proteins all up around heat sources in all manner of ways, and doesn't shy away from putting everything else through the same process. Big lover of baklava, melomakarona, kourabiethes, spanakopita, big lover of seafood of all varieties.
• Cleaning - It's a matter of efficiency, over simple cleanliness. If it's clean, and stays clean, it can best work, unhindered by Fallen World detritus.
• Painting Scale Models - Meditative. No magic here, just simple, quiet, patient painting. Doesn't even play Warhammer ("Overpriced shite"), he makes his own, by hand - still lots of cool mechs, but also representations of favoured imago - not that sleepers will recognise it as anything but, perhaps, interpretive scuplture. Magic could do it better, but then he'd never get to do a thing he actually loves: working with his own hands.
• Workshop Maintenance - Another matter of efficiency, and something craftsfolk spend most of their time doing in their workspaces. Heph doesn't, because he keeps it optimal.
• Inventing - More out of desire for function than the spark of creativity, Hephaestus nonetheless is quite the problem solver.
• Drinking - Clichéd fuck.
• Fighting - SO cliché.
• Fucking - The most cliché thing ever. Also call me.

Mortal World

Sleeper Alias: Scott Watson
Sleeper Occupation: Fully featured masterwork provider of metalwork and engineering services.

Known Information

Definitely Scottish, definitely a Mystagogue, and a well-read one at that. He's called himself a Powersmith on occasion, and those who know what that is are inclined to agree, having seen him pull street signs into swords in one arcane motion. He almost eternally wears spells that cloak his supernal nature entirely, and has never declared a Sanctum. He is rarely, if ever, seen casting by those outside his Order or closest circle - he just seems to wave a hand or blink an eye, and the material world shifts at his whim - no nimbus flare, no imago to see, no triggering of peripheral Mage sight; nothing. Those who have successfully pierced even the first layer of his cloaks find a bevvy of wildly powerful, fortified spells at his beck and call, orbiting him wreathed in blue fire. In a nutshell, Hephaestus is known to be very sharp, very creative, prompt to a fault, and cruel, if crossed. He does seem to make mistakes, but they're never damaging ones.

Timeline

Events that occurred before the start of Chron.

• 1975-2012: Hephaestus' hidden Mortal life in Scotland.

• 2013: Late in the year Hephaestus Awakened. He traveled to numerous locations of spiritual and pre-Christian religious significance in Scotland to 'see if they were real', and gain what insight he could. Up until now, his life had been a directionless mess, and his few good skills squandered utterly in their potential. What he experienced there changed him almost as much as Awakening did, and it spurred on his decision to seek the Supernal as his life's goals.

• 2014: Twelve months clear of trouble only meant that the first real hit was going to be hard. Hephaestus got into a loud fight with Seers, paradoxed a casting of Aetheric Winds very, very badly, burnt them inside and out, combusting with blue Supernal fire out of every orifice, as though their souls were made to burn. Shook him to the core. Moved to Australia shortly after, on recommendation of a local Mysterium member. Was put in contact with No-One, joined the Mysterium not long after. Was sent through to Adelaide after No-One helped him set up the alias of Scott Watson, and a good house hidden in the Hills, well away from the City. He even set Hephaestus up with a Hallow. First learned about Supernal metals from the archives of the Mysterium. Adelaide's Consilium seems to have just collapsed, so Hephaestus goes into hiding; this puts a damper on his Supernal growth, but allowed him to focus on his forgework out of his home and fine shed, and establish a business presence in short order.

• 2015: Unfortunately, the Consilium didn't last, and appears gone. Hephaestus, fearing the Seers in the City without Mage support, digs in and fortifies his life to be utterly ignored by the world. He 'borrowed' stone and straight lumber with Invisibility and Control Sound, and, using careful casting of Shaping, interspaced with hand-built buttressing, created a hall-sized room under his house, fully stone, supported as though it was built before the house; there's no door, just a slab of steel over the staircase. In this hall, he sets up his proper forge and arcane workspace, almost like a Greek temple. He extends himself online, and quickly earns a reputation as one of the best custom-order smiths in Adelaide under his alias Scott Watson, capable of work of a many-man team, and even offering clandestine engineering services; secret doors and hidden caches to boot. His quality of work was quickly noticed, and his clientele base rose in rapid succession, eventually smithing swords for Regis' family - his first contact with an Adelaide Mage outside of the Beu and the Mysterium. Otherwise, he kept his head well down.

• 2016: Kept his head down as best as possible, but took a risky outing during the storms that were rocking Adelaide. He ventured out to vacant beachheads where Sleepers had long fled home, to cut swaths out of the storm's body with Forces magic, saving homes by lessening the adjacent stormy areas. He played it cautious, smothering what paradox he could as he snapped off spell after spell, taking more risk upon himself to ensure an absence of sleepers, but accounting for both his injuries and the mana he spent on the spells, he burned through his entire accumulated supply of tass in one night.

• 2017: Continued to keep his head the hell down, although it appears the Adelaide Consilium has finally regained some measure of stability. It might be time for Hephaestus to make a quiet appearance, and restart his studies. Access to the local Athenaeum was stymied - with Beu gone and the interim Curator MIA, Hephaestus was, once again, alone. This had become his usual operating procedure, and so he came to rely on his own strength as a Mage.

Recent Events

Events that occurred early in the Chron.

• February 2018: Officially approached the Consilium only to find a bunch of disparate slackjaws crowding around a Sleeper-laden cafe, and that the Seers may as well run the city for what little this lot knew of goings-on. The Adelaide Mysterium is barely a handful of Neokoros, and no Curator to be found. Heph got up to speed on local issues, and provided his unique insight, while also helping establish positive relations with the newly discovered local Vampire court through meeting JD MacDonald. Hephaestus learns of the Fading Leylines.
• March 2018: Attended a Vampire gathering with the 'blessing' of one of their own. Tense, dreary, dull; only a dead Sleeper could put up with that for eternity. Cagey, perhaps concerned, but otherwise good hosts, the 'Kindred' of the 'All Night Society' were, at least, vaguely grateful when it was revealed a local teen claiming to be 'like us' turned out to be a Claimed; Hephaestus was introduced to both Werewolf and Vampire fighting that very night, as well as Manifested Spirits stealing souls. He also showed both the Vampires and the Werewolves that even a Soulless Mage is still a sight to behold, knocking the (Size 12) monstrosity on its ass with a solid hook.
• Late March 2018: The Awakened in the City briefly lost all their Mana. This hit Hephaestus hard, and drove him to push for a rapid discovery and resolution of the problem, which turned out to be a Sleepwalker-made Artifact of 'really good' metals, by a family who were trying to carry on the work of a departed Mage family member. After safety containing the danger, a certain utterly daft Mage, unnamed, destroyed the Artifact, using tools stolen from the very family who made it, and he wouldn't even give up all the remains. Hephaestus resolved to never work with him again. Shortly after this, Hephaestus was approached by Oz, who presented him with an opportunity - to discuss with Cassian and Oz the matter of Hephaestus being made Curator of the local Caucus. He wasn't thrilled with the idea of taking the position so early, but he needs the Athenaeum, the Censorium especially, but most critically the Mithraeum, up and running for his studies, and he is absolutely ravenous to continue learning more of what the Mysterium has to offer.
• April 2018: Knocking down a dumptruck-sized matter-munching Abyssal worm with his bare hands, taking custody of its Abyssal Crystal, and beginning to build an entire magical underground Library Fortress on his own, are but a few of Hephaestus' accomplishments this month; the local Mysterium caucus is well on track, members are Initiating slowly, and facilities will be massively upgraded and coming online in the following months. Aon requested Heph's help in capturing some Mad, and a Mage named Mother that Aon had (falsely) redeemed fro Madness. In an act of kindness (After catching out his terrible lying), Heph allowed Johnny to take the Mad, knowing they would kill them. This cost Hephaestus Wisdom, and only hardened his dislike of Johnny. He took his rage out on the Purple Worm, and it shows.
• May 2018: Being largely uninterested in the hysterics of the apparently amateur Guardians that call Adelaide home, Hephaestus attended to his own business for most of May, working further on the designs for the new Athenaeum. Unfortunately, the Guardians got caught out by Aon, APPEARING to have intentionally left a Mystagogue (Sugar) in the hands of the Seers, having previously claimed no knowledge of her location. Aside from possibly compromising the ENTIRETY of the local Caucus, and thus a good portion of the Consilium, it could have seen the Seers armed with a host of dangerous knowledge. After this, Johnny had the balls to blame this, among a multitude of other things, on Heph, Aon and Guy, and he called for an Interfector execution on the three, for a number of horseshit charges that would never even collectively amount to a single death sentence. The alternative provided was equally stupid, calling for the memory wipe of secret-hoarding-vampire JD MacDonald and werewolf-with-an-eidetic-memory Bethany Lewis, almost assuredly sparking a Supernatural Inter-Group War when they inevitably realise what's been done, or at the very least, extreme mistrust for zero gain. Hephaestus has resolved to, if need be, utterly obliterate Johnny and his father, Umbra Regis, in one fell swoop, but Aon apparently has another thing up his sleeve... Hephaestus also appears to have become romantically entangled with Bethany, and is particularly tetchy both about the topic, and about anyone even daring to threaten Bethany or the Wolves in general.
• June 2018: Well, most notably, Hephaestus made in-roads with Alysia regarding Mysterium-Guardian relations, but she's still got significant problems, and needs to sort her shit out before she snaps at Hephaestus, and he snaps her in two. These in-roads were only possible due to the dual-humbling Hephaestus received both encountering (and having tea with) an Archmaster of Fate, and the entire Consilium being confronted with an Exarch - the PRIME Exarch. They spat in his eye, rebuked his threats and denied his requests, and thanks to a mysterious explosion, they managed to escape. Hephaestus yearns, at least for the moment, for a vacation, and that would involve burying himself in Bethany('s company) for as long as he can.

• July-August 18: Hephaestus appeared to have outright vanished. After pressing on to become the Provost at Regis' request, and discovering the identity of a Scelestus among the Adelaide Consilium, Hephaestus vanished without a trace. Seemingly unlinked to the Scelestus, any sympathetic, temporal or fate links that lead to Hephaestus currently dead-end: every thread and temporal pathway leading to his disappearance and current location are expertly doctored and removed, and all links lead to the same mental image: five silhouettes of different stature, each with fiery eyes of a colour representing each Path of the Awakened. Each individual silhouette has two hands on their shoulders - on four of them, each hand appears to be from a different, massive individual, standing behind and above these figures - for one of them, the hands appear to belong to the same figure, all shrouded in the distance. This image has no sympathy, links, origin, or nimbus to identify it. It is disturbingly blank, Supernally.
• September 18: A powerful pulse of arcane energy was sensed over Launceston on the night of the 9th of September. A meteor, supposedly a person, fell from the sky shortly after. The 'meteor' was nowhere to be found at its projected impact site. Attending Mages believe someone - or something - knew it was coming, and was waiting there to catch it. Apparently, they succeeded. Having survived the fall, and been 'caught' by someone, Hephaestus parlayed with his would-be saviour - the Apex Beast of Launceston: Rachel, giving Cate Blanchett a run for her money as 'authoritative woman in business suit'. She tried to weasel Heph under her thumb, but a surprising, but subtle, display of power, and a keen mind, kept Heph on par with the discussion. He agreed to look into some of the problems in the City, as a thank-you to Rachel. He also agreed to help watch over Duluth, who was, much to his surprise, present. He learned what both Rachel and Duluth are, before leaving. This unnerved him greatly, and he's none too keen on Duluth's overly close, 'FRIEND FRIEND!' child-like nature. Dark beings with child-like natures are the least predictable, and thus, the most concerning in the short term.
• September-October 18 - The Convocation: Not long after being freed, Hephaestus got wind of the Convocation, and that his previous captors-come-mentors, The Titans, had revealed themselves. He knew their intent, he had heard their spiel, but he was none too enthused by the role they suggested he would play in coming events. The term they used was 'Vanguard', or, in Thanatos' words, 'Battering Ram'. After this, Hephaestus made himself scarce, and put in some time working out where he was, and what had happened. Launceston. Tasmania. Thousands of kilometres from home. In a past life, a mortal life, this would have been devastating to him. To Heph? This was a second chance. The things he's left behind aren't of any concern. There's an against-regulation forge under his house, and the house itself is going to last a hundred years without a spot of maintenance; otherwise, everything Supernal about his abode, including his Sanctum, was metaphorical - built into the mundane structure of the world around him. He had lost little, save maybe the stacks of cash, but after speaking with the Titans at the Convocation, he at least got his car back. During the drama of the Convocation, Hephaestus simply lingered in the background, producing a few imbued works right under the noses of everyone present - one of which was received by Zarifa at a Kindred masquerade ball, much to her later dismay. Perhaps his entrance was too flashy. During this single, busy weekend, he also reunited with Bethany, but couldn't stay long.

Quotes

Quotes By

• "Announcing: Hephaestus, of the Golden Key and Tempest's Heart! Stormbreaker, Thaumaturge, Powersmith. Oh, Mighty, he stands steadfast!" - Hephaestus' announcement at the Kindreds' masquerade.
• "Ah make weapons fer tha Gods. Of course Ah can make that." - Frequently spoken.
• "GET TAE FUK!" - An aggressive plea asking another to go to some mythical location where they aren't bothering Hephaestus.
• "Get yer house in order, Regis, or Ah'll do it fer you, an' none a' ye will like how it gets done, but it will be done." - After a loud argument between Order heads regarding Guardian betrayal.
• "What do you think of that, Mr. Pajama-Wearing, Basket-Face, Slipper-Wielding, Clype-Dreep-Bachle, Gether-Uping-Blate-Maw, Bleathering, Gomeril, Jessie, Oaf-Looking, Scooner, Nyaff, Plookie, Shan, Milk-Drinking, Soy-Faced Shilpit, Mim-Moothed, Sniveling, Worm-Eyed, Hotten-Blaugh, Vile-Stoochie, Cally-Breek-Tattie?" - Said to a total stranger.
  
• "A sword? Oh, lassie, Ah can make ye a sword, aye! AHAHAHAH!" - Common phrase to acquaintances.

Quotes About

• "Okay okay, I believe witches exist now. Hephaestus is cool." - Anders
• "The Otis Guy? He's fucking great." - Axel
• "He's batshit crazy." - JD MacDonald
• "He's the kinda guy who'll happily smoke few bowls with you while discussing the mysteries of the universe and you'll both come out wiser for it." - Cassian
• "Oh, fuck." - Nephthys

Rumours

• Is actually an Archmaster who's just fucking with the local Consilium
• Is a Mad Banisher Seer here to simultaneously corrupt the Mysterium and throw the entire Consilium into chaos by.... Helping them out with a lot of problems, spending time and energy to make life easier and progress the local Awakened more than most other local Mages have ever done in their entire Awakenings.
• He once suplexed a crocodile.
• He has held his own soul in his hand.
• Is Poly Dating a Vampire and a Werewolf
• Is part-robot.
• Isn't actually an alcoholic.
• Intends to launch his local caucus into deep space.
• Once spoke with an Archmaster.
  • Beat that Archmaster at chess.
  • Beat that Archmaster at DRINKING.
• Plays World of Warcraft, as a Dwarven Paladin called 'Gundar', with Blacksmithing as his main profession.

Inspirations and Soundtrack

Hephaestus Edit of the Scotsman

• Original Inspiration for the character design, by Rob Kmiec
• Additional Inspiration for the character design, by Blazbaros
• The Scotsman, from Samurai Jack, as pictured to the left as an original concept for Hephaestus.
• Hephaestus, the Greek god of Fire.
• A touch of the 'mad stocky inventor dwarf' trope.
• Bagpipes.
• LADDIE
  • YE LIKE THE PIPES WEE LADDIE
  • Fuck me, finding good scottish not-heavy/death metal and other epic celtic music that fits a blacksmithy tone is HARD.
• The functional concept of Hephaestus is 'A Mage's Mage'.

OOC Information

Member Information
Player:	Bear
Number:	2012100002
Domain:	Adelaide