Blake Monty Esho
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Blake is in his twenties, but is only now becoming the official armorer in town due to the disappearance (and presumed death) of his mentor. He uses mostly ancient crafting techniques in his armoring (such as coiling his own wire to make rings for chainmail), but has knowledge (if not the materials) to create more contemporary armor. He was much more content to be an apprentice and assistant, as this allowed him more time to experiment with his magic.

Blake has a filthy mouth. If this offends you, avoid him.


Info

Full Name: Blake Monty Esho
Age: 28
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Brown

Status: Single
Occupation: Proprietor of Afanc Armors
Origin: Unknown
Allegiance: Unaffiliated

First Seen: Le Métallurgiste et le Thaumaturge
Last Seen:

Description: Blake is 180cm (5'11") tall, but he often appears shorter from a distance due to the amount of muscle on his otherwise thin frame. He is of Caucasian ancestry, but has a deep tan from being outdoors regularly. Tiny freckles cover his face in a subtle way; often not noticed without scrutiny. His eyes are nearly black in color. He has dark brown hair that is a handful of inches long and worn unkempt. His facial hair is shortened to stubble, and looks as if it would be patchy if allowed to grow.

He is wearing a tan leather vest over a thin, olive gambeson. The vest has a square of hardened leather reinforcing the top of each shoulder, and sometimes muffled sounds of metal-on-metal can be heard within it; indicating that it is brigandine. Leather breeches cover his legs, and are grass stained through the knees, rear and cuffs. Thick brown vambraces cover his forearms. A black belt wraps around the top of his pants, and then around him a second time to drop low on his left hip where a sheathed saber is held via frog. Brown boots cover his feet.

Family:

none

Portrayed by: Craig Horner


History

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Blake claiming a fallen foe's sword.

Over twenty years ago, Douglas Brown (the previous owner of Afanc Armors) returned to his shop with a feral, seven-year-old boy named Blake. Initially, Douglas Brown planned on finding a nice family for Blake where he could (hopefully) be made a contributing member of society. He was a widower and a businessman, and didn't consider himself to be the fatherly type. It wasn't until he saw Blake ruin part of a chainmail hauberk with a touch that he began to believe fate had brought them together. From that day on, he became the boy's guardian. He taught him as a master teaches an apprentice, but also tried to show him the error in the ways of those that had raised him previously. In time, the two grew very close.

Blake's teenage years were quite difficult for him. Socially, he was inept. If he was playing with a ball and another boy touched it, Blake would attack him. If he was eating food and someone asked for a bite, Blake would growl over his food until the offender left. If he saw a girl he was attracted to, he'd try to lead her somewhere private and would usually end up scaring her senseless in the process. While he never stopped making progress on becoming more civilized, he never fully succeeded. By the time he was sixteen, he had curbed his nigh animalistic instincts, but nonetheless had a reputation for being an unapproachable menace.

The most recent ten years of Blake's life have been easier for him in many ways. While he still has yet to prove himself to be a kind or friendly person, he has proven himself to be a hard worker, a fierce defender of the town and a skilled armor smith. While most people do not like him, some have a reluctant yet deep respect for him. Douglas, who was a friendly chap that did not lack such social graces, often bridged the gap between Blake and other people. When Douglas disappeared on his way to make a delivery to a neighboring town a few months ago, Blake searched for him for weeks, but after a month everyone else had presumed him dead. Now the sole proprietor and employee of Afanc Armors, Blake hides his grief in his work and lashes out at anyone that attempts to console him.


Personality

Long story short, Blake is a dick. He doesn't mean to be, but his directness combined with his lack of diplomacy almost always comes off as utterly truculent. The fact that he refuses to go anywhere without at least one weapon and some sort of armor only exacerbates this mien. Like most people, he needs someone to be close to and a sense of belonging, but he is terrible at expressing his emotions and is too biased to see such a need as anything but 'being a pussy'. This repression has a downward spiraling effect, and is only going to get worse before it gets better. Sadly, the people that try the hardest to get close to Blake are the ones he ends up lashing out at the most. Now that Douglas is gone, the only individual he is close to is his frog (well, usually a frog) Pighead.


Magic

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Blake in need of a shave and haircut.

Passive magic: Metallic. As Blake's control over his magical abilities grow, so does some metallic traits he exhibits. While most blood tastes like copper, his does so to a much greater degree. While some bloodsuckers might find this pleasant, most do not. Mosquitoes and other common pests usually will not drink from him, and if they do they die rather quickly (at least the mundane ones do). Blake hasn't had a bruise in years, even though he's often deserved one. His bones, while not invincible by any means, are more dense than those of most, and harder to break because of it. Lastly, Blake conducts electricity much better than other humans, and therefore is less harmed by it. He doesn't even feel the little zaps from static electricity anymore.

Active magic: Metallurgic Alchemy. When dealing with metals that have been properly smelted or otherwise purified (meaning he can't affect the blood inside someone's body, the iron in lentils, the nickel in cello strings, etc), he can invest great time and effort into improving an aspect of them, such as making lead as hard as bismuth, making gold as light as iridium, giving aluminum a mercurial state like mercury, etc. He can only affect one aspect of a metal at a time. If he tries to do multiple things (such as making steel harder and lighter) the metal grows very brittle and becomes useless. This magic is not something he can do in an instant; it requires incredible will and ritualistic foci on his part, requiring at least a minute for even the smallest amount of metal. Afterwards, he's tired as if he was running for the duration of the ritual. This is still more of an art than a science, and often has unexpected/undesirable results. The effects are permanent.


Pighead

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Blake's familiar spirit Pighead.

Some familiar spirits are friendly, playful and adorable. No matter what form he's in, Pighead is none of these things. He usually prefers to remain in the shape of an ugly, asymmetrical fire-bellied toad, and does little more than stare accusingly at those he sees. If someone or something comes too close for his liking, he warns with an unken reflex. If touched, he usually shifts into a grey wolf (his second favorite form) and voices his displeasure with an unmistakable growl. Those whom think themselves so gifted with animals that they try to pet him anyways are likely to end up bitten and bleeding.

Pighead always appears as a flawed creature. In his primary form, his right rear foot is twice the size of his left. When he's a wolf, he's mangy. As an adder, one of his fangs is longer than the other and his scales are peeling. As a robin, he's very fat and looks as if he will drop out of the sky between beats of his wings. Whatever the shape, he's misshapen.


Roleplay Hooks

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Blake distracted from chopping firewood.

Armor: You want it? Blake makes it. While some armor (such as chainmail) can fit an impressive range of body-types and can be made in advance and purchased with ease, most needs to be customized to the wearer, and involves at least two fittings.

Sparring: While he is not a very gentle sparring partner, Blake is a skilled combatant that rarely turns down practice. Someone would have to be (at least) half-mad to lock swords with him, but his quarterstaff is considerably less lethal.

Defense: Are you fleeing from a monster? Was your sister captured by bandits? While Blake isn't a town guard in any official capacity, there are worse people to run to in a crisis. Afanc Armors being on the edge of town sometimes makes it the closest place to such a situation, as well.

Collaboration: Sometimes Blake needs help to complete a project for a customer. This could be hiring an artist to paint a dragon onto a shield, finding a tanner willing to work with strange hides or setting a client up with a cobbler to be fitted with boots for later modification into pseudo-sabatons.

Experiments: Blake is always seeking smelted or otherwise purified metals. While no one has to stretch the imagination as to why he wants alloys like steel or brass, one might wonder what he's going to do with with pure zinc, or something dangerous like magnesium.


Logs

Le Métallurgiste et le Thaumaturge July 3rd, 135 A.E.
I'll Give You A Nickel... July 11th, 135 A.E.
Probationary Hire July 12th, 135 A.E.
God Died July 27th, 135 A.E.
Eat Your Feet August 7th, 135 A.E.
Extract It From The Source August 16th, 135 A.E.
Feel August 16th, 135 A.E.
Inkling August 17th, 135 A.E.
Batty August 22nd, 135 A.E.