Character Notes For Niall

Hooks and Info

  • Niall's birthday is May 20th, though he doesn't tend to celebrate it nowadays. He is (surpriiise) a Taurus.
  • Having seen all five movies Dornie has to offer, Niall actually prefers Mamma Mia!, but he'd sooner tell a casual questioner that his favorite is The Good, The Bad & The Ugly.
  • Blacksmithing being Niall's trade, he is most noted for decent turnaround and professional work. If a person needs metal work done, Niall's name is one known amongst the smiths.
  • Niall has a tendency to not use labor scripts; he much prefers trading practical, useful things pertaining to his business or life. Food is always a good trading item. Scrap metals of all sorts and the like. Service for service also makes the menu.
  • He arrived in Dornie in late 130 A.E. and took up being a journeyman for Mister Fornell, the former owner of the forge. Once Mister Fornell retired, Niall offered to take over the forge and gives Fornell a cut of the earnings to trade at the Albatross and other markets in exchange for the forge and living space attached.
  • Niall used to be a part of an artisan commune in Ireland. This community was built up close to the sea where it was easier to find the earthen materials many used to make their wares. The community was attacked a couple of decades ago by a pirate lord and decimated. The survivors were rounded up and put to work on pirate ships, sold as human labor, or worse fates.
  • The pirate lord Banning the Black was a known privateer up and down the coastline of the United Kingdom and surrounding waters. At its height, Banning had control of a fleet of five ships. Cirrus was the first mate who murdered Banning and took over the fleet, yanking the prisoners working for Banning off the half-done sea fortress and putting them to work as manual labor on the ships again. The main ship, Vindication, was lost at sea on the night of Niall and Scully's unexpected escape via storm-tossed waters.
  • Is Cirrus alive? Niall does not know and he prefers it that way, at the moment.
  • Unknown to Niall is whether or not any of his siblings and community people are alive.

Skills

  • Academic Dearth - Niall’s lowest abilities lie in academia. Though capable of the rudimentary basics, he never needed to study by books. He can read and write, though not well. He much prefers learning via doing. He isn’t very good at comprehending the denser philosophies or theories. Higher math is beyond him. He won’t be quoting Shakespeare, nor painting Picasso.
  • Dunmore Legacy - Niall’s strongest skills are his blacksmithing skills. Having learned from several masters, his skills are broadened in their scope and later honed on experience. It makes him not just a blacksmith, but also a farrier, weaponsmith, and overall fabricator. He’s repaired several things from eyeglasses to swords, horseshoes to guns. He’s made chainmail armor, bullets, jewelry, and other trinkets. He’s even fixed ships and worked on building a fortress.
  • Workhorse - Given his trade, he needs often to have the physical strength and stamina to do his works. He tends to be a workaholic and not rest when he ought to for the sake of finishing a project.
  • Unshakeable - His past may still haunt him in a deep down part of his soul, but Niall stands firm in the face of many a danger. It takes a lot to scare a man who daily works around heavy tools and flaming cauldrons of boiling hot metal nowadays.
  • Sealegs and Sailor’s Salt - Having spent many years at sea or in the vicinity of it, Niall has enough sailing knowledge and jargon to be able to pass for a seaman. Not that he cares to go out there, given the circumstances of how he gained such knowledge.
  • I'm A Survivor, I'm Not Gon' Give Up - After finally getting free of the slavers, Niall had to make his way through a cross-country trek to find his way to Dornie. The resulting journey has taught him many things about survival out in the wilderness, and given him a healthy sense of skepticism for those who would mean to scam him out of his mealticket.
  • Just Keep Swimming - Niall, despite years at sea, doesn’t swim. The man just never really learned that one. He won't drown immediately, but beyond a dog paddle and treading water, he won't be competing in that athletic department any time soon.

Relationships

  • Beisdean: The pretty, prodigal one as Niall's heard it. After a couple of encounters with the ghost whisperer and hearing of Darklight via Stands-Fast, Niall has decided Beis probably just needs some good hard work to make a little more sense in the blacksmith's world.
  • Bridget: Bridget seems to be quite rough on the equipment more so than many other militia members in Dornie. And when the things need a blacksmith's mending hand, Niall is often there to help. Still, she's so rough… it's almost like she likes to come back to get worked on. Er, things worked on.
  • Mariah: She arrived before him, but within the same year, to Dornie. It is a mixture of business and pleasure between them, and she's got an acumen for value and trade that impresses Niall often (even if he doesn't admit it to her). Since meeting her, he is a sporadic regular at best to the Dovetail and has some times asked for Mariah. Pleasurable company always is a plus. And she's reasonable! And nice.
  • Sorcha: As his main go-to seamstress, Niall has respect for her as a fellow trades(wo)man. He also made friends with her husband, Patrick, despite the other man being away on the seasonal runs much of the year. All the more reason why Niall respects Sorcha - and her willpower.