Name: Marcus Dalton
Age: 24
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Birthday: 01/11/1982
Group Affiliation: None
Position: Freelance Necromancer
(Marcus Dalton is played by Joseph Fiennes)
DESCRIPTION:
Marcus is handsome young man around 5’ 10” tall and lean rather than muscular with dark hair and blue eyes. He has a slight air of aloofness around himself as if he isn’t quite in this world. He is amoral and willing to do just about anything if the price is right. Money doesn’t however motivate him and he knows enough of the dead’s secrets that few can bring sufficient pressure to bear to force him to do anything he doesn’t want to. He can also be occasionally petulant and capricious.
HISTORY:
The Dalton family was once considered minor nobility and can still trace their ancestry back as far as the 13th century. They showed an aptitude for avoiding the political entanglements of the day but never really came to prominence until the opium wars of the mid nineteenth century. When China was forced to cede the island of Hong Kong the Dalton family moved in its entirety to the island.
This was not in actual fact a major undertaking however as since Elizabethan times the family was characterised as very small. There was invariably a single male heir who despite the appalling medieval infant mortality rate survived to adulthood, and though generally there were a number of female children the family was undersized.
The Dalton’s involvement in the Opium trade to China made them extremely wealthy and they became a major though inconspicuous power in local politics. Weathering the storms of the mid to late 20th Century they continued to prosper until Marcus’ father Garland was born.
Garland was and still is a wastrel and a spendthrift while his forbears had gathered wealth and power from their unique abilities Garland was interested only in the pleasures his position afforded him. He spent money like water drank to excess and experimented with drugs. Indeed Garland never met a drink he didn’t like, a drug he didn’t enjoy or a woman he didn’t want to bed – though a certain level of inebriation might be required first. The most remarkable thing about Garland however was that he managed to marry and father an heir - Marcus.
Marcus was born on All Souls Day 1982. His mother suffering from post-natal depression hung herself some 5 days later. His father returned to his former ways and left the upbringing of his infant son to a procession of governesses and most importantly the family’s demonic servitor – Onyx.
Onyx joined the family in the late 15th century. The details of the bargain struck by Selwyn Dalton are unclear and have been lost even by the Dalton’s but in general the family credits its innate ability for necromancy to this time. Certainly since then every male member of the family has displayed that talent to some degree or other.
Onyx has served many roles over the half millennia of its existence on this plane – assassin, councillor, warrior, lover but this was the first time it had been a ‘parent’ Surprisingly it did a remarkable though perhaps unusual job. Acting as a private tutor Onyx provided excellent instruction in the more mundane subjects as well as a number of more esoteric activities. Marcus is fluent in a number of languages human as well as demon. As a member of Hong Kong’s elite he is well-versed in human etiquette but is just as comfortable at a Terathian Shadowball. He has at least a passing acquaintance with the physical sciences as well as a basic knowledge of most ritual magic.
Marcus is a capable necromancer, he has perhaps the greatest natural aptitude for the subject any in his family has displayed for the last hundred years and Onyx has seen to it that he has had the best instruction in the art possible.
While the Dalton fortune has been significantly diminished by his father’s lifestyle it is still capable of meeting any realistic need Marcus may have. Marcus is however acquisitive and though he doesn’t desire wealth there are things that pique his interest and Marcus is more than willing to put his gifts to use for anyone who can offer him something of interest.
Marcus’ exotic upbringing has resulted in him feeling disconnected. He is human and therefor cannot fit into demonic society but his slightly odd way of looking at the world means he and his peers don’t quite get each other. On top of this the change in government in Hong Kong has made things difficult, the Daltons are an old colonial family and in the new Hong Kong that isn’t an asset.
So Marcus has moved the family fortune abroad and is looking for a place where his oddness will go unremarked if not unnoticed.
POWERS:
Necromancy
Marcus is a necromancer and has power over any once-living being that is now dead. He can animate the dead raising them as zombies with anything from near total recall of their previous life to simple mindless automatons. In either form some entities are subject to his will and he can compel their obedience.
If required or in circumstances where a persons corpse is beyond retrieval Marcus can raise the spirit of a dead human with similar recall of its past and if necessary compel it’s obedience
Free willed undead such as Vampires or undead raised by another necromancer can general attempt to resists Marcus’s control how successful they would be depends on the individual strengths of the entities involved. However even where Marcus cannot exert control he can usually destroy such creatures. Only very powerful undead e.g. Elder Vampires can resist this sort of attack.
Finally Marcus can bind a demon into the corpse of a human. The demon animates the form from that point on and is easily capable of passing in human society. This ability is highly valued by certain demons who otherwise would be hunted down by humanity
Marcus has a number of other minor powers relating to the dead. He can for instance prevent a body for decaying. He can tell if someone was present at another person’s death and if only a short period of time has passed can even tell if a particular person killed someone. (This is considered minor since if he really needs to know who killed a person he could raise the spirit and ask it.)
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