Obligator
Player Information
Name/Handle: Grail
OoC Account: Grailchaser
Contact Information: [email protected], Grailchaser on skype, or PM me on here
Character Information
Name: Sanne Vailent
Type: High Prelan of the Canton of Arbitration
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Place of Origin: Central Dominance - Luthadel
Occupation: Obligator in the Undercanton of Arbitration
Relationship Status: None
Powers
None
Appearance: Sanne's body is not muscular, nor is he particularly a tall man (a mere 5 foot 4 inches), and yet he holds himself stiffly, the effort to contain his underlying arrogance and anger visibly straining himself at times, hands often clenched at his sides while speaking to nearly anyone but one higher than himself in the Steel Ministry. His eyes are a plain light brown and on a softer person could seem kinder, but in Sanne the discrepancy seems only to highlight. His face is marked as all obligators with the tattoos of rank and his head bald as all of his occupation.
Special Skills: Authority, Manipulation, Knowledge of the Steel Ministry's workings and its politics, Fanaticism
Strengths: Sanne has worked for the Steel Ministry since his sixteenth birthday and these thirty one years have given him a bearing of authority and purpose that will often bring information out of those he is questioning without needing to resort to physical violence or even raising his voice. Due to achieving high rank within his own Canton he can use his position to further plots of his own to wipe out Skaa and others he sees as unlawful.
Weaknesses: Sanne completely lacks subtly or style, and while a clever man he could not be said to be devious, far preferring to break his enemy's than convert or trick them. His blind hatred for all those that oppose the Lord Ruler can often make him suborn and this anger has left his lacking in an social connections not sustained through threat or political manoeuvring. In gatherings he is often ostracised and avoided where possible.
Personality: Sanne hates skaa, law breakers and anyone seen to be attempting to defy the Lord Ruler and resents users of Allomancy due to his lack of powers himself, especially the skaa who now also are as he sees it unlawfully using these abilities. His anger often can become unchecked and he has been reprimanded within the Canton for such occasions, though this has also worked for his own advantage at times when looking to find information. When younger he was an alcoholic but years within the Steel Ministry have thoroughly removed this from his personality and he now is disgusted by those who do indeed drink, especially in excess.
He would be said to be morally lacking, caring not for value or persons, human life or anyone rights, using only the rules laid down by the Lord Ruler and the Canton to guide himself and then sometimes his own prejudice.
History: Sanne was born in 871 to a lesser noble house of the name Vailent, a failing house of merchants barely managing to survive on their own let alone with a child. They traded in fabrics from the outer dominances but due to their small finances and lack of political power they would be often undercut by larger noble houses or fail to get a contract entirely.
Sanne’s father was called Joshim, his mother Andaia and he was himself named after Andaia’s grandfather, a powerful man who nearly managed to drive their house further up the political spectrum but died at the age of just 28, found in his study on the top floor of the family’s shop with his neck broken. While this death within a greater house would have been investigated due to its obvious unnatural nature, the Steel Ministry when approached determined it to be merely a fight between rival merchants and did nothing more, especially when the family were unable to pay for further investigation. Andaia hoped that by naming Sanne after him he would hopefully develop the same drive and ambition. Sadly she was wrong.
Sanne swiftly became a drunken lout of a youth, spending what little money his family had on women, alcohol and clothes without having a job or trade himself, leaving the business entirely to his aging parents who always gave him his way due to a complete lack of knowledge about both parenting and discipline.
At 17 Sanne returned to the family shop one day to find the door broken from its hinges, the interior ransacked with all goods and wears taken and the furniture smashed. The words ‘The Lord Ruler protects no-one’ were smeared in ash across one wall and after running upstairs found his parents huddled together in their bedroom, the door again broken in and neither still alive. Determining that the culprits had to be skaa this formed Sanne’s hatred for them and for the rebellion for the rest of his life.
After spending days upon the street in poverty and unable to gain lodging or a job anywhere he turned to the Steel Ministry and applied to be an Obligator. While he lacked knowledge of both finance and logistics, his fanatical devotion to justice and internal anger was soon spotted by a representative of the Undercanton of Arbitration, and for the rest of his life he has been working his way up the ranks of the ministry.
At the age of 23 he was transferred to the city of Austrex and by 35 was the High Prelan of the Canton's prescience within the city. Due to the recent death of the previous High Prelan within Luthadel he has been chosen as the Canton's new representative within the capital.
He sees himself as a hand of the Lord Ruler, protecting those who he determines deserve it, and removing those who break the laws swiftly and ruthlessly, seeing his weakness during his childhood as his drive and blaming his parents death on every skaa alive.
Roleplay Sample
The merchant sat in the small metal walled interrogation room staring at his hands upon the table and clearly wishing he could be somewhere else, anywhere else most likely. Sanne observed the man through one-way glass in a second room as he read through the case file given to him by a lesser Obligator that morning, his head rising to watch the man occasionally before resuming reading, the smirk of distaste and satisfaction at the man’s capture slowly faded as Sanne’s face locked into a cold expressionless mask, his brown eyes burning with hate.
Having finished reading the file he tossed it to a corner of the room and walked to a door beside the glass panel and let himself directly into the interrogation room, closing it quickly behind himself with more force than was strictly necessary. Sanne always enjoyed being very clear to criminals about how he felt about them and little displays of anger such as this could be... helpful. As he had entered into the room the merchant had attempted to speak.
“Please I don’t understand what I did wro-“ The sound of the door slamming and Sanne standing above him staring at him quickly silenced his whining voice.
After taking the tables other seat Sanne began the procedure. “Can you confirm that your name is indeed Eliak Grount?” The merchant attempted to speak again but before he could Sanne continued harshly.
“If I want to hear your opinion or your voice I will tell you. Simply nod yes if that is your name, if that isn’t too difficult?” Eliak nodded slowly, seemingly on the verge of tears and unable to look at Sanne’s eyes.
“Good. Your case has been brought before me and frankly I see it as simple. You stand accused of smuggling skaa slaves from the work camps of noble families and freeing them in the outer dominances using your wagons while trading. On a recent raid of your wagons by the ministry this accusation was found to be the truth. Not only are you stealing property of a noble, but you are aiding slaves in a time when they already are starting a rebellion against the Lord Ruler’s empire”
Here Sanne leant forward, his eyes gleaming and his hands pressed hard in fists against the table top, his voice quieter and seemingly strained by rage.
“You are a traitor, a thief and as far as I concerned a member of the rebellion and you will be executed for your cr-“ Sanne was cut off as the merchant began babbling and crying.
“Please, I am a g-good person and I was only trying to help people survive! I have seen skaa flogged without even a reason and killed on a whim! No-one deserves to be treated li-“ Sanne’s fist connecting with the man’s jaw both silenced him and knocked him off his chair onto the ground.
Moving around the table and standing above the merchant he knelt down and grabbed the man’s hair, pulling his face to his. “Don’t. Ever. Interrupt me. Skaa are not people, they don’t have ‘rights’ and what they deserve is decided by the Lord Ruler, not scum like you. You committed treason and have been caught. Now you will suffer justice.”
Dropping the man to the floor Sanne stood, brushed off his hand and left the room leaving the merchant pale and crying silently, waiting to be taken away.
Edited by Sanne Vailent, 26 June 2012 - 12:35 AM.