Lacroix

Lacroix
A.K.A.	Son of Dracula
Age	20
Voice Actor	Crispin Freeman
Relatives	Dracula, Father; Elizabeth Marie Farenheights, Niece; Genya Arikado, Brother;
Series	Castlevania
Player	Frank

• Name: Lacroix (pronounced Lah-Crwah)
• Age: 20
• Sex: Male
• Birthday: Nov 18th
• Parents: Soma Cruz and Mina Hakuba
  • Place of Birth: Hakuba Shrine, Japan
  • Nationality: Japanese, Vampire
  • Specialty: None
  • Hobbies: Occultism, Collecting rare books.
  • Likes: Occultism.
  • Dislikes: Vampires
  • Favorite Food: Blood
  • Least Favorite Food: Blood, though this has been less and less problematic for him in recent years.
  • Favorite Music: Classical
  • Favorite Sport: None
  • Most Valuable Possessions: Occult Library
  • Level of Education: University Graduate in Parapsychology.
  • Seiyuu/Voice Actor: Crispin Freeman

• Physical Stats
  • Height: 6'1"
  • Weight: 180lbs
  • Eyes: Crystal Blue
  • Hair: White
  • Special: Pale like a corpse.

Appearance

Lacroix has outgrown his younger more 'stylish' ways and now dresses in a few ways. Generally out and about he wears a three piece suit with tie, a long coat, a cane and sunglasses, and sometimes a hat, when the sun is out. On a hunt, he wears a duster with weapons inside, usually with an old military dress suit so he can look classy and professional while staying mobile, along with his side bag. At home, he usually wears robes and other mystical garments, since he's generally performing or studying then.

Personality

Cold, distant, determined, driven and very, very intense. Tends to prioritise his goals above all else, and when set on a destination/purpose, can be frightenningly single-minded. However, was raised to be a polite, sophisticated man, and acts as a member of the upperclass should. With dignity and honour. However, at the core, he's a good person, and relaitvely sociable, though not the kind to make the first steps, will speak if spoken to, and acts like a good, decent person in his every day life.

Background

Soma Hakuba was born of Soma Cruz and Mina Hakuba, two students. Mina was a Miko-in-Training at the time, but out of love and admiration for her friend and now-lover, she happily brought his child into the world to raise him as a family. During the pregnancy, Mina found out a terrible thing. Soma turned out to be Dracula [Aria of Sorrow Spoiler, sorry. :P], and her child was a cursed half breed Dhampire. However, Mina refused to let her child and her love for her friend be put to death. So she kept and raised her child, through thick and thin, with the help of the allies Soma and she had met during his adventure through Dracula's Castle, Genya Arikardo and Yoko Belnades, of the famed Belnades sorcerer family. This was good for Mina, because following her religion wasn't easy with a bastard child and the minions of Dracula after her. She was well taken care of by Yoko and her family, and had the opportunity to raise her son in safety and companionship doing that.
As Soma grew up, he realised there was something different about him. He excelled at everything. He was stronger and faster than any kid his age, and had a practically eiditic memory, able to memorise books and lessons instantly, and performing incredibly well in any kind of exam. He also had an aversion to swimming and felt uncomfortable during most religious events his family attended. With Mina being a shintoist Miko, this was quite often. He realised early on there was more to him than was let on, and asked both his mother and his aunt Yoko what was happenning with him, why he was this way. So they told him.
Soma was shocked. Here he was, the living, half vampiric son of Dracula himself, who had been cast into the body of one Soma Cruz. He had read REAL stories of the Prince of Darkness, as Yoko's family helped seal him away repeatedly through the centuries, along with the Belmont clan of Vampire Hunters. Soma didn't know what to make of this.. so he ran off. For three days and three nights, Soma pondered his purpose in life. He was a half-vampire (refered to as Dhampire from this point on), he had a thirst for blood and violence, and while he was incredibly strong, this didn't help that he felt a longing to do bad things, deep within himself.. and he was only 7.
So he steeled himself and decided, on that day, what his purpose in life was. What his true calling and reason for being born had been. He would destroy Dracula, once and for all. Where the Belmonts and Belnades could only seal him away, Soma would gain enough power to crush him and bring him down forever. After all, Dhampires couldn't be common, and Dhampires from the strongest of all Vampires had to mean SOMETHING. He would do everything in his power to bring down his father and make his mother happy again. No matter what it took. He decided to dedicate himself to studying the mystical arts, and the religious arts as well, to properly defeat Dracula and not unly use his still growing cursed strength, but the powers of Faith and Magic to put an end to him, once and for all.
Soma asked his Aunt Yoko for advice on how to fight. While he was becoming a powerful sorceror, and a Dhampire, which gave him supernatural powers, he was a novice in a fight. She knew of a man who could help him. The Soldier which had helped Soma Cruz save Mina all those years ago, the now-mercenary Hammer. Yoko contacted Hammer and asked him to help young Soma learn to harness his strength. Hammer was a practical, modern man, and realised that the boy's speed and strength would likely be all he needed, but he himself wasn't classically trained in gentlemen's weapons. He was a soldier. So he trained the boy in using simple weapons, such as a staff, and of course, guns. Soma became incredibly adept at practicing with 6 shooters, like in cowboy movies, because he could effectively shoot them quicker than with semi automatic weapons. He chose to use these as a second resort, as he would have an easier time walking around with a staff than with sidearms, so he made the staff his primary weapon, though he was equally good with both.
Traveling through India and the Middle-East, Soma encountered an actual demon. He had seen many evil spirits in Japan.. perhaps a Youkai or two.. but never an actual demon. This one was a shadow-beast. A powerful demon, from Hell, which was to be summonned and used as an assassin, before killing it's summoner and returning whence it came. The target this time was a rival in love of the caster. By the time Soma got to the target, it was too late, and the shadow was heading back to kill it's 'master'. Soma, while he believed the man deserved death, couldn't let this.. thing loose. So he fought it. Using Witchcraft and Blessings, and suffering many wounds to fight it, Soma had his first real battle as a Vampire Hunter. This is where he learned that while he had little formal physical training, his speed and strength were much.. much higher than any human's could be.. but it wasn't enough against this beast. The Demon fought Soma tooth and nail, and using it's powers over shadows, nearly killed him. With his last strength, Soma killed the beast with a powerful fireball spell, which he didn't even know he had.. then he was hungry. So hungry, he could feed on the blood of rats and bums and... and...
Soma looked at where the demon died. It's essence, it's soul was still there. The source of the magic which summonned it.. it's pure, unbridled power. And it was calling to him. Very hard. So Soma reached over.. and absorbed the soul within him. He felt a rush not unlike heroin, or sex, or both on E. The being's essence filled Soma's body and he felt his strength grow. All of a sudden, Soma knew he could do a lot.. a LOT more with his strength than he ever thought possible. This was the key. The sorcery, the rapidity to learn.. this was all pointless now. Or rather, it was exactly what it led to. Soma was able to swallow the souls and essence of his fallen foes. And then... a giant blob of shadow appeared around him. He could see in it.. perfectly.. but he knew that this would be too dark for even HIS senses to peer through normally, and he had perfect night vision. He had learned the shadow-demon's powers. And he felt less hungry. Though at this point, he raided a restaurant and ate bloody meat raw, just to get himself back on track.. and his wounds healed. He was learning the limits and abilities of his powers, and how they worked.
For the next few months, Soma practiced his shadow-powers. He wasn't used to them until then, and while he wanted to go off and learn more powers, he knew he should spend some time getting used to it. Besides, it's not like shadow-demons and other powerful beings grew on trees around there. At this point, he started to research local folklore. Trying to find out what kind of beings may be here. He caught wind of something called the Tome of Eternal Darkness, a legendary book which was written in human blood and bound in human skin, with pages made of viscerae.. of course, a budding sorceror was interested in this, so he started researching it, trying to find it's location. Then he did.
The Tome of Eternal Darkness was located in the Alzace region, between France and Germany, according to the rumours and clues Soma followed. He found it weird that he could find it so easily, but by looking back at the clues he had found, he realised there was more to it. He saw through the false leads and automatically picked up on the real ones. The trail he followed was fresh and straight, with no dead ends. He felt there was more to this.. perhaps stronger forces at work. But that would be for another time, as the Tome was nearly within his reach. He went to that cursed temple, and once there, met something he didn't expect to meet up with anytime soon. In fact, he wasn't prepared for this at all. A Vampire. Soma immediately went on the defensive. After all, if there was an actual VAMPIRE here, then something more was going on. Before blows could be exhanged, however, the place was suddenly filled with zombies, which seemed intend on tearing both of the other undead apart. Realising they had a common enemy here, Soma and Elizabeth Marie, which was the Vampire's name, set about to work together to destroy the zombies. To seal the place off, Elizabeth Marie had to chant a sealing spell, which she took from the Tome. Soma realised that she had it, and while he was a little annoyed by it, after talking to her more, he realised it was probably better if someone like her had it than someone he couldn't trust. They left on friendly terms after a few days.
After separating with Elizabeth Marie on friendly terms, Soma realised that for all his power now.. he still needed more. He went off to the Maison Ikkoku, which was reputed to have several highly powerful beings, and more links to different worlds and creatures, which made him.. curious. When there, he met a few people... and the rest will come later because my head hurts. When he joined with PARADIGM he took the name Lacroix to distance himself from his origins.

Skills

Lacroix's former look.

Physical Skills:

• Alertness: Incredible. Lacroix is a trained Vampire Hunter, and knows what kind of dangers he's in.
• Athletics: Very Good. One needs to climb and hide when chasing the undead.
• Stealth: Good. Natural grace and keen senses make up for lack of training.

Social Skills:

• Subterfuge: Incredible
• Intimidation: Very Good
• Leadership: Good
• Etiquette: Good
• Performance: Very Good (music)

Mental Skills:

• Computers: Good
• Investigation: Very Good
• Research: Incredible
• Occult: Incredible
• Science: Good

Other Skills:

• Driving: Novice
• Survival: Very Good
• Empathy: Good
• Animal Ken: Novice
• Firearms: Very Good
• Languages: Japanese and English

Special Abilities

Koldunic Thaumaturgy: Vampiric sorceries, which can only be used by a person of vampiric blood, like Dhampirs and obviously, vampires. The costs of Thaumaturgy include vampiric blood, which isn't actually consummed, but it's impossible for a human to learn these magics, although quite a few of them are actually variations on Celtic Witchcraft.

Path of Blood:

• Blood Strike: Firing a bolt of magic at a foe, if it connects with him, it will steal the victim's blood and return to the vampire.
• Blood Purge: Casting a magical circle on the ground, all those trapped within it become violently ill, and start to vomit blood.
• Blood Shield: Surrounding the caster in blood, which hardens and nullifies damage of all kinds (except Fire), and lasts for 15 minutes. This power costs blood to use.
• Blood Boil: Sending out a bolt of magic at a target, if the target is hit, the victim's blood will boil and eventually, some will burst out of the skin. This is EXTREMELY painful.

Path of Agni:

• Fire Channel: Can channel fire through his weapon, causing things to combust or start on fire, doing elemental damage.
• Ember Daggers: Can form small fire spikes, which he can throw at enemies in front of him with high accuracy.
• Fire Ball: Much more powerful than his 'Natural' Fireball, the caster can throw a destructive ball of exploding Fire at a target, causing heavy damage.
• Ignis Storm: Soma's most powerful aggressive Spell, He litterally makes fire rain from the heavens, hitting everything in the area, which CAN include the caster.

Path of Neptune:

• Water Channel: Can coat and channel ice and water through his weapon, causing things to freeze, and doing water/ice-elemental damage.
• Ice Mirror: Forming a mirror out of ice in front of him, the caster can block many attacks. Every time he wishes to reinforce it, however, costs more Magical Power.
• Ice Spear: Focussing the frost around him, Lacroix creates a spear of ice and launches it at a foe, to impale them, and freeze whatever part of the body it hits.
• Frost Storm: Using a single target as a focus, the caster can fire a powerful bolt of magic, which explodes on impact, causing HEAVY frost damage, and freezing all in the 10' radius of the Target. This temperature reaches nearly Absolute 0.

Path of Valman:

• Air Channel: The caster can channel the power of wind through a weapon, making blades cut deeper, and blunt weapons move faster, aerodynamically.
• Movement of the Mind: The caster needs to focus and is unable to use other spells as he does. This allows him to move objects with his mind, flip switches, and cause items to move.
• Gale Push: A single burst of pure wind from the caster, sending the target (if hit), flying into a nearby wall, or to land after about 20 feet.
• Tornado: The caster focusses for a few moments, then unleashes a hurricane to tear through the area, knocking people back and slashing them like blades.

Path of Chernozen:

• Earthly Might: The caster channels the forces of the earth into a weapon, increasing it's durability and strength, as well as giving it the Earth element.
• Soil Silhouette: The caster forces the dirt and soil under a victim's shadow to crawl up it's legs, and if it reaches past the knees, immobilise them.
• Steps of the Terrified: The caster focusses his power through the ground, which then cracks and rises with sharp spikes under a target, to impale them.
• Czernobog's Embrace: The earth in a 20 foot area splits in half, then attempts to swallow a target and then closes around them to crush them.

Koldunic Rituals:
Level One: These rituals usually take between 30-60 minutes to cast, and have a variable effect. Usually not very strong, but useful in a pinch.

• Deflection of Wooden Doom: Enchanting a piece of wood, the ritualist can render himself immune to one staking while carrying the wood, which will destroy the stake in question.
• Devil's Touch: Cursing an item and hiding it on a person makes this person into a pariah, having others scorn and loath him for no apparent reason.
• Sanguineous Phial: The ritualist can enchant blood to make it unable to spoil, and preserve it's full potency over time. The container must be made of Earthenware.
  

Level Two: These rituals take anything from an hour to three to cast, and their effects are more noticeable.

• Craft Bloodstone: The ritualist can enchante an object and make it a bloodstone, to which he is intimately linked and can locate anytime and from anywhere.
• The Open Passage: Taking an hour to draw a pattern of blood on a barrier, the vampire can make the barrier intangible. This does not work on magical barriers. Lasts 3 minutes.
• Ward vs Undead: The caster can make a ward on a door, wall, or any other object that repels unintelligent dead. Zombies, skeletons, ghosts and other animated dead, whether through a curse or necromancy, are unable to get past this barrier. Note that this doesn't apply to higher level undead, as each of them are different enough to warrant a full ritual of their own.
  

Level Three: These rituals are actually fairly powerful. They take at least 2 hours to cast, and can last a whole night. They last longer, however, and can be permanent.

• Cleansing of the Flesh: The ritualist can cleanse any alien substances out of a target, provided he remains under water as the caster chants, and then all effects are removed.
• Fire in the Blood: The ritualist prepares a ritual with sulfur, then swallows it. Afterwards, he touches his victim, says one magic word, and then curses the victim's blood to burn like fire if they move.
  

Level Four: These rituals are very powerful, they usually take at least 6 hours to cast, and have physics-defying effects, or permanent ones.

• Bone of Lies: Using a 200 year dead mortal bone, the ritualist can prepare it to turn blood red when someone holding it tells a lie. The bone is permanent.
• Mirror Walk: The ritualist can prepare a mirror and step through it, then comes out of the nearest mirror in a 3 mile radius in the direction he walked in, that he can crawl through.
• Ward Versus Vampires: The ritualist can make a barrier to prevent other vampires from entering an area, without suffering a heavy mystical damage they can't heal for a long time.
  

Level Five: These rituals are incredibly powerful, and usually take a LONG time to cast, or have really hard to acquire components.

• Stone of the True Form: Taking a perfectly rounded marble pebble, the ritualist can enchant it to force a being hit by it into it's basic, natural form on impact. Vampires, werewolves, demons.

Powers & Merits

Dhampyr: Lacroix is a dhampire, and as such as supernatural strength, reflexes, speed and stamina. He can take massive punishment and survive, as well as inflict high levels of damage with melee attacks. This also gives him enhanced senses and the ability to see in the dark, but his other senses are all attuned to blood. Blood drinking will refill his inner strength and help restore his strength, but not as much as a vampire would.
Dark Gifts: Lacroix is a vampire, and as such he has the following Dark Gifts.
Gift of Shadows: Lacroix's first (and only notable) vampiric power, which has replaced his vampire line's inner powers (animal transformation and mist form) with these powers. Note that 'Shadow' is a misnomer, as Lacroix uses tangible, actual DARKNESS from the Abyss, and a manifestation of his vampiric power, not actual 'shadows' cast by light.

• Darkness: Lacroix can form a 10' globe of absolute darkness.
• Arms of the Abyss: Lacroix can summon several shadowy tentacles, which can attack and grapple at his command, with extreme strength.
• Shadow Form: Lacroix can turn into a shadow, allowing him to enter any area where light is available, and teleport to and fro visible shadows.

Merits

Clear-Sighted: (3pt Merit) Lacroix is exceptionally attuned to illusions and can often detect and avoid them.
Danger Sense: (3pt Merit) Lacroix's experience and superior senses tend to come into full alert on impending danger.
Concentration: (1pt Merit) Lacroix is a spellcaster, and as such can stay focused even in the most hectic circumstances.
Light Sleeper: (1pt Merit) Lacroix has learned to get by on very little sleep, which is good due to his powerlessness in the daytime.

Unique Items

Occult Library: A library of tomes of vampiric and magical lore, filled with ancient knowledge and legends, where Soma learned most of his Koldunic rites, and a vertitable plethora of monster and demonic information. (2pt Merit)

Items Of Note

Lacroix Staff: Regular Staff, carved with runes and with a Silver Cross on the tip. The big thing about the Staff is that it has a sharp point (to stake), and a silver sword on the inside, which he can pull out and cleave heads off with. It's like a swordcane, so not meant for combat, but can be used as such in cases.
Colt Single Action Army: Silver Bullet Loaded Twin Six Shooters, at his hip, in case of the going getting tough. These are used like regular handguns, but Soma's speed allows him to fire more than a human can by sheer reflexes and supernatural power. He also has a series of reloads in his coat and belts.
Lupara: Breech-loading, pump-action, twin barrel sawed off shotgun, loaded with rock salt and occasionally dragonsbreath rounds, carried to deal with ghosts.

Weaknesses & Flaws

Sunlight: By embracing more of his inner darkness, Lacroix is unable to function in sunlight. While it doesn't burn him, it does make him VERY uncomfortable unless he's covered entirely, and more importantly, he can't use any of his vampiric powers (except enhanced senses) while in sunlight. Even during the day he gets lethargic and unmotivated, but his powers are basically unusable during the day. This isn't a conditional thing. If the sun is out where Lacroix is, he can use none of his vampiric powers (Save for some rituals, which are active 24/7), and is basically no more no less than a human.
Powerful Odors: Lacroix's senses can easily be confused or overwhelmed with powerful sensory input. While a Flash Grenade and a loud noise will affect him much like a regular person because of his superior physique, Lacroix is unable to process powerful cleansing odors, like that of Garlic or other traditionally purifying elements.
Holy Power: Lacroix is extremely vulnerable to Holy power. He cannot heal wounds inflicted by it, and he cannot defend against it properly. There is a STRONG chance Holy power will counter his magics (60% chance of failiure).
Running Water: Lacroix can cross running water, but it burns him to the touch like a mild corrossive. It's INCREDIBLY painful and he'd rather avoid having to do it at all.
Blood Hunger: Lacroix is a dhampire, which means he doesn't NEED to drink blood, but when it's available, he will crave it. The less powerful he is, the harder it is to resist the hunger. It's all consuming, more like missing AIR than missing food.

Driving Goal: (3pt Flaw) Destroy Dracula, once and for all.
Otherworldly Taint: (2pt Flaw) Lacroix is pale like a corpse and his eyes are a striking, irridescent blue. He must hide it or be discovered.
Echoes: (2pt Flaw) Lacroix's touch causes plants to wither and die. Obviously this can't be used to smash Kurama or something, but if he's in a garden he'll appear out of place.

NPC(s) to go with char

Zero. ...as in nothing, not the robot or the strategist.