James Gremlin

Biography
--

Professor-General James Chaim Gremlin is an oddity. He is a man of war that managed to Catalyze as a Staunen. A brilliant military tactician, renowned for his ingenious strategies and skill at improvising weapons, who went so insane from the Mania eating him away from the inside, filling him with new ideas and a maniacal optimism, that he was discharged from the army. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

He was born thirty two years, four months, and three days from the writing of this article, to Gregory and Laura Gremlin, both constructionist Jews living in New York City. They were kind, generous people, but held James to a strict standard of achievement, both in and out of school. He attended school at public elementary and middle schools in New York; he routinely bewildered his teachers with his intelligence. He attended and graduated Stuyvesant High School as valedictorian, and attained three doctoral degrees in Physics, Psychology, and History at Cornell University.

His talents and interests, however, always lay in tactics, strategy, and combat; he cherished games like RISK, Diplomacy, and Axis and Allies, and he had trained in Taekwondo and Krav Maga for his entire life, so he decided to take up a position in the military, where his ingenuity and problem-solving skills quickly sent him up the ranks until he was a general.

And then, he Catalyzed. While he was overseas, he became entrenched in a battle he could not win. He had but one major fault: Pride. Well-deserved pride, but pride nonetheless. He was constantly seeking challenges, deliberately stacking the odds against himself. But that turned out to nearly be his downfall. He was caught between eight armies, and, after being forced out of the city his army was holing up, his lack of speed in formulating a plan marked his end, when he was over-run. He was nearly killed by a bullet to the head, and, as he lay there, bleeding to death, a brilliant plan sprung from his mind unbidden, not his first taste of Mania, but certainly his largest before that. He outmaneuvered the armies, and was doing okay. That is, until a journalist asked him how he managed to do it. He went insane trying to figure out exactly what gave him the idea, which was incredibly ingenious, even for him. He progressed slowly into madness from there, being honorably discharged from the army for psychological damage.

He drank up all of the knowledge about Mania and Geniuses and Beholden and Wonders and non-repeatable phenomena that he could. He became a sponge, drinking in information.

One of his core beliefs has always been that, if you have enough information and knowledge, nothing is impossible. If you know enough, you can do anything. It is no wonder, then, that he focused almost solely on the Axiom of Apokalypsi when he first Catalyzed, creating wonders that would give him the knowledge he needed.

And that's when the Blizzard hit.

When he was a General, he had been stationed in Fort Benning in Georgia, and had never really left the place; he was still called back for payed consultations from time to time. He was, luckily, narrowly missed by the Blizzard.

He currently works as a consultant to law enforcement and military forces trying to keep the peace in Georgia, though the work is sporadic, it pays well enough, and he has enough time to learn more and more about the Mania coursing through his veins.

His current theory about Mania and how it functions is that Mania is an entity, a physical being with consciousness that lends its power to chosen mortals, though the power drives them insane, he believes he, and other Geniuses and Mania-touched individuals, serve some purpose. He believes that Apokalypsi wonders work by consulting with Mania itself, and that Katastrofi wonders destroy using the sheer power Mania holds, almost like setting off an atomic bomb but with a conscious substance that can destroy consciously, for example. In addition, his current theory would suggest that Havoc happens because Mania doesn't like to show itself to those it deems unworthy of its presence.

Overview

 * Name: James Chaim Gremlin
 * Virtue: Courage
 * Vice: Pride
 * Concept: Ingenious strategic mind meets Richard Feynman's physics aptitude.
 * Foundation: The Navigators of the Center for Circumferential Navigation
 * Catalyst: Staunen
 * Aesthetic: Tall, shock of blonde hair, smoky blue eyes
 * Experience: 0/0

Main Article
Link to it here

Attributes
Power:      Strength  ●       Presence       ●    Intelligence ●●●● Finesse:    Dexterity ●●       Manipulation   ●    Wits         ● Resistance: Stamina   ●●●●       Composure      ●●●●    Resolve      ●●●●

Skills
Mental                  Physical                 Social (-3 Unskilled)          (-1 Unskilled)          (-1 Unskilled) Academics:    ●●●●        Athletics:             Animal Ken: Computer:     ●●●●        Brawl:     ●●            Empathy: Crafts:                Drive:                 Expression: Investigation:         Firearms:  ●●            Intimidation: Medicine:              Larceny:               Persuasion: Occult:                Stealth:               Socialize: Politics:              Survival:              Streetwise: Science:      ●●●         Weaponry:  ●●●            Subterfuge:   ●●●●

Specialties
Academics (Tactical and Strategic Planning)

Computer (Data Retrieval)

Brawl (Martial Arts)

Axioms

 * Apokalypsi: ●●●
 * Skafoi:
 * Katastrofi:

Traits

 * Willpower: ●●●●●●●●
 * Temp.:    □
 * Inspiration: ●
 * Mania: ●●

Merits

 * Eiditic Memory: ●●
 * Emotional Detatchment: ●
 * Resource (military consulting): ●

Flaws

 * Deformity (scars, bullet wounds in the head and torso, and a knife slash across the face)
 * Addict (learning)

Obligation (To Protect)

 * 10:---
 * 9: ---
 * 8: ---
 * 7: Current Level
 * 6: ___________
 * 5: ___________
 * 4: ___________
 * 3: ___________
 * 2: ___________
 * 1: ___________

Combat

 * Size: 5
 * Speed: 8
 * Init. Mod: 6
 * Defense: 2
 * Armor: 0
 * Health:  ●●●●●●●●●
 * Cur. Health: □□□□□□□□□

Char-gen
Attributes: 5/4/3 // Skills: 11/7/4 (+3 Specialties) // Merits 7 (5th dot = 2 dot cost) // Health = Resolve or Stamina + Size // Willpower = Resolve + Composure // Size = 5 for adult humans // Defense = Lowest of Dex or Wits // Init. Mod = Dex + Composure // Speed = Str + Dex + 5 // Morality = 7