piggs
Member
- Joined
- Nov 18, 2019
- Messages
- 9
- Points
- 13
Character Name
Zed
I Agree
Yes
Has this character appeared in a previous lore?
Yes
Age
41
Blood Type
AB Positive
Personality
The perils and disappointments of the post-apocalypse have left Zed apathetic, quiet, and skeptical of others. At face value, he can be a bit difficult to interact with. He is short and blunt with his words, grotesque injuries and affinity for an uncivilized lifestyle making him disgust most that speak with him. However, there is a charming morsel of kindness to him, one that attracts pity and understanding from others. He will listen to those that speak to him with a tiny, seared-in smile on his face. A friendly Quasimodo, misunderstood and presumably well-meaning.
His morality is based on his worldview--mercy for the poor, retribution against those in power. Stealing from a poor individual is wrong, but stealing from a group or a profiteer is admirable. Killing is generally wrong, but people who lord their power over others or present an immediate threat may deserve to die.
His past role in a post-society terrorist group has burdened him with enough guilt to suppress the more violent and regressive views of morality that he's held, but the seeds of extremism still remain in his mind. Thus, his goals will be dependent on his view of the survivors. He wishes to find out whether modern humanity is just and well-intentioned enough for him to accept it and atone for his past misdeeds, or whether they're self-serving and dangerous enough to abandon--and perhaps dethrone.
Character Motivations
-Zed wishes to rekindle his bond with civilization, after years spent alone on the road. Though solitude is easier, it can be painful. Humanity has wronged him in the past, but perhaps they deserve a second chance. Should that be the case, he wishes to atone for his past deeds.
-He grapples with an anarchistic, pessimistic philosophy. A part of him wishes to see mankind either lose the war against the dead, or be perpetually trapped in it, believing that they're too cruel to deserve a spot at the top of the food chain. This dates back to his years spent raiding among the Croners, a group of bandits and ideological extremists, as well as alienation due to his appearance. He wishes to rationalize these conflicting thoughts during his return to civilization.
Physical Appearance
This creature is nauseating, facial burns and scars having molded his face into an effigy to the undead--and if you squint, he kinda looks like one. His right lower eyelid sags down to his cheekbone, its raw underside on display. His eyes are bloodshot and brown, right eye foggier than the other. The spot on his face where a nose should be instead sports a pair of serpentine nostrils. His left cheek is pierced by a dime-sized hole, revealing gum and teeth. Not much remains of his lips. He has a constant grimace. His dark, ratty hair is seared away to the top of his head. Among all of the mangled features, an ethnicity or general age seems impossible to place.
Once you're done taking all that in, you’d see he’s dressed in a bulky, death-spattered trench coat. He looks to be 5’11” and around 200 pounds.
Character Image Link
Mechanical Occupation
Unemployed
In-Character Occupation
Vagabond/Distillery Worker
Biography
PRE APOCALYPSE (Copied from my app for part 1):
After Ximena and Felix Garcia immigrated to the states through an overstayed Visa, they worked to own a house and start a future. Theo Garcia was born in the rural region of Riverside, California in 1987--a single child, living a fairly simple life with his parents. He was a latchkey kid from an early age, but it was too normalized for him to find any issue with it. His looks and eccentric personality garnered interest from others, but he rarely took initiative to forge relationships with anyone. He enjoyed spending time on his own, exploring local landmarks, and working his way through a plethora of inconsistent and noncommital hobbies--painting, acting, writing, woodwork, tae kwon do, pottery, photography, soccer, baseball, and just about anything that he could do for a cheap price.
Hobbies and people weren’t the only thing he quickly lost interest in. After developing a disregard for his academic success and dropping out of UC Riverside at the age of 20, he had a brutal and breakneck falling out with his parents. They all but disowned him, removing them from his house and rarely keeping in touch. He had his theories about why they were so eager for him to leave--perhaps so that he wouldn’t be around to criticize their drinking problems, or perhaps they were sick of his antisocial presence--but it was more than likely just disappointment that he wasn’t as hard a worker as they were. It was disheartening at first, particularly their comments that they would have to have another son and try again. But perhaps this was an opportunity to find true independence.
He moved to a cheap apartment in Lexington, Kentucky on an ill-advised journey to self discovery in 2007, jumping between several low-income jobs. He became a bit of a jack-of-all trades, work ranging from freelance fitness instructor, to stand-up comic, to fry cook. He had brief friendships and romantic relationships, but nothing held his interest long enough to fend off his chronic ennui. He was content sampling what the world had to offer one piece at a time--its people, its places, and its things.
It took all hell to break loose for this cycle to break; he quickly realized that safety lied in numbers. So, he drove around for some sort of safehouse or group that would take him in--just until things blew over. This can’t be how everything ends, after all. There’s too much left to do.
VALLEY STATION:
Following the outbreak, he gathered with a group of strangers--Arthur Hillock, Lincoln Whittaker, Arthur Glover, Abram Osborn. They made their way to camp at a Police Checkpoint before assimilating into the Valley Station Mall’s community. Though he was a distant and standoffish person, he fostered a few brief friendships, particularly within the group. Abram’s untimely demise was the first loss to shake him.
Through the internal and external conflicts, Theo grew very weary of acting among the group, largely keeping to himself. As word started to spread of cultists and raiders, he quietly packed and left the Mall to fend for itself, unaware that it would soon meet its demise.
AFTER THE MALL
2016: He traveled south, before making his way to the coast. He made an effort to find a boat he could get into working condition, or a plane, without success. He spent his time stripping houses of whatever essentials remained.
2017: He discovered a small community in Oklahoma named Steelhill, and lived among them as a gate guard for some time. He found the industrious nature of the residents inspiring. People often humored the idea of crossing the border to South America, sharing rumors and theories. He took his first life here, during a close-combat struggle that broke out during a patdown. This proved a tremendous source of guilt for a time, though he noted how easy it had felt after years of killing the dead. A violent power struggle later broke out between the survivors, scaring Theo back onto the road.
ACTS OF TERROR
2018: Slowly made his way towards Texas, stopping at a few trading communities along the way. Rumors of intense conflict at the border swayed his interest from investigating South America.
He spent some time in El Paso, Texas in a reasonably large community known as Firebrand Junction. He worked a job as a guard, and later at a small distillery. The leadership was harsh and violent, executing perceived traitors and laying claim (inaccurately) to the entirety of the city. A ‘City Council’ of democratically-elected survivors ruled over the area, though they'd decided to forgo any future elections.
As word of a revolution broke out, the Council captured and brutally executed a few dissenting individuals. One included Thomas Croner, a greatly respected member of the community. This did little but make him a martyr, his living associates conspiring to avenge his death and topple the leadership. Theo was invited to these talks both because he could produce firebombs at the distillery, and he had a known distaste for the Council. Roughly 50 people large, the group took a few precious weeks to prepare. They lured a large group of dead, firebombed the perimeter, and made off with a great deal of supplies. Their plan was reasonably successful, the damage left sending the loyalists into a spiral and most of the Council dead. Firebrand Junction would not recover for some time, if at all.
Emboldened by their victory, the group repurposed itself. They carried out similar attacks on groups that they weren’t affiliated with, acting as self-righteous raiders. They named themselves "The Croners" after the late Thomas Croner. Manifestos revealed that their goal was to strike at the ego of humanity, and to prevent the uprising of dictators and strong-arming warlords. Their message was intensely anarchistic, violent, and not entirely reasonable. It held leaders to standards so stringent, they were arguably unfeasible in a post-apocalyptic setting.
Local communities were unappreciative of their efforts, as their targets tended to be innocuous and resulted in numerous innocent deaths. They quickly earned labels as terrorists, bounties on their heads, and small hunting parties of disgruntled survivors.
2019: The group continued to raid, raze, and pillage their way across the Southwest, traveling on the road in an army of camper vans. A handful of communities were left damaged, restructured, or abandoned in the process. Theo continued to work among them, producing alcohol for the firebombs, and directly participating in acts of arson. Despite their victories, the group only grew smaller with time, the raids claiming members with each mistake.
Nonetheless, Theo felt alive--indignant and angry. It was as if a passionate spirit had overtaken him, a spirit derived from his desire to enact his justice upon the new world. There were no doubt innocent people that may have died at his hands due to the fires, but he viewed their deaths as a necessary sacrifice.
2020: The year the Croners met their presumed end. After picking a target in Oregon, they found they underprepared and were met with firm resistance. Shaken by the whizzing bullets and bleeding comrades, Theo found it difficult to act under the mounting pressure. In a process of trying to throw a poorly packed molotov, the contents splashed back and ignited on his face. He fled the scene on foot, a sprinting, screaming, flaming mass. He maneuvered past the horde they had lured and lamented the pain where nerves could still feel it. He assumed that the rest of his group was killed in the chaos—and was likely correct. He paid for emergency treatment at a nearby community, and shamefully reflected on what he would do with his life from that point on.
THE BIRTH OF ZED
2021: He spent some time hiding in small communities, bartering with doctors for skin grafts and other treatments. He wrestled with infected injuries, ridicule at his features, and conflicting thoughts about his stay with the Croners. Perhaps attacking entire settlements was excessive, but he wasn’t at fault… right? Greed, machismo, bloodlust--the rampant sin, it was all to blame. His hand had been forced by the tyrants of the post-world. They were the ones who stole his face. Or maybe they hadn’t. Maybe it was his fault. He was consumed with growing doubt, little twinges of guilt that grew stronger every day.
As it became increasingly apparent that he was not taken seriously by survivors, he began to stop taking his identity seriously. He ceased wearing masks to hide his features. He answered all inquiries about his name with “Zed” and a sad little chuckle, and falsified details of his past when it suited him.
It was not long before he decided it would be mutually beneficial, to both himself and the human race, if he disappeared to live on his own.
2022 - 2027: A blur of survival and little else--a half-decade of surrendering his humanity and living like an animal in the woods. Foraging, fashioning or repurposing small shelters. Hunting for bugs to boil into soup and game to cook over a fire. Sneaking and killing his way past the dead. Raiding abandoned camps for antibiotics and disinfectant for his wounds. He slowly drifted towards the East coast, though that wasn’t necessarily his intention. He was merely interested in finding new grounds to hunt at, and more supplies to add to his pile.
He felt truly at peace. Theo the terrorist was gone. There was only Zed the cryptid, and the cat-and-mouse game of self-sufficiency.
2028: He began to humor trade caravans again as he made his way along Ohio’s North coast, and realized that perhaps he’d started to miss interacting with others. As the merchants shared rumors of civilization in New York, Zed made his way further East. Perhaps it was worth a look.
Would you like your character to start with any items?
Distillery, Distillation Textbook
Is your character a member of a group?
No
Zed
I Agree
Yes
Has this character appeared in a previous lore?
Yes
Age
41
Blood Type
AB Positive
Personality
The perils and disappointments of the post-apocalypse have left Zed apathetic, quiet, and skeptical of others. At face value, he can be a bit difficult to interact with. He is short and blunt with his words, grotesque injuries and affinity for an uncivilized lifestyle making him disgust most that speak with him. However, there is a charming morsel of kindness to him, one that attracts pity and understanding from others. He will listen to those that speak to him with a tiny, seared-in smile on his face. A friendly Quasimodo, misunderstood and presumably well-meaning.
His morality is based on his worldview--mercy for the poor, retribution against those in power. Stealing from a poor individual is wrong, but stealing from a group or a profiteer is admirable. Killing is generally wrong, but people who lord their power over others or present an immediate threat may deserve to die.
His past role in a post-society terrorist group has burdened him with enough guilt to suppress the more violent and regressive views of morality that he's held, but the seeds of extremism still remain in his mind. Thus, his goals will be dependent on his view of the survivors. He wishes to find out whether modern humanity is just and well-intentioned enough for him to accept it and atone for his past misdeeds, or whether they're self-serving and dangerous enough to abandon--and perhaps dethrone.
Character Motivations
-Zed wishes to rekindle his bond with civilization, after years spent alone on the road. Though solitude is easier, it can be painful. Humanity has wronged him in the past, but perhaps they deserve a second chance. Should that be the case, he wishes to atone for his past deeds.
-He grapples with an anarchistic, pessimistic philosophy. A part of him wishes to see mankind either lose the war against the dead, or be perpetually trapped in it, believing that they're too cruel to deserve a spot at the top of the food chain. This dates back to his years spent raiding among the Croners, a group of bandits and ideological extremists, as well as alienation due to his appearance. He wishes to rationalize these conflicting thoughts during his return to civilization.
Physical Appearance
This creature is nauseating, facial burns and scars having molded his face into an effigy to the undead--and if you squint, he kinda looks like one. His right lower eyelid sags down to his cheekbone, its raw underside on display. His eyes are bloodshot and brown, right eye foggier than the other. The spot on his face where a nose should be instead sports a pair of serpentine nostrils. His left cheek is pierced by a dime-sized hole, revealing gum and teeth. Not much remains of his lips. He has a constant grimace. His dark, ratty hair is seared away to the top of his head. Among all of the mangled features, an ethnicity or general age seems impossible to place.
Once you're done taking all that in, you’d see he’s dressed in a bulky, death-spattered trench coat. He looks to be 5’11” and around 200 pounds.
Character Image Link
Mechanical Occupation
Unemployed
In-Character Occupation
Vagabond/Distillery Worker
Biography
PRE APOCALYPSE (Copied from my app for part 1):
After Ximena and Felix Garcia immigrated to the states through an overstayed Visa, they worked to own a house and start a future. Theo Garcia was born in the rural region of Riverside, California in 1987--a single child, living a fairly simple life with his parents. He was a latchkey kid from an early age, but it was too normalized for him to find any issue with it. His looks and eccentric personality garnered interest from others, but he rarely took initiative to forge relationships with anyone. He enjoyed spending time on his own, exploring local landmarks, and working his way through a plethora of inconsistent and noncommital hobbies--painting, acting, writing, woodwork, tae kwon do, pottery, photography, soccer, baseball, and just about anything that he could do for a cheap price.
Hobbies and people weren’t the only thing he quickly lost interest in. After developing a disregard for his academic success and dropping out of UC Riverside at the age of 20, he had a brutal and breakneck falling out with his parents. They all but disowned him, removing them from his house and rarely keeping in touch. He had his theories about why they were so eager for him to leave--perhaps so that he wouldn’t be around to criticize their drinking problems, or perhaps they were sick of his antisocial presence--but it was more than likely just disappointment that he wasn’t as hard a worker as they were. It was disheartening at first, particularly their comments that they would have to have another son and try again. But perhaps this was an opportunity to find true independence.
He moved to a cheap apartment in Lexington, Kentucky on an ill-advised journey to self discovery in 2007, jumping between several low-income jobs. He became a bit of a jack-of-all trades, work ranging from freelance fitness instructor, to stand-up comic, to fry cook. He had brief friendships and romantic relationships, but nothing held his interest long enough to fend off his chronic ennui. He was content sampling what the world had to offer one piece at a time--its people, its places, and its things.
It took all hell to break loose for this cycle to break; he quickly realized that safety lied in numbers. So, he drove around for some sort of safehouse or group that would take him in--just until things blew over. This can’t be how everything ends, after all. There’s too much left to do.
VALLEY STATION:
Following the outbreak, he gathered with a group of strangers--Arthur Hillock, Lincoln Whittaker, Arthur Glover, Abram Osborn. They made their way to camp at a Police Checkpoint before assimilating into the Valley Station Mall’s community. Though he was a distant and standoffish person, he fostered a few brief friendships, particularly within the group. Abram’s untimely demise was the first loss to shake him.
Through the internal and external conflicts, Theo grew very weary of acting among the group, largely keeping to himself. As word started to spread of cultists and raiders, he quietly packed and left the Mall to fend for itself, unaware that it would soon meet its demise.
AFTER THE MALL
2016: He traveled south, before making his way to the coast. He made an effort to find a boat he could get into working condition, or a plane, without success. He spent his time stripping houses of whatever essentials remained.
2017: He discovered a small community in Oklahoma named Steelhill, and lived among them as a gate guard for some time. He found the industrious nature of the residents inspiring. People often humored the idea of crossing the border to South America, sharing rumors and theories. He took his first life here, during a close-combat struggle that broke out during a patdown. This proved a tremendous source of guilt for a time, though he noted how easy it had felt after years of killing the dead. A violent power struggle later broke out between the survivors, scaring Theo back onto the road.
ACTS OF TERROR
2018: Slowly made his way towards Texas, stopping at a few trading communities along the way. Rumors of intense conflict at the border swayed his interest from investigating South America.
He spent some time in El Paso, Texas in a reasonably large community known as Firebrand Junction. He worked a job as a guard, and later at a small distillery. The leadership was harsh and violent, executing perceived traitors and laying claim (inaccurately) to the entirety of the city. A ‘City Council’ of democratically-elected survivors ruled over the area, though they'd decided to forgo any future elections.
As word of a revolution broke out, the Council captured and brutally executed a few dissenting individuals. One included Thomas Croner, a greatly respected member of the community. This did little but make him a martyr, his living associates conspiring to avenge his death and topple the leadership. Theo was invited to these talks both because he could produce firebombs at the distillery, and he had a known distaste for the Council. Roughly 50 people large, the group took a few precious weeks to prepare. They lured a large group of dead, firebombed the perimeter, and made off with a great deal of supplies. Their plan was reasonably successful, the damage left sending the loyalists into a spiral and most of the Council dead. Firebrand Junction would not recover for some time, if at all.
Emboldened by their victory, the group repurposed itself. They carried out similar attacks on groups that they weren’t affiliated with, acting as self-righteous raiders. They named themselves "The Croners" after the late Thomas Croner. Manifestos revealed that their goal was to strike at the ego of humanity, and to prevent the uprising of dictators and strong-arming warlords. Their message was intensely anarchistic, violent, and not entirely reasonable. It held leaders to standards so stringent, they were arguably unfeasible in a post-apocalyptic setting.
Local communities were unappreciative of their efforts, as their targets tended to be innocuous and resulted in numerous innocent deaths. They quickly earned labels as terrorists, bounties on their heads, and small hunting parties of disgruntled survivors.
2019: The group continued to raid, raze, and pillage their way across the Southwest, traveling on the road in an army of camper vans. A handful of communities were left damaged, restructured, or abandoned in the process. Theo continued to work among them, producing alcohol for the firebombs, and directly participating in acts of arson. Despite their victories, the group only grew smaller with time, the raids claiming members with each mistake.
Nonetheless, Theo felt alive--indignant and angry. It was as if a passionate spirit had overtaken him, a spirit derived from his desire to enact his justice upon the new world. There were no doubt innocent people that may have died at his hands due to the fires, but he viewed their deaths as a necessary sacrifice.
2020: The year the Croners met their presumed end. After picking a target in Oregon, they found they underprepared and were met with firm resistance. Shaken by the whizzing bullets and bleeding comrades, Theo found it difficult to act under the mounting pressure. In a process of trying to throw a poorly packed molotov, the contents splashed back and ignited on his face. He fled the scene on foot, a sprinting, screaming, flaming mass. He maneuvered past the horde they had lured and lamented the pain where nerves could still feel it. He assumed that the rest of his group was killed in the chaos—and was likely correct. He paid for emergency treatment at a nearby community, and shamefully reflected on what he would do with his life from that point on.
THE BIRTH OF ZED
2021: He spent some time hiding in small communities, bartering with doctors for skin grafts and other treatments. He wrestled with infected injuries, ridicule at his features, and conflicting thoughts about his stay with the Croners. Perhaps attacking entire settlements was excessive, but he wasn’t at fault… right? Greed, machismo, bloodlust--the rampant sin, it was all to blame. His hand had been forced by the tyrants of the post-world. They were the ones who stole his face. Or maybe they hadn’t. Maybe it was his fault. He was consumed with growing doubt, little twinges of guilt that grew stronger every day.
As it became increasingly apparent that he was not taken seriously by survivors, he began to stop taking his identity seriously. He ceased wearing masks to hide his features. He answered all inquiries about his name with “Zed” and a sad little chuckle, and falsified details of his past when it suited him.
It was not long before he decided it would be mutually beneficial, to both himself and the human race, if he disappeared to live on his own.
2022 - 2027: A blur of survival and little else--a half-decade of surrendering his humanity and living like an animal in the woods. Foraging, fashioning or repurposing small shelters. Hunting for bugs to boil into soup and game to cook over a fire. Sneaking and killing his way past the dead. Raiding abandoned camps for antibiotics and disinfectant for his wounds. He slowly drifted towards the East coast, though that wasn’t necessarily his intention. He was merely interested in finding new grounds to hunt at, and more supplies to add to his pile.
He felt truly at peace. Theo the terrorist was gone. There was only Zed the cryptid, and the cat-and-mouse game of self-sufficiency.
2028: He began to humor trade caravans again as he made his way along Ohio’s North coast, and realized that perhaps he’d started to miss interacting with others. As the merchants shared rumors of civilization in New York, Zed made his way further East. Perhaps it was worth a look.
Would you like your character to start with any items?
Distillery, Distillation Textbook
Is your character a member of a group?
No
