Character Name
Mukengeshayi Tshiswabantu
I Agree
Yes
Has this character appeared in a previous lore?
No
Age
40
Blood Type
B-
Personality
Mukengeshayi Tshiswabantu, or as he's better known, Bob is a very friendly and personable man. While he initially appears extremely intimidating due to his very large size, this is quickly offset by his sunny disposition and the laughs and smiles he freely gives out to all those he converses with. He is quick to look to both sides of an argument and often finds himself mediating conflict, hoping for a peaceful resolution.
While he does try to see the best in everyone, Bob has faced a love where he has seen unequivocal evil. He believes fully in pure evil and when he sees something he believes meets its definition, he feels no hesitation to violently squash it. While usually an even-tempered man, when he does happen to lose his temper (often only in very extreme situations) it's truly a terrifying sight to behold and often leads in death and destruction.
Character Motivations
Bob is devastated by the loss of his friend four years prior and ever since has been unable to look towards the future with hope. He is of the philosophy that one day the world will be overtaken with evil and humanity shall be eradicated by their own evil ways. However, he figures in the meantime he might as well try to live as loving a life as he's able to and, God willing, even make things a little more pleasant for the people he comes into contact with.
Physical Appearance
Bob is a very big man. He stands at 6'7" and weighs 265 lbs. His build is stout and powerful, with thick muscles protruding from his dark skin. His eyes are dark and his nose is very broad. His hair is long and dreadlocked, and he similarly keeps a long unkept beard on his face. He has a caring smile and kind eyes that do manage to offset his intimidating appearance to some extent. Bob knows that people tend to look towards him with some amount of fear due to his size, and he tries to treat people with immediate kindness to try to balance that trepidation.
Character Image Link
Mechanical Occupation
Doctor
In-Character Occupation
Wanderer / Warrior / Nurse
Biography
Mukengeshayi ‘Bob’ Tshiswabantu was born April 9, 1988 in a small village in Zaire. Despite living in abject poverty, Mukengeshayi had a loving childhood. The third of five children, he was raised by loving parents in a communal fashion where he was closely connected to his whole village. However, Mukengeshayi knew hunger and disease from a very young age, as he lived in a deeply impoverished country. He was an abnormally large baby, and despite suffering from malnutrition went on to be an abnormally large child. While his father was a large man himself, it was evident from even a young age that Mukengeshayi would one day surpass most men in height, and his superstitious people assumed his large size meant a supernatural affinity for fighting. Interestingly, this superstition seemed antithetical to who young Mukengeshayi seemed to be, as he was an excessively loving and friendly child. Unfortunately, fighting would not be far away as the First Congo War broke out as Mukengeshayi was in his eigth year of life. His father would be conscripted to fight and would never be seen again by the family. In fact, most of Mukengeshayi’s village was devastated by the war, with many of the men being sent off to fight and the village subsequently descending into starvation due to the lack of labor.
The war ended a year later, with Zaire becoming the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A little more than a year later, the Second Congo War broke out and the DRC descended into chaos. Mukengeshayi’s village was on the brink of annihilation when the Union of Congolese Patriots sent part of their forces through. Mukengeshayi was conscripted into their militia at the age of 10. Already growing up in a multilingual society, Mukengeshayi quickly learned Swahili to communicate with the other conscripted children in addition to his native Tshiluba and the national language of French. As would be expected, Mukengeshayi despised his new cruel reality. However, he adapted even slower than many of the other children, seeming to have an almost intrinsic friendly disposition that was contradictory to the role he found himself thrust in. It’s entirely possible that other children who were as slow to adapt might’ve been left in the jungle to starve, however Mukengeshayi’s size worked in his favor, with the commandant willing to spend extra time to break him despite his aversion to violence. Mukengeshayi was with the militia for close to a year without being engaged in direct combat and due to his large size was able to effectively use an assault rifle despite his young age.
Under the leadership of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Mukengeshayi’s commandant was sent to participate in the Ituri conflict. Ostensibly fighting on behalf of the Hema ethnic group against the Lendu people, neither Mukengeshayi nor the other children he fought with had any idea who they were fighting or why. They just knew their commandant required them to fight. It was an exceptionally brutal conflict with large scale massacres perpetrated by both sides. War crimes were common, and many of the older boys alongside Mukengeshayi raped and murdered Lendu villagers. Mukengeshayi always fought dutifully alongside the UCP, but after the battle was over he often found some food to pillage with his friend Bakari and stayed away from the other, more egregious war crimes. Bakari and Mukengeshayi would simply hole up talking or playing with any soccer balls they’d manage to find and wait to be told by their commandant that it was time to move on to the next place.
The Ituri conflict was particularly brutal, ultimately leading to over 50,000 deaths. Mukengeshayi participated in lots of combat during this time. At first, he’d intentionally miss but after constant admonishments by his commandant coupled with diminished food rations as a consequence and the witnessing of many of his new friends being murdered by the other side, Mukengeshayi eventually began shooting to kill. Unfortunately, the commandant would sexually abuse some of the boys under his command and Mukengeshayi fell victim to this, compounding the immense trauma experienced in his youth. About a year into the conflict just after his 12th birthday, Mukengeshayi walked in on one of the other child soldiers raping a Lendu woman while he was looking for food with Bakari. Mukengeshayi furiously shot the woman while she was being raped as the perpetrator of the crime erupted in anger. Symbolically, he was shooting himself, beginning to prefer death of the continuation of the abuse he was both facing and perpetuating. This suicidal ideation continued, with Mukengeshayi behaving more recklessly in battles. This bold behavior was praised by his commandant, but scolded by Bakari who was deeply fearful at the thought of losing his best friend.
There was a ceasefire soon after this. However, the break in the fighting came with other problems. Dyilo kept Mukengeshayi’s militia in the region, where they were severely affected by disease and malnutrition. Many died of starvation and measles, including their commandant. He was replaced by another who, fortunately, did not sexually abuse the children. After a year, the conflict quickly reignited and Mukengeshayi again participated in combat alongside his new commandant. After close to another two years, a peace agreement was reached with the pro-government forces won and the Union of Congolese Patriots and the other militant forces being defeated. Mukengeshayi was not upset that his “side” lost as after close to five years of fighting, he still didn’t have a clue what he was fighting for other than his and Bakari’s lives. He was, however, terrified that their commandant would kill them for failing to bring him to victory. Fortunately, this fear was not actualized as both Dyilo and his commandant were indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
A United Nations peacekeeping force brought Mukengeshayi and some of the other child soldiers to a refugee camp. He stayed there for two years, alongside Bakari. They were impoverished and malnourished, but they had enough food to survive and while violence in the camp was certainly existent, it was comparably a peaceful place to be. Mukengeshayi, now a teenager, was not bothered due to his massive size and everybody knew that if they messed with Bakari, they’d have to deal with Mukengeshayi. All of the child soldiers were deeply traumatized by their upbringing and Mukengeshayi in particular found it difficult to try to figure out a life for himself beyond the refugee camp. It was Bakari who suggested they try to immigrate to a western country. As both boys had lived in isolated villages before being conscripted by a militia that did not educate them about the world, they were both relatively unaware of how others outside of Africa lived until the UN peacekeeping mission escorted them to a refugee camp. Bakari had become infatuated with their way of life and after 2 years in the refugee camp began fervently trying to figure out how to gain asylum in one.
Unfortunately, around this time the refugee camp stopped getting grain from the UN and disbanded, with Mukengeshayi and Bakari moving to Kinshasa in an effort to survive. They lived in a small apartment with 3 other men and performed whatever day jobs they could find. Bakari started the process of applying for asylum with any country he could think of during this time, hoping to create a better life for himself. Mukengeshayi, still in a deep depression about the things he’d done and the things that had been done to him, struggled to motivate himself to do the same. Luckily, Bakari was ultimately offered asylum in the United States, where he got work as a caretaker in a live-in hospice facility. Mukengeshayi was devastated at his leaving, although he was happy his friend had an opportunity to lead a better life. He was very lonely for the next year, continuing to live in the tiny, overcrowded apartment and work whatever job he was able to find, subsisting off of scraps. After a year or so, Bakari managed to make contact with him. He explained that while the asylum process was arduous, the care facilities like the one he worked at were deeply understaffed as most Americans did not like that kind of work. He explained that with a little effort, it was likely Mukengeshayi could get a work visa to reside and work in the US. Bakari managed to get his employer to agree to sponsor his friend and Mukengeshayi gratefully took him up on the offer.
Boarding an airplane was a majestic experience for Mukengeshayi and looking down at the world from up above, he truly felt like he was flying away from the old him and becoming a new man. Bakari had an apartment in Baltimore near where he worked and Mukengeshayi moved in, crashing on his couch. While English proved a difficult language, Mukengeshayi managed to pick it up rather quickly due to his multilingual background. Bakari recommended he go by an Americanized name in order to better assimilate and he changed his name to Bob. Bakari went by Ben. Through informally changing his name, Bob again but his past behind him. He got great satisfaction from the work. After witnessing and causing so much death in his early life, he found it meaningful to help people at the end of their lives and assist them in finding peace and comfort and they passed on. As many of the people in the government operated facility spoke Spanish, Bob learned it himself in order to better communicate with some of the residents. He and Ben were poor by American standards, but their quality of life was far superior to anything they had ever experienced before.
Finally living in a peaceful place, Bob began to live a life that was truer to his authentic self. He eschewed his identity as a soldier, adopting a loving view of the world and becoming a friendly face to everybody he encountered. He always had a smile and a kind word to share, and he was well loved by everyone he worked with. Facilities such as the ones he and Ben worked at were constantly negligent in their care, but Bob always went above and beyond for the people he served.
After 9 years of living in America, the zombie apocalypse began and Bob’s life again faced a complete change. Already survivors in their own right, Bob and Ben adapted quicker than most would to the new world order, likely contributing to their survival as many others fell around them. While Bob maintained his more positive world view and sunny disposition, he did begrudgingly realize the need for him to once again become a warrior. He rose up to this need, and alongside Ben fiercely protected the people around them as groups of survivors began to form. As with so many others, he spent the first couple of years witnessing the deaths of the people he’d form makeshift groups with, moving along to other factions of survivors, trying to do what he could to keep himself and the people he loved alive.
Eight years into the apocalypse, he and Ben lived in a well established community of survivors in a secure, fortified high school. It was starting to seem like it might just be a permanent place. However, war soon broke out with another group of survivors spurred by lack of resources. Bob wanted nothing less than to engage in yet another war in his life and voiced his opinion to Ben that they should simply abandon their community and find somewhere else to live. Ben, however, gave his opinion that unlike when they were children, they now knew what they were fighting for and the people around them had become family they couldn’t simply abandon. Bob was willing to leave them, but he was unwilling to leave Ben and ultimately contributed to the war. Sadly, Ben was fatally shot in a battle against the other community. Absolutely inconsolable due to the death of his only true family and the only man who fully understood his experiences, Bob entered into nothing short of a frenzy. In a move that bordered on suicidal, he rushed the enemy head on. Whether it was from dumb luck, or from the enemy simply being paralyzed by fear seeing a man of Bob’s size charge them with absolute unfettered rage in his eyes, Bob managed to kill all the invaders without dying. Without looking back at his people or returning to bury his friend, the large man left with no supplies other than the rifle he had rushed into battle with.
Bob has spent the last four years wandering from place to place as a vagrant. Relatively proficient in first-aid from his work as a caretaker and his subsequent survival experience over the past 12 years, he sometimes works as a nurse in various communities. However, he always moves on. As near as Bob can tell, the only way he can be the friendly, loving man he prefers to be is by simply not sticking around a place long enough to see it inevitably descend into violence. So he travels the country, providing care where he can, and simply moving on when things get too hectic.
Would you like your character to start with any items?
Yes please
A steel war hammer and a battle rifle
Is your character a member of a group?
No
Mukengeshayi Tshiswabantu
I Agree
Yes
Has this character appeared in a previous lore?
No
Age
40
Blood Type
B-
Personality
Mukengeshayi Tshiswabantu, or as he's better known, Bob is a very friendly and personable man. While he initially appears extremely intimidating due to his very large size, this is quickly offset by his sunny disposition and the laughs and smiles he freely gives out to all those he converses with. He is quick to look to both sides of an argument and often finds himself mediating conflict, hoping for a peaceful resolution.
While he does try to see the best in everyone, Bob has faced a love where he has seen unequivocal evil. He believes fully in pure evil and when he sees something he believes meets its definition, he feels no hesitation to violently squash it. While usually an even-tempered man, when he does happen to lose his temper (often only in very extreme situations) it's truly a terrifying sight to behold and often leads in death and destruction.
Character Motivations
Bob is devastated by the loss of his friend four years prior and ever since has been unable to look towards the future with hope. He is of the philosophy that one day the world will be overtaken with evil and humanity shall be eradicated by their own evil ways. However, he figures in the meantime he might as well try to live as loving a life as he's able to and, God willing, even make things a little more pleasant for the people he comes into contact with.
Physical Appearance
Bob is a very big man. He stands at 6'7" and weighs 265 lbs. His build is stout and powerful, with thick muscles protruding from his dark skin. His eyes are dark and his nose is very broad. His hair is long and dreadlocked, and he similarly keeps a long unkept beard on his face. He has a caring smile and kind eyes that do manage to offset his intimidating appearance to some extent. Bob knows that people tend to look towards him with some amount of fear due to his size, and he tries to treat people with immediate kindness to try to balance that trepidation.
Character Image Link
Mechanical Occupation
Doctor
In-Character Occupation
Wanderer / Warrior / Nurse
Biography
Mukengeshayi ‘Bob’ Tshiswabantu was born April 9, 1988 in a small village in Zaire. Despite living in abject poverty, Mukengeshayi had a loving childhood. The third of five children, he was raised by loving parents in a communal fashion where he was closely connected to his whole village. However, Mukengeshayi knew hunger and disease from a very young age, as he lived in a deeply impoverished country. He was an abnormally large baby, and despite suffering from malnutrition went on to be an abnormally large child. While his father was a large man himself, it was evident from even a young age that Mukengeshayi would one day surpass most men in height, and his superstitious people assumed his large size meant a supernatural affinity for fighting. Interestingly, this superstition seemed antithetical to who young Mukengeshayi seemed to be, as he was an excessively loving and friendly child. Unfortunately, fighting would not be far away as the First Congo War broke out as Mukengeshayi was in his eigth year of life. His father would be conscripted to fight and would never be seen again by the family. In fact, most of Mukengeshayi’s village was devastated by the war, with many of the men being sent off to fight and the village subsequently descending into starvation due to the lack of labor.
The war ended a year later, with Zaire becoming the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A little more than a year later, the Second Congo War broke out and the DRC descended into chaos. Mukengeshayi’s village was on the brink of annihilation when the Union of Congolese Patriots sent part of their forces through. Mukengeshayi was conscripted into their militia at the age of 10. Already growing up in a multilingual society, Mukengeshayi quickly learned Swahili to communicate with the other conscripted children in addition to his native Tshiluba and the national language of French. As would be expected, Mukengeshayi despised his new cruel reality. However, he adapted even slower than many of the other children, seeming to have an almost intrinsic friendly disposition that was contradictory to the role he found himself thrust in. It’s entirely possible that other children who were as slow to adapt might’ve been left in the jungle to starve, however Mukengeshayi’s size worked in his favor, with the commandant willing to spend extra time to break him despite his aversion to violence. Mukengeshayi was with the militia for close to a year without being engaged in direct combat and due to his large size was able to effectively use an assault rifle despite his young age.
Under the leadership of Thomas Lubanga Dyilo, Mukengeshayi’s commandant was sent to participate in the Ituri conflict. Ostensibly fighting on behalf of the Hema ethnic group against the Lendu people, neither Mukengeshayi nor the other children he fought with had any idea who they were fighting or why. They just knew their commandant required them to fight. It was an exceptionally brutal conflict with large scale massacres perpetrated by both sides. War crimes were common, and many of the older boys alongside Mukengeshayi raped and murdered Lendu villagers. Mukengeshayi always fought dutifully alongside the UCP, but after the battle was over he often found some food to pillage with his friend Bakari and stayed away from the other, more egregious war crimes. Bakari and Mukengeshayi would simply hole up talking or playing with any soccer balls they’d manage to find and wait to be told by their commandant that it was time to move on to the next place.
The Ituri conflict was particularly brutal, ultimately leading to over 50,000 deaths. Mukengeshayi participated in lots of combat during this time. At first, he’d intentionally miss but after constant admonishments by his commandant coupled with diminished food rations as a consequence and the witnessing of many of his new friends being murdered by the other side, Mukengeshayi eventually began shooting to kill. Unfortunately, the commandant would sexually abuse some of the boys under his command and Mukengeshayi fell victim to this, compounding the immense trauma experienced in his youth. About a year into the conflict just after his 12th birthday, Mukengeshayi walked in on one of the other child soldiers raping a Lendu woman while he was looking for food with Bakari. Mukengeshayi furiously shot the woman while she was being raped as the perpetrator of the crime erupted in anger. Symbolically, he was shooting himself, beginning to prefer death of the continuation of the abuse he was both facing and perpetuating. This suicidal ideation continued, with Mukengeshayi behaving more recklessly in battles. This bold behavior was praised by his commandant, but scolded by Bakari who was deeply fearful at the thought of losing his best friend.
There was a ceasefire soon after this. However, the break in the fighting came with other problems. Dyilo kept Mukengeshayi’s militia in the region, where they were severely affected by disease and malnutrition. Many died of starvation and measles, including their commandant. He was replaced by another who, fortunately, did not sexually abuse the children. After a year, the conflict quickly reignited and Mukengeshayi again participated in combat alongside his new commandant. After close to another two years, a peace agreement was reached with the pro-government forces won and the Union of Congolese Patriots and the other militant forces being defeated. Mukengeshayi was not upset that his “side” lost as after close to five years of fighting, he still didn’t have a clue what he was fighting for other than his and Bakari’s lives. He was, however, terrified that their commandant would kill them for failing to bring him to victory. Fortunately, this fear was not actualized as both Dyilo and his commandant were indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.
A United Nations peacekeeping force brought Mukengeshayi and some of the other child soldiers to a refugee camp. He stayed there for two years, alongside Bakari. They were impoverished and malnourished, but they had enough food to survive and while violence in the camp was certainly existent, it was comparably a peaceful place to be. Mukengeshayi, now a teenager, was not bothered due to his massive size and everybody knew that if they messed with Bakari, they’d have to deal with Mukengeshayi. All of the child soldiers were deeply traumatized by their upbringing and Mukengeshayi in particular found it difficult to try to figure out a life for himself beyond the refugee camp. It was Bakari who suggested they try to immigrate to a western country. As both boys had lived in isolated villages before being conscripted by a militia that did not educate them about the world, they were both relatively unaware of how others outside of Africa lived until the UN peacekeeping mission escorted them to a refugee camp. Bakari had become infatuated with their way of life and after 2 years in the refugee camp began fervently trying to figure out how to gain asylum in one.
Unfortunately, around this time the refugee camp stopped getting grain from the UN and disbanded, with Mukengeshayi and Bakari moving to Kinshasa in an effort to survive. They lived in a small apartment with 3 other men and performed whatever day jobs they could find. Bakari started the process of applying for asylum with any country he could think of during this time, hoping to create a better life for himself. Mukengeshayi, still in a deep depression about the things he’d done and the things that had been done to him, struggled to motivate himself to do the same. Luckily, Bakari was ultimately offered asylum in the United States, where he got work as a caretaker in a live-in hospice facility. Mukengeshayi was devastated at his leaving, although he was happy his friend had an opportunity to lead a better life. He was very lonely for the next year, continuing to live in the tiny, overcrowded apartment and work whatever job he was able to find, subsisting off of scraps. After a year or so, Bakari managed to make contact with him. He explained that while the asylum process was arduous, the care facilities like the one he worked at were deeply understaffed as most Americans did not like that kind of work. He explained that with a little effort, it was likely Mukengeshayi could get a work visa to reside and work in the US. Bakari managed to get his employer to agree to sponsor his friend and Mukengeshayi gratefully took him up on the offer.
Boarding an airplane was a majestic experience for Mukengeshayi and looking down at the world from up above, he truly felt like he was flying away from the old him and becoming a new man. Bakari had an apartment in Baltimore near where he worked and Mukengeshayi moved in, crashing on his couch. While English proved a difficult language, Mukengeshayi managed to pick it up rather quickly due to his multilingual background. Bakari recommended he go by an Americanized name in order to better assimilate and he changed his name to Bob. Bakari went by Ben. Through informally changing his name, Bob again but his past behind him. He got great satisfaction from the work. After witnessing and causing so much death in his early life, he found it meaningful to help people at the end of their lives and assist them in finding peace and comfort and they passed on. As many of the people in the government operated facility spoke Spanish, Bob learned it himself in order to better communicate with some of the residents. He and Ben were poor by American standards, but their quality of life was far superior to anything they had ever experienced before.
Finally living in a peaceful place, Bob began to live a life that was truer to his authentic self. He eschewed his identity as a soldier, adopting a loving view of the world and becoming a friendly face to everybody he encountered. He always had a smile and a kind word to share, and he was well loved by everyone he worked with. Facilities such as the ones he and Ben worked at were constantly negligent in their care, but Bob always went above and beyond for the people he served.
After 9 years of living in America, the zombie apocalypse began and Bob’s life again faced a complete change. Already survivors in their own right, Bob and Ben adapted quicker than most would to the new world order, likely contributing to their survival as many others fell around them. While Bob maintained his more positive world view and sunny disposition, he did begrudgingly realize the need for him to once again become a warrior. He rose up to this need, and alongside Ben fiercely protected the people around them as groups of survivors began to form. As with so many others, he spent the first couple of years witnessing the deaths of the people he’d form makeshift groups with, moving along to other factions of survivors, trying to do what he could to keep himself and the people he loved alive.
Eight years into the apocalypse, he and Ben lived in a well established community of survivors in a secure, fortified high school. It was starting to seem like it might just be a permanent place. However, war soon broke out with another group of survivors spurred by lack of resources. Bob wanted nothing less than to engage in yet another war in his life and voiced his opinion to Ben that they should simply abandon their community and find somewhere else to live. Ben, however, gave his opinion that unlike when they were children, they now knew what they were fighting for and the people around them had become family they couldn’t simply abandon. Bob was willing to leave them, but he was unwilling to leave Ben and ultimately contributed to the war. Sadly, Ben was fatally shot in a battle against the other community. Absolutely inconsolable due to the death of his only true family and the only man who fully understood his experiences, Bob entered into nothing short of a frenzy. In a move that bordered on suicidal, he rushed the enemy head on. Whether it was from dumb luck, or from the enemy simply being paralyzed by fear seeing a man of Bob’s size charge them with absolute unfettered rage in his eyes, Bob managed to kill all the invaders without dying. Without looking back at his people or returning to bury his friend, the large man left with no supplies other than the rifle he had rushed into battle with.
Bob has spent the last four years wandering from place to place as a vagrant. Relatively proficient in first-aid from his work as a caretaker and his subsequent survival experience over the past 12 years, he sometimes works as a nurse in various communities. However, he always moves on. As near as Bob can tell, the only way he can be the friendly, loving man he prefers to be is by simply not sticking around a place long enough to see it inevitably descend into violence. So he travels the country, providing care where he can, and simply moving on when things get too hectic.
Would you like your character to start with any items?
Yes please
A steel war hammer and a battle rifle
Is your character a member of a group?
No
