Capering Shadows of Dark Intent

Name: Capering Shadows of Dark Intent
Age: 30
Exaltation/Caste: Day Caste Abyssal
Affiliations: Eye and Seven Despairs, Neverborn


Bio:

The man who would one day become Capering Shadows was born to a middle class family on the Blessed Isle. Raised in a family of entertainers, he quickly learned the simple things of his future profession such as telling tales, performing, and various other skills expected of those who sought a living entertaining others. As he grew older, his skill grew until he was able to entertain more than just those taking a passing interest on the streets.

Those of noble blood and wealthy merchants invited him into their homes and parties, hiring him on to entertain their guests and bring joy and merriment to the gathering. He did so with fervor and gusto, slowly gaining a minor renown as a jester of skill and grace. His name grew until the local nobles learned of his abilities and, soon, he was called upon to put them to the test.

Invited among the lords and ladies of the region, he once again was hired to bring his skills to the fore. To his credit, he left every guest with laughter and smiles and his own coin purse heavy with pay. It was a fine living and a reliable one, but like all such tales it was not to last.

The problem with entertaining the noble families of the land is that, in some form or another, there is the risk of stumbling onto their political intrigue. During one party he'd been hired to entertain, the man who would become Capering Shadows stood to the side of the room, resting between performances. There, near the tables, he overheard a pair speaking quietly to each other. At first, he ignored the two, but soon enough curiosity emerged victorious and he found his ears perking up at the whispers. What he heard mortified him. A plot of assassination and death, one that would leave the region destabilized slightly, but enough that another noble family could inch their way into more power and land. He finished his work at the gathering, leaving the party in merriment once more, and steeled himself to warn the victims of the plot to their imminent demise.

He never made it out of the city.

Unknown to him, he'd been watched. Another had seen his eavesdropping on the scheming pair and followed him, believing the renowned entertainer to be a spy. When the jester packed his things to leave the city, suspicions seemed to be confirmed. The jester was struck over the head as he left the city that night and woke up in chains.

For many days he was tormented and tortured, beaten senseless only to wake once more to hellish persecution. His torturers demanded his confession, burned his skin to elicit lies that could later be used as truths. To his credit, the jester refused to give in and withstood the pain and hurt all the while. When it was seen that he would not break under such harsh treatment, an alternative method was concocted. A plan was put forward and the jester was rendered unconscious.

When he woke, he did so on the floor of a grand estate. The marble was the finest cut and fit in the region and gilded ornaments festooned the walls and ceiling of the room. It was a place of wealth and power, but to his horror it had been twisted into a horrid facsimile of a charnel house. The intended victims of the plot he had sought to warn lay around him, their throats cut and bodies mutilated. Blood pooled on the rich floor and he found, to his terror, that his body was covered in the crimson fluid. He wore clothes he'd never seen before and saw that in his hands were knives that were not his. In a brief, horrible moment he realized that the murderers that had hoped to force him to confess to the future murders had settled for framing him of the deed.

Before he could act, the doors flew open and he was taken once more into rooms of torment and torture. For days he professed his innocence and for days more they slowly broke his mind and body until both reached their breaking point. As he hung motionless from the wall, his tormentors done with their task for a short time, the jester lost himself in the halls of his mind. His body was badly broken and racked by fever. He'd been starved and denied water. He could feel himself on the verge of death. Death would take him, one who had sought only to bring happiness to the world. A man who had only tried to help, not harm. Never harm. And now he was here in this room being beaten and tortured for a deed he did not commit by the very people he had sought to warn. He reached an epiphany then. A small, tiny realization in the depths of his weary mind. It formed a fine, thin crack in his psyche, one that could easily have been overlooked; ignored. Healed over a small time and put in the past. But for the poor merry-maker it was just enough, a slight tip in the scales. The final nudge.

Madness took him and, in the process, he felt he understood the world then. Creation, life, death, peace, war, despair, happiness... they were all lines in a joke, a method to slowly work the audience up to the punchline that elicited laughter from dozens and scores of onlookers. Only now he was the joke, not the joker.

Sanity left him in the form of laughter and as he felt his life slip away, a small tug pulled at his very being. At first, he felt it was death finally coming for him and willingly gave himself to it. In a way, he was right. Death did take him and gifted him something new. He Exalted there in the dungeons beneath the very earth, chained to a wall and beaten to the verge of death.

When his torturers returned to continue their task, they found the manacles empty. A search was conducted, but he was never found. Stories began cropping up, as they often do, about his escape. Some said he was taken by dark spirits, others claimed he had friends how finally managed to rescue him and usher him out of the city. A darker rumor spread that he perished and his body faded away, only to haunt those in death who had harmed him in life. Most scoffed at the concept until a pair of nobles were found only a few days later, hung from the rafters of their rooms like marionettes, their faces pulled into hysteric grins and their throats cut.

And thus Capering Shadows of Dark Intent was brought into creation, viewed by many a walking paradox. He felt the pull of his master, the Deathlord Eye and Seven Despairs and the one who had given him the gifts he now bore, and slowly made his way to his liege's side. While only there for a short time, he learned much from his dark master and the other Abyssals around him. Unfortunately, he was away when his master was cast into the void, but Shadows felt it. He felt the sensation as his liege was disposed of, the link broken and shattered.

Though Exalted, a mind already cracked and warped could not take such a blow, such as it were. Shadow's mind fractured further and he fled. He sought the darkness that had healed him, warmed him when he had first found it in the dungeons of the past. Deep in caves and tunnels and ruins he lurked, a shade of his former self. The few to hear him spoke of gibbering laughter in shadows, cackling to itself at some unheard joke or of distant roaring as he cursed himself, his existence, and the master who had given it to him.

After some time passed, the stories stopped and were forgotten. Instead, rumors of strange happenings abounded. Seemingly random and bizarre killings ran rampant, moving from town to town and city to city, all with no real relation to each other save one aspect: each victim was hung like a marionette, their faces locked in a smile and their throats cut from ear to ear.


Appearance:

A tall, pale figure in the garb of a court jester, Capering Shadows is an eerie, strange man. Many consider him eccentric, but many others consider him very, very mad. He is often hard to find, preferring to move unseen and unheard in the shadows. When he can be found, however, he often alternates between long periods of stillness, silent save for quiet breathing and bursts of energy where he can be seen skipping, laughing, dancing, and singing, seemingly to others, but entirely to himself.


Potential Plot Hooks:

He's an insane abyssal serving a Deathlord who is considered deceased and roaming about the Realm and Creation. He's also technically a serial killer and deranged murderer.


Character Sheet