TheChicagoChronicles:James
Name: James Cahill
Tribe: Bone Shadows
Auspice: Irraka
Virtue: Faith
Vice: Gluttony
Attributes (Power/Finesse/Resistance)
Mental
Intelligence: 3
Wits: 3
Resolve: 3 - 15 XP Spent
Physical
Strength: 2
Dexterity: 2
Stamina: 2
Social
Presence: 2
Manipulation: 2
Composure: 3
Skills
Academics: 3 (Philo)
Computer: 1
Investigation: 2
Medicine: 2
Occult: 1
Science: 2 (Bio)
Athletics: 1
Brawl: 1 - 3XP Spent
Stealth: 1
Survival: 2 (Navigation)
Animal Ken: 1
Empathy: 2
Persuasion: 2
Socialize: 1
Subterfuge: 1 (Misdirection) - Auspice Bonus
Merits
Encyclopedic Knowledge: 4
Languages: 1 (First Tongue) - 3 XP Spent
Resources: 1 - 3 XP Spent
Totem 3 - 9 XP Spent
Advantages
Defense: 2
Initiative: 5
Speed: 9
Size: 5
Harmony: 7
Health: 8
Willpower: 6
Primal Urge: 2 - 3 Merit Points Spent
Renown
Wisdom: 2
Cunning: 1
Gifts
Death Sight (Death 1)
Loose Tongue (Evasion 1)
Rituals 1
Rites
Funeral Rite
Rite of Dedication - 2 XP
History/Personality
James Cahill was born in a small town in Nova Scotia (that's on Canada's east coast, for those not too familiar with geography up here). The town wasn't exactly the most interesting place in the world, unless you had an affection for fishing, so James took to spending a great deal of time exploring. Hiking, camping, a little bit of rock climbing...James did it all. From an early age, he'd spend hours wandering the surrounding wilderness. He never really seemed to be interested in looking for anything in particular, but always seemed to find something that interested him. One day it was a dead bird. This seemingly insignifcant event (after all, how many of us haven't seen a dead bird?) deeply affected the person James became. From a year young age, he had an understanding of the value, and fragility of life that many people don't acquire until their lives are almost over. Rather than being scared of dying, as most young children might be, James became absolutely fascinated with it. Not in a creepy 'lets squish lots of bugs for fun' way. He saw it, even then, as a great mystery of life, an unanswerable question, an unsolvable riddle. He developed a fascination with life and death, their relationship, their transition, and their epilogue, and as he entered high school he began to study countless texts on the subject, both from a scientific and philosophical perspective.
James was not the most enthusiastic student the world has ever seen. He never really found the environement too stimulating. He did, however, spend an undue amount of time in the school library. At this point in his life, he had seen most of what there was to see in and around his small town, and he now turned his attention to more academic pursuits, devouring a huge amount of information on a wide variety of subjects. There was no real method to this reading; rather, he would simply read whatever seemed interesting to him during a given week. Despite his relative disinterest in school, he made it out with reasonably good marks, and earned himself entrance into the University of Toronto. However, he elected to defer his acceptance for a year, and spent the time backpacking across Europe, exploring what the world had to offer him.
He set off on this journey with no real goal in mind, beyond seeing what the world had to offer. He certainly had no grandiose idea of 'finding himself.' Much to his surprise, he not only ended up finding out more about himself than he'd ever know, but he ended up discovering the answer to a question that he'd never really known he had, one that had been lurking at the back of his mind since the day he had the brainpower to ask it: "What else is out there?". It was during this time that James experienced his first change. It was shortly after this that he encountered the first creature like him, a Bone Shadow named Brian. Brian taught him the ways of the Uratha, and the ways of the spirit. It was the latter that particularly fascinated him. Here was a whole other world, full of ancient creatures posessing untold knowledge. It was like showing a little kid the world's biggest candy store. He travelled with Brian for several months, learning everything he could from him, and, particularly, from any spirits the pair encountered.
Eventually, his cross continent journey ended, and he returned home to attend university. He might be a werewolf, but he'd be damned if that let him get in the way of his education. He saw university as a place where he could study that which genuinely interested him, and, after dabbling in several fields, ended up graduating with a double major in Life Sciences and Philosophy. After completing his undergraduate studies, he was accepted to Med School at the University of Chicago. He attended for two years, before electing to drop out, due to a dissatisfaction with the nature of the education (he found himself frequently busy with things that didn't interest him) and, more importantly, due to an inability to juggle university and the burden of being an Uratha. Following this decision, he procured a job in the city Morgue as an attendant, where he has been working for (1 year + the number of months between the most recent june and whatever month the campaign begins in). It can be tedious at times, but he finds that it allows him a great deal of time to study the dead, even though he has come to seriosuly doubt how much can be learned from physical remains (the real answers, he has come to largely believe, are found in the spirit), plus on slow days he can often find time to read on the job - always a plus. These benefits make up for the occasional tedium. In his downtime, he tries to spend time whenever possible conversing an interacting with the spirit world. He rarely is looking for any particular piece of advice/information/whatever, but this never matters. In his own words: "The biggest problem with most Uratha, my own tribemates included, is that they never bother to talk with a spirit unless they're looking for something in particular. They have so much to teach us, if we'd just shut the fuck up and listen to whatever they're saying every now and again. You should try it sometime. You'd be surprised."
James can, to the casual observer, come across as fairly grim. He tends to keep to himself, and keep quiet, unless he has a reason otherwise. This is, however, a misinterpretation. James is a rather positive fellow, believing in the value of life, and carpe-ing the diem, and all that good stuff. He's just not loud about it. Nor is he the type to make friends at the drop of a hat, but if he choses to become associated with anyone, he is the most devoted and loyal friend/packmate/comcpanion you could ask for. This will, however, not stop him from questioning anything an everything one of his companions, even his pack Alpha, might say. James is rarely the first to propose and idea/plan/whatever, but he's always the first to point out a flaw in someone else's. He does this out of no sense of malice, but simply out of the belief that it must be done, and that if he doesn't do it, no one will.
Unlike many lovers of learning, James is hardly the type to sit around all day with his head burried in a book. To him, much about life can be learned from experiencing it, and more can be learned from a person than from words on a page (though words on a page can be extremely valueable if an expert on a particular topic is unavailable). James has a strong, although quiet, passion for a life, and a very genuine personality, characterstics that many people find endearing. He finds people fairly easy to get along with, and can often convince them to open up about things (he tends not to care what), usually without resorting to deception, though he does have a talent for misdirection and confusion when he choses to employ it.
