Character:Martin Appleby

Game: Exalted The End of an Age.

Name: Martin Appleby
Caste: Dawn
Concept: Gangleader done good
Description: Martin is an easy figure to pick out in a crowd: tall, black, with a shaved head, and a characteristic even expression. His clothing is inobvious and understated; his body language is reserved and calm, and is the sort of stance that comes from indifference to one's own strength rather than the desire to broadcast it.

Motivation

• Clean up the city and make it right for decent people.

Intimacies

• The Gang (paternal fondness)
• His Neighborhood (protective)

Anima

• An eagle with metallic golden feathers, wings spread wide.

Attributes

• Strength 5, Dexterity 5, Stamina 2
• Charisma 3, Manipulation 2, Appearance 3
• Perception 3, Intelligence 2, Wits 5

Abilities

• Firearms 3, Martial Arts 5, Melee 0, Thrown 0, War 3
• Integrity 3, Performance 0, Presence 5, Resistance 1, Survival 0
• Academics 3, Computers 0, Craft 0, Investigation 0, Medicine 1
• Awareness 1, Athletics 3, Dodge 5, Larceny 2, Stealth 0
• Bureaucracy 0, Linguistics 1 (English, Spanish), Ride 0, Sail 0, Socialize 3

Backgrounds

Followers 2

• Sixteen gangers follow Martin, including those who survived the assault that saw him draw his Second Breath and those who were drawn to him afterward. They're reasonably skilled fighters/skirmishes with some experience on the hard streets of Terminal City and gang warfare.

Resources 2

• Martin has a neat income from the remnants of his vice operations. He had a higher level at one point, but he's increasingly turned his resources to bettering his neighborhood.

Influence 2

Martin is well known within the seedier parts of Terminal City as someone dedicated to fairness and the integrity of the people within it-- not because he believes it is right, but because he believes it is far more efficient. He has even occasionally cooperated with the Terminal City's police department to get rid of disruptive influences-- an activity unheard of in the poorer areas.

Cult 1

The miraculous nature of Martin's Exaltation is a public secret in his neighborhood, and unbeknownst to him, some of the more faithful people offer prayers to him in hopes that he will save them if they are in trouble. While Martin -has- been aware he's felt a little more energy every day, he's no idea that their "hero worship" is responsible for this.

Charms

UNIVERSAL: Solar Essence Overwhelming - Counts as the First Excellency for all Abilities rated 1+.

CHUNG SOLAR HERO FORM[1]: Fists of Iron Technique, Sledgehammer Fist Punch, Dragon Coil Technique, Solar Hero Form,

WAR: Mob-Dispersing Rebuke, Rout-Stemming Gesture

INTEGRITY: Temptation-Resisting Stance

PRESENCE: Hypnotic Tongue Technique, You Can Be More

ACADEMICS: Spirit-Detecting Glance

ATHLETICS: Monkey Leap Technique, Graceful Crane Stance, Lightning Speed, Increasing Strength Exercise

DODGE: Shadow Over Water **, Seven Shadows Evasion

SOCIALIZE: Wise-Eyed Courtier Method

Essence

• Permanent Essence: 3
  • Personal Motes: 13/18
  • Peripheral Motes: 43/43

Willpower

9 of 9

Virtues

• Compassion: 2
• Conviction: 2
• Temperance: 5
• Valor: 4

Limit Break

• Overindulgence : The character indulges himself at every hedonistic opportunity, and if no such opportunities are present, they go out in search of them, ignoring everything else up to and sometimes including threats to their life.

• Partial Control: The character can participate in essential activities, but every spare moment is devoted to indulgence; drinking on duty can be avoided, but the hangover cannot.

• Duration: One Day
• Limit Break Condition: Character refuses a favored temptation to act in a moral fashion.
• Limit 0/10

Equipment

• Semiautomatic pistol: Acc 8+wep, Dam wep, Def -, Rate 2
• Fists of Iron Punch: Speed 5, Accuracy 3, Damage +5B/L, Defense +2, Rate 5, P (Acc 13, Damage +10B)
• Fists of Iron Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 2, Damage +9B/L, Defense -2, Rate 4, P (Acc 12, Damage +14B)
• Fists of Iron Clinch: Speed 6, Accuracy 2, Damage +6B/L, Rate 2, C, P (Acc 12, Damage +7B)

Combat Stats

Physical

• Join Battle 6
• DDV 6

Soak

• Charms/Spells: None
• Unarmoured: 5B/2L
• Armoured: None

Health

• Charms:
• -0 [ ]
• -1 [ ] [ ]
• -2 [ ] [ ]
• -4 [ ]
• I [ ]
• D [ ] [ ]

Social

• Join Debate 6
• MDDV 8

• Investigation -Speed 5 ACC 3 / MPDV / Rate 2-
• Performance -Speed 6 ACC 3/ MPDV / Rate 1-
• Presence -Speed 4 ACC 8 / MPDV / Rate 2-

Massive

• Join War 6

History

"If you gonna survive, you gotta keep your head. No matter who you talkin' to, no matter what sort of #@^% be going on, the moment you fly off the handle, you are dead."

This was the one piece of information that Martin's father taught him that meant a lick of anything. Martin grew up like most of the other children in his neighborhood-- on the wrong edge of poverty with no way out. School is a joke. Work is a sucker's game, because all that means you do is get married to someone you knocked up and become forced to slave away to someone else's dance, someone else's rhythm, and someone else's profit. It was almost inevitable that Martin joined a gang of like-minded deviants (as nearly all boys in his neighborhood did before they turned sixteen). What set him apart was that Martin was unusually cool-headed and capable of seeing the big score, and this patience allowed him to make his mark far more decisively... without getting caught. His patience kept him from being arrested even once, and his talent for improvised violence allowed him to attain and retain a leadership position (never acting rashly, and always acting conclusively). Though he retired from the thug lifestyle at twenty-three, he continued to actively police his neighborhood when police wouldn't-- enforcing order with a few like-minded adults and recruits, doing his damndest to keep the crime-minded's attention out of their own neighborhood ("Do not profit on the backs of your neighbor" was a cardinal rule), both local and larger-scale. He was liked, he was alive, and though he traded in vice he was always aware that he handled snakes. The neighborhood's prospects were almost looking up.

Then came the bloodsuckers, and everything went to pot.

It was a losing battle from the start. They were never entirely subtle, but they were rich, and they shared that wealth-- and people who would have refused a dose of heroin did not say no to a shot of blood. Martin led the counterattack as they brought the old ways of vice and strife back, but they were better armed and trained, and the will of his people faltered when they saw friends and family drawn into their net as well. Even as his allies were falling away, Martin continued onwards-- dragging the police into the fight until they were brought under the spell, working in threes and fours to avoid being pinned down as possible. He had sworn he would keep outsiders out; he was going to stick to his word. This was HIS neighborhood.

While Martin was clever, and never stayed for long in any given place, it was inevitable that his enemies would find him. When they came for him, they did so with truly overwhelming force-- Blood-fattened rival gangers, thugs from larger organized syndicates, and even a vampire or two directing the assault. Escape was impossible. No mortal man had the power to stand against all of them them-- defeat was inevitable and unavoidable. Knowing that he was standing across the aisle from death, Martin strode forth anyway... and much to everyone's surprise, the power of the Unconquered Sun stood with him as well. He was Chosen, made radiant, and no mere scrap of darkness can stand against the Exalted.

The vampires don't come to his neighborhood in Parkside anymore-- and Martin has found the breathing room to make a big decision. He doesn't know quite what he's become, but he knows he's been given the power to make things right. He will no longer be content with resisting the oppression of the White man-- when that time comes, he will speak, and they will heed him, in that they have no choice. Now, he has been given the power to take night and day back from shadows and worse. Too long has he satisfied himself with fighting a holding battle; now, it is time to go on the offensive, one inexorable step at a time, and God help anyone who steps in his way.

Personality

Martin is not a man given to frequent strong emotion, nor to spontaneous impulse. He is a study in self-control and channeling his motivations into long-term plans and slow burns. He answers insult with retribution and seldom turns down a challenge, though he will execute it on his own terms-- to him, it doesn't matter whether he beats the tar out of someone challenging his authority or verbally lambastes them such that they feel small as a child, so long as they understand his supremacy. He is not a warm person or an open one, but he is also a fair one-- sometimes mercilessly so.

Experience 108/110

Attributes - Total 12

• Manipulation 2 - 4XP
• Intelligence 2 - 4XP
• Stamina 2 - 4XP

Abilities - Total 14

• Athletics 2, 3, 4 - 1XP, 3XP, 5XP
• Academics 2, 3 - 1XP, 3XP
• Socialize 2, 3 - 2XP, 4XP

Advantages - Total 19

• Conviction 2 - 3XP
• Essence 3 - 16XP

Backgrounds

• None

Charms - Total 50

• Shadow Over Water/Seven Shadows Evasion Charm equivalency (Glories of the Most High: TUS) -> 2XP
• Solar Hero Form - 8XP
• Combo Day's First Light (SSE 4, 1stMAE 1, SFP 3, DCT, Solar Hero Form) - 14XP
• Spirit-Detecting Glance - 8XP
• Wise-Eyed Courtier's Method - 10XP
• Increasing Strength Exercise - 8XP
• You Can Be More - 8XP

Spells

• None