Luighseach Aduaidh

[Luighseach Aduaidh]

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LUIGHSEACH ADUAIDH
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"Some call me a sinner for the things I've done
Born with a heart of stone, fast with a gun
I'm here to get mine, then I'll leave this town
If you're standing in my way, I'll cut you down"

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BASIC INFORMATION

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full name-
Luighseach Aduaidh
nicknames-
Lulu, Lee, Death, Crom Dubh, Gan Ceann, The Thirteenth Rider, The Huntsman, The Headless Horseman
gender-
male
age-
1575 years
sexual orientation-
asexual
occupation-

~ Court courier (former)
~ Thirteenth Rider of the Wild Hunt (former)

~ Mercenary/supernatural hitman (current)
Race Fae (Dullahan)
height-
6"2
build-
lean, athletic, long-limbed
hair-
black
eyes-
dark brown
distinguishing marks-
 his “head” is detachable. It also contains his heart, which is the only part of the dullahan that can be fatally wounded. The head is distinctly humanoid but incredibly tough and durable. Its skin is yellowed and phosphorescent; its cavernous mouth, which is permanently stretched in an unnaturally large grin, leads nowhere and lacks a tongue. Its eyes are flat black and dart around erratically in their sockets, never staying fixated on one thing for more than a few fleeting seconds at a time. Its hair is a similar shade, long and cord-like; it's significantly denser than human hair, and the dullahan actually uses it to tie his head onto his belt on occasion.
playby-
Gabriel Garko

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RACIAL TRAITS

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Powers

• 
  Luighseach's head  is notorious for dissolving and absorbing any matter - organic or inorganic - that is placed within it.
• resistance to extreme heat and cold[/li}
  [li]Can enter homes/cross thresholds without permission (unless properly warded)
• Personal 'steed'/Familiar (tends to appear in the form of a fiery black mare, though a horse-drawn carriage and a motorcycle have also been recorded)
  [li]Supernatural strength/speed
• 'Unbarrable' - locked gates/doors fly open before him (unless properly warded)
• Recognizes souls of those about to die (can look at a mortal and see their death date, while his head is in his possession)
• Short-distance Teleportation (only up to a 5 mile span, and then he has to recharge; it's more for hasty getaways, abrupt entrances and generally being unsettling than a method of travel)
• Immortality - can only be killed by being stabbed through the heart with a gold object (except a dullahan's 'heart' isn't in his chest; it's in his head, which is a defence not so easily breached)
• Glamour (can create temporary sensory illusions such as appearing to set things ablaze, 'encourage' attention of mortals and lower class immortals to slide past him, and give himself convincingly human features)
  [li]Fire affinity (contact-based, most notably used to heat the surface of his weapons; he can also use it to light cigarettes, or people who dare to touch him without permission. His Glamour-made flames are more impressive and less draining, though, so he seldom actually sets things on fire.)
• Head and body have a low-level telepathic bond (like magnets, they quite literally attract each other)
• Dullahan head gives holder supernatural sight (seeing the true visages of demons/sidhe, seeing the distinctive ‘stain’ of magic on objects/affected areas) , limited teleportation (no more than a few hundred feet at a time for mortals, drains holder’s energy and takes several hours to recharge) – and a constant running commentary. Also rumoured to hide the holder from Death’s gaze (essentially granting immortality – but not invulnerability, and certainly not invisibility from the supernatural masses who notice the head’s intermittent flares of residual magic…)

Skills

• seasoned ambidexterous fighter
• Proficient with several weapons, most notably the broadaxe, broadsword, arakh, and war scythe
• Experienced navigator (when you travel long distances on a regular basis, you develop an uncanny sense of direction)
• polylingual; speaks over a dozen languages
• Swift at deciphering/translating ancient - and usually dead - languages (as a hobby)

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MENTAL TRAITS

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personality-

• Dry, sardonic humour
• Not one for small talk
• Patient as a stone
• Calm cunning
• Honour-bound
• Wrathful when wronged
• Looks after his own

strengths-

• Astute
• Swift learner
• Versatile; adapts easily to the new and the unexpected
• Strong focus; does not give up and does not get distracted easily
• High pain tolerance
• Seldom loses his cool

weaknesses-

• Proud
• Vengeful
• When he does lose his temper, he really loses it - the results are both catastrophic and fatal
• Struggles to relax and drop out of Work Mode
• Struggles with being in the limelight in any social setting due to his quiet and introverted nature
• Prefers to be on the periphery of things; balks and physically distances himself whenever others attempt to connect with him on an emotional level
• His head (it is, surprise, surprise, detachable, meaning he is liable to lose it or have it stolen, which a sore loss, as it holds a significant amount of his 'magic bank' - and contains the only part of him that is actually considered a fatal spot)
  [li]Vindictive when provoked
• Holds grudges
• Water - as a fire-elemental sidhe, Luighseach would rather make a fifty mile detour than cross a ten-foot wide river. He's not even keen on bridges. (Rain puts him in foul humour.)
• Makes enemies easily
• Cannot teleport when someone is looking at him/the space he is about to occupy (hence 'blink and he's gone', and the creepy, 'he's behind me isn't he')
• Gold phobia (the smell of it sends him into a nervous sweat; the very sight of it sends him into a hasty retreat and if a gate or door’s hinges are made out of pure gold, he cannot – will not - enter through it)
• Suspicious and disinclined to take leaps of faith
• Stubborn
• Can be summoned and forced to appear by other sidhe (and witches/mages, if powerful enough)
• Cannot lie when asked a direct question (although he can deflect or simply refuse to answer)
• Dying individuals can see through his glamour (essentially he cannot hide from them any more than they can hide from him)
• Can be bound/kept at bay by an old black magic spell (involving human sacrifices); cannot cross thresholds that have been warded against him
• Tends to have a negative (ie, technology-frying) effect on electronic devices
• Unable to return to the Sidhe realm
• In circumstances where his head and body are separated, he experiences a kind of tunnel-vision where the only thing he can do is continuously, obsessively search for his head until he recovers it again. Everything else loses all importance.

likes-

• Alcohol
• History
• Literature
• Travelling
• Fire
• The Wild Hunt
• Acquiring knowledge
• Cold, dry nights
• Dramatic entrances
• Card games (although he’s not the gambling type)
• Food (if it's edible, he'll eat it, albeit a dullahan's definition of 'edible' is a lot broader in its horizons than that of mortals’...)
• Respect (doesn't everyone?)
• Good mannered strangers
• the Lá Samhain festival/All Hallows Eve
• His Familiar, Luned
• Violence (a lot more than he'd ever care to admit. There's a certain primal rush to bloodshed that he's never been able to quash...)

dislikes-

• Liars (he perceives a lie to be the ultimate form of disrespect; attempts to deceive him will cost you dearly)
• Hypocrites
  
• Being bound (by magic or by physical means)
• Being bribed/blackmailed
• Thieves
• Domestic animals (unlike their wild brethren who either flee or go statue-still at his approach, most pets – dogs and horses in particular - tend to freak out. It can be...inconvenient.)
• Intervening parties (odds are, if you don't get out of his way, you'll get decapitated.)
• Goblins(they get under his feet and make him lose his head. Literally.)
• Tombs (just because he’s associated with death, doesn’t mean he’s into it. Architecture aside, they’re dank and awfully boring.)
• Anarchy does not appeal (he's a calculated, methodical kind of guy who prefers to be in control of the situation – although he's not above using a little chaos to his advantage...)
• Arrogance
• Poor manners
• ’The Headless Horseman Response’ (a common reaction when humans discover that his 'real' head doesn’t necessarily need to be attached to his body - or discover what he is in general – that almost inevitably leads to much panic and him getting shot at)

fears-

• Gold - it's the only thing that can fatally wound him
• Bodies of water
• Dying (isn't everyone?)
• Losing his head
• Losing the few individuals he cares about
• Being trapped for eternity

goals-

• Finding his own happy ending
• Protecting his charges
• Having his exile lifted
• Keeping his head out of thieving hands
• Killing anyone who gets in the way of the above

secrets-

• is in love (and will protect that information with his life, lest it and the person he loves be used against him)
• gold can kill him (again, not information Luighseach will let spread around, although he cannot burn every source of this information...)
• personally believes he is beyond redemption, and stopped caring about being redeemed a long time ago

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Backround Check

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family-
n/a
marital status-
n/a
history-

Luighseach has been many things. A villain, a hero, a prisoner, a god - as 'Crom Dubh', he was worshipped for a time, and each year, humans would be sacrificed in his name. This worship even continues amongst a small number of individuals desperate to win the dullahan's favour and/or summon him to do their bidding.

Descended from a rare line of sidhe that was allied to neither Seelie nor Unseelie Courts, but rather served as an emissary between both, Luighseach was tasked with keeping order during the infamous Samhain festival. As the Thirteenth Rider of the Wild Hunt he acted as mediator between Seelie and Unseelie riders, keeping them on track - and keeping the mortals out of the way, which was where the association with death was perhaps kindled. Astride a galloping steed whose hooves made no sound, head resting on the brow of his saddle and cloak billowing out behind, the dullahan frightened away any mortal who dared venture in the Hunt's path so as to keep the Hunt from being disrupted (and to keep the Huntsmen from spotting and deciding to 'keep' said mortals, which would prove detrimental to the Courts in the long run.)

Excluding his duties as mediator and trail guide on three nights of the year, Luighseach carried messages between the two Courts with his fellow kin, attended masquerades as honourary diplomat and generally acted as the impartial observer, watching the antics of his fellow sidhe from the sidelines. The intricacies of political affairs did not appeal to him; the hunt for higher social standing did not apply to him. While his kind were respected for the self-discipline and order their presence brought, they was a different class altogether. Seelie considered them too dark of countenance. Unseelie considered them not dark enough. Even though the dullahan lacked the chaotic tendencies of the Goblinfolk, it was that class they were tacitly linked to.

The outsiders. The unaligned.

So, after a few centuries of residing on the periphery of the immortal world, Luighseach decided to follow the Goblinfolk into the mortal one.

Mortals intrigued him from the offset. Their short lifespans, each clearly visible to him at a glance, and the manner in which they treated it - like it was something precious and priceless - was incongruous to the languorous, self-assured immortals he was so used to. They feared him like the deer fears the wolf, and it never occurred to him that unlike deer, when they sensed no danger, mortals could become the wolf.

The theft of Luighseach's head roused an ugly beast. The mere notion of a mortal brazen enough to steal from him sent the dullahan into a violent rage. He terrorised the area, inexorable in his pursuit of vengeance, and ran down the thief in plain sight of witnesses. His pride left no room for mercy – his wrath could only be sated with bloodshed. In their panic, the locals took to ritual sacrifices to appease him. The very sight of him became an association with death and doom, and the dullahan encouraged this; it made his duty during the Wild Hunt easier, after all, and served as a nice deterrent to other thieves.
Yet over the decades, as witches sought to boost their power and collectors sought to make a tidy profit and even fellow supernatural beings endeavoured to obtain blackmail material, the attempts to steal what was rightfully his kept on coming.

Every thief, successful or not, was ruthlessly hunted down and eliminated. The grudge was strong; Luighseach had a message to send, and he intended to ensure people got it loud and clear. Unfortunately, the more he killed, the more of a monster he was perceived to be – and monsters, as all stories will tell you, must be hunted.

An offence in the 1840s drove Luighseach overseas in pursuit, but this time his opponent was cunning. For 150 years his head was stored in a box covered in wards, while he suffered and screamed with rage in a sealed tomb surrounded by piles of deadly glittering gold; for 150 years he was absent from Court matters and the Wild Hunt, naught but a ghost that his fellow sidhe heard the occasional whisper of. Then a group of greedy treasure hunters ignored local warnings and cracked open the “haunted” tomb – immediately the enraged dullahan fell upon them,, and they were slaughtered amongst the very treasure they'd been so keen to find. The locals circulated the story for decades, and dared not go near the place long after the dullahan was gone. Free, and no less furious, Luighseach relentlessly followed his head around the world. The head was labelled as 'cursed' - it changed hands frequently - but always, the dullahan was just a step behind.

Finally, Luighseach's head left the magical circles. Its demon collector was caught by scientists, who took significant interest in the macabre (and apparently sentient) head he'd been smuggling.


They gave no thought to the wards on the box, although the head's cheery singsong about 'waiting no more' made more than a few of its examiners uneasy.

That same night, the facility suffered a localised systems failure; a specific set of door security codes were overridden and the doors themselves were left inexplicably open, from the facility's entrance to the very room in which the head had been stored. All staff on duty in the apparent 'pathway' were decapitated, their wounds cauterized as though their murderer's weapon had been searing hot. Most cameras on the affected corridors suffered temporary electromagnetic interference and failed to show what had happened, except for one - located inside the room, it contained precisely 4.6 seconds of footage of the intruder.

A headless figure in black, who picked up the head and vanished.



With his reputation blackened beyond repair and his body count far higher than it had been 150 years ago, the Seelie Court refused to allow him to continue leading the Wild Hunt. The Unseelie were more chill about the whole thing, but agreed that Luighseach was no longer suited to the role – his experiences in the mortal realm had made him incapable of acting in an impartial manner.
Unsurprisingly, the dullahan did not take the news well. When his vexation proved to be implacable, the Courts exiled him completely, leaving him to restlessly roam the mortal realm with only his own volatile cocktail of anger and paranoia to keep him company...
When a demon approached him with the proposal of killing his enemies for a price, Luighseach resentfully accepted.

And so his new occupation as a supernatural mercenary began, and with it many more grisly associations became attached to his name. Only recently, when someone came into his life that saw him as something more than a monster, has it actually occurred to the dullahan that he can be more than his reputation. Upon discovering a land where that reputation is not so well known, Luighseach joined the Brigade and began taking more honourable jobs, including protection detail for certain individuals, in an attempt to turn over a new leaf and try out the possibility of a happy ending for once with his loved one at his side. 

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ooc name-
Shade
age-
22
role playing experience-
11 years
contact info-
PM me