Coldbrand
Given name unknown
Written by: Null Kit
Relatively speaking, Coldbrand has earned his reputation as being a quiet, cerebral individual. By all personal accounts, the way he quietly and politely talks to subordinates and outsiders alike gives him more the impression of a hospitable scholar, rather than a bloodthirsty adept and feared leader of The Howling Blades. Even his base of operations in The Concrete Forest, spartan as it is, has something of a homely charm to it. But no matter what, you can't forget where this man's heart lies. The barrens, his sycophantic followers, his power and money; all of them are simply a means to an end. His namesake, the allegedly cursed Nodachi called Coldbrand, is all that matters to him, and he intends to become one with it, by perfecting his power and skill in wielding it, and quenching it in the blood of whoever challenges him.Mental characteristics
Personal history
Until recently, much of Coldbrand's history was an enigma, such is the disinterest in cataloguing the biography of every homicidal man in the barrens. However, a certain fixer by the name of Redhat has agreed to divulge a decent degree of previously unknown information on the man in exchange for access to some of this data-cache's less accessible information. If Redhat is to be believed, an associate of his was at some point, a 'subcontracting liason' that worked with Coldbrand and a number of other associates. In other words: Coldbrand was at one point, a Shadowrunner.
So Redhat claims, Coldbrand was not only a Shadowrunner, but a Face by the name of Herring, using his adept abilities to augment his abilities in negotiation and intimidation to gain access to places and people that could not so easily be procured by brute-force alone. However, while 'Herring' was allegedly a very charismatic young Ork, the man had a noticeable discomfort towards dishonesty, especially in outright lying, something of a liability when his career was tied in acts of corporate-terrorism and organised crime. This desire for truthfulness whenever possible came from a personal vendetta against megacorporations and politics, allegedly claiming they were the 'source of the world's greatest filth'.
Well yeah, of course they are, but that's why he ended up going feral? Cry me a river.It seems however that Herring's trouble would only increase, as his complaints about society earned him a sympathetic ear from a man by the name of Metin Roth, who invited Herring to share a drink with a group of like-minded individuals. As it turns out, this particular group was a 'group of spiritual guardianship' by the name of the Stewards of the Mirror. A cult, in other words. The specific details on its dogma and values was lost in the midst of its final fate and in the colateral damage of Crash 2.0, but remnant fragments of data would suggest it was something of a doomsday-cult, believing that the accumulated 'filth and corners' of the earth would eventually attracts so-called 'Hounds of Tindalos' that will end life as we know it. Yeah, one of those cults. Initially, Herring's involvement with this group was sufficiently noncomittal that he was able to continue shadowrunning full-time, yet his behavior was noticeably different from before: His teammates were quoted as saying that the Ork had grown distant, apathetic to the world around him, and grew more comfortable with decieving and outright hurting innocents towards completing his objectives and even for personal gain. Typical behavior for a Shadowrunner, but it was so divergent from Herring's previous sense of morality that his peers grew concerned. His behavior grew further strange and his involvement with the Stewards deeper until what would end up being the group's final run, a heist on an armored train transporting the contents of a museum to a secure lock-up while renovations took plate. The group were being paid to procure a specific item, but were encouraged to take anything else they could safely carry off to keep for themselves, if they were certain they could get away with it. The run was an overwhelming success, and the fleeing runners had already pried out every tracking-chip in their collection of ill-gottem gains before law-enforcement could even arrive on the scene, but one of the stolen treasures intrigued Herring in particular: A large sword of Japanese origin, supposedly ancient, but when pulled out from its secure lockbox and freed from its cloth wrappings, it was flawless and shining, as if it were made yesterday. Herring kept the sword and politely declined anything else, and for a long time, that was the last the group ever saw of the man. From this point on, all we know of his final days as Herring were from recordings and security-footage recovered from the Circle-Compound, the main compound of the Stewards of the Mirror centered around one of the many cylindrical towers that mark the desolate barrens of The Concrete Forest where Herring took the sword, locked in its case and still wrapped tightly around its hilt in delicate white cloth. The blade was unnaturally sharp and strong, an anathema to the cult and its preference towards the soft and round, but its ability to remain flawlessly clean despite its age and wear was considered something of an omen to the Stewards, who began conjecturing the possibility of it being a weapon that could postpone or even avert their predicted end of the world. As he was the one who recovered it, Herring was given the blessing by the cult's leader to be the first one to hold the sword with his bare hand. The moment the cloth fell away from the sword's grip and the ork's hands closed around it is likely the moment everything fell apart. Discovering the vents that followed was difficult as much of the cult's makeshift security-network was destroyed in its entirety from the raging fire that ensued, but the recovery of a cultist's corpse with its cybereye intact and containing viable information in its data-buffer gave us at least one perspective on the incident: As soon as Herring clasped the sword fully, a look of great pain and discomfort briefly flashed across his face, but his grip on the blade visibly tightened. Herring whispered something shortly afterwards, but without an audio-feed whatever he said specifically is unknown to anybody but him, save for the fact that it caused several cultists around him to visibly recoil in shock. Before any response could be so much as considered, Herring attacked the nearest cultist, swiping his blade with sufficient ferocity and conviction to make up for his complete inexperience using any sort of sword until the first body fell lifeless at his feet.Herring's rampage continued throughout the interior of the compound. Despite the cult's defences being sufficient to survive in the Concrete Forest, Herring's rampage evidentally seemed completely one-sided. Locals in the vicinity of the compound reported sounds of gunfire, followed by several minutes of silence before Herring exited the building, sword in one hand and a large book stuffed with whatever he could grab in the other, covered from head to toe in blood. His sword however, remained flawlessly clean if said witnesses can be believed. Since then, Herring has dropped his old name and life completely and began wandering the barrens under a new name: Coldbrand, a monicker he supposedly claims is a translation of the 'true name' of the sword he carries. Anyone who looks like they're remotely competant at fighting, he would challenge to a duel and refuse to take no for an answer, only stopping when his 'opponent' is incapable of defending themselves anymore. Those who survived either made sure to stay out of his way from then on, or followed him, perhaps in some kind of morbid fascination, leading to the founding of the gang of psychotic imitators known as The Howling Blades. Coldbrand himself cares little for his followers, but he is not above taking advantage of them, so long as it benefits his own inscrutable goals.
Total stab in the dark since I don't know shit about magic, but it's totally the sword that's doing this, right?.
The sword is undoubtably some kind of magical focus, and it's well known that the addictive nature of especially powerful focii can lead to delusions or irrational behavior in its owner. But for a focii to turn an otherwise unremarkable fighter into someone as dangeorus as Coldbrand... such things are certainly rarer.
Didn't seem very skilled to me, y'sure about that last part, omae?.
I'll admit, it's mostly conjecture. Coldbrand's rapid maturity into one of the most dangerous things in the forest is one thing, but looking at the cybereye footage recovered from the cultists... I know adept swordsmanship when I see it. The jerky movements and severity of injury from so much as a glancing blow are pretty clear indicators of qi useage, and the attacks used are legitimate swordfighting techniques, just without the experience to make them intuitive. That sword's doing something to him, I'm sure of it.
Well, let me know if anyone finds anything. A short while after I spilled the beans to Null Kit, I got contacted by one of Herring's old shadowrunning group - the one surviving member of his old group. Diesel Delta's been retired since, but all the other members of his team are dead: cut up, predictably. He's safe as can be in my best bolthole, but if any of you are gonna go out and deal with that sword-swinging lunatic, he wants in on it. Contact me at the usual place, fellas.
Current Location
Year of Birth
2043
37 Years old
Birthplace
Unknown
Children
Current Residence
"The Forge"
Pronouns
He/Him
Eyes
Blue
Hair
Platinum-Blond
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale White
Height
6'4''
Weight
248 lb.
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