Name: Crimson Marrow in Shattered Bones
Age: Between 40 and 60 years old. He never bothered to keep track.
Race:Oni (MutantNayaling)
Zone of Birth: Unclaimed Coastal Territories between Euphori-Tank Online Data Farms and Cardinal Holdings
Class: Oni Bandit
Current Employment Alignment: Rebel
Description: A 10 foot tall, deep red skinned Oni with white-brown, almost cream colored chest hair and beard. He never wears anything more covering than the rope bound loincloth held with a beaten copper-and-brass skull like ornamentation above his crotch. He has a crude leather eyepatch over an eye he had literally shot out of his head by caravan defenders. His preferred weapon is a massive spiked club made from salvaged metals.
Personality: Possessed of a low cunning, Crimson Marrow will never be mistaken for a great thinker. He has simple drives, to eat good food, drink good alcohol, partake in good drugs, and fuck beautiful women. Like most of his kind he seeks to gain these things through violence, either directly or indirectly. Unlike many of his kind, Crimson Marrow possesses just enough humility and sense of his own mortality to realize that these things can be gained as much from some level of cooperation with the peoples his kind were first meant to conquer, as they can from raiding vulnerable convoys and caravans.
Abilities: Crimson Marrow is a brutal fighter, and a surprisingly cunning bandit, able to negotiate as much as threaten, but at the end of the day, he depends on his immense strength and his skill with a maul to win the day and get his way in any given situation.
Relationships:
The Coastal Oni - While the coastal oni of the former Bering Sea have no true leadership, they do have a collection of elder oni that are considered to be the best, brightest, and cruelest fighters. Crimson Marrow is not one of these, never having gained the following necessary to join their ranks, but he's one of the elder's go-to thugs for when they need someone with a little brains to lead a raid. In general, oni are solitary barring small family groups, only gathering when a raid is to be planned or a grudge to be settled.
Various Cardinal Holdings Gangs - In the lean seasons, when Calico raids on shipping or other bandit gangs cause the number of caravans and barges crossing the former Bering Sea to take a dive, Crimson Marrow leads a few of his compatriots, the ones that can be trusted not to simply attack without his say so, down to one of the various coastal cardinal holdings mega cities. There, in the undercities, he sets himself up as hired muscle for any gang willing to meet his price in food, booze, drugs, pussy, or bussy. He's built a reputation for being SOMEWHAT reliable, provided you keep the terms of the agreement simple, straightforward, and preferably, short term.
Important Life Moments:
Crimson Marrow, like many of his kind, was born to a small family of oni, raised to be a coastal raider to support him and his, and the loose association of other coastal bandit families. He grew large and strong, and eventually began taking the lead from his elder relations as they died in raids or in the various dominance conflicts. He learned the patterns of traders and coastal shippers, and after a pocket railgun shot from a pirate streamer took out one of his eyes, he learned the importance of discretion.
Where other clans were being wiped out as they grew desperate, fighting with Calico pirates for loot, Crimson Marrow gathered his closest companions, and headed down to Megacity ChilliBeats, where he offered their skills to the first gang they ran into. He and his group would crush whoever they were pointed at, and get half the stuff taken. The gang in question was small and ineffectual, and saw no point in turning down the help. Crimson Marrow and his companions tied on the gang's colors, and then proceeded to obliterate their rivals. They claimed the local drug stash, and traded it for food and drink, then made the same offer again, and again, until they were the ones getting offers for their services. At the end of the season, they retreated back to their coastal lairs, laden down with spoils from activities in the megacity. Since then, when the stormy seasons where Onis do their best work pass, Crimson Marrow and those oni he trusts best head back down into the Megacities to earn money in another way.
Quotes:
"Too complicated. No stupid contracts. Tell me who you want hurt, give us pay, we do it."
"Elders are smart my son, listen to them for who to raid, just not when. They know the old ways, but old ways lead to lost eyes and short lives. Old ways are best when the hurricanes batter the coast and the littles can't see far to shoot, and the winds pick them up and toss them into hungry waves. When the skies are clear and calm, when the sun burns or the nights long. We go to the cities, and we get them to tell us who to raid so they hate the tellers, not us."