Northstar’s turn! And yeah, the PC’s get a little more detail in their write-ups than the others will…

Races the Stars Alone (aka Jean-Paul Martin)
Breed: Homid
Auspice: Ahroun
Tribe: Silent Striders
Age: 20

Attributes:
Physical-
Strength: 3 
Dexterity: 4
Stamina: 4

Mental-
Perception: 3
Intelligence: 2 
Wits: 3

Social-
Manipulation: 2
Charisma: 1
Appearance: 3 

Abilities:
Talents-
Alertness: 2
Athletics: 2
Dodge: 3
Primal Urge: 3
Streetwise 2

Skills-
Stealth: 3
Survival: 2 

Knowledges:
Linguistics: 2
Medicine: 2
Occult: 2
Rituals: 2 

Backgrounds:
Rituals: 2 
Totem: 3

Totem:
Northstar - When the banks of the Nile were the Silent Striders’ greatest concern, the tribe had little use for the North Star and she cared as little for them. After the Striders were expelled from Egypt and scattered to the wind, their millennium of wandering under the North Star’s light, reliant on her guidance to find their way, softened the brilliant, hard heart of the Incarna. She sent her spirit children to the Striders to share her gifts to aid travelers, and to watch over them as totem spirits. The North Star grants her packs two dice of Survival and Area Knowledge for any location in the Northern Hemisphere where the light of the stars is not overwhelmed by man-made light. Upon acquiring the North Star as a totem, members of the pack gain one point of temporary Honor.

Ban: The North Star requires that her packs travel often, accepting all legitimate quests and message-carrying duties.



Rites:
Rite of Dedication
Rite of the Questing Stone

Merits:
Noted Messenger - The Garou has a reputation as a reliable and incorruptible messenger.
Long-Distance Runner - The Garou may double his moving speed for one hour per point of Stamina.

Flaws:
Enemy (Carl Kerridge)
Sign of the Wolf
Forced Transformation (shifts to Glabro under the influence of alcohol)
Dark Secret


Renown: 3 Glory, 1 Honor, 1 Wisdom

Gifts:
Persuasion - This Gift allows a homid to become more persuasive when dealing with others, in such a way that his statements and arguments are imbued with added meaning or credibility.

Razor Claws - By raking his claws over stone or another hard surface, the Ahroun hones them to razor sharpness. Either a cat- or bear-spirit teaches this Gift.

Speed of Thought - The Garou doubles his moving speed for one scene.

Tireless Running - A Garou with this Gift may run from moonrise to moonrise subsisting on nothing more than spiritual energy, crossing almost four hundred miles in a single night, but as soon as the run is halted, he must eat and rest. This Gift can only be accessed when the Garou is in Lupus form.

Rage: 5
Gnosis: 4
Willpower: 3

Languages: English, French, Strider Communications

History:

The Black Spiral Dancers are quick to seek out their own, even their very distant kin. Even the faintest streak of White Howler ancestry twined with a handful of other Kinfolk bloodlines was all it took to attract a Kin Fetch when the blood finally bred true. The pride and joy that Jean-Baptiste and Melisande Beaubier felt in their little family came to a horrific end along a dark road as the servants of the Wyrm came to claim what was theirs.

Jean-Baptiste Beaubier fled from the smoking wreck of his family’s vehicle with his infant daughter, Jeanne-Marie, only to be pulled down before he’d taken twelve steps. His child was wrenched from his arms; his last impression of his family before he was hauled away to the pain and madness of the Hive were her terrified screams echoing in his ears.

Spirits, however, while useful, are not infallible and those badly treated even less so. When the wreck was discovered late the next day, the investigators were greeted by the hoarse cries of an infant — Jeanne-Marie’s twin brother, Jean-Paul, shielded from the wreck by their mother’s body.

The boy was adopted by the Martin family — ironically, distant and unknown cousins on his mother’s side. They too died under mysterious circumstances just before Jean-Paul’s sixth birthday. The twice-orphaned youngster spent the next eight years being shuffled from foster home to foster home, growing wilder and more unruly with each upheaval in his young life. At age fourteen, he got into a blood-letting fight with his current foster father and ran away from home and spent almost a month on the streets of Quebec, stealing from vendors and picking pockets to survive. The ragged urchin eventually made the mistake of trying to pick the pocket a lean older gentleman who retaliated by immediately snagging the boy by the scruff of the neck and proclaiming loudly that he was going to the police. In reality, he hauled the cursing, struggling boy around the corner and into an alley, at which point Jean-Paul completely lost his head. He had only narrowly escaped attempts at molestation on the streets several times before, and he could see no other reason behind the man’s deception. The adrenalin hit the panicking youth’s system like a match to petrol; he could feel himself growing stronger as he increased his struggles, heat pounding behind his eyes as his body warped and grew to monstrous proportions. With the growth came the sudden rush of knowledge that he didn’t have to be afraid of anyone. The fear abated in a rush of ferocious rage as he turned on the frail old man…who immediately changed shape and laid the cub out flat on his ass, then shifted back to human form and pleasantly announced himself as Baniti Whisper-Catcher and asked the astounded cub if he’d like something to eat while they discussed this new state of things.

Several hours and half a dozen hamburgers later, Jean-Paul had been given the run-down of the Garou in general and the Silent Striders in particular. Given the solitary nature of the Striders, it fell to Banati alone to give the cub his education and Rite of Passage and make sure that he learned something of Garou society before the young spitfire met up with others of his kind who wouldn’t be so forgiving of his smart mouth and suspicious outlook. Ultimately, Baniti decided that the boy’s Rite of Passage would involve a trek into the Umbra to tackle the largest Bane he could find — hopefully, just the thing to knock some of the cockiness out of the young Ahroun. The results were mixed at best — greater respect for the enemy they faced, but also greater self-assurance in a youth whose confidence already seemed to border on arrogance. Baniti and Jean-Paul traveled together for almost another month afterward before the older Strider gave the boy a pat on the head and a kick in the pants to send him along his own path.

Jean-Paul’s path turned out to be that of the messenger. The youth was fleet of foot and quick of mind and memory, not to mention seemingly tireless. He had a talent for finding interesting tidbits of information and a reputation for bringing it to those who could make the best use of it. As his news is rarely the welcome sort, the youth could not be called the most popular of Garou, and his aloof manner and general lack of respect for rank helped that not at all. Still, there is no questioning that he was a warrior for Gaia and that, at least, tends to earn him a place at a sept’s fire…however briefly.

Jean-Paul’s arrogance is a cover for a host of personal doubts and fears. He’s never known a time when he was wanted or sincerely welcomed, and he puts ties up all of his self-worth in his accomplishments. At the same time, he holds himself to very high personal standards, and scorns anyone who can’t meet those standards — after all, if a street-brat like himself can manage, what excuse do these great warriors of Gaia have for falling short?

What he fears even more than his own failures, however, are the nightmares that have plagued him his entire life: twisted, dark dreams of pain, degredation, and corruption that leave him waking in cold sweats and fearing for his sanity and spirit…

Jean-Paul is a sharp-featured young man with dark hair and pale skin; he is lean, all sinewy muscle and built for speed. His ears are lightly pointed, even in homid form, and a pentagram appears on his palm during the full moon, his auspice.

Quote: “I’ve torn my way through a half-dozen Wyrm spawn to deliver my message to this sept — you wouldn’t be much of a challenge. Stand down.”

OOC notes: Jean-Paul had to be a Strider — aloof loners darting all over the map? Not even a question. XWoD!Jean-Paul really doesn’t have any of the charm or charisma of his 616!counterpart because he’s never been exposed to Raymonde’s civilizing influence; he’s still very much a conflicted, rough-edged stray with very limited social skills. His sexuality isn’t much of an issue for him at the moment (though it is something he doesn’t consider to be the business of anyone except himself and whoever he beds on the road) but, considering how big an emphasis Garou put on Kinfolk and reproducing, it’s going to create additional problems for him down the line…