<strong>Name:</strong>Richard Black<br/><br/><strong>Age:</strong>27<br/><br/><strong>Occupation:</strong>Contract programmer.<br/><br/><strong>Race:</strong>Human / Demon hybrid<br/><br/><strong>Gender:</strong>Male.<br/><br/><strong>Sexual proclivity:</strong>Heterosexual<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Physical Description</span><br/><br/>One of the first things people notice about Richard is the smooth elasticity of his skin, and then they are taken in by the intensity of his large blue-gray eyes that sparkle with an inner life. He is a little on the short side, but is slim and has a fair degree of muscle tone. His short black hair is quite straight and has a glossy sheen to it.<br/><br/>Richard has rather pale skin. He has a heart shaped face with a slightly high forehead and a vaguely aquiline nose. He keeps a small amount of stubble in order to detract from his otherwise boyish and perhaps slightly feminine appearance. His lips are slightly too thin, but he has a full set of quite white teeth. When Richard is attracted to someone he smiles unconsciously at them in a way that is half predatory and half awe stricken.<br/><br/>Richard's voice is soft and has a slight musical quality to it. He hardly ever raises his voice and when he does it is because he is extremely stressed. He prefers to casual outfits comprising of dark jeans and jacket with a red or purple shirt. He wears no jewellery.<br/><br/><strong>Likes:</strong>Heavy metal, cats. To be the dominant partner. He has a thing for black against pale skin. He prefers dark haired women. Legs are more important to him than breasts.<br/><br/><strong>Dislikes:</strong>Arrogance, Seeing women as possessions rather than people, "artsy" films, snobs.<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Personality</span><br/><br/>Richard struggles as much as he can against the reality of his heritage. As a result he tries to be fair, loyal and kind. His biggest issue, however, is his attraction to the opposite sex. And of course this is further fuelled by his need to 'feed'. Although loyal to those he cares about, Richard can be extremely hostile to his enemies. He seeks approval from people, especially women, and as such fears rejection.<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Powers</span><br/><br/>Part of Richard’s powers is related to his demonic nature. His most passive skill is his ability to see aura's this allows him to determine the nature of an individual (e.g. are they human), and determine that person's current mood (angry, sad, nervous, etc).<br/><br/>Richard's secondary power is his ability to subtly influence people’s attitudes toward him. This really only works on someone who is sexually attracted to men. He can induce sexual arousal in a person and increase the level of attraction between himself and that person. This allows him to exercise his second ability.<br/><br/>Richard can drain the life force from a person during sexual arousal. This ability drains the victim spiritually and physically and increases his own life force in comparison. Once fully fed he can run faster, has greater strength and can heal wounds faster than other human beings. A really good feed allows him to extend his willpower and move objects with his mind - though this final affect only lasts a few hours. This also works both ways, he can once fed transfer some of the life energy back into another person during arousal - however, he cannot lose all of the energy he has fed and the resulting effect is only useful for healing someone or stabilizing their condition - it cannot make them superhuman.<br/><br/>As well as eating food, Richard needs to 'feed'. He does this by seducing a victim and at the height of passion he draws their life force out of them. This leaves them drained and lethargic and can be fatal. If all of a victim’s life force is drained, killing them, then Richard can live charged up for a week before needing to feed again. However, he is not a killer and will reserve his feeding to single nights where he just drains a little life force. A typical feeding session allows him to go two days without feeding again, but the life force giver needs ten hours sleep to recuperate.<br/><br/>Just after feeding, Richard's powers are at their peak. They deteriorate through time until by the time he needs to feel again he is merely a human being with a great degree of sexual magnetism and an uncanny ability for reading people.<br/><br/>If he doesn't feed when he needs to then he begins to sicken, he grows progressively weaker and will lapse into a coma and will not wake unless someone gives him a portion of their life energy (Which when he is in a coma requires a magick ritual where the participant initially offers herself to him by spilling some of her blood on him).<br/><br/>His main human weakness is his attraction to the opposite sex and his fear of rejection.<br/><br/>Richard has over the course of his life learnt the practical application of magick ritual. He can create and cast spells and use his own spiritual energy to effect changes in the universe around him. Note this is the classic Wiccan idea of magick rather than the D&D style fantasy version - a ritual may need several hours of preparation and the effects may be subtle and may take some time to become apparent. This sort of skill works at the GM's discression<br/><br/>Richard has a good singing voice and is a relatively skilled dancer. He is moderately skilled at martial arts and knows how to use a sword. He has a fair amount of occult knowledge in addition to the knowledge of the application of ritual magick stated earlier. He is a skilled computer programmer and hacker.<br/><br/><span class="bbc_u">Background</span><br/><br/>Alicia James was a dance student at a drama college in Cornwall when she met a young man by the name of David Thorne. David had a commanding personality and darkly mischievous nature that Alicia found attractive. He was an art student who had a seriously unhealthy interest in the occult. He was also very manipulative. Alicia was drawn in by him and both of them experimented with magick.<br/><br/>One day David came across a book on sex magick. It spoke of a demonic entity that had power over women and that could drain their life force during intercourse. The book also spoke of how a human being could gain such power via ritual. Alicia, who was by now besotted with David agreed to participate in such a ritual.<br/><br/>Whilst the pair had sex David became possessed by the demonic entity and started to drain off Alicia's life force. He would have killed her if not for the fact that the human part of David's mind managed to exert enough will to regain temporary control and kill himself with a ritual knife whilst Alicia lay upon an altar, unconscious.<br/><br/>Alicia recovered and nine months later gave birth to Richard. At that time she had started dating a software engineer called Alexander Black. Despite the fact that Alex wasn't Richard's father, he decided to stick by Alicia and bring up the child as his own. The pair got married and on the birth certificate Alicia named Alex as the father.<br/><br/>When Richard reached the age of twelve he first started to 'see' auras. At first his parents thought he had a problem with his eyesight until the child explained what he could see to his mother. The pair began to keep a close watch on their child after that, fearing that he might not be entirely human. Richard also began to notice how he could quite easily get some girls to do what he wanted, just by concentrating on them and throwing a little charm their way.<br/><br/>Richard's first sexual experience was also the turning point and realization of his nature. He was fifteen and the girl in question was a fourteen year old girl named Isabella. What should have been a joyous moment, the first exploration of each other’s sexuality ended in tragedy. Richard unwittingly drained Isabella's live force and she died during sex. The doctors examining her were puzzled. They attributed her death to sudden death syndrome and concluded that she died of a heart attack brought on by the over excitement caused during sex.<br/><br/>Richard was upset but he felt so much stronger, so much more invigorated. He felt guilty for feeling so "alive" when Isabella had died. His parents were very supportive and Richard agreed not to have sex again. After about a week and a half, Richard began to grow weak. The doctors could find no explanation for this but Alicia and Alex guessed at why. The pair began some research into the ritual they had performed. The found out just as Richard was slipping into a coma that he needed to feed regularly.<br/><br/>The pair enlisted the help of a girl who was interested in witchcraft and also a close friend of Richard's. Her name was Sarah Daniels and she was sixteen and already a first level initiate. With the help of Alex and Alicia, Sarah ritually "offered" herself to Richard. He woke from his coma and fed, but this time Alex was there to pull him off Sarah before he could drain her life force entirely.<br/><br/>Richard spent the next four years learning to control his need to feed with Sarah's help and with counselling from his parents. Richard and Sarah went to Swansea University together. Richard studied software engineering and Sarah studied literature. Richard formed a rock band with some friends and the pair of them joined a martial arts class. Sarah exceeded Richard’s abilities at unarmed combat whilst Richard became very good with a katana.<br/><br/>After the pair graduated, Richard and Sarah moved into a house on the coast of South Wales in the UK together and married. At that time Richard was hiring himself out as a contract programmer and Sarah had got a job writing erotic supernatural thrillers.<br/><br/>One day, Richard was out meeting a client. His parents were coming over to his house that evening for a meal. Richard had been delayed by the client and so Sarah had been left to entertain Alicia and Alex whilst Richard was stuck in traffic coming back from Cardiff.<br/><br/>Before Richard got home he could sense something was wrong. When he got to the front door it had been forced open. When he got inside he found the bodies of his parents and wife. All three had been stripped, beaten and sexually assaulted. They were the placed in the living room, spread eagled on their backs in a triangular pattern, with Sarah at the apex and his mother and father to the left and right of her respectively. Their arms and legs were outstretched so that they looked like three inverted pentagrams. Sarah's body had a note placed inside her mouth it read "The sins of the fathers shall be visited on the children." underneath it was a sigil in the form of a large reptilian eye surrounded by flames.<br/><br/>Whilst the police investigated the murder (they had put it down to the work of an obsessed fan of Sarah's novels), Richard did his own investigations. He found no trace of the symbol on the internet and started visiting the local library looking for similar cases in the local newspapers. Whilst there he was approached by a woman called Danielle Palmer who said that she knew about the symbol. She said that her husband had been killed in a similar manner and was collecting evidence of a black magic cult operating in the area. She suggested that Richard accompany her to her house to compare research.<br/><br/>When Richard got there Danielle plied Richard with drink. They talked about their mutual loss and Danielle confessed that she was attracted to him. Richard was still traumatised by Sarah's death but he hadn't "Fed" for several days and was beginning to grow weak. He decided to let Danielle take him up to her bedroom where she removed her skirt and panties and straddled him. During the lovemaking she unbuttoned her blouse, freeing her breasts. On her left breast was tattooed the same symbol as Richard had been searching for.<br/><br/>Danielle explained that she was a member of a cult known as the burning eye. They had been tracking Richard ever since his birth. She explained that Alexander was not his real father. His real father was a demon called Eronatepth, a demon of lust and dark desires that had ruled humanity any eons ago. His physical body had finally been destroyed and his spirit trapped for all eternity. She explained that the ritual that had led to Richard's birth was no accident and that he was the key to freeing his father so that the two could rule the Earth as father and son in a reign of terror for all eternity. The cult had been waiting for the right time to awaken Richard to his true nature and show him the way to freeing his father.<br/><br/>Full of confusion and rage, Richard drained Danielle's life force completely. Searching her house he discovered that the cult's headquarters were actually based in America. Richard sold up all of his assets and travelled to America in search of the burning eye. He discovered that the cult itself was very old and had been recruiting men and women from all over the world for centuries. The demon Eronateph had promised riches and pleasures beyond imagining to the faithful and eternal pain and misery to those that opposed him. He tracked down the cult leader to a sleeper cell in New York. He killed the man, along with a number of followers and put a stop to the cult's activities there. Richard realised that as a worldwide organization he couldn't hope to finish them all off. Instead he left a message with the dead cultists for their brethren which simply warned them to back off from him and suggested that he wanted no part of his father's legacy.<br/><br/>For the next few years Richard remained in America, travelling from city to city and taking off whenever he got wind of the presence of Burning Eye members shadowing him. He survived by "feeding" every few days from women that he would pick up in bars and other places, and who are only looking for a single night of passion. He became afraid to settle down anywhere in case the Burning Eye caught up with him, and he was afraid to commit to a woman in case it put her in danger from the Burning Eye's followers.<br/><br/>It was whilst staying in a rented apartment in a small american town that Richard recieved the parcel. He was suspicious of the sender's intentions but at the same time intrigued. He decided to take the seneder up on his offer.<br/>