(RP) Jonas Callahan, Head of the Trade and Commerce Commission

[Pandora_CoD]

My name is Jonas Callahan and I am a man. At the age of twelve I became an apprentice to my father as a blacksmith. In the summers I would leave my home in Britain to work in the mines that supplied the forges with ore. I learned the qualities of the ores and how to mix them to create new metal alloys. When I was fourteen years old I moved out and joined a shipping company. I started out loading the ships and keeping an inventory of the parcels being readied for transport. I made sure every order was filled, processed, and delivered correctly by following up with the customers. If there ever was a discrepancy in an order I would personally see to it that it was completed to the satisfaction of the customer.

My business was so successful that at the age of sixteen I was promoted to chief of operations and customer relations. I would buy, maintain, and operate a fleet of one hundred and twenty ships. I took a company that had been passed down for generations as a local business and built it into a transcontinental processing plant for big industries operating out of Britain. I made sure that my fleet was always in optimal condition by restlessly taking out of service and refurbishing or replacing damaged or aging ships. All my crews took pride in their work because it was I that gave them the tools to do it.

When I turned twenty-four years old I returned home to take over my father's smithy. My father had a few loyal customers who had stuck with him through thick and thin, but the majority of business in Britain was going to contractors working for The Lord's Arms. Those interested in low prices found a Mecca of craftsmen buying from The Hammer and Anvil. I wanted both of these markets so I went to work testing new combinations of ores to create stronger, lighter, and more durable metal alloys.

My craftsmanship soon gained popularity throughout Britain for excellence, and business boomed. It was not long before I began receiving orders from outside Britain on the account of my growing reputation. There was so much work coming in that it was impossible to meet the demand. I had a waiting list for my customers that was growing. I decided that I must expand my operation to meet the growing demand for my business.

I found able men who took pride in their work and put them in charge of my operations in Britain then packed my bags. I traveled from place to place where my reputation preceded me and I set up shop in each of those places. I taught the locals my craft. Wherever I was in demand, that is where I would go and build. When business was good and my operation was in place I would move on again. Every place I set up shop became a boom town. I had more wealth than I knew what to do with, but the only motivating factor within me was pressing the limits of my capability and reaching my full potential. So, when I heard the promise of the new frontier of Umbra, there was no doubt in me that anything is possible in what I could accomplish there.

 

[Pandora_CoD]

The sun set and the moon called out to me in its all too familiar silence. It was now safe for me to venture out from my dark resting place in the caverns of the mountains. This is a common routine for us, the locals that were affected by the disease, but one that we welcomed. It was a far cry from where we were just a couple of years ago when the thirst was all but maddening and unquenchable. The disease I speak of is well, vampirism. The locals do hate to refer to ourselves as vampires, but there is no doubt that is what we are.

To the family members we had rescued, this new way of life was impossible for them. We had not seen any of them since that fateful night. There had been some townspeople who we thought of as different. They were never around during the sun's rays, only in the glow of the moon, and did not seem to age much at all. But for the most part they were friendly and helpful. Some of the merchants kept their shops open in evening hours which employed the odd ones. This was welcomed profit for our shop keeps.

A few years back, a group of transient undead took residence not far from our town, unbeknown to us. Soon, they came into the town demanding services from us, to which we'd ask for payment. When denied our rightful earnings, these undeads exercised their powers and we were attacked, suffering many casualties. We never thought these kind of beings existed, let alone ever clued to the fact that they had been amongst us the whole time. When town elders learned of this, panic ensued. These former townsmen that we now know to be vampires were unfortunately, and erroneously, labeled to be the same as those of the group that had attacked us. Of course, I tried to be level-headed about it all. Spoke to several of the vampires that I knew by name, some even had worked for me at the armory. They were not the wretches that the other humans were painting them to be.

But the other pale skins certainly used this inner strife to their advantage. Their power and command were certainly overwhelming for a bunch of professors and shop tenders, and even the vampires feared them. They certainly did not care for this city like we did. It was just another town, another place, another pocket of wealth. They enslaved most of us, human and vampire alike, to work for them making their armor, weapons, and providing them with training in Necromancy, against our own wills. The humans knew they would be easily killed, as they were considered food to these savages. Rather than be completely stripped of our essence, our human lives... we, collectively asked for the majority of us to be turned into vampires. Our former shop tenders did the job, some against their better judgements and some unwilling to do the task at all. We thought if we were all vampires, we'd be able to fend the ongoing attacks on our city. That proved to be futile.

Some of our loved ones were slowly smuggled out to the safety of the mountains we now occupy during the sun lit hours. After the undead coven had taken everything they wanted and consumed all possible resources from the city, they decided to burn Umbra to the ground with everything in it. We saved who we could, but most of the newly made vampires perished, and those that didn't could do nothing but watch in horror as Umbra was leveled to ashes.

Those that survived the fire were now left to fend for ourselves. We were ravenous,newly made, and starved vampires. No human could survive being around us. So our families fled to the great Paladin town of Luna and some even journied back to the capital city of Britain, the town of my birth. It was for their own safety.

However, in recent times the graciousness of the coven led by Pandora and Marius has changed that for us. Our families are now able to visit with us, although for some the dynamics have changed, and we've adapted to feeding on the creatures that inhabit the Cursed Forest to our north. Living within our newfound boundaries and knowledge of what we are and how to navigate eternity has been overall a welcomed change.

The support from the Crown was rather surprising, but I am all but assured that the Children of Darkness has driven that effort. Queen Dawn has assigned a regiment from the Royal Britannian Guard to assist our city's rebuilding efforts and secure our safety and that of the visiting citizens under her crown. Their Captain, a charismatic middle aged man with a rough beard and a plethera of battle scars, is Kalmar Erikkson, hailing from the land of Minoc. He really seems to embrace his charge and does the Queen proud in his work. Pandora is currently leading an effort to build the RBG an outpost for Umbra that will help to increase city patrols and overall safety.

I have formally resumed my own charge as the Head of the Trade and Commerce Commission and others are working on re-establishing our scholarly pursuits. Slowly we have garnished the acceptance of some of the other Sosarian communities and our shops in the late eve' are seeing good business. Most buildings have been rebuilt but a few more are in dire need of repairs or construction altogether. This requires much assistance in spirit and finances from all the citizens of Sosaria. And this exercise can help to establish a plan to also rebuild the great mage city of Magincia, which I've been told is on the Crown's to-do list. So Capt. Erikkson and I are putting together an event that will bring in all of Sosaria's high society --- specially those with deep pockets. It is rumored that the Queen herself might make an appearance.

But we do face a new evil... the glorious underground university that an era ago was bustling with students attempting to learn the dark arts, much more as a craft than anything else, has been occupied by the remnants of Ilhenir the Stained. After centuries of seclusion, it seems he has been tempted to seek his revenge for the terrible fate that was forced upon him. Bedlam now stirs below our very heel... brooding, waiting. The secret passageways that long ago built a portal to this world also needs to be reinforced.

The support of the citizens of Sosaria, the Children of Darkness, and the Crown is imperative if we are to hold off any further attempts to disrupt a town that is working its way back from the depths of ruin.

(OOC: It is important to note that while Jonas is now a vampire, along with many from Umbra, they do NOT make it known to others; they live under the masquerade for the most part, unless they are directly asked.)