FL Tom Camorra -CC'ed by a Descending (Warders)

[Wayfarer]

Handle: temujin

 

Character Name: Tom Camorra

 

E-mail: michael0804@hotmail.com

 

Division: Freelanders

 

Gender: Male

 

Age: 37

 

Physical Description: Of average height, Tom is an olive-skinned, dark-eyed, dark-haired Ebou Dari through-and-through. A thick, solid man, Tom is brawler—and he has the scars to prove it: His nose has a crook from being broken one too many times; a knife scar slants from his left eyebrow to his upper cheek, framing his kind eyes (which belie Tom’s utter toughness) with a contrasting mark of violence; minor scars and perpetual bruises mar his large knuckles; a puckered scar lies on the left side of his torso as legacy to being skewered by a City Guard’s spear; and he favors his left leg after his right calf was left semi-maimed by a dagger wound (he can walk just fine, but his run is hampered severely).

 

Eschewing local custom, Tom leave his ears bare of any rings, but he does wear rings on his fingers like the rest of his people and he dresses in the traditional vest (and/or shirt) and loose pants of Ebou Dar. Always ready for a duel, Tom has no less than five knives—his dueling dagger, a boot knife, and throwing knives—on his person at all times. In addition to knives, he has passing skill with a crossbow.

 

Place of Birth: The Rahad, Ebou Dar

 

History: Born into a family of three, Tom was the second son of an impoverished fisherman and a housewife who sold flowers on the side. While their father was out trawling the mouth of the Eldar and the Sea of Storms, Tom would join his brother, Kaleb, on his daily routine—picking the pockets of the merchants in the commercial district of Ebou Dar. While Tom distracted the victim, Kaleb would swiftly slit the string of a purse or nab some money from pockets; they’d then run to the nearest canal where there own gondola waited to be commandeered away. When Kaleb, at 10, was taken to work with his father, Tom continued stealing with neighborhood boys; his mother just assumed he was out playing, and with a newborn daughter at home, she didn’t care too much.

 

Envious of his younger brother’s freedom, Kaleb would sometimes ditch work—feigning sickness—to rob and steal with Tom. On one such occasion, when Tom was nine and Kaleb twelve, a failed attempt at pilfering a saddlebag ended with Kaleb in manacles; Tom, luckily, escaped the clutches of the City Guard. As the City Guard was easily corruptible, the disappointed and livid Camorra father went to bail his son out. However, because he did not have enough money, Tom’s pa was forced to let Kaleb languish in the city jail.

 

Tom—often after committing robbery in the area—went by the jail frequently in hopes of catching a glimpse of his brother; he was rewarded now and then, and was happy to know his brother was alright while serving his six month stint. However, two and a half months into Kaleb’s sentence, Tom made a horrifying discovery while listening in on some guardsmen’s conversation: The night before, one of the guardsman boasted, he was drunk off ale on his shift, and had pumped four crossbow bolts into “that skinny boy with the scarred back.†There was no mistaking that the “skinny boy†was Kaleb—when Tom was just a baby, Kaleb had bumped into a boiling pot of stew and severely burned his back. Trying to hold his tears back, a sniffling Tom ran back to his dingy apartment building and told his already despondent mother the terrible news. During that night of bawling and piteous wails, Tom’s father had a long talk with his surviving son. “We people in our poor life have no love for the Guard,†he had told Tom. “But I don’t want you to be their enemy neither! Don’t end up like your brother, Light bless him.†The next day Tom woke up with his father at the 4th bell and went to work.

 

During his time aboard the fishing trawler with his father, he became physically strong and broad from hauling weighted nets and navigating a ship in the Sea of Storms. For eight years, until the age of 17, Tom lived honestly. However, the call of the streets—and the lifestyle and money that came with the street life—became too much, and Tom joined up with his old friends in the underworld. The former pickpockets now comprised a crew of veteran thieves who took down major scores at the docks; Tom, with his brawn and his composure under pressure, was a welcome addition to the gang. As a result of his choice to take up a life as a thief, his father effectively disowned Tom; however, while his father was out at work, he’d still meet with his mother and sister, and provide money here are there to help out.

 

More than a decade of robberies, run-ins with the law, late nights drinking, brawls with rival gangs, gambling and whoring days away, and murder passed before Tom’s life significantly changed. When he was 28, a gang war between the Sons of the Eldar and the Quick Talpazzis—the two major criminal syndicates who, along with the Jaguars of Summer, control Ebou Dar’s crime—broke out. As a subsidiary of the Sons—Tom’s gang’s leader, Banyon Liano had kicked up money to Boss Hapan for 16 years—Tom and his crew were called in to battle for the Sons of the Eldar. For over eight months, the Turf War of 990 raged. During this criminal conflict, Tom and Banyon made names for themselves as fighters and Hapan loyalists; Tom killed five men, including a Talpazzi captain, and helped solidify loyalty (monetary) in two city blocks. After the victory of the Sons—who gained almost total control over the docks on the Ebou Dari side of the River—Boss Hapan recruited Tom and Banyon into the Sons of the Eldar; their membership in such an organization meant they would receive a (slight) percentage of the money that came in through all crime in the Son’s territory in addition to protection, new criminal business opportunities, and prestige.

 

Tom has been a gangster with the Sons for nine years, has been married for four years, and has a one year old daughter. While both his mother and father—whom he never reconciled with—have passed away, he keeps in touch with his sister, who resides in the Rahad married to a smuggler, and her two children.

[Taei]

*bumps thread back in order*