Rook Ben-Adar

[Rook Ben-Adar]

This character arose out of a conversation I was having with Meesh and Kat.
Feel free to blame them for this =D

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Player Name: James

Character Name: Rook Ben-Adar

Age: 52
Race: Half Elf, Half Orc, all superior to the rest of you peasants.
Profession: Battlemage, virtuoso chef.
Height: 6'4
Weight: 120kg

===Physical Description===

There's a theory out there that mixed-race offspring are beautiful and exotic. Rook singlehandly smacks that theory in the face.
His skin has an unfortunate sickly green tinge to it. His eyes are piggish and set deep under an exaggerated eyebrow ridge. His face is narrow, angular, and his teeth seem to be too large and too pointed for his mouth.
He has, in fact, a face that only a mother could love ...except even his mother cannot stand the sight of him.

Rook is long and lanky of limb, like an elf, but has the paunch of a lazy orc without an active orc's well-developed shoulders. The best way to describe his body-type would be 'froglike' in both shape and colour. He tries to hide this with incredibly expensive and well-tailored robes, but it doesn't help as much as he imagines.


===Possessions===

A small estate, renovated to Rook's specifications:
- Massive kitchen. No, seriously, it takes up an entire floor. Specialised preparations rooms, refrigeration, the works.
- Massive dining room, capable of fitting up to 80 guests.
- Serving and kitchen staff

1 Overworked, harrassed, competent valet. (More on this man to come soon)



===Powers or Strengths===

=Chef and Gourmand=

Some people like fancy food. Some people make fancy food. Rook encompasses both and goes a step further.
There is a niche society in the upper class of Marn who take pride in consuming meals which lesser people can neither afford or obtain.

Rook's greatest passion in life is the sourcing and procurement of exotic ingredients, which he prepares into feasts for himself and his fellow gourmand elites. The feasts are a combination of spectacle, expense, and exoticism, with themes always being based on ingredients which are unobtainable to the average person or noble.


=Educated=

Keeping Rook in the hands of tutors was how his mother managed to keep the ugly bastard out of her hair during his childhood.
From etiquette to mathematics, literature to economics, cooking to languages, Rook was forever locked away with some unfortunate tutor paid a premium to teach the malformed halfbreed.


=Polymath=

In an effort to keep her misbegotten child hidden away and occupied by study, Rook's mother even arranged for language tutors for Elvish and several trade languages used on the various continents. Mostly this was arranged by advertisement in Keltaris. In fact, for part of his education, Rook was sent to Keltaris for several years to study language there with a half-elven tutor.

As a petty revenge, Rook also learned Orcish, which greatly offended


=Smuggler contacts=

From his stay in Keltaris, and fostered over the years (To be expanded upon)


=Upper class connections: the gourmand society=

When a person develops a taste for the forbidden and the exclusive, it can become an obsession. The nobles who share Rook's obsession for the exotic, and who appreciate his flair for entertaining feasts, are possibly the closest he will ever have to a circle of friends. It's a shame they are all such detestable people. But at least the kickbacks are good.


=Magic: Meat Puppetry=

Rook is capable of a finetuned telekinetic control over anything made of meat. He mostly uses it to add to the spectacle of his feasts, adding a flair of the grotesque to titillate the degenerate tendencies of his fellow gourmands.

However, to the Battlemages, his skill is best directed to physically incapacitate or restrain those who break Marn's laws regarding magic.
Frankly, Rook considers that side of his responsibilities to infringe upon his artistic integrity, and avoids his responsibilities whereever he can. Unfortunately, there is no completely avoiding his responsibilities.

Though his powers are rarely used, when they are the results are to Justice Hall's liking. It's hard for a person to commit a crime if hung upside down in midair, with eyes forced close and tongue glued to the roof, being spun in a circle. His control over his powers has developed to a level of finesse which can be attributed to frequent use in the kitchen and in feasts.


=Battlemage=

More of a curse than a strength, in Rook's eyes, but he does what he can to milk the benefits where possible without having to do the work. Not that Justice Hall lets him get away with anything less than his best when assigned to a task. Nor would his pride let him approach a task in a half-arsed fashion. But he does resent being hauled away from his kitchen to bring in the dregs that the Guards can't handle on their own, the useless bastards.


===Weaknesses===

=Personality=

Where to begin? Where to end?
To say Rook is 'a real piece of work' is but scratching the iceberg.

Perhaps it is best to explain it by saying 'everything takes second place to his culinary arts. People included.'
It seems glib, but this isn't a casual prioritisation. It's a pathological disdain for things not related to his grand vision as a gourmand.
Being a battlemage is a dayjob. Preparing feasts is his life's purpose. And fuck anybody who gets in the way of that.

He swears, he drinks, he's prejudiced, he is abusive to anyone who disrespects food or ingredients. He has tantrums, he fobs off people he shouldn't fob off, abuses people he shouldn't abuse.

Even his tendency of providing the poor in the historic district with leftovers from feasts stems from an extremely self-absorbed upper-crust notion of 'giving the starving dog a bone so it doesn't bite your hand'


=Physique=

Did I mention that he was froggish? That's probably an insult to frogs. They have finely tuned muscles for jumping and leaping. The only jumping and leaping Rook does is to conclusions.

Sure, he was forced through physical training when he first became a battlemage all those years ago. It was the worst waste of his time he had ever had the misfortune to experience. The only time Rook becomes truly physically active is in the kitchen, and even most of that is overseeing his grand vision while others do most of the work. Only the most fiddly and difficult parts of a feast will require his personal, physical attention.

No, you will not see Rook running, or jogging, or generally walking at a speed faster than 'relaxing'. Nor could he if he wanted to, at least not for very long.


=Disliked=

Rook is actively disliked by pretty much everybody who knows him or knows of him. Usually with very good reasons.

Puradynes hate him because he's a half elven, half orcish, ugly sonuvabitch.
People who see him in the markets hate him for the way he harangues merchants for even the slightest bruising on vegetables
Even his fellow gourmands only like him for his feasts and for providing them the opportunity to be part of an extremely exclusive clique. Those relationships are purely business.
And anybody else without an opinion dislikes him because he's a battlemage.



===History===

Oh, the history. Harrumph, yes indeed.