Victor Kruger

From Sinanju

Current revision as of 05:46, 20 November 2011

Background Story

Victor Kruger was born in 1920 in rural upstate New York. He grew up as part of a sprawling family of seven siblings. He was an adventurous lad, almost fearless, constantly getting scraped and banged up--sometime in fights, but more often just from learning by trial and error which risks were worthwhile and which weren't. His childhood was otherwise fairly unremarkable. He married Sarah Rose Thorne in 1941, when they were both 21 years old. Later that year, after Pearl Harbor dragged the US into World War II, Victor enlisted in the Marines, despite Rose's pleas for him to stay home, stay safe.

Victor's spent the next five years on the battlefields of Europe. He got his fill of excitement and then some. He saw more violence, destruction and death than he'd ever imagined he would. When he was demobilized in 1945 he returned to a wife nearly hysterical with relief. Rose badgered him into promising he'd never do anything so risky again--she'd spent the war terrified that he would be killed and leave her a widow. Now that he was home safe, she wanted him to swear that he'd never frighten her that way again. Sobered by his memories of the war, wanting to please his beautiful, sexy, teary-eyed wife, Victor promised.

It was a promise he would regret. The years passed. His memories of the war didn't fade, but he came to realize that he had not permanently lost his taste for adventure. But he'd made a promise to Rose and he meant to keep it. His occasional attempts to revisit their agreement invariably ended in tears and recriminations; Rose was adamant that he live the safe, risk-free, middle-class life they'd agreed upon when they married.

Victor spent the next few decades living a Walter Mitty-style existence. He truly loved Rose and wanted to give her the life she desired; it was just that their life was safe, middle-class--boring. Victor worked at being a successful salesman, raising their four children, fulfilling all the requirements of a conventional family man, but his inner life was his own. He became a voracious reader of genre fiction (pulps, science fiction, fantasy, espionage, anything involving action and excitement); he subscribed to magazines on climbing, diving, skydiving, any action sports he could find. He lived out his thirst for adventure vicariously, reading about men--real and fictional--who lived out the sorts of adventurous lives he was forever denied.

The decades passed. The children grew up and moved out to begin their own lives and families, eventually producing children of their own. VIctor and Rose grew older. Rose's aversion to anything the slightest bit risky only grew stronger as the years passed. Victor's life became, if anything, even more circumscribed by her perpetual fears. Rose seldom left their home any more, and worried incessantly whenever Victor was absent; their circle of friends dwindled as they ceased going out to dinner, to shows, or simply to visit friends except on rare occasions. Victor found his life limited to work, evenings alone with Rose--and his imagination.

Victor continued working long past age sixty-five. He didn't dare retire--that would doom him to spending all his time at home with Rose. He still told himself he loved her, though any passion for her had long ago guttered out. But whether he loved her or not, he was bound by both his marriage vows and his promise. He was eighty years old when Rose died. He grieved--but he was also appalled by a feeling of immense relief. He also discovered bitterness. He was finally free of his vows, free to act on his dreams--and he was too old and feeble to think of taking up the occupations or hobbies he'd daydreamed of for so many years.

Victor spent the last ten years of his life as a retired widower in declining health. He was a bitter, angry man dwelling constantly on a lifetime of missed opportunities and dreaming of his glory days as a young soldier. His children eventually moved him into a nursing home where he could get the help he needed, and where they needn't deal with the man they no longer recognized as a their loving albeit distant father. Victor was simply waiting to die in January of last year when he received package in the mail from overseas. There was no return address and he knew of no one who would be mailing him--and especially no one who would send him a glowing green emerald the size of a small egg. He made sure no one else saw it. It was worth a fortune, but mostly it was beautiful. He kept it with him and admired it for days, until a final heart attack killed him.

Victor woke in a cold, dark space with a stiff, cold sheet covering him. He tried to sit up, bashing his head on a very low ceiling. When shouting for help accomplished nothing, Victor panicked and began kicking and punching at the walls of the tiny space he occupied, smashing open a door and scrambling out. He looked around and recognized the place as a morgue. He was naked, too--and he didn't recognize the body he saw when he looked down, or in the first mirror he could find. He was...he was young again! He was the broad-shouldered, muscular giant he remembered from his days in the Marines, not the withered old wreck he had become.

Victor didn't know how this had happened and he didn't care. Nor did he care what had happened to the emerald. He suspected that there was much more to the emerald than he knew, but it had done its miraculous work. He laughed, giddy with excitement and delight. He was young again! Young, strong, virile, and free. With no marriage vows and no obligations to anyone else, he was free at last to be the man he'd always wished he could be! He fled the morgue--and the hospital--as quickly as he could manage. He had a lifetime of missed experiences to make up for.

Once out on the streets and paying attention to the world again in a way he hadn't been in many years, he soon discovered just how strong he was, how much punishment he could endure--and how quickly he healed--when he began living life in the fast lane. He wasn't just young and strong, he was all but invincible. Not invulnerable--he could be injured as easily as ever. But most wounds vanished as quickly as they were inflicted; egregious wounds healed in moments; lethal wounds took little longer. He took his nom du guerre from the Black Knight character in Monty Python's Holy Grail.

Personality

Victor is a man on a mission--to make up for a lifetime of regrets. He's been gifted with a chance to live a life more exciting than even his most over-the-top daydreams. To that end, he's spent the last nine months since his transformation in a frenzy of activity. Chasing women, drinking, brawling, racing cars, and so forth. There's a whole world of experiences he's never tasted, and he intends to work his way through the whole list eventually. However, his hedonism is strongly tempered by a strong sense of duty; most people don't have his advantages and need protection from threats. Besides, given his advantages, most risky sports and adventures aren't terribly risky any longer--but facing off against superhuman foes? Now THAT'S exciting!

Appearance

Victor is a large man, over six feet tall, broad shouldered and muscular. He has dark brown hair and eyes, and rugged features. His clothing tends to be utilitarian with definite punk overtones. T-shirts, leather vests, heavy pants, combat boots, and lots of metal (buckles, chains, etc). And a very large sword. His nom de guerre, The Black Knight, is taken from the character of the same name in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail--for what Victor considers obvious reason. Because his power consists of enduring and healing injuries rather than shrugging off the effects, Victor's clothing often takes a severe beating--bullet holes, rips, tears, burns, and plenty of bloodstains. As a result, Victor is always careful to keep a change of clothing handy.

Powers

Victor's fundamental power is the inexhaustible energy that suffuses his body. He is capable of instantly regenerating phenomenal amounts of damage; he recovers so fast from pain and shock that moderately serious wounds don't even slow him down noticeably, and the wounds take little longer to heal. More severe injuries can stun him, knock him unconscious, or even kill him--but none of it lasts. He'll be alive, awake and alert again in a remarkably short time. Victor can endure conditions that would ordinarily kill a man--extreme cold, heat, radiation, starvation, thirst or sleep deprivation--without injury. He'll find them uncomfortable, but his regenerative powers will continually renew him. His superhuman strength is at least in part the result of his ability--and willingness--to push himself beyond all reasonable limits, counting on his healing ability to repair torn muscles and ligaments, injured joints. Victor's usual weapon is a sword. A completely unconscious use of his power to reinforce the weapon makes the sword virtually unbreakable while he's using it, regardless of the weapon's normal quality.

His tactics tend to be simple and direct. Victor often resorts to straightforward assaults, though he's not averse to using misdirection when he can. He doesn't hesitate to "take a bullet" for teammates or innocent bystanders, given his ability to survive such assaults.

Supporting Cast

Knowledge of Other Characters

Romantic Relationships (If Applicable)

Future Plans and Goals

Trivia

Side Pieces & Joint Posts

Influences

Obviously, Clancy Brown's role as the Kurgan (who used the alias Victor Kruger when signing into the sleazy motel) in Highlander was an influence, as was John Cleese as the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.