Thias McDuff

Hey everyone here is your History teacher, as written up by me and drawn by RawrSexyKitty, so all the awesome art credit goes to her.

Name: Thias McDuff (Thigh-Az)

Age: 187 Birthday: Thorsday, Haustmánuður 2nd, 3rd Season of Jarl Bofaim (Thursday, October 22nd, 1825)

Apparent Age: mid to late Forties

Physical Appearance: Deep Ruddy Skin, Coal Black Hair and beard, receding hairline widow’s peak and a short boxed beard, sparkling ice blue eyes. 4’10” and around 220 lbs.

Monster type: Germanic Dwarf

Natural weapons: none

Trained weapons: Unarmed, Axes, Hammers, Crossbows, Modern Side arms

Class: World Exploration

Major Skills:

Magic Resistance: Dwarves are highly resistant to most magic and spells due to their strong ties to earth and stone that grounds them. This means that most hexes and curses fail outright, while evocations do considerably less to the dwarf, although the environment around him is still effected. This resistance does not extend to rune magic, which is as old as stone and the dwarves themselves.

Runecrafting: Dwarves are unable to use modern magic of any kind, but are able to call upon the ancient power of runes. Runes have to be crafted and placed well before battle, but can achieve similar effects to enchanting and other long term magical effects. A dwarf can embed or carve runes into just about anything, but stone and metal hold the rune best, as the rune ceases to function if the surface it is inscribed upon is marred beyond recognition or the item itself becomes broken. Also runes cannot be placed on living creatures as a living being is constantly changing.

Tough: Dwarves have legendary supernatural toughness, both to the environment and to actual attacks against their bodies. This can be explained simply:
• Dwarves stand up to artic temperatures and volcanic heat alike, able to weather both, although by no means is a dwarf comfortable in an active volcano as fire and lava can still harm him. This also gifts them with incredible endurance to fatigue.
• Dwarves are incredible resilient to toxins in all forms, granting them immunity to most minor things such as a spider bite or bee sting and allowing them to survive what would otherwise be fatal supernatural toxins, although they will still be affected they simply stand a chance. This extends to alcohol as well, and the common thought that all dwarves are drunkards is actually false, as it takes copious amounts to affect a dwarf.
• Dwarves are finally incredible girded to damage. It is said the first dwarves were born of the stone themselves. Modern dwarves share some of that incredible resilience. They are about five times more resilient to physical harm as most humans, making their bones about on par with stainless steel. Although like any being pushing these limits still hurts them and they are by no means bullet proof, just very scratch resistant.

Minor Skills:

Strong: Dwarves are stronger than your average human, nowhere in the neighborhood of most fantastic creatures but enough that it makes a noticeable difference. Most fit dwarven men can lift approx. 200 pounds and still be able to move freely, and top out around 1000 pounds or so as max lift weight although at these weights at best he can pull or drag the object, maybe holding it up for a few precious moments.

Dark-vision: Dwarves can see in pitch black conditions, helpful for their underground homes. This vision is black and white however, but does not pierce supernatural darkness; although a dwarf’s natural resistance to magic may help while he is inside said darkness.

Stone Sense: Dwarves have an affinity for stone and metals, allowing them to tell the depth they are underground and determine craftsmanship, spotting minute imperfections or subtle details. This allows them to forge fine arms and armor from metal as well, an intuitive feel for stone and metal, like a potter to clay. It also allows them to sometimes “feel” otherwise missed hidden stone passages and hidey holes.

Weakness:

Magic Resistance: The dwarves greatest strength is also their greatest weakness. The great resistance they enjoy cannot be turned off at all, so that even beneficial magic cannot affect them. This means that they cannot enjoy teleportation or the like either as they foul up the spell and healing is unlikely to speed things along. Also this resistance does not apply to rune magic, which is as old as stone and the dwarves themselves.

Grounding Effect: As technology has progressed dwarves have enjoyed most of the benefits. With the advent of the information technology age the dwarves were shocked to learn that their grounding connection with stone affected electronics severely, starting with “glitch gremlins” and finishing with total power short or catastrophic failures. While the presence a dwarf will by no means crash a technological marvel he will be virtually unable to use it and the longer he tries the worse it gets.

Sink, not Swim: Being sturdy works most of the time, but every dwarf knows that deep water is not their friend. Dwarves can swim but their increased density makes it incredibly tiring, and suffocation through drowning is still a danger.

History: Thias was born into a very well respected clan hold near the Swiss Alps bordering Prussia. As all young dwarves he trained early in the arts of war and combat, even firearms as his dwarven hold was always looking to stay ahead of the curve. Always the dutiful son he excelled in the arts of combat and eagerly awaited the day to prove himself. On his 38th birthday his hold was attacked by a marauding lesser Jotun (Norse giant). Facing the foe with his brothers in battle earned Thias his first axe, a sign that a dwarven boy had become a man. During WWI his hold offered their services to Prussia, there traditional ally, in secret of course as the Prussian nobility saw no desire to be cut off from the hold’s vast iron mines. He served as mercenary scout, moving through the mountains with ease and reporting enemy movements to trusted Prussian spies. With the defeat of Prussia at the end of WWI Thias’s Clan hold decided to retire from the affairs of men at the behest of Jarl Bofaim the Younger. This brief respite was not to last however. During WWII Nazi Germany began to detain and torture anyone who did not meet the Arian ideal of perfection, the dwarves being no exception. All the holds of Europe secretly gathered in Switzerland and decided to support the allies, scuttling German supply lines and catching troops in cleverly laid pitfalls that spelled doom for those caught within. Thias wanted to be more active and against his Jarl’s command infiltrated the Dublin Fusiliers of Ireland posing as a midget Scotsman and set about helping them beat the Germans where ever they could be found. At the end of the war Thias attempted to return home and was distraught to find that for his disobedience he had been stripped of clan and kin. He journeyed to Ireland and stayed with friends he had made during the wars, before becoming a workman at the Guinness brewery. When violence erupted during the Battle of the Bogside in Derry, Thias who had lived quietly in Northern Ireland for now 14 years found himself caught in violence once again. He decided to take up life as an Archeologist and Historian, exploring oft forgotten ruins of many different civilizations and learning history, his innate stone sense on more than one occasion leading him to find a clue that had been previously overlooked. On a study of early American mining towns he was surprised when he stumbled across a dwarven hold in the Appalachian Mountains that had been there since colonial times. He decided to settle down and until very recently had spent his time teaching young dwarves about the history of their people and the world at large as well as contributing to several college texts on ancient Norse civilizations and writing a few books of his own. Recently Monster Academy contacted him and he was thrilled for a chance to teach others as well.

Due to his varied life Thias has been exposed to more cultures and customs than your average dwarf. He is a self-professed polyglot, allowing him to work out usually the gist of what someone is saying with a degree of effort. He also holds a Doctorate in several studies of history from the University of Dublin, who simply assume he is a very old dwarf fellow (he had to have his papers re-forged in the 80’s to avoid age questions). Due to his traditional dwarven upbringing Thias is extremely proficient in kampfringen (Ancient German Grappling combat) as well as the use of axes.

He speaks Celtic, English, Gaelic, German, Hindi, Latin, Mandarin Chinese, Norwegian, Swedish, Jotün and of course Dwarven

Roleplay Info
Roleplay Time: Swing/Graveyard. Currently I am -7 GMT
Roleplay Example: (I prefer Lit, either through skype or notes) Thias hummed to himself, an old dwarven tune long lost to dust as he busied himself with paperwork, his desk a clutter of things for his class as well as the dozens of other things the venerable dwarf was researching. He looked up from his paperwork when he heard a knock on his door, "Ach, come in no need teh be shy," he said jovially, his merry blue eyes lighting up and the welcome relief and distraction from paperwork.