Karl Abney

Full Real Name: Karl Jonathan Abney
Race: Human
Date Of Birth/ Age: 3rd September 2009/ 32 at application
District Lived In: Carlisle
Occupation: Zoo manager

Brief Physical Description: Karl is not the tallest of men, standing only five feet and eleven inches. His hair is naturally dark brown, bordering on black and he has blue eyes. Karl's frame is very slender and delicate, half through genetics and half through his refusal to eat most of the time. He doesn't see why he should eat when someone else could have it instead, or that is what he tells people anyway. He has a number of tattoos on his body, all of them Celtic or tribal style animals. Some of them cover scars.

Brief History: Born in Nottingham as the youngest son of Matthew and Eileen Abney, Karl remembers nothing of life before the Hellgates. He was only two years old when the first one opened in America and a life of worldwide fear is all he has ever known. Karl was mostly looked after by his mother Eileen while he was growing up, him and his brother Liam under her constant watchful gaze while their father worked as a farm hand just outside the city. As chaos was brought to the world Matthew worked hard to ensure his family never went without the basics at least, often going without himself to ensure there was always plenty on the other plates at the table.

When he was eight Karl started going to work with his father, tagging along at his heels and learning about the farm. This was a time when teaching children how to work was absolutely essential, and Karl found that he adored the work he was doing. Karl began to spend increasing amounts of time around the animals in his father’s care and began to form a true love for them. The more time he spent around them the more Karl learned, and by the time he was twelve it was clear that his abilities went beyond just being a practised hand. He was able to calm the flightiest sheep and tame the maddest bull, and it was only a matter of time before a scout from Edinburgh discovered him.

Karl was fourteen when he was moved to Scotland, leaving behind is family to go and learn how to develop his unique talents. He made some money helping to train and prepare horses for battle, a skill that became incredibly handy as vehicles became more and more scarce. When money became worthless he started to work in exchange for food, most of which was given away to people who were in more dire situations than he was. Over time Karl started to give away more and more of his earnings, a practice that has never left him and has lead him to become the rake that he is today.

Four years ago Karl was handed over to Carlisle to run the zoo there, part exchange for a huge supply of crops that were sent to Sighthill. Carlisle 'zoo' is actually more of a breeding facility, supplying meat in huge quantities for the people of Carlisle who can barter for it and for export to other cities. Karl very quickly settled into his role there, but six months after arrival he was signed up with a woman as part of the city's own breeding programme. Karl and Meredith clashed terribly, her constantly trying to argue with him and Karl spending increasing amounts of time hiding with the lions or bears, in places where Meredith wouldn't dare to look for him.

Eventually Karl and Meredith were threatened with being turned out to work the fields if they did not start producing, but try as he might Karl could not summon up a physiological reaction to the woman. Meredith blamed Karl for being a failure, beating him horrifically and causing many of the scars that are now masked by tattoos. One day it got to the point where Meredith threatened Karl with a knife, and in panic for his life Karl accidentally-on-purpose set the zoo's wolf pack on her. The town guard discovered what had happened and tried to arrest Karl, but they dared not try to get to him when he was cowering in the crocodile pit. The town officials decided to leave him, to let him just get on with his job of ensuring the cities meat supplies did not fail. He remains there to this day.

Personality: Quiet and shy, Karl is very reserved and doesn’t really find any joy in communicating with people; in fact, the complete opposite is usually the case. He finds people somewhat unnerving and tries to avoid any unnecessary contact with them as much as possible. Karl is rather naïve and has no real understanding of trickery or deception, with him what you see is what you get and he often fails to spot when someone is playing him. More so than anything though, Karl is innocent hearted. He wishes everyone could just get along with each other all the time, and deep down he believes that if the humans and demons just stopped and thought for a moment they could find some way to stop all this carnage and fear.

Caster type: Nature-bonded.
Spells/ abilities Known: Strong animal empathy and knowledge of nature, high ability to communicate with the creatures in his care. Wide knowledge of plants and their uses and a good ability to craft them.



Player cbox name: Sam
Playby: Matthew Bellamy
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