G R A V E S • T-D-D-D- 
Graves ne savait pas ce qu'il ressentait à propos de la petite théorie de Rael. Si ce donjon n'était que le début d'un autre niveau de monstres, avec une AI plus intelligente et une tactique réelle, qu'est-ce que cela signifiait pour le reste de la difficulté du jeu? Y aurait-il d'autres donjons comme celui-ci? La base de joueurs devrait ajuster leurs attentes sur la façon dont les monstres doivent combattre chaque fois qu'ils approchent de certains raids. S'ils ne pouvaient pas s'adapter, comme leur équipe actuelle l'avait fait, ils mourraient. 'Pariah était trop facile' de toute façon.'
Bonne idée. Toi et le garçon des fleurs pouvez prendre l'arrière. Je vais continuer à couvrir l'avant. On devrait rester proches, quoi qu'il en soit. Les deux flancs ont besoin d'être capables de se couvrir l'un l'autre quand la merde frappe inévitablement le ventilateur à nouveau. Oh, et ne... ne nous traitez pas de "voyageurs". Ça te fait paraître gay en enfer. Appelez-nous les joueurs." Graves n'était pas un fan du plan original de se séparer en deux équipes de pompiers de toute façon. Il les a laissés exposés et affaiblis. La séparation n'a jamais été une idée particulièrement brillante dans un donjon; et maintenant que les monstres utilisaient des tactiques d'embuscade, le danger s'est multiplié plusieurs fois. "Yo, Orchidée!" Le Chevalier du Sang a crié en se tournant vers Ocre. L'artisan traversait le processus plutôt dégoûtant de ramasser les cadavres pour les matériaux. Graves grimaçait à la vue, mais il n'a pas commenté. "Je te veux à l'arrière avec la petite fille. Couvrez notre arrière. Tu penses que tu peux gérer ça, mon garçon aux fleurs?"
Le pyromane et le psychopathe résident de l'équipe ont peut-être eu les nerfs de Graves au point qu'il voulait se serrer le cou, mais elle avait un point... pour une fois dans sa vie. Ils ne devraient pas ressentir de douleur. Pas avec la même intensité qui a suivi quand Graves a été frappé par la flèche d'un goblin plus tôt, de toute façon. C'est certainement une source de préoccupation. Le char avait réagi violemment à la sensation. C'était... armer, sentir les barbes le frapper et lacérer sa chair. Graves ne se battait pas comme les autres chars. Rael était assez rapide pour éviter la plupart des coups. Ochre et Vulcain portaient une armure qui les protégeait du mal. Des tombes? Son pouvoir de survivre provenait de potions magiques. Il a régénéré ses blessures en saignant ses ennemis. Graves a été exposé à chaque coup écrasant d'un club, et chaque coup de couteau mordant d'une lame ou d'une tête de flèche. C'était un dur fils de pute, mais pas si dur.
Graves serait damné s'il se plaignait et montrait de la faiblesse au reste de ces asticots, cependant. Il a arraché les barbes de son dos, du sang jaillissant. Chaque flèche brisée a apporté une malédiction en colère sur les lèvres de Graves, et une grimace à son visage. Il a nettoyé sa chair nue des flèches, permettant à leur guérisseur résident de faire des cicatrices sur les blessures. Tout le monde balayait la magie passive du donjon comme si ce n'était rien. Graves est resté silencieux sur le sujet, bien qu'il ait une disposition de plus en plus aigre- rien d'inhabituel pour l'homme endurci. "Facile pour vous tous de dire quand vous êtes à peine frappés." Il a pensé à lui-même sans peu de mépris pour la facilité avec laquelle ses membres du parti balayaient cette terrible nouvelle sensation. L'ancien système n'a jamais fait autant de mal.
"Très bien. Nous avons passé assez de temps à nous branler ici. Allons-y." Le char a commandé. S'ils ont suivi ou pas, Graves s'en foutait. Il a pris son brochet dans son poing et a commencé à descendre les couloirs sombres du donjon de toute façon, même s'il allait seul. Ils suivraient, c'est comme ça qu'ils travaillaient. Tout ce qu'il a fallu, c'était un peu de hurler et d'inciter physiquement, et Graves pouvait faire bouger n'importe qui.
A N D R E W /// G R A V E S
”Stand behind me you dumbasses!” 
 O V E R V I E W 
N A M EAndrew Matthews Gray
A V A T A RGraves T. Bludd
A G E23
G E N D E RMale
V I S A G EAndrew is a lanky Caucasian male with light blue eyes and a stupid sideways grin. He’s almost always the tallest guy in the room, standing at six feet and four inches tall. It’s only natural his avatar be of the same verticality. Graves is a tank, so of course he’s built like a linebacker, whereas his creator is skinny enough that most his of real life friends know him as ‘Twig.’ The dichotomy was initially a little difficult to adjust to, but eventually his mind was able to comprehend having two separate body types. Both Gray and his character have long nearly silver hair that they tend to keep up in a ponytail. Keeping with the theme of ‘blood,’ Graves tends to favor crimsons, blacks and silvers. His armor is admittedly more for looks than practicality. It covers his shoulders, back, arms, legs and sides- but lacks a breastplate in any capacity. This is the case for two reason: One being that he wants his enemies to think he’s vulnerable there, and give the courage to get in range of his pike. Two being showing off his sick abs.
P E R S O N A L I T YGraves has been called any number of things for his less than stellar behavior: jerk, asshole, dick, bastard and jackass all being common substitutes for his name. He isn’t particularly malicious. He doesn’t wake up in the morning, wondering who he can screw over today. But Graves is selfish to his core. He cares only about himself. Every action he takes is to get ahead, others be damned. He’s abrasive, standoffish and horribly arrogant. His crude sense of humor tends to be bent toward insulting others and joking at their expense. He very smugly thinks he’s the greatest person ever, and that anyone who doesn’t see that is a moron. It’s easy to see why he doesn’t have many friends; mostly because he takes advantage of people, treats them badly and then dumps them off before they can get too close. Once upon a time, however, he was different. Graves used to be pleasant enough. He had a small but dedicated circle of friends that he would drop everything for. He was generally joyful and kind, and there was a lot less edge to his humor. Was Bludd perfect? No. But back then, in great contrast to the present, Graves wouldn’t hesitate to help someone else- even if he didn’t get much out of it. It’s speculated that Andrew is putting up a front; that he’s building up a toxic and unlikable character to push others away, to avoid getting burned again.
When Andrew can’t hide before a pike and a fake face, he’s a lot quieter. He hides his emotions from his coworkers and peers, keeping some of the choice words he might have to himself. He avoids conflict whenever possible, to such a degree that he’s willing to bend to views he doesn’t agree with just to avoid a confrontation. Gray is weak. He knows he’s weak. That’s why, when he plays Pariah, he likes to pretend he’s strong- it’s an escape from his sucky ass life and sucky ass 'friends'. He wishes he was tougher, but never makes any strives to actually become more confident and assertive. In game, he's pursuing that power fantasy- he hunts down the toughest of the tough and trains himself until he's strong enough to beat them. Then he moves on to the guy stronger than the last, repeating the process until, one day, he stands above everyone. He isn't anywhere near completing his goal. But, hey, he has nothing but a shitty part time job to do outside of play Pariah- he has plenty of time to dedicate to the game.

B A C K G R O U N D
Andrew was born in a little town in Ohio to two loving parents and eight siblings. He was unlucky enough to be one of the middle children, so it was no surprise when he was overshadowed by the rest of his family. He found that the best way to get any attention from them was to act out- so he was a bit of a devil when he was younger. He eventually grew out of it and accepted the fact that he was meant to be ignored and merely tolerated as a background figure. His town was small, and his high school even smaller- which meant finding friends and penetrating the normal clichés was quite difficult for someone that had gotten used to quietly observing. Gray wasn’t exactly an introvert. He could be loud, excitable and social- but he just…never got the chance to. He didn’t have many friends at all. That is, until he had scrounged up enough cash for his first MMO. He used his low grade laptop to play the game at its lowest settings; it was choppy, constantly lagged and rather ugly…but he loved it. He loved everything about the game. Gray retreated from his garbage normal life into the world of a generic role playing game. He ignored his tanking grades, few acquaintances and boisterous family to play for hours on end. He started off grinding on his own, as most do. But he chanced upon a party of likeminded individuals that needed a secondary tank. Andrew melded seamlessly into their company. They were all chill, cool guys and gals that were always willing to help Andrew learn the game. They continued to play together for months, the size of the group ever expanding as they built up a sizable guild of their own. Andrew became near addicted to raiding. Fighting bosses was the most visceral and exciting experience he’d ever had in a game. Eventually Andrew was (somehow) able to graduate high school and purchase a real computer. All was well for him. His family only occasionally harassed him for being a bum. He had a steady job at a backwater gas station, making minimum wage for very little work. He had made a decent circle of friends for himself within the guild. Life was simple; it was good.
But nothing ever stays good for very long. Rumors began to arise within the lower ranks of the guild that Gray’s circles of friends, the founders of their company, were cheating. Accusations ranged from merely using gold farming bots all the way to increasing their characters’ stats to impossible levels. Gray defended his friends religiously. There was no possible way they’d do something like that. His aggressive resistance to their false claims earned him a fairly bad reputation in a short time. The rumors continued to spread, to the point where other guilds were putting in tickets to the server admin to have their guild investigated. With the moderators getting involved, Grays’ friends found themselves backed into a corner- they had been breaking the rules, and would soon suffer the wrath of the ban hammer. A meeting was held, and a rash decision was made. They would find a single member to put the blame on, plant evidence that they were responsible, and then report them to the administrators. Andrew was chosen. It wasn’t out of personal distaste for the guy; most everyone liked him well enough. But he had already tarnished his own reputation among the lower guild members and lacked many close friends who could help him fight the claim. The next day, Gray logged on to a single message: he had been permanently banned from playing the game. Of course Andrew sent in a support ticket. He tried to fight the claim. However, he found no success- and was eventually forced to abandon his first and favorite MMO. He had been devastated. Things only got worse when someone leaked a log of the meeting to him where his so called ‘friends’ had decided to use him as the scapegoat for their actions. He brought the logs to the mods that had banned him; nothing came of it. He wasn’t trusted, and they had tossed his evidence aside as fake.

 A T T R I B U T E S 
R O L ETank
A F F I L A T I O NSikth
E L E M E N T A L D O M A I N S
Arcane

A R C A N E D O M A I N
Drain

P R O F E S S I O NBounty Hunting: A video game is all about killing things for Andrew. It's what he enjoys most about Pariah. So what better profession than one that let's him kill things? Bounty Hunting covers a wide array of different targets over the entire game world. He's given a list of hunts to choose from that can range from simply kill twenty of X monster, to beat X raid boss in less than forty five minutes, to even going after other players. It's a profession that doesn't ever get boring or tedious and allows Gray to indulge his murderous tendencies on virtual mobs. Certain epic jobs are available for all hunters and can only be completed a certain number of times; making the bounty hunting profession extremely competitive for those looking to make the most from their job. 
W E A P O N O F C H O I C EGraves currently wields an oversized halberd he refers to as a pike, despite being corrected multiple times; Graves is not wrong, everyone else is. It's nearly as large as he is, and is designed to allow him to land as many hits on as many enemies as possible from various ranges. 
R O U G H V I R T U A L H I S T O R Y
Andrew came by Pariah through rather interesting circumstances. He was scrolling through online forums, looking for something to replace his beloved original MMO when he came across an advertisement for Pariah. The game looked absolutely phenomenal; and Gray had always been fascinated by the idea of VR. He had only gotten to play with a system like that once or twice, but he loved every nanosecond of the experience. He couldn't afford it, however. Not on a minimum wage job. That is until he caught wind of a giveaway being done by a local game store. The place had just gotten a shipment of VR headsets and wanted to attract buyers; so they held a raffle contest. Five people would walk away with a copy of Pariah and one of the headsets. Andrew knew he had no chance of winning, but he decided to enter anyway; there was a small fee, but...what the hell. Why not give it a try? Imagine his surprise when he gets an email from the company, informing him that he had won. Gray rushed over to the store the moment he finished reading it and picked up his package. Thus began his journey in Pariah.
Graves is not a name known by many, simply because he keeps to himself for the most part. He has a rapidly growing reputation, however, among the more attentive members of the bounty hunting community. The profession is used by a large chunk of the player base; however, the few hundred or so individuals that claims to be 'professional bounty hunters' are a highly competitive and inclusive group. So when some no name young blood starts snatching up important contracts and taking down a high level bosses and esteemed players, the smarter heads start to turn. He's an above average raider that joins public groups, dominates his enemies and takes what he needs before disappearing again.
Andrew is above average at best. He's no professional, and lacks the experience or gear to take on the really big names. Yet. He's dedicated himself to becoming the absolute strongest hunter in the name; and he's going to do it by almost any means necessary. The only thing he's wary of is teaming up with other players. He's partied up a handful of times, but never long enough to get attached- he knows where that particular road leads. However, there are some obstacles which cannot be overcome alone. Some enemies cannot be defeated through sheer force of will and hours of scrolling through guides and wikis online. On occasion, Bludd has to team up with others- usually to do bosses or gank unsuspecting targets that he can't beat alone. His temporary help always gets a 'piece of the pie' so to speak; he makes sure they get something out of the effort, even if he's an asshole to them while doing so.
Bludd received his primary weapon a few months ago in one of the hardest grind sessions of his life; it's priceless to him, and it fits his playstyle perfectly. The pike isn’t exactly anything special, but it’s Graves weapon of choice no matter the circumstance. He uses it consistently, and has yet to hear of any item that he'd rather have over it. He and that dumb ol' pike have been through a lot together. Why give it up for something unfamiliar? His current weapon is reliable. And if Gray needs anything, it's a little bit of reliability in his life.