Joaquin Monteverde || Crescent Sun

Joaquin is, above all, a loner.  If he had to be described with a single word, it would be ‘bleak’.  Though the instinctive pull toward a pack is there, he is human-born, and he did not First until his eighteenth year.  By then he was a man grown, already different from others around him, already withdrawn, already set in his ways.  One might say the man is stronger than the wolf in him.

Secondly, he is what he believes a Theurge of the Garou Nation should be: not an idle medicine man who spends his time hiding in the Caern bantering with the spirits, not a creature who hides as far from bloodshed as possible, and certainly not a simple field medic on hand to heal fallen warriors.  Instead, he is a solitary hunter in his own right, haunting the rooftops of skyscrapers and alleyways damp with trash, spirit-paths through the Scab and the blasted wastelands of the Blight.  Almost always alone, those who have spoken to him find him not ineloquent, but a man of few words nonetheless…few words, and unsettlingly intense eyes.  Darkly compelling though he might be, it is something of a challenge to hold a long conversation with the aloof Shadow Lord.  In some ways, he is exactly what a Theurge of his Tribe (but perhaps not the Garou Nation) should be: a spirit-lord reasonably adept on the battlefield and in court as well.

Because he is no match for your average Ahroun in open, hand-to-hand combat, he relies on tactics of ambushes and hit-and-runs.  Stealth and tracking are his fortes; he prefers to follow prey (which includes anything from banes to vampires) from across the Gauntlet, striking quickly and decisively, and only once.  If he should fail, he retreats and does not try again.  Some call it cowardice; others, honorable defeat to a stronger foe.

Partly because of his unique style of guerilla warfare, Joaquin is equally at ease on either side of the Gauntlet.  In the Umbra, spirits are drawn to his high energy; he often has a retinue following him wherever he goes.  Perhaps for this reason, he spends more time Realmside than the average Theurge: no spirits to bother him, and usually people leave him alone when he wants to be left alone.  Which is almost always.

He doesn't mind the city, either.  It's good hunting, and he's always liked the view from the tops of the skyscrapers.  Besides, there's something to be said for the anonymity of a big city.  Still, he tends to walk wherever he goes, trusting his own feet and his own sense of direction, earth-given and earth-grounded, more than that of public transportation and automobile alike.

There’s one exception to his solitude: his familiar spirit, a rather intelligent Jaggling Raven that he found (or perhaps it found him) some years back.  It’s not certain what exactly drew them together – even Joaquin can’t say for sure – but a bond formed between the austere Shadow Lord and the elegant rogue Raven, which lasts to this day.