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Eudocius Oswestry/the Count/Mister Sterling/Lahire

flip the lid
out pops the cracker
smacks you in the head
knifes you in the neck
kicks you in the teeth

- Radiohead
Wolf At the Door

Character Image

Character Information

His name is Eudocius Sterling Oswestry. Is it any wonder he rarely uses the name? In the Hellfire Club, he is Lahire, the Jack of Hearts. On the streets, he is "the Count" or occasionally "Mister Sterling." He is a character in the PBEM Galactic Renaissance.

The Count is thirty-six years old. He stands about 5'9". His hair is naturally a dark gold, cut short so that it is a cap of curls. He does, however, own a variety of wigs, which he uses to help bring his different personas to life. His eyes are hazel.

Eudocius Oswestry aka the Count aka Mister Sterling is naturally quite attractive - he is of medium height and wiry, with compact muscles. His skin is incredibly pale, giving the impression he spends most of his time inside during the day and/or out at night. His hands are almost abnormally long-fingered. A small, barely noticeable scar cuts across his upper lip.

As Lahire, the man is masked and gloved, hiding his two most noticeable features, and his blond hair is covered with a black wig of piratical curls, modeled after the hairstyle of Lord Lagoran.

In various different minor personas, he might wear different wigs, false facial hair, false moles, etc.

He generally dresses as sharply and expensively as he can afford - often mostly in black leather. He is usually the height of fashion (for about fifteen years ago). He favors elaborate jacket/doublets and fold-over boots. "Lahire" dresses in red and black, embroidered with playing cards. "The Count" prefers black and orange or black and yellow or even black and white. Eudocius Oswestry as himself will wear Oswestry colors and dress a good deal more conservatively and in more modern style.

Eudocius Oswestry was born in a large but exceedingly run-down house in what had once been a nice part of Aquila, but was now increasingly a den of thieves, murderers and prostitutes. He was the only son of Octavian and Theodora Oswestry, although he had a sister, Iphigenia, who was seven years younger.

Octavian Oswestry had not been born rich, and squandered what little money was left to him on gambling and drink. He was a weak, unhappy man, and he died in a bar brawl which he started by accusing another man of cheating. Eudocius was ten years old at the time.

Theodora was a cold, calculating woman who had not reckoned on living the life she had ended up with. After her husband's death and the family's subsequent lack of income, she sold her three-year-old daughter to a merchant couple who had always wanted children, and tried to apprentice her son in some lucrative trade.

Eudocius never forgave his mother for giving up Iphigenia, because he had doted on his baby sister. It was then that he began to walk the streets, creating the persona of "Mister Sterling." At first Mister Sterling was a beggar and a thief, but he soon made connections higher up - he ended up working in gambling and opium dens. At thirteen he was a bouncer and a pimp. At eighteen he was a card sharp.

He managed to bring in enough money this way to keep his mother and himself alive, and he put off any attempts by her to win more honest trade. He was sullen and resentful of Theodora still, and their relationship was one of coldness, insults, and mutual dislike.

At twenty-five he married and took his young bride - once a prostitute, home. The girl could not long endure Theodora Oswestry's insults and abuse, however, and she ran away only a few months later.

Six months after that, Theodora died under mysterious circumstances.

Mister Sterling took over the manor house, reforming it as a den of corruption: gambling, liquor, drugs, and prostitution, all at any hour of the night. During the day it remained ostensibly the living place of Eudocius Oswestry, but nobody really came to call.

The dive more than pays the rent, and Mister Sterling (or the Count, as he began to be called around the time the gambling den became popular) now has a reasonably large amount of money, but he does nothing to fix up the outside of the house, except for the roof occasionally. It is still ramshackle, and indeed, somewhat creepy. Inside, the lower floors are opulent if trashy, but the upper floors are like a haunted house.

It has become obvious over the years that Mister Sterling is as cold, calculating and dangerous as his mother ever was - he will do anything for a little money, and most of the time he enjoys it. His cruelty mostly stems from boredom, but that does not excuse it. None of his women ever leave... alive. He feels he has been left by too many women already.

MISCELLANY

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Copyrights & Credits

All information © Amy Edwards, 2005.
Image of James Marsters.
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