Post by Erik Castagne on Jul 1, 2012 20:35:02 GMT -5
ERIK CASTAGNE
When you sing, the angels weep...
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Player Name: Rachel
Years Roleplaying: Several.
Gender: Still female.
Contact me: Same as on my Lenoir application.
Anything else?: Same as on my Lenoir application.
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Basic Information[/center]
Age: It's a bit difficult to tell because of Erik's deformed face, but he is 50 years old.
Canon: 1925 Phantom of the Opera Silent movie.[/size]
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Appearance
Body type: Average height and thin, but not skeletal, except for his face and head, which is deformed and resembles a death's head.
Eye color: His eyes are brown but tend to glow yellow at night. They are deep set in his skull-like face. He often opens them widely when he does not have his mask on and they can be frightening to look upon.
Wardrobe: Generally Erik wears a black tail coat, matching trousers and a dark red or other coloured waistcoat with matching ascot tie. His shirt is white and has a wing collar. His boots are black and have a two inch heel. He often wears a three quarter length cape and a black fedora with a short brim when he leaves the lair. Because of his deformed face, he wears a very odd looking mask. It fits over about three quarters of the face and then there is a white cloth to cover his mouth area. With the mask on, all one can see of Erik is part of his long chin. The mask is flesh coloured and the eye holes show only the eyes, no flesh around them is visible. The mask cheeks are rounded and the forehead is smooth. There are eyebrows painted on the mask. It is quite an odd looking mask and the oddest thing about it is the unusual way the cloth bottom of it moves in and out as Erik speaks. The mask gives an impression of uneasy serenity. Over the mask Erik wears a maroon opera cap. When Erik is relaxing in his lair, he will often replace the tail coat with a lounging jacket of a dark colour, maroon or navy blue or another similar colour. Erik is very meticulous in his clothing and is generally dressed formally.
General Appearance: Erik has a skull like face, with deep set dark eyes. The flesh around them is darkened His brow is heavily lined as are his cheeks which are somewhat sunken in. He has a nose, but it's a bizarre wreck of a nose, cut off to where only the nostrils can be seen, so it looks as if there is no nose at all. His teeth are huge and jagged. He has no eyebrows. He has a fringe of greyish/blackish hair surrounding his mostly bald head. The whole effect is of a skull, but even more frightening, an animated death's head.
Erik's movements are graceful, and very dramatic. His hands especially are smoothly graceful, in the way that he uses them, although they are powerful looking and not especially long-fingered. Erik uses his hands and arms in a very dramatic way, a way that can describe things with only motions, words not needed. He has an odd way of walking, gracefully, but sprinting a bit sometimes, and stopping in what could be called a jerky fashion, but yet, it is still graceful.
Altogether, Erik's appearance is strange at its best. The mask lends an air of oddness, which often sets the viewer's flesh crawling a bit. His voice is what sets them at ease, a soothing, pleasant baritone speaking voice, and an angelic singing voice. With the mask off, Erik's ugly countenance becomes more frightening with his anger at being unmasked.
Played By: Lon Chaney, Sr.
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Personality
Erik, because of living alone so long and always being a solitary creature, is not comfortable with most people. He doesn't understand them and so, in some sense fears interaction with them. He would never admit to this fear, or any fear at all, but it is there. Leaving the opera house is leaving his comfort zone.
There are times when Erik appears to be a maniac. He is certainly obsessed. His current obsession is Christine Daaé, his student with whom he has fallen in love at the first hearing of her voice, and he has gone to extreme and detailed measures to make sure she will fall in love with him and become his wife eventually. For example, the lovely bridal chambre he created for her with a boat shaped bed, several pairs of shoes, a mirror and brush set with her initials, jewellery, and the pièce de resistance, a beautiful wedding gown. Erik's plans included carefully hiding himself so that Christine did not see him, but only heard his beautiful voice, then slowly revealing himself to her.
Erik spends his time in his lair, composing beautiful music and playing it on his organ and violin. When he is not in his lair, he is spending most of his time either in Box 5 watching the operas and the rehearsals and giving his opinion to the managers in the form of letters delivered by the box keeper Madame Giry or else watching Christine or giving her lessons.
Erik is slightly insane, but this usually comes out when he is pushed to the limit. He will do outrageous things then, such as kidnapping Christine and torturing Raoul de Chagny and the Persian when they tried to rescue her. He has even resorted to murder to get his point across.
Dreams and Goals: Erik's goals at this time are three:
1. to teach Christine so that she can be the lead singer at the Paris Opera House.
2. to win Christine's love and eventually marry her.
3. to finish his opera, Don Juan Triumphant.
Strengths:
1. Genius in music, architecture and most anything to which he sets his mind.
2. Self confidence in being able to win over Christine.
3. His skills in areas like ventriloquism, mesmerisation and the like.
4. His determination to overcome obstacles.
5. His stealth in being able to hide from prying eyes and yet aware of everything that goes on at the Paris Opera.
6. His genuine love for Christine.
Weaknesses:
1. Being obsessed in most things.
2. Torturing others to attain his own goals.
3. Arrogance in constantly wanting his own way.
4. Committing murder, blackmail, kidnapping and other crimes in order to get his own way.
Fears:
1. Losing Christine's love.
2. Being unmasked.
3. Being ridiculed.
4. Direct contact with people.
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The Past
History: Erik Castagne was born to Pascal and Anne Castagne, a fairly wealthy couple, on April 1, 1831. It was rumoured that Pascal abandoned his wife and child after seeing the hideous face of his son. In any case, he was not a figure in his son's life. Anne was frightened of the child and only touched him when necessary. She made him wear a mask at an early age so she would not have to look at him. Considered by the townspeople to be an evil child because of rumours concerning his monstrous looks, Anne and Erik moved from town to town until they found a place where he could be hidden away.
Erik was an intelligent child, in fact a prodigy. He was mostly self-taught, reading the many books that his father left behind. Anne found several tutors who did not fear the child at least if he wore his mask and he learned much from them, in fact surpassed them in time.
Anne never mistreated Erik, and in some sense grew to love him, but she was always afraid of him and never gave him the love that causes children to thrive. She became more and more afraid of him when he learned illusions and sleight of hand tricks. He learned how to manipulate his mother.
But Erik yearned to see the outside world and would often leave the house at night. One night at age 13, he was kidnapped by a man who owned a travelling show with freaks of every kind. He forced Erik to perform for the crowds by doing some sort of act and then unmasking at the end. The keeper beat Erik and the other freaks unmercifully. One night five years later, Erik was released from his torturous life by killing the fellow. He was recaptured several months later by the authorities, who assumed that Erik was a dangerous, mentally ill man. He was confined to Devil's Island for his crime. Six years later he escaped from the prison by ingenuity and determination.
Years went by when nothing was known or heard from Erik Castagne. It was rumoured that he had gone to Persia to build great edifices for the Shah. His mother assumed he had died and so did most others. Then in the early 1880's, in the Paris Opera, rumours began of an Opera Ghost, who demanded many things. It became so bad that the managers resigned and upon handing over the opera house to new managers, told about the supposed Opera Ghost who demanded a salary of 20,000 francs each month and the free use of Box 5. Upon thinking it a ridiculous rumour, the managers were warned by Madame Giry, the box keeper and then seeing a ghostly shadow in the box, they started to believe that the rumour may be true. Later Joseph Buquet, a stagehand was found hung in the third cellar.
Meanwhile, the reigning diva of the opera house, Carlotta, received a letter telling her she must not sing. The so-called Phantom or O.G. As he deemed himself, demanded that Christine Daaé, a young ingenue, be given the main part of Marguerite in the present opera production, Faust.
When this does not happen, and Carlotta sings the part, a strange voice is heard saying that Carlotta is singing to bring down the chandelier. And just then, it does happen. The chandelier falls, barely missing the diva, but killing and maiming several in the audience.
Meanwhile, Christine Daaé had met a man with an angelic voice who began training her voice so that she would be able to take the lead parts in the operas. However met was really not the correct word. Christine had never met this teacher, she had only heard him. She believed him to be the“Angel of Music” that her beloved father had spoken about many times. This angel, with the perfect voice, was of course Erik, the deformed man, murderer and escaped mental patient.
Erik brought Christine to his lair through a mirror which opened like a door, leading from her dressing room to his underground home, which he had built 5 cellars below the Paris Opera, on a subterranean lake. The house was made of stone and he designed the whole edifice himself. It was well protected with one entrance on the lake and warnings to tell of the approach of anyone. The only other entrance into the lair was through a torture chambre.
Erik had planned to keep Christine in the lair for a short time continuing the music lessons, introducing his masked self to her, and hopefully making her begin to care for him. He showed her his abode, the organ, violin, the entrance to his bedroom which contained an open coffin lined with lush silk and a red velvet curtain behind it. Erik was humble and kind with her and explained everything as a matter of fact. Christine then realized that he was not the angel of music, he was the Opera Ghost! She verbalized this and he admitted to her that he was neither an angel nor a ghost. He said, “I am Erik!” She demanded to see his face and he refused. He told her that she would never see his face unless she wanted never to leave him. Erik approached her, even though she was terrified and told her that he had brought her here as a prisoner of love.
Christine was so upset she fainted and Eric caught her and gently placed her on the floor. As she awoke, she found him kissing her hands and kneeling beside her. She said she would only despise him if he kept her here against her will. Speaking in third person, Erik said he would only hold her five days and then would let her go, for he not only worshipped her, but respected her.
Then Erik picked her up and placed her on a bed in “her” bedroom. This was the amazing and beautiful bridal room, described earlier. She arose after Erik left and examines all the strange things in the room.
The following day, Christine heard strange and beautiful music. It was Erik playing the organ. She arose and came into the music room and saw him sitting at the organ, and marvelled at the music which almost hypnotized her. She was entranced. Inquisitive, in her curiosity, Christine gracefully reached toward Erik. She was standing behind him as he played at the organ.Her intention was to pull of the mask to see his face. He glanced backward as he played and she pulled her hands away quickly. But as he turned back to the organ, her hands again went forward as if by a force she couldn't control. In one quick movement, she pulled the mask and opera cap off together.
Erik stopped playing and screamed in anger. Then he turned and Christine screamed in terror. For she saw the full effect of his death's head and his anger made it more terrifying. She screamed again and fell backwards. Erik's anger turned to despair and he laughed a laugh bereft of humour. “Feast your eyes, glut your soul, upon my curséd ugliness!” he screamed at her and then laughed again insanely. Christine sobbed hysterically and cried as Erik pulled her roughly and told her now she could never leave him. [/size]
RP Sample
Erik was so angry that he paced all night. He could hear Christine weeping inconsolably in the beautiful room that he had created for her. Then he calmed himself. All was not lost. She had seen his face, it was true, and he had told her she could not leave, ever. But certainly she would learn to love him. She would become used to his face, wouldn't she?
Then he felt despair again. Perhaps not. Perhaps she would always despise him, no matter what he did. She would long for her handsome lover, Raoul de Chagny. He threw down some of his music in anger. Then he stalked to his room, but his eyes first lit upon his mask, lying on the floor, next to the opera cap. He picked it up in frustration and went to his bedroom, closing the door. He threw the mask in his coffin bed and sat wearily in a chair, unsure of how to proceed with Christine.
Christine had not responded to fear, to gentleness or anything else he had done, except mesmerization. But he could not keep her in that state forever. The only thing she had responded to was music...that was it...she loved his music and he would convince her again that he was her angel of music, if not in the flesh, at least in spirit. Trying to understand people was not something Erik did well. It always exhausted him … and certainly Christine's reactions to him were disturbing. Finally, sitting in the chair, he blew out the oil lamp and fell into a fitful sleep.
Some time passed. Erik couldn't be sure how much time. It was dark and soundless in his bedroom. He didn't hear Christine weeping any more. That was a good sign. She had found sleep. Erik started to sneeze for some incomprehensible reason. Then he realized of a sudden, that he was wearing his cape, mask, opera cap, and fedora. How curious, he thought, as he lit the lamp again, then stared in puzzlement. He was confused at what he saw...not his own bedroom, but a strange room, rather dusty, and a room that looked like a man's den. Erik stood, frowning and feeling a bit of anxiety.
Erik pulled some matches from his waistcoat and lit several of the wall sconces on the walls, turning on the gas. A heavy oaken desk stood against one wall. Several book cases held books of male interest. There was a deer head with antlers and a bear's head, growling, showing its teeth, both mounted on the walls. Several paintings of outdoor scenes graced the walls. There were no windows, only a door. Light came dimly from the sconces Erik h ad lit. There were a few areas of darkness in the corners where the dim light didn't seem to penetrate.
Erik walked about the room, in shock, not knowing what to think.He did not like to be out of control or in a strange place. What was that feeling in his stomach...could it be fear?
Then he felt despair again. Perhaps not. Perhaps she would always despise him, no matter what he did. She would long for her handsome lover, Raoul de Chagny. He threw down some of his music in anger. Then he stalked to his room, but his eyes first lit upon his mask, lying on the floor, next to the opera cap. He picked it up in frustration and went to his bedroom, closing the door. He threw the mask in his coffin bed and sat wearily in a chair, unsure of how to proceed with Christine.
Christine had not responded to fear, to gentleness or anything else he had done, except mesmerization. But he could not keep her in that state forever. The only thing she had responded to was music...that was it...she loved his music and he would convince her again that he was her angel of music, if not in the flesh, at least in spirit. Trying to understand people was not something Erik did well. It always exhausted him … and certainly Christine's reactions to him were disturbing. Finally, sitting in the chair, he blew out the oil lamp and fell into a fitful sleep.
Some time passed. Erik couldn't be sure how much time. It was dark and soundless in his bedroom. He didn't hear Christine weeping any more. That was a good sign. She had found sleep. Erik started to sneeze for some incomprehensible reason. Then he realized of a sudden, that he was wearing his cape, mask, opera cap, and fedora. How curious, he thought, as he lit the lamp again, then stared in puzzlement. He was confused at what he saw...not his own bedroom, but a strange room, rather dusty, and a room that looked like a man's den. Erik stood, frowning and feeling a bit of anxiety.
Erik pulled some matches from his waistcoat and lit several of the wall sconces on the walls, turning on the gas. A heavy oaken desk stood against one wall. Several book cases held books of male interest. There was a deer head with antlers and a bear's head, growling, showing its teeth, both mounted on the walls. Several paintings of outdoor scenes graced the walls. There were no windows, only a door. Light came dimly from the sconces Erik h ad lit. There were a few areas of darkness in the corners where the dim light didn't seem to penetrate.
Erik walked about the room, in shock, not knowing what to think.He did not like to be out of control or in a strange place. What was that feeling in his stomach...could it be fear?
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