Introduction
Miloslav Vorel
An Witch [
Appearance
Notable Features
Has round, silver-colored glasses for reading.Personal Style
Before anything else you must know that he simply abhors dirtiness and will change several times per day if he must.While Miloslav isn't one to care much for such frivolities as fashion, his upbringing does not let him allow practicality to triumph over all, so you will find him stitching his patients back together while wearing a white button-up shirt. If the scene is truly gruesome, he'll begrudgingly put on a leather apron -- you'd be forgiven for thinking him a butcher.
Outside of work hours, if such a thing even exists for this man, he prefers fine suits in muted colors, most often gray or brown, and his Sunday best includes a Western staple -- the Derby (or a Wideawake, if the sun insists on biting the eyes).
Circumstances
Currently
Having settled in Never in August of 1881 and purchased a two-story building in southern Uptown, Miloslav Vorel has quietly made a name for himself as a lone bachelor who will treat the poor without asking a single dime. The rich do not get this same treatment so, despite the noble air about him, he is not found frequenting the same circles as the Great and the Good. Honestly, he's not found frequenting almost any circles at all besides the ones his feet have trodden into the ground around town.Health & Capabilities
1) Insomniac since the age of 17. There is a light in his windows during the most odd hours and he's willing to do house calls in the middle of the night, even if he has managed to fall asleep. Tries to self-medicate with herbal treatments to various degrees of success.2) Prone to melancholy both due to aforementioned and the general circumstances of his adult life. Can seem withdrawn.
3) Needs glasses for reading. It's not a terribly bad situation, but squinting has etched a few lines into his forehead.
Other than that he's perfectly healthy and has all the capabilities you'd expect of a man with an arm-chair job who has a penchant for taking long walks.
Socioeconomics
You wouldn't be able to tell at a glance, but Miloslav Vorel has enough money in the bank to buy the entirety of Greystone. On a financial level he wants for nothing, which is why he is able to keep offering his services to the town for dirt cheap (unless you're upper class. Then you foot the bill in full).Owns a wooden two-story building in Uptown, on the corner of Rio Grande and 3rd Street which houses both his medical practice and pharmacy/chemistry lab and his living quarters.
Skills & Talents
Plays the piano (knows only a few pieces by heart, but has little problem reading notes on the go);Native Czech speaker;
Fluent in German;
Fluent in English;
Passable at reading and writing in French, but you'll regret asking him to speak.
Present Relationships
- Albert, black cat with green eyes and long, slender body. Less than a year old and dearly beloved.Identity
Hobbies
Reading erotic novels;Playing the piano;
Attending classical music concerts;
Personality
On the surface, Miloslav Vorel might not seem like much. Quiet, non-descript and introverted, he doesn't like to draw attention to himself. If it weren't for an upbringing that encouraged showing up in society, it wouldn't be hard to assume that he's a misanthrope... But then again, why would a misanthrope devote his life, both in the abstract and the physical sense, to helping people?It is true that he does not like to draw attention to himself. His clothes do not telegraph his opulent wealth, nothing about the location of his office and apartment in Uptown Never indicates noble titles and vast family properties back in Europe. He employs a maid, albeit reluctantly and would much prefer to take care of everything himself, but it is a sacrifice he must make to be able to offer round the clock care for anyone who might need it without his home falling into disrepair.
Miloslav cares a lot about equity. Equality isn't enough -- a dollar for a beggar is not the same as a dollar for the mayor. This is why the residents of Greystone foot the full bills of Dr. Vorel's services, while the impoverished could get help for free, if they'd dare to ask.
He carries in his heart the ideals of the post-1848 Europe he grew up in -- romantic nationalism, early socialism and the like. Another very influential set of ideas have been the stereotypes of medicine witches that others across central Europe have had for centuries, most importantly the notion that folk healers and the like only seek to make profit off of others pain. Unfortunately, his own dynasty has proved the people right. He has to support himself, but he will try to do that in the most fair way possible.
Though he’s spent a lot of time focusing on his medical career and traveling, there is a part of Miloslav that desperately craves to find love and create a family of his own. The idea of a warm, loving family is something he didn’t grow up with, but sounds like it would bring comfort and belonging to his admittedly lonely life. Because of his insecurities, though, he has trouble believing that he’ll find a woman who both loves him and is willing to put up with his lifestyle as a doctor. Still, he truly wants to be committed, so much that he has a jealous streak that would come out if he was afraid someone would take his girlfriend or wife away -- even if it was something as innocuous as said woman's brother wanting to spend time with her.
This low self-esteem also appears in a more destructive way: his tendency toward self-sacrifice. He’s selfless to the point of choosing to harm himself rather than others. In his magical experimentation, he will use himself as a test subject, even to the detriment of his own health. The thought that he would harm others rather than helping them is so overwhelming that he would rather work himself to the bone than place that burden on them. He’s stubborn and unrelenting in his beliefs, to the point where he would probably need to be physically forced to go against them.
Background
History
While you're poking through the ruins of a Wild West ghost town, in the furthest corner of an old fireplace you find a wad of papers. Between half burnt newspapers and pages torn from farming manuals there seems to be a draft of a manuscript of some sort. Handwritten, heavily edited and rather charred, it's a pain to read, but you do anyhow.
Miloslav Vorel has carried a heavy burden upon his shoulders since the day he was born, nay, since the day he was conceived, for he was to be the firstborn of a noble family, with all the standard trappings of aristocracy - a way to dress, a way to behave, a way to think and, as it often seemed to him, even a way to breathe. Lessons of German and French, of dancing and piano, of etiquette and law, and even accounting and agronomy, so that he could one day rule over the properties that would belong to him. As if that wasn’t enough, Miloslav had another subject to contend with – medicine.
You see, the Vorels did not gain their prominence in Austro-Hungarian society simply by virtue of being a cadet branch of a cadet branch of the Kolowrat, or the business acumen of certain family members. For centuries, members of the family have been at the vanguard of medical innovation, but you need not waste your time looking for their name in your history textbooks. One too many of their achievements were reached through means less than ethical (whatever that may mean in any given period of time), so their discoveries were revealed to the world through less or more willing proxies. And then there was the seldom mentioned detail that the Vorels happened to be witches, but that is information revealed on a need to know basis – and most need not to know.
Not all Vorels have been on board with this modus operandi, but while he was growing up, our protagonist Miloslav would not dare to speak of such renegades. Best if he didn’t even let them cross his mind. Why?
Well... The household he grew up in wasn’t exactly known for freedom of thought, especially when his great-grandmother Drahomíra was present. It seemed that no decision, from property purchases to the colour of Miloslav’s sisters’ dresses, would go through without the approval of the seemingly immortal Matriarch. The servant children used to whisper that she kept her life the methods of Elizabeth Báthory… To think of it, those same children had vanished into thin air soon after. Miloslav was not made aware of the existence of said renegades until he turned fifteen. And how can one boy have thoughts of rebellion if he hasn’t even a clue that life can be different?
A page is missing. Eventually you find a few scraps of burned paper that seem to fit and gather that there was some large scale familial conflict involving a cousin. The details elude you.
Thoroughly horrified and disgusted by the way the older members of his family treated human lives as just another resource towards furthering their goals, Miloslav resolved to never stoop down to their level. If he'd been of a more impulsive character as was his deeply beloved brother, Miloslav might have disowned his entire lineage right then and there, burning bridges and becoming an outcast. But while that might have felt like the correct course of action, it was not a smart or pragmatic step to take at the age of seventeen. Instead he began the slow and arduous process of de-tangling himself from familial obligations and expectations by putting physical and mental distance between himself and all that it meant to be a Vorel.
First came excuses of wanting to study more literature and do experiments with plants and animals, avoiding involvement with the human rights violations that occurred in the basement of their mansion. Then he moved to Prague and later Vienna to pursue medical degrees in both human and magical medicine. His gaze was always turned west, dreaming of going as far as it took to find a place where his last name did not carry the same stench of blood that coated it in European high society.
But no matter how far he would go the threads that tied him down remained. He was the heir of the family. All of their lands and businesses would one day become his problem (and some sooner than others, according to the incessant nagging of his mother). If he wanted to be free, those threads would have to be cut. He’d known this since day one, so, since the first day of his quiet rebellion he syphoned funds into bank accounts far out of his father’s reach…
More missing pages.
Drahomira wasn’t the only member of the Vorel dynasty that went six feet under on that summer day. The concept of Count Miloslav Jiří Kolowrat-Vorel went to the grave right with her. In his most defiant act yet, he stood up at the post-funeral dinner and told his entire family in no uncertain words exactly what he thought about their “traditions”. The price he paid was steep, and it could have been steeper – his father lost his temper like Miloslav had never seen before and attempted to make his twenty-seven year old son participate in the proud Czech tradition of defenestration. But he was faster and it was his father that needed medical attention, while Miloslav walked away, never to return again.
His path has lead from the mountains of Bohemia through Prague, Vienna, Paris, London, Boston, New York and Chicago to Never, New Mexico, which has been his home since August 1881.
Powers & Magic
Powers Use
Full credit to Anna for putting this system together.
Miloslav’s powers require the use of ingredients and rituals to enchant natural medicines. He’s inherited healing magic from his family, who have a centuries-long history of passing the knowledge down. For that reason, much of his knowledge comes from Central European traditions, though because he is interested in research and expanding the possibilities of medicine, he seeks out other traditions to learn from as well.
His powers don’t allow him to heal without the use of some material to enchant. Usually he must mix a specific recipe, then either speak ritual words over it or write ritual signs around it. This creates a potion which can either be taken internally or rubbed on the skin externally, depending on the situation.
The magic is fueled by his own physical energy, and the more potent the potion, the more energy it will require from him. If he is injured or exhausted, it may be physically impossible for him to enchant potions. A mistake in the ingredients or ritual could also create a potion with a negative effect.
Some limitations to this form of magic include:
- Cannot raise someone from the dead;
- Cannot permanently cure conditions that normally would be permanent. For example, cannot regrow a limb, or cannot replace a failed organ. But could temporarily heal a chronic condition;
- Cannot last permanently (the effects will eventually wear off);
- Cannot make someone immortal.
Given that magic exhausts his own energy, when possible he opts for non-magical solutions and is a practiced surgeon and pharmacologist. But magical problems require magical solutions...
