Horatio Davis

[Horatio Davis[Inactive]]

Settle down, it’ll all be clear

Full name: Horatio Charles Davis
Nickname: Commander/Captain
Alias: N/A
Gender: Male
Age/Birthday: 32 Years Old, June 7th, 1674
Celebrity Claim: Paul McGann

If you get lost you can always be found

Time Period: Colonial/Age of Piracy
Appearance: Horatio is an Englishman with a typical fair complexion. He has a lean but strong build as befits a sailor and a military man who has spent two decades hard at work. His hair is dark and of a medium length, his face typically clean shaven. Horatio’s eyes are a blue green.

As far as attire goes, Horatio does not stray far from his uniform. Brief forays into civilian affairs sometimes require civilian clothing but those excursions are few and far between. Clever use of a hat replaces the typical Assassin hood when on mission. Otherwise, stealth is never much of a focus.
Height:5’9”
Distinguishing Features: Missing two joints off his left ring finger.

Just know you’re not alone

Personality: Horatio is a long term plant, a man who has truly devoted himself to his false identity beneath his true Assassin allegiance. In fact, Horatio the Assassin and Horatio the English officer are nearly indistinguishable. He comes across as the gentleman officer who is fairly well educated, polite, and refined, but he is also the fighter who commands men, fights in battles, and kills. He is a dedicated man, first and foremost to the Order but with strong loyalties to Her Majesty’s Navy. He is courageous and energetic, diligent and temperate. Overall he is a fine soldier.

Horatio naturally is set apart from other sailors in that he has been trained as an Assassin and in fact uses his occupation as a vehicle for Assassin goals either directly or indirectly. When it comes to his fellow Assassins, Horatio is also atypical. His training was not performed under normal circumstances nor is his placement aboard a ship typical. As far as specialization and skill goes, Horatio also lacks some of the stealth and reconnaissance skills of his brothers. He is far from inept, but such skills have taken a backseat to a primary focus on martial abilities. The latter were easier to learn and practice in his profession, and seemed all the more practical as well.

Fears:

• Being discovered within the Navy and compromising the Brotherhood
• Drowning
• Never returning to England
• Something happening to his family while he is away and unable to defend them

Goals:

• Reach the rank of Captain in Her Majesty’s Royal Navy
• Eventually retire from the Royal Navy and return home to England with his family
• Stop the spread of Templar influence into the New World

Likes:

• The Sea/Sailing
• Swordplay
• The hunt
• His family (“Awwwww”)

Dislikes:

• Swimming
• Tobacco
• The uncertainty of the endless war against the Templars
• Native Americans

Strengths:

• Strict adherence to the Tenants of the Creed
• Deep cover as an English officer and nothing more
• Upbringing and education
• Courageous and selfless

Weaknesses:

• Unquestioningly devoted to the Assassin Order and the Creed to the point of being a zealot
• Lack of experience outside of the military
• Suspicious and distrustful to the point of paranoia
• Pride
• Family ties

Talents:

• Martial skill
• Musically inclined (the violin in particular)
• 20 years experience as a sailor
• Can dive into a small bale of hay from any height and not break any bones

Habits/Quirks:

• Ritualist, the kind of guy who had a finger cut off for tradition’s sake
• Distant and distrustful upon first meetings
• Trouble with idle hands i.e. when not doing something he will start doing something, even if that is only fiddling with the hilt of his sword or scratching his face.

Occupation: English Officer
Alliance: Assassin

Cause I’m gonna make this place your home.

History:
Horatio, like many, was born into the Order from a long line of Assassins. His father was a successful merchant in Bristol, by day at least. Specifically, William Davis dealt in maritime commerce and trade with Assassin business often traversing the Atlantic on his ships. Thus, although an Assassin himself, William Davis was more on the logistical side of the Order. His wife Anne, however, followed a more traditional path and traveled extensively for the Order in her youth until eventually ending up on one of William’s ships and falling in love when it returned to port back in Bristol. It should not be surprising that their son both followed in their footsteps into the Order and also took to the seas.

In 1686 at age 12, Horatio received a King’s Letter and became a volunteer aboard the HMS Greyhound, a 30 gun sixth rate frigate. After three years of service aboard ship, the young teenager was elevated to midshipman where he remained for yet another three years. Growing up on a warship was not the conventional upbringing one might expect, but Horatio learned a great deal not only about sailing and the military, but as a young “gentleman” he was educated by the ship officers in other matters as well as could be expected. Leaving home at such a young age would also likely have ended his connection to the Assassin Order, but the captain of the Greyhound, Samuel Howard, managed to take up the burden of that education as well. Howard was getting on in years but he was also a member of the Order and was quite the accomplished assassin in his time. Not only did Horatio learn the tenets and history of the Assassin Order, but aboard ship he was taught to climb and fight in the traditional methods of the Order. It was not the conventional training regimen one would expect, but Horatio is not a conventional assassin.

By age 18, Horatio passed the lieutenant’s examination and was commissioned as an officer in the Royal Navy. Shortly thereafter, Captain Howard decided that Horatio had completed his training and the young man was fully inducted into the Order during a brief trip to London. Shortly thereafter, Horatio was sent off on his own to the Berwick, a 70 gun third rate, where he would serve for a decade. He started as the most junior of five lieutenants and left the ship in 1703 at age 29 as the ship’s First Lieutenant.

Straight from London, the Berwick went directly into the Nine Years War and joined the Anglo-Dutch forces wrestling for control of the English Channel. The Berwick participated in a few engagements including the Battle of Cape Barfleur before supremacy was achieved and the remaining French ships were either driven off or bottled up in their ports. From there, the Berwick sailed into the Mediterranean to join the task force now focusing on the southern coast of France. Berwick would remain there until the conclusion of the war in ’97.

For his part, Horatio was very much a soldier during these years and not an Assassin. He fought in numerous engagements, but for the most part was restricted to his official duties even if the Order had sent him a mission, which they did not. After the war ended, things were a little less hectic but the young officer still was left largely out of the Assassin grand scheme. However, Horatio tried his hardest to remain involved. The Berwick was frequently in port and never strayed far from the British Isles during this period, so simple missions taking only a day or two were generally the norm. Whether travelling incognito or openly as a naval officer, Horatio performed a number of assassinations from 1697 to 1702, perhaps his most active years. These missions included the assassination of a few key witnesses against Sir John Fenwick, a friend of the Order who was arrested for his involvement in a grander assassination plan. Horatio successfully removed his targets, but Fenwick was still executed even with no witnesses to testify against him. Horatio paid a final visit to Viscount John Lowther, a known Templar, as well as Sir Charles Sedley who died under sudden and mysterious circumstances.

In between his peacetime duties as an officer and the assassination contracts taken on the side, it was during this inter-war period that Horatio met and married his wife. Mary Howard was the daughter on an Assassin in the London Guild and a distant cousin of Horatio’s own mentor, Captain Samuel Howard. The two were introduced in ’98 when they crossed paths at the Guild Hall. The courtship that followed fortunately included more of Horatio the officer at parties and other social gathers rather than Horatio the assassin, just returned from killing an enemy agent. Whatever the case, the two were eventually married by the turn of the century and started a family shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, however, the peace in Europe would not last and Horatio would soon sail from England once again in the War of Spanish Succession.

In 1702 Horatio was specifically called upon for a mission of greater importance. This would be the most notable part of both his Assassin and Navy career. Back in action, the Berwick participated in the Battle of Vigo Bay in 1702 during the early years of the war. On the surface, the target of the battle was the Spanish Treasure Fleet, recently returned from the New World. However, the convoy of ships had already arrived in Spain and unloaded before the battle ever occurred. Why attack ships on their way back with empty holds? The truth is that a unique item had been placed aboard one of the ships, the Oriflamme, for the return voyage. It was this item, a suspected First Civilization artifact, that was at the heart of the attack... at least to those in the know.

Horatio was one such individual. The Second Lieutenant of the Berwick was brought onto the mission a month prior to the battle in September when the artifact was located. A call went out across Spain and beyond for the Assassins to rally for an attack. It was originally envisioned as a more “traditional” stealth assault with actual members of the Order boarding the target vessel, but Horatio’s involvement presented an alternative.

At the time, the English were besieging the City of Cadiz in southern Spain. During the prolonged engagement, Horatio had made contact with the Order there. In fact, it was during this period that he underwent the now uncommon ritual of sacrificing his left ring finger for the Order under the pretense that it was lost during the battle. It was during this contact that Horatio received his assignment from the Master of the Cadiz Guild.

The attack on Cadiz had bogged down and was going nowhere fast. It was no secret that a withdrawal was likely which meant that the Anglo-Dutch force would once again be available to strike another, hopefully more vulnerable target. The Spanish and French Fleets at Vigo Bay were that target. Horatio met with Dutch Admiral Philips van Almonde and informed him of the Treasure Fleet’s arrival, and that’s all it took. The admiral did the rest of the work convincing the English Admiral George Rooke to attack and soon the joint fleet was sailing toward its new target. The Battle of Vigo Bay ended in a decisive victory with the destruction or capture of all enemy ships while the Anglo-Dutch force suffered negligible losses.

Horatio’s battle, however, was a bit more exciting. The Berwick was the second ship through the boom and although the English had the advantage, the first ships through took the full brunt of the Spanish and French guns as they came into the breach. The Berwick’s First Lieutenant was cut in half by a French cannonball, instantly promoting Horatio. Captain Richard Edwards was also badly wounded in the first minute which left Horatio in command of the ship.

With full command of the vessel, Horatio focused in on his target, the Oriflamme, and pressed the attack with little regard to the other ships involved in the battle that raged around him. As the Berwick turned to deliver her broadside, the fireship “Terrible” struck the enemy vessel and engulfed her bow in flame. Berwick then unleashed her full fury amidships and nearly tore the Oriflamme in half. Seconds later Horatio was already ordering the Berwick to grapple and board, but the relentless assault was halted as suddenly the French magazine exploded. The Oriflamme either burned or sank there in the bay and the artifact along with it.

Horatio served as First Lieutenant under a recuperating Captain Edwards for another year before being rewarded with a ship of his own, the Nightingale, a 20 gun sloop of war. It was certainly a step down from the Berwick, but Horatio was on his way to higher promotion. More importantly for the Order, he was now Master and Commander of his own ship and could take on more Assassin business rather than merely being an agent travelling around wherever his captain took him.

The Nightingale participated in the capture of Gibraltar in 1704 before heading west to the New World, leaving the theatre just before the brutal Battle of Malaga. Horatio currently patrols the Caribbean and sometimes up the Atlantic Coast pressing the English cause against French and Spanish shipping and colonies in the Americas. Nightingale is based out of Kingston, Jamaica where Horatio is given wide latitude to protect the Crown’s interests in the New World.

Unofficially, Horatio is a skilled and dedicated Assassin hiding in plain sight within the British Navy. He holds a good deal of authority in Colonial America and has been given

 his own ship to back it up. He has also been given considerable free reign to use his ship as he pleases, and the captain does not fail to support the goals of the Assassins whenever possible. Horatio is also the head of the local Assassins Guild (or lack thereof) in Jamaica though he holds no other authority over assassins elsewhere in the New World.

In 1707, Horatio arrived back to Kingston to find a letter waiting for him with a new mission. It was believed that the artifact presumed lost aboard the Oriflamme had been salvaged and this time had successfully made the voyage across the sea. It would need to be recovered at any cost.

Mother: Anne Davis
Father: William Davis
Siblings: James Davis
Significant other: Mary (Howard) Davis
Children: William, Elizabeth
Home: Bristol, England. Kingston, Jamaica.

Behind the Scenes

Name/Alias: Roger
How long have you been in RP?: Past seven years with a two year break around the middle.
How did you find Cutting Corners?: Recruited by Onas

Music credit -- Phillip Phillips - Home

Read more: cuttingcorners.proboards.com/thread/7/character-app-form#ixzz377PUdROt