Johannes [Assassin]

[Johannes[Inactive]]

Settle down, it’ll all be clear

Full name: Johannes
Nickname: Jan
Alias: None
Gender: Male
Age/Birthday: Nineteen/August 13th in the late 15th century
Celebrity Claim: Alex Pettyfer

If you get lost you can always be found

Time Period: Renaissance
Appearance:
Johannes is a skinny boy with the trademark blonde hair and blue eyes of the Dutch. In a crowd of tanned and dark-haired Italians he stands out like a beacon through the fog. Even when he attempts to hide his hair underneath his hood, he is still easy to pick out of a group. His long legs put him well above the general population. When assassins are supposed to be inconspicuous, Jan finds this extremely difficult.

In terms of his assassin’s robes, he tends to strip down to the bare essentials. The Netherlands has a much more temperate climate than Italy and he has a hard time dealing with the heat. His uniform only consists of a shirt and hood with the sleeves rolled, a pair of trousers, boots, and a light armor on top. Jan also relies on his crossbow and a quiver with bolts is constantly strapped to his back.

Height: 6’ 4”
Distinguishing Features:
Jan’s typical robes that he wears in the Netherlands are designed to hide the disfiguration in his left shoulder. They hide the fact that Jan is weak and injured on that side. Since his old robes caused him to overheat in Italy, his injury has become more obvious. His left shoulder sticks out at an odd angle and he is unable to lift that arm above his head or let it hang at his side. Also when sitting or standing, he tends to lean slightly to the right. Underneath his shirt, there are several scars where the bone had splintered through the skin when it was severely broken.

Just know you’re not alone

Personality:
Johannes has a strong sense of justice; he has a very black and white view of the world. The Assassins are good, they are the light. The Templars are bad, they are the darkness. From a young age Jan has been taught this and it influences his every action. This makes him quick to trust other Assassins and automatically suspicious toward anyone associated with the Templar order. While on the surface this is a good quality for Johannes to have, it puts him at a huge disadvantage.

Johannes will follow orders without question; he believes that his superiors will always know better. Even if he has doubts, he trusts those above him to make the right decisions. This trust would make him especially easy to manipulate and take advantage of. He may not believe he is doing the right thing but if it associated with the Assassins, it must be meant for the good of the population’s freedom.

On the other hand when dealing with Templars, Jan’s view of the world makes him extremely closed-minded. He is immediately suspicious of anyone that is associated with the Templar Order and would never allow himself to trust one. Even in a life or death situation, Johannes would rather die than to cooperate with a Templar. In his world, there are no shades of grey and the Templars do not deserve his mercy.

Overall Johannes is passionate about his work, has a calm temperament, and cooperates well with other people. However when he arrived in Italy, his talkativeness took a plummet but that may be because he doesn’t speak a lot of Italian. He tries his best to communicate through body language and hand signals but after a while, even he gets frustrated.

Fears:
- Horses
- Failing the Creed
- Disappointing his family

Goals:
- Become a full-fledged assassin
- Improve his marksmanship even further
- Make his family proud

Likes:
- His home, Amsterdam
- The foods coming from the New World
- His crossbow
- Success in his missions

Dislikes:
- Horses, even being near horses
- Close combat
- Sword fighting
- Uncooperative teammates

Strengths:
- Long-range weapons [crossbow and throwing knives]
- Free-running
- Charming and charismatic [when speaking Dutch]
- Strong-willed

Weaknesses:
- Close combat
- Sword fighting [can barely lift a sword]
- Merciless and cold-hearted with enemies
- Close-minded and stubborn
- Cannot speak Italian, only knows a few common phrases

Talents:
- Long-range weaponry
- Pin-point accuracy with his crossbow
- Playing peacekeeper in teams

Habits/Quirks:
- Refuses to travel by horse
- Tugs at his sleeves when nervous/uncomfortable
- Can sleep anywhere, even standing

Occupation: Assassin Novice
Alliance: Assassin

Cause I’m gonna make this place your home.

History:
Johannes was born into a long line of Assassins in the Holy Roman Empire. For generations his family has served the order, not only in the Holy Roman Empire but across Europe. His mother, Gertrude, was raised in Holland as an Assassin but later married a banker, Piet, from Amsterdam; he would later become an asset to the Order as a source of funds. Together they had three children; Johannes was the youngest and the only son.

As a child Johannes was considered small and sickly, over and over his parents were told not to expect him to survive. Somehow the little boy pushed through the sickness to reach the age of seven and his training began. Early on Gertrude recognized that her son would not perform well in close combat because of his size and rather focused on training him to use long-range weapons such as crossbows and throwing knives. From a young age, it was obvious that the boy had an impressive aim and could hit a target with ease. He was trained in some basics of sword fighting as a precaution but he was easily overpowered by any opponent bigger than him.

Jan was also seen as a natural rider. Since he could walk, his was trained to ride a horse and he seemed to be at ease when riding. This gave him some advantage in close combat since he could still fire his crossbow while perched on the horse’s back. Truthfully, Johannes would rather be riding than doing anything else. This changed after the accident.

When he was twelve, he was riding through town when something spooked his horse and it reared, throwing Jan from the saddle. The ground briefly stunned him but the horse didn’t calm down and its hoof came down onto Jan’s left shoulder. The force was enough to crush most of the bone underneath; some of it could even be seen since it splintered his skin. Surgeons attempted to fix the shoulder but little could be done, his shoulder would be permanently disfigured.

After he recovered, his family tried to reintroduce him to riding but Jan wanted nothing to do with the horses. Every time he tried to get close to one, he would become sick to his stomach. To this day, over six years later, Jan still refuses to ride horses, much less get near one. He will practically knock people out of his way to avoid horses when they come down the street. Basically, Jan needs to be knocked stone cold to get him on a horse.

Jan had barely turned eighteen when his family heard of the assassin’s guild rebuilding in Italy. It was quickly decided that Jan would benefit from the experience away from Amsterdam. Over the course of several months, Jan was given a brief crash course in Italian and then shipped off to Italy in search of entrance into the assassin order in Rome. While his parents considered this an excellent idea, Jan was less than excited. Especially once he arrived in Italy and found that his Italian was practically useless and there were few people that spoke Dutch. He was practically on his own.

Mother: Gertrude [Assassin, 40]
Father: Piet [Dutch Banker, 49]
Siblings: Two older sisters
Significant other: None
Pets: None
Home: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Behind the Scenes

Name/Alias: Emma
How long have you been in RP?: About eight years now
How did you find Cutting Corners?: Proboards Support Ad

Music credit -- Phillip Phillips - Home