On the card is a young-looking (11-12), small, pink-eyed albino. He wears a charcoal grey hakama and an oversized waffle-thermal henley shirt in the same color. It is trimmed with the same pink of his eyes. His hair is long and twisted into a top-knot. He wears a umber colored metal torc and many hoop earings in his left ear, all of various grey metals set with 1-5 pink beads. They get progressively larger as they descend his ear. He is young, looks to be in the 11-12 range. He wears a weapon belt; a recurve bow and hip-quiver of arrows, a morningstar, and a short sword hang from his belt. He is barefoot.
Urda is, by his own words, a creation, or a tool, of Dworkin's. A
living construct, if you will, one that Lir and Skuld had some part in
the creation or genesis of.
| PSYCHE | 75 |
| STRENGTH | Amber |
| ENDURANCE | 60 |
| WARFARE | 10 |
Bad Stuff: 5
Powers:
Trump Artist (limited)
Shapeshifting (limited)
Trump Cables
>Creatures and Artifacts of Power:
Trump Deck
Urda's Trump Cables are not truly Trumps, but they function in a similar manner. If Urda knows of a person's relationship to himself, he can connect to their mind in a manner similar to a Trump call. As a communication nexus, he has the ability to connect to many people at once, allowing one person to talk to many (his designed purpose), or to allow a conversation amongst a number of people in wildly different Shadows. Urda can also contact people by mistake when he doesn't know the true relationship between his intended target and himself (this was how he first met Clarissa). This ability is what Urda was, seemingly, originally created for, and it's intimately tied into his vision of himself and his purpose in life.
He is learning how to create Trump, and how to shapeshift, but his skill level is still limited in both. He's learned how to draw Trumps, shift his form somewhat, and morph other things into new forms, but other skills await him and his study.
Ever since the ceremony that effected the Restoration, Urda has been obsessed with blood and words. Blood both frightens and attracts him, and he believes that words have a power in and of themselves. A combination of both blood and words, to him, is an extremely potent thing. The revealed power of words is, perhaps, why since the Restoration Urda has become very chary with the use of them, his former habit of flooding those in hearing with questions and statements replaced with an often extreme, painful silence.
Enemies: His personal demon is Deirdre, who has managed, intentionally or not, to place herself at the center of all of his obsessions, fears, and phobias. She's at the root of his terror of mind-touch for instance, because she taught him that he was an azi (an artificially created being) and that azi who've outlived their usefulness are mind-wiped. This is a vicious fork for Urda, who's convinced that his usefulness is based on his original purpose of being a communication nexus, which requires mind-touch. He is both attracted to and terrified of her, because he thinks she holds some of the secrets of his creation and purpose and because she has, as he sees it, tried to mind-wipe him and destroy him in other ways.
Urda is not the most mature of the Amberites. He is still very young and he has been greatly hurt by someone he thought was close to him. This causes Urda to have difficultly in trusting people. However due to his background, he is one of the most powerful of the younger generation. This make him like a boy with his father's gun.
CURRENT OBJECTIVES
Urda is currently alone. At the moment his main objectives are to stop
anyone from hurting him any more and to prove to his father that he is
worthy of existence.
| PSYCHE | 125 |
| STRENGTH | Amber |
| ENDURANCE | 60 |
| WARFARE | 20 |
Bad Stuff: 2
Powers:
Advanced Trump Artist
Advanced Shapeshifting
Sorcery
Conjuration
Morphing
Creatures and Artifacts of Power:
Personal trump deck
Urda is a small lost boy crying out for the affection of his father. This would be like many young boys except for the fact that Urda is a construct originally developed by Dworkin to deliver a message to a group of young Amberite deep in trouble. Later Urda is replaced by Dworkin with CROYD. A newer model. This makes URDA obsolete, and Dworkin attempts to dispose of Urda.
This betrayal leaves Urda alone and confused. He is for all purposes a young teenager who only knows that his father has tried to kill him. This leaves Urda unable to trust any one easily. Deep down Urda is afraid that if he gets close to anyone they will hurt him, but he is desperately trying to find someone to be his companion. He also wants to prove himself to his father. To show Dworkin that it was a mistake to think him obsolete.
GM Tips for playing Urda
When roleplaying Urda, the first thing to remember is that he is uncomfortable when he is around other people. He will refuse to let anyone get close to him. A character will need to really try hard if they are to gain Urda's friendship.
Urda will always look for the opportunity to prove to his father that he is worth something. Sometimes he is unable to see the consequences of his actions and may act rashly.
U.R.D.A. glances up into Teridias's face. "She death-cursed Deirdre's child unborn. I undid it. With blood and words. I meant to undo the curse, not her, not you!"
General Characteristics
It has the appearance of a 12 year old albino boy, innocent and
friendly. But do not be deceived. Within that innocent frame beats the
heart of a cold malevolent would-be killer. If, indeed, it has a heart.
U.R.D.A. was constructed by Dworkin, with the sole purpose of delivering a message to the survivors of the second wave of the Paradigm infection. It has long outlived this purpose, yet it survives, its sanity left in tatters when its creator attempted to dismantle it.
It has attempted to erase Clarissa's line from existence. It has
attempted to murder Deirdre. It has tampered with all of our minds,
inserting its insidious arcane runes into the edge of our vision, with
who knows what purpose in mind. And it has most of my friends twisted
around its little finger. What other crimes has it already committed,
undetected? What further atrocities is it planning?
| PSYCHE | 120 |
| STRENGTH | 10 |
| ENDURANCE | 40 |
| WARFARE | 25 |
Powers:
Exalted Trump Artistry
Advanced Shapeshifting
Advanced Paradigm Shift
U.R.D.A.'s enemies, in stark contrast, are very few. Dworkin is known to have intended to dismantle it, a long time ago. Laurel is deeply suspicious of it. Other than those two, it seems to have everyone fooled.
No! No! The runes, the runes!! I can ignore them no longer. I must look. Ia! Ia! U.R.D.A. ftaghn!!
[I must apologise for the above, which was written during the time of my illness. I deeply regret the terrible things I have said about my dear friend Urda. Thankfully, I am now fully recovered from my madness, and can see Urda for the dear, wonderful young man that he is, with our best interests ever on his mind.]
Urda is a construct fashioned forth from the primal powers of Paradigm and Trump. Unfortunately, it was the protoype, and its creators made many mistakes with both its internal instincts and its biochemical balances. Since then, it has been subject to the genetic manipulations of the Drake, the princess Deirdre of Amber, and the Shroudling Jacob.
From the perspective of science, the perspective which created Urda, Nature does not care. Pitiless, red in tooth and claw, she will force Urda to grow or she will kill it. And there are none who can assist its growth as it walks the dark path of its heart. Anyone who tries ends up being the focus of both hate and fear.
| PSYCHE | 65 |
| STRENGTH | Chaos |
| ENDURANCE | 60 |
| WARFARE | 25 |
Powers:
Cable Trump Artist
Partial Shapeshifting
Construct Programs
BAD STUFF: -5
When in doubt, curl up into a little ball and play dead. Urda does not have any strength of spirit to shield it in misfortune, nor does it have any inclination towards understanding others. Its 'childhood' with Dworkin did not prepare it for reality, and it tends to interpret allegorical stories as gospel truth.
Attempts to encourage independant thought through riddles and stories invariably fail, and it remains enslaved by its creator, whom it 'loves' as it was programmed by him. Attempts to heal the profound flaws within this creature also fail, twisted by it into weapons used against those who would heal it.
Urda is unlikely in the extreme to have natural children. Its genetics are fundamentally incompatible. Essentially it is a wound in nature, a walking Frankensteins creature fashioned for his own purposes by a psychotic madman.
Urda is not a player in the Game, but only a piece, and what it represents is known to only a few people.
Many of the younger generation seem bound to it, by oaths of blood and bindings of the heart, since it seems so harmless and childlike... which means they are bound to Dworkin himself, who controls it.