Myzelis    People      Hotru Alvarado the Storm Mercenary

Hotru Alvarado the Storm Mercenary

"I'm Hotru! A mercenary from Cuenco, a few weeks ago I met up with these guys, band of traveling mercenaries and warriors and we started traveling together. We call ourselves Boom City, and we do lack some like solid leadership structure so I act as a harbinger at times. I fought in dozens of independent mercenary groups over the past decade or so, but Boom City is by far the most... I guess eccentric. But that eccentricity leads it to be also the most fun and interesting group I have ever had the pleasure of fighting with. We almost sort of have our own very unique worldview, where we may make mistakes where most groups wouldn't but we also find solutions to problems and obstacles most people wouldn't consider. Honestly, these people are very brave and it's been a hell of a time fighting and taking the city with them. As I said, we may make mistakes but I think what is crucial about this team is we don't dwell on mishaps and mistakes that I have personally seen tear other groups apart, and because of that, there isn't anything that can stop us in accomplishing our goals."

— CDR Interview entered in a column on page 4 for a weekly issue by Kaiwi Lazo

Physical Description

Hotru Alvarado is an Arenian human man, where his build was molded from a decade and a half of mercenary work and traveling around the Arenian wasteland. Typically with heavy gear and supplies that he had to carry himself. He wears brown and khaki colored linen clothing and very worn jeans for the hot summers with a thicker dark colored leather coat for the relatively cold winters, typically with a mask and hood that covers his face and hair. When the hood is down, it reveals a lighter colored face that has become decently tan from years of travel in the deserts with wrinkles around his eyes and forehead from approaching middle age, which become more prominent when he is smiling, which is most of the time. His hair is blonde, about medium length but thinning at the front, typically kept in a taper hair cut when Hotru has the rare luxury of getting his haircut when stopping between settlements. Beneath the clothes, Hotru holds a collection of small and healed scars from a variety of different confrontations in his years of mercenary work. His most recent scar was added onto his face at the top of his left eye, after a confrontation with members of the Goyo clan who took over an abandoned mine. Hotru and fellow member of Boom City Trila attempted to intimidate the Goyo's out of the mine for a client, but it began to go horribly wrong when a war leader came out from deep within the mine with a rocket launcher. As all hell broke loose, Hotru only received a small scar from a piece of shrapnel that narrowly missed his eye.

As an accomplished mercenary, Hotru is adept in martial fighting styles and proficient in a wide variety of different combat equipment, from simple handmade bows to specially crafted swords and shields. He has the skills of a Battle Master Fighter, and the powers of a Storm Sorcerer. The sorcerer powers he has acquired was not from the more common avenue of inheriting it from ancestors, but receiving it from visiting the Pelikara-2 wind turbine station and encountering elemental spirits from the Age of Stone, nearly getting killed in the process. Hotru's choice of gear presently is a very heavy set of M-21 ASI (Plate) armor reappropriated from CMP storage, where entire parts of the suit is covered in plates of ATCP and under the plates are fibrous bullet resistant material. It comes with a visored helmet with a bullet proof glass visor to protect the face and eyes, making anyone who is wearing the armor seem like an imposing juggernaut of a modern warrior. On the chest plate of the armor, there is the logo of Boom City painted on it, which is a orange and red mushroom cloud with two flexing arms emerging from its sides. His Pancho of Protection is draped over the armor almost like a tabard, made of black alpaca wool with brownish orange stripes that go diagnoally across both sides of the pancho that meet in the middle, with white patterns stitched into it laced with enchanted silver. Hotru's choice of weaponry is a custom made Illaguan style Messer sword called a Coitelo, a serrated whip, and an improvised greatsword made of an AR-40 Thopter rotor blade from a Blood Viper warrior. The same blade that gave Jov his scar across his chest.

Childhood & Young Adulthood

Hotru had as normal a childhood as one could have in the small post-war city of Cuenco, which is in the middle of the decaying ruins of Colijas. Growing up with two loving parents, Gwyn Alvarado Bevan and Max Alvarado Bevan, who worked as craftsman making and maintaining various tools for people of the city. Occasionally selling expensive sets of tools to merchants and travelers who passed through the city. Relatively speaking, the living situation was spacious considering Cuenco's housing situation, where he lived in the same space with just his parents and no other bunkmates at the second floor of the workshop. He also got along well with other children in his neighborhood, and would play futbol often on the very long and busy Mineral street near the center of the city. In this very communal space, Hotru developed deep connections with a lot of his childhood friends who were often a bit older than him. He also grew familiar with the new post-war way of life, where even when life wasn't a struggle, the stagnation of modern Cuenco would drive many to go out into the dangerous ruins of the city to scavenge valuable salvage or seek out new horizons traveling to different places of the wasteland. For every craftsman, guard, and hydroponics farmer content with life, there was an enthusiastic soul who looked for more than the small share of safety and water that they had. Hotru was one of the latter, often hearing tales from mercenaries and merchants who ventured out in the waste of the architectural and natural marvels they witness in the world outside the walls. On top of also being able to examine the unique technological and magical wares first hand that travelers brought from their journeys.

By the time Hotru became a teenager, many of his friends were becoming adults, some of which have already made small excursions out into the ruins of Colijas where Las Arañas and Los Caballos would commonly fight in small skirmishes against each other for salvage. The decision seemed natural to Hotru that at the age of 16 it was time to go outside of the walls and into the ruins, equipped with a set of leather armor loaned to him by a friend and a knife, they set out to find specific valuables for a local client. It was a formative experience, as it was the first time proper he got to walk around in almost complete silence save for the creaking ambience of the dilapidated buildings and animals scurrying on the dirt and sand laden streets. It felt free from the packed streets and buildings of Cuenco proper, and the search to find just a basic suit of Light Plate the client thought was stolen was still exhilarating despite the mundane context. Hotru would make a habit out of exploring the ruins with his childhood friends, taking low reward odd jobs to retrieve items and scrap from his neighbors just to have an excuse. Instead of chastising him, and forbidding Hotru to go out into the relatively dangerous ruins, they told him to stop for a time to wait to go back out again in vague terms. During this time, his father and mother made him a custom sword with an Illaguan design called the Coitelo, and some armor encouraging him to go back out there with the correct preparation while being told. It was a valuable attitude to inherit, and Hotru would carry that lesson for the rest of his career.

It would give him an air of maturity other Chatarra kids may have lacked, making him a good choice for dangerous jobs as his mindfulness to supplies and special equipment that might be required on a journey was always useful. Eventually, at the age of 19 Hotru linked up with some of his childhood friends who were also successful in this career path and formed a Mercenary Group together called the Siete Espadas. His charisma and laid back attitude fit him in perfectly with the group, to be sort of a glue that kept these upstart mercenaries together through tough times, and make good times even better. They're emblem is each of their seven swords that are crossed with each other, all swords of different types symbolizing each different member, with each blade colored with a metallic silver color. Hotru's first big job was in 2407 when he just turned 20, where the Polvos were at war with the aggressive and ambitions Las Arañas. The Polvo's being a small and reclusive clan made up of different dispersed groups, naturally sought for help when Las Arañas began to aggressively move into their territory, killing those who didn't leave. Siete Espadas saw this as a chance to get some experience and a reputation, while helping nomads who have garnered a lot of good will to those they have met. Successfully dealing with, two Araña raiding groups who attempted to take over vital water tanks the Polvos relied on to survive in the La Delta region. Although their impact was relatively small, as many mercenaries and even volunteers answered the Polvos calls for aid, it was something the Polvos were never going to forget, and word spread that this group was dependable.

Adulthood to Present Day

With a good reputation, and some experience under their belt, Siete Espadas went on to do a wide variety of work, not just in the Colijas region and La Delta region, but would in nearly every region of the Peninsula from Charstania to Aya, and Puerto Esperanza to Porto Ahau, no stone was left unturned. Part of the reason why they were so nomadic, was using a very common work pattern of escorting caravans from point to point, settlement to settlement, then taking on work at wherever they stopped. Even with the dangers of travel in post-war Talarena, this was mostly mundane and boring work. The presence of mercenaries alone was typically enough to deter the occasional encounter with opportunistic bandits and nomads, and hostile fauna could be simply maneuvered around. Even the more exciting jobs taken from members of any given community they found themselves in, was typically uneventful as they could just take their time dealing with an issue so as to be as safe as possible. This was the majority of Hotru's work during his 13 years of working with his childhood friends from Cuenco, with a few exceptions that offer some more exciting stories. Although Hotru and his group would not be involved in the Battle of Puerto of Esperanza, due to being on the other side of the Peninsula during that time, he did experience the far reaching consequences of it's results. During 2415, Siete Espadas was stuck in Porto Turra after escorting someone who claimed to be a trader needed to come back home from Porto Ahau. It all seemed rather routine, but after getting in with Pastora pulling her usual trick to get the group into these cities they were arrested under suspicion of harboring traitors and conspiring to commit seditious acts. This wouldn't have been entirely unusual if it weren't for the seemingly enhanced paranoia as apposed to the usual amount of paranoia. Just the next day, the Revolution in Porto Turra has begun, and a bomb blew a hole in the prison they were kept in with one of the prisoners unlocking the Siete Espadas cells who sounded like their recent client saying, "Sorry for the deception, now it's time to earn your pay." Whether they liked it or not, Siete Espadas fought with the Revolutionaries in the short but violent urban brawl with the goal of helping end the CDP's regime.

Late in 2418, the group got a very lucrative job to salvage a very specific component from the Pelikara-2 Energy Station. These mythical stations were run by MESA, the Empires space exploration ministry, to provide energy to some cities by using some of the old magic and infrastructure that was left behind by ancient inaethri on particular planets of the Achar System. Hotru would witness a whole new world, quite literally, as he stood upon the station within the atmosphere of Pelikara (Hyduk) watching it's mega-storms swirl in the horizon from the safety of the station. The job would take just three days, and go well for the most part, the spirits that the inaethri left behind there were sparse in number but still dangerous. As the job was almost completed, Hotru was struck with a nearly fatal blow of lightning by an elemental spirit. Naturally, Tamayo was there to carry him out, as it would only be her who would find it a completely normal reaction to make a risky maneuver to save a comrade even when the consequence would be falling off of the station into the crushing gravity of the planet. Coming back with the innate ability to control specific kinds of magic.

With a sizable payday, Siete Espadas has decided to take the time to relax in Puerto Esperanza, and experience some months of stability just staying one place for once. However, Hotru had some questions that needed answers about his powers, but also the future in general, and wasn't completely content in just sitting down in one place for too long. Listening to the Future Stranger over garbled broadcasts from the mainland, Hotru felt that he needed to track him but didn't want to drag in the rest of his group who were enjoying the RnR and initially set out alone to find him, tracking down the broadcast to a radio station on the border of the Avan region and Hoinito region. Although the station was, disappointingly, just used as a relay for the main broadcast, that is however where he met Boom City. Now that the task seemed like it needed a team to get done, Hotru had no problem fighting with the eccentric nomad group. Participating in the Liberation of Rio Avan, a harrowing fight for Boom City as their comrade Constantine would die in the fighting, and many of them would sustain lasting injuries. Now he seems to be on the tail of the Future Stranger, this enigmatic raido host prophet, in the ruins of the old Imperial capital itself, Conión. Where the ruins themselves seem like they fight back at any attempt at uncovering the technology and secrets hidden within them.

Friends, Family and Affiliations

Family

• Gwyn Alvarado Bevan: Descended from Illaguan ancestors, Gwyn works alongside her husband Max in their workshop manufacturing tools, parts mostly for said tools, and sometimes repairing broken down machinery. The Bevan family use to be bureaucrats within the Ministry of Commerce, needing to flee after refusing to uphold the order to cease all trade activity with Los Caballos, including food, while she was growing up. Needing to cross through the Mesa's in her teen years to get to Cuenco, rather than go to Secondary School with friends in Koro City.
• Max Alvarado Bevan: Max was always handy with tools and machines, and is descended from members of the Raspas clan who first came to Cuenco hearing of it's founding. The Raspas clan being groups of nomads who were typically handy with a set of tools and expert scavengers, giving them a lot of political capital with the other nomad clans of Arenia. Max would meet Gwyn after her families flight from home as a teenager, and not knowing how gift giving went outside the city walls, clumsily handed her a decently expensive set of tools, as a sign of deep trust, and his water ration.

Siete Espadas

• Hotru Alvarado: Being a strategic planner he often took care of supplies while also playing flexible roles in melee combat. It was an unspoken assumption that if something happened to their usual leader CMV, he would step up and take the reins.
• Oţel Datvi: An Apian Goliath who has a good grasp of Arenian. Unlike some of his family left in Albi, he can't do engineering for shit and prefers to fight in the midst of battle taking all the hits.
• Caio "Cavaleiro" Pinto: As a kid, Caio came from a family fleeing indentured servitude after acquiring a lot of debt in Forte Patli. He's an expert duelist, preferring to fight short battles with a weapon in each hand.
• Basurero: As an orphan in Cuenco, Basurero learned very quickly about manufacturing and mechanics with the local arms trader. He was simply named the garbage kid, as he commonly took peoples trash. He maintained equipment and fixed up salvage for use.
• Consuela Molina Villa: CMV for short, she is typically referred to as the leader of the group. She is the daughter of one of the technocratic Councilors of Cuneco and received a robust education, and is able to use magic exceedingly well.
• Lucia Tamayo: Simply referred to as Tamayo, as she encompasses many exaggerated characteristics of Saint Tamayo. She is very brave, some say too brave, as it was quickly found out she would be willing to accept some very dangerous jobs if the price is right or if the client pulls on her heart strings.
• Guardian Pastora: Descended from members of the Guardians of the Last Words, the only religious order present on the mainland, she keeps much of the tenants of the order close to her. Her kindness and reputation for the order she is apart of is able to get the group access through junta territories, and help develop a positive reputation with people and groups they come across.

Alignment
Chaotic Good Boom
Current Location
Rio Avan
Species
Human
Ethnicity
Arenian
Age
32
Date of Birth
6/13/2387 ISC
Circumstances of Birth
Born in Cuenco Med-Center
Birthplace
Cuenco
Current Residence
Rio Avan, Provincia de Avan
Sex
Male
Gender
Male
Presentation
Masculine
Eyes
Blue pupils with wide-set eyes
Hair
Blonde, typically kept in a taper hair cut with the front brushed up.
Skin Tone
White, very tan on the face.
Height
6'0"
Weight
195lbs.
Quotes & Catchphrases
When casting Lightning Lure: "Get over here!" & "Boom City: We solve more problems than we cause."
Known Languages
Fluent in Arenian and Rilumic, competent in Apian and Primordial
Character Prototype
Hotru was inspired by the combination of the chad meme and Scorpion from the Mortal Kombat franchise, if Scorpion could harness lightning and energy as a weapon.