- Chaplain Silence-The-Wicked-With-Mighty-Blows Jacob Johnson and Death-To-Sorcerers Anne Johnson-Brickhouse
Nationality: Avalon (Balig)
Religion: Objectionist (Theite)
Virtue: Intuitive (5 HP)
Traits (56 HP)
Brawn 2, Finesse 2, Resolve 3, Wits 3, Panache 3
Advantages (45 HP)
Able Drinker, Appearance: Above Average, Foul Weather Jack (Liberated), Legendary Trait (Panache), Man of Will, Ordained, University
Languages (6 HP)
Avalon (Wandesboro) (R/W/N), Vendel (R/W), Théan (R/W)
Civic Skills (9 HP)
Acrobat
Balance 2, Footwork 1
Artist
Drawing 1, Singing 1, Writing 1
Bard
Etiquette 2, History 2, Oratory 2, Singing 1
Courtier
Dancing 1, Etiquette 2, Fashion 1, Oratory 2
Doctor
Diagnosis 1, First Aid 1
Sailor
Balance 2, Climbing 1, Knotwork 1, Rigging 1
Scholar
History 2, Mathematics 1, Philosophy 1, Research 1, Theology 1
Streetwise
Socializing 1, Street Navigation 1
Martial Skills (8 HP)
Bodyguard
Interpose 1, Shadowing 1, Unobtrusive 1
Captain
Strategy 1, Tactics 1
Staff
Attack (Staff) 1, Parry (Staff) 1
Wrestling
Grapple 1
Equipment
7 G
Set of Clothes
Standard Knife
Chaplain's Vestments
Cathayan Hickory Staff
Plain Sheath
6, 100 Page Sketchbooks, filled
2, 100 Page Sketchbooks, partially filled
Book of the Prophets (Avalon)
Book of the Prophets (Théan)
Lieber’s Book (Théan)
Reconciliation by Reinn Bergen (Vendel)
5 Bottles of Ink
Pen
10 Lead Pencils
Waterproof Travel Chest with Brass Lock (TN 30)
Books Used
7th Sea Player's Guide
Nations of Théah: Book 2 Pirate Nations
Nations of Théah: Book 2 Avalon
Nations of Théah: Book 4 Eisen
Nations of Théah: Book 7 Ussura
Swashbuckling Adventures: Strongholds and Hideouts
Chaplain Silence-the-Wicked-with-Mighty-Blows Jacob Johnson.xlsx- (13.65 KiB) Downloaded 1 time
Character History
Silence-The-Wicked-With-Mighty-Blows Jacob Johnson was born early in the morning of the 2nd Day of The Prophet’s Mass, 1646, to Follow-the Prophets and Good-Deeds Johnson in the County of Balig’s coastal village of St. Cleve. At almost the same time, his best friend, a girl named Death-To-Sorcerers, was born next door to Stand-Fast-on-High and Love-Theus Brickhouse. Both families were pious members of the conservative Objectionist sect known as the Theites, who made up about a third of the village’s population.
Silence-The-Wicked-With-Mighty-Blows and Death-To-Sorcerers were called Silence and Dee for short and they grew up as two of the most fearless and creative children the village had ever seen. If they got an idea in their head, there was no way to stop them from trying to implement it. Their attempts to become pirates and to build their own fishing boat were particularly memorable. To make matters more interesting, both children would take credit for the idea when they got into trouble so neither family could blame the other for the children’s mischief.1
St. Cleve was a village of little more than 450 people whose primary industries were fishing and farming situated a long day’s walk west of Canguine. When High King Piram of Breg subjugated Balig, the people were forced to make ends meet by helping smugglers ship untaxed wool to Montaigne and Vendel and bring in untaxed wine, spirits, and other goods. To counter the smuggling, the King of Breg had appointed revenue officers. One of these was Gerald Bostock. Bostock was the oldest son of the seneschal of St. Cleve and he used his good looks and charm to hide his villainous behavior and he was able to further camouflage his bad deed when, in 1655, he apprehended and prosecuted a gang of wreckers who had murdered the father of Cyrus Knighton, Silence’s and Dee’s best friend.2
When the children were ten, they figured out that a shipment of smuggled goods came in every new moon. Dee’s family was having trouble making ends meet so they hatched a plan to help the smugglers bring the goods inland to earn some extra money.3 They snuck out after they had been put to bed and headed toward the beach where they believed the smugglers were landing. Gerald Bostock found them while they were crossing the moors. Bostock told Silence to run along home and that he would escort Dee home personally. The children thought this was odd behavior and Dee pointed out that they lived next door to each other so splitting up did not make sense. The children argued with Bostock as they walked until, as they were passing a bog, Bostock knocked Silence down with his cudgel and attempted to kick him into the quagmire. Dee started to run. As the revenue officer turned to pursue her, Silence grabbed Gerald’s leg and bit a chunk out of his calf which caused him to fall into the mud. Silence rose to his feet and attempted to run after Dee only to have Bostock break his left leg with his cudgel. Bostock continued to beat him until he stopped making sounds and went limp. The villain then kicked the boy into the bog and limped home. Silence dragged himself out of the bog and was crawling in the direction of St Cleve by the time Dee returned with three women. Two of the women were strangers who spoke with odd accents, one of which did not speak Avalon at all, and the third was the local midwife, Julia Fealey.4 Julia and Dee carried Silence back home and cared for his wounds. Three days later, Gerald Bostock succumbed to a fever; the result of an infection caused by Silence’s bite.5 Silence’s leg never healed properly, leaving him with a painful limp for the rest of his life.
Dee soon found herself apprenticed to Julia Fealey and because his leg hindered his abilities as a sailor, Silence was given to the local Theite pastor, Reverand Humiliation Pimple, to be trained as a preacher. He took well to his studies but quickly realized that the behavior of the congregation’s women did not match what he was told were the teachings of the Prophets.6 Reverand Pimple agreed and explained that was why they had to warn the congregation about the dangers of disobedient women. When Silence talked to Dee about what he was learning, she pointed out that Reverand Pimple’s teachings had led to many of the problems that were now coming to light.
Silence gave his first public sermon a week after his twelfth birthday. Reverand Pimple had written the sermon and Silence did his best to soften its message but he still felt like a hypocrite. Silence’s fiery oratory impressed the Theite congregation enough that the only people who were surprised when, two years later, Silence was offered a full scholarship to the University of Kirk, were Reverend Pimple and Silence. He still does not know who applied for the scholarship on his behalf.7
That spring, Dee came to him in a fury. Her younger brother, Zeal-Of-The-Land, had told her that he had heard her parents discussing betrothing her to a local shipwright’s son, Gregory Beckingham.8 Julia Fealey had helped Dee secretly apply to Julia’s alma mater, the Snelling Academy, and they were waiting to hear back on her application. Further, she did not find Gregory at all interesting and refused to allow her parents to interfere with her plans by marring her off without her consent. Together, they hatched a plan that would make it impossible for Dee to be married off against her will. That night, they snuck out and arranged for themselves to be caught sleeping in each other’s arms by the local gossip, Karin Driland, when she went to her barn to milk her cows. Both were good Theites so they decided that they were going to avoid sin by not having sex and would simply not deny anything when they were confronted with what appeared to have happened. The plan worked until the following Soldi when Reverand Pimple’s sermon was on the sin of lust and pre-marital sex. That evening Silence’s parents sat him down to discuss what he had done. Follow was openly proud that his son had slept with the most beautiful girl in the shire and seemed mostly concerned with the fact that Silence had been caught in such a foolish manner. Good-Deeds pointed out that Dee was a rare beauty and simply asked her son if he wanted to marry her.9 Silence said of course and that it was his idea to sleep in the barn to keep Dee from being betrothed to Gregory Beckingham.10 While Silence’s father bragged in the pub and Dee’s father sulked on the fishing boat where they worked, their mothers met with Reverand Pimple and a few days later Dee and Silence exchanged wrought iron wedding rings, forged by their friend, Roger Driland, as the Reverand presided over their wedding.11
The real issues began soon after the happy couple’s honeymoon when Dee returned to her apprenticeship with Julia Fealey. Stand Brickhouse was furious at being defied by his daughter and became even more frustrated when he learned that his authority over his daughter had transferred to her husband when she married. When Stand confronted Silence, Silence told him that the events which resulted in his marriage to Dee were his idea and therefore could not have been the result of the midwife’s influence. When Stand pointed out that Dee had said it was her idea, Silence advised Stand that he could correct his daughter if he wanted to but that was a fight that Silence did not want to win.
Things became more complicated when Dee received a letter notifying her that she had received a full scholarship to the Snelling School. Dee and Silence were ecstatic but their fathers and Reverand Pimple believed women’s education was sinful. When Silence refused to forbid his wife’s schooling the couple were kicked out of Silence’s parents’ home and his studies with Reverand Pimple ended.12 They moved in with Julia and Paul Fealey until it was time for them to part for school.
Silence’s first years at the University of Kirk were miserable. He was woefully underprepared.13 The only reason he could read Avalon was because Reverand Pimple needed him to be able to read his sermons. Silence didn’t speak a word of Vendel and had never heard of the Numan classics or the Book of Leiber. The only advantage he had was, thanks to his Theite upbringing, he could lay down fire and brimstone better than almost anyone else in the school. The Deans quickly realized what was going on and he was given remedial classes. After three years of summer terms, he was able to catch up and take some classes in law, medicine, and art.
After some art classes, Silence took up drawing for relaxation and he sent many pictures back with his letters to his mother, Julia and Paul Fealey, and his love letters to Dee. The love letters he received from Dee in return strengthened his resolve to succeed.
He also began attending service led by Reinn Bergen, a chaplain who had recently arrived in Kirk and was preaching reconciliation between the Vendel and Vestenmannavnjar.
After four years of school, Silence earned his Bachelor of the Arts and decided to surprise Dee by visiting her at the Snelling School. Their reunion took place in Dee’s Vodacce language class and resulted in a kiss that was among the most passionate, the most pure since the invention of the kiss.14 Silence was able to find lodging in the village outside the Snelling School so Dee and Silence were able to spend the summer making up for the four years of absence.15
He returned to the University of Kirk when the autumn term arrived, and began his formal studies in theology with renewed vigor. In addition to his classes, he began attending lectures and debates concerning the sin of sorcery. Silence had already determined that the Theite definition of sorcery was overly broad and based on mistranslations and out of context statements in the Book of the Prophets and was interested in hearing other points of view. It was the lectures sponsored by Boli Kollsson that drew his attention most. Those lectures challenged the traditional condemnation of sorcery and sought to change Objectionist doctrine. His own research into what the Prophets had said about sorcery indicated the First and Second Prophets had only discussed the sorcery of fire, the sorcery of mirrors, the sorcery of blood, the sorcery of tapestry, and the sorcery of entropy.16 The Third Prophet had violently decried all forms of Crescent sorcery and condemned Glamour and Pyeryem in passing and the only discussions of Lærdom postdated the prophets. This led Silence to determine that the calls to end the condemnation of the original bargainer’s gifts were simply self-serving propaganda but that the lecturers may have a point about Lærdom. While most of the writings on runes described the Vestenmannavnjar’s ancestors as creatures of Legion and the worship of them as violating the first commandment, Silence wondered if their reverence for their ancestors was just taking the third commandment to an extreme. After listening to some lectures by some Skjæren on the Good Ways, he began to wonder if the best way to convert the Vestenmannavnjar was to convert their ancestors first.
After two more years of university, Silence graduated with his Master of the Arts in Theology and, soon thereafter, passed his test to become an Objectionist Chaplain. He wanted to return to Avalon and see his beloved wife but he was presented with an opportunity to join a mission to Viddenheim.17Knowing that it would take a while to find an Avalon church that needed a Chaplain and in the meantime all he would have to do is sit around St. Cleve and argue with Reverand Pimple, he decided to join Chaplain Hunder Torst and bring the Prophets to the Vestenmannavnjar.
The mission arrived in the fishing village of Brunnsvattenang. The local jarl, Estrid Sigeweardottir, gave the pair beds in her longhouse. Hunder told Silence to introduce himself with his full name and the name Silence-The-Wicked-with-Mighty-Blows Jacob Johnson surprised the Vestenmannavnjar. The jarl’s Skjæren, Svartgeirr Steingrimsson, was disappointed to learn that there was no tale behind the name. Svartgeirr started speaking in Avalon, much to Hunder’s consternation, and challenged Silence to state what he has done to live up to his name.18 Silence thought for a moment and told the longhouse crowd that, when he was ten years old, an evil man had tried to kidnap the girl who became his wife and the man had died after Silence had bit the man’s leg to stop him from pursuing the girl. Svartgeirr seemed pleasantly surprised by this response and Estrid rewarded Silence for his story with a Cathayan hickory walking staff. The missionaries were permitted to hold Soldi services, which were mostly attended by thralls, when they were attended at all. The rest of the week, they helped around the village, hoping to convert people through their good works and Estrid quickly saw the benefit of monthly community meals because it helped bring the community together. Silence got to know the people of Brunnsvattenang and he had many conversations with Svartgeirr, comparing the Good Ways and Objectionism. When Silence asked Svartgeirr what he thought about converting the Vestenmannavnjar’s ancestors, Svartgeirr laughed and said it wasn’t a bad idea but he didn’t know of any stories where the ancestors changed their ways after talking to the living. It was always the other way around. He also didn’t know how Silence could contact the ancestors, because he wasn’t Vestenmannavnjar, but that Silence might speak to the High King when the Grumfather appoints a new one.
A few months later, as the year 1667 ended, Silence received an invitation to visit the St. Victor’s Objectionist church in Notlob, a village twenty miles north west of Canguine.19 The local clergyman, Chaplain Erasmus Loveney, was getting ready to retire and wanted to make sure the new chaplain was acquainted and compatible with his flock. With high hopes for his future, Chaplain Silence left Brunnsvattenang for Kirk where he would take a ship that would drop him off in St. Cleve, where his journey had begun.
Footnotes
1 To be fair, Dee and Silence often could not remember which of them came up with their ideas, anyway.
2 Though, there were rumors that Bostock had been a part of the gang.
3 They were unaware their fathers were out on their fishing boats acting as spotters for the smugglers.
4 Julia was the wife of the local physician. Her position and her ability to provide a potent feminine analgesic, made from a local plant called the mine-doll, gave her access to all the local gossip. See the Excerpt from the Transcript of the Corintine 8, 1657 Sophia’s Daughters Ildon Bridge Regional Council meeting regarding the death of Gerald Bostock
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5 The sheriff’s inquest brought many of Gerald Bostock’s misdeeds to light so the records were sealed and the whole incident was swept under the rug.
6 Julia Fealey had organized the women of St. Clive to prevent anyone like Gerald Bostock from harming the community again. This had empowered the women, especially those of the Theite congregation, who became more outspoken about their treatment.
7 Julia Fealey was also impressed by Silence’s ability as a speaker but did not agree with the Theite teachings he was preaching. She asked Sophia’s Daughters to remove Silence from Reverand Pimple’s influence and turn him into a possible future asset.
8 Dee’s and Silence’s parents had long considered them to be a good match but did not know if that might change with them being separated for so long. Zeal had only heard part of the conversation and did not know that their parents were just musing about who else might be a good match for Dee.
9 The Brickhouse family was known for producing attractive strong-willed women. This was made famous by a song written by an Avalon commadore’s wife about Dee’s aunt Chastity, who was rumored to have been her lover while her husband was at sea. https://youtu.be/4GT0lsKRQLw?si=wPwpWkrblt_08po7
10 This confused his mother because the rumor was that Gregory Beckingham was not interested in women. What was more interesting, though, is that Gregory Beckingham was one of the first people to know that Dee and Silence had not had sex. The other person was Karin Driland’s son, Roger. They had been having a secret liaison in the barn’s hayloft when the pair arrived and were annoyed that they could not leave until the pair left. Dee’s and Silence’s mothers each figured it out a day later when they were doing laundry. Both women had had rolls in the hay themselves and found the distinct lack of straw inside their children’s clothes suspicious.
11 Stand Brickhouse blamed the incident on Julia Fealey’s influence and forbade Dee from going anywhere near the midwife. Love Brickhouse confronted her daughter directly with the lack of evidence but her scolding was cut short when Dee told her that the plan was her idea to avoid being married off to Gregory Beckingham so she could marry Silence. This confused her mother because the rumor was that Gregory Beckingham was not interested in women. Gregory Beckingham never married and was quite happy to spend his time with his sweetheart, Roger Driland.
12 Dee’s and Silence’s mothers followed their faith and silently supported their husbands but still maintained contact with the children out of love.
13 Julia Fealey had been preparing Dee for school ever since Dee had become her apprentice and didn’t know how far behind Silence’s education had been.
14 Dee’s classmates had long doubted Silence’s existence and had teased her about having a handsome husband attending seminary at the University of Kirk. Silence’s surprise arrival ended the teasing.
15 Both Silence and Dee were quite annoyed and frustrated when they learned that, contrary to Theite teachings, the fourth commandment’s admonition against adultery was generally interpreted as not applying to pre-marital sex.
16 Silence only knows the types of sorcery by their descriptions from the Book of the Prophets.
17 Dee graduated from the Snelling School and returned to St. Cleve, where she assisted Jula Fealey in her midwife practice and in activities with Sophia’s Daughters. Dee understood Silence’s desire to be useful but did not like having to wait longer for her husband to return.
18 Hunder was from Eisen and didn’t speak Avalon. He didn’t realize the Jordsfolk have a strong connection to the Inish and speak Avalon as a second language.
19 The church was dedicated to St. Victor of Monty, whose martyrdom is not discussed in polite company. https://youtu.be/6__zHlYoCqo?si=QeHrNC7sqCsTcHF8
Chaplain Silence-The-Wicked-With-Mighty-Blows Johnson's Book of Hymns
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCkgndEodZCpZgG9q97oEGLOqNJ-z64D0&si=50p9Mm_v2Tk_vkJ9
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