Name: Tatterdemalion (was Clary Demarko)
Age: 25
Likes: Folklore and mythology, learning new skills, renaissance fairs, Burning Man, and the like, "authentic" costumes (i.e., ones that could legitimately be the everyday clothing of some other era or place, not "costume-y" or cheap), nature, ecology, "appropriate technology," well-written fantasy literature, Paganism, art, medieval/renaissance music, folk dancing, climbing trees.
Dislikes: Ugliness, modern design, guns, cars, mean people, baseball caps.
Background Info: Clary was born into a strict religious family in South Carolina. Her parents were firm believers in the "Quiverfull" movement, but their efforts to raise Clary to become an obedient wife and mother to a large family failed spectacularly. By the time she was twelve, she had developed her own idiosyncratic theology in which the Serpent in the Garden of Eden and Satan were separate characters, with the Serpent and Eve being Promethean heroes of the story. At the age of 15, she ran away from home. She drifted from one outcast lifestyle to another--street gangs, Rainbow Gatherings, carnies, WWOOFing--in search of "home" and "tribe." Finally, she discovered renaissance fairs. She'd picked up enough "Maker" and craft skills along her journey to more or less make ends meet by making costumes and accessories to sell at ren fairs, Comic-Cons, and similar gatherings, as well as on Etsy and Ebay. She made a little extra money by writing whimsical illustrated books of neo-folklore. She never got rich, but she made enough money to build (with help) a Romani-style vardo ("Gypsy wagon") that served as a portable residence and workshop.
She created a "Ranger/Druid/Shaman" persona for herself whom she named Tatterdemalion. While at fairs and cons she presented herself "in character." Over the years, she accumulated various skills as well as knowledge of folklore, paganism, magic and shamanism. Along the way, she came to believe that modern industrial civilization was headed for a decline and fall due to resource depletion, climate change, and its own internal contradictions. Thus, she'd decided to "collapse now and avoid the rush," and try to learn low-tech survival skills (including intermediate skill in the use of longsword and longbow) that would serve her in the coming post-industrial world.
After the zombies came, she drove her vardo out into a the nearest forest she could reach with the fuel she had, and parked it in the woods. Living alone in the forest, she stopped thinking of herself as Clary altogether, and became Tatterdemalion. The old world had no future; her new life as a creature of myth and folklore was surely just as "real" if not more so than the dying culture of T-shirts, jeans, and automobiles. Of course, that didn't mean she wasn't a complete weirdo--if not insane--in the eyes of any humans who crossed her path. For her part, she considers humans more dangerous than the zombies--they're smarter, and they often have
guns.
Since then, she's lived by hunting, foraging, and trapping birds and small animals for food, supplemented by occasional raids into nearby urban areas. She's been lucky so far, that neither large zombie hordes nor well-organized groups of humans have attempted to move into her territory.
Personality: Tatterdemalion is a whimsical free spirit. She loves nature and considers herself a part of the wild. She is curious and loves to learn new skills; she "collects" them. They're "trade goods" that no one can steal. She loves mythology and folklore, to the point that she has decided to live it fully. She is not an American struggling to survive in a zombie apocalypse; she is a Ranger/Druid and Guardian of the Wild, passing through the alchemical transformation of the world from walking death to a future rebirth of life.
Tatterdemalion speaks with an adopted Irish lilt in medieval cadence, and presents herself with an aura of flowery showmanship. She
hates guns, to the point that she refuses to consider trying to get and use one, even if it makes life more dangerous for her. She suffers from something akin to a mental allergy to ugliness (such as Brutalist architecture, sloppy 'normal' clothes, and the aggressive design of most cars and SUV's). For her, walking through a modern urban or suburban landscape is like being forced to listen to fingernails on chalkboard, loud, and on a constant loop. One of her biggest fears is that she'll end up becoming just one more ragged survivor in a ruined crapsack world that was hideous (in her opinion) even at its height.
She is very artistic and creative. In her spare time, she tries to make her surroundings more magical, beautiful, and whimsical. She's built little faerie houses in the woods and hung dreamcatchers and charms from tree branches, and painted Celtic knotwork and occult sigils on rocks. She makes her own music with a simple wooden flute and a hurdy-gurdy.
She likes to climb trees. Since Z-Day, she's figured out a technique for securing herself in their leafy heights to sleep out of sight and reach of zombies.
Any Extra Info: She may or may not still have the vardo as a base of operations, depending on the starting setting/scenario of the game and/or GM's choice.
Weapons:
This sword (sharpened), which she has named
Wildwind,
this longbow (55 pound draw),
this quiver and six of
these arrows.
Tools and equipment:
Small hatchet (for chopping wood and use as a mallet with the flat back side of the head; the handle is too short for it to serve as a good anti-zombie weapon), Leatherman multi-tool, 50 feet of rope, leather backpack, wool bedroll, small utility knife, half roll of duct tape, two "decoy grenades" (emptied cans filled partly with small rocks and sticks with the open end taped over and a throwing handle of duct tape); can be thrown or rolled downhill to draw off zombies, small brass compass, flint and steel, leather sleeveless jerkin and hooded long-sleeved top piece (pictured above).
Not carried with her: set of artist's paintbrushes and acrylic paints, tools for leatherworking, wood working, and jewelry making, small garden tools. She keeps these in sacks hoisted up in a tree where they're hard to see from ground level.
Skills:
General wilderness survival, knot-tying, basic snares and traps, leather working, jewelry-making, small-scale metal working and soldering (e.g., she can make chainmail given LOTS of time, lots of heavy-gauge steel wire and the right tools, but she can't build a bridge out of iron or steel), Permaculture gardening, Historical European Martial Arts (longsword and longbow), calligraphy, drawing, pen and ink, painting, basic carpentry and wood working (she can make a basic chair, but not fancy dovetail joints), stealth, tracking (wilderness), Sacred Geometry, an eclectic grab bag of mystical, shamanic, and magical practices (I'm assuming no supernatural powers, but she can create the kinds of experiences real-life Wiccans, shamans, etc. have), Tarot reading, and a smattering of sleight of hand and card tricks, flute, hurdy-gurdy, a bit of juggling, and she can ride a unicycle (she will still have one if she has the vardo). Most of these skills are at an intermediate level.
Idea (optional): Depending on setting/scenario (i.e., if the characters are going to be traveling) and GM's opinion, Tatterdemalion could have a set of "domesticated" walkers (similar to Richonne's early setup in
The Walking Dead) she's "dressed" in patchwork harlequin outfits (simple poncho-type garments draped over their bodies, jester hats and hand-made masks) made from salvaged clothing; she would call them The Dolorous Mummers, and use them to pull her vardo like shambling sled dogs, controlled by dangling a piece of meat in front of them from a long stick.
