Xavier Krauss
Xavier Krauss (in front of "no" sign)

Xavier Krauss

Known Aliases: Many over the course of the years
Species: Laukos
Age: 85
Date of Birth: 1929
Height: 6'1"
Eye Color: hazel
Hair Color: brown
Nationality: Considers himself to have none
Occupation: Whatever presents itself
Education: Military
Place of Birth: Colorado, USA
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: None
Powers/Abilities: {$powers}
Played by: Em Mun
Model: Francesco Cura

Xavier is an older Laukos, approaching what is often middle aged for his kind.

History

Born in 1929, Xavier was raised in a pack in the wilderness of Colorado. He and his family were far enough removed from the humans to not worry about having to compete for space or resources. Of course, there were runs into town for supplies, but they had plenty of room to run, and to hunt. His parents taught that their kind must learn to live in harmony with the humans, even if they were different at heart. As a young man, he was not sure how he felt about it, but was willing to give it a try.

At the age of twenty one (1950), he joined the Army. It was a decision that he had given some serious thought to, and he had the support of his parents. They felt the experience would broaden his horizons and allow him to come to better understand with and bond to humans. After about six months of stateside duty, he was shipped out for the conflict between North and South Korea. He would spend a decent amount of time in actual combat there, discovering that he had a taste for such things. It appealed to the darker, more violent aspects of his nature.

Army life suited the young laukos, and he would remain in for quite some time. Slowly, he began to drift farther and farther from his family. They didn’t understand why he was continuing to choose the human brotherhood of the Army over returning to his pack, after he had gotten some experience. Xavier couldn’t explain it to them, so he finally gave up trying.

The Laukos would serve in the Vietnam War, as well…finding the utter atrocities committed by both sides to be both fascinating and horrifying. Multiple tours there left what illusions he had about humanity rather shattered, and the young man was left with a vast internal struggle to find meaning in his own existence, and those around him. One thing he did not expect to find were Laukos, fighting on the side of the enemy. It was perhaps inevitable that he was drawn into those conflicts, and one day he simply…did not come back from a mission. Listed as MIA, that was his last official record.

Unofficially, he simply stayed in Vietnam. It was easy to vanish into the jungle to hunt, and wreak havoc on the other pack as the urge took him. Eventually he would take it over, having killed their leader and most others that could have taken the alpha position Xavier led the native pack for years, finding that they understood his lust for combat and would not fault him for indulging it in whatever form he chose.

When conflict finally died down, he and his pack just…lived. The hunting was good, the woods were thick, and the carnage of the war meant most humans stayed in cities and villages after dark. For years he ran there, up until the onset of a fateful border conflict with China. The Sino-Vietnamese war not only dragged his home into the horrors of war again, but tore the pack apart. More than half were killed in the skirmishes that dragged out along the northern border of Vietnam, but yet he kept up a punishing pace. His packmates all either died or left, not wanting any more part of the bloodshed. Xavier continue to pursue his goal for several years, but eventually even his bloodlust was sated, and he could not find a good reason to continue.

In the early 1980s, he drifted north, moving through China and eventually ending up in what was then the USSR. What he did here is not particularly noteworthy, as he moved about, in and out of packs and associations. The Laukos never stayed more than a year in one place, wanderlust driving him to keep moving. Even then, Xavier had a talent for finding conflicts. Not as bloody as the wars, but inter-village skirmishes were common. Towards the end of the 1980s it was clear that the USSR was failing, and he began to drift west, settling into the area that would become Chechnya.

This time he would join an established pack and actually find a measure of peace for some years. He had a mate, and valued the contacts he’d made. The land was hard, and life was difficult, but it was oddly fulfilling. The locals knew of his pack but myths of werewolves were common, and offerings of fresh killed game through the punishing winters helped to keep good relations.

The end of 1994 brought an end to his calm existence, when Russia decided that the Chechen Republic needed to be brought back to the fold. He and his pack took to the defense of their land, and their humans, with a vengeance. The war would rage for two bloody years, before they finally repelled the invaders. Despite having far more manpower and weaponry, the Russian offensive would fail largely due to the guerilla tactics of the defenders.

For another few years, their peaceful life would resume. It would not last, though. To this day, Xavier insists that the Chechnya was not responsible for the offensive into Dagestan that launched the Second Chechen War. Regardless of who was responsible, Russia responded with crushing force, seizing the capital of his home in 1999. Again, he and his pack rose to the occasion, joining the humans in inflicting as many casualties on the invaders as possible. It was less successful this time, and the Russian forces simply refused to be dislodged. By this point in his life, Xavier was discovering an odd thing. He was losing his taste for violence. The bloodshed didn’t thrill him anymore. It was just another ugly necessity. The conflict would stretch for years, turning into an ugly guerilla war against an entrenched invader. Both sides of the conflict quickly devolved into practices that he refused to be a part of. The assassinations he had no issue with, and even the so called terrorist activities were acceptable in the eyes of the Laukos…but when it turned to killing civilians, razing villages and torturing and raping those who lived there, before leaving them to die…he had enough. He had not approved of it in Vietnam, and he did not approve of it here. It was 2003 when he vanished again.

Just after the shockwave in 2009, Xavier resurfaced in the US. It is unclear where he was or what he was doing during the six years between. Rumors of trouble, and a familiar name, have drawn him to New York City.

Personality

Xavier, though he doesn’t appear to be beyond mid to late thirties, carries himself as one quite a bit older. There is a calm surety to the man, and an unflappable demeanor more common to an older person sitting on his front porch than a Laukos who has fought in several wars. He is slow to anger, but when he does he is prone to extreme violence. Luckily, it’s quite easy to tell when he is approaching that breaking point. The air of calm watchfulness gives way to one of…well, for lack of a better word, danger. Violence is an almost palpable aura around him, at such times.

He is quite dominant, perhaps one of the reasons he has not stayed in most packs for any length of time. Xavier does become highly protective of those in his pack, if he chooses one. The people close to him never have to doubt his reliability or loyalty. The generally cool or gruff exterior drops when he is around those he has been given a reason to care for…at least sometimes.

One of his main problems is bloodlust. Xavier likes the thrill of the hunt, and of the kill. Despite his combat weariness, once he is involved in such a situation, it is difficult for him to regain control. Thankfully, even in a bloodlust state he is able to distinguish between the enemy and allies or civilians, but he has been known to go to great lengths to pursue said enemies. Needless to say, forgiveness is not one of his virtues.

The Laukos is, in his own words, judgmental. He’s been around the block a few times and has earned the right to make his own choices about people, in particular. Never particularly tactful, he would make a horrible politician. Though he tries to moderate his words in order to avoid setting off too many fights, Xavier is blunt to the point of pain when he can get away with it. That rough edge does not mean he doesn’t care, but just that he feels he will do no one any favors by sugar coating his opinion or the situation.

As far as mages go, he has had his fair share of run-ins with them. He doesn’t despise them for what they do. He despises them for how blind they are. With all the atrocities humans commit upon each other, they focus on hunting down the Laukos. It is not protection of their race…it is racism, and genocide on a massive scale. That said, he is willing to try and talk with them, if he feels one may actually listen. Xavier no longer answers every threat with violence, so should he encounter a mage actually willing to speak instead of kill, the possibility for dialogue exists.

Xavier has moments of ‘damn kids get off my lawn’, especially when it comes to the younger of his own kind. He finds the impulsiveness and reckless violence of some of the Laukos to be extremely wearying, not to mention stupid. He does feel that his kind should be kept secret from humans, if only because the humans would be very likely to turn on them and attempt to utterly wipe them from the face of the earth. However, Laukos are not human, and anyone trying to pretend they are is in denial…at least in his not-so-humble opinion.

He will not argue that his kind can be monstrous at times, but it is up to the individual to determine if they are truly a monster or not. Xavier will not argue that he has done some terrible things, and does not feel particularly guilty about them. If that makes him a monster, so be it, but past actions do not necessarily dictate future behavior.

Humans are every bit as monstrous as Laukos, in his eyes. The things he has seen them do to each other make him sick, and that is the very reason he feels his kind should be kept secret. If they will do those things to each other for virtually no reason, or slight insults or border disputes, what would they do if they actually united against an outside threat?

Powers

He has all the abilities of a Laukos with his life experience.

Affiliations

Xavier is fluent in several languages, due to his years living in other countries: Vietnamese, Mandarin, Russian, and Chechen. Due to so much time spent in that part of the world, he speaks English with an accent, most heavily influenced by Russian and Chechen.