[zeborazor]

I've had the idea of a mundane character who can/wants to kill awakened folks.  Now originally I just tried to make them have the ability, but as I thought about it, I decided to make him more of a specialist.  He's the guy you call when you need an awakened dead.  Took me awhile, but I finally decided on a general build. which I'm happy with. (I don't really want to make this about the build, but it is the Fomori/Astral Hazing combo.  My GM also allowed me to take the Astral Perception quality and have it unhampered by my BGC, albiet at increased cost.)

All that having been said I'm looking to make a more-than-decent story for him, one that's unfinished, and includes motivation to be in the shadows.  My original thought is something somewhat standard: Corporate/Shadowrunner Magician hired to kill his family, for whatever reason, now he has a vendetta against them.  Eh...I could do something with that but it's a little bland. 

Then I thought, maybe he's more of a political 'activist.' He's trying to stand up for the Mundane Proletariat by annoying/killing/just-generally-being-a-nuisance to the  awakened Bourgeois. (See the title tie-in? So clever.)  I think I like that more.  Gives him more of a V for Vendetta tone.  Now though, the question becomes why does he have these extreme political ideologies?  V had the whole government cover-up thing going on.  Why does my character despise Magicians? I really like the political aspect of it, but the motivation I'm finding hard to come by. 

Being a Fomori, he's probably from Ireland/Tir-egg-nog or the British Isles.  That having been said Tir-egg-nog probably has a high magic population, and their government might not care for someone so immune to magic.  They may even care enough to do something about it. I don't know, I'm no expert on the Tirs. 

Other than that I was thinking about taking Dependents as a neg quality, with him trying to balance family-life with the shadows.

Oh and he is cybered.  He has exactly 3.00 essence left, and I want to keep him there, so his Astral Hazing will help him in melee with spirits.  On that same point I like the idea of him kinda losing himself as he added cyberware, becoming more and more dissociated.  Having noticed this he decided to take up a rather strict-code of honor, in order to keep himself in-touch with reality.  I don't know what exactly his political ideals are, so it's hard to make any guesses as to what this is, but it probably includes things like "No killing women and kids" and "No helping Aztech blood-mages." Among other things.

Anyway, I just kinda vomited ideas.  Sorry I'm tired. I hope you can make sense of what I'm trying to accomplish.  At this point I'm just looking for interesting ideas.  Something to make him more than just a "mage-killer."  I would love to hear any feedback!

[Csjarrat]

wiki answers the question "what are the causes of prejudice?" with: The main reasons for prejudice are ignorance, environment, religion, jealousy

ignorance is a good one, and you could almost expect your character to be part of some hardcore pro-human political group who wants to roll back the changes that have happened to humanity over the years and minimise the influence of metahumanity in all circles.
this could be part of his family backstory, perhaps his dad was the founding member of such a group, and he grew up brainwashed by their philosophies?
environment will have a factor to play, perhaps he grew up in a really poor neighbourhood, had little education and was susceptible to being radicalised against the "rich, controlling magicians that are destroying our country from within"
jealousy will probably have something to do with it as well, if your character can astrally perceive, perhaps he has an element of jealousy towards fully fledged magicians who have more talent, ability and power than himself?
religion is always a hot topic, as it kind of incorporates ignorance, jealousy, politics and environment all in one fell swoop. it can work both ways, the character's religious background could be setting him up as a freedom fighter against the oppression that the awakened inflict on the (insert religion here) or as a terrorist out to punish those awakened that would be daemons/false prophets and deny the true glory of (insert god here).

i would maybe look at interviews with radical extremists of nowadays, see what motivates them to get up and kill people and see if you can draw any of that into your character concept
good luck with it mate, that could be fun + challenging to play!

[Thrass]

with exactly 3.00 essence left you are 0.01 essence los away from the qualities form way of the street samurai...

is there anything that holds you back getting the most out of your essence?

apart from that are you looking into character story advise or chargen advise?
predujudice and arcane arrester immediately come to mind as negative qualities

there is some red samurai armor specifically made against spells, this might be something your character wants on the one hand
on the other hand it tells you that they probably have some elite forces where you might fit

I forgot the book where it is mentioned though

[zeborazor]

He gets arcane arrester from Fomori, and prejudice was one of his neg qualities.  Like I said, his actual, in-game, build isn't something I'm overly concerned with.  It's more the story.

And thanks for the insight Csjarrat, actually gonna think on what you posted for awhile.  See what develops.

[Michael Chandra]

I assume Thrass meant Astral Hazing, which is a really nasty negative surgeling quality that really damages spirits you're close to, and the magical abilities of magicians. It also nullifies any chance a mage will ever heal you, since they'd need Magic 7~8 and Overcasting or Magic 9+ to Heal you, and that's leaving its other downsides aside. Of course it also means no Illusion spell below Force 5 will ever work on you.

[zeborazor]

If you read my original post I mention my build is the Fomori/Astral Hazing combo, so am both using, and am familiar with the quality.  That's the reason I'm staying to 3 essence.

[Michael Chandra]

Good point. If you go any lower it makes it that much less likely you're a pain for the enemy mage.

[zeborazor]

Precisely my man!  So I'm looking to keep from going below that, but so far my build has him exactly at 3.00 essence, and very proficient.

[UmaroVI]

Uhh, what does Astral Hazing have to do with your own Essence score?

[Michael Chandra]

The area influenced by it has a radius equal to your Essence, rounded down.

By the way, Zeborazor, I made a topic on Astral Hazing a while ago and just need to check with you: You know it doesn't provide a penalty on combat spells tossed at you from outside the Hazing zone?

[UmaroVI]

Oh, right. I'm not sure 3 is where I would draw the line, granted, but that would mean 1 is the minimum.

That's not universally accepted, Michael. Quite a lot of people interpret Astral Hazing to penalize such spells too, given that it specifies spells cast on the character as being affected.

[Michael Chandra]

Yeah, we went over that in the debate, you included. Of course it's horribly overpowered for a negative quality under that interpretation, since it'd be superior to Arcane Arrester at its 25 BP. It's definitely something to discuss with one's GM before committing, though for a non-Awakened character it is quite the useful weapon, even if you don't expect it to work on combat spells and not reduce the hits scored on Force 5+ Illusion spells.

To read up on the debate, here's the topic we went into it a while ago: http://forums.shadowrun4.com/index.php?topic=10531.0

[zeborazor]

My GM and I have got the rules down on the quality, thanks for the discussion here though, haha.

[Parsnips]

PREFACE: I am a terrible writer. Also I do not like the concept of the Tir because it is sort of a horrible racist circlejerk in-universe. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

   Your family has always been fiercely patriotic. Since the days of Cu Chulainn they have fought in every major revolution, riot, or civil war over most of the British Isles, sometimes winning, sometimes losing, but always killing. When it came time for you to go to war, though, it wasn't over something petty like politics, or religion, or who's inbred bastard son was closer to their mam. No, it was over something far greater: your home. Those pointy eared sons-a-bitches wanted to steal your country, kick out all the Irishmen and make it their own!
   You and your family killed twenty men between you. They had magic, and plenty of it, but you and your folks had something stronger: violent, seething hatred for the Tir and all it stood for. You suppose your grandmother must have been right about your bloodline going back to Chulainn, because you certainly turned into something nasty when they managed to hit you with a bolt. You and your folks couldn't hold out forever, though, and before you knew it you were on your way to a tribunal to be tried and then shot, if not necessarily in that order. You and a couple of family members managed to escape, though, steal a boat and sail to an airport. After that you headed for America, where you and your remaining family set yourselves up in an apartment, all the while swearing to yourselves to one day bring down the Tir and all who supported it, and to avenge all you had lost. Until that day comes, though, you'll be damned if you let those bastards take your home a second time.