Lars Forte

Player: J

Lars is thinly built, with pale features, a few facial piercings, and natural shadows under his eyes, betraying his lack of sleep. He stands at an unimpressive height of 5'10“, and his outfit betrays his lack of muscle tone. Dressed as a typical goth, Lars wears studded jewelry along with clean-cut, almost business-like attire, but always all black and often including ornate designs, like gossamer floral designs or feathered lace designs. Often accused of wearing makeup, he actually isn't; he's just that pale, and the black circles under his eyes are completely natural. He wears several rings with occult symbolism such as pentacles and death's heads.

On stage, as 'the Oracle,' he dresses with a large cape and a tophat, with his face obscured by an all-white cloth mask with a black 'monocle' stitched over his left eye. When adopting this persona, he intentionally makes his voice sound as dull and monotonous can as a way of obscuring his identity. This is often aided by an electronic voice modulator.

Jaded and cynical, Lars has spent enough time in the Hollow Ones to see the Traditions as being no better than the Technocracy. A natural result of his visions is that he's rather paranoid, but not to the point of the Derangement. He sees the Council as a doomed experiment, and thus his association with it would only result in his death at worst, and at best, his potential association with it as a way to lose his own personal freedom.

Lars believes strongly in keeping his magick as coincidental as possible. He wishes to leave the world behind, yes, but while he is here, he has no desire to draw undue attention to himself, and every Hollower has heard a story or two of someone who did exactly that and paid the price. To that extent, he finds the Ascension War to be a pointless exercise; the days when we could all throw fireballs at each other in broad daylight are over and they're never coming back, and the sooner his fellow Mystic Mages accept that, the sooner the Sleepers they claim to want to protect so much can stop being the collateral damage of a war that for all intents and purposes ended decades ago.

His paradigm can best be summed up as 'Existential Nihilism: The Paradigm.' If 'reality' is only what the collective subconscious of humanity deems it to be, then by definition it cannot be called 'reality.' Existence itself, by extension, is unknowable and irrational, and reality as a metaphysical concept is an oxymoron. This in particular is why he's so opposed to the Ascension War: People have been dying for the past several centuries over what is, in essence, an attempt to define the undefinable. To him, this is inexcusable, and the most deadly display of narcissism in human history.

Lars is incredibly intelligent, and it shows, when he is actually in a mood to show it. He's a man of few words and strong opinions, but those opinions are rarely ever shown in person, simply because he has neither the patience nor the energy to debate them with those he couldn't care less to convince in the first place. This leads to a reclusive lifestyle, where he intentionally avoids human interaction beyond the absolute bare minimum for survival in today's society, and only ever gets close to a very small and very tight-knit group of people. That said, in the Hollowers specifically and the goth subculture more generally, he's a known figure. 'The Oracle's mix of magic tricks and poetry has enthralled a wide swath of both subcultures, and tickets to his shows are a hot commodity if only in a very exclusive circle of people. (No, being rich will not get you access.) Lars has no desire for fame and fortune, nor does he fantasize about performing on stage in Las Vegas or seeing his poetry on the New York Times' best sellers' list; to him, this is just a way to make a living, and to achieve the ambitions of the teenager he used to be, the last tie he has left to his, for lack of a better term, oldlife.

Obvious Details:

• Appearance: 3
• Merit: Subculture Insider: Lars is a goth, as if that wasn't obvious enough already. Other goths in the area all know him as 'the Oracle.'
• Flaw: Offline: Lars has no social media presence of any kind, and online searches for him turn up nothing.

Less Than Obvious Details:

• Merit: Bardic Gift: Lars is a poet. While his painting and drawing skills leave a bit to be desired, he has a way with words that, when heard or written, is incredibly thought-provoking whether you agree what he has to say or not.
• Merit: Oracular Ability: Lars is famous amongst the local Hollowers for his clairvoyance, even without having to resort to using the Entropy Sphere; which, naturally, he's also very good at.
• Merit: Parlor Trick: Lars is so good at certain types of magick that it just comes naturally to him. These 'parlor tricks' are subtle, and so coincidental that it can almost not be magick at all.
• Merit: Concentration: Virtually nothing can distract him when he's got his mind set on something. It's almost to a fault (see below).
• Merit: Supernatural Companion: Occasionally, a Fire Elemental Spirit can be found in Lars' presence, though this is not always the case.
• Flaw: Dogmatic: Lars is militantly opposed to getting the Hollowers involved in the Ascension War, which he sees as a lost cause. This is why he also opposes any effort to have the Hollowers throw in with the Traditions; he believes they will inevitably try to get them to join in their fight against the Technocracy.
• Flaw: Driving Goal: Lars is obsessed with advancing his own level of power as quickly as possible. He does not seem to want the power for its own sake, though; it feels more like there's something he's trying to prevent, rather than something he's looking to gain…

Banality Score: 4
Crossroads Membership: None