Post by Forte! on Sept 6, 2008 10:52:03 GMT -5
Name: Ivan Stepanovych Mazepa
Nicknames?: No, but his name is pronounced EE-vahn.
Age: 40
Gender: Male
Physical Description: Ivan is a heavy-set man with glaring, beady eyes that are black as tar. His hair is a very dark brown, and he has a curving mustache that tapers down to his chin. Everything about him is burly, every movement suggests a threat. He's tall and burlesque, with a slightly roman profile and deep olive skin, but he still manages to look overweight. He isn't really, though, just big-bones and a bit creaky in the joints, so he says.
He wears shirts with collars, and in the colder months a fur coat and boots lined with fur. He always carries a leather sack full of ropes, twitches, and anything else he might need in his realm of experience and the training of horses. His constant companion is his leather whip, and he would not hesitate to snap it at any beast. He also carries a rifle, and though he does not use it often its presence just makes him a bit more foreboding.
His voice is deep and raspy, and a laugh from his throat is rare except at the expense of others. His presence is a powerful one, although most people tend to avoid him. His hands are large and meaty, they can wrap around the throat of most human beings in an instant. Every movement he makes is a threatening one, every glance from his eye a warning.
Weight: 235 lbs
Height: 6' 1"
Personality: The best warning is to stay away from him. He has a fuse so short it is almost nonexistent, anything can get on his nerves and anyone. He is prone to fight, and will fight anything that comes between him and his goal. It seems that he would not even hesitate at killing someone, although as far as it is known he has not. He has a temper and a high-blooded personality, anyone who is not to his liking is to his disliking. He seems heartless and cold, and perhaps he actually is.
His method with horses is much like that with humans. He believes them to be naught but dumb beasts, made to serve the will of human beings. His training is a cruel breaking in, he does not shy of electric shock or the use of his whip. He has ruined more horses than most people have in a lifetime, and even driven some to the death. Any horse that will bend to his will he does, but any who strikes up against him he will wear down to the ground.
His cruelty expands to all creatures. He has no friends in this world and will never have any. some revere him for the obedience of his horses, the way that they always do whatever he asks when he asks them. He even has some followers, but he has no friends. No man or beast would ever want to be near him, anyway.
History: Ivan basically raised himself out on the streets of Russia, until he was old enough to get a job as a lowly groom to a master trainer using cruel methods. No one ever had a great love for the child - he was born with a malevolent streak - but all of the other street children learned to fear and respect them. He was the first in line at the soup kitchen. He had the right to whatever he wanted when he wanted it.
At the stables, he was fascinated by how the trainer made the horses bend to his will. Ivan had always done that with people, but these dumb beasts were amusing. They rose up and were crushed down. In time, Ivan became the trainer's protege, and learned and improved on his ways. They were masters and followers of Grisone and La Broue, not Rarey or Xenophon. And thus they ruined and broke the spirits of horses into the years of Ivan's adult life.
He was married at some point, and is daughter is Illiana Thorneblade, who is... Australian o-o;
Ivan's method eventually wore out in Russia, though, and the training business drastically declined. Most of his horses and the barn had to be sold, and immediately he moved to a land with wild horses. He has, in effect, retired, though he plans to use local wild horses to win competitions and continue with his cruel training programme.
