Tatius Italus
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Appearance: Tatius is on the short side for a Roman man. What he lacks in height, he makes up for in thickness. He is exceptionally strong and heavily muscled, even for an imperial legionnaire. His eyes are dark, his skin tan where the sun touches him and what hair he has left is still dark. The recession of his hairline is quite advanced, leaving him with a dark fringe which fuses seamlessly with his perennial six o'clock shadow, all of which he keeps shaved down to stubble. His body, as if trying to make up for its failure to grow hair on his head, has grown a thick pelt everywhere else. For this reason he is often referred to as "the bald ape", but never in his hearing, not if one values the tongue with which the insult was uttered. Like the other men of the imperial legions who have so recently returned from the Caledonian Campaign, he has an abundance of interesting scars taken in battle; unlike the other men, he has been known to rub salt into his own wounds to honor the chthonian gods that he worships. These things taken together, lend Tatius an imposing, if less than savory appearance.
Background: Italus was born into a large, but poverty stricken 'capite censi' family of the port of Ostia Antica. The city was located at the mouth of the Tiber river and served as Rome's first and primary port until the collapse of the western empire. During Tatius' childhood, it had a permanent population of over 75,000 people and countless visitors either there for business or passing through on their way to the capital.
Italus was born the runt of a very large, but very poor family of simple laborers. His father and elder brothers were employed as dock workers, while the rest of the family earned money anyway their could. Tatius grew up fighting with his siblings for scraps of food, clothing and leftover toys. Because he was small, he had to be ferocious in order to hold his own against multiple competitors for whatever resources were available.
By the time he was ten, he was the terror of all but his oldest, largest brothers and all his sisters. The aging 'pater familias' couldn't control the boy and took to beating him when he could catch him. This in turn lead Tatius into the streets in search of a safe haven and more abundant prey. He quickly learned the way of the world through trial and error. It wasn't long before he joined a local gang of youths and began a promising career in petty crime. The same traits that made him a problem child for a working class family, made him ideal as a gang-member and he was a quick study in whatever new deviltry the gang's current leader might devise as entertainment or 'work'.
As a young man, Italus had risen high enough in the gang to warrant a reputation and was wanted by the local magistrates for a wide variety of crimes, all with perfectly good Latin names. Tatius was also becoming a contender for leadership of the gang, which made the current leader nervous enough to arrange his death during the plunder of a nearby underground temple. Though stabbed multiple times and left for dead, he failed to die. The cultists of Orcus took the thief to the alter as a sacrifice, but after much bloodletting, he still failed to die.
Thereafter, it was seen as a sign from the 'god below' that he should live and become one of them. It took Tatius a year to recover from his wounds and another year to recover his strength, by then he was a complete believer in Orcus and his dark faith. While healing, Italus lived for only two reasons, to serve his god and for revenge. When the time was right, he led the cultists by night into the gang's stronghold and helped them slit every throat as a sacrifice to Orcus. When he night's butchery was over, he walked into the local legionary garrison and offered his services to the empire; the camp prefect took one look at the blood covered killer and without question signed Tatius Italus' name into the legion registry.
It was the sacrifice of his former comrades in crime that must have drawn the blessings of Orcus, for sometime during that long night of bloodletting, he received an intuitive sense of the god's will. It was this direction from below, that made him seek out employment with the legions of the Empire.
He was assigned to Britannia and in Londinium he received his next revelation from Orcus after settling a dispute between two merchants, one Brythonic and the other a Pict. The Pict had offered his hand and an oath on the blood of his family in a deal with the Brythonic merchant, then at the last moment, changed his mind. This broken promise caused the Brythonic merchant to start a brawl and disrupted the prevailing trade of the forum. When Tatius led his decade to break up the fracas, he learned the cause from the two men and made a judgement upon the spot. The Pictish merchant had offered the blood of his family as collateral on the deal and had forfeited such by reneging on his word. The Pict's family was brought out into the street and slaughtered like animals. As their blood pooled between the paving stones, Decanus Italus declared the oath fulfilled. This was the justice of Orcus and the Empire. Once again, the 'god below' made his will known to Tatius, it was apparent to him that he must travel north.
When Emperor Septimus Severus arrived in Britannia to deal with the Pictish threat, Tatius asked to join the forces going north to the Wall of Hadrian. He joined the ill fated expedition and the doomed Ninth Legion. He spent three years in the cold, bleak lands of Caledonia waging the Emperor's war against the Pictish tribes. Though the campaign ultimately resulted in a bloody stalemate for the Empire, it served to raise Tatius' status and authority in the battle hardened Ninth, as he received several field promotions. By the end of the Caledonian Campaign he had proven himself worth to be called 'Primus Pilus', a rare distinction within the legions.
Thus, it came as a sudden surprise to all, when he suddenly resigned his commission and retired. He was awarded the customary citizenship to which most officer's aspire and went into business with a local Romano-Brythonic merchant named Cato Caderyn. All understood that Caderyn would make the deals and Italus would enforce them. The partnership moved to Londinium and then to Rome in the company of the dowager Empress Julia Domna.
No one is yet aware that Cato Caderyn is dead, that his bellicose partner now runs the business without him, and if they did, none would care. Those who previously knew Tatius Italus would be very surprised to learn these things. For though a very efficient man with a blade, he had neither the patience for barter, nor the guile for negotiation. It seems Tatius Italus is a changed man, perhaps he finally sickened of bloodshed and dark gods, but those who knew him best wouldn't believe it for a moment.
Personality: Here is a cold and obviously amoral man, who has offered up a tithe of lives and loot to his dark god. Who can commit the most unspeakable atrocities when given the freedom of pillage and rapine. Who asked for the undesirable duty of slaying the dying enemy on the field of battle, and obviously relished the work. This same man would make loans to his fellows for no interest, refused to gamble on duty because it was against the regulations and would be the first to turn in a thief or volunteer to hunt down a deserter. That Tatius Italus has honor is not in doubt, but his is a decidedly dark nature. He has a cold and bellicose mien, rarely smiles and makes others uncomfortable when he does. Despite this, he isn't without a sense of humor, though some would call it twisted. He only smiles when drunk or the irony of a situation strikes him and he is happiest when blood has been spilled. Yet, his devotion to his dark god is real, he would sacrifice anything for Orcus and do so gladly, for the god below gave him a second chance, that no one else would have offered him.
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