A human, Cyrus was born to upper middle class professional parents. His father was a philosophy professor, his mother a patent lawyer. They were extremely loving parents, doting on their only child, though not to the point of spoiling him.

Aside from family stability and comfortable socio-economic circumstances, the two greatest molding factors in Cyrus' formative years were his love of martial arts and his ineptitude with the opposite sex.

Unlike his parents, proud intellectuals, Cyrus loved physical activity from early childhood. Although intelligent, he was always more interested in playing out of doors than doing anything bookish - a tendency his parents fought all their lives. All through his childhood, he begged to join soccer and Little League teams, but his parents always forbade such activities as low-brow and a waste of time that could be spent on more cerebral pursuits. Finally, at age 9, Cyrus realized that he could easily pitch his father - whose specialization was Eastern spirituality's influences on modern Western philosophical movements - that martial arts were more about the mind and soul than the body. He introduced his father to research he'd done on local (and suitably expensive) dojos that emphasized that aspect of martial arts, and his father approved. Thus, he started in T'ai Chi, which he attended every evening, to which he quickly added aikido in the afternoons (easy sell - the Chinese versus Japanese traditions made a very complementary pair). By 15 he had made excellent progress physically, and as an unintended side effect, the spiritual aspect had also rubbed off on him. His aikido (love/feeling/way) instructor, in particular, formed a special bond with him, impressing him deeply with the importance of enryo (restraint) and kenson (modesty/humility). Cyrus struggled to live according to these ideals, which meant never discussing with his peers or anyone else his now formidable abilities, always avoiding fighting at all costs, etc.

Still, he was an adolescent male by now, so while he never gave up aikido, he traded T'ai Chi for arnis. Although the Filipino art is not known for peace or spirituality, by now Cyrus was sophisticated enough to pull the 'physical embodiment of an oppressed and marginalized culture' line on his parents, and instantly had their approval. By the time he entered college he was quite formidable, but although his arnis instructor constantly urged him to compete, Maruyama Sensei (aikido) would never allow such a hubristic display.

He continued throughout his four years at Evergreen University, although being away at school meant different instructors to whom he did not grow close. But in any case, he now mostly studied on his own.

Like his father, Cyrus was tall and a pronounced endomorph, and naturally husky. Thus, however excellent his physical condition, he always would seem fat. He also was plagued by severe acne into early adulthood, and when he grew out of it, his face was quite scarred. His mother (herself a very homely woman) felt that money on dermatologists was a submission to the crass materialism of 21st century trash culture, and forbade Cyrus from seeing one - which she sincerely believed would teach him character, the ability to see past the external. He thought seriously of seeing one behind her back, but Maruyama Sensei's teachings of oyakoko (filial piety) prevented such deceit.

Added to his physical problems, Cyrus went to an affluent boys' private school. There, he got along fine with the other boys, but his only contact with girls was at the periodic dances and mixers with affiliated girls' institutions. Thus, he missed out on the opportunity to associate casually with girls on a casual, day-to-day basis - the sort of association that would not only teach him how to relate to girls his age, but also give some perceptive girl the chance to see his many fine qualities. Thus, the sad reality was that his only meetings with the opposite sex were controlled, one-shot events where first, physical impressions were all anyone had to go on. Further bad luck meant that his initial attempts were unwittingly directed at particularly bitchy girls who dealt the coup de grace to any self-esteem he may have harbored regarding his attractiveness to women. By the time he was in the mixed and liberal environment of Evergreen, he was so blinded by his earlier experiences that even when some nice girls showed definite interest, he was completely blind to it, and to this day is unaware of the many opportunities he missed.

Throughout these years, like anyone who devotes their life to the study of an art or skill, he yearned to really USE his martial arts talents. Not out of a desire to hurt anyone, but simply to put his knowledge to the test. Furthermore, these natural inclinations were multiplied tenfold by the belief, perhaps true, that some women would overlook his terrible (and by college not so terrible) ugliness if she knew what a bad ass he was. He yearned for that fight that he just COULD NOT walk away from - cornered by a gang, or maybe saving girl from being assaulted. But while many encounters with bullies came up in his life, he always remained true to Maruyama Sensei's teachings and walked away, in the process developing ironclad integrity.

During college, he majored in accounting, which he was not particularly interested in but did well at, although the plan (his parents' plan) was simply for that to provide useful background for his move to law school. With no other goal in particular aside from his various (unacted upon) crushes and the constant desire to improve his martial arts skills, he went along. But in his second year of law school, his parents were killed in a plane crash. At their funeral he had an epiphany - he could use both his accounting and law training to serve humanity by going into law enforcement. His parents would never allow it in life, but they were sadly gone now, and he suddenly felt free to follow his own path. Of course, these skills were more suited to federal law enforcement, but he chose Lone Star, though he never really admitted to himself that he knew this would give him ample and perfectly justified opportunities to use his martial arts training.

His first year on the street was a rude awakening, as he quickly found the even the best martial arts training doesn't quite work the way it's supposed to in real life. Undeterred, he put in for duty in the barrens, and then transferred to a low-income, working class neighborhood once he realized that that was actually a much more dangerous beat. By the age of 30, he was a successful street officer - smart, tough, and decorated. He'd distinguished himself in a number of firefights, and saved the lives of a number of his peers. He was popular among the men and women in his own and the neighboring precincts - and he was still a virgin (naturally Maruyama Sensei's code precluded gehin (vulgar) and kuzu kuzu (trashy) activities such as any form of extramarital sex).

He had just passed his sergeant's exam, which would mean transfer to another city for an open slot, when he saw her for the first time. She was a rookie detective, herself just tranferred in from her last post. He had had crushes before, but this was different. His sexual isolation had turned him into a classic romantic - a real believer in love at first sight, yet he was mature enough not to let that happen lightly. The moment he say her golden curls, chocolate skin, and muscular figure, he was smitten. He spent the entire shift trying to put her out of his mind, but when he was back that evening from patrol, checking in his Fabrique Nationale, he saw her storm into the room expertly dragging a belowing troll ganger along by the hair, all the while arguing with her partner - a sleazy cop Cy had never liked. He was saying it was a bullshit bust, and she was firing back that she didn't care what sort of 'arrangement' he had with the gang - rape was rape, and if she didn't arrest this scumbag, she'd have to kill him, and that would mean having to kill her partner too, as he'd be a witness. Something in her eyes made the partner back down. And something in her eyes made Cyrus fall irrevocably in love.

Cyrus immediately and without explanation turned down his promotion, baffling his superiors but allowing him to stay in the precinct. He planned for weeks how to ask her out, although in that time he never dared speak to her once. Somehow, luck was never on his side - she never needed back-up when he was in the vicinity, they were never assigned the same details no matter how he used his influence to arrange it. And then, the day he was going to put his plan into motion, actually just go up to her and ask her out, she was assigned her new partner Dan.

Although the attraction between Sahara and Dan grew slowly over the course of years, starting with friendship and cameraderie, to Cyrus it was already too late. In his mind, he simply could not imagine any man not being as smitten with her as he was, and he decided that the two detectives must be attracted to one another. He didn't know what to do at first, but upon thinking about it, he realized that if he really cared for her, her happiness would come first, and if that meant Dan, then so be it. From that time on, though they never knew it, he was a guardian angel to both of them, always working the same shift, always no more than a hot sixty seconds away if they ever called for back up. He kicked some ass with Dan a few times, and they got along well, although the association was always stomach-churning for Cy, who assumed that Sahara and Dan were secretly in a long-term relationship. But he never once got into the shit alongside Sahara, and although he protected her for three years, he never spoke to her once (largely because he avoided her at Lone Star social events, etc.). To her, he was one of the beat cops, nothing more.

During these years, Cyrus applied for every cyber-enhancement program the Star offered its career officers, and also used all his salary, his inheritance, and mortgaged his parents' house to get more cyber, supplemented by the Star's co-pay program.

And then one day, she was gone. Dan was distraught. Everyone was aghast, but no one dared talk openly. Through his network, Cy learned of her arrest and fast-forward conviction. He knew it had to be bullshit, and was inwardly infuriated at Dan for buying the story so easily.

From that day forward, Cy used all of his time trying to quietly figure out what had happened. He started digging, and at last, using his passcodes, dug up some accounting records that looked a bit funny. From there he started to unravel corruption that extended to a great many of the officers he knew and trusted as good cops. He realized that he must have been spotted early on as a straigh arrow, and so never approached by the others about getting in on it.

But he must have dug too deep, because the next thing he knew his house was blown up when he should have been in it. He called the station to let them know that someone had greenlit him, and he was coming in - but outside in the parking lot he was met with a hail of automatic weapons fire. Again, he narrowly escaped, but now he knew that his former brothers were the enemy.

He headed straight underground, only to find his SIN had been tagged 'criminal' and he was being blamed for the deaths of two officers. He knew his life as Cyrus Burger was essentially over - he would have to start over in the shadows completely fresh - and yet he could not leave town - even if it meant taking down the entire Seattle Lone Star establishment, he would exonerate Sahara or die trying.

Unfortunately, that was a big job, with no resources. He had grown up affluent, and then had had society's institutions on his side his whole life. He started small, doing muscle work in the barrens. Finally, he had enough money for surgery - even if he got a fake SIN, one step out of the barrens and the first Lone Star drone that scanned his facial structure would have him. Long since having given up on his looks anyway - and duty-bound never to let any good deed he did for Sahara ever stand in the way of her eventual reunion with her beloved (if faithless) Dan - he had himself cosmetically modified as an ork. A few more months rough stuff in the shadows and he had a fixer and a decent commlink with a solid fake idea. He knew Sahara was out of the slam now, but he didn't dare go anywhere near her - what if the Star caught up with him and she was close by - guilt, or death, by association. So he didn't try to see her. And he also knew by this time that his struggle would be a long one. He wasn't ready to go head-to-head with the Star yet - it would be a long campaign of attrition, during which he intended to spend his time in the shadows gathering the skills and resources to do what one day had to be done - for Sahara.

James Whistler was a street kid orphaned by the crash. A human child of ork/human parentage he had a happy life in the ork underground where he was given the honorary position of "runt of the litter". He always had a way with technology that his 2 tougher more direct Ork sisters appreciated; When they were playing the "traditional" slummers game of breaking and entering he could be relied on to deactivate the alarms. During the crash his Ork father died in vain trying to protect his human mother from looters, this trauma coupled with the fact that James was logged in for at least part of the crash changed him forever. Now he and his sisters eke out a living on the outskirts of society

As was earlier mentioned the trauma of the crash changed James's life forever. The medical term (that a street medic was kind enough to give in exchange for a knocked-off commlink) was that he went batshit. Hearing voices, hallucinating, and sometimes falling into a trance so deep that it took both his ork sisters to shake it out of him were all symptoms of his psychois; It was not until the term "technomancer" came into common parlance that they began to suspect what their little big brother actually was. That and the fact that despite him rapidly becoming a total social and physical zero, placing a broken comm into his hands got you a fixed comm in seconds flat.

What was then unknown to his sisters, however, was that James had discovered the virtual world, and that in it he had found his feet again in his virtual persona "Dave Goreman" a old earth 2D comedian who made a show about finding and meeting 52 people (as many as in a deck of cards) called Dave Goreman for a bet.

There is scope in his background to be part of a gang of technomancers, "the comedians" the character concept is an idiot-savant style rebuild of an ottaku character I made for a short SR3 campaign, in which this was his ottaku clan. The leader was "Bill Hicks" and everybody thought that "Eddie Izzard" was wierd...

Anyhow, what do you think so far?

Cynic- Unarmed Combat, Intimidation, Firearms Group, Dodge, Perception

Adept Powers- Increase Reflexes, Mystical Armor, Att Boosts, Astral Perceptions, Killing Hands, Critical Strike.

After having read through Adam's concept I realize that his concept and mine may be almost dead on which would create a redundant set that I'd like to avoid. I think his concept is so kickass that I'll gracefully bow out and submit a modified proposal if you'd like.

Given Name: Matthew Hughes
Assumed Name: Andrew “ReKoil” Kinsely

Backstory
Matthew was born in Boston in 2042 to William and Mary Hughes, both higher up workers in Ares Corp. After being enrolled in a Ares Training School, he excelled in all of his classes, and met John “Hazard” a computer wiz and was placed into upper management. He met Emma Fields in 2062 and after a few months, were married. In ‘64, their son, Daniel was born.

Around the same time, Matthew’s job was changed from management to becoming a professional Mr. Johnson. He was very successful at this and became one of the higher ranking Mr. Johnson’s for Ares on the east coast, but then disaster struck. In 2067 A group of Shadowrunners were captured outside of the house of one of a Director of the Board of Ares Corporation. When questioned, they claimed that Matthew had assigned them to kill the Director. It looked like a power grab, to the eyes of the Ares executives. Matthew quickly dispersed most of his assets to various hidden accounts, before they could be frozen (most of it since has kicked back, through various manners, to his family), and fled.

With the help of old pal, John “Hazard“, he disappeared for all intents and purposes from the digital world, and moved from the east coast to Seattle, to be nearer to his only friend from his old life left. Slowly, it dawned on Matthew, his old life was gone. Again with Hazard’s help, he created and assumed a new identity. Andrew Kinsley. Having no past, and no legitimate options, he turned to play the other side of the game he knew so well. Shadow running.

A practiced and refined social chameleon, he made many good connections, quickly. Dr. Sarah Jacques, a do-gooding charity working street doctor has become good friends with Andrew, as he consistently pulls through for her favor after favor, trying to pay her back for saving his life on more than one occasion. Andrew consistently runs into beat cop, Jimmy Crack, while running through the sprawl. While Jimmy doesn’t like the normal grime he has to deal with, he knows that the smart talking dandelion-eater is, when it comes down to it, better than most. Hector Garcia, a local fixer, likes Andrew for his consistently good work in Shadow running, though Andrew drives a vicious bargain, Hector always hears praises from the Johnsons. Due to his frequent business, Michael Holland, the bartender finds Andrew to be quite the entertaining (and well tipping) customer.

But perhaps the most interesting of all of Andrew’s relations is the close bond he has with an upper-level Yakuza hitwoman. Lauren Kitao, though cautious at first with the strange runner, she came to be close friends with him, between his charm and his willingness to help her out in her many different situations across the sprawl. In the 3 years they’ve known each other been in countless firefights, and have covered for each other in a wide variety of scenarios. She, having spent much time with Andrew, is aware of his true identity and problems associated from that. She has used her position in the past to protect Andrew whenever possible, but isn’t unwilling to call him on all those favors.

The Street-Doc's helped him with surgery, and she's also helped set him up with some of the cyberware and bioware he's got. I've been playing around with the idea that she and John are exs. He still doesn't like dealing with Ares though, but knows it is required of his profession.

Name: Moira
Age: 19

Childhood average, except for a significant aptitude for chemistry. Enter bad older boy with charming smile. Takes her for a walk on the wild side, she likes! She starts stealing from chem lab for boyfriend's gang, then helps make yummy street drugs.

As if that wasn't f*ed up enough, she starts having dreams and hallucinations. She makes drugs, not does drugs but mom and dad don't believe her and say. "Rehab or don't come home."

She never went home. Joins gang, learns supah dupah kung fu, (brawling) and basic street survival skills while using the gang to develop contacts deeper into the underbelly of society. Destination: Shadows. Meets street mage and his friend a talismonger, who gives her a stack of books to read. Is really confused when the sciency magey stuff doesn't make sense to her. She's a friggin scientist. Doubts she magical. Finally meets rat shaman on a job and is introduced to another method. Happy astral quest later and BAM shaman

She's street savvy, cunning, manipulative and would probably be committed as a borderline psychotic as her value of human life is disturbingly low for your average citizen, though it helps her fit right in with the darker shadow crowd. SHe looks young, sweet, if a bit strange (blue hair, face tattoos) and if she's feeling violent, you'll be dead before the smile leaves her face.

Ok..so much for the short short story.

Template base-actually only one combat spell (maybe two if I have enough for a stun) which is Death Touch. Combined with a hefty street fighting skill, she has very little difficulty killing up close and personal. Most other spells will be utility, such as invis, mask, illusion, manipulation, levitate etc. (not a list, just an idea, need to see what spells there actually are in SR4)

Not sure which totem Im going to go with...any objection to taking the bonuses from an existing totem and creating a new totem to overlay it like a skin?
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