Horatio Morale
Age: 55
Gender: Male
Ethnicity/Race: Caucasian
Level of Faith: Doubtful; a man can only handle so many tragedies before his Faith in God is shattered.
Years of Service: Twenty-Eight Years
Weapons/Equipment: A jar of consecrated dirt, a sturdy and able horse, a copy of the Book of Life, a Colt Peacemaker (Revolver), a Winchester Rifle, a faithful hound by the name of Knight, various bags and packs to carry his ammunition and personal effects, and a series of private, handwritten letters from his youth.
Personality
Horatio is a gruff and terse individual; he doesn't make friends or comrades easily, nor does he have a liking for making friends. He does not tend to be rude or overbearing, but at the same time he tries to keep to himself. He is very quiet, and only speaks his mind when necessary. Horatio often comes across as unfriendly, cold, and judgmental. And Horatio likes that. Most of the time he doesn't like people getting close to him, so when possible, he tries to wall himself off from gestures of friendship or comradery.
Still, deep down, Horatio is a good man. His heart has been dulled and chipped away at with age and pessimism, but there is still a sparkle of the man he used to be, down there. To people that he knows well, Horatio can be a genial and understanding man; still somewhat terse, still somewhat cold, but such traits are more tempered by his better nature. Still, the list of people around that Horatio can be that kind of person to has dwindled to no less than a handful; and he isn't quite willing to allow new people to...fill up those positions, as it were.
Horatio also has another personality, of sorts, that he shows to a certain list of people...and that list is filled with vile, hateful criminals and scumbags. To anyone that commits any sort of injustice, Horatio can be their worst nightmare. He will fixate on them as if they are the devil themselves, and will not stop until they are dead. He is especially hateful toward sickos that prey on children, and bandits that attack people out on the trails.
History
Horatio has lived a long and colorful life, to say the least.
He had humble beginnings, being born as the son of a simple Archdeon in a small and quaint town of the Faith. He lived a relatively peaceful life, and under the tutoring of his father, became a full member of the Faith. When he was around eleven years of age, a group of Dogs visited his home town, and dished out their own unique justice while present. Horatio became quite captivated with the Dogs, and once they left town, he vowed to himself to become just like them.
When Horatio was eighteen years old, he left his family and his hometown and traveled to New Life. There, he enrolled into the Watchdog Academy, and began his training. Two years later he became ordained as an official Watchdog of God, and got assigned to his own roving unit of Dogs. Around five years later, he ended up meeting and falling in love with a fellow Dog, a woman by the name of Adella. The two dated for a time, and were soon married; marriage between Dogs was not prohibited, so the Church had no problem with a union between holy warriors.
A year after their marriage, Adella became pregnant with child. Horatio was overjoyed by this, and started envisioning a bright and wonderful future with his new and upcoming family. When Adella became too swollen to perform her duties, she and Horatio were given leave by their superiors, so Adella could safely give birth to the child. Horatio and his wife moved over to New Life and stayed there for the next few months, performing minor teaching duties at the academy while they waited for Adella to give birth.
The day in question soon arrived, but...things did not work out quite as Horatio had expected. Something went horribly wrong during the birthing process, and he ended up losing both Adella and his newborn son, Isaac. In a matter of hours, Horatio went from being happily married with an expecting wife, to losing it all and ending up alone.
Not long after he had buried both Adella and Isaac, Horatio returned to active duty as a Dog. He threw himself into his work, and refused to allow himself to grieve over his lost family. As a result, Horatio started to harden and become a much colder man; before, he had been jovial and happy, a friend to all of his fellow Dogs. But he threw that all away once his wife and newborn child died.
Things remained much the same for him, for the next thirteen years. He continued his duties as a Dog, but much more harshly; he was less forgiving, less kind, and much more wrathful toward sinners and criminals. After his thirty-ninth birthday, however, things took a turn for the better. Horatio took a job with a trio of Dogs who were assigned to protect a small border town from Native attacks. In that town, he met an intriguing and lively young woman, named Selina; the two soon became friends, and over time, grew very attracted to each other. Horatio was almost two decades older than her, but in such a harsh and unforgiving world, age mattered little to two people who truly fell in love. The town Archdeon soon wed them both, and Horatio started a new family with his new bride.
Horatio was worried about doing that, of course, given what had happened to his first wife. But Selina soothed his worries, and a year after their marriage, she gave birth to a healthy little girl, whom they named Evangeline. After spending some months with his wife and new daughter, Horatio was called back into active duty by his superiors, though he promised his wife that he'd visit her often. And so he did. Horatio continued his work with the Dogs, but when able, he still maintained a good and healthy relationship with Selina and his growing daughter Evangeline. With his new family at his side, a new light seemed to appear within Horatio; in many aspects, he reverted back to the kind and generous youth he had been, before the death of his first wife and son.
Eventually, he decided to retire from the Dogs, so he could spend his time fully with his wife, and his now eight year old daughter. He retired from the Dogs, with the full blessings of his friends and superiors, and settled into a new and peaceful life with his family. About two years after he retired, Horatio decided to go visit an old friend up north. Selina and Evangeline wanted to tag along with him, and so Horatio obliged. They rode together up north, and the journey itself proved largely uneventful. They made the trip successfully, and Horatio and his family spent a week there. Then they left for home. Once again, the journey was largely uneventful....until the second night of travel.
Over the course of a single night, everything changed.
In the dead of night, Horatio and his family were ambushed by bandits. The bandits caught Horatio by surprise, and subdued him before he could fight back. The following night was one of Living Hell, as the bandits proceeded to torture Horatio and his family until sunrise. By then, Horatio had lost both his wife and daughter, and he had been left for dead, his body broken and beaten. He nearly died out there, abandoned, but was happened upon by a passing group of Dogs. They rushed him over to the nearest doctor, and the long process of healing and recovery began for Horatio.
As soon as his broken bones were mended and his body was fit for duty, Horatio came out of retirement and became a Dog once again. He threw himself back into his work, and inbetween assignments, he started to hunt down the bandits that had ruined his life. And that's how Horatio has spent the last four years of his life; throwing himself back into his work as a Dog, and tracking down those bastard bandits. So far he's managed to track down and kill every single one of them over the past four years, except for one; the ringleader, a man by the name of Chester Marston. Horatio has made a vow to hunt down and kill Chester, so his vengeance can finally be complete. And perhaps then...he can finally end his miserable existence, and stop his suffering.
Their are only two things that's really keeping Horatio together, at this point in time: his new hound, a dog by the name of Knight, and the thought of eventual revenge.
Shortly after the tragedy with his second family, a longtime friend of his gave him a puppy, and told him to raise it into a proper hound. Horatio did so, and has been rewarded with a good and faithful companion. Knight is not one for talk, obviously, but his very presence soothes Horatio's pain quite a lot.
As for the revenge...he's almost exacted it, but until Chester is dead, it won't be complete. Aside from taking care of Knight, the only thing that Horatio is willing to stay alive for is the thought of bringing Chester Marston to fierce frontier justice. And Augustus WILL be brought to Justice, if it's the last thing Horatio does in his mortal life.
Goals
Die in peace, bring as many bad men to justice as he can before his death, and finally track down and kill that son of a bitch Chester Marston.
Likes
- Children
- Dogs (The Animal)
- Happy, unbroken families
- Justice
- His former apprentice of sorts, Anna Ward
Dislikes
- Bandits
- People who prey on women and children; especially perverts and monsters that prey on children
- A man by the name of Chester Marston
- Savage Natives
- Naive idealists