Post by dechanique on Apr 24, 2005 9:02:05 GMT -5
((Photographs: Goran Visnjic))
Character Common Name: Ethan Valterra
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 38
Position in School: History Professor (Although his Doctorate is in Chemistry with an emphasis on Geology, he studied History as a sort of “double masters”)
Appearance: Height: 6’1” ; Weight: 213 lbs ; Hair Color: Black ; Eye Color: Ice Blue
Ethan likes to think of himself as the epitome of gorgeous (he isn’t very modest), standing at his above average height with a slightly muscled build due partially to his love of Rugby, the popular British sport. His black hair is held at a regular men’s cut, neither being too short as to ‘afro’ as he calls it, nor too long to fall into his eyes and aggravate him, parted on the extreme right. He lets his sideburns grow large, though the rest of his face in clean-shaven. His skin is very pale, the pasty British white color due to the lack of sun penetrating the clouds in the perpetually foggy city. He wears a pair of black framed rectangular glasses, which he has a tendency to misplace.
When working, he tends to dress semi-casual, donning a pair of slacks and turtlenecks or jumpers of various colors, although he has been known to wear a common white button up when the days become hot, rolling up his sleeves to teach with less heat.
While at home, he tends to slip on a pair of well-worn, covered-with-holes-and-tattered pair of jeans and a plain white t-shirt.
Personality: Ethan is sort of a mixed fruit basket. He is an atheist, which explains much about his personality. To him, there is no such thing as Elves, fairy-folk or the like. He only believes in himself and things that can be scientifically proven. He scoffs in the face of Creationists. Anything with nothing on the other side of the equal sign of his equation is considered only a theory and thus he does not give it credibility. In his opinion, anything can be explained with science and mathematics and logic.
Other than his vehemence against the worship of an unknown being who does not exist, he is a rather calm individual on a regular basis. He is very lax in his teaching methods, subsisting on lectures and bookwork, though he tries to keep his lectures interesting and invites class discussions (though GOD FORBID someone bring up elves or other ‘mythological’ creatures… he might bite their head off). He takes frequent trips outside the country in the sake of science, particular on expeditions or dig sites, both in the name of Geology and History.
He can be a bit explosive, if provoked and is not one to shirk a fight. He can be said to be combative…if the mood strikes him to be so (IE: someone interrupts him while doing something very very important). He has a tendency to make jokes at his coworkers, often calling them nancies, dandies or poofs.. though it is for the most part, good natured.
Likes: Model shipbuilding. Yes, building the big boats inside those glass bottles… that’s what he loves to do. It is a fairly well known hobby of his, and woe betide the person who happens to be within a 10 foot radius of him when he inevitably messes up, for they will get the blame for BREATHING in the same room as the boat. Despite his gay jokes, it is a very well kept secret that he does in fact like men (he likes women as well, but that was never a well kept secret). Ethan also enjoys sports, mostly rugby but to a smaller degree Lacrosse.
Dislikes: Ethan, although he has no real phobias, has the constant fear in the back of his mind that all that he’s believed in since he could think on his own would be proven false. His entire world was built upon structured science and reasoning. Yes, and he dislikes Creationists… with a passion.
Magic Capabilities: He has ABOSLUTELY NO magical talent whatsoever. At all. Not one ounce.
Personal and Family History: Ethan Valterra was born in the lovely city of London, England on November 22, 1967 . His childhood was rather uninteresting, being an only child of a middle-class business family. His father owned a prosperous little restaurant, his mother had invested overseas. He attended private schools his whole life, growing up rather quickly into a decently well rounded, if not slightly egocentric, teenager.
At the age of 15, however, his mother died in an automobile accident, which at the time was not very uncommon, but Ethan had a persistently strong attachment to his mother, much stronger than the one he held with his father. His mother had been the center of his life, preceding that of even himself. He tried his best to make his mother happy and her sudden accidental death hit him very hard. He became very opinionated and combative, being ejected from two private Protestant schools in a row for heresy. He refused to believe in the scriptures and refuted the existence of God. If there was a God at all, how could He have killed his mother, who had never done a single thing wrong except love her husband and son faithfully?
He held this animosity toward God (though he might have let it go should he have been able to punch God straight in the face, call him an asshole and walk away), this ‘infallible’ being with supposedly absolute control over his life even as he graduated from High School. He graduated as Valedictorian of his school, having focused all his anger into succeeding, determined to laugh in the face of fate and lead his own life without this third-power influence and excelling spectacularly in school. He attended Cambridge University, his main focus on Chemistry and Geology, areas he not only enjoyed but excelled in.
Going through his Junior year as an undergraduate, Ethan fell into a sort of private love with a fellow Junior who also happened to be his roommate in the dorms. The man had never particularly thought of himself as gay, or that he would even have interest in men (only in women up to that point in time) but something about Alain struck him the right way. Alain was a History major, often explaining to Ethan the wonders of History and lending him his text books, all of which he kept upon passing the classes. Ethan began another new found love- History. Although he had learned history in addition to his Geology, since those two are so closely tied together, he became interested in the social civilizations of the past and their amazing dynamic. He began developing a double major, Chemistry.. and History.
They remained together throughout their last two years as undergraduates at Cambridge, but their tensions increased as Graduation came upon then. Alain had decided to leave England and move to America, seeking his graduate degree within the United States, while Ethan had firmly decided to stay at Cambridge to continue his Graduate degrees within England. At one point Ethan had planned to withdraw himself from the university and accompany Alain to the States, but the man had denied him, forcing him to follow his own goals. And so they split, Ethan angrier and more enraged at the cruelty of the world, having now lost the second person he had ever loved, though it was much less permanent than the first loss.
And so, once again, he focused his anger, his hatred, his loss into his schoolwork, graduating from Cambridge University with Doctorate in Chemistry (with an emphasis on Geology) and a Masters in History. He was a determined man, determined to show Alain, who had not seen or spoken to in seven years, that he did not really need him and would in fact excel in the one area that Alain had so loved: History.
It became the backbone of his existence, Graduating in the Spring of 1997 and quickly getting himself a teaching job at a local University as a History professor. He progressed up the teaching ladder, earning himself accreditation after accreditation until the year 2003, when he was offered a position at Esras University, which he gladly accepted, moving to Ireland and away from his home country of beloved Britain.