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[RWBY] RWBY Shorts

Original Character, Do Steal: Lieutenant General Doctor Henryk Amzel New
Forgot to add my OC sheet to QQ yesterday. Remedying that now.

Lieutenant General Doctor Henryk Amzel

Inspiration:
Edward Richtofen (COD: WAW specifically), Heinrich Amsel (also COD: WAW for the name) Henryk (Bloodborne) also for the name and for the fighting style.

Appearance: As muscled as a career soldier would need to be, but barely, he is a thin man whose high cheekbones and gaunt features give the impression of a leering, grinning skull that he hides behind a short, now-gray beard. The curly shock of hair poking out from under his general's cap remains orange, however. His eyes are cold blue, and he has a crescent shaped scar wrapping around the underside of his left eye, going up his nose and around his eyebrow. He is almost never seen without his mostly white general's uniform (as he has integrated his clothes into his fighting style), and two stars, as well as two tessellations of the pattern on his hochrot collar tabs mark him out as a Lieutenant General. Although when he expects to fight, he usually just wears his coat over his shoulders. When he is mainly concerned with battling cold weather, he usually buttons up and throws on a scarf and balaclava too.

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But Stephen Lang's portrayal of General Pickett in the movie Gettysburg was what gave me the idea for the hair and beard. Of course I cannot find any images of Lang Pickett that will let me put a link in here/are on websites with languages that I can speak. And the beard would be a real beard and not just a goatee.

And I couldn't resist paying tribute to the single best piece of Scooby Doo media ever made, Zombie Island, I had to include Morgan Moonscar's scar as a little quirk of his appearance.

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Emblem: Grinning Pumpkin wreathed in green flame, holding a curved sword in its mouth.

Race: Human

Semblance: Blood Rally: "The healing is not as rewarding as the hurting." When blood touches Amzel's body or Aura, his physical wounds seal up, his fatigue evaporates, and his strength increases. The more messy a battlefield is, the more terrifying the insane doctor becomes.

Weapons: A Saw-Cleaver - which rumors circulate about the the R&D wing of the General Staff is something that he picked up during his time as a medical officer in the Jaegers for admonishing patients, a sawed off Dust drilling of a pattern similar to the Luftwaffe M30, his service pistol, Jaeger-issue knife (usually with applied toxins), his overcoat.

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Fighting style: He wields his blade like a traditional Hyperborean/Vacuoan navaja fighter, with the cleaver in one hand and his overcoat draped over his other forearm. Of course, this is his first trick. When the coat is over his offhand, this is when he grabs his gun and keeps it concealed. If he can hack his opponent to pieces, rip them up, or disembowel them with his blade, that is excellent.

But the cloak component of his literal cloak and dagger fighting style doubles as a cover for him to infiltrate a gun into the engagement. This gun is usually loaded with Wind and Lightning Dust shells in the shotgun chambers, and an armor piercing Hardlight Dust bullet in the rifle barrel. When the aptly named Donnergewehr goes off there is usually a whoosh-crack of concussive force that sends whatever was in its frontal firing arc and within a few meters of the muzzle flying, flooded with electricity, and whatever the gun was most directly aimed at gets a 9.5mm hole punched through it and whatever defenses it had.

Needless to say, the surprise only works once, and he needs to fill out the form for a new overcoat after every time he pulls the trick. So he mainly sticks to cleaver-fighting. Which he is good at. The heavy, oddly-shaped, sawback weapon, covered in fraying wraps and dried gore, combined the laughter of the truly mad man wielding it is usually enough to unsettle most of his opponents. Amzel is lithe and quick darting into measure and then backstepping out. The oddly shaped grip, and the folding blade create ample opportunity for change-ups and attacks at surprisingly long distance from unguarded angles. The weapon's mass and teeth do not often leave a second strike necessary.

The Saw-Cleaver turns the Grimm's monstrous forms against them, the larger and more grotesque the monster, the more the blade rips and ruins as it lacerates flesh. Amzel will boast of this particular detail aloud when other Atlesian forces are around, usually to reassure them that it isn't just for clearing away the excess clutter on a particularly noisome patient before a prosthetic can be fitted in.

He also keeps his pistol and knife on his person, as hold-out weapons. His slight-of-hand usually allowing him to draw and deploy one of them in the heat of battle, and with a surgeon's steadiness and precision.

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History: Like many sitting members of the General Staff, Amzel came up through the ranks of the Jaegers, where he initially served as a medical officer. However, he transferred out of the unit to escape the fallout of an apparent military-political scandal.

While several of his acquaintances were either covering their own asses or throwing blame on each other, Amzel was shuffled into R&D, where it was expected that he would just act as an administrator and organizer for whatever projects needed someone to coordinate personnel and assets, but where he quietly acquired competences and doctorates in physics, robotics, chemistry, and electrical engineering, at speed. Amzel proved to his superiors that the absence of sanity had left his mind with a great deal of free space. The Colossus-class walker, for instance, is a favorite proverbial punching bag of his.

Recently, he has been promoted to the head of the Special Construction Training Corps, based primarily out of the Jotun Installation in the cold wastes of northeastern Rana Niejta, where a group of mountains, unusual for the terrain rise high and act as a large natural curtain for the sizable box canyon between them. Here, he works bringing the next generation of cybernetics, machines, systems, and weapons into being.

Amzel is a good fit for Jotun, the Atlesian Area-51 analog. It is a source of paranormal, cryptid, and ghost stories that trickle into the Atlesian military's lore, with experiments concerning aircraft, android and walker systems, and Dust/chemical interactions mutating over retellings and speculation by drunken officers and contractors into stories about Faunus experimentation, occult rituals, and unworldly or unholy research projects taking place. Why wouldn't the commanding officer of the installation be a mad scientist with a comically Allomenian accent?

Currently, the two projects occupying his focus are the next generation 50-meter class walker - THERAPHOSA, and the Infantry Cybernetic Exoframe model: Dragon.

Politically, he aligns with the Folkers faction. Ostensibly because he sees droids deployed en masse as directly harming the Atlesian military's ability to react to fluid, violent, or escalating situations, moreover, he considers that integrating other kingdoms into their surveillance and intelligence networks as a deliberately exposing themselves to enemy infiltration, espionage, and shock assaults, as well as informing hostile/rival entities and powers of their technological and strategic capabilities and disposition.

Of course, Amzel is motivated at least in part by the fact that he is a Grimm Cultist who doesn't want to be discovered, and he worries that another country in their system may spot something that nobody in the Atlas military or security apparatus would think to look for and correlate.

The number of people who know of his true colors is incredibly small, only a single platoon in the SCTC. Jotun-4's elite security unit Grune Gespenster. (They, along with Jotun itself will be covered in a separate piece).

Each of whom was handpicked by Amzel for personal loyalty and 'like-mindedness.' Amzel never has any of them leave Jotun-4. They are a defensive unit whose entire structure is built around securing one building built halfway into the base of a mountain inside of a box canyon.

Though Amzel never takes the chance to sabotage a project placed under his authority. His pride as a (mad) scientist refuses to let him.

Role in the story/current ongoings: As of 2002, Amzel is working to bring the ICE Dragon project to life, enabling soldiers, no matter how wounded, to return to action, and with Aura-Wielder level capabilities to boot.

After the White Fang assassination attempt on Whitley Schnee left the boy as a pile of mostly-charred hamburger (they fired a trio of rockets at a limousine that they had thought Jacques was riding), and Jacques decided to make this the Military's problem, Amzel has at last found a test pilot for his Dragon frame in bad enough shape to need it. He's the military head of the program, and he works with Siarka Stark, the arms and shipping mogul who makes most of the ICE Dragon's components, and Kirk Lowenhardt, the government functionary sent to make sure the project is done on time and within requirements.

He was at the Vytal festival, he had been in Vale for the arms expo a week or two earlier and simply stayed over. This led to him scrounging and organizing a flotilla of smaller craft to evacuate Atlesians at least far enough away from Vale to the point where they can properly get underway to Atlas.

In the wake of the festival, Amzel vocalized his support for Hardy, asserting that the disaster was his every fear about Ironwood's doctrine realized on a grand scale.

In the months following the Vytal Festival, Amzel has been deploying his projects to the front. Whitley's combat data from the Vytal Festival has advanced the ICE Dragon project from the prototype stage to Pre-Production, and with that the Amphibious Powered Cavalry module has entered the initial field trial phase, with promises that it will be ready for full deployment some time in 2004.

Amzel spends his rare free time building his personal prototype for a reactor that harnesses energy released by the natural decay of high atomic weight metals.
 
Original Character, Do Steal: Admiral Gilbert Barker New
  • Name: Gilbert Barker
  • Allusion: Admiral Ackbar from Star Wars, Julius Caesar,
  • Naming Process: The given name Gilbert is of Old German origin, meaning "bright pledge" or "famous promise," reflecting his steadfast loyalty and unbreakable oaths to Vale. The surname Barker has Old English roots, originally an occupational name for a tanner or one who strips bark from trees, but here it carries a subtle nautical echo—evoking the sharp, warning call of a lookout or the "bark" of naval guns, fitting for a commander renowned for his vigilant cries of impending danger.
  • Age: Late 50s
  • Background: Born into an aristocratic family from the Niederung sub-kingdom of Vale, Gilbert Barker is a goldfish Faunus whose early life of privilege was shattered when he was taken hostage by South Islands pirates during a trade voyage. Held captive for months, he keenly observed their tactics, command structures, and ship operations. When the pirate captain fell in a bloody skirmish with rival corsairs, Barker seized the moment—rallying the disoriented crew with calm authority and leading them to an improbable victory. Rather than continue the outlaw life, he convinced the survivors to surrender to Valean authorities upon return, testifying on their behalf to secure leniency for those who cooperated. This act of principled leadership made him a minor celebrity in Vale, celebrated in broadsheets as "the Pirate Admiral turned Patriot." The Valean Navy quickly recruited him, recognizing his intimate knowledge of pirate methods. He rose meteorically through the ranks, earning a lieutenancy and command of the frigate VSS Unicorn, where his daring pursuits of pirates, raiders, and rogue Mistralian privateers became legendary—dozens of captured vessels and disrupted smuggling rings to his credit. By the outbreak of the Faunus Revolution, he had reached full Captain and was given the Oberon-class carrier VSS Titania. When Revolutionary infiltrators crippled the Sulis Minerva Yards at Vale's easternmost naval base—blacking out power and destroying the base generators—Barker assumed emergency command. He brought Titania online under harrowing conditions, launched her full air wing to shield the docked fleet, and masterfully coordinated base defenses with incoming reinforcements. His trap-like encirclement annihilated or captured ninety percent of the raiding force, effectively ending large-scale Revolutionary assaults on Valean soil. Post-war, he was promoted to Admiral and led Titania's battlegroup in support of the Pandu Revolution, providing crucial air and amphibious support that helped topple the Kaurava regime. Upon further promotion to Chief of Naval Operations, he transferred his flag to the cutting-edge Banshee-class supercarrier VSS Archangel. Following the catastrophic Vytal Festival Attacks and the death of General Sir Aldric Varnholt during the defense of Vale, Barker assumed overall command of the Valean Defense Force, coordinating joint army-navy-Huntsman operations during the crisis.
  • Race: Faunus (goldfish traits—prominent orange-gold scales along neck and arms, large expressive eyes, subtle webbing between fingers, and fin-like protrusions along the spine and forearms)
  • Emblem: A stylized golden trap (spring-loaded jaws) encircling an anchor, symbolizing his knack for turning ambushes against the enemy and his unbreakable naval resolve
  • Weapon: "Vigilance": A Dust-infused naval cutlass with a reinforced basket hilt shaped like spreading fins. The blade can channel Water and Wind Dust to generate pressurized waves or razor-sharp air currents, ideal for close-quarters boarding actions or slicing through Grimm carapaces.
  • Semblance: "It's a Trap!"
    • Barker can project a brief, intense Aura pulse that heightens his tactical intuition and reveals hidden threats—illuminating concealed enemies, detecting ambushes, or exposing structural weaknesses in enemy formations within a moderate radius. The effect manifests as a sudden, instinctive "shout" in his mind (and sometimes vocally), allowing him to warn allies and counter traps before they spring. Prolonged use drains Aura rapidly, but it has saved entire fleets on multiple occasions.
  • Appearance: Tall and imposing with smooth orange-gold scales that catch the light, exceptionally large and expressive amber eyes that seem to take in everything, a broad domed head with subtle fin ridges, and a deep, resonant voice that carries authority even in a whisper. His posture is upright and alert, moving with deliberate, fluid grace.
  • Outfit: Crisp Valean admiral's dress uniform in deep navy blue with gold braid and epaulets, adorned with rows of campaign medals and the Chief of Naval Operations insignia. A ceremonial white cape flows from his shoulders during formal occasions, and he always wears reinforced gloves to accommodate his webbed fingers. On the bridge, he favors a practical greatcoat version.
  • Personality: Cautious yet decisive, Barker is a master strategist who prizes preparation and intelligence over bravado. Famous for his gravelly warnings of "It's a trap!" when sensing danger, he is deeply distrustful of overconfidence and always plans for worst-case scenarios. He commands profound respect from subordinates for his cool-headedness under fire and genuine care for crew welfare—treating human and Faunus sailors alike with fairness forged from his own experiences of prejudice and captivity. Though soft-spoken in council, his insights are incisive and often prove prescient. He harbors no bitterness from his piratical past or Faunus heritage, instead channeling it into relentless protection of Vale's seas and citizens. A devoted mentor to younger officers, he is nonetheless uncompromising when lives are at stake.
  • Notes: Widely regarded as Vale's greatest living naval mind, Barker serves as a stabilizing force in joint command structures, often mediating between army generals and Huntsman leaders. His Faunus heritage and aristocratic roots make him a bridge figure in post-Revolution Vale, though some conservative factions still whisper about his "pirate sympathies." Ozpin held him in high esteem for his moral clarity, and Barker remains a key ally in coordinated defense efforts against Salem's forces. Despite his triumphs, he carries quiet guilt over losses he couldn't prevent, driving his perpetual vigilance.
Yes, it's a bit on the nose but what the hell, I always loved Admiral Ackbar.
 
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