Sander Lafayette

Sander Lafayette, or just Sander, is a character that appears during the events of the industrial 6th Era of Tamriel. A highly skilled spy, assassin, and thief, he excels at the art of stealth and marksmanship with his custom flintlock sniper rifle and flintlock pistols.

He is currently guilty of embezzlement, forgery, burglary, pick pocketing, counterfeiting, conspiracy to commit theft, larceny, tax evasion, fraud, murder, grave digging, conspiracy to commit murder, lollygagging, eavesdropping, spying, etc.

Early life
Sander was born somewhere in the sixth Era of industrial Tamriel. He lived in the outskirts of Daggerfall, on a small farm, together with an unnamed mother, brother and father. He lived a happy life and was never short on things to survive with. Due to living on a farm and his fascination with animals, he became adept at riding horses.

During his teenage years, he met Elisa, the daughter of a wealthy merchant in Daggerfall. He developed romantic feelings for her, which were chared in return.

One day though, when he was 17 years old, his farm was attacked by an unknown masked vampire, Jack Jackson, which slaughtered the family and fed on them until they were corpses. Sander though, miraculously, survived the encounter with the vampire, but was afflicted with vampirism.

With his family now dead, Sander sunk into a deep depression and stayed at the farm for a few days, but eventually got on with his life. He buried his sibling and parents, and burned the farm down, seemingly to erase his past and the traces of his family.

Sander also lost contact with Elisa, leaving her behind in Daggerfall.

His vampirism, however, wasn't cured in those days. Sander, now a vampire, never fed on other people, even though he longed for their blood. Because of this, Sander remains in the last and (argueably) strongest stage.

After he had left the farm, he put his vampirism to good use, and became the unknown spy, thief, and assassin he is now. He worked for various unknown organisations as one of these. During this period of time, he comitted various unknown political murders in both High Rock and Cyrodiil.

It is revealed in the second part of the RP that he actually went to a scientist to get cured after he left the farm, but the unknown scientist tried to take advantage of Sander's ability and actually became a crazed and insane person. The scientist ended up dead after Sander killed him in an act of desperation and fear, making the scientist one of his first victims.

Age of Industry : Bound in Blood and Steel (Part I)
Sander can first be found in Hanging man Inn, an inn in the city of Brightwall. He was first seen smoking a cigar and looking at the city from a window, late in the night. He spotted a poker game just being ended between four people, where three people left. He walked up to the winner of the game that stayed behind, and challenged the man to a single hand of poker. If Sander won, he would have to give up a large sum of money, and that also counted for the money that the man had won from his three friends. They play, and Sander wins with a royal flush against the man's full house. This event perfectly symbolizes how Sander relies on his luck, and could have lost all his money recklessly. He enjoys the thrill of the game, and the excitement, and the joy of winning something.

After the game, he leaves the inn, and spots a wood elf running on the rooftops, heading towards the royal palace. He decides to follow the wood elf, Meledran. Unbeknownst to him, the wood elf is aware of Sander following him, and steps up the pace. Sander though, didn't have much trouble following the wood elf, even when he got off the rooftops and followed from the streets. Some time later, Sander gets attacked by a Dunmer werewolf. A small fight ensues, where Sander gets his lower leg slashed off by the werewolf's claw, but shortly after, it regenerates. Sander, in turn, put a few bullets in the werewolf. The werewolf, earlier, had disarmed Sander of his custom machete, and Sander knew that the wolf was a Dunmer when the lycanthrope activated its racial ability. Sander heard that guards were coming to check out the nearby shooting, and, in fear of being held up even more, Sander flees the scene so he can make up for his lost time and track the Wood Elf again. He stays briefly, hidden, and watched the guards attempting to arrest the werewolf.

He continued back on his way and tracks the Elf towards the palace by scent. However, he gets distracted when he overhears a conversation in the princess' quarters between the princess and the emperor. Shortly after that conversation, Sander infiltrated the princess' room, in the hope of finding anything that can be used against them, or any files, letters, etc. the only thing he found was a sketch of a large, Dwemer robot, titled "the Behemoth". At that moment though, Meladran, the wood elf, enters the room, and the two have a small standoff. But their standoff is interrupted when a shock is felt, coming from a fight that was being fought just outside the palace between the guards and an unknown Daedra.. Sander decides to leave the Elf alone, and after 'warning' the Elf not to steal his kill (the princess), he locks the Elf in the room. During the standoff, Sander had learned the Elf was from the Resistance.

He headed to the meeting, but instead stumbles upon the emperor talking with Louis Syphre II, and Sander finds out that Louis is some sort of Daedra, and wants to offer the Emperor Daedric armies.

The Elf from earlier though, had managed to pick the lock and wanted to save Sander from the large number of approaching guards that blocked the exit. Sander agreed, although he barely knew the Elf and was cautious and distrusted him. They escaped the palace by going into a tunnel. Here, Sander reveals that he eavesdropped on the Emperor and Louis, and is willing to reveal the thing he stole from the princess' quarters, as well as what the Emperor and Louis were talking about for 3 million septims. The Elf agreed, and they both headed to Hanging Man inn. There, 7 unnamed women, representing Sander's organisations, also payed Sander for the intel. Sander showed all of them, including Meladran, the sketch of the Behemoth, and told them about the emperor's interest in Daedric armies.

Meladran asked Sander to come to the Resistance's headquarters in Brightwall, on Windhelm street. There, Sander met the detective Valkyrie "Ghost-Wolf". After Ghost Wolf deciphered hidden messages and things about the Behemoth, they decided that Sofia, Another Resistance member and Ghost Wolf. They would head to Balmora, while Sander and Meladran headed to Daggerfall.

Age of Industry : Bound in Blood and Steel (Part II)
Sander and Meladran arrived in Daggerfall. Sander told Meladran that he would go to an inn, and get some supplies. Meladran agreed, and they both decided to meet up until dusk.

Sander enters an unnamed inn in the capital city of High Rock, and is greeted by Alex, the bartender and seemingly, an old friend. They talk by, and Sander explains what he needs. But his needs are brushed off by the bartender, who hands him a black and white picture of his deceased family, with him as a little boy on it.

Sander sighs, clearly disliking remembering his family, and hands the picture back, much to the confusion and pity of Alex.

Sander waits until dusk for Meladran, while Alex hands over various staves of dynamite and ammunition. Sander thanks Alex for his help, and Alex says it's nothing, since Sander earlier said it will be a long time before he visits Daggerfall again.

Sander and Meladran encounter the shipments on the docks. Sander attempts to sneak over to the shipments to plant explosives, but is sniffed out by Jackson. A small standoff ensues, until Sander shoots the explosive that he threw over to the shipments. They are both stunned by the blast, and again, they fight after the explosion, Sander using his machete against the cutlass of Jackson.

Sander can't kill Jackson, but he kicked him off the docks to give himself a chance to escape, and fled the docks.

Sander and Meladran escape the docks and stop in an alley, but Jackson had followed them. Jackson exclaims that now he remembers Sander, and recalls the slaughter of his family and him being the killer.

Sander, in rage, shoots Jackson various times, and dismembers all his limbs and even decapitates him. After the gruesome scene, Jackson had regenerated all his limbs and even his head, and escaped the alley.

Sander and Meledran, after they discover this, quickly head for a carriage to escape the city.

During the journey, they notice a bird in the sky with a letter tied to its leg. Sander quickly shoots it down with his sniper rifle, his first time ever using it in the RP. The letter was normally going to arrive in Brightwall, warning them of Sander and Meladran's presence. Meledran, after a while, questions the motives and Sander's desire to kill the royals.

Meledran also asks about the identities of Sander's employers, which Sander vaguely answers.

Here he also explains the women in the inn and the poor beggars and children in Brightwall, and what they do for Sander's organizations.

A day later, Sander and Meladran converse about what to do and how to do it, the subject mainly being the royals and the shipments. He also gets a letter that he cannot kill the royals yet, for unknown reasons. They infiltrate the palace under the cover of unknown documents carried by Meladran. They set out to find the emperor and the princess. Sander and Meladran eventually stumble across the building where both Jackson, Louis, the Emperor and his daughter are present. Sander states that he will interrogate the emperor, after nearly being spotted by a Daedra called Ada.

Sander enters the palace and heads to the emperor's quarters. When he nearly arrives there, he notices two familiar scents, mainly being Louis and the Princess. He chooses not to interfere or interact with them, instead continuing with his attempt to interrogate the emperor. He eventually arrives and enters the room, aiming a gun at the emperor and demanding the wherabouts of the other half of the shipments. He eventually gets surprised by Jackson, who cuts of his arm, and dismembers other parts of his body. Taken by surprise by Jackson and defeated, he gets pinned to a doorway through daggers that Jackson stabs in his body. There, he gets "tested" by the emperor when Jackson convinces Kamodus to pour acid over his hand. The hand regenerated, but unfortunately for him, he cannot do anything. He threats both the emperor and Jackson, before sensing the smell of Louis and being left alone, defeated and weakened.

He woke up in a laboratory, being studied and experimented upon by Doctor Herr, a scientist in employment of the emperor. They id various tests on him, like cutting off his arm and studied him. Herr also asked Sander various questions, which Sander didn't reply to. Atleast, didn't give a clear reply to, letting the doctor figure it out. When the Emperor and the Doctor went away to have a conversation with each other, Sander knocked over a bottle of acid to one of his chains, effectively burning his hand and the chain. With his free hand he proceeded to cut off all of his limbs, as there was not enough acid to burn the rest of the chains. The process took a few minutes and Sander had almost lost consciousness, but he still managed to free himself completely.

He proceeded to lock the door to the laboratory and hold the key, to ensure that the doctor and the emperor couldn't escape. He then headed over to them.

He killed the doctor by shoving a blade into his throat while he was talking with the emperor. He then pinned the emperor down and demanded the whereabouts of the shipments and the Behemoth, after threatening him with acid, harming his daughter and breaking his bones, he eventually found out the Behemoth was held in the ruins of old Leyawiin, in the blackwood region, close to the border with Samarkand. He also stole a strange, daedric ring from the emperor for further study.

He headed over to headquarters, and encountered Meladran, Valkyrie, and Sophia. He told them all about the events that unfolded. When he asked Meladran where he had been, the elf tells him about him recruiting a Daedra, an Auroran. Sander is opposed by the idea, sharing a particular dislike for Meridia's Daedra, and also claiming the Resistance will be no better than the Empire for turning to a Daedra for help. He eventually stops complaining about the subject, and heads to Hanging Mann Inn to report to the emmissaries of The Seven Organisations. He tells them all about the events that occured and the information he acquired.

After that, he goes back to the headquarters to reload on ammunition. He gets depressed when a picture of his family falls out of his pocket when he reloaded his rifle. He hears the door of the headquarters opening, and exits the room to meet Ada, and Meladran. After mocking and insulting the Daedra, he heads back to the table and asks Meladran to explain the situation to Ada, "if he really trusts a Daedra". He remembered Ada from their encounter back in the court yard of the palace, although he wonders if she also recognized him. He still seems puzzled about how Ada could've sensed him, even though he wasn't spotted.

The next day he awakes, and has a short conversation with Meladran, asking about the skypirates and when they will leave. During this conversation he also talks about an assignment he had - he had to kill a skypirate captain and his crew, and crash the ship in the fields of Cyrodiil - he also talks about the brutality of that particular crew, mentioning the bodies they had stuffed in the belly of the ship. However, Meladran assures him that this captain is not like the one he borught up. He also learns about Meladran's noble heritage. When asked if there's any personal "agenda", Sander brushes off the question, and says he'd like to keep his history to himself.

After an hour, they depart to the fields just outside Brightwall, to go to Leyawiin - to try and destroy the Behemoth.

Age of Industry: Bound in Blood and Steel (Part III)
Sander had arrived in Leyawiin with the others, and they were all discussing a way to kill Louis and Jackson. They decide to engage Jackson first, to acquire his sword so they can defeat Louis Syphre. They go out in the battlefield, and Meladran, Sander and Ada both kill various soldiers of the Empire. However, Louis attacks Sander and Ada, and they both fire at each other for some time. Sander shoots at Louis from a distance with his sniper rifle, nudging Louis to approach him, while Elisa, Sander's teenage lover, also joins the fight.

Here, Sander discovers that he's actually fighting his girlfriend, and he's shocked for a moment. However Elisa, more careful, disarms and nearly kills Sander, if it wasn't for Sophia, the leader of the resistance, to distract Sander's two enemies.

Sander withdraws to help Meladran, who was fighting Jackson but failed to kill him stealthily. After a short while of fighting, Jackson eventually fires of clouds of poisonous fumes at both.

Sander is immune to these clouds, because of his vampiric abilities - a brief battle ensues between them, while Ada, another daedra on the resistance's side, joins the fight. Sander during the battle while he tried to stab Jackson, apparently dies, but unknown to anyone, he faked his situation so he could steal Jackson's sword in the middle of the battle - which he uses to make Jackson flee after he cut off a part of his hand.

Sander gets from Ada a poison, which would help him further in his battle against Louis. Sander goes to Louis and again, fires off multiple rounds at him while getting closer.

Sander and Louis eventually get into close combat, and Sander defeats Louis by brandishing Jackson's sword and using the spell Banish daedra - which only had to be casted a couple times.

After the battle, Sander goes to check on Ada, Meladran soon joining the two. They talk with each other for a moment, before they hear gunshots at the other side of town - guessing its Vakyrie GHost Wolf. THey both go to investigate, until Sander offers to check on Sophia, the leader of the resistance. He finds her in a pretty good condition, and he tells her of all the events that just happened - also thanking her for her back up. Sophia would've liked to go after Jackson and the rest, but Sander advises against it, saying them 2 alone are outnumbered. He asks Sophia to wait for Meladran and Ada to catch up.

Sander and Sofia both sit down, waiting for their two allies. Sander smokes and offers Sofia one - while asking what they're going to do when the emperor falls. When Sophia responds, and at the ends says "I didn't think we could actually do it", Sander replies.

Sander and Sofia then talk about her past - learning about how she was a pickpocket and how she rose through the ranks of the Resistance.

Sander eventually also tells her about his past, when asked to - which proved ahrd and challenging for him, but he had to take it off his mind - he also informed her of his relationship with Elisa and Jack Jackson - the latter being a bit more negative.

Thye eventually go silent, until Sander starts to wonder where Meledran and Ada are - worrying abit. Sofia decided to go look for them, while Sander stays behind and watches the entrance of the cave. Meanwhile, he reloads his weapons and sings a song. When his allies return, he gives a brief summary of the enemies that are in the cave. He proposes the following - The rest of their group, excluding him, target the princess and emperor, while he himself targets Elisa and Jackson. He also says that if one of his allies have to face Elisa, he'd like it that they capture her instead of killing her - obviously still caring for her. He also seems to be sure of it that Jackson will die this day - preferably by his hands.

The party enters the long winding staircase leading to Elisa and Jackson. Sander discovers tripwires and various traps and along the way, he disables them. Upon questioned what else they might expect, Sander says they must expect alot of poison - referring to Jackson's use of poisonous fumes.

Sander smells and notices Elisa, who is guarding right next to the staircase - he also seems sure of it that they will be attacked, and because of the party's position, they couldn't dive to cover. He proposes that he will activate on of the traps, while Meladran plays dead along the way, and neutralizes Elisa. This would give the group the elemnt of surprise and enough time to get to cover.

The plan works, and Sander dives to cover after Jackson failed to kill him from a distance with his pistol. While Ada fights Elisa, Sander tries to slowly approach Jack after he was distracted for a moment with Meladran and Sofia.

Jack eventually notices Sander, and atempts to hold him back by opening fire at him. However, he shortly runs out of bullets, and Sander chops off his hand once again with his sword. Jack is immobilized, and Sander just prepared to finally kill Jack by stabbing him through his throat.

Unfortunately, due to several quakes, Jackson manages to escape temporarily - only to be killed by the Behemoth after Sander refused to deal the final blow - letting the Behemoth crush Jackson to death. After Jackson's death, the Behemoth engages them, and Sander, together with Sofia, shoot the pipes that compress the steam circulated in the mechanism.

After a small period of time, Ada Zeill, the daedra on their side, gets grabbed by the Behemoth. Sander resorts to shooting the pipes on the Behemoth's arm in an attempt to save her - but this turns out useless. Meledran, however, slew the Emperor right in front of the Behemoth's eyes, which let Ada go and sat in grief in front of Maximus' corpse.

Sander despises Meledran, claiming he "stole his kill" and that it "wasn't his life to take". When Sofia asked what the Behemoth is doing, he answered that it is contemplating his death.

It is soon revealed that the princess is in the Behemoth, who controlled it. After a failed attempt and too long of hesitating, the princess escapes Sander, but he does not mind.

Eventually, it turns out Jackson is still alive, and tells him of the nobleman with the top hat living in Daggerfall who gave him his vampirism. Sander eventually kills Jackson, by burning his body with the black flames of his sword.

Epilogue of Bound in Blood and Steel
In a flashback, Sander talks to Elisa, who he saved. The two lovers have a difficult and awkward conversation - Sander explaining why he left Elisa and his former life behind. Sander eventually tries to comfort Elisa, but she rejects him -and his way of live and the vampiric impact on it. They seperate, both heartbroken and saddened by bitter loss.

Sander sits in an inn, thinking of past events that had occured during his adventure and job. The women of the seven organisations question him, giving a brief summary of what he told them. When said he did not complete the special request he recieved at the beginning of the RP, he claims this is not true, and opens the curtain and window of the inn - revealing that the dead body of the emperor is hanged on the walls of the palace of Brightwall - possibly having done it directly after the events of the third part of the RP.

The women praise him for this feat, and offer Sander to rise to the next rank in their organisations - Sander, however, claims he has business of his own.

When questioned what, he simply said : With this, his epilogue and Age of Industry : Bound in Blood and Steel ends.

Fangs and Claws Prelude
Sander, months after the events of Bound in Blood and Steel, is first seen in his prelude, where he currently is in Daggerfall. He stood on watch for other individuals in the middle of the night in the Breton capital, focusing on the Church of the Divines. He is seen murdering a priest right after the poor man opened the door for him, and locked the entrance to the church.

He descended down a large and spiralling staircase in the back of the church, where he encounters the catacombs. In these catacombs, he encounters Aggie, an old and mentally crazed woman who apparently knows Sander and expected him to come - she also is a practitioner of The Pacts of Darkness, proven by the bloody pentagrams, drawings, daedric symbols, and various corpses of small animals being present in her quarters. Sander asks her to 'look for someone' by the means of this strange and occult practice.

The prelude ends while Aggie is seen heading towards the pentagrams, and grins menacingly, showing her rotten and yellow teeth as a result.

See the blog post for details: Age of Industry: Fangs and Claws Prelude

Abilities
Sander is a spy, a thief, an assassin, a dangerous swordsman and an extroardinary marksman. He can be extremely persuasive or intimidating at times, while maintaining a rather cold and bold attitude. He himself says he relies on his luck - although that is argueable and he might be joking about this kind of philosophy.

As a spy, Sander can quickly gain intel by either intimidating, persuading, or scaring the enemy so much they would eventually hand over all information about the subject - he can also infiltrate bases and palaces by use of disguise or false papers and documents, written by himself or others. He is also a capable artist, able to remember appearances of various individuals by simply drawing them down with nothing more but using his memory and a pencil - for example early in the rp, where he showed the emissaries a professional 'picture' of Louis.

As a thief, Sander is seen in the RP to be able to infiltrate palaces and sneak past various numbers of enemies - unless he is sensed by a supernatural force - for example by Louis Syphre II - or sniffed out by people with increased instincts - like Jack Jackson. He also completed impressive amounts of burglary jobs - apparently his favorite kind of thievery job - and he seems to be an expert at other sorts of thievery like pickpocketing and lockpicking. He is also able to stealthily free run across rooftops at surprising speeds - and able to climb large buildings like the princess' tower without being detected.

As an assassin, he is sneaky and excels at stealth, as stated before - he is able to silently and swiftly take down enemies from behind or upfront - rarely using spells like invisibility while doing it. When out of weapons - he resorts to strangling his opponents with his vampiric strength.

As a swordsman, he used to be armed with a machete - which he used with great skill, both one handed and two handed. Now, he wields the daedric sword of Jack Jackson, which he uses to a great extent, suggesting he might have a greater arsenal of bladed weapons.

As a marksman, his vampiric abilities aid him in battle partially, although he himself has trained for outrageously long years to work on his aim, accuracy, and speed. He uses his sniper rifle, mostly with supressor, so he can stealthily take care of many enemies swiftly. He also uses his pistols in closed combat, able to fire at rapid speeds.

Personality
Sander, before he had lost his family, was a nice, friendly, and joking fellow. He valued friendship and family above all else in the world. Even though his fpiamily was relatively poor, he remained happy and kept making the best of things.

After the incident with his family, he started off as a depressed, crazed and mentally unstable person, constantly blaming himself of the loss of his family.

After he got over his depression, he is seen as a bit sadistic,  somewhat cruel, and sometimes impolite and perhaps even rude individual. He uses violence and relies mostly on his luck in various situations, just to get the upper hand. he cracks a few jokes occasionally. He never gets very enthousiastic about things, nor looks up to jobs. He never needlessly kills persons, and, if for example, he needs to steal something, he won't kill on the job even if it would be much easier for him. He challenges himself and keeps questioning what his limit is. In most cases he's emotionless, but he does get depressed and sad when he or others mention their families, reminding Sander of the past events of his life.

He also seems to have a strong dislike for Daedra, especially Meridia, being the vampire he is.

Weapons and Gear
Sander is mostly seen wearing a black tricorn, a grey duster coat, a pair of brown leather boots, a pair of black, leather gauntlets and a blackish bandana covering his face.

He carries a Flintlock sniper rifle on his back, and also carries various pistols and a .44 revolver. It is revealed early on in the first RP that he mostly uses Steel and Silver bullets, an example being in a fight with the lycanthrope.

Instead of his machete, Sander currently carries the Daedric sword of Jack Jackson - acquiring it from him after their short battle in Leyawiin.

Appearances
Age of Industry : Bound in Blood and Steel

Age of Industry : Bound in Blood and Steel Part II

Age of Industry: Bound in Blood and Steel Part III

Age of Industry : Bound in Blood and Steel Epilogue

Age of Industry : Fangs and Claws Prelude

Vampirism
The Vampirism he contracted from the vampire that had slaughtered his family, was different. He has the unique ability to regenerate limbs and able to resist loads of bullets. Unknown to anyone, not even himself, he can be killed by decapitation, or when enough physical damage is dealt. Due to another effect of his strange mutated vampirism, he can regenerate both health and stamina in daylight, albeit slowly.

His other vampiric skills include all the skills a normal vampire would get.

The downsides to this mutated vampirism include that, when he doesn't shield his eyes from the sun, he can have a blurry vision, and he is still weak to fire. He also possesses all the other normal vampiric abilities.

Trivia

 * The author, Alador1666, inspired the appearance of Sander from the protagonist of the game Bloodborne. The only things he missed are the sunglasses that Sander usually wears.


 * Sander shares his last name "Lafayette" with a French general, "Marquis de Lafayette".


 * Sander's quote is inspired from one of Ellie's jokes, in the game The Last Of Us.
 * Sander is the only known carrier of Mutare Vampiris at the moment - although there is a possibility other unknown people have it.
 * Sander is the carrier of the Daedric sword Vampire's Claw.
 * His epilogue suggests ge is going to try and find out the origins of his vampirism.