{
  "character": {
    "id": "b31ca9fe-62c9-4b0e-beb2-e64a7c4ade2f",
    "slug": "the-headsman",
    "name": "'The Headsman'",
    "race": "Human",
    "character_class": "Fighter",
    "jan_favorite": false,
    "is_ff_portrait": false,
    "profile_url": "https://framedfantasy.com/pages/hero?h=the-headsman",
    "character_url": "https://hall-library.framedfantasy.com/characters/the-headsman",
    "character_json_url": "https://hall-library.framedfantasy.com/characters/the-headsman.json",
    "character_markdown_url": "https://hall-library.framedfantasy.com/characters/the-headsman.md",
    "original_image_url": "https://obadckrukccwkjgpbsxa.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/portraits/1778905533078_vbfr9o.webp",
    "image_url": "https://hall-library.framedfantasy.com/images/the-headsman",
    "thumbnail_url": "https://obadckrukccwkjgpbsxa.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/portraits/1778905533078_vbfr9o_thumb.webp",
    "crop": {
      "x": 50,
      "y": 19,
      "zoom": 100
    },
    "story_excerpt": "…You don't like him. He's big, anti-social, and seems almost perpetually bitter. And then there's his profession…You wouldn't like him as he is alone but *a headsman?*\n\nYou might have killed men before but never on their knees. A headsman is different. There's an unnerving air of death about him tha",
    "story": "<Overview>\n…You don't like him. He's big, anti-social, and seems almost perpetually bitter. And then there's his profession…You wouldn't like him as he is alone but *a headsman?*\n\nYou might have killed men before but never on their knees. A headsman is different. There's an unnerving air of death about him that's nothing like a soldier's. \n\n…But you suppose he can't be all bad. The wizard can take care of herself but she's still small and, according to her, she might have gotten seriously hurt if he hadn't been around to protect her.\n\n…But that still doesn't mean you have to like him…\n\n\n<Background>\nNicholas Heinkel never had trouble finding work, not in a city as large as Scheffelheim. There was always a need for a dedicated executioner with few who would be willing to take up the mantle of such a dark and stigmatized profession. Most people take qualms with the idea of so certainly ending lives. Nicholas is not like most people. He's never been much for company and never fond of people. But that's an invaluable trait for an executioner, isn't it?\n\nAt least, he wasn't fond of *most* people.\n\nThere was one who would become his exception; a servant girl of some nobleman’s household. She was annoying to him on his way to the jail in the mornings but…perhaps a good kind of annoying because her pureness-of-heart would come to grow on him and, though he spoke little in the times she bothered him, he would oft listen to her, even when she began to speak of her problems and see him as someone to vent to. \n\n…Nicholas’ job was to punish wrongs and to kill murderers. The law dictated, should ever one of noble birth be guilty of a crime befitting death, it be done by swift and painless beheading with a sword.\n\n…And upon the day the servant girl no longer came out to bother him…that was exactly what he did.\n\nBranded in disgrace and thrown in irons within the same dungeon he worked, Nicholas teased for his ‘skill’ as a killer and given a choice, face certain death as a convict within the verlorene haufen or find himself on the other end of his own greatsword.\n\nNicholas chose the former.\n\nOnly, his certain death never came. For three years he served in the verlorene haufen, thrown into pike formations at his excessive peril only to come back out alive and, after so long, he earned not just a reputation as ‘The Headsman’ but his personal freedom back…\nHaving finally been made a free man, he stands at a crossroads in his life. How shall his destiny be forged?\n\n\n<Gameplay>\nNicholas is probably one of my easiest and most difficult characters to play accurately.\n\nHe doesn't speak much, even when it would be helpful to!...He also doesn't speak much…when it would be helpful to…\n\nHis fighting style is true to that of his training in the vanguard: Run at enemy and hit it ‘til it dies. The feats chosen for him are reflective of this incredibly specialized and complex fighting style.\n\nThough he was sketched without a helmet and his bevor lowered, Nicholas wears a gothic style sallet and bevor into combat.\n\nNicholas may not be a social person, or even like people in general, but he has a weakness for good hearts and anyone who might remind him of the only friend he's ever had. He might even be willing to share about his past to someone that does. He certainly won't let anything bad come to them, as he already feels as though he failed her and will never let that happen again.\n\nThe Headsman's intended story arc is a simple one. Find someone that he may impose the memory of his friend upon, seek the redemption he doesn't understand that he needs in order to forgive himself, and obtain the growth he needs to, hopefully, become a changed man, if still just a little soft-spoken…\n\nIt's his gentle side that is the reason why I chose to sketch him with Niri. I've long seen them as a perfect fit: The tiny, nervous, gentle soul and the wrathful giant. One of my largest characters at 6’3, next to one of my smallest–the sword and the shield. Someone who might be terrified of him at first but with a good enough heart to quickly recognize the devotion and protection he offers."
  }
}