Axom Bannerman

Character Name: Axom Bannerman

Nickname(s):
Nephilim (Neh-fy-lim), this is the name of the giants that inhabited the land of Canaan as told in The Book of Numbers in the Bible. His people, The New Canannites, saw him and decided that the comparison was uncanny and that the term fit him perfectly.

(OOC Research and Observation: When i was looking for a nickname i was also looking around for information on gigantism. i found the term "Nephilim" and looked at it. Nephilim was the name given to the giants that inhabited the land of Canaan in the Bible. The nickname could not fit my character any better. His family is a group of Christians, and not only that, they established New Canaan as well, use the Bible as their religious text, and Axom is a giant to boot. There is only one problem. The interpretations of the Nephilim go two ways. 1) They are the offspring of Seth, and that God has condemned them for their rebellion. 2) Offspring of angels that mated with humans. (This second view has become especially commonplace in modern-day Christian commentaries) my question is, what way do the New Canaanites interpret the bible? Would they see the nickname Nephilim as a good or bad thing? I personally think that the New Canaanites would lean towards a more contemporary interpretation but I also have a vested interest in keeping this as a nickname. A Mod with an outside view and no connection with the character could perhaps provide a way of viewing this that I cannot see.)

Race: Of African American Descent

Sex: Male

Age: 43

Birthplace: New Canaan



Height: 7’0 (~2.14 Meters)

Weight: 320 Lbs.

Eye Color: Brown

Hair Color: Black

Hair Style: Shaved

Facial Hair: None

Skin Color: Brown

Build:
As a man with gigantism, Axom is a massive specimen of humanity. His height allows him to tower over other humans. Though he is massive and weighs over 300 pounds, he is not overly muscled. His muscle structure is fit but not hugely well defined like a bodybuilder’s frame would be. Axom’s body is more along the lines of a worker or a soldier who has to use his body for physical labor instead of intense exercise. Axom, like most people with gigantism, has joint problems. After long periods of extended use, his joints (especially in his legs) will begin to swell and cause intense pain. Axom wears pressure wrappings and carried Buffout for such occurances.

(OOC Comment: for those who still cannot visualize a man such as this, look up Dalip Sing Rana. This is as close as i could find to the build that Axom has.
www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CCkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FThe_Great_Khali&ei=_Y3hUqzGGMrHqgGS6oCwCw&usg=AFQjCNHZJzQmj4G6YMy-Zw8rqzmkW4D5pQ&sig2=eXaWxU3JEjnlQpSd3yjmqA&bvm=bv.59568121)

Distinguishing Features:
In addition to Axom’s massive frame, he also wears a rather unique set of armor that he customizes with parts and pieces from the different places he travels. A Las Vegas license plate is the newest addition to this armor. His face is always hidden by his mask, a very plain and undecorated affair with his name written across the brow due to his inability to convey his name to others using his voice, these things reflect his practical mindedness. If one were to remove the mask, they would find a thoughtful face with a heavy brow, strong jaw and a chin with a false cleft, added by a small scar that resides there.


Profession:
Axom doesn’t have a clearly defined profession currently. He was at one time, a little over 20 years ago, a caravan guard. Since then he has been many things. These occupations have ranged from being a bouncer, a mechanic for machines such as radios, food processors, small motors and lights, to being a bounty hunter for several years. Now, with all this experience and a plethora of life under his belt, he roams the wastes. Axom has the strange ability to show up, seemingly at random, to help those in dire situations when it is needed most.

Skills: Basic machine repair, Firearms skills, Axom has gained the experience one receives when they live off the land for long periods of their lives. He has obtained many useful items and solutions to things that used to cause problems for him as a novice wanderer.

Training:
Axom was taught, like all New Canaanites, the ability to accurately shoot a firearm as well as the skills required to maintain these machines. In addition, Axom was taught machine repair skills when he worked for a mechanic shop in New Vegas, helping to restore people’s machines to working order in exchange for food, money, and a place to stay.

Other Abilities: Armor craftsman. (for personal use, he has never made a suit for anyone else.)

Apparel:
(See Picture for visual representation) Axom’s armor is a piece-together set of things that he chose based on practicality. The base for his armor are a set of old leather football pads
(Football pads base) www.antiqueathlete.com/antique-football-equipment/antique-football-leather-shoulder-pads.jpg
He also has the shoulder plates of an NCR Ranger’s patrol armor mounted over the shoulder pads of the football uniform. These are the main pieces of his armor, along with his mask and the other bits of metal and straps he adorns it with.

Weaponry:
A old, but well maintained M1911 .45 pistol customized to fit has massive hands with an extended grip, and oversized trigger guard. This pistol is a customary New Canaanite weapon. Axom uses his sidearm along with a sniper rifle that has had similar modifications to the pistol to accommodate Axom’s size.

Other Equipment:
Axom carried a bedroll attached by straps to the small of his back. He also carries a small bag of medical supplies such as Stimpaks, RadAway,MedX and Buffout in a pouch on his belt next to his belt buckle. The other pouches are filled with filled magazines of ammunition for his weapons, as well as a few loose rounds. Axom also carried a small journal which he writes in daily.



Affiliation: New Canaanites, NCR

Religious Belief: Mormon

Sexual Preference: Heterosexual

Relationship Status: Single

Personality:
Axom only truly expresses himself in his journal. In his journal he writes all the things he cannot express through his voice. All his concerns, misgivings, thoughts, feelings, and dealings with others are cataloged in his journal.

Outwardly he is silent and imposing, never uttering a word but always stopping to lend a helping hand. Axom was raised on the Mormon principals of giving back to others in need while not letting others take advantage of him. He will only those who are willing to help themselves in the process. Axom does not believe in doing others’ work for them.

He is a generally affable man, but one who has spent a great deal of his life alone, whether self created alone-time or if it was the result of him being a social outcast. Axom values his alone time and is still somewhat awkward around people, mostly because of his inability to speak. Axom's size also plays a large role in his awkwardness, he has long since grown weary of the fearful looks he receives when he enters a place. He sometimes suffers bouts of depression due to his selective mutism anxiety disorder and status as a perpetual outcast. His depression is not terrible, most doctors would describe it as a very mild case or even as him "having the blues".

Though he is burdened by all of this, he still feels he has a mission to correct as many wrongs in the wastes as he can and it is this mission that drives him. His motivation is that he can help and so he does. Because of his motivation, he is highly dedicated to causes he deems worthy and wholesome, such as the Followers in the Old Mormon Fort and he frequently donates to them when he comes across supplies.



Axom Bannerman was born in New Canaan in 2238, three years after the community was established. His Father, Abraham Bannerman and his mother Sarah Bannerman raised him as their only child. With Axom there had always been two things people instantly realized about him, one: Axom was a very quiet youth, shy and silent around others. The Other thing was that Axom was very large, towering over his father by age 15 at a massive 6’6 and 230 pounds. This only escalated as grew older and by his young adulthood he did not even speak to his parents and he had become a gargantuan specimen of Humanity.

Axom had always been an outcast among their society, a state of life that was heartbreaking to Axom’s mother. Because of this she, for many years, often cried herself to sleep at night after she confided in her husband her thoughts about the life Axom’s demeanor had created for him. After consoling Sarah, Abraham would often cry too.

Axom excelled in shooting firearms, gaining proficiency with them that few others could match. His size was such that recoil and a gun bucking in his hand made throwing off his aim a foreign concept. Axom’s size finally peaked at age 20 where he now stood 7’0 and weighed a massive 320 pounds, a full 6 inches taller and 100 pounds heavier than he had been just five years prior. New Canaanite medical officials finally diagnosed Axom with gigantism and said that the most common cause of the condition was a tumor attached to the pituitary gland. This tumor caused an increase in the growth hormone that the gland secreted. It also could have a profound negative impact on his life expectancy if not treated. Sadly, for Axom, New Canaan did not possess the medical equipment necessary to undertake such a complex task, it was agreed that the only place close enough to Utah to travel to receive medical care like he needed would be Nevada, namely: New Vegas. Axom’s parents, now in their late sixties, took the news with grim nods and sad faces. They knew that when their son left, he would not be coming back.

Axom stayed in New Canaan for several months after his medical determination, helping around the community and spending his last days with his family before he left for good. He left a seven page note for his mother, delivered by him on the same day he left. Before he walked out, Axom said the first words he had uttered in the past 15 years and the last words he had spoken since.

“Mom. Dad. I’m not coming back. But New Canaan will always be with me, our beliefs, our teachings, and our culture. They will forever be mine as well. I love you both more than any words can express. But for me, I can think of nothing more rare and meaningful than words to give you.”

The words Axom spoke sounded as though he had an excess of small rocks and sandpaper grinding and scraping against each other in his throat. It had sounded painful, it had sounded final, and it had above all else, sounded heartfelt. The small close knit family tearfully hugged goodbye and before Axom could slip away to join the yearly caravan from New Vegas his mother gave him a leather bound journal and a set of pencils. She had inside, attached a picture of the three of them together along with a few prayers pertaining to strength and health in the midst of trying times. She had written a note to him on the inside of the back cover, written in her beautiful spiraling letters. It made him tear up even at his current age. His father presented him with a gift as well. His father’s gift was one that only a father would give to a son. It was a cleaning kit for his rifle and pistol. With oils, small patches of cotton cloth, a tiny cutwire brush, and thin metal rods with different size brush attachments that could be screwed together to make extensions to clean either gun.

With his presents and gear, Axom made a quiet departure from New Canaan. He left his home in the same way he had inhabited it: silently. Axom signed up as a guard for the caravan and with one look at his size and weaponry, the caravan master was only too glad to give Axom the job. Axom traveled with the caravan, making many stops in many places, finally ending up in New Vegas where he had ultimately wanted to go.

Axom managed to find the Followers of The Apocalypse in the Old Mormon Fort, who welcomed the massive man as if he were just as normal as all the other patients around the place. He was informed that there was one woman who had the know-how to perform an operation such as the one he needed and that she operated the New Vegas Clinic. Axom went there and was denied access to the operation due to his inability to pay the cost of the procedure up front.

Axom had to stay around New Vegas preforming odd jobs and holding the occupations of Bouncer and Mechanic to collect enough money to pay for his operation. Axom worked at these jobs until he had double what he needed to pay for the surgery, that way when it was over he still had money to live off of. Once he managed to gather the required funds he returned to the clinic and the operation to remove his tumor was completed.

After his debt was paid, Axom took up the profession of Bounty Hunter, not the most godlike of professions, he had admitted to himself, but he looked at it as his helping to remove some of the godless scum from the world. During his holding of this occupation, Axom became rather wealthy from this job and stashed away money and provisions in small shelters and bolt holes around New Vegas and the Mojave that he called "Safehouses." With some of his money, Axom purchased and acquired the parts and pieces he needed to create his rather unique set of armor that he wears, even now.

Axom retired from his profession of Bounty Hunter and now roams the wasteland looking to help those in need where he can. As a sort of roaming soldier/ vigilante, his silence and size give him a rather unique presence that he often uses to further his goals of righting the wasteland’s many wrongs.