“Juju Papa” Couleuvre Kalimah Samedi or Just “Papa Couleuvre” was born and raised on the streets of Coran, in the rundown back alleys where the p*ss and sh*t were never really washed away, even in a heavy rain. His life was never really one of the fables of grandeur, what could a street urchin hope to accomplish with his life, after all?
Sure, he was ‘magical’; he learned that from his ‘Papa’ when the human was still alive. Shuffling cards, and making them disappear and reappear in front of the eyes of some watchful mark… it wasn’t something the mages of up-town looked highly on. When ‘Papa’ wasn’t teaching young Couleuvre how to fool the common folk, he was getting mama high on Shiver to help with her “stage fright”… See, Mama was a dancer at the cabaret in rat-town, and Couleuvre’s real father died when he was just a boy of only a few years.
When he was 23, Couleuvre learned how his real father died. Couleuvre killed ‘Papa’ and took his stash … all of it. The over dosed on Shiver caused the young elf to watch, as though from above his own body, as all of the trepidations and unpleasantness of rat-town fell away, until so did his desire to struggle… Couleuvre gave up his will to live and simply stopped breathing for a full day, only to be awoken by a vampiric witch named Petsha Coleridge.
If Couleuvre didn’t want to live, at least Petsha had a use for him. He was now a blood bank, used by the vampire to sustain his cravings to feed on the living. In return, the vampire taught him about Harrow cards, and the powers they possessed. Couleuvre developed into quite a fine apprentice, while his understanding of the Harrow grew, they slowly became manifest as true magic. After years of learning from Petsha as a past-time, Couleuvre had finally found something that he could live for… An ironic gift from a dead man, to be certain.
When Couleuvre realized that he didn’t want to be Petsha’s pet any longer, he offered the vampire something much more pleasing, an orphan child, a street-rat that nobody would miss. Perhaps because Couleuvre found his life in the vampire’s care he thought that this child might make a better life for himself in the same circumstances, though, it was more likely that Couleuvre enjoyed the idea of enslaving the “Papa’s” only child to the sadist.
Throughout all of this, he had stolen and cheated his way to pay for his mother’s addiction, and to keep his little brother and sister at least fed. When he returned to them, Vasstan and Morrigan, began calling him “Juju Papa” for his ability to turn harrow fortunes into tricks to be played on the common folk. Papa Couleuvre joined up with the thieves’ guild for protection, but soon found that they planned on using his special talents elsewhere. He Still struggles with his addiction to Shiver.
