31 Days of Character Creation #6 – Silent Legions

I plan to crack open at least one of designer Kevin Crawford’s tabletop RPG books and use it’s incredible tools this year. Before I do that, I thought I’d create a character in his cosmic horror RPG, Silent Legions. Here’s the description of this game from its official website:

The world is broken in hidden ways. The truth is concealed for the sake of mortal minds. The unendurable reality that boils behind the stars is veiled by the pleasant blindness that human sanity requires. Yet every comforting shroud must fall in time, and for these investigators, that time is now.

Silent Legions is a game of modern-day Lovecraftian horror, one carefully designed to support sandbox adventures by hard-bitten investigators and fearless hunters of the dark […]

Silent Legions isn’t just about traditional Yog-Sothothery. Silent Legions is a creation kit, a toolbox in the Sine Nomine style for creating your own Mythos, with all-new deities, alien entities, foul magics, accursed artifacts, unaussprechlichen kulten, and diabolical dream-worlds to bedevil your players. These tools are system-neutral, so even fans of other Lovecraftian gaming systems can scoop them up to add a splash of fresh horror to their more familiar tentacular abominations.

I created (through a series of random rolls) a lawyer working out of Nashville, Tennessee named Jude Bryant. Here’s the backstory I came up with for him:

Jude Bryant is a charismatic lawyer and prominent socialite in Nashville, Tennessee, whose life of privilege and success masks an inner struggle with moral ambiguity and a growing curiosity about the unknown. Born into a distinguished family—his father, Judge Harrison Bryant, and his mother, Eleanor Bryant, a renowned patron of the arts—Jude was destined for a life of influence. Educated at Vanderbilt Law School, he quickly became one of the city’s most sought-after criminal defense attorneys, known for his eloquence and almost uncanny ability to sway juries.

Jude’s days are filled with high-stakes courtroom battles, defending clients who range from corporate magnates to celebrities embroiled in scandal. By night, he moves effortlessly through Nashville’s elite social scene, attending galas, fundraisers, and exclusive parties. His charm, wit, and keen legal mind make him a favorite among the legal community and the city’s upper echelons.

However, Jude’s carefully constructed world begins to crack when he receives a desperate plea from an old family friend, Professor Samuel Whitaker, a retired historian and occult scholar. Whitaker, long regarded as eccentric, claims to have uncovered evidence of a secret society operating in Nashville—one involved in dark rituals and strange disappearances.

The case takes a personal turn when Whitaker’s niece, Elizabeth, a journalist investigating local legends, goes missing. Jude reluctantly agrees to help, spurred by loyalty, curiosity, and a sense of justice. As he digs deeper, he encounters a web of unsettling events: eerie symbols carved into ancient stones at Percy Priest Lake, whispers of a shadowy figure called “The Watcher,” and reports of an abandoned asylum on the outskirts of the city where strange lights are seen at night.