Secesh

"If you get what I'm reckoning,"

- Secesh

Francis Palmer, more commonly known as Secesh, is a 30 year old cyborg soldier from South Carolina. He fought in the on-going American Civil War on the side of the Southern States and was stationed in his home state of SC. He initially started out as an architect, but later ended up becoming a soldier thanks to several cybernetic upgrades. They did not change his appearance drastically, but he did get a new uniform. This new uniform, which he still wears, is extremely damage resistant with a color scheme of pale-blue and gold. He is often described as being tall and having an above average physique, but is extremely heavy due to his mechanical implants. He is currently working with a group of dimension-hoppers to kill a scientist, in exchange for them helping him find his lover.

## Appearance

Secesh is a white male of Scottish heritage, about 6ft tall and 200 pounds. He was already tall before becoming a cyborg, but the operation made him weigh more due to the metal. He wears a modified Confederate Marines uniform, decorated with darker blue areas and decorative gold patterns and buttons as well. He has brown hair, and blue eyes, though he could change the color if he wanted, however. He also carries his rifle on his back, and a ceremonial sword on one hip and an ammunition satchel on the other. He wears a pale-blue cap with a golden rifle emblem on it as well, and kept it from his first encounter with Ignis. It was part of his original uniform, which had been destroyed except for the cap.

## Personality

Secesh is generally brash and hard-headed. He often barges into a situation without planning anything, and is easily angered when sensitive topics are brought up. He enjoys physical combat, and often uses it to vent his anger. He's very stubborn, and never gives up. As a soldier, social events were common, so he won't shy away from meeting new people. Though he'll typically keep them at an emotional distance, he does value those who have warmed up to him. As a matter of fact, he's willing to go to extremely far lengths to keep them, even going across the multiverse in search of his lover. He's also tried to hide less desirable aspects of his personality from people he cares about, but this hasn't gone very well. Though he keeps close ties to his loved ones, he doesn't care much for his family.

He's racist towards people of other races, with exceptions, but is currently working on it. This constantly puts him at odds with others, which can make negotiating with others troublesome. Ironically, he's actually against slavery, which has put him at odds with other southerners. His thoughts on the Confederacy are clouded and mixed, but since meeting Ignis, they've started to become more negative. Though he recognizes the government's desire to keep slavery, he still wants to protect his home from the Northern invaders.

## Background

Francis Palmer, who would later be nicknamed Secesh, was born to a family of plantation owners on January 4th, 1834. He was named after his father, Frank Palmer, who was a wealthy plantation owner while Francis's mother was named Mary Palmer. He was the 7th child in his family, and a few years after giving birth to him, his mother died. His father had never really cared for Mary, and had only used her to give himself children and free labor. So, he was never especially depressed about it and raised his kids fairly normally without any depression. However, he did have his children raised with slaves, which were common on his massive plantation.

Francis grew up with a love of fighting, and he would commonly be caught rough-housing with his siblings growing up. But he also had a love of nature too, and enjoyed running around playing in the forest. He learned many tracking and hunting skills as a boy from fur-trappers, and was a common sight in the more rural areas of Charleston. He would constantly talk and chatter with people as a child, and many soldiers enjoyed watching the boy play around the forts. Though of course he had standard education for a child born into wealth, he learned most of his current skills from soldiers, hunters, etc. This would also inspire him to wish to become a soldier, something his father would protest against. He wanted his children to become wealthy plantation owners, not soldiers of war who may end up dead. This would set them down a path that ultimately left them divided as a family.

When he became a teenager, things didn't change much. He had to spend less time playing in the forest and more time in school, but still continued to fight and hunt, to his father's distress. His father eventually decided to do something about this, and sent him to a professional school in England where he would be forced to simply learn business skills, economics, and agricultural tips. He was extremely angry with this, but went along with it anyways. During this time, he met a peer named John, who was from the South as well. They became good friends, and would often hang out together. It was John himself who gave Francis his nickname: Secesh. It was inspired by the South Carolinian's desire for an independent Southern nation, and would stick with the wealthy Southerner.

After graduating and returning home in 1856, he felt more comfortable with the idea of working on a plantation, and took a job watching over the slaves that worked there. He didn't care about their suffering, as back then, most Southerners believed that the slaves were meant to work for the white man. This view point would be ripped from Secesh in the summer of 1958, when a runaway slave was trying to escape with his family to head up North. He followed suit, and after several long, grueling hours, had tracked him down. He kept running, an actual guise to distract Secesh from the other fleeing slaves. Secesh tried to shoot him in the shoulder to get him to stop running, but accidentally shot him in the heart and killed him. He had to watch the man die, and worse, in front of the man's wife and kids. He regretted this almost instantly, and with a change of heart, decided to let the man's family go. He left the plantation, and went off to go join the military. His father was furious, but in the end, couldn't change Secesh's mind or force him to do anything.

So, in 1859, Secesh officially joined the marines of the United States of America and received extensive training. His allegiances, however, would change in 1860, when South Carolina seceded from the Union and became an independent nation known as the Palmetto Republic. He retreated back to SC and worked exclusively there, and with the dawn of war apparent, received even more military training. Some time in the month of February, 1861 he got his first taste of unworldly adventure when he was teleported to a strange place by unknown forces. It's unknown what did happen there, but what is known is that he fell in love with a snake demon named Ignis. This would prove important, and he would constantly think of her after this encounter.

When he had returned from this adventure some time later, he had discovered several new things. South Carolina had joined up with the other southern to form the Confederate States of America, and had also gone to war with the United States of America. He was quick to get back to his work, participating in several battles of the Civil War. This war effort wasn't enough, and in 1863, they were losing. This wouldn't last for long, however. While on patrol, several soldiers had discovered a downed alien aircraft in South Carolina, and sent it to the scientists. The scientists managed to reverse engineer the technology, and their first experiment was creating a cyborg super-soldier. Secesh was quick to volunteer to serve his nation, and the operation was a success. Gifted with a variety of new powers and an advanced rifle, he set out to win the war, and win the war he did. By late 1864, Union numbers and industry had been decimated by a single battalion under Secesh's command, where his powers helped him significantly. He was able to take on legions of soldiers and win, leaving nothing but bones and ash whenever he attacked. He had no quarrels killing all these soldiers, they had chosen to fight this war, after all, and knew the risk when they joined the army.

But even with all the fame and fortune that came from being a decorated war hero, he still felt lonely. He longed for his lover, and nothing could replace her. So, when several scientists thought they had discovered a way to give Secesh dimension hopping powers, he went for It, and was quick to volunteer yet again for experimentation. The plan was for him to travel the multiverse looking for even more advanced tech for them to build weapons with, but Secesh didn't care. His plan, on the other hand, was just to find Ignis and spend his time with her. The South was already winning, after all, they didn't need him anymore. But, when they first er tested out the device, it failed horribly. He ended up teleporting to a random building, and meeting a group of dimension hoppers. At first they almost fought, but they later made a deal: they would help Secesh find Ignis if he helped them find a scientist. Though the group and Secesh may not get along well, their deal is still working out, and as long as Secesh gets to reunite with Ignis, he's fine with whatever.

Far in the future, the multiverse was ridden with a disease. It was known as the Blight, and whenever it went, it turned whatever living beings it found into mindless zombies, who were only a husk of their former selves. Secesh has reunited with his lover, Ignis, and was the honorary father of her daughter, Terry. When Ignis disappeared one day after the blight invasion, he abandoned Terry to go find her. With no luck, he searched throughout the infinite realms to find her, only to realize he had a daughter to care for. He went back to try and find Terry, but she had disappeared. Cladded in brand new blue and white power armor and stronger weaponry, Secesh set out to find Ignis and Terry and make his family whole once more. He would end up killing millions of Blight infected zombies, but thousands of innocents too. He would become cold and ruthless, a once heroic man who set out to save innocents focused on only one goal.

At one point during his travels, he ended up in an alternate Victorian England, where he faced an entire swarm of almost a million of the monsters. Luckily, two servants of a Time Goddess, both named Frederick, appeared to help him. After a brief conversation, the two figured they could send Secesh to where they last heard his daughter was, and he agreed to be taken. He had no luck finding her, but he did find two fairies part of a grand empire. They were trying to look for Terry, but it was obvious they had malicious intentions. He reluctantly let the, follow him, but managed to get them off his trail. He did, however, stumble upon an old friend of his consort: Konny. She had clairvoyant powers, and caring for Ignis as well, agreed to help the old cyborg find her. They did find her, but it was too late. She had been fatally injured in battle, but survived just long enough to share a final moment with Secesh. He ended up burying her, and carved a tombstone for her before setting off with Konny once more to find his daughter.

## Powers & Abilities

Thanks to his cybernetics and training, Secesh has a wide variety of powers and abilities.

### Enhanced Limb Power

As a result of the operation, Secesh's power in his limbs was greatly increased. He could use his bare hands to rip down wooden walls, and could easily run at Olympic-record speeds for short bursts. However, he has a limit, and his cybernetics will shut down and give him normal human strength if he goes too far.

### Enchanced Endurance

Secesh's entire skeleton has been replaced by a mehcanical machine skeleton, making him much more durable. He can take bullets directly to the spine and shrug it off, and can also survive the shockwaves from major explosions. It has a limit, however, and can't protect him from everything.

### Healing Factor

His mechanical enoskeleton also granted him incredible healing abilities, being able to heal bullet wounds in mere seconds. However, larger chunks of flesh take larger amounts of time to finish, and though he can survive as long as his endoskeleton is intact, he be unable to move as just a skeleton until he finishes the slow process of rebuilding himself.

### Rifle Marksmanship

During his millitary training, Secesh was taught many things: rifle marksmanship was no exception. He can shoot with above average, but not perfect accuracy, but he doesn't necessarily need it. His normal rounds can be fired in extremely rapid succession and are also as strong as a shotgun round. The knock back from this would injure most humans, but he doesn't have an issue with it thanks to his endoskeleton. He can also shoot several larger explosive rounds, which can decimate a futurisric tank or small building with only one shot. It is also armed with a heated bayonet, perfect for stabbing his enemies with a clean wound.

### Fencing Skills

When he can't find his gun, or can't use it for some other reason, Secesh resorts to his ornamental sword. Crafted from alien metals with a Civil War aesthetic, it's not designed for combat, but can be used for It. Whether it's tearing through robots or people, he doesn't just start slashing randomly. He was trained in sword combat when he was younger, and though he's forgotten a fair amount of it, he still has above average skills in it. Of course, he would fail to take on an experienced sword fighter.

### Survival Skills

When Secesh was an innocent young boy, he learned many skills, most of them focusing on the wild. He can create a fire from scratch, hunt large game, create shelters, create snares, locate water, cook, and is skilled in various other trivial survival matters. Many of these translate well when tracking people, and could certainly be used for such a purpose.

## Trivia

Secesh has commonly been associated with coconut crabs ever since he met Ignis.

His battalion has it's own flag, which is a modified version of the Lone Star and Palmetto flag except it has a beige snake coiled around the palmetto tree.

He is the only soldier in his battalion, as he was essentially a one man army.

He tends to be a desperate kiss-ass when his loved ones are angry with him.

His favorite color is gold.