Ovewratch - Durandal Origin Story

If any of you have been following the work I do, then you know about the work I've been working on and collaborating upon with other artists for an Overwatch character I designed.  The character is called "Durandal", real name: Liam Peekar.  Given all that I've had done with him, I had Othellophi make up a character icon for them and with that I made this cover image for Durandal's Origin story.  Ideally, I'd like to make a small movie much like the other origin stories for the other Overwatch characters but I need two things; money to commission Othellophi for it and the right video program to put it together.  And ideally I would like Blizzard to take on my character but at this point I like what's been done with him so much that I wouldn't mind keeping him. 

Here is the original character sheet that was done by Mersan-sama/Othellophi

And here's the character profile that I've written up:

LIAM PEEKAR/DURANDAL

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APPEARANCE
Liam Peekar stands at a mere five foot eleven inches tall or higher depending on what shoes/boots he’s wearing.  His facial structure is one with a rounded face and jaw-line from his many years of being stuck at a desk job.  Set into his face is a strong Nordic nose with a pair of slate colored almond eyes underneath a wide forehead and thick eyebrows.  He has shaggy black hair with a little gray coming in around the ears.  His hair is kept at an almost military issue short length.  The left side of his face, around the eye and check, has a network of scar tissue that hasn’t completely healed despite the best efforts of Overwatch surgeons.  The scarring also extends to the left side of his neck as well as most of his torso.  

Liam sports several highly advanced prosthetics.  The first limb is his left arm that extends from his shoulder downward.  The second is right hand extending from the wrist.  The third and fourth prosthetic limbs are his legs both extend from below the knee.  The fifth is his left eye but it looks indistinguishable from his “natural” eye.  

Liam’s physique can be described as being lithe; he has very little body fat and thus the definition of his muscles are well pronounced.

In casual clothes, Liam wears slacks with baggy printed t-shirts.    

As for his armor, it consists of several pieces, such as the breast plate, plackart, cuisee, and greaves.  The final piece is a helm which looks to be one smooth metallic piece with six “eyes” or cameras embedded into the front of the helmet.  The back of the helmet has one to monitor enemies coming at him from behind.  The helmet can lift up the “face plate” so that Liam can look out with his “normal” eyes and allow him to remove the helmet completely.  The armor essentially covers most of the parts that aren’t prosthetic.  Over this armor he wears a cloth tabard that is black with the Overwatch symbol on it.  Strapped over the tabard is his belt that contains several pouches for his “light grenades” and back up batteries.  On the left side of the belt there is a holster for his “beam sword”.  

The “beam sword” when deactivated is approximately 16 inches long and 7 inches in diameter.  At one end the sword has a thick cumbersome that houses the extension rod and the second emitter.  The cumbersome nature of this is due to the swords activated mode in which the frame extends with twin beam energy emitters facing each other.  The sword itself runs on a limited power supply so that when it runs out, the power source, a carbene battery, has to be ejected for a new one.  In addition to this, the “beam sword” can also be transformed into a short range rifle in which one of the emitters turns outward to fire pulses of the swords energy.  

Inside Liam’s left prosthetic limb there is also housed the apparatuses needed to produce an energy shield.  A small part of the arm opens up and out from it is produced a great couche shield shape with the overwatch emblem in the middle. 
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Gender
Male
Theme/Motif:  A fusion of a sword wielding knight with the technology of Overwatch. 
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Hero Name:
Durandal
Name Explanation:
The significance of this name comes from the fact that Liam loves sword and sorcery fantasy and so when the time came to choose a codename for himself he settled upon a more obscure sword name: Durandal, the sword used by Roland a Paladin of Charlemagne.
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Real Name:
Liam Peekar
Name Meaning:
The meaning behind his first name is “strong willed warrior”.  However, Liam’s parents picked this name for him after the name of his grandfather on his father’s side. 
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Apparent Age:
32
Actual Age:
32
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Nationality:
Country of Origin:  Canada
Ethnicity:
Half French/Half British
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Base of Operations:
Currently:  Watchpoint: Gibraltar
Occupation:
(Formerly) Overwatch records keeper
(Formerly) Overwatch field agent
(Before Winston’s Message) Medical File Clerk
Affiliation:
Overwatch
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Role:
Offensive
Abilities:
Health:
200 Health
150 Energy Shield
Left Click: Beam Sword

Melee Damaging type
60 damage
1 m range

Liam comes forward, raises his beam sword over his head and makes a downward strike at his opponent. 

“Let me teach you a lesson, my friend.”

Right Click:  Beam Rifle
            Rapid Fire Type
            11 damage per shot
            10 shots per second
            10 second duration. 
Liam’s beam sword transforms into a short range rapid fire rifle.  The rifle can only fire a limited number of shots and a limited amount of time before the internal battery is completely drained and needs to be changed in order to use either the beam rifle or beam sword. 
“I dare you to run.”
E Ability: Energy Shield

Mobile Barrier Type

200 Shield HP

Lasts 30 seconds or until destroyed

Out of Liam’s prosthetic left arm a small energy is deployed that protects from projectiles. 
“Come for me!”
LShift Ability: Light Grenade
            Disabling ability

10 meter Range

            Lasts 15 seconds
Liam throws up a small grenade that projects out a blinding flash of light that disorients all those within the blast range for a period of 15 seconds. 
“Sic Luceat Lux!” (Thus let the light shine!)
Ultimate(Q): Knight’s Overload
            Melee ultimate type
            1.24 swings per second
            100 damage per hit
            2.5 meter range
            Lasts 5 seconds
Liam turns the power of his beam sword to high, giving the blade double its damage potential and uses it to strike and even kill all enemies within his short range. 
“I pledge myself to Overwatch!”
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Bio_Short:
Some people join Overwatch for personal vendetta, the common good or they have nowhere to go.  Liam joined Overwatch to be a hero but he became an office drone rather than a field agent.  Until one day, he made a stupid mistake during an attack on Overwatch by the Omnics that left him amputated in body and spirit.  With hope dwindling, he is given an opportunity to truly have his wish fulfilled thanks to his childhood hero, Tracer, along with Winston, Liam Peekar is given new limbs and new abilities and a new place in Overwatch. 
Bio_Long:

Liam Peekar was born in Toronto, Canada to Emilia Black a British astrophysicist and Lucree Peekar a French-Canadian microbiologist.  As a young boy he would read a lot of old books from his parent’s library, or at least the ones that hadn’t been made into a digital format.  He was always fascinated with the idea of being a knight or a wizard but overall he liked the idea of being a hero: to do great tasks and to be admired and loved for such achievements. 

Then, at the age of 17, while at a shopping center with his parents, he had a chance encounter that would change him.  He saw, first hand, the Overwatch poster hero, Lena Oxton, a.k.a. Tracer.  At that shopping center there was an Omnic terrorist attack that involved several Omnic robots dropping through the skylights and opening fire on the shoppers.  Despite all the times that Liam wanted to be a hero, to be a knight, what he did next would stay with him for the rest of his life; he hid.  But while he hid he saw Tracer and the other agents of Overwatch storm into the Shopping center and stop the Omnics.  From where he hid, he saw Tracer move with such agility and grace.  He was entranced as well as enamored with her. 

Some wanted to say it was teenage lust but he often would defend his position by saying that it was inspiration.  He saw in her the living incarnation of everything that he read about in all those stories and he wanted so much to be like that. 

And so began his own personal quest to become an agent of Overwatch. 

But, there was a problem.  Despite being able to be a good student and pass exams, he didn’t have the physical attributes needed to be an Overwatch field agent or at least to be one like Tracer.  And so, Liam was relegated to taking a job at one of the many headquarters for Overwatch being nothing more than a paper-pushing key-punching drone.  For nearly a year he languished in this horrible position.  Despite being part of the Overwatch organization it didn’t live up to his dreams of glory and heroism.  Until one day there was an Omnic attack on Overwatch headquaters. 

In the heat of the attack, Liam saw the opportunity of a lifetime.  He decided that he wasn’t going to run and hide again.  This time he was going to stand and face the enemy.  This decision would eventually lead to a very bad consequence.  He found himself up against a single Omnic and had only his hands, wits and will but they weren’t enough.  In the ensuing scuffle a grenade that had been thrown and landed several inches away from his feet.  He couldn’t be sure at the time but before the grenade exploded he thought he saw Tracer coming towards him.    

He woke up in a hospital and found that he was a mangled mess.  He had lost his right hand, all of his left arm, along with his left and right leg below the knee, his left eye, severe burns to 30% of his body, including his torso and face.  Yet, the injuries to his body seemed small compared to the injuries of his spirit.  He had the opportunity a second time to actually do something and become a hero that he always wanted but he failed again.    

During his stay at the hospital, he was visited by Tracer as well as Winston.  Tracer was in tears because she couldn’t use her abilities to stop the grenade.  That is when Winston offered Liam the chance to achieve the dream that he thought was once dead when he saw how the real world worked.  Winston offered Liam to become the field agent that he wished to be and Liam accepted the golden opportunity. 

With Winston and Tracer at his side, Liam met with several team members of Overwatch’s weapons development team, including the legendary Torbjorn.  Liam instantly felt like he was a young knight meeting with his smith to make his weapons.  He gave Torbjorn a few ideas of what he wanted and soon the master weapons maker gave him a prototype weapon; a beam sword that had the ability to become a beam rifle.  Adding to his small arsenal would be his prosthetic arm that projects an energy shield.  After extensive training with these weapons, Liam chose his codename “Durandal” in reference to the sword used by a paladin for Charlemagne.  He soon went out into the field with Tracer and other Overwatch members and fought against the Omnics and to the surprise of many he was quite good.  So much so that he was hailed as a hero alongside his other Overwatch members.  He was even given the title of “Knight of Overwatch” by his new family, but it wouldn’t last. 

The Omnic Crisis was stopped and then the accusations against Overwatch began and then the order to disband the organization came down.  Liam was heartbroken.  Far more so than the day that the day he lost his limbs.  He lost so much to become a Knight of Overwatch that it was taken from him but seeing that there was nothing he could do, he packed up and went back home to Canada where he became a medical file clerk.  It was a hard transition to go from behind a hero to being a faceless drone.  He tried to continue his normal life of going to his job, playing video games, table top games and LARPing but they served to remind him of what he once had. 

For 9 years he lived like this, until one night he went home and dressed in his old Overwatch uniform and armor remembering the old battles he fought.  In remembering it he became overwhelmed with sadness over it all that he took off his helmet and smashed it but that was when he heard the message on the Overwatch emergency channel.  It was part of his old equipment and when he turned it on he saw the familiar face of Winston who was recalling all Overwatch agents. 

Winston asked, “Are you with me?”

Liam only made one reply: “For the Watch.” 

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Personality:
At first, Liam seems very timid and reserved but also acting with extraordinary politeness to those he first meets.  He often does this because he wants to gauge what the other person is like before allowing himself to become more relaxed and casual.  Once his poised appearance is allowed to slip into his actual self.  He’s someone who can seem coarse, biting and even crude and/or offensive in his humor.  And it’s often the case that he can get off on the wrong foot with people but once one gets past this flaw, and a few others, he becomes an incredibly loyal friend.  He also has a high sexual drive but because of his poor social skills he isn’t exactly popular with women or men.  Liam also has a high sense of honor and integrity built into him thanks to the stories that he grew up with. 
Interests:
Among the interests that he has, he has an avid fascination with fantasy fiction.  Fiction that involves knights, swords and sorcery.  Thus the reason why he plays video games and table top dice games.  He also collects old style books, those that are first edition or leather bound.  His reasoning behind it is that, “books don’t require batteries”.  Among his other interests that he keeps to himself, mainly because he doesn’t want to be thought of as weird to be set up for ridicule, are his interests in swords.  This interest extends to him having a small collection in his apartment.  Both ones that are real and those that are fictitious, such as replicas of Frostmourne, Ashbringer, Thunderfury and the Glaives of Azzinoth.  This interest in swords has made him learn some swordsmanship but it’s mainly for use in live-action roleplaying. 
Dislikes:
Alcohol.  It’s mainly because of the taste that he doesn’t like it.  He often likes to say “If I want to drink something bitter, I’ll just have my coffee without sugar.”  He has a small fear of Omnics after the two instances in his life where he faced them and nearly died because of them.
Arrogance and smugness.  From Liam’s perspective, if you’ve earned great things you have earned the right to be smug.  If you’re smug and arrogant because you think you are then you didn’t earn it. 
Prudishness.  To him, to be prudish about anything is to invoke the idea that you’re judging.  And his motto about judging is: “Judge slowly”. 
Merits:
Liam prides himself on being an honorable individual.  A man of good moral character.  That he will always act with integrity and honesty.  In addition to this, he also is incredibly loyal to his ideals, principles, and friends.  This would make him go out of his way to help out in any way possible almost to a rather foolhardy level, such as nearly getting himself killed in the process. 
Flaws:
Aside from his coarse sense of humor, a major flaw that Liam sees in himself is his cowardice.  He still blames himself that he didn’t do anything when the Omnics opened fire on the shoppers.  This has led him to be very hard on himself and causes him to be a complete perfectionist in many of the tasks he does.  His perfectionism couples with him taking criticism pretty hard since it exacerbates his low-self image, which includes his abilities as well as his looks.  Any kind of criticism he hears he takes it personally as a statement on his character.  He also has a small form of hero worship for Tracer because he wants to be as great as the heroes in stories but also as great as her.  This form of hero worship grew to the point where he collected a couple posters of her along with a few figures of her. 
Liam also is extraordinarily self-conscious about his body.  Before his accident with the Omnics, he hated the way he looked; being so skinny.  After losing his limbs and having scar tissue on his face and torso, this issue grew to the point that when meeting new people he would often wonder if they were looking at his scars. 
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Skins:
Describe any skins you can get - be it rare (Highlight Recolours), Epic (full recolours) or Legendary (Full model change)
Special:  Overwatch Dress uniform
Special:  Business casual clothes (short sleeve dress shirt, overwatch tie and gray slacks)
Summer Games:  Fencing Uniform with Overwatch flag
Winter Wonderland: Red and green colors to the uniform with an Overwatch ugly sweater
Lunar New Year (Year of the Rooster):  Red and gold armor with rooster theme to shoulder pads and helmet
Lunar New Year (Year of the Pig): Red and gold armor with a boar/pig theme to shoulder pads and helmet
Halloween Terror:  Werewolf
Halloween Terror:  Knight who says “Ni”
Anniversary: Armor with overwatch colors of orange, black and white
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Extras/Misc:
Voice lines:
            “A Knight of Overwatch”

“For Overwatch!”

            “I pledge myself to Overwatch”
            “Sic Luceat Lux!”

“Thus let the light shine!”

            “Come for me!”
            “I dare you to run.”
            “That’s what she said.”
            “I’m not gonna say ‘ni’.”
            “Let me teach you a lesson, my friend!”
            “Excuse me!?”
            “Oh Balls!”
            “Beset on all sides…”
            “I’m not gonna say ‘Eh’…or ‘a-boot’.”
            “As we say in Canada……’sorry’.”
Events voice lines:
            Summer Games:  “For the honor”
            Halloween Terror:  “Too old for trick or treating?  Never!”
            Halloween Terror:  “Now I’m gonna say it…..’NI!’”
            Winter Wonderland:  “Happy Yule”
            Lunar New Year:  “My New Years Resolution?  None.”
            Uprising:  “We will be victorious!”
            Anniversary:  “Who wants cake?”

Again my thanks to Othellophi for the work they did for me on this.  

(C) Overwatch - Blizzard