View source for Alexei Marco Ptolovich

{{character
|name=Birth: Pitr Mikhail Ivannovich<br >Current: Alexei Marco Ptolovich
|gender=Male
|race=Russian
|image= [[Image:TradEuthanatos.png‎ ]]
|trad=Euthanatos
|nature=Traditionalist
|demeanor=Judge
|essence=Pattern
|chantry=[[House of the Rising Sun]]
|cabal=
|location=New Orleans, LA
|status=Alive
|player=[[User:Jhaiisiin|Siin]]
}}
'''Alexei Marco Ptolovich''' (ah-LEK-see MAR-co TOLE-o-vich, born: December 14, 1956) is a stoic Russian serving as a member of the [http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness/index.php?title=Euthanatoi Euthanatos] in the [[House of the Rising Sun]] chantry.  Mentored by Theora Hetirck and [[Damien Allen]], he aspires to be the pinnacle of efficiency, and as such is often thought to have little to no emotional depth.

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== Description ==
Ptolovich stands at 6'4" with wide shoulders and a heavy frame of working muscle.  His skin is weathered and tanned while his hair is cut short in a military style flattop and is ash gray, having gone so early on in life.  What sometimes disturbs people is that his eyes are the color of the cold, gray, unforgiving skies of Siberia.

== Background ==
=== Early Years ===
Alexei Ptolovich was born Pitr Mikhail Ivannovich (PETE-er me-KYLE i-VAHN-o-vich) in Volkovo, Moskovskaya oblast, USSR to Nikolai Rasputin (NEE-ko-li ras-PYU-tin) and Elena Viktoriya (eh-LAY-na veek-TORE-ee-ya) Ivannovich.  He has a younger brother, Dimitri Averiy (dee-MEE-tree ah-VEHR-ee) and a younger sister, Illianya Zoya (ee-LEE-ahn-yah ZOY-ya).  The family lived together in a farm where each contributed to their daily lifestyle.  Ptolovich learned to repair the family tractor from his father, and grew both large and strong from the physical labor required of him.  He was full of life and like many good soviets, he had a strong loyalty to his country.  Often times he could be found playing with his younger siblings, though he was always cautious enough to keep from hurting them.  Above all, Ptolovich loved his family.

In addition to being a strong and loving brother, Ptolovich was found to be a bright student.  Graduating a semester early from School 2 in Volkovo, he followed by applying for acceptance into the Frunz Military Academy.  He wasn't convinced he'd get it, but on January 31, 1974, he received a letter of acceptance confirming his appointment to the academy.  His family was extraordinarily proud of him, and Ptolovich swore to his father that he would not disappoint him.

=== Military Career ===
Ptolovich excelled in his studies and duties at the academy, as many knew he would.  His skills expanded and he became well known for his marksmanship and quick thinking. He graduated in the top 5% of his class and had secured his own regiment to command due to his quick, logical thinking. Once in the field, he showed his leadership to be exemplary, his judgments always precise and unwavering, and his wits served him well.  He proved to be an excellent field commander as well, often leading platoons under his command directly in the field. On May 18, 1980, he saved countless lives with his quick thinking to avoid a live explosive that had been laid in the camp that his platoon had been resting at.  He was given command of a second platoon as their commander had chosen to go missing prior to the discovery of the explosive.

The following day, Ptolovich was recognized for exemplary performance not only for the previous day's results, but also for the previous 2 years of military service to the party.  On May 30, 1980, just 11 days after his performance recognition, he received a transfer letter.  This was not unusual, as often he was overseeing transfers into or out of his command.  This one, however, effected his own transfer from his command to the Special Operations Division should he accept the position.  Without delay, he put things in motion to insure that everything would be handled when he left his command position and informed his family of the new position he'd be taking.

He made the move to Moscow and was put through an intense and rigorous battery of tests to identify his strongest competencies.  They concluded with him being well suited to a number of positions: reconnaissance, sniper, analyst, tactical coordinator and a local director.  Ptolovich settled on sniper, which seemed to please the officer responsible for completing the assignment.

=== Preparation for induction ===
The training required to prepare him for his new position as a Russian military sniper was considerably more intense and rigorous than all of his previous training.  Though Ptolovich was already extremely proficient in his existing skills, the trainers at the Special Operations Division accepted nothing less than perfect performance from their trainees.  Ptolovich himself was instructed by four different people, each with their own specialty.

In order to prepare his alertness, Igor Vladilvoski pushed him through varied exercises including meditation, sensory deprivation, blindfighting, massive fatigue, and nights of sleep that were repeatedly interrupted.  Vladilvoski also hones Ptolovich's ability to gather and interpret intelligence data, and insured that he learned a few new languages.  To prepare his body, Alexander Gorva pushed him to his physical limits and beyond with daily exercise regimes.  To improve on his skill and marksmanship, Zhenya Strovich insured that Ptolovich was intimately familiar with all of the weapons he may find himself using, and helped him develop his marksmanship to near superhuman levels.  The last was Bagai Mechnik, the survival expert in charge of preparing Ptolovich's wits and instincts.

The training persisted for the entire day, six and a half days a week for fifteen months before the four instructors were finally satisfied with Ptolovich's performance.  It took another three months before he received orders for his first mission.  Due to the nature of his position, he would be acting on behalf of the Party itself, and would be asked to insure its safety and security, regardless of the threat.  Unknown to Ptolovich himself, the backers of the organizations he had been progressing through are the Technocracy itself, and his training is grooming him towards induction into their ranks.

Ptolovich's first mission, while a success, was not as flawless as he would have liked.  He had been sent to remove a troublesome and ineffective commander that had betrayed the Party, and thus declared himself an enemy of the state.  After waiting in the frozen north amidst a snowstorm for five hours, he finally saw his target.  As soon as he was able, he took a shot with his SVD Draganov rifle, his preferred weapon.  Unfortunately, a bystander inadvertently intercepted the bullet, killing him instantly.  Ptolovich fired twice more to insure the proper target's demise then moved to extract himself from the location.  He was followed by guards but disabled two of them before escaping into the unforgiving snow.

While unhappy with the overall outcome, Vladilvoski declared the mission a success and congratulated Ptolovich on his completion of training. Along with his congratulations, he was granted a home and a modified vehicle to use, the latter of which was designed to allow him to easily transport weapons or bodies without notice.  Lastly, he was provided with an alias, Ivan Sven, with which he could use to blend in to normal society again and yet keep himself distanced from his military career.

Ptolovich completed assignments as they came and within the first six months of assuming his new identity, he had completed three assignments, all assassinations.  His fourth came in right at the six month mark, and was the closest to failure he encountered up to that point.  He was set loose upon a man known as Adnan Gadi, a warlord located in Arák, Iran.  Getting to and removing the warlord, while difficult, had really been the easist part of the mission.  Upon killing the unsuspecting arab, all hell broke loose.  Ptolovich had to maneuver through innumerable guards, but eventually luck ran out and he was spotted and wounded by a gunshot to his shoulder.  While being marched by two guards presumably back to their headquarters, Ptolovich was able to effect an escape and remove both men.  Afterwards he slowly but surely made his way back to his vehicle and out of Arák and back to Moscow.

Ptolovich healed up and was soon back to taking missions.  Just over a year and a half into his deployment into the field, he was given an assignment to take out a high ranking member of the Chinese Tongs gang.  Tracking the man proved difficult, as he would often enter one location but never reemerge.  He finally was able to carry out the assassination of the man in an alleyway where the target was known to murder insubordinate or traitor members of his organization.  As Ptolovich drew bead on the man, he was caught off guard.  The chinese man executed the person in front of him with a bolt of lightning projected from an outstretched finger.  Though worried a bullet might not kill someone with this sort of power, Ptolovich fired anyway and was relieved to watch the man expire.  While Ptolovich did not realize it, this display was the first he had seen of vulgar magick being worked.

Once home, Ptolovich reported the incident to his supervisors.  It would be another five months before he received new orders.  This order however was another transfer, to a department known as the Federal Agency for Government Communications and Information (Federal'naya Agenstvo Pravitel'stvennoy Svayazi i Informatsii or FAPSI).  To Ptolovich's knowledge, that organization was defunct, but he packed his bags and went to the designated location in the orders.  Upon arrival he was given a briefing proving that not only was FAPSI not defunct, but it was operating on a level above even the special operations divisions in the KGB.

Ptolovich's orientation within FAPSI provided the groundwork necessary to begin adopting him into the Technocracy.  He was unaware of the wider implications of the Technocratic Union, but worked to serve as best he could.  Over the next 16 months, Ptolovich further honed his abilities and performed varied missions for FAPSI, including terminating a number of what he now referred to as "deviants," people who displayed abilities beyond the norm.  Due to the ruthless efficiency with which he performed his duties, his colleagues would sometimes joke that he was part machine.

He was definitely no machine, however, and he developed a building curiosity into the abilities of the deviants he was sent to watch or terminate.  He found their abilities fascinating, if not disturbing. His supervisors often advised him to pay the deviant abilities no mind, sometimes forcibly, but the curiosity lingered.  He insured that the curiosity did not affect his duties, as he had learned that FAPSI held no tolerance for laziness or failure.  As a result, Ptolovich kept his skills operating at peak efficiency.

=== Defection ===
Ptolovich was both proud and effective with his skills, and it would be that pride which would lead to a life-altering choice.  In December of 1986, Ptolovich was sent to track and terminate a deviant named Adam Strathmore.  Moments before he pulled the trigger to terminate his target, the target was removed by another assassin.  The young woman asked simply how many people it needed to kill the target.  Ptolovich interpreted this as her being another agent for FAPSI, and he was infuriated at the lack of trust placed in his abilities.  

He returned to base, and had a brief verbal confrontation with his supervisor, ending the conversation with an ultimatum that this would never again happen.  Worried that Ptolovich might be on the verge of slipping their control, his supervisor put in the request for Ptolovich to have a Digital Enhancement Implant (DEI) installed.  This would be the final piece needed to complete Ptolovich's indoctrination into the Iteration X convention of the Technocracy.

Two weeks later, the day before he was scheduled for implantation of the DEI, Ptolovich's target was again taken out by the woman he'd seen the previous mission.  He returned to FAPSI and tendered his resignation.  His supervisor objected, but Ptolovich overruled him with a shot from his sidearm.  After a short firefight, he made his way to his vehicle and sped away, narrowly avoiding his pursuers.  Ptolovich decided to head to Turkey so that he would have a better chance at leaving FAPSI behind forever.

It took several days, but Ptolovich eventually acquired safe transportation out of Russia and on to Turkey.  A day into the boat ride to Turkey, he encountered the same woman from his final two missions.  He positioned himself to dispatch her, but she had already noticed him, and declared that his efforts would be futile while loading safety caps in his weapon.  To Ptolovich's surprise, all the rounds in his weapon had indeed been replaced with safety caps, though he had no explanation as to how.

The woman revealed herself as Rebecca Priest, and after a polite but terse conversation, she insisted she neither belonged to Ptolovich's previous employer nor did she wish him any ill will.  She confirmed her reason on board the ship was to watch over an investment as it made its way to its destination, though she revealed nothing about the nature of the investment or why it needed watching. As the conversation ended, she returned the rounds to Ptolovich's weapon, proving to him that she was indeed a Deviant.

Two months after entering Turkey, Ptolovich was running for his life.  Somehow, an agent of FAPSI had located him, and he was desperately trying to shake the pursuer.  In a stroke of luck, he bowled over a pedestrian and tumbled to the ground, narrowly avoiding incoming weapon fire.  He unloaded a few shots of his own, but they harmlessly bounced off the killer, revealing some sort of metal armor underneath the skin of the attacker.  The person he had run into pulled his own weapon and discharged an amazingly loud round that nearly shattered the attacker's skull.  Ptolovich was surprised at the power of the normal looking weapon, and accompanied the man when requested so that they could leave the area before authorities arrived.

The man, identifying himself as Ekin Selim, questioned Ptolovich as to why he was being followed by a HIT Mark.  Ptolovich had no idea what a HIT Mark was, but confirmed for Selim that the pursuer was likely a member of his previous employer, FAPSI.  Selim insisted the organization did not exist, which Ptolovich protested, announcing that he knew it existed because he had worked for them.  Selim then identified Ptolovich as a Technocrat and put him to sleep with some Mind Magick so that he could be taken elsewhere.

When Ptolovich awoke, he was stripped and bound to a chair in a dark room.  The interrogation was surprisingly lax, and he was able to ask questions of his own, including trying to find out what the Technocracy was.  After much debate, he offered himself as a source of information and assistance against the Technocracy and officially requested asylum.  Rebecca Priest, the alias of Master Theora Hetirck, appeared from the darkness to vouch for him.  She asked Selim and his chantry to watch over and train Ptolovich as needed for the next six months, and that they could terminate him if he seemed ingenuine or unwilling to cooperate.  She advised them that she would return in a year's time to check up on him, indicating she had every confidence in his survival past the six month probation period.

=== Awakening ===
The Ankara based deviants turned out to be a small cabal and chantry of Euthanatos mages.  They were capable assassins and their abilities stemmed from the use of magick, though this concept took a lot of getting used to on Ptolovich's end.  Within the next two months, Ptolovich helped plan and execute raids on three separate technocratic installations.  The biggest of them was the first that Ptolovich was allowed to participate in directly.  He served as fire support with his Draganov rifle to help cover the exit and prevent people from fleeing the installation.

Both he and another member of the chantry made quick work of wounding any stragglers attempting to leave the installation.  Both had to work in concert when a genetic monstrosity burst forth and charged Ptolovich.  It took  several rounds from both men, but they eventually felled the beast.  This final act of defiance and courage seemed to be what was needed to endear himself to the Ankara deviants.

The next four months passed with little in the way of excitement.  The chantry had decided to lay low after the lab raid, and instead turned their efforts towards Ptolovich in an attempt to educate him and Awaken the Avatar within him that would fuel his magicks.  After four months, they deemed it would take a much more extreme act to prompt the Awakening, and offered Ptolovich the chance to go through with it.

Selim approached him, and advised that they had thus far been unable to Awaken his Avatar, and now were considering a journey to help open Ptolovich's eyes, so to speak.  He advised there was great risk, and that Ptolovich could well die during the process.  At Ptolovich's request, Selim peered into the strands of Fate to see if Ptolovich was due to be claimed soon by Fate.  No answer presented itself, but Ptolovich decided to take the offer anyway.

With a drink of liquid offered by Selim, Ptolovich collapsed, the poison claiming his life.  The darkness of death parted to reveal a barren landscape, and Selim was standing there, ready to walk with him.  As they walked, Selim explained that they were on a journey towards rebirth.  They followed the arcing lightning through the clouds, and as Ptolovich looked around, he saw scenes from his life playing in the sky.  He saw what appeared to be his funeral, with no one in attendance save the priest.  He passed grave sites for his family members, and he could hear their screams and pleas for help.  Images flashed of torture endured by his family members at the hands of agents of the Technocracy.  The feelings it dredged up were nearly overwhelming.  Selim explained that what he was seeing was necessary, and he had no power to stop or change that.

They continued walking, and encountered the apparent parents of the first young person he had accidentally murdered when the young man had stepped into the path of of the bullet he'd fired.  They screamed at him for killing their son, and he offered what apologies he could.  Selim explained that each action has consequences, and he was seeing the aftermath of his decisions.  At one point, Ptolovich stopped, letting the grief and weariness start to overcome him.  Giving in caused the ground beneath him to give way and reveal a sea of blackness permeated with vengeful souls of the departed.  With Selim's help, he escaped their hands and was able to continue on the journey.  That blackness was apparently known as Oblivion, and it was the destruction of a soul if a person gave into despair.

They reached the end of the journey, a vast cliff overlooking empty space.  In the sky, a great eight-spoked wheel of souls turned endlessly, funneling the souls to the center.  This was the literal Wheel of Life, and Ptolovich was in awe.  Selim explained that all Euthanatos must take this journey to understand what it is they are subjecting their victims to when Fate calls upon them to return someone to the Wheel.  Selim offered a position as a Euthanatos and a mage, which Ptolovich readily accepted.

Congratulations came from a man walking from empty space towards their position on the cliff.  With a few terse words and a wave of his hand Selim was thrown from the spirit world and back to his body, leaving Ptolovich alone with the powerful newcomer.  Selim sat bolt upright upon returning to his body, and found he could no longer enter the spirit world.  He also noted that neither he nor his chantry mates could reach or touch Ptolovich, as he was now encased in a swirling mass of tangible black smoke that seemed to stop everything, even Magick.  Ptolovich was waking up, which meant the newcomer must have been his Avatar.

=== Agent of Fate ===
Ptolovich woke a few days later, but did so with no memory of his previous life nor anything prior to the Coumatha, the journey to the wheel he had just taken.  Alarmed, Selim contacted Master Hetirck for advice.  She arrived quickly and had Selim and the others pack up Ptolovich's stuff, minus any identifying documents.  It was decided that if the Avatar had wiped Ptolovich's memory, then they should respect that and move as Fate deemed.  Hetirck escorted Ptolovich to Cerberus, one of the premier Euthanatos college chantries, and there he was trained to be a proper agent of Fate.

He helped choose the name Alexei Marco Ptolovich, and assumed the new identity with the help of other magi who set up his life and background for him.  He trained under Senex, an ancient but revered Euthanatos.  Through his training, they found that Ptolovich had retained all of his skills and lost only the memories of his life.  He worked side by side with a young woman named Sarah Perkins, who would serve as her direct mentor for the duration of his studies at Cerberus.  In time and working with her, she succeeded in endearing herself to him.

Ptolovich proved to be a quick study still, and absorbed all the information that was thrown his way.  Again he found others referring to him as a machine of learning, though he only knew the phrase to be familiar and didn't know why.  Combat, awareness and history training all went through him as time progressed.  Some days were better than others when it came to his successes.

One day of note was to be the catalyst for a severe change in Ptolovich's personality.  While walking with his mentor, they were attacked by four opponents, testing his multi-opponent abilities.  This kind of ambush was something that was not uncommon, as Ptolovich needed to be ready for all kinds of potential combat situations.  Without warning, between one and four other students would jump him whether he was with his mentor or not.  Perkins was wounded in the exchange and Ptolovich moved to lethal force, severely injuring two of the four attackers.  Ptolovich was subdued and questioned as to his actions.  Realizing the reason behind it, he immediately worked towards correcting the issue.

The following day, he resumed studies with his mentor, though he seemed to be devoid of emotion.  Insisting this was the way he chose to be, he continued to learn mundane skills, and began learning the mystical as well.  Time passed quickly as he was brought up to speed on the mystical aspects of his skills.  Once he'd reached a point of proficiency, Perkins resigned as his mentor and Master Hetirck took over.

At Hetirck's direction, Ptolovich served along side her and aided her in various missions and adventures.  He was sent to rescue a wayward cabal of mages from the Jade Dragon in Chicago.  Fate saw him to be successful, though he wounded an allied Virtual Adept, Cherry, in the process.  Despite this, he succeeded in helping the cabal prevent their own fall to nephandism and even helped bring one of the chief members of the fallen chantry to justice, being allowed to witness the Nephandus' gilgul.

Ptolovich later joined Hetirck in New Orleans, and has since been assisting in keeping the fight going from there.  He helped Damien Allen raid the Descartes institute in a massive raid against the Technocracy, and has helped fend off Technocratic attacks at multiple occasions.

At present time, Ptolovich is a Master of the Prime Sphere and an Adept in the Spheres of Life and Entropy.

== Paradigm ==
Alexei believes in magick in almost a hermetic fashion.  He trusts to Fate, and his Avatar and knows that they are the source of his abilities.  He does everything he can with efficiency in mind, striving not to waste energy or time on any activity.

== External Links ==
[http://www.dragonfireportraits.com/rpg/index.php?showtopic=644 Alexei's backstory novella] - As written on the message boards<br >
[http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness/index.php?title=Euthanatoi Euthanatos page] on the White wolf Wiki<br >
[http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness/index.php?title=Main_Page White Wolf Wiki]

[[Category:Mage]]
[[Category:Player Character]]