Name: Jordan Castell-Laveau
Age: Looks 33; Really 38
Species: Therianthrope; Ailuranthrope
Animal Form: Cheetah
Pack Status: Former Alpha
Currently residence: Evermore City, CO
Hometown: New Orleans, LA
Occupation: Self-Defense instructor and Studio manager
Face Claim: Ricky Whittle
Markings: Faction tattoo on right pectoral; rest up to player
Pos: Empathetic, generous, self-confident, diplomatic || Neg: Calculating, bossy, vicious, shortsighted

Family: Unknown half-sister Inara Nahas

Life was meant to be easy in a city called the Big Easy but for those who struggled through poverty living in the 9th Ward life was far from it. Jordan’s father was an infamous drug dealer and his mother was a nurse and Voodoo priestess his lineage going back to the slaves in the area of Haitian descent. Money was always an issue as was the amount of food the family had but Jordan never noticed that since his parents always made sure that he had enough to eat and tried to give him a better life. Most were under the impression that a drug dealer would be able to make enough to support a family of three especially with a wife that worked sixty hours a week at the local hospital since they were always understaffed but that wasn’t always the case.

So Jordan grew up with other kids in the community often having to stay with neighbors when both of his parents worked. Most hated his father for what he did and the drugs he spread through the community but they loved his mother and her kind heart. She was a healer and often helped those who were ill performing rituals to right wrongs in the visible or unseen world to help people heal. Death in their culture was not the end and the unseen world was something his mother seemed to be able to tap into even if he didn’t understand since as a child it scared him.

So many outside their culture believed voodoo to be a thing of violence and harm but Jordan was raised to understand that true practitioners of the religion would never use it in such a way. It was built on respect for the living, the death and two worlds around them, seen and unseen. It wasn’t sacrifices of chicken and livestock or voodoo dolls to get your way, those things were frowned upon by the community. His mother was looked to for her strength, wisdom and kind heart and those were traits she wanted from her son as well taking him to the hospital for volunteering when he was young and having him serve meals to the less fortunate. Since Jordan didn’t always have food to eat he often couldn’t understand how people were less fortunate than himself but his mother explained he may not always have what he wanted but he always had what he needed.

In school those outside of community laughed and made fun of him knowing what his mother was and talking bad about the woman who to him was a saint. At first there were many fights to defend his mother’s honor but she quickly explained to him that honoring your parents came from respecting their wishes and she didn’t want him to fight. Their religion was about understanding and being kind even when others were not and he needed to be a representation of that. Loving his mother and always wanting to be do right by her, he gained control over himself and his temper even though it was like a hundred tiny cuts anytime someone insulted his mother and what she believed in.

Jordan was eight when his father was killed in a drug deal gone bad but the community didn’t mourn and neither did Jordan since his father had emotional left them long ago. Money was the only thing he gave to support them and even that wasn’t enough to live off of, all he had cared about was his own way of living and it had been his downfall. The funeral consisted of only himself and his mother as they properly lay the man to rest so he could past on both knowing no one would want his advice from the unseen plane of the dead.

Somehow life got easier once he and his mother no longer had to worry about his father, there was no longer that extra burden or worry of what trouble he might bring to their door. At school he struggled, reading and writing being hard for him to comprehend since he couldn’t focus. The words seemed to move around the page and they never made sense to him. It was something classmates teased him over when he was asked to read outloud and something his teachers would quietly talk about with one another as if it were somehow Jordan’s fault. For a boy who already felt like he didn’t fit in that didn’t make things any easier and he asked his mother if she could home school him. Her answer was one he should have expected, “No my son, you are strong and smarter than they will ever know. Trust in yourself and your struggles, for once you make it through they will seem like nothing.” It wasn’t what a young boy wanted to hear but he trusted his mother with everything in him.

The next year a new teacher entered the school and Jordan was placed into the man’s class, instead of being there to teach the set forth material he took the time to get to know his students first. He could see Jordan’s struggle the first day and instead of allowing the boy to fall back into himself he began to push and pull at Jordan by making him read in front of the class and making him write on the board. He wasn’t doing it to be cruel he was doing it to better Jordan and would take his lunch hour to sit Jordan down and work through words, their spell and pronunciation causing the boy to gain more confidence in himself. Soon Jordan was reading on the level he should be for his age and surpassing others in writing. To some it seemed like a small triumph but to Jordan it opened up a whole new world.

His mother noticed this change and discussed it with his teacher Mr. Laveau thankful the man was able to get him out of his shell and give him a male role model. Mr. Laveau and his mother kept in touch even after Jordan was out of his class and soon his previous teacher was spending time at his house. At first it was rather odd to have his teacher around all the time but for the first time he felt like he actually had a father, that feeling was cemented when Mr. Laveau married his mother. Jordan was thrilled to say the least and for the first time in a long time he actually felt happy and had a support system of two parents.

A few months after the wedding it was announced that Jordan would be an older brother and he couldn’t be more excited even though he was almost eleven at the time. The other kids in the community had been like his siblings for so long but now he was going to have his own sibling to look after and care for. Around this time some of the foot soldiers who had worked for his Dad started to harass him wanting him to pick up the life his father had. Their threats were very clear but Jordan did his best not to listen and ignore them since he didn’t want that life, he had been raised better than that but an amazing mother who worked her fingers to the bone to provide for him and make sure he didn’t get tangled in that life. His new step-father Mr. Laveau was very clear with those who threatened his family that he would not stand nor tolerate it and for a time they left Jordan be.

The pre-teen becoming a teenager and moving to high school were drugs and violence were a way of life. The gang violence was intense and those who knew who his father were gave him no rest or reprieve, the teen being stabbed in his during one such fight and his mother removed him school for his own safety. The kids in his neighborhood had his back but he would never tell them to set into a fight that could and would easily get them harmed, he cared about them too much for that. So one of the women in the neighborhood began homeschooling him as payment for the arthritis balms and tinctures his mother made for her. Since that classes were one on one that made things easier for Jordan and he was able to focus better than usual learning quickly and surpassing those who were in public schooling.

One morning as he walked through the neighborhood to the house of his teacher there was yellow police tape and police cruisers along with a huge gang sign on the door. The sign of his Dad’s old gang and rage burned through him. The message they sent was received loud and clear and even though they didn’t realize it at the time that was something they didn’t want. After all Jordan had a family to protect and wasn’t above any means necessary to make that happen. The teen started going to a self-defense studio that he knew was owned by the local Ailurathrope Alpha. Lamar taught Jordan how to fight and how to defend himself becoming like a second father to him. Lamar had more patience than anyone Jordan had ever met, his mother excluded and that was a good thing since as a teen Jordan had needed that patience. The sessions lasted for about two years before the new leader of his father’s old gang challenge Lamar for the position of Alpha.

It was a hard fought battle but in the end due to underhanded tactics Lamar fell, the elder Alpha conceding knowing if he did so he could live to fight another day. The new Alpha killed Lamar regardless and there was no council or group for him to answer to his position as Alpha was cemented. That very same night was a full moon and for the first time Jordan turned the pain excruciating as his body was ripped apart and slowly pieced back together as a large and majestic Cheetah. His instincts sent him out of the city and towards the swamp beyond, allowing the cat to take over and listening to what it had to say he was able to bring down a gator by himself which was rather impressive. As the sun began to rise he started to run home swamp mud and water coating his sleek pelt as he raced up the front steps of his house before painfully shifting back which is where his mother found him when she returned home from her shift at the hospital.

After that night he should have had no choice as far as the gang when since they now controlled the area and their leader was the Alpha. Jordan however managed to keep slipping from their grasps as he started working at an underground local fight club which taught him the skills that he needed and so he could challenge the Alpha. And after a year Jordan did, he was faster than the tiger and had learned a lot about holding down his temper and fighting the battle at hand, he was calculating and at this point cold over what they had taken from him. There were many times in the battle when he almost fell but he remembered Lamar’s teachings and continued on pushing himself farther than he ever had and in the end he won, slaying the other Alpha and taking over that position.

Jordan told the gang to either scatter or relocate because he wouldn’t tolerate their presence in his territory. Some were fine with this and others held deep resentment towards him for changing their life and lifestyle. His family couldn’t be more proud as he became the Alpha their community needed listening to the community and helping to raise them up instead of subjecting them. It was a good two years before his past came knocking and the remnants of the gang took their revenge killing his younger sister and framing him for him. The evidence was stacked against him even though those in his community knew he didn’t do it, even his parents knowing better than to believe such lies but they were also distraught over the loss of their youngest child. His trials was short despite the witnesses that spoke in his behalf he was convicted of his sister’s murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The Ailuranthrope gave up his position of Alpha the day he was sentenced knowing his community needed an Alpha who could actually be there for them. Jordan did his best to keep his nose clear while in prison but it wasn’t always all that easy especially during the full moon. Thankfully there was a high enough supernatural population in New Orleans and in the prison that they knew what to do placing him in he cement walled courtyard of sorts every full moon to keep themselves and the other inmates safe. Guards on watch towers watching his every move and ready to shoot him if he tried to escape. For close to twenty years he lived his life this way able to get his GED in prison before his Step-Father and community were finally able to get his sentence overturned as it was proven he didn’t murder his sister. Though by that point he had lost almost 20 years of his life and his community had lost a lot more when Hurricane Katrina hit, his mother killed in the aftermath along with countless others the city never the same after.

Jordan had a choice, he could either stay in New Orleans and try to rebuild his life and his community or he could leave for something better. The thing was he was never good with leaving and New Orleans had always been his home so he stayed and helped with rebuilding but when he tried to find work he found it nearly impossible many still believing that he had killed his sister even though it was proven that he hadn’t. Leaving the new Alpha in charge in New Orleans he headed for a city he had heard of from others, a place called Evermore City in Colorado. A place where he could start over and where supernaturals were welcomed. At first he had no idea what he wanted to do in the city, he had met the Alphas and his faction Ambassador but he still needed a job since being welcomed didn’t make you money.

It was around that time he saw a flyer for an up and coming self-defense studio which was looking for instructors. Jordan applied and he was interviewed but a rather interesting human named Avery Kershaw. Despite her abrasive nature the two became quick friends and she took his advice on how to run the business quickly earning himself the spot at the studio manager which he takes very seriously. Each of his classes he pushes to their limits and he pushes himself like that too. With a new city he hopes to start a new life free of the past and with many open possibilities.