[OOC]: Important Notes
Possible spoilers through the end of Sanctuary season 2.
Vampirism
Much to his mun's chagrin, the good people at Sanctuary (I'm looking at you, Kindler) are massively reluctant to give us any useful information on how their version of vampires actually work, so I've been forced to make quite a few inferences and executive decisions to make playing Nikola even possible. Here are a few things of note that I've decided to go with:
- Nikola is not, nor has he ever been, dead. Despite the existence of vampires, werewolves, fairies, and even witches in the Sanctuary world, there is no such thing as magic. The whole premise is that all these things have scientific explanations, though sometimes the writers are quite lazy about telling us what those explanations are. Regardless, Nikola is not an animated corpse. Vampires are Abnormals like any other Abnormal. They reproduce biologically. Despite Nikola's quest to revive the race, there's no indication that (aside from actually mucking about with their DNA) humans can honestly be turned into vampires any more than they can be turned into fairies or werewolves or whatever the Big Guy actually is.
- Given that he's not dead, he does have a pulse. And he breathes. It's just that, if either of these activities were to be suspended for a long period of time, he would still survive. I play him has having a slightly lower body temperature than humans simply because I figure the 'walking corpse' myth must have come from somewhere. Well...it came from the church, obviously, but they must have based it on something.
- Pretty much all of the traditional ways of killing/repelling vampires do not work on Nikola. Stake to the heart, garlic, holy water, crosses, sunlight, burning. None of these. Beheading might, but no one in canon has ever tried this that we've seen. Not even Druitt, though I'm sure he's thought about it.
- Yes, he drinks blood to survive, but he can also metabolize regular food and drink. Especially drink. He can't get drunk, but he does like to drain entire bottles of wine. (He doesn't usually drink straight from the bottle. That's crass. He only resorts to that when Druitt steals his glass.)
- He does not drink human blood. This is by choice not necessity. He promised Helen he wouldn't, and despite the fact that other characters keep insisting he's a liar, he intends to keep that promise. He likes the blood of a certain, African gazelle. In a pinch, he'll drink cow's blood, but he finds it distasteful. When I first started playing him, I said that he stole blood from blood banks. I still think this is a likely possibility.
- (Side note about the honesty issue. Other characters in Sanctuary often say that he lies or breaks his word, but we have seen exactly zero evidence of this. He tells the literal truth. Not always all of the truth, but the literal truth. What you choose to make of that truth is your own choice, and he does often present it in a misleading light, but we have yet to see him actually lie.)
- He has most of the standard vamp upgrades: night vision, enhanced sight, hearing, strength and speed. He can recovery from severe injury, usually in very little time. His skin is not hard, though. He can be cut with anything that would cut a human.
Other abilities
It's my theory that most of Nikola's other abilities are not actually related to his vampirism. We haven't seen any of the other vampires utilize them, and he kept them in some form even when he was devamped. What this means for playing with him:
- Pre-"Sleepers": Nikola has the ability to manipulate and create electricity. He has to be touching something to do this, but he can make sparks with his fingertips, and he loves to turn on lightbulbs by sticking his thumb into a socket. He can also withstand massive amounts of electricity. He used to nap in Edison's electric chair.
- Post-"Sleepers," pre-"Awakening," or "the devampening": After he loses his vampirism, Nikola's ability morphs. He's kind of Magneto-light. He can manipulate magnetic fields. This gives him some measure of control over electricity, and allows him to move anything metal without touching it. Apparently, somehow, this also gives him the ability to create a force-field that will fool vamp-blood detectors. Whee, pseudo-science!
- Post-"Awakening," or "the revampening": Now that he's all vamped up again, we've yet to see an indication that his electricity is up and running. He does still possess his magnetism, though, so I'm running with the theory that that was a permanent change unless canon tells us otherwise. So he's got all the vampy stuff, and he can unzip people's flies with his mind.
Personality, historical accuracy, etc.
This version of Nikola Tesla is not exactly the historical version. A lot of his eccentricities were invented as a way to keep people from looking too closely into his life. Some of them actually existed but were mitigated or cured when his vampirism manifested. He is slightly OCD, but he's not a germaphobe, and he has no problems with things like human hair or pearls. He's not celibate either.
He is somewhat dangerously charming, but he's also quite probably a highly functioning sociopath, so he really doesn't connect to people the way most humans do. He can be petty, petulant, childish, and volatile. His own agenda is always the most important to him, and if he should lose control, he can be a danger even to the people he honestly cares about.
He's one of the 'good guys' so long as that doesn't interfere with his own plans.
He guards his secrets closely (unless you're Helen and you give him that 'Nikola, please' tone of voice) and he's unlikely to tell you much about himself unless he thinks you'll be impressed or that he can get something from you in return.
He has his moments of being sweet and thoughtful, but for the most part, he just isn't a nice guy, and his mood can change on a dime.
As far as other historical inaccuracies go, Nikola spent most of the 1880s at Oxford with the Five rather than in the United States, and he never became a US citizen, though he did spend enough time there that by the 1940s his Serbian accent had completely disappeared.
About the scar: Druitt's attempt on Nikola's life in The Five is presented as something that was difficult for him to recover from, so I've postulated that it would have left some kind of mark due to having taken a good long time to heal. Hence the scar on Nikola's abdomen.
A quick note on his appearance: Jonathon Young obvious is not the spitting image of the real, historical Nikola Tesla. Sanctuary's Tesla, however, is, other than the mustache. So if your character is from another reality that still has a Nikola Tesla, they may recognize him. Even if they don't (people in Sanctuary usually don't), they won't be thinking, once he's introduced himself, that he doesn't look at all like Tesla. He does. Jonathon Young, as any PB or actor portraying a historical person, is an approximation. Obviously it's difficult to find a good actor who looks exactly like Nikola Tesla.
Vampirism
Much to his mun's chagrin, the good people at Sanctuary (I'm looking at you, Kindler) are massively reluctant to give us any useful information on how their version of vampires actually work, so I've been forced to make quite a few inferences and executive decisions to make playing Nikola even possible. Here are a few things of note that I've decided to go with:
- Nikola is not, nor has he ever been, dead. Despite the existence of vampires, werewolves, fairies, and even witches in the Sanctuary world, there is no such thing as magic. The whole premise is that all these things have scientific explanations, though sometimes the writers are quite lazy about telling us what those explanations are. Regardless, Nikola is not an animated corpse. Vampires are Abnormals like any other Abnormal. They reproduce biologically. Despite Nikola's quest to revive the race, there's no indication that (aside from actually mucking about with their DNA) humans can honestly be turned into vampires any more than they can be turned into fairies or werewolves or whatever the Big Guy actually is.
- Given that he's not dead, he does have a pulse. And he breathes. It's just that, if either of these activities were to be suspended for a long period of time, he would still survive. I play him has having a slightly lower body temperature than humans simply because I figure the 'walking corpse' myth must have come from somewhere. Well...it came from the church, obviously, but they must have based it on something.
- Pretty much all of the traditional ways of killing/repelling vampires do not work on Nikola. Stake to the heart, garlic, holy water, crosses, sunlight, burning. None of these. Beheading might, but no one in canon has ever tried this that we've seen. Not even Druitt, though I'm sure he's thought about it.
- Yes, he drinks blood to survive, but he can also metabolize regular food and drink. Especially drink. He can't get drunk, but he does like to drain entire bottles of wine. (He doesn't usually drink straight from the bottle. That's crass. He only resorts to that when Druitt steals his glass.)
- He does not drink human blood. This is by choice not necessity. He promised Helen he wouldn't, and despite the fact that other characters keep insisting he's a liar, he intends to keep that promise. He likes the blood of a certain, African gazelle. In a pinch, he'll drink cow's blood, but he finds it distasteful. When I first started playing him, I said that he stole blood from blood banks. I still think this is a likely possibility.
- (Side note about the honesty issue. Other characters in Sanctuary often say that he lies or breaks his word, but we have seen exactly zero evidence of this. He tells the literal truth. Not always all of the truth, but the literal truth. What you choose to make of that truth is your own choice, and he does often present it in a misleading light, but we have yet to see him actually lie.)
- He has most of the standard vamp upgrades: night vision, enhanced sight, hearing, strength and speed. He can recovery from severe injury, usually in very little time. His skin is not hard, though. He can be cut with anything that would cut a human.
Other abilities
It's my theory that most of Nikola's other abilities are not actually related to his vampirism. We haven't seen any of the other vampires utilize them, and he kept them in some form even when he was devamped. What this means for playing with him:
- Pre-"Sleepers": Nikola has the ability to manipulate and create electricity. He has to be touching something to do this, but he can make sparks with his fingertips, and he loves to turn on lightbulbs by sticking his thumb into a socket. He can also withstand massive amounts of electricity. He used to nap in Edison's electric chair.
- Post-"Sleepers," pre-"Awakening," or "the devampening": After he loses his vampirism, Nikola's ability morphs. He's kind of Magneto-light. He can manipulate magnetic fields. This gives him some measure of control over electricity, and allows him to move anything metal without touching it. Apparently, somehow, this also gives him the ability to create a force-field that will fool vamp-blood detectors. Whee, pseudo-science!
- Post-"Awakening," or "the revampening": Now that he's all vamped up again, we've yet to see an indication that his electricity is up and running. He does still possess his magnetism, though, so I'm running with the theory that that was a permanent change unless canon tells us otherwise. So he's got all the vampy stuff, and he can unzip people's flies with his mind.
Personality, historical accuracy, etc.
This version of Nikola Tesla is not exactly the historical version. A lot of his eccentricities were invented as a way to keep people from looking too closely into his life. Some of them actually existed but were mitigated or cured when his vampirism manifested. He is slightly OCD, but he's not a germaphobe, and he has no problems with things like human hair or pearls. He's not celibate either.
He is somewhat dangerously charming, but he's also quite probably a highly functioning sociopath, so he really doesn't connect to people the way most humans do. He can be petty, petulant, childish, and volatile. His own agenda is always the most important to him, and if he should lose control, he can be a danger even to the people he honestly cares about.
He's one of the 'good guys' so long as that doesn't interfere with his own plans.
He guards his secrets closely (unless you're Helen and you give him that 'Nikola, please' tone of voice) and he's unlikely to tell you much about himself unless he thinks you'll be impressed or that he can get something from you in return.
He has his moments of being sweet and thoughtful, but for the most part, he just isn't a nice guy, and his mood can change on a dime.
As far as other historical inaccuracies go, Nikola spent most of the 1880s at Oxford with the Five rather than in the United States, and he never became a US citizen, though he did spend enough time there that by the 1940s his Serbian accent had completely disappeared.
About the scar: Druitt's attempt on Nikola's life in The Five is presented as something that was difficult for him to recover from, so I've postulated that it would have left some kind of mark due to having taken a good long time to heal. Hence the scar on Nikola's abdomen.
A quick note on his appearance: Jonathon Young obvious is not the spitting image of the real, historical Nikola Tesla. Sanctuary's Tesla, however, is, other than the mustache. So if your character is from another reality that still has a Nikola Tesla, they may recognize him. Even if they don't (people in Sanctuary usually don't), they won't be thinking, once he's introduced himself, that he doesn't look at all like Tesla. He does. Jonathon Young, as any PB or actor portraying a historical person, is an approximation. Obviously it's difficult to find a good actor who looks exactly like Nikola Tesla.