Created By: Jay P. Hailey, Garry Stahl
Appearance: Vista City Game
Full name: John Panther Walks With Him (Few people ever use his Anglo given name.)
Birthplace: Weaverville, Ca.
Parents: Father: Bobby Stalking Panther -- Shaman (Deceased)
Mother: Brenda Under the Stars -- Shaman retired as a practicing Shaman, she still helps in small ways.
Siblings: Teddy Cat Scratched Him, Jenny Glory of Dawn
Birthdate: August 9, 1956
Sex: Male
Height: 5' 10"
Weight:187
Build: Heavy
Marital status: Married Martha Blue Flower Two children
Description: PWWH generally dresses in jeans and a flannel shirt. His only concession to traditional indianness are his moccasins, a polite way of going barefoot. He saves the leather, paint, and feathers for when he is at work. He has the face of a middle aged man familiar with hard outdoor labor, deeply tanned and lined. He tends to look older than his actual age.
Skin coloring: Tanned, like I said.
Eyes: Black
Hair: Black
Routine Activities: Maintaining his home and small plot of land. Meetings of the Tribal Council (He is an elder) Dispensing the medicine necessary to the heath of the people and the land. Most of the Tribe will lay the success of Tribal endeavors to the fact that PWWH is proactive in maintaining the balance. They have seen enough, while they are skeptics, they have seen.
Skills/Training/Professional Skills: Tribal Shaman. Priest and small scale magician. Also a folk dispenser of advice and counseling. PWWH is closely tied to the land in ways most people would not understand or even believe. He will not be going into space. (In meta terms he is closer to Craft than Cleric. His magic is pulled from the spirits of land, air, and water.
Financial Status: Poor, but lives well. Inside the log cabin is rustic. Old furniture, collapsed tiredly against the walls. is covered in mass market Indian blankets. A bow and arrows to old to use hangs above a perfectly serviceable lever action 30.30, another wall holds an old blanket, a real one. Throw rugs lay three deep on the floor at haphazard angles. Various totems adorn the lintels of doors and windows for perfectly practical reasons, and the roof beams are festooned with bundles of dried herbs and garlic.
Group Affiliations: Northern California Tribal Confederation, Vista City Police Department, SIS Bureau 13 (Not a formal member)
Personality: Calm and calming. PWWM speaks slowly and with a measured cadence. He is never in a hurry even if working very quickly. It is a manner calculated to instill confidence and to relieve the stress of others. His manner gives one the impression that he is much older than he really is, that everything is under control even if it is not.
Ambitions and Goals: To maintain the health of the tribe and the land in mind, body, and spirit.
Physical/mental Problems: Nothing beyond the normal wear and tear of living an existence of physical labor.
Enemies (And Why): Racists that still cling to the idea that Humans are not just Humans. Those that fear or wish to control the magic he wields.
Special Abilities: Shaman: PWWH is a practicer of Earth magics, Indian edition. This magic is purer than arcane magic as it was not exploited and twisted. In Europe it was simply stamped out by the Church as competition. PWWH uses Craft though the filter of his Tribal beliefs
Weaknesses/Disadvantages: Tied to the land: PWWH can't comfortably leave Earth. His abilities are tied directly to the Earth and even more specifically to the Mount Shasta area.
Religious Leader: He is expected to follow a given ethical and moral set as an example to the community.
History and Experiences Which have Affected Character Greatly: PWWH was trained by his parents for the role of the Tribal shaman. They themselves pieced together the scattered bits of lore from the Tribes of California. A doubly difficult task as those tribes were dead in a very literal sense. Ishi was the last of the California Indians to know the old ways, and he was not a Shaman. Ishi died in 1916.
Stalking Panther and his wife Under the Stars pulled together the fragmentary records of the Wintu, Maidu, and the Yahi to recreate the blended tradition now known as Northern California. Their efforts were blessed and encouraged by the last Daughter of the Great spirit that had settled in the Mt. Shasta area. She later became Amalthea Skywatcher.
Panther Walks With Him became a tribal Shaman in training with the completion of his naming ceremony. As an adult he was instrumental in aiding the creation of the Northern California Tribal Confederation. Both in his advice and counsel and his magics. It can be said that he and his parents sang the Confederation real.
His brother Teddy Cat Scratched Him was not suited to the task. He prefers to be called "Ted" and outside of the mundane benefits of being Indian doesn't delve into the culture. His Sister Glory of Dawn is trained and works with him in many rituals, and handles matters that are female in nature. Blue Flower his wife has some small magic that he himself has taught her. She prefers the role of Mother to that of Shaman. Neither of their children have any desire to be involved, so PWWH sought and chose Standing Bear to pass his knowledge to.
The recent regeneration and restoration of Amalthea Skywatcher has kicked Earth magic up a notch, not just for Indians, but for all who practice it. Her fusion of Anglo and Indian magics is a shot in the arm to Craft and Shamans alike.
PWWH was one of the characters exchanged in the VC Catz incident. He didn't do much or see much as the ties to the land he was no longer on left him in a weak and dying state. Local magics were used to preserve and protect him until he could be returned to Earth.
PWWH is frequently called on during investigations that might involve magical elements.