I haven't played Dead by Daylight in a long time but I just read up on the new killers that have released since I stopped and I just have to share this.
DbD was never known for its great writing, but their previous OCs were, I'd say, competently written usually. But this one, the "Skull Merchant", has the most amateurishly bad backstory I have ever seen in a decently successful game and I am genuinely baffled as to how this could happen.
READ
The self-made millionaire Adriana Imai came from a humble home in Fortaleza, Brazil. Her father, Seita, moved to Brazil as a young man, hoping to see a side of the world completely different than his hometown in Hokkaido. A talented illustrator, he spent his spare time designing colourful characters and worlds.
While sketching patrons of a local jazz club, he was approached by Belinda, the owner, to work on a logo. What began as a business partnership soon became a romantic one, and within a couple of years, Adriana was born.
Adriana excelled in all facets of education. A house full of art and music honed a brilliant mind, and her intelligence was only exceeded by her obsessive drive to be the best. While scoring at the top of every class, she was often on the receiving end of disciplinary action due to her overly competitive, and sometimes violent, nature during schoolyard games.
Adriana’s mother did her best to keep her on the right track, but her father was increasingly absent as his own obsessive drive ramped up: Adi Valente, a manga about a young girl who saves and protects the weak with her quirky robot companion. Despite working long hours at a canning facility and writing his manga in his spare time, he somehow managed a little time every night to share his wild and highly imaginative illustrations with his daughter.
By middle school, Adriana was courted by a fancy private school due to her high performance, and, needing money, Seita spoke to publishers about his unpublished manuscripts. He managed to find a small local publisher to carry Adi Valente, but it meant more work than he could handle. He eventually lost his job at the cannery, giving him more time to develop and illustrate his series.
Adriana loved the manga, but the family was forced into hard times.
In her final semester, Seita requested higher royalties, but the publishing company went into administration and decided to cut the series. No longer able to afford the school fees, Adriana was pulled out of the elite academy where she was at the top of her class. Belinda was able to negotiate her graduation, but another student was able to take her place at the head of the class. Adriana was furious. On summer break, she learned everything about her rival: where he lived, where he hung out, what he liked to do in his spare time, what he listened to, what he watched, everything. She even stalked him on his way home one late summer evening and considered the myriad ways she could ruin his life. But, in the end, she did nothing, though something awakened within her and she felt like the anti-hero in a new story her father had been exploring.
Seita retreated further into himself and began producing this newer, darker manga, inspired by his visions and nightmares. A manga about a woman who hunts and guts the weak in a nightmarish realm with drones made of salvaged skulls and bones. But unable to sell this manga, Sonhadores Sombrios, the family became solely reliant on Belinda’s income.
Adriana, looking for ways to make her own money, started a website dedicated to the world of Brazilian manga. It became a runaway success and significant advertising dollars started to roll in. She realized she had no real interest in writing for it, though, so she convinced other kids to write for it for free while the money flooded in. The second she got an offer she sold the site and never looked back.
Proud of her accomplishment, she came home to show her parents the cheque. She never got a chance to show her father, though. He walked out the door that morning, never to return, leaving only a stack of unpublished manuscripts about The Skull Merchant mercilessly hunting those she deemed worthy of her efforts.
To help her mother, Adriana began to study at the library, teaching herself investment and economics, and soon tripled her money. By the age of 18, barely with a high school degree, she had already become a self-made millionaire. As stories of this investment wunderkind spread across Brazil, more and more doors opened for her.
Before long, she had the kind of money that allowed her to buy small companies—companies that she would gut, replace with non-union workers, and sell at a profit. The only breaks she took from her corporate obsession was to pore over her father’s manuscripts, trying to understand this chilling world he had created.
By her mid 20’s, she was regularly flipping companies. While finalizing on a real estate firm, two members of the board moved to block the sale, pointing to the trail of hollowed-out husks she left in her wake. Adriana was frustrated. It took her weeks to find out who the holdouts were, but once she did, she thought about how it would feel to hurt them.
She learned everything about the directors. Stalked their every move. Manipulated them into attending a conference in Switzerland. And, while on retreat in the Alps, she made her move. Inspired by The Skull Merchant, and feeling something within demanding expression, she tracked them with a prototype drone, and brutally dismembered them with a cruel two-bladed weapon. The rush of emotion and adrenaline was unlike anything she had ever experience before. And the company was hers!
Thus began an unsettling cycle. Swoop in on a business, destroy anyone standing in her way, and gut the company for maximum profit. She targeted companies with larger-than-life CEOs and hoped one would present a challenge. None ever did. They just ‘disappeared’ unremarkably.
An aggressive manager of a fireworks company, known for his “survival tours,” was her last target, right at home in Brazil.
Survival tours… a perfect cover.
Adriana lured him to a decommissioned airship hangar.
The hunt started at dawn and went the distance, with her still tracking him well into the evening. Locating him, she used one of her drones to direct him to a dead end, when a pair of kites suddenly appeared on camera, and the feed died. Her face hardened. Her eyes widened in disbelief as she slammed her laptop shut and charged to where the drone had crashed. There she found her prey reaching out to someone in the growing dark for help.
Witnesses.
Not part of the plan!
Without a second to lose, she plunged her blade through his stomach, exposing meat, bone, and a dying heart. The vitiated body staggered left and right, sending a shower of red over the green foliage. As her victim collapsed with a thud she turned to the young witnesses. Wrong place, wrong time. They broke into a sprint. She gave chase, her blades thirsting for more blood. The lush green of the trees melted into a thick black fog. Real life warped into something like Sonhadores Sombrios. A sick grin crept across her face as she rushed forward to begin a new chapter in her life.
This is ChatGPT's take on the matter btw:
"In the shadowy annals of horror history, one name strikes terror into the hearts of those who dare to whisper it in the dead of night: The Skull Merchant. Her real name, long buried beneath layers of macabre legend, has been forgotten by all but a few. Born as Evelyn Hartman, she entered this world in the quiet town of Ravensbrook, nestled deep within the Appalachian Mountains. Her story is a twisted tapestry of tragedy and obsession that ultimately transformed her into the malevolent force known as The Skull Merchant.
Evelyn's early years were marked by a troubled family life. Her father, a reclusive mortician, spent his days cloaked in the shadow of death, and her mother, a delicate soul, was haunted by a past filled with unspeakable horrors. The Hartman household was a place of perpetual gloom, and the young Evelyn found solace in the only companions she could trust: the skulls that populated her father's mortuary.
From a tender age, Evelyn exhibited an uncanny fascination with the remains of the deceased. While other children played with dolls and toys, she cradled the skulls in her arms, speaking to them in hushed, whispered tones. She claimed to hear their voices, to feel their stories, and to understand the secrets they harbored in their hollow eye sockets.
As she grew older, Evelyn's fixation with skulls became more pronounced. She immersed herself in the arcane and esoteric, poring over dusty tomes of dark magic and forbidden rituals. The townsfolk grew wary of her strange behavior, believing her to be a harbinger of doom. But Evelyn paid them no mind; she had her sights set on a sinister goal that transcended the judgment of mere mortals.
One fateful night, a horrific accident befell the Hartman family. A cataclysmic fire consumed their home, leaving only ashes and charred memories in its wake. The town whispered of a curse, as Evelyn emerged from the inferno unscathed, save for her father's skull clutched tightly in her grasp. It was the only remnant of the life she once knew, and she treasured it above all else.
With her family gone, Evelyn's obsession spiraled out of control. She took to wearing a tattered cloak, fashioned from the skin of animals and adorned with an array of grotesque talismans. She became a recluse, her home a decrepit shack hidden deep within the forest, where the trees themselves seemed to recoil in her presence.
As her sinister reputation grew, so did her appetite for skulls. She stalked the night, lurking in the shadows, and collecting her ghoulish trophies from the hapless victims who strayed too close to her lair. Those who crossed her path spoke of her bloodcurdling laughter echoing through the woods and her maniacal devotion to her malevolent art.
Evelyn Hartman had become The Skull Merchant, a name that sent shivers down the spines of anyone who dared speak it aloud. Her power over death was both her curse and her gift, and her unholy communion with the skulls of the departed granted her an unnatural longevity. She remained an enigma, a harbinger of doom, a living nightmare lurking in the darkness.
In the annals of horror, The Skull Merchant's name lives on as a cautionary tale of obsession and madness. She serves as a grim reminder that some paths, once chosen, lead only to darkness, and that the boundaries between life and death are far more porous than we dare to imagine. And in the depths of the Appalachian Mountains, she continues her eerie trade, whispering to the skulls, seeking to unlock the secrets of the afterlife, and sowing terror in the hearts of all who cross her path."
Bonus round: Specified that the character has to be of Japanese-Brazilian descent
In the heart of Brazil, nestled within the dense and ancient Amazon rainforest, there exists a sinister legend that haunts the nightmares of those who dare to speak its name: The Skull Merchant. Her real identity, shrouded in darkness, is a woman named Hana Nakamura, born to a family of Japanese-Brazilian descent in the bustling city of Manaus. Her transformation into this malevolent entity is a harrowing tale of ancestral spirits, forgotten curses, and an insatiable thirst for power.
Hana Nakamura's early life was marked by a sense of otherness, as she struggled to reconcile her Japanese heritage with the vibrant Brazilian culture that surrounded her. Her family, descendants of Japanese immigrants who had settled in the region generations ago, clung to their traditional beliefs and customs, including a deep reverence for the spirits of their ancestors. This connection to the supernatural world would prove to be both a blessing and a curse.
As a child, Hana was known for her raven-black hair and strikingly pale complexion, a stark contrast to the sun-kissed locals. She was quiet and introspective, often retreating into the dense jungle that lay beyond the city's limits. It was there, among the ancient trees and exotic flora, that she felt an inexplicable pull, as if the spirits of the rainforest were calling out to her.
As Hana reached adolescence, her fascination with the supernatural grew. She delved into the folklore of her ancestors, learning the rituals and incantations passed down through the generations. It was during one such ritual, performed deep within the heart of the Amazon, that she made a fateful discovery. A hidden cave, concealed by centuries of overgrowth, revealed a chamber filled with human skulls, their empty eye sockets seemingly watching over her.
Legend spoke of a curse that befell those who disturbed the resting place of these skulls, but Hana's obsession overwhelmed her caution. She began to collect them, believing that the power of the spirits trapped within could be harnessed for her own purposes. Unbeknownst to her, this act would forever alter the course of her destiny.
As Hana gathered the skulls, her connection to the supernatural world grew stronger. She started to hear their whispers in the dark of night, their voices a cacophony of forgotten languages and mournful cries. She believed that by offering more skulls, she could gain even greater power and control over the spirits. Her obsession consumed her, turning her into a living conduit for the malevolent forces she sought to control.
With each passing day, Hana's appearance began to change. Her once-beautiful visage became a grotesque mask of death, her skin as pale as the skulls that surrounded her. Her eyes, once filled with innocence, now burned with a malevolent fire. The townsfolk of Manaus grew terrified of her, believing her to be possessed by the very spirits she had sought to command.
Hana Nakamura had become The Skull Merchant, a being of darkness who wandered the depths of the Amazon, collecting skulls and offering them to the spirits in exchange for unholy power. She was a living nightmare, a creature of the rainforest, and a chilling reminder that some secrets are better left undisturbed.
In modern-day Brazil, the legend of The Skull Merchant persists, a cautionary tale of a descent into darkness fueled by obsession and hubris. Hana Nakamura, now a spectral figure lurking in the shadows of the Amazon, continues to haunt the dreams of those who venture too deep into the heart of the rainforest, where the boundary between the living and the dead grows thin, and where the price of unlocking forbidden power may be one's very soul.