Long, tall and dark, Jeremy bears a physical resemblance to nothing so much as a gunfighter, an image strengthend by the easy, deliberate way he moves. His eyes are blue and alert, seeming brighter in his dark, serious face. His hat is everpresent.
Jeremy Devon Whatley was born on February 2, 1973, of stock that could only rightly be called Texan at this point. His parents, Jonathan and Meredith Whatley, owned a Whatley Hardware, a small outfit in Corpus Christi that did a brisk business supplying outlying homes and businesses. Jeremy's favorite childhood memories involve riding shotgun in his father's pickup truck as he delivered orders, as well as the holiday gatherings of the clan Whatley at the family's ranch.
Jeremy's path in life seemed to have been set for him quite quickly. Having no interest in college, it was a foregone conclusion that he would continue working with his parents at the store. He had no skill with tools himself, but enjoyed the day to day tasks necessary to keep the business going, losing himself in the monotony of lifting, shelving, doing inventory, and making deliveries. All in all he was not an ambitious youngster.
The height of his ambitions lay with one Sophie Garnett, the closest thing he had to a childhood sweetheart. The two had grown up together, along with Jeremy's best friend Buck Kerr. There had been some brief competition for Sophie's affections, but by the beginning of high school there had been no question about who she preferred, and the two sets of parents merely waited for word of Jeremy and Sophie's engagement. They were not dissapointed, as Jeremy popped the question at their Senior Prom. His happiness at her acceptance was sadly shortlived.
Less than a year after their engagement, a bout of whimsy prompted Jeremy to leave work early to see Sophie, his father's wry laugh chasing him out the door. Stopping only to buy flowers, he took the pickup (his father having purchased a new van for the store) out to the Garnett house.
By the time he arrived, dusk had started to fall, and Jeremy decided that he might as well make the surprise complete. He parked the truck down the road and continued the rest of the way on foot. Sophie's room had a window overlooking the flat roof over the front porch, and Jeremy had long ago learned the best way to make the climb. He looked forward to the look of surprise that would appear on Sophie's face when he knocked on her window.
What he wasn't expecting was to see Buck and Sophie going at it like dogs in heat. He didn't remember much of what happened next. At the trial, Jeremy pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, a second degree felony. He was sentenced to ten years, a relatively light sentence. The damage done to Buck had been balanced out in part by the fact that he made a rather unsympathetic victim.
The first four years of Jeremy's prison sentence passed as uneventfully as time in prison is likely to be. That was perfectly fine with Jeremy, who had decided to take the chance to make use of the prison library. All in all, it seemed like as good a time as any to start toying with the idea of higher education. It was this that led to the discovery of a tattered copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War crammed into the stacks.
With a page, Jeremy was captured.
With a chapter, he was enthralled.
And by the time he had finished, he had Awakened.
Over the next three years, Jeremy threw himself wholeheartedly into studying what he could of Eastern culture. Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings and Lao Tse's Tao Te Ching also became quick favorites. Strange dreams prompted him to send out requests for more esoteric works, Buddhist scripture and collections of haiku and other Japanese poetry. Much of his exercise time was spent teaching himself the basics of what martial arts he could based only on books and his strange half-memories. It was a different man who was released on good behavior 7 years after being convicted.
Instead of heading home, Jeremy pursued rumors of other Awakened who had followed the path of the martial artist. Inside of a few months, he found himself an eager student of Falling Rain, a member of the Akashic Brotherhood. His martial arts training turned to Jujitsu, but despite his seifu's nudging Jeremy refused to begin Kendo until his parole ended. Until then he would not touch a weapon.
Jeremy never became an Akashic, as Falling Rain realized after his first year of training that he would never truly accept the Akashic philosophy. Although he understood the concepts behind it, Jeremy seemed unconcerned with his relation to the Wheel, and far too concerned with the physical world. Apologizing for his inability to continue as Jeremy's mentor, Falling Rain presented him with the sword belt he wears today, suggesting that his discipline might find him a welcome with the Order of Hermes.
This brought Jeremy to the Last Freedom Chantry in San Antonio to petition for membership. Ever eager for new blood, he was quickly accepted. Drawn by the discipline and personal advancement through conflict espoused by House Tytalus, he was apprenticed under Maria Alvarez bani Tytalus, whose ego was quite inflated by the fact that her new apprentice should rightly hold the rank of Initiate Exemptus. Ego almost became the downfall of the relationship as well, when Jeremy refused to unlearn his previous ideas about magic. Unwilling to bear the rumors of her own incompetence that would surely surface if she abandoned Jeremy completely, Maria instead "suggested" that he would find himself more at home as a member of Ex Miscellanea. All of his successes could then be claimed as resulting from her tutelage, whereas his failures would of course be the result of his straying from pure Hermetic methods.
Over the next two years Jeremy made a place for himself at Last Freedom, teaching unarmed combat and performing odd jobs in exchange for favors and magical training. He was a pillar of strength in times of crisis, earning him quick allies, but never true friends. Always ready to aid a fellow Hermetic, he was always afraid of letting too much show and getting hurt again.
Texas was beginning to grate on Jeremy. Alvarez's posturing was becoming more unbearable each week, and he was at a loss at how to continue to politely rebuff overtures of friendship that he was not ready to accept. His final decision to leave came after making a visit home. The short, if frequent, visits to Jeremy in prison had not prepared them for the much older much more serious man he had become. Sensing that his parents were uncomfortable with his presence he decided to put as much distance between them as he could. Although he planned to leave the day after he returned to Last Freedom, Jeremy found that day turning into a month. This was only partly due to a lack of a destination; the idea of actually leaving made him surprisingly emotional.
The destination problem was solved when he heard about New Bremen's reputation as a danger zone. If any place would provide opportunity for growth, this was it. Almost as attractive as the city's lethality was its distance, although Jeremy would never have admitted he was running from his problems. Not wanting to chance dragging his stay out any farther Jeremy quickly requested a letter of introduction signed by both Alvarez and the Chantry Head, Eric Raines bani Fortunae. After ensuring his paperwork was ready to be transferred, and making some half-hearted promises to keep in touch, Jeremy threw his few personal possessions in his truck and headed east.