The Black Shroud

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Black Shroud Knows. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" "I am a Huntsmen, the monsters I hunt takes the form of Man and Faunus, and I will hunt them down" "The weed of crime yields bitter fruit."

Appearance
A 30 year old man. He is 6'6, weighing 200 pounds. Lamar is slender, muscular man with black slick hair, brown eyes, with a fair skin complexion. His outfit is a black trench-coat that covers his body, a pair of knee high boots, and black gloves. He wears a wide-brim fedora and a long red scarf that wraps around his lower face and a cape that's attach to his trench-coat. He has two gun holsters attach to his side torso.

When he was a Specialist, he wore a grey Kevlar sneaking tunic with a black balaclava with night vision goggles that glows bright red for intimidation purpose. He had black padded combat pants and boots. He used to wield a Kukri knife and a silence pistol.

Personality
The Black Shroud distribute righteous justice to the guilty around the world. He is not afraid to kill criminals as he believes it is justice at work. The Shroud does not care what status the criminals are he will hunt them down. He does not see himself as a crime-fighter, he sees himself as an agent of justice and vengeance. He is not blood-thirsty killer, he will give criminals a choice to walk away or face his wrath. When the criminals make the wrong choice, he gleefully kills them while laughing, and make a speech why the criminals' grisly end are right and justify. While he focus on hunting down criminals, he has no problem fighting the Grimm.

When he attacks the criminals, he would announce his presence with his crackling laugh. Using his stealth, and taunts to instill fear into his prey to get them unhinged even before the battle begins. He has no prejudice towards the Faunus as justice does not discriminate. He has an Objectivist view on morality and justice, he sees things black and white, he will not sacrifice the good to the evil nor accept the evil for the greater good. The innocent will be protected and the guilty will not be rewarded.

When he is in his playboy form, he does not play himself as a reckless, drinking, party man. He maintain high-social status with dignity, going to high-class parties and made reputation of being an avid world traveler.

When he moonlights as The Black Shroud, he disguises his face to look different to cover his identity apart from the scarf.

Background
Lamar Cranston was actually born as Ken Allard and he was an Atlas Military Special Operative with the focus in espionage and intelligence and he was one of the best. His early childhood is murky, his parents died when he was very young, he probably doesn't remember them. He went from foster home to foster home, the consistent thing was the combat schools he attended and the fights that broke out. At the right age, he joined the Atlas Military Academy. When he graduated, he became field agent that's been through the meat grinder many times over when he traveled around the world hunting terrorists, international crime organizations, and clearing Grimm through thick and thin. He had seen things and done some things and gain a lot of information that would end up being too dangerous to be left alive.

On one mission, he was partnered up with another operative named Lamar Cranston who looked similar to him to track and destroy a terrorist hideout. They got to know each other briefly like Lamar is millionaire playboy who inherited his fortunate after his parents were killed in a terrorist bombing. Their deaths were the reason Lamar decided to join the military. They were the first ones to strike before reinforcements would arrive, and with the element of surprise and sabotage of their weapons and traps, they were able to hold them off for awhile. Unfortunately, the brass thought it would be a good idea to bomb the place instead in hopes to get Ken to be quiet. It ended up wounding Ken but it killed Lamar, burnt to a crisp. Ken knew that the bombing was meant for him as he knows too much, so in order to get the government off his back, he switched the dog-tags to have Atlas believe that Ken Allard is dead.

After he left the military, he was a lost soul wondering around the world, eventually settling in Mistral. He was bitter that the country he fought fought would screw him over after what he had do. For awhile he had succumbed to his inner darkness, and became a mercenary, waging war all around the world, assisting in various criminal activities, killing without remorse for a buck. He was known as The Grey Death. He would use his money on various vices in any seedy underworld he visits, and kill anyone who ticked him off. With his notoriety will earn him many enemies, after mission that was just ploy to kill Lamar, he founded refuge in a temple and cheated death again. The inhabitants took him in and decided to help Lamar to dispel his inner darkness, refining and improve his abilities, and give him mental clarity. For a year, the monks had help Lamar to control shroud of darkness that consumed him. When he finished his time at the temple, he was tasked the monks that he must use his abilities to payback the world after he caused so much damage in the beginning. After viewing many injustices around the world during his service and travels, and the acts he committed himself, he believes that the worst kind of evil are committed by Man and Faunus, but the world turns a blind eye as they only see the Grimm as the only true evil that the world must fight. He had seen the atrocities that humans and Faunus would do another, how the government will use the military for their own selfish purposes, and how the law is made to not stop the scum of the world but ended up benefiting the criminal scum even further, and he had even committed some of the atrocities himself. After being baptized twice through blood, he decided that Ken Allard is dead and will assume the identity of Lamar Cranston and mean sound investments with Lamar's wealth to make more money to gather resources for his crusade.

Decided that there are enough Huntsmen take care of the Grimm, he decided to start his own hunt, fighting evil itself. He will not serve under Atlas, Huntsmen, or the law but as an agent of justice itself as justice is absolute. He uses his playboy status to cover his brutal vigilantism, and as a way to infiltrate the higher class of criminals that uses their influence to further their crime spree. Lamar uses the wealth to make sound investments to make more money to maintain an income. He set up his headquarters in Vale as he heard of the increased robberies and criminal activities in the city. Nevertheless of his headquarter, he travels the world serving righteous justice to the guilty, thanks to his agents. Over the years, he had a become the stuff of legends among the criminal underworld all around Remnant. Stories of feats against the vermin of Remnant, from the drug pier massacre, the rescue of children hostages from the White Fang, the shooting of a violent Anti-Faunus group, to the utter destruction of a homicidal cult lead by a serial killer. The only knowledge of that the criminal have on the Black Shroud is his laughter, they wonder which unholy, unjust, wicked villain will be his next target? The Black Shroud knows HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Weapons and Abilities
He dual wields 2 .45 caliber pistols and have a hidden knife under both of his wrist. His pistols have a long barrel with a nickel plating with an ivory handle. It fires dust bullets for a strong stopping power. His pistols can combined into a high powered sub-machine gun. The two guns are name Baldwin and Welles. Lamar is physically fit, strong and agile. He is capable of hand to hand combat well-adapt in various martial arts, a master in stealth and espionage, excel at tracking and investigating. There's a reason why he's consider one of the best spies in the military.

He uses his dual pistols to maximum efficiency with his marksmanship and gun-kata, hitting his mark with remarkable precision. He has a hypo-ring on his left middle finger to daze or cloud the minds of men, or make them to do his bidding, it works on weak minded people or willing people. He is very knowledgeable of the underworld around the world as he has a vast network agents around the world feeding him information. His agents could be people owning him a life-debt to the Shroud when he saved them or people willing to join his crusade against crime. He's able to project his voice to sound like it's everywhere when taunting his enemies.

Semblance
The Shadow: he will engulf himself in black smoke and he can teleport anywhere in his field of vision with the max length of 20 ft. It helps his stealth, when he's in the dark as the smoke clouds the opponents' vision making him look invisible. His eyes will glow red when it's activated. It affect his endurance every time he teleports and it gets more intense if he uses it more often or the farther he goes.

Trivia

 * CNR Lamar is Old French meaning 'from the sea' so sea reminds one of the color blue. Ken also means 'bright water' in Japanese so water = blue.
 * He is the direct inspiration, hell the plagiarized version of The Shadow! Even the Semblance is his name!
 * The Artwork is NOT My Work! Credit goes to the original artist. Here's the link where I found it.
 * His semblance is a reference to how The Shadow uses his "invisibility" as shown from the 1994 movie and the radio show.
 * His alter ego name is directly taken from The Shadow's alter ego: Lamont Cranston
 * His real name is also based on The Shadow's real name as well Kent Allard
 * The pistols names are named after Alec Baldwin and Orson Welles. Alec Baldwin played The Shadow from the 1994 movie and Orson Welles voiced The Shadow from the Radio drama.