Villain Critique Thread (Because Its About Damn Time!)

@Sharur I thought your avatar looked like the robot from the Big O—I've heard of the series but I don't know much about it—thanks for letting me know. What goals am I rooting for...well, I'd have to say all of them, in a way. His plan(s) seems like a massive Xanatos Gambit; there is very little that can happen to derail them. Like I said, he seems more like a hero than a villain. The reason I am so much a fan of his goals is that they all seem, at least to me, to point in the direction of saving the worlds from the Eldritch Abominations that prey upon them. He may be ruthless and manipulative, but he has the conviction and is willing to do what needs must be done in order to change things for the better.

@ Nick The Swing...I don't quite know what to say about Lord Eclipse. He—no, they—are/is an engaging and varied villain. What really captures my attention is how you handled his nature as a being of multiple clones across the years; despite their varying personalities (the guy who wasn't sure if non-aristocrats were sentient is just...odd. ), they are able to work towards a single goal, created by their original. Eclipse seems perfect Big Bad material, especially since he covers multiple villain personas, as if he was tailor-made for everyone. If someone doesn't like his Ax-Crazy first form, they might like his tragic and tortured future-self, and all the ones in between. I'm not quite sure what to say about his powers, save that they are interesting and formidable. Good job, once again.

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace

That is definitely the feeling that I was going for. You just don't know what to say when its revealed there's an entire conspiracy of people pretending to be one guy, especially when Jason Druford disappeared in Book II, he was so nice...

But as bad as it is with just a chaotic enemy in Lord Eclipse, Book V has two Big Bads. The other is just as shocking as Lord Eclipse.

• Name: Mectonis the Arbiter

• Age: He refuses to say. Though he brags that he was around when "Demands and his cronies were younglings."

• Personality: Mectonis is the kind of villain wherein you really don't expect him to turn out all that evilly. He showed up in Book IV as a new Archangel, arisen out of the chaos of the overthrow of Anathema's Coup. He seemed at first somewhat like an idealistic Idiot Hero who often has to contend with his slacker of a younger brother Mikh. It is only in Book V we see what kind of plans he has. He intends to rebuild the celestial order and establish a "Heaven Fearing" government on Earth, establishing a new hierarchy and abolishing the old castes and economic classes. Mectonis shows himself during the Purge Days Short Story to be a manipulative fascist who has decided to oppose Eclipse by creating a society based on faith and ideas. While he averts the Politically Incorrect portions of modern fundamentalists, he instead uses holy words to justify tyranny. He feels that mankind has proven over the years it is far too corrupt to stand on its own, and that "guidance is required". As he puts it in reference to the 2008 Recession, "When a group is responsible for dire suffering, and they're applauded for making a profit rather than being hanged...that tells me this world is beyond human ability to repair." Mectonis, despite thinking extremely little of man, has a surprisingly high opinion of Matthew, due to him fighting against Anathema a lot. "You must be brave or stupid to oppose me...I'm thinking brave." Indeed, he views Matthew rather like a Worthy Opponent, or even The Rival. As Anathema puts it, though, Mectonis was not always high and mighty; "Once upon a time, Mectonis was a hot headed loose cannon who refused my reign. Now look at how he has risen due to you." Despite his fascist bent, Mectonis is evidently someone with lines he refuses to cross - for example, upon discovering that Anathema chose Heavenly Blades and then horrifically mistreated them, he healed their wounds, and powered them up, and removed Anathema's loyalty binding spells. Even though he practices so called Brainwashing for the Greater Good, he doesn't use it for perverse ends, which made him outright vomit when he saw what was going on in the Shinjuku Compound.

• Abilities: Mectonis uses a white flame sword which can bend, extend and fly in any number of directions, which bears the temperature of the belly of the sun. He is also master of the territories of "Sanctuary" and "Protection". Using these Territories, he can create powerful barriers that can do any number of things, including blasting down foes simply by being launched at them. It is implied he could use this ability to affect a Sodom and Gomorrah Extermination by simply creating a big enough barrier and smashing it down on a city. He has also shown the Pallordia Spells "Shalt Not Impede" and "Chariot". The former is a network of laser beams that seeks out defiant foes and badly damages them, and the latter sends a meteor attached to chariot wheels at the enemies. He has also shown proficiency in using Grandis Spell Circles to defend himself from attack.

• Weaknesses: Mectonis, in a stroke of irony, is vulnerable to the signature weapons of his immediate Archangel Lieutenants, and should Matthew get those, it does not bode well for him. He has also shown considerable underestimation of human willpower and he could not fathom Mikh deciding he didn't like celestial fascism. He's far too preoccupied with how things ought to be to see how things are.

• Goals: He wants to establish a secure government on Earth wherein the forces of Lord Eclipse and the Demons cannot find purchase. He wants to make sure everyone is safe from the Chaotic Forces, and that nobody lives in fear of them. This involves creating a dictatorship.

• Motivation: His motivation is essentially that he witnessed Anathema's monstrous governing style, and wanted to do something about it. Due to his idealism, he thought his measures would prevent suffering in the long run and prevent any more Anathemas from showing up.

• Role in the story: Big Bad Duumvirate

• Backstory: Very little is known about his past, except that he lived poorly, and on few means. He idealized the Archangels and decided to become powerful to lead his people out of Anathema's dictatorship.

• Relevant Tropes:
• Acceptable Targets: Combined with Take That!, one of his first "visits" was the United States Congress.
• Anti-Villain: Played with; while his past is undoubtedly sympathetic, his brainwashing ways are simply terrifying, and what results is a bizarre villain where you don't know really where to stand.
• Alas, Poor Villain: He ends Book V badly wounded from the Meschavad battle, but very much alive at first. Just as it looks like he and the Order forces are about to make it away, and he's about to finally own up to loving someone in a Love Redeems ending...Lord Eclipse comes out of nowhere and blasts him through the chest. His fate is left very much ambiguous.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: he tries to convince Matthew that, if his side is not the good side, they're at least not Lord Eclipse's side. "At least I believe I am doing what is best for the people of this world."
• Badass Boast: "I didn't come all this way here to fail now. Move out of my way, or be moved."
• Brainwashing for the Greater Good: He brainwashes people "steeped in sin" to repent and become good people. We see a Corrupt Corporate Executive this happened to dirt poor and giving away everything he had. Though given the guy was a recurring minor villain who managed to be really unpleasant...
• The Dragon: His best friend Aplyon, who is always shown fighting at his side, with the so called final battle with Mectonis being a Dual Boss also involving Aplyon. Until Meschavad woke up and ripped off Aplyon's arm.
• Eldritch Abomination: The other Archangels play it straight, but Mectonis himself averts it. He's a very handsome red haired man. Meschavad also plays it straight, being best described as a massive cluster of wings, limbs, six heads on a single neck fused together, and numerous eyes placed upon wagging tongues attached to its body, and it stands about fifty feet tall.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He notably chides several ex-Knights of Prayer for thinking bloodthirstily about slaughtering sinners. He was also very unnerved when dealing with the Silver Crusade.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Combining Sandalphon, Michael and Raphael with a recurring hero and a recurring villain was probably not one of Mectonis' smarter plans. When the resulting creature, calling itself Meschavad, awoke, its first action was to try to kill Matthew, Mectonis, and Aplyon.
• Evil vs. Evil: Him vs. Lord Eclipse.
• Idiot Hero: The image he cultivates at first, in order to make people doubt he was a threatening replacement for Anathema.
• Fascist, but Inefficient: Subverted; he may be a peculiar flavor of religious dictator, but he's far from stupid and not keen on ineffective ideas.
• Mr. Fanservice: During their fight, Zachaia even asks him if he moonlights as a male model.
• My God, What Have I Done?: He has this moment when Meschavad tore off Aplyon's arm, and seemingly ate Mikh. He then joins Matthew as a Guest-Star Party Member.
• Oh, Crap!: His biggest one is when he realizes that Meschavad is out of his control, and its all his fault that such a terrifying monster was unleashed.
• Paranoia Fuel: His ability of brainwashing. You do not actually know you're brainwashed, you think you were always like that. That Archangel Mectonis is your best friend, and has your very best interests at heart....
• Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: He fails to identify what exactly he's feeling for Leela whenever the two are in the same room, and denies its attraction, because "that resulted in bad things a long time ago" and "Its probably sinful." Downplayed, thus, and often for really oddly funny moments.
• Time Abyss: Subverted; he's lying about his age to make himself seem more official. He's actually a relative youngster, and got powerful based on effort and skill.
• Token Good Teammate: Amazingly enough, during Tri-Age, when a whole lot of Order aligned forces got together, he ended up teamed up with the likes of Shin Megami Tensei Archangels and others of the sort. They make him look sympathetic by comparison, not to mention how badly he gets treated by his own allies for having some level of a functional sense of empathy for "filth".
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: In the wake of the Magic War, he took control of the United States, basically, in preparation for war with Lord Eclipse.
• Villainous Valour: During the Battle of Cett, his plan basically boiled down not to kill the hero, but get the hell outta dodge, and rescue as many of my troops as possible. He's definitely empathic, and agonized at any stall in his rescue plans.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He means very well, he just has the wrong way of getting to his end goal. He even says this; "As opposed to heavenly rule, you want what? More of the same? You humans corrupt and distort yourselves, you celebrate greed and corruption and elevate the corrupt. How is your solution better than mine?" Note, he never says "I'm an Angel and that should be reason enough." It hints at a sympathetic side to him.
• You Cannot Fight Fate: His position, to contrast his brother's Screw Destiny.

edited 25th Feb '14 11:41:35 PM by NickTheSwing

This is more of a concept than anything, but...

Name: The Indefinite

Age: Variable.

Description: The Indefinite are a collective of seven creatures spawned in variable eras and places but only hatched recently. Each creature is vastly different from each other, and their powers range from standard Stock Superpowers to Lovecraftian Superpowers. A characteristic they all share is that they are Eldritch Abominations.

Personality: The early members of the Indefinite are not particularly bright and are largely instinct-driven, but starting with the fifth one, they are smarter and the last three ones enjoy causing psychological and physical torture.

Abilities: In order of appearance:

• Hathor: Hathor is a legless, armless, vaguely humanoid shape that levitates via use of its force field. Also from its force field is its pair of arms when deployed. Hathor’s Eye Beam is a sound so incredibly high-pitched, it can break through steel.
• Horus: Horus is a collection of twelve semitransparent platforms in the near orbit, eleven of which change positions as Horus sees fit, and one of which is completely stationary, but harnesses its heart (a white sphere), that can shoot a laser. Furthermore, Horus can deploy its four sons, Imsety, Duamutef, Hapi, and Qebehsenuef, which are effectively immortal until Horus itself is destroyed.
• Aker: Aker is a shape shifting dodecahedron that glitches the landscape around him due to his very powerful force field. Aker can attack by sending out an extremely powerful burst of thunder or just running into his assailant, if only to liquify it.
• Apophis: At first, Apophis appears to be a massive multicolored orb floating about 200 metres in the air. After direct assault by the Grenazer, Apophis shifts to a crimson halo that proceeds to tear a wormhole into a Pocket Dimension wherein it proceeds to summon a massive pile of deformed skeletons that merge into a large, serpent-like creature that can move at impressive speeds (up to Mach 1). In its serpent form, it can "vomit" crimson, exploding skulls, as well as deploying its halo at its assailant.
• Isis: An infinitely light yet infinitely dense transparent/translucent gel, Isis can take over a human target and cause some extreme Body Horror, followed by extreme aggression from the possessed. Oh, and the victim is left fully aware of the situation, in pain, conscious of the horrors of their actions
• Kuk: Kuk is a Living Shadow in the form of a four dimensional cube that measures one hectometer wide. It attacks by turning into a lance-like shape and impaling its enemy. However, his attack is unique in that it doesn't cause any physical damage, but instead it causes a severe Mind Rape in its victim. It also serves a practical purpose, since Kuk itself exists in another dimension and merely uses its victim as an anchor to this world.
• Sekhmet: Sekhmet takes on the form of a somewhat tall human woman who looks completely normal except for her odd behavior, strange mannerisms and creepy comments. After she completely adapts to her human form, she is able to use her attacks. Her main form of weapon is her hair, which is a combination of Combat Tentacles and Absurdly Sharp Blade. But her deadliest ability is to "merge" with weapons, and in this case, it means taking over the Grenazer Mk. 54. Even in her basic form, Sekhmet is extremely resilient to damage, even withstanding the Grenazer Mk. 17 (and Barracuda's) Heroic Sacrifice, although just barely.

Weaknesses:

• Hathor: The head, it is very sensible. Figuring out its attack pattern is also important.
• Horus: Its core.
• Aker: A kinetic force strong enough to break its force field and its body.
• Apophis: In serpent form, the halo.
• Isis: Complete dismemberment and evisceration of its victim.
• Kuk: Breaking out of the Lotus-Eater Machine.
• Sekhmet: A sufficient amount of dakka.

Backstory, goals: 3.2 billion years ago, a strange being called Geb landed upon the Earth. And it made the Earth his home, and gave created four children, which are the first four of the Indefinite. One billion years later, another being called Thoth crash landed into the planet.

Thoth was unwelcome by Geb and his children. Using the his mysterious Lance, Thoth managed to seal away Thoth he bore four children; which are the last three indefinite. However, half a billion years after this, Geb managed to escape from the core of the Earth. This time, however, Thoth sacrificed himself in the battle against Geb.

The ultimate goal of the recently revived Indefinite is to reunite with Geb and then caus their version of the Ascension: in which they can reclaim their planet. But of course the men at Interstice wouldn't allow that.

Relevant tropes:

• Alien Blood: The ones from Hathor until Apophis have a weird orange-colored blood. Averted by Isis, Kuk and Sekhmet, which is the first detail that points that they are not of the same family as the others.
• Body Horror: Every single one applies this trope.
  • Hathor's Plasma Cannon tries to boil Barracuda alive. It leaves him with some nasty burns.
  • Horus' sons regeneration is not a pretty sight.
  • Aker's force field vs. the Grenazer. It's the first time Barracuda synchs above 65% with his mecha, and he ends up suffering the same injuries. His forearms ends up severely burnt and broken.
  • Apophis summoning the skeletons.
  • Just about everything Isis does. Isis hideously deforming Michael and merging him with the Stark Armor Mk. 00. Isis infecting Barracuda with what seems to be a blue-greenish fungus. Isis growing two extra pairs of arms to counter Benny. Isis' brutal, gory death.
  • Kuk using the Grenazer to reach this dimension.
  • Sekhmet regenerating the Mk. 54. Sekhmet's brutal dismembering of the Mk. 17.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Isis vs. Barracuda.
  • Barracuda vs. Sekhmet. For a while, anyway. Sekhmet then deals one to Barracuda.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: During the battle with Kuk, his initial attack impales Barracuda in the waist. Barracuda beings to make some pain filled grunts. Before the chapter shows what's happening inside Kuk's Lotus-Eater Machine, Barracuda is briefly shown blushing heavily and letting out a quiet moan. Yep, Freud Was Right.
• Eldritch Abomination: Every single one of them except for...
  • Humanoid Abomination: Sekhmet.
• Foreshadowing: During the battle with Kuk, Kuk calls Barracuda "mother". This is just one of the various clues pointing to Barracuda's true nature.
• Grand Theft Me: Isis does this to Michael Red, one of the Bridge Bunnies.
  • Sekhmet gained her human form by devouring Dr. Rachelle Morgan, Interstice's Head of Engineering. Later, she takes over the Grenazer Mk. 54
• Gorn: All of their deaths are messy and bloody. Yes, even Kuk can bleed.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: According to the in-story definition of "humanity", all beings descended from Thoth count as human. This mean that the sadistic, Mind Rape-happy abominations of Kuk, Isis and Sekhmet are human.
• Kaiju
• Knight of Cerebus: Isis. Isis is the first Indefinite that manages to easily defeat both of our protagonists in a fight, has horrifying effects for the host body, and meets the most brutal fate of all.
• Mind Rape: The last three Indefinite bring with them a major psychological element.
• Mind Screw: The more you think about how Apophis or Kuk work, the less sense they make.
• Theme Naming: They are named after Egyptian gods, and their abilities also reflect (or contrast) upon their functions in the pantheon.
  • Faux Symbolism: It means nothing, however.
• Plasma Cannon: Hathor's powerful chest beam and Horus' cutting laser.
• Rule of Cool: The sole reason Apophis exists is to make the most metal thing ever. The battle itself is filled to the brim with this.
  • Horus also oozes this.
• Technopath: The last three manifest some abilities to manipulate human technology:
  • Isis takes over the Powered Armor and fuses it with Michael into single, Body Horror filled entity.
  • Kuk can generate a wormhole from its dimension to ours by posessing the Grenazer Mk. 17' and using its Higgs Engine to supply the energy needed.
  • Sekhmet can simply merge with the Grenazer Mk. 54.

edited 13th Apr '14 6:06:20 PM by Logograph

@Nick The Swing: He terrifies me and I hope he's dead. No, really though; he is an amazing character but he actually scares me a little. I think what is so horrifying about Mectonis is that his brainwashing power is like the personification of my deepest and most terrible fear—being mentally changed so much that you literally become someone you wouldn't recognize...(shudder). He seems like a solid antagonist though, what with his "greater good, humankind needs a divine ruler" type of thing. Sorry this review wasn't as descriptive, but that brainwashing thing just...

Logograph all of them seem to be fairly interesting, though you mentioned they were just a concept. Are these the same creatures that the clone-soldier from the hero forum was fighting? Because if they are, then it makes him even more awesome for battling against such blatant monstrosities.

edited 25th Feb '14 10:11:39 PM by Swordofknowledge

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace

Time for another Archmage Reborn villain. Yet another of Legenada's Red Cloaks. He's pretty much a Walking Spoiler in-story so I just decided to not put any sort of tags on his bio since there would be no point.

• Name: Trainee 18, "Edward Marshall",Malice

• Age: 42

• Personality: Put bluntly Malice is a sadist. He takes perverse joy in seeing the pain and suffering of others and even more so when he is the one to inflict it. His demeanor is ordinarily calm and rather relaxed, able to keep a cool head in situations that put others in a panic. Despite his cruel nature, he does have a sense of humor, though it is off-color and his jokes are often at the expense of others, amusing only himself. He cares very little for other people and how his actions affect them in terms of reactions or consequences, even his own subordinates. Beneath this, Malice is far more complex due to his lifelong training as an agent of the Conclave's Phantom Program. When it comes to carrying out espionage missions, Malice is humorless and dedicated; he is a skilled actor and can blend effortlessly into the settings required for the mission without raising suspicion, even among those skilled in the trade of spying themselves. Malice doesn't think past the completion of an assigned mission; once the job is done, he loses all interest in whatever happened during it, though he memorizes certain details in case they should become important later.

• Abilities: Malice is a combat wizard with power over the element of wind. This allows him to control air itself, bending it to his will. Because air is all around, he will never be without a source of his element. Malice can create deadly miniature cyclones around enemies, turn his breath into a piercing jet of air, suck objects and people towards him with wind and generate powerful, outward-moving air currents using himself as the epicenter. He can also call the wind to wrap around him and buoy him up, allowing him to levitate. Unlike many magic-users Malice uses a weapon, an Automatic Crossbow which he is quite proficient with. He uses this in conjunction with his wind-abilities to devastate his enemies many times firing down on them while floating above.

• Weaknesses: Malice's long life of successful espionage and assassinations have made him arrogant and he tends to overlook or underestimate his opponents. Ironically, his wind-magic can be weakened by fire magic; if the air is heated enough, his control over it weakens. Malice is missing his right eye and opponents have often taken advantage of the resulting blind spot. Like all magic-users, Malice only has a finite amount of anima and if he it runs low, he will suffer from Magician's Fatigue and if it runs out entirely, he will die. Casting spells costs a set amount of anima, thus he cannot wildly cast his wind magic and has to use it strategically. Malice's crossbow is extremely loud, alerting enemies who would otherwise have been caught unaware.

• Goals: Ascend to the top ranks of Legenada in order to locate and assassinate the "True Enemy" behind the organization's hunt for the Vessels and its reign of crime across the Conclave's territories.

• Motivation: The Phantom Program's lifelong indoctrination to do the Conclave's bidding and he knows no other existence besides targeting, infiltrating and assassinating enemies of The Magocracy.

• Role In the Story: Psycho for Hire to Legenada as a member of their Red Cloaks who lead the organization under Bartholomew Harper. He slaughtered Ara Talbot's entire family, leading Ara to dedicate his life to revenge. He is finally the catalyst of many disturbing revelations about the supposedly benevolent Conclave and what they will do to maintain the peace.

• Backstory: Trainee 18 never knew his parents. He was never sure if they sold him or if he was simply an orphan of war or an abandoned infant taken in by the Program. All he knew was that the men and women in the silver robes took care of him and the other twenty children, giving them the title "Trainee" and a number. 18 and the other Trainees were taught that the world outside the vast Castle Facility was a beautiful and superior civilization the Conclave had created—and were told about the evil enemies who sought to tear it down. 18 and his peers were bombarded by films depicting massacres carried out by the Iron Legion’s soldiers, as well as the other crimes carried out by the countless criminals, that infested world. The Trainees were told that they had been chosen for the task of helping protect the innocent people of the Conclave’s lands from these vile influences by whatever means necessary. From the moment they could walk and talk they were subjected to a regimen of combat magic, history and geography lessons, as well as customs of various countries. In order to stamp out their instinctive revulsion for harming others, the Trainees were first given small animals to torture and kill with the magic they learned before moving on to captured human prisoners. This was done again and again until they had overcome any emotion about killing or inflicting pain—however 18 was different. He had come to enjoy inflicting suffering on another creature. 18 was never encouraged to befriend his fellow Trainees, despite living together with them. In fact, if the men and women in silver noticed Trainees becoming emotionally dependent on one another, they were matched against each other in the weekly sparring matches, and forced to fight almost to the death in order to stamp out bonds. 18 felt nothing but disdain for those who continued to try and establish connections with each other. He felt all the emotional intimacy and fulfillment he needed when he killed or maimed. When the Trainees had reached sixteen years of age, they were released from the Castle with the knowledge they needed to assimilate into the outside world. 18 was provided with a name as well as all the papers he needed. However all of them knew—and looked forward to—the fact that they would be called on to bring death to the Conclave’s enemies, operating outside the stream of society. And so 18’s life as an infiltrator and assassin began…

• Relevant Tropes:

• Faux Affably Evil: Malice is relaxed and laid back and won't hesitate to chat you up about local politics, the weather, women or any other fairly innocuous subject. All in all, he seems like the kind of guy your average citizen of The Haven wouldn't mind sharing a beer or two with on a slow night. He adopts this same manner while casually hunting the surviving members of the Hired Swords Consortium through their guild hall after slaughtering most of them, making it a game of sorts and he sucks a child's lungs out to test a new way of killing with wind-magic while comforting the screaming and writhing boy in a rather calm manner.
  • When meeting Ara for the first time in 14 years Malice treats Ara like an old friend, calling him "little candle" and asking how he's been. This is after he befriended and then brutally slaughtered Ara's entire family, forcing him to watch at the tender age of eight. He also knows just how furious this is making Ara and shows clear amusement at watching the usually collected and somber young man explode into fury.

• Always Someone Better: When he was taken in by Ara's family under the alias of "Edward Marshall", Malice impressed the young Ara by showing off his powerful wind-magic, making Ara intensely jealous. After Ara encounters him after fourteen years of intense training with a master of fire-magic, he charges forward to defeat the murderer of his family confident in his abilities...only for Malice to effortlessly blow out his fire, tear away most of his clothing, shoot him in the stomach with a crossbow bolt, and throw him twenty feet across the tunnel they were fighting in. Ara's only thought during all of this is that as good as he has become, his enemy is still miles ahead of him.

• Antagonist Abilities: Malice's power over wind vs Ara's fire control. The wind causes Ara's magically created flames to either blow out or retreat back, forcing him to recast them and waste valuable time in battle. He is also far more agile and limber than Ara who usually stands still and simply targets his enemies with fire magic, allowing him to land several blows on the young Guardian before he can even recover from the shock of losing his primary weapon.

• Arc Villain: Subverted, strangely enough. Unlike all the other Red Cloaks, Malice survives his particular arc, the invasion of New Estel in which he first encounters Veil River and his True Companions, content with soundly beating them and then leaving. This is Foreshadowing that he is not quite the same as the others, as well as clearly stating that his business with Ara isn't finished yet.

• Ascended Fridge Horror: An in-universe (and maybe meta) example. After Malice's true nature and past is revealed, Angelica wonders aloud just how many mysterious deaths of enemies of the Conclave or their families and friends are the result of the Trainees from the Phantom Program. It turns out that there are at least several of Malice's "classmates" still living and working for the Conclave and the death of Waldo Benag of the city-state of Arvelka is the work of a female Trainee disguised as a prostitute.

• Authority Equals Asskicking: Red Cloak membership pretty much requires being a Person of Mass Destruction, or in Bartholomew's words, "capable of rising to the occasion when mass slaughter is the only option."

• Automatic Crossbow: Malice carries one with him that is capable of folding into a smaller, more compact form. It is capable of holding five bolts a time and the "magazine" revolves, loading a new bolt into the slot seconds after the previous one has been fired. It has a tendency to emit an irritating humming sound, alerting his potential targets to their danger.

• Awesomeness by Analysis: Malice figured out that Bartholomew wasn't the real leader of Legenada long before Bartholomew's own former childhood friend and lover Lacienega figured it out moments before Bartholomew killed her. Making it even more impressive, he surmised that the True Enemy was the legendary Thana Krelios despite her being dead for over four thousand years. He simply ignored that little fact and went with the evidence, such as the vast knowledge of the Elder Days that no one should logically have, as well as Bartholomew's knowledge and casual use of Elder Magic, which someone had to have taught him. Now if only he had just looked at his assistant Nadia a little more closely...

• Awful Truth: Not only is Malice really a spy and assassin raised from birth to cause deaths the Conclave can't officially sanction, his murder of Ara's family wasn't the work of a lone madman. It was a kill order on the Talbot family because they refused to hand over their young son to a program much like the one that spawned Malice due to Ara's higher-than-average magical potential. Their deaths gave Ara an enemy to desire revenge against and so he joined the Conclave of his own free will, making things easier.

• Badass: Malice effortlessly destroys Ara during their long-awaited confrontation, kills an entire Badass Army of Private Military Contractors while searching for Mia's whereabouts, he effortlessly slaughters hordes of Elena Raines' soldiers during the invasion of New Estel and sends her, a former fellow Red Cloak, running in terror of him. He wins nearly all the fights we see him in with only a minimal amount of effort. Though Ara does win and kill him their second battle, it is a close one and Ara was forced to exhaust all of his anima and would have died had it not been for Nadia and Sebastian.

• Four-Star Badass: Malice is chosen by Bartholomew to crush the fledgling organization started by the former Red Cloak Elena Raines and he and Nadia led a cavalcade of Legenada's forces to the island of New Estel in all out war against Elena's Hedge Bandits.

• Bad Boss: Malice is the most feared and reviled Red Cloak not simply with people outside Legenada but within the organization's ranks as well. He has no problems killing his subordinates if they either fail to complete a mission or don't complete his orders to the exact specifications he or Bartholomew made. Better still, he makes a habit of threatening the loved ones of underlings who he knows are either too jaded or simply aware that they are too valuable for him to outright kill. These are 'not idle threats; he at one point had a low-ranking enforcer's wife sold to an independent slaver group for his failure to retrieve money stolen from Legenada's illegal gambling ring in the city of Gotmare. Though harsh and cruel he is not stupid. The incident with the enforcer's wife was a sporadic act after a year and a half of simple tongue-lashings for failures. The gaps between these harsh methods keeps those under him on their toes, never knowing what he might do to punish a mistake or failure.
  • He also bullies his assistant Nadia, constantly making fun of her, thwacking her in the face as a means of getting her to stop talking and generally treating her like a secretary and valet when a Red Cloak's assistant is supposed to be their trusted partner both in physical fighting and running the organization.

• Becoming the Mask: Subverted. His training was specifically geared towards preventing this trope. The reason that the men and women in silver robes stressed not becoming emotionally attached to anyone but yourself was because it had been observed that spies who formed attachments with those around them—even if they themselves were convinced they were simply part of the mission—had a higher tendency to fall prey to this. Thus while he acts just as a Red Cloak and member of Legenada should, much of it is his real personality and he never forgets what his mission is.

• Borrowed Biometric Bypass: Malice does this twice—that we know of. The first time is when he breaks a Hedge Bandit's neck during the battle of New Estel and uses the man's eye to bypass the biometric scanner leading the Elena's inner sanctum. The second is far more alarming; during his visit to the Hired Swords Consortium guild Malice suddenly blows a soldier into the opposite wall hard enough to kill him and then cuts off his hand to use, sticking the appendage in his pocket in case he needs to use it again to gain access to any safe-room where survivors are hiding.

• Breath Weapon: His control over wind allows him to turn a forcefully exhaled breath into a powerful jet of compressed air capable of blowing a hole clean through an enemy's torso. So if he wants, all he has to do to kill you is aim, concentrate and blow on you.

• Cassandra Truth: During their final fight Ara manages to temporarily force Malice to the ground and demands to know who the true enemy is. Malice laughs and screams out "Thana Krelios!" to which Ara snarls in disgust and punches him again, because who would believe something so obviously outrageous, right?

• Card-Carrying Villain: He outright admits that he likes hurting and killing people, and that it makes him feel "whole and connected". Slightly played with in that he doesn't exactly express this as a statement of "Look at me, I'm evil!" Instead he was answering a question about what motivates him and makes him so gleeful about inflicting pain.

• Child Soldiers

• Cleopatra Nose

• Code Name: An interesting example. Like all the Red Cloaks, Edward Marshall's born name was replaced with the codename "Malice" when he ascended to the rank of a Red Cloak based on his enjoyment of the suffering of others. However it is later revealed that "Edward Marshall" is an alias, the man doesn't really have a name unless Trainee Number 18 counts as one.

• Complete Monster: Malice has literally no redeeming features; even his loyalty to the Conclave is only there because he was so indoctrinated that it is a core part of his personality. He takes pleasure in torturing and killing animals and people (something his training conditioned him to tolerate not enjoy), and he has performed many heinous actions in Legenada that weren't even necessary for him to maintain his cover.

• Counterfeit Cash: While the "branch" of Legenada under his direct control is heavily responsible for illegal gambling, and art-theft and occasional forrays into slaving (which is highly illegal in the Conclave territories), their primary means of operation is manufacturing false currency. Strangely for a man in charge of a relatively non-violent crime, he himself is extremely vicious and prone to brutality.

• Cruel and Unusual Death: Malice stripped Ara's father of his skin by creating a miniature cyclone around him while forcing Ara to watch. It's heavily implied the reason he went so far on Mr. Talbot when he quickly dispatched Ara's mother and sister was because the man's defiant and dignified demeanor, even when he knew there was no chance they would be able to escape alive.
  • He receives one of these at Ara's hands. The young Guardian makes sure to roast him alive after stabbing out his remaining eye with a crossbow bolt. Despite the fact that Ara was actively dying from magic-overuse, he forced himself maintain precise control over the flames just enough to burn away first his clothes and then the layers of his skin, leaving the raw and exposed muscle.

• Deep Cover Agent: Trainee 18's role in Legenada was to infiltrate, rise through the ranks and become a Red Cloak in order to gain access to Bartholomew and kill him—or, if Bartholomew was found not to be the real leader, kill the actual mastermind. The Legenada mission is just one of many that 18 carried out throughout his life of taking out people mandated to him by the Conclave. He would blend into a target's circle of friends and family sometimes for years at a time before killing them. The same is true of all his fellow Trainees.

• Dude, Not Funny!: Malice has a tendency to make jokes about things it is really, really not appropriate to kid about. At one point he harasses his fellow Red Cloak Sorrow about the fact that she is going to die soon, urging her to have sex with her Unlucky Childhood Friend and partner Rand and mocking his clear love for her. These crude and off-color jests are often of emotionally sensitive topics so that he can cause emotional pain rather than physical. It also allows him to expand his victim pool to his allies, as he can get away with it as long as he doesn't physically hurt them. Yes, he is a sick, sick man.

• Evil Laugh

• Eye Scream: Malice's right eye is covered with an eyepatch along with a heavy, ridged scar that curves down the side of his face and slants across his cheekbone. It is unknown how he received this wound, but it is clear it wasn't from a blade or a human being—which implies that what he fought was likely a summoner's Familiar. Ara drives one of Malice's own crossbow bolts into his eye while using his fire magic to superheat the tip. This both pierces and boils his remaining eye.

• Foreshadowing: There are several hints that he is a Conclave agent, though they are scattered apart and subtle.
  • Malice eagerly volunteered to terminate Elena when Bartholomew ordered that one of the Red Cloaks take the job; while it could be dismissed a simple function of him wanting to cause some mayhem, Elena was an enemy and potential political pitfall for the Conclave and wiping her out would be an invaluable service to them.

  • During Ara's backstory, "Edward" always encouraged Ara to learn magic; even after he had murdered Ara's family, his taunt was to challenge him again when he had some "real power". It was a heavy-handed push towards the magical arts.

  • The most glaring oddity of all is that, despite Legenada's core objective, Malice never went after Mia despite knowing that she was the Vessel. Even during the battle of New Estel when Mia was literally right in front of him, weakened and barely able to move after a Superpower Meltdown with Ara and Veil both incapacitated, he simply walked right past her to tend to Elena's fleeing minions

• Irony: Despite the fact he knew the legendary and terrifying witch parents use to frighten their children into behaving is pulling the strings behind the scenes of a vast criminal syndicate with alarming goals, Malice failed to notice that his assistant was Thana Krelios and that she had simply stuck by his side because it amused her.

• Lack of Empathy: The Trainees were conditioned to view anyone who stood to damage the Conclave as "enemies" and therefore killing, torturing and utterly destroying them didn't carry the same moral weight that such actions committed against obedient, law-abiding and innocent civilians would. 18 on the other hand has both this mentality and a deeper sadistic streak and so he takes this Up To Eleven, not caring if he harms innocent people as long as the overall mission goal is accomplished.

• Nerves of Steel: He doesn't bat an eyelash during the New Estel battle when Mia is exposed to Elena's liquid anima by accident and goes completely insane, with her powers over Elemental Magic and Healing spinning out of control. Despite the fact that his own wind-magic and Ara's flames had taken on a life of their own and were swirling around the room and destroying everything—and everyone—in sight, he simply grits his teeth and orders his people to retreat to a safer distance and orders that all elemental users stop casting immediately until "the Vessel calms the fuck down."

• The Man Behind the Man: The Phantom Program which created 18 and his fellow Trainees was a pet project of Magister "Spring-Heeled" Jack Ondor, who had previously been presented as a Cool Old Guy and relatively Reasonable Authority Figure. It was started as an experiment of sorts, to create perfect assassins who wouldn't be turned or corrupted due to a lack of family ties, an implicit trust in the Conclave, and who wouldn't possess morals other than what they were given by the Conclave. At first it actually had little practical value and the Trainees were going to be "let go" when they had reached sixteen and the end of their training. However many of Ondor's advisers who were in the know about the plan thought killing them was monstrous...that and they had real value and thus they were put to work killing those the Magisters council needed dead without officially sanctioning it.

• Not Quite Flight: Malice's wind-magic allows him to levitate by gathering the wind around him to push him up into the air. He can maintain this state for at least an hour and is capable of drifting slowly forwards and backwards. But it is not flight and he can't accelerate this levitation or his movements.

• Pragmatic Villainy: Despite being a self-admitted sadist, Malice does not drag out his opponent's suffering, instead preferring to dispatch them with vicious, overwhelming blows so that the deaths are quick and clean. This has nothing to do with mercy however, as much as it is a product of his training—hold back on an enemy and you may end up dead. Instead he saves his mind-games and physical tortures for more "leisurely" settings than fights.

• Slasher Smile

• Walking Spoiler: His true identity, backstory and motivations are all shrouded in mystery and when they are revealed constitute one massive Wham Episode, er chapter.

• You Are Number 6: 18 and the other Trainees were given numbers rather than names by the men and women in silver (the hand-picked operatives assigned to the project). The idea was to raise them with enough sense of self-identification through the numbers, but also condition them to think of names as flexible so that they could don and shed identities and names during their lives as assassins and spies.

edited 28th Feb '14 5:46:14 AM by Swordofknowledge

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace

Why yes, these are the creatures the clone-soldier is fighting against. Also, I made some minor edits, and a major edit in the backstory (I accidentally hit "send" too early. Silly me).

I don't know why, but your story puts me in mind of Evangelon and all its assorted incarnations (I have no idea about it other than the rough gist of its plot). Either way, the Indefinite and unique and terrying all on their own. I didn't see the Faux Symbolism part of the profile; I really thought that they were like the incarnations of Egyptian Gods or something.

• What did you think of Malice?

edited 27th Feb '14 8:08:13 PM by Swordofknowledge

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace

I suppose visiting this thread won't hurt. I'll start with a one-off villain.

• Name: Archibald Galvantula
• Age: 338
• Personality: Archibald is a reserved, composed man. His patience is almost legendary and comes with being an elderly elf by now. That being said, he has little tolerance for incompetence and lolly-gagging, expecting efficiency from his underlings. He usually plays up a mask of a polite, albeit cold and indifferent man though once angered becomes rather twitchy. If his plan gets derailed, he has a strong notion to rerail it ASAP.
• Abilities: As a current leader of Mages' Guild he's a very proficient magus, although he usually has no need to display those levels of proficiency. His forte is alchemy and a large proficiency in crafting poisons of all kinds. Apart from that, he has a number of loyal followers/supporters that he can direct freely. Produces elaborate plans with a large margin for error. Is also an accomplished fencer, although his old age prevents him from being a credible threat in a fair one-on-one.
• Weaknesses: That being said, once there is a credible Spanner in the Works, he has a hard time adjusting to the situation. It will usually involve throwing lots of his folks at the spanner in question until it is removed and might result in a Villainous Breakdown. Also, considering his age, he's not really impressive physically.
• Goals: Deeming both Latiana and her late father who he poisoned a bane to his country he intends to usurp the throne and create a new land among his allies, strong and united, but also a hell on Earth for every other race not being an elf. Politically incorrect.
• Motivation: As a main advisor of two kings and a he'd seen what his beloved country had become and intends to change that, collateral damage be damned.
• Role In Story: Arc Villain, Big Bad of book 2.

Relevant Tropes:

• Arc Villain - After his defeat at the end of book 2 he doesn't appear in the story every again.
• Arch-Enemy - his brother Proteus who happens to be in charge of Ful'Art's division of Foxes. He hates him with burning passion and that's one of the few ways to break his mask of composure. The fact that Proteus happens to aid the heroes doesn't help.
• Beard of Evil - a long white beard of Wizard Beard variety.
• Big Bad Ensemble - with the actual Big Bad of the entire series, Baltazar Truffel. Due to their common interest in removing spanners(Latiana and the whole hero team respectively) the latter lends the former his Boss in Mook Clothing that is Jautis Kraujo. Doesn't work one bit in Galvantula's favor, but points for trying.
• The Chessmaster - He was prepared for everything Latiana could use against him via meticulous research of her character, tutoring her and seeing her overall character. He didn't anticipate two things however: heroes' arrival and his brother's influence as a leader of Foxes.
• Consummate Professional - He's a no-nonsense person and doesn't allow himself a moment of rest.
• Court Mage - To the old king. To Latiana he's more of a Strict Teacher, at least at first.
• Evil Chancellor - although he started as a good guy, his experiences with both Latiana's father and herself pushed him into belief that if he doesn't take direct action, the country will be doomed.
• Evil Old Folks
• Genre Savvy - Galvantula's perfectly aware that Latiana knows about his plans of upstaging her and has taken sufficient preparations to always be one step ahead of her. Unfortunately, the hero team has stepped in and promptly shattered his plans.
  • He also knows what kind of magic he taught Latiana, including any sort of face-changers, notifying his underlings who should they look for in a crowd.
• Lean and Mean - Noted by Latiana as unusually lanky and tall for his age.
• Orcus on His Throne - Justified by being a Villain with Good Publicity. He can't just go around and smack people with his magicks as this would affect his level of influence he has over his underlings. He often sits on ruler's throne whenever Latiana's absent for bonus points.
  • Non-Action Big Bad
• Politically Incorrect Villain - His main allies are aristocratic families of Ful'Art that would rather do without racial minorities infesting their country, an opinion that divides Ful'Art in two. He doesn't show his opinion through the story, but his willingness to co-operate with those earns him a place.
• Regent for Life - His initial goal after his poisoning of the old king, but Latiana proved to be a bit too knowing and smart to let herself be directed.
• Villain with Good Publicity - He's a head of Mages' Guild, a world-wide organization that, well, unites all magic users. He's known to be strict, but otherwise fair and in general perceived in better light than Latiana.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist - His ultimate goal is to create a strong elven country united under a single king... but that warrants a genocide of almost all racial minorities in Ful'Art.
• Wizard Classic - Minus the hat he fits the bill. While he doesn't walk the earth, he's moving from place to place, locking himself in solitary locations and either scheming or working on some of his researches.

---

I'll admit that he's still in beta-stages of making though I have this certain vision created.

edited 2nd Mar '14 9:04:00 AM by FergardStratoavis

grah

Well, here's what I got so far. Contains spoilers for Drowning, if you ever want to read it when it's finished.

---

Name: Begatyl

Age: Sixteen cycles, equivalent to about 60 Earth years.

Personality: World-weary and obsessed with duty to the point of paranoia. He often buries his beak in the old histories. He has unending respect for the old king, so he refuses to accept the new one.

Abilities: Smart and a sharp shot with a rifle. Also, an intensive network of spies and scouts. He always know's what's going on.

Weaknesses: Well, for starters, he's old. He also falls apart when his plan is discovered and goes to the front lines himself because hiding won't help him anymore.

Goals: To make sure something in the kingdom actually gets accomplished for once, and also getting rid of those pesky Sea Bekesta after one of them murdered the old king.

Motivation: A sense of responsibility and duty towards the Land. Also, revenge.

Role in the Story: Main villain of the first book and spearhead of The Conspiracy.

Backstory: He was a close bodyguard of Kestega's father. When he was assassinated, Begatyl felt that Kestega was too young to take the throne, and he was right. He let Kestega be crowned, but really ran the show, ordering a total civilian draft to personally wage war against the Sea while making it look like they struck first.

Relevant tropes:

• Arc Villain: There are worse problems in the second and third books.
• Badass Grandpa
• Badass Normal
• Big Brother Is Watching: He has a ton of scouts at his beck and call.
• Bird People: Like all bekesta.
• The Chessmaster
• The Conspiracy: He is the conspiracy.
• Face–Heel Turn: After the old king's death. He was just a quiet guard before that.
• Gun Fu: As capable with a bayonet as he is with a bullet.
• Not Quite Flight: Like all bekesta, he can glide.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Especially when he's found out.
• The Stoic: Rarely talks except when barking orders.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He really does try to be a responsible ruler.

edited 2nd Mar '14 5:32:07 PM by BaffleBlend

"It's liberating, realizing you never need to be competent." — Ultimatepheer

Okay, so this is the new Big Bad of my still unnamed High Fantasy. I realized that my previous villain was lacking in interesting attributes, so I took this villain I had originally scrapped and recycled him to be the new Big Bad, because I feel he is a far more memorable antagonist. It also coincided with me choosing to switch who was The Hero and The Lancer of my story, necessitating a new Arch-Enemy as the previous Big Bad was too tied up in backstory with the previous hero.

This guy is a godlike being of immense power, created by a long gone civillization of magic users in a world where magic is limited only by imagination and energy. He has kept the world in an endless cycle of war- in that he allows civillization to develop to watch its many great wars of increasing magnitude, until he sets up a war to destroy human civilliztion before they reach a point of having evolved past war.

NAME: Neto, also goes by Feng and Ikolu at certain points.

APPEARANCE: A massive white dragon with pale white eyes, though this form is rarely seen. What the audience and main cast associates with him is the human avatar he uses, which appears as a man in all white clothes, most notably a long coat, with skin of a Mediterranean complexion, dark hair, and pale white eyes. He is of average build, and ever so subtly inhuman.

AGE: Unknown, probably close to 20 millenia.

PERSONALITY: Charming and charismatic, smooth and imperturbable, he is a a being of great ego and contemplative mind. He is oddly playful, in his own way, which makes sense given that all he does is more out of a desire for amusement than any deeper meaning. He is capable of empathy, which makes it that much more disturbing that he cares so little about the lives of others.

ABILITIES: Near-omnipotent, he is tied for most powerful magic being in the universe with his mortal enemy the unicorn Orion.

WEAKNESSES: Anything outside his ability to predict, and anything that surprises him. The only being that could truly defeat him would be the unicorn, and only if he can find a suitable partner to empower with his might. Otherwise, he can only be slowed, and any confrontation will end in death. He could also theoretically be overpowered by sheer numbers, but as he's not even known as a myth it would be impossible to assemble an army of wizards big enough.

GOALS: To cause war, on as grand a scale as possible, for as frequently as is possible. His current goal is to create a war to send mankind of my world back to the stone age before they evolve past large scale conflicts.

MOTIVATION: He is a War God- it's what he does. Whether that means he was made to be a war god, and his personality was tailored to match, or if he was called a war god for his blood lust is a matter of semantics in this universe.

ROLE: Ultimate villain, arch enemy of the heroine Diana and her partner Orion. He alternates between The Man Behind the Man and The Heavy, depending on where in the plot one is, as the villains he's secretly manipulating are unaware of him, and will act without his guidance or even contrary to his whims at certain points. He has set up the situation of the story, where the heroes are at a severe disadvantage, and will only intervene if he or his plan of global conflict is endangered.

BACKSTORY: He was a creation of a long-dead race of Precursors, who created the many magical beasts of this world and the other gods.

Relevant tropes:

• Big Bad: So much so that literally everything that went wrong in recorded history in this universe can probably be traced back to him.
  • Bigger Bad: For stories not focused on him.
• Animalistic Abomination: His true self.
• Humanoid Abomination: His avatar, Feng, who may or may not be his original form.
• Godof Evil: He'd never take the title, but he is responsible for repeated mass murder on a global scale over the course of millenia, and all other villains work for him whether they know it or not.
• Affably Evil: He's nothing but polite, particularly to the heroine Diana Merrick, whom he sees as a Worthy Opponent.
• The Chessmaster: The emperors of the world are his pawns, he is a chess master par excellence.
• Manipulative Bastard: He is not only capable of using magic to deceive people or bribe them, but his own charisma allows him to manipulate people with ease.
• Physical God: The gods in this series are really mortal beings of a certain uber-high power level, so this is the most accurate term for what he is.
• Our Gods Are Greater: He's probably the most powerful of the series' gods, most of whom are antagonistic.
• Our Dragons Are Different: Most dragons in this series resemble a realistic variation on Utahraptor. Not so for Neto- he is a classic six-limbed dragon whose existence can only be chalked up to magic providing for all of his biological needs. The others are also mere beasts- he is more akin to a human in intelligence.
• Expy: To a small degree I based him off of Smaug, as I always loved The Hobbit best of Tolkien's works. Funnily enough, I originally envisioned him as a fantasy version of the Char Clone- a charismatic rival to the hero with a mysterious past who serves as The Heavy.
• Large Ham: More for his vocabularly and speech patterns- his actual delivery is fairly tame.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Has a baritone that would be soothing if he weren't trying to cause an apocalypse.
• War God: He's actually named after the Lusitanian god of war and the sun, a god so obscure his Wikipedia page is only a sentence long.
• Arch-Enemy: To the unicorn Orion, his opposite.
• Orcusonhis Throne: Well, him taking direct action would likely hinder his plans rather than help, but it is good for the heroes he's not interested in getting physically involved nonetheless.
• Ambiguously Brown: Feng, his human avatar.
• Light Is Not Good: His human form is a Man In White, and his dragon form would be an Evil Albino if it weren't for his solar assocaition making that impossible.
• Prophet Eyes: In human guise and in dragon form.
• The Trickster: In one acient culture in my story he was their Loki, rather than their Ares. He is also quite adept at manipulating the heroes- his talent for illusion and other forms of magical trickery only enhance this.
• Deadpan Snarker: He takes a remarkably conversational tone with the heroes, to disarm them. His talent for snark is either a deliberate part of that, or he's just that fond of toying with people.
• Infinity +1 Element: What his power essentially is. Magic in this series is limited in capability by the school of magic one uses- Neto, along with the other gods, uses the All Magic, a form that has no limitations like the others. Its only as useful as one is imaginative and powerful; unfortunately for the heroes, Neto is both.
• I Have Many Names: As detailed above he has gained many titles throughout the centuries. Neto might not even be his real name.
• Meaningful Name: He's named for the Lusitanian god of the sun and of warfare, both of which Neto has domain over.
• The Powerof The Sun: While he cannot control the sun itself, as it is, well, too far away, he can control the light and heat it emits, and prefers using his power over it to affect world events.
• Time Abyss: At least 20,000 years old, possibly more.
• The Ageless: As with nearly all other magic users in my story, his body doesn't age.
• You Killed My Father: Kills the hero Hector, who was a mentor for the heroine and a good friend of Orion, giving our lead and her partner ample motivation to kill him aside from preventing The Endof The World As We Know It.
• Control Freak: This is what his desire for war boils down to, more than anything else. He needs to feel in charge, and reasserting his control by causing an apocalypse is just one form of it.

edited 4th Mar '14 4:45:23 PM by Rotide

Sounds like a pretty worthy archvillain to me.

I feel kinda bad for the heroes, though...

edited 9th Mar '14 1:09:42 PM by RBluefish

"We'll take the next chance, and the next, until we win, or the chances are spent."

I agree with R.Bluefish, sounds like a great and terrifying villain to have in a High Fantasy story. Good luck on it.

This guy is part of a Big Bad Ensemble in my still-unwritten superhero story, Echelon. It's sort of an experiment with comic book superhero aspects, as well as a massive ShoutOut to the Bioshock games. Just wanted to see what you guys thought of him.

• Name: The Guardian

• Inspired by: Noel Kriess, Kessler

• Age: Unknown even to him, though he appears in his mid-twenties to early thirties.

• Appearance (Yes I'm actually doing this for once): The Guardian is a tall man, perhaps six feet in height. He is well-muscled, yet his overall appearance is unhealthy with sickly pale skin and deep bruise-like shadows beneath his eyes as if lacking in proper sleep for a long period of time. The Guardian’s right eye is deep brown, and the left is an iridescent purple with an iris larger than a normal human’s. While he looks young enough, his face is prematurely lined and his short shaggy black hair shows clear strands of white. The Guardian's pasty flesh is disfigured with marks from blades, claws, bullets, teeth, and what look like old burns. A particularly large burn scar mars his right cheek. His long black robe is dusty and ragged and the upper back of the garment is portrays a symbol of a sun half enclosed by stone. Despite his appearance, the Guardian has a strangely high-pitched, almost boyish voice that is slightly startling to those expecting something different.

• Personality: The Guardian is cold and single-minded when pursuing his goals—whatever they may be. He appears to be utterly without mercy or compassion, as he has slaughtered men, women, and even children without any regard for their terrified pleas for mercy and is not above using the loved ones of his targets as hostages to force surrender. Guardian will track his intended targets for as long as it takes for them to make a mistake and allow him to kill them. He is undeterred by hordes of security, police, or even members of the Echelon who try to stop him and will merely rip through them if necessary, only retreating when it is clear he is in danger of dying. The moment he has sufficiently recovered, he will take up the hunt again. If he has to cause large amounts of collateral damage to both bystanders and objects to achieve his objective, he will do so without a second thought. Despite his cold-blooded tactics and relentless nature, the Guardian becomes offended at the accusation that his bloody killing spree throughout Warner City is For the Evulz and insists that it is for the greater good. However he refuses to give his reason for his actions and his persistent attempts to kill the super-heroine Night Hag, which enrages her younger brother Logan Reed. Though dedicated, the Guardian experiences private doubts about the morality and even realistic nature of his search-and-destroy mission, heightened by an increasingly severe sense of déjà vu that plagues him.

• Abilities: The Guardian possesses superhuman strength; he is strong enough to lift a city bus and hurl it away like a toy, tear humans apart like rag-dolls, and body-slam his way through steel-reinforced concrete walls. Though he cannot fly, he is able to jump at least thirty feet into the air, cushioning his landings and then leaping again, so fast that it might as well be flight. Guardian's immense agility and Super-Reflexes allow him to easily traverse rooftops and buildings and maneuver around blows directed at him. Worst of all, he has a Wolverine-like Healing Factor. Cuts, bruises, and even fractured bones will heal within hours, while an amputated limb will regrow within a week. The Guardian's left eye can project a powerful energy beam.

• Weaknesses: The Guardian has nothing to anchor him, despite his superior strength. Should he be hit by a powerful moving object like a vehicle, he would be thrown around until he could gain a favorable position to toss it away. He can only use his Eye Beams up to four times in an hour and going over the limit results in temporary blindness in that eye. The beam can only hit a single target at one time. A regrown limb will need to be exercised and won't regain full functionality for at least a month. Broken bones heal so quickly that he does not always have time to set them, thus forcing him to break them again.
  • Decapitation or sufficient trauma to the brain will kill the Guardian, as will inflicting more damage than his regenerative powers can keep up with. He is also unfamiliar with how society works, leading him to make several conspicuous blunders and speaking in ways that mark him as an outsider...though from where he came from is a mystery to the heroes.

• Goals
  • 1. Kill the entire research and development team for Mason Industries' Prometheus Venture, as well as their families and friends to ensure the goals, nature, and methods of their experiments die with them.

  • 2. Kill the first artificially created Superior, the super-heroine Mir Irving/Night Hag so that she doesn't mutate into the monster that will drive humanity to extinction.

• Motivation: The Guardian comes from a Bad Future 930 years after the events of Echelon where humanity is an endangered species and the Earth has been devastated by a Hopeless War with a monster known as "Wrath", as well as the hordes of human victims mutated into murderous abominations by Wrath’s Contagious Powers. As Wrath was born from Mason Industries' attempts to market superpowers to ordinary humans, the Guardian has vowed to Set Right What Once Went Wrong by slaughtering everyone even remotely connected to the project.

• Role in the story: Shoot the Shaggy Dog, Anti-Villain member of a Big Bad Ensemble. Very much a Knight of Cerebus as he's the first villain to actually kill someone in-story...and then he goes on a murder-spree, slaughtering hundreds of innocents and setting off a deadly chain of events.

• Backstory: The Guardian was born in the year 3038 in Sanctuary NA-11, an underground city located beneath what had once been Nevada. NA-11 was one of many Sanctuaries, human civilizations built in remote corners of the planet as part of the "Great Retreat" as humanity gave up its three hundred year war against Wrath, and focused entirely on self-preservation. The climate changes and fallout from Wrath’s rampages and the war had rendered the surface of the earth uninhabitable and thus the Sanctuaries were located either beneath the ground or deep under the oceans. Because of the vicious Berserkers that roamed the ruins, as well as predatory outlaw clans, each Sanctuary was appointed a Superior as their protector. The Guardian was born in the declining period of the Sanctuary system. NA-11 had not heard from other Sanctuaries in over two hundred years and the city itself was falling apart, because much of the engineering skills necessary for repairs had been lost over the years. With fewer births and more deaths as well as occasional disease epidemics, it was only a matter of time before the city fell. Despite that, the Guardian followed the ways of his ancestors and protected the city and its people from all threats, working closely with the Refuge Council—the city’s ruling body—to defend their territory and delay the settlement’s death for a little while longer. However Dr. Mila Grimes, his friend and a member of the Sanctuary’s Research and Development Department, refused to accept that NA-11 and humans in general were inevitably doomed. Instead Dr. Grimes advocated measures to fight back against Wrath and the Berserkers, including expeditions to the surface. Ignoring the Council and Guardian’s protests, she continued to look into fighting back and began to gather followers. When he could no longer ignore it, Guardian confronted Dr. Grimes with orders to stop her research, only to have her tell him incredible news. She had discovered what she described as a “tunnel” in one of the deeper vaults of the city that led between times. More incredible, she was in contact with someone on the other side. Dr. Grimes and her contact had exchanged objects and messages through the time-tunnel and she had come to find out more about the world 930 years in the past. It quickly became clear that the man on the other side was a learned scientist and had created the time-tunnel, in addition to a means of giving superpowers to humans. Realizing that they had discovered the turning point for humanity’s fate, the Guardian and Dr. Grimes plotted together, eventually deciding to use the tunnel to travel to the year 2108 together in order to kill anyone associated with the project. Grimes questioned her “pen-pal", gaining more and more knowledge of both the project and the World Before. However, before they could explore the deeper tunnels to the larger portal, NA-11 came under attack by Berserkers that had tunneled their way through the deteriorating defenses. Though he fought valiantly, the swarm was to large. Though desperately wounded and infected by a Berserker, Dr. Grimes led the Guardian into the tunnels by radio, telling him that she wouldn't be able to come with him—the burden of saving the future rested solely on NA-11’s hero alone.

• Relevant Tropes

• Affably Evil: Despite being willing to cause massive collateral damage, intentionally targeting relatively guiltless scientists, businessmen and their certainly innocent families, the Guardian is horrified when he accidentally robs a store and does his best to repay the debt, as well as going out of his way at least twice to save people from various disasters. He also makes it clear to the ordinary citizens of Warner City that he bears humanity no ill-will and is in fact trying to save the species though he is arrogant enough to believe that people should take his word for it and leave him to his work.

• Alternate Timeline: In the Bad Future Madeline Weaver and Zacharias Hale were able to collaborate and create a method to induce superpowers in ordinary humans by replicating Mir Irving's Curse. This attempt to market powers to the world resulted in chaos when Mir lost control of her Lovecraftian Superpower, becoming Wrath and transforming all humans infected with her curse. The Guardian's goal is to create one of these where the human race will live on.

• A Million Is a Statistic: The Guardian is rather detached about the death-toll resulting from his battles with the Echelon's members and Logan. This attitude stems from his knowledge of the bleak future and he sees those caught in the crossfire of his mission as acceptable sacrifices to save humanity from the specter of extinction. Another reason is that the world of 2108 is "rich with humans"; the population of Warner City alone exceeds that of Sanctuary NA-11. Thus the losses won't put a significant dent in the world's population. Possibly subverted as he shows clear signs of remorse and doubt in private, though he marches on and doesn't actually recant this way of thinking despite his conflict.

• AmnesiacVillain: Played with; the Guardian remembers his life as well as the events that brought him back to 2108 all too well...however, he is increasingly plagued by sensations of deja vu, as if certain moments have happened before. That's because they have.

• An Arm and a Leg: Snowball managed to encase his left arm in ice, and intended to continue spreading it, trapping him immobile within a freezing prison. Rather than allow her to do this, the Guardian ripped off his arm by sprinting forward and then punched through Snowball's chest with his fist. It makes her the first hero of the Echelon he kills.

• Anti-Villain: His only desire is to erase the horrific future he comes from and save mankind. The Kill Em All plot isn't even his idea (though he did agree with it). He's just following the directions given to him by Dr. Grimes as best as he can. Though he puts up a cold front to his enemies, he is clearly troubled by his murders, especially those of children.

• Apocalypse How: When he finally sits down and explains things to the Echelon, the Guardian describes it as somewhere between Class 2 and Class 3b and Class 5. Wrath ravaged the world's nations, destroying entire cities with devastatingly powerful and random attacks. Humans who shared Wrath's curse became mindless rage-filled lunatics who would then undergo a Body Horror transformation into monsters which would then spread the curse to others through wounds. This caused whole countries to go dark within the space of months, finally prompting the Nuclear Option—but Wrath simply reflected the bombs directed at it back at their sources. Those not directed at the monster but at its spawn had the desired effect, but also irradiated vast areas of land, and caused a nuclear winter which killed off many who survived the previous ordeals. Add to that the stockpiles of bio-engineered viruses that were let loose during the chaos and the human race slowly slid into decline.

• The Atoner: The Guardian has never forgiven himself for letting NA-11 fall; though he rationally knows that there was nothing he could have done against the sheer numbers of rampaging Berserkers, he spends far too much time analyzing all the various ways he screwed up, whether it was failing to bug Research and Development about the city's deteriorating alarms and weakening Deflector Shields or whether he should have tried to distract the Berserkers himself. Overlaps with Survivor's Guilt.

• Archenemy: To Logan Reed, though it is a very one-sided enmity with Logan feeling most of the hatred towards the Guardian for threatening his sister Mir, who raised him for most of his life. However the Guardian merely dismisses the boy and views him as a mere irritation. This hatred then becomes mutual when Logan gouges out his beam-shooting eye and buys enough time for the Echelon to take Night Hag into custody, putting her temporarily beyond his reach.
  • Madeline Weaver of Mason Industries and Dr. Hale are archenemies for the Guardian (Weaver in particular) as they are the two minds behind the Prometheus Venture. In his mind, all mankind's troubles with Wrath can be traced back to them, thus he is extremely dedicated to finding and painfully killing them. While he coldly pursues and executes his other targets, the Guardian chases the two of them in a near-berserk fury, at one point tearing through Weaver's limousine caravan with repeated blasts of his Eye Beams, heedless of the damage he's doing to himself.

• Awful Truth: The Guardian's backstory and mission behind his seemingly random bloodbath is this for everyone who hears it, worse because the supposed "day of reckoning" when the future will be decided is only eight months away. However for Logan the worst of it is the news that the curse that made Mir the super-heroine Night Hag will turn her into the monster responsible for the death of mankind and the only way to be sure it won't come to pass is to end her life.
  • After the Guardian kills Logan, Mir goes berserk and loses control while trying to avenge her little brother. This mutates her into Wrath and the Guardian realizes that he has been trapped in a Stable Time Loop the entire time. He is responsible for the creation of Wrath, which will then cause him to go back in time to stop its arrival in the first place—which will, of course, cause it to appear and ravage the world.

• Big Bad Ensemble: The Guardian is by far the most dangerous out of the three Big Bads that threaten the Echelon and the Superior community in general, as he is the only one who resorts to outright violence 100 percent of the time and is far more lethal than anything the Echelon's current "soft-super" generation has seen.
  • However none of them have anything on Wrath who destroys all of Warner City by merely coming into existence, and it just goes downhill from there...

• Being Evil Sucks: The killings shake him since he was the protector of a city who loved him and venerated him as their main source of defense. It goes against all he thinks is right to turn his powers loose on humans who aren't aggressive or threatening.

• Berserk Button: People who put their own desires/needs over the welfare of mankind in general. The Guardian sees Madeline Weaver and Zacharias Hale as these types; Weaver puts her greed and desire for prestige ahead of the potential consequences of giving Night Hag's curse to multiple people, while Hale's interest in researching it pushes aside all thought of the ethical and practical concerns it raises. When he reveals Mir's fate in his timeline and gives it as his reason for killing her, the Guardian becomes utterly enraged when Logan shrugs and tells him that he'll help his sister fight for her life anyway, even if she is humankind's executioner. He considers even Logan's familial love selfish, as he's putting it above the survival of the species overall.
  • Interestingly enough, this was also his most common admonition to Mila Grimes; he constantly told her to forget her ambitions of restoring humankind to greatness and focus on survival and demanded that she think deeply about whether her ideas were truly for the benefit of humans or simply her own personal desire to see people rise up and fight again.

• Boxing Lessons for Superman: Subverted; one of his major weak points is that he has no real training in martial arts at all. While his strength is immense (he is the most physically strong Superior in the story) he is at a major disadvantage in terms of skill and has been forced back multiple times by those weaker than he is due to their intense training. Justified, as he never had to face off against anyone who knew real fighting tactics, his opponents being desperate outlaws hungry for NA-11's resources and shelter or violent monsters.

• Combat Pragmatist: The Guardian's goal is to kill his targets, thus he will do anything he has to in order to accomplish the objective. During his battle with Cornelius Alden, the Guardian avoids being blown apart by Alden's missiles by simply swimming under his yacht and punching holes all through its hull. He then lets Alden's Power Armor drag him down and drown him. He also isn't above taking hostages to force his more tenderhearted targets to surrender, or playing mind games with newer members of the Echelon.

• Combo Platter Powers: His powers are specifically tailored to be a mix of offensive and defensive, perfect for protecting a settlement. This was done purposely by a more refined version of the Super-Empowering method used in 2108; as part of the Protectorate System, human fetuses have their genes modified in order to obtain superpowers to be Guardians.

• Covered in Scars: The Guardian has spent most of his life fighting against hordes of Berserkers,as well as Ax-Crazy and desperate bandits who would invade NA-11, strip it of its resources and kill its people—and it shows. Its also a clear indication that his Healing Factor merely speeds up regeneration; with the exception of regrowing limbs, it doesn't take care of the natural marks left by injuries.

• Cry for the Devil

• Dangerously Genre-Savvy: He's from the future, so while a great deal of knowledge has been lost tales of how the super-heroes of old operated are still told through word-of-mouth and records of their exploits exist. Thus he knows that the Echelon is devoted to saving the common people from disasters and rogue Superiors. One of his strategies is to force members of the Echelon (especially newer members who are just fresh from being taught all the rules and regulations of being a superhero) to chose between one person—or at least a significantly lower number of people—or a large group of purely innocent citizens who have done nothing more than be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
  • The Echelon set up a guard around Dr. Hale, expecting the Guardian to crash through a skylight, smash through the steel-reinforced walls of the bunker or just rip his way through the guards stationed outside. Not so. Instead he simply disguised as a security guard and shot Hale in the face, knowing the heroes were becoming used to his tactics.

• Dark Messiah: He's actually the follower of one of these people, the charismatic Dr. Mila Grimes who advocated that humanity rise up against Wrath for one final stand, either winning or at least bringing a heroic end to the species rather than "waiting for the end in rat holes". Her plan to slaughter all who could bring about the Bad Future has become his, though the two of them were supposed to be in on it together with him serving as muscle and her as logistical support.

• Death Seeker: Maybe. The Guardian knows enough about the theories of time-travel to understand that fixing his future will theoretically wipe him from existence. He is perfectly fine with that, as he would rather die—or not exist at all—than live on in a world where the Earth is dying and humans are on their last legs.

• Designer Babies: He is one. In the Sanctuaries, once a Guardian dies, a newly pregnant woman is chosen by lottery to have her child become the next protector of the city by having its genes modified in utero. The powers bestowed are chosen by the Refuge Council by vote as to what abilities best benefit and fit a defender of the people. The child is separated at birth from the parents and trained by the Council's agents.

• Death from Above: This is how kills the hero Forge. Instead of fighting him head on, the Guardian leaps from a high rooftop and swings from a flagpole and punches him in his only weak spot while covered with lava—his head. This causes MASSIVE cranial trauma, killing him instantly.

• Downer Ending

• Easily Forgiven: Subverted; the only reason that the Echelon don't continue to fight him is that his circumstances are so terrible in their implications for the world that they put aside their hatred for him to help him end the threat. However the Guardian is anything but forgiven and they make it quite clear that once Mir is dead, they will devote every ounce of their power towards killing him.

• Enemy Mine: He forms one of these with the Echelon after he explains his reasoning and backstory to them. Rather than being treated as a good thing, this is exceptionally bad for Logan, as it means that the heroes he looked up to and wanted to join are now lined up to murder his sister with his Archenemy among their ranks...

• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": His name seems to just be "Guardian" or the Guardian. He reveals that it was this way in NA-11 too; everyone simply referred to him as the Guardian, implying that he was never named. The same thing is implied to have occurred with all the other Guardians up until that point, male or female.

• Go Mad from the Revelation: Watching Mir's Painful Transformation into Wrath before his eyes and remembering all the other times this has happened causes him to start giggling maniacally, dropping his previous calm and assured manner and he starts pounding Wrath's leg, alternately cursing it and welcoming it, declaring that he'll be seeing it in another 930 years. By the time it vaporizes him—along with all of Warner City—he's utterly lost it.

• Hero Killer: Literally; he kills a total of twenty heroes from the Echelon's ranks before he finally decides that working with them is less of a hassle and liability than being their enemy.
  • He is also able to overpower and kill Logan Irving despite his Charles Atlas Superpower and nanite-infused blood,due to the simple fact that he is physically stronger and far more ruthless than Logan could ever be.

• Implacable Man

• Irony: The Guardian is technically an artificially created Superior. While the method used to create him is far different from Mason Industries' Prometheus Venture, the genetic modification to create Superior Designer Babies with powers tailored for the needs of the Sanctuaries is based off of their original ideas.

• Mailer Daemon: A strange example. Zacharias Hale created the "Quantum Widener" device and used it to create "tunnels" into time periods, though he had no idea what point in space or time he would come upon. Dr. Hale then started exchanging letters and objects through a small tunnel, becoming enamored by the idea of talking with a "citizen of tomorrow". The whole thing started when he let the date and his role in marketing superpowers to ordinary humans slip in his conversations with Dr. Grimes.

• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: To say that the Guardian caused Mir to turn into Wrath because he killed Logan and because of the Stable Time Loop would be a massive oversimplification. No, let's review just how massively he screwed up. First of all, he created a situation that caused no end of stress for Mir, a person struggling with powers she could barely control due to a curse. Second, he began a systematic massacre of the few people who would be able to understand her abilities and notice that she was starting to have trouble handling her powers. Third, no one even noticed this slippage of power except her brother because they were too busy trying to save themselves and their families from a super-powered madman. THEN he killed Mir's brother in front of her and tried to kill her, pushing her past the point of no return.

• Platonic Life-Partners: The Guardian was this with Dr. Grimes; the two of them had been friends since he saved her from a Berserker that had found its way into one of the outer tunnels when they were both children and she was exploring. Since then she followed him everywhere and when she went into Research and Development, the two still kept in constant contact. Yet there was no sexual tension between either of them, just a calm and steady friendship.

• Poor Communication Kills: Much of the fighting, death and chaos with the Echelon could have been avoided had he simply flat out told them about his mission and what he was fighting for. However his almost naive arrogance led him to believe that he was the only one capable of comprehending the seriousness of the situation and anyone else knowing would just slow him down at best and at worst hinder his progress. Unfortunately this can't be said of his fights with Logan, as the two of them understand each other all too well.

• Villain with Good Publicity: When he convinces the Echelon to turn against Logan and kill Mir to prevent the apocalypse. Slightly subverted because the Echelon decide to keep the Guardian out of sight of the city's citizens; explaining how a mass-murderer suddenly received what looks like a full pardon from the resident super-heroes is a little awkward.

• Villainous Breakdown: When Logan declares that he will fight on Mir's side to save her, no matter what that means for mankind, and the Guardian realizes that the boy is absolutely dead-set on his commitment, we get this:
  • "That's real commitment I see in your eyes, not childish refusal to accept reality. That's admirable and I would congratulate you, except you fucking disgust me. How dare you call me a monster? Yes, I killed people who never wronged me! And I have to live with that for the rest of my life! But you—by fighting me, you are murdering humanity! Our blood is on your hands, boy! You are a thousand times more vile than I will ever be! I'm a protector, fighting for the noblest cause imaginable! All you are is a tiny, insignificant speck that can't understand sacrifices need to be made! I won't see us forced into the rat holes again! I won't see us locked beneath this beautiful world I love!"

• Would Hurt a Child: The Guardian's first victims were infants who were being considered for the first transfer of Night Hag's powers; he simply used his Eye Beams to fry them in their cribs or alternately strangled those he missed. The Guardian also murdered the children of his targets on the off chance that their parents would have passed information or simply inspired their offspring to follow in their footsteps. Such actions sicken him, but he swallows down his revulsion and soldiers onward.

edited 19th Mar '14 9:24:31 PM by Swordofknowledge

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace

Wow. The guy definitely has an understandable motive for his villainy, and I gotta say, the whole reveal about his mission's true nature really has my interest.

Very interesting that you use a hero as the basis for a villain, and I definitely look forward to seeing what ends up happening with him.

The whole time loop thing was well set up outside spoilers, and I am curious as to how he'll be handled by the end. His morality is very, very difficult to analyze.

• Name: Antonius Lucidius Malevo / Hadrian Ashlock / Malevolent

• Age: He was around since the day of the Gracchus Brothers in Rome, and they in fact form a significant part of his motivation.

• Appearance: Malevolent in his "true nature" appears as a gaunt, skeletal figure, a highly angled, thorned mask with twenty six human eyes darting across it, and what appears to be vertebrae connected it to a set of black, tattered priestly robes, four arms made of bone coming out of the sleeves, ending in spider limb like fingers that can release what look like spider threads. It appears his outfit is part of his body, as, out of the waist end of it, out comes a single vertebrae, seeming to merge seemlessly into shadows inside, and this vertebrae is connected to a set of hip bones that extremely long, humanoid legs connect to, outright seeming to grow out of the bone, turning into a black ooze where there should be feet. His shoulder plates meet at the chest, and both drape a long cloak behind him. He usually sits upon a carrying device of some sort that flies by itself.

• Personality: Malevolent is basically the Arch-Tempter of New Dawn, and is a superb Man Behind The Man in Book IV, and appearing several times in the background before then. Before he was using the disguise of an English Teacher, he was a colleague, long ago, of the Gracchus Brothers, and fought for more egalitarian measures within the Roman Republic. However, as is covered under motivation, History Happened, and Antonius decided he had been backing the wrong Gods. The only Gods, he decided, who had influence, due to the way he was treated, were the Dark Gods - he started off as a simple Adept of Zayufur. However, he found a way to become a Devout to all of them at once, and at once moved upward through the ranks. He kept all this secret while living hundreds upon hundreds of lives, an individual who touched lives and made them go over to the Cults of the Dark Gods, and then left. When his visage as Malevolent was enforced, he became even worse. In his perspective, purity is a delusional concept, and the people who appear purest are in fact the most corrupted. He is Affably Evil to an extreme, though some outbursts may show that there's a Faux Affably Evil fringe to that. He is a manipulative liar, using lies and half truths to make people commit to a Deal with the Devil with him. He seems to enjoy the trickery he employs, which has led to a lot of extremely disturbing moments wherein he regards what is probably a horrible moment as something like proselytizing. He does not seem to view threats the same way as other people, being that his job is basically The Corrupter, he welcomes all threats as basically indication his attempts are working. He is exceedingly proud of the influence he has among the Dark God Cults, and obsessively reads texts so as to make sure nobody can out-scripture him. He also seems to be very capable as a leader of men and as a tactician, to such an extent that when Caine's insanity worsened and his "secretary" Malevolent became leader in all but name, the predictable tactics of Caine gave way to the practised, aggressive tactics he employs. He seems to view any of the people he is corrupting like a child under his care, "and sometimes, to teach a child correctly, moderate abuse is required." Regardless, he remembers each and every successful corruption as a "heartwarming story", even when it results in many, many deaths. For example, he remembers Caligula very fondly, speaks of attending banquets he threw, and...watching him order deaths. All relayed in the same happily reminiscent tone.

• Abilities: Malevolent has the ability to force a small orb of his Mana into you, if it hits anywhere but your heart, it deals severe damage that outright causes the affected area to collapse inward, a horribly painful injury. If it hits your heart, however, rather than do this, it vanishes, and instead, your most negative traits become stronger and stronger. Regardless what he says to the effect, he's not aged to uselessness - he's actually an extremely powerful Magic User, making use of numerous styles, including the old Aztec Sacrifice Style, which he uses by having a large amount of slaves in reserve at the base of operations, each one marked with a Spell Circle. Whenever he uses a certain spell, a certain number of their hearts explode. He is also very capable in Fallen Druid Magic - amounting to making Black Crystals and mutating animals in his case - and Slavonic Magic - which is a combination of Slavic Style and the Vonnic Arts, resulting in many powerful and unusual spells.

• Weaknesses: He is, however, unable to enter certain areas, and is vulnerable to spells that would harm someone affiliated with Darkness or the negative sphere. Due to his heightened nature, he is also vulnerable to spells which force creations of the Dark Gods back into the Realm of the Gods. His Fatal Flaw is also ultimately his pride.

• Goals: Create a lasting Church of the Dark Gods, and establish their dominion over the Earth. He also seeks to release Silmarill on several occasions, and during Book IV, he wants to use Caine's momentum to lead a horde of demons right up into the jugular of the United States government.

• Motivation: Malevolent used to be an advocate for more egalitarian ideas, for his time, and believed humans could affect change on their own. However, after History Happened, Malevolent was almost executed, until he was rescued by "An Other". Following this, he decided that, with his role models dead, humanity was hopeless, dreary and absurd. The very idea that anybody was exceptional or unique or worthwhile was abandoned. Covertly corrupting people, he did as he wished until his penultimate punishment by Aleister Crowley which turned him into his present state.

• Role in the story: Man Behind the Man and The Dragon

• Backstory: As covered under motivation, he used to be an Ancient Roman, well, until things happened. He found himself on the wrong end of a political purge, and was rescued by a mysterious figure. Deciding this was a sign, he diverted his worship to the Dark Gods, who at first did not know what to make of him. He started among Zayufur the Light Eater's cult, and arose when he found a way to accumulate the powers of a Devout to all of the Eight Dark Ones. During Book IV, his change into his present state was brought about because of his ultimate Moral Event Horizon, after the first battle between Elijah's forces and the 317th, he covertly acted and sabotaged the supplies of Elijah's forces. He gathered the corpses of the fallen soldiers of the Anti Magical Force, and made them into cooked meat and meal for the Gibbs Forces dinner, purely because he thought the knowledge they all just became Humanitarians would corrupt them into service faster. Despite doing this for the rebel forces, Aleister Crowley was so utterly disgusted by this act, he stripped the man of his human form and forced him to take the form of a creature of the Dark Gods. After this, he joined Elijah's forces as a "Military Chaplain", though who'd want to be ministered to by that is a good question, and became Caine's "Minder".

• Relevant Tropes:
• Adult Fear: He was scary enough before, but when he abducted one Marine's son to dissuade him from reporting to Washington on what's going on, he became a much, much more real villain. Another layer to this is an implication - he included the date of his expulsion from the Anti-Gibbs forces in the letter...
• Affably Evil: "But of course, the choice is yours. You made all your choices thus far, there was never any coercion or strong arming. That's not how the divine works, my son."
• The Ageless: Due to becoming "more than human" after switching his religion, this is the result of dedication to Zayufur.
• Almighty Janitor: He had two roles - first was Military Chaplain, where he was already the Evil Genius to Elijah's forces, and then he became Chief Secretary, controlling who sees Caine and how the orders from him are interpreted.
• A Million Is a Statistic: He at first claims that the amount of humans who will die here is inconsequential in comparison to the number who will die if magic thrives without controls. Though considering his plan after the war, this is more of a cover story.
• Badass Preacher: He may be an evil old fuck, but he's an extremely badass one. He survived many years on his own strength and skill. And he will not see that questioned.
• Blade On A Stick: The stick apparently came from an extremely old, carnivorous tree from the Realm of the Gods, and the blade portion was fashioned on there on top of a mouth. You can still hear his weapon screaming.
• Body Horror: He has a certain spell he can use to turn people into Gristle Eaters, which as some now know, are horribly hideous and not human at all.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: Subverted - Crowley forced his abandonment of his human form because he thought he was self servingly towing the Dark Gods' line, which would make his new form much weaker and unable to so much as stand. Turned out, though, he genuinely believes everything and serves them full well knowing some of their Agendas.
• Co-Dragons: He has a number of "Lesser Clerics" in his service. These "Clerics" are all using similar armor to Caine, and have their own reasons for following Malevolent.
  • Typhon: The "Storm's Cleric", Typhon uses a large Spell Core which breaks down into a hundred snakes which multiply when struck. A Master Poisoner, Typhon's tasks are often limited to trying to poison the 317th, which is a pity, given he's a great commander.
  • Cerberos: The "Cleric of Flames", Cerberos fights by summoning Summon Fiends en masse and then throwing them at the foe. Not exactly as bright as he thinks he is, Cerberos functions as a guardian of the main camp most of the time, and its his job to ensure Green Wall works, hinting at its true nature. Best known for looking even more Obviously Evil than his boss.
  • Glaucon: The "Cleric of Tides", a bit of an outsider, though he is the one most employed in the field. His Spell Core is extremely powerful, and yet we barely see what it does until a while in - it creates crystals that refract and shoot solar rays as highly destructive laser beams.
• The Corrupter: He claims it is a service to Azekred to corrupt people into seeking Power.
• Creepy Monotone: His most constant voice tone, a very deep, somewhat raspy monotone.
• Death Glare: Another of his abilities involves focusing all of his eyes on you, which shoot a weird beam that temporarily paralyzes people.
• Elite Mooks: He has created a different kind of Weiss Mark Magical Soldier called a Darkroot Devout. These form his honour guard, and protect him in battle while he casts spells.
• Emotion Bomb: He uses a particular Curse called Hatred Force on his own side's soldiers, making them essentially hate their foes so much they get a power up...and go completely insane from it.
• Evil Genius: His work as a "Military Chaplain".
• Evil Makes You Monstrous: His own internal evil, built up over hundreds of years, resulted in his powerful, monstrous form.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: Not all over your mask...or one on each shoulder pad.
• Fantastic Racism: Takes advantage of Anti-Dark Elf Sentiment, and is pretty damn racist himself against Humans and those who side with the Gods of Light.
• Gone Horribly Right: Aleister does admit he never quite intended for this to be the result of him changing Malevolent.
• Unholier Than Thou: Believes himself to be more in favor with the Dark Gods than their official Scion General Caine. Though he never says so near Caine.
• Humanoid Abomination: After his change into whatever he became, he looks humanoid, but is most definitely some horrible form of Dark God creature. Even Silmarill admits that this guy is kind of creepy.
• I Lied: He lies a lot, and to horrible effect given some of the people he chose to lie to.
• I'm a Humanitarian: As retribution for the Gibbs forces intervening on his "turf". That he then went over to their side and interacted daily with people who he made eat human flesh without their knowledge to is even creepier, precisely because they never found out it was him.
• Lean and Mean: Lean and thin and also one of the evilest bastards in the book.
• Manipulative Bastard
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Malevolent is not such a bad name. Its simply the service I do in service of my Gods. I am malevolent for them."
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: His first few appearances as Malevolent have him ordering his Mooks to shoot at Matthew and Daniel, and simply showing up to offer someone a Deal. He only a bit later shows he can fight pretty well too.
• Obviously Evil: Read the appearance section.
• Outside-Context Villain: He's not really what Matthew was expecting, from both a narrative and moral stand point. He's basically a brutal, Roman era political villain transplanted into the modern day with many years of practising his cruelty under his belt.
• Power Floats: Officially how he flies around on that weird prayer table like thing.
• The Power of Hate: He believes ardently in it - "Nothing is more holy yet common place as the renewing, encouraging power of hatred." He even has a Spell called Hate Bomber, which lets him "relieve" someone of their hate...turning it into a powerful bomb in the process.
• Puny Earthlings: He used to be one, but that doesn't stop his racism. He's appallingly racist already, and then you figure out he doesn't just hate one race - he hates absolutely everyone and views it as a religious service to the God of War and Strife. He thinks his Hate is holy.
  • Which makes it doubly ironic when he starts to lead them very well indeed.
• Red Right Hand: How can you tell that Malevolent / Ashlock is a very, very bad man? Check his right hand, one of his magic types results in what looks like a pit made of black flames in the center of it.
• Religion of Evil: The head priest of one, which worships the Dark Gods. Khaos would really like him to stop.
• Sacred Scripture: In a way - he wrote several books on worshiping the Dark Gods, and less dickish Dark God Worshipers use them, purely because he simply knew the most, and had the best first hand sources.
• Sinister Minister: Officially a Priest...of the Dark Gods.
• The Strategist: His role as "Chief Secretary". Caine's orders are laden with references, Shout-Out's nobody else gets, and difficult to interpret. Malevolent's? Extremely effective and easily relayed.
• Super-Empowering: With a tap of his Blade On A Stick. However, its very often Lovecraftian Superpower.
• The Unfettered: Worship the Dark Gods in all ways their portfolios dictate, regardless what "petty human morality" may dictate.
• With Friends Like These...: He does all sorts of horrible things to his own side to ensure victory.
• Yes-Man: He does this to manipulate the easily swayed Caine, just agreeing with everything he says regardless whether it makes sense or not. You could make a drinking game out of the number of times he says "Yes, Caine".
• You Cannot Fight Fate: He encourages this idea, especially in Caine. "As you say, this has been rehearsed numerous times in games, literature, et cetera. It is pointless to fight what has occurred many times before." While he believes this himself, he doesn't believe in Caine's Truman Show esque delusion.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Averted - he rarely if ever pulls this, as there is always a use, as far as he is concerned.

edited 16th May '16 10:03:22 PM by NickTheSwing

Nick The Swing: Dude, Malevolent is friggin' creepy. I can't wait to see more of him.

As for my villain, he's a rather early concept, but I figure he deserves to have some criticism.

Name: Kyverno, or the Gift of Sorrow.

Age: At the very least, over 20,000 years old.

Personality: Depends on whether or not he is restraining himself. Unrestrained, he is violent, bloodthirsty, manipulative, and calculating. Restrained, he is sorrowful, regretful, and passive.

Abilities: Master of Mental(manipulation of the mind, emotions, etc.), Material (manipulation, transmutation, and creation of matter), Immaterial (manipulation, transmutation, and creation of energy and forces excluding gravity), Spacial (manipulation of space and gravity), and Temporal (manipulation of time and pre/postcognition) Theurgy. Effectively immortal. Able to draw nearly unlimited power from the Aether. Heals extraordinarily quickly.

Weaknesses: The device which allows him to draw power from the Aether can overload if he draws too much, leaving him without any powers for a few minutes. He also desperately desires to die, as he believes that his death is the only way to free the world from the cycle of destruction and rebirth he causes.

Goals: To prevent civilizations from becoming too powerful. Thus, he eradicates every civilization that discovers the powers of Thaumaturgy and Theurgy within 200 years of their discovery. Afterward, he allows new civilizations to flourish until they too discover Thaumaturgy and Theurgy.

Motivation: His creator and master, who had grown ill in both body and mind, ordered Kyverno to destroy the current and any future civilization that gains the use of Thaumaturgy and Theurgy. His creator made him in such a way that Kyverno could not disobey his orders.

Role in the Story: Serves as the cause of the faux Big Bad Kythera's attempt to cause a world war that would force the people to develop extraordinarily powerful weapons that could possibly kill Kyverno. Again, this is really early in development.

Backstory: Kyverno is a construct, a fantastic amalgamation of flesh and machine. He was tasked with the protection of the world from threats internal and external. To accomplish this, he was given all the abilities of Theurgy and an unlimited power source to last him all time. He served faithfully for a time, until his master contracted an incurable disease that ravaged his body and mind. The final order Kyverno received from his master was to keep civilization inconstant by obliterating any who discovered and used the powers of Thaumaturgy and Theurgy. He did so several times, hating himself for not being able to disobey. The civilization he destroyed before the present one, he assisted for as long as he was able. They were able to create five others based upon his design (though without unlimited power) and when he could finally resist no more, they sealed Kyverno away before he could destroy them, but not before he collapsed their civilization. He remains sealed until about halfway through the story.

Relevant Tropes: Uh...since nothing's particularly set in stone, I'll abstain on this section for now.

Kyverno hits that sweet combination of weird and creepy that I like. Especially I like his Anti-Villain streak that I can't help but to feel from him. I mean, he's forced to do what he does and hates himself deeply for it... Just awesome. (Although a bit overpowered, but that's at least justified). He's also missing something... a certain ''je ne sais quoi". If I were you, I'd add some Mind Screw and/or Eldritch Abomination aspects to his persona, as his backstory is begging for it.

Overall, Kyverno sounds pretty nice.

Anyway, the other villains from my story.

Name: The Council of 13

Age: The organization itself is 4200 years old. The members themselves are from the 30-70 age range.

Personality: See below.

Abilities: They are incredibly organized and cunning in their planning, to the point that they're planning for millenia. Petrikov and Konrad are

Weaknesses: No one of the modern Council likes getting their hands dirty, except for Colonel Roux. Sadly, Colonel Roux is just a bit Ax-Crazy. Their ultimate Fatal Flaw is their pride, however.

Goals: What they originally wanted was to fight the Indefinite, who have reincarnated for millenia, always trying to cause their version of the Ascension and wipe out mankind. The modern Council want to cause their own version of the Ascension, wherein they would rise as gods, but wipe out the Indefinite permanently.

Motivation: To protect Man from Man.

Role in the story: Big Bad, although Ambiguously Evil.

Now, while there are thirteen members, only three get any plot relevance or screentime. In order of appareance:

De facto Commander-in-chief of Interstice Pacific, located about 10 kilometers south of modern Vancouver. Petrikov is a tall, grey haired and mustachoed man, and cold as ice. Doesn't appear much until the second half of the story, when the Council gains much more prominence.

Relevant Tropes:

• Affably Evil: He's not cruel to his staff, even if very stern and strict. He has a soft spot for more than one employee.
• Ambiguously Evil: Many, if not all, of his more... unethical decisions in the story can be written off as being absolutely necessary in the moment. He has a certain distaste for cruelty and destruction, and certainly has the best of intentions, since he's right about the nature of the indefinite.
• Famous Last Words: No... I can still fix it... everything.
• Knight of Cerebus: The story takes a turn of the darker in the second half when he becomes much more promiment. Although the Indefinite Isis had much to do with it.
• Knight Templar: He wants to protect humanity, at all costs. He's the character in the Council who has the strongest belief in its mission.
• The Rival: To both Colonel Roux and Colonel Mc Donnell, his chief of Tactical Operations. He distrusts the latter on a personal level, even though he respects him for his operational efficacy.
• The Stoic: Yes.
• Worthy Opponent: Colonel Mc Donnell. The post-Apophis collateral damage heavily stains his opinion of him, though.
• Villianous Breakdown: Undergoes one when Barracuda III turns against him and kills him.

Colonel Roux is the Tactical Operations chief of Interstice Montréal, in the French Province. He's cocky, pretentious, dislikes anglophones, likes torture and combat, and puts mayo in his French fries.

Relevant Tropes:

• The Atoner: Was one of the men directly responsible for the Custom Soldier project, from which Red Barracuda and Colonel Mc Donnell were spawned. He later regretted this, and ultimately, this is why he betrays the Council.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Despite being a source of comic relief, he is one efficient killer. He's also very efficient at the front lines, and his offensive against the Indefinite Aker is successful, somewhat. In the end, it turns out he planned the demise of the Council of Thirteen, and is successful... somewhat.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: See above.
• Bishounen: The youngest of the Council, at 32 years old. He looks rather... pretty.
• Colonel Badass
• Combat Pragmatist: "Everything, including giant robots, is fair in war and love, Keith. But don't use the giant robots for love, it never worked for me."
• Cloud Cuckoo Lander: His conversation topics can be very weird and often goes on tangents, making his speech nearly incoherent.
• Defiant to the End: When he's confronted by Konrad in Iunu, he still refers to him very informally and delivers a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to him.
• Famous Last Words: Really, Johnny? What took so long?
• Foreshadowing: He never wears his uniform properly and speaks informally to the rest of the Council. Ultimately, he betrays them.
• The Gunslinger: Roux has rumored to be the best shooter in the entire Holy British Empire.
• Mr. Fanservice: Very much so.
• Reverse Mole
• Sadist: Of the Cold-Blooded Torture kind. In fact, he's introduced defending Montréal from the insurgents from the Lakes Province (a.k.a. the Great Lakes region of the US previous to annexion) using a tank, and enjoying it.
• Shrouded in Myth: A Running Gag before he actually appears is the many contradictory urban legends about him.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Comes off as this. In fact, the reason he helped Mc Donnell overthrow the Council is because of this trope.

Not much is ever revealed about Jonathan Konrad on a personal level. His face is never shown and doesn't gain much prominence until shortly before the finale. One thing is known about Konrad; many of the events of the series are his doing. However, despite the lack of prominence in the story, he is massively important in the backstory.

Relevant Tropes:

• A God Am I: It's heavily implied he's plotting the Ascension because he's attracted to the power of godhood.
• Big Bad
• The Faceless: Not even in flashbacks to the origins of Interstice is his face shown.
• Minor Major Character: Until the finale.
• Narcissist
• Pride: And how! In fact, this is why Mc Donnell and Roux's plan ultimately succeeds.
• Sadist: Of the psychological variety.
• Shrouded in Myth
• The Sociopath: Unlike Roux, he never felt guilty for the Custom Soldier project. In fact, according to him, it's his masterpiece.
• Villainous Breakdown: When Dr. Rachel Cook, also known as the Indefinite Sekhmet, turns against him.
  • When he realizes he was Out-Gambitted by Roux and Mc Donnell.

edited 7th Apr '14 12:35:33 PM by Logograph

You're supposed to review the previous entry before submitting your own.

Sorry. Fixed.

@Collinicus Kyverno sounds bit Mass Effect's Reaper-ish. Probably the whole machine with sentience that destroys civilizations before they get too far thing. But I like the twist he has, being restrained by an order (protocol?) that he himself cannot override and forced to do things he doesn't want to. Refreshing, considering that most characters of this type, from what I've seen, seem to have A.I. Is a Crapshoot tendency, but Kyverno is completely functional and working as intended, even if his 'work' is wiping out entire civilizations.

@Logograph Well... there's too little information regarding the three of them, so I can't really make any comment. Perhaps some more insight?

On the foundation of glass a dream is built. And, like glass, it shatters.

Name: Marian Rourke

Age: 34

Personality: Downright rude and, at least by the people of Endeil's viewpoint concerning a woman, improper. Marian advocates foul language, and even if she isn't swearing all the time, her choice of words can be rather aggressive and unpleasant to hear. Still, she's fundamentally a friendly woman, possessing the unique charm of a once energetic, outgoing girl hindered by terrible upbringing that plagues most of the poorer families, copious amount of alcohol consumption, and years in military service. What makes her such a dangerous individual, however, is her determination to get the job she is given done, and her being very comfortable employing any underhanded tactic if it allows her to succeed. Such pragmatism translates to her being as far from 'honorable' as one gets.

Abilities: Marian is trained in melee combat, and is especially good with a knife when she must wield one. She's also good with explosives of all kinds, even the ritualistic kind, as long as there is no actual arcane channeling involved. Lastly, being a former Rifle Corp infantry, Marian's marksmanship is also at least above average. But the most dangerous abilities in her disposal is the ability to keep calm even in the direst situation and to slip away when things don't go her way.

Weaknesses: Marian is born without any magical affinity. Her training during the military days confirmed that the woman is not a mage material at all. On top of that, she loathes direct combat, and if forced into a prolonged fight face-to-face can be easily overcome by a superior fighter.

Goals: To get paid. No more, no less. The bounty on Sir Strada Austin is the biggest single payment she has ever seen, anyway.

Motivation: Mostly money. Apart from her fun-loving behavior and her adoration of ale, Marian doesn't have much in term of aspiration. She's only looking to get paid, spend all the money enjoying herself, then repeat the process.

Role: The Punchclock Villain hired to kill the hero.

Backstory: Not much regarding Marian is of anyone's, including hers, interest. She's a daughter of a criminal, the eldest of three children. Her childhood was spent making sure that she and her siblings had enough to eat, something her scum father couldn't, and didn't care to, ensure on a daily basis. She ran errands in her neighborhood, doing odd jobs, even once worked in a tannery. Perhaps luckily for her, her youngest brother died when a plague hit her town, Glasdale, and her sister, when she came of age, ran away with her lover boy, never to be heard from again. Fed up, Marian joined the Lions Regimen, and she left Glasdale for good. Four years in the service of the Regimen, three in an expedition team, whose work exploring and scavenging the Lost region, where the ruins of the Old Empire lie buried, nearly cost her life more than once, and one as an infantry in the Rifle Corps, her just reward from risking her life in the many expeditions and coming back alive. From here, though, it's downhill. Marian and her fellow soldiers began to conspire to smuggle out old rifles to earn some considerable amount of gold on the side, an idea that was proven terrible only shortly after. A few seasons past, her conspirators are caught, and Marian herself was discharged, yet she could escape capture. Since then, the woman has been working as a smuggler, and, more frequently, an assassin, applying the skills she learned from the military in one of the most lucrative businesses. Establishing herself as one of the more reliable and better killers in Portra, she is now hired by Dame Aisel Kilimovich to 'remove' her primary enemy, Sir Strada Austin, Captain of the Black Feather Unit.

Tropes:

Arc Villain: She's the first 'measure' used to eliminate Strada.

Angst? What Angst?: Despite her horrible childhood and the death of her brother, Marian doesn't seem to dwell much in past tragedy, if at all.

Beware the Nice Ones: She looks like the most personable woman one can find in a tavern (who isn't a tavern wench). She's friendly, talkative, and loves to crack jokes. She's also very capable of killing anyone should she be sufficiently paid, and can do so very efficiently.

Cold Sniper: When she employs a rifle she's this. Sniping isn't her favorite method, though; she mostly prefers explosives.

Hitman with a Heart: Zigzagged. Marian certainly isn't a heartless bitch, and can be a real sweetheart to the people she meets (if a bit foul-mouthed), but the way she goes about her work killing people is so impersonal and emotionally distant that all she sees when she looks at her target is a 'mark'. Kill it, get paid, no hard feelings. It helps that her most favorite method of blowing everything to bits.

The Lad-ette

Punchclock Villain: Marian only wants to get her job done and get paid. She bears no malice against Strada or any of her past marks.

Professional Killer: She's been doing this for quite a few years, and is quite good at it too.

Worthy Opponent: Strada himself sees her as this after the first few encounters where, among other things, Marian blew the train he boarded, and then proceeded to try and pick him off with a military grade spellrifle, but Marian doesn't seem to care. He's just a walking sack of gold, after all.

edited 1st Apr '14 12:58:51 AM by Arreimil

On the foundation of glass a dream is built. And, like glass, it shatters.

Seems like an interesting starter villain. I'd imagine she would seem like a one of villain, only for her reasons and backstory to come up as a reason for why she's the way she is. If this is the starting measure, I'd not like to know who the scarier measures are.

• Name: The Fiends of the New World

• Age: Varies

• Personality:
  • Last of David: Seemingly just a random young man fleeing the violence, his true personality emerges when he is threatened. Bent on his own survival, and absorbing a lot of the Stagnant Mana floating around, Last of David proves to be both extremely violent to a disturbing degree, and barely aware of his own new monstrous state. While he is powerful, he does not understand his own power, nor does he comprehend half of what he's doing or how he's doing it. To him, he's still a running teenager being menaced by just about everything, it seems.
  • Elder Witch: The last survivor of a witch order, she fused with Stagnant Mana and the souls of her sisters to survive. Consumed with hatred at the Mages and the Espers for "letting" this happen to her and her sisters, she wages a one screaming abomination war against the local government and the Association. Her most identifiable trait is her vengeful personality, and her bent on repaying all her "owes", and she "owes" the Association and the US Government a lot of payback.
  • Aiber: Lurking inside a sewer, the cretin called Aiber by the Association drags people down into the sewers, imbues them with Stagnant Mana and the local sewage and waste, turning them into Wastelings that bring it more Stagnant Mana. This should tell you what you need to know about this Fiend's personality - warped, sadistic and cruel. Unlike its fellows, it is very verbal, and speaks a lot to Matthew during the fight, including taunting him about his failure to save equalling murder or something.
  • Leisurg The Faller: A being that appears on the very top of the Statue of Liberty every day ending in a 2, 5 or 0, and promptly "commits suicide". It can be said to be wailing about how its family died, and nobody cared. When it "commits suicide", it leaps from the building, lands and reassembles itself by "reflecting" any damage incurred on any surrounding people. It then goes on a bloodsoaked rampage, and only stops once it has slain exactly eighteen people the age of its dying son. Leisurg does not seem to be aware it is doing anything wrong, and simply views its behaviours as something it has to do or something even worse will happen.
  • Armades L: Once a Boundary Master in life, when Armades absorbed a large quantity of Stagnant Mana in the days after the fall of the Masquerade, he became a grotesque combination of himself, his wife, and his two sons, their bodies - including their heads - protruding out of a massive, fleshy golem-like form. Abandoning his previous magical field, he now slings Void and Dark Magic, signifying his rejection of "loneliness". He too possesses a massive desire for revenge against the Association, believing they could've saved him and his family from this fate, but they were "not important enough". Speaks with the Voice of a Legion, it apparently believes itself to be "the legion of a single soul". Despite its creations being mere extensions of itself, Armades seems to view them protectively.
  • Aruinia: Lost during a Void Walking while the events of Book III took place, Aruinia returns to the mortal world to finish off aforementioned Armades L...though she's really not much better herself, her resemblance to some sort of grim reaper hinting at her true nature despite her cooing voice and affable appearance. She views it as a mercy that she would plunge the world into the Void, as that would make everyone "accept who they really are", and that most of the suffering of the world at large is caused by an overflow of "the light of life", and people "denying their true natures".
  • The Amberbrook Devil: A supposedly Urban Legend creature, it is a youth who turned into a Phantasmal Beast of a very dark alignment due to being at the epicenter of the fall of the Masquerade. Forgetting his human life due to the pain of his new shape, the Amberbrook Devil marches a bloody path across Montana, burning to ash anyone who dares to cross its path...though leaving those who do not obstruct it alive.
  • The Nightmare Knight: Another supposedly mythical figure, the Nightmare Knight was given life from the influx of Stagnant Mana, where before he was nothing but a story. Possessing the body of a young man who died defending his wife and infant son, he slaughtered all those who approached them and propped up his enemies' bodies to be animated by Stagnant Mana, creating a virtual army devoted to defending two people.
  • Olivia and Jarlen: A young woman who preaches the Ways of the Void, regarded as a Religion of Evil, and her young beau who defends her from all approachers. Olivia's very presence spreads decay and bloating sicknesses in all near her except those infected by the Stagnant Mana that returned to them their lives. Jarlen struggles to maintain an eagerness and passion even amidst the despair of the events after the Blessed Tear's Departure.

• Abilities: All of these figures are capable of a variety of magic types, some of them blatantly contradictory or impossible under normal circumstances. However, with all of them, they were created during the end of the Blessed Tear events – this makes them not have to follow the standard rules. While they are like Ghouls, they are also established as being something completely different, retaining characteristics of many different things. Most of them can do SOMETHING with Stagnant Mana, from Last of David's ability to turn it into basically a Green Lantern Ring with Make Them Rot as an “element”, and Aiber's...disgusting proclivities.

• Weaknesses: They are weak mainly to Sacred Mana, being that they were mostly dead or dying things before their conversion. Some of them, like Aiber, are extremely weak to fire due to bodily composure.

• Goals: Theoretically, the New World Fiends are united by their desire to drain the Mana of the world and plunge the world into a void.

• Motivation: They run the gamot of actually pretty understandable motivations (Jarlen was rejected by Olivia's parents for not belonging to her religion – hence, he supports her...new faith) to downright tear jerking (David just wanted to find his parents and see if they're okay), to totally reprehensible (Aiber was an executed serial killer who specialized in young girls under five and he's pissed he got caught).

• Role in the story: Aruinia gives off the strongest Big Bad vibes, but none of them are really in control of what happens in the short stories and books set post-Book III.

• Backstory: When the Blessed Tear appeared, it gathered all the Stagnant Mana in the entire multiverse to its core to be purified into the form of Blessed Tear Mana, which could then be used as part and parcel of a wish. The Tear, not being used for a wish this time due to Matthew's intervention, released ALL of this Stagnant Mana back out due to the resulting Retroactive Continuity, except it all clustered together on Earth in tight “Abyssal Locations”. These Locations resulted in certain individuals who have a strong drive to continue living or at least defeat their circumstances that led to their unhappy ends or almost-ends being animated by the Stagnant Mana and turned into “Super-Ghouls”, as Shin calls them.

• Relevant Tropes:

• Action Survivor: Last of David is a very dark take on this trope. He's basically trying to find people dear to him, but he keeps running into trouble. Never does it cross his mind to look at a mirror.
• Animalistic Abomination: Aiber resembles a massive frog thing made of smaller frog things, though with a lot of thin human arms on his back. The Amberbrook Devil's face is described multiple times as seeming like a jackal's head with bull horns, its body likened to a bear's.
• Anti-Villain: Last of David, Olivia and Jarlen, and Nightmare Knight especially. Leisurg also gets points for being almost totally unaware of what he's doing, and just seems to moan about what has happened, and how he has utterly failed as a father.
• Artifact of Doom: Nightmare Knight's Evil Weapon – it functions to basically turn any who touch it into something like an Elite Mook to the Knight.
  • Aruinia hands these out like candy.
• Ax-Crazy: Aiber, Armades L and Elder Witch. The latter even at one point goes utterly insane on an envoy with a previously decorative axe.
• Badass Unintentional: Last of David certainly didn't plan on being one of the strongest of the Fiends of the New World. As covered, he's simply moving on to try to find his family.
• Big Bad: It looked like Armades L had a position like this among them, intimidating some of them into helping him, but then Aruinia returned from her little Walk...
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Jarlen and Olivia, for a given amount of “Big and Bad.”
• Body Horror: What Aiber, Armades L and Olivia get up to. Olivia would prefer that she not do quite so bad things to people who simply live near her.
• Body of Bodies: Armades L, to a nightmarish degree. They're all sentient and aware, but cannot control what their limbs do.
• Brown Note: Aruinia's Dying Song spell – it basically results in her foes having to listen to everyone they've ever killed share their feelings on the subject.
• Crapsack World: A localized version – wherever these guys have holed up, things get really bad. The scariest things are often not the Fiends themselves, but what they push locals into doing to survive.
• Creepy Children Singing: Some of them appear to shed some light on Last of David;

So here we have Last of David; Bravest Lad in the West; Charging across the field so valiantly; killing his enemies to the last!

• However, these children later merge together and form Aruinia, showing this was an Early-Bird Cameo for her.

• Death by Mocking: One soldier mocks Jarlen's relationship with Olivia in very vulgar fashion. He gets a hammer to the face for it.
• Despair Event Horizon: Leisurg crossed it at some point, and simply watching him and surviving can trigger latent depression and suicidal feelings. It is actually a Curse of some sort, though not a strong one.
• Drop The Hammer: Jarlen's Fallen-Hammer, a massive hammer he wields one handed, using a Magitech Shield in the other.
• Eldritch Location: The Influx turned normal, scenic areas you have probably been to into nightmarish hellscapes and Death Worlds. Aruinia's Sector is remarked to have “remarkably unusual geometry”.
• Enemy to All Living Things: Olivia, unwillingly. She would really rather not spread decay and disease wherever she goes. She'd really like to have friends.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Last of David has the family he's trying to find. Jarlen and Olivia have each other, and Leisurg has his dying son. Aruinia herself, despite seeming like an inapproachable villain, is mentioned to have a younger brother back home who she had doted on before her Void Walk.
• Evil Makes You Monstrous: Combined with Power Upgrading Deformity, the Fiends of the New World have rather monstrous forms.
• Evil vs. Evil: A large number of people who came to the wasted, almost abandoned quarter Olivia operates out of had...less than good intentions in doing so.
• Fate Worse than Death: Being an experiment of Armades L, or even ending up on his operation table.
• Foreshadowing: Their existence is part of the reason Sanfield was quarantined. The authorities did not want ANYTHING like the Fiends of the New World to happen again.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Aiber was a stupid, pathetic villain whose crimes speak of cowardice. After his little Stagnant Mana Infusion, he's managed to turn a whole section of New York into his personal playground, and is The Dreaded to Liam.
• Ghost City: After Last of David is done with a place, it tends to resemble a Ghost City.
• Golem: Armades L resembles a nasty interpretation of one.
• Hell Is That Noise: Armades L's “operating knife” gives off a screech when its activated and most people can identify his approach by the sound alone.
• Hero Killer: Whenever the likes of Aruinia, Nightmare Knight or Last of David get involved, running is a good plan.
• Horrifying the Horror: Anders had been one of the scariest members of the Anti-Magical Faction's youngest state, but faced with Nightmare Knight, he mentally regressed to five, screaming and crying and begging for his life. If you know what Nightmare Knight does to his enemies, you know his suffering never really ended.
• Humanoid Abomination: All the more humanoid ones give off this impression. Last of David's face is the last thing human about him. The rest of him is covered by tight-fitted black armor with numerous nails impaled through it...and him, and he constantly gives off a stream of black smoke from his body that turns into terrifying dragon heads. Olivia has black iris and red sclera, and is always described as being very otherworldly. Jarlen, her boyfriend, is looking rather pale, has numerous spots where decay and death are evident, and his left arm is scaled below the forearm and ends in bright red crystalline talons.
  • Leisurg the Faller is rather humanoid in appearance, but a closer look reveals too many eyes in the wrong places, one bat wing, one tentacle, and an arm apparently made out of amorphous jelly. Elder Witch and Nightmare Knight likewise have a humanoid appearance, at a first glance, but a closer look makes you realize these really ARE terrifying things born of the Stagnant Mana surge.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Aiber's minions the Wastelings are forced into this. Aiber himself defies it, stating that humans taste awful. He'll eat virtually anything else, though.
• Lady and Knight: Jarlen and Olivia give off this image, despite their appearances. Jarlen will use Fallen-Hammer to strike down anyone who threatens his beloved Olivia. She adores him for it.
• Lightning Bruiser: Nightmare Knight is strong, fast and is very destructive. Aruinia too, but she rarely fights physically.
• Mad Scientist: Post-Madness, Armades L is this. He basically created a cyclops-spider-centaur as a guard dog for no higher reason.
• Major Injury Underreaction: Oh, good, Matthew's just stabbed Aruinia through the heart. She immediately gets back up, rips the weapon out, and smacks Matthew over the head with with the hilt.
• Make Them Rot: Simply a moment's touch to Last of David can result in tainted veins in the afflicted area, and gray flesh. Anything longer than that, and things get nasty.
• Mind Rape: Aruinia can pry into your mind with the Void Arts, which is explicitly likened to “having your very mind violated”.
• Nausea Fuel: The creation of a Wasteling by Aiber. Resulting in a Vomit Discretion Shot by the main characters present.
• Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Aruinia. She finds Last of David's “piercings” cute, gave a lecture on Chaos Theory while boiling a captured National Guard member alive, eats out of a skull, and her meditations include such cheery mantras as “Void consumes, Void devours, Void destroys, Void overtakes, Void is all and Void is none.”
• No-Sell: After a while of back and forth battling, it looks like Shuuji nailed Nightmare Knight with a lightning bolt...that the Knight simply grabs with his hand and absorbs. Queue Oh, Crap! looks.
• Nothing Is Scarier: In areas they've passed through, we see the aftermath of their attacks, the horrors they've afflicted, but there is no Jump Scare, even when it really feels like there should be one.
• Obliviously Evil: To Last of David, he's just trying to reach his loved ones. To the many soldiers he massacred, he's a terrifying demonic creature slaughtering every even slightly hostile force in his wake with powerful magic and some sort of nightmarish energy.
  • Also, Olivia – she does not really see much of what she does as that bad, given she has also acted to provide shelter for people afflicted by the Stagnant Mana, and Olivian Afflictees seem immune to further effects of her degrading touch. She seems like a kindly young woman providing shelter amidst hell on earth. Its the issue of what her presence does that is a problem.
• Person of Mass Destruction: For a given value of person. They incur a massive amount of damage wherever they go, some of them outright spreading the destruction simply by their presence.
• Power of the Void: Due to their connection to Stagnant Mana, this is a given for them, but some really take it far, including Olivia and Aruinia.
• Red Baron: Their provided names – they do have normal names, but these names they have are either Appropriated Appellations or a title. Aiber's name is an assumed name to cover his tracks. Aruinia comes from another world, though, hence her unusual name.
• Religion of Evil: the world's governments see the Ways of the Void as this, while Olivia espouses it as a “religion for the downtrodden and those taken advantage of.”
• Revenge Before Reason: Everyone who was wronged Elder Witch is going to die painfully. Regardless if they really had anything at all to do with the larger forces she blames for it. If you're affiliated with her enemies, you share their culpability.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Elder Witch. When Olivia gets hurt, Jarlen goes utterly ballistic and ignores his own pain in trying to kill the people who hurt her.
• Slasher Smile: Aiber takes this to another level when one of his captives who he hopes to use as a glorified magic nuke is crying and states she doesn't want revenge like he does. He then says, “Oh, but look, little miss, I'm smiling. I'm as happy as can be – now you try. Try smiling. It makes EVERYTHING feel better!” He then uses his grimy, disgusting fingers to force her mouth into a smile. She just looks utterly horrified by the whole affair.
• Stupid Evil: Aiber, interrogating someone is one thing. But managing to fail at torture and instead giving the enemy all of YOUR plans is something else. Something hilarious.
• Tome of Eldritch Lore: Aruinia wrote one, on summoning creatures of the Void, including Ghoul Titan Amanathes.
• Too Much Information: When Olivia starts going on about how happy she and Jarlen are now, she does note Jarlen's...new features...but happily notes, “Even so, he can still perform very well. And for that, I am grateful”. Matthew mimes retching when he pictures it. Dex looks like he just heard a Brown Note being recited.
  • That Came Out Wrong: She didn't mean it as something sexual at all. What she was saying was, essentially, that he was protecting her very well, she just has a problem with her words.
• Underestimating Badassery: A bunch of PMC provided soldiers joke around and jab Last of David with their guns while doubting this was really the same creature that devastated the city around them. Then he gets tired of being obstructed and joked about, proceeding to lightly shove one of them.
• Walking Wasteland: Olivia and Last of David. Olivia's very touch turned a lovely song bird into a horrible, bloated creature that screams profanities. Last of David simply rots everything he touches that still has “the spark of life” within it.
• Was Once a Man: All of them.
• Zombie Apocalypse: Whenever Aiber, Armades L or Nightmare Knight get involved with the plot, expect them to bring their unique types of zombies with them.

edited 1st Apr '14 5:20:51 PM by NickTheSwing

Hoo boy. That was wonderful and immensely creepy. They remind me of witches from Puella Magi Madoka Magica. Each character was so uniquely disturbing that I was riveted. Great job.

---

Name: Bertram "Bert" Dedrick

Age: 28

Personality: Bertram starts out as a quiet, rather dedicated young man whose equal parts idealist, revolutionary, and Consummate Liar. He slowly mutates into a silent, efficient psychopath. Despite this, he remains devoted to his commander as well as still caring about his brother and a girl who reminds him of his brother.

Abilities: Bertram is completely immortal, is a teleporter, and can control people through the tentacles that sprout from his back. If a part of his body is destroyed, he will regrow it.

Weaknesses: He can't be killed, but he can be stopped if he's cut into pieces and separated.

Goals: Help the Renascence to make Transhumans recognized and accepted as equals.

Motivation: Like most others in the Renascence, he saw the people he cared about mistreated and refused to let it happen any more. Also he didn't want to die before eighteen.

Role in the story: The Dragon

Backstory: Bertram was the child of a teleporter and the woman the teleporter was supposed to capture. After his father let them go, his mother stayed on the run from the government until they were caught when Bertram was five. His powers developed shortly afterwards. He was sent to live with his father, stepmother, and brother while his mother was reprogrammed, forgetting him. Bertram got along well with his new family, but, having been raised around normal humans, never accepted their military lifestyle. Instead of staying home after school and training, he would jump between dimensions. One day when he was ten, he jumped without a destination in mind and landed in a pocket dimension; there he met a creature. He met with it several times that year and it eventually convinced him to bond with it. He began to grow tentacles out of his back and he would heal at an advanced rate. He hid the healing, but couldn't hide the tentacles. It showed to be a mutation from some chemicals he had come in contact with, a freak accident. At fifteen, he met Wren Summers, a girl who expressed similar unhappiness, and fell in love. After she went missing on a mission three years later, he left, thinking she was dead because of her beliefs and that he or his family would be killed soon as well. Wren found him a few months later and offered him a place in the Renascence. He gladly accepted.

Relevant tropes:

• A Boy and His Alien: They appeared to start out as this, but it is revealed to be much more intelligent than him; Bertram still calls it Leviathan.
• Badass Longcoat: Bertram wears that plus long pants and boots to hide the fact that Leviathan is a part of his body.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Bertram never said much, but he's friends with an inhuman monster and eats people. The heroes found this out the hard way.
• Brown Note: Looking into their bonded mind is not a good thing. Telepaths will physically shut down, retreating into their own subconscious to get away from it.
• Big Brother Instinct: He has this towards Shelly, the twenty-two year old resident Mad Scientist.
• Combat Tentacles: His signature style.
• Consummate Liar: Bertram was trained to do this as soon as he could speak. He used it on his parents and the Bureau to decent effect. Wren tended to find him out and then beat him to a bloody pulp, though.
• Creepy Blue Eyes: The iris is ringed with black near the sclera.
• Eldritch Location: Teleports through them on a regular basis.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Do not hurt Bertram's little brother if you plan on living. Even Wren got slammed into a wall when she tried to kill him.
  • And while he doesn't care for Shelly enough to fight Wren, he does try to keep her from finding out what her chemical compounds are being used for.
• Fate Worse than Death: When his hunger gets to be too much, he's cut up and stored. This does nothing for his mental well-being.
• From a Single Cell: He displayed this when he's blown up.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Routinely falls into this with both Leviathan and Wren.
• Immortality: Thanks to Leviathan, he can't die. Ever. He can be stopped by being cut into bits and having each of those bit be put in a different place.
  • Resurrective Immortality: So long as he eats.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Leviathan only feeds off of living things and since Bertram's usually closest... Naturally that doesn't work out, so they eat other people alive instead.
• Lovecraftian Superpower: Sprouts black tentacles from his back and has immortality where he always comes back wrong.
• Mad Love/Love Martyr: Bertram loves Wren regardless of what she does to him or anyone else (except his brother). Best seen when he helps her test a bio-chemical weapon on a sealed building full of normal humans.
• Pet the Dog: Loves his brother and will do anything to protect him.
• Reluctant Psycho: At first Bertram hates what being hooked up to a Starfish Alien eventually makes him do. After being killed a few dozen times, he doesn't really mind.
• People Puppets: He can use his tentacles to link with a person or multiple people, but dislikes doing so. First, because he had to feel people's terror, later because he doesn't like other people's minds. Will only do it if Wren orders him to.
• Starfish Alien: Leviathan can share a body, give its host literal immortality, cause mutations, and it looks like crude oil.
• Symbiotic Possession: Until the whole eating people bit, Bertram and Leviathan were good friends. When Bertram snaps, they're even better friends.
• Thinking Up Portals: An ability he shares with his father.
• Undeathly Pallor: Gets this when he tries not to eat anyone.
• Was Once a Man: He's barely human by the end.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Once he's started his Resurrective Immortality, he repeatedly wishes he could die. Sharing a mental link with Leviathan counteracts it slightly, but he would still prefer to be able to die at some point.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: He can regenerate from virtually nothing, but he becomes less and less human each time.
• Villainous Friendship: Bertram and Leviathan have been a Type I from the time Bertram was ten. He and Shelly are also a Type I. She finds his presence calming and thinks Leviathan is "kind of cute".

edited 16th Apr '14 7:19:15 PM by UmLovely

RISE

Interesting. Creepy, but extremely tragic and prime fodder for a Heroic BSoD if the protagonists are responsible for his deaths and gradual disintegration.

Anyway, here's an experiment of mine:

Name: Fluchsteicher (aka, the Ebon Spear, Fluch)

Age: The polearm itself is around six hundred years old, the consciousness within it is slightly less than eighty.

Personality: He (Fluch despises being referred to as an it, and he's developed a male gender identity) is...not at all like a normal Artifact of Doom. In fact, Fluchsteicher is something of a fan of non-violence, being a cold and calculating strategist with an idealistic streak a mile long and a rigid adherence to chivalry. This probably has something to do with how he became a Black Blade (an Empathic Weapon) in the first place. That being said, he's also a colossal cynic who has a tendency to obey the letter and not the spirit of the code when its in his (and his wielder's) best interest ("Never turn your back on the enemy" is taken as reasonable advice for a Tactical Withdrawal, and "despise pecuniary reward" does not cover expanding territory or accepting political power). He's genuinely a stickler about "protecting the weak" bits though.

Abilities: Besides the typical Black Blade abilities (Nigh-Invulnerability, Clingy MacGuffin, wielder may become a Magic Knight due to power within the Blade, longevity, and the ability to work on his own and thus protect his wielder), Fluchsteicher is also a skilled politician and highly competent vizier. In fact, he usually handles the diplomatic and political aspect of running his wielder's territory (St. Adrian, while a Genius Bruiser and capable strategist in his own right, was originally a gangster and finds the whole idea of political intrigue strange and frankly ridiculous, given how shallow the whole thing is). His Blade specialty is Death, which is part the reason for Adrian's success as a chaos lord (which is not an actual position, it's someone who aligns more to the latter part of Order Versus Chaos that has earned the enmity of the Federation of Atlantis - the remnants of European powers and the Eastern Seaboard of the United States after consolidating themselves into a single government. Irony is like that). After all, the dead, and thus recruits, are never in short supply.

Weaknesses: As a Chaos-aligned Black Blade, Fluch also conveys a weakness to Law-based magic. Also, due to his link to a fundamentally human phenomenon (souls), Fluchsteicher isn't at all good at Summon Magic, unlike literally every other Black Blade in existence. In Adrian's point of view, this isn't a weakness at all (part of his Start of Darkness involved a rampaging elemental), but it's still embarrassing to the living spear.

Backstory: ...Is coming later, as is traditional for me. Suffice to say that the 2012 apocalypse really did happen here, and now the world is crawling with Functional Magic and folkloric creatures. The Mayans themselves were not overly concerned with this (magic was part of their daily life, so a "high tide" period was simply annoying), hence why it wasn't that important in their myths, but for the modern world? Yep.

edited 2nd May '14 11:57:39 AM by Leliel

What rises must fall, what falls may rise again.

(cont'd)

Okay, part of the setting conceit is that the infamous 2012 apocalypse came about in the form of The Magic Comes Back. Sort of. It never left, really, but European witch hunters around the time of the Renaissance, sick of the chaos it inherently causes (for example, the bubonic plague), put a sort of seal on it (using magic - as far as the hunters were concerned this wasn't hypocritical, since their job was always avoiding ill magic), creating a Weirdness Censor effect and disguising all evidence of its existence. Most people were aware on some level it existed, but the Grand Glamour sealed it away until the so-called Turning broke the dam, keeping it minor and subtle.

Then the Glamour broke with the ascent of Sirius, and the door to the magical world reopened - and it charged out.

While magic and technology don't actually conflict, the elemental chaos caused by rampaging nature spirits broke apart a lot of infrastructure, and overturned the old world completely, particularly given how a lot of people were "unstuck in time," sending them into the near future (St. Adrian is a perfect example of this). What's more, magic partially runs on Clap Your Hands If You Believe - since a lot of people believed in living, sapient items important to the history of the world, embryonic elementals and other newborn spirits fused with appropriate items in the process. Including the Black Blades.

Flutsteicher was one of them, the favored weapon of one of the architects of the Great Glamour, kept as a random curio of a New York private collector. While the spirit that joined with it - later him - was a mindless Psychopomp, the memories of both his original owner and the collector left their resonance with him, causing him to develop a very human personality almost instantly. A very ambitious personality...

And a very kind and honorable one too. The original witch hunter was a Knight in Shining Armor and the collector a philanthropist who spent much of his childhood in charities. Thus, Flutsteicher inherited three things - the hunter's sense of martial honor and desire to protect those in his domain, the collector's business sense and belief that it is the duty of the strong to care for the weak, and a double dose of the will to make the world right, by any means required.

Were things different, he may have been found by a person fated to be one of the greatest heroes who ever lived, a mighty champion of Law. The person who did find him was the future St. Adrian. Depending on your point of view, the soon-to-be Warlord of the Straits (because he took over the ruins of his home city of Detroit, as in the City of the Straights) is a hero (certainly to Detroit - it's a rather bustling city now), but he's certainly no figure of Law. Law and order failed him, failed to give him a way apart from crime out of his despondent situation before the Turning, failed to help his home at all after it. Is it any wonder he turned to the beautiful madness of Chaos? Or convinced Flut that any trace of the previous order and culture was a backwards, degenerate callback to a corrupt world?

Thus, did Flutsteicher quickly tutor Adrian in the fine art of politics and magic, combining with his wielder's streetwise instinct for power structures and society without formal law to create a neo-feudal general and lord, gathering the disparate peoples of Detroit under his banner, soon establishing the beginnings of a government. And soon, Adrian's dreams of a new world free of the evils of the old began to expand...

Tropes:

• Affably Evil: "Evil" may be a bit a misnomer (a big theme in the story is that what one calls evil depends on where one is standing a lot of the time), but he's definitely more aware of etiquette than his wielder, and happily encourages his expansionist views.
• Berserk Button: Moral Myopia. He suspects it might be the reason why St. Adrian faced misery and racism throughout his youth. He also isn't a fan of the Federation, for the same reason Adrian isn't (they're remains of the old power structure that was responsible for abandoning Detroit when it was economically easy to do so, then saving its own skin at the first sign of danger).
• Blade On A Stick: What he is.
• The Dragon: To his wielder.
• Evil Counterpart: To Edith Monette's own Black Blade, Cetro Lobo. Like that mace, he serves someone who wants to change the world for the better, but the way St. Adrian chose was crushing what he views as inherently evil, while Edith wants to change the system by showing it a better way. He's aware of this.
• Man Behind the Man: ...Kind of. It's unlikely St. Adrian would be such a problem without Fluch, but it's ultimately Adrian wooed Fluchsteicher over to his side to begin with.
• Order Versus Chaos: Technically on the side of Chaos, but he's all about discipline and restoring order. Chaos, here, is the quality of magic to exist in constant flux and shatter rigid hierarchy - thus resulting in the saying that Chaos has a tendency to become Order when it finds a form it likes, and Order becomes Chaos when the status quo becomes corrupt.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: In the Medieval Knight form of things. Like wielder, like weapon...
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Like weapon, like wielder. He is completely dedicated to Adrian's vision of a world where one is truly free to get what they earn, rather than that platitude being an excuse to justify the rich and powerful being rich and powerful when they have done nothing to earn it (unless you consider a lucky birth "earning it").

What rises must fall, what falls may rise again.

Very, very interesting character again—you make me want to be this blade's wielder. In fact, he didn't exactly come off as a villain as much as a very morally complex and compelling Anti-Hero, so good job if that was what you were aiming for. One thing that confused me—are all of his powers such as summoning, long life, etc as well as weaknesses to Law-magic passed on to the individual currently using him?

Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace

Passed on to the wielder. Thought that was more clear than it is, apparently.

What rises must fall, what falls may rise again.