Magus
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Essentially, collection of forces. A few planets - 3, to be precise - but a fairly small overall population. The only reason they still exist is a surprisingly competent counter-intelligence group (though offensive intel is... not their forté).
For perspective, most other factions average out at 50 inhabited worlds.
@ Occasional Exister: Thanks for the commentary and I'm glad you noticed the whole "selfish reasons but valid point" aspect of Jurlath's story. To answer your question: In truth, no one ever finds out in-universe what was behind his rebellion, but the real reason is a fusion of both reasons. Jurlath observed the fighting between the races and Zalakshi's complete disinterest in stopping it and was angered...but he was also tantalized by the ability to have unlimited power over the world's people and the world itself. The only thing that outright isn't true is his "tyrant status". He was a just ruler and that is how he was able to convince so many dragons to join him on what was basically a suicide mission.
@ Nick The Swing: Wow, this guy crosses way over the line of Psychopathic Manchild and then just keeps on going. What really cinches it is how his backstory is completely devoid of a Freudian Excuse—and being raised by Elijah Gibbs of all people, I was expecting a storm of sympathetic motivations, but just...nothing. Just a creepy child who clearly had something wrong with him all along. His many powers and disconnect from reality make him a formidable force to deal with.
@ Error404: Sasha seems like moderate threat for someone who doesn't know what they're doing, but someone who ultimately started a rebellion for petty and childish reasons and thus can never really be a credible danger for an organization that is trained and able to keep intergalactic peace. Still good for a Starter Villain though.
Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
@Error404: Ah gotcha. Agree with Swordofknowledge that she sounds like she'd be a good Starter Villain.
@Swordofknowledge: I'm glad the real motivation is a bit of a combination of the two. Makes him more complex that he was essentially a someone trying to do what they believed was the right thing, but also had a little bit of selfish desires that even he may not have been aware of. Also it kind of makes the deaths of him and his followers a lot sadder.
Wasn't sure if I should submit this character since it's so close on the heels of another Mafiya villain, but he's really the only one left I wanted to submit from my fantasy series so... yeah, here we go.
Name: Mikhael
Age: 41
Appearance: Six-feet-tall, very fat, beady eyes, bulbous nose, completely bald and with a broad, flabby face, Mikhael is not what you'd call a looker. He also has a great bushy, black moustache that resembles a monstrous caterpillar that's made its home under his nose.
Personality: Mikhael is ultimately a man woefully devoid of complexity. He's really nothing more than a thug and a bully who enjoys throwing his weight around and forcing others to kowtow to his will. Ever since childhood he's solved his problems by bludgeoning them into submission. While he talks a big game and is strong and skilled as a fighter, if the odds ever turn dangerously against him in a scenario, he's quick to panic. He craves money and power for the respect that it buys him, and any person who disrespects him, whether intentionally or not, is crushed mercilessly lest others think he's weak. Mikhael is also a fervent misogynist, seeing women as servants and broodmares instead of people, and if a women is the person who shows him disrespect, there's no level he won't stoop to in order to make them pay.
Abilities: Underneath all his bulk, Mikhael has a fair amount of muscle, making him very strong, and he's been in enough scraps to know his way around a fight. Other than that, the guy really has no other strengths that give him an edge in a one-on-one confrontation. He's in-charge because of his connections and this gives him a small army of muscle that he can use as foot soldiers in taking out his competition, and, due to his recent alliance with the Thieves' Guild, he's been able to get better weapons and recruit more and more.
Weaknesses: Despite his strength and hired muscle, if the odds turn against him too severely, Mikhael is quick to show what a coward he is at heart, and will make rash decisions to ensure his own survival. He's not a planner, nor is he a capable leader. He's unwilling to see the big picture, and his pettiness, viciousness and knack for forming personal vendettas ends up causing him more trouble than he can handle. Plus his repugnant attitude tends to alienate him from his underlings as well as all of those who are in positions of power to help him.
Goals: To join together with the Thieves' Guild and gain control over Golden Port's underworld, essentially taking over the city in all but name and forging his own personal criminal empire.
Motivation: A combination of a desire for money, power and respect.
Role: The Starter Villain for Book One's B-Plot.
Backstory: A native of one of the Frozen Islands (a placeholder name for the time being), Mikhael worked as a criminal enforcer for his Fantastic Drug lord cousin, specializing in jobs that required killing without thought or compassion. He married a woman named Natalia in his mid-twenties and had twin boys with her, Ivan and Dmitri. Natalia left when their children were ten, too afraid of Mikhael's abuse to continue living with him. When his sons were fourteen, Dmitri fell into the frozen waters of a nearby lake. Ivan dived in and saved his brother, but caught pneumonia and died shortly afterwards. Ever since, Mikhael has blamed Dmitri for his favored son's death. One year before the start of the story, Mikhael and his son immigrated to Elaranassa with a personal army of hired killers and trolls, ostensibly to expand his cousin's reach but in reality to forge his own criminal empire. Mikhael has spent most of his time in Golden Port waging war against the local gang, the Manticores, in a bid to seize control of the local criminal elements. Several months ago he was contacted by Vaultrus. Due to his cousin granting Mikhael access to a steady supply of rare bitter frost, the Thieves' Guild has decided to back Mikhael in order to expand their own power, hoping to forge an alliance overseas in the Frozen Islands. Presently, the Manticores are all but destroyed, and the only people left standing in their way are the Guard Captain and local Vigilante Woman.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: He's emotionally and physically abusive to his son, Dmitri, whom he always keeps close by to act as a servant/punching bag. While he favored the deceased Ivan more, Dmitri makes it clear not even he was spared from Mikhael's wrath. Though Mikhael himself doesn't quite remember it that way. Probably one of his worst acts towards Dmitri in the book is holding his face inches away from a snarling attack dog's, all because Dmitri made a move to defend the Miss Kitty working for Mikhael when he threatened her. He may have actually let the dog maul him if Vaultrus hadn't interfered.
- Mikhael: "Don't cry. You're a brave boy now, aren't you? You know what brave boys do? They look death in the eye. You think Ivan looked away when the waters swallowed you up? No, no. He dove right in! Come now, brave boy. Now it's your turn. Look at death. Look!"
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After saving himself from being burned alive, he begs Angeline to spare him, promising her whatever she wants. Doesn't work.
- Bad Boss: He beats his prostitutes and his mooks live in fear of him due to the many horror stories floating around about what he's done to minions who've angered him.
- Berserk Button: Anytime someone, deliberately or not, disrespects him, he does not react well.
- Big Bad Wannabe: Despite his ambitions to build up his own criminal empire in Golden Port and his personal belief that he's a criminal mastermind, Mikhael is nothing more than a glorified thug who happened to be born to the right family. He's so unessential to his own operation that Vaultrus is able to effortlessly take complete control of it.
- The Bully: At his heart, this is all he is. He likes hurting people who are helpless against him and forcing everyone to give him what he wants. He's had this attitude since childhood and never grown out of it.
- Dirty Coward: Despite his history as an enforcer, Mikhael noticeably never puts himself in a situation where there's a high risk to himself. He never engages the local Vigilante Woman one-on-one and spends most of his time held up in his hideout guarded by a small army of hired goons. Noticeably, the only times he ever personally gets involved is when he thinks there's no risk to himself. Such as crippling a child, or attempting to murder an old woman. Even then he takes protection with him, and when the latter succeeds in lighting him on fire, killing his troll and then has Mikhael at her mercy, Mikhael wastes no time in turning into a blubbering mess, begging for his life.
- The Dog Bites Back: After spending the entire book harassing Angeline, when he believes he's no longer in any danger, he personally heads over to her tavern with a troll enforcer to kill her and her grandson. He holds a crossbow on her and tells his troll to get the boy. Angeline responds by splashing a cup full of alcohol in his face then smashing a lantern over his head, setting him ablaze. She then headshots the troll with Mikhael's own crossbow, and, after Mikhael has managed to put out the fire but is too weak to fight back, she caves in his skull with her cane as he begs for mercy.
- Domestic Abuser: He frequently beat his wife, called her names, his favorite being, "Cow bitch," and forced her to pretty much act as his servant. After a particularly vicious beating that nearly killed her, she fled once the healers helped her recover but was too afraid to take her sons with her. See Abusive Parents above for how he treated his sons.
- Evil Is Petty: He harasses Angeline, an old woman whose grandchild he's already crippled, and demands that she sell him her tavern, all because she spoke out against his crimes. He also loots the old Guard Captain's wedding ring from off his dead body and talks about how he'll show it off to the man's grieving widow.
- Fantastic Racism: He really despises non-humans, but that doesn't stop him from hiring them.
- Fat Bastard: As rotund as he is malevolent.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Vaultrus makes no secret that both he and his superiors at the Guild despise Mikhael, and, while allying with him in the local Mob War, they're only doing so because Mikhael has the most profitable connections. Part of why Vaultrus is so keen on mentoring Dmitri is because he really wants a successor so Mikhael can have an "accident" as soon as possible.
- Gonk: Bulbous nose, beady eyes, and a broad, flabby face, Mikhael is a highly unattractive man.
- Hate Sink: The Big Bads of Book One aren't really intended to be completely hated, and Vaultrus, while not a shining pinnacle of humanity, at least has power, competency and pragmatism going for him, as well as one or two Pet the Dog moments. Mikhael, on the other hand, is meant to be a one-man checklist of loathsome qualities. He spends practically the entirety of his screen time kicking the dog, and is ultimately just a cruel, greedy, smug, petty, misogynistic, treacherous, cowardly, racist, vulgar and stupid thug who's only in power because he happens to be well-connected. He's not the most evil person in the series, but he's definitely one of the most loathsome.
- He-Man Woman Hater: He really does not like women at all, which is part of the reason why he spends so much energy on tormenting Angeline. There's no Freudian Excuse for this, he's just a man who needs people to hate and doesn't need reasons to hate them.
- Hypocrite: Despite hating non-humans and women, he's willing to hire trolls as muscle and he knows perfectly well that the head of the Thieves' Guild is a woman.
- Jerkass: Vaultrus is not a polite person at all, but the sheer amount of unprovoked vitriol that pours out of Mikhael's mouth at every opportunity is truly something to behold.
- The Mafiya: As a Frozen Islander crime lord, he's the Fantasy Counterpart Culture of this.
- Parental Favoritism: Mikhael had twin sons, Ivan and Dmitri, and he made no secret that Ivan was his favorite, as he was stronger, smarter and braver than the timid Dmitri. All qualities that reminded Mikhael of himself (yes, he honestly believed that). Ever since Ivan died as a result of saving his brother's life, his abuse of Dmitri has since doubled as he blames him for Ivan's death and repeatedly and sincerely states Dmitri should have been the one to die.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He's a misogynist in addition to being a fantastic racist.
- Puppet King: More like "Puppet Crime Lord" but yeah, while he's the one in charge of his gang in name, in practice it's Vaultrus who handles the operation and keeps things running smoothly. Frequently he goes over Mikhael's head in matters so his "boss" won't screw things up. The biggest example is when Vaultrus arranges the deaths of the Guard Captain and the vast majority of guardsmen loyal to him. Mikhael is pissed, not over what Vaultrus did, but because he was literally never told that any such plan was in place.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: The only reason he has any power whatsoever is because his cousin is a powerful criminal in the Frozen Isles and is able to smuggle him a dependable supply of bitter frost. Now that he's become allies with the Thieves' Guild, he believes his new "friends" make him virtually untouchable.
- Smug Snake: He's a smug brute with a massive ego who far overestimates how cunning he is and how crucial he is to the Thieves' Guild's plans. In point of fact, he barely plays a role in planning the strategies for taking over the town, that's Vaultrus who usually goes over his head so Mikhael won't mess things up. Not to mention his solution to every problem before Vaultrus came along was, "Kill people until the problem goes away."
- Stout Strength: There's actually a fair amount of muscle underneath all that bulk, not that he shows it off that often.
- Take Over the City: His goal, more-or-less, is to do this to Golden Port.
- Would Hit a Girl: He routinely abused his wife, and beats his prostitutes for "talking back."
- Would Hurt a Child: He personally crippled Angeline's grandson after she refused to sell her tavern to him. Later, once he believes his victory is assured and all threats have been eliminated, he heads to her tavern and plans on killing her grandson in front of her before killing her too. Luckily, he fails.
edited 22nd Jan '15 8:46:24 AM by OccasionalExister
Serocco
I originally based Skuurnur off cyberpunk medieval knights; that was the idea I was going for their designs, but as I started designing them, I went balls-off-the-wall to the point where I honestly can't tell if they're meant to be humans anymore. Eraldo especially.
Mikhael is just as you say - he's an unlikable thug through and through. A good way to portray The Bully, given how uncomfortably easy it is to see someone like him existing in real life.
- Name: Ayew Brogguhn
- Appearance: He is short and ovular, with a flexible curtain of mail attached to the skull of his bascinet. It covered the throat, neck and shoulders. Brogguhn's torso boasted scaled rims all over his suit of armor. The legs were ovular, stocky at the thighs, but thin at the calves. The front ends of Brogguhn's feet had two talons protruding downward. Both of his gauntlets were curled forward, with the tips of the hands resembling meat mallets.
- Prior to his conversion into a Culliver, Brogguhn was a fair-skinned man with actual hands instead of meat mallets. He was still short and round, but fairly bulky at the shoulders and limbs.
- Role: Freiherr of the Army; he's in charge of Skuurnur's infantry.
- Backstory: He was a citizen of the Commonwealth of Ream, a continent ruled by seven Aura User warlords known as Exarchs. The Exarchs were notorious for their strong-arming of regular humans into their businesses, along with intense sectarianism between the Aura Users prior to the formal establishment of the Commonwealth as the government of Ream. Brogguhn was himself not a fan of Aura Users or Cullivers (who made many into fugitives and refugees before approaching him). Brogguhn was the owner of a large gym that allowed anyone to join for a small fee; he sees his gym as a public building that allows for men and women to "cut loose" and vent. He was initially unconcerned with geopolitics or racial divisions; he just wanted to maintain his gym, so when he was approached by a friend over whether or not he's interested in joining Skuurnur, Brogguhn declined, saying he wasn't eager to "turn into cannon fodder for some tinpot warlord." Eventually, he was accosted by Harold Gusteyer, an Exarch, who told him to pack it up and leave the gym. Brogguhn said no, and launched a fist at Gusteyer, who grabbed both of his hands and crushed them into their sockets. Left to bleed out, Gusteyer ordered the demolition of the gym "as a birthday present" in the following day. As Brogguhn struggled to get up, he was approached by Unioh Zarif, a recruiter for Skuurnur, who came upon the area after sensing a large spike in Aura (ala Gusteyer). Zarif took out a mechanical spray that, upon making contact with skin, stopped the bleeding and transformed Brogguhn's hands into meat mallets. Having witnessed the scuffle between Brogguhn and Gusteyer, Zarif offered to recruit Brogguhn as Skuurnur's sixth and most recent Freiherr. He agreed, but only after his friend was similarly ran outta town by an Exarch.
- Personality: Noted for his temper, Brogguhn is very often annoyed at Stossuhl's extremism, to the point where he often resorts to violence as a way to vent his frustration out on his colleague. Brogguhn is often forced back by his fellow Freiherr in Oroesius Caulhyr (the manufacturer of Skuurnur's war machine). Unlike Stossuhl, Brogguhn holds respect for women; he disparages Stossuhl's eagerness to say "Whore" to describe the Succubus main character, and is the most likely dude to compliment female opponents in battle if they impress him enough. At the same time, he does not believe in Would Not Hit A Woman, seeing that as an outdated, archaic, and ultimately sexist mindset that disrespects a woman's capacity to be a fighter.
- Abilities: As a Culliver, his modified cybernetic body possesses a pair meat mallets instead of hands. He is incredibly fast and agile despite his height and weight, and his status as a Culliver means he is able to dissolve all forms of energy directed against him, as if he was "cleaving through cloth." He is able to use his round stomach like a cannonball or a wrecking ball, when worst comes to worst.
- Goal: He wants to liberate his homeland, the Commonwealth of Ream, from the Exarchs. Whether he does it or someone else is of no concern, as long as Ream is liberated.
- Fate: He is killed by the main character when the near-entirety of Skuurnur fights her all at once.
edited 22nd Jan '15 9:59:28 PM by Serocco
In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.
@ Occasional Exister: Well...Honestly, I'd have to say Mikhael is an engaging character just by how absolutely horrible he is. In reading his profile and actions I realized that I was subconsciously trying to find some sort of redeeming quality to him but of course there were none. He's an interesting example of a Complete Monster—there were no real over-the-top feats of villainy (though the crippling a child is just horrific) just a seemingly endless procession of increasingly slimy and cruel acts that make him evil to the core. Mikhael definitely fits the Fantasy Counterpart Culture aspects of the Mafiya—as I mentioned in another post, they are almost always portrayed as cold inhuman monsters rather than the Gentleman Thief variation of the Italians for some reason. As Serocco noted, it is very easy to imagine a terror like him existing in real life—because they do.
- @ Serocco: This is the first one of the Skuurnur who is not only far more reasonable but I actually feel sorry for. Brogguhn doesn't seem to have any of the truly nasty traits of the others you've posted, and his backstory really does inspire sympathy. It almost verges on Tearjerker when I think about how he started out: just a normal man who didn't want anything to do with the struggles of the "bigger fish" around him, and then was pulled into it against his will. The only thing he did wrong was to fight for what was important to him and it led to his downfall. Honestly the thought that he was killed by the main character really does hit you deep in the gut. Good job for making a sympathetic villain.
edited 21st Jan '15 6:51:46 PM by Swordofknowledge
Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
@Serocco: Nice work on Ayew. His story, and I'm sure there are many more like his, is a good example of why an organization like Skuurnur can exist and be seen as a good thing by certain people. People with power can abuse those without it, ruining their lives in the process, and it's only natural that someone who's been hurt in such a way would fight back, to avenge themselves and to protect others from suffering a similar fate. Nothing that Ayew did warranted what happened to him or his friend, and it's very easy to see why he would join Skuurnur. I agree with Swordofknowledge that it's pretty sad that he ends up dying at the protagonist's hands. I'm personally hoping for an Alas, Poor Villain, but I understand that could be difficult to pull off if he dies in the midst of a massive battle between the protagonist and his entire organization.
@Swordofknowledge: Thank you, I really appreciate your input. I'm glad that you think Mikhael comes off as realistic despite being pretty much a completely irredeemable and monstrous thug. In creating him, I was trying to make him much more disgusting on a personal level than on a grand-scale one, so I'm glad that most of his deeds don't come across as too over-the-top. I was also debating whether or not to make his favoritism towards Ivan redeeming, but ultimately it just didn't fit in with where I wanted to take the character. I'm not exactly sure why members of The Mafiya are depicted as so much more morally abhorrent than the "honorable" Italian Mafia, when both are criminal groups that kill people for money. Not saying it's not fun to evoke the imagery, just admitting that I don't get the distinction either.
edited 22nd Jan '15 5:11:41 PM by OccasionalExister
Serocco
On a side-note, for those who remember my girl Chloe Aeyslou, and are still confused about how and why she develops a bond with her soldiers, it's because she wants a family. She wants to live a life separate and different from her dysfunctional parents, but she's desperate for a family, for an experience that wasn't robbed from her internally.
She's subconsciously searching for "ideal" (i.e. strong) people that she would want to serve under her. She wants to bring them up personally under her. She wants to show the support to those that her parents rarely did; subconsciously, she wants to get support from the family she never had, and give support to the family she never had. Hope that clears it up.
edited 23rd Apr '15 12:32:36 PM by Serocco
In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.
The Silly Gloom
I'm going to agree with the others and say that I actually feel sorry for Brogguhn. From the looks of it, he seems more like a victim of circumstance, with barely any trace of malice (if at all). The rather... strange design according to your description is also an interesting thing about him. Overall, I can certainly sympathise with him, and I tend to favor villains I cam sympathise with.
Here's a background character from my primary project, The Eritian Story, from which characters such as Larane
come from.
Name: Emperor Xerxes Arkios, the Betrayer
Age: Died roughly 700 years ago. Estimated to be around 250 when he died, though records from the time seem to contradict each other on this (with some claiming that he's as old as 1,000)
Abilities: Magic, in all its forms. Xerxes Arkios was a true Raw Magic user, capable of manipulating reality itself using nothing but his force of will. This feat is considered impossible by today's standard. Moreover, the records from that time suggest that he was the most powerful mage the continent had ever seen, in an age when even a lowly mage apprentice was only a few steps away from being a demigod. On top of it all, Xerxes was a prodigal inventor, having created or at least taken part in creating such marvel as the railway system.
Role: Vastly considered the very reason the Erits continent is in such a miserable state. Even in death, his influence still lingers.
Backstory:
The last emperor’s is a name uttered with fear, shame, and revulsion, the likes of which most commonly associated with beasts of myths. Xerxes Arkios was one of the key reasons Erits nearly became a wasteland, and his actions that set in motion the continent’s downfall overshadowed most anything he had achieved during his reign, no matter how great. Xerxes was a great man, but greater still was his ambition, and the destruction it brought. For nearly two centuries he reigned supreme, leading Endeil to a glorious age, but once he went too far, it all came collapsing.
A sorcerous overlord, whose power few dared to question, Xerxes pushed Endeil’s technological advancement far past his predecessors. For one, it was he who invented rifles, magical weapons of extreme destructive potential that a lone soldier can easily sport. Some also attribute the railway system to him, with some of his documented concepts of rails and their transports playing a crucial part in the emergence of the Kingdom’s Railway after Endeil’s recovery from the disaster, though few would willingly admit to that, since it is most unwise in the Sacred Kingdom to speak highly of the Betrayer.
In an act of utter arrogance and insolence, Xerxes, with his vast legion of Einmagi of Endeil, attacked Sanctuary Ieul, one of the known Gates to Abiciel, guarded by Angels. His intent, to conquer the Celestial Empire, fueled the legion to exterminate the divinities residing in the mountaintop Sanctuary Ieul in only one day. It was a triumph for man, a proof that humanity had come so far that even Angels must now bow to them. Or, at least, so the mad emperor thought. After the decisive victory that seemed to reinforce his deep-seated belief in humanity’s true power, a belief he enforced upon his empire as well, Larane, the Seraph of Harmony, came to him. She offered him a chance, a chance to cease his quest, to not begin a war he could never win, but of course he refused. There was no second chance after the Lady of Mercy left the Seat of the Emperor.
Other known Gates to Abiciel were flooded with poisonous water that ate through stone. Their angelic wardens fled, seemingly disappeared overnight. Soon after, the land began to change. Forests turned grey, fertile soil became sand, the very air became ‘tainted’. By then, Xerxes Arkios realised that there was no war to fight in. He realised what ruin he was soon to bring to his mighty empire. This event came to be known as Dissonance, the death of Erits.
As his empire crumbled around him, those he once ruled began to rebel. Many who dared not speak against him prior now stood up and declared him a heretic, whose insolence invited the wrath of the Angels. As more and more died to the vicious Dissonance, the mighty Einmagi included, the few that remained united under the banner of one holy maiden, Mirelle Jenash, proclaimed the envoy of Larane herself. In his last, miserable moment, Xerxes Arkios finally succumbed to Mirelle’s zealots, who branded him the Betrayer. He was burned alive in an event known as the Cleansing, and the fire that consumed him lasted for nearly ten days, fueled by the lingering elemental energy that once made him such a powerful mage.
To this day, Xerxes is still remembered by the people of Erits as a megalomaniac, a monster, a cruel tyrant, and a prime example of a great man consumed by pride and brought misery to those around him. He’s also remembered for his brilliance, though perhaps only by the less-biased scholars, as his role in pushing the continent’s technological progress is undisputable. A great number of other things of him are said as well, such as how he’s a bloodthirsty ruler who waged war for its sake, or how he had an entire fortress dedicated to torturing his prisoners, and many other wilder tales. The one important thing, indeed, remains that without him, the Sacred Kingdom of Endeil, and the Erits continent in its entirety, would have been a completely different place if not for Xerxes Arkios, the Betrayer.
Tropes
A God Am I: The most referenced reason why Xerxes decided to attack Sanctuary Ieul and in effect declared war with Angels. He wanted to invade the Celestial Empire to make the Six Seraphs his servants, and declare himself the Archseraph. This overconfidence isn't really beyond reason as Xerxes was easily the most powerful human to ever walk on Erits.
And Man Grew Proud: Xerxes and his Einmagi legion were immensely powerful, easily rivaling Angels. Sadly, prowess in battle couldn't save them from the reality ripping plague that was Dissonance.
Evil Overlord: Those of the Sacred Kingdom Era certainly view him this way.
Posthumous Character: He's long dead by now, but his legacy lives on as the fear and loathing that the devout people of the Sacred Kingdom feel in their hearts when saying his name. Not to mention the inventions he made or help made.
Pride: His downfall.
Unreliable Narrator: Not himself, but the records from his day, both pre-Dissonance and otherwise, contain some of the wildest tales about him. Some suggest that, as his plan to invade the Celestial Empire, he tried to produce imitations of Angels to serve him, and succeeded in doing so as well. Some suggest that he and the Seraph Larane had an affair, and the invasion had to do with some sort of divine jealousy involved. Some suggest that he intentionally provoked the Seraphs so that they would unleash Dissonance on the continent, for an unknown purpose. Some paint him in a slightly more benevolent light, stating that the Angels he slain were evil forces that plagued the mortal world for too long. The Old Empire scholars are rather divided because of this.
edited 23rd Jan '15 2:19:35 AM by arreimil
On the foundation of glass a dream is built. And, like glass, it shatters.
Serocco
I'll detail Brogguhn's friend after this.
Xerxes sounds like a more beefed up version of the real life Persian Xerxes, or more to the point, the 300 Xerxes who saw himself as a god. Looks like a Predecessor Villain, too, and one who loses in a classic way - Pride Before a Fall.
- Name: Hhevi Basij (yes, taken from the phrase "Heavily Besieged." Don't judge me.)
- Appearance: When he was a human, Basij was a square-jawed, middle aged man standing just outside his house. He wore a checkered flannel shirt, a monocle, and baggy jeans. As a Culliver, Basij wore a Stechhelm (a frog helmet), possessing a horizontal slit through the eyes that resembled a frog's opening mouth. Golden anvils were nailed onto his neck, wrists, ankles, hips, and knees. His body was adorned in a suit of armor that possessed a spoon-shaped collar around his neck.
- Backstory: Hhevi Basij was a Self-Made Man, who worked as a hunter for his community. He killed animals and prepared them for annual feasts to the community. He frequented Ayew Brogguhn's gym, and found it to be Basij's greatest work since it helped relieve so many people of stress. He was once accosted by Rekuni Kotarashi, a Vicar who offered protection to citizens in exchange for tribute. Kotarashi's reasoning was that, through his word alone, "claimed this city," and demanded its residents to pay "their new governor." Basij declined, deriding Kotarashi as a thug who extorted people with threats of death, even saying "You're not the legitimate ruler of my country." Kotarashi immediately activated his Battle Aura, which forced Basij to the ground in a bowing position as his muscles tightened so hard that blood dripped from his body. Kotarashi, who remarked that Basij could have stopped him at any time, mocked Basij for "fearing your own strength," and ordered the citizens to give Basij's animals over to him exclusively. Brogguhn showed up immediately afterwards and had him patched up off-screen via Skuurnur.
- Personality: Despite the, err, unfortunate connotations found in his name, Hhevi Basij is as calm and sane as a brick. He is The Stoic, but one who possesses a bestial ferocity when he's angry, so he tends to hold himself back - he refused to attack the Vicar who antagonized him, and put golden anvils on his armor as a Culliver in order to severely limit his capacity for destruction. As a human, he found the idea behind Skuurnur intriguing due to their anti-Aura sentiment at a time when the Commonwealth of Ream, and relayed the idea to Brogguhn, who brushed him off. As a Culliver, he is a mostly introverted Gentle Giant, who personally took time out of his hands to provide better shelter to a group of refugees while Brogguhn went to find Stossuhl. As he left the shelter, he lamented silently "This is what Stossuhl's throwing away." However, when sufficiently angry, Basij is a feral beast comparable to a werewolf - indiscriminate in his rampages.
- Abilities: He is like a human battering ram. He is very straightforward; just rush towards an opponent and use your helmet (particularly the snout) to gore people. He dislodges his gold anvils from his neck, knees, and feet in order to become more flexible and agile, but his basic attack is the same - headbutt everyone and hope for the best. Dislodging all of his anvils, however, means he has "unshackled" himself, and rather than simply resorting to his head as a weapon, his fingers transform into small turrets that fire prongs, which burrow into skin and release a deadly toxin that would kill an Aura User from inside-out.
- Goal: Just like Brogguhn, Basij wants to liberate his homeland of Ream from the Exarchs, but he's much more willing and eager to kill the Exarchs than Brogguhn. He himself notes that his patience with his own anger can only go so far.
- Role: Ayew Brogguhn specifically recruited him as an apprentice. The man himself said of Basij, "There is no other man I would have as my successor." He is promoted to Freiherr after he killed an ogre (who did not have Aura), and took part in the Assault on the Asylum (a non-human realm that Stossuhl realized housed the main character at one point).
- Fate: I'm a bit conflicted. On one hand, I can write him in as Brogguhn's successor as Freiherr of the Army, or I can have him also die by the main character after slipping into Unstoppable Rage after Brogguhn was killed.
edited 3rd Jul '15 11:08:03 PM by Serocco
In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.
@ Arreimil: It seems like Xerxes was your typical megalomaniac ruler who got too full of himself and challenged the divine/superior beings—argh, that never goes well!. Characters like that are always interesting and a little sad since they always seem to bring not just themselves down, but entire nations which are inevitably full of innocent people. That aside, Xerxes certainly seem to have been at least slightly justified in his Pride, he was an extremely powerful character.
I do have a question about one thing, though it's less about Xerxes and more about the story itself: I recognize the mythology and lore from this particular world, but I'm not entirely sure what you meant about the cause of the "Dissonance". Was it directly caused by the Angels as punishment or revenge for Xerxes's arrogance and killing some of them? Or was it a natural consequence of his actions? I know that Larne isn't exactly the most benevolent goddess/angel/higher being from earlier entries, so it wouldn't surprise me if it was her that lashed out at the people after being ignored by him.
. @ Serroco: Hmm...not really sure where to place Hhevi at this point (I never would have gotten his Punny Name had you not pointed it out, so good job on that). He isn't quite as sympathetic as your previous character, but at the same time he doesn't really seem all bad. He clearly has restraint and wants to protect people from his uncontrolled anger—putting a purposeful Power Limiter on his armor is proof of that. On the other hand, he does seem to take a little too much joy in killing people. All in all, a good character. His powers are very reminiscent of Juggernaut from X-Men or similar characters.
The Silly Gloom
I went with the name purely because I like how it sounds. I'm not actually really familiar with the persian Xerxes, but the similarity is noted. I'll look into this guy later.
Well, from in-universe point of views people are still rather conflicted as to what actually caused Dissonance. The Sacred Kingdom's doctrine states that it's the Seraph of Retribution Nychia's doing, while there are also people who believe it's Xerxes's abuse of the law of reality that caused it. Then, there are people like the four sages that comprise EVAN who suspect that it's actually the Six Seraph's conspiring to revert humanity back to being nothing more than a servant race. The cold hard truth is that Dissonance is caused by the Six Seraphs themselves using the power of the Code of the All-Mother, under, as you said, Larane's guidance, so it really was her idea to screw the world up. In her view it's less about revenge for the Angels who were vanquished and more about putting humanity in its place, though you're right about the being ignored part; Larane really hates that![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
.
edited 23rd Jan '15 9:45:41 AM by arreimil
On the foundation of glass a dream is built. And, like glass, it shatters.
Sorry, accidental double-post 
edited 23rd Jan '15 11:15:15 AM by Swordofknowledge
Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
edited 23rd Jan '15 11:25:45 AM by Swordofknowledge
Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
edited 23rd Jan '15 11:26:38 AM by Swordofknowledge
Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
If you've read this character's profile on the Hero thread, then here she is post Heel–Face Turn. Not even going to bother with spoilers on this one, since she's basically a Walking Spoiler in-universe.
I apologize for her long backstory.
- Name: The Ebon Witch/Mary of House Adagren
- Age: She starts her career as Big Bad at 15 and ends it at age 28.
- Appearance: A tall and athletic woman. Her primary outfit is a hooded black robe that reaches her ankles, and armored black boots. Though the robe's left sleeve reaches all the way to her wrist, the right side is entirely sleeveless, leaving her right arm exposed to the shoulder. The Witch's entire head is covered by an ornate white mask with jagged protrusions that frame the sides and erupt from the forehead area like horns. Other than that it is entirely blank except for a single-hole for her right eye. Beneath the mask, her hair is blonde and pulled back in a short ponytail. Her face is furrowed with frown-lines and two jagged burn scars mark her left cheek and slide across her nose. Her unseen left eye bears the distinctive traits of House Adagren's power.
- Personality: The Ebon Witch is a calm and focused individual who speaks to her enemies and allies alike with ladylike courtesy that can change into scathing contempt in an instant. She regards Ellig without the Emperor in control as the "World of Chaos" and believes all life there is meaningless until he returns. The Witch views the humans and dwarves of Ellig as violent animals that must have a competent master to manage them with rewards and punishment or they will slip into disorder and destroy one another. Thus every act of destruction she causes is a necessary sacrifice for a better world, and the lives lost were worthless anyway. Despite this view, the Witch can fake friendliness and concern for others when she needs to. She gains many of her non-Ellig's Pillar allies by pretending to understand their hopes and dreams while subtly manipulating them to suit to her own purposes. Rather than brute force, she prefers to sow discord in the ranks of her enemies before crushing them in their weakened state. In many ways the Witch clings to her little brother Martin. She has watched him from afar for years and has often taken unseen action to ensure he is protected, sometimes risking her standing in Ellig's Pillar. Despite protecting him physically, she is increasingly determined to eliminate the idealistic mindset he inherited from her old self and her attempts to do so have dealt horrific damage to her brother's psyche.
- Abilities: The Ebon Witch's primary weapon is her artificial right arm, woven from the World Emperor's "Threads of Will". It has enough brute strength to tear off the limbs of others and punch through solid rock. Despite its hard crystalline nature, the arm can split into seven whip-like tendrils that move at immense speeds yet are hard and strong enough to pierce flesh and crush bone. She can use defensive magic to create blasts of repulsive force to stun enemies while she moves in for the kill. The Ebon Witch's left eye is imbued with the "Adagren's Eye" abilities of her House, allowing her to see the magical energy that passes through all things, as well as reflect back all hostile magic directed at her. She is skilled at manipulation and uses it to “collect” talented people to use. The Ebon Witch can create her own less powerful "Threads of Will" and merge them with a human to create a Familiar loyal to her.
- Weaknesses: Her right arm aside, the rest of the Witch's body is just as vulnerable as anyone else's. She does not wear armor beneath her robe, thus any hit that does connect is devastating. She cannot reflect or dodge bullets, making them a formidable danger. Because of the enchanted nature of her arm and its attacks, it is much less effective against anyone wearing armor or using weapons made from Cold Iron. It is also extremely vulnerable to Martin's deviant "Adagren's Eye" which absorbs magical energy. Her left eye's power makes it blind to anything besides magical energy. The operation that creates her Familiars slowly wears down the subject's body and mind until they become brainless monsters and then die. This gives her limited time to use them to their full potential before losing them. Her right arm is made from the Emperor's power and thus follows his will. If she strays from his plans, it will turn against her.
- Goals: She wants to find Vern's Heart, the source of the World Emperor's powers and return it to him so that he may return to shatter the fragile Tribunal-led territories and retake his throne. But that is only the beginning—she then plans to hunt down and slaughter every member of the Houses until only she and her brother Martin remain. After she learns the truth about the World Emperor's origins, she becomes determined to take Vern's Heart for herself and become the new ruler of Ellig.
- Motivation: She was rescued from certain death by the World Emperor's forces and his blunt and harsh words about the state of Ellig shook her faith in the current system. Later she watched her mother and father as well as many beloved household servants murdered in a raid ordered by another House. Finding out that the World Emperor was just a cunning thief who stole part of a Cosmic Keystone for his own gain made her believe that she was better than both the Tribunal and him.
- Role in the Story: Big Bad at first. Later she is Demoted to Dragon when the Emperor is revived at 40% of his former power. She is a Broken Pedestal to her brother Martin, who at first tried his hardest to be like her original self. Turns into The Starscream as she tries to seize the World Emperor's source of power for herself.
Backstory:
After saving her brother from certain death and nearly dying herself, Mary woke up in the ruins of what had once been an elaborate palace. There was activity around her as doctors and healing mages worked on her broken body in an attempt to save her life. Mary passed in and out of consciousness until she at last woke to take stock of her surroundings. When she did, she was surprised to realize that the ruins were somewhere within an elaborate maze of crystal-filled tunnels. The leading physician, Doctor Jenks informed her that he and his team were only acting on orders from a "superior" otherwise they would have let her die. One day Mary was forcibly dragged from her bed and into a wheelchair by Ellig’s Pillar soldiers and taken to a deeper level of the underground complex to meet her benefactor.
When she arrived, Mary was dismayed to see the emaciated remains of a young man. Worst of all, the figure seemed to be fused with the great wall of crystal that filled the entire room. Though terrified and disgusted by the sight, Mary felt indebted and thanked the man for his order to save her life. Mary asked his name and was shocked when he introduced himself as Gaius the World Emperor, and explained that his deplorable state was the result of his defeat a century prior. Gaius claimed he had no intention of doing her harm and was merely interested in seeing an actual descendant the group that defeated him. Though still afraid, Mary knew she was in no condition to object and so went along with it. She began a year-long recovery, slowly learning how to walk and move again.
During this time she would be taken for regular visits with Gaius and the two of them would talk about the state of the world. Though Mary was soon used to his hideous appearance, she was disturbed and offended by his claims that the Tribunal had destroyed the order of the world. However Gaius pointed out countless examples of corruption and selfishness that bothered her greatly. Their debates continued back and forth in this manner for months. During one of these visits, Gaius gifted Mary a new arm, woven together out of what he called “Threads of Will” and ordered Doctor Jenks to teach her how to use it.
Mary eventually recovered from her wounds and she learned to use her artificial right arm almost as well as her left. She insisted on being let go and was surprised again when Gaius graciously bid her farewell and even told her of a network of hidden tunnels that led outward from the base. Mary was provided with supplies and made her way through the underground; carefully following the map she had been given. She resolved to report her findings to her family when she had the chance. But most of all she was overwhelmed with joy at the thought of seeing her mother, father and brother again and the familiar surroundings of Aquin-Vale and the Blue Tower.
When Mary arrived via the sewers beneath the Blue-Tower days later, her joy turned to horror when she discovered corpses everywhere and a sign of a violent struggle. Mary rushed through the levels of the Tower, finding only more bodies of her family’s servants. Upon reaching her family’s private level, she found the bullet-riddled corpses of her parents, and one of the assassins with a gun against her unconscious little brother’s head. Overwhelmed with grief and hatred Mary acted without thinking and produced two whip-like tendrils from her right arm and attacked to defend her brother and to avenge her parents. Taken by surprise at her viciousness and speed, Mary managed to wipe out her enemies until only one remained, begging for his life. The terrified man revealed that the group was loyal to House Mechzink and that the orders had come from there.
After quickly breaking his neck, Mary found a document on the corpse that proved his words correct. An order from House Mechzink had indeed been given to kill her whole family. Though she made sure Martin was out of danger, she fled back through the tunnels, the knowledge that her parents were dead at another House’s hand tormenting her and breaking her faith in the Tribunal as a force for good. Later arriving back at the Ellig’s Pillar base, she told Gaius everything that had happened and embraced his view that without him the world was destined to fall into bloodshed and disorder. Gaius comforted her with the knowledge that there was a way he could be returned to power, if an artifact that had been stolen from him was returned. Gaius taught Mary much of his knowledge and plans, as well as how to fully control her right arm. Having imparted this, the World Emperor named her the newest Ebon Witch and commander of his forces before sinking into a dormant state.
- Relevant Tropes
- Achilles' Heel: The Ebon Witch's powerful expulsion magic doesn't work against Martin's right eye, due to it absorbing any hostile magic in his line of sight. The only thing preventing her right arm from being similarly useless against him is simply how fast it's tendrils can move, making it impossible for him to absorb.
- Admiring the Abomination: She is fascinated by Conner Morely's ability to make Familiars out of unwilling humans and greatly admires the fact that he can therefore skip the manipulating and tempting phase of the process. She greatly encourages him to use his powers in her service despite his own loathing and horror for the ability and his attempts to rid himself of it. However, true to form, it is his ability she respects and not Conner himself, making him just another pawn.
- Similarly, the Witch glories in Martin's new-found brutality towards his enemies after his Freak Out and takes a certain amount of twisted pride in her responsibility for it. She continually expresses appreciation for his newfound world view and the way he mercilessly destroys those he considers "dirt", going as far as to challenge him to try to kill her after being unmasked .
- Faux Affably Evil: The Witch can fake sincerity, kindness, friendship and any number of positive emotions and her upbringing as the heir of a noble house means her default mode is ladylike politeness. However she views everyone around as little more than animals whose lives and deaths are without meaning or worth, and she has no problem acting on these beliefs even while maintaining a serene and civil exterior.
- Affably Evil: On the other hand, her interactions with Martin and her former teacher Albert Snow make it clear that she truly does have an interest in them. Several of her more experienced followers are surprised to hear a tone of genuine affection in her voice when she addresses them, though none dare comment on it. It makes it all the more confusing to Martin who despises her with a passion and wants nothing more than to violently kill the Ebon Witch.
- All According to Plan: Several examples, but her most infamous act of manipulation—that brought her to the attention of the Tribunal Houses and the independent Pale Guard—was her destruction of the Radiant Depths, the dwarven homeland while her brother was living there. The Witch manipulated Niko of House Mechzink's jealousy towards Martin during their training in the Pale Guard and through a series of secret meetings ultimately convinced her to accept the power of a Familiar to become stronger, and reveal to her the hidden entrance and key to Mechzink's Armory, a vast factory the Grand Engineer Mechzink had hidden beneath the Depths. She then had Niko trap Martin within a Pocket Dimension where all he could do was watch while Ellig's Pillar forces invaded the dwarven cities and drove them above the Armory. She then had Niko activate it, forcibly turning the dwarven race into Mechzink's final weapon, Steel Guardians—all while her brother watched helpless. She obtained her revenge on House Mechzink, eliminated the dwarves as guardians of Vern's Heart and broke her brother's faith in the Pale Guard and Houses's ability to protect the people, while nearly driving him insane.
- A Pupil Of Mine Until She Turned To Evil: To Albert Snow. Young Mary was forced into combat training with Albert, and while she despised the lessons themselves, the two of them got along quite well, with him becoming somewhat of a grandfatherly figure to her. Despite his loyalty to the cause of peace and being VERY against Ellig's Pillar and the return of the World Emperor, he is still loyal to House Adagren and its members... which is why he kept his silence, even after figuring out her true identity years ago.
- Arch-Enemy: To Martin. After his entire family was killed and the twelve year old joined the Pale Guard, he lived and trained in the Depths, growing quite close to his teacher and her children like a surrogate family. Then his friend and fellow Tribunal House member betrayed the Guard and caused everyone he had ever known in Radiant Depths to be painfully transformed into Steel Guardians while he was helpless to do anything but watch. Worse, the Witch confronted him for the first time after this and explained her role in the disaster, claiming that she did it for the sake of peace, and to "help" him in some unexplained way.
- Attack Reflector: Her left eye's "Adagren's Eyes" ability allows her to throw hostile magic back at its caster. Back in her early days of using it, it took great concentration to do this once, now she does it without even thinking it battle.
- Became Their Own Antithesis: The original Mary believed that people had inherent goodness in them, or at least a desire for peace and freedom from constant strife and violence. She never blamed those who attacked her family's city and killed people she knew because she identified that they had their own goals and ways of going about them. Current Mary believes that humans and dwarves are little more than animals and without a strong leader to force them into order, they will fall into endless bloodshed and chaos which no one will survive.
- Be Yourself: The Witch's envoys from Ellig's Pillar saved the guilt-wracked young mage Conner Morely just as he was on the verge of suicide due to transforming his girlfriend into a Familiar against her will in an instinctive attempt to hold on to her forever. She gently comforted him and denied that his power was evil, telling him instead that the world was evil for condemning a person for an ability they had not chosen.
- Berserk Button: Destroying or damaging her mask. Tristan Springer might have lived through his fight with her had he not completely shattered her mask with a particularly strong punch. This caused the Ebon Witch to repeatedly stab him with all seven of her arm-tendrils before eviscerating him and throwing him through a window. Strangely it isn't fear of her identity being exposed that seems to drive these reactions, and it's subtly implied that she dislikes seeing her own face, which is why she covers it even when in private.
- Blown Across the Room: The Ebon Witch's expulsion magic is a blast of pure repelling force that projects in a straight line in front of her, causing anyone hit by it to fly backwards at least four or five feet. Only objects—or people—truly rooted in the ground or sufficiently heavy are spared, and even then they are unable to move while enduring it.
- The Berserker: When she slaughtered the House Mechzink assassins responsible for the deaths of her parents and servants. She cut through seventeen armored men and women armed with automatic weapons, taking several bullet-grazes and one outright bullet wound to the shoulder without flinching. When one of them commented that they at least had to complete the job by killing the unconscious Martin, she threw a table leg so hard it punctured his chest like a spear.
- Big Bad: The most involved antagonist of the story. An interesting example, as the Witch always made it clear that she was the in-universe Dragon to the true villain of the story, the World Emperor. However she does most of the "heavy lifting" of the plan until he is revived.
- Body Horror: The Ebon Witch's Familiars all bear a Lovecraftian Superpower in one form or another and using it deforms and twists their bodies into unimaginable horrors. Eventually these deformations become permanent, but by the time this starts, their minds have already begun to degrade, and thus they don't really notice or care. It's unknown precisely why her Familiars burn out so quickly and have such hideous looking powers as opposed to Conner's beautiful and delicate yet deadly creations, but it may have to do with her lack of skill and her inner madness.
- Broken Pedestal: After the death of his sister, Martin became determined to take up her dream to help bring peace to Ellig in whatever way he could. Once his parents died, he joined the Pale Guard to follow Mary's idea of a Tribunal House and an independent organization acting as one and tried to put House Adagren's resources behind it. Even after he gave up on following her way to peace, he still held her memory close in his heart and violently lashed out at anyone who he even suspected of slandering her. Thus finding out just who the Ebon Witch is and then connecting all her crimes to his beloved sister is devastating and enraging for him.
- Chain Pain: Martin's "Adagren's Eye" sees the magical energy used by the Operator's Ring to control her small group of Steel Guardians as glowing chains looping out of the ring and coiling around and into their bodies.
- Combat Tentacles: Her artificial right arm can split into a maximum of seven tendrils. They are quite hard yet very flexible and can move at incredible speed. Many of her Familiars have this as a power, though the "tentacles" are often made of their internal organs, muscle tissue or softened and stretched bone.
- Dangerously Genre-Savvy: The Witch is all-too-aware that the presence of a large, threatening organization with the intent to revive the World Emperor will force the Tribunal Houses to unite even if they aren't on the best of terms with one another. So instead of a frontal attack, she simply causes chaos and discord between them and letting them fight one other until they are so bitter and filled with hatred that they have a hard time banding together when Ellig's Pillar's plans really start to move forward.
- Death Wail: She let out one after finding her family destroyed...and then continued on to become a Screaming Warrior while attacking the assassins responsible for the murders.
- Dragon-in-Chief: With World Emperor Gaius in a self-induced coma until he could be reunited with Vern's Heart, the Ebon Witch has been doing all of the work for the past fourteen years, faithfully following his instructions and improvising a few of her own.
- Dragon with an Agenda: However once she views his memories and finds out that he was just a hired thief sent to steal a powerful magical artifact and simply used it to gain great power for himself, she becomes disgusted with him and dismisses Gaius as no better than the "animals" he ruled over before. She then tries to take the Vern's Heart for herself, believing that her combination of ruthlessness and true commitment to peace is what the world truly needs.
- Dramatic Unmask: Technically it happens twice. Tristan destroys her mask in a violent battle between the two of them, but no description of the face underneath is given to the reader. The second occurs during the battle between the Ebon Witch and Martin, Albert and the sentient Steel Guardian Number 108. 108 strikes a glancing blow to her face thanks to Martin making an opening and the mask is shattered, revealing her face for the horrified young man to see.
- Elaborate Underground Base: Ellig's Pillar's more important bases of operation are all underground, and a network of maze-like tunnels connects them. Their main base, where the World Emperor was taken after his downfall, is literally located within the Azure Pillar, a mysterious crystal structure that runs upward through multiple levels of Ellig's underground.
- Even Evil Has Standards: On the receiving end of this. The World Emperor is disturbed at seeing the amount of Steel Guardians and demands to know if Mary used Mechzink's Armory to turn the dwarven race into these metal creatures—and is dismayed when she distractedly answers yes. He is visibly unnerved by the prospect, since he didn't think she would use it like that. Even more discomforting is when he puts two and two together and realizes that while it did benefit the plan, she also did it just to break her brother's resolve over her knee like a twig.
- Foreshadowing: When Mary slaughtered the assassins from House Mechzink, her arm activated two of its tendrils automatically while her mind was still blank with shock and anger. It foreshadows that her arm is entirely under Gaius's control.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Ironically it wasn't the murder of her parents that destroyed her. Had it been a random robbery or an attack by independent warlords vying for House Adagren's territory, she would have continued forward with her head held high. What broke Mary completely was the idea of another House targeting those she loved when they were supposed to be fixing the world together.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Two wide, jagged burn scars from intercepting a blow from a flaming combat knife meant for Martin. They cross her left cheek before coming to a stop across her nose.
- Lack of Empathy: To the Ebon Witch people are nothing more than beasts who can and will kill one another if given the chance. So who cares if a bunch of them get slaughtered or maimed in the course of her actions? Everyone and everything that lives in the "World of Chaos" is inconsequential. This view extends even to her own troops, and allies, which is why she refers to herself as "collecting" allies. To her, they are possessions or at most pets, nothing more.
- Legacy Character: The Ebon Witches were an untold number of women who acted as the World Emperor's right hands, gaining great deal of physical and political power. Mary just happens to be the latest and last one.
- Lightning Bruiser: Her arm-tendrils possess great speed and dexterity, and she has near-perfect control over them to the point where she can manifest and control their actions with just a thought.
- Malevolent Masked Woman
- Not So Different: Both Martin and the Ebon Witch have severe Lack of Empathy when it comes to those they consider undesirable in some way. Martin considers those who threaten his idea of peace as "dirt" that must be "swept away" for things to continue in an ideal way and has no problems torturing and killing them. Where they differ however is that Martin views the majority of people as redeemable and worth protecting while the Witch wrote them off as animals in need of control long ago.
- Off with His Head!: Her preferred way of killing when she needs it to be done quickly and without fanfare. She simply wraps a tendril around a victim's neck and flicks it, tearing their head clean off their neck with the same effort one would use to pluck a flower.
- Order vs. Chaos: She sees herself as the order to Ellig's current chaos, a harbringer of stability that will end the constant fighting.
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: After she tries to absorb Vern's Heart into her body, her arm grows all seven tendrils and impales her own torso, at the same time locking itself to the stump, so that she cannot disconnect it. This is because it obeys Gaius's orders and he was less than pleased at her attempt to betray him.
- Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl: While obviously not a ghost, Mary gave off these vibes when she attacked the assassins. Her hair had grown quite long in the year she had been in the Ellig's Pillar underground base and she was wearing a long white gown and with only hiking boots to protect her feet. Bonus points for being someone who was supposedto be dead, and taking vengeance on those who had wronged her family.
- Strike Me Down: When unmasked as Mary, the Ebon Witch urges Martin to try to kill her in adherence to his new creed of "sweeping away the dirt in the house" when it applies to those who threaten his idea of peace. She mocks his hesitation and accuses him of hypocrisy, hammering home the point that even if she is his sister, he has to stick to his principles. Of course...she had no intention of dying, but she wanted Martin to continue to be the ruthless exterminator that she had turned him into.
- That Woman Is Dead: Played with. The Witch will answer to the name Mary of House Adagren. However she is quite vocal that she is a different person than she once was, calling that version of herself the "Ideal Mary". To quote her "That little girl died and rotted away a long time ago".
- Unwitting Pawn/ Trojan Horse: The reason Gaius had Mary patched up and released so easily was actually far from benevolent. The arm he fitted her with was a potent weapon under his control—he planned to release Mary back among her family and then activate it remotely, causing her to slaughter her entire House. However House Mechzink had already done the job and the situation yielded something even better—a broken and traumatized young woman who would do whatever he said.
- White Mask of Doom: A bone-white affair with jagged protrusions on the sides and forehead and only one eye hole so that her distinctive left eye remains hidden but still useful. The Witch seems to have identical replacements, since she has had her mask broken at least twice and always comes back with the same one.
edited 25th Jan '15 10:03:12 AM by Swordofknowledge
Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
Serocco
Are Mary and Ebon supposed to be one person or a case of Split Personality? Superpowered Evil Side?
As a recap for Skuurnur, we have Eighinn Stossuhl, Eraldo Supryor, Beyniph Osciteck, Dromouh Karath, Ayew Brogguhn, and Hhevi Basij.
- Name: Oroesius Caulhyr
- Appearance: An impossibly skinny man, Caulhyr has four slender tubes connected his torso with his waist (think the Almighty Tallest from Invader Zim). A sallet with a rectangular slit protected his head. A bevor with a similar assortment of circle-holes attached to the snout of the sallet. The edges of the bevor and the lower half of the sallet were colored gold. Both of his arms were designed like crossbows, with staples holding palm-sized discs at the middle.
- Abilities: His crossbows-shaped forearms fire Deadly Discs that sever your limbs easily, and whirl around like buzzsaws while sometimes being used like bommerangs. He can use the discs like blades, parrying attacks at will.
- Backstory: Caulhyr was the son of the owner of a weapon manufacturer; he got his love of weapons from his father. He particularly liked the Hunter caste of Aura Users, who utilize Mix-and-Match Weapon known as Destriers that are powered by their Auras. Caulhyr was fascinated at the concept, and decided to create anything he could think of to counter the Hunters' Destriers in a creative fashion. He was recruited into Skuurnur, and now serves as the manufacturer of Skuurnur's war machine. Caulhyr sees creating weapons as an intellectual exercise, and is eager to see his instruments used against Hunters based on that.
- Personality: A Deadpan Snarker who antagonizes his comrades with rude jabs, Caulhyr's nonetheless often the first one to break up a fight between his comrades. He's usually the one who physically holds Brogguhn back from fighting Stossuhl. He is a massive Gun Nut, often lapsing into Mr. Exposition as he details the mechanics behind a weapon that he finds particularly intriguing. He is noted for his pragmatism; he'd rather dispense of bureaucracy or politicking in exchange for getting things done quickly and efficiently, so he's not one for strategy and finds Osciteck's Complexity Addiction aggravating. He also finds Stossuhl's bouts of extremism highly unhelpful and counterproductive to Skuurnur.
- Role: He is the manufacturer of Skuurnur's war machine, from armor and weapons to vehicles and artillery.
- Goal: Crafting the greatest weapons in the world.
edited 24th Jan '15 10:13:05 AM by Serocco
In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.
Given the overall sickness of the Skuurnur, I cannot help but say that for supplying them, he's definitely a really dark take on the ultimate blacksmith. He doesn't mind who uses his creations so long as they reap incredible bodycounts.
- Name: Aaron Cascade / Aaron Pollard
- Age: 18
- Personality: Aaron started out as one of the more funny characters in New Dawn, his first appearance is him, utterly baked on cocaine and not even reacting to Monster Clown Nebiros marching down the hall. The next appearance had him being thrown off the Football Team for excessive use of steroids and crack cocaine. He is mentioned to be a very petty and low-aiming bully, who is scared off by even the slightest hint of a reaction. He however does have a reason for this behavior – his homelife is utterly miserable. His mother and father treat him like a slave, beating him if he doesn't do something the way they want it done. They constantly told him they wish they could make it so he doesn't think, and told him he's utterly worthless constantly. Hence, possibly, one of his reasons for changing his last name to Cascade – says he did it on a drunken dare, but he also hints he did it to divorce himself from his family name. Tellingly, his mother outright brags that she whipped him with a bullwhip once, and his father trashed all of his belongings with a shotgun. This all resulted in Aaron accumulating a lot of anger. His rage was so severe that when he was thrown into a Blessed Tear bubble by Hector Gibbs, he visualized himself killing absolutely everyone he knew and then some. He also believes Matthew's kindness is “a two-faced lie to facilitate his self-centered need to sacrifice himself for someone else.” He says this because of the whole “kicked off the team” thing, and that he was never even asked if anything was wrong with him, or if he needed help. Thus, when Caine offered him an out, he took it. He took it and ran with it. Entering the Magical World, Aaron decided to worship Shiryu, the Eternal Slayer, the Dark God of Blood, Murder and Strife. He finally had an out for his anger. His rage was so great, even Shiryu took notice of it. Aaron decided to join Caine as his Dragon, but quickly discerned that Caine was not all the way well in the head himself. Aaron is a raging berserker, but by no means is he as stupid as his parents insist he is. However, Aaron definitely learned a lot from Caine, including that this new magical world he found himself in was chaotic after the Sanfield War. And he could not be more happy spreading war and strife as the chief agent of Shiryu. As he puts it; “I don't NEED crack any more, Richard. I've found something much, much more satisfying. Killing. Fighting. Spilling blood for my god.” He also takes a very dark enjoyment in killing people's parents, as he thinks that everyone's parents have the potential to be as cruel as his were. So, functionally, he's addicted to murder as an adrenaline outlet, and has a god very happy with him for all this killing.
- Abilities: Aaron is a very large young man, even without his armor. He tips the scales at 320 pounds at 6 foot 9 inches tall, and while he wasn't coordinated before enough to really use his strength, after pledging himself to Shiryu, it seems his brain rewired itself to killing instead of cocaine. He is extremely skilled in using that axe, and in general seems to be very good at killing people. Despite his murderous rage and tendencies for fighting in a berserked fashion, he is not as dumb as he seems – tellingly, he is usually the guy Elwood and other Dark God aligned people go to for military advice and an ally if they're looking to launch an attack. Aaron also has a strong capability in Shiryu's type of magic, “Death Charge Magic”, which is basically using the amount of enemies you've felled on a battlefield to increase the power of your spells. Mostly, his spells involve dropping axes, swords and razor whips on foes made out of red energy and flames.
- Weaknesses: While he is pretty smart, his berserker fighting style tends to make him suited mostly for Attack! Attack! Attack! strategies himself. His spells are also fairly linear, and he doesn't have the “capacity” to learn more complicated spellcraft.
- Goals: BURN! MAIM! KILL! BURN! MAIM! KILL! RIP AND TEAR! RIP! AND! TEAR! Underneath all his rage, he's mostly out to strike back at a world that he feels never really cared about him, and cared all too much about other people. In his perspective, the mages of Sanfield never changed how sociopathic they could be - they just "direct all their energy in adoration of Matthew the Pure, Matthew the Hero. There's no hero in there - just a man who kills people, no different than me."
- Motivation: His abusive parents, the fact there seems to be a Double Standard at work for people, and that its “apparently quite illegal for me to feel happy”.
- Role: The Dragon to Caine. Later, he becomes the Big Bad himself, and its mentioned that he is the entire reason Oregon becomes called “The Oregon Deadwastes”.
- Backstory: Supposedly, his parents had him out of wedlock, and were forced to get married because of him. The two were “once basically prince and princess, and once mom and dad found out, they become paupers”. Hence, they were basically white trash after Aaron was born. They blamed him for everything, badly mistreating him, abusing him, and outright telling him when he was ten they never loved him even once, and wished he was dead. This all resulted in Aaron internalizing a lot of his anger, and deciding one day he'll find a way to recover himself enough to express it. That day was shown to him in the Blessed Tear, when even Hector Gibbs apologized for all he went through. Aaron was then approached by Caine, who offered him a deity who would sanctify and accept someone with a lot of murderous rage. So Aaron joined Caine's forces, and became a high ranking Herald of Shiryu. During the war, he became one of Caine's most dangerous generals. While at first he was at odds with Elwood Sexton, for his reputation, tendencies, and then his god, Zayufur, the two came to mutually respect one another due to Elwood's record on the field, and the fact both were pathologically violent men – though even Aaron said, “Elwood, I respect your violence and war record...but your Violators have done things not even I can think about.” Reportedly, around a hundred years later, Aaron suddenly launched an attack on Oregon, more than ten thousand Shiryu's Berserkers following him. By the time the 317th and other Esper Association troops arrived, he had reduced the entire state to a burning, swamp-like no man's land. All told, he and his men killed somewhere near one and a half million people. In the cruelest irony, he planned for this to occur in the Christmas season.
- Relevant Tropes:
- 0% Approval Rating: Following his joining of Caine's Army, absolutely everyone has some mean things to say about Aaron.
- Abusive Parents: Even Hector felt really bad after seeing some of what Aaron had to live through. His parents whip him, blasted his stuff with a shotgun, told him they never loved him and that he was a “mistake”, and they wished he was dead. It all comes back to haunt them in grandiose and disturbing fashion.
- Addiction Displacement: Aaron used to be addicted to both crack cocaine and steroids, the latter of which definitely didn't help his rage issues. During Book IV, he replaces his drug dependencies with the sheer adrenaline charge and rush he gets from challenging battle and murder.
- An Axe To Grind: A massive war axe called Goremaker, and a smaller axe called Goreforged.
- Appropriated Appellation: Aaron The Butcher King. When he emerged from Spartaeon for his infamous act in Oregon, reportedly, he said, “I, the King Butcher, have returned. Shall we begin?”
- Armor Is Useless: Averted for Aaron – his armor actually deflects a few of Sorano's attacks during their fight.
- Artifact of Doom: Apparently Goremaker has a powerful monster inside it...and its utterly terrified of Aaron.
- Ax-Crazy: Aaron deeply enjoys violence, has psychotic tendencies, and Loves the Sound of Screaming. Tellingly, he was downright flattered when Caine revealed who he thought Aaron was an expy of.
- Badass Boast: As he emerged in Oregon, he announced to security forces; “I am Aaron Cascade, Veteran of the Sanfield War. The rumors about me are all understatement.”
- Berserk Button: Abusive parents, depraved actions like "slaves from war" and "pets", double standards. All these things have the potential to make him even angrier than usual.
- He also seems to detest it when people take opportunities he views as things he should have been able to do.
- The Berserker: Fights with utterly no concern for his own life, or the life of his enemy.
- Blood Knight: So much so its replaced cocaine as his addiction. Though he's not opposed to wanton slaughter, he would much rather choose a good fight over random bloodshed on people who won't fight back. He desires to prove his mettle for his god by killing really skilled / powerful enemies.
- Blood Upgrade: His armor Turns Red if enough blood gets on it. This causes him to go from lower end Lightning Bruiser, more strong and durable, less speed, to high end Lightning Bruiser – to the extent he baffled Matthew with this upgrade.
- Brains and Brawn: He's a huge guy, but by no means does this make him stupid. In fact, Malevolent aside, he's one of the smarter members of Caine's forces.
- The Bully: An especially small time one. Not even Matthew considered him a threat.
- Challenge Seeker: Always seeks a challenge, in line with his Blood Knight ideology.
- Chaotic Evil
- Conflict Killer: Momentarily at least – Allan and Logain are really stepping up their efforts against one another...then Aaron drops into the party due to a really, really stupid move by Logain's Brute and the Dark Forces' mole in his operation.
- Combat Sadomasochist: Enjoys dishing out the hurt, and his response to actually being hit pretty hard by Sorano? -licks lips- “Heh, you're called the Association's Ace for damn good reason.”
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Deals a very deserved one out to one Jacqueline Rivers, during Tri Age Cataclysm Tyrant's Downfall, outright No Selling her magic and spending the whole fight throwing her around. Including telling her, “So, Jacky, how does it feel to be thrown around and bullied remorselessly?”
- Dark and Troubled Past: Oh, poor Aaron. His life is basically a series of answers to one question; How Could This Get Worse?
- The Dog Bites Back: And more. His return to Sanfield with Shiryu's power running through his veins was basically all The Dog Bites Back. Though he does, as you can see, end up going a fair bit further than just that.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: When Matthew responds to his reason you suck speech with a look of pity, Aaron snapped even further, “And don't give me those eyes! You look down on me when you pity me, you're saying “look at poor little Aaron, he can't make his own choices without blowin' something up...”
- Double Standard: He utterly hates these, and in fact asks a series of Armor-Piercing Question's about this topic. Specifically, it irritates him to new heights that people like Shuuji, Nebiros (the very first Big Bad), Sharon Tate Roman (leader of an attempted NWO organization), and Hector Gibbs (basically a Serial Killer motivated by revenge and straw nihilism) get to be asked why they're that way and have their excuses and ideologies explored, and either attain redemption through works or have “some sob story” as Aaron puts it.
- “So, the kid who's addicted to drugs and comes from a white trash family gets kicked off the team and told to leave and not come back, but you're all willing to listen to why Nebiros, Sharon and Hector turned out the way they did. Lemme guess – Sharon gave you a fucking boner, Nebiros and Hector remind you of your failures, and me? Me? I'm just some mundane kid that dared fail your rigid moral expectation! So go on, PURE ONE, lets hear their defenses of you, not like they're capable of disagreeing!!”
- The Dragon: To Caine Dekeren, at least officially.
- Dragon with an Agenda: Aaron at multiple points thinks about taking over the Umbral Horde from Caine, and then going on a rampage throughout the country. For a variety of reasons and rationales.
- The Dreaded: He started this way in Book IV, and only got worse and worse over the years. Tellingly, 300 years later, simply mentioning that he's headed in a direction can clear out Castle Cities, large cities, and whole swathes of an area.
- Driven by Envy: In one Aaron Centric chapter, we see that unflattering versions of everyone he hates and envies live in his head, parroting selected versions of their words and driving up his envy even more.
- Eldritch Location: Through Aaron's eyes, we see Spartaeon. It looks like hell on one end, and some sort of twisted Valhalla on the other end, merging seamlessly at the joining points.
- Embarrassing Last Name: Supposedly he changed his last name on a dare while he was drunk. He cannot be too terribly happy with “Aaron Cascade”.
- Enfant Terrible: Kyrio reminisces on taking care of young Aaron once, and when he got too mad at a group of kids teasing him, he grabbed one of them – he was big even then – and started to repeatedly smash his tormentor's head into the gravel, the sight of blood making him go even faster.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Possibly more hidden depths, Aaron has a crush on Shina. He never showed it, for fear his parents would humiliate him or hurt her over it. She notices it when she comes across his diary, and she's the one person he's written on a “do not kill” list. While she reports that he did not return and she got back out alright, the truth was he returned, saw her...and said, “Go...Caine's gonna meet me in here in ten minutes.”
- Even Evil Has Standards: Has no tolerance for abusive parenting, and despite enjoying violence, sexual violence is something he really takes umbrage with. And tellingly, even Aaron admits he finds Caine to be “quite frankly utterly insane.”
- Evil Costume Switch: When Aaron returns to Sanfield, before he gets his armor, he goes from wearing white and gray to wearing lots of blacks and reds.
- Evil Is Hammy: Oh boy Aaron does have fun with his narration.
- Evil Is Sexy: While Elwood is more along the lines of a Pretty Boy iteration of this, Aaron is basically a constantly brooding hunk with, as Amanda puts it, “A jaw that could break stone.”
- Fan Disservice: Oh, Aaron's naked, showing his very well developed musculature and taking a showe—-wait, why's there so much red stuff flowing off of him into the drain?
- Flaw Exploitation: how he's taken down in Sanfield – entirely too focused on what he wants and his hatred of the heroes, he basically charges into an ambush. Though still, even with an ambush and freaking Odin present, Aaron doesn't get captured without a truly nasty fight.
- He gets into this too, leading forces around Sanfield by manipulating Claudia Bartlett, using her chief flaw of desiring someone else to help her do what she needs done, even when she's fully capable of it herself. As Aaron puts it, “I gave you a shovel. You dug, and dug, and dug.”
- Flechette Storm: Fracture Storm, which sends what looks like a storm of sword sized jagged pieces of bone at the opponent.
- Formerly Fat: Aaron seems to have this kind of complex going – he thinks he was absolutely revolting looking as he was before. While he was a little dumpy, he was even then a very muscular man. It hints toward his utterly negative self image.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: From a drug using bully to a guy in charge of a group of murderous berserkers who at one point in the future utterly ravaged a whole state.
- Fully-Embraced Fiend: Unlike the 317th members, who struggle with their potential to go berserk, Aaron absolutely relishes the freedom violent conflict gives him. “And nobody ever shat on me and called it “justice” or “the rules” or “just the breaks”, not since I sealed the deal. That's why I am the way I am.”
- Functional Addict: Averted at first, played straight later – after switching addictions, he's still a very effective commander and fighter, even though he's always needing to by hyped up on slaughter and difficult battles.
- Genius Bruiser: He's not as stupid as the type his battle tactics are associated with. His simple approach should never be taken to be simplicity as stupidity. He simply sees a way from Point A to Point B, and if that involves overwhelming violence, all the better.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Never, ever, point it out, but Aaron envied Matthew a lot, even as far back as childhood.
- Hidden Depths: Underneath his insane, bloodthirsty persona, he's actually a surprisingly philosophical man, who has odd tendencies of Even Evil Has Loved Ones and disdain for prolonged deaths, examining his own actions in a rather odd light. “The Ravaging was going to happen no matter what. It would either be me and my berserkers, or Elwood's Violators. Would you rather I killed them upfront? Or would you rather Elwood's men have their fun for hours, days on end before the end came?”
- Horrifying the Horror: In addition to scaring the piss out of his own Artifact of Doom, even other Shiryu-aligned warriors admit they fear the Herald of Shiryu. They fear literally nobody else. He is just that terrifying.
- I Just Want to Be Special / I Just Want to Be Badass: Of the kind wherein he thinks becoming special or really badass will let him escape the pains of his home life. It is a pity that becoming badass and special for him involved a heck of a lot of bloodshed and lives lost. He always did seem to fixate on the “hero who killed like a hundred bandits” parts of the stories...
- Immune to Bullets: Demonstrated during his dog bites back incident – he shrugs off standard issue police fire, even taking a bullet to the skull and reacting with irate irritation.
- Irrational Hatred: Some times, his hatred of Matthew can be just utterly irrational, and him using some of Caine's nicknames for Matthew hints that his resentment might not be as well founded as he thinks it is.
- Jerk Jock: Though he really became much more of a jerk after he was thrown off the team – when he was on the team, he was a drug user and petty bully. Off the team, his neuorses start kicking in, and things start getting violent...
- Jerkass Woobie: Aaron has had such a terrible life, literally everyone it seems has played a part in making it worse. But he responds to it all by becoming devoted to a god of bloodshed, and becoming a jerkass and possibly worse.
- The Juggernaut: He's a towering force of rage and hate, and very little can put a permanent stop to one of his rampages.
- Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Aaron brutally killed his abusive parents, including cutting off his father's limbs one after the other, that is after making them beg him for mercy. Read through all they did to him. They won't be missed.
- Kill Me Now, or Forever Stay Your Hand: He even warns Matthew during his imprisonment, “If you don't dirty your hand now, I'll forever stay outside your reach.” After the double standard speech and others, Matthew just couldn't bring himself to kill Aaron.
- Large and in Charge: A Dragon variant, and later a variant that led a massive horde of berserkers.
- Legendary in the Sequel: For a certain amount of legendary...
- Like A Badass Out Of Hell: Shiryu's realm resembles hell, well, a lot of it does. So whenever Aaron comes out of it, he's always coming out of a portal depicting some nasty background events.
- Made of Iron: Aaron post-Shiryu Heraldry can take an obscene amount of punishment.
- The Mentally Ill: Psychotic urges, love of violence, on and off violent depression, can only relax and feel at home after bloody battles, has an utter inability to form close relationships with people...yeah, Aaron's got something wrong upstairs.
- Might Makes Right: As far as Aaron's concerned, he who is mightiest inevitably makes the history that says whether he was righteous or not.
- Mook Horror Show: He demonstrates this during Book V, returning much to Matthew's dismay and essentially storming an entire fort all by himself and demonstrating some new tricks he learned.
- Muscles Are Meaningful: Like Matthew, ironically enough, Aaron's musculature hints at tremendous strength lurking inside his initial poor coordination and dizzied behavior. We're talking about a neck breaking attack that is just him grabbing some poor shmuck by the neck and tightening.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: He doesn't toy around during battle, like Elwood does. He always goes for killing blows on people. He even says to Logain when he starts babbling self righteous screeds during their fight that “you really should know when to shut up”, right before dismantling Logain's vaunted “Grand-Knight Armor”.
- Not Afraid to Die: When Matthew's forces momentarily capture him, he didn't even fear the possibility of being executed for his crimes.
- Not Brainwashed: At first, Daniel thought that Aaron was brainwashed by Caine / Malevolent or something. It took being told about Aaron's Blessed Tear Dream by Hector to convince him such was not the case.
- Not So Different: What Aaron posits toward the 317th - he and his men are berserkers who draw on the power of rage. “And your men, no matter how angelically you style yourselves, are no different. You fought gruesomely against Elijah's modern army. Need I remind you of Miles' little incident?”
- Offstage Villainy: Some of it is set to be novelized or chronicled in short story, but “The Horror of Shekhov” and “The Bleeding Steppes” are relegated to this. Its made clear they were very, very nasty, but I find its more effective to see what people imagine about such things...
- Omnicidal Maniac: A more localized variant – after Aaron was done with Oregon, less than 5% of the locals were left alive. He even ravaged the local wildlife and landscape.
- One-Man Army: As far back as the Sanfield War, where Aaron was considered uniquely dangerous by the Association, and as far forward as 300 years in the future, wherein Logain even demanded to know if anything could stop Cascade's wanton violence.
- One-Winged Angel: Aaron's Blood Goliath form, which resembles an ornate, bloodsoaked dragon-demon with an axe merged into its tail. That said, he doesn't exactly use it often...
- Pet the Dog: When he saw what Lord Lucke's “pet” looked like and heard Lucke bragging to other Violators about what he liked to do to his pet, he “gave the poor girl the mercy she begged me for.”
- When a young man from Oregon promised, “voice full of rage”, that he would return in some form or another to kill Aaron, he sighed, told the young man to run and let him go. “I...saw some of myself in him”.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Averted – his problem with Elwood isn't the man's orientation or preferences. Its more about what he does to satiate himself. To Aaron, it veers too close to Stupid Evil.
- The Power of Hate: Sorano states the following, "Aaron Cascade hates every other mage in Sanfield, his parents, his rivals, and even himself - and that is his power source."
- Pragmatic Villainy: Aaron's standard operation. In addition to a repressed moralistic revulsion, he just feels Elwood's deviances on the battlefield are highly stupid and not productive, and serve only to make their forces look "more monstrous - and we already call ourselves "the Umbral Horde"."
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gave a downright nasty one to Matthew; “So, tell me, vaunted pure son, what do you know about struggling? Your dad gave you everything you need to fight “evil”, you got a house all to yourself, and you got beautiful women one after the next, and then you stay chaste for the sake of your own guilty conscience, implicitly chiding everyone else for not living your abstinent life. You say you've struggled? You tramp around on the sports teams and martial arts groups, while I live in a trailer. You have no parents, I have two torturers. You are celebrated and called Saving Angel. I am thrown down, demonized, and hated whenever I dare try to be happy.”
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Following his pact with Shiryu, he has bright red eyes. He even leans in and glares at his parents with them, showing off the fact.
- The Resenter: He hates, hates, Matthew. For very resentful reasons, by and large because he has reaped life's advantages despite his shortcomings and hardships, where Aaron's buckled and been hurt time and again.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When he finally became capable of it, he embarked on a rampage of revenge toward his parents and the police who at one point bullied him when he was arrested for his crack habit.
- Sanity Slippage: Even worse than usual - during his capture, he starts using terminology Caine used. Its definitely not a good sign - and afterwards, Aaron has enough mental presence to consider what that means.
- Screaming Warrior: Half of the things he screams are articulate, the other half far less so.
- Self-Made Orphan: When he returned to Sanfield after Book III, he visited his parents. The first thing he did was catch his father's punch, and then slowly break every bone in his hand. He then let his parents call the police, murdered ten policemen one after the other, and then went back inside and killed his parents while they begged him for their lives.
- Slasher Smile: He showed a big smile as he ripped through ten policemen, and then went back in to murder his parents. He also showed himself to be having fun while fighting Daniel.
- Took a Level in Badass: From a normal human man, to one of the more powerful Heralds, enough that even the King of Darkness did not go after him when he said to let Reiji go.
- Took a Level in Cynic: He also seems to become a lot more cynical, viewing the world, as Shin puts it, “Aaron looks at the world as a grimdark dystopia. Everyone's out for themselves, nobody is loyal, there is no true friendship, just convenience and necessity. He's nihilistic, but unlike Caine, who has fun with his activities, for Aaron, the only time he feels alive is during the heat of it. Otherwise, he feels dead inside, or at least thats my feel of it.”
- Tragic Villain: Fundamentally - Aaron was never really given much of a chance to be anything except what he is. After hearing his speeches and the call outs, which resemble What the Hell, Hero? a little too closely for comfort, Matthew feels Aaron Cascade's turn to villainy was My Greatest Failure. He failed Aaron, utterly, and there's no going back now, not when things have gone this far.
- Matthew: Aaron didn't fall - life pushed him and pushed him and never quite stopped.
- Underestimating Badassery: Even though he wasn't a Badass at the time, he feels this is one of his major grievances - nobody ever gave him a chance to be anything except a failure, and he was persistently underestimated and thought of as "a one note, flat person."
- Unskilled, but Strong: Has no advanced magic, a nice little trick aside, but is strong beyond measure due to being a hand picked Herald of Shiryu.
- Unstoppable Rage: Emphasis on unstoppable. Allan even says when Aaron emerged again that even the futuristic Mana Weapons were not doing nearly as much damage to Aaron as they should've. All close range combatants were doing was making him mad.
- Villain Decay: Inverted – Aaron's threat level only increases as the years go by. As Daniel puts it, “He started out as a nihilistic wreck dependent on battle to make him happy. He somehow got worse.”
- Villain Protagonist: He has had a few times when he's had the limelight.
- War Is Glorious: Because it lets him and others like him “finally express our true selves”.
- Where I Was Born and Razed: The fact he's a Sanfield local doesn't seem to stop him from attempting to destroy the place wholesale.
- Who's Laughing Now?: One of his motivations during the Sanfield War, and he directly asks this as he attacks a group of older people trying to protest in the park square.
- Younger Than He Looks: Aaron's only about eighteen. As Amanda Wallace puts it, he looks like he's thirty, given his appearance and height.
Edited by NickTheSwing on Dec 1st 2020 at 10:13:23 AM
Serocco
He doesn't exactly want people to die; that'd mean less people get to use his weapons. It's like a really cool toy; you don't want it to hurt people, because then it wouldn't have a purpose. Does he mind? No, but it's not his intention.
Also, it's never "the" Skuurnur. It's just Skuurnur, no "the". It's like America - you never call it "the" America.
edited 23rd Jan '15 9:37:37 PM by Serocco
In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.
Ah, okay. So, what do you guys think of Aaron?
Serocco
Aaron is a bit unique. He's an inversion of Villain Decay; meaning he takes a level in badass as he goes along, and becomes more dangerous because of his already lethal mindset. Nice. His reasoning for being a villain can be pretty easy to relate - he's basically on a Rage Quit rampage because the only future he sees for the world is destruction.
- Name: Yuehni Siggueir (pronounced you-nee sig-air.)
- Appearance: The entirety of his armor, from the limbs to his torso, carried overlapping plates sliding on rivets. A T-shaped visor on his barbute was covered with black cloth, covering his face. He had triangular pauldrons on his shoulder and triceps, spikes on his pauldrons, and a gaping hole with spikes all around the edges. His gauntlets had curved blades on the sides of the forearms and a reptilian snout instead of fingers; serrated fangs were underneath the snout.
- Abilities: His arms, that have snouts and fangs on them, can consume Aura flung at him, and the mouth on his chest is used for devouring people whole, despite being armor. In general, his shtick is that, rather than being a cybernetic war machine, he is a cannibal, a predator, who contorts his body in impossible ways in order to achieve maximum capacity for feasting.
- Backstory: Unlike every other member of Skuurnur, Siggueir was a demon, who was enslaved by Auerbach, the Hellmaster of Apocesis (a realm that's basically a giant death camp); he escaped to the human world. There, he met Escou Draldoch, a shaman who taught him about Aura. Intrigued, Siggueir wanted to be trained into using Aura, because he saw that as a way to dethrone Auerbach. While he couldn't use Aura, Siggueir learned a lot about how it worked, and traded his knowledge of other realms to Draldoch as well before they parted ways. Believing Draldoch's shamanism meant he saw Aura as an expression of character and a tool for art, beauty, and mysticism, not as a weapon of war, so when he saw several humans abuse their power (ala using Aura to bully normal humans), he was not happy, and repeatedly tried to talk them down to no avail. When Eraldo Supryor's human experimentation caused an outbreak of Cullivers, who nullify Aura, Siggueir - fascinated at the concept - saw that as the perfect response towards Man's vanity. He joined Skuurnur to rein in hardline Aura Users and learn how to use Anti Aura to assassinate his Hellmaster.
- Personality: He is very conscious of public perception; whenever someone does something extreme, Siggueir is usually the first to call them out on it on account of harming Skuurnur's publicity. While pragmatic, he sometimes overthinks things - even if Skuurnur needs to take a more hardline stance on one of its hardliners, he worries that it might send the perception that Skuurnur is divided and vulnerable, for example. His colleagues often see him as an overly cautious, even spineless Slave to PR. On the other hand, he is most affected by Stossuhl's extremism, finding sorrow at the amount of life wasted by a madman, and he's usually the one who tries to avoid as many deaths as possible. He's usually the quickest to react negatively and most viscerally to Stossuhl's extremism; he hatched a deal with a world leader to ship the refugees to a safer area, for example, although the role of peacemaker tends to go to Caulhyr. Thanks to his aversion towards Gunboat Diplomacy or Appeal to Force, Siggueir crafted a PR-friendly image of Skuurnur - that they apprehend dangerous troublemakers (mostly Aura Users) as a way to maintain the Balance of Power, which leads to more stability and security. Rather than utilize their forces, Skuurnur has their collaborates (like Escou Draldoch) find and capture Aura Users instead. However, as a pragmatist, he recognizes when force is needed, and is very willing to conspire with other world leaders covertly in order to remain hardliners and expand Skuurnur's reach.
- Goal: Overthrowing Hellmaster Auerbach, his former torturer.
- Role: He is Skuurnur's de facto diplomat, brokering deals with Skuurnur's neighbors in exchange for non-aggression. He's something of a bureaucrat, micromanaging everything to make sure it works to their fullest capacity, but he's not an organizer like Osciteck.
edited 29th Jan '15 3:54:27 AM by Serocco
In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.
Note - I sent my review of Serocco's character in a PM.
- Name: Elwood Sexton
- Age: 18
- Personality: Elwood starts off, much like Aaron, as an utter laughingstock – he is very much a modern Dandy, caring more for his appearance and romantic interests than pretty much anything else. He wears make up and lip gloss. When Nebiros attacked the school, he was most worried about his mascara running due to a mess up in the bathroom. He got humiliated, dunked in a trash can and then tossed around in there for a cruel prank he pulled on Samantha. And, in retrospect, maybe the sheer amount of times he got humiliated, kicked around and made a fool of had some sort of effect on him. Elwood is New Dawn's Butt-Monkey – and it appears he knows it. And is very much unhappy with it. In fact, as we see in Book IV, he joined up with Aaron for his trek to the Blessed Tear primarily because he thought the magical event could reverse his fortunes and let him be the one who humiliates and emasculates, instead of the other way around. Tellingly, Elwood's Blessed Tear World is one where he is able to wreak his every hedonistic whim, drugs and sex readily available to him, and nobody can tell him no. He had a much worse reaction to the Blessed Tear being dispersed than even Aaron – he saw it as Matthew being “Sir and Lord Perfect” again, and trying to once again humiliate him, to show just how superior Matthew is over Elwood. He stewed in pitch-black hatred, deciding that for all of the purity the hero showed, he was really a “nauseating lover of the spot-light.” Elwood's psyche is also laid bare – he has an obsession with being perfect and appearing as appealingly as possible, and cannot stand anyone outshining him or limiting him. He has a huge amount of Want, and if anyone denies him, they are a “lunatic and monster” who “deserve death”. Thus, when he was recruited by Caine, very little changed about his personality before and after his conversion to worship of Zayufur, the Light Eater. However, as Amanda Wallace, Zayufur's first Herald pointed out, he became much more nasty and acted out without fear of being told he was acting “above his station”. It also appears that he too had a difficult relationship with his family, though not quite to the nightmarish degree Aaron did. His hedonism now unbridled, Elwood has decided he has scores to settle, people to kill, and “enjoyment” to be found on the battlefield.
- Abilities: Elwood has a very powerful natural spell on him – Sade Link, which means he feels every sensation vastly more intensely, and the more pain and pleasure he puts himself through, the more powerful Zayufur Aligned spells become. His Spellcraft indeed seems to mostly be just Zayufur's Spells, including Agony Beams, deadly sonic shouts that blast people's skeletons to dust, mono-molecular blade cherry blossom petals, and other such spells. He also wears the Aeon Killer Armor, which gives him a serpentine form and a dragon-like form, both have different specialties. His six weapons in Serpent Form are all cursed in some way, most of them moving through the air, functionally alive.
- Weaknesses: He has an extremely limited skill set, and despite being very deadly, he lacks defence – he thus falls into the Lightning Bruiser category of “strong and fast, but poor defense.” He is also prone to horribly malevolent actions that draw unwanted attention to him.
- Goals: Enjoy himself thoroughly.
- Motivation: his father denied him the ability to pursue a career as a model or an actor, and wanted his son to join the military. His mother was “worse”. Their “glorified bullying” pushed Elwood. The mockery and bad treatment he got from everyone – though some for being a consummate jerk – was what pushed him further. Then he got his dream world denied, which made him decide the real world is not good enough for him. Thus, he needs to make some changes to how things are.
- Role in the Story: Officially, Caine's Dark Chick. Unofficially, he's basically Co-Dragons with Aaron despite his position. Nobody seems to acknowledge this, which serves to make Elwood's position more shadowy.
- Backstory: Elwood grew up in a rather authoritarian home – his father came from a military background, and his mother was utterly placid and never once contradicted his father's opinion. His father wanted a son who would grow up to fight in a war. He got a pretty boy casanova wannabe. Its evident that Elwood's father utterly detested the life his son lived, and often used homophobic language, including calling his son things like “faggot” and “sissy”. This had a more lasting effect on Elwood than his father – who thought of it as “encouragement” - could think. This all combined not too well at all with the constant humiliations he received at school and otherwise. His only friend was fellow reject Aaron Cascade, and the two apparently had enough of a connection that they journeyed for Blessed Tear together. Elwood saw a vision of unbridled hedonism within the Blessed Tear, and was approached by the Goddess of Corruption and Inversions, Zayufur. He asked for time to consider. When Caine approached him a while later with “an enhancement to the offer”, Elwood accepted both Caine's and Zayufur's offers, becoming a high ranking individual within the ranks of the Light Eater and the Umbral Horde in the process.
- Relevant Tropes:
- Affably Evil: Disturbingly enough, he's this most of the time – making his disgusting predations known, felt, and outright bragging about them...but always in a manner that suggests there's nothing abnormal about what he's up to. That you're the insane one for objecting to these acts.
- Agent Peacock: His armor is...flamboyant...and he makes these weird, soft spoken speeches about enjoyment and the importance of self centeredness. This does not detract from the fact he's absolutely freaking dangerous. Underestimate him at your own risk.
- Ax-Crazy: In a less rampantly violent way than Aaron, but his love of violence is still very much clear. His forces can be even worse, some being young people maddened into becoming monsters due to the training and all the things they've seen.
- Beauty Is Bad: Still a rather pretty, handsome dude...and also the most depraved of Caine's generals. It also extends into Elwood being extremely shallow, outright murdering one guy in the future for...being ugly at him.
- Became Their Own Antithesis: The initial Elwood was a Love Freak who actually loved the girls he went out with, and was kind to them, and generally sensitive and in touch with his feminine side. Fitting, then, that it is Zayufur who he worships, the Goddess of Corruption and Inversion. He essentially inverted his whole personality.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Elwood basically says it to his father when they meet during the Battle of Sanfield;
- Bradley Sexton: ...Elwood? What...what the hell are you doing? Do you know what Caine is doing here? He wants to—-
- Elwood: Yes, father, he wants to kill everyone. And I'm helping him do that. Before you try to sell me the “betraying your country” schpeal, just remember you always said you wanted me to fight in a war. Be very careful what you wish for – never know who's listening.
- Berserk Button: Do not laugh at him. Do not let Elwood think you're laughing at him. He may not go after you, but he may target your loved ones, to "teach a valuable lesson".
- Beware the Silly Ones: Retroactively of a sort, but still - its kind of hard to take a man in red, pink, neon yellow and blue armor seriously. Until you see exactly what he gets up to.
- Body Horror: he has done some very icky things to get enjoyment out of people.
- Butt-Monkey: A scathing deconstruction – Elwood being mistreated, laughed at, used as comic relief and basically bullied in response to even moderately “unacceptable” behavior resulted in him internalizing horrible revenge fantasies, becoming more and more warped.
- The Casanova: At the start – he shifts gradually from loving each of his girls in his own way to viewing them, by Book III as little more than things, extensions of his hedonistic needs.
- Combat Aestheticist: Big in this. His attacks are just as beautiful as they are deadly – and as Sorano can testify, Elwood's one of the deadliest fighters on the battlefield.
- Combat Sadomasochist: He outright grins when Sorano hits him with a drill punch, calling it a superbly done attack.
- The Corrupter: Par the course for a Zayufur Worshiper. He turned young Lucke from Idle Rich to a sadistic psychopath, and warped innocent and kind young male nurse Peyton into becoming a torture technician for his forces.
- Dance Battler: His movements in battle are often likened to an extremely fast moving dance, his serpent form armor often involving complex movements.
- Dangerously Genre-Savvy: Elwood flat out lies about what his powers are, what they do, and how they do what they do, during a pretty standard Shonen Power Explanation Scene. Purely to trip his opponent up. He also lies about the duration of one of his spells, and outright feigns being knocked out to stab his opponent multiple times in the back.
- Death By Sex: He has his ways - such as a spell that turns all his perspiration into a deadly virus when he's "excited".
- Depraved Bisexual: Or even Depraved Omnisexual. Even Hector said some of what he saw in Lanatu made him nauseated. He seems to want to do very icky things to Samantha, and seems turned on by how violent Aaron can be.
- The Dreaded: Elwood for very, very urgent reasons, his “corps of monsters, felons and lunatics” likewise.
- In the future, even Aaron thinks it would be a bad thing if the Violators were let out to do their worst on Oregon.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: A male example – he is extremely pale after his deal, and his hair makes him look rather ghostly. This combines with his constant smirk to make a disturbing profile.
- Emotion Eater: One of his spells lets him feel all his opponent's pain instead of making them feel it. It is vastly more useful than it seems.
- Evil Feels Good: As Elwood puts it, he delights in using evil means to find new sensations and means to explore already existing sensations. As long as people are being corrupted, warped, and affected negatively, Zayufur's perfectly happy.
- Explaining Your Power to the Enemy: Subverted with an order of I Lied, Elwood says his swords have a fixed maximum length...which is almost four times the length he told Matthew. He also lied and said the poison on the swords was blood thinning...when it was actually neurotoxin, slowing down people's reaction time. He also claims he cannot change forms again for five minutes after doing it once, which is just plain false.
- Feel No Pain: Inverted – he feels his pain much, much more intensely than normal, and it makes him ecstatic.
- The Fighting Narcissist: Insists his fighting style is the most beautiful, stresses aesthetics in combat, and is convinced of his own limitless greatness.
- For the Evulz: Many of his actions have utterly no logical point, and he contradicts his own oaths and promises for no reason other than personal enjoyment.
- Fridge Horror: About as much as Caine – Elwood is a very real villain, almost personifying the worst...fleshy...excesses of war. He takes Zayufur's “Despoil Purity” command very literally, and proudly calls his forces “The Violators”. They are some of the most feared enemy troops for damn good reason. People actually clear out when they show up, even the Dark God cultists do not feel safe around them.
- Elwood alludes to the fate of a minor character, in seemingly kind tones, speaking of taking care of him and his family, and giving them shelter and food. Its all double-speak. When Lanatu is infiltrated, there are four bodies, two of them very small, in conditions even Ein Woe found difficult to speak of. The marine had a wife and two kids.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Even Aaron only tolerates and likes him a little because of his record of military success. Caine thinks his "unorthodox tactics" are useless and waste time, and Malevolent thinks they draw unnecessary attention.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Would you believe the wacky and comical Casanova turns into a dangerous and horrible murderer and rapist?
- The Hedonist: The Violators motto – they want to experience every sensation known to man, and quite a few that have not been known. Elwood lives this, a more benign version before Book III, and a much, much nastier version after.
- Hope Crusher: The Violators' thing – they destroy the morale of any army they go up against, are skilled in unconventional warfare, and their reputation leads to troops breaking ranks.
- Backfired against them with the 317th though, who fought even harder knowing what fate awaited the civilians if they lost.
- Horrifying the Horror: Not even Hector Gibbs, a free-wheeling Omnisexual and (ex-)nihilist, and Ein Woe the Monster Clown liked what they saw in Lanatu. Hector called it, “I know its kinda weird hearin' this from me, but damn man that was some messed up shit.”
- In Love with Your Carnage: He just gushes about how violent Aaron is, but also does the same about how well Matthew fights, saying that “killing someone like you will be true ecstasy.”
- It Amused Me: He had no better reason for Outing Shuuji after the war was done. “Everyone always called me “faggot”, and now its your turn. This was truly fun, Shuuji.”
- It's All About Me: Elwood's primary concern is his own pleasure and enjoyment of life, other things, like people's wellbeing, the ways his hedonism affects others, and the fact that he is singularly responsible for more than fifty war crimes, are simply small details that are not important to him. If he feels good killing some guy's wife and kids in horrible ways, then “I simply don't care that he objected to my treatment of them. Which, ultimately, was all that mattered.”
- Living Weapon: By way of Organic Technology; he uses a much nastier version of the classic Snake Sword of Zayufur's warriors, these being very toxic, fast moving and variable length snake swords. That is, he has six of them.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: At least before he started looking like a freaking ghost.
- Manipulative Bastard: He played Arland Doss into ever greater anger against him, and need to prove himself, all the way till Arland got himself killed in battle. All so that the remaining human troops do not have a leader to tie them to their country any more.
- He also uses Eleysia of the Dark God Cult in Sanfield, claiming that as fellow Zayufur Worshipers, why, he's offended she'd think he'd ever scheme to use her to ruin her own hometown, endanger her followers, and try to kill Matthew via deception and Kansas City Shuffle...
- Master Swordsman: Of a unique dancing style, though his swords very often lend a helping hand.
- Never My Fault: Tying into his It's All About Me complex – he is very quick to blame others. He even had the raw gall to say that the only tragedy in him stalking one of his “targets” intending to blackmail her into becoming his “pet” was that he didn't get to kill her at the end of the day, and that the only wrongdoer here is Daniel for not letting him have his fun.
- Not Brainwashed: Shin assumes Elwood is demonically possessed, or at least brainwashed – its then proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that its him. Hector even says, “I saw his Blessed Tear Dream – that shit was beyond pornographic, especially the violence.”
- Pleasure Planet: Lanatu has the aesthetics of one. Go inside, however, and you see “the methodology, equipment, and behaviors of a cabal of sexual sadist serial killers.”
- The Power of Blood: One of his more deranged schemes in the Sanfield War involved a blood sacrifice of six Magic God Potentials – basically, six youths who have the potential to become Odin-level when they grow up – in order to make Sanfield a permanent Eldritch Location. It was thankfully averted.
- Psycho Electro: One of his hidden weapons is an electrical discharge wired through his armor's tail. Being wrapped up in his tail is quite a shock.
- Psychotic Smirk: His expression when someone he deems a Worthy Opponent enters.
- Pyrrhic Victory: Elwood technically got exactly what he wanted out of the war. Just not how he wanted it. Yes, Caine's dead, but the Umbral Horde is shattered, Amanda ran for it, and now he has to run off with Malevolent, Aaron and Tobias. They then each go their separate ways, leaving the Violators to create a power base by themselves instead of getting a strong start. Elwood even quips, “More victories like this, and I'll hand my job over to Amanda.”
- Rape as Drama: Elwood takes it a bit further than most rapist villains do – he views his rapes as service to his deity. And he doesn't discriminate. He even brags when confronted by Matthew about what he was doing before Matthew got there – he cornered a group of United States Navy Soldiers trying to back out of the Umbral Horde. So he decided to send a message – by raping the SEAL in command of their unit to death.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Matthew and Daniel move very, very quickly to counter when The Violators show up, and even Aaron thinks they're disgusting monsters. We never see what The Violators do to their victims. We hear it once, through the ears of a blind Althing Agent. We never see it in the present. We see random indications and such during the infiltration of Lanatu, but nothing definitive.
- Rape, Pillage, and Burn: And sometimes not even in that order. Elwood however voices disgust after trying “cold meat” once, and says he did it just to know he did it.
- Reason Before Honor: When Arland Doss tries to say his troops want their honor avenged against “those damn kids”, Elwood mocks him and suggests honor has “about as much place on the battlefield in the modern day as a wooden spear.”
- Self-Made Orphan: He certainly tries, fighting much more savagely and with a Slasher Smile on his face the whole time.
- Sense Freak: He desires to explore and experience every sensation there is – even ones that are...less than savory. See I Love the Dead for where this tends to lead.
- Sex Is Violence: Elwood describes his fighting movements and the course of events in rather orgiastic terms.
- Sissy Villain: Just...don't say it to him. The S Word is a very good way to make him decide you're obviously not taking him seriously enough – thus, a Kick the Dog is necessary.
- The Sociopath: Despite initial impressions, he's a very high functioning example, playing people along like toys, explicitly saying he enjoys murder and depravity, and having utterly no restraint while fighting. By all indications, he has shallow emotions and the sense that he is the real mastermind behind the Umbral Horde, when Malevolent is the Evil Genius. Not even Amanda Wallace reached these levels.
- Sociopathic Soldier: Elwood and his Violators have done absolutely horrible atrocities, from burning down a church with refugees still inside, killing pregnant women and children, flaying people to create flags and standards, Rape, Pillage, and Burn on a level never seen since the 2nd Sino Japanese War, and its outright insinuated the very worst happened after Caine was killed, because then there was no command structure to tell the Violators and their General who they couldn't go after.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: He only rarely raises his voice above a chilly tone.
- The Spartan Way: How Elwood keeps order – he gives his troops the sensation of torture.
- Made worse by the fact he started conscripting from nearby towns unfortunate enough to be close to Sakorm. He made it sound like the teenage boys were going off to some sort of Summer Camp. They ended up joining either the Violators, or Caine's personal forces. Tellingly, joining the personal forces of the insane solipsist who thinks he's different villains seemingly randomly is the better option.
- Super-Reflexes: In Serpent Mode especially, as the speed combined with his reflexes means hitting him can be difficult. Very, very difficult.
- Too Kinky to Torture: His response to a threat to waterboard him when it looked like he'd been captured is “as fun as that sounds, and really, I'd love to stick around for it, but I have places to go, fun to have, people to flay, y'know.”
- Torture Technician: Elwood has a preference for torture of the body, and torture of the mind, both done at once. And he's extremely, extremely good at it.
- Uriah Gambit: Elwood hoped beyond hope Caine got himself killed in some humiliating manner so he could take over and “turn Sanfield into my den of pleasure”. He got his wish, just...not how he wanted it.
- Villainous Breakdown: He finally loses it spectacularly in Tri Age once his plans go down burning; “I am the very picture of perfection, you ugly, slit-eyed creature of the east! Nobody – nobody laughs at me, ever again! I will slaughter each and every one of you, until you all learn in your dying moments that true beauty is the killing blow!”
- Where I Was Born and Razed: Sanfield was his home town, and now he's burning, maiming and doing unspeakable things to people he knew growing up. It really hammers it in just how far Elwood's gone.
- Who's Laughing Now?: Much like Aaron, but in a vastly more nightmarish way.
- Worthy Opponent: Though he has a really warped idea of what to do with these worthy opponents...
edited 29th Jan '15 4:04:02 AM by NickTheSwing
@Nick The Swing Not much I can say, other than him being a wonderfully depraved villain. Only gripe would be the subjective complaint of "excessive", but hes a char built on excess so its more fine.
Name: Otis Moreno
Age:23
Personality: Friendly-seeming, Pragmatic, Knowledgeable in terms of city venues.
Abilities: Jacked up reflexes, flashbang-proof cyberoptics, dermal armor
Weaknesses: Anything that can kill a regular human.
Goals: To rise from her impoverished origins.
Motivation: Money, Dear Boy
Role in the story: Villain Protagonist
Backstory: Otis was born to a family of homeless in a decaying, once upscale neighboorhood, who named and passed her off as a boy to both ward off most of the depraved folks on the street, and to more easily score menial jobs with which the family earned its barely liveable income with. This lasted until she was age 12, when her parents were caught in the middle of a gangs' drive-by shooting.
Without her parents and puberty beginning to set in, she had to grow up quick, looting the aftermath's of gang squabbles, examining architecture and mugging other homeless to survive. This life of constant danger sharpened her senses and reaction time, two things that came in really handy when she got her hands on her first gun. This was the turning point for her, as there was plenty of hits up for grabs, and it payed far better than any mugging or scavenging, not to mention folks hesitated when it was a kid holding the gun.
To make herself even more of an efficient killer, she used her blood money savings to purchase exercising equipment along with Muay Thai lessons and a few cybernetics.
Its been eleven years since the day that her parents' lives were taken, and Otis is still living steady off murder money, hoping for another big break.
Relevant Tropes: Affably Evil: Comes off as quite friendly provided you are not her target.
Black Eyes of Evil: Her cyberoptics are solid black.
Contralto Of Danger: Speaks in a deep, oddly soothing voice.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Becomes more of an Ice Queen the more cybernetics she installs.
Cyberpunk:The setting shes in is a straight example.
Pet the Dog: Occasionally does a good thing in order to feel better.
Professional Killer: Her main source of income.
Scary Black Woman: Downplayed, see Affably Evil above.
She Cleans Up Nicely:Sort of. When she gets a steady cash flow going she opts for a face lift, breasts implants and a middle-parted bobcut hairstyle, but nonetheless retains her butch demeanor and sense of dress.
Sweet Polly Oliver:What her childhood was like.
The Lad-ette: What she grew into.
Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour
edited 5th Feb '15 5:20:44 PM by Kanonite
Thought I'd try and revive this thread.
Not a lot to say on this one. It's not a bad backstory for a cyberpunk hit(wo)man, but without further context there's not necessarily much I can say. She have any redeeming qualities? Any lines she won't cross? Any close friends?
So, thought I'd post another character, this one from a fantasy concept I'm kicking around. The story was originally a ASOIAF ripoff that I'm trying to turn into something more original. Basic idea (for now): After sixty years on the throne, the King of Hygardia has died. Normally, the heads of the great noble families would now get together and elect his successor from amongst the other members of the dynasty. Unfortunately, a series of wars a generation back reduced the royal family to single unit, and bad luck has followed them since. Only the king and his son were left, and with his son having been murdered the week before he died, there's nobody left to be elected. In order to prevent the murderous Prince Lynake from simply buying his way to the throne, the king's chancellor, Elyse Chadwyck, locates the old king's bastard son, and has him stand for election, since he's technically a member of the dynasty. Lynake and his supporters take issue with this and split the country in a civil war, while even further south, what begins as an isolated rebellion on one aristocrat's plantation, threatens to grow into a slave revolt that will burn down most of the country.
In any case, when Lynake realises things aren't going his way, he starts hiring mercenaries from across the ocean, and in doing so, hires The Platinum Blades, a company sworn to one of the aspects of the 7-Faced Lord of Vice (itself one of the Thirteen Dead Gods; deities who sided with The Great Unseen Ones during a cosmic war). There are six other companies, sworn to other aspects of the 7-Faced Lord, and whenever one of them gets a contract, the others typically follow.
Name: Avar, Captain of The Platinum Blades
Age: Appears to be in his early twenties, actually in his early forties.
Appearance: Like most followers of the Dead Gods and the Great Unseen, Avar's taste runs towards the vaguely Gothic—black dyed hair, white face paint, multiple piercings. He wears a chainmail vest, leather leggings, jackboots, and a long black coat. Unlike most of them (but in common with the rest of his company) he wears his wealth on his sleeve for all to see. The studs in his face, the buttons of his coat, the hilt of the sabre and the dagger in his belt, the buckle of said belt, the links in his chainmail, they're either made of precious metals, or dipped in them. His preference is for expensive, but ugly (hence his preference for platinum over gold); the goal of his appearance is not to look good, but to look expensive.
Personality: Avar's company motto is "You get what you pay for." They're sworn to the Greed aspect of the 7-Faced Lord, and the hunger for cash colours everything they do. It's even more extreme in the case of Avar, who as company captain, acts as the host for the Lord of Vice's greed, and the end result is a cold-blooded, reptilian man who while not especially cruel or sadistic, will do anything so long as the price is right. Murder your enemies? Usual cost. Rape and torture them first? That'll run you extra. Commit genocide against a whole ethnic group? We're going to need half up front.
Abilities: Avar's a clear-sighted strategist, and an efficient, deadly fighter, backed by a thousand men who might as well be his own clones. Mostly light cavalry, they act as scouts, horse-archers, raiders, and thieves, moving quickly and staying mobile. They're also much harder to put down than anybody has a right to be, possessing enhanced reflexes, greater speed, and a constitution that enables them to shrug off all but the heaviest blows. As captain and host Avar's even worse than the others in this regard—he's superhumanly fast, reacts quicker than anybody should, and will tank anything that isn't a sword through the heart or a decapitating stroke. If you do cut him, his blood is the same colour as his platinum studs.
Weaknesses: Avar won't—indeed, can't—do anything he hasn't been paid to do. If a mission fails, or a new circumstance arises, he won't try and improvise something, he'll retreat so he can charge his employer for a new job. While he won't switch sides (sets a bad precedent that), a bribe may well convince him to divulge information he shouldn't. On the physical end of things, the magic that strengthens he and his men doesn't do jack all for their mounts. If you need to escape Avar, kill his horse.
Goals: Avar doesn't really have any personal objectives, beyond amassing as much money as he can, and even then, that's the aspect of the Lord of Vice talking, not him. The magic that binds The Platinum Blades to the rest of the 7 Companies also requires that he assist the other captains in achieving their goals, and in particular, that he aid the captain of The Disinherited, who is gunning for a crown.
Motivations: Avar's motivated by avarice and little else. He was obsessed with being well-off even before he became host to the greed aspect, and sharing head space with it has only served to reinforce his existing personality traits.
Role in story: Avar and The Platinum Blades act as advance scouts for the 7 Companies, getting their foot in the door and then inviting the others to follow. Hired before the civil war by Prince Lynake, he employed them to kidnap women he fancied for his harem. When the country collapsed into anarchy, Avar and his troops started acted as Lynake's special forces, doing the jobs that Lynake wouldn't give to his regular soldiers. Eventually they persuade him to start contracting the other 7 Companies, starting with The Sullied Maidens, and working their way up to The Disinherited. Once the others have arrived, Avar continues to act as one of their key commanders, and would be the only antagonist to last from the first book all the way to the last.
Backstory: Avar grew up a petty street thief in one of the Ten Republics (former Hygardian colonies that broke off during the last civil war). Bitter and resentful towards all those richer than he was, Avar stole not only to eat, but to try and fill a hole he always felt in his soul. Arrested in his late teens, he was thrown in prison. Masterminding a breakout when he was in his twenties, Avar fled the prison and the city, finding refuge with The Platinum Blades (who were operating under a different name at the time; it changes every generation or so). Shortly afterwards, the then-captain of the company was killed, and the greed aspect chose Avar as its new host, passing over hundreds of senior men. In the twenty years since, he hasn't aged a day, and the yawning void inside him has only widened, no matter what he tries to fill it with.
Relevant tropes: The Captain, Co-Dragons (to Princess Kaisereen of The Disinherited, alongside The-King-in-Black) Greed, Hired Guns, Manipulative Bastard (by the time Avar's done, Lynake's a puppet on a string), Master Swordsman, The Mole, Only in It for the Money, Rags to Riches, Sociopathic Soldier, Super-Reflexes
edited 5th Mar '15 9:58:08 PM by AmbarSonofDeshar
Serocco
Avar sounds like the type that wants everything because he's resentful at everyone else have something, which makes sense of his avarice better than most who tackle the issue of greed.
Another Eclipse villain, but this one is just a concept. I'm not sure if I'll implement it, but it's something that's been in my mind, so here you go.
- Name: Allyriane the Valkyrur.
- Appearance: Standing at an enormous 7 feet, Allyriane is a dark-skinned woman with yellow eyes, shoulder length orange hair, red marks on her cheeks, and a lithe yet well-built physique. Unlike all other Valkyries, she is most commonly depicted without much armor other than a gold eagle-shaped helmet, gauntlets that connect to her breast plate, and knee-high boots. Also unlike other Valkyries, she wears a miniskirt. Her legs, back, and midriff were exposed, with flame-shaped red tattoos encompassing her skin. Her wings, unlike all other Valkyries, are able to materialize at her whim, and they appear as a set of white fire-coated feathers.
- Backstory: Known as the Valkyrur, legend says that Allyriane was born from Bazemore, a sun-like entity at the heart of Valhalla (which fuels the realm's existence). She was the first Valkyrie, revered as their forerunner and goddess for her immense power. At the time of her birth, Valhalla was mostly wilderness, populated by hordes of carnivorous beasts that devoured large chunks of the Bazemore energy. Eager to impose her authority, Allyriane - as if the physical manifestation of Bazemore - cut through horde after horde of these great beasts, consequently changing the landscape of Valhalla with the constant realm-shaking combat. At the end, she stood victorious; the Bazemore energy generated from the combat solidified into valuable minerals, such as gold, iron, diamond, topaz, and silver. Allyriane terraformed Valhalla from natural wilderness into a metropolitan urban cluster based upon ancient Greck-Roman-Nordic architecture. Despite her victory, she was exhausted from the fighting, and sought to replenish herself by devouring what was left of Bazemore. Legend states that, as the life faded from her, Allyriane detached sections of her body onto Valhalla, thereby giving birth to the first Valkyries before finally reverting into Bazemore; she is kept safely within her throne room.
- This, of course, was false. Allyriane never needed to devour Bazemore, because by the time of her birth, Bazemore became Allyriane - a living, breathing life-form bred from what was once a being of pure energy; the proximity of carnivores and predators had a profound influence on Bazemore, as if those beasts' basic instincts were transplanted into Bazemore before it successfully obtained sentience through its transformation into Allyriane. Once she beat those beasts and created Valhalla as it stands today, Allyriane grew bored and lonely from her victory, and sought to leave Valhalla to see if there existed anything else outside her home realm. She used her wings to carve an opening beyond her palace, and traveled through what she came to know as ancient Earth. Upon witnessing a fight between ancient human men, Allyriane - entranced - covertly killed some of her favorite specimens through such methods as a "stray" arrow or dagger, a "sudden" tree fall, or a "random" animal attack. Allyriane would then capture the energy deposited from the deceased (or soul) and molded it back into the form of the men she lusted over, but without wills of their own (due to being, you know, dead). She took these men - now christened as her concubines - back to her palace in Valhalla for, shall we say, private uses. Rinse, repeat; she obtained a grand total of one million souls as her concubines and servants within little more than a year. However, over time, she grew ill; she shredded chunks of her own energy to soften the pain, but to no avail, and ended up spawning several daughters at once - these were the first Valkyries, who would carry on her legacy by obtaining the souls of the dead, morphing them into their servants, and birthing an entire species of Valkyries as a result. Allyriane herself, on the other hand, was incapacitated due to the sheer amount of births, and currently resides within her palace as her servants tend to her. None are allowed entry into her palace, and a mythology of heroism was concocted by her daughters to justify the imprisonment of their goddess.
- Personality: A being of immense power, Allyriane is a proud and willful warrior, driven only by her basic instincts and urges; she never gives thought to anything and does as she whims. In many ways, she's less of a person and more of a force of nature, a characteristic that lingered from the animals that influenced her initial form as Bazemore. Allyriane embodies greed, to the point of obsession, and switches from one interest to the next without losing her want of said interests; others concerns or well-being do not register in her mind. Highly arrogant and contemptuous of other life, Allyriane dismisses all others as vermin who exist only for her to exterminate; part of her disdain is due to a sense of fear of losing what she conquered and claimed as her own, leading to a sense of paranoia. Her penchant for violence as the only option towards those who oppose her extends towards her treatment of her concubines, from beatings and lacerations to caged detentions and painful uses of physical restraints. When wounded in any way, she physically abuses herself, even to the point of self mutilation, out of anger at the pain.
- Abilities: As the original Valkyrie and their goddess, Allyriane's arsenal of abilities is a staple of most other Valkyries - golden armor, wings, a shield, and sword/spear. Her wings serve as a defensive shield and as blades that ricochet attacks back at her opponents. They propel streams of white fire, illuminate dark corridors, and blind her enemies the brighter they become. They can constrict her enemies ala paralysis, leaving them at her mercy as she melts their bodies.
- Goal: Protecting her property, everything else be damned.
- Role and Motive: She is the forerunner to the Valkyries and the Goddess of Valhalla. She is one of the few to know Alice Sitchri, the main character, on a personal basis. Allyriane was nearly devoured by darkness as she traveled to the Earth, and fought off aspects of Alice frequently while at Earth. She never saw Alice herself; just these seemingly omnipresent shadows that would never go away. Allyriane grew overprotective of her "toys" and attempted to take as many souls as possible, and each time, she had to fight Alice's shadows at every turn, like an eternal stalker. This is why she's so paranoid and resentful of appearing weak by any means. The source of this disdain came from Allyriane's fear of losing what she had to a creature that she never knew was anywhere near her level of power. She grew territorial and began to resort to anything that kept Alice from stealing her concubines or conquering Valhalla; the name she gave to her rival was "Shadow Queen," which was a moniker that her daughters kept; Valkyrie society forever associates Alice as a creeping, corroding darkness that devours entire realms if not kept in check, and Valkyries see it upon themselves to defend the universe from such an abomination.
edited 28th Feb '15 9:15:16 PM by Serocco
In RWBY, every girl is Best Girl.
@Ambar: The idea behind Vaultrus was that he'd be the kind of person who could easily be Big Bad material if he wanted to, but he's too short-sighted and lazy to ever attempt such a blatant bid for power. Having one of his apprentices become another antagonist in a later book's not a bad idea.
Alexandr sounds like a good villain to both start and end on. I always prefer it when the heads of criminal organizations can actually pose a physical threat to the protagonists in a one-on-one confrontation. I agree with Swordofknowledge that it would be interesting to explore Alexandr's feelings towards "needing" to murder his own daughter. Also, he doesn't really sound like he has much empathy for the rest of his family either. Watching his mother's suicide must have been horrific, but it doesn't really feel like an adequate excuse for his behavior, just an explanation. Especially since, based on what I've taken from what you've wrote, he didn't seem to feel much beyond, "I won't be a failure like her or dad."
@Swordofknowledge: Jurlath sounds like a very interesting figure from your verse's lore. I like how it's possible to empathize with him even if he may have been rebelling for selfish reasons. From what you've written, it sounds like Zalakshi isn't the best god around. If someone came face-to-face with their creator and found them to be flighty and callous about all the suffering of their creations, I could understand why they'd be pissed and think they could do a better job. Just curious, do you have a plan for how true version of events played out, even if you might not be planning on revealing it within the work itself?
@Serocco: Kuruth sounds like a pretty massive asshole, that bit about killing a child is especially petty and vile. I have to ask though, most of the Skuurnur I've seen you post sound highly psychotic, but are any of them more sympathetic or on the Antivillain side of things? Not that I have anything against terrifying and hateable antagonists, having a Complete Monster or a Hate Sink every now and then isn't a bad thing, and Stosshul sounds like he fills that niche very well, it's just that if most of their members are unsympathetic people who do truly horrifying things for mainly selfish or sadistic reasons, then if their organization is meant to have any legitimate points in their goals, they can lose validity in the eyes of the readers. One last thing about Skuurnur, I do like their designs, they sound fairly unique and imaginative.
@NickTheSwing: Caine sounds fascinatingly insane. It's kind of hard, for me personally, to really despise a solipsist with the same passion I can muster for certain Ax-Crazy villains in fiction. Usually because their psychosis isn't really explored beyond, "They're crazy and that makes them evil!" However, if someone is so far gone from reality that they can't believe other people are real, then it feels more difficult to hold it against them when they treat other people as if they aren't real. His knowledge of tropes and his switching between different "characters" make it sound like he'll be a very entertaining villain. Also probably effective given he really does exist in a story.
@Error404: When you say empire, do you mean literal empire or just a collection of forces she cobbled together that she calls an empire?
edited 20th Jan '15 7:00:32 AM by OccasionalExister