Galatine Posted July 8, 2010 Share Posted July 8, 2010 Characters Name: Nergal Power Level: 12 (180/180) Trade-Offs: -5 Attack/ +5 Damage; -5 Defense/ +5 Toughness Unspent PP: 0 Alternate Titles: Sargon Sarru-kin, The Dread Sun Age: 5.7 billion (Apparent Age: late 20s) Gender: Male Height: 6' 4" Weight: 200 lbs. Eyes: Gold Hair: Black Description: Nergal appears to be a man of Middle Eastern descent, lean and muscular. His brown skin is smooth and his posture is what could only be described as regal. The air of a man who has ruled. His black hair is wavy and about shoulder length, with a short cut beard framing his hard features. His eyes though are the color of burnished gold and send a cold shiver down the spine of any who look into their depths. He wears nothing save for a skirt decorated in the Akkadian method of dyed thread set into angular patterns and lines. His feet are bare, as are his muscular chest and powerful arms. The only other decoration he wears are a pair of roughly hewn iron shackles about his wrists. Shackles that seem to have no seem or means of getting them off. History: Billions of years ago, there were two Suns. Fearing and hating the power and majesty of its twin, one struck a hateful blow against its sibling. Cruelly, it cast the broken form of it's other into the lightness depths at the edge of the solar system. There it kept it prisoner, refusing to kill it and instead tortured it by showing it how the life of their planets worshiped and loved it more than its forgotten twin. This injustice cannot stand. This is the story that Nergal tells itself, twisted by billions of years of insanity and malice. Its perverse version of the truth would have it destroy and absorb the Sun's power. To do so would shatter the solar system, ending all life in it in the cataclysm. But Nergal cares not. He would just remake the solar system anew, once restored to his rightful glory. Through out history, it has ever sought vengeance. Hurling comets and monstrosities at the life forming on the planets. But always was it thwarted, first by the Sun itself, and then the Sun's avatar. And eventually it felt the rumblings of quiescence eating away even at it's mighty rage. And Nergal knew: if he were to fall asleep and into quiescence, it would never awaken. And so for eons it searched for a means to stave off its doom, cheat death. And in the black, lightness depths; it found what it was looking for. By this time Lemuria and Atlantis had long since fallen. The Preservers had left their labors. Civilization was just beginning to reassert itself among humans on Earth. One of the first places it did was in the great city of Agade. There dwelt Sargon, the first king the world had seen since the fall of Atlantis. Sargon Sarru-kin. He ruled wisely and well, conquering and uniting much of Mesopotamia under his Empire. And by his side was the En of Agade, his dear friend Shamash, who ws the Sun given human form. Together they forged a kingdom of justice and righteousness. Until Nergal returned. In the great cedar forests of the Eastern Mountains he arrived. In the black reaches between stars he had found a horror. A horror the dread star had proceeded to break and twist until its mangled visage suited its ends. Nergal poured itself into the creature, binding it with mighty shackles made of the iron in its very core, the entirety of its power contained in this singular terrible creature: The Humbaba. Its size was enormous, towering as a giant among men. Covered in armor and with limbs ending in great rending claws. But most dangerous of all was its visage. For in the eyes of the Humbaba burned the madness of Nergal. So terrible that even to look upon it would turn the soul to ash. Ensuring that even in carvings of the beast its face is instead depicted as a single coiling line symbolizing the descent into the abyss of insanity. Wherever the Humbaba went nothing was left but ruins and ashes. Shamash and Sargon strode out to face the Humbaba as it tore through the cities of the Empire. The battle, once joined, was horrific in its ferocity and intensity. For the Humbaba was filled with the full essence of the dread star. All its power and hate focused. Valiantly Shamash and Sargon fought. But in the end it was to no avail. With a roar of triumph, the Humbaba grabbed Shamash and brutally tore into the Sun's avatar, until finally throwing the shattered corpse to the ground. But while the Humbaba exulted in its victory, Sargon, with a strength born of grief at the death of his dearest friend, swung his blade and severed the Humbaba's head from its shoulders. With a scream of agony the monster was immolated, along with the body of Shamash himself. The only thing that remained were the iron shackles amidst the dust and ashes. When Sargon touched these, he heard the voice of Nergal in his mind. 'I am Nergal, he who is master of death. Who is master of the fire of suns. By right of conquest my power is now yours Sargon Sarru-kin. Use it.' But Sargon, though wracked with grief, was still wise. He knew better than to trust the evil being who had empowered Humbaba. Taking the shackles as a trophy he returned to Agade. There he enshrined Shamash, and the people deified the hero. They knew him from then on as the god of the Sun. The Shackles of Nergal were placed within a mighty vault, bound by seals of powerful magic from across the world. And so things continued for a time. Sargon continued to rule, though troubles now came more often without the power of Shamash. Often he despaired for the loss of his friend. And then there came a time when a foe appeared too powerful for Sargon alone. A wicked sorcerer, exiled from Egypt. Twice was the king defeated in battle, and it soon seemed that the Empire of Agade was doomed without its En. But Sargon, in desperation to save his people, opened the vault. He broke the seals he had so many years ago placed upon the Shackles and donned them. And when Nergal made his offer once more, Sargon accepted. Using the power of the dread Sun, Sargon dealt with the sorcerer with ease. Things became quiet. Peace returned. But there was always danger, and more and more often was Sargon forced to call upon the evil power of Nergal. He told himself that he did this for his people. He would use this power not for evil. He would defy the ever growing voice of Nergal that urged him to use the power for vile ends. The power kept him young, gave him the strength to be the hero his people needed him to be. Eventually his greatest challenge of all faced the king. His grand-son, Naram-Sin, had also grasped forbidden powers. The self-proclaimed King of the Four Corners sought to conquer the world using the powers of bound demons and even darker things. Sargon Sarru-kin faced Naram-Sin for the fate of the world. The King of Agade was forced to draw upon more of Nergal's power than he had ever before used. And in the end he proved victorious. But when Sargon attempted to banish the power, to cast it away once more, he found that he could not. Only now did Nergal show the folly of the King. By drawing upon the vile power Sargon had allowed Nergal a toehold in his soul. And with each use that hold grew and grew; the king had damned his soul by inches. And now there was nothing in his soul save for the bleak radiance of Nergal. The dread sun incinerated the majority of the king's soul in a malicious exultation of his new-found freedom. Only the tiniest of portions did he allow to survive, the charred remnants forced to watch as Nergal asserted control of the body. Forced to watch what would happen next. Nergal strode into Agade, and the people hailed the one they thought to be their king. He came before the great temple, where even the gods of their people were fooled by the visage Nergal had taken as his own. There, in front of the people that Sargon had so loved, had sacrificed everything for, Nergal showed his true nature for all to see. He murdered the gods of Agade in their temple, violating and torturing them in a slow and agonizing death before casting their shattered husks before the terrified people. He ground the great buildings to dust, tore the walls down stone by stone. Hunted down each man, woman, and child of Agade and burned their souls down to nothing. The fertile land was mutilated in a day into a blasted wasteland. A desert into which nothing would ever grow again. And all the while Sargon was forced to watch. On that wasteland Nergal built his city of Cuthath, a hellish vision of life with the dread star overhead. Populated with the remnants of the populations of cities Nergal had destroyed, who fearfully worshiped Nergal as their god of death and the sun. It was only by the combined might of all the ancient heroes of Mesopotamia that Nergal's dominion was slowed in its expansion. Eventually the Sun was reborn into that part of the solar system once more. Taking the name of Utu, he gathered together all of the new gods of Mesopotamia: Enki, Enlil, Anu, Ishtar, and Marduk among others. Together they assaulted Cuthath and defeated Nergal, slew the god-king. Sargon thought that now he could finally be at peace. But Nergal could not be banished so easily. For the dread star had latched onto the mortal soul of Sargon, using it as an anchor. Sargon's soul, or what remained of it, could never pass on. And Nergal would remain. And so Nergal has burned a path of ashes through out history. He has slain gods and broken heroes. Tore down empires, and razed entire peoples from even the memory of humanity. And always, always, always he seeks to destroy the Sun's Avatar, and absorb its power. It was Nergal who tortured and utterly broke Eos, Greek goddess of Dawn and daughter to the Sun's Avatar, Helios, using her against his ancient foe. It was Nergal who taught the Jotuns of the Norse the means of creating the great wolf Skol, who killed the Sun's Avatar while it was Sol, a goddess of the Aesir. And it was Nergal who caught the Sun's Avatar at Tunguska, where their battle and mutual deaths decimated the area for miles around. In the millennia since his fall, Sargon's mind has shattered beyond repair. In a cruel mercy, the once great king is given control while Nergal rests and regains his strength between periods of activity. He is taken often for nothing more than a mad man. For such he now is. Broken by thousands of years of atrocities committed by his hands. The annihilation of entire peoples, the murder of gods, and the desolation of kingdoms haunt him forever. And in his madness he now blames the Sun's Avatar for all the horrors inflicted upon him. And now Nergal wakes once more. In an attempt to finally accomplish his goal he attempted to awaken himself too early. Thus weakened, this action only resulted in his defeat and the awakening of the Sun, who now calls itself Pharos. But Nergal is patient, and filled with a malice older than gods. He is gathering his might. Soon will be the time. Soon, he will have his desire. And he will see all of creation burn for it. Personality & Motivation: Nergal is a monster with the termidity to wear a human face. Filled with an ancient and terrible malice, bearing a grudge older than the world. He makes no attempt to understand humans or their gods for he sees himself as utterly above them. In his insanity every action of his is vindicated. The world and all of its people nothing more than a bauble that he can break and make anew once things are set aright. But perhaps the most terrible thing about Nergal is the look of utter antipathy on his face as he commits atrocity after atrocity. He commits horrifying, monstrous actions with the same look of dispassion one might have while brushing their teeth. There is no emotion in his features, no sick joy, no guilt. The only thing one feels when staring into those golden eyes is cold. A pure, cold hate older even than the gods themselves. Powers & Tactics: Nergal possesses the full power of a brown dwarf star behind him. Though the star is slowly dying and is nothing compared to the power it once wielded as a true star, the amount of power he is able to bring to bear is terrifying. Even in his current, partially awakened state he is only underestimated at the most dire peril. Nergal is able to direct his powers mainly in destructive arcs of solar flares, or even by creating miniature suns to affect annihilation over a greater area. His strength and durability are monstrous, and he is able to teleport great distances with but a thought in a glimmer of malevolent light. Disdaining to sully his feet by walking on the ground, which might itself revolt at his touch, Nergal instead unhurridly walks on the air itself. Nergal is the definition of patience, and has no shame or qualms about fighting dirty. He will lay quiet for years before striking, gathering his strength all the while. He will use hostages, Murder populations as a distraction, torture and use his enemies own children as human shields. If he is over matched, he throws himself at his enemy, seeking to kill them as well. For Nergal cannot truly die. Barring that, he will make a strike with his full power towards what his foe holds dear in an act of utter malice. Complications: In Brief: The incarnation of the Sun's twin star. Stats: 0+0+0+0+0+0 = 0pp Str: 10 (+0) Dex: 10 (+0) Con: 10 (+0) Int: 10 (+0) Wis: 10 (+0) Cha: 10 (+0) Combat: 0+0 = 0pp Attack: +0 Grapple: +0 Defense: +0 (+0 flat-footed) Knockback: -0 Initiative: +0 Saves: 0+0+0 = 0pp Toughness: +0 (+0 Con, +0 other) Fortitude: +0 (+0 Con, +0) Reflex: +0 (+0 Dex, +0) Will: +0 (+0 Wis, +0) Skills: 0r = 0pp Example: Knowledge (arcane lore) 4 (+4) Feats: 0pp Equipment Name [Xep] Equipment Name [Xep] Powers: 0+0+0 = 0pp Example: Power X (name/descriptor; Extras: whatever; Flaws: whatever; Power Feats: whatever; Drawbacks: whatever) [Xpp] AP: Power X (name/descriptor; Extras: whatever; Flaws: whatever; Power Feats: whatever; Drawbacks: whatever) Drawbacks: 0+0+0 = 0pp Example: Name (description; frequency, severity; -X) DC Block: Example: Blast 10 --- 25/Toughness --- Bruised, Staged Costs: Abilities (00) + Combat (00) + Saves (00) + Skills (00) + Feats (00) + Powers (00) - Drawbacks (00) = 0pp Link to comment
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