[hider=Konrad Nachtnebel] Kharacter Name: Konrad Nachtnebel Race/Species: Formally Human, Currently undead. Realm: Originally from Earth Realm, but has spent a great deal of time in the Netherrealm. Alignment: Was Evil, is currently Good. Faction: Independent Physical Description: In his original mortal life, Konrad Nachtnebel was a 192 centimeter tall German special forces solder, with white skin, blond hair and blue eyes. Promoted as a living paragon of his nation and government, Konrad would spend over six years of his life fighting in some of the most brutal, bloody and merciless combat Earthrealm has ever seen against a wide variety of human enemies. His resurrection into undeath and his countless years within the Netherrealm have changed Konrad in many ways, one of which was physical. His skin is now an unnatural, pallid gray, with cracks running throughout it that glow with the damned fire that has been seared into his soul. What was once rich blond hair has become a lifeless bone white and the blue eyes that were once admired now glow a sickly yellow. It is impossible for anyone who sees him to mistake him for a living person, for his unnatural state cannot be hidden. Fighting Style(s): S84/98 III Bayonet: The melee weapon of choice during Konrad's military career, he had such a connection to his Bayonet that it has followed him into death, readily summoned to his hand as easily as a taking a breath is for the living. Mixed Boxing: As part of his physical training for the special forces, sports were generally apart of the program to both improve the physical condition of trainees, but also to promote comradery among the solders. Boxing was one such sport and Konrad was good at it. While the realities of war meant that pure boxing wasn't really an option on the battlefield, it served as a strong foundation, even more so when combined with tenants of Jujitsu. Mixed Wrestling: Like boxing, wrestling was one of the sports that was encouraged for training purposes. Being on the taller side and having a lot of physical power, Konrad was unsurprisingly good at it. Like with boxing, the realities of the battlefield meant that pure wrestling didn't have a place, but it did serve as a good foundation for the combat form that developed. Elemental Power: The fires of the Netherrealm are apart of Konrad's being, merged with his very soul. While a source of pain and discomfort, it can also be used by him to achieve his goals. Origins: In life, Konrad Nachtnebel was born and raised in Germany during and after the First World War. He would grow up in a poor nation that was crippled by the loss of said war and the brutal sanctions and punishments that were forced upon it. Believing the narrative that German hadn't so much as lost the war as been sold out and betrayed from within, Konrad would prove to be an ideal candidate for the Waffen-SS and would serve in it from the start of the Second World War almost right to the end in 1945. During those years, Konrad would fight on a number of different fronts against people of many different nationalities. He would also commit numerous war crimes against those people, believing zealously in the righteousness of the Nazi cause and the sub or inhumanity of those he was torturing and killing. Konrad did not go quietly into death. Tasked with protecting one of the desperate attempts at Occultism by the leadership of the Third Reich at the final days of the war, Konrad's body would be found surrounded by the corpses of two special forces squads, appearing to have died due to having been struck by lightning during a freak storm that appeared over the site. In death, Konrad's soul was sent to the Netherrealm. His damnation to that realm and the many, [i]many[/i] years he would spend there served to inform him of just how mistaken he had been about the righteousness of the cause he had dedicated his life too. However, before the Fallen Elder God had taken over the Netherrealm, it had served other purposes beyond that of a prison for the evil and damned. Infinite in size, by chance Konrad found himself under the administrations of one of the realms original jailers... an entity that believed in the reformation of the soul once the evil had been painfully and brutally cleansed from it. Instead of being used as a plaything or turned into a weapon, Konrad was instead subjected to the torturous pain of purification of his sins. In truth, Konrad was just as surprised as anyone when he found himself brought back to life in Earthrealm... through the manner of that new 'life' was not what one would have naturally wanted. A human student of Shang Tsung, in a plot to create undead warriors from Earthrealm in order to bypass the rules of Mortal Kombat via having 'local agents' weaken and kill the realms defenders, would pull several such souls from the Netherrealm and grant them undead bodies. However, in a cosmic twist of fate so strange that one cannot help but believe an Elder God had a hand to play in it, all the warriors that the sorcerer pulled from the Netherrealm had been under the care of the reformulation demons for some time. Long enough to acknowledge their wrongdoings and actively desire to be reformed. The sorcerer in question was also nowhere near as talented at magic as he believed himself to be and was very swiftly dispatched to the very realm he had been pulling souls from in the more traditional manner of going there. Back on Earth but clearly changed by both the Netherrealm and the manner in which he was brought back, Konrad decided that he was going to dedicate whatever time he had on this plane of existence to trying to do good and prove, if only to himself, that his soul could be reformed and saved. Values: Redemption: If there is one value that has been instilled in Konrad, it is the fact that no matter the sin, redemption is possible. It is not easy and the process is often painful... but if the desire to atone is earnest, it can be done. Kindness: Kindness is an... [i]interesting[/i] value in Konrad's eyes. While many would view him as brutal and cruel in his fighting style and the state he might leave people, from his point of view he is doing them the greatest kindness of all: He is giving them the chance to rethink their lives and the path they are taking. He knows from personal experience the lengths required to make someone living an evil, twisted life question the beliefs that allow them to exist in such a state... and he earnestly wishes to spare them the Netherrealm, for most souls that go there aren't as lucky in who claims them as he himself was. Valor: Not everything from his living days were stripped away from him during his purification. While some misconceptions on what it meant to be valorous were [i]corrected[/i], the virtue of bravery and the desire to act to save others has remained largely intact. Desires: Atonement: While Konrad knows that no amount of good deeds will prevent his return to the Netherrealm when his undead state is brought to an end, he does legitimately desire to show that his time there had inspired him to be a better person... even if the only person who cares is himself. Justice: It has to be stressed that Konrad believes in the power of redemption. That a person, no matter what they have done, should be given the opportunity to rethink their lives in order to change and become a better person. However, if they absolutely refuse to reconsider their dark path despite his efforts to enlighten them of what is to come, he has absolutely no issue with sending them to the Netherrealm as swiftly as possible. NPCs: Justin Arthur: A former Australian solder who died during the Second World War, Justin's actions against the Japanese during the war resulted in him going to the Netherrealm where, much like Konrad, he found himself 'fortunate' enough to come under the tender mercies of a demon that wished to show him the error of his ways. He was also pulled from the Netherrealm at the same time as Konrad and, after slaying the evil bastard that tried to enslave them to kill the living, the pair opted to travel together because... well, it wasn't like they had anyone who would offer them a couch to sleep on if they parted ways. Jane Doe: A third 'redeemed' soul from the Netherrealm, Jane was there far longer then either Justin or Konrad. While they know that she is originally from Earth, they have no idea who she was in life, what era she's from or even what her name is due to the fact that she is completely mute and honestly doesn't seem to be aware of where she is most of the time. However, what they know for certain is that whatever or whomever she was, she is [i]deadly[/i] when it comes to a combat situation. During the brief battle against the sorcerer that raised them in undeath, Jane personally killed five of his assistants/cultists without a word with brutal efficiency with a combination of her bare hands and improvised weaponry. Combat seems to be the only time she seems lucid. [/hider] Going to be honest: Raiden killed Konrad back in 1945. It wasn't anything personal against Konrad himself so much as Raiden needed to directly intervene due to the occultist site in question being too great a danger not to. The best way I could word what was happening at that site is 'Imagine a tribal human smacking an unexploded but armed thermonuclear warhead with a piece of flint repeatedly because they found that it made great fire starting sparks'. The kind of thing that Shang Tsung and Quan Chi would trick [i]someone else[/i] into doing because being in the same realm as it is a [b]terrible[/b] idea.