MelonHead

End of a Dreamer

Sometime in the recent past

How is that possible? What an achievement.
Truly the greatest of our Empire, our greatest foe vanquished and imprisoned, at our mercy, the Angar-Rylla will rule the Multiverse.
Why hasn’t this information been dispersed through the ranks? It would lighten heavy hearts considering some of our recent setbacks.
I’m unsure, only sixth level officers and higher have been informed thus far, with strict rules on secrecy, I shouldn’t even be speaking with you about this outside of secured quarters, though I can’t see why.
Well, whatever the reason, it’s satisfying to know the mighty Skallagrim has been defeated, I’d better get back to my duties.
Same, stand strong brother.
You too.

From one dark corner of the sparsely populated bridge, two bright blue lights burned with a hungry ferocity.

They’d refused him, demanded to know how he’d heard, misled him, lied to him. Every answer was different, and ultimately came to nothing. Three days later the weapons research division was attacked, the World Machine V2 had been stolen, when the engineers awoke they reported one of their own had gone berserk and forced them to graft it to his armour. The alert was raised, what many in Angar-Ryllan had feared from day one had transpired, Fury had gone rogue.

Present day

He’d gone unnoticed, though he was no master of stealth with the power at his disposal his shielding techniques allowed him to completely conceal himself from the technology of his past faction. Lying silently within one of the many ventilation shafts within an Angar-Ryllan capitol ship, it had taken him more time and effort than he’d expected, but he’d hitched a ride with one of the few ships designated for guarding Skallagrim. He concentrated, his scarred brow furrowed and light leaking out in the complete darkness. He could sense it, smell it almost, the presence of an entity he hated beyond human comprehension. The being within him, the Void, hungered for its revenge, and its vessel was forced to accept the complexity of a rage so great it had almost broken his mind. He felt the charge up of Angar-Ryllan transportation technology, rudimentary teleportation of a kind, and knew the Inquisitor was making his way to the prison.

He’d be following him soon.

The shaft exploded outwards and Fury fell down into the transportation room, populated heavily with incredibly surprised personnel of numerous species. The Fireen’s energy blast shot shards of burning hot shrapnel in every direction, and loud yelps of pain were already emanating from the stricken. He fell with purpose, clearing the twenty meter drop in a backflip that dropped him securely on his feet, aided of course by some degree of skill with energy manipulation. The engineers were shouting in alarm, some were armed and fired at him, their projectiles bouncing off his shield as he raised a hand, his face contorted with barely suppressed rage. Few stood before him for long, but ran before he found it necessary to end their miserable lives, reaching the console he had sensed the message sent from. He wasn’t sure exactly how it worked, his abilities were indescribable, but somehow he knew that the force which had moved the Inquisitor nearly 10km away to the prison had come from started its life within the console, so he sought it out.

Perhaps a minute later he was forced to step outside and find someone with the expertise to work the machine. Shots fired at him from every direction as security staff ambushed him from each side of the corridor he had stepped out into, but he ignored them with a negligent twist of his hand. The blast split the clustered group, revealing what he had suspected, huddled and confused engineers. He grabbed them in one swift move which saw him cover the distance in less than a second, two of them, holding them suspended by the collar in each of his hands.

“Come with me.”

The hostage situation was reaching fever pitch as he had the engineers work, sealing the door as an afterthought. They finished their work and stared up at him in alarm, and with a moment of foresight he thrust one into the chamber.

“You go first.” He nodded at the second to send him through and the man began to shiver in fear, the first shouted something before he disappeared.

“He’s dead then?” Fury grinned. “Not a bad effort, you’ll be following him unless you send me to that prison, if we end up anywhere different I’ll tear out your spine.”

Needless to say, Fury appeared in the prison only a few moments later, following an engineer suffering from a nervous breakdown. He looked upon the two figures before him with little interest of what had transpired, but rather what was to follow. He cut a fearsome figure in his Antireen Mail, the malformed machine wrapped around him glowing alongside the scars on his face. He bellowed out a challenge on entry.

“Skallagrim, I’ve come for our reckoning!”

End of a Dreamer

Well, we can hash out details on Fury's energy-boost for balancing reasons before any real fighting occurs, might as well work on an introductory post.

End of a Dreamer

Let me know if you have any ideas on the world machine, I was trying to think of a way to incorporate it without suggesting any sort of real talent with it.

End of a Dreamer

Fury

Manadar Rane

"He who fights monsters should take care not to become one"
-Nietzche

Nicknamed: Fury / The Fury

Race: Fireen. (Alt-Humans)

Homeworld: Antire (Alt-Earth)

Gender: Male

Age: Unknown, looks around 30.

Character Tier: Intermediate – High depending on form.

Character Type: Critical Character- Active Multiverse Participant

Appearance:

Build: Thick-set, heavily muscled, broad shoulders, little fat. He weighs 120kg, and stands at 6ft 3”.

Personality: Very angry, single minded, average intelligence, sadistic and cruel, ruthless.

[Intermediate] Equipment: Fury relies on his military training and advanced energy powers in battle, however he is somewhat protected by Antireen Mail, futuristic armor with the durability of steel and Kevlar coupled but with an overall weight of little more than 20 pounds. It allows for increased flexibility, with little cost to protection. It covers his entire body relatively closely, although the gauntlets have been lost, the collar in the picture is relatively accurate except closer to his neck and slightly lower down. However, he lost his helm in his fall, and his armour is in a state of disrepair. After ‘joining’ the Angar-Ryllans they provided him with an upgrade, augmenting his armour to protect him from powerful shots. It deflects cuts from steel weaponry and most human firearms, at anything below T2 he’s almost invulnerable. Interestingly its blunt attacks which are most effective against the armour, because it’s the nature of ‘advanced’ factions to believe that blunt attacks are the least likely they’re to face. They also kindly gave him some gloves to match, which fortunately do not affect his energy draining abilities because at such proximity it doesn’t really matter. They have similar properties to the rest of his armour.

[High] World Machine V2: Wrapped around and within the augmented Antireen Mail that Fury favors is a new and most powerful piece of equipment, the mutilated and ravaged world machine that once resided within Kanitah. Resurrected with Angar-Ryllan technology, the machine is something of of a perversion of its true self, exposed in some places, noticeably the back of his armour halfway up his spine, it glows a dark blue and pulses periodically. Lacking some of the function it had in the hands of its master, it now serves Fury by draining energy from the surroundings and placing it in one convenient source close to his skin, allowing him to effectively remove his energy restrictions, even in Unbridled Fury, for longer periods of time. Finally, so long as the metallic wiring and titanium casing survives, Fury's greatest weakness has been overcome.

Pre-Antire’s destruction

[Low] Skills: Advanced military training, in the weaponry of the Fireen. This includes futuristic and well balanced swords maces and spears. As well as a host of other weaponry, including some projectile weapons like crossbows. Also includes all the endurance training etc. which comes with advanced military training.

[Low] Disciplined mind allows certain resistance to psychological warfare or magic. (effects dulled by Fury see below)

[Intermediate] Control of energy flow, at a basic level, allows for weak shields and pushes to be delivered.

[Low] Three years in construction and demolition.

The Fireen and Antire

All Fireen have an innate ability to manipulate energy, which has meant their advance through the ages has changed course significantly from that of Humanity. Their weaponry resembled archaic and medieval tools of warfare, yet they have been developed with a significantly more dangerous design.

Antire was a relatively peaceful planet, with the Fireen able to work past their differences through the applications of energy flow. Masters of the technique came together, and began teaching members of all nations, allowing a sense of cooperation to spread through Antire. It couldn’t have come close enough, as war was threatening to pull everything they had worked for apart.

However, not much more than one hundred years after the formation of the Energy centre, the Fireen’s peaceful existence came to an end. The two sides of the centre drove opposing nations to war, for some believed the gift of energy manipulation, or Antireen Control as it was known to them, was an advantage that should be pressed in war. While others saw the shielding of others and the healing of the injured and sick as a more noble pursuit.

Although the Fireen worked past their differences more often than they came to conflict, the wars waged were significantly more brutal than earths own. Cities would fall, families would be torn apart, and hundreds would die for a cause they did not agree with or even fully understand.

As the war faced its closing months, the victors, who of course were in favour of aggressive use of Antireen Control, began to spend special units in to investigate causes of concern or interest. One such location was found deep within enemy territory, and believed to be a new kind of projectile energy weapon, a last ditch attempt by the ‘Shielders’ as it were. However, the group discovered a waking entity beyond their comprehension. Beyond that, nothingness, whatever Antire was, or may have been was wiped away. The moments where they first came into contact with a being not of their world, was one of the last moments on Antire, before the entire world was destroyed in a cataclysmic blast.

Manadar Rane

Manadar’s part in the events which unfolded, in the meeting which spelled Antire and the Fireen’s doom, was a small one. He was little more than a pawn, an insignificant soldier following orders like the rest.

The day had dawned like any other; he had woken to the sound of his communicator buzzing. Smiled at the message his mother had left. His smile had grown even broader when he read the message his pregnant fiancé had left. When he had looked outside, his smile dropped from his face as he stared out into the night. Drawn back into remembering what was ahead of him, one more night op, another game of dice with death.

Even in the meagre glow of energy lamps, the base had sprawled out in front of him, evidently visible. They were still in ‘Aggressors’ territory, he had reminded himself, so safety was ensured. The ‘Shielders’ wouldn’t dare to attack here. Regardless of how obvious they had made their position, and their intentions.

Still, the worry did not carry over to the mission itself; his team were one of the best the Fireen had to offer, the best technology, the best training. He just hoped he didn’t let the team down. Damn, but he had worried about that mission, as if somehow he knew what was in store, yet he would never have guessed exactly what would transpire in ‘Shielder’ territory.

Outfitted in customary spec-ops armour, which could basically be described as futuristic mail with a lightweight but durable design, and his favourite weapon a four and a half foot buster sword, lined with energy for cutting through armoured targets, he set off. His team had tracked the energy signature for a short while, before they started to feel its effects. Dulled senses, fatigue, one of the group had fallen to the ground completely drained. Manadar had some training in this respect, his father being a keen practitioner of Antireen shielding, so when the draining effects hit him he blocked them out. With some effort and loss of concentration, albeit.

It had been this loss of concentration which had allowed him to fall into a trap, forced down the hill tops beating at his aggressor. They had separated half way down, his attacker colliding into a tree with a sickening thud. Not particularly pleasant, but it hardly bothered Manadar as he struggled to control his descent.

He was unsure of how far he had fallen, eventually the ground around him became loose and gritty, like dirt or sand. He had found himself falling into the dark…

When he had dragged himself to his feet, he had felt himself drawn further into the narrow cave system he had found himself in. Curiously, he had activated the lighting system and followed the energy signature deep into the bowels of the earth.

Something incomprehensible awaited him, it seemed to flood his mind with a pure bright light, and then the earth was torn asunder and he remembered nothing more.

He found himself spaced… drifting lifelessly in the black abyss. When his eyes flickered open, a booming voice echoed in the vaults of his mind, ‘I AM THE VOID. YOU ARE MY FURY.’

He had no idea how long he spent in space… his eyes seeing only the face of the being which destroyed his planet. Placed there by the vengeful entity whose power he inherited. His anger grew, but he could do nothing. Eventually he drifted too close to a star and absorbed some of its power. He felt himself growing inside. However this time… the disjunction did not come. He grew mad in the eternal darkness, losing himself, becoming the real Fury.

Post-Antire’s destruction

Although the skills from his past life remained the same, some key additions were made from the power of the Void. Manadar, or Fury as he was now known, has two base forms/fighting styles. They are dubbed ‘Cold Fury’ and ‘Unbridled Fury’.

Cold Fury

Attributes

[High] Immortality (Agelessness, but also with the ability to reform from all but the most decisive of deaths, this also allows him to heal relatively quickly at a passive rate, by sacrificing energy for the cause.)

[Intermediate]Strength: Roughly able to lift 10 tonnes of weight.

[Intermediate] Speed: 100mph max speed, naturally.

[Low] Reflexes 2X natural. (When concentrating he can react at twice the speed possible for a human.)

[Intermediate] Durability/Endurance: His body is unnaturally durable by any standards, no human could injure him through physical force, though more powerful gunshot could pierce the skin, and explosives tend to knock him back, but still scorch.

Abilities:

[Intermediate] Energy Flow – Allows for fine manipulation of energy, which comes from the stockpile within his body. He can use Energy Flow to spot otherwise hidden opponents, within reason, and draw on his other powers. Energy Flow, and embracing the Void, has also given him the ability to manipulate energy around his body, strengthening certain areas, fighting off disease and infection/poison as well as a multitude of other magical effects, and allowing him to increase his maximum speed and strength at the cost of a lot of energy. None of these are perfect, but it’s difficult to defeat him easily with anything other than a proper scrap.

[Intermediate] Energy shielding – Fury relies on energy to shield himself from most forms of harm, which can be bolstered by charge. It can be pierced most easily at melee range, which suits him fine. It’s distorting to magical effects which aren’t physical in nature, but not able to completely block them out.

[Intermediate] Energy throw – Basically forces energy in a direction, could be in the form of a push or even as a shield.

[Intermediate] Telekinesis - Can be used to manipulate objects within half his physical lift range. Requires concentration and is ineffective against living opponents.

[Intermediate]Energy spear – Similar to energy throw, but a more concentrated and lethal technique which manifests itself in a blue spear like shape visible to the human eye. He can launch it forward, with enough force to cut through steel. But he cannot change its direction mid-flight. It flies at a speed roughly the same as a bullet fired from a modern day pistol. Its power is proportional to charge.

[Intermediate]Energy Disc – A slicing crescent of energy, similar to the spear except it’s a crescent and that it flies slower, deals less damage on contact, but can be controlled mid-flight within a 20 metre radius.

[High]Energy Sink – Periodically restores his energy by absorbing it from the area around him. This can affect opponents to some degree, if they have no/rudimentary shielding. The draining ability is calculated through a numbers system. It would start at a default of 5% in Unbridled fury, and 3% in Cold Fury. Then, take away the opponents Tier/Defences, say a tier 6. Leaving him with -1 in unbridled fury in this example. Then, add on my characters own tier, in this case 5. Giving me a grand total of 4% energy drain. Through physical contact this energy is taken every second, so after five seconds you will have lost 20% of your total energy. (However, it must be sustained, blows do not count towards this total) And in vicinity draining. (Which works at the same rate in a 20 meter radius, regardless of if the opponent is 20 or 5 meters away, the percentage of energy drained is taken periodically, every 10 or so seconds.)

To account for this powerful passive advantage, Fury is always losing energy, At a 1% rate of loss every ten seconds in cold fury, and five percent in unbridled fury. Terrains such as grassland/areas with high life etc reduce this loss to half.)

[High] Energy Sink – Contact – If Fury establishes direct contact with his opponent, say grasping them round the neck, the energy absorption is X10 and can force its way through all but the most advanced shields. Within thirty seconds, the opponent would be completely fatigued. Within a minute, dead. Having more or less energy stored in your body does not effect this in anyway, as more energy = more absorbed due to less energy resistance, less energy = less absorbed.

[Intermediate] Flight – Fury can fly using his energy as a propulsion system, he can reach speeds of up to 150 mph.

Unbridled Fury

Attributes

[High] Immortality

[Intermediate] Energy seal: Significant wounds are plugged with energy, until they eventually heal given enough time and energy. This is a lot faster in combat, especially in Unbridled Fury, but also takes place at a lesser rate in his ‘reverted’ form.

[High] Strength: Fury’s madness means that when he enters the unbridled stage, his strength now multiplies significantly, to accommodate for his lack of mental capacity. Beginning at a cool 50 tonnes of weight (through rapid energy loss, as a secondary flaw.) he can steadily increase his strength to a breaking point of roughly 100 tonnes, while his body strengthens itself with energy to accommodate. The main down-side to this is within a minute of activating such strength he has no energy left to fight with, causing a rapid degradation of strength and a reversion to cold fury, or death, if the fight is still on.

[Intermediate] Speed: His speed is the same, 100 mph, however he’s more likely to waste energy augmenting it at this point. His max realistic speed is only 200 mph though.

[Intermediate] Reflexes: Fury sees in energy in his mad unbridled stage, so he can be faster than usual, but also blinded by his own anger.

[High] Durability/Endurance: Fury is at his most formidable when in Unbridled Fury, fortunately his body strengthens itself impressively. With massive energy shielding (at the cost of energy, hence why this stage is so unpredicatable.) he can make himself invulnerable to nearly every weapon currently at humanity’s disposal, even a nuclear blast could be survived, if at least half a mile from the epic-centre. Breaking down the shields is tough, but because of the finite nature of his energy reservoir in this form many intermediate attacks are more effective than one big attack. He could in theory be worn down by a few clips from a machine gun for example.

[High] Abilities: Forceful Energy Flow – Allows for more force to be applied in energy techniques, at the cost of fine control and at lower energy efficiency. (Basically he loses energy at a faster rate)

[High] Energy crush: Throws around massive amounts of energy, rather than what would be the equivalent of a forceful push, this attack now becomes more akin to being hit with a Boeing 747.

[High] Energy skin: Though not in any way conscious, Fury leaks energy at such a dangerous rate that he actually forms a skin-like shield around himself, which protects him from most ranged and magical threats to an extent. It grows thicker and stronger the longer the fight goes on/longer he goes without taking hits, but it can’t really be bolstered consciously.

[High] Macrokinesis: Similar to telekinesis, except with no fine control. Only large objects with massive energy consumption and forceful attacks, he can lift any object at his maximum physical lift in this stage.

[High] Energy Blast: (Dare I say Kamehameha?) Basically a huge wave of energy blasted from his hands. Charges increase force.

[High] Energy sink: The energy fails to cover his outward energy loss, however if contact is establishes the energy draining effects X10 passive.

[High]Martial Force: Imbues melee hits with pure unbridled energy and force, doubling the force of any hits which land, so if he hits you in this stage its more akin to being hit by someone with twice his strength. This doesn’t allow him to lift anymore though, because that would be too costly in energy.

[High]Power Burst: Costly energy nova, causes a wave of force to burst out from himself in a circle. Useful for taking down zerging opponents in one blast. Leaves him wasted, and reverts him to Cold Fury.

Flight: (Same as above)

[High] The Void

The Void is a powerful energy destroying Entity which exists within Fury. It has broken down his will and replaced it with its own, seeking only revenge for its destruction and subsequent imprisonment within the Fireen. Its anger is directed at Skallagrim specifically, and it will stop at nothing to destroy him and his entire race.

It allows Fury to do most of the energy manipulating things he does, but also provides him with a powerful passive advantage. His mind is almost entirely consumed by the Void, and so any would be physic attackers get a nasty surprise. Though someone smart enough could possibly barter with the Void, to avoid having to fight its Vessel.

NO LONGER ACTIVE : Tides of Sedition

Alarm bells were ringing in his head as he maintained his cool on the outside, leaving no sign of the proposal rattling him save the furrow of his forehead as he entered fervent thought. The P.I was trying to work through the potential ramifications of a meeting such as this, burning his way through lists of ideas and highlighting possibilities.

What he knew:

Group of diverse Vampires, evidently of different bloodlines, gathered by a mysterious and secretive benefactor who hasn’t made a personal appearance.

Evident test of loyalty from the outset, potential to leave ultimately a forgone conclusion, as information thus far is sealed by blood pact.

Diversity in Children reduces the chances that a single Baron had organised the event, either to catch unruly Vampires of their bloodline or to usurp another Baron, though not impossible, worth further consideration.

The most he could do is stick it out, though leaving later could be complicated after a blood pact is made, he could always make his decision after hearing what the parameters would be.

Conclusion, wait and see, but first.

“Ugly here has a point, but more importantly, as you’ve said this sort of thing has been done before, but you know what, for every single success there’s a hundred piles of ash before it.” Peter shook his head. “I’m going to need a pretty solid assurance that this is the real deal, your boss has to give us something to inspire… confidence.”

NO LONGER ACTIVE : Tides of Sedition

I wanted my baron to be something of a loyalist/guard captain for the prince, so it works fine for me.

NO LONGER ACTIVE : Tides of Sedition

Guess I'd have my character under Marreck Osei, as he's linked with Simon Fuller.

RPGuild Ranking Headquarters!

@Davlamin Hey, these are all truisms of Arena but you're right in pointing them out. Just a quick summary of what issues still exist and some of the ways they've been dealt with.

1. This is a personal gripe of mine, luckily the issue only becomes apparent in tournament play, otherwise it is up to the disclosure of the combatants if they agree to combat with an incompatible character. So far the work arounds tend to involve a middle ground being found, which revolves around the balancing elements of T1 Eden era and some practical reductions of firearms and other long range high capcity weaponry.

This issue very much still exists, but its mitigated somewhat by these factors. Segregation based on tech level would only really be useful as a stipulation for tournaments, which is also up to the tournament host.

2. This is common, ultimately though it does not matter, you're in control of your characters actions, so all that a mastery of a skill entails is the ability by which your character carries out the action you intend, and the range of actions you can have your character make. If you yourself have made a clear error, overextending or fucking up spacing or some other common mistake, you've just made your supposed masterful character look bad, and will be punished. It's worth learning about close quarters combat or at least doing some online research before slapping that description onto a character.

There will always be issues in regards to the subjectivity of language, though a decent mitigating factor is a judge ruling or communicating with your opponent throughout the fight to ensure you're both imagining the scene properly. A recent example of this was LeeRoy and me fighting in our Heavy Hitters battle, where it descended into a slightly messy grapple, we ensured that both of us knew what was going on and cut off the potential for misunderstandings. It's not the only way to deal with this issue, but it helps.

Hope these prevailing issues don't put you off Arena fighting, there's still a lot of fun to be had in combat.

RPGuild Ranking Headquarters!

Well, although most swordsmen would be unfamiliar with a boxing style, they would be plenty used to fighting other people with weapons, which are far more dangerous. They probably wouldn't be alive if they weren't quick enough to step away from an opening strike. Though ducking it may be a little unrealistic, as that's specifically a hand to hand skill.

What's great about your opponent dodging, and this is something most people overlook, is that it can be just as useful to force an opponent to dodge in the way you want then to hit them in the first place. I can think of a fair few fights where forcing a specific dodge from my opponent has earned me a better hit, or even the win.

NO LONGER ACTIVE : Tides of Sedition

Can we eagerly await the fabled exposition post later on today?