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View Full Version : Villain: Kerethar Rikath Arathale, the Last Ruestli (Undead Mecha Pilot) (PEACH)



Leliel
2009-08-17, 07:43 PM
Well, as some of you may have seen on the Roleplaying Games board, I am interested in running an anime-style mecha game in Eberron.

Of course, an epic idea needs an epic BBEG. For him, I was thinking I would explore theme of decay and desperation. To be specific, I want to show that the Last War was by no means a unique conflict, but rather, the death throes of a doomed civilization-a fact that he is familiar with, having been present the last time it happened ("Look on my works, ye mighty and despair"), and the depths of human evil he will descend to prevent it happening again (this is the man I have pegged for destroying Riedra as an example to back up his ultimatum-which, it should be noted, is located on the same continent he comes from).

So, here he is:

Kerethar (Colonel) Rikath Arathale, The Remnant Of The Gifted Ones

Quote: "So long as humans exist, they will search for an enemy to destroy. I can't change that. But I can certainly give them a villain other than themselves."

Motivations: Desperation, Cynicism, Death Wish.

Evoked Emotions: Sorrow, Doubt.

Background: To understand Rikath, one must first understand his people, and the science they created.

The Ruestli, or Gifted Ones, was the original empire of Sarlona, having formed slightly before the Age of Giants by humans banding together to survive the Age of Demons. Their name came from the fact that in order to fight back against their demonic oppressors, they used arcane magic to learn more about the structure of Eberron, it's life, and it's planes than anyone before or since.

So much so, in fact, that they were able to predict when Xoriat was coterminous in the early Age of Giants-and set a trap that not only sealed the breach before it began, but captured a daelkyr.

Seeking to expand their ever-growing knowledge of the universe, the Ruestli sages and sorcerers devised an eldritch machine to extract all of the substantial lore of the daelkyr before destroying it utterly. While much of the arcana so gained was either useless or dangerous, they did manage to gain a basic template for flesh-warping. This, combined with their skills in biochemistry, helped to create the art of life-shaping-the science of growing ever-new forms of life to servants, technology, and weapons.

With this at their disposal, the Ruestli began an exponential expansion, quickly conquering all of Sarlona-even the supposedly uninhabitable regions-with the beasts they had created. On the civilian side of things, life-shaping improved the quality of life to levels comparable to modern Riedra, with engineered plants turning farming into a thing of the past. In time, the Ruestli turned to the spiritual side of things, coming to create a religion-the predecessor to the Sovereign Host and the Blood of Vol-based around the transformation of the soul into a divine creature via perfection of the body-namely, life-shaping it into a state not quite immortal, but certainly far, far more than mortal.

Over time, the Ruestli, as humans do-even ones that resembled gods physically-grew curious about the outside world, wondering what else was out there. Already knowing that the world was round even before they had become a kingdom of survivors, they set sail, and found Xen'drik...at the heyday of the Age of Giants.

As before, the giants tried to enslave the bizarre new race that had come to their shores, not knowing the Ruestli had an empire just as old and mighty as they. For the next ten years, the Ruestli colonists and the giant kingdoms warred against each other, with the giants sending mighty spells and enslaved warriors, and the Ruestli creating terrifying beasts and horrible plagues. It would have gone on for ten more, except the Ruestli realized that despite their aversion to fighting physically, they were still capable warriors due to the practices of their faith, and had a gift that the giants couldn't match. So, they decided to combine them.

The Spirit Warriors, as they were and are known, were created to strike a perfect balance between physical fighting and clever life-shaping. Living, self-aware suits of armor, bonded to the finest in the Ruestli armed forces as their bonded masters and allies. With their ability to grow with their pilots, the war turned drastically against the giants, who were forced to conditionally surrender. Tired of the war, the Ruestli High Council agreed; the north eastern shores of Xen'drik to the Ruestli, in return for leaving the giants to their own business.

(to be continued-in the meantime, please comment)

Leliel
2009-08-17, 11:22 PM
This arrangement carried on for a time, with the Ruestli expanding into Khovaire, although there inroads there were never much, just an outpost or two-by then, they had discovered the wonders of Khyber, and began to clear out the Underdark for their cities, even eradicating-if only by accident-an empire of kuo-toa and aboleths in the process. The giants being the giants, however, began to resent the life-shapers on "their" lands, and began to indirectly attack them. So it should come as no surprise that when the planar watchers noticed Dal Quior aligning, no one told the giants that the Ruestli built a planar gate right on their doorstep. Then, when the dragons helped the giants seal the gate, that the Ruestli supplied weapons and supplies to the race of elves that would later become the drow. After the giants were overthrown, the Ruestli, not wishing to interfere with the drow culture, made an agreement that, in return for leaving Xen'drik, the drow would not attack the Ruestli on sight unless the life-shapers tried to meddle with the drow if warned not to.

So the Ruestli returned to Sarlona to contemplate and exploit Khyber, eventually building a magnificent web of subterranean cities that expanded across Eberron. As they did so, their life-shaping techniques grew more and more advanced, until at one point, even the infamously saintly High Councilor Eso Shatash remarked "if we are not gods, then I have every confidence that we are in the short running for ascension to the pantheon".

Confidence brings pride.

Pride brings hubris.

Hubris brings ruin.

(to be continued-once again, please comment)

Leliel
2009-08-18, 12:12 PM
It wasn't large at first-just a few legal altercations between the two preeminent provinces of the empire-nothing that hadn't happened before, just a mineral vein used to enhance life-shaping, make it's creations more resilient. The Ruestli High Council, used to this sort of thing, decided to stay out of the way, believing that the minor scandal would go away. However by that time, the governors of each of the provinces had personal grudges against each other, and soon, began to sabotage each other's personal interests. One thing lead to another, and soon, the Ruestli were embroiled in a civil war, hidden tensions unearthed by what had been just a minor spat.

Fifty years the war continued, with each side using life-shaping to create an infinite army of monsters, lead by Spirit Knights and their pilots. It would not have been so bad if it was left that way, but the Ruestli never had any moral quandaries about total war, and many of their civilian settlements on both sides destroyed utterly and without mercy. The war grew to a state not unlike the Khovairi Last War in both violence and bitterness, until the Ruestli, hoping to end the war by any means, created an all-powerful beast, the life-shaped equivalent to a nuclear bomb.

It turned out to be their final mistake.

Project Ahaleth, as he was so called, was meant to be the ultimate weapon-a device which if controlled would inevitably win the war. But he was too powerful, and too intelligent. Having been treated as a simple machine, undeserving of kindness and love during his growth, he only felt kinship to the other life-shaped creatures. He became his own master, leading other intelligent life-shaped in a rebellion that quickly grew far greater then any of the Ruestli sides, given his own life-shaping skills and ability to assimilate the unintelligent living machines of the Ruestli into a hive mind under his control. Ultimately, what had been a civil war turned into a war for mortal survival, with the Ruestli fighting against their own creation. And so it continued.

For months.

For years.

For decades.

A century passed, and the Ruestli were steadily, intractably, losing.

In desperation, the Ruestli turned to the planes, hoping to create a way of destroying Ahaleth once and for all-an artificial manifest zone, combining traits of all the planes over Sarlona. Once prepared, they lured the monster king to the center of their ruined capital-the site where the eldritch machine had been built.

It worked far better than it's makers anticipated.

In the end, Ahaleth's mind was obliterated, and his essence scattered across Syberis. He was destroyed.

But so were the Ruestli.

And everything they had built in Sarlona-gone, in a flash of light.

Ultimately, is was not the fact that they played god that lead to their downfall-it's that they were far too good at it.

(to be continued-comments, please)

Dragon Elite
2009-08-18, 12:17 PM
It seems good, but needs more.

Leliel
2009-08-18, 08:53 PM
It seems good, but needs more.

(Of course. It's not nearly complete yet)

The survivors of Ruestli, seeing the utter terror that their arrogance had unleashed, held a referendum. They decided that in order for future civilizations to not follow their mistakes, they would have to destroy all the remaining relics of their empire-the better to prevent others from learning life-shaping, and inevitably, creating another Ahaleth. So began a purge that singlehandedly destroyed all the traces of the once-great kingdom-except one.

A minor garrison in Xen'drik, meant to serve as a sentry against drow reneging on the pact with the Ruestli-under the command of a young Kerethar named Rikath Arathale.

A prodigal life-shaper as well as a brilliant strategist, Rikath was more or less born into the Ahaleth/Ruestli war, the son of officers in the Imperial Navy. Due to his experience with shaped technology, he was firmly in the belief that it wasn't life-shaping that corrupted the Ruestli, simply another form of sword. It was for this that when the order came to scuttle his post, he instead stocked it with prototypes of the Spirit Knights and hid it.

His idea was that a future society would eventually reach the point where it no longer viewed each other as enemies. It was then, he reasoned, that they would not make the errors the Ruestli did and so prove worthy heritors of their legacy. Of course, he knew that no matter how advanced his shaped beasts became, they would never gain the ability to make that deduction for themselves. So, he put his lifeforce in a phylactery, and became an archlich-an immortal of radiant and necrotic, undead, yet still alive at the same time.

And so he retired to his self-styled catacomb, a temple of memories, in every confidence that the people of the future would put away petty things.

To say he was repeatedly disappointed is an understatement.

(to be continued-comments, comments)

Leliel
2009-08-18, 11:02 PM
Not an update to the story, but since I like adding themes to everything, here's the music that I imagine playing when he appears. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSq8D_cQlog&feature=related) That's particularly appropriate, since Epsilon is kinda how I imagine Rikath looking like.

Leliel
2009-08-20, 11:31 AM
(Actual continuation)

For the next dozen millennia, Rikath observed as not only did the humans fail to learn the lesson of the Ruestli, but it was forgotten, with even their history and memories fading into time. The disparate tribes continued fighting over one another, and when some of them left for Khovaire, where pettiness such as the nebulous idea of "honor" became virtues. The point where this became so blatant that even his idealism could not weather it was the War of the Mark. "Yes", Rikath thought to himself, "paint those with different abilities of your own as demons, possessed by something they couldn't control. Never actually consider that they might actually be, I don't know, people."

And with that, his faith in humanity was replaced by a cynicism about human nature. He kept guard of his catacomb, but now it was to guard others from finding Ruestli technology-he couldn't destroy it by now, the life-shaped he had created would simply rebuild it. Even so, he began to wish for a reason to shatter his phylactery, and retire to the sleep of ages.

He didn't get it, but he did find something familiar. Disturbingly familiar.

The Last War.

(to be continued-Comment, I command you!)

Leliel
2009-08-21, 11:23 AM
Bumping so I don't forget.

Leliel
2009-08-22, 04:05 PM
The seemingly endless civil war of Khovari was almost exactly like the Ruestli war that led to the creation of Ahaleth, only worse. At least in that war, there were only two sides, and both of those admitted up front that this would be a conflict devoid of morality.

The Last War, on the other hand, was an eternall shifting stalemate where the five nations shook with their left hands and stabbing with the right. Actually, it was even less savory then the former paragraph implied-when one admits that war is hell, a lot of actions are put under stark lighting. When one tries to justify it in terms of "good" and "evil", war crimes are the word of the day-if you view yor enemy as less than human, you do not treat them as humans should be.

Rikath thought that the Mourning-an event he is as confused about as everyone else-would teach the Five Nations that war is ultimately pointless, but rather, they took a different, more vile lesson from it: To continue fighting in the shadows. Even the supposedly angelic queen of Aundair was just as vicious and ambitious as her fellows, viewing the contiunuation of a secret millitary campaign as a matter of national pride. In this, Rikath's dismal opinion of people was solidified-that they are
inherently violent and fearful creatures on a constant path to self-destruction.

If he were a lesser man, he would have simply used his abilities to wipe the continent clean and start anew. But one should not equate "bitterness" with "hate", and Rikath had long seen the higher part of humanity as well, however small and ultimately insginifgant as it is. As a result, he still wanted to save humanity (which in the Ruestli philosophy, as it should be noted, includes demihumans as well), if only from themselves.

It was how to save them that eluded him. He could use his life-shaping to create a great empire that would unify the Five Nations by sword and blood-but they would inevitably strike back againist their conquerers and gain life-shaping, and then he would be back at square one. Then, something wonderful happened-he remembered.

He was not old enough to remember the Ruestli civil war, but he was born in the time of Ahaleth. During it, he had seen no conflict between the different factions of Ruestli, all of them united againist a common threat-and that even after the artifical cataclysm, their alliance never fell apart. The bonds of war were strong indeed, the bonds of many in the face of extinction even more so. All he has to do, he realized, was a variation on his original plan-just trick the Khoviari into unifying againist a single threat, and make it threatining enough to bond them as a single army. If they lost, then the threat would, as before, unify them by force. If they won, then they would remember the power of honor and indivisibilty, and they would unify themselves.

Either way, he would win.

And so, a plan hatched in the archlich's mind...

Leliel
2009-08-26, 08:24 PM
The first part was elegant in it's simplicity. To help obtain the item he would need to complete the ritual that would put his plan into action, he feigned sympathy to the interests of the Lords of Dust-you know, "the world deserves to end", "nothing means anything", and all that. In reality, Rikath finds rakashas in general to be repulsive, but he required the soul of a powerful member of that race to serve as a focus-and it's impossible to move once captured without it escaping to gather a body somewhere else. Besides, the idea of gloating to a helpless tiger-head demon about how a "lesser being" played them all for fools holds a certain...luster. This would seem to be impossible, but keep in mind that the Lords are arrogant-they would never suspect that a human, even a millennia-old one, capable of tricking them without significant reason to believe so-which, given that he is quite capable of making "mistakes" that are nothing of the sort-or real ones that he can easily subvert to his advantage-is not there. Of particular is the "tattoo" given to high-ranking members of his organization, the Eyes of Pthonus, and their associates-to a rakasha, these seem like primitve, easily-detected means of showing membership, but in reality, they are life-shaped sigils that instantly detect a Deceptive Veil being used; The rakasha think they're spying on their "allies", when in fact they're the ones being found out.

The second part was a little more chancy, but it was going to go off eventually-Rikath inscribed a "signpost" in the Ruestli language in a giant ruin that pointed to his catacomb and the technology stored within-then silently waited for a Khovairi expedition to come along-which happened sooner than he anticipated in the form of Alain Vellumscribe and Karlan d'Tharashk. Then, through use of a simple oil trap, he made Karlan stumble just so that he tore down the "moss" (actually the life-shaped equivalent of electrical wiring) that covered his runes. The tricky part was subtly emotionally manipulating Alain so he didn't destroy the ruins when he discovered how life-shaping was invented-it wouldn't hurt Rikath all that much, but he would need to rebuild the crypt. He didn't, however, and the second part of his plan was completed.

By the time the game starts, Rikath has set the third part of his plan into motion-first, suggesting to the intelligence within the Spirit Knights that recreating the Ruestli in the modern age would be prudent, leading to the bizarre "disease" of Rubedo Sickness-the process by which the Knights slowly life-shape their pilots to a genetic phenotype fitting the Ruestli one. This is primarily to create tensions between the Five Nations, and thus further fool the Lords into thinking he's on their side and diverting attention in preparation for his ultimate plan.

The second part-and the one that affects the PCs personally-is that he wants to find and/or create worthy successors to the Ruestli's legacy, making rather obvious interference with them and their goals in order to sculpt the platonic ideal of a group of Ruestli heroes-strategically pragmatic on the battlefield, but kind and understanding otherwise. To do that, he needs to lead the PCs to the dark sides of their nations, while showing the good side of others. This will sow doubt and the ability to question their orders. When their Rubedo Sickness has nearly run it's course, he will show them what happened to the Ruestli, and his own viewpoint on things-not hinting that this doesn't involve the Overlords of Dust.

The final part is the most critical, since if he gets to that point, the Last War will be on the verge of starting up again-using a series of vague verses in the Draconic Prophecy (basically, "in the land were fate has no sway, the Mockery's children will rise"), he will suggest to the Lords of Dust that they will need to summon the overlord Bane in Sarlona-when, in fact, what he is doing is luring the fiends into the Hall of Stars, the place where Ahaleth kept his forces. Once there, he will trap them along with the modern Ruestli heroes he has created and use one of the pieces of Ahaleth-the Wing of Discord-to access the security system. Then, using the rhakasha's soul he stole as a sort of "catalyst", he will use the energy of the modern Ruestli's Spirit Knights to serve as a power source for the revival of Ahaleth's greatest servants-the Army of 144,000.

A name that is a bit of a misnomer, since it actually refers to the number of it's component legions. The least member of which is mid-epic tier, and it only goes up from there.

Once that happens, the only outcomes are favorable-either the Five Nations will get their act together before the entire Army fully revives (the process is sequential by necessity) and help the new Ruestli heroes defeat him and deactivate the Army, or they won't, and the army will conquer Khovaire and enforce the continuation of it's civilization with extreme prejudice. He would prefer the former, but if they can't work together for that, they probably deserve a nice long period of martial law.

And once that happens, he may finally rest.

(Phew! Finally done with his backstory. Comments are appreciated, as always.)

Leliel
2009-08-27, 11:31 AM
Could someone comment on his backstory? I want to know if anyone likes him before a flesh out his personality.

Leliel
2009-08-28, 02:51 AM
(No? Then I'll just have to go with his appearance and keep annoying people until they respond)

Appearance: Rikath's body, like most archliches, hasn't been reduced to bone-the radiant counterbalance to the necrotic energies used in the process means he is both alive and undead at the same time. As a result, his body still resembles a Ruestli-robust, almost statue-like skin covered in life-shaped runes detailing his virtues-for comparison, imagine a healthier-looking Ori Prior from Stargate.

That said, the ability to still be alive while dead comes with a drawback-Rikath has continued to age. While this is literally skin deep-his organs are still as toned and robust as he was before he crafted his phylactery-he is bordering on the translucent when it comes to that particular aspect. This, combined with the Ruestli tradition of wearing your hair to shoulder-length, has given him a ghostly, ethereal countenance. He is perfectly aware of this, and finds it not worth the bother of life-shaping into a more mortal form-besides, it's a good way to intimidate people.

His Spirit Knight, the Maha Yuga shares it's masters strange-but-elegant appearance. With angelic wings that fold gently back into it's aft section, it's source of energy resulting in a near-constant fog, and the "armored praying mantis" look that is common to all Knights, it is a fitting craft for it's antediluvian pilot.

(Comment, I say, Comment)

Leliel
2009-08-30, 10:31 PM
Personality: Rikath is a sad, lonely, and bitter old man. He has every right to be, at least in his opinion-what would happen to you if you watched humanity succumb to it's flaws, again and again, for thousands of years? He still manages a dry wit, but it is often tinged with a misanthropic overtone.

Recently, however, the fact that his plan has, against all his expectations, is working has given him hope-if he can trick the Lords of Dust into believing him a friend, what else can he do? Admittedly, this hasn't changed his disposition for the better, but it has allowed him from sinking into complete despair and going off to die someplace. As it is, he now is working for a cause for the first time in ages, and the apathy that has characterized him for the last 500 or so years has gone, replaced by his old steely determination.

One thing that has never gone, and never will, is an iron-clad loyalty to his troops. While he does not see the point in sending wave after wave of unintelligent life-shaped at his enemies, he does truly care for his intelligent minions. While he understands that sacrifice is often necessary, he has been known to be shaken for days if he makes a strategic blunder that results in needless deaths.

He often life-shapes various pieces of art and creatures in his spare time, but lately, this has become more of a second job for him, focusing more on the practical side of things. One of his greatest creations is Eshata, a hyperintelligent-if not exactly sane-humanoid that he often uses as a gatherer of intelligence. This is partially because when people meet her in disguise, they usually assume her to be a harmless loon. Nevertheless, she is a highly capable Spirit Knight pilot, and can easily adapt to any situation-so long as her ADD doesn't get the better of her and she talks to an invisible orange Razorclaw shifter long enough for her enemies to flank her. On the plus side, this often means she thinks of plans that would seem physically impossible-and often are but she makes them work anyway.

In combat, Rikath is utterly detached and aloof-until someone actually manages to be a half-way decent challenge. This inflames his old fighter's instincts, which, given that he hasn't had a real opponent in millennia, makes it so he could easily be mistaken for a Valenar. He taunts and cajoles his enemies, even while complementing their fighting techniques. He often views combat such as this as a duel where the combatants learn from each other, and he has a tendency to point out flaws in the opposition's tactics, and recommending ways to fix them.

(Comment: And for those of you who didn't get the reference with Eshata-it's Quor for Osaka (http://ultimatekai.deviantart.com/art/It-s-Azumanga-Daioh-58409944). That picture should tell you all you need to know)