Nexus Character Directory

[Murkus]

Dr. Adrian Rein, "The Holder of the First Seed"

Aliases:

Gender: Male

Species: Holder

Age: Early on his forties, maybe late thirties.

Alignment: Neutral Good-ish

Class: Plaguebringer

Power Rating: Hard to approximate with this one. Could range anywhere from C to A.

Description: Of above average height and possessed of wide shoulders, the Doctor is not too much to look at. He appears human, as most of the Holders do. Naturally, he possesses a generic white lab coat, a crisp white thing that he strives to keep perfectly clean. White gloves too.

Adrian has short, clean-cut blonde hair that he combs thoroughly. His eyes are a dirty, almost vomit-like green. His features are soft and welcoming, with a very friendly-looking face.

Personality: The Doctor is perhaps the greatest embodiment of Neutral Evil. He's not a sociopath, he has no love of mindless violence. He certainly isn't evil for evil's sake. He has the best, the simplest motivation: he is very, very selfish. If you have one of the Objects, or simply something he wants, you're going to give it to him or you're going to die. No laws, no objective system of morality will get in his way.

Besides the selfishness, Adrian is quiet, charming, and altogether rather pleasant to talk to. He's very friendly, actually, as long as you don't get in his way. He is calculating, his mindscape a set of perfectly ordered files in row upon row of cold metal cabinets. He's the kind of guy who has plans within his plans, contingencies for every occasion.

Kindness is not beyond his reach, either. And not always for manipulating people. Sometimes the Doctor feels like being nice, sometimes he simply pities the vast majority. Compared to the beings he's seen, the beings he has known, you are maggots. Maggots writhing about in accidental mudballs created by some absent God. He sees no reason for you to die before it is your time. You should thank him for being so kind: some of the other Holders would murder you for no other reason than looking at them.

Of late, the Doctor has been coming under personality changes. He's... better, now.

Equipment: Well, he always carries a fictional doctor's kit with him. First aid, a stethoscope, various cutting implements, all that good stuff. Not that he gets a lot of use out of it, but creepy guys with suitcases (especially a white one) always look cool. Along with that, of course, he has the white jacket and gloves. And a powerful looking pistol, also hidden in the suitcase.

Abilities: Nothing beyond that of a human. Years of medical experience.

Backstory: He was a doctor who moved around a lot. He helped people. His wife Maricyl, a victim of some unknown, cancer-like disease, became pregnant. He worked and worked to save her, but his efforts were for naught. Not a cure could be found, and not even magical healers were able to help.

This is when Adrian found out about the Objects. Strange, unfathomably ancient items created by some long-lost, deeply dreaded being. It is said that the Objects grant certain... abilities. That there were 2538, but 2000 were lost. It is said that if they ever came together, an eternity in Hell would be a better alternative to what would come. Whole universes would come to an end.

Adrian only wanted the abilities. He heard that a certain item related to the Objects, something called Dargaia's nectar, could give one the ability to heal any wound, purge any disease. He travelled in desperation to find the nectar. He became a Seeker of the Object, one of the foolish few who sought these mind-wrenching items. He was forced to the darkest corners of the Nexus to gain his prize, but he found it. The lifeblood of Dargaia was his. And as he had been instructed by long-abandoned tomes and underworld rumors, he consumed it.

He came back to find his wife had already passed away. Along with her unborn child. Even as he was stricken with grief, he began to change. To mutate, mostly in minor ways. His body created things, grew things, abominations best left undescribed. A seed of Dargaia, strange monsters, and finally... Object 448.

And so he became a Holder, gaining the Object's granted abilities as they were described above. Holders were meant to guard the Objects, and as his tomes said, he buried the Object. He buried it with his wife, at their cottage in Outside.

It spread, and grew into a disgusting tree of monstrous proportions, turning the surrounding landscape into a grey wasteland of death and festering rot. And with it came his eternal health.

Now, as he goes about his business Seeking the other Objects (for reasons he has not disclosed), something is growing inside the tree of Object 448. He thinks he knows what it is. It is something unnatural... something created by the Object, a side affect of burying it with his wife.

It is his daughter.