(no subject)

[force_and_style]

Player Name: Dragon
Character Name: Xykon
Canon: The Order of the Stick

Canon Background: Here is quite a wiki page!

AU Background: A long time ago in a prosperous village, a young child discovered completely by accident that he had access to dark and blasphemous powers of magic. As the years passed and his powers (and morals) grew more fiendish, his parents summoned a wise professor of the Sorcerous League to interview and assess him for membership in the faction, whose teachings and guidance would mold him into a valorous defender of good and right. The teenager responded by cheerfully slaying and animating the wizard, slaughtering his parents, and taking the name Xykon because it sounded cool.

Xykon briefly served under an Unholy Master of a kingdom whose name is lost to time, but was passed over for promotion. An irritated Xykon quit service and set out on his own, beginning a vaguely entertaining life of evil. He lived out practically all the tropes of the role: setting himself up in minion-filled lairs, stealing crowns and beating sagely old masters to death with their own trophies, and generally amounting to very little in the cosmic sense.

Things took a turn for the worse for all creation when Xykon fell in with the goblins Redcloak and Right-Eye (or at least, that's what they called themselves, because Xykon had killed someone right in front of them for having a name so long he got bored hearing it). The two goblins had a plan that required magic such as Xykon's; with his magic as well as Redcloak's, the two could gain a certain amount of control over the powers of the Rift. They only needed to seize one of five Gates, constructed by adventurers long ago to contain spots where the Rift's corruptive energies were leaking into the world. Once they controlled a Gate, Redcloak told him, their magics could unleash the Rift anywhere they chose. This was in fact a lie; the only real thing the Rift could possibly do under their control was destroy all creation. Redcloak's plan was to build a better world for the goblin people by blackmailing Heaven itself; his lie was enough to convince Xykon to join.

Uniting Xykon's powers with Redcloak's own, as well as both goblin and undead minions, the forged faction Servants of the Plan led an assault on the one Gate they knew the location of. Its mistress, a druidess with a master of nature magics, defeated Xykon by means of a plague that stripped his ability to do magic, then imprisoned the factions' leaders deep below the earth. A desperate Redcloak suggested that he use his magic to transform Xykon into a lich, to which the latter cheerfully agreed.

Four months later, the newly-undead Xykon broke free of prison and slaughtered the druidess easily, imprisoning her soul in a handy gem. The Gate, however, was destroyed, but not before they determined the existence of others. However, lacking any information as to where these might be found, the Plan stagnates. Xykon abandons his castle and the goblins without warning, heading out to conquer a stronghold where he discovered not only further information on the Gates, but a Destiny Crystal.

With his ascension to prominence noted by this acquisition of the Crystal, Xykon has spent some time serving as a gun-for-hire and mercenary, as well as the technical leader of the Servants of the Plan faction.


Personality: Xykon is Evil with a capital E. Not 'troubled', not 'tragic', not in the least bit sympathetic. Xykon is evil in every possible way, small and large. He is absolutely cruel and willfully sadistic. All things being equal, he will inevitably choose to cause suffering and torment to any creature, including his own allies. In periods of adversity, his team spirit rises, but once he's back in control he ignores anything and anyone that doesn't entertain him -- and the only thing that really entertains him is suffering.

Born a sorcerer, Xykon has no patience for the intelligentsia of wizards, who look down on those who have magic come naturally to them instead of earning their power through study and dedication. Nor does he have patience for tactics, strategy, or planning. He knows this! He is well aware of his general impatience and willful ignorance of these things. In his living years this caused him a great deal of trouble, and led to him really accomplishing very little of substantial note, but after his transformation to undeath he came to realize that it was simply possibly to blast through anything if you're strong enough -- and thus far Xykon has certainly been strong enough to overcome almost any opposition.

The only other thing that truly matters to Xykon is style. It isn't enough to do horrible deeds and pursue ultimate goals -- you have to do them with pizzazz. If he can time the use of a spell to add perfect drama to a situation, he will. If he can showcase his power with some overwhelming display of force, he will. He cracks jokes, delivers one-liners, pauses battles to flaunt his greatness, and lectures the heroes on their flaws and weaknesses while casually ignoring their abilities. But when he's put on the ropes, Xykon tosses style out the window; winning is much more important than losing with style. In fact, Xykon believes the real key to power is simply how far you're willing to debase yourself to win. As he himself points out, he let himself be turned into a lich just to win a battle. Pride, standards, decency, refusing to take a winning action for any reason whatsoever -- these are weakness.

Outside of those moments, though, Xykon is rarely serious. He's on top of the world and he knows it, even with a minor setback here and there. He's got power, style, and everything on his side that matters. And eternity to enjoy it. Why shouldn't he have some fun?

Despite all these advantages, Xykon is no deep thinker. Unless he's being very serious (which is rare), he does things to amuse himself before anything. That means he will cheerfully slaughter his own minions and anger his own allies just for a laugh. He is virtually incapable of making friends; his allies are essentially chained to him by his manipulation, which means they have no qualms about manipulating him in turn if they believe they can get away with it.

Going along with his desire for amusement, he also plays the role of evil villain incredibly straight, including deliberately invoking classic tropes and flaws in that personality. Though by all means a massive threat when he has his act together, he generally prefers to screw around and have fun -- which has massively bitten him on the butt a couple of times in canon, causing him to lose his body because he turned his back on one of the heroes, and much later to lose his phylactery because he'd been toying around with and torturing a paladin. He once conducted a job interview in the middle of battle just because he could, then bragged about it by sending the new hire down to his ally with a note specifically for that purpose.

Interestingly, for all his power, Xykon is absolutely terrible at finding anything to do with it without help. During his entire lifetime he accomplished absolutely nothing of note, despite amassing a massive amount of sorcerous power. Only when an evil scheme of sufficient power was dropped in his lap did he actually manage to acquire a Destiny Crystal and and make any impact on the world whatsoever.

As a side note, Xykon's home world is explicitly governed by the 3.5 rules of Dungeons and Dragons, and its inhabitants know that. Even though this one isn't, Xykon has absolutely no problem referencing rules mechanics or abilities (such as referring to an enchanted sword as +5, or noting that he has a +8 racial bonus to Listen and Spot checks in so many words).

Combat Style: Xykon is a Epic lich sorcerer under D&D 3.5 rules. The links contain all the details necessary, but some expansion:

As a lich, Xykon is undead and immortal. He is able to endure a massive level of punishment (d12 Hit Dice), can see in the dark, cannot be affected by powers which affect the mind, is immune to poison, paralysis, sleep, stunning, disease, and death effects; cannot be beaten up (nonlethal damage) or weakened (ability damage), and doesn't get tired. Positive energy harms him; negative energy heals him. Any effect that would attack his vitality or health (transformation or petrification, for example) he automatically ignores unless it could also affect an inanimate object. He does not breath, eat, or sleep. He is immune to cold and electricity damage and hostile shapechanging effects. He takes substantially less damage from any physical attack which is not both magical and bludgeoning.

If destroyed, Xykon regenerates from his phylactery. It is impossible to kill him without destroying it first.

Xykon does not seem to have a fear aura in canon, despite that being a lich ability. He very much does have the ability to paralyze with a touch (although it does not appear to be permanent), as well as harm with pure negative energy.

As a sorcerer, Xykon knows a list of spells and may cast any of them he desires, until he has expended all the spell slots he has available for spells of that level. Canonically, his spell list is as follows (taken from either a provided list, or spells he has been observed casting or showing the results of):

0th level: Ray of Frost, 8x unknown
1st level: Magic Missile, Burning Hands, 3x unknown
2nd level: Shatter, 4x unknown
3rd level: Lightning Bolt, Protection from Energy, 2x unknown
4th level: Animate Dead, Greater Invisibility, Resilient Sphere, Stoneskin
5th level: Cloudkill, Overland Flight, Symbol of Pain, Xykon's Moderately Escapable Forcecage (Estimated spell level. The spell creates bars of force around one humanoid creature which anchor themselves in the ground.)
6th level: Contingency, Unknown x2
7th level: Finger of Death, Mass Hold Person, Greater Teleport
8th level: Symbol of Insanity, Ghostform (no link available, but basically does exactly what it sounds like), Unknown
9th level: Energy Drain, Meteor Swarm, Soul Bind
Epic level: Superb Dispelling (ludicrously high chance to dispel magic effects and suppress magic items), Epic Mage Armor (shields the caster with invisible force, making them near-impossible to hit), Cloister

Known Feats: Craft Wonderous Item, Maximize Spell, Still Spell, Craft Ring, Craft Ring (Epic)

Speaking specifically to the game and power flattening, Xykon is obviously more than a match for a squad of regular soldiers, but to an elite group is likely to struggle due to them being able to bludgeon him with magical weapons, which also makes it extremely difficult for him to cast spells in combat. Xykon also frequently fails to cast spells that would be beneficial to him out of arrogance or simply forgetting. He is prone to behaving in a cliched-villain fashion that can easily be his undoing. (In other words, it's not only possible but entirely in-character for him to lose as story dictates.)

Kingdom or Faction: Xykon is head of the faction called the Servants of the Plan, but in the absence of Redcloak, he has renamed it to the much more direct Team Evil.

Primary Role: Leader of Team Evil; Commander.

Soldier or Siege Company: 2 companies of undead. Xykon also has access to 2 companies of goblins if he ever gets off his butt and gets them.

Tarot Cards: Death, the Magician, the High Priestess.


Artifacts: Xykon has a ring which makes the wearer immune to damage from fire.

Setting Considerations: The Five Gates referenced in the AU history are pretty highly adaptable to the Rift instead of the canonical Snarl. Xykon intends to continue searching for them, and it might also be interesting if someone unconnected and unaware of them stumbled upon one at some point.

Notes: If goblins don't exist, some other oppressed race or even just some lowly peasants would work; I tried to keep it faithful in the forlorn hope that someday I will see a Redcloak join.

I'll request to update his powers list if more spells are revealed in canon.

Sample Post:

Q1. Who deserves to pass judgement upon you, and who do you deserve to judge?

Judgement? Seriously? What kind of do-gooder crap is that? Every hero out there who thinks they've got something to prove thinks they've got some right to bring justice to the world by slaying the Evil Lich. What've they got that a guy with three levels in Commoner doesn't? A sword or a couple spells. That's it.

Going by that standard, it's all about power. So that means I get to judge everyone. Or we could just admit this whole judging thing is a pile of crap and it's all about power anyway.

Q2. What do you want people to remember about you after you are gone?

Gone? I didn't go through the whole lichdom process just so I could kick off afterwards. But let's say somehow the heroes won and I'm -- I'm --

Pfffffahahahahahahaha! Aaahahahaha!

Couldn't keep a straight face. And that's saying something, because it's just a skull. With an oddly expressive jaw and eye sockets. Anyway, I don't care what people think of me after I'm gone. I'm not here to build some legacy or make people fear my name throughout eternity. They should already be doing THAT.

Q3. For what cause are you willing to sacrifice yourself?

None. There's a line between Evil With A Capital E and 'well-intentioned but misguided' and you can guess what side of that line thoughts like that are on. Hint, it's the one with all the whiners, losers, and oh yeah, the dead guys. If you're willing to die, for anything, you've already lost. People like me will grant your wish -- without twisting the wording, which is probably a first in recorded history.

Q4. It is the eve of a great battle, and the troops have made camp for the night. Where are you and what are you doing?

Whatever I want, wherever I want. I don't care what they're doing, and I don't sleep any more. The spell slots'll pop back into my head no matter what. Nights before battle are as boring as they come, so anything to numb THAT little field trip to Boredsville's welcome. Burning down a local village, raising the undead, watching the crystal ball... You're boring me just making me think about it! Next question!

Q5. Why do you deserve to rule this land?

Power.

That's it.

What else matter? The person who rules is the person who's got the power to rule. You get a few allies, scare a few important people, kill everyone else, and you're in charge. Doesn't matter if you're 'fit' to rule. No such thing as 'divine right'. You want the job, you have to have the power to take it.


Q6. Your liege has called upon you to perform a task of great importance. Upon what do you rely to complete it?

Replacing 'liege' with 'guy who's paying money for me to do what I'd do anyway', and we've still got another question I'm gonna answer with 'power'. That may sound stupid, but think about it. Power is power. It's what you use. It's not magic, for example. It's great to go all-out and Energy Drain someone till they're a crumbling husk, but if you go in with that plan and there they are standing in the middle of an Antimagic Circle, there goes the plan. So what then?

Simple. You wise up to the fact that the guy also has none of his magic, and moreover is a d6-HD-at-best caster, and you get into that circle and slap the crap out of him with his own not-a-+1-staff-in-this-antimagic-zone, relying on the fact that your lich qualities give you bonuses better than some entire classes.

Q7. What does your presence bring to your kingdom?

Force and style.

And if they need enough force that style can slide, they've got that too.

Q8. What do you do in the face of great adversity?

It's a complicated process, intricate and subtle. Step one, find out what's causing the adversity. Step two, annihilate it. It's amazing how many problem you can solve by raw, brute force.

Q9. What are your aspirations?

Enjoy myself.

That's really what it all comes down to. Getting a taste for coffee back would be nice, but that's kind of lower on the old 'Dumb Things I Gotta Do Today' list than 'conquer world'. Which obviously I would enjoy.

Q10. The pressures of court have become too much for you to bear, what do you do?

Blow it off. Someone else can deal with it for a while. There's nothing important there. It's just a dog-and-pony show. I'm not getting worked up over something that stupid.