Videssos wrote:I've been keeping an eye on this RP, despite some obvious historical inaccuracies, like references to a Roman king 700 years ago, a while after Rome had fallen. And Necron probably being a Warhammer 40,000 reference, namely in regards to the Necrons/Necrontyr. Anyway...
Character Name: Enmerkar
Alias(optional): Marchosias, Naberius, Numerius Valerius Corvus, The Raven Lord, The Shadow Child, The Fanged Demon, etc
Allegiance: Himself, essentially, though he's willing to temporarily join the side of either one of the two main factions when it benefits him, whilst giving information to both.
Age: 7,000 years or so.
Where are you from: Eridu, in what is now modern Iraq.
Appearance(description or image):
Weapons(optional): A cursed Japanese blade named Juuchi Yosamu (10,000 Cold Nights/ 十千夜寒) ), and a shapeshifting weapon named Dugnamtar (Fate Speaker in ancient Sumerian), among others.
Powers(max 2): Vampire/Demon Hybrid Physiology, Dark Arts.
Super Move(must also include ML cost): Salmu Margidda (3 ML): Translating to "Black Celestial Chariot" this is an ancient spell devised by Enmerkar, that empowers him and brings an unnatural darkness upon the surrounding area, increasing his speed, senses and regeneration considerably, as well as the potency of his dark magic, especially that of controlling the shadows of himself and others. With modifications over time, it has come to enhance his demonic aspect as well as his vampiric nature. Nonetheless, that enhancement increases the risk his mind ensures during the spell, also being linked in part to his memories, including some of the darker ones.
Bio(must explain who your character is and how they got their abilities):Enmerkar was born into a wealthy ancient Sumerian family in the upper echelons of the city of Eridu's society, in the time of the world's first human civilization. From an early age, he was known for having a keen intellect. In a city dedicated to the god of knowledge, magic and civilisation, Enki, this was obviously seen as a good thing. Enmerkar was avidly interested in reading, possessing an eidetic memory, recalled every clay tablet he'd ever read, including ones concerning the arcane. He served as an advisor, and a librarian of sorts- important in a civilisation which was fanatical about its record keeping, though his interests also lay in warfare, which was often waged between the various city-states, and necessitated advanced strategies, weaponry and defences to be developed. Such wars was he involved in, against nearby Ur(Urim, or Erech of the bible) and Larsa. He possessed a fair amount of knowledge in regards to agriculture, which was yet another element of the development of early civilisation in the fertile crescent, near the Tigris and Euphrates upon which Sumer had been brought about. Highly adaptable, a useful trait to have in societies both new and old, he was to become a victim of mythical beings.
Eridu would visited by one of the feared vampires known as the Seven Demons, legendary beings whom even in those times had long been spoken of, the children of Enmeshar and Lamashtu. Nonetheless, like vampires of later tales, they would avoid holy places such as the ziggurat-temples of Sumer. These vampires were also able to take on the form of particular creatures and things, appearing in certain forms, with one appearing as a dragon, another a wolf, a leopard, a shibbu (?), wind and a storm (perhaps related to vampires turning into mist)- as well as more human seeming countenances, with four of them being female, and the others male. Bloodthirsty and destructive, their coming was ever a dire thing for mortals. Nonetheless, in one such instance, when they appeared in the oldest of cities, Eridu, they did not kill Enmerkar. It was in this time he became a vampire, bitten by one of their ilk, they did as they pleased, before once more vanishing, perhaps returning to wherever they resided. At that time, he was still relatively young, and as a consequence of being bitten, ceased to age.
Enmerkar would soon come to adapt to his new found nature, as a vampire. Often serving as an advisor, he ruled from the shadows, manipulating through words and subtleties, as well as through dark sorcery, necromancy, and when needed, murder. At some point, he moved to the fortified enclave and temple complex of Uruk, supplanting the previous ruler, who people were made to believe to be his father. This ruler, Mesh-ki-ang-gasher, who was said to be the son of Utu, the sun god, entered the sea and disappeared. In Enmerkar's reign, he brought numerous reforms and changes to Uruk, properly turning it into a city, building a complex system of defences, and increasing the population considerably, whilst also having a temple built in Eridu. He also improved upon and expanded the E-ana, the temple to Inanna, which was in honour of the goddess of love and war, that the city was dedicated to. In foreign affairs, he began a rivalry with Aratta, a rich city somewhere to the east, first desiring to turn its peoples into a vassal state that offered him tribute in the form of precious metals and stones. Accordingly, he dispatched a herald across the mountains of Susin and Anshan to the lord of Aratta, Ensuhkeshdanna (also known as En-suhgir-ana), to demand his submission and his tribute. Aratta refused, despite hearing of Uruk's growing power- or perhaps alternatively to test said power in battle. Accordingly, war was declared, and the armies of Uruk marched against Aratta, the might of the world's earliest organised armies crushing Aratta, and gaining the dominion and tribute desired. Thus was this enemy conquered, Aratta falling within a year.
Fifty years into his reign, with the Amorites, or Martu tribes to the west flooding into the lands of Mesopotamia, migrating into the area, usurping rulers of other cities and founding some of their own new cities, including what was to become Babylon, Enmerkar increased his military, and his defences, building a great wall in the desert to protect the city-state. He ruled for 900 years, with a general, or war chief under his command, named Lugalbanda, who was also a vampire, later taking the kingship of Uruk after Enmerkar vanished.
Appearing from place to place, Enmerkar rarely took to ruling over others openly, though he occasionally served as a king, he was more often to be found in the shadows, as an advisor or a general, or a spymaster to various rulers. Occasionally, he garnered enough interest and ambition to catapult a mortal ruler to a position of greatness, as was the case with Sargon of Akkad, the man who founded the first human empire in history. Of course, Sargon was said to have gained the patronage of Inanna, or Ishtar as she would later come to be known. Whilst spending a majority of his time in this world, he had also travelled through dimensions to a variety of others, over the centuries.
Later on, he would have involvement with Babylon and Assyria- including the empire's well known ruthless suppression of enemies and rebels, as well as Egypt, the Hittites, Mycenae and Minoa, before raising the ire of a powerful high priestess and sorceress of Hekate, being entombed at the time of the Thera eruption, being on Crete at the time, and later awoken in Roman times, during Rome's conquest of Crete. He worked his way into the gens Valerii, of the most powerful Roman patrician families, becoming known as Numerius Valerius Corvus. He would see the empire rise to great heights, despite instability, and threats from both within and without, later culminating in the division and collapse of Rome, argued by some distraught Romans to be caused by turning their back on the old gods. Of course, the surviving pagans in time would be persecuted more than they had the Christians. In the age of Vikings, beginning in the late 700s, Enmerkar sometimes travelled to the far north, and came to be associated with myths regarding Odin's ravens, Huginn and Muninn, as well as the valravn of Danish folklore. The fact that the vikings often believed that as long as a raven banner was flown, a battle could be won, may at least in part be able to be attributed to him, and Enmerkar's skill in battle.
In 1084, Enmerkar would see the Normans under Robert Guiscard sack Rome- the sack itself being unsurprising considering the city's history, and imperil the Pope. He would use this opportunity to scour the place of the last remnants of knowledge he did not already have, though some of the church's forces there discovered his nature as a vampire and a demon, they were aghast when Christian symbols and prayers were useless against him. In the Vatican, this would be a heavily guarded and potentially faith-endangering account of how faith and arms could not bring down what they saw as a servant of Satan.
In the 12th century, he resided in Constantinople, the centre of medieval trade, and what was often referred to as the queen of cities. He found a fair amount of interest in the occult and gnostic societies present in city, which reminded him of similar things in Alexandria, centuries earlier, before the Islamic conquest of Egypt. Despite his contempt for monotheistic religions, he recognised the earlier traditions they had taken from, warped and distorted even as they were, and gnosticism was often closer to the old gods than the Orthodox and Catholic churches were willing to cope with. He saw their beliefs as hypocritical, also knowing that the lauded champion of Christianity, Emperor Constantine, had in his time, pandered to those who worshipped the Roman state gods, as well as the popular cult (especially in the military) of Mithras and the rising faith of early Christianity (which was popular to the masses), depicting himself as Mithras, Sol Invictus, and as a "13th apostle". The events of the fourth crusade stirred a hatred towards the Catholic church, and the Venetians who had directed the crusaders to sack Constantinople. Many of the crusaders, and the elderly Venetian doge himself were paid- fatally, for their actions. Many of the short-lived Latin Empire's enemies were aided in their endeavours and victories by Enmerkar. Indeed, it was he who helped restore the Nicaean Empire to the Byzantine Empire, in time.
He had notable influence in the Albigensian crusade against the Cathars in southern France, where he grew attached to some of the locals in Carcassonne and Montsegur. When the crusade came, Enmerkar was responsible for the death of many of the crusaders, and there were tales of a dark beast with terrible sorcery, a servant of the devil incarnate, a creature that had brought about the demise of many men during the crusade. Especially when the crusaders burnt the Cathar locals alive, as heretics. The death count increased then. When Montsegur was besieged, Enmerkar helped the defenders, even as he found more knowledge about the ancient and mysterious artefacts amongst their possession. The Grail, and the books that would help lead to it, and the Labyrinth, were smuggled out of Montsegur. A few of the besiegers tried to stop them, but were slaughtered by Enmerkar.
In the wake of their slaughter, would be one of the first times Enmerkar would encounter one of his most powerful foes. A rival vampire who lead a dark cabal that had been manipulating events as far back as the Merovingian Dynasty. She would engage him in a battle that wrecked much of the nearby countryside, and inadvertently demolished some of the more remote villages in southern France, even as the defenders of Montsegur came to burn at the hands of their enemies. Despite some of the more powerful magic and attacks at his command, Enmerkar soon found himself defeated. Sadistic as that rival vampire was, it would be a slow and incredibly painful experience, one that involved the breaking of both mind and body, before being imprisoned there. Despite efforts otherwise, he would not die, as he was already thousands of years old. A sorcerous and alchemical ritual would bind him, weakening him and forcing him to obey whomever first had and used the key to power over him, as long as they lived or unlived. This artefact was divided into three parts, one in his soul, another in his body, and the other a physical artefact. This is the Clavicula Nox, or Key of Night.
With his defeat, languishing in ignominy, he would in time be cast down into what later came to be known as the gouffre des corbeux (Crow's/Raven's chasm in Belesta Forest, near Montsegur, in Ariege). Bound and entrapped within this mysterious gorge in the middle of a dark forest, ravens would always be seen around the area, the place perhaps getting its name to this, though that also being in part due to the assorted corpses gathered there over the ages. The bodies of humans and other animals had ended up being dumped into the cavern for as long as there was human occupation in the area, for around 80,000 years. Both due to Enmerkar, and to this, the place gathered many rumours, myths and legends, spoken of by the villagers that lived in the nearby village. The chasm was effectively drenched in death, accumulated emotions, and the tortured souls of all those who had died- both before and after being sent down into rift, as well as the tainted genius loci or spirit of the land, that resided there, not having the best of impacts on the mind of the vampire.
Four centuries later, in the early 1800s, when the signs of earlier conflict had all but been erased, Enmerkar would come to be freed from this abyss. The enchanted imprisonment that kept him there had gradually faded in power, and he had recovered a little, though subsisting on whatever creatures fell down there and died, was hardly the best existence. His mind had partially merged with the long dead spirits there, as well as the genius locii whose reach encompassed the surrounding forest. He used this reach to sometimes draw the attention of those nearby, be it animals or those residents of Belesta village. Spreading his influence further was generally curtailed by a powerful spirit that dwelt in Montsegur, known as the White Lady of Montsegur, Esclarmonde de Foix. Although a Cathar and aware of what he had done long ago, she was bound to protect the mountain against the malevolent spirit of the Raven's Chasm.
Sometimes the occasional traveller would appear, though the forest was out of the way, the nearby ruined Cathar bastion of Montsegur would from time to time, gather interest from people as much as its myths became spoken. Enmerkar had a limited and indirect influence on events during his time here, though he was nonetheless able to sometimes temporarily use mortals whose bodies he had acquired. He witnessed the destruction of the Thirty Years War in the 1600s, and the abandonment of most of the nearby castles- including the meagre garrison of Montsegur, and other former Cathar mountain fortresses (such as Aguila, Peyrepertuse, Queribus, Puilaurens and Termes), when the border with Spain was moved in the treaty of the Pyrenees. The late 1700s also brought about the French revolution, which he saw ended, at least temporarily, the French attempts at imitating the nam-lugal, or kingship of old Sumer, including the pretence at their being divinely ordained, being yet another memory of when kingship had been handed down from the gods, both in the manner that they had chosen the ruler, and that the dynasty had often been descended from gods.
It would be two decades after that, that Enmerkar would be offered the power to free himself by Necron, and to shatter what had imprisoned him there for centuries. Though it was gradually weakened already, and his mind almost one with the genius loci and the fallen souls that resided there. He accepted the offer, and became simultaneously, both a demon and a vampire. Though another vestige of the vampire's defeat long ago, the Clavicula Nox, remained a danger to him, he was for the time being, able to exercise more freedom, whilst using his knowledge of dark magic to subversively alter the link given to Necron by the power bestowal. Those who had been his servants, had maintained well a large number of the places he had dwelt in, or seen as areas of import, needing protection, often guarding secrets long forgotten by others. Ever the one to collect knowledge, he had many hidden repositories of books, inscriptions, clay tablets and other forms of media, as well as artefacts, among other things. Such information and knowledge, he guarded well.
Wanting to get rid of what had long been a thorn in his side, he used his rapidly recovering powers to defeat, and make Esclarmonde, the White Lady, little more than an ineffectual shade that walked through the nearby forests and the caves of Montsegur, absorbing most of her power. A more important issue to deal with was the ritual to which he'd been bound. Voraciously, he searched for magic and knowledge by which to remove, or at least weaken the old it had on him. Of course, there was little he did not already know in this regard, with many of the occult traditions simply being polluted and distorted over time, making it usually the case that Enmerkar knew more than was available to others. Although he learnt and found a little more, it was in the end, a fruitless affair.
Even as this happened, Napoleon engaged in his conquest of Europe, defeating most of the coalitions against him. As often, Enmerkar found use for his abilities during this conflict. He also acquired an ornate revolver in the 1860s, enchanted, forged by alchemy and given considerable power that over time increased further. Meanwhile and after, an occult revival in the 19th century brought a lot more interest in the Cathars of southern France, something which carried on into the 20th century, whilst various secret societies and orders, formed around this time. Some of those, such as the Guido von List Society, and the Germanenorden, would be responsible for the Nazis, with much of their leadership being members of such orders, with a pro-Germanic/Aryan, anti-Semitic belief system, often with Germanic Neopagan leanings, combined with a political and ethnic aspect, and sometimes Celtic and Athurian elements. Even to the extent that they forged items, like the Chiemsee Cauldron, to have ceremonial and symbolic significance and use. Enmerkar would see and have involvement in both world wars, with the occult and pagan aspects of the Nazis garnering his interest, even as the likes of Himmler saw in him a connection to Odin's ravens. In the 1930s, he saw Otto Rahn investigate the legends of the Holy Grail, scouring southern France, including Montsegur, though Enmerkar knew it had already been taken from the mountain, and that even the castle itself was a royal fortress later built after the Cathar bastion had been destroyed in the wake of the siege. As the Third Reich ransacked Europe, Enmerkar, going in this time by the name Julius von Schwarzthal, gathered much knowledge, artefacts and wealth as a secretive and senior member of the SS, though he conveniently vanished shortly before the end of the war. Among other things, he was behind events such as the Wormhoudt massacre, the Gardelegen massacre, the Holocaust of Kalavryta and what took place at Oradour-sur-Glane, as well as the the Holocaust in Belarus.
Meanwhile, he was also in the Ahnenerbe, and had organised, ordered, and took part in expeditions and searches for sites, artefacts and features of an archaeological nature that were intended to reveal the archaeological and cultural history of the Aryan race. Whilst another part of the objective was to investigate things of an occult and mythological nature, often tied together in such matters. Enmerkar travelled as far as Tibet, also conducting experiments in the aforementioned areas, with the organisation's combination of science, archaeology, ideology, occultism and various other things coming together. Though believing their ideology to be nonsense, he had used the power and resources they had held at the time for his own ends. Ironically, in the aftermath of the war, both Nazi-hunter and vampire hunter organisations attempted to target him, to little effect for the most part. Those that ever found him, disappeared, or met mysterious and untimely accidents.
Although he had heard of nuclear experiments, and of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, he would not face the destructive capability of nuclear power himself until Chernobyl. In the months leading up to the disaster, he had travelled there, hearing rumours of an old enemy in the area. Reports by the people who lived there, began to crop up, about a mysterious black bird, as he scoured the area, and occasionally clashed briefly with this adversary. Rumours began to spread of a "Black Bird of Chernobyl" a sinister apparition, before the Nuclear reactor went critical in the midst of a battle. Many of the workers who survived the initial blast and fire told frightful stories about a huge black winged creature flying from the destroyed reactor, gliding through the swirling plumes of irradiated smoke pouring from the reactor. Though of course all who witnessed this would come to die not long after, with the radiation levels easily enough to kill them within days or weeks. Time passed after this, and the uncertain outcome of the battle remained just that. The Vampire Lord saw humans rapidly advance in technology in the following decades, more and more as the 21st century neared. Though he was sometimes known as the Raven Lord, that is far from the only form he takes, being able to take on a variety of forms, though usually a vampiric variation of whatever animal it happens to be. Commonly assumed forms, as well as that of a raven, include a dragon, a wolf, and a particular eagle known as a Haast's eagle, among other things. Even these days, he still holds a level of interest in finding a way to properly get rid of the Clavicula Nox's curse, before someone found out and became able to utilise it against him, bending him to their will, and perhaps forcing him to permanently take a side.
Was that many images necessary? Accepted, as well as Flammaland.
