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Leliel
2009-09-19, 10:31 AM
Well, I found this thread on the Wizards boards, and I thought it was pretty cool. As stated by the OP, Awesomeocalypse:

"Here's how it works. I post a description of a hero, and the next poster comes up with a cool idea for a character who could be that hero's archnemesis, and then posts a hero of their own. The next poster creates a nemesis for that hero, and then creates a hero of their own, and so on and so forth. For example, I might post, "Hero McAwesomesauce is a dashing, powerful human paladin who kicks ass, takes names, and has a chin that would make Bruce Campbell swoon." Then the next posted might say, "Hero McAwesomesauce's nemesis is Baron Nasty Von Villainous, a sneering warlock who had hated Hero ever since he stole his girlfriend back in high school, and who sold his soul for a chance at vengeance." Then he could post his new hero, "Spunky the Plucky Halfling rogue", and the next posted would create a nemesis who hates Spunky, etc. etc. (hopefully the actual concepts posted won't be nearly so lame)."

OK, I'll start off with the last hero on the thread as it is now (not mine):

Zenaril is a Deva who has spent his last few incarnations attempting to seal up a rift to the Far Realm that has appeared in a remote wilderness canyon. The rift itself appears to be growing larger and larger as time goes on, and Zenaril is beginning to fear that if he does not seal the rift soon, that the material plane and the Far Realm will begin to merge completely.


Zenaril tends to be rather focused. He is also becoming slightly unhinged, as repeated contact with aberrations over several subsequent reincarnations continues to assault his mind. Zenaril isn't evil, and he generally gets along with people well enough, enough to form adventuring bands to go to the rift: his dreams are plagued with strange nightmares though, of all his past friends that he couldn't save, and of maddening beasts that he fear will ravage the world should the rift remain open.

Leliel
2009-09-19, 01:40 PM
Come on, just one little nemesis.

Tyrmatt
2009-09-19, 01:53 PM
Gerardia is a rhakasa who many lifetimes ago adventured alongside Zenaril. Geradia became fascinated with the aberrations they fought together and began to slip towards evil. Now a twisted rhakasa soul, she longs for her old friend and sets about sending him disturbing visions in order to tempt him to the darker path and have him reborn as a rhakasa in his next life so they can be together again.

Matthias Bluestone is a cleric of the Raven Queen raised by his grandparents. Once his grandfather was very ill and while everyone else prayed to the gods of light, Matthias begged the Raven Queen to spare his grandfather and keep his family healthy. The Queen surprisingly agreed and empowered him as a cleric in order to fight against the cultists of Orcus. While he knows eventually the Queen will claim his family, Matthias still fights on against the undead. After all, he's got to make it to his grandfather's 98th birthday this year.

woodenbandman
2009-09-19, 02:00 PM
Gerardia is a rhakasa who many lifetimes ago adventured alongside Zenaril. Geradia became fascinated with the aberrations they fought together and began to slip towards evil. Now a twisted rhakasa soul, she longs for her old friend and sets about sending him disturbing visions in order to tempt him to the darker path and have him reborn as a rhakasa in his next life so they can be together again.

Matthias Bluestone is a cleric of the Raven Queen raised by his grandparents. Once his grandfather was very ill and while everyone else prayed to the gods of light, Matthias begged the Raven Queen to spare his grandfather and keep his family healthy. The Queen surprisingly agreed and empowered him as a cleric in order to fight against the cultists of Orcus. While he knows eventually the Queen will claim his family, Matthias still fights on against the undead. After all, he's got to make it to his grandfather's 98th birthday this year.

http://gargoyles.dracandros.com/w/images/thumb/b/b5/Bluestone.JPG/360px-Bluestone.JPG

Xanatos is a lich whose undead horde has battered the Raven Queen's temples and cities for centuries. Millenia, even. His evil is surpassed only by the begrudging respect that his enemies have to afford him. No matter how many heroes face him, and no matter how many times they thwart his plans, he comes back bigger and better than ever, with 2 plans for each that is thwarted. Xanatos has had his eye on Matthias for quite some time. He knows of his covenant with the Raven Queen, and he is researching a way to interrupt her influence over him so that he can offer Matthias his freedom. His motivation? To gain a powerful ally in the fight against the Raven Queen and then discard him, like everyone else he has seduced with his power.

Now for the hero:

S-008903 is a Warforged with a heart of solid gold. He was one of the first produced from the forge of creation. Weak in comparison to the later models, he was relegated to menial tasks that require little physical competence, and his creators offhandedly thought about destroying him several times. He overheard much in his time doing desk jobs, and in his free time, he practiced verbal intonation and inflection in his mind. He was one of the first to develop intelligence, which was aided in part by the many discussions he heard of the purpose of hard work delivered by a supervisor in the house he was assigned to. His mind began to comprehend existence and purpose, and he slowly developed a mind.

He was released from service after the Last War, where he went into the service of an old blind wizard. He managed to disguise himself as a different person (not too difficult being as such that the wizard was blind) and enroll in the wizard's training, while still completing all the tasks that the wizard asked of him as a servant. The wizard bestowed the name of Bolt on him, for ease of calling him.

Bolt left the wizard's employ, armed with his wits and a few spells, determined to make in the world of high finance. In game terms, he is a Warforged Beguiler, which I rolled up for an eberron game that has not started yet.

Grey Watcher
2009-09-19, 08:37 PM
S-008903 is a Warforged with a heart of solid gold. He was one of the first produced from the forge of creation. Weak in comparison to the later models, he was relegated to menial tasks that require little physical competence, and his creators offhandedly thought about destroying him several times. He overheard much in his time doing desk jobs, and in his free time, he practiced verbal intonation and inflection in his mind. He was one of the first to develop intelligence, which was aided in part by the many discussions he heard of the purpose of hard work delivered by a supervisor in the house he was assigned to. His mind began to comprehend existence and purpose, and he slowly developed a mind.

He was released from service after the Last War, where he went into the service of an old blind wizard. He managed to disguise himself as a different person (not too difficult being as such that the wizard was blind) and enroll in the wizard's training, while still completing all the tasks that the wizard asked of him as a servant. The wizard bestowed the name of Bolt on him, for ease of calling him.

Bolt left the wizard's employ, armed with his wits and a few spells, determined to make in the world of high finance. In game terms, he is a Warforged Beguiler, which I rolled up for an eberron game that has not started yet.

Alain has never cared much for fraud. A young Avenger dedicated to Ioun, God of Knowledge, Alain has always considered it his personal mission to uncover the deceits and lies, which obscure knowledge and confuse those who seek it. When he heard tales of one of the strange machines from the Last War deceiving a kindly old wizard into teaching it the ways of magic, he knew what must be done. He dedicated himself to finding this machine, punishing it for its deceit, and preventing it from doing whatever harm it meant to do with its ill-gotten arcane power.

Now, for the next Hero:

Though long schooled in the some of the most dignified schools of the Eladrin, Janwyllyn never quite caught that sense of decorum that is drummed into the head of nearly every Eladrin child. Quirky and irreverent, she prefers to use her arcane training to delight townsfolk and children with simple illusions and games. She wanders, without an particular goal, in search of the delights and wonders the feywild and the world have to offer, and to share them with any she comes across. She has a special soft spot for children, and the simple, wild joy they can take in nearly anything.

Volkov
2009-09-19, 08:43 PM
Ssanth the awakened twelve headed Pyro-hydra. A scourge of the land, Ssanth has slain dragons and burns entire woodlands to the ground, taking particular delight in the slaughter of fey and greedily devours animals wholesale, even abberations such as chuul are not safe from his ravenous appetite. To him, elves, beholders, angels, they are all a new meal to be eaten, cooked by his fiery wrath.

Xaekleoptorus: The Chuul Cleric, though this may seem like a oxymoron to many, this Chuul has shunned the ways of his barbaric kin, kindly given the gift of intelligence by a benevolent Cleric, who opened his compound eyes to the light of the god Bahumat, the platinum dragon that he now serves. He does not tolerate injustice and readily attacks evil dragons, and particularly dislikes black and green dragons, for they harm the waters.

woodenbandman
2009-09-22, 01:04 PM
Xaekleoptorus: The Chuul Cleric, though this may seem like a oxymoron to many, this Chuul has shunned the ways of his barbaric kin, kindly given the gift of intelligence by a benevolent Cleric, who opened his compound eyes to the light of the god Bahumat, the platinum dragon that he now serves. He does not tolerate injustice and readily attacks evil dragons, and particularly dislikes black and green dragons, for they harm the waters.

That is amazing and needs a bump.

Li'yxk Ffaust is the leader of a group of mind flayers. One of his scout thralls gave him knews of this awakened Chuul. Afraid of the potential danger than this Chuul could present if he were to unite his brothers in service of the dragon god, he dispatched his minions to destroy him and his mentor, the benevolent cleric.

Someone else make a hero.

jiriku
2009-09-22, 02:12 PM
Ka-tet is an illumian priestess of Thoth in the Forgotten Realms, struggling to maintain her identity while haunted by the spirits of her mother, a contemplative who became a celestial and ascended to the upper planes, and her father, a warlock who bargained with his own soul and lost, descending to the lower planes. Ka-tet wanders Faerun seeking after the legendary Papyri of Thoth, ancient scrolls rumored to detail the means of bodily entering the afterlife while still living. She hopes to find her mother's spirit and make peace with her fractured past.

BobTheDog
2009-09-22, 02:14 PM
Someone else make a hero.

With pleasure:

Two decades ago, a band of adventurers arrived at a small borderlands village, only to find it burning, its population dead. Among the ruins, they found a baby, surprisingly unhurt. One of them attributed this blessing to the Raven Queen, who, he thought, spared the baby's life because he was destined for greatness, and named the boy Raven. This man was not a member of the clergy, though, so he entrusted the baby to a reclusive group known as the "Death Mages". In the Mages' secret temples, the boy learned how to take lives in the name of his goddess, and only recently he left the Mages to search for whatever destiny awaits him. He doesn't fully understand the world, having only his teachings as a guide to society, but he knows well what sorts of creatures he should look for (and destroy).

Rixx
2009-09-22, 02:30 PM
(Can we propose our own characters as heores/villains, or as a thought exercise, are we supposed to come up with new ones out of whole cloth each time?)

Nemesis: Ulrich Hauser can easily be described as a fanatic. Always acting in service to what he believed to be the greater good, Hauser garnered a reputation for his ruthlessness. Known to end the lives of those even supsected of wrongdoing, he was ostracized from any group of adventurers he was allowed into - which led to the ending of more lives, as Hauser passed judgement on those who did not agree with his vision.

Taking advantage of this, a local power-hungry lord hired an oracle to deliver to Hauser a prophecy - a boy born in a small coastal town was to grow up to become a great destroyer of life. Hearing this, he razed the town to the ground - only to realize later that the lord merely wanted the town out of the way so he could more easily seize more territory. After passing lethal judgement on the corrupt magistrate, Hauser went to confront the oracle as well - only to learn that though she was instructed to deliver to him a false message, the prophecy was true, and he had not yet prevented its passing.

Taking up his spear, Hauser carved a new path to his goal - he will rid the world of impurity, starting with this boy.

(Out of writing juice. Next person come up with a hero, maybe?)

AtwasAwamps
2009-09-22, 02:34 PM
Two decades ago, a band of adventurers arrived at a small borderlands village, only to find it burning, its population dead. Among the ruins, they found a baby, surprisingly unhurt. One of them attributed this blessing to the Raven Queen, who, he thought, spared the baby's life because he was destined for greatness, and named the boy Raven. This man was not a member of the clergy, though, so he entrusted the baby to a reclusive group known as the "Death Mages". In the Mages' secret temples, the boy learned how to take lives in the name of his goddess, and only recently he left the Mages to search for whatever destiny awaits him. He doesn't fully understand the world, having only his teachings as a guide to society, but he knows well what sorts of creatures he should look for (and destroy).

They used to call him Ace, back when everything was green and golden and he and his gang, the High Cards, ruled the roost in whatever that no name city was, more than twenty years ago. Ace, because he was the best in-fighter in the crowd, a rogue of talents unsurpassed with brutality to match. Ace and his gang owned their town, till the fateful day a group of secretive mages arrived.

They claimed to be pilgrims, seeking only safety for the night, in the name of their goddess, the Raven Queen. Ace and his gang had other ideas, especially for the burgeoning coin pouches the robed men carried at their sides.

When Ace woke up a day later, every single one of his men was slaughtered and the “pilgrims” were gone. With a cry of anguish, Ace began the spiral into single-minded madness that defined the next twenty years. He went from a brutal bandit chief to an unstable murderer, leaving swath after swath of destruction behind him in his hunt to avenge the slaughter of his gang.

After 20 years, stories have reached his mad ears. Stories of a youth who seems to be a scion of the very mages who slaughtered his men. Perhaps, finally, the first step in his journey toward vengeance could be made…

EDIT: Oops, hero coming in a moment...

It was easy to live in the woods, if you didn’t care too much about bathing or how fancy your food tasted. That suited Maoru the half-elf just fine. He’d been raised well by his parents on the human side. They were kind enough. Educated him. Gave him what he needed to get on in life. But it was never enough when the deep woods sang for him, when the only time he felt whole was amongst the dark shade of a mighty green canopy.

So when he was done with his schooling and done with all the little things society asked of him, Maoru picked up a bow, a random haversack of supplies, and walked off into the quiet green. He never came back.

That decision was made a long time ago and Maoru has enjoyed the quiet. But recently, his solitude has been disturbed. Men have made inroads to the deep woods, seeking out yet more places to live. He can smell the orcs on the breeze, drifting closer to his safe haven. Alone, save for the animals that have befriended him, Maoru waits for life to force his hand.