Athrach
Context
This character is an original creation. We often call these “homemades” or “homebrewed” – think home cooking or craft beer.
He was created for 2014 DC Heroes list Halloween contest.
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Background
- Real Name: Athrach (with subtle intonations 3rd dimensional ears can’t hear).
- Marital Status: Single.
- Known Relatives: None.
- Group Affiliation: His former kingdom.
- Base Of Operations: A shipping container near the docks. The corners have been rounded off.
- Height: 6’9” Weight: 190 lbs.
- Eyes: Black Hair: Black
Powers & Abilities
The entity known as Athrach is only a cross-section of the full being, stuck somehow at least 2½ levels of reality below his own. By being “stuck”, he is capable of holding his position relative to the physical world, and requires little to no food or rest.
His strange cadence and unnatural gaze can bend the wills of the unwary. They can even drain off the very life force of any being foolish enough to attack him. Since a portion of him remains beyond the barriers of time and probability, this life drain can, with effort, be made far more powerful.
The effects of this life drain appear to be probability in action – someone might develop a heretofore unknown heart condition, fatigue poisons may spontaneously flood the target’s bloodstream, etcetera.
Draining this force allows Athrach to -shift- slightly through dimensions, and thus appears on first glance to heal him, when he merely has an undamaged cross-section now interfacing with our reality.
A casual observer would also say that Athrach is pretty lucky. This is simply because he sees probability the way we see length, width, and height, and can nudge himself towards more beneficial chances with great effort.
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History
Length and width can be folded through height. All three can be folded through time. Time can be folded through probability. And probability can be folded through a sixth dimension. Though this measurement of the universe is something we cannot fully understand, it, too, possesses life of sorts, sapient life.
On one dimensional brane therein, Athrach ruled an entire kingdom of sapients. Their fortresses are made of woven superstring and their meals cooked with zero point energy.
A Terran scientist would believe that Athrach and his people are clearly in the realm of science, but the truth of the matter is the opposite side of the coin. Only magic allows these six dimensional beings to exist as biology, as we understand it, does not apply to them.
They live a very simple life, challenged only by the “Flattened”, a race of five dimensional daemons from realms beyond human sanity. These are known to human mages as the Hounds of Tindalos.
The Hounds
Unfortunately, by challenging the hounds, Athrach drew the attention of a being who spanned even more dimensions than he – Nyarlathotep, the seven dimensional soul of the Outer Gods.
Irritated with “that pest”, Nyarlathotep cast him down through the dimensions, ’flattening‘ him until he was as limited (by comparison) as the detested humans that lived that way naturally.
Athrach’s body wasn’t fully compressed in this way, but most of his central nervous system analogue was that the compression may as well be total, and nearly fatal.
As he fell, Athrach found himself as a “three and a half” dimensional being on the docks of Monterey, California. Unable to even speak his native language, he learned English thanks to a few homeless, who thought he was some sort of lost lunatic.
These kind souls died when Nyarlathotep decided ’flattening‘ the king was not enough, and sent the hounds of Tindalos after him. Creatures that can appear from any corner, or any acute angle, it took great effort (and some assistance from Earth’s mystical community) to drive them off.
Now, Athrach lives in a simple shipping container, and has pounded the corners until they are rounded, to prevent the Hounds from finding him there.
He hoped to simply hide there, until one of his kin could figure out how to restore him from his Flattening, but when he is needed, he pulls himself out into the outside world, and steps in to protect those he has begun to trust.
Description
Athrach is unnaturally tall and slender, with black eyes and black hair. His skin color is normally a bit paler and a bit pinker than the average, but the use of his Vampirism power shifts him slightly transdimensionally, causing his skin to change to match.
He moves awkwardly, like a marionette who is learning to walk after his strings are cut, and expresses consternation when he is unable to bend in a direction he clearly thinks he ought to know.
Personality
With a stuttering, halting voice, sometimes a deep raspy baritone and others a clear tenor, Athrach finds that though the specifics of this alien world he finds himself in are quite different, its ways are those of sapients across the multiverse.
He will normally stay hidden in his cargo trailer, using his Occultist: Premonition subskill to provide his fellow homeless with advice. However, a truly dangerous situation will cause him to emerge, to defend himself and those he has begun to feel affection for.
Quotes
“Joints bend strangely.” *snaps a mugger’s elbow backwards* “No oddswise bend, or temporal twist. Odd.”
Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG
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Athrach
| Dex: 07 | Str: 05 | Bod: 05 | Motivation: Responsibility of power |
| Int: 03 | Wil: 04 | Min: 03 | Occupation: Former King, now vagabond |
| Inf: 06 | Aur: 07 | Spi: 06 | Resources {or Wealth}: 002 |
| Init: 017 | HP: 000 |
Powers:
Joined (ML): 05, Hypnotism (ML): 05, Sealed Systems (ML): 06, Vampirism (ML): 07
Skills:
Martial Artist: 07, Occultist: 07
Advantages
Confined HQ, Luck, Scholar (Alien magic).
Connections:
His innate 6th dimensional analogue.
Drawbacks:
Irrational Fear (2-dimensional and similar powers), Creepy Appearance, Authority Figure (6th dimensional kingdom), Hunted (Hounds of Tindalos).
Genre:
Mock-Real.
Written on October 31, 2014, finished November 1, 2014.