General
Name: Marius Cecil Faire
Age: 22
Date of Birth: December 20
Lineage: Genetically engineered Human
Gender: Variable.
Class: Blade Master
Occupations: Guardian, Physicist, wayfaring swordswoman, high profile blacksmith.
Alignment: Neutral Good
Birthplace: [Omitted]
Primary Residence: The Multiversal Nexus
Scale: District(Higher than street, but not quite city-level)-City preferred.
Physical
Height: 6'1
Weight: Variable dependant on various conditions.
Skin Tone: Tan
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Blue
Blood Type: N/A
Clothing:
Guardian Proficiency
Power Classification: Spatial Indigo
A combination of natural talent, high spatial awareness, organic nanites, and an eldritch engine as her left arm bestows Marius with an impressive suite of local spatial distortion and disruption techniques, as well as an intimate understanding of how space works with autonomous mathematic precision, and its relation and interactions with time and the mundane world which it permeates. While she has traded this skill for the price of being unskilled in any magic or arcane arts beyond mere educational purposes, It is this unique talent that from birth determined Marius' fate to become a Guardian, and her entire suite of other abilities and talents are intended to supplement this base and her preferred method of combat - swordplay. This power classification comes with a medley of sub-abilities such as flight via spatial stretching/disruption, shield manifestation, and walking where there is no ground via warped space fields to act as platforms.
• Enlightened Blade: The most readily accessible, and most employed of the Blade Dancer's suite of spatial disruption abilities. Warp Edge takes the form of a streamlined directional gradient of stretched space that can be applied to most physical objects, primarily bladed weapons to massively increase their destructive potential, and with ingenuity gives access to other odd abilities. The gradient can be viewed physically when an object is traveling along its vector, as its spatial coordinates will be scattered across local space. This results in a visual 'stretching' of the afflicted matter, and the relative close range and momentum of the objects being jettisoned back into space usually results in the blades of swords and arrowheads becoming violent shrapnel that travel with considerable speed and momentum. This in mind, most weapons forged of divine or infernal means to sustain unbreakable bodies are rendered all but useless. That said, this spatial gradient is not absolute, and lacks the power that would be needed to have a 100 percent efficacy rate at displacing concentrated streams of energy. At best, he is capable of arcing the direction or angle at which an energy projectile/weapon comes in from marginally.
• Warp Edge: An expansion of the above, Warp Edge gets its name for its ability to not only stretch and direct the flow of space about objects, but also warp the space surrounding objects. The most employed of these warping techniques is intended for close range damage trading. When an enemy is close enough(generally striking distance), the spaces surrounding two objects are warped and reordered, inversing their respective spaces. This means that the concussive face of a war-hammer could suddenly become slicing force, and instead apply that bluntness to the enemies blade and vice versa. For this ability to work, the objects being altered must be relatively close to one another, Physical contact being the most efficient method of applying the spatial inversion.
• D-Lock: A mixture of Marius' innate connection to local space, and the metal of the nanites' strange interactions with local gravity. Geo-stasis is the ability to lock an objects rotational relativity to that of whatever planet it is on down to an atomic level, resulting in objects visually becoming locked in whatever position and location they are in. No energy is expended during this stop, as the stop is not physical but merely perceived to be. At any time, this lock can be released, allowing the object to resume flight or whatever fate it had been ordained to prior to rotational locking with all locked speed and force behind it.
Organic Nanite Physiology: While most Guardians are closely familiar with military grade hives of organic nanites, Marius is different in her use of them. Instead of having the nanites flooded into the nervous system or powered armor, she has undergone full bodily augmentation which seamlessly infused the nanites with her body. Her bones have been interwoven with them, granting them superhuman hardness and flexibility. They are reactive and responsive to incoming values of force, and the nanites can be directed to a particular area to better displace impact force in exchange for less shielding in another area.
Aside from acting as a skinsuit of moving armor, each nanite is, floweryness aside, a bio-computer. Like the human brain, these bio-computers are responsive to, and have programs similar to that of human thoughts and emotions, making them semi-sentient, though not intelligent. The presence of the nanites has granted Marius immunity to most toxins and poisons, both supernatural and mundane. All physical attributes have been multiplied by a factor of five, placing Marius dangerously close to outshining Olympic level athletes.
The body as a whole is composed of billions of interlocking icosahedron whose hollowed cores have a globule of programmable fluid state energy. This in part contributes to not only its durability but also in its ability to retain shape.
Each nanite is insulated against harsh weather conditions, and when clustered in large numbers(as Marius' are), can absorb massive amounts of heat(able to withstand atmospheric re-entry) and generate electric currents for heat insulation that allows for survival in just about any setting from space to the bottom of the ocean.
They can also be shed for a number of purposes including but not limited to Self-Duplication, Mirages, nanite hives, and utility grey goo.
Mathematical Perception: Marius' right eye is formed of the same nanites as mentioned above, but particularly shaped into prismatic hedrons. If one were to look closely, they may realize there is a metallic shimmer to his iris' whenever his pupils dilate. These nanites are cold calculatory perception, viewing the world in mathematical probabilities and equations. Through this enhancement, Marius can easily trace impossible vectors, calculate the trajectory of ballistics, and is intrinsically aware of the chemical and atmospheric nature of any setting she finds herself in. It also gives her an absolutely vast amount of spatial awareness, aiding with aim and long-range combat when its necessary, as well as meneuvering in three dimensional environments such as space and the ocean. Visual sight is capable of magnification to times equivocal to that of an electron microscope.
Disciplines: Swordplay
The primary skill employed by Marius is a seamless amalgamation of her spatial disruption techniques and the finer nuances of close quarter combat with edged weapons in place of any skill at casting magic. Guardian training has made her a formidable opponent with many different weapon types and variations, and the years spent in active-duty across hundreds of settings sporting an equally diverse range of opponents has her prepared for just about any type of opponent. Known by few, she is still perhaps the greatest swordsman of the current generation.
Guardian Aperture
Item: Eldritch Core: An almost limitless source of abstract energies encased within a 'contaiment sheathe' in the form of Marius' left arm which facilitates her various spatial and energetic powers. This comes with a list of odd physical quirks about the arm, first and foremost that at a glance one would notice the limb is considerably larger than the other, made of an abstract, hyper compacted seemingly metallic material. The fingers are like great armored claws, and a crystalline jewel rests in the palm, acting as a conduit and gateway for its various weapons systems and strange dimensional occurrences.
At the core of the arm is a sort of 'spatial collider', pulling in materials and forces from other places within the universe, and in some cases, other universes/dimensions entirely. The primary function of this core is to power Marius' various abilities and operating systems by pulling in energy pooled from its spatial highway, and convert them into an ambient, non-volatile state.
• Nth: The complex systems that keep the Eldritch Core running results in a dangerous byproduct, acting as a sort of 'meta-pollutant'. As the engine runs at higher and higher stress levels, it bleeds exotic particles that, when scattered freely naturally align in a cubic lattice called an 'm' field that deflects longer and shorter wavelength fringes via diffraction and polarization, blocking most radiation across the magnetic spectrum. While called a particle, and sharing some similarities with common particles, Nth has interesting effects when manifested that set them apart from any observed matter. The 'M' fields can become variable-state barriers that can repel and lase physical objects, and have been observed to effect the way that gravity pulls on objects. Beyond this, they have also been able to travel through non-conductive materials given the eldritch and conceptual nature of the particle to begin with, and thus lacks traditional electrons or protons. They are in fact, baryonic in nature.
The most interesting effects are observed whenever Nth comes into contact with physical objects or biological life. When in contact with the former, it degenerates the matter at variable rates dependant upon the objects mass, destroying molecules as it passes through. When confronting the former, it can still degenerate the matter forming them when compressed into wave or beam form, but can even passively strike by destroying skin cells and irradiating flesh. Side effects of extended exposure(several minutes and up) brain hemorrhaging, nausea, disorientation, and total loss of motor skills.
• Damascus Overforge: Certain spatial highways within the engine have been used enough that they have been memorized and permanently mapped. Among them is a highway that is used to pull in physical matter that the core's various complex transmogrification apertures smash together into chemically and atomically perfect ores that can be shaped into weapons on the fly. This usually gives a visual effect of Marius pulling weapons out of 'thin air', though it only mimics such a notion.
Weapon: True Dancer
Each Guardian is given a sword during their formal induction ceremony and are expected to modify the weapon using their formidable training and expertise to best suit their needs. True Dancer, unlike its other brothers and sisters, is not innately a physical weapon, but is instead an intrinsic part of Marius' essence. It is a conceptual fragment of herself, that when evoked, can manifest as physical expressions.
When in solid-state, True Dancer sports a modular and polymorphous design, featuring many opposable verneirs for extra impact force, and is made of an alien metal that repels excited particles as though it were magnetically sealed. Composition-wise, the entirety of the metal comprising True Dancer features transformable carbon nanotubes and the same interlocking icosahedron system as her skin, having unprecedented durability and flexibility.
The base form of True Dancer is a monstrous entity in its own right. It is a massive fourteen foot Super Great-Sword meets Great Lance whom's ten foot blade literally possesses an edge capable of cutting through just short of everything, sporting a forked design like a massive swordbreaker. It features a dual-hilted design, with the lower base hilt spanning three feet, allowing for better use of momentum, hand positioning, and maneuverability for use in its Greatsword configuration. A second, considerably shorter hilt(one foot) protrudes from the wide cross-guard of the first. Its shorter length and position on the weapon gives far less maneuverability than the great sword configuration, but allows for more thrust, rapid successive strikes, and more dextrous blade-work.
The blade features a series of large thrusters that, if its already ineffible edge can't cut, will pack enough umph to reduce anything to ribbons. These thrusters also allow for deceitful speed in any succession of strikes dealt by what one would assume to be the slower Greatsword form. The thrusters allow attacks to be delivered at speeds that one-handed swordsmen wouldn't scoff at, and a series of support thrusters can be vented from the cross guard and pommel of the base hilt for rapid thrust when used in lance configuration.
But alas, its true form is oft deemed far too powerful for any single excursion,and like the multi-facets of ones personality, and in line with its inherently modular design, True Dancer takes various forms called Restricted Functions that holds its true powers in complex quantum 'grips' of altered space caused by its close proximity to the Eldritch Core. Each form is specialized for a specific task, each bearing their own set of quirks and boons, and have an intended purpose and use while sharing common qualities.
----> Dust to Dust: True Dancer(and certain other variations) is highly receptive of Marius' other spatial abilities, particularly Nth. It is this facet that makes it so dangerous when uninhibited. While monstrous enough even without these added benefits, when Nth interacts with the metal-like particles of True Dancer it causes a chemical reaction that forms a layer of rust-colored film over the blade that can be shed into the environment through use of the weapon. This material is not in fact rust, but a highly meta-corrosive material dubbed Dust that permeates most physical surfaces, metallic or not. It has even shown the ability to severely tarnish metals that are resistant to oxidation, as Dust is high in concentrations of ununseptium, astatine, and iodine.
The physical qualities of Dust are formidable enough on their own, but the material is esoteric in nature, and the chemical reaction between Nth and the metal comprising Dancer creates not just an absolute physical deterrent, but a suite of other interesting effects as well. Primarily, Dust 'rusts' things on every conceivable level, acting as a sort of all-purpose conceptual weapon. Whatever Dust permeates loses the ability to actively draw in energy, and attempting to do so would roughly be the equivalent of trying to fill up a gas tank while it's burning. Which isn't at all good, considering Dusts unstable nature. Forcibly trying to gain energy after dust has settled onto a surface will result first in only expanding the dust as it feeds on any energy coming from its host(hence why energy can't be gathered), before violently breaking down, essentially 'vomiting' up all that stored energy in cataclysmic metameterial explosions that only make the spread of Dust easier.
A being or object struck with Dust would find itself in a much similar state to rusted metal. Brittle, weakened, and much slower, especially organic life. Dust, given time, will permeate flesh, moving through the body and growing until it reaches bones, causing severe pain, and a physical inability to reach top speeds or strength, and this effect is mimicked upon non-organic life such as robots and the like. Dust also actively works against healing factors by virtue of its caustic nature. Wounds can be infected with rust, disallowing the reformation of atoms and cells within a wound. While the wound can be manually closed, traditional regeneration is casted out.
• Dancer - Saber: Dancer is the primary form of its patron blade weilded by Marius, and it is her preferred weapon of choice when not in its uninhibited state. It takes the form of a beautifully curved traditional saber whom's three foot, all-cutting edge forays seamlessly into a hilt and hand-guard, curved at a slightly decreased gradient for ease of motion when in use. It is capable of channeling both the Enlightened Blade, and Nth abilities along its edge, and features a triplet of Nth verniers at the base of the hilt and hand guard for rapid forward thrust. The blunt edge of the blade supports razor-thin verniers riding up its edge as well for the facilitation of truly debilitating strikes.
• Cynthia - Serpent Blade: This form of True Dancer takes the shape of a verdure segmented broad sword, split into roughly seven, five inch blades crested by a six inch pointed blade resembling an arrowhead. They are connected by roughly twenty feet of chain, making it Marius' primary mid-range weapon of choice. On command these chains can be stripped away, at which point the blades are guided by verniers for extra sonic flight, acting as wonderfully simple surprise attacks for unsuspecting opponents. When in blade form, these verniers instead channel Nth through the icosahedrons and nanotubes acting like a highway that shunts the fuel out of the pommel. This in mind, Nth can be freely discharged in a plasmid-esque state, but it is not capable of establishing a powerful enough spatial gradient on its edge to support the Enlightened Blade ability via the strange quantum grips.
• Vulcan, Vorro & Sethlans - Gladius, Pilum & Shield:
One of the few variations of True Dancer that contains more than a single piece of equipment. In this case, True Dancer has split its power into a traditional Roman legionnaires amenities, consisting of a gladius blade, several pila style javelins and a shield. The blade is, in gladius fashion, relatively short at 33 inches. While short, that is not to say it is a disadvantage in any measure in the hands of a truly skilled swordsman. The blade is incredibly light, allowing for lightning quick strikes, and just several inches above the hilt the sides of the blade bevel out, giving it a rounded section before going back into a straight shape. This makes it much harder for other weapons without similar styles to break defense or offense, makes parrying for the wielder far easier, and allows for confident, quick combos. Vulcan is carried in a baldric on Marius' left side when not in use.
When Vulcan is ill-suited, there is the Pilum 'Vorro', a 2m long spear sporting a long barbed pike that progressively thins up the polearm into an incredibly fine point. This point can be freely enlarged or shrunk, allowing for it to be wielded in a diverse number of styles, making it a versatile weapon for mid range combat, and a devastating long range throwing weapon.
The shield is greek in design, being ovular in shape, but featuring two large cutaways on either flank. It covers majority of the upper body, and spans just over the length across of Marius' body, providing fairly decent straight-forward defense. Aside from being a defense item, the shield can be used as an auxiliary striking weapon, and has an electromagnetically charged large cannonball of the same metal stored within the boss for surprise attacks at close range. This ball is shielded from sight by a retractable metallic visor.
• Fortuna Del Raphael - Rapier & Bow-Buckler: Another dual-equipment set, Fortuna is an illustrious rapier and buckler combo set, complimenting each other quite well. The rapier is a one meter long, double edged, though thin blade sporting a complex, sweeping hilt. The blade is finely sharpened from forte to ricasso, and unlike its contemporary brethren is capable of standing on par in terms of sharpness with any other bladed weapon, if not out classing them entirely. However unlike flat-sided weapons, it is still not primarily geared for edge-to-edge combat as its thin shape and balance is owing more to thrusting attacks. The hilt sports metal plated complex rings extending forward from the cross piece into a knuckle bow to protect the wielders hand, connected to the hilt by a large pommel doubling as a balancing weight. Several verniers are splayed at angles of the hilt as well, giving extra piercing power to its decisive strikes. Given its non-cutting nature, it is not equipped to deal with the spatial gradient created by enlightened blade, but is as receptive of Nth and Dust as any other one of his weapons.
The buckler shield is a small, rounded shield with incredibly sharp edges that is wielded in the fist. Its primary purpose is to defend the wearers sword hand, but possesses many other components of use as well. Particularly Marius has noted its use as a grappling tool, capable of catching and locking enemy weapons between the fist-grip. At 18 inches in diameter, it is not intended for deflecting missiles, but is particularly appropriate for deflecting blows from other edged weapons. However, this size can be increased to 24 inches in diameter by releasing a series of rounded buzz-saw like blades from internal compartments that are extracted from the sides of the shield.
The most interesting ability of the buckler is for it to transform into a bow at will. The modular components within the shield shift the materials around, with the fist grip becoming the center piece, as the blades and excess metal forms into a hyper thin long-bow formation, a hidden compartment of bio-wire acting as the bow string. At this point, the eldritch engines weapon systems allows the bow to fire destructive arrows of force, Nth, or Dust at incredibly long ranges. In some instances even the rapier will be used, adding the amazing force behind firing with its thrusters for hypersonic travel. With both strong conductors of Dust used together, a large amount of it can be discharged mid-flight at once for wide-range saturation.
• Black Base - Great Sword:
Powered Armor: "Save the Queen" MK1:
The ultimate combination of blade and soul, and that isn't meant figuratively. Save the Queen is the literal fusion of an uninhibited True Dancer and the Eldritch Core which allows it to exist physically. Just as true dancer manifests as a weapon when invoked without being unlocked, so too does it manifest physically when fused with the core. When it does, its form can't be contained in just a few feet of space, and instead of manifesting remotely, grows like a membrane over all of Marius' body and then bleeds its mass into the space around him. It appears as a jet black armor featuring a neon blue trim with a unique aerodynamic design and billowing ebon cape that multiplies her speed, power, maneuverability, and damage output by a factor of five between its various supplementary and combat systems.
When fully suited Marius stands 12 feet tall, coated in a complex weave of biometallic force-shifting plates and houses limbs packing piston power in each. Its various systems are powered by the Eldritch Core, which, in the configuration cannibalizes the containment sheathe to relocate the spatial collider to the lower abdominal area, and without the sheathe to limit it, runs at maximum capacity. This allows it to bleed a constant stream of Nth throughout itself and along its surface. This is primarily for use with the large back-thruster for high-speed propulsion. The metal comprising it is of very similar design to that of the weapons in its gripped states, so it is just as receptive of the enlightened blades spatial gradient as well.
The primary combative feature of Save the Queen is the fact that this is the only state in which True Dancer can be wielded. Though it is a colossal super-great-sword compared to his regular 6ft stature, it is more like a well-balanced zweihander in the hands of the 12 foot armor. Unfortunately, being able to use True Dancer in its true form comes with an innate 'grip' in itself, as the weapon loses access to lesser forms, and even if it could, they'd be useless due to the new size. While not perhaps an outright draw-back, it severely limits the options at Marius' disposal and ultimately leads to usefull skills and talents with those other weapons going to waste.
• N.E.R.V.S (Non-Euclidian Remote Visual Satellite+Sensory) System: The helm of the Queen has access to a fine suite of extrasensory perception based abilities, as well as several other passive functions. These functions have come to be known as the NERVS System. At the forefront of these boons is access to the reconassaince functions of the five major satellites generally found in orbit around any planet Marius finds himself on, granting a detailed, three-dimensional map of any terrain at any time. The suit enhances visible sight by a factor of tens of times, building in Marius' already impressive ocular abilities. She now has advanced arcane and mundane cryptinalysis, viewing the world at roughly 1 gigapixel and 3000 frames per second.
The system runs on a store of ambient and mechanical energy cycled through by the spatial collider, and Marius' own bio-electricity, making the suit stamina-neutral. That isn't to say that the energy is limitless, however. The more systems operating at once, and the higher the frequency of use, the more work the engine has to do, and the more power that must be split between keeping the operating systems running and the various weapons and support systems.
• Weapons Systems
Orbital Micro-Satellites: In orbit around most planets under Guardian sight(which are most), are dozens of clusters of micro-sattelites, each about six feet in length. These satellites generally are meant to support the primary satellites by taking thousands of real time pictures per minute to keep the three dimensional maps as accurate as possible. However, they do have weapons systems, primarily in the form of focused air-to-ground proton or kinetic slipstreams. Because their on-board plasma engines are not equipped for long-haul combat, they get about one shot before recharging is necessary, and usually come in groups of six.
Long Range Variable Phase Cannon: One of the very, very few long range weapons in possession of the esteemed swordsman. The cannon is held on a shoulder panel on the back of the queen, and utilizes its high-powered engine to fire both solid-state munitions(courtesy of the Damascus forge), and focused hard-light and hard plasma via its multi-faced rotary chambers. When in use, the cannon unfolds and swivels underneath the Queen's shoulder while a trigger and guard extend to allow the Queen to take manual aim. There are two firing phases, dubbed Ballista Fire and Siege Fire.
Ballista firesl relies on more focused, powerful fire, able to project various intensities of plasma(via superheated oxygen) or light in streams or beams. However, this requires aim and skill with a firearm that Marius sadly just does not possess. This is somewhat alleviated by the scope which the beams operate under, capable of releasing truly devastating short to medium range wide-radius damage.
Siege fire mode focuses on incredibly high fire rate and stopping power, utilizing six of the eight rotary barrels for firing a la turret style. This is primarily meant for solid-state munitions filtered in from the Damascus forge, but is also capable of firing hard-light and plasma, though at a noticeably slower fire rate. All that said, the weapon is bulky and unwieldy and thus used primarily for multiple-enemy suppression. That aside, Marius simply does not particularly care for firearms and will only resort to such lowly methods of fighting if an opponent is being especially tricky or refuses to engage closely.
Other Tools & EquipmentInvisible verniers placed about the body for rapid directional shifting and hugh-speed propulsion.