Faust
{"When all is melted in blood, all is reborn."
} -
Faust
NameUnknown
Nicknames”Black/Dark Wizard/Mage” – so called for his appearance and abilities, which look magical.
“Phantom” – so called for the darkness and ghostliness surrounding him.
Code NameFaust
Age40
BirthdateNovember 5th, 1999
GenderObsolete
RoleOffense – close range powerhouse
{"The ceremony of innocence is lost. "
}
In-Depth AppearanceAt the most basic level, Faust is a bulky robot, with particularly thick shoulders and back. Rather than standing straight up on his feet, he hovers a foot or so off the ground, and constantly hunches over. With no neck to speak of, his rectangular four-eyed face can only pivot slightly to either side. Faust adorns himself with attire unconventional by standards of either man or machine. He wears an old-style vest beneath a longcoat that is in such a degenerated state that its bottom half is entirely tattered strips. Its high, pointed collar is about the only element not completely threadbare. Various yellowed bandaging cloths, whether for show or to hide some sort of damage, wrap around parts of his body haphazardly. On his head he wears a gigantic, brown, rumpled hat, with a brim more than two feet in diameter. His four eyes glow yellow. Attached via cordto two hubs in his back are six ‘bitedrones’, which are hovering robotic clamps. They resemble elongated bear traps, each with a beaklike hook at the end.
Likes- Theatricality
- Psychological harm
- Freedom
- Privacy
- Jokes
Dislikes- People
- Machines
- Confidence
- The strong
- Sunlight
Fears- Whatever comes after death
- Being replaced
PersonalityFaust’s is a being far removed from humanity, and willingly so. He harbors little concern for the greater concerns in the world, instead focusing on his own pursuits. Though grim and most certainly cruel, he is oddly talkative, and deeply enjoys causing consternation in others. Be it vexing them with poetic, indecipherable language, irritating them with unpleasant jibes, or making their hearts and minds ache with precision acts of cruelty. His penchant for sarcasm and mockery extends even to himself at times; contrary to what most might assume of such an individual, he has remarkably low self-esteem, though he is willing to go to any length to ensure his survival. He holds other beings in even less regard, however, thinking nothing of humans and less of sentient robots. That does not mean he is not willing to interact with (manipulate) them to further his own ends. Most definitively, Faust finds suffering fascinating, and goes out of his way to appear frightening in order to torment others at every turn. When he wants to, however, Faust is capable of seeming entirely affable—such is his cunning.
{"Time to play! "
}
BackgroundWidely regarded as a miracle of twenty-first century technological innovation, the introduction of sentient robots to the world has seen no end of controversy. Many believe the intelligences within the machines to be nothing more than artificial constructs; others insist on regarding such robots as individual beings, possessed of something very much like the human spirit. Regardless, the amount of such robots in the world continued to grow, though it remained a tiny fragment of a single percentage point. Developments in the field of robotics found a home in Austria, particularly Vienna, where Jakob Sandmeier was born.
The boy, though frail physically, exhibited an extraordinary mind. From an early age he excelled in his education, learning new information quickly and forgetting nothing. His quiet, uneventful childhood preluded an interest in machines, and he studied both the physical hardware and the more ethereal software almost singlemindedly. His acerbic wit prevented him from attaining very many friends, but one stayed by his side: Nico Kronecker, a fellow engineer and programmer. The two were inseparable, attending first the same high school and then the same college. In 2025 the robotics revolution swept the city of Vienna, and the ‘robot rights’ movement found a substantial foothold there. Its advent created one divide, however, between the fast friends: Nico chose to believe that the robots had true sentience, while Jakob did not. The idea that the robots were anything but highly complicated programs following vast but predetermined instructions completely baffled him. Determined to prove himself correct, Jakob decided to develop his own robots, and with them to show that mere code could be construed into the entity that others called a ‘soul’.
At about that time, however, Nico began to discover something never before seen about his friend. Though ordinary enough in public, Jakob changed behind closed doors. People around him told in low tones of frightening cruelty: of men and women he encountered breaking down and weeping or cursing the day they were born. Deeply worried, Nico hid himself in Jakob’s laboratory. He watched, to his horror, Jakob enter the room with an obviously drunk woman in tow, strap her to a chair, and set up previously unseen instruments around her. At first, he had no idea what he was doing, but after a few minutes he realized that his colleague was not only torturing his captive psychologically, but enjoying it. With a bag of tricks he created an elaborate and twisted illusion of magic to assault her mind until she begged through cascading tears for a savior. Nico waited, terrified himself, for an opportunity to leave, but was too hasty; a noise he made in passing alerted Jakob to an uninvited guest. Nico escaped without being caught, but when he arrived a few hours later with authorities, Jakob and all of his things were nowhere to be found.
The mad engineer set up shop elsewhere, continuing his studies of man and machine. He abducted sentient robots whenever he could, experimenting on them and using them to add to his work. His true goal lay only just down the road, one that would act against his deepest fear: the upload of his mind to a machine, everlasting and superhuman, so that the hunt for despair could never end. A robot was kidnapped to be the recipient, Jakob returned to the abandoned laboratory, and with immeasurable glee he began.
This experiment failed. After the procedure was finished, Faust discovered with horror that not only did his mind remain exactly where it was, the procured robot body now contained an exact duplicate of it. Disgusted with his failure, Jakob moved to terminate the machine, but the robot anticipated this. Using the raw mechanical power that the man craved for his own, the copy snapped the original’s neck before sinking into a shocked stupor. Intensely disturbed by the entire ordeal, the robot fled the laboratory. When he next appeared, any trace of the man was long gone. Calling himself Faust -the man of legend who made a deal with the devil for power- he cultivated a new persona: a terrifying specter, neither man nor machine, and further modified his own body to suit his needs. Though disdainful of human causes, he permitted a loose association with the United Brothers until carelessness on his part got him caught.
Now, after years of imprisonment, Faust has been pulled out and forced to aid the reformed Sentinels. His knowledge of the terrorist group and robotics, paired with his unique and useful combat abilities, make him an invaluable ally—though an unwilling and reluctant one, kept in line by constant threat and close scrutiny.
Place of OriginVienna, Austria
FamilyN / A
Abilities(Snakebite) – One or more of Faust’s bitedrones lunge forward to bite into a target, crushing metal or cleaving through flesh.
(Snag) – A drone from the left side constricts an enemy, pulling it slowly toward Faust while preventing its escape.
(Tether) – Two drones lunge toward a surface or hold and attach, allowing Faust to rappel, hang, or swing.
(Accursed Brew) – The drones all open wide and disgorge a spray of noxious black liquid that poisons enemies hit and nullifies any attempt to heal them.
(What Lurks Below) – The ‘ultimate’ ability. Faust releases a high-pitched whistling noise, followed up with dark and raucous laughter. A shadowy mist rushes out of his back and blankets the ground. For a time, he can summon up to six huge, black snakes to rise up from the mist and attack enemies via biting or lashing. Sometimes only the heads will emerge, appearing like a giant trap directly beneath enemies to slam shut. These snakes will never emerge completely, and will withdraw back into the mist rather than slithering around. Though extremely nebulous, they seem to be made of millions of nanites compacted into solid shapes. Though dodge-able, these snakeheads hurt a great deal, and can wound enemies enough to make them easy pickings.
WeaponsFaust uses no weapons except for his own bitedrones. Though limited by range, they are nasty pieces of work, and can be used not only to viciously destroy but also to grab, ensnare, pick up, and trap. Each one has a primitive AI that controls its flight, but instructions are transmitted through the rubbery cords from Faust. Noxious chemicals can also be funneled through the cords to be released from the bitedrones’ ‘mouths’.
ExtraAs you can probably tell, this sheet is for Faust, the machine, and not for Jakob Sandmeier, since Faust is a copy of Jakob’s mind in a robotic body, and Jakob himself is dead.
Reinhardt.