Exules Rex
"The Banished King"
Appearance: It is clear that Exules was once a human, but any semblance of humanity has all but disappeared from his facade. His eyes are gone, the sockets filled with blue flames. His palms are afire, and his body covered with wounds that have not and never will heal. Most conspicuous of all is the wound across his throat, a dark red slash that cuts his throat in twain.
Biography: Exules Rex once had a name, but like so many demons and Cambions, he has become separated from this identity that he only vaguely remembers.
From the point of an outsider, Exules Rex was once a great king of men, a ruler that spread over a vast and wealthy kingdom. Power seeped through every pore of the Banished King's skin, and still he craved more. He murdered and conquered, razed and pillaged to force the submission of the princes that surrounded him. He inherited the neighboring kingdom of his brother through a spider web of assassins, married his sister to a neighboring Pagan tribal kingdom, the king of which later mysteriously died. Using the claim of his sister, he absorbed the kingdom into his own augmenting realm. Marrying himself to the daughter of a Lombard, he claimed the Italian heartland, and through bloody conquest became the ruler of the Alpine passes.
He became obsessed with power, obsessed with the grandeur of his status. No palace could be larger or more magnificent than his. No army could defeat his in battle. No single man could vanquish him in combat. He placed his status higher and higher, brushing the very brink of the heavens. A great stone castle of white and gray was built upon the Alpine peaks, set there to touch the very hand of God. The Banished King was more than a man, then; he was more than a god. He WAS God, creator and destroyer of worlds. The fortress could never be finished, never satisfied him. Ever more towers of gold and white shot up into the clouds until he had exhausted his kingdom's wealth and manpower.
All the while the nobles of the land were conspiring against him, plotting the prideful king's downfall. Supplication of the great man's presence could easily be achieved through flattery, and these treacherous nobles soon gained audience with the king of kings, creator and destroyer of worlds. The great man, who had conquered continents, was suddenly beset upon by his very own obsequious squires. He was slashed--the wounds were violently done to show the weakness of the man--across the face, on the arms, over his body. A final noble flung the golden crown from his head and slashed open his throat, letting the deep red blood pour onto the glassy marble floors.
For his sins in the world, he was denied death and entry to heaven. Demons, sent to collect the soul of the Banished King, viewed his heinous treachery with such abhorrence that it became clear that even the mundane circles of Hell could be too lax on him. Thus they placed a curse upon him, binding his soul back with his scarred and mutilated body. He became doomed to walk the wastes of Hell, banished from the inclusion into a circle, into the eternal suffering of the damned. Mute and immortal, he walked too the wastes of Pandaemonium, delivering treacherous souls to their damnation close to the fury of Satan.
He is the Crusader against the traitor, a demon-soul forever tied to the mutilated body as a reminder of the evils of pride and treachery. Though he rarely needs to battle these traitors, as he possesses an uncanny method of persuasion (see abilities).
Personality: He is, after his fall, unmistakably muted. He rarely speaks, and when he does it is in a harsh grating tone that most don't even bother to register. He is necessarily fatalist and at the same time possesses some remarkably obstinate corner of pride that keeps with him all this time. He is a man banished from salvation and banished from suffering. Caught with this alienation--a great suffering in and of itself--the Banished King tends to view others in a harsh lens, rarely thinking fondly of anyone upon first meeting them. Trapped as it were in his own human body, he cannot but help to crawl inwardly, and so much of his personality is suppressed under a dark and vague notion of escaping this Limbo.
Greatest Sin: Pride. He had climbed the highest peak of pride and glory, and the Banished King fell further than most men ever will.
Motivation: He wishes to escape Hell and avenge his death on those who killed him. Following that he wishes to either die properly and suffer for eternity, or suffer in order to get to Heaven.
Skills: The Banished King was given the singular gift of mind control from the demons that cursed him, and he uses this to bend others' will to his wishes. There are several qualifications, however. He can't make anyone do something that only he will gain from, and he can't permanently brainwash someone, as it takes energy from him to do so. He is therefore bound to only use this ability if it benefits at least one other person and if he's well enough to do so.
Gear: A broken sword he uses as a dagger
A tattered cloak
Piecemeal armor over his body
Water to clear his throat
Not much else...
Theme Song:Hunt for Red OctoberOther: He was known in his human life as someone of humor, even if he committed such heinous crimes. As it is, he will occasionally show some humanity and let loose a sarcastic quip.