Name: Shen (last name unknown)
Race: Demonkin (formerly human)
Gender: Male
Age: 26
Height: 6’6
Weight: 350 lbs
Appearance: http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/354/8/c/orc_blade_master_by_heewonlee-d35b1xt.jpg(minus the huge beads)
Personality: Shen is a man with a torn personality. While he’s originally a well-intentioned person with a strong sense of honor and justice, the Usurper has corrupted his mind with violent tendencies and a thirst for power and blood. For now, he’s managed to convince himself that he does what he does for the good of mankind, but deep down even he must wonder how long this will last before it all goes amiss…
Abilities and powersPhysical enhancements – Shen’s mutated body brings with it a variety of advantages. He can deadlift 2200 lbs and sprint at 60 mph. Despite his size and weight, he can jump superhumanly long distances, do a wide variety of acrobatics and is overall extremely agile. His bones are reinforced, requiring twice as much force to break as before, and his wounds heal at 5 times human rate. His sight and hearing are both roughly twice as powerful as a normal human’s. He also has advanced low-light vision, allowing him to see in near-full darkness. As a downside, very bright lights or sudden flashes can blind him more easily.
Demonic blood – Shen’s corrupted body grants him a passive resistance to fire. Flames and other heat-based attacks are generally shrugged off, but due to his human side, the resistance is not perfect. He can still suffer scorching wounds and internal damage if exposed to common fire for longer than a few minutes or when hit by exceptionally powerful flames. On the flip side, divine magic deals increased damage to him and healing spells that draw from a divine source are ineffective. Holy water and certain other divine items will hurt him on touch, as if he was an actual demon.
Iron will – Shen was born with an exceptional mental fortitude, which was further enhanced by his mental training as a monk. All but the most powerful of mind-altering effects will be shrugged off or at least partially resisted, such as the mind-controlling effect of the Usurper.
Martial arts – Shen is trained extensively in a mixture of elite fighting techniques, focusing on unarmed combat. These techniques focus on dealing fast and precise strikes with hands and feet, as well as preventing damage to oneself by dodging or countering.
Swordsmanship – While sword fighting wasn’t part of his training as a monk, his skills with a sword developed at a supernaturally fast pace from the moment he began using the Usurper, as if he absorbed the knowledge and muscle-memory of the sword’s previous owners through use. He’s not the greatest swordsman in the world, but he’s close, capable of slashing and parrying at near-superhuman speed.
Pyromancy – Shen can generate and control fire to a certain extent. It can only be generated in direct contact with his skin before being able to control it further away from him. Any part of his skin will do, but the hands are easiest. Fire that stays within three feet of him remains under his control and doesn’t go out by itself as long as he’s actively maintaining it. Once the fire leaves that radius, it will continue moving in the direction it was already going and will naturally snuff out after a few seconds unless it hits something flammable. For the purpose of pyromancy, Usurper is considered a part of Shen’s body as long as he’s holding it. Pyromancy is energy draining, so Shen doesn’t use it wantonly. His pyromancy based attacks include, but are not limited to:
- Firing a cone of flame from his hand, similar to a flamethrower, about 40’ long and 20’ wide at the end. This requires no charge but is intensely energy draining.
- Creating a fireball in his hand and throwing it. When done without charge, it’s simply a basketball-sized sphere of flame that scorches things on contact. When charged, the fire becomes compressed and will explode on impact. With a 5 second charge, it has an explosion radius of 20’ and enough power to fling people off their feet (breaking some bones in the process), as well as of course set everything within the radius on fire. On max charge, 10 seconds, both the radius and power have tripled, making it powerful enough to blow up a sizable brick house. Energy requirement increases exponentially on longer charges, making the max charge incredibly taxing. Note that while Shen is resistant to his own fire, the same doesn’t go for the explosive force.
- Coating his sword in a layer of flames. This essentially creates a second sword of fire around the metal sword, about 1x1x6 feet in size, which might hit enemies even if the metal sword misses. It also has the effect of heating the blade over time. When the coating is first applied, the metal is still cold and will gradually heat up, until after 2 minutes it glows bright orange as it’s reached its maximum temperature of 1000 degrees Celsius. Without outside interference cooling down takes as long as heating up. This ability is relatively cheap to sustain.
EquipmentUsurper – The source of most of Shen’s powers. A large 5’ long katana of unknown origin, made of a non-reflective dark grey metal that is indestructible by conventional means. It’s surprisingly heavy for such a slender weapon, only able to be wielded efficiently by someone with superhuman strength, and has a razor-sharp edge that never dulls.
Usurper (and in extension Shen) draws power from the departing souls of its victims, slowly growing a little bit more powerful with each kill. The legends say that Usurper’s wielder once defeated entire armies of the greatest warriors, but the sword has lost the majority of its power due to centuries of disuse.
As long as its current owner is alive, his and Usurper’s souls are inseparably entwined and Usurper will not grant its power to anyone else. The sword has shown to have a mysterious way of returning to its owner when separated for too long. When the current owner is killed, Usurper will once again attempt to bind itself to the next suitable creature that touches it.
HistoryShen was orphaned shortly after his birth due to an unknown cause. With no one left to take care of the young child, he was taken in by the monks of an isolated monastery to be raised as one of them. There he was trained from a very young age in the ways of the warrior monks, which includes extensive physical and spiritual training in order to achieve enlightenment. Shen showed great affinity for these teachings and over the course of many years he developed into a full-fledged monk. While his ability to follow orders was imperfect, he more than made up for it with his willingness to learn and his great mental fortitude.
It was only when he completed his training at the age of 24 that he found out about the monastery’s real purpose. Stored in a vault deep below the monastery was an ancient weapon, a demonic sword that the sensei called Usurper, after the way it used to hijack the souls of men to pursue its own dark purpose. When any attempt to destroy the weapon resulted in failure, it was stored far away from the prying eyes of the civilized world, to be guarded by the warrior monks until the end of days.
Yet despite all his training, Shen was an ambitious man. He claimed that the monks couldn’t remain idle while the outside world was being torn apart by wars, demons and more. He insisted that they held a power too great to ignore and urged his masters to tame this weapon and utilize it for the greater good, but the sensei were adamant in their denial. Shen had little choice but to accept this, yet over the following weeks he found himself plagued by nightmares of standing powerless as an evil being slaughtered his fellow monks. It was always the same dream and the same creature, and the sight wouldn’t leave his mind even during the day.
One night, he couldn’t handle it anymore. He had to acquire the one thing that could keep his brothers safe, even if he was told not to. Shen snuck down into the vault to inspect the Usurper, only to be stopped by a senior monk. On an unfamiliar violent impulse, he charged the older man and managed to overpower him just long enough to make a run for the sword. The moment his fingers touched the hilt, the weapon was reawakened and its soul reached out and forcibly fused with his. The massive injection of power took its toll on Shen’s body and rapidly transformed him into a demonic being, hulking and green-skinned. Although the sword never spoke, its intentions were clear as day. Usurper urged him to give in to its bloodlust and raze the monastery with everyone inside. It was only through Shen’s miraculous strength of will that he could resist slaughtering his former brothers and flee into the mountains instead.
From there on, it didn’t take long for Shen to realize he’d made a huge mistake. While he retained his own will over that of the sword, the bloodlust that came with its possession was almost uncontrollable. For several days, he evaded capture while attempting to tame Usurper’s soul, but he could gain no further control over the weapon and with every passing day, the urge to kill became stronger. Eventually, admitting defeat, he returned to the monastery and surrendered himself to be punished for his crimes. As there was no known way to separate Usurper’s soul from its wielder’s, Shen was sentenced to death so that the sword can once again be imprisoned.
Shen had every intention to pay for his sin and didn’t resist as his former brothers chained him and placed his head upon the chopping block. As the executioner’s sword came down to behead him, Usurper’s ethereal voice screamed inside his head, louder than ever, dazing him. When the daze faded, blood was streaming down his arm, as his hand had moved up, tearing free of the iron chains, to stop the blade. With no control over his own body, Shen watched himself rise to his feet and tear the executioner’s throat out with his claws. And it didn’t stop there. He gave in to his bloodlust as he reached for the Usurper and began cutting down everyone within his reach. Each and every monk was a powerful warrior, but the Usurper had turned Shen more powerful than all of them combined.
Shen didn’t regain control over himself until it was too late and he found himself covered in blood and ash. Upon the taste of blood, Usurper’s power over him had receded, but there was no doubt it would return. He knew there was no way back now. He had tasted the power and satisfaction of killing, even if the ones he killed were his former allies. There was no going back to his peaceful life as a monk, but he could still repent by using his power for the greater good, if only he could strengthen his grasp. If the Usurper wants blood, that’s exactly what it’s going to get…