Post by Deande on Jul 7, 2016 2:52:49 GMT
[attr="class","faction"] | [attr="class","namee"]Deande [attr="class","designation"]Jennerit Attacker |
[attr="class","appimg"] | [attr="class","appbox"] [attr="class","heading"]Basic Facts: |
Aliases: Spymistress, Rendain's Ruthless Right Hand
Gender: Female
Age: 1,160's (Guestimation)
Affiliation: Battleborn, Empress Lenore
Species: Jennerit Sustained
Homeworld: Jennar (Darkened)[/ul]
[attr="class","heading"]Physical Description:
[attr="class","ability"]Diplomat's Battle Garb
Deande's Jennerit elite uniform is comprised of the highest possible level of materials engineered by the Jennerit Imperium's substantial, cutting-edge technology. The color scheme consists of dark grays, navies and crimsons and is made of a single, wedge-heeled bodysuit worn beneath a long-sleeved, form-fitting coat. The tails of Deande's coat are especially lengthy and can be cinched at the waist to shorten it during combat. Outside of battle, they trail behind her like a gown. Her garb is tailor-made to maximize agility, mobility and lethality. It shirks damage, wear and tear, is as comfortable as a second skin and regulates Deande's body temperature; conserving heat in cold environments while becoming breathable in hot ones. On her right arm, Deande sometimes wears a hi-tech gauntlet with high functionality. It projects a holographic screen, can act as a comm. relay, and functions like a portable super-computer; Deande can hack systems and manage all manner of things remotely using the gauntlet as a terminal/conduit.
Physically, Deande shares many traits with the immortal upper-class of the Jennerit. Her skin has a pale, sickly pallor and she has an exceedingly tall, lean and narrow physique. Also like all Jennerit, Deande only has three fingers on each hand, instead of four. Deande's eyes are pale silver with white irises and can become entirely crimson, save her pupils, and luminous when she fights at her fiercest - whether this is a trait all Jennerit have or just those that have been Sustained is unknown. The more personalized points of Deande's appearance are her Geisha-styled makeup; a crimson tattoo around her left eye and blond hair parted entirely onto the right side, composed of large, voluptuous curls.
Personalized Weaponry:
[attr="class","ability"]Tessurim War Fans
Deande uses a pair of gold-and-crimson, razor sharp war fans to attack others. These are used by the Silent Sisters and some of the Jennerit Elite, albeit the latter case is purely for aesthetics. Each of Deande's fans are comprised of three crimson blades that she "charges," igniting them with crimson, electrified energy that increase their power and leech a portion of vitality cut from their victims back to Deande. They were hand-crafted to her exact specifications, which also included the following poem:
One blade for Precept.
One blade for Memory.
One blade for Truth.
One blade for Shadow.
One blade for War.
One blade for Rendain.
The fans can also serve the ergonomic function of a tablet or miniature computer, weaving a holographic screen between two of the blades for Deande's use. They can be thrown for ranged attacks. Deande can use long razors between her fingers - pulled from the bundle that serve as ornaments for her hair - at need, the largest of which doubles as a stylus when she uses her fan as a tablet.
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[attr="class","heading"]Abilities and Combat Style:
[attr="class","ability"]Blink
Perhaps some product of Jennerit cybernetics or technology, Deande can transport herself near-instantaneously from one point to another, vanishing and reappearing in a jagged bloom of crimson energy. She uses this to traverse terrain, make speedy exits or spare herself from otherwise damaging events. The time between Deande's vanishing and reappearing is dependent on the distance traveled; the further she blinks, the longer the break. Blinking appears to carry whatever momentum Deande has going into it on the other side. Deande appears to use this same technique or technology with her war fans, since when they are thrown and expire, they vanish in the same energy signature and return to her hands.
[attr="class","ability"]Holotwin
At will, Deande can materialize and deploy one of the most convincing and effective hologram-AI decoys in the known galaxies while simultaneously cloaking herself(more below). When it expires or is destroyed, the holotwin self-detonates, or unrenders, depending on her wishes.
[attr="class","ability"]The Element of Surprise
Deande can cloak herself for short increments of time, during which she may place herself in the optimum position for a surprise attack, or make a quick escape. She most often uses this ability when deploying her holotwin, using the decoy as cover and a distraction.
Battle Tactics: Deande is commonly regarded as the deadliest assassin in the Jennerit Empire/Imperium. She's a combatant who uses stealth, tactical insertion of force, speed and agility to its zenith, outmaneuvering beings of far greater outright strength by doing so. She is a spy who has spent centuries refining her skills and putting them into play, giving her untold wells of experience. During battle, Deande strives to attack her opponents when they least expect it, exploiting vulnerabilities (either preexisting or ones she's made for herself) in a rapid-fire assault, and then swiftly moving on or retreating. Deande does not excel with prolonged engagements and if a clash is lasting longer than she would like, she will try to neatly retreat and either leave that enemy to a comrade, or come at them again at the most opportune time. Deande is the Spymistress for the Jennerit Imperium, and she ascended to the position due to her natural skill and accomplishments over her long life. She is an incredible infiltrator, saboteur, assassin, strategist and martial artist. Deande also has remarkable managerial skills and can craft complicated, multi-faceted stratagems (sometimes spanning decades) to reach a particular end.
Offensively, Deande wields a pair of Tessurim War Fans that are composed each of three knife-like pieces. By slicing them through the air she can achieve devastating, precise and deeply biting damage. What more, with Deande's incredible agility, flexibility and speed, she can string her fans into an artful and unending combination of lightning quick strikes. When Deande's opponents are at a distance too great to attack, she can throw her fans with deadly accuracy, turning them into flying buzz-saw-like projectiles. These she can replenish infinitely thanks to the Jennerit's awesome ability to manipulate matter at the sub-atomic level, and Deande's mastery of this skill in conjunction with her spycraft. Deande can charge her fans, igniting them with crimson energy that augment their damage and siphon a portion of vitality from her victims into Deandes as a life steal. For powerful, hobbling blows, Deande strings the blades from her hair between the fingers of her hand like claws and uses all of her strength to throw a forward blow.
To better aid in Deande's excellence at positioning herself to do the most damage to her enemies, she can materialize at need one of the most flawless and believable hologram-AI's in the known galaxies. This operates as she wills, usually mounting an all-out offensive on her foes, and once its life is spent after a number of seconds, it can self-detonate for greater damage. Meanwhile, Deande is able to flawlessly cloak, rendering herself as completely invisible, to escape in a pinch or set up her next assault. Usually Deande cloaks at the same moment she deploys her decoy, mastering the transition to the point that onlookers believe her AI is the genuine article.
Agility must be perfectly paired with speed and subtlety for Deande to excel in battle. She marries them harmonious to shine. The spy will use her tremendous dexterity to make any battlefield work for her, using topography, geography and architecture to aid her maneuvering. When gaps are too large even for her heightened agility, Deande will "blink." Moving from one point to another in what appears to be a kind of teleportation, turning into jagged crimson energy and then manifesting from the same at her target location (she uses this while accompanying Mellka in The Prologue as well as to land atop the landing pods during the opening cinematic).
The Jennerit as a race seem to have been evolved for endurance and survival. This is augmented to its zenith because Deande is one of the immortal Jennerit Sustained. As such she does not age, cannot be afflicted with any illness and is notoriously hard to cause lasting harm to; being "nearly impervious to small arms fire, resistant to many poisons and toxins, all but incombustible and immune to asphyxiation." Her physical substructure allows her to draw energy from surrounding living organisms to induce radical healing or replenishing of stamina. Everything of Deande's base physiology is beyond the average levels of other humanoid species, from reflexes and agility to pain tolerance.
Weaknesses:
Does Not a Montana Make: Deande is a combatant who focuses on stealth, agility and above all surgical insertion of critical force: she's quite literally a human knife meant to slip through the plates of her opponents' armor and the ribs beneath to the vital points beyond. She cannot mow down legions of enemies, has no crowd-controlling abilities and even though she's Sustained, she cannot assume the role of a tank.
Penalties of the Past: Working as Rendain's Right Hand, Deande has wrought much bloodshed and done many things that she's not proud of, even if she was secretly conspiring against the Lord Commander the entire time. Not only that, but Deande is a spymistress: she is the concept of espionage, subterfuge and misdirection given physical form. Few dare trust her, and those that do do so with one eye open. Now with the Battleborn, that stigma is something she has to cope with and work through. Having been the Spymistress for the Jennerit Imperium since its foundation from the ashes of the Empire before it, Deande has many, many, many enemies and the list of those who would love to kill her is beyond comprehension.
Jennerit Entitlement: Deande detests Rendain and the way he has twisted her once beloved Empire into the Jennerit Imperium. She mourns his betrayal of the alliance of the five Factions and always has plotted against him. However, Deande is still a Sustained of the Jennerit Social Elite. She is prone to the ruthless pragmatism, sinister superiority complex and highly unjust social paradigms that her people were built upon. Deande desires to change her perceptions, but she usually doesn't even realize that they're influencing her until it's pointed out or she's left confused as to why no one around her is reacting the way she is or having the thoughts she's having.
Character Trivia, Notes, Clarifications, etc:
- Aesthetically, Deande matches her portrayal in the cinematics over actual gameplay: her fans are three conjoined, energized blades, not full fans; she has a right eyebrow and a small, additional tattoo beneath her right eye; she wears a hi-tech gauntlet on her right wrist.
- While I plan on honoring Deande's gameplay, while writing I will focus primarily on her depictions in the cinematic. She will use her cloak tactically, but not often, and her Holotwin only when the need arises. With fellow Battleborn alongside her, and the sheer agility, speed, Sustained physiology and fighting prowess she commands, I don't see either being as dire a necessity for her survival as they are in the actual video game.
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[attr="class","heading"]Backstory:
#NAME_REDACTED# was soon contacted in secret by the then-Spymistress of the Jennerit Empire: Jovani. Spymistress Jovani explained her and Lenore's suspicions about Warmaster Lothar Rendain's un-trustworthiness, and the Empress's desire for #NAME_REDACTED# to be groomed as Jovani's successor should those suspicions prove correct. The day she was Sustained - an incomparable honor among the Jennerit - was the day that #NAME_REDACTED# officially perished, and in her place Deande arose. Trained to the zenith of knowledge from Matron Divia and in all the areas of espionage and martial prowess by Spymistress Jovani, Deande became the most talented assassin in the Jennerit Empire. She was properly introduced into the imperial social circles and (through no shortage of guile and clever flattery) earned the Warmaster's fondness. Soon the Jennerit's focus changed from the expansion of the Empire, to the Varelsi threat growing within the galaxy.
Deande witnessed the rise of Caldarius in the Pits of Jennar, entering logs concerning the situation and lamenting when his bid for Sustainment put him in a suicide squad and eventually lead to his imprisonment.
Over nine-hundred-fifty years after her birth, dated 19,953 C.R., Deande participated in the Battle of Jennar under Rendain (now titled "Lord Commander"). Together with the UPR and Eldrid, Deande and the Jennerit forces fought the Varelsi and prevented the Darkening of Jennar, which marked the first official major victory over the Varelsi threat. The following year, 19,954, the Empress's worst fears were realized. Rendain turned on his allies and sided with the Varelsi. Empress Lenore was lost, and her most loyal agents were slaughtered by Rendain's command. With Spymistress Jovani among their number, Deande was promoted to her now-vacant rank, having sided with Rendain as per the Empress's design. Largely seduced and believing of Rendain's lies, the remnants of the Empire failed and Jennar was quickly Darkened. He managed, even, to wrest compliant control of the Keepers of the Blade; Lenore's personal guardians. Lord Commander Rendain moved the throneworld to its original planet, Tempest in the Solus system, and declared the beginning of the Jennerit Imperium.
From that point onward, Deande worked two fronts. Outwardly she furthered the agenda of the Varelsi and Rendain while moving further and further into his graces. In the shadows, however, Deande handled a sprawling and infinitely-faceted web to undermine Rendain's rule. The first of these tactics came to obvious fruition that same year, when Deande helped to incite the First Thrall Rebellion, which found the Thrall attempt to overthrow their Jennerit masters; though they were quickly defeated. The following year, 19,955 C.R., a Civil War broke out between Rendain, who controlled the majority of the Jennerit military, and those still loyal to Empress Lenore. After this, Deande personally (and secretly) confronted Verod Rath of the Keepers of the Blade and provided him with irrefutable proof of Rendain's true colors, hoping to gain him as an ally in her covert operations against the Lord Commander: she did. Rath took it upon himself (after a confrontation with Rendain) to seek out his brothers within the Keepers and eliminate them: one less blade in the Betrayer's sheaths.
Two years afterward, the Second Thrall Rebellion transpired, and while Rendain's forces prevailed, it wasn't before those Jennerit Sustained on the opposite side of the Civil War assisted hundreds of Thrall from escaping Tempest and dispersing into the wider universe. Sometime around here, Deande personally broke the Kemessian, Caldarius from the facility he'd been imprisoned in for centuries, giving him his battle armor and setting him on a course to sow widespread discord for Rendain. Little more than thirty days after the Second Thrall Rebellion, Deande was present for the Darkening of Penarch, the second-to-last star in the galaxy, leaving Solus as the only remainder. Finding her time nearly up, Deande arranged to officially reveal her nature as a double-agent and defect from the Imperium to join a group of Faction-spanning champions headed by Trevor Ghalt, formerly of the UPR, whom she'd been feeding information for quite some time. As Rendain and the Varelsi poised themselves for the Darkening of Solus and total victory, Deande made her move. Sabotaging the Heliophage, she assisted the Battleborn in a tactical attack on Tempest and, teaming up with the Eldrid Mellka, officially joined their ranks.
Putting her considerable network of spies, information, influence and skills into Ghalt's pocket will hopefully give the Battleborn the edge that they need to combat the Varelsi and Imperium threats. With time winding down until the Heliophage is deemed operational again, the stakes could not possibly be higher.
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[attr="class","heading"]Present Plot Point:
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