Post by ketaro on Dec 31, 2009 9:09:36 GMT -5
Alright! I just spend the last 8 1/2 hours on this ;D 7 of which were on the History itself. And funnily enough, I spent 30 minutes trying to decide an age lol.
Name: Günter von Kleist
Age: 52
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Power Level: 7 (Probally. It's what I was aiming for anyways)
Timeline: Any
Appearance: Felt like a waste to describe after I found this picture which is actually very close to what I'd been imagining. Went looking for random pictures as I couldn't think of what that jacket he's holding is called. I spent forever trying to find the name of it and then bam, I run into this near perfect picture.
I had him with longer hair tho....just imagine longer hair, tied back with a white, silk ribbon.
Personality: Gunter has a narcissistic personality and is thus a very tough person to get along with. As such, the only people he seems to be capable of getting along with on a somewhat friendly level are those who have forced him to see that they are better than him, often through duels requested by Gunter (although he makes the requests sound more like orders).
History: Gunter von Kleist originates from an Earth set in an alternate dimension where swords and sorcery have remained above technology even to present day*. He was a man of noble birth, the son of a King who led a rather small country. This was a rather well liked King by the commonfolk of the country, but they couldn't say the same for his son. Gunter was never much liked by the people, speaking badly of him behind his back all the time, and always wondering why their caring King allowed him to be the spoiled, arrogant brat he was. Of course they didn't have to worry about this for long as one day their country was suddenly invaded one day. It was a small country, as was it's military, so they were little match for the unusually large army that attacked without warning. This army was armed with weapons they couldn't recognize, making explosions and loud booms(archaic single shot guns and cannons) and completely overwhelming their swords, arrows, and the handful of mediocre mages they had to defend themselves. These offenders proposed no offer of surrender and simply killed everyone, including the King, and took the country. Not long before these invaders had hit the castle though, the King had evacuated Gunter to safety, along with a certain family heirloom, a very powerful enchanted sword, which he was told to keep safe at all costs.
That was the event, 35 years ago, which started his story. He was left with nothing, forced to escape to a foreign country, and he was furious about it. He wasn't left to fend for himself for very long though, as people refering to themselves as 'The Guild' . According to them, they were an organization of rather powerful mages and swordsmen who effectively had a background role in the political and military affairs of many countries and that they'd had their eye on him and wanted him to join them, of course it was actually that sword of his they really wanted. They didn't directly tell his this though. Gunter took their claim, initially, as incredibly egotistical of them to state such a thing as he'd never even heard of this 'Guild'. Of course it was this high level of egoism that drew him in to accepting the offer. Not long upon doing so did he learn that this claim of theirs was much more fact than he'd thought, and that especially interested him. He might be able to regain the power that'd been taken from him now, and then his country.
The first thing the higher ups of the Guild did upon Gunter arriving at their headquarters for a test of initiation, atleast thats what they told him he was their for, they attempted to 'aquire' that sword from him and then ditch him. Unfortunately this backfired as the magic imbued in the relic required its wielder to be one of Gunter's bloodline. This was learned when the man who first took the sword from Gunter to die in a rather...interesting way. The man grabbed the sword and suddenly began aging at an astonishing rate. In a matter of seconds the man had gone from a strong young man in his 20s to a rotted corpse, looking as though he'd be dead for several months. They stood back in horror, apoligized, and returned him back his sword. Maybe it'd just be smarter to actually recruit him into their ranks...
And so they did. He'd found it humorous that they had failed so easily with that plan of theirs, but allowed them to recruit him nonetheless. Before they started his training, they required him to take part in a ritual of sorts that would grant him his Magic Right*. The magic he was granted was one of the rarer types, that of Puppetry. Several years they ran him through training in both swordsmanship and magic, course he often got quite infuriated at them for taking so long in the training process. Finally at the end of it all, they fully accepted him into their ranks and thus entrusted him with knowledge of the other thing that the existance of the Guild was truly meant for. The Guild, to the knowledge of the leaders, royals, and nobles of the other countries was that they were the backbone of which all the countries they were associated with were politically supported by them. In other words, they were the ones who picked which people would be allowed to rule what. How they controlled this was possibly the biggest and most well-kept secret of the Guild. Anyways, the truth they revealed to him was that the Guild was created to track down, find, and 'reaquire' ancient or lost relics of great power. The 'or' is because it's not always a lost artifact that they 'reaquire'. Why they needed to tell Gunter this? He was being assigned to the ranks of the Guild's men who did this artifact hunting. He was being made into a glorified grave robber as he put it. Not exactly the position he'd been aiming at. A bit of rethinking of his plans, and he found this could work for him. Often they were sent on solo missions to find these items, so keeping them hidden away for himself, if he did find something and if it was useful anyways, might help him with his goals afterall.
More years went by, with him becoming more powerful, and even reaching the ranks of some of the strongest of Guild members. This artifact hunting thing though wasn't as helpful as he had initially thought it'd be though. There were too many fakes floating about, and those that were real were often exagerrated beyond their true powers. In summary, the only truly powerful relic or artifact he'd ever had his hands on that he deemed as actually useful to him was the sword he'd always had, that heirloom of his family's. He'd begun thinking this Guild was turning out to be quite useless to him now. He'd gotten all he could out of these people, and he didn't need them anymore. He planned to not return after being sent out on the next mission they sent his way. They'd assume him dead, and he'd go off to take back his country with his own great power. It turned out, the next mission they did send his way, it wasn't going to be just him. It was one of those truly rare ones, he was being sent out with several members which immediately implied whatever they were going after, it was something confirmed as too much for the usual one man team. Apparently, what they were after was some sort of incredibly powerful holy artifact, what it looked like wasn't included in the details, but it supposedly had the power to forcibly allow a person to ascend into the Upper Realms(effectively Heaven here) and thus transform them into a god, imbuing the godlike powers one would assume a god to have as well. Now this, Gunter thought, he would stick around for. If it were true, even if it was only close to true, this sounded like something he'd definately need to aquire for himself. Dealing with the other members being sent with him, while he knew he couldn't take them all out on his own, he'd probally be much more capable of it so long as he got his hands on this artifact first. Atleast, that's what he believed.
Thus this group set out for find this item, but of course it wasn't going to be that easy, and that rather irritated Gunter. Alot. It was horribly tough to put up with, as it actually took just over a year of following false leads and wild goose chases before finally stumbling across what they believed was the actual place where they'd find the relic. It surely looked like a proper place to find a powerful holy relic anyways. The place was an enormous ruined temple built into a mountainside, very well hidden, and almost a weeks travel from the nearest sign of civilization. Maybe back then, however many centuries that could be, there was a nearer town or village, which didn't make this place appear to be such a ridiculously out of the way temple, but that was a moot point now. They thus ventured in, prepared for the usual traps and such that they usually experience when 'graverobbing'. Oddly enough their were none. Absolutely nothing. Not even a demon of sorts set to guard the place, or anyplace, inside this temple. Of course upon moving further and further inward, they begun to think maybe it simply didn't require any of that sort. This building turned out to be much more than a simple temple. Their was literally a full-blown maze built throughout possibly the entire mountain. Halls led upward, downward, every sort of direction, countless deadends and empty rooms. It was like they were being made fun of, Gunter thought angerly outloud on several occasions. Two days of searching aimlessly before they finally decided to split up and search separately, thus increasing the area they could go through. Before actually doing so though, they spent two weeks going back to the last town they'd passed and coming back to the temple and its ridiculous maze fully restocked with supplies and plenty extra. Now fully prepared, they split up, each going a separate way through the maze and each hoping they'd be able to find their way back if they did run across something. Gunter, in all his annoyance, was atleast persistant in fulfilling his own personal goals, and forced himself to put up with this. It was an unknown amount of time later, maybe a couple days for all he could tell, but it seemed he'd finally run into something important. This maze finally led him into an immensely large room full of columns covered in what only appeared to him as random carvings, he didn't care. The ceiling was far out of his sight, he couldn't tell just how far out either, throwing a rock as high as he could certainly didn't tell him. But that too was of little importance to him. Now what was of importance was a pair of massive double doors at the other end of this hall. Finally something promising, also something meaning there might be a chance of finally running into traps or guards of some sort. It struck him odd though that nothing happened all the way up to him reaching those doors. Maybe them it would be the doors themselves that were trapped. A second, close up look at them though made him think of something else though. How the hell would one open such a massive stone door. He guessed it had to weigh far too much for even 20 men to open. Maybe they used a demon to open it? He actually smiled at that thought. A demon summoned for the sole purpose of opening and closing doors. That'd be a sight. Well, he was here, what if he was lucky. He put his hands to the door, pushed, and suddenly found himself falling forward as the doors swung open feeling as light as air. How humiliating, tossed facefirst onto the floor, by a door of all things. He truly hated this damned ruined temple or whatever it was.
Upon picking himself up, he was a little suprised to find himself in another rather large room being lit up by magical light apparently, he couldn't find the source. This room also didn't look quite so ruined as the rest of the place, kept intact by magic as well possibly. The last thing he noticed about the room was that it looked almost exactly like the entrance of this temple, just not so ruined, again. At the far end, an alter drew his attention. A red sheet of cloth was laid over it, perfectly intact, and on that rested what looked like a cup with a translucent orb sitting in it. He walked up to it, and gave it a closer look. It didn't look anything special, just an orb of glass apparently. Was this it? He touched it and suddenly a bursting swirl of something appeared inside of the glass orb, and he immediately drew back his hand. Nothing else happened as he waited, and watched as that light? or maybe magic swirled about chaoticly inside it. He reached to pick it up but a sound from behind him interrupted him. It was one of the men he'd been sent with. The man wordlessly drew his sword, and Gunter immediately knew that he wanted this item for himself as well. Gunter smiled, and just as silently drew his own sword as well. Gunter clearly thought of himself having the advantage here. The other man was strong, but he was alone, and Gunter was fighting with not just a sword, but a powerful artifact of his own. That alone told Gunter he'd win this fight hands down, and swiftly at that. The man ran at him, and Gunter waited for him, not wanting to get too far from what was most likely the item they- he'd come to collect. Sadly the fight didn't last long. Gunter had charged him when the man had begun running up the steps to the alter. The steepness of the steps caught him off guard as they hadn't appeared so steep from the door and he'd been forced to slow down, and it was that moment the man had looked down to catch himself from tripping over that first step that Gunter had suddenly appeared before him, his sword sticking out of his back. An easy victory, the man didn't even have a chance. That misjudgement was only had made it much simpler for Gunter to kill him, not like he wouldn't have died anyways he said quietly to himself. Sheathing his sword, he stepped back up to the alter, and made to pick up the orb. It reacted this time, much more violently than it had initially. He didn't know why, but then he thought it must've been the blood on his hand. So this thing activated with blood? They probally use to sacrifice people to activate whatever power this thing has. The energies inside the orb had gone wild and strands of it actually came out of the orb and began wrapping themselves around Gunter. All he had time to think was that this thing was now going to either kill him, or bestow him with the powers of a god like the story said. Shit, this thing was going to kill him. The orb suddenly shot out of his grasp and rammed into his chest. It dug into him, rather painfully too, and slowly sank into his skin. It definately hurt, and he definately figured this was his death because of that, and once the orb had dissapeared into him, he finally passed out from the pain. Some time passed and he awoke, where he'd passed out, layed out on the steps leading up to the alter. 'Huh' was all he had to say about that. He felt his chest, nothing their. And the pain was gone too. He certainly didn't feel any different. Apparently the whole aquiring godlike power was just a story, like he'd expected. Well it hadn't hurt to try, well it did, but anyways it was time to leave. He'd done the mission, killed a Guild member, and assumed it'd been long enough to be presumed dead. He made his way down the steps, not caring about stepping on the dead man's corpse on the way down, and headed for the door. About halfway to the door he was interrupted by a shot of pain in his chest, like he'd been stabbed by a knife. Suddenly the orb shot out of his chest, glowing red like blood, and burst open with a blinding red flash. When he could see again, before him was what he could only describe as a sort of magical portal maybe? He'd never actually seen one, they were impossibly difficult to create and only maybe one or two mages of the Guild could make one, although not a very stable one. Looking into it, all he saw was a tunnel of swirling energies colored red as blood. Not a very good sign he assumed. But them maybe this was what that ascending part of the story meant. Though when it said forcibly ascend, well this didn't seem to be forcing him into it. He was quickly proven wrong as a force that was overwhelming him quite easily suddenly pulled him in, and thus he dissapeared into it, the portal closing behind him...
Powers: Gunter's Magic Right bestowed upon him granted him the magic of Puppetry. He's developed this power further than just controlling puppets however as he can use it on humans as well to force them to do whatever he wanted. Of course he's not capable of controlling people that are too strong for him, and as such his power only affects the general commonfolk so far. The exact number of people he can control at once though, well he's not yet tried to find out yet. The number of puppets he can control at once though is 100. Of course he does't actually take 100 puppets with him everywhere he goes. But he could use normal dolls and puppets like you'd find in shops and such which he could use, slightly buffed up by his magic, though it's weaker the more he has control of at once. At max number, it'd simple be like throwing 100 dolls at some one all at once. Initially a scary thing to maybe a normal human, but simply similar to swatting flies towards more powerful people.
He can use this power to fashion himself powerful magical puppets as well that he can imbue with certain enchantments. He currently has traveling with him only a single puppet, as controlling more than one magically buffed up puppet spreads the enchantments out between all of them and thus weakens the enchantments for each single puppet. This single puppet is fashioned as a rather large, white crow, a crow the size of a pelican. It's hardly as heavy as it looks, you could hold it with one hand with no effort. He's never gotten around to naming it, even though he's kept it around for years now. Its imbued with several enchantments meant to defend him. These include being able to form itself into a translucent orb, appearing to be made up of feathers, that fully surrounds Gunter and works like an anti-magic shield. This anti-magic shield is rather powerful in that it's capable of protecting him from any spell that's so far been thrown at him. And he's had some pretty nasty spells thrown his way before. Second, it can form itself into an actual shield, or an opaque orb for those certain large scale non-magical things(i.e. a rockfall or a cave collapsing thanks to that trap he failed to notice), also looking to be made of feathers, for blocking melee attacks. This form doesn't require Gunter to wield the shield himself even, as it works as an animated shield, moving about and blocking for him. He really dislikes the thought of how he'd look carrying a shield, and it simply doesn't suit his fighting style as well. The bird is also capable of carrying the wieght of up to two people of average wieght, without an impairment on its flight speed. Lastly, it can regenerate itself should it be damaged or broken, as though under a constant repair effect. Normally it requires Gunter's own attention to the puppet and some time to repair any damage done to them.
Objects can also be manipulated by this power, like swords for example. 'Adjusting' the opponents strike for another example. Because if he can't control the person's movement if they're too strong, they're weapons, on the other hand, can't exactly fight back. Course if the weapon's being wielded by some one, he'd have to still put effort into fighting their hold on the weapon. But thrown weapons (no, not bullets. and physical stuff. stuff made of energy, no), or simply a sword lying on the ground he could manipulate and attack his opponent with it.
Equipment: Gunter carries with him a powerful artifact, and family heirloom, a nameless sword. The sword has an effect on Gunter as it slows his time, causing his to age slower than a normal. The sword's blade is also invisible, while the hilt looks centuries old although it still holds up perfectly. Each time the blade strikes, be it a sword or armor or flesh, the blade appears for that split second then dissapears again. As a fight progresses, the blade remains visible for longer periods of time between each strike, and both the wielder and the sword begin to be moving, and striking, faster and faster. If somehow the fight lasts long enough, and the blade permanently remains visible, it's said that the wielder will have aquired such incredible speed that suddenly they seem to have gone invisible as they'd then strike down the oppoent in an instant. Of course, that last part is merely part of the legend that comes with this sword and Gunter's yet to carry on a fight long enough to prove it to be true or not.*
Weakness: The whole being human thing. Though all mages(where he's from), no matter the magic they know, unconsiously have a magical aura about them that shields them from disease and sickness. Poison, on the other hand, is still applicable.
*Note-1: As in our present day (today is Dec 31st, 2009) would be their Dec 31, 2009. That is, if they used the same calander of course. They don't, but if they did, well you know what I mean. Right?
*Note-2: A person, well a mage, is only allowed to use one kind of magic on this alternate Earth. That is called their Magic Right. So, if some one can use say, fire magic, they couldn't learn to use another type of magic, like eletric magic. So Gunter knows Puppetry magic, so it'd be literally impossible for him to learn something like fire magic. There is no way around this, its effectively like a law of that world's magic system. To add to this, this would mean the abilities/enchantments imbued in his puppet were not imbued by himself but by other mages who knew that kind of magic.
*Note-3: No, just banging the sword on any sort of object or sword not wielded by an enemy for long enough will not make the sword do that. It's not stupid, its an incredibly powerful magical sword, and thus does know when it's fighting an enemy and when its not. And even if not fighting an enemy, like a training match for instance, if it's atleast meant to be a real fight, well it can tell. Blah, it's somewhat intelligent to a degree. Well more like instinct than actual intelligence. It can't really talk or communicate with Gunter in any way.
*Note-4: And no, even though its 'puppetry', their are no magical strings and such connecting the puppets to him that can be magically cut by magical means. While yes, there are strings connecting the puppeteer to the puppet, they do not exist in the physical or magical world w/e. They can only be seen by the puppeteer as they are basically a figment of their imagination that they use to help themselves operate the puppets. As such, mind bombing him (i.e. a person with telekinetic/mental powers) could interrupt the connection. They'd have to actually know of it in the first place though as its not exactly a person's imagination they'd go for when infiltrating a person's mind. But then if they can already manage breaking into his mind, why bother with trying that when they could probally just knock him out then. Ah, but thats besides the point. Moving on...
Name: Günter von Kleist
Age: 52
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Power Level: 7 (Probally. It's what I was aiming for anyways)
Timeline: Any
Appearance: Felt like a waste to describe after I found this picture which is actually very close to what I'd been imagining. Went looking for random pictures as I couldn't think of what that jacket he's holding is called. I spent forever trying to find the name of it and then bam, I run into this near perfect picture.
I had him with longer hair tho....just imagine longer hair, tied back with a white, silk ribbon.
Personality: Gunter has a narcissistic personality and is thus a very tough person to get along with. As such, the only people he seems to be capable of getting along with on a somewhat friendly level are those who have forced him to see that they are better than him, often through duels requested by Gunter (although he makes the requests sound more like orders).
History: Gunter von Kleist originates from an Earth set in an alternate dimension where swords and sorcery have remained above technology even to present day*. He was a man of noble birth, the son of a King who led a rather small country. This was a rather well liked King by the commonfolk of the country, but they couldn't say the same for his son. Gunter was never much liked by the people, speaking badly of him behind his back all the time, and always wondering why their caring King allowed him to be the spoiled, arrogant brat he was. Of course they didn't have to worry about this for long as one day their country was suddenly invaded one day. It was a small country, as was it's military, so they were little match for the unusually large army that attacked without warning. This army was armed with weapons they couldn't recognize, making explosions and loud booms(archaic single shot guns and cannons) and completely overwhelming their swords, arrows, and the handful of mediocre mages they had to defend themselves. These offenders proposed no offer of surrender and simply killed everyone, including the King, and took the country. Not long before these invaders had hit the castle though, the King had evacuated Gunter to safety, along with a certain family heirloom, a very powerful enchanted sword, which he was told to keep safe at all costs.
That was the event, 35 years ago, which started his story. He was left with nothing, forced to escape to a foreign country, and he was furious about it. He wasn't left to fend for himself for very long though, as people refering to themselves as 'The Guild' . According to them, they were an organization of rather powerful mages and swordsmen who effectively had a background role in the political and military affairs of many countries and that they'd had their eye on him and wanted him to join them, of course it was actually that sword of his they really wanted. They didn't directly tell his this though. Gunter took their claim, initially, as incredibly egotistical of them to state such a thing as he'd never even heard of this 'Guild'. Of course it was this high level of egoism that drew him in to accepting the offer. Not long upon doing so did he learn that this claim of theirs was much more fact than he'd thought, and that especially interested him. He might be able to regain the power that'd been taken from him now, and then his country.
The first thing the higher ups of the Guild did upon Gunter arriving at their headquarters for a test of initiation, atleast thats what they told him he was their for, they attempted to 'aquire' that sword from him and then ditch him. Unfortunately this backfired as the magic imbued in the relic required its wielder to be one of Gunter's bloodline. This was learned when the man who first took the sword from Gunter to die in a rather...interesting way. The man grabbed the sword and suddenly began aging at an astonishing rate. In a matter of seconds the man had gone from a strong young man in his 20s to a rotted corpse, looking as though he'd be dead for several months. They stood back in horror, apoligized, and returned him back his sword. Maybe it'd just be smarter to actually recruit him into their ranks...
And so they did. He'd found it humorous that they had failed so easily with that plan of theirs, but allowed them to recruit him nonetheless. Before they started his training, they required him to take part in a ritual of sorts that would grant him his Magic Right*. The magic he was granted was one of the rarer types, that of Puppetry. Several years they ran him through training in both swordsmanship and magic, course he often got quite infuriated at them for taking so long in the training process. Finally at the end of it all, they fully accepted him into their ranks and thus entrusted him with knowledge of the other thing that the existance of the Guild was truly meant for. The Guild, to the knowledge of the leaders, royals, and nobles of the other countries was that they were the backbone of which all the countries they were associated with were politically supported by them. In other words, they were the ones who picked which people would be allowed to rule what. How they controlled this was possibly the biggest and most well-kept secret of the Guild. Anyways, the truth they revealed to him was that the Guild was created to track down, find, and 'reaquire' ancient or lost relics of great power. The 'or' is because it's not always a lost artifact that they 'reaquire'. Why they needed to tell Gunter this? He was being assigned to the ranks of the Guild's men who did this artifact hunting. He was being made into a glorified grave robber as he put it. Not exactly the position he'd been aiming at. A bit of rethinking of his plans, and he found this could work for him. Often they were sent on solo missions to find these items, so keeping them hidden away for himself, if he did find something and if it was useful anyways, might help him with his goals afterall.
More years went by, with him becoming more powerful, and even reaching the ranks of some of the strongest of Guild members. This artifact hunting thing though wasn't as helpful as he had initially thought it'd be though. There were too many fakes floating about, and those that were real were often exagerrated beyond their true powers. In summary, the only truly powerful relic or artifact he'd ever had his hands on that he deemed as actually useful to him was the sword he'd always had, that heirloom of his family's. He'd begun thinking this Guild was turning out to be quite useless to him now. He'd gotten all he could out of these people, and he didn't need them anymore. He planned to not return after being sent out on the next mission they sent his way. They'd assume him dead, and he'd go off to take back his country with his own great power. It turned out, the next mission they did send his way, it wasn't going to be just him. It was one of those truly rare ones, he was being sent out with several members which immediately implied whatever they were going after, it was something confirmed as too much for the usual one man team. Apparently, what they were after was some sort of incredibly powerful holy artifact, what it looked like wasn't included in the details, but it supposedly had the power to forcibly allow a person to ascend into the Upper Realms(effectively Heaven here) and thus transform them into a god, imbuing the godlike powers one would assume a god to have as well. Now this, Gunter thought, he would stick around for. If it were true, even if it was only close to true, this sounded like something he'd definately need to aquire for himself. Dealing with the other members being sent with him, while he knew he couldn't take them all out on his own, he'd probally be much more capable of it so long as he got his hands on this artifact first. Atleast, that's what he believed.
Thus this group set out for find this item, but of course it wasn't going to be that easy, and that rather irritated Gunter. Alot. It was horribly tough to put up with, as it actually took just over a year of following false leads and wild goose chases before finally stumbling across what they believed was the actual place where they'd find the relic. It surely looked like a proper place to find a powerful holy relic anyways. The place was an enormous ruined temple built into a mountainside, very well hidden, and almost a weeks travel from the nearest sign of civilization. Maybe back then, however many centuries that could be, there was a nearer town or village, which didn't make this place appear to be such a ridiculously out of the way temple, but that was a moot point now. They thus ventured in, prepared for the usual traps and such that they usually experience when 'graverobbing'. Oddly enough their were none. Absolutely nothing. Not even a demon of sorts set to guard the place, or anyplace, inside this temple. Of course upon moving further and further inward, they begun to think maybe it simply didn't require any of that sort. This building turned out to be much more than a simple temple. Their was literally a full-blown maze built throughout possibly the entire mountain. Halls led upward, downward, every sort of direction, countless deadends and empty rooms. It was like they were being made fun of, Gunter thought angerly outloud on several occasions. Two days of searching aimlessly before they finally decided to split up and search separately, thus increasing the area they could go through. Before actually doing so though, they spent two weeks going back to the last town they'd passed and coming back to the temple and its ridiculous maze fully restocked with supplies and plenty extra. Now fully prepared, they split up, each going a separate way through the maze and each hoping they'd be able to find their way back if they did run across something. Gunter, in all his annoyance, was atleast persistant in fulfilling his own personal goals, and forced himself to put up with this. It was an unknown amount of time later, maybe a couple days for all he could tell, but it seemed he'd finally run into something important. This maze finally led him into an immensely large room full of columns covered in what only appeared to him as random carvings, he didn't care. The ceiling was far out of his sight, he couldn't tell just how far out either, throwing a rock as high as he could certainly didn't tell him. But that too was of little importance to him. Now what was of importance was a pair of massive double doors at the other end of this hall. Finally something promising, also something meaning there might be a chance of finally running into traps or guards of some sort. It struck him odd though that nothing happened all the way up to him reaching those doors. Maybe them it would be the doors themselves that were trapped. A second, close up look at them though made him think of something else though. How the hell would one open such a massive stone door. He guessed it had to weigh far too much for even 20 men to open. Maybe they used a demon to open it? He actually smiled at that thought. A demon summoned for the sole purpose of opening and closing doors. That'd be a sight. Well, he was here, what if he was lucky. He put his hands to the door, pushed, and suddenly found himself falling forward as the doors swung open feeling as light as air. How humiliating, tossed facefirst onto the floor, by a door of all things. He truly hated this damned ruined temple or whatever it was.
Upon picking himself up, he was a little suprised to find himself in another rather large room being lit up by magical light apparently, he couldn't find the source. This room also didn't look quite so ruined as the rest of the place, kept intact by magic as well possibly. The last thing he noticed about the room was that it looked almost exactly like the entrance of this temple, just not so ruined, again. At the far end, an alter drew his attention. A red sheet of cloth was laid over it, perfectly intact, and on that rested what looked like a cup with a translucent orb sitting in it. He walked up to it, and gave it a closer look. It didn't look anything special, just an orb of glass apparently. Was this it? He touched it and suddenly a bursting swirl of something appeared inside of the glass orb, and he immediately drew back his hand. Nothing else happened as he waited, and watched as that light? or maybe magic swirled about chaoticly inside it. He reached to pick it up but a sound from behind him interrupted him. It was one of the men he'd been sent with. The man wordlessly drew his sword, and Gunter immediately knew that he wanted this item for himself as well. Gunter smiled, and just as silently drew his own sword as well. Gunter clearly thought of himself having the advantage here. The other man was strong, but he was alone, and Gunter was fighting with not just a sword, but a powerful artifact of his own. That alone told Gunter he'd win this fight hands down, and swiftly at that. The man ran at him, and Gunter waited for him, not wanting to get too far from what was most likely the item they- he'd come to collect. Sadly the fight didn't last long. Gunter had charged him when the man had begun running up the steps to the alter. The steepness of the steps caught him off guard as they hadn't appeared so steep from the door and he'd been forced to slow down, and it was that moment the man had looked down to catch himself from tripping over that first step that Gunter had suddenly appeared before him, his sword sticking out of his back. An easy victory, the man didn't even have a chance. That misjudgement was only had made it much simpler for Gunter to kill him, not like he wouldn't have died anyways he said quietly to himself. Sheathing his sword, he stepped back up to the alter, and made to pick up the orb. It reacted this time, much more violently than it had initially. He didn't know why, but then he thought it must've been the blood on his hand. So this thing activated with blood? They probally use to sacrifice people to activate whatever power this thing has. The energies inside the orb had gone wild and strands of it actually came out of the orb and began wrapping themselves around Gunter. All he had time to think was that this thing was now going to either kill him, or bestow him with the powers of a god like the story said. Shit, this thing was going to kill him. The orb suddenly shot out of his grasp and rammed into his chest. It dug into him, rather painfully too, and slowly sank into his skin. It definately hurt, and he definately figured this was his death because of that, and once the orb had dissapeared into him, he finally passed out from the pain. Some time passed and he awoke, where he'd passed out, layed out on the steps leading up to the alter. 'Huh' was all he had to say about that. He felt his chest, nothing their. And the pain was gone too. He certainly didn't feel any different. Apparently the whole aquiring godlike power was just a story, like he'd expected. Well it hadn't hurt to try, well it did, but anyways it was time to leave. He'd done the mission, killed a Guild member, and assumed it'd been long enough to be presumed dead. He made his way down the steps, not caring about stepping on the dead man's corpse on the way down, and headed for the door. About halfway to the door he was interrupted by a shot of pain in his chest, like he'd been stabbed by a knife. Suddenly the orb shot out of his chest, glowing red like blood, and burst open with a blinding red flash. When he could see again, before him was what he could only describe as a sort of magical portal maybe? He'd never actually seen one, they were impossibly difficult to create and only maybe one or two mages of the Guild could make one, although not a very stable one. Looking into it, all he saw was a tunnel of swirling energies colored red as blood. Not a very good sign he assumed. But them maybe this was what that ascending part of the story meant. Though when it said forcibly ascend, well this didn't seem to be forcing him into it. He was quickly proven wrong as a force that was overwhelming him quite easily suddenly pulled him in, and thus he dissapeared into it, the portal closing behind him...
Powers: Gunter's Magic Right bestowed upon him granted him the magic of Puppetry. He's developed this power further than just controlling puppets however as he can use it on humans as well to force them to do whatever he wanted. Of course he's not capable of controlling people that are too strong for him, and as such his power only affects the general commonfolk so far. The exact number of people he can control at once though, well he's not yet tried to find out yet. The number of puppets he can control at once though is 100. Of course he does't actually take 100 puppets with him everywhere he goes. But he could use normal dolls and puppets like you'd find in shops and such which he could use, slightly buffed up by his magic, though it's weaker the more he has control of at once. At max number, it'd simple be like throwing 100 dolls at some one all at once. Initially a scary thing to maybe a normal human, but simply similar to swatting flies towards more powerful people.
He can use this power to fashion himself powerful magical puppets as well that he can imbue with certain enchantments. He currently has traveling with him only a single puppet, as controlling more than one magically buffed up puppet spreads the enchantments out between all of them and thus weakens the enchantments for each single puppet. This single puppet is fashioned as a rather large, white crow, a crow the size of a pelican. It's hardly as heavy as it looks, you could hold it with one hand with no effort. He's never gotten around to naming it, even though he's kept it around for years now. Its imbued with several enchantments meant to defend him. These include being able to form itself into a translucent orb, appearing to be made up of feathers, that fully surrounds Gunter and works like an anti-magic shield. This anti-magic shield is rather powerful in that it's capable of protecting him from any spell that's so far been thrown at him. And he's had some pretty nasty spells thrown his way before. Second, it can form itself into an actual shield, or an opaque orb for those certain large scale non-magical things(i.e. a rockfall or a cave collapsing thanks to that trap he failed to notice), also looking to be made of feathers, for blocking melee attacks. This form doesn't require Gunter to wield the shield himself even, as it works as an animated shield, moving about and blocking for him. He really dislikes the thought of how he'd look carrying a shield, and it simply doesn't suit his fighting style as well. The bird is also capable of carrying the wieght of up to two people of average wieght, without an impairment on its flight speed. Lastly, it can regenerate itself should it be damaged or broken, as though under a constant repair effect. Normally it requires Gunter's own attention to the puppet and some time to repair any damage done to them.
Objects can also be manipulated by this power, like swords for example. 'Adjusting' the opponents strike for another example. Because if he can't control the person's movement if they're too strong, they're weapons, on the other hand, can't exactly fight back. Course if the weapon's being wielded by some one, he'd have to still put effort into fighting their hold on the weapon. But thrown weapons (no, not bullets. and physical stuff. stuff made of energy, no), or simply a sword lying on the ground he could manipulate and attack his opponent with it.
Equipment: Gunter carries with him a powerful artifact, and family heirloom, a nameless sword. The sword has an effect on Gunter as it slows his time, causing his to age slower than a normal. The sword's blade is also invisible, while the hilt looks centuries old although it still holds up perfectly. Each time the blade strikes, be it a sword or armor or flesh, the blade appears for that split second then dissapears again. As a fight progresses, the blade remains visible for longer periods of time between each strike, and both the wielder and the sword begin to be moving, and striking, faster and faster. If somehow the fight lasts long enough, and the blade permanently remains visible, it's said that the wielder will have aquired such incredible speed that suddenly they seem to have gone invisible as they'd then strike down the oppoent in an instant. Of course, that last part is merely part of the legend that comes with this sword and Gunter's yet to carry on a fight long enough to prove it to be true or not.*
Weakness: The whole being human thing. Though all mages(where he's from), no matter the magic they know, unconsiously have a magical aura about them that shields them from disease and sickness. Poison, on the other hand, is still applicable.
*Note-1: As in our present day (today is Dec 31st, 2009) would be their Dec 31, 2009. That is, if they used the same calander of course. They don't, but if they did, well you know what I mean. Right?
*Note-2: A person, well a mage, is only allowed to use one kind of magic on this alternate Earth. That is called their Magic Right. So, if some one can use say, fire magic, they couldn't learn to use another type of magic, like eletric magic. So Gunter knows Puppetry magic, so it'd be literally impossible for him to learn something like fire magic. There is no way around this, its effectively like a law of that world's magic system. To add to this, this would mean the abilities/enchantments imbued in his puppet were not imbued by himself but by other mages who knew that kind of magic.
*Note-3: No, just banging the sword on any sort of object or sword not wielded by an enemy for long enough will not make the sword do that. It's not stupid, its an incredibly powerful magical sword, and thus does know when it's fighting an enemy and when its not. And even if not fighting an enemy, like a training match for instance, if it's atleast meant to be a real fight, well it can tell. Blah, it's somewhat intelligent to a degree. Well more like instinct than actual intelligence. It can't really talk or communicate with Gunter in any way.
*Note-4: And no, even though its 'puppetry', their are no magical strings and such connecting the puppets to him that can be magically cut by magical means. While yes, there are strings connecting the puppeteer to the puppet, they do not exist in the physical or magical world w/e. They can only be seen by the puppeteer as they are basically a figment of their imagination that they use to help themselves operate the puppets. As such, mind bombing him (i.e. a person with telekinetic/mental powers) could interrupt the connection. They'd have to actually know of it in the first place though as its not exactly a person's imagination they'd go for when infiltrating a person's mind. But then if they can already manage breaking into his mind, why bother with trying that when they could probally just knock him out then. Ah, but thats besides the point. Moving on...
