Repost Request Thread

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Repost Request Thread

Post by Vagrant Orpheus »

So just tonight, I've been asked by multiple people when I plan to repost LAW SCHOOL, the Nimaru, articlise the Trillistani, and I decided I wanted to revamp and repost some other older articles. And that got me to thinking that we all probably have articles that we'd like to see either reposted or revamped.

Hence this thread. It's basically just a place for us to ask other authors when/if they plan to repost things, so that as the authors we can see which of our works are most desired by the community at large to be reposted, and to serve merely as a reminder to us of which articles are preferred. Such requests would in no way be demands or forceful requests, simply "I'd really like to see Butterfly again, Shroomz" or "Can I has some Librarian, Siege?".

I think that such a thread as this will be useful for the rebuilding process.
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Are you asking me to repost Butterfly or was that just an example? :)
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Re: Repost Request Thread

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It's just an example. I don't really mind.
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

I would like to see a repost of Jurgen Baccara and his crew.
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Re: Repost Request Thread

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Shroom Man 777 wrote:I would like to see a repost of Jurgen Baccara and his crew.
After I finish Lord Fahrenheit I'll see what I can do for you.
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Malchus »

I'd like to request Vic to repost Julio Deathmatch. I may have a few ideas on some deathmatch contestants, but I need some background first.

EDIT: Er, never mind. Turns out Vic did repost it, but when I posted the above request the article didn't show up on the forums on my comp for some reason.
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Seeing Unit Zero back in action would be good as well. Just Kreuz would be good, actually.
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Invictus »

Shroom Man 777 wrote:Seeing Unit Zero back in action would be good as well. Just Kreuz would be good, actually.
Kreuz is one of my earlier characters, so his profile definitely needs some touching up first. I'll take a look at that.

And Shroom, would you be kind enough to repost Queen Bee?
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

I'll repost it here. It's uneditted and in its original form. When I repost it, the rewrites will be minimal anyway and in essence will remain true to itself.
Queen Bee

Real Name: Alexandra Gale

Origins:
Alexandra Gale was an apiarist, a beekeeper. Her mother was an apiarist, as was her grandfather.

As a young child, she accompanied her mother in maintaining their many bee colonies, and afterwards she would shed her protective coverings and frolic in the flower fields the bees pollinated. However, on one such blooming spring day, she wandered away from the flower field and into a nearby forest. On the surrounding trees were many bee hives, but they were not the same ones her mother managed. Before Alexandra could do anything, thousands of bees literally descended upon her, swarming around her, buzzing and flying in circles, forming intricate and beautiful swirling patterns in the air. Some of the bees landed on the perplexed child, one of them was on her nose, another on an outstretched finger. However, the bees did not sting her, and the bizarre incident left her unharmed but greatly amazed.

The bees eventually dispersed, and Alexandra left to tell her mother what had happened. Her mother accompanied her back into the forest, but they found only empty and abandoned hives – no sign of the countless bees Alexandra had encountered.

As Alexandra grew, she would never forget the strange event, as it had a profound effect on her – psychologically and physically. She became obsessed with the pollinating insects, and ever since her encounter, a bee has never stung her.

One day, she finally decided to test her suspicions. Without any of protective equipment whatsoever, she approached the colony of Africanized bees (better known as killer bees) that she was cultivating. Her suspicions were confirmed when the bees did nothing to defend their colony, they did not attack her nor did they exhibit any aggressive behaviors when she harvested their honey, she didn’t even need a bee smoker as the insects gave way in her presence.

With this inexplicable gift, Alexandra decided to pursue more scientific studies on beehives and bee species. She received a little government funding, but most of her money came from her own pockets, after all, her colonies were flourishing, she was producing quality honey and neighboring farmers paid well to buy hives for the purposes of crop pollination. With her funds, she studied the aggressive behaviors of the Africanized bees and looked for ways to possibly control and contain them. She also began crossbreeding her bees, using traditional methods as well as genetic manipulation, in order to produce better pollinators with larger, more efficient hives. The potential benefits of such research would be enormous – with better pollinating bees, agriculture would be immensely benefited, and controlling bee aggression would no doubt help quell the public’s fear of killer bees.

She was, pardon the bad pun, as busy as a bee. Studying pheromone emissions, sonic vibrations, movement patterns, heat and temperature controls, climate conditions, and insect psychology, she eventually schemed a sort of unified theory of beekeeping. Theoretically, with her seemingly supernatural ability to pacify bees, and with the help of some kind of device that could emit sonic pheromones, it would be relatively simple to control an entire hive of bees.

Alexandra Gale quite literally put on her thinking cap – as she was one of the few people alive at that time who had built such a contraption. Then, she had a stroke of utter genius, just like Newton when he invented gravity, or Hawking when he invited Quartermass over to dinner, got up on his exo-frame, and unveiled a micro-singularity on his dinner table. She pulled off her thinking cap and began modifying it extensively, tooling with it, amplifying its skin-contact mental interfacers and adding on it technology unlike anything the world has ever seen before. The result greatly resembled a great pulsating beehive sort of hat, which Alexandra wore over her head. The Hive Hat, as she called it, was so because of certain organic biotechnological components – namely, over a wire frame she placed a cybernetic lump of living tissue based on queen bee DNA. The pulsating Hive Hat oozed powerful queen pheromones, capable of controlling any bees within a large distance, while vibrating and emitting audio-sonic frequencies that further complimented the queen pheromones. And because it had a thinking cap’s skin-contact mental interfacer, whenever Alexandra wore it, she could literally control beehives with her mind.

With the further modifications and enhancements Alexandra had in mind, the queen tissue of the Hive Hat would have reproductive components added to it, enabling it to become a true hive, complete with the ability to spawn eggs and larvae!

However, as things were proceeding smoothly, someone threw a wrench in her plans.

The nearby townspeople, composed of yokels and hillbillies living in trailer park homes, were becoming increasingly uneasy with Alexandra’s colonies of Africanized bees – despite the insects’ unharmful behavior. With so many bees buzzing around, and the killer bee scare gripping all of the southern American states, they were understandably frightened. And then, certain real estate companies fueled their ignorant fears, because they wanted the prime real estate of Alexandra’s research grounds for a strip mall of some sort. When a bunch of children were stung after playing football with a hornet’s test, the slimy snaky but eloquent head of the company gathered the townspeople, who had degenerated into an angry mob, armed them with torches, pitchforks and pesticide, and led the march to Alexandra’s place.

At that time, Alexandra was very much busy at work on her Hive Hat, and when she came out of her shack, she was very much surprised to see the townspeople smashing up her hives and using the torches and pesticide as makeshift flamethrowers, burninating all her lovely bees. In maternal rage, she wore her Hive Hat and commanded the wrath of nature – and her bees followed her like thunder to the storm. Not only the bees in her colonies, but also nearby hives from all over the countryside, for such was Alexandra’s anger. They swarmed the people, stinging them all over, in their orifices, in their mouths, in their eyes – and as the mob swelled up and flailed around blindly, the bees did not relent. The bees, despite losing their stingers and lower abdomens, did not let up, instead, as they died, they blanketed the human attackers and began vibrating – causing a massive buildup of heat – giving the torch-bearing geriatrics from the old-folks home heat strokes and other attacks.

Current Status: In the aftermath, Alexandra packed up her stuff and ran away. Those who would investigate the ordeal would later conclude that the bees attacked to defend their hives, and that Alexandra had nothing to do with it – not knowing that she had control over them. But Alexandra didn’t know that, and thought of herself as a fugitive. In the end, she would come to terms with that and embraced a new lifestyle as a criminal – becoming one of the most prominent eco-terrorists in the world and donning the supervillainess alias, Queen Bee. She would become the despoiler of all those who would hurt her insects, from urban expansionists to cellular companies whose radiation kills beehives everywhere.

Nevertheless, in her heart she is still a beekeeper. Through a series of aliases and pseudonyms, she has certain agricultural patents and through that, earns a fairly sizeable amount of money legitimately (many nations and company have gladly purchased her super-bees).

Base of Operations: Queen Bee has several low-profile biodomes in the outskirts of Skyhaven territory and also has several low-budget lairs from EVIL Corporation, with low-budget incompetent henchmen maintaining them. Typically, her hideouts are in forested places with a lot of flowers.

Powers and Abilities:
As Queen Bee, her Hive Hat can exert control over all natural and artificial species of bees, telling them to defend, attack, fly in formation, and whatnot. Even without her hat, bees will instinctively defend their new queen from any perceived threats.

As a master geneticist, she has engineered many dozens of bee subspecies. Most notably, she has bees with barbless stingers, allowing them to sting people repeatedly. She has bees that can bite and feed on flesh, bees that are as small as dots, bees that can swim, bees that can live underground, bees that can fly in the dark, bees with superpoison, bioluminescent bees, bullet bees, bees as big as cats, bees that can subsist on sunlight, omnivore bees, everything. She can control all of them and her Hive Hat has all of their DNA, so within minutes it can metamorph its cocooned larvae into any of the subspecies. She lovingly calls them superbees.

Even without her hat, Bee is an incredibly healthy woman – as she has refined many forms of honey and Royal Jelly, some for dietary purposes, others for medicinal and therapeutic uses. She also has honey aphrodisiac.

Aside from her Hive Hat, she also has a flying machine – a hover platform that she can wear, like a combination of a jetpack and a skirt, as she places both of her legs inside it (as the machine reaches up to her waist). The hover platform looks like a bee’s abdomen, complete with the black-yellow stripe coloration, has an anti-gravity module and a stinger that can shoot a variety of weapons.

Weaknesses:
She is a relatively normal human, and while her bees have been modified to be resistant to pesticide, chemical weaponry, as well as flamethrowers, explosions and other forms of conventional and unconventional warfare, can still kill them. She is also very protective of her insects.

Oh, and she has a tacky sense of fashion.

As a supervillainess, while she tries hard to be the raving crazed eco-terrorist, she’s not really as enthusiastic as most people, and in fact at times she can be downright reluctant at the whole supercrime stuff if she’s not sufficiently enraged.

Relations:
She is the bane of most of the ruthless, greedy, emotionless and faceless companies of corporate America, urban expansionists, cellular companies, and other polluters with disregard for the natural order of the environment and sacred things like that.

Aside from corporations, she also loathes people who destroy and harm forests wantonly. Metahumans like Firestorm have earned her ire for their pyromaniac ways.

Because of her views, she has aligned herself with extremists of the political left, along with other eco-terroristic groups like Greenpeace.

Her biodomes in Skyhaven are also the result of her dealings with the nation’s agricultural and science departments. She sells them her techniques and beehives, and they distribute it in a mutually beneficial fashion.

Queen Bee also favors the environmentally friendly green policies of the EVIL Corporation, and has purchased their low-budget EVIL Overlord pack, with low-budget EVIL lairs and a complete set of low-budget incompetent henchmen. She also has a zeppelin, painted yellow and black.

In return, she has provided the EVIL Corporation with agricultural techniques, killer bee sentries, sweet Hunney Crunchiez bars, and mutated bee soldiers.

She is also occasional allies and acquaintances with Hivemaster and Wasp.

Appearances:
She is a woman in her late twenties, has brunette hair with strategically located blonde highlights. She wears her hair in buns that allows it to fit with her Hive Hat, and she also wears a dress with yellow and black stripes, making her look like a real queen bee.

Her Hive Hat looks like a pulsating beehive on her head, and recently it has flip-on goggles (that look like compound bee eyes) for a more ergonomic interface.
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Re: Repost Request Thread

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El Gladiatores Violencia! wrote:Gladiators. Descendants of Hercules. Gods amongst mere mortals. Whose mighty visages are incomprehensible to the emasculated beings that dwell this material Earth. Beyond good and above evil, they seek not victory, nor do they seek knowledge or understanding, love or fulfillment. They seek not the pleasures of this world, nor the enlightenment beyond.

They seek Glory.

They seek Immortality.

Gladiators. Descendants of Hercules.




When the days of great Greece and mighty Rome came to an end, it was not only the end of civilization, but the end of a great and glorious era. The days where the visages of Zeus, Hercules, Achilles, and other such heroes, in their beautiful manhood, became long forgotten – for men no longer idolized and dedicated their flesh to such great personifications of manliness, but sought to ritually emasculate themselves, for nubile women chastised themselves and sought to become blanketed wenches.

It was a millennium of great despair and woe. The great emasculators defiled the holy shrines of great Hercules and Zeus, chiseling away their endowed manhoods and hiding said glorious sculptures inside boxes in their church palaces.

For a thousand years, the great Colosseum was desolate and empty, deprived of the bloodied bare-chested warriors basking in the glory of shrieking blood-thirsty crowds while displaying their victorious bodies for all to see. For a thousand years, the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens was without its processions of nubile women and naked lads, nor did it see the hundreds of oiled men performing feats of calisthenics. For a thousand years, the Olympics were unheard of, and men could not prove their manhood in feats of skill, monster slaying, contests, and games.

It was a Dark Age. But twenty centuries later, the madness would soon come to a halt. Or, rather, begin.

Some say that the sheer violence of the great wars awoke in some perverse god of war a lust for blood that needed to be slaked, or maybe not bloodlust, but just pure lust for the sight of unclothed men performing feats. And so it was, that at the end of the Age of Obscurity, was there a resurgence, a return, a resurrection of the golden age of old heroes straight out of the great mythologies and epics of Homer.

Once more would the world come to fear and love the image of battling men, naked and slavered in oil and man-sweat. There would be tales, songs, poems and epics of their great feats – of how they challenged champions and heroes, gods and monsters alike to contests of strength and skill, and…games. Spectacles.

The Gladiators came. And they were disgusted at the pussification they saw before them.

Their first feat was fighting with their brethren, descendents of Rome, the Italians, in perhaps the greatest battle since the Frost Titans stormed the Ice Gates of Hyperboria, or when the Atlanteans waged war against the Thespians of Thule.

And so it was, that they initiated the youngest and most nubile of their ranks, young and beautiful Patrohylas. To prove his worth, they had him challenge the champion of Albion, Hibernia and the Britannias. The one who was like none other than Achilles, but without the weakness of the foot.

Patrohylas confronted Britannias’ champion, as well as the hoplites of Albion and their steeds of iron and fire. And as the Romans and Hibernians watched in awe, Patrohylas and the Britannian Achilles did glorious battle – the most basic yet glorious form of warfare, hand to hand combat. Wrestling.

They would fight, hand to hand, tooth and nail, gloriously and without relent. Vigorously, Patrohylas would try to straddle the Britannian Achilles and subdue him, but the invincible Hiberian Major would not be denied, for his strength was like that of Ajax. And against such raw, manly power, Patrohylas could scarcely compete. Until…

Major Britannic was pissed. Very pissed. He clenched his fist and charged at the boy, hoping to end this once and for all. He bit his cigar and bellowed: “Go roger yourself, git!”

With a clenched fist, he struck the boy in his shapely jaw, and young Patrohylas was thrown through the air like a rag doll. He slammed against something hard and slumped. Defeated.

Patrohylas felt saddened. He would not know victory, and he would not know the glory of Gladiating. He looked up to ask the gods for forgiveness, but saw that the thing he had slammed against was a statue of mighty Hercules. Invigorated, he stood up and stared at Major Britannic. He flexed his muscles, gave out a mighty cry, and with newfound energy, he tore off his armor and vestments.

Major Britannic gasped. “By Jove! Why…you…filthy…degenerate!”


In resplendent naked nudery, Patrohylas attacked the Britannian Achilles and wrestled with him for days. His oily, naked, masculated form writhed and struggled and slithered quickly, for it was impossible to wrestle the immensely powerful Britannian on equal footing, Patrohylas had to grapple his adversary while keeping his own feet in the air. For a day they would struggle, jostle for position, assume various locks and holds and attempt to pin the other to the ground. They would be equally matched in this, for nothing Patrohylas could do harmed the Britannian, but Patrohylas was too quick and hardy to be stopped by the Britannian’s mighty blows. Until in a feat of great dishonor…

Major Britannic had enough.

“Get…your…filthy…smelly…oily…naked paws off me!


The Britannian struck Patrohylas in the groin. That one single blow utterly defeated Patrohylas, causing him immense and unknowable pain. As the Britannians routed the Roman forces, Patrohylas curled up and laid still for hours on end. Until Proximo, their senior, approached him.

“You did well, young Patrohylas. You fought with honor and proved yourself worthy.”

Patrohylas looked up feebly, barely seeing the wizened Gladiator. “You mean…you’d accept a eunuch…like me?”


It would be like this for the rest of the century. The Gladiators would don enchanted armor, blades, shields and spear. They would saddle their skychariots and take to the sky. When they found a being worthy of competition, of strong constitution and mighty musculature, they would challenge it – be it hero or villain, god or demon. They would go about slaying monsters, performing great feats and challenging anyone to games. Be the end victory or defeat, it mattered not, for all they sought was honor and glory, and after victory or defeat, they would emerge victorious nonetheless and shed their vestments, to perform further feats of manhood and beautiful masculinity.

They would make pilgrimages to holy shrines. They refurbished the great Colosseum, where they are often seen slaying monsters, feasting, bedding wenches, and being naked by tourists. Yearly, they perform naked calisthenics at the Temple of Olympian Zeus in Athens, to the dismay of the Orthodox Church. And ever so often, they go visit other important shrines (that have, more often than not, been converted to use by Christians, or put in museums) and perform even more feats of unclothed naked nudery.


Powers, Abilities and Weaknesses

The Gladiators don enchanted armor, bronzium shields, and wield gladius blades, spears, and other weapons from that bygone era. They ride skychariots, open-topped vehicles that let them take to the skies.

As for their individual prowess, each Gladiator is a descendant of Hercules and thus has incredible strength, speed, agility and physical stamina. They tap their strength from the Power of Masculinity – a force that grants them the ability to perform incomprehensible feats, but the Power of Masculinity is not a constant one, and thus the Gladiator is unquantifiable. But whenever a Gladiator tears off his armor and vestments and shrieks a mightful cry, he is imbued fully by the Power of Masculinity and becomes a force to be reckoned with.

Relations

The Gladiators are seen by many with a mixed sense of humor, admiration, annoyance and downright hostility. Heroes, villains, monsters, anyone sufficiently endowed can and will be challenged by the Gladiators to games and spectacles.

Once, the strongest of the Gladiators, Herachilles, in a feat of bravery, punched the superhero Archwind in the face. Archwind just smiled and nodded, allowing the Gladiators to take turns punching him in the face. After they were through, the Gladiators then shed their clothes and went searching for wenches to bed.

When the kaiju Gothra was making its way to Tokyo, the Gladiators leapt off their skychariots and dogpiled the giant monster – successfully stopping it in its tracks.

In Scotland, when the Loch Ness Monster finally made its emergence, the Gladiators were the first on the scene. In a feat of teamwork, they attacked the fish-eating plesiosaur and were severely disappointed when two heads did not replace the monster’s decapitated head.

At another occasion, Hectorysses donned enchanted armor and wielded the Spear of Zeus and challenged the Living Storm, Malcom Hartman, to a duel – and for hours, Hectorysses jousted living lightning before being vanquished. After his defeat, he removed his armor and performed calisthenics in front of a group of women.

Similarly, the Gladiators also raided the Vatican City in search for confiscated Roman relics. After recovering them, they then assumed position atop the Apostolic Palace and shed their clothes amidst the frocking mobs of tourists, pilgrims, nuns and bishops.

Aside from that, they can also be contacted and, with sufficient convincing, they can be asked to embark on great quests – from monster slaying to adventures to recover some such sacred ruins and secrets.

The Gladiators are beyond good and evil. They are not villains, in that they do not devastate cities or cause wanton destruction. They are not heroes, because they do not actively save people. Most think they’re just out to have fun.
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Vagrant Orpheus »

Siege dug this up for me, I have plans to rework it, but here's the original, for anyone who wishes to reminisce.
In the bleak white light of a Tibetan day, two men stood, facing one another. The tempestuous gusts of wind stirred up constant eddies of snow and ice, dancing around their ankles. Neither man noticed, for after some sixty years of life in the monastery, both were well acclimatized to the weather. The air was thin and cruel, yet the men breathed slowly and easily, having long adapted. Or perhaps it was their indelible connection to Nimaru that sustained them in such an inhospitable place. One of the men shifted slightly, tightening his grip on his blade. He radiated calm from his deeply-lined, weathered face, which had become brown from the amount of time spent outside the monastery’s walls, training with nature as his accomplice. His tightly braided hair was bound back behind him, and his beard was wrapped around his neck, shielding it from the bite of Tibet. His right foot slid backwards and turned out slightly as his blade swung cleanly from the belt it was hooked to, to be held loosely at the side, pointed down in front of him. A traditional defensive opening stance of the Sky Hawk discipline.

The other man pursed his lips, his cleanly shaven face twitching silently. From beneath great bushy gray eyebrows, his tired, pale blue eyes scanned his opponent. He withdrew his hands from the warm folds of his alpaca-wool tunic and settled them on his sword, drawing it out and holding it tightly in both hands. His ancient hands trembled slightly in the cold, but within moments he felt the warmth and surety of Nimaru caressing him softly and the shaking ceased. Without a word, he lifted his arms to the side of his head, holding the blade so that it crossed in front of his head and angled down across his chest. Already he was beginning his combat meditation, letting the world join with him. Such preparation was essential for true mastery of the Desert Fox discipline.

The two combatants sized each other up once more, as both of them began to feel Nimaru act within them, sharpening their reflexes, relieving the infirmities of age and readying them for the Grand Challenge. The rules were simple. The first to draw blood would become the Grand Master of the Warrior Monks of Nimaru. A shrieking gust of wind kicked up a momentary blizzard, and in that hazy moment, the sun was blocked out and the warriors began.


The Warrior Monks of Nimaru

The warrior monks of Nimaru are an ancient culture, dating back to times ancient. Possible references to them have been found in records of ancient Greek and even ancient Egyptian origin, so it is unknown exactly how long this cult has lasted, but one thing is sure, it has endured. The cult was founded by a band of spiritual men who had discovered the secrets of Nimaru, the life energy that existed in every living creature on earth. Nimaru circulated through the beings, into the planet itself, and from there flowed out into the great cosmos, to be absorbed by the universe. In return, the cosmos showered the purified and radiant energy back to Earth and all other planets, in an ever continuing cycle. To be touched by Nimaru was to be part of the universe itself.

These spiritual scholars devoted their lives to the study and understanding of Nimaru, and with understanding came knowledge. Knowledge of Nimaru and how to utilize it for one’s own means, to will the universe unto yourself. With such a gift, the monks found that they were able to sense the universe to a degree, to understand the past and the future, to enhance their own physical abilities as Nimaru itself reinforced them. Practitioners of Nimaru found they were able to sense what they should not be able to, to subtly manipulate the universe in ways impossible. Such things were not unusual of course, ancient priests and priestesses and later martial art disciplines also learned to tap into Nimaru as well, in various ways, but it has always been the warrior monks of Nimaru who have strived for learning, understanding and unity with the universe.

Having stumbled onto such a secret of the universe, the scholars traveled to Tibet to study in isolation. In addition, being pretty well the highest-altitude permanent colony on Earth, Tibet receives the most pure and energetic currents of Nimaru of anywhere on Earth, from where it filters down to the rest of the world. For this reason, a monastery was constructed in Tibet and this is where the monks went to learn the mysteries of Nimaru. The path of enlightenment via Nimaru was one of purification of the body and mind, purging oneself of needlessly complex emotions and thoughts, and by strengthening the body to its peak perfection by rigorous training. For this reason, the monks began to select their novices carefully and deliberately, using the advice of Nimaru to guide them. Selected at the young age of seven, the novices were returned to Tibet and began their training. The process was long and hard, with great focus being placed on the minds of the young, and learning to exercise their will over the universe.

After a celestial era, generally expressed as around eight years, the novices were taken in for further training as apprentices of a Crafter. Crafters are the current masters of a particular subset of Nimaru understanding, and often included such areas as artesian, diplomat, scholar and the like. After a further decade of study in their chosen subset, the apprentices became acolytes, who then devoted a further five years of their life to the express practice of a chosen sword discipline, selected to match their own personality and resonance with Nimaru. Finally, after completion of the discipline training, the men and women would become fully-fledged Warrior Monks of Nimaru. Though a long and grueling path, once completed it bestowed great talents upon the disciples, such as telekinesis, precognition, enhanced reflexes, resistance to poison, enhanced stamina and resilience to physical damage and incredibly strong mind conditioning. It is worth noting that no man is equal, and so these qualities varied in strength and expression amongst the monks, but tended to be universally present. Other talents were accessible to the students of the various subsets and disciplines of the order.

The Warrior Monks of Nimaru have few customs, but of the ones they do have, the Forging is the most important. The Forging must be performed by each apprentice as he or she selects a sword discipline and becomes an acolyte. This ritual involves communing with the universe and forging a solid metallic blade from the energies drawn from the universe around the apprentice, and can take days of constant focused meditation to complete. Because these blades are woven from universal energies by the thoughts of the creator, each weapon bears a personality that resonates intimately with its creator, and restricts others from proficiently wielding them as weapons. A true molding of body and mind, the Nimaru-Kun, the blades of the living universe, are the most precious artifacts of the warrior monks, and are kept at their side for the rest of their lives, aiding in the focus of energy, acting as a nexus for willpower and spirit-binding, and holding a fraction of the soul of the creator within, making them truly sacred objects.

As cores of universal energy, when utilized by a monk and willed well enough, the Nimaru-Kun can cut through any matter in the universe, as all energy of the universe is one. Over the millennia of existance, it has been discovered that Forging with ill intentions or drawing on the Shrykar energy to Forge removes a segment of the Gate within the soul, to place in the item. While this enhances the item's power, it reduces the size of the Gate, which is the vital point where cosmic energy flows throughthe individual, in both directions. With the Gate reduced in size, the user cannot manage as large a flow of energy as previously, and becomes weakened in manipulation of cosmic energy. A small number of Forgings won't cause too great an adverse effect, but there have been rare cases of Shrykar becoming entirely cut off from the Nimaru by excessive Forging, at which point they rot and die a horrible death, seperate from the universe and whatever may lie beyond.

Because each monk has been training with swords of various forms since the age of seven, the Nimaru monks are recognized by those who know them as the most proficient wielders of swords in combat throughout the entire world, in general. The forces of Nimaru empower the monks in combat, enhancing speed, strength, reaction time, endurance and the like, and granting the warrior monks a sort of battle precognition, allowing them to deflect bullets and battle hordes of enemies at any one time. However, given that the majority of the warrior monks choose reclusive lifestyles, such combat is not often experienced. There are guardians, sentinels, watchmen and the like however, who travel the world and seek to rid the world of dark and corrupted Nimaru energy, which can clog the cosmic streams of power and cause dis-ease, darkness and hate if left to fester. Such monks often serve as meters of justice, facing off against corrupt agencies, slavers, pirates, criminals and the like. Despite this, the monks tend to adhere to a code of non-intervention, and since there are so few of them, no more than a hundred at any one time, they are a rather unknown group.

The warrior monks of Nimaru embrace the celestial energies, sometimes referred to as the Star, but there is another sect that has branched off from this culture, who embrace the Fire, the earthly energies, the passions and emotions that the warrior monks strive to abstain from. Seen as dark, violent and unsettling to the balance and flow of celestial energies, these Scholars of the Fire, these Shrykars, are the yin to the Yang of the Warrior Monks of Nimaru, and are in a constant subversive conflict with them. It is all too often a sad occasion when a warrior monk draws upon Nimaru too vastly, or inadvertently corrupts Nimaru energy with his emotions and falls to the Fire. Such Fallen Monks are looked upon with grave knowledge by the Crafters of Nimaru, and become examples to the rest of the monks of the dangers of Fire and the Shryke.

The Combat Disciplines of Nimaru

The life preparation of a Nimaru monk requires that they become proficient with a sword early, training for a period of time each day from the age of seven. For this reason, all monks are adept at utilizing swords of many types, as they do not Forge their own Nimaru-Kun until they are twenty five, or thereabouts. However, at the age of twenty-five, the Forging is performed once the monk has selected which discipline he or she will focus on for the next five years. Each monk generally selects a discipline that either resonates with their particular personality, or compensates for a flaw the monk may possess. There are ten recognized disciplines within the canon archives of the Nimaru monks, each catering to a differing style of combat. It should be noted that while acolytes, apprentices and a reasonable number of monks stick to the textbook styles, you\'ll never see a master of a combat discipline utilizing that form in an absolutely pure manner. Each of these disciplines, when tailored creatively to a particular personality, resonate with that personality, and the triad of connected fighter, weapon and discipline create a force to be reckoned with. Because of this, there are many minor variations on each discipline, though few differ significantly enough to become an Apocryphal Form.

Discipline I: River Fish - The Flowing Discipline

This is the first form of the Nimaru monks, and has been honed for thousands of years. It is an ancient tradition, and houses the greatest number of rituals, idiosyncrasies and the like of any of the disciplines. Despite this, this discipline is often recognized as the most simple and reliable form of swordplay taught by the monks, as it is the form that is used to ground the novices and apprentices in the basic techniques, strategies and tactics of swordplay. For this reason, every monk is at least proficient in River Fish.

This discipline utilizes simple, basic techniques that link together in a fluid manner, allowing the user to flow, and when the user is fully immersed in Nimaru, he can twist and contort his body and react with incredible speed whilst remaining stable, simple and reliable in combat. Because of its simplicity and its fluid nature that utilizes enemy momentum against them, this technique is best utilized against a larger number of less capable sword wielders, as a single masterful user of a blade can read the simple, connected movements of a River Fish combatant and capitalize on this.

However, as there is an additional eighteen years of training that every monk receives in River Fish, those that choose to follow this discipline often find that after the five years dedicated training, they are far more adept at their chosen discipline than other monks may be. As such, monks who may have a desire to serve as a diplomat or scholar may select this form as a discipline, as after the compulsory training, it is unlikely that they will see much action, nor devote as much time to continued practice.

Discipline II: Sea Turtle - The Endurance Discipline

Sea Turtle came soon after River Fish, when practitioners of Nimaru began to fall to the Fire, and when other practitioners began to encounter warriors utilizing bows and arrows. This form was developed to counter the fast, flowing, connected nature of the River Fish form whilst also serving as a masterful defense against arrows. This discipline encourages survival over all else in combat, and is almost purely defensive in nature. The motions of a trained Turtle practitioner occur as close to the body as possible, as this provides the fastest movement for total coverage of the body and expends the absolute minimum of energy. The fact that this discipline provides such little exposure and expenditure means that a well-trained practitioner of this style can maintain combat for hours or even days with the blessings of Nimaru.

The defensive nature of Sea Turtle means that practitioners could stay on the defensive for far longer than the opponent could maintain an effective offensive, and would allow the user to survive until the enemy slipped up and left an exploitable opening in their attack, which could be utilized in any number of ways. Because of this drawn-out nature, Sea Turtle practitioners are trained extensively in endurance, with much physical preparation being done, such as carrying sacks of stones and long-distance running and the like. It also involves concentration training, as successful use of Sea Turtle in combat requires utmost focus and allows the user to watch the opponent and learn about him, this knowledge able to be applied later.

Seen as incredibly passive, Sea Turtle generally requires that the practitioner be incredibly patient and able to maintain prolonged periods of concentration, but provides opportunities against less patient opponents for counterattacks of varying damage, for negotiation or simply to buy time for other events. However, the greatest value of the Sea Turtle technique in the modern world has evolved to be the capacity for reliable, nigh-guaranteed bullet deflection. Bullets have become a bane to many of the Nimaru monks, and while all have some capacity for bullet deflecting, none perform so well at the task as a Sea Turtle student. Such a student can draw insight from Nimaru and effortlessly deflect bullets from multiple angles in a small amount of time.

Though a true master of the Sea Turtle became effectively untouchable in combat, there are disadvantages to it. For one, it doesn’t so much ensure victory as it does minimization of damage and maximization of survival. While defensively such a discipline is almost perfect, without considerable training and practice it can be hard for a student to learn to see the opportunities and strike out offensively, or to engineer such situations if need be. Constant vigilance is a necessity, as the proximity of the blade to the body means that when attacks are stopped, it is at the last moment and so leaves little room for mistakes. Sea Turtle is also not designed to press the offensive, simply capitalizing on openings with a quick strike before returning to the defensive state.

Discipline III: Sky Hawk -The Duelling Discipline

Sky Hawk evolved as combat between Star and Fire became more common, especially during the dark eras. This discipline is engineered specifically for combat between monks, and as such, the blades of practitioners tend to take forms similar to dueling sabres or foils. This discipline is described as being elegant, graceful and precise and it allows a student of the art to expend a minimum of energy while attacking, seemingly taking a page out of the book of Sea Turtle. Similar in many ways to traditional dueling styles, Sky Hawk relies on quick, one-handed movements, parries and thrusts and footwork, footwork, footwork. Sky Hawk requires a reasonable capacity for concentration, as a good Sky Hawk user must always know where every part of his body is in relation to his opponent.

Drawing somewhat from both River Fish and Sea Turtle, Sky Hawk relies on small, precise movements and intentions and fluid movements, as opposed to the wide strikes, powerful blows and surprise stabs seen across other forms. A user of Sky Hawk also requires a degree of combat intelligence, as it was common for Sky Hawk users to dissuade combatants with taunts and queries, often serving as a mere distraction for the better performance of feints, which also play an important role in Sky Hawk. These feints are vital for moving in for attacks, or utilizing such an opportunity to move backwards, as the defence of a Sky Hawk practitioner involves having space from the other combatant.

Being a dueling style, manipulation of the blade is vital, and the blade must act as an extension of your own arm, as timing and accuracy of strikes are everything in this style, given that there is little opportunity to generate power in the attacks. Because of this, the focus required for this discipline is rather high, only behind that of Sea Turtle and Raging Tiger. Another weakness of this style is the inability to generate strength or power in the strikes. As combat is almost entirely one-handed and focused on small, precise movements, a Sky Hawk student is not able to generate kinetic energy, inertia or momentum with wide swings and the like, and is also ill-equipped to defend against such strikes directly, relying on footwork to avoid such attacks. Often, the stronger disciplines can simply force the blade of a Sky Hawk user into a position that is very much a hindrance for the Hawk, by the mere kinetic force of a strong, large body behind a blade.

Another weakness is that this discipline is solely designed for combating a single sword-wielder, and so with two or more opponents, or opponents with ranged weapons, a Sky Hawk user can find his discipline being somewhat less than useful. However, given the fact that there are few practitioners of this style any longer, those who utilize it can often overwhelm an underprepared opponent who is not able to comprehend the precision of the form.

Discipline IV: Desert Fox - The Environment Discipline

The Desert Fox discipline utilizes a factor in combat that none of the other disciplines to at any comparable level, the battleground itself. Utilizing Nimaru, the practitioner is able to sense the strong and weak points of the landscape, and can utilize it in various ways during combat. This discipline relies on movement greatly, and is highly evasive, utilizing rolls, cartwheels and jumps to avoid the opponent’s attacks and cover more ground. These quick, distance-travelling movements are utilized in order to position the user in the advantageous landscape, or the opponent into an inferior position with regards to the environment.

The user of Desert Fox often utilizes Nimaru during combat to trigger environmental changes, such as shifting sands, collapsing walls, mudslides and the like, and is trained to be able to divide concentration between physical combat and stirring up such events mentally. This means that such a user has an obvious advantage when the environment is less than desirable for combat, such as a storm, where visibility may be obscured or any number of other distractions may exist. Desert Fox users also have an implicit understanding of the tactical advantages of the environment, and will often subconsciously lead themselves to the best positions, the high ground or some such, even when entirely focused on the combat.

The swordplay elements of a Desert Fox’s combat style involve fast attacks at opportune moments, often striking out of the beginning of a distance movement, such as turning a lunging strike into a defensive tumble, or converting an upper parry into a cartwheel. The attacks tend to be unconnected and capitalize on access to vital areas on the body of the enemy, often utilizing stabs and slashes for fast incapacitation.

The disadvantages of such a form are obvious, in that this type of combat is restricted in narrow, confined areas such as hallways or small rooms, and in overly uniform or stable areas, such as an area of solid rock, an open plain or a steel room, it requires too much concentration and energy to be able to alter the environment enough to seize an advantage.

Discipline V: Steppe Viper - The Grappling Discipline

Steppe Viper is a discipline that has existed in various forms for thousands of years, but has come back into vogue recently with Trackers, Explorers and Watchmen in particular, as these are the monks who must travel and interact with the world at large, where quite often there's a tendency to frown upon possession of a sword. Steppe Viper proves to be a valued discipline for such people, as it combines the use of smaller blades with aspects of unarmed combat, making full use of hand and foot strikes, as well as grapples, throws and the like, allowing the monk to capitalize on all his advantages.

There are two standard grips for this discipline, depending on how a monk’s Nimaru-Kun was Forged. If the hilt of the Nimaru-Kun is a standard style, like a sword or standard knife might have, the weapon is held in a reverse grip, backhand style. In this manner, when the fist is held out in front of the user the blade points towards the ground. This is known as the Backgrip. The second grip is for monks who have Forged weapons that have a hilt perpendicular to the blade, such as a katar or a push-dagger. These are held in their standard manner and are known as Thrustgrip weapons. Both grips utilize very similar types of attacking, with the combatant throwing forceful punches as they might when unarmed, and making arcing hooks with the fist, creating sweeping slashes, especially when used with Backgrip weapons.

This punching discipline is developed to feel more natural and deliver more force behind stabs than regular grips and sword styles might be able to generate, and given the generally smaller nature of the weapons allows for greater movement and endurance, as well as a distinct advantage in tight spaces. The powerful stabbing motions allowed, especially by Thrustgrip weapons, can puncture armour far better than slashing motions would allow, and impart far more of the kinetic energy at impact, and the fact that the training involves utilizing the whole body as a weapon means that a Steppe Viper disciple is never without some means of physical defence.

However, as with all the other disciplines, there are clear weaknesses to Steppe Viper alongside the advantages. Firstly, the biggest issue with most Steppe Viper weapons is range. The weapons are generally much shorter than regular Nimaru-Kun, the blades generally not exceeding a foot in length, which means that in more open areas where a larger blade can be skilfully applied, a Viper student must be wary. In addition, the use of unarmed aspects of combat must be carefully planned, as an extended leg or arm, an unbalanced grapple or an open bodycheck can be turned against the user with a simple flick of a blade, and the smaller size and altered grips of the Steppe Viper discipline means that generally it is rather difficult to parry blade slashes, especially when they have plenty of momentum behind them.

Discipline VI: Jungle Lemur - The Spatial Discipline

The sixth style of combat, Jungle Lemur, is designed for those who want to combine speed, power, evasiveness and aggression into a powerful combat style. This discipline utilizes all three dimensions of space and a constant siphon of Nimaru to create a whirling dervish of bladed justice. This highly offensive style requires that the disciple be constantly on the offensive, utilizing fast, powerful, kinetic sweeps and agile movement like universe-empowered flips and leaps. By drawing actively upon Nimaru in a physical strength, the Lemur can become capable of feats no regular human is able to perform, moving at blinding speeds, leaping tens of meters and overcome any physical limitation, like age, frailty and injury.

This channelling of Nimaru allows the user to become like a blur, raining down lightning fast power strikes from all angles, through the use of backflips, somersaults and other fantastic acrobatic feats. Watching a Lemur Master in action is similar to watching a ridiculous kung fu sword film in extreme fast forward, with the human eye pretty well unable to track such movements. The greatest masters of Lemur have been known to be able to rain down over thirty strikes per second, in a full 360-degree coverage around a target, creating an offensive that is nigh on impossible to defend against. The continuous movement of a Lemur combatant also means that even if you defend against the flurry of strikes, it is almost impossible for a counter-attack to be planned or even performed effectively.

However, the offensiveness of this discipline is where its weaknesses lie. The constant assaults of this style can lead to reckless and aggressive behaviour, leaving openings for counterattacks. Also, this style is founded on movement, and requires that the blade be in constant motion, meaning that the users tend to spin and twirl to land strikes, and so a skilled enough combatant can identify the openings where a Lemur would have his back to them and strike then. Interrupting the flow of a Lemur’s combat proves to be a great impediment to their concentration, and in tighter areas the advantages of this form become almost obsolete. It is also worth noting that this form is highly energetic and probably the single most energy intensive discipline utilized by Nimaru monks, and drains stamina and endurance far faster than the more moderate sword styles.

Discipline VII: Bayou Crocodile - The Power Discipline

Bayou Crocodile developed concurrently to Jungle Lemur, and shares many of the same philosophies, though applied in very different ways. This discipline is highly aggressive and very attack-oriented, utilizing the physical strength of the user to overwhelm the opponent. Bayou Crocodile aims to be the first to land a hit, and for that hit to be enough to seal the match. To this end, the practitioners of Bayou Crocodile use their entire body, including forward momentum, the arms, shoulders, waist and knees to impart the maximum amount of force to a strike that they can possibly gather, oftentimes smashing straight through a parry or guard and either breaking the other blade or forcing it back onto its owner, with Bayou users commonly locking their swords against those of their enemies and forcing them back into more exploitable positions.

Crocodile draws on the energy of emotions for strength, and requires that the user enjoy the thrill of the fight, the fury of the battle. This requirement means that once steeped in emotion, the user can become a truly deadly force, but treads the borders of the Fire, and even when avoiding such darkness, the user can become very reckless and transparent. In addition, the standard practice for a Crocodile is to continuously be approaching the enemy, swinging and striking with each forward pace. This is a technique used to build up the forward momentum of the user, as it is the user and not Nimaru who must provide the majority of the crushing strength of this style. Because of this static strategy, Crocodile fighters can become predictable without some ingenuity, but it is important to remember that the raw passion that this style evokes can easily overwhelm even the most prepared opponent.
Students of the Crocodile are known to be some of the most vulnerable to the influences of the Fire, and as such tend to fall under great observation and scrutiny by other monks while in training. However, as emotional control is essential for a Nimaru monk, a Crocodile disciple who successfully manages to shear away from the lures of the Fire tend to emerge, Forged anew, as some of the most powerful and adept Nimaru monks around. The Crocodile is often embodied in the larger swords, great swords, claymores, bastard swords, and most conclusively in the huge zweihanders of the Crocodile masters.

Discipline VIII: Mountain Goat - The Balanced Discipline

Over the past thousand years, the first seven styles of combat have become studied less comprehensively, with many Nimaru monks instead dabbling in multiple disciplines, looking for versatility and adaptability in combat. For that reason, Mountain Goat has become one of the more common disciplines in modern times, what with the more varied scenarios one might find oneself in. The Mountain Goat simply attempts to balance out speed, power, defence, offence, agility and the like from the previous seven disciplines to create a well-rounded, adaptable style of combat.

This ideal of a balanced nature in combat makes allowances for any number of scenarios, and allows a Mountain Goat to handle any situation with a modicum of proficiency, but as a jack of all trades, the Mountain Goat is a master of none. This means that although this is well suited to dealing with multiple lower-tier swordsmen, or a couple of gunmen, or even a single swordsman of roughly equal skills, this discipline often falls prey to any combatant who has taken the time to master his or her preferred fighting style, as any highly-experienced combatant is able to note the overall lack of strength in the Mountain Goat form. On the plus side, the Mountain Goat discipline is one of the best for creative users, as it can be combined and altered at will, and is also useful for surprising opponents, by utilizing one particular tactic, only to change midway through combat.

Discipline IX: Rock Scorpion - The Duality Discipline

This discipline is one of the less common ones to Nimaru monks, purely because of the difficulty faced when having to perform two Forgings back-to-back, as is required of those dedicating themselves to this form. This discipline is designed to cater equally to offence and defence, with the main weapon serving as the offensive weapon, while the off-hand is most commonly used for defensive purposes. This technique, while sounding similar to the ideals of Mountain Goat, is in fact substantially different, as it is highly focused and relies on a great deal of training to be effectively utilized. The weapons used generally differ physically, with the defensive weapon generally being shorter and sturdier, most commonly being only single-bladed and designed for ease of use in the off-hand.

This discipline requires deep meditation and concentration in order to unlock its innermost potential, that of your duality, your Star and your Fire. Once capably unlocked, focusing on Nimaru can allow you to divide yourself in combat, each hand working independently of the other, yet with a cooperative prescience which is unnerving to any beholder. This dual-mindedness channels Star energy, in a manner similar to the Lemur, to enhance movements and coordination, but in a rare display for the warrior monks of Nimaru, also takes back the energy once it has been used and converted to Fire energy, and loops it back into the body. This process of subsuming recently converted energy has a unique effect on any being, totally separate from the normal coaxing dangers of Fire energy. The user becomes a whirlwind, a bastion of conscious calm while the emotional energy of the Fire empowers the blades and the hands, causing the combatant to become eerily supernatural in combat, and allowing access to a greater array of preternatural abilities.

Rock Scorpion is generally combined with another form for combative purposes, and throughout history it has been River Fish that has been the most combined, due to the standing proficiency all monks have at River Fish by the time of learning their new disciplines. However, Rock Scorpion is unique in that it blends equally well with almost any style, the only discipline that is generally acknowledged as a weak choice for Scorpion being that of the Sky Hawk. With twin defensive blades, a Scorpion/Turtle master can become almost invulnerable in combat, while a combination with Crocodile or Lemur results in powerful offensive capabilities. Because of the dual nature of this style of combat, it is the only form taught by the rogue Star-Fire sect, which blends it with aspects of Raging Tiger.

Discipline X: Raging Tiger - The Unity Discipline

The final form recognized as canon by the warrior monks of Nimaru, Raging Tiger is the rarest and most frowned-upon combat style in the whole sect. It takes aspects of Lemur, Crocodile and Scorpion and creates a whole new form, focused entirely on treading the line between Star and Fire. This form is incredibly difficult to learn, as it requires a deep understanding of the Nimaru as well as a proficiency in the first seven disciplines of combat. Raging Tiger embraced the philosophy of Bayou Crocodile of ‘Enjoy the battle’ and took it to the next level, requiring the user to actually lust for combat, to derive absolute, pure bliss from the vagaries of combat. Only by offering oneself so freely to the Fire could total mastery of your own physical, emotional, mental and spiritual states be obtained. To do this, the bliss experienced has to be tempered by intense concentration and focus, and an iron will, so great that not only must you be able to will the universe to do your bidding, but you must will yourself to do the bidding of the universe. These conflicting ideas are of course immeasurably difficult to sustain with any great coherency simultaneously, and so most people who attempt Raging Tiger fail and are consumed by bliss, feeding the Fire and becoming Shrykar.

Aside from being a mental battle, Raging Tiger’s physical style is quite unique, drawing from Lemur for inspiration. However, where Lemur merely channels Nimaru, Raging Tiger requires that the user perform a brand new Forging within himself during each battle. This Forging is done on a spiritual level, converting the energy of the universe into an entity known as an Avatar within the Tiger user, who falls into a state known as Connectedness. Existing on an entirely metaphysical level, the Avatar is an embodiment of the universe’s will, operating in perfect unity with your own. Once this is done, the physical aspects take over. Tiger utilizes fearless and direct assaults, and draws on the Avatar within to perform physical feats similar to those of the Lemur. However, while the capacity is there, the style is not, as there is far less acrobatic movement within the Tiger discipline, instead utilizing highly technical free-wheeling movements that appear open and exploitable, whilst in reality being tightly controlled and precise. This style appears to be reckless, as it leaves open areas for the enemy to assault, but it is this recklessness and fearlessness that feeds the Avatar within. This open-ended style and erratic but precise movement results in a style of swordplay that is highly unpredictable, composed of disconnected strikes and a faltering flow of movement.

While these physical facets of Raging Tiger make it difficult to counter, the battle within is the most likely thing to conquer a user of Raging Tiger. The Avatar does try to assert the will of the universe, and this assertion, combined with the emotional lure of the Fire Within, means that the Tiger must concentrate all the time. Even worse is that the Avatar within is most often the result of a hurried Forging, and as such begins to decay rapidly after its creation. Even as it decays it continues to exert its will, but the decaying energy is bound to the spiritual energy of the user until the Avatar is banished and the discipline is halted after combat. While bound to the spiritual energy of the user, this decaying energy serves to corrupt the spirit and soul, making it harder and harder to resist the Fire Within as time goes by. Only those who are ridiculously strong with Nimaru or who have learned strategies for cosmic cleansing can unblock the spiritual channels and act to slow down or reverse this process while the Avatar remains within the body.

While all this is going on, the connection between the Tiger and the Avatar means that the user is essentially one with the universe, and thus occurs in multiple places in the stream of Nimaru at once. The result of this strange event is that anyone focusing cosmic energy against the user will find it dispersing out into the universe, absorbing into the Tiger, or even reflecting back to assault the user of the energy, in a cosmic irony of sorts. It also means that far greater preternatural power is bestowed upon a Tiger disciple while in the state of Connectedness, for better or for worse. Difficult to learn, more difficult to master, nigh impossible to utilize while remaining true to Nimaru, the Raging Tiger is a rare and powerful discipline indeed. In fact, there is currently a single master of this discipline within the ranks of the Nimaru monks, and there have been a total of five other such masters in the past millennium.

The Apocrypha

Cloud Form: The rare and underdeveloped Cloud Form is a style of combat that utilizes telekinetic manipulation of the blade, and is generally focused on manipulating between two and four blades at any one time. This form is actually not much of a physical sword style, and as such is most adequately performed by those who take the time to mediate, concentrate and most of all are willing to sit in the middle of whirling blades, serving as the eye of the storm of flashing blades. Because this form is mentally focused, it doesn’t have particular philosophies or ways of living that accompany it, rather it is just a philosophy of “lift with your mind”. This form is utilized most commonly when an aspect of ranged combat needs to be added to a style, as with the hand gestures and movements to channel focus it is relatively easy for a Nimaru monk to perform a single brief “throw”. However, some of the more spiritual monks relish the challenge this form provides them. The Shrykar Warriors have been known to use such a form for the frightening psychological edge it can provide in combat, as well as allowing multiple simultaneous strikes on a target, or a small group.

Lightning Form: Developed in rather recent ages, this form has evolved from Steppe Viper, and utilizes small blades, primarily as projectiles. Another form of ranged combat that is gradually being developed, this form can be truly deadly and effective without the vast concentration and masterful control of Nimaru, as the Nimaru serves only to enhance strength and accuracy of the throws, and to return the blades after they’ve all been thrown. This form has become popular with the Shrykar Assassins, who blend it with Cloud Form. In fact, the Assassin Lord has been known to use up to thirty four stiletto blades and flechette needles in a single lightning/cloud assault, for truly devastating and nigh-undefendable attacks.
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Invictus »

Oh, nice. This would be useful for my Ominous Rex article, depending on how much of it (along with En Razu's backstory) is still valid.

Orph, do you have the original Communist Manifester article as well?
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
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REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 1 - Rey Quirino Versus the Dark Heart of the Philippines
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REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 2 - Advent Rey Returns: REVERGELTUNG
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Vagrant Orpheus »

The core of the Nimaru will remain the same. Whilst they will become more nomadic and tribal, their best warriors will still gather at a monastery in Tibet to hone their skills, all the Forging is basically identical, and all the styles will likely remain much the same, though Rock Scorpion seems the most likely to alter. But at heart I doubt there's anything that would require revising Ominous Rex if changes. I don't expect En Razu to change much either.

As for the Manifester, it appears his original article is in fact gone, sadly. Siege might be able to dig it up for you from the archives, but I cannot help you, sorry.
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Siege »

Your wish is my command. I only just noticed, but isn't "Zaitseva" the female form of a Russian name? Shouldn't it simply be Zaitsev if the guy's a dude?

The Communist Manifester

Real Name: Dimitri Zaitseva

Origins: Dimitri Zaitseva was born on October 25th, 1967, fifty years after the Russian Provisional Government was thrown out and the Communist Party rose to power in Russia. His mother was a public servant at the Winter Palace and he was born at 9.45pm that night, fifty years to the minute from the time the take-over assault was begun against the Winter Palace. Due to the strange combination of anniversary, time and location, an incredible event took place and Zaitseva was imbued with a strange force, composed from the primordial consciousness of the young Communist nation, empowering him with latent spiritual energy from proponents of the Communist Soviet Party, most significantly Lenin and Stalin. From these strange events, Dimitri became the living avatar of Soviet Communism, and from that day forth was marked with strange and wild talents.

Zaitseva grew up as a young child in the city of Saint Petersburg, and his talents became readily apparent as he grew up. Zaitseva was as strong as ten men by the age of two, and already able to jump fifteen meters from a standing start. As he grew, more talents revealed themselves as he came to better understand the Spirit of Communism. However, the talent Zaitseva became most fond of was his ability to form solid objects from the air, forging them with Communism itself. These objects were durable, long-lasting and useful, and as a child Zaitseva found many childish uses for his skill.

However, as Zaitseva grew older, he turned his talents to the greater good of the Soviet Union, and became an icon for the USSR, in a similar vein to Archwind and the USA and Major Britannic and the United Kingdom, by taking up the mantle of The Communist Manifester. During the Cold War, The Communist Manifester became rivals with both men, along with several other capitalist super heroes. However, calamity came for The Communist Manifester when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, for he had been the posterboy for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the collapsed tore from him quite a large amount of the Spirit of Communism, weakening him somewhat.

Though staunchly Russian, Communist Manifester has since stretched out his Communist acceptance to include other sources of the Spirit of Communism, such as China. In any case, Zaitseva is sustained by the Spirit of Communism and hasn't aged from his prime, and never will as long as there's even one Communist for him to draw power from.

Current Status: Alive and substantially powerful. Though his power waxes and wanes with the ebb and flow of Communism, there are are than enough communist believers in the world for The Communist Manifester to be around the peak of metahuman power at any time. However, he loses strength the further he travels from Communism and thus is substantially weaker in places like America than in his homeland of Russia. Thank God for Cuba.

Power and Abilities: Though his powers are variable, The Communist Manifester is generally at least as powerful as Archwind, and sometimes moreso, especially when at the heart of his homeland. Able to fly at speeds of Mach 2, The Communist Manifester is immensely strong, easily able to lift jumbo-jets and the like, and durable to the brink of physical invulnerability, due to his talents for kinetic absorption, which turns kinetic energy imparted against The Communist Manifester into a more useful form of energy within him to manifest objects. Manifester is also incredibly fast, able to move on the ground and in low altitudes at speeds fast enough to blur his movements to even keen senses. Manifester is also able to generate an aura of Communism within himself, imbuing him with superhuman durability, and usually has his body set to a point where every part of him is tough enough to come through sustained military bombing unscathed, along with heat and cold.

Manifester possesses enhanced senses, primarily vision, which he can focus to hawk-like levels, as well as having an incredibly keen sense of hearing. Manifester has an innate capability to converse with anybody who believes in communism, without any form of language barrier. Most importantly though, The Communist Manifester is able to form objects from Communism itself, forging them into physical objects more durable and useful than even the toughest of special metals, like Adamantium and Promethium. Because he can manipulate the energy, Manifester is able to make his objects fluid or highly malleable for instants to whatever advantage, and commonly tends to draw glowing red swords and the like from the air. He is able to even do things like form giant cages around objects and project a Communist Shield around himself or others, a bubble of nigh-impenetrable energy. The manifesting ability is incredibly versatile, allowing The Communist Manifester great range in his combat styles.

The Communist Manifester is quite an intelligent fellow, and is able to access the knowledge and personalities of pretty much any Communist, alive or dead, providing him with a wealth of information and a rapid processing capacity. It is because of this ability that Manifester is able to so adeptly use pretty much any weapon he decides to manifest in combat.

Weakness: The further Manifester gets from a Communist stronghold, the weaker he tends to get from his prime. Also, if faced with a strong enough Capitalist Greed he can find himself being drained of power like Superman to Kryptonite. Finally, in order to extinguish The Communist Manifester for good, all one needs to do is rid the world of communism completely and utterly.

Relations: Generally on good relations with Russia and China, The Communist Manifester despises the US and UK, and makes no secret of it. He loathes Archwind and Major Britannic, as this tag team dealt Manifster his, and therefore Communism its, only truely recognizable defeat in the late 1980s, though currently his greatest rival is Supersoldier. He is on good terms with most of the Russian heroes, though his best friend is most certainly The Marxman. Because of his issues with foreign heroes, The Communist Manifester seldom strays from his half of the world.

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"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
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Vagrant Orpheus
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Vagrant Orpheus »

Of course, practically that entire article is obsolete, given I'm revising almost everything about him when I finally do rewrite him. Even his powers and abilities will be overhauled somewhat.
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

I hope his power remains to be the ability to manifest matter out of pure Communism!

Siege, I noticed that this was retrieved from the archives with minimal artifacts or whatever those weirdo gobbledygook alphanumeric-whatevers were (that were present in those Motonow articles you retrieved previously). Is it because the article was more recent... or the great task of RETURNING TO THE LAND OF LEGENDS and bringing forth the ZEROTH OMNIVERSE coming at hand?! :o :twisted:
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Siege »

No, it's because I took a few minutes to edit out said artefacts.
"Nick Fury. Old-school cold warrior. The original black ops hardcase. Long before I stepped off a C-130 at Da Nang, Fury and his team had set fire to half of Asia." - Frank Castle

For, now De Ruyter's topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet -
And this the Dutchmen know!
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Truly a great proletarian feat for our multinational Motherland mangs! Da comrade!
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Hey Arty, do you still have that old story about Vic's UNIT ZERO suicide squad task/force X thing? The one with Kreuz and other metahuman criminal supervillians recruited to a covert military team? Or, at least, do you still remember the titel so we can ask Siege to dig it out for us? Cause that would be cools, mang. Thanks! :)
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Artemis »

Oh sorry man, I lost quite literally everything when my last computer crashed. If I remember the title, I'll let you know, though!
"The universe's most essential beauty is its endlessness. There is room and resources enough for all of us. Whether there is room for all of our passions is the question, and the problem that we work tirelessly to find a solution to."

-Qhameio Allir Nlafahn, Commonwealth ambassador, during the signing of the Kriolon Treaty.
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Re: Repost Request Thread

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Damn! Wasn't it called Sigma Black or something?
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