Baron of Ether

Arcane Lore Knight Errant

Hall Of Fame!

Survival - 8 Wins!

Brutal - 4 Fatalities

AFFILIATION

Alignment: Hero

Team: Solo Hero

VITAL STATS

Strength: Weak

Agility: Superior

Mind: Supreme

Body: Standard

RECORD

Personal Wins: 8

Personal Losses: 3

red

God does not employ me directly, but He has my card. Mostly I stay out of the way and do whatever it is I am supposed to do, which is a tricky thing. Knowing what it is I am supposed to do is a tricky thing itself, and every day I find out all over again. I live in castle on the Etherduct, a place that might or might not technically exist, though it can be named. In the heavens there are many basins, each one tipped just so that they pour out into the nothingness and then intermingle. There is the Timestream, which flows out of the Basin of Time, and the Etherduct, which likewise flows. Also, there is one for matter, called the Basin of the Thing, and from it flows the Thingingness. (Ironically, The Thingingness itself is not a thing, unless one stands outside and observes it, so the Thingingness is only a thing to God and myself.) There is also the Soulstream, the Whisper of Dreams, The Qualia and more trivial basins as well. When together all these overflows meet, they churn into the reality that we see, in all of its dimensions.. Of all these places, I live in a castle up in the Etherduct, a place where I have taken matter where it would not otherwise go, so that I can exist in a substrate (ether) while outside of time(The ether provides a medium, likewise if I were to house myself up in the Thingingness, I would be outside of locality and that would do no one any good). There is the base of operations from which I work. The problem with my work, as you may notice, is that is at once highly theoretical and likewise highly untraceable. When I go to work inside the Timestream, I inevitably return outside of time when I am finished, and thus anything that I did inside of reality has vanished into time, thus negating the need for me to ever step out of the Etherduct and into the Timestream. Thus, whenever I am successful, I do not remember what I have done, except scattered thoughts that I store up in the Whisper of Dreams. I am not sure what would happen should I ever die, or fail, but I suppose I would remember. The circumstances in which I was appointed, or perhaps even earned a place working outside of the boundaries of time remain an utter mystery to me, as I would have no doubt erased the actuality of the events lest someone should likewise do the same, and thus I remain an utter mystery to myself, one that no doubt prefers it that way.

I do not do odd jobs, and I do not take contracts. Anything I want, I take, and after I place it outside of the Timestream, I return and undo the act of taking it. The principals themselves I have studied endlessly in my castle in the Etherduct, and so that knowledge stays with me. I believe myself to be mildly altruistic, though I doubt the term can ever be fully applied to any individual, for even God acts selfishly, for the very nature of good implies that good is fundamentally better in both method and effect, thus the good consequences of following good, and thus an inevitable reward of good. Thus dismantles altruism, good for its own sake. Ah, but here I am with my hypothetical speculations again. It passes the continuity of existence within the Etherduct, so I tend to ramble in conversations with the inconsequential tidbits. As one does, I suppose.

The Veil of Shards

     Detective: Supreme

 

A little phrase I coined, to describe what it looks like to enter the Timestream, and all of reality. With the Omniverse's variety, I can choose which ever I need to enter, and likewise gaze upon the eventuality of every moment in the Timestream, from here to the limitlessness of insanity. Ergo, I never look too long without a specific goal in mind. Needless to say, this fills my head with every sort of interesting glimmer and useful fact. Khazan has always been the most interesting. A somewhat forced singularity on the Multidimensional nature of the ether, with low variation levels, provides intriguing situations. Needless to say, this is where I spend most my time.

 

Entering The Stream

     Energy Wave Surfing: Standard

 

Entering and leaving the Timestream would be impossible if not for ability to ride ether. I suppose the academic follow up question would be, what is ether? The academic answer would be, "Ether is a substrate, not a Thing in and of itself until qualities are added on to it. It is a substrate for matter just as matter is a substrate for sound." While that might be the academic answer, the truth surpasses that. Ether is also the basis of many forms of magic, which is the manipulation of substrate to cause the properties held in the substrate to likewise change. For example, take a skillet and place a slice of bacon upon it. The bacon and skillet remain in a natural state: no change. Add a heat source to the bottom of the skillet (being ether, or substrate), and the bacon will likewise change (which may be any number of qualia, such as matter, temperature, thickness, mass, density, luminescence, or any other number of things). Thus, magic.

 

Linking Thematic

     Spellcraft: Standard

  • Ranged Attack Only
  • Ranged and Melee Attack

 

Now, this might take a moment to explain, so please bear with me. If it helps you at all during this confusing soliloquy, after I finish my job here, I may erase the trace of ever having been here, and thus you may forget, or rather will never have heard, this explanation. So, hold on to that if you get lost at all, and most of this is conjecture, until I get to the point as to why I am in your office now, speaking with you here. So, each time I enter reality, I must figure out what my job is, never being able to remember. I theorize that my job is make right various situations in which God's chosen individual fouls up, or loses. I am the cavalry, so to speak, the reinforcements for those that disbelieve in the idea, or have no other recourse. I would imagine this would be for the angels and other heavenly beings, for when they prove ineffectual, whom else is sent? But, as I say, this is mere conjecture. Sometimes, I would imagine, I would just enter the Timestream to interact, or do something good. Now, as each time I have to decide what it is, and I have no one further to ask, this leaves me with heavy reliance on my own sense of justice. This time entering the Timestream, I have decided to enter the League, where several individual's careers must thwarted, for the sake of everyone involved. Some of these individuals are altruistic themselves, so my only chance to stop them is in fair confrontation, lest I shed my altruism and attack them unsuspecting. Therefore, my good League Official, let me explain how the Baron of Ether, the master of all forms of magic, must tone himself down for the League, as did many of the League's earlier contestants. I have chosen to close myself off from many of my own powers, in order to fit my presence in the room as well as to fit inside your narrow definitions of power that is presupposed by the League, in order to compete.

 

Resistances: Sorcerer

     Resistances: Standard

 

What am I normally able to do with ether? Fantastic question. Its uses are nearly limitless. If one is able to manipulate the other contents of the other Basins, it does next to nothing, though there are some that are wily in their uses. A frequent thing I have seen across the Veil of Shards is a manipulation of the Whisper of Dreams, intriguing, of course, but necessarily insubstantial. The manipulation of Qualia tends to destroy the object, for the ether cannot sustain it. It would be like using the bacon to heat the skillet: possible, but time consuming and ultimately pointless. Ether itself can change these things...it can even reach up into the very depths of the Thingingness, and pull from it, though I daresay there is madness in that. You will understand, then, that when a person comes after me wielding "the dark arcane arts," I do not tremble.

 

Memories from the Veil

     Tactician: Standard

 

Certainly, that WOULD seem deductive, but honestly I cannot know that I am victorious, or know exactly what my opponents would do. I can only see things through the Veil of Shards as a spectator. The moment I move in through the Veil, I am no longer a spectator but another addition to the situation, and thus I change the situation. While one would hope that I would have learned to affect things well, I cannot have learned any such thing, for I would not remember it. No, the best I can do is to thoroughly understand my opponent, and make highly educated speculation on how and why they would react to different circumstances, myself among those things. So far, it would seem as though that suffices.

 

Qualia Changed

     Force Field: Superior

  • Reinforced Defenses

 

My own body is yet another substrate. Many famous magicians have not understood this concept, thinking that self transformation to be one of the higher arts of magic, or a specialized field. Certainly, there is an extra step, but I would rather not go into it. Let us just say that these fights that will participate in during the League matches are no ordinary fights, and this is not my doing. Having entered the league, I can no longer deny that something outside my influence is acting upon these events. If it is outside my influence, and I can influence time, matter, and ether...it must be God's influence. Or the devil's influence, though he knows nothing of me by this time except that I appeared out of nowhere to be a part of the League. Truly that WOULD gain his attention, and likewise he would try and deter me, for anything not of him is of God. Supposing that, every time I enter the Timestream, it must seem like it is the first time I appear to him. I really ought to write this down, for when I return to the castle in the Etherduct I will not remember theorizing as such.