Despair Unbound
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Invulnerability
Contents |
The Sins of the Father...
If Jake Love is my Venom, then Despair is very much my Carnage. An 'alternate timeline' version of Jake, Despair is almost a complete opposite in personality, approach and abilities. Strong rather than cunning, destructive rather than precise and cruel rather than kind. Despair is inspired by the classic comic rivalries where both sides are equal, almost identical in capabilites, the main difference being their mindsets and morals. Spider Man and Venom, Venom and Carnage, Wolverine and Sabretooth...the list goes on.
Personality
It has been argued by many that Despair is utterly insane. Its personality has seemingly deteriorated from a cold, cruel executioner to an uncontrolled, reckless juggernaut of destruction. And yet, even as it seems to slip further into madness and hatred glimmers of the original personality emerge, most recently in its association with the group ERA, where it presented itself as a parody of an angel.
There is no reasoning with Despair. It kills for pleasure, delights on the emotion which it takes its namesake from and has an almost vampiric need for said emotion to be manifested by its victims, seemingly feeding off of them. Those who have dealt with it in the past find it to be an unstable, uncontrollable asset that, though highly destructive and almost impervious to harm is as dangerous to them as their enemies. One thing seems to be constant - its name. Despair is a harbinger of that emotion, for 'friend' and foe alike.
Powers & Abilities
'Flea' Traits
As an alternate chronological version of Jake Love, Despair has many of the same physical attributes. However, due to the parasitic nature of the Wraith that inhabits it there are some key differences - the primary difference being that Despair is for all intents and purposes dead, a decaying corpse sustained by the energies of the Wraith parasite .
Being physically dead Despair is unaffected by extremes of temperature, variances of pressure, toxins, mortal wounds, exhaustion and fatigue...generally most things that would impair, inhibit and kill a still living organism. Furthermore there are no concerns about pushing the body to its limits, making full use of the talons and the natural armour of the host. The result of this however is that the physical body is crumbling apart in a state of accelerated decay, barely held together by the Wraith parasite's own energies. As such it needs to constantly feed to maintain the structure of the host.
Of note is the fact that Despair does not possess an intact system of chitinous spines as Jake Love does. These appear to have decayed and worn away over time, possibly being replaced internally as well as externally by the organic metal Souleater growths that afflict the physical form.
Wraith Traits
As with Jake Love the 'Despair' Wraith symbiote (or parasite as it could be more accurately described in this instance) grants the physical form heightened resilience, regenerative capabilities, strength and senses. However, as with the physical form of the 'Flea' there are some differences. In this relationship Despair is the strongest aspect and as such displays capabilities of a far greater level than Jake's own symbiote.
Their origins are much the same, both born from the dying emotions of a dimension as it collapsed into another, yet Despair is something more akin to a fragment of the Wraith rather than a seperate being. In a sense it is a son. And because of this chronlogical incarnation's parasitic manifestation it displays those abilities of resilience to a far greater, far more permanent level than the brief flickering moments the Wraith does with Jake. As such Despair is almost impervious to harm, its energies absorbing and deflecting damage from a variety of sources with one real weakness persisting - direct psychic assaults.
This extreme resilience is further augmented by the host's 'dead' nature resulting in a being with no concern or care for damage inflicted upon it, its surroundings or others, wading through the devastation without care.
Despair also grants a sort of immortality, so long as it can keep itself sustained on emotion-based energies. As long as it has sufficient supply of energy it can keep the physical shell of the host intact and animate, though when it starts to run out of these energies it reverts to a predatory state, existing almost as an animal while the rate of decay of the host accelerates.
The greatest difference of Despair and Jake Love's Wraith is the utilisation of the Wraithflame as a weapon. Wraithflame is a potent and devastating weapon that burns through to the 'soul' of those it touches. The Wraith itself chooses not to use this except in the most dire of circumstances but Despair has no such qualms or concerns about the wellbeing of its prey.
Souleater
The physical form of Despair is blighted by a series of organic metal structures which seem to pulse with unnatural energies. These structures currently have grown from the extremities of hands and feet, the shoulders, the lower back and possibly from the head of the host body as well. They display similar properties to the Souleater weapons used by Jake Love and his daughter Danielle and appear to be composed of the same material.
How they came about to be is unknown. It is suspected that these rogue growths are the result of mutation, perhaps originating from a tiny sliver of one of the Souleater blades that became embedded within the host body following an unsuccessful attack on Jake Love during the second Rikti war (though the attack did severely injure him). It is plausible that the sliver of metal has reacted with the energies of the symbiote, further strengthening existing theories of a connection between the Wraith symbiotes and the souleater metal.
These growths have formed a pair of talons which also serve to channel and amplify the effects of the Wraithflame. Like the Souleaters these talons are bane weapons - lethal to any living organism, highly disruptive to magical and psionic energies and furthermore they seem to show a capability to degrade and erode away at inorganic compounds as well.
Origin Point - The Seperation
The most disturbing fact about Despair is the fact that he is identical to Jake Love. They are one and the same. The differences that come into play are chronological in nature - each being the result of a different outcome at a key point in Jake Love's history.
Several years ago Jake's mind was fragmenting, his physical body breaking down as the war waged within. His symbiotic other, the Wraith had fragmented, 'spawning' several other entities within the mindscape. The strongest of these children was Despair, who slaughtered the others, consuming their essences and then challenged the Wraith itself for dominance. The result was outward multiple personalities, severe psychological trauma and finally physical breakdown as the body rebelled against itself. To solve this problem a number of magically and psychically gifted friends of Jake worked together, crafting a ritual designed to place barriers within the mindscape and forcibly exile the aggressive fragment with the itention of destroying it.
At this point the timeline fractures as multiple outcomes came into being. The 'core' timeline in which Jake Love exists had this event take place successfully, resulting in the Wraith symbiosis remaining a true symbiosis while the rogue fragment was cast aside, withering and dying as the essences it required for survival waned from existence.
In a different timeline the ritual failed catastrophically, the Despair fragment reaching through the ritual to consume the essences of the casters, using this newfound influx of energy to destroy the Wraith and assume dominance of the host, forcibly turning the relationship from a symbiosis to a parasitism, using the host as little more than sustenance and then as a puppet for its own aims. This is 'Despair' as he exists now.
In a third timeline the ritual failed as the Despair fragment switched places with the Wraith, resulting in its destruction. Yet rather than being overtly aggressive Despair feigned its own destruction, imitating the destroyed Wraith until an opportune moment arose for it to betray those around it. Curiously in this timeline Despair formed a symbiosis...though it was still the dominant partner of the pairing. This outcome resulted in Zero.
As the actions of the 'core' timeline disrupted the alternate timelines Ouroboros worked to pull the strongest willed from them, throwing them into the current to see which proved stronger and ultimately to see which approach should be favoured. The result is the current nightmare situation where Despair rampages, uncontrolled and untamed, Zero serves the armies of Praetoria, a traitor to his own dimension and Jake is a feral monster playing the role of a hero.
The True Goals
Despair has but a single goal - the utter destruction of his progenitor, The Wraith. Should Despair succeed in this not only will he be able to feed on the substantial amount of energy within the symbiote but he will also be able to restore the chronological path of destiny to one matching his own timeline where he ruled dominant and life had all but died due to his actions.
However there is limited time in which to do this. Each moment that Jake Love alters the actions from the point of seperation the likelihood of restoring his splintered timeline is reduced. As a result his actions are becoming increasingly unstable, unpredictable and uncontrolled. This behaviour will likely worsen as time draws on and the chances of a chronological restoration decrease.
The true nature of this 'event' is direct intervention of the forces of Ouroboros, who took the two displaced chronological version of Jake Love (Despair and Zero) and set them against their core counterpart in an attempt to find which splintered timeline was the strongest and which path of fate would prove greatest - the original symbiotic pairing, the forced parasitism or the newer symbiotic pair.
The History of The Wraith
The Wraith are a 'species' of sorts of emotion based, psionic symbiotes born from the brief, dying emotions born of a dimension upon its imminent collision and collapse into another. Born from fleeting emotions they originally formed a single entity known as the Wraith, whose chosen domain was 'Death'. But in time the Wraith splintered into several entities, each choosing to embody their own host of emotions, from rage to fear to despair itself.
Though all are dead bar Wraith and Despair there are other elements of the Wraiths surviving. Fragments which call themselves 'Chaos' exist in the girls known as Emma and Hannah Reynault-Sands. In addition there appears to be a residual wraith essence within Jake Love's biological daughter, Danielle, suggesting that the species may continue through its hosts' progeny.
In essence Despair did not truly exist as an individual until that defining moment where Jake Love's splintering psyche was mended and the fragmented slivers cast out to their own fates. As such there is no true history to that point. It was one of many, a greater part of a single whole, one aspect of a greater being.
The Fragmentation
Several years ago, when Jake Love first defected from Arachnos his mind was in a state of turmoil. So great and varied were the emotions and energies of the Wraith that it was not able to contain them within a single being and as such began to split apart, spawning new beings and personas, each of which claimed one aspect of the Wraith's whole.
The result was a sort of multiple personality disorder, which clearly afflicted Jake even while he served within the Dark Dominion, while he worked with Arachnos and when he finally went rogue and turned on them. The different personalities that emerged were varied in their outlooks and emotions displayed. One was lifeless, a cold drone that seemed at odds with the rest, devoid of emotion. One was deceptive and treacherous, openly displaying a cunning unlike its brothers. One was optimistic and the variation seemed endless. With each passing day new personalities and fragments emerged and the strain of this was to come to head with the birth of the deadliest fragment.
Usurper
Of the newborn fragments one emerged stronger, more pro-active and far more dangerous than the others. This was to become Despair. It was cruel, almost sadistic in its nature and delighted in the fear and suffering that prey suffered during the hunts. And being trapped within a mercenary and assassin it seemed that Despair had found the perfect host, for its lifestyle caused the fragment to grow stronger and stronger.
And as its strength grew it turned its attentions to its siblings within Jake's mindscape, quickly overpowering and slaughtering them, absorbing their essences into itself and usurping their 'portfolios', as it were. This resulted in outward physical damage to the host and inward psychological damage as the deaths of the weaker fragments took its toll. In time it came that only two truly remained - the Wraith itself, the progenitor and original symbiote and Despair, gorged on the energies of its siblings and the raw emotional energies released by the desperate actions of the Host.
The result of this disparity was the great ritual which severed Despair from the host and from its father, effectively saving Jake's life and preserving the original symbiotic bond. By all means the story of Despair should have ended with this action. However, as was to come to show over the coming years this was not the case. The tenacity of the exiled fragment was such that it sustained itself within an environment it should have perished in...and for a while it thrived.
Warpath
As a seperate entity Despair fought like a wounded and hungry beast, inhabiting mortal host after mortal host before burning them out, draining them dry of their essences. As such it was difficult to even track the creature, difficult to confirm whether it was alive or dead, though such confirmation was not needed due to its direct actions less than three months after the ritual which cast it out.
Within months those closest to Jake Love came under attack, often from an unknown and unfamiliar assailiant, likely now to be the 'former' hosts of the Despair parasite. Each attack was to become more and more dangerous, pushing those around Jake to a state of panic before a final strike brought low Hannah Reynault-Sand, ripping into her back and causing the injuries which resulted in the red feathered wings she bears to this day.
These attacks lead to a number of violent and reckless confrontations between 'father' and 'son', resulting in a vendetta that persists to this day regardless of any changes in circumstances. The most significant change occuring shortly after the second open conflict between the fragment and the progenitor...the death of Despair at its own hands.
Disappearance
Following attack after desperate attack the Despair fragment finally met its demise...at the hands of itself, or more accurately the 'true' Despair brought from the splintered timestream by the Menders of Ouroboros. By killing its counterpart it took the position it inhabited and as such took a step closer to obtaining its own true survival.
For a while there was silence, no further attacks reported, no further incidents or sightings of the rogue parasite. It was a time of peace. What the victims didn't know was that the 'new' Despair was a far more patient and cunning predator, watching those its predecessor had hunted while waiting for an opportune moment to strike. This moment would come during the second Rikti invasion when the alien ships weakened and brought down the inherent defences of Maggie's Rock, giving him the opportunity to slip in unmolested.
What Despair found was a scene of desperation. The Rikti could not care who was friend or foe amongst those present and he found himself fighting side by side, back to back with the progenitor in what could be described as some sort of horrific show. The children present and the few staff who managed to witness were stunned by the similarity of the two beings, down to the scars they both bore. As such no one was prepared for the moment Despair attempted to murder the progenitor, only to have a sliver of one of the Souleater blades broken off within his form. Forced to retreat he left Jake Love in a bad state yet a message was clear enough for all.
Despair had returned.
The 'Final' Battle
Following the second Rikti attack Despair disappeared off the grid for close to a year and a half, though it was known that he still existed. What he did in this time remains a mystery but there are still signs of activity - in particular a trail of destruction across the Western Seaboard of the USA during the period of Jake Love's 'World tour'. It is believed that Despair, despite his injury and defeat had realised that he was now the stronger of the Wraith and as such rejoiced in his dominance in the only way he truly knew - through the spread of fear and the harvest of the emotional energies it caused.
When Jake returned from his journey Despair immediately set out toward Maggie's Rock, determined to eliminate the progenitor and claim dominance. In an incredibly bloody and violent conflict, even for these two Jake appeared to win, almost tearing his symbiote's progeny in two with the katana gifted to him by his daughter. As the waters in Galaxy City stained red with blood it appeared that an eternal conflict had finally been settled and for one of the two some semblance of balance finally restored.
Re-Emergence
How wrong they were.
Despair's body was never found. And following Jake's apparant death at the hand of Hades Despair re-emerged, stronger than ever before. With the 'absence' of the progenitor symbiote Despair assumed true dominance and turned his attentions to nothing more than slaughter. As far as he was concerned he had accomplished his goal and his survival was guaranteed. He was not aware of the existence of Zero and as far as Ouroboros were concerned he had indeed acheived a dominance of sorts.
A short lived dominance. Within a week of his re-emergence Despair was attacked, beaten and broken by the entity which called itself Zero, its broken husk cast onto the shores of the Rogue Isles as a 'gift' for Arachnos who still sought the destructive juggernaut for its role in crimes against themselves. As a result he was imprisoned, sealed away in an armoured vault until a time came for a suitable extermination of such a dangerous and uncontrolled entity. He only learned of the progenitor's rebirth in captivity and indeed of the identity of his assailant. And for over two years Despair waited, a prisoner waiting execution, destined only for oblivion and failure...at least until the attention of others turned in his direction.
ERA's Dark Angel
During ERA's rise to power their leader, Sebastian Kain started to recruit from a number of sources, seeking out individuals and sources of great power to serve a number of purposes. One such source he detected was locked within an armoured cell aboard Arachnos Transport 147C, en route to its extermination. Using his own powers Kain reached out, triggering the spark that stirred Despair and brought the monster to life once more.
Exploiting a weakness within the Transport's mortal crew Despair broke free, pledging his loyalty, for what it was worth to Kain for his assistance. Despair's role was simple - a guardian of sorts and a living engine of destruction. Furthermore due to his containment his mind had started fracturing and he started to refer to himself as an 'angel'. Utter madness, but one that suited the almost biblical scale of Kain's goals. After all, had humanity not once feared the angels themselves?
Splinter
For a while Despair served, acting as a living weapon, enforcer and source of terror, unleashed on a word against the enemies of ERA. However, as Kain grew content and activity died down Despair grew impatient. It was not content to sit and wait, not content to live off the end results of their actions. Despair's purpose for existence was still out there and with each passing moment Despair's very existence was at risk.
He broke off from ERA, striking out on his own against his enemies and prey. He harbours no ill will towards his former allies though he fully suspects that is not returned toward him. But he is also fully aware that he is by far more dangerous than the majority of their number. To try and take him out in direct confrontation would be a foolish action as he would easily destroy their weaker members.
Instead better to let him go about his own path and where there is opportunity, turn his destruction toward their own goals. As far as Despair is concerned the hunt is still his priority. The Progenitor must be destroyed so that he can remain to exist. And when that task is done he will turn his destructive attentions toward Zero and then Ouroboros to ensure that no one can meddle with the timestream in such a way ever again.
There Are No 'Friends'
Notably so, Despair does not consider any other living beings to be trusted as 'friends'. Indeed the concept of friendship in itself is alien to the parasite, a flickering emotion felt by the weak flesh-shells that have yet to ascend. It does however consider some to be 'allies', supporting them as necessary whereas others are clearly its enemies.
'Allies'
ERA - This organisation is probably the closest thing Despair has to support. He served them willingly as a living engine of destruction, leaving only to hunt his true prey and not under poor terms. He did not betray them, had no interest in doing so and seemingly was not that concerned over their internal politics or struggles. To say that they trust him however would be to lie. Nothing with as much destructive potention could be truly trusted.
Enemies
Jake Love - The Primogenitor. Despair's ultimate goal. The target he must kill if he and his timeline are to survive. Jake is his greatest threat and his deadliest for he wields the weapons capable of doing Despair the most harm. Furthermore Jake is more than willing to kill, regardless of consequences. Though Despair is stronger Jake has the greater support network in place and time will tell which of these two is better prepared for the coming war for survival.
Maggie's Rock - The Primogenitor's closest and his family. As such prime targets for Despair to strike against him. Despair has history with a number of those within Maggie's Rock, having struck against them a number of times in the past. Furthermore some of those within are responsible for the seperation point which exists to this day and the entirety of his mission for survival.
The Challengers - During his service with ERA his hatred for this group of heroes grew and grew. They were the enemy. These were the words told to him, the creed instilled within him. Furthermore they have shown themselves to be allies of the Primogenitor, as such his enemies. Furthermore their nature is contradictory to his own. Where he seeks to instill fear and terror so that he may feed upon it they seek to prevent such a thing. Naturally this cannot be allowed to stand...
The Thoughts of Others
Feel free to leave your opinions of Despair here.
Other Facts
- Disclaimer: Despair is largely unaffected by the 'reboot' taking place for Jake Love at this moment in time. Nothing that changes with Jake will affect Despair on a significant level, due to time travel shenanigans!
- Despair is technically dead - the organic host has long since died and the brittle remains are held in tact by the parasite itself. As such things that would effect a living creature or cause it concern - over exertion, suffocation, being crushed to death etc. are of little or no concern to Despair.
- Despair is quite mad. Quite, quite mad. He has most recently started to refer to himself in biblical terms, viewing himself as a dark angel of sorts. Though the symbiote's appearance and capabilities may be similar to humanity's biblical angels this most certainly is not the case.
- Despair feeds off fear and grows stronger as he does so. Very tricky to represent in game. Suffice to say the more frightened you become of him and his actions, the worse he will get.
