From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

That's him, all right ...
Rugiel
Player: @zehntaur
Origin:	Natural
Archetype:	Peacebringer
Security Level:	50
Personal Data
Real Name:	Rugiel
Known Aliases:	Ru, Rugi, Big Red
Species:	Demon
Age:	Unknown
Height:	8'11"
Weight:	378 lbs.
Eye Color:	White
Hair Color:	Black
Biographical Data
Nationality:	N/A
Occupation:	Voice actor, parent, hero
Place of Birth:	Hell
Base of Operations:	Paragon City
Marital Status:	Prime
Known Relatives:	None
Known Powers
Luminous Blast, Luminous Aura, Super Speed
Known Abilities
Shapeshifter, pain-indifferent, elastic, regenerator, voice mimic
Equipment
Steam-powered Nemesis Staff
Conceals his frightful visage with a mask Fantasy casting: Michael Clarke Duncan (voice)

Rugiel loosely reprises a Fire Blast/Fire Manipulation/Flame Mastery Blaster on the Protector server. This incarnation, however, plays on a theme of light rather than fire.

Rugiel reached level 50 on 8 December 2008, at 2:51am, during the final battle against Romulus-Nictus at the end of the Imperious Task Force.

Concept Origin (or, The Elevator Speech):

"What if a demon ate a Kheldian and wound up with its powers?"

Contents 1 History 1.1 Summoned[1] 1.2 Tourist 1.3 Negotiator 1.4 Celebrant 1.5 Lifesaver 2 Affiliations 2.1 Allies 2.2 Organizations 2.3 Enemies 3 Powers 3.1 Kheldian-based powers 3.2 Demon-based powers 3.2.1 Acquired Skills 4 Limitations 5 Paraphernalia 6 Footnotes

History

The identity of this demon has taken a few interesting twists. Initially, he had none, wandering the depths of hell consuming anything he came across, a mindless entity possessed of little more than the infernal analogue of animal instinct.

Until he was …

Summoned^[1]

The summoners got everything right: a flawless binding circle, a sacrificial victim, a summoning ritual, and a name. Their sacrifice of choice was a Kheldian named Silverblaze, captured weeks earlier in a Mobius trap after his host body dissolved under mysterious circumstances, leaving Silverblaze in the lurch; one of the summoners, locating his raw energy by means of a spell, found him and pretended to offer himself as a host, thus luring the weakened Kheldian into the Mobius trap.

Their choice of a name was that of the aforementioned devourer, a mockery of an angel's name: Rugiel.

They offered Silverblaze to the summoned demon, as the ritual prescribed. That was where it all went pear-shaped. The demon devoured the caged wisp of Kheldian energy, all right; but all that did was impart the mindless devourer with a mind, a conscience, and worst of all for his summoners, free will: Silverblaze's personality translated into an infernal being.

The arcane fetters that bound him within the circle dissolved instantly, and he fell upon his summoners with voracious zeal. He only managed to swallow one, while the rest fled, never to be heard from again.

Finding his physical body firmly anchored in the material realm, ironically enough, by the Kheldian's energy pattern, this new being that was neither truly a demon nor an ordinary Kheldian symbiosis was left essentially to his own devices to find his way in the world. Fortunately for him, Silverblaze's benevolent nature served as a guidepost in his search, which ultimately led him to Paragon City.

Tourist

Rugiel's first few days in the city were, all things considered, unremarkable. Sunstorm put him through his paces; once satisfied that the demon's proverbial heart was in the right place and his abilities were developing adequately, the Kheldian leader made a few carefully considered introductions.

One of these introductions was to the celebrated Nzhdet/Zhenenzh (going by the more easily pronounceable moniker 'SystemPattern'). After a brief interview, System agreed to accept Rugiel into (her) organization, the Servants of Prime, thus providing the demon with an order and structure that had been thus far lacking in his activities. In turn, Rugiel proved himself capable and industrious, not to mention a source of endless fascination to the perennially curious journalist-probe.

Negotiator

Rugiel was present at the formation of an alliance between System's organization and a fledgling group of youths, claiming to hail from an alternate reality, led by an intriguing entity calling himself the Universe. Seeing his situation as a parallel of theirs, Rugiel conferred with System and the Universe, and transferred his affiliation from the Servants of Prime to the Elements of Foundation.

The two groups continued to work together, and it was not long before the Elements were introduced to several members of another allied group, the Hazard-Guard. It was during one of their joint forays that Rugiel first met Grul, a lieutenant in the Hazard-Guard, and was hopelessly smitten.

Celebrant

It took Rugiel a long, long time to summon the chutzpah to move from admiring Grul from afar to approaching the duur with anything resembling an entreaty. Initially wary, the duur tried to gently dissuade the demon from pursuing him further; yet over time their friendship deepened, and Grul eventually allowed he was, after all, attracted to the demon. Rugiel was, to put it mildly, ecstatic.

Lifesaver

Their relationship remained somewhat tenuous until an unpleasant adventure involving a scientist named Winslowe and his unintentionally deadly device, the Cosmotron. As time began to run out, and Rugiel felt himself weakening from the device's relentless drain on his very being, Grul's valiant efforts led them to find and destroy the device, along with every prototype and plan they could find. Afterwards, both demon and duur declared their love for each other.

They have been together ever since.

((Note - add prime ceremony section))

Affiliations

Rugiel has maintained relationships, friendly and otherwise, with the following individuals and groups.

Allies

• Grul the duur is Rugiel's prime. Together, they have survived many exciting adventures, seen the birth of Grul's son, and visited the Shadow Shard.
• Sunstorm was an anchor of assurance in a time of uncertainty, and continues to send Rugiel into peril call on Rugiel for aid.
• SystemPattern, a journalist-probe from a mechanical extrasolar civilization. (She) is fascinated by his nature and presses him with questions every chance (she) gets.
• The Universe Entire. Isn't it great to know the cosmos has your back?

(Linked on Virtueverse: Sight of Midnight, Bloodstar Phoenix, Burnum)

Organizations

• The Elements of Foundation - Rugiel's current base of operations.
• The Servants of Prime - Rugiel's former base of operations.
• The Hazard-Guard - Grul's current base of operations.
• WSTAR Media Group - WSTAR broadcasts a variety of television and radio programs to a sizable section of New England, operating out of its studios and headquarters in Steel Canyon. Henry Keynes, a WSTAR program coordinator, discovered Rugiel entirely by serendipity. He was merely walking past the demon while the latter spoke to a man in a Freedom Corps uniform, but that was all it took. The demon's deep, resonant voice, Keynes judged, would be perfect for a new series in preproduction. Keynes spoke to Rugiel, secured an interview and audition, and shortly afterward WSTAR gained a new voice talent.

Enemies

• The Circle of Thorns
• The Council and its fearsome Galaxy soldiers
• Anyone wielding a Quantum Array weapon

Powers

The following is a list of powers Rugiel has been observed to exhibit.

Kheldian-based powers

• Phosarcs^[2] - Silverblaze's name for the bright, flashy effects all Kheldians are capable of creating.
  • Flares comprise the offensive aspect, collecting ambient light into highly energetic projectiles.
  • Coronae comprise the defensive aspect, encasing him in semisolid light that turns away incoming attacks.
• Energy Forms - Silverblaze's energy pattern carries the template for Nova and Dwarf forms. Additionally, Rugiel is able to convert his material body to energy for a brief time.
• Healing Light - Rugiel can use the energy contained in ambient light to repair damage to himself and others. In cases of severe damage, his body autonomically draws in a large volume of light energy, usually infusing him with enough energy to repair the worst of it and get him back on his feet.
• Aerobat - Silverblaze's natural ability to fly, synergized with Rugiel's wings, make him highly agile and maneuverable in the air. His flight speed increases dramatically when flying nap-of-the-earth (Super Speed).

Demon-based powers

• Elasticity - Rugiel’s body is highly — almost absurdly — deformable. Although he cannot stretch himself unaided (at least not more than a few inches), he can be stretched, bent and twisted without permanent harm.
• Engulfment - Rugiel is able to swallow nearly any size and number of objects and retain them indefinitely inside his abdomen. He has full control over how inimical his metabolism is to those objects, from entirely harmless to nearly instantly lethal. What he does with the remains is best left to the imagination.
• Anatomical Separation - Should an extremity be severed — including his head — he can continue to control it, albeit with considerable loss of precision. The exact mechanism through which sensation is transmitted from a separated body part to the main body remains a mystery both to himself and others.
• Reconstitution - Once severed^[3], Rugiel can reattach a body part given time enough to do so. If a severed body part is irretrievably lost or destroyed, he can regrow it. Since both reattachment and regeneration are inconvenient and time-consuming, he isn’t inclined to demonstrate this ability without very good reason (somewhat to SystemPattern's disappointment).
• Pain Indifference - Rugiel is unable to feel pain. His tactile sense is normal, but the sensation of pain is simply absent. Functionally, he has an infinitely high pain threshold.
• Temperature Tolerance - Rugiel can remain functional up to ambient temperatures of 500°F. Unfortunately, this does not include abrupt localized spikes in temperature (such as a Flamethrower's assault).
• Demonic Senses - Demon senses are better than human senses.
  • Sight: Rugiel can sense the infrared as well as visible spectrum.
  • Hearing: Rugiel can sense an aural spectrum from around 0.01 Hz to 500,000 Hz.^[4]
• Breathless - Rugiel does not need to breathe. This does not mean he doesn’t; breath is indispensable for speaking and singing, and for myriad other modes of nonverbal expression. But he cannot be suffocated, nor suffer respiratory damage.
• Sleepless - Rugiel never suffers from sleep deprivation. This does not mean he doesn't sleep, just that he remains functional regardless of how long he remains awake.
• Infernal Immunity - All foreign chemical and organic substances, unless he deliberately allows them to affect his metabolism, are harmless.
• Infernal Strength - While Rugiel's strength level has not been formally established, anecdotal evidence puts his lifting capacity at somewhere between 1,500 and 2,500 pounds.

Acquired Skills

• Polymorph - Rugiel has developed his shapeshifting skill to the point that he can imitate the appearance of a duur very closely (but not flawlessly).
• Divus - Rugiel is an excellent singer and can reliably hit just over six full octaves^[5].
  He is also a talented aural mimic and can imitate with high fidelity the voice of anyone he has heard speak; the more a person speaks, the more accurately he can replicate that person's voice.
  Furthermore, he can and occasionally does 'invent' a voice from scratch. (He used to do only voices until a WSTAR director asked if he could reproduce a musical instrument; now he has a broad repertoire of voices, instruments, and sound effects at his disposal.)
• Athlete - Rugiel is an accomplished contortionist, swimmer, diver, and basketball player.

Limitations

• Temperature Intolerance - Rugiel finds low temperatures unpleasant, since they make him sluggish. This is really only a prejudice held over from being a full demon. However, he appears to be susceptible to shutdown from overheating.
• Quantum Vulnerability - Rugiel’s dual nature brings with it the peril of vulnerability to quantum-disruptive weapons.
• Soft - Rugiel is elastic, not impregnable. Edges and points — blades, arrows, bullets, and so on — injure him far more efficiently than blunt impacts.
• Overextension - Rugiel's pain indifference makes it difficult to judge when to back off. This results in him getting in way over his head sometimes.
• Joe Average - Rugiel filters his perceptions through Silverblaze's intellect; much like two disharmonic pitches, some things he grasps better than others. Overall he comes across as not much smarter than a smart human - which, being closely associated with a duur, he finds sometimes embarrassing.

Paraphernalia

• Silk mask, to conceal his voracious maw.
• Steam-powered Nemesis Staff.

Footnotes

1. ↑ This is his current badge title.
2. ↑ Sunstorm, unfortunately, has been no help in establishing whether this term is in general use by Kheldians.
3. ↑ If his head were severed from his torso, it would be the body that would count as the severed portion, not the head — that is, a new torso and limbs would regrow from the head, while the torso remained headless. And no, if you cut it off, it does not grow back bigger.
4. ↑ That's approximately 25 times the range of human hearing, which spans a mere 19,980 Hz.
5. ↑ In note-octave notation, that covers A1 to F6. In practical terms, he can sing The Diva’s Opera from "The Fifth Element" at either its original pitch, or transposed down an octave.