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One of my longest running characters waaay before I became addicted to City of Heroes. He's appeared in stories, artwork and various other stuff I've done over the past 10 years. Perhaps my most beloved characters.

History

	Skull Jester
	Player: @Teh Chillzor
Origin:	Magic
Archetype:	Corrupter
Threat Level:	50
	Personal Data
Real Name:	Desmond Dire
Known Aliases:	None
Species:	Dead
Age:	Not Applicable
Height:	5'11"
Weight:	85lbs
Eye Color:	Glowing White
Hair Color:	Black
	Biographical Data
Nationality:	None
Occupation:	Psychopath
Place of Birth:	Unknown (Presumed Spain)
Base of Operations:	Unknown
Marital Status:	Dead
Known Relatives:	Katherine Dire (wife, deceased), Mary Dire (daughter, deceased)
	Known Powers
	Control of necro energy, flight, teleportation and shapeshifting.
	Known Abilities
	None
	Equipment
	None
Attributes

In the Beginning...

In the early 1500’s, a young man named Desmond Dire found work as a court jester for the cruel Lord Philip. Quick-wit and a nimble tongue quickly earned him a favorable reputation and, slowly, he began to pierce to stone heart of the noble. As time passed, the land prospered as Philip became fair and just. People from all over would journey to the castle to see Dire perform his tricks and jokes.

However, Philips wife became gravely ill and the Lord spent much of his wealth in trying to find a cure. Ultimately, it was for naught and the Lady passed away. Dire was to be the bearer of bad news and tried to lessen the blow with a light-hearted joke about the Lord’s fidelity. This enraged the noble, who accused Dire of being a traitor and locked him away in the dungeon.

Death and Life of a Fool

Dire was forced to watch as his wife and daughter were brought before him, held helpless as they were ravaged and killed in front of him. For months, he endured heinous torture and begged daily for death to take him. Finally, after 3 years, Dire managed to escape his confines but rather than flee the castle, the now mad fool sought to kill the Lord. Dire succeeded in mortally wounding the Lord, but was gravely injured himself. Before Philip died, he cursed Dire’s soul with his last breath. Succumbing to his injuries, Dire managed to make it to the grave of his wife and daughter before drawing his last breath.

A new Lord was installed to replace Philip, one as cruel and spiteful as the last. However, rumors of a ghostly being wandering the halls and playing mischievous tricks began to trickle through the castle staff. As time went on, disturbances became more and more frequent and soon castle staff began mysteriously dying. Finally, a shadowy being manifested before the new Lord himself and declared himself the Skull Jester and claimed the castle as his domain.

Fearing this apparition, the castle was deserted and the land around it abandoned. The legend of the Skull Jester faded into obscurity. The ghostly being himself was never seen again, content to slumber in the quiet castle.

Return of the Jester

Centuries later, in 1998, a villain by the name of Black Lion used the castle as his base of operations to overtake Europe. This attracted the attention of Hero-1, who arrived to stop the would-be conqueror. In the ensuing battle, the Skull Jester awoke and attacked them both, killing Black Lion and gravely injuring Hero-1.

Memories of his former life long forgotten, the mad Jester left the castle and explored his new world. The despair and suffering he felt from the people around fuelled his powers, making him want more. This led to a wave of destruction across Europe and ended with a confrontation between the Skull Jester and Hero-1 in Paris. Dozens were killed in the clash and millions of dollars in property was damaged, but Hero-1 managed to defeat the crazed spirit, draining the Skull Jester of his power and leaving him in a comatose human form.

Mystical studies were conducted on the body of the Skull Jester and he was eventually transferred to Paragon City and held in the arcane section of the Zigursky. Numina and Azuria, as well as a few from the Midnight Squad attempted to gain understanding of the Skull Jester, but no one was able to discover what or who he really was.

In 2005, after Arachnos attacked the Zigursky in a mass prison escape attempt, the chaos created awoke the Skull Jester again. Though weakened, he managed to escape his confines and fled to the Rogue Isles, hidden aboard an Arachnos flier. On the Isles, the Skull Jester was quick to begin his campaign of chaos and destruction again, rebuilding his power through the suffering of others. Clashing with both villains and heroes alike, he became one of the most reviled superpowered beings.

Skull Jester and friends

The Mystic War

Some magical based groups attempted to subdue and control the Skull Jester, most notably the Circle of Thorns. Repeatedly, they attacked the Skull Jester, which led to a magical war between the two powers. Many mages were killed by the Jester, even more bystanders who were unfortunate to be caught between them. It seemed like the Circle of Thorns were caught in a fruitless battle, but they finally managed to capture the mad fool.

As they conducted magical experiments to find a way to control the Jester or steal his powers, the Circle mages unwittingly unleashed a surge of power that opened the Skull Jesters memories. His life as Desmond Dire flooded back to him, granting him even greater power than before. Breaking free with new found strength, the Jester slaughtered the mages and battled Baphomet himself to escape. Afterwards, the Circle of Thorns decided that the Skull Jester was much too costly to contain and withdrew their attacks against him.

The God of Chaos

With his former life as Desmond Dire now returned, the Skull Jester underwent a profound change. Discontent with this reality, the Skull Jester disappeared from the world stage. Travelling to the place between dimensions, he discovered a space he called the Maelstrom. Consumed with chaotic energy of clashing reality, the Skull Jester was almost torn apart by the massive power he encountered. However, he survived and was granted near-omnipotent power, allowing him to create a reality in his own image.

Haunted by the memory of his wife and daughter, the Skull Jester attempted to resurrect them but only succeeded in conjuring their spirits. It was revealed to the Jester that he had become so enamored with death and destruction, the ability to create life was now lost to him. Jester swore he would find a way to resurrect his family and returned to this reality.

The Greatest Joke

Things had changed while he was away and Jester discovered that the Rikti had renewed their assaults on the planet. To the surprise of many, the Jester joined the frontlines in assaulting the alien invaders and was instrumental in the destruction of many Rikti battalions. Afterwards, when Cimerora came forth with a plea of help, the Jester stepped forward and assisted the heroes in battling Romulus and the Fifth Column. This unlikely alliance did not sit well with many heroes and they questioned the Skull Jesters motives, though he offered none.

Seeking magical counsel, he approached Montague Castanella of the Midnighter’s Club. Castanella advised the Skull Jester to continue his work protecting the innocent and defending the weak to gain an understanding and respect for life. With Castanella’s recommendation, the Skull Jester was grudgingly approved of working within Paragon City as a hero, but was put under strict observation and placed in the supervision of the Equinox Consultants, a group of mystically empowered heroes.

Skull Jester: Hero of the People?

Despite his work, the Skull Jester found acceptance hard to earn in Paragon, many refusing to forget about the atrocities he’d committed before. Several times, he has clashed with heroes and other authority forces, most notably when the ghostly Charletain attacked him after a misunderstanding involving her friend Chillzone being injured.

While he continued to fight the good fight, Castanella continued working on the problem of resurrecting the family of Dire. Through mystical consultation, he learned that by obtaining soul energy, the Jester would be able to use his powers to recreate life. It also just happened the Charletain was looking for a way back into the land of the living, so Castanella struck a deal with the former villain: resurrect the dead hero and he would have the power to bring his wife and daughter back in his own realm.

Skull Jester celebrates Christmas his way

Affiliations

When the Skull Jester was classified as a supervillain, he had no allies or friends. Those who worked with were usually double-crossed at the most inconvenient times simply because the Skull Jester thought it was funny. There have been rumors that the Skull Jester has worked with Ghost Widow, but after a battle that all but destroyed her tower, that rumour has been debunked.

However, now that he works with Paragon's heroes, he is 'employed' by the Equinox Consultants, who have connections with the House of Heroes and works with them on a regular basis.

Personality

When the Skull Jester first arrived in the Isles, he was incredibly unpredictable. Sometimes he would kill without reason, while other times he would be kind and gentle. After he recovered his memories of his life as Desmond Dire, his former personality as a witty and compassionate person began to shine through a little more often. Skull Jester began to feel remorse for his acts and would find himself battling villain groups more often.

Those that first meet the Skull Jester are often greeted by a sharp tongue and scathing comments. He is quick to discover buttons to push on his victims and is an expert at riling up his opponents. Those that have gotten to know him better have seen that beneath the jokes and tricks, a tortured soul lies in hiding.

Physiology

Technically, Skull Jester a ghost of sorts but not in the conventional sense. The madness that consumed Desmond Dire's soul before he died created a being of negative energy. As such, Jester has no real bones or tissue and is completely inorganic. Thus, the Skull Jester is a lot lighter than he looks, tipping the scales at 85 lbs usually, but his shape-shifting abilities allow him to alter his mass. Also, using those same abilities, he is able to duplicate flesh and bones to create frightenly accurate copies of people, down to the DNA.

Because he absorbs emotions, primarily fear and anger, he doesn't need to eat or drink nor does he have to breathe. Curiously, he has had the wind knocked out of him on several occasions, but has also survived the vaccuum of space. Some speculate that he simply forgets he can't breathe or doesn't need to in whatever situation he comes across.

Powers

Harnessing the chaotic energy, Skull Jester is able to do a number of tricks. The exact level of his power is still relatively unknown.

Necrotic Energy Blasts

This powerful corruptive energy is able to decay flesh, metals and plastics at deadly speeds. Jester is able to shape it and fire volleys of differing degrees of potency as he sees fit.

Occasionally, Skull Jesters powers cause a rift in reality, ensnaring anything inside it in a sort of flux of time.

Emotion Feeding

Perhaps the most powerful ability of the Skull Jester is his ability to feed on the negative emotions of others to sustain himself and those around him, converting it into a regenerative energy. Coupled with his ability to get under his opponents skin using taunts and insults allows the Skull Jester to actually grow stronger the longer a fight is drawn out.

Shadow Control

The Skull Jester can use the shadows to hide his and others presence as well as cloud the eyes of his opponents, rendering them blind. He can also channel his life draining powers into a semi-intelligent creation that acts on his behalf, allowing him to attack more opponents as well as powerful tentacles that ensnare his opponent.

He has also demonstrated the ability to create small sculptures from shadows that he can move about through will. They are immaterial and easily destroyed, but often act as a distraction for himself when he becomes bored. His most common use for this is creating three smoky spheres and juggling them.

Jester is also able to put small objects into the shadows of his cape to carry around. How much he can carry is not yet known or even where they are kept still remains a guarded secret.

Fear Inducing

Jester is able to tap into a persons greatest fear and bring it to the front of their mind, paralyzing them. This also allows him very limited psychic power, using it as a sort of divining rod to find his victims based on their pain and anger. This is incredibly useful, as it provides him with a new source of energy to feed from.

Flight

By harnessing negative energy, the Jester can fly at fantastic speeds. He's been clocked at reaching speeds of 80 miles an hour.

Teleportation

Though he's unable to teleport himself, he is able to draw other people through a temporal rift to his location. He can also utilize this power to create a portal on the ground to his reality, essentially bringing it to Earth. The clashing of planes creates a chrono shift that effectively slows time down. This allows him to capture his opponents and keep them at his mercy, while the frustration of being caught fuels his attacks.

Skull Jester versus Khronos

Shadow Step

Able to alter his dark energy body, he can become one with the shadows, moving along them completely undetected. Though difficult to detect, he can still be injured if hit unless he merges with the shadows absolutlely. Because of the intense amount of concentration this takes, he can only hold it for 30 seconds or so before emerging again.

Shapeshitfing

The Skull Jester is able to change his body to create new appearances. Due to his warped mind though, he's rarely able to hold onto it for long and is often changing forms randomly. He usually goes with a more human looking appearance with his white skull face and large grin to a more sinister looking winged skull look with large horns protruding from his head.

This also makes him difficult to kill or even wound permanently as he can regrow body parts over time.

Reality Shaping

While in the Maelstrom, the Skull Jester achieves near-omniscience, allowing him to shape his own reality at will from matter creation to time manipulation. He can even create, kill and ressurect any living being within his realm with a thought. Jester is also completely impervious to harm, though he can still be psychically attacked. He can only achieve this power within his realm as there is no order to drain his power.

Weakness and Limitations

Thuogh Skull Jester is now more focused than before, he is still very easily distracted and will occasionally slip back into insane rambling. Because of his unpredictable nature, he is also prone to intense mood swings, though they are rarely as violent as they used to be. Due to his unstable condition, he is susceptible to psychic assaults, but it's inadvisable as that can cause an unpredictable and aggresive reaction from the Skull Jester.

Also, light, though it doesn't necessarily harm him, can disrupt his power of shadows. It also appears to have a strange effect on his mind, making him more docile and compliant. Whether that's an actual weakness depends on who you ask. For this reason, the Skull Jester prefers to do most of his work at night or in dark locations.

Robotic and cybernetic opponents are a threat since he uses his opponents fear and anger to sustain himself in a fight. When there's no emotions to devour, he must rely on his corruptive powers instead, which can be quickly depleted if he's overwhelmed.

Friends and Allies

Demon Hunter: One of the few people Skull Jester fears and respects. Though they disagree on how things should be done, both know that sometimes you have to do whatever it takes to do the job.

Firehawk: Though the Skull Jester has never liked psychics much, he gets along pretty good with Firehawk. She seems to appreciate his sense of humour and he respects and understands her struggle for redemption.

Chillzone: The two often butt heads and rarely agree. The ice mutant doesnt' trust the Skull Jester and often finds himself the target of the mad fools insults. However, when the chips are down, the two are able to work together.

Charletain: Allies only in the loosest terms, Charletain positively hates the Skull Jester. She only puts up with him because she has to. Skull Jester views her as a joke to be shared and isn't afraid to point out her flaws.

Samoan Scrapper: Another person that merely tolerates the Skull Jester for his ability to get the job done, Sam seems to really dislike Jesters chatty nature and inability to take any situation seriously.

Enemies

Honestly, pretty much everyone else in the world.

Inspirations

Joker, Carnage, Bighead (The Mask) and Beetlejuice.

Trivia

- The Skull Jester will take a human form to fit in with the crowd. Usually, he'll take the form of Desmond Dire, but it occasionally will change to someone else.

- Desmond Dire was born, coincidentally enough, on April 1st, 1502.

- Skull Jester is not a ghost, specter or apparition. Though he is dead, he is an entirely new type of being never seen before.

- Despite his actions, the Skull Jester is not inherently evil nor is he good. He prefers to refer to himself as misunderstood.

Winged Jester

Skull Jester