Thannatos
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| [[Image:|300px|]] | |
| Thannatos | |
| Player: User:Sideline | |
| Origin: | Natural |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Brute |
| Threat Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Sideline |
| Known Aliases: | Than, Sid |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 1,910, appears 24 |
| Height: | 6'6'' |
| Weight: | 240 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Silver |
| Hair Color: | Red |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | None |
| Occupation: | Incarnate |
| Place of Birth: | Romania |
| Base of Operations: | Grandville |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | None living |
| Known Powers | |
| Varied | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Varied | |
| Equipment | |
| None needed. | |
| ' | |
'And there the children of dark Night have their dwellings, Sleep and Death, awful gods. The glowing Sun never looks upon them with his beams, neither as he goes up into heaven, nor as he comes down from heaven. And the former of them roams peacefully over the earth and the sea's broad back and is kindly to men; but the other has a heart of iron, and his spirit within him is pitiless as bronze: whomsoever of men he has once seized he holds fast: and he is hateful even to the deathless gods." (Hesiod, Theogony 758 ff, trans. Evelyn-White, Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.)
Contents |
Thannatos
When one hears the name Thanatos, it conjures the image of a hooded skeletal form weilding a large scythe. A merciless hunter, a slayer of the living. Indeed that was the forte of the previous person to hold this name, Thannatos. He was an immortal, gifted with great power. In the end, that power left him...empty. He had lived for almost two thousand years. He had experianced great joy and great sadness.
He thought more power would fill a void in him. He gained that power and it only made him more empty. So he accepted death, he allowed his soul to find it's eternal rest. In turn he gave me his power. Why? I'll get to that. So now I am Thannatos. Only I don't want it to conjure the same images. Thus I have made it a title. The Thannatos.
Original Than
He was born in the year 100 A.D. in the land now known as Romania. He was trained to fight with swords and other weapons against the Roman incursions into that land. When he was twenty four he was involved in a magical accident. A spell that was supposed to give him great power instead bound his soul with that of a demon lord named Alastor. The spell was incomplete however and the binding caused the devil to slumber inside Than. Still, being bound to the demon is what gave Than his immortality initially. Time passed, centuries even, and Alastor awoke.
Again with the incomplete binding of the souls the demon could do nothing but speak to Than inside his head. Thannatos could draw on his power and use that to aid himself.
Thannatos had lived a long time. He had loved, and was even married briefly, and he had hated. He had seen many great joys and many tragic losses. After almost two thousand years, the man was getting tired. Alastor, desiring to be free, whispered to Than of a new purpose in life. A way of power, one that would free him from constraints and also free him from Alastor. All it required of him was to become an Incarnate.
So Than took up the challenge. He hired a small group of villians to help him and after a lengthy hunt for the components (and a pure sample of an Incarnate's blood) he completed the ritual. He infused himself with the power of a Greek god, one Thanatos, his name sake.
Recluse, being the type of person he was, knew this was happening and conspired to turn it to his favor. As the ritual was coming to fruition, he had his Mu change things slightly. The result was an Incarnate that was completely loyal to Recluse. Thannatos, now free of Alastor, was magically bound to the tyrant of Arachnos.
Bound in this way had an unusual side effect. It completely supressed Than's moral beliefs. While under this spell he commited rapes, murders, and pretty much did what ever he wanted to do. He was a terror and he had to be stopped. Which is where I come in.
Sideline
My name is Sideline, or Sid. I was created in an Arachnos lab to be a perfect soldier. I was gifted with enhanced strength, agility, stamina, and intelligence. What they didn't count on however, was happiness. I found true happiness when I was assigned to infiltrate and spy on a group known as Branded. My friends, my family, that I had found gave me the strength to be free. Gave me the strength to make my own choices and one of the first ones I made was to leave Arachnos.
It was while with Branded that I first encountered Thannatos. He and I became passing friends in so much as we wouldn't activly try and kill each other. He never did trust me, I never did trust him, however we did work well together. In time I came to know as much about him as anyone else could. When he snapped, or rather came under Arachnos' control, I thought it was up to me to stop him.
I gathered up a few companions, each known for their own specialities. Remember I was gifted with heightened smarts and that included risk analysis and tactics. So when I fought Than, I was prepared. I lost. We were able to break the spell controlling him, but it was only with my sacrifice. Thannatos, using his abilities as an Incarnate of Thanatos, absorbed my soul. Thanks to my precautions however, the process was halted and instead of gaining everything I knew and was, he merely had me riding in his head.
The Passing
With the spell broken, Than returned to normal for him. Ok, normal with me an unwilling extra inside of him. He remembered all he had done and that nearly broke him. He was depressed like nothing I have ever seen before for many months. Finally he came back to the Etoile Islands.
Here, where it all truely began for the two of us, is where he confessed something. All my precautions had been for naught. He could have merged our souls at any time he wished. His powers as an Incarnate of Thanatos, while not as flashy as Statesman's abilities, were no less powerfull. He told me he had been alive too long. He had seen too many things and lost more. He wanted to sleep the sleep of oblivion. So without warning he reversed the merging and completed it all at the same time. Instead of absorbing everything that was me, he forced everything that was him into me, giving me control of it all.
What this means is that I now have all of my memories, skills, training, and knowledge. I also have all of his, and everyone he's ever absorbed the soul of. I was him and he was me, in a very real and literall sense of the words.
Now
After a short time I was able to aclimate all of my newfound knowledge. I was still me, only with untold amounts of power and skill that only a long lifetime could give me. So here I am. A man who is again looking to help people and maybe find a bit of happiness along the way. Oh, I kept his name, only I made it a title. I am now, The Thannatos, sword for hire and protector of innocents. I am not a hero, nor am I a villian.
Vanguard
I joined the ranks of the worlds protectors partly because of Than's memories and partly because it was where I could do the most good. I now hold a special position withen the group. When I am on call, I must respond to any incursions the Rikti make against those in under my protection as well as responding within the war zone to threats. I belong to none of the official or unofficial groups that make up Vanguard. I am a seperate entity because of my power and my skills. I answer only to Lady Grey and sometimes The Watcher. You can often find me in the base in the war zone, offering my services to those headed out into the fight.
Timeline
100 A.D. Born in the Dacien province of the land that would become Wallachia (Romania)
105 A.D. First started training to as a warrior to fight the Romans
124 A.D. Involved in a ritual of unknown magic. Something went wrong and now has no recollection of the incident
125 - 271 A.D. Fought the Romans and eventually helped in pushing them out of Wallachia. Greek soldiers in the Roman army first started calling him Thannatos, named after their "daimon" or demi-god, of death, Thanatos
5th and 6th century. Flourished as a mercanary in the Byzantine Empire
1091 A.D. Forced into hiding in Transylvania when the Cumans of southern Russia took over Wallachia
1272 A.D. Aided Litovoi in claiming land free of the king of Hungary
1330 A.D. Fought beside Basarab I at Lovistea and helped defeat King Charles Robert of Hungary to give Wallachia it freedom from that country
1368 - 1377 A.D. Fought many battles with the Hungarian military before it was forced from the lands.
1393 A.D Exiled from Wallachia after failing to keep the lands of Dobragea and Silistra from Turkish control.
1456 - 1476 Served as military advisor and personal excutioner to Vlad Tepes. Continued to serve Vlad until his death in 1476.
1476 A.D. Left Romania for parts unknown.
1600 A.D. Next recorded sighting was a tall white devil with pointed ears serving Ieyesu Tokugawa in uniting Japan under one rule. Awarded a rare Muramasa blade for his service.
1702-1713 A.D. Fought for the French against the British during "Queen Anne's War"
1720 - 1745 A.D. Raided American colonist merchant ships from the heavily defended Fotress of Louisbourg until a colonial militia overtook the base and forced him (and everyone else) out.
1854 A.D. Led Admiral Perry to Japan, when Perry left, he stayed behind.
1877 - 1878 A.D. Fought for the emporer druing the Satsuma Rebellion and was awarded a rare Masamune blade (to match his Muramasa) for his service.
1879 A.D. Banished from Japan after being caught with the Emporer's wife. The event was very carefully kept quiet.
1902 A.D. Met Grigori Rasputin and traveled wiht the mysterious figure until 1905 when Rasputin was called to serve the Tsar. It was during this time that Thannatos discovered his love of Vodka.
1941 A.D. Fought with the Russians against the Nazi offensive and stayed with the Russian army until the war's end.
1950 - 2007 A.D. Worked for various differant criminal orginazations throughout Europe performing various tasks, extortion, murder, robbery, etc.
2004 A.D. Subnote: Thannatos gave up his criminal way when he married an eighteen year old beauty. This woman was the only person in Than's long life he ever loved truely. She died during the first Rikti invasion. Than will never forgive the Rikti.
2007 A.D. Arrested by many Longbow agents after killing a shopkeeper in Paragon. He killed five Longbow agents and wounded seven others before finally being brought down by the concentrated fire of five Longbow Wardens. He was quickly sent to the Zig where a couple months later was "freed" by Arachnos during another of thier raids against that facility.
2008 A.D. Awoke the demon inside of him, gaining new powers and discovering his past.
2009 A.D. Became in Incarnate when he tricked some villians into helping him become the vessel of Thanatos.
2010 A.D. Contained the soul of Sideline. Eventually, for reasons unknown, surrendered the body and allowed his soul to pass on. Sideline became Thannatos.
Trivia
Thannatos had traveled across much of the planet and seen many cultures. He speaks fluent Romanian, Russian, German, French, Spanish, Mandorin Chinese, Japanese, Greek, and English. Note that speaking is not reading and Than can only read Romanian, Russian, French, Japanese, Greek, and English. As with everything else, when Than passed, this knowledge became part of Sid.
Sidline is unable to become drunk.
Thannatos never used contractions. He spoke with the modern words and styles, however he would always say out each word when speaking. Sideline only sometimes does this, an after effect of being merged with Than.
Because of his connection with the divine essence, just like Statesman and Recluse, Sideline is unable to be controlled by psychics and can only be read by them when he allows it.
Sideline does not sleep.
Thannatos had learned to be a bartender and was able to mix most drinks without a guide, though he did still need one for the more complicated mixed drinks. Again, Sideline now has this knowledge.
Both Sid and Thannatos are excellent chess players. He can often be found in a quiet corner of the Vanguard base playing chess against The Dark Watcher. In fact some of their games have lasted as long as a week or two (with periodic interuptions for Rikti attacks). He played one game against Gaussian and lost horribly within five minutes. He has never played against him again.
