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Post by Barnabas Tharmr on Jul 25, 2023 20:27:15 GMT -6
“Mother…”
For the first time in decades, Barnabas found himself bested. Mythos—nay, Clive Rosfield—was a force to be reckoned with. He was every bit the strong vessel that his master deserved, and he was perfect for him now that Barnabas had forced his own power onto the man. The king himself felt strangely empty with his dark magic so diminished. He could feel the coldness of the aether that had run through his veins for decades finally take over now that the protection of his eikon had left him, and yet he could only turn his head towards the sky and laugh. He had played his part to its ultimate conclusion, and now the lord had a path forward with which to remake the world in his own image. Everything was as it should be. True paradise awaited.
As his vision faded to black, Barnabas stretched out a hand towards the statue of Ultima that towered above him as he welcomed his own death. Still, he couldn’t recall lowering his hand or even really losing consciousness. His return to awareness was anything but gradual. It was a violent rush of air in his lungs as he sat bolt upright, gripping the scar over his heart and breathing heavily as the sun beat down on him from above.
That was…unexpected.
Barnabas couldn’t delude himself for a single moment that this was paradise. His will was still fully his own, and as he raised one hand to shield his eyes, he observed that it was blazingly hot and that a sea of sand stretched out in front of him. Some forsaken corner of Dhalmekia most likely, though the Republic was an entire continent away from the tower in Waloed where he had meant to meet his end. The king’s fists dug into the sand in frustration. “Why, my lord?” He beseeched the heavens, feeling desperation enter his voice, though he’d always tried to keep himself composed around Ultima. “Am I so unworthy of your paradise? Or…is it that my work in your name remains incomplete? Do you perhaps still have need of me?” His prayers went unanswered, though that wasn’t terribly unexpected in this corner of the world. Ultima’s full attention was likely on Mythos and the final mothercrystal, but the silence still grated on his nerves.
Steeling himself, Barnabas rose to his feet and dusted the sand off his trousers as he took stock of his own injuries. Surprisingly, he seemed none the worse for wear though Clive Rosfield had beaten him nearly to death. It only served to strengthen his theory that his master had a hand in his sudden resurrection. He hadn’t known Ultima to have this kind of power, but surely a god didn’t need to reveal everything to one of his servants. Barnabas also took the time to take stock of his own magic, noting that aether seemed to come to him far more sluggishly than before. Perhaps that was an expected side effect of Mythos absorbing his power. Most disappointingly, when he reached for Sleipnir, he felt…nothing. So creating an egi was beyond him now.
“On foot then,” he murmured, feeling a brush of disappointment that had nothing to do with having to cross the sand on his own two legs. The horse had been his companion for decades, and his loss felt…strange. It would be difficult to replace a companion as loyal as Sleipnir. Still, if this was as God desired then Barnabas had no ability to question it. In the end, that was what surrendering his will meant.
Surveying the desert again, the king observed that he wasn’t quite in the middle of nowhere. Far in the distance, there appeared to be movement along a winding trail that snaked its way across the sand dunes. Perhaps a trade caravan. The Dhalmekian Republic was known for those, though Barnabas was surprised there were enough citizens left to form one after Kanver had been completely taken over by the akashic. Still, it was the most promising thing in sight, and so Barnabas set off for it.
It was a short walk made more miserable by the heat, but once he was within range, the king slowed to consider the road. For it was a road of sorts. While not crowded by any means, people passed by in twos or threes on the backs of chocobos. Some even rode past in caravans that seemed to carry various supplies. A trade route indeed.
Three men rode past him on their chocobos, and Barnabas sighed as he summoned his dark blade to own hand. A necessary evil, but they were only human. There was little to grieve. “Forgive me. I seem to be in need of transportation.” He slashed across the air with his sword, unleashing a wave of dark energy that swept outwards. It caught two of them in the neck and their heads rolled before they seemed to realize what had happened. The third man looked around in shock on top of his chocobo, and then he let out a scream as he tried to escape down the road. Ah, but men were ever the same.
Barnabas teleported in front of his path, rising up from a portal of dark magic. The chocobo reared up with a screech of surprise and nearly threw the man, and the king held up a sword to his throat as that forced them to a standstill. “Tell me. What city is it you ride for?” He wanted to know what to expect ahead of him after all.
The man’s eyes bulged as he stared down at the sword in the king’s grasp. “I-...Aljana! It’s Aljana!”
Not even a real place. If he were going to lie, he could at least make it believable. Barnabas sighed from between clenched teeth, touching his forehead as if he had a headache. He could never understand why Sleipnir and Benedikta had enjoyed dealing with people.
“Remember this. That Barnabas Tharmr offered you mercy, and you were too foolish to take it.” He slashed downward and the man fell from his saddle with a choking sound. The Waloedian banished his blade and carefully stepped over the body before he climbed up onto the back of the chocobo himself. Before he rode off though, he clicked his tongue to try to attract the remaining two chocobos to follow him. It would be a shame to leave them in the desert. He rather liked animals.
Final Fantasy XVI
70
YEARS
Male
Ultima
Pansexual
23 POSTS
Erin
You may kneel before Barnabas Tharmr, Warden of Ash and King of Waloed.
Post by Barnabas Tharmr on Jul 22, 2023 14:09:05 GMT -6
Barnabas Tharmr
"Power beyond reckoning, and they use it as a crutch."
I. BASICS
FULL NAME:: Barnabas Tharmr NICKNAMES:: Odin, King Barnabas, Your Majesty GENDER:: Male AGE:: 83 though he looks like he's in his late thirties-early forties. ORIENTATION:: Pansexual. GAME OF ORIGIN:: Final Fantasy XVI ALIGNMENT:: Chaotic EQUIPMENT:: He can summon a sword made out of his dark magic. When he semi-primes, he also gets covered in a full suit of armor.
HEIGHT:: 6'0 HAIR/EYES/SKIN:: Barnabas has dark hair cut into a shaggy style that sits just barely above his eyes. His eyes are blue, and are in fact maybe a bit too blue to be natural. He's totally not akashic, guys. DISTINGUISHING MARKS:: He has a deep scar across his chest. It's usually in view because he often wears open shirts when he isn't in his Odin armor.
II. PERSONA
Barnabas is self-assured and confident to the point of extreme narcissism. He believes himself to have very few equals among humanity, which prompted him to look to the gods instead. He finds strength to be everything, and he relishes a difficult battle more than anything else in the world. But lately Barnabas has found himself...bored. After more than four decades of ruling Ash, there are no longer any challengers to his rule who can actually pose a threat to him, and part of him is extremely disappointed in that fact. He finds the day to day tasks of ruling a kingdom incredibly uninteresting, and so he's slipped into an apathetic depression. He often can't bring himself to care about very much anymore.
Because of his indifference, Barnabas leaves most things in Waloed to Sleipnir and Benedikta these days, but he usually can't resist the chance to go to the battlefield himself. It's a bit of a vain attempt to recapture the joy he felt while conquering Ash, but part of him is worried that he'll never feel anything like that again. Another part of him reasons that it doesn't matter how empty he feels when humanity is about to lose their free will anyway.
Barnabas firmly believes that all of humanity's problems would be solved if they were stripped of their free will and ruled over by their god instead. All of his actions are to further that goal, even if realizes the irony of bringing war and suffering for the sake of ending it. He doesn't find that to be too contradictory though, considering that he is himself human. He recognizes that he too is full of the sin of free will--perhaps even more than other people. That's why he's vowed to serve Ultima and to help bring an end to humanity's great evil. He considers it to be the ultimate act of penance. Perhaps the only one that will finally allow him to rest and enter paradise.
III. HISTORY
Barnabas comes from a line of people that once lived around the mothercrystal known as Drake's Horn in the southern half of Ash. His family used to hold quite a bit of power and influence there since they were known for producing the dominants of Odin. However, as the blight began to spread through the area and even the crystal itself eventually went dark, his ancestors took to their ships and fled to lands south of Valisthea. Barnabas was born and raised in an isolated village there, far away from Storm and Ash. His family was incredibly religious, and his mother in particular was a devout believer. They practiced an old religion called the Circle of Malius that had mostly fallen out of fashion on the main continents. His mother taught him all about the benevolence of Ultima, and how the god would one day return to take humanity into paradise. The stories left quite an impression on Barnabas.
Being a religious minority, they faced heavy persecution in the area and remained fairly isolated. This meant that Barnabas grew up exposed to very little outside influence that might have made his views less extreme. His father died of an illness when he was young, and he had no other siblings, so he and his mother had a very close relationship as he grew up. They lived in a farming and fishing community, but his mother had a leadership position in the Circle of Malius, so Barnabas was always much more exposed to shrines and temples than he was to fishing. His mother also taught him history and language, but his real love was the blade. He took to the sword from a young age after he begged one of his uncles to train him, and though he ended their first session covered in bruises, he was immediately hooked on the rush that even a wooden training sword brought him. After that, he spent every free moment that he had practicing or sparring with the other kids in town. By the time that he was in his mid teens, he was on par with the most skilled adults in their village, and that brought him no small amount of pride.
Unfortunately, religious tensions in the area had only been getting worse over the years. People who still followed the Circle of Malius were considered heretics, and when Barnabas was a teenager, things reached a boiling point. Their village was attacked and set on fire, and though Barnabas took up his sword, he quickly discovered that being the best fighter in a small town maybe wasn't the accomplishment that he thought it was. He was cut down with a deep sword wound across his chest. As he lay bleeding out on the floor, his mother was killed in front of him. That was when his magic flared up and he first awoke as the dominant of Odin.
In the aftermath, Barnabas woke to find his home destroyed and that he was the sole survivor of either side. He had only a passing memory of what had happened after he had primed, but the clean sword strokes on the buildings were answer enough. He had killed them all. Everyone who remained. In his state, he hadn't distinguished between friend and foe.
After having a mental breakdown grieving and tending to the bad wound on his chest, Barnabas decided that since there was nothing left for him here, he wanted to return to the land of his ancestors. He knew that the section of Ash they were from had been struck by the blight, but surely there would still be records that had been left behind. Maybe something there would teach him how to control the power of Odin. Packing what supplies he could, Barnabas stole a ship from a dead man and set off for Ash.
It was a harrowing journey when he was the only one aboard. He thought several times that he might be swept off course or die of exposure, but eventually the blighted land stretched out in front of him. After sailing around the continent for a day or so, he managed to land on the same beach that would one day serve Clive and Jill. Barnabas had finally returned to Valishthea.
He spent more than a decade living alone in the mountains of Ash. The isolation was not so great for his mental state, but he learned a lot during those years. He would forage for food in the mountains and then descend into the blighted land surrounding the dark crystal to see what information he could gather from what had been left behind. He learned much of his dominant predecessors, including that some of them had the ability to create magical servants called Egi. After some practice, Barnabas managed to create himself a dark horse that he named Sleipnir. The horse certainly made it easier to move around, and after so long living alone, Barnabas rather enjoyed the company.
During that time, he also studied what was going on in the populated half of Ash, and he was less than impressed with what he found. Ash was split into so many different warring factions that there was little stability or order, outside of the small kingdom of Veldermarke. Particularly with clans of beastmen roaming around and killing as they pleased, Ash seemed a harrowing place to live. It made him think even less of humanity, remembering the religious teachings of his youth. Humans were so useless when they clung to their free will. Perhaps what they really needed was a strong hand to guide them and make decisions for them.
That was when Barnabas descended from the mountains and made himself known. He began to single-handedly conquer every village or town he came across, building an army as he went. Many of the continent's best warriors rode out to meet him, and with his power as a dominant, Barnabas managed to strike them all down. It was honestly one of the happiest times of his life. Despite the suffering that the wars caused, he relished the struggle. Particularly with conquering the beastmen, since the orcs and others resented bowing their heads to a human. Barnabas delighted in forcing them to anyway. He named the kingdom that he was forming Waloed and created a banner for his armies to ride under that featured Sleipnir. He was becoming very linked with the image of his dark war horse in the public's mind, after all. He thought he might as well lean into it.
Eventually Barnabas even went to war with the existing kingdom of Veldermarke. It was a several years long struggle, but he finally managed to decimate their capital and captured the mothercrystal known as Drake's Spine in the process. It was here as he celebrated his victory in front of the crystal that he had his first encounter with Ultima. Barnabas was beyond struck to meet the god of his childhood, and he immediately bent the knee. Ultima expressed interest in the kingdom Barnabas was creating, and reaffirmed the new king's belief that all of humanity's problems came from their free will. His words spun a powerful dream for Barnabas of a day when humanity would answer only to Ultima and finally be pure enough to enter paradise. It was just as he had always heard in his childhood, so Barnabas accepted it and swore fealty to Ultima. He agreed to do anything that was necessary to further the god's plans. He went so far as to agreeing to become akashic himself, and he took enough aether into his body to give his will over entirely to Ultima. However, because he was a dominant, he did manage to hold onto his sense of self.
With the fall of Veldermarke, the rest of the continent was quick to follow, and Barnabas was crowned king of all of Ash. He built the new capital of Waloed on top of the ruins of Veldermarke and named the city Stonehyr. In the immediate aftermath of his coronation, he savored the victory, but he quickly found that actually ruling wasn't nearly as interesting to him as conquering had been. This was the beginning of his years of apathy. However, the years still passed, and since Barnabas had become akashic he did not seem to outwardly age at all, causing whispers throughout Storm and Ash that the king mostly ignored. Eventually, Barnabas decided to seek out other dominants to assist him in ruling Waloed. While he was skilled with a blade, he had always struggled in dealing with people in other capacities. That was when he first met Cidolfus Telamon.
Cid was incredibly personable and seemed like the answer to Barnabas' prayers. He was skilled enough in combat that he quickly rose through the ranks, and the king eventually promoted him to the position of lord commander. While the armies of Waloed would ultimately report to Barnabas, he left their day to day commands up to Cid. The man exceeded the king's expectations, and he even brought another dominant into their midst after he rescued a young girl named Benedikta who turned out to be Garuda. As she grew, Benedikta turned out to have quite a few aspirations of her own, and Barnabas granted her the power that she wanted by naming her his Head of Special Operations. If she also slid into his bedchambers on occasion, that had nothing to do with her performance. She was a useful soldier.
Unfortunately Barnabas and Cid started to have disagreements. Ramuh's dominant was impatient with how certain members of society were being treated, particularly the bearers. Barnabas himself had little care on creating equality in this world when they would all someday be equal under Ultima, but Cid didn't seem to share his outlook. The king had kept his religion close to his chest ever since his people had been killed for it. He didn't want a repeat of that scenario, but one day Cid overheard him talking to Ultima in his chambers, and that was when the dominant realized the true extent of Barnabas' plans for Valisthea. That was the end of it. Cid packed up and left for Storm.
The king took Cid's betrayal hard. It reinforced his belief that there wasn't a single other human being he could trust. He needed someone else to command his armies, but rather than promoting one of his other generals, he locked himself away in Stonehyr in a deep depression. When he eventually emerged, it was with a white-haired man that he introduced as Sleipnir. While he seemed to have the same name as Barnabas' horse, it wasn't known where the young man had come from. He and the king were rarely seen apart after that though, and he was quickly named the new commander to Waloed's armies. While it infuriated other more senior members of the military, there was no doubting Sleipnir's prowess in combat when he took to the battlefield. He seemed to have unnatural strength and some of the king's own dark magic. How he had acquired it, the people could only speculate.
While Cid had been a moderating influence on Barnabas, Sleipnir and Benedikta were certainly anything but. The king felt inspired to bring war to Storm's doorstep at long last. They formed a tenuous alliance with the Dhalmekian Republic that was mostly brokered by Benedikta. Barnabas himself didn't quite understand her relationship with Titan's dominant, but he allowed it. Particularly when it got his country what he wanted. On the other side of things, they immediately went to war with the empire of Sanbreque over a bit of territory on the coast of Storm that Waloed wanted to expand into. Barnabas himself frequently came to the battlefield as Odin, though mostly as a form of deterrence since the empire had taken to sending out their young prince as Bahamut. Truth be told, he rather enjoyed their clashes over the years. Prince Dion had quite a bit of promise, and Barnabas felt a spark of the joy that he'd felt while conquering Ash whenever they fought.
A few years passed this way before Ultima first directed his attention towards Clive Rosfield. His lord's vessel had finally awoken to his power, though he would need to absorb magic from all the dominants to be considered perfect. Barnabas vowed to Ultima that he would help guide Mythos along his path. The only other dominant still under his command was Benedikta, but he sent her on a mission into Storm on the hope that the two would cross paths. After she met her unfortunate end, he then directed Sleipnir to retrieve her body and cut off her head. He had the head sent to Titan's dominant in a lovely box with a message from "Cid." It was a bit like killing two birds with one stone--it ensured that Hugo and Clive would almost certainly cross paths while also targeting Cid for betraying him all those years ago.
Unfortunately Hugo played his role a bit too well. He tried to confront Clive in Rosaria after destroying the capital city of Mythos' home. Holding their clash in Rosalith just wouldn't do when his master also wanted Mythos to destroy the mothercrystals along the way in order to both gain strength and free Ultima's various incarnations. At this rate, Mythos would have little reason to visit Drake's Fang in Dhalmekia though. He sent Sleipnir to intervene, and his lord commander managed to rescue Hugo from death, though not before Clive absorbed his powers. Sleipnir then returned Kupka to his palace within Drake's Fang, as ordered. If he also goaded Titan's dominant into absorbing a bit of the crystal, Barnabas certainly didn't mind. It would prove to be a good test for Mythos and how his power was progressing. The ensuing battle was certainly something to behold, and Barnabas himself got to witness the death of the mothercrystal, remarking that it was beautiful.
Waloed went a bit quiet after that - His master had assured Barnabas that Mythos would come for the crystal in the Crystalline Dominion and that he had everything set in place there to ensure that Clive absorbed Dion's power when he did. The king was almost a little sad at the news - He'd miss his battles with the young prince in their war with Sanbreque, but it couldn't be helped. It was all for God's plan.
Afterward, Ultima came to visit Barnabas in his chambers. He shapeshifted into various forms in order to manipulate him and asked for his help with returning Mythos to his side. He wanted the king to sever all of the bonds of consciousness the man had formed. Barnabas was hesitant to try something so intangible, but if his lord wanted it, then he would take a more active role in hunting Mythos.
From what Barnabas knew of Clive Rosfield, he would always come in person for one of his associates who was in danger. And the king remembered that Cid had a daughter whom he had sent to study in Kanver. To that end, he decided it was time to take more drastic action. He used his greatest warship to transport the local beastmen and hordes of akashic across the ocean to Kanver. He then set them loose on the city to freely murder and change the citizens. That would surely do more than enough to draw Clive out of hiding.
As expected, Mythos came, though not until after Barnabas had murdered the entire council of Dhalmekia out of pure annoyance. He had instructed Sleipnir to welcome Mythos, but his lord commander took it a step further by challenging him to a fight. Barnabas allowed it, and was impressed to see Clive best Sleipnir. He came out to meet the man himself for the first time, though he found himself disappointed in Mythos' current level of power. The boy would need quite a bit of work before he was ready to face his master, but Barnabas considered himself up to the task. To demonstrate the difference in their power, he cut about every sinew in Clive's body with a single stroke. How does Clive defeat him later you ask? The power of friendship or something, I don't know.
Phoenix and Shiva's dominants both rushed in to help Mythos. His brother managed to get Clive to safety, while Jill primed into Shiva to give them a chance to escape. The sight annoyed Barnabas a bit as he stated that they should use their power as an extension of themselves and not as a crutch. He then defeated Jill in what was probably a pretty cool off-screen battle.
Barnabas took Jill as a hostage aboard his flagship as they started to sail home for Waloed. His hope was to lure Clive to Ash where he could better isolate him. However, he hadn't counted on them catching up to him at sea first. The Einherjahr was one of the fastest known ships, but it certainly couldn't compete with a steam engine. Upon seeing them, Barnabas primed into Odin and had a brief battle with the Phoenix that ended in him literally cutting the ocean in half. Like, you don't understand, it stays cut in half for a full ten minutes defying gravity. Once again, how does Clive defeat him later? I don't know, the power of friendship or something.
The Einherjahr fell into the crack and plummeted to the ocean floor. Clive and Jill stumbled out a little worse for wear and wondered what to do next when Barnabas suddenly appeared behind them from inside a dark magic portal. He proceeded to fight Clive again, but in his semi-prime form this time. While he was certainly impressed by Clive's growth, he still finished the battle by cutting down Mythos with a sweep of his sword. Torgal tried, but Jill did nothing useful to prevent this.
Barnabas then informed them that Clive's purpose was to feed on all the dominants and submit himself as Ultima's vessel. He also shared his own goal of turning everyone in the world akashic before he vanished into a darkness portal to escape the falling ocean. I'm not sure what he would have done if Clive had drowned. That would have been pretty awkward to explain to his boss.
Regardless, Barnabas was confident that Clive would come to Ash. The man's goal was to destroy the mothercrystals after all, and the last one that remained was in Stonehyr. Mythos would come to him in due time. In preparation, Barnabas made good on his threat by helping to release an aetherflood across Waloed. With the citizens all transformed into the akashic, he primed into Odin and confronted Clive in a small town close to Stonehyr named Eistla. He was pleased to see that Mythos was near to completion. All that was needed to make him presentable enough to face his master was for him to absorb Odin's own power. Barnabas still wasn't going to make it easy for Mythos though. Ultima had no need of a weak vessel after all.
He could have fought Clive right there. But that wasn't nearly dramatic enough. Instead he put up a barrier and forced Mythos to come to a tall tower in the distance called the reverie. If they couldn't fight at the top of a tower, then what was even the point?
Eventually Mythos managed to fight his way upwards and confronted Barnabas at the very top. Their battle was a brutal one as they kept switching between their primed forms and back. Barnabas found Clive much improved this time though. Now that Mythos had the power of seven Eikons, the king started enjoying himself more than he had in decades. Laughing manically, he threw everything he had into the fight and was pleased to find himself defeated. Truly a vessel worthy of his master.
As Clive stood over his body, Barnabas realized he had one final task to complete. He grabbed onto the man's ankle and forced him to absorb the power of Odin. As his magic left him, Barnabas immediately started to die since he had long ago turned himself akashic. With his last breath, he reached towards the statue of Ultima, confident that he would soon enter paradise and be reunited with his mother.
No one tell him.
IV. AUTHOR
PLAYER ALIAS:: Erin OTHER CHARACTERS:: Genesis, Yuna, Noctis ROLE-PLAYING EXPERIENCE:: Proboards stuff as a teenager and then here. HOW YOU FOUND US:: I am still married to Fin. NOTES FOR CONSIDERATION:: I will try to not be a jerk with him. The man cut the ocean in half. ROLE-PLAY SAMPLE:: I am immune.
