Xykon the Sorcerer

Player Information

Name: AOB
Personal Journal: froncentration
Age: 20
Contact Info: AIM: froncentrate
Other Characters Played: Monobear

Character Information

Character Name: Xykon
Character Series: Order of the Stick
Character Age: 107 years old. He's a skeleton, so he looks as old as he is.
Character Gender: Male
Original Canon
Canon Point: After Soon's Gate is destroyed.
Background Link: http://oots.wikia.com/wiki/Xykon
Personality: Make no mistake, Xykon has absolutely no sympathetic bone in his body. He lives up to the cliché villainous role and understands its conventions well as well as those fitting of the opposite alignment. There's no reason for his being evil beyond it simply being a part of his nature. Entertainment is high on Xykon's list of priorities. When he was a human, he pursued pleasure through being evil and drinking coffee. As a lich, though, his sense of taste has been destroyed and his focus is kept on hurting others, both friend and foe, to indulge himself. While he is willing to work with others at certain points when cooperating is necessary, every other time, he tunes out the rest of the world to pursue entertainment.

Xykon isn't too bright regardless of his enhanced intelligence as a lich. There's hardly ever a time when he takes things seriously. No matter how powerful he is, he achieved nothing in life and had no worldly plans until one was given to him. He doesn't listen to his minions' advice no matter how valuable they might be. Despite his right hand man, Redcloak's, complaints, Xykon follows his own tune and does as he likes. He may take bets on whether or not a valuable hostage can survive being dunked in a pool of shark-filled acid or pit him in a gladiatorial match and still not care. He has all the time in the world and it's okay to use it to have fun. More often than not, it's this arrogance that equalizes his advantages with disadvantages.

That being said, he can be cunning if he wants to and often provides simple solutions to difficult problems. There are occasions when he will take things seriously, though. If his reputation is on the line, he becomes bored, or a situation rises where he could die (again), that's when he sacrifices fun to maximize results. He can genuinely become efficient once he devotes his mind to an activity.

Xykon has few “secrets to success” kept inside his pocket. The first is “force”. Xykon was often ridiculed by wizards for being a sorcerer where magic wasn't earned or learned, but naturally came to him. He's well aware that he has no patience for strategy. However, there's always a certain level of force that no strategy can plan against or break through. He relies on achieving this level of force to simply blast through opposition in that moment than spend hours and days planning ahead. So far, this has worked. In exchange for his impatience and having accomplished nothing in his life, he remains strong and undefeated. The other is “style”. Xykon has to do everything he can to heighten drama and build suspense be it through comedy or flair. In a pinch, style can take the backseat. Ultimately winning is everything.

There's a third secret to success that Xykon doesn't often divulge. Power equals power regardless of whatever shape or form it might appear. And achieving true power lies in going as far as one can to thoroughly debase one's self. Xykon chose to become a lich and sacrifice his humanity simply to avoid admitting weakness. Anything that stands in one's way of achieving power, be it humility, pride, selflessness, concerns, whatever, is all weakness. Xykon, by tearing apart his own skin, has in his mind proved that he has achieved power and is willing to achieve it no matter what the price. And if someone isn't willing to do the same or “keep themselves in the game”, then they have absolutely no hope of defeating him.

This isn't quite as important, but all the characters in Order of the Stick realize that their world is governed by the 3.5 rules of Dungeons and Dragons. Xykon regularly references rules and mechanics of the game. Even beyond that, he references at times real world products or people every now and then.

Abilities: Xykon is a lich, an undead spellcsater and in this case, a sorcerer. He's undead and all that's left of his body are animated bones. Crimson light burns bright from his empty sockets, giving him the power of sight, and his voice is projected through his magic. As a lich, Xykon has natural heightened defense and strength, making him actually stronger than average humans.

He has natural weapons including a paralyzing touch and pure negative energy attacks which also can cure him. Lesser monsters can die from it and people with resistances would only feel a shock, but everybody else would be paralyzed up to a day on contact by hand. The effect cannot be dispelled. Any weapon that comes at him will be less effective thanks to Xykon's natural Damage Reduction skill. Xykon's own natural attacks are considered magical and can pierce through most resistances save for the ones that defend against magic. By the same token, magical weapons specialized against harming the Undead do wonders against Xykon.

Xykon is unaffected by cold, electricity, mind attacks, and transformation magic. His intelligence and senses are both enhanced in this state. If his remnants are shattered, his soul returns to his phylactery, but seeing as he won't have it with him in the setting, his soul vanishes when defeated.

His expertise is with magic that range from the 0th Level to Epic (10th) Level:

0th Level: Ray of Frost (close-range beam of ice from pointed finger), eight are unknown

1st Level: Magic Missile (casts projectiles of magical energy, inanimate objects are not damaged, but they work well against incorporeal targets), Burning Hands (summons cone of searing flame), three are unknown

2nd Level: Shatter (any metallic, nonmagical weapon is shattered when struck), four unknown

3rd Level: Lightning Bolt (as it says), Protection from Energy (grants temporary immunity to type of specified element), Suggestion (as long as the target's will isn't strong enough to resist, the spell allows Xykon to influence their action. An activity can also be triggered when special conditions are met. The spell lasts a day and two hours based on Xykon's current level), Fireball (as it says)

4th Level: Animate Dead (corpses can be made into skeletons or zombies), Greater Invisibility (turns self or target invisible and lasts even after attacking, although Xykon doesn't abuse this spell too much), Resilient Sphere (a globe of force surrounds the target, allowing nothing to pass through in or out aside from air. Magic can extinguish the sphere, but physical attempts cannot.), Stoneskin (strengthens resistance to blows, cuts, stabs, and slashes)

5th Level: Cloudkill (summons a poisonous fog), Overland Flight (grants flight), Symbol of Pain (anybody in radius of the summoned symbol suffers wracking pains and weakens them. The symbol will last four hours and twenty minutes, but anybody skilled enough can find and erase it. Pains last for an hour after either moving sixty feet away or the symbol is erased.), Xykon's Moderately Escapable Forcecage (spell creates bars around a single target, but it's imperfect and can be escaped from like metal bars)

6th Level: Contingency (when a condition is specified, a companion spell activates after it's fulfilled, but it must be at the 6th level at maximum. The minimum casting time is ten minutes.), Create Undead (Undead creatures can be created from a dead body at night), one unknown

7th Level: Finger of Death (an instant death spell, but it can be resisted. If resisted, the spell only inflicts negative energy damage. It can inflict only one target.), Mass Hold Person (multiple targets become paralyzed and frozen in place, can be resisted randomly), Greater Teleport (Xykon can use this to appear in any destination as long as he has at least a reliable description of it)

8th Level: Symbol of Insanity (Anybody trapped within radius of the symbol becomes permanently insane unless found and disabled, remains for four hours and twenty minutes), Ghostform (takes on transparent, incorporeal form that can phase through solid objects), one unknown spell

9th Level: Energy Drain (a black ray suppresses a single target's life force and slightly weakens a target for each negative level inflicted, a spellcaster loses one spell temporarily when hit. Can heal the Undead), Meteor Swarm (four, flaming meteors are summoned and sent against a target), Soul Bind (can absorb a soul from a recently dead body into a black, sapphire gem. Only undone by destroying the gem.)

Epic Level: Superb Dispelling (when cast, more than likely would dispel magic effects and disrupt magical items), Epic Mage Armor (An invisible force surrounds the target and enhances defense drastically), Cloister (can block out teleportation, scrying, plane shifting, and locating and sensing creatures, summoning spells are unaffected, Dorukan's headband is necessary to achieve focus to cast the spell)

Each spell level is in limited supply and the spells can only be cast a certain amount per day.

Feats: Maximize Spell, Still Spell, Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Ring, Craft Ring (Epic)

As powerful a sorcerer as Xykon is, because of personality defects, he tends to forget to prepare important spells. If it's necessary for the story, then playing the eternal villain role, Xykon will be defeated. He would even choose to lose as necessary.
Sample Entry: Along with personality, the most important section of the application. We would prefer if samples were not introductions, as they do not often show off a character's personality well (although if you can make an introduction do so you're free to use it). We accept links to museboxes, dear_mun, or testrun_box as well. Prose or action allowed, length encouraged.