Villain Application - Maliku

The Basics:
Real Name: Mthunzi (Mthunzi is pronounced: M-Toon-Zee, and means: Shadow/Shade)
Alter Ego: Maliku (Maliku is pronounced: M-a-Lee-Koo, it has no meaning I just thought it sounds cool)
Title: Ghost Face (because of the mask)
Alignment: Villain (Neutral Evil)
Age: He appears to be in his early 30s, though is over 2780 years old (Year of birth 776BC)
Gender: Male (I think this should actually be sex, as gender typically has implication of sexual preferences and philosophical outlook)
Race: Human, Zulu (Adopted race as his own were all but wiped out)
Hair: Maliku’s hair is shoulder length, tightly braided dark brown and black
Eyes: His eyes are an unusual shade of green called chartreuse. They seem to glow in with and unnatural malevolence.
Height: 1.84m (about 6’2”)
Weight: 112kg (about 247 pounds)

Costume Description:
Maliku's costume consists of a mask, a leather brestplate, leather greaves and bandoleers. Into each item he has an invested amount of time and energy to make it more useful to him.

Mask
Maliku’s mask is made from simple black cloth. It partially covers his face, leaving only his eyes, the bottom of his cheeks and end of his nose exposed. Swirling tendrils of darkness occasionally snake across his face from the mask lending him and eerie aspect.


Spoiler:


Chest Armour
This chest armour is made from overlapping articulated pieces of leather. The armour is two toned, namely dark blue and blue-grey. The shoulder plates are cured a lot longer than the rest of the armour and are inscribed with shadow runes to aid in focusing his powers. On the back and front of the armour, about two-thirds along the centre, the leather is shaped like large downward-pointing leaves. These are in a darker shade than the shoulder plates and sides of the armour, and protrude upwards at the neck forming a protective collar. Between the shoulder plates is a dark leather grid to further protect the chest. The sides are slightly softer allowing more torsional movement. It is fitted with a dark-brown leather belt and bandoleer to so that he can carry focuses and small tools. Across the back is a padded, flat back pack compartment that allows additional larger gear to be stored. This construction allows for the greatest flexibility and mobility, though at the cost of overall defensive potential.
(This armour improves Maliku’s durability to 3 from 2 without it, this is already figured into the power grid)



Spoiler:


Boots and Greaves
Maliku’s greaves are made of a similar two toned of leather to the chest armour. He wears a bandoleer made of similar dark-brown leather around one thigh that has straps that connect it directly to the greaves. These are treated on the inside to stop shadow essences from seeping out and are normally used exclusively for shadow based items. He also wears brown soft-soled high leather boots, that are secured in place with several small dark-brown leather belts.



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Asagai
Maliku’s prefered weapon is the asagai. This short spear has been used by his adoptive tribe for time in remembrance. He has had quite extensive training in its use, both by the hunters and by the warriors of the tribe.



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Personality:
He has an insatiable craving for power, eventually everyone will be an enemy. However he is not fond of wanton destruction, nor does he have any particular fondness for rules. As a being aligned with shadows he prefers to strike from hiding, using darkness and deception to maximise his advantage. He is seldom encountered without at least one summoned servant. It is also not uncommon for him to use his servants to set a trap or lead his opponents into an ambush. He is drawn to power and is prepared to seize it even at the cost of others in the process.

History:
The lone survivor of parent his race, the Shengani, was lost in a bitter struggle with the more numerous human plague tribes that was sweeping across his land. At the time of his birth fewer than two thousand of his people still lived. Fuelled by his anger at the helplessness of his peaceful people Maliku has made dark pacts with the Dark Lady. She is an ancient an malicious spirit being from the planes of shadow.

At the time he did not realise that the power he sought would cost him his entire people. He came to blames the other tribes for this, rather than himself. He take reprieve from his inner demons, believing that it was the others that pushed him to make this desperate move.

In his devastated state, and due to the loss of those he once loved, he became a wanderer. He was adopted by the Zulu people. They gave him renewed purpose and a sense of belonging. This was during their conquest over the other Nguni peoples.

Maliku's pact with the Dark Lady has granted him agelessness and power over shadow energies. He has spent much of his life contemplating the mysterious and cold shadow planes where his mistress lives. And in the long years of his pact has come to a measure of control of his abilities. He learnt the ways of the sungoma (traditional healer/witch doctor) giving him the ability to bind the spirits of the land and call them to his aid. The Dark Lady immediately begins distorting these spirits, adding them to her fold and instilling in them the nature of the dark shadows.

Now it is time for him to step out of the shadows, or rather step out with the shadows and claim the power that he feels owed.

And the Lady? All she asks is for a regular monthly sacrifice. Only enough innocent blood to was the smell of mortality from Maliku's skin.

Powers:
Maliku’s power is shaped by the gifts of his pacts with the Dark Lady..

Summoning
As creatures of shadow Maliku’s summons are not composed of the regular material of the world. Maliku uses his bond with the shadows to maintain control over his summons. Upon sustaining sufficient harm they are forced to disperse and return to the plane of shadows for a day and a night. His pool is equal to three times the amount points invested in summoning (Summoning pool is 12).

His summoning ability is as follows:

Flicker (Cost: 1 Point from Summoning Pool)


Spoiler:

Hellion (Cost: 3 Point from Summoning Pool)


Spoiler:

Shadow Wisp (Costs 4 points from pool)


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Power Grid:
STR: 3
SPD: 4
DUR: 3
INT: 5
EP: 4 (Summoning)
FS: 3

Power Grid colours:
Blue-Grey | Dark Blue

Weaknesses: Light Sensitivity
Maliku spends most of his time in the darkness, either planing or acting out dubious acts. As a result he is not very effective at fighting from bright light. His reaction times are more sluggish and he is not as accurate.

When fighting in daylight or in bright lighting conditions Maliku fights with an effective FS of 2 when it comes to avoiding harm, and 1 for any attempted strikes against an adversary. This effects for the whole of the first two posts of an event or that the location changes to an area of bright light. This effect is only one post (or an additional post if this is already indicated by the item) if exposed to a sudden temporary bright light (such as a flash-bang or flare).

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Roleplay Sample:
The Gathering of a Servant:
After a few minutes he found the body. It lay naked on a cold steel slab. Torn to shreds, it was hard even to identify the small boy as human. It did not look like the pathologist had been it to look at yet. He removed the vessel that held the shadow lure he had placed in this long forgotten street kid. Good thing this morgue was kept busy, or he might have lost it. So hard to find materials suitable to hold dark energy...

Immediately after touching the tainted flesh he became aware that the creature had skulked into the room. Its dark shadowy muscles were tight and fibrous beneath its near transparent skin. He shaped a spear out of the darkness in the room in preparation for the fight. Stand ready whelp, you face me now, he taunted to it.Yes this one would make a good servant, he thought as a twisted half smile crept across his face.

The beast lunged at him, claws out stretched. Its breath steaming and rancid filled Maliku's nose as he dove out of the way. He raised the short spear until it was level with his arm, holding it along his forearm to his elbow. He dove towards the beast with his arm out stretched, himself in taking the stance of a feral creature. He managed to clip the creature on one of its compact hind legs. The creature let out a cry of rage and coiled itself up for a retaliatory strike.

Maliku rolled as he landed and prepared to stand to face his opponent again. While he was recovering from his role on the creature it attacked again. Graaah!!! The creatures claws struck true through a gap in his armour. A jagged gash ran along his shoulder and the back of his upper arm. The pain was sharp, but just renewed his determination to seal it to his service. He ran towards the creature with his arms outstretch. The shadow spear was still in his good arm and his bad arm braced against the back of the shaft. The Hellion backed up to strike at him, and lost its balance from the wound in its back leg. He plunged the spear into the creature's exposed chest, driving the spear all the way through.

This was enough for the already weakened creature. The poison in the bait had been enough. Maliku withdrew his spear from the beast. He closed his eyes and began a chant ...sum-pee-oona... calling ...lu...scey...mon... upon ...ki...raru...nini...ju... the ...SUNA...LUME!!! Dark Lady. The room seemed to suddenly become cold and a split through the lining of the planes formed. The fallen creature was drawn in through the tare, dragged along by and incredibly long, thin clawed hand that dripped with pungent putrescence. WELL DONE CHILD. I WILL GIVE IT A YOKE AND IT WILL KNOW YOUR VOICE.... IT WILL SERVER SO LONG AS YOU HONOUR OUR PACT. The rasping voice of the Lady caused him no comfort, in fact it made him shudder. In any event it mattered little: he now had the service of another creature.

Spoiler:

Changed a few origin points and updated name. Surname is a fairly modern feature and pre-dates the character concept.

Added to character history and added details on second shadow manifestation ability. I am hoping for the feedback on the Umbral Crystal before i make changes to the 3 level shadow manifestation section. I am busy adjusting the character description (not posed yet), which directly affects how the RP sample would need to be done. i also intend to do a bit more tidying up of the post to make it clearer and easer to run through.

I am not sure if the Shadow EP ability is to strong. i do have a feeling that should only be one function per point invested in the ability. Just a feeling, but one good character defining ability is normally better than several. They make characters in stories more interesting, particularly if they use the same ability in creative ways... we'll see how it goes.

Your summoning stat is 2, meaning none of your summons can have stats that exceed 2

Oh that's how that works...updated to fix this.

I think the character is done enough for me to consider this an application now.

Now the summoning is fine now, but now the Shadow Manipulation is too weak to do what you are planning with it, something from 5+ EP is able to do as you want. So my suggestion is to take some points from other statistics and slap it onto that one

Really should have read the ability level comparison post better.

I figured that it would be better to improve what i already had than to try diversify. Shadows did not really give me more than simple weapons/tools anyway (improve strength or durability). Redistributed to make summoning stronger and added 1 to speed and strength each.

Please just tell me that i did not re-break summoning...because increased the pool to 12 instead of 8, but did make the Hellions cost more

Changed the RP accordingly. The Dark Lady is a shadow being. She gives him creatures to summon creature of darkness, but over darkness itself. He can call her, but she may choose not to answer.