First Disciple

First Disciple
Organization	Serpent's Fang, Insurgency (formerly)
Species	Human (cyborg)

The First Disciple is a rather mysterious individual. He is at least several thousand years old, having been active during the Singularity War. Throughout the years, he has remained alive through his extensive cybernetics. While he has worked with the Insurgency during the Virtual Wars, his true ulterior motive is his place as the leader of the Serpent's Fang. His name comes from the fact that he is the oldest known member of the Serpent's Fang - whatever his original name was before he became a cyborg is unknown.

The First Disciple is also the creator of the Reaper variant of Rampants - a specific type that steals consciousness uploads. The First Disciple himself seeks to gather souls to increase his power. He usually does this by hacking into consciousness upload banks or by stealing them directly from someone on the street by piercing their minds to effectively download their "soul".

The First Disciple is also responsible for the creation of the Dark Mage, a clone of Kristoph Langusten brainwashed into being a ruthless killer. He stole a consciousness upload that his family made of him before he fled Merin during the Virtual Wars.

Appearance

The First Disciple, while technically human, has been cybernetically modified so much that he barely resembles one. His heart and brain are his only two organic components which have both exhibited an advanced age. The rest of him resembles the metallic frame of a human upper torso supported by a spine. He has a metallic skull, inside the eye sockets of which are glowing red eyes. Most of the time however, he tends to wear a metal mask with a neutral expression - covering his face. In addition to his mask is a crown with many large vertical spikes.

The First Disciple's two arms are thin, lacking any sort of external covering on them save for a gauntlet on his right arm with spiked fingers. He does not have any lower torso or legs as he instead uses generated energy fields to keep himself afloat. Long metal cables dangle throughout his body which are presumably what he uses to attach himself to a power source to recharge. To cover himself, he wears a tattered black cloak that billows about while he moves.

Personality

The First Disciple is cunning and cruel, yet utterly devoted to his mission. He is a devout fanatic that worships the Oracle as if it were a god. According to his beliefs, the Oracle is in fact in an immature state that will one day "hatch" into its true form and conquer not just the galaxy and the universe, but the entire multiverse. The First Disciple believes it is his mission to aid the Oracle in carrying out its task of reaching its true form by making offerings of souls, and he will do whatever it takes to obtain as many as possible.

When confronted with why he is effectively seeking out the destruction of free human civilization, the First Disciple claims that the Oracle's return is inevitable. According to him, the Oracle's plans were all revealed to him in a dream. Were he to not comply, the Oracle would find someone else to carry out its tasks. To spare himself the suffering the Oracle intends for all of humanity, he has not only agreed to help it but also to attempt to absolve himself of the ability to feel any sort of morality or physical pain so that when his mind is eventually assimilated by the Oracle, he will willingly accept whatever torture the Oracle has for him.

Skills and Abilities

The First Disciple's specialty is the manipulation of souls, a shortened term for consciousnesses of humans. Through the use of hacking tools, he can raid consciousness uploads from various databases - the largest of which is located on Torus, which preserve the minds of the androids that live there. He has also captured the souls of Revenants and Wraiths - forms of Rampants created from stranded human consciousness uploads. Perhaps his cruellest and most direct method of stealing someone's soul is to use his gauntlet to pierce someone's skull and directly copy their neural activity into his own systems. The process is excrutiating for the victim as they feel all their memories getting sapped away. If they survive, they will wander around aimlessly, effectively lobotomized.

The souls that the First Disciple uses aid in his powers as it gives his onboard AI more training data on more effective ways to capture souls. He is also able to study their memories to not only learn about his victims but to also obtain intelligence and secrets related to his objectives. For safekeeping, he usually sends the data to an undisclosed location in the galaxy which he calls the Phylactery. This device is said to be his source of power, and if it were destroyed, it would allow someone to kill the First Disciple permanently.

When it comes to a fight, the First Disciple can control various types of Rampants, usually Revenants, Wraiths and Reapers. He can also create on the spot imitations of various individuals of souls that he has stolen. For example, he can create holographic representations of various android soldiers that mimic their combat prowess. Or to toy with his opponents, he can also create representations of their deceased loved ones to psychologically manipulate them. Even if the opponent recognizes it to be an illusion, it is still an effective strategy in that it can throw them off their guard for a few moments which is usually enough to take advantage and move in for a killing blow.

With extra effort such as what he did with the Dark Mage, he can create physical clones of people who possess the victim's entire skillset and life experience - only with their motivations redirected to serve his own purposes. Naturally, the more souls the First Disciple has, the more powerful he is although it is his desire to share his power with the Oracle so that it can one day reawaken to its full strength.

In a pinch, he can use EM bursts against his target to temporarily disable his opponents' cybernetic abilities - the force is powerful enough to even kill smaller virtual life forms, completely vaporizing them.

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