Difference between revisions of "Perses"

An atlantean lad of decent build, Perses is 6' tall and weighs in at roughly 158 pounds, he has light aquamarine skin and long, sleek, dark blue-green hair, his eyes glowing a soft keppel. His facial features can be best described as stereotypically “Roman”: long, aquiline nose, sharply-defined cheekbones, etc. He is generally seen wearing nothing more than a simple white shirt, black slacks, and a pair of sandals, wearing sun glasses when outside of combat. When doing hero work he wears a long "atlantean blue" sleeveless tunic and a nearly full set of atlantean armor -lacking a helmet- featuring the seal of house Ptolemaios on his belt -eight tentacles inside a circle, four on each side, the top four curling upwards and the bottom four inwards, all coming from the center-top of the circle.

Like most atlanteans, Perses is reserved, conservative almost to the point of rigidity, and rather proud, though thankfully not as haughty as his peers. He values friendship and diplomacy over conflict and argument, and is more likely to attempt to talk his way out of a situation than attempt to resolve it by force of might. He has a very martial mindset thanks to his upbringing, like most of his kin, and thus able to remain calm in a variety of situations. He is also very open minded because of this, quick to embrace new concepts and ideas and adapt to new situations. His martial mindset also leaves him a very orderly individual, keeping a strict daily schedule of activity, it dictates almost every aspect of his day, from when to wake up and when to eat, to when to spend his time enjoying himself or spend it with his boyfriend. This schedule is not unlike the one that was kept by Mr. Rogers, or even that of Doctor Destroyer.

Before Surfacing

Perses was born in early 1996 into one of Atlantis' numerous noble families and having spent most of his younger years being schooled by scholars and priests in accordance with tradition, having little social contact with other children of his age. In reaching his teenage years, he began training with his father in the ways of war, learning strategy, tactics, the proper use and maintenance of armor and weaponry, and everything else an atlantean warrior needed to know. The first major change in Perses' life came shortly after his sixteenth birthday, when his grandfather, Egeus Ptolemaios, passed away, the entirety of house Ptolemaios entering into a month long mourning.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the family members however, Perses' grandfather had left something in the teenage lad's room the day before he died -a book, old, blackened, and worn, paper pages clinging together still thanks to long forgotten magics. Perses, having found the book when returning to his room for the evening, openend it curiously to find a sheet of gold paper between the pages, thereon -in fine atlantean handwriting- being written a message from his grandfather:

"Grandson, I do not have much longer to live -and I do not trust any of your brothers with this secret- but I have seen how you stay up at night to study books about the sorcery of old, how you read tales of the great powers and deeds of the Ten Sons of old. I know that you are the only one that will be able to keep this book safe. What you have there, child, is a book of spells, ancient spells, from before the time of The Cataclysm. It is an artifact that been handed down from father to son within our family for generations until it made its way to me from my father. Even in my younger days I could see how your father was short sighted and bullheaded, thinking that the warrior's path was all that mattered; the man lives for and cares too much for conflict to ever be someone I could entrust with this knowledge, even today he believes that physical might is supreme. What I want you to do child is to take the book and hide it, do you understand, child? Study its contents in secret if you must, but most important is that you forever keep it safe and hidden. And should you choose to learn from it, I trust that you will never use the more vile spells found within its pages. ~Egeus, fourth son of Hippolytus and Accalia of House Ptolemaios"

Perses spent the next year of his life secretly studying the language of Urlogos, the tongue in which ancient atlanteans wrote and spoke their spells, a language composed of Words of Power. In that time he managed to learn a few spells from the pages of the blackened book, minor cantrips and tricks. Whilst his secret studies flourished, so did his 'surface' life: he kept training with his father in the ways of battle, continued learning the proper etiquette of atlantean society, and even received several love letters from more than a few young maidens as he grew into a handsome young man, always refusing them graciously and politely.

Brave New World

Shortly after his seventeenth birthday Perses was confronted by his father, the old man informing him that he had been chosen to be sent to the surface world, where he would learn the ways of surface dwellers for the sake of better relations between humanity and their sea dwelling cousins. Perses was surprised, and initially quite against the idea, but his protests were all for naught, his father's insistence won in the end, and so Perses was now set to live amongst the "landers" for the next decade of his life.

Within the week Perses was almost full ready to leave, he was to be taken to the surface by an UNTIL submarine and dropped off at their Millenium City HQ, where PRIMUS personnel where set to escort him to Ravenswood Academy, where he was set to study much like Prince Marus himself had. However things did not go as planned, shortly after arriving at the UNTIL HQ a group of Altantean Isolationists -having hidden amongst the envoy meant to ensure Perses' safe arrival on the surface- attempted to assassinate the young man, one of them managing to smash his breathing apparatus in the process, depriving Perses of water to breathe... except nothing happened, much to Perses' surprise -and everyone else's- the young man could breathe perfectly fine in the open air.

The Isolationists had not anticipated Perses' possession of Atlan's Gift, nor did they fully think out their assassination attempt as they soon found themselves gunned down by both UNTIL and PRIMUS personnel with stunner weapons, being captured and imprisoned by UNTIL temporarily -as the attack took place within their base- before being handed over to the Atlanteans to be deal with.

Failed Academics

However, because of a mixup in PRIMUS' papers, Perses was not formally enrolled into Ravenswood Academy, PRIMUS assuring him that this will be corrected and that he should be joining the Academy soon enough. This prompted the young man to ask if there were other such schools in the country, the PRIMUS personnel confirming that yes, there were. "Must I truly go to this one specifically? Why not another?" the boy then queried. His handlers agreeing, there was no real reason for him to attend Ravenswood Academy specifically, it was chosen only because it was where Prince Marus studied during his stay on the surface. "I should be allowed to chose my own place of learning, should I not?" Perses then asked, the PRIMUs personnel deciding to let the boy choose for himself what school to attend. "Then I would like to see a list if I may do so."

And so they did bring him a list of potential schools, dozens of them all across the United States, the list being written in Atlantean no less. It took Perses several hours to decide as he took his time silently reading about the schools and reviewing every single one of them but in the end a decision was finally made. "I have decided that I wish to attend Nexus Academy." he declared, beginning his studies at the school a mere two weeks afterwards.

Sadly, Perses did not fit into the school at all well, probably for the better seeing as the school shut down within the next year -but that's another story-, and after dropping out he decided to enroll into Ravenswood Academy -as was originally intended for him.

As an atlantean Perses is stronger and tougher than a normal human of his size and build, augmented by the fact that he is a descendant of lord Mneseus, one of the ancient ten children of the god Poseidon and the mortal woman Cleito, daughter of the the first two atlanteans. His lineage provides him with a lifespan double that of a normal atlantean, even though he is not aware of his lineage. Years of training with his father and scholars have left Perses knowledgeable in wrestling, pankration, tactics, and swordsmanship whilst his secret studies of magic have left him knowing a handful of Atlantean water and mending spells.

Perses is in the possession of a set of Atlantean Golden Armor [sans helmet], a staple of atlantean armorsmithing, this kind of armor is made of a bronze-orichalcum alloy, allowing it to absorb energy attacks as well as it defends against physical ones. Alongside his armor, he also possess a set of golden Atlantean Cestuses, light yet large metallic gloves with a gold sheen to them but with a simple design.

Atlanteans are aquatic lifeforms, their skin must remain moist or they start drying up and suffocating to death -that is if they can even breathe air to begin with, as it is a rare gift amongst Perses' kind- therefor he cannot go for long periods of time without dousing himself in water without risking death by dehydration. Intense heat, quite obviously, will accelerate the rate at which Perses' skin loses its moisture, speeding up the process of dehydration, and thus forcing him to seek out water much sooner/more frequently to prevent the onset of dehydration and ultimately death.

Perses is just a teenager, so whilst he has received training in combat he lacks experience and can easily be outsmarted or outmaneuvered by someone with greater skill or know-how than him. Also, whilst he is far above human teenagers and even the average adult in physical prowess, Perses is actually very much below the standard of what counts as a superheroic level of power, his skill with magic lets him come close, but not quite make it -at least at his current age and level of experience.

For those knowledgeable in HERO and interested in getting an idea of Perses PnP sheet here's an easy to read overview of everything; not all of his powers are listed, but everything that's important is.

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  Perses' original design.

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  Doodle of Perses' original design.