Under-Empire’s Side

Vaile, the Exile From the Old World, and the Repulsive Tamer

Description: Vaile is a Caucasian male who, were it not for his trait ‘Reversed Attractiveness’ would be the most eligible bachelor among The Races. His race is Human, his eyes are purple his hair is white, although this is due to his character creation rather than any albinism. He is not overly muscled, nor is he overweight, nor is he too skinny, rather he is a perfect mix of all three. He is tall for a human of the new world, roughly several centimeters taller than a normal Human and roughly the same size as an average Elf at about 1.97 meters.

His attire is quite the ensemble, consisting of a highly detailed leather, chainmail and cloth outer layer, high-quality undergarments and a cloak that is made of the fur of one of the last expansion’s End Game Mythic+ Raid Bosses, Fimbulvinter Fenrir. Naturally, the fur was not taken by force or on death but was cut after the Boss was Tamed by Vaile himself.

Vaile was the best Tamer in the entire game, even going so far as to sneak around behind the backs of other gamers to be the first to face and Tame any new entity. After the transfer to the New World, Vaile ended up accidentally landing on Death Row due to no fault of his own. He was rescued by one of his Tamed Beings, Skwiik Face-stealer, who had somehow been in the New World before he arrived. The New World is both radically different and incredibly similar to the Game World, and Vaile is still trying t figure out what exactly is different and what is the same.

One thing is clear to him, his Tamed Beings, or those that still exist, are living in this world naturally and without issues. They have their own niches that they have carved out, and due to what is likely a connection to the Game World they are exponentially more powerful than any natural part of the New World.

Vaile must be careful, there are many forces in the world that want the god-like beings the Vaile has control over either gone or under their control, and Vaile’s build is not geared towards combat.

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Skwiik Face-Stealer, the One Who Stalks in Shadows, and the Poisoned Dagger of the Under-Empire

Description: Skwiik is a roughly Human shaped, black-furred Rattan with red eyes who stands at 1.98 meters. She wears outfits made of the faces of those she has killed, and some from those she has not. She has twin curved, serrated daggers that are covered in a fast-acting neurotoxin and a terrible corrosive agent that together make the daggers nearly unstoppable in the current world. She is the Grand Master of the Rattan Assassin’s and is one of the members of the Five-Clawed Paw.

In-Game she and the other members of the Five-Clawed Paw were much shorter than they are in the new world, roughly the same size as the normal Rattan in the game and in the new world. Now, however, they are tall and were it not for their inhuman features they would be true femme fatales that no member of the Races could match.

Her attitude towards anyone not part of the Five-Clawed Paw or Vaile is one of utter malice and hatred, and even her own subordinates try to keep from achieving too much or risk her turning on them.

She, along with the rest of the Five-Clawed Paw, view Vaile as her ‘Master-Husband’ and will do anything in her power to help the massive hunk of handsome love that she cares so deeply for.

(P.S.: Please remember that an extremely tall Rattan is just over 1.3 meters tall AT MOST and ONLY if they straightened their back out of their perpetually hunch-backed stature, which makes them even shorter (roughly the size of an average Dwarf) at just over 1.06 meters. The members of the Five-Clawed Paw do not have hunch backs and therefore are even taller than the ‘tallest Rattan’.)

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Rippa Steelwhiskers, the Butcher of the Dwarven Race, and the Clawed Fist of the Under-Empire

Description: Like Skwiik, she too is human shaped, but with fur that seems to be made of steel. At around 2.1 meters, she is taller than all but one Rattan and is the leader of the Rattan Military As a member of the Five-Clawed Paw, she has a great amount of power that she can wield as a single word or gesture can force entire clans to make suicide attacks.

She usually wears sharp metal armor pieces over her black cloth/ leather and chainmail outfit and either dual wields falchions or a single halberd. Like the rest of the Rattan, her eyes are red, and she wears and eye-patch over her left eye, which was removed and replaced with an eye made of raw magicite crystal. Thanks to the nature of magicite crystal, she can see perfectly well as though she was never missing her left eye.

She is just as busty as Skwiik but uses cloth wraps and a metal plate to keep her ‘annoying meat-bags’ from getting in her way while she fights. Like Skwiik, she is absurdly cruel to anyone who isn’t either a member of the Five-Clawed Paw or Vaile and has an attitude towards training her forces that would make even the harshest drill instructed believe that she was going way too far.

She, along with the rest of the Five-Clawed Paw, view Vaile as her ‘Master-Husband’ and will do anything in her power to help the massive hunk of handsome love that she cares so deeply for.

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Grima Greasegears, the One Who Moves Technology Forward at All Cost, and the Mad Mechanic of the Under-Empire

Description: Like those mentioned before, she too is human shaped and stands at 1.9 meters, and yet she is flat as a board unlike the rest of the Council. Her fur is brown, and her eyes are red, even if they are hidden behind her brass-rimmed goggles. She oversees the Rattan Under-Empire’s research and development regarding new technologies and normally wears brown leathers, brass fittings and various cloths that have visible oil stains, among other things. Her battle equipment is a giant mechanized rat made of her most advanced technology that can seamlessly transform between normal rat-mode and Rattan-mode.

Her attitude towards others is one that values her pursuit of improvement and twisted knowledge over all, including but not limited to the hundreds of thousands of lives that have been sacrificed in her pursuit of building and designing better implements of destruction and torture. The only things she will not sacrifice for the pursuit of her aims are the Five-Clawed Paw and Vaile himself.

She, along with the rest of the Five-Clawed Paw, view Vaile as her ‘Master-Husband’ and will do anything in her power to help the massive hunk of handsome love that she cares so deeply for.

(P.S.: Her name is pronounced ‘Gry-muh’)

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Snikty Cut-sew, the Molder of Flesh, and the Psychotic Surgeon of the Under-Empire

Description: Human-sized and with ‘meat-bags’ that are larger than Skwiik’s but smaller than those of the Leader of the Five-Clawed Paw. She stands as the shortest of the Five-Clawed paw at 1.8 meters and her fur is a patchy mix of brown and black. Over her body she wears formerly white clothes that have been stained in the blood and bile of her numerous victims and test subjects.

She is the member of the Five-Clawed Paw in charge of overseeing torture, interrogations, ‘medicine’ and of course the cruel surgery that creates some of the most monstrous beings that serve the Under-Empire. She works closely with Grima Greasegears in the pursuit of creating the most twisted and sadistic masterpieces that exist in the Under-Empire and takes a special delight in pushing her boundaries ever further in the ‘art’ of creating new masterworks of meat, bone and sinew. Once she gets inspiration, there is almost no more terrible a place to be for any living creature to be than within her gaze.

She, along with the rest of the Five-Clawed Paw, view Vaile as her ‘Master-Husband’ and will do anything in her power to help the massive hunk of handsome love that she cares so deeply for.

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Chuu Snowfur, the Leader of the Five-Clawed Paw, and the Sorcerous Vermin-Queen of the Under-Empire

Description: Chuu is massive, towering over even the tallest of elves at a height of 2.45 meters. She is not only massive in height, but also in the size of her chest and her pride. She stands several heads over the other members of the Rattan Ruling Council, the Five-Clawed Paw, which makes her much, much taller than even the largest natural Rattan. She has the regal presence of a woman that is not only confident in her power and control, but one who is absolutely certain of it and even her clothes show her confidence in herself.

She wears some scant cloth and leather with a white lace veil over her face, but aside from that she wears next to nothing as she is proud to show off her lustrous and perfectly groomed pure white fur. He mastery over the arcane has put her in the position that she is in, and may the myriad gods have mercy on anyone who she thinks has a chance to threaten her domination over her kind.

Her main weapon is her staff in whose head sits a large chunk of refined magicite shaped vaguely like a skull that she has imbued with her own power, thus making it nearly impossible for anyone else to use without being driven utterly mad. The Skull-like Magicite crystal is rumored to be all that remains of an ancient Dwarven God that dared to stand against her, but she has had her staff for so long that anyone who knew its true origins is either dead or has sealed their lips.

Her fur is a color that is so rare that it is said to be a sign of divine nature as no other Rattan has it, and her eyes back up her claim to divinity by glowing with a green light that causes all her gaze falls upon to be overwhelmed with the urge to submit, even when shining from beneath her ever-present veil. She is the greatest of her kind’s magic-users and her strength with magic and intense cruelty when using it are so strong that it eclipses anything that even an army of max-level humans in the new world can do.

From the back of her head sprout even more proof of her connection to the Beast-God of the Rattan, as four curving horns made of pure magicite ore infused with her own ruinous magic grow from her skull while a much smaller one juts up from just behind her nose.

Even the combined force of the other members of the Five-Clawed Paw have no doubt that to try and rebel against the Vermin-Queen would be suicide, even if they through the entire Under-Empire at her in the process. In the Under-Empire, there are none foolish enough to challenge the Immortal Vermin-Queen and her four fellow Council Members.

Although, within the hordes of vicious and sadistic Rat-Beastmen, there is a rumor that there exists a being so perfectly handsome and so flawless in form that even the Divine Queen herself is enthralled by his existence. This rumor is so widespread that it has even been heard by those who are not members of the Under-Empire, and that very fact is what has created the only potential threat worth mentioning that the Vermin-Queen could ever face to her rule.

The mythical ‘Vermin-King’ could very well be the only being in the world that could truly control the implacable ruler of the Under-Empire. Throughout the world there exist several organizations, both human and otherwise, that seek to curtail the growing power of the Under-Empire and stop its inevitable war against the surface that would be greatly interested in securing such a being. After all, if there exists a man capable of controlling the Vermin-Queen, then he and his puppet masters could, by proxy, command the entire Under-Empire!

There are many who would wholeheartedly agree that such a person would make an immensely powerful tool indeed, even if the risks in securing and controlling him might very well immeasurably outweigh even the most optimistic estimates of potential rewards…

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Gilder Ironheart’s Kingdom Side

Gilder Ironheart IX, the Rune-King Descendant of a Dwarven God, and the Last Bulwark-King Who Stands Against the Vermintide

Description: Gilder Ironheart is the ninth to bear his name and the tallest living dwarf at roughly 1.5 meters. He is the descendant of King Gilder Ironheart I, a God-like Dwarf who, along with serval other God-like Dwarves, rescued the various Dwarven Kingdoms from total annihilation. His Kingdom is the one that is currently under siege by the villainous Rattan Under-Empire, which has already claimed two of the other Kingdoms that stood against it. The strength of a God still flows through his veins, and he will be damned if he lets the lineage that saved his kind and started his Kingdom end by the craven claws of a bunch of oversized rats.

He is taller than an average Dwarf, with a large, perfectly cared for beard that seems to sparkle with the glint of iron. His eyes are deep blueish grey, and his body is built like the warrior that he is. As he is one who bears the blood of a God, he has lived past the life-spans of other dwarves born at the same time and therefore has had the time to study the arts of warfare as well as the arts of Runecraft. He wields a relic from the Age of Gods, an axe that hums with immense power and whose head is wreathed in a silvery light. Upon his left arm is a shield said to be forged from the body of an ancient monstrosity of unparalleled power and upon his body is the armor of the First King.

Even though the rest of the Dwarven Kingdoms ignore the threat of the Vermin-Queen and thrust the responsibility of defeating her upon the last surviving God-Kin who dwells beneath the Mountains, Gilder Ironheart IX fully intends to be the bulwark against the nightmarish tide of hideous rat-men. His duty to his people is all he needs to stand as the final wall between his people and destruction, and the wall that he and his kingdom have become will not break until his dying breath.

Prophetic words, to be sure.

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Old Ironsides, The Great Protector of the Children of the Gods, and the Metal Knight Who Guards the Gate

Description: Old Ironsides has never had a moment to rest since his creators left him to try and destroy the Under-Empire’s leadership. Ever since that fateful hour he has been assailed by everything the Rattan could throw at him, from mechanical monstrosities to fleshy nightmare-fuel. The massive work of a divine engineer, Old Ironsides is a technological marvel of ‘robah ticks’ and runecraft, with the arsenal necessary to act as the gatekeeper that holds back the vermintide. It was not until the most recent Dwarven Kingdom fell before the onslaught of the Vermin-Queen that Old Ironsides relocated himself and stood defiant alongside the last true bastion of Dwarven Warriors outside the Kingdom of one of his maker’s children.

Towering at over 19 meters tall and made of an iron-looking metal that has resilience greater than steel, this colossus of a golem wields a vast assortment of built-in weapons alongside his six arms, each carrying massive longswords that can launch crescent-like waves of light, water, fire, earth, wind and darkness respectively with a single swing.

Old Ironsides cares not for the needs of the living, such as sleep, food, drink and rest. There is only the drive to protect the people his masters cared for and to slaughter any that do not belong to The Races. For over four thousand years, Old Ironsides has maintained what he referred to as a ‘great crusade’ against the taint of the Rattan Under-Empire.

However, every crusade must eventually end…

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Morgrim Nobeard, the Unseen Blade of the Dwarves, and the One Who Hunts the Elusive ‘Vermin-King’

Description: Morgrim Nobeard is a mystery. There are some who say he does not exist, and other who say they have seen him. There are some who say he is not one Dwarf in particular, but that Morgrim Nobeard is merely a name given to those who fill his/ her position. There is only one thing that is true about Morgrim Nobeard.

He/ She is on a relentless hunt for the rumored Vermin-King of the Rattan.

It has been that way for as long as anyone can remember, that the rumored Vermin-King was the prime target of the ‘Blade of the Dwarven People’. It has been that way for so long that no one even questions why it is that way, or how Morgrim has been around for so long. It is rumored that Morgrim is, in fact, one of the Dwarf Gods from ages past, one who rejected the call of the others and did not disappear into the deep, dark domain of the Rat-men. If this rumor is true, then the last true God of the Dwarves is still alive and has been trying to avenge their kin for the longest of times.

No one knows what Morgrim looks like, or even if they have no beard at all or have a beard fit for a God. All that is known is that there is a rumor that the elusive and mythic Vermin-King has been found in a Human Kingdom and that he disappeared with the help of one of the dreaded Five-Clawed Paw.

Morgrim Nobeard’s hunt is coming to an end, and whether that hunt ends in the death of the Vermin-King or their own demise has yet to be seen. However, the Runes do not speak well of any attempt on the being who all under the mountains call ‘The Vermin-King’. Whether this is due to the very act of assassination being impossible, or due to the inevitable retaliation that would come from it either succeeding or failing is unknown.

The ‘Great Rat Hunt’ is almost over, but will the predator become prey?