disfavouring | fade rift app.

PLAYER

Name: Nat
Age: 27 (in 25 days)
Contact:

salvatrice / compels#7908 @ discord
Other Characters: Adalia
Interests: plot plot plot gimme all ur plot. also, clearly, elf stuff.

CHARACTER

Name: Prince Nuada
Canon: Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Canon Point: Before he turns to stone
Journal:

disfavouring
Age: old as balls

Canon World

The world of Hellboy is, on the surface, much like our world was in 2008. There are cars, phones, computers, TVs, all the same nations and technology as appropriate to that year, and for the most part no one is aware of anything more. Just because the general populace isn't aware of the more supernatural elements of the world, however, doesn't mean they don't exist — or that they won't ever know.

Demons, elves, trolls, pyrokinetics, and all manner of other supernatural and inhuman creatures exist in the world of Hellboy, as does some form of magic. These creatures, for the most part, live in hidden and forgotten corners of the world, avoiding notice by humans and slowly dying out as humanity takes over more and more of the world. One such society, the ancient and near-extinct elves of Clan Bethmoora, went to war with humans millennia ago, and used the indestructible Golden Army to devastating effect. The Clan's leader, King Balor, forged a truce with humanity that relegated the elves to the forests and the humans to cities. Thousands of years later, the king's son Nuada has returned from self-imposed exile to reclaim the world from the humans and kill everyone who would stand in his way.

Over the course of the film, the half-demon Hellboy and his fellow agents of the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense are outted to the world, making humanity aware of the strange creatures with which it shares the world.

History

Many thousands of years ago, the mythical creatures of the world warred with humanity. During this war, King Balor of the elves had the goblin master craftsmen create an indestructible Golden Army to fight back the humans. Upon seeing the destructive capability of the Army, the king negotiated a truce with humanity, ending the war. Nuada disagreed with this, and went into self-imposed exile over it, promising to return when his people most had need of him.

Smash cut to modern day, Nuada has decided it's time for him to return to the stage. He recovers one piece of the crown used to control the Golden Army and slaughters an antiques auction in the process, attracting the attention of the BPRD.

Having one piece of the crown, Nuada returns to the elves to gather the other two. He regretfully kills his father for his piece and turns to his sister for the last, only to find she has fled. Frustrated but not deterred by this, Nuada leaves for the Troll Market in Brooklyn.

In the Troll Market, the BPRD catch up to Nuada, killing his associate Mr. Wink and forcing his hand as they steal Nuala away — Nuada unleashes a forest elemental for them to contend with, leading Hellboy to kill it. The BPRD take Nuala to their headquarters, which eventually allows Nuada to glean the location of it from her thoughts.

Upon catching up with Nuala, he discovers the location of the Golden Army itself, and begins to search for the final piece of the crown, which Nuala has hidden. Hellboy comes to fight Nuada, but Nuada bests him, leaving Hellboy with a mortal wound. He abducts Nuala to the location of the Golden Army, charging Abe Sapien with bringing him the final piece of the crown.

When the BPRD agents arrive at the resting place of the Golden Army, Abe, smitten with Nuala, gives Nuada the final piece of the crown. After a brief fight between the BPRD and the Golden Army during which the Army regenerates any damage done to it, Hellboy challenges Nuada to a duel for the right to command the Army. Hellboy wins the duel but refuses to kill Nuada, leading Nuada to attempt to kill Hellboy when his back is turned.

He is stopped in his tracks by a sudden pain in his chest — Nuala stabbed herself, thereby stabbing Nuada as well. As he dies, he entreats Hellboy to turn on the humans, and then turns to his sister, turning to stone as he steps toward her.

Personality

It would be too easy to call Nuada a genocidal maniac and call it a day — though he is that. By his own admission, his plan for humanity is nothing less than a holocaust, and he doesn't shrink from any kind of violence. It's justified, after all, in light of what he is fighting to stop — the fading of his people, the inexorable spread of greedy humanity, the loss of the truly unique and awe-inspiring of this world — and he will fight it with everything he has, to his last breath. Nuada lives his self-titled war against the humans, breathes it, has nothing but it — and yet, even as his drive for extermination pushes him to terrible lengths, the war is not all Nuada is, and he does not do evil for the sake of it. Nuada is driven by duty, by what he owes to his people and to the world, and he cannot abandon his task.

Killing Balor was to Nuada, as in old Celtic tradition, a form of tyrannicide, driven not by hate for his father but by his obligation to safeguard the elven people. As much as Nuada loved his father — and he did, to his father's dying breath — his duty would not let him abandon the elves to his father's millennia-old truce, forgotten and disregarded by the humans. Nuala and Balor were resigned to seeing the elves fade, and Nuada could not accept that future — even more than that, he saw Balor's acceptance of it as betrayal of the elven people. He had pledged to return to his people when they most had need of him, and his father's notions of peace would not dissuade him from his ultimate goal.

While Nuada is a prince driven by duty, and seems to have a rather feudal attitude still (telling Hellboy "If you cannot lead, then you must obey", questioning his right to challenge on the basis of his lack of royal blood), he is not overly concerned with maintaining class distinctions, and keeps strange friends for an elven prince — it's Mr. Wink's death at Hellboy's hands, in part, which prompts Nuada to unleash the forest god on the city. Whatever violence of which Nuada is capable is never turned on the smaller fey who haven't earned it, not even small annoying ones who bring him bad news. Nuada is patient and fair with the fey he interacts with, and affords even Hellboy and Abe Sapien more respect than he ever does any human — his hatred and violence is reserved for those humans who have (in his opinion) earned it, and those fey who stand in his way.

Strengths & Weaknesses

STRENGTHS
SWORD BOY. Nuada is an accomplished combatant with a blade, whether a sword or a spear, even able to dual wield swords. Given his thousands of years spent in exile preparing for a renewed conflict with humans, this makes sense, and may even extend in a limited sense to other forms of combat, including hand-to-hand and other forms of weaponry. For the most part, however, he seems to favour bladed weapons.

TINKERER. Nuada created the egg casing for the seed of life himself, and his room appeared to include a forge. It can then be assumed that he at least had a hand in the crafting of his lance, meaning that Nuada is at the very least a highly skilled smith. More than that, he has the eye and steady hands for delicate gearworks.

IT'S MAGIC. Nuada has an affinity for fey magic, as any elf would. See suggested nerfs for more on this.

BOTH
SYMPATHETIC BOND. Nuada and his twin share a sympathetic bond which can be both a strength and a weakness. They are constantly aware of each other's state, mental and physical, and Nuala can even read her brother's thoughts. Conversely, they share injuries between them, and can keep nothing from each other for long, even when they want to.

WEAKNESSES
DARK SIDE. Nuada has given into anger and hate, and is now on the dark side, as it were. His prejudice against humans and drive to wipe them off the Earth got him killed, and he may reevaluate his approach on Thedas but likely will not reevaluate his perceptions.

Suggested Nerfs

As a fey elf and Nuala's twin, Nuada has some access to basic magic. Separated from his sister and having little interest in it himself, that capability will not follow him to Thedas. Similarly, his connection to Nuala would break until such time as she appeared in Thedas. Otherwise, he needs no nerfing that I can think of!

Arrival Inventory

The armour in which he died.

The complete Crown of Bethmoora, because irony.

His regenerating lance, the tip of which can be broken off inside his opponent, leaving it to burrow deeper into his opponent every time someone attempts to extract it. The lancetip itself will grow back.

The egg he crafted himself with a seed of life stored inside, which will grow into a forest elemental if dropped in water. (This one's more of a stretch, but come on, don't you want a forest god wandering the Brecilian Forest one day?)

A swarm of Tooth Faeries. Enjoy, rifters.

'Human'ization
Nuada looks like a very pale, almost albino elf, with facial scarring to denote his status as a warrior of the aes sídhe. Here is his face. And again. I believe he could go either way as regards Thedosian elf-ization, as he could pass for a very pale elf, but depending on modly discretion may be otherworldly enough to need changing. For my part (and his) I'd prefer he not go through any changes, half because it would upset him terribly and half because idfk where I'd find icons of Luke Goss not looking like this. That said, I will of course defer to the mods and suck it up if necessary!

Fit
As a very elfy elf, Nuada will have Many Opinions about the situation in Thedas at the moment. As opposed to Adalia, my other character, who is still trying to see humans as worthwhile, Nuada made up his mind about the race as a whole many, many centuries ago, and will be hard-pressed to find any element of humanity worth protecting. That said, it will then be interesting to thrust him into a situation close enough to his own that he may feel just as driven to protect these elves... or maybe just enough to glare at every human he meets. Maybe also he will learn to sit and sing kumbayah with the humans, but that is far less likely.

SAMPLES

Open TDM top-level

Crystal TDM tag-in