heromedal: (You all look like ants from here.)
Rex Arany ([personal profile] heromedal) wrote2019-07-28 11:48 am

A Brief Guide to Heroes

Since time immemorial when a crisis that threatens the world rears its head, the Hero Medal has selected a champion to protect the planet. These people are most commonly referred to as the Chosen One, Chosen Hero or simply Hero.

-A brief history of the medal-
The medal was originally known as the Destiny Emblem. It was the last creation of the Great Creator, the being who made the world. Left behind by the Great Creator as an item intended to preserve the planet before they left on an inscrutable journey beyond the stars, it was intended to be used very sparingly in times of great disaster. Due to the unexpected emergence of monsters, the emblem has selected many more heroes than expected and become a major part of history.

Originally held in Heaven, the orbital home of the Divine Ones, when a disaster loomed the emblem would be thrown from the sky to find its chosen one. As time passed, the emblem requested to remain on the planet and would be found by the one it wished to find it. Despite seemingly being incapable of movement, the medal has a mysterious capacity to always be exactly where it needs to- apparently through nothing but indirect events and persuasive words.

Early heroes would affix the emblem to an item in a way personal to them. Such as to a weapon or a piercing. However, when the hugely influential hero Mandalay wore it as a medal, many subsequent heroes emulated him, and it became the tradition. Over time, the name Hero's Medal, then subsequently Hero Medal, became the more common term and the original name was forgotten.

The spirit of the medal began without personality, identity or will. It likely would have stayed that way if used as initially intended, but due to the unexpected frequent need for them, it slowly developed a character of its own. Their voice was androgynous at first, but many heroes interpreted it as female, and she chose to be a woman. She developed her own mental image of herself as time passed, first visually herself as merely a drop of light and drawing on the features and traits of people she admired. Over the millennia, she formed a perfect mental image of who she would be if she possessed a body. When in circumstances in which spirits are given form, that is exactly how she appears.

-The Selection Criteria-
Ultimately the selection process for a hero is quite fluid and is based on the problem that needs to be solved. It would be quite pointless to select someone with astronomical combat ability but no intellect to solve a complex engineering issue, for example. However, certain things are always taken into account, be they realised or potential.

Battle Power- Refers to their capacity to fight, regardless of the method. Potential is considered a higher priority than achieved power in most cases, as during their journey, the hero will surely realise their potential. Battle power is considered quite important to all heroes, as even if their quest does not directly require it, they will almost certainly face resistance. A hero will often become, by the end of their journey, one of the strongest humans of their generation. Rarely they will be outside of the top ten of their era.

Intellect- One of the criteria most contextually relevant, a hero can be chosen for their low intelligence if that will make them better suited to the role (consider characters such as Goku of Dragonball, Bartz Klauser of FFV, or even Percival of Arthurian myth). Generally, however, high intelligence is a valuable commodity for a hero, and a number were chosen specifically for their genius. This includes both cunning and academics.

Heart- Perhaps the most important of all. Different problems will need different personalities, but while a hero's heart may be hardened, cold, pure, broken, warm or soft, it must always be a heart of gold filled with courage. Many of the heroes are reluctant, but none refuse the call. Rex is almost certainly the hero whose heart begins the most stained, but even he can't stop himself from helping people when they're right in front of him and in time becomes a true hero. Unfortunately, the reverse can prove true, and the medal must also consider how likely a hero is to go mad with power.

Striking Appearence- Definitely the least important aspect of the selection process, but the medal does take a potential hero's look into account. They need not be attractive- but someone who stands out and is memorable. Ideally, when someone sees the hero for the first time, they should have a visible reaction and be able to recognise them easily afterwards.

-The Boons-
During the hero's journey, each gains four things. A Guardian Angel, Legendary Weapon, Companion Beast and a Blessing.

Guardian Angel-
Though most commonly an actual angel, numerous alternative entities have helped the heroes throughout their journies. The guardian's role is usually to give advice and wisdom, with their direct intervention left for key moments if at all. Guardians have taken the form of angels, ghosts, fairies, interdimensional entities and supercomputers. Occasionally the guardian is active in combat situations and strong early in the journey but becomes outclassed as time passes. Very rarely, the guardian remains powerful but has restrictions as to when they can enter battle and extremely unusually a Guardian will be an always active warrior in the Hero's quest. In meta terms, you can think of the guardian as the support characters like Navi/Midna/Fi from the Legend of Zelda, Cortana of Halo, Tikal of Sonic Adventure, Clippy of Microsoft etc. Frequently the first or second boon obtained. The medal herself rarely gives direct advice, though emotionally supports the hero.

Companion Beast
In some ways, the opposite of the guardian, the companion's role is typically only direct, such as combat or transport. The contrast is only stronger when the guardian is a combatant that becomes less battle relevant as time passes- the beast almost always begins weak and develops into a powerful fighter. The variety in the beasts is probably the greatest of the boons. Very rarely have two heroes had the same species of beast. Beast is also a very loose term, with animals, spirits, machines, golems, and so forth. They usually start cute and become cool, though sometimes they stay cute and still become powerful. Usually, the second or first boon gained.

Legendary Weapon-
Not always literally a weapon, this boon is some form of tool that helps the hero with their task. It is often of tremendous power and requires some sort of trial to obtain it or unlock its true potential. The weapon is often of historical significance, sometimes sapient and often sassy when they are. Due to the power it confers, it's usually one of the last boons gained. If it's not, occasionally the blessing will simply be to obtain the weapon's full power.

Blessing-
The blessing, usually given by a saint or other holy person, is a permanent trait given to the hero that is usually always active. This is often an immunity to a specific thing (such as fire, poison, instant death etc), the ability to do something normally restricted to a certain species, a special sense or an overall capability boost, or some other beneficial trait. Rarely the 'blessing' is, in fact, a curse, which grants great power for a price such as threatening to consume the hero's soul.

-Rex's Boons-

Guardian- His third boon. The valkyrie assigned to collect Helen Arany's (Rex's mother) soul, as Helen had easily accomplished enough to become an angel. However, Helen refused and was easily able to reject Skal's attempts. Skal gave up after 10 years of trying, and spent the remaining 2 mostly hanging out until Helen meddled with the natural order by forcing herself to reincarnate as an elf. As a result, she already knew Rex quite well- she watched over Helen, who watched over Rex. Due to her failure to collect Helen's soul and the subsequent unprecedented violation of reincarnation policy, Skal was reassigned from psychopomp duty. Ostensibly to prevent other unprecedented violations of reincarnation policy, but actually to keep her out of the way. When Rex needs to travel to the underworld, Skal helps him traverse the depths. Skal admired Helen, and in their time together, the longest she had spent with anyone, learnt more about being alive than she had through the deaths she'd overseen for hundreds of thousands of years. When Rex leaves the underworld, Skal chooses to go with him.

Skal does her best to give a dignified and refined impression and is proud to be a valkyrie- she is not ashamed at failing to take Helen to heaven but pleased she faced the strongest human non-hero's soul alone, not caring that she lost as she did so with honour. Her severe and elegant personality in most circumstances is a sharp contrast to when she witnesses exciting battles. She becomes an irrepressible fangirl, squealing in delight with hearts in her eyes when the side she supports is winning, furious and vulgar when they are losing. She shows no embarrassment for this behaviour and refers to supporting warriors (and thus enjoying their battles and weapons and blood and sweat and tears etc.) as a natural part of being a valkyrie, but even other valkyries find just how much she enjoys them a bit too much. It's not so much that she's really a raving genki-girl pretending to be an elegant lady, it's just two sides to her.

Skal makes a good guardian angel. She's naturally a supportive person and knows a great deal of world history due to how much of it revolves around battles. She fits the bill as not likely to enter combat regularly but spectacular when she does (in her case, unable to fight on the physical plane). Skal has a hummingbird theme, appearing to be an elegant and beautiful creature, but down to fight anytime. Her six wings, all very colourful, fold around her to look much like an elegant ballgown but when open she looks remarkably like a mardi gras participant.

Blessing- His second boon. Rex received his blessing from the monk known only by the nickname Nyuodougumo ('novice monk cloud'). Nyuodougumo is very much of the 'following the signs of the universe, wandering around being wise, looking like a hobo' school of a monk, a completely relaxed and peaceful person. The blessing awakened Rex's third eye instantaneously, an ordinarily arduous process that takes decades of training- only someone of Rex's talent could hope to survive the results without proper preparation.
Nyuodougumo always has the third eye 'open', but Rex opens and closes it as necessary, as it is draining for Rex due to the manner he obtained it. The opening of the eye offers numerous advantages. With the eye open, his senses become unfiltered, allowing him to perceive vast amounts of information and see phenomena usually beyond ordinary perception, such as vital energies, mana flow and immaterial spirits. It vastly improves his natural talent for analysis, both for learning and combat purposes. With advanced sensing of his energies, he can perform especially delicate techniques that would normally require a lifetime of training. It also helps him relax as his paranoia fades somewhat when he can sense his surroundings so well, and due to the opening stimulating the pineal gland, he can sleep more easily after its use. Unfortunately, to open the eye in the first place, Rex must clear his mind- and due to his natural mental state being a stressed, high-pressure mess following tens of trains of thought at once this is difficult for him to do and without the supplementary training the leads to the activation of the eye everyone else goes through, it's exhausting for Rex to maintain.
The results of opening the eye are incredibly compatible with Rex. Though initially a poor practitioner of the methods needed to activate it, the effects are so tempting he works towards achieving them- basically being tricked into self-care by Nyuodougumo, which was the monk's intention all along. Rex develops the blessing as his quest progresses.

Beast- The first of Rex's boons. Indrik, formerly a fragment of the Holy Mountain Kirin, the most powerful spirit in the world. When the tip of one of the Kirin's horns was snapped off in a battle with an avatar of Demon Emperor Baal, it took root in Rex's heart by sheer coincidence, and Indrik was manifested (giving Rex a huge, sun-shaped scar). Ordinarily, a kirin would draw strength from its home territory, hence the Holy Mountain Kirin's immense power. But Indrik draws his strength from Rex's spirit, growing as Rex does. Indrik follows the classical heroic beast mould of starting cute and growing into something cool, Indrik is always something of a menacing brute- for justice! Despite his huge weight and strength, he develops the ability to walk silently, able to walk over grass without bending it, then on water and finally on air alone. His rainbow coloured fire breath at first is a hazard to everyone, but he can eventually control who it burns. At full power, Indrik is easily a contender for the strongest heroic beast of all time but is pitifully weak to begin with. As a fat, stupid baby he cannot be trusted with the simplest of tasks. As a fat, stupid adult, he can boast strength suitable to be called the King of Beasts. Every animal in the world will bow its head to him at the sound of his ground-shaking steps- this is not an innate ability to control animals, but an instinctive reaction to avoid making eye contact for fear of challenging him.

Weapon- The last of Rex's boons is the Folio Foil. It is the rapier of Folio Foster, the previous hero from before the cataclysm war. The sword initially did not possess any unique qualities. It wasn't Folio's legendary weapon, but merely an extremely high-quality blade and one of many Folio used during his adventures. However, when Folio pledged to find peace between humans and monsters, he plunged it into the ground at the scene of his and Beelzebub's final battle. That place was the Cave of Spirits, a location in which souls could fully manifest and not degrade thanks to the spiritualising crystals that develop there. Over the roughly thousand years it has been there, pre-war until the present, a thin layer of spirit crystal has grown over it. Folio was quite a small man and Rex being extremely large results in the weapon being primarily used as a magic wand, though it remains an exceptional sword. It's now a phenomenal spell casting catalyst, able to focus spells and increase their power- but more importantly, it is one of the only catalyst's sturdy enough to handle Rex's abnormally huge mana supply. The crystalline structure can also store the spells of extreme complexity, allowing Rex to prepare spells more intricate than usual. It's especially useful for Rex, as most catalysts are not able to retain his Atom spells. The crystal has one last benefit- it can manifest a fraction of Folio's spirit to allow Rex to perform the famous Folio Flash, Folio's signature move. The Folio Flash channels lightning magic through the sword, launching it high speed and allowing the user to cast a powerful bolt that will always strike the blade and magnetically drag it back, no matter the obstacles. If the opponent is stabbed, the full charge is forced into them. If it misses, the user can position themselves so that a powerful bolt hits the opponent and then draws the knife into (and often through) them. Unusually for a Hero's weapon, it can be used by anyone- but it would be wasted on them.