Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

...tghe GREAT WALL OF TEXT shall be constructed. Behold, another crappy profile!

Character Full Name: Ricardo Alfosno Diaz

Alias: Lord Diez. WAIT BEFORE YOU FIRE THE MARY-SUE CANNON AT ME. This is a long-running character of mine which I have changed greatly over time in order to make him non-cliche. His history is just too rich for me to change his name now, so I have an explanation for it in his background.

Age: 37, though he easily appears to be at least twice that age.

Gender: Male.

Race: Human... barely.

Appearance: Lord Diez is a frightening, possibly even sickening sight in his current form. Where once he was a handsome, strong young aristocrat, he has now assumed the appearance of a sickly, corrupted and crippled old man. He has no hair whatsoever on his head; now eyebrows, no eyelashes, nothing. His skull seems to be misshapen and malformed, lumpy on top, with a very pointed, sort of angular towards the back. His eyes are sunken so deeply into his sockets that, from a distance, it appears that he has no eyes. Of course, that might as well be the case; looking into his eyes, one sees nothing but a pair of glimmering, black orbs, as if his iris and cornea were both consumed by the pupil, which has taken over. This strange deformity is most certainly connected to Diez's blindness, though it isn't clear if the blindness caused the mutation, or vice-versa. The remainder of his face is certainly no better; bags of flesh seem to hang from his cheeks as if they were torn off by some sort of violent force, this suggestion furthered greatly by the copious amounts of scar tissue embedded in his aged skin. His mouth is permanently twisted into a wretched, angry scowl, the few teeth he has left constantly being ground against one-another in immense frustration. His nose, or what is left of it, in any case, is irregularly pointed, and appears to be broken. All-in-all, it is a visage which gives an impression wedged halfway between aged and ancient, between an old man on the brink of death, and a walking corpse...

His body and posture certainly do not help. He is not very tall, though it appears he may once have been, he appears shrunken, somewhat, very, very thin, but with a great deal of excess skin. He is constantly bent over, as if suffering underneath some great and heavy mass. He walks very slowly, as though merely lifting his foot off of the ground is a Herculean effort. His fingers appear to be as close to skeletal as one can get, and his fingernails are hideously overgrown. Disturbing is an understatement; looking upon Lord Diez is something that few are able to forget.

At the moment however, Lord Diez is encased in a thick layer of dark crystal, as his body is being reconstructed, so his hideousness is, at least momentarily, hidden from the world. He has placed himself willingly in this stasis, to prevent further decay of his body, and possibly even attempt to restore himself to his youthful form. Only time will tell if he succeeds...

Personality: Lord Diez is selfish to an extreme degree. Though he may often pretend to be concerned about the troubles of others, it is typically only to gain their trust and loyalty, and thus give him power over them. Recent events in his life have taught Diez to value the subtle arts of deception and manipulation to achieve his goals, and the fact that his own body now rests safely in stasis, where none can find it, and none can destroy it, has returned to him a great deal of his former confidence. From the safety of his Dark Crystal, Diez influences the world as he sees fit. His only concern at the moment is spreading his own fame and influence among the people, and thanks to his very special tool, the Guardian, he is able to do that, and more...

The Current Situation: At the moment, Diez in a state of suspended animation, trapped inside of a very large, very thick chunk of Dark Crystal. The Crystal infuses his body with dark power, as it also attempts to reconstruct him. In the meantime, the only part of Diez that is still active is his mind. As a result of this, the darkness has seen fit to bestow Diez with a number of psychic talents, including, but not limited to the ability to feel the world around him through energy currents, the ability to see through the eyes of others, and even limited mind control (being able to influence thoughts in sentient beings, and completely control the minds of weaker-minded beings, such as animals). It is through this medium that Diez is still able to influence the outside world, by controlling the mind and shaping the will of a powerful shapeshifting creature which he calls "The Guardian."

Background:
In Brief: Lord Diez was born Ricardo Alfonso Diaz to a peasant family in the country of Sion. His father was a deadbeat which constantly moved them to different regions of the country to avoid having to fight in one of the many conflicts between the country�s various ruling Lords. This constant movement combined with his inability to change his own position lead to feelings of great powerlessness as a child, which eventually evolved into an insatiable lust for power in his teenage years. He despised his father for his weakness, and his inability to change their condition, so he decided that the best way to distance himself from his father was to become strong, and able. When he reached 13, he left home using money he stole. He conned a cowardly clergyman into teaching him to read, and allowing him to use the Church as his new home. He then used the church library to study many things... fencing, aristocratic traditions, the nature of man, armies, wars, everything he could. Knowledge was power.

One day, by chance, he stumbled into a hidden section of the church library. Attempting to pull a book on cooking, he opened up a hole in the floor, which led to the �Black Room,� the room where the Church kept confiscated manuscripts and books on the Dark Arts. This intrigued the hungry young man greatly, and he delved deep into the forbidden knowledge of Dark Magic. Seeing much promise in this intelligent youth, the Dark Spirits which were contained in the room began speaking to him. They taught him the secrets of the arcane arts, showed him how to center himself and draw power from the dark forces of the world... they also taught him more subtle arts, such as the art of charismatic speech, manipulation, extortion... Ricardo happily and hungrily absorbed all they had to teach him. The spirits were pleased with their pupil, and wished to test him to see if he had truly learned from them... using their powers, they drew the Clergyman which had �adopted� Ricardo into the Black Room in the middle of one of Ricardo�s study sessions. Both of them were tremendously surprised at the other. The Clergyman immediately told Ricardo to get out, that he was excommunicated from the church. But Diaz was not about to give up without a fight... through a delicate mixture of eloquent words, veiled threats, and probes at the Clergyman�s mind, Diaz not only managed to talk the Clergyman down, but convince him that what he was doing was perfectly acceptable. The spirits were pleased.

When he left the Church at the age of 23, he had a plan in mind to seize power within his country. Sion was ruled over by 9 Lords, which constantly fought and bickered for the most ridiculous reasons imaginable. The constant warring was taking a serious toll on the number and morale of people within the country. By exploiting the distaste for the current rulers of the population, Diaz gathered a large peasant following, and managed to seize a sizeable chunk of land from one of the most powerful Lords. He then adopted the title �Lord Diaz.� To increase his notoriety, he actually hired professional gossipers to travel to all corners of the country. However, somewhere along the line, �Lord Diaz� was mispronounced as �Lord Diez.� �Diez� meant �ten,� so he was essentially �Lord Ten� or �The Tenth Lord.� This made quite a bit of sense, and so a majority of the people within the country came to know him by that name; so much so, that introducing himself as Lord Diaz would often result in confusion among people, but claiming the title �Lord Diez� would get him thunderous applause. Using the council of the Dark Spirits, the magic he discovered, and his own charisma, he warped the minds of the people against their Lords and managed to overthrow them, one-by-one, until he was the sole ruler of his country.

The Lords were not finished yet, however. Much of the population was still loyal to them. Exiled from the country by Lord Diez, they decided to ban together to attempt to overthrow him. By combining their power, leadership abilities, and their numerous followers, they managed to blitzkrieg Lord Diez into a stalemate before he could settle in his power. The Nine Lords then stormed his castle together, aided by one of Diez�s most trusted lieutenants, and confronted him in his throne room, where he revealed the true source of his power. Drawing from his Dark Magic, he engaged the Nine in a fierce battle, which ended in the destruction of his entire estate. The Nine Lords had knowledge of the arcane as well, and using their elemental magics, they defeated him with their combined power. Diez, exposed as a Dark Sorcerer, was stripped of his power within the country, disgraced, and exiled. Naturally, he was incredibly preturbed about this unexpected turn of events.

For years, he wandered about the land, filled with tremendous resentment for the Lords who defeated him, and disappointment in himself, as well. The betrayal that helped to bring about his demise created a powerful distrust within him, making him extremely paranoid of other people and their intentions. He worked as a lone agent, stealing, killing, doing anything he could to survive. He did mercenary work for several years, but he enjoyed none of it. Finally, he was ready to attempt to grasp the power which had eluded him once more. But alas, it was not to be... not yet. In an attempt to steal a magical artifact of great power, he was confronted by a Holy Paladin. The Paladin attempted to destroy Diez with weak magic spells, and the swordsmanship of a novice. Diez, making the tragic mistake that proves to be the fall of so many, underestimated his opponent, and let his guard down. He toyed with him for quite a while, but just as he was ready to finish him off, the Paladin surprised him with a powerful Holy Spell. It smashed into him with full force, utterly defeating him. The Dark Energies that flowed within him acted as a conductor for the Holy Magic, allowing it to damage him much more than it normally would. Diez fled from the scene, screaming in exquisite pain, his body weakening under the constant agony caused by the spell. After running for several minutes, his strength was gone, and he collapsed. He felt that he was dying, and he shrieked in defiance, shouting obscenities and cursing his failure.

It was then that the Dark Spirits spoke to him again. They, too, knew that he was dying, and that he was not exactly excited about the idea. So they offered him a way out; he would give his soul completely over to the Darkness, allow it to saturate him, fill him with euphoric power, and keep him alive. In return, he would be its servant, using his abilities to spread it across the world and increase its influence over man. Having little choice in the matter, Diez accepted the offer, and gave himself over to the Darkness completely. He then fell unconcious...

When he awoke, he opened his eyes, but saw nothing. The spell had nearly destroyed his eyes, blinding him forever. But he felt it... he felt the weakness in his body, the pain and stiffness in his movements... he felt the difficulty of his breathing, the sagging of his skin... and he was horrified. The Spirits told him of his hideousness, of how the spell had disfigured and nearly destroyed his body. They told him all about his new power... how the Darkness would sustain him so long as he helped to sustain it. The Spirits guided him to a cave in which he could hide for the time being, and there he sat... he sat and festered, and plotted, and wished, and wept. He had never felt so weak.

For days he wandered in the cave, feeling his body decay... much slower than before, but it was still decaying, despite his best efforts. He knew that he needed to do something drastic in order to save himself, and something drastic was exactly what he did. Gathering into himself all of his anger, all of his bitterness, his fear, his hatred, everything that created the darkness within him, he screamed with rage, calling forth untold amounts of power... power from within himself, power from without, power from the deep, dark, unseen places of the earth. All this amazing energy came to him, surrounded him, lifted and carressed him... and finally, enclosed him. Through sheer willpower, Diez had defeated death... at least for the time being.

The energy he called forth had encased him in a large, dark crystal. The crystal pulled latent energies from the air itself, focused them into dark energy, and then infused that energy into Diez's body. The constant flow of power manages to, if nothing else, stop the decay of Diez's body, and keeps him from falling into the land of the dead. Unfortunately, however, the process of rebuilding him would take many, many, many years time... time during which he could not leave the crystal, or risk undoing all that was done. He did not wish to remain silent and forgotten for a thousand years... that would not only be terrible for his notoriety, but it would be ever-so-boring as well. Attempting to focus the dark power within him to a certain area of his body, he moved much of it to his head, infusing his mind with strength. It was in this way that he gained his psychic talents. Now gifted with a variety of abilities which would enable him to at least see and feel the outside world while he incubated, he began to search for a way to entertain himself while he was reconstructed.

For a while, he entertained himself by seeking out mortal minds and filling them with dark, frightening thoughts. He might cause them to hallucinate, or simply create within them an irrational fear of squirrels. Both were equally hilarious. Though he was only able to influence the minds of humans, he could establish complete control over the minds of weaker beings, such as animals, and would often use the various forest creatures to pick on passers-by, or to simply spy on civilization. Eventually, however, his keen mind detected something that was much more interesting than all of that... As he reached deeper into the cave, he discovered a very strange energy reading, the likes of which he had never felt before. It was altogether separate from any psychic signature he had ever felt on this world. It was very powerful, but also very simple. He suspected at first that it might belong to a dragon, and thus he very cautiously called it to him. The creature moved to an area where Diez could see it with his own eyes, and to his joy, it was a dragon! If he could've sighed with relief, he would have. He feared it might be something more fearsome than a dragon... like a baelrog. Then, to his horror, the dragon became a baelrog, and roared ferociously. At this moment, he wished dearly that he were in a condition to fight, so that he could at least defend himself from the creature... and then, all of a sudden, the baelrog was him, as he once was... young, and beautiful. It was then that Diez began to understand what this creature was...

<<See the profile of The Guardian for more on this creature, and how Diez uses it.>>

EDIT: Why, oh why does Gaia hate apostrophes? It replaces them with a series of wierd symbols. gonk WTF!?