"The universe is a cruel place, and it breeds cruel folk. It's not the kind of place for dreamers."
Tarvok Enurum. The Titan of Valkna, Slayer of Urok.
Such gaudy titles, but they hold the weight of truth in them. The Breaker came upon the Valknan cloud-shores with a sudden and incomprehensible fury. He slaughtered billions in the first attack, but at a great cost. When he took to the field few dared to stand against him. Those who did were killed. Those who ran away just prolonged the inevitable. It took all Tarvok had to make the Deus Engine, forging it out of a bonding of modern and ancient technology. With it, he stopped Urok in his tracks and ended his life. Valkna was too far gone, however.
He couldn't fix what had been wrought.
But he could try to prevent it from happening elsewhere.
The dream of peace remained just that: a dream. It could be achieved on one world, while on another it would be torn away in a matter of days. Tarvok didn't stop trying, however. Though he hoped beyond anything, it was still what kept him going. It made him strong.
The Titan has within his arrangement of weapons perhaps the deadliest analytical mind his people could have ever produced. Centuries of insight and meditation has given Tarvok a mental razor's edge. He not only takes in information and processes information at an astonishing rate, but practically anything he comes in contact with he can decipher given time.
This carries into combat effectiveness as well, as once Tarvok has the means to defeat an opponent within his grasp there is nothing that will stand in his way. His striking strength alone puts most hydraulic presses to shame, clocking in at well over the Class 100 mark. Lifting and pressing strength follows much the same pattern.
Due to the fact that he decimated Urok the Breaker, a well-known planet-killer and system-level threat, it can only be estimated just how strong Tarvok actually is.
This immense power only compounds into his speed, durability, and other physical stats, making him a monstrous force to contend with in a battle.
Of the Deus Engine itself, the integration with Tarvok's body has become more or less symbiotic over the centuries. At one point, he couldn't have taken it off without compromising his entire arm. Yet, with practice over various mystical arts as well as mastering the gauntlet itself (to a degree), the Titan is able to remove it much like a glove.
The Deus Engine is a powerful tool made up of an immensely complicated system of old and new Valknan technology. Some of its components are as old as Valkna itself, dating back to when it had begun to form continents out of the molten slag of its primordial birth.
Without context, the Engine acts as if it is not even part of this dimension.
"I guess it operates on something similar to magic, but it's more natural to the stars and dark matter of the universe at large. Think of it as a tool from a dimension above current thought, if that makes sense. Like how cars and such are to an ant - they don't fully understand it, yet it's there. They may not even realize that it's there or different from anything else, yet it's capable of shaping environments. I don't even comprehend everything it's able to do."
People and places perceived as reality suddenly become altered, illusions breaking away like splinters of glass. Space and time are little more than playthings, and the concepts therein as malleable as clay. Yet it is not the root of omnipotence that the Engine gnaws upon. The fact remains that the gauntlet itself is incomplete. Pieces integral to its design were scattered long ago across the entirety of the universe, making it impossible to collect them all in any given lifetime. Though parts of it glow as if to taunt the wielder with a fraction of its full power, the Engine can no longer attain its maximum potential in its current form.
Yet, despite this, using the base gauntlet alone was what gave Tarvok the decisive advantage in his conflict with Urok. The Engine bonded with him, sharing its energies, and augmented his body to previously unattainable levels. He partially blamed his mutant gene for this, as he calculated that he would have died otherwise.
Beyond the unfathomable power of the Engine, Tarvok has an assortment of psionic abilities that put him far in excess of what his compatriots on Valkna were capable of. It is a fair assumption that the Engine augmented these as well, or perhaps gave rise to them in the first place. His extended lifespan because of the device could also be a culprit. Although psionics can be utilized for a staggering array of abilities, Tarvok has somewhat limited use of it due to the interference of the Engine.
- Body Language Analysis - to anticipate based on physical movement or posture.
- Danger Sense - to detect impending threats.
- Enhanced Awareness - to perceive beyond illusions.
- Enhanced Memory/Panmnesia - to recall events long thought lost to time.
- Extrasensory Perception - to bring oneself beyond normal sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste.
- Precognition - to perceive future events, the date of which is unknown.
- Psionic Magic - a combination of his teachings at the Sanctum and his psionic prowess.
- Psionic Manipulation - to conjure and alter all preexisting forms of psionic and psychic energy, as well as pioneer new ones.
- Psionic Technology - a combination of advanced alien innovations and his psionic powers, as well as the ability to make solid and complex structures out of projected mental energy.
- Psionic Constructs - much in the vein of force fields and psionically-generated weapons.
- Psy-Leech Energy Manipulation - to drain and convert other sources of energy, despite their origin.
- Psychic Navigation - to map out a location using only the projections of the mind.
- Psychometry - to perceive residual information about a person or object.
- Telekinesis - to move objects based on raw psychic output.
- Telepathy - to mentally receive or transmit information.
- Teleportation - to move instantaneously from one location to another without physically occupying the space in between.
Domination for domination's sake is not the rule of Tarvok, nor shall he endeavor to change that.
The breaking of the sky as invading ships block out the sun, the thunderous noise of low-orbit artillery rounds, and then silence. All is quiet, until the soldiers of doom march upon the ruins. These are the nightmares he sleeps with, haunted by dreams of fire and death on an unimaginable scale. It stalks his every footstep, his every waking breath.
The Legacy of the Breaker hides in his shadow, as he chases what he thinks will bring peace to a universe drowning in its own blood.
He often sought to end tyrannical rule on planets he visited. The end of a dictator only brought another, and another. Lush utopias became war-torn and barren. The ravages of distrust and espionage, the hallmarks of civilization gone terribly wrong. Yet for all his efforts, he did not despise those that would come from the rubble and devastation. He nurtured those he could in what matter he deemed most humane. He had no cause in the destabilization of natural progression, merely the attempted preservation of what he could keep safe.
No guardian, more custodian.
Left to clean up the messes left behind by bloodthirsty monarchs and galactic-scale conquerors. Often millions would die. Billions, if circumstances became uncontrollable. Tarvok, no matter how hard he tried, could only do so much. Sometimes he saved worlds within the blink of an eye. Others, they were doomed from the start regardless of his efforts. Each time the death struck deeper inside of his increasingly crippled spirit.
Hope endured in those times. He grew to accept the loss, the pain. He grew stronger because of it. And the death toll became less of a statistic, and more of an unfortunate circumstance of war. The Titan of Valkna evolved into a sentinel of the weak. Those who could not defend themselves would hold out as long as they could in the hope that he would arrive. In most cases he came to their aid between the event horizon and the darkest hour.
The universe is a big place, though, and some planets he tried to help ended up being long dead by the time his boots touched soil. Too often, he happened upon sterilized deserts of bone-white sand. Perhaps it was a warning, or an insult. He never paid too much attention to it. All he understood was that he was too late.
Six-hundred years taught him that. Six-hundred years, and the universe still went on in its greed for violence and war.
And so he retired, content with leaving the system as it would be.
The Deus Engine, however, became more erratic and unstable in its methods following that decision. It seemed to want to return to those days of endless fighting, if only to see the goal of peace it shared with Tarvok accomplished.
But the Titan of Valkna hasn't been seen for over a decade throughout the stars. Some whisper that he is dead, while others persist that he is hiding on a world no one would suspect him to be on.
Whatever the reason, Tarvok continues his self-imposed exile to this day.
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