Dina, the Martyr
Dina is one of the Four Adversaries, the newborn inverted mirrors of the Architects that are hellbent on destroying or warping the world beyond recognition. Of the Adversaries, is the most direct counterpart to The Hidden One.
Dina is a firebrand prophet and herald of a new age, an innocent martyr who burns with divine power and righteous rage. Behind her marches an army of disciples and followers who willingly bind themselves to her will - this the The Network, a hive mind of that works tirelessly to absorb the world so that they may remake it more beautifully. Dina and the Network are not always unreasonable and avoid obvious acts of villainy. On the contrary, Dina is a very rational wizard who has a way of phrasing her apocalyptic message in extremely reasonable-sounding terms. The Network points out the lies in the great organized religions, the injustices of society, and the wicked deeds of the Architects: Gem Plague, Purgatory, Corpseblight, The Day of Blood, Suwota, The Lunar Pantheon, Leviathans, The Aleokifa, and chemical weaponry to just list a few.
Under the banner of truth, justice, and the end of suffering, the Network marches with magic, steel, and words. First, they send missionaries and pamphlets and charitable healers. Then, they say the unspeakable - they condemn the Gods, the churches, and the elites of the lands they enter. Once they have been sufficiently martyred, they come with guns and swords and poison. They march in armies of the faithful, capable of miracles and moving with the overwhelming power of a magical hivemind. They release powerful monsters into the land, to seek out and destroy whatever institutions of power would oppose them. And when they finally eliminate all rival institutions, they slowly drain the life from the land to fuel their next conquest. They do not force conversion, but they eventually become overwhelming - and what else can you do but become refugees or converts, when the land becomes barren?
Dina argues that she and her Network are simply abolishing pain and providing a new form of existence, centered around empathy and mutual understanding. Her arguments resonate with people because they are genuine and heartfelt - Dina is the Good Aligned Doomsday. But underneath those good intentions is a special hell: that Dina built the Network on a sense of self-loathing and inadequacy that infuses the entire structure, and that her powers are structured to derive strength from martydom. She takes on the suffering of others constantly, as do her officers - free will and power becomes synonymous with martyrdom and suffering in the Network. There is no place for the leadership of the Network in the Paradise they hope to make, a fact that they quietly acknowledge with pride as evidence that they are selfless and genuine. Rhetoric of hope masks a resigned feeling of deep despair, that total annihilation is better than a hopeless future. It is a community lacking boundaries, where total interconnection masks the brutal self-destructive isolation of self-violent selflessness.
Dina is a former Keeper of Olkum, a wizard trained to weed out the disloyal and corrupt officials of the Suneka. At age 16, she took the full power of the Martyr into herself, as the last Nemesis to articulate their power. She is childhood friends with a manifestation of the Hidden One, and has very complicated feelings about her role as an apocalypse. That doesn't make her any less dangerous, though.
Divine Symbols & Sigils
A golden eye, a rising sun, the word Truth, a broken crown, a burning scroll
Physical Description
Special abilities
So far, this is what the Gods have discovered about the Network:
Network members can even avoid death, as Dina and Officers can resurrect any Network member without a requisite spell slot.
Officers are rare, a handful of Dina-chosen individuals who can wield a fraction of her power.
The Network moves as one, though Dina has immense influence over what they think. Officers also have a larger localized influence.
The Martyr Network relies on siphoned life energy for their miracles. Life energy can be taken from any living thing, and so far the Network prefers draining basic units of life such as plants or bugs which have a less obvious moral cost than animals or people.
Life energy's easiest use is for healing: the Network heals all of its members ambiently, and can use its power to heal non-members as well. Healing can be for sickness, wounds, starvation, and even basic tiredness or thirst. The most advanced form of this kind of healing is generating entirely new bodies for fallen Network members (this cannot be done for those outside the Network).
Healing does come with a suffering cost as well: the suffering of the wound is borne by the Network and directed towards those leading it.
Dina has demonstrated that there are other uses for Life Energy in her hands, though it has yet to be seen if her Officers can do the same. She has created flesh monsters, cast spells of a higher spell level than she should know, and used life energy as a direct flame cannon.
Regarding Dina, she can also:
- Turn into cats or generate cats as extensions of herself
- Cast wizard spells, including supercharged ones using life energy
- Detect suffering of others
- Blast fire at enemies
- Conjure a large lightning bolt to throw at enemies
- Fly
- Telepathically converse with her Network
Relationships
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments