Unrivaled-Brilliance-Before-You

Strength 1x

Agility 4x

Intellect 18d

Willpower 12d

Hand Size: Edge:

4 (25) 2

Origin:

Unrivaled-Brilliance-Before-You is a mhunghus, a psi-active, mushroom-like fungusoid from the planet Mhung. Born with an uncannily sharp mind, Unrivaled-Brilliance enjoys inflicting its intellect upon all other beings - usually doing so with brute force.

Powers:

Natural Psionics (Psipathic Powers):

Telepathy (a) (w): while evolution did not give Unrivaled-Brilliance the ability to communicate verbally, it has blessed it with a highly psi-active mind. It has the ability to telepathically communicate with other sentients (send/receive surface thoughts) with intensity 5 ability.

Auscultation (t) (w): supplementing its telepathy, Unrivaled-Brilliance can spy upon the surface thoughts of others with intensity 8 skill. No card play is required unless the target specifically shields their thoughts (easy difficulty Auscultation (willpower) action to overcome).

Natural Psionics (Superpsi Powers):

Mental Invisibility (t) (i): though it cannot mask itself from standard senses, Unrivaled-Brilliance can indeed hide from psionic abilities. It can cloak its psi presence from others with intensity 5 ability, which means most casual observers won't notice Unrivaled-Brilliance's powers.

Trained Psionics (Psipathic Powers, Traditional Master):

Sensory Reception (s) (w): Unrivaled-Brilliance has mastered the ability to receive sensory information from others within near missile distance experience. Shielding one's senses from Unrivaled-Brilliance's snooping requires overcoming this power's intensity of 10.

Crowd Control (a) (w): a consummate manipulator, Unrivaled-Brilliance has the ability to control entire groups of people simultaneously. When activated, this intensity 11 power will mesmerize everyone within near missile distance of Unrivaled-Brilliance.

Mind Control (t) (w): while it can temporarily 'zap' large numbers of people at once, Unrivaled-Brilliance reserves this power for keeping one sentient 'on call' on a more permanent basis. It can directly control the mind of another with intensity 18 ability.

Charm (s) (w): almost as potent as its crowd control, this skill makes Unrivaled-Brilliance inherently likable to those within far missile distance of itself. While not overt mind control, this helps to prevent those affected from inflicting harm on its person (intensity 10).

Psi Bolt (a) (w): whenever something can actually shrug off its crowd control capabilities, Unrivaled-Brilliance can instead deal with them more violently. This power allows it to inflict intensity 15 karmic damage against those who irk its ire!

Nonapparent Vision (t) (w): with an average difficulty Nonapparent Vision action, opposed by any effort to waylay it, Unrivaled-Brilliance can use this intensity 13 power to see any one thing as it truly is - despite obfuscations of the physical, mental or spiritual variety!

Sensory Distortion (s) (w): when engaging in misdirection, Unrivaled-Brilliance will often toy with the perceptions of others. It can do this with intensity 10 skill, easily waylaying the minds of most mundane individuals - and many of its brighter opponents, too!

Psionic Vampirism (a) (i): at will, Unrivaled-Brilliance can feed upon the very conscious energies of others, bolstering its own power and health in the process. This requires an easy difficulty Psionic Vampirism (willpower) action, as a contingent action on physical contact.

Each turn, Unrivaled-Brilliance may drain the target's Intellect score, as well as any psionic power ranks they may possess, by an amount equal to the number by which the above action succeeds. This only causes temporary damage, unless the target is drained of its mind completely.

Unrivaled-Brilliance takes great care not to do this, lest it inadvertently spawn undead, psionic vampires - as well as risk vampiric addiction. Though its Willpower is great, Unrivaled-Brilliance doesn't think the risk outweighs the reward of creating such thralls.

Hindrances / Augmentations:

Sessility: mhunghus do not have the ability to move - they lack a natural muscle structure or any other mechanism to achieve mobility. While they generally study psionics with the goal of escaping the location of their birth, they're immobile without such aid.

Equipment:

(none)

Skills:

Astronaut (i): all mhunghus learn about space and the various objects within from a very young age; the better to get away from each other. Unrivaled-Brilliance may attempt a FEAT to find or identify an object in space, or to plot a course somewhere, at a reduced difficulty.

Manipulation (w): if there's one thing Unrivaled-Brilliance is good at, it's convincing others to do what it wants - either by force or with more subtle means. It should receive a reduced difficulty on actions required of it when trying to get its way.

Contacts:

Like all mhung, Unrivaled-Brilliance can generally consider its fellows reliable contacts, inasmuch getting aid from one (or vice versa) will usually involve the helped individual leaving the area to give the helper peace - mhunghus are funny that way.

However, Unrivaled-Brilliance has also woven a web of subservient contacts in the space surrounding Mhung... including one or two on earth. This is such that its will can be exerted on a planet even when Unrivaled-Brilliance is no longer resident - or is perhaps en route.

Furthermore, Unrivaled-Brilliance usually maintains one individual in its thrall on a much more personal basis. This mind controlled - and possibly mind-blasted - individual handles all of Unrivaled-Brilliance's personal affairs, and arranges for its movements.

Calling:

World Domination: though it is more of a parasite than anything else (both literally and figuratively), Unrivaled-Brilliance believes it should be in command of anything and everything it is aware of - and executes a variety of plans to achieve just that.

Costume:

Though it obscures its vision, Unrivaled-Brilliance wears an iridium crown atop its pileus, adorned with shimmering sapphire gems. This crown usually rests upon its head in a crooked fashion, unless a minion is on hand to set it straight again. Unrivaled-Brilliance wears nothing else.

Personality:

Unrivaled-Brilliance cares not for the concerns or even the well-being of others. It is astoundingly intelligent, though some might consider it insanely so. Unrivaled-Brilliance enjoys imposing its will upon others as a confirmation of sorts of its inherent superiority.

Unrivaled-Brilliance has a tendency to wander from place to place, as it considers everything it surveys within its domain. In this capacity, it can be found almost anywhere within near space, doing its best to set up one transient empire after another.

Real Name: Unrivaled-Brilliance-Before-You
Occupation: would-be emperor of all
Legal Status: citizen of Mhung with a considerable criminal record on numerous worlds
Marital Status: single
Alias(es), if any: none
Group Affiliation: none

Height: 3' 3"
Hair: inapplicable
Eyes: dark brown (well, its light sensitive pits are, at least)
Weight: 121 lbs
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: as are all mhunghus, Unrivaled-Brilliance-Before-You looks like a rather large mushroom. It possesses a bulbous, umbonate pileus, a long, hourglass like stipe, and a thick, round base. It is generally tan in color, with a black pileus (cap), save for several dark brown pits that it uses to see (after a fashion). It lacks the 'branches' most mhunghus possess, having lost them in past conflicts - it only has scarred nubs where its three stem branches used to be.

Story:

It's no secret that the mhunghus are the dominant form of life on Mhung. While there are numerous psi-active species roaming about that curious hothouse world, the mhunghus are the most intelligent - even amongst the other life forms there that have achieved sapience.

But amongst the mhunghus, there are few fungusoids that are of a level of intellect that match Unrivaled-Brilliance-Before-You. This child of Mhung was spored with an apparently indefatigable mind - there seems to be no bounds to the concepts that it can master.

This vast analytical prowess has come with a price, however. You see, Unrivaled-Brilliance has mentally taken apart each and every facet of existence in its staggeringly smart self, including the idea of morality... and has decided that this notion is wholly unnecessary.

Thus, Unrivaled-Brilliance quickly became a villain amongst the mhunghus. While a majority of them study psionic paths of power that allow them to escape Mhung for a path less traveled, Unrivaled-Brilliance thought it would be easier to simply force others to move it, instead.

This bad attitude ultimately got Unrivaled-Brilliance banished from its home world. Unrivaled-Brilliance has since began to wander the space surrounding Mhung, trying to build an army with which it can conquer its home world - mostly out of spite, really.

While it has no inherent attachment to Mhung, Unrivaled-Brilliance is furious that those beneath its stature would have the temerity to tell it what it can and cannot do. The nerve! The unmitigated gall! It would show them the error of their ways, oh yes.

Believing itself the rightful master of all it surveys, Unrivaled-Brilliance generally compels the obedience of any sentient being it encounters. It relies on others for all its needs, whether this involves a task it needs done or simply moving it from place to place.

Thus, its army (such as it is) consists mainly of mind controlled simpletons. They may be rather intelligent, but with Unrivaled-Brilliance's micro-managing style, none of their own brilliance can shine through. Why would it let its minions do any of the thinking, after all?

The only problem with this approach is that Unrivaled-Brilliance can only assemble as large a force as it can directly control with its telepathic powers. This hasn't stopped the villain from launching one assault after another on Mhung, however.

And then, once its army is inevitably destroyed, Unrivaled-Brilliance resumes its hunt for a new one. What this means is that, at any given time, it's usually conscripting other sentients to fight its battles for him, in the systems near Mhung.

And the mhunghus wonder why so many people don't like them...!

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