Name: Vemacitrin

Race: Bioengineered Organism; claims Asura

Place of Birth: Claims kāmadhātu (actually Pyotar Geneforge)

Gender: Male

Age: 8,030 Ayanas (self-reported); Geneforged ninety-eight years ago

Height: 7' 6''

Weight: 342 pounds

Eye Color: Changes for each face; Lust is yellow, Wrath is red, and Pride is blue.

Skin Color: Mocha.

Skin Texture: Tough and strong, humanlike to the touch but far more difficult to pierce.

Hair Type and Color: Black, close braid, low to the head.

Body Build: Vemacitrin is a strangely tall human in appearance, with darker skin and a finely muscled and hairless physique. His additions are a wheeling set of five arms, each projecting from a jade 'shoulder' in the form of a large, free-floating and polished gemstone. Lastly, his head has three faces, each set equidistant from each other - one a snarling grimace, one a lustful leer, and one of haughty disdain. Whichever face is forward has its eyes open, speaks, and interacts with the world; the other two face diagonally backward, eyes closed and silent.

Each head also produces a linked item for its hands to wield. Wrath brings out a pewter staff with five rings, which it calls the Kuaygin; the individual rings may be drawn out to be used as chakrams or as makeshift bludgeons, or linked back together to bind enemies, as the rings meld seamlessly through each other and the material of the staff. Lust wields a large pot with three lids which changes its contents based on which lid was lifted off last (varying between a sticky, sap-like adhesive, a rapidly-evaporating aphrodisiac, and a wine vintage that restores stamina to the drinker and heals their wounds); the pot never empties, and in fact he can pour it out into a raging flood if necessary. Pride draws a tessen war fan, which moves vastly more air than should otherwise be possible; it can create tornado-level gusts of wind with a swing. All three artifacts are made of some kind of copper/bronze alloy that is impossible to scratch, much less seriously damage.

The Cock: Changes in size depending on which head is dominant; Lust can actively control the size and shape of its member, but Wrath is cannot, though its member is still of impressive size. Pride is sexless and refuses copulation with mortals.



Fighting Style: Varies depending on dominant head.

Wrath is a striker and combatant par excellence; he tends to engage with only his primary hands at first, adding more as his foes prove more resilient. He is the most directly combative in this form, charging down opponents and battering them to the floor with attacks from more angles than they can defend. Vemacitrin is also notably stronger under the leadership of Wrath and much more resistant to the effects of pain or other mind-altering effects. Magic and chemical weapons will slide right off his form, but his wounds do not heal if taken, and he is cocky and foolhardy, rushing into any challenge presented.

Lust uses his pot and many groping hands to debilitate women, then pins them down and molests them almost endlessly until his ascendancy ends. He's not at all resistant to pain in this form, and much less strong, but in turn is vastly more flexible, and his flesh more impermeable to force. What few injuries he takes are rapidly healed by drinking from his bottomless urn, and between his tenacity, his endurance, and his ability to slow down and befuddle the mind of his opponents, Lust is a more insidious opponent than Wrath, but is easily beguiled or lured with promises of hedonistic joys.

Pride disdains engagement and will simply blow away opponents with his tessen. If brought to engagement by flying opponents or ones swift enough to close the distance, all his hands strike to subdue at once, seeking grapples and pins that are very difficult to avoid, after which he simply chokes the opponent into unconsciousness. If struck, his form resonates like a gong, and his flesh has impossible resilience, though it burns when exposed to jade or salt, and this burns pain him greatly.

Motivation: Wrath seeks to engage opponents and win in the ring. Lust would rather just play with any female that falls into his grasp. Pride is perhaps happiest telling stories, but worthy aspirants he neither finds nor believes exist, and returns the Arena from wherever the other heads have taken him in their impetuousness, as it offers the most reasonable chance of reawakening on a familiar scene. As each head rotates in dominance and cannot or will not communicate with the others, long-term goals are meaningless.

Psychological Profile: Varies strongly depending on which head is ascendant. Each day, at approximately 5:30 AM IST, Vemacitrin's head rotates, another head coming to ascendancy, which changes his entire outlook and goals. Wrath, hateful and in search of opponents, sparks as much conflict as he can and thrives in battle; Lust is hedonistic, a pleasure seeker, and is as like to laze with his pot of wine as chase after a fine set of legs should he sight them. Pride cares nothing for 'mortals' and disdains them, though he will speak with the curious if they address him with appropriate respect.

There are some commonalities; all three heads are shameless in their chosen pursuit, above no ploy or trap. All three speak any language they are addressed in flawlessly, but address themselves as Mārisa, a term for beings that inhabit the divine realm. Asking either Wrath or Lust about their situation, or why their heads revolve first agitates them then drives them to force silence out of the questioner through their chosen form of interaction; if they cannot silence the questioner, a forced change occurs as they swap to the other form, which immediately goes berserk, pursuing their most primal desires without care of the consequence. Pride apparently does not suffer this issue but also will not answer personal questions, merely remaining silent. Attempts to force his compliance will merely result in him switching heads voluntarily, which also causes the berserk state.

As their day progresses, all heads grow more pensive and thoughtful, but at the break of their respective dawns, Wrath and Lust are rapacious forces disdainful of any possible restrictions.

It is worth noting that Wrath and Lust apparently have separate memories and cannot recall what the other face experiences. Pride does not share this flaw.

Personality: Varies depending on the head. Wrath is cruel and hard, a titanic force, but also forthright and honest, without deception; he recoils not from uncomfortable truths or painful secrets. He will teach those that impress him in the ring of honor, but his tutelage is a hard thing to endure, both in body and spirit, and the nature of Vemacitrin is such that Wrath's teaching can only be obtained once every three days. Lust is a joker and a fool, a liar and a thief, but welcomes any company and shares his wine freely even as he plunders his companions. He flinches away from serious conversation and, while lecherous and easy to bait with lustful promises, Lust will run or play the fool rather than engage in a serious fight, most of the time. Pride is hard and fierce, a lamenter of things passed and a living chronicle of a people who, historically, never happened. He is at least somewhat aware of the inconsistencies of his tale and deeply dislikes having others point them out.

Special Attributes: Multi-Limbed - Vemacitrin possesses five surrogate limbs that are controlled through some undetectable method. Each is fully articulated and capable of independent action, though Vemacitrin must be conscious to direct them, and move and act with the same strength as the arms he bears on his torso.

Multi-Headed - Each of Vemacitrin's heads is a distinct entity and must be individually negotiated with, misdirected, or fooled with illusions or tricks. Wrath and Lust also have divergent memories, and invariably disdain the other's reasons to do anything. Sufficient damage to render Vemacitrin inert will instead force a new head to ascendancy, which then renews his form to peak perfection. Only complete obliteration of the head is sufficient to cause Vemacitrin permanent harm.

Mental Pollution - Effects that target minds are only effective on Pride. Wrath and Lust are too singleminded and too venal to be affected.

Weaknesses: Wrath is headstrong and easy to enrage, and his wounds do not heal. Lust is foolish and a pleasure seeker, easy to lure or scare away. Pride is disdainful, but vulnerable to tricks of magic or illusion that the other two resist, and is burned by jade and salt.

History: Vemacitrin is a biological construct, despite his claims; his bones carry the dashed stitches of Pyotar Geneforges, Batch 1171, Special Order - a custom made creation by the masters of genetics that lurk in those demented spires. That said, his batch lacks the multi-limbed template his body uses, and the Pyotar Geneseers do not offer special orders in the first place. Worsening the situation is that all three heads can clearly recall events detailed in the Vedic manuscripts found on Earth, but with subtly different events that cast themselves in a good light, depending on what they find admirable in the first place. Only Pride seems to know why they lodge at the Arena in the first place, though, and chooses to direct his efforts to remaining there, a state of affairs the other two are unlikely to complain about.

Vemacitrin arrived on a transport shuttle from what it claims was the kāmadhātu, or the Realm of Desire. Pride was dominant at the time, and neither Wrath nor Lust appear to know much about the reasons for their 'descent', nor do they care much; the Arena perfectly suits their needs. Only Pride knows why the shuttle was empty save for him, or why its fuel tanks were completely empty, disallowing it to have actually gone anywhere, or why carbon dating their skin invariably results in archeological answers, despite the genetag they cannot rid themselves of. Likewise, Pride displays a proficiency in modern skills such as shuttle piloting, marksmanship, and engineering that the others simply lack; while they remain archaic monsters, Pride is at least distantly familiar with the process of living in a modern world.

Between Wrath's champion-level arms mastery and Lust's sense of showmanship, they rarely disappoint the crowd. Pride generally does not engage in matches, and instead spends his time doing research or reading, intellectual pursuits neither of the other faces will lower themselves to. Likewise, if Pride finds that the other faces have moved it away from the Arena, it returns there.





This is a rewrite of a monster I wrote about eight years ago, the woeful and disappointing Manos: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8190

I've added details on history, made the whole monster less vapidly silly, and generally rewrote the whole thing into something I can stand. He's designed for the Arena outright and will probably never touch school grounds or other planets; I rather intend to have Wrath offer, after a fashion, fighting lessons to the worthy, whoever they might be. Lust will probably be less helpful and you can expect the standard rapacious monster routine from him. Pride's pretty much just there for storybuilding.

Mostly I just wanted to translate Manos into a mythological concept that didn't make me gag, but don't look too hard at his asura heritage, because I combined a couple different versions to make him up.

A fascinating specimen, to be sure!

Also, what does the IST stand for?

IST is Indian Standard Time. Regardless of where Vemacitrin happens to be in the universe, his heads rotate at precisely 5:30 AM (+5:30 GMT time), when the first rays of sunlight touch upon Pātala-loka. It's the ancestral kingdom of the asura in Hinduist tradition, near where the city of Mahābali is located today.

Darn. I was sure it stood for InterStellar Time. Either way, must've been some quality engineering in those genes, huh?

I hadn't thought of that as an acronym, but that's an excellent guess!

I don't particularly like spelling things out in character histories - I like leaving some vagueness in there so I can tell a story instead of just spoiling the whole thing up front - but essentially the gene engineering is responsible for Vemacitrin's physical form, but also he's inheriting memories and some cultural habits from his Vedic ancestor; Vemacitrin is also the name of the old leader of the asuras in Buddhist sutras, and there's a sort of spiritual resonance happening between the legend of the original and the new, engineered version. Pride specifically emphasizes those aspects; Lust and Wrath are pretty ordinary, by comparison.