Ego

Ego is a shapeshifting monster that appears to reside within Callum Zidane's heart as a living avatar of his curse. While most of its specifics are currently unknown about the creature (though it is believed to have a connection to the demon Joy), it's presumably wholly malevolent and wants to kill Callum by any means necessary. 
Due to its ever-looming presence over the party, it serves as a major antagonist of Campaign 3, and one of the primary antagonists of Callum's story.
== Description ==
===Appearance===
Ego's size and shape are wholly dependent on the form that it takes. However, there are a few consistent visual indicators among all Ego forms and Ego-corrupted creatures, which include:
* The body being fully blackened.
* Large antlers sprouting from the creature's head.
* Red lines coursing across the creature's body.
* The Mark of Ego.
* Black hexagons.
* A generally "synthetic" appearance.
* Mouths being curved into grins.
Ego-Callum's appearance is a drastic change, doubling in size and taking on more of a crocodilian-esque shape, not unlike a wendigo. 
Ego-Snapdragon's shape is functionally identical to the original creature. However, the creature develops a red metallic eye that's outlined with the Mark of Ego.
Ego-Karma resembles the familiar in general appearance, but grows significantly in size, and is unique in design in that her red hexagon appearance was more along the lines of a growth. In addition, due to Karma's resistance in fighting the corruption, it was not able to fully overtake her appearance, with her pure white scales resembling something more like a Dalmatian rather than going pitch black. 
Ego-Ankheg maintains the same shape and size, though its coloration changes to be consistent with other Ego creatures, and it develops the same eye mark and antlers. 
Ego-Horns maintain their humanoid shape and their Broken Horns possessions are (somewhat) visible on their person, though they otherwise maintain the same traits as other Ego-corrupted creatures. 
Egodiles are notably much larger in size. On top of the usual traits, they develop a second large mouth at their stomach. 
Treegos can disguise themselves as regular trees. However, when they are active, they are fully blackened, and are noted to have elemental energies radiating from their arms. 
===Personality===
Ego is violent, erratic, and fully focused on its goal to kill Callum. Its reasoning for doing so is currently unknown. If Ego cannot reach Callum, it apparently pursues whatever living creatures are nearby, corrupting or killing them. 
Callum has confirmed that a consistent trait in Ego creatures (including his own Ego form) is being put into a state of manic euphoria. However, this doesn't seem to fully drown out other emotions; Ego-Callum is noted to still have the capacity to cry. 
==Story==
=== Pre-Campaign Backstory ===
==== Background ====
Ego was apparently born with Callum. While specifics are currently unknown around their background, Callum has apparently killed Ego around twenty times prior to the events of the campaign.
=== Campaign ===
==== Arc 1 ====
After defeating a Snapdragon and collecting its heart, it began to get corrupted by Ego, who manifested itself in front of the group as the Ego-Snapdragon. Despite their advantage in numbers, it was an uphill battle, with Callum getting downed and nearly dying before being stabilized by Walker, who noticed the tumor in Callum's heart as they did so. The group was rescued by Astryd Ansirah, who healed Callum and prepared to banish the monster. Callum, feeling re-invigorated, decided to help Ansirah subdue the creature by transforming into Ego-Callum, much to the horror of those around him. After banishing Ego, the group fled to Ansirah's home, where Callum revealed his conflicting connection to the monster.
Back at Ansirah's hot spring, Callum revealed that he is constantly in pain because of Ego, despite his rather upbeat demeanor. Echo would later contact her patron in private, asking if she knows anything about Ego. Her patron says she may have, but requires more information, tasking Echo with obtaining Callum's necklace. She constructs a plan to obtain his necklace, and is successful in doing so, though she does so by the skin of her teeth, handing it off to Karma to transport to her patron. However, electing to keep half of the antler for her own observations, she snaps it in half. This prompts a dark essence to reach out of the antler and corrupting her familiar into Ego-Karma. Callum revealed that he didn't know how to save her, prompting Echo to mercy kill her familiar as he breaks off a piece of the antler. Callum would later store this within Ansirah's vault, not wanting it to get stolen, and would reveal to Walker that handling any parts of Ego can be incredibly dangerous.
==== Trials & Truths ====
Although Ego did not make a direct appearance in this arc, Callum told Echo and Walker about his background as the son of Mane Vikas Zidane. Due to a successful persuasion roll by the former, Callum also disclosed the demon that Vikas is aligned with: Joy, the same emotion that's brought out by Callum's Rage.
==== Kindling ====
While the party travels to Kuzubiro, they get ambushed by a group of ankhegs, one of which gets corrupted after nearly getting finished off by Ego-Callum. After the combat, Echo and Walker reprimand Callum, who lashes out in response, insisting that he has no conscious ability to corrupt things because Ego is a separate being.
During the Marionette's play, Ego-Callum unwittingly electrifies his blade arm, causing him to go berserk and destroy part of the theater in a blind rampage. After the combat, Echo manages to reconcile with a despondent Callum, who reaffirms his desire to permanently rid himself of Ego despite not knowing what he'd be without the monster. He would then warn her to not tamper with any remnants of Ego, due to the sheer destructive potential they hold.
==== Arc 4 ====
On the way to House Okori, the party gets attacked by a starcloak matron and her spawn, with the matron becoming corrupted during the battle. However, the party is able to put down the matron before the corruption fully completes. While exploring underground at the party and staving off a group of automatons, Ego-Callum went berserk again after attempting to fire a beam of electricity. After Lord Asakura is assassinated right in front of Callum, he transforms and turns violent immediately. Echo manages to successfully calm down the monster's rampage, though she also notices that Ego-Callum has the capacity to cry.
When Echo parlays with Hiro, he refuses to provide assistance unless Echo helps him find Callum. He calls Callum "E," implying that he is aware of Ego's existence. This is later confirmed by Rovan Okori, who privately tells Callum that he hoped Ego would be able to help him walk again. Callum, however, believes Hiro is lying and that he wants Ego for his own selfish gain.
==== Arc 5 ====
While traveling north of the Dollhouse, the party stumbles into one of Ego's dead zones, which is quickly able to kill Hikiki and make Cori loopy from the effects of the air. They encounter a group of corrupted Broken Horns warriors, which quickly overwhelm the party. When they try to flee, Callum prompts the party to turn back around at the confirmation of Mogami's return. While this gives the party the numbers needed to fend off the monsters, they get ambushed by another wave of Ego-corrupted crocodilian creatures, though they are eventually forced to retreat when two Treegos surface On their way back, Mogami asks Callum about Ego (having been informed of it by Marfer), to which he says that while he had indeed fought Ego, he had never seen variants like that before. 
At the Bastion, Arona and Kauri both visibly have black scars (the former even missing an arm) that are heavily implied to have been a result of Ego. When the party dines with the Zidanes as well as Lin'Xi and Makiri, Vikas is quick to ask Callum if the party is aware of Ego, which he openly confirms - indirectly confirming that everyone in the room is aware of the monster's existence. 
==Character Information==
===Abilities===
The full extent of Ego's abilities are unknown. However, based on the findings of Procedure 32.1.1, it is believed that Ego's abilities surpass those of the Demons at large at the apex of its power. That same document notes that Ego is at its strongest when the host is deceased, though the power of the entity it controls also appears to influence it.
Ego's prime characteristic are its antlers, which have the capacity to drain the life force of a targeted creature.
Ego appears to primarily rely on corrupting its surroundings to determine its form and abilities. This corruption can be spread to living creatures, though the consequences for this are currently unknown. If left unchecked, Ego has the capacity to "level a village," and has apparently done so. In addition to this, if Ego is left alive for too long or a remnant of it persists after death, Callum has noted that Ego can create "egological" dead zones, which contain a multitude corrupted creatures far more dangerous than the average post-Fluxx monsters (primarily utilizing Ego-Callum's Monstrous Armaments for themselves), and can slowly spread if it isn't cleared out. 
Another core element of Ego is its shapeshifting, transformative capabilities. On top of any changes to a corrupted creature's physical appearance, the monster often goes through a mutation of sorts providing new abilities that varies from creature to creature. Some, like Ego-Callum, even have some degree of control over that mutation. 
Callum mentions that one way he checks for Ego is to check for traces of death and decay in nearby flora, as Ego apparently causes living organisms to die wherever it goes.
Ego can, to some degree, communicate in Deep Speech.
Any traces of Ego are apparently still very dangerous to handle, and can corrupt living creatures, as seen when Echo broke the antler on Callum's necklace, resulting in the corruption of her familiar. Callum later confirmed this was the case and has happened before. However, it appears that Callum has some degree of immunity to the handling of Ego's remnants, or knows something his companions do not about handling them.
==== Corruption ====
Ego's ability to corrupt everything around it is one of the monster's prime characteristics. While the corruption has only applied to living organisms during the events of the campaign, Callum has suggested that Ego has the capacity to corrupt nonliving things as well. 
Any items that are held by an individual being corrupted by Ego are merged into their person, as seen with Callum.
There is no indication as to what triggers the spread of Ego specifically, as it appears anything in the presence of Callum is inherently at risk of being corrupted. However, tampering with the physical remnants of Ego-Callum or another corrupted creature appears to be a reliable way of summoning the creature, as its essence lives on in the remnants and finds something new to spread to, nor does it require the presence of Callum to successfully trigger.
While Ego has attempted to corrupt the party, particularly Echo, it is believed that it is unable to do so because of Callum's presence.
==== Dead Zones ====
"Ego-logical" dead zones slowly corrupt all living things within them and continuously grow to corrupt more. On the edges, plant life becomes desaturated and grey before shifting into a crimson red where the dead zone is at its strongest. Larger plant life, like trees, grow at hexagonal angles. Plants also become hostile and attack non-corrupted lifeforms, grass tries to wrap around prone creatures. Any living organism in the dead zone must make Constitution saving throws to resist becoming corrupted, the first stages of which reduce Wisdom saves and Charisma skill checks and make the recipient view the world through a "high."
Ego-corrupted creatures within a dead zone are particularly dangerous to come into contact with. Each variant of Ego creature possesses a monstrous armament. Identified armaments include earthen dweller, elemental blast, and ironhide - all three of which are available to Ego-Callum. It is unknown if Ego-corrupted creatures can have armaments outside of the ones that Ego-Callum has.
Dead zones also have the capacity to somehow alter reality itself. On a failed wisdom saving throw, Callum and Echo had their stats re-allocated, making the former quicker and more charismatic, while the latter became physically stronger.
These areas are, notably, extremely difficult to navigate and clear out. Even with the combined efforts of the party, Mogami, and several Broken Horns, they were unable to destroy all of the creatures inside.
===Weaknesses===
As confirmed by Astryd, Ego appears to be repulsed by the light, or at least radiant damage. While Ego remains immune to charm effects and spells that alter its emotional state, calm emotions is confirmed to be a notable exception to this.
Callum himself can also be seen as Ego's Achilles' heel, as he is able to weaken the creature's abilities and influence through sheer force of will, to an extent that even the monster's consistent traits can wane. In general, however, Ego appears to have a weaker influence when the creature is alive, as previously seen with Karma's corruption.
==Trivia==
*Joey confirmed that Ego is inspired by his experience with chronic pain and ulcerative colitis.
*The letters E, G, and O can be identified in the "antler" of the Mark of Ego.
*Ego is meant to be a spiritual successor to Sorrow.
Category:NPCs
Category:Antagonists
Category:Characters