The Dealer

The Dealer is a human from a parallel universe very similar to our own - definitely within our local Megaverse and likely within our local Multiverse. Through unknown means, the Dealer travels throughout the Omniverse and seeks out powerful entities before challenging them to a card game. The card game appears to take elements from many different Earth card games and combine them, while also including elements suited to minds beyond human comprehension. The majority of cards used can be found in a standard playing deck, however some number of cards are unique. There are suspected to be thousands if not millions of non-standard cards, however these cards are substantially less common than standard cards and thus do not interfere too often. The games are often casual and without stakes, however if Cosmic Entities are not inclined to play, prizes will be introduced to convince them.

The purpose of these games is for The Dealer to claim the powers of the Cosmic Entity he is playing against. Should the Dealer's opponent lose the game, The Dealer will acquire a playing card storing the powers of the Cosmic Entity without said entity even knowing. This is the origin of the non-standard playing cards. It is likely that The Dealer is able to traverse the Omniverse despite being an ordinary, three-dimensional human because he possesses a card storing the powers of an entity who can do as such, thus allowing the Dealer to do the same.

There is often no negative impact to Cosmic Entities who lose the game, which is convenient as The Dealer always wins. The game is fairly difficult, and the Dealer knows the game while the Cosmic Entities often don't. Thus the only way to win is to have prior knowledge of the game or computing power great enough to learn the most impressive possible strategies while playing. Even if the Dealer is thoroughly outmatched by an opponent, which does rarely happen, the Dealer will then play a card he gained from beating The Overseer to look into his opponent's mind. He will then search for a great desire of the entity which they cannot perform but he can via one or more of his cards. He then makes a deal, that if the entity forfeits, The Dealer will help the entity achieve this desire, often first giving proof that he is capable of such. (Though only if necessary.)

## **Personality**

The Dealer often acts kind but secretive while playing. He is known to constantly smile and treats his opponents with respect, often attempting to relax them if they feel uncomfortable and complimenting their moves throughout the game. Yet many entities still feel unnerved, as The Dealer's mysterious tone constantly gives the impression that he knows something you don't. While most admit he acts kind, they also note a slight sinisterness that is always present. He never informs the entities that their powers have been taken when they lose, instead simply commenting that they played well before leaving to find other Cosmic Entities to play against.

## **Background/Lore**

The Dealer was an ordinary human in an ordinary parallel universe, however he had the fortune of discovering a small piece of construction equipment accidentally left behind by the creators of the Xaspunum Nexus while linking his Universe to the Nexus. This piece of equipment allowed him to create an astral projection of himself anywhere within The Barrel. This astral projection could not interact with its surroundings in any way except for communicating with sentient beings. It is theorized that an engineer added this feature secretly to allow the workers building the Xaspunum Nexus to talk during work hours without their bosses knowing. The Dealer used this device to explore The Barrel at length.

However, the device had a limited power supply that The Dealer did not know how to replenish, nor did anyone else in the Omniverse. As the power ran low, The Dealer became determined to discover an easy way of moving across the Omniverse as he had previously, though due to his status as a low level universal entity, this was extremely difficult. He eventually decided on a pack of playing cards created by The Odhinites. It was standard within their culture to play card games with unknown stakes, as every set of playing cards had different effects, though none of them were inherently dangerous, only dangerous if intended to be by the players.Even the creators of these decks did not know their powers, however through studying the behavior of one deck of cards, The Dealer realized it was perfect for what he needed. The deck began as an ordinary set of playing cards, however each time a game finished, a new card would appear in the deck with the power of the loser, regardless of who the loser was.

The Dealer used his final few astral projections to find one group of entities within the vicinity of the deck of cards willing to steal anything is properly paid, and another willing to smuggle entities into The Hospice. He then collected information on reliable humanoid clients of the two groups and tricked them into believing he was the humanoids he had chosen as the most similar to him. Once the power of the device ran out, he was successfully smuggled into the Hospice and the deck of playing cards was waiting for him.

The Dealer then tempted many powerful refugees with interesting abilities to playing card games against him, better allowing him to travel through the Hospice, repay the groups who aided him and overcome human ageing. Eventually he gained abilities allowing him to leave the Hospice and continue outwards. Once he finally acquired enough abilities to travel anywhere within the Omniverse he wished indefinitely, he set himself a new goal: to acquire all powers and abilities within the Omniverse. To become Omnipotent.

## **Powers and Abilities**

Thus far The Dealer has acquired a staggering number of powers and abilities through his playing card games. It is known that he can travel across the entire Omniverse at ease through a variety of different methods, including portals, manipulation of The Rifters' Realm and seemingly an unknown method of instantaneous travel which he reserves for himself. He also appears to be able to manipulate time and space to an extreme extent, often interfering in the past of his opponents while playing against them. Not to mention his commonly used mind reading abilities gained from beating The Overseer as well as his apparent ability to ignore the affect of time and space upon himself due to his abilities to enter any part of the Omniverse despite being a three-dimensional human.

Besides these powers which he uses regularly he also has many other powers which he does not use as often:

* It is known that he won a game against The Constant, meaning he now possesses a card granting him the greatest immortality in the Omniverse and beyond.
* He also supposedly has a card granting absolute death and erasure from the Omniverse, as well as absolute resurrection and anything in between. Supposedly, only one entity managed to come back from absolute death without his intervention. Unfortunately for the Dealer, these cards also make him a target of a group known as the Collectors.
* He has won games against many Odhinites so he likely holds many magical cards which he does not understand the function of due to the nature of magic.
* He has won games against many technologically advanced races such as members of the Guardians of Aleph and The Great Cosmic Republic granting him access to cards that mimic their incredible technology.
* While it is unknown, it can be assumed he has many cards granting him extremely high basic physical power as well, though he would rarely have any reason to play such cards so we will likely never know.
* He has won games against the Hexagon Lords and other beings like them granting him access to manipulation of fundamental constants.
* He has won games against powerful A.I.s and Superintelligences, giving him access to their incredible intellect. (Though he has not won a game against the greatest A.I. (Terminus), nor the greatest Superintelligence (The Mevalkagna) as those entities have no reason to participate in card games regardless of the prizes.)

### **Weaknesses**

This list of powers seems, and is, incredibly impressive, but it has a substantial weakness. All of these powers remain within his cards, and only exist when said cards are played, and are only granted temporarily. Without these cards, the Dealer is and will always be an ordinary three-dimensional human. Thus, while The Dealer is by some metrics one of the strongest creatures in the Omniverse, by others he is extremely weak, and could be beaten by very low level entities with some quick thinking.

Beyond this, gaining powers requires being able to play and win a card game against the entity or entity group that hold them. Many entities, while sentient and far smarter than us, have one-track minds and are unapproachable in such a casual way, regardless of prizes. Thus it can be assumed The Dealer will never be able to gain the powers of groups such as The Mevalkagna, the Idea Breakers, Terminus or the External Hazard, currently some of the most powerful groups in the Omniverse. Furthermore, The Dealer has thus far failed to locate entities with the ability to travel beyond the Omniverse and as such cannot play a card game against them.

## **Death of the Dealer**

It is known that at some point, The Dealer did in fact die. But when this point was is some dispute. There are many different accounts of The Dealer's death all of which have ample supporting evidence. These deaths were all permanent and irreversible. Only one could have occurred yet all of them appear to have occurred. Furthermore, many reports suggest The Dealer is still around, waiting in social gathering areas (such as equivalents of human bars) to find Cosmic Entities to play an innocent game of cards with.

The Dealer's 'canonical death' that was for a long time widely accepted among Omniversal historians as his definite end was an instance when he was playing against a particularly smart Superintelligence. The game was requiring all of his attention, leaving him open to an Odhinite assassin, who had been hired to reclaim the stolen cards yet had been alluded by The Dealer since the very beginning. Due to the fact that The Dealer is still a normal human, the assassin was able to strike him down with ease, and he immediately took the deck of cards back to his unknown client.

However, another story has circulated in which an incredibly powerful scientific research institute captured all of the Omniverse's most unkillable beings, one of which was The Dealer due to his immortality card. The researchers placed them all in containment together and said once only one remained, they would be released, as an incentive to convince them to fight and see who was the 'most immortal'. The Dealer presented a challenge to the other beings to see if they were truly immortal, in which they would play a card game where it was possible to draw his absolute death card. During The Constant's escape, he was able to trick The Dealer into picking up the card himself, definitively killing him.

Yet another story has emerged in which The Mevalkagna began to view the Dealer as a threat to Omniversal plurality and eliminated him.

Another, more ironic story involves The Dealer winning a game against The Omniversal Traveler and attempting to use his newfound card to exit the Omniverse. However, as the magic that created the deck of cards operated only within the Omniverse, the card was unable to contain powers beyond the Omniverse and so while the card allowed him to escape, it did not allow him to survive and thus The Dealer ceased to exist instantly upon entering The Outside.

One story which is the most commonly used in retellings of The Dealers life, not because it is more accurate, but because it is the most fitting end, is that to convince a particularly malicious entity to play against him, The Dealer bet his life, which he believed to be insignificant as he had never lost before. However, the entity had outsmarted him on every level, and when The Dealer looked into his mind he found nothing to give to the entity that the entity did not already have. Thus, The Dealer lost the card game, and with it his life.

### **Conclusion**

It is unknown why 5 different versions of his death exist, or why The Dealer still appears to be alive despite them. Perhaps the powers of The Dealer's cards are greater than we believe, and he was actually capable of surviving all of these events. It is also possible that there are actually six separate Dealers, five of which have died. The Omniverse is a large place, so it would not be surprising if the events leading to the creation of the Dealer happened six or an even greater number of times. In the end, it may remain a mystery which, given The Dealer's enigmatic nature, should not be too surprising.