The Gamemaster

> Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls! Children of all ages! I, the Gamemaster, welcome you to the very first match of Arena Battle!
>
> The Gamemaster, http://board.ttvchannel.com/t/arena-battle-rp-topic/46337/71

## Physical description

### Gender

Male

The Gamemaster is a minor protagonist who appears in The First Resistance, a major antagonist in Arena Battle, Majestic League, and Death Race, and a minor antagonist in The Last Resistance, Escape From Whitegate and Cataclysm.

As a young boy, Jonathan Servastus loved games, a trait that persisted through traumatic experiences and mental breaks, to the point that it became his defining trait in villainy. He sets up elaborate games for his victims to play, using them like pawns in his plans...whatever they may be.

## History

### Early life

Looking back, Jonathan Servastus' childhood was no different from that of any other normal child. It is difficult to believe that a boy so innocent could grow into a villain so twisted and vile.

Jonathan was born and raised on the planet of Earth. He was upbrought by a loving, caring family, and was instilled with relatively good morals. As a child, Jonathan grew to harbor a love of "games". He liked to play games, and create some of his own for his friends to play. This became one of Jonathan's main hobbies, imprinting on him so deeply that it would follow him through the rest of his life.
Another major inspiration came when Jonathan saw a circus show as a young child. Ever since that, Jonathan's mind was always aflare with a vibrant and creative imagination. He always daydreamed of heading an extravagant and wondrous show, having been inspired by childhood "heroes" such as PT Barnum.
Another hobby of Jonathan's was one of science. An old scientist, by the name of Dr. Zed, had taken notice of Jonathan's love for science, and decided to take him under his wing in Jonathan's teen years. Jonathan was mentored by Dr. Zed, and he learned much under his education. He obtained knowledge in many scientific fields, including Bio-engineering, technology, weapons, and programming. And by the end, what was once a simple mentorship had developed into something much more: a friendship. Jonathan academically excelled with his knowledge of these fields, and he achieved highly within school. However, all this time spent researching and experimenting and studying left little time for social interaction, and Jonathan was largely introverted because of it.

Then, one day, a woman came into his life. A woman named Martha. While many others payed no attention to Jonathan, not even noticing him at all, she saw...something in him. She saw a man who was bright, talented and passionate. Soon, Jonathan would return his notice to Martha as well. He saw within her a bright spark, and a woman who appreciated him for who he truly was. While Jonathan felt awkward and shy around many of his other peers, he felt he could truly relax and be himself in the presence of Martha. He felt like he didn't have to put on an act.
Eventually, Jonathan had matured into a young man, although he was still just as shy and timid as he had been before. On the day that a Ball was being held in his town, Jonathan had been pressured to attend by his friends. Reluctantly, he ultimately decided go to the ball.
At the Dance, Jonathan met Martha, who by chance also happened to be there. Jonathan felt too shy and apprehensive at first to go up to her, but his friend Eric finally convinced him to do so. Jonathan and Martha proceeded to dance, and at that moment they knew they were meant for each-other.

### The First Resistance

Jonathan's life would forever change one day. He and Martha went to visit Dr. Zed's laboratory, where he apparently was working on "something big". It was an experimental teleportation gate, which he built in an attempt to replicate a rumored highly advanced technology known as Slip rings, supposedly invented by alien beings called The Celestials. Upon activating the machine, however, there was a malfunction. And the portal ended up sucking Jonathan, Eric, Martha and Dr. Zed through it before self-destructing. On the other side of the portal, Jonathan and Martha found themselves on the strange alien planet of Lamurix.

It was at this moment that a group of Xir'algath then invaded.
Fleeing from the violence, Jonathan teamed up with Eric, Martha, Dr. Zed, and others to form a band of survivors as they searched for a way to combat and defeat the Xir'algath.

Jonathan was among the most reluctant people to fight The Xir'algath head-on, seeing as he had no powers or special skills. After regrouping at a castle in Lamurix's capital city, Jonathan and the others met the High Archangels of The Council of Life. Despite more able-bodied warriors wanting to fight The Xir'algath too, a being named Ayet and the High Archangels ordered them to stay behind, as they were capable of handling things on their own. A warrior named Styrke, however, decided to sneak out of the castle afterwards to join in the fight, and pressured Jonathan and the others to follow him.
On the battlefield, Jonathan didn't hold up too well, and had to be saved by others multiple times from The Xir'algath. After the fight, the group was chastised by Ayet for sneaking out.

5 months later, the members of the resistance had been properly trained into disciplined warriors, including Jonathan. In this time, he and Martha had a child, who was a newborn.
On their next mission, Jonathan and the others were suddenly attacked by Ayet, who had snapped for seemingly no reason. Ayet was sealed away before any serious damage could be done by him.
Another extended period of time passed, before a large force of Xir'algath soldiers attacked Jonathan's team.
As they faced the Xir'algath army, The Xir'algath attempted to destroy everyone with their powerful weapon. However Styrke managed to destroy it before they could.

Angered, Rahab, a member of The Xir'algath's high council, grabbed the machine's core reactor and set it to detonate, before chucking it at the group.
In that moment, Jonathan had an epiphany that he was possibly about to die, and he had done nothing with his life or made any worthwhile lasting impacts in the universe. Jonathan decided that if he was about to die, he wasn't going to let it be in vain, so he leapt in front of his friends and took the blast for them by catching the reactor core in his left hand.
The resulting explosion seriously wounded and nearly killed Jonathan, his most particularly grievous injury being the loss of most of his left arm.

Jonathan was given an emergency surgery, in which he was outfitted with cybernetic implants and nanobots were injected into his bloodstream. He was then given a prosthetic mechanical arm to replace the one he had lost.
However, in an odd twist of fate, it was revealed that the only device that would allow Jonathan's body to interface with his implants, was a Xir'algath mask, as his implants were created with Xir'algath technology. And so Jonathan donned the Xir'algath mask, his dark fate sealed and his transformation complete.

Jonathan was left deeply emotionally and mentally scarred by this event. The pain he felt was so profound, that was it caused the nanobots to malfunction. They sensed the distress in Jonathan's mind, and mistook it to be a physical wound. So the nanobots concentrated themselves together inside Jonathan's brain and began to rewire his neurons and neural pathways, altering his brain's chemistry and tampering with his mind. This was the catalyst for Jonathan's descent into insanity, from which he would never return.

Later, Dr. Zed and the others tried to reverse the damage, but it backfired when Jonathan snapped and killed Dr. Zed in retaliation.
The Gamemaster then went on a psychotic rampage across the planet. Along the way, he hacked and dismantled Hydron, stole Styrke's *Skullbreaker*, and even accidentally killed Martha and almost killed his newborn son Daniel.

By the end of it all, when The High Archangels and the others caught up to The Gamemaster, he managed to escape from apprehension.
It was then that The Gamemaster made a deal with The Xir'algath: He would be allowed to spread his chaos through the universe and have his "fun", and when he finally died The Xir'algath would be allowed to resume their invasion.
The Xir'algath ultimately agreed to this, seeing that The Gamemaster's crimes would help to weaken the universe against their invasion.

### Pre-Arena Battle

Years after the events of The First Resistance, The Gamemaster had already long established a reputation for himself in the Villain world both on Earth and beyond, embarking on many ambitious and insane crimes.
He established a base on the planet Earth, constructing and living in a secluded mansion in which to carry out his games.
11 years before the events of Arena Battle, The Gamemaster traveled to a small, unsuspecting home in Brantwood, Michigan, Better known as The City of Heroes.

There, he brutally slaughtered a family, a horrific event which traumatized their 14-year-old daughter, Sadie Volara. Seeing a great potential in Sadie's inner rage, The Gamemaster abducted the young girl, intending to train her and shape her into a weapon.

And that he did. Over the course of 6 years, The Gamemaster subjected Sadie to brutal, high-intensity training. He often also physically and mentally abused her, thinking that it would help to unlock Sadie's more ferocious nature. Sadie eventually became the Gamemaster's closest servant, usually carrying out tasks such as delivering "contestants" for his twisted "games".

One day, however, Sadie had had enough. During one of her "training" sessions, she snapped, and unlocked her shadow powers. The Gamemaster was caught off guard, and Sadie used the opportunity to attack and wound him, escaping from his mansion. Sadie had thought the Gamemaster to be dead after that point, but he had in fact survived, and was enraged by her betrayal.

### Arena Battle!

In this RP, The Gamemaster hosted one of his largest, most public games. Another thing which made this game unlike his others was that the contestants actually joined the game willingly though because of this their weren't too many participants. It was a competition known as "Arena Battle", and it was held in Arena Magna on the planet of Speherus Magna. The game was under the guise of a gladiatorial tournament in which warriors competed to win a $15 Million prize, but this was in fact a ruse to mask The Gamemaster's true intentions. In reality, he was trying to find a warrior who would make the best specimen to be used in his attempt to successfully replicate an old experiment by The Infinite Empire, dubbed "Project: Ultimate". He intended for this replication to serve as a "pet" for him. All the while, he schemed to mess with the players' minds, just for his own twisted amusement.

At first, the tournament seemingly proceeded normally, with Arena Battle's contestants fighting in a few opening matches. Then, the plot began to thicken with the arrival of two new fighters: Mark Mcneil and  Leadhead. Almost immediately, the Gamemaster could tell that Mark wouldn't stand a chance against the other warriors. And because of that, he carried a slight "sympathy", in his own sense, for the young gladarian.

Sensing a tense rivalry between The Controller of Ice and Tarkur, The Gamemaster decided to put his first scheme at work.
He sent his right-hand man, Eric, into the Barracks at dark, wearing his ninja costume and equipped with a syringe stolen from Leadhead, filled with an icy blue fluid. The Gamemaster's goal was to have Eric assassinate Tarkur, and make it seem as though someone on the inside had been behind it, creating doubt and distrust among the warriors.

However, this plan went wrong when Eric was caught red-handed, and was apprehended by the warriors. Although the attempted effect had still been given, The Gamemaster was nonetheless frustrated at Eric for failing to kill Tarkur, and mutated him into a gruesome monster as punishment.

Later, The Gamemaster pitted Mark against one of the more brutal fighters, Scrapper. The Gamemaster knew that Mark would have lost to any other warrior, yet he put him in a match with the toughest of them all. Expectedly, Scrapper critically injured Mark, and The Gamemaster had Mark "sent home". In reality, he actually transported Mark into the Arena's secret underground lab, where he performed the "Project: Ultimate" procedure on him, transforming Mark into a nigh-unstoppable beast: Berserker.

Soon, however, The Gamemaster's plan began to fall apart. When he attempted to hold a rematch between The Controller of Ice and Tarkur to further deepen their tension, Tarkur refused. The Gamemaster snapped at him, and he finally showed his true colors to the warriors. The Gamemaster confessed to being behind almost every mysterious event in the arena. In an even stranger twist of events, Scrapper betrayed the other fighters, defecting to The Gamemaster's side.

The Gamemaster then trapped the warriors, trying to force them to fight each-other to the death. They outsmarted the Gamemaster, however, and freed themselves. The Gamemaster then retreated into the underground laboratory, attempting to trap them a second time.

After fighting through a mutated Eric and navigating the lab, the warriors finally caught up with the Gamemaster. The Gamemaster then revealed Berserker, and released him in an attempt to kill the warriors one and for all.

After Berserker was defeated, and the Arena began to crumble around him, The Gamemaster saw no other chouce but to flee woth Scrapper, and together they exited through a portal just as the arena collapsed, proclaiming "You may have one the battle, but you are far from winning the war."

### Pre-Majestic League

Now that he and his crimes were exposed, The Gamemaster was forced into hiding. He took refuge in his Mansion on Earth, and together with Scrapper, his new right-hand, they hid for about a year.
During this time, the Gamemaster plotted to assemble a "team", one that would help him to leave Earth so that he could carry out his games elsewhere...

### Majestic League

One year later, the compiled list of candidates had been completed. The list consisted of various villains and hitmen in the City of Heroes:  The Infiltrator, Switchblade, Manpower and Hydron.
The Gamemaster then set about the next phase of his plan, first by kidnapping the assistant/mission coordinator of The Controller of Ice, Bertha. He forced Bertha to then lure The Controller of Ice to The City of Heroes.
Then, The Gamemaster sent out mercenaries to capture the "candidates" and bring them to his mansion.
Upon awakening, the kidnapped villains found that The Gamemaster robbed them of their weapons and gear, so as to basically hold them hostage. Their attention drawn to him, he recruited(well, "forced" would be a better-fitting term) into his team.
Due the Gamemaster's persuasive convincing, and because they saw no other way out of this madman's scheme, the villains agreed to join him.

The team's first mission was to steal a piece of macinery from a seemingly otherwise abandoned warehouse. At first, the operation went smoothly, until a team of heroes alerted to the
strange activity arrived to intervene. The villains secured the piece of the machine, however, and managed to teleport back to The Gamemaster's lair before they were caught.
The Gamemaster first chastised the team for failing to stealthily carry out their mission. The Gamemaster was then led to discover two things: The first thing, was that Mark Mcneil was on Earth, searching for The Gamemaster. The second thing, was that Sadie, his "daughter" was not as far away as he had originally thought. After tracking her down, The Gamemaster ordered Sadie's kidnapping, believing her to be a strategically valuable resource. When Sadie awoke in The Gamemaster's lair, surrounded by the villain team, needless to say she was shocked. The Gamemaster then revealed that in her sleep, he had implanted an explosive, which he would detonate if Sadie did not obey his orders. Fearing for her life, Sadie complies. She became a double-agent, supplying inside information from the hero team to The Gamemaster, all the while pretending to be on the heroes' side.
After freeing Sadie, The Gamemaster enacted the next phase of the plan. He and his team broke onto a lab to steal the next piece of the machine, and after a brief scuffle with the heroes, got away again.

When planning to steal another piece of the machine, The Gamemaster realized that he had to change the formula and throw the heroes off their game. So, he ordered Scrapper to rob the bank to distract the heroes and act as a "red herring" to the real crime that was occurring.
Once the piece of the machine was retrieved by Hydron and The Infiltrator, The Gamemaster ordered Switchblade and Manpower to construct the final piece using a blueprint he had.

That night, The Gamemaster attacked a ball in the city, where he revealed his plan. Chaos ensued, and The Gamemaster kidnapped Sadie, Project Runa, L and Link, bringing them to his lair. There, he forced them to assemble the pieces of the machine together.

Switchblade, who had been supplying inside information to Mark, gave him the location and map of The Gamemaster's lair. Mark and the remaining heroes headed there, and after fighting threw an odd labyrinth of traps, came face-to-face with The Gamemaster. In the final battle, Sadie was freed from the bomb implanted in her, Mark turned into Berserker, and Switchblade and Manpower decided to betray him. They prematurely activated the Gamemaster's machine, thinking it was some type of weapon. But that was when the truth was revealed: the machine was actually a teleporter, and The Gamemaster had built it to escape from Earth. Together, he and Scrapper entered through the portal just as the machine self-destructed and imploded.

### Death Race!

The portal had brought The Gamemaster and Scrapper to a large race track floating though space. By this point, The Gamemaster had thought Mark to have been ridden of, and so he let his guard down. The Gamemaster began another one of his twisted games, a game called "Death Race!". The premise was simple: It was a race competition, spanning various different tracks across the galaxy.
Of course, just like Arena Battle, this game was also a front for his true motives...
Two weeks later, the contestants of Death Race arrived": a barrel-Riding Skeleton named Boneson, a shield-riding knight named Tonius, an Xtreme rollerblading dude named Skader, and a mysterious moterbike-riding figure who was literally called "Nameless". The latter was there on a mission to assassinate The Gamemaster.

The first few races proceeded normally as planned without a hitch. The Gamemaster truly believed he would get away with his crimes. But that was when everything fell apart.
Literally out of nowhere, Mark, Sadie, Hydron and Leadhead had suddenly appeared on the race track. They had come to settle the score.
However, since they could not prove The Gamemaster's criminality to the audience, they had no leg to stand on. So, The Gamemaster decided to incorporate them into the race as his newest "contestants". Seeing no other way to get there hands on him, they agree to join, patiently waiting for an opportunity to hold The Gamemaster accountable.
Later, after another race, the racers began to formulate a plan to defeat The Gamemaster.
During the next race, the racers suddenly veered off course. The Gamemaster, alerted to the suspicious activity, sent Scrapper after them. Scrapper, now wearing a more technologically-advanced version of his suit from Arena Battle, pursued the racers, after a brief battle, The Gamemaster revealed that, in his words, there could only be one to rule the universe. With that, he sent Scrapper though a trapdoor, leaving him to drown as he "relieved" him of his duties.
With that taken care of, The Gamemaster took to fighting the racers himself. After a battle on the Asteroid Track using his super-powered vehicle, the final track in the race, the Gamemaster fled into his fortress, where he prepared for his final battle.
The Racers penetrated the fortress, and after fighting a resurrected, further-mutated Eric, they finally confronted The Gamemaster. His true plans were then revealed: he was hosting this race, because it was where he was running a Xalnergy extraction operation.
A brief but tense battle then ensued. It seemingly ended when The Gamemaster was impaled by Sadie's shadow daggers, apparently dying. But then, he landed in a pool of Energized Protodermis just as the Xalnergy Extraction machine was activated. The Gamemaster, mutated and empowered by The Xalnergy, opened a rift in space through which he drew Mark, Sadie and the others into a pocket dimension, in which he could control the laws of physics. Essentially, he had become a god. After a long exhausting fight, Mark de-powered The Gamemaster, and then killed him by splitting his skull with an axe blade.

### The Last Resistance

During the Xir'algath invasion, The Gamemaster was resurrected by being pulled through time from the moment just before his death. He was transported 40 years into the future by The Xir'algath to fight Mark and The Resistance alongside Plague Knight, Nimrack and Savager. Recovering from the initial shock of seeing The Gamemaster alive, Mark managed to defeat him, and The Gamemaster was subsequently imprisoned by The Council of Life and taken to Whitegate Fortress.

### Escape From Whitegate

The Gamemaster had been imprisoned in Whitegate for some time, along with villains such as Plague Knight, Savager, Nimrack, and Empress. He did not get along well with other prisoners, settling into more of a class clown persona rather than a threatening villainous one.
Eventually The Gamemaster made a ransom to free himself, and he would later return to Whitegate to assist the other inmates in their prison break.
The prisoners escaped together and later met The Dark Heroes, and they all soon found themselves coming under the employment of Kreel, the queen of The Xir'algath, who took interest in their destructive abilities.

### Cataclysm

Now under the leadership of Kreel, The Gamemaster was partnered together with Plague Knight, Savager, Gamemark and Shadowbreaker. Together, they pooled together resources to aid the Xir'algath's cause and helped Kreel to prepare for the Xir'algath's greatest conquest.

As the Majestic League and members of The Council of Life made their way towards Kreel's palace, The Gamemaster and others on the team were all given their own domains and realms to oversee, as part of a giant labyrinth that the heroes had to navigate before reaching Kreel. The section of the Labyrinth overseen by The Gamemaster was a near-inavigable funhouse of deathtraps, and the personification of madness itself.

At the end of the maze, The Gamemaster was confronted by the heroes, and he once again empowered himself with Xalnergy.

In the final battle, The Gamemaster projected illusions upon all the heroes, which played upon their personal demons in an attempt to break them. However, the heroes' spirits proved resolute, and they broke through the illusions and Mark dealt the killing blow to The Gamemaster, defeating him once and for all.
As Jonathan Servastus lay dying, the spirit of Martha came to him. They both made peace with each-other, and were forever reunited in death.

## Skills/Traits

### Master Tact

The Gamemaster is an extremely skilled strategic genius, and is able to create strategies and plans which are several steps ahead of his enemies' own plans. He can construct elaborately complex plans and strategies, and apply them not only in battle but all activities that involve cunning intellect, e.g. strategic games.
The Gamemaster can anticipate all possible obstacles or opportunities, and decide the best actions to take in any situation, allowing him to adapt and prepare for future events in advance by considering a large number of scenarios/outcomes/options/paths, and plan ahead for them, to be ready for any situation that may occur and handle it effectively.

### Psychological Warfare

The Gamemaster's preferred technique of fighting is mainly the implementation of psychological tactics, making him a very manipulative and tricky opponent. The Gamemaster's intrusive techniques often cause his adversaries to mentally break down even long before the physical combat even commences, since he tends to think long-term when picking away at the psyche of his opponents. He also subtly manipulates his targets' minds with subliminal hypnosis, to degrade their tactical thinking during combat.

### Trap construction

The Gamemaster can create many different types of traps that are effective in different ways. The traps can range from trap holes, to arrows, to explosives, etc. Tactically, this allows The Gamemaster to get an advantage over others and set traps in situations where even the brightest of minds would have trouble escaping them. But in reality, The Gamemaster mainly does this for his own personal amusement.

## Equipment

### Robotic Arm

This was a prosthetic to replace The Gamemaster's lost left arm. However it is more than just an arm, it is in fact The Gamemaster's primary weapon.
The arm is fashioned from a combination of parts from a SERA's arm Transmuted by Surius, and a magi-tech prosthetic created by Kyran. The magical properties allow the arm to be bonded to The Gamemaster's body and function as closely a normal arm as possible. And the nanotech and morphing capabilities allow him to morph and shape his arm into nearly any shape, tool or weapon he desires, in an almost organic manner. This ranges from a laser cannon to a spinning saw.

### Cybernetic Implants

The Gamemaster has cybernetic implants all over his body. They serve to enhance his strength, speed, stamina, agility and reflexes. So even when he's an old man, The Gamemaster still moves like he's in his 20's.

### Mask

The Gamemaster wears a Xir'algath mask. The mask itself has a built-in HUD that can scan and identify objects. It also has a built-in radio system that he can use to communicate with others and send audio transmissions.

### Teleportation device

The Gamemaster has a small, black, cube-shaped device that he can use to open portals and teleport himself. The earliest version could only transport him certain distances across the planet he currently resided on. But the newest model can take him to anywhere in the universe, provided he knows the coordinates. The only place where he has experienced interference with his teleportation device is on Earth.

## Alternate Versions

### The Game-Doctor

 File:7a9a414a31f9c74acce2df49f6d57943.jpg
This version of The Gamemaster lives in a universe where everything is much similar to The Prime Universe, except this is a universe in which he was a member of "The Society for Divine Cleansing".

## Gallery

Gamemaster concept.jpgConcept art of The Gamemaster, rendered by RunaIMG 0140.JPG-1.jpgA MOC of The Gamemaster, built by Toa\_Radrix