Ardent Bastion

* Normal
* Weary
* Fully Equipped

## Personality

A man of strict morals, Sebastian has a tendency to be overly harsh on those he expects much out of, himself included. This drive is what him to where he is today, but is also what makes him so polarizing a character. Seemingly sadistic in his strictness, he always pushes people to their absolute limit, only letting up when he knows they’re this close to breaking. He has no quarrels with physically or emotionally harming someone if it means getting them any closer to the potential he knows they have. Despite this harsh expectancy of greatness, he’s also a passionate man, this intense harshness stemming from him wanting only the best out of the people he torments.

He despises those who would rather settle for mediocrity, though, especially those who then proceed to terrorize those under themselves to make themselves feel better about their own complacency. While nowhere near a kind man, he’s extremely lionhearted, and will never hesitate to do the right thing, especially if it means helping a soul who couldn’t help themselves.

He’s also uncharacteristically witty; nowhere near the intellect of a genius or a brilliant strategist, but he’s certainly not to be taken for a fool. Such skills are almost necessary when you go into the business of commanding your own troops.

## Backstory

The classical tale of a made man, Sebastian started from almost nothing.

His grandfather a high-ranking government official, his family cherished that fact and centered their lives around it, despite the fact that the government dissolved almost immediately when Prometheus was born, replaced with the council. Living by a code of honor drilled into him by his father, Sebastian joined the Promethean military as soon as he was old enough to. Taking only his father’s cane and his honor with him, he was determined to rise through the ranks and do his father proud.

It wasn’t nearly as difficult as they thought it’d be.

Due to the military only consisting of less than 300 people and lacking any clear general or commander-in-chief, it wasn’t very hard for a soldier with a family history of service and a penchant for leadership to get a position in exactly that.

Fast forwards to almost 20 years after his rise to control, and the military has been transformed from a sparse and underpowered force to a tightly drilled and effective torrent. Their only heavy limitation was how expensive they are both to train, supply, and deploy, making them an emergency failsafe against things such as alien attacks on the ship, and not as useful for taking care of smaller-scale matters such as the underground and black markets of Prometheus.

Sebastian's since gone and gotten married and had two beautiful children to call his own, though taking care of them is far more difficult than any troop regimine. Retiring after two long decades of work, he now works as a detective/investigator in the city for the fun of it, entirely satisfied with the peaceful drone of his everyday life.

## Resources

Sebastian built up a fortune throughout the years, ranging from all the money he could want, multiple houses and luxuries. Despite this, he finds them superficial, and not anything he could care too much about. Though they’re immensely helpful when it comes to keeping his kids occupied, so they aren’t all bad.

### Specialisations

* Disruption Tactics
* Counter-Strategy and War Tactics
* Supportive and Suppressive Fire
* Crowd Control and Zoning

## Power

### The Monte Cristo Collection

Source: Artifact

A set of legend, Sebastian originally only possessed a single part of the set. Through various exploits, bartering, and inquisition, he slowly gained the rest of the weapons, ending in a definitive 3-weapon set.

**Chains of Hauteclere:** This set of black chains are easily the most versatile part of the set. The single link of chains can be anywhere between 1 - 5m long, and all extend from a single point: a single, jeweled handle. The chains move at 65mph, and deal no damage, as they cannot be used to harm people. Their usefulness comes from the fact that they can be used to deflect projectiles, as they have a 50kN durability, block attacks, pull the user places, act as a tightrope, and a whole variety of uses. If wrapped around somebody, it takes 2 turns to break out with a lift strength of 100kg, 1 turn with 200kg, and anything about 400kg can break out instantly.

The chains regenerate at 1m a turn, and if the handle is destroyed, the entire chain won't regenerate for 10 turns. They can be kept out for as long as the user wants.

**Cross of Mistilteinn:** This odd yet huge weapon takes the appearance of a cross-like coffin when inactive. It takes 1 full turn to activate, and, upon being activated, however, it seems to shift and separate at some parts, more resembling a large, oversized canon.

And that’s exactly what it is.

When active, Mistilteinn acts as a projectile weapon which can be held and aimed manually, or simply placed down and left to fire on it’s own. It can fire a maximum of 3 shots per turn. An ordinary shot only has 5kN behind it, but can gain an additional 2kN gained for every second it spends charging for a max of an additional 20kN. The shots travel at 30m/s, but can an additional 5m/s for every second spend charging, ending at an additional 50m/s. The shots explode for 1m cubed with 500C flames upon landing. Despite it’s oversized and unwieldy nature, at 2m long and 1m wide, Sebastian can hold it through a small handle on its belly and swing and aim it as if it was a normal weapon.

In addition to being a potent ranged weapon, it can also store the other two weapons inside of it while inactive, making carrying them all around far less of a hassle.

**Durendal:** The only part of the set Sebastian owned before his exploits as a General and mercenary, this “sword” is the third and final part of the set, as far as he knows, at least. Actually taking the form of a golden cane, covered in insignia and with a chameleon design on the top, the weapon has 2 main functions.

The first is that when the tip of the weapon, and only the tip, lands during an attack, the force behind his strike is tripled. This zone is relatively easy to spot, as it has a clear difference in design and width as opposed to the rest of the weapon.

The second function plays into the weapon’s chameleon design, as, by twisting the handle, the weapon takes the aspect/element of whatever the tip is currently touching.

Meaning if the weapon is touching fire, it sets on fire, if it’s touching the ground, it gets an earth aspect, and if it isn’t touching anything, it gets air, and so on and so forth. This aspect will stay active for 5 turns and will have the same stats as the aspect it was copied from before going into a 5 turn cooldown.

Alternatively, Sebastian can release the imbuement early with a powerful slash, made up of the element the weapon currently has copied. The slash has 15kN behind it, moves at 35m/s, and has a range of 10m. This changes the enhancement cooldown to twice as long as he had the imbuement active.

### Monte Cristo's Butterfly Effect

Upon obtaining all 3 parts of the set, Sebastian discovered that it had not only permanently bound to him, but through connecting to his soul, gave him access to an latent ability. He theorizes that the set always had this, but it was only unlocked due to all parts being wielded by one user, and that either more practice or additional parts of the set he hasn't found will unlock new moves. Through practice and experience, he's figured out how his ability works.

At any given point, either off of his cape or off any reference point of himself, a single black and blue butterfly will wisp off. How his ability works from this point is dependent on what he does to it.

**Penumbra:** To activate this “overture” mode, he has to catch the butterfly, then crush it in his palm. Upon activating this, his ability will either affect himself or his gear.

Once active, Sebastian can choose one of his three parts to his artifact set to be affected.

If he chooses the chains, the handle will glow an eerie blue, and begin to float. The chains separate into 3 of equal length, and essentially function the same way, the only difference being that instead of manually swinging or moving them, Sebastian can now guide them with his hands or through gestures.

If he chooses the cannon, all shots will fire as if they’re fully charged while the ability is active. This only works for a maximum of 5 shots before it goes on cooldown.

If he chooses Durendal, the tip of the cane will glow in a similar fashion to the chains. During this period, any attack that he hits with the tip of the weapon will not only be canceled out, but will have the physical force reflected back. This only works if the attack he’s reflecting actually has a physical force to it, and the force of the attack cannot be more than double the damage of the swing itself. This only works on 1 attack per turn.

This mode has a 5 turn usage for all 3 modes, with a 7 turn cooldown afterwards.