Artus Gwilt

Artus Gwilt
Power of Dragons.
Artus was a grave robber.
Still is, really.
Since childhood Artus was a greedy little brat. But, greedy for very specific things. Artus was raised in the country, on old tales, faery stories and tales of King Arthur, and he lusted after the glory of old. Of golden bands and magic swords, of power and glory lost to this modern world.
The desire led him, naturally enough, into anthropology, where he had every excuse he needed to dig up old settlements and barrows.
Of course, he was kicked out when, still an intern, he got caught for stealing from one of the sites. He managed to keep a golden coin though, inscribed with Y Ddraig Goch, evading notice even from those who caught his other thefts.
He was expelled, but thankfully not arrested.
He chalked it up as “worth it” and took the coin as a good luck charm, but the lure of buried gold was too strong for him. He returned, late one night, to the site, snuck down into the barrow, and found a Y Ddraig Goch waiting for him.
The dragon told him old stories, many that he had heard already, and many more that he had not. The dragon told him how he had protected Whales in bygone days, had kept the great white dragon from his territory. He told him of other dragons, of great serpents the prowled the Ash Tree. He told of an ancient war, still being fought. He spoke of a valiant dragon warrior, Ryūjin, a beast of water, who was god of all dragons, once upon a time. Ryujin fought a grand battle, against Emmerich Natalis, a being Y Ddraig Goch referred to as a Strategist. Y Ddraig Goch told of how Emmerich took his hand and with it not only struck down Ryūjin, but all dragons. He told of how that hand reached inside Ryujin’s dying body, and pulled out the very essence of what it was to be a dragon, the cornerstone of reality that made dragons even possible, and crushed it in his hand, so that dragons were no more, and never had been. Y Ddraig Goch had fled that terrible battle, had been charged by Ryūjin with a tiny fraction of that power, to keep and safeguard for Ryūjin’s master.
Then, Y Ddraig Goch asked for Artus to return his coin.
And, Artus, in face of this terrible wyrm with flaming breath and armored scales, said “No.”
The dragon gnashed its spear-long teeth, it flexed its muscles like coiled snakes, it stared into Artus’s very soul with eyes as old as the land itself, and deep as the history of his people. “Return my coin,” it demanded in words of flame.
“You have no more right to the coin than I, dragon,” Artus told him, “You dwell in the grave of the chieftain whom it belonged to, and claim it as your own, so as it rests in my pocket, I will have it as my own.”
When Y Ddraig Goch laughed, Whales itself shook, and flowers bloomed out of season. “You have the heart of a dragon,” he said, “My Imperitor has waited long for one such as you.”
Before Artus could even ask what an Imperitor was, the dragon breathed upon him, a great torrent of flame, and Artus breathed it in, the flame entering into him. The flame and something more, that tiny fragment that Y Ddraig Goch had held onto all this time. With it, Artus was raised up higher, into a God… and entered the realms of the Nobilis.
But, of course, things are strange when you’re God of an Estate destroyed by an Excrucian. Y Ddraig wasn’t kidding, Emmerich destroyed the Estate, and killed all of the dragons… with only one exception: Y Ddraig Goch, who, by order of Ryūjin’s Imperitor, fled the scene with one last fragment of the Estate. The Estate is extremely weak, and Artus is both too new and too concerned with himself to have properly restored his Estate.
Instead, Artus has learnt to use the Estate for his own gain. To make himself more powerful, and to acquire powerful treasures and objects. Y Ddraig Goch does his best to guide the new Power, but the Red Dragon is little better, just as greedy and with only his ties to Whales stopping him from being a complete monster.
Artus has quickly been losing touch with the world, and his human nature. He spends a great deal of his time shapeshifted into a dragon and traversing the Mythic World, rather than the Prosaic. This seems fitting, considering his Estate is of mythic beings, and his own nature is all too comfortable in the skin of a mighty winged serpent. And even more comfortable coiled up on his mound of treasure.
But, Artus was shaken from this revelry recently when, whilst he was retrieving the broken fragments of Caliburn, he was attacked by Emmerich Natalis, and almost killed. It seems the Strategist has not forgotten about Ryūjin, and he has taken the continued existence of the Dragon Estate rather personally, making it his mission to destroy the Estate once and for all. Artus escaped, but the brush was close enough for him to start reexamining his life. He’s become almost paranoid, and has continued amassing artifacts, but no longer for pure avarice, as he now wishes to defend himself with such mystic treasures.
He has also instructed Y Ddraig Goch to ready Whales for war… and he has, though Whales itself is not aware of it.
And Artus has, for the first time, begun to truly concern himself with the affairs of his Estate, for he wishes to learn to create dragons, to restore his Estate… though only as a means to fight back against Emmerich, and others like him.
Artus’s mortal life… has been largely forgotten.
The Gwilts are still out there, his mother and father getting old on their sheep farm, and his sister set to inherit that way of life (fight it though she might). Artus drops in, occasionally… but most of the time he just snags a sheep in passing and peers a giant reptilian eye through a window to make sure everyone’s still alive.

Chamomile
Key of Something Romantic

The Dream
• The Lord of Dragons

The Cost
• I am no longer human.
• I am drawn into terrible war.
• My Estate is in tatters
• I have but one Subject.

Wild Oats
Key of a Destiny Denied

Hunger
• Avaricious Thief
• I shall have all the wonders of yore!
Why It Feels Empty
• What good is wealth if I lose my life?
• I am drawn into terrible war.
• I must always have more.

Ongoing Questions:
Is my nature evil?
Can I lave humanity behind forever?

Above all you are:
In Love with Something:
As inhuman and warped as Artus ahs become, he is deeply in love with Legend, with Myth, and above all with wealth, and the artifacts made when the three intersect. He loves the feel of glitter of gold, the warm malleable feel, even the scent of it.

Your Estate is from:
The Beautiful Side of the World
It is hard to get around the fact that dragons were petty, greedy, sinful monstrosities. Even Ryūjin was responsible for floods and so many, many deaths. Dragons were beings almost defined by lust and greed, by destructive fires and terrible wrath. They were natural disasters, or parasites, or sinners, or all at once.
And yet… and yet it is Y Ddraig Goch who has defended Whales for all these centuries, who has stood and let them live. It was Ryūjin who laid down his life fighting for our world. They were cruel and vicious and petty, yes, but they were also noble, and glorious, and wondrous beyond belief. To see a dragon swoop from the sky and snatch up an elephant, to see its fiery breath cremate a man and melt his armor to slag, and to see one man, one bold hero, stand before the living volcano, with wings spread wide, that… that was beauty.
The world is safer without the dragons, yes.
But it is not better for their absence, for the dragons rose to defend those who pleased them, and their very lives rose heroes to destroy them. The world is less glorious for their absence.

Your Estate is:
Something that you can point to.
Not often, any more. There just aren’t enough dragons left, but they’re real enough when they’re there, and easy to point out. They are things.

You Lived a:
Troubled Life
Artus was not a normal child, he was caught up in worlds and legends that didn’t exist, weren’t true. He was greedy by nature, a thief by practice, and always getting into trouble over it. He had few friends, never had a lover (for he knew no living woman could be like the damsels of tales), and little life.

The Legacy of your Troubled Life:
I’m Still in Trouble
Greed still drives Artus into conflicts with Powers and Mortals, and his very nature has brought the Emmerich Natalis after him. His life is one of constant struggle, but the thrill of a shinning coin, a wondrous sword, an old harp, all his treasures, drive him further into it.

What is your Affiliation?
An Independent Song
All that Artus cares about, all he truly loves, is himself, and his treasure. He hails his dragons, to be sure, and adores the stories of old, he hails love for many things, but in the end it is all second to himself. He has a dragon’s heart, and he sings the dragon song of his own greedy soul.

Contacts:

Excrucian
Emmerich Natalis, a deadly Strategist, is gunning for Artus, to destroy dragons for all time, to finish them off. Emmerich is dying of lost wonder. He is not like other Strategists who destroy because he thinks the world is Evil. He destroys because he is jealous of the Wonder the world still has. It pains him to see others in Wonder, so he obliterates those things that instill it within people. So he fought with Ryūjin, and tried to end dragons forever. Just as he ended so many other Estates of wonder, none of which can be remembered in the slightest.

Inspirational Friend
Y Ddraig Goch, the Red Dragons of Whales, and the last living dragon. He is a close friend, and mentor, to Artus, as he was a close ally to the former Power of Dragons, Ryūjin. The truth is, he and Ryūjin had a great many disagreements, and he always thought he should have been the Power, not Ryūjin. He claims he retreated with a fragment of the Estate to protect it… but, in truth, he tried to steal it for himself.
The Imperitor was not pleased, and refused to empower Y Ddraig Goch, because he had put himself before the war (as dragons do) and was therefore unworthy to become a Power.
Y Ddraig Goch has learnt a lesson… but not changed his nature. He still wants the Estate, but knows he cannot have it. If he sees a chance at bettering his position he would gladly betray Artus, but right now it is in his best interest not to piss off the Power of Dragons.

Mortal:

Passion: I love Legends and tales 2
Passion: I will have all I can lay hands on 2
Skill: Thief 1
Skill: Anthropologist 1
Skill: Storyteller 2
Cool 2

Attributes:
Aspect: 2 5 AMP
Domain: 0 5 DMP
Persona: 0 5 PMP
Treasure: 5 5 TMP

Gifts:
Durant -1 CP
Elusive -1 CP
Shapeshifter: Dragon -1 CP
Artus can change into a Dragon at will, and does so often.
Fire-Breathing -1 CP
(Simple) Even in human form, Artus can breathe fire as though he were a dragon, firing out great deadly gouts.

Properties:
2 Dragons instill awe.
3 Dragons are sinful.
1 Dragons protect their homelands.
1 Dragons are giant reptilian monsters.

Bonds:
I am Lord of all Dragons… all one of them 1
I have a Relic of Legend for every eventuality 1
I take what I want 2
My Treasures are Irresistible 2
My Dragon Form is a force of destruction 1

Afflictions:
Mortals cower and kneel before my Dragon Form 1
My greed is never satiated 2
I Know what people most desire 2
Anything stolen from me shall bring immense suffering to all who touch it until it is mine again 5

Common Anchors:

Y Ddraig Goch
The Red Dragon was Anchored largely to ensure its subservience, though Y Ddraig Goch willingly accepted the position in order to gain the power, and access to his lord.

The Cult of the Coffers
By giving away a small fraction of his treasure, and (more often) simply by promising it with no intent to give it away (Treasure is Irresistible), Artus has established several cults around himself. Most just want the goods he provides, but a few have actually come to worship him as a dragon, something he is quite pleased about… when Surolam’s hold on the world isn’t making that difficult.

Caliburn
While it is the one of Artus’s great obsessions to find Excalibur, his search so far has always fallen short of finding the Chancel Avalon, where the sword supposedly awaits with its king.
Still, in his attempts to find it he has found Arthur’s first sword, Caliburn, which he broke in battle. The sword is still in two pieces, and refuses any attempts to be reforged, but even in its broken state it has power. The light that reflects off of it can blind, and any weapon it touches is sundered like itself.

The Lucky Coin
The Coin is perhaps nothing more than an old coin, but it is the first coin, the foundation of the whole hoard, and Artus has made it his sigil. Every day the coin replicates itself nine times over, and only Artus can tell the original from the copies, though the copies are greatly valued by some. The coin itself bestows Artus when luck when he carries it, or at least that’s what he likes to think, and after pouring so much of himself into it, he’s probably right.

Other Coins
Artus has coins from all the kingdoms of history, and from many beyond Earth out in the World Ash. Gold and silver and copper and jade and even paper money in his hoard. He loves these coins dearly, and has been known to occasionally use his powers upon them. Most commonly, he will take a coin and remark it with his own image, and its worth will be increased incredibly, because everyone will want it.

The various artifacts of Saints, Legends, Powers and Excrucians that Artus has collected, and stolen, over his time as Power so far… and all those he will soon steal.
Artus is somewhat limited in that he can’t make his own Artifacts, merely acquire ones from elsewhere, and he doesn’t have particularly powerful living Anchors, except for Y Ddraig Goch. His cultists are disloyal, and merely mortal, useful only on rare occasions. The rest, is his hoard.
This may change if he brings more dragons into reality.

Projects:
How I returned Dragons to the world. (this one will probably involve improving myself into higher Domain and Persona)
3- Y Ddraig Goch defeated a hero and wasted an English Town.

How I claimed Excalibur. (kind of hoping Excalibur will count as a Gift of some sort when I finally get it)

How I overcame the Excrucian Emmerich Natalis.
10- The Abhorent Weapon of Emmerich Natalis came into my possession (connects to How I claimed Excalibur and Hunger as well)

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