Omparkash
Balseraph Baron of Screams
Renegade Demon of Fear of Darkness
Corporeal Forces: 4
Strength: 6
Agility: 10
Ethereal Forces: 6
Intelligence:12
Precision: 12
Celestial Forces: 6
Will: 12
Perception: 12
Word-Forces: 14
Vessel: Male/2
Skills: Dodge/5, Emote/3, Fighting/6, Knowledge
(Psychology/6, the Marches/6, Dream Logic/6),
Tactics/2
Songs: Darkness (All/6, Virtuoso), Dreams (All/4),
Light (Ethereal/4, Celestial/6), Location/6, Motion
(All/6, Virtuoso), Nightmares (All/4), Shields
(All/5), Succor (Ethereal/3)
Attunements:* Balseraph of Nightmares, Calabite of
Nightmares, Dream Joining, Dream Walking, Terror,
Dream Drain, Baron of Screams, Demon of Fear of
Darkness
Demon of Fear of Darkness: Omparkash automatically
enters any dreamscape where the dreamer is actively
afraid of the dark, and gets a +2 to shift the theme
of any dreamscape on Beleth's side of the Vale to one
where fear of the Dark is the primary motif.
bRites: Cause someone to be afraid of the Dark (usable three
times a day)
Discord: Selfless/4 (keep reading)
Omparkash is best described by the effect that he has
on others. Here's an example (wait until midnight, of
course): get up. Draw the shades, turn off the CD
player, the television, go through the house turning
off lights. Don't forget to yank the power cord from
the refrigerator and the microwave and the VCR: we
wouldn't want any blinking lights, do we? No, of
course not. When you pass the front door, be sure to
unlock it, needless to say.
You should end up back in front of your computer,
which should by now be the only source of light
available to you. Reach for the monitor's off switch
... WAIT! Think about all of this first. Think about
the unlocked door. Think very hard about the locked
door, and about how little you really know what's
going on out there. Anyone could be quietly watching
the crack between the bottom of the door and the
floor, waiting for the last glimmer of light to
flicker and die. Anyone ... or anything.
Now turn off the monitor.
That's what Omparkash is like. He's the taste of
absolute silence and darkness, the sudden involuntary
intake of breath, the vain straining of eyes for
photons. He can reach into a human's head and tickle
that reptilian brainstem that's been faithfully
keeping humanity alert for the last three million
years. The mere presence of him in a room can cause
people's hearts to unaccountably accelerate and their
skins become moist with sweat. He is incredibly good
at his job.
And when Beleth catches up with him, she'll have his
hide.
You see, the Baron has recently had a bit of an
epiphany. Omparkash likes to scare people. He
loves to scare people. He is a virtuoso at it, in
fact. However, he honestly could care less about
hurting them. The difference is subtle yet
important.
Have you ever watched someone voluntarily be
frightened? It's more common today, but the condition
has existed throughout history. The fear is real,
mind you: it'd be pointless otherwise. The
physiological and psychological reactions are the
same, while the fear is going on ... but the aftermath
is different. Look in their eyes, and you'll see what
I mean. They enjoyed being scared. They were ready
to do it again ... and the experience didn't hurt
them. Properly prepared, a human can use
artificially-induced fear as a catharsis for what's
really worrying them, and actually end up being
better for the experience.
This infuriates most Servitors of Nightmares: it used
to infuriate Omparkash, too. How dare they bear up
under what he deigned to inflict upon them. They
should be gratified that such a majestic being would
see fit to offer such a potent link to their primitive
origins, in fact ... but then he noticed that, in
fact, some of them did. He also noticed that using
his powers on those who enjoyed being scared would not
send them closer to Beleth's side of the Vale.
Indeed, one of Omparkash's best performance pieces
could send the right dreamscape skyrocketing to the
Other Side.
After a while, he started finding that to be kind of
neat ... and not a little addictive. Going Renegade
was the next obvious step.
Omparkash is a good example of someone who has gone
through cruelty and come out the other side. He
sincerely believes that scaring people is good for
them, and is pleased to be of service: not being a
Habbalite, he can actually provide said service
without breaking the recipient of his 'gift'. By now,
the Balseraph cannot really understand why Beleth
herself does not do the same: why rape when there are
so many eager humans yearning for release? It's
senseless to rip apart such an appreciative audience,
simply because one is nursing old grudges.
Naturally, actually explaining this to his former
colleagues has proven to be pointless, and Omparkash
is understandably leery of formerly seeking
Redemption. He suspects that the price would include
never being ever permitted again to help his nightly
partners to embrace terror, until terror is gone. He
will eventually, if those of Nightmares don't catch
and kill him first: better life than death, and there
is a rumor that Blandine has a Word-bound that might
understand what he so desperately wants to explain to
others. But not tonight: there's always one more
person who urgently needs to reaffirm his or her
humanity by embracing the most primal of fears, and
Omparkash does not shirk his duties.
Incidentally, the Princess of Nightmares is reasonably
certain that she's kept Omparkash's Renegade status
from the Game. It would never do for Asmodeus to find
out that one of Beleth's best Word-bound has
apparently decided to defect out of sheer elemental
revulsion for the ideals of Nightmares. The political
fallout alone would go beyond 'unfortunate' and well
into 'disastrous'. Unfortunately, her errant Baron is
practically flaunting his apostasy. The only bright
spot in the entire mess is that Omparkash spends most
of his time in the Marches, albeit in places where
Nightmares has difficulty projecting power.
It's not much of a bright spot. Asmodeus is not known
for having agents in the ethereal plane, which almost
certainly means that he has more there than anyone
would reasonably be expected to believe...
*Omparkash still uses all of these Attunements, albeit
in ways that have earned Beleth's permanent ire. It's
all in the execution.
Back to the INC Mainpage.
Back to the Demons page.
Send mail to the Curator