Monday, May 7, 2018

Death Prediction: Grimnir vs Abigail


(Warning: Spoilers for Magicka and Bastard!!)

The Dark Wizard is an archetype almost as universally known as the Wizard in general. Yet what truly lies behind the difference between the two? Perhaps the only difference is their level of ambition, the forces they are willing to barter with to achieve their vision. And some Dark Wizards, with such ambition as to shape the world, are willing to barter with forces strong enough to destroy it.

Grimnir, the Dark Lord of Knowledge

Abigail, the Prophet of the Netherworld

I am Imperator100, and this is a death prediction.



Grimnir:



Origin:

Since ancient times, humanity has harnessed the power of nature for it's own purposes; we use fire for heat and light, we use water for motion and energy, we use stone for our walls and we use electricity to power our machines. From this perspective, Wizards in the Magicka sense are merely the extrapolation of this impulse to the ultimate; the channeling of the mana of nature through the self. This led to the world of Midgard, a world of chaos, natural spontaneity and magical change.  

To this world was born Grimnir. Grimnir hated the silliness and the chaos of this world, the imbalance of it all. Grimnir wanted to change the world, to make it orderly and serious. Grimnir worked incredibly hard to master the power of magic, and eventually become the strongest mage in Midgard. Grimnir sought to control the power of all the magickas so he could control the world and create a world of eternal peace and order.

The other wizards joined together to stop him. They chained him up at World's End, possibly because at such magical power he could have escaped Death as Wizards before him had. From World's End, Grimnir made a barter for power with the ethereal eldritch entity known as Assatur, the King in Yellow and began his plan to escape and remake the world.

Non-Magical Abilities:

Becoming a Wizard boosts one's physical capacities a notable amount. Magicka Wizards are durable enough to briefly survive each others' magic, and Tuotenar, Grimnir's old traveling companion weaker then him was capable of surviving falling from Midgard into the Underworld Niflheim. Their strength is also enough to damage to each other.

Magicka Wizards much weaker then Grimnir have also shown lightning timing, including being able to react to and fight lightning elementals. Moving even close to this would also suggest that they are hypersonic, which is consistent with how the Player Wizards traveled across the whole goblin civilization, including up and down long caverns fighting the whole time in only minutes and how the Player Wizards can move comparable to "Falling Stars" from Dagon

Grimnir is also a powerful psionic able to give telepathic instructions to his Disciples while restrained at World's End. He is also seemingly immune to the effects of the fear and charm magicka. Grimnir's psionics are so good that he can, and often does start fights with drawing his opponents' minds into his mind for a "mind duel" where he summons other enemies throughout the game to fight his opponent for him. 



Magic:

Image result for Grimnir magicka

Grimnir is among the strongest mages in all of Midgard. Mages of Midgard have the ability to combine up to 5 of the 8 basic building blocks of mana to create unique spells. They do this by channeling the mana through "notational space", the abstract-mental space where pure mana resides. Grimnir has trained himself to mentally channel the direct experience of each mana rather then some representation of them and so gained a greater connection to each. The 8 Magical Elements are

Life: By itself fires a "verdant beam of pure life". Life Mana heals the living and harms the dead, even able to hurt the abstract concept of Death itself.

Death: Described as the entropic energy of Death, able to peel back order and causation itself. Opposite of Life, by itself fires a beam of death energies.

Earth: By itself launches a boulder at massive speeds. A mage not much stronger then Grimnir is described as using Earth Mana to move an entire hill in combat. When paired with other elements, causes the earth used with it to be supercharged with the energy of the other mana.

Lightning: Shoots a blast of electricity, that can power generators and make machines move without end. Opposite of Water and Earth. When paired with other elements, Lightning charges things with electricity

Water: Creates a spray of water. When paired with other elements, wets things. 

Cold: Used by itself creates "ice beams of of absolute absence of heat." Cold Magic is cold enough to freeze lava and to freeze rivers and lakes. When paired with other elements, cold magic chills anything affected by the other mana.

Fire: The opposite of Cold, Fire heats things up. A mage not much stronger then Grimnir's fire magic was compared to the "heart of Muspelheim" suggesting Fire Magic is comparable to magma in heat.

Shield: Shield creates a temporary magic bubble. Shield can stop the power of Assatur the planetary threat and can stop the power of the Cthulhu, the casual planetary threat. Shield is it's own opposite and will cancel any other forcefields it comes into contact with. When combined with other elements Shield can create a myriad of things including mines, walls, armor and auras that can negate or absorb any the other elements. 

Beyond this, Grimnir is implied to be able to control darkness, as Khan warns that Grimnir will cause eternal darkness for all of Midgard.

Grimnir is so skilled in magic that unlike any other wizard he can cast spells with the slightest movements of his body while tied or at World's End or just with thought. 

Magicka:

Certain combinations of elements can also provide a unique effect, this is called "Magicka" and with all of these together it is said Grimnir could have made Magicka a world of perfect peace and order. 

The Magicka Challenges divide Magicks into categories "basic" "advanced" and "too advanced". Grimnir seems to at least know the "advanced" magicka since he uses ones from that category. Considering his goal was to get ALL the magicka and he was apparently close, this seems like a conservative estimate. 

Basic:

Revive: Resurrects a fallen ally. This is generally useless to Grimnir has he does not have allies. 

Grease: Shoots a highly flammable slippery substance

Haste: Gives Super Speed potent enough to make the Wizard blurry comparable to other Wizards. Makes the Wizard move nearly as fast as the teleport spell.  

Invisibility: Gives the user invisibility so long as they don't cast anything or make contact with anything

Teleport: Teleports the Wizard at lightning speed.

Charm: Brainwashes someone into being an ally

Rain: Causes it to rain

Time Warp: Slows time, to the extent that Haste-d Wizards look like they are moving normally. Let's do it again.

Summon Phoenix: Calls down a Phoenix whose contact with the ground that resurrects any wizards that JUST died.

Nullify: Counteracts all magic currently around. Does not affect enchanted weapons or auras for some reason.

Corporealize: Turns intangible things tangible. 

Advanced:

Fear: Causes the unresistable sensation of fear in all people who can hear that are close causing them to run away

Thunder Bolt: Calls down a massive thunderbolt. 

Tornado: Summons up a Tornado

Blizzard: Summons up a powerful blizzard capable of covering an entire battlefield or the city of Havindr. 

Conflagration: Shoots a quick-moving flame wave that panics enemies 

Beyond this Grimnir also learned an ethereal magic from Assatur that allows him to create one or two levitating intangible copies of himself.



Intelligence:


Grimnir is exceptionally amazing at magic, to the point that as a magic student at Castle Aldreheim he led his classmates through a lethal obstacle course thought by the professors to be impossible and sure-fire death. Grimnir is so good at magic that he legit killed the developers of Magicka over and over. Grimnir has done much experimenting on the basic nature of magic in his laboratory and has special knowledge of the hidden "9th Element", "Imbalance" of which the Wizards are the embodiment off. He once almost reality-warped the entire multiverse to a world of pristine order and peace by taking advantage of a unique item and a rare celestial alignment though was stopped by a brief distraction from Vlad "Davlo". 

Grimnir is also a clever strategist, commanding his minions and forces all the way from World's End. 

Weaknesses:

Grimnir is, how you might say, a "stick in the mud" and does not have a sense of fun or adventure. His hatred of silliness and chaos, means he can rather not spontaneous and not explore or be creative with his powers, which is the antithesis of what the Wizards are supposed to be (They are literally the 9th Element, Imbalance)

Beyond that Grimnir has a few other weaknesses. He has no capacity to fly or levitate and like all mages in the Magicka World, it is physically impossible for him to swim. That said unlike other mages of Midgard, Grimnir does not need a staff to cast, as he was able to cast with just thoughts or slight movements while chained up at World's End.

Also like all Wizards, he's slightly squishy compared to his firepower. If he's unshielded completely and doesn't heal, magic beams can kill him within 5-10 seconds, depending on power. 

Personality:

Grimnir despises the chaos and violence and arbitrary-ness that makes up his whole world's physics and seeks to correct things into an ordered and harmonious system by eliminating anything that does not fit the proper order. He is defined by his lust for knowledge and ambition. While he may go to unreasonable lengths, he is not an evil person and has saved the world before. Even the Magic Devs have described him as being "misunderstood". That said, if some force seeks to create chaos in his well-ordered system, he will not hesitate to destroy it.



Abigail:


Image result for Abigail Bastard!!

Origin:

The discovery of the spiritual realm changed the world, bringing humans in contact with spiritual entities with strange inhuman powers. By attempting to mirror these powers and with assistance from fallen angels, humans gained the ability to wield the power known as magic. Chief among these were the 10 Great Wise Men of Europea, who sought to use the magic they had acquired to create a spiritual and scientific revolution. With hatred of God who ruled from some distant part of the universe the magic they unleashed brought the annihilation of the old world

One of these was Abigail, who after the destruction of the old world, became a dark cleric, and one of the Riders of Havoc under the leadership of the Evil Wizard Dark Schneider. But when Dark Schneider mysteriously disappeared for years, Abigail made a deal with the Demon Anthrax, said to be the destroyer of the old world, to give him the power to bring about the scientific and spiritual revolution he still desired and to create a world without suffering.

Anthrax took hold of Abigail's desires manipulating him, though Abigail eventually escaped Anthrax's hold and returned to the aid of Dark Schneider. 

Non-Magic Abilities:

The 10 Wise Men with their knowledge of magic made themselves like the Elves. This gave them an incredibly long lifespan, resistance to charming magic, and an increase in spiritual power. This increase in spiritual power gives Abigail enhanced physical strength, enough to send a normal soldier flying into a wall cratering it and physical durability on a comparable level. Abigail is fast enough to surprise Arshes Nei with his physical motions who had previously easily reacted to a supersonic attack at close range. He should also be comparable in reaction speed to Gara who CAUGHT a light beam. 

Abigail also has a few other abilities. He has a regen factor, powerful to regen from having his body blown to bits, however this is very slow and impractical in combat as regenering from having his body blown to bits took over 2 years. 


Most famously though, Abigail is a technopath able to merge his mind with machines. He also has backup brains in machines which is likely what he is regenerating FROM.



Magic:


Abigail is a top tier spellcaster of the Earth and is quite adept at magic. Abigail is a noted necromancer able to raise the dead, to the extent that he had an undead legion at this control. Abigail has a number of very powerful magical spells including

Accursed: A spell that implants a blue nail on the target. If the target doesn't obey the nail turns progressively red until it becomes completely red at which point the victim is turned into a toad. 

Heretic: Causes tentacles to emerge from the ground and tie up enemies. 

Regent Gentle Descent: Slows one's descent into the air and cushions one's fall. 

Thor: Shoots an energy beam from Abigail's forehead powerful enough to go through Dark Schneider who had previously survived the collision of his and Arshes Nei's swords, one of which can cut through a mountain. 

Wasp: Banishes Demons from the Physical Realm, if the demon is particularly weak it can erase the demon entirely. 

Spell Bound: A Spell made as a shadow of the Angels and Demons' "Dispell Bounds", Spell Bounds creates a city level forcefield capable of blocking most powers. That said it doesn't seem as easy to remake if destroyed as Dispell Bounds is, and it's only a single layer rather then the numerous that Angels and Demons possess. 

Forbidden: Summons Starving Spirits and Ghosts to eat the opponent on the physical and spiritual planes. Can summon a lot of them.

Blind Guardian: Abigail's most powerful spell, creates a cage of thorns which tear at opponents and if they do not die sends them into an eternal slumber. Was able to be somewhat effective even against the Demon Anthrax.  


Equipment:

Abigail has and uses a lot of powerful equipment. He wears a tentacle armor that makes him impervious to electricity and will impale enemies trying to attack him from behind.


But his most powerful weapons that he ever had were the Three Cursed Items; The Demonic Armor, The Devilish Hammer, and Satan's Ring. 

The Demonic Armor grants immunty to magical and mundane attack alike, up to even the power of Dark Schneider's spell Halloween which previously atomized a large quantity of stone, calced at country level. The Devilish Hammer is a weapon spiritually embued with the earth element, capable of creating city-busting earthquakes. Satan's Ring allows for the gradual absorption of energy across an entire country to be fed into the Devilish Hammer, and can open a black hole to other dimensions with the technique "Giran Ira". It can also the user to regenerate from being reduced to a skeleton

However the three attain their full power when used in conjunction, and this is the form Abigail used when he became...Omega Abigail.

Omega Abigail:





Intelligence:



Weaknesses:

Abigail, unlike some magic-users in his setting has no ability to fly or levitate. Like most however his spells require hand motions and speech and thus can not be spammed.

Also in his Omega Abigail form, in order to see needs to have his head sticking out of the Armor which gives Omega Abigail a pretty notable weak point

Also his name might sound a touch silly.

Personality: 

Abigail for the most part is relatively calm and stoic but can be over-the-top when angered. He is officially categorized as Neutral Evil due to his willingness to commit atrocities and sins for his goals. He is heavily ambitious and driven to create a better society, though this sometimes overrides his caution. For the most part however he is a fairly results-oriented scientific dark priest and mage. 



Alright our combatants are set. It's time....for a DEATH PREDICTION!



The Procession of the Heavenly Bodies that resides over the material world do show to others different faces, just as we show to different people different faces. A rare celestial event, giving for the briefest second a magical ability beyond normal convention appeared in the worlds to each world showing a different face and a different opportunity .

With the power of the Celestial Event, Abigail broke into this parallel world. A new world wholly of magical elements, what power to be harassed.... With just a bit of this land's magic he could redouble his power many times over.

With the power of the Celestial Event, Grimnir felt his magic overpower the charm on his binds and with a magical burst they broke. The chance for his vengeance was here, and more importantly the chance to continue his quest to end this magical maelstrom. 

As the heavens returned to normal, retracting their celestial power in preparation for the magical duel. Grimnir teleported quickly to the bottom of the hill where he saw another imposing figure moving through the woods.

"Who are you" Grimnir demanded "Do you intend to stop my noble quest to correct the imbalances of this world?"

Abigail stuttered "I am the Dark Cleric Abigail of a far distant land and I can't allow you to do that, the power of this world can fuel my powers to the pinnacle."

Grimnir grimaced under his hood "The cosmos seems to torment me. Why else would the person they send to stop me...have such a silly name?"

Abigail's eyes flared dangerously.

Fight!

Abigail raised his hands and with a few words cast "Heretic". Tendrils emerged from the ground binding Grimnir's form. Grimnir looked annoyed at this and with a slight gesture the dark for a single moment as a lightning bolt came from the sky in the blink of an eye.


Yet Abigail's form remained unfazed, his Tentacle Armor making him immune. As Abigail prepared another spell he suddenly found himself atop a floating platform

Dead ahead of him was a giant spectral form of his adversary, who had pulled Abigail into his mind for a mind duel. 

A bunch of Goblin shamans danced around him attempting to be menacing however Grimnir's armor quickly impaled two of them flying their corpses and with a slight burst of his strength he sent the rest careening over the side.

Grimnir scowled and transported him to another floating island, summoning a vast menagerie of mages to deal with this pest. However as they flung towards him, his Spell Bounds held them at bay and Abigail thought hard and deep

Other brains reached our their connection and before the assembled Minions very eyes more Abigail appeared. 

From the ground Abigails' minions, a legion of the dead quickly emerged and overwhelmed Grimnir's servants.

Abigail returned to the realm of the awake. Grimnir was angry at his plan being foiled and prepared for his next counterattack. 

From Grimnir a powerful burst of wind emerged swirling around and around picking up dirt and debris and flinging it with force and directly a wave of fire and steam emerged moving directly for the Dark Priest, but as soon as they came near they nullified from the power of his Spell Bound. Grimnir was unpleased.



Abigail called upon the cursed ghosts from the other realm with "Forbidden" and a myriad of strange astral forms emerged, monstrous and mysterious alike and they flew for Grimnir with a hungry growl, a dark wind whipping alongside them.

Grimnir was stationary as if holding his ground against the dark onslaught before, as they grew close, a magical burst came from him and the ghosts suddenly found their bodies wrapped in flesh as they were forced into material being. Grimnir took a slight step forward and from him came a life-ice wall supercharing life energy causing the dead forms of the ghosts to explode violently in a shower of blood.

Abigail in the meantime had rushed to the side and forward coming up to flank Grimnir, one hand holding his morningstar and the other a bat. Grimnir sensing the death energy on the morningstar quickly shielded himself but the bat still hit his shield form sending him flying. 

Abigail, thinking he had won and wanting to rejunivate himself called a stream of rainbow colored lights and ribbons to henshin himself and regenerate.

However as Grimnir took off however he disappeared in a blink of light before reappearing next to the transforming Abigail.

"How dare you mock me with such a display?!" Angrily yelled Grimnir. 

From Grimnir's form came two intangible levitating copies of himself. Abigail took a defensive stance, before sending a surprise blast of "Thor" at Grimnir. Grimnir hastily set up a bubble while his two copies before floating around Abigail blasting at his Spell Bound with their arcane-lightning beams and their meteors, obscuring the ground with meteor smoke and the lightning's light being splintered.

Suddenly the form of Grimnir disappeared completely inside his bubble as he cast a charm of invisibility. 

Abigail fell into defensive position under the large hill, holding himself and his spell bounds up against the assault. Grimnir stealthily moved towards planning to cancel out Abigail's shield with his own.

Abigail realizing that the invisible main enemy must be around here somewhere felt his body's magical aura burn with power as he used his most powerful spell, "Blind Guardian".

The whole of the area became quickly enshrouded as great thorns emerged from the ground tearing the trees and the ground to bits. The Invisible Grimnir darted around, realizing he would quickly be torn and cast the counter-magic "Nullify".

Nullify ended all magical effects in bounds, including the Blind Guardian, Grimnir's clones....and the Spell Bounds. The Dark Lord of Knowledge, beholding his enemy's sudden weakness launched a quick conflagaration at his position, a burning fire wall advancing at Abigail's position with great speeds. 

Abigail quickly hit the ground, the fire wall burning the back of his cape. Grimnir quickly readied a death ice wall for a quick finish to this fight. Abigail with shaking hands, used his last resource, and slipped the ring of Satan upon his finger, calling the other cursed items to him.

Grimnir beheld as his death en-laded ice wall's energies did not strike a man but a massive machine, unlike anything seen before in Midgard. This mechanical beast stepped and with it the ground did shake beneath his feat. From Grimnir's hands came beams of lightning and steam but they did nothing against Omega Abigail's body. 

Omega Abigail cast the power of Giren Ira and a great black hole began sucking at the surroundings, trees and lakes uprooted into he black hole where neither light nor heat nor air existed, the hill did collapse in on itself as large chunks of it's material were sucked into the black hole, dust and large boulders and hill chunks were sent flown through the air crushing much of the surroundings. 

Grimnir felt his body being tugged towards the vortex and cast a quick nullify, and with that the Black Hole was gone...but to Grimnir's shock the mechanical beast remained unaffected....this thing.....it was not magic?!



Omega Abigail used the power of the Demonic Hammer and threw it's fist into Grimnir but at the last second Grimnir put up his own shield, and so the assault "merely" launched him far into the horizon. 

Omega Abigail activated the power of his Abigail beam to send a powerful laser into the ground tearing many hundreds of meters to the ground's fragile skin and launching him a great distance to combat his enemy. 

Grimnir saw the mountains above the Jarn Mines as he flew flung through the air and teleported to the ground. He saw the great Mechanical Monster "fly" towards him and quickly prepared the power of the ethereal darkness.

Omega Abigail landed next to Grimnnir, drawing the tiny figure but before he could do anything a great darkness spread out across the land, like a negative sunrise, the darkness covered the whole of Midgard and the whole of the world was plunged into the blind world.

Omega Abigail growled and used his own control of darkness to send the darkness away from him, revealing the area immediately around him. Suddenly a cold wind swept in from the east, hitting his exposed head and a great blizzard fell from the skies, caused by the hiding Grimnir. "W..Where a..are you? He said menancingly his teeth chattering from the cold. His great power caused his mighty arm sweeps to shake the mountain sides. To expose the hiding dark lord he used the power of Satan's Ring, and across the land down even to the Great City of Havindr and the locality of Dunderhaed were drained of their energy. the land was dark and cold and much of the life perished from the struggle.

The land shuddered and recoiled at the dark mages struggle. Grimnir heard the booming voice of Omega Abigail. He heard the slight chattering of his teeth, "His head is exposed...?"he thought to himself before suddenly feeling the drain on his mana.

 "No! My energy!" Grimnir thought. Grimnir could tell from his senses that his beautiful world was being devastated and drained. Grimnir yelled at Abigail from behind the wall of ice "I am the savior of Migard! I will destroy you!"

Abigail turned in the direction of the voice and saw emerge from the ice two ethereal forms which fired lightning-death beams at his exposed head. Their lights provided brief breaks in the darkness cutting through it to all those in high places that could behold it. Abigail blocked their beams with his great arms, his movements sluggish from the ice, his mighty steps backwards breaking the hill behind him and causing the ground to cave.

Grimnir at hasted speeds ran across the trembling ground struggling to maintain his balance leaping at super speeds up to the base of the broken mountain casting with his thought the time slow spell and leapt at super speeds up the falling broken pieces of the mountain up to the height of bill. Grimnir charged up a death-energy rock but Abigail felt the time slow pull at his movements, even through Grimnir's attempt to mask it with the blizzard's cold.

Omega Abigail guessed Grimnir's tactics and slammed into the falling hill debris crumbling the fragments even further and taking his morningstar ejected himself in midair reading to slow his own fall with his spell

Grimnir felt the stone under him give way and collapse into tiny fragments and saw the enclosing figure and as the metal ball came down upon him let go of his own magic and quickly mixed life, lightning and fire mana.

The metal ball of the morningstar hit Grimnir's head instantly killing him, at the same time the great rock mana charged his Abigail's torso, tearing a hole through his body and causing the death mana to course through his body and make him explode into a spray of gore.

Down at the ground a phoenix called by Grimnir's magic slammed into the ground, resurrecting him. Grimnir looked upon his world, devastated but still alive.

K.O.




So this one is really multifacted and involves a lot of smaller points, the long and short of it though is Grimnir can counter all of Abigail's common magics while Abigail would have a hard time countering Griminir's.

While Abigail's Spell Bound would protect him from any magic directly speaking, Grimnir can cancel it out with a nullify or with his own shield power and if that happens Abigail is basically a sitting duck to any of Grimnir's more offensive magics that he can bust out. You'd think Omega Abigail would be able to completely defend Abigail however while Omega Abigail could tank all of Grimnir's offensive based magics initially Grimnir can slow him down a lot using Blizzard, Time Slow, Darkness, and Shield while his intangible flying copies can blast Omega Abigail with beams until he dies. Abigail has no way of countering the Flying Intangible Grimnir except MAYBE with Forbidden. 

Conversely all of Abigail's magics, even the power of Blind Guardian and the haxes of Accursed, Forbidden, and Giren Ira can be countered with nullify and all of Abigail's raw power moves would be countered by a simple Shield spell.

Both have powerful defenses, but Grimnir can much more easily overwhelm Abigail then the inverse. This is because both have reflexes far in excess of the other's movement speeds but Abigail would find it hard to trap Grimnir since his magic requires invocations and motions being only a shadow of the Angels' and Demons' abilities who can do it with only gestures while meanwhile Grimnir actually can cast spells purely with slight motions. With both of their reflexes being so much faster this is a battle of planning more then spontaneity and while Grimnir is not the type of be very spontaneous and creative, he is very talented at planning. 

While Omega Abigail is much more powerful, a death pulse from a death-electricity-ice wall or a death-rock would be able to kill purely from splash damage to his head, and while Abigail's Elf-like charm resistance would resist the Charm Magicka, it's not confirmed it would be able to protect from Fear Magicka. 

The winner is... Grimnir. 



Next Time:






As always, thanks to my friend Thor for proving this epic score and this next time. 

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