Mace

Appearance

Mace is an androgynous demon with white skin and hair. Their hair is not visible except for two strands that stick out from their head wraps and rest on their forehead. They have dark red horns that point out and curl up and a tail with a spade end of the same color. Their eyes are a garnet red and like their mother, underneath the outer corner of their eyes, they have light red triangle markings. They have a slit in their eyebrow, that leads down to a scar over their left eye and a scar on their lips. They have sharp canines. They wear purple wraps over their head and around the base of their horns with the end of the ribbons flowing down the side of their face like hair and an extra section of fabric going down the back of their head and stopping just past their shoulders. Speed wears a purple, shoulderless crop top, short purple sleeves, pastel purple elbow, and knee guards, dark purple gloves, dark purple shorts with a lighter purple wrap around their waist, and almost knee-high boots with a large spike on the top of the foot.

Gear

Mace's gear is a large, spiked mace that is dark red, with diamond accents at the bottom end of the staff. The handle of the mace is the same color as their horns, the mace is a wine color, and the spikes are slightly lighter than their eyes. When not in battle, the gear is small enough to be held with one hand but during combat, it will grow in size and end up taller than Mace itself. During their phinisher, the gear will grow even larger and slam into the ground bludgeon first, with the spikes shooting out like projectiles.

Personality

Since Mace was mentored by Ban Hammer for most of their life, they have the same morals as him and a strong sense of justice. Some would call them cruel, but they would absolutely jail their mother if they had to, but they would feel a little guilty. They don't care for the suffering of criminals and sometimes actively want to see some receive painful punishment if their crimes are worth it. Mace is confident and can be a little full of themselves, but they enjoy being around other people who are capable of keeping up. They praise and compliment people who they find worthy, like Ban Hammer, which fuels his already swollen ego. When it comes to work, they become serious and effective, silencing anyone who annoys them and threatening extra troublesome prisoners. When outside of work but in action, they will focus on battle but occasionally exchange banter with allies. Their jokes can be quite ignorant and when the person they are speaking to doesn't laugh, they'll blame the person for making things uncomfortable and walk away. Since Mace is quite young for a new generation phighter and their mentor has passed on his snarky personality to them, they will call any older enemies (22 and up) old and bring up retirement. Despite what appears to be disgust to older generations, they greatly respect retired soldiers who have gone on to mentor younger demons and Mace refuses to acknowledge that most of the people they know will die before them. Unlike their mother, they are extremely serious about staying factionless because they think people who join factions and then run away are pathetic.

Background

Mace is the child of Speed but was unexpected and unwanted. Speed was extremely confused and concerned when she came upon her at the Lost Temple and found herself as the "mother" of them. She didn't hate or resent Mace but didn't want a child to be brought up surrounded by criminals and cultists. She wanted them to be able to decide where they wanted to go when they were old enough to understand how serious factions were. She knew that if they were raised around the Lost Temple too much they'd end up associated by proxy, like what happened to her when she was younger. Because Speed regularly engaged in dangerous activity and didn't want Mace to pick up what she did, she decided it would be best to have someone who wasn't associated with a faction around them. Another problem was that the gear that Mace was born with was alien to Speed and there was no way that she'd be able to teach them any useful techniques to survive dangerous situations. The closest person with a similar weapon was Scythe but Speed did NOT want Scythe of all people to take care of Mace. Speed regularly took Mace out when she'd stalk people and try to teach them to be quiet. When Mace was only about a year old, Speed was stalking Ban Hammer with Mace by her side but when she looked away and looked back, Mace managed to walk away and approached Ban Hammer alone. Speed was quietly freaking out and was debating on running down to grab them or just watching and hoping Ban Hammer wouldn't kill a literal baby for nothing. Ban Hammer didn't even notice Mace until they took their gear and swung it at his foot, and missed. Ban Hammer thought it was funny to see a small baby with a bludgeon gear and that's when Speed ran down, grabbed Mace, and started apologizing for interrupting him at work. After realizing that Ban Hammer's gear wasn't too different from Mace's, Speed begged him to teach them a few things as they grew because she didn't want to raise a weak child following a path of crime that had been paved for them by the cult. Twice a week, every week, for 19 years, Mace would be watched by Ban Hammer and be taught how to handle their gear which had grown in size. At the same time, Ban Hammer would teach them about the law and the difference between being a law-abiding citizen and scum. Because of this, when Mace was around 3, they would point at people at Lost Temple and call them things like "guilty," "evil," and "criminal." Speed was extremely embarrassed but thought it was better than the other options. When Mace was 13, they started going to Ban Hammer alone and pushing their limits even harder. At this point, their relationship with their mother had run thin and they barely spoke to each other and they saw Ban Hammer as a father figure.

When Mace was 17, during a serious sparring session, Mace fell hard and cut their face. Ban Hammer tried to end it early but they refused to stop and started calling him "old man." Speed was disappointed to see what had happened and questioned Ban Hammer but he shrugged it off and told her to be proud that her child wasn't a disappointment. She was not proud. At 18, Maced expressed the desire to work at Banland for Ban Hammer, and to prove herself, he told her to find and jail Broker. Mace was well aware of Broker and almost felt a twinge of guilt at the idea of jailing their mom's best friend but after remembering all of his crimes, went after him anyway. After disabling Broker and preparing to leave, Mace was face to face with Speed and had an awkward standoff with Speed telling them to leave Broker and Mace telling her to stop protecting criminals. Speed couldn't bring herself to attack her child but swore to herself that she would get Broker out, like usual. After bringing Broker to Ban Hammer, he congratulated them and decided to let them work as a patrol guard since members of the True Eye keep helping fellow members escape. Mace was elated at the praise and promised to not disappoint him, the same way he swears to not disappoint his mother. After this, prisoners escaping became less common and Mace took their job seriously and wanted to make sure Banlands had a strong reputation. At 19, Mace actively takes part in phights and swears anyone she captures will pay for their crimes, once and for all. Assuming Ban Hammer approves first.

Relationships

Speed - Mother: Speed is Mace's mother but they were never really close. Speed regularly had to leave them with someone else so they would be away from the Lost Eye. Mace is aware of why she did this and is grateful for her efforts at keeping them factionless because they went through with staying factionless til the day they die. They know they were unexpected and don't feel any guilt. After spending most of their teen years with Ban Hammer, they didn't talk to Speed as much anymore and just sort of co-existed in the same space. Mace is aware of some of the crimes Speed has committed under the True Eye cult and while they don't actively target her, they would arrest and send her to Banlands if they were ordered to.

Ban Hammer - Mentor: Ban Hammer is Mace's mentor. He trained them how to handle their gear without being overwhelmed by its size and how to use its weight to their advantage. As Mace grew from a pre-teen into a teenager, they spent more time around Ban Hammer and the Banlands. They would sit and watch him work and would try to play golf with him. Most of the time he rejected them. He taught them that breaking the law is bad and that the things that the people that their mom hangs around do are really bad and to not follow them as they grow up. When they're together, they are kind of annoying to be around since they just inflate each other's egos and put others down. Mace wants to die before Ban Hammer because they don't want to feel the grief of losing the only person they care about. Even though they always call him "old man" and "grandpa," they do seriously view him as a father figure and would be devasted if he died. If someone were to somehow kill him, Mace would make it their life goal to get revenge. Ban Hammer is also the only reason that Mace likes Windforce. Ban Hammer would be a bad dad, so it's a good thing he's not actually Mace's father and is more like an irresponsible uncle.

Trivia

• The main wraps on the base of their horns used to be Ban Hammer's blindfolds that they were able to take off his head while sparring
• They'll never have kids
• They once tried to hold Ban Hammer's gear and almost broke their back from how fast they folded
• Mace isn't entertained by the cat-and-mouse game Scythe and Broker keep playing with Ban Hammer and wants them in jail for good
• They're not a fan of Medkit but they somehow like him more than Speed does
• When they're bored, they try to melt stuff in the lava in Banland
• When they're REALLY bored, they'll go to Crossroads just to climb stuff
• They love bouldering
• They love getting approval from Ban Hammer but they don't actively crave it
• When in a phight with Speed as an ally, they will exchange awkward sentences with Speed telling Mace that she's proud of them and she's sorry for not being able to be around
• When in a phight with Speed as an enemy, they will normally be quiet but when they defeat each other, they will apologize with Mace telling her that it's nothing personal
• They didn't have friends their age growing up and just about everything they learned came from Speed and Ban Hammer so their sense of humor is very strange
• Due to their age and the fact that they are a new generation of phighters (with the youngest in the past roster now in their 40s) they will be associated with "new gen" jokes
• They were originally 5'10" but have been changed to 6'0" so their reference sheet is a little outdated