[TBND] rogue alfr

A rogue alfr who can be found within the oceans of any of a thousand water-covered worlds.

He is a trickster of sorts with a malevolent streak. Those among the undersea First-Awoken who become notorious for their sadism or violent ways may attract his notice; once he has chosen a victim he will pursue his quarry until they are dead. His behavior is unpredictable—he will toy with some targets over an extended period of time, offering them the illusion of victory or escape, only to yank it away at the last moment. Others are put down as soon as he finds them. Sometimes he will seemingly give up on a pursuit, only to pick it up again months, years, or even decades later.

He has also been known to lure those of exceptional arrogance to their demise, coming out of hiding and extending an invitation for them to fight him in single combat. Drawn by the prospect of vanquishing an ancient menace and earning undying glory, nearly all of them accept his offer, only to perish at his hand. A few of the more prudent among the prideful merfolk are quietly terrified by the prospect of receiving such an invitation—they are wise enough to know that accepting it means certain death, but tradition accreted over centuries and millennia has made it the height of shame to turn down a duel with such an adversary.

It is not clear what makes him such a deadly opponent, and this only serves to increase the dread with which he is viewed by the merfolk. He is not known to use weapons. While he is robust in form, armed with massive claws that can slash or tear at foes, a creature like him should still find itself at the mercy of the entangling tentacles and sheer strength of the First-Awoken he has killed. Neither should his carapace render him invulnerable to the boltguns, flechette launchers, or supercavitation weapons which some have taken into battle against him. Some hypothesize that he is a powerful wielder of liliu, although none have discerned any sort of unusual arcane power or sorcery in his employ. Others claim he is actually an incorporeal wraith, or that he has a small army of as-of-yet-unseen creatures at his beck and call, or that he can somehow return from death no matter how many times he might be defeated.

Rarely, First-Awoken explorers may stumble upon a lair he once used but later abandoned. Within their caverns and passages are often the remains of past victims. Whether he feasts upon those he has defeated is unknown, but many strongly suspect it.

There are those who believe his actions over the ages are merely a means towards an end—that he is collecting some sort of power which will allow him to metamorphose into a far stronger, more monstrous form, and allow him to finally carry out whatever goal has been motivating him all these years.

He collects trophies from those he has defeated and adorns his shell with the ones he likes the most. On the very rare occasions where he meets with the merfolk without intent to kill, he may gift some of them to individuals who he takes a liking to. The Delineated compass is the exception; it is believed to be linked to whatever remit originally brought him into existence within the physical realm. Some suspect he keeps it not because of its innate power, but rather as a reminder of the tianhunren he turned his back to when he abandoned his quest.