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Venlo, often referred to in truly ancient texts as "the Star of the West", is perhaps one of the Solar Exalted whose deeds and works have remained a strong legend in the Second Age. It is unlikely that Venlo would appreciate the way in which he is remembered, however. One of the 7 truly horrid Twilight Castes whose collective deeds became the template for "the Unclean", Venlo's works exist as unattributed cautionary tales of the horrors of the Anathema and the risks of unchecked power in the hands of the petty and vain. "The Parable of the Mad Sorcerer", in particular, exists as a warning for all those who dabble in the arts of sorcery and particular in the dark arts of Demon Summoning and command of the very fabric of Creation.
Venlo Deliano was not always so monstrous. He was Exalted in the early days of the First Age, not long after the Final Defeat of the Primordials. The eldest child of the chieftan of a primitive bunch of refugees from the Primordial War who had taken shelter in the Southwest, Venlo exalted in the aftermath of the banishment of the Yozi. While the Primordials had finally been defeated, not all of their creations and children had been dealt with, and Venlo's people found themselves claimed by several war beasts of the Dead Gods. Unlike his kin, Venlo did not bow down to these beasts, and for his resistance he was tortured for seven days and six nights. On the evening of the seventh day, the Star of the West was visited by the Sun and gifted with the Solar Exaltation.
Only a young newly Exalted Solar during the young days of the Rule of Man, Venlo none the less played his part in the founding of the Solar Deliberative and the construction of the city of Meru. He grew strong in the early days of the world, already a strong power among the Solars when Brigid brought the power of Sorcery to the Exalted. Thoughout most of the First Age, Venlo was one of the names one that came up when one considered questions like "who are the best sorcerers in the Realm?" Many of the ancient texts in the Heptagram were penned by Venlo, and the College Devonian owes much of its theory and power to his own mastery.
On his 2000th year, the Three Golden Idols rose in the West and Venlo rose to meet them with the aide of his Circle. In the aftermath of the great war, the distant lands were in ruin, and so the Solar Deliberative named Venlo the Lord of the West and gave him what resources he needed to rebuild the lands that the Three had destroyed. Most of the rest of his long long life was lived out in the far expanses of the West, which he raised into the heights of the First Age. Yet for all that Venlo was a great ruler he was struck with a vibrant madness, and as the age turned, Venlos moods began to grow darker.
The last two thousand years of Venlos reign were marked with his madness. Always proud, Venlo became insufferable, raising a vast monument to his might in the form of a vast city of gold. Always cautious, paranoia crept in, such as made most evident in the Broken Whips Rebellion. Always lured by power, that power was unleashed with little care, bringing birth to horrors and atrocities of which only the merest rumors still exist...
...it is perhaps ironic that, as Venlo was one of the Solars who most spurred the Usurpation, he was also the only one to survive it. Escaping the initial ambush, the Solar Lord made it back to his place of strength and managed to hold off the hunters for 600 years. All those years he surrounded himself in wards, and devoted his every waking effort to his survival. The Usurpers tried to end his life many times, but the old Twilight finally died on his 6111th year of old age. With him, the Age of the Solars passed away forever...
Notable Events
Guidelines and Magic
Venlo was perhaps one of the most powerful Solars in Creation at the time of the Usurpation, excepting a few of the eldest survivors of the Primordial War that still existed. Living to his 6,111th year the old Twilight managed to attain the heights of Essence 9. He would likely have attained even higher echolons of power, except his lack of free times. It is worth noting that while Venlo was one of the most powerful Sorcerers in Creation, he was a creature from before the Age of Sorcery had come into Creation. In particular, Venlo focused overwhelmingly on mastering the magic of Craft, Lore, and Occult. He had great power over the soul and even the Exaltation, could nigh-instantly create potent artifacts and spells, and displayed an alarming amount of power over the Gods and Spirits of the world. Even Dragons trembled at his feet, when Venlo Deliano so wished it, and only a few Eclipses had more inroads among the Gods. However, while he came to late to, Venlo fell wholely into the pursuit of Sorcery and attained sublime mastery over all three circles. He had few peers in that art.
Venlo's favored abilities were Brawl, Dodge, Stealth, Bureaucracy, and Linguistics. However, Venlos mastery of these charms was secondary at best to his skill at the magics mentioned above. Even so, the Twilight could rip apart Orichalcum with his barehands, Dodge even things such as time or fate, and demonstrated extensive and functional mastery of the magics of going unseen and manipulation the various organizations of the world. Only in the magics of Linguistics did Venlo truly approach of the heights of power, however. He mastered many charms of communication, obfuscation of words, and all matters legal. Most impressive, however, was a lengthy charm tree of his own design that melded the arts of the Occult and Linguistics into a number of charms built around harnessing the potent words left behind by the Primordials.
The only other charms that Venlo truly could be said to "focus on" were the charms of Presence. He had charms that could alternatively make him unapproachably glorious or utterly captivating in his charisma. He tended to switch between trees depending on his current needs and moods, pushing people away when he did not desire to deal with them, and capturing their attention when he desired it. Venlo also had more than a few charms of the Melee, Resistance, and Sail trees.
Venlo's Virtue Flaw was "Heart of Flint".
Roleplaying Notes
Young Venlo (Exaltation to about 2,000 years)
Compassion 2, Conviction 3, Temperance 3, Valor 2
In many ways, Venlo Deliano was shaped by his earliest years. He was born among a world under siege against forces greater than humanity can easily understand, and taken under the wing of the Unconquered Sun after seven days of horrible torture. Gifted with power and the potential to reshape the world, Venlo found himself one of those few who were given the task of remaking the world for humanity. The time of the Primordials was over, the Gods had taken the heavens for themselves and left Creation in the care of their chosen. So it was that Venlo took his place among the Chosen of the Sun.
Despite his young age, the Venlo formed an important role in those early days before the Solar Deliberative had fully established itself. He worked for centuries gathering up those surviving humans in the West, in many cases liberating them from under the rule of the servants of the Primordials. With the aid of the Mosok, the Dragon Kings of the West, and his own circle of fellow reborn Solars, he destroyed those lingering minions of Those Before that still remained. On many occasions was he tested, and he emerged ahead. He saw companions fall, and himself survived.
Once the chaos of the West was at last brought to some measure of order, Venlo was invited to the councils and early meetings of the Solar Deliberative. He was known among his peers as "the Star of the West", and played a large part in many of the early accomplishments of the old Realm.
Default Venlo (2,000 years to 4,000 years)
Compassion 2, Conviction 4, Temperance 4, Valor 3
After 2,000 years of slowly shepharding humantiy into prominence over the world, building the greatest city upon Creation and mastering its most primal secrets in the shape of sorcery, there is no doubt when the next "age" of Venlo began. When the Three Golden Idols rose in the West, Venlo was one of the Solar Exalted who responded to fight against their horrors. Much of what he had initially worked to build up was torn down, often at his own hand, to help contain the horrors that the Golden Idols represented. The seeds of Venlo's downfall can be seen in the time immediately after the ruination of the West.
In having to destroy so much of what he had brought up, Venlo found much of his essential beliefs about his nature challenged. Unwilling to bend, Venlo simply forced himself to rise above. He was endowed with the Gods with the power to do these things. Venlo had always been prideful, but after the war against the Golden Idols his ego swelled greatly. Moreover, in confronting many of the horrors that the Golden Idols brought some measure of Venlos security in his power and place in Creation was broken. He had always been cautious, but ultimately heroic. In the aftermath of the terrors he had witnessed, that caution twisted somewhat to an almost paranoia. If the Golden Idols could rise in his own home, what could be trusted?
In many ways these problems were exaberated when Venlo was ascended to a position of power, and granted both the power and the responcibility of rule. Even so, these things did not yet reach the proportions they would. Venlo perhaps reached higher than he should, but had not yell fallen to the depths to which he would plummet.
Old Venlo (4,000 years to his death)
Compassion 3, Conviction 5, Temperance 4, Valor 4
Endless years of rule gradually pounded most of what was human out of Venlo, leaving little more than a maddened shell in a position of rule. Venlo was one of the first Solars to fall to the corruption that gradually overtook his kind, and he fell harder than many. Most of the true atrocities that can be attributed to Venlo can be traced back to this time, and those are only those things that have not faded away into the mists of time. It was also during this period that Venlo ascended to the utter extents of his power. Long years of time were spent in meditation and experimentation with sorcery and his more natural magic. The limits of both were stretched as far as was possible, and Venlo mastered many powers perhaps best left untapped.
Much of Venlo's legacy still remains, throughout creation. There are horrible artifacts that lurk in the dark places of Creation, either monuments to a fallen monster or dangers to all of Creation merely waiting to be reactivated. Many of the creatures and fell contraptions that Venlo created died out or passed away into the dim recesses of time, but others escaped their bounds and have multiplied and grown strong over the course of history. A full accounting of all the changes the great Twilight wrought to Creation will perhaps never be written, but in the end it is almost certain that the mark he left upon the world was a dark one.
In the final years of his life, Venlo was crazed by the Curse and his own insanity. He suffered, in particular, from full versions of the "Paranoia" and "Meglomania" derangements.
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