Razathiel "The Dreadmage"

Razathiel is a Ralts who does not belong to any faction. He has, however, entered into a begrudging 'alliance' with the Gold Tribe for the time being. He is played by True Epicness.

Appearance
Razathiel has many of the features of your average Ralts – short stature, a white-ish body and green, cap-like hair. His general colouration, however, is a few shades darker than normal, and the red horns that usually protrude from the heads of his kind appear to be missing. His eyes, which would be mostly hidden below his hair along with the rest of his face if not for their luminescence, glow a menacing crimson. He carries a metal staff with some kind of red jewel at the tip, using it as both a (comically large) walking stick and as a conduit for channelling Psychic energies and Fairy magic. A lot of the time he dresses in quite heavily concealing robes, though he isn’t entirely uncomfortable when out of them. They are a reddish brown with long, wide sleeves and a cowl that is pointed at the tip. The Ralts may also be seen to wear a stereotypical wizard hat, if he’s having a particularly good (evil) day. His voice has developed a somewhat grating and gravelly tone, but unfortunately for him, its pitch has stayed the same. Not as high as it could be, thankfully, but certainly not the resonant booming he would prefer.

Due to his odd voice - as well as the power and often 'colourful' vocabulary of a much older 'mon - along with some of his mannerisms and the fact that he is still a first-stage Pokémon, Raz's age is an enigma to most. To most onlookers he could be eight or eighty, though in reality, he's twenty-seven years old. The only thing his appearance really tells is that he's quite a bit older than a Ralts is supposed to be.

Likes
Smoothies, chocolate ice-cream, power, evil.

Dislikes
Being mocked. Also, everyone and everything, even including smoothies, chocolate ice-cream, power and evil.

Detail
Razathiel is probably the cruellest, evilest Ralts ever to walk the planet. Admittedly, that isn’t too difficult a title to obtain amongst Ralts kind, but even so – the Dreadmage is a twisted creature, a being that thrives on death, destruction, and the pain of his enemies. It is easy to describe him as a glass cannon with a short fuse; frail, (I mean, come on, he’s a Ralts) with a short temper and the ability to obliterate his opponents. Relentless and merciless, Raz is utterly ruthless in both combat and conversation. In any fight, he aims to kill. He cares little for the feelings of others, at least on the surface, and is almost sure to speak harshly and bluntly on any topic. Most attempts at conversation with him result in a quick, sharp insult or a mad flurry of death-threats – especially when his child-like qualities are concerned. There are many who deeply regret the days they mentioned how Raz was ‘little’ or ‘silly’ or ‘cute’. Well, they would regret it, at least, if they were still alive. Alive, and not some kind of gelatinous puddle, anyhow.

As despicable as many of the things he does may be, Razathiel simply loves the idea of being evil more than there is truly evil deep in his heart. He tends to prefer hunting down other evils in the world – those he refers to as ‘rivals’ – rather than going after the ‘heroes’. Whatever moral acts he may commit, however, will be met with a swift rebuttal; the Ralts has a particular knack for providing some form of evil justification for things he does, even if they do seem pure and good initially. You know: save a child from a burning house, because then it can grow up and seek revenge on the arsonists, breeding hatred wherever it goes. Evil logic.

It has been speculated by many that the absence of Razathiel’s horns (used to sense people’s emotions) is what drives him to be evil as he is. In truth, this isn’t the entire case – he admits that it has stunted his senses of those kinds of things compared to his brethren, but he can still read emotions as well as or better than Pokémon not of the Ralts lineage. He just doesn’t care. There are far more potent contributing factors to the Eye of Dread’s insanity.

In battle, Razathiel does consider tactics for more difficult battles, but he is at his best when he can be unremittingly on the offensive. Despite being a mere Ralts, he has gained enough power to easily outmatch most Gardevoirs of his age – and he knows it. The Eye of Dread can hit hard and fast. Unfortunately, the power he has obtained focuses heavily on offense rather than defence, so he is fairly vulnerable. Still, although he may appear more the ranged mage type, he isn’t as awful in close quarters as he may appear. As a Ralts, he has very little body weight, and with the aid of his staff and a little Psychic enhancement, he can dodge effectively and even wield his staff as a weapon if need be. These skills, though, are only particularly useful for gaining distance to attack at range, or for attacking another ranged attacker who is weaker in close quarters than he is – which isn’t all that common.

Aside from his general pursuits of Fairy magic and Psychic combat, Razathiel can be seen to have a few other hobbies, though granted they relate mostly to his villainous aspirations. He has taken a good interest in powerful trinkets and the like; Twisted Spoons, Spell Tags, as well as various incenses and gems that have become massed in a collection he keeps in his Magic Room. He has also taken to Psychically controlling musical instruments, and is fairly adept at it – well, that’s an understatement. He can play almost anything completely perfectly, on several instruments at once. Even the most obscenely difficult pieces, not meant to be played by anyone with mere hands, he could play on an entire orchestra without missing a beat. That’s Psychic for you. He happens to keep a few grand pianos in that Magic Room of his, too.

Pre-Odyssey
Razathiel was born into unfortunate circumstances. On the eve of his birth, he, his parents and his entire village were tormented by horrific nightmares. The nightmares persisted, too, in the coming days, drilling their way into their waking thoughts and punishing them for any moment of sleep they dared to take. Young Raz, having been born without horns – and on the eve of the nightmares’ origins, no less – was quickly targeted as a scapegoat. Some of the village residents took to accusing the young Ralts’ Pokémanity, rambling of evil spirits and stopping madness. Madness was indeed the word for it; everyone was desperate, distraught with fear, confusion and sleep deprivation. Eventually, Razathiel’s family could no longer take the awful dreams or the harassment, choosing to leave the village in the hopes of escaping the nightmares – both sleeping and waking – once and for all.

They didn’t.

To their despair, it didn’t end with a simple change of location. It did for the people of the village they’d left – they haven’t had a similar occurrence since, making them even more assured in their beliefs that Razathiel and his family were somehow to blame. And when the arrival of a new family brought haunting nightmares with them, suffice to say that they weren’t met with a particularly warm reception. And unsurprisingly enough, as the days passed and the nightmares continued, feelings didn’t get any warmer. Eventually, even Razathiel’s parents started having doubts. Maybe their child was some kind of malevolent, demonic… thing. Maybe it was causing all these nightmares. Maybe…

Luckily for the Ralts, Psychic types don’t stay stupid for long after birth. He could already speak fairly decently, and although emotions weren’t something he could necessarily sense as well as his parents, danger was something that he definitely could. Something told him that his parents were up to something sinister – and so, he hid. He hid as well as he could, and if he felt they were going to find him, he Teleported away. What they’d have done if they had found him, he never did find out.

After a short while of hiding, a commotion grew outside. The patrons of the village, tired and angry, had formed a vicious mob intent on ending the madness that had gripped their troubled minds. They broke in, and Razathiel’s parents stood no chance. The Chimecho and the Gallade were cut down almost immediately by a flurry of attacks, no time to even so much as scream. Razathiel hid. There was nothing else he really could do.

The Ralts stayed in their house for half a day or so – the mob hadn’t found him, not that they’d particularly made any effort to look for him. No, they were far too tired and caught up in the bloodlust for that. Eventually, Raz found the courage to venture out of the house, sneaking around the village in search of food. He was eating an apple in a small nook on the underside of someone’s house when a stranger appeared, striding confidently into the small settlement. A proud Exeggutor, a cloak around his body and a staff in one hand. The villagers, naturally, were intrigued by the new arrival, who slammed the hilt of his staff into the ground and generally drew attention.

And then, plain as day, the Exeggutor announced that he was the cause of the Nightmares, and said that they would continue if the villagers would not meet his demands. There was a piercing cry of primal anguish from behind him, and Razathiel, the source, charged at the coconut Pokémon with everything he had – and the last thing anyone expected: fire.

The villagers were rattled to the core. Their bloodlust had been used up, and they didn’t know what to think. Confused, frightened and shocked out of their minds, they did the only thing that seemed reasonable at the time: they turned, ran and screamed at the top of their lungs. What kind of Ralts could use fire? It could be a manifestation of Giratina itself, risen from the Torn World, for all they knew. The Exeggutor was even worse off; fire was painful, and seeing and hearing the villagers’ reactions to the Ralts before him was truly terrifying. He’d only wanted to scrape a bit of money off of these superstitious fools; he hadn’t expected… he didn’t want to die. He was knocked off his feet by the blast of fire, landing painfully on his back, his staff rolling off to the side. The demonic Ralts approached. The Exeggutor rattled off all the excuses and pleas he could imagine, saying how he’d lied and didn’t even know the first thing about the nightmares, pleading for forgiveness. Razathiel, like most of the people in the near vicinity, didn’t know what to think. He couldn’t stop himself. His sorrow and anger flowed out in another Hidden Power, and he burned the Exeggutor alive.

That was the first time in his life there had ever been any sort of resolution for the Ralts, and it was when he had taken on the evil that all of his peers had accused him of. The villagers had preyed on him when he had denied their claims, but when those claims appeared to realise themselves, they wouldn’t even dare to try. He hastily stole what he could from the merchant stalls for supplies, took the late Exeggutor’s staff, then fled. Where, he didn’t know, but there was one thing he was sure of: he needed more power.

Darkrai's Return
Since that day, Razathiel has certainly been somewhat successful in attaining power – he has travelled far and wide, gaining knowledge and techniques from notable Psychics, magicians, and even ancient tomes and libraries. He has never evolved, though – he suspects this has something to do with either the intense childhood stress, or some kind of birth defect, which would also be linked to his lack of horns. He has trained his Hidden Power for constant use, but it has still never quite reached the same level of power as it did that first time. He has made something of a name for himself in his travels – he is only known by few, but those who do know him often fear him greatly. Either that, or he's just remembered as 'that tiny guy that played that piano real good'. Whatever was causing the nightmares no longer affects him directly, but the dreams themselves still persist, like scars failing to heal.

His goals now include attaining more power – that one never really has an end point – finding the cause of the nightmares and exacting final revenge upon them – he figured it couldn’t have been the Exeggutor; the nightmares were far too great a feat, and he died far too easily to be that powerful – and, at the risk of cliché, world domination. He is evil, after all. When the world is his, none will be able to make false accusations like the ones against him. He, and only he, will provide ultimate judgement for all, whether they wish it or not. Generally, though, this last goal takes a back seat, especially since he’s still making progress in the first one. The festival and its cause seems to serve all three of his goals; the quest is likely to attract people of quite great power, and as much as he hates to admit it, Razathiel could potentially learn from them. Darkrai, also, is a possible candidate for the cause of the nightmares of his childhood, and of course Razathiel has the audacity to want to fight him. World domination, also, comes into it for Raz in a fairly simple way - the fate of the world is in the balance of this quest, and he'll be damned if anyone messes it up before he does. The problem for the Ralts is that this requires co-operation of sorts, so, to his dismay, he may have to tone down on the killing a little...

Moveset
Psychic, Psyshock, Magic Room, Dazzling Gleam, Hidden Power (Fire), Thunderbolt.