Aurora Ward – Research; “Tyrannon the Conqueror”

For Samhain’s research, there’s a fair amount of information on “Tyrannon the Conqueror” available – at least presuming that he consults Boreas and some of the other available magicians. That’s the trouble with having a huge reputation disadvantage…

During the retreat into the Hundred Realms ahead of the Rho-Field desperate groups (including the usual procrastinators) attempted to colonize a number of unpromising dimensions. Muspel – a realm of blazing energy, of quasi-living Avatars of various kinds of magic, and of drifting islands of rock floating in the void – was one of them. With magic it was survivable – but the initial refuges were small, and perilous, and a great deal of work to create or expand. Still, the Rho-Field made a return to Earth impossible. Humanity survived in Muspel – although, as happened in so many of the hundred realms, the children born there were infused with Muspel’s energies; those who could not adapt died – and such forced evolution soon produced yet another human variant.

Generations later, the greatest mages of Muspel found a way to merge themselves with the realms Avatars of Magic – becoming near-immortal beings of vast power, each with near-complete control over the type of magic that their Avatar embodied. Between them, the new, conscious, Avatars organized the drifting islands of land and the tiny colonies they hosted into mighty continents with livable environments. The people of Muspel multiplied and spread across the new lands – but conflicts arose, and the Avatars were drawn in. There was war and destruction until one of the most powerful Avatars – an entity of living, devouring, mystic flame, linked to the central fires of the realm – found a way to subsume other Avatars. That Avatar soon reigned as Tyrant over the entire dimension, having subsumed all the other Avatars who resisted his rule and bound the rest.

That Avatar has been known to the various people’s of the earth by many names – but is most commonly known among Magicians as Tyrannon the Conqueror.

Tyrannon still seeks to consume and expand – and so drawing more matter into Muspel to expand his people’s lands and resources has been an ongoing project. Ultimately he would like to draw in the major planets of the solar system – using their transformed mass to expand Muspel’s semi-Dyson surface around the mystical central fire which is both himself and the realms core. Thus he would expand his domain, make room for enormous numbers of additional people, and shape his essence towards it’s final form.

Unfortunately, for a dimensional transfer of that magnitude to succeed, Tyrannon needs an avatar on the planet in question and control of much of its magical energy – either through the control of it’s energy nexi through the efforts of dedicated followers there or through it supporting a large, accepting, and worshipful, population to anchor his magic. As long as the Rho-Field prevented the colonization of the solar system, that made Earth the only available planetary candidate – although this may now be changing.

Tyrannon did manage to snatch a few asteroids across the millennia, but thanks to the efforts of its own governments, heroes, and mages, the Earth has eluded his grasp. That hasn’t discouraged him though; he’s no longer very human, and a drive to expand is a part of his nature. Tyrannon’s power thus presents an ever-present magical threat to the stability of the solar system.

For the common folk, life in Muspel is actually pretty good. The technological level is renaissance at best, but the magical arts are well-developed, extremely common, and make up for quite a lot. Their distant overlord-god handles most of his own affairs with his unsurpassed magical might – requiring little of his people beyond peace and their psychic support to help him maintain control of the subsumed Avatars. It is ultimately a limited existence – Muspel is still a pocket-dimension, even if (with enough matter) it will eventually be the equivalent of a Dyson Sphere and the constant use of magic both runs into limits and shortens adepts lives – but few people really insist on infinite horizons. “More than they could see in an extended lifespan” is usually quite enough to satisfy them.

Life in Muspel under Tyrannon might, arguably, have been a reasonable choice in comparison to life under some of the roman emperors, or for many medieval peasants, and for desperate tribal folk – and so the Cult of Tyrannon has often attracted adherents, although it’s far less popular in modern times. Allowing the Earth to be drawn into Muspel and restructured would ultimately be a dead end – a stagnant retreat from reality (as well as producing a high rate of infant deaths until the adaption process was complete) – but it would hardly be unendurable.

Still, while Tyrannon may not be an incarnation of evil, he (she? it?) is detached from human concerns, vastly arrogant and prideful, considers himself to be the supreme power of the cosmos, does not handle defiance, opposition, or “betrayal” well, keeps his promises, and tends to think that – while he may suffer setbacks – he cannot ultimately lose. Such attitudes have repeatedly proven to be weaknesses, but Tyrannon, almost by definition, will never learn.

Tyrannons powers have a few notable strengths; his ability to sustain hundreds of aspects at a time, his vast powers of “ambient”-magic sorcery drawing on the focused energies of Muspel’s Avatars, his considerable physical might, and his mastery of the magical flame that is his most fundamental power. He has a few equally notable weaknesses; he cannot leave Muspel for long without losing control of his subsumed Avatars, he cannot bring too many aspects of himself together in any one place without them merging, he needs powerful individuals to act as anchors for him when he wishes to project his powers into other dimensions, and he is unable to intervene on any truly massive scale in any area which is not currently under his dominion.