Dr. Tenebrous (Villain)
Full Name: Dr. Tenebrous
Allegiance: Necroplane
Arguably, the creature known to the citizens of Earth as Dr. Tenebrous is one of the most powerful beings in the world.
Lord Tenebrous was born a mortal long before the cursed land of Necroplane took shape. He was a blood seneschal of a dark king Asurbanipal, an angry deva that rebelled against his kin.
Asurbanipal was so powerful no weapon could have slain him, so the righteous devas conferred with other nations and they decided their world would be safer if the dark king’s essence was split into 3 parts and hidden in a locked prison plane.
All of his allies were banished as well.
Young Tenebrous, a scholar that spent years in the libraries of Philosopher Kings, used the years of the imprisonment well. While other seneschals were feasting on the blood of their fallen lord and scheming the revenge, he studied the recovered tomes from the lost library of Alexandria and honed his skills in the field of arcane engineering. He found the tomb of Vikshi and recovered all of the artifacts, including the tome of necromancy that taught how to animate the dead.
When the seals broke and the people of the dark lands took their revenge on their former jailers, Necroplane was already an established tyranny with a feudal system, ruled by a caste of blood seneschals who named themselves as Lords.
The plane was a huge military organism and after the war came to the end, it was obvious that it needed more bloodshed to keep its violent citizens occupied and to justify the further development of the military industry. All of the denizens were no longer human, most of them led a life in the suspended animation and constant blood craving. The huge furnaces of war factories were not fueled by gas or oil, they were running on the soul and life energy of enemy prisoners. Even though the essence of a powerful knight could keep the engines running for days, it soon turned out that the cells of Hellrock prison were less and less populated.
While the Lords of Necroplane still sustained themselves on the blood of Asurbanipal, the extensive warfare industry of the dead plane drained all of the resources and left some of its denizens starving without life energy.
Tenebrous was the first one to suggest an alternative way of harvesting the energy that would let Necroplane develop.
Using the arcane technology that imbued the artifacts of the sage Vikshi, Tenebrous and his scientists were able to reconstruct the energy draining powers and graft them onto the flying vessels of the Necroplane’s air navy.
The harvest ships, as they are now referred to, carried a death ray cannon that snuffed any life (similar to neutron bombs) and captured the fleeting essence into the energy containers.
The dreadful sight of hovering hulks sweeping across the ravaged cityscapes was the last thing that the citizens of Marro XII remember, just as those of the worlds of Axtor, Llay and Thar.
The process of “reaping” a world was not just a simple invasion. Sometimes it took years to infiltrate the society, exchange some of its most powerful dwellers with Hollow Ones and open the door to harvest ships from within. For instance, Tenebrous established a formal diplomatic link with the US and UN, choosing the tolerant Pulp City as his headquarters and laying low under his human disguise for almost 3 years, bribing the politicians and some Supremes until the right day for invasion came. Necroplane Lords learnt how to be patient. Earth, or to be precise one of the parallel Earths in which we live, taught them how to lose.
The first portent came out of nowhere. Ken Meyers, the only survivor of the Necroplane invasion of his home world, escaped from the Hellrock prison and warned the Earth about the invasion to come.
Dr. Tenebrous, warned by one of the so-called Heroes, had to drop his disguise and speed up the invasion but even that didn’t help.
As the ships came through the portal at the Twilight Hills, the Heroes of the Earth were ready. Many lost their lives, but Necroplane learnt the lesson the hard way, losing 80% of its navy.
Tenebrous is even more careful these days. Though he will never admit this in front of the other Lords, his feelings for Earth and its citizens are very ambiguous. He dearly hates all of the pesky Supremes that stood in his way, yet he admires the pathetic culture, its love for violence and all things superficial.
He loves the idea of the prestige held by Earth’s super heroes, as he knows only fear that he spreads. It was Tenebrous’ idea to create the villainous Scourge of Necroplane team that is a mockery of the Supreme teams he knows. He is the one that spends days in Hellrock, bending the will of the prisoners and transforming them over time into new recruits. Each new recruit is an epic story on its own and current agendas take Tenebrous across the space and time. Snatching one world’s most powerful Supreme and turning him into Supreme Zed or resurrecting the notorious 30’s gangster Frank Gatsby as The Deadliner, are just two of the most recent ones.
The dark tentacles of Tenebrous’ agenda reach beyond Necroplane and its schemes. If the Supremes were ever aware of whom his contacts are among the Supremes and politicians on Earth, they would be afraid to ever fall asleep.