Vathek the Appeaser

Wealth brings power and prestige, but also incredible tedium. What thrills await a ruler who can snap his fingers and have anything his heart desires? Vathek was once a rich and powerful Caliph, a controversial figure who rose to power at a young age. He was a brilliant man, and magnificent to behold, but obsessed with unlocking the secrets of human perception—sensuous in every sense of the word. At the height of his power he built five palaces, one dedicated to overwhelming each sense. He studied science, magic, psychology, and history hoping to expand his consciousness, even delving into dark forces to sate his curiosity. Eventually he contacted a being—pale of flesh and quietly confident—who prom­ised the young ruler unlimited knowledge and power in exchange for a single noble soul. Vathek agreed to the stranger’s deal, confident his own mind would find some loophole in his contract.
Far from a perfect man, Vathek found himself drawn easily into the tempting dark powers his benefactor offered, sacrificing a loyal servant for power, and slowly commit­ting greater and greater sins in exchange for more secrets of creation. Eventually, Vathek’s growing power and ego—and perhaps some long-misplaced empathy for his fellow man—turned him against the stranger, and while his patron handily defeated and imprisoned him, even a century of torture would not break the prince’s defiance.
After a century, his benefactor appealed to Vathek’s vanity instead. His sins had condemned him to the Pit, but that time in the Pit could be very comfortable if he would just cooperate, and even commuted by every vir­tuous soul fattened up to take his place. Vathek didn’t need to be a prisoner—or even a subject—when what the corruptor truly desired was a protégé. Vathek agreed.
The Caliph has since thrown himself into his work, showing no small gifts at temptation and bargaining. Vathek has forged contracts with hundreds of mortals over the cen­turies, specializing in appealing to frustrated geniuses, tempting them (just as he once was) with offers of insight, lost knowledge, or secret paths to enlightenment. He is an expert in providing indulgent, once-in-a-lifetime ex­periences to mortals with something to trade, whether a petitioner wants to dine on endangered animals or hunt their boss for sport. For every soul he sends to his master, Vathek gains a period of freedom to conduct his own plots or sate his appetites—the purer the soul he tempts into a bargain, the longer his freedom lasts.

Physical Description

Special abilities

Vathek is a desire demon with access to tremendous knowledge. The Caliph’s magic overwhelms his targets’ senses, but just as often he relies on tempting others with their true desires or manipulating their emotions with a well-placed word or glance. His gaze can rend victims’ souls, pry secretly-held desires from the mind, and conjure forth decadent and sensuous treasures from thin air. While these gifts are enough to fulfill many wishes, he can also broker deals between a client and his patron, whose power to rewrite reality can bring even the wildest dreams to life. Granted, Vathek is very particular about the wording of a wish, and isn’t above twisting it to make the wish punish anyone who forces him to serve.

Mental characteristics

Intellectual Characteristics

Vathek is a vainglorious, sensuous prick of a demon. He has all the beauty and danger of a thunderstorm, and radi­cally adjusts the persona he shows depending on the situ­ation. To one person he can be a mild-mannered academic while being the living avatar of seduction to another. His personality is fluid and ever-changing, but his flaws seem to follow him into every incarnation. He is eternally proud, gluttonous, and hedonistic—weaknesses that people can exploit if they know who they’re bargaining with.

Social

Contacts & Relations

Vathek’s greatest ally and enemy are one and the same: his patron, who now goes by the name Mister Infamy. He hates that this being has so easily trapped him in a web of obligations he may never escape, but remains too enrap­tured by the knowledge and experiences his role provides to struggle against his chains too hard. Mr. Infamy gener­ally remains an aloof and distant patron—for now.
Vathek doesn’t like to get his hands dirty, so tends to sur­round himself with lesser demons or human bodyguards, depending on the persona he’s embracing at any given time. Being a supernatural creature, Vathek can also be summoned by other magical villains to grant wishes and rewrite reality. After terrible defeats at the hands of Adrian Eldrich in the 1940s and Seven at the turn of the Century, Vathek has given the superhero community a wide berth, but with both of his greatest foes now gone, he sees a great deal of untapped potential in the melodrama that surrounds the lives of heroes and villains.