Personal history

Tate's parents were humans from the technologically advanced planet of Ishgabangaloodoo, the only industrialized planet in a galaxy full of stone age-through-early-gunpowder-age planets that still relied on Astral Magic for most things. As a result of a nuclear accident on Ishgabangaloodoo, Tate's parents were both born with a mutation that gave them both abilities in Astral Magic that rivaled the Gods themselves and the ability to transform into 2 progressively stronger forms. The Ishga King was terrified of Tate's parents upon learning of their mutation, having the Ishga police kidnap them in their sleep and load them into spaceships bound for the backwater planet of Nayavu on the western edge of the galaxy. Tate's mother was pregnant at the time, and barely a month into their time on Navayu, she gave birth to Tate, who inherited all of his parents' mutations. Navayu was not home to anything the Ishgas would conside technologically advanced, instead being home to dozens of stone-age tribes. Tate's parents, having worked as weapons mechanics on Ishgabangaloodoo, wowed Navayu's natives with their technology, and managed to build an army of natives supplied with Ishga-style weapons and technology they told the natives how to assemble with the planet's natural resources. This army easily conquered all of the tribes on the planet except for the stubborn Gatinoles in the southern swamps by the time Tate was two years old. After an invasion of the southern swamps failed, Tate's parents decided to make peace with the Gatioles, leaving them Navayu's sole unconquered tribe. Since the Gatinoles lived in a tropical swamp, Tate's parents built a vacation home in their territory after Tate's parents' domain (Called the United Navayu Kingdom) and the Gatinole Tribe became friends. Here, Tate became friends with a Gatinole boy named Micanopy. When Tate was around 11 years old, Micanopy's parents decided to invite Tate and his parents to their house after earning their trust. However, little did Tate and his parents know that Micanopy's parents were part of a segment of the Gatinole population that accused Tate's parents of ruling the planet tyrannically (mostly because they were foreigners), though they were not really tyrannical. At Micanopy's house, when Tate got up from the dinner table to use the bathroom, Micanopy's parents detonated a gunpowder barrel under the dinner table, killing Tate's parents, themselves, and Micanopy. Tate himself was left blind in his left eye from a piece of shrapnel. The distraught Tate returned to his parents' vacation home, where his soldiers brought him back to the capital for his coronation. Tate, who was never taught any kind of humility, made his first action naming the planet Caput Tatiium, after himself. As an act of vengeance, Tate's 2nd action was to personally lead a massive invasion force south, which finally managed to do what his parents could not: unify Caput Tatiium under his rule. Since the only people Tate really knew as a child (since his parents never really let him wander the land outside the palace or their vacation home) were his parents and Micanopy, and they had just been killed by basically the only other 2 people he had any extended interaction with, Tate developed into an extremely paranoid nihilist, thinking the entire galaxy was out to get him and using hatred of the state of the galaxy as a coping mechanism. Since Tate’s parents thought themselves essentially invincible, they had no plan in place for Tate in case of their death. As a result, Tate ascended the throne at age 11, naming the planet Caput Tatiium. After hearing rumors that some of Caput Tatiium’s other tribes were conspiring against him, Tate began demanding vast quantities of tribute from each tribe in order to keep them in line. 1/4 of each tribe’s annual income, natural resources, and their top 10 most attractive virgin women (retch) were to be sent to his palace every year, no questions asked. Any tribe that did not comply would be “met with extreme force”. All of the tribes complied, except for the seafaring Hawkaida. In order to show his tribes that he meant business, Tate sent his army into Hawkaida land, burnt down their capital and almost all of their major cities, enslaved most of the populace, took his tribute by force, and built a new fort on the site of the old Hawkaida capital to keep watch over the area. Now that all of the tribes were scared shitless and knew that Tate was NOT fucking around, Tate proceeded to grow up as a teenage king of an entire planet with no parental figures in his life. As an obvious result, Tate abused his power as stated above, and wasted his planet’s resources on his own personal vices. 100% drunk with power at this point, he began to develop a God complex and began to view everything as his own personal plaything. Since Tate had unprecedented magical ability but had only learned rudimentary Astral Magic skills from his parents, he began to travel the galaxy, going to various planets to master it. What Tate saw during his travels was a galaxy devastated by a massive pandemic, spread by the ignorance of the people living on planets other than Ishgabangaloodoo (the Ishgas had a way of curing the disease, but were too greedy to share it with anybody else). Tate himself caught the plague, but he somehow survived. Tate, as a result, spread his nihilistic view of Caput Tatiium to the entire galaxy, viewing most of it as an undeveloped cesspool of superstition and ignorance in need of modernization, and Ishgabangaloodoo as the dictionary definition of greed and dysfunction. When he returned to Caput Tatiium, he found that his army had revolted in his absence and put one of his generals on the throne. Tate took out his rage by transforming into his 2nd form and using Astral Magic to kill nearly 80,000 of his own men before his army returned to serving him out of fear of his new abilities. From this point forward, Tate would kill all of the men who dared resist him, fail to show him proper respect, or even fail missions too many times. One time when Tate was traveling the lands he ruled, he stumbled upon a secret ceremony being done by a group of shamans from the Bisoux Tribe. They were partaking in a Shadow Magic ritual. Shadow Magic is an ancient form of magic, the opposite of Astral Magic, and extremely dangerous and difficult to control. Not only can it counteract Astral Magic, but it can rewrite reality itself, essentially being the “source code” of sorts that the Gods used to create the galaxy. In fact, if somebody uses Shadow Magic without first using one of several Shadow Artifacts scattered throughout the galaxy, it will rewrite their personality and turn the evil good and the good evil. This gave Tate the idea to somehow master Shadow Magic and use it to destroy the old, flawed galaxy that he grew up in and create a new, perfect galaxy with him as its God. When Tate asked these shamans how they learned to control their Shadow Magic without it rewriting their personalities or using an artifact, they said that the Black Sun Priestesses on the planet Aztlan trained them. However, the order of Black Sun Priestesses is closed to those in positions of power and would die before giving him their secrets. This still intrigued Tate, however, who developed an interest in Aztlan. Tate visited the planet, and while there he learned of two shadow artifacts: one was located on Aztlan, but it was so old that its name and location were supposedly lost to history. However, the other artifact, the Eye of Horus, was an heirloom in the possession of the Royal Family of the planet Eaglypt. Tate also learned that Eaglypt had an order of priests called the Anubians who dabbled in Shadow Magic, much like the Black Sun Priestesses on Aztlan. However, these priests were evil through and through, having sacrificed their good morals to learn Shadow Magic. Since Shadow Magic also made the strong-willed gullible, Tate had an easy time manipulating these people to join him in his plan to rewrite the galaxy. Once Tate returned to Caput Tatiium from Eaglypt, the Anubians contacted him, telling him they found him a new recruit: Lord Etbo. Lord Etbo was an Eaglyptian whose parents had abused him. He had lived in the countryside, isolated from other people, so similar feelings of nihilism were festering in Etbo. When the Anubians told him about Tate’s plan to rewrite the flawed old galaxy into something much better, Etbo pledged himself to Tate’s allegiance immediately without even knowing him. Tate instructed the Anubians to instruct Etbo to earn the trust of the Eaglyptian royal family. Tate finally had a plan to seize his first Shadow Artifact. Once Etbo had earned the trust of the Eaglyptian royal family by becoming the hairdresser and close friend of Prince Taftenkhamun (the heir to Eaglypt’s throne). Once he had access to the Eaglyptian Throne Room (the Eaglyptian Pharaohs had been hoarding technology imported from Ishgabangaloodoo), Etbo began using the transmitter to talk to Tate directly. He informed Tate that the plague, which had by then recently disappeared, had severely weakened Eaglypt’s army and civilization in general. Seizing this golden opportunity, Tate invaded Eaglypt with his massive army, defeated the weakened Eaglyptian force, and demanded that Pharaoh Akhet-Ra hand over the Eye of Horus. With no other options, Akhet-Ra met with his traitorous priests. After giving the gullible priests a stirring speech to win them back over to his side, they employed a Shadow Magic ritual to open a portal to The Duat (part of the Nether Realm that is below the Plane of Existence and under the control of The Gods, meaning that anyone who crossed through the portal would die). They threw the Eye of Horus into the portal, leaving it under the stewardship of The Gods and sealed it. When Tate heard of this, he was so enrage that he transformed into his strongest state and used Astral Magic to summon a colossal sandstorm that choked up the Bahariyah Oasis, the one viable source on the desert planet of Eaglypt. As a result, the entire population of Eaglypt starved to death within a few months, except Etbo (who escaped with Tate) and Taftnkhamun (who was sent off-planet in the one royal escape pod by his father after the oasis choked up). Tate had committed his first genocide. Even the Anubians had not been allowed to escape the cataclysm, since they betrayed Tate and hid the Eye of Horus in The Duat. Absolutely livid about not being able to master Shadow Magic, Tate decided on plan b: taking over the galaxy and ruling it himself, and he would just have to work to eliminate its imperfections. He began to set up a massive sphere of influence over the western half of the galaxy. While he conquered many planets for the purpose of “enlightening” and “modernizing” them, he was still focused on one thing: that other Shadow Artifact that was located on Aztlan. He also began searching the galaxy for gifted people to persuade to join his cause and serve as his elite henchmen. He called this entire organization he was running “The Cabal”. On a trip to the planet Ryu 108, Tate heard rumors that the 2-year-old heir to the throne (Prince Lane of the North) was unprecedentedly gifted in Astral Magic. Intrigued, Tate kidnapped Prince Lane and took him back to Caput Tatiium, where he raised him as his own son and trained him in Astral Magic, indoctrinating him in his own beliefs. However, everything changed when Tate heard rumors of an ancient text on the planet Rinascita that may hold the location of Aztlan’s Shadow Artifact. He sent an army to the planet, among which was the seemingly insignificant recruit from Olympia named Marcus Antonius. During the mission, the Tatians managed to secure this ancient text, but failed to conquer the planet. Marcus Antonius was killed in the fighting, devastating his family. Antonius’s family sent Beth, their oldest remaining child, to join the Cabal to avenge her brother. Beth crash-landed on Eaglypt, where she lived among the empty ruins for a year or so. While there, Beth used ancient scrolls to master Astral Magic, and absorbed 2 minor Shadow Artifacts whose existence Tate did not know of: the Crook and the Flail. Since she absorbed 2 Shadow Artifacts at the same time, she had the unique ability to revive up to 3 dead people once in her lifetime provided they died within the last year. However, she was only able to master the powers of Shadow Death and Shadow Fire since she only absorbed minor artifacts. Using synthetic fuel she made from materials found on Eaglypt, Beth eventually refuel her ship and went to Caput Tatiium, where she passed Tate’s Cabal Initiation Test with flying colors and was inducted. Also around this time, Tate had demanded extra soldiers as tribute from the tribes on Caput Tatiium since his defeat on Rinascita had resulted in a manpower crisis. One of those who the Hawkaida Tribe had sent, named Lord Ombra, was only a 5-year-old, but he showed magical talent and broke records in Tate’s Cabal Initiation Test. Impressed, Tate recruited him as well. A few years later, The Cabal was extremely short on money. However, Tate had found the perfect solution while visiting Ishgabangaloodoo. He had been arrested for disorderly conduct and appeared in court, but did not know how to behave there and was thrown in jail for contempt of court. While in jail, he had a cellmate named Sir Will of Cole, a smuggler from the Axaca star system. While Will’s magical abilities were nothing to write home about, he possessed extremely strong charisma and a connection to a huge source of money that Tate could tap into and use: The Black Market. The Black Market is a secret hideout located in the middle of the desert on the planet Awal Kabab, and is where the galaxy’s best criminals meet and sell their illegal wares for high prices. Will also possessed a spaceship modified with illegal modifications that made it one of the fastest ships in the galaxy, along with a cloaking device. Will shared Tate’s hatred for the Ishga Government (they kept throwing him in jail for being a drug lord) and Tate took advantage of this to recruit him into The Cabal. Together, they busted out of Ishga jail and returned to Caput Tatiium. At this same time, Tate journeyed to Vigam, where he found a fellow plague survivor named Rhys (though he was involved in Vigamian Wrestling Entertainment, so he went by his wrestling name Inquisitor Rhys). Rhys, like Tate possessed a mutation. However, Rhys’s mutation gave him a near impermeable exoskeleton and a lethal sting. Tate promised to Rhys that if he joined The Cabal, he could help him create a plague-free galaxy, and Rhys happily agreed, and was immediately inducted into The Cabal. Upon arrival in The Cabal, Rhys immediately befriended Lord Etbo and Sir Will of Cole. No less than a month later did one of the most important events in galactic history begin. Jermie, a man from Planet Squid, had learned Shadow Magic without an artifact, causing him to go from an introverted, good-natured teen to a hyper-charismatic sociopath with plans to rule Planet Squid as his own. Since Planet Squid was much more important than any of the other planets that Tate had devastated, this caught immediate international attention. Jermie nearly conquered Planet Squid, and Tate had sent thousands of his own troops to support Jermie, but a group of mercenaries, led by King Arturius of Arturia and his Knights of The Square Table, had defeated Jermie and imprisoned him deep in the jungle. The key to his cell (dubbed the Key to the Jungle) was given to Weasel, a Knight of the Square Table who was destined to become King of the planet Aurea, Man of Light and Shadow, and Tate’s worst nightmare. However, the events on Planet Squid were not a complete loss for Tate, as it provided him with 2 powerful new recruits (Elliot and Lord Whelan). Lord Whelan befriended Rhys, Ombra, Etbo, and Will of Cole, who soon founded their own Tatian-sympathizing crime syndicate at the Black Market called UniSyn that would bring in trillions of Galactic Credits to The Cabal. Weasel took the key to Aurea, where his ship broke down and the planet was too technologically primitive to repair it, so he resigned to staying the rest of his life there. While there, Weasel befriended the planet’s aging, heirless king and got him to adopt him. When this heirless king died, Weasel became King of Aurea. Upon hearing of this, Tate set his final plan into motion: he was going to send Inquisitor Rhys to Aurea to secure the Key to the Jungle, while Beth (now named Santa Muerte after being stationed on Aztlan for a few years to gather intel) would steal Aztlan’s Shadow Artifact. They would ten travel to Planet Squid, use the Key to the Jungle to bust Jermie out of prison, get Jermie to teach Tate Shadow Magic using the artifact, and then travel to Ryu 108, where they would overthrow the current monarch, put Prince Lane on the throne, and use the loyal planet as a space for Tate to master Shadow Magic unhindered. Tate sent Inquisitor Rhys to Aurea to retrieve the key, but Rhys was killed by Weasel and his friends. A year later, Tate ordered a second invasion led by Prince Lane, Lord Whelan and Lord Ombra, but the latter two were eventually killed. However, Lane's retreating army managed to take the Key of the Jungle back to Tate, who immediately prepared for an invasion of Planet Squid. Weasel and his friends met Tate and some of The Cabal on Planet Squid, where they eventually stopped Jermie from teaching Tate Shadow Magic. However, they could not stop Jermie from teaching a few things to Santa Muerte before he died, giving her the knowledge she needed to teach Tate at some point. After failing on Planet Squid, Tate redirected his energy to Aztlan, where he planned to steal the souls of the Lords of Xibalba and force them to teach him the Song of Shadow. Weasel and his friends followed him there but STILL failed to stop Tate from stealing the souls. Tate then decided that this was not enough (the Prophecy of Two declares that "The skies will fall", and his interpretation of that was that he thought he needed to use Xibalba to bring down the skies over Aztlan as a result). Tate then awakens the Horn of Huitzilopochtli and uses his power to teleport himself and his warlords to Xibalba, where he forces the Lords of Xibalba to conduct a ritual on Xibalba that results in the asteroid careening into the planet's surface, creating a massive explosion and crater. The after-effects of this asteroid almost completely destroy the Aztlanian race and civilization, making Tate genocidal. After stealing the souls of the Lords of Xibalba, Tate and The Cabal took the souls to Ryu 108 and easily put the planet under harsh occupation. Tate and Santa Muerte then moved into Nastrond and learned the Song of Shadow from the Lords of Xibalba. While Weasel and his friends traveled overland looking for a way into Nastrond, Tate frequently taunted them by projecting a hologram of himself and using the Shadow Magic he was absorbing to attempt to derail their plans. Eventually, they ended up reaching Nastrond, and after they easily defeated his warlords, Tate; having learned Shadow Basics, Shadow Death, and Shadow Water; then leaves with The Cabal, but not before formally declaring war on Aurea. He then returns with The Cabal to Caput Tatiium where he prepares to annihilate the Aureans. The first few battles are a few indecisive skirmishes on the northern front, without heavy casualties. However, the Aureans soon open up a bulge in the frontline going west, taking Rahasy, Planet Lard, and Sea World. However, Tate then decides the best move is to trick the Aureans into leaving Aurea undefended. He hires Ali Baboon, a professional thief from Awal Kabab, to steal a teleportation device from an Ishga lab. He then went to Awal Kabab, where he had Santa Muerte revive Xerxes and his army as zombies. With the stolen teleportation device being used as bait, Tate lured Weasel and his friends to Awal Kabab, where he tricked Weasel and his into thinking he was trying to steal the Lamp of Luxury. Using this as a distraction, Tate left the planet and easily took over the undefended Aurean Government. With complete control of the government, Tate sent a task force back to Awal Kabab in an effort to root out Weasel and his friends. This succeeded in killing Felipe de Buenhombre, Olivia's current incarnation, Drew, and Garett. After this, Weasel went off into exile. Tate then launched a mass military occupation of Aurean territory, taking over planets such as Planet Squid, Ryu 97 and 108, Ishgabangaloodoo, and Vigam. His rule proved most damaging on Vigam (which he left Matt Lemonbutter in charge of). However, a couple of years later, Ryan came out of hiding and went to Ishgabangaloodoo, where he recruited the help of Weasel's friend Michael to found the Aurean Alliance, a rebel group dedicated to overthrowing Tate's regime. Ryan and Michael did much recruiting across the galaxy, reassembling Weasel's old friends and getting more planets to adopt alliance sympathies. When the time came, the Aurean Alliance launched the Great Revolt, where they declared Tatian rule over and ambushed their planets' garrisons. Thinking he could contain this with his navy, Tate sent around a tenth of the Tatian Fleet to Ishgabangaloodoo. However, he failed to realize that the Aureans had a base on New Aztlan, and the Aureans ambushed the Tatians from there, forcing them to retreat. Another few battles happened sporadically, though most of these were inconclusive. In his anger, Tate sent the entire fleet to Ishgabangaloodoo. While he succeeded in taking that planet, the Squidians put up unexpectedly fierce resistance and the Tatians were forced out again. The tide began to turn slightly for the Aureans, with them retaking a quarter of the galaxy by the time they were 9 years into the war. However, Tatian spies located Weasel in exile on the planet of Arturia, and Tate planned an invasion. To help it run more smoothly, he had Sir Michael Jones assist him with an artifact the latter found in The Wyrd: the Horned Crown, a Shadow Artifact large enough for two people that changes anyone who wears it into an evil dragon. Tate got the idea to control the planet of Arturia through this beast, and after a long battle, managed to get Michael Jones to transform Weasel and King Arturius into The Pendragon. However, Sir Michael Jones could not control this beast, and he ended up being its first victim. The Pendragon then ruled Arturia itself, pursuing its own nefarious agenda. Tate then left the planet more frustrated than when he arrived. Ten years passed, and the war with the Aurean Alliance remained relatively stagnant until an entire Aurean army was forced to surrender after a failed attempt to liberate Vigam. This allowed Tate to thrust his entire fleet deep into Aurean Alliance territory, retaking planet after planet until Ryan found the teleportation device Weasel and his friends used to travel to Awal Kabab 19 years before. He types a word into its keypad, triggering Weasel's sword of caliber on Arturia to glow red. A knight named Sir Terry Gilliam on Arturia sees this and sends a message to Morgan to get Weasel's friends onto the planet. After a long chain of events culminating in Nate slaying The Pendragon, Weasel and King Arturius are restored to life and Weasel reclaims his sword. After this, Weasel and his friends sneak onto Vigam. It is here that Tate learns of Weasel's reappearance after the Aureans take Fort Rachias. Despite Tate's warlords' best attempts to stop them, the Aureans eventually retake Vigam, which they use as a springboard to retake Aurea and formally reinstall Weasel as their leader. Since Tate no longer has his ambition of controlling the galaxy, he falls back on his plan to rewrite it. He goes to Sea World and tries to steal a Shadow Artifact known as the Atlantean Tomes, but Weasel and his friends stop him and get them back. However, Tate had his warlord Dr. Setzer use his robots to steal them back. Meanwhile on Ishgabangaloodoo, Tate busted Ali Baboon out of Prison World and had him steal back the blueprints for Tate's Shadow Weapons that Weasel and his friends stole on Vigam. Ali Baboon was eventually thwarted by Weasel's friends, but Tate hired a hacker by the name of The Hacktivist to steal the blueprints from the Aurean National Database. Over the next few months, Tate hurried the production of these weapons, most importantly the T-Ray, a T-shaped battle station the size of a small moon with enough power to obliterate an entire solar system. He tested out the T-Ray on the Cabarrus system, completely obliterating it. Once he was satisfied with his weapons, he decided it was time to enact his next plan: go to Olympia and use the Shadow Weapons to kidnap The Gods. When he arrived on Olympia, he recruited the help of the Giants and the Titans, two groups with personal feuds with The Gods. Together, these groups managed to successfully wage war on the Gods along with Weasel and his friends, with Tate being able to use his Shadow Weapons to capture the Gods. Knowing that the Eye of Horus was Weasel's last hope and the Atlantean Tomes were the only possible way to figure out where it was hidden, Tate constructed a huge, expertly-guarded base on Sea World to protect it. However, the Aureans sent out the Squidian Brigade on a mission to recover the tomes, and after a long chain of events, they succeed but at the cost of the entire brigade. Increasingly desperate, Tate then tries to open up a northern front of the war by invading Ryu 97. After the battles of Hakata Bay and The Spirit Realm, however, he is repulsed and loses a great deal of his army. More desperate than ever, Tate returns to his castle on Caput Tatiium and, using advice he gathered from the captured Norns, prepares to use the power of the captured Gods to rewrite the galaxy on the next solar eclipse seven months away. Around this time, Weasel and his friends arrive on Caput Tatiium and begin fighting their way towards Tate's Castle. During this time, Tate asks Santa Muerte to dispatch her own sister, Morgan, before she can escape from her imprisonment and start helping the Aureans. This drives Santa Muerte to betray Tate and join Weasel and his friends. Combined with the fact that he is losing the war, this leads to a slow deterioration of Tate's sanity, to the point where he nearly kills Lane when he fails to defend the Hawkaida Tribe from Weasel and his friends. The fact that his master would try to kill him like that causes Lane too to betray him and join Weasel and his friends. This pushes Tate even further into insanity, causing him to either fire or kill most of his advisors by the time Weasel and his friends arrive and take care of his warlords. Tate then instructs the Gods to begin the galaxy-rewriting ritual, causing the sky to turn a sunset color over the entire planet. Weasel and Tate then engage in a no-holds-barred duel of weapons combat, Astral Magic, and Shadow Magic. The two start the battle evenly-matched, but Tate continues to grow stronger due to Shadow energy's expanding presence in the galaxy from the Gods' ritual, while Weasel's power continually weakens. After a while, Tate has complete control of the fight, with Weasel only able to block and dodge his attacks. Eventually, Tate kills Olivia and uses Shadow Death to absorb the Shadow Spirit trapped within her, causing him to gain a huge strength boost. Weasel is only barely able to survive at this point, being tossed around the battlefield like a ragdoll. However, trying to fuse with the Shadow Spirit inside him distracts him long enough for Lane to get a surprise hit on him, causing him to regurgitate the spirit, which Weasel uses Shadow Death to absorb. Since Weasel's saber of caliber had recently absorbed a Shadow Artifact (The Jersey Devil), Weasel was easily able to permanently fuse with the Shadow Spirit, increasing his power to the point where he began fighting Tate evenly again. By this time, the two were moving so fast that the battlefield was literally the entire planet. After the two fought each other evenly for a while, the solar eclipse began. This triggered a transformation in Weasel called Shadow Mode, multiplying his power by 50x. As the time before the Gods would rewrite the galaxy began to run out, Weasel started completely stomping Tate in battle, but Tate's body could take so much abuse that Weasel was having a hard time finding a way to actually kill him. It was then that the ritual was completed and the Gods had channeled all their energy into Tate's body. Tate then declared the battle over and began drawing on this vast reserve to rewrite the galaxy, but all this power was too much for an unassisted mortal to handle, causing Tate to cry out and explode. Due to the brief time the Shadow Spirit was inside Tate's body, Tate's soul continued to live on in Weasel, even into his eventual death and reincarnation as Zane.