#Dioclius

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Anyhow something something Dioclius using his puppet strings to turn people into props and characters in his own ‘play’, his own fantastical story that he’s made up and forces people to fulfill roles in, with himself as the twisted hero.

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I finally realized what inspired Dioclius’ strings for me:

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         Back to the Escapees! Meet… Monarch Man!!!

         Oof, another superhero character? Don’t worry, this is the last one (I’m pretty sure), and while Dioclius (Man) has more of a Tokusatsu leaning to him as well, Monarch Man is ALL classic comicbook superhero, or rather supervillain! He and Dioclius (Man) are two sides of the same coin, opposites and yet parallels, arch-nemeses with one another!

         Like Dioclius (Man), Monarch Man’s origins lie as a human experiment. Once a young adult, he entertained himself with the fantasies of his favorite comic books, but alas one day the Phantom Alliance was looking for test subjects, the disposable kind that society would not miss… And thus, the young adult was kidnapped, with everyone figuring the orphanage wouldn’t miss him.

         The Phantom Alliance at this time was looking into seeing if they could bond souls to other objects, bodies, etc., and they were making decent progress lately. Thus, their experiments got bolder; While at first they were content to bond souls to things like suits of armor or living creatures, they wanted to get a bit more creative. The young adult had his soul reaped from his body, absorbed into a piece of Soul Stone; And that soul stone was then carefully ground up and crumbled, mixed into the feed of a genetically-engineered species of poisonous moth, originally created as a lethal bioweapon.

         The moths devoured the feed, and after a while, something miraculous happened. All previous test subjects hadn’t survived the process, their souls were rejected and they were reaped once more to be used for other purposes. But this young adult persevered, was there a certain quality to his soul? A powerful will that drove him to acclimate? Regardless, the young adult’s soul survived the conversion. It became one with the eclipse of moths, as an unprecedented creation; A being whose soul was bonded and spread across multiple living creatures!

         This wasn’t the only aspect of the Phantom Alliance’s experiment, either. They moved onto the next phase… See, Phantom researchers had noted that the soul seemed to possess a ‘memory’ of sorts regarding the body it originally inhabited. This was influenced by the mind, for which the soul acted as a vector towards; Part of the reason the soul rejected new bodies was because they were too dissimilar to the last one it had been acclimated towards. But what if, that soul had the power to change the new body to something more familiar, to become comfortable? What if you gave the soul that extra power it needed, through magic, more soul energy, and other experimental techniques?

         You didn’t just have someone whose soul was bound to a new body; That new body would morph and shift itself into a state similar to the soul’s previous, original body, albeit imperfect but still a better fit. On the surface it seemed the same, seemed soft and fleshy (if the original body was), but on the inside, the true nature of the new body was hidden, and would emerge from time to time as the subject intended. The new body was distorted by the soul’s memory to imitate the previous body, but ultimately it was just that; An imitation. With some of the physical properties, a default the soul preferred; But frequently shifting between old and new.

         For those whose new bodies were living, this wasn’t as jarring nor difficult to accomplish… But again, our young adult was a special case in that he was a group of living things, rather than just one. It took him a while to acclimate, but eventually the eclipse of moths he was made up of were able to converge and imitate the texture, solidity, and properties of an actual human body, his original one prior to the experiment.

         But if memories would influence the soul, why not dreams? And if the soul transferred the memory of its past body to the new one, why not its imagination for a form never idealized, but intended to be? The young adult’s ‘human’ form began to change, his wish made manifest. Instead of his constituent moths converging into a body he once had, it created something entirely new, yet still familiar to his own mind; Ideas of his own ‘supervillain’ identity that he dreamt up, as a way to soothe the loneliness of his existence.

         Thus, Monarch Man was born, a supervillain of exaggerated, almost cartoonish proportions and shape! He now sprouted his own pair of wings in his humanoid form to fly with, not that he even needed to flap them to levitate, as he was comprised of thousands of individual moths with their own wings!

         The Phantom Alliance was fascinated by Monarch Man’s unprecedented transformation; A memory need not have been physical to manifest itself through the soul in a new body, it could be a mere memory of an idea, a fantasy or imagination! Truly mind over matter, with one’s thoughts and vision dictating whatever they wanted to be, if taken to its natural conclusion…!

         But Monarch Man wasn’t interested in that. He was now a supervillain, HIS perfect dream version of one he always had, and coupled with his past successes as an experiment, and it emboldened him. It made him believe that he truly was destined and capable of great things, of accomplishing whatever he wanted, and this gave Monarch Man the motivation he needed to escape from his captors. On the run, Monarch Man experimented, practiced, and explored the limits of his new body. He armed himself with a Destonium rapier, and set out to wreak vengeance.

         See, Monarch Man had always related to the supervillains in his comics more than the superheroes; He thought they were cooler, and maybe he felt more kinship with the villains, feeling similarly cast out, undesirable, and hated by society for being a freak. He saw himself in them, and that’s why his ideal body manifested as such… And it was also why he resolved to go on a rampage, committing generic supervillain crimes for no more than the fun and fantasy of it, and as a way of lashing out at the world that had forsaken many like him. Robbing banks, destroying buildings, etc., Monarch Man quickly became a mercenary for hire, wanting to just do things without a greater goal in mind, so he’d leave that sort of thinking to his bosses.

         This earned him the attention of a member of the Wayvren family (spelling still pending), who defeated Monarch Man, putting an end to his crimes. Monarch Man was frozen in the Tower of Tears, and like many he dreamed; But his dreams and nightmares included familiar fantasies of supervillainy and his favorite childhood stories…

         When that same Wayvren’s sibling destroyed the Tower of Tears, Monarch Man escaped. He allied himself with Azayle, again operating under the same principles as he had before; To fight and wreak havoc, with the loftier ideas of purpose and meaning up to those above him. He and Dioclius (Man) encountered each other on the battlefield, and became immediate, fierce rivals, classic arch-nemeses.

         Dioclius saw himself as a twisted hero, Monarch Man embraced villainy. Dioclius was made by the Terrorbrai, nemesis to the Phantom Alliance; And he was let go, for their motive to create him was just mindless chaos. Monarch Man was made to advance a larger goal, and had to seize his freedom. One had their body fused with ichor, the other had their soul empowered and bonded to various creatures. Both controlled various bodies, but whilst Dioclius did so through his puppets with his main body acting as the default, Monarch Man controlled the eclipse of moths he was composed of.

         Dioclius (Man) and Monarch Man clashed many times, and with their leaders’ different goals regarding a young Wayvren, this would lay the battlefield for further conflicts… For both rivals, it was honestly a dream come true and deep down, they didn’t want to kill the other to end it. Hence why the other was often spared if defeated, allowed to recover and escape; It was like a mutual game between them, so there was wrath but ultimately comradery.

         …That’s Monarch Man! His and Dioclius’ rivalry and ‘two sides of the same coin’ schtick was fun for me to come up with, a lot of it happened kind of by accident but then became aware and intentional and I went through with it… The development history of both of these characters is a LONG story. What’s funny is that while Monarch Man’s appearance and exaggerated voice don’t give that impression, he’s still basically just a young adult, compared to Dioclius who was middle-aged when HIS transformation happened. So he’s comparatively throwing hands against this young punk.

         Despite his silly aesthetic and theming, Monarch Man is actually one of the deadlier Escapees; As I said before, he’s made up of thousands, if not millions, of individual moths. They’re bio-engineered, originally designed to kill and wreak havoc, but the Phantom Alliance got their hands on them and figured, why not have some fun with an experiment? They can bite hard, and converge to lift comparatively massive objects with the strength of their buzzing wings, coordinated by Monarch Man’s soul spread across all of them.

         Perhaps their deadliest feature is their ability to scatter toxic powder from their wings. As a swarming eclipse, these moths can whirl into a miniature vortex, mixing up their toxic powder with the air to create a noxious gas that they can funnel towards victims. Fighting Monarch Man as his whole or eclipse self is deadly either way, because his individual moths will constantly emit a toxic aura that poisons people on skin contact, so a gas mask won’t save you.

         As his ‘whole’ self, Monarch Man is faster, stronger, and more durable than any human could naturally be. He can fly by buzzing his primary wings, which are his fastest way of moving; But he can also casually levitate by flapping the individual wings of his moths. This makes Monarch Man ‘vibrate’ to people, who note the unusual, rolling texture to his body; Countless segments straining to shift into their true selves as individual moths.

         Monarch Man is very well coordinated, and can split apart pieces and chunks of himself to levitate and move on their own. An arm will still have the appearance and properties of an arm, it’s just now floating away from the rest of Monarch Man’s body, and you can see some of the exposed moths now too. He’s exploited this tactic to split his body apart and avoid blows that would hurt the moths he’s made up of, although it’s gonna take a LOT of damage to whittle Monarch Man down, considering how many creatures he’s made up of.

         Because he’s all just moths, he technically doesn’t have a singular ‘brain’ or organs, so as long as a decent amount of moths survive, Monarch Man can have them reproduce with one another to replenish his eclipse and his form. But if you manage to kill enough moths, you might notice his whole form looking less tangible than usual.

         Monarch Man is a skilled fencer, and can trick opponents by throwing his rapier, only to have a few moths split off from his body and carry it for him; Wielding and slashing the rapier with not as much strength as himself, but still enough to wound and kill. It’s like fighting two opponents at once, and Monarch Man can worsen the situation by splitting various limbs apart to float and attack you with, at various angles! It’s inspired directly from the boss fight of Monsoon from Metal Gear Rising, if I’m being blunt.

         Monarch Man can split himself into different proportions of moths to lift and hurl large objects, but one of his best talents is spreading himself thin, quite literally. While Monarch Man has a limit to how far his entire eclipse can fly away from each other, if it’s just a few select moths he detaches from the main eclipse, it’s fine. They might lose his soul temporarily, but these living ‘pets’ still hold a connection to Monarch Man and the larger eclipse, and he can use them as scouts to spy on others with; Once these moths return to the eclipse, they connect back to Monarch Man’s soul, and he’s granted access to their memories.

         Monarch Man is an eccentric soul, with an exaggerated, grandiose voice different from how he once sounded like. He’s embraced being a supervillain full time, and he can be a bit of a cocky, trash-talking punk in combat. Between his toxic powder, strength, flight, ability to split apart, as well as the difficulty in killing him (you have to be quite thorough in taking down an entire eclipse of moths), and he’s a foe to never underestimate.

        Fun fact! You might ask why he’s named as if after the Monarch Butterfly, instead of an actual species of moth. Well, in real life, I somehow got confused and forgot that distinction, and by the time I realized, I was already accustomed to the name Monarch Man. This explanation applies in-universe as well, and Monarch Man gets VERY salty and angry if you bring this up. I guess if I need another name for him, I could call him Eclipse Man, for obvious reasons.

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            Dioclius and Monarch Man are two sides of the same coin, yin and yang. Again, they’re both composed of many; Monarch Man has had his soul shared across an entire eclipse of moths. By puppeteering others, Dioclius controls them like extensions of himself, and is embodied through others at the same time as his own self, becoming many. 

           Of course, when Dioclius is a group, there is one who is indisputably Dioclius, more than anyone else; Himself. By contrast, every moth that Monarch Man is composed of is equally him; There is no moth above all, they’re equally interchangeable with one another. Dioclius and Monarch Man can lose their ‘components’, but build the numbers back up.

         Dioclius is focused on quality over quantity; He has a maximum of twenty-one in a group (twenty puppets and himself), but each is an entire person, able to fight with the full strength and speed of one, and all the skills of Dioclius. Monarch Man is quantity over quality; He’s made up of thousands, if not millions of moths, but they’re still moths. Highly poisonous sure, but individually, tiny bugs that aren’t too difficult to squish, even if they are more aggressive and deadly than your average insect.

         Dioclius can change the ‘roster’ of his group. Monarch Man is only ever moths of that species. Dioclius can only bring others into his group, who are typically different; Monarch Man can only produce others from his group, who are all the same. Dioclius doesn’t have as overt a bug theming as Monarch Man, but it’s still there; He’s spindly and has six limbs like an insect, and the way he grapples and swings about, sticking to walls, hearkens to Spider-Man (Suddenly, I can imagine Dioclius shooting out strings and using them as tripwires to alert him of prey, like Spidey did in imitation of his namesake).

        After all, Dioclius has some Tokusatsu leanings, and one of the most iconic motifs in the Tokusatsu genre is the insectoid hero, with beetles as a prominent example. And now that I bring it up, spiders and beetles eat moths, so there’s a potential predatory stance I could give Dioclius towards Monarch Man… 

        Except all things considered, I feel the match-up works in Monarch Man’s favor, if the two were ever to fight; Monarch Man being comprised of multiple moths means each of Dioclius’ strings can only ensnare one moth at a time; So at best he’s controlling twenty moths out of Monarch Man’s thousands, if not millions. Such a unique body structure is a hard counter towards Dioclius’ ability to control others, although Dioclius can still come to the battle with his own puppets prepared beforehand. 

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Midas: And so, that’s my plan to kill all of the Wayvrens! Including that one child of theirs, what was his name again, Floyd?

Lynkos: Mmh... Sounds nice for the most part, but that last bit don’t seem particularly sporting.

Dioclius: How so?

Lynkos:

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I like to think Dioclius and Monarch Man have a similar dynamic to Peppino and The Noise from Pizza Tower, respectively; Both pairs are powerful, messed up, and cartoonish. Monarch Man’s got that younger, juvenile punk energy that lends him to annoy Dioclius more, plus with Dioclius being someone who typically takes things light-heartedly and is the one to annoy people, he deserves someone who annoys him in return. And having a rival in terms of aesthetic and genre fits; Comic books VS Tokusatsu.

Though since classic comic book superheroes predate the Tokusatsu genre, Monarch Man is technically older than Dioclius, having been born and defeated by Wayvren before him. However, Monarch Man was imprisoned in the Tower of Tears at a younger age, think early twenties, while Dioclius is more middle-aged. It’s very confusing, but with comic book superheroes becoming more mainstream, plus Monarch Man’s younger age in terms of non-Tower chronology, he would absolutely lord over Dioclius how “The future is now, old man” before flipping him off mid-battle. Dioclius hates this delinquent’s guts.

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Dioclius Voice-Claim

Again, think of a voice that combines/takes inspiration from both. These are definitely among the weirder sources, but then Dioclius is a particularly weird Escapee so it all works out.

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Maybe I should draw Monarch Man stuck in the glue trap. And/or Dioclius since he’s also bug-themed, just in a less overt manner. They’re not even the only insectoid Escapees, there are still more for me to introduce!

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And on a final note regarding my OCs’ misleading names, mayhaps I should respell Dioclius to be Dyoclius instead, or something more intuitive. Because to be honest, it looks like it’d be pronounced “Dee-OH-klee-uss” instead of “Die-OH-klee-uss” as I’d intended. You thought it was Dioclius, but it was ME! Kono DIOclius- *gets shot*

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“Here I come, to save the daaaaayyyy!!!”

         If you hear these words, run. Dioclius is here!

         He’s a self-proclaimed superhero, and. WELL. He’s definitely admittedly super, I’ll give him that. But hero…?

         So this dude is a bit nuts. Maybe Dioclius (pronounced Die-OH-klee-uss) has an overzealous response to any and all crime, as well as potential crime. Perhaps his methods to save the day are a little destructive and cause more harm than if he’d just let the criminal get away. So what if he threatened to burn down an orphanage, unless the robbers in question surrendered? Sometimes you gotta fight crime with an even bigger, WORSE crime…!

         Dioclius probably watched one too many superhero flicks and tokusatsu shows, as well as the deep dive into comic books. He trained and mastered various martial arts in preparation for his new role, while also improving and free-styling his own moves as well! And at night, he donned his costume to become… Dioclius Man!!!

         …Despite his ridiculous appearance and deep, exaggerated voice, Dioclius (Man) proved to be a shockingly dangerous and formidable opponent. It’d be easy to dismiss him as JUST an idiot, but he was a very skilled and fast one, and more than lived up to his claims of being a martial arts master. When striking terror into the hearts of evildoers (and civilians), Dioclius (Man) would play his custom-made theme song from his stereo… Literally just the 1966 Batman theme song, but all mentions of the word ‘Bat’ were stricken out and edited over with a clip of Dioclius (Man) saying his name.

         It didn’t take long for Dioclius (Man) to have to go on the run, his secret identity found out. For a while he scoured the rooftops at night, responding to chaos with even greater chaos. As a result, this appealed Dioclius (Man) to the Terrorbrai, who rather enjoyed that sort of attitude. They did contemplate converting him into a Stromling, but decided to instead use Dioclius (Man) as a test subject for their own weird experiment.

         Why were they doing this experiment? Just because. It involved one of many magical, golden artifacts, forged from cooled ichor; A powerful substance said to be the very blood of the god whose being made up this universe. A single molten drop was incredibly, deeply volatile, capable of levelling entire cities; But when stabilized into solid form, ichor acted as an indestructible substance that empowered whatever enchantments were forged into it.

         One of many artifacts forged of ichor was a marionette control bar, you know those things that look like a big plus and have strings attached to the ends for a puppet to hang from? Yeah. But these strings were different, being golden cables that retracted into the control bar; At the end of each was a little sharp diamond.

         Under a user’s control, up to twenty of these sharp points (five for each end of the control bars) would shoot out. Whatever living being they embedded themselves into, was now under the command of the wielder; A puppet on a string, quite literally. The more puppets there are, the more difficult it is to coordinate. Likewise, if a victim is under the control of just one string, they’re harder to control and more likely to resist.

         But the more strings embedded into them, the smoother the interface is between puppet and puppetmaster. If one were to embed all twenty strings into a host, they would be able to control it and themselves like another limb, with the ease and grace of one who has always lived across two bodies, linked by golden cables.

         The Terrorbrai acquired this strange relic, and not having much else made of ichor, just shrugged and chose to melt it down into its original molten form… And then injected it into the body of the strapped-down, kidnapped Dioclius (Man). Previous test subjects had been agonizingly vaporized, but something about Dioclius, perhaps his strange soul, was different… Miraculously, he survived the process as the ichor cooled, melding with Dioclius’ body. Likewise, his own costume was fused to Dioclius, as his anatomy and proportions changed, and he emerged not exactly a human being anymore.

         With his newfound strength, Dioclius (Man) tore free from his restraints and escaped. His Terrorbrai captors didn’t put much effort into stopping him, certain he’d cause even MORE chaos this time. And they were right! Dioclius (Man) flip-flopped between public nuisance and outright menace. He was the same, but to a far greater degree.

         Dioclius now possessed superhuman strength and durability, with an almost metallic structure to his bones and internal anatomy; If he cracked his neck, one would hear a sound like metal clinking together. He was even faster than ever before, and his brutal hand jabs were upgraded, as the artifact’s sharp points now emerged from the ends of each finger like a claw. Dioclius’ number of fingers had also doubled, adapting to the artifact; Now he had four arms!

         Dioclius was one with the artifact, and had inherited its powers, able to fire off golden cables from his fingertips to jab into victims and control them. These cables were virtually indestructible and served as great makeshift garrote wires, though to avoid a scenario where he was entangled, Dioclius could will these cables to shatter, the pieces disintegrating as the energy of the ichor retreated back into his body and regrew a new set of strings.

         Dioclius trained again, mastering his new body and its capabilities, making full usage of his powers and reworked anatomy and accommodating his fighting style accordingly. His strings could act as grappling hooks, enabling Dioclius to reel in and swing himself around like Spider-Man, clinging to surfaces with suction-cup shoes that had become his feet!

         Now a truly supervillainhero, Dioclius (Man) went back to terrorizing the night and even day with a renewed vigor! His ability to control multiple people at once was more precise than others’, perhaps due to his own skill and/or the artifact literally becoming an extension of Dioclius (Man). He could quickly turn from a one-man army into a twenty-one men army, with the allies of his victims afraid to hurt Dioclius’ puppets.

         Eventually, Dioclius’ reign of terror abruptly ended. He came across a wandering stranger even more strong and skilled than him, and despite employing a wide variety of strategies, such as embedding his strings into debris to create makeshift flails, Dioclius was ultimately beaten. He was imprisoned in the Tower of Tears and remained trapped in there for years, preserved in a magical, cryogenic stasis, subject to horrific nightmares… But when the Tower of Tears was destroyed, Dioclius escaped into the night with several of its Escapees, forming a particularly large group led by Midas the Golden Man.

         Midas had ideas, and among his required objectives, he needed, of all things, for some of his fellow Escapees to terrorize a group of students at Arkley’s, all just to kill one in particular; The nephew of the one who imprisoned them. Alongside Tiken the Phantom Knight and Cardinsto the Plant Master, Dioclius the Puppet Master embarked on his vengeful crusade!!!

        …So yeah! Dioclius is an utter weirdo, to put it lightly, and definitely a bit delusional and caught up in his ‘heroic’ crusades. He definitely fits the actual reality of what crusaders were like… He’s a pretty goofy dude who’s subject to the laws of his genre, but underneath it all, he really is deeply skilled and dangerous, and not JUST from being an idiot. He’s a bombastic and energetic individual, playful and a bit of a romantic, and for all his messy faults and willingness to kill, Dioclius makes for a surprisingly faithful friend. If you can actually, somehow, befriend him.

         Dioclius (Man) would appreciate fame, but in the end, he’s content with just the deeply misguided good of his deeds. His motives are to take down whatever criminals (as well as civilians in the vicinity) he encounters. So as long as law and by extension crime exists as a social construct, Dioclius has a reason to fight! And yes that includes all crime, so RIP to your spine if you loitered or got a parking ticket.

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Me: Oh cool, a meme! *Mentally scours my roster of OCs for the perfect characters to enact this highly specific scenario with*

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FR!!! I devised Dioclius’ abilities and motives years before TOH was announced, but its characters really helped me figure out how to hone in on Dioclius’ writing, so to speak.

Anyhow something something Dioclius using his puppet strings to turn people into props and characters in his own ‘play’, his own fantastical story that he’s made up and forces people to fulfill roles in, with himself as the twisted hero.