Professor Albert Morris was a humble man, loving husband and father of three as well a respected professional archaeologist for the Queen’s University of Toronto; ‘was’ implies he no longer is any of these, but instead is now a magically soul-dominated madman with vast magical abilities, all from an ancient arcane amulet the professor found years ago.

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Professor Morris was tasked years ago to lead a team in a federally-funded archaeological dig at an old abandoned British settlement site unearthed and discovered the year before.  During his team’s time on the site, strange notes, diary entries and carving found around the site depicted the town’s leader, Albert Morse, went mad and killed nearly all of the settlement’s inhabitants.  It mentioned they’d ‘neutralized’ Morse the only way they knew how and ‘buried the evil that consumed him’, all before the remaining survivors died from a deadly winter storm that mere days later.  The discovery was historical and unnerving for many on the team.

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During the fifth week of the excavation, Professor Morris and his team discovered a four foot high pile of rocks in the center of the settlement with a gold cross staff jutting from the center of the pile.  As Morris’ team carefully documented the rock pile, the gold cross staff was disturbed.  Immediately a red pulsing light emanated from under the rock pile.  Curiosity overcame the team as they removed the stones from the pile.  At the bottom of the pile were several other crudely made crosses surrounding a red amulet; an amulet that was the source of the pulsing red light.  Unsure what to do, Professor Morris used a metal excavating tool to life the amulet.  Once clear of its hole, he saw that it had a gold necklace attached to it. As he attempted to manipulate the excavating tool that was holding the amulet, it slipped from to tool’s maw where the gold chain slid down the long tool’s shank and allowed the amulet to swing against Professor Morris’ hand.  As soon as the amulet touched his hand, it fused to it.  After that moment, Professor Morris ceased to exist; in his place was to reside something far more evil.

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The red glow of the amulet permeated Morris’ body as it writhed in what seemed like an unseen electrical shock. The red glow eventually move to Professor Morris’ eyes, making them glow an evil red color.  As Professor Morris’ team approached him, the being that was once Albert Morris stood up and zapped each of the team members around him, causing them to rapidly dehydrate and turn to lifeless mummified husks in mere seconds.  The being that was Albert Morris then let out a devious, evil laugh, the likes of which would never have dome from Professor Morris ever in his life span.  Instead, the being that now dominated the body of Professor Morris was an ancient trickster spirit of the Canadian North that most Aboriginal Canadian “First People” knew through legend as “Malsum”.  Malsum strutted through the excavation site, doing whatever he pleased, turning inanimate objects into evil, maliciously animated things designed to kill the other humans at the excavation site.  Drills grew legs and jumped onto students’ backs drilling holes into their bodies; generators morphed into repugnant troll-like bodies, zapping people with arcs of electricity, killing them on contact.  Chaos ensued around the site with many of the site archaeologists being killed within mere minutes.  Malsum did capture several of the site personnel and toyed with them, turning them into raccoons and turtles before milking them for information about where he was and what ‘era’ it was.  After hours of torturous interrogations, Malsum learned all the information he needed to know about modern man, the 21st Century and “Canada”.  He enjoyed the thought of “Canada”, but disliked the premise of an aggressive neighbor that was the United States (he actually disliked anyone or anything being more powerful than him.  Before eventually killing the remaining students, he told them the tale of how the British Settlement’s leader, Albert Morse, found and disturbed an old arcane stone prison the Inuit Indians once build to capture 'The Trickster', Malsum, and how Malsum controlled the possessed Morse to kill and mutilate the settlers. 

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One of the British female settlers ‘tricked’ Malsom into possessing her Ruby Amulet, by which their settlement’s priest further entrapped Malsum using their ‘holy trinkets’.  Malsum told them he’d been imprisoned under that stone pile until Professor Morris’ archaeology team freed him.  After extracting information that the nearest ‘settlement’ was called Ontario, Malsum decided to rename himself jokingly as the “Archduke of Ontario”. After the “Archduke’s killing spree, it took off into the wilds of Northern Canada.

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Over the next few years, campers, hunters, environmentalists and those living in the wilderness of Northern Canada came across the “Archduke” only to meet extremely horrific deaths.  One such encounter at a Timber Contest resulted in dozens of deaths and unexpectedly turned one of the United States’ contestants into the superhero known as Maine Man.  In that encounter, Maine Man sliced the Archduke in two from head to foot, however, the Archduke’s magics saved him and he over the next few years ‘reknitted’ Albert Morris’ possessed body.  All this did was give the world a short pause before the Archduke came back with a vengeance.

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Eventually, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and some Canadian superheroes encountered the angered, maniacal being once again.  As luck would have it, one encounter left the Archduke weakened after holy water was tossed at him.  Eventually, a megalomaniac known at Emperor North, a madman who wanted to dominate Canada and the United States and make his own North American 'United Canadian Empire (UCE)', learned of this and using that knowledge, went forth to ‘enlist’ the Trickster into his own ranks of super-powered “UCE Enforcers” for his new nation .  In a major battle that resulted in the Emperor losing over 100 troops, the Emperor ‘tricked’ the trickster long enough to plant the same holy relic that once contained Malsum's Trickster spirit in the ruby pendant, but now, inside of Albert Morris' body. Malsum immediately lost control of his magical abilities and was easily subdued and made unconscious immediately thereafter.

 

The emperor took the Archduke to one of his labs where he implanted several devices and holy relics in and about his body; devices that would excrete molecular acid should Malsum disobey or use his powers without the Emperor's allowance. The Emperor, shortly thereafter, was able to find  another holy relic that his team had researched; a holy relic held by a tribe of First People way up in the northern Yukon Province. There, the Emperor and his UCE Enforcers, when told they could not have the relic, destroyed all of the tribe's people and its village, taking the relic back to Wolfe Island where it was used thereafter to impose total control over Malsum.  Try as he might to break the control, Malsum quickly realized he was an enslaved captive to this 'Emperor'; and that this Emperor had no problem killing others to get what he wanted. This enticed (and amused) Malsum enough to finally 'give in' (which of course, to this day, we all know that a Trickster like Malsum would NEVER submit or give in, but, that's what Malsum told the Emperor).  As such, between molecular acid, holy relics imbedded in his body and a divinely powerful relic used to completely control him, Malsum, going back to using his 'Archduke' title, swore allegiance to the Emperor and the UCE Enforcers, offering to do anything they told him to do, so long as that, upon the Emperor's death, Malsum would have the opportunity to win his freedom with 'no malice' towards his current captors as part of the deal. The Emperor begrudgingly agreed to this deal, but swore that if any harm befell him (The Emperor) that was discovered to be from anything Malsum did (or didn't do), that Malsum's spirit would be destroyed completely.  To that, they both agreed and as such, the Archduke/Trickster agreed to work for him and do what the emperor said, so long as he had control over its own death.

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Over the next few years, the Archduke has followed Emperor North’s orders like an obedient servant who still irrationally murders others that anger or irritate him (even some of Emperor North’s troops on occasion).  Regardless, the Archduke is a pawn of Emperor North and continues to use it magical powers to perform many evil and murderous tasks, that is, until it figures out how to be free of the Emperor’s remote control.

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Power Origin: Magic (Alteration)

 

The Archduke of Ontario is the remnants of a malicious, malevolent spirit named Malsum. Malsum was originally an Inuit Eskimo tribe shaman who went mad upon delving into magic far beyond his mind's abilities. He is nothing more than a spirit capable of possessing a body to animate its powers (which it can't do unless in a host body).

 

Malsum has the following powers, depending on his state.

 

• Malsum (Spirit Form)

  • Amorphous spirit cloud

    • In this form as a spirit cloud, it has unearthly levels of protection against all forms of damage and destruction except Holy magic/items

    • Has NO protection from any Holy magic relic, artifact or device (see WEAKNESSES below)

    • Can only communicate telepathically at a feeble rate

    • Can move at a max rate of a foot a second.

    • It can survive in space in this form.

    • It can survive indefinitely in this form

    • In its spirit form, unless holy magic's aura of influence prevent it, the spirit can possess any immaterial or living item.

    • Once the spirit form enters in an immaterial object, it takes over two minutes for the spirit to release itself from the inanimate object.

    • Once the spirit form enters a living being/animal, it takes 30 seconds before the spirit can release itself.

• Malsum (Possessing a Living Being)

  • Host Body Functionality

    • The spirit can possess a living being or creature, however, the being/creature's magical capacity is directly associative to its body's ability to handle magic:

      • Humans can handle up to amazing levels of magic without relics, totems or additional items to help control and bleed off excess magical powers (otherwise human body would slowly burn out); human body condition/state can also lessen the upper level of magical power if the body is in less than typical condition as well

      • Horses and cows can handle typical levels of magic

      • Racoons, dogs and cats can handle only poor levels of magic

      • Mice or birds can only handle feeble amounts of magic

    • If the living being's body dies, Malsum has two options:

      • Leave the body before its death (staying in the body after death will make the body a zombie (non-living) as would take longer to extract itself from the body

      • Reanimate the body using every ounce of alteration magic on the astral plane to do so. Doing this for say, a human body, could take up to a year's time and even then, once the body is brought back from the astral plane, it shall begin its natural decay cycle once again

  • Alteration Magics

  • While in a host body, Malsum can perform the following magical powers (power levels are based on what type of host body Malsum possesses):

    • Body Alteration (self)

      • Can change his body into anything he wants; water, rock, diamond (only natural-related (i.e., not composite steel or a chemical bomb) and can operate/manipulate it with full function (i.e., it he turns into water, he can flow, create geysers, drown people, etc.)

    • Body Alteration/Transmutation (other)

      • Can alter the body of living or transmute non-living beings and/or objects at whim

      • Range: 500 yards

      • Can mentally animate/transmute non-living objects, giving them malicious intentions most relating to animalistic, hungry or aggressive natures, all of which have no reason beyond feeble, but have a remarkable protection against fear being put upon them.

      • Examples: a tree can become a walking monster with roots for legs, branches for arms and branch stumps for eyes, mouths or used as 'sap shooters', all of which are driven to eat, maim, kill or destroy whatever Malsum thinks for them to do.

    • Altered Creation Control

      • Has the ability to control a rank-number level of living and non-living altered beings/objects at a time. The control is absolute and is based on Malsum's psyche.

    • Magical Storage (Currently unavailable)

      • Up until his being controlled by Emperor North, Malsum was able to use his host body as a portal for magical storage. He could store up to rank-level square yardage of anything in a pocket void that was accessible from any location on the host body (pockets, leg, head, etc.)

      • Items stored in this way have unearthly levels of protection from being summoned, accessed, detected, seen or used remotely.

    • Enchanting

      • Has the power to enchant objects to do things for him

      • Range: 500 yards

      • Duration 50 hours

      • Examples: Can enchant a bed of flowers to propel healing 'pollen' into the air every minute, giving the pollen a healing enchantment to any living thing that the pollen comes into contact with; another example is enchanting a fence to grow higher each time another living person comes within range, thus making the fence height directly proportional to the amount of people in range of the fence-line.

    • Magical Sight

      • Can see into normal light spectrum, infra red, ultraviolet, thermal  and night vision as well as can see magical energy/ley lines, and can see through all forms of magical illusion up to Malsum's psyche capabilities.

      • Can also see into the Astral plane, but requires 100% concentration to do so and can only be done for several seconds at a time UNLESS of course he is already in the Astral plane, wherein he obviously has full astral place vision

    • Astral Projection

      • Can transport his spirit into the astral plane, but if in a host, he has to leave the body behind with the following exception:

        • DANGER: If the host body reaches or is within moments of death, Malsum can transport the host body into the plane but must immediately begin enacting transmutation powers and alteration powers to adapt to allow it to live; this, depending on the host body, can take months, sometimes years to mend the body in the astral plane before it can be released, healthy and whole again To remove the body when it is NOT at full health is an automatic disassociation between the spirit and the host body, resulting in the death of both eh body and the spirit (Malsum's).

    • Arcane-Like Spells

      • Can perform a variety of variable arcane-like spells that can be done with alteration (again, with intensity dependent upon host body capabilities)

        • Arcane Energy Blast

        • Arcane Shields

        • Arcane Deflection

        • Rerouting of magical energy/ley lines only up to excellent levels (ley lines more powerful than this cannot be rerouted/moved by him at all)

        • Arcane levitation/flight

        • Arcane invisibility

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WEAKNESS

• Holy Magic, Objects, Artifacts, Runes and Wards

  • Has no protection from anything related to Holy Magic so long as Malsum (whether in spirit or in a host form) is within range or effect of the holy magic and/or its influence

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