Name: Dirge
Aliases: Ruzkar, The Irradiated Horror, The Radioactive Reaver
Height: 130 meters when reared up on hind legs
Weight: 330,000 tons
Description: A gigantic, mutated bear, Dirge is a monstrous and horrific sight to behold. His gruesomely scarred body, once completely covered in thick dark brown fur, is now missing several patches, notably here and there along his back and the undersides of his limbs. His eyes are misty, the faint pupils glowing an eerie green; the rest of the eyes a blood red. His claws are long and curved, resembling hooks. Long, irregular fangs and tusks protrude from his jaws. His breathing is loud and labored.
Personality: Despite his scarred appearance and difficult-sounding breathing, Dirge is not in any pain. In fact, he can hardly feel pain anymore, or much of anything physically. He wanders around his territory like the living dead, acting purely on his animal instincts. He is not inherently aggressive and is even fairly sociable, but he will fight fiercely once provoked.
Info: A haunting monstrosity created by a gruesome mutation from radioactivity, Dirge has only partially been damaged by the affliction. Instead, his body has bonded with it in a strange display of what can only be described as being symbiosis of sorts.
Powers and Abilities:
- Blighted Bite: Dirge’s powerful jaws and fangs can crush the armor and bones off his enemies quite easily. His saliva, constantly drooling out of his mouth, is also terribly dangerous. A tiny drop is enough to melt through metal. Licks alone can peel the armor and flesh off his foes in mere seconds, but bites are even worse as they allow the saliva to flow directly inside of the punctures created by his teeth. The dissolving effects of the saliva only last for a handful of seconds, but it also has longer-lasting effects; the first is the creation of painful sores, and the second is the formation of blisters around the affected areas. If the blisters are popped, their bursting will cause further damage to the flesh. The blisters will leave on their own after about an hour, but they can be cleansed before that with careful medical attention.
- Blightbrute: Dirge’s mutation has increased his natural strength to extreme levels. A single swipe of his paw is all that is required to floor and severely stun creatures much bigger than himself. He can toss heavier monsters around like ragdolls. Driven by his strength and weight, there is practically nothing his claws cannot carve through. The hook-like shape of his claws prevents his foes from escaping his grasp once he has caught a hold of them, his strength and gripping claws trapping them in a near-inescapable vice.
- Nerve Dead: As the radical changes to his body have taken its toll on it, many of Dirge’s senses have been affected for the worst, including the ability to detect pain. He can hardly feel anything physically. The fiercest of assaults from enemies might as well be light tickles for him. Although it has the drawback of potentially leaving him hurting himself inadvertently, it does allow him to power through injuries that would cripple any other creature.
- Rad Radius: Around Dirge’s body is a sickly aura that leaves any that approach him feeling sore and weak, despite their strength not actually being weakened. It also worsens the soreness and pain from wounds inflicted on their bodies. If Dirge remains in one place for too long, the aura is known to wither the plants and trees around him and may even kill animals should they not leave his vicinity.
- Snacks of Green Goo: Nuclear and radioactive sources do not harm Dirge; instead, he feeds off of them, strengthening his body. When freshly fed, he gains small boosts of power. Dirge passively absorbs UV radiation from the sun, meaning he is slightly stronger during the daytime. He also is highly resistant to poisons, venoms and diseases; the affliction on his body seems to fight any other plagues to remain the dominant one.
- Glowing: By channeling the nuclear power in his body, Dirge can enter a “powered-up” form, where his form will partially glow green. Beyond possessing increased strength, Dirge also gains two new abilities:
-- Nuclear Pulse: Dirge emits a burst of nuclear energy, blasting foes away from him. Enemies struck by the blast suffer their open wounds being infected with further sores and bleeding and dizziness, a light-headed feeling that lasts a minute.
-- Nuclear Breath: Dirge channels his energy into a flame-like stream of green; concentrated like this, the nuclear energy quite easily blows through matter, with a slight knockback effect on the victim. Enemies struck by the green glow suffer from severe infection and necrosis of the affected areas.
Weaknesses:
- Dirge’s vision is poor, as are his senses of smell and hearing. Because he does not feel pain very well, he may hurt himself without noticing.
- The patches of bare flesh and open wounds on his body provide his foe with a way to bypass his otherwise tough flesh and thick fur.
Trivia:
- Dirge is heavily inspired by the Yao Guai of the Fallout series, including the pained-sounding breathing.
- The power name “Snacks of Green Goo” is a reference to the song of the Fallout OST called “Vats of Goo”.
- “Glowing” is a brand of powerful, green-glowing enemies in Fallout 4.
- The Nuclear Pulse is inspired by Godzilla’s ability of the same name. The Nuclear Breath works a lot like Godzilla’s atomic breath in Legendary Pictures’ 2014 Godzilla film.
- “Ruzkar” is a modification of “Ruzka”, the name of a certain Yao Guai in Fallout 3.
Theme Song: “The Sleeper Awakes”