Krig the Harmer

The first thing that a tyrannical ruler needs is someone to hurt people. For the Cosmic King, that someone is the demon Krig, who exists solely to deal out harm. He is essentially the leader of the King’s secret police, except that he is also the entirety of the secret police force. But he’s all that is needed. The King does not allow his subjects to die (they have all been kept alive in his pocket dimension since he abducted them centuries ago, and no new ones have been born), so execution is not an option. But torture sure is. With immortal subjects to experiment upon, Krig has learned some very advanced pain-making techniques. In his service as the police force, Krig has a reputation among the human population almost like a boogeyman. “Be good or Krig will get you.” Considering there are no children in that human population, that’s a sign that he’s greatly feared. When Justice-Man arrived, it was Krig who first fought him, and who led the quest to find the hero when he hid in the great woods surrounding the King’s city.

Ndoig the Healer

A tyrant may consider his populace beneath him, but he still needs that populace to survive if they’re to serve him. As mentioned above, the Cosmic King is keeping his abducted people alive through mystical means, but they can still be hurt. They can even suffer injuries that would be fatal for people on Earth, such as being crushed by a stone. Ndoig is the demon who has to patch them up. With knowledge from Nork’s books, and claws on his fingers that are perfect for surgery, and centuries of experience, Ndoig has become quite efficient at his job. Ndoig is the demon that is most likely to interact with the humans. He’s the one they’re most likely to speak to and even know. As a part of his ‘programming’ he is made to somewhat care about their well-being as well. He has the most compassion for the populace and they, at least somewhat, like him for it. But when Justice-Man comes and the humans start to support him, Ndoig’s loyalty is still to the Cosmic King. This causes no small amount of inner turmoil in the Healer, who is forced to decide between his master and his patients.

Snegg the Builder

Naturally, if you’re building a world, you need a builder. Snegg is the Cosmic King’s architect, carpenter, stonemason, and more. He’s an all-purpose demon for creating castles and fortresses and even homes for the idiot slaves if we can get around to it. Snegg is the absolute dumbest of all the Cosmic King’s demons. Any thoughts that aren’t about building are too complex for him. When he’s not working, he will just stand, motionless, wherever he was when he finished working until he gets further orders. When Justice-Man arrives and begins fomenting rebellion, Snegg is put to work building new devices, war machines, and eventually eventually even automatonic soldiers. With claws that can cleave stone and strength to rip trees from the ground, one might think that Snegg could be useful in battle, but when actually faced with enemies on the battlefield, he is completely useless. War isn’t building, and that’s all Snegg knows.

The Cosmic King

Exposed to the same otherworldly energy that created the Cosmic Chief, the Cosmic King gained similar powers. But instead of remaining on Earth, this newly empowered individual withdrew to a pocket dimensional realm of his own creation. Kidnapping a number of innocents to serve him, the self-appointed Cosmic King ruled over a mentally-crafted realm, that resembled a medieval fantasty land, for centuries until the arrival of the superhero Justice-Man changed things.

Justice-Man, as I have mentioned before, is the most fleshed-out superhero I created as a kid. I used July to do Justice-Man-related heroes during Superhero Sunday year, and I used it to do Justice-Man-related villains, but I didn’t think I’d have enough material to do it in Supernatural year, since I created Justice-Man when I thought hard-sci-fi was the best way to go. While I would never stoop to limit what can happen in a superhero story now, as a kid, for a while, I didn’t want any magic or aliens in there making things “unrealistic”. So I was prepared to skip Justice-Man until I found a single note referring to this story, accompanied by the Cosmic King surrounded by a handful of demon servants. Well, why not take those demons and turn them into something, I thought. Ain’t nobody around to stop me.

Nork the Reader

When the Cosmic King created his mystical realm, the thing he spent the most of his cosmic power in the act of creating six demonic servants to help him. Foremost among them was Nork. Even with his vast power, the King knew he needed knowledge to create a whole pocket dimension. For that purpose he stole books written by the greatest thinkers of his day and had them stored in a library in his new castle. Nork’s job was to read and understand all the natural philosophy so that the King could create a functioning ecosystem. Basically, he was the King’s science advisor.

When Justice-Man arrived and began leading a rebellion against the tyrant King, he made a point to reach Nork and tell him about the world outside the King’s realm, and how things had changed. Being familiar with many works of philosophy, Nork had a yen for something else, and was swayed to Justice-Man’s side. He helped Justice-Man design a suit of armor that would function like in the conditions of the mystical realm, but eventually the King noticed that Nork was acting differently, less loyal, more independent. Being the animator of this demon, he was also able to take its life away. Nork died, his energy returning to the King making him more powerful, but he died for a cause he believed in.

Back to the Efmons. As a reminder, this is a family of magically mutated monstermen who serve dark masters as part of a war to conquer the multiverse.

Gervid Efmon

When Gervid was mutated to serve the family’s dark masters, he became a mostly intangible, seemingly indestructible sort of ghost-energy thing. Capable of skulking around and reaching secret locations, Gervid served as the family’s spy and assassin during the war. When the order came to abandon planet, Gervid was far into enemy lines. As they left, the rest of the family assumed he was dead, and when found no trace of them, he assumed they were dead as well. As such, Gervid is the last of the Efmons on their native world, lonely striking out at the forces who opposed them in the war, like some killer spectre striking from the shadows.

Noivel Efmon

Noivel was the first of the Efmon family to be born after the post-war fleeing from their home realm. As her family hid in some desolate world of caves and darkness, licking their wounds and laying low, it was worried that those born away from their home universe would not be able to partake in the mutation ritual, but when the time came, the ritual was tried, and it was successful. Noivel gained a deadly lizardly warrior form. If anything, her mutation was judged more monstrous and powerful than the average Efmon transformation (though not the most powerful of them all). Taking this as a sign that the clan’s best days were still to come, the Efmons were emboldened and began their new plan to conquer to and different worlds in universes as far as they could reach.

Bella Harrison

Bella Harrison is an enlightened old black woman who offers wise spiritual advice to white people who are having problems. It happens all the time. Some white person is losing confidence before the big game, or a married white couple is drifting apart, or some white detective just can’t seem to pull together the necessary clues to solve the case. One conversation with Bella and her down-to-earth wisdom helps to turn everything around.

But this skill has not gone unnoticed. People in power have caught on that Bella always seems to know what to do. A secret government task force was formed. At first they just monitored as she advised white people, but then they tried to go undercover and solicit advice for a made-up problem. Bella saw right through the ruse and fled. Now Bella is on the lam, always one step ahead of the task force that wants to know her secrets, even if it means bringing her in and dissecting her brain.

The Magical Negro is, of course, a patronizing attempt at white people who make movies to create black characters who are so great that the people who make the movies can’t possibly be racist. Instead of creating black characters who were realistically human, they did this. Naturally I needed to get onto that bandwagon and make it weird.

Bunnra the Mighty

Bunnra was, for a time, just an ordinary rabbit used in ordinary magic acts. She would “vanish” into a hat or “appear” from a sleeve. It was a good enough gig for a rabbit, she supposed, but it didn’t last. One day, the magician who owned her bought a used hat that he thought would add a touch of flair to his act. What he didn’t realize was that this hat was actually once the property of a genuine wizard. If he’d placed it on his head he would have been instructed in all manner of mystical arts, but before he did so, he wanted to make sure Bunnra would fit, and so it was that she was the one who was privy to the secrets of the cosmos. Soon being in a magic act is not enough for her and she returns to the woods to be back with her own kind, as a magical rabbit queen!

I started a tradition when I got rabbit-themed Superheroes and a rabbit-themed Supervillain into previous Super Sunday years. Had to keep it going. I think she and her realm of rabbits would have to meet the Horribloid.

Gujjer

On the alien world Thrensa the most intelligent species is one for whom technology has not advanced very far. The Thrensans, as they are known, are nomadic beings who run on the vast plains of the world not unlike Earth’s antelopes. Gujjer is the leader of her tribe, having risen to dominance with her mystical knowledge. Being bonded to the spirits of her ancestors, Gujjer can get visions from the sky that allow her to predict the weather and judge where best to bring the group. But will even this knowledge help Gujjer to save her tribe when the undead start to rise and eat the flesh of living Thrensans? Gujjer and friends are going to have to find out.

I had done all kinds of alien wizards this year, but they were all Wallfixers. Obviously I had to remedy that by making an alien wizard unaligned to them. I am clearly doing important work here.

The Cabinet of Crime

There was a crimeboss wizard who, as wizards sometimes do, surrounded himself with animated objects to do his work for him. Among them was a walking talking cabinet that wanted more. After only a short time serving his “master”, the Cabinet strangled the wizard to death and took over the crime syndicate. Ruling from the shadows, the Cabinet has become a criminal mastermind, owing to the fact that any books or maps or files he keeps in his drawers, he automatically knows the information they contain. This makes planning jobs and running operations second nature to him. It also means that, once you’ve gotten into his bad books, he won’t forget you.

I thought it would be amusing if some hero was chasing after clues to find out who the Cabinet of Crime was, thinking it was an organizational body, and then this guy turned up. It’s so stupid, it appeals to me greatly. Of course, since I’ve blown the twist here, I can’t do it now. I’m sure we all agree that’s for the best.