Vulm'mram'Vuul

Vulm'mram'Vuul is a character in The Relentless Slaughter.

Weapons
Vuul is equipped with standard-issue Alvum Battlecleric gear, as well as a few non-standard personal additions, including:


 * One standard-issue Alvum plasma beam cannon - A cannon the size of and wielded by Vuul's third arm. Normally stored in one of the two heavy-weapons slots on the back of Vuul's armor. Fires a constant beam of superheated, ionized gas; essentially a directed stream of lightning. Can be fired continuously for five minutes before overheating.
 * One standard-issue Alvum plasma battleaxe - A double-bladed battleaxe the size of and wielded by Vuul's third arm. Normally stored in one of the two heavy-weapons slots on the back of Vuul's armor. Constructed of an incredibly dense metal alloy. Is nearly indestructible, and radiates heat incredibly efficiently. Both blades are edged with magnetically-guided plasma, which allow the battleaxe to burn through targets instead of merely cut.
 * Four standard-issue Alvum plasma beam pistols - Two for each of Vuul's right arms. Smaller and lighter than the plasma beam cannon. Also fire beams of directed lightning, but incapable of maintaining a continuous stream for more than one second. Stored in easy-access compartments on Vuul's armor around his right arms.
 * Four standard-issue Alvum plasma blades - Broadsword-sized and shaped swords constructed of the same material as Vuul's battleaxe. Also have magnetically-guided plasma ringing the edge of the blades. Stored in easy-access compartments on Vuul's armor near his right arms.
 * Forty standard-issue Alvum plasma grenades - Golfball-sized capsules containing magnetically confined condensed plasma. Upon activation, plasma is released from containment after a user-specified time period. Stored in easy-access compartments on Vuul's armor near his right arms.
 * One nonstandard-issue Alvum chainsaw-claymore - A large claymore, edged with a mechanically operated chainsaw. Kept in a customized holder on the back of Vuul's armor.
 * Five standard-issue Alvum combat knives - Constructed of the same material as the battleaxe and plasma blades. Hidden in various easy-access compartments around Vuul's armor, for use by his right arms.
 * Two standard-issue Alvum gauss rifles - Fire magnetically-accelerated depleted uranium rounds. Stored in backup easy-access compartments on Vuul's armor, near his right arms.
 * One standard-issue Alvum ration/survival kit - Includes water filters, basic emergency shelter tools and materials, and one year's worth of rations in the form of nutrient packs. Stored inside Vuul's armor.
 * One standard-issue Alvum Powered Battlearmor - White, finely-polished, highly reflective, reactive battlearmor. Easily absorbs and dissipates heat and other kinetic forces. Augments Vuul's natural strength, speed, reflexes, and endurance. Includes in a ring around the top of Vuul's flat head an enhanced sensory strip, feeding various types of data to Vuul's neural cortex. Includes an intravenous feed which supplies Vuul with nutrients, stimulants, and other necessary chemicals to keep his body operating at maximum capacity. Includes in the chest an incredibly powerful speaker which augments the volume and sheer concussive force of Vuul's natural voice. Has a number of other features geared towards ensuring its wearer's survival and effectiveness. Completely covers Vuul's body.

Also included are a number of extra clips, battery packs, and other less-essential odds and ends, including religious idols and ritualistic paraphernalia.

Abilities
Vuul is also trained in advanced battle tactics, and is incredibly competent in their execution.

Additionally, Vuul is trained in many types of unarmed combat.

Description
Vuul is a Battlecleric of the Alvum Imperium. The Alvum themselves tend towards a tripedal biology, and have evolved into a biologically-enforced caste system, with each caste having different physical appearances and behavioral patterns. Vuul is a member of the Warmonk caste, and has a different appearance and mentality from other Alvum castes. He stands at four meters tall, with a two meter shoulder width. He has three legs, each with two joints. One is where a knee would be on a human, about half-way down the leg. The other is approximately where the mid-calf would be, and bends the opposite direction. His feet are hoof-like. The legs themselves are thick and strong, and are attached to a hip section which is capable of independent, 360 degree movement from the upper torso. Vuul's upper torso is an upside-down trapazoidal shape, with the narrow end meeting the swivel-point of his hip section. Out of the left side of his torso protrudes a single, massive, double-jointed arm, which reaches nearly to his first knee and is one meter in diameter; essentially, an arm with two elbows: one where we would expect it, and another where a wrist on a human arm would be. Vuul's forearm continues past this second elbow to end with a thick three-fingered hand, on a standard ball-socket wrist. Arrayed around each elbow are three stubby toe-like appendages. On Vuul's right side, two smaller arms, also double-jointed, end in six longer, more spindly fingers. The right arms are separated by about a half a meter, vertically. They are positioned on his right side one above the other. The lower of the two right arms extends to just below Vuul's hip section, and the upper one extends to just above the wrist on the lower one.

The top of Vuul's trapezoidal upper torso is topped by a flat, circular head. There is no neck. The head is ringed with a sensory strip of some sort, allowing Vuul full 360 degree vision, hearing, and smell. On his chest are a series of differently-sized holes, which his species uses for communication, and Battleclerics use as a weapon. The Alvum are possessed of an incredible set of lungs, and their speech apparati are configured such that listening to one sounds like someone playing an organ at foghorn-level volumes while on a runaway train whose conductor is leaning on the whistle all while a tornado is bearing down on you. Their speech is, as such, highly musical, though Battleclerics have been trained to use their voice as a weapon, especially when augmented by their armor's speakers.

Underneath the armor, Vuul's skin is mostly greyish-brown, with very little physical marring. He wears a black combat suit, designed to increase the functionality of his armor while allowing comfort and ease of movement, and serves as an environment suit when his armor is not present. On his back (the side of his torso without the breathing and speech tubes), just below his head, there is a large slit which, when opened, reveals several rows of very sharp teeth. This mouth is where Vuul consumes solid food, when not being supplied with nutrients by his armor. The mouth acts more like a blender than a mouth any human would be familiar with; the muscles convulse and undulate rapidly when "chewing", turning most solid food into a runny paste within a matter of seconds. This mouth is covered by Vuul's armor, as it is unnecessary so long as the armor is on and powered.

The end of his plasma cannon, and the hilt of his battle axe stick out over either shoulder. They are stored on the back of his armor, upside-down, forming a large "X" whose center is a storage mechanism, which both holds his weapons and repositions them on his back for ease-of-access. The hilt of his customized chainsaw-claymore is just visible above the top of his flat head, and is stored in a specialized scabbard built into the back of Vuul's armor.

Biologically, Vuul's body has many redundant systems, well-protected vital areas, and a bone structure mainly consisting of very thick, dense bones running through the center of his body. They are difficult to break and heal quickly. His skin is thick and dense, his muscles are strong and heavy, and his body overall is incredibly dense and durable.

Mentally, Vuul has decades of military training and experience to draw upon. He rarely panics. He rarely hesitates. He always presses the advantage. Given that his voice is a weapon, he only talks when he's using it as one. His mind is always focused on battle.

As the Alvum are warm-blooded species who have had spaceflight capability for roughly one hundred thousand years, and in that time have heavily modified their caste system on the genetic level, it comes as no surprise that every inch of Vuul's body and mind has been designed with one goal in mind: to be the perfect fighting force.

Alvum Battleclerics are more than just the backbone of the Imperium's military might; each Battlecleric is an army unto themselves.

Biography
Alvum are a peculiar species, in that they instinctively organize themselves into what they call the Hierarchy. There must always be someone above and below. Every Alvum is fiercely loyal to their superiors, and expects the same loyalty from their inferiors. The Alvum also have an instinctual tendency to associate religious importance to their superiors; the more powerful, accomplished, or higher up in the Hierarchy a superior is, the closer to Godhood that superior becomes. The current Alvum Emperor is always viewed as their deity manifesting on the physical plane, and is thus referred to as the "God-Emperor". Every Alvum attaches a small amount of their religious worship for the God-Emperor to their superiors, slowly giving more and more religious importance to each superior higher up on the Hierarchy. Alvum biology has evolved to support this behavior. Alvum were, at some point in their evolutionary history, a symbiotic species. They naturally secrete and are susceptible to a series of air-born chemicals which serve as an identifier for all Alvum, and is unique to each member of the species. All Alvum which fall below a particular Alvum in the Hierarchy, or indeed any Alvum which views any other Alvum with any religious connotations, will begin to secrete a different type of air-born chemical, specially tuned to be compatible with the Alvum above them in the Hierarchy. The chemical will begin to boost the Alvum's mental capacity, strength, speed, endurance, metabolism, immune system, and many other traits. The Alvum will age slower, think faster, require less sleep, become more imaginative... essentially, the more an Alvum is worshipped by his or her inferiors, the more powerful that Alvum becomes. In return, the inferiors gain access to a kind of groupthink, as the chemicals saturate their distributed-cerebrum system, and they feel bonded with one another, so long as they have that same superior present to hold them together.

An Alvum isolated will always find a superior to become loyal to; someone they view as being more powerful, more accomplished, more wise, or just in general better than themselves. The higher up they view that superior on the Hierarchy, the more religious importance that superior will have.

Vuul himself was a Battlecleric of the 4th Imperial Guard Regiment, "Emperor's Fury". His regiment had seen action in several large-scale wars (as the Alvum Imperium is always expanding and always conquering). He'd been stationed aboard the Imperial Alvum Navy shipIAN Judgement, on his way to quell a rebellion on a recently-acquired alien planet when he was abducted.

Fears
Fear of having no place in the Hierarchy. All Alvum are biologically and sociologically programmed to belong to some sort of group with a clearly defined leader, and Vuul's greatest fear is to belong nowhere, to have no purpose, to have no one above or below him, to have no god to fight for.