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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Levistus's_Leviathan" data-source="post: 9629284" data-attributes="member: 7023887"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justinian_II" target="_blank">Emperor Justinian II “the Slit-Nosed”</a> was Eastern Roman Emperor in the early Middle Ages. He’s notable because of the fact that he was emperor twice. After ruling for 10 years, he was deposed and had his nose cut off to mark him unfit to be emperor (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_mutilation_in_Byzantine_culture" target="_blank">a common practice in the Eastern Roman Empire</a>). However, 10 years later he came back with a foreign army and gold nose prosthetic and was able to reclaim his throne, executing and maiming those that had him overthrown. He then betrayed the Bulgars, who he'd relied on to become Emperor again, and ended up getting overthrown again and this time executed.I think the concept of a ruler that has been deposed multiple times, and had more and more of their body parts replaced with (magical?) gold prosthetics interesting. Maybe he could have a connection to <a href="https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Mammon" target="_blank">Mammon, Archdevil of Greed</a>? Maybe there could be a link to the King Midas myths given the prosthetics are gold?Here are my two main ideas:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Every time the ruler is usurped, he escapes unharmed. However, as part of a deal with Mammon, he sacrifices more and more of his body parts in exchange for the ability to regain his throne. Maybe this could be a legion of Mammon's devils that he uses to take back his throne? The golden prosthetics could be given to him by Mammon, or he could get those from a different source (a King Midas figure or clan of artificer dwarves?) Or the transformation into gold could be a curse that progresses every time he has to rely on Mammon's troops again.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Murder is extremely taboo in his empire's culture, so mutilation/dismemberment and imprisonment/exile is used instead of execution (like in the Byzantine Empire, except a bit more extreme). Every time he gets overthrown, his usurpers cut off another body part. He then gets a magical replacement from an outside force (Mammon, dwarves, Midas stand-in).</li> </ol>Any ideas? Which would you use? How would you implement a villain like this? If I included him in the campaign, I'd probably have him currently be in power with the party being tasked with getting rid of him for the last time. Maybe he could be a Dark Lord of Ravenloft? How much of his body should be gold? What abilities should he have?</blockquote>

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