Dartz

Name: Dartz

Age: 10,000+

Nationality: Atlantian

Special Skills: Swordsmanship, gaming, ruling

Likes: Peace, nature, his family

Best Friend: His wife, Iona

Image Song: Jillian by Within Temptation

Background: Dartz was a good and noble ruler of Atlantis, the last ruler thanks to the Orichalcos. It descended from above and brought with it knowledge of advanced technology for the people to utilize. It was only after they had built Atlantis into a modern powerhouse that the Orichalcos revealed its true colors and started corrupting the people. It even turned Dartz's wife Iona into a horrible monster and Dartz was forced to slay her when she attacked. Devastated, Dartz wanted to find a way to bring everyone back to themselves. Instead, as soon as he touched one of the Orichalcos stones, it corrupted him and poisoned his mind, making him believe that the only solution was to erase all people but the chosen few with the Leviathan sea serpent and start over. Horrified, his father Ironheart and his daughter Chris fled the palace and soon amassed an army of Duel Monsters to help fight against Dartz's army of Orichalcos soldiers. The end result saved the world, but sunk Atlantis into the sea.

Dartz spent millennia wandering the world, looking for a way to follow through with the Orichalcos' wretched plans. Eventually he found his way to Egypt during Atem's rule. While many of the villagers seemed to be prejudiced against Dartz's lighter skin, he found an unexpected ally in Thief King Bakura, who hardly believed in racism after it had been other Egyptians who had massacred Kul Elna. Dartz and Thief King Bakura shared some intriguing meetings and discussions before the younger man was poisoned by Zorc. Dartz saw the negative change in him, much to his dismay, and soon after witnessed the conflict between him, Atem, and Zorc. He realized the Pharaoh had the power he needed, but he had to wait to act due to the other end of the world plot underway right then.

Eventually Dartz created the Paradius Corporation and began influencing humanity towards technological and creative advances. As humanity entered the modern age, Paradius bought up small pieces of every major company in existence. Gozaburo Kaiba, of all people, suspected this and told Seto, and Seto remembered it when Dartz launched his final plans after the Egyptian God Cards were stolen from Yugi and Atem.

Dartz became so corrupted that he decided he needed three main henchmen to help him further his goals, and he determined they would have to be as outraged at the world as he was. To that end, he manipulated Alister, Valon, and Raphael, anonymously killed their loved ones, and put each of them into dire situations to toughen them up and infuriate them. Then he presented himself to them as the solution to their problems. They all bought into his lies and he became a father figure to them without truly caring about them.

The last conflict to cleanse the world eventually resulted in the Leviathan serpent being stopped for good by Atem and Dartz finally being freed of the Orichalcos' corruption. He and his family have been allowed to stay on the Earth and Dartz runs Paradius honestly while trying to make what little amends he can for the destruction he caused.

Personality: Dartz is very stricken and sobered over his actions while under the Orichalcos' corruption. He still despises the evil he sees in humanity, but realizes it is not up to him to change mankind or to eradicate them and start over. He also recognizes the hypocrisy in his organization's goals. He is reserved and mostly keeps to himself except in dire situations, and he still has a droll, sometimes sarcastic streak (albeit not downright nasty anymore).

Differences between the timelines: You know, I actually had more than one old timeline, the main one and some scattered little ones here and there that only consisted of a few stories. I had separate Dartz ventures in Life After the Tears and Candy Clouds. Each followed him seeking redemption, and each was different. Dartz in Candy Clouds was being driven mad by the spirits of the people who could no longer return to their bodies. Dartz in Life After the Tears was stable and trying to learn who was running the mysterious Doom Reborn organization. For the new timeline, I opted for something closer to the latter venture. Dartz in the new timeline, however, does not treat the bikers nastily. He realizes their anger is perfectly justified. He is also kinder in general, which fits with what is shown of him in his right mind.

Also in the old timeline, Dartz ended up with a very bizarre charge: an innocent, naive character named Alexander, claiming to be Alister's doppelganger. It breaks my heart not to include him in the new timeline, but he is an OC of mine who has graduated to a position in my original novel and I figure I'd better not include him in any more fanfiction because of that.