Avatars:

The word avatar has several uses in the world of MK2K. In a general sense, it refers to a being with a living, physical, flesh-and-blood body who possesses a high degree of supernatural power. Avatars are distinguished from powerful mages in that their power is internal, and does not depend on the use of arcane magic. They are also distinct from powerful psis, in that their abilities do not come from any special mental power or force of will. An avatar's power is divine or cosmic in origin, and defies easy classification.

Three specific categories of beings have been referred to as avatars:

1.) The gods and daedra lords of the fallen pantheon, who have been forced to walk the Earth in mortal form since the Great Fall, and the former mortals who have replaced some of them.

2.) Certain chosen servants of Majestrix Kyia, who have been invested with a portion of the power she gained in the Great Fall.

3.) Yahshua Onequion, the Redeemer of Creation according to the Follower religions, is considered the avatar of the Creator-God Iluvatar by the Meraist Church.

Yahshua was a unique historical figure, whose powers cannot be subjected to experimental test; as such, it is unknown whether his nature was essentially similar to that of the modern avatars or something altogether different. The rest of this article will be concerned only with the first two types of avatar.

Powers & Abilities

All avatars share certain common characteristics:

• A limited energy supply. An avatar cannot use his or her supernatural abilities endlessly; if this energy supply is ever depleted, the avatar must find the means to replenish it before these abilities can be used again. The amount of power an avatar commands is vast, but they rarely use more than a tiny fraction of it, lest they make themselves vulnerable to their enemies.
  
  
• Supernatural health and vitality. An avatar will never age, never get sick, and never die of "natural" causes. They are also immune to poison and chemical or biological weapons.
  
  
• Supernatural durability. Avatars are immune to injury by most mundane weapons, such as bullets, knives, bombs, fire, and onrushing trains. Their internal energy stores either instantaneously heal any wounds caused by such implements, or simply prevent such weapons from harming them in the first place. It takes something special to harm an avatar (see below).
  
  
• Spell resistance. While they are not immune to harm from magic, avatars can take a lot of punishment from arcane spells before they go down. Only a high master wizard would have much chance of taking out an avatar in a one-on-one fight, and then only if he was lucky, sneaky, or both.
  
  
• The ability to reproduce with mortals. This may seem like a relatively unimportant matter, but the dalliances of the pantheon have led to large numbers of Earthbound celestials and Plane-touched mortals in the present-day mortal population, as a portion of their supernatural essence is passed down to their descendants. Kyia's avatars can also have children, but they are born as normal representatives of their species -- the power is not passed on.

In addition to these abilities, the ex-deities of the pantheon have the following traits:

• A sphere of influence. This is an aspect of reality or a philosophical concept that the avatar is mystically bound to. The spell-like abilities manifested by such an avatar will be related to his or her sphere of influence -- so, for example, only Yajiit has fire-based powers, and only Samekkh and Nocturna can see the future. An avatar's sphere of influence also limits how he or she can draw power from mortals: Rickkter gains power when people display honor and valor in warfare, but he cannot gain power from people who heal the wounded, or from burnt sacrifices. An avatar can draw power from any mortal that she witnesses acting in accordance with her sphere of influence, but the avatar must be able to see or hear the mortal at the time the act is performed. The mortal, however, need not be aware that the avatar is witnessing the action, nor even be performing the action with the intent to provide energy to the avatar. The spheres of influence in which each of the avatars operate are listed by their names on the pantheon page.
  
  
• A variety of spell-like abilities, as determined by the avatar's sphere of influence. These abilities resemble arcane spells (hence the name), but they draw on the avatar's own internal energy supply. An avatar can use spell-like abilities comparable in strength to the spells of a high master wizard.
  
  
• The ability to apotheosize a mortal being. By investing a large amount of his internal energy supply, the avatar is able to grant a mortal many of the traits of the avatar himself -- chiefly supernatural health, vitality and durability. In doing so, the avatar can create a consort capable of living through the centuries at his side, without growing old and dying as humans do. The process is taxing and costly, and each avatar is generally only capable of creating one consort -- though if that consort decides to give up immortality, the avatar may accept the energy back and give it to another.
  

Avatars created by Kyia have these traits:

• The ability to cast proxy spells. These are spells that draw on Kyia's own energy supply, but which are invoked by the avatar at his or her discretion. Kyia determines which proxy spells an avatar has access to, and may revoke or extend that access as she sees fit. Kyia could theoretically replicate any of the spell-like abilities of any of the members of the pantheon, since she received power that was taken from all of them; however, in practice, she only grants proxy spells that are used to protect, heal, or strengthen the avatar and his allies, or to harmlessly pacify or contain enemies. Kyia will not allow her power to be used to cripple or kill.
  
  
• A long-range telepathic link to Kyia. This link is not always open, since it draws on the avatar's internal energy reserves, but it can be used to report in directly to Kyia from anywhere in the world. The farther away the avatar is, the more energy expenditure is required to maintain the link. The avatar can use the link to speak to Kyia and to show her anything he can perceive with his own senses.

Weaknesses

An avatar's weaknesses are few. Nevertheless, it is possible to harm and even kill them, if the proper techniques are used.

• Magic is capable of harming avatars, provided it is strong enough to break through their natural resistance. While no case of it exists on record, it is theoretically plausible that certain psionic powers could harm an avatar as well.
  
  
• All supernatural beings are vulnerable to mithril, a rare and precious metal that is imbued with the essence of magic. Weapons forged from mithril and invested with powerful enchantments can do great damage to even the most fearsome avatar. Such weapons have been rare throughout Earth's history, however, as few possess the requisite skill to forge them. Most of the world's mithril is held in government vaults or the stockpiles of Talia's vampire syndicate, which has its own reasons for wanting to keep mithril out of circulation. The largest portion in active use is in the hands of the Lothanasi, who use it to craft enchanted weapons for use against supernatural threats.
  
  
• It is believed that nuclear weapons would release enough heat and radiation to simply overwhelm the regenerative capabilities of an avatar, blasting it into atoms before the body had a chance to begin healing itself. Fortunately, this has never been tested. The one exception to this rule is Yajiit, whose essence is mystically bound to elemental Fire and to the sun -- which is essentially an enormous nuclear reactor. It has been theorized that a nuclear blast would actually strengthen Yajiit, but she is (understandably) hesitant to test this notion.
  
  
• Historically, the most effective way of disposing of avatars has been to simply wear them down. As an avatar is forced to expend his internal energy supply, he becomes more and more human -- slower, weaker, and more vulnerable to injury. Dokorath, Revonos, and the many heirs of the Revonos power were all killed simply because a long succession of moderately powerful opponents kept battering away at them, forcing them to expend more and more energy until they had nothing left to give. A lot of enemy wizards and warriors died in the process, but if you're going to try to take out a demigod, you have to be prepared for a few sacrifices...
  
  
• Another tactic, so far used successfully only once, is to get a bigger stick. When Talia went up against Lilith, she brought with her the Ankh of Lilith, a mystical artifact that had been taken from one of Lilith's mortal generals centuries before and sealed up within the Vault of the Lightbringers at Metamor Keep. After the Great Fall, the Ankh held more of Lilith's power than did Lilith herself, and Talia was simply able to turn Lilith's own unholy servants against her. There are still other such artifacts hidden in the depths of the Citadel, but after Lilith's death Kyia decided to keep a much closer watch on them. Another item that could be considered a "bigger stick", the Spark of Life, remains concealed inside the body of the automaton called Omega.

Avatars in Government

Kyia uses avatars as key figures in the executive branch of the Empire: Cabinet members, provincial governors, and mayors of key cities. Most of these are avatars whom she has empowered herself -- including Thomas X, the current mayor of Metamor City -- but a handful are members of the pantheon: Akkala, Nocturna and Rickkter all have positions in Kyia's Cabinet, while Dvalin, Oblineth and Samekkh are viceroys in charge of specific provinces.

An avatar is Kyia's eyes, ears, and mouthpiece in the part of the Empire in which he or she serves -- one part chief executive, one part ambassador, and one part superhero. Avatars are not only leaders, but also guardians; when a severe threat arises in a city or province, such as a natural disaster or a terrorist attack, the avatar is usually the first one on the scene, providing aid and defending the helpless. Because Kyia does not usually grant proxy spells that could be used to injure or kill, the avatars are not usually the ones to take out big monsters or rampaging demons that slip out of the Dreamlands; that job is left to the Lothanasi, who are better-equipped and trained in the fine art of fighting supernatural enemies. Avatars also generally don't go after mundane criminals, instead trusting the police to do their job. Kyia is a big believer in letting mortals do what they're able to do, and not taking away the dignity of self-reliance just because she or her avatars might be able to do something more efficiently.

The truth of the matter is, Kyia could never make enough avatars to police the whole Empire, anyway. Criminal activity is so widespread, and varies so much in scope, that there's no way that the avatars could keep track of it all. The avatars deliberately avoid intervening in situations that mortals can handle because, if they intervened, mortals might think their efforts weren't needed and just stop trying to police themselves. The system will never work if mortals don't take responsibility to do the good they can, whenever they can -- so most of the time, an avatar's power lies untapped, waiting for the emergency when it's really needed.

Author's Note: In addition to the in-story benefits, this self-restraint on the part of Kyia and her avatars also keeps MK2K from devolving into a superpowered slugfest between demigods. The fact that the mortal characters can't count on avatars to save the day means that their actions actually mean something. It gives them the chance to be heroes, even in a world where they stand in the shadow of some very powerful beings.

The same principle applies to the ex-deities of the pantheon. Most of the time, they're not going to be using all that power they possess -- it would deplete their reserves and make them vulnerable to attack. Most of the time it's more practical to employ mortals to do the dirty work, either by recruiting them straight out or by manipulating them from a distance. Even after living so long among mortals, the ex-deities can't quite give up their habit of using humans as pawns in their never-ending chess games. This means that the heroes' actions often have far-reaching consequences: not only are they accomplishing their own goals, but in the process they're probably helping along three or four different schemes they don't even know about. Our protagonists may become indignant when they find out that the gods are using them as playing pieces instead of doing the dirty work for themselves, but the truth is, it's better than the alternative -- for all concerned.