Nava-Verse Hero Biography: Worpurr the JuggerKnight

Worpurr "the Juggerknight" was a Virslagly–born Hexpultis mutant who lived from early Age 790 to late Age 834 and whose career as a mercenary lasted from Age 815 to Age 829. He is often referred to as the last and best of the great warriors of his kind, in reference to his kind having been known for a time to produce many successful warriors–for–hire but this trend having already been on the decline at the time of Worpurr's birth and currently appearing to be on its way out for good as of today. He is also often, and not without reason, considered a highly tragic figure.

Unlike most mutants, whose abnormal characteristics are generally apparent from birth, Worpurr was born with the appearance, features and behaviors of a completely average Hexpultis, only for his mutations to start manifesting during his early childhood. Beginning at the age of three–and–a–half, he began to intermittently experience major, sudden and rapid growth spurts which left him measuring (with his "horns" included) a full six feet tall by the time he was the same number of years old. Worpurr's accelerated physical growth was accompanied by similarly expedited mental growth, and emotional development was likewise hastened as well; at the age of ten, the young mutant was already indistinguishable from a full–grown Hexpultis adult in both form and functional capacity, and he would continue growing in both of these fields for roughly another ten years beyond this point, albeit not quite as rapidly and dramatically as he had during the first decade of his life.

Shortly after their son's unique condition became apparent to the parents of Worpurr during the course of his initial growth spurts, and amidst their worried efforts to keep others in their community, the basin–situated small city of Obrac, from noticing it for the time being while they figured out which course of action, if any, would be best to address or accommodate his situation, another symptom of mutation manifested in the boy which effectively rendered the notion of keeping his abnormality discreet an impossible one. Note that the fingers of Hexpultis are very unique; on each hand, members of the species have three "full" fingers which each consist of three smaller, weaker, bundled–together "mini–fingers", of which there are thus a total of eighteen between both hands. Shortly after his fourth birthday and over the course of only a few days, Worpurr grew a second set of fingers "on top of" his natural set; that is to say, he came to have six smaller fingers in each of the "bundles" that were his "full" fingers. The onset of this initially inconveniencing and cumbersome deviation from the normal Hexpultis form in Worpurr ensured that "hiding" his mutant status from his peers would not be a feasible option, and indeed, the child soon came to be widely known for his condition throughout Obrac and was, while not outright hated or even truly ostracized, outcasted for it. He was "defined" by his being different in the minds of others and, while still being treated as a person, not treated as a normal person. As Worpurr grew up and continued to exhibit accelerated growth in all areas of his being, eventually beginning to surpass the peak of regular Hexpultis development, the scrutiny imposed on him by others only compounded, with many speculating on just how long and how far his irregular development would continue for what would eventually become of him, insinuating some disturbing "possibilities" suggesting that he was destined to either die young or turn into a monster.

 

By the time Worpurr finally did stop growing around the age of twenty, his state was that of a being which could more or less accurately be described as "a Hexpultis and a half"; he had become the largest specimen of his kind ever recorded, standing 9'2'' with his "horns" included in the measurement and 7'8'' without; for reference, a flat seven feet with "horns" included is considered the "maximum" height for any regular Hexpultis. His strength, stamina and resilience levels, which had begun to skyrocket somewhat later than his size, were now even further beyond those of any normal Hexpultis than his "giant" appearance let on; such extra–mortal physical prowess was and is common to many, if not most mutants, but his was particularly great. Worpurr's mind, meanwhile, had developed – read: overdeveloped – to a hyper–lucid state, making him extremely intelligent but also mentally unstable and detached by nature; his brain and thought processes worked too well, too fast for him to fit in. In one long–term demonstration of his freakish hyper–coordination, he had trained himself to effectively control and make use of his extra fingers, a feat that required a level of coordination which any other Hexpultis would have needed years of training to reach; Worpurr had been able to accomplish it within mere days of first applying an effort toward doing so.

As his growth did slow and eventually stop, and as this was noticed by the rest of his community, the people's fears and cautions regarding Worpurr ultimately subsided from the peak levels they had previously reached, and they grew more receptive to and trusting of him, but by then, the effects of their longtime scrutiny were already permanently embedded in his psyche. Worpurr had long–since come to think of and accept himself as a freak and a loner, and not even a heartfelt total turnaround by all those who had previously outcasted him would change that now.

Since his first reaching adulthood, defined as age seventeen by Hexpultis standards, but especially as he entered his twenties, Worpurr, previously a quiet recluse since his mutations had become fully manifested, became increasingly involved in active, often dangerous local activities. He would join the hunters, militia and workers of Obrac (one of the more quaint settlements on Virslagly during a time of widespread technological growth) in several raids against nearby, growing Zinnktos nests considered to be threats and outings to gather materials that could only be found beyond the relative safety of the Obrac's walls, as well as in some construction projects and other various odd jobs. Throughout all of this, however, Worpurr remained socially detached, seldom speaking to and never bothering to try to make lasting connections with those he encountered while performing these jobs, which he seemed to initially take up out of a combination of boredom and a hope that he would discover some fulfilling purpose through them, which he did not. Even as he came to be known, respected, even, for his usefulness in and around town, which came primarily from his unique size and strength but was also occasionally demonstrated through displays of genius intuition or resourcefulness in contributing to efforts such as figuring out how to go about building or repairing something, and as the dubious stigmas surrounding him began to go away completely, Worpurr remained introverted and disillusioned with his own people. He considered himself to be, knew himself to be, above them in terms of mind, body and overall potential as a person, but was too depressed and confused to start truly applying that potential; he could not discern any "available" undertaking in his present living environment that was "worthy" of him giving his all to. Furthermore, he was still unsure where, if anywhere, he belonged, but became more and more certain as more time still passed that it was not where he currently was.

 

Shortly after reaching the age of twenty–four, and following cycles, if not years, of quietly contemplating the idea, Worpurr made the decision to leave his hometown for good and seek purpose and answers elsewhere. The resulting journey of self–discovery first led the mutant to various other settlements across the Southern hemisphere of Virslagly, then to Karjec, the largest city on the planet and the unofficial "capital" of the Hexpultis race. As he toured these places, and despite his finding many of them preferable to Obrac, it became increasingly clear to Worpurr that he would not be finding what he was looking for in life anytime soon if he remained on Virslagly. It became increasingly clear to him, as he learned more about the practices of colonization and migration while visiting more advanced cities where opportunities for such things were more readily available, that he needed to get out into the greater frontier that was the Prime Galaxy. Thus, upon reaching Karjec and its spaceport, Worpurr took his chances by investing most of his meager life savings up to that point into a one–way relocation trip to the most promising–sounding venue that was nearby enough for him to afford going to: North Egg City, Ergnoplis.

There, he found himself and his mutant status far more accepted than ever before, and soon learned of the Eggmen Super Team, their history, their accomplishments and their own status as mutants. Upon subsequently seeking out further information on the famous heroes, including that their legacy had begun inspiring other mutant (and in some case "normal") thrill–seekers to join in on the "scene" over the past few decades, as well as on the fairly recent but currently declining trend among his own kind of "hired gun" endeavors, which he had heard of in passing throughout his life but never seriously looked into before, Worpurr at last figured out what he wanted his "destiny" to be. He was going to be a mercenary; an adventurer. A superhero. With the notion that the Eggmen had proven the viability of such a "career" in mind and feeling distinctly inspired by them, this seemed like an ideal course of action for Worpurr: what better way to explore, make full use of, challenge and even possibly improve his unique might and abilities? Moreover, he was not afraid to put himself in harm's way; he did not fear death, for there was very little in the living world that he felt attached to; very little he felt he currently had to lose.

Worpurr's precise activities during the following several cycles remain unknown and distinctly mysterious; it can only be assumed that he spent this time training and otherwise making preparations for his coming enterprises, which he was obviously more than intelligent and savvy enough to know would all but require such beforehand preparatory measures if he was to have any long–term success. However, the withdrawn and reserved mutant, during the few "interviews" knowledge–seekers were able to have with him both while he was active and during his final years, always bluntly refused to talk about this period of just under a year immediately preceding his the start of his rise to fame. Note that he was far more open about other aspects and periods of his early life, and that some of the details in this very biographical account regarding Worpurr's inner thoughts are derived from what he did say in these "interviews".

 

Worpurr's "big debut"; that is, the first known incident in which he was involved in a heroic role while using his now–famous "costume", took place on the third day of the Seventh Cycle of Age 815 on the planet Repapoge. The planet previously having been occupied by a semi–splinter group of the Dynamo Legion, a group coincidentally known for being fought and ultimately toppled (largely) by the Eggmen Super Team, the last vestiges of the Legion were thought to have left Repapoge many years prior. However, a group of Ebonorates, the planet's extremely hostile natives, had recently discovered, amidst the wilderness and wastelands surrounding their village, a dust–drenched, damaged and dilapidated but still ultimately salvageable LoadHauler vehicle, which had presumably been abandoned there by Demioid personnel under unknowable circumstances at some point during the period of Legion–associate occupation. Having restored the large carrier to working condition, the Ebonorates had taken it out into Beta Octant space for a malicious "joyride" and with full intentions of causing some sort of mayhem before returning to Repapoge. They had ended up intercepting, purely by chance, the course of a Joiemgaw Supershipper trade–transport ship bound for Ergnoplis and subsequently raiding it, taking from the unarmed ship all of the recreational gadgetry on board and slaughtering the crew, with the exception of the wealthy executive in charge of the vessel and its operations, whom they took hostage. Now holding both this person of importance and his ship's nearly–as–valuable trove of cargo, as well as the ship itself, for ransom back on their home planet, the Ebonorates were stipulating that the either the Joiemgaws or someone else give them a number of smaller vehicles, which they would surely use to commit further acts of off–world terror were they allowed to get a hold of them, in exchange for the safe return of these things. These demands were made known to the concerned parties using the stolen Supershipper's communication systems, which had "conveniently" been offline at the time of the initial violent hijacking (not that the crew's contacts could have done anything to stop it even if they were immediately alerted).

This was where Worpurr came in. Hours after the Ebonorates' threatening transmission reached Wegneheck, and with it being uncertain how he found out so quickly about the crisis, which was not publicized while it was transpiring, the Hexpultis came to the coordinates on Repapoge specified in said message in a one–seater Groovecruiser. Emerging from the vehicle with guns blazing, he proceeded to singlehandedly slaughter every one of the more than two–dozen Ebonorates present (all of whom, it should be stressed, actively fought back and would have attacked first if given the chance). Though the Supershipper and its cargo were saved, Worpurr failed to save the Joiemgaw executive, whose throat was slit by the Ebonorates directly guarding him as soon as they were alerted to the fact that their group was under attack. When Joiemgaw officials, who had already been on their way of their own accord at the time of the mutant warrior's intervention, arrived on the scene having decided to give in to the Ebonorates' demands and with the ransom vehicles thusly in tow, they were shocked to find a bloody mess of a scene, at the center of which only a single, towering figure remained alive. And rather than standing triumphantly and unscathed, this figure was kneeling in fatigue and pain, with one hand clenching his bleeding chest.

 

Worpurr, was arrested and indicted in the Joiemgaw V.I.P.'s death and taken to a prison hospital on Wegneheck, falling into unconsciousness on the way to the Joiemgaw homeworld but subsequently making a full recovery within forty–eight hours. This was much to the shock of his doctors, who had concluded that he, whose race was identified not quite as readily as that of a normal Hexpultis would, had sustained more net physical trauma than anyone "should" be able to survive. As the overall incident of the brief ransom crisis was publicized across Wegneheck and the resulting news story continued to unfold, the sole surviving figure found on the scene of its aftermath was dubbed "The Juggerknight" in the media in portmanteau–reference to both his, as the news exaggeratedly put it, "indestructibility" and the full–body suit of consistently darkly–colored armor he had been wearing when discovered and arrested. After being pried from his unconscious body, this costume, which bore a suspicious but ultimately coincidental resemblance to Ebonorate armor (which is actually attached to the wearer's body), was prominently shown, in its damaged but still recognizable and repairable state, in many news reports and publications. During the approximately two–day period that elapsed between the incident on Repapoge and the mysterious warrior and accused murderers' release from the intensive care unit he had originally been taken to due to the immense intensity of the ordeal he appeared to have (and indeed had) experienced, its image was used as the primary representation of his person.

After being discharged from medical care, Worpurr was imprisoned to await trial, and from his cell he was accosted to no end by actual reporters and random, nosy people with cameras alike. When questioned about his involvement in the executive's death, he bluntly spoke what he knew to be the truth and was, ultimately, correct about: that the Ebonorates would not have held up their end of the deal had he not intervened; that they would have killed not only the man from the Supershipper but the (indeed, unarmed) party dispatched to make the exchange as well. He told the Joiemgaws that he had saved their people not only a lot of trouble, but several lives and several billion Galactic Common's worth in equipment. Reactions to these statements were… mixed. Worpurr had been expecting his actions to be unequivocally celebrated and planning to demand that the Joiemgaws pay him in exchange, and was quite annoyed indeed to find that the reality of his "reward" was turning out to be almost the opposite; it was very much like experiencing the scrutiny of his own people from his childhood all over again. He did not express this personal outrage at the time, however, knowing that doing so would only hurt his chances of acquittal. However, there was one "element" among the money–grubbing merchant people's initial reception of him that he did appreciate, and which would, in the long–term, prove more valuable for him than any amount of material currency would have – that title they were using for him: "Juggerknight". A large part of Worpurr's motivation for wanting to be a "superhero" had always lain in how the people, the "normal" people, would view him and his exploits, how they would, were he successful, create a "legendary" persona around him and view him as something great; perhaps even greater than he really had been. The fact that he was already, after his very first "mission", being given a (for lack of a better word) badass title by the public was, even with his being aware that it had been coined in an ambivalent (at best) context, an indicator in his mind that he was on to something, offsetting the discouragement he felt from the other, negative aspects of his initial reception.

To make a long story short: Worpurr, when put on trial and upon pleading his case, as described above, to a formal court of law, was eventually found innocent. The two main factors that helped decide this verdict were processed evidence from the scene of the "crime" definitively proving that he had not directly killed the V.I.P. and research conducted on the history and tendencies of Ebonorates heavily suggesting that the ones he'd killed would have ended up murdering several more people had he not taken action against them.

 

His armor as well as his Groovecruiser (which had also been recovered from the scene of his fight with the Ebonorates) returned to him as he was given his freedom, Worpurr, now known as "The Juggerknight" among the Joiemgaws with connotations more positive than before and intending to make both his name and that title known throughout as much of the rest of the galaxy as possible, went on his way, heading back to Ergnoplis for the time being. Dismissing the complications that had arisen in the aftermath of his first heroic outing as a mere product of bad luck and misunderstanding, he determined to make sure that his future endeavors would stem as few such drawbacks as possible, a resolution that he would stick to and see through in regards to almost every one of the many further adventures he would have over the course of the next decade–and–a–half.

On Worpurr the Juggerknight's iconic, semi–namesake, near–black armor: it was truly one–of–a–kind, having to be repaired several times by its owner, including after its very first known usage as just recounted, but never being outright replaced. Absolutely no one truly knows where it came from: the armor's origin is the biggest mystery surrounding Worpurr and that mysterious chapter of his life that he always refused to talk about, though the answer is likely less fantastic than many would imagine; i.e., he could very well have simply made it himself through standard smithing methods. It was very distinct from other Hexpultis armors made both earlier on and since in its overall design and heavy weight, and was clearly made specifically for the only one who ever did wear it, given its shape and massive size, not to mention gloves to accommodate his extra fingers. The armor primarily consisted of a number of very strong plates made from an uncertain metallic material, which were arranged in just the right pattern of separation so as to give it an optimal balance between protection factor and flexibility. It covered more than 95% of Worpurr's body surface when in undamaged condition, the only truly exposed area being the face, and its leathery inner layer was nearly skintight. Perhaps most notably and ingeniously, however, the armor featured structures in the top of its helmet that provided near–perfect protection to its wearer's horns, which were, accessory organs to his brain, as is the case with the "horns" of all Hexpultis, and included a sturdy connective half–tube structure in its back for stability. It is consequently unfortunate and ironic, all things considered, that even this eventually proved to be inadequate in the most crucial of moments.

Following his debut, Worpurr the Juggerknight operated on Ergnoplis for the next several cycles, honing his skills further by mostly fighting common criminals while also occasionally dealing with inanimate hazards from which he found himself having to rescue people. During this time, he earned a great deal of money, which he would need to support himself further abroad, as well as a modest amount of local renown before departing to explore and search for new opportunities and adventures throughout the whole of the Prime Galaxy, of which he may or may not have had yet to visit any of the other sectors besides the Beta Octant, which contains all three of the planets thus far mentioned in this biography, prior to this point.

From then onward, Worpurr's success and fame… well, not quite skyrocketed, but escalated greatly over the next several years as he eventually visited most, if not all, civilized worlds in the Prime Galaxy, performing various and numerous feats of heroism and soon beginning to rake in large heaps of money. Having little interest in excess, though, he ended up giving much of the earnings he accumulated throughout his career to charitable causes. Though relatively few and far between were the ventures of his that matched the scope and grandeur of his first fight against all those Ebonorates, Worpurr was almost constantly in the midst of at least some kind of work, even if it was as simple as bodyguard service during which no actual threats arose.

In–between his daring outings, Worpurr spent most of what "free" time he did give himself exploring, examining and trying to appreciate the peoples and environments of the various worlds he traveled to and between, with the hope that maybe, just maybe, he would find a place with people he could identify and fit in with, and one day, when he was older, settle down in. He never did find such a place where he felt he could ever "belong" as a "normal" person, though he has been claimed by multiple sources yet without proof to have once said that the Adbamnants of Crucbicile, one of the planets that Worpurr was indeed known to have operated on more often than most others, were the race he always felt "closest" to being able to identify with as peers.

During the later years of his time as "The Juggerknight", Worpurr took up writing, of the introspective journaling and poetry varieties, as a means of expressing his highly unique thoughts and ideas. He would end up putting together hundreds of small but often profound compositions before his being rendered unable to write anymore, at which point he willingly released all of his writings, kept private up until then, to the public and let the rights to them go up for grabs. Since then and especially since his subsequent death five years later, Worpurr's writings have been considered of moderate significance, being studied mainly for the sake of better understanding the unique condition and mindset he had. The original printings are currently kept by the Uve Mard Estate, while the rights to publishing further, collected copies of them have fallen into the hands of various parties; due to this, all of the writings have yet to be published together in a single volume.

 

Worpurr's career met a tragic and untimely, though not quite abrupt, giving the climactic nature of the undertaking that proved to be his undoing, end in late Age 829 when he hunted down and fought a rogue, rampaging Entrorth (the most recent demon of its kind to be encountered in the Prime Galaxy to date) on no other planet but his own original home of Virslagly. During the battle, the sadistic Wrath Archfiend, managing to exploit a rare moment of his being off–guard, pinned the Juggerknight to the ground and went directly for the "horns" that supported his higher mental functions as a Hexpultis, deliberately smashing open the structures protecting them and proceeding to rip two out of three out of his head before Worpurr managed to break free and ultimately kill the demon. However, the irreversible damage had already been done, and its effects soon set in. Becoming mentally–stunted from the loss of his brain–supporting outgrowths, Worpurr's mind, on whose strategic brilliance and quick thinking he had relied on just as much as his powerfully overdeveloped body, became that of a completely average, if not sub–average, Hexpultis, and he retired then and there, knowing that he was no longer fit to be any sort of "superhero" and having lost the will to even try to continue being one. He would spend the next and last five years of his life living, in material semi–luxury but miserably nonetheless, in Karjec, where, despite him now being more of a "normal" person like he had yearned to be throughout much of his early life, he found himself unable to move on past the life of greatness that he had since attained and subsequently lost.

On the morning of the first day of the Ninth Cycle of Age 834, the broken former Juggerknight donned his armor one last time as he threw himself off of the highest cliff within a ten mile radius of Karjec's walls and into the jagged rock–laden waters below. His suicide was verifiably observed by at least two witnesses, but his body was never recovered, not that this casts any doubt over his death; he most likely drifted out into deeper waters and ultimately sank to the bottom of the sea along with his ever–mysterious armor. Many have postulated that Worpurr cast into the deadly water along with himself specifically so that it would never be found, a notion which, if true, reinforces the idea that he may have had something to hide regarding the suit.

In addition to being remembered for his audacious feats – both as they actually occurred and in the forms of tall–tale–variations, Worpurr the Juggerknight's legacy has, especially since the shocking incident that was his suicide, contributed notably to increased tolerance of mutants in many societies, especially those of the Hexpultis.

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