Kief Phonogolos
Name: Kief Phonogolos (キエフ・フォノゴロス)
Gender: Male
Age: Roughly 101
Height: ?
Weight: ?
Race: Creature
Blood Type: ?
Constellation: ?
Hometown: ?
Also Known As: ?
Specialties: Creating Creatures
Hobbies: ?
First Featured: Stray Journey: "NAME"
Family:
Ramon Phonogolos (Supposed son)
Related Characters:
Sammy (Assistant / Research subject)
Hirietta (Research subject)
Kikuiem (Research subject)
Kenkrim (Research subject)
Axel (Research subject)
Phonogolos was an exiled sorcerer, who, once having attended the Tower of Fang, was later banished and called a heretic for the way that he practiced sorcery.
Personality
Kief was claimed to hate humans, though this isn't necessarily confirmed by Phonogolos himself. He was, however, passionate about his research, and dedicated to preventing the future calamities. He went a little mad when no one believed him or took his research seriously, and though he prodded Orphen for information about the Tower's view on his research, he was disheartened to hear that it was ultimately deemed unusable.
Appearance
Although Kief's human appearance is unknown, after becoming a creature, he took the form of a large fish, something like a Tuna that was roughly 2 meters long. It was described as covered in silver scales with red gills, with the outline of a human in its belly, as if swallowed by the fish. In the mouth of the human form was a tube that led to a speaker that allowed Phonogolos to talk with people outside the tank.
Though there's no description of Kief himself, at least as a human, he was depicted as an elderly man in the 25th anniversary comic. The same comic is where the main image for this profile comes from, featuring a bulkier species of fish.
Details
Supposed Son:
When Orphen entered the Phonogolos mansion, he met a creature who referred to themselves as Ramon Phonogolos, Kief Phonogolos' son, who had inherited his research. During their discussion Ramon mused about how his father used to complain to him every night about how the Tower of Fang couldn't understand his research, and how he spent so much time studying, that he had no time to teach Ramon how to be a sorcerer. He confessed that he secretly called his father's creations fools. However, Orphen theorized that Ramon was actually Kief himself. The contents of this article are written under the assumption that this is an accurate assessment.
History
The Tower of Fang:
Phonogolos was said to have practiced at the Tower of Fang, but was eventually banished. This was supposedly because of his heretical research, though Orphen also mused about him possibly messing around with an elder's secretary. After his exile, Phonogolos drifted until eventually landing in Kinkhall, where he continued his research in a large mansion on the outskirts of town. Driven by fear, he went on to create countless creatures that he hoped would be able to stop what he had seen.
Although the Tower of Fang briefly reviewed his research, Childman ultimately decided that there was nothing of use. Phonogolos' research was incomplete, and Childman did not believe that the creatures he was aiming to create could surpass his own strength.
Hirietta:
When Phonogolos' assistant, Sammy, found a young girl by the side of the road, Sammy begged Phonogolos to let her stay. He did, but not out of the kindness of his heart. Phonogolos intended to use the girl for one of his creature experiments. However, Sammy had already grown attached to her, and at the last minute, he dove into the incubator that Hirietta was to be thrown into, sparing her, at least temporarily, from suffering that fate. Phonogolos begrudged this action, but opted to move forward with the experiment regardless.
After a period of time, he still went forward with converting Hirietta, making a full-body suit that would share some properties with his earlier-created creatures.
Contact With Orphen:
In order to bring Sammy under control, Phonogolos sent Hirietta into the world in search of Krylancelo, the legendary assassin of the Tower of Fang. When she found him, she led him back to Phonogolos, who intended for him to put an end to Sammy's hunt, for Phonogolos feared Sammy above all else.
Transformation:
In the end, Phonogolos himself was converted into a creature. How this came to be, however, is up for debate. There were several ponderings on the matter. One was that Phonogolos wasn't content with the Creature he had created from Sammy, realizing that it still had a single point of failure. The theory goes that he decided to convert himself, chasing the false dream that he could create a perfected Creature. A second theory says that Phonogolos turned himself into a Creature to escape Sammy, who would not stop hunting him. After all, Sammy failed to recognize the fish Creature as Phonogolos himself. A third theory that Orphen pondered was if it was actually Hirietta who had turned Phonogolos into a creature. She mused that when he gifted her a suit that made her borderline invincible, that she could either use it to kill sorcerers, or use it to kill Phonogolos himself.
Death:
During the fight at Phonogolos' mansion, Phonogolos, now a fish, was struck by Axel's wires, and sliced in half. Yet, he still lived. He survived the battle, he survived the house being burned down, and he was still there when Orphen descended into the wreckage to see if, by chance, he was still alive. When Orphen asked Phonogolos why he had scarred the statue of the goddess, and had created the Creatures, he refused to answer. All he said was that he was afraid, after witnessing something in Kimrak. He could not tell Orphen what it was that he feared, because he would rather die in his current body than end up back in 'their' hands, terrified that he would lose his soul if he did. Eventually, he stopped talking all together. In that moment, Orphen thought that he saw the image of a tired old man, slender, wearing a coat, with a look of fear on his face. He wondered if Phonogolos had become a real ghost.
Research
Theory of Sorcerer Evolution Curve:
Kief believed that sorcerer power was on an evolutionary curve, and that it was possible to artificially evolve his creatures based on that premise. It was said that when people first gained the use of sorcery, the sorcery was far inferior to what is known in the modern era, and that some modern sorcerers even surpass what was standard for the dragon races. The horrific creatures he created — those who featured in the story, were mere prototypes, and he intended to create stronger creatures step by step.
Though Orphen pointed out that the number of powerful sorcerers was actually decreasing during modern times, Kief argued that this was the process of elimination — eliminating the weak so that the strong could thrive, and the standard of power could be increased for the entire species. However, he also believed that if sorcerers were born even a single level higher than the existant sorcerers, that the previous sorcerers would die out. He felt that this could lead to a terrible tragedy if the pace of evolution increased, killing off too many sorcerers to sustain the race.
Nevertheless, he challenged that tragedy by speeding up the process of evolution. What's written between the lines implies that, if Phonogolos' theory is correct, his evolutionary creatures would have spurred the natural extinction of lesser sorcerers.
Creation of Creatures
In an effort to circumvent the tragedies of the future, Kief set out to create countless powerful creatures, which he hoped would someday surpass the power of the dragon races. He used animal test subjects at first, using unknown methods to create three 'elements' that would then be imbued into their body. Elements that were essentially 'creature eggs'.
Though he created several prototypes, he was ultimately unable to create an obediant creature. The creatures he made were violent and out of control. To compensate for this, he used a method of making the elements parasites of the corpse they'd been fused with, and stored them inside of a crate, referred to as Creatures Pandora. Once the crate was opened, the elements would rapidly grow, feeding off of the corpse until they became a full-fledged Creature. This was Phonogolos' way of keeping the uncontrollable creatures in check. These creations secretly used human subjects as well, and in the end, he had created somewhere between 12 and 20 creatures. Possibly more, if you count that some of the crates were stolen from the mansion.
Several of the crates, however, went missing during the chaos of his death, or were later stolen by bandits who mistakenly thought that they'd be worth some money. This led to several creatures getting loose in the wild.
Skills
While there's little info about Phonogolos, it's clear that he was a skilled scientist, able to create various chimeras and biological specimens. Though his creatures were all said to have some weakness or another, this is simply to be expected of a biological creature, and they were still strong enough to kill most individuals (and possibly even most sorcerers.)
Features
Prominent Features:
- Stray Journey: 3 "Ghost, Sleep On My Chest" (Prominent Character)