WHO ARE THEY? (Pt. 4/4)
DIETRICH SIPHALLO (He/Him)
The greatest bastard who ever bastard-ed out of Bastard Town.
Dietrich came from a long line of Trocean royalty that had been ruling over Aquallos peacefully for generations. The Siphallo family never had anything against their subjects, and their subjects never had anything against them, ever since the start of their rule. But that changed when Dietrich came into power.
Dietrich was born with Empathy Deficit Disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder, which was largely brushed under the rug and ignored by his family in the hopes that he would just eventually grow out of it. However, it proved to be a detrimental and dangerous combination that only worsened as he grew older.
Picture your average Saturday Morning Cartoon villain, someone who knows they’re evil and delights in it, someone who gleefully adds the word “evil” to any sort of action they do, or any sort of item they own, because they’re aware that they’re a bad guy and they find it entertaining. Now apply this mentality to someone with genuine power, who rules over a planet with full armies at his command, and who is an actual threat. Someone who, if someone else can’t get the job done right, has no issue with getting their own hands dirty. That is Dietrich Siphallo.
Dietrich is the reason for the Trocean Civil War and the Detonation of Aquallos. He believes that Troceaths are capable of being powerful enough to rule over not just one planet, but many. But only certain Troceaths met his criteria; ones that are physically strong, with tendrils at least 16 inches long, and no physical disfigurements or mental health disorders that are “too detrimental to be useful”. He encouraged Troceaths who fit these descriptions to only associate and mate with similar Troceaths, in an attempt to make their race “even more perfect”. This was the beginning of the faction division into Osuns and Siphallo, and Dietrich only encouraged the violence; he not only figured it would lower the number of unfit Troceaths, but he also found it entertaining.
Once the war had gone on for some time, Dietrich decided he’d grown bored of it. (Or perhaps he’d gotten scared, as the Osuns were vastly outnumbering the Siphallo, and coming closer to a siege on the capitol each day.) So, when a large rocket capable of holding hundreds of thousands of Troceaths that he’d commissioned (read: threatened into being built) was finished, Dietrich loaded his family, friends, closest allies, his armies, and other noteworthy Siphallo sympathizers onto it. With his own Siphallo colony, Dietrich fled Aquallos. But tragically, that wasn’t enough for him.
Once his ship was far enough away from Aquallos, Dietrich detonated an ancient weapon called the Nova Bomb. This bomb had originally been disassembled for an unknowable number of years, but Dietrich had ordered it to be reassembled and planted several miles beneath the planet’s surface. The damage was catastrophic, and swiftly drove the remaining Troceaths into a desperate decision: stay on the planet and perish, or seek out the other rockets that had been assembled and flee home, with a slim chance of survival.
The entire time–during the war, fleeing Aquallos, detonating the planet, and ever since then–Dietrich felt nothing for anyone else. His heart rate never raced with anxiety, his blood never boiled with an abundance of anger, he never felt sorrow at plunging his race into endangerment. No guilt or second thoughts ever crossed his mind. It all just felt like another day to him; pushing the button to detonate Aquallos filled him with about the same level of smug satisfaction as when an entitled child gets off scot-free after making trouble. And that is the same energy he’s carrying towards other planets, other civilizations, other species.
That is exactly what makes him so terrifying. As other planets are ravaged, Dietrich continues to sleep soundly, with no remorse on his conscience whatsoever.
One day, perhaps, he will be stopped. But for now, wherever his name is mentioned, danger is sure to follow.