Uther Doul
From Brokedownway
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Uther Doul is from the world of Bas-Lag, a pseudo-Victorian, steampunk reality that has been heavily influenced by Lovecraft. In Bas-Lag, humans are not the only sentient race, nor are they necessarily the majority. In general, it's wise to remember that bad things happen to good people, all manner of crawling horrors are real, and they do want to get you. In terms of tone and general feeling, it's similar to Mignola's BRPD'verse.
[edit] I've known rivers ancient as the world
In the canon material, much of Doul's backstory is intentionally left vague while conflicting accounts are given by various characters about his 'known' history. Personally, I feel that this is an important part of the character and don't really ever plan to reveal too much of whatever brought him to the point that he is at. That being said, it is generally agreed upon that Doul was born and raised in High Cromlech, a city-state known for its silence and that it is organized around an oligarchical necrocracy where a certain caste of the preserved dead, the thanati, rule and appear as "liches with sewn-shut mouths, with beautiful clothes and skin like preserved leather," while the living, also known as the Quick, are bred to serve. At the bottom of this social stratum are the vampires (ab-dead) who are forced to beg for food.
After leaving High Cromlech, Doul went out into the world to study the Ghosthead Empire. These people (creatures?) were notable for their ability to manipulate and 'mine' probability, creating incredibly powerful weapons that strike every target possible in every possible method simultaneously, buildings with unreal floor plans, and instruments capable of altering reality -- all of which were apparently fueled by stripping the world its possibilities. No description still exists, but Doul theorizes, based on his knowledge of his probabilistic 'might sword', that they appeared differently based on preference or preconceived notions of the viewer. However, is it said that nothing is known with any certainty about Ghosthead physiology or appearance, saving that it was unlike that of any modern race.
After he returned from his time studying the Ghosthead Empire, Doul brought back the 'might sword', along with a few other artifacts, and learned how to use them. Most humans lack the ability to use any of these artifacts and this fact reinforces other hints given that Doul may not be purely human. In any case, he repaired and installed the necessary equipment to operate the sword - the visible components being a small clockwork box on a belt at this side and a series of raised, metal touchpads on the palm of his right hand connected to wires that run along and under his skin.
With a regular weapon, Doul is a consummate swordsman, but with a probability weapon he is truly frightening. It takes a very different style of fighting to use a might sword. When using a traditional sword, it is necessary for each movement to count, but with the might sword, the weapon mines the probabilities there and the user is able to affect which of those probabilities are used. An untrained user would have no way of selecting the paths that injure an opponent as opposed to those that would allow for the sword to break. Moreover, the sword takes a great deal out of Doul and it can only be used for a short period of time. Whether the clockwork mechanism on his belt powers the sword, or acts as an emergency shut-off is unknown. However, if it is true that probability mining is unhealthy for reality around it, then the latter option is likely. The wounds given by this weapon are described as deeply unnatural since they "seemed to shiver between states, deep rends that were suddenly insubstantial and dreamlike. But the blood that pooled below them was quite real, and the men were really dead."
While learning to use the might sword, Doul continued to travel around the world of Bas-Lag, and eventually he ended up in Armada -- a massive, mobile flotilla of ships that functioned as a small nation. Within this nation, there are many different ridings, each with its own form of government. It is seen as a curiosity that Doul is close friends with the Brucolac, the ab-dead leader of Dry Fall riding.
Doul ends up working as a bodyguard for The Lovers, a pair of nameless, scar-covered humans, who run Garwater Riding. It is while he is in this capacity that the events of 'The Scar' take place. Briefly, the Lovers decide to capture an avanc -- a giant, transdimentional fishmonster -- tether it to Armada and pull the whole nation towards the Scar in order to mine it for probabilities. At its most simplistic, the Scar is a place where reality breaks down and anything is possible. The best way I can think to describe it is that the Scar emits a sort of 'radiation' (Torque) which mutates reality as we understand it.
At first this plan of the Lovers' is heralded as a brilliant idea, but as Armada gets closer to its goal, unsettling things begin to occur: one of the crew is lost in an airship only to be recovered days later, swearing that he was there when Armada was pulled into the Scar and that he is either doomed to repeat it all again, a copy from a different, but Possible future, or, and this is suggested later on, lying at the behest of Doul who knows better than anyone what could go wrong when exposed to too much of the Scar's cacotopic energies. (I know this is very odd and very complicated, but I have no problem with explaining it further upon request.)
Thanks to a battle with other forces (who are not really relevant to Doul's backstory) the final outcome is that one of the Lovers choses to leave Armada and continue into the Scar, the avanc is released, and Armada is devastated. This is where canon ends.
Following this point, Doul continued to work for the remaining Lover to stabilize and repair Garwater and Armada as a whole, and setting up a new ruler for the riding. Then the Lover is given work on a raiding vessel, and never returns. Doul disappears soon afterwards, without a word to (almost) anyone.
[edit] and older than the flow of human blood in human veins
Uther Doul abhors being in the limelight, but he is not entirely adverse to having power. Like anyone, he wants things to go his way, but his preferred method for achieving this is through subtlety and manipulation. Ideally, he would like people to do as he wishes, but to believe that they are following their own desires.
Outwardly, Doul presents himself as a warrior. This is reflected both in his clothing (light armour, well suited to movement and sword fighting) and his posture (confident, assertive). He is a good leader in battle; both because he plans in advance but also in that he can keep a cool head in a skirmish. For entertainment on Armada there were monthly gladiator fights and Doul was a well loved champion at these events. After seeing him in action during one of these occasions, the narrator of the book is astonished that he seems able to somehow combine some sort of 'holy man' level of calm before and after the fight with an atavistic berserker rage when actually in battle. The people of Armada know him to be an excellent fighter, but also that he is a scholar. Although that side of his life is intensely personal -- it's know to exist, but never seen.
Inwardly, Doul is considerably more introspective. He is an accomplished archaeologist, scholar, and a great reader. Furthermore, not only is he able to mine the probabilities necessary to sword fight, but he can play a probability organ -- a musical instrument that requires no small talent and imagination. The ability to use both these objects suggests that he is profoundly inhuman in his thinking and hints that he may not be genetically human.
[edit] My soul has grown deep like the rivers
While never explicitly stated in his canon, it can be inferred that Doul has a greater than human ability to understand and select beneficial probabilities. A similar example in comics would be Domino's powers. Her abilities manifest through her unconscious action and her own physical involvement in a stressful situation, Doul's talent is a purely conscious effort and best used by channelling through one of the Ghosthead artifacts. While it has been hinted that he has the knowledge (and inhuman ability) to both repair and built new probability mining devices, they would be exceedingly difficult and dangerous to construct.
DEFINITELY NOT TITUS PULLO.
