Angst
Angst, in his various names and guises, is the primary villain in the second and third volumes of Mr. Spumoni’s work of fan-mythology The Rangerillion.
Contents
Appearance
During the course of the telling of The Rangerillion Angst takes on many different physical forms. Each of these forms represents a different state of his personal grace, or lack thereof:
- As Angst, a Spirit of Crafting:
Like any of the Spirits of Crafting Angst was (and still is) an immortal and invisible force of creativity. Only when they are in the highest throws of their work do they become visible at the edge of the perception of mortals, Crafters and the Toonish. In this form they appear to them as clouds of colored mist or orbs of tinted smoke. Angst, in this form, was one of the darkest of the spirits, spending most of his time in solitary contemplation.
Angst is first appears in the story of Rangerphiles during the Fall of Canon, during the very last hours of the First Age of the Rangerdom. With the felling of Mouseo a great sadness overcomes the defenders of Canon. Angst, feeding on the misery, cloaks the battlefield in his misty folds, which are so dark and foreboding that he is in fact mistaken for the dust of battle rising on the night air.
He appears in The Rangerillion only once more in this form, that being at the end of the third volume.
- As Angst the Melancholy:
During the second volume of The Rangerillion Angst, without the guidance of Crafters to direct his powers, becomes proud and takes for himself a mortal form. In this form he takes on many of the greater aspects of Fanon, eyes like a storm on the sea, short hair that changes with the sun (much like that of Gadget). His clothes were dark and draping, in parody of the cool nights. In physical form he looked much like Thaddeus of the Stones, yet much taller and drawn out and thin.
Angst however remained restless and as his thoughts grew corrupted his hatred of anything that reflected Fanon fairly grew stronger, and that included himself, leading to his next form.
- As Angst the Fallen, Lord Angst:
Unable to bear any longer being compared with and counted among the good and happy things which inhabited Fanon Angst undertook to destroy anything about himself that reflected the light of that place.
In doing so he mutilated himself horribly.
He tore out his hair down to the flesh, leaving exposed his ash colored skull. He broke his jaw and pulled at the muscles there to form a wide smile that revealed so many teeth that his grin spread, literally from one of his ears to the other. He locked the expression there so that he could so much easier spread sweet little lies and make doubt run over the Rangerphiles and cause them misery. He then gouged out his eyes and hid them away, promising never to look upon the goodness and happiness of Fanon.
To insure that his new physical form survived this process he spent much of the ink that had been entrusted to him, so much that his skin fell soft and pale. In his false veins he captured the remainder to hold for further evils, so that it pulsed in dark rivers beneath the sickly flesh.
He draped himself in a great black cloak that had an enchantment upon it that allowed him to move with some measure of invisibility while his powers were young, and also covered himself with rough gray armor that he clumsily pulled as raw iron from the earth of Fanon. The armor also was enchanted, containing powerful curses meant to protect their master, though they proved fatefully flawed in the end.
In this manner he also created his Iron Crown and War-Nayer, his pike.
Thus, in rejecting the light of Fanon Angst ruined himself, earning himself the title of “The Fallen”. Many though were the Minions of Angst he soon raised up, and they called him “Lord Angst”.
- As Lord Angst, The Dark Regent:
By the third volume of The Rangerillion Angst had become so bold and confident that he named himself a Regent of Fanon, a title even greater than that of a Learned Elder or Elder.
In this form he was very much like his previous form of Angst the Fallen, yet he now he was decorated by his minions with jewelry that was constructed from the bones of the small animals of Fanon as tokens of his supposed sovereignty. He also briefly wore his own flag, a single silver tear on a black banner, around him like a toga at one point while he inhabited this form.
Equipment
During his time as Lord Angst, the Enemy of Fanon (as he was so named by the Rangerphiles) carried with him two items that would become his personal trademarks:
- The Iron Crown of Angst
Even though he tore out his own eyes in spite of Fanon Angst was hardly left blind. Indeed, his vision grew and became feared throughout the Rangerdom due to a piece of roughly shaped iron that sat upon his ashen skull. There, like spires of young mountains, sat the Iron Crown. Into it he had poured much of his own longing and hate, so that it provided to him sight beyond sight, allowing him to see events transpiring in Fanon, and look upon troubled hearts and guilty consciences. The crown itself was roughly made, and had its own semi-sentience.
The gaze of the Iron Crown was feared throughout Fanon during the Second Age and Third Age of the Rangerdom. Any Rangerphile on whom the gaze of the crown fell would instantly feel the loss and remorse that emanated from it, and only the strongest among them could stand up to it.
Singing its shrill songs in dark places and sweeping its unceasing gaze out over the distant parts of the Rangerdom, the Iron Crown of Angst provided him much insight and allowed him to contemplate the dark plans that brought so much misery into the otherwise idyllic existence of the Rangerphiles and the Rescue Rangers.
- War-Nayer
In the same time and place where he created the Iron Crown Angst sought to provide for himself a weapon to wield in a more physical sense. Not content to have a mere sword like Thaddeus of the Stones possessed in Goslyn, or like Lord Pierce wielded in Don Nald he instead fashioned for himself a long pike with a spear point. This dark pike was better fashioned than the Iron Crown, mostly due to him pouring his lust for power and his arrogance into it.
As it was with the Iron Crown, War-Nayer had something resembling a sentience about it, though in truth it was more magical than emotional. The pike was said to sing in dark places and in pale light. Its songs were of ruin and loss, and pleas to be drenched in blood and have vengeance on the enemies of its master.
The name War-Nayer is Toonish. The best translation for the name is “Dethroner”, an appropriate title, as it was chosen to let all know that the pike was meant to spite King Mickey and help Angst win Fanon from the Two Queens.
Personality
Like most villains encountered in the canon and fanon of the Rescue Ranger fandom Angst has a driving purpose. His own particular fault is his consuming megalomania, or desire to control all around him. Yet a secondary aspect of his personality that also becomes obvious is his desire to be worshipped and adored. It is not nearly enough for Angst to attempt to gain control of the various fandoms that he afflicts himself upon, for indeed what Angst truly wishes is for the members of the fandoms to want him to lord over them! It is the failure of those in the Rescue Ranger fandom to see his greatness and power (at least in his own mind) that drives him to create his minions. As the light of Fanon is so great (greater than himself) he rejects it, and plots to capture it for his own uses, leading to much of the unhappiness of the ages in which he walked the Rangerdom in a mortal form.
Another important aspect of his personality is his cunning and cleverness. Angst was always willing to bide his time and use stealth and guile instead of forceful persuasion. In truth, the only times he used the force of arms was when he saw them to be of greatest advantage to himself, and even then they were used tactically and in harmony with a greater strategy. His first blasphemy, namely the Treason of Angst, showed this as it was a multiple step plan that involved first seeping his ink into the rivers of Fanon to darken the works of the Rangerphiles (this is referred to as the Stain of Angst). Next, he released two of his oldest and fiercest minions upon the Rangerdom to keep any help from coming as he attacked the Tree of Setting, hoping to capture the heart of the Rangerdom and bring the Rescue Ranger into his thralldom. Only quick thinking on the part of Chip, the other Rangers themselves and the timely intervention of Lord Pierce prevented that horrid fate from coming to pass.
Angst’s cool and calculated demeanor was seldom broken. Even as he lay defeated before Lady Bihn he still laughed at his fate. Yet in truth he was an uncertain and troubled soul. He was never able to completely rid himself of his higher instincts, such as expressing sorrow that Lady Kashefipour left the Rangerdom and worrying for the well being of the Insane Avatar. Yet any feelings of pity for the Fallen Lord must be tempered by the remembrance that he was manipulative and deceptive, willing to use anyone, even those who willfully served him, to advance his own dark plans.
If one were to ascribe a greatest fear to Angst it would be the fear of being forgotten or of being unimportant. Having wrapped himself in a physical form he could not stand the idea of others not seeing that form as superior. When he is defeated in the Third Age his reduction back to his form as a Spirit of Crafting is the embodiment of this fear, and so great was his fear at that time that an entire new age would be born before he would be able to manifest anything of his former self.
Role
Angst plays the role of the main villain in two of the three volumes of The Rangerillion. In the story Mr. Spumoni uses Angst to represent the catalyst and cause of many of the less happy events that have transpired in the Rangerdom, such as causing the Ranger Wars or conspiring to cause the destruction of the host servers for the Acorn Café.
The character of Angst is also used extensively to describe the effect of the literary genre of angst on the works and understanding of the Rangerphiles.
