Maximus Zero

Maximus Zero is the most well known acolyte of destruction to have ever existed. He came the closer to destroying the universe than any other acolyte that is known. He also one of the very few acolytes to discover their destiny before they are killed, causing him to be openly and consciously violent, rather than accidentally like most other acolytes. He was responsible for the black death. He was born in the year 1326.

Maximus Zero was born on January 1st, 1326 to Victoria and Peter Zero in England. Maximus was a troubled child. Danger seemed to follow him anywhere he went and nobody knew why. Many believed he was cursed. One night, when he was 9, he and a few friends went out to play in the local horse stables (which they were not allowed to do, mind you). Maximus thought it would be funny to try and feed the horses, although his friends protested. Maximus purchased some beef at a corner store and fed it to a horse. The horse seemed to enjoy it, so Maximus and his friends fed many of them to make them happy. The meat would turn out to be tainted, and the horses grew incredibly sick. The disease eventually became incredibly sick. Many died within his town, and the horse disease actually spread rapidly throughout the country, killing many. This lead to the Horse Shortage of 1335 in England. The shortage was eventually traced back to him, and he was jailed until he was eleven. He would have been in there longer, but the disease eventually died out by 1337. The shortage of horses lead hardships as elderly citizens had to walk home now. This lead to higher crime rates as vulnerable victims who would normally be riding horses home had to walk late at night. This crime spree plagued England until the shortage ended. When he was 15, Maximus was playing with candles and accidentally lit his house ablaze. His entire house burned to the ground, though his family made it out unscathed. The fire spread and burned down most of his block before emergency services could put it out. Nobody died. However, the country of England decided that Maximus was a danger and nuisance to the country and its people as a whole, so they cast him out and sent him to Italy.

Maximus Zero arrived in an Italian orphanage in Florence, in June of 1341. He and the other orphans went to school together, and Maximus began to develop a love for science. He graduated in 1344. By the time he was twenty, Maximus was doing scientific experiments on his own. In 1346 specifically, he was experimenting rats. He was taking a bacteria that was commonly found in them (Yersinia) and attempting to see if he could find a way to eradicate it completely from rodents to make them cleaner animals. This experiment got out of hand however when he had an accident during his experiment. He had broken a container with samples of the bacteria inside of it. The bacteria got on him, and parts of the house. Maximus became incredibly ill and was hospitalized for weeks. He managed to recover, however. When he left the hospital weeks later he found the city in disarray. People who went to investigate his laboratory became exposed to the bacteria, and spread it further to the population. Many of the doctors who treated him were sick as well and spread. This disease would become known as the Black Death. It would ravage the population of Europe for years, with Maximus as the cause. Things did not begin to get back under control until 1453, and by then countless people had died.

This was when the Knights of Templar first took notice of Maximus. They traced the plague back to him. They heard about his cause of the horse shortage, and him burning almost burning down his town. They had concluded that these events qualified him for further investigation as an acolyte. The criteria for investigation is 3 major disasters that were solely his fault, a requirement he met by the time he was 20. Upon further investigation of him they found that one his childhood friends in England died when Maximus tripped and knocked him down a well. They also found that a group of criminals had been started by him. An orphan friend of his was unhappy with how he was treated in society, and Maximus encouraged him to take hold of his life and put himself first. His friend took this advice and started a band of muggers and murderers to advance in society. They found that he was given a stipend of money to try and get a house upon leaving his orphanage. In an attempt to quadruple his money he bet it all against some wealthy men. He won, bankrupted the man, and was able to afford his lab. The man's life went into a downward spiral where he lost his house, his wife took his children and left, and he turned to selling drugs throughout the streets to get money. This started the first drug epidemic in Europe. The Knights of Templar decided this was enough evidence to act. They sent one of their men, an assassin known as "Bernard Sheppfield" after him. Maximus was awoken one night in his sleep to floorboards creaking and saw Bernard standing over him with a knife. He quickly reacted and dodged the attack. A scuffle broke out between the two and they fell out of Maximus's second floor bedroom window. Maximus survived the fall but Bernard did not. Maximus searched his corpse and found papers and letters of correspondence between him and the mysterious Knights of Templar. The letters called Maximus "an acolyte of destruction." Maximus took interest in this phrase and began digging up any old books and scrolls he could on this phrase. He had finally decided that he fit the description well enough, and embraced it.

Maximus turned to a life of open crime once he realized what he was. He turned to murder, robbery, scamming, torture, arson, poisoning, and anything else he could think of. He easily became Italy's most wanted person and went into hiding underground, where they had their base. He was eventually contacted by a cult known as "The Brother's of Acolyte", a group of people who lived to serve the acolyte in their plan of destroying the universe. They declared that he was certainly an acolyte and pledged their lives to him. They waged many battles against The Knights of Templar and greatly weakened their numbers. Finally enough was enough. Italy was almost in ruin due to the Brother's of Acolyte's crime spree and destruction, they had even killed the King. A Templar from the house of "Daveed", now David, named Henry David, infiltrated the Brother's of Acolyte cult, and remained inside of it for months to gain trust. When he rose in ranks high enough to come into contact with Maximus, he stabbed him in the back and fled the underground hideout. Maximus bled to death in their hideout on October 21st, 1401. The cult was forced back into hiding.