Admiral Maximilian Ripfist

Admiral Maximilian Ripfist (or simply Max to his friends,) is a human Monk known to be the leader of the legendary Last Warning, and Captain of the Immer Essen.

Origin
Born onto the streets of Ghostpoint, Max was raised in the Serene Monastary as a foundling. He grew up with intense mental and physical training culminating in his initiation into the Serene Monks under the tutalage of Professor Tor Coolguy.

Young Life and Training
After demonstrating his prowess and wisdom, he begged of the masters to allow him to learn the Way of the Striking Falcon. Young Max excelled in this fighting style, quickly mastering the powerful leaping attacks that exemplified this Way. Soon he was capable of of leaping over the monastary walls, and leaving small craters where his strikes landed. However, after a mere eleven months, Max was back before the masters, petitioning them to allow him to learn under a different master of a different Path. By the end of that year, he was back. This continued for five years, each master attempting to sate Max's thirst for knowledge and martial prowess, and each finding their would-be star pupil abandoning them. Even the Panther Shen, Master of the Shifting Stirkes, was only able to contain the young monk for but fifteen months. Soon Max was spending days at a time meditating in isolation chambers, where he could freely contemplate his inability to commit to any of the teachings of his masters. Many around the monastary expressed doubt at the young monk's worthiness to remain amoung their order. He foreswore nearly every vow he took, nearly every Path or Way. It wasn't untill the attack by the Midnight Hand upon the city of Ghostpoint that Max realized where his path lie; out into the Icarus Isles upon his newly aquired sailing ship.

Relationship with Zgg'Sarak
Max first came into contact with the demon in the Deep Dark Caverns after the first defeat of Archie Stoneheel and his cabal under the mountain and stopping the corruption of the Orb of Earth. Max treated the entrities of power and guidance with great caution, and maintained a certain distance from the demon's advice and requests. This continued untill the crew of the Immer Essen landed on the twin isles ruled by Milton the Dark and Bradley the Pale. After much debate, and based on the carnage wrought by the warring brothers, the crew sided with King Bradley, and utterly destroyed King Milton. Immediately after the victory, Max and Leaf took Bradley aside in private, and executed him for what they percieved as crimes. This outburst of murderous rage from Max toward an apparent innocent was more than enough for Zgg'Sarak to exert his influence, and irreversibly marked the monk, leaving Max with his dark purple swirling tatooes. From this point on, Max fell deeper into the demon's influence, abandoning a vow he had stuck by for much of his life(a promise to give everyone at least two chances before resorting to violence,) and grew brutal and aggresive. Soon Max was threatening crewmembers, executing those who wronged him, and begging even more power from the imprisoned demon. Max even ritualisticly sacrificed the minds of the Swampgas Gang to Zgg'Sarak after they attempted to steal the Immer Essen as a means to gain more power. Eventually he was bestowed with a small fraction of the demon's true power and gained the ability to assume a truely demonic form, and devour his enemies in body, essence, and mind. During the showdown with Vyx, the doppleganger attempted to use this ability against Max, but the young monk prevailed and devoured the entity. When questioned later by his compatriots, he attempted to pass this ability off as a "Monk Technique" leaving behind his final vow, a Vow of Truth.

Trivia

 * Max and his lover, Deliah, had two children - a baby girl who was once the captain of a ship that raced against the Immer Essen, and a half-djinni who was rumored to not be Max's. Deliah was also rumored to have been pregnant with triplets just before her disappearance.


 * Max has demonstrated again and again a distinct dislike of dwarves.


 * There are rumors that after the defeat of the shield, Max retired to a distant land and opened a gym called MaxSanity!!!, though these rumors are unsubstantiated.[citation needed]