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Description
Onesilus was a prince of the Greeks on the island of Cyprus around the turn of the 6th century BCE. He was the son of King Chersis, and thus the younger brother of Gorgos, who was king during the Ionian Revolt against the Achaemenid Empire in 499 BCE. Onesilus was a warmonger, wanting desperately to incite his brother to do battle against the Persian king Darius. Gorgos, however, was not convinced, and so Onesilus turned to conspiracy. He managed to gather the support of every city on Cyprus, save for Amathus, and hatched a plan to lock Gorgos out of the gates of Salamis when he next left the city. I can only assume this was accompanied by Onesilus waggling his hands next to his head and going "neh neh neh neh neh neh" to his older brother. With Gorgos exiled, the next step was to bring Amathus in line. Onesilus laid siege to the city, which is exactly where the Immortals found him when they came to reclaim the island in 497 BCE. Onesilus is said to have charged headfirst and met the Iranian commander Artybius one on one, slaying him while his ward slayed the commander's horse. This feat of badassery was all for naught, though, as Onesilus was himself cut down in the battle, and Cyprus was returned to Gorgos, who made peace with Darius.

The people of Amathus resented the bull-headed prince who besieged their city, and had his body decapitated. According to legend, the head was strung up over the city gates for all to see, and as it rotted hollow, a colony of bees turned it into their hive. Jesus Christ. A local oracle eventually told the people of Amathus that this was a bad omen from the gods, and that they should take the head down and treat it with honors lest they evoke their wrath. Either that, or you know, they just wanted to get rid of the rotting bee head for the sake of getting rid of the rotting bee head. I can't imagine that's good for tourism.

Design notes, Onesilus was a minor boss in my D&D game. As the campaign was set in 526 BCE, this Onesilus was a much younger man, and I decided to roll with that idea. He was a fiery youth who loved his island, and was frustrated that his brother was so keen to make peace with Iran. The main villains approached him, seeing this kid as cannon fodder, and offered him a small armada to take the fight to Persia. This is where my party encountered him, and thoroughly spanked him. My party chose to spare him, which is good because then I would've had to figure out how to make that jive with real history. The party's tank actually made it a point to scare the living shit out of the kid with his powers, and told the boy to come find them when he is older and wiser, to make it a worthy fight. It was actually a nice scene. For his outfit, I referenced pretty much the only images of Onesilus I could find on the web: a couple of 16th century illustrations by Jörg Breu the Younger, depicting Onesilus getting clobbered by Artybius's horse. To really empathize the characterization of Onesilus as an edgy, inexperienced teenager, I went with those classic middle school goth OC type colors and of course the universal symbol of edgy teenagers everywhere, that S thing we all doodled in our notebooks. I also tried to make it look like his armor was just a bit too big for him, but I'm not sure how well that comes across. His sword is based on a Thracian falx, a giant curved blade which is both the only two-handed blade I could find from ancient times (please correct me if I'm wrong, I absolutely love polearms and need more in my life) and the closest thing to an ancient Greek katana for this loser to hang on his wall. In the boss fight, kid never even threw a punch, just sent his goons to fight until the big bad party cornered him and sent him home without supper. It was actually quite a fun and hilarious fight.

Description
Onesilus was a prince of the Greeks on the island of Cyprus around the turn of the 6th century BCE. He was the son of King Chersis, and thus the younger brother of Gorgos, who was king during the Ionian Revolt against the Achaemenid Empire in 499 BCE. Onesilus was a warmonger, wanting desperately to incite his brother to do battle against the Persian king Darius. Gorgos, however, was not convinced, and so Onesilus turned to conspiracy. He managed to gather the support of every city on Cyprus, save for Amathus, and hatched a plan to lock Gorgos out of the gates of Salamis when he next left the city. I can only assume this was accompanied by Onesilus waggling his hands next to his head and going "neh neh neh neh neh neh" to his older brother. With Gorgos exiled, the next step was to bring Amathus in line. Onesilus laid siege to the city, which is exactly where the Immortals found him when they came to reclaim the island in 497 BCE. Onesilus is said to have charged headfirst and met the Iranian commander Artybius one on one, slaying him while his ward slayed the commander's horse. This feat of badassery was all for naught, though, as Onesilus was himself cut down in the battle, and Cyprus was returned to Gorgos, who made peace with Darius.

The people of Amathus resented the bull-headed prince who besieged their city, and had his body decapitated. According to legend, the head was strung up over the city gates for all to see, and as it rotted hollow, a colony of bees turned it into their hive. Jesus Christ. A local oracle eventually told the people of Amathus that this was a bad omen from the gods, and that they should take the head down and treat it with honors lest they evoke their wrath. Either that, or you know, they just wanted to get rid of the rotting bee head for the sake of getting rid of the rotting bee head. I can't imagine that's good for tourism.

Design notes, Onesilus was a minor boss in my D&D game. As the campaign was set in 526 BCE, this Onesilus was a much younger man, and I decided to roll with that idea. He was a fiery youth who loved his island, and was frustrated that his brother was so keen to make peace with Iran. The main villains approached him, seeing this kid as cannon fodder, and offered him a small armada to take the fight to Persia. This is where my party encountered him, and thoroughly spanked him. My party chose to spare him, which is good because then I would've had to figure out how to make that jive with real history. The party's tank actually made it a point to scare the living shit out of the kid with his powers, and told the boy to come find them when he is older and wiser, to make it a worthy fight. It was actually a nice scene. For his outfit, I referenced pretty much the only images of Onesilus I could find on the web: a couple of 16th century illustrations by Jörg Breu the Younger, depicting Onesilus getting clobbered by Artybius's horse. To really empathize the characterization of Onesilus as an edgy, inexperienced teenager, I went with those classic middle school goth OC type colors and of course the universal symbol of edgy teenagers everywhere, that S thing we all doodled in our notebooks. I also tried to make it look like his armor was just a bit too big for him, but I'm not sure how well that comes across. His sword is based on a Thracian falx, a giant curved blade which is both the only two-handed blade I could find from ancient times (please correct me if I'm wrong, I absolutely love polearms and need more in my life) and the closest thing to an ancient Greek katana for this loser to hang on his wall. In the boss fight, kid never even threw a punch, just sent his goons to fight until the big bad party cornered him and sent him home without supper. It was actually quite a fun and hilarious fight.