Okay. Now that I've gotten the green light from the parties immediately involved, I can state for sure that Drift will be taken care of whether the Starchild battle progresses or not. First, a little background:
Come February of 708, the plot around Drift is going to come to a head. This will result in him being given a sword that has been cursed by Revonos, God of Murder, and being told the identity of the man who killed his father, as well as being told (falsely) that the Watch is in that man's pay. Drift will, in an increasing state of madness, begin a damage trail across Metamor toward that man worthy of a tornado and, in the process, indebt himself to Revonos to the point that Revonos himself comes to collect the Samoyed when the deed is done. After a trial before the Celestial Court, Drift will be dragged away to the Sixth Hell, where he is transformed into a massive non-anthro dire wolf and renamed Carcarak, which means "Red Jaws", and where he is made to fight in the arenas of Hell. In order to maintain some tenuous grip on his sanity after what has happened to him, Drift fixates on the hope of rescue by Misha, the last Metamorian he saw before being dragged away. In order to hide that thought from Revonos (to protect Misha from attack), Drift throws himself into the role of Revonos' perfect disciple: savage, merciless, deadly. Survive (and win) at any cost.
He assumes this role so well that Revonos decides to revive an old concept for creating a daedra, abandoned for millenia: the chimera.
The standard daedra life cycle, according to http://mkworld.wikidot.com/org:pantheon, starts out with a newborn daedra (a whisper) being drawn from the sulfur pools of the Hells. It then grows over time and is 'promoted' into a more powerful form. This works, but it takes a while. If you have a specific goal in mind, you also have to hope that it has the right stats to eventually fill that role.
A chimera bypasses this 'growth' process. Want a warrior, for example? Find a mortal with the appropriate mentality, and enchant him to create an energy lattice around him. Feed in daedra energy. Lots of it. Modify the forming daedra consciousness to suit your exact desires by enchanting the mortal with all the 'buffs' you want the chimera daedra to have. As the chimera becomes stronger, it will start to incorporate into and take over the mortal body, changing it over time into an immortal daedra and shouldering the mortal soul into a tiny, helpless little corner of the mind. (This, of course, assumes that you do all these steps exactly right. We'll get back to that.)
The benefits of creating a chimera are these: It skips the training and levelling up stages. The powers and mentality can be designed to a very specific purpose. Because of their development as an energy lattice (think artificial gemstone), they can hold immense quantities of mana.
The drawbacks of creating a chimera: In their formative and early stages, chimera are -extremely- fragile. If the formation process is not done -exactly- right, the chimera will be flawed. For example, a chimera formed too quickly may pick up some mortal 'failings', like empathy and compassion. It may also be too weak when it reaches self-awareness to properly displace the mortal mind. Patience is absolutely required to avoid this. (Guess what Revonos is short on?) There's a high risk of mental instability. Also, because it can gain power by killing other daedra, a chimera can easily become cannibalistic. In its early stages, it also has poor mana regeneration skills. Thus, if it has been imbued with high-power abilities, but doesn't have access to a power source from which to recharge, a chimera can exhaust itself, with potentially fatal results.
Now that I've got all your eyes glazed over from the data dump, here's the two plotlines as they currently stand:
Starchild-
Drift gains power slowly, and is brought to the Starchild battle to help kill Dokorath. Drift spots Misha, and accidentally lets slip his excitement. Revonos figures out why, and orders Drift to kill the fox. Drift resists. Carcarak (the still-forming chimera consciousness) takes over, but is not able to defeat Misha and his allies while still keeping Drift's desperate, fanatical resistance in check. The aedra and daedra are subdued by Merai, who then breaks the spell binding Drift/Carcarak to Revonos.
No Starchild-
Drift gains power more quickly than in the Starchild arc, drawing wealth and prestige to Revonos as the denizens of the Hells come to watch him fight in Revonos' arena. Ba'al, sensing a challenge to his authority, invites Revonos to bring Carcarak to his own arena to face his best champion. (While there, Ba'al notices and remarks to Revonos that Drift is "looking for someone", pinning his hopes on a rescue. This becomes important later.) Against heavy odds, Drift wins. Revonos decides that Ba'al has gotten too weak to rule, and attempts a coup. At the critical moment, Ba'al breaks Revonos' control over Drift, who promptly attacks Revonos and bites off his sword hand. Revonos retreats, still under attack by Drift. Revonos grabs Drift by the throat, commands/geases him to seek the person he's waiting for, and then kill him. Revonos then throws Drift through the nearest portal to the mortal plane… which drops him right in the middle of Lilith's army at Lik. Chaos ensues. At the height of his destructive power, he obliterates Lik and everyone there, burning off much of the energy gained from destroying Ba'al's champion. He then starts heading toward Metamor, guided by faint memories of a friend…
Hallan 1191693420|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
