Most of the Zafiro endured this oppression in silence, resigned to their
fate. But one woman could not stand by and watch her people suffer. Cynthia Von
Doom, a Latverian witch of formidable power, sought a way to fight back.
Desperate to protect her people, she turned to ancient, forbidden magic,
performing a dark ritual in hopes of gaining the strength needed to push back
against the Baron’s tyranny.
Her actions, however, did not go unnoticed. The Hell Lord Mephisto, a demon
of immense power, was drawn to her efforts. He appeared before Cynthia,
offering her a deal she knew came at a terrible cost. Mephisto promised her the
power to defend her people, to secure a future for them, and even hinted that
her young son, Victor, could one day become a king. Despite her fear, Cynthia
accepted the demon’s offer, driven by her love for her people and her son.
Empowered by Mephisto's dark gift, Cynthia unleashed her wrath upon the soldiers who had tormented the Zafiro. Her vengeance was swift and brutal, and her magic was unstoppable. She confronted Baron Fortunov, demanding that he repay his debts to her people and atone for his crimes, or face a fate worse than death.
But power, as Cynthia soon discovered, came with a terrible price. While she
could unleash unimaginable horrors, she lacked the control to wield her
newfound abilities. Worse still, the cost of Mephisto’s bargain became clear as
the lives of the soldiers’ children were claimed as payment. Horrified by the
unintended consequences of her actions, Cynthia renounced her dark powers. But
it was too late. A village guard struck her down, leaving her mortally wounded.
She managed to escape the village and was found, hours later, by her husband,
Werner Von Doom, just outside their camp. With her dying breath, she confessed
what had happened and begged Werner to protect their son, Victor.
Tragically, Cynthia’s confession did not save her from eternal damnation,
and her soul was dragged into the fiery pits of Mephisto’s hell. Werner,
devastated by his wife’s fate, tried desperately to rid himself of her chest of
potions and magical items. But no matter how he tried to destroy it, the trunk
always returned, indestructible and haunting. Left with no other option, Werner
hid the chest, burying it among his own mundane belongings, all the while
harboring a growing fear for his son.
For a time, young Victor Von Doom knew peace, living happily with his
childhood love, Valeria, the granddaughter of Werner’s close friend, Boris. But
this tranquility was shattered when Baron Vladimir Fortunov summoned Werner to
his castle. The Baron's wife had fallen gravely ill, and as a healer of some
renown, Werner was tasked with saving her. Despite his best efforts, the
disease that ravaged her body was beyond his ability to cure. Werner knew he
could not save her, and he braced himself for the Baron's wrath.
As expected, the Baron blamed Werner for his wife’s death. The following
day, he sent his men to destroy the Zafiro camp and capture Werner. But Werner,
knowing what was coming, had already fled with Victor into the mountains. They
traveled through harsh weather, enduring the biting cold, with Werner
sacrificing even his own warmth to keep his son safe. When Boris finally found
them, Werner had already succumbed to the cold, having given everything to
protect Victor.
Werner’s final words, left unspoken, died with him, but his sacrifice was
not in vain. Victor swore to avenge his parents, to make all of humanity pay
for the cruelty they had inflicted upon his people. His anger and grief only
served to deepen the fear his own people held towards him, as the seeds of the
man who would become Doctor Doom were sown in the ashes of his childhood.
The Rise of Doom: Victor’s Journey
from Latveria to America
After his father's death, young Victor Von Doom began sorting through the
belongings that had been passed down to him. Amid the remnants of his father's
life, he discovered a mysterious trunk, marked with his mother's name. It was
then that Victor uncovered the truth of his heritage: his father, a man of
science and medicine, and his mother, a witch of formidable power. Determined
to honor both his parents, Victor embarked on a path that combined the mystical
and the technological, mastering both with astonishing ease.
Victor kept his forays into the mystic arts a closely guarded secret,
revealing his abilities only to his beloved Valeria. But his technological
genius was no secret. Von Doom crafted incredible devices that allowed him to
defraud the corrupt Latverian upper class and protect his people from the
oppressive barons. Among his many inventions was a lifelike mechanical man, a
marvel that once saved him from execution.
It wasn't long before Victor’s brilliance caught the attention of those far
beyond Latveria. Men from America, impressed by his inventions, extended an
offer: develop advanced technology for the U.S. government, and in return,
receive a full scholarship to New York State University. Valeria pleaded with
Victor to abandon his dark quest for vengeance, but his mind was set. He left
Latveria, his heart hardened by loss, and accepted the offer, determined to
gain the power he needed to fulfill his ambitions.
At the university, Victor met the man who would become his greatest rival:
Reed Richards. Reed, impressed by Victor’s intellect, offered to share a room
with him, unaware that Doom had already secured a private space complete with a
personal lab. Victor coldly rejected Reed’s attempts at friendship, and
Richards instead roomed with the man who would become his closest friend, Ben
Grimm. While Reed and Ben bonded, Victor isolated himself, delving deeper into
both the dark arts and his work on advanced robotics for the U.S. government.
Among Victor’s many achievements during this time was his greatest creation
yet: the time platform, a machine capable of sending people and objects
backward through time. But even as he made strides in science, Doom never lost
sight of his true goal. All his work in America, his compliance with the
government, his time at the university—everything was a means to an end. He
needed the resources to build his magnum opus, a machine that would fuse magic
and technology, granting him the power to reach into hell itself.
One day, Reed Richards visited Victor's room once again, hoping to bridge
the gap between them. Doom was out, and Reed's curiosity got the better of him
when he noticed complex formulas on Victor’s desk. Some of the equations were
written in a language Reed couldn’t even decipher, but he recognized a critical
flaw in the calculations. When Victor returned, Reed tried to warn him, but
Doom, consumed by arrogance, dismissed his concerns and drove him away.
That very evening, Victor pushed forward with his experiment. With the
reluctant help of another student, Daniel Kurtz, whom he had intimidated into
assisting him, Victor sat in the machine, placed his head in the device, and
threw the switch. For a fleeting moment, it worked. Victor saw beyond the veil
of death—he glimpsed his mother and the demon that tormented her. For that
brief instant, Victor Von Doom peered into the abyss. And then, something went
horribly wrong.
The flaw in Victor's calculations proved disastrous. The machine, unable to
contain the mystical energies it was channeling, exploded in a blaze of
hellfire. Victor regained consciousness days later in a military hospital, his
face swathed in bandages. The dean of the university soon arrived to personally
expel him for his reckless and dangerous experiments.
Left alone to contemplate his fate, Victor eventually removed the bandages
to inspect his injuries. A large vertical scar, seared into the left side of
his face by the hellfire, marred his features—a mark left by the demon’s touch.
Though some might have considered his injuries minor given the scale of the
explosion, to Victor, his face was irreparably ruined.
Despite the military’s continued interest in his talents, Victor had other
plans. He activated his robotic soldiers remotely, commanding them to
obliterate everything he had created before self-destructing. With his
technology destroyed and out of American hands, Victor Von Doom vanished,
leaving behind the charred remains of his past as he set out to forge his
future—one that would see him rise as the most feared and powerful man the
world would ever know.
From Scarred Victor to Doctor Doom:
The Final Transformation
After the disastrous events in America, Victor Von Doom fled back to Europe,
but the scar on his face throbbed with a burning intensity, and his nights were
haunted by nightmares of the devil who held his mother's soul captive. Seeking
anonymity, he wandered through Eastern Europe, appreciating the way his
bandaged face allowed him to go unnoticed. Most people paid him little
attention, except for a drunken neighbor named Otto, who seemed to take an
unusual interest in him. Meanwhile, Doom’s infamous reputation had already
begun to spread, attracting the attention of the Russian KGB. They tried to
coerce him into working for them, but Doom quickly made it clear that neither
threats nor bribes could buy his talents.
Just as he was grappling with these unwanted advances, a familiar figure
from his past unexpectedly reappeared—his childhood love, Valeria. She had been
searching for him ever since his disappearance, driven by reports that the
Baron had been ruthlessly attacking her family's caravan, hoping to curry favor
with the American government by capturing Von Doom. A Zafiro fortune teller had
approached Valeria, claiming to have had a vision of Victor and insisting that
he needed her. For a brief, blissful time, Victor experienced a deep and
passionate love with Valeria, living together in a secluded peace, interrupted
only by the friendly presence of Otto, who had charmed Valeria with his
kindness.
But this peace was not destined to last. The fortune teller’s vision was not
a divine message but part of a sinister plot. He had been in league with the
Russians, who had provided him with Victor’s location, intending to use Valeria
as leverage against Doom. When the Russian agents finally struck, the
tranquility of the street was shattered by a series of small, magical
explosions. As the attackers opened fire, Valeria was miraculously shielded by
a mysterious magical force. Her protector, it turned out, was none other than
Otto. Revealing his true identity, Otto explained that he was a member of an
ancient order of monks who resided in the Tibetan mountains, dedicated to the
fusion of science and mysticism. He had been sent to find Victor, believing him
to be the prophesied leader who would guide their order—a man who hid his face
from the world.
Realizing the danger Valeria’s presence posed, Victor made a heartbreaking
decision. He turned his back on love, warmth, and compassion, knowing that
these were weaknesses that could be exploited by his enemies. Leaving Valeria
behind, he set out for the mountains in search of the monks' temple. The
journey was long and grueling, with the nightmares of his past still plaguing
him and his scar burning with the demon’s touch. Along the way, he encountered
a legendary Yeti, a vicious beast prowling the snowy peaks. Victor managed to
defeat the creature with a technological weapon of his own design, but not
before sustaining a serious injury to his side. Fortunately, the monks he
sought found him and brought him to their temple, where he spent several years
studying their ancient knowledge, eventually rising to fulfill the prophecy and
becoming their master.
During his time at the temple, Victor kept a close eye on the outside world,
watching news broadcasts that only fueled his simmering rage. He learned that
the man responsible for his family's suffering had ascended to the Latverian
throne. Worse still, his old rival, Reed Richards, was being hailed as the
smartest man on Earth. Victor's nights were still restless, filled with pain
and anger. He knew he had to rid himself of these weaknesses, to sever all ties
to his humanity.
With this resolve, he commanded the monks to forge a suit of armor, a
perfect fusion of magic and technology, endowed with powerful protective
enchantments. The cold metal was molded to cover his entire body, offering him
both invincibility and insulation from the world. The final piece was the
mask—a cruel, red-hot piece of metal fresh from the forge. Victor demanded that
it be placed on his face before it had cooled, enduring the searing pain as the
burning metal branded his flesh, erasing the demon’s mark along with the
remnants of his once handsome face.
From that day forward, Victor Von Doom was no more. In his place stood a man
devoid of pain, love, or humanity—a man with a singular purpose, driven by a
cold, unyielding determination. The world would come to know him by a new name,
a name that would strike fear into the hearts of all who heard it: Doctor Doom.
The Conquest of Latveria: Doctor
Doom’s Rise to Power
Victor Von Doom’s first order of business as Doctor Doom was to reclaim
Latveria and free its people from the iron grip of King Vladimir. He
established his base of operations in an ancient castle perched above the
deserted town of Hassenstadt—the very village where his mother had once
unleashed her dark powers. Reuniting with the Zafiro, he recruited them into
his cause, mercilessly striking down anyone who dared stand in his way. With
cold precision, Doom built an army of robotic soldiers, leading the charge in
the Latverian revolution.
As the uprising gained momentum, more and more people flocked to his side,
and soon, the name of Doom commanded fear and respect across the land. Amidst
the chaos, Valeria made one final, desperate attempt to reach the man she had
once loved. But it was clear that Victor Von Doom was no more. In his place
stood a figure of unwavering resolve, a man who believed in his mission with a
ruthless intensity, letting nothing and no one divert him from his path. Yet,
perhaps a small remnant of humanity still flickered within him, for Victor
ensured Valeria’s safe passage out of the country, away from the bloodshed and
violence.
As Doom’s campaign wore on, the resistance dwindled, and soon, nearly all of
Latveria had allied themselves with his forces. The final confrontation came
when Doom himself led his men in an assault on King Vladimir’s castle. On that
fateful morning, as the sun rose and the two armies faced off, Doctor Doom
stepped forward alone, a solitary figure of menace and power. Not a single man
raised a weapon against him. On that day, no Latverian blood was spilled, and
the only life lost was King Vladimir’s.
To secure his rule and crush any potential dissent, Doom imprisoned
Vladimir’s son, Rudolfo, in the deepest dungeon of his castle. A robotic
duplicate of the prince was created, who publicly abdicated the throne and
crowned Victor Von Doom as the rightful king of Latveria. With his victory
complete, Doom renamed Hassenstadt to Doomsdot and established it as the new
capital city. There, he walked among his people, respected and unquestioned,
having brought peace and equality to Latveria—on his terms. The once-tyrannized
nation was now fully under the dominion of Doctor Doom, a leader who ruled with
an iron fist, ensuring order and justice, but at the cost of freedom.
Doctor Doom’s Grand Ambitions: From
Utopia to Global Domination
Doom then turned his gaze to the rest of the world and its future, but what
he saw filled him with disgust. Utilizing his advanced technology, Doom peered
into tens of thousands of potential futures, each one marred by hatred,
violence, and death. Yet, among these countless dystopias, there was one future
that stood apart—one where war was nonexistent, pain was eradicated, every
disease had been cured, and every person was educated and provided for. In this
utopia, the law was absolute, and even the slightest infraction was met with
swift and decisive punishment. Hate crimes were eradicated, and no one dared
harm another. The key difference between this world and all the others was
simple: in this future, Doom reigned supreme. Victor Von Doom had conquered the
Earth, and in doing so, had saved all of humanity.
Realizing that his work was far from complete, Doom set three monumental
goals before him: to rescue his mother’s soul from Mephisto’s hell, to prove
his superiority over his rival, Reed Richards, and most importantly, to conquer
the world. These goals would soon intertwine, as Doom’s ambitions for global
domination inevitably led him into conflict with Earth’s super-powered
defenders. Chief among his adversaries were the Fantastic Four, led by none
other than Reed Richards.
Meanwhile, Doom’s quest to free his mother’s soul led him to summon the
demon who held her captive. Mephisto, ever the trickster, issued a cruel
challenge: on one night each year, Doom would descend into hell to battle the
demon for the fate of his mother’s soul. For every defeat, the people of
Latveria would grow to despise their ruler more and more. Despite suffering
several losses, Doom remained undeterred. Strangely, any unrest in Latveria was
minimal, and the majority of its citizens continued to revere their
unquestioned master.
In time, Doctor Doom entered a mystical tournament held by the Vishanti,
where he faced off against some of the most powerful sorcerers in existence.
Although Doctor Stephen Strange emerged victorious, earning the title of
Sorcerer Supreme, Doom’s formidable performance impressed even his peers. As a
result, Strange owed Doom a favor—a debt that Doom would soon call in.
When the time came for his next battle with Mephisto, Doom enlisted the aid
of Doctor Strange. Together, the two mystics combined their magical prowess and
technological cunning to confront the devil in his own realm. Though Mephisto’s
power surpassed theirs, Doom and Strange managed to outmaneuver the demon,
freeing Cynthia Von Doom’s soul and allowing her to pass on to a peaceful
afterlife. They escaped with their lives, and Doom’s personal vendetta was
finally put to rest.
With his mother’s soul saved and his personal affairs in order, all that
remained was conquest. Doom vowed to claim whatever power was necessary and
crush any opposition that stood in his way. He would save humanity from
itself—whether they wanted it or not. And thus, the legend of Doctor Doom was
born.
