Master Workload

Master Workload is the personification of an aspect of reality. He/it represents the use of the Internet for work and work-related purposes. It/he was created by Dave Van Domelen.

History

Master Workload and his equal and opposite counterpart, Lord MUDD, have existed since the beginning of the Usenetverse. Some accounts have them being created by primordal entities known as the Net.Gods and Net.Trolls, while others have them springing directly from the Source Code, baked into the understructure of existence. The Multi-Tasker was created to keep the balance between them.

At some point, the Multi-Tasker abandoned its duties, allowing Master Workload freer rein in meddling with the Looniverse. Its first known incursion was an attack against alt.comics.lnh, cutting it off from the Writers and sending it spiraling through the newsgroups. It was only stopped when...

... he was pulled into the Internet RACelestial Complex, bringing its actions to the attention of other cosmic entities.

Afterwards, its schemes became more subtle (relatively speaking). When Sig.Lad and Kopikat tried to use a chunk of Plotdevicium to cure his physical instability...

...his decaying form was merged with her nanite-based body, and Master Workload invested the resulting being with his power, transforming it into DeFacto V. DeFacto built a highly orderly (and heavily repressed) world, but when he chased rebels into the past and stopped to gloat over his own creation, Squidman prevented it by killing Sig.Lad before the merge could take place. The paradox clashed with Master Workload's sense of order, and it withdrew its power from DeFacto.

When Dvandom Force went to the interdimensional city of Imnotsure, Master Workload sent his servant Net.us after them, but held itself above further personal vendettas. When Jubatis attempted to reboot the universe...

His goals of making the universe more efficient and less wasteful caught Master Workload's attention, and it arrived to empower him; however, this lead to the rise of sig.ma, who took the Multi-Tasker's place as keeper of balance, closing Master Workload off from further meddling.

sig.ma's power was proven when Master Workload attempted to control the power of the Mechanical Author. sig.ma matched it in a pitched battle, then laid down the cosmic law.

Appearance

Master Workload manifests as a perfectly rendered head of a member of the viewer's species. It often manifests in the midst of a three-dimensional fractal pattern as a manifestation of mathematical purity on all scales.

In another world, Master Workload is known as The Werk, a spiky alien creature (and a parody of The Merk from Mike Baron and Steve Rude's Nexus).

Appearances

• First Appearance: Looniverse Adrift!
• Dvandom Force #48, 50, 72
• Saviors of the Net #10b
• Hungry, Hungry Sabertooths! #3