Twilight Sunder
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Contents |
Early Life
Who can imagine that the mild-mannered and unassuming, if sometimes looking like a scary uncle/auntie Pak Yudha is actually at night a deadly silat expert?
Since young, Yudha had always wanted to be a superhero. He memorised comic books and exploits of the superheroes in them, and dreamt of becoming one himself. There was a problem though -- he had no superpowers. Undeterred, he secretly trained nightly in the techniques of pencak silat, until he was able to disable a man with a single blow. He started to roam the streets of Jakarta at night, taking down the youth gangs that made trouble for the law.
A breakthrough came when he came into possession of the mystical keris, Taming Sari, liberating it from the corrupt clutches of a Malaysian businessman. The man had hired powerful dukuns and planned to use the keris in a ceremony to curse the nation's economy. Yudha broke into the businessman's warehouse in the dead of night and stole the keris, foiling the Malaysian's plan. (As for how an 'ordinary' businessman came into possession of the Taming Sari, we can say nothing of that.)
By raising the mystical keris to the sky and speaking the words "By the Power of Majapahit...", Yudha could be transformed into Taming Sari, the heroic defender of Indonesia!
New powers
In the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, Yudha rushed to the affected regions to look for survivors. What he found was beyond his wildest imagination. In a deserted beach, he found a crashed ship of a design unlike any he has ever seen, and a dying being unlike any he has ever seen. As he approached the dying being, it addressed him and requested that he take over the powers of that being. The job description was vague, but from what he gathered, a sentient energy creature lived inside that being and should it be unable to find a host when that being expired, it would too die within hours. Yudha decided that saving that "energy creature" was of greatest importance -- he could find out what the creature was later -- and agreed to host the energy being. The energy being, Midnight Symphony, entered Yudha, and he gained control of purple-tinted energies that could be projected by his willpower.
This, at least, was the story he gave the reporters.
Controversy and departure from Indonesia
The new Yudha was not welcomed by all. There was disagreement whether playing host to an energy being was Islamic behaviour. What kind of good Yudha used his new powers for mattered not at all. Finally, sick of having his household harassed by extremists and what he scorned in general as "sand dune cultural imperialism", Yudha passed the Taming Sari to a young Batak from Aceh, and departed for America under the financial sponsorship of a mysterious, anonymous Indonesian businessman.
Yudha is currently registered with Paragon city as the hero Twilight Sunder.
Incarnate
With the invasion from Praetoria Earth, the powers of Majapahit have sought out Twilight Sunder once again. As an incarnate of Shiva, he has been granted the astra of Pashupatastra. The weapon only responds in service of fate and is never to be used against lesser enemies. It is said that Pashupatastra can vanquish all beings, but the limit of its power appears to depend on the will of its wielder -- which in the case of Twilight Sunder, is far from the level of the other, legendary, wielders of the astra.
Current Status
Twilight Sunder is currently away from Paragon City, undertaking assignments with the United Nations.
