Beast Priest
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| On Founders Falls University Campus | |
| Beast Priest | |
| Player: Enantiodromos | |
| Origin: | Mutant |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Brute |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Juan Reyes |
| Known Aliases: | Tepeyollotl, Armor King, King of Pain |
| Species: | human |
| Age: | 28 |
| Height: | 6' 3" |
| Weight: | 225 lbs |
| Eye Color: | dark brown |
| Hair Color: | black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Mexican citizen |
| Occupation: | Orphanage Operator |
| Place of Birth: | Chihuahua, Chihuaha, Mexico |
| Base of Operations: | King's Row |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | mother Lamashtu, father Ramon Reyes |
| Known Powers | |
| Street Justice, Willpower | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Confidential | |
| Equipment | |
| Armor | |
| No additional information available. | |
Contents |
Origin
From A Line of Orphans
In 1953, Victor Reyes was born in Chihuahua Mexico. He was a second son, a big guy, agile, and he opened a painting business that was successful, marrying in 72. His son Ramon was born in '75, but his wife died in labor. He raised his son alone, until in 1980, when he made the mistake of confronting a local crook over extortion, and the man, a member of the nascent Juarez Cartel, killed him in front of his son.
Ramon grew up in orphanages and on the street. He was big like his father, very angry, very strong, but very disciplined. He learned secret health and exercise techniques from local witches, and at 17 he was taken in by a local wrestling promoter. Wrestling with a jaguar mask, he was very successful at home and abroad, and earned the name "Beast Priest" in the states. His son Juan was born in '95, but the mother, said to have been a witch or possibly disfigured, left him with his father. Ramon raised his son alone, taking careful charge of his nutrition and teaching him advanced secrets of fitness and wrestling from a very early age.
Then family history repeated itself. In 2003, Ramon discovered who had killed his father Victor, and he went and got revenge. Days later, the Cartel sent a man who killed Ramon in front of his son.
Juan was taken in by Casa Hogar Misercordia, where one of the ladies who worked there hugged him at 2:35 in the afternoon, five days a week, like clockwork. Juan learned to hate weekends, and this evolved into a love of hard work and being useful. He was in turn even bigger than his grandfather, and a natural athlete.
Secret Training
Juan recovered his father's notebooks and mask, learning the history of his family (more clearly than he understood it at 8). He trained in secret, became a luchador like his father before him, traveled broadly, wore the Jaguar mask and Beast Priest name. He traveled to Spain and learned an unarmed battlefield art supposedly developed by the Roman Legion and maintained by monks in an obscure monastery, who also revealed to him that there was a rival unarmed battlefield art taught traditionally in the Japanese Koma clan. He contacted their descendants and convinced them to train him as well.
Juan returned home wealthy from fight money in 2019, and bought and expanded the orphanage he grew up in. But soon, strange witches contacted him and warned him of old enemies. They also told him the name and whereabouts of the man who killed his father, and urged him to seek justice. But he was busy. Eventually, the Juarez Cartel, knowing he was back in town and assuming he would seek vengeance, preemptively sent someone to the home of the old woman who hugged him as a child, to kill her. Hearing about this was how Juan learned that she'd died a year prior, while he was away.
Transformed
The knowledge of his father's killer and his Abuelita's death made Juan's body and blood feel as if they were on fire. Soon, the witches chased him down and castigated him for not taking revenge sooner, but he refused them until they attacked! They turned out to be far more ferocious than mortals. He fled into the mountains, clutching his head the whole way and feeling his skull deform. He fell into a cave, barely able to recognize the ragged sound of his own voice.
There in darkness and agony, an old god of echoes and mountains, a jaguar god named Tepeyollotl, came to Juan, and offered to merge with him to fix the power from the alien (well, Greek) Talons of Vengeance currently flowing through and transforming him. He accepted.
Transformed, with a body burgeoning with superhuman strength and speed, impossible healing powers, and with a jaguar's head and tail, Beast Priest attacked and defeated the witches.
Personality
An uncanny balance of aggressive warrior, gentle compassion, and flatfooted pragmatism.
Abilities
Luchador
Learning from his father before him and many masters of various arts abroad, Juan's knowledge of powerhouse wrestling and boxing techniques is encyclopedic.
Athlete
Juan learned many secrets of physical training and nutrition from his father and from various local witches. He also learned secret battlefield wrestling techniques both in Spain and in Japan.
Jaguar Man
Juan's natural abilities have been magnified manifold by the partial transformation the Talons of Vengeance wrought on his body, and his alliance with the Jaguar god Tepeyollotl, who aided in subverting that transformation.
Armor
Inobtanium alloys and expert craftsmanship by the Black Knigts make the spikey greaves, gauntlets, cuirass and pauldrons Beast Priest wears in the most serious battles incredibly tough.
The Door that Should Not Be Opened
"Oh no... What now? Man, what is an Eternal Prison and why do you want me to take you there?"
"Katie, we need your help."
"Yeah? What about me? What about what I need? I just want to belong, Beast Priest. Ok? And every time I...."
"Look, I understand wanting to belong."
"What do you even know about it? HOW CAN YOU EVEN IMAGINE?! S'matter! Cat got your TONGUE?!"
"Well Cabra, you usually just take what you want in people's heads, but you want talk? I'll tell you a story nobody's heard. And you'll know it's true. I come from a line of orphans. My father Ramon was five when he watched the Juarez Cartel kill my grandfather. He grew up and took revenge on the panderillo who did it, so they killed him in front of me when I was seven. That's how I remember him, and I think my mother left me with him, I don't remember her.
"There was a woman who hugged me once a day, like clockwork, in the orphanage. So when I made a name and the Juarez figured I might come for revenge, they came for her first. Went to her family's home. She'd died two years earlier, and I didn't even know."
"I realized I had nobody. Know what I did about it?"
"Start saving the world, I know."
"No. This... this is all a big accident. I opened an orphanage. If you want to belong, do something about it. I could use the help at the orphanage. Or help me save the world.
"But!"
"What I'm saying, there are a lot of options besides standing here in a ruined parking garage in a ruined city in a ruined world for the rest of your life Katie. Try some of them out."
"... but meanwhile, you want me to teleport you to that stupid prison that's hovering in your mind's eye like a storm cloud. Why the hell do you want to go there anyway?" Katie's brows furrowed slightly in concentration and then a concerned look grew across her face. "Holy crap, you aren't kidding! I don't know what a Lamashtu is, but... Oh. My. God. Beast Priest? Is that... ?"
"Madre Mia."
