By: @FredrikSvanberg

Origin

Cathar was born in the compound of a religious cult. His father was the leader of the sect and his mother part of the leader's harem. When Cathar's mutant healing powers awakened his father set him up as a faith healer and allowed wealthy visitors to make extravagant donations in exchange for the healing flames Cathar wielded.

As Cathar grew older he started to resent his father's greed and corruption, and he managed to convince the rest of the sect to rise up against his father and overthrow him. His father was thrown out of the compound and Cathar took over as the new leader, despite his youth.

Enraged and jealous, his father turned to the authorities. Accusing Cathar of abusing the sect members, especially the younger ones, and claiming to have narrowly escaped being killed in some sort of sacrificial ritual, he managed to convince the FBI and other government agencies to lay siege on the compound.

Somehow his father was allowed inside to negotiate with the sect. When Cathar confronted him the man drew a gun and tried to kill his mutant offspring, but Cathar teleported away as his father fired the gun. A bullet smashed a collection of flammable chemicals and started a fire. Soon the police opened fire as well on what they believed to be hostile gunmen. Within moments everything was over.

Cathar tried to save as many as he could with his healing powers and teleportation, but his mother and several others were killed in the chaos. When the police reviewed videos from the scene they saw Cathar moving within the fire, his healing flames seemingly adding to the blaze. They concluded that he was likely the one who had started the fires in the first place, and the one responsible for the bloodbath.

Sad and depressed, and hunted by the law, Cathar teleported away and left the U.S. entirely for several years. He wandered the world to find answers to the questions that kept nagging him: why had God allowed this to happen? Why couldn't he have saved everyone? He studied with mystics and religious leaders of many faiths, expanding his knowledge of the occult and paranormal while developing his own mutant abilities.

His studies eventually brought him to the Rogue Isles, where he found a group of mutant supremacists called Nation. He was fascinated by their rhethoric and experienced a sort of revelation, where he took the political manifesto of Nation and twisted it into a new faith, a mutant faith, which placed mutants as the new caretakers of the world, the replacement for the failure that was humanity. The Earth had given birth to The Evolved to defend itself.

Nation inevitably dissolved in internal bickering and bad leadership. Cathar left the sinking ship along with his followers among Nation's less prominent members, the members without impressive mutations. They made their way to Bloody Bay where Cathar intended to study the Shivan meteors and their mysterious radiation. The group carved out a safe haven for themselves inbetween Freakshow and Circle of Thorn mages, and remains there to this day.

Powers

Cathar's powers have changed several times after he has experienced a second, third and fourth evolution, as he calls it. When his mutation first became active he gained the power to summon healing flames. The green fire burned away wounds and diseases, purged toxins, etc. This gave him his name, after the religious sect of the Cathars, who would use fire to cleanse themselves of sin. He also had the power to teleport short distances, and to bring friends along with him, which proved invaluable during the compound shootout.

In his second evolution Cathar gained the power to fly and create and control regular fire as well as the healing kind. He lost the power of teleportation but gained a strange supernatural charisma which allowed him to easily manipulate some of Nation's less fortunate members into joining his new faith.

For a while Cathar would explore Bloody Bay on his own, to learn more about the meteors while searching for a place to bring his flock. While meditating in the radiation of a meteor he experienced his third evolution. He was able to transform into a dragon-like creature with wings, scales and other monstrous features. In this form he could devour mutant creatures and absorb their DNA, to preserve their mutant powers within himself. He would use this to eat volunteers from his followers, in order to sire offspring with certain useful mutant traits.

In his fourth and latest evolution he no longer needs to eat his followers to absorb their mutations. He can use a long, fleshy tendril to extract the necessary information from their bodies, and implant it into the bodies of others. He can thus move around mutations between his followers, which has allowed him to create a variety of monstrous creatures. By using a few magical spells he has picked up during his studies he can summon his creations from their hidingplace in Bloody Bay to wherever he needs them, and send them back when they are no longer required.

Goals

Cathar believes that mutants were created to replace humanity as the caretakers and defenders of Earth. Earth itself caused the mutant race to be born when humans split the atom in 1938, as a direct response to the new threat which nuclear power posed. His goal is to form a group of united mutants powerful enough to perform their chief duty of protecting the world, and at the same time protecting itself from an inevitable confrontation with humanity. He wants to unite all mutants under his new religion and deliver the gospel of The Evolved as defenders of Earth against dimensional invaders, aliens and the corrupted mankind which through their sheer numbers and their influence on climate and wildlife pose the greatest threat of them all.

Enemies

Cathar is alone against the world. Even other mutants thinks he's crazy. Most people consider him a religious nutcase and don't worry too much about him, so for now he can work almost unhindered, slowly gathering followers. It's possible that Nation still exists and wants him dead for breaking some obscure law they made up, but so far they haven't made a move.

References