Umbral Wrath
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| The Umbral Wrath | |
| I will always exist, because I always exist. | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Scrapper (Dark/Dark) |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Synopsis of Physical Host | |
| Name: | Roland Blake |
| Species: | Human |
| Sex: | Male |
| Age: | 34 |
| Height: | 6'3" |
| Weight: | 221 |
| Eye Color: | Violet |
| Hair Color: | Black/Grey |
| Synopsis of Parasite Intellect | |
| Name: | Abdi-arah |
| Aliases: | The Servent |
| Species: | Unknown |
| Age: | Ageless |
| Place of Orgin: | Astral Plane |
| Known Powers | |
| Manipulation of Fear and Shadow | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Martial Arts, Acrobatics, Multilingual, Reduced Physical Dependencies | |
| Equipment | |
| Impervium Body Armor, Various Magical Artifacts | |
Sleep, the human mind spends a third of its life asleep. The mind relaxes and the body regenerates. Sleep, I haven't slept in over a decade. It wasn't always this way though, there was a time I welcomed dreams. There was a youth mostly spent in chasing after them. I grew up and I guess you could say somewhere along the way I got lost. There are things, which I can barely remember.Things that weren't meant to be known by the human mind. I used to sleep, I grew used to the feeling of waking in a cold sweat of terror. Faces? Names? No, even that is more of my own label on what haunts me that what it really is. A great yawning mouth waiting to engulf me should my dreams wander to far again. The human soul is a curious object, like water you could look right through it and never know. As it is when we are born you would look right through it and see the shape of the person it belongs to. Like water though somethings leave their mark, like a drop of ink in a glass the slightest brush can color us. Staining that clarity, what would you see then? The man behind the soul? Or would it be like looking through a pane of glass, the man is there but something else is as well. So I don't sleep, I wander the streets. Stalking my quarry, hunting the real things in the shadows. Preying on those I can find who would prey on the weak. Evil never sleeps but neither do I.
Contents |
Overview
The Umbral Wrath is my nod to classic Lovecraft, someone who sometime in their childhood wandered a little too far in dreams and found things that aren't meant to be known. The character himself has almost no idea what so ever what is happening to him. Since an indeterminate date in his childhood his dreams have been haunted bu vague terrifying images. A great waxing mouth, yawning with leering teeth, strange misshapen people or 'things' and over all a kind of blackness like your brain almost refuses to to acknowledge clearly what it is seeing. Once he fought sleep, for decades. When he did however give in to it, screams and frantic dreamlike flights of terror barely remembered they are so terrible. He has slowly lost himself. Whatever has chosen to prey on him is winning. The character is slowly losing both his memories and his self to some thing he doesn't even understand. No one has been able to to clearly tell him what it is, doctors dismiss it as insomnia but insomnia doesn't explain the strange powers of blackness that are growing within him. What is clear though is that surely and slowly he is less and less Roland Blake and more and more of what is eating his self away. It is obvious in many things, his speech and thoughts are less his own. Entire sets of memories and pieces of knowledge he can't place are coming to the forefront. Something is coming through and erasing him in the process. As the character grows in strength so does his consuming darkness. Lessening himself in thought and action, yielding and end result beyond the range of mans thoughts entirely.
Influences
The charecter's creation stems mostly with my morbid fascination with maddness and the way extreme passion/desire often resembles or drives us to acts of maddness. Some of the thematic influences include the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, T.S. Elliot, William Blake, Thomas Hobbes, Steven King and others. The Lovecraft stories "The Strange Case of Charles Dexter Ward", "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath", "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" are of special import.
Personality
I have always thought of the mental presence of Abdi-arah, as a sort of overlay, interpreting the basic aspects of its host subconscious to exist in a real dimension outside its own experience. Equal parts Pinhead and Ras Al Ghul, he has little reguard for ideals or purpose outside his own. Ruthless and driven, with little or no need for sleep, food or companionship makes personal cost is more of an abstraction then a reality to him. The Umbral Wrath is a lot of things, he is all of us, when we lose ourselves in a passion. When we become so entranced and driven to something those dear to us lose track of who we are. However we can always come back, and at least our friends can share our passion. He however is driven by something out of this world, whose thoughts and driving instincts are totally alien to our lifes and minds. Who would we be lost in anothers ambition?
History
Almost no information is availible on Roland Blake from prior to Blakes disapperence and subsequent possession, what is availible is a sort of rough timeline of childhood records whose trail stops at around the age of 14. It is generally assumed that the possessing entity begun its assault on Blake as a a child. This is further reinforced by corroborating medical records from Blake's adolesence detailing frequent reoccuring nightmares and other strange occurences. The mental presence which has at times named itself Abdi-arah, literally "Servent of the Way" has revealed its presence to select few. It can be assumed that the host body/presence relationship is parasitical in nature as Roland seems to be almost nonexistent as a personal concept. While 'The Umbral Wrath' has at times undertaken efforts that have yielded positive benifits for mankind they seem to be chiefly motivated by a personal goal or a wish to obtain something. Present day records are mostly a collection of circumspect business dealings and alarming reports filed by prominent registered heroes. Inquiries at the FBSA reveals that a hero license granted for use by 'The Umbral Wrath' has been expired after a coroners report on a John Doe corpse identified as Roland Blake.
Timeline
Past
Present
Future
Affiliations
Wandering Twilight
Enemies
Powers & Abilities
Except where noted The Umbral Wrath's powers and abilities all stem from the habitation of the Abdi-arah entity within Roland Blakes body. If Blakes body where to be somehow vacated of its 'tenant' in addition to most likely death, the man Roland Blake with no more special abilites or powers then that of any mid thirties man in good physical condition.
Shadow Manipulation
...Negative energy is definied as the antithesis of the natural flow of energy. Amounts of negative and positive energy placed in close proximity to each other will cause the cessation of activity with the electron spheres of the affected molocules in a sort of leeching effect as the stored thermal energy is transfered along the negative/positive energy axis...
The charecter's mastery over this energy form is accomplished enough to let him perform a varity of feats from spontaneous regeneration of even the most massive injury to dramatically reducing the amount of injury would be attackers are able to inflict. The mere presence of large amounts of negative energy cause the charecter to appear at times distorted by the absence of light in a shrouding effect. Other uses of negative energy by the charecter at times have included self-resuscitation and sublimation into a negatively charged plasma state. This latter ability is one of the most potent in the charecters arsenal. Able to disapear from view, evade otherwise fatal blows, and confuse the enemy
