Guardian Adept
Flight
Nigh Invulnerability
It all started with stuff.
| Power Grid | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statistic |
|
|||||||||||
| Intelligence |
| |||||||||||
| Strength |
| |||||||||||
| Speed |
| |||||||||||
| Durability |
| |||||||||||
| Energy Projection |
| |||||||||||
| Fighting Skill |
| |||||||||||
HISTORY
The Netjeru πΉπΉπΉ - Gods of Ancient Egypt
Long ago when religion was inseparable from life, the Gods existed in every natural aspect of the world. They rose out from the power of human belief and faith. They were the Netjeru and they came into existence as humankind started to believe in them, but they developed a memory of their own that they had come first. Humans made Gods who believed they made the humans. And so while the Gods have a memory going back tens of thousands of years, the reality is that they had only existed for a little over five thousand. To both the Netjeru and the humans who believed in them, the Gods predated them from the βTime Beforeβ; Zep Tepy, the first age.
The Netjeru had limited means to interact with our world, but the stories suggested a time when Gods lived on Earth and even ruled over the people. In the early centuries of the Egyptian civilization, a myth came about that had set the stage and because the Gods were created through the power of faith, so too were the restrictions they seemingly placed on themselves and like all myths, it started with a story.
Sekhmet ππππ―π - Eye of Re πΉπ΄
In the Time Before, Re π΄ had grown dissatisfied with the humans and sent the Eye of Re; his daughter Sekhmet to Egypt to destroy all whom she perceived to have evil in their hearts. She ravaged the land as a bloodthirsty lioness and the unchecked slaughter fueled concern amongst the pantheon of Gods. Re agreed to call off the assault but his command to back down went ignored.
Sekhmet was beyond reasoning, so the Netjeru and the humans laid a trap with beer dyed the colour of blood. Sekhmet drank it all and in a drunken stupor fell asleep. When she awoke Sekhmet had transformed into Hathor the Goddess of love and mistress of the underworld.
Once peace had returned to the land Re, in his wisdom as King of the Gods decided that humans should be able to go forward without their intervention and that ultimately the Gods could only cause further harm. The Gods set out and created a realm of their own, to which they permanently exiled themselves. That realm became Ta Netjer.
Ta Netjer πΎπ€ππΉππ - Land of Gods
In the realm of Ta Netjer, the Sun God Re represented the light of creation and every morning rose high into the sky to warm the land below. At night Re descended into a space between spaces; the Duat, where the primordial Chaos Serpent Ap/p tried night after night to destroy Re so it could consume Ta Netjer and render it unto oblivion.
The battle between Re and Ap/p was widely known to the people of our realm as a battle between Good and Evil, Order π π±π€π and Chaos ππ΄πππ ͺ but to the divine beings of Ta Netjer it was a cyclical battle to keep the realm from total dissolution. Referred to as maβat πππ€ it loosely translated into our language to mean justice, balance, stability, and the Cosmic Order. On one side of this battle were the Gods of the Egyptian pantheon, while on the other was the Chaos serpent and any of its minions, who opposed the very idea of creation.
Ap/p was not satisfied. It was a being fueled by ambient Chaos energy in the cosmos and it fed on it in the hopes it would eventually tip the cosmic scales, but Re always proved too powerful to overcome. Ap/p knew of our realm and while like all of the Netjeru it could not leave Ta Netjer, it was able to send splinters of itself into our realm. Those shards of Chaos were like lightning rods that attracted more Chaos energy, then sent it back across the barrier between realms to Ap/p to feed on. Little by little it grew stronger and stronger. Re continued to best it in battle, but each cycle was harder and harder to hold the serpent back.
None of the divine inhabitants of Ta Netjer were willing to sit idly by while Ap/p undid existence for them, but the barrier prevented any of them from going through to our realm to tackle the problem head-on. The combination of magic and science which created the barrier was intentionally beyond even their combined abilities to remove.
Thoth in his wisdom came to a solution and it didnβt take long for the Council of Gods; the Ennead π·πππ₯, to agree. They would fashion a champion who contained enough of their essence to find and remove the Chaos Shards, but not enough that they would be blocked from crossing over. The potter Khnum πΈπ created the likeness of clay, while Thoth π π and Isis π¨ππ worked science and magic in unison to give it life. Horus π π the Avenger imbued the champion with his fortitude and might. The nine members of the Ennead each offered a ninth of their soul and Isis melded them together into one singular essence. Thoth gave the gift of language and the ability to learn any relevant task quickly and deftly and inscribed the spells over the human-like clay statue.
When the sun disk was about to disappear below the line of the horizon, they gave the lifeless clay statue to Re, to take into the Duat with him. The Duat was a place between places; a nexus where the dreaming and the dead could travel. From there Re left the statue on a boat on the great river where it found its way through the impenetrable barrier to our realm.
The twin sisters Isis and Nephthys π π named the soul βArekβ, which in their language meant Adept, and for the final piece to their plan Nephthys, the Lady of the West cradled the soul under her protective wing and flew into the Duat. She had the ability to avoid the dangers of the Duat and when sheβd reached the exact point where the barrier was at its weakest she slid the soul through into the world of humans.
Arek πππ²πΌπ€π
ABILITIES
Powers
Solar Absorption: Arek absorbs the radiation of the sun and stores it like a walking capacitor. On average with moderate use of his powers, his reserves can last 24 hours.
Solar-Enhanced Strength: Another trait of his unique physiology is super-strength, though he has limits and he is not the strongest patriotic hero around. His solar-fueled strength in theory has no upper limit, though he's very far from testing just how much that could be.
Impervious Skin: The energy stored in his body will fortify his skin.
Regeneration: So long as Arek is in the sun, his endurance, stamina and physical regeneration are vastly accelerated to the point of nigh invulnerability.
Solar Energy Release: Arek can tap into his energy reserves and send out a shockwave of carefully controlled solar radiation to weaken enemies in his immediate vicinity. With enough focus he can use pulses of solar radiation to energize his allies and strengthen their attacks and resolve.
Flight: By generating a field of solar energy around himself, Arek can propel himself through the air or hover in place.
Netherworld Access: As a side effect of his unique physiology, Arek can enter an intermediary realm called the Duat π½ππ. This netherworld is a sort of hub for him and from there he can access realms such as the ghostly plane or the dreamscape by forcing his soul to leave his body. Doing so is quite dangerous, as in the Duat his strength and solar-based abilities are virtually non-existent.
Teleportation: By slipping into the Duat, Arek can use this netherworld to instantaneously move from one physical location to another. The range of his teleportation in theory has no upper limit, but the farther he has travels the more his reserves are depleted.
Skills
The God Thoth ππ gave Arek a number of specialized skills to aid him in his mission, through hieroglyphic spells inscribed on his body along with his more conventional powers.
Adaptive Linguistics: On hearing a few sentences of an Earthly language, Arek gains the ability to understand that language. Prolonged exposure to any language gives him the eventual ability to speak it as well but can take months. Once Arek can understand and speak a language, he is able to read that language as well.
Enhanced Contextual Eidetic Learning: Arek is a very quick study in any subject that can relate to his mission to retrieve the Chaos Shards to a near expert level, but if something is not contextually related then his ability to learn it is hampered significantly.
Notable Traits
Hieroglyphic Tattoos: The most notable is the empowering symbol of life, ankh πΉ in the middle of his chest on his sternum; but around his collarbone, down his spine, on his upper arms, and his thighs are specially inscribed spells. They all serve a purpose and contribute to not only his life but grant him a vast array of abilities.
Gold Bands: Around his wrists and biceps are a pair of gold cuffs. Arek wears them at all times and they allow him to focus his power through his arms into his fists. They are inscribed with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs in spells to denote strength and power.
Guyliner: Arek's eyes are permanently rimmed in the style seen in ancient Egyptian artwork.
ROLEPLAY HOOKS
Superhero Identity
- Arek doesn't have a private identity and works openly with the Global Defense Force and the United Nations.
- He has continually announced his mission in this realm to find mystical artifacts that he refers to as "Chaos Shards". He openly enlists the help of others and offers his aid to any who might need it.
Physical Traits
- His body is covered in mystical tattoos of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. They shimmer with power and contribute to his magical aura, even if not fully visible to the naked eye.
- His eyes pulse with a gold shimmer in the timing of a heartbeat.
Magic and Metaphysics
- While not a magic user in the conventional sense Arek gives off a magical aura to those who are sensitive to it.
- Telepaths will either sense nothing from him, or else they'll read an overwhelming amount of information that would be impossible to parse. His mind and core memory are made up of nine parts; each part from one of the Ennead of Gods of his realm of origin.
TRIVIA
- Arek absorbs solar energy through the surface area of his bare skin. He needs direct exposure to the sun and if cut off for too long, could lapse him into a coma-like state.
- While wearing a full supersuit his power levels drop considerably, but he chooses to honour the modesty and uniformity of it while working with the GDF.
- The more he uses his powers the faster he burns through his reserves and needs to recharge.
- He is completely clueless about modern pop culture. While he has the knowledge to use modern language, he lacks the context to understand colloquialisms or dialect differences.
- Arek was programmed to be a weapon, but with an adaptive learning centre. The more relevant to his mission, the easier and faster he can learn new information.
- Arek doesn't breathe, eat, or sleep, or even blink, but he will make the effort to appear as if he does.