Yehuda (Tarika) Iskarioth
Stricken
The Demonics
Description
Yehuda
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 168 lb.
Ethnicity: Middle Eastern
Eyes: Green/Black
Hair: Short simple black peppered with gray
Clothing: Gray business casual
Comportment/Cadence: Reserved
Distinctions: Short trimmed beard, imposing yet reticent
Supernatural Qualities: Profound sense of dread and loss leaves a sense of sorrow around him always; visible deathmarks include: a bright-green (left) eye and jet-black (right) eye, black-tinted fingernails, unusually corded musculature beneath his clothing, a Hebrew letter tattooed on the back of each hand, and a tendency to stare past others at the swirl of the Tempest beyond
Accoutrements: An "Oriental" face mask of unknown material, a soulsteel knife, a length of ancient rope wound around his shoulder
Traits: Appearance 3; Echoes (4)
Tarika
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 136 lb.
Ethnicity: Middle Eastern
Eyes: Green/Black
Hair: Long simple black
Clothing: Red or black ethnic
Comportment/Cadence: Welcoming
Distinctions: Intoxicatingly, mesmerizingly beautiful
Supernatural Qualities: Profound sense of dread and loss leaves a sense of sorrow around her always; visible deathmarks include: a bright-green (left) eye and jet-black (right) eye, black-tinted fingernails, unusually corded musculature beneath her clothing, a Hebrew letter tattooed on the back of each hand, and a tendency to stare past others at the swirl of the Tempest beyond
Accoutrements: An "Oriental" face mask of unknown material, a soulsteel knife, a length of ancient rope wound around her slim shoulder
Traits: Appearance 6 (bewitching); Echoes (4)
"In the end, you will hear, you will feel..."
"...the echo of every last piece of silver you've earned."
"I am the wages of sin."
History
Date of Birth: December 16th, 2
Home: Kerioth, Judea, Empire of Rome
Family: Benjamin and Leah Iskarioth (parents), Bethany (younger sister), Elizabeth (younger sister)
Death: Personal Tragedy (a Jewish theologian of Pharisee bent until he heard Yeshua preach, and he followed him until he realized the Christ meant only to inspire a revolt of spirit, so he betrayed Yeshua to the authories, only to commit suicide by hanging after he realized Yeshua's suffering and death was part of the plan)
Mentor: Charon
The Test: Trial by Wit (he had no proper mentor; upon Reaping, spectres seized his soul and dragged him down into the Tempest)
Comrades: none
Key Event #1: Tragedy (sadistic spectres continued to torture him in mind and corpus for years in this outpost of the Labyrinth known as Ganzir, with a Nephwrack trying to break him into becoming Shadow-eaten; ironically, Yehuda found strength in Yeshua's sacred teachings)
Key Event #2: War (Charon led a Stygian assault on Ganzir, as the spectres had kidnapped many Enfants, and after routing the stronghold, prisoners were either liberated and escorted back to the Shadowlands, or re-arrested and dragged back as criminals -- Yehuda was arrested)
Key Event #3: Tragedy (dragged back to the Citadel of Rome, capital of the Iron Kingdom of Stygia, he was tried as a rebel in life and condemned to serve Stygia and Charon as Philo served the Caesars in the Skinlands)
Key Event #4: Treachery (Yehuda complied and began a reign of quiet and loyal service, acting as a Purifier [Pardoner] as well as a gateway guide for the Jewish dead in the Iron Kingdom)
Key Event #5: Treachery (Yehuda weathered the later Roman/Stygian empire as an increasingly high-level Hiearchical official, and his true identity disguised as other Gaunts his age perished to Oblivion and Charon remained reticent about his favorite Purifier's real name)
Key Event #6: Treachery (Yehuda continued this model of fidelity and service with penitence and humility, but he never felt he owed so much or so long to Charon and Stygia)
Key Event #7: War (when the First Great Maelstrom swept over the Iron Kingdom accompanying the fall of Rome, Yehuda did protect his circle of Purifiers and his mighty Jerusalem Haunt granted refuge; but after the spectres were beaten back from the ruined kingdom, he walked into the Maelstrom and vanished into that storm, chasing a wraith who was under his protection and was dragged out by the Shadow-eaten; some believed it was the ghost of Mary Magdalene but Yehuda never spoke of it and he was never seen in Stygian service again)
Key Event #8: War (Yehuda took up a dangerous and almost suicidal role as a punisher of spectres, wandering the Tempest to torment the tormentors)
Key Event #9: Awe & Wonder (he traveled to many Far Shore locations through the Old World's Tempest, making enemies of colonizing Shadow-eaten and allies of reclusive wraiths alike)
Key Event #10: Awe & Wonder (after the Black Death-instigated Second Great Maelstrom, Yehuda recognized the true unchangeability of death, how it's entropic nature actually rendered it inert and static, and he rejected death's inevitability as anathema, embracing a path of affirmation)
Key Event #11: Awe & Wonder (Yehuda displayed an era of unusual altruism, acting as a Ferryman by rescuing newly-Reaped Enfants from the deadly storms)
Key Event #12: Awe & Wonder (he continued to wander the Old World's Underworld, even mastering the shrieking winds of the Arabic Shadowlands and treating with the Muslim dead as he did any other people, earning the respect and fear of such spirits)
Key Event #13: Treachery (but the Third Great Maelstrom that coincided with the New World's conquest and genocide, barely felt in the Old World, drove him to a spurning hatred of the living and their recent Cauls)
Key Event #14: War (Yehuda became as a Demonic heretic, punishing the Restless as he did spectres)
Key Event #15: Treachery (at last, he traveled to the New World, haunting first the Puritan dead as The Devil, taking on multiple identities to do so)
Key Event #16: Treachery (the last Great Maelstroms, following the World Wars, only served to solidify Yehuda's purpose of penitence of the self through the penitence served by others)
Transition: Shift in Purpose (as Armageddon neared, Yehuda decided to remain in the New World, as the new center of the Iron Kingdom, to torment all the dead)
The Shadow
Appearance: Yehuda's Shadow appears as himself but beaten down, scourged, chained, and often hanging on the cross. It torments him with views on how the apostles were expected to martyr themselves.
Trigger: Whenever in the presence of someone who seems stronger, older, or wiser, or whenever one of his decisions goes disastrously wrong.
Relics
Hanging Rope
Appearance: A length of hemp rope, old and frayed
Origin: Inherent
Soulsteel Knife
Appearance: A gray shiv
Origin: Theft
Artifacts
Mask of Wazir Almawt
Appearance: Silvery featureless mask that fits over the face, etched with ancient markings
Origin: Gift
Effects: Allows the wearer to instantly Moliate his body into another normal person of either gender
Activation: The mask must be placed over the face and the code word in Ancient Syrian uttered.
The Hanging Tree (Haunt)
Location: Couturie Forest, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Structure: Wilderness Den
Stock: Mediterrenean redbud flowers during spring, larger than usual trunk and deep, deep roots for a tree recently "transplanted"
Traits: Haunt 2
Significant Others
Yehuda's influence over the Underworld not just of the local necropolis but the entire region cannot be understated, nor his power to affect the Psyche or Shadow. He can have whatever or whoever he pleases.
Void-Gazing
Weakness
The Betrayer
He's Judas. THE Judas.
Yeah, nuff said.
Likelihood of Corruption
Very low.
Perhaps surprisingly, Yehuda has proved impossible to turn. Now, his personal power is beyond the ability to influence or corrupt save for a Greater Malfean's direct and personal intervention. Maybe.
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