Re: Character List
Nephilim, The Forsaken
Name: Nephilim. A demonic outcast, forced to suffer extreme punishment for all eternity, in account with his breaking of the Ancient Laws.
Sex: Male. His outward appearance and facial features give him the disposition of higher intelligence and authority.
Age: Irrelevant. Actual dating can not be realistically given, but his birth lies within range of the Creation.
Hair: Silver strands of thin hair, about a neck’s length, usually worn in a natural cut in a sleek, downward style.
Eyes: Crimson. Other distinguishable features are a large pentagram carved into his palm and a scar running across his left cheek. Around his neck hangs a necklace, a golden inverted cross.
Appearance: Nephilim has the appearance of a normal human, with the exception of his long, silvery hair. His face is non-descript and flawless, albeit the scar across his face. He wears the traditional garb of a Hell-lord, long forgotten. This consists of black, tightly fitting chains with spikes protruding from odd angles wrapped around his entire body. His arms are clothed in arm-length gauntlets that have darkened runes outlined on the wrist. On his feet, he dons brown, folded boots. The odd appearance of the thorny chains is masked by a scarlet, wispy cloak that has its collar upturned to hide the bottom half of his face.
Weapon: The Twin Phantasm Blades, Agony and Ecstasy. They are both identically slender in form, their hilts shapely built to form the figure of serpents. Crafted by the ancient Celtics, the Twins both have a similar inscription on their blades, one in Celtic, one in Latin. This same inscription is located above the Gateway to Hell. Roughly translated, they both read:
I AM THE WAY INTO THE DOLEFUL CITY
I AM THE WAY UNTO ETERNAL GRIEF,
I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN RACE.
JUSTICE IT WAS THAT MOVED MY GREAT CREATOR;
DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE CREATED ME,
AND HIGHEST WISDOM JOINED WITH PRIMAL LOVE.
BEFORE ME NOTHING BUT ETERNAL THINGS
WERE MADE, AND I SHALL LAST ETERNALLY
ABANDON ALL HOPE, THINE WHO BEAR WITNESS TO ME
Background:
B*stard. He had it coming to him. Had it coming to him. So did that whore.
Michelle stared at the corpse on her bed. Three vicious wounds were punctured in its forehead, as if made irregularly, angrily. She quickly tossed the gun under her pillow and dragged the body to her window. She opened the sill and tossed the bloodied body of her boyfriend off the landing. Ex-boyfriend, actually.
Had it coming to him. Kissing that whore. What was he thinking? Of course I’d be angry. I hope he suffered.
Footsteps encroached. Up the stairs. Her parents. Michelle’s mind raced.
They know.
Her heart pounded in her chest. She felt her heartbeat, pump faster and faster. Her mouth was dry. And the footsteps had reached the top of the landing.
Oh, God, they’ll find out! They’ll find out I killed him! I’ve got to get out of here!
She was hysterical. Thinking quickly, she pulled out her father’s revolver from under her pillow and drew it to her head. The sweet voice of her mother called out to the hall.
“Michelle, sweetie, are you in there? Your father’s missing his gun, you wouldn’t happen to know – “
BAM.
She felt…sunken. A sense of separation befell her as her being sunk downward, downward…She arrived at a steely gate in a barren wasteland. There were people there. No, not people, for they were ghastly and translucent. And there was a cloud of… what was it?...something, covering each of their faces. They were screaming as the cloud encircled their face, as if in horrible pain. What kind of place was this? She could not remember how she got here. The impulse to walk forward dominated her thoughts. As she walked, she got a closer look at these plagued souls.
Wasps?!
She let out a scream as she saw that the cloud consuming the faces of these…people were hornets and wasps. Why don’t they move? Swat them away? But they only lay there, screaming like wretches in the dark. Instantly, she knew where she was, as if a light had dawned on her with the striking realization of the bees constantly stinging the pour souls in this terrible canyon. She looked down upon herself. She too, had the appearance of a ghost, grey and translucent. She remembered now. He was kissing her. His tongue was in her mouth. Feeling her. A different girl? She’d show them both. She had a gun. Pulled the trigger. Then turned it upon her head.
She was in Hell. Two winged creatures swooped from the sky and grabbed her, their horned claws puncturing her skin, lifting her from the ground. She screamed in pain and terror. They clawed at her in mid-flight, ripping her ghostly skin open and drawing wispy blood. Could she die, though she was already dead? Was that possible? Frantic thoughts pounded into her mind.
They took her, the monstrous creatures, through the gates, and plummeted in a giant, circular incision in the floor. She sank, past walls of blood, faded screaming, moaning, anguish. The winged demons pierced her with their sharp talons, causing her to scream, wrench in pain. She screamed, all the way down, mortified by the sights of this place and paralyzed in pain. They came to a landing, the Seventh Circle of Hell, the Phelegethon, the river filled with boiling blood. She saw people struggling to climb along the shore and being shot by arrows until they sink under the bloody river. She began to weep, hysterically, shouting undeterminable things at the demons, while the shades howled in pain.
They brought her before a man with silver-white hair, dressed in a red cloak, collar upturned, so that only his hair and eyes were visible. His hands were in his pockets. He spoke, a voice of arrogance and nobility, of evil and disdain, his question aimed at Michelle.
“What is thine crime, insolent?”
“No, please, I didn’t mean to kill him. Don’t put me in there. Don’t put me in there!”
His cold, unfeeling eyes studied his subject. He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her from the demons. His very touch caused her pain, his fingers causing her skin to burn.
“You are my property, whelp. But your punishment is not yours alone.”
He pointed at the River.
“Yours and a million others, burning in Hell every minute of every day for eternity. ‘Tis mine punishment, too.”
He opened his cloak, where spiked chains were impaling his body, causing blood to spurt forth time he moved a muscle.
”Even we demons must pay for mortal sins. And now, you shall be cast into the river, where you shall not surface, where your essence shall be roasted until the Second Coming. I am Nephilim, a demon of the Old World. Welcome to Hell, sinner.”
She screamed as he grabbed her by the neck and cast her into the river, where she will bathe until cleansing is finished and the Endtime had come. Nephilim smiled, enticed by the absolute pain and anguish emanating from this pit. He bowed and spoke, as if to some unseen entity.
Thy will be done.
And so it had come to pass that the authority of the Phelegethon River was bestowed unto Nephilim. For eons he dealt harsh judgment unto the filthiest of souls, ruling his river with pride and dignity. The succubae, harpies, centaurs, and demons belonged to him. The infernal chain of command put all sections of the Legion in his jurisdiction, except one. Erotia, queen of the succubae, remained her own ruler because of her own autonomous being. She was an independent source in Hell’s hierarchy. Nephilim often resented her presence, for she would not take direct orders, and was often less than punishing when dealing with the shades. More often then not, she would keep them company by seducing them, then giving them such painful pleasure by raping them. Such are the ways of the succubus. Nephilim loathed them.
Near the dawning of the Year of Chattur’gha, rumors reached Nephilim that Erotia had actually released a shade into the outside world, an extreme breach of the Ancient Covenant. It was an outrage, unheard of. Nephilim knew that if Lucifer were to hear of this, it would be he who paid the price. He would act on his own accord, eradicating the problem himself. Thus, he traveled to the deepest point of the Phelegethon to speak to the Queen of Succubae.
“Erotia, strange rumors have taken flight. They speak of a shade given mortal form and being released into the realm of the living. You know of this?”
The seductive mistress shifted her posture and bent backward, inviting Nephilim, taunting him.
“Why would I tell you, who heat the Boiling Pit with your sadistic arrogance? Even if I deny it, you still may cast me in. Demons can not be trusted in the least..”
“Don’t talk to me this way. You are not above me, wench.”
Nephilim was finished with this conversation, assuming Erotia knew nothing of the freed shade. Perhaps it was just a rumor. Even if it wasn’t, hopefully there would be no way to trace him back to Phelegethon. He was on safe ground.
However, at this moment, Erotia was on foot, an effort to visit the most Hallowed Lucifer. Nephilim had perceived too much. She was not safe from the wrath of Satan if he found out. She would have to tell him everything. She smiled. But not everything is the truth.
Later in the cycle, Nephilim received summons from the Beast. He was to appear before Lucifer in order to present himself and his response to a dire issue. However annoyed he was, a request from Methastophaline is not taken lightly. He expected it to be a routine check-up on the River’s methods. When he appeared in the Ninth Circle, however, he was greeted by the worst. A representative cursed at him, howling at him in morose undertones.
“Is it not true that you, Nephilim, released a shade as a fugitive, gave him form and shape, and possessed his soul in order to fulfill selfish deeds?”
“What?! Surely, you can not think that –“
Erotia spoke, waving her body in fashionable posture.
“It’s true, milord. I saw it with mine eyes.”
Nephilim turned a hateful gaze of lucidity on her.
“Close your mouth, stupid whore. Your deception can not pass in the court of Hell.”
A dark figure emerged from the Lowest Circle of Hell, the Forbidden Area. Lucifer himself arose among them, the holiest of holy, in a place such as this? Nephilim immediately bowed before Him.
”Milord, surely you don’t believe such an outrageous claim from a lowly creature as this, do you?”
Lucifer wore a white dress shirt with a tailed black jacket and matching pants, as that of a maestro. His darkened halo stood above him, jagged and spiked. Few had ever seen Him. He only emerged from the Forbidden Chamber of Cocytus, where the most grievous sinners abode. Word had it that only three were contained, personally tortured in horrible ways by Lucifer. The three were Cassius, held in contempt of the great schism of Rome, Brutus, responsible for the assassination of Caesar, and lastly, Judas Iscariot, who dared betray the Lord amongst friends. Lucifer now opened His hallowed mouth and spoke, each word black and hateful.
“We have more than one witness, Hell-lord. Besides, Erotia is to be trusted. You know the price of breaking these ancient Covenants.”
“Milord, her trickery knows no bounds – She may have seduced - “
“Where are the Three Furies? Take this sinner away, to Eternal Suffrage, the worst of punishments – Crucify this one in the wastelands, a sign of those who bear witness to Hell’s true Testaments.”
At that, three naked women, with the wings of elongated ravens swooped from the ceiling of the caverns and seized him, wrapping him in the nails that Christ bore, fiercely whipping their sleek wings, faster and faster yet, carrying him to the frozen wastes, and suddenly nailed his limp and weakened form unto a slab of wood, whipping him with their tongues and screeching. As he was lifted from the Nine Circles, he could swear that he saw Erotia smirking, clearly, evidence that she had won. His cross was ignited with the hottest flame, and yet, he was frozen at the same time. He could not breathe. He could not see. He could not feel. He could not smell anything but his own blood, basking in the white-hot intensity of the punishment reserved for the worst of sinners. He would hang like this forever.
There he hung, screaming and weeping, for half of eternity and more, not having the will to move a muscle or think clearly. The pain was unbearable, yet he was forced to bear it, naked and alone. He had no willpower. He could merely succumb to the heat of the flame. But slowly, very slowly as the years passed, he was jaded by the flames. They no longer made him curse or shout or struggle. He was used to the constant scream of pain in his body when, for the first time, he noticed that one of the Furies had made an error. The nail in his right palm was not hammered in all the way.
At just the right angle, with the right amount of pressure, I may be able to pry this off.
And so he toiled, straining to work himself free of this curse, this bloodbath that he was constantly dealt every second. He strained his weakened arms, pulling, tearing away his flesh but loosening the nail in the process. After almost a decade, the nail came loose. His tears stopped. He moved his arm, waveringly, to his other nails and eventually pried them off using a combination of the force of his right arm conjoined with the leverage of the left. It was a gradual process, spanning nearly a month. When that was free, he worked on his feet, slowly tearing the wooden spikes from his body. His blood was choking him as it was burned and turned to gas. He had little else to breathe. He was asphyxiated and dry. After almost an entire year, he was free from his cross. He collapsed on the ground and fainted.
I am free.
It took months for him to heal. But as he did, only one thought dominated his mind: to make Erotia repent for her sin. He was crippled and exhausted, be he would battle her, if need be. Cut her filthy throat. He rose from the ground and looked around. He wasn’t in Hell anymore. He was in the Void, the Abolished Lands. He would have to find an active Gateway and descend into Hell to punish her. Cast her into his River. He would probably be punished even greater than the last, but he cared little. Drawing blood from the filthy whore was his goal. What happened next wouldn’t matter.
He would accept the consequence.
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"Reggie Fils-Aime is basically like the devil, except instead of claiming the souls of mortal men, he takes their names, and instead of burning eternally in the dark fires of the underworld, he works at Nintendo."
~Mute