Name: Eleventh Century Crusader's Bible
Alias: The Way and The Truth and the Life
Gender: N/A
Age: Created 917 years ago, awakened 380 years ago.
Appearance: A heavily battered, leather-bound bible. Several pages have drops of a dark fluid staining them. Crudely carved into the front in a diagonal line is "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life." On the inside of the front cover, a number of verses have been etched. "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear." "Make ready to slaughter his sons for the sins of the fathers." "Cursed is he who holds his sword back from blood." "That I might fill them with horror so they would know that I am the LORD"
The interior of the book is an example of a Bible from the eleventh century, well illuminated and illustrated but with much of it marred by char marks and dark stains. The illustrations are strange - one example showing Jesus apparently healing the blind appears to be him driving his fingers into the blind man's eyes. The text is very old Latin and difficult to read, but when translated it seems strange, Jesus seeming to preach far more brutality and savagery instead of the writing recorded in other Bibles of the era.
Personality: Brutal, treacherous, and pointlessly cruel. The Way is a near-living embodiment of all the cruelty and malice that have ever been committed in the name of God and Christ. It possesses none of the purity of the followers of Christ, only the thoughts of the darkest of their number, their hatred, their cruelty, their malice, hypocrisy, and lies.
Alignment: Supervillain
Superpowers: A Christian who holds The Way will find a compulsion to hold onto it, that parting with such an incredible piece of Christian history is too much. This compulsion can be easily resisted, particularly by those aware of The Way's evil or those who are weak of faith. However, most do not have the wherewithall to even think to resist it. Over the course of days, the Way will influence them to hold onto it, to touch it, to study it in detail, and gradually it will corrupt the holder, twisting their beliefs. This process is much faster and easier to resist for those who already hold hateful, intolerant beliefs.
As they spill blood, they will find their minds opening to the Book's power. Their strength will become like Samson of old, strong enough to slay a thousand Philistines without a scratch. Their bodies fast-healing, their wounds mending before their eyes like those touched by Christ. Their hands will become like the warriors of the Crusades, adept with the blade and the mace. Their eyes and ears will become like that of the Inquisitors, always alert for signs of heresy and weakness, and the skill to tear out their most guarded secrets.
As the infection progresses into the most advanced stages, the bearer gains the ability to perform certain Biblical miracles - summoning up swarms of locusts, raising the dead as mindless servants, and various trivial acts like walking on water. At this point, the bearer is not so much an autonomous being as it is a being totally under the domination of the Book. The Host will no longer need to eat, drink, or sleep, and instead sustains itself on committing increasing brutal acts upon heathens.
Once the infection has reached this point, the bearer begins speaking in Latin, but those who hear him can understand what is said whether or not they can understand the Latin language. Those who concur with the Book's point of view will quickly fall under its spell. While they will not gain the same kind of power, their morality will be gradually stripped away, pushing them to committing greater and greater acts of savagery and cruelty.
As for the Book, without a host it seems to have only one ability - it seems impossible to destroy. Since the book awakened in the fires of a Protestant pyre in 1630, it has been destroyed no less than five times - twice by fire, twice by being ripped apart, and once by being eaten and digested. Each time the Book has reappeared intact in a Catholic church somewhere in the world, lying on a pew. Presumably to defeat the Book one would need to seal it away where it would never be found, but would remain intact.
A non-Christian who touches the Book will feel a horrific burning pain, as if a million tiny hooks were driven into their pores and then pulled. Only the most strong of will and strong of spirit can hold it for long, a constant war in flesh and soul.
Weaknesses: The Book cannot effect those who do not believe in it. The infection halts and rapidly recedes if the Book is taken more than fifty feet from the host. The Host can be easily distracted by Biblical discussion, desecration of Christian holy places or artifacts, or the inflicting of pain on both extremist Christians and heathens, albeit for different reasons.
Biography: The Way was not evil when it was made. It wasn't even intelligent when it was made, it was just a simple Bible, made in 1095 just prior to the beginning of the First Crusade for a French Knight. This book would be carried through numerous battles, most infamously the Battle of Jerusalem in 1099, where seventy thousand were slaughtered in the heat of battle, with the blood running thick even on the Temple Mount.
In time, this Bible became a holy relic, passing through the hands of various knights until it fell into the hands of the Teutonic Order at the end of the eleventh century, being taken with them when they returned to Europe to force the conversion of the land of Lithuania, a long, brutal war where Pagan Lithuanians were butchered and enslaved in the name of Christ.
After decades, the book would be lost to the Teutonic Knights when it was taken on a pilgrimage to Rome, eventually turning up again in France, where it was taken up by Joan of Arc and carried with her throughout her war, until she was betrayed by the leaders of the nation she hoped to save, and forced to choose between crossdressing and rape, either of which would lead to her death.
The Book would pass out of history for some decades, until it came into the hands of Vlad Dracul, the infamous Impaler of Wallachia, where it was present for the brutal impaling of thousands of the Princes' enemies, remaining in his hands until his death in 1476.
The Book would again be lost until it surfaced just a few short years later in the hands of Tomas de Torquemada at the founding of the Spanish Inquisition. For over a century it was passed from Inquisitor to Inquisitor as thousands of Jews and Muslims were driven out, tortured, and murdered, and still it continued on its long journey. In the pages though, an evil had become to take root, born in a primordial soup of fanaticism and cruelty.
It would be lost once again, until it fell into the hands of a common Catholic soldier in the midst of the Thirty Years War. This soldier would fall in the Battle of Lutzen in 1632 and be buried in a mass grave along with hundreds of others, his Bible going in with him. As these bodies were covered, the death, and the horror of those who had been thrown into the grave only mortally wounded and not yet dead suffused the book. The screams of the restless dead suffused the pages and the evil that had been within, growing like a seed, awoke. It slowly disintegrated over the course of years, then it faded away.
The Book would re-emerge in Salem in 1692, where it proceeded to provoke fearful townsfolk into acts of cruelty and fear, driving them to prey upon each other, and with each death growing stronger, feeding on the terror and death, continuing this for years until a quick-witted boy realized something was not right about this book and tore it apart.
The book would reform again and again throughout the centuries, including consuming a young man in London, who it would use as a toy to go and prey upon prostitutes. In the end, however, this man would throw off the corruption of the Book and find redemption, casting himself into a great fire in an attempt to purge the evil from his soul and destroy his book. He may have found redemption, but he did not find success.
The Book has not been seen in some time now, its last predation being consuming Dragutin Dimitrijevic, and guiding him into position to start the ball rolling for the greatest source of bloodshed in history. It guided him and his organization, the Black Hand, into assassinating Franz Ferdinand. Now the Book returns after being long lost, to bring more horror, fear, cruelty, and death to the world.
Alias: The Way and The Truth and the Life
Gender: N/A
Age: Created 917 years ago, awakened 380 years ago.
Appearance: A heavily battered, leather-bound bible. Several pages have drops of a dark fluid staining them. Crudely carved into the front in a diagonal line is "I am the Way and the Truth and the Life." On the inside of the front cover, a number of verses have been etched. "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear." "Make ready to slaughter his sons for the sins of the fathers." "Cursed is he who holds his sword back from blood." "That I might fill them with horror so they would know that I am the LORD"
The interior of the book is an example of a Bible from the eleventh century, well illuminated and illustrated but with much of it marred by char marks and dark stains. The illustrations are strange - one example showing Jesus apparently healing the blind appears to be him driving his fingers into the blind man's eyes. The text is very old Latin and difficult to read, but when translated it seems strange, Jesus seeming to preach far more brutality and savagery instead of the writing recorded in other Bibles of the era.
Personality: Brutal, treacherous, and pointlessly cruel. The Way is a near-living embodiment of all the cruelty and malice that have ever been committed in the name of God and Christ. It possesses none of the purity of the followers of Christ, only the thoughts of the darkest of their number, their hatred, their cruelty, their malice, hypocrisy, and lies.
Alignment: Supervillain
Superpowers: A Christian who holds The Way will find a compulsion to hold onto it, that parting with such an incredible piece of Christian history is too much. This compulsion can be easily resisted, particularly by those aware of The Way's evil or those who are weak of faith. However, most do not have the wherewithall to even think to resist it. Over the course of days, the Way will influence them to hold onto it, to touch it, to study it in detail, and gradually it will corrupt the holder, twisting their beliefs. This process is much faster and easier to resist for those who already hold hateful, intolerant beliefs.
As they spill blood, they will find their minds opening to the Book's power. Their strength will become like Samson of old, strong enough to slay a thousand Philistines without a scratch. Their bodies fast-healing, their wounds mending before their eyes like those touched by Christ. Their hands will become like the warriors of the Crusades, adept with the blade and the mace. Their eyes and ears will become like that of the Inquisitors, always alert for signs of heresy and weakness, and the skill to tear out their most guarded secrets.
As the infection progresses into the most advanced stages, the bearer gains the ability to perform certain Biblical miracles - summoning up swarms of locusts, raising the dead as mindless servants, and various trivial acts like walking on water. At this point, the bearer is not so much an autonomous being as it is a being totally under the domination of the Book. The Host will no longer need to eat, drink, or sleep, and instead sustains itself on committing increasing brutal acts upon heathens.
Once the infection has reached this point, the bearer begins speaking in Latin, but those who hear him can understand what is said whether or not they can understand the Latin language. Those who concur with the Book's point of view will quickly fall under its spell. While they will not gain the same kind of power, their morality will be gradually stripped away, pushing them to committing greater and greater acts of savagery and cruelty.
As for the Book, without a host it seems to have only one ability - it seems impossible to destroy. Since the book awakened in the fires of a Protestant pyre in 1630, it has been destroyed no less than five times - twice by fire, twice by being ripped apart, and once by being eaten and digested. Each time the Book has reappeared intact in a Catholic church somewhere in the world, lying on a pew. Presumably to defeat the Book one would need to seal it away where it would never be found, but would remain intact.
A non-Christian who touches the Book will feel a horrific burning pain, as if a million tiny hooks were driven into their pores and then pulled. Only the most strong of will and strong of spirit can hold it for long, a constant war in flesh and soul.
Weaknesses: The Book cannot effect those who do not believe in it. The infection halts and rapidly recedes if the Book is taken more than fifty feet from the host. The Host can be easily distracted by Biblical discussion, desecration of Christian holy places or artifacts, or the inflicting of pain on both extremist Christians and heathens, albeit for different reasons.
Biography: The Way was not evil when it was made. It wasn't even intelligent when it was made, it was just a simple Bible, made in 1095 just prior to the beginning of the First Crusade for a French Knight. This book would be carried through numerous battles, most infamously the Battle of Jerusalem in 1099, where seventy thousand were slaughtered in the heat of battle, with the blood running thick even on the Temple Mount.
In time, this Bible became a holy relic, passing through the hands of various knights until it fell into the hands of the Teutonic Order at the end of the eleventh century, being taken with them when they returned to Europe to force the conversion of the land of Lithuania, a long, brutal war where Pagan Lithuanians were butchered and enslaved in the name of Christ.
After decades, the book would be lost to the Teutonic Knights when it was taken on a pilgrimage to Rome, eventually turning up again in France, where it was taken up by Joan of Arc and carried with her throughout her war, until she was betrayed by the leaders of the nation she hoped to save, and forced to choose between crossdressing and rape, either of which would lead to her death.
The Book would pass out of history for some decades, until it came into the hands of Vlad Dracul, the infamous Impaler of Wallachia, where it was present for the brutal impaling of thousands of the Princes' enemies, remaining in his hands until his death in 1476.
The Book would again be lost until it surfaced just a few short years later in the hands of Tomas de Torquemada at the founding of the Spanish Inquisition. For over a century it was passed from Inquisitor to Inquisitor as thousands of Jews and Muslims were driven out, tortured, and murdered, and still it continued on its long journey. In the pages though, an evil had become to take root, born in a primordial soup of fanaticism and cruelty.
It would be lost once again, until it fell into the hands of a common Catholic soldier in the midst of the Thirty Years War. This soldier would fall in the Battle of Lutzen in 1632 and be buried in a mass grave along with hundreds of others, his Bible going in with him. As these bodies were covered, the death, and the horror of those who had been thrown into the grave only mortally wounded and not yet dead suffused the book. The screams of the restless dead suffused the pages and the evil that had been within, growing like a seed, awoke. It slowly disintegrated over the course of years, then it faded away.
The Book would re-emerge in Salem in 1692, where it proceeded to provoke fearful townsfolk into acts of cruelty and fear, driving them to prey upon each other, and with each death growing stronger, feeding on the terror and death, continuing this for years until a quick-witted boy realized something was not right about this book and tore it apart.
The book would reform again and again throughout the centuries, including consuming a young man in London, who it would use as a toy to go and prey upon prostitutes. In the end, however, this man would throw off the corruption of the Book and find redemption, casting himself into a great fire in an attempt to purge the evil from his soul and destroy his book. He may have found redemption, but he did not find success.
The Book has not been seen in some time now, its last predation being consuming Dragutin Dimitrijevic, and guiding him into position to start the ball rolling for the greatest source of bloodshed in history. It guided him and his organization, the Black Hand, into assassinating Franz Ferdinand. Now the Book returns after being long lost, to bring more horror, fear, cruelty, and death to the world.
