Xeden
| Xeden | ||||||||||
| Player: @Two Across | ||||||||||
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| Knight Errant | ||||||||||
| Character Build | ||||||||||
| Origin: | Mutation | |||||||||
| Archetype: | Blaster | |||||||||
| Security Level: | 50+ | |||||||||
| Biographical Data | ||||||||||
| Real Name: | Christian F. James | |||||||||
| Known Aliases: | X, Edenfire, Ebon-Zero (sometimes shortened to "Ebon-0" or "Zero") | |||||||||
| Age: | 39 | |||||||||
| Gender: | Male | |||||||||
| Species: | Human Mutant | |||||||||
| Ethnicity: | Caucasian | |||||||||
| Birthdate: | 01/06/1985 | |||||||||
| Birthplace: | Fossberg, Siren's Call, Paragon City | |||||||||
| Relatives: | Elena James (mother, deceased), Michael James (father, deceased), Lia MacKay (sister), Jordan James ([ex]wife), Lora Emi (adopted daughter, status unknown) | |||||||||
| Characteristics | ||||||||||
| Height: | 6"1' | |||||||||
| Weight: | 200lbs. | |||||||||
| Eyes: | Blue | |||||||||
| Hair: | Red | |||||||||
| Complexion: | Pale/Fair | |||||||||
| Physical Build: | Average Muscular | |||||||||
| Physical Features: | Various Scars (neck/clavicle, right bicep, right wrist, left pectoral, left abdomen, back/left scapular, right thigh, right ankle, deep running scars and tissue trauma to both forearms following the destruction of protective runes) | |||||||||
| Status | ||||||||||
| Alignment: |
Chaotic Neutral | |||||||||
| Reputation: |
Imposing | |||||||||
| Identity: | Public | |||||||||
| Years Active: | 2002 - 2012 | |||||||||
| Base of Operations: | N/A | |||||||||
| Citizenship: | American, currently in hiding in the Rogue Isles | |||||||||
| Education: | High School GED | |||||||||
| Occupation: | Former Hero | |||||||||
| Marital Status: | Single, Divorced | |||||||||
| Known Powers and Abilities | ||||||||||
| Projection and manipulation of kinetic energy, flight, minor soul magics. | ||||||||||
| Equipment and Paraphernalia | ||||||||||
| N/A | ||||||||||
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| ReldinBox Template | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personality
Xeden is a confused soul with a twisted dichotomy. He once strived and yearned to be- as he put it- "someone others want to aspire to be or aspire to be better than". Doing either became more likely the more you know of him and his challenging personality. As hardworking a hero as any you could have found within Paragon City and always one to find the best option possible in any situation. Unfortunately his noted history with personal loss has rendered him all too willing to do the wrong things for the right reasons in order to protect those who are left.
He sees himself however as expendable. In truth Xeden is a top-class hero, but a horrible person. In his efforts to protect the ones he loves he has made deals with devils, both proverbial and literal, and bloodied his hands beyond redemption (at least in his own heart and mind) with his actions. Despite knowing his errors and hoping that one day he can be better than the mistakes he made, he knows that if needed he will make those mistakes as often as he needs to if it makes the difference.
Character History
Early Career
Christian James was fathered by a virtuous woman and the murderous man she tried to rehabilitate. At one year old, Elena James knew her dream was not to be and Christian James was left in the protective care of the Paragon Police Department, while Michael James was a man on the lamb after committing one more murder that left his son without parents any longer. But to young Christian, the police officers he now lived with both in and out of the precincts were his family. Not long after he was up and walking, he was helping deliver evidence and letters and memos around the bullpens. At the age of 15 his mutant abilities to absorb and disperse kinetic energy manifested, resulting in a tragic accident that left three of his “fellow officers" hospitalized and a cafeteria table in splinters. Chris was left with no choice but to wear bulky gauntlets which helped contain the energy from spewing forth randomly.
At age 18, he deployed into the city as a full-fledged hero. His first day: the Rikti invasion of Paragon. Chris, now codenamed “Edenfire” was patrolling Brickstown when the first dropships arrived, and helped to lead the inmates of the Ziggursky prison in a rally to push the invaders out of the area. Successfully they worked to hold back the threat, as temporary and short-lived as it was. It was at this time that Chris first came to believe that, given the time and reason, any form of peace was possible. Even that between those labeled as "heroes" and "villains".
A year after that he met his father again, now returned to his codename of “Bludgeon”, near his old family’s home in Siren’s Call. After a knockdown/drag-out fight that left the apartment in shambles, Chris’ cracked gauntlets shattered, expelling enough energy to nearly kill Bludgeon, and might even have had not been for the small black jewel that fell from Bludgeon’s grasp. This was the Tribuo Animus, an Orenbegan artifact which pulled Chris’ soul from his body and left him comatose for a time.
The Chaser Knights
Nursed back to health by Azuria, Edenfire now sported a much more uncaring attitude and struck out on his own and adopted a new name after decidedly choosing he was now “ex-Eden”. Despondent and confused, he traveled across the city as a monster hunter before heading east. Chris found a newfound empathy for the zone of “Dark” Astoria and its tragic history. While walking the cemetery one evening he was ambushed by the monster Adamastor and nearly killed as the creature threw his body into a ravine. Cut open and empty of one himself, the terrified and tortured souls used his unique state to plead for sanctuary and he gave it that they might both escape Astoria alive. En route back to Paragon Chris was found and aided by a clan of knights, known as the Chasers, who fended off the hounding Pantheon and taught him to control his mutant powers without the gauntlets. Over time, Chris stayed with them and learned their ways and was even gifted a set of armor for himself modeled after their styles which he keeps to this day.
But this newfound sense of belonging was cut down as the Pantheon regrouped their masses, Adamastor included, and laid siege to the Chaser Knight camps. After a grueling and protracted set of battles the knights fell to the superior numbers of the Banished Pantheon and mighty Lord Norxethan ordered Chris to escape back to Paragon to ensure their legacies survived. He did so after saving and befriending two young knights, Aryn Fal and Lin Adence, whom he set up with new homes in Paragon.
Near this time, Xeden became a wanderer with no place to call home despite his ties with the PPD. Luck brought him to fall in with a group of wayward heroes and superpowered metas who banded together in an abandoned warehouse, led by a man named Erik Jameson. It was here that Chris would become close friends with a number of their members, meet a woman named Jordan Murphy whom he would fall in love with, and come to find out he had a half-sister named Lia MacKay. With their help he was reunited with his soul, later inking runes into his arms which acted as magic wards to keep it inside of his body after the others from Astoria were sent onwards to their afterlife.
The Refuge & the Initiative
And we sail out on orders from him but we find
The maps he sent to us don't mention lost coastlines
- Okkervil Rover, "Lost Coastlines"[1]
As Erik left the city on business, he placed Xeden in temporary charge on account of his experience in the field despite being outranked by a half-dozen other members. During this time the Warehouse and its member base found itself embroiled in a conflict which left many of their number wounded, hospitalized, and terrified of the enemy supergroup which hounded it. And though Xeden knew he was outmatched physically, he managed to outwit the villains into a stalemate. His comm was never turned off and he was never far from those he now watched over. He rarely slept so that he could ensure those he watched were safe. When Erik returned and was made aware of the events that took place in his absence he made it clear that it was not Chris' actions which kept their friends and family safe, but Erik's decision to place Chris in charge. Angered that his actions were looked upon as so little, Lia and Jordan left the warehouse with the intent to create their own group and place Chris as the leader.
Reluctant to take such a position and seeing his previous tenure as a failure to lead, Chris initially refused until Lia and Jordan, now his girlfriend, revealed to him that nearly two-thirds of the warehouse had left with them, looking toward him as their new leader.
The Midnight Refuge was born.
As the new group was largely the membership of the old, very few of them were in a position to maintain peace and safety among them. To this end, Chris took the few with the experience enough to defend their new home and christened them his "knights", in honor of his fallen comrades. They served well and Chris came to see them all as his greatest comrades, but in the face of looming threats such as the Praetorians he knew they needed more. Splitting the Refuge into two wings, offensive and defensive, the Lightning Strike Initiative was created to act as the heroes Xeden knew were needed in a time of coming war. Journeying into the world with guns blazing, LSI mounted support and numbers which effectively turned the tide against their personal enemies with the Refuge and assisted other groups in Paragon with larger threats, including the Empire of Atlantis and Global Defense Force. Their actions served to make them infamous among their fellow heroes and fought on the frontlines against the Praetorian army, as well as carrying out insurgencies against the Rikti and Banished Pantheon.
The return of Bludgeon and mounting enemy numbers in the face of their new-found public face wore on Xeden however. Following the his wedding to his now-wife Jordan, Chris began to see that he was becoming a general to his friends and family but they were not his soldiers. he put his tactical mind to use solving problems in less-than-heroic ways. In order to keep his people safe against the actions of their enemies, Chris assembled a third group which few more than the members of it would know of: the Ebon Knights; covert operative Sideways, marksman Bankshot, and mercenary twins Siren and Siryn. Wielding this red right hand, Xeden began operations to assassinate high-priority enemy targets, as well as many other clandestine activities, given kill orders by Xeden himself in order to weaken opposition. The position of leader and act of being surrounded by so many loved ones forced Chris into a position where he could not bear to lose anyone, and he crossed the line.
The Hyori
I know I deserve to suffer, I've earned to be alone
But like a thief who sells a lover for a handful of shiny stones
So I wrote you a letter you won't find until I'm gone
For a song given to the devil, he's come to take me home
- Shaman's Harvest, "The End Of Me"[2]
But the Atlanteans had found an enemy of their own with the demonic, otherworldly Hyori- a beast from the Shadow Shard which had been accidently brought back to Primal Earth, trapped in a bow. Possessing the young Atlantean girl Coraluna, the king Leviathas and his queen Neredia did their best to keep the girl safe as the monster took control. Intervening just in time, Xeden managed to persuade the Hyori into taking himself as a vessel in her place, citing his more matured mutant powers, position of leadership, and precarious soul as greater selling points. The fiend agreed, but found out too late that Chris’ will was more indomitable than it had assumed, that that the wards he had inked into his skin months before kept the Hyori from escaping him. It almost consumed him, had not been for the forces of Atlantis rallying to lend support and an endearing hug from the child it had attempted to take, Coraluna. Chris accepted it as his burden to bear at the expense of his own mental wellbeing to keep others safe. His actions, he would later be told, made him a legend in Atlantis and a statue of his likeness was erected in the great city- the first of any who hailed from the land above.
But these heroic times did not forever last. Despite the Initiative helping to lead the charge against Cole’s Praetorian forces, a number of those in the Refuge were not so keen to fight on the frontlines as Chris and the Initiative did and they began to turn away from him, citing his time away fighting as an absence of leadership on a personal level. Some said he abandoned them. Some said he had gone too far from being the man he used to be. Others found new leaders to follow. But others openly protested against him in attempts to sway the popular vote as Jordan and Lia had done for him. When these tactics failed, rumors and hate-speak began, slandering Chris in desperate attempts at self-adulation. Anything from letting his friends become injured that he might show up as the hero to unspeakable gossip that he abused his wife.
Angry and feeling betrayed by the people he bled and fought for so long to protect, Chris began to waver. The Hyori slowly found a hold to grasp on to and Chris pushed away from his friends. He continued to lead until after Praetoria had been waylaid and then, with no war to fight, he silently dismantled LSI and the Refuge, heartbroken. Xeden worked as a free-agent in Paragon, silently manipulating things in the Rogue Isles through the Ebon Knights and his favored proxy, Sideways.
The Axiom Guard
I never claimed to be a saint
My own was banished long ago
It took the death of hope to let you go
- Stone Sour, "Snuff"[3]
The rumors coming from Ouroborus and the Menders that the ever-mysterious “Coming Storm” was fast-approaching sent Xeden into protective-mode though, and he expanded again; this time he approached Vanguard, proposing a worldwide union of Heroes and Villains, inspired by the first outing as a hero in Brickstown he was involved in years before, united under one flag when the world as a whole was threatened: the Axiom Guard. To fight together when separate they would surely fall.
Sanctioned through the United Nations, Xeden was charged with assembling the Axiom Guard and it worked to unite odd pairings, to a degree. As offers of aide began to flood in, Xeden was shocked to notice that all of them had come from mercenary and villain groups. The heroes of Paragon were nowhere to be seen.
In fear that the group would be utilized for worse than it was incepted for, the UN pulled the plug on the project and Xeden- disappointed as his dream fell apart due to the lack of assistance from the fellow heroes he fought for so long beside- withdrew.
Following his actions with the Ebons and the crumble of the Axiom Guard, Christian James disappeared from public view, exiling himself from Paragon City and taking up residence on a houseboat adrift near Port Oakes, feeling betrayed by the heroes he once fought beside. The only evidence of his departure, a note left behind;
I made my deals with devils- many of them. I died for my duty- twice now. I've lead when others wouldn't or couldn't- thrice over. And now even though more and more of you seem to be on the same page as to what needs to happen next, so very few of you are understanding enough to see it through, and those of you who are come from places I look at and can't help but wonder what form of legacy I am now forging.
Would Norxethan be proud? Would my lineage disown me?
I'm sorry. But anymore, I can't fight for this city. Or this world, or certainly her people. I'll fight because it means my loved ones live another generation. I have grown far too weary of giving all I can, and watching time and again as those I called allies or friends turn their backs on me without warning or just cause. I did nothing to you. Any of you.
And yet even now I know I would keep you all from burning in the embers.
Call me a liar.
I'm not as bad as you all want to think I am.
2019
Cause this isn't life, and I know that I chose it
But I can't stand waking up and nobody knows it
I'll never find the strength to change what I need
Is this who I'll always be?
- Amigo the Devil, "Another Man's Grave"[4]
In the time after, the name Xeden became a short-lived tabloid headline; "Where Has Xeden Gone?" "Xeden Presumed Dead" "Christian James, Sighted in Warburg", etc.. But as the world moved on, new heroes would emerge to fill his void. Presumed dead, Christian spent the interceding years of 2012 through 2019 silently living in the Rogue Isles. Driven slowly mad by the Hyori's influence, his obsession over his own failings, and his deeply-rooted sense of betrayal by the heroes of Paragon City, he kept his head hung low until he became little more than a vagabond- wandering the alleys and backstreets of the Etoile Isles.
Whispers and rumors that the missing hero was seen in the Isles were met with no resolution. Like some Sasquatch of Sharkhead, Christian would vanish for months or longer, sightings and rumors falling silent before the next would crop up and meet a similar fate. A specter of a dead heroic legacy.
Now and more recently, whispers rise again of a disheveled redhead matching Xeden's description. No sign of mutant ability, no trademark knight armor. Just a sad old man, full of resentment.
Appearing sporadically throughout taverns, bars and dives in the Rogue Isles, he was self-medicated and silent at the best of times, angry and cantankerous during the rest.
During rare excursions to the Pocket D, Chris would commonly encounter characters from his past- former friends and allies- from whom he would shy away and hide from out of shame and fear. During one such evening his eye was caught by a woman adorned with Tsoo tattoos. Ignoring her as she passed the first time, the second time triggered his paranoia and he aggressively approached her assuming she was sent by someone to keep tabs on him. Following her down toward the monkey fight cage, the woman truthfully admitted that she had no idea who he was.
This woman was Olivia Chang, former Tsoo from the Isles. Although the two held conversation, Chris' suspicions would not be swayed, and he kept on guard. They would continue to encounter one another from time to time, with her friend Max taking a pointed interest in the tagalong Hyori that was latched to Chris' soul. Noting this, Chris made sure to keep distance from him and his plots.
Slowly, Chris became unwillingly enveloped into Olivia's cadre of friends. With concern of his history as a former hero or the Hyori itself becoming noticed and weaponized by this group from the Rogue Isles, they were kept at an arm's length and treated with degrees of hostility. With the exception of Olivia.
"Liv"- as she was known- was the only one that Chris began to empathize with, sharing with her a shared experience which resulted in them both pushing the world away out of fear. And while he worked to ensure that he never became close to any of the new people passing in and out of his life, he would take the time to help her with shoring up her mental defenses through the lessons learned with his history of shielding himself from the Hyori... which became concerned that Chris may once again begin to crawl out from his isolation.
Feeling the demonic entity stirring, Chris delved more heavily into alcohol. Seeing him so far removed from who he used to be, ex-wife Jordan Murphy would attempt to keep tabs on him. Well-versed in her technopathic powers, Chris did his best to avoid electronics that may be used to track him but was eventually tracked down to his makeshift home- a houseboat off the docks of Port Oakes. Desperate for a way out and unwilling to entrust what his body contained to the Rogues that he had been affiliating with and aware that the Hyori would not allow him to do it himself, Chris asked Jordan to end his life for him (*See the bottom of the "Trivia" section for more on this). Adamantly refusing, she doubled down on her intentions to help rid him of the creature and return him to health.
Chris would admit that even without the Hyori, his actions in Praetoria and involvement in civilian deaths weighed too heavily on his mind. And as it ever did, the Hyori only amplified his negative feelings, but was not the source of them. The reoccurring nightmares and inability to keep the weight of those deaths from burying him was something of his own doing, and even in the times of the Hyori's silence Chris could hear their voices screaming for mercy.
Removing and secluding the Hyori was a nice thought, but it would not improve his mindset.
2020
Who's that yonder all in flames
Dragging behind him a sack of chains
Who's that yonder all in flames
Up jumped the Devil and he staked his claim on me
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, "Up Jumped the Devil[5]
As time went on, Chris was slowly assimilated further into Liv's circle of friends though he never considered them such. The only exception was Liv herself, with whom he felt no pressure to change his ways or speak about his reasons for being so angry. The hostility he felt was one he was welcome to keep, so long as he was not suffering alone.
This was enough of a concern for the Hyori to lash out in defense. Well aware that Chris was too selfless to fight for himself and happy to continue to whittle down his emotions until he was a husk, it also knew that should Chris decide to find a place he belonged, he would fight for it despite his history. Chris never woke up one morning, and the Hyori opened his eyes instead. In control of his body for the first time in years, its initial action was to set fire to the houseboat Chris had made his living on and destroy all that he had in his possession.
Taking flight to Potter's Field cemetery in Sharkshead Isle, it began to bask in and absorb the magical energies that encircled the area thanks to the actions of the Banished Pantheon and Circle of Thorns, leaving a wake of bodies behind it.
Eventually returning to Paragon City, the Hyori would make landfall in Striga Isle to similarly bask in the arcane energies of its cemeteries. It was at this time that the Hyori would find himself being followed by two unlikely individuals; Liv and Max.
As they questioned the Hyori over its intent, a pattern was determined- the Hyori was seeking locations with high magical concentrations in order to further secure itself as in charge of Chris' vessel. And within a few days, the Hyori was moving toward Croatoa.
Olivia and Jordan would rally together to save Chris from the Hyori, with the former using her contacts through the Rogue Isles to put together a team tasked with stopping the Hyori and freeing the body it inhabited- a team that included Adam Fairfield- a former ally of Chris' in the days following the Praetorian War.
Resting at the throne to Jack in Irons, the Hyori was attacked by the assembled force both mentally and physically, with attempts made to appeal emotionally toward the captive Chris. Taken down and backed into a corner, the Hyori... gave up. It was not defeated nor killed. Suspiciously, it retreated back within Chris' soul as he was taken back to Paragon for treatment for the wounds his body suffered. It was at this time that Jordan would enact a plan to extract the Hyori from its vessel using a cloned body which she kept restrained and locked away.
However years with the Hyori exaggerating every synapse response in order to trigger pain had left Chris mute to many sensations. And when the Hyori and that buffer were removed, the sensation of feeling again threw his body into catatonic shock. Stepping on his own two legs again was agony, the breath he drew to his lungs felt like poisonous gas, the hospital room's ambient light was blinding, and any and every sensation upon his skin was like billions of pinpricks. He was treated over the course of several weeks and into months to help reintroduce commonality to his mind.
Which also helped to show Chris just how alone he truly had made himself. Without the Hyori, there was no constant second voice in his head... and nothing to stop him from knowing that the painful memories of what he had done in Praetoria were due to his actions alone, all while the Hyori let him attempt genocide of his own accord.
All of my guilt and the way that I'm built
I don't sleep so well
- Penny and Sparrow, "Gold"[6]
While Jordan's heart came from a place of worry, Chris was entirely too aware that she would continue to expect him to return to an eventual life of peace and without worry, and certainly free of his suicidal ideations. Finally free of the Hyori, he was not free of what being part of the world had led him to do, and would escape the hospital he was being treated in to return to the Rogue Isles. Content to let others he encountered still believe he was a homeless vagabond, in reality Liv had set him up with an apartment in which to live. Allowing himself this small comfort would also lead to him furnishing the place with a collection of books and music which he used to help heal, staring at the nearby ocean through his window to help calm the chaos of his mind.
Despite this development, he continued to dress like a homeless man and leaned into the look to help sell that he had no such dwelling. His self-destructive drinking would continue unimpeded, even with the loss of the Hyori resulting in him being able to handle much less liquor. During one of his first nights back out in the D following his return to the Isles, he would come close to blows with a member of Liv's crew, Deep Six, after he jokingly likened Chris' actions to a knight. The offense he took- unbeknownst to Six- was successfully capped off through gritted teeth, a clenched fist, and two additional shots of Maker's Mark whiskey.
2021
But I was born impatient and I was born unkind
But I refuse to believe I have to be
The same person I was born when I die
Cause change is alright
Change is alright
- Amigo the Devil, "Cocaine and Abel"[7]
Becoming a regular attendee of Frank’s Bar in Port Oakes- a dive Liv helped to maintain and operate- Chris continued to drink, sulk, and suffer in silence as his mental maladies ate at him from the inside. He rarely interacted with the other patrons and found a contentment to in being the token surly drunk in the corner. Rarely would his history as a former hero come up and he kept mum to anyone not already in the know about it, though this would morph over time from being due to shame and would eventually become due to a need to keep his head down and not attract undue attention.
In this time Chris and Liv would confess to a mutual attraction to one another had grown between the pair of them. And though Chris assured her that the admission would not drive him away from her he did confirm that his fragile mental states would prevent him from allowing it to be anything more for both of their sakes.
Not long after this, he would take sabbaticals from his new life to disappear and would regularly be unreachable in his attempts to find a way to escape the lingering sentiments the Hyori had left behind.
While passing through Cap Au Diable, he was recognized by a unit of Arachnos Wolf Spiders during a security detail. Immediately subdued, he was brought to a warehouse in Nerva commanded by a Mu Mystic by the name of Mu’Kharik. A legacy member of Arachnos whose father was killed during an Arachnos invasion of Skyway City in 2006 by Chris himself, Mu’Kharik had been seeking the former Xeden for years to enact vengeance and help assure himself a spot in the mystic arm of the Arachnos hierarchy.
Here, Chris was tortured for days on end, starved and beaten to near death. In his weakened state, it took time for him to absorb enough of the kinetic energy that his mutation used to escape. The resulting explosion knocked out the wall that he was chained to, left the assisting unit that guarded him in the rubble, while Chris stalked Mu’Kharik through the complex before lamenting that the mystic had validated all of his angers and hatreds that he had been harboring in his heard and then murdered him in cold blood and assuring the Mu that he would add his name “to the list” of others he kept in his mind at all times. He then trekked back to Port Oakes, body shredded.
Chris would appear briefly at the D in his state of disrepair to apologize to the group about having missed the Valentine’s Day gathering, before returning home to shower where he promptly collapsed from blood loss, and there he surely would have died had not for Liv stopping by to check on him, and taking him to a local hospital where he was kept off-record while treated by Black Heart, a nurse friend of hers. In his brief moment of lucidity, he would inform Liv where he had kept a Valentine’s Day card her procured and concealed for her as a thank you for her patience. He would spend the next two weeks healing before being well enough to leave the hospital- once again against the orders and advice of doctors.
As life at Frank's went on, Chris would continue to be the drunkard in the corner, surly at the best of times. It was around this time that a young aspirational lad by the name of Magnus Dahl hero who had moved to the Rogue Isles and began to make himself known at the bar as well. While well-intending, Chris was quick to warn him about the lesser-spoken-of dangers of the life he was wanting to lead, namely those surrounding the loneliness and tendency to be used by other people for their gain. Before the end of their conversation, he would also insinuate that the first of those to treat him any such way would likely be those from the very bar they spoke in, what with its populace being various sorts of villains who could get far by having someone like him in their corner. This conversation would turn heads at the bar amongst those who had yet to recognize Chris from his past, as well as instill a slight sense of paranoia in Magnus.
Invited to a masquerade event as part of the growing coalition of partnerships that Frank's Bar was a part of, the dress code would see Chris shedding his usually hobo-like appearance for a fanciful suit and mask. Ever the wallflower, he stuck to the outskirts of the party as faces from his past arrived to take part in the festivities such as former fellow coalition leader Starforge. Chris wallowed in his shame for a significant portion of the night before Sarah Kerins- another of Frank's Bar's patrons- would clue him in to the fact that Liv had been staring at the dance floor all night. Initially discarding the notion entirely, Sarah nudged him toward her and sheepishly he asked her to accompany him. They stayed on the dance floor until the evening's end.
Despite having been rid of the creature Chris would hear the voice of the Hyori in his head like some predatory Jiminy Cricket. More an embodiment of his internalized negativity than a residual part of the Hyori itself, it warned him that growing too close to others- especially Liv- would only result in his disappointment and further isolation- something which already began to threaten his sanity. But now, Chris would focus to silence those doubting voices. And slowly, he and Liv would become quite the talk about the bar.
And then I will ride with my deflated pride
And the warmth of the blood in my shoe
Till an ugly old scar and a broken guitar
Will be all that reminds me of you
- Svavar Knútur, "Emotional Anorexic"[8]
Liv would receive word that her estranged sister Emma was with child, an had arranged for her to be brought back to the Isles to deliver and recover. Though asked to accompany Liv and others from Frank's, Chris would decline to join them due to their mission taking them back to Paragon City. Reaching out to Sideways, he instead hired him to take part in the journey but would reneg at the last moment, joining the others in a trip to Talos Island where they smuggled Emma and her unborn son back to the Isles. During the journey his identity would be discovered by the smuggler ship's crew. To keep the others safe, Chris would wander the other way to keep them from being caught up in any altercations. Indeed, a fight would break out with the others coming to back him up. Sarah would later remark to Chris that whatever remained of his former hero life assuredly remained, as his first instinct was to protect the others from harm by diverting their attackers' attention onto himself and not them. Chris would confide in Liv that if ever he were to step back into his costume again and return to his old hero ways, it would only result in a long and drawn out suicide- he was afraid he would not stop until he was dead and he acknowledged that it would assuredly kill him.
It was around this time that Chris would take to fiddling with a small old black piece of tech he had kept in his jacket pocket since coming to the Isles.
Returning to the bar one evening, Chris arrived to find it ablaze. Fellow patrons were strewn about and a contingent of Skulls gang members were busy fighting those left standing. Enraged and eager to join the fight, Chris was instead directed to help evacuate the wounded. He was able to rescue the surviving members of the bar kitchen staff, as well as Liv and her dog Kota.
Before passing Liv his mediport beacon and sending her toward immediate medical attention, Chris would pull the small black device from his jacket pocket and place it in his ear. Revealing it to be an orbital link to his old LSI armory, he returned to the raging fight at the bar nearby wearing his old Ebon Knights armor and helped to push back the remaining Skulls before the last of them would detonate himself in an accursed explosion that would afflict a number of other patrons. Chris would take the blast as he jumped in front of another patron to shield them, but did not seem to suffer any ill effects.
In the resulting fallout, the bar would be rebuilt, however Magnus Dahl would be missing and assumed dead, and Sarah Kerins would slip into a coma. This would result in the bar crew tracking down her Praetorian Counterpart in an effort to gather the intel needed to heal their own Sarah. During an interrogation, Chris would help to pull from her that they would need to remind Sarah of her own innate survival gifts so that she could heal herself.
To do this the crew would venture into Sarah's mind thanks to some "medicating" from Max. The results of which would see each of the participants of this rescue plan venturing into a mental mindscape wherein their appearances were dictated by their "idealized" selves.
Chris- to his horror- would appear as a wicked reflection of the Hyori which served to convince him of how horrible he truly viewed himself. Charred black broken knight's armor adorned him while his hands ran endlessly with the blood of the Praetorian innocents that he was responsible for snuffing out of existence, both of which displaying a vicious mockery of his self-corrupted ideals. Unable to speak out of an internal fear of inspiring people to follow him again, his only utterances were grunted mumblings of a single phrase he was not able to completely say aloud.
Sarah would be rescued and awakened from her coma. But the experience would profoundly impact Christian.
Throughout, Olivia would suffer from similar issues that that which Chris had experienced himself. With Liv becoming the vessel of a Tsoo entity called only "The Dragon", he volunteered to help her- however minimal his involvement or knowledge may be- control and direct the creature as he had once with the Hyori. Too help combat the Dragon's tendency to force Liv to consume mass amounts of food lest she lose herself more completely, Chris began carrying snacks in his jacket for her whenever her telltale signs began.
2022
And you gently gift it to me 'cause you've no clue how to sew
And I know the kindest thing- I pray to God it's the kindest thing-
I know the kindest thing is to never leave you alone
- The Amazing Devil, "The Rockrose and the Thistle"[9]
As Liv's Dragon was tended to and managed, plans began to take shape concerning the rescue of one Magnus Dahl- who was abducted in the assault on the bar some months prior. Initially assumed dead, intel was gathered that confirmed otherwise and that he was being held by the same Skulls that attacked them and a plan was made to strike back and rescue him.
Led by Bone Reaper, these Skulls maintained a presence in Port Oakes and appeared to have eyes for the territory along with Frank's Bar. When it was learned that a ship full of additional Skulls from Paragon City was making its way to Oakes along with narcotics and weaponry, the Frank's Gang made plans to intercept and scuttle the ships to keep the Skulls from gaining the supplies to take more of the region.
Clad in parts of his purple/black armor from the end of the Praetorian War and cloaked in his usual hooded jacket, Chris rallied with the others to destroy the ships but stopped mid-attack when surveillance confirmed that the ships were also carrying a number of non-combatants including children. He attempted to halt the assault until Deep Six dropped Warburg-grade heavy ordnance on one of the ships.
Rattled by the destruction and spending precious minutes in a PTSD-addled haze, Chris would eventually find the muster to start pulling living bodies from the water. In total, he would save four children and continued searching until it was evident that there would not be a fifth.
Leaving them in the care of local Black Heart Hospital, he returned to Frank's just as Rogue Isles Police and local Arachnos forces closed in searching for the group. Attempting to stay by Olivia's side but was told to leave as she advised him that she would be back in less than a few days. Taking her at her word, Chris also departed.
Chris would spend the coming days quietly festering in a resentment over the other Frank's patrons for their actions in the ship assault gone awry and their apparent abandonment of Olivia. The eventual undertaking to locate and recover Magnus Dahl only helped to cement these feelings.
One month later, and there was still no sign of Olivia Chang.
With radio silence coming from the usual gang from Frank's Bar, Chris called in a marker and reached out to former Ebon Knight Sideways to assist him in freeing her from whatever captivity she found herself in. Within days, Christian had assumed the armor and credentials of a Bane Spider he had taken down during patrol and entered Fort Hades under the guise of transporting Olivia to other facilities, where- thanks to Sideways- "formal paperwork" would confirm that she was released from Arachnos detainment.
Once back at his apartment, he helped her to recover from her torture and treatment while under Arachnos arrest. A renewed fire was already lit in him that this growing bitterness and indignation served to stoke. As the faces at Frank's Bar become fewer and further between Chris would return to the Pocket D for regular fits of alcohol abuse and it was during one of these outings when Chris would run into Bankshot, a former Ebon Knight who served under Xeden's orders during the Praetorian purge.
Chris was stunned to find that Bankshot had in the time since taken up random work but had longed for the "old squad" to be put back together, having come to view the missions the Ebons undertook to be the only time he had done something that mattered. Appalled, Chris would rebuke and condemn his former soldier, refusing to speak further on their history and confirming that any future between them would be one where Chris ended the conversation terminally. In secret, Chris would pay top dollar to the St. Martial facemakers for custom project he immediately placed into his back pocket for a rainy day.
2023
He cried out in his anger and his shame
"I am leaving, I am leaving"
But the fighter still remains.
- Simon and Garfunkel, "The Boxer"[10]
For much of the year, Christian was silent. This lapse in communication and relapse into his old noncommunicative ways would see what relationship he and Olivia had created slowly dissolve. As she moved on in her life, he remained stagnant and unmoving.
The only thing that kept him moving was seeing that Olivia was taking steps to find a better situation for herself and her family she had begun communicating with again during their time together. He was happy for her, and though he kept his distance despite invitations to family dinners or outings with friends, he did what he could to help support her emotionally and them financially.
But as it is said, all things must pass. Waking up to a quiet and cold apartment approaching Halloween, Christian did something he once would consider unthinkable: he reached out to his ex-wife- and the current custodian of the captured and dreaded Hyori- Jordan Murphy.
The mission: to be rid of the damned thing once and for all.
2024
I see a soldier, He's standing in the rain
For him there's no old man to walk behind
- Scott Walker, "The Old Man's Back Again"[11]
Years before, the mysterious creature was found in the Shadow Shard and unwittingly brought back to Primal Earth contained inside an old bow. Shouldering his fear it would ever prey on anyone else, Chris commissioned Jordan to create a top-secret and untrackable device, hidden within an otherwise native-looking piece of geology of the Shadow Shard. Within it, the Hyori was encapsulated with the same runes that once kept it tethered to Chris' own body as its vessel. With Olivia and Jordan at his back, Chris found a random cliffside overlooking infinity somewhere off in the Shard, and said goodbye to the wretched creature he had come to see as some combination of his torturer, comrade, kidnapper and brother - another half to himself he had long since stopped affiliating in several ways as a completely separate entity. And he let go, content in the concept that the longer it fell the more impossible it would be to ever be found again to cast a shadow over his life or anyone else's.
That night as he slept the old nightmares of Praetoria returned but without the waking laugh in his mind of the Hyori's lingering sentiment.
What followed was a hot shower, a pair of scissors, and a breakfast on his apartment balcony overlooking the waterfront with a startling sensation that relinquishing just a little control of his trauma made him feel more human than taking it on ever made him feel heroic.
Chris would appear more publicly in the coming weeks and months, showing his face around the Pocket D and Paragon City, as well as numerous base events though still maintaining his distant and aloof quietness.
And then Lia McKay returned.
Chris' half-sister bumped nearly headlong into him one evening, steeped in pains and losses of her own, he saw echoes of his own struggles he had only recently been able to step away from. While those close to him offered warnings to guard himself against falling back into old habits, Chris would not allow her to be alone in her despair as he had spent so long alone in his on his own.
Hot on her heels came old Refuge and LSI ally Vocal Vagrant. With a memory full of holes and missing bits in the shape of his old romance partner, the former guitar virtuoso and rookie cop known as Jimmy struggled to put pieces of his recent history together. To some comfort, he fell under the watchful eye of Lia as they worked to uncover the reason for Jimmy's spotty amnesia and its causes.
Chris would confide in Olivia a trepidation that with Lia back in his life and the Hyori out of it that there was genuine concern over a native and innate drive in him to want to protect those close to him. And though this had throughout his life been seen as a boon, in a post-Praetoria world he had long learned to fear "any flag he'd chosen to wave" as something he would go to war for all over again. And that was the last thing he wanted to do.
But Lia would argue that happiness was fleeting for everyone, and to willfully avoid it or let it slip through your grasp was more foolish. And Chris decided that there must be a middle ground somewhere in between. That happiness must be a finite thing, not limitless and not to be squandered. And promptly asked Olivia out to dinner.
(More Coming Soon)
Character Themes
Penny & Sparrow - "Moniker, Pt. 3" [12]
Michael Salvatori- "Guardian Down" [13]
@Gossamer Blush- "A Sad Arpeggio" [14]
Character Playlists
Phase 1: "1182 Names" [[15]] - Depression.
Phase 2: "1182 Reasons" [[16]] - Anger.
Phase 3: "1182 Bad Dreams" [[17]] - Bargaining.
Phase 4: "1182 Chances" [[18]] - Denial.
Phase 5: "3166 Days" [[19]] - Acceptance.
Trivia
- Given his Irish heritage, when upset, his voice will give hints of an Irish accent.
- Christian is a Transformers fan. So much so, he will work lines from any incarnation of the comic, cartoon, or movie into everyday conversation just for his own amusement.
- While "officially" Chris was 18 when he became a registered hero, simple math would indicate that this was not accurate. In reality, Chris lied on his applications and used relationships within the PPD to help push his registration through. Certain individuals have pieced this together through the years, but even after almost twenty years later this lie is one that Chris tries to keep under wraps.
- Christian is known for his unique armor designs, all of which handcrafted and designed in his free time, with the sole exception of his Chaser Armor, which was partially constructed by older armor parts, and partially hand-forged by one of the only surviving Chaser Knights, Aryn Fal, only days prior to the fall of the clan.
- Chris owns/owned numerous pieces of property across Paragon, including a freighter adrift in Talos Bay he used to make his home on before linking up with his affiliated supergroups, the lots on which the LSI HQ and Midnight Refuge stand, and an apartment in King's Row he hasn't made use of in years. After exiling himself from Paragon he also owned a house boat which made port off the docks of southern Port Oakes which has since burned down.
- Christian suffers from a number of mental maladies including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder following his role in the Praetorian War, emotional repression due to the choices he's made hiding his actions from friends and family for so long out of fear of rejection, and depression spurned by his inability to see the Axiom Guard come to fruition. The trauma has also resulted in his asexuality.
- These actions have also led to Chris experiencing suicidal ideations and attempting suicide on more than one occasion. Though dark in nature and meant to convey how personal his journey and trauma has been to him, this is in no way an attempt to glorify these actions or considerations. If you or someone you know are experiencing the same thoughts, please reach out to someone you love or contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.[20]
Gallery
A younger Xeden. Art by Eguana.
Art by Dagger.
Art by Chris Sprouse.
Chris teachers former ward Colby to swim. Art by @Ginger.
Chris in Astoria. Art by Henry26.
Xeden, pre-Praetoria. Art by EricGuzman.
Christian, in full knight armor. Art by JoeMDavis.
Xeden rushing into battle. Art by Tovio Rogers.
Art by Michael Lee Lunsford.
Into the sunset. Art by HugoHugo.
Xeden, post-Praetoria. Artwork by JoeMDavis.
Xeden through time. Art by Bakart.
Art by Mro16.
The Hyori, by Bakart
Xeden game sprite, by Quakester.
Knight Xeden sprite, by Quakester.
Hyori Xeden sprite, by Quakester.
