[Sphinx] Famine {Justice League}

General Information

Full Name:

Famine

Codename or Alias:

Isaiah Pierce

Anonymity

Secret

Gender:

Currently Male

Race:

Divine Spirit, currently Human

Age:

Undetermined. Famine is old enough to remember Lucifer's rebellion in Heaven.

Place Of Birth:

Current birthplace: Los Angeles, CA

Occupation/Status:

Investment Banker

Alignment:

Neutral

Factions:

None

Canon Or Original?:

Original

Powers/Abilities:


Famine's Guise: Famine doesn't ride around in his true form, preferring to blend in with whatever face that reincarnation has given his mortal shell. He can manifest his true form whenever he likes, but finds it overly dramatic and unnecessary for most occasions.

Physical Invulnerability: Famine cannot be killed by physical damage, or by disease, though he can still be incapacitated.

Superhuman Durability: Famine is difficult to damage in the first place, though he is not completely invulnerable.

Superhuman Strength: (Sealed) Undetermined Strength Class

Rapid Healing: Famine's body heals physical injuries at a superhuman rate. Even lost limbs can be regenerated over a long enough period of time. 

Blood of Salt: Famine bleeds salt instead of blood. Anywhere this salt lands, the surface becomes inimical to biological life for a decade. Ingesting this salt causes an immediate starvation state.

Cloud of Locusts: Famine can manifest a massive cloud of omnivorous locusts that can eat almost everything in their path. 

Aura of Famine: A passive trait that Famine can "turn on or off" at will, affecting everything around him while active or until he leaves. The area around Famine cannot grow or develop life, and all biological organisms around him cannot process nutrients properly until he leaves the area. Proximity to Famine can cause starvation over a long enough period of time, and those starving do so twice as fast.

Power Amplification: Close proximity to his siblings causes power amplification for all involved, increasing the range and potency of their powers. The results can be devastating between just two of them.

Lifetimes of Experience: Repeated reincarnation with retained memories has given Famine an edge over most people on Earth, allowing him lifetimes of experience at his fingertips. He typically uses the experience to excel at any chosen field, usually something financial, though it also manifests as excellent general and practical knowledge.


Weapons/Items:

Famine's Horse: Not only is Famine's horse immortal, the horse shares all of its master's abilities, as well as Super Speed, Flight, and Teleportation. It can disguise itself as a black version of any vehicle Famine wishes, usually a Lincoln Town Car in modern times.

Scales of Famine: Famine can manifest a pair of scales, allowing him to set the world price on virtually any physical item. Famine simply writes the name of the item on one scale, and a monetary value on the other. The scales are powerful enough to cause natural forces to change in ways that affect market forces. For example, by manifesting a drought or hurricane to destroy crops and food stores to cause true scarcity of a product. The effect lasts until Famine erases the values from his scales. The scales can also affect the prices of more than one item at the same time.


Weaknesses: 

Magic: Famine is vulnerable to magic, and has been bound by it before in his existence.

Wealth: The concentration of excess wealth dampens Famine's powers while he is in its vicinity. Over millennia, he has occasionally chosen to live with or around excess wealth to better hide his true nature. It is not merely enough to live in a major financial center for his powers to weaken. Famine must be in close enough physical proximity to stacks of currency itself, or precious metals and stones, or other expensive items such as artwork. In the past, obscenely wealthy individuals have shown some measure of protection from Famine's powers.

Deference to the Holy: Famine cannot harm those who are truly holy, or otherwise have some divine protection. For example, a saint's relic may have 


Appearance



Image:


Physical Appearance:

As Isaiah, he is a lanky white man at 6'0". In his true form, he appears as a starving man at 8'0".

Clothing and Armor:

Famine typically wears a clean black suit, though in his true form, his clothing becomes rags.


Personality

Sexual Orientation:

Asexual

General Personality:

Millennia of lives after lives have caused Famine to grow bored while waiting for the Apocalypse, and subsequently somewhat detached from and in his lives. He is typically calm and reserved, composed in the face of what little can still surprise him. Famine is cordial to strangers, though he rarely expresses interest in getting to know others better. He typically spends his free time researching and collecting old and obscure arcane and divine relics, as one of the few people in the world who can appreciate and sense these kinds of objects.

If anything, Famine has displayed faithfulness to his mission of waiting for the Apocalypse, steadfastly watching for any signs of the end while giving his siblings a wide berth, partially to delay any rumblings of the inevitable. Knowing his existence is tied to his purpose and mission, Famine doesn't make any plans extending past a lifetime, considering such centuries-spanning plots to interfere too much with humanity. Famine has a lukewarm attitude towards humanity in general, finding them interesting, with the best and worst found amongst them. However, Famine believes in the end that each soul will receive their final judgement, with the worthy and the damned ending up where He wills.

Face/Voice: Matthew McConaughey


Character's History

Siblings:

Conquest, War, and Death

Mother:

Gwendolyn Pierce (deceased)

Father:

Nathaniel Pierce (deceased)

Other Family:

None


History:

The Horseman of Famine was created at the same time as the angels. After Lucifer's rebellion in Heaven, Famine existed in Heaven until the first humans developed on Earth. Since then, Famine has spent millennia being born and reincarnated over and over again as a human on Earth, always with the knowledge of his true nature and memories of his past lives. Over the course of his long existence, Famine has lived every life between beggar and king, and has even caused famine on purpose a few times. When his powers are found out, Famine prefers to be a beneficial figure or force when not in solitude.

Once, as a hermit sage, he would guide wayward travelers and adventurers through the stretch of barren wasteland he would inhabit. Those that suspected more of the desert mage may find deeper answers towards their goals if pressed further. Once, as the ruler of a small kingdom, Famine was a prophet-king who would predict times of scarcity, helping his land prepare and survive difficult times. He even ended a siege from a neighboring kingdom by causing famine in their land, making their armies difficult to feed.

His most noteworthy life was during ancient Egypt, when a traveling Famine was found out and subsequently detained by the pharaoh's cabal of mages. They imprisoned him and sealed him away, but could not completely seal his powers. Furthermore, they were unaware that keeping Famine sealed this way meant continuously pumping his restraints with magic, amplifying his powers over time. Scholars, both native and visiting, recorded the worst famine on record in Egyptian history, with the water from the Nile even becoming fetid and unusable for crops. Scavenger creatures eventually turned against each other, and the most desperate people were found feeding on the bodies of boiled children. Once they figured out their error, the magi, with much deliberation, decided to free Famine. Expecting the ancient spirit to slaughter them upon released, Famine merely gazed upon them...before moving on, fleeing far away from the land.

The current incarnation is Isaiah Pierce, an investment banker in L.A. with unremarkable life that is, so far, unwritten.


Role Play Sample:

Famine sat on the hood of his car near the beach, elbows on his knees, his forehead resting against clasped hands, as though in prayer. He wasn't praying, merely in deep contemplation. Recent reports of a disease-manifesting metahuman as the cause of an epidemic in Europe had unsettled his mind. Not only was the prospect of a pandemic bad for business, but there was also the possibility that perhaps it was one of his siblings, Conquest, under a guise. The likelihood was low; Conquest had only used a pestilence-ridden identity once before, but still, the idea that it could be Conquest bothered him. The emergence of all these metahumans bothered him, though it provided a reasonable excuse when Famine's abilities were found out as a child.

It was nothing metahumans did, it was simply that more of them made it more difficult to pick out his siblings from humanity. To Famine, if he knew who or where they were, he could avoid them much easier. It wasn't because of anything wrong with the other Horseman, it was simply that whenever they had crossed paths in the past, it resulted in devastation for their surrounding region. While there was no explicit rule against the Horsemen of the Apocalypse from interacting, close proximity to each other amplifies their powers. War was easy enough to avoid. The other two were tricky.

As he contemplated, his phone vibrated beside him, a notification in metahuman news. "Hancock Stops Convenience Store Robbery in L.A." read the headline. Uninterested in details, Famine merely glanced and scrolled, his gaze scanning over global and domestic news now. "Iron Man Prevents Bridge Collapse", "Vought Launches New Streaming Service", and "LexCorp Unveils New Drone Technology" were just a few of the stories he skimmed. As the sun continued to set, Famine grew bored of the seaside view and went back into his car, giving a deep sigh once inside. After giving one more glance at his phone, he turned the radio to a sunny station playing a song about peaceful days, the car coming to life without turning a key. While interesting to read about, these metahumans were ultimately none of his concern. At least, he thought they weren't. With that thought in mind, he started humming along to the upbeat song, already thinking about an early day tomorrow.