MARDUK:

REAL NAME: Hoshino Tenchi/ Marduk/ Many, many others
RELATIVES: Hoshino Tetsuro (Father), Hoshino Kimiyo (Mother)
OCCUPATION: Student, Smiter of Evil
MUTANT POWER: Advanced Senses and Healing Factor
MAGICAL POWERS: The control of Heaven and Earth, light and fire (So far . . .) Has the potential to be on par with the sorceror supreme, and the ability to be reborn after each death
OTHER: Is trained in martial arts, and is especially good at channeling ki

HISTORY: (In Babylonian Myths, Marduk became the King of the Gods after he killed Tiamat . . .) Marduk himself does not know his 'origins'. His earliest memories are hazy. His first clearest memory is seeing a gigantic being, one who wore intricate armour that covered him (or her) from head to toe, looking down at him. And that giant told him three things: Your name is Marduk; Find that which is wrong; and wait.

Though he does not remember his early days, he does remember everything afterwards pretty well. He remembers being a shepherd in Sumer, complaining about the mud. He remembers going to the cites of Sumer, and complaining about the smell. He remembers complaining a lot in those days.

But he also remembers the great shock that he felt in learning that his name was also the name of a god in Sumerian mythology. He remembers meeting this oddly dressed fellow from a blue box talking to a rather pretty young woman named, of all things, 'Ace'. He also remembers following this Martu fellow named Abraham for a while . . .

The reason why his memories, especially so close to the 'Early Days' were a bit hazy was because of his Death & Rebirth thing. When Marduk died (for whatever reason), he usually got reborn near the same area. He grows older, not aware that he has gotten reincarnated, until one day the memories start to awaken, a little bit at a time, or all at once. While he gravitates towards peaceful jobs (shepherds, blacksmiths, etc., not jobs that are that high up in the village hierarchy), he was also known for his fairness , so much so that oft-times many of his neighbors came to him to settle a dispute. And he always kept on the watch for that which was wrong, though he wasn't precisely certain what he was supposed to do once he found it.

Marduk eventually left the Tigres & Euphrates river valley (most likely with that Abraham fellow), and traveled around quite a bit. He traveled, sometimes settling down and having children, sometimes just dying. He was basically a wanderer. He breezed through Greece, got looked at suspicously by a variety of animals (Swans, Bulls, etc.), and mugged by a passing hero.

He finally settled down for a life time or more in Egypt (after wandering around much of Africa first), for a few lifetimes. It was in one of these lifetimes (around circa 1250 BC) during which time he was a small-time trader on the Nile River, when he bumped into a rather tall woman with a very surly attitude; so surly that immediately after the bump, she snapped his neck. And thus did Tiamat meet Marduk.

Marduk got reborn, this time to a rather prominent egyptian family (Marduk has never really cared for wealth or prestige all that much. He learned early on that true happiness is lying under a tree, taking a nap). It was in this incarnation that he met the rather angry young prince by the name of Moses, who ran away after killing a man. Soon after, most of the slave population started killing sheep and collecting the blood. A little after that, Marduk met an angel.

After that terrible day, Marduk left Egypt and decided that he should go further east. Eventually, he ended up in India. He studied from many of the Yogi, who had such fascinating ideas about life and death.

Then one day (around 800 BC. Yes, Marduk did have a lot of 'missing years', didn't he.), he saw a bunch of people killing a bunch of other people. Normally, Marduk would have just walked away, but this time, for some reason, he put some more connotation into the words of the Giant . . . and then he thought about how those people being killed were feeling. And the normally laid-back Marduk became very, very angry. Both at the killers, and at himself. He went out there, and started blasting. Too bad that this particular slaughter was being overseen by some lady that, while in India, went by the name of Kali. Marduk immediately recognized her and went for the kill. Too bad that Tiamat snapped his neck.

When Marduk got reborn again, he was still pretty angry. Luckily, he was born into the Kshatriya (Warrior-Aristocrat) caste. He took to the art of jabbing one fellow in a important bit with a sharp thingy quite well, as well as practicing with his powers. Then, having felt that he had learned all he could, he went looking for trouble.

After traveling to China ("Boy, were those hills BIG!"), he learned warcraft and such like. It was in China that he first started the two careers that he would be in the centuries ahead: A mercenary and a magician (though he was an odd magician, in that he wasn't trying to make immortality drugs like the others, though he did make a fascinating potion that made his head all giggly-wiggly, troz).

On his way back to India, Marduk got stuck in the Himalayas. And it was there that he found the city of Attilan. And there that he fell in love with a Inhuman princess, fought for the right to marry her, and perfected his powers even further.

Also, when out exploring, he met with some mysterious monks and learned even more about magic. And he learned that you should never play dice with mysterious monks. Eventually, he left Attilan and was back on the road once more.

He was back in India, and went around looking for Tiamat. He found her. After an even more titantic battle, Tiamat, though very badly wounded, killed Marduk. It was during this battle that they each learned the others' name.

Marduk was even more angry after that battle, and was starting to lose his lackadaisical attitude somewhat. He was going to start for the mountains again, and learn that trick from the monks, when he somehow became a part of the invading Alexander the Great's army (circa 280 BC). He went traveling with them, and became a pretty trusted general; though not as famous as Ptolemy, mostly because after Alexander's death, he didn't try to carve out a kingdom.

He went back to Egypt, threw a tomato at Euclid, and generally mooched off of Ptolemy for a while. When he got reborn, he decided to look for Tiamat again. After his second death by Tiamat, Marduk had started being fixated on her for a bit. After all, it was her actions that led to his new more militistic attitude. And the whole name situation . . .

He found Tiamat lounging about the Sphinx and immediately attacked her. Tiamat recognized him, though she was puzzled at how he could possibly still be alive. They fought yet another battle, this time very close to a stalemate. Finally, Tiamat slew Marduk, but it took some doing.

Marduk moved onto Rome, sometime before the Third Punic War. He became a general in the Roman Legions. When he was reborn, this time into an old Patrician family, he met Julius Caesar. He tried to stay out of politics, but in Rome everyone was in politics. During Caesar's war with Pompey, he was on neither side of the conflict. He watched as Caesar conquer Egypt, and then Rome, and he watched as Caesar was killed. He considered that speech Mark Anthony made to be in poor taste. When Octavian came into power and looked like he was going to stay in power, Marduk decided to get back to China. However, before he could, he was killed by a falling roof-tile.

Marduk, when he was reborn, joined the Legion again. He was, finally, stationed in Israel, where he stayed for a while. And one day, the funniest thing happened . . . Marduk, for a brief time, met a man named Jeshua Ben Joseph.

Marduk did various things: traveled around, been a soldier, magician (in the Eastern and Middle Eastern countries, mosty), or just a gadabout. About every other life, Marduk would track down Tiamat, fight her, and get killed. Basically, he coasted for a while. The time between the degradation of the Roman Empire to the rise of Camelot is unclear. Most likely, he just spent most of his lives sleeping. But there had been rumors of him going into space . . .

At any rate, he came back west and discovered that most of Europe had descended into barbarism. Somehow, he ended up in the British Isles (it involves a tankard of ale, a pretty woman, and fairies. Just don't ask.), and plopped down there. He met with a man named Merlin, then another man named Merlin, then another man named Merlin . . . He wasn't certain, but he thought that they were the same man, but . . . (An apocryphic tale has him as a lover of a queen named Igraine . . .) With the rise and fall of Camelot, he decided to just stick around for a bit.

When the year 1000 came about, he once again met with an angel. What they did is unknown.

During the Crusades, he met an interesting man named Robin . . . Also during this time, inspired by ONE of the Merlins that he met, he set himself up as a magician (again, but for the first time in a European country), though one who spent many a night tracking down priests and getting into tangly arguments with them. (It was also during this time that he discovered that those three people that he met during his lives were pretty important to the locals.) He learned a bit of logic during his time in Rome/Greece, and he really disliked priests whose only answers to his questions were "Have Faith" and "The ways of God is not ours to question", or some such similar rot.

It was during those intermittent Crusades that he had an odd vision. Usually, he doesn't dream about the future, but as with all pretty good magic users, he does premonitions from time to time. This time he saw a terrible beauty killing her love in the name of God. He tracked down the wheres and the principle characters in that drama. Eventually, this led to a battle between himself and Tiamat, while the young man and his love fought eachother. Tiamat killed Marduk.

Now then, a funny thing happened, something that was due to happen sooner or later, Marduk was reborn as a child of Tiamat. Ironically enough, Tiamat named him Nabu. He had a helm. He wore ankhs. Yellow is a good color. His power was to create order. Too bad that Tiamat eventually killed him, but it took some doing (like over a century of assasination attempts, murder plots, mind warfare, and plain out slug-fests) But this time period, one where he lived the same life much longer than any other affected him. He was very lacking in lackadaisy.

He spent a very long time in Japan afterwards. Learned a fair bit of kendo, aikido, and all that good stuff. Never really picked up bushi, but then mostly because he had his own code of honor that had served him very well, thank you very much. Eventually, he finally left Japan (he didn't stay there exclusively) with some Dutch traders. He hung around Europe, learned more stuff, and was generally a gadabout again.

Marduk lived, died, and lived again; sometimes as a soldier, other times as a priest of some sort (since magicians weren't all that high in demand), but most times as just another Joe. Eventually, he moved to America. He hated living there, but he stuck it out. But when the revolution started, he, remembering all those threats of 'first against the wall', moved to Canada. When he eventually came out of the woods (after three life-times), he discovered that there were a lot more cities. He moved back into the woods.

After he came back from the woods, and acclimated himself to the cities, he tried to live as comfortably as possible in his new profession of 'Lawyer'. He spent a lot of time as a lawyer, or a policeman, or an idle rich type of person. While reading a newspaper one day, he read a little article on how a diplomat from Egypt was in London. He looked at a photograph and immediately booked passage to England. However, he was too late. Tracking down Tiamat, he fought her and died. When he died, Tiamat waited around. Finally, Marduk was reborn as a child of Tiamat. She used mind-control techniques and used Marduk as her agent to forment war and chaos. This went on for a century, or so.

Finally, around the 1960's, Marduk broke free, tried to kill Tiamat, and was tortured. Finally, he escaped, tried to kill Tiamat again, but before he died, fled to Japan. He died there.

Now, he was reborn as Hoshino Tenchi, a mutant with accelerated senses and a healing factor. His father was the world-famous Hoshino Tetsuro, the diplomat. His mother was Hoshino Kimiyo, the physicist. Because of the trauma of his life, he did not remember that he was Marduk until his late teens. He was trained to control his ki, and the ki of the world by the ghost of Ogun. He did not remember that he was Marduk until he was attacked by the minions of Tiamat, and even then the memories trickled in very, very slowly. Creator: Murmur.