The System

“The System” refers to three different people sharing one body, in what is known as a DID system. Due to unfortunate circumstances and traumatic events during their childhood, their minds split into three individual people with distinct roles.

The System is split into three, Yehudah (The Host), Iskariot (The Protector), and Levi (The Persecutor). This page focuses on the history before their eventual split from each other.

## History

#### Childhood

Yehudah “Juda” Matteus was born two minutes after his older twin brother Christo Matteus in the big harbor town of Knightstone, on the 1st of April. Evangeline and Yosef Matteus couldn’t be happier at that moment. The tide shifted when Yosef was called upon to work in the royal navy in Sakvaas. Yosef brought Christo with him to teach more about how the navy operated and not to feel alone during his working hours. This left Evangeline with their other son, Yehuda. After several years, Yosef’s closest co-worker came to visit the Matteus residence. Alfeus Phillips came with the unfortunate news that their ship had been attacked during their travels, and Yosef had heroically sacrificed himself to protect Alfeus. The only thing left was a custom-made handkerchief with Yehudah’s initials on it, that Yosef had bought just a few days earlier. This piece of cloth was given to Yehudah. What Alfeus didn’t tell the Matteus family was that Christo was still alive, and would now be working under the command of Admiral Ferntide.

Evangeline was devastated and would deal with the loss of her lover by taking home all different kinds of men. Yehudah wouldn’t pay any attention to what happened in the room next to him and would devote his time to tinker with model ships and sketching new inventions. Yehudah was a good kid in school with very good grades and had loads of different friends, but preferred to stay quiet. One day, his mother introduced him to his new step-father, a human named Wallace Stout. Evangeline was ready to settle down with a man once again after several years, and he was the best bet, in the beginning at least. Wallace treated both Yehudah and his mother the best that he could. Though, everything changed when he turned to the bottle. Nights of drinking at the pub turned into nights of terror in the Matteus residence. The relationship slowly turned abusive, and when Evangeline wasn’t enough, the wretched “man” named Wallace turned his hand (and belt) to the boy. After several months of this, the last straw for Yehudah happened on one particular night.

Yehudah woke up to the cries of his mother, begging for Wallace to stop. The only thing Yehudah heard was the quickening footsteps approaching his door. He quickly pulled the covers over his head, wishing that everything would just go away. His wish would get fulfilled as he heard the belt unbuckling from behind him. During this time that Wallace was in the boy’s room, Yehudah hid away in his mind for a bit. After several minutes, it was as if something unlocked in the young boy’s mind. Even though he was just 7 years old, he managed to escape the grasp of the man holding him down. He ran down to the kitchen and grabbed a knife. When Wallace followed, the last thing he would see was the piercing white irises of the boy, as well as the shine on the kitchen knife quickly approaching his own throat. Since that night, Wallace hasn’t been seen, although the Matteus residence has a spot in their backyard where flowers seem to grow beautifully.

#### Young adult life

A now older Yehudah would work at the harbor and get his experience in repairing and building ships from the other dock workers. He had no recollection of what had happened several years prior and would continue to get blackouts throughout his life. The worst case of memory loss was in April when he was 18 years old, coincidentally, this was when the infamous Knightstone murders occurred. Over five days, five drunken, older, abusive men were murdered. The victims all had their throat slit, as well as water-based damage that got worse and worse with each victim.

One day when Yehudah was 20, he would go down to the docks and see a broken-down ship. Luckily, the Compact Rook ship was looking for a new boatswain, the perfect job for a man like Yehudah. He spoke to the captain, named Eilimiphifyroce, and soon started working on repairing the ship. There, he met the dragonborn Rhobarum Namril who would work as his assistant. During his time at the ship, he would become good friends with the two dwarves Barren Battlebelt and Krammus Chainmaker, and the ship’s bard named Marcie Moonleaf.

#### The Protector

Iskariot “Issy” Matteus was the manifestation of Yehudah’s sadness and acted as a “shield” during stressful moments. Whenever Yehudah would feel depressed or get hit, Iskariot would switch in and take the hit instead. When Wallace died, Iskariot didn’t need to front as often due to the problem getting dealt with. Iskariot would not front as often until Yehudah was 18 when the murders happened. After that whole situation was over, Iskariot would take control over the system for a long time during their time in Saltmarsh going forward. In Saltmarsh, Iskariot got in contact with Matthew “Morren” Galea and would help him in his experiments about vampirism. Also during this time, the two men would get into a romantic relationship with each other. Matthew would only stay in Saltmarsh until his work contract was over, and left Iskariot with the ritual on how to become a vampire.

#### The Persecutor

Leviticus “Levi” Matteus was Yehudah’s manifestation of anger and evil. He kept his feelings about the abuse he suffered in his childhood inside of him to a point where he couldn’t keep it in any longer. Leviticus was the alter who killed Wallace and the five other men during the murders of Knightstone. Due to how he acted during their childhood, he got the attention of the chaos god Z’or’suth. Leviticus got the powers of the sea from the god and could take down the men several years later. During his rampage, Iskariot managed to shove Leviticus into a cage in the back of their minds, where he would stay until the events in Saltmarsh. Leviticus is a contender to become one of Z’or’suth’s “big three” and rule the seas together with Kaitlin von Blackstar and The Behemoth.

Yehudah didn’t know about the alters until he was told about them by his captain. He thought that Iskariot and Leviticus were his imaginary friends, but as Elii told him, all of the pieces fell into place. Yehudah never wanted to kill anyone, yet he stood there with several people’s blood on his hands, from murders he didn’t even know he committed. After coming to terms with what had happened, he got the word that Krammus, one of his best friends, had kept letters from his mother addressed to him. Krammus did it in hope that Yehudah would not get homesick and leave the ship. Because Iskariot fronted a lot during their time in Saltmarsh, he didn’t get to speak to his other best friend Rhobarum. This led to their friendship slowly crumbling. All of these things were too much on Yehudah, and because of a collar that the body obtained earlier, Iskariot couldn’t switch in. This led to Yehudah being extremely suicidal.

After their eventual split arranged by Morren, Yehudah joined Levi on his ship, whilst Iskariot travelled to Vivisecta to live with his partner.