Lightwards

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A delusional necromancer who rules “The Empire of Light,” stationed in a floating museum in Portland.

## Biography

Prior to Calamity, Lightwards' name was Thomas Cardinal. He taught as a professor of ecology at UC Davis, and became known as an unpleasant and neurotic man, uncooperative with the counselors he was ordered to see.

Upon gaining his powers, Lightwards slaughtered most of his former colleagues in students as part of his Rending. His kill count rose into the dozens from this incident alone. His Rending was brought to an abrupt end when a former studen by the name of Jake Subly shot him through the heart with a rifle taken from a fallen campus security guard, slaying Lightwards and setting him up for his first resurrection.

Lightwards tried once more to seize control of Sacramento before being defeated and nearly killed by the Epic Snowfall. He then fled the city, roaming the west coast of the Fractured States for many years before arriving in Oregon.

## Appearance

Lightwards has been jokingly described as an unattractive, middle-aged cross between Indiana Jones and Harry Potter. This description, though he'd despite it, fits him to a T. He is average in height and *not quite* overweight, fond of wearing a blood-splattered tweed coat over his clothes. He wears glasses over his round face, and his hair is dark sandy in color. He has also taken to wearing a bright green bowler hat in recent days, which has added the further description of "joyous leprechaun" to his profile. He remains unamused.

## Powers and Abilities

One of the few known Epic necromancers, Lightwards' power is two-fold.

His primary ability is self-resurrection, a mechanism by which his body entirely reconstructs itself upon a death. This ability is nigh without limit; so long as any piece of Lightwards' DNA exists in the world, he is capable of resurrection. The caveat to this ability is a form of mental decay. Every death and subsequent resurrection damages Lightwards' mental stability, causing him to become more erratic in his behavior and emotions. He also appears to suffer from a form of post-traumatic stress disorder after deaths, often suffering from recurring flashbacks and aggressive behavior when reminded of his lethal incidents.

Lightwards is also a specialized gifter, capable of bestowing his resurrection powers upon corpses of any species. Corpses thus raised from the dead arise nearly mindless, incapable of independent thought and utterly bound to Lightwards' voice and will. Unless ordered to, they will hold no regard for their own self-preservation or loyalties towards former family members. Lightwards possesses a limit to how many of these zombies (which he calls Warriors of Light) he can reanimate at any one time, with the limit generally corresponding to the collective intelligence of the beings he has resurrected. He is thus limited to around twenty humans, but can easily control up to sixty dinosaurs or other animals of low intelligence.

Alice Regway is a notable example of a Warrior of Light, having been inadvertently ordered to think independently during a battle. She has since gone rogue and may be on a path to total cognitive independence.

## Personality and Behavior

Erratic by virtue of his post-ressurrection trauma, Lightwards can range from overly friendly to highly abrasive in terms of personality. He acts with a forced smile and determinedly flattering words when speaking to those he wishes to ally himself with, whilst becoming angrier and more hostile towards those he fears or sees as a threat to his goals.

While his original goals and aspirations were reasonable by Epic standards, involving the takeover and rule of a small city, Lightwards' multiple deaths and resurrections have taken a toll on his mind and sanity. He now sees himself as the Emperor of Light, a savior brought to humankind to end "the tyranny of Death." He believes that humanity will be best served under the thumb of a single intellect--his own--and strives for the ultimate death and subjucation of every living thing on the planet.