Tam son of Matthew

**Biography:** Tam was born to two farmers in a fertile southern region mostly untouched by the war, and lived in relative peace growing vegetables and raising livestock with his family, until his magic started to develop. He and his family tried to keep his powers a secret, but eventually without training, Tam started a fire that nearly burned down the farmhouse, and he realized he had no choice but to go and seek training so he didn’t hurt the people he loved. Unfortunately, the army was the only place one could receive proper training in magic, and Tam was forced to enlist as a soldier, fully intending to defect once he was trained enough. After a disastrous battle on a sinking island in which Tam was one of few survivors, he was recruited into the Spider Corps to better fight the gods. At the schism, Tam sided with Cameron’s faction, believing a world without gods to be the best possible world to live in.

**Notes:**

* Tam never rose to a formal leadership position in the army or the Spider Corps. He did however often take unofficial command in combat situations
* Tam never retreated from his old life when he gained immortality. He visited his fathers and sisters regularly until they died of old age
* He owns a small farm on the west coast south of Pelican Bay, near the border. He provides food to the nearest town for free
* Tam was a strong advocate for beating the angels in combat after the schism. He softened his position after he stopped being so angry about the betrayal and started to think about the angels’ perspective
* Tam’s greatest fear is drowning
* Tam’s transformation bothered him at first, but he became more at peace with it after the first time he visited home and his family still recognized him
* Tam has studied every system of philosophy and every religion in the world in great depth, trying to figure out what draws people to them
* After all three of his divorces, Tam swore he’d never do it again
* Tam seriously considered not attending the second synod. He didn’t think there was a point
* Tam was always suspicious of Klaus and was glad he’d died. He is not entirely excited that he’s back

**Quotes:**

* “We do know how angels work, you know.”
* “Well, apparently the world’s changing and anything can happen, so I don’t see why not.”
* “You think he faked his own death so that his own organization would tear itself apart as part of what, some grand master plan? He was twisty, but he wasn’t nuts.”
* “Probably going to regret the drinking in the morning.”
* “I find that giving people breakfast is a good way to make them come back sometime.”
* “Turns out I’m too hungry to do things the old-fashioned way.”
* “I know, I’m really smart. I’m also very attractive and a good cook.”
* “Demons only lie when telling the truth doesn’t make us look good.”
* “What’d I do to earn an angel in my bed?”
* “The rest of us may only be soldiers, but we have a right to know.”
* “If I can’t defy theologically normative stereotypes, who can?”
* “Just because we’ve only been at it two days doesn’t mean we can’t try to make it more.”
* “I’m a hopeless romantic, if you haven’t noticed. I scare away everyone I date because I fall in love too easily and try to move way too fast.”

**Trivia:**

* Tam counts stairs as he walks down them and if there’s an uneven number of stairs, he always jumps the last one
* Tam has five cats who ostensibly live in his barn to eat rats and mice, but whom he also feeds and lets into his house when it’s raining
* Tam lost his virginity when he was thirteen to both of his sisters’ boyfriends at the same time
* In his second week in the army, Tam fell down a hole with a fellow soldier and was stuck there for two days. They ended up dating for four years
* Both of Tam’s fathers gave him the sex talk not realizing that the other had plans to do so. There were wildly differing details in the two talks
* Tam’s sisters used to take him to town to shop with them, because everyone thought he was so cute they’d get discounts
* During the war, Tam was in the unit of spiders that was tasked with hunting down a rogue god named Lyren, whom humans were starting to worship. They never found him; only the corpses of his followers in the mountains
* Tam had a policy in the army to never have sex with any of his tentmates. He had sex with everyone he ever shared a tent with
* Frustrated that there was nowhere but the army to train magically inclined people, Tam wrote out a detailed plan for a school that would train magic users in non-combat settings and made sure every spider and human magic user he knew heard about it
* Tam makes his own alcohol. He makes it taste bad so he doesn’t drink too much of it

**Modern AU:** Modern Tam is a professor of moral philosophy at a large Canadian university and enjoys teaching introductory courses in the subject so he can be the one to shape how his students understand philosophy and ethics. Though to his great and continuing embarrassment, Tam does assign his own books as course reading, his students report that he is very thorough, exacting, but kind and understanding as a professor. Scandalously, Tam has recently been seen on dates with a professor from the religion department. When not teaching or writing books and articles that seem to be agreeing with his colleagues but aren’t, Tam enjoys cooking, gardening, looking at vegan restaurants online but being too lazy to go to them, and writing opera.