Echo Cypher

**Echo Cypher** - known as many other names, including **Songbird** and **the Nameless** - is the founder and Number 00 of CYPHER.

## Story

### The Child in the Willows

Once, a prince of thieves courted an Alseid queen, then took her away and ravished her when she refused. The prince was cursed into non-existence and the Alseid wasted away, but not before giving birth. The strange child, born of rape and without a name of his own, grew in nature's embrace, unable to understand his true purpose, and went on to wander the world in the hopes that he would find answers.

On his path, the young man encountered a vagrant named Echo who sharing his life experience wih him. For the vagrant, the purpose of every being in the world was experiencing everything they could. The young child, feeling unbound potential in him, thanked the vagrant, then took his life and name, because he could. The newly-named Echo went on to travel across the world, founding CYPHER as to suit his whims and set his aims - to take everything he can.

### Ascent and Betrayal

A long time afterwards, Echo took an interest in the Book of the Damned and sought to seize it, infiltrating Jasmine and Sordaria's group under the nickname "Songbird", proving himself to be helpful while trying to seize the book for himself. Even after his cover was exposed by other Alseids, Echo remained with the group, and while he could not take the Book for himself, he instead recruited Sordaria as a member of CYPHER, thus achieving his goal.

However, Echo's victory was short-lived, as Diophantius X. Curtis, believed to be one of Echo's greatest agents who infiltrated the SCP Foundation, betrayed him, using Imago to deeply wound his essence and attempt to erase him from existence. Echo was only saved by infiltrated agent Maria Schiffer guiding Li-Mei Chao-Ling and Shizuru Curtis to stop Diophantius. Maria died in the process, but Echo appeared briefly to resurrect her, ironically thank Li-Mei and Shizuru, then leave.

## Appearance

Echo usually appears as a gentlemanly black-haired man with light purple eyes, his face resting in an eerie smile, dressed in black formal clothing.

## Personality

Echo appears as generally friendly, helpful and affable, if a bit sarcastic, dramatic and mischievous - and prone to singing and humming when bored or contemplative. He is even quite benevolent, especially when it comes to struggling against the powers of emptiness, such as the Night Everlasting. However, as the leader of the greatest multiversal criminal syndicate, Echo is also a ruthless planner, a thief that sets his sight on the whole world and seeks to steal everything - to make sure that everything he wants will be his.

However, even his thief's ideals were, ultimately, stolen from someone else, and Echo's quest for material wealth and magical power subtly echoes with his quest to possess purpose, to "be something" in the eyes of the world, as not to feel the emptiness that haunted him in his early years. Ultimately, Echo, in an ironic twist of fate, spends his time taking things away from others in the hope that it will make him feel something genuine - not an emotion stolen or borrowed from another.

## Powers

* **Enhanced Physical Abilities:** Due to his unique birth, Echo is much more physically fit than most humans, albeit not to supernatural levels.
* **Power Stealing:** Echo is able to steal people's abilities and use them as his own, depriving them of their powers as long as he holds them. He may also elect to merely copy powers, still allowing his victims to access theirs. This strange power is bound by rules - among other criteria, Echo must know the opponent's true name, and have witnessed the power in action to use his own ability. As of his first appearance as "Echo", he has collected hundreds, if not thousands of different abilities.

## Storylines

* The Bewitched Book features him as a central character.
* Foundation Files C briefly features him.

## Trivia

* Several songs inspired Echo's character : **The Willow Maid** by Erutan inspired his parents' past, while **Alive** from the Dr Jekyll and Mister Hyde Musical, **The Thief and the Moon** by Shawn James, and **Tears and Rain** from James Blunt refer to him in the present.
* The name itself "echo" is ironic, as it is merely an echo of another character's name - much like a "cypher" serves to mask one's true intentions, keeping with the "hiding" theme naming.