Indus Tarbella

Has the power to make barriers! ...That's about it!

**Indus Tarbella** is Mera Salamin's incredibly loyal, buff, and dim-witted bodyguard.

His epithet "Barrier” can create barriers of varying size, be they big enough to act as bulletproof walls or small enough to hold in his hand.

## Physical Appearance

Indus has dark skin, caramel eyes, thick black eyebrows, white hair with tan running through, shaped in a mohawk, and a dimple on one of his cheeks. He has an incredibly muscular physique, and stands at a height of 6 feet and 7 inches. He has a large upper body, however his lower body is much smaller. Indus also sports tattoos on his face, shoulders, chest, and arms. These tattoos are symbols of the sun (on his chest) and of turtle shells (on his shoulders.) In the center of his sun tattoo are two swirls that seems similar to the symbol of Bliss Ocean, but this has been confirmed to just be a coincidence.

His normal outfit is a tucked pair of black shorts with orange insides, which he cuffs on the legs. He also wears track shoes, with the same colors as his shorts. He occasionally wears a beige sweater vest over a white button up shirt (that is much too small for him) with an orange tie as a disguise.

## Personality

    **"Unfortunately the group's disorganization and general rapscallyhood makes them difficult to track."**

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Indus seems to be a gentle giant. He's a blockhead with the intelligence of a child, but a good heart, and genuine dedication to his tasks. He seems to value strength, loyalty and honor which caused him to train with Mera. However, he remains polite even when he had to target Molly, Giovanni and Sylvie. The only time he has been implied to be angry or truly serious is regarding Mera, first when he explains her "curse" to Molly and second when Molly refuses to go with him to have her epithet taken away to help Mera.

Indus is extremely gullible and just about everybody he's met has taken advantage of that fact. He's also got a very one-track-mind and very rarely thinks thoroughly about his actions. His emotions often cause him to make foolish, rash decisions as well. He is noted for usually always giving his name and epithet away, noted by Sylvie to be something "only an idiot would do".

He also has a fondness for dinosaurs, and considers forklifts to 'have no honor'.

Indus additionally is noted as being unable to do anything quietly.

## History

### Past

    **"Yeah! Those are... words!"**

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On August 1, he was born and lived in the Desert Country. He was the second child to his parents, growing up with older sister Moot Tarbella.[Citation Needed]. He lived on a poor diet of at least partially sand, which he admits is strange, since he ended up bulking up so much.

One day, he met Mera Salamin who defeated him in an honorable duel, Afterwards, Indus started following her teachings in hopes of becoming strong like her. they spent sometime in the desert, eating sand together.

Since then, he has been living with Mera at her apartment, doing things like laundry and taxes (disguised as "Training"). Indus also sleeps on the floor.[Citation Needed] Indus assisted Mera in tracking down the Arsene Amulet, leading to the two discovering it at the Sweet Jazz Museum. The two managed to be employed at the museum, with Indus using his strength to carry various exhibits and act as a security guard.

### "Museum Arc"

     **"You see, the trick of this challenge is figuring out what to do with an incomplete recipe."**

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One night, Mera begins to dig through the museum's stockpile of exhibits to find the amulet while Indus finds Molly Blyndeff tied up by a group Banzai Blasters. However, Molly managed to defeat them. He returns to Mera with Molly when the rest of the group of Banzai Blasters appear being led by Giovanni Potage. They attempted rob the museum but Mera and Indus manage to defeat the them. Molly learned their true intentions so she was imprisoned with Giovanni and the rest off the Banzai Blasters. Molly and Giovanni decide to team up to escape by tricking Indus to let them free. When Indus returns to Mera (who is once again irate over Indus' stupidity) they are interrupted by Sylvester Ashling. Indus is temporarily knocked out by Sylvester's Drowsy Epithet, but is awakened by Mera after Molly triggers a fire alarm, causing Mera to panic and wake him up by hitting him with a crowbar. Mera quickly searches the remaining crates and finds the Arsene Amulet, then orders Indus to kidnap Molly in order for Mera to steal her Dumb Epithet.

Indus pursues Molly, but her quick thinking allows her to escape in an air vent. Indus searches the museum, only to be intercepted by Percival King and her police. Indus is arrested and is soon joined by Mera after she is defeated by Molly and Giovanni. Despite Mera's villainous actions, Molly makes peace with Mera and offers to heal her in the future. Indus convinces Mera to make amends, right before their police car drives away.

### Post-"Museum Arc"

Mera and Indus are still serving their time in jail.[Citation Needed]

## Abilities

### Skillset

* **Housekeeping**: Due to living with Mera, he does most of the chores around the apartment, such as doing her laundry and taxes- although he has yet to master the taxes.[Citation Needed]
* **Cooking**: He does all the cooking for Mera and he's gotten pretty good at it.

### Natural Abilities

* **Superhuman Strength:** He seems to be very strong, being able to flex so hard his clothes ripped off. He's also able to bench press a truck, throw people with incredible force and easily break through concrete.

### Unique Abilities

* **Epithet: Barrier:** Indus' epithet allows him to create barriers.
	+ **Barrier:** Indus creates a barrier, can vary widely in size. The barriers can be produced away from Indus, and can float, be shifted around, and also be completely transparent (though he usually makes his barriers a translucent bright orange.) This barrier also features a symbol, which can also be seen on Indus' chest. The amount of barriers he can produce at once is unknown, but the maximum amount shown on screen is 8. Although barriers appear to be invincible against physical force, they can still be affected by other Epithets.
		- **Scattergun:** A combo technique he performs with Mera, summoning a barrier that she shatters into pieces, which she telekinetically hurls at their opponents.
		- **Unbarrier:** Indus' "secret technique", which he uses to make his barriers disappear.

## Relationships

### Mera Salamin

After being defeated by Mera, Indus became her loyal bodyguard in order to learn from her and become stronger. Indus deeply cares for Mera, always obeying her commands without disobedience, no matter how dangerous and unreasonable they are. He values himself according to how Mera comments and judges him, and when he cannot protect Mera, he will succumb to self-blame until Mera assures that she is fine. While Indus is shown to care deeply for Mera, she tries to make it seem one-sided and that she only considers him "free labor". Despite this, some of her actions imply that she not only cares for him but is even attracted to him.

### Molly Blyndeff

Indus has great respect for Molly; after seeing her and Giovanni mutually protect each other. However, he does not value his respect for Molly over his dedication to Mera, and still tried to capture her after Giovanni was defeated.

### Giovanni Potage

Just as with Molly, Indus has great respect for him after seeing him and Molly mutually protect each other. He challenged Giovanni to an "honorable duel" only to defeat him with one blow.

### Sylvester Ashling

Indus initially viewed Sylvie as a threat to Mera, labeling him as "one of the fabled ten hundred minions" that Giovanni told him about. However, once Sylvie formed an alliance with Mera, he shows respect for Sylvie as an ally, even referring to him as "Dr. Ashling" when most just call him a kid. He lets Sylvie into the room where Mera found the amulet without knowing Sylvie was no longer working for him and Mera so he can analyze the Arsene Amulet as promised, implying he trusts him and that he himself does not know Sylvie was tricked by her.

He also seemed somewhat concerned for Sylvie during his "manic twitching" while he was overthinking his plan of psychological interaction.

### Ramsey Murdoch

     **"You see, the trick of this challenge is figuring out what to do with an incomplete recipe."**

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Indus will team up with Ramsey in Sweet Escape.

## Trivia

* He can bench press a truck.
* He is easy to trick into eating bugs.
* He sleeps on the floor.
* His name is associated with the Tarbela Dam at the Indus River.
* His tattoos are modelled after a sun and a heart for warmth and turtle shells for defense.
* Indus is the first character to demonstrate his epithet, the first character to have a stat sheet revealed, and the second character (after Molly's Dumb) to have the name of his epithet revealed.
* Brendan has confirmed that Indus eats stickers.
* The dot on his face is a dimple, and it was pain to animate.
* He is Lawful Good, due to him sticking to a code.
* On Twitter, Jello revealed how he would play Among Us, which is:
	+ CREWMATE: Does not know where anything is. Does not know the map callouts. Does not know how to do the minigames. Follows Mera around 24/7.
	+ IMPOSTER: Won't kill Mera. When he's the imposter Mera gives him orders, even as a Crewmate. Results in some weird 4D chess rounds.
* He is from Desert Country.
* His height is 6'6".
* His birthday is August 1st. This makes him a Leo.
* His favorite animal is the tortoise.
* His favorite food is Fresh Naan.
* He likes Barriers, Lady Mera, Baking, Psammotherapy, and hugs.
	+ Bo Hello, in a discord chat, was asked by Jello what else he would like and they suggested weed.
* On Twitter, Jello made a tier list of how well liked in the fandom each character is, placing Indus in "Yeah, You're Pretty Good".
* On Twitter, Jello made a tier list of Stardew Valley spouses; "Indus got lost in the mines on day one and still hasn't found his way out."
* On Twitter, Jello revealed he was sent a set of teas inspired by characters from Epithet Erased. While not pictured, Indus was apart of the set, with a lapsang souchong, oriental spice, and honeybush pumpkin chai tea titled "Indus Tea-bella". It had the caption "Orange Peels Remind Me Of A Barrier!"

## References

1. ↑ TWO-LOWEEN
2. ↑ https://jelloapocalypse.tumblr.com/post/189002297122/
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Indus Promotional Infocard for Prison of Plastic
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 A: is the little dot on indus’ face a mole or a... - March 30, 2022 - JelloApocalypse on Tumblr
5. ↑ https://twitter.com/BrendanBlaber/status/1395634807091212292?s=20
6. ↑ https://jelloapocalypse.tumblr.com/post/189851395792/so-something-i-noticed-indus-has-the-bliss-ocean
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Epithet Erased | EP3 - The Doctor is In
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Epithet Erased | EP4 - Reflection
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Epithet Erased | EP1 - Quiet in the Museum!
10. ↑ https://jelloapocalypse.tumblr.com/post/189412214507/outta-curiosity-does-ee-take-place-in-a-specific
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Epithet Erased | EP2 - Bear Trap
12. ↑ Indus Trivia 2
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Indus Trivia 1
14. ↑ Indus Trivia 3
15. ↑ Word of God / Epithet Erased on TVTropes.com
16. ↑ https://jelloapocalypse.tumblr.com/post/645155017328869376/what-the-fuck-is-this-flag-but-also-yes-canonical
17. ↑ Epithet Erased on Twitter - December 21, 2019
18. ↑ Among Us - October 18, 2020 - Brendon Blaber on twitter (9)
19. ↑ https://twitter.com/EpithetErased/status/1582879890579152896/photo/1
20. ↑ https://twitter.com/beauhello/status/1597318373280337921
21. ↑ Epithet Erased on Twitter - 12/20/22
22. ↑ EpithetErased character Stardew Spouses - 12/13/2023 - Epithet Erased on Twitter
23. ↑ https://twitter.com/EpithetErased/status/1241818221474430980
24. ↑ https://www.adagio.com/signature\_blend/blend.html?blend=160692