Joseph Kabox

art by Ishton

Joseph Kabox is a Human Werewolf planeswalker from Innistrad. He is primarily white-aligned, and secondarily green and blue.

He was created by Jeremiah Theis.

## Physical Description

Joseph appears as a male human, with fair skin, brown eyes, and curly brown hair. In age, Joseph appears to be a young adult, somewhere in his early to mid-twenties, with an athletic build.

Due to an incident on Innistrad, while fighting a werewolf, Joseph has a long scar across the left side of his face, passing over his left eye, as well as a scar spanning the width of his chest, from his right shoulder to the bottom of his left pectoral. In addition to these scars, he has an assortment of smaller, far less noticeable scars littering his body.

In attire, Joseph can typically be seen wearing his standard adventuring garb, consisting of a green tunic, trousers, and leather boots, in addition to a pair of simple leather shoulder pauldrons, a large leather belt, and his satchel (possibly a bag of holding). If not in his standard adventuring outfit, he will usually wear simple clothing, or the garb befitting a position he is filling. Regardless of what he is wearing, Joseph is never seen without his glasses, which he probably needs to see properly.

While transformed, Joseph appears as a hulking beast, though perhaps not as large as some other werewolves of Innistrad. Towering over his human form, at nearly nine feet tall when standing upright, his muscled body is covered in a dark brown, curly fur, and his eyes are a shimmering blood scarlet. The various scars on his body are faint in this form, hidden behind his fur, but can sometimes be seen if caught in the right light, especially the prominent one on his face.

## Personality

Joseph is a conscientious individual, often seeking to help others, but also overly critical of himself, finding flaws in most things he does. Despite truly wishing to help others, Joseph will often find himself doing so merely in an attempt to escape his own issues, traveling to a variety of planes in an effort to avoid returning to the ones he feels he's let down.

Around strangers and those he's disinterested in getting to know better, Joseph is often polite, but distant, preferring to keep to himself and avoid confrontation. He'll gladly put his life on the line to protect those individuals, but making small talk for any length of time can often prove troublesome for him.

While in the company of friends and other allies, Joseph is kind, caring, and loyal. He will give his all to protect he ones he loves, and if left to open up, can often be somewhat sarcastic and easy going.

When in private, Joseph enjoys things such as reading, writing, and exploring. If he isn't delving into some ancient tomb in search of ancient knowledge or on some world slaying monsters for the good of the people, he has no greater joy than delving instead into the works of fiction that fill the bookshelves of many libraries.

Due to his lycanthropy, Joseph does have episodes where his human and feral souls clash, allowing the emotions of his feral half to come out in his human form. These episodes are often triggered by stress or other intense emotional states, but can also occur if he hasn't transformed in a great deal of time. While in these episodes, Joseph is often easily angered, and will lash out at others with little provocation. In other instances, he can also find himself simply consumed by feelings of passion, hunger, or any other emotion his feral half may be feeling, or wish to be a part of in his human form. As such, these episodes are not always consistent, and so he goes to great lengths to try and control them.

## Abilities

Growing up on Bant, under the care of both a Rhox Monastery and the teachings of the Valeron Seaside Military Academy, Joseph learned early on how to use both his body and mind in combat, relying on swordplay, wit, and the aide of magic.

In combat, Joseph's main offensive tool is his sword, a family heirloom once owned by his grandmother, Geliah, a former cathar of Innistrad, passed down to her son, and then to Joseph. Being forged from blessed moonsilver mixed with steel, the sword has magical properties, causing great pain to the variety of monsters native to Innistrad and other planes, and allowing its user to flow white mana into it for greater damage output.

Regarding magic, Joseph is skilled in bolstering enchantments and related spells, often using such magics to increase his own power on the battlefield, as well as the strengths of any allies that may be assisting him at the time.

In addition to these, Joseph has also been shown to summon simple illusion-like soldiers to aide in combat, use detainment spells to incapacitate enemies, and at one point, even summon an elemental in a time of great stress, following the death of a friend.

As one afflicted by lycanthropy, Joseph also has the ability to transform into a werewolf. After a significant amount of time learning to control his powers, Joseph has the ability to transform at will, but can also be made to transform in times of great stress or other powerful emotional states, as well as when he's forced to transform by the pull of Innistrad's silver moon.

Unlike other werewolves, due to his soulbond to his partner gryff, Sophia, Joseph's soul is able to remain seperated, even while away from Innistrad, allowing him to transform regardless of what plane he is on. While this was at one time a major cause of strife in Joseph's life, he has since come to peace with his feral half, and finds the ability useful in a variety of ways.

## History

Born on Innistrad, Joseph’s spark ignited as a child, when his family was attacked and killed by a vampire. Due to this traumatizing encounter, Joseph’s spark ignited, and he was whisked away to the shard of Bant, of the broken plane of Alara.

On Bant, Joseph was raised by the motherly rhox, Trasa, at the monastery of Vinh the August, and trained at the Valeron Seaside Military Academy until he was of age to become a soldier.

Shortly after joining the army of Bant during the Conflux, Joseph was reacquainted with his abilities as a planeswalker, due to the death of a longtime friend during combat. In a move of self preservation and grief, Joseph chose to leave Alara, wanting to make a new life for himself, away from the painful memories.

After a time of exploration and repression, Joseph eventually found his journey leading back to Innistrad. There, after seeing the hardships of the plane in Avacyn’s initial absence, he took up monster hunting, in the hopes of protecting Innistrad’s people.

During his time on Innistrad, while hunting a pack of werewolves, Joseph would meet an invaluable friend – Sophia, a young gryff. After finding her as a foal in the care of her mother, being attacked by the werewolves he sought, he gave it his all to protect them. While he was able to kill the werewolves and save the foal, her mother was not so lucky.

Feeling deep sympathy and regret for the foal and the loss of her mother, remembering his own similar loss, he took it upon himself to take her in, caring for her where her mother no longer could. Naming her Sophia, after his own mother, the two grew to share an inseparable bond.

As word spread on Innistrad of a hunter fighting alongside a young gryff, Joseph was eventually sought out by the angel, Mathilde, requesting him to join her band of cathars, seeking to purge Innistrad of its evil in Avacyn’s stead. Though reluctant, Joseph and Sophia agreed to join, if only to aide in Innistrad’s protection.

Their campaign against the darkness proved successful at first, however, things changed when their travels brought them to a coven of witches. While the rumor had been that the coven had kidnapped local villagers for some kind of ritual, in reality, the coven were exposed as a pack of werewolves, seeking to curse the villagers with lycanthropy through the use of a brewing potion.

Luckily for the band of cathars, the ensuing scuffle resulted in the cauldron containing their cursed potion spilling onto the ground, saving the villagers. Joseph, however, was not so lucky.

Being overpowered by their leader, Joseph was pushed down into the puddle of spilled potion, and while he was able to kill the werewolf, she had forced him to consume a portion of it beforehand, cursing him in the process.

After killing the remaining werewolves, Joseph was placed in custody by the cathars, in the event he would transform. Sure enough, he did, and managed to escape his prison and into the night.

As the cathars he once worked with hunted him down, Sophia sought to find him first. Confronting him in the nearby forest, she pleaded with his feral mind, hoping to reach the friend she’d grown with since their meeting. While at first his bestial half threatened to kill the young gryff, her mind touched his, and their souls became linked. With their bond, she managed to pull Joseph from the depths of his mind, and he returned to his human form, just as the cathars had arrived to kill him.

At Mathilde’s command, she allowed Joseph and Sophia their freedom, honoring the choice of an animal as holy as a gryff.

With Sophia at his side, doing her best to keep his curse in check, Joseph now wanders plane to plane, seeking to find a cure, while also protecting those in need.

## Relationships

### Atax

Now deceased, Atax was a rhox soldier, and a childhood friend of Joseph. Having grown up together on Bant, alongside their friend, Piramessa, they found comfort in knowing they would be paired together under the command of the knight, Elsepth, once they were enlisted into the army. Although Piramessa could not join them, they gave it their all on the battlefield. Regrettably, in an attempt to save Joseph's life from the spell of a battlemage, Atax sacrificed himself, much to Joseph's dismay and regret. This event formed the basis for Joseph's eventually departure from Alara.

### Mathilde

An angel of Innistrad, and once a devout of Avacyn before her corruption. Having known Joseph's grandmother, Geliah, during their time as a cathar, she was quick to accept Joseph among those she could trust, and for a time, they worked together to vanquish evils from Innistrad. However, after the fall of Avacyn, and feeling her own mind touched by the eldrazi titan, Emrakul, she found her ability to trust diminished. Seeking to understand her place in the world, she cast herself into exile. Rumor has it, a woman going by the name of Mae has been seen working the docks of Nephalia. While this woman may not her Mathilde, it is said they bear an uncanny resemblance.

### Piramessa

A studious and conscientious Aven wizard, and childhood friend of Joseph turned lover. After the death of their shared friend, Atax, Joseph left Bant to live a life away from its war. Piramessa, unaware of this, instead believed both her friends to have died in battle. With her friends gone, she did her best to act as a wizard under the command of Derevi, smiting foes with her magic and protecting innocents from harm. Eventually, she learned of Joseph's survival, and while initially furious with his decision to abandon her to her grief and the war, she came to forgive him, simply wishing him to stay and return home. Though Joseph found himself unable to make that decision at first, after the events on Innistrad due to the arrival of Emrakul, he changed his mind, realizing the importance of the bonds one chooses to make.

### Sophia

Joseph's soulbonded partner and close friend, even if she is a gryff. Do not be fooled by her feral form, she is quite intelligent for a beast, perhaps rivaling any human, not to mention her great capacity for care. Having been saved by Joseph from a pack of werewolves that killed her mother, she found herself indebted to him. In turn, Joseph saw much of himself in the foal gryff, remembering the death of his own family to a monster. Now, she remains at his side, loyal and loving, permitting no harm to be befall him lest she have something to say about it.

### Trasa

After Joseph's first planeswalk to the shard of Bant, he was found and rescued by soldiers in the area. When he awoke, he found himself under the care of a rhox healer, Trasa. After healing his wounds and hearing of how he ended up in their care, Trasa promised to protect the child, and ever since, has acted as his adoptive mother, a title she proudly carries to this day. Being his mother, she is one of the few that know of Joseph's ability to planeswalk, a secret she intends to keep, even if it means acting as if her son died in battle. In personality, she a kind, motherly soul, caring for others far more than her own well-being. With her skills in healing magic, she's acted as a healer to soldiers and caregiver to orphans far longer than many others in the monastery where she resides.

## Planeswalkers Met

* Ajani Goldmane
* Arlinn Kord
* Dovin Baan
* Elspeth Tirel
* Tamiyo

## Trivia

* Joseph’s name is technically pronounced as Yosef, however, after arriving on Bant, he took on the pronunciation of Josef, due to the way the locals said it.
* Joseph was born under the New Moon. Despite his various hardships, it is believed to be a good omen for babies to be born under this phase of Innistrad's moon.
* Joseph has arachnophobia, and even when hunting monsters, rarely partakes in the slaying of giant spiders out of fear of them.
* Despite Joseph naming Sophia the gryff after his mother, his mother's name is actually spelled as Sofia.
* Joseph's character portrait was done by the amazing Ishton.

## Gallery

Art by land-ofthebootyArt by FlibertyjibbethArt by AurorieArt by KuroReiOokamiArt by God-BirdArt by FlibertyjibbethArt by IshtonArt by hazoretArt by Akira-Raikou
Joseph Kabox Image Gallery

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