Samson

* Pre-ascension
* Post-ascension

*"Here I am, surrounded with so many people who deny fate. And if you think I am one of you... maybe I can deny fate, too."* - *Samson, to the other player characters.*

Samson was an attempt by St. Michael to create an artificial god, alongside Dante and Peter. Though uncannily similar to most humanoids, there were many clues which pointed to him not being mortal, such as his unusually tall stature, odd appearance and movements, and ability to manipulate time. Though being a creation of St. Michael, he appeared to fear and abhor him - as Dante, Peter, and Nathalie did - and worked with the player characters to defeat him, eventually ascending to godhood and becoming the God of Time within Elderain. He is a player character in The Fallen Kingdom campaign, played by Jack.

## Biology and Creation

Samson, much like Dante and Peter, was created by the Cult of the Immortal Womb under the supervision of St. Michael. His original form was that of a normal human, born to a mother of unknown name. His physical and mental traits, by some unknown metrics, deemed him a suitable subject for the Cult's experimentation.

In preparation, tens of thousands of human fetuses were grown in vats of godly blood, before being removed after sufficient growth and each meticulously disassembled into thousands of tissues and organs. All organs were inscribed with many lines of dark scripture, before being reassembled piece-by-piece into a singular new body. New bones were carved from an unknown white crystalline material in a nigh-inaccessible plane, inserted as the new skeleton and carved with miles of prophetic text, forcing the growth of godly flesh wherever they touched. This body was inevitably enormous - suspension in angelic tears aided the advanced surgeries that 'folded' the many tissues into impossibly smaller proportions. A gigantic tank of god-blood was then injected into the body, making it greatly bloated before space-warping magic compressed the body to normal size. This was to become Samson's new form.

Swathes of vile flesh demons were farmed by the Cult for 13 specially designed organs, which were inserted into the body one after another:

* **Umbervitrea:** A small second black heart was placed within Samson's original heart. It pumped the ichorous blood of a captured Atrophal through Samson's veins along with his own god-blood, the two liquids remaining separate like oil and water. The power struggle between 'light' and 'dark' magics in Samson's blood powered runes carved into the inside of his veins, funneled into other organs to be used later.
* **Corneoscope:** Stitched together from the eyes of fallen angels, this organ appeared as an eyeball with seemingly infinite pupils. It was implanted in the base of Samson's spine, allowing him to 'see' deep into nearby timelines when sufficiently fueled.
* **St. Luke's Organ:** Invented by the brilliant disciple St. Luke, this organ appeared to be the extracted nervous system for a human back. However, it was not so simple - its size in the fourth dimension of time had been stretched through ritual, letting it extend its feelers into the tree of futures and pasts available and channel magical power through itself to these places. It could also 'stretch' and 'retract', slowing or speeding up time by doing so. This was implanted into Samson's back; he would describe the sensation of time magic as a 'painful tingling' in his upper back region.
* **Soul Gland:** A crystalline kidney-shaped organ implanted into Samson's right breast. This organ would allow the body to absorb a potentially unlimited number of sacrificed souls, a major power source for both Samson's dominion over time and his growth into divinity.
* **Chronic Lobe:** A marble-sized clear gooey ball that seemed to whisper into the minds of those near it. It was implanted directly into Samson's brain, containing an encoded blueprint of Samson's intended growth patterns into a being worthy of later ascension. Samson's entire physical development would be teased and managed by piercing his skull and manipulating this organ.
* **Astrosalivator:** An adapted saliva gland added next to Samson's original ones. These would produce a solvent able to break down Stardust, harvested from the Astral Plane and containing the potential for infinite creation.
* **Astrolipids:** A unique type of fat inserted beneath Samson's skin, able to contain the magical energy of Stardust. This fat was able to diffuse into Samson's veins, nourishing all other organs with raw creation magic.
* **Holy Birthmark:** A darker patch of skin attached to the bases of Samson's feet, which would later grow up his legs and eventually his entire body. Incredibly frail, they required constant bandaging and were unbearably itchy, an urge Samson learned to avoid throughout his life. This skin would eventually react to the magical runes in Samson's body, making him completely immaterial and immune to the effects of reality.
* **Spatiovertebra:** Shaped like a small fleshy pocket, this organ was actually a portal to a small pocket dimension, connecting to the base of Samson's spine and allowing it to grow arbitrarily far into this realm. While never visible, around this extended spine resided a mass of organs suspended in still space.
* **Omnicomb:** A fleshy honeycomb sphere, many of which were growing off of the Spatiovertebra in its pocket dimension. Within each honeycomb was in fact an entire micro-universe, birthing, dying and being reborn in an instant. These universes could be forcibly stopped in time at Samson's will, harvesting the 'lost potential' of their ended existence to be used to speed up time elsewhere in Samson's reality. The opposite was also possible; slowing time somewhere around Samson could be achieved by extracting time from around Samson and feeding it into these micro-universes, speeding them up.
* **True Larynx:** A second voicebox, sewn beneath Samson's original one. This allowed Samson to speak the language of the Old Gods, making his voice unnaturally resonant. Samson spoke this language to cast many otherwise impossible spells; while inaudible to a normal human, it seemed to manifest as a distortion in reality and intrusive unwelcome thoughts to those who 'heard' it.
* **Bones of Prayer:** Two special knuckles replacing those of Samson's index fingers, made of smooth jet black stone. The purpose of these knuckles was mostly for rituals; with them, Samson's hands could be forced into prostration or other ritualistic positions against his will. They could also be tracked by Hounds via the uniquely metallic scent they emitted, albeit undetectable by a normal nose.
* **Constellaceptor:** A compound red eye, inserted within Samson's forehead. When fully matured, it would be uniquely able to see the stars at all times, feeding Samson constant information about their positions and configurations. This would become useful in letting Samson see far beyond the limits of his other sensory organs, providing glimpses of long-term fate and history from astrological data.

Once these organs were added, the body was submerged again in a mixture of angelic and demonic blood for 40 days and nights. In this time, the child to become Samson was subjected to immensely powerful mind-warping rituals, wiping his memories and leaving naught but a pristine, pure and completely blank soul.

The body was finally cleaned and laid upon an altar, beside the child and surrounded by a thousand chanting cultists. The Disciples led the cultists in a ritualistic act of mass suicide, funneling their souls into the divine body. St. Michael then stabbed the child through the heart with a powerful sacrificial dagger. The boy's soul was extracted, and with utmost care, delicately placed within the new body. Another sacrificial ritual to further nourish the Soul Gland, and Samson's new form was complete.