Isaak

**Isaak**is a nox and major character in The Mark of Eden, and a Vaulter. Though not one to often start a conversation, you can be sure that whatever he adds to one will be meaningful.

## **Biography**

### **Early Life**

Isaak was born on the Delta Plane and lived there for the earliest years of his childhood. When he was eleven, his people were attacked and harvested by the Cell in the Night of Screams. Among the victims of the attack were his mother and older sister, Nayta. This scarred him on a deep level, especially as he felt helpless to save his own sister and was forced to watch her die while he was hidden and paralyzed by fear.

### **The Mark of Eden**

#### **Joining the Team**

At some point between then and AY 2998, Isaak befriended and became the Vaulting partner of a vett'iri named Chellor. The two of them first encountered Val and Niles after the latter had set up a meeting to discuss Vaulting services for a prospective mission to the Umbra. Realizing that Val wanted their help to break into an Architect ruin in the Umbra, the pair was keen to turn down the job, but Isaak was moved by Val's reveal that the Cell were pursuing him and had already killed someone he was close to.

Reminded of his own family's death at the hands of the Cell, Isaak decided to stay and vowed to protect the boy from the gene-splicers. Chellor, feeling he had no choice but to stick with his partner, begrudgingly came as well.

Once everyone had boarded Niles' ship, the *Manta*, the new crew set out into the Umbra. Isaak encouraged Chellor to interact with and begin to bond with the rest of the crew.

During a game of Crooks and Crowns, Isaak explained his reasoning for joining the team, revealing the story of how he had survived the Night of Screams and how his family had died.

#### **The Dead Moon**

Upon arrival at the dead moon in the Umbra, Isaak and the others discovered evidence of an Imperial camp outside the temple. When he said that the Empire's presence and failure to reveal such a site to the Hegemony was in violation of an agreement between the two governments, Chellor pointed out that the violation was entirely in-character for them.

The *Manta* crew then descended into the temple and found the chamber where Val's Chrysalis had been. In the same room, an AI designated as Ouroboros appeared and revealed the truth that Val and Note came from the Architect civilization and were Architects themselves. They were interrupted, however, as a creature living on the moon attacked them. Isaak ran with Quix and Note into the temple's Gateway. There, Note worked on bringing the facility's connection to the Plexus network online while Ouroboros revealed to Quix and Isaak that Chellor was alone in the Armamentarium.

After Quix saved Chellor from the viper-worm, everyone used the Gateway to escape to the surface. Isaak was among those who reeled from the realization that Val was an Architect, but he also was the first to vocalize that Val was different from the original man he was cloned from. When Val confided in Isaak that he regretted being alive for the pain it was causing everyone, Isaak pointed out that everyone else felt better off for knowing Val, himself included, and that he was proud to call Val a friend.

#### **The Cell's Attack**

When the *Manta* eventually emerged from null space, everyone witnessed the Cell attacking the Mercantile. After they crash-landed inside the station, Isaak and Niles stayed behind with the crash and a Mercantile Security officer to buy the others time to escape and hide Val. Isaak was injured, but after some time, the Cell retreated. Both Isaak and Niles were confused as to why until the others returned and they realized that the Cell had successfully captured Val. Note rallied everyone together, claiming that they were all fighters in their own right and encouraging them to fight to save Val. Bolstered, Isaak and everyone else boarded the *Manta* and chased after the Cell.

#### **Eden**

After the *Manta* followed the Cell flagship through the energy cloud surrounding the Rings of Eden, the ship was shot down. Isaak and the others were forced to pursue the Cell and Val on foot before Val was thrown through a Tear. On the other side, he and the others realized that the Rings were merely a Tear-Gate connecting to the true Eden where the Sensus had been lying dormant for millennia.

While Ten, Note, and Quix attended to an unconscious and dying Val, Isaak and Niles fought against the Sensus' wraiths as the Cell were slaughtered. The Sensus taunted them, calling Isaak "the survivor" and revealing that it had directed the Cell through Fear to harvest the Nox for their genetic material, making the Sensus responsible for the Night of Screams and the death of Isaak's family.

Just as one wraith was about to kill Isaak, a yellow-speckled Cell cleaved through its leg and bought him the opportunity to shoot it with Niles' gun, killing it and reducing its body to dust. Isaak let the Cell go, allowing it to travel back through the Gate's Tear.

When Val woke up, the *Manta* crew traveled back through the Tear where Val and Note closed the Gate and sealed the Sensus back in Eden. The ensuing explosion of null energy from the collapsing Tear damaged the *Manta* and stranded everyone in space for several weeks before they were picked up by a Hegemony patrol and arrested.

## **Trivia**

• Isaak was at one point drafted to be taken over by the Sensus.