Yousef Farid

The Swordsaint of the Watch

**Yousef "Swordsaint" Farid** is a Magistratus of the Revenants of Black Watch and one of its top five Magistratii. Yousef has a near-obsessive hobby of collecting exceedingly rare and ancient swords, and most notably has collected all six of the *Heavenly Blades*, weapons belonging to the most powerful swordsmen to walk the Earth. This has lead him to become a rather elusive figure in the watch, and he rarely turns up outside of important meetings or missions.

## Appearance

Julio is an olive-skinned man of average height in his mid thirties. His black hair is done up in a bun with a hair stick through it.

Wrapped around his forehead is his Rayad, marked with the white deer horns of his home tribe in the Levant Diarchy, the Cradle tribe. His casual nature compared to other Magistratii can be seen in his vastly less professional attire compared to them. He is dressed in long, white, tattered garments with various leather straps and belts, as well as a pair of leather boots. Over these garments he wears a sandy brown coat.

On his back is his *sword wheel* - a circular disc that is able to sheathe up to six blades and can spin on Yousef's command.

## Personality

Yousef has an alarmingly laid back and casual demeanor towards almost anyone in the Watch regardless of rank, excluding the High Lord himself. Although this has lead him to come off as unprofessional, there is no doubt that he is in fact extremely dedicated to the Watch and its cause, as he has managed to become among the highest ranked Magistratii.

Nothing excites Yousef more than being able to test his swordsmanship out in battle. He has challenged other Magistratii and Captains to battle, most notably Saxon James Hackett whom he holds a 3-3 win-loss record with, indicating a highly competitive personality.

## History

Yousef's life before joining Black Watch is mostly an enigma. It is known that he spent his childhood in the slums of the Levant Diarchy, where both his parents died in a bombing acted out by an anti-diarchy insurgency when he was 16. For seventeen years he managed to survive on his own, eventually picking up a job in laying tiles, until eventually the Spellplague occurred in 2056.

What happens after this point is largely unknown, other than the fact that Yousef had began to travel with his saved up funds and eventually made his way to Turkey, where he discovered the Black Watch conducting business there. Interested in their field of work, he eventually joined in 2057 and quickly climbed the ranks due to his proficiency with martial weaponry, namely swords and polearms. Eventually, he became a Magistratus of the Watch and is currently ranked among the top 5 Magistratii.

## Equipment

**Sword Wheel:** A magic item in the form of a circular disc strapped to Yousef's back that sheathes up to 6 blades at once and can rotate on his command. The sword Yousef wants to draw will end up as the top blade on the circle. The Sword Wheel itself leads to a small pocket dimension, thus allowing Yousef to store swords that are a much greater length than the wheel itself.

### Five Heavenly Blades

Yousef has managed to attain the *Five Heavenly Blades*, five of the most sought after blades in the world. Each one was once wielded by a mighty swordsman and holds a unique ability.

* **Silverthorn:** A silver rapier once belonging to Xavier Velazquez II, a Spanish duellist during the Renaissance who was famed for his unmatched skill in fencing. Silverthorn allows Yousef to strike with unmatched speed and precision, and is his most used blade. Ideal for facing opponents at a close range.
	+ **Danza de Plata:** Yousef begins to spin rapidly on one leg as he holds Silverthorn out, traveling forwards and bisecting anything in his path.

* **Blueseal:** A single-handed, double-edged sword with a hilt made from gold and a slender blade made from magic-infused lapis lazuli. Once wielded by the battle-mage Rion the Entomber during the War of the Mages, the blade of this sword has been interwoven with arcane energy, granting it remarkable durability as well as the ability to cause blue veins of crystals to spread from wherever it strikes, possessing the capability to completely entrap an opponent in a crystal prison.
* **Nergal Cleaver:** A black, stout blade resembling a scimitar in shape, the Nergal Cleaver was the weapon wielded by Akmal the Chaos, a fearsome Void Walker mage known for his preference of heat-based weaponry and magic during the War of the Mages. The blade has the ability to draw water molecules in the air into its blade, rapidly evaporating it and condensing the gas into plasma. The heat produced by this process is focused into the edge of the blade and gives it immense cutting power.
	+ **Nergal Scorch:** Once the blade has been fully charged, Yousef can swing the blade downwards and release a red crescent of searing hot plasma that is capable of cutting through several targets, whether they be human opponents or armored vehicles.
* **Stalbrotsjor:** A massive two-handed greatsword with faintly glowing runic markings running down its blade. This weapon was wielded by a mighty Viking warrior who managed to single-handedly obliterate hundreds of Anglo-Saxon knights, and sustained over 85 major wounds before falling. The blade is large and heavy enough to cut a dozen armored men in half with a single swing and cleave through gigantic beasts with negligible ease. Yousef's enhanced strength allows him to wield it without harm, however its weight is still so great that it significantly hampers his movement speed, and thus is almost never used against swift and agile opponents.
	+ **Shieldbreaker:** Yousef silently mutters an incantation as the runes on the blade glow, before the blade's edge is surrounded by a yellow energy. The next strike Yousef deals has the capability to break through any barrier that cannot be surpassed by conventional means, such as a magic shield or psychic barrier. The only type of barrier exempt from this property is a gravity barrier.
* **Glint:** The most revered and powerful of the Six Heavenly Blades, and Yousef's most prized possession. Glint appears as a two-handed longsword with a comparatively simple design, with a blade that narrows towards the midpoint and then broadens at the end. At the bottom of the blade, just above its hilt, is a glowing blue gem embedded into it. Said to be forged from the scales of a draconic demi-god, Glint has the ability to emit bright blue flames that have been recorded reaching temperatures of up to 5000 degrees celsius, able to melt almost any kind of material found on Earth. Due to the immense heat of the blade, just wielding it scorches Yousef's hands and forearms. Due to the amount of danger it puts its wielder in, there is only one attack Yousef can perform with it.
	+ **Glintfang:** Blue flames erupt from Glint, only to be quickly absorbed and condensed within the blade. Yousef steps forwards and, with a single swing, causes a gargantuan pillar of blue fire to erupt in front of him, immediately turning anything within the attack's radius to ash. Yousef has only used this attack once, and it resulted in third degree burns on his hands and forearms.

## Abilities

Bar his swords, Yousef possesses no powers naturally, instead having his body enhanced through a biological procedure. However, his impeccable skill in multiple sword forms and his status as one of the top five Magistratii makes him one of the most skilled and dangerous members of the Black Watch.

**Expert Swordfighter:** Yousef is an expert in the art of swordplay, and has spent years studying and refining his skill with a multitude of sword types, including rapiers, longswords, shortswords, dagger, sabres and katanas. His genius level of swordfighting has ranked him among the greatest swordsmen in the world.

**Magistratus Status:** Due to his immense level of skill and power on the battlefield, as well as dedication to the Watch's cause, Yousef has been granted the role of Magistratus. Magistratii act as personal enforcers of the High Lord of the Watch and the Council of Revenants. Their rank is typically seen as above that of a Captain, as they are able to overrule the jurisdiction of a Captain if the High Lord wills it.

**Enhanced Biology:** Though most Black Watch operatives either use high-grade armor or exosuits to protect their bodies against deadly foes and enhance their fighting ability, Yousef found that his agility and swordsmanship were hampered by use of such armor, and instead opted for a biological enhancement program. Yousef was injected with a serum similar to an everlasting, albeit less potent version of the Cheires drug used by US soldiers during the Alaskan Annexation, granting him increased strength, speed, agility, stamina and durability as to keep up with superhuman opponents on the battlefield.