Cynhelm Warden
Name Cynhelm Warden
Role "Friar Tuck"
Character Information
| Gender | Male | |
| Powers | Hardlight Conjuration | |
| Powers Description | With his powers Cynhelm is able to create objects of solid light. The objects appear as a slightly translucent blue giving off a bit of a glow. The material is harder than most known materials, with only diamond able to directly damage it. Otherwise it's usually a lapse in concentration that affects or destroys the objects created. It's not possible for Cynhelm to create intricate objects with many moving parts (like a car or even a bicycle). As such he usually uses it to create barriers, bridges, or melee weapons. He can maintain multiple of these items at the same time, but there seems to be a limit to the absolute amount of mass he's able to conjure up that is close to his own body weight. | |
| Alias | Friar Tuck | |
| Age | 49 |
Physical Appearance
| Height | 1.89m | |
| Hair Color | Black | |
| Eye Color | Brown | |
| Physical Description | Despite his age, the requirements of his job have kept Cynhelm physically fit, though he does carry several blemishes including one very scarred left hand that he often keeps covered with a leather glove. He has a pensive and withdrawn demeanour, which leads him to wear an expression that closely resembles a permanent frown. Few get him to smile, though it certainly shaves several years off his appearance when he does. |
Family
| Significant other | None. | |
| Children | None. | |
| Parents | Malachai Musa (Father, dec.) Janet Fofana (Mother) |
|
| Sibling(s) | Rowena (Sister, 58) Lilith (Sister, 55) |
|
| Other Family | Andrew Fofana (Stepfather) Lonan Fofana (Stepbrother) Elden Fofana (Stepbrother, dec.) |
Personality & Traits
| General Overview | A reinvented man forced to leave who he once was buried in the past, there is a very distinct boundary around Cynhelm that is as impervious as the hardlight he creates. Intensely private and secretive as a result, there is typically very little point to trying to connect with the man on an interpersonal level. Whilst he values the necessity of teamwork and has a shepherd's vigilance for his flock, Cynhelm seemingly goes out of his way to avoid emotional attachment and has very few people in his life that he would count as true friends. Solitude serves its purpose; it certainly minimises fallout damage, as far as he's concerned. This should not be construed as a harshness of character, however. Despite being a proficient and experienced soldier, Cynhelm is a scholar first and maintains much of his quiet devotion to his inner belief structure, as much as it may no longer resemble the faith of his early years. He is a teacher and mentor by nature, a patient listener and known for peppering his practical instruction with pearls of wisdom and sage advice. Cynhelm may seem not to crave the closeness of intimate connections but this far from excludes him from protective guardianship and he has a remarkable reputation for refusing the leave the battlefield without the rest of his team. |
|
| Strengths & Weaknesses | + his mutant powers + his military training + his dedication to learning + his calm disposition + his willingness to adapt - his unresolved past - his detachment - his rigid and complex belief structure - the dark |
|
| Ambitions | Once, the man Cynhelm believed he would become aspired to bring the glory of God to those in need. Now, he uses that intimate bonding with scripture to forge his own path towards a promised serenity, where those who seek shelter are not ridiculed, feared or turned away. His aspiration is simple, though the methodology that sits behind his actions can sometimes appear murky and steeped in shades of grey; unity. | |
| Hobbies & Interests | Cynhelm's primary motivation has always been learning, and anything that keeps his mind active. He is constantly indulging in new experiences, or reigniting a passion for past interests, and can most often be found somewhere quiet with several books if he is not in the throes of training or deployment. He loves a game of chess, is an avid historian and has been writing for years under a penname, though has yet to seek any publishing for his collection of drafts. A retirement plan, perhaps. |
| Personal History | Born Cedric Musa a little over a year before the cessation of World War II, Cynhelm never met his father, who died an unremarkable and unheralded soldier's death during the liberation of Italy just a month shy of his son's birth. It has long been drilled into his head that there was no ticket parade for the fallen, particularly those patriots from black minorities who were considered worthy enough of sacrifice but otherwise shunned, as far as his mother tells it, and their families left unsupported. Cedric certainly had a very poor upbringing, despite his mother securing work as a nurse to support herself and her three children. Based primarily in Manchester at the time, the youngest and only boy, Cedric was left to scramble up, old before his time and plagued incessantly by a sense of obligation and responsibility. He did his best at school, proved early on to be an excellent scholar, and for a good while was a devout and faithful Catholic as per his mother's example. Cedric was five when his powers first manifested. For the very longest time, it was not something that he chose to share with anyone. In the very early days, the incidents were sporadic and nothing eventuated that would incriminate the boy directly. It wasn't until he hit the latter end of his primary school days that Cedric realised he was developing an element of intent and control over what he had previously determined to be divine intervention. Fascinated by this angel's touch, as he thought of it, he began to experiment in secret. Several things happened in the year of Cedric's 13th birthday that would forever set his feet on a path away from what appeared to be a predetermined life within the ministry. Firstly, his mother remarried. Her new husband was an American doctor she'd met through collegial connections, a widower like herself raising two sons. Elden, the youngest, was close to Cedric in age and yet the two couldn't have been more different if they'd tried. Whereas Cedric preferred his studies and scriptures, Elden had aspirations of a boxing career and barely scraped passing grades at school. The two were wary of each other from the onset, a natural failure to relate that wasn't aided by the fact that they now shared a room. The second major upheaval came with the announcement six months later that his mother and new stepfather intended to move all of them to the United States to live in the house his stepfather had just inherited from his grandfather's estate. Already finding it challenging to adapt to their change in fortunes, and disappointed in his mother's sudden fascination with material wealth, Cedric was the only reluctant traveller and chose to deal with his sense of isolation by spending all his time in books, partially to broaden his understanding of a range of subjects, but also to find some source of explanation for his ability to conjure Heaven's Radiance and shape it. Experimentation lead to improved precision and thus it was that Cedric settled into life in New Orleans content to keep his own counsel and comforted by the certainty that he was destined to pursue a life that served the greater good. An altercation with his stepbrother when they were both 17 brought a swift end to all of that. Recollection of the events rests solely with the man Cedric became and is not something that he shares with any relish, meaning that he can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of living souls who know even part of the truth. His intent had been to intervene, that much he maintains, to provide a voice of reason during an altercation between Elden and his then-girlfriend that had strayed, Cedric felt, into unacceptable territory. It had allowed the girl an opportunity to leave but left his stepbrother drunk and irate. In that state, throwing punches didn't get him that far but his mouth pushed the envelope. Spewing vitriol regarding himself, Cedric would have accepted peacefully and forgiven. The disrespect to his mother and sisters, however... Cedric had never punched a man in his life. The spikes he had fashioned in subconscious defense caused instant death. In 1960, at the age of 17, Cedric Musa was charged with the murder of his stepbrother, Elden Fofana. He was incarcerated at The Louisiana State Penitentiary and sentenced to life imprisonment. He doesn't speak much of his time there, though others who knew him recall him as a withdrawn and peaceful guy who read whatever he could get his hands on. He no longer said his prayers before bed, however. Heaven's Touch had become Satan's Hand. Just 5 years later, as America sought to enter the Vietnam War, Cedric's sentence was abruptly cut short. Tracked down and formally identified for the first time as a mutant, he was offered freedom in exchange for special service to his country. The trade-off would be complete abandonment of his previous identity, disconnection from his family and the reestablishment of a new life under a new name at the discretion of the US Government. Though no longer a practising Catholic, Cedric carried within him enough desire for atonement that he agreed and signed away the life of Cedric Musa. Declared dead by suicide and reputedly cremated before the family could request to see a body, Cedric Musa is now buried in an unmarked grave that even his heartbroken mother does not visit. The man who emerged from prison in his place became Cynhelm Maliki Warden, a name he had derived from several obscure literary references whilst somewhat paying respect to his long-dead father, Malachai, whose name bore a reference to the self-appointed arrogance his former self had sought to claim. No longer considering himself a messenger of God, Cynhelm joined forces with six other mutants dragged from similarly wretched prospects and commenced training for targeted deployment. For the entire eight years of America's direct involvement in the conflict, Warden and his team were utilised in covert strikes, swift and precise intervention that saw them dumped into the middle of some of the worst of it and then immediately yanked out again to maintain their cover. In between such exercises, he was given some capacity to rebuild an independent life for himself, able to purchase a small apartment with his financial recompense and allowed to pursue personal interests. It was during this time, having found a community he previously hadn't even been aware he belonged to, that he started to take an interest in the anti-mutant movements and legislation. In 1975, when the war was well and truly over and the very last of his unit's infiltration had helped secure a surrender, the now-32-year-old Cynhelm had an opportunity to step back and watch the future intentions of his superiors unfold. Without a war to justify it, there was still a strong governmental push to recruit and train mutants for special forces assignments within the US Military, whilst simultaneously the public sentiment towards mutants veered angrily towards discrimination and restriction. Disenchanted by the double standards, Warden sought retirement and was summarily denied it. Frustrated but having learned a thing or two over the decade of working with those like him, the scholar-at-heart opted instead to use his imposed position to educate the mutants who came into the system about their options. In this, he became exceedingly difficult to discipline, having just the right disposition to guide and influence without making it obvious in any direct way. Though it was never touted as such, it was very clear that his choices during this time lead to his eventual relocation in 1982, an internal trade of sorts that finally saw him sent back home to England to continue similar efforts within the British Military. A decade later and his years of service are still not reflected in any paperwork that will likely see public light in his lifetime. He has no rank, no official service record, no accolades or decorated acknowledgement of sacrifice. Just like his father before him, Cynhelm has paid a price that his country will not honour. This tends to serve him well, however, because he has learned he can do just as much from the shadows as his powers permit him to shape out of direct light. The end of the tightrope is in sight and, very soon, a choice will have to be made. Unluckily for some, Cynhelm made his years ago. |
|
| Mutant Registration Status | Registered Entity |
