The First Age

Name: Armande Nicodemus
Title: The Regus
Age: 61

Origin: Syracuse, Sicily
Current: Moscow

Occupation:
Regus of the Atharim
Guardian of The Remnant, Vicar of Iscariot, The Oroboros
Nominally: Head of the Historical and Ecclesiastical Archives of the Holy See of St.Peter

Psychological Profile:
Driven, passionate, fiery. Sharp of mind and able to focus, against all distractions, on chosen purpose or will. Not trusting of others, yet incredibly charming when need requires, but even then, he doesn't smile much. Serious. Focused cannot be overstated as a character trait. Incredibly smart, and knowledgeable. Is almost pathological in his intent to know and learn. Will study, dig, research, inquire and gather any and all information regardless of personal cost or health. Expects obedience and focus in subordinates. Very little patience, and definitely not one to double cross. Favorite mantra: "Forgiveness is for children, Forgetting is for the Simple, Work is for Mortals, Knowledge is for the Divine."

Physical Profile:
Average height, lean but not slim, hard but not thick, muscular, but not buff. Natural Auburn hair, now greying with streaks of white. Cold, grey eyes. Serious in face, but not grim. Sleek of style. Nothing flashy, but nothing out of place. Penchant for wearing Grey, Black or Brown, never wears color. Confident stride with a smooth gait, yet he walks much faster than it appears. When watching him, he is seemingly walking calmly at a leisurely pace, yet people who walk with him often look like their rushing.

Chronicle Vitae:
Armande Nicodemus was born to a Prostitute in Syracuse, Sicily. He grew up poor and a child of the streets. His mother died when he was 12, old enough for him to make it on his own, but young enough to still have his innocence. He lived on the streets for a year, staying with her prostitute friends, until he was taken in by a priest, Father Joseph. The priest began to spend time and teach young Armande and was continually impressed with his intelligence and how quickly he learned. Armande soaked up everything like a sponge. Within another year, he was caught up on the basics, and his mentor began teaching him more advanced subjects. He became fluent in Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Russian, Mandarin and English, as well as his native Italian and was able to read ancient Hebrew and Aramaic and Koine Greek. He learned calculus and physics as well as history and theology.



One day, Father Joseph was so impressed he took him to the Library of Syracuse, where a stout, old woman questioned him for the better part of two hours on ancient sources and myths. After having him read, translate and analyze the original scrolls. After this experience, he was sent to live with the old woman, who had him work in the library every morning, study every afternoon and oddly enough, taught him martial arts and hand to hand combat every evening. She was only frail to the unprepared observer. Once engaged, her short stature and dowdy librarian suits hid a muscular and lithe body. Armande studied and practiced with her from the time he was 14 until 17.

At 17, he was sent to study at Hebrew University in Jerusalem to get a degree in Ancient Religions and Mathematics. While in Jerusalem he stayed with a conclave of Mar Thoma Monks who put him through the same rigorous training and routine the old librarian had. Having been raised with nothing, the ascetic life was not unbearable. He graduated with both degrees in three years, and was looking forward to where he would go for graduate work when the Monks told him he was going to Oman. There he would live and have additional training.



He traveled with a group of Bedouins and learned Arabic as well as the rural desert life. They expanded upon his physical training, and taught him the use of weapons to compliment and aid his fighting. For two solid years, he trained his body over his mind. After two years, the Bedouin chief told him he was going to America to study at Harvard University.

Armande dutifully went, carrying his few possessions in a knapsack. Upon arrival in Boston he met his benefactor, the Priest from Syracuse, Father Joseph, who took him to a small convent where he was to stay for his duration. He was told he had been accepted into Harvard School of Divinity where he would study antiquities and archeology as well. At the age of 25, Armande graduated from Harvard with two Doctorates, one in Theology and one in Archeology. He then went on to study a semester at the University of Heidelberg before attending the Pontifical Gregorian University.

It was here Armande fell in love with two people; the Founder of the Society of Jesus, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and a young acolyte, Gregorio Vitti. Gregorio convinced Armande to join the Priesthood so they could be together. It was a wonderful time for Armande as he learned to love after years of doing without. He and Gregorio carried on their secret affair in the heart of The Vatican. A season of bliss and happiness that Armande had never known. However, their time was short-lived as after only 6 months, Gregorio was found hanging in his dormitory, a victim of an apparent suicide.



Armande was told he would be released from his vows as a Jesuit, and was sent to the Greek Orthodox Monastery, Holy Mt. Athos to study and meditate.

Armande was sad, but not devastated. He had learned that people you love do not last in your life. His only constant was knowledge. He was 27. Upon his return to Rome, he was told by a Jesuit Monsignor, who had become his advisor, that he would be leaving to go to Cairo University after his current semester.

Armande, who still had no attachments went without question. His whole life was being mapped out for him, and he was dutiful and even grateful for his opportunities. He missed Gregorio, and longed for him, but his books and his studies filled this void. At Cairo University, Armande went on archeological digs and studied even more. He began to learn Coptic and to study and read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. It was on one of these archaeology digs he was abducted one night.



When he woke up he was in a tent. He was bound hand and foot. In front of him were 6 people, the librarian from his youth, the Chief of the Bedouins, his Jesuit advisor and 3 younger people he did not know, one was a tall, toned young woman, about his own age with long red hair and plump lips. The Bedouin Chief told him they were a faction of a secret and ancient group known as The Atharim, or The Remnant. The Remnant of what they did not know, but they had a purpose. His benefactor, the late Father Joseph had been a friend of The Atharim and had brought him to the Librarian, because he knew Armande could be a valuable asset one day. They explained that the Atharim were not all known to each other, but some worked in tandem to accomplish their mission of protecting mankind from monsters, myths, legends and End Times prophecies. They explained that every bit of his training so far had been at the direction of The Atharim, and now, he had a choice to make. He could choose to be a part of their secret order, or hunted and killed. Armande made the choice stoically and without reservation. He underwent their days long secret ceremony and ordination, including receiving his tale-tell Ouroboros tattoo, and began his life as the 7th member of their faction of Atharim.

He accepted assignment after assignment. Using his physical strength, martial skills, education and knowledge and razor-sharp mind to accomplish every task set before him.

He saw the Librarian die fighting a specter of the night, and walked in on his Jesuit Advisor being disembowled by a creature that seemed to escape through a crack in the wall. He and the young woman, Jova al'Tiar became lovers and spent a decade and a half in a torrid relationship until she disappeared one day, never to return from an assignment.

It was this second loss of love that convinced Armande he was destined to never be attached to another person while on Earth. Atharim described death as "waking from the dream", perhaps when he awoke at some point in the future, Gregorio or Jova or both would be waiting for him, but until that point, he would covet and desire only his knowledge and his passion for his life as an Atharim.

Armande was 51 when he was summoned to Rome. He had an appointment he was told in the Vatican City. Upon arrival, he was abducted, for now the second time in his life. Upon being released discovered he was in the very presence of The Holy Father and 2 other people who recognized as Atharim from their Ouroboros tattoos.
Candles and ancient wooden chairs filled the windowless space. in the middle was a table with antiquated scrolls and manuscripts upon it.



He was being chosen, he was told, because of his stellar intellect, pursuit of knowledge and deadly accuracy at completing missions, to enter a new life and take up a new challenge. The choice was the same as when he first received his own tattoo ...accept, or be hunted. This time there was more hesitation and trepidation on Armande's part. He was deadly as an assassin and hunter. He had seen living nightmares. What would running from being hunted for the rest of his life bring that could be more dangerous that what he had already experienced? And yet, there was more knowledge than he could ever dream awaiting him if he only agreed.

The Holy Father explained that since the days of Constantine the Great and Pope Sylvester I, the Roman Pope has had a hand in acknowledging the choice of The Regus, the legendary leader of The Atharim. And from that time, The Regus was the final arbiter of the selection of the Roman
Catholic Pope, Bishop of Rome.

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"My child, Armande. The most famous leader of your organization was none other than Judas the Iscariot. You know your order exists to protect mankind from the physical manifestations of Apollyon. The Iscariot was convinced the wandering itinerant preacher from Nazareth was the Apollyon made flesh and was going to bring about the End Times, and the Next Age. Following his attempt to destroy a man he was convinced was a Destructor, a God-Man. We, the Early Church strove to discover who he represented. The legends of his 30 pieces of silver and shameful demise were created to hide his true identity. The Romans knew The Regus and detested him. They set him up in conjunction with the Jewish Sanhedrin. The world mourns one great betrayal on Good Friday, but there were two people betrayed in that act, Jesus and Judas.

The Atharim were shamed by his failure and the betrayal of the Jewish Sanhedrin which had entered into agreement with The Atharim to rid themselves of a threat. They were humbled as an organization and kept themselves incognito for over three centuries. Nursing the wounds their leader had allowed to be inflcted on them. They chose Judas's successor and successors, keeping their focus on the signs that would shepherd in the real End Times.

Meanwhile, for centuries Church Fathers searched for the truth behind the betrayal of our Lord. Finally, with the backing and influence of Emperor Constantine, it was discovered that Judas led a group of followers, dedicated to protecting mankind from prophecies and myths marking the End of Days. We, the Church, could not let that knowledge out. WE were the Protectors of the Souls of Men. The presence of another group, possibly rival organization, determined to protecting the existence and survival of mankind, MUST be associated with our Spiritual purpose or be destroyed.

It was under Pope Sylvester I that first contact was made with the then Regus. Pope Sylvester arranged to have him kidnapped and presented him with the information that had been discovered. Sylvester told him the future of The Atharim were in his hands. Two things must happen, or the Church would annihilate every member and wipe the remnant off the face of the Earth. First, The Regus had to be integrated and associated with the Church. And secondly, the Atharim were too closely knit. They would not need to disband, but they could not assemble in congregate anymore. Your Regus did the noble thing, and saved your Remnant from calamity, but he set you on the path to where you are today, disconnected factions, secret from themselves. Fulfilling clandestine duties, with nary a coordinating effort. This has been the way, even though power has waxed and waned through millennia between our various and diverse predecessors.

Sylvester was the first to honor your Regus in this way. And that has continued to this day. To this moment. To you sitting here with me, just as your Predecessor's Predecessor sat here when I first found I had the opportunity to be chosen. What is said here, must never part your lips.
You may notice I alone represent the Holy Mother Church. Ever since Sylvester erected Old St. Peter's Basilica, The Regus has officially housed in the Church office of Head of the Historical and Ecclesiastical Archives of the Holy See of St.Peter. But only The Regus and Il Papa know of that relationship. Your two comrades here have chosen to be a part of the ancient ritual of selecting their new leader. Should you accept, they will die. This will preserve that only you and I shall ever know our connection and relationship. The same is done when my predecessors were chosen, and will be done when my successor's time is nigh.

Decade and decade for millennia, such is the waltz we dance to preserve mankind. WE fighting a spiritual warfare for the souls of men, YOU fighting a temporal one for their minds and survival.

Do you accept Armande Nicodemus? Do you swear to lose your name and soul? To become The Ouroboros? The Vicar of Iscariot? The Guardian of the Remnant? The Regus of the Atharim?"

Armande never released the gaze of the man before him, this man, the successor of St. Peter. By accepting this, he was agreeing to change the focus of his entire life. He took three breaths, then answered, "Yes. Yes. With all my soul, yes."



"It is done." He heard the Pope say as he took out a silken rope, joined in three strands, and walked behind each of the other people in the room, taking turns, he stood behind their chairs, wrapped the rope around each of their throats, and strangled them, just as the Romans executed members of their elite Senatorial class when necessary. They gave no resistance and uttered no cry. Their heels quietly drummed on the floor as they involuntarily gasped their final breaths.

From that moment forward Armande had become Regus and had set about learning all he could. However, unlike The Regus before him, the title of Vicar of Iscariot was burned in his psyche. What were the Atharim like under Judas when they could meet in conclave, and work together for more than random factions or missions. Armande would be the first Regus to betray the promise to keep The Atharim disjointed. It would be hard to undo thousands of years of practice, but from that moment he began fashioning the hidden organization into a tool, focused on a purpose, protecting humanity from Apollyon...above all else.




Edited by Regus, Aug 3 2013, 07:27 PM.