Avatar (Of the City of the Saved...)

Avatar
Main aliases:	Godfather Avatar
Species:	Loa
Affiliated with:	Faction Paradox
First appearance:	Of the City of the Saved...
Appearances:	A Hundred Words from a Civil War, God Encompasses

Godfather Avatar was one of the leaders of the Rump Parliament in the City of the Saved.

Biography

Godfather Avatar invariably appeared dressed in a black cloak, wearing a bone mask with antlers and a tricorn hat. Selene Walmric speculated in Faction Paradox: A Negotiable History that Avatar was not an actual person (something obviously implied by his name), but instead a rôle assumed by other Rump Parliament members, with a deliberate air of mystery (no history could be found for Avatar before the City) to draw attention from the true leaders of the Rump Parliament. This was actually very close to the truth. Avatar was not a corporeal person; he was a loa. The identity of Avatar was used by — or the loa Avatar rode — a variety of Cousins and Godparents in the Rump Parliament at different times. But his "default" body was that of Little Brother Edward, whose fragile sense of self made him an ideal host. Walmric also noted that Avatar first appeared on Resurrection Day and has no history to speak of in the prior universe.

In AF 291, Cllr Ved Mostyn (actually Cousin Porsena of the Rump Parliament) was murdered with a potent weapon. Godfather Avatar visited Laura Tobin in Paynesdown District and contracted her to investigate the incident, giving her cover as an assistant to Cllr Mesh Cos. When he left the District, his shadow remained at Tobin's apartment building.

Godfather Avatar/Little Brother Edward was shot and killed by agents of Antipathy, and resurrected at the Epicentre in Manfold. In Paynesdown, Avatar's shadow began to walk.

Avatar found a tattered black blanket, and used it as a stand-in for his usual cloak. He agreed with the resurrected Cousin Porsena that Edward would rescue Lon Shel, while Avatar rode Porsena. Avatar-Porsena initiated Edward as a Cousin, binding a sword to his shadow, then began to make his way to the true Epicentre: the exact centre of the larger area called "the Epicentre." There, Avatar confronted Antipathy. He encouraged Antipathy's ranting, and waited for his shadow to arrive. When it did, he sorted through his shadow-arsenal until he found a Manfolk annihilation bomb. He activated it, killing himself, Porsena, and Antipathy. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...)

When Lord Mayor Lucius Cassius Ignotus re-died, he was confronted by Avatar and the other four trillion killed in the Civil War. (PROSE: A Hundred Words from a Civil War)

Compassion used all of her timeship children as backups for the City, so that when the original City was consumed, Godfather Avatar (along with every other Citizen) was restored to life again. (PROSE: God Encompasses)

Personality

Godfather Avatar saw his life as a rôle in a story — he had a sardonic attitude, mocking the people around him and the situations he was in as if playing to an audience. This was exacerbated by the constant grin of his skull mask, which made him always seem to not be taking things seriously. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...)

Appearance

Godfather Avatar was almost literally made of iconography, and therefore stuck to very specific regalia. It consisted of theoretically bulletproof Faction Paradox body armour, a black cloak, an antlered bone mask with a speaker grille in the jaw, and a tricorn hat. (PROSE: Of the City of the Saved...)

External links

• Avatar (Of the City of the Saved...) at the Faction Paradox wiki