Difference between revisions of "Faith"

    Erin possesses many qualities that one might expect of a knight. She is calm, patient, and loyal to a fault. She tends to see the best in the people around her, and feels that those who do wrong should be given a chance to redeem themselves. That's not to say she's a pushover entirely. While she is friendly to most everyone she meets, she is not so quick to extend full trust to just anybody. Once her trust is earned, however, you'll never find a more loyal person to have in your corner. She's not the type to nag, and despite the fact that she holds Christian beliefs, she's not judgmental and prefers not to proselytize. If anything, she believes she can do more good for her fellow man by demonstrating how to be a good person, and by showing what the power of faith can do for a believer. In other words, rather preach at people, she lets her good deeds do the talking.

Some of that warm and fuzzy quality Erin has about her cools a bit in the presence of evil, supernatural entities. She was brought up in an order who's primary function in modern times is to defend mankind from DEMON, after all. In the presence of such evil, she is steadfast, stoic, and unfaltering.

Faith

Divine Healing

Celestial Blasts

Holy Purification

Multilingual

Only Human After All

Unknown Depths

Gratia

    "On this terrible day, in my final hour, I shall let truth triumph and declare, before heaven and all the saints, that I have committed the greatest of all crimes. But my crime is this: that I confessed to malicious charges made against an order that is innocent so that I could escape further torture. I shall not confirm a first lie with a second. I renounce life willingly. I have no use for days of sorrow earned only by lies."

    Those were the defiant final words of Jacques de Molay, thought to be the last Master of the Knights Templar. For the past seven years, upwards of 5000 knights of the order had been arrested, all as part of a plan for King Philip the Fair to seize the Templars vast wealth. What the king, and the people of Paris did not know, was that many knights had gone into hiding once the persecution began. A handful of these survivors watched as Jacques de Molay and Geoffrey de Charney, old men who had long served the order, were burned at the stake. With their deaths, a secret only known to those within the order died. The secret? That certain members of the order had somehow been gifted with the ability to call upon the power of the divine. Those with the gift went into seclusion, taking with them what treasures had escaped from King Philip's grasp.

    The next 700 years were spent trying to quietly rebuild the order. Much of those early decades were spent simply trying to restructure the order, to better hide the identities of the few members that remained, and to try to bring in fresh blood as quietly as possible. Safe-houses were established, a network of residences across Europe where members could carry out their work in secret. It wasn't until 1783 that the order found a new purpose, a new mission for its members: to protect the innocent from the dark workings of the Circle of the Scarlet Moon. This shift in focus caused a split within the order, as some felt that their duty should only be to protect those of the Christian Faith. It is unclear what has happened to those that left, or if they continue to operate. Those that chose to stay became part of what is known to just a few in the supernatural community as the Modern Order of the Knights Templar.

    Erin's parents died when she was barely a year old, and none of her extended family wanted to take on the burden of an additional mouth to feed. As a result, her early years were spent in a state run orphanage in Manila. She could have faced a long hard life, probably winding up on the street, were it not for the intervention of Monsignor Mendoza. To everyone else in the neighborhood, he was just a man of the church who was famed to be able to say a prayer over someone and their ailments would disappear. In reality, he was a member of the Modern Order. He was paying a visit to Erin's orphanage, and felt that the child was different. He always trusted his intuition, and it had never led him astray before. The Monsignor made a few calls, and soon the child was taken out of the orphanage and into the care of the Order. Monsignor Mendoza became her legal guardian, caretaker, and mentor.

    Erin found herself whisked away to Banda Aceh, Indonesia not long after, when the Monsignor was posted there. The child soaked up everything her mentor taught to her, and not just the lessons in how to use the power of the divine. When she wasn't in regular school, or in a training session, she was working alongside the Monsignor doing acts of charity, helping her fellow man. The two were present in 2004 when Banda Aceh was struck by the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. Erin was separated from the Monsignor in all of the chaos, and barely managed to survive. It was days before the two were reunited. Aside from being scared out of her wits, Erin managed to only escape with minor injuries. The Monsignor, however, suffered quite a few injuries, and to this day carries a limp as a result.

    The next six years were spent helping with the recovery efforts throughout the devastated regions in Indonesia, then after that another four years were spent in Sri Lanka, until finally the Monsignor recieved a posting in the US, in Vibora Bay. The next two years were spent in intense study and training, preparing for her 18th birthday, when she would be promoted from acolyte to a full fledged member. She was presented with a sword, which she named Gratia.

    Normally, once an acolyte becomes a full fledged member of the Order, they would be trained in swordfighting, which would be done under the guidance of their mentor. Due to the Monsignor's physical condition, it was decided that Erin would be trained by another member of the Order. She was moved to Millennium City, where she met her new teacher, a brusque, opinionated woman named Jane Claymore. Currently, Erin is still under Claymore's tutelage, and enrolled in her senior year at Grace Memorial High School. She's taken to using the things she has learned in training, and applied it to hero work, registered under the name Faith.

    The Progeny: Faith joined the Progeny during the summer of 2016. Her first initial contact with members of the group occurred during The Urban Jungle event, which saw her having to help guard elderly super heroes from being captured by a man known as Bloodshot. She was brought into the group proper not long after. Initially the question of her religious beliefs were a bit of an awkward point, but for the most part everyone (Erin included) have been able to work past all that. There are times that her sheltered upbringing causes some confusion on her part, as she's not as savvy with American pop culture as the rest of her peer group. She's catching on though,a nd for the first time, she seems to be allowing herself to get close enough to others to from lasting friendships.

    HexBane: Jill was one of the first people to jump to her defense over the matter of her beliefs and the source of Erin's abilities. She's been close to the pale skinned witch ever since. She's Erin's best friend, the first one she's ever really had. Their dynamic is a good one, with Jill being tempered by Erin's more diplomatic tendencies and Erin being reminded that there comes a time where you have to care for yourself first before others.

    Kid Ballistic ♫ ♫: Erin cares a great deal about Sidney Mason, which is a bit ironic considering how antagonistic he was toward her initially. Since those first awkward and frustrating interactions, she's come to learn more about his past and upbringing. In some ways, the two are very alike. They both had sheltered upbringings, both trained since a young age for their future occupations. The difference comes in that her upbringing had the presence of a nurturing father figure, where Sid's father who could never in a million years be described as nurturing. For whatever reason, these two almost polar opposites have found themselves wanting to be more than friends. And neither one of them have a clue as to what to do about it.

    Luctus: Erin wasn't sure what to make of Lyman in the beginning. Now that she's had more of an opportunity to get to know him, she finds in him a person with incredible strength to hold up such a heavy burden. Her job now seems to try and get him to smile a bit more often to make that burden somewhat lighter. At first Penthos, the spirit of mourning who has taken up residence in Lyman's mind, did not seem to like her much. He now seems to be more tolerant of Lyman's friendship with Erin.

Arbiter