Mephi

Mephistopheles
Warlock on the Path of Scourging
First Talon of the Adamantine Arrow

Born: 17th of April 1976

Rank: Adept of Mind, Disciple of Space

Titles/Memberships: First Talon of the Adamantine Arrow

Various nicknames and aliases: Mephistopheles; Detective Sergeant Nick Elder

Physical description: Mephi went bald a while ago. Whether it's the years spent in the police force, the death of his cabal mates or perhaps emotional scarring from Awakening to the Watchtower of the Iron Gauntlet, or perhaps just natural no one is quite sure. He is well built, naturally quite solid with broad shoulders and a thick chest. He smells slightly of cigarettes and even more faintly of bourbon.

Nimbus: The feeling of the world looming over you, the feeling of the irrelevance of your place in the greater scheme of the universe. It ends with the feeling of triumph over hardship.

Timeline

Awakened - 1994: Mephi Awakened as a teenager - he rarely recounts it, but some may have heard it. He came from an abusive home - he Awoke as he was knocked down by his step-father, the bottle of cheap whiskey grew an Iron Gauntlet and the demons that plagued his life tore at his mind. He dragged himself to the Watchtower and signed his name in the Devil's Forge. When he snapped to and saw his drunk step-father standing over his mother he screamed and crushed the man's mind into a gibbering mess. He has never said anything more about his mother.

School Of Hard Knocks - 1995 to 1998: Mephi's first Master, Llorican, taught him hard and fast - the school of hard knocks. He learned by being beaten, run to exhaustion and then pushed to his mental limits. It was brutal, but he looks back and is thankful for his being tested. He was trained hard and helped to join the South Australian Police Force under the false identity of Nicholas Elder. In 1998 Llorican was called away by the Adamantine Arrow to aid a group of Mysterium undertaking a dangerous project. Around this time he married his girlfriend Fiona and they had two children - William and Evelyn.

Golden Age - 1998 to 2005: Mephi made friends with a group of Mages who Awoke within a few years of him and formed a Cabal - Pilot Investigations. He used his position in SAPOL to help his Cabal in their dealings. Shortly after this Mephi began to have an affair with one of his cabal mates, Caerys, which continued long into Mephi's Awakened life. Without Llorican to push him, Mephi enjoyed life and quickly rose through the police to eventually gain the rank of Detective. In this time he is taken under the tutelage of Baton Rouge, the local head of the Adamantine Arrow and is promoted to Detective Sergeant.

Face From The Past - 2005 to 2009: Baton Rouge retires from leadership of the Adamantine Arrow and passes on the torch to Mephi, promoting him to First Talon. Shortly afterwards Llorican returns to Adelaide and finds his old apprentice doing quite well - mortal family growing, a strong Cabal, career in the police force going swimmingly. His old mentor is envious and begins to subtly attack and weaken Mephi's position: making his Cabal look incompetent in front of the Hierarch, evidence in Mephi's cases going missing or crucial evidence showing up at the last minute before prosecution, and then finally tipping Mephi's wife off that he has been having an affair this entire time. Mephi starts drinking heavily.

Changes - 2009 to 2011: Due to accusations from an old friend of Mephi's, and his chronic drinking Fiona separates from Mephi. He delves deep into his work and Cabal. It takes time, but he figures out Llorican was behind a lot of his problems and confronts his old mentor, who comes clean outright. This leads to a rift between the two. Fiona divorces Mephi and moves on, having found someone else. This enrages Mephi and he directs it all at Llorican, finding out that he had been working with a Scelestus - Mephi declares The Right of Nemesis. Llorican, having been found out, wipes out Mephi's Cabal one by one and then confronts Mephi with Caerys' head in hand. Mephi and Llorican fight - Mephi throws everything into the fight and barely scrapes out with his life.

Grief and Solitude - 2011 to 2013 Mephi moves into the old Cabal's sanctum full time and takes on a student - a Sleepwalker called Dennis - at the behest of Baton Rouge. His entire life revolves around drinking, working and Adamantine Arrow business. He rarely sees his kids and is usually late or semi-drunk when he does organise time with them. Fiona remarries, Mephi doesn't attend the wedding even though he was invited.

Recent events

2013

News Report, 13 November 2013 - Detective Sergeant Nicholas Elder was found shot dead and decapitated at a Gawler address, the attack came in broad day light and police are calling it 'brazen, reckless and cowardly'. Elder was linked to several corruption allegations, although nothing was ever substantiated, though he was known to have links to a bikie gang.

Transcript of TV interview, 29 February 2014, Fiona Elder.

GG: "Thank you for giving us this interview, we believe it to be important to get the truth out there."
FE: "It's fine, I'm still a little shaken... but it's good to talk,"
GG: "I'd like to start by talking about Nicholas, from your point of view... What sort of person was he?"
FE: "Nick... he thought he was God's gift to the police force, a superstar, and he was. He was dedicated and it always paid off, he always solved cases... even the cold ones, he just... had a gift. He was always on top of the world, always happy when he was working. You know? You could never keep him at home... he always wanted to be out there catching the bad guys."
GG: "What was he like at home?"
FE: "He was... a firm father, he loved his kids and always loved them, but he was very firm with them. He wanted the best for them, but they didn't always see it that way. He would do things like... put a pool in the backyard, and he and the kids dug the hole for it themselves. He got them out of bed at 8am to start digging - he'd be in there the entire time on the shovel, but he expected the same for them."
...
GG: "I want to talk about November 13..."
FE: "Yeah... all right... I... I'm shocked at how it happened... I'll be honest, I'm not surprised that it did though."
GG: "Not surprised?"
FE: "Well... no. He knew certain people, they'd visit or call at ridiculous hours. The conversations were sometimes quite heated, and I remember once he left at around 2:30 in the morning and didn't come back until the morning after that."
GG: "Did you worry about him?"
FE: "Of course I did... he scared me, he wasn't picking up his phone, he wasn't at work... none of his friends knew where he was. When he came back he looked like a truck had hit him." ...

2014

Mephi is sore over his public identity being killed, but turns it into something worthwhile and decides to go after the Seers of the Throne in Adelaide now that he is basically a free agent.

2016

Mephi's son, Amaymon Awakens. Someone in his family knows that he's alive - he's unsure if this is a good or bad thing yet.

Quotes

Quotes by

• "You told Evie?! What the fuck is wrong with you?! You don't get it, do you? You don't understand the insane level of secrecy I've built around them to keep them out of harms way! You're throwing them straight in the Seer's path!" - Mephi arguing with Amaymon

Quotes about

• "Your name is Mephistopheles? Dear God why am I in the same car as you" - Gabriel
  
• "He needs to turn that frown up-the-fuck-side down. Is it some kind of growing up rite of passage for guys to look grumper the older they get?" - Kyubey
• "Got some really questionable ideals, but Dornie seems to have a fondness for him, and she's wiser than I'll ever be. We'll see how that works out for the two of them." - Vyra Anala
• "YOU! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD" - Amaymon
• "Mate, we both know he can handle a fuckload more than a punch to the face" - 24601 to Aequitas, while in hospital recovering from the duel between her and Mephi.
• "Here's how we get Mephi to scry on us. One of us sends him a text telling him we're taking our clothes off and he'll want to scry us then because he's a dick," A very drunk 24601 while hanging out with Tiamat, Claire, Quill and The Zali

Rumours

- There's a common, unconfirmed rumour that Mephi gave in to mortal police corruption and used Magic to get himself promoted in the police force.

Inspirations and Soundtrack

Black Strobe - I'm A Man - [1]
Bruce Springsteen - Devils and Dust - [2]
Cold Chisel - Lost - [3]
Eskimo Joe - Morning Light - [4]
Hilltop Hoods - Light's Out - [5]
Slash (feat. Andrew Stockdale) - By The Sword - [6]
John Newman - Love Me Again - [7]
The Animals - House of the Rising Sun - [8]
Cage the Elephant - Ain't No Rest For The Wicked - [9]
Lou Reed - The Gun - [10]
Lately - Lera Lynn - [11]

- Dornelia and Mephi at any meeting of the Pentacle.