#or their goals are unconventional (but still feasible and not damaging.

[themindelectricdemo4]

Holy FUCK r/honesttransgender is so transphobic

[fugitive-magician]

Surya's Backstory!

(I know it’s very long but please try to read the whole thing! I’m very sorry, I just have so much story to tell through him. If you are in a hurry, there is a TL; DR at the end ;u; )

-He was born in medieval England!! His real name is Alistair Payne! His physical age is around 36 years old. He was born in the early 1410s in the outskirts of a rural farming village, and he worked the farm and tended to his animals as a child. His parents passed away when he was young, and while the villagers came to check on him every so often, he spent most of his time around nature. He turned 36 sometime in the late 1440s, after the Valais Witch Trials and the execution of Joan of Arc, but before the release of the Malleus Maleficarum. This era was the beginning of medieval witch hunt hysteria, and after making use of unconventional healing salves and farming methods to help his friends and his animals, Alistair was eventually accused and burned for being a witch.

-But!! He wasn't burned! At the last minute, when he was tied to the stake, he was rescued by members of the Nova Corps as a part of their new defense strategy: Project Renaissance.

-Project Renaissance was a "charity" project proposed to the Xandarians by a Kree biophysicist named Ahbeo Driaxe. Ahbeo was secretly the leader of a radical cult called the Cintaya, which focused on the use of black magic. Members of the Cintaya were outcasts of society, born from hate and misunderstanding. As such, many members of the of the Cintaya were Skrull, pushed to serve a Kree sorceress by the hate and scorn the Kree lavished upon them, in hopes of destroying their oppressors.

-When an organism dies, the release of their soul from their body causes a sort of exothermic reaction which results in their cells releasing Qi (life force energy) and latent magical energy, as the muscles relax and the decaying process begins. Black magic aims on gathering and using this energy by slaughtering organisms to perform spells.

-Ahbeo's cult in particular was obsessed with purity, and aimed at using black magic to summon an ancient demon named Malnata, who would ultimately consume everything in the universe and reorganize the matter into a new, pristine universe. The cult made use of the Skrull’s shapeshifting abilities in order to kidnap and murder opposers to their ideals. However, all Cintaya members were identifiable by their black blood, as they made use of some of the magic they harvested to lengthen their lifespans until they could see Malnata’s forthcoming. Their cult slaughtered thousands, but Ahbeo soon realized that this was an inefficient method of gathering black magic energy, as it drew the attention of intergalactic authorities and jeopardized their mission. She realized that, instead of gathering energy by killing thousands of people once, she could gather the same amount of energy in secret by killing one organism a thousand times.

-The Nova Corps, unknowing of her true identity and intentions, supported Project Renaissance, named for the human era in which it was started and after the human word for "reborn". The project was an initiative to take lost and doomed individuals from Earth and give them another chance at life by replacing their living cells with networks of energy, making them immune to sickness and aging. They would lose all their memories of their tragic lives and would live anew as protectors of the Xandarian people. This was to ensure that the project was both charitable and did not dramatically affect Earth's timeline by removing key representatives of humanity’s development.

-Intergalactic laws on human experimentation were very slack during this time period, and humans were often viewed in the same way as puppies or endangered animals. Key forerunners of human progress were known as “Ambassadors”, a classification that would continue to be used by the Xandarians and other alien races far into the future. The actions of Ambassadors are constantly monitored by the Nova Corps and other intergalactic governments in order to judge humanity’s advancement as a species and their aptness for being invited to participate in intergalactic councils of civilized races.

-By having bodies made of energy, the subjects of Project Renaissance could live forever in the same, unchanging state that they were rewritten in. They could exist without resource consumption (food, air, water, etc.) or susceptibility to chemical damage, as they’re no longer capable of chemical processes besides sensing chemicals in the form of taste and smell. They didn’t age, and while their bodies couldn’t heal on their own, being exposed to a source of whatever energy they’re formed from allows them to regenerate whatever wound or damage they’re afflicted with. Under the condition that they have an energy source that they could use to regenerate every 24 hours, they could even feasibly exist comfortably without sleep or rest. However, if their bodies are not regenerated, they begin to lose their energy, which results in their whole form losing its color and eventually disintegrating.

-There were 78 total subjects in Project Renaissance. Each subject was rewritten with a network of different energies, including infinity stone energy, energy from the dark dimension, and plasma energy. However, 77 of the subjects proved unsuccessful, as the humans’ organic bodies refused to be replaced properly with the new energy bodies, creating corrupted networks that resulted in disgusting eldritch monsters, similar to the creature at the beginning of this. These failed test subjects were promptly ejected into space. Photon energy was used to rewrite Alistair, and he became Subject #78, making him the final and only successful subject of the project. In #78’s case, eating or drinking would be very bad for him, as his energy body can’t physically break down food. He regenerates and heals by being exposed to sunlight, as his body is made of photons, making him a living sunbeam!

-The subjects of Project Renaissance were meant to have bodies that followed the 50% Law, in which they could fully regenerate if 50% of their total energy was in one piece. This meant that even if their heart stopped and they died, they could still be brought back to life if exposed to energy and regenerated, making it only possible for them to die permanently if their bodies deteriorated past 50%. The Nova Corps believed that the project would give the lost humans a new purpose as protectors of civilian populations. After saving them from their inevitable deaths by whisking them away and transforming them into perfectly efficient soldiers, the Nova Corps would educate the subjects in language and law, teaching them how to be moral humans again. However, Ahbeo was instead using the project as a way to exploit Xandarian research and resources to create the perfect sacrifice: one that could die over and over again.

-After #78 was created and trained successfully, Ahbeo stole him away to a place called the Altar, a meteor with a completely colorless, lightless interior, and the main base of the Cintaya. There, she physically and mentally abused him, feeding him partial truths: that he lived a meaningless life on Earth, that he was created so that he could die, that his own people wanted him dead, and that the Xandarians no longer valued him because he was an inorganic piece of energy, and therefore not technically alive. Filling his head with images of the masses she slaughtered in the past, she warned #78 that she would kill thousands more if he didn’t comply. She drove #78 to commit ritualistic suicide over and over, urging him that it was his purpose, and gathering the energy from each of his deaths to eventually manifest Malnata in his body.

-The Nova Corps were horrified by how Ahbeo had tricked them and by the plot that their project had furthered. Covertly, they hunted Ahbeo and #78, finding the meteor and laying siege to the Cintaya. In an attempt to finish preserve her cult and her goals, Ahbeo locked the Altar in a pocket dimension, and turned herself in for arrest. Terrified of himself and of returning to the Xandarian labs, #78 fled escaped the Nova Corps and fled. The research and development of Project Renaissance was abruptly discontinued, and because of Ahbeo’s betrayal, the Nova Corps never released the project to the public, hoping to keep their failure and naivete a secret and to cover up any association they had with the Cintaya. As #78 was the last remaining evidence of the project’s existence, they labeled him as a wanted fugitive in the hopes of hunting him down and destroying him. This was to prevent him from revealing the project to public, prevent the Cintaya from ever being able to summon Malnata, and to finally lay the project to rest.

-#78 spent years in hiding, hopping from planet to planet, learning the languages and cultures of many different races. He was essentially a new human, unsure of how to navigate the world or relationships with others. He had no memories of who he was before the project, and no way of retrieving his identity files from the Nova Corps without risking his arrest and death. Thus, he realized he had to return to Earth in order to discover more about his past, and ended up crashing near the base of Mt. Everest in the late 1540s, 100 years later. Sorcerers of the Kamar Taj found him and took him in from there. After they discovered he didn’t know his real name besides his number, they gave him the name “Surya” after the Hindu sun god, because of his need for sunlight to survive.

- At Kamar Taj, he was taught how to be human, including how to manipulate magic. Because Surya was made from energy, he found it easy to channel energy, but not control it completely. At this point in time, the Ancient One was training at the Kamar Taj. (I have a few important headcanons about her here!) In her earlier years of training, the Ancient One was stubborn, strong-willed, and headstrong. She learned magic through years of hard work and forceful training, and was annoyed by Surya’s aptitude for understanding the flow of universal energy. She used to call him “eanling” which was an Old Irish shepherd term for a freshly dropped lamb that still needed to learn to walk.

While her ideology was more aligned with the traditional views of the Kamar Taj and focused on manipulating magic to further her goals, Surya focused his training on letting magic flow naturally and appreciating its beauty. Surya disagreed with a lot of the temple's teachings, and formed a bit of a rivalry with the Ancient One. He believed that magic is most effective when it is allowed to flow freely, as opposed to being concentrated into specific spells and geometric patterns. He also believed that magic and relics could be used for more than just protection and combat, and that they could be channeled as tools for communication and compassion. Because of this, he specializes in more ambiguous, indirect magic, such as healing, clairvoyance through cards, clairvoyance through dreams, light illusions, psychological reading, and communication across dimensions. He can also concentrate sun energy  into nebulous shields and kinesis.

-Because of their drastically different magical styles, the Ancient One and Surya actually learned a lot from each other. She taught him how to stand up for himself and how to face his problems head on, as opposed to the running he was used to doing from his pursuers. Additionally, he taught her how to find peace with her flaws, and how to overcome enemies using emotions and understanding as opposed to brute force. They ended up becoming good friends and used their competition to better themselves as sorcerers. She was one of the few people that he told about his history with the Cintaya. The mid 1540s was during the era of colonization and mercantilism, so the two of them traveled the world together, as the Ancient One showed Surya the planet that he was from, and all the magical places and sources in it, in order to teach him what it meant to be human.

-At this point in time, the Nova Corps had deduced that Surya was on Earth, and sent sentries down to try and arrest him. Afraid of threatening the safety of the Ancient One and his new family at the Kamar Taj, Surya fled with her to her homeland in Ireland, where they lived in a small cottage next to the flower fields at the base of the Wicklow Mountains. They stayed in hiding there for a while, hoping the mountain peaks would scramble the signals of the Xandarian ships, and Surya cooked for the both of them while they continued their studies. However, the Nova Corps found them, and Surya knew that he would have to leave Earth in order for the sentries to leave. He left the cottage on a stolen Xandarian ship and was on the run again.

-Surya was eager to use his new magical skills to form a new identity for himself. He was determined to not fulfill the purpose that the Cintaya had designed him for, and focused all of his energy on helping others and fighting against hatred and fear, formally swearing an oath of pacifism. He visited planets under oppressive rule and helped to inspire revolutions. He tended to the poor and saved lives from natural disasters. He negotiated to break up crime rings and turn in other criminals for arrest. All the while, he wrote messages to the Nova Corps about his work, hoping to prove his worth and clear his name of their criminal charges. These letters started off as detailed descriptions, but when he found out that the Nova Corps were interrogating the people he had helped to try and track his whereabouts, they became less and less explicit, until he settled upon simply sending them messages with numbers: cryptic counts of how many lives he had saved.

-In this period, Surya also worked to track down the failed test subjects of Project Renaissance. Once he found his siblings, he broke down their shifting physical bodies, asking them where they would like to go. Knowing that their souls would be too corrupted by their energy networks to have the strength to pass on to the afterlife, he gave the souls of each of his siblings the option to be stored in a deck of tarot cards, which act like pocket dimensions that provide the souls with energy and keep them from disintegrating. This deck became his relic and friend, providing him with insight when he gives readings.

-Magical traders and underground dealers throughout the universe became aware of Surya’s presence. Blood of the Condemned is a necessity for darker spells and rituals, and because he is not made of organic matter, his blood is in high demand, as it can never expire if it's kept in sunlight. His blood is often called "Star Blood" or "Blood of the Sun God" on the market. Until he clears his name and is no longer condemned by the Nova Corps, he will continue to be hunted for it.

-After centuries in space, Surya returned to earth around the 1970s and visited the cottage again in the hopes of finding the Ancient One. After not being able to find her, he set up a network of magical safe-houses around the globe so the Nova Corps couldn’t track him. It wasn’t safe for him to stay in one place for too long, so he created a pocket dimension that could be multiple places at once: a series of magic shops in LA, NYC, the Sahara Desert, the Amazon Rainforest in Peru, the cottage in Wicklow, the marketplaces in Tibet, and even in the mist realm of Niflheim. Each shop had a room  inside with a curtain for a door and a doormat in front of it. The doormats were enchanted with a spell similar but weaker than the magic on Thor’s hammer. Instead of judging the worthiness of a person over their entire lifetime and family lineage, the doormats would judge the intentions of the person over the past few days. If they had no ill intentions towards Surya, a key would appear under the doormat, and the person could enter the pocket dimension: Surya’s house, with multiple doors to his various magic shops and extra rooms for when he as guests. However, a person were to pass through the curtain door without the key, they would pass through the pocket dimension and enter a dusty, empty, second room of the magic shop they were in. In worst case scenarios, he would also stay frequently with his allies on other planets-- friends he's made along the way by helping them out when they were in trouble.

- In order to make a little money, Surya gives tarot card readings, palm readings, and spiritual consultations. He visits people’s homes or buildings and speaks to their spirits, acting more like a ghost therapist than a ghost hunter. By calming the spirits and working with them to resolve the issues that keep them from passing on, he’s able to clear the houses of haunting. On rare occasions, Surya also eradicates demons and performs exorcisms. He often forgets to charge his clients for his services, however, as he pities them and the spirits that haunt them. Outside of his work he researches medieval history to try and discover his past and catalogs his dreams, as he frequently wakes up with nightmares of the future and the Cintaya.

TL ; DR

- Surya (real name: Alistair Payne) was born in the middle ages, but he was kidnapped by a black magic cult called the Cintaya led by a Kree named Ahbeo Driaxe, and had all his memories of his childhood and history erased

- The Cintaya created a project called Project Renaissance, where they experimented on him to make his body out of sunlight, making him immortal, unable to eat food, age, or heal on his own, and able to regenerate if put into sunlight, even if his heart stops and he dies

-This is so they could sacrifice him over and over again until he generates enough energy to summon and be possessed by their patron demon, Malnata

-Project Renaissance had many test subjects, all of which turned into terrible monsters, which Surya captured later in his tarot deck

-The Nova Corps were tricked into supporting Project Renaissance, and so they attacked the Cintaya and put a bounty on Surya’s head

-Surya escaped, crashed on Earth, befriended the people at the Kamar Taj, including the Ancient One, who was training there at the time, and learned magic

-He traveled the universe, on the run from the remaining Cintaya, the Nova Corps, and blood hunters, who want to harvest his blood and sell it for black magic purposes. He helped a ton of people and led a lot of peaceful revolutions in order to try and clear his name and prove he wasn’t a monster

-He then returned to Earth where he set up a bunch of magic shops all over Earth connected by a pocket dimension where his house is. He sells tarot card readings, palm readings, and clears spirits and demons from people’s homes