Father Time

Powers:

Immortality (s): thanks to his driving passion to understand time itself, Father Time has effectively become immortal. He can be killed by being brought to 0 Health, but he will eventually recover from any injury or demise.

Unless he somehow loses his passion for time itself, that is. Furthermore, the machinations of the Grand Master have barred him from Death's realm. In other words, Father Time effectively has this power twice. For him to pass permanently, two things would have to happen.

He would have to a) lose his love for a study of the universe, and b) somehow have Death convinced to kill him - and keep him dead - or else he'll eventually return. And neither are really that likely to happen any time soon, when you get down to it.

Power Primordial (i): as do the other Elders, Father Time has access to the Power Primordial, the energies loosed by the Big Bang itself. Though able to produce virtually any effects with it, Father Time has only demonstrated the following thus far:

* Invulnerability (s): the Power Primordial has granted Father Time a veritable invulnerability to a wide array of threats. He effectively possesses complete immunity to Aging Effects, Disease, Energy, Pressure Variance and Poison assaults of any stripe.

* Life Support (s): tapping the Power Primordial to handle the sundry needs of a physical existence, Father Time has done away with such base needs. Possessing this power at intensity 15, he no longer needs to breathe, eat or drink to sustain his life.

* Reality Warping (w): related to his time travel power, this ability allows Father Time to slightly reorder cause and effect, or sometimes to make something un-happen. He wields this power at intensity 15, and has the Pocket Reality stunt.

* Telepathy (w): Father Time has not done great things with this ability, mostly wielding it in order to communicate with others who are in the void or, as is usually the case, no longer speak his dead language. He possesses this power at intensity 1, at least.

* Time Travel (i): Father Time naturally has this power, enabling him to traverse vast gulfs of time in an instant. Wielding this potential power at intensity 25, he may move back and forth countless years with every jump. He wields every known stunt of this power.

Equipment:

Scythe (s): this seemingly ordinary hooked, two-handed blade is a weapon Father Time has adopted in his emulation of the original man who bore the name - and as a part of his own fascination with legendary figures. He can use it to inflict +4 damage in melee.

Furthermore, it appears to be the focus that Father Time needs to open his doorways into times both actual and perceived. Father Time can of course attempt to do so without this material focus, but his time travel actions are resolved as if his power were 0 intensity.

Hindrances:

Obsessive: part of the reason he's immortal to begin with, Father Time overwhelmingly obsesses with his chosen art. If presented with a temporal quandary, Father Time must investigate immediately or drop to zero (0) in all abilities for the duration of the encounter.

Skills:

Physics (i): as a necessary aside to his one true passion, Father Time has actually developed a practical understanding of the laws of physics in our universe - the better to observe phenomena over time. He makes physics-based Intellect actions at a reduced difficulty.

Time Machinery (i): it should probably go without saying but Father Time knows just about everything there is to know in this area of expertise; he's had billions and billions of years to study it, after all, and should be considered a world class time traveler.

Calling:

Explorer: while many of the Elders share a taste for vast personal power in addition to their chosen art, Father Time has no need for more of anything; his many travels through times both real and imagined have taught him that knowledge itself is all that is permanent.

Costume:

Father Time seems to have adopted a costume that is a vague homage to the 1940s hero of the same name. It includes a light blue bodysuit (save for the orange lower torso) with a clock on the chest, orange buccaneer boots, orange steel wrist bands, and a large, orange cloak.

Personality:

As is the case with most of his fellow Elders, Father Time shares a passion for his art which may be described as 'monomaniacal' - and he loves to talk about it. He's also shown a particular fascination for 'potential histories', realms of legend and heroic archetypes.

Real Name: unrevealed
Occupation: temporal mechanic
Legal Status: citizen of an unknown, dead world
Marital Status: (very) single
Alias(es), if any: none
Group Affiliation: Elders of the Universe

Height: unknown
Hair: unknown, possibly white
Eyes: white
Weight: unknown, but bulky
Other Distinguishing Characteristics: Father Time wears a full, white beard and moustache under that obscuring cloak of his.

Story:

Little has been revealed about the past of the entity now known as Father Time. It is known that, as a mere mortal, he was obsessed with learning the intricacies of time, and studied them unceasingly. So much so, in fact, that he had use for little else in his life.

Over time, Father Time's passion for his beloved interest was so great that, somehow, it extended his very life span. While his contemporaries were born and died off as normal, he persisted on the world of his birth, his aging process halted completely.

Not that the man has led a particularly linear experience. As a lover and devotee to the study of time, he has spent untold eons in eras that were not his own, his body out of sync with time as we know it, so he may actually be the oldest of the Elders.

He's had more time to explore his art in, after all; when you can re-use the same years over and over, you can cram in even more learning! At first using mere equipment for his travels, Father Time eventually gained full access to the Power Primordial, the universe's original energies.

He acquired this as, over time, he evolved into a so-called Elder of the Universe. While his passion for time has kept him alive, his very species itself has otherwise died out, leaving him alone amongst his kind to continue on. And continue on he does!

While his so-called brothers have mostly been involved in various plots to acquire greater power for themselves, Father Time has simply studied his chosen art ever further; perhaps his 'bonus time' has given him longer to realize the frivolity of the other Elders' aims.

Either way, he has taken to studying potential pasts and futures with particularly keen interests. Potential futures of course are those which can happen due to events in the present, but potential pasts, that's where things get interesting in a causal sense.

While the past is supposedly known to us, who really knows in a multi-dimensional sense just how mutable it can be? In a universe of quantum flux like ours, the sheer odds of the past being changed into something else that leads to our present is definitely possible.

And Father Time relishes the opportunity to study these possibilities. This quest has brought him to earth, in fact, as the world seems to draw Elders here over time when it intersects with their interests. For example, Father Time found our past simply exquisite.

Our legends! Our heroes! All the things that made our societies great, Father Time exults in. Peering into pasts both real and imagined, he discovered many things to admire, particularly amongst those of the American stripe. And this is what got him mixed up in Captain America's story.

You see Father Time thought, on the eve of the man's 50th anniversary as the Sentinel of Liberty, it was time he passed from being a mere mortal to a national legend, and lured him into a doorway from the present into some surreal, not-quite past.

There, Captain America wound up meeting various figures of American legend, such as Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, Pecos Bill, and even John Henry. Of course, the Captain wasn't quite done with his life just yet, and had no intention of leaving the world of mortal man.

Testing him in battle, Father Time found his spirit indefatigable, and thus returned him to his proper place and time, changing the fine details ever so slightly in order to make him think his friend Hawkeye had been playing a prank on him in a Father Time costume.

Which sort of made sense, since Father Time (elder) had taken on the guise of Father Time (Golden Age hero) possibly out of admiration for the archetype that fellow represented. Of course, the Captain still remembered being dragged into some legendary past.

But shrugged it off and went to a big party the Avengers were throwing for him anyway. Watching him leave, Father Time then departed for places - and times - unknown to mere mortal men. Where - or when - he'll turn up again is truly anyone's guess.

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