Mani

Mani
Origin
Creator	Jillian189
Creation	August 23, 2013
Debut	Pending
Characteristics
Type	Moon deity
Alignment	Neutral Good
Attitude	Benevolent, curious, fatherly
Fighting style	Various
Abilities	Immortality Moon-based powers
Weaknesses	Strength depends on the moon's phases
Status
Status	Alive
Occupation	Protector of Earth
Superiors	Eka (father)
Subordinates	Hjuki and Bil (sort of) Tsukiko Jericho Whatever he creates
Allies	Hjuki and Bil (adoptive son and daughter) Sol (brother) Tsukiko Jericho
Enemies	Gaia ("sister") Endymion

"My strength lies within the moon..." — Mani

Mani is a WHT Medic Freak created by Jillian189. A powerful moon god, he is the twin brother and lover of Sol. He is also the protector of Earth.

His theme is Come Little Children by Kate Covington (aka "Erutan" and "Katethegreat19").

Biography

Thousands of years ago, Mani and his fellow god Sol were born from the ultimate being, Eka (a GRY Engineer wearing the Professor's Peculiarity), to serve as guardians for Eka's creations. Mani's duties are to raise the Moon to signal the arrival of nighttime, and protect both Freaks and humans during nighttime through their dreams.

Due to coming from the same parent, Mani felt close to Sol in a way that made him feel complete, though he didn't know why. Eventually their closeness evolved into love, and they started a romantic relationship. Their frequent lovemaking resulted in the birth of solar eclipses, which were seen as divine omens by mortals.

One day, Mani grew curious over what Earth was like down below, but when he actually descended to Earth he saw deep suffering all around. Disguised as a normal WHT Medic, he helped the ailing people, which gave him the loyalty and affection of his followers. This strained his relationship with Sol, who grew envious of Mani's popularity and gave up helping humanity (Freaks included) after seeing the bad things they did.

During one of his travels, Mani ended up in the Coldfront region (cp_coldfront), where a joint community of humans and Freaks eked out a living in the freezing climate. Mani felt cold, hungry, and tired for the first time, and he collapsed from starvation. The people took him in and nourished Mani back to health, unaware of their visitor's godhood.

Among Coldfront's residents were a pair of fraternal twin Scouts named Hjuki and Bil. Hjuki and Bil witnessed how their friends were giving food to the strange WHT Medic over the next several weeks. When it was their turn to do so, the twins realized that the meager portions they gathered for themselves wouldn't be enough. Out of shame, they decided their own flesh would be a more filling meal and prepared to commit suicide.

However, Mani stopped them and revealed his true, godly form. Amidst shocked faces, the Moon god explained his story and why he ended up in Coldfront. To reward the people's kindness, he blessed the frozen region with a never-ending abundance of food so the people living in Coldfront won't starve again. As for Hjuki and Bil, Mani turned them into demigods and adopted them as his children.

Sol discovered what Mani had done and went after him, intending to punish the Moon god for his folly. In response, Mani fled with Hjuki and Bil to protect them from his twin brother's wrath. This resulted in a vicious cycle that continued for centuries as night fled from the coming day.

The cycle continued until the Earth sentry Gaia rose from a long sleep, awoken by the cries of a suffering humanity. In a vengeful rage, she killed off anything she saw as a "threat". The destruction caught Mani's attention and, after he and Sol confronted her, they learned of Gaia's plans to remake the universe anew and establish herself as its ruler and protector goddess.

Seeing the threat she posed, Sol and Mani put aside their differences long enough to try stop Gaia. After a long yet horrific battle, they defeated their mad "sister" and imprisoned her within the Earth's core. Mani realized that he grew so obsessed with saving humanity that he ignored Sol's issues in the process, and he regretted his role in causing Gaia to wake.

Their epiphanies caused the gods to finally reconcile as brothers and lovers once more. After Sol and Mani vowed to work better as a team in the future, they began working on easing most of the damage done to Earth. However, unwilling to end Gaia, Sol and Mani instead chose to help restore her mind and make her see the error of her ways.

Appearance

Mani is a WHT Medic wearing the Der Wintermantel, the Blighted Beak, the Vintage Tyrolean (with An Extraordinary Abundance of Tinge), and the Couvre Corner (with also An Extraordinary Abundance of Tinge). Since he is a Moon deity, his entire outfit is colored white to signify his connections with the Moon.

Personality and Behavior

Mani is a benevolent god known for his kindness and compassion. He cares for all the people he and Sol watch over, and tends to act like a father figure towards them. This treatment also includes his worshipers and his adoptive children Hjuki and Bil. Unlike Sol, Mani is also patient, humble, and cautious. While he knows he's a god, Mani tries not to showboat it to anyone he sees, and shows significant restraint in his actions even when confronted with a threat. Being Sol's twin, only Mani can calm down his rages.

Due to his fondness for both Freaks and humans, Mani is very willing to forgive them for the evil and cruel things they have done throughout history, and is willing to help them at a moment's notice. He is also very interested in their lifestyle to the point of being inquisitive; he would often disguise himself when traveling on Earth so he can experience mortal life up close. However, even a compassionate person like Mani has limits; while he is generally slow to anger, he is not to be trifled with when crossed. He does not tolerate Freaks and/or humans hurting innocent people, and whenever those he cares about are hurt, he flies into a rage that can be as terrible as Gaia's, if not more so.

Mani is not without his own faults, however. While not as bad as his twin brother Sol, his immortality tends to give him a different perspective on life than Freaks and humans do, and thus he can unintentionally appear patronizing to the people he helps. Due to his great love for humanity (Freaks included), Mani is dedicated to helping them all, sometimes to the point of inadvertently ignoring his own friends and family (such as Sol). Finally, while Mani knows both Freaks and humans are capable of evil, he believes they are simply ignorant and in need of guidance - thus he doesn't understand why some mortals love being evil and/or refuse to be redeemed.

Despite their differences, both Sol and Mani have pursued a romantic relationship which had continued since the time of their births. While they are very close, their relationship can be strained at times. One thing they tend to argue about is whether both Freaks and humans deserve to be forgiven and receive help from their suffering despite their violence and cruelty. Mani wants Sol to see and understand that Freaks and humans can be good, and is frustrated that Sol only sees the bad things they did.

Powers and Abilities

• Spiritual awareness -- Mani can sense supernatural beings such as spirits, demons, and the astral forms of Freaks possessing the ability to project their consciousness. Since the Moon itself bears a strong connection to the occult, magic, and spiritualism, Mani's paranormal senses are very, very acute and enables him to see spirits with great clarity.
• Immortality -- Mani has the power to live indefinitely, a defining trait of a god. Though he is thousands of years old, he looks like a normal Medic. Normal attacks don't affect him, and he can shrug off mundane injures like they're nothing. He also has the power to bestow this on those he likes or deems worthy in his eyes, turning them into powerful demigods.
• Psychic Mastery -- As the Moon is associated with magic and the occult, Mani is a very powerful psychic. Due to being a god, he is omniscient, aware of everyone and everything all at once at the same time.
  • Telepathy -- Mani is able to communicate with others on a mental scale, even manipulating their minds if he chose to. But most of the time, he uses it to communicate with Hjuki and Bil. He can also use telepathy in combat, but only in dire emergencies.
  • Telekinesis -- Mani can psychically manipulate objects and people with his own mind. While he mostly displays the "carry and throw things" popularly associated with telekinesis, he is actually so powerful that he could tear through the fabrics of reality if he wished to.
  • Empathy -- Mani can sense, feel, and understand the emotions of living beings. Due to his omnipotence, Mani can feel the joy, sorrow, rage, pain, and hatred of every Freak and human on Earth. This ability is partly the reason why he has so much compassion towards mortals.
  • Precognition -- Mani has the power to foresee possible futures and observe what may happen. Because he is a god, Mani can see up to a thousand millennia ahead of his time, aware of all possible paths a mortal can take. This allows him to plan ahead in advance.
• Water manipulation -- Being a Moon god grants accessibility and control of all forms of water and other liquids, being of a passive cosmic nature on the elemental scale. He can either freeze small droplets to form hail-like projectiles, or do crowd control by creating tsunami waves. As a Moon god, Mani is responsible for keeping the water levels down as to prevent catastrophic flooding.
• Lunar manipulation -- Mani is able to manipulate the Moon's energy in different ways. The strength of these methods depends on the current phase of the Moon, which affects how they have an effect on other Freaks in combat.
  • ​Lunar constructs -- Mani can build solid constructs out of lunar energy. Depending on the phase of the Moon, he can have enough strength to create beings of titanic proportions, or do something small like imps and general assistants for simple tasks. No matter their size and shape, all creations made by Mani are completely subservient and will defend him to their deaths.
  • Lunar barriers -- Mani has the ability to generate force-fields made of lunar energy. Depending on the phase of the Moon, a force-field can be large enough to protect a big group of people, or small enough for self-protection. Their durability also depends on the lunar phases; a full and half moon renders a force-field able to repel any attack, while the waxing and waning phases offers little to no protection, being extremely breakable.
  • Lunar blasts -- Mani fires damaging streams of pure lunar energy. These blasts has a wide variety of effects depending on how its used and the current Moon phase; a full-powered lunar blast can burn and/or completely obliterate a Freak, while a minor blast can either knock them away and/or stun them.
  • Lunar empowerment -- Mani can draw on the power of the Moon to enhance himself and his allies. He can only use this to its full potential during the full Moon phase. Those empowered by the Moon gain heightened spiritual senses, enhanced physical traits, and budding psychic powers.
• ​Illusion manipulation/awareness -- Mani has the power to generate and control illusions as he sees fit. Due to being a god, he can create very realistic and powerful illusions, though he usually does this to test the goodness of a person's character. Since the Moon is connected to the supernatural, Mani can also sense illusions created by other Freaks, allowing him to dispel them at a moment's notice.
• Dream manipulation -- Mani can enter and manipulate the dreams of others, including modifying, suppressing, and observing dreams. Since the Moon is connected to the element of dreams, Mani's power knows no bounds and in the dream world, his reign is supreme. As the Lord of Dreams, his duty was to watch over and protect both Freaks and humans by defeating their nightmares and helping them overcome their greatest fears.
  • Nightmare manipulation -- As the Lord of Dreams, Mani also has the power to create terrifying nightmares. He usually uses nightmares as a method of punishing both Freaks and humans for their evil actions, and as an indirect way to teach them important lessons by showing the darker aspects of their character.
• Solar sensitivity -- Mani can detect anything connected to Sol and anything related to the Sun. Since the Sun is connected to the fire element, everything related to it exhibits a very hot aura. Mani will start to sweat when at a sizable distance, but will feel as if he is being cooked alive if he is right next to anything touched by his rival.
• Umbrakinesis -- Mani can create, shape, and manipulate darkness and shadows. As nighttime is also his primary domain, Mani can do things that normal Freaks with the same power cannot do. He can cover the world in eternal night, and create a fog of darkness so thick that it completely negates all physical senses such as sight, as well as imprison and suffocate them from within.
• Death-force manipulation -- Just as Sol controls the aspects of life, Mani controls death in all forms. Unlike Sol, who can revive and cause things to grow, Mani makes things rot and wither until they die. He can also directly tear the soul out of a living being just by touching them, raise the dead as mindless soldiers who are willing to act on his orders, and reduce a healthy person to a lifeless corpse in an instant.
  • Nonexistence -- The ultimate form of Mani's death-based powers. With the snap of his fingers, Mani can reduce a person's life to a state of complete nothing in an instant, even denying them the blessing of reincarnation. He can erase entire galaxies this way if he chooses to. However, due to Mani's compassion, he absolutely refuses to use this ability unless he has a REALLY good reason to, since using it risks potential abuse. The fate of complete nonexistence is always reserved for the very worst of Mani's foes (see "Complete Monster").
• Twin telepathy -- Because Sol and Mani were derived from the same being, they share a psychic link similar to Hjuki and Bil's. However, Sol and Mani's is unique in that their link is telepathic and empathic in nature, allowing them to share a deeper sense of connection than normal twins do. Not only can they share thoughts, but their emotions as well, as if they are actually two halves of a whole.
• Gravity manipulation -- Mani has the power to manipulate existing gravitational fields. One of the main uses of this power is to lift the moon, the cosmic force Mani represents, to signal the arrival of nighttime.
• Magic manipulation -- Because the Moon is a symbol of magic, Mani is able to use magic in all existing forms. Due to being a god, Mani's magic is very powerful, and his skill and power is only limited by his morality and imagination.
  • Curse manipulation -- In contrast to Sol's purification abilities, Mani can create and control curses, making them work however he wants them to. He often puts curses on those who committed evil acts; whatever he says their punishment is, his magic reacts and forces the intended target to go through that punishment. For example, if Mani cursed someone to be unable to walk, then the cursed person would be left disabled for the rest of his life until the curse is removed.

Faults and Weaknesses

• Mani's lunar-based powers depend on the phases of the Moon. During the waning and waxing phases, Mani can barely defeat a mid-level Freak, much less a low-tier one. The full moon and half moon, on the other hand, allows him to obliterate even the most powerful Freaks.
• Mani has little combat experience and tends to heavily rely on his powers. He can be easily defeated during the waning and waxing phases.
• Mani is fiercely protective of whomever he takes under his wing, especially Hjuki and Bil. If either one or both of them is hurt, he will fly into a great rage and will not stop until the threat is dead or neutralized. Whether this has any effect on the battlefield depends on the situation at hand and the strength of the opponent.
• Mani's curiosity could be his greatest flaw. It could lead to unearthing great threats better left hidden and buried, or learning unwanted knowledge that can't be put back.
• Mani's lunar-based powers don't have any status effect on anything related to the Sun. It works both ways as a negating effect, as water smothers fire while fire evaporates water, with the same thing occurring with light and darkness. This is because both Sol and Mani were born from the same being.
• Mani's compassion can become a disadvantage as he is willing to help everyone he meets. Shady and/or evil characters can pass themselves off as good people to extract blessings from him.
  • Mani is also generous to the point of being self-sacrificing at times, as he will help people and ignore his own well-being in the process.
  • Although Mani is a very, very powerful god, the only thing that is holding Mani back is his own compassion, as going "all out" will cause tremendous collateral damage and potentially the destruction of Earth. On the flip side, this prevents him from fighting efficiently against powerful foes.
• Unlike a normal psychic link, Sol and Mani's unique bond can become an even bigger disadvantage as the combined experience of mental and emotional pain can weaken them both incredibly, since they are created from the same person.
• Mani cannot kill someone who is already dead or possesses absolute immortality like he does. At the same time, his death-based powers can be countered by someone who possesses the ability to manipulate life, or extinguished completely once everyone is given absolute immortality.
• Although he and Sol are immortal gods, it is possible for even a god to die, with their father Eka being a good example of this.
• He never shows it, but Mani's psychic powers sometimes causes him pain as he is constantly exposed to the more negative and crueler psyches of Freaks and humans.

Trivia

• Mani's name and concept as a Freak is based on Máni, the German god of the moon. In Norse mythology, Mani was destined to be devoured by Hati Hróðvitnisson ("He who hates", "Enemy"), a divine wolf, during the time of Ragnarok.
• Mani was partly inspired by the character Princess Luna from the animated children's show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
• Mani's personality was inspired by Mother, a character from the comic book series Spawn written by Todd McFarlane, and Princess Celestia from the animated children's show My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
• Mani's relationship with Sol was inspired by Sapphire and Ruby from the animated children's show Steven Universe. Part of Mani's personality was also inspired by Sapphire.
• Mani's affectionate nickname for Sol is "Solly".