Elijah Snow

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Elijah Snow (Scenesys ID: 3861)
Profile
Name: Elijah Snow
Superalias: Ghost of the 20th Century
Gender: Male
Species: Century Baby
Occupation: Curator
Citizenship: American
Residence: Mobile
Education: Eclectic
Theme: DC (FC)
Groups: Mystic Arts, News Media
Details
Apparent Age: 122 Actual Age: 122
Date of Birth 01 Jan 1900 Played By Alexander Skarsgaard
Height: 6'4" Weight: 210 lbs
Hair Color: White Eye Color: Blue
Twitter:
Theme Song: "See The Light" by Ghost


Character Info

Profile

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The Ghost of the 20th Century. The Fourth Man. Publisher of Planetary, the ultimate guide to the secrets of Earth and the realms beyond. Snow's reputation is almost unmatched among those within the fields of paranormal investigation, the occult, the weird and the unreal. He is a man who walks the secret paths of the world and comes out the other side with strange knowledge.

Timeline

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Timeline:
* 1900: Elijah Snow is born to a poor rural family in Mississippi. His snow white hair and being born right at the stroke of midnight of the new century makes the local paper. He is a Century Baby, one of a rare breed of mystic being that embodies the spirit of an age, an immortal born at the first strike of a new century.
* 1912: Elijah, having consumed all the books in a hundred mile radius, leaves his family behind and goes on walkabout, determined to travel the world and learn all he can.
* 1917: Elijah makes his way to Europe and participates in World War I as an American soldier. After the Armistice, he settles in London.
* 1921: Having self-educated through many of the libraries of England, Elijah foils a complex crime and finds himself becoming an apprentice of a man called The Great Detective. He learns logic, puzzle solving, cryptology and the value of intuition. He begins to get his first taste of the great conspiracies and secrets underlying the world around him.
* 1926: Elijah founds Planetary, a newsletter and scholarly journal dedicated to the strange and unusual.
* 1927-1941: Elijah travels to the world's exotic locales, pursuing secrets, treasure, artifacts and knowledge. He meets with secret races and finds hidden tribes. He learns languages forgotten by most mortal men and plumbs caves that no human had entered for a thousand years. Planetary grows in readership, although many regard the tales he tells as merely pulp fiction and not true accounts.
* 1941-1945: Elijah enters WWII. He works specifically to thwart the Nazis occult efforts and to undermine the strange science that the Fuhrer's madmen tried to employ.
* 1947 - 1969: Post-War, Elijah is drawn into the dawning Cold War and the emerging world of international intrigue and espionage. Two empires struggle for artifacts and power and he played his part in trying to keep the West having its advantage. Despite protests from officials in SHIELD and other agencies, Elijah continues to publish his exploits in Planetary, the journal now growing to have satellite offices and contributors other than Elijah around the world, becoming a true network of occult and cryptocentric information.
* 1970 - 1995: Elijah Snow disappears and is lost to the world. Even he does not know where he was or what he was doing at that time, his memories lost and stolen. Planetary survived without him but welcomed him back in charge upon his return.
* 2000 - Present: Elijah has seen the rise of the age of superheroes, but rather than stepping out, he has moved deeper into the shadows, continuing his research. Planetary remains robust and now has a digital and online component, gathering information and rumors from around the world. Verifying the information is harder than ever, but investigation has always been one of the best parts of the job.

IC Journal

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{{{ICJournal}}}

Personality

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Commanding:
Elijah tends to be forceful in persona. He's over a hundred years old and has seen some of the most startling and impossible things the world has to offer. He isn't shy about offering his opinions and will often expect people to listen to what he says (and be irritated if they don't).

Curious:
Elijah's driving force has always been an abiding and burning curiosity about the world around him. He wants to see how things work, especially things that are deliberately hidden or kept secret. He once believed in exposing all these secrets, although he has come to understand that some of the weird things of this world must, in fact, be protected from the ignorant who would take advantage of them.

Logical:
Elijah Snow was trained in logic and deduction by one of the masters. He applies his intellect to every problem first, keeping his emotions in reserve. He is deeply analytical and tries to make sense of the world and the things he investigates, even when those things often defy the very laws of nature.

Sardonic:
Elijah has a sharp tongue and a quick sense of humor. He appreciates wit and doesn't tend to take such things personally, enjoying the back and forth of verbal duels. He can have something of a dark humor about him, a taste of the gallows, and sometimes isn't always in the best taste. But he doesn't really care.

Character Sheet

Powers

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Immortality:
Snow was born at the dawn of the 20th century quite literally, on the first of January 1900. He physically seemed to cease aging in his late thirties (and wear and tear have since added a few years to his face), but, otherwise, he hasn't shown any signs of physical age since. He's fully immune to conventional illnesses and bacteria. He does regenerate at an accelerated rate, but not at the speed of combat machines. He'll heal broken bones in a week or a gunshot with a couple of days sleep, provided it's not truly dire. He is still mortal to grievous wounds and can be killed with sufficient damage.

Intellect:
Elijah Snow possesses a genius intellect, his IQ hovering above the 200 range (although he isn't particularly fond of the IQ system of measurement, finding it deeply flawed and biased towards Western/European culture and education styles). He can perform complex calculations in his head in seconds, has mastered dozens of languages, and possessed deductive abilities capable of impressing even the most shrewd of detectives. He has a wide array of knowledge in disparate fields that he can access with an eidetic memory. His vast intelligence can prove one of his greatest advantages in any situation, allowing him to find new solutions and approaches.

The Cold:
Snow has the ability to subtract heat from the world around him, whether it be from the air, the ground, or the person standing across from him (or all three at once). He can do so rapidly and with a simple thought, dropping temperatures at an exponential rate and with the unavoidable consequences thereof. He can make the air around him fill with snow in a matter of seconds, and coat a ten block area around him with ten inches within a few minutes. He can freeze another person immobile, incapacitating their joints and inflicting the possibility of frostbite, in a matter of seconds, and can freeze them solid and immobile, coated with ice, in thirty. A full minute in this state would leave someone a frozen statue, cryogenically flash-frozen and sure to die unless properly thawed (by either Snow himself or someone with the scientific expertise to do so properly). Touch allows him to inflict his powers far more instantaneously, allowing him to turn the metal bars of a prison cell brittle enough to snap off with a single grip. His powers are notable for their intensity, able to reduce an object to absolute zero with sufficient concentration. He also knows how to use his powers much more subtlely (a hint of ice to take fingerprint impressions, freezing specific parts of a machine to sabotage, cooling the interior of a computer to keep it from overheating). Snow himself is, naturally, immune to the effects of cold and ice and can walk in the deepest arctic without a hint of harm in normal clothes.

Skills

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Adventurer:
Elijah Snow first became active during the heyday of the Adventurer, a peculiar precursor to the modern superhero best documented among the pulp publications of the period. Adventurers combined crime fighting with archaeology, exploration, science and occultism, pushing the boundaries of the known world and keeping the common man safe from the hidden threats of the secret world. As such, Snow possesses a wide variety of skills, such as detecting booby traps, rock climbing, improvised rafting, and survival in a wide variety of elements from the desert to the depths of the jungle.

He possesses an eclectic knowledge of archaeology, ancient cultures, hidden tribes, and lost lands. He's conversant with scientific principles both conventional and mad, pushing at that line where science and magick meet, mate, cross over and make something new. He's adept at diplomacy with strange cultures. He has a MacGyver-esque ability to solve problems with relatively little materials on hand, crafting gadgets or solutions that others might not expect. He's a skilled escapologist, able to slip ropes and pick locks (although he's as likely to use his cold abilities to surmount such obstacles, but it never hurts to know the practical skills). He can swim raging rivers and soothe the bites of fire ants. He has, in his time, seen horrors to drive men mad and wonders to enlighten the soul.

Brawling:
While he doesn't have a great deal of formal training, Elijah's been around the block and in some pretty tight situations. Sometimes, you've got to rely on your fists to get you out of them. His intelligence and knowledge may make him something of a notch above your average bar-room fighter, but he's not on the level of secret agents or martial arts masters.

Detective:
Elijah Snow began his training in the art of intuitive detection at the age of 20 and under the tutelage of a man he called the Great Detective (albeit a somewhat coerced, cajoled and blackmailed tutelage). Five years of apprenticeship earned him the detective's respect and provided the first honing of his investigator's mind. With his additional ninety years of experience, most anyone would qualify Snow as among the world's greatest detectives. Since then, he's broadened from strict logic and deduction, recognizing that investigating the unseen often requires the use of instinct, intuition and unconventional thinking. His brilliant mind works with astounding rapidity, shuffling through possibilities, parsing the massive amounts of data and experience he possesses. He can solve anything from a mundane murder to arcane cosmic impossibilities (which often, not surprisingly, involve murder). In truth, though, nothing is mundane - every new challenge to Snow's mind provides an opportunity to learn.

Occultist:
Elijah Snow has been an occultist and explorer of the strange and impossible for close to a hundred years. He has investigated and directly involved himself in all facets of the paranormal world, from the lands of the dead to the gods and the fae, from vampires to werewolves to the native spirits of the land. He has walked in the underground realm of Skartaris, travelled the depths to fabled Atlantis and walked the winding way into Titania's Avalon. He has waked himself in the Dreaming and battled his fears in the realm of Nightmare. He has walked with sorcerors, mystics, prophets, messiahs, angels, devils, monsters and madmen. He has watched science pushed beyond the bounds of all laws and been forced to hunt the result across the globe. The multiverse holds many secrets and, in his Planetary guides, Elijah Snow has revealed many of them - and has kept just as many to himself, for the good of the world.

Polyglot:
Solving the mysteries of the secret world often requires a mastery of its languages and the languages of the countries in which they might be found. Elijah has travelled the world extensively many times, seeking out every nook and cranny of hidden geography. Over his over century of life, Elijah Snow has applied his intellect to a rather staggering amount of languages, finding them among the most useful tools in his repertoire. At current, he is fluent in: English, French, German, Spanish, Hebrew, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hindi, Arabic, Pashto, Greek, Latin, Swahili, several Australian Aboriginal languages, Korean, Vietnamese, Tibetan, Dutch, Swedish and Polish. In terms of Ancient languages, he's conversant in Aramaic, Ancient Greek, Ancient Norse, Ancient Hebrew, Ancient Egyptian (Hieroglyph), Sumerian, and Babylonian

He's also skilled in several exotic 'secret' languages including Kherubim, Atlantean, Enochian, several demonic dialects and the languages of Skartaris.

Pragmatic:
Elijah uses people. It isn't his most redeeming quality, and those who see it in action don't often have the highest opinion of him. Like his mentor, Sherlock Holmes, Elijah keeps himself objective, acting for the greatest good without regard for sentiment or affection. He doesn't get flustered or allow emotion to take over. He can look upon horrible things with a steady eye and an unshaking hand. He can maintain himself in a crisis, even a crisis that threatens reality itself. He can be a rock of solidity in a sea of chaos, allowing others to find purchase on his shores. Whatever emotional or psychological scars he might bear, he places them aside when action is required. This can make him seem cold to some, but it gets the job done, which is far more important than being liked.

Weapons:
While he'll always prefer using his wits to combat, Snow has, over the years, learned to become adept with most forms of conventional weaponry. He's a crack shot with a pistol or rifle, personally favoring a vintage revolver with a certain amount of sentimental value. He's also a skilled fencer, able to fight with the epee or saber as well as Japanese blades or medieval style European broadswords (the last is his personal preference - he just likes the weight and power). Although he has been in several wars, he isn't particularly conversant with military-grade weaponry like explosives or high-level automatic weapons.

Resources

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Century Baby:
The Century Babies are a particular breed of superhuman. Their origins are a mystery, although, given their ties to specific dates and their connection to the centuries of their birth, they likely have a supernatural origin (which isn't to say that their powers don't also have genetic or alien components). Put simply, Century Babies are universally born on the first day of a new century. They, in some way, embody the spirit of the age, the zeitgeist. Some have speculated that Snow embodies the Cold War in some ways. Snow thinks those people are being far too literal. There are anywhere from a half dozen to a dozen Century Babies born each century. Many of them die near or at the end of their century of embodiment, although Snow himself has endured (the 'Ghost of the 20th Century"). All have powerful destinies certain to create change in the world. All are united and connected by threads of chance and fate that even they cannot measure or see. Being a Century Baby provides a certain status among some circles and also provides a certain brotherhood - others may feel a kindred connection to Elijah. For certain, Century Babies always seem to somehow recognize one another for what they are.

Fortune:
While Snow would never sell many of the precious artifacts and secret treasures he's come across, sometimes he finds things that are simply useless junk that happens to be made out of gold or gems, or is just incredibly old. These things he's sold to form the backbone of his fortune, nurtured over the decades through careful investment and managed by trustworthy hands to keep Planetary funded and operational, as well as to see to his own modest needs. His holdings, in total, measure somewhere near 30 million dollars, give or take, although he's hardly extravagant and uses most of that wealth as leverage to accomplish things on behalf of Planetary and to make sure his people and operatives have the best there is at their disposal.

Planetary:
Elijah Snow founded the Planetary Organization in 1925. It started modestly enough as a simple guidebook, a yearly digest of Elijah's discoveries as he pushed into the realms of the impossible and tried to explain and understand the unexplained. Believing that secrets should be exposed, that knowledge should be everywhere, he dedicated his life to shining light into the darkest corners of existence. Over the decades, as he built a fortune and a reputation, Planetary has grown from a simple publication to an authoritative source. Planetary possesses a network of operatives and informants that span the globe, with several dozen full time employees dedicated to Snow's purpose of seeking out the impossible. Snow has at his disposal occultists, sorcerors, shamans, prophets, scientists, forensic analysts, criminologists, hackers, futurists, spies, and superhumans of various stripes. Only some of them know Elijah personally, but all would recognize his authority and can be called on to bring their expertise to bear on a problem at Snow's command. The Planetary archives are among the most extensive occult and paranormal collection in the world. Secrets abound, hidden in pages, tomes and artifacts collected and gathered from around the world and carefully warehoused in a New Jersey building whose exterior dimensions don't quite seem to match its interior. Supposedly, a few of the company's librarians have simply disappeared in there over the years, but that might just be legend.

Weaknesses

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Crisis Magnet:
Whether great and horrible things happen in his vicinity or he just happens to find himself present when incredible things occur, Elijah rarely gets much in the way of peace in his life. He's always at the center of a half dozen conspiracies, unravelling secrets, preventing apocalypses, fighting off invasions. He must be ever-vigilant, knowing that, at any moment, all hell could break loose around him and it is his responsibility to cool the flames of perdition.

Lost Years:
Elijah lost over twenty years of his life in between the late sixties and the early nineties. He doesn't know how or why that occurred, what triggered the return of his identity, or what he might have done during that period of time. He gets the feeling it wasn't anything good. In those lost years, there are secrets that will surely come to haunt him, enemies that will surely rise to hunt him and truths that will hurt his soul to learn. They are a spectre in his life, a shadow cast across every day, and the one great mystery he has yet to solve.

Outdated:
However he may look, Elijah Snow is an old man. They call him the Ghost of the 20th Century and, like most ghosts, he's a man out of time. Most modern, cutting edge technology is somewhat lost on him. He can't use a computer with anything resembling fluency. He's lost touch with pop culture, what's current. He recognizes, increasingly, that he's becoming an anachronism, a lingering remainder. He hires people for Planetary to try and fill in the gaps, to cover that which he cannot, but he nonetheless pays a price for outliving his century.

Sins of the Past:
Elijah has not been an angel. He has done ill in his time, especially earlier in his life. He has stolen, he has lied, he has manipulated. He has sacrificed others to achieve his goals. He has looted sacred places in the name of knowledge. Old sins never die, they only fester. Few know that better than Elijah Snow.

Slow Regeneration:
His longevity, in his case, stems to some degree from a cryogenic effect on his tissues as a result of his connection to the Cold, along with the mysterious quality that marks him as a Century Baby. He does heal faster than an average person, but he is not heal anything close to instantaneously. Put simply, his injuries won't magically disappear, his bones won't instantly reknit, his cuts won't just stop bleeding on their own. He projects a certain air of invulnerability, but he's far from it, and has survived these many years in part by remembering that. Although sometimes, he behaves as if he doesn't.

Role-Play

Logs

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Title Date Scene Summary
Drinking in Oblivion February 22nd, 2022 Clea and Elijah Snow cross paths in the Oblivion. Sparks ensue.

Cutscenes

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Entertainment Credits

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Gallery

Elijah Snow/gallery [ edit ]