[b]Name/Titles:[/b] Samael, Lord of Sunlight, Dire Radiant, Ceaseless Dynamo, Eternal Magnum, Dux Solis, Lionslayer

[b]Gender[/b]: Male

[b]Patronage:[/b] The Sun, power, energy, heat, honour, gold, light and beginnings.

[b]Parentage:[/b] Samael was given apotheosis when he killed a great lion made entirely out of gold

[b]Pantheon/Affiliation:[/b] Deity

[b]Appearance:[/b]

[hider=Normal Form][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/oIrI1bS.jpg[/IMG][/hider]

Samael most often appears as a tall, gleaming soldier wearing armour made from the skin of a lion made entirely out of gold. He bears a blazing spear, imbued with the power of the sun itself. It can release a huge amount of energy in the form of sun-beams, and his armour can blind enemies with its brilliance.

He can also take the form of a brilliant lion, a gift given to him by his armour. His claws burn with the radiance of the sun, and his fangs are as ferocious as the sun’s heat. 

[b]Centres of Worship/Places of Power:[/b]

Samael is most powerful when he is in the sky, patrolling his lands and shedding light upon the world. Other than this, however, he does not have any specific places of power- save for his once homeland. He still loves his country, even though it has long since fallen into history. He yearns for his country to be remade, to be free, and he will fiercely defend its lands from any he sees as threatening its people.

[b]Servants, Prominent Followers and Worship Base:[/b]

Samael has no church, no followers, no priests. He has been an outcast, a pariah for so long- people are only now starting to get used to the idea that the man they have been taught to hate- the man that has been used as an example of what can happen if you disobey the gods- is now a god himself. Some have cried heresy, and claimed that he is an imposter. But some- the greedy and the hopeful- have begun to set up temples in his name. They ask for power, or great abilities in return for such acts. For the most part, Samael ignores them, finding them a disgusting attempt to grab as much from him as possible in return for flattery. In some especially heinous cases, he will travel down to earth to visit the temples, and calmly explain why he doesn’t approve of his worship. Or he’ll just reduce the surrounding area to a gently smouldering wasteland.

However, there are some individuals that have found a much better way to capture the Sun god’s attention. They challenge him to single combat, and ask that if they defeat him, they are rewarded. Samael always answers such a challenge, taking a human form so as to give the mortals a chance. He greatly admires such mortals for their courage and willingness to risk everything for power- if he finds them lacking, he destroys their soul utterly. However, those who he finds have skill, valour and honour, or those who defeat him will be rewarded with power, money and a place by his side as his immortal soldiers when they die. These are called the Golden Legion, and they wield spears of pure energy, and are armoured in sunlight. 

[b]Psychology:[/b]

Samael is an honourable warrior, loyal to those he believes deserve it. He will always treat those he believes have enough skill and valour with respect.

He is also completely and utterly insane.

Just because he has managed to control the energy that courses through his veins, does not mean that he doesn’t feel it burn through his body, engulfing his soul in fire. He is eternally in pain, so great that it overwhelms him. It is the most he can do to remain lucid most of the time, and he will often lose control of his energy and allow the energy to spill out of him. He becomes a being of pure light, releasing a shockwave around him capable of turning stone to rubble and steel to liquid. In such episodes he will become maddened with pain, and lash out. He will attempt to kill all he sees, including gods, and it will take a [i]lot[/i] to halt him, so berserk has he been rendered. The sole consolation is that he is incapable of intelligent thinking when so affected, and is thus easy to outwit and trap. He will eventually regain control, when enough energy has been released.

However, when lucid he is much more reasonable. He places a very high value on loyalty to one’s cause and to those who have earned it, and he believes that honour is the highest ideal it is possible to aspire to. 

Samael is martial, always practicing combat with his beloved spear. He is a very skilled tactician, a remnant from his previous life as a general; however, this is not above what a bright and hard-working mortal could achieve. He believes that conflict is integral to progress, and is somewhat Darwinian: he believes that those who can fight their way up from poverty to royalty deserve high rewards, and those who are too indifferent or weak to do so deserve their fate.

[b]History:[/b]

Once, long ago, there was a great general named Samael. He brought glory and riches to his country, renown to his name. He won battle after battle, carving out an empire for his nation.

But it didn’t last. These things never do.

Debauchery and corruption had permeated through the society of his people, and the government was split by greed and infighting. Other nations took advantage of this, and tore apart the country. Despite his tactical brilliance, Samael could do nothing but watch as his cherished country fell apart around him.

Sad, bitter and howling for vengeance, Samael turned against the gods themselves. He saw them as betraying him and his people, allowing his country to descend into ruin. But the god he hated most was Aroesus. The empires that had annexed his nation idolised him, and held him to be their patron deity. Samael felt cheated- in his eyes, Aroesus had clearly given help to the opposing empires.

So Samael planned his vengeance in the only way he could. He challenged Aroesus to single combat. At first, Aroesus ignored him; he was just a mortal, and hardly worth the god’s time. But then Samael started spreading rumours, saying that Aroesus’ failure to accept his challenge was proof of his cowardice and treachery. This angered Aroesus, who showed his wrath through storms and fires. But still he did not answer Samael’s challenge. So Samael did something Aroesus could not ignore. He started inciting the other mortals to rebel against the gods, to burn their temples and tear down their idols. Enraged, Aroesus travelled down to the mortal world and accepted Samael’s challenge. He easily immobilised him, and in that moment Samael knew he was dead.

But Aroesus had other ideas. In his fury he decided to use Samael as a warning to all mortals who would dare defy the gods. First, he made Samael immortal. Then he filled him with energy, far more than his body could take. Finally it burst from Samael, burning him with raw power. It racked his body, and caused him immense agony. Aroesus then chained Samael to great lion made entirely of gold, and raised him into the heavens to be dragged across the sky every day as a reminder of the wrath of Aroesus.

Samael existed in this state for millennia, every single second of his punishment feeling like eternity. Finally, just when Samael was about to give up under the sheer power emanating from his body, everything became clear to him. It was as if a curtain had suddenly been thrown back, and allowed the light to shine on his face. Instead of fighting the energy as he had been doing for thousands of years, he let it flow through him. The pain was too much to allow him to think, but he managed to burn through his chains in a burst of blinding radiance. With light gleaming from his body, Samael turned to the golden lion that stood guard in case he should ever escape. They fought for months light flashing across the sky, until finally Samael emerged victorious. He carved off the lion’s metallic pelt, and made armour out of it, to show all who might see him that he had triumphed over Aroesus retribution. Last of all, he cut off the lion’s head and wore it as his helmet, as a last mark of respect towards the lion who had fought against him for so long, and challenged him so much. As he placed on his head, a surge of energy racked through his body, sending a shock wave throughout the heavens. Samael had gained the power of the lion he had killed, granting him apotheosis. He stood for a few moments, leaning on the spear he had held with him ever since the fight with Aroesus.

Then, burning, bloody and exhausted, Samael fell down from the sky into the mortal realm.

[b]Relationships:[/b]

Samael hated Aroesus when he was alive, and despises his wife Mycia and their heir Lathunis.