Name: Luca Novik
Codename: St Francis of The Wild
Age: 40
Gender: male
Place of Birth: he was born in Belarus and moved to New York when he was only two years old.
Affiliations: nature, the catholic faith, and very recently the League.
Occupation: overseer of the wild, protector of nature and part time superhero.
Appearance: Luca is about average in height and stands at exactly six feet. He has dark brown hair and his eyes are a leaf green in color. His skin is slightly darker than most Caucasian Europeans do to his his family being Turkic Roma. While he is in the form of St Francis, Luca wears a dark brown robe that is the typical dress of a monk and a Acorn Hat. His hair is still the same color but he also has a beard
Powers:
Animal Control: St Francis has the ability to communicate and command all kinds of animals with the exception of humans and creatures that are evil. This power has a max range of three hundred yards when it comes to controlling animals but it is not really well known how far he can communicate or call animals to him
Plant Manipulation: This power allows St Francis to grow and control all kinds of plants at a very fast rate. What allows him to use this ability is his ability to use divine mana.
Web of Life Perception: This ability grants St Francis the power to see the web of life which is the connection that all life on earth shares. He perceives the web in a glowing golden aura that all life has. St Francis is also able to see the auras in total darkness, but non-living entities do not give off an aura and so he cannot see them in the dark.
Divine Mana manipulation: Divine Mana is a combination between divine energy and mana which is the life force of the environment. This is what gives St Francis his powers, and replenishes his divine mana reserves by the power of prayer and nature. His reserves can rise to a max level which allows him to use his powers for twenty four hours, but whenever he uses any of his powers he has to use his mana reserves. Finally, St Francis can use the energy to heal himself and living things but the process can be very slow depending on how wounded he or anyone else he heals is and how much mana he is putting into the process.
Ecological empathy: This ability allows St Francis to have a psychic link with the well being of the environment and know if there are any ailments that are befalling it. This can be both a benefit and a curse, if the environment is being harmed then he will experience pain in the form of a bad headache, this power also can make being in heavily industrial area unpleasant for him.
Griffon Companion: St Francis has a divine bond with a
Griffon named Horin which he can summon from the heavenly realm of God. Horin can fly at a top speed of mach 2 speeds and is very powerful in combat thanks to his divine energy. St Francis uses Horin as his ride when he needs to get somewhere fast as well as assists him in battle. Summoning can cost a good amount of divine mana and although Horin is very powerful, if he takes too much energy then the griffon will have to return back to heaven to regain his strength and he can die if he receives too many fatal wounds.
Skills: extremely good knowledge of nature and excellent handler of animals.
Equipment/Resources: He has a
wooden staff that helps him focus his power and uses it when he gets into a physical fight.
Weaknesses: Weapons made of iron can give him wounds that are much harder to heal and his plant powers are weaker when he is using them on iron. Silver weakens him and if he is in close vicinity of it, his powers will slowly be drained. He has has the vulnerabilities of ordinary humans if he doesn't use his powers as a form of defense. chemicals that harm the environment can hurt him and make him very sick. Severe damage to the environment can cause him great pain and it can make him loose focus.
Psychological Profile: Luca is very withdrawn from society and is more comfortable living out in the wilderness, surrounded by nature and the animals that live in it. He doesn't really see that much of a need to rejoin civilization and feels that there is too many bad memories for him to live in society. His parents' death were the cause of his seclusion and his reasons for becoming a hermit. Thanks to his powers, Luca doesn't need to have a single penny feed himself or live in a house and thus doesn't believe in ties to material goods. Luca is very environmentally conscious and believes that nature like with all of God's creations should be respected and cherished instead of ignored and tarnished.
Luca is very devout in his faith and still will visit a church near a forest every Sunday. He is a friend of St Michael but unlike him, Luca did not openly reveal himself to world by swearing his loyalty to the catholic church before the pope in Rome. He is extremely loyal to the church but he didn't want to become one of its main symbols and believes that he can make a difference in a more smaller way. He really hates people who hurt the environment and make the world's unique animals become endangered. He doesn't really believe in science, Luca views nature in a more spiritual sense instead of a scientific way.
As St Francis, he is able to socialize with the animals of the wild and has befriended many of them. He has a very powerful bond with his griffon Horin and would risk his life a hundred times to save his friend from death. Because he can perceive the web of life, St Francis is also very caring of people, he just doesn't like the pollution that comes with civilization, and will help those in need. He is very gracious and charitable and has fed many hungry people with his powers and has given sanctuary to those that have needed. As a hero, he is motivated by the idea that if evil prevails in man's civilization, then that darkness and corruption will spread to the wild as well.
Biography: Luca's life began in Belarus where he was born to a Roma mother and father. When he was three years old, him and his parents moved to America because of the ignorance that other Europeans attacked his people with. The Roma were never really considered proper Europeans by many, and they faced discrimination from several countries. Once in America, Luca's parents became working class citizens who barely had enough money to put food on the table and from this poor background, Luca learned that materialism and greed did not help with the suffrage of the unfortunate. During his childhood years, Luca was bullied at school for being different and felt like an outcast because of his heritage. He did find solace in the woods and parks of his town where he was surrounded by the beauty of nature. He didn't know why but it felt right to him and he spent a good amount of his time there.
The tragedies in his life didn't stop with his loneliness, and at the age of twelve Luca's parents were killed during a failed break in of their home. They had told him to hind when it happened, but he had been frozen with fear and saw his parents gunned down. He couldn't believe what he had seen and he screamed out in horror at what had just happened. Luca expected the robber to turn his weapon on him and kill him, but the murderer had fled and left Luca to sob over the bodies of his parents. When the police finally came, Luca was knelt over his parents and said nothing as the officers moved him away from them. After his parents' murder, Luca learned that the police couldn't find the man who had killed his parents and he began to doubt his reasons for living in society.
He decided to runaway from the foster system and fled into the wild. Once in the wilderness, he felt a strange presence in the woods with him that was not like any being he had ever known. Luca felt afraid and ran deeper into the woods to try and get away from the thing whose presence he felt. His running soon had him come to a beautiful grove and there he was approached by the legendary St Francis of Assisi. The christian saint told him that even though he has lost so much, God still had plans for him. St Francis of Assisi explained that Luca would gain his powers and be tasked with protecting the earth and the creatures that lived within it. He told him to speak these words in Latin "In name of the father, the son and the holy spirit, St Francis of Assisi, I wish to become thee."
Once Luca said these words he transformed into the great saint and he had also been given incredible powers. He discovered that he had power all animals and plants. When he transformed into St Francis, Luca became even more separate from society and it tooks him years to regain ability to overcome his parents' death. After the Awakening, Luca decided to become a superhero to defend nature and humanity. He eventually was asked to join the League in Chicago and wanting to help make a difference, Luca accepted and became a member.
