Numen

"Never before had such an ambition attempt to create a god–let alone ten; ever been contemplated by any species. Yet, the Arcan with all of their vast power and knowledge did what no other sane civilization could or would."

- Malakai Madora

The Numen (also known as the Gods of Xyon or the Chosen Ones), are ten extremely powerful immortal beings that rule the planet of Xyon. The Numen hail from Earth, where they were chosen by the ancient race known as the Arcan some 16,000 years ago to fight for their entertainment on the world of Solaris, each given an army to carry out that mission. Since then, the Numen created Xyon with the goal of ruling it together, as well as creating the Novus, who inhabitant Xyon's surface and realms, as their servants and children. They each possess the might to twist the laws of reality itself, and can call on the powers of the universe to do their bidding, though they are still learning the extent of their abilities even now. Each time they learn a new skill, it is instantly shared among all ten members of the Numen. Their emotions are also shared, to a certain extent, although certain members have greater control of this ability than others. Only Malakai Madora has the ability to summon all ten members of the Numen at will. The rest must send a request for summons and await a reply, as the Numen are usually busy managing their own corners of the world.

History
"Tell me, would a person who has suffered so much make others to suffer as well?"

- Lord of the Arcan

Background
The history of the Numen begins with the plans of the ancient civilization Arcan. The species was advanced beyond the comprehension of any other species in the known universe; and for the Arcan, the "known" universe was vast beyond imagination. However, they had a taste for a crude art known as war, which they had left off for eons. Some amoungst wished to witness such an art to deal with their "boredom" of the more sophisticated things in left such as science and technology. They had their pick of the best in the Milky Way Galaxy, whose many species and empires were fighting with one another over trivial things such as land, power, and pride. These foolish little fist-fights didn't interest the Arcan, for they demanded something more complex and destructive. For that, they would need an entire planet and race of people deticated to that sole purpose.

A little known species known as humans living on the planet of Earth, had been carving out their civilization in their tranquil corner of the galaxy. They had their own wars and heros, and they too fought over land, money, and resources; all considered pointless to the Arcan. However, their resourcefulness and sheer cruelty in war had attracted the Arcan's attention, and thus their plans for the "perfect war". However, the Arcan had a plan for only a handfull of these humans. They planned to give ten of them limitless power to lead their followers in the most bloody and violent war in planetary history. The need to rejuvenate and take care of the war world require powers of universal scale, for which the Arcan had planned for.

For millennia, the Arcan watched with hawk-like eyes waiting for the perfect time to choose their avatars of war. They watched as man killed each other over and over, thinking on what kind of person could wield the limitless powers of the universe and remain sane, and just who they could control. That trifecta would present itself soon, but right wars, events, and distaters would have to occure first, so as to give their little god-soldiers the right ideas as to best kill their rivals armies. In looking bad, one can only wonder as to why a mighty race such as the Arcan would be so interested in death and violence on such an unimaginable scale. The answer is simple: They aren't human, and they just didn't care.

Choosing the Numen
In year 2012 AD, the humans had emerged from a number of gruesome conflicts which saw the deaths of some 100 million human beings in the last century alone. That death exceeded anything esle humanity had ever done to itself, and that was the prerequisite the Arcan had been waiting for. A loss of life so great, humanity had proven itself violent enough to produce the individual required to wage the perfect war. Thus, the Arcan went about hand-picking ten emotionally scarred and disturb humans, each of whom would be willing to kill for glory and power, and had the ability to wield the might they would soon recieve. The Arcan sent agents down to Earth to find and abduct these people, and inform them of the Arcan's plans for them afterward.

The Arcan had a number of prerequisites that had to be fulfilled by their targets, namely; suffering, loss, hatred, sadism, and amibition. These people had to be of the same age, and had to have all experienced a number of painful events in their past. They all had dreams of doing something amazing in their future, and had excellent leadership capablities. Also, the Arcan hoped that their canidates would be more likely to inflict their hurt and pain on their enemies, something of which was to be seen in the near future. At the moment, the agents had to find and send their targets to the Arcan for the next phase of their plans. When the Arcan when to Earth to begin their search, they did not grab just any humans they came across.

Instead, they made sure that the ones they were going to bequeth to powers of cosmic proportions, they wanted only thoses who would willing use them; unrestrained, undeterred, and unashamed. They wanted humans who would burn off their pain and hatred in the field of battle, killing and destroying for the pleasure of the Arcan to witness. These humans had to have suffered terrible lives to qualify for the position of being selected. The level of pain had to be of such scale that even those of mankind's lowest would view in disgust and hatred themselves. The ten "lucky" individuals were to be of the same age, so that they would be more incline to fight someone of their age group than that of another. Finally, they wanted humans that had nothing left on Earth to return too, to ensure that they would choose to remain in the employ of the Arcan.

Rationale & Creation
A long time question about the Numen has always been prevalent on the worlds visited by them; Why would the Arcan give ten emotionally unstable young adults the powers of the universe. The short answer is simply because they could, and that they expected the results to either wear off or that the Numen would kill one another. However, the long answer is far more complicated than that. The Arcan, as smart as they were, were never concerned about the survival of the galaxy as a whole. They believed that whatever damage the Numen caused would not effect them. Thus, they were reckless in creating their gods. They discovered how to tap into powers of the universe, and were even able to harness it. However, they could never master it. Thus, rather than test the powers on one of their own, they opted to get ten test subjects from a species with a notoriously short lifespan–humanity.

They suspected that the powers would take full effect in the humans, but that they would die long before they could ever master, if they survived the process of recieving them. They wished to see these powers manifested offensively both to see how they were used and to drive away their boredom from their daily lives. Thus, Solaris was created by the Arcan, and a numer of humans transplanted to the planet (hence the many abduction cases that humanity recorded throughout its history). The Arcan choose ten humans with nothing to lose and more than willing to commit mass genocide in the name of science. They also believed that in their emotional states that they would be very easy to control, which as time has told, was not the case, not even the slightest. The Arcan took each one of their captive humans to large and spacious room, where the long and painful process of transfering the energies of the universe into their bodies began.

The process would do three things. First, it would increase their strength and durability to heights beyond anything a human was capable of. This would allow them to survive the excrutating process. Second, it would open in essence a window within the being of the Numen, and the universe itself, giving the subject unlimited access to the energies of existance. And thirdly, it would permanently attach the subject to the universe, making them a part of the universe. They could touch, see, feel, and smell the celestial bodies around them, and control them at will, one of the many mistakes of the Arcan's tests. With that, the Numen then controlled the very fabric of existance, and there was no off switch, folly on the Arcan's part for thinking death would get to the Numen before the Numen could get to the Arcan.

The Numen were left on the world of Solaris and were given one very detailed command: wage war. At that, the leader of the Arcan posed a moral question to the Numen, would they be willing to inflict the same pain they had experienced on those who would now worship them? He then left, leaving them with a legitimate question to answer. The Numen departed for their designated regions to begin carving a society that was to wage war on one another for the entertainment of a species whom they had no knowledge of. The Numen began their task, each attempting to answer the question given to them. Regardless, the bloodiest page in Solarian history was about to being, and would become known as the Great Solaris War.

The Great Solaris War
Easily the most violent page in the history of the Numen, they would lead their respective armies against one another. While the war itself lasted for no more that two and a half centuries, the Numen themselves had living on Solaris for at least one thousand years, far beyond anything the Arcan had expected or prepared for. The Arcan watched as the Numen guided their followers, built up their empires, and took land from those who would submit. In time however, they would run into one another, and wage the war that the Arcan had so long been waiting for. The first battle of the war took place in 1 AE, marking the beginning of the "year of the chosen", or anno electi. The Battle of the Fiery Plains took place between Malakai and Miyako, and would mark the beginning of the fierce and destructive rivalvy.

The battle ended in a major victory for Malakai, and resulted in what was a swift push to the capital of Miyako's empire, but end poorly with the deaths of 130,000 Solarians under Malakai. It was at that point Miyako discovered and accepted the fact that she needed allies, and led to her forming a bond with Achcauhtli, Marcus, Karishm Jahnavi, and Calypso. This ended with Malakai forming alliances with Dominique, Håkon, Sadaka, and Nephthys, and would be the primary factor in the war's great length and destruction. The war did not have any major deciding battles throughout the first half of its history. Only the excessive deaths of many hundreds of thousands of Solarians were ever accomplished by either side.

The war did much to please the Arcan, who's homeplant aired the fighting for the first 190 years of it course. However, they soon grew bored with the death, and opted to move on, forgetting entirely the purpose of the conflict in the first place, or the fact that they have given ten extremely unstable humans god-like powers for the purpose of exploiting them for their own civilization. Their notoriously short-attention spans allowed the Numan to lead their Solarian followers to their deaths time and time again for no purpose whatsoever. By 195 AE, the Numen and the Solarians were fighting for no purpose at all, their original perogative overridden by a fierce hatred for the other side.

After the War
The Numen were rather slow in discovering the extent of their powers, but were quick to use them upon learning new tricks. At first it started with small things, such as making heads explode, or turning people inside-out. Then they moved on to bigger things, such as making the sun stand still, raising the dead, and reading the minds of enemy generals. If just so happened that when Calypso was doing the latter, she wished to see what the Arcan were thinking, both to test the extent of her powers, and to see who was winning in the eyes of those who wished them to fight. To her disgust and horror, not only had the Arcan lost interest in the war, but they had totally forgotten the fact that the Numen even existed. She rushed to tell Miyako, who ordered her and her allies' troops to halt all of their actions

In a meeting with a naturally suspitious Malakai, Miyako explained to him that not only did the war need to end, but that the Arcan needed to be destroyed. She explained to him was Calypso had told her recently, and Malakai's outrage was that of which even Miyako had never seen despite the long fighting. They had been left behind, forgetten, and thrown aside. Their lives were gone, they had destroyed the lives of billions, and left on a foreign planet without any way off. The infomation was shared with the other Numen, who too wished to deal with the Arcan for their willful abandonment. Sadaka himself had been playing around with his powers when he discovered how to travel through space. He even visited one of the nearby planets in the system just to try out his new power.

At that, the Numen made a few appearances throughout their respective empires to explain that they had to leave. The Solarians were rightfully distrught. They had killed so many of their own, and the war was just over like that. The Numen explained that many things had to be handled beyond their world, and that they were no longer needed. At that, the Numen left, with the exception of Malakai, who knew that many Solarians had a score to settle with one another, and without the Numen's guidance, they were destroy themselves. Thus, he told them all that he was now their sole ruler, and that he would return, a promise he would keep. At that, he told left with the others of his number.

Dealing with the Arcan
Angry, betrayed, and having a huge chip on their collective shoulders, the Numen made a bee-line to the Arcan homeworld. On route to their location, the Numen made many stops on their trip. During such pauses in their journey, the Numen would experiment with their powers to get ready for the day they would exterminate their own creators. During one such time, Miyako discovered the Numen's ability to control celestial objects such as stars. In one system, she played around with the colors of one star, changing it from red, to blue, to purple, and then to green. However, she grew angered by a joke told by Marcus regarding her sex, and accidently sent the star supernova. It was during that same day too that the Numen discovered their ability to survive massive acts of destruction, and in the case of Karishma, who had not being paying too much attention to the act, the ability to self-ressurect.

Such discoveries were making the Numen stronger each day, and would ultimately do much in aiding them in their single-minded goal. Upon arriving on the homeworld of the Arcan in 287 XE, the Numen were quick to get to work, slaugthering billions of the Arcan in an enraged state. No weapon could harm them by then, as they had learned too much about their abilities to control the universe themselves to be destroyed. Some Arcan were deleted from existance at the snap of a finger, drain the lifeforces from them, send them backwards through time until they disintegrated, and even twist the laws of physics around buildings, distorted the reality around them. Some Arcan pleaded for mercy, and were killed instantly to "protect" them from the many worst fates the Numen's perfect minds could contemplate.

Upon discovering the Lord of the Arcan, Marcus approached him to answer the question that he had been given the day the Numen had been left on Solaris. In regards to whether or not they would inflict their pains on others, the Numen unianmously answered yes, and fliped the Arcan ruler into a region of existance before time was even time. They all agreed that he would stay there until they fancied the idea of bringing him back to torture him, and then they would do it again. Not all of the Arcan were killed off. 15,000 of the "lucky ones" had been preserved to serve as an example to the races around them. As the most powerful empire in the entire galaxy, the Arcan were to serve as evidence of the Numen's universal power.

The Arcan were stripped of their technology, their worlds, and their diginity, and the Numen decided to perform a number of acts that left the Arcan with many emotional and mental scars. Some of the Numen (Malakai, Marcus, and Nephthys to be exact), took many of the women as slaves, for reason varying from person to person. Malakai and Belisari had been wanting to try out something new in bed, while Marcus just wanted something to abuse, and Nephthys had always wanted a living trophy. At that, the Numen set off to begin new lives far from Solaris or Earth, the latter they did not wish to revisit lest they see exactly how much of their homeworld had changed. They agreed that they needed a world of their own, one where they could rule as gods, but they way they wanted too, and over a "certain" kind of people.

List of the Numen
See also: Gods of Xyon

Malakai Madora
In the city of Chicago in the United States of America, was a young man by the name of Quentin Marshall. Quentin had been involved with gang activity in his neighborhood, including killing people whom he and his gang as too weak too deserve what they had, and that it was rightfully theirs. One day, a rival group angered by the gang's violent behavior came looking for Quentin, and instead went after his family. They gunned down Quentin's entire family in an act of revenge. The loss of Quentin's only family saw him go on a rampage, killing anyone who crossed his path everywhere he went. He came across Belisari, the woman who would later be his wife, and the two went on a killing spree. In a stand-off with the police, facing the death penalty at the hands of the government or prisoners, Quentin and Belisari prepared to end their lives until the Arcan found them. Such a brutal young man and woman for their war could not be ignored or left to die.

Miyako Ishikawa
Over in Japan living in the city of Osaka, Miyako Ishikawa was living a life of luxury. She could have whatever she wanted whenever she wanted. However, there was a catch. Her mother died sometime ago, and she and her father were the only members of their family. He gave her whatever she wanted in exchange for sex. This exchange had been going on since Miyako was three, and mother was well aware of it, leading to her mother's suicide when Miyako was ten. Truely spoiled and sadistic, Miyako didn't care, and saw sex and money as her way out of anything. An emotionally corrupt young women like herself gave the Arcan ideas, and she was abducted shortly after the Yakuza killed her father for failing to pay a gambling debt.

Dominique Verdoux
In the French city of Dijon, Dominique was the daugther of a well-to-do family. Her father was a Catholic adherent and her mother a atheist political activist. She watched her parents fight over ideology; her father reasoning from the Bible, and her mother from the standpoint of atheists. Dominique sided with her father, and refusing to watch her daughter follow some "fairy-tale deity" filed for divorce and wanted custody of Dominique. When it appeared Dominique's father would win the child custody case, her mother paid to have him murdered. Dominique ran away from her mother, and when she turned 18, returned to kill her. She failed, and fled to a church where they sheltered her for a year. The Arcan appeared shortly after her 19th birthday, and abducted her for her matricidical grude.

Håkon Ragnvaldr
In the mountains of Norway in the town of Orkanger was Gunnar. The son of a fisherman who worked his fingers raw providing for his family, Gunnar watched as his mother's depression ate away at her, until the day she hung herself. His father became abusive, beating Gunner and his younger brother until his father either gave out or left to drink himself into a grave. One day, Gunnar's father was particularly angry, and beat Gunnar's youngest brother to death. Outraged, Gunnar threw a harpoon at his father killing him, and buried the body in the woods when he realized what he had done. Gunnar ran away from home, and was immediately taken by the Arcan, who wanted such a young man who could look his father in the eyes and take his life.

Sadaka Icharia
Hailing from the nation of Kenya, Sadaka was the son of poor pastoralist and weaver. When he was seven, his family was killed when rebels from neighboring Somalia raided his village. His father was tortured to death when he refused to join them, and his mother and sisters raped and killed. He escaped, and vowed to return and avenge his family. For most of his childhood, he hunted and killed the rebels. It became a sport to him, and he became more concerned with killing rebels then avenging his family. Upon turning 19, Sadaka planned to join the Kenyan Defense Forces so he could fight the Somali face-to-face, though the Arcan found him and sent him to their people to serve a larger purpose than himself before that could happen.

Achcauhtli
Living in the crime-riddened streets of Mexico City, Silvio's family was a broke shell of a household. The father was a drunk, and the mother a prostitute. One day, the a drug cartel came to Silvio's home to collect an overdue payment from cocine, which his father had been using. Failing to get the money, they beheading the father and mother, and raped Silvio's 13-year old sister before selling her on the human trafficing market. Orphaned, Silvio turned to crime to support himself, and made a good living in doing so. However, he feared for his life when the same cartel came after him for cutting in on their drug-selling business. While on the run, Silvio was discovered by an Arcan agent, and taken to their planet.

Nephthys
Born in the city of Luxor, Egypt, Farah was the daughter of widower cotton farmer who was barely making ends meet. He was forced to sell everrything he had to care for Farah and twin sister Najilah, and when it became clear that he could no longer care for her or her sister, he sold them to a wealthy businessman, and gave Farah the money to use to one day escape and start a new life for herself and Najilah. Instead, her money was taken by her "husband", and she was repeatedly raped and beaten. One day, she managed to posion her spouse, and escaped into the harsh world her father was trying to prepare her and her twin for. Impoverished, Farah sold her body for money to care for Najilah, until a mysterious man promisied her more than she could imagine, and took the two to the Arcan to fight for their entertainment.

Marcus Draco
Growing up in the city of Naples, Italy, Ferruccio was born to a poor family of eight. As the youngest of his siblings, Ferruccio was given little attention, and frequently abused by his domineering mother who ran the family. Molested by his female teachers and older sisters, and beaten regularly by his mother for slight issues, Ferruccio developed a strong hatred for women. At age ten, he killing young girls to vent his frustrations, and came to be arrested for them by age 17. Spending a year in jail, Ferruccio was slated for execution when he turned 18, but corruption led to his sanctioned death by moved by another year. As he was being prepared for his death, an Arcan agent resuced him, and turn him to the Arcan where his violent hatred could be released in full.

Shula Damanhur
Orphaned at an early age, Lamya El-Samhudi grew up in the slums of Dhamar, Yemen. She was picked up at age two, and began his life as a child prostitute, spending most of her childhood servicing "needy men". At age 13, Lamya was given the duty of tracking down and bringing back escape sex slaves, and killing those that threatened to expose the business. She began to view her job as a game, and was rewarded with money and gifts for her work. Her view of morality had been twisted thoroughly to the point where her masters were "protecting" her from those who wished to destroy her way of life. However, Lamya's life of relative ease was disturbed when she was abducted by the Arcan, who saw in her a natural-born killer who would delight the bored masses of their civilization.

Hecate
A native of Athens, Greece, Kalliope was the daughter of a moderately wealthy businessman and socailite, who had numerous connections with the government. During her youth, Kalliope had been groomed to take over the business of her father, up until her mother suffered an injury in a boating accident. It was determined that Kalliope could be "harvested" for organs to cure the mother. Refusing to allow her family's private doctors slice her up, Kalliope ripped her mother apart one night for daring to consider doing the same to save her own life. When her father discovered the murder, he sent hitmen to kill Kalliope. It was during her flight to escape Greece that Kalliope was discovered and taken by the Arcan, who had many plans for a young woman who would happily kill her own mother.

Powers & Abilities
"A god am I."

- Marcus Draco

For all intents and purposes, the Numen are omnipotent and too a limited degree, omniscienent. All of the Numen are capable of feats allowing them to control the dynamics of the universe with unnerving ease. As a result, the Numen possess abilities that can not be rivalled by anyone else in the known universe. The Numen are functionally immortal; they will never die of old age, but can be killed. However, the Numen are capable of self-resurrection, meaning that they will never remain dead forever. They are resistant to blunt trauma like punches, kicks, and blows from weapons like bats and maces, though not entirely immune; unless the blows are dealt by a being with similar or greater strength, there isn't a chance of injury. A Numen is naturally stronger than that of a human or alien male or female of their build and stature who engages in regular intensive exercise. Their strength can be measured by their ability to lift hundreds of tons.

All of the Numen are also endowed with superior intellectual abilities, being able to develop technology beyond the capabilities of humanity or the sentient species of the galaxy. The stamina and endurance of the Numen is nothing short of amazing. A Numen is able to manage their stamina on a certain amount of rest and sustenance (more than minimal) so that it seems they are able to constantly function. They can go without food or water for months at a time and they all have a highly developed nervous system. Their reaction speed and hand-eye coordination is superior to a normal sentient being's. They can sense the truth in someone, are immune to any and all diseases and poisons, and alter their blood flow, body temperature, heart rate, and level of consciousness, for the purposes of survival in harsh environments.