#griefruined
est. 2015.
>> dossier.
alias: ismael.
age: over 40,000 years old, but looks to be in his late 30's.
gender: agender. any pronouns.
species: ( ? ) unknown being of extradimensional origin.
orientation: panromantic asexual.>> appearance
eye colour: grey with gold ring around the pupil.
hair: dark brown. curly.
fc: ismael cruz córdova.
build: mesomorph build. on the skinny side due to poor eating habits.
height: 5'10".>> distinguishing characteristics
scars: numerous scars on his body from centuries of survival. his scars fade away every time he "dies".
humanoid, but: he does not have a belly button and his eyes shine faintly in the dark.
speech mannerism: ismael speaks in a slow and emotionless tone. his accent is quite ambiguous, but at times resembles the old turkic accent.>> relations
fated mate: jingū "jin". ( fated mate; deceased )
child: suwa. ( adopted daughter; deceased )
other: yishmael. ( blood brother and namesake; deceased ), kassandra of troy ( almost-lover, deceased ), rev of iberia ( lover, deceased ).
>> psyche
mental and emotional state: ismael suffers from emotional numbness and dissociation due to centuries of untreated depression and having to live through a millennium worth of recurring traumas.
faith: close to deism. he believes that while a higher being exists and created the world, people should rely on logic and reason and not the traditions of their religion.
alignment: lawful neutral.>> abilities
pain empathy & manipulation: the ability to sense, feel, and take away mental, emotional, and physical pain in others.
death sense: the ability to sense the coming of death and the actual act of dying in others.
death inducement: the power to cause instant death on those who are already dying or close to death. ismael has to touch the person for this to work.>> influences
songs such as sun may shine by tamino, cage of bones by son lux, thunder by ry x, as it was by hozier, and the curse by agnes obel the 2008 movie "hancock", the concept of the “tzadikim nistarim” from the jewish mysticism, and various other mythologies tropes such as a fate worse than death, survivor guilt, last of his kind, the stoic, ancient astronauts, and mistaken for gods.
his mind is an abyss.
Was he born or created? The ache in his bones hints at an existence long before the world began, before the sun and the moon came to be, but the Old Man remembers nothing of that time now. ( Perhaps it's for the better that he can't remember. The womb of the world was a lonely place to be. )The Old Man and his people once possessed what humans would call 'godlike' abilities. They were not only gifted with mystical powers but also possessed inhuman strength and the ability to take flight. Many of the Old Man's kind were worshipped as gods by the men who did not know better. Today's physicists would have considered them living proof of alternate dimensions, had they still existed.Though immortal and seemingly indestructible, the Old Man's kind were not entirely deathless. Whatever they were, they had come into the world in pairs, and it seemed that their fate was to die in pairs, too. Each of the Old Man's kind had a fated individual to whom they were inexplicably drawn. Whether by the design of some unknown higher power or just simple nature, their proximity to their fated others would prove fatal. Achilles had his heel. They had each other.Unbeknownst to the mortality it brought at first, many of the Old Man's kind paired up with their Fated. Their prolonged exposure to each other caused them to lose their strength and powers. Eventually, they all turned mortal. Many began to die of old age, some of human ailments.Ismael, as the Old Man had begun to call himself, was one of the few of the immortals to survive into the 7th century, having not found his Fated yet. For millennia before that, Ismael had played the role of a "god" of death and mercy, spending his days and nights taking away the pain from the humans and sometimes the lives of those who were dying or close to death. The mortals could die without his help; Ismael was merely the shortcut to a painless death.
his body is a cage.
Ismael found his Fated in the 8th century. They spent a century roaming the world together before their bodies turned weak. Though she was a deity of strength, Ismael's Fated was discouraged by the horrors that awaited them. Hunger, diseases, pain, and loneliness — if one of them were to die before the other. The human life seemed nothing but horrendous in her once-immortal eyes. Having lived more than enough and filled with dread of being left by himself, Ismael did not oppose when she suggested suicide as their ending.The suicide went as expected. Peaceful and painless. His Fated died. He died. But only he alone woke up from his death. Believing that the poison had failed him, Ismael tried to end his life once again, only to find himself unable to stay dead. A slit to his throat, the fire he had set to their home, starving himself to bones over and over. Ismael tried many things, but every time his body died, by another person's hands or his own, he was miraculously resurrected, his body fully healed. Perhaps it was fate that he should never die as he was death embodied amongst his kind, or perhaps whoever had created them meant for him to be the last, to keep Death alive to look after the living. Or perhaps... Perhaps there was no meaning to this at all.
it's a deathless death.
His mind is an abyss of time, and his body is a cage of endless suffering. Because of his immortality, Ismael has lived through countless experiences that weren't meant to be lived through. All this time of surviving, of pain and despair that he has lived, witnessed, and felt has left a deep scar within him. It has stripped away parts of his spirit and numbed his sympathy. What's left of him now is a soulless creature stuck in a loop of existing day by day.
You see, immortality is not always a gift.
main
[ Set in the current day. ] Time has burned away his compassion and stripped him of his humanity. Ismael rarely uses his abilities nowadays, leaving humans to meet death on their own. He lives in an old, rundown apartment in the outskirts of a big city and poses as a street artist to earn money. He can be found at his art stall on days where he isn’t crippled by his depression.
REINCARNATED
Ismael never woke up from his death. He died along with his fate, and he was reincarnated. With no memory of his past life, he lived without concern. He lived, he died, and he was reborn — over and over, centuries upon centuries.Ismael Imamović is a twenty-seven years old painter and children’s book illustrator. He lives in a cosy loft apartment in the outskirts of Manhattan with his adopted daughter Suwa. Ismael struggles to make ends meet as a single father after the loss of the love of his life. The smell of coffee always lingers on his clothes and his hands are always stained with paint. He’s tired. He’s always tired. He can’t remember the last time he wasn’t, but he wears his dark circles with pride.
dragon age
Human. Or so he appears. Some suspect him to be a mere oddity and nothing else, a Tranquil mage who bears a piece of the Fade within him. Others believe him to be an abomination. Something not meant to be. Something very, very wrong. Ismael can not remember how he came to be, only that he woke one day, his hands and heart itching to heal.A stranger to the world he had woken up to, the “mage” would spend many years wandering and exploring the wilderness. He would offer to heal the sick and injured in exchange for food or a bed for the night to any villagers who would shelter him.A being of compassion, Ismael often found himself gravitating towards places of great misfortune and pain. Having the ability to feel the pain of others and ease their sufferings with just a touch, he helped whenever he could. Sometimes, just sometimes, and only when there was nothing else to be done, he would kindly end their suffering by ending their lives.Ismael and Minaeve’s paths crossed during the Mage-Templar War. His unsettling stoicism and blank, lifeless gaze caused her to believe that he was the result of a botched Rite of Tranquillity. The elven mage took him under her protection and brought him to the group of Tranquil she was protecting during the chaos. Eventually, the group found themselves under the protection of Cassandra Pentaghast. Ismael served the Inquisition as a spirit healer until a fellow healer deemed him unfit, deeming his mercy killings as immoral and unemotional.
the old guard
Ismael is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, immortals in existence. By the end of 7000 BC, Ismael had found and outlived countless other immortals. The last immortal he dreamt of was his lover Jin. Ismael has not dreamt of anyone new since Jin’s death. In truth, he never dreams at all.Some time after Jin’s death, Ismael discovered that he too has lost the ability to heal rapidly from any physical injury. He tried to end his life multiple times, only to discover that he still can not die. For reasons unknown to him, his healing factor now activates only when he’s on the brink of death.Possible plots:
1 . . . Ismael is not part of Andy’s ‘cycle’. Andy and her team have never dreamt of him because they aren’t meant to find him (yet).
2 . . . Ismael is part of Andy's cycle. The Old Guard team have dreamt of him and vice versa, but he disappeared from their dreams before they could track him down. They assumed he died. Ismael still dreams about them, but does not care enough to track them down himself.
tomb raider
The Old Man is the deathless kin to the creator of the Divine Source and one of its 12 original guards.Being the last of his kind to abandon the Source for a life amongst mortals, The Old Man stood guard alone and forgotten for almost a millennium before a mortal stumbled across the ancient vault.Tired and lonely, the Old Man did nothing to prevent the mortal, who was then made immortal, from reaching the Source. This said mortal turned immortal would later become known to the world as JACOB the Deathless Prophet.After he abandoned the source to Jacob, the Old Man sought out one of its original guards. They fell in love, but while she became weaker from being away from the Divine Source for too long, The Old Man remained healthy and young.In the present 21st century, the Old Man is the last survivor of the 12 original deathless guards.
the last of us
Ismael is a survivor born with an immunity to the Cordyceps Infection. Known for having executed a group of Fireflies in cold blood, Ismael was captured and put on trial when his QZ fell to Fireflies control. Upon discovering his immunity, the Fireflies spared him from execution and assembled a team to take him to Salt Lake City. The QZ is overwhelmed by a hoard of Infected before they could set out. Only Ismael survived. Instead of fleeing the QZ, Ismael chooses to stay and clear the city of the Infected. ( read more here )
tba
tba.
grishaverse
tba.
the eternals
( mixed movie and comics. )Ismael is an eternal. His group was sent to earth before Ajak's group. Ismael's group rebelled, so Arishem made them mortal and sent Ajak and her group of eternals to continue the mission on earth. For reasons unknown, Arishem spared Ismael.Crushed under the weight of his grief and memories, Ismael fades into obscurity. ( The rest mirrors his main verse. )Power: Ismael has the ability to kill every living thing in his vicinity. He does this by absorbing the life force / cosmic energy of others into himself. He is unable to turn off this ability completely, constantly emitting a death aura that slowly kills anyone and anything that is near him for a long period of time. Thanks to the near-limitless amount of energy inside him, Ismael can regenerate from almost any injury in a blink of an eye. It’s what had kept him alive for millennia despite his multiple attempts at ending his own life.