Joseph Prince

Affiliation: Blackwater

Position: President

Background

"And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee." Okay, it may not be strictly biblical, but it does get the point across. It's not easy being responsible for saving all the souls in the world, but it's the burden you've taken upon yourself.

Once upon a time, you were merely a lowly sinner. Yea, though you came from the richest of families, you squandered it on the hedonistic pleasures of the flesh. You had to experiment with your sexual appetites -- with not only women and men alike (not to mention that one time with the beasts of the field, but you strive never to think about it), but at the time you even believed that you preferred the company of men to the company of women. Oh, how diseased you must have been to have believed that. Not only that, but you indulged yourself in all other manners of vice as well, such as gambling and drugs -- oh, the drugs everywhere and every night. You probably would have done them during the day too, but you generally slept the day away in indolence.

It was only after waking up from a drug overdose and finding yourself in the hospital that your life turned around. It was a Christian hospital and it sent the chaplain on duty round to see you while you were recovering. He asked you if your life made you happy. You told him how you held the entire world in the palm of your hand and had the money and power to do anything you wished. He simply asked again if it could make you happy. You argued with him for hours, defending your choice of lifestyle, only to be met again with the question you were afraid to answer -- were you happy? For all your hollow arguments, the answer was no, but you were too stubborn to admit it. Your life didn't make you happy. It brought only the briefest glimpse of relief from a crushing boredom and dissatisfaction in life. That is why you chased all the forbidden pleasures -- not for the pleasures themselves but for a brief respite from the relentless ennui of life.

After getting out of the hospital, you kept in touch with the chaplain. He introduced you to the joy of serving the Lord. You found a satisfaction in your life that you had never known before. You felt you had a purpose now, and that purpose was to save other souls.

All around you, you saw people committing injustices to each other in order to gain more and more material comforts that would not make them happy. All these people stealing from each other, thinking that happiness is just around the corner. Yet you know that true happiness comes not from material comforts but from serving the Lord. Since that is the true source of happiness, that is the one cause worth fighting for. You now know that with great power comes great responsibility.

With your wealth and connections, you had the opportunity to save the masses on scales most men could never dream of. So, you set up Blackwater International, a military contracting business with state-of-the-art training facilities. As founder and sole owner, you decide what jobs Blackwater takes, and you only choose the jobs that support Christian leaders in an area. Your company has become immensely successful, and Blackwater has become one of the most feared military contractors.

However, lately, you've been feeling like this success bears the burdens of additional responsibility. You feel like the Lord is calling upon you to do still more. Not enough souls are being saved. Well, if Jesus won't come to the mountain, then the mountain will come to Jesus (and screw that Mohammad character). After extensive research into arcane and esoteric texts (or paying others to do so on your behalf), you've decided that the most efficient way to save souls is to bring about the Rapture yourself.

Even you had a hard time believing such a thing was possible, but you've seen enough of the power of the ancient rituals to realize that this could happen and indeed was probably the Lord's plan all along. You will enact the prophesied rituals and act as the hand of God to bring about the end times.

Though you do not have the rituals yourself, you know much of them. Your studies of the rituals tell you that recent events are the result of one who was unworthy attempting to perform those rituals (or a lesser version). They seek to raise the Great Beast of Babylon, yet they have only succeeded in waking his lesser sibling from slumber so far. Still, there is no mistaking the signs. They are there. You believe Al-Araf is the one responsible, that they possess the rituals, yet they lack the clear guidance of a follower of the Lord. They must complete their ultimate ritual, with your guidance of course.

It is your mission to negotiate with Al-Araf and help them complete their ultimate ritual, awakening the Great Beast of Babylon. This will bring about the end times, where the Truth shall be laid bare and men will gaze upon it to see the iniquity in their own hearts. Doubtless, it will drive many mad, but many others will turn to the Lord in their time of need -- just in time for the Rapture, where every soul shall be judged.

However, this will only come to pass if the Great Beast is awakened, and not merely his lesser bretheren. To conduct the ultimate ritual and awaken the Great Beast, a number of sites of power must be secured. You do not know specifically where all the sites are, but you suspect that some of the sites being negotiated over are sites of power. Surely, someone present must know.

Blackwater has given you a lot of influence in these negotiations. You're in charge, but you have your right-hand man, Erik Schmitz, to do the dirty work for you. Though only a token follower of the Lord at best, he is amazingly competent and is motivated by his own ambitions to get any assigned task done. Use these resources wisely, and you can become the instrument of God in bringing about the Rapture...

Contacts

• Erik Schmitz -- Your extremely competent right-hand man. You often leave details of running the business up to him.
• Field Marshall, The Right Honorable Lord Lockwood KG -- A greedy bastard who is only in the business for the money.
• Tariq Ibn Faruq -- Political leader. He lacks the true vision of greatness.
• Abd-al Aziz Mamoon -- Spiritual leader. He at least understands the power of God. Too bad he's of the wrong faith. Still, he could be useful to you.
• Veronica Miles -- Meddling American.
• Rodney Greiner -- Egotistical US politician.
• David Kinder -- Here to negotiate worldly power rather than spiritual power. Yet spiritual power requires access to the holy sites, which are up for negotiation.
• Basit Ibn Karim -- Morally bankrupt Iraqi official.
• Wafi Nagi -- Corrupt Iraqi official.
• Munir Faiz -- Greedy businessman.

Abilities & Artifacts

Stats

• Combat: 3
• HP: 5
• Sanity: 4

Tome of Paralysis

As long as the tome is being read from, one target within five feet is rendered immobile and most listen. This causes 1 sanity damage to both the reader and the target for each minute the reading continues.

Goals

• Bring about The Rapture by making sure that the Great Beast of Babylon is summoned.
• Find and acquire the relevant holy sites.
• Convert the heathens before the end.
• Make sure that Erik Schmitz pursues Blackwater's goals faithfully.