Lightray

Lightray, AKA Joseph Newhouse, is an (undead) hero of Colonial Bay's past and now present.

Description
As Lightray: This man has golden skin that is literally glowing from the inside. He stands about six and a half feet tall and has a strong athletic build without being over muscled. His features are even and handsome if not supermodel quality. His eyes glow with the same golden light as his skin. His face is framed by shoulder length dark blue hair. He appears to be in the prime of life.

His clothing is like something from an old Hollywood movie: a white kilt-like robe that leaves the right side of his body bare from the waist up along with sandals that are strapped to his calves with white bindings. A glowing gemstone the size of a business card is centered on his chest. Wings of light seem to flow from the gemstone up and over his back like a softly moving cloak of sunlight.

A faint smile rests on his lips as his gaze takes in his surroundings. He seems possessed of a calm self-assurance and dignity.

As Joseph: Joseph stands a little over six feet tall with a lean athletic build. His lively dark eyes are a noticeable feature in a handsome tanned face. He appears to be in his mid forties given that his short dark hair is dusted with silver.

He is wearing a pair of khaki slacks and a dark green button downed shirt. His feet are clad in soft leather loafers.

He seems relaxed, but attentive to his surroundings.

Origin
Joseph Newhouse was working on his PhD in archeolinguistics in the fall of 1948. He was an assistant to archaeology professor Dr Charles Klein of Colonial Bay University. They were working together on translations of Sumerian cuneiform at a dig in the ruins of the ancient city of Uruk in Iraq. When he first came to the ruins Joseph could feel the traces of old power lingering in the very stones but no one place seemed any more potent than another. Joseph just shrugged and cheerfully went about his job of cataloging and translating the fragments that were unearthed by the expedition.

One day a large intact cuneiform tablet was brought to Joseph to be cataloged. To him, it throbbed with power, a warm familiar presence like nothing he had ever before experienced. Joseph could feel another object was covered by the clay of the tablet, but was not certain what to do about it. That night, Joseph had intense dreams of ancient warriors in a battle against dark forces. He awoke with a start at the sound of gunfire and explosions outside his tent. When he looked out he saw a group of armed men attacking the camp, bandits he thought, killing anyone they came across. Leading them was a junior member of the expedition, Jean-Michel Lereau, who was wearing a hooded cloak and wielding a horned scepter that fired bolts of dark flame.

Joseph grabbed for a gun he had left beside his cot, but knocked it off the table along with the clay tablet. The tablet hit the ground with a crack, shattered, and sunlight streamed into the tent. Joseph reached down and grabbed the revealed gemstone. As his flesh touched it, he heard a serene voice in his mind that asked him to take up the Seal of Utu-Shamash as his fathers before him and fight back against the Darkness Within. In a timeless moment, Joseph considered the offer being made by this golden presence, considered the death begin dealt to the innocents outside, and in that moment chose to take up the mantle offered him.

Lightray, the Seal-Bearer of Utu-Shamash, flew from the tent, his new body flush with energy, the gemstone bonded to his flesh on his chest. After a fierce battle, he was successful in driving off the young Morbane Lereau and his men. In the aftermath, it was relatively easy for Joseph to fake being knocked unconscious and emerge from the wreckage of his own tent.

Powers
Lightray has three sources for the powers he possesses: the Seal of Utu-Shamash, his own reanimated body, and an innate psychic talent.

The Seal of Utu-Shamash gives Lightray access to some of the powers attributed to the Sumerian/Akkadian deity Utu-Shamash. Utu-Shamash was a sun deity whose portfolio also included being the guardian of justice, truth, and right. He was also a deity of transformation and change, both inner and outer. Accordingly, Lightray can call upon the power within the Seal of Utu-Shamash to strike foes with mystic sunlight, shield himself from harm, heal, and transform himself physically and mentally. At one time, the Seal allowed him to enter certain other dimensions and alter his perceptions in certain ways, but with his return to physical existence, his powers have been 'reset', for lack of a better term, to where he was just a few weeks after he first gained possession of the Seal.

The Seal of Utu-Shamash in its normal form is a flat glowing crystal about the size of a business card that is covered with cuneiform script that slowly and continuously changes. It possesses the curious property that it can be 'unfolded', releasing flashes of sunlight in the process, into a six-sided cylinder six inches high and 3 inches in diameter.

Lightray's body has been reanimated/reconstructed by the Grey Robes who summoned from the Afterlife to become Narosia's guardian. Lightray's original human skeleton served as the core upon which the Grey Robes constructed a human appearing body. The body even looks exactly like Lightray did in life. The Grey Robes decided that Lightray should be a more efficient guardian than a 'mere human' so they used additional necromantic and spirit magicks to modify his new body. Lightray has few physical needs now, but must to let his mind rest from time to time and be exposed sunlight periodically to maintain his 'health'. It is possible that given time and in overcoming his own subconscious he may discover other aspects about his new body.

Lastly, Lightray possesses the psychic ability to detect mystical and supernatural phenomena and creatures. He has had this gift since birth as have various others in his mother's family for untold centuries. To him, it is a natural to feel the 'vibrations' of the Unseen World as it is to look at a painting or hear music.

Personality
To many people, Joseph seems a pleasant enough man: soft spoken, quiet, dependable, solid, perhaps a bit boring and old fashioned even. And in many ways, he is all these things. But Joseph is also infuriated by injustice and intolerance, wanton cruelty and misuse of power. Arrogance and insults merely bore him, and even when very angry, he strives to keep himself under iron personal control. On the other hand, Joseph smiles on acts of kindness and thoughtfulness. He ejoys folk who foresee problems and prepare to deal with them, rather than merely whining when trouble strikes. Music and natural beauty delight him, as do folk who are witty and can readily quote philosophers, writers, and poets - especially when they can spout comic monologues or do parodies.

More than anything though, Joseph takes an almost childlike satisfaction when he can bring justice to bear on others: good to those who have done good, woe to those who have caused it, and fitting rewards to folk in general. He knows that this aspect of his personality is 'imposed' by his possession of the Seal of Utu-Shamash, but he does not mind in the least. He has gone to some trouble in the past to arrange things so that hand of fate seems to be at work, handing out exactly the most pointed and poignant of just desserts to those who come to his attention.

Other than his secret identity, he tries to be truthful with others. The only real lapse in his previous life was concealing that he was gay. The only ones who knew about his secret were his wife Phyllis who was both a beloved friend and the mother of his children, and his lover, The Bloodhound, a fellow superhero.

Relations
Joseph has living descendants in Colonial Bay and elsewhere but has not approached any of them to date. His daughter, Elizabeth, is still alive if in very frail health given her advanced age. But he fears to see her. After all, how does one explain it all?

He serves as the guardian for the shadowmage Narosia. Guardian in this sense has evolved into almost a paternal relationship.

History
Joseph Mehrzad Newhouse was born November 21, 1918, to Brett Newhouse, CEO of Newhouse Shipping, and Margaret Fairchilde, the daughter of an English Lord (and retired British officer) and his Persian wife. The Newhouse family is one of the oldest in Colonial Bay; its members have long been part of the upper strata of the city and of Virginia. Joseph was the second of three children, the other children being his older brother Jason and his younger sister Phillipa. His family's wealth managed to survive the Great Depression when it came and Jason and his siblings had the best education money could buy. While his brother Jason was an outgoing playboy and his sister Phillipa was a dilettante, Joseph was more the studious sort. He never thought to inherit the family business so his interests turned to the social sciences. Joseph was born with certain gifts that combined gave him an ear for languages and a facility for picking up and remembering book knowledge. While his first loves were music and singing, his father insisted Joseph pursue something more 'solid' as career. After rejecting the study of law or business (although the bookish sides of both appealed), Joseph pursued a degree and then advanced degrees in linguistics with an attached interest in archaeology. Because of his mother's heritage Joseph focused on Near Eastern languages eventually specializing in ancient languages. The natural gifts he was born with coupled with a keen intellect meant he excelled at his chosen fields of study.

While Jospeh was a graduate student at Cambridge in England, World War II broke out. Joseph, over his father's wishes, enlisted in the US Army and eventually served in the European theatre for five years. He left with the rank of Captain having gone through OCS after Normandy and receiving several promotions.

After coming into possession of the Seal of Utu-Shamash, Lightray sought out teachers on the mystic side of the superhero community who helped educate him about similar items of powers. Under the tutelage of people such super mystics as Mysterio the Magician and Lady Lotus, Lightray's knowledge grew broad. It turned out his skills as linguist became more valuable at this point as he could decipher and read some of even the most arcane of texts.

He maintained a life as an amateur scholar and part-time college lecturer to give himself freedom to pursue both his studies and to pursue villains. He married a college girlfriend, Phyllis Caldwell, in 1950. Phyllis was a close childhood friend of Joseph who was privy to all of his secrets, both public and private. Together they had a set of fraternal twins (Allen and Elizabeth) in 1952. Joseph loved his wife and children, but they only filled part of his life.

It was also during this time he began a relationship with Assistant District Attorney James McMasters, aka The Bloodhound. The Bloodhound was a man of mystery type hero who fought crime in Colonial Bay. The Bloodhound was so named as he possessed the (mutant) gift of being able to track anyone or anything by its psychic signature. Phyllis was aware of all aspects of Joseph's double life, but their marriage was based on mutual friendship and honesty so it survived the strain of his infidelity. Phyllis and James remained uneasy partners in sharing Joseph's affections and attention during his lifetime, but grew closer after Joseph's death as Joseph discovered.

The organization that would become know as DEMON was Lightray's main foe before his death. DEMON and Lightray are antithetical to each others beliefs so conflict was inevitable. Lightray took a special joy in removing from DEMON's possession as many artifacts of power and mystic texts as possible over the years and keeping the items from DEMON by destruction, concealment, or giving into other hands. DEMON has never forgotten his actions and will renew/begin the enmity once they realize he has returned.

Lightray died fighting against the forces of VIPER on April 15, 1960. The Bloodhound and he were among the heroes summoned by Captain Star to stop VIPER. Lightray and Tee Bloodhound were sent to protect the Supreme Court justices of the United States from a VIPER hit squad. They succeeded in saving the justices, but in the melee someone stabbed Lightray in the back through his armor of sunlight. Joseph's last living memory was seeing a blade come out of his chest as someone sighed behind him. The Bloodhound arranged for it look like Joseph was killed as an innocent bystander in the battle in Washington D.C. Joseph, along with the Seal, was interned in the family mausoleum in the oldest of Colonial Bay's cemeteries. His family is still a part of Colonial Bay society to this day.

Lightray returned to this world from the Afterlife at the request of the Grey Robes (the shadowmage Narosia's teachers in the Realm of Limbo). The Grey Robes asked that Lightray return to the mortal realm in order to watch over Narosia and deal with her should she become overwhelmed by her demonic heritage. He is a bit in awe of the changes that time has wrought on the world. Joseph realizes that he is a man out of time and place in this new world, but feels that he can make a difference. Due to planning ahead on his part and the moreso on the part of The Bloodhound, certain items of value and caches of supplies were concealed in various locations in case either would ever had need for them. He has gained access to some of these caches and with the aid of Dr Elizabeth Wyrd and her AI Max, Joseph has a new set of 'papers' that give him a 'legal' identity. But he is still struggling to establish a normal life for himself.