A YJA Moment - The White Lantern

 At the dawn of time, when there was nothing but the cold lifeless existence of the forming Universe, there was The Entity. Some believe it was an angel, others claim it was the very first being to achieve self-awareness.  This being of light drifted through the cosmos, using its almost unlimited power to seed the first life in the universe.  From its manipulations, grew the First Ones and the Celestials, who would take up the cause of the Entity and further spread the gift of living things to all the planets in all of known existence.

After untold eons of toiling, the Entity disappeared, sinking into some far-off world to sleep until it was needed again.  While many civilizations have told legends about this being, few have ever found where its resting place lies. Those that have divined its resting place guard it carefully for they know it's important for it to have its well-deserved sleep.  Despite this, it has been partially roused by great calamity and has gifted a chosen few with a powerful artifact to battle evil and injustice.  A White Power Ring.

Believed to be the inspiration for the Rings wielded by the Various Lantern Corps, the White Lantern Ring shares much of the abilities of the Green Lantern Corps - flight, energy blasts, and solid light constructs.  In addition, the light it generates possesses healing properties, capable of regenerating damaged tissue and even reviving the recent deceased.  Unlike the other Lanterns, the White Lantern does not have a central power battery.  The ring draws power directly from the Entity and never depletes.

Only a few times in its history has a White Lantern appeared.  The very last time was during The Shadow War, when the alien Caleen wielded the ring against the forces of darkness himself, even clashing with the likes of Sauron and Darkseid. 

Since then, the legends of where he found the Entity has endured to modern times and many would-be wielders of the Light have sought out the lush world that is said to be the Entity's resting place. Few know that the Galactic Empire almost succeeded when they used a tiny moon known as Endor as a base of operations during the Galactic Civil War. 

A YJA Moment - The Forces of Nature

Those in the mystic community are aware that all life is connected on a supernatural level.  In self-aware beings, this is manifested through things like the Dreamtime and Universal Mind.  Animals and plants have a similar underpinning, through what is known colloquially as the Forces of Nature.  These Forces are largely driven by instinct, though they gain motivation and intelligence through Avatars and Parliaments.

Some individuals are chosen to be the voice of Nature to the human world, becoming powerful being known as Avatars.  Many of these Avatars have become heroes and villains in the world, depending on who is chosen and what they believe.  When an Avatar dies they become part of the Parliament, the ruling body of that Force of Nature.

The three main Forces are The Red, The Green, and The Grey.

The Red represents the connection that all animals share. This also includes humanity and other sentient beings, though the spiritual nature of souls dampens their link with others. Embodying both predator and prey, the Red tends to be filled with strong emotions, threatening to overwhelm those who attempt to access it.  Nonetheless, it grants powerful abilities to those who gain its favor, such as shapeshifting. The Parliament of Limbs has chosen Bernard Baker, the Animal Man, as its Avatar of the Red.  His ability to transform into any beast made him a perfect vessel of the Red's will.

The Green encompasses all plant-based life. Unlike the Red, the Green is much calmer, serene, and slower to act.  That does not mean that it is passive and few can stand against it, once it's vengeful it's turned upon them.  Most plant controlling metahumans in some way tap into the Green, though few are aware enough to properly communicate with it  Those that are fully aware of its existence can learn to sense and communicate with other Green-based individuals over great distances. The Green is led by the Parliament of Trees, who have selected Alec Holland, the Swamp Thing, as its Avatar.

The Grey, known by some as The Rot, represents the demise of all living things.  Tangentially related to Death, it remains largely separate from the Lords of the Underworld.  That is because the Grey also represents renewal, with the breakdown of once-living material helping to seed brand new life in its stead.  That being said, the Rot has on numerous occasions gone out of control, forcing the Avatars of Green and Red to intervene and reset the balance.  The Avatar of the Parliament of Bones is the hulking Solomon Grundy who was recently chosen for his ability to resurrect.

A YJA Moment - The Mark of Cain

 Sometime in the distant past, before the Three Ages of Middle Earth, the first intelligent beings with souls walked the Earth.  It is said that one of those beings, a Cro-Magnon or Neanderthal, took up a weapon against their fellow tribespeople and slew them.  At that moment the universe was unprepared for the occurrence, for the soul was an eternal gift of the One-Above-All and had not lived long enough to have earned a place in the heavenly or infernal realms.  As a result, the spirit of the slain person carved its own domain, resulting in the formation of Limbo, the formless domain of souls which would eventually become known as the Underworld.

To the murderer, the backlash was immediate, creating a visible symbol of both their crime and its effect on the metaphysical world.  This is what has become known as the Mark of Cain. Though its exact appearance varies from person to person, it generally is a floating sliver of dark flame which floats a few inches in front of the individual's forehead.  With practice, the bearer can make the Mark invisible from mundane eyes, but all those with awareness of magic, supernatural, or death can see the Mark clearly.  It is like a beacon to the powers of the paranormal.

The Mark of Cain bars the bearer from ever passing on to the afterlife.  It does this specifically by preventing that person from ever dying.  As long as they bear the mark, they will regenerate any damage their body takes even if they are reduced to atoms.  Ironically, the bearer can enter the Underworld whenever they choose, instantly passing into whatever Kingdom of the Dead they desire.  However, The Mark bearer is forever a visitor to these realms and never a dead denizen.

A side effect of the Mark is its ability to create, command, and destroy Vampires.  Though the Mark itself does not draw from or interact with the Anti-Life Equation, its power of death is so great that it can force someone into the state of Undeath.  Through this many Vampires have been created over the years by the Mark, with whole Houses being formed (and eliminated) by those that bear it.  It is for this reason that many Houses refer to Cain as the King or Father of all Vampires. Indeed a man known as Cain did bear the Mark for many years, though it is unclear whether he was the same as the individual depicted in the Book of Genesis.

When someone becomes a Bearer, it remains a part of them for the rest of their existence. The Mark can be taken from someone and many people have wielded the Curse of Cain over the millennia.  In order to steal the Mark, the Bearer must be damaged to a point where the Mark is the only thing sustaining them.  Then the user can pull the Flame from the Bearer's forehead and claim the power for their own.  The former wielder of the Mark then instantly dies, their soul plunged into oblivion.

From its creation, there has been speculation on who bore the Mark of Cain.  Beyond its name-sake, it is believed that Ashwathama, Nicolas Flamel, Galahad, Gilgamesh, Imhotep, Koschei, Longinus, Qin Shi Huang, Rama Khan, and Ziusudra all possessed the Mark for a time. The current bearer of the Mark is the being known as Vandal Savage.  Already an Immortal due to the energies of an alien meteor, claimed the Mark from its previous owner, the Comte de Saint Germain, in 1784.

Savage currently resides in the planet-sized battle-moon known as Warworld, doing the bidding of his master Darkseid.

A YJA Moment - Vampires

The Anti-Life Equation makes a copy of everything it desires, attempting to replace the laws of the universe with crude facimilies that serve as a mockery of everything that exists.  The cycle of life-death-and-rebirth has been subverted by Anti-Life, creating what is known as Undeath.  Though various creatures such as Liches and Spectres utilize Undeath to remain alive, the most famous are the blood-suckers known as Vampires.

While the curse of vampirism itself is believed to lie within the biblical Cain and his dreaded Mark, the first recorded Vampire was a being known as Thuringwethil, a servant of Sauron during the closing years of the fabled First Age.  It is said she possessed a form of immortality, forever holding her between life and death but shunning the light of the sun.  What happened to her is unknown, but she was believed to have been slain sometime before the Second Age.

Her curse could be spread, and throughout the intervening years, the blight of Vampirism has fallen upon mortals throughout the world.  The most notable was Vlad Tepes, who would be immortalized in Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula.  He became the most powerful Vampire to have ever lived, second to perhaps Thuringwethil herself, founding both the powerful House of Dracul, but also the feudal system that most of the Undead adhere to.

House Dracul dominates much of Europe, forcing the other Houses into a subservient position.  Under the might of the Dragon, Houses like Corvinus, Damaskinos, and Lioncourt continually warred for those assets not claimed by Dracula himself.  Because of this eternal struggle, many small houses find themselves fractured and outright destroyed by the machinations of the House Elders, leading many to migrate across the group for new territory.

Some of these minor Houses and rebel Vampires fled to The New World, often migrating to what would be known as New York.  These disparate Undead would form an alliance which in the modern nights is known as House Erebus.  As the most powerful Vampire House in the Americas, its power rivals that of Dracul, though it has neither the age of prestige as House of Count Dracula.  Recently, House Erebus has been under siege, most notably by hunters such as Blade.

On the West Coast, the House of Aurelius is the most established coven, despite the loss of its Elder due to the actions of a supernaturally-imbued vampire-slayer and her allies.  Smaller Houses such as Maximillian and Santanico are allowed to rise and fall, as long as the dictates of Aurelius are not disobeyed or their direct territory trespassed.  This has led to a free-for-all, not unlike the 19th Century "Wild West" in its culture.