Gabriel Valente

Arovoire - Pre-Apocalypse

Gabriel was a very normal child born in a small, unremarkable town near the city of Alleluia, The City of God, which is now the safe haven called The City. At a very early point of time in his life, Gabriel was adopted into the Church of the Sky and raised by his teacher, the Monsignore. As far as Gabriel remembers, he was orphaned as a baby and has lived his life the whole time within the hallowed walls of the church. Under the teachings of his teacher to honour the god they worshipped, Gabriel was wholly devoted to the tasks he was given, to mete out punishment to those deserving of it, to those undeserving of god's forgiveness and mercy.

Gabriel did not like this way of life. It felt wrong even though he was told it was the only right way to live. At some point of time in his teenage years, Gabriel fled the Church of the Sky. He would later comes to terms with his religion in a way that would be considered "unorthodox" by the main church and later go on to preach in small towns away from Alleluia.

When Gabriel was twenty-two years old, the world started ending.

Arovoire - Mid-Apocalypse

The end of the world came remarkably slow and its effects were strange and twisting, rather than earth-shattering and catasthrophic. The end of the world came from the World herself, even though this would be a fact that the common people would only uncover after a period of time. When the poison of the world, the World's Blood, started seeping upwards past the earth, the creatures that lived off the land were the first to be infected. The animals and plants were broken down and changed first, followed by human beings.

In the small town that Gabriel was in, he set up a sanctuary and rallied the remaining townspeople together to live through this crisis. With the blessings granted to him by his goddess, Ixoha, he purified water and food daily for the people, as well as kept them safe from the creatures infected by the World's Blood.

(A strange artificial being walked into his life in the first year of the apocalypse, who did not speak or respond to anyone, and Gabriel kept them by his side for as long as they wished to stay.

Eventually, Gabriel started researching the World's Blood with a like-minded individual, Angela, seeking to cure those infected by it. He would not find the cure for it until after the event that caused The Chasm.

(In the days following The Chasm, he screamed and cried and could not eat or sleep, could not feel anything but a bubbling sickness deep from the pits of his stomach. "You cannot save everyone, passerotto," the words kept circling in his head like a curse, taking on the voice of his teacher. "I will help you and because of all your efforts up to this day, the world will be beautiful once more."

On the day he thought the weight of the world was pressing down on him and the air would finally escape from his lungs for the last time, he heard another voice, one which he had never heard before. "Gabriel," they said and Gabriel looked but only saw the strange artificial being who had never spoken before this. "You are... hurting. What can I do to help you?")

By the tenth year of the apocalypse, Gabriel would be in charge of the safe haven called The Church, which took in children that everyone else had no time or resources to spend on. There was a cure for the World's Blood, regardless of how precarious the trip down to harvest it was or what it grew from. The world was still ending and the fabric of the world was being ripped to pieces, opening paths to other worlds. The expedition team, not the first of many, left to journey down to the centre of the world. Travellers came and left. The expedition team returned with a revelation, the truth about the World and the nature of its end.

("What will you do once the world is safe?" Gabriel had asked them once. They thought about it and thought about it some more, but it was clear that they knew the answer from the start. "If the world is safe, there is no purpose for me here." "What if I asked you to stay?" "I... do not think that will have any effect."

On the last day of the apocalypse, the most joyous day everyone has had since a decade ago, Gabriel said to them, "I want you to stay. Please stay with me. I love you." They thought about it and thought about it some more, but it was clear that they knew the answer from the start. "I want to stay with you, Gabriel."

They did not stay. So Gabriel went to them.)

Another World

Rumour has it that there is a man by the name of Gabriel Valente who is currently running through worlds now, screaming a single word in a tongue that not many can decipher. Onlookers can attest that it sounds something like "AMOREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE". Sometimes, he says something else—a word? a name?—and it sounds like "TANGENT!"