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Appearance

Jackal's appearance is clearly demonic in nature, with red eyes, sharp teeth, and a massive black tail. Standing seven feet tall, with tanned skin and dark blue hair that he pulls into a ponytail that falls to his lower back, Jackal is an imposing figure, heavily muscular with broad shoulders.

He has red markings under his eyes reminiscent of a celtic knot, which match larger versions that run from his shoulders down the sides of his arms to just above the elbow. His tail is eight feet long, made of hard black keratin plates. His tail has four sets of insectoid legs near the base, each of which ends in a sharp point. The underside of his tail is concave closer to his body, allowing it to test closer to his body.

Personality

Despite Jackal's appearance and his tendency to be in the thick of any fight, Jackal is, for the most part, actually a pretty nice person. While his powers give him a tendency to see things in a very black and white manner, his time on the island has mellowed him out significantly, giving him a new perspective on life.

Even so, he's still quick to judge. His gut instinct when faced with someone who is guilty is that they must be bad, and he has a tendency to believe an innocent party more than he should. His powers color his initial perspective on people, but he's learned to move past them, making friends with murderers and learning that not all innocents are truly innocent.

Despite his scary appearance, Jackal is very popular with children, no doubt because he'll put up with almost anything. He's fine with children climbing all over him, and has no issues talking with them all the time. He has a good sense of boundaries, and among kids he likes he even makes an attempt to moderate his language.

Unfortunately, the same doesn't extend to toddlers and babies. Jackal is terrified of toddlers and babies. Lacking the understanding that they should hold back, Jackal is in serious danger of being hurt or killed, and tends to leave any time he sees a toddler enter the room.

Passive Abilities

Immortal: If Jackal dies, he'll recover fully after about a week in hell and be returned to earth.

Physical Attributes: Jackal's senses and physical capabilities are just over peak human. He's slightly faster then an Olympic athlete, and slightly stronger than a trained weightlifter.

Tail: Jackal possesses a large eight foot long tail. The tail has thick plates of black keratin as armor, and as a result has reduced sensation compared to the rest of the body. He can't feel light touches, but if someone were to hit it he'd be able to feel that.

Near the base of Jackal's tail are four pairs of double jointed insectoid legs, each ending in a sharp point. Those closer to the base of the tail are larger, about as thick as his forearm, while the set farthest away is only as wide as his wrist at the largest.

Jackal's tail is well muscled, and could easily hold Jackal's entire weight if it wasn't so oddly placed. Each of the legs is about as strong as Jackal's arm, but obviously less dexterous due to a lack of hands.

The underside of Jackal's tail close to his body is concave, providing a dent that lets his tail rest closer to his body. In aquatic or aerial combat, where legs are useless, Jackal could rest his legs in the dent, using his tail's legs to hold them there and letting him use his tail for movement in their place.

Much like a lizard, Jackal can tighten the muscles in his tail, causing the tail itself to widen and flare out. This makes it a bit better for swimming, but it's nothing close to a mermaid's tail.

Omnilingual: Jackal can speak any earthly language, and understands them when he hears them.

Sense Murderer: Jackal possesses an extra sense which allows him to identify whether or not someone is a murderer. For him, this sense is primarily visual, showing as a white aura around the innocent, and a black aura around the guilty. While innocence is always the same size, a guilt aura's size changes based on the number of murders committed. In cases where someone has killed millions, Jackal can even spot them at a distance due to the size of their aura. In situations where Jackal can't see at all, he can still tell roughly where people are and their innocence or guilt, but won't get much of an idea of the scale of it.

Punish the Wicked: Jackal was built to torture the guilty in hell, and as a result is nearly omnipotent against murderers. His abilities adapt with the intention of overcoming the abilities of the guilty, allowing Jackal to more effectively torment them. Mental invasions, auras, and similar effects by guilty parties do not work on Jackal, leaving him oblivious to any such attempts.

Any point that Jackal is in combat with someone (whether an attack has started, he's been surprise attacked, or he's just about to attack someone), he will develop new abilities in order to defeat them. The scale of his abilities will change depending on how guilty they are. Against someone who has killed only a single person, Jackal will have to put effort into winning, and it will be a struggle, if a lopsided one. Against someone who has killed millions or even billions, Jackal will be an all-powerful god, capable of doing almost anything so long as it torments his target. While Jackal has no actual control over what abilities he develops (nor does he gain knowledge of their abilities), the abilities he develops tend to be very flashy. Against someone with fire powers, he wouldn't likely get water powers--instead he'd get even stronger fire powers, allowing him to beat them at their own game.

This ability has two major limitations. Jackal's powers only exist as long as he's fighting an opponent. If he disengages, he'll immediately lose the power, cutting short any effects. Similarly, if he's fighting multiple people, the abilities only remain as long as he's focused on a single person, making large group fights a serious struggle as his abilities swap every time he changes focus.

The second limitation is more extreme: Jackal cannot harm the innocent. He will never gain an ability that would cause collateral damage, so even at his strongest he would never have the ability to, say, destroy an occupied planet. In the event his opponent takes an innocent hostage, Jackal's abilities would adjust to accommodate for that, allowing him to fight without harming them.

Active Abilities

Redemption: Jackal is capable of absolving people of the sin of murder, with some restrictions. In order to be redeemed, the person must be repentant and have taken actions to absolve each sin they wish to clear. However, this redemption cannot be tricked. Even if Jackal believes they are being truthful, the redemption won't work if the one being redeemed is not truly repentant.

Karya's Spear: While magical, Jackal does not currently have access to most of the abilities of the spear. The spear can be shrunk down to about an inch long, the size of a small pin. He spears it through his collar, keeping it close at hand and allowing him to carry it more easily.

Zoom Zoom: Jackal is capable of accelerating (or decelerating) himself to truly crazy level. He can run fast enough to make a sonic boom, and doing so does no harm to him. He can also stop on a dime without issue.

Weaknesses

Punishment of the Innocent: For all Jackal's strength against the guilty, against the innocent his own power turns against him. While it's almost impossible for him to lose against someone who is guilty, it's also just as impossible for him to win against the innocent.

Regardless of their strength, the punch from an innocent person will send him flying. Abilities used against him are more effective, and he'll never manage to outrun an innocent pursuer, no matter how slow they actually are. He's outmatched in every possible metric by the innocent... assuming they're fighting him.

Intention matters greatly when it comes to this retribution. Someone playfully smacking him on the back wouldn't send him flying unless they intended it to hurt him (even a little bit). This does mean that toddlers and babies are the most dangerous things in the world to Jackal. An adult grabbing at Jackal's hand is mentally holding themselves back from harming him, but a toddler doesn't have the same self awareness, instead counting on their lack of strength to stop from injuring people. A toddler hugging his neck could choke him to death, and when it comes to small children he's entirely dependent on others to save him.

Mark of the Heretic: Jackal's crimes against Khalida, the primary god of the Prax, has left him forever tainted by it. Any Prax capable of linking in any way will immediately become aware of the scale of his crime, even if they won't know exactly what he did. Generally speaking, they'll feel repulsed on first meeting, although it's possible for them to move past the bad first impression.

Biography

Jackal was created at the dawn of time, a nameless zabaniyya whose duties made him a torturer in hell. That was his life, and he was perfectly happy with it, although lacking much of a sense of self. Over the course of years, he became more of what most people would consider a person.

His exact reasons for arriving on Manta Carlos are unclear, and Jackal keeps them close to his chest. He will claim he's there for a visit, but refuses to say any more. He's currently unemployed and is little more than a public nuisance.

Resources

Jackal works at the Green Hat as a bartender, but after two separate off-world expeditions on Malara's behalf, he's got plenty of savings. He shares a small apartment with Tengu.

Extra Info

Jackal is a zabaniyya, which might be an angel or might be a demon, depending on your particular interpretation. Either way, he's a guardian of hell responsible for torturing those within it.

Jackal owns a working golden snitch, which is tied to a golden ring he wears on his hand.

Jackal is primarily carnivorous, but can digest vegetables.