Faraday Julian

Faraday Aquaria always had a soft spot for lost causes and those in need. It was because of this that she became a nurse, wanting to do her utmost to help people, anyone in need. And despite what her fellow humans were like, she never felt any superiority to other races. If anything she felt humans ought to be more humble. After all, those of other races were rumored to have abilities that put her own to shame any day of the week.

Her heart went out especially to the Fishmen and Merfolk, as they were not only permanently scarred by the Rain Plague, but also treated as subhuman by those they shared the islands with. It got to a point where she couldn’t sit by and just watch anymore, so Aquaria organized a help program on her home island of Monte Silvano, along with other like-minded nurses, to help the Fishmen and Merfolk.

There were many other people with dissenting opinions of their work, and they got more than heckled. Some people pushed them on the streets, screamed in their faces or even threw things at them, but Aquaria didn’t let this get to her. She was making the world a better place, slowly but surely. It was doing this, helping the Fishmen, that she met the man that would become the love of her life: Jahard.

Jahard had come to her with several cuts and bruises, and even fractured bones after he was assaulted on the street. She nursed him back to health and they made a deep connection. They started seeing each other, first in secret because of the stigma around Jahard’s people and then publicly at Aquaria’s assistance.

They were happy for a time, and Aquaria even became pregnant with a child. The humans of the island, and even some Fishmen, gave them disgusted looks and hurled insults their way but they didn’t pay them any mind, they were in love and they didn’t care what anyone else had to say about it. Their happiness wasn’t destined to last, however, as Jahard was killed in cold blood as Aquaria neared the end of her pregnancy.

Faraday Julian was born to a grieving mother, but Aquaria still gave her son all the love and affection he deserved. Despite only being half Fishman, he was still marked by the Plague Rain, though minorly in comparison to others. He simply had scar tissue littering his back, looking as though he had been severely burned and healed.

Julian’s physical appearance was only marked minorly, but his health and immune system had taken a rather large hit. Aquaria was able to handle few of his bouts of illness at home, but many and more required him to be hospitalized. Julian saw more operation rooms and surgeries in his first ten years of life than people do in their entire lives.

After he turned eleven, Julian’s health stabilized more and he was sent to the hospital less and less, but he was still stuck at home for the most part. He didn’t complain about it, though, because at this point he had a goal. He had seen how poorly Fishmen and Merfolk were treated at the hospital, even though his mother tried to protect him from it. He hated how some people weren’t seen as equal in the eyes of those who were supposed to help everyone.

He had asked to borrow medical books when in the hospital and the doctors, wanting to humor the sick little child, allowed it. He began his studies earlier than most, beginning with the basics of first aid and working his way up through the anatomy of the body and the intricacies of all the systems therein. By the time he was fifteen, he had all but memorized every book he could get his hands on and was now an intern at the hospital.

His mother was more than proud, and it filled his heart with untold joy, but he couldn’t dwell too much on that. Now that he worked in the hospital, he was privy to so much more wrongdoing than before. He now saw doctors in the facility giving medicines to those few Fishmen and Merfolk that could afford it that they knew wouldn’t work, and other workers selling narcotics to them under the table.

The corruption ran deeper than he’d thought and he didn’t know what to do. He confided in his mentor at the hospital, a man named Ecneics Tseddam, who shared his feelings about the treatment of Fishmen on the island. Tseddam wanted to fix the broken system as well, but he knew that nothing in this world came from asking nicely. He promised that when Julian was well enough, he would endow him with the skills he needed to defeat the evils on the island.

It took only a year, as by the time he turned 16 Julian hadn’t had a dip in his health that resulted in being sent to the hospital or even bed ridden in said year. He found out that Tseddam planned to school him in the ways of combat. The man was formerly a pirate, having served many of his years as a doctor on a pirate crew. He only stopped when a bulk of his crew died and the rest disbanded.

Tseddam’s training dealt in tapping into his natural capabilities as a hybrid electric eel fishman, which turned out to be powerful in and of themselves. He learned to discharge and control natural electricity his body is capable of creating, something which took him a long time to master without harming himself.

Julian was also taught to use his medical training as a weapon, picking up a blade and using his knowledge of anatomy as a potent tool to defeat his opponents. He learned how to use his sword as a “scalpel” to cut down his foe with precision that could put even the most masterful of swordsmen to shame.

His training lasted for ten years as Julian blossomed from a teen recovering from a childhood racked with sickness into a formidable man. He had since graduated from intern at the hospital to doctor, his intellect and knowledge of medicine surpassing even the senior physicians years before he began his “official” education in the field.

Julian’s mother had passed in this time, and he grieved for her loss, though didn’t let it put him into a depression or negative state of mind. Instead he decided to liberate the Fishmen of his island from the cycle of abuse and mistreatment they were subjected to for her, and for the memory of the father he had never gotten the chance to know and love.

During these years, a Marine presence had also come to the island after hearing about the drug problem on Monte Silvano. Julian hoped that this would serve to cut down on the spread of drugs among Fishmen, and that the marines might even help figure out who was responsible for the presence of drugs on the island as a whole, but he was sadly mistaken.

Not only that, but he noticed an uptick in the drug presence on the island as the Marines appeared, which prompted him and Tseddam to do some digging. It took weeks, but then they finally caught Marine officers selling drugs and muscling in on other dealers on the island. They weren’t there to help, they were there to corner the market.

Julian couldn’t bide his time any more, he couldn’t just hope to dismantle the systems that kept Fishmen and Merfolk disenfranchised from the inside, not now that the World Government was assisting in their oppression. He needed to act, he couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t. Luckily Tseddam understood this and was on his side.

The older doctor had been gathering his connections for years, establishing his own small little revolutionary force on the island. They had discovered that the Marine’s corruption went all the way to the top of those stationed on Monte Silvano: a captain by the name of Frank Barber. They made their plans to drive the marines out immediately.

The force Tseddam was able to gather was impressive, almost a small army in and of its own right. Made up of humans and Fishmen and other assorted inhabitants of the island that were tired of unfair treatment. They launched their rebellion when the Marines had gathered for debriefings, most of their forces gathered in a single place and ripe for the picking.

The fight lasted for a day and, while it was his first time in live combat, Julian was a natural on the field of battle. He and Tseddam went for Barber on their own, knowing it would take more than a single person to take the Marine down. They caught him by surprise, as he didn’t expect anyone to dare challenge him head on.

His surprise didn’t last for too long, and he revealed that he possessed the power of a unique power they had never before seen, allowing him to enter a more frenzied, almost bestial state. The difficulty of the fight was increased as the man took on the features of a monster and laid into them. No matter Julian’s prodigal skill, facing off against someone with such power was a challenge. Tseddam’s assistance made it much easier, and if it weren’t for his mentor Barber wouldn’t have been defeated and their rebellion would have failed.

Barber’s defeat, while ensured, came at the cost of Tseddam’s life. The doctor had thrown himself in front of a blow meant for Julian and allowed the man to land the fatal strike on the Marine captain. The rebellion drove the remaining marines out, and exposed their misdeeds to the island at large. While their actions shocked the populace, even the Fishmen were regarded as heroes.

After his mentor’s funeral, Julian learned that the corruption of the marines and spread of drugs to Fishmen and Merfolk wasn’t a situation that only Monte Silvano was afflicted with. Many islands in South Blue were undergoing similar predicaments. He had little ties to this island, with his mother and mentor gone, so he decided to set out and clear the rot from South Blue.

Within a week Julian set out on a trade vessel going to another island with a dream of not only helping his home island, but becoming the greatest doctor the world had seen. He also hoped to create an institution that gathered the greatest minds of medicine so that they could work together to make the world a better place.