Jude of Arion’s Tell

Biography: Born in a town that was nowhere near a tell to a mother who was a priest and a father who was a fighter in a gods’ army, Jude was probably destined to participate in the ongoing war between the gods and certain recalcitrant humans, especially after his powers manifested when he was twelve. About a year into that participation, however, he met an injured resistant soldier who, over the course of a few days, managed to convince him to become a double agent for the forces working to take down the gods. After his family were among those sacrificed by their patron god to cover a strategic retreat, Jude stayed with that army for another month in order to betray them to the Spider Corps, which he subsequently joined. The resultant transformation didn’t bother Jude overly and he adjusted to his new life and circumstances quite quickly, and then did so again after he joined Raphael’s faction during the first synod. Since then, Jude has mostly kept his head down, doing whatever work Raphael has required of him but otherwise just grateful that the war is, for now at least, over.

Notes:


 * Jude still likes to believe that the world makes sense at its core, and grows frustrated when it stubbornly does not
 * Jude was never the strongest spider or the best fighter, but he was remarkably organized and often oversaw the details and supply trains for major operations
 * Jude’s horrible track record with dating has been an ongoing issue for his whole life, starting before he was immortal
 * Though a lot of angels masquerade as priests, Jude prefers to appear as a librarian in his human guise
 * Jude has never particularly liked the uniform angel aesthetic. He liked being different
 * Jude had the option of transforming into a more traditionally masculine body when he got his spider powers, but he decided the change he was already undergoing was transformation enough. He did get them to magic his uterus away, though
 * Unlike most spiders, Jude’s wings are large and properly proportioned enough to let him fly
 * When he was fifteen, Jude got pregnant and had an abortion, both without telling anyone
 * For the last several hundred years, Jude has traveled around eastern Dolovai and Kyaine, teaching children how to read
 * Even after all this time, Jude feels awkward when Raphael summons him to do a task

Quotes:


 * “Being an angel should have actual perks.”
 * “Since we’re supposed to be here in the spirit of cooperation. You’re not allowed to be racist.”
 * “My eloquent theological position on the question of God is ‘I have no fucking idea.’”
 * “Did you guys notice that Teown’s Sound isn’t built on a sound?”
 * “This was a bad idea.”
 * “We’re all having a crisis of faith and nothing helps a crisis of faith like having a meeting with everyone you ever used to like but then tried to kill, right?”
 * “A sound is like an inland sea but big and narrow and connected to some oceans. Like a straight but wider.”
 * “In my defence I was drunk and I only remember some of it.”
 * “I’m also a grown-up angel. I can put plates on a table and have a headache at the same time.”
 * “I think I’m being eminently sensible in saying we’re all going to die.”
 * “I’m a terrible person to date. I get restless, then I find reasons to be annoyed and then we break up in a few months. That’s what always happens. It’s what’ll happen if we try to be together.”
 * “We’re the ones they write theology about, aren’t we? I think we should get a say.”
 * “I’m a hopeless romantic too.”

Trivia:


 * Jude didn’t realize until centuries later that Arion’s Tell was nowhere near a tell. He was angry about it for three years
 * Jude lost his virginity to his brother William when he was fourteen. They only had sex a few times over the years, when neither of them was dating someone and they were both desperate
 * Sometimes at night, Jude goes out where nobody can see him and flies around
 * Jude owns a strap-on dildo that he’s had since he was human; he magically preserves it to keep it from falling apart
 * Though he wasn’t supposed to interfere in human affairs, Jude has done so a few times, most notably when he smuggled the son of a king named Otto out of his castle for safety during an invasion
 * Jude has tried—and failed—several times to teleport to the moon
 * Jude cannot for the life of him tell the difference between different kinds of trees. He’s tried for his whole life and the best he can do is that some of them don’t have leaves
 * Jude once had sex in an abandoned keep on the outskirts of White Cape. To this day legends circulate about the ghost that was heard in the cellar
 * During the war, Jude briefly fought alongside a pack of werewolves, and to this day has an affinity for werewolves
 * Jude considers his biggest sexual failure to be the time he tried and failed to seduce Raphael

Modern AU: Modern Jude is a adjutant professor of religion at a large Canadian university, where he mostly teaches biblical hermeneutics and feminist and queer approaches to the study of religion. His students report that he is approachable and engaged, and he tries to teach his classes accessibly. Jude likes to write inflammatory books and articles that set fires in his own field, often targeted at people whose offices are right down the hall from his. Recently his train wreck of a dating life has taken a positive (but probably temporary) turn and he’s been spending a lot of time with a moral philosopher, despite swearing he’d never do that years ago. When not teaching, writing or burning down his own life or his own career, Jude writes op-eds for the local newspaper, puts his name on student petitions that need faculty support, spends a lot of time imagining adopting a dog but never actually doing it, and trying to learn how to cook.