Tom Judge

Thomas Judge
Vital statistics
Occupation	Priest (Excommunicated) FBI Investigator “Judge of Man”
Alias	Tom Judge
Race	Human
Gender	Male
Status	Alive
Relatives
Location
First Appearance	{{{first appearance}}}

Tom Judge is a fallen priest and the bearer of the Rapture. After discovering the Artifact, he met Tilly Grimes, great-granddaughter of Horace Grimes; blessed with the same quasi-supernatural math abilities. The Rapture transported Tom to Hell, where he came into contact with the doomed Jackie Estacado, the late host of the Darkness. The Rapture brought hope to Estacado, freeing him and returning him to the living plane.

Back in New York City, Tom was hunted by demonic adversaries. Able to save Tilly, but not himself, Tom was slaughtered and banished to the netherworld. Recently, Tom regained the Rapture and was released from his damnation, though the reasons are still not entirely clear.

After the Survivor brought the Thirteen Artifacts together and destroyed The Universe, Tom was reborn as a psychic FBI agent within the new universe created by Jackie Estacado using his daughter Hope Pezzini as the "Codex".

Biography

Background

Tom was once a well revered and faithful Catholic priest. However, one day a man came to Tom and asked him what he should do if someone offends him. Tom answered for the man to simply 'look into your heart and know what to do'. The man went home and killed his wife, stabbing her 97 times and then he fried himself and his two children in a bath tub. Tom blamed himself for the man's actions and turned to liquor and women in an attempt to drown his guilt.

Universe

On the night of his birthday, Tom is relaxing with some booze and two prostitutes. Having trouble getting any sleep, Tom accidentally finds the Rapture hidden behind a loose brick. He takes it and begins to hear it whisper within him. Suddenly a woman bursts through the door and shoots one of the prostitutes, who turns out to be a demon. The woman, named Tilly Grimes, instructs Tom to wear the artifact around his neck. He does so and transforms into a brimstone form and slaughters the demons. He loses consciousness soon afterwards.

Artifacts

After the destruction of the previous universe and the creation of another, Tom was reborn. Like his previous self, he was once a priest who had since lost his faith. However, he never discovered the Rapture and instead became an investigator for the FBI. At some point in his life, a woman carved a Rapture-shaped scar on his whole torso.

Personality

Tom is described as the "rock-bottom" archetype; unshaven, alcoholic, and having lost his faith in God.

Physical Appearance

Tom is unshaven. He spent the late '90s wearing a distressed black leather jacket with no shirt. He now wears a white shirt. He still wears his preacher cloth around his neck, though it is always loose.

Powers & Abilities

Tom in his fully empowered Rapture form.

Powers

• Rapture-Empowered Physiology: The Rapture bestows upon Tom vast power, including the ability to transform himself into a brutish brimstone warrior.
  • Rapture Form: Tom can transform into a powerful brimstone warrior.
    • Afterlife Border: Whether in or out of his transformed state. Tom Judge has the ability to enter and exit the world of the afterlife at will with the artifact in hand. Once even resurrecting himself after dying by the hand of the demoness Lachryma after he had it back in his possession again.
    • Super Strength: Tom can summon supernatural physical strength to overpower and kill lower-level demons with ease by stabbing a hole through their bodies with his hand. Tom, while in his Rapture form, is able to challenge mid-level and possibly higher-level demons. Humans are no threat to him in terms of bodily power while he is empowered by the Rapture.
    • Tendril Generation: Initially Tom's change into the rapture caused him to produce sinewy, tooth and enamel studded coils from his body. Having easily used them to rip through a demon and her cohorts while using them in conjunction with his other powers.
    • Soul Sight: Through the artifact Tom can see the spiritual quintessence of a lost soul even in the masonry that went into the construction of hell itself. Recognizing the soul locked within a chip of which as well as who they were and what they'd done with themselves in life before falling into whichever portal of which that they find themselves in.
    • Pyre Manifestation: Tom is radiant with craters of fire while in his brimstone form.
    • Nigh-Invulnerability: Tom's Rapture form makes his bodily tissue as strong as brimstone. This makes him invulnerable to conventional injury from things such as gunfire, blades, intense physical trauma and combustive discharge; holding a live grenade in his hand without injury as it exploded. He uses this ability to survive the demon-infested and hazardous environment of Hell. He is unaffected by extreme heat, even while in human form.
• Rapture-Empowered Metaphysiology: The Rapture empowers Tom's soul with power and authority thought once to be possessed only by God.
  • Absolution Granting: Tom can purify condemned souls of their sins and free them.
  • Damnation: The Rapture empowers Tom with the reverse ability condemn souls to hell as well.
  • Demon Summoning: Tom can summon demons.
  • Clairvoyance: By looking through the Rapture Tom can see things that are imperceptible to humans. He can see demons in their true forms and the gates of Hell.
  • Chthonic Blast: Judge, through the change. Has the ability to discharge potent bursts of raw energy.

Abilities

• Sensory Synchronization: By getting close to a corpse, Tom can see and hear glimpses of what said corpse saw and heard before death. He then is seen touching The Rapture and seeing the previous universe and learning all about it as well as the rest of the Thirteen Artifacts. This ability is his alone and seems to be independent of the Rapture.
• Exorcism: As a former priest Tom has the knowledge to perform an exorcism on a demonically possessed person.