Name: Simply called "the creature" by those who discovered him, his true name is unpronounceable by human tongues. When in a human disguise, he goes by the name Marsh, which his colleagues have taken to calling him.
Inspiration: The Gillman from
Creature From the Black Lagoon, with a healthy dose of Lovecraft and Mesopotamian myth.
Appearance: Marsh in his natural state is a grotesque, piscene humanoid that stands nearly seven feet tall. Everything about his presence is offensive to the senses, and normal humans that behold him are often overtaken by a primordial, instinctive state of panic. Even mystic and supernatural faculties find him abhorrent, as his soul is that of a perverse hybrid that stands in abject defiance to nature. Using his limited ability to shapeshift, he is capable of transforming into a
disguise that resembles an extremely ugly man, when not closely inspected. However, his stench and aura of wrongness persist through this disguise, and most humans give him a wide berth none the less.
Abilities/ Skills: Born to a race of primordial creatures that predate the existence of mankind, Marsh has a host of strange abilities and powers. He can breathe both air and water, and is an agile predator in both environments. He is capable of surviving in such disparate environments as the hot, green hell of the Amazon jungle, and the cold, black desolation of the ocean floor. His strength and endurance both far outstrip what a human is capable of, and he can swim fast enough to chase down speedboats. Marsh can regenerate from grievous wounds, even regrowing entire limbs if given enough time.
Additionally, Marsh seems to be host to a dark, unnatural force that is beyond the ken of human science or sorcery. Channeling this power allows Marsh to supplement his strength or durability to truly mythical levels, or seemingly defy death. He is also capable of transforming his body to some extent, fostering adaptations that allow him to better survive in his environment, creating natural weapons such as claws or acidic blood, or other, more esoteric adaptations. His ability to disguise himself in human society relies on this power, though his profoundly inhuman disguise lays plain its limitations. Finally, if the conditions are right, Marsh can reproduce asexually, birthing a host of grotesque mockeries that serve his will, though they are short-lived creatures never meant to exist in this world.
History: The creature that would later assume the appellation "Marsh," was in 1954 by a scientific expedition into a previously uncharted part of the Amazon Rainforest. While retrieving samples from a pool formed by an offshoot of the Amazon River, the expedition team discovered a series of underwater caves connected to the pool. They used sonar pulses to map the cave system, but the high-frequency sounds disturbed something that had been dormant within them. The scientists attempted to capture the creature that emerged, but it fought back, killing most of the expedition, before finally being incapacitated after being repeatedly shot with an automatic rifle. The survivors returned to civilization, but their findings were considered unverifiable nonsense, and dismissed to obscurity.
Meanwhile, the creature recovered from its wounds, and emerged into a world unfamiliar to it. Its memories were left muddled and incomplete from its long dormancy, but it remembered its people had a thriving civilization in a time before dinosaurs walked the earth. Determined to reunite with its people, or at least find out what became of them, he set out to travel the world and explore its oceans, searching for any trace of its lost civilization.
In the 1990s, as Dracula sought out other creatures of the night with which to form his council, he discovered an obscure and heavily discredited account of the discovery of an inhuman fish-human hybrid in the Amazon jungle. Intrigued, he had his agents add this creature to their worldwide search for other monsters. They eventually came across a drifter in a small town in Rhode Island that went by the name of Marsh. The town's locals were extremely suspicious of him, and his questions about the town's history and the waters off its coast made them nervous for reasons they couldn't explain. It was then that Dracula's agents made themselves known to this "Marsh," and revealed that they knew what he was, and that there were other monsters in the world besides him. Marsh was greatly distrustful of any land-dwellers, even if they were monsters, but he was able to establish a working agreement. In exchange for his services on the Council of Night, Dracula would offer any lore or secrets he possessed or discovered about Marsh's lost civilization.
Goals: Marsh spends most of his time scouring waterways, ocean floors, and even archeological sites for evidence of his people's civilization. While he hopes that he is not the last of his kind, he knows that the chances of finding another member of his race are slim, and if nothing else hopes to learn what caused their civilization to end.
Notes:
Theme Song