Additional Info

• First Name: Elie
• Last Name: Sophen
• Code Name: Diadem
• Powers: Primary: Telepathy/Empathy- mind reading, psychic persuasion, emotive-vibration readings, limited long-range communication,lie detection, astral projection Secondary: Precognition- foreshadowing of events to come, aura readings (lies, truth-telling, trustworthiness), prophetic dreaming, edactic memory
• Biography: Elie was orphaned at the age of 9 when his parents were given away by a local snitch. Although he never knew about their involvement in crime, they had secretly been working directly under a local Kingpin to extort white collar industries and launder money. When they got pregnant, they decided they wanted out--but getting away was not going to be easy. Elie's father Stephen was a licensed attorney (human) and his mother, Therese, was a teacher--a mutant, with an ability to jump-start the potential in others. Therese was registered under the SRA and with the Kingpin's dirty hands inside S.H.I.E.L.D., tracking the family didn't take long. After a second chance, the couple defected and attempted to turn their crime lord into the authorities in exchange for amnesty. They were found a few weeks after the injunction was filed, hanging by their necks in Central Park disemboweled from the neck down. Elie was kept out of foster care by neighbors who did not trust State officials in "private" matters. Elie was given over as a ward to the local priest, whose Jesuit beginnings would ensure that Elie received a decent education. Father Marion "Mose" Brazer believed that under the seclusion of the local Parish, Elie would have the free childhood he deserved. Elie's parents had a great influence on teaching him to trust in his own sense of reason. His childhood was filled with logic puzzles, his early adolescence with discussing theology and philosophy. The past, however, remembers and it met the Sophen's boy with a vengeance. A born skeptic and atheist, Elie wasn't easily swayed by the idea of the Almighty. When his powers manifested at the age of 16, Elie began to hear a deep and foreboding voice instructing him at night. Convinced that he was hearing the voice of God, Elie quickly became a disciple of this Voice. It told him he would be "great" and "accomplish more than anyone in his time" if he simply "...listened and obeyed." One of the first assignments was to deliver a false testimony in favor of a defendant who was being accused of human trafficking. The man walked free after Elie's "vox" revealed to him that the man was actually a well-respected member of the Bronx community: charitable, involved, and far from the sort of person to be involved with crime. The second instance was more sinister: Elie was given directions to a warehouse where mutant teens were being lured by evangelicals (The Purifiers) to be “baptized,” given false hope that “God” would cure them of their mutant afflictions. The Voice told him that one little girl would refuse and make it out, bringing the House under suspicion (and eventual foreclosure) with her report to police. Elie was to hide, comfort the girl, and sedate her mentally so she could be drawn back to The Purifiers. The justification was that this girl would grow to be a mutant terrorist, but the Purifiers rehabilitative program would ensure that she grew up to be stable. Elie didn’t find out that the girl was drowned that same night, forced under by a group of praying hands. Elie’s mentor and “father” begin to question why he was sneaking out and missing his lessons. Mose Brazer wasn’t a fool; he had a history growing up in Brazil as a watchman for drug dealers. His own family and friends were slain in a cross-fire; the appearance of his mutant powers—hardened, nigh-invulnerable skin—gave him “faith” that he was under a divine protection and sought to take down crime organizations that targeted children. He began eavesdropping on Elie’s conversations, eventually picking up on the psychic residue of “Vox.” Elie’s dreams had begun to take a sinister tone, where he was bombarded with images of himself beaten and alone, with the bodies of dead children—mutant and human—staining the roads with a spectrum of colored blood. Standing at the center was a dark figure, cradling lightning in his fists, cradled by an array of small, crucified bodies. Elie’s last task would be the one he regretted most: poison Father Brazer, who was under fire from false allegations of child abuse. Interrupted by his attempts by a visiting woman, “Vox” revealed himself through hijacking her mind, ultimately to convince Elie to follow through with Brazer’s death. Hearing a thunderous and familiar voice within his parish, Father Brazer phoned a network of psychic diviners who had assisted him in trapping Vox within a net, bringing his form into an intangible—but visible—image of a large gray man struggling against chains. “I’m so sorry, Father. I…who?” Elie shivered, “What did I do?” Father Brazer’s defense had worked and both he and Elie watched in amazement as the image diminished, cries of anguish filling the sanctuary. Elie was devastated. His venture into faith broken, dissolving indefinitely into gray mists. “It calls itself Shadow King,” Brazer said without looking down at the boy. “It’s time I told you about the real evils of this world, my son.”
• Personality: Elie doesn't trust people easily. Due to his background, he is typically critical/caustic towards seemingly altruistic or selfless motives--basically, he doesn't believe the things to exist. He believes that most people seek to serve a personal agenda, yet he ironically despises overbearing egoism and inflated senses of self-importance.
• Moral Alignment: Survival of the fittest.
• Nationality: American
• Appearance: Elie is average height and small-framed. He has deep, challenging eyes whose gaze is difficult to hold. He is fairly unassuming, but animated as a teacher. He has his father's sharp wit and his mother's beauty.
• Power Level: Theta Level (Cyclops, Emma Frost, Xaiver)