25th Snow Job head, painted/modified
WO: Movie Sabretooth body and coat (arms/hands modified for wrist articulation)
Staff is a long Q-tip stick with sculpted end


"His strength was forged in the Pits of Hell, his will tempered by the dragon's breath. His undying wisdom has stood the tests of time, his thirst for knowledge yet unquenched. His has been to stir the hearts of the great, and the minds of the weak. This Herald of Justice is yet a bane to those who seek to follow his Just resolve. An enigma of time, the mystery remains. Who is this man, if such a word deems itself to apply? Merlin is his name, the very sound of it rolling from thy tongue brings both relief and despair to the hearts of men.

Merlin, Merthyn, Marten, the name matters not, for they are all one in the same, yet how is this figure of legend and myth to be believed here before us on this day? How matters not, we must suppose, for it is true. I have seen with mine own eyes that it is so..."

Supposing that you had access to look in his data file with EXCAL, you'd see that his "real" name is listed variously as "classified", "unknown" or both. It's actually suspected that the Mystic codenamed Merlin honestly does not know this answer himself. Truly he believes that he and the Merlin of legend are one and the same. However we know this man before us, this man codenamed Merlin was born (in body, if not in spirit) in 1957 Dublin as Walter O'Dell. He grew to become a doctor, mastering the fields of psychiatry and psychology, with a strong background in all of the major sciences as well, chemistry, biology, physics, you name it. There is no doubt that this baseline education has propelled this man in many ways to be what he is today. But the bottom line is that education and experience simply cannot justify the existence of what this man is. If he really is still a man at all.

Walter O'Dell's quest for knowledge reached deep beyond his professional education and roamed far into the realm of the arcane and paranormal. Walter fell in love with the black arts, mysticism, sorcery and magic. As an intelligent and educated man of science, he first set out to study these arts for purpose of disproving them. In the end, however, he found the truth that lies within each, and found that his intellect allowed him means of mastering and controlling these arts in ways long since forgotten by human civilization, if ever truly known before.

Walter was not a bad man, but his mastery of the black arts was not as complete as his ego led him to believe. His mind began to warp, his control to falter. Walter began to do things his controlled persona would not have allowed. Walter became, in many ways, a dark sorcerer, yet not of his own doing. He effected a look befitting his new dark imagery, and developed many powerful illusions, spells, concoctions, deceits and in fact weapons. Most of these remain explainable via means of science or of sleight of hand, yet a troubling few do not. He has clearly developed psychic capabilities. Is it a mutation? An act of magic? Or simply a genius fully utilizing his immense capabilities in the fields of psychology and psychiatry? Many simply dismissed this man as a conveyor of parlor tricks. In truth, there had to be something more.

At the height of his power - which coincided with the depth of his darkness - the man known as Walter O'Dell disappeared. He simply vanished, and seemed to do so in the presence of a sufficient number of witnesses, that investigators of all forms had a hand in the proceedings - criminal, governmental interest, and paranormal investigators all tried their hand at solving the mysterious disappearance of Walter O'Dell. The mystery gained international media coverage, and to this day is still talked about world-wide. Walter O'Dell is still suspected as missing, dead, abducted, or even disintegrated, by most everyone, but not by me.

Ten years to the day after the disappearance of Walter O'Dell, a man slightly resembling the fallen mage, yet proclaiming himself to be "Merlin the Magician" strolled into British Parliament... without being detected by security... without being recorded by video... and without being so much as noticed inside of the closed parliamentary chamber. It was then that he declared that he has had a vision of the end of the world, and that only the Paladin Knights - the Knights of the Round Table of Camelot - long since vanquished to the Isle of Avalon, could combat the threat that he foretold.

This man was not laughed at or mocked, and security was not called. For he had proclaimed himself to be Merlin, for all to hear. And he had the power of compulsion in his voice, such that all who heard him believed. Those few whose will was sufficiently strong to resist the voice, those few who did not believe soon did. As the threat now known as MEDUSA also declared itself to the world on this day, prodding revolution and war in nearly a third of the world's free nations, executing those who stood in their way, and striking fear throughout the world of what uprisings may yet come.

This mage did more than warn of the impending doom of war, but he prophesized also of immediate threats posed to those in attendance, not the least of which was an armed nuclear warhead positioned deep within the building's confines, the warning of which allowed the threat to be nullified. This, as well as numerous other warnings which allowed authorities to thwart similar attacks in the United States and other allied nations, quickly and firmly established Merlin's place as a protector of freedom and justice.

Certainly, nobody truly believed this man was Merlin. Not THE Merlin anyway. And those not swayed by the power of his voice still suspect him to be a crackpot, no doubt. But the wisdom with which he speaks, the sage counsel he provides, and the prophecies he has foretold have all been TRUE. Inexplicably and unexpectedly TRUE. And there is more. I have seen things...things which I am yet to find words for...which convince me this man, this thing, really is the Merlin of old. And the Knights that he has called upon, these Paladin Knights seem, in their excellence, if not their identities to truly have share the hearts of the Paladin Knights of Avalon.

I know - others simply do not - but I KNOW Merlin to have once been the man who disappeared those years ago - Walter O'Dell. But he is Walter no longer, in any way other than in physical form. I can't explain the transformation. I can't explain the decade long absence. I can't explain why the DNA testing I've secretly done (if any such secrets may be kept from a sorcerer) shows him to definitively be Walter O'Dell, if he were not truly one and the same, at least in body. But as Merlin - he KNOWS things. Things a man should not know. And...thus far... he has used this knowledge to the aid and betterment of those things we hold most dear - Freedom and Justice. And for that, I am grateful.

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