Fiction	Characters
Mati - Vengeful Magician
Mike Wass (11.08.99) elcarpo@yahoo.com

"In the heart of the jungle there are many legends... Don't become one."

There are many legends that spring from the jungles of the world, but none so well documented and passed down as that of the Mage, Mati. The reason for this legend's survival is not entirely understood, but most likely because it is not "legend" but fact.

Deep in the jungle of the Congo located in central Africa, there lives a nation of people called the Nacai. They are a primitive race that contains about 15 different tribes each lead by a chief and spread throughout the region. In one of these tribes there lived a chief named Tuthanis, and he had three daughters, Mutai, Kathena, and Puthana. Tuthanis was a strong leader and very stern with his people. He trusted no one from the outside and would often send raiding parties to the coast to kill anyone that may be attempting to land on the beach. He was ruthless and ruled his people with an iron fist.

In this particular area of the Congo, where Tuthanis' people thrived, the land was ripe with a stone, that some valued more than life, diamonds. For this reason many corporations attempted to set up bases and camps in the area, hoping to harvest the precious stone. However, Tuthanis would always make certain that no one survived these expeditions, let alone return to the corporation. His logic and heart told him that the Corporations would give up and stop sending people to his land. However, money and greed continued to drive the corporations deeper into the jungle. On one such occasion the corporation attacked the village and drove the Nacai out. In the process Kathena, the youngest daughter was caught and brutally raped, then left for dead. When the corporation had retreated, the Nacai returned to their village and repaired the damage done. Tuthanis amassed an army and attempted to destroy the corporation's army, but they were gone and had taken their precious stones with them.

Time passed and Kathena grew ripe with child. Tuthanis grew angry as his daughter grew larger. When the boy was born, Tuthanis saw that he was half-white and half-black and banished the boy into the woods. Kathena was crushed and traveled into the woods to abandon the child, when a lonely witch doctor appeared before her and promised to take care of the child and raise it as his own. Kathena thanked the witch doctor and kissed her son goodbye and bestowed on him his name, Mati. To the Nacai people, the Mati is the white tiger, half-white and black it represents power and cunning. The white tiger's eyes also glow a bright green, just like the child's. When Kathena returned to the village, she was greeted by her father and another chief from a separate tribe. Tuthanis was so disgusted with his daughter for having brought the child into this world and tarnish his name. So he sold Kathena to the chief of a separate tribe in order to rid him of this reminder. The chief of the other tribe looked upon Kathena greedily and promised to make her his head slave. Kathena was taken away, led by a rope around her wrists, and tears flowed from her eyes.

Mati grew up with the witch doctor who as soon as Mati could walk, began to teach him magic. The witch doctor was very wise and kind and taught Mati how he could use his surroundings to aid him and to absorb the essence of the jungle to give him strength. Mati learned quickly and when he turned 18 the witch doctor felt that he was ready to leave and experience the world, but that he should also know the truth about his mother and father, so the witch doctor explained the story of Kathena and her whereabouts now. Mati became enraged and vowed vengeance against his grandfather and to the chief to which his mother was enslaved.

He gathered his belongings and the witch doctor handed him a jeweled sheath in which a diamond bladed knife was encased. Mati thanked his teacher then vanished into the jungle toward the village of his grandfather. When he arrived his grandfather was still the chief and still cruel. Mati came before Tuthanis in his tent and with the wave of his hand Mati forced Tuthanis to pick up his own knife and thrust it into his own heart. Tuthanis slumped over to the ground and died slowly. Mati then traveled to the Nacai tribe in which his mother was imprisoned.

When he arrived they were holding a festival and the village center was aglow with torches and bon fires. The chief sat on a throne above the crowd. Next to him was a badly beaten and bruised Kathena. Matai knew it was his mother instantly and he slowly stepped into the village. As he did the music stopped and the crowd parted to allow the stranger to view the chief in full. The chief stared down at the young Mati and inquired as to his name and purpose. Mati did not answer just stared at the chief and his mother with his intense green eyes. The chief asked him again and Mati remained silent. The chief howled loudly and ordered his guards to kill the intruder. As the guards approached the lights suddenly faded to nothingness and those that were there tell it that they felt only a gust of wind and saw simply a "black flash" and then the lights were on again, in less than a few seconds. When the people could see they found the four guards cut in half lying dead on the ground and the chief still siting in his chair, with his head lying in his own lap. The slave woman was gone and so was the stranger. People of that tribe named the stranger, the Barracai or "Night Dancer."

Mati took his mother to the Caribbean islands and set her up in a village of kind natives. He then set off to find the one man he had not yet avenged, his father. The only information known about his father was that he was a sailor or captain for a corporation in the Western Hemisphere, and that he had eight scars on his neck, four on each side, from when Kathena dug her fingers into him trying to escape. Mati followed the man's trail as far as the Caribbean Island of Jamaica, where the path was lost and where Mati found a new line of work. He joined up with the local pirate gang in order to continue to support his mother by sending her part of his catch. However, there was also a more important motive for his entrance into the life of a pirate, vengeance. He vowed to himself and to his mother that he would not rest until his father was found and killed. So Mati sailed on searching, ever searching...

Check out Mati's current stats at SR pbem...
http://www.oocities.org/suptk/srpbem/characters/content/mati.htm