Character art by SpartaDog

Notes For Commissioned Artists

Attention to detail gets you everywhere with me! <3

Thin, lanky body and limbs
The torso resembles that of an emaciated human, though most of it is covered by the rags, as pictured on the right
There are four leg segments
The face (or lack thereof) is a mirror
The horns are extensions of the head, and not separate structures
There are four fingers and toes. When Judgment is not moving them, they always point in the four cardinal directions

Personality

If given free reign, Judgment is the only Horned One to move with purpose. It has no empathy or emotions, and is driven by the singular goal of finding the living. Its movements are very slow and deliberate and, despite looking as if a slight breeze would knock it over, it is unable to be influenced by external forces.

Loves

Nothing

Likes

Nothing

Dislikes

Nothing

Hates

Nothing

Character Information

Judgment, like the other Horned Ones: Hatred, Perseverance, and Vindication, came into being during the anomalous ley line eruptions. Unlike the others, Judgment is driven by a purpose it feels inside. Perseverance is moved by danger, Hatred is moved by an insatiable hunger, Vindication is moved by repairing and rebuilding damage, but Judgment is moved by a purpose it felt when it came to being: to seek out the living.

It has the most frail, unbalanced appearance of the four, but the opposite is true. Attuned perfectly to the ley lines of the planet, Judgment is unable to be affected by external forces until they reach celestial proportions. Because of this, there is no sense of urgency in its movements. It strolls in slow methodical steps, heading toward the sounds of life.

Judgment is also unique from the others in that it communicates directly with creatures, humans in particular. A telepathic link is established to all within about a 150 yard (137m) radius and it can be understood by anything that ‘hears’ it. For wild creatures this just means they will not run from it and, though rare, any wild thing affected by The Rage will approach and attack it. Humans that ‘hear’ Judgment have mixed reactions. Some Ragers will try to find and destroy the disturbance, while others will ignore it in favor of whatever destruction they are already achieving. The unaffected few typically react as they do to all other stimuli in their crazy world: hide or flee and hope they are not discovered.

Judgment’s purpose does not simply rest at discovery. Once a living thing is found, Judgment gets close and puts its face directly in front of theirs, forcing them to look at it. The reflective surface of its face then distorts and twists into a reflection of their inner self. Depending on how deeply The Rage affects the individual, the reflection can be as accurate as life, in the case of the unaffected, and the visage of terror itself, in the case of an ‘unredeemable vessel’. For the latter, Judgment broadcasts a message to all in range, “this vessel cannot be redeemed,” and then touches their shoulder or head, sapping their essence and adding another tattered rag to their body. These ethereal rags slowly fade and wisp away, returned to the ley lines as Judgment moves along.

Judgment’s presence also brings an eerie chill with it, cutting through any insulation to bring a shiver to the warmest soul. At one point during Judgment’s journey, it came to a mine, long abandoned for actual mining, and acquired an old lantern. Without knowing why, Judgment picked this lantern up and now carries it with it wherever it goes. It does not need light to see, nor does it need the living it finds to be able to see, but the lantern seemed to calm the unaffected and those affected but redeemable. It made finding them, or catching up to them, much easier since they were less inclined to flee.

In a recent leg of its journey, Judgment was heading through a snowy mountainous region with a large section melted down and a pile of slag near the clearing. In the middle of this clearing was a young human female, her body weak and shivering as it drew nearer to expiring. When Judgment knelt down, moving its head within inches of the young woman, she didn’t flinch. As her own battered visage appeared on Judgment’s surface, she asked, “are you death?”

“I am Judgment. Death will come for you soon enough, should you choose to remain here, young one. Should you choose to live, you will be faced with many trials but you can survive. What will you choose, young one?” As Judgment moved on to the next sign of life, it left the young woman there to make her choice.