Aquaman
Orin / Arthur Curry

Powers

Equipment

• Astral Form: Remarkable ability to travel to the Secret Sea and the Lady of the Lake. Astral travel to these locations negates the need to physically submerge his body in water,
• Precognition: Remarkable
• Regeneration: Remarkable
• Density Manipulation: Ramarkable rank and applies to the ‘Water Hand’ only
• Magic Control - Negation: Allows Aquaman to negate the effects of magic with Unearthly ability. He must be physically touching the target with his Water Hand to use this power.

Special: It is a misuse of the water hand to use it as a weapon. Doing so can unleash the “Thirst”, an ancient evil bent on destroying the Secret Sea and all it’s sources.

• Amazing material strength,
• Remarkable edged damage

Limitations

Orin needs to be periodically immersed in water, every day or so or begins loosing Endurance ranks at the rate of 1 per day.

Aquaman needs to immerse himself in water for at least an hour every 24 hrs to keep his powers and abilities at peak levels. For every two hours past that point, reduce all his physical abilities and powers 1 rank. This is also reflected in his health. One hour's immersion in water will immediatley restore all lost ranks and health.

Talents

Leadership, Underwater Combat, Melee weapons, Oceanography, Martial Arts B, Pilot, Bi-Lingual (English, Atlantean), Resist Domination, Marine Biology

Contacts

New Atlantis, Justice League, Tempest, Dolphin

History

The mysterious sorcerer Atlan was father by Queen Atlanna of Atlantis to the adventurer known as Aquaman and by an Eskimo woman to the villain known as Ocean Master. Thereby he satisfied the ancient Atlantis prophesy that two brothers will always be battling over the fate of Atlantis.

When Aquaman was born as Orin, he was left by King Trevis to die on Mercy Reef, so called because it was used by the water breathers to leave others of their kind to die as the waters receded with the tides exposing them to the open air. However Orin was no normal child, abandoned because of a disturbing similarity between Orin and an ancient Atlantis monster known as Kordax. It was this Curse of Kordax, of having fair hair, that caused the abandonment of Orin to the air.

As the waters drew back Orin was nurtured by the warming effects of the Sun. He was truly of both worlds able to breathe both water and air. He was raised by the dolphin named Porm and wandered with her pod across the oceans. While a teenager Orin was found by the lighthouse keeper Arthur Curry. It was this kindly lighthouse keeper that was to be Orin's first prolonged exposure to humanity. Arthur raised him as he was his own son, teaching him the ways of the surface world and how to read.

After Arthur Curry disappeared Orin took the name as a mark of respect. Orin swam north and lived for months above and below the water avoiding all human contact until one fateful date he saved a young Eskimo woman by the name of Kako from a rampaging Polar Bear. Perhaps it was destiny that had drawn Orin there but it brought about the first meeting between him and his half brother Orm who was deeply jealous of Orin and Kako. He set in motions that would lead to Orin being driven out of the settlement.

Orin returned to the seas, he crossed paths with humans from time to time but for the most parts he stayed well out of the reach of humanity. Until one fateful day Orin happened on the city of his birth. Quite by accident he had found Atlantis. He was captured by the then dictatorial government of the city and placed in the prison camp. He was help with another prisoner Vulko who taught Orin the language and ways of the Atlantians.

A clear screen separated the male from female prisoners and through it he kept getting glances of a woman that he instinctively knew as his mother. When see appeared at the screen no more he knew that she was dead, there was no longer anything to keep Orin in this foreign city. He broke out and fled back to his endless oceans.

As time passed Aquaman took more of an interest in the surface world. The media began to call him a superhero and he was christened Aquaman by Barry Allen (aka Flash II). Not long afterwards he became a founding member of the Justice League of America. When he eventually returned to Atlantis he found that via his escape the citizens had been inspired to free themselves and that Atlantis was now a free city. He was recognised as the son of Queen Atlanna and so he became the King of Atlantis.

Times were happy for Aquaman, the new ruling house of Atlantis slowly reintroduced it to the outside world and the society and it ruler grew together in peace. There were those that would oppose his rule and the supervillian called the Shark deposed Orin for a time. Once the Shark was defeated Aquaman refused to take up the throne once more preferring to act more as the traditional superhero (a title what he would come to hate). The cost was high when the villain Black Manta succeeded in killing Aquaman's young son.

The death of Arthur Jr. put a rift between Orin and Mera so they tried relocating to a flooded city on the East Coast as a change of scene. It was during this time that as Aquaman he sought to reform the Justice League. Actually going in front of the United Nations he disbanded the Justice League and later reformed it only taking dedicated individuals and four new young heroes in the guise of Vibe, Vixen, Steel II and Gypsy. Accustomed to the rank of monarch his leadership style has harsh and caused authority problems with some of the younger members. Eventually Aquaman would leave this League.

Mera had been driven insane by grief and had been committed to an asylum in Atlantis. Shortly afterwards an alien force took the city. Orin was forced to save the city and in the process was hampered by an escaped Mera who personally blamed Orin for the death of their son. In a fit of rage she left this dimension. After Atlantis was freed Orin remained tied to the city. For a time he served as it's representative to the United Nations but always finding himself thrust into the superhero role. Becoming more and more of a workaholic and solitary figure he returned to the oceans where he eventually learnt the truth (from the old Chronicles of Atlantis that he how keeps) about his birth and the Ocean Master was actually his half brother.

Spurred on by Aqualad, Orin was forced to return to action where he lost his hand. The shock caused him to become delirious he experienced dreams filled with portents and omens, of things to come and things' past. Shortly afterwards he adopted a harpoon in place of his hand (later to be upgraded to advanced STAR labs psionically controlled model) and set out to protect the seas in his own way. Making friends along the way he started a romance with the mysterious girl named Dolphin, little knowing that she was being controlled by the monster Kordax in an effort to kill him.

Lost of all diplomacy, Orin found himself fighting former allies such as Superboy and even gaining the respect of Lobo of all people. He found himself reacting to the world around him rather than acting, discovering he had a son in the form of Koryax and that his former lover Kako had become the latest fire elemental. Meanwhile behind his back King Thesily the current monarch of Atlantis was plotting to kill Orin out of jealously due to the place that Aquaman had in the hearts of his subjects. In the end Thesily was killed during an earthquake, one of the many that forced the Poseidonians to flee to Tritonians as the city began to rise to the surface.

Koryax lead the Poseidonians away as Orin returned. Orin was forced to deal with the aftermath of his meeting with Thanatos (who had been using Atlantian equipment to broadcast threats in the guise of Aquaman) by battling the current Justice League who had come to investigate with the now floating city of Poseidonis. Not long afterwards Orin bonded with the ancient cybernetic entity that the Hunters had left to observe Atlantis. In the process he learnt of the impending return of the Hunter/Gathers and so began an epic struggle to gather together the ancient cities of Atlantis under one banner. He united all the undersea forces and many of the water related superheroes while at the same time having to contend with the return of Kordax who was telepathically controlling the citizens of Poseidonis.

The Hunter/Gathers had returned to Earth and had begun wooing the surface world around to their overtures of peace. However only the undersea forces of Aquaman knew the truth. Assembling a task force of undersea superheroes Aquaman took the battle to the Hunter/Gathers at the Whitehouse. They tried to convince Aquaman of their worth by allowing him a glimpse of future powers, but he refused and tricked them into revealing their plans to the world. The Hunter/Gathers were then forced to retreat. During the battle with the Hunter/Gathers Orin had become more and more the Monarch of Atlantis. However there was a difference, whereas before he had been only acting what he thought that a king should do, he now was truly acting as a king should, ruling the subjects below him.

The change did not sit easily with Orin. Having a magical heritage and destiny he began to feel the inner conflict physically. His body became mutated, his hands webbed and his skin scaled. It took help from the Swamp Thing to awaken Aquaman to his true nature via a form of vision quest into the past of Atlantis. He saw the origin of Kordax as a frightened young boy and not the monster that he became. Aquaman's increasing acceptance of his role as King frightened those around him and the physical transformation frightened his subjects. The matter came to a head when Poseidon forced him to battle his son, Triton, for dominion over the ocean. Aquaman won (partially because Triton let him win) and Poseidon forced on him a fraction of the powers of a sea god. Instantly blinded Aquaman discovered that Poseidon has opened a link between Aquaman and the Clear (the unified life energy field of all ocean life). His sight slowly returned and with the help of Animal Man he discovered that he also possessed the ability of echo location.

The new abilities that Aquaman now possesses reinforces his dominion over the creatures of the sea and it's inhabitants. He has established the position of Poseidonis in the surface world (even to the extent of a trial period where he opened it up to tourists). However his actions have not won universal acclaim amongst the people of the city. Vulko in particular feels as if he is out the decision making loop now that Aquaman is making his own decisions as King. Troubles brew for Aquaman in every corner, Triton killed his father and saw Aquaman as his main obstacle between his goal of supreme command of the element of water.

In the war against Imperiex, Aquaman and the rest of Atlantis went missing when Tempest tried to get them out of the way of the destructive blast of one of Imperiex' probes. Tempest's spell sent Aquaman and all of Atlantis thousands of years in the past. There they remained for 15 years until they returned to the current day.

The Atlanteans were enslaved by their sorcerous ancestors for years before Aquaman, aided by the JLA, returned them to the present. To effect the rescue, Aquaman was forced to re-sink Atlantis and for this, he was deposed as king and once more banished from the seas.

Barely alive, the outcast King of the Seas was visited by the Lady of the Lake. She restored his health and appointed him “Waterbearer”- a role whose full depth Orin has only begun to explore.