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History;
The people of the Plateau of Leng, in the Far North, are intensely religious and have a specific set of beliefs about stillborn children-- that they're either a curse of a witch onto the family, or the child of a demon and an impure mother. Because the younger of his twin sons was born as such, the magistrate of a small town on the plateau made sure that no one ever knew the truth, from threatening the servants and employees into claiming that only one son was born to the family, to disposing of the body deep in the forest in the middle of winter. Certainly, this was the 17th century, so there were no paved roads or heat packs or cars, so no one would have come across the body, right?
However, a Viking witch and astrologer named Lagertha Vilulf came across the body and took it, managing to revive the child and raising him as her own in a small cottage deep in the woods. She named him Eta after the star that guided her to him and taught him how to read, write, hunt, and survive off the land, as well as some old folktales of beings that walked the earth like the abominable snowman.
One day, when Eta was already a young adult, some townspeople came to their house and dragged his mother away for the crime of witchcraft despite being as god-fearing as the rest of them. Her son only managed to escape the same fate because she had hidden him away. However, he did witness a startling sight-- the head of the violent mob, the magistrate's son named Nathaniel Norwell, had the exact same face as him. With this knowledge, he infiltrated the town by simply walking in, unchallenged because of his face (though people were confused by his somber attitude, which was unlike Nathaniel).
However, aside from rescuing his mother, he had a secondary goal because he wasn't about to let the transgressions against her go unpunished. He snuck into the Norwell family home and murdered his twin in the man's own room, removing any evidence of foul play by mimicking Nathaniel's handwriting to forge a suicide note.
Unfortunately, his mother was unwell in all meanings of the word. She was weakened from her ordeal but couldn't speak and was no longer able to care for herself, and her mental state worsened whenever she looked at Eta's face-- Nathaniel had tortured her to insanity and near catatonia, and she couldn't recognize her son, only the face of the man who harmed her and the associations of fear and pain that came with it. This made her lash out and cry uncontrollably every time she saw Eta, making him curse the face he shared with that man and wear a mask to keep it hidden.
Eta swore he would protect her, and began attacking and most likely killing anyone who came deep into the woods, especially on nights that blizzards raged and caused anyone passing by to become lost. It eventually garnered him a reputation, the people whispering about the stories of the abominable snowman being real, to the point of calling him the name of the monster in the old tales, Ithaqua, the Walking Death.
For his part, he embraced this new title and role-- only one person knew his true name, but she was no longer able to even speak to him-- and even claimed to have thrown away his humanity. Whether or not this is metaphorical or literal is unknown, but he does have powers that ordinary humans don't, and his body, particularly his eyes, changed after the incident.
However, life still isn't smooth sailing even after he's established himself as the Plateau's abominable snowman. Later on in life, over the dozens of years of living as the forest's guardian monster and bane of the town, Ithaqua will develop memory problems so intense that it might as well be a sieve because he will barely remember his real name but completely forget who gave it to him and who he turned into a monster for-- because he thoroughly forgot about his origins, his mother clearly died at some point and could no longer be a reminder as a result. Sometimes, he will even forget what happened to him the previous day, and he'll simply accept this as normal.
Eventually, during the later years of the Victorian era, someone would start to conduct odd experiments in a manor just outside of London, and use people as his test subjects, luring them in with promises of awarding them with their heart's desire if they managed to win a "game" against other participants. However, the word "game" was deceptive, as they were forced to play by arbitrary rules set by the owner of the manor, and more often than not, the participants were forced to kill one another or survive a dangerous killer. One of those participants was Ithaqua, though it's currently unknown how he managed to get on the manor owner's radar and how he was coaxed to join.
However, a Viking witch and astrologer named Lagertha Vilulf came across the body and took it, managing to revive the child and raising him as her own in a small cottage deep in the woods. She named him Eta after the star that guided her to him and taught him how to read, write, hunt, and survive off the land, as well as some old folktales of beings that walked the earth like the abominable snowman.
One day, when Eta was already a young adult, some townspeople came to their house and dragged his mother away for the crime of witchcraft despite being as god-fearing as the rest of them. Her son only managed to escape the same fate because she had hidden him away. However, he did witness a startling sight-- the head of the violent mob, the magistrate's son named Nathaniel Norwell, had the exact same face as him. With this knowledge, he infiltrated the town by simply walking in, unchallenged because of his face (though people were confused by his somber attitude, which was unlike Nathaniel).
However, aside from rescuing his mother, he had a secondary goal because he wasn't about to let the transgressions against her go unpunished. He snuck into the Norwell family home and murdered his twin in the man's own room, removing any evidence of foul play by mimicking Nathaniel's handwriting to forge a suicide note.
Unfortunately, his mother was unwell in all meanings of the word. She was weakened from her ordeal but couldn't speak and was no longer able to care for herself, and her mental state worsened whenever she looked at Eta's face-- Nathaniel had tortured her to insanity and near catatonia, and she couldn't recognize her son, only the face of the man who harmed her and the associations of fear and pain that came with it. This made her lash out and cry uncontrollably every time she saw Eta, making him curse the face he shared with that man and wear a mask to keep it hidden.
Eta swore he would protect her, and began attacking and most likely killing anyone who came deep into the woods, especially on nights that blizzards raged and caused anyone passing by to become lost. It eventually garnered him a reputation, the people whispering about the stories of the abominable snowman being real, to the point of calling him the name of the monster in the old tales, Ithaqua, the Walking Death.
For his part, he embraced this new title and role-- only one person knew his true name, but she was no longer able to even speak to him-- and even claimed to have thrown away his humanity. Whether or not this is metaphorical or literal is unknown, but he does have powers that ordinary humans don't, and his body, particularly his eyes, changed after the incident.
However, life still isn't smooth sailing even after he's established himself as the Plateau's abominable snowman. Later on in life, over the dozens of years of living as the forest's guardian monster and bane of the town, Ithaqua will develop memory problems so intense that it might as well be a sieve because he will barely remember his real name but completely forget who gave it to him and who he turned into a monster for-- because he thoroughly forgot about his origins, his mother clearly died at some point and could no longer be a reminder as a result. Sometimes, he will even forget what happened to him the previous day, and he'll simply accept this as normal.
Eventually, during the later years of the Victorian era, someone would start to conduct odd experiments in a manor just outside of London, and use people as his test subjects, luring them in with promises of awarding them with their heart's desire if they managed to win a "game" against other participants. However, the word "game" was deceptive, as they were forced to play by arbitrary rules set by the owner of the manor, and more often than not, the participants were forced to kill one another or survive a dangerous killer. One of those participants was Ithaqua, though it's currently unknown how he managed to get on the manor owner's radar and how he was coaxed to join.