Thornn

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Thornn’s body is covered with red bone-like thorns. These, he can somehow fire with great power and accuracy.

Thornn has 76 thorns over his body, and can regenerate them in 15 phases or so. Thus, in practice, he has an infinite supply of projectiles.

History

Most of Thornn’s existence is tied with that of his father, the warlock known as Nicholas Scratch, the son of Agatha Harkness. Scratch inherited Harkness’ magical powers and became the second most powerful of the New Salem witches.

However, he resented his mother’s abandonment of New Salem in favor of the outer world. He decided to return her to New Salem to have her judged, but knew it would be a forced return. He was also aware that she had craft with the Fantastic Four (at that time, Harkness was Franklin Richard’s nanny).

Since attempting to bring her home against her will would mean a major battle, he decided to transform his children into magical, demi-human warriors who could do battle against the power of the Fantastic Four. His children thus became known as the Salem’s Seven, Thornn among them.

The Salem’s Seven were born from various women. They were originally just human occultists , just like the vast majority of New Salem’s population. However, all acquired the ability to transform themselves into inhuman warriors (except for Vertigo, the only one who looks human in her super-powerful form).

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Against the world

Scratch send the Salem’s Seven to kidnap Agatha ; they grabbed Franklin as well. Then he sent one of the powerful agents of New Salem, an Eliminator, to erase all traces of her existence, as is customary for the extremely secretive denizens of New Salem.

Both actions brought the FF in direct conflict with Scratch. He and the Seven were able to defeat the FF, but he had not planned on Franklin’s unbelievable power suddenly appearing. The New Salemites turned against him and Scratch was banished into the Dark Realm. The Salem’s Seven were mystically depowered.

Scratch’s next attempt had him restore the Salem’s Seven from the Dark Realm, and taking mental control of the Fantastic Four. His attempt at world conquest, however, was thwarted by Agatha who banished him more deeply into the Dark Realm and banished the Seven to New Salem.

The Salem’s Seven were also instrumental in defeating the FF in Scratch’s next plan, which involved possessing Franklin Richards in order to lure the FF to New Salem. Once again, Scratch was banished and the Seven depowered by Harkness.

Over the few next years, the Salem’s Seven labored to turn the spells Harkness used to depower them against her, and finally succeeded. Thus, Harkness was weakened, and the Seven regained their superhuman form. They captured Harkness, declared one of their own (Vertigo) the sorceress queen of New Salem, and burned Harkness at the stake.

Visions of scarlet

However, Harkness remained a powerful presence on the astral plane, and influenced her pupil, the Scarlet Witch, to go to New Salem.

The Witch and her husband, the synthesoid  Vision, confronted six of the Seven. Gazelle turned against her siblings due to their excessive cruelty (she was sentenced to be slain as human sacrifice for her defection).

There was a magical duel between Vertigo (wielding the power of the assembled New Salemites) and the Scarlet Witch. The Witch won and levelled most of New Salem in order to prevent a catastrophe. The Seven were killed in the explosion.

However, their spirits (except for Gazelle’s) went to the plane of the god/demon Samhain and allied with him. The Vision, the Scarlet Witch and Harkness defeated them and Samhain, and entrapped them into another dimension.

Description

Thornn is a yellow skinned, muscular human-like being. His face does not have a mouth, and he has numerous red thorns piercing his skin.

He wears deep red briefs. Don’t we all.

Personality

Like the rest of the Seven, Thornn is a heartless, methodical warrior dedicated to Nicholas Scratch.

He tends to be more scheming and vicious than the rest (perhaps in keeping with his horned devil appearance). He will generally provide fire support at a distance instead of attempting to fight hand-to-hand.

DC Universe History

There’s no need to retcon anything. Simply have Scratch drift in the Dark Realm until he comes to the fringes of the DCU, and have him summon the Salem’s Seven to rebuild New Salem in this new dimension.

How his attempts at building a town of mystically-altered beings would interact with the DCU’s mystic community is an interesting question. Sentinel would be a nice choice for his initial arch-foe in the DCU.

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Helper(s): MA4 Marvel Super Heroes supplement.

Source of Character: Fantastic Four comics (Marvel Universe).