The Askani
The Askani were a clan - including mutants, humans, and synthetics - who lived in the thirty-eighth century and were eventually annihilated by their neighbors, a violent, militaristic society that saw their inclusion of non-mutants as a sign of their weakness and 'unfit' status.
Roster
- The Mother Askani - Leader and founder of the Clan, Askani forged a coherent and vibrant society out of a group of exiles and outsiders, and then led them in a desperate war for survival for nearly sixty years. When her clan was finally defeated on the battlefield, she suicided in spectacular fashion, destroying the enemy armies as well as the survivors of her own in an attempt to cover the retreat of the clan's last surviving civilians. A broad-spectrum psi of staggering power, she appeared to Nathan as a young woman in her mid-twenties and once revealed to him that in life she had decided that she needed to be young and vital to lead her people - and stopped aging. Nathan later discovered that she had possessed a similar connection to his mother, but with Askani's final departure from this plane of existence, has been left with one last unsolved mystery.
- Galin - One of the astral ghosts, in life Galin was the clan's strongest empath. He helped tutor Manuel de la Rocha, at Askani and Nathan's request. A rather crusty old man, he was perpetually disappointed by his pupil's failure to grasp the basics of the Askani's rigorous empathic discipline.
- Lusanya - Galin's daughter and fellow empath, she also taught Manuel, who came to regard her as his own true friend. A deeply compassionate woman, she consistently tried to warn him about the path he was on. Her disappearance as the astral ghosts lost coherence and faded left him grief-stricken and without his confidant at a very unfortunate time.
- Rawn - The Askani's war leader late in their history, he had a close and possibly intimate relationship with the Mother Askani. He was involved in teaching Nathan the military applications of the Askani psionic arts, but preferred to manifest in his dreams rather than in the waking world.
Details
The leader of the clan, Mother Askani, forged a precognitive link with Nathan Dayspring over the centuries, believing that he could help her undo the chain of events that had led to her future. For nearly a year and a half, he played host to her astral self and what he thought were those of many of her clanmates. In the end, it turned out that they were born of Askani's own memories of her people, astral ghosts in truth.
After guiding Nathan through many trials and teaching him the psionic arts of her people, Askani discovered that her presence in his mind was doing slow but cumulative damage, provoking epileptic fits that would only worsen. She started to let her astral ghosts fade, but did not offer Nathan and Moira any suggestions as to how to solve the central problem of her presence. This was because she already saw the moment of her exit. At the Hellfire Club incident, Askani sacrificed herself to save Alison Blaire, allowing Amanda to use her astral self as energy for a healing spell when Alison was near death at Selene's hands.
Nathan grieved for her for months, but after following the guidance of his precognitive visions to trap his uncle Gideon, was to see her once more. Taking advantage of the temporal paradox, the Askani who had not yet died and not yet traveled back to Nathan's time in astral form traveled down the precognitive link Gideon had recreated and fatally injured him. Her future conclusively avoided with Gideon's death, Askani bade farewell to Nathan, telling him that he had fulfilled all of the hopes both she and his mother had held for him.
Plots
2004
2005
X-Men Mission: A Mirror Darkly
2006
Meta
Socked by: Alicia
