Welcome To Tempest History 101!


Specifics:

Given Name: Garth
Code Name: Tempest, formerly Aqualad
Parents: King Thar (deceased); Queen Berra

Birthplace: Poseidonis, Continent Of Atlantis

Birthday: March 6

Age: approx. 26

Height: 5' 8"

Weight: 235

Titles: Ambassador Representing Poseidonis
Ambassador To The Court Of King Iqula of Tritonis
High Counsellor To The Court Of Poseidonis

Group Affiliations: Teen Titans, New Titans

Personal Affiliations: Aquaman (King Orin II of Poseidonis, his mentor),
Atlan (immortal wizard/Orin's father),
Dolphin (wife) and Cerdian (son),
Dr. Vulko and wife, Makaira; Letifos

Powers And Abilities:
Elemental powers over water temperatures
Limited telepathy
Astral projection abilities
Can detect the proximity of lifeforms by sensing their water content
Deadly psionic eye-beams
Untapped mystical healing powers
Limitless climate control abilities

First Appearance as Aqualad: Adventure Comics #269 (February, 1960)

First Appearance as Tempest (in costume): Tempest: Prophets And Kings #2 (December, 1996)


Centuries ago, in the mystic darkness on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, the warrior factions of Atlantis vied for wealth and power. Out of the domed city of Poseidonis rose a prophetess with great leadership abilities: Shayera, head of a pacifist cult called "The Idylists." Fears of more war and bloodshed forced Shayera to lead her small band of sisters and brethren far away from the city, to a well-hidden valley in which they could live in peace, seemingly oblivious to the constant turmoil of their former homeland. It was in this valley that they founded their capital, Crastinus (later renamed Shayeris), and, down through the ages, a line of great and powerful kings, masters of the arcane arts, were sired. The princes Slizzath and Thar belong to this line.

Slizzath, the elder brother, chose to practice the black magicks, to the fear and revulsion of his people. As Thar witnessed this dangerous behavior progress, he took steps he deemed necessary to protect his people, culminating in the banishment of his elder brother to an unearthly inprisonment. With the world of the Idylists now righted, Thar ascended to the throne, thus assuring the mystical birthrights of the crown for himself and his progeny.

As the scion of King Thar and his consort Queen Berra, little Garth was slated to lead a life of comfort and privilege as prince of the Idylists. Sadly, prior to his birth, his pacifist nation was torn apart by a tragic form of governmental chism---regicide. Thar was murdered by his own palace guards, men who falsely believed him to be insane due to his creation of a stockpile of deadly weapons, an act the pacifists could not allow. His then-pregnant queen was sent into exile. On the surface, it appeared to be a matter of the Idylists rejecting the tainted blood of the lineage of Thar, but Berra had a secret, horrible mission to accomplish.

Berra traveled to the ancestral homeland of her people, the city of Poseidonis, and there gave birth to her son, a purple-eyed child she named Garth, an ancient name for the Earth. Fear and superstition about Garth's eyes led the authorities to take the child from Berra, for it was believed that such a mark meant that the boy was at the least physically and mentally inferior, and, at the worst, a possible return of the much-feared ancient wizard, Garn'Danuuth, the half-brother of Arion, Lord of Atlantis. The infant Garth was sentenced to death by exposure within days of his birth, taken far from any hope of rescue and abandonned on the sarcastically named "Mercy Reef."

More than ten years passed before young Garth was found by another Mercy Reef survivor and fellow regal scion, Arthur of Poseidonis. For their story, see

"The Story Of Aqualad."

As Garth grew up, his love for the rambunctious young maiden, Tula, brought him great joy, but her untimely death brought his world crashing down around him. For years he languished in feelings of guilt and longing to be with her, all the while trying to maintain his ties with his heroic calling. Though he knew in his heart he would never see her again, he seemed resigned to her death while at the same time exhibiting a new self-destructive behavior, as if he accepted that the only way to her side was through his own death. It was a near-fatal experience which provided him with false hope of a reunion with her.


Severely injured by the knife-wielding villain Charybdis, Garth had come close to bleeding to death in the waters many miles from Poseidonis. Aquaman's friend, Dolphin, towed the wounded Aqualad and Aquaman back to the city to be saved, but not before Garth encountered a strange vision---the shadowy figure of a woman he, in a delirious state, assumed to be a reincarnated Tula. On the mend in Poseidonis, he regained his strength, vowing that he would return to the waters in which Dolphin had found him to find his lost love.

The image he had seen was not, however, the return of his lady fair. Instead, she was the merwoman Letifos, the half-humanoid/half-shark. It was Letifos who had nursed Garth's wounds in an effort to save him, yet her unfriendly reception at his return to her left him confused and bewildered. He insistantly followed her despite her warnings to stay away; little did he know how deadly his interest in her could be. Letifos' tribe, a hostile band unknown to people from Garth's region, took exception to the boy's presence, and a death sentence was issued. To Garth's horror, he was crucified, a fate compounded by an approaching cloud of a razor-like substance which devoured its victims at a rapid rate. Though he tried mightly to free himself, he was unable to escape. As the vortex passed, it stripped the very flesh from his body and left his skeletal remains in its wake.

All would have been lost had it not been for the all-knowing eyes of Atlan, the ancient Atlantean wizard and father of Arthur (Orin II), Garth's mentor. Atlan had been watching the exploits of the young Idylist for quite some time and as the boy fought to free himself of his bonds, the wizard took a hand in the rescue, in a manner of speaking. Just prior to the moment of death, Garth's very essence was captured and spirited away to another dimension by the ancient mage. Atlan, intent on fulfilling Garth's destiny, knew more about Garth than the boy had ever dreamed of knowing about himself, for Atlan had foreseen the true life's purpose of the son of Thar: to be the greatest of the undersea wizards and protector of the people of the seas.

While little has been revealed of the obviously rigorous trials and tutelage Garth faced at Atlan's hand, one visible reminder remains: the stylized scars (now healed and appearing tattoo-like) over his right eye.

Garth had barely accepted his role in the destiny Atlan saw for him when he was ordered to return to his own dimension, for his tutor knew that Arthur would soon be in great need of Garth's help, due to an invasion of the Earth and the imminent threat to the sea's people. Garth reluctantly returned, though he remained uneasy about wielding his new-found powers. At Aquaman's side, he fought to restore order, all the while knowing that a great test of his abilities awaited him, as Atlan had disclosed. He prepared himself to once again return to the lands of his people, for it was time for him to learn the truth about his legacy.

Even Atlan could never have anticipated the ambush which awaited Garth in Shayeris, but he aided Garth in fighting off a vicious assault by corpses of soldiers from battles ancient and recent. The old wizard was seemingly lost in the fight, spirited away by someone else's magicks. Garth found his way to the chambers of his father and followed the scriptures of his predecessors to recite the prescribed incantation and accept his full birthright. As part of the mystical ceremony, the boy was given a seemingly impossible task: to drive the blade of a sacred dagger into his own heart, for only the heart of one completely devoid of hatred and malice of any kind could survive the ritual and access the royal birthright. Once Garth, pure of heart and devoid of evil, sang the ancient chants and plunged the blade into his heart, the surging waves of mystical powers enveloped him. It was shortly thereafter that he was to find that his body, the new vessel for these awesome abilities, was, in turn, to be emptied of all of these things and more by his uncle, Slizzath, through the use of a rejuvenated Tula.

With the help of Letifos and a brave band of Idylists, including the long-reclusive Berra, Garth was able to regain his birthright and forever imprison the monsterous Slizzath. The price he paid had been great, for Garth was forced to kill the incarnation of Tula and finally put her to rest, both literally and figuratively. The scars of both his face and psyche began to heal rapidly, leaving him with a new-found confidence and resolve to serve his people and those of the communities of the oceans.

As a result of his travails, Garth has emerged to exhibit the stunning abilities of a grand mage. His powers seem elemental in nature, allowing him a mastery over the very waters which surround him. Churning, boiling waters, temperature control which can freeze water to solid ice or use snow to create steam or thick fogbanks, deadly eye bolts and the ability to change the course of the tides: these are but a few of the gifts at Garth's disposal. Coupled with his powers of manipulation of the arcane arts, a latent ability linked to his birthright, and his telepathic sense, Garth is now one of the world's most powerful entities.


"The Story Of Aqualad"

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