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)
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."
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.
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.