Julius Rex Lexington Faraday
Julius Faraday was born in 1837 and turned twenty the month that Atlantis was brought up from the sea. Part of a rich and noble family, Faraday wanted for nothing, and only his natural curiosity and cleverness kept him from becoming simply another one of the idle rich of the British aristocracy. Excelling in the mental and the physical, he graduated with honors from Oxford University.
It was there he was recruited by a group of British government officials, who were looking for bright young men to serve as “couriers”, really a polite word for spy and assassin. Yearning for a larger purpose in life and with a desire to see the world, Julius jumped at the opportunity. He traveled the world for some years and before he was twenty-five had killed at least a dozen people. He was struck by the ease at which it came, after the first few.
He spied on foreign powers and foreign businesses and scientists and even some of the eccentric costumed villains that wreaked such havoc. But he became dissatisfied. It was a chance meeting with an old friend, Xavier Rookwood, at their mutual club, that would change his life forever.
Xavier was one of the Visionaries, a ruthless and brilliant young man who had more than doubled his family's fortunes even in the brief period he had controlled them. Rookwood saw in his old friend great possibility, and as that fateful night went on, Faraday broke confidentiality and confided in his friend his dissatisfaction with his job and more importantly, the cause he had dedicated himself to.
Rookwood knew a time was coming in which dangerous men like Faraday would be absolutely necessary, and so, at two o'clock in the morning, Rookwood began to describe his dream for Atlantis. Faraday had heard of the place, of course. There were few that hadn't. It filled the newspapers and halls of parliament and he'd even been asked to investigate the efforts of other powers to control it. But as Rookwood described his vision, Faraday was hypnotized by it. He saw in Atlantis a place better than Britain, a true paradise where science and industry and art would flourish as they had never done so before. And so, in the early hours of the morning, Julius Faraday told his friend that he would gladly do whatever it took to make their dream a reality.
Shortly after Julius was discharged from government service, and began his new work as a private agent of the Visionaries. Despite his relative youth compared to many of their other operatives, Faraday soon distinguished himself time and time again. His new dedication drove him to see Atlantis created. He manipulated business and politics, threatened powerful people and blackmailed others. He killed, and bribed and sabotaged all in the name of the dream of Atlantis. He soon became their best and highly-placed agents. And finally, when they began laying the first bricks of Progress City, he relaxed, at long last.
His respite was not to last. He was called into action against suppliers who thought to hold valuable materials for ransom, seeking higher prices. He battled costumed criminals and agents from a dozen different countries or more, all seeking to sabotage Atlantis before it even began. He sunk pirate vessels and made generous offers, and sometimes threats, to experts and scientists the Visionaries hoped to bring to their new island.
And then he made a mistake. It was supposed to be a simple mission. A breather. Investigate work stoppages on the far side of the island, away from the main construction of Progress City. It was thought to simply be an agitator. Or simple ineptitude. But it was far worst. The work gangs on that side of the island had fallen under the thumb of a vicious and terrible beast, a Noble Vampire who had smuggled himself onto the island. Faraday was taken by surprise, and despite fighting fiercely, finally was captured by the beast and its thralls and offspring. The creature turned out to be surprisingly close to human, a decadent thing slouched from the darkest courts of the night. He hoped to turn Faraday, use him as a spy into the heart of the Visionaries themselves.
But Faraday escaped, blasting his way clear with explosives being used to shape the cliffs. He rushed back to Progress City, but he knew that he was infected with the strange, mystical disease that the Noble Dead carried. Desperately he threw himself into the care of Progress City's new medical center, and some of the finest minds of the time began to work on keeping him out of the hands of their new enemy. They also sent a pair of airships and bombarded the far side of the island's construction areas, then swept the zone with mercenaries. The doctors and scientists worked feverishly to cure the disease, but it was for nothing. Then, one of them had a new idea. Instead of curing him, they would modify it. And so, with little chance of surviving, Julius Faraday underwent a massive set of treatments, injections and bombardments. And it worked.
A desperate last-ditch attempt to allow him to control his new state. They'd sterilized the disease, so he could not pass on his new gifts, but at the same time he had powers he'd never dreamed of. His speed, strength, endurance and senses were all enhanced by magnitudes. He ceased aging and his youth would remain forever. After some time, they were even able to allow him to keep much of his power in the sun, though he still had some sensitivity to direct sunlight. And so, Julius Faraday became Atlantis's eternal protector and agent.
At first, he continued working for the Visionaries, but as they grew older and as Atlantis grew, Faraday realized that he would have to dedicate himself to Atlantis itself and its continued existence, not whoever led it. During the 20s he helped open the doors of Atlantis to outsiders, knowing that their isolationism would never allow them to flourish. In the thirties he helped maintain Atlantis, but became foe to the current government when he began destroying aspects of the weapons projects for the Nazis. Eventually he was re-instated after the National Socialist sympathizers were forced out of office. He was a leader of the resistance against Doctor Xyle, after desperately crashing his plane into side of the island in a last-ditch attempt to get inside the dimensional shield.
Julius Faraday is vampire James Bond. He's a spy with over 100 years of experience, and has spent every waking moment of that making sure that Atlantis stays strong. Sometimes he has worked with heroes and sometimes against him, and remains an enigma to most. Major governments have a file on him, of course, but the exact details are, for the most part, unknown. He's the man behind the men who are behind the men, except when he is in front of the men who are behind the men. Its complicated.
