The Sin Eater

Name: Ohanokael
Race: Sin Eater
Age: ?
Sex: Male
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Appearance
A Sin Eater can take many forms and be many people. Man, woman, child, ghost. Ohanokael will take whatever form he needs to take to see a project or task or adventure through to the end, but he does have a favored form. Tall, sallow, spindly, long black hair that obscures his face as oft as not, fingers just a touch too long for his spidery hands.

When he dresses for his part, he wears robes of deep black, with a long hood thrown back. Other times, he can be seen wearing jeans and a horizontally-striped blue and white shirt under a grey hoodie, only half-zipped. Only his boots and his belt-dagger are always the same.

Personality
If there was a time Ohanokael was ever nice, it was so long ago even he doesn't remember it. Time and duty have worn him bitter and ragged, a jagged tooth of cynical and acerbic bite where charm and good manners ought to be. It is the Sin Eater's duty, after all, to eat of the sins of the sinners and through the sacred rituals sanctify them, absolve them, contain their sin. After a certain point, even the most forgiving Sin Eater (and Ohanokael never was the most forgiving Sin Eater) begins to feel...contaminated and resentful of the flock that uses and abuses the Sin Eater's abilities so freely, even if one's nourishment depends upon sin. Ohanokael does indeed feed off of sin, but that's rather like a vampire being morbidly tired of the taste of blood. The Sin Eater is a harsh man, judgmental and snide with seemingly no end of snark to him. Rarely, sometimes, something will happen that cracks his shell and something like compassion leaks out the chips in his armor. He'll be the first to deny it when it happens. He clings fiercely to his persona of the all-knowing asshole, able to read a person's sins and judge them accordingly and with a great deal of sarcasm.

Don't ask him how old he is, even he doesn't remember by this point, but he's old, and what he's learned in the time he's been around is that people disappoint him every time. He has crafted himself into such an unpleasant being to drive people away, make it clear he is not inviting closeness into his life. The more distance there is between, the less disappointing people ultimately are when they inevitably Fall from grace.

That said, he is a law-bound and honorable creature underneath the cranky and the stubborn and the snarky and the bitter. When he gives his word, he means it. When his ritual is invoked, he may not refuse to perform it, although he may be a terrible curmudgeon about things.

History
Ohanokael doesn't really remember a beginning. He was never, to his knowledge, anyone's child. He simply existed at some point, probably at a point coinciding with the development of intelligent life on the planet. Cultures rose and cultures fell. Civilizations rose and civilizations fell. Morals and values changed, but much remained the same. What the Cosmos itself considers Sin, that never changes. In the early days villages would gather around the Sin Eater, sanctifying even their children, before casting stones to drive the Sin Eater away. As cultures and technology advanced, Ohanokael found himself being called upon in many different contexts for a multitude of brand new sins, further enforcing his bitter and solitary nature.

He has traveled the world and eaten the sins of kings, of slaves, of everyone in between.

The Ritual
Once the Sin Eater has been invoked, he cannot turn aside a Sinner and likewise the Sinner cannot back out of the ritual once it has begun. Ohanokael pierces the palm (or nearest anatomical proxy) of the Sinner with his athame, and then presses a piece of bread to the wound. What follows is a psychic journey where the Sinner is guided through the totality of their greatest Sins from the point of view of those they most negatively impacted or hurt. Again, and again, Sin after Sin, like breaking bones to re-set them. The Sinner's Sins soak into the bread with their blood, and once Ohanokael has completely broken the Sinner down, he devours the bread with the blood and the Sin, and the Sinner is sanctified. Cleansed. Absolved.

Many recipients of this ritual have likened it to childbirth. Many hours of agony that end in bliss beyond description.

Powers and Abilities
I See You -- To a Sin Eater, a person's life is rather easily mapped out at a glance. It's all a series of decisions, and if Ohanokael focuses even just a little bit, he can focus on any number of decisions anyone has made. Some of these decisions are little pieces of Sin, most of them aren't, they're just part of the daily flow of a specific life that bears looking at.

You Can't Hit Me... -- For the most part, anyone who takes a weapon to a Sin Eater will find nothing but frustration as the Sin Eater dissipates like smoke around any and every weapon, except for their one specific weakness.

...Unless You Have A Rock -- Ancient cultures drove Sin Eaters away from their villages by flinging stones at them. It's low-tech, it's not even magical, but it still works. Basic rocks and stones have striking power where more powerful weapons fail to catch purchase.

Who Am I? -- Ohanokael has a usual face, but he has an unlimited supply of faces to wear.

OW -- Holy and sanctified ground tends to cause Ohanokael to smoke and burn around the edges.