SYNRAITH

Real Name: Synraith

Identity/Class: Extradimensional demon (Class III); 16th Centuries, pre-Modern, and modern eras (presumably all eras in-between, and likely dating back much older)

Occupation: Would-be world conqueror

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: None

Enemies: Clan Destine (Cuckoo, Adam, Dominic, Gracie, Newton, Pandora, Rory, Samantha, Walter), X-Men (Cannonball, Colossus, Forge, Professor X, Storm, Wolverine)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unidentified bone-covered planet in an extradimensional realm

First Appearance: X-Men: Clan Destine#1 (October, 1996)

Powers/Abilities: Synraith is vastly powerful, feeding on life force and using it to mentally control others, open dimensional portals, and manipulate magical forces for a variety of purposes, such as forming shields and projecting destructive blasts.

History:
(X-Men: Clan Destine#2 (fb)) <1519 AD> - Cuckoo and Gracie Destine were part of Hernán Cortés Pizarro’s Conquistadores, the former having adopted the body of a Spanish nobleman and the latter, only 16 years old and relatively plain, posing as his valet. The two Destines befriended some of the Aztecs they encountered while exploring what would become Mexico, but were separated when Cortez's forces attacked and slaughtered the Aztecs. Gracie's psychic power was then too undeveloped, so -- in an effort to mimic Cuckoo, whom she had seen channeling eldritch forces to enhance her prowess -- she sought out a nexus of cosmic power in the ruins of an ancient temple. Ignoring the warnings of an elderly Aztec priest, Gracie tapped into what she thought was a latent energy field, but it proved to be Synraith, who reached out and bonded to the young woman. Alerted by the mystical activity, Cuckoo arrived in time to seal the dimensional rift before it coalesced; but Gracie had shown Synraith how to get to Earth, and she knew it would return.

(X-Men: Clan Destine#2 (fb) - BTS) - Gracie spent the succeeding centuries trying to find a way to stop Synraith, blocking its regular attempts to enter Earth.

(X-Men: Clan Destine#1 (fb) - BTS) <Approximately 20 years ago> - In Mexico, Gracie & Cuckoo Destine opposed Synraith's attempt to emerge into the Earthly plane.

(X-Men: Clan Destine#1 (fb)) - After Gracie & Cuckoo had been fighting Synraith for almost day, with Synraith's power growing as it gained terrestrial cohesion, explorer Professor Charles Xavier happened upon the struggle. Telepathically guided by Gracie, Xavier fired a mindblast that broke the deadlock and drove Synraith from the Earthly plane. Synraith made one last, desperate strike, then fell back into its own realm as the dimensional rift collapse.
    Realizing that Xavier would never be able to feel safe again with memory of Synraith, Gracie removed the events from his memory.

(X-Men: Clan Destine#2 (fb) - BTS) - Synraith's final strike marked the three people so that it could later reach them without a dimensional interface.

(X-Men: Clan Destine#1) - In an archeological dig in the remote Guyana Highlands in Venezuela, Gracie Destine's party found a set of runes reading, "Kneo Phey Pau" (The End is Nigh).
    At Ravenscroft, Synraith influenced Cuckoo, causing her to force her brother Walter's monstrous transformation, enraging him.
    Sensing Synraith's influence and somewhat influenced by it, Wolverine was present in the Xavier Institute's Danger Room when a dimensional hole briefly opened, disrupting a training session between Storm and Cannonball; Wolverine saved a stunned Cannonball from injuring himself.
    Investigating further, Gracie read of a million souls being sacrificed, and within the temple she found evidence of human sacrifice and saw that dimensional rift was already forming. Preparing a pentacle and placing crystals made of the frozen ichor of Jaggta-Noga at its points, Gracie began the ritual, channeling massive forces as she spoke "In the name of the one whose name must never be spoken...seal this rift. Deny entry to the evil that is Synraith." Too late she realized she had been tricked, and she lost control of the spell, which instead fed the portal. Gracie was pulled through the portal and an explosion destroyed the temple.
    As Cannonball, Colossus, Forge, Professor X, Storm, and Wolverine studied the Danger Room, not finding any source of malfunction, Wolverine noted that he sensed an evil presence. Sensing it as well, Xavier tried to locate the presence, but found it within his head. An apparent dimensional rift opened, and tentacles reached forth and pulled in Xavier and Colossus and then closed, despite the others' efforts to save them.
    Back at Ravenscroft, Synraith again tapped into Cuckoo's mind, another portal opened, Adam and Cuckoo were pulled through, and the portal closed again before anyone could save them.
    As Wolverine became progressively more savage, the five original X-Men (Archangel, Beast, Cyclops, Jean Grey, Iceman) arrived and urged them to employ caution rather than rushing through the portal; actually, these were not the X-Men, but rather robots made to mimic them by the Danger Room, enhanced by Synraith's magic. Other robot imposters, including Gambit & Bishop, also controlled by Synraith, soon showed up.
    Colossus and Xavier revived amidst a stack of bones under an alien sky, but Xavier's telepathic probe nearly drove him mad and he was forced to withdraw it. They then witnessed the arrival of Adam and Cuckoo.
    Clan Destine summoned Newton for help, and he opened a warp to the portal's point of origin, but the warp accessed the Danger Room, and the X-Men prepared for the incoming invaders.

(X-Men: Clan Destine#2) - Influenced to be more aggressive by Synraith, the X-Men and Clan Destine fought savagely upon the latter's arrival in the Danger Room; Wolverine & Walter were the most severely and violently affected by this influence, and Wolverine stabbed Dominic (who both sensed and was addled by the influence), and Walter savagely beat Wolverine. The others used advanced technology to treat the injured and to contain the maddened Walter, though he would continue to grow in size, rage, and power.
    Colossus & Xavier met up with Adam & Cuckoo and were joined by Gracie, who confirmed Synraith's involvement and revealed that she had been suckered into assisting the demon. She identified their location as Synraith's homeworld.
    Locating Synraith, Gracie recommended they bind it to its own realm until the dimensional convergence passed, knowing that it could not kill them or risk destabilizing the portal, but that afterwards they would be at the demon's mercy. Using Cuckoo's "amoral, fractured psyche" to empathize with Synraith, Gracie, Cuckoo, and Xavier synchronized their mind and fired a psychic tethering blast.
    Meanwhile, Samantha and Wolverine recognized that several of the X-Men present were imposters, and duplicates of some of those already present had begun showing up as well.
    Adam sensed a commotion in the empty air behind himself and his allies, but was distracted from this as Colossus, unwilling to allow the others to risk their lives while he stood by, leapt into Synraith, physically attacking its form until it lashed back, partially melting him and leaving him hideously deformed. Recognizing that Colossus had wounded Synraith, Adam proposed his own, invulnerable, form be used next, and Colossus hurled him into Synraith's head. Adam hurt Synraith, who cast him through the portal, and he arrived alongside his other family members and the X-Men in the Danger Room. Seeking to prevent Adam's further interference, Synraith had "Cyclops" blast him, and Wolverine, who had recognized Adam from a previous encounter in Asia, realized that Cyclops -- and the rest of the X-Men who had not been present when Synraith had first attacked -- were imposters. Wolverine slashed Cyclops, proving him a robot, and the others teamed up to take out the imposters, as well as a number of other robot imposters (Sabretooth, Magneto, Gladiator, Havok, Omega Red, Phoenix, Warlock, another Beast and Storm, and others) that began appearing. Realizing that the Danger Room could be using holographic scenarios to trick them into believing anything, Forge had Storm strike the circuitry beneath their feet with a lightning bolt.
    As Xavier, Cuckoo, and Gracie seemed to trap Synraith, Gracie realized that it was duping them again, after which the Danger Room's illusions were disrupted by Storm's blast, revealing that the demon was actually trying to trick them into pulling it into Earth (when they had thought they were pulling it back into its own realm. Gracie noted that Synraith was so eager to reach Earth that it had gambled on using them to assist it through a small and unstable portal without waiting for a major dimensional alignment. They then combined their powers to hold Synraith in the rift, which soon imploded, apparently destroying Synraith.
    With the demon defeated, the Danger Room's illusions all vanished, as did the injuries that seemed to have occurred therein.

Comments: Created by Alan Davis & Mark Farmer.

    "The one whose name must never be spoken"...would that be the Unnameable?

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No KNOWN connections to:

• other "Syn" characters

images: (without ads)
X-Men: Clan Destine#2, p24, panel 1 (main image)
    p41, panel 1 (trapped in dimensional rift)

Appearances:
X-Men: Clan Destine#1 (October, 1996) - by Alan Davis (writer/penciler), Mark Farmer (inker), Bob Harras (editor)

Last updated: 08/24/13

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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