Hub City Blues

Name: Shango the Thunderer

Other Alias: Xangô or Changó.

Human host: Aganju Kinufu

Height: 6 feet in human form, 7 feet transformed

Weight: 225 human, 450 lbs transformed

History: In the Yorùbá religion, Sàngó ( also spelled, Sango or Shango, often known as Xangô or Changó in Latin America and the Caribbean, and also known as Jakuta^[1]) is perhaps one of the most popular Orisha; also known as the god of fire, lightning and thunder.

Strength Level: Shango has superhuman strength and resistance to injury. He is able to lift a tank over his head with ease and throw it fifty meters. He is able to take a tank round full on the chest and survive the explosion. Even with his high level of physical durability he can be overcome if struck multiple times, or if struck by attacks which concentrate enormous energy on a single spot, such as armor piercing weapons are able to do.

Powers: As a major diety of the Orisha, Shango’s powers are numerous and impressive.  As a warrior god, he is well versed in combat with a variety of weapons and tactics. His powers include mastery of fire, lightning and thunder as well as control and summoning of storms. He can take over natural phenomena, so even if he did not summon the storm, he can attempt to control it. This is challenging and not something he does lightly. Changing a storm’s natural course goes against everything he believes in.

He is capable of flight at incredible speeds upwards of 250 miles per hour. He can manipulate weather including wind, rain and storms and can create lightning at will, either from his person or harnessed from a storm he has created. He can create storms and winds in areas as small as a city block or as large as the East Coast. The larger the storm, the longer it will take to summon or disperse.

He also carries a double headed axe which stores magical energy that can be channeled for a number of purposes including enhancing his strength, stamina or providing energy for incantations, summoning and other minor spells he is capable of casting. Shango’s magical abilities include the production of and control of fire, lighting and thunder based attacks. His facility with magic is no where near as accomplished as Kali for example, his use of magic tend to lack subtlety or finesse. His double-headed axe allows him to travel to nearby dimensional realms called shard realms and to the Crossroads, a dimensional nexus which acts as a staging area for extreme inter-dimensional travelers.

Excerpt: “Do you see that portal. That is where we need to be.”

The distance was only about the length of two football fields but it was filled with these creatures. Each the height of two men, with near human physical attributes. Their heads appeared to be more of an octopus where a human head might be and their hands were instead ending in a tentacled structure. There were hundreds of them before them.

“Make ready, husband.”

Shango dropped his barrier and released a bolt of lightning driving a wedge between the creatures, incinerating two dozen of the creatures instantly. In the second it took his lightning to cross one hundred meters, Kali had already slain thirty of the monsters. She stepped through time and space and was everywhere and nowhere. Appearing and disappearing, each strike laid a creature low. Her face was serene and peaceful as her four blades struck once. Her superhuman strength made each blow cut deep into their flesh, severing meat and bone like a knife through butter.

Shango concentrated his powers and created a series of strikes before her, each of them she slew her way through to the next. When he was too busy to support her, he lent her his lightning and she kept the area around her cleared with her flashing blades and lightning. His double-headed axe flew around him with a cloud electricity arcing from it to every creature near him. But they were relentless and without fear. As soon as he would clear the area, more would appear.

He looked out and saw Kali was within a fifty feet of the portal. He called lightning once more and as it arced from him toward her, the creatures around him opened their mouths and sharp bones shot out and speared him in his chest and arms. He looked in disbelief, his flesh had the strength of steel. He laughed off high caliber weaponry like rain. What are these things they can do this?

A searing acid began to burn his flesh, pumped through their ceramic probosci. He howled as his mighty flesh began to burn. Without warning, the creatures blocking his line of sight were cut in half and two other blades slashed the demon’s tongues. The blades whirled around him and returned to Kali, who had not stopped her dance of death and retrieved her weapons amid flight and continued killing.

Shango, now enraged, drew his power to him, focused his pain and rage and became a thing of pure lightning. The creatures strove to grab him and died instantly burned to death. As they cleared away, powerful arcs leapt from him to them and they continued to died. He moved forward slowly and Kali cut them down as they now pass through the portal. He reached her and caught her hand as she struck out at him.

“Enough, my wife. The portal is silent. Perhaps we have earned our invitation.”

“Then let us not be rude to our hosts. They did set forth such a feast for such as us.”

“Indeed.”

They stepped through the portal.

Appearances: Shango the Thunderer and his wife Kali make their first appearance in Hayward’s Reach, in a tale called Dark Star Rising. They also appear in a web-serial called: Equinox, the Last Scion.