THE SECRET OF D IS FOR DAMIEN
| AUTHOR'S NOTE: This article was written quite a while ago, and so some of the information may have changed or altered since then; it may also have a few holes in it. The main gist of it, however, remains the same. This is rather melodramatic so beware hokeyness!
***WARNING: EXTREME SPOILER ALERT--DO NOT PROCEED IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THE SECRET BEHIND THE D IS FOR DAMIEN SERIES!*** 
This is the "secret" behind the true identities of the characters in my D Is For Damien series. What secret? Exactly. I haven't even put it down in writing before now because of what it implies, and because of how far through I am in the series. If you have looked through my portfolio, particularly my novels, you would see that there are three novels in this series that have been written so far, out of about 24 meant to be written. Of course this means that while I have a lot of material floating around in my head, it is not set down yet, and if anyone who wishes to read the stories which have been written already does NOT want the possible outcome ruined for them--they should NOT be reading this! If that hasn't deterred you, then I must also state that this may change at any time, considering the bulk of the stories aren't written yet. Many identifying details of my characters have changed drastically over the years. When I was first starting out, it wasn't even Damien who was going to be the main character--he just took over for his brother, Lucifer. I had no idea he would turn out to be who he is today, over ten years later. And so what I type today may not be what is written tomorrow. Still reading?
THE SECRET BEHIND D IS FOR DAMIEN Early on in the series, the legacy of Damien's family--three D necklaces--is revealed, and the story behind them is just barely hinted at. Supposedly, these three necklaces were created centuries ago and belonged to Cosmas and Damian, the saints of physicians and healers. As such, the D's, when interconnected to form a triangle, were reputed to have incredible healing powers. They were handed down through the years and finally ended up in Father Damien's hands, and he gave one to his nephew, the title character. This is the silver D Damien wears around his neck. The other D's are of gold and diamond. Though it may be revealed in a story yet to come, the basic story behind the D's--and the truth behind Damien's family itself--is this. There were actually three pairs of physician-saints named Cosmas and Damian. The first pair was born early on in Asia Minor. As they never accepted payment for their services, they were dubbed the "Silverless" or the "Unmercenaries." Several stories have been told about their lives, including the time Damian was forced to accept a payment for treating a woman named Palladia. This led to a disagreement, which led the two to be at odds with each other until their deaths. It was during the lifetime of these two that the three D necklaces were originally created. It's not known why they chose the D symbol and not the C, but the necklaces were meant to be handed down through the family of the saints, who were twins, and by these means they would never fall into the wrong hands. The first Cosmas and Damian died peacefully. However, they did not die for good. Their souls were chosen to return to Earth in a repeating cycle, reborn every so often to continue their deeds. As one character says later on in the series, "You're supposed to only come back when there's something you've left unfinished..." So perhaps the two chose their own fate, to come back and help others, or perhaps they have not yet achieved that which is meant to be done... In any event, centuries later in Rome another Cosmas and Damian were born, and like those who went before, these two became physicians who cared for those in need for free. It's unknown if they knew their real identity...as this Cosmas and Damian were the same two who had come before, reborn in ancient Rome. Unlike their previous selves, however, they were taken prisoner and martyred...and the cycle began again. Unbelievably, in ancient Arabia, a third pair of twins was born...named Cosmas and Damian. Following in the footsteps of the first four, they became physicians and earned the same title of the "Silverless" or "Unmercenary" saints. And as with the second pair of twins, they too were arrested, by Lysias on command of Emperor Diocletian. Along with their three other brothers they were tortured--attempted drowning, burning, crucifixion and stoning failed to kill them--until they were finally beheaded and martyred for good. Thus ended the three lives of Saints Cosmas and Damian. However, this does not mean that their lives ended entirely...the cycle merely began anew, on a different track. Although the exact details are unknown, Cosmas and Damian were most likely reborn again and again in the following centuries, not now as saints, but in different incarnations, with different names and faces. Yet there was always something familiar to them, to keep them in contact with one another. They most often came back as close relatives or else friends, yet they always carried on the Cosmas and Damian bloodline. While they may not have always recognized one another--perhaps some never even knew of their legacy--they always carried on the tradition, sometimes unconsciously, as well as the memory of their former selves. And the D necklaces were passed down through the family this whole time. Eventually Cosmas and Damian were reborn yet again, in June of 1969, to Lucifer and Lilith, two members of the cult Scorpio. This time they were born as twins, yet brother and sister; the boy was named Damien, after his uncle, Lilith's brother, the newest keeper of the D's; and the girl was named Lilu, after her mother. To the cult, these were merely cult names...most had no idea that at least one of the names was the start of the next generation of the Unmercenaries. The cult had obtained the D necklaces somehow, and so the family was in a precarious situation. Thankfully for Lilith, her husband Lucifer--who had been chosen for her by the cult--had become more attached to her than to his faith, and managed to smuggle the D's out of the cult. With her he also began to make plans to get themselves out for good. Around the age of six, Damien and Lilu, as well as the rest of their siblings, were able to escape the cult with the help of their parents and uncle Damien. The older Damien was shot and left for dead, while Lucifer and Lilith were returned to the cult and punished. The children, though eventually separated, were able to manage on their own, and Damien and his twin sister Lilu ended up paired together. The two were very close, and even showed some hints of a possible psychic connection. However, Damien's intuition was not as strong as Lilu's, and when she was in danger he failed to hear her. She was murdered by a childhood friend of theirs, Luther Broderick, in 1986 and this incident has remained burned in Damien's mind since that day. Unknown to any of them, at the moment Lilu died, another member of the family died as well. In February 1980 Lucifer and Lilith had had two more children after the others' escape from the cult...another pair of twins, brother and sister. Like their older siblings Damien and Lilu, they shared the same color of eyes--sandy gold--an eye color not shared by anyone else in the family. Also like their siblings, they managed to escape the cult, because Lilith, now of no more interest to the cult leaders, had them spirited away when they were still babies. Lucifer himself never found out about his two other children. These two, named Lily and Adrien ("Adia" ), were sent to live with a woman known to Lilith's side of the family. (Lucifer's side had been in the cult for generations.) Like Damien and Lily, they shared a close connection and were almost always never very far from each other. And also like Damien and Lily, their relationship was cut short by Luther's act of vengeance. At the moment of Lilu's murder, Adia himself began to suffer in pain. When Lilu's heart was cut out, Adia's own heart stopped--and the two of them, unknown to each other, died at the same time. Both Damien and Lily had no idea of what had happened until it was too late. Both of them were to be haunted by this fact for years to come. After their deaths, Lilu and Adia themselves were given a decision to make. As they had been so closely connected to their twins, their own deaths would likely mean the death of their siblings. Cosmas and Damian had never been meant to be long apart--and both Lilu and Adia carried part of the soul of Cosmas within them. In order to keep Damien and Lily alive, they gave up part of their souls so that the twin saints could remain with each other, even in death. The brothers and sisters would be separated...but they would not be apart. Damien and Lily, though devastated, survived the deaths, and went on... In the following years Damien came to understand the exact relationship of the cult Scorpio in his life. With his father's act of rebellion, he was able to break the cycle that had gone on for generations and to live free of it, though the threat was always near. The three D necklaces were retrieved and brought back into the family where they belonged, and for a time things returned as closely to normal as they could. Then in 1998, Damien was involved in a car crash and suffered fractured arms and ribs as well as a serious head injury. At the same moment of the crash, miles away, Lily awoke from sleep with a scream and clutched at her head, writhing in pain. The two siblings, separated from each other and not even aware of each other's existence, had finally achieved a connection with each other. Shortly afterward the woman Lily lived with, reading of Damien's "accident" in the paper, made Lily aware of her older brother's existence. Not only had his own injury taken place at the same time as hers, but he looked so much like her that they could be mistaken as twins, although she was much younger. Lily sought out her brother and the two finally met. Not long after this, the new leader of the Scorpio cult--Luther Broderick himself--released Lilith for reasons unknown, and she as well got back in touch with the rest of her family. Lucifer himself, as well as several other family members, including a cousin and dead-ringer for Damien--Kain--remained with the cult. Unknown to most of them the cult itself was undergoing a serious schism. Derrick Grant, formerly a second to Luther, had been abandoned by the cultists when struck by a car, at the same time that Luther himself was believed dead. Luther managed to take control of the cult back, but another member, Lt. Mabarak, was beginning to doubt Luther's abilities, and had already tasted power and didn't want to give it up so easily. In the late Nineties he broke away from the main cult to start his own, and several others followed him. Thus was born the Black Eagle, in its own way even deadlier than the original Scorpion that spawned it. Now Damien was left with one major obstacle: The fact that his father was still not free. As Lucifer had been severely punished and brainwashed, so much so that he had once tried to kill Damien with his bare hands, the chances of rescuing and keeping him out were slim. But new developments were brewing. In 1990, Damien had proven that the powers behind the D necklaces were real. A few years after Derrick's eviction from the cult, his debilitating injuries--including an inability to walk unassisted--mysteriously disappeared. Although Damien had accidentally touched him just prior to this, he refused to believe that things were actually the way they seemed to be...until pieces of the puzzle began falling into place. The Black Eagle cult had become more vindictive even than Scorpio. Luther had taken on a new second--a woman--to become high priestess, breaking Scorpio tradition and causing a disturbance within the cult. Kain, a cousin who looked almost exactly like Damien, became the cult's new champion, in the absence Derrick and Mabarak. And Damien and Lily were contacted by some people--including a familiar face--who alleged they should know more than they did. It was revealed that a sort of "Brotherhood of Cosmas and Damian" had existed, carrying the story of the D's down through the centuries. For years they had watched the continuously reborn saints from afar. Johansen, a mysterious detective Damien had met in 1990, was a member, as was a woman named Palladia--the reincarnation of the woman Cosmas and he had long ago healed. Morris, a private detective who had been murdered by Mabarak in 1990, had been a member. At this point in time, it was revealed that Damien and Lily and almost everyone they knew and were acquainted with--and even those enemies who they fought with--were reincarnations of those they had known in previous lives. It was the Brotherhood's job to inform them of who they were, and to possibly bring an end to the cycle. Not only this...but it was also revealed that it was not the D's that contained the greatest power after all. The necklaces were merely a way to focus the abilities that their owner already possessed. Meaning...all this time it had not been the necklaces Damien had been relying on, it had been his own incredible powers, inherited from his ancestors. SOME CHARACTERS & POSSIBLE PAST INCARNATIONS Damien: St. Damian (direct incarnation) Lily: St. Cosmas (indirect/secondary incarnation) Lilu: St. Cosmas (direct incarnation) Adrien: St. Damian (indirect/secondary incarnation) Luther Broderick: Emperor Diocletian? [Note, this has been revised; it is more likely he was Damian's executioner.] Lt. Dick Mabarak: Governor Lysias? Palladia: Palladia Shrine Knight: Medieval Templar knight healed by the saints Cpl. Auguste Jourard: Roman official sympathetic to the saints' plight Justina Danser: Emperor Justinian? Elise Danbrook: Woman saved from attack by the saints Dr. Lynn Leja: Female doctor inspired by the saints Nikola Lupescu: Gypsy who had visions of and was healed by the saints Sgt. Nathaniel Johansen: Roman official Of. Christopher Felman: Medieval knight who had visions of the saints Det. Morris: ? Derrick Grant: One of the brothers of the martyred Cosmas and Damian Katie Castagne: Medieval woman whose child was healed by the saints Etc. Possibly more to come in the future... END |
D IS FOR DAMIEN INFORMATION
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