Name:  Ithil the Heretic

Astrological Sign:  Tinshin, the spider king

Age:  Unknown, but at least thousands of years old.

Hobbies:  Torture

Favorite Subject:  Ithil enjoys conversing about suitably disturbing subjects such as serial killers and forms of medival torture.

Least Favorite Subject:  Honor

Favorite Animal:  Tarat Spider

Strengths:  Incredibly cunning and intelligent.

Weaknesses:  Physically weak.

Goals:  Ithil has no long-term goals.  He only seeks to satisfy his appetite for evil from day to day.

Fears:  Final Death

Personality:  Ithil is extremely intelligent.  He speaks carefully and with perfect diction, often using poetic verse to describe his plans and actions.  He is calculating and knows his own limitations.  Often he appears to be a coward, but this is because Ithil only chooses fights he can win and refuses to subject himself to the risk of single combat against the Senshi.

Appearance:  The top half of Ithil's body is that of a skeleton with a cow's skull for a head.  His brain is cased inside this skull, and lots of wires run from his chest to his head.  Out of the eye sockets run masses of cables and tubes and wrap around his head.  His bottom half seems to be a giant tarat spider.  His body is held aloft by three wicked, curved, insectoid legs arranged radially.

Powers Based On:  Necromancy

Powers:  Ithil has a large variety of spells to serve him.  His most commonly manifested power is the creation of undead minions to serve him.  And dead creature can rise and do his will.
 
Necormancy and Spider Control:  Ithil has the ability to command and control any spider.  Their chief use is for spying.  Ithil is virtually omniscient when he uses his spies to their full capacity.  He also uses spiders for assassination, poisoning his victims.  Of course, both undead and spiders are used in combat.  While the zombies and skeletons fight with their weapons and claws, ignoring all but the greatest damage, spiders swarm and bite em mass.

Portals:  Ithil also has the power to create portals.  He can send himself or his servants anywhere instantly.

History

No one knows exactly the origins of Ithil.  Indeed, no one *wants* to know.  There is a myth surrounding his origin, but it is flawed and does not match up with the available facts.

Ithil was once a normal minotaur, but he chose a path so evil few minotaurs could even conceive of it. Late at night, he murdered his entire family while they slept and blamed it on a rival clan so that he could assume his fathers place as Keeper of the Army. The Source, however, saw the evil in his soul and ordered him to be dropped into a pit of deadly Tarat spiders, a suitable punishment for his crime.

However, the Dark Mother granted him her power, and the three legged spiders became his servants instead of his doom. They pulled him out of the pit, and killed the Source and his guards. Every spider in the nation was under his power, and the city was turned into a Necropolis.

The palace was ruled by Ithil, tended by his spiders, and populated by the animated corpses of the minotaurs who once lived there.

At present the location of Ithil's Necropolis is unknown. He is often regarded as a myth, and is a common figure in minotaur religion, holding a role similar to Cain in minotaur mythology. He is seen as the personification of sin and dishonor, the Dark Mother's avatar.

The most obvious of the flaws include the fact Ithil does not actually serve any being known as the Dark Mother.  Indeed, there is little proof such a deity exists.  He seems to have some connection to Bentaris although it appears than both of them are reluctant to ally and unhappy with whatever arrangement exists.

Also, it is uncertain whether Ithil was ever actually a minotaur at all.  It is quite possible he visited Minos at some point and a myth was created to explain him.

It appears Ithil has been active on Earth for quite some time.  He claims responsibility for the Holocaust and World War I.  While no one can be sure whether or not these claims are true, the results can easily be attributed to his warped psyche.

It appears Ithil has a much greater fascination with Earth.  He spends his time tormenting the Senshi.  His style of engagement and objectives have confounded the Imperium Knight.  Where other villains attempt to kill Senshi or capture certain artifacts, Ithil has no lust for power and no desire to kill.

His purpose in life is to hurt people.  He exists only to hurt people and scare them, terrorizing them and making them fear him.  He seems content to simply raid the castle and kidnap his victims, secreting them away and mutilating them before allowing them to return and try to restore their lives to some sense of normalcy.

He started his sadistic game with Raye, capturing and horribly killing her boyfriend while she watched.

Then he kidnapped Sailor Tempest and tortured her until the Senshi came to rescue her.  This understandably caused Shi Tearra a great amount of grief and she became fearful and withdrawn.  He insisted on tormenting her further, sending her nightmarish visions and never allowing her to forget him.

Ithil finally slipped up when he tangled with Atanax.  His spiders murdered the minotaur's family and (inadvertantly?) stepped up the Taurian's plans for invasion.  Atanax sought vengeance and fought Ithil in hand-to-hand combat.

It was revealed that Ithil's skeletal half was a facade, and illusion.  He was nothing more than a giant spider himself, his brain hidden with an arachnid carapace.

Atanax beat Ithil to a pulp and left the bleeding spider to die.

Enter, Lillith, Ithil's narcissistic sidekick. Ithil summoned her to his aid and Lillith removed his brain, encasing it within the cow skull.  Using their magic, they fashioned a new body for him, with a machine built into the ribcage to keep his trapped brain alive.

As Niechtze said, "The mind is nothing but the plaything of the body."  Now Ithil himself was truly undead, and his power in that sphere increased dramatically.

He immeadiately returned to terrorize Shi, gouging out her eye and scarring her face.  After she was freed it became apparent Sailor Tempest had been driven insane by Ithil.  Only after months of hospitalization, therapy, and countless prescription drugs did Ithil finally end her life and make her his undead pawn.

Over the months Ithil has enacted numerous acts of evil.  He tried to freeze the planet with nuclear winter and attempted to turn Sailor Dragon to his side by erasing her memory.

Ithil's current hideout is unknown.  He quite possibly has many hidden bases, switching between them whenever he feels the need.  He is a major danger to the Senshi, not because he can destroy them but because of the havoc he creates in their lives.  He is also impossible to defeat, the Senshi cannot battle him the same way as other villains since his motives and objectives differ so radically from the traditional conquer-the-world supevillian.