The Right Reverend Perseverance Matthews is Seelie Pooka tent revival preacher in the Kingdom of Willows.
Overview[]
Brought up on the evangelical tent circuit, Perseverance Matthews spent his youth acting as a living prop in his father's tent services. He learned from a pro how to stage a show, work a crowd, and fake faith healings. The marks loved it when the child led them forward to receive his father's healing touch. He would look at them with his innocent eyes and say, "Papa's gonna make you all better now. Praise the Lord!" He loved the pageantry: people dressed in Sunday best, the choir singing, listening to his father's melodious voice preaching, and audience members coming forward full of hope. Dreams of a better life mingled with his father's dreams of wealth and fame. Really, though, as he thinks about it, if he hadn't been touched with a faerie nature, the whole life would have seemed strange.
Perseverance had already felt the pull of his other half by age five. He loved sitting near the ocean and had a taste for fish. He sometimes dreamed of flying. The only real problem was his mother's impatience with his constant lying. He tried to tell the truth but something in him always twisted the words around. He took to speaking little more than the lines he memorized for the show. It never occurred to his folks that if he could say them, they must be lies.
Just after his part in the show one night, he went backstage for a snack. Suddenly, one of the people he led forward started shouting "Hallelujah!," and a wave of Glamour engulfed him. Rolling beneath some unused, moveable bleachers, and entered his Chrysalis. He felt himself change: feet spread, arms crook and become feathered, his jaws extend, and his body shrink. He had become a pelican. Delighted with his new talent, he changed back and forth, then settled into the Glamour pouring from the audience.
Suddenly someone else was with him: an older boy, somewhere in his teens, was bending over him. He was huge, with fists like country hams. Persey blinked and the boy's blue skin and horns became visible. Vorint (a troll) led Persey away from the revival and spoke about being a changeling. He asked if Persey wanted to leave home and offered to teach him what he needed to know. Persey liked living at home, though, and refused, though he did take the boy up on the offer to teach him. So began a double life. Persey learned several Arts and something about changeling society from Vorint. He even found a tiny spot he claimed as his own freehold. Pelican's Roost looks like a particularly run-down boathouse but it's all his.
Persey found he could gather Glamour from the people who came to his father's revivals. He could even induce more by his actions. An attractive boy, his role in the show had grown along with him. Now he did mini-sermons before escorting people up for healing. He even recognized some of the regulars his father paid $10 to change their disguise weekly, attend the shows, and be miraculously "healed."
Then his parents were killed in a car crash. He inherited the tent, chairs, podium, a trunk full of Bibles and hymnals, and a choir of eight people who wanted to be paid. Realizing he need to earn cash somehow, he took over where his father left off. He sent out flyers advertising the Right Reverend Perseverance Matthews' New Hope Crusade. The response was great. People came for miles to hear the new preacher and witness the faith healings promised.
As people began coming forward, Persey realized he had forgotten to hired shills to pretend they were healed. Then he noticed a young mother holding her newborn baby. Her eyes begged him to heal the child. Drawn by her fearful and powerful dreams for the baby, Persey walked toward her. Trying to remember what Vorint had taught him, he handed the woman and the child cheap cards with hand-drawn crosses on them. He enchanted the two of them and used Heather Balm on the baby. The child's face gained some color and she began to breathe more easily. Since then, Lena (the mother) has become a devoted follower and quite dear to him. Repeated healings of baby Merri have eased the child's illness but he has been unable to heal her fully. He has great hopes, though, that he will discover a faerie treasure that can do so.
His ministry is very popular and he uses his talents to help those in need. He has started to have difficulty preaching, though, because he is actually starting to believe that he might have been called to be exactly what he is. His New Hope Church of the Shining Path has begun to attract other changelings as well, starting with his old mentor Vorint. Though he has spent a little time in his freehold, his many commitments keep him away from it more often. He has made no attempt to avoid grumphood since he thinks the faithful find an older preacher more comfortable and believable.
When not preaching or answering mail from fans, He likes changing into pelican form and flying out over the ocean in search of an quick sushi dinner. His newest interest is searching any faerie archive he can find to discover if there is anything that exists that can heal the little girl ne thinks of as his daughter.
He excels at Chicanery and Primal. He's an inspired speaker, and surprised to discover he's also a good father. Even without preaching, he could draw a crowd by singing.
Image[]
Of medium height and build, he has brown hair and eyes. His face is slightly rounded and his jaw prominent. Persey usually has a serious look whenever preaching, but smiles frequently when offstage. He is starting to develop a bit of a paunch because of Lena's excellent cooking.
Personal[]
Persey started out as a con man and wound up believing his own line. His father never healed anyone but Persey has seen evidence of his power to help others. He now believes his powers were given to him by the creator. His chief disappointment has been his inability to fully heal Merri. He's heard rumors of a treasure called the Cup of Dreams which is said to be able to heal any affliction. He has been searching through stories and libraries seeking any reference to the Cup he can find. If it really exists and if anyone can locate it, he will. Merri's life depends on it.
References[]
- CTD. Kingdom of Willows, pp. 108-109.