Biography: Emerson Selig

Last modified by Charter Agent JKP

Emerson Selig was drafted by the United States Army to fight in the Vietnam War as a radio operator. While in the field he met a Vietcong Soldier, Seventeen, a fellow child of the Anomaly. Emerson raised his rifle to shoot the enemy combatant, but realized Seventeen was bent over the body of a young boy, apparently trying to revive the youth with a device that emitted shrill sonic energy.

Emerson helped get the two to safety and Seventeen was able to revive the child. Emerson helped Seventeen return the child to his village. Shortly after, the pair were surprised by soldiers and Seventeen was shot several times during the encounter. Emerson successfully operated the sonic device and managed to save his friend.

Seventeen explained to Emerson that he was a member of a gifted group of humans who could use sound to warp the fundamental properties of time and space. Backed by the miraculous proof of his abilities, Seventeen indoctrinated Emerson in all of the usual anti-Charter rhetoric typical of Anomaly fanatics.

Seventeen must have died during the war because Emerson’s journals and scientific writings all reference his death. The mystery of Seventeen turned Emerson’s scientific attentions to the hereafter. He was discharged from the Army and returned to California, where he worked as a researcher for the Bell telephone company. In his off hours, Emerson built a machine for the purpose of finding Seventeen’s energy signature and communicating with it.

Instead of Seventeen, the machine put Emerson in contact with other children of the Anomaly, his wife Jean, in particular.

Jean, a witch* (Administrator note: Stop using this term. Superstition has no place in the Charter), only encouraged Emerson’s interest in the intersection of science and spirituality. He became obsessed with researching how science could call back a deceased person’s personality, or essential spirit.

“This ring is for you. I knew it was for you before I even met you.” — Emerson proposing to Jean

Emerson and Jean married and moved to Mendocino, California. They had a pair of twins, Piper and Lucius (imagine that, a Selig siring a pair of fraternal twins) (Administrator note: Snark has no place in the Charter, either, you lowly clerk. Stick to the facts).

Emerson was at the height of his scientific powers when the family’s hamster died in 1988. He built a machine that he thought would pinpoint the hamster’s energy signature and draw it back into its body, effectively resurrecting the hamster. Had Emerson been any less careful he would have collapsed time and space. His experiment is infamous in Charter history, which popularly refers to it as “The Mendocino Hamster Crisis.”

The experiment was a success (from Emerson’s point of view, anyway) but it also injured his son Lucius, who wandered into Emerson’s lab and grabbed his pet hamster during a critical moment. Lucius was pierced with powerful sonic energy. The hamster was revived but Lucius would never be the same. In fact, Emerson created an entirely different type of headache for us (See: Lucius Selig).

The experiment wasn’t a total loss for the Charter. Unbeknownst to Emerson, we were able to turn the hamster into a double agent.

Emerson, consumed by guilt over what he did to Lucius, retired from esoteric science. When his wife died he refused to bring her back. Some nights, when most of the family is asleep, he’ll listen to his spirit radio for hours and hours. He’s presumably searching for his wife’s energy signature, but we believe that this is a purely sentimental act; Emerson has shown no signs of attempting to resurrect Jean.