A cousin of Jesus Christ who might be described as the last Old Testament prophet, though he doesn't appear until the Gospels of the New Testament. Before the beginning of Jesus' ministry, John went around baptising Jews (at one point he baptised Jesus, kicking off the ministry) and urging all to repent, since the Messiah was on the way. He was later imprisoned by King Herod (a puppet of the Romans who didn't want any sort of trouble from rabble-rousing dissidents), and beheaded.