We've seen a few examples of other heroes from various Legion worlds (and some non-Legion Words, like Xera of Manna-5, or the Heroes of Lallor).
In the vein of Calorie Queen, what would be some neat 'local heroes' from various UP worlds?
Starting with Bismoll, since Taryn was just on my mind;
Omnivore. This young man is somewhat hyperkinetic and overly enthusiastic, and uses a rare Bismollan 'eating disorder' to fight crime. Instead of fully and immediately digesting any matter he consumes, he only partially converts it, taking several minutes to do so, and if he doesn't keep his mouth closed, the massive energy released by this conversion process bursts forth from his indestructible interior as a wave of dangerous energy. The denser the material he consumes, the more energy is released, and the longer it takes to 'digest,' so that if he swallows a few lead pellets, he produces impressive blasts of heat and force when he opens his mouth, for a few minutes. Even gulping in a mouthful of air allows him to break down the molecules and generate a 'burp' of energy sufficient to knock a grown man from his feat, or shatter a window.
Consumption. Similar to Omnivore, this young woman has a birth defect, although in her case, it was far more extreme. The outer surface of her body shares the indestructible and omni-digestive properties of her Bismollan stomach, and, unfortunately, the same appearance, making her grotesque, and prompting her to wear an all-concealing bodysuit, both to hide the appearance of her skin, and also to protect the rest of the world from her uncontrollable digestive touch, which destroys anything she lays her hands upon. Invulnerable to most means of conventional harm, and with a touch as destructive as that of Mano, of the Fatal Five, she operates as a feared local hero, until, years later, experimental genetic surgery alters the appearance of her skin (but not it's properties) to allow her to live a normal life, free of her containment suit. She remains hairless, and still must wear special clothing, charged with an internal force-field, to prevent it from being digested accidentally, but has also trained to allow herself to touch items without digesting them, making it safe to shake her hand, for instance, so long as nothing greatly disrupts her concentration...
Any thoughts on fun local heroes from Colu, Imsk, Durla, Braal, Cargg, Bgtzl, etc. who might not necessarily have the exact same powers (or, as in the two cases above, or in the case of Calorie Queen, have modifications of the racial powerset)?
There's also the possibility of heroes from Talokk VIII, Xanthu or Winath, where the locals don't normally have powers, but might have powers anyway, like Lady Memory, or Atmos.
Since they wouldn't be Legionnaires, their powers could come from devices, as well, such as an Orandan whose powers come from his magic sword and armor.
Posted by razsolo on :
I like your ideas, Set...it makes sense to me that there would be a plethora of local heroes and villains we just haven't heard/seen anything about yet; for every Justice League there's an Outsiders or a Teen Titans, right?
How about:
Cosmic Girl: from Braal, Rokk Krinn is her hero. Her innate magnetic abilities aren't all that powerful, but she can usurp the magnetic abilities of anybody else in her vicinity. This makes her a great heroine on Braal where everybody has magnokinesis to some degree or another, but her power offworld is quite limited.
Trinity: Originally a brilliant (but physically average) Carggite, she left her homeworld to study at the Time Institute where she was accidentally exposed to bizarre temporal energies which gave her the power to split into a younger version of herself who has postcognition, a baseline version, and an older version who has precognition. The older triplicate foresaw that Cargg would be taken over by the Dark Circle in years to come, so taking the name Trinity she has returned home to try and prepare her world for the hard times to come...she has become an active superhero in the meantime to put herself in training for when she is really needed to defend her world.
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo: Cosmic Girl: from Braal, Rokk Krinn is her hero. Her innate magnetic abilities aren't all that powerful, but she can usurp the magnetic abilities of anybody else in her vicinity. This makes her a great heroine on Braal where everybody has magnokinesis to some degree or another, but her power offworld is quite limited.
Trinity: Originally a brilliant (but physically average) Carggite, she left her homeworld to study at the Time Institute where she was accidentally exposed to bizarre temporal energies which gave her the power to split into a younger version of herself who has postcognition, a baseline version, and an older version who has precognition. The older triplicate foresaw that Cargg would be taken over by the Dark Circle in years to come, so taking the name Trinity she has returned home to try and prepare her world for the hard times to come...she has become an active superhero in the meantime to put herself in training for when she is really needed to defend her world.
Trinity, a one-woman Maiden/Mother/Crone analogue, is a hot, hot, hot idea! Very creative!
I like how Cosmic Girl is hot stuff on her homeworld, and no great shakes off-planet. I was thinking of a similar Talokkian heroine, who had awesome control of Talokkian desert wildlife, which is pretty freaking useless anywhere that doesn't have Talokkian desert wildlife.
Unfortunately, I couldn't think of a suitably awesome Talokkian desert-critter that wasn't a direct rip-off of the Sandworms of Arakkis... Posted by razsolo on :
re: Trinity, thanks dude! I originally used her in a roleplaying game as part of an NPC team called Anomaly who were all empowered by the same time machine. It didn't take much to re-imagine her as a Carggite, and having the Time Institute handy makes her origin that much easier as well...
re: giant sandworms, I say go for it! There can never be too many giant destroyer worms IMO...
Camel spiders are pretty scary and can grow up to 8" long even on boring 21st Century Earth, who knows what the Talokkian equivalent would be like?
Posted by Set on :
So, next on the list, in no particular order, someone I've already used in a fanfic.
From Colu; Augment.
Deathstroke is uber because he uses '90% of his brain' for combat? Sad, strange little man. Augment is a Coluan, and she has written neural programs that allow her to use 90% of her Coluan brain for combat applications, and since she's got about a million times more 'brain' than Slade Wilson, well, let's just say, there's a point where the body can't keep up with the brain, no matter what percentage you've got going on.
She's inhumanly accurate and punishing in hand to hand combat, and she's not at all averse to pulling out a blaster. She doesn't miss. If you aren't moving faster than she could react (and she can react pretty darn fast) and you can't see the future, she is going to dance around you like a mongoose picking a fight with a sedated tree sloth. Her ability to analyze weak points, strike nerve clusters, etc. also makes her blows uncannily effective.
Most Coluans turn up their noses at her inventions, and the applications of her abilities. She's proven quite useful at dealing with out of control experiments, etc. but the average Coluan regards this sort of physical application of Coluan brainpower as terribly unimpressive. Were she a member of any other race, she might find this discouraging, but she's Coluan born and bred, as self-assured as any other, and this is pretty much how they treat everybody. Her opinion of her detractors is not much kinder...
Posted by Mystery Lad on :
I like Augment's single-mindedness . She should have a friend or brother or lover that's similarly fixated on Art/Theater. He could go around arranging performance pieces that are built around Augment's violent activities.
He'd be thinking of holosculpture, situation comedy, Shakespearean tragedy and Sondheim musicals to fit every occurence.
What would a Coluan serial killer be like? Now *that's* a thought to send shivers down the galaxy's spine...
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Mystery Lad: I like Augment's single-mindedness . She should have a friend or brother or lover that's similarly fixated on Art/Theater. He could go around arranging performance pieces that are built around Augment's violent activities.
For my Legion Legacies group, I had Brainiac Fives clone, imaginatively named 'Brainiac Six,' choose to devote a section of his studies to behavioral science, psychology, etc. and become the schmooze-artist extraordinaire. Even knowing that he's potentially the most manipulatory manipulator that ever manipulated, he's popular, because he's just so darn *likable.* He always says the right thing. He's the perfect friend. He's got the equivalent of 100 smooth operators on call, in his noggin, 24/7.
Querl would, of course, be crushed that his 'son' is wasting his potential learning how to make friends and influence people, when he should be studying 16th dimensional physics...
quote:Originally posted by Mystery Lad: What would a Coluan serial killer be like? Now *that's* a thought to send shivers down the galaxy's spine...
Oh, that's hot. Coluans have been portrayed as *loving* to prove their superior intellects, and that's very much a serial killer gag, to arrange 'perfect crimes' or to dare the world to catch them. A Coluan might seek to prove that he/she is smarter than even that freak Brainiac Five, by committing insanely convoluted (or insanely subtle, so that it takes years to even recognize a pattern in the 'random' deaths that have been occuring) crimes, right in Metropolis, under Brainiac Five's virtual nose ('in his backyard,' so to speak).
Chilling indeed! We've seen the chilling Kryptonian villains, and the chilling Daxamite villain, but a Coluan, or a Naltorian, or a Durlan, or a Titanian, or a Bgtzln? Ooh! So many races that would be utterly scary as psycho-killers... A Coluan Riddler? A Titanian Joker?
Posted by Set on :
Another from Braal, to go with razsolo's Cosmic Girl;
Tungsten Torv, an attempt to kickstart his failing biomagnetic field as an infant and give him a normal life instead super-charged him so that all of the metal in the area was torn apart on a molecular level and integrated into his body.
Torv is now a living being of magnetically reinforced metal particles, like an iron sandman, and can fly apart into an electrically-charged magnetically-powered metal ‘sandstorm,' or remain in a humanoid form of magnetically contained metallic 'superfluid.'
Posted by razsolo on :
Augment is an awesome character idea; and I love the idea of a Coluan serial killer, which I guess is something similar to what they tried with Brainiac's mother in the reboot....that had loads of potential, but kind of fell flat unfortunately.
I really really like the idea of Brainy (or more likely Cham as he grew into the Legion's Batman by the 80's) coming across a pattern of deaths that occurred over several years which only becomes more obvious as it's explored further leading to a final confrontation with someone who only dropped clues for the Legion in the first place because he was tired of his brilliance being un-noticed for so long...
Posted by Set on :
From Bgtzl;
Exile, can ‘Zone’ other people, turning them into ghosts, unable to touch or affect the material world. He himself is stuck in a ‘transition’ zone, between Earth-space and Bgtzln-space, rendering him intangible (and transparent) to both, except during moments of intense concentration, or specially force-shielded areas, and when he ‘exiles’ someone, he can send them into a completely different vibrational plane, remaining intangible to him (and no threat to him) as well. Power to ‘exile’ someone starts at touch range, but he eventually gains the ability to project a ray from his hand that can exile someone.
If not for his ability to drag other things into the 'transition zone' or 'T-Zone' with himself, he would have starved to death / suffocated when his abilities went out of control, as he must pull food / drink / etc. into the T-Zone for his own use. He later discovers that, in the T-Zone, he doesn't actually *have* to eat, drink, breathe, etc. and is no longer aging, but that the longer he goes without exercising his physical organs and body, the more it atrophies, leaving him faint when he does temporarily materialize. So he continues eating, etc. because he's afraid of withering away and becoming a *real* ghost...
Posted by Quislet, Esq. on :
How about a non-powered hero.
I was thinking of having this be an anti-hero a bit. His name is Lupin (yes I got the name from the Japanese cartoon character) He first appeared on the planet Zuun. Whether he is originally from Zuun is unknown. He has committed several spectacular robberies, but at the same time has lead authorities to uncover even greater crimes. At other times he has rescued countless people from danger and has anonymously transfered credits from Leland McCauley's secret accounts to various charities to help the poor and disadvantaged as well as some of those individuals directly.
Lupin displays great acrobatic prowess and employs various devices to accomplish his deeds.
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Quislet, Esq.: Lupin displays great acrobatic prowess and employs various devices to accomplish his deeds.
Ooh, a Zuunian Batman! I like it!
I'm not real clear on Zuun. From the cartoon, I got the impression that it's a newer-than-most colony world, with a lot of untamed wilderness and some scary natural wild-life, where an unscrupulous researcher might be able to settle and engage in some scary illegal research and 'get away with it' because the colonists have more important stuff to deal with.
Perhaps some continents of Zuun are more settled than others, and Dr. Londo was based on one of the ones deliberately left pristine, and was, officially anyway, studying the natural ecology and cataloguing the local life-forms and all that, while unofficially turning his son into an assassin by infusing him with savage and predatory traits from various Zuunian beasties he'd captured to 'study.'
Mixing this up with Lupin, perhaps he's not just 'Batman,' but also a little bit Tarzan, and was raised in one of the less civilized area, adopting some wilderness survival skills (and gear) for his city-based shenanigans. He wasn't 'raised by wolves' or anything, but he's more outdoorsy and aware of his surroundings than the average urban resident (and what other people see as vigilante-ism or a disrespect for civil authority he sees as the sort of thing that was pretty much commonplace 'on the fringe').
Posted by Set on :
Three from Durla;
Swarm Swarm is a 'breeder,' capable of generating mobile semi-sentient 'homonculi' out of her own tissue and send them out to spy on others, etc. or 'fall apart' into a swarm of tiny creatures, enveloping a foe from all sides. She has only limited control of her components while dissipated like this, and must give them very specific instructions, almost like computer programs. Fortunately, she's grown quite good at this, and someone unaware of the limitations of her programming might mistake the complicated instructions for signs of sentience on the part of one of her drones.
Mimic Mimic specializes in assuming very precise humanoid forms, down to the genetic level, and can adapt so precisely as to gain access to the abilities of the race mimiced. This process requires assimilation of biological matter from the 'donor,' and Mimic is scrupulous about getting permission first, and never changing the appearance of their distinctive costume, as they do not wish to impersonate the donors, merely access their abilites. Current donors include a Braalian woman (magnokinetic), an Imskian man (shrinking, Micro Lad, actually, who agreed to the procedure while in prison), a Renii woman (winged flight), a Tamaranian male (solar-powered flight), a Karnan male (feline strength and agility) and an Emana Branx female (four armed strongwoman). No Coluan, Titanian or Daxamite has yet proven willing to allow Mimic to 'borrow' their form (and abilities), but Mimic remains hopeful.
Healer Like Swarm, Healer is a breeder, a member of a Durlan caste that has traditionally not been allowed off-world. Whether or not the rules have been relaxed, or Swarm and Healer have chosen to defy them is unclear. In any event, he uses his morphic cellular biology to provide biomass and stabilization to injured sentients of nearly any biological race, sending his own cells into wounded tissue to replace damaged cells, and then causing them to permanantly transform into duplicates of the cells they are replacing, essentially 'growing' new tissue for the wounded subjects. He has also developed his talents to allow himself to interface with damaged nervous tissue, allowing him to temporarily usurp control of another's body, which he generally uses to stabilize bio-functions, ease heartrates, etc. but has used in the past to paralyze uncooperative patients by nerve-blocking them, and could, in theory, use in a fight, if the situation seemed to warrant setting aside his pacifist beliefs.
Like all Durlans, all three are capable of rearranging their forms, to an extent, but none of them come anywhere near Chameleon Boy's proficiency or skill. Swarm is the only one skilled at assuming radically non-humanoid forms, and she tends to assume many smaller forms, not significantly larger ones.
Posted by Tom Tanner on :
(1) Dreamcatcher of Zwen:
Her mutant psionic abilities allow her to astral-project while asleep. She is able to enter the dreams of others, and co-opt and direct them. She protects children from nightmares.
For a race which spends half the year asleep, she is a great hero. Naturally, no one knows her secret, "waking" identitiy.
There may be some Neil Gaiman Sandman-ish stuff going on as well.
(2) Invisible Lass of Kathoon:
On a world of eternal night, where everyone can see in the dark, she is able to become invisible. This is a tremendously impressive ability on Kathoon, as people there are just not used to the idea of NOT being able
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Tom Tanner: [QB] (1) Dreamcatcher of Zwen: For a race which spends half the year asleep, she is a great hero. Naturally, no one knows her secret, "waking" identity.
Oh, that's just super-clever. I love it!
The notion that there might be some psychic predators / dream vampires on Zwen that torment the sleepers, who can't just wake up and end a nightmare, is creepy as well. She's kind of a 'vampire slayer,' if that's the case.
quote: (2) Invisible Lass of Kathoon:
Is she like Night Girl, only able to use her powers in the dark, making them great on Kathoon, but kind of a joke to everyone else?
Also a smart twist using the alien nature of the world and it's people's natural powers to come up with a power that's hot stuff on one's homeworld, and kind of terrible anywhere else.
Kinda like a Titanian who has the mutant power to be immune to telepathy (or set up a false identity in his own head, fooling telepaths into reading fake information). "Uh, yeah, Psychic Static Lad, 99% of the galaxy can't read minds, so your power isn't that hot. Rejected!" Posted by razsolo on :
I really like both your ideas Tom...invisibility in darkness is a clever power when everyone on your world can see in the dark normally...and Zwen is one of the worlds I would like to see explored more in the Legion universe because the idea of a society that has to shut down for half the year is fascinating to me. I always wonder how they interact with the rest of the UP, and if they're kind of considered to be one of the backwater worlds because they'd be so far behind everyone else....
Lullabye Lad is a Zwennian hero I came up with for my fanfic. He's like the Jigglypuff of the future, sending people to sleep with a vocal command. Given how hard we've seen it is to wake Stone Boy up in the past, I'd imagine that's something that would come in really handy fighting crime on his homeworld...
Posted by Set on :
Some Imskian heroes;
Doctor Atom Doctor Atom can shrink herself, but, more importantly, can shrink items of medical equipment, emergency supplies and survival gear. She's a trained medic / physician's assistant / xeno-physiologist, and can use her own shrinking abilities to enter the bodies of non-Imskian opponents and cause all sorts of physiological disruptions, preferring to block nerves for a quick resolution. She carries an assortment of shrunken equipment on her person, from medical gears to nonlethal weaponry to an inflatable ten-man emergency survival shelter! She's both a bit of a 'girl scout,' with all sorts of unusual gear stowed away on her person, 'just in case' and has a bit of a problem with holding onto stuff that she probably won't ever find a use for...
Tensor Tensor is able to alter his size with incredible speed, and can expand fast enough that his hand to hand strikes explode with 10,000 PSI as he 'growth-strikes' into a person. His body is not significantly stronger than that of a normal person, so he must be extremely careful to avoid 'grow-striking' a hard surface, or at such an angle that his limb bears the brunt of the force (as he'd snap his own arm in a microsecond!), and so he has developed a loose-limbed and very precise fighting style, using his growth powers more to push people away in a fashion similar to judo, than to deliver damage via a 'harder' martial art style. He learned this lesson the hard way, and is sometimes hesitant to use his abilities in this way, as he shattered the bones in his arm badly, attempting to push away an object while improperly braced. He is fond of using his ability to shrink away from a blow faster than most people can react, to play 'keep away' and 'rope a dope,' allowing a more powerful opponent to wear himself out futilely trying to hit him. He has even managed to 'dodge' an explosion, in this manner, becoming small enough to 'surf' the shockwaves to safety.
Micromass At full size, his destructively unstable shrinking field is at weakest intensity, and yet still annhilates light and air striking his body, so that he appears a hazy black humanoid form, accompanied by a shift in air pressure. As he reduces, the power of this destructive aura increases, collapsing items he touches with intense force, making him like a living black hole, when the size of a coin. Only a special force-field exosuit allows him to co-exist non-destructively with the outside world, although, when at full size, special treatments involving nth metal can temporarily neutralize his powers, allowing him a few hours of normalcy, at the price of remaining human-sized and being unable to interact with shrunken Imskians. Due to the nature of his powers, and the constant containment required, it's been whispered that he's one step away from being the next Mano, doomed to a life of villainy, but those who know him find him to be disarmingly upbeat about his situation, with an enviable youthful resiliency and seemingly inexhaustible sense of optimism. If anything, the sense of anonymity that his powers give him (by concealing his features) makes him a bit fearless, socially, despite a sheltered upbringing and, in his hours of power-negated 'freedom,' plagued by seemingly uncharacteristic attacks of shyness and social awkwardness. He's more comfortable as a shadowy superheroic force of nature, than as a teenaged boy...
Colony Queen Colony Queen is a mutant, unable to reduce her mass, but able to shrink all the same. When she reduces to half her mass, instead of merely growing shorter, she produces a second self, equally sized, and as she continues to reduce her size, more duplicates of herself appear, all linked to her as they share a single group consciousness. At half-height, there are eight of her. When she reduces to one tenth of her normal size, there are a thousand of her, at that size, each weighing only a few ounces, and while they have only the strength appropriate to their tiny size, they are incredibly well-coordinated, and can perform complicated mechanical tasks (or acts of surveillance) in fluid circumstances that the best programmed mechanical nanobot might prove unable to adapt to. She has learned the hard way that if any of her 'selves' do not return, the loss of mass is reflected in her larger self, as pain and bruising distributed across her body, for a smaller 'manikin,' and more traumatic damage for a more significant loss. While it's hardly the superheroic norm, she has learned that adding a few extra pounds makes it easier to acclimate to such events, as the non-vital fatty tissues seem to disproportionately absorb the trauma of lost manikin. As a result, while other active heroes try to keep themselves in a lean, athletic fighting trim, she's strongly motivated to keep herself at a less toned 'fighting weight,' and tends to carry a bit more weight than some of her heroic peers.
[ April 10, 2011, 09:15 PM: Message edited by: Set ]
Posted by razsolo on :
Colony Queen!! I love her! I had a villain in an RPG once called Snow Pea who duplicated by splitting his mass into 5 smaller bodies...but Colony Queen is like a million times better realised version of that idea! Love it!
I also dig Doctor Atom, she has a "Dr Pym Scientific Adventurer" circa the old West Coast Avengers days feel about her...
I am gonna think up some more to kill the last couple of hours at work and post them tonight from home Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo: I am gonna think up some more to kill the last couple of hours at work and post them tonight from home
Looking forward to it!
Posted by Candlelight on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo: re: giant sandworms, I say go for it! There can never be too many giant destroyer worms IMO...
Camel spiders are pretty scary and can grow up to 8" long even on boring 21st Century Earth, who knows what the Talokkian equivalent would be like?
Giant crystal spiders killed Umbra's mother, the Talokian champion before Umbra. The British 'Primeval' series had 8 - 10 foot desert type spiders that were supposed to come from Earth's past. Bugs of any kind are sooo ickkky great.
[ April 11, 2011, 02:47 AM: Message edited by: Candlelight ]
Posted by razsolo on :
Some from Winath!
Flora and Fauna, two teenage female twins who are connected to respectively the Green and the Red of their world...so Flora can control and communicate with plant life, and Fauna can do the same with animal life. As they get older they will grow more into their abilities and have wider range and more diverse effects. At the moment though their powers are at a level that are useful for minor crime-fighting, but not much beyond that. They are also connected to their own biosphere, so are powerless outside of Winath (this may or may not change as they get older as well).
Double Trouble: Junio and Marin Wiviarre seemed normal Winathian boys growing up, though they seemed to have a closer bond than would be expected even of identical twins. They both naturally excelled at physical activities, and were both quite extroverted. They became professional wrestlers and minor celebrities on Winath, but they have a secret that only their parents know....there is no Marin Wiviarre.
Junio is a singleton with the mutant ability to split into two identical beings. Nobody really knows where this ability comes from, though the family suspects it may be the result of one of Junio's great-grandparents coming from the planet Janus (Double-Header's homeworld). Junio split for the first time in the womb, and the two bodies only merged again when there were no hospital staff around to see. His parents kept this a secret, and as he grew older they realised that the two boys were extensions of the one individual, but they couldn't face the scandal of having a singleton child. They trained Junio to treat his other self as a brother, but in reality there is only one personality between them.
When his bodies merge, Double Trouble is twice as fast, strong and tough as his already well-developed bodies and while separated the two share the one mind. "They" became a well-known public hero for the adventure, but also because Junio is secretly scared he will turn out evil or insane due to the Winathian prejudice against single births and he needs to prove himself. He is terrified that one day someone will find out his awful secret, and hopes that Junio and Marin's popularity will distract anyone from looking too closely.
Posted by Ken Arromdee on :
quote:Double Trouble: Junio and Marin Wiviarre seemed normal Winathian boys growing up, though they seemed to have a closer bond than would be expected even of identical twins.
We already have Cargg.
Actually, it would be interesting to have a Carggite pretend to be two Winathians....
Posted by Ken Arromdee on :
quote:Originally posted by Set:
Mimic Mimic specializes in assuming very precise humanoid forms, down to the genetic level, and can adapt so precisely as to gain access to the abilities of the race mimiced. This process requires assimilation of biological matter from the 'donor,' and Mimic is scrupulous about getting permission first,
This won't work because there's absolutely no reason why this character should not step into a Legion meeting (or the Legion Academy) and ask for permission from everyone present so that he has a large library of forms. The characters being heroes, they would have to agree.
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Ken Arromdee:
quote:Double Trouble: Junio and Marin Wiviarre seemed normal Winathian boys growing up, though they seemed to have a closer bond than would be expected even of identical twins.
We already have Cargg.
Actually, it would be interesting to have a Carggite pretend to be two Winathians....
Perhaps a pair of twins with a Winathian father and a Carggite mother, who are able to not only produce three dupes each, but also to merge into each other to produce one person with six times the strength, etc. of a single person.
Posted by razsolo on :
quote:Originally posted by Ken Arromdee:
quote:Originally posted by Set:
Mimic Mimic specializes in assuming very precise humanoid forms, down to the genetic level, and can adapt so precisely as to gain access to the abilities of the race mimiced. This process requires assimilation of biological matter from the 'donor,' and Mimic is scrupulous about getting permission first,
This won't work because there's absolutely no reason why this character should not step into a Legion meeting (or the Legion Academy) and ask for permission from everyone present so that he has a large library of forms. The characters being heroes, they would have to agree.
I dunno, I can think of any number of reasons it wouldn't play out like that...I can imagine Shadow Lass and Sensor Girl would have a problem on spiritual grounds with letting someone else take the power that is theirs as their respective planetary protectors....Dawnstar or Chemical Kid are both pretty arrogant, I could see them having a problem with sharing their awesome powers with someone who hasn't earned it...and I think a lot of heroes would quite reasonably be a little apprehensive about that much power being in the hands of one person - especially if that person is going out of their way to gather as much power as they can, it would be only natural to question their motives...and even with the best intentions, there's still the possibility they could go about things the wrong way or that they could be manipulated by someone like Mordru or the Time Trapper...
Posted by razsolo on :
A couple more....
Macro Maid: Hani Venne was a scientist who wanted to synthesise the radiation of the space dragons which give the Imskians their ability to shrink. After a mishap in the lab, she absorbed an almost lethal dose and found herself shrinking at a rate of a couple of inches per month with no way to return to normal size. Desperate for a remedy, she approached Colossal Boy for help. With his consent, Hani spliced some of his own DNA with hers to counter the shrinking effect...it worked, and even gave her the ability to grow to a maximum height of fifteen feet, but it also permanently removed her ability to shrink. While her limited growth ability isn't that hot outside of Imsk, it makes her a behemoth amongst its tiny cities.
And from Colu, Meme. Bored with his life, Meme found a way to digitise his consciousness and transfer it through the Coluan netspace to inhabit other neural networks. When he possesses a host body, he gains access to that person's memories and skills without losing his own, but only another Coluan has a physiology sufficiently advanced to withstand the possession. There are no ill effects of his possession afterwards, so Meme travels the globe as a sort of Coluan Jessica Fletcher, solving crimes and exploring mysteries to his heart's content.
Posted by Candlelight on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: Another from Braal, to go with razsolo's Cosmic Girl;
Tungsten Torv, an attempt to kickstart his failing biomagnetic field as an infant and give him a normal life instead super-charged him so that all of the metal in the area was torn apart on a molecular level and integrated into his body.
Torv is now a living being of magnetically reinforced metal particles, like an iron sandman, and can fly apart into an electrically-charged magnetically-powered metal ‘sandstorm,' or remain in a humanoid form of magnetically contained metallic 'superfluid.'
He's sort of a highpowered Ferro, the version that couldn't change back to a flesh person?
Nice. And sad.
I like your Augment character and she was certainly interesting in the one story that I read of yours with her in it.
Since all Coluans AREN'T 12th level, actually, only the Brainiacs, not counting 10th level Vril, ARE, right?
I think a 12th level psychopatic serial killer would be unstoppable, wouldn't he/she?
If I were going to create one, I'd put his level at a 9-11, someone who is dillusional about his/her abilities, since they usually are, and needing to best Brainy (like in a 'Criminal Minds' episode or two.)
Then, they could actually slip-up enough in their obsessions to be catchable, especially if he/she developes, like you said, or was it ML?, a fixation on Brainy. In the reboot, Querl's mother sort of fit this idea, didn't she? (Edit: sorry this was already mentioned by raz - I just didn't read that far yet. )
I'd love to see Brainy and Nura as a Sherlock and Watson, with Cham and Brin for the legwork and information gatherers.
[ April 12, 2011, 01:12 PM: Message edited by: Candlelight ]
Posted by Candlelight on :
I thought this might be fun - Dalia is a planetary champion because of her abilities. Even moving slowly, she monitors all of the Zwen settlements during the half yearly sleeping period on her world. She deals with any threats using the computer defense systems and maintaining weather and seismic planetary safety controls as they are needed: original photo of Ann Ward by Nigel Barker
[ April 12, 2011, 12:57 PM: Message edited by: Candlelight ]
Posted by Tom Tanner on :
Beautiful work, candlelight.
Carggg would be a fruitful source of super-heroes.
The one who can produce two duplicates, one of fire, and one of ice.
The one who can produce two duplicates, one super-dense, the other a phantom.
The one who can produce two duplicates, one of electricity, and one of positronic energy. (kind of like Jonni Thunder and Negative Man combined)
The one who can produce two duplicates, one a demon-form, one an angel-form.
The Cargggan Green Lantern.
The one who whose triplicated form is: One, has super-strength and invulnerability; Two, has super-speed and flight; Three, has super-senses, heat-vision, and super-intelligence.
The tri-jitsu master.
Posted by Candlelight on :
Yes, Carggites are fun. I'd like to be Two, only with the super-intellence, too.
And thank-you, I've been waiting for a reason to use that photo for awhile now. I was in such a hurry, as usual, that I left the CW on, I'll have to remove that. sigh Edit: done
[ April 12, 2011, 12:58 PM: Message edited by: Candlelight ]
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo:
quote:Originally posted by Ken Arromdee:
quote:Originally posted by Set:
Mimic Mimic specializes in assuming very precise humanoid forms, down to the genetic level, and can adapt so precisely as to gain access to the abilities of the race mimiced. This process requires assimilation of biological matter from the 'donor,' and Mimic is scrupulous about getting permission first,
This won't work because there's absolutely no reason why this character should not step into a Legion meeting (or the Legion Academy) and ask for permission from everyone present so that he has a large library of forms. The characters being heroes, they would have to agree.
I dunno, I can think of any number of reasons it wouldn't play out like that...I can imagine Shadow Lass and Sensor Girl would have a problem on spiritual grounds with letting someone else take the power that is theirs as their respective planetary protectors....Dawnstar or Chemical Kid are both pretty arrogant, I could see them having a problem with sharing their awesome powers with someone who hasn't earned it...and I think a lot of heroes would quite reasonably be a little apprehensive about that much power being in the hands of one person - especially if that person is going out of their way to gather as much power as they can, it would be only natural to question their motives...and even with the best intentions, there's still the possibility they could go about things the wrong way or that they could be manipulated by someone like Mordru or the Time Trapper...
Pretty much my thoughts. First, Mimic can only take racial abilities, so Shady and Sensor would be out (although it could take on a Talokkian form and gain other Talokkian traits, such as good night vision and being perhaps a touch stronger than the average person).
But many Legionnaires would be opposed to 'sharing' their powers and form, starting with Shrinking Violet, for obvious reasons, and including people like Mon-El (who, thanks to Ol-Vir, is quite familiar with how dangerous someone with his powers can be) and Element Lad (who seems unwilling to allow people to even visit his homeworld, let alone steal their forms and powers!).
Others might not care so much. Stone Boy, for instance, might see no harm in allowing someone to emulate his ability to turn into a statue, and, while Triplicate Girl might not tolerate someone taking her form and using her powers, there's gotta be a Carggite out there somewhere who could use the money and would 'license' their image and abilities for a coupla credits...
Posted by Candlelight on :
I adore Swarm and Healer. They're extremely inventive and interesting.
Mimic, however, reminds me of Ben 10, only without the wrist gear. That being said, I think that if he had more than just permission from his subjects to limit his power, he might be powered down enough to not raise objection. ESPECIALLY since I have always thought that Durlan's are constantly registering and inprinting new forms. I guess the 'down to a molecular' blueprint is slightly different?
Anyway, like Ben, maybe Mimic could have a time limit that his cells, however they're formed, can maintain superpowered forms. Perhaps the limitation is sever enough to make him not capable of great and fantastic feats.
A further limitation might be recovery time between forms and/or no do overs, either ever or for a specific amount of time or form numbers.
Did I say that I love your Swarm and Healer? Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Candlelight: I adore Swarm and Healer. They're extremely inventive and interesting.
Thanks! I've always liked the creeptacular concept of an organism that uses shapeshifting abilities to heal other people, by sending it's own tissues into the a wounded creature and causing them to replace damaged tissue, and then sort of adapt to the surrounding biology, so that they aren't rejected, as they transform themselves to incorporate the DNA of the surrounding tissue, and are 'recognized' as 'self' by the body's defense systems.
There's also terrifying non-healing applications to such an ability, such as to put organic 'bombs' inside of people, to later rupture and release toxins or contagion or to grow out of control like some alien cancer, but Healer would never dream of using their powers this way...
quote: ESPECIALLY since I have always thought that Durlan's are constantly registering and inprinting new forms. I guess the 'down to a molecular' blueprint is slightly different?
My thought is that aliens with superhuman powers would still be subject to the same laws as anyone else. A telepath would be expected to respect personal privacy and not deep-probe passersby and broadcast intimate details about them to all and sundry, for instance, and could be charged with criminal tresspass or whatever.
Similarly, a shapeshifter might be able to use their understanding of human biology to assume a generic human form, but to assume the form of an actual person would be an act of fraud and misrepresentation, if you didn't have that person's consent to do so.
Cham, being a superhero with both government sanction and the legal backing of the Science Police, would be allowed to duplicate suspects during the course of an investigation or sting operation (pretending to be a henchman of a crime figure, for example, to gather information on him, just as an undercover police officer is allowed to pretend to be a crook to get close to other crooks), but the average Durlan on the street, IMO, wouldn't legally get to do that, since non-shapeshifters would be afraid of shapeshifters stealing their identities, draining their bank accounts, sleeping with their spouses, etc.
But that's all IMO. If there were no such laws, and Titanians and Durlans and Bgtzlns could pretty much ignore privacy laws or identity theft laws or tresspassing laws, then Earth xenophobia would make a heck of a lot more sense...
quote: Anyway, like Ben, maybe Mimic could have a time limit that his cells, however they're formed, can maintain superpowered forms. Perhaps the limitation is sever enough to make him not capable of great and fantastic feats.
A time limit makes some sense. In theory, whatever biological processes go on in a Durlan body might be suspended while they are in another form. They can eat, breathe, etc. as appropriate to the form they've assumed, but they increasingly feel 'hungry' or like they are 'holding their breath' as their true Durlan biology is not getting the sustenance *it* requires.
Durlans like Cham, and Yera, who spend hours at a time in alternate forms as the result of infiltrations, or acting jobs, would be extremely proficient, by Durlan standards, at 'holding their breath' and staying in non-Durlan shapes.
If this is the case, the officially recognized orange-antennae-head-humanoid form would have been specifically designed by Brande's people to allow the Durlan physiology to function unconstrained, so that any Durlan who has trained themselves to assume this form could stay in it indefinitely, although some might be more comfortable in their green tentacle-monster form, and revert when out of sight to 'relax.'
quote: A further limitation might be recovery time between forms and/or no do overs, either ever or for a specific amount of time or form numbers.
No do-overs, in combination with the requirement to get consent, could be a crippling drawback.
On the other hand, perhaps, as part of getting consent, Mimic secures a certain amount of DNA from the donor (a strand of hair could contain enough DNA for hundreds of changes, if not tens of thousands). Each time Mimic assumes a form, their body devours and rips apart some of the stored DNA, decoding it and altering it's own DNA to match, and so the supply of DNA available from the donor is decreased the more they use that particular form. (And it's possible that someone who understands the nature of this change, which would be easy to learn about, since Mimic has signed contracts explaining how it works to a bunch of people, would be able to steal the samples, or hit Mimic with a burst of DNA-scrambling radiation, rendering stored samples useless, and leaving Mimic stuck being 'just a Durlan' for as long as it takes to recover / replace DNA stores of other powered species.)
quote: Did I say that I love your Swarm and Healer?
Indeed you did, and thanks!
Posted by Set on :
Winathians don't normally have powers, but they do have the 'twin-thing' going on, and, while twins of other worlds may sometimes be said to have a special connection, the twins of Winath sometimes take that a step farther...
The Terror Twins, Phebi (feh-bee) and Deme (dee-em), telepathically linked, able to tap into their sisters strength, speed, etc. so that each of them is perfectly linked, moving together like cogs in a deadly machine, and each functioning with twice normal strength, speed, etc. for a woman of their size and strength. Unfortunately, their constant link to each other has left them violently distrustful of others, with an 'us against the world' mentality, and more than a touch of co-dependent psychosis. Sometimes they want to be alone in the universe, and end all life in a genocidal rampage. Other times, they want to impose their shared link upon others, using machines to crush the will of others and 'link' them to themselves, tapping both their own skills and mental reserves, and also using them as expendable drones. They have a primal love of causing chaos and confusion, sowing terror not for any political cause or philosophical belief, but because their own fearlessness, as they reinforce and reassure each other constantly, makes them cruelly curious as to the reactions of others to acts of destruction and carnage. The sight of others scurrying to save themselves from whatever act of terror they have engineered, and the later breathless news reports of the atrocity, reassure them and fill them with a sense of superiority and control.
[Yeah, they're not 'heroes' by any stretch of the definition, so they don't really fit the title of the thread. The next Winathian isn't really a super-hero either, but he's a much nicer person...]
Link A rare single child, Link's clingy co-dependent nature, a result of his lack of a twin, on a world where *everyone* has a twin, developed into a full blown psychic capacity. Some part of him flailed around, seeking the connection that everyone else had, and he found it, time and again, as he developed the ability to 'synch up' with other creatures. At first, the ability was limited to pets and farm animals, as he would link his mind to their own, and perceive through their senses, and communicate with them on some primal level. He didn't so much 'control' them, as influence their behavior, and since he worked primarily with animals that were already domesticated, he found it easy to suggest courses of action to them. The more he linked up to them, the more the animal seemed to retain a fraction of it's enhanced intellect, bled over from his own, and the easier it became to link up with them, and to teach them even greater tricks. It was some time before he learned that he could manipulate groupings of similar animals, already with some weak 'herd mentality' or 'pack mentality' of their own, insinuating himself into the position of 'pack alpha' or 'leader of the herd.'
He makes his living on Winath, domesticating animals with his abilities, and linking up with various species, expanding his own awareness of the world around him.
It's well known that he's a bit of a man-about-town with his love-life, and that he only dates other 'singles,' like himself. His various 'lovers' (not all, or even most, of whom, have any sort of physical relationship with him) agree to keep to themselves his ability to forge a link with them as well, allowing them, for a brief time, to experience the life of connection that fate has denied them. The fleeting links he forms with his fellow singleton Winathians are nothing so strong as the shared-sensory, empathic links he forms with animals, although, like those links, they grow stronger with repeated exposure, and some of his longer-term paramours can feel his presence, or even catch an impression of a strong emotion he experiences, as their link grows far beyond any normal sense of familiarity and connectedness that a normal pair of Winathian twins would share.
Posted by Tom Tanner on :
OK, OK, one more.
The Four-Legged Woman of Janus.
Due to a rare, once-in-a-lifetime genetic abnormality, she gradually divides into two individuals from the feet up, rather than from the head down.
A premiere ballerina, and a master of the ancient French martial art of Savate, she is also moonlights as an amateur detective, in the tradition of Irene Adler, Miss Marple, Trixie Belden, and Velma Dinkley and Daphne Blake.
Posted by Emily Sivana on :
quote:Originally posted by Emily Sivana: I have been doing research for fanfiction, and I really like the Xudarians.
Tomar-Re was one of the classic 'alien' Green Lanterns from way, way back. What a funky design. Orange skin, a fish fin and a parrot beak? Whacky!
Posted by Set on :
And, from Naltor;
The Historian The doctors foresaw only a slim chance that both mother and child would survive the difficult birth, but she took steps to change those odds, sending relatives across Naltor in advance of the event to bring compatible blood and experimental supplied to strengthen her for the upcoming labor, defying the dire predictions. Both she and her child lived, although Candr was born without eyes, and, it was later discovered, without the gift for prophecy. Still, they adapted. His malformed optic nerves and tissues proved incorrectable, and they opted for cybernetic eyes, which the clever child learned to strip the governing software from to allow him to see farther and with far greater magnification than traditional Naltorian sight, and in different wavelengths. Still, it wasn't his bionic eyes that made him a hero, it was his prophetic gift, not to see the future, but to read the past. When he enters an area, or meets an individual, or hefts an item, he begins to receive glimmers of the past of that subject, with the most emotionally dramatic (or traumatic) experiences coming in the 'clearest.' As crimes, particularly violent ones, tend to leave powerful 'psychic marks' for him to locate, he found himself naturally gravitating to solving crimes, coming to a crime-scene, or handling a piece of evidence, or meeting a suspect, and learning of events past, that might prove guilt or innocence.
As Naltorian criminals can foresee events that might lead to their capture, they tend to be extremely good at keeping out of jail, but they had no experience with a man who could see evidence they'd left in the *past,* and The Historian has made quite the name for himself!
Posted by Emily Sivana on :
While hunting for information on Thaal Sinestro, I came across this villain:
Can we get a 31st century version? Pretty please?
Posted by Set on :
A metal-toothed Bismollan? Seems kinda redundant since they are already able to bite into pretty much anything with their normal teeth... (Indeed, the metal teeth would probably be destroyed the first time their salivary glands activated!)
Ages ago, I invented a 'reverse X-Men,' and the backwards version of Cyclops was named Charybis, and wore a special mouthguard, because whenever he opened his mouth, it opened a vortex to a black hole and started sucking things in front of him into the vortex, crushing them until they fit into the mouth-sized aperture and were annhilated... (So Cyclops opens his eyes and sends out destructive energy, while Charybis opens his mouth and pulls stuff in to be destroyed.) The reverse-version of Wolverine sarcastically said, 'Yeah, that's our fearless leader. He has the mutant power to suck real hard.'
That might make for a scary Bismollan alternate, one that has a powerful gravitational force that pulls stuff towards his mouth...
Posted by Set on :
From Talokk VIII;
Scirocco shares a special link to the silica-sands of the Talokkian desert, able to control it through a discharge of static electricity, and riding animate dunes of sand through the desert, leashed by coils of static electricity from his hands. He can whip the sands up into deadly sandstorms, or send them to engulf others in great masses, and can, to a limited extent, use static electricity to defend himself, in a situation where he has no sand to manipulate.
His ability to electrostatically manipulate the sands of Talokk VIII is shared by a species of subterranean sand-serpents of vast size, and due to his similar manipulations of the static-charged sands, these creatures ignore his passage, almost as if he were one of them.
Also from Talokk VIII;
Survivor has smooth and indistinct features, almost as if the harsh climates that she frequents has worn her smooth. More years ago than she can remember, she was lost in a terrible storm, and her body adapted to survive the unforgiving climate. Over the years, she has travelled to every corner of Talokk VIII, from the hearts of the bleakest desert, to the depths of the oceans, to the frozen expanse of the polar regions, and in each place, her body has adapted, growing fins, gills, fur or scales, as appropriate. Her body has been burned, frozen, crushed and swallowed whole, and she has adapted to survive each of these ordeals. She takes a certain perverse pleasure in challenging new and extreme situations, wondering if this time she'll find the one thing that she cannot adapt to and survive. She now looks up at the night sky, and wonders how her body will adapt to the cold and dark between the stars.
Perhaps she has learned every lesson that Talokk VIII has to offer, and it is time to leave the nest...
Posted by Set on :
From Tamaran;
For thousands of years, Tamaran has had a small sub-population, born seemingly randomly to any family or bloodline, these days called the Black Tamaranians. Capable of absorbing solar energy, like all Tamaranians, the 'Black' Tamaranians are unable to release this energy to fuel the power of flight, and remain ground-bound.
Ten centuries past, a Tamaranian was born to the royal family with this 'defect,' and coined herself the name 'Blackfire,' leading to others with a similar affliction being called 'Black Tamaranians' for the first time, and, due to her, admittedly brief, grip on the throne, comign out of second-class status and becoming somewhat fashionable as enforcers for 'their' queen. Through Psion manipulations, Komand'r, called Blackfire, empowered many of these faithful servants with energy-projecting abilities similar to her own. The beneficiaries of her largesse enjoyed perhaps too much the role-reversal under her reign, where they were no longer the cripples and the unseen, but instead the feared arms of the queen.
Her reign was not so fondly remembered by the vast majority of Tamaranians, and with the end of that reign, the former enforcers found themselves running the risk of extinction at the hands of those they had oppressed in her name. In a surprising show of solidarity, they banded together and fought their way to an isolated region, and fortified their position against all attempts at seeking revenge for their past abuses. Decades became centuries, and over generations, the old insults were forgotten.
The Tamaranians and 'Black' Tamaranians found themselves defending their world from external threat on several occasions, begrudgingly working together, at first, but eventually forming tentative alliances, and, yet more centuries later, slowly re-integrating as a society.
Genetic technology had long since been discovered that allowed the Black Tamaranians to correct the deficiencies that prevented them from flying, and over ten generations of sporadic intermingling of the two groups, some traces of energy manipulation have also begun to appear among the original population (who, despite the name 'Black' Tamaranian, appear no different from any other Tamaranian, to the casual observer. The name refers only to their former patron, Blackfire, whom they still quietly remember as the one who brought their sub-population out of obscurity, although they know better than to share their appreciation for the former tyrant-usurper queen with those whose ancestors did not benefit from her brief reign.).
By the time of the 31st century, the greatest heroes of Tamaran are four Black Tamaranians called The Black Watch.
Bloodfire is a sex symbol on Tamaran, being blessed not merely with exceptional energy projection abilities, but also with a rare violet-black coloration, and a long mane of curly blood-red hair, that leaves a trail like billowing volcanic plume of smoke and fire behind her as she flies. Her solar-powered energy projection powers manifest as dull crimson beams of force and heat that often melt items struck and start raging fires. While most Black Tamaranians project stored energy from their hands, she more commonly shoots bolts of heat and force from her glowing red eyes.
Nightfire has the more common skin tone reminiscent of Komand'r herself, and has waist-length straight black hair, that leaves a black streak across the sky behind him, like a swath of starless night (most males keep their hair short, and leave little or no visible energy trail in flight). His dark blue-black energy blasts dissipate energy struck, causing machines to falter and run down, and individuals to feel chilled and stunned. He can even smother fires with a concentrated attack. While all Tamaranians are stronger than the human norm, Nightfire seems to gain strength from dissipating energy with his powers, and is several times stronger than a normal Tamaranian of his size and build.
Moonfire also shares the skin tone of Komand'r, and has shoulder-length gently wavy white hair, that leaves a very short 'trail' of what appears to be serpentine wisps of fog behind him in flight. He generates pale white beams of gravitic energy that he can use to push items away, drag them to him, or, with concentration, to move them around, like a form of telekinetic 'tractor beam.'
Ghostfire was born hairless, without even eyebrows, but has the same coloration as a standard Tamaranian. She leaves no colored energy trail in her wake, and produces bright beams of dazzling golden light that she can use to blind others, focus into laser-like cutting beams, or use to manipuate the spectral properties of a target, causing it to alter colors, or even making it translucent and neat-invisible. With extreme concentration, she can even form holographic images, but they are not easily mistaken for anything else, as she has not yet learned to make holograms in any color other than soft yellow. Of the four, however, Ghostfire is the one with the best understanding of the physical sciences, and the one most likely to figure out new uses of her powers...
Posted by Set on :
Both Tom Tanner and razsolo came up with ideas for Zwennian heroes, which totally wouldn't have occured to me! Here's what they inspired in my noggin;
Golem Girl When Gerta Shyr goes to sleep in contact with earth or stone, her body sinks into the surrounding surface, become insubstantial and infused with the material, which then shapes itself into a form like that of her own body, but several times larger, as her self diffuses through the surrounding material. Through lucid dreaming techniques, she has learned to function in this state (although she does come across as a bit distracted...), and can move this massive earthen or stone 'golem' around and take action. If the construct of earth and stone is demolished, she 'wakes up' abruptly, a surprised-looking but otherwise unharmed Zwennian woman who has begun to study unarmed fighting techniques just in case of such a situation...
She tends to spread out the longer she remains asleep, and more so in elements like sand or loose earth (assuming some truly colossal sizes), and less in sturdier material, like stone (in which she is rarely more than twice her normal height, and about forty times as heavy).
Posted by razsolo on :
^^^^That reminded me of a Zwennian villain I came up with; Gorgon Girl. With green dreadlocks and body modifications to give her vertically slitted pupils and a greenish tinge to her skin, she is also pretty heavily pierced and tattooed.
As her name would suggest, she can turn people to stone by inducing a coma state in her victim. She needs to make eye contact to do it as she accesses her victim's neural pathways through their optic nerves and because her victim is catatonic, it's pretty much impossible to restore them to normalcy without the assistance of a skilled psi.
The strange part about her power is that it also works on non-Zwennians, which has raised a lot of questions about how the Zwennian petrification process actually works on a biological level, and if it's something that non-Zwennians could learn with the right discipline....
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo: ^^^^That reminded me of a Zwennian villain I came up with; Gorgon Girl.
That's a totally logical progression, a Zwennian 'hypnotist' who makes other Zwennians fall asleep (and turn to stone), so that she can rob them! Very cool notion, and also neat to give her the ability to take it up a notch and inflict 'Zwennian sleeping sickness' on non-Zwennians, causing them to turn to stone!
Very cool, and very creative! I totally wish I'd thought of that!
Posted by Candlelight on :
I love the Tamaran story and group!
I'd have to alter the history slightly because the planet was destroyed and most of the population with it.
Vril Dox got involved and moved the dead planet Rann from it's position in space to the Tamaran solar system and causing the planet to regenerate an atmosphere/water and the ability to support life.
The Rannian people settled in and Kormand'r brought her surviving people, most are soldiers and ALL are totally loyal to her, back to the system and they were given a continent to settle and build on.
Tamaran/Rann is also now the site for .LEGION.
I'd make the Black Tamarans be of mixed blood from the two peoples and then go with the rest of your ideas, but you, of course, can do what you want with the info. Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Candlelight: I love the Tamaran story and group!
Thanks! I kinda like the idea of building off of Komand'r's 'unique' status, sort of like how Mekt Ranzz is so strongly defined by his singleton status on Winath.
I also wanted to pick some 31st century alien heroes who weren't necessarily from a typically Legion-era alien race (such as the Tamaranians, or the Thanagarians).
I had read somewhere that Tamaran had been blown up, they resettled somewhere called 'New Tamaran' and then *that* got blown up too, but I just went with what I remembered of the planet, having been run by Blackfire for a bit in the Wolfman/Perez run, and having some occasional 'throwbacks' that couldn't fly (but still absorbed solar energy, hence Komand'r being able to be modified by the Psions to fire starbolts).
Maybe, over the last 1000 years, somewhere in the 1000 annual reality-rebooting crossover events that occured, Tamaran was un-destroyed!
Was it Superboy Prime's reverse-gendered clone, Supergirl Prime, punching reality? Was it X'Hal being reborn from the heart of Vega, using some sort of Durlan fusion-reaction to kickstart her back to life (and sanity) sort of like how an electrical shock can knock a human heart back into cycle? Who knows. Given the way the DCU works, and the frequent obliterations and reconstructions of places like Gotham City, Khandaq, Thanagar, Atlantis, etc., Tamaran was probably reconstructed and re-destroyed a couple dozen times in the next century alone!
For the purposes of the Black Watch, all that really matters is that they are on a planet named Tamaran (which may or may not be the original), and are descendents from Koriand'r and Komand'r's people.
Posted by Set on :
More Heroes from Other Worlds!
From Cargg;
Trinary, unofficial Robotican ‘ambassador’ to Cargg, Trinary has abandoned her original name, having been ‘assimilated’ during the Robotican 'troubles,' and being one of the few survivors of the process to refuse to be cured of the changes made. Unwelcome on Cargg, as they find her appearance and demeanor ghastly (and her family in particular is aggrieved by her conversion). Can meld into a single unit, but rarely does, preferring to remain three heavily cyborged humanoids, connected in a single group mind by laser-like light flickering from the crowns of their heads. They are stronger and more durable than a standard Carggite, as their armored hide and mechanically-reinforced limbs would suggest, and have computer like mental processing abilities. They can use their laser-links to attempt to seize control of nearby machinery, or even to blind or ‘reprogram’ (hypnotize, with some sublimal information exchange) some humanoids! Additionally, they can re-wire their hands to deliver a potent electrical jolt.
Lifeline, born with no ability to triplicate, much later it was discovered that when he died (in an accident), a duplicate appeared nearby. Now he fights crime fearlessly, knowing that no matter what happens to him, he wakes up in a new body (generally within 10 yards) within moments of his death, ready to continue the fight.
Triple Sun – When they unite, this Carggite transforms into a 3 meter across miniature sun, generating intense heat and light, and noticeable gravity. They can move along slowly in this form, a danger to all around them. After the fusion accident that burned away their fleshly form, they can only take on humanoid form by triplicating into three humanoid selves, each with their own solar-related powers. Separated, one can ignite into flames that do not harm him, and, with effort, fling fire a short distance from himself in a plume of burning hydrogen gas, the second can glow with blinding intensity light, and radiate it in specific areas in pinpoint beams, while the third generates gravitational attraction, allowing him to draw things to himself, or to repel himself from the ground and fly.
Wing, Mask & Comm – Adventurous and independent as a young woman, one of her selves fell into an ice-crevasse on an expedition to the northern polar regions, and was badly hurt. Unwilling to leave her, her other two selves rappelled down to her and together sought another way out (unable to climb back with her). Instead they found a crashed alien escape pod (the source of the crevasse in the first place) that had been there for centuries, and inside, three small pods that *might* have been emergency beacons, or dangerous defensive weapons. They gambled and each activated a different pod, being flooded with nanites that granted them abilities. Wing’s nanites reflected and redirected gravity around herself, allowing flight, and she can inject nanites into others to grant them flight as well, for a brief time (the more they use it, the shorter time the anti-gravityy charge lasts). Mask’s nanites adapt her body to any environmental condition, and, by touch, can be used to adapt another’s body to their surrounding environment for up to 30 days. Comm’s nanites rewired her brain and nervous system to allow perception and transmission of radio frequencies, and by touch can wire others to be able to hear and transmit to her (although she can’t give them the ability to overhear any frequency or broadcast on any frequency). Comm can also interface with machinery, or even animals, in this fashion, and download their data or influence their actions or ‘jack’ their senses. Unfortunately, the effects of the nanite injections have rendered them unable to merge, and they are forever seperate, although able to share their powers, allowing them to go on even greater adventures together, to the bottom of the sea or into orbital space, using their ability to share powers of flight, life support and communication.
[ June 12, 2012, 11:03 PM: Message edited by: Set ]
Posted by Set on :
From 'Great Mother Ocean;'
Starback, Axeun of Hyrkraius has the gift of spaceworthy flight using fire generated by igniting the methane aura he constantly generates and replenishes. Even when not using his powers, his nodes glow with ruddy heat, rendering him inscrutable (and intimidating!) by his people’s standards, as they cannot read his mood and his communications lack emotional context. He can manipulate his fiery aura to generate solar-flare-like prominences that arc towards foes as if alive, avoiding intervening obstacles. He can generate fiery discharges from any part of his 'corona,' allowing him to change course and ‘jink’ with great agility in the vacuum of space.
Posted by Invisible Brainiac on :
Wow, I'm floored by how awesome all your ideas are.
I can't even pick which ones I like best. Colony Queen, Cosmic Girl and Augment are among the most unique, though.
From Naltor -
Dreamcatcher doesn't have any dreams of her own. Instead, she steals the dreams of others and brings them to life. The stronger and more vivid the dream, the sooner it will come true.
Her family learned this the heard way when a stampede occured outside their home in the city. Dreamcatcher's sister declared, "Just like in my dream!"
They thought it was just normal Naltorian precognition at work. But when a guest from Earth stayed at their home - and dreamed of a rain of fish during the hot Naltorian summer - and the town found itself submerged in flopping piscine creatures - they guessed the truth.
Given the unreliability of her powers, Dreamcatcher elected to become a doctor. When her patients dream of getting well, she tries to catch those dreams in order to cure them.
[ May 28, 2012, 03:42 AM: Message edited by: Invisible Brainiac ]
Posted by Invisible Brainiac on :
From Aleph:
Thanot, Kinetix's brother, was empowered by another artifact their mother found. Instead of bringing objects to life, he can bring living things to a temporary death... His touch transforms them into inert materials. Diamond, coal, wood, what have you. He can restore them, but must do so after six hours or else they permanently turn into said material.
He has wisely avoided trying to turn things into liquid or gaseous forms.
He's been working as a paramedic. By transmuting accident victims into inanimate objects, he can "freeze" their injuries until they are transported to a hospital. He was also awarded a medal for ssving several people by turning them into iron during a flash flood. Seeing the changes his sister Kinetix has undergone has made him adamantly opposed to superheroing himself, though.
Posted by Set on :
Ooh, I like Dreamcatcher! That's a neat power.
Thanot's power is cool, and I like how he has found a way to use a life-stealing power to save lives. (I was thinking of giving him a death-related power as well, only to fine-tune his ability to kill stuff to target disease organisms, parasites or tumors or the like, without harming the rest of a person.)
Posted by Invisible Brainiac on :
Thanks, Set! I had to go back and edit Dreamcatcher's origin, when i realized that the stampede could simply be her sister's precognition at work (however unlikely a stampede was).
Re Thanot, I thought death vs. life too, but I also wanted to relate his powers to inanimate objects.
Posted by razsolo on :
I'm glad this thread got bumped!
Trinary, Dreamcatcher and Starback are all pretty awesome (though admittedly Starback does make my inner 12 year old snigger with the idea of flying by virtue of lit methane)...I like the idea though that Starback would be considered pretty intimidating to a Hykraian for reasons that would most likely not register for an offworlder all that much...
Here are some more contributions:
The White Sage is an enigmatic figure from Bgtzl. Cloaked in white robes which obscure his identity and give him a supernatural appearance, he has the same intangibility abilities as any native Bgtzlr with a little something extra...he has the psychometric ability to experience the recent history of anything or anyone he passes through.
The White Sage will often appear at homicide scenes and be able to identify a victim's murderer by walking through their corpse. Obviously this only works if the victim themselves was aware of their murderer, but even if they died unaware of who killed them he can usually gain enough clues to investigate further. Because he psychically experiences what happened as if it were happening to himself, he has had to learn to distance himself emotionally from other people and he therefore comes across as quite aloof and even creepy to anyone around him...he is unmistakably one of the good guys though, as he always uses his abilities to avenge crimes and help the innocent.
Tranquility is the resident superheroine of Earth's own moon. Amoris Riccioli was the first child born to the Lunar colony, and very soon after her birth her family realised she was something special. She was always a placid child, and those around her found her presence to be calming. As she grew older, she learned that she had a form of empathic influence over others. She could calm people down if they were angry, soothe their pain or grief, and even inspire feelings of loyalty and love where those feelings never existed. She never used these abilities selfishly though, only ever to help those around her.
As time went on, something else became apparent about Amoris. She never got sick, she healed quickly from any injury, and she aged extremely slowly. Even now, hundreds of years after the moon was settled, she physically appers to be in her late teens.
She always acted in the best interests of those around her anyway, but inspired by the Legion of Superheroes Amoris has recently designed a costume for herself and adopted the codename Tranquility, after the feeling she inspires in others (and also for the Sea of Tranquility, her birthplace). She has always felt a strong sense of connectedness to her lunar home, and never felt the slightest urge to leave. This is for the best, as what nobody (including Amoris) realises is that her powers are the Greek goddess Selene's final gift to humanity before her pantheon left Earth's plane completely. They will only function while she is on the lunar surface, and if Tranquility were ever to leave the moon her centuries of life would catch up with her and she would die of old age in moments.
[ May 28, 2012, 07:52 AM: Message edited by: razsolo ]
Posted by Invisible Brainiac on :
I wonder if we should attempt to write a fic using all these characters we're creating.
From Starhaven -
Spirit Guide is a a much sought-after "guide" because she can see the paths people may take in their lives. A session with her will involve her walking you through the potential consequences of major life choices you may make. She can even suggest several paths you may consider in the distant future. She's a precog, in a way, but focuses on the "maybes" instead of the "definitelies".
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Invisible Brainiac: I wonder if we should attempt to write a fic using all these characters we're creating.
Oh gosh, there's just too many! Still, it could be fun to use some of them!
.
From Braal;
Doctor Polaris, M.D., this ambitious and supremely confident young woman was born with weaker than racial average magnetic abilities, which she has made the best of by learning to use them on a micro-scale (which normal Braalians can rarely do, lacking the fine control), allowing her to read and manipulate signals in machinery, re-program computers, or even affect the human(oid) nervous system, causing paralysis or even jerky physical manipulation. Barely able to lift a couple of kilos off the ground, magnokinetically, but able to interfere with brain functions and knock people out with a touch, or a few moments concentration, at relatively close range. Keen magnetic perception and training allow her to function as a living MRI, or ‘EMP’ living organisms. She is a trained physician, and has some medical applications for magnetism as well, to prevent shock or accelerate healing (to a very limited degree!). Is well-aware that there used to be a villain with magnetic powers named Dr. Polaris, and ironically says that she’s just following in the footsteps of Brainiac 5, reclaiming the name of a villain from the dustbin of history.
[ May 28, 2012, 09:47 AM: Message edited by: Set ]
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo: The White Sage Tranquility
I like the White Sage's concept. It's kind of like a more passive version of what Quislet does, but instead of passing into an object and seizing control of it (and eventually destroying it), White Sage passes through a character and sort of let it all sift through him on a molecular level, learning all about it.
Tranquility's ties to Selene are very cool! I made up a 'Moon Maiden' ages ago in some other thread, but I think I like the link between Tranquility's powers and the Sea of Tranquility and Selene better. That's some nicely tied-together backstory! (The aging-to-death if she leaves the moon thing could suck for her, though!)
.
From the Sorcerer's World (not a hero, by any stretch of the imagination!);
Mauvais Mal Sang is a blood mage. By preparing an item with a few drops of his own blood, he can manipulate it via spells that simulate telekinesis, pyrokinesis or weather control effects. He can make ‘flame powder’ or ‘alchemist’s fire’ for instance, or a sealed clay pot that when opened releases a great cloud of fog, or a sack that produces a gust of wind, or a ‘winged knife’ or enchant his staff to allow him to fly (as long as he holds on tight!), or do the same to his clothing (much safer!). He’s also a whiz at both magical and mundane arts of blood analysis and can manipulate another person’s mind or body (or spy on them, read their emotions, etc.) by getting his blood on or in them. Getting his hands on someone elses blood allows him to do all sorts of divinations upon them. Through direct blood manipulation he can cause someone he’s touching to experience excruciating pain (or pleasure!), and can heal or harm, to a limited extent (pain is caused by manipulating flow of blood telekinetically, or by heating it up pyrokinetically, or by ‘turning blood to water’). He didn't start out intending to be a ‘super-villain,’ but definitely a charismatic problem character, as he’s got a blood cult and uncertain ambitions... If the Legion foils his plans, he’s likely to become the Legion of Super-Villains go-to person for magical solutions. (Would be Brother Blood, for the new century, works off of Sorcerer’s World, for the most part, attempting to build his cult.) Carries an assortment of notched knives for ritual bloodletting.
[ May 28, 2012, 09:47 AM: Message edited by: Set ]
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Invisible Brainiac: Spirit Guide
I like that Spirit Guide is less of a costumed adventurer, and more of a 'person with powers' who serves as more of a plot element, offering counsel and guidance to a character, rather than running around solving crimes and getting into fistfights. It's a neat practical power, and the sort of thing that might be good at averting crimes before they happen (by steering lost or confused or misguided people towards better paths in life).
It's kind of where I was going with Link, but he's uber-specialized in dealing with Winathian singletons, whereas Spirit Guide's counsel can help all sorts of folk.
.
From Titan;
Obyria Sajh, ‘the Titanian Supergirl.’ Obyria has developed the ability to use her natural telepathy to communicate at ranges of several thousand kilometers (most Titanians are limited to a couple hundred yards, or, at most, a kilometer or two), although she does not have the ability to deeply probe minds, telepathically ‘shout’ to mental blast others, edit memories, create illusions, etc. (Like most Titanian telepaths not named Imra, her telepathy is purely for communication, and she can no more use telepathy to seize control of another persons’ mind or body than the average Earth-human could shatter a glass by singing at it.) She also has a greatly developed gift for mind over body / biofeedback techniques, which most Titanians can use only to meditate and block mild pain and the like, but she can use to place her body in a state of near-stasis, while yet remaining active, allowing her to ignore extremes of temperature and pressure, hunger, pain, thirst, fatigue, etc. and even to survive in the vacuum of space unprotected (her limited telekinetic gifts even help her to retain body heat and shield off the effects of ambient radiation). Finally, she has the rarest of Titanian psychic gifts, that of telekinesis, although she can only affect her own body, and use her power to levitate herself from the ground. Most Titanians with this gift can only levitate while meditating, a meter off of the ground, but she can propel herself from the ground into orbit with her power, and fly at speeds comparable to hovercraft. While something of a legend on Titan, she smiles at the thought of joining the Legion, since her amazing powers are matched by the ‘abilities’ that every Legionnaire is handed upon acceptance, in the form of their Legion Flight Ring, transsuit and telepathic earplugs...
[ May 28, 2012, 09:52 AM: Message edited by: Set ]
Posted by Set on :
More from Titan! Why should Earth, Xanthu and Lallor be the only worlds to have their own hero teams?
Introducing, Team Titan, a group of (mostly) Titanian telepaths who specialize in different forms of highly specific telepathic perception and manipulation, each an expert without peer in their specific area of focus.
Adjudicator Wei Krim specializes in perceiving and manipulating sensory information. He is able to interact with / manipulate / perceive sensory information *before* it reaches the brain, bypassing most telepathic / psychic defenses or perceptions. A near photographic memory and special interface implant (built by his teammate, Jianni) that allows him to store sensory information (his own or that received from others) into special holo-crystals. Illusions, blinding foes, spying on people by tapping into their senses without them knowing it are his specialties when action is called for. He’s an older curmudgeonly sort, fanatically law-abiding, of Tibetan ancestry.
Operative Dren MacLaren, focuses his telepathic talent to perceive & manipulate emotions. He plays the role a promiscuous playboy, with a reputation for using his powers to ‘get lucky,’ but does not abuse his powers in this manner (although he does manipulate his *own* emotions, to fill himself with self-confidence!). Generally mistrusted by anyone who hasn’t met him, due to his openly working for the Titanian government intelligence and security apparatus, and doesn’t use his powers to change this perception. Prevents fights when possible by reducing fear and aggression, but once it’s ‘on,’ he cuts loose with fear and uncertainty attacks (while bolstering allies confidence). Young redhead of uncertain ancestry.
Dr. Oro Milosynos, highly skilled at perceiving and manipulating memories, is a middle-aged slightly out of shape professional psychiatrist of African ancestry. He's very friendly and acts more like Operative MacLaren is expected to act, becoming everybody’s confident, even against their better judgement. The Operative is a red herring, to draw attention away from the good Doctor’s own ties to Titanian intelligence and the military. In combat, the good Doctor makes foes forget why they are foes, how their weapons work, or even how to walk and talk, in extremis!
Jianna Mirali wears a special helmet of her own design that allows her to telepathically interface with & control machines. She's the youngest member of the team, a mixed heritage Asian with tattoos and piercings and multi-colored hair, drawing attention away from her keen technical mind. She carries storage media allowing her to download information telepathically to her own data-stores, and has an assortment of nonlethal weapons, some of her own design (such as psi-grenades that generate ‘psychic static’ and disorient unshielded telepaths). She could also call herself ‘doctor,’ as she has two doctorates (and would have a third if she didn’t get bored and tell off her advisor, telling him that she knew more about his field of study than he did, which was true, if not the most diplomatic approach…), but finds the notion pretentious (and gently chides her teammates by only addressing them by their titles, in a sarcastic tone of ‘voice’).
Prince Anaxander, the only non-Titanian (and non-telepath) on the team, is a Muus, an anthropomorphic rat-man, descended from the hyper-intelligent rats of Dakota created during the ‘Big Bang’ on Earth, 1000 years ago (how they got off-world, nobody knows). He’s a Psi-Null, immune to all psychic forces, and able to disrupt all psionic energy in an area, or specifically focus to negate the psychic abilities of a single individual at range. He is not really a prince. (All Muus lie about that sort of thing, making up fanciful titles or honorifics for themselves when off-world, which few are, as they are still developing the combustion engine on their ‘home-world,’ a ruined world that was abandoned after a World War involving biological, chemical and nuclear weapons devastated it. The hardy Muus live in the ruins of that civilization, and number in the hundreds of thousands, mutated in various ways, from rat-sized to horse-sized, rat-shaped to fully-anthropomorphic to tauroid!)
Posted by Invisible Brainiac on :
I find your Team Titan idea VERY interesting! Not just how you split the telepathic abilities amongst them, but also how you came up with personalities to match. I'd definitely read a mini about them.
quote:Originally posted by Set:
quote:Originally posted by Invisible Brainiac: Spirit Guide
I like that Spirit Guide is less of a costumed adventurer, and more of a 'person with powers' who serves as more of a plot element, offering counsel and guidance to a character, rather than running around solving crimes and getting into fistfights. It's a neat practical power, and the sort of thing that might be good at averting crimes before they happen (by steering lost or confused or misguided people towards better paths in life).
It's kind of where I was going with Link, but he's uber-specialized in dealing with Winathian singletons, whereas Spirit Guide's counsel can help all sorts of folk.
Yes, I see the link with Link. But whereas Link "suggests" via synch, I see Spirit Guide as more of a counselor. People go to her and ask, "I have choice A and choice B. What could happen if I choose A?" And Spirit Guide shows them the possible outcomes. And Spirit Guide will "show" them how. She's very hands off and doesn't have any powers of influence at all.
In the Wheel of Time series, there are devices which can show certain people the possible outcomes of their actions. That's what I was aiming for with Spirit Guide
I like Link's concept, though. Very shades of grey, so to speak.
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Invisible Brainiac: I find your Team Titan idea VERY interesting! Not just how you split the telepathic abilities amongst them, but also how you came up with personalities to match. I'd definitely read a mini about them.
Thanks!
Telepathy is an interesting power, because it can go so many ways. Mentalla, for instance, was said to specialize in direct mind control (as does Saturn Queen, apparently). Saturn Girl is just generally good at everything. But even an above-average Titanian might have a specialty, whether it be memory or sensory perception or linking up with animals / affecting sentience itself or manifesting people's hopes & fears or dream manipulation or linguistic functions, etc. There's tons of possibilities!
Posted by Invisible Brainiac on :
Yeah, Titan has proved to be a goldmine!
From Colu:
I remember the Postboot Colu was said to prize theory over applied research. My concepts revolve around Coluans who subscribe to various theories of intelligence.
Brainiac 8 of the Brainiac line hit upon a novel idea her ancestors never did. She believed in Howard Garnder's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, and was able to devise a way to allocate her twelve thought-tracks among these 8 at will.
She can have up to a 10th level functioning in each of these 8:
The only reason she doesn't reach up to a 12th in each is so she has some "juice" remaining for the other 7.
The applications are boundless. With a 10th level interpersonal intelligence, she has been known to break even the most hardened criminals in interrogation, and to negotiate agreements between planets who have been warring for generations. A 10th level in musical intelligence allows her to hypnotize or heal the mind with her compositions. When she focuses on visual-spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence she can mimic the movements of animals and has superb athletic ability.
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Invisible Brainiac: Brainiac 8 of the Brainiac line hit upon a novel idea her ancestors never did. She believed in Howard Garnder's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, and was able to devise a way to allocate her twelve thought-tracks among these 8 at will.
Ooh, that's intriguing! Even if she wasn't a 'Brainiac' with a 12th level intelligence, a bog-standard Coluan willing to devote their brain-power to something other than Brainy's exclusive (and limiting) focus on Logical-Mathematical intelligence could be very interesting.
A Coluan focusing on Interpersonal intelligence would be terrifying good at 'schmoozing' and social manipulations (and yet also empathic enough to be likely to use their insights for good!).
A Linguistic genius could be like Cypher, from the New Mutants.
I had considered Coluans who focused on Tactical/Strategic/Military studies (imagine a Coluan Sun Tzu!), or Social manipulation, or even Finance (Ferengi, eat your hearts out!), or Governance (the ultimate societal engineer, the consumate politician!), but breaking it down using the Theory of Intelligence is inspired!
Posted by Shining Son on :
Since you guys have brought up Coluans, can anyone point me to a source that explains just what the heck a "level of intelligence" is in the DCU? Or some sort of benchmarks for what the different levels may do? I've never understood the term, and don't recall where humans are on the scale, if it's ever been mentioned.
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Traditionally, Earth-humans are 6th level, normal Coluans are 10th-level, and Brainiacs are 12th-level.
I'm pretty sure the Coluans themselves invented the measure of levels, so I've long suspected that, much like IQ tests in the real world, there's a certain amount of bias in the measurement. Posted by Power Boy on :
Solar powered Kryptonians are 8s?
I remember they are exponential measurements.
Except I think IIRC they redid the measurements when ... Threeboot Brainiac 5 saying he was a 12 ... and all of Earth was a 6. which sounds weird ... or something like that.
I would refer to the previous system.
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Eryk Davis Ester: Traditionally, Earth-humans are 6th level, normal Coluans are 10th-level, and Brainiacs are 12th-level.
I thought humans were 3rd level, and Kryptonians 5th, on the Coluan scale? (Making Superman 100x smarter than Batman, which is hilarious, considering how Batgod is portrayed...)
If humans are 6th, and normal Coluans 10th, that means that the average Coluan is only 10,000x smarter than the average human! (Although Brainy is a cool million times smarter than an average human!)
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Shining Son: Since you guys have brought up Coluans, can anyone point me to a source that explains just what the heck a "level of intelligence" is in the DCU? Or some sort of benchmarks for what the different levels may do? I've never understood the term, and don't recall where humans are on the scale, if it's ever been mentioned.
As I understand it, each 'level of intelligence' is supposed to be an order of magnitude above the one before it. So someone with a '5th level effector intelligence' was 10x smarter than someone with a '4th level' intelligence, and only 1/10th as smart as someone with a '6th level' intelligence.
Posted by Shining Son on :
Now how the hell are normal earth humans supposed to write characters millions of times smarter than they are? And how are we to know when they're writing them well?
How do characters that smart ever make mistakes? (But boy, DO they!)
These are poor fictional decisions for ongoing storytelling in my opinion. Like saying the Green Lanterns have been around for millions of years. Same with the old Jedi Order. Unnecessary and it hampers future stories without any more benefit than saying they've been around for say, 2000 years. Or even 5000.
Harrumph.
At least they've finally caught on a bit and admit the Guardians' 3600 sectors do not actually comprise the infinite universe.
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Shining Son: Now how the hell are normal earth humans supposed to write characters millions of times smarter than they are? And how are we to know when they're writing them well?
Comics (and sci-fi) are kind of infamous for being clueless about scale. Never mind that being strong enough to lift a truck over your head would make you pretty much unstoppable in a fist-fight, Superboy has to be able to drop-kick the moon into a new orbit. Every thing has to be ridonkulously bigger and tougher and crazier than the last ridonkulously big and tough and crazy thing, until it's blown past ludicrous speed and well past caricature and possibly even past plaid.
And so, in that sort of comic book world, a guy who is the intellectual equal of *ten* men seems kind of lame. Brainy instead has to be as much smarter than a normal person as Superboy is as much *stronger* than a normal person. Ten times isn't enough. A hundred times isn't enough. To be 'super,' he's got to be a *million* times smarter than a normal person (and even then, Superboy's probably several trillion times stronger than a normal person, at least...).
And all the mega-disasters have to threaten the entire universe!, and yet be fixed by something that's terribly specific to Earth, which is one of 10,000,000 inhabitable planets in one spiral arm of one of 10,000,000 galaxies... Gosh, good thing that the disaster didn't happen on one of the 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 planets that Superman's never heard of! We'd be screwed!
It's all terribly escalatory, to the point where the numbers just become meaningless, and you get stories from the old days where the Specter and one of his villains were *throwing planets at each other.* (Much, much later also done by the Celestials attacking Infinity-Gauntlet-wearing Thanos, with better art.)
For a time, the Legion was getting inflationary as well. Shadow Lass was able to block out the light of an entire star, while Sun Boy was, at the same time, able to generate sun-intensity light, to fool some spacegoing critters who navigated through an area. Element Lad was able to change the atmospheric content of the entire planet Earth (to the great discomfort of tens of thousands of Daxamites). In the Threeboot, Star Boy and Light Lass, with the help of some machinery, re-balance the gravitational forces of the solar system! Pretty cosmic stuff!
Sometimes I like that sort of thing, other times I can see it becoming problematic. (Element Lad has recently been toned way back, requiring Earth-Man's help and a Green Lantern ring boosting their power, to perform that same stunt, which is still vastly more impressive than his Threeboot incarnation, who could only change stuff he touched, and only for sixty seconds!)
I try to avoid Superman/Specter sorts of power levels when designing characters, just because, narratively, they are trickier to write for, and, as a role-playing gamer, 'party balance' is hard-coded into my DNA.
[ May 31, 2012, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: Set ]
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
At least with super-strength it's fairly clear what it means to say that someone is a million times stronger than the average human. If the average human can lift 200 lbs, they can lift 200 million lbs. It's hard to even make sense of what "a million times smarter than the average human" would even mean. I have doubts that it even makes sense to quantify intelligence in that way.
Sometimes it seems like what they have mind is that he has more computational power than human beings (hence, his "computer mind" as it's sometimes called), but that's something very different than intelligence.
Posted by Shining Son on :
Yes, I had the same thought, that it was simply a larger amount of RAM and a faster processor, so to speak. But then nevertheless they do use the word intelligence.
Anyway, I'm certainly used to the physical hyperbole, but the mental ones just don't translate into anything that works for me. At least not something they've ever conveyed in action.
They do work well enough when you're 7 years old though!
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Shining Son: Anyway, I'm certainly used to the physical hyperbole, but the mental ones just don't translate into anything that works for me. At least not something they've ever conveyed in action.
With the Authority crew, characters for whom hyperbole was their thing, became more and more popular, until it seemed like more and more characters were being re-defined as abstract boasts, instead of 'super-powers.' (That, and characters being able to utterly wreck something that vastly outpowered them a mere 5 minutes ago, by dint of 'being badass' or 'being more ruthless' or something lame like that, like some Schwarzeneggar movie where striking a pose and quipping a quip makes bad-guys fall over dead.)
Everytime I hear that Aquaman 'controls 2/3rds of the life on the planet' as if that somehow is relevant to someone standing on dry land, I cringe. Sure, it sounds more impressive that way than saying, 'he talks to fish,' but having characters (like Midnighter, or Morrison's take on Batman) who are 95% hat and only 5% cat, just bug me. It wasn't cool when it was Psylocke bragging about 'the focused totality of her telepathic powers' or Dawnstar never-shutting-up about her 'infallible tracking powers that got me into the Legion,' and it isn't any cooler now that it's Midnighter or Aquaman or whomever living and dying by their trendy oh so very precious catch-phrases.
Posted by razsolo on :
Brainiac 8 = awesome! I would love to see some more creative applications of Coluan intelligence than what we generally get Posted by razsolo on :
Triplicate Boy: Dru Lorgo is a Carggite who was born without the ability to triplicate which is native to his planet.
Some Carggites are occasionally born with this odd genetic quirk. It's seen on par with being a little visually/hearing-impaired; it can make life more challenging in certain respects, but it's not like it's completely debilitating.
Dru however can do something that no other Carggite has ever been capable of. He can triplicate anything else he touches (Editor's note: Carggite clothing is normally made of native organic fibres treated to respond to the wearer's power in kind...this is why their clothes triplicate when they do, but why for example Luornu has never created an extra couple of forcefield belts when they might have come in handy by just putting one on and triplicating...it took Brainy ages to figure out a way to attune even her flight ring/flight belt to her power).
Triplicate Boy seems to be limited to replicating anything up to his own body mass, and after approximately 12 hours the extra copies will simply vanish if he hasn't already dispelled them.
Anything he creates is an exact functioning duplicate of the original item. If he uses his triplication power on a sentient being, that being controls the second and third bodies as if they themselves had suddenly developed their own Carggite abilities.
Such an odd power does come in handy, but he's never really felt that it's quite Legion standard so he's happy just acting as a part-time hero on his own planet.
The Phage: A masked crimefighter on Somahtur. He has the ability to eradicate any virus or bacteria within his presence, a power which can have devastating effects on his fellow Somahturians who all possess a symbiotic relationship with these microscopic lifeforms.
Unlike his fellow Somahturian Infectious Lass, the man known only as the Phage has no desire to leave his homeworld. He also has a mild paranoia that if the UP got their hands on him, they would experiment on him to create a miracle cure for all diseases that would be abused by those in power.
The Phage is a Robin Hood type...he serves the common man, but generally distrusts any form of authority.
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo: Triplicate Boy
That's clever! I like how you tweaked the native Carggite ability to make something entirely new.
The ability to affect even people, could be incredible, if someone like Element Lad or Mon-El was present!
quote:The Phage
Also cool!
I always wanted to tweak the Somahturans by having them be the remains of the humanoids who either originally lived there, or of colonists who were infected and 'killed' by sentient viral hive-minds. It wasn't a malicious act, the colonies of micro-sentiences had always taken over larger (non-sentient) life-forms, in such numbers that each human-sized life-form was like an entire world to their people, and they didn't know until it was too late that the new host bodies that had become available to them belonged to creatures that were *already* sentient...
Posted by Set on :
From the Dominator Throneworld;
Omniphage, Genetically modified, Omniphage has a thick torso, and his head has almost a dozen seperate mouths. In the center of his head, a massive snout like fanged mouth, large enough to engulf a smaller man's head, is filled with fangs stronger than steel, and is possessed of superhumanly strong muscles, giving it crushing force far greater than it's appearance would suggest. Below that mouth, in the middle of the neck, another mouth leads directly to the digestive system, and Omniphage can spit a mixture of digestive acids and enzymes that are too potent for his own body to contain, in their concentrated state. On the sides of his bull-like neck, six tube-like structures end in smaller mouths, with the shortest of them producing sounds too low for humans to register, the mid-length 'pipes' producing sound and speech in human ranges, and the highest-placed of these mouths generating souunds pitched too high for humans to hear. Working in tandem, these six throats can produce complicated multi-part harmonies, only partially audible to humans, that have a hypnotic sedative effect, causing people to become sluggish and suggestible. Atop the central mouth, placed where nostrils would be for most humanoids with a similar snout-like facial structure, a pair of smaller mouths can spray forth a paralyzing toxic mist that blinds and envenomes those struck, either in one or two thin streams of fluid that can travel up to 30 ft, or in a cone like spray of fine droplets that can fill an area in front of him. His final mouth is in the center of his dome-like forehead, and can generate powerful pulses of sound, usable for echolocation or sonar scans or even direct attacks, able to produce sonic pulses powerful enough to potentially rupture some internal organs, shatter eardrums or stun foes by damaging them internally. Tiny beady eyes provide only limited visual perception, but his incredibly advanced senses of hearing, taste, smell and thermal sensation (augmented by his many tongues, which are sensitive to scent and fluctuations in temperature) more than compensate for any visual shortcomings.
The other members of Dominator Super-Squad Six tend to regard Omniphage as a big, dumb brute, or walking bio-weapon, assaulting foes with globs of acid, sprays of toxin or punishing sonic assaults, but he is very intelligent, particularly in matters of linguistics and chemical analysis, and makes good use of his heightened sensory range, and ability to stupefy targets with his hypnotic 'backup chorus'.
While the sonic pulses from his upper-most mouth are not generally powerful enough to easily rupture most internal organs, certain external organs, such as eardrums, or, a particular favorite, eyeballs, are vulnerable to his attacks, and he is more than willing to cause permanant harm in this manner, as 'super-hero' means something quite different to the Dominator teams...
[Yes, this is a different version of Visi-Lad. Instead of having a half-dozen pairs of eyes, each with different functions, Omniphage as a bunch of different *mouths,* each with their own super-powers.
I leave to the readers imagination what sort of powers Polyphallic Pete would have...]
Posted by razsolo on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: From the Dominator Throneworld;
Omniphage
That's okay, I didn't plan on ever sleeping again.
Or being in a room with the lights off.
*_*
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo:
quote:Originally posted by Set: From the Dominator Throneworld;
Omniphage
That's okay, I didn't plan on ever sleeping again.
Or being in a room with the lights off.
*_*
Heh. My other idea in that vein was Eyeful Ethyl's second cousin, Mouthy Myrtle, who has a dozen mouths and never shuts up.
Mouthy Myrtle totally needs to appear in a MLLASH picture, getting killed by Frenemy or Fembrain (or both!) for annoying them... (probably by having her many mouths stuffed with delicious pastries, in the Death of a Thousand Ding-Dongs)
Posted by Shining Son on :
See, now I came up with a totally different use for a dozen mouths.
Posted by Set on :
From Orando (although currently operating on the Sorcerer's World);
Lady Lake inheritor of a mystical legacy from old Earth, the knight who calls herself Lady Lake wears medieval styled armor of advanced metal composite, and carries no visible weaponry. Her tabard depicts her personal crest, a blood-red sword crossed behind a silver-gray triangular shield that bears the sigil of a golden-yellow bowl pouring forth a white river. When she extends a hand and wills it so, sparkling energy manifests and coalesces into the form of a indestructible hand-and-a-half sword, with a blade of a ruddy magically resonant metal, that strikes with the magical force and skill of the hundreds of knights who have born it throughout the ages. A thought, and the sword dissolves and is replaced by an unadorned shield of reflective silvery metal, as indestructible as the blade, and that produces a magical shield of force that protects not only Lady Lake, but any who stand behind her, manifesting as a barely visible hemispherical sideways dome of force. The third relic that can be manifested, again, only by dissolving whatever one she holds into sparkling energy, and reforming it, is a golden bowl that contains glowing water. Water from the bowl serves to heal those who touch it or are annointed with it, washing away even grievous injuries, the effects of disease, exhaustion, privation, toxin or radiation poisoning, as readily as normal water sluices away dirt. By tipping the bowl in a direction and allowing the water to spill forth, she can also generate a wave of water that sweeps those near in that direction from their feet, and can extinquish flames, or cleanse an area of toxins or radiation.
Lady Lake's true identity remains a mystery to the people of Orando, as she does not remove her helmet in public, and has special dispensation from Queen Projectra to refuse to do so in the presence of anyone who would otherwise be able to demand her to do so.
Rumors swirl, some saying that she is a young noblewoman, afraid that her father will forbid her from serving as a champion in this manner, or that her father is scurrilous or ill-favored in some way, and Lady Lake does not wish them to gain in esteem from her actions. The most scandalous rumor is that she is no 'Lady' at all, but a mere commoner, and that the Queen, as is her occasionally-frustrating traditions-flouting wont, allows her to remain anonymous and call herself 'Lady.'
[ June 12, 2012, 10:36 PM: Message edited by: Set ]
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Shining Son: See, now I came up with a totally different use for a dozen mouths.
Well, yes, obviously she'd *own* at hot dog eating contests.
Sure, the Bismollan contestant would be a challenge, but he's only got the one mouth, and, if he goes *too* fast, he'll lose fingers.
Bismollan eating contests are serious business, y'all! Medics are standing by!
She's also all up in the kissing booth. No waiting in line for this lass, she can kiss all comers!
If only she didn't have a voice (er, voices) like a sack of cats, she could be a one woman choir!
Posted by Invisible Brainiac on :
Thanks for the comments on Brainiac 8, Set and raz Studies in Psychology make for fertile ground. Emotional intelligence, in particular, is undervalued.
PS - Triplicate Boy sounds EXTREMELY powerful! If the Legion ever let him in...!
And Omniphage just sounds scarily interesting.
Posted by Set on :
From Talok III, Sariff Nor, called Skyborne.
At an early age, he found an ancient alien corpse in an underground cistern. The organic crystal bracers worn by the alien flowed from it's body to his own, and fused to his nervous system, becoming unremovable. From them, he could generate propulsive force, with a distinctive 'wing' like appearance, forming behind his arms and propelling him into the air. For the first few meters from his outstretched arms, the force is solid and powerfully repulsive, allowing him to block incoming attacks with ease, or to strike someone with them and hurl them back with force similar to that of a jet engine (the counterforce of such an effect paradoxically not affecting him, when he choses to do this). A mostly intangible manifestation that resembles white tendrils of mist extends another five meters or more, when he's in flight, and can trail behind him for a kilometer or more. A faint white fog also steams off of him, when the wings are manifested, and he is protected from the thin cold atmosphere of the upper skies, and from the effects of air friction when he travels at speed.
He later learned that his power works equally well underwater, forming inky black 'wings' that appear fluid instead of wisps of white fog, and with a crawling inky aura that protects him from the pressure, cold and airlessness of the deep ocean, as well as enhancing his vision, allowing him to navigate the sunless deep. Only by accident did he learn that his aura and wings will also function in outer space, protecting him from the radiation, cold and lack of pressure or atmosphere, and manifesting as intricate lines and curves of white light streaming behind him. While he has come to love exploring the oceans with this aspect of his powers, he is terrified of travelling through space, and has only once made the trip from Talok III to 'sister-world' of Talok VIII under his own power, preferring to commute between worlds of the Talok system by commercial shuttle.
By necessity, Skyborne has become quite skilled at blocking anything up and including blasterfire with his force-wings, and moving in close enough to 'clothesline' foes while he flies amongst them, all without touching the ground. He has also found the visible manifestations, whether 'mist' or 'ink' or 'swirly lights,' to be useful for obscuring the vision of others, and he seems to have no difficulty navigating through the streams of fog (or ink, etc.) that he leaves behind.
Posted by razsolo on :
Skyborne sounds awesome! I love the visual of his power, and it's carrying on the proud DC tradition of heroes using alien equipment as established by such fine precedents as Hal Jordan, Lana Lang and Jaime Reyes. Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo: Skyborne sounds awesome! I love the visual of his power, and it's carrying on the proud DC tradition of heroes using alien equipment as established by such fine precedents as Hal Jordan, Lana Lang and Jaime Reyes.
Thanks! The visual was indeed what sold me on that power. Ever since Jean Grey flew up out of the water with her big fire wings, I've loved the idea of energy wing like structures.
I chose the alien tech to fit the only other hero I knew of from Talok III, the alien Starman, Mikaal Tomas. Being a non-Legionnaire hero, it was totally fine for him to have device-granted powers, as well.
Posted by Set on :
Also not a hero, and also from Titan, which is apparently crawling with super-types, in my head;
'Party Boy' (a name he never uses) is Tolin Xiraph, the sole son (and clone) of Fenar Xiraph, head of Xiraph Verti Enterprises, a prominent Titanian telepathic defense contractor. Too busy to have kids 'the old fashioned way,' the Sr. Xiraph had a clone of himself decanted, and mid-way through the child's youth, discovered a fluke effect of his telepathic potential is that he uncontrollably broadcast the effects of any mind or mood altering effect to all around him (first discovered with an energy drink). After years of trying to teach him to suppress this ability, the disciplinarian elder Xiraph gave up and suggested that he find a practical way to capitalize on it, thinking perhaps a job in pharmacological research, or some sort of substance-abuse therapy. Tolin had another idea, and instead took advantage of his ability to go to wild parties, and partake of controlled substances, 'sharing' the effect of whatever he was on with everyone around him. It was almost immediately discovered that, while high on sensory-affecting drugs and 'broadcasting,' other feelings and sensations were shared as well, when an attractive fan of the effect he was sharing gave him a passionate kiss, and the entire room got to share that, and what followed, too.
Tolin is now invited to *all* the cool parties, as drug designers and 'hospitality professionals' compete to have him sample their wares, broadcasting them to everyone present, and advertising their 'product' to partygoers who might not be willing to pay for an untested product (or might be unwilling to sample anything that would remain in their body chemistry later, due to their jobs, making him popular at soirees hosted by the sorts of people who simply couldn't enjoy drugs any other way, due to their security clearances, etc.).
After the crash, he puts his telepathy-dampening helmet back on and goes home to his disappointed father, because he's well aware that *nobody* wants to be his best friend or enthusiastic lover when he comes back down to reality and the crushing depression returns...
Posted by Omni on :
Set i'm loving everyone of your creations!
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Omni: Set i'm loving everyone of your creations!
Thanks! I had a bunch written up, at first, but I'm saving a few for a fanfic (that I may never write, since I'm in the middle of one, and in the plotting stages of another...).
Others just sort of pop up, like this latest Titanian, or the Carggite sisters who can grant powers of flight, communications or adaptation to others, or the Dominator Super-Squad Six (of which Omniphage is the only one I've posted, so far) or the Sorcerer's Seven, a team of mages / mystical creatures operating from the Sorcerer's World (of which Lady Lake is the only one I've posted).
I love the ideas that others have posted, as well. I tend to think along certain lines, and never would have imagined bringing up new heroes from Zwenn, for instance!
Posted by Omni on :
Well i can't wait to see more of these if you get a chance.
and your right! the Zwenn heroes are great too!
honestly i'm just amazed at all the talent put forth on this thread!
Posted by Set on :
From the Sol system asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter;
Legends have been told about the Haunted Spacesuit since mankind first began mining the resources of the asteroid belt. Over the last seven centuries, there have been at least forty sightings of the space-suited figure, always arriving when a lone prospector or escape pod or damaged habitat module is in distress, drifting in from the dark of space using only the small jets from his ancient suit, a suit that, even when he was first seen, appeared out of date, like something from man's first expeditions into space. Witnesses claim that the suit bears the name 'Gillespie,' on a tag, and has a visible breach on the torso, leg and an arm, as well as a cracked faceplate, and one eyewitness swears that he got close enough to see into the faceplate, where a vacuum-dessicated corpse, glowly faintly from some sort of phosphorscent lichen, was the only occupant of the Haunted Spacesuit...
In his many appearances, none of which have been documented, due to a tendency of recording equipment to fail mysteriously when he is present, the Haunted Spacesuit has displayed superhuman strength, freeing trapped individuals, or cutting away entrapping debris, or making modest repairs to damaged ship components with a welder attached to his suit. Both welder and his suit's thrusters produce an eerie green flame (which never seem to run out of fuel), and when his silent task is completed, he turns and accelerates back into the void, to disappear back into the asteroid belt, until some hapless soul again needs his help.
Spacers who work the Belt, when they've had a bit too much synthale, speculate on who or what the Haunted Spacesuit is, or why he appears to held stranded spacefarers in the belt. The popular rumor is that he was the ship's mechanic on the New Destiny, a ship of one hundred souls that crashed with all hands lost due to shoddy maintenance in the belt 800 years ago, and that the Haunted Spacesuit must save as many souls as were lost to his previous neglect, before his body can finally rest...
Posted by Set on :
Running with the creepy 'undead heroes' theme, from Ganymede;
The Jupiter Station colony on Ganymede is sometimes called 'the Roanoke of Space,' after the mysterious disappearance of the 127 colonists eight months after the colony was established. The colony's chief engineer had reported to Earth that the transmitter relay was going to be down for 48 hours for repair, and after a week of no contact, a cargo ship was re-routed to see if they were experiencing difficulties. The cargo ship reported that there was no power at all in the colony. Every building lay open to the nearly airless cold of Ganymede, even the greenhouses, where the crops planted months before lay frozen and brittle. Every computer was wiped clean of data and powerless, with even the chemical backup batteries filled with nothing but heavy water. Only a single body was found, lying on the ground in the middle of the colony, wearing nothing but shorts, as if going for a stroll on a beach, and when the body was returned to Earth, it was noted that he wasn't any of the recorded colonists. A DNA test confirmed that he was the son of two of the colonists, one of whom was eight months pregnant at the time of their last contact with what was to have been the first child born on Ganymede, but how the young man had come to be in his late teens, when he shouldn't even have been born yet, and what became of his parents (and the other 125 colonists) remained a mystery.
It was even more of a mystery when he woke up, a literal Boy Zombie, whose body had no signs of clinical life, save when he touched a living person, and temporarily gained living qualities (such as body heat and circulation), at the cost of leaving the 'donor' weak and exhausted. By touch, he could draw enough energy to put others into a state of stasis that was nearly indistinguishable from death, and once he had 'awoken,' he proved to be animate and communicative, even while his body was 'dead as a doornail.' It was theorized that he could use his powers to draw so much life-energy as to kill someone, but he refused to test that theory, even on cloned tissue. He had no memories of anything that would help to resolve the mysteries of his appearance (or the disappearance of the Jupiter Station colonists), and, after exhaustive and frustrating amounts of research, has been allowed to pursue his own 'life,' as it were.
As a corpse, he's a bit stronger than you'd expect, and surprisingly resilient, although he does not heal damage that he suffers, unless he 'borrows' life-energy from living creatures (and, once he does, he heals at a greatly accelerated rate, particularly if there are multiple donors). He's found these traits, as well as his immunity to various environmental conditions, useful at times, and has some experience doing rescue work, since he can function in the depths of space, the bottom of the ocean, a toxic bioweapons zone, or the middle of a radioactive containment breach, without fear of 'dying' from the adverse conditions.
He's a personable fellow, for an ambulatory corpse who can steal life-energy from other people, and has an assortment of odd friends, who find his condition 'cool,' and volunteer to donate life-energy to him when he wishes to experience things like eating food. At first, he worried that repeatedly drawing life-energy from these friends might be harmful, but the only side-effects he's noted are a tendency to dress in black, smoke clove cigarettes and use words like 'ennui.'
Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: Running with the creepy 'undead heroes' theme, from Ganymede;
he worried that repeatedly drawing life-energy from these friends might be harmful, but the only side-effects he's noted are a tendency to dress in black, smoke clove cigarettes and use words like 'ennui.'
lol love this side affect!
Posted by Set on :
Random other Dominator 'super-heroes,' from the Dominator Super-Squad Six. (Note, there aren't six of them. They are 'super-squad six' because they are the sixth of the super-squads...)
Puppeteer is small, the size of a child, and has long thin limbs that end in skeletal splayed hands and feet with long talons. His hands and feet have microscopic barbs that allow him to cling to almost any surface, and he has a pair of 'hyper-adrenaline' glands that can give him short bursts of incredible speed, strength and resistance to pain (only about 30 seconds a day, so he has to ration out these bursts very carefully), as well as the ability to alter his coloration and manipulate his body temperature to become effectively camouflaged versus vision and thermal imaging.
But these are all minor secondary powers. His true power is to merge his body and nervous system with that of another that he has touched, causing their skin, flesh and bones to shift and make room for him, and seizing control of their body through direct interfacing with their nervous system. The effect is viscerally horrifying, as his arms thrust deep into the back of his target and emerge from their own arms, as the flesh of their limbs merge, and his own bony hands lock onto their forearms. His legs wrap around their waist and his feet similarly fuse into their own upper legs (for a humanoid target), while his head sinks so deeply into the back of their own head that their face appears stretched and distorted over his own, with his conical Dominator head and sect-mark protruding from the top of their cranium, and his many needle-like teeth showing through their grossly stretched lips, given the 'ridden' victim a grotesque and tormented look of shock and surprise.
Typically, 'on assignment' as a 'Dominator hero' (quelling uprisings on Dominator vassal worlds, oppressing folk, attacking colonies too close to their borders, the usual), Puppeteer 'rides' some large creature, possibly native to whatever world he is operating on, as large and vicious as he can get his hands on (or, more accurately, in), and once that creature is in the thick of things, and taking fire from the local threat, he'll leap clear and seek a new target to 'ride,' leaving the pain-maddened animal to rampage indiscriminately (and probably die, in shock and confusion). He regards his humanoid 'rides' with no more sentimentality, and will discard one with alacrity if the situation looks hopeless, leaving it to die in his place, using a burst of speed and then camouflage to escape sharing its fate.
Posted by Set on :
Also from the Dominator Super-Squad Six, the only female member of the team;
Photovore, whose powers were adapted from the plant-based biotechnology most comfortable to the Dominator gene engineers of the bio-sciences Sept, has the ability to absorb radiant energy and convert it towards growth. Her body appears skinless, with what appears to be exposed musculature the consistency of grained wood (although reddish-brown in color) and 'veins' of purple-black. When exposed to energy, not merely light, but even heat or electricity, her body explodes into rapid growth, swelling vastly in size and losing any pretense of humanoid form, becoming a massive pyramid of wood-hard 'flesh' with thorny whipping tentacles striking in all directions, capped by her swollen head. Depending on the amount of energy absorbed, and the local conditions, she can easily top 20 meters in height, with a base half that size, and vine-like tentacles that can extent another 10 meters from the base, with the greatly superhuman strength one would expect from that size and mass. She draws upon local resources to augment her growth, and grows fastest in damp areas with plenty of loose material, and yet she is not dependent upon those resources, being able to convert absorbed energy directly to new growth, at a reduced rate, allowing her to function even in the void of space, given an extraordinary source of radiant energy to absorb...
When the need for her vast bulk is done, or she has to relocate to another position, she peels her still humanoid body from the vast mass of extra growth, and leaves it behind, to decay at an accelerated rate.
Posted by Set on :
The Super-Squad member called Fever is the most reckless and headstrong member of the team, because the experiment that granted him his powers is considered a dismal failure, and he knows that after a six month 'evaluation period,' he'll be 'recycled,' if he doesn't somehow manage to prove his worth...
His body has been seeded with a proteanic retrovirus that recognizes Dominator DNA, and works to sustain and protect it, while tearing apart any DNA that it does not recognize it and converting it into Dominator DNA. The intention was that, by merely touching a non-Dominator with a bloodied talon, or spitting in their face, his viral payload would seep into an alien and tear it apart at a genetic level, rewriting it in mere minutes into a lower caste Dominator minion, slavishly loyal to higher caste Dominators (such as Fever himself), and yet retaining any meta-genetic traits (such as super-powers), turning the powers of alien heroes to the service of the Dominators, permanantly.
The delivery systems worked fine, and his gums and nails seep virus-tainted blood that he can spit or spray at someone with a flick of his fingers up to 30 feet away, with the blood even crawling short distances to infect nearby creatures, programmed to seek out body heat and the chemical traces of other living organisms. The virus even recognizes Dominator DNA and, instead of attacking it, can be used to heal and repair injured Dominators (particularly Fever himself, who regenerates damage at a prodigious rate).
Where it fails, is that the virus does not reprogram the DNA of aliens into servile sub-castes, it merely tears their alien DNA apart, causing them to die a horrible lingering painful death, which, while brutally effective at what it does, was not what it was *meant* to do.
Every time Fever watches his viral payload cause an alien victim to fall to the ground screaming as his body turns against him, he knows that if he does not prove his value through some remarkable success, he too will be torn apart on a genetic level, as the scientists who 'made' him reduce him to cellular soup, in an attempt to find out 'what went wrong.'
Posted by Set on :
A Dominator telepath can't just be a normal looking Dominator with some Titanian DNA spliced in, because that would be too easy for the genetic artists of the science division.
Hydra is barely recognizable as a Dominator, having been adapted to a centauroid form, with four legs on a stretched body, and a second upper chest where a quadruped's head would be, with four additional arms, thin and spindly, and thirteen seperate braincases.
Behind his primary head (with mouth, eyes and caste-mark), are a pair of similar skulls anchored to his back and shoulderblades, then three more, then two more, then three more, then a final pair, so far down his back that they are anchored on the back and shoulders of his lower tauroid body. The array of skulls leaves him utterly inflexible and without any sort of neck-structure, but the skulls on the outer surfaces have their own small black beady eyes, allowing Hydra to see in all directions without needing to turn his 'heads.'
His centauroid body structure was needed to support these additional skulls, and each contains a brain dedicated entirely to housing a telepathic entity that resembles a bright green eel of psionic energy that snake forth from the tops his 'heads' to strike at distant foes. Unlike a typical telepath, he can telepathically assault a dozen foes at once, bringing to bear his 'full attention' (or, at least, the full attention of one of his thirteen brains) on each target individually. So much of these brains are devoted to housing these 'psychic serpents' that he, despite his thirteen brains, is only three or four times smarter than the average Dominator of his caste, and he occasionally comes across as 'a bit slow,' as he parallel processes between his many brains, and they do not always agree immediately on any given course of action, having slightly different personalities...
His preferred tactic in a fight is to move forward slowly, holding four interlocking durable chitinous energy-dispersing shields in his spindly limbs to protect himself from incoming attacks, while sending forth up to a dozen dazzling green telepathic 'eels' to psychically assault foes. A single 'eel' is enough to possess a mundane opponent, and their eyes turn bright green as they turn their attacks upon their allies, under his direction. When those his serpents have 'possessed' fall to the attacks of their own allies, the serpents writhe free from their bodies and seek out new targets, to continue their sortees. Each serpent has it's own mind, and while they are not individually rocket scientists, Hydra does not have to direct their actions, or 'concentrate' to keep someone under their possession, being free to dedicate his own telepathic skills to coordinating his allies, or seeking out useful information, while his 'serpents' handle their own individual battles.
Hydra has discovered that a serpent can 'die' due to counter-telepathic attack, or the extremely sudden death of the entity they are possessing. When this happens, he is weakened and stunned, and it takes up to a month to replace the 'lost' serpent. He is all too aware of how the scientists would react to this 'flaw' in his 'design,' and so has kept this vulnerability secret.
Posted by Set on :
The sixth member of the Dominator Super-Squad Six goes by the name Seedling, and he gets pretty snotty if anyone mentions that he's basically the Dominator version of Chlorophyll Kid...
Unlike many of his teammates, he looks like a fairly standard member of his caste and Sept, although he's got a bit of a barrel gut, and his robes have a dozen openings, allowing him to reach the dozen marsupial-like pouch-slits along his sides and belly. In each pouch, a single seed, the size of a walnut, waits, and deeper in his stomach, dozens more await need.
He can toss a seed forth, each genetically engineered to be vastly more dangerous from the deadliest flora of hundreds of different worlds, and use his own powers to cause them to grow with incredible speed, and to continue through their, usually incredibly dangerous, life-cycle at an accelerated rate, by focusing his power upon them.
For nonlethal combat, he prefers to throw down seeds that sprout into roughly man-sized plants called vine lashers that shoot forth entangling vines and drag creatures captured to themselves, where great red leaves wrap around them and secrete toxins that place them into biochemical stasis. (Note that alien biochemistries may react oddly. The plant oxygenates it's captives, for instance, and a methane-breather like Tellus would be horribly poisoned to death by this 'nonlethal option.')
A variation of the same plant, carnivorus vine lashers, engineered to be much more lethal, has paralytic venomous thorny vines, and anyone dragged to the central plant is wrapped up and digested by enzymes and acids secreted by the leaves, instead of preserved.
A radically re-engineered version of a small 'vampire cactus' native to Talokk VIII sprouts under his direction to a meter wide, two-meter high barrel cactus with spines the length of arrows. Easily missed rootlets the size of pale human hairs snake out thirty feet from the cactus, and when stepped on or disturbed, the cactus shoots it's venomous barbed spines, also attached to the cactus by similar rootlets, that, like spider's web, are proportionally as strong as steel, at the disturbance.
The deadliest in his botanical arsenal, death-blooms sprout into elegant trumpet shaped white flowers on curlicued stalks, and the thick glistening red 'berry' that nestles between them is actually a primitive visual 'eyespot' organ. When it detects motion nearby, the flowers swivel and a golden mist of 'pollen' at the intruder. The 'pollen' is actually tiny seedlings, that, under the influence of Seedlings growth-accelerating power, shoot microscopic rootlets into the cells of any warm living body they land upon, voraciously devouring nutrients and liquids from the body. The effect, accelerated as it is, is fatal to a human sized target in less than a minute, and terribly painful, as the body is sucked dry by the ever-expanding mass of plant growth.
Within moments, the living target is a withered husk, it's bones being cracked open by the roots for the nutrients within, and new blossoms are unfurling above the body, a new danger to anyone else in the area...
Recognizing the extreme danger that both Kryptonians and Daxamites posed to their expansionist goals, the Dominion saved their 'best trick' for last. Adapting a Tamaranean vine, the monkey-strangler, which had evolved to be able to draw solar energy from Tamaranian mammals who absorbed it directly, Seedling can hurl a seed that expands into a vine-mass that wraps around his target, and if that target happens to be a creature that stores solar energy internally, the vine rapidly drains, absorbs and metabolizes that solar energy, weakening the target, and causing the vine-mass to grow at a vastly accelerated rate. A Tamaranian struck by such a seedling might well be crushed under the weight of a hundred kilos of plant matter, but a Daxamite or Kryptonian could find themself the center of a mass of wood and vine a hundred meters across, a threat to all around them, as well as themselves, as the tremendous amounts of solar energy in their cells fuel a monstrous explosion of plant growth, while also reducing their own power, leaving them weak and vulnerable. (Without Seedlings power to accelerate their growth cycle, such a parasitic effect might take months to cause harm, making the vine itself not that deadly, in it's native environment, no matter how much more effective the Dominators have made it through genetic engineering.)
Seedling likes to think of himself as leader of the Super-Squad Six, and none of the others seem to care enough to contradict him on the point.
[ June 17, 2012, 03:10 AM: Message edited by: Set ]
Posted by Set on :
The seventh and final member of the Dominator Super-Squad Six is Creche, whose body has become bonded with a spatial rift, allowing him to open a portal to 'innerspace' and release a dozen lower-caste bio-engineered warriors, each covered with chitinous armor, capable of extruding foot-long bone spikes from their palms, and carrying some sort of bio-weapon (guns that squirt acid, organic flechette rifles that throw dozens of poisonous quills, etc.). Creche's 'inner space' is disturbing and has a translucent organic appearance, as if those within it are actually within his body. His lower caste warriors are specially trained to remain mostly unconcious and fetal during 'storage,' and so avoid mental trauma, but other passengers, or those that he deliberately snatches and pulls into his extra-dimensional storage space, are not so lucky, often being traumatized by the experience.
Bizarrely, Creche can draw *himself* into his extra-dimensional space, which seems to have no disorienting effects on his own perceptions, vanishing and leaving behind only a hazy distortion in the air. From 'within' that spatial pocket, he can see dimly what occurs 'outside,' and even more the pocket around slowly, as strange shimmering distortion, that is, for the most part, immune to conventional attack, which he can use to effect an escape, or even pass through solid objects (or, in extremis, transport his entire team into or out of a situation, something they all wish to avoid, as they find the experience as disorienting as anyone else).
While 'inside himself' in this manner, the spatial distortion travels along at a relatively leisurely pace (not much faster than he could run), and is even more disorienting to passengers than normal when he 'steers' it through solid objects, or across the vacuum of space.
He has found occasions to use his portal creation power not only offensively (to absorb and 'swallow' people), but defensively as well, as physical attacks absorbed in this manner do not usually cause him harm (although they may well kill anyone currently 'inside' the space...).
[ June 17, 2012, 03:12 AM: Message edited by: Set ]
Posted by razsolo on :
That Dominator team is so frickin' creepy....I love them all! Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo: That Dominator team is so frickin' creepy....I love them all!
Thanks! I'd been watching too many underseas documentaries when I came up with Hydra, who has that reef-like structure on his back and a baker's dozen telepathic 'eels' snaking out.
Puppeteer is the creepiest, IMO. Sticks his hands right in there and takes over your nervous systems!
I think I'm done with Dominator 'heroes' for a bit. There were three or four others, but I cherry-picked out the most interesting ones. After folks like Omniphage and Seedling, 'some Dominator that makes force fields' just doesn't cut it, yanno?
Posted by Omni on :
Bgztl-
Trapper -Neal Dinzya has the natural ability of his people to become intangible but he also has the ability to stop others from being intangible. he has a field around his body that disrupts Bgztlian's phasing abilities. the field stretches to a radius of 5 feet. But its dampening time is limited to a 30 seconds from first contact. his ability works much better in close or touching proximity. he can turn off their ability for 1 hour at a time, when he touches them. Because of this limitation he has taken to learning hand to hand combat.
another limitation of his power is that as he can not use both powers at the same time.
As he grew up he was inspired by the stories of Phantom Girl's adventures to try to help.
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Omni: Bgztl- Trapper -Neal Dinzya
Ooh, another character whose powers are uniquely suited to situations on his home turf!
I like the idea that he can create a sort of interdiction zone or 'phantom anchor' to prevent a Bgtzln from phasing to escape.
This 'ghost' doesn't just rattle chains, he can tangle another Bgtzln up with them!
Posted by Omni on :
thanks! i'm glad yo like it.
yeah well i figured they had to have some way of catching criminals on Bgztl. so why not have someone who would have the natural ability to do that as well.
I've gotta agree with Razsolo those Dominators are definitely creepy!
wicked good job!
Posted by Set on :
Having a dorky sense of humor, I might have named your Bgtzln 'Jawn Dinzya,' so that I could, in my head, think of him as 'Trapper Jawn.'
Making him a medical doctor would have been entirely optional.
Ooh, a Bgtzln phase-surgeon! "Hold on a sec, I'll get that tumor / bullet / baby / alien parasite right out of there!"
Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: Having a dorky sense of humor, I might have named your Bgtzln 'Jawn Dinzya,' so that I could, in my head, think of him as 'Trapper Jawn.'
Making him a medical doctor would have been entirely optional.
Ooh, a Bgtzln phase-surgeon! "Hold on a sec, I'll get that tumor / bullet / baby / alien parasite right out of there!"
lol i love that!
Posted by Set on :
Originally from Thanagar, but currently on the Sorcerer's World, as one of the 'Sorcerer's Seven;"
Lector Seb Khereti is a Thanagarian sorcerer-priest, part of a Thanagarian sect of mystics called the Arumin that ingest ever-increasing doses of nth metal as part of their spiritual evolution, with effects both mystical and physical. Only a meter-and-a-half tall (due to the side-effects of ingesting all that metal while growing up), and thickly built, the Lector is hairless but for a reddish goatee braided in a style that an Earther would find reminiscent of ancient Egypt and has skin so dark brown as to be nearly black. His dress as well is of white linen and golden nth metal, in 'faux Egyptian' styles (which he claims the Thanagarians inspired in their visits to ancient Earth).
His magics tap into the gravity affecting properties of nth metal, and he has incantations that increase or decrease the effects of gravity on others, although he prefers not to use these effects to fly. He crafts silver, coppery red or golden-colored protective tattoos of nth-metal infused inks, and amulets and effigies of nth metal, to focus his spells, which are often warding or protective effects. His rare offensive spells are to grapple foes in bands or chains of conjured metal, to 'nail them to the sky' by levitating them high in the air and leaving them floating there for hours, or to draw away their strength using effigies (tiny figurines of nth metal that become more animate as the target's body becomes as sluggish and restrained as if their limbs were heavy as metal).
In addition to being shorter, darker and less prone to taking flight than the stereotypical Thanagarian, the Lector is also quite friendly and has an earthy sense of humor, completing his utterly 'un-Thanagarian' nature.
Posted by Set on :
From Naltor;
Due to the precognitive talents of its populace, the High Seer of Naltor has learned to keep many secrets from the rest of the United Planets, future information that would be unwise to share with peoples less able to deal with knowledge of predestiny. One such planetary secret is the existence of Dial L for Legion,.
What happened six hundred years in the future to so badly damage the legendary 'Hero Dial,' and what circumstances caused it to fall backwards in time, to be discovered by a Naltorian researcher into temporal mechanics, is unknown.
The lower 40% of the dial had been sheared away, and the upper right hand corner partially melted, leaving behind only the horizontal crossbar of the letter 'H' and the leftmost upper 'leg' of the letter, resembling now a capital 'L.' Even this fragment retained great power, and when turned over in the hand of its current bearer, Naltorian officer Benem Morr, the 'L-Dial' transforms him into anyone who has ever been a Legionnaire, past, present or future.
To the occasional off-worlder, and younger Naltorians not yet in on the secret, it seems as if Naltor is defended by random Legionnaires who 'just happen to be visiting Naltor at the time,' and by a plethora of unusual heroes that they have never heard of before (who will become Legionnaires, sometime over the next three centuries...).
Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: From Naltor;
Due to the precognitive talents of its populace, the High Seer of Naltor has learned to keep many secrets from the rest of the United Planets, future information that would be unwise to share with peoples less able to deal with knowledge of predestiny. One such planetary secret is the existence of Dial L for Legion,.
What happened six hundred years in the future to so badly damage the legendary 'Hero Dial,' and what circumstances caused it to fall backwards in time, to be discovered by a Naltorian researcher into temporal mechanics, is unknown.
The lower 40% of the dial had been sheared away, and the upper right hand corner partially melted, leaving behind only the horizontal crossbar of the letter 'H' and the leftmost upper 'leg' of the letter, resembling now a capital 'L.' Even this fragment retained great power, and when turned over in the hand of its current bearer, Naltorian officer Benem Morr, the 'L-Dial' transforms him into anyone who has ever been a Legionnaire, past, present or future.
To the occasional off-worlder, and younger Naltorians not yet in on the secret, it seems as if Naltor is defended by random Legionnaires who 'just happen to be visiting Naltor at the time,' and by a plethora of unusual heroes that they have never heard of before (who will become Legionnaires, sometime over the next three centuries...).
this is a new take on the Hero dial that i like! its time travel without real time travel! lol
Posted by Omni on :
Hykraius -
Hydrus - Helios - unlike most other Hykraians she does not posses both telepathy and telekinesis. she has the standard telepathy to allow her to communicate. But instead of telekinesis, she can manipulate water or more accurately she can manipulate liquid methane. the uses range from using it as a shield to creating more difficult forms. Like all of her race she can not breath outside the methane atmosphere. She can not generate the liquid methane only manipulate it.
Flare- Dalis- a mutant on Hykraius, he has neither telepathy or telekinesis. but he does posses a form of pyrokenisis; he has the ability to oxidize methane and cause heat to surround his body. when his body is heating up the air around him he can cause those around him to suffocate with heat stroke, he can also propel himself at great speeds, using the combustion of the methane.
the two of them are a crime fighting team on Hykraius. They are brother and sister. Helios helps to keep Dalis in check. just like his name he has a temper, which is also unusual as most Hykrian's are even tempered. she helps him to navigate "normal" Hykrian society. the two of them have a very special bond and even though Dalis doesn't communicate with telepathy, they share a bond that seems almost like telepathy to the casual observer.
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Omni: Hyrkraius
Ooh, I like the subtle bait 'n switch of having the aquakinetic being named 'Helios' (suggestive of someone with light or fire powers). More characters should totally mess with people by having names that give away absolutely nothing. (And more characters who just absolutely blow away expectations, for that matter. Some five foot nothing >100 lb. waif with super-strength, invulnerability and a sunny disposition, teamed up with a 6'6" bodybuilder who is a telepath/precognitive with a severe aversion to physical confrontation, would be a riot. "Shoot the bodyguard!" "No, the girl, you idiot! She's the bodyguard!"
An aquakinetic who has to carry the materials to use their powers around with them, is a fun concept. On 'Great Mother Ocean,' she'll always be surrounded by liquid (whether it be liquid water or liquid methane or whatever), but to travel off-world, she'll have to keep fluid handy, either around herself, like a big watery 'exoskeleton,' or relying on locally sourced materials (from water pipes underground, etc.) or perhaps even riding around in a 'battlesuit' or 'vehicle' made of aquakinetically manipulated ice!
On the last page of Superboy's Legion, there's a shot of the entire Legion flying towards the viewer, and, way in the back, there's what looks like a blue whale. In my head, that blue whale, instead of being a Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy in-joke or a easter egg, is an aquakinetic!
I'm a little fuzzy on Hyrkraians, I've got to admit. I've read that all Hyrkraians are telepathic and telekinetic, that all are telepathic and that Tellus being telekinetic is a rare fluke, and that Tellus is only telepathic as a result of Gil'Dishpan experimentation and that Hyrkraians normally communicate through their colored back nodules (which seemed to be straight from Steve Lightle's original description, although that doesn't necessarily mean that they haven't changed between intent and what is 'now canon').
I pretended they weren't all telepathic telekinetics, for my own write up, but who knows what's 'official' these days... Tellus himself has gone from being able to telekinetically lift a couple hundred pounds to being able to push around a metal tower that must have weighed many thousands of tons, so his power levels have gone from Marvel Girl to Phoenix, it seems. Posted by razsolo on :
Your Hykraians are awesome, Omni! Great use of their natural environment Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by Set:
quote:Originally posted by Omni: Hyrkraius
Ooh, I like the subtle bait 'n switch of having the aquakinetic being named 'Helios' (suggestive of someone with light or fire powers). More characters should totally mess with people by having names that give away absolutely nothing. (And more characters who just absolutely blow away expectations, for that matter. Some five foot nothing >100 lb. waif with super-strength, invulnerability and a sunny disposition, teamed up with a 6'6" bodybuilder who is a telepath/precognitive with a severe aversion to physical confrontation, would be a riot. "Shoot the bodyguard!" "No, the girl, you idiot! She's the bodyguard!"
An aquakinetic who has to carry the materials to use their powers around with them, is a fun concept. On 'Great Mother Ocean,' she'll always be surrounded by liquid (whether it be liquid water or liquid methane or whatever), but to travel off-world, she'll have to keep fluid handy, either around herself, like a big watery 'exoskeleton,' or relying on locally sourced materials (from water pipes underground, etc.) or perhaps even riding around in a 'battlesuit' or 'vehicle' made of aquakinetically manipulated ice!
On the last page of Superboy's Legion, there's a shot of the entire Legion flying towards the viewer, and, way in the back, there's what looks like a blue whale. In my head, that blue whale, instead of being a Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy in-joke or a easter egg, is an aquakinetic!
I'm a little fuzzy on Hyrkraians, I've got to admit. I've read that all Hyrkraians are telepathic and telekinetic, that all are telepathic and that Tellus being telekinetic is a rare fluke, and that Tellus is only telepathic as a result of Gil'Dishpan experimentation and that Hyrkraians normally communicate through their colored back nodules (which seemed to be straight from Steve Lightle's original description, although that doesn't necessarily mean that they haven't changed between intent and what is 'now canon').
I pretended they weren't all telepathic telekinetics, for my own write up, but who knows what's 'official' these days... Tellus himself has gone from being able to telekinetically lift a couple hundred pounds to being able to push around a metal tower that must have weighed many thousands of tons, so his power levels have gone from Marvel Girl to Phoenix, it seems.
Set thank you for the ideas. that would be a great use of her powers when off world. but i think she would never leave. but i love the ice vehicle application! her and Polar Boy would make a great team!!!
i like the exoskeleton idea too!
i had the same problem. i looked around on here and on different sites for info on the Hykraian's and there wasn't much. i think that would could be explored more!
one source said they all were telepathic and telekinetic and then one said they weren't both. so i went with them all having both abilities. you've got two more characters right there!
i love when the names give the wrong expectations! But Helios is actually her real name not here hero name. Hydrus is her hero name. lol.
Posted by Omni on :
also i think you've got two more characters there that you could make up! hint hint!
and thank you so much Razsolo!
Posted by razsolo on :
The Hykraians were initially described as not being telepathic in general, but instead using the pods on their back to communicate....the one time I can think of we've actually seen Hykraius though was around the Universo Project, and Tellus' friend definitely used telepathy then, though I'm pretty sure it was only to talk to Tellus. So maybe by default they can only communicate with each other? Or maybe they can only 'talk' telepathically, whereas Tellus specifically can probe minds, control minds, alter perceptions etc....
I think I remember reading that the color changing pods idea was discarded because it was too awkward to depict in a static medium?
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
Original Tellus plans:
Posted by Omni on :
thank you for that Eryk!
Posted by Eryk Davis Ester on :
next time i need info i'm coming to you!
Posted by Set on :
From Vyrga;
K'tt'rk Frim of Vyrga uses no 'code-name,' and has never been off of Vyrga, using his powers to help his homeworld, and contribute towards the public good. Born 'unstuck' in local space, he finally internalized and mastered his ability to alter his own size, relative to his surroundings, and can become as small as an earth flea, or enlarge to become almost 20 meters in height. While he would make an unlikely Legionnaire, as Shrinking Violet and Colossal Boy can both greatly exceed his size-shifting limits, he has never even entertained the thought, as he strongly believes that his powers are meant to only be used in service to his fellow Vyrgans.
Gates' thoughts; "A noble soul, if not with the strongest mind for philosophy. He sees his gift as something that belongs to all of Vyrga, and uses his powers in service to our people."
[ July 16, 2012, 05:44 AM: Message edited by: Set ]
Posted by Set on :
Also from Vyrga;
Tklrti Chktla, aka Swarmcaller, developed as a larvae the ability to conjure a tiny flying insectoid vaguely similar to herself, and to control its actions and perceive through its senses, even at great distances. As she matured, this unusual gift grew, and now she can create swarms of many hundreds of these tiny homonculi, constructs of matter pulled together from the surrounding environment, and animated by her own will, dispersing back into raw elements when she is done with them. She has been experimenting also with manifesting larger insectoid constructs...
Gates' thoughts; "So cliched. We're not bugs! Imagine if you would, a 'superhero' of your own primate-derived mammalian humanoid species who created swarms of tiny monkeys to attack her foes. Ridiculous!" Posted by Set on :
From Lythyl;
The uncanny interspatial acrobat and martial artist, Lythality, has offered up no other name, although she has abandoned her previous life as a professional killer for the Star Assassin League.
Through unknown means, Lythality has developed the ability to create dimensional 'pockets' across which she can move interspatially, giving her what is functionally short range teleportation. Unlike true teleportation, she can step into a 'pocket' and remain there, possibly for hours, just out of sight and reach of anyone present in 'realspace,' but aware of her surroundings, and able to 'step back' at any time, surprising her quarry like a trapdoor spider.
Her original career as an assassin behind her, Lythality revealed that the dozen 'victims,' whose bodies had never been found, were actually still alive, trapped in private interspatial pockets, frozen in time and unaware of their apparent 'deaths.'
Only one of her original 'victims' was not recoverable, and she claims that he must have found his own way free of her dimensional pocket, to parts unknown...
Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: From Lythyl;
The uncanny interspatial acrobat and martial artist, Lythality, has offered up no other name, although she has abandoned her previous life as a professional killer for the Star Assassin League.
Through unknown means, Lythality has developed the ability to create dimensional 'pockets' across which she can move interspatially, giving her what is functionally short range teleportation. Unlike true teleportation, she can step into a 'pocket' and remain there, possibly for hours, just out of sight and reach of anyone present in 'realspace,' but aware of her surroundings, and able to 'step back' at any time, surprising her quarry like a trapdoor spider.
Her original career as an assassin behind her, Lythality revealed that the dozen 'victims,' whose bodies had never been found, were actually still alive, trapped in private interspatial pockets, frozen in time and unaware of their apparent 'deaths.'
Only one of her original 'victims' was not recoverable, and she claims that he must have found his own way free of her dimensional pocket, to parts unknown...
i love the concept of this one and the fact that she's a former assassin is awesome!
Posted by Omni on :
Also Set, i'm loving the Gates cometary!
Posted by razsolo on :
Swarmcaller is awesome, and an Earth hero who summons loads of tiny monkeys to do his/her bidding would be pretty sweet too now that you brought it up an' all, Gates ^_^
Posted by Set on :
Heh. Monkey Man to the rescue!
Still, it would be cooler if the monkeys were also ninja.
Or perhaps pirates. I'm flexible.
Posted by razsolo on :
The Infinite Boy: Kando Vyr was one of Naltor's most gifted minds. Before his 13th birthday, his prodigious intellect earned him an internship off-world at the Time Institute.
After an impressive year of study there, Kando took on a project of his own; he decided to use the Time Institute's resources to analyse Naltorian precognition. Kando was certain that the Institute would hold the key to isolating exactly how his people's native ability to see the future worked, and that from there he would be able to find a way to enhance those abilities within himself and others.
Then his research brought him across the tragic story of Jaxon Rugarth's transformation into the Infinite Man.
At first, Kando's only thought was in applying Rond Vidar's theories on circular time to his own work on precognition. As he came to learn more about the Infinite Man though, it occurred to him that maybe Jaxon Rugarth only lost his mind because he was woefully unprepared for the heightened perceptions of time to which he was exposed during his transformation into the Infinite Man. Maybe someone who was already gifted with a high intellect, a thorough understanding of temporal physics and an innate ability to sense the future might fare better?
The idea became too much to resist. Kando worked in secret to duplicate Rond Vidar's hyperdrive for months. It was a few weeks after his 14th birthday when he finally completed it, and full of youthful exuberance he wasted no time in testing it upon himself.
He felt himself flung forward through time with immense power, physically and mentally changing to adapt to the experience. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, his journey was over. It almost felt to Kando as though he had been forcibly ripped from his journey and thrown backwards to his starting point. The machine exploded and where once had been been Kando Vyr now stood the cosmically powered form of the Infinite Boy.
Visually, he resembles a younger, teenager-sized version of the Infinite Man. He has kept his own personality for the most part, though he tends to come across as a lot more of a space cadet these days to those around him. His perceptions are constantly sliding through the endless cycle of time and he has to really focus to mentally stay in the here and now. He can specifically focus on any other point in time at will, and can even summon native beings or objects from that time but he has found out the hard way that summoning those things doesn't mean he can control them. While he no longer possesses the precognitive abilities he once had as a normal Naltorian boy, he does now have a weird awareness of how events in the here and now will affect any other point of time he chooses to focus on and vice versa. The further along the cycle he looks, the more vague this sense becomes as his awareness is split further and further between the two temporal loci.
The Infinite Boy (as he has come to be known) did very briefly consider applying to join the Legion, but dismissed the idea. He isn't yet adept enough to employ his abilities effectively in the kind of combat situations the Legion find themselves in, though he knows one day he will be. More to the point, the one thing he has never been able to see is what force exactly was responsible for ending his journey through time prematurely and this bothers him immensely.
The Infinite Boy has embarked on a personal mission travelling the universe to find answers. Along the way, he uses his abilities to help those in need when he can while he waits for the day when he will become better versed in using his new abilities to more actively seek the truth.
Posted by Set on :
The Infinite Boy is awesome! I love how you tied in not only another 'Legion World,' but also some Legion history to create this character!
It's also cool how you created a Naltorian hero whose powers aren't based on his original precognitive abilities. It wasn't better than average or oddly-functioning precognition that led to his transformation, but his keen intellect and curiousity. Very 'outside the box' and creative!
Posted by razsolo on :
Thanks!
I was thinking about Gates' commentary on Swarmcaller, and how it's easy to build a character around the one thing their race/species/etc are well-known for, so I figured it might be cool to try for an origin where it makes sense for him to be Naltorian, but his actual powers have very little to do with that side of himself.
I actually debated on whether I was gonna post him...by about halfway through I started thinking how he would be an awesome character to use in my own series and was wondering if I should keep him aside for now, lol Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo: I actually debated on whether I was gonna post him... by about halfway through I started thinking how he would be an awesome character to use in my own series and was wondering if I should keep him aside for now, lol
Go for it! If I am inspired to write again, I might pillage an idea or two from this thread as well!
Posted by Omni on :
raz please do use him! he sounds wicked Awesome!
Set i can't wait to read something with any number of these characters!
Posted by Harbinger on :
Andromeda, a Tamaran whose natural abilities have been boosted by the Okaaran Warlords. As well as flight her solar. radiation absorbing abilities also power her metabolism giving her strength, speed and durability, and also boosting her mental processing skills so her natural tactile low level telepathic linguistic absorbing ability is strong enough that she cqn understand any language in her presence. She's been trained by the Okaarans so knows how to take care of herself.
Posted by Set on :
Cool to see another Tamaranean, and with ties to the Warlords of Okaara, too! I like how her powers have nothing to do with blasting, and how she's internalized the solar-absorbing powers to function more as a 'mini-Kryptonian' with more Batman-like fighting skill.
Posted by Set on :
From Talok VIII;
The mysterious Emissary has the uncanny ability to alter his coloration from the various shades of blue common to the desert tribes, to the greens of the hill folk, the violet of the sea-going island-dwellers or the glossy black of the polar tribesmen, in reaction to the company he keeps. His features as well change, subtly, from the harsh angular planes of the desert-dwellers faces, to the rounder 'softer' features of the islanders. He is considered an impartial advocate by the various tribes he travels between, overseeing arbitrations of disputes, and helping to settle disputes before they turn into clan wars. Because his true heritage and family name is unknown, the clans accept his neutrality, and he has not betrayed that trust, speaking the different dialects and languages of each tribe as if born among them, a reflection of his power to adapt to any culture he encounters, learning their customs and traditions, taboos and mores, as instinctively as if he had lived among these people all of his life.
Detractors whisper that he is not nameless and clanless as a result of his powers, but is secretly an alien, perhaps a shapeshifting Durlan, or a telepathic spy, manipulating Talokkian tribes for his own benefit, or according to some scheme to render Talokk VIII weak or submissive to an alien agenda. He has survived more than one assassination attempt, as a result of 'unhappy customers' who did not appreciate a truce or agreement he had brokered with their tribal leaders, proving capable of anticipating, and countering, combat techniques as readily as cultural nuances and negotiating gambits.
Posted by Set on :
From Imsk and New Bengal Colony;
Five years ago, a disastrous accident at a research facility on New Bengal Colony caused the disappearance of over a thousand researchers. Scattered through space, and, it was later discovered, as lost people reappeared, even through time, the survivors were left with a gift for teleportation, although most of them were limited to a range of a few meters, at most.
One of the most affected, a young intern named Fayora Ben Stiner, has the ability to teleport over a thousand kilometers, but is limited in that she retains a 'lock' on her starting point, and the farther she teleports, the sooner she involuntarily 'snaps back' to her starting location, with even a short range teleport lasting a few minutes, before she is whisked back to where she started.
Since the 'bungee effect,' as she calls it, only affects her person, she is free to drop off small items or even a larger object up to the size of another person! She initially made a living as a courier, zipping between the domed facilities of New Bengal Colony, although, on a world with dozens of teleporters, few with her range, but also few with her unique limitations, she found it tough to establish a niche for herself.
So she packed up and moved to Earth.
Today, SAGES (pronounced say-jess), aka Snatch & Grab Emergency Services, consists of Fayora and four Imskian brothers, who are adventurous explorers (specialized in caving expeditions), and trained in emergency medical and disaster response and rescue techniques. The brothers shrink down to a few inches in height, and Fayora teleports them into a dangerous situation, where they use tiny thruster packs to navigate through wreckage, in search of survivors (while she snaps back to her starting point, and awaits their call for evacuation). When they find one, they clear a space large enough for Fayora, and activate a locater beacon, so that she can teleport into the area and teleport the survivor to safety. All wear protective environmental suits, and after a couple of years of exposure, now wear recording equipment as well, as they are the focus of their own 'reality holovision series,' which tracks them through their various adventures (and the various downtime shenanigans the brothers get up to).
Posted by Omni on :
Titan-
Gorla- not born with the normal telepathic abilities of the average Titan, he grew up very isolated from the rest of his kind. Even though his family was very caring and he loves them more than anything. But as he grew he learned that he had a talent for making psychic suggestions to people through physical touch. just a simple tap and he can send either simple or complicated commands to peoples minds.
this made him feel more isolated because he was never sure if anyone he touched was just following his own unconscious commands/desires or if they were actually caring for him.
he was eventually recruited by earthgrov to work in espionage. his covert actions have helped stop waring planets and sooth peace talks.
Posted by razsolo on :
Having a mind-controller who is actually uncomfortable with the connotations of that is different....I can't think of anyone off the top of my head who has suggestive abilities who doesn't just embrace them and run with it, so nice one Omni!
Another one from Titan:
At the Legion of Superheroes' very first public appearance, somebody asked Imra Ardeen why she chose the name Saturn Girl when Saturn is only the planet her homeworld orbits...the question was raised, wouldn't it make more sense to call herself Titan Girl? Imra explained that she couldn't take the name Titan Girl; that name already belonged to Dacey Gorann, one of Titan's most beloved heroines.
Titan Girl possesses the ability to absorb ambient psions in her immediate vicinity and use them to fuel her power to increase her size, making her kind of a Titanian Colossal Girl. A side-effect of this ability is that she actively dampens psionic powers in a radius around her as she increases in size. The larger she grows, the wider her dampening net extends and the more power it leeches. Her own telepathy isn't immune to this effect, so she can't use her natural Titanian abilities when she is at giant size...her own natural telepathy isn't that well-developed anyway and as most people around her generally can't use their powers either, she doesn't consider this much of a setback.
Titan Girl did very briefly join a precursor to the Legion of Superheroes known as the Justice Legion, but she quickly resigned when she realised that her power was far more limited in scope once she left a planet full of telepaths...she was also concerned that her psion-leeching ability might actually be damaging to people who don't generate an excess of psionic energy to begin with, as telepaths do. At any rate, the Justice Legion fell apart soon after its inception under mysterious circumstances.
Titan Girl now exists in the fairly unique position of being very well-regarded as a hero with a lot of experience on Titan, but practically unknown anywhere else in the UP.
Posted by Set on :
I kind of love the idea of a Titanian who taps into all the telepathic energy running around on Titan and uses it to do something else! A telekinetic, powered by telepaths in the area, could be Jean Grey levels of awesome, on Titan, and, on earth, barely able to move a paperclip (and, depending on how her power works, attempting to do so might cause non-telepathic humans around her to suffer headaches or nosebleeds or memory lapses or fainting spells, as she attempts to draw upon psychic energies that they don't have to spare...).
Posted by Omni on :
Lume- a planet that is arid blue dessert. a world that is always at dusk. the dominate life form on the planet are sprightly balls of light that fly around. each of these sprites can generate heat and grow to the standard size of a human. their larger form is translucent.
Sorry for the geography lesson. but i figured some nice background to help understand the characters to follow.
The Blue Night-On this planet there is a silent hero to the Lumians. this hero is made from the very blue dessert they call home. he shift his form in the sand and creates sand storms when needed. but what they don't know is that its actually their own power of light projection is what drives the blue dessert. the blue dessert has like a hive mind, that shift from grain of sand to grain of sand and they see the lumians as almost god like figures shining down on them and giving them light.
BrightStar- A light manipulator. whose able to use the light from other lumians to create blinding light shows that can blind even the brightest lumian. also allows for small energy burst in laser form. his light shines the brightest around other lumians but his own light isn't as bright when he's alone. still capable of flight. When he draws the light from the other lumians he makes them dimmer. in some cases it has almost drained a few of his people of their life light.
learned very early that his light wasn't as bright at others but one day, when the Krudian Empire invaded. he was one of the Lumians to fight back. but he noticed during battle that as he became more aggressive and intense his light got brighter. but the light of his fellow Lumians weren't as bright. As he fought he began to show small burst from his hands and his speed came with a little burst as well. when this happened he noticed some of his fellow freedom fighters fall to the ground. almost lifeless. One of them was his best friend, Starshine.
as he tried to save her she was captured by the Krudian soldiers. They left before he could save her. he began to train in the use of his powers to not kill those around him and use their light safely. he vowed he will find away to save her.
Posted by Set on :
From Mars;
Lohsy Treannan, aka 'Genius Girl' developed her unique talent (or, some would say, condition) after barely surviving an accident on Mars that left her without breathable atmosphere for over a day. Found in a comatose state, when she finally awoke, she seemed to be suffering from visual and auditory hallucinations, at least, until it was proven that these 'hallucinations' were providing her with accurate information that she couldn't possibly have otherwise known.
From these 'Intelligences,' as she called them, she could learn many things about her local environment, or, over time, about people in an area, and it was never entirely clear if she was in communication with actual invisible entities, or if she had some ability to sense things over great distances, and her 'communications' were simply her brains way of parceling out information in discrete chunks, to save her from overload. In any event, once it was determined that her constantly 'talking to herself' and addressing invisible entities wasn't a sign of chemical imbalance or mental trauma, she was released from observation and allowed to resume a more or less normal life, turning her new talents to investigative work, as the many 'voices in her head' gave her a wide array of perspectives on any given case, in addition to valuable information.
She seemed to have access to both 'local Intelligences,' which had more specific information on wherever she found herself, and her 'regulars,' who attended her wherever she went, and some theorized that she was in actual communion with some sort of psychic or spiritual remnants of the long-dead Martian race.
The truth may never be known, but the effectiveness of her unique talent is irrefutable!
Posted by Omni on :
Steeple -
A planet that is hidden for a decade at a time by a black hole.
Like any world cut off from the rest of the U.P. it has its share of problems. the S.P's are able to deal with most things. But there is an order of Monks there trained in the use of harmonic healing. they ride the winds on giant beast. Three of the monks have taken to becoming local protectors forming a squad of wind riders. they try for peaceful resolution but are trained fighters and each with powerful variation of the Harmonic sounds they create.
Friar Hiam - capable of harmonic sonar. The eldest of the monks, he's their leader in the field. But he's also the quietest of them all. his voice is soft but when he does speak everyone can hear him.
Friar Evly - his particular sound capabilities allow him to sooth almost anyone into submission and almost putting them into a trance like state. an eager young monk, who has recently entered into the brother hood and as much as he believes in the peaceful ways of the monks, these adventures as protectors intrigues him.
Friar Semel - the only monk whose harmonic abilities is destructive. he has the ability to produce a sonic cry that can shatter almost anything. he uses it more localized to take out his opponent weapons. he can also create a wall of sound as a shield. Very much the middle man between his two brothers. he tends to be the strategist of the group.
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Omni: [QB] Steeple - A planet that is hidden for a decade at a time by a black hole.
But there is an order of Monks there trained in the use of harmonic healing. they ride the winds on giant beasts.
That's a super-evocative idea you've got there!
Very creative and cool!
I like how the youngest and most 'impetuous' of the friars also happens to have a peaceful power, and isn't the one with the destructive resonance harmonics, and how the 'leader' and eldest has a purely sensory / information-gathering power. That's a nice mixup.
Posted by Set on :
From Xanthu;
Thom Kallor was never the only 'champion of Xanthu,' and nor was Atmos, for that matter.
For decades, four champions have been chosen by the pre-eminent scientific body of the planet, and empowered with mastery over one of the four fundemental forces of the univese. Thom Kallor, imbued with gravity manipulating powers, as Star Boy (his origin falsified, as the nature of the process is classified), is the most widely known of these, and his own powers have been altered over the years, as he has served off-world (the bulk of the powers artificially bestowed upon him transferred instead to local protector, Atmos).
Easily the most popular, Jasmin Cullen, aka Brightflame, has command of the 'strong' nuclear force, which binds atoms together. Manifesting as a greenish 'fire' that radiates a warm golden light, she can cause matter to fall apart into its component atoms, utterly disintegrating it on the molecular level. Alternately, she can generate a purple 'fire' that dims light and sucks in heat from its surroundings, and instead reinforce the atomic bonds of the item she targets, making items (or people) temporarily effectively invulnerable. Using these powers, she is able to become invulnerable to harm, and to destroy anything she turns her green flame upon. Creative applications of her power allow her to 'disintegrate' herself, while remaining in conscious control of her power, allowing her to become a form of glowing green mist, and move incorporeally through most obstacles, or to use her reinforcing violet fire to repair damaged objects, or even to selectively strengthen someone's molecular bonds so that they can not move, paralyzed by the same forces that are protecting them from harm.
Like the other members of the fundemental-force-empowered champions, she uses her powers not merely as a super-powered combatant, but also in the course of civic works, destroying pollutants or reinforcing disaster-damaged buildings, as the situation warrants.
Posted by Omni on :
Thanks Set!
I wanted to stay away from the idea of the youngest having a destructive power.
and i feel like a leader needs knowledge, so why not have him be the intel.
also i love your Genius Girl. but i have a question does he ability work outside of Mars or only on Mars??
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Omni: also i love your Genius Girl. but i have a question does he ability work outside of Mars or only on Mars??
I didn't want to nail down exactly how her ability works, so I left it a bit fuzzy on purpose. She does have some 'regulars' who seem to be attached to her, in addition to the 'locals' she communes with at any given location, so even off of Mars, she might be able to make use of these 'regulars.' (Unless they really *are* the discorporate 'telepathic echoes' of the long dead Martian race, in which case maybe they can't follow her off of Mars! Or maybe they can, being spiritually linked to her and, more or less, 'possessing' her? Eh, six of one, half-dozen of the other.)
Whatever keeps the mystery alive. Posted by razsolo on :
I haven't read much with Steeple in it, but the idea of it fascinates me, cool work with the monks.
And I love the reimagining of Jasmin! Awesome!! Also, the idea that Star Boy's origin is a cover is super interesting, makes me wonder if any of the other Legionnaires or even Dreamy would know. Thom has been pretty dedicated to his world in the past, I could see him keeping it a secret if he is instructed to...
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo: And I love the reimagining of Jasmin! Awesome!!
I wanted to introduce a version of her for the 'classic' continuity, and yet not go to the 'quantum' well of squiffily-defined powers. The strong nuclear force makes for a very powerful ability (which suits her), and yet is easier to nail down, I think.
quote: Also, the idea that Star Boy's origin is a cover is super interesting, makes me wonder if any of the other Legionnaires or even Dreamy would know. Thom has been pretty dedicated to his world in the past, I could see him keeping it a secret if he is instructed to...
Thanks! I wanted to play with the idea that he used to have a ton of powers (Superboy-like in nature) and has been cut down to just gravity manipulation (while, not-so-coincidentally, a stay at home hero named Atmos has taken his place as planetary champion, and now has the same Superboy-like powers). Having the powers be some sort of legacy handed down (and sometimes taken back and re-gifted) by the Xanthuan government / science authority, keeps his past power changes in-continuity, while coming up with an explanation for them more detailed than 'they went away' and 'oh, and here's Atmos, a totally unrelated guy with pretty much the same powers...'
Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: From Xanthu;
Easily the most popular, Jasmin Cullen, aka Brightflame, has command of the 'strong' nuclear force, which binds atoms together. Manifesting as a greenish 'fire' that radiates a warm golden light, she can cause matter to fall apart into its component atoms, utterly disintegrating it on the molecular level. Alternately, she can generate a purple 'fire' that dims light and sucks in heat from its surroundings, and instead reinforce the atomic bonds of the item she targets, making items (or people) temporarily effectively invulnerable. Using these powers, she is able to become invulnerable to harm, and to destroy anything she turns her green flame upon. Creative applications of her power allow her to 'disintegrate' herself, while remaining in conscious control of her power, allowing her to become a form of glowing green mist, and move incorporeally through most obstacles, or to use her reinforcing violet fire to repair damaged objects, or even to selectively strengthen someone's molecular bonds so that they can not move, paralyzed by the same forces that are protecting them from harm.
Like the other members of the fundemental-force-empowered champions, she uses her powers not merely as a super-powered combatant, but also in the course of civic works, destroying pollutants or reinforcing disaster-damaged buildings, as the situation warrants.
i love this re imagining of her! and she sounds powerful enough to join the legion!
i like the explanation of Thom's power changes as well.
Posted by Omni on :
Here's another one from Steeple...idk why but i'm really just intrigued by this planet. I think its because of the reboot planets its the one we got to see the most of but yet didn't learn that much about...
Black Hole -Griem - able to increase the gravity of people and things much like Star Boy, but he steals the gravity from the Black hole that cuts off Steeple from the rest of the U.P. for 10 years at a time. He is connected to the black hole, because he was born during the onset of one. He mass affecting powers emerged shortly after his birth. As he grew he learned to control them. On his tenth birthday, the Black hole was lifting. He was using his mass powers to help keep him attached to one of the gliding beast without having to use the reins. suddenly his mass powers faded and as he took a sharp turn, he feel from the beast's back. as he plummeted to his death, he was saved by The monks. specifically a younger Friar Hiam. He realized that his powers came from the black hole's presence.
The boy was so grateful to the Friar Hiam that he sought out to be a monk just like Friar Hiam. But as he grew and came closer to being a monk he realized that the life of a monk was not for him. this event also coincide with the Black hole reemerging. As the black hole closed in many people were frantic to get off planet before it cut off transportation from Steeple. there were various ships that were about to take off, after the alarms went off that no more ships were allowed to leave; and he used his mass increasing powers to keep them from being destroyed by the Black hole. he felt the excitement of saving people and looked into the hero life. Not long after this he ran into Friar Haim again, But this time with his fellow wind riders squad. The three Friar's were in pursuit of a local villain who was in mid-transport to Talkton-Glactous (sP?)when the black hole reemerged and was marooned on Stepple. He broke free of his restraints and killed several Science Police officers. Griem followed the wind riders through the Ariel catacombs. As the Friar's closed in on the Villain he took each of them out and captured them. the villain had acquired a cave and some gear to maneuver around the skies.
Black hole followed the villain to his lair, where he ambushed him. using his mass powers to pin him to a wall. while he freed the Friar's.
As he grows older he learned that he can actually create mini black holes and uses it as a portal to the other side of the black hole. he has yet to actually try going through himself or sending a living person. but he does send objects.
As his power is tied to the black holes reemergence into Steeple's orbit, he can only use his powers during it and on Steeple. He ventured out once during a safe time and tired to use his powers. but nothing happened. once he returned back to Steeple, he still had no powers but he could sense mass differences.
Posted by Set on :
Ha, I wasn't sure if Steeple was a 'real' Legion World, or something you'd made up! Guess I really need to catch up on my Reboot stuff!
It sounds really fascinating, with the black hole isolation and the flying steeds. Both alien and sci-fi funktastic!
Posted by Omni on :
lol yeah they only had like two appearances. and it really is. i think there was a lot of potential there.
that is one of the things in any of the versions of the legion. i wished we got to see more of other planets besides Earth.
Posted by Set on :
From Starhaven;
Over the ten centuries humanity has spread across the galaxy, dozens of ethnic groups have sought out places where they could celebrate their unique heritage, and the Anasazi of Starhaven were certainly not the only group of First Nations peoples who ended up far from the planet of their birth.
Starhaven, the first of its kind, often served as a gathering point for colonists from First Nations-settled worlds, becoming a cosmopolitan mecca of sorts, for people who shared a Native American heritage.
And so it comes to pass that two of the most celebrated 'native' heroes of Starhaven are not Anasazi by birth. The hero duo of Hue & Cry consist of Pachu'A, an albino Hopi man with light and color manipulating abilities, and Iztali, a Meztizo woman with the ability to increase, diminish or change the frequencies of sound in her presence.
While Iztali has the wings shared by many native Starhavenites, and is able to enhance her flight speed through the use of harmonic vibrations to create a slipstream of air that accelerates her flight, Pachu'A does not have that modification, and prefers to travel by sky-cycle, using his own unique ability to drain away the color of his appearance, rendering him all but invisible, while leaving him with a colorful palette of absorbed light to use for their heroic exploits.
[I always loved how Marvel's Cloak & Dagger took a catchphrase term and used it as the name of a pair of superheroes, and wanted to come up with a similar duo based on a phrase like Smoke & Mirrors or Night & Day or Shock & Awe or Sturm & Drang or Rock & Roll. Hue & Cry was a bit more esoteric, but fit for a team that had powers like those of Color Kid and Tyroc.] Posted by razsolo on :
I am a big fan of that naming convention for pairs when it works well with the characters; Hue and Cry sound really cool, they would have a great visual together too! Posted by razsolo on :
Also, I became aware of what a terrible pun I just wrote after the fact lol Posted by Set on :
As ideas go, Hue & Cry kind of sprang out of nowhere. I'd been thinking of duos based off of catchphrases (a la Cloak & Dagger) and this thread and that I hadn't come up with any Starhavenite heroes and BAM, chocolate in my peanut butter...
I thought it was a bit odd that I'd come up with a Hyrkraian hero before one from Starhaven!
Posted by Omni on :
Tharr-
Delin Hianna - one of the few people who instead of developing Cryokinesis to combat the heat of Tharr, she developed the ability to manipulate heat and flame as well as cast a sun flare. she uses her manipulation powers to increase the strength and intensity of her sun flare. But its range isn't very far. she is able to cast it up to 3 meters. When she manipulates its heat intensity it can grow a bit bigger as well. she also has a scorch touch, which she is able to do because she can manipulate her body temperature.
however, she can not leave the planet. this is one of the downsides to her abilities. since she is a being of heat manipulation, she relies on the heat keep her systems going. If she left Tharr, she would freeze to death as their would be no heat for her to absorb and redirect. Even in a transuit, which can replicate whatever environmental needs she could have can not replicate the amount of heat she needs to survive.
As a youth she was recruited into a government run training program. the government sought to put her abilities to use for the betterment of their world. As their sole hero on planet, she has come to be a shining example for all those who are different and have similar abilities as hers.
Even though Polar Boy, is renowned and their most famous hero, the government still supports and promotes Delin as their premier super hero, she is Siharra.
Posted by Shining Son on :
So if she left Tharr, she'd look like the reversed version of Mr Freeze. Posted by Set on :
Delin is a cool name. Definitely part of the fun of coming up with Legion-ish characters is coming up with whacked out names for them, in the style of 'Reep Daggle' and 'Salu Digby.'
I like how her powers come with a drawback, restricting her to Tharr (or requiring her to wear a 'pyro-suit,' as Shining Son noted, the reverse of Mr. Freeze's 'cryo-suit').
Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: Delin is a cool name. Definitely part of the fun of coming up with Legion-ish characters is coming up with whacked out names for them, in the style of 'Reep Daggle' and 'Salu Digby.'
agreed set! it really is fun doing that! i'm not as familiar with how names work on every world so its def hard but fun.
quote:Originally posted by Set: I like how her powers come with a drawback, restricting her to Tharr (or requiring her to wear a 'pyro-suit,' as Shining Son noted, the reverse of Mr. Freeze's 'cryo-suit').
thanks. yeah i didn't think of the her as the reverse Mr. Freeze, but that would make for a cool plot point for her.
Posted by Shining Son on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: I like how her powers come with a drawback, restricting her to Tharr (or requiring her to wear a 'pyro-suit,' as Shining Son noted, the reverse of Mr. Freeze's 'cryo-suit').
When you think about it, she's probably one of the few on Tharr who are comfortable there (the rest of the population tend to bundle up in fur-trimmed thinsulate, don't they?), so the restriction is less onerous than to others Tharrans.
Posted by Omni on :
H'lven is an arboreal world located in sector 1014, home of a race of sentient rodent-like creatures nicknamed Monks for their resemblance to chipmunks.hile the Monks are the dominant species on the planet, there are other intelligent races on H'lven that resemble anthropomorphic versions of moles, foxes, bears, and eagles. (source Wikipedia).
A strike force on this planet that fights against greedy corporations on a global and interstellar level that are slowly ruining their planet. the team is made up of one member from all five species of this planets population.
Chomper - a mutated chipmunk, whose grown 5 feet in height from the standard Monk, which is 2 feet tall. he gained super strength and durability, like Matter Eater Lad, he can chomp threw anything. due to his increase in size, he isn't as nimble as other Monks, to be able to fly from tree to tree; he uses hover discs to get around. he also has a shorter tail then most Monks.
He was Once your average Monk named V'li and he worked for McCaulney Industries. They had recently come to H'lven to mine for Verilium; a new element that had been discovered. it was used in the process to create a power batteries for a new starship drive McCaulney industries were developing. He was a minor in the Southern Hemisphere of H'lven. One day there was a cave in and he was stuck underground for almost three days. during this time the radiation from the Verilium seeped into his mining suit which only could filter out the radiation for 30 hours at a time. the radiation changed him. most would have died but he some how absorbed the radiation and it enhanced his racial traits. He was freed by one of his future teammates. He spent months recuperating in a hospital and after some rehab he found his strength and durability increased. He began fighting against McCaulney's intrusion. As McCaulney's agents became more forceful, their was a war that broke out over the Verilium and that is when Cho'per formed his strike force. As the battle with McCaulney wages they do their best to liberate the southern hemisphere from his influence. The rest of the planet is under the assumption that isn't a war. but Cho'per knows that it is.
Posted by razsolo on :
quote:Originally posted by Omni: H'lven is an arboreal world located in sector 1014, home of a race of sentient rodent-like creatures nicknamed Monks for their resemblance to chipmunks.hile the Monks are the dominant species on the planet, there are other intelligent races on H'lven that resemble anthropomorphic versions of moles, foxes, bears, and eagles. (source Wikipedia).
A strike force on this planet that fights against greedy corporations on a global and interstellar level that are slowly ruining their planet. the team is made up of one member from all five species of this planets population.
Chomper - a mutated chipmunk, whose grown 5 feet in height from the standard Monk, which is 2 feet tall. he gained super strength and durability, like Matter Eater Lad, he can chomp threw anything. due to his increase in size, he isn't as nimble as other Monks, to be able to fly from tree to tree; he uses hover discs to get around. he also has a shorter tail then most Monks.
He was Once your average Monk named V'li and he worked for McCaulney Industries. They had recently come to H'lven to mine for Verilium; a new element that had been discovered. it was used in the process to create a power batteries for a new starship drive McCaulney industries were developing. He was a minor in the Southern Hemisphere of H'lven. One day there was a cave in and he was stuck underground for almost three days. during this time the radiation from the Verilium seeped into his mining suit which only could filter out the radiation for 30 hours at a time. the radiation changed him. most would have died but he some how absorbed the radiation and it enhanced his racial traits. He was freed by one of his future teammates. He spent months recuperating in a hospital and after some rehab he found his strength and durability increased. He began fighting against McCaulney's intrusion. As McCaulney's agents became more forceful, their was a war that broke out over the Verilium and that is when Cho'per formed his strike force. As the battle with McCaulney wages they do their best to liberate the southern hemisphere from his influence. The rest of the planet is under the assumption that isn't a war. but Cho'per knows that it is.
There is nothing about this that is not amazing. ^_^
Posted by Omni on :
Thanks Raz! I've been doing a bit of research trying to find other planets that could possibly still exist in the Legion's time period that we never see much of!
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Omni: Thanks Raz! I've been doing a bit of research trying to find other planets that could possibly still exist in the Legion's time period that we never see much of!
Enwa is a planet of yellow-skinned humanoids with large eyes designed to help them function during the long Enwan night.
The mysterious heroine known as Catseye had a sister who, along with her Terran lover, were killed by White Triangle terrorists (this is canon, check Legionnaires 27 for details!). Catseye used her special ability to reflect light with her eyes and tracked down the four Daxamites who ravaged Earth and destroyed Trom, punishing them severely when the Legion stranded them on a red sun planet (Legionnaires Annual 2). It was said that when the SPs finally picked them up, all 4 had become gibbering messes of themselves. They do not sleep well even until now.
In addition to being able to cast light beams from her eyes, Catseye has impressive acrobatic and physical combat skills. Her light-reflecting abilities range from gentle ambient light to full-on lasers capable of tearing through metal. Catseye has made it her mission to track down all members of the White Triangle who were involved in terrorist acts - especially the ones who murdered Trom.
Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by Set:
quote:Originally posted by Omni: Thanks Raz! I've been doing a bit of research trying to find other planets that could possibly still exist in the Legion's time period that we never see much of!
Thanks Set. this will come in handy.
Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by Invisible Brainiac: Cool that H'lven could make a reappearance
Let's try...
Enwa is a planet of yellow-skinned humanoids with large eyes designed to help them function during the long Enwan night.
The mysterious heroine known as Catseye had a sister who, along with her Terran lover, were killed by White Triangle terrorists (this is canon, check Legionnaires 27 for details!). Catseye used her special ability to reflect light with her eyes and tracked down the four Daxamites who ravaged Earth and destroyed Trom, punishing them severely when the Legion stranded them on a red sun planet (Legionnaires Annual 2). It was said that when the SPs finally picked them up, all 4 had become gibbering messes of themselves. They do not sleep well even until now.
In addition to being able to cast light beams from her eyes, Catseye has impressive acrobatic and physical combat skills. Her light-reflecting abilities range from gentle ambient light to full-on lasers capable of tearing through metal. Catseye has made it her mission to track down all members of the White Triangle who were involved in terrorist acts - especially the ones who murdered Trom.
Love it Ib and your bringing the PZH legion as always!
i like her ability and that its through her eyes and not her hands!
Posted by Omni on :
More from H'lven-
Cho'per's teammates:
Fen'ec (fox)- an expert tracker due to his heightened sense of smell,eye sight, hearing( which he has extra large ears, making his face seem smaller) and a sixth sense of sorts.He can't explain how it works, it was just something he was born with. but in combination with his other sense he can track almost anyone on the planet. He also small and agile; which allows him to move quickly. his tale is long fluffy and his fur covers his whole body and allows him to with stand high temperatures.
He's the youngest of the Cho'per's strike force. even though he's the youngest, he was one of the first to join. he was actually the one who saved Cho'per from the cave in. He stayed with Cho'per through his rehabilitation and was like a side kick for him. He formed a strong bond with Cho'per.
Fen'ec has chosen not to take a hero name
W'ip(moles)- Like other moles he is able to burrow through almost any surface, he has sharp claws which are retractable, but he can't see for anything. his eye sight is so bad that he actually has goggles that magnify his sight, as well as. but in pitch black he can see perfectly.
he's the technician of the group and uses his skills to build various devices for the team. he's greatest contribution has been a transport vehicle; which is strong as a tank but quick and agile. the vehicle is in the shape of giant ball with a wheel around it. the metal is triple enforced Titanium allow, they stole from McCaulney's own plants. He outfitted it with laser capabilities, with rapid fire controls.
W'ip's reasons for joining the strike force, come from his families deaths. Him and his family were passing through the G'be forest, when McCaulney's forces were downsizing(leveling and vaporizing everything in their path) it. they were making way for their new plant. The G'be forest was home to St'r city; a large attraction for most in the southern hemisphere.Even though its not that large of a city it was one of the few cities that used its large reservoir to its fullest; it powered everything in the city. W'ip and his family were there sight seeing. unfortunately they didn't get to see many sights before it was downsized. W'ip watched as they were downsized as McMaulney's forces invaded the city as if it wasn't there at all. using his burrowing abilities burrowed deep enough before getting downsized himself. when he came back up there was nothing left. he wondered the raged St'r city for hours evading McMaulney's forces. He came upon Ch'oper and Fen'ec by accident. they almost attacked him. but when he feel over in tears. taking him in he's been with them since, putting his skills to use.
Posted by Omni on :
two more from H'lven
Spr't(Bear)- once a member of the R'ibo bear tribe in the southern hemisphere, Spr't died many eons ago. but his spirit never left this plain because his people charged him with protecting their sacred burial grounds. As McMaulney's forces downsized much of the Southern Hemisphere and built various power plants they built their complexes on top of the very burial grounds that he swore to protect.
his form, shows up as a big black bear shadow and when he passes through anything mechanical he shorts it out completely or he can posses it. he tried this trick many times over, when the power plants first emerged He can teleport himself places as well and can be invisible when he wants. his ghostly form is just as grizzly as his corporal body was, over 6 feet tall, with black and red hair that is thick and course it grows every which way.
As he tried to communicate with and force people to leave, he learned Interlac and eventually came across Cho'per and his team. he followed them back to their headquarters and continued to follow them on missions. During a mission that went wrong and the team was almost caught in their own explosion of a power plant, Spr't used his ghostly ability to transport himself and the team out of the plant. At first they were scared of him but as he stuck around more they learned of his caring nature and his loyalty to helping them ride the southern hemisphere of McMaulney's influence.
Y'lp (eagle)- the only female member of Cho'per's team, she's also the latest edition to the team. she is very agile and has the ability to fly like most of the other eagles of her species. but she has an extra ability, her wings are capable of shooting her feathers at high velocities; turning them into sharp blades. her talons are also sharp as well but average in strength.
Y'lp joined Cho'per's forces after she tried to picket McMaulney's forces and fight for her people. when she was arrested she broke herself out using her wings to help her escape. now a fugitive from the McMaulney's forces and the local authorities.
Posted by Set on :
Jaluur of Tsauron, aka Sightseer, knows that he has an uphill struggle to overcome racial prejudice as a hero, thanks to the most (in)famous member of his race being the Dark Circle conspirator and terrorist Ontiir, who led many on his homeworld to support subverting and overthrowing the United Planets, but he refuses to hide his face or remain on the homeworld, travelling across U.P. space to use his psychic abilities on behalf of those in need, as sort of one-man goodwill ambassador.
Rarely, on Tsauron, a child is 'born from a dark egg,' one that traditionally has failed to thrive and contains no living child, and such children are often sickly creatures, as if their early brush with death has left them forever a half-step away from their last breath, but also with strange spiritual and psychic insights.
Jaluur was such a child, increasingly rare in these days of advanced medicine, and has the ability to seperate his soul from his body for brief times, allowing him to astrally project his spirit up to 186,000 miles from his body, in the blink of an eye, and to remain viewing an area remotely for up to six minutes. During this time, his body lies in a death-like state, motionless and unbreathing, but his spirit can not just remotely observe distant locations, but also become visible to communicate telepathically with those present, or even possess other living beings, making them into his unwitting puppets.
In addition to these clairvoyant talents, he has a limited and uncontrolled gift for sensing powerful psychic events or emotional impressions, even over gulfs of space or time, much like psychometry or precognition, but far less reliable than a Naltorian's insights, and generally only serving to give him a notion of where his talents would be most needed, when he finishes a mission and heads for the local spaceport to make his departure.
His thick scaly hide, intimidating natural weaponry and lean, yet muscular body gives the impression that he is a physical powerhouse (although he is of slighter build than the average Tsauron, due to the circumstances of his birth), and he is indeed marginally stronger (and notably more durable) than a human, but he is no match for even the weakest of superhuman combatants, instead relying on his ability to seize control of others in the blink of an eye, his own body falling over insensate as he usurps control of the most dangerous adversary present, and uses their talents against any others that endanger himself or those he has arrived to protect.
His most notable mundane skill, other than a knack for 'reading' people and getting a sense of their nature's, is a facility for languages. Even without a translation matrix, Jaluur has mastered seventeen individual languages, apart from Interlac (including the three most common Tsauron dialects), and enjoys speaking to aliens he encounters in their native tongues, using a mastery of idiom and diction that no translation program can match.
Posted by Set on :
Not all of the mutants of Lallor chose the right side of the rebellion against the dictatorial regime.
Nad Ganra, aka Agent X served the government even after the others rebelled and were imprisoned, having been tricked into believing that his fellow mutants had become traitors to the 'benevolent' lawful government, and were anarchists, mad with power, attempting to return Lallor to the chaos of the post-war years.
His government handlers kept him in seclusion, in one of the tall towers of the capitol city, and censored every bit of information that came into his spacious penthouse home, keeping him shut in and isolated from any news that might conflict with the propoganda they were feeding him, by rumors that his former fellow mutants wished to assassinate him, among other methods.
The whole time, they exploited his mutant powers, to emit 'radiation X,' a dull reddish glow that was harmless to organic life or machinery, but caused any object or creature exposed to it to become at first translucent, layer by layer, and then finally invisible, for up to 24 hours after initial exposure, allowing the despotic regime to bring 'Agent X' their secret weaponry, covert agents and secret police, to be rendered invisible, the better to spy upon their own citizens, and strike unseen, to blame their own acts of aggression on partisan rabble-rousers, anarchists and terrorists, to better convince the frightened citizenry that their draconian and cruel security measures were 'necessary, for your protection!'
Of lesser use to the regime was Ganra's ability to produce the pale blue 'anti-X radiation,' that caused invisible things in his area to become visible, even to the extent of being able to create what appeared to be blue-gray banks of thick concealing fog, by making the air itself visible to the human eye.
After the Heroes of Lallor, with the help of the Legion of Super-Heroes, freed their world from the oppressive regime, Agent X was taken into custody, and over the next years of imprisonment, learned the truth of the regime he had supported, and the terrible uses to which those he had made invisible had been put.
Now, regretful of his past deeds, he has been released to serve alongside the Heroes of Lallor, on a probationary basis, carrying an assortment of nonlethal weapons and wearing protective armor that he has rendered invisible with his X-radiation, giving those unaware of the nature of his powers the impression that he is invulnerable and can shoot blasts of stunning electricity from his hands, while saving his talent for making himself and his new allies invisible to surprise their foes.
Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: Not all of the mutants of Lallor chose the right side of the rebellion against the dictatorial regime.
Nad Ganra, aka Agent X served the government even after the others rebelled and were imprisoned, having been tricked into believing that his fellow mutants had become traitors to the 'benevolent' lawful government, and were anarchists, mad with power, attempting to return Lallor to the chaos of the post-war years.
His government handlers kept him in seclusion, in one of the tall towers of the capitol city, and censored every bit of information that came into his spacious penthouse home, keeping him shut in and isolated from any news that might conflict with the propoganda they were feeding him, by rumors that his former fellow mutants wished to assassinate him, among other methods.
The whole time, they exploited his mutant powers, to emit 'radiation X,' a dull reddish glow that was harmless to organic life or machinery, but caused any object or creature exposed to it to become at first translucent, layer by layer, and then finally invisible, for up to 24 hours after initial exposure, allowing the despotic regime to bring 'Agent X' their secret weaponry, covert agents and secret police, to be rendered invisible, the better to spy upon their own citizens, and strike unseen, to blame their own acts of aggression on partisan rabble-rousers, anarchists and terrorists, to better convince the frightened citizenry that their draconian and cruel security measures were 'necessary, for your protection!'
Of lesser use to the regime was Ganra's ability to produce the pale blue 'anti-X radiation,' that caused invisible things in his area to become visible, even to the extent of being able to create what appeared to be blue-gray banks of thick concealing fog, by making the air itself visible to the human eye.
After the Heroes of Lallor, with the help of the Legion of Super-Heroes, freed their world from the oppressive regime, Agent X was taken into custody, and over the next years of imprisonment, learned the truth of the regime he had supported, and the terrible uses to which those he had made invisible had been put.
Now, regretful of his past deeds, he has been released to serve alongside the Heroes of Lallor, on a probationary basis, carrying an assortment of nonlethal weapons and wearing protective armor that he has rendered invisible with his X-radiation, giving those unaware of the nature of his powers the impression that he is invulnerable and can shoot blasts of stunning electricity from his hands, while saving his talent for making himself and his new allies invisible to surprise their foes.
loving this! you've built such a great world around the hero
Posted by Omni on :
Kahloans - Kahloans are the indigenous people of the planet Kahlo. Many Kahloans are addicted to Belamort, a psychotropic plant.
Kahloans are a humanoid species with green skin, and they are all have slightly elongated necks and limbs.
Detox-as there are many on the planet who are addicted to the psychotropic plant; the Belamort, it causes various reactions. Once such reaction is the villain Detox. Due to the large amounts of Belamort he was taking, he built up an immunity to its psychotropic effects. But he gained the ability to drain people of their psychotropic effects and cast them into an almost lethargic state of being, potentially even reducing them to a catatonic state. His ability is much like a hunger. he hungers for the Belamort affects. But even when he drains others he doesn't attain the desired affects but his hunger is satiated. His ability only works on those who are "tripping" on Belamort.
He was a low level drug pusher, when he accepted a job from his bosses to be a tester for a new strain of Belamort.after the final trial he began to developed his abilities. The drug company that was developing the drug, was working to make it a more poitent strain to sell on the black market and to sell it intergalacticly for recreational use, as Belamort is legal on Kahlo. Detox, or Gral as he was known then, entered into a coma like state for several days. when he awoke, he was in a medical ward with other patients who were "tripping" on the Belamort. As he began to stir he started to feel hungry but it wasn't a normal kind of hunger. it was a hunger for Belamort. as he looked around he began to drain the patients. at first he was horrified, but as he fed his hunger lapsed and he grew to liking taking peoples effects.
as he learned how to control his ability he began to use it to help him rob drug dealers, and the wealthy of their fortunes. building his own criminal network.
Posted by Set on :
Belamort = beautiful death? Neat.
Detox may not be a hero, as written, but if he learns to manage his own hunger, and refine his abilities, he could be a one-man cure for the addiction (or various other addictions?). His current status as more of a predator-upon-addicts is made a bit more tragic, given the beneficial and healing potential of his abilities...
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Omni: loving this! you've built such a great world around the hero
Thanks! It was inspired by the backstory behind the Heroes of Lallor, five 'mutants' imprisoned by a dictatorial regime on their homeworld. I just added the potential for their being more 'mutants,' and for some of them to have been on the 'wrong side.' (Pro-jackbooted-imperials, anti-rebel-scum.)
His power, to use 'x-radiation' to make other things transparent was meant to evoke those classic '60s powers, like being able to shoot X-rays at people and make them transparent (which, we know today, would just give them freakish amounts of cancer...).
Anti-X-radiation, able to make invisible things (even air!) visible and opaque, was the 'comic-book-logic' reverse of that Silver Age 'Science!'
Posted by Set on :
One thousand years after their royal caste was nearly rendered extinct by ruthless aggressors, the Exorian race has adapted to prevent such a tragedy from ever occuring.
Where the rare royals once travelled in twin-pairs, and could only trigger their fantastic shapeshifting powers by contacting their sibling, this vulnerability was deemed too risky, and, ten centuries later, there are now several dozen royals, scattered across the seven worlds that the Exorians have jointly colonized along with allied UP races, so that no one catastophe can threaten their species. In addition, each royal is a single entity, androgynous and hermaphroditic, able to trigger it's own shapeshifting talents without the presence of a second royal.
Most Exorian royals remain on the worlds that their people have settled, but a few travel the stars as emissaries, part of their peoples plan for continued survival, to integrate themselves as thoroughly into intergalactic society as they can, and the most famous Exorian royal is Reyka, an Exorian shifter famous for hir humanitarian endeavors, and hir unique talent for shapeshifting into various mechanical forms, including, for personal transportation, a small one-person spacecraft!
Like all Exorian royals, Reyka's shifting is limited, in hir case to machinery not much larger than hir trademark scout ship form, but s/he keeps extremely up to date on current mechanical innovations, and can take the form of life-saving medical machines, utilitarian earth-moving or construction devices, various types of transport vehicle, life support modules, and, in defense of those who cannot defend themselves from aggression, combat-grade war-machines and shockingly effective weapons platforms!
[ October 16, 2012, 10:25 PM: Message edited by: Set ]
Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: One thousand years after their royal caste was nearly rendered extinct by ruthless aggressors, the Exorian race has adapted to prevent such a tragedy from ever occuring.
Where the rare royals once travelled in twin-pairs, and could only trigger their fantastic shapeshifting powers by contacting their sibling, this vulnerability was deemed too risky, and, ten centuries later, there are now several dozen royals, scattered across the seven worlds that the Exorians have jointly colonized along with allied UP races, so that no one catastophe can threaten their species. In addition, each royal is a single entity, androgynous and hermaphroditic, able to trigger it's own shapeshifting talents without the presence of a second royal.
Most Exorian royals remain on the worlds that their people have settled, but a few travel the stars as emissaries, part of their peoples plan for continued survival, to integrate themselves as thoroughly into intergalactic society as they can, and the most famous Exorian royal is Reyka, an Exorian shifter famous for hir humanitarian endeavors, and hir unique talent for shapeshifting into various mechanical forms, including, for personal transportation, a small one-person spacecraft!
Like all Exorian royals, Reyka's shifting is limited, in hir case to machinery not much larger than hir trademark scout ship form, but s/he keeps extremely up to date on current mechanical innovations, and can take the form of life-saving medical machines, utilitarian earth-moving or construction devices, various types of transport vehicle, life support modules, and, in defense of those who cannot defend themselves from aggression, combat-grade war-machines and shockingly effective weapons platforms!
i love this!! i love that you've made a transformer but way more interesting!
Posted by Omni on :
The Barrions of Barrio III are silicon based lifeforms. They are a race of round crystalline spheres, with eyes and fully functional appendages that have sharp talon like fingers and resemble thick black cables. they can also stretch to up to a 3 feet radius.
The people of Barrio III, have kept to themselves over the last thousand years. after the Green Lantern Corps disbanded and their representative, Chaselon went missing in action. they have recently signed a treaty with the United Planets, joining officially.
Their spherical shapes haven't changed in the 1000 years since last the galaxy saw them. But something has changed. several of them have begun to develop various abilities. The most common of these abilities is extreme durability. Others are Telepathy, and Light manipulation.
As Barrions are generally accepting of all their people, they have used their resources to help train people with these powers to be useful in society as well as potentially be heroes. As they are inspired by Chaselon, good example. He is like their Superman.
Shazlon- one of the extremely durable type. Shazlon is known as Sphereica; because she's able to retract her appendages and be a complete sphere, she uses her durability to roll over her opponents and take them out with ease. She's also been put to work to help clear tree's from forest for development. she hopes to learn how to expand her durability and see how far she can push it. Shazlon is a bit of an adrenalin junky and loves pushing herself to the limit. He next quest is to see how she fares against a volcanic eruption. One of her reasons for pushing herself so hard is because she knows she's not the only one who posses great durability, so she strives to push herself to the peak and do the best she can. She has hopes of leaving Barrio III someday to see what else she can do with the her extreme durability. She's hoping this treaty with the U.P. will help her do this.
Posted by Set on :
Ah, the Green Lantern races, such a wonderful source of new aliens!
Posted by Omni on :
yup and considering we know almost nothing about many of them its gonna be a gold mine!
Posted by Set on :
From the Free Cities of Haven (all that remains of the devastated world of Competalia), the Ladies of Misschief are considered heroes by some, but are generally regarded as capricious thrillseekers by UP authorities.
Coming from a society where *everyone* has superhuman abilities, due to the expressed metagene that all Competalian descended humanoids share, the five members of this clique of 'heroes' have chosen to leave the spacefaring Free Cities of Haven behind, to join a larger universe where not everyone has the same sort of unique and special talents.
It's perhaps something of a misnomer to call any of them 'leader,' as they are all strong-willed and independent-minded, but the one who most often instigates their shenanigans is Vareena Liu, aka Miss Behave, who has the meta-ability to affect the inhibitions of others, causing them to 'act out' in spectacular and outrageous ways, or to be all-but paralyzed with shame and self-doubt, unable to act. Rumor has it she uses her abilities on herself, as well as others, keeping herself in a near constant state of loosened inhibitions, and serving to explain her often erratic and sensationalistic behaviors.
Miss Direction, Pardivak Mille, constrasts her 'leaders' wild attention-seeking nature by being the member about which the least accurate information is available, as she has a gift for deception that borders on the superhuman, having spread a bewildering plethora of lies and half-truths about her past, her nature, her abilities, etc. Her actual meta-ability is to redirect forces in her close proximity, sometimes to the extreme of being able to reflect hostile energies or projectiles to strike other opponents, or to cause moving individuals to fly sideways or upwards, as their personal momentum is redirected up to ninety degrees.
With powers reminiscent of Chemical King, Noma Vu, aka Miss Fire can catalyze any energetic reaction, causing batteries and chemical accelerants to burst into fire, or otherwise discharge. She can even, with concentration, cause oxygen in the air to combust, but is far more capable at causing weapons in her view to spontaneously discharge, making them far more of a danger to their weilders than to her or her allies! In contrast with her explosive and volatile powers, Noma herself is laid-back, appearing perpetually bored with the current circumstances, although she has a sneaky sense of humor. While as lovely as the rest of her travelling companions, after accidentally combusting her own hair (an incident to which she responded with mild annoyance, in her typically unflappable way), Noma has shaved her head and wears a spiky ornate head-dress that trails dozens of strands of tiny gemstone beads, in place of 'hair.'
Taraana Shen, as Miss Fortune, has powers over luck, and is perpetually hyper-aware of her surroundings, and powerfully manic in personality, always in motion and, to her teammates consternation, always talking. Her abilities allow her to sense probabilities as a form of 'pressure' building up in certain areas, and to 'push' at these concentrations of probability, causing seemingly improbable calamities to befall those she has 'jinxed.' The more often (and more spectacularly) her foes are afflicted by these misfortunes, the more she feels that probability is 'relaxed' around herself, and the more comfortable she feels, as she becomes increasingly *more* fortunate, the more she brings misfortunes to others. She actively pushes Miss Behave into risky and 'heroic' encounters, as the more conflict arises, the more chances she has to 'jinx' others, and therefore the luckier she herself becomes, giving her strong incentive to keep her teammates meddling in 'super-adventures' and not just partying and enjoying their celebrity status.
Miss Take, Jalakr Chanu, has the superhuman ability to 'take' anything she can see, up to about as large an item as she could physically carry in her arms, teleporting it from anywhere within her visual range to her grasp. She typically uses this power to snatch away weapons or stolen valuables, or even, in one dramatic case, to seize a kidnapped child hostage away from her kidnapper, but can also reverse the effect, and teleport any suitably sized item from her own grasp to anywhere within her visual range, allowing her to send an explosive high into the sky, or to 're-gift' a grenade to a distant opponent, or even to deliver medical or survival equipment to someone out of physical reach. The most capricious of the five Ladies of Misschief, she is the one most likely to have turned to crime, if left to her own devices (having a power eminently suited to a life of theft, after all, as well as a more chequered past...), and, even as a 'hero of convenience,' is likely to spice up her hero activities by snatching away a wrong-doers clothing, instead of merely disarming them.
[ October 28, 2012, 11:59 PM: Message edited by: Set ]
Posted by razsolo on :
From Kathoon, the Night Watch...I originally came up with these guys to use as cannon fodder for a story I'm writing but I like some of them too much to just kill off now so I am gonna leave them sitting in limbo for a bit...ten points for the first person who gets the team they're a homage to...
Excavator: Camm Grogan created a clunky exoskeleton for the asteroid mining industry which gives its wearer enhanced strength, life support and protection against temperature and pressure changes, as well as layers of physical armor. The suit's sensor suite allows him to scan the physical composition and density of his surrounding environment, and it comes equipped with a blasting weapon. It was deemed impractical to put the suit into mass production, but when Camm saved a bunch of people from a mine collapse at its debut he realised he could put it to better use as a superhero.
Gimmick: Leck Pemberton's family has been filled with heroes from before they left Earth for Kathoon over a century ago. He has no innate powers himself, but his intelligence approaches human maximum and he has an ever-changing arsenal. His trademark gadgets are a supremely adaptable all-purpose tool called the Omnirod and his Tesseract Pouch, a belt-mounted bag which contains a seemingly endless array of bizarre weapons and implements stored in their own dimensional space (most of which he invented himself).
Comet King: Inspired by Comet Queen's origin (which itself was inspired by Star Boy's), Jep Sartro flew his space shuttle directly into the tail of a passing comet. His skin took on a chrome finish which protects him from the rigors of high speed travel, and he gained the ability to fly at super speed.
Bioluminescent Girl: Comet King's twin sister Janna wanted to follow him into a life of adventure, but she also wanted her own unique origin and not one that already belonged to a handful of other heroes. Turning to her work as a marine biologist for inspiration, she scientifically altered her own body chemistry so that she can now produce light at will like some deep-sea fish do. Her power can be used for a gentle illuminating glow or a more powerful blinding attack, but it's most useful somewhere like Kathoon where the world is in perpetual darkness to begin with.
Sea Serpent Sally: A work colleague of Bioluminescent Girl, Sally Marin was exposed to radiations given off by a weird undersea creature native to Kathoon's deepest ocean trenches. This gave her the ability to turn into a gigantic amphibious serpent herself. With practice, she has mastered the ability to partially transform herself, so she can gain the added strength of a hybrid form without losing her human limbs. Bioluminescent Girl persuaded her to use her abilities as a member of the Night Watch.
Nocturna: Anna Nara is the team's second shapeshifter. A native of Earth and archeologist by trade, she found a mysterious mystic amulet which gives her the ability to transform into any nocturnal animal. She applied for Legion membership, but was rejected as her power comes from her amulet and additionally, she can only use her power in the absence of sunlight. Coincidentally, Night Girl and Color Kid saved Anna from an attempted mugging on the way home from her Legion tryout...in gratitude for their help, she decided to move to Kathoon to protect Night Girl's world while the Subs continued their good work on Earth.
White Dwarf and Red Giant: When Euje Pukk and Walla Sesk met at an astrophysics conference, it was love at first sight. They collaborate on many work projects together now and so when a solar flare washed over Walla's space shuttle, both men were irradiated. Euje gained the ability to shrink down to a tenth of his size, though keeping the same mass. This makes him unusually tough the smaller he gets. Walla (already an extremely tall, burly and unusually hairy man) gained the ability to increase his size by a factor of ten. As White Dwarf and Red Giant, they are the two final members of the team.
Posted by Set on :
Ooh, I can't figure out what team you've based them on! I see echoes of Alpha Flight, 'though, but all mixed up with Nocturna being the token alien (like Marrina), but Sea Serpent Sally being more directly like Marrina, while Nocturna's powers, to turn into a very specific grouping of animals, seems more like Snowbird. Excavator's armor sounds like the Groundhog earth-moving armor that was later refined into Guardian/Vindicator's battlesuit. Gimmick with his Tesseract Pouch, seems like a tech version of Shaman. Comet King and Bioluminescent Girl have powers like Northstar and Aurora, and he also experimented on himself to replicate the origin of another hero like Sasquatch (who was attempting to replicate the Hulk's origin), etc. But I could be forcing the parallels...
Edit: Ah, now I see that the shrinker is named Euje Pukk, and any doubts have faded! Alpha Flight it is!
Posted by razsolo on :
I got lazy with Puck and Sasquatch (White Dwarf and Red Giant) and just threw in two characters I used to use in a role playing game because one is short and the other's a giant, so good work getting it despite those two only vaguely fitting, lol
On another note...it never occurred to me till I wrote this team up that roughly half of the original Alpha Flight had 'animalistic shapeshifter' as their schtick! I guess that's a mark of good characterization when you don't even think about how similar the power types are...
Posted by Set on :
After it's time under the oppressive yet fashionable heel of Sarya, the so-called Emerald Empress, the world of Venegar suffered years more of purges and pograms, as former supporters and enforcers of the Queen's will were hunted down and 'made to pay for their crimes,' occasionally at the hands of the law, but more often by angry mobs of those who suffered under her rule, and had only these 'collaborators' and 'quislings' to take out their pent-up years worth of frustrations upon.
An accusation of being a collaborator was a virtual death sentence, true or not, and some opportunistic souls used such accusations to benefit themselves, discredit or eliminate rivals or even just settle grudges.
All that changed with the arrival of the golden-gauntleted Venegarian hero, Dex Sinister. At first he seemed little more than a super-powered enforcer for the lynching mobs, but he somehow managed to transform the movement from within, and those his posse rounded up were always given over to local authorities, instead of hanged on the spot.
He has demonstrated the ability to fly, golden-armored fist held high, glowing with light like the sun, and to form the golden light into barriers or restraints of energy that resembles liquid gold, but can be strong as diamond. When resistance is met, the golden armor grows like organic crystal to cover the rest of his body in glowing plates of this material, protecting him from harm.
He keeps many secrets, including his true identity, hidden behind a mask pulled up over his lower face, long a symbol of the underground resistance against the Emerald Empress. His true secret is the source of his powers, a cracked golden yellow power ring that fell to Venegar from another dimension entirely, where the bearers of the yellow rings are forces of moderation, defense and restraint, and stand in opposition to the power mad users of the green rings of arrogance. His damaged power ring draws its strength from the fear and anger of others, making Dex Sinister dependent upon his passionate supporters for empowerment, and yet also draining them of their anger and fear, leaving them easier to control and placate, and stemming the terrible sorts of excesses they would perform without their local champion there to drain away their outrage, and channel it from a quest for revenge, to a quest for justice.
Dex Sinister cannot be everywhere, nor halt every excess of the Venegarian mob, but through his example, he provides to the Venegarian a symbol of justice through laws, instead of the crazed revenge of the mob, and is slowly turning the tide, taking some amusement from the knowledge that if he ever truly succeeds at his mission to end 'the Terror of Venegar,' he will have no more howling mobs fuel his damaged power ring with their emotional energy, and will become powerless.
He hopes that when that day comes, he will lose his powers only because Venegar will no longer need his services.
[ December 11, 2012, 08:15 AM: Message edited by: Set ]
Posted by razsolo on :
I love the roles of the green and yellow energies being reversed, and Venegar is one of the worlds I have always thought would be cool to explore!
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo: I love the roles of the green and yellow energies being reversed, and Venegar is one of the worlds I have always thought would be cool to explore!
Thanks!
I like noodling around with the Crime Syndicate's Earth 3, where morality is reversed, and I had the notion that the Earth 3 green power rings were rings of arrogance, overconfidence and bullying, prone to selecting self-obsessed megalomaniacs (such as the Earth 3 'green lantern,' Power Ring) as their 'chosen' weilders, while the yellow rings were rings of restraint, moderation and self-control.
And I was looking for an interesting 'hero' for post-Sarya Venegar, and based on my grandmothers experiences in post WW2 France (where an accusation of having been a collaborateur could result in your whole family getting lynched), and a yellow ring that by it's very presence was toning down that sort of auto-de-fe atmosphere seemed like a good fit.
Because I had dealt with a very different version of Venegar previously in my Emerald Legion fic, I kind of forgot that the canon Venegar would likely be a much different place, recovering from one of the 'five worst villains in the universe' conquering it and ruling it for a time!
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo: On another note...it never occurred to me till I wrote this team up that roughly half of the original Alpha Flight had 'animalistic shapeshifter' as their schtick! I guess that's a mark of good characterization when you don't even think about how similar the power types are...
[tangent] John Byrne has written that he tossed out the Alpha Flight characters as one-off foes for the X-Men and never intended for them to be anything deeper. When they became popular enough that he was approached about writing a standalone series about them, he was 'Uh, crap.' and felt like he had to basically make stuff up that fit their initial appearance.
He mentioned that, among other things, he *never* would have devoted two of the team's six or seven slots to a pair of twins with exactly the same powers, if he'd been intentionally designing a team for more than a single appearance!
Given how good the Alpha Flight series was under his hand, I shudder to think what the man could have made if he was approached to make a standalone series out of similar throwaway groups like the Imperial Guard.
In a way, having a team designed this way allows a creator greater freedom. When writing a story about, say, the Squadron Supreme, you can make choices (bold or foolish!) that you could never make if you were assigned a property that the company more strictly micro-manages, like the Avengers or the Justice League.
I suspect that this why some creators would rather work with their own creations or 'lesser' properties like X-Factor or Justice League International or the Great Lakes Avengers or Young Justice or the Thunderbolts, than have to deal with all the backseat editorial kibbutzing that goes on when trying to write the Fantastic Four or X-Men or Spiderman or Batman.
Plus it was a different time. If Alpha Flight was written today, in Byrne's two year run, they would have been dragged into a *minimum* of two mega-events, possibly eating up six or more of the twenty-four issues. I think those twenty-four Alpha Flight issues are stronger for not having to participate in a single 'Civil War' or 'Infinite Crisis.' [/tangent]
Re-reading your Night Watch, it just occured to me that White Dwarf and Red Giant are *perfect* to use the Fastball Special popularized by Wolverine and Colossus. WD shrinks to his hyper-compact form, and RG pitches him at the fight!
(I also like that, white and red, they evoke the Canadian flag, yet another Alpha Flight shout-out!)
Posted by Shining Son on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: I suspect that this why some creators would rather work with their own creations or 'lesser' properties like X-Factor or Justice League International or the Great Lakes Avengers or Young Justice or the Thunderbolts, than have to deal with all the backseat editorial kibbutzing that goes on when trying to write the Fantastic Four or X-Men or Spiderman or Batman.
Also, Jack Kirby took on Jimmy Olsen rather than Superman.
Though let's not forget some of the really bad things that happen when editors get too hands-off. It's one thing to allow bold new directions, it's another to pay no attention.
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Shining Son: Though let's not forget some of the really bad things that happen when editors get too hands-off. It's one thing to allow bold new directions, it's another to pay no attention.
Oh, that's true. All things in moderation, I guess.
A un-examined single author story runs the risk of becoming so self-referential or bizarre that it ends up only making sense to the author themself, as there's no outside voice to tell them, 'Hey, this part here? That's messed up...'
We are all our own worst editor.
Posted by Omni on :
Raz i love your night watch!
Posted by Omni on :
Savothians - The Savothians are a camel-like advanced humanoid species native to the planet Savoth
Tarzana- Felma Banla, like all Savothians, she produces a cotton like fur. However, she produces an extra amount of it, 7 feet extra to be specific. But her fur is also super strong and durable but light weight. She often uses her extra hair to travel around the trees, swinging from branch to branch.
When she was younger her life wasn't the best it could have been. As a child she was raised by her grandmother, who was very weak and disabled. Having to spend much of her time taking care of her align grandmother Felma, didn't have many friends and barely finished school. When she turned 13, he grandmother passed away, leaving her in the foster care system on Savoth; which was nothing more than a sweat shop, where they were all shaved and mined for their fur. this is where she discovered her fur's strength and durability.
One night, when the power went out, she ran out of the sweat shop and rain into the surrounding forest. luckily with the power outage motion sensors were shut off and her chains were easy to unlock with a simple bobby pin.
When she realized how remote the sweat shop was, she realized that there maybe no other help to come for the other children. She felt for them and instead of leaving them to their doom, she decided to do the best she could by becoming a hero of sorts to the children there. she would steal extra food for them and sometimes try to sneak in a toy or two.
the children regarded her as a god send and the guards and staff thought she was nothing more than the children's imagination.
After years of doing her part to make things somewhat better for the kids, she saw a chance to have the place shut down forever. As she did her best to sabotage the entire facility she was able to free some of the children. She got at least half-dozen to safety. But unable to take down the facility permanently, she continues her battle to safe guard the children and free as many as she can.
Posted by Set on :
While the visual of a humanoid camel swinging through the jungle with her Spider-Girl-like fur is an odd one, her backstory is very compelling. A race that enslaves it's own children to harvest resources from them? Yikes!
I like that her journey is just beginning, as well, and she has yet to complete what would be her 'origin story.'
I like the Buddha-like nature of her abandoning her own quest for freedom until she could free the others, as well. Very noble and selfless!
Posted by Set on :
Shimrah Karroc goes by no code-name, and haunts the ferrosilicate sands of the deserts of the western continent of Talokk VIII.
Born hairless and with bright red skin, that was already coarse like leather, the mutant child's superstitious parents quietly disposed of their infant, leaving him in the desert to fend for himself, according to ancient (and long-abandoned!) Talokkian custom.
Somehow, the apparently helpless baby survived for days, his nascent abilities proving sufficient to drive off scavenging predators, and he was discovered, nearly dead of thirst, by a wandering hermit-priestess, who took in the strange child and raised him in the sacred caverns she tended.
His nameless mentor named her adopted child Shimrah Karroc, 'gift of the desert,' in Talokkian, and her 'son' grew quickly and absorbed all that his surrogate mother had to teach him, learning also to control the abilities his strange body developed as he grew. He could burrow through the ferrosilicate sands even faster than a man could run atop them, using a 'swimming' motion, combined with some form of electromagnetic propulsion, as if the iron sands someone pushed him along, moving aside before him and sealing behind to conceal his passage. His body also generated a concentrated acidic secretion that he could expel with great force from his mouth, and in the course of movement through the sands, built up a powerful electrostatic charge, allowing him to burst from the sands with a lightning-like discharge.
His ruddy leathery hide, which darkened with age to a reddish-black coloration, and lean yet flexible body proved to be stronger and more durable than that of the average Talokkian, and he found himself able to easily best any disrespectful raiders who approached his mentor's sacred grounds, bursting up from the ground in a blinding stunning display, and then savagely beating the bewildered raiders back, ducking back beneath the cover of the sands, if truly threatened, able to survive deep beneath their feet holding his breath for up to an hour, aware of the movements of those above him carried through tremors and vibrations within the sands themselves, as if Talokk itself conspired to protect him, and give away his enemies positions.
quote:Originally posted by Set: While the visual of a humanoid camel swinging through the jungle with her Spider-Girl-like fur is an odd one, her backstory is very compelling. A race that enslaves it's own children to harvest resources from them? Yikes!
I like that her journey is just beginning, as well, and she has yet to complete what would be her 'origin story.'
I like the Buddha-like nature of her abandoning her own quest for freedom until she could free the others, as well. Very noble and selfless!
thanks Set! that a big compliment.
and i really love that list you gave me as a source! its come in handy big time! so much to play with.
Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: Shimrah Karroc goes by no code-name, and haunts the ferrosilicate sands of the deserts of the western continent of Talokk VIII.
Born hairless and with bright red skin, that was already coarse like leather, the mutant child's superstitious parents quietly disposed of their infant, leaving him in the desert to fend for himself, according to ancient (and long-abandoned!) Talokkian custom.
Somehow, the apparently helpless baby survived for days, his nascent abilities proving sufficient to drive off scavenging predators, and he was discovered, nearly dead of thirst, by a wandering hermit-priestess, who took in the strange child and raised him in the sacred caverns she tended.
His nameless mentor named her adopted child Shimrah Karroc, 'gift of the desert,' in Talokkian, and her 'son' grew quickly and absorbed all that his surrogate mother had to teach him, learning also to control the abilities his strange body developed as he grew. He could burrow through the ferrosilicate sands even faster than a man could run atop them, using a 'swimming' motion, combined with some form of electromagnetic propulsion, as if the iron sands someone pushed him along, moving aside before him and sealing behind to conceal his passage. His body also generated a concentrated acidic secretion that he could expel with great force from his mouth, and in the course of movement through the sands, built up a powerful electrostatic charge, allowing him to burst from the sands with a lightning-like discharge.
His ruddy leathery hide, which darkened with age to a reddish-black coloration, and lean yet flexible body proved to be stronger and more durable than that of the average Talokkian, and he found himself able to easily best any disrespectful raiders who approached his mentor's sacred grounds, bursting up from the ground in a blinding stunning display, and then savagely beating the bewildered raiders back, ducking back beneath the cover of the sands, if truly threatened, able to survive deep beneath their feet holding his breath for up to an hour, aware of the movements of those above him carried through tremors and vibrations within the sands themselves, as if Talokk itself conspired to protect him, and give away his enemies positions.
great job! i actually was thinking about the movie Tremors! i love it!
i love the meaning of of his name as well!
i also like how he's both stealthy and has great brute force. that's a combination that's hard to do in most.
Posted by Set on :
Thanks for the kind words!
Tremors is just pure goofy fun. Love that movie.
While flight is very common, and super-leaping / bouncing or super-swimming or teleportation also have their representation, burrowing is a darn rare means of super-travel, so I thought it would be fun to have at least one!
Posted by razsolo on :
I love this dude...I would love to see Shady take a couple of Legionnaires to Talok VIII and have barbarian-style adventures across the sands coming across local heroes like Mongolian Death Worm Lad here Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo: I love this dude...I would love to see Shady take a couple of Legionnaires to Talok VIII and have barbarian-style adventures across the sands coming across local heroes like Mongolian Death Worm Lad here
Oh, I'd kill for a graphic novelization along the lines of John Carter of Mars (the books, not the movie), only set on Talokk VIII and with Shady in the role of John Carter, uniting warring tribes and fighting giant monsters and leading her people against alien manipulators that are trying to take over her world. Sword in one hand, blaster in the other. Oh yes.
Pulpy goodness.
There are several Legionnaires that, if taken completely away from the Legion, and working solo on their homeworlds (or Earth, or elsewhere in the UP), could have some awesome adventures. Saturn Girl on Titan attempting to solve a psycho-thriller murder mystery, dealing with a master telepath who is mind-jobbing other people into committing crimes for him? Projectra dealing with Orandan court intrigues and a brewing revolution against her (admittedly ill-fortuned, at times) rule? Brainy could be at the heart of a great cyberpunk story, or Tinya at the heart of a surreal Gaiman-esque dimensional psychodrama, or Cham deeply mired into a noir detective tale of the gritty underbelly of 31st century Metropolis.
There's a lot of untapped potential there, and different Legionnaires lend themselves to very different sub-genres nicely.
Posted by Set on :
Suffering from a sense of being at war with himself, the man who would become the Carggite hero Uinseach of the Leaping Shadows is no native of Cargg, although he has recently become a naturalized citizen of the world under the triple sun.
Descended from the people of Graxos IV, a world whose elfin natives are famous for their hereditary line of Green Lanterns, such as Arisia Rrab, Uinseach (OON-see-osh) was born to parents who lived on Earth, and had never even been to Graxos IV until his third decade of life, when a spiritual advisor counseled him to travel to his 'homeworld,' to attempt to find himself, as he had drifted into and out of the criminal rehabilitation system for petty crimes, during his misspent youth.
He found no answers to the anger and confusion that marked the man he had been, and the better man he wished to become, on Graxos IV, but on Cargg, bathed in the light of the triple suns in the southern polar city, he saw the three shadows he cast in their light struggle with each other, a visible manifestation of the struggle he was feeling between the disparate parts of his psyche.
He collapsed, and awoke to find that, even in a medical room, under artificial illumination, he still cast three shadows, only the struggle was over, both within and without, and now, feeling at last at peace with himself, he learned to control his triple shadows, which would merge together, or split apart at his will, and could affect the material world as if they possessed physical strength equal to his own, while remaining intangible shadows to the touch. Able to stretch up to 10 meters from where his feet touched the ground, his shadows could grapple and restrain individual, or lift objects and bring them to him, or even pass through transparent obstacles or through a slender opening (to the great surprise of a smuggler he apprehended, who thought himself safe within the pilot's seat of the craft he was stealing to escape, unaware that the 'Leaping Shadow' could pass right through the windshield into the craft, to pin him to his seat!).
Uinseach developed his own physical strength, further enhancing his shadows usefulness, and remained on Cargg to serve as a hero, feeling that he owed a debt to the world that had saved him from his own self-division. He discovered quite painfully that bright light can weaken his shadows, and damaging intensities of light, such as a laser blast, can destroy one of them, a sensation he likens to having a limb torn away (and one that caused him to black out from pain and shock, the first time it happened), although the lost shadow slowly returns over the next few days, wispy insubstantial at first, but gaining in strength and visibility over time.
Darker skinned than his distant relation, Arisia, Uinseach has dark amber skin, appearing brown with golden highlights, and hair of a dark metallic red hue, and tends to dress in fashions reminiscent of New Genesis, which was a fad when he was younger and which he has kept with, even as the rest of the universe long ago moved on. His eyes are a reddish-orange, but flare with blue light when he activates his powers and splits his shadow into three.
Posted by Set on :
Spectrum comes from the world of Korugar, and is descended from the legendary Sinestro, bearing a strong resemblance to his forebear, although choosing to dress in a simple white tunic and breeches, appearing more like a monk's attire than those of a champion or hero.
Spectrum has the power to emanate colored light along the emotional spectrum, evocative of the power rings worn by his famous ancestor, but he cannot create force constructs, or perform any of the other amazing feats of a power ring.
Instead, when he channels the light of the emotional spectrum, it both fills him and all around him with the emotional energy of that color. When he glows red, all around him become filled with anger and rage, and when he glows blue, all around him feel a sense of perseverance and renewed confidence, while a yellow aura fills all with dread and terror, and a violet aura causes all to feel an overwhelming sense of love for all around them.
To call upon this inner light, he has to surrender to the feelings he is projecting, whether it be fear or wrath, determination or love. His eyes change to the color of the predominant emotion he is feeling, and the light shines brightly from his body. After a cruel foe attempted to shut down his powers by blinding him, he learned that he did not need his eyes to project the light of the emotional spectrum, and after having his eyes medically regenerated, continues to serve as a champion to the people of Korugar, quelling disturbances by bringing compassion to those who rise up in anger, or instilling courage and strength of will to those who despair in the face of natural disaster or hardship.
Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: Spectrum comes from the world of Korugar, and is descended from the legendary Sinestro, bearing a strong resemblance to his forebear, although choosing to dress in a simple white tunic and breeches, appearing more like a monk's attire than those of a champion or hero.
Spectrum has the power to emanate colored light along the emotional spectrum, evocative of the power rings worn by his famous ancestor, but he cannot create force constructs, or perform any of the other amazing feats of a power ring.
Instead, when he channels the light of the emotional spectrum, it both fills him and all around him with the emotional energy of that color. When he glows red, all around him become filled with anger and rage, and when he glows blue, all around him feel a sense of perseverance and renewed confidence, while a yellow aura fills all with dread and terror, and a violet aura causes all to feel an overwhelming sense of love for all around them.
To call upon this inner light, he has to surrender to the feelings he is projecting, whether it be fear or wrath, determination or love. His eyes change to the color of the predominant emotion he is feeling, and the light shines brightly from his body. After a cruel foe attempted to shut down his powers by blinding him, he learned that he did not need his eyes to project the light of the emotional spectrum, and after having his eyes medically regenerated, continues to serve as a champion to the people of Korugar, quelling disturbances by bringing compassion to those who rise up in anger, or instilling courage and strength of will to those who despair in the face of natural disaster or hardship.
i love this interpretation of the emotional spectrum. i also like that its a descendent of Senistro.
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Omni: i love this interpretation of the emotional spectrum. i also like that its a descendent of Senistro.
Thanks! I think, with Dex Sinister (with a kind of power ring) and Uinseach of the Leaping Shadows (a member of a 'Green Lantern race') and this guy (both a 'GL race' and with powers related to the emotional spectrum!), I'm gonna step away from the Green Lantern well for a bit.
Too much tapping of that well, I think. Posted by Klar Ken T5477 on :
Omni and Set, I am impressed by your respective abilities to re-imagine Universes. This is a little derivative, but you might like it.
In a parallel dimension, orbiting the star they call Shamash, is the Earth-like world of Oceania. It is remarkably Earth-like, although not exactly a parallel Earth.
The greatest hero of Oceania is Hyperman, rocketed to Oceania as an infant, he conceals his identity as the newspaper reporter Chester King.
1. Bob White lost his parents to a criminal’s handgun at an early age. He dedicated his life to learning criminology, martial arts, and a hundred other skills. Ready at last to begin his campaign against crime, he stood at the window of his mansion, gazing out into the night. “Criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot,” he mused. “I will become a… a…”
Just then, he was startled by the reflection in the window of his faithful butler’s shadow. “I will become a fearsome Spectre!” he resolved.
Now, as the green-and-gray-clad Spectre, he fights crime with his sidekick, the acrobatic teen Dirk Grantham, the scarlet-clad Deadman.
Spectre-cave, Spectre-mobile, Spectre-plane, Spectarangs, and all.
2. Given a ring of power by the Sentinels of the Galaxy, test pilot Howard Johnson battles evil with the green energies of the Flash.
3. Princess Deborah left the Assyrian Amazons of hidden Paradise Valley to join the “Man’s World” as the protector of right, Manhunter, wearing the purple-and-gold of her adopted nation’s flag.
4. When J’yym J’ymzz was accidentally transported to Oceania from Marduk, the fourth planet, he adopted a blonde-haired, fair-skinned identity as the green-and-blue-clad Superman. And as black police detective Jim James, he has an unfair advantage over the criminal element with his Mardukite telepathy, shape-shifting, and a host of other powers.
5. His powers granted by a lab accident, Brett Andrews is secretly the super-speedster Black Lightning
6. Shipwrecked on a tropical island, millionaire Oscar Quest was forced to learn to survive in the jungle by making his own bows and arrows. Now he fights crime in the metropolis of Stellar City as a mysterious green-clad hero. On his first excursion, he thwarted a bank robbery. The bank guard took one look at him and asked, “Who do you think you are? Robin Hood?” Oscar replied, “Just call me Robin—I’m no hood.” His partner is teen-aged Rick Hales, Mr. Scarlet.
7. Often joining Oscar is Drew Lincoln, the martial artist who calls herself Black Orchid.
8. Kyrzn and Shyba Hyl, members of the Bat-Police Force of Thothagar, they assumed the dual identities of Carson and Sheba Hill, and the super-heroes Batman and Batwoman
9. The human incarnation of the Spirit of Vengeance, is the late John Carmichael, known by his proper name of Naqamael.
How does this relate to the Legion? When Chester King and Lydia Long’s daughter Leah gets lost in time and space, she shows up in the 31st-century as Hypergirl.
Posted by Set on :
Ooh, some interesting shuffling of characters and backstories! I'm particularly fond of the Assyrian Amazon, Manhunter (and the purple-and-gold colors, more often associated with Wonder Woman's arch-foe, Circe), but the 'Bat-Police of Thothagar' are also fun sounding. Also loving the fourth planet being named after the Babylonian Marduk, instead of the Roman Mars!
Perhaps Oceania has an Aquaman analogue who is instead a member of a subterranean civilization of 'morlocks' or 'mole-people' that sank into the earth in prehistory? Using his people's evolved ability to manipulate seismic vibrations, their prince-champion Vibe represents the kingdoms of the Lost World as a hero to the surface folk!
[ November 24, 2012, 04:19 PM: Message edited by: Set ]
Posted by razsolo on :
That is some nifty re-imagining....I kind of wanna see Spectre and Deadman as well as the bat-police of Thothagar now!
Posted by Omni on :
Agreed! Klar Ken, you did a really fun reimagination of these characters.
i'd love to see more of the Bat Police of Thothagar as well!
Posted by Set on :
One thing I like, as mentioned above, is the use of non-classical mythologies / cultures, such as Assyrian Amazons or a 'Mars' named after the Babylonian Marduk.
Finding out that the bat-Thanagarians, instead of having some nebulous ties to ancient Egypt, instead were tied to the Mayans, and might have served as an inspiration for the bat-god Camazotz, could be funky. (I can't think of any other cultures that had a prominent bat-god, so Mayans it is!)
Posted by Klar Ken T5477 on :
Well, I am notoriously unartistic, but here are Hero Machines of the Spectre and Deadman the Boy Wonder of Oceania:
And the Batman and Batwoman of Thothagar
Posted by Shining Son on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: Perhaps Oceania has an Aquaman analogue
If Oceania doesn't have an Aquaman, what planet would?
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Shining Son:
quote:Originally posted by Set: Perhaps Oceania has an Aquaman analogue
If Oceania doesn't have an Aquaman, what planet would?
Ah, but our planet is named Terra, and is 76% covered by water.
Perhaps 'Oceania' is 76% covered with earth, and has smaller oceans than 'Terra?'
Either way, a 'mole man' type hero, from a mythical kingdom that sank into the depths of the earth, would be a neat twist on the Atlantis legends of our world.
Plus the absurdity of a hero named Vibe in the big boy Leagues tickles my funny bone. It's gone so well in the past, after all... Posted by Klar Ken T5477 on :
quote: Perhaps 'Oceania' is 76% covered with earth, and has smaller oceans than 'Terra?'
Either way, a 'mole man' type hero, from a mythical kingdom that sank into the depths of the earth, would be a neat twist on the Atlantis legends of our world. [/QB]
But an underground analogue of Aquaman would have the ability to tunnel rapidly through the soil, breathe dirt, and be able to telepathically communicate with moles, voles, gophers, worms, dung beetles...
And could not survive more than one hour at a time above ground...
Terra-Man!
Posted by Shining Son on :
I missed the part about the Aqua-analogue being underground instead of underwater. I just saw the incongruity of a place named Oceania being without an Aquaman and had to comment. Posted by Set on :
So, a couple of pages ago, I plotzed down a five-woman team of Competalians, and the day *after* posting, I remembered that these Competalians were designed to be 'DC's Inhumans,' complete with the occasional exotic individual appearances as a result / side-effect of the procedure that empowers them.
So my imagination immediately set to work jazzing up their appearances;
Miss Behave, like most of the Ladies of Misschief, is humanoid, with yellow skin decorated with zebra like stripes of bold red. In place of hair, she has a gigantic mane of feathers, red, orange and yellow, that attaches to her head, where a human would have hair, as well as additional manes attaching to her shoulders and hips, a smaller triangle of feathers attached to her breastbone and longer plume of feathers at the base of her spine, trailing from a short triangular tail-like structure. Her build is slightly more slender than the average, and she has three long graceful fingers and three toes (as well as 'thumbs') on each hand and foot, each with a prominent nail, colored bright red. She wears gauzy outfits that are sheer and mostly translucent, the better to show off her exotic coloration and feathery body adornment.
Miss Direction is a hairless humanoid female with pale blue skin. Unlike the source picture, her body surface appears to be covered with hexagonal patterns, made of raised ridges of skin and cartiledge, appearing as little more than patterns across most of her body, and shrinking in size in finer areas, such as her face and fingers, but growing to larger scale and definition atop the crown of her head, giving it a slightly unnatural / mechanical look, as if her body was pieced together from hundreds of differently sized hexagonal sub-units.
Miss Fire is a humanoid woman of apparent African ancestry, based on her skin tones and facial structure (suggesting that Competalians, like many other humanoid aliens, share a common ancestry with humans). While completely human in appearance, she also is hairless (having burned her hair off in an accident) and covers her shaved head with an ungainly looking spikey headdress of golden metal, from which dangle dozens of strands of tiny semi-precious gemstones of every dazzling color, shape and size, in place of 'hair.' She prefers to wear green and gold outfits cut asymmetrically, or in odd patterns (long baggy trousers, no sleeves *or* mini-skirt with long baggy sleeved blouse), as well as some thick clunky jewelry (more akin to pectorals, torcs or bracers than necklaces or bracelets).
Miss Fortune has skin so pale as to be translucent, showing off her pale violet musculature, her flourescent green arteries and her darker purple-black veins in a garish and phantasmagorical display. Her hair is full and thick, like a stylized mane, and stands slightly aware from her body, holding itself in place via a slight electrostatic shock. The hair on the side facing those she is looking at is bright blue, and viewing her from behind, the outer surfaces of the hairs are a bold red. (The curvature of her preferred hairstyle results in those in front of her seeing the blue hair framing her face, and the outer edges of the 'mane' being bold red, framing the blue inner hair). Despite it's fragile appearance, her skin is a tougher and more elastic than it looks, and Miss Fortune prefers to wear form fitting metal body ornamentation, in place of cloth, the feel of which she finds irritating.
Miss Take appears to be a member of an aquatic species, with light green skin with bright blue ovals of countershading (and smaller patterns of blue dots trailing along her limbs). She has fin-like structures atop her head, along the backs of her calves, and the outer sides of her forearms (starting just below the pinky finger and extending to the elbows). These fins can fold back, or stand out, as she desires, and fine anemone like strands of 'hair' (that rise up and begin waving around when she's underwater, but otherwise lie flat against her skull) reside on the sides of her head, pale brown / tan in color and growing on both sides of her head, divided into two areas by her central head-fin. Tan coral-like structures, the same color as her 'hair,' sprout from her shoulders, temple, brow, ribs, and hips, as well as the back of her head. Despite her aquatic appearance, she cannot breathe underwater, but can hold her breath for about 45 minutes, safely ingest saltwater and is an excellent swimmer, often wearing little more than a dark blue one-piece bathing suit and some sort of gauzy wrap around cloth in translucent seafoam green.
Where's the fun of having a bunch of exotic 'Inhuman' like aliens, if they all look more or less like humans, after all!
Posted by Klar Ken T5477 on :
quote:Originally posted by Set: I just love the visual of mirror-related powers. There aren't nearly enough mirror / reflection based super-characters!
So here are a couple.
Officer Ffolx of Carggg: Arona Ffolx is the descendant of a Green Lantern. Although the power ring is long gone, her great-grandmother’s power battery has been a family heirloom for scores of years. In fact, it served as a night-light for little Arona in her crib.
What no one could know was that over the years, the power battery had degraded, and Arona was exposed to a corrupted green radiation as she slept.
As a very young child, it was discovered that when she triplicated, two of her selves were surrounded in a pale greenish glow, almost invisible by day under the bright triple suns of Carggg, but clearly apparent indoors, and especially at night. Doctors could find no physical problem, but still, it set her apart as different.
Then came the episode. One day, as the pre-teen Arona was triplicating, her father walked suddenly into the room. Surprised, she turned her attention on him— a viridian bolt lept from her chest, striking her father, and Arona’s manifesting luminous duplicates assumed his appearance.
Following the family tradition, Arona became a member of the Cargggan Science Police. Her peculiarity serves her well. She merely has to concentrate on an opponent, and in a flash of light she has created two duplicates of her target. Most Cargggans are terribly confused as their three selves face Officer Ffolx and two copies of themselves. She is, like all CSPs, well-trained in tri-jitsu, and so has a distinct advantage, even against a much stronger opponent.
Her powers are limited: she can duplicate beings of about human size or smaller: a wolf or panther is within her abilities, but not an elephant. She can also duplicate inanimate objects, such as a target’s clothing or weapons, but also say, a tree, bicycle or desktop computer. As purely inanimate objects, her duplicates do not have the ability to move. Otherwise her duplicates are entirely under her control—that is, controlled by her triple consciousness, just like ordinary Cargggans.
Looking-Glass Lass of Tharn: Like many of the inhabitants of Tharn, the Sorceror’s World, her true name is a secret. She is commonly known, however, as Alis Klogsong (an anagram of “looking-glass”). Her magical abilities are limited. Aside from the ordinary, daily magic which is necessary in order to interact with Sorceror’s World technology, she can only perform one spell—a sort of magical “talent”: she can instantaneously rotate any object by 180°.
This is extraordinarily confusing for living beings who are rotated: one might find oneself suddenly facing back-to-front, or upside-down, or, most confusing of all, mirror-reversed, in which (from one’s own point of view) left has become right and right has become left throughout the whole universe.
She is the youngest member of her local town Coventry; this is somewhat analogous to a combination City Council and School Board, here on 21st-century Earth.
There are probably hundreds of thousands of such single-talented sorcerers on Tharn.
Posted by Set on :
Officer Ffolx (cool name, btw!) seems like she'd be much more effective off of Cargg, where she could manifest two duplicates of her (generally single) opponents! Do the duplicates have the abilities / skills / knowledge of their 'hosts,' or merely the appearance? (They obviously *also* would have her knowledge, if she can use trijutsu with her dupes, but if she, say, ran into a Braalian crook, and was able to double-team with with a pair of magnokinetic dupes, in addition to her own self, that could rock!)
The last line in Looking-Glass Lass' writeup, "There are probably hundreds of thousands of such single-talented sorcerers on Tharn." is inspiring!
I had meant to write up a Sorcerer's Seven team from the Sorcerer's World (less a 'superhero team' and more of a 31st century gathering of mystically inclined folk, like the motley crew John Constantine often hangs out with), but, other than the Thanagarian priest and the Orandan mage-knight, never really got around to it.
Neat ideas!
Posted by Klar Ken T5477 on :
My concept of Tharn, the Sorcerer’s World: Tharn is a world of seven continents, six in the northern hemisphere and seven in the southern. It is home to ten billion sorcerers, about one-fiftieth of whom are of Terran origin. Alien races and climates range from the Star Yeti in the hyperborean mountains to the Andorran Nagas in the equatorial desert lowlands. Important mostly-human metropolitan areas are Nuevo Paulo, Emerald City, the Oxford Mage School, and Merlinopolis. Gateways exist all over the planet connecting to Faerth (Fairyland).
Magical characters are like popcorn. Once I start, I just can’t stop. Remember that for most of them, these are not their actual names:
Some are based on DC Continuities: Clavanatus – He is probably not really a middle-aged Captain Marvel, but he likes people to think he is. Marveiia—Clavanatus’ protégé Lgxqzryp: A half-human, half-Zrfffn, he can transmute any object into another by speaking his name backwards. Qumbo of Xeen—A kilometer-tall giant with a magic ring which reduces him to only seven feet tall. Zatamazzar—When he speaks his spells backwards, he projects illusions The Indigo Warlock—A member of the Indigo Tribe, he is a soul of great power and deep compassion, a combination of Superman, Green Lantern and the Dali Lama. Tall and slender, with white skin and hair, green eyes, blue sclera, blue lips, and a perpetual beatific smile. A thousand years ago, he was the Joker.
Some are adapted from literature: Tolkien the Hobbit, Master of the Comfortable Magicks Allison Wonderland Ozmarda Ythorod the Witch-Killer Xorpia the Shoggoth
Some are originals: Doctor Tengu Elwin Elviston Jon Falstaff, the Food Mage Volallier & Chanticleer Sidheane, the Composite Elemental Grimoire, a sentient computer Gwendolyn the Vermilion Reparo the Silver Mite the Dwarf and his magic axe Stardust Spacedevil Captain Wizard Odd Duck Hexxess the Enchanter Kashaph the Potionmaster Chorus Celeste, the Occultress
Some take the names of former great wizards: Babushka Baba Yaga (not the original) Lung Mo (not the original) Strega Befana, the Gingerbread Witch (not the original) Gwalchavad (not the original) Groucho Marx (not the original) (Actually a Coluan student of sorcery who has embraced absurdism—blond afro, derby hat, rumpled trenchcoat. Performs his spells with a magic wand in the shape of a bulb horn. Inventor of the Fuzzy Pink Bunny Slippers of Invisibility.)
Posted by Shining Son on :
quote:Originally posted by Klar Ken T5477: Groucho Marx (not the original) (Actually a Coluan student of sorcery who has embraced absurdism—blond afro, derby hat, rumpled trenchcoat. Performs his spells with a magic wand in the shape of a bulb horn. Inventor of the Fuzzy Pink Bunny Slippers of Invisibility.)
That is absurd, calling yourself Groucho while dressing like Harpo.
Then again it could just be one of the more minor data errors stemming from the Great Crisis of Historical Records (do they still even use that?)
Posted by Klar Ken T5477 on :
quote:Originally posted by Shining Son:
quote:Originally posted by Klar Ken T5477: Groucho Marx (not the original) (Actually a Coluan student of sorcery who has embraced absurdism—blond afro, derby hat, rumpled trenchcoat. Performs his spells with a magic wand in the shape of a bulb horn. Inventor of the Fuzzy Pink Bunny Slippers of Invisibility.)
That is absurd, calling yourself Groucho while dressing like Harpo.
Then again it could just be one of the more minor data errors stemming from the Great Crisis of Historical Records (do they still even use that?)
Well, naturally I MEANT Harpo. He even throws a Gookie occasionally. But now that made the mistake, I think I will leave it as canon.
Posted by Shining Son on :
The most interesting things in comics have always been the rationalizations of mistakes. Posted by Set on :
I got a giggle from his mention of the Dali Lama, myself.
Salvadore Dali mixed with the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism? Yikes!
Seriously, though, a thousand year old Joker as a reformed enlightened leader of the order of compassion is a pretty out there idea, but I like it.
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Shining Son: The most interesting things in comics have always been the rationalizations of mistakes.
Kurt Busiek would have nothing to write about, if not for unknotting tangled continuity and making up stuff to make it all work out!
Posted by Shining Son on :
Roy Thomas liked to do a fair bit of that too didn't he? Or am I mixing up the two?
Posted by Klar Ken T5477 on :
• Salvador Dali Lama sounds like a Doom Patrol villain. • At least its better than Dolly Llama. • And Harpo classically wears a top hat, not a derby. The derby belonged to Chico. • To avoid, or possibly enhance, any further confusion, here are the pictures:
GROUCHO MARX circa 1940
HARPO MARX “GROUCHO MARX” circa 3013
I would be pleased to see him standing in the background next time a DC artist re-visits the Sorcerer’s World.
* As far as Officer Ffolx is concerned, since her duplicates are partially created by green lantern energy, I would imagine that duplicate Lightning Lads would shoot green lightning, and duplicate Sun Boys would shoot green sun energy. However, I don’t believe memories and skills would pass over; so her powers would be pretty much useless against, say, the White Witch or Karate Kid. On the other hand, she ought to be pretty formidable against four out of five of the Fatal Five—but Validus is just too big for her to duplicate. (On the other hand, I would suppose that she could duplicate a normal-sized Colossal Boy, and they could grow to a giant size otherwise beyond her limits.)
A fuller rendering of the Indigo Warlock’s origin story:
Superman, at one time, created a serum which gave temporary super-powers to ordinary Earthlings. Lana Lang and Lois Lane were each at one time recipients of this serum.
Eventually, Lex Luthor reverse-engineered the formula. At a particular time when Lex was incapacitated, and the Joker was out of Arkham, the Joker broke into Luthor’s secret vault at Lexcorp and stole the superpower formula.
Immediately upon ingesting it, he used his newly acquired super-senses to discover Superman’s secret identity—and in his haste to confront the Man of Steel as Clark Kent, blasted holes through several buildings, incidentally killing a half-dozen people. Not that he regretted it.
You have to think of this in the future as we know it, possibly on the other side of Kingdom Come. (if it ever happened) Clark is going gray, but not yet retirement age. He is very experienced. He quickly takes the Superman vs. Super-Joker battle off-Earth, to prevent further destruction. Fittingly for the Joker, they end up on one of the moons of Uranus. Hoo-ha, does J have fun with that one. (Probably Oberon or Titania. There is enough of an atmosphere for the Joker to taunt Superman mercilessly.) But there is no real contest: not only is the Joker inexperienced with super-powers, but the super-serum only empowers humans to sub-Kryptonian levels. All Superman has to do is keep the Joker from hurting anyone until the serum wears off.
However, as the Joker mocks him, Superman realizes that his friends and family are no longer safe. Even without powers, the Joker is a homicidal maniac. He would unquestionably escape from Arkham again. He could probably ultimately engineer an escape from the Phantom Zone or Kandor. And he is enough of a chemist that he could ultimately reproduce the super-serum again. Superman comes to a fateful decision: after all these years, he must do what Batman could never do, and kill the Joker.
All of this internal dialog has been occurring as the Joker has been making effort after effort to get past Superman, and back to Earth, where he can cause some real trouble. As he makes his decision, he grapples with the Joker again, this time ready to break his neck…
There is a flash of indigo light. Superman is knocked away from his opponent, crashing through miles of rock. An Indigo Lantern has appeared, fighting on the side of the Joker, turning the tide in his favor. The Joker stares enviously at the indigo-tipped staff.
“If that thing can do that to Superman, I have to have one,” he cries.
The Indigo Lantern proffers the staff. The Joker takes it, just as Superman returns.
“I could not let you break you oath,” the Indigo Lantern addresses Superman. “I could not let you kill.”
He then dissolves into dust. And the Proselyte Entity takes over the Joker.
The Joker’s last words to Superman, before he leaves for the depths of interstellar space, are:
“Kill me. Please kill me. Nothing is funny anymore.”
And then the mad personality that once was the Joker is gone. There is only the Indigo Warlock.
The indigo light has preserved the sub-Kryptonian super-powers the Joker had at the time he became an Indigo Lantern. Over the years, the green has been bleached from his hair and nails: he is pure white, except for the bluish coloring in his eyes and lips. It has also made him essentially immortal, or at least very long-lived. However, should he ever be allowed to give up the staff, he would crumble into dust, just as his predecessor.
Few people know his history. I would suppose that Sodam Yat either knows or suspects. Mordru probably knows, but doesn’t care.
The Joker is responsible for the deaths of hundreds, perhaps thousands. The Indigo Warlock has, over the years, saved the lives of billions. But one does not balance the other. They are simply independent facts. It is as if these actions were attributable to two different individuals. The Indigo Warlock is the unwilling tool of the Proselyte Entity, nothing more.
By coincidence, there is actually a font available called Indigo Joker.
More heroes of the Sorcerer’s World: Amulette, the Collector (specializes in classical fairy-tale gear- seven-league boots, water of life, ever-filled purses, poisoned apples, etc.)
Gaziyth, originally of the Obsidian Folk of Stoneworld: a living Philosopher’s Stone
Vrolokina, a vampire mosquito-fairy Due to an unfortunate incident with a Fountain of Youth, the immortal Jason Blood is temporarily a teen-ager. Living on the Sorcerer’s World. And bound to a teen Etrigan. Again.
Utmylgh, a Gil’Disphan sorcerer whose magic doesn’t make sense to those with a terrestrial mindset.
Coppelia, the doll girl: A "doll elemental" like Brother Power the Geek, she originally manifested on Daxam, so is virtually invulnerable. However, she hits like a rag doll.
Posted by razsolo on :
I love these Sorceror's World ideas! Amulette and Coppelia sound fun, and a Gil'Dishpan sorceror sounds full of creepy/awesome potential!
Posted by Klar Ken T5477 on :
These ten characters seem so obvious to me that I don’t think any further elaboration is necessary.
1 MoonHawk & SunHawk (husband & wife) – Planetary Champions of Thanagar
2 Dono & Mara (brother & sister) – Planetary Champions of Kormo
3 Superma & Superbo (mother & son) – Planetary Champions of Almerac
4 Ubuntu & Satyagraha (father & daughter) – Planetary Champions of Myrnah
5 Parsifal & Quixote (brothers) – Planetary Champions of Avalon
Posted by Omni on :
Daxam- During the Great Darkness, the New God known as Darkside corrupted the people of Daxam, controlling them and boosting their power levles to rule the universe. But The Legion was able to defeat Darkside's rule.
even though Darkside was gone his taint was still deep within some of the Damaxites.
The average Damaxite doesn't have any super powers under a red sun. But what no one knew was that even though Darkside wasn't in power long he was there long enough to sire several off spring that are half Damaxite and half New God.
Now they are in hiding with their mothers who still worship Darkside. They have formed a clan of their own that lives out in the dessert lands of Damax's southern hemisphere.
They roam the dessert gather materials and followers for the day when Darkside will return. They defend their settlement fiercely and are seen as out laws. One of them is the leader of this pack and rules his clan with an iron fist much like his father, who reveals in torture and pain.
Larn Fald- the eldest of the Children of Darkside. He resembles Darkside the most. His height and weight are that of the average Damaxites but his skin is a hard shell hide of rock just like his father. He is also strong and near invulnerable to most physical attacks.
As the eldest son, he automatically ascends to the role of clan leader upon turning 15. He remains in this role till the return of his father. As he is a son of Darkside he is imbued with the knowledge of the new gods and apolokpis. Due to this he follows the ways of apolokpis to the best of his abilities, punishing those who don't obey and punish those who do.
The way he does this is that he possesses a power that his father does not. He has the power of persuasion. This ability comes from a latent meta gene with in his mothers side of the family. Her family for generations were senators and held various seats of power influence in large part due to their persuasive abilities. but with their gene's combined with that of Darkside it brings it to a whole new level.
there have been rumblings lately that Larn has finally amassed enough followers to rise a revolt and stage the settings to bring back Darkside.
Posted by razsolo on :
I much prefer this take on a Darkseid cult to what we got in the comic...Larn Fald on his own would be a good foe even if they never get round to bringing Darkseid back!
Posted by Set on :
I love the idea of expanding on what sort of long-term effects the Great Darkness Saga would have had on the people of Daxam.
A race of people who spent at least *ten centuries* capable of spaceflight, surrounded by an interstellar community, but forced to remain at home, due to their weakness to lead, which they are pretty much sure was engineered to keep them homebound.
And then they get a taste of the power that is, quite literally, their birthright. Yes, they lacked control, but they surely *remember* what it was like to soar through space, to descend upon worlds, and to be *feared.* From an introspective race, on the edge of utter irrelevance to matters of UP import, to the most terrifyingly relevant people in the universe, it must have been a bit of culture shock, even after the effects of Darkseid's control where a distant memory. While homebodies, the Daxamites aren't totally cut off from the rest of the UP through long-distance communiction, and while few would say it to a Daxamites face, everybody in the UP didn't magically forget what happened. Researchers who may have thought of themselves as good friends and colleagues of Daxamite researchers they'd never physically met may suddenly have found themselves less comfortable with their 'old friends.'
A lot of people would be quietly saying, behind closed doors, 'It's a good thing they can't leave Daxam, but even *that* isn't a foolproof solution, as we've just seen...'
And at least some Daxamites, quite possibly *a lot* of Daxamites, would be idly dreaming of what it was like to be able to fly into space and cross the void between worlds, afraid of nothing, able to go anywhere, and do anything...
Even if a Darkseid cultist *didn't* have unnatural powers of persuasion, it seems likely that there would be an audience receptive to those sorts of sentiments. Darkseid himself may not be remembered fondly by all, or even by more than a tiny minority, but he was the one who showed them that they didn't *have* to remain trapped on the prison that is their homeworld, so that the more subtle 'cultist' might stress the need to trust the message of Daxamite freedom and independence, if not the messenger that was Darkseid.
Random thoughts;
Fifteen seems a little old (since it suggests that the Great Darkness Saga happened fifteen years ago, which would make the Legionnaires who were already adults then perhaps forty or so 'now'...).
On the one hand, if the child was five or so, and yet had an unnaturally adult perspective (almost as if there was something of his father lurking behind his child's eyes...), that could be creepy and push the timeline back a bit.
On the other hand, nothing exists in canon to contradict the idea that Darkseid hadn't been planning this for a long time, growing clones of Superman and Lydea Mallor and some random Oan Guardian, for instance, and hadn't visited Daxam a decade before the Great Darkness Saga to 'plant some seeds' for his future plan.
It's also entirely possible that the 'Children of Darkseid' aren't 100% accurate as to their exact parentage, and are descendents of some hitherto nameless Apokaliptan New God *servants* of Darkseid (one or more of whom, like Orion and Kalibak, may have actually been descended from Darkseid!) who went to Daxam to 'prepare the way' for their master's decade-later arrival.
[ December 18, 2012, 12:38 AM: Message edited by: Set ]
Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by razsolo: I much prefer this take on a Darkseid cult to what we got in the comic...Larn Fald on his own would be a good foe even if they never get round to bringing Darkseid back!
thanks Raz. he would make for an interesting villain.
especially if he was combined with some of the ideas Set mentioned.
i have never actually read The Great Darkness. everything i used was just from what i read on Wikipedia. But i love a lot of your concepts about freedom and independence that they would feel. your totally right. i just thought an event like that would have a lasting affect on the people. and i kind of think of it as like a Greek myth, like Hercules except instead of Zeus we have Darkside.
his being 15 was more to put him on par with the Legion and being able to fight them now. When TGD happens he was just a baby. i like the concept that some of the "Children of Darkside" aren't actually his biological children but maybe those of the other new gods.
Posted by Klar Ken T5477 on :
Krypton and Daxam are huge.
At least ten times the diameter of Earth, four to five times the density, with gravitation forty to fifty times that of Earth. Krypton, at least, was so massive that spontaneous nuclear fusion was occurring at its core.
Krypton was said to have a hundred billion inhabitants at the end-- about 1/7th the population density of 21st-century Earth. (Assuming a similar land-to-sea ratio) Similar to the United States-- plenty of room for big cities, but still lots of open space.
I imagine Daxam as having a population of less than a billion. A very small population for such a large planet. Imagine the entire human population living in Belgium; the rest of the world would be untouched wilderness.
What might be hiding in that vast, untouched wilderness?
The Darkseid Cult, apparently.
I am not sure most Daxamites feel "trapped" on Daxam. They have been portrayed as mostly homebodies, isolated, xenophobic and parochial, possibly with an constitution more like Hobbits than Terrans. (Of course, there is always the occasional Took or Baggins, but those are outliers, like Ol-Vir and Res-Vir.)
I have sometimes thought that the Daxamite wilderness is where Nam-Ek eventually ended up.
Posted by Set on :
quote:Originally posted by Klar Ken T5477: I imagine Daxam as having a population of less than a billion. I am not sure most Daxamites feel "trapped" on Daxam.
I'd tend to agree with the relatively small population. They've been a super-advanced (capable of interstellar space flight) civilization for over 1000 years, and birth rates tend to plummet in older societies.
But even if there's only a *million* of them, and 99% of them are totally happy on Daxam, that would leave 10,000 (the 1% leftover) that might look up to the stars and think it unfair that every other UP race has that entire universe to play with. Even if it was only one-tenth of 1% that longed for something more (or remembered somewhat fondly feeling all-powerful, under the red sun), that's 1000 potential Darkseid cultists...
Even *one* Daxamite nutjob (like Ol-Vir) can be terrifying. A dinky little cult the size of the Waco group made up of individuals who can potentially match Superman for power is exponentially more so, I think.
Posted by Set on :
From a pocket dimension not unlike Marzal, which can be accessed from Baja California;
Queen Khalifiya and her amazons occasionally ride forth from the extradimensional realm her people settled, astride the magnificent griffons that have been extinct on earth for well over two millenia.
Led by an elite group of female warriors possessed of superhuman strength, vitality and longevity, the people of her hidden realm are of African descent, and follow a more worldly branch of Sufi Islam that seeks perfect understanding of the divine through scientific research, philosophical discourse and artistic expression.
While her elite warriors ride their great griffons directly, the Queen herself appears astride a flying chariot pulled by a pair of ebon-winged specimens of unusual size, and commands greater physical strength than her already superhuman guards, proving able to fire arrows through the hulls of Khundian attack ships!
It is unclear if Queen Khalifiya is the same person who led her people through the dimensional rift to settle this realm millenia ago, or merely the latest to bear this name, but the legend, often disputed as myth, has been proven true time and again as her people emerge to help deal with threats to the earth itself, lending their not-inconsiderable aid, and then returning to their own hidden realm.
Posted by Klar Ken T5477 on :
[Bizarro Yellow Lantern Le-Mon When the Universe of 31st-century Htrae, the cubic Bizarro-World, was threatened with destruction in the Great Crisis, all the inhabitants rejoiced—except one. Le-Mon, the Bizarro duplicate of Lar Gand, was filled with terror. Of course, Le-Mon is always filled with terror, just as Green Lanterns are ever fearless. His super-cowardice activated his “powerless ring”, which projected a protective field around Htrae, assuring that it would always continue to exist somewhere in the Multiverse no matter how many times history was retrobooted.
Thus, for no good or logical reason, the Silver Age Bizarro World of Htrae exists in the current 31st-century world of the Legion.
Having saved Htrae from destruction, Bizarro Yellow Lantern Le-Mon is shunned, hated and reviled by all other Bizarros—and is therefore Bizarro World’s Planetary Champion, its greatest hero. Which terrifies him.
Posted by Shining Son on :
Love the idea of a planet that's immune to reboots.
Posted by Omni on :
Agreed love your bizarro world!
no reboots? i'll take a world like that please!
Posted by Shining Son on :
Well that's certainly an ironic post when combined with your current sig. Posted by razsolo on :
I have had Bizarros on the brain the past few days because I am trying to come up with a way to insert some into my series, so I was mightily tickled that you chose that exact topic, Mr T5477!
That is a brilliant and super simple way to do it too...kudos!
Posted by Set on :
I love that Mon-El's name is an anagram of 'Lemon.' I never would have noticed that!
The 'super-cowardice' activating his 'powerless ring' was a touch of mad genius. Very cool!
Posted by Omni on :
Anndrann - The green skinned military geniuses Anndrann of Anndranna were later banished to Bellatrix, and are famed for their weapons of war. Iron has a deleterious effect on their cognitive abilities.
Metrixx-Kanndrnn, Once a general in the Anndrann army, before Anndranna was being defeated in the war between them and the U.P.; which got them banished. during his time as a general he became an expert in tactics. During the final battle his ship, which was the newest toy of the Anndrann army, was struck from behind damaging its back thrusters and causing them to over heat and exploding the ship. Going down with the ship everyone thought he was dead. But he was rescued by U.P. secret forces for interrogation and brought to the hospital, The Doctors in the U.P. hospital were unfamiliar with the exact physiologists of Anndrannins; as they kept all weakness top secret. They fused his left side with metal to stop the bleeding and to save his life. The metal they used was Iron. they didn't know that Iron causes a deleterious effect on Anndrannins. Normally a small dose of Iron would only make him become slightly out of sorts. often making him have small flash backs to various battles he's fought. These flashbacks only lasted for a second. But fused with this much Iron, he has now become almost psychotic and is reliving his battles in his mind over and over again. At first he was hard to control. even escaping on a few occasions. One such incident of that was when he was reliving the snapping of A diplomat from another world's neck, as a special task force member to the Anndranian army. But in reality he had killed the hospital's resident head doctor.
Finally subduing him after several more deaths, they put him in to cry o-statis, till they could figure out how to treat him.
almost 600 years has passed since then. Recently he was awakened. Using much of the same technology that was used to create Tharok, they have figured out a way to use his delusions usefully and still have full metal capacity to follow orders. He now only can assess the memories in moments of extreme aggression.
The technology has also increased his capacity for learning and tactical simulations. The U.P. sought to train him as part of the ever secretive Earthgrov special task forces. On his first mission, he completed flawlessly but then he escaped to his home world. Seeing that the way of his people had been changed. that they had moved to a new world and forced into submission angered him. He wanted to fight back for them but he realized that the war he was fight had long since been over for his people and he returned to Earthgrov willingly.
[ December 30, 2012, 11:23 PM: Message edited by: Omni ]
Posted by Klar Ken T5477 on :
Now we need a fanfic of Tharok vs. Metrixx-Kanndrnn. Was this how Tharok ended up in U.P. custody in the first place, before the Legion?
Posted by Klar Ken T5477 on :
Polla Reymar is a native of the Dollworld, a planet inhabited by humanoids all less than 1 meter tall. Only half-Dollan, Polla has inherited from her Imskian father the ability to shrink to microscopic size. Due to a bizarre interaction of Krill and Dollan DNA, she is also able to reduce her mass and size independently.
Like all Imskians, she is also able to reduce objects which she carries. However, keeping a large object reduced in size is tiring. For example, reducing the size of another person is as tiring as carrying that person around on her back.
A student at Bergen High School by day, she fights crime on Dollworld as Atoma, in a costume that is an homage to the 21st-century Earth’s Atom.
Polla collects sculptures, statuary, and tchochkes from Imsk, and her room is filled with them: wood, stone, and metal objects which have been naturally irradiated by Imsk’s white dwarf sun, Irulan. She keeps them readily available, as she must regulary bathe in this unique radiation to maintain her powers.
As Polla: Height: 2’6” (77 cm) Weight: 13 lbs (6 kg) As Atoma: (default) Height: 2 ½ inches Weight: 1/20 oz. (3.5 grams)
I suppose that Atoma must be a member of some sort of “Justice League” of Dollworld, teamed with other miniature heroes. Super-Mannequin, Bumblebee-Batman, Green Dart, Black Hummingbird, and so forth.
Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by Klar Ken T5477: Now we need a fanfic of Tharok vs. Metrixx-Kanndrnn. Was this how Tharok ended up in U.P. custody in the first place, before the Legion?
i think this is an awesome idea! maybe Tharok found a way to manipulate Metrixx-Kanndrnn, into thinking he was Tharok and that's how Tharok has been able to stay hidden.
Posted by Omni on :
quote:Originally posted by Klar Ken T5477: Polla Reymar is a native of the Dollworld, a planet inhabited by humanoids all less than 1 meter tall. Only half-Dollan, Polla has inherited from her Imskian father the ability to shrink to microscopic size. Due to a bizarre interaction of Krill and Dollan DNA, she is also able to reduce her mass and size independently.
Like all Imskians, she is also able to reduce objects which she carries. However, keeping a large object reduced in size is tiring. For example, reducing the size of another person is as tiring as carrying that person around on her back.
A student at Bergen High School by day, she fights crime on Dollworld as Atoma, in a costume that is an homage to the 21st-century Earth’s Atom.
Polla collects sculptures, statuary, and tchochkes from Imsk, and her room is filled with them: wood, stone, and metal objects which have been naturally irradiated by Imsk’s white dwarf sun, Irulan. She keeps them readily available, as she must regulary bathe in this unique radiation to maintain her powers.
As Polla: Height: 2’6” (77 cm) Weight: 13 lbs (6 kg) As Atoma: (default) Height: 2 ½ inches Weight: 1/20 oz. (3.5 grams)
I suppose that Atoma must be a member of some sort of “Justice League” of Dollworld, teamed with other miniature heroes. Super-Mannequin, Bumblebee-Batman, Green Dart, Black Hummingbird, and so forth.
i like this idea a lot.
i just have one question, is Imsks is the same as Dollworld or are they different??
and if she's only half, Imskian that what is the other half like? Does her Krill half have any powers of its own???
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