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So…it’s been two months this time. Mostly because I couldn’t get a concept I liked that matched what was in my head. I wanted a look that was somewhere between the evil queen from Snow White and the sea witch from The Little Mermaid, but without it just being a photoshop of the queen’s body on a set of tentacles. I wanted something regal and evil, but also a technologically advanced warrior-queen type. So I ultimately went with the following design for Locasta’s evil twin, Jocasta:
Name: Jocasta
Race: Atlantean/Hybrid
Birthplace: Atlantis
Powers/Abilities: Bilingual (Sonar/Atlantean), High lung capacity, High tolerance of pressure changes, Advanced technical aptitude, Skilled swimmer and warrior, Acting Atlantean royal, Can transform into giant squid using a metamorphic gauntlet, Suffers from squd-like physical deformities (tentacled left hand, night vision in left eye, scaly nodules on her face).
Bio: Jocasta is the twin sister of former Atlantean queen Locasta Norgood, and became queen when Locasta abdicated her throne for civilian life on the surface. Unlike her sister, Jocasta was more interested in war than diplomacy, and so approved the Gauntlet program (headed by Atlantis’ top paleobiologist, Dr. Icthya Moso) as a potential weapon and recon tool against the surface world. But complications with the Gauntlet technology led to hybridized mutations in most of the test subjects, whose families began to incite revolution among the rest of the Atlantean people. Fearing she would lose her throne to her sister (or her half-blood niece–shudder), Jocasta hired a surface world assassin to eliminate them.
No one would dare voice their suspicions as to Jocasta’s involvement in the assassination, and all talk of revolution quickly subsided thereafter.
Work on improvement of the Gauntlet technology continued, and despite their physical deformities and inevitable mental deterioration, Jocasta still saw some strategic value in having a secret army of paleomarine hybrids at her disposal. She personally saw to the construction and maintenance of a “disposal facility” (and the subsequent elimination of all untrustworthy personnel) where mutated test subjects were held in cryogenic stasis, unbeknownst to Dr. Moso.
Jocasta also illegally acquired her own Gauntlet, which bound her DNA to that of a giant squid. The Gauntlet, as it turned out, was an early model prone to malfunction, and almost immediately inflicted Jocasta with the physical deformities mentioned and depicted above. Unable to hide the consequences of her illegal activity (or her increasing insanity), Jocasta decided to pull the trigger on her secret army and raze Atlantis to the ground.
The Forgotten City remained standing, but Jocasta and her hybrid followers escaped into the deep, where she encountered a powerful Beast with promises of curing her mutation.
Note: If you recall any details of my old thread, this character bio not only ties into the ongoing Wiccan war (as it relates to the feud between Linda Norgood and Theodora Kindle), but it also provides more backstory on Icthya’s mission to hunt down the escaped hybrids and briefly hints at the hybrids’ impending involvement in the Plague event.
Perhaps I’ll get back to the Elemental Witches next. I’ve had a re-work of Lady Luck sitting on the burner for awhile now.Have I really not done a character in THREE WEEKS?!?!?!?!!!
i guess not…. What with all the Christmas and New Year’s stuff going on, working my way up to a hundred pages in my Introspections novel (now called Pestilence for the indefinite future), putting mashups on SoundCloud, and just feeling the effects of Heromachine-lack-of-focus-itis, who can blame me?
Quick note: I entered Himmler into the Party contest (because he’s a member of the Nazi PARTY, get it?)
Tonight’s character is another supporting player that I mentioned in a past character bio, this time from the bio of Linda Norgood, my Elemental Witch of Water. It’s Locasta, former ruler of Atlantis and Linda’s mother. Locasta’s twin sister is coming soon.
Name: Locasta
Race: Atlantean
Birthplace: Atlantis
Abilities: Trilingual (English/Irish/Atlantean), High lung capacity, High tolerance of pressure changes, Skilled diplomat, swimmer, and warrior, Former Atlantean royalty.
Bio: Locasta was once the ruler of the lost underwater city of Atlantis, until the day she met and fell in love with a human naval officer named Timothy Norgood, who had an almost Atlantean tolerance for the treacherous nature of the open sea. In stature and character, he was her equal, and they remained equals and partners in life until the day he died in service to his country.
By that time, she had already given birth to their daughter, Linda. Her depression compounded by grief over her husband’s death, Locasta deemed herself unfit to rule and abdicated the throne to her sister (morally not the best choice for interim queen, but the only choice available to her under Atlantean law). Locasta made a new home on the Irish mainland and raised her daughter in peace, eventually discovering Linda’s Tonntan abilities and training her how to understand and respect the water she controlled.
Fearing she would lose the throne to not one but two generations (even though only half Atlantean, Linda could also legally take the throne in the event of her mother’s and aunt’s deaths), Locasta’s twin sister Jocasta hired a young Lasair assassin to kill Locasta and Linda on the day Linda came to legal age.
Linda bore witness to her mother’s murder and used her powers to escape, living to plot her revenge against Theodora Kindle.Thanks again Mav, and welcome everyone to Page Seven! Also thanks to JR for his posing video, which was a big help in designing this character.
You may remember that I called Theodora Kindle the second Flame Girl, but here’s the original Flame Girl, as inspired by last year’s Public Domain Heroes contest:
Name: Flame Girl (I)
Alias: Kendra Ellis, Cinder
Team Affiliations: Burn Unit, Clockwork (Reserve Member)
Race: Human
Birthplace: Hesperia, CA
Powers/Abilities: Expert motocross rider, Pyrokinesis, Flight
Bio: Kendra Ellis was a daredevil and failing motorcross celebrity who sold her soul to a demon for pyrokinetic abilities so that she could make her performances more thrilling to the audience and revive her career. As lust and greed burned away at her soul, Kendra’s powers grew. But the less soul she had, the less she enjoyed performing and the more aware she became of the price she had paid, and so sought out an Iroquois shaman to get her in touch with Heaven in hopes that she could alter her contract with the demon and hang on to what little soul she had left.
Note: Kendra’s favorite motorcycle stunt (an homage to the Public Domain Flame Girl) is the Ring Of Fire.Finally got Fallen Angel’s demon form how I wanted it. Still not sure about how the transitional form should look, though. If anyone has ideas, here are her two forms so far, starting with her Angel of Foresight look:
And now her Demonic form:
I tried to give her that “being taken over by darkness” feel. Hope I succeeded.
Ugh. Feels like it’s been so long since I posted anything here. Because it has. More than a week.
But here I am again with another supporting character. I thought of this one while going through the companions set on a whim. The masked cowboy for some reason brought the name “Winchester Black” to mind, and here is what evolved:
Name: Winchester Black
Alias: Jonathan Henry Armstrong, John Henry
Enemies: Hi-N’Un, Lady Luck, Robbie Boyle
Race: Human
Birthplace: Talcott, West Virginia
Abilities: Seemingly super-human strength and endurance.
Bio: Jonathan Henry Armstrong is the great-great grandfather of former Enforcers member Terrence Armstrong. Born and raised as a slave in West Virginia, he grew up working as a steel-driver for the Chesapeake/Ohio Railway company. Despite chronic physical and psychological abuse at the hands of his employers (not to mention the grueling nature of the work itself), John Henry grew into something of a folk hero for his legendary strength and relentless force of will. After being passed around by several railroad companies (AGS Railway and Columbus and Western to name a few), Henry earned his freedom and moved west to seek whatever opportunities the new frontier had to offer.
A happy life soon followed, blessing him with a wife and child and a thriving blacksmithing business. But his journey would also cause him to run afoul of a merciless rail tycoon named Robbie Boyle, who killed his wife and stole his son, unjustly imprisoned him, and forced him back into a life of slave labor. Boyle eventually subjected Armstrong to his favorite punishment, boiling the flesh from his face and leaving him for dead.
John Henry would survive to seek revenge against Boyle as Winchester Black, a masked vigilante dispensing lethal justice with his formidable sledgehammer.
But revenge would be grasped from the clutches of Winchester Black when Hi-N’Un and Lady Luck put an end to Boyle’s life. Little is known of what happened to Winchester Black after the mysterious disappearance of the two heroes, but he spent the remainder of his known life at odds with Lady Luck and the former Pharaoh.
With every new generation, tales have spread of an unusually strong young man working outside the law to make his community a better place. Those tales continue today with Terrence “Strong-Arm” Armstrong.Fantastic shading on the new Golem Queen!
Thanks, Vampyrist. It’s amazing how much can be done with so little in HeroMachine.
Here’s the leader of the Thule Society, Heinrich Himmler:
Name: Eldritch Thule
Alias: Heinrich Luitpold Himmler
Team Affiliations: Nazi Party, SS, Thule Society.
Enemies: Golem Queen, Three-Star General, anyone of Semitic descent, anyone who opposes him.
Race: Human
Birthplace: Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Powers/Abilities: Presumed immortal, Skilled tactician and interrogator, Ability to control animals.
Bio: Read Himmler’s bio at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Himmler. But where history claims suicide by cyanide poisoning, Himmler had nurtured an avid interest in the occult, unbeknownst to Hitler, and had discovered an alchemic means of surviving the poison. Instead of death, the combination of poison and potions put him in a state of suspended animation while he still presented outwardly with signs of a cyanide suicide.
Himmler would later awaken and escape from his grave, seeking out like-minded members of the Aryan Brotherhood to join his Thule society. As years passed, he discovered that not only did the potion allow him to survive poisoning, but he hadn’t aged a day since faking his death.
In modern times, Himmler took on the identity of Eldritch Thule, presenting himself as a wealthy German philanthropist in order to acquire as many occult artifacts as he could authenticate. Himmler’s later encounter with Regina Grant and the Spear of Destiny would also imbue him with the ability to control animals, much the same as the Golem Queen is able to summon and control Golems.@Leg: Thanks for the giant smiley thing….
@cliff: Thank you as well@Mav: Thanks for the praise, but there are ‘machiners far more daring and creative than myself. The best way you can “step up your game” is to take an idea that really speaks to you and do the best with it that you know how.
“New” character time: I made this character last year for a Public Domain Heroes contest, when I was in a “streamline and kick more ass” kind of mood. There was this really poorly costumed, poorly named hero called Boy King who
dressed like his name should have been Drag Queenfought Nazi supervillains alongside his golem, who had the obvious name of Giant. I took this pair of lemons and painted them gold by combining and gender-swapping them into one character, the Golem Queen. Her original design was closer to Boy King, and so had a clumsy, magical girl anime kind of vibe that didn’t garner much attention.
The “New Universe” version of her exists in the same continuity as the other characters in this thread, and has been stripped of all her cumbersome regalia in favor of this design:
Name: Golem Queen
Alias: Dr. Regina Grant
Team Affiliations: Clockwork (reserve member)
Race: Human
Birthplace: London, England
Powers/Abilities: Stone skin, Magically enhanced strength, Can summon Golems from any rocky surface, Extensive historical knowledge, Scholar of biblical lore
Bio: Regina Grant was an archaeologist hired by Eldritch Thule, a German historian, to locate the Longinus Spear (a legendary Biblical artifact known to some as the Spear of Destiny). When Thule supplied her with an archaeological team of his choosing and insisted on accompanying Regina on her expedition, she grew suspicious, as things rarely turn out to be as true as they are good. But this was potentially a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so she reluctantly agreed to his terms and they flew to Jerusalem, where the team began excavating for the Spear.
Regina was lucky enough to find the Spear of Destiny first, but Thule was close at hand, grabbing the Spear at the same instant as Regina, and the two were locked in a tug of war which she was somehow able to win. She could feel a strange power surging into her body from the artifact in her hands, and brandished the Spear at Thule and anyone else who tried to advance on her.
Thule revealed himself to be Heinrich Himmler, the presumably deceased former head of Adolf Hitler’s S.S. squad, and current leader of the ancient occultist Thule Society, of which his team of archaeologists were all members.
He ordered his men to kill Regina Grant and take the Spear by force, and as they drew their guns, Regina closed her eyes and wished she could survive this terrible situation. The Spear of Destiny glowed and the sounds of gunfire were followed almost immediately by gasps of bewilderment as lead ricocheted off of stone.
With a prayer, Regina Grant had become the Golem Queen, a royal figure with skin as resilient as stone and the strength of ten men.
Himmler and his Thule Society fled in fear but they would return time and again until either she or they were no longer living.
As Regina became more skilled with the Spear of Destiny (which she discovered could be stored or retrieved from a pocket dimension by uttering the name of Longinus, the saint to whom the spear originally belonged). The Spear also gave her the ability to summon Golems from any rocky surface nearby and control them with her mind.
The Golem Queen currently lives in seclusion somewhere in the Swiss Alps, developing her powers which she mostly uses to rescue people from avalanches without thus far alerting them to her presence.
However, repeated sightings of the Golem Queen’s stone “subjects” have caused word to spread of mythical rock creatures roaming the countryside, so it is only a matter of time before the Thule Society rears its ugly head once more. In the meantime, the Queen’s activities have attracted the eye of another, less philanthropic exile than herself: William Ernst, who was in the final stages of perfecting his Power Suit, has chosen to target her for his latest test run. Perhaps he will share his findings with the Society?In a fit of creative unfocused-ness, I was going back through this thread and noting all of the characters I have made reference to that haven’t been seen since the early pages of my old thread (or that I just haven’t created at all yet). The first character I made reference to was Deus-X from my Clockwork team. I originally created him because I’m a big fan of the TV show, Person of Interest, and I started thinking about what it would be like for a human to have access to as much information as The Machine on that show (which would be every piece of digital information on Earth).
Shaded and upgraded, here is Deus-X:
Name: Deus-X
Alias: Dr. Abanme Juto
Team Affiliations: Clockwork, Atlantis
Race: Human
Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
Powers (from Deus-X suit): Flight, Access to every piece of electronic information on Earth (or any habitable planet he visits), Can translate any Earth language, as well as Unarian, Moord’rian, and Atlantean, into any other available language, Enhanced strength.
Abilities: Superior intellect and memory capacity, Expert hacker and computer programmer.
Bio: Abanme Juto was a highly gifted software engineer recruited as a replacement for the deposed Dr. Elizabeth Stein at HallowGen. In a few short months, Abanme helped re-engineer (and in many cases, improve upon) all of the tech stolen by Dr. Stein, even using her data transfer technology in conjunction with spare P.A.T.C.H. parts and a modification of his own UAP (Universal Access Protocol) interface to create the ultimate in omniscient data access gear, the Deus-X suit.
Frank’s last encounter with the B.R.I.D.E. forced Abanme to don the suit, becoming Deus X for the first time. He ultimately reversed the information flow from his suit into the B.R.I.D.E., causing her to overload and crash.
Abanme has since been appointed as head of security (both digital and physical) at HallowGen, and most recently joined Clockwork as the team’s chief information analyst. He also serves as liason to the Unarian and Atlantean peoples, and has developed a close personal and professional relationship with Atlantean Ambassador Icthya, frequently providing assistance with events arising from the hybrid conspiracy.
Since putting on the suit, Dr. Abanme’s already superior brain power has been pushed to its limits by the constant flow of digital information. Like Frank Hallows, he has become dependent upon his suit for his survival. Any attempt to interrupt the connection between his mind and the suit’s digital interface could result in anything from insanity to brain death.
Note: Ju and To are Japanese words for the cardinal number ten, while Jubanme is the ordinal expression, tenth.There is so much more I could have done with this character in terms of effects and shading the clothing, but I like it. Sometimes you just have to get the concept out there.
In this case, I was trying to make a version of Dorothy Gale that was true to the original, but also a fresh character. Thinking of her as DOROTHY GALE led me to several unoriginal false starts. Suddenly, I had this image in my head of her wearing feathers, and I made up my mind to do a Native American Dorothy. I’d never done a Native American character before, and with my initial plan to use Dorothy as the basis for my Elemental Witch of the Air, it just felt right to me. Here’s Dorothy Windrider, Iroquois shamaness of the Air:
Name: Windrider
Aliases: Dorothy Windrider, Dorothy Gale, Ataen
Team Affiliation: The Iroquois Nation, Heaven
Enemies: Theodora Kindle, Society of Foes, Robbie Boyle, Fifth Hour, Mad Jack
Race: Human
Birthplace: Seneca, New York
Powers/Abilities: Possesses a piece of Ataensic (a Knavium-rich meteorite which gives her wind-manipulation abilities, such as flight and compressed-air concussion/cutting blasts), Skilled in the ancient Iroquois mystic arts.
Bio: Long ago, a meteorite crashed into the Earth, bringing with it a strange substance wrought elsewhere in the heavens. First discovered by a tribe of Seneca Iroquois during a bloody land dispute with neighboring factions, the Seneca people believed it to be a gift from their sky goddess (hence the name Ataensic), and had it divided evenly among the tribes as a gesture of peace. Since then, those judged worthy of the title of Ataen (a tribal shaman tasked with maintaining balance and open communication with Ataensic, the Sky-Woman) inherited the meteorite fragment, which gave the bearer power over the air.
Now, rites of initiation have given way to simple family inheritance.
With no immediate family, Dorothy Gale was adopted by Emma and Henry Windrider, her aunt and uncle who lived on the Allegany Reservation, a plot of government-sanctioned Iroquois land in her birth state of New York. Life on the Reservation was peaceful, until the Windriders were killed in an attack by Lasair mercenaries. Who authorized the apparent assassination of her family (and most of the Allegany population) and why is still unclear, but it led Dorothy to discover an Ataen amulet, along with a note and a diary in her aunt’s handwriting, hinting at some kind of conspiracy regarding the meteorite fragments. Dorothy has since become an avid student of Iroquois history and mysticism, and embarked on a journey through her ancestors’ tribal lands in search of any other surviving Ataen. Thoughts of the conspiracy have made her wary of Dr. Jack Card (later known as the vigilante Mad Jack) and his team of scientists (the trio who would become Fifth Hour). In her travels, Dorothy has also come to blows with Lasair mercenary Theodora Kindle and the recently revived Robbie Boyle, a vicious railroad tycoon who died in the Old West.
An unexpected side-effect of her mystic dabblings would prove to be a connection to the realm of Heaven, bringing her into contact with the angel Temeluchus, who would serve as her spirit guide and later father her a child.
