Martha King: Computer Tech, Adventurer

Posted by Ebonstorm on October 28, 2011
Posted in: Character Bio. 1 Comment

Name: Martha King

Height: 5 feet, 5 inches

Weight: 155 pounds

Age: 67

Hair: White

Eyes: Brown

Distinguishing features: None

Occupation: Computer scientist and technologist; Nomad Scout, Eastern United States.

Known Relatives: Husband, son-in-law, daughter, grand-son, grand-daughter

History: One of only a few small town survivors from upstate New York, Martha was rescued by Elwood King nearly twenty years ago. Martha’s family was killed during the initial assault and reveal of the alien invaders who had been living on Earth for decades in plain sight appearing as trees. Martha was educated as a computer scientist and was working as a datacenter manager before the Arrivals disrupted world wide power systems. After the death of her family, she was devastated and refused to participate in any level of interactions for a time. Elwood, even with the horror of the invasion found the Arrivals to be fascinating and even beautiful in their diversity. After staying with Elwood for two years, she began to realize society as we understood it was ending without people taking an active role in shaping that future. She began to work with the local government to begin spreading communications and support technologies allowing small computer and communication technologies to be re-established.

Today: Martha, unlike Elwood, has no love of the Arrivals, and is trying to do everything in her power to destroy the Arrivals. She takes the meeting of the President of the Eastern United States as a sign and has redoubled her efforts to find a weakness in the Arrivals. Elwood’s vast understanding of the creatures has given them an amazing advantage and she has begun to see an underlying logic to the Arrivals and their development. This understanding has lead her to believe and with the collaboration of the government, there is a timetable to recent developments in the Arrivals and their behavior. Unless they can discover what is happening, the human race is not likely to last another decade as the Arrivals choke humanity into tighter and smaller quarters all over the planet.

Psychological Profile:  Martha is a cool customer since the loss of her family and protects her new family with the strength of a lioness. She is a capable leader and often takes control of the family or nomadic unit when Elwood is out of contact or out of commission. She defers to his judgement in regards to the Arrivals as he is considered to be one of the world’s foremost practical authorities of their behaviors. She is the leading authority on the new technical network being established in the Eastern United States and wants to push the network westward in the hopes of establishing further connections to human outposts that might still remain in order to allow them to coordinate food, resources and services. Considering the state of the world at the moment, Martha might be considered less than stable if she were found in the Pre-Arrival US, but by post-Arrival standards, she is the model citizen; self possessed, focused, dedicated, and capable of surviving anything the world can throw at her.

First Appearance: Tales of the New Earth

The arrivals logo copy

Story Description: 
In The Arrivals: Tales of A New Earth, an alien invasion has occurred, but unlike anything imagined. New life has landed on Earth and is replacing everything before it. Humanity had expected alien invaders to arrive in terrible space craft, armed with the most sophisticated of weapons. When they came, we thought we would have a chance against them. We never even knew they were here and had lived here for decades, perhaps even centuries, masquerading as trees. When the meteor swarms began, we had no idea, the invasion had begun, in earnest.

The Arrivals: Tales of a New Earth features Elwood King, a sixty year old former forest ranger, wandering this new world, secretly in love with it alien beauty and fecundity. He sees a dying world reborn with new life. His more practical wife, Martha who would love nothing more than to eradicate the alien menace to the last spore.

Staying on the move, he and his family experience this new world on the front lines, sharing information for temporary room and board. When they rescue the President of the United States from the ruins of the Pentagon, they discover the Arrivals have continued to change the Earth to an unknown purpose. She conscripts Elwood and his family to guide her West to the center of the contagion and the answers they are all seeking.

Tales of a New Earth is broken down into four Seasons, each bringing new threats, challenges, beauty and terror as the Arrivals transform the Earth to an unknown purpose. Mankind, decimated, struggles to find a place in this New World. Humanity as we knew it is doomed, the only question is can we understand what is happening in time to resist?

Elwood King: Forest Ranger, Adventurer

Posted by Ebonstorm on October 28, 2011
Posted in: Character Bio. 1 Comment


Name: Elwood King

Height: 5 feet, 9 inches

Weight: 175 pounds

Hair: Balding, White

Age: 65

Eyes: Brown

Distinguishing features: Numerous scars due to alien interactions

Occupation: Former Forest Ranger; Nomad Scout, Eastern United States.

Known Relatives: Wife, son-in-law, daughter, grand-son, grand-daughter

History: Elwood King began his career first as a military soldier for eight years before leaving the military to attend college for a career in conservation and forestry. Elwood King was a forest ranger at Yellowstone Park for thirty years before retiring. He was enjoying his retirement when an alien invasion began to replace the Earth’s ecosystem with a toxic and deadly new series of plants and later animals. Having moved to New York to be with his aging father, he was visiting a family member in upstate when the Arrivals made the first attack against humanity. Rescuing and later marrying Martha, he and his family have become nomadic scouts working with what’s left of the federal government connecting enclaves of humanity that remain active from the invasion.

Today: Elwood has been chronicling the Arrivals, their species, their behaviors and returning that information to the the remaining federal scientists who are creating potential models on the growth and development of the alien Arrivals. In the beginning of the invasion, Elwood was horrified as the Earth’s biosphere was being replaced but in spite of himself has found a form of alien beauty in the Arrivals and their multitude of forms and niches on Earth. Recent discoveries have lead everyone to believe there is a new transition taking place among the aliens. What that entails for Humanity needs to be discovered now, and Elwood is commissioned by the President of the Eastern United States to discover what has been happening in the Gulf of Mexico, a concentration of the creatures and the site of a new creature, never seen before.

Psychological Profile: Elwood King has grown weary watching Earth as it struggles to deal with the threat of the Arrivals. He does not believe humanity nor the Earth as a whole can survive the invasion of the Arrivals. While advocating humanity continue to organize themselves, he has a personal belief that humanity must learn to adapt to the Arrivals or face extinction. This puts him at odds with his wife and the leadership of the government.

First Appearance: Tales of the New Earth

Story Description:
In The Arrivals: Tales of A New Earth, an alien invasion has occurred, but unlike anything imagined. New life has landed on Earth and is replacing everything before it. Humanity had expected alien invaders to arrive in terrible space craft, armed with the most sophisticated of weapons. When they came, we thought we would have a chance against them. We never even knew they were here and had lived here for decades, perhaps even centuries, masquerading as trees. When the meteor swarms began, we had no idea, the invasion had begun, in earnest.

The Arrivals: Tales of a New Earth features Elwood King, a sixty year old former forest ranger, wandering this new world, secretly in love with it alien beauty and fecundity. He sees a dying world reborn with new life. His more practical wife, Martha who would love nothing more than to eradicate the alien menace to the last spore.

Staying on the move, he and his family experience this new world on the front lines, sharing information for temporary room and board. When they rescue the President of the United States from the ruins of the Pentagon, they discover the Arrivals have continued to change the Earth to an unknown purpose. She conscripts Elwood and his family to guide her West to the center of the contagion and the answers they are all seeking.

Tales of a New Earth is broken down into four Seasons, each bringing new threats, challenges, beauty and terror as the Arrivals transform the Earth to an unknown purpose. Mankind, decimated, struggles to find a place in this New World. Humanity as we knew it is doomed, the only question is can we understand what is happening in time to resist?

Dr. James Eckyl – Mastermind

Posted by Ebonstorm on October 27, 2011
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Name: James Eckyl VI – Biochemist, industrialist, philanthropist, eco-conservationist

Alias: Dr. Jeckyl, James the Sixth, Six
Age: 45
Height: 6.5 feet tall
Current weight: 275 pounds,
Hair: None
Eyes: Brown
Distinguishing marks/features: Van Dyke beard, scrupulously clean, mysophobic (pathological fear of contamination and germs)

Known Relatives:
Great-grandfather: James I – deceased: 1850 – 1890,
Great-grandmother: Katherine – deceased: 1844 – 1904

Grandfather: James II – deceased: 1870-1940
Grandmother: Flora Davis – deceased: 1860-1932 (unknown blood disease)

Father: James III – believed deceased 1920 – 1970 (accidental death, auto)
Mother: Nicolete Sheldon – believed deceased 1900 – 1970 (accidental death, auto)

Brother: James IV – born 1950 – Chairman of the board
Brother: James V – born 1954 – Senior Technical Advisor, Chief Scientist

First Appearance:
Dr. James Eckyl appears in my series of short stories, Hyde: Portrait of a Modern Monster. He appears for the first time in Chapter 10: The Doctor is In.

History: 
Born James Eckyl the Sixth, he was the heir to the multi-billion dollar biotech fortune of his family dynasty. Indoctrinated into the scientific legacy of his family, he became a Ph.D by the time he was sixteen. By the time he was twenty-five, he had earned multiple degrees and awards and was one of the chief researchers for his grandfather’s company, Chemodyne. His urge to control and dominate in every arena eventually put him in conflict with his brothers who also had equal zeal and enthusiasm for all things scientific and business-related.

For a time, James the Sixth, spent a significant amount of time trying to uncover the cause of death and genetic dysfunctions of his grandmother who died young and passed unto all of the family a series genetic weakness which killed members of the family mysteriously. She bore fifteen children. Only five survived to adulthood.

When James III was believed to be deceased in 1970, James the IV, rose to the CEO and heralded the company into a new era of growth and development with the two younger brothers providing scientific breakthroughs every five to seven years. Chemodyne and its subsidiary companies became one of the world’s leading pharmacuetical and gene-engineering firms.

An accident, causes James the IV to retire in the late nineties. While it was never proven, it was suspected that James the Sixth was somehow responsible. It did not prevent his rise to power in the early 2000’s and with his older brother as the chairman of the board of directors and his younger brother as Chief Scientist, Chemodyne continues its worldwide scientific dominance led by James the Sixth.

While obsessive-compulsive behaviors run in the family line, James has redirected it toward his passion of cellular development, management and performance.

Present Day: Dr. James Eckyl the Sixth, currently runs the Chemodyne as a revered despot. His management techniques are questionable, his results are not. So he is tolerated, his eccentricities indulged as he continues to lead the corporation toward greater profit. His recent projects have been very secretive and have been using unknown resources in the developments.

Six has started his own skunkworks facility in Hub City where he runs Chemodyne remotely. This research facility has begun a line of research relating to alternatives to DNA and is believed to be working with alien DNA samples gathered from a downed spacecraft and currently in the possession of the government. One of the lead scientists from this group has gone missing in Hub City and was presumed dead last year.

He has recently taken on a new head of security, former police Lieutenant Vince Carlucci.

Powers and Abilities: Dr. James Eckyl is a skilled martial artist, having learned at a very young age to prevent his older brothers from taking advantage of him. His father promoted physical disciplines as an avenue to mental superiority, so all of the Eckyl brothers have mastered multiple martial arts. He has attained a high degree of mastery and has for several years, lived abroad combining his martial arts and superhuman strength into a unique fighting style. He engages in intensive regular exercise and despite his middle age, and even without augmentation, he is a formidable opponent.

Weapons: He uses a sword cane and sheath combination, using the sheath as both a defense and a weapon, and the sword, made from carbon-fullerene laced steel is nearly unbreakable even with his superhuman strength. Backed by his strength he can cut though most unreinforced materials with ease. He is also known to envenom said weapon with a variety of chemical cocktails.

Augmentation Array: In his guise as Dr. Jeckyl, Six wears an augmentation array, a skintight body armor, which augments his strength, resistance to injury and overall physical resilience by a factor of twenty. When the augmentation array is activated, Dr. Jeckyl’s face becomes distorted and horrific in appearance. The effect ends when the array is powered down. When running at full capacity, he is capable of lifting nearly twenty tons with great effort. The array is part of a super-soldier program currently under development by Six’s Skunkworks. The array is linked to a series of treatments Six has sold to the government under several limited patents. Each offers some enhancement to human beings with terrible side-effects. He has kept the unifying technology that allows him the complete expression of his abilities for his personal use. There was a stabilizing element that was under development and was lost when the scientist went missing. Without the stabilizing element, use of the array causes severe debilitating stress on Six’s body. Six is in the process of finding a new group of scientist’s to continue the work.

He is also seeking the monster Hyde, to determine the source of his superhuman capability and to see if he would be able to reverse engineer the process for his own nefarious purposes. He suspects Hyde has something to do with the missing scientist, Everett, but cannot yet prove anything. With the government’s paramilitary covert agency monitoring Hyde and Hub City, Dr. Jeckyl has laid claim to the city, its riches, its criminal syndicates and its secrets.

Psychological Profile: James Eckyl is a brilliant scientist and sociopath. Seemingly without morals or scruples, he dares when most men wouldn’t and because of his genius and madness is often successful. Of his three living brothers, he is arguable the most intelligent, but the intellect and madness runs in the family and where Six may have the lion’s share of the family’s ruthlessness, his brothers remain jackals close on his heels seeking any weakness. His mysophobic (pathological fear of contamination and germs) keeps him alone for the most part but in the company of others he will wear the finest of gloves. He reserves hand to hand combat for the most respected of foes. Against anyone else he will, of course use his sword cane to deadly effect.

About the Art: The character was created by me using the City of Heroes, Character Generator.

Essver Dream-Singer – Warrior Poet

Posted by Ebonstorm on October 24, 2011
Posted in: Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Name: Essver Dream-Singer, of the People of the Sjurani, son of Minru, son of Daor the Terrible, warrior-poet of Harata II, Sjurani Rex, mated to the nǚgōngjué the Glorious Pielienhis (pe-le-en-hiss).

Stats: 8 feet, 700 lbs.

Capabilities: Physically fit, highly intelligent, well-connected, knowledge of galactic commerce, expertise in acquisition, negotiation and alien psychology, capable of speaking six commerce languages, two dozen well known language groups. Often pretends to be unable to speak in order to gather advantages in negotiations. Not afraid to cheat someone who does not know the real value in a deal. Always keeps his word once he gives it.

Description: Essver is a member of the Sjurani, a descendent of the ancient race of saurians who left Earth during the Cretaceous period. The Sjurani were genetically engineered by what is called the Ancient Enemy, housed inside of the core of the planet Earth. Unbeknownst to them, the alien was being hunted and sought to return to its home with intelligence about the races of the Milky Way. Discerning the alien’s intent, the Sjurani, after realizing their sentience and advancement was based on an invasion of their culture by this alien intelligence, left the planet and dropped an asteroid on the alien intelligence. Not sure of the creatures intent, but suspecting it was trying to leave the Earth, they destroyed all traces of their technology and any indication of their existence on Earth. Wandering the galaxy, they established several colonies in galactic space. Initially quite warlike, they slowly evolved into a more peaceful, but competitive species during their years away from Earth. In an unexpected twist, the Sjurani returned to Earth and rescued Humanity from the same intelligence millennia later.

The Sjurani enjoy their human cousins and collectively with the diverse species of Pan-humanity are called the Children of Earth. Essver is a Rex, a member of a larger warrior group of the Sjurani. The Rex are a matriarchal culture and as such are lead by their females who are larger, often smarter and certainly more dangerous than the males. Essver is fortunately mated to a larger and politically well-connected female who allows him to travel the galaxy working with the Resurrection Corps.

He is the only breeding male of his family unit and has over forty offspring in various ages of development. His mate keeps a bevy of lesser males who raise the children and maintain the family businesses. As the Rex, he is obligated to further the family’s fortunes with information that help the family businesses. Essver’s connections have allowed his family to become affiliated with a variety of alien species and business consortiums. He must periodically return to Harata II and engage in his conjugal duties, but otherwise avoids the tender mercies of his mate. Strangely enough, she has great affection for her Rex and allows him to engage in his travels both because he is quite effective at getting new business and because it pleases him to do so.

Essver is the consummate business-sentient and working with the Corva has given him incredible opportunities in the Imperium. Working with his friend Majoris Thomas Wilks has been both profitable and stimulating and he has great affection for the Majoris. As the Majoris’ handler he has had access to the finest military grade equipment and sources for over two decades. The recent turn in their fortunes has left him in a dour mood but he will recover because the Majoris has always been resourceful and adaptive.

Essver is exuberant and energetic as are many of the Sjurani, quick to anger and quick to laugh. Despite his job as a fixer, he is an accomplished warrior, having spent many years as a mercenary working to establish a fortune good enough to marry into a good family unit. He is not opposed to fighting to solve problems but his great size, strength, ferocity and overall reputation, prevent that from being necessary, as a rule. He and the Majoris met years ago on a campaign and have remained fast friends. Essver is a well-known writer and chronicler of the Majoris tales as a fictional character in a book series called Renegade Blade. The Majoris hated this until he received his first royalty check and now eagerly awaits his next exploit to appear in print.

Stories: Essver debuts in the novel Revenant: Resurrection due to appear June 2012. You can read a story of his adventures called The Gentle Art.

Thomas Wilks – Codename: Majoris

Posted by Ebonstorm on October 24, 2011
Posted in: Uncategorized. 2 Comments

Thomas Wilks is a member of Pan-humanity – the collective of races that escaped Earth in the year 2475 having been rescued by the Sjurani during the Great Exodus of Man. The fate of Earth is currently unknown and return is proscribed under Galactic Law. As a Pan-Human, he has been genetically modified to be the peak of human evolution. He also has several genetic patents that are not seen in most Pan-Humans.

In addition to his superior strength, disease resistance and endurance, his parents further altered him to survive on heavy gravity worlds with increased lung capacity and maximizing his musculature and bone density using organic fullerenes. His parents also ensured his cells were hardened to radiation allowing him to work and live on radioactive planets, planets without sufficient magnetic fields and/or with several aliens species known to emit low level radiation level include the Bel-han and the Mariovel.They expected him to join them in their planetary explorations as scientists of the Empire.

Thomas is highly intelligent, as are most Pan-humans, but unlike his parents, he focused his efforts and interests on the military. He is well-versed in combat both with and without an exo-skeleton. He has worked as a support agent for the 454 Regiment of the Corvan Assault Squad providing heavy weapons support and defensive support operations.

In his early years, he excelled in the military but was prone to exuberance. During time as enlisted infantryman, he was reduced in rank twice. Spent fifteen years after second demotion in the military after achieving high rank and having served on several important campaigns. He served with distinction in five high stress campaigns against aliens during the First Galactic War as a tactical support technologist, heavy weapon specialist and light exoskeleton soldier. Has also done time as a light mecha pilot, drop jockey and AI support technologist.

Thomas was recruited into the Resurrection Corps as an inductee after genetic testing indicated he would be able to handle the genetic bonding and nanotech enhancements. Spent three years on assignment during adaptation training. Received a Resurrection Frame, (a superior military exoskeleton designed as an advanced life support system) capable of multi-function military combat and has the ability to restore a pilot in the event of his death on the field of battle. He completed the training in seven years (a record) and with only a single death on his training record.

He was recently recovered from a two year operation in which all of his battle-brothers suffered the Final Death and were unrecoverable. He died two dozen times on assignment, and his current mental stability is in question. The Resurrection Frame and AI systems are in overhaul in a secret facility on Lorissi where its nano-tech core components are sourced.

Homeworld

He hails from Shai, a prosperous, but highly socially stratified, outer rimworld system, where many Pan-humans settled once galactic travel was re-established after the First Galactic War. Shai is a technologically advanced world of the Empire with a Corvan dictator and a diverse non-human population. Shai is a commerce world, known for its manufacture of nanoscale computation systems. He was born on the Gaia-moon, Harata II in the Toranor star system,  where humanity settled after being ejected from Earth, three hundred and fifty years ago. His parents, xeno-biologists, migrated to Shai when they learned of other humans, not born on Earth could be found on Shai and wanted to investigate this potential chance of convergent evolution. (It turns out, it was not convergent evolution, humans had been stolen from Earth, thousands of years ago, during the 13th century for fear the species would die out during the black plague. These settlers were from Africa, South America and the North American continent. His parents were killed in the food riots when he was still a young adult. He was forced into conscript gangs working the sewage treatment facilities until he was old enough to escape and join the planet’s military.

Stories: Majoris Thomas Wilks debuts in a short story piece called Resurrection Blues and later appears in the novel Revenant: Resurrection due to appear June 2012.

About the Artist: The artist is named Anthony Scroggins and can be found on deviantART. I found the piece I used for Resurrection Blues called Blue Planet because it showed a powered armor user approaching a factory, much like the story did. I considered it serendipity. I later found the deviation “As One” used in this piece and liked it.

Biyu Shēngguāng – Pilot

Posted by Ebonstorm on October 24, 2011
Posted in: Character Bio. Leave a comment

Humanoid Android – Sentient AI – Alpha Class Intellect: 5 feet, 11 inches tall, 350 lbs. Constructed on Harata II, Toranor System by Chung Guo Designs and Engineering. Commissioned by Corva Military Facilities as companion/pilot for Resurrection Soldier, Majoris Thomas Wilks.

Primary functions include: Pilot and gunner – capable of AI interface with Classes 1-4 sized ships, technical repair of all ships systems, internal and external, with specialties in sensors, scanners and communications equipment, systems and decryption. She is also trained in Resurrection Frame, nano-construction and nano-design technologies. Android body, unique design and registration, combat capable, fully functional. Able to interface with combat modules 1-3 and upgradable with adaptive learning software.

Biyu Shēngguāng is a member of the Conscientia, an amalgam intelligence housed in a humanoid body. Her body was designed to be both a pilot and a scientific support operative for technologies used by the Resurrection Frame. Any successful covert operative utilized by the Corps is assigned such an android because of their durability, programmability and longevity. Since Resurrection Corps members are potentially immortal, it was decided they would be paired with android companions who could work in and survive their potentially dangerous lifestyles. By the standards of the Imperium she is considered a sentient being and afforded all of the rights of any other Imperium citizen. Her work is considered contractual and she is able to leave her employment at the end of any contract period. She has worked for the Majoris for nearly twenty years and is due for a contract renewal soon.

Being fully combat capable, her preference is for dual pulse pistols, custom-made, capable of being used fully automatic and tied to her visual cortex for pinpoint accuracy up to 100 meters. She can also use any human compatible weaponry found in the Empire. She prefers ranged combat and practices regularly to maintain her precision. She is capable of using dual flex swords as well and is an above average hand to hand combatant. As an Alpha-class sentient, she is capable of both adaptation and learning and is constantly improving her skills and interests. In her off-time, she is a know abstract artist in a variety of mediums, including virtual realm development, sculpture, and fractal arranging and modeling.

Biyu is over one hundred years old and despite her technological origins, appears to be a human female of indeterminate age. She has mastered human mannerisms and affectations. Using stealth technology, she can physically pass for an anatomically correct human under most modern scan technology and can pass a physical inspection as well. She has had three previous contracts as a Resurrection Corps pilot/companion, but this one has been both her longest and most enjoyed contract.

Character inspired by the artwork of Warren Louw – will appear in my novel Revenant: Resurrection – May 2012

Mammon – Legendary Power

Posted by Ebonstorm on October 21, 2011
Posted in: Character Bio. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Mammon

Name: Lawrence Simmons
Other Aliases: Greed, Hunger, Avarice, Great Old Vice, Scourge of Babylon, and Famine
Related to: Other Aspects, Death, Destruction, Gaia, Chaos
Powers Consumed: Greed: 540 BC, Beauty: 1204 AD
Marital Status: Divorced, Tyche – Lesser Power associated with Fortune

Height: 6 feet 0 inches
Weight: 150 pounds
Hair: Black
Eyes: Black
Distinguishing features: Gaunt, just shy of appearing starved or horrifically obese and appearing barely able to move.

Curses: People who interact with him frequently develop greed or hunger issues, too much interaction eventually causes madness and death.

Curses: Love of the finest things in life or a complete disgust with them. As likely to be found in a $5000 a week hotel as in an alley in a major metropolis. Both extremes are temporary.

History

Mammon began his life as a swirling energy bound to the lifeforce of Gaia. After a time he manifested and lived among humanity once their quest for understanding made them develop what would one day be known as the gods. Disguising themselves among men, the Aspects gathered energy from their relationships with humanity.

Mammon’s early interactions caused strife and discord so he learned to stay with humans for only a while and then keep moving. This became his lifestyle throughout the millennia. Whenever mankind created cities or civilization, Mammon was one step behind them making sure their need for things never faded.

But just as many civilizations prospered from his appearance, they would often fall just as quickly if they could not temper their greed or avarice. In Mammon’s mind, the most terrible of the great cities lost was Babylon. Though he was not personally responsible, one of the other Great Powers worshiped during that time was a friend and ally and her madness caused the great city’s downfall.

Today

Mammon is considered to be one of the legendary powers of Old Earth. He currently resides in the body of a glutton named Lawrence Simmons. Mammon will normally disguise his appearance from other powers in order to maintain his anonymity. He will do his best to maintain his human host shell and a shell can live for as long as he remembers to treat it well or it dies due to circumstances outside of his control.

While greed in the human species has made him, potentially, one of the most powerful of the Modern Powers, he is disgusted with the complete and wholesale greed the human race is current exercising. Adding insult to injury as the power of Greed continues to grow in the human population, the price on his head continues to grow as the impending Aspect War causes the great powers to begin to ally and chose sides.

Having nearly been killed nearly sixty years ago and losing his memoriesduring the last Aspect War, which was disguised as World War II, he wandered the America West during the early 1950’s and met his former wife Tyche during that time. Since he was not aware of his powers, it was one of the longest periods he spent as a mortal being. Strangely enough, he is nostalgic of that period of his very long life and prefers to avoid interacting with any of the great powers, or utilizing his considerable abilities if he can help it.

Powers and Abilities

Mammon’s physical appearance belies his body’s vast spiritual energies. As such he is possessed of superhuman strength and physical endurance, no matter how fat or thin his human shell appears to be. Possessing the strength of ten men, he is a capable combatant against even the most formidable of human beings. Against Powers whose specialties are physical confrontation such as War, he would prefer to not engage in combat. Their centuries of direct warfare give them an advantage even his great age and experience cannot offset. But he has other abilities that aid him against the other Powers and that is the reason most are loath to confront him.

As a Great Old One, Mammon’s powers are both vast and subtle. His very presence can inspire humans to great feats of generosity or parsimony. He has the power to influence the outcome of supposedly random events, and can completely prevent things that are supposed to happen from ever taking place. If confronted by a firearm for example, it will simply appear to jam or misfire; one of the reasons many of the Great Old Ones still use hand to hand weaponry to resolve their issues.

To touch Mammon is to know the immediate horror of your greatest need, hunger, lust, or greed and to be completely overcome by it. Few beings, even the Great Powers can withstand this because Mammon has over the millennia consumed the lesser Powers of Greed and Beauty and adding them to his powers. Other Aspects now seek Mammon’s powers and his life because of the incredible lifeforce associated with his Aspect in the modern world.

About the Artist: 

Mammon appears in my collection of short stories published as Hayward’s Reach. You can read his story titled: Mammon

Vincent Carlucci: Private Investigator

Posted by Ebonstorm on October 14, 2011
Posted in: Character Bio. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Name: Vincent Carlucci – private detective, former police officer

Alias: Hyde
Age: 30
Height: 6 feet tall
Current weight: 275 pounds, normally 250 pounds
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Distinguishing marks/features: long hair, beard, mustache, a bit unkempt

First Appearance:
Hyde: Portrait of a Modern Monster

History:
Vincent Carlucci, only son and heir to the famed Carlucci crime mob of Hub City was born into wealth and opulence few police officers ever know. Raised to inherit the vast business fortunes of the Carlucci family, he learned all there was to know about the criminal underpinnings of Hub City.

In his teen years an incident with a rival mob boss, Dondonivich, Vincent was held hostage and tortured, until he was rescued by the Hub City Police Department. The officer, Winston Trask, who rescued him was later killed in a gun battle with Don Carlucci’s mob outfit in a botched sting operation.

Disappointed by his father’s failure to protect him from his enemies, and the later death of his secret hero Trask, supposedly by Don Carlucci’s hands, Vincent, vowed to do right by Trask’s family and without telling his father joined the Hub City Police Department when he was old enough.

Furious, Don Carlucci disowned his son, and used his son’s joining of the police force as a signal he was getting in good with the local police agencies. Rival gangs began to give Carlucci space and his empire grew. During this time he began to try to corrupt the police department in earnest.

Meanwhile during his son’s rise to detective, one of the fastest ever, Don Carlucci, convinced the Chief of Police and two dozen of Hub Cities Finest, to switch sides. This disrupted the effectiveness of police operations and eventually casting a suspicious light on Vincent just as he was taking control of a specialized technical task force designed to hunt down high-technology criminals in Hub City.

In a highly publicized scandal Vincent lost his task force leadership position, under mysterious circumstances a year ago and disappeared from sight. When he returned, he was offered a technical consulting position with the Hub City Police Department. He is convinced his father, in an act of spite has cost him his job, but he is unable to prove it. The case he was working on was a famed serial killer, Tristian Strauss, known in the news as the “Heart-eater,” a deranged sociopath who used technology to sustain the lives of his victims while he consumed their hearts before their eyes. Carlucci was accused of botching the investigation and the Heart-eater was never found.

“So I became a private detective. Hub City had lots of crimes and I was the best detective money could buy. I had a knack for Special Crimes and eventually I got a call from Hub City’s finest. Its been three years, since I left the force. My own investigations outside of the Hub City Police taught me things were even worse than I knew. When I recovered, I was being hired by the Sixteenth as a paid consultant. Same work, slightly worse pay.”

Present Day:
Vincent Carlucci, Private Investigative Services consults with the Hub City Police Department, 16th Precinct on any and all of their technology related cases, but the most famous is the current mystery of the creature known only as Hyde. The Hub City Blues have no leads, because their primary consultant suspected and now confirms for himself that he somehow is Hyde.

Threatened by Hyde, Carlucci can do nothing for the moment, while the monster brings his own form of vigilante justice to Hub City. The only thing he can think of when he wakes after a night of Hyde’s brand of debauchery is: How do you stop a monster when he is you?

Psychological Profile:
Vincent Carlucci is a highly motivated individual. His zeal for justice made him a highly decorated officer, prone to taking risks even after the loss of his position as the Tactical Head of the Police Technical Task Force. As a private investigator his sharp instincts and understanding of the criminal mind, as well as his father’s training have stood him in good stead during his police career. His career as a private investigator has put him in the employ of both corporate clients and private ones seeking instincts like his for the darker side of Hub City. His nose for trouble has put him in conflict with most of the larger crime syndicates and he occasionally draws fire from the organized crime side of town. His anger at his father is his greatest weakness especially in the light of his mother’s recent illness and helplessness with leukemia.

About the Artist:
Moh Z Mukhtar is a young concept artist from the United Kingdom. You can find samples of his awesome work on deviantART at: http://mohzart.deviantart.com/. I chose his “Brauk” because of his haunted and disheveled look. I thought he would represent a good look for a man who was wrestling with a serious internal demon with anger management problems. The copyright for the artwork is Moh Z. Mukhtar. If you like his work and want to give him a shout (or some concept work) he can be reached at: Email: mohzart-z@hotmail.com.

First Appearance:
Vince Carlucci appears in my series of short stories, Hyde: Portrait of a Modern Monster.

Welcome to Hub City Blues!

Posted by Ebonstorm on October 6, 2011
Posted in: Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Welcome to Hub City Blues, a character database I am creating for the 30 Character Challenge. This contest is designed to foster creativity in artists and writers to create new character designs. The mission: Create a new character every day in the month of November. Creating compelling characters is a part of either medium, so it’s a skill well worth developing.

I am not an artist, I am a writer. Since this contest was originally for artists trying to experiment with different styles, it works a little bit different for writers. The contest is to challenge writers to create characters with compelling backgrounds that would make people want to read about them. Not as visually satisfying as art, so I suspect it is more challenging to maintain the attention of readers (especially if they are really looking for art).

To help readers (and myself), I sometimes find artwork and create characters inspired by that artwork. It doesn’t mean I could not have done it without the art, its more that the art connects with something in my head and my character makes sense to me. Sometimes the art’s background may inspire an idea or theme that may permeate the work. Unless I commission a piece, it is rare that the work being paid homage to has any knowledge this is happening. So in respect for each work, I will be pointing back to the source of the art and the name of the artist if it can be found. I will give credit and links to artists who have inspired my creativity.

Since I am a working writer, most of these characters will be coming from works in progress, stories I am about to be publishing or novellas whose future is not in doubt. It is likely that each profile will be of different density depending on the depth of the work, and the amount of development I have done with the character in question. I may also make links to stories if they are already in play online somewhere so you can see how they were used.

The website’s name comes from a series of short stories centered in a place called Hub City, a city of the future, whose promising beginnings have been overrun and become instead, a hive of tech-saavy scum and villainy. Hub City’s police force, locally called the Hub City Blues, have done their best to control this recent invasion of organized crime, but is unable to stem the tide.

A year ago, Hub City was under siege by a new monster seeking to establish order; his order. By any means necessary. His name is Hyde. Universally feared, he is death incarnate. Criminals fear him, the police despise him and no one knows who is is or what he wants. All they know is, if you are a criminal and he finds you, you better hope you find a cop first. Otherwise, you’re dead. Hyde, Portrait of a Modern Monster.

Welcome to Hub City. Obey the laws and enjoy your trip.

Thaddeus Howze