Supermodern

[Xathan]

[ooc]Please don't post here, instead direct all comments to This Thread
Don't worry, this isn't a brand new setting, just an old setting with a new thread.

Supermodern is my attempt at a superhero setting. It is fairly typical, largely defined by the heroes, but with some of my own twists thrown in. Iâ,¬,,¢ve finally giving it itâ,¬,,¢s own thread: for those of you who read the old thread, you donâ,¬,,¢t need to read any of this post, anything about Amanda, or anything in the Aliens post â,¬' for now, none of those have been altered. If you see a concept that is not developed but interests you, let me know, Iâ,¬,,¢ll be happy to develop it further.[/ooc]

Overarching concepts:

Nature vs. NurtureA lot of my heroes have a conflict between their birth and who they are now, be it a demonic parent, touched by a dark force they want no part of, a parent or grandparent who took up supervillanous activities, or even a more personal, less melodramatic conflict, such as being born to a long line of alcoholics or even just being a legacy child, be it superheroic legacy or otherwise.

Acceptance Best exemplified by the half-breeds, most heroes in Supermodern struggle for acceptance. While some, such as Amanda Murell, are widely known and loved, most metahumans are viewed with suspicion and distrust. Part of this is human nature, part of this is because of the next concept:

The Heroes Donâ,¬,,¢t Always Win while they have thus far managed to avert most major takeovers, supervillians of enough power and intelligence have carved out for themselves territories over which they rule. Kansas City is permanently quarantined; its inhabitants transformed into horribly twisted feral mutants by the workings of a villain. A large (country sized) portion of sub-Saharan Africa will be blanketed in impregnable darkness for the next two thousand years, and the vampire lord that created it still rules from within. The southern 75 percent of South America is the territory of an extraterrestrial empire. Although many, much worse events were averted, the fact remains that the heroes always winning, or even only losing the small, personal battles, is not a truth of this reality.

The Government is Not Your Friend Most governments have active psi-divisions, which come just short of being thought police. Wars use superhumans crated from programs that donâ,¬,,¢t exist, or exploit existing metahumans for gain. The US government stripped peopleâ,¬,,¢s minds bare in Guantanamo Bay, and reprogramming captured enemy agents does happen more often than people would ever admit. Half-breeds are treated as second-class citizens, weather officially or not. The Comprehensive Superhuman Test Ban Treaty of 1962 is the only thing that prevented a full-scale genetic war. Although some heroes uphold the idea of nation or patriotism, almost all of them struggle with reconciling their vision of nation with the actions of the government.

Corporations Are Worse. Everything governments do, multi-national corporations do behind the scenes in other nations, often more extensively than the governments ever dream of. Laws rarely touch them, and although they do not have the impunity enjoyed by cyberpunk megacorps, they still commit horrible acts, all in the name of increased profit.

The Villains Donâ,¬,,¢t Always Wear Black Itâ,¬,,¢s not always easy to tell who is a good guy and who is a bad guy, and even the obvious bad-guys are needlessly cruel. The ones with melodramatic monikers, such as Lord Darkness, are usually given those names by the media, not self-chosen.

Superheroes Change Things While many major world events still happened as they did in our world, the happened in different ways â,¬' higher technology is available due to the existence of super-intellects for several decades, and that has an impact on everyday society and other aspects of life. People wear virtual reality helmets to access computers is the most major change to everyday life, but medicine is vastly increased, including cybernetic replacement parts for either internal organs or limbs, and everything we do now is done then, but people are often much safer or it is more efficient. The biggest changes are in the military, where the hardware available to the common soldier is vastly better than ours, and flying tanks, space-based weaponry, and low power battlesuits are part of everyday life.

The Space Race Accelerated The first human landed on the moon in 1953. The first sanctioned orbital colony was constructed in 1961. (Metahumans had space bases prior to government orbital colonies.) Humans have set foot on Mars, which is twice as large as the mars of our world and is inhabitable, and we have encountered numerous alien species. The UN has Embassies on two alien homeworlds. Though encountering an extraterrestrial is uncommon, it is also not rare, and many people meet one in their lifetimes.

[Xathan]

Aliens

[spoiler=The Sharal]   
Although now mostly extinct, the Sharal are easily the most influential aliens in Earthâ,¬,,¢s history. In the 1950s, the Sharal were at war with alien entities known only as shadows. Having long ago transcended flesh, the Sharal were beings of pure energy with vast psychic abilities. However, the Shadows, the only English translation for an alien race that has a long history of hostility with the Sharal, were hunting them down to near extinction, and a small group of (only 4,000) Sharal decided it would be better to hide in a form of flesh rather than be destroyed. They fled to the nearest planet, Earth, and created human forms for themselves. However, when creating these forms, they kept a bit of their own essences in them, replacing what humans refer to as souls with their energy forms. As such their new forms were somehow different.

NOTE: The Sharal that arrived in the 1950s were not the first members of their race to arrive on Earth, but that was the most numerous arrival. Some Sharal, seeking a corporal body for the experience of it, chose Earth and underwent the same process as the 4,000.

The result of this difference was that the offspring of Sharal and human displayed extraordinary abilities. The â,¬Å"Alien Panicâ,¬Â, which begin in the 1970s, resulted directly from the discovery that these people were not the result of natural mutation, but rather had a molecular and cellular structure different than anything else seen on Earth, though they appear often appear â,¬Ënormalâ,¬,,¢ to the naked eye. Called half-breeds by humans as a term of insult and calling themselves Scions or Inheritors, depending on whom you ask, the scientific community has been baffled about how to classify the children of the Sharal. Meanwhile, the half-breeds have struggled to find their place in a world that doesnâ,¬,,¢t accept them, and which they are not even fully part of.

NOTE: Children of half-breeds and humans have a 50/50 chance of inheriting the half-breed abilities.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Half-breeds]

The offspring of an alien race and humans, most people fail to distinguish between the offspring of Sharal and humans and the offspring of other alien races and humans. Half-breeds are treated with distrust, fear, and outright hated. War with alien races has taught humans not to trust them, and the idea of creatures both human and alien, who can hide among humanity but has powers far beyond their ken, terrifies people. To make matters worse, the truth behind the Sharal is not known, and therefore half-breeds are left to draw their own conclusions as to the nature of their origins.

However, various groups champion the cause of the half-breeds. The Hybrids are in the forefront among these, a team of half-breeds founded by Brian Schultz, a half-breed with weather controlling abilities. The Hybrids have consistantly fought to improve human/halfbreed relations, largely by dealing with halfbreeds that seek to use their power for personal gain or in violent fashion. Although not sanctioned by the US government, the government has been known to turn a blind eye to their activities, or to even call on the Hybrids for aid. However, at other times the Hybrids has been in direct conflict with the government..  

The other major half-breed power group is the Scions of Sharal. The Scions were the first to discover the truth behind half-breed origins, which was discovered by Greg Zuletov, a half-breed with the power to manipulate gravity fields in his vicinity. The Scions believe that half-breeds are inherently superior to every other race on Earth, and therefore are destined to rule this backwater mudball. They currently maintain a lunar base, and their primary goal is half-breed dominance of Earth.

Mechanical:
Half-breed playerâ,¬,,¢s powers usually have the â,¬Ëalienâ,¬,,¢ descriptor.
 [/spoiler]

MORE COMING SOON

Sampler of Upcoming Aliens:
Cairthi: A physically beautiful race native to the Milky Way, the Cairthi see no value in individual life, and are among the coldest killers in the universe.

[Xathan]

The Heroes
Some superheroes have their origins explained in an OOC box. These heroes are people I want to flesh out more, since Iâ,¬,,¢m still working on details on them. Any advice for how to flesh them out is appreciated.

[spoiler=Amanda Murell]
[note] [/note]Real Name Amanda Murell
Aliases:Miss Justice, Bluestar, Harbringer (while under demonic control)
Status: Active
Origins Amanda Murell was the wife of Dr. Henry Murell, a scientist working on the USAâ,¬,,¢s super soldier program. One day, after accidentally being contaminated with their latest serum, Dr. Murell came home. It is believed that along the way an unknown airborne microorganism entered the serum served as a catalyst that tremendously altered the serum. Amanda was the only one to come into physical contact with the newly altered serum, and rapidly begin developing extraordinary powers, first noticed when she sliced the tip of her finger off when making dinner and pulled it away, the wound sealing before her eyes. A law was fast-tracked through Congress allowing women with certain levels of superhuman power into the military, and Amanda was teamed up with the first generation of supersoldiers the allies had to offer and was thrust into the battlefields of WWII against the relatively numerous Nazi and Japanese supersoldiers.

After the war, Amanda became a celebrity at home and around the world. Many credited her with a large portion of the Allied victory, since before her arrival Allied Supersoldiers had not been a match and was often referred to as â,¬Å"Americaâ,¬,,¢s Favorite Daughter.â,¬Â Somewhere along the line, she also picked up the moniker â,¬Å"Miss Justice.â,¬Â In the beginnings of the 1950s, America saw the rise of super villains and the red scare, horribly magnified by The Red Star, Russiaâ,¬,,¢s first successful super soldier. During that time, she gathered other super beings including Aelfar, a prince of the Faerie realms, Feral, a former scientist who was the victim of a horrible lab accident, Solar, a woman with powers of unknown origin, Technis, an inventor woman with electrical powers, and more as part of a government initiative to form a super team to defend America against the perceived threat of soviet supersoldiers. Ironically, the first mission of these Guardians, was thwarting the planes of Lord Darkness, or Lupis Van ÃŽntuneric, which would have resulted in his control of the USSR. Since then, the Name Needed, the Soviet responses the Guardians, worked together and against each other on numerous occasions.

In 1964, in the wake of Henryâ,¬,,¢s death at the hands of a Cairthi assassian, Amanda took a leave of absence from the team. She took up the name â,¬Å"Bluestarâ,¬Â and, with her close friend and teammate Solar, joined a Freejaunt ship and traveled the cosmos. She was reunited with the Guardians, at the time headed by Technis, just in time to prevent Lupis van ÃŽntuneric from taking control of the United States government. In a rage, Lupis used his powers to strip away a great deal of Amandaâ,¬,,¢s life force, pushing her into Hades. Aelfar sacrificed his immortal life to restore her mortal one, and with that process her powers increased greatly, including granting her the ability to fly and giving him his immortality. Amanda remained with the Guardians for a while, taking back control the team when Technis went rogue.

[note] [/note]In the days leading up to the Demonwars, Amanda was captured by Asmodai, who dragged her back to the demonic realm of Hell. There, she was imbued with mastery of hellfire and had her mind broken, turning her into the deadly Harbinger. However, with the aid of the Irregulars she was able to break the control and turn her powers against the demons, turning the tide in the war. Although she lost much of her hellfire powers during this counter-strike, she still retains them in a reduced form, though she rarely uses them. It is believed the Harbinger persona is still buried deep within Amandaâ,¬,,¢s psyche.

In recent years, Amanda has resumed control of the Guardians, and is romantically engaged with Warden.

Powers: Flight, Super Strength, Regeneration, Enhanced Senses, Super Speed, and Density. During the Demonwars, Amanda was forcibly imbued with mastery over hellfire.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=The Watchgirl]
Real Name: Valerie Ross
Aliases: The Watchgirl
Status: Active
[note][/note]Appearance: Valerie is an attractive woman, about five and a half feet tall and athletically built, with short dark brown hair and brown eyes.
Origins: Valerie was born in 1957 in Chicago, IL to Ryan Ross and Shannon Carter. Ryan was a British WWII super-soldier who was honorably discharged after a Nazi super soldier tore off his arm. He immigrated to the United States, hiding his super-soldier status, to live with Shannon, who had been a red cross nurse who had cared for him after his wound. Valerie has a pain of older twins siblings, Sarah and Brendan, born in 1952. Ryan became increasingly bitter as he aged, and in 1959 he vanished, leaving Shannon alone with the three children. She struggled with a second job in addition to her nursing career, and Ryan and Sarah withdrew into themselves, even often speaking in a secret language they had developed. Young Valerie occupied herself mainly by reading through her fatherâ,¬,,¢s books, many of which were scientific manuals Ryan had purchased in hopes of understanding his condition. After devouring her fatherâ,¬,,¢s library, Valerie moved on to the public library, and would usually stay there from the time she got out of school to the time it closed.

In 1965, tragedy struck again. Shannon was found brutally murdered, beaten to death by someone with abnormal strength, and both Sarah and Brendan vanished. Valerie was sent to live with her aunt Katie and uncle Daniel, and Sarah and Brendan were never found, Shannonâ,¬,,¢s murder remaining unsolved. Katie and Daniel cared for Valerie as best they could, but neither had had any children, and both were unsure of themselves. However, they were both politically aware and often attended protests and such, and instilled a strong sense of social justice in Valerie, a sense that shaped her later life. Worried about her health, Katie and Daniel pushed Valerie into taking gymnastics, which she excelled in, more than Katie and Daniel expected. Even further, for the first time, Valerie had friends, forming a close bond with two girls in her class, Rachel Gallagher and Michelle Belz. The three would remain friends into high school, eventually adding the quiet Rhonda Doerr to their group.
   
It was around this time Valerie discovered she had powers. It happened when she was walking to the library, still her favorite place to be when her friends were busy. A stray cat in an alley drew her attention, and she walked over to pet it. Suddenly, she knew she had to get out of the way, and leapt, pulling a summersault and landing on a fire escape twenty feet above her head, staring down at the confused man, who had drawn a gun on her. The gunman turned towards her, and again she leapt, this time lashing out with a kick that shattered the manâ,¬,,¢s nose. He ran away, and Valerie passed out.

When she woke up, it was night, and she was fully aware of her new senses, which included the ability to â,¬Å"seeâ,¬Â in all directions, the ability to pinpoint things though hearing, as well as an ability to see into the ultraviolet and infrared spectrum. Not knowing her fatherâ,¬,,¢s past, she assumed she was a half-breed, an idea that both frightened and fascinated her. She walked home, finding with her first step she felt faster than ever before. In fact, she felt faster, stronger, and overall better than she ever had in her life. Deciding to keep this from her parents, she also decided to tell her friends of her powers, since she wanted to share with someone.

On the way home, her cellphone rang. It was Rachel. She hadnâ,¬,,¢t seen Michelle all day, and neither had Rhonda. Michelle wasnâ,¬,,¢t answering her phone. Since Valerie was closest, she stopped by Michelleâ,¬,,¢s house. The door was broken. Valerie ran in, moving far faster than she new possible. A scream sounded from upstairs, and she knew instantly that it was Michelle, and that with her was the same man as before, the one with broken nose. Valerie arrived in time to save Michelleâ,¬,,¢s life, but not the life of Michelleâ,¬,,¢s parents. Michelle had passed out, and Valerie decided two things at that moment â,¬' one, that she would use her powers to protect people who had no one to protect them, and two, that no-one could know that she had powers. She fed the police a lie about how she had snuck up on the man. Michelle was shipped away to live with family in New Jersey, and Valerie made herself a black and blue costume. Soon, the papers were calling her Watchgirl, and she became simultaneously famous and infamous. Two months later, she met and began to date Kevin Schmitt.

[note=Watchgirl Foes]I want more foes for Valerie. If you have any idea, feel free to submit. For general feel, Iâ,¬,,¢m looking for spiderman type villains. Feel free to insert Valerie into their story, as long as you donâ,¬,,¢t have them kill any major characters.[/b]As the Watchgirl, Valerie has assembled one of the most colorful and infamous rogueâ,¬,,¢s gallery of foes, including the shape shifting Faceless, the vicious Hunter, the criminal mastermind Sonny Favazza, and countless others: Heinous, Red Raptor, The Piranha Pack, Ferret, Black Mamba, Gorgon, Cyberweave, and more.  She also has tangled with the foes of other metahumans teams, and has worked with the Guardians and the Hybrids on numerous occasions. During a battle in which she aided the Hybrids against the half-alien Siege, she was critically wounded, and needed a blood transfusion. During the process, it was discovered that she, in fact, was not a half-alien as previously suspected.

Just healed, Watchgirl was making her patrols, leaping from building to building, when she stumbled upon what seemed to be a normal metahumans back robbery, being conducted by a pair, a man and a woman wearing black and yellow suits that concealed their faces. After a heated battle, she defeated the pair, and unmasked themâ,¬Â¦to discover
Sarah and Brendan. They remained unaware of her identity, and she managed not to reveal it to them. They were arrested by the police, but escaped from prison. The odd part of their escape was that they left no trace â,¬' no broken bars, no tunnel, nothing to reveal how they left.

[ooc]More to come later, I need to take a break from Valerie for a bit.[/ooc]

PowersSuper strength and dexterity, leaping abilities, extra senses and enhanced sensory range, ability to cling to walls, super speed up to 100 mph, She also has two wrist mounted devices given to her after saving the life of the mysterious Inventor that shoot an entrapping goo and can fire smoke grenades.[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Duskwalker]
Real NameJerry Bayless
Aliases Duskwalker,  
Status Active
Apperance Jerry is a tall, muscular man with short black hair and brown eyes. His costume is black and grey, with a long cape and a face concealing mask.
[b[Origins[/b] [ooc]Jerry was born to wealthy parents, took over their business after their death at the young age of 21. He married Melinda Taylor and had two children, Steward and Jeri. The Syndicate, a criminal organization that is headed by the super-powered Nightshade, tried to take over his business, and killed his family when he refused. He adopted the Duskwalker persona to fight crime, especially the Syndicate. The Duskwalker suit is actually a prototype body armor, made to be skintight and intelligent, responding to wearerâ,¬,,¢s needs.

I need help fleshing Duskwalker out more. I want him to be sort of supermodernâ,¬,,¢s Batman, the dark detective who fights crime to avenge his family. I have some problems, though. One is training. Since Jerry is fighiting crime after the death of his wife and kids, he starts much later in training than most. I need a way around that. I donâ,¬,,¢t want go the cliché â,¬Å"parents killedâ,¬Â route, but I may have to. Thoughts?[/ooc][/spoiler]
 
[spoiler=Leprechaun]
Real Name: Meghan Oâ,¬,,¢Brennan
Aliases: (known) Leprechaun, Shannon Daull, Sheryl McCalister, and countless others
Status: Active
[note][/note][Appearance: Meghan is an attractive woman who stands about 5â,¬,,¢7â,¬Â tall. She has long red hair and green eyes, and her costume includes a green bustier, a green miniskirt, green thigh high boots, and green opera gloves
Origins [ooc]Meghan Oâ,¬,,¢Brennan is an Irish half alien with probability altering powers who was trained to be an assassin for the IRA. During a failed mission where an IRA splinter faction betrayed her, the technological terrorist group Rebirth captured her and experimented on her, grafting her with cybernetic arms and legs. She eventually escaped, aided by he Scions of Sharal, the half-alien supremacy group, whom she worked with for some years. During a mission, she fell in love with Talon, a member of the half-breed team known as the Hybrids. She quit her assassin life to join the Hybrids, and has come to believe in their cause. However, she, like her lover Talon, will use lethal force in combat, and the Hybridâ,¬,,¢s leader, Brain Schultz, and her often clash because of this. She is wanted by the law, and has thus far concealed her true identity from everyone except Talon, Brain, and fellow teammate Jessica Goldstein, aka Slipshot, whom she treats as a younger sister.[/ooc]

Powers: Meghan has the alien ability to warp probability around her, and some minor light altering powers (mainly the ability to increase or decrease the ambient light in an area. In addition, her cybernetic limbs have granted her enhanced physical abilities.[/spoiler]

MORE TO COME!

Sampler of Upcoming Heroes:

*Warden: An human who was granted powers by a sentient meteor, among one of the most powerful beings on the planet.
*The Red Star: A Russian superhero, former foe to Miss Murell, now seeking his place in a pre-Soviet Union world.
*Aelfar: Deceased prince of the fey, succeeded by his daughter, Puxael
*Solar: A title, not a name, member of intergalactic police force who was sent to Earth to hunt down a being fleeing from the law.
*Feral: A victim of hubris, a scientist seeking the power of nature now becomes an embodiment of it whenever frightened or angry.
*Technis: Ruler of a nation of intelligent robots, this former superhero has removed herself from humanity and the world.
*Talon: A half-alien with avian features, Talon is an intelligent but vicious warrior who is kept in line by Brian Schultz.
*Brian Schultz: A weather controlling half-alien, Brian seeks to reconcile halfbreeds and humans as head of the halfbreed team Hybrid.
*Slipshot: An impulsive half-alien who spends more time on the streets than with her fellow Hybrids.

[Xathan]

The Villains

Villains

[spoiler=Dreadnought]
Real Name: Best human representation is Mahbok dur Nahbiur. However, that is missing several sounds the human tongue cannot reproduce.
Alias: Dreadnought
Status: Active
Affiliations: the Drakholme Galaxy (leader)
Appearance: Dreadnought is an alien entity. When in humanoid in form, he wears a black and red suit of armor. His skin, which appears to be pitted and scarred, is dull grey and his eyes glow with a blue light.

Native to a distant galaxy known as the Drakholme, Dreadnought is an extremely powerful entity. Born roughly 5000 Earth years ago, he was the last member of a race dying from a enemy biological weapon. Born at the exact moment the last member of their race, his mother, drew her last breath, Dreadnought absorbed the energy of his species and their ancestral knowledge, gaining immense power and an incredible intellect in one moment. He initiated a brutal counterstrike against his foes, culminating with the total destruction of their homeworld. He moved on to conquer his galaxy, subjecting every single being inside it to his tyrannical, brutal rule. He sought to make the beings of his galaxy powerful, so that no outside threat would endanger then. To further this goal, he would force civil wars upon his people, splitting into two entities. At the end of each war, the two Dreadnoughts would rejoin, with the losers being slaughtered by the victors. After a period of regrowth, he would begin yet another war. He was content to govern his domain forever in this fashion, until it was discovered that, thanks to the now unnamed race Dreadnought had destroyed, their galaxy was dying, its stars life cycles accelerated to the point where they would burn out within two millennia.

Dreadnought decided to find a suitable home for his people. He first laid eyes upon the Milky Way, especially drawn to Earth for some reason even he could not fathom. He captured a human, John Richardson, and imbued him with power, naming him Forerunner. He sent John to discover whatever it was that attracted the mighty being to such an insignificant planet. John was unable to discover the source, but Dreadnought was cut off from contact with John due to battles with the powerful entity known as Hunger. (Eventually, John abandoned his search, instead using his power to pursue petty desires of wealth, fame, and fortune, often clashing with the Elementals.) In the nineteen eighties, Dreadnought returned, enraged at John for his weakness. He destroyed John and decided to take control of the Earth, confronted by Johnâ,¬,,¢s nemeses, the Elementals, who were able to defeat him using knowledge John had given them and aided by the Warden.

Dreadnought continued to meddle with Earth, though he never again outright assaulted the world, instead curious about the number of powerful beings on Earth and seeking to discover what drew him here initially. He engaged in numerous plots, but was usually thwarted by either Warden, the Elementals, and on one occasion by the Hybrids. He abducted humans and experimented on them, trying to discover what made their genetic code so open to powerful development. A recent battle with an assembly of superheroes forced Dreadnought back to Drakholme, where he awaits, recovering his strength and planning to complete his original goal â,¬' complete dominion of the Milky Way.

Possible use in game Unlike most villains, Dreadnought is not meant to be fought directly in the course of a campaign, until perhaps the climatic act. He serves best as a background figure, behind (continued) abductions, metahumans, and various plots. He has a major interest in seeing Earth subjugated before he arrives, and his agents continue to attempt to start wars on Earth and incite alien invasions to at least weaken the world.
[ooc]I need help making him into a better evil mastermind. I want him to be on par with Darkseid or Annihlus, and Iâ,¬,,¢m not sure how to make that happen.[/ooc][/spoiler]
 
MORE TO COME!

Sampler of Upcoming Villians:

*Atrocity: Ancient half-alien, seeks to rule the world and expand the half-alien domain to the stars, while utterly annihilating every last trace of humanity form the world, as well as destroying the metahumans he deems week.
*Purge: A man who seeks to destroy genetic impurities from the world, believes himself to be blessed with the cleansing light of God to do so â,¬' powers actually part of own genetic anomaly.
*Lupis Van ÃŽntuneric: A would be conqueror that has managed to carve out a kingdom for himself and seeks to expand his domination over the globe.
*Asmodai: An extremely powerful fiend, Asmodai was responsible for the invasion of Earth by Hell and has endowed numerous mortals with power.
*Siege: A half alien who preaches the superiority of those whoâ,¬,,¢s blood is not just human, Siege seeks to rule a world where half-breeds and extraterrestrials can walk the Earth, and humans will serve their betters.
*Faceless: A shape shifter who uses his powers for personal gain.
*Hunter: An alien woman who revels in the thrill of hunting super powered humans.
*Sonny Favazza: The quintessential criminal mastermind, Sonny has his hands in almost everything.
*Nightshade: A criminal who sold his soul to Asmodai in exchange for a criminal empire that spans the globe.