Still Heart (Virtue)
| |
| Still Heart | |
| Player: @Dyne | |
| Origin: |
Magic |
| Archetype: |
Scrapper |
| Security Level: |
37 |
| Super Group: | |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: |
Unknown |
| Known Aliases: |
Still |
| Species: |
Human ... ish |
| Date of Birth: |
Circa mid-1980s, exact date unknown |
| Eye Color: |
Violet |
| Hair Color: |
Red |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: |
American |
| Occupation: |
Body of Water |
| Place of Birth: |
Dark Astoria, Paragon City, RI |
| Base of Operations: |
Kings Row |
| Marital Status: |
Single |
| Additional Data | |
| Known Powers: |
Dark Melee/Dark Armor, Flight |
| Known Abilities: |
Guardian of Antithesis |
| [ Source ] | |
Contents
Overview
Still Heart is a Dark Melee/Dark Armor hero from the Virtue server, played by @Dyne.
In-game Description
((RP)) Born under circumstances best left unexplored, and fostered by the spirits of the dead, Still Heart has always been considered peculiar by her peers -- probably with good reason. It was discovered during her first visit to a doctor that she had no heartbeat, and her body temperature was invariably slightly below that of her environment. Later experiences have demonstrated that Still Heart is neither dead nor undead by any magical measure (she reacts as any other human might to magics that specifically target those categories), though what she actually is is not widely known.
To those who use certain forms of spirit sight, her forehead is marked with a blackly glowing rune of ancient, prehuman origin. A rare, almost unheard of symbol which -- even in the blackest, most unspeakable tomes -- is only included with sudden and unexpected terror in the words and penmanship of those unaccustomed to fear, and then only to deliver an ominous warning:
- "DO NOT DISTURB".
Biography
The Girl in the Mists
Some years after the abandonment of Astoria, reports periodically surfaced of a slender figure that roamed the haunted town. These sightings were never very clear, barely more than a brief glimpse for a second or two of a face in a window, a silhouette in an alley, or movement disappearing into the fog, but there was enough secondary evidence to determine that this figure was apparently neither a ghost nor the usual villains infesting the area. And so word slowly got out about a possible civilian in need of evacuation.
Eventually, a group of heroes caught sight of the mysterious person, who was revealed to be an unclothed teenaged girl fleeing from a group of Banished cultists and their zombies. They rescued her from the pursuers, wrapped her in a cape as a blanket for warmth and modesty, and after some coaxing, they convinced her to accompany them out of Astoria and tell them her story.
For as long as Still Heart could recall, she had lived in Astoria. She did not remember her parents, or in fact anybody living at all, apart from the ubiquitous cultists. She grew up in the fog, naked and alone. Alone, that is, apart from the ghosts and spirits. As a child, groups of them had taught her to speak and read, and tried to keep her safe and fed, as best they could.
While the ghostly contact was sufficient to develop her mind and prevent her from turning feral, this upbringing perhaps explained her incomplete vocabulary and odd habits of speech, and why she had little in the way of a cultural background or understanding of human interactions. It is good that she did not seem to require much in the way of sustenance and had never known amenities, for such things grew scarce in Astoria following its collapse.
Life After the Dead
The most likely theory tossed around was that Still Heart's parents had died when she was very young, and the ghosts took over as best they could. The heroes left the strange girl in the care of the proper authorities, where she promised to remain ... as long as they promised in return to visit when they could, and to tell her about what they did.
Still Heart lived in a city orphanage for a time, which gave her some basic socialization and a remedial education. Doctors quickly discovered that, for unknown reasons, the girl had no natural body heat or heartbeat (which is how she earned the nickname "Still Heart"). During their visits to check up on her, her hero friends discovered that she also possessed a remarkable facility for combat, and the promised tales of heroing soon morphed into informal training.
Many strangers who learned about her unusual traits quickly turned hostile, but Still had grown up in a very hostile environment and knew how to handle or avoid the more dangerous ones. She didn't hold a grudge against those who reacted more with discomfort; she was all too familiar with that emotion herself. She was still set on the path of following the example of her rescuers and helping others when she could.
Invasion!
Unfortunately, her remedial socialization did not progress far before the first Rikti portals appeared. During the invasion, the orphanage was destroyed, and she was forced alone onto the streets of Paragon City. Fortunately, the instincts and skills developed before her rescue paid off, and she managed to thrive there. Even with her limited training, she began helping those that she could, further developing her abilities. She even had success striking at some of the weaker Rikti forces, before quickly fading away.
After the end of the invasion, Still Heart was at loose ends. The only career she wanted, really knew, or was qualified for was that of the hero, so she registered herself with the city. Paragon City never knew what hit it.
Finding a Path
Eventually, Still Heart encountered the heroes congregating in Galaxy City's Gemini Park. Many were fellow outcasts and people with unusual traits, just like she was. For the first time, she felt she could (somewhat) relate to the lives of others. Ever since she joined The Dauntless Reverie, Still Heart's best friend has been her fellow Daunt, Anne Raiche, aka Anomy.
Hidden in the Dark
After Still Heart began her career as a hero, the connections she began to make eventually helped her learn more about her origin. This information can be viewed by expanding this box.
- Still Heart was actually conceived and born in Dark Astoria under circumstances best left unexplored. She is an accidental creation of a small group of Banished Pantheon cultists, who intended to use the infant as a host vessel for awakening one of their dark gods. Unfortunately, their ritual was far more successful than they hoped, and they awoke something far worse... the Antithesis -- the ultimate source of entropy and all negative energy, and the ultimate destination of all that is past, destroyed, or forgotten.
((In Lore AMA 2014, Chris Beherens mentions the First Primordial, an entity bound to The Source, the font of creation. In the Hegelian cosmology Still Heart operates under, The Source and Thesis are synonymous. Antithesis is the opposite side of the coin from Thesis, and is no more inherently Evil than Thesis is inherently Good. They are simply the dichotomy that underlies all existence, interacting at their border to form Synthesis, aka reality.))
- This entity was not pleased to be awakened. It obliterated the intruding cultists with less than a thought. Being entropic in nature, Antithesis preferred to expend the minimum effort necessary to prevent a recurrence of their offense, which is fortunate, because it might very well have obliterated the planet as an encore. Instead, it decided to imbue the infant with a connection to itself, setting her up to become Guardian of the Antithesis after she grew up (a barely noticeable amount of time). It then returned to sleep and left her to fend for herself.
- Still Heart gains her powers by drawing on potent -- and extremely pure (untainted by concepts like "evil") -- dark energies from her patron. If she senses a threat to her patron's repose, a stronger "Guardian form" (which is also more socially skilled, thanks to greater access to the immense forgotten knowledge possessed by Antithesis) can manifest itself. The Guardian is roughly on the power level of a Well.
It has rarely been seen, but her patron can also directly occupy her body, even while it slumbers. This is a completely black, Still Heart shaped silhouette known as the "Antithesis form". Even mostly asleep, this entity can channel power surpassing the Dimensionless. Should anyone be so foolish as to deliberately awaken it further, it will be capable of feats that are beyond even the Primordials (likely demonstrated by the immediate and total destruction of whatever woke it up, no resurrections or take-backsies, possibly to be joined shortly by the responsible party's home galactic supercluster. If Antithesis is in a lenient mood.)
- As a side effect of Still Heart's connection to Antithesis, her heart does not beat (thus her name), and her body temperature is invariably several degrees below her surroundings (no matter whether she is in the Sahara or the depths of space). She's essentially a walking energy sink. In spite of this, she is still alive; spells targetting corpses or undead have no particular influence over her.
- Still Heart's forehead, to those with magical perceptions, is marked with a blackly glowing rune of impossibly ancient origin. It is so old that it has made appearances, unchanged in form, for as long as records have existed. It was said to be ancient even when the oldest of these records was made, and may well predate the universe itself -- or perhaps all of them, according to some accounts). The rune is simply the symbol for Antithesis, and it is invariably associated with warnings of extreme danger and apprehension, even in the records of the vilest of evil sorcerors.
OOC Notes
- I'm hand-waving a bit on the timeline here; I believe in the original bible, Astoria fell to the Pantheon during the Rikti invasion, not years before.
- Still Heart's patron was invented simply because I got tired of dealing with a constant game of cosmological one-upmanship I sometimes saw in descriptions. I decided to take a bypass to the end of the process and then just forget about it. It isn't really meant to come up in game (though it has).
