Gustav Emacia
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Player: @Emacia | |
| Origin: | Science |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Brute |
| Threat Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Gustav Emacia |
| Known Aliases: | Jacob Gallows, Saxon Violence, The Red Masque, |
| Species: | Genetically altered and magically augmented human |
| Age: | ' |
| Height: | ' |
| Weight: | ' |
| Eye Color: | Red |
| Hair Color: | none |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | N/A |
| Occupation: | Villain, scientist |
| Place of Birth: | ' |
| Base of Operations: | ' |
| Marital Status: | ' |
| Known Relatives: | ' |
| Known Powers | |
| Super strength, super reflexes | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Super-genius level IQ | |
| Equipment | |
| ' | |
| ' | |
((Work in Progress!))
Contents |
Pre-History
In the 1940’s, many of the best and brightest minds of Axis Germany were involved with the Third Reich’s human experimentation programs. Among these was a young man named Heinrich Emacia.
Heinrich was a true believer. Little more mattered to him than the glory of the Reich and the will of the Fuhrer to have the perfect soldier. To this end, Heinrich performed terrible experiments with crude genetic manipulation, many of which involved exposing human guinea pigs to various degrees of radiation in an attempt to cause mutation.
The luckier test subjects died quickly, whereas the less fortunate found themselves slowly rotting away, eaten by cancer and radiation poisoning. Their suffering mattered little to Heinrich. Hitler would have his superman.
As the allies marched to Berlin, Heinrich knew the Reich’s swan song was playing. He was a sociopath, but not a fool. The Reich would fall, and Heinrich knew that to be captured by the allies meant to be held accountable for his atrocities commited in the name of science, and put to death.
Vowing to continue his work, Heinrich secured a small fortune in looted gold, his son Gustav, and fled.
Their travels eventually lead them to the amazon rain forest. It was there Heinrich saw this secluded land as the perfect place for him to continue his research uninterrupted. Using his stolen fortune, he hired a band of mercenaries to help him subjugate the local tribes. The primitive people saw the miracles of Heinrich’s science, and believed him to be a god. Those who did not kneel were destroyed.
Over the next several years, Heinrich pursued his research and raised Gustav. He inundated his young son’s mind with the ideals of the Reich, their own place among the superior race, and the will to power. He stressed the will as the ultimate vehicle towards strength, and that the strong shall always preside over the week.
Gustav took the Nietzschian principles to heart more than Heinrich could ever have imagined. Years later, in ailing health, Heinrich was murdered by his own son.
Gustav was a scientific genius and sociopathic madman, just like his father. However, where Heinrich’s mania was guided by a political ethos, Gustav’s motivation was much simpler: a lust for personal power. He viewed all others as inferior to him, and thus deserving only to be crushed or subjugated.
It was shortly after his father’s murder, that Gustav began work on what he viewed his magnum opus: a pair of artificially created, genetically perfect super soldiers. They would be his ultimate creation, and possessing of a power to make them truly worthy of being called his progeny.
Gustav’s first step towards creation was to create and grow the children themselves. Using his mastery of genetic manipulation and his super genius, he artificially inseminated a split egg. The egg grew into twins: a boy and girl, whom he named Dietrich and Madeline.
Father Dearest
From the moment they were conceived, Gustav subjected the twins to batteries upon batteries of tests and experiments meant to weed out genetic impurity and physical imperfection. They were also given the best physical training in the world, being subjected to boot-camp like training regiments almost as soon as they were able to walk.
Gustav not only molded their bodies, but he molded their minds. the children were put through rigorous mental conditioning programs. These programs were designed to suppress and crush what Gustav viewed as the weakness of the human mind: compassion, mercy and fear, and make the two the killing machines they were meant to be.
However, Gustav was not a fool. He did not want his creations turning against them. In addition to their regular mental training, the children were regularly indoctrinated and brainwashed to have an unflinching loyalty to their father, as well as minimally display the human traits Gustav thought weak: fear and compassion.
Gustav’s training did not stop at mere indoctrination. He would often put his children through invasive chemical and surgical procedures meant to alter the very structure of their brains in an effort to weed out weakness.
All while Gustav was brutally raising his children, he was working on the second part to his plan: a serum that would act as a catalyst to spontaneously mutate human DNA, granting super powers to those who previously possessed none.
This proved to be more difficult than Gustav anticipated, and the development of the serum was wrought with setbacks and error. Hundreds of test subjects died at the hands of Gustav and his serum.
When satisfied his serum was only eighty percent fatal, as opposed to certainly so, Gustav felt it was time to administer it to his greatest creations: his children. Their survival meant little to him. After all, all data regarding their creation had been recorded, and they could easily be reproduced.
Madeline, who always sought her father’s love and approval willfully volunteered to be the first of the two to be administered the serum. The procedure was successful, Madeline now possessed a mutant ability to emit and control radiation. There were side effects, however. Her body put out a radioactive aura poisonous to others, which forced her into isolation from others.
A House, broken
By the time the children were ten years old, Gustav was using his children as the very weapons he designed them to be, fueling his madness and megalomania. The trio took what they wanted, and those who stood in their way were mercilessly destroyed. Those who could be swayed would be welcome into the fold, once they swore an oath of loyalty to Gustav.
It was during this time, that Gustav made a discovery: an incomplete version of his super mutant serum, when weaponized in an aerosol form, was frighteningly lethal. It was nothing short of a doomsday weapon. The very kind of weapon with which Gustav could use to declare his perceived dominance, and announce his army to the world.
Gustav’s weapon of mass destruction was completed, but before he could transport it to position, his compound was attacked by a combined force of Capes and local military. The battle raged viciously, until Gustav raised aloft a detonator, proclaiming that either he be given passage or every single living being there would die at the hands of his serum bomb.
Dietrich, who had somehow began to develop a conscious, despite his brainwashing, saw his chance to act and did so. He unleashed the full fury of his energy blasts at his father, consuming him and apparently ending his life.
After their leader fell, Gustav’s army was easily overtaken by the supers. Dietrich surrendered to the authorities, and Madeline fled.
Unknown to others, Gustav was really not dead. Though gravely wounded, he managed to activate his personal teleportation device. However, the device was badly damaged, and instead of sending him to a secondary laboratory where he could heal his wounds, it sent him hurtling across time and space to Praetorian Earth.
The Man Called Gallows
Ironically, Gustav wound up in the care of his Praetorian counterpart. But whereas Primal Gustav was a manipulative megalomaniac, Praetorian Gustav was a benevolent man, using his research to better the human condition.
Praetorian Gustav took pity on this broken man, and rebuilt him into a powerful cyborg body. It was during this reconstruction, that Primal Gustav chose a new name for himself: Jacob Gallows.
Once reconstructed, Gallows put his new cybernetic body to work. He quickly joined the Powers Division, where his natural brutality, ruthless efficiency and tactical acumen saw him rise quickly through the ranks. His name became feared among those who would oppose Emperor Cole’s regime.
Unknown to his compatriots, Gallows was using his rank within the Powers Division to keep a watchful eye on promising new members. Those he felt showed promise, he would take personal interest in, subtly recruiting them to further his own goals within Praetoria..
Chief among these recruits was a young mutant named Jamie Sparks. Gallows took the young woman under his wing, molding her into a student and a sycophantic follower.
When the portals to Primal Earth opened, and when he was certain of her loyalty, Gallows sent Sparks through the portal to the Rogue Isles, where she was to gather intelligence in preparation of his first goal upon returning to Primal Earth: to reclaim his wayward daughter, Madeline, as the rightful property she was.
Over the course of the next several weeks, Gallows began to gather his forces, sending them through the portal to Primal Earth, where they would infiltrate into various strategic positions for his schemes.
During this time, he also began to cleanse the records of his existence in Praetoria. He hacked personnel files to delete records of his service with the Powers Division, and methodically began exterminating those associated with him, including the his Praetorian counterpart.
With blood on his hands once more, Jacob Gallows stepped through the portal to Primal Earth.
Panoptic Enterprises
Gallows’ first order of business upon arriving in the Rogue Isles was to establish a base of operations. To this end, he adopted the persona of the CEO of a small and fledgeling medical research firm called Panoptic Enterprises. He sought out investors in the firm, most notably from Maleya D’Cruz, leader of the organization known as Vindictive.
The advantage to the Panoptic-Vindictive alliance was multi-fold. D’Cruz, and by proxy, Vindictive, was a multi-million dollar organization. This provided Panoptic with a rather large sum of start up capital. Gallows’ daughter, Madeline, was a leading member of Vindictive, and the proximity between the two organizations would allow him a greater ease of gathering intelligence on his daughter.
Boxes Within Boxes
As Pantoptic Enterprises began, Gallows made contact with various rogue elements in the Isles, using them as intermediaries to place several large bounties on Madeline’s head, under the stipulation she be brought in alive.
Using the sizable startup capital afforded him, Gallows constructed a small, yet incredibly high tech laboratory for Panoptic, staffing it with some of the best minds the Rogue Isles had to offer. It was here the small firm would begin work on its magnum opus: a machine which could digitally replicate and manipulate the electrical impulses of the human brain.
The rank and file of Panoptic felt they were doing good, and the potential use of their research would be immeasurable: treatments for autism, senility, mania, the possibilities were endless.
Only Gallows and his two closest cohorts knew the darker truth. The device would be used not merely to replicate and manipulate electrical impulses, but the very mind - the entirety of an individual’s mental consciousness- itself. Mind control, imprisonment of a mind while destroying the body, it was these malevolent uses Gallows was more interested in.
Cry Havoc
Once he felt confident in his base of operations, Gallows put his plan into motion. First, he set up a fake lab in an abandoned building in Boomtown. In this lab, he put very speciffic equipment. Each individual piece of which would be insignificant, but when used in conjunction with one another would hold a very speciffic purpose to whose who were in the know: the continuance of his serum research. He then tipped off Longbow about the lab’s existence. The agency moved into action, raiding the apparently abandoned warehouse.
Through her contacts within Longbow, Madeline caught wind of the lab and its contents. Just as Gallows had planned, she came to investigate. Gallows made certain to leave nothing of importance on the Lab’s computer system, aside from the location of two other dummy labs. Madeline left to investigate one, and her fiancee the other.
Madeline’s search found nothing. Kaine’s search, however, had him coming face to face with a robotic clone of Gallows’. The two engaged in a brutal melee, nearly bringing the building down around them. Ultimately Kaine, though badly beaten, prevailed. But not before Gallows passed along a message: “Tell her I will not stop until I've reclaimed what is rightfully mine”
A week later, Gallows struck again. Time time targeting Ayshel D’Cruz; Maleya’s son and Madeline’s adopted nephew. The fight was short and one sided, as Ayshel’s youth and combat inexperience was no match for Gallow’s years of brutal training. He held the boy aloft by the throat, saying simply “Deliver this message” before beating the youth beyond recognition.
Gustav’s third attack was against Herald Summons, Madeline’s ex-husband, with whom she had a daughter. The demon summoner and his minions put up quite a fight, but it was over as Gustav one by one demolished the demons, eventually tearing their master in half with his bare hands
Reunited
Through a sheer act of serendipity, a bounty hunter managed to track and defeat Madeline. After arranging a meet, Gallows’ men brought her back to a second, hidden laboratory in the Panoptic Enterprises building.
It was here Gallows introduced Madeline to a machine which would forcefully extract tissue and organ samples. He watched with a detached scientific curiosity from the moment she was strapped in, kicking and screaming, to the moment she was overcome by sedation and passed out.
For a week, the machine methodically and ruthlessly biopsied her body, taking samples of all major organs, nearly killing her in the process. It was then, the Panoptic building was stormed by members of Vindictive with the aid of Shadowed Fate, AKA Ghost Widow's Shadow.
When confronted with the fact Madeline’s trail had lead them to this research firm’s lab, Gallows did not even try to deny it. He ended the hologram which made him appear to be human, exposing to his antagonists his true, cybernetic form, claiming to be tired of the charade.
He led the group to the hidden lab where they found their comrade, barely alive, with wires and tubes sticking out of her body as she was suspended in a tube of biotic gel.
Enraged at her sister’s fate, Maleya vowed Gallows would pay. He simply waved her off dismissively, stating “I am done with her. You may have what’s left.”
The resulting tumult was a brutal battle, with Gallows holding his own against several members of vindictive, until he fell, his cyborg form battered and broken, a malicious smirk on his face.
The winners gathered Madeline and the rest of their wounded, as Ghost Widow’s Shadow rigged the building for demolition.
Little did they know, that upon destruction of his cybernetic body, several encrypted files were automatically uploaded to the Panoptic Enterprises’ communication network.
Rumblings
Three years after Gallows death, Jamie Sparks recieves a text message from an unknown sender.
“Boxes within boxes, Miss Sparks. Prepare.”
Days after, Jaime received another text message, which led her to a safe deposit box in the Pocket D bank. Inside the box, she found what appeared to be a GPS unit and an unmarked thumb drive.
When activated, the GPS led her to a communications array in Grandville. She examined the comm array and found a piece of hardware that certainly didn’t belong. One which had a port for a USB device. She inserted the drive into the device, and it came to life, blinking and showing readouts on its LCD screen, mentioning something about “Site Two” which would be active in forty eight hours. Then, the device went dead and the GPS lost its signal.
Forty eight hours later, the GPS came on line again, this time leading her to an abandoned area of Port Oakes. After scouting, she found the entrance to what appeared be a second laboratory, whose equipment bore the logo of Panoptic Enterprises. Though the lab was dusty and it was obvious no one had been there for some time, the machines were all powered on.
On the main console there was a blinking red button. Sparks pushed it and the screen flickered to life.
“Uploading data to Ziggursky Penitentiary Mainframe. Scanning inmate records...suitable subject found. Altering medical records. Countdown until subject is prepared: Five days”
It was then, a holographic projector glared to life, and before her stood a holographic representation of Gallows. It welcomed his favored pupil and detailed his plan.
It explained to Sparks that she had just uploaded a digitized copy of his consciousness to the mainframe at Ziggursky Penitentiary. There, Gustav’s electronic essence found a suitable replacement body for him, and arranged for that inmate to be transferred to the Zig’s medical experiment program, where it would be put through a battery of his mutagenic serum. In five days, when the body was ready, his mind would be transferred to it, and he would disable the Zig’s security system, causing a riot and enough havoc to him to make his escape.
Five days later, Jamie Sparks found herself outisde of the Zig, waiting. Just as planned, the lights of the prison dimmed and went dark. Moments later, the sound of klaxons was heard as several inmates escaped and began to riot.
She made her way into the compound, rendezvoused with the escaped Gustav, and the two cut a bloody swath of destruction all the way to freedom.
Transformation
An unforseen side effect of the serum treatments given to his new host's body left Gustav horribly disfigured, his body twisted and mutating into a seemingly skinless state.
Because of his new appearance, Gustav took the villainous name of "The Red Masque"
Revelation
During the time he spent as a digitized consciousness, Gustav came to a realization. Though his science was powerful, it was not enough. He needed more.
Upon arrival in the Rogue Isles, he began to relentlessly devour any knowledge he could find on old world forms of power. A theft from the Midnighter club left him with an ancient text on mu magic. He poured through the arcane text with a driven thirst, applying its knowledge, until he gained mastery over the ancient civilization's form of lightning-magic.
He consumed founts of magical power and ancient texts relentlessly, gaining various powers to cast and conjure, until his powers and knowledge of the arcane rivaled that of some of the greatest arcanists in the Isles.
The Shark
Despite the leaps and bounds he’d made, Gustav felt the powers he’d amassed were simply not enough. Never enough. He wanted more. He got his chance when he received a personal summons from Captain Mako.
He found himself in the arch-villain lair, where the Arachnos general complimented his ambition, claiming to sense in him a common lust for power, as well as the sheer and unbridled will to seize it.
It was then Mako told Gustav the tale of the Leviathan, a ancient beast of near godlike power which lay slumbering beneath the Rogue Isles. Mako wanted the beast’s primal essence, and was willing to part with a portion of it, giving it to Gustav as payment for retrieving it.
Mako then set Gustav loose, on the trail of the beast’s final resting place. Gustav brutally raided and plundered hideouts and libraries belonging to the Circle of Thorns, until he found a worn parchment, written in the language of the Mu, detailing something called the Ritual of Z’kron.
The parchment described a cavern, known as the Maw of the Leviathan, deep beneath what was now called Sharkhead Isle. It said there was a convergence of ley lines in the cavern, and it was there one could tap into the beast’s immense power.
Gustav spent the next several weeks pouring his mystical knowledge into the crafting of a charm which would allow him to see the flow of energies in the caverns, allowing him to locate their nexus.
Once the charm was crafted, Gustav as well as Jamie Spark and his two new recruits, Bonestealer and the Crimson Carcass, delved into the cave system for their prize. The quartet followed Gustav, who used the charm to see the ley lines, until they came to a grand cavern. It was in the center of the cavern that a strange man in robes.
The strange man identified himself as the High Priest of the Leviathan, and proclaimed the four of them shall not disturb the creature’s power. The ensuing fight was quick, and the priest soon lay broken at their feet.
Using the charm to find the focal point of energies, Gustav held it aloft reciting the incantations from the Ritual of Z’Kron. The very cavern trembled, threatening to collapse as the slumbering beast’s primal energies were channeled through the amulet and fused with Gustav’s being.
He realized Captain Mako would never share his power, so he decided to trump the Arachnos captain before he himself was betrayed. Gustav and his minions exited the cavern and disappeared shortly thereafter.
He has not been seen since.
