From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe

Contents 1 History 1.1 The Golden Age 1.2 The Silver Age 1.3 The Bronze Age 1.4 The Modern Age 2 Roster 2.1 The Golden Age 2.2 The Silver Age 2.3 The Bronze Age

History

The Golden Age

In 1948, shortly after the second world war, a team of heroes emerged from the masses and paved a path toward justice. They were the Holidays. Led by boxer Isaac Deacon under the guise of Father Christmas, the Holidays were on top of the world. In addition to Father Christmas, the Holidays consisted of Cupid, an Olympic Archer named Christopher Owens, Rushmore, a super speeding product of the US government’s super soldier program named Thomas Gibson, The Monster Man, a student of magic able to conjure up the abilities of almost any monster of lore named Sebastian Caine, and Oren Sterling, The Gobbler, a smart though inefficient ornithologist who has the wondrous ability to communicate with birds, not control, just communicate, unfortunately the only birds that talked back were turkeys, but he’s rich, and there’s always room for that in a super team.

They worked together for a number of years before going separate ways. They parted on good terms and went on to lead separate lives for a short time. Isaac Deacon married and had a child, Nicholas Deacon, and became a trainer for up and coming boxers in his Gym, Deacon’s Den. Christopher Owens grew fond of the life of a costumed crime fighter and began masquerading as the heroic Drawstring. Thomas Gibson was offered a job with the military, though he still fought crime part time, normally as directed by the federal government. Sebastian Caine went back to his studies of the arcane arts only emerging when the world was is mystic peril. And Oren Sterling, poor stupid Oren, spent most of his time trying to convince other birds that speaking with him wasn’t a waste of time, he was committed to an asylum a couple of times for observation normally resulting in one of the Holidays showing up in costume to have him released.

Late in the 1950s, the malevolently maniacal Black Merlin had Solitaire City, the former headquarters of the Holidays, in a state of permanent darkness, threatening to do so to the entire country if the Holidays didn’t surrender themselves to him atop Celebration Center, the Holidays HQ. The Holidays had foiled his attempts to replace the president with a doppelganger, causing him to be confined to an underground prison for threats to society. Utilizing a small amount of wax from a candle during a power outage, Black Merlin formed a small doll resembling the guard outside is his cell, forcing him release him. Afterwards, Merlin killed his way to Solitaire City leaving a body count numbering in the hundreds. The Holidays squared off with Black Merlin atop the CC in an epic battle that left half the team in critical condition, but with the combined gifts of The Monster Man, and his broadened arcane knowledge, and, surprisingly enough, The Gobbler, the Holidays banished Black Merlin to a pocket dimension inside the sun.

The Silver Age

The 1960s began off strong with the Holidays taking down a radical group known as the New Freedom Coalition who emphasized naziesque philosophy in their bid to cleanse the United States of those they deemed unclean. Of course this led to the ACLU protests of the Holidays due to their roster consisting of only males, with Cupid revealing his identity to prove that the Holidays weren’t racists. Not having realized the political ramifications of their original roster, and to prove to the world that they were not guilty of the discriminatory behavior that they were accused of, the Holidays welcomed to the team three heroes. The first to join was the female gimmick dynamo, Easter aka Jennifer Flores, who utilized her great mind to invent a number of Easter egg shaped gimmicks with different effects. Next to join was the redheaded beauty, Clover aka Sheila O’Brien, who through an centuries old deal with a leprechaun inherited her family’s gift for releasing a trapped leprechaun in the form of near infallible luck. The last to join was the Jewish hero, Menorah aka David Asher, who through an inborn genetic anomaly was born with steel hard skin and the ability to shape fire at will.

With the ACLU protests quashed, the Holidays spent most of the 60s fighting off the sudden increase in costumed crime. With many threats from outside like the Mad Maid, The Lemur King, Casanova, and Anti Grav, the Holidays never would have guessed that their biggest threat would have come from the inside.

After years of further government experimentation to try to enhance his abilities, Rushmore’s mind had become fragile and progressively more unstable, as did his actions. Unfortunately, with as busy as the team was with the constant robberies, kidnappings, and other various illegal activities, no one noticed until it was too late. Distraught with his teammates lack of care about his mental state, Rushmore began a plot to destroy the lives of his original teammates and friends. He drained the account of Oren Sterling and funneled it into an off shore account. He had Sebastian Caine under observation from the FBI due to rumors of his worshiping the devil and ties to a number cults. He spread rumors of Christopher Owens having connections to the Black Panthers. He kidnapped the child of Isaac Deacon, to lure the original Holidays to the Celebration Center, which he had rigged with enough explosives to level ten city blocks. As the Holidays made their way into Celebration Center, Rushmore sped in and separated them to place them at a disadvantage, but having worked together for so long, the Holidays expected such an action and factored it into their plan of action. The Gobbler commanded his army of turkeys to keep Rushmore occupied while the Monster Man cast a protective spell to seal off the building to keep the explosion from hurting anyone but those inside. All the while, Cupid set up his shot, waiting for the right moment. As Father Christmas tried to reason with Rushmore, Cupid finally lined his shot up, and let the arrow fly. As the arrow zipped closer to Rushmore, he darted up to the rafters, grabbed Cupid and moved him into the arrows path piercing both of their hearts and ending both of their lives.

With two of the founding members dead, the original Holidays left the team but not before amending the charter so that they and any of their descendents always had a spot on the team. And thus, the holidays, with only its three newest members, ended the 1960s.

The Bronze Age

With the original Holidays now gone, Menorah took over the reins of the team until they could find a new leader. Under his leadership, the team began to reform with new members. The first to join was the son of Isaac Deacon, the now nineteen year old Nicholas Deacon took over his father’s spot on the team after he and Jennifer Flores reworked Anti Grav’s gravity gloves into a gravity rod capable of negating and increasing gravity in small areas, as well as granting him the ability to fly. Hoping to do his father proud and make a name for himself, Nicholas Deacon took the mantle of Saint Nick and with his gravity bending North Pole helped to give the holidays some hope of regaining the glory that the original team had. In addition to Saint Nick, the roles of all of the original Holidays were filled with new heroes. In the place of the Monster Man, an archaeologist named Peter Terre used new technology to harness the magical properties of an Anubis statue to allow him to change from a living to an undead state and back through the use of his afterlife belt, and become the Living Corpse. In the place of Cupid, Lovebird aka Catherine Crown, a pheromone emitting perfume heiress who uses her daddy’s fortune to do some good for the country, after finding out how much pollution that her father’s factories emit into the atmosphere. In the place of Rushmore, a solar powered hero named Star Spangler born with a star for a heart and a heart of gold. As Star Spangler, Jack Murphy used his American image to put the government up to a higher standard, not automatically cow toeing to the government. Finally, there’s the Gobbler, poor stupid Oren. After getting his money back after the death of Cupid and Rushmore, Oren gave up trying to communicate with other birds and started a family, neither he, nor his 4 year old son were up to filling in his spot on the team so the Holidays recruited Plymouth Rock, a Native American Geomancer, who legally changed his name to Plymouth Rock citing that his parents had gotten used to suburban life and had begun to shun their tribal beliefs. They were green for sure, but they showed promise. Unfortunately, though a powerful man, David Asher just didn’t have the passion to lead that Isaac Deacon did.

The Holidays seemed to stumble through the 70s, with minimal notable victories, and minimal strife. That was until two old foes returned to wreak havoc on Solitaire City. On All Hallows Eve, Black Merlin and Rushmore took the Holidays on the ride of their life. After battling his way out of the pocket dimension that he was banished to in the 50s, Black Merlin used his arcane abilities to resurrect Thomas Gibson, Rushmore, and with his abilities, a second chance at life, and no fear of death, Thomas Gibson was in a mood for some fun. With his ability to be on both sides of the country in a matter of seconds, making himself disappear and reappear in the blink of an eye was no challenge. For hours, Merlin and Gibson toyed with the Holidays, even making time to go after the retired members. With the new team still lacking cohesion, Black Merlin and Rushmore ran rampant, enslaving the entire city in a pseudotrancic state, swamped by fear and panic. As riots broke out all over the city, the New Holidays did their best to quell the situation. Lovebird used her pheromones to try to counteract the panic, Menorah, Living Corpse and Saint Nick tried to infiltrate Black Merlin’s conjured castle stronghold. Star Spangler flew into the sky and tried to act as a second sun to counteract the darkness. Plymouth Rock, Clover, and Easter took to the streets in an effort to limit the civilian casualties. The battle was looking grim, until Father Christmas, the Monster Man, and The Gobbler showed up. Monster Man and Black Merlin went toe to toe above the city as Father Christmas led the Gobbler, Living Corpse, Menorah and Saint Nick against Rushmore. Saint Nick took the battle especially personal after his kidnapping by Rushmore in the 60s. His brash actions almost cost the strike team the battle, but after being knocked unconscious by Menorah, Saint Nick was forced to sit out the battle. The Living Corpse managed to drain a bit of Rushmore’s energy, allowing Menorah to surround him in a cage of blue flames, long enough for Gobbler and Father Christmas to get close enough to him to try to render him unconscious but not before Rushmore could draw the Gobbler into the cage and make him burst into flames. At that moment, Menorah’s concentration was lost and Rushmore rushed out of the stronghold. Meanwhile in the sky, the Monster Man was being overtaken by Black Merlin. As he readied the same enchantment that banished Black Merlin to the sun, Star Spangler flew in to aide Monster Man, interrupting the transition banishing Black Merlin to the star that Star Spangler housed as a heart. The two joined, into one being, allowing Black Merlin to harness the abilities of Star Spangler, and turning the tides of the battle. As Black Merlin’s darkness entered it’s second day, he used his newly strengthened powers to raise the dead in the local cemeteries to amass an army to push all that would oppose him out of the city. As he spoke to his armies, a single arrow pierced his skull, as he whipped around, he saw the corpse of Christopher Owen, Cupid, standing there with bow in hand. As Black Merlin lay dieing, Father Christmas and the Monster Man confronted Cupid, who told them that in the afterlife, he had made peace with the soul of Thomas Gibson and that the corpse that had assisted Black Merlin was but a puppet at the control of Black Merlin.

Oren Sterling died while being treated for third degree burns, and weeks later, David Asher hung himself out of grief. After the passing of Menorah, Saint Nick took over the reins of the team, though there were those who worried about his ability to lead.

The Modern Age

With Saint Nick’s inability to perform well as a leader, he instead began by opening membership to anyone who could find a tie to a holiday, even allowing holidays to be represented by multiple heroes at once. The team’s membership ballooned from six members to upwards of twenty. This brought disarray to the team, and the city. With the increased numbers in heroes, and no one to manage them, the Holidays new members ran rampant over the city. This wasn’t all at once mind you, it was over many years, starting off with slight disturbances and recklessness at first, but by the 90s, the citizens were in as much fear of the Holidays as they were of the villains that they fought. They had become a laughing stock, not just because they had a member called the April Fool, and not just in their methods, but in their judgment. It took them over a year to figure out that the Ann Arbor Avenger wasn’t a hero dedicated to honoring Arbor Day, but just another guy from Michigan. They had two heroes both operating under the name of Easter, and neither was the original, who had retired shortly after Saint Nick took over the role as leader. Plymouth Rock was arrested for drug possession. Lovebird went to work for her father, helping to reform the environmental aspects of his business. Even Saint Nick began taking a back seat in the early 80s with the birth of his son. Clover was killed by a casino owner after she was recognized in his casino, despite the fact that she wasn’t cheating. And it wasn’t just former members that were having a hard time. Newer heroes like the Time Saver, the daylight savings time hero who could go back or forward in time one hour, was outed as being a long time adult film star. Meurte, the Mexican hero for the day of the dead, turned out to really be a convicted killer, not that his name did much to hide that fact. The Columbian, a supposed direct descendant of Christopher Columbus with no powers whatsoever, sued his way onto the team and is currently doing twenty years for drug trafficking. All three Mardi Gras was arrested for public indecency. And Terra Firma, the Earth Day hero, was mistaken for an alien in the deep south and was shot to death by forty drunk rednecks.

It seemed that the original members had all given up on the Holidays, and the Holidays had given up on doing things for the betterment of the city. They had gone wild for the most part, with very few trying to do things right, such as The Gobbler, The Heartbreak Kid, one of the Easters, and Sleigh Belle. And not in the enjoyable late night video series kind of way. The city held a vote, and in the year 2004, the city was one of the few in the country to pass a No Capes Policy. The city called in the armed forces and forcibly removed those who moonlit as costumed vigilantes. Celebration Center was closed and boarded up, until the owner could come to claim it, and then the city would pay to have it moved, or demolished. The seventy-six year old Isaac Deacon, along with the now wheelchair ridden Sebastian Caine, returned to the city, to Celebration Center to decide what to do with it. When they entered, they found Isaac’s grandson, Randall, sleeping in the meeting room, as he had for some time. He had lost him job, and with the no powers ruling handed down by the city, he couldn’t show his true strength and gain a job doing manual labor, not to mention with his father being who he was, he was all but black balled in Solitaire City. In the view of his grandson living in his condemned old headquarters, Isaac agreed to sign over the building and everything in it to Randall as long as he was willing to try to save the family’s reputation after what Isaac’s son had done to destroy it.

In 2005, Celebration Center was moved to Paragon City. Now all that’s left is to try to salvage the reputation of a once great team.

Roster

The Golden Age

Name	Real Name	Holiday Represented	Powers
Father Christmas	Isaac Deacon	Christmas	Skilled Fighter Specializing in Boxing. No Super Human Powers.
The Monster Man	Sebastian Caine	Halloween	Originally Able To Conjure Abilities of Ancient Monsters. Over Time Became Master of the Dark Arts.
The Gobbler	Oren Sterling	Thanksgiving	Able to Communicate with Birds. Specialized in Communication with Turkeys.
Cupid	Christopher Owens	St. Valentine's Day	Olympic Level Athlete. Skilled Marksman Proficient in Archery.
Rushmore	Thomas Gibson	Independence Day	Super Speed Due to Government Experimentation.

The Silver Age

Name	Real Name	Holiday Represented	Powers
Father Christmas	Isaac Deacon	Christmas	Skilled Fighter Specializing in Boxing. No Super Human Powers.
The Monster Man	Sebastian Caine	Halloween	Originally Able To Conjure Abilities of Ancient Monsters. Over Time Became Master of the Dark Arts.
The Gobbler	Oren Sterling	Thanksgiving	Able to Communicate with Birds. Specialized in Communication with Turkeys.
Cupid	Christopher Owens	St. Valentine's Day	Olympic Level Athlete. Skilled Marksman Proficient in Archery.
Rushmore	Thomas Gibson	Independence Day	Super Speed Due to Government Experimentation.
Easter	Jennifer Flores	Easter	Various Easter Egg Based Gimmicks.
Menorah	David Asher	Chaunakuh	Super Strength. Steel Hard Skin. Fire Shaping but not Creation.
Clover	Sheila O'brien	St. Patrick's Day	Magically Granted Near Infallible Luck.

The Bronze Age

Name	Real Name	Holiday Represented	Powers
Saint Nick	Nicholas Deacon	Christmas	Gravity Bending Rod Known as the North Pole.
The Living Corpse	Peter Terre	Halloween	Able to Shift from a State of Living to Undead through the Use of His Anubis Belt.
Plymouth Rock	Plymouth Rock (Legally Changed)	Thanksgiving	Geomancy.
Lovebird	Catherine Crown	St. Valentine's Day	Pheromone Emmission and Control.
The Star Spangler	Jack Murphy	Independence Day	Born with a Star for a Heart. Able to Emit Light of Varying Densities.
Easter	Jennifer Flores	Easter	Various Easter Egg Based Gimmicks.
Menorah	David Asher	Chaunakuh	Super Strength. Steel Hard Skin. Fire Shaping but not Creation.
Clover	Sheila O'brien	St. Patrick's Day	Magically Granted Near Infallible Luck.