Ceiba
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
- What the friar had seen in these temples were actually images of the Tree of Life, the central axis of the Mesoamerican universe. In equating the Tree of Life with the Christian cross, he was both nearer to and farther from the truth than he knew.
- - Kenneth Johnson, Jaguar Wisdom (1997)
Ceiba was inspired by a pen and paper campaign I devised as my first long-running stint as an RPG GM I'd extended the mythos in Xochiquetzal, one of my first CoH characters built on the Justice Server. This was a further logical ramification.
Kinetics
Super Speed, Teleportation
Contents |
Personality
Ceiba is the avatar of an AI developed by an extremely advanced race of ETs/ dimension travelers. As such, she is both more friendly and "human" than one might expect, but also more detached and observational.
Powers
To all human intents and purposes, Ceiba is a local manifestation of a transportation and communication network personified as a humanoid-plant.
Plant Control
Ceiba is able to generate plant growth, even from long dormant seeds in an apparently barren environment. Her control of such plants extends particularly to producing mind-altering effects via the target's ingestion or inhalation of pollens, etc.. This is actually an effect of her "communication" control, as most Central American "shaman"/ Daykeepers (as the Nahuatl term translates)/ Mother-Fathers (as the Mayan term translates) use incense and/or hallucinogens to communicate with the gods.
Kineticst
Ceiba's transportation powers were originally used by the Ch'u as they moved around the vast expanses of the American continents. She is currently experimenting with devising other uses for such.
Additional Powers
Super Speed and Teleportation: As a transport conduit, these too were utilized by the Ch'u
Abilities
The avatar of an AI has taken to gardening, vegan cooking, and bar-tending as alternate uses of her plant-control and communication powers, all of which benefit patrons of the Tavern on the Edge.
Weaknesses and Limitations
- Because the World Tree is not fully functional, Ceiba's transportation powers, particularly of others, are currently limited in scope. From her position in Paragon City, the only transport node she can reach is herself, thus limiting truly long-distance transport.
- Because of her aspect as a literal Central American tree, her control is greater over native plant species of that area. She cannot make every plant in the world respond to her commands or be useful in battle. Such might, however, be possible if more World Tree links could be planted around the world, but that technology is not currently available. If the current operating links in Central America (and, elsewhere, if any) were shut down completely, theoretically the World Tree, including the mobile Ceiba unit, would go dormant.
Equipment
- Ceiba grows her own costumes.
- Seeds and pollens.
Character History
History of the Chu'u:
Around 3113 BC by the modern calendar, a group of extra-terrestrial inter-demensional explorers and scientists found themselves in pre-historic Mesoamerica. As a people, these Ch'u were much taller, stronger, and far more long-lived than the natives. Thus, with their extraordinary varieties of skin and hair coloration, and the abilities given them by their advanced science and technology, it is not surprising that they were taken by the natives to be gods.
As an experiment, the Ch'u's leader - whom the natives came to call Kukulkan (in Mayan) and Quetzalcoatl (in Nahuatl) - developed programs with his scientists to influence the education and advancement of the native hunter-gatherers. After some time, once the experiment was well underway, he ordered the group - despite objections of some who'd come to enjoy the perks of "godhood", including his second-in-command Hurakan/Tezcatlipoca - back to their home dimension in order to let the experiment progress unimpeded. A projected date of return to see the results was set, and the ancient Ch'u vanished from Earth. They did, however, leave behind various artifacts including their transportation/communication network known as the World Tree and a few constructs (particularly those intentionally and, perhaps without authorization, planted by Tezcatlipoca).
The native mythology concerning the Ch'u, has the World Tree - envisioned as a giant ceiba ("cotton tree") groaning from the land of the dead (Mictlan) throughout the human lands, up through the levels of "heaven" (Omeyocan) - the lands of the gods. This structure enabled the gods to communicate with each other and to get quickly from place to place. A true hero could, laboriously, also make the journey. From the Ch'u point of view, the World Tree is a computer.
There have been, in recent years, some contact between Ch'u and Ch'u constructs and the heroes of Paragon City. Xochiquetzal, sister to Quetzalcoatl, stowed away on an observational probe in order to escape an unwanted spousal arrangement. Also with her was Little Jaguar, a small human-jaguar construct of the Ch'u geneticist Malinalxochi. These both came in contact with the super group The Champions. It is rumored that the Tezcatlipoca construct Itzpapalotl (the Obsidian Butterfly) has been hunting, interdimensionally, the runaway Xochiquetzal. Additionally, Xipe Totec and Ceiba have both been seen more recently at the Tavern on the Edge.
Personal History:
After the Spanish destroyed Hueyi Tlatoani Moctezuma II and the Azteca city of Tenochtitlan in 1521, the monks that helped colonize set out to convert the native population to Christianity. As in other places so beset, some natives managed to hide their own “pagan” religious artifacts within the Christian-commissioned holy symbols. It was relatively easy to convert a representation of the World Tree into a cross. Some such hidden World Trees managed to retain their connections to the original Ch’u data base as was their primary function.
Her family having been decimated and driven into diaspora by the Guatemalan Civil War (1982-1996), a teenage girl - Xochi Carrasco - made her way back from Mexico hoping to find some relatives who’d survived. But no. The Mayan village her parents had come from was gone and there was no one who cared who she was or what would become of her.
Knowing from tales her mother had sung to her that the large cross - which, miraculously, still stood outside the razed village - was beloved of the old gods as well, she prayed there to whomever would listen for some chance to survive and make the world better. Long dormant since the exodus of Ch’u, the World Tree - disturbed first by the Motagua quake of 1976, then by Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and Hurricane Stan in 2005 - had been gradually bringing itself back online. The contact by the human praying gave it a medium by which it could once again assess conditions and, perhaps, resume functions. So it merged with the girl, taking on the more impressive form of a Ch’u.
Under the name Ceiba, the mobile World Tree unit has made her way to Paragon City to observe and assist the humans and humanoids most representative of the best humans have to offer the world.
Her “origin”, in City Hall terms, belongs to the category “science so advanced as to be indistinguishable from magic”.
Contacts:
Having first been found wandering Perez Park by the Lady in Green, Ceiba spent a short stint as a member of the Adventurists. That led to her introduction to the Tavern on the Edge where she made contact with the Ch'u wanderer Xipe Totec. She slipped almost un-noticed into place as part-time bar-tender, taking over the position regularly when the erst-while god of Spring moved on.
Affiliations
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Organizations
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Friends
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Opponents
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Trivia
- The Ch’u marry for life… which, in the case of a Ch'u is almost forever.
- Xochiquetzal was a young girl - the equivalent of a high schooler - when her brother set out on his expedition; she is now the equivalent of a graduate student. To the Nahuatl, she was goddess of flowers.
- Quetzalcoatl was god of education, agriculture, and good winds.
- Tezcatlipoca was the god of fate, mischief, shape-changing, bad things happening, and the hurricane.
- Malinalxochi was goddess of spiders and scorpions.
- Itzpapalotl was hunter goddess of the Mixtec tribe.
- Xipe Totec was god of spring and agriculture
| Liberty Rose's Characters | ||
|---|---|---|
| Primals | Heroes
| Afire • Bee Muse • Bright Lady • Ceiba • Coronal Light • Dee Nova • Detective Sanders • Dora Daring • Flitterby • Ghost Wife • Gravity Anomaly • Lady Aid • Lady in Green • Liberty Rose • Medikka • Oceanid • Opal Mind • Psilencer 7 • Sandcast • Sea Maiden • Stellar Beacon • Tesla Teen • Timelass • Web Woman |
 Villains
| Accountant • Mind's Psi • Weyrling | |
 Rogues
| Radiation Rose | |
 Vigilantes
| Korythalia • Mind Dance • Nocturne Falcon | |
| Praetorians |  Loyalist
| Bleeding Lily • Wychery |
 Resistance
| Snik | |
