Corbassiere

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"In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer" -Camus
Corbassiere
Player: Cauda
Origin:	Magic
Archetype:	Tanker
Security Level:	Hero of the CIty (50)
Personal Data
Real Name:	Claire Aucoin
Known Aliases:	None
Species:	Human
Age:	20
Height:	5'11
Weight:	150
Eye Color:	Blue
Hair Color:	Blue (naturally blonde)
Biographical Data
Nationality:	French
Occupation:	Student
Place of Birth:	Auvergne, France
Base of Operations:	Talos, Paragon City
Marital Status:	Single
Known Relatives:	Luc "Snowblasted" Aucoin (brother)
Known Powers
Control over temperature to within ten feet, command over the shape and density of local geology.
Known Abilities
High level physical fitness, first aid training
Equipment
Raptor pack, Sands of Mu, idols of demi-deities of winter and fortitude.
Footnotes
Misc. Despises speaking French in public, but occasionally lapses. Marginally embarrassed by the reaction her accent provokes. School attendance is spotty. Often curses "draconian" US drinking age laws.

Claire "Corbassiere" Aucoin is young woman with strong morals and practically boundless heart. As unphased by criticism as she is of bullets, she can be often heard voicing praise and encouragement to her friends and stern warnings to her adversaries whether in battle or during downtime. She is a keen advocate of leading from the front however, and will not hesitate to be the first onto the battlefield or the last to leave.

Though clearly not stupid, Corbassiere struggles with her academic career, unable to make the leap between learning theory and applying it. She is more suited to creativity and improvisation and is a natural when it comes to finding new, or out-of-the-box solutions to a given situation. She learns best in a communal environment, and is often the first to suggest forming a study group.

A charming and trustworthy character with a leader's cool head and charisma, she has little difficulty winning friends but is prone to ignoring the less admirable aspects in those around her. When tricked or let down by others, Corbassiere most often reacts with disappointment, rather than attempting to remedy the situation.

For decades land now known as the Swiss Alps served as a buffer between old adversaries, the Roman and Carthaginian Empires. During the Second Punic War, however, the general Hannibal seized the initiative against the opposing state by traveling overland with his entire army of 38,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 37 war elephants- a feat long considered by the Romans to be impossible. With it, the army brought idols of their gods for protection and good fortune in the future battles. Thousands of tokens of fealty to Marduk, Ashur and Dagan travelled with the soldiers out of Carthage, each inhabited by a sentient fragment of the god they represented.

Upon reaching the peaks, the Carthaginian clerics called out to the ancient spirits of the Alps and begged safe passage for Hannibal and his army. The Carthaginian demi-deities, enraged by "their" worshipers talking with rival gods, threatened to abandon their people but the priests, determined to continue their quest to attack the Romans, refused and discarded the idols in the snow of the mountains where they laid buried for centuries, shards of their formers selves.

The Aucoin parents, in a more normal world, would come across as exciting, and exotic in the effect they had on the lives of their children, Claire and Luc. They were climatologists, working on a multi-year thesis about the influence of humanity on extremes of weather-pattern temperature and the influence humanity has had upon them. While unexciting on the face of it, it meant that the Aucoin family spent most of their years moving from one populated, snowy area to another, over the course of several years, chasing winter from hemisphere to hemisphere.

From this comes the pair's international upbringing; they've lived for years at a time in France, Switzerland, Japan, and New Zealand, with their parents spending days at a time out on field research, checking deep ice and rock samples atop mountainsides. When Claire and Luc were born, then, it was immediately into a life of international travel, scientific discovery, and the marvels of personal achievement without superpowers.

Neither of the two grew up in what could be called the 'typical' Superheroic culture that permeated the world. Their development was pretty much that of equal parts athletecism and science. Instead of venerating Sister Psyche and Foreshadow, the pair were more likely to espouse Marie Curie or Beethoven, individuals whose exploration of the world around them predates the Pandora incident.^[1]

The international upbringing dissolved Claire's sense of nationality, and she came to identify home by ocal environment rather than political dominion. The presence of snow, soaring peaks and uncluttered skies represented home best to Claire, who even after moving away from her parents, could be found (often in the presence of her brother) following winter around the globe, paying for her travels by working as hiking guide or ski instructor at the various holiday spots. Despite her attachment to the tourist spots and ease at making friends in the hotels and bars, it was the isolated, untouched spaces which appealed most to Claire. Her penchant for adventure lead her miles away from camps for good stretches, exploring places most people never got the chance to see.

On one such trek deep into the Swiss Alps, the Aucoins were caught in a freak blizzard far away from camp. A minor avalanche buried Clair beneath feet of snow and left Luc stranded at the mercy of the storm. Sensing their opportunity, the Carthaginian spirits, long abandoned by Hannibal's army stirred and offered to bless Claire with strength and resilience of the mountain that she needed to survive, if only she would swear to use these powers for the benefit of her fellow man. Claire accepted the deal, unaware that the spirits were uninterested in the plight of humanity, and wished merely to increase their power by attracting worshipers to their new champions, Claire and Luc Aucoin.

Upon being rescued, the twins found that being made privy to a world filled with spirits was beyond their ability to navigate without help. In order to develop their powers safely, and to achieve their goals of aiding humanity, they moved to Paragon City where the Citizen's Crimefighting Act allowed them to focus their efforts and Hero Corps. infrastructure provided a venue in which to explore their newfound power. As a tribute to her icy homeland, Claire registered as a hero under the name 'Corbassiere', named after the glacier.

The spirits to which Corbassiere is bound are as patient as the mountain from where she obtained her strength. Unlike those bound to her brother, these spirits are content to wait years for Corbassiere to assemble their cult, if need be as long as some progress is being made. The spirits still consider themselves gods however, and when they feel their station is not respected, they attempt to demonstrate their place above 'mere' mortals by pushing Corbassiere to stay strong against her enemies- even when she shouldn't- to endure whatever they can throw at her, and to be the only one left when the dust settles.

During her short career as a hero, Corbassiere has encounted a number of heroes and villains, some who she is blessed to call allies, and the other she is unfortunate enough to know as enemies.

Snowblasted: The Aucoin twins share a close bond, developed from spending years together in relative isolation. Claire is protective of Luc, who she sees as intelligent and good-natured, despite his sometimes roguish behaviour. Though the topic has been breached a few times, Claire continues to underestimate the viciousness of Luc's struggle with his pantheon but would worry if she understood the truth.

The Paragonian Knights: Corbassiere is a new face around the temple and is relatively unknown to the upper echelons of the Knights.

Corbiassiere is able to control the ambient air temperature and humidity to within ten feet. In it's most obvious application, this allows her to rapidly craft armour made from ice that is difficult to penetrate with conventional weaponry. Her control over the structure of this armour is so precise that she can create lenses that magnify, diffuse or refract light so that she is less likely to be damaged by incoming fire from energy-based weapons. Against her enemies, Corbassiere is capable of crafting small weapons such as blades and to infect them with a bone-numbing chill that retards motion by causing muscles to contract.

The side effect of this affinity for cold and snow is that Corbassiere's body temperature is lowered to 33 degrees Farenheit (0.5 degrees Celsius) making physical contact uncomfortable for others.

By virtue of her sympathetic connection with deities of earth and resilience, Corbassiere has the ability to conjure stone and dirt from thin air and shape it into a number of forms, such as hammers or bludgeoning instruments. Though her command over earth is not as precise as her control over ice, she is capable of making reasonable sculptures such as small statues which can last up to an hour before they crumble.

However, the earth is not merely a weapon for the hero, but an ally. Enemies facing Corbassiere soon realise the ground aids Corbassiere in battle by quaking beneath her feet, melting into quicksand or rising up in pillars to imprison her foes.

As a long time athlete, Corbassiere possesses a high level of endurance and even when encased in her ice armour, is highly nimble, able to jump, run and even perform minor acrobatics without too much additional effort.

The earth spirits allow her to travel large distances quickly by launching her into the air and granting her a soft landing when she falls back to the ground.

Quotes from others.

• First hero (and hopefully only) to take Jump Kick!
• First hero to be level-pacted (to Snowblasted).
• Scares clowns.
• Reached 50 on July 6, 2009.

1. ↑ With apologies to Snowblasted for the copy/ paste and minor change.