Doctor North
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| The mysterious, elusive, and pious Doctor North. | |
| Doctor North | |
| Player: @Ravyna | |
| Origin: | Mutant |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Blaster |
| Security Level: | 38 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Heimdall North |
| Known Aliases: | Albert Silverberg, Dr. North |
| Species: | Unknown |
| Age: | Unknown (estimated to be 72 years of age) |
| Height: | 6'2" |
| Weight: | 180 lbs |
| Eye Color: | White |
| Hair Color: | None |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American Citizen |
| Occupation: | Psychiatrist |
| Place of Birth: | Unknown (assumed to be Norway) |
| Base of Operations: | Steel Canyon |
| Marital Status: | Single, never married |
| Known Relatives: | n/a |
| Known Powers | |
| Ice/Ice Blaster | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Owns a PhD in Psychiatry and is a Nobel Laureate for his work on the psychology of superheroes and supervillains. | |
| Equipment | |
| None | |
| No additional information available. | |
BACKGROUND
Adoption
Doctor North's true origin is unknown. Indeed, while North keeps some aspects of his creation secret, he also confesses he does not completely understand them.
Heimdall North, was literally, a baby delivered in a basket to an orphanage in Norway shortly before the advent of World War II. It is believed he was given his name by a nurse at the orphanage. When she first discovered North in the basket, she observed Polaris pulsating strangely in the sky and thus decided to give him the last name "North". The name Heimdall was given to him, as an homage to Nordic mythology, something which would plague and cause problems all his life.
It is important to note that the details of the “adoption” of North by the orphanage are sketchy because during the Nazi occupation of Norway, many records of the orphanage were destroyed and North himself became the subject of a strange obsession by Adolph Hitler.
In fact, some go as far to say that the reasons the Nazis focused on Norway so early during the war, was because they were searching for the “North child”.
To this day, Doctor North has a strange cultish following from both Nazis and Nordic mythology buffs. This bizarre fascination from these groups is something Doctor North is most uncomfortable with.
Hitler’s Obsession
Adolph Hitler had a strange obsession about Doctor North. He had a strange premonition that a child of the Nordic gods had been delivered to Earth. Hitler’s fascination with astrology and Nordic mythology was the primary fuel for Hitler’s belief in this premonition.
The fact the nurse had named the child in the basket “Heimdall” did not help matters.
After the Nazis had established occupation of Norway, a special division of the SS was instructed to look for a “strange child with celestial eyes” in all the orphanages and churches in Norway. The order came directly from the Fuhrer himself, and was top secret. North was found a few months later, living underneath a Christian church in Fana, Bergen.
Strangely, all those in the SS who were aware of Hitler’s strange order were killed within two years of North’s discovery.
North Under Nazi Rule
Although North was just five years old, he was clearly already developing into some kind of “mutant”. In particular, Doctor’s North had no visible iris or pupils in his eyes. His eyes instead seemed to swirl and sparkle like a nebula, and is so unnerving to watch that for most of his life North wears dark sunglasses, and did so even at the age of five.
Yet Mengele found North unnerving, and at several junctures during the war, he pleaded with Hitler to either destroy or release the child. North had an uncanny sense of self and ego, for a child so young, and his academic skills were developing at an alarming and unnatural rate.
To keep North under Mengele’s thumb, he was sometimes tortured, to great extremes. Severe bouts of torture kept North’s disposition and loyalty in line, but within a few weeks, North’s strong will and aberrant development would increase, and a rather nasty and abusive cycle began between patient and doctor. Of course, Mengele’s horrific psychological abuse of his patients is well documented.
Another bizarre fact that had Mengele unsettled was that North’s body temperature was consistently lower than average human temperature, and by the age of seven, he was clearly emitting an aura of cold air around his body. It was clear that Doctor North was a mutant, and under normal Nazi protocol, he should have been sent to a concentration camp. Yet Hitler refused and kept insisting that North be studied.
Mengele’s disturbing reaction to North, is not really well documented, only one scrap of paper remains of all the research Mengele completed on North...
“The child is unable to see light he apparently views the Earth and his surroundings through some kind of cerebral sonar. He cannot distinguish color at all, but can make out even the finest of details visually. He was able to read scripture for example, while standing at the other end of the room with the book held at eye level some 30 feet away.
Yet his eyes see more than just words or physical details. He appears to stare deeply into your soul and seems to understand your own motivations and neuroses better than you do yourself. You cannot lie to the child, he sees lying, as easily as you and I could observe someone blinking. He seems to understand human nature, at its most deepest and sinister levels. He rarely speaks, he is always observing, always making mental notes, as if the whole world is nothing but a laboratory for him to observe.”''
American Liberation & Adoption
Doctor North was liberated by American forces in 1945, and was now ten years of age. Although North was not specifically of Jewish origin, the American forces assumed he was (given he was detained in secret hospital where all the other patients were Jewish citizens marked for awful human experimentation). So when it was revealed he was an orphan, he was allowed to immigrate to America and his passport was stamped as being of Jewish descent.
Rebecca and Joshua Silverman of Brooklyn adopted Heimdall when their young son, told them of him in his letter home, after he had liberated the camp where North had been detained:
“He’s a strange kid, got something wrong with his eyes, but he’s not completely blind. I think the Nazis did terrible things to his eyes to make them this way. He’s undernourished Ma, and been physically abused, just because he’s Jewish like us. Isn’t there anything we can do for this kid? He has suffered, and I feel we need to do something for him.”
The Silvermans went to the US authorities to begin his adoption immediately upon receiving this letter. Although they disliked the name “Heimdall” and assumed the name was given to him by the Nazis and renamed him “Albert”.
Life as Albert Silverman
He learned English quickly, and did well in school, (wearing dark glasses all the time to hide his rather bizarre appearance). It was clear to the Silverman’s that either Albert was not originally Jewish, or was never taught Jewish custom, but was happily adopted into the neighborhood and local synagogue.
His youth was filled with happy memories. He adored Brooklyn, and the American way of life suited him. One of his fondest memories was meeting Jackie Robinson at the age of 13, after he had won a local mathematics competition. North remains a big baseball fan to this day (although he no longer roots for the Dodgers after they left Brooklyn).
It wasn’t until North (Albert Silverman) hit puberty that this happy period of his life came to an end.
Puberty & Tragedy
Puberty hit North hard. To begin with, papers from the Fantoft church, in Bergen, Norway were uncovered.
These papers made it very clear that North was not really of Jewish heritage, and that indeed his real mother and father had abandoned him in a Christian church. While this did not change the Silverman’s opinion, one iota, other members of the Jewish community in Brooklyn began to ostracize him.
Also North’s bizarre physical qualities were becoming harder and harder to hide. North was starting to lose his hair (rather odd for a seventeen year old boy), and his body temperature was now significantly lower. The strange cold aura surrounding North was now harder to ignore, and getting close to the boy meant you immersed yourself in sub-zero temperature.
Girls considered him a freak (a bald one at that), and the fact he was entrenched in the Jewish community, despite his Christian heritage was also used by mean spirited boys to berate and belittle him.
A zealous consortium of Orthodox Jews began to learn of this “freakish kid from a Nazi prison camp”, and also learned of his association to Mengele. They began to petition to have the boy removed from the community. Some even accused him of perpetrating crimes against the Jewish people, arguing that the boy was developed as a weapon to control and torture the Jewish prisoners at the facility in which he was discovered.
To make matters worse, the Fifth Column had learned of Heimdall North and like Hitler was during the war, they became obsessed with him.
In 1955 North watched as his beloved Dodgers finally win the World Series for the first time in their history. During the celebratory parade in downtown Brooklyn, North was abducted by the Fifth Column and his adoptive parents and his elder brother were killed.
Life Under Storm Korps
The Storm Korps of the 5th Column imprisoned North after his capture. While North was too uncooperative to be used as a trooper or agent for the 5th Column directly, Requiem and others were convinced of North’s ‘divinity’, believing the original premonition of Adolph Hitler, that North was a direct descendent of Nordic gods.
So they kept North isolated in a specially built prison cell, and studied him, and tried (in vain) to convert North over to their cause.
North’s physical aberrations meanwhile continued to ferment. By the age of 22 in 1957, North had no hair on his body, anywhere.
His body temperature dropped down so low, that his blood froze, and his heart stopped beating. Yet, the temperatures and the lack of bodily liquid never seemed to cause North any health problems, indeed, it strangely seemed to make him stronger.
“He literally had ice in his veins,” noted one captured member of the Column from that era. “He was spooky. He didn’t talk like a regular person, and seemed to know everything about you by just staring at you. It was like working with a ghost, some frozen, pious ghost. He made everyone uneasy.”
In addition, North began to be able to manipulate the moisture in the air. His low body temperature and his developing mutations, eventually allowed him to create ice out of thin air, and in 1965, he was able to use this bizarre power as a weapon.
Escape from 5th Column
In 1965 at the age of 30, North escaped from his prison cell. He had secretly learned to fire blast of “ice pellets” from the tips of his fingers, and he could launch these shards with startling accuracy and velocity.
He used these strange blasts as a weapon, and defeated his local guards and was able to escape from 5th Column. He began to seek others who had manifested “strange super powers” similar to his own, and was eventually adopted into a small community of “supers”, that helped him find a place to live, and eventually helped fund a college education for him.
During this time the 5th Column tried numerous times to reclaim North only to be beaten back. Eventually North confronted Requiem directly, and used his own superstitions against him. He let it be known that the “gods” would be angry with him if they molested him further.
“It was the best bit of acting I ever did,” North later explained (who at the timed scoffed at the notion that he is somehow divine), “but it did help get those Nazi freaks off my back for a while.”
In 1973 North became “Doctor North” as he graduated with a PhD in psychiatry from Paragon University. He began a private practice, and focused primarily on providing therapy and analysis for super heroes and super villains.
Nobel Prize
The work was the first definitive analysis of the psychological trials and barriers that most people with extraordinary super powers tend to manifest. It also clearly documented various psychological profiles that can alert trained Doctors, to a superhero succumbing to psychological stress and becoming a “super-villain”.
It also linked psychological conditions within the mother that tend to produce the rare mutations found in many superheroes. Proving, that it was not only physical conditions that created superheroes, but also at times, psychological ones.
The work was considered ground-breaking and indeed helped “normal” human beings come to accept and even at times, pity superheroes in their society (and strangely super heroes were becoming more and more pervasive). North believed the stress and conditions of modern society were one of the key catalysts for the increase in super heroes.
He also predicted that if there was a world wide global catastrophe, more super heroes would manifest. He rightly argued why World War II for example, was a key catalyst for super heroes appearing on Earth in large number, and then argued that if World War were to come to Earth again, we would see even more.
He also predicted that eventually all human beings would manifest different super powers and that one day “Atlas Park” would be littered with super heroes, and they would become almost mainstream.
The paper won a Nobel Peace Price, and many of his predictions came true during the Rikti invasion early in the 21st century. Now of course, super heroes are rather common, and are an accepted aspect of mainstream society.
Tragedy at Fantoft
However a strange fire broke out in the church late at night, while North was rummaging through old records. A death metal musician by the name of Count Grishnackh, learned that North was visiting the Church. Convinced that North was divinity, and a member of the “true” religion in Norway (the old Nordic legends), he set the church ablaze while North was inside. He was convinced this was paying “pagan tribute” to an ancient god, trapped in a Christian world.
The fire destroyed 12th century church, but North survived the fire, but refused to apprehend the boy, and instead tried to counsel Grishnackh. North tried to prove he wasn’t “divine” at all.
Alas, the counseling failed, instead of convincing the perpetrator, it instead hardened his resolve to prove to Doctor North that he was in fact, progeny of the original Nordic gods. The idiot Heavy Metal artist caused more havoc and burned more Christian churches to prove his point. The tragedy eventually ended in murder.
To make matter worse, North had strange premonitions of each arson attempt, and after each horrible burning of these churches, North had bizarre dreams involving a rainbow bridge and terrible giants.
The Divinity Conundrum
1. He would no longer just observe and document superheroes, he would actively become one. His failure to deal with Grishnackh directly and harshly lead to horrible tragedy in Norway and he was determined to not let that happen again.
2. He began to open his mind to the concept that he was perhaps somehow connected to Nordic mythology.
The “Divinity Conundrum” of Doctor North still plagues him to this day. His key thesis (for which he won the Nobel Prize) is that most superheroes manifest from the psychological stress and extreme suppression of the id that develops in modern life, especially in times of war or extreme violence. These powers developed randomly and indiscriminately across all racial, cultural and religious backgrounds, and had no significant religious meaning to them.
Yet he himself seemed to have just been “bequeathed” powers from a higher power and to make matters worse, the powers were directly ascended from one culture and religion, and that religion seemed to suggest strongly that mankind was doomed, and that an apocalypse was about to dawn on all mankind.
He began to secretly study Nordic mythology for clues, while still lecturing as a psychiatrist that most superheroes were just extreme psychological aberrations.
The Rikti Invasion
At first, the Rikti Invasion confirmed Doctor North’s worst fears. To him, it seemed like the fulfillment of his bizarre “Ragnarok” dreams that had plagued him since the tragedy in Norway.
North fought against the Rikti as well as he could during the invasion. North had extremely powerful offensive capabilities with his super powers, but little to no defensive capabilities, and North was wounded in the war severely and had to be hospitalized for several months, and many feared that North would not survive his severe injuries.
However, by the end invasion North began to recuperate and his overall mental disposition began to improve as well. He saw that the Rikti Invasion had manifested many more superheroes out of the woodwork just as he predicted in his original papers. Also his strange dreams subsided, and in the end humanity was able to repel the Rikti invasion force to some degree.
North once again began to doubt his divinity and link to Nordic mythology, and now believes he is just a mutant, like so many other human mutants on Earth.
After the Rikti War
The increase in superhero activity after the first Rikti war was a huge boon to Dr. North’s psychiatric practice, and North was able to meet and counsel many famous super heroes, including Vor-Bodil, Rose Maiden, Lunar Claw and Sandstriker (some of those heroes are now retired and no longer active).
In recognition for his fine efforts during and after the war, Freedom Corps bequeathed Doctor North a “stealth inductor”, a special device that allows Doctor North to become semi-material in form, which makes him difficult to strike and provides much needed defensive capabilities. It was during this time, that North was the most active as a superhero fighting crime.
He partnered with Sandstriker and Lunar Claw and even joined a defunct super group known as “The Outsiders” for a short time. His research of the adenine drug, and his victories against the Circle of Thorns, and Council are fairly well established legends and common knowledge amongst those who observe and record super hero activity.
Retirement & Red Carter
In late 2005, Doctor North tried to rehabilitate a young punk kid named Red Carter. He was caught trying to steal a car in Steel Canyon and after North heard of Carter’s troubles and seeing how intelligent the kid is, and remembering his failure to help Grishnackh in Norway, he decided to try and actively make Red Carter’s life better.
So Doctor North retired from being a super-hero, and instead tried to focus on continuing his practice, augmenting his theories on the psychological factors and attributes of super-heroism and establishing himself as a positive role model for Red Carter.
He brought Red Carter into his home, and treated him as if he was family, and even negotiated with Freedom Corps to reduce his criminal sentence to just parole and “house arrest” at North’s luxury condo in Steel Canyon. Red Carter thrived in an atmosphere of positive reinforcement and encouragement.
However Red Carter was a rather strong-willed kid (and just 18 years of age), and his rebellious nature and his youthful exuberance often clashed with Doctor North (who was now 70 years of age, but remained somewhat vigorous due to his bizarre icy metabolism). This came to a head when Red Carter desired to be a superhero just like Doctor North had been.
Kid North
Red Carter’s desire to become a superhero like North was so strong, that he secretly began to build cryogenic devices in North’s laboratory that allowed him to artificially simulate the powers that North naturally possessed. He took the moniker “Kid North” and began to sneak out the Hallows at night to fight crime.
Once “Kid North’s” association to Doctor North was realized however, North found himself over his head with the dangerous Circle of Thorns. North was forced to rescue Kid North. This was the last known appearance of Doctor North as a superhero.
Doctor North forbade Red Carter from continuing his “secret” life as Kid North, and even destroyed his cryogenic devices. The spat became rather ugly, and the two were seen arguing loudly with one another, and many believe there was some violence during the argument.
He was eventually arrested for North's disappearance, but escaped to become a rogue on Mercy Island. Chaos Red also fathered Psycho Boy, which ironically became a catalyst for Doctor North's rescue.
Demon Wing
One of Doctor North's mental patients, (Dudley Winger) disappeared at the same time Doctor North did, when the patient returned, he came back as a vicious demon and now operates as a super-villain called Demon Wing.
It is not believed Demon Wing was directly involved in Doctor North's disaappearance, but the two events may have some clue or link between them.
RESCUE OF DOCTOR NORTH
In January of 2009, Cobra Fist found a time crystal that had been discarded in his condemned building in Faultline. When he activated the crystal he was sent on a chaotic trip through time that saw him have several adventures.
Eventually, his final destination was 1993 in a military base operated by the Fifth Column. During Cobra Fist's escape from this complex he learns Doctor North had been held captive there when he was captured in 2007. He helps rescue him and Doctor North has been returned to January 2009, where he is slowly resuming his duties as a meta-psychiatrist and part-time super hero.
Cobra Fist and Doctor North have been great friends since.
The Rescue's Time Crystal Paradox
Ironically the time crystal that captured Doctor North was the same crystal that Cobra Fist used to find and rescue him, due to a time-paradox involving Psycho Boy and Chaos Red.
Psycho Boy finds a time crystal crystal in 2007 in a Council warehouse. He returns to 2009 and throws the crystal into a chasm in Faultline where Cobra Fist finds it and returns to 1993 to rescue Doctor North.
After North is rescued, Chaos Red finds the crystal and uses it transport an infant Psycho Boy back to 1993.
The crystal is then used by the Fifth Column to capture Doctor North in 2007, and then stored in a warehouse until Psycho Boy finds it, and the entire cycle repeats. This creates a circular and recursive paradox that has Doctor North worried will repture the fabric of the universe if left unrepaired.
AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS
On February 24, 2009 in a bizarre turn of events. Doctor North rescinded his American citizenship to become the ambassador for the fledlging nation of Cobiness. His role as ambassador to the United Nations for this new nation now affords him diplomatic immunity.
The details are sketchy but the Paragon Times provided the following news release:
Paragon Times
- Link to more information on the new nation of Cobiness, Doctor North's new adopted country.
Cobiness was invaded on March 5, 2009 by the Supreme Society. The invasion involved zombie mega-raptors and a large Nazi Supership. The invasion was a distraction to steal Doctor North and stow him away in the Supreme Society's dungeon. The Paragon Times article on the invasion...
Doctor North has been working feverishly to prevent the detonation of the Psychic Amplification Explosive Device (PAED). The Paragon Times has been reporting this incident, since the first small sample of this device exploded in Brickstown just a week or so ago...
Other Paragon Times articles related to Doctor North include:
COMIC BOOK COVERS
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File:North3.jpg Issue 3 of Doctor North is a crossover issue with Issue 12 of Alpha Squad. |
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File:North5.jpg Doctor North investigates a strange faction war brewing in Arachnos, and fights an Arachnid monster with poisoned tentacles. |
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CURRENT STATUS
Doctor North has been rescued by Cobra Fist, after he was kidnapped by the Fifth Column and hidden in the past (he was taken to a military base circa 1993).
He is now a retired super hero and is working to get Chaos Red and Loca a lighter prison sentence, after they were captured in his apartment shortly after his rescue. He was also stunned to learn that Chaos Red's infant son (Psycho Boy) was hidden in the past (using the same crystal that captured him) and has returned to the present as a 16 year old boy bent on a life of crime.
Recently, Doctor North has taken a grave interest in the villainy of Agonus and the Supreme Society.
In a bizarre turn of events, Doctor North was given full citizenship to the newly formed nation of Cobiness. He was then immediately appointed as their ambassador to the United Nations. That nation has formed a group of superheroes to act as that country to defend their country's interests. The group is called Alpha Squad.
On March 9, 2009, it was feared Doctor North was murdered, but Alpha Squad learned he had merely transmuted into a Celestial Pilgrimage, that helped launch the next phase of Alpha Squad's secret operation, a project known as: | Operation Bifrost.
Information on Cobiness
CELESTIAL PILGRIMAGE
Doctor North's spirit survived the vicious mauling he received on March 9, 2009. Due to some clever work from Alpha Squad members Alastrina Psyche, Iroquois and Colonel Grim, North's spirit was guided back to the mortal plane. North had apparently undergone a celestial pilgrimage and in many ways considered his "murder" from March 2009 to have been a blessing in disguise. North has never spoken much to anyone about what he saw or learned during his celestial pilgrimage, confiding only to Vor Bordil what he saw.
North found Alpha Squad in disarray and purged several members of the group from his ranks, including Cobra Fist the interim leader of Alpha Squad in his absence, and insisted Mars Five be reinstated. He also worked immediately to remove the Supreme Society from Cobiness and begin vigorous new work on celestial artifacts discovered during his spiritual journey (death).
He then focused Alpha Squad on a new project dubbed Project Bifrost, a mysterious arcane project, that used North's celestial artifacts to lure strange, arcane allies to aid Alpha Squad in their work.
PERSONALITY
Doctor North is cold, pious, distant and often reticent.
One of his partners in the fight against crime (Lunar Claw, since retired) once dubbed his personality this way:
"A bit of a jerk, cold as a witch's tit, but one hell of an ally in a fight"
In truth, North is an extremely caring individual, but he shows little emotion and likes to observe and listen, and rarely likes to speak much unless compelled to do so.
He has an eerie and rather unsettling aura around him, and as a highly skilled psychiatrist, he also observes and notices gestures, body language, inflection and subconscious behavior with great alacrity and understanding. His eyes are also penetrating and celestial. North often wears dark glasses to help ease people’s natural unease around him.
He emits an aura of extreme cold and is extremely unpleasant to be close to.
He was once described this way, by one of his captors in his early life:
“He literally had ice in his veins. He was spooky. He didn’t talk like a regular person, and seemed to know everything about you by just staring at you. It was like working with a ghost, some frozen, pious ghost. He made everyone uneasy.”
APPEARANCE
North's skin is the color of snow, with no signs of pigmentation. He is completely hairless on all parts of his body and emits a dangerously cold aura around him.
His voice is cold and distant, and rarely displays emotion.
As a super hero, North wears a large white cryogenic suit, which keeps his body at his preferred temperature while reducing the amount of cold air he emits around his body (although as you get closer you can still feel the cold coming from his body).
He dons a large blue cape and hood, to protect his body from the heat of the sun.
He often activates a stealth device in the palm of his hand which makes his body go ethereal and transluscent, giving him a ghostly quality as he moves about.
As a super hero North does not hide his bizarre "celestial eyes" that seem to spark with furious energy. In day to day life, North wears sunglasses to hide his eyes, and keep his patients and friends calm in his presence.
In his day to day life as a psychiatrist to superheroes, North dresses in a white lab coat, a cotton button down shirt, a simple narrow tie and pleated cotton pants.
POWERS
Doctor North can turn the moisture in the air into ice, at will. He can also emit shards of ice from his own body, and propel those shards like a weapon.
He can therefore "freeze" his opponents into place, by wrapping them in large blocks of ice, or sometimes "trip" and "confuse" his opponents by spreading large patches of ice underneath his feet. He can also launch deadly "blasts" of ice, like some kind of human canon, and his offensive capabilities are extremely deadly and villains how approach Doctor North should use extreme caution.
TRIVIA
- In a film, Doctor North would best be portrayed by a middle-aged Max Von Sydow.
- Doctor North finds music disturbing, even unnatural, and also gets stressed when he hears loud noises.
- Doctor North's frozen metabolism and blood and his lack of any bodily fluid destroys all chance of a sex-life. And some even speculate North has never had sex.
- Doctor North was a character transfer from the Guardian server, Vor-Bodil, Lunar Claw and Sandstriker are characters referenced in his biography that were some of his allies during his time on Guardian.
- North hasn't actively played since late 2005, and needs serious readjustment of his enchancements based on the changes to the game since he was last played. He is used almost exclusively for roleplay, a catalyst for plot hooks and as the central figure involved in the new mysterious nation of Cobiness.
