Eisbock
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Eisbock | |
| Player: @AB | |
| Origin: | Technology |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Tanker |
| Security Level: | 45 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Julius Bledsoe |
| Known Aliases: | None |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 32 |
| Height: | 6'2" |
| Weight: | 230 |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Hair Color: | Bald |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Former professional hockey player, current superhero |
| Place of Birth: | Burlington, VT |
| Base of Operations: | Hartford, CT |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Alan Bledsoe, father; Ann Bledsoe, mother |
| Known Powers | |
| Ice Armor/Ice Melee | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Boxing, Superleap | |
| Equipment | |
| Confidential | |
| No additional information available. | |
Contents |
Origin
Eisbock was born Julius Bledsoe, to Ann and Alan Bledsoe of Burlington, VT. Bledsoe had a happy childhood, free of the tragedy that seems to afflict so many many of the metahumans in Paragon City. No deaths in his immediate family were caused by extralegal superpowered operatives. He was not abducted by a villain group and subjected to mind-shattering experiments. He was not raised by demons in a hellish alternate dimension. He is alarmingly well-adjusted and emotionally stable.
Bledsoe demonstrated an early aptitude for the sport of hockey, and played the game throughout high school and college. His college performance earned him a spot on the Hartford Whalers as a left wing. His performance was superlative, earning him a Calder Memorial Trophy for rookie of the year and, later, a Conn Smythe trophy for his key contributions to the Whalers' 2002 4-2 Stanley Cup win.
One night after practice, Bledsoe was horsing around with one of his teammates. They had each commandeered a Zamboni ice resurfacing machine, and were using them to play a very slow game of polo with a large beachball. A freak power surge occurred when a stray bolt of alien energy struck a transformer outside, and the energy flowed through the cooling units under the ice -- and into Bledsoe.
As a direct result of this bizarre accident, Bledsoe gained the ability to create, and moderately control, ice. The first obvious manifestation came when he discovered he could coat himself in a protective layer of ice without impacting his ability to move or breathe.
As the NHL has a "no metahumans allowed" rule, this accident brought Bledsoe's career to an end. Undaunted, he has moved to Paragon City in order to refine his skills further in the life of a costumed crimefighter. His recreational violence skills, honed to a razor's edge in an 8-year NHL career, have served him in good stead.
Pointless OOC Blather Nobody Cares About
The Name
Bock is a specific type of German beer. It's a lager, which means it ferments slowly at refrigerated temperatures. And it's made with ton of malt, which makes it very rich, sweet, and more alcoholic than regular beer. Eisbock is a type of bock. It's very slightly frozen, so that some of the water in the beer freezes, but the alcohol doesn't. The ice is removed, which has the effect of making the beer even more alcoholic than it was to start with.
The OOC Background
I am a sucker for playing unusual characters. Unusual in this context meaning one or more of the following:
- Odd race/class combos in MMORPGs which feature such things. (Gnome Warrior in EQ1, Ogre Swashbuckler in EQ2)
- Characters that are considered "gimped" in some way. (None of my characters in Asheron's Call know Life Magic, for example)
- Characters that are simply unpopular for whatever reason.
I like a challenge. And I'm averse to playing character types that are wildly popular. It's not snobbery, because I don't have any disdain for people who DO play popular character types. It's just that, for whatever reason, if a character type is very popular, I usually lose interest in playing it.
So back in 2005, when I first started playing CoH (shortly after I4 was released), I tried a bunch of different archetypes and powersets. And couldn't really settle on one. I played a Gnome Warrior in EQ1 for years, and I really enjoyed being a tank there, so I eventually gravitated towards playing a Tanker. But I couldn't figure out which one I wanted to be.
That is, not until I started reading the official forums, and read post after post of either (A) people claiming that Ice Tankers were gimped; or (B) Ice Tankers complaining about how everybody thought they were gimped.
And I was lured LIKE A MOTH TO FLAME. Admittedly, the idea of being a Tanktroller also had (and still has) a tremendous appeal for me. But honestly? The biggest reason I play an Ice/Ice tank is because so many people said Ice/Ice tanks sucked.
(By the way, it's not true. They didn't suck then, and they don't suck now.)
