Eventide
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| "The brightest lightning bolt is elicited from the darkest storm." | |
| Eventide | |
| Player: Cauda | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Stalker |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Naomi Voss-Illsley |
| Known Aliases: | Nemesis VI, Six, Eve |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 29 |
| Height: | 5'11 |
| Weight: | 135 |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Hair Color: | Blue/ Black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Espionage |
| Place of Birth: | Atlas Park, Paragon City |
| Base of Operations: | Nerva Archipelago |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | None |
| Known Powers | |
| Dark Melee, Ninjitsu, Soul Mastery, Fitness, Super Speed, Super Jump | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Expert knowledge of arcane lore, hypnosis, world-class practitioner of Xingyiquan, high level of proficiency in Krav Maga. | |
| Equipment | |
| St. Gabriel's Hammer, GPS Locating Beacon, Hospital Teleporter, Revolver, Large collection of sunglasses | |
| Footnotes | |
Misc.
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Eventide's influences are:
Roland of Gilead (The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower): Old and tired, others say walking with Roland is death because even life is insignificant in comparison Roland finishing his journey, even if he does not know what he'll find at the destination.
Charlie Baltimore/ Samantha Caine, David Webb/ Caine, etc. (Various): The old trope of warrior returning from the 'dead' and exacting vengeance upon their foes. Charlie Baltimore finds liberation in her newfound power, similarly to the younger Eventide gaining freedom by overcoming Lord Recluse. Webb is more like the older Eventide, who upon discovering his power isolates himself from the world but finds himself dragged reluctantly back into conflict over and over until he can apply his abilities to putting the lingering ghosts of his past to rest.
Erica Bain (The Brave One): Acting as a predator consumes Bain's life. At first the changes are subtle, she is seperated psychologically from the flock and the city she once called home. As she spends more time indulging her need for revenge, she physically becomes the hunter, unable to face daylight and unnerving all those she comes into contact with.
Eventide is an old killer who has tired of causes. Feeling no stake in the world, or its struggles and betrayals, she drifts on winds of chance, acting only in vague hopes that something might ignite her interest, if only for a moment. Having seen most of what she considers Earth capable of offering she is terribly difficult to impress and generally scorns the attempts of those who try. Conviction and effort, to Eventide, are products of arrogance, of the fearful need of humans to control that which is uncontrollable.
This sense of nihilism is the fortune of others. Eventide has professed that if she thought the world worthy of her effort, she'd burn the whole mess to the ground. [1]
Naomi "Eventide" Voss-Illsley was the only child of two members of a small, arcane circle name "The Eurydice Society" based out of Atlas Park in Paragon City. Aside from the influence of magic in her life, her childhood was relatively normal until she was inducted as a probationary member of the society on her twenty-first birthday where she excelled in her study of basic conjuration and channeling. Due to a somewhat restless nature, Voss-Illsley found little in common with the scholarly nature of the Society and before even registering her identity with MAGI, fell in with the secretive order of vigilantes known as "The Legacy Chain". Her first assignment was with a cell located in Mercy Island, beneath the shadow of Ghost Widow's watchtower where she was taught to become a Lambent of Light. With the Chain, she worked in secret, stealing artifacts and punishing sorcerers who stepped out of line.
The cell eventually became a victim of its own successes. As its notoriety grew, it became more difficult for the Chain to hide in the shadows and finally its enemies struck back. In the course of twenty-four hours, every member of the cell, with the exception of Eventide, was murdered in their sleep. The Legacy Chain took immediate notice and came to the obvious conclusion- the cell had fallen victim to a traitor.
Eventide was found guilty and was apparently put to death by an Adamant of Steel. Days later, however, she was found by Rogue Isles Police officers washed up on the shore. In order to neutralize her Legacy Chain light magics, she was imprisoned in the lightless bowels of Ziggursky Prison.
She didn't stay long.
Eventide served just under two months in a special containment facility in sub-levels of Ziggursky Prison, a lightless containment facility designed to render criminals who derived their strength from light powerless. The sub-levels were a volatile anarchy, practically abandoned by the guards and a blade in the spine was just another part of every day life.
Escape came when Helena Thorn, the self-proclaimed ruler of a small, East European country was finally captured by Longbow. Thorn, a mutant whose power was derived from her plant-like nature, made no shortage of enemies when a dangerous oversight by one of the wardens allowed her to indulge in an indiscriminate, three-day long bloodbath. When she was finally subdued, Thorn was transferred to the sub-levels where she was drastically weakened by the darkness, unable to photosynthesize.
Thorn's fellow prisoners were like sharks in the water and fell upon her almost immediately but found their attack thwarted by Eventide, who having adapted her Lucent of Light magics to their anti-thesis: darkness, was thriving. With her dwindling command over light, Eventide empowered Thorn enough that she could reach out to the plant-life beyond the subterranean walls and begin the gradual process of eroding the masonry.
When the wall was significantly weakened Arachnos, guided by the visions of Fortuanta Seers, embarked on a mission to liberate the duo. Their initial attack ran distraction until the wall came down and the two villains were able to escape in an Arachnos flier to the Rogue Isles.
Following her escape from The Zig and subsequent draft into Operation: Destiny, Eventide was characterized by the anger and bitterness that had twisted her view of the world around her. By coldly proclaiming her superiority to fallen foes and sneering in disgust when happening upon the schemes of other villains, Eventide gave others the impression that she considered herself somewhat separate from the denizens of the Rogue Isles, by virtue of her rejection of schemes and ideologies that throw others around like leaves on the breeze.
Having seen the effects her quest could hold for the world in a brief journey to the future, Eventide severed her last ties to her past and the calling of a hero to evolve into a villain of the purest, predatory caliber. Consciously, rather than through poor circumstance or gradual corruption, she has stepped onto a heretical variation of Lord Recluse's Path of Villainy, whereby the calling to take whatever one desires extends to the freedom to accept any circumstance, whether it be profit, freedom or responsibility as long as it is on one's own terms.
This dedication to the mastery of one's own existence has, at times made Eventide appear to be frighteningly capricious, as she chooses a course of action based purely on her own desires, without any regard for the will of others and fiercely pursues her scheme to its completion. Such resolve, however, means Eventide has the tendency to lapse into tunnel-vision during all her endeavours from debate to armed combat. She is known to select a target and will focus on it to the exclusion of all else until it has been defeated, even if doing so exposes her to additional risk, or the situation loses its strategic value. Those she works with often attribute this to an elevated sense of pride her abilities and a lust for hate, rather than the strong dedication to a path of complete liberation of the self.
Though she feels she has, and appears to have, abandoned her quest for revenge, there is a lingering doubt among observers that it is merely her inability to find her target that has forced the Stalker to relent. It remains unknown that if confronted with information about the destruction of her Legacy Chain cell if Eventide would revert to her old ways, or she has truly conquered her old demons.
The Legacy Chain: Eventide began her career as a hero as a member of the arcane vigilante group, based out of Mercy Island and operating right under the nose of Ghost Widow herself. Though little in the way of accounts exist from this time, Eventide's reaction to the destruction of the cell suggests that she was a passionate and devoted member of the society and the disappearance of a number of known mystics is testament to effectiveness of the magi who comprise the group.
The Sisterhood of Shadows: Frequently sighted in the presence of partner-in-crime Baroness Helena Thorn since their escape from The Zig, it comes as no great surprise that Eventide's primary loyalty is to the Sisterhood of Shadows, a shadowy covenant based out of the Nerva Archipelago. She is known to serve as the primary lorekeeper for the coven and is first advisor to its leader, the Baroness Helena Thorn. Despite her lack of expertise in the area, she is known to spend some time investigating the ability of sister Elegia Harkness to tap into negative energies without use of arcane ritual.
Arachnos: Eventide was considered a 'Destined One', a soul identified by Fortunata Seers to hold great potential for Arachnos and was drafted into Operation: Destiny. As an associate of Arachnos, Eventide served Ghost Widow as an enforcer in exchange for the power to harness souls of the dead. Having betrayed Ghost Widow and threatened Lord Recluse himself, Eventide's relationship with the organization has soured and the two parties now circle each other warily, like predators waiting for the opportunity to strike.
Vanguard: After the Second Rikti War, Eventide volunteered for a program to assassinate personnel key to the Rikti war effort. Though she has not confirmed her reasons for joining the war effort, it is widely thought Eventide refused to accept the Rikti as her masters or allow them to impede on her will. Her involement with the war did not last long however, and soon the assassin departed, continuing along her way.
Eventide's powers are a one part corruption of her learnings as a member of The Legacy Chain and one part survival skills acquired during her extended stay in The Ziggurat (Ziggursky Prison).
As an inmate in the lowest, lightless bowels of Ziggursky Prison, Eventide was forced to adapt her skills as a Lucent of the Light to their antithesis- the void of negative energy. She uses this negative energy to supplement her skills in Krav Maga for devastating effect, exemplified by the fearsome Assassin's Eclipse technique. These abilities have been further enhanced by Eventide's shameless plundering of the Mako's Bite and Scirocco's Dervish forms.
As part of her tutelage approaching the peak of Operation: Destiny, Eventide was schooled by Ghost Widow herself in the art of Soul Mastery and as such can ensnare the souls of the dead and use their energy to inflict damage upon her adversaries. She has exhibited the ability to unleash powerful blasts of necromantic energy, lift her enemies into the air and summon one of the deadly Night Widow assassins.
Eventide is a true sorcerer, capable of casting spells through ritual that extend beyond her abilities as a practitioner of Dark Melee and Soul Mastery.
Eventide has encountered a few other of my characters during the course of her career. While these meetings are by no means defining moments of her life, the characters opinions of eachother can help clarify the difference between them. I find this is helpful when they occupy the same story space, I have to change quickly from one to the other, or they meet the same characters that belong to other players.
Elizabeth "Alarcity" Byrne: As a pair magi who encounter the fringes of occult society and consider themselves post-human by thought and deed, Alarcity and Eventide have more in common than either would care to admit, but somehow both recognise. Eventide, when presented with the possibility of a world filled with chaos and without meaning, chose to walk away and has now resigned herself to fate by choosing only to react to the obstacles thrown in her ill-defined path where Alarcity is determined to discover a path through the madness. Eventide considers Alarcity arrogant and impetuous for trying to alter things beyond her control and quietly laughs whenever the hero fails, presenting it as evidence that conviction is futile. Alarcity considers Eventide cowardly and acting out some kind of charade, suspecting the assassin is up to much more than she really is.
Eventide's musical score is quiet, sombre affair. The songs it is consisted of usually generally have a menacing undertone rather than outwardly make threats themselves. Many of these songs come from the western genre, which is unsurprising given how close Eventide is to the myth of the lone wanderer of American Western mythos.
Sheryl Crow - Redemption Day
Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down
Black Lab - This Night
Murder by Death - Comin' Home
Nirvana - Lake of Fire
Jason Charles Miller - You Get What You Pay For
- Appears in-game as 'Eventide VI'
- Was originally named 'Nemesis VI'
- ↑ Sometimes she is heard muttering about how a dozen superpowered heroes would band together just to prevent that occurring, rather than face her one-on-one.
