Gentle Guardian
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Gentle Guardian | |
| Player: @Dalantia | |
| Origin: | Mutant/Technology |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Defender |
| Security Level: | 36 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Seth Peterson |
| Known Aliases: | The Paladin (pre-Rikti War) |
| Species: | Human with unknown modifications |
| Age: | 23 |
| Height: | 5' 9" |
| Weight: | 179lbs (479 lbs in armor) |
| Eye Color: | Hazel |
| Hair Color: | Brown |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | College Student, Licensed Super Hero |
| Place of Birth: | Atlantic, Iowa |
| Base of Operations: | Elk Horn, Iowa |
| Marital Status: | With Partner, unmarried |
| Known Relatives: | Marie Peterson (Mother); Timothy Petersen (Father); Jessica Peterson (deceased, older sister); Melissa Peterson (younger sister) |
| Known Powers | |
| Empathy, Electrical Control | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Flight, Tactical knowledge | |
| Equipment | |
| Kithar Powersuit, AI Uplink | |
| No additional information available. | |
Seth was a re-envisioned revamp from a childhood story done by his player. More angst, more cost, and more character!
Contents |
Personality
Seth tends to be sarcastic, bitter, and jaded. Oftentimes, he's awful loudmouthed about it, too. Nothing really fazes him anymore, and things he views as clichéd tend to wind up lampooned, as do idiotic mistakes and.. well, just about anything he sees. His powers are partially to blame for this, as he's been asked (sometimes demanded!) to heal just about everything under the sun, despite the personal cost to himself. Panda tends to calm him down enough that he just mutters the sarcasm under his breath, at least..
Powers
Seth relies on his inherent mutations to provide combat effectiveness, and his powered armor to project it and prevent him from dying to a stray bullet.
Soma Transference (Empathy)
The first half of Melkia's Kiss, Seth transfers his life energy to other sentient beings on skin-to-skin contact. His powersuit allows him to both endure this transference with little damage, thanks to the biofeedback buffers, and to do so at significant range. Of course, there will always be the flash of pain when the injury is absorbed, before the buffer kicks in... The higher secrets of this power allow him to instill his courage and fighting spirit in others, enabling them to find reserves of power and strength they never knew they had. Thankfully, this power is balanced by the ability to absorb ambient life energy, so, should he survive, he will, eventually, heal fully.
Electrical Blast
The second half of the blessing of the Kithar goddess of sacrifice is the power to protect oneself with the spark of intelligence. On contact with another being by an untrained holder of this power, stored synaptic pulses are released into the target, causing, oftentimes, massive static electrical shock, and sometimes paralysis and death. A trained holder of this power does not release it without wanting to, and possesses fine enough control to be able to dictate the precise path an arc of electricity travels through the air, or what sort of effects it may have on the nervous system of its victim.
The Guardian's Powersuit and Implants
Seth's power armor is a unique design, provided by the artificial intelligence that often acts as his advisor and foil. It both amplifies his powers, and controls them, to prevent backlash against their wielder. Within the powersuit, Seth suffers very few ill-effects of his powers, unless he forces the suit to perform far beyond its ability. Unfortunately, outside the suit, his empathic powers are completely uncontrollable, so Seth must wear gloves and cover himself from the neck down in order to avoid accidents.
Seth also has a suite of cybernetic implants, including a permanent heads-up display, a comm unit with a permanent link to Shodan, and a flight unit. (And a PS2.)
Combat Uses
As Seth's durability is only within human bounds, his armor provides a significant amount of protection in combat. It serves as a strength-enhancer, allowing him to deal significant amounts of damage with electrically-charged blows, repel bullets with a charged field, and project electricity precisely over significant distances.
Flight
Seth can, outside his armor, fly at a moderate clip, and fly very quickly within his armor, due to his flight implants.
Command Knowledge
Seth's experience in leadership from both commanding the Rapiers before the Rikti War, and his service as impromptu field commander during the War, has gifted him with extensive tactical knowledge, along with the knowledge of how to inspire people to fight on even when the situation looks hopeless.
Shodan
The enigmatic alien "not-artificial" intelligence that conceals itself on the internet (and has a certain enjoyment of System Shock, as evidenced by its self-selected name), Shodan is the source of the vast majority of Seth's advanced technology (and money), though even she has been surprised at his ability to adapt it. Perhaps his greatest resource, due to the extensive amount of knowledge at her fingertips, Shodan is said to have extracted a high price in exchange for granting its knowledge to Seth, though is remarkably hostile to anyone that attempts to contact her..
Character History Summary
Seth himself chose to go to Paragon to get as far away from his past as possible, believing no one would question a mildly eccentric techie that valued his privacy in a town full of capes. Upon discovering that PCU granted scholarships and stipends for heroic activity, he began repairing his long-neglected and malfunctioning powersuit, and now puts himself at minimal risk for the sake of keeping his scholarship and getting his stipend.
Seth began his superheroic career under the callsign "The Paladin" (No relation to the current Paladin), leading a small group of small-town heroes that called themselves the Rapiers. They quickly became known as the most efficient rapid-response team within 300 miles, focusing on a flight of alien fighters and high-efficiency combat tactics. (Indeed, it is fairly likely that someone who lived in the Midwest in the past 8 years would know who the Rapiers were.)
When the Rikti War broke out, the Rapiers were catapulted into the local spotlight, for two reasons - actively taking a leadership role within Midwestern metahuman forces, and providing a reliable method of communication for all local forces. The Paladin ultimately took responsibility as both liaison to mundane military forces and director of metahuman forces - his tactical opinion was, by the respected local groups and many lone wolves, considered an order. Rapier Control was a pivotal part of the communications advantage, as she displayed the ability to juggle information from hundreds of different comm channels, along with allocate strategic resources even without Seth's active direction.
The war, in that portion of the country, culminated in the 72-hour Battle of Des Moines. At the end of that combat, only 40% of the heroes that had participated were left alive. Of those, half were, through overexertion, lost or damaged hardware, or Rikti weaponry, powerless. Of the Rapiers, only the Paladin and Rapier Control remained alive, and a source close to the Paladin has confirmed that the Paladin's powersuit was nearly destroyed in the battle. There is a tombstone for The Paladin in Elk Horn's cemetary, next to the graves of the other three boys who had fought in the war - rumors about his fate persist, to this day. (It remains unknown in Elk Horn that Seth was the Paladin from that era.)
See also: The Rapiers, Jake Nielsen, Chris Paulson, Tyler Lane, and Shodan
Stories
Awaken, Blessed of Sacrifice - An abridged version of Seth's history, from becoming The Paladin to choosing to become The Gentle Guardian.
