Reich Maiden
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Does evil ever truly leave your soul? Is it possible, no matter the sin or tragedy, to move on and become a hero? These are the questions asked by Reich Maiden, both by measure of her existence and by her own mind.
| |
| Reich Maiden | |
| Reich Maiden | |
| Player: @Magnetic Master | |
| Origin: | Science |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Tanker |
| Security Level: | Confidential |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Ilsa Austerlitz |
| Known Aliases: | The Aryan Angel, The Fascist Rose |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 25 Physically, 70 Mentally |
| Height: | 5' 11 |
| Weight: | 195 lbs. |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Hair Color: | Blonde |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | German |
| Occupation: | Hero, Soldier, Fugitive |
| Place of Birth: | Vienna, Austria |
| Base of Operations: | Confidential |
| Marital Status: | None |
| Known Relatives: | Gretel Austerlitz (Daughter, Believed Deceased) |
| Known Powers | |
| Super Strength, Invulnerability, Ageless Body, Flight | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Fluent in several languages, tactical knowledge, combative technical prowess | |
| Equipment | |
| Personal Communicator, Utility Belt | |
| No additional information available. | |
Contents |
Character History
2008
After fully returning to Paragon City for the first time in over a decade, Reich Maiden eagerly joined the The All Star Teen Sentinels, despite not being a teen herself. She worked alongside her team-mates there for several months, and developed a romance with De-Frag, until the Longbow caught wind of her return to the city.
When the Longbow sent a squadron to arrest her, she violently retaliated, killing the entire squad. Expelled from the Teen Sentinels after the incident, Reich Maiden went on the run, and clashed with her former team-mates constantly. On several occasions, she joined forces with a common enemy of the ASTS, Bouncing Jack, who was similarly expelled from the group earlier in the year.
Two months later, after several attacks on her by fellow in-mates, the Government removed Reich Maiden from the prison system, and placed her within a team of specially selected meta-human criminals and volunteers, to be later known as Patriot Act. The team's mission at the time was simple - find out who, out of the hero community, could be trusted. After some inflammatory comments about the government by Captain Crosshairs, it was decided that he would be a perfect target to bring in for questioning.
Reich Maiden was the first agent sent, and challenged Captain Crosshairs to a fair fight. He responded by hitting her with a cement truck, and attacking with every trick in his arsenal, to even the odds of a highly-trained human winning against Reich Maiden. As a result of the sonic-resonators used heavily in the fight, and the intervention Ultradynamic, of Reich Maiden suffered several injuries - including a brain aneurysm - and was forced to flee the battlefield. This would not stop her.
A week later, she was fighting her way through the All Star Teen Sentinels to get to Bodkin-Girl - Captain Crosshairs' sidekick - to kidnap her in order to force Captain Crosshair's cooperation. While the battle was a fierce and one-sided one in her favor, De-Frag managed to nearly slice her in half with a powerful energy-sword, which would have killed her were she unable to incapacitated him immediately afterwards. Reich Maiden had captured Bodkin-Girl for the government, and now awaited Captain Crosshairs response.
But it didn't come. Captain Crosshairs eventually, with help from Omega Lass convinced Reich Maiden to help in the effort to rescue Bodkin-Girl from her handlers, and the three infiltrated the Patriot Act base to retrieve her. What followed was a fierce battle down fifty floors of high-tech bases, finishing with the detonation of an experimental fusion warhead, destroying the base. Staying behind to detonate the explosive, Reich Maiden was assumed dead.
2009
For almost a year, Reich Maiden retreated into obscurity, stopping crime when she could, but mostly remaining incognito in Paragon and throughout the world.
Her own psychological need to be Reich Maiden was another story all together. Within a month, she was donning her costume to stop robberies, and within a year, she was listening in on police scanners to intervene into super-powered crime on a regular basis. It was only a matter of time before she returned to Paragon.
She arrived in Paragon in time to help others fend off an invading zombie horde, and she knew she'd made the right choice. Designing a new costume and returning to the streets, she stayed under the government's radar for a surprising amount of time.
But, as with all things, her time in hiding came to an end when she was contacted by Project Star, a woman working for the government organization that once contracted Reich Maiden. After teaming up with Project Star several times, Reich Maiden decided to join the government once again - and perhaps earn some level of freedom - by leading the Patriot Act in the field.
Also on Reich Maiden's agenda is the infiltration of the League of Sinister Intent, whose former Nazi members are planning an attack on her former team-mates in the All Star Teen Sentinels. Heading to the Rogue Isles and spreading her name around as a sympathizer, she has since joined them as a spy.
Present
Personality
Reich Maiden is stern and stoic on the outside; the perfect soldier who cares for nothing but the tactical solution and that she walks away from the fight with all of her team-mates intact if she can possibly help it.
Beneath the harsh facade lies a soulful and caring woman who can't help but try to solve other people's problems and be their shoulder to cry on. Reich Maiden tries very hard to bear the burdens of others, and this usually winds her up in trouble with the very people she's trying to protect.
Ilsa also has a remarkable sense of humor, which is only shown explicitly to those very close to her. She is quite often seen as cold and harsh, but at times, when she feels most comfortable, she can be warm and bright individual with a truly caring spirit.
A large part of who Reich Maiden is is her search for redemption and the constant path of danger and tragedy it takes her on. She has many sins to answer for, and continually grapples with the idea that anyone, even someone who has committed as many atrocities as she has, can be redeemed. When she is alone at night after waking from another nightmare, she often wonders whether her quest for salvation is a vain pursuit, or if it's truly meaningful and worthwhile.
Combat Persona
What makes Reich Maiden so dangerous and so nigh invincible is a combination of physical powers and mental training. In combat, Reich Maiden is cold and calculating, believing firmly that a perfect soldier does what is necessary regardless of emotional involvement.
Reich Maiden during combat is an emotionless weapon, a soldier of the highest calibre who does not question her actions and does whatever is necessary to win and achieve her goal. She will welcome the aid of team-mates and allies, but not at the expense of the tactical advantage. If she feels that a team-mate or ally is emotionally unstable or a danger to the mission or objective, Reich Maiden will usually deny the team-mate the ability to participate, or filling that, incapacitate the team-mate until the mission is complete.
Politics
Reich Maiden is, as one would expect, a fervent fascist supporter. That being said, her ideal fascist world order is one of "forced utopia" - the idea that when the right person or persons is in charge, and using their power fully and authoritatively, there exists no need for personal freedoms. She believes that the Nazi regime based on hate and destruction was a fool's errand, and that in order for Fascism to truly better mankind, it must be unbiased, totally equal control.
Whether Reich Maiden believes deep down that she should be the one to rule such a Fascist State remains to be seen. Although she has often said she has no interest in leadership, she also has said that the ideal leader for the world order she wishes to establish would be a leader who could not die.
Powers and Abilities
Super-Powers
Thanks to the genetic splicing and other experiments performed on her, Reich Maiden is physically a woman of twenty-five permanently, and will never die of old age. Reich Maiden has natural resiliency greater than a hundred times that of a human being in peak physical condition. She has withstood tank blasts, torpedoes, being burned alive, the pressure of diving miles under the ocean's surface, and many more ordeals. As she gains more experience and undergoes more tests and missions, she gains more knowledge of her precise limits.
In addition to her vastly increased levels of resistance, Ilsa also is capable of lifting upwards of six metric tonnes in weight and ripping through almost any metal with the exception of impervium with relative ease. While her strength does not come simply, smaller feats of strength that seem incredible to others are mundane to her.
Other side effects of the experiments performed upon her by Nazi Scientists are the ability to fly under her own power, and the heightening of the senses of smelling, hearing, and sight.
Reich Maiden is a tactical prodigy, and an incredibly skilled hand-to-hand combatant. She has been trained in a wide array of different martial arts and weapon forms, as well as having acquired a number of new disciplines during her time as a fugitive.
In addition to the sense of how to lead and how to think tactically, Reich Maiden can also size up an opponent within minutes of meeting them - assess a weakness, and then use that weakness to destroy them. In any given situation, she has been capable of six-to-seven different strategies which will cause death, and a multitude of others that will cause pain or disable her opponent entirely.
Social Training
Reich Maiden was, as a leading member of the German Military, part of a program to bring culture and propriety to the German Upper-Class. As such, she is a skilled dancer, musician, sportsman, and drink-mixer.
Reich Maiden is a prima ballerina, an expert in many forms of classical dance, plays the Clarinet and Double Bass as well as the Violin. She is a skilled fencer, equestrian, and polo-player. She has a near encyclopedic knowledge of cocktail mixing and alchohols, although she rarely drinks.
Equipment
Apart from her fantastic plethora of powers and heightened senses, Reich Maiden was also given an incredibly complex and advanced Communicator, and several uniforms made of highly resistant materials, which she has since learned to replicate.
Also carried everywhere she goes is her utility belt, containing radio equipment, medical and surgery tools, a general purpose multi-tool and portable blow-torch, among other supplies.
Weaknesses
In all, Reich Maiden has weaknesses like those of a normal human being; she can be gassed, suffocated, poisoned, and drowned. The difference comes from the fact that a massive application of each would be required to truly affect her.
A well documented attack on Reich Maiden by Captain Crosshairs using high-power specially designed sonic weaponry caused Reich Maiden a vast amount of pain, and has caused her permanent brain damage. As a result of the attack, Reich Maiden's left arm sometime shakes uncontrollably.
Slightly less well known is her vulnerability to certain forms of energy, most notably used against her by De-Frag during her final encounter with the ASTS. As well, Reich Maiden's own guilt and shame from her past sins have been, to great effectiveness, used against her on several occasions.
Affiliations
Reich Maiden is a former member of the The All Star Teen Sentinels.
Reich Maiden has a long-standing friendships with Omega Lass, and since she was voluntarily imprisoned, she has become friends with Prime Sentinel from the Pariah Project, as well as Lyrical Miracle of the Golden Age Heroes.
Romance
Reich Maiden has had two high profile love interests, each of which holds a piece of her heart. The first was with Captain Axis, whose daughter she carried and gave birth to. She saw him die and was buried alive with his body, leaving her with horrible mental scars.
The second was with De-Frag, whom she met and fell in love with almost instantly, moving into his dormitory in the ASTS Base and showing him the real Ilsa Austerlitz. Their relationship ended with Reich Maiden leaving the ASTS, and has since deteriorated into a one-sided romance with Reich Maiden hating herself for having hurt him, and subsequently a begrudging relationship as enemies.
Enemies
Reich Maiden's life has, naturally, given rise to a number of people who hate her. Whether it be for what she is, what she was, or what she might become, she has made more enemies than friends.
Recent events have made Reich Maiden a high-ranking enemy of the All Star Teen Sentinels, and all of their members have been instructed to avoid her at all costs and to immediately report any sightings of her to an officer or leader of their group. Ace Troubleshooter distrusted her from their first meeting upon her joining the ASTS. Reich Maiden would not have considered them enemies, but the two clashed when Ilsa led Ace into a trap in order to face Bouncing Jack .
Reich Maiden also made an enemy of Bodkin-Girl on the same day, attacking and wounding her for her interference in Ace and Jack's meeting. Bodkin-Girl would later be targeted by Reich Maiden to be used as bait for drawing out Captain Crosshairs, and kidnapped. Reich Maiden would lead the effort to free her from government custody, and seemingly die in the attempt.
Captain Crosshairs was an enemy of Reich Maiden's during the war, and is still a staunchly adamant enemy in modern day. In part due to their history, but also due to Reich Maiden's own seeming unwillingness to change, her attack and kidnapping of Bodkin-Girl, and her subsequent attack on the All Star Teen Sentinels. The Captain is one of the only people that Ilsa openly hates, citing his unprovoked attack on her with a cement-truck as evidence that she has been wrongly portrayed as the villain in their battles.
Trivia
- Austerlitz is a name of Polish descent, meaning her parents were either Polish in origin, or that Reich Maiden took the name as a pseudonym and has simply held onto it all these years.
- Reich Maiden's theme song is "Rose of May" by Kate Covington, or "You Know My Name" by Chris Cornell, depending on my mood.
- Inspirations for Reich Maiden include Supergirl and Emma Frost, as well as Superman: Red Son, Jason Isaacs' character from The Patriot, and fellow City of Heroes characters Misako and Rhinemaiden.
OOC Trivia
- I've been playing Reich Maiden (or Reichsmaiden, as she was called before my lengthy absence from City of Heroes caused me to lose out on the name) for a little over two years, and no matter what happens, I keep coming back to the character. She's just a hell of a lot of fun.
- My original design for Reichsmaiden came from Alan Moore's Tom Strong, and was actually intended to be A: a villain, and B: named Swastika Girl, after the group of female nazi villains in the comic. Apparently that name is offensive to a number of people, and I eventually changed it to Reichsmaiden (why that name isn't offensive, I'll never really know, but oh well.), and made her hero-side with the intention of exploring the idea of being a supervillain in Paragon. I honestly don't know when or why I decided to turn her into a full-on hero character, but it's certainly worked out.
- To be honest, Reich Maiden is my attempt at creating a character who functions as both hero and villain. Someone who can't be described as evil, but who can't really be considered a good person, either. A person I met in the D hit the nail on the head when they described her as a Nazi superhero. She saves people, and does good things, but she's also a nazi. She's someone who fully supports fascism, but also fights to protect the disenfranchised. And that dichotomy is just fascinating to me. She's both a nazi, and a superhero, and in being so, is neither. Needless to say, the process leads to a lot of fights between her and other characters, be they heroes or villains.
- A lot of the appeal inherent in her, to me, is that I can be a real hardass in character, and stick to my guns in terms of her character without needing to worry about being alienated by a group of people. I can play up the "Batman" side of things, and really call into question the morality and ethical nature of other people's decisions - I can be the outsider. Everyone who plays alongside her either agrees with my RP choices and enjoys the character, or disagrees with them, and still sort of enjoys her. I've yet to get any negative feedback in any way from the character, which is a real surprise given the subject matter she touches on.
