Winterblood
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Madame Rhiannon Gladstone | |
| Player: @Shelly | |
| Origin: | Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Corruptor |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Rhiannon Gladstone |
| Known Aliases: | Winterblood, Madame Gladstone |
| Species: | fae |
| Age: | 2310 |
| Height: | 6.5' to 7' tall |
| Weight: | 160 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Blue |
| Hair Color: | Blue (varies, depending on mood) |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Unseelie (Winter Court) |
| Occupation: | Shopkeeper |
| Place of Birth: | Avalon |
| Base of Operations: | Confidential |
| Marital Status: | Widow |
| Known Relatives: | Kayndar Gladstone (husband, deceased), Yolanda Gladstone (daughter) |
| Known Powers | |
| Powers over frost, cold, and ice | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Able to change her appearance and shapeshift | |
| Equipment | |
| None | |
| Hero Corps Classification: Heroine | |
Rhiannon Gladstone could have become a God or Goddess to mankind, much like some of her siblings like Odin, Coyote, or any other God in history that was actually one of the fae folk. But she declined, preferring instead to remake humanity in an image more to her desires. These plans were interrupted by her arrest and incarceration in Zigursky, and now she seeks vengence. She does not hide beyond pseudonyms or false names.
Contents |
Allies
The lethal T-sharii huntress, they allied together on a number of projects mainly for profit. It was an alliance of convenience on both their parts.
The mate of Ava Adore, Rhiannon Gladstone fought for Brendan Aft in retrieving Ava Adore from the hands of Dr. Annette Borisov. When Ava Adore backlashed at Rhiannon Gladstone for kidnapping her and later saving her life, Brendan apologized to Rhiannon for Ava's words and action, redeeming himself in Rhiannon's eyes, and is still considered to this day to be an ally.
A fascinating young woman who took an interest in Rhiannon when she helped the young girl home one night when she had been thrown against a building.
In a rather peculiar turn of events, Rhiannon was captured by them after one of her schemes was brought to an end by the hero group and imprisoned her. She negotiated her own release by forming an alliance with them to the benefit of her overall plan to form a bridge between her people and humans.
Enemies
Lanara and Richard were Rhiannon Gladstone's former pet projects. Lanara escaped Rhiannon's grasp, ratted her out to the NYPD, and testified against Rhiannon in court, resulting in Rhiannon Gladstone's incarceration in Zigursky. Lanara's genetic code was built by Rhiannon in lab and contains the secret to much of Rhiannon's prior research. Lanara's genetic code is all Rhiannon needs to fulfill her origonal plans of remaking mankind to her liking.
Rhiannon's wayward daughter who betrayed her mother's wishes and purpose, by actively fighting against her mother's evil. Yolanda hopes that her mother can someday be redeemedd, but her mother's casual dismissal of human life makes this task nigh impossible.
Dr. Annette Borisov is direct unfriendly competition for Rhiannon's Genetics projects. Though initially allied on the Ava Adore project, when Rhiannon's conditions were not met and payment not rendered, Rhiannon considered this a betrayal, and vowed to have Borisov's soul for her betrayal. Rhiannon has hunter her ever since.
Initially a victim, Ava Adore lashed back after Rhiannon demanded Ava's safe return. Rhiannon did this out of love for her own daughter, Yolanda Gladstone. In spite of this, Ava Adore lashed out angrily at her kidnapper, essentially slapping Rhiannon in the face for Rhiannon putting herself on the line for Ava. Since that time, Rhiannon considers Ava a non-person.
Crey is a direct competitor to Rhiannon's work. Crey is aware of some of Rhiannon's advancements in genetics and molecular biology, but has been unable to steal the secrets from her. But they keep trying. Many a Paragon Protector has had ice shards impaled through their bodies in an attempt to extract secrets from her.
A high tech group of hunters that draw their history back to old Scotland. They are human-supremacists, hunting down and killing anything not explicitly human. They hate superhumans and anyone that associates with them. Being as Rhiannon designed and built The Utopian Society, she is one of their prime targets.
Stories
- Police Files: Rhiannon Gladstone
- Invasion Stories
- Vengence [1]
- Darwin's Daughter [2]
- Sins of the Mothers [3]
- Behind the Mask [4]
- Christopher Cruise [5]
Origin
Rhiannon doesn't talk much about where she came from, the whole fae bit. Partially because she doesn't wanna get in trouble with daddy Oberon, but also because she is fully aware that people mistake faefolk for elves, and treat them like garbage. Rhiannon prefers to keep a low profile.
The Unseelie Court
Oberon and Titania had many children, spread throughout the world. Oberon, as lord of Avalon - the fae homeland - ruled with absoloute authority. Oberon made it a law that the fae were not to interfere with the mortal world. So one day, a girl named Maab got into an argument with her father about Maab buttering Oberon's bread on the wrong side. It was so petty a thing that it turned into a large argument. The two sides were Oberon and his loyal children - called the Seelie, or light fae - and Maab and the rebels - the unseelie, or dark fae. The unseelie were banished from Avalon into the world, never to return.
Eons passed. Rhiannon - one of Maab's staunchest supporters - wandered the world, seeing all the wasteful horrible things humanity had done to the earth and to one another over the course of human history. It seemed like at any tragedy involving humans mistreating other humans on a grand scale, Rhiannon was there - watching invisibly from the sidelines.
And somewhere along the line... she snapped.
The Utopian Society
Rhiannon Gladstone was determined to use her knowledge of magic and the arcane, coupled with human science, to accelerate the evolutionary processes discovered by Darwin and create a new dominant species on earth that could exterminate and replace humanity. Something with compassion, high intelligence, and more adapted to their environment. She turned to genetic engineering.
In early 2000, Rhiannon Gladstone founded The Utopian Society. She gathered together like-minded persons from many different fields to collaborate on the project, and try to realize her dream. They built an extensive underground base underneath New York City as a research lab/high tech prison facility.
These are just some highlights:
- Dr. Su Chen - a diminuitive Chinese woman with a titanic mind for genetic and molecular biology.
- General James Fielding - A military man with an impressive service record and the ear of many important people at the Pentagon, General Fielding is detemined to defend America against all enemies - both foreign and domestic - at any cost.
- Moira McHale - Very money and profit oriented. Cares little about anything else. Provides most of the financial backing for the organization.
- Captain Jack Mendoza - Television producer, always looking for new material. In charge of publicity and keeping the Utopian Society OUT of public view.
- Joseph Moriarty - Owns a multinational pharmaceutical conglomerate that specializes in medical research, experimentation, cybernetics, and biological weapons.
The project used human beings as "blanks" which could then have their DNA re-engineered to Gladstone's new specifications. They kidnapped a number of pre-adolescent children, picked for their high intelligence, to re-engineer. They met with a lot of initial success, and were able to re-engineer the children into the new 'superior' metahuman profile they were given. The problem was control - their creations were now strong and powerful but still hated their guts. So by 2004 the focus became how to 'force' their creations to have the same ideals and aspirations as the Utopian Society.
Zigursky
Suddenly, in June 2006, one of their test subjects, named Lacy Myers, broke free of her restraints during an experiment, and crushed one of Rhiannon's blue magic stones in her hand, imbuing the girl - a homeless girl given metahuman form - super powers, enabling her to escape from the lab and call the police. Lacy Myers went on to become a super hero under the name Lanara.
It took countless police and national guard to take all of the Utopian Society into custody. Rhiannon herself slashed and killed four police officers with shards of ice. Longbow was called. Experienced in dealing with supernatural and superpowered enemies, the Rhode Island enforcers were happy to help. Using antimagic metals such as iron cuffs to keep Rhiannon pinned down and unable to use her powers, Rhiannon was put on trial for her actions and her involvment with the Utopian Society. She was sentenced to no less that four life terms for the deaths of the police officers. Rhiannon didn't see this as a problem - she was immortal anyway - time was nothing to her.
That changed when she was sent to prison.
Being supernatural and superpowered, the natural place to lock her away and throw away the key was the Zigursky Correctional Facility in Brickstown, Rhode Island - a suburb of Paragon City. Using their knowlege of the faefolk, she was placed in a cell lined with iron bars on all sides, and given steady doses of a drug nicknamed "anti-supes" designed to reduce a person's super powers. The drug reduced Rhiannon's strength to almost nothing, leaving her in a nearly comatose state, unable to get up, exercise, or even lift a fork to eat.
This was the first time that the horrible things people could do to each other had touched Rhiannon personally, as Longbow kept Rhiannon in an almost permanently weakened state. She vowed someday she would get her revenge on Longbow for the horrors of her time in Zigursky if it was the last thing she did.
Arachnos
In March of 2007, Kalinda the Fortuna had a vision of the power that Rhiannon Gladstone had once commanded, and with Lord Recluse's permission, ordered Rhiannon be broken out of Zigursky. Rhiannon could not even walk and had to be carried out. With some medical care, Rhiannon started to recover, though still weakened. She would have to work to build her powers back up to what they were before, but Rhiannon was driven by her hatred of Longbow and the police to become strong again and exact her revenge on Longbow and anyone connected with them.
To this day Rhiannon Gladstone is still at large in the Rogue Isles.
Personality
Rhiannon Gladstone suffers from Antisocial Personality Disorder and cares very little for the value of human life. She has been alive for thousands of years, and after all she's seen humans do, she wants to see humanity replaced with something better, or at least to see humans paying for their crimes. However, I always believe characters should have both light and dark in them. Rhiannon has a few rays of light left in her, but they are buried under tons of bitterness, darkness, anger, hatred, and desire for vengence. Underneath it all, she just wants to go home and be with her real family.
She has started rebuilding the Utopian Society, with the help of an old friend of Fielding nicknamed General Cannonbolt and his sidekick, Captain Arya Steele.
It should also be noted that Rhiannon had a mate once, who was killed by humans. She also had a daughter from that pairing, Yolanda Gladstone.
NOTE
To the observant viewer, if you look under her sleeves, there is a number tattooed into her right arm.
Powers
Rhiannon Gladstone has power over cold and darkness. However in her creation a mistake was made, and she ended up Cold/Cold when Cold/Dark would have been better. However now too much work has gone into her and I don't have the heart to delete her. I will eventually take her to Ghost Widow at 40 to learn her epic pool, and that should cover it, I think.
As a Cold/Cold corrupter, she has no soloability and must rely on grouping to survive.
Weaknesses
Rhiannon Gladstone could have been a Goddess. Some of her siblings became Gods or powerful demigods with fantastic or horrific powers to mankind over it's ancient history. Rhiannon declined, preferring to work behind the scenes. But she is by no means godlike or invulnerable.
Normal CoV play
Rhiannon Gladstone is an ice/cold corruptor. Her strengths are at range, but weak at melee. She has some basic defenses in melee like Dark Embrace, Arctic Fog, and lots of IO set protection, but is quite vulnerable up close. She will ice you out of melee range and destroy you at range if you get the chance. Don't give her the chance.
In Roleplay
Madame Rhiannon Gladstone is a very powerful and dangerous adversary. Her siblings were Odin, Banshee, and various other 'mythological' (so called) figures. But like any faekin, they have one very definite and exploitable weakness.
Iron.
The ferrous metal is inherently disruptive to fae magic and can cut through it like a hot knife through butter. If you use a gun on her, it has iron in it, but she can melt the gun from afar. But the weapon that she no defense against at all is the iron bell. Any defense she could possibly erect from the ringing of a cast iron bell would be shattered by the sound waves it produces. Only a few tones from such a bell can bring the Godlike figure to her knees.
Latest RP news!
Fudokazu and Jenna Hagan
Fudokazu’s plan intrigued the old fae – band together all with a grudge against the Zenvious Foundation and strike back at them from a position of strength. But she doesn’t trust Fudokazu’s shady motives. The Kitsune are always tricky, Rhiannon would never completely trust them. And Jenna Hagan? She’s a disgusting *HUMAN*, though more metahuman than human. She does not trust Jenna and stays as far from Jenna and the Institute as she can manage without damaging her relationship with them.
Taking the Name Winterblood
Rhiannon Gladstone's grand master plan to finish her new master race of evolved human beings fell apart when her lab was raided by The Zenvious Foundation, upset over Rhiannon's kidnapping of Lanara to complete the project. She was imprisoned by the Foundation for a while until she and Mr. Zen negotiated a truce. She would work with the Foundation to help them try to help humanity prepare to either a war or an alliance with the Unseelie and Seelie courts, and in exchange the Foundation lets her go on a somewhat limited basis. She agreed, for her daughter's sake.
She adopted the handle 'Winterblood' to use while within Paragon City. In spite of it all, she is making new friends, like Winsome Blue who fascinates her and she doesn't know why. Probably because this girl remains positive despite all the negative she has been through, and gives Rhiannon hope and inspiration for the sake of meta-humanity. Winterblood still tends to move back and forth between the Rogue Isles and Paragon City. The Zenvious Foundation has since collapsed, so Rhiannon took this as a release form that contract she made with Mr. Zen. However, she has not taken up her old habits of Genetic Engineering and total villainy. She's become something of an anti-hero or a rogue, moving between the Rogue Isles and Paragon City doing whatever she feels would try to move humanity subtly in the direction of some kind of peace with her people. So, in a way, she still honors the spirit of her agreement with Mr. Zen, if not the letter of it.
Trivia!
- Rhiannon Gladstone participated in the very first villains Hamidon takedown ever on a live server, Virtue Server, 6/19/2007.
More Information
Rhiannon Gladstone was based on an original story some friends and I wrote many, many years ago and never completed; she was the primary villain of the story. The story lent itself very well to the Paragon universe, and even allowed me to expand upon the villain's personality and background, creating a very dynamic and - I thought - interesting CoV villain. Her story takes some roots in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and Disney's Gargoyles [6].
Badges: [7]
Spec: [8]
