Samhein Greystar
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Samhein Greystar | |
| Player: Dark_Harrier | |
| Origin: | Human/Magic |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Energy Blast/Force Field Defender |
| Security Level: | Confidential |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | *confidential; likely a powerful mystical hazard to allow in the wild |
| Known Aliases: | None |
| Species: | Human, other-dimensional |
| Age: | Apparent: 21; Actual: 62 |
| Height: | Six Foot |
| Weight: | 170 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Green |
| Hair Color: | Black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Alien |
| Occupation: | Confidential |
| Place of Birth: | Unknown Asteroid City, PC Dimension designation Sigma Tau-637 |
| Base of Operations: | Confidential |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Unknown |
| Known Powers | |
| Energy Blast; Force Field; Super Leap; Leadership; Concealment; Fitness | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Skilled Archmage; Mystical systems teacher; Creation of mystical power-items; Navy Captain [extra-dimensional]; Navy chef | |
| Equipment | |
| Exposure to the Sands of Mu; Carries a Blackwand | |
| No additional information available. | |
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Contents |
Samhein Greystar: Character Information
[[Please be advised that information contained in the -In Character- section is common game "public" knowledge; information presented in the -Out of Character- section is considered Samhein Greystar "canon" but will be unknown and unavailable to any storyline characters. The Character History below includes information from both game events and Role Play fanfiction written about this character.]]
In-Character History
Samhein appeared mid-semester at Paragon University's campus some time on the 16th of June, 2006. School records indicate freshman status and that his tuition is pre-paid via an unnamed benefactor; deeper delving into his school records show a variety of need-to-know flags and confidentiality status remarks of the higher levels. His curriculum appears to involve a major marked "undecided", and his course load include basic English-as-Second-Language course as well as Earth history electives; his major classes involve the basics of Earth magical/mystical systems and spellwork. He has been given a single suite in one of the university's dormitories, a room covered in a variety of magical wardings.
Out of Character Information
Samhein is actually an Archmage from another dimension, in the neighborhood of sixty years old, sent to Earth's dimension by the Deity of his race to discover the source of Earth's use of a vast number of dimensional portals and, most importantly, to insure that the location of his own home dimension is never discovered and breached by Earth travelers. To disguise himself among a young student body, Samhein consumed a potion of youth before his trip to Earth. He now resembles himself as a late adolescent, hale of mind and body.
Unfortunately for the Archmage spy, Earth's magical systems are so completely alien to his own that his arrival here forced Samhein to lose basically all of his powers. He has begun anew, reduced to an apprentice level magician, using the university's resources to once again learn Earth's own magic from the ground up. As he adapts, his skills thusfar appear to be better in the defensive rather than the offensive; while his various magical protection spheres are incredibly potent his offensive abilities are limited. Unable to recreate the army-destroying potential he once possessed, he has honed his protective spells and a number of travel- and stealth-related powers using what he can glean of Earth's quirky mystical requirements.
In addition, his God prepared him for his mission with a blessing which allows the wizard to understand any spoken Earth language and to read any of it's printed languages fluently; however, in most cases this magical translation gives him absolutely no real ability to write or speak said languages. He can only speak English fluently.
Using university classes Samhein has learned English in both its written and spoken forms to the point where he is bypassing his blessing for approximately six words in ten [by his own reckoning], hoping that one day soon he will be speaking and writing/reading English as a native. Thanks to his blessing others hear his words as English, spoken in a rather flamboyant, King's-English style. Many of the terms he uses are rather arcane or anachronistic; the blessing spell does the best it can in translation and may not work well for local slang in either direction.
Now that he recognizes that the Circle of Thorns are the foes he is fated to combat, he has taken the first steps toward creating a Super Group specifically to oppose them. Acting as the leader of The Circle of Karma, Samhein has begun to build a fortified tower to allow he and his Super Group comrades [a small roster, but growing] a protected off-campus home and a place of study and planning. An old grain silo in New Connaught, Croatoa, is now the main base of operations for the Circle of Karma.
the Artifact
One of the real reasons for Samhein's arrival here on Earth is to pass on temporary possession of a magical relic from his own world, to be kept by the seers and mages of MAGI. Samhein's God and the authorities in MAGI have agreed to assist each other for an exchange of various favors and substances, but paramount of all these is the passage to MAGI of the artifact known as the Rod of Seven Parts.
A potent artifact of the deities of Law, the Rod of Seven Parts is now kept in a supremely-warded vault below the Library on the Paragon University campus, under the watchful eye of various MAGI personages. The Rod is a relic of the forces of Law so potent that it's mere presence on Earth's plane has, or will, prevent a world war that would have both plunged the planet into an age of horror and death, but also would have paved the way for an eventual invasion by Earthlings into Samhein's own home plane. As long as the Rod resides in Paragon, the forces of Law will hold a slight edge over those of Chaos and thus the world will not be plunged into such conflict. However, if enemies of Law were to learn of the Rod and somehow spirit it away, the consequences could be reversed and Earth would be plunged into an apocalyptic future.
Personally, Samhein himself has been implanted with a five-part geas, a mystical compulsion to accomplish a set group of quests which will assist in the sustenance of Earth's future and the safety of his own home plane both. The actual natures of all five quests are only generally known to Samhein, granted to him via a seer's riddling vision; he has already stumbled upon the solution/completion of at least one by accident. However, all are important to the Rod, to Earth, and to the completion of his secret mission.
Paragon University entries at the Whitmooore Apartments fansite index
Personality
Samhein is an honorable, erudite wizard with the propensity to long-winded discussions of magic and the desire to inform anyone who will listen of the nature of things of which he might be aware. As a former wizardly teacher he cannot help but occasionally fall back into the habit of lecturing those around him for periods of time longer than most folk would want to endure. Other than that, he is pleasant, effusive, and desires to be helpful. He enjoys hearty meals and preparing such for people he likes or wishes to impress. He is endlessly fascinated with the new mystical teachings of Earth's systems and hopes to pack hi brain with as much knowledge as he can during his stay here. He is however very mindful of his quests and the Rod, and they are of paramount importance to him. He would never compromise either, even to the point of his own death or the necessary deaths of others. Though he is a worshiper of a God of Law, his lord is a strict one, and Samhein knows this mission could prove fatal, both to him or to those he might develop friendships with.
Otherwise Samhein is gregarious and outgoing and always willing to assist others in their own doings. He understands that sometimes seemingly random acts might forward his own cause.
An interesting point that must be noted is that at one time in his past, Samhein actually handled the Rod of Seven Parts himself. Doing so changed him forever, as it would do to any mortal to touch it. The Rod has caused Samhein to influence Chance around himself, so that if the possibility exists for events to fall into an alignment that would further his purposes, it is far more likely to occur if he is near. Chance behaves strangely around him; often, very unlikely events are shifted by his presence into being accomplished, whether by himself or others. No-one is aware of this fact, though Samhein does have a hint of it; however, he would likely never speak of such things with Earthlings.
Powers
Primary Set
Energy Blast/ Power Bolt, Energy Torrent, Sniper Blast, Power Burst.
Secondary Set
Force Field/ Personal Force Field, Deflection Shield, Insulation Shield, Dispersion Bubble, Detention Field
Additional Powers
Concealment/ Stealth
Fitness/ Hurdle, Health, Stamina
Leadership/ Assault
Travel
Super Jump [Leaping]/ Combat Jumping, Super Jump, Acrobatics
Abilities
Also has the Veteran powers Sands of Mu and Blackwand. His body bears several tattoos which in his home dimension, would have acted as magical spells of a defensive or assisting nature, which have been rendered inert during his translation to Earth. His eye tattoo still allows him to see into the infrared and ultraviolet, and to view the flow of magic energies.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Adapting to an alien magical system is very vexing to Samhein, but as a dedicant to his God he perseveres as best he can. In addition it is imperative that his presence and needs be kept hidden from those villain groups he must have closest contact with, namely the Circle of Thorns and those behind Portal Corp. The Circle would be extremely interested in the Rod of Seven Parts, but have thusfar no knowledge of it's presence or location. The Rod is so powerful that indeed many of the world's villains would love to get their hands on it. Also, Portal Corp would naturally investigate a new dimensional arrival on Earth who requires they never find his point of origin, by attempting to do so.
Otherwise, Samhein's student identity and his hero persona are more or less interchangeable, and he maintains no real 'secret identity' in that respect. He is well known to a number of faculty members and any of those agents of MAGI who work on or near the college. Considering the wealth and objects exchanged for his passage here, he is given carte blanch by a number of such hidden sources.
Description and Equipment
From the RP thread narrative:
"He carried no crushing auras. He was perhaps a bit nondescript, though some vague beauty of this god had been passed into his bloodline somewhere in the distant past. His hair too was black, held likewise swept into a long ponytail. His nose was straight and aquiline, his brows not quite square [and one marred by a scar that parted the line of hair in half]. His mouth was slim, now drawn in a line showing his tension. And a grey pentacle spread as a tattoo, across the entire socket of his left eye, so that the living eye itself lay in mystic symbolism at its heart. His body was covered with other tattoos, each equally as arcane and each bearing in it some sort of power. But, as he had been instructed, on this world, most had lost much of their function. He could feel it, as he could feel the general muting of all his power, this mage of another world, favored of this god of war, fire, and thunder."
Samhein is for all intents and purposes an unassuming human youth. However, his eye tattoo, an ornate full pentacle which is arranged so that his live eye sits at it's center, marks him visibly as a bit different. His tan skin may not be too odd given today's spas and tanning salons. But it may seem odd that he wears rather formal clothing even in normal social situations. He is also rather obviously technologically inept and may mispronounce the names of everyday items [calling for example a cell phone a "foon device"]. Though his left palm, arm and torso also spot ornate tattoos of a mystical function they could pass for mundane skin ink in our day and age.
In terms of equipment Samhien carries a belt which holds pouches of various herbal and mineral powders which act as components for his spellwork. He also possesses a captured Blackwand, and has been exposed to the Sands of Mu.
Character History
Paragon University RP thread at Cityofheroes website, first appearance, many appearances thereafter to current point of the thread.
Super Group
OOC: [[Samhein is in the process of creating a Super Group called the Circle of Karma, with the purpose of combating the Circle of Thorns in Paragon. This SG exists on Virtue; if you are of magic origin or think your hero would fit into the RP story of a Magic-based SG, feel free to apply. However it is an early group, with no huge base yet. The intent is an RP-friendly group with a base set up for storage and supply. We are still accumulating points so don't expect much at the moment, though cooperative play between SG mates is necessary if you join. The player has never run an SG yet, so base builders are welcome.]]
Samhein has purchased a silo in Croatoa at 1900.6 97.3 2025.1 in New Connaught, and he intends to enchant the entire enclosed building so as to have a single flat, open area to build his team's quarters in, and which adds several defenses from outside attack. The SG plotline is still in development. However, so far a number of students and associates have joined the Circle of Karma in the narrative, and several other characters act as "guest stars" by either their relationship to the members or their friendship/associations with them. The members will not be mentioned here by name unless they have Virtueverse entries or otherwise give permission.
This article about a character is a stub -- a small, but growing, work in progress. If you're the creator of this character, why not consider expanding it?
