Starforged
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Starforged | |
| Player: @Rapunzel | |
| Origin: | Natural |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Peacebringer |
| Security Level: | 16 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Harper Calvard |
| Known Aliases: | Nitor, Flamecrafter; maiden name Harper Gwenhyfar O'Connell |
| Species: | transcendant human melded with a Kheldian |
| Age: | 26 |
| Height: | 4' 8" |
| Weight: | 80 lbs |
| Eye Color: | steel grey |
| Hair Color: | white gold |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | locksmith |
| Place of Birth: | Cut Bank, Montana |
| Base of Operations: | Steel Canyon |
| Marital Status: | married to Mark Calvard, Dagger of Orion |
| Known Relatives: | grandfather Hank O'Connell, still on the farm in Montana |
| Known Powers | |
| in her previous incarnation (Nitor) she was an illusion/kinetic controller, she has merged with a Kheldian and become a Peacebringer | |
| Known Abilities | |
| In her human form she is a powerful mage, with near perfect control of spiritual, mental and physical energies, and minor understanding of matter and an affinity with spirits. She is a line of sight telepath, and able to conjure and control light, heat, fire, and any form that energy can take. | |
| Equipment | |
| She is never without her steel and gold wand, a slim pencil length stick that she often uses to pull her hair up, she also carries lockpicks, a sketchbook, and her own supply of loose leaf tea | |
| This character has a long, complicated history stretching pre-CoH to when she was a Mage character in a tabletop RP game. | |
Contents |
Personality and Interactions
Harper
The glory of God we are born to make manifest. Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. But as we let our own light shine we give permission for others to do the same. That is why we are, each of us, a child of God.” -Godspell’s bastardization of Marianne Williams
Harper is unassuming and gentle, without being a doormat. For all her earned titles in many spheres, she prefers to be called Harper, and takes the most joy in working with her hands, either in her locksmith shop or her hobby of jewelry smithing. She has a keen sense of aesthetics, integrity, and personal responsibility. Everything she touches or makes has an artistry to it. Many people never learn of her more powerful abilities, as she doesn't flaunt her supernatural status and uses only what force is necessary for a given situation. She is, at heart, a pacifist, though working with her husband Mark and melding with the militant Kheld have shown her the uses of physical force. She is an eternal idealist, working for the redemption and transcendence of the entire human race, and believing in redemption with a fierce energy that is a power unto itself. She wears sturdy, useful clothing, usually in monochromatic hues, and smells faintly of lavender, which she grows fresh on most of her windowsills. She has unfailing energy, maintaining her 'normal' life as the owner of a small locksmith shop, her hobbies of jewelry smithing, gardening, and weaving, as well as her mystical studies and hero assignments.
Ephemeral Horizon
Zion is an elitist Kheld warrior-priest. Pure of spirit and mind, with the task of support and defending all that is good within his race, he is a consummate tactician and strategist, though can be unyielding in his judgments. He is highly selective of his hosts, attracted to Harper for her powerful understanding of control of energy as well as her moral strength. He veers to the edge of fanaticism with his disapproval of the Nictus, and the Warshades that come from them. Without his host's tempering effect, he is not forgiving of mistakes, and sees the world without any moral ambiguity. He is as protective of his hosts as he is selective, he is very proud of the fact that he has never lost a host to injury or battle, only to old age or when he has been called to bring his strategic expertise to a new front of the war - riding starlight where physical forms cannot follow.
Affiliations
Solace
Harper is a member of the supergroup Solace, as is her husband. They were sent to save Paragon City as they have worked to save other cities from supernatural threats.
Mark Calvard
Harper is very rarely found without her husband. He is known in mage circles as Halcyo, and has taken up the name Dagger of Orion since becoming a Warshade. They are a study in contrasts, while Harper manages to befriend almost everyone, Mark can make enemies of strangers within moments. Where Harper has a sterling reputation in every field she enters, Mark manages to attract shady issues. His mortal mien is as a police detective, and he has followed her into melding with a Kheldian, a reformed Nictus named Dusk Blade, as no other Kheldian would accept him as a host, with his past full of dark secrets and his not-quite pure motives for desiring a meld. (He wanted to follow where Harper went, when she approached him about Zion's offer, he agreed she should accept it. He then confronted Sunstorm and demanded to be fed a squid.) While many of their associates don't understand their deep bond, Harper and Mark are both driven to protect and serve humanity.
Past incarnations
As a Mage Character
Technical details
Most of Harper's RP history was developed as a table top character in White Wolf's Mage game. For those who care, she was a Free Council Obrimos, and became an Uncrowned King. She had mastered the arcana of Mind, Prime, and Forces, with studies in Spirit, Matter, and Space.
RP details
Harper was born in Cut Bank, Montana, her family history and original background story describing an angel granting her magical ability, can be found here.
Harper met Mark soon after finishing her training with her mentor and opening her small lockmith shop outside of Chicago. He was a newly minted detective and needed her help with a case. They befriended each other as normal people, the gruff cop enjoying her bright, innocent company, and he soon began to see her as the incarnation of everything he was willing to destroy his soul to protect. She, likewise, saw his pain and suffering and worked to alleviate it.
They had terrifying adventures with fighting demons - Mark was a proficient warrior and spy even then, and Harper excels at making herself useful. They fell in love, married, and worked to save the world, one person at a time. They created a likeminded group of mages, a cabal, with a theme of Phoenix and Dragon, a study in contrasts working to protect the safety of their city through geomancy (the care and feeding of ley lines) and highly developed understandings of the spiritual and mental landscape.
As Harper's powers grew, so did the challenges that faced her. She discovered that the vampires of her city had made and broken a pact with the other supernatural beings. Her aversion to vampires turned into terribly competent warfare after the vampire leader of the city brought in assassins to eliminate Halcyo, who had been enforcing the pact. She became determined to teach the vampire society that it was not Halcyo they should fear, but her. She made alliances with the local werewolf pack, earning their respect, and the title of Flamecrafter, with a powerful demonstration over her precise and artistic control of fire.
Her soft heart could also get her in trouble, after being given a unique artifact, The Sword of Kings, she found a captured angel in a source of mystical energy outside of physical reality. A locksmith, a powerful force for freedom, and a lover of redemption, of course she let the suffering being out. And that is how Samael, an angel trapped for eternity for subjugating the human race for generations long before history began, was released into the world to try it again.
Samael managed to kill Halcyo and resurrect him in exchange for Harper's soul, a deal with, if not a devil, a fallen angel, that Halcyo managed to save her from through learning to use some truly powerful gifts. Then, the duo moved to Paragon City.
In Paragon City
Technical details
Harper was re-rolled in CoH as an illusion/kinetics controller named Nitor, her Shadow Name from the World of Darkness. Nitor still exists on Virtue, but will probably be moved when the system allows.
RP details
Harper and Mark moved in, quickly settling into Steel Canyon. Harper opened her locksmith shop on the North side, Mark joined the PPD, and they found Solace, recruited by Astral Traveler. Astral, in his secret identity of a high finance playboy, got them a beautiful apartment in one of the central skyscrapers. Harper has started a garden on the large terrace, as always, loving to surround herself with greenery. The couple has enjoyed being able to publically use their powers, in a city accustomed to grand sights they are safe with their abilities.
Life went on, with more and less excitement than before. New forms of vampires and werewolves to stop from harassing the populace, same reasons for doing so as always. Harper kept on with her mystical studies, supported by MAGI and the resources of the overwhelmingly arcane Solace.
Current Incarnation
Harper was approached by the energy being Ephemeral Horizon, and offered the chance to become something more than human, and learn more about her universe. The opportunity excited her, and when she presented it to her husband, he couldn't deny her joy in the thought, however much it scared him. When she went to be melded with Zion, she came home to an empty house. Mark's return quelled her panic, but rose a new fear in her Kheldian counterpart - Mark had melded with a Nictus - a Warshade while she was finding Zion.
Zion and Dusk Blade originally hit it off like sodium and water, which was not helped by Zion refusing to allow Harper to sleep with her husband, lest the Nictus turn on her in the night. While Zion and Mark could agree that Harper was to be protected against any harm, they disagreed about her safety around Dusk Blade. Starforged and Dagger of Orion received their first assignments from their Kheldian contacts, and Harper and Halcyo worked to form their usual highly contrasting team.
The squabbling lasted for days, until Starforged and Dagger helped to foil a Council plot to start a war between the Peacebringers and the Warshades. Zion has begun to grudgingly accept that Dusk Blade isn't completely useless in a fight, and that his own zealotry could cause more problems than it solves - especially if it puts Starforged more on the side of the Council than on the side of the Peacebringers. Zion has accepted unity and working together - at least with Dusk Blade. For the time being.
The duo is interested in learning more about the galactic war, and keeping the streets of Steel Canyon safe for non-super people to live productive lives free of fear.
Powers and Strengths
Harper earned the title of Flamecrafter as the mage Nitor for her expertise with conjuring and using flame as a sculptured art form. Her displays of power aside, she is primarily competent with more subtle, and powerful, forms of energy and has been a natural student of telepathy and mental control. Zion has brought his own strengths to the coupling, though he has given her one of the few abilities she has always envied - the ability to heal another. She works to cure the pains of the spirit and soul, but has previously been forced to stand helpless against terrible injury.
Vulnerabilities
Nothing can break through her usual stoic control faster than endangering her husband. She is very aware of his emotional and physical fragility, and her greatest worry is losing him. She is also very strict about her morals and behavior, and will not suffer a loss of her integrity.
To Contact the Player
Drop Starforged an in game e-mail or PM @Rapunzel - Mark and Harper enjoy in depth RP with any cast of characters.
