Tower of Babel
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
weak powers of victim if controlling mutants
The wounded surgeon plies the steel
That questions the distempered part;
Beneath the bleeding hands we feel
The sharp compassion of the healer's art
Resolving the enigma of the fever chart.
It is uncertain who the Tower of Babel is. Those who know seem unwilling to reveal its
former identity, citing "respect for the dead". What can be gleaned from its sometimes
vehement outbursts is that it is a hero or heroine who was left in a coma after a friendly fire
incident killed the rest of its teammates. The powerful psychic then skipped from body to body,
taking over psychically vulnerable criminals till killed, then moving onto the next body. This
continued for a period of two years, during which Babel was suspended from the Superhero Registry
for illegal mind-control and body-snatching. It was reinstated to the Superhero Registry only
during the Praetorian invasion of 2011, on the condition that it participates in weekly
therapy and community service sessions.
The Tower of Babel is currently inhabiting the body of a Praetorian seer. Some speculate that its erratic behaviour is linked to its dissociation from its original body. With a semi-permanent body (of the Praetorian seer), the Tower of Babel has been experimenting with genetic alteration using DNA from its original comatose body with help from SERAPH. Others believe that it is the frequency of switching bodies through psychic vampirism or personality fragments from the large number of possession victims -- hence the reinstatement of medi-port access in attempt to stabilise its mental condition. Yet others believe that the spirit cannot be dissociated from biology and it was brain damage to Babel's original body that resulted in the insanity.
Whatever the true reason, the combination of therapy, DNA incorporation and body stabilisation has seen great improvements to Babel's mental functioning. Its original, still comatose body is currently located in one of the Hero Corps' medical facilities. Brain damage to the frontal cortex prevents Babel from returning to its original body. However, many suspect that it is by now unable to return to its original body, even if physically recovered.
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Court case of 2012
Due to the current emergency situation during the Praetorian, and following that, Shivan and Arachnos invasion of Galaxy City, the Tower of Babel was temporarily reinstated to the Superhero Registry under an emergency manpower clause, pending court review after the state of emergency is over.
During the court case which finally took place in 2012, the defense called upon the testimony of Babel's attending psychiatrist, who gave it the diagnosis of dissociative identity disorder brought about by post-traumatic stress disorder and possibly abuse of superpower, co-morbid with clinical depression. The defence argued that the Tower of Babel could not be considered responsible for murdering the supervillains it had possessed. Rather, it had only coerced them into fighting other supervillains under the Citizen Crime-Fighting Act, something also covered under the Citizen Crime-Fighting Act, since there was no proof that Babel had intended a permanent mind-control or body-snatch (illegal) rather than a time-limited mind-control for the purpose of crime-figthing (legal).
The defence argued that the demise of the possessed supervillains lay only in that law-enforcement agencies refused to issue them medi-porters after said villains were removed from the Arachnos medical grid. If not for that, law-enforcement agencies would have made the arrest of said villains after they were teleported into medical facilities, a common-place situation in Paragon. Defence made the case that due to its mental condition, Babel was unable to convey such nuances in crimefighting method, but was otherwise still acting under the Citizen Crime-Fighting Act. In any case, all of the demised villains could be proven to have committed crimes that warranted the death penalty in States that still carry it.
The jury acquitted the Tower of Babel, but the court ordered it to cease from further acts of body possessions.
Current Status
Although it has been acquitted by the court, the Tower of Babel seldom patrols the street of Paragon, as it is aware that the civilian population is afraid of it after the recent publicity. It concentrates its efforts on the push against the Praetorians and specialised taskforces out of the public eye.
Powers
The Tower of Babel exhibits a wide range of psychic powers. Other than its (infamous) ability of possession, it is able to mind-control others, stopping them in their tracks, putting them to sleep or even drive them into terror or madness. There are reports of it acting like poltergeist, levitating or knocking its enemies about, but this does not appear to be its favored mode of attack; it prefers to assault its enemies' minds directly until they are rendered unconscious.
Fortunately, when possessing a mutant victim, the Tower of Babel gives little indication that it can tap into its victim's mutant abilities. This suggests that it does not actually become its possessed victim but just animate the victim's body, or that control of specific mutant powers reside not just in the body but also in mental patterns which Babel does not possess.
Fiction (OOC Knowledge only)
Theme: What happens when a psychic is mentally ill? In comics we often see superheroes with mental powers doing their mental power thing. But superheroes are human too, so what happens when a superhero with mental powers fall ill mentally? This character explores the consequences of a mentally ill psychic superhero.
Theme: Transsexualism. This condition is seldom treated properly in fiction, with portrayal is still limited to "men who want to be women" or "women who want to be men". Babel is a male mind inhabiting the female body of a Praetorian seer.
