Usurper Dyne
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Usurper Dyne | |
| Player: Dyne | |
| Origin: | Technology |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Defender |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Jamie Salladon |
| Known Aliases: | The Extraordinary Mechanical Usurper Dyne, Dyne, U.D., Heterodyne |
| Species: | Human Cyborg |
| Age: | 30 as of 07/2008 |
| Height: | Confidential |
| Weight: | 180 lbs |
| Eye Color: | Green |
| Hair Color: | N/A |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | University Professor |
| Place of Birth: | Paragon City |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City |
| Marital Status: | Married |
| Known Relatives: | Malevelyn (Wife), Eve Salladon (Daughter), Vy (Adopted Daughter) |
| Known Powers | |
| Kinetics, Radiation Blast | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Genius Scientist | |
| Equipment | |
| Rocket Boots, Various inventions | |
| No additional information available. | |
Usurper Dyne is a cyborg hero based on the Clockwork.
Contents |
FBSA Data
- Paradimension ID Code: Virtue
- Registered Name: Usurper Dyne
- Registration Date: 2004/06/11 (approximate)
- Department: D.A.T.A.
- 'Hero of the City' Award Ceremony: 2006/07/26
- Group Affiliation: Gearbolt Union
- Former Group Affiliations: The Dauntless Consortium, Project - Rebirth, The Bastion
- Theme Song: Machinehead (Bush)
- Nemesis: The Clockwork King
- Status: Active
- Holographic Costume Data: Usurper Dyne/Costumes
Additional Data
Background and Origin
Several years before the first Rikti Invasion, Jamie Salladon was a brilliant Ph.D. student in the fields of robotics and physics, having entered college at age 15. His friend and sometimes-rival was the man that would eventually become known as the Clockwork King (known hereafter as CK).
In 2001, Dr. Salladon was mortally wounded by the jealous sabotage of one of the pair's experiments by CK. Suffering intense regret, CK used his skills to install Jamie's brain in a prototype robot body. This shell was nuclear powered and was the culmination of the pair's work in microminiaturized mechanics.
Jamie's brain had been damaged by the experience, resulting in partial amnesia and significant loss of speech capability. The robot's complex "micro difference engine" computer was used to fill in for the latter, providing Jamie with a mechanical voice, but it was not capable of smooth reproduction, resulting in odd pauses between the annunciation of each syllable.
Jamie became depressed and listless following his change, and an argument eventually led him to part ways with CK. CK, due to his developing psychic abilities (and their accompanying insanity), would soon abandon any real effort at developing the technology they had worked on, ultimately opting to create the Clockwork as they exist today. Still, his need for materials and funds to continue his "work", eventually resulted in his encounter with Blue Steel and the ensuing injuries and transformation.
Then the Rikti struck. Jamie was completely unfit to participate in the war effort, and indeed, was barely aware of what was going on beyond the walls of the abandoned WWII bunker the pair had been using as a lab. The fact that he could have helped, and did nothing, haunts him to this day.
It wasn't until Jamie himself was attacked during the reconstruction by Clockwork intent on stealing the metal of his chassis that Jamie was snapped out of his malaise. He was struck by certain very familiar design elements of the tiny robots, and recognized them as the creations of his friend. As the depredations of the Clockwork grew, Jamie used his own inventive genius to modify and improve his mechanical body, giving himself powers uniquely suited to fighting the mechanical menace. Taking on the new identity of Usurper Dyne, he answered the call to oppose his former friend, and all like him.
Heroic Career
When Usurper Dyne first appeared on the heroic scene, he was still insecure, uncertain of his future or his place in the world. At the time, he spoke with a hollow, mechanical voice and distinct pauses between each syllable.
Dyne gained a large amount of confidence when he was the first hero (within his canonical backstory) to bring down the Clockwork King. Though his foe would later escape to terrorize Paragon City anew, he was no longer Dyne's obsession.
Following this victory, Dyne made his growing feelings for fellow hero Malevelyn known, and the two began one of the strangest relationships Paragon City has ever seen. In August of 2005, he and Malevelyn were married in Founder's Falls. They subsequently adopted a vietnamese teenager -- a mute telepath named Vy -- who was formerly homeless and sleeping in Gemini Park.
During an incident involving Malevelyn's possession by Baron Zoria, UD's original clockwork body was badly damaged and irreversibly contaminated by his leaking reactor core. Some of his fellow technological heroes discovered the blueprints of Heterodyne that he had made from his studies (see "Future", below), and constructed a prototype to install his dying brain in, despite not understanding the theory behind the odd devices. In the process, his speech unit was upgraded, so he now speaks more fluently, and he has some limited control over Zigma energy (Dark Mastery). UD subsequently redesigned that chassis to be closer in style to his original design, but retained Heterodyne's advanced technology and more durable alloys.
With Penelope Yin's move back to Paragon City and the strange relationship that she has struck up with the Clockwork King, Dyne has recently renewed his hope for the eventual rehabilitation of his old friend. However, he is watching the situation very carefully for signs of the Clockwork King becoming a threat to the girl.
Aside from his ongoing hero work, Dyne recently obtained a tenured professorship at the Paragon Institute for Advanced Technology, performing research and lecturing as part of the theoretical physics faculty, and overseeing the robotics lab. To break the ice with his (often awestruck) incoming students, he tends to pull pranks like wearing a Dyne-sized tweed jacket or thick, taped glasses to his first lectures, or pretending to smoke a tobacco pipe during office hours.
During the construction of Crey and Aeon's Architect Entertainment facilities, Dyne infiltrated their computer systems and installed several hidden programs, "just in case". One of these is involved in Jamie Salladon's Task Force.
Future
According to one known timeline, Dyne survives to at least the late 21st century, where he is grievously injured and rebuilt, changing his name afterwards to Heterodyne. Due to an accident involving Portal Corporation's initial experiments, Heterodyne made random trans-temporal visits to the Paragon City of 2004. Dyne's past self, Jamie Salladon (ca. 1999), was also caught up in these phenomenon, probably by the same mechanism. UD never perceived any loss of time or other anomalies during these events, and they produced no temporal paradoxes. Once he was convinced by his friends that the Heterodyne visits were real, UD took steps to begin studying his future self's technology.
Variants
Thanks to a temporal accident, it was revealed that roughly a hundred years from now, the Virtue Universe's Usurper Dyne would be instrumental in defeating the villain Glazer, but the experience would nearly destroy him. With his old cyborg body shattered and his human brain crystallized by the villain's power, Usurper Dyne was rebuilt into the hero Heterodyne, and eventually became a member of an organization of time guardians.
In early 2005, a female Jamie Salladon (also using the hero name Heterodyne) was transported to present-day Paragon City from a parallel earth where magic and technology were often reversed in importance and application. Rather than a cyborg, she was a mysorg (mystical organism) with a half-golem body, and her nemesis was her former friend, the Golem King.
UD has a Praetorian incarnation, named Regicide (foe of the heroic Clockwork King of Praetorian Earth). (He was, however, sent to the Zig and forced to change his name to "Regiscide" due to a trademark infringement suit from a local hero.) Regi and his lover/enemy Virulynne (Praetorian Malevelyn) are loose cannons among Praetorians, often leveling large swaths of city in their courtship battles.
Timeline
1978/07/09 - Jamie Salladon born. (Sharing Nikola Tesla's birthday)
Aug, 1993 - Jamie enters college at the age of 15.
May, 1996 - Jamie finishes his undergrad work and enters grad school at age 18.
1997 - Jamie meets the (future) Clockwork King (CK) and they form a strong friendship with a bit of friendly rivalry, since their backgrounds and ages are so similar.
Jan, 1998 - The two decide that they are going to form a research partnership after school
Aug, 1998 - Jamie and CK enter accelerated doctoral programs.
1999 - Jamie is still a rather geeky student. This is roughly the period from which "UD from the Past" visited Paragon City of 2004, when UD was suffering from temporal anomalies.
May, 2001 - Jamie and CK earn their Ph.D's and begin research shortly thereafter. Since their research is so esoteric, money is hard to come by, but CK manages to procure funding from unspecified sources.
2001/08/28 - CK, suffering from increasing bouts of jealousy and persecution, triggers an accident during one of the pair's experiments. Jamie Salladon is seriously injured and will not survive without drastic measures. CK, suffering massive guilt, uses his skills to install Jamie's brain into one of the pair's prototype robotic chassis.
2001/09/03 - Jamie recovers from his accident and is informed of his new situation. The shock sends him into depression.
2001/09/11 - The events in New York on this day do not help Jamie's mood.
Oct, 2001 - After an argument, Jamie and CK part ways. Jamie remains depressed.
Dec, 2001 - During the course of petty larceny he has been using to fund his continued work, CK is attacked and left for dead by a "hero". His newly built, psychically controlled minions retrieve his broken body and install his brain into a new mechanical automaton. This accelerates his growing insanity and begins his inexorable spiral into villainy.
2002/05/23 - The Rikti invade. Jamie remains depressed during the course of the invasion. CK remains in seclusion.
Nov, 2002 - The Rikti invasion ends.
Dec, 2002 - The Clockwork King makes his official debut. The Clockwork initially helped with the effort to rebuild, until the heroes started to make a comeback from their losses in the invasion. This set off CK's anger and hatred of heroes, and the Clockwork started attacking people who interfered with them.
Jan, 2003 - Jamie hears occasional references to the clockwork robots in the city.
Feb, 2003 - Jamie is attacked by Clockwork, who want to harvest his metals. He fends them off with some difficulty, and begins putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
Mar, 2003 - Jamie has now realized who the Clockwork King really is, and this knocks him out of his depression. He swears to oppose CK. He begins modifying his own body to prevent CK from using any hidden "back doors" as well as to provide himself with a few new surprises.
May, 2003 - "Usurper Dyne" makes his official debut as a hero sworn to oppose the Clockwork King.
Jun, 2003 - Jamie meets the heroine Mynx in Skyway City, and tries (without success) to strike up a relationship with her over the course of the next year.
Late 2003/Early 2004 - UD meets and teams up with various heroes during his duties, including Shocking Blue, Iron Wombat, Blue Sparkler, Helios, Cold Comfort, and others.
The Present
(Events dated in real-time)
Mid-Jul, 2004 - UD has achieved Security Level 14. He begins visiting Gemini Park. Almost immediately meets fellow heroes Star Ember, Malevelyn, and Vagabond Mage, with whom he forms strong friendships. Two of these heroes would later be instrumental in UD's confrontation with his old friend and partner.
Early Aug, 2004 - Jamie struggles with his growing feelings for his friend Malevelyn (he doesn't believe she will be interested in someone who is more robot than man), and elects to suffer in silence.
2004/08/15 - Just two weeks shy of the third anniversary of Jamie Salladon's accident, Task Force Inertia confronts and defeats the Clockwork King, the very first successful arrest of the mechanical menace (in UD's canonical backstory, anyway). Unfortunately, the powerful psychic abilities that the villain's minions utilize are not hindered by their master's arrest. Eventually, the Clockwork King escapes from the Zig, and is back on the streets, but by then, UD knows that he has proven himself as a hero and no longer needs to obsess about the Clockwork. However, he is at a loss for a purpose to replace his old one.
2004/08/19 - Jamie eventually is forced to admit his feelings to Malevelyn, and finds that they are echoed. The two begin one of the oddest romantic relationships in Paragon City's history.
Late Aug, 2004 - Jamie travels to Peregrine Island, where he is caught up in an experiment gone awry. This causes him to become a walking temporal distortion, randomly replacing him with versions of himself from the past (Jamie Salladon, circa 1999) and the future (Heterodyne, circa 2100).
Fall, 2004 - UD and Mal announce their engagement and also plan to adopt Vy, a 12 year old mute telepathic girl as their daughter.
Oct, 2004 - UD is critically damaged by Malevelyn (who is possessed by Baron Zoria at the time), and his chassis is irreversibly contaminated due to his leaking reactor. Using UD's studies of his future self's body, a new chassis is built with advanced armor and power sources, far beyond the current state of the art. Eventually, UD redesigns this chassis to resemble his old one.
Late 2004 - UD and Mal's future daughter Eve Salladon turns up in Paragon City, apparently in order to kill Tikhnaya. It seems that Malevelyn and Tikhnaya are fated to have a conflict and kill one another many years hence. Quite how UD and Mal conceive a child remains unknown.
2005/01/06 - A parallel version of UD arrives in Paragon City.
2005/08/28 - Usurper Dyne and Malevelyn are wed.
2006/07/26 - Usurper Dyne is awarded Hero of the City in recognition of his efforts to stop the Malta group from destroying the War Walls with their Kronos Titan.
The Future
Note: Future events may not occur, or not in precisely the same fashion.
ca. 2100 - In the distant future, UD is seriously wounded in a major battle with a hero named Glazer. His old body is irreversibly damaged, and his brain is altered in the confrontation (crystallized, giving him accelerated processing speed and resistance to telepathic powers). Some of his friends build him a new chassis using highly advanced zero-point energy power sources and Zigma-energy based technology. Rechristening himself Heterodyne, Jamie returns and ends the threat.
Unknown - At some point after his change to Heterodyne, Jamie becomes a "temporal guardian", giving him vast powers over and responsibility for space-time in Earth's sector, as well as a certain immunity to paradox which may be retroactive. This could explain why he got caught in the Portal Corporation phenomenon.
Creator Notes and Trivia
- Usurper Dyne was created in June of 2004 -- one of my longest-surviving characters. He was my main for many years, and the first to reach level 50.
- He was inspired by the Clockwork, who I thought were one of the most interesting villain groups in City of Heroes at the time (and still do).
- The first part of his name, "Usurper", relates to his nemesis, the Clockwork King (i.e., Dyne intended to figuratively seize the King's "throne" and turn the Clockwork into a force for good). "Dyne" comes from his Kinetic powerset.
