Whispering Typhoon
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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| Whispering Typhoon | |
| Player: @jchinds | |
| Origin: | Natural |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Brute |
| Threat Level: | 40 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Todd Galahad |
| Known Aliases: | The Cobalt Claymore |
| Species: | human |
| Age: | 20 |
| Height: | 6'1" |
| Weight: | 200 |
| Eye Color: | Brown |
| Hair Color: | Brown |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | unwilling ninja, crimelord |
| Place of Birth: | Berwyn, Illinois |
| Base of Operations: | Paragon City, RI |
| Marital Status: | single |
| Known Relatives: | Mother Aoi, The Cobalt Ghost |
| Known Powers | |
| Shadow Manipulation | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Blade Mastery, Stealth, Misdirection, Acting, and Psychological Warfare | |
| Equipment | |
| Nothing noteworthy | |
| Yes, it's the Cobalt Claymore as an unwilling villain. | |
Contents |
Affiliations
The Phoenix Force (as the Cobalt Claymore)
Personality
Whispering Typhoon has the varied types of personalities that he has as the Cobalt Claymore, save that his combat mindset has been infiltrated with a mean streak.
Powers
All of Whispering Typhoon's powers come from the merging of his being with a particularly smart-yet-lazy shadow. His core intelligence and persona was dominant over the shadow's and he now has an innate knowledge of how to manipulate the darkness around him when fighting. He doesn't have a second person person sharing his body but has truly merged, remembering things from the shadow's past as if it were his own experience.
Shadow Taijutsu
Whispering Typhoon's offensive capabilities come from the ninja's basic fighting technique, taijutsu. These have been improved with other various techniques that allow him to channel a shadow's innate hunger for life and warmth. He is able to attack rapidly and decisively, causing his opponents to be weakened and partly blinded from the darkness surrounding them. He is also capable of absorbing the life energies of his opponents in order to fight off fatigue through his pact with the shadows. As the shadows feed from the recipients of his attacks, they become like sharks at a feeding frenzy, causing more and more damage as the fight continues.
Shadow Defense
The defenses provided to Whispering Typhoon are given to him by the shadow merged under his skin by Mother Aoi. Combined with a stubborn streak inherited from his father and the no-mind techniques taught by the merged shadow, he has learned how to shrug off even the powers of psychics around him.
Additional Powers
Shadow Step
Combat Jumping: The mix of martial arts, acrobatics, broad jump, and high jump skills have given Whispering Typhoon an ability to dodge many attacks that come his way.
Superjump: By channeling a mix of his body's own chi and the energy given off by his unwilling pact with the shadows, Whispering Typhoon can leap with a speed and distance that most would be unable to copy. He instinctively also crates a pool of shadow energy to cushion his landing, often making look like he's appearing from a shadow portal. Thus the name of the technique, the "Shadow Step."
Acrobatics: Combining a host of his physical abilities with mental stubbornness, Whispering Typhoon absorb and dodge attacks that would send him flying backwards.
Fitness
A combination of intense exercise and his mother's opening of previously blocked chi circulation has enabled Whispering Typhoon to run, heal, and recover from fatigue faster than lesser-trained individuals.
Abilities
The abilities learned over the years as the Gladius Kid and the Cobalt Claymore have given Whispering Typhoon a plethora of life and language skills.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Though it does no actual harm to him, Todd now avoids direct bright light. It does take some mental effort for him to go outside in bright sunlight without covering his body completely.
Equipment
Whispering Typhoon doesn't carry as much equipment as he does in his heroic persona. In fact, save for a notebook and pen he rarely takes anything with him that he can't scrounge up from the environment around him.
Character History
Todd Galahad had been stalked by Jizoku no Himitsu for a while as Mother Aoi, his birth mother, tracked her son's progress as he grew older. Todd's father, the original Cobalt Claymore, never spoke a word about the young man's mother, even to the point of changing the subject. This often made Todd suspect he was a clone, though that was proven only to be an irrational fear after a few genetics tests and the discovery of his father's marriage records. After his father's death, Todd assumed the mantle of the Cobalt Claymore and moved to Paragon City. His mother kept track of him through her network of spies and shadows. She sent a gift welcoming him into the family, a new costume that mixed the uniform of a special operations soldier with the traditional gear of a ninja. Todd assumed it was from a local fan and wore it on occasion.
Months passed and Todd found himself at Dartmouth University in Hanover, New Hampshire. There Mother Aoi made her move, seeing that her son was not getting along with his peers. She kidnapped him in the middle of a friendly lacrosse match with the team from the University of Massachusetts, covering her tracks by using her army of ninjas and oni to kill everyone on the field and in the stands in a spectacular and fear-inducing manner. Todd resisted any and all contact with his mother, always being combative and unfriendly to her. His brother, known as the Cobalt Ghost, also attempted to break Todd's will using his protege named Tenko to wear down his resolve. Finally, Mother Aoi began using more and more drastic measures to break his will until he attempted one more escape, opening up previously blocked channels of chi and opening him to the first steps in manipulating shadows. She also removed his voice for a time. Todd ambushed Tenko and made his escape from the family compound with the help of a shadow servant who was looking for new and exciting ways of avoiding menial chores. Todd was recaptured soon thereafter thanks to his brother's vicious attack and better knowledge of the surrounding area.
Todd didn't realize the events he had set in motion, but he had caused Tenko to fail in her mission to guard him. This was an automatic death sentence in the family, with the condemned person's soul being fed to the shadows and the body used for various nefarious purposes, usually allowing a shadow to take hold of a body temporarily to conduct some kind of operation. Instead the hero now known as Whispering Typhoon argued his way through his family to save Tenko's life. He was given an opportunity to escape again by botching a bank robbery and returning to Paragon City, but failed when Tenko realized what he was doing. Instead she had him sent back to the family compound while she fought a police unit led by Hephaestus 1 (also of Todd's heroic group The Phoenix Force). Tenko was killed during the fight. Faced with Todd's insolence, Mother Aoi punished Todd by using her most drastic form of control, the Shadow Branding. With this skill, she was able to merge a living shadow with a human. The two differing psyches would merge into a unified whole with the human's personality taking precedence. She used this skill on Todd, merging him with the shadow who aided his escape attempt. Doing so was the last step needed for Mother Aoi to break Todd's will and allow her suggestions to be heard.
With his stubbornness weakened, Todd began to listen to his family more and more. He found that the violence he did in the Rogue Isles was a great way to vent frustration and also managed to make a contribution to the House of Secrets. Mother Aoi was now openly grooming her youngest son to take over as warlord of the clan.
Typhoon Warning
Todd found himself taking various job offers, including a few more that allowed him occasional work near Paragon City. One job involved gathering information on heroes at Pocket D, an interdimensional nightclub known as a hangout for heroes and villains alike. He saw the girl he loved again in the club, and slowly his mother's mental conditioning started to unravel. The Whispering Typhoon eventually became more and more disillusioned about his actions that he decided to make one more escape attempt. He took a contract from a Wyvern deep cover agent to act as a scout for his "patrons." These patrons were revealed to be a group of heroes from Paragon City on their way to fight Lord Recluse. Happily, Todd rejoined their group as the Cobalt Claymore, though he couldn't completely suppress his shadow-based abilities. Using his knowledge of Grandville and Cap Au Diable, Todd led the group through many of the most dangerous pitfalls so they could destroy Lord Recluse's latest superweapon.
Lord Recluse found out who led the heroes to him, and now seeks his capture. Mother Aoi also discovered this and now seeks to hide Todd from Arachnos spies until such time as she can rework her control over him. Todd just wants out of the Isles and to return to the woman he loves. Now he's attempting to meet with the people he needs to return to the City of Heroes.
Todd's attempt was successful in escaping back to the city and the woman he loves, and to re-establish his identity as the Cobalt Claymore. What he'll do with the Whispering Typhoon identity is unknown at this time.
Rumor has it that Whispering Typhoon has been seen focusing his attention on mystically-oriented organizations such as the Circle of Thorns, Tsoo and his old enemies The Warriors. His reasons for doing so have yet to be revealed.
