Zoara
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
| |
| Zoara, in her preferred form | |
| Zoara | |
| Player: | |
| Origin: | Mutation |
|---|---|
| Archetype: | Fire Blaster |
| Security Level: | 50 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Zoe Evelyn Carmichael |
| Known Aliases: | ' |
| Species: | Human |
| Age: | 39 |
| Height: | Confidential |
| Weight: | Confidential |
| Eye Color: | Flaming (in her preferred form, they are green, as they were when she was a child) |
| Hair Color: | None (again, she prefers to take on the aspect of her prior red hair) |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Occupation: | Hero |
| Place of Birth: | Galveston, Texas |
| Base of Operations: | Same |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | A daughter, Ruby Carmichael, now known as the hero Ruby Flare (Zoe disavows the rest of her family due to events that occurred at puberty) |
| Known Powers | |
| Pyrokinesis | |
| Known Abilities | |
| ' | |
| Equipment | |
| Ring of Shifting (artifact given that allows her to maintain more aesthetically pleasing forms) | |
| ' | |
Contents |
Biography
Early Years
Zoe Carmichael had an ideal childhood. She was the daughter of a prominent Galveston family; her father was a banker and her mother worked in commercial real estate. She grew up in an old Victorian-style home just a few blocks from the beach. However, at 13, with the onset of puberty, everything changed. Instead of celebrating her impending womanhood, Zoe spent the next six months admitted to the University of Texas Medical Branch Hospital in Galveston, suffering searing skin pain, debilitating headaches, and joint pain that left her bedridden and beyond tears. When her skin began blistering, as if from some internal heat, and then charring black and peeling away to reveal new, hideously deformed skin beneath (and with the formation of her wing buds), the doctors and her family realized what was happening. Zoe was undergoing a mutant transformation.
After almost a year spent in the hospital, Zoe's physical transformation was complete. Her parents, heartbroken, could barely stand to look at their once beautiful and vibrant daughter. Knowing how their sensitive daughter would soon pick up on their distaste for her new form, and knowing that they could not hide it for the rest of her life, they enrolled her at the prestigious St. Francis Academy for Alternative Development, a private school catering only to mutant children. Zoe spent the rest of her developing years at the school, open year round for the convenience of the wealthy families that are its benefactors.
At first, Zoe was, indeed, quite bitter at what she deemed her parents' abandonment. However, when she reached 16, St. Francis' began accepting wards of the state of Texas in order to demonstrate their philanthropic leanings. After being assigned to serve as mentor to two of these younger children, Zoe gained an understanding of how fortunate she had been. Her parents had provided for her education, remained in touch via phone and letters, and cared about her development, even if they could not bear the pain of seeing her. There were other mutant children, Zoe discovered, who were not so fortunate -- abandoned, some beaten beforehand, by parents who believed their children were evil. This experience shaped her outlook and even her understanding of how some mutants could choose the path of villainy.
Secondary Education
Zoe finished school at St. Francis undecided what to do with her future. She knew she would not return "home." While she very much desired to continue her education, she felt that her appearance would be too much for most, if not all, non-mutants to deal with. She was tired of being limited to mutant-only schooling, however, and yearned to be able to travel the world. Her choice in secondary schooling proved to be fortuitous.
Zoe decided (and her options were severely limited) to attend Archer-Praxton University, a school that catered, but was not limited, to mutants. Offering specialized instruction, as well as frequent chartered travel with after-hours visits to world-wide sites, it was almost exactly what Zoe was looking for. Zoe began studying History, as she was fascinated by the emerging view that the monsters, villains and saints of history were no more than extreme physical mutants such as herself. Eventually, her interest sharpened into a love of the ancient world, and she pursued a Master's degree in Archeology.
Major Influences
At university, Zoe was taught sociology by an Iranian-American professor named Michael Asfrani. His teachings, and the way he practiced his beliefs in the larger world, would shape Zoe for the rest of her life. Dr. Asfrani was the hero known as Equilibrium, who later died during the first Rikti Invasion. It was his belief that mutants had a responsibility to the larger world to protect and shape its destiny for good. He acknowledged that the forces of good and evil balanced each other, but he believed that this constant struggle was what brought about the changes to humanity known as mutation; those changes were meant to be used in the fight to maintain an equilibrium so that evil, always more aggressive, could not prevail. He encouraged Zoe to develop her languishing mutant ability of pyrokinesis. The assumption has been made that the relationship between Zoe and Dr. Asfrani was romantic or sexual in nature, as Zoe bore a daughter she named Ruby Carmichael during this time period. Why she and Dr. Asfrani did not formalize their union, or even acknowledge it, and why Ruby bears only her mother's name are issues for speculation, as Zoe refuses to address any of them.
APU was also where she met an individual who would have a profound effect on the way she was able to live her life. Janet Munson, the hero now known as Nateshilan, was a graduate student a few years ahead of Zoe. It was her expertise in magical artifacts that lead to a solution for Zoe. Janet had discovered references to an ancient ring that allowed its wearer to shift forms -- not the illusion of a changed form, but a true physical transformation through magic. She and Zoe went in pursuit of the ring and eventually found it. Zoe wears it to this day.
The Ring of Shifting
The magical artifact known as the Ring of Shifting allows its wearer, through intense concentration, to complete a true physical transformation from one physical form to another. There are several limitations to this power. The first is that the transformed states must use the same amounts of matter and possess the same total mass as the original form. Second, the wearer must have a complete mental image of the desired form in their mind; not just a partial or vague image, but a true image from inner biology to outer appearance. Any lack in the mental image can have dire and even lethal consequences. This has the effect of limiting the user's number of total forms to those she can easily imagine within her mind on demand. The new form will not gain any powers not held by the original form, and the core genetic material remains the same.
The benefits of the ring have been staggering for Zoe. She has been able to take on a more acceptable form to mingle with humanity. This has allowed her to further her studies, to travel the world incognito, and broadened her associations to include non-mutants.
The difficulties of the ring are both tangible and psychological. The physical difficulty is that the ring does exert a physical toll on Zoe -- the constant required focus is psychically draining. The transformations themselves, while a fast shifting of matter, are excruciating and exhausting. Thus, once she assumes a form, she prefers to hold it. There is no quick flipping back and forth for Zoe. Psychologically, Zoe's focus requires constant concentration. While she has studied and uses mind focusing techniques -- and has created a separate "compartment" in her mind -- the concentration required can make her seem distant and aloof. Always extra-sensitive to the reactions of others, this misinterpretation of her nature can be depressing for Zoe.
Becoming Zoara
Great Responsibility
It is her dual friendships with Janet Munson and Dr. Asfrani that shaped Zoe's heroic aspirations. Janet's trauma with her own magical artifact, and the belief in a responsibility to protect the world that is so great that she would lock herself away for years mastering the magics, had a profound effect on Zoe. Dr. Asfrani's philosophical discussions and gentle molding of her strengths and powers, also affected Zoe.
Dr. Asfrani impressed upon Zoe the magnitude of her responsibility to the world. Because her mutation was so extreme, he explained, so her ability to affect the outcome in the battle of good against evil would also be extreme. It is her duty, he argued, to work to save the whole of humanity. At first, Zoe rebelled. She was racked with indecision -- her mentor's arguments were very persuasive, but so were her experiences as a "castoff" mutant child, as a young woman who could only make educational field trips after hours, as a mutant who was forced to live her public life in the twilight hours of dusk and dawn when she was "less noticeable."
And then The Rikti arrived.
The Rikti Years
The devastation that was the Rikti invasion convinced Zoe as nothing else could have. The loss of life and the absolute destruction that the Rikti were wreaking caused Zoe to join forces with those who were doing battle. At first, Zoe was unsure in what form and under what name to give assistance. In her frenzy to fight, she would often toss off a new name to those keeping track of such things. She was also just as likely to fight in her true form as to do so using the assistance of the ring. Thus, Zoe's contributions to the battle against the Rikti, while not inconsiderable for a lowly beginner, are somewhat muddled due to her inconsistency.
The death of Equilibrium -- her friend, mentor and assumed lover, Dr. Michael Asfrani -- devastated her. After the "loss" of her parents, Zoe had sworn that she would never allow herself to feel the pain of abandonment again. But her friend did not abandon her, she knew, he was ripped away from her by the forces of evil. Her vacillations and uncertainty as to her role in the great battle were erased. Zoe had a purpose.
She also had a new name. Zoe became Zoara, a derivation of the Persian word for "fire," in honor of Dr. Asfrani's ancestry.
